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Isaiah Chapter
One
Isaiah 1
Chapter Contents
The corruptions prevailing among the Jews. (1-9) Severe
censures. (10-15) Exhortations to repentance. (16-20) The state of Judah is
lamented; with gracious promises of the gospel times. (21-31)
Commentary on Isaiah 1:1-9
(Read Isaiah 1:1-9)
Isaiah signifies
"The salvation of the Lord;"
a very suitable name for this prophet
who prophesies so much of Jesus the
Saviour
and his salvation. God's professing people did not know or consider
that they owed their lives and comforts to God's fatherly care and kindness.
How many are very careless in the affairs of their souls! Not considering what
we do know in religion
does us as much harm
as ignorance of what we should
know. The wickedness was universal. Here is a comparison taken from a sick and
diseased body. The distemper threatens to be mortal. From the sole of the foot
even to the head; from the meanest peasant to the greatest peer
there is no
soundness
no good principle
no religion
for that is the health of the soul.
Nothing but guilt and corruption; the sad effects of Adam's fall. This passage
declares the total depravity of human nature. While sin remains unrepented
nothing is done toward healing these wounds
and preventing fatal effects.
Jerusalem was exposed and unprotected
like the huts or sheds built up to guard
ripening fruits. These are still to be seen in the East
where fruits form a
large part of the summer food of the people. But the Lord had a small remnant
of pious servants at Jerusalem. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not
consumed. The evil nature is in every one of us; only Jesus and his sanctifying
Spirit can restore us to spiritual health.
Commentary on Isaiah 1:10-15
(Read Isaiah 1:10-15)
Judea was desolate
and their cities burned. This
awakened them to bring sacrifices and offerings
as if they would bribe God to
remove the punishment
and give them leave to go on in their sin. Many who will
readily part with their sacrifices
will not be persuaded to part with their
sins. They relied on the mere form as a service deserving a reward. The most
costly devotions of wicked people
without thorough reformation of heart and
life
cannot be acceptable to God. He not only did not accept them
but he
abhorred them. All this shows that sin is very hateful to God. If we allow
ourselves in secret sin
or forbidden indulgences; if we reject the salvation
of Christ
our very prayers will become abomination.
Commentary on Isaiah 1:16-20
(Read Isaiah 1:16-20)
Not only feel sorrow for the sin committed
but break off
the practice. We must be doing
not stand idle. We must be doing the good the
Lord our God requires. It is plain that the sacrifices of the law could not
atone
even for outward national crimes. But
blessed be God
there is a
Fountain opened
in which sinners of every age and rank may be cleansed. Though
our sins have been as scarlet and crimson
a deep dye
a double dye
first in
the wool of original corruption
and afterwards in the many threads of actual
transgression; though we have often dipped into sin
by many backslidings; yet
pardoning mercy will take out the stain
Psalm 51:7. They should have all the happiness
and comfort they could desire. Life and death
good and evil
are set before
us. O Lord
incline all of us to live to thy glory.
Commentary on Isaiah 1:21-31
(Read Isaiah 1:21-31)
Neither holy cities nor royal ones are faithful to their
trust
if religion does not dwell in them. Dross may shine like silver
and the
wine that is mixed with water may still have the colour of wine. Those have a
great deal to answer for
who do not help the oppressed
but oppress them. Men
may do much by outward restraints; but only God works effectually by the
influences of his Spirit
as a Spirit of Judgment. Sin is the worst captivity
the worst slavery. The redemption of the spiritual Zion
by the righteousness
and death of Christ
and by his powerful grace
most fully accord with what is
here meant. Utter ruin is threatened. The Jews should become as a tree when
blasted by heat; as a garden without water
which in those hot countries would
soon be burned up. Thus shall they be that trust in idols
or in an arm of
flesh. Even the strong man shall be as tow; not only soon broken
and pulled to
pieces
but easily catching fire. When the sinner has made himself as tow and
stubble
and God makes himself as a consuming fire
what can prevent the utter
ruin of the sinner?
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Isaiah》
Isaiah 1
Verse 1
[1] The
vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz
which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem
in the days of Uzziah
Jotham
Ahaz
and Hezekiah
kings of Judah.
Vision —
Or
the visions; the word being here collectively used: the sense is
this is
the book of the visions or prophecies. As prophets were called Seers
1 Samuel 9:9
so prophecies are called visions
because they were as clearly and certainly represented to the prophets minds
as bodily objects are to mens eyes.
Saw —
Foresaw and foretold. But he speaks
after the manner of the prophets
of
things to come
as if they were either past or present.
Judah —
Principally
but not exclusively. For he prophecies also concerning Egypt and
Babylon
and divers other countries; yet with respect to Judah.
The days — ln
the time of their reign. Whence it may be gathered
that Isaiah exercised his
prophetical office above fifty years altogether.
Verse 2
[2] Hear
O heavens
and give ear
O earth: for the LORD hath spoken
I have
nourished and brought up children
and they have rebelled against me.
Hear — He
directs his speech to those senseless creatures
that he might awaken the Israelites
whom he hereby proclaims to be so dull and stupid that they were past hearing
and therefore calls in the whole creation of God to bear witness against them.
The Lord —
This is his plea against them
of the equity whereof he is willing that all the
creatures should be judges.
Verse 3
[3] The
ox knoweth his owner
and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know
my people doth not consider.
Know — Me
their owner and master. Knowing is here taken practically
as it is usually in
scripture
and includes reverence and obedience.
Verse 4
[4] Ah
sinful nation
a people laden with iniquity
a seed of evildoers
children that
are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD
they have provoked the Holy One of
Israel unto anger
they are gone away backward.
A seed —
The children of wicked parents
whose guilt they inherit
and whose evil
example they follow.
Corrupters —
Heb. that corrupt themselves
or others by their counsel and example.
Backward —
Instead of proceeding forward and growing in grace.
Verse 5
[5] Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the
whole head is sick
and the whole heart faint.
Head —
The very head and heart of the body politick
from whence the plague is derived
to all the other members.
Verse 7
[7] Your
country is desolate
your cities are burned with fire: your land
strangers
devour it in your presence
and it is desolate
as overthrown by strangers.
In your presence —
Which your eye shall see to torment you
when there is no power in your hands
to deliver you.
As — Heb. as the overthrow
of strangers
that is
which strangers bring upon a land which is not likely to
continue in their hands
and therefore they spare no persons
and spoil and
destroy all things
which is not usually done in wars between persons of the
same
or of a neighbouring nation.
Verse 8
[8] And
the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard
as a lodge in a garden
of cucumbers
as a besieged city.
Is left — Is
left solitary
all the neighbouring villages and country round about it being
laid waste.
Verse 10
[10] Hear
the word of the LORD
ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God
ye
people of Gomorrah.
Of Sodom — So
called for their resemblance of them in wickedness.
The law —
The message which I am now to deliver to you from God
your great lawgiver.
Verse 11
[11] To
what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am
full of the burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight
not in the blood of bullocks
or of lambs
or of he goats.
To me —
Who am a spirit
and therefore cannot be satisfied with such carnal oblations
but expect to have your hearts and lives
as well as your bodies and
sacrifices
presented unto me.
Blood — He
mentions the fat and blood
because these were in a peculiar manner reserved
for God
to intimate that even the best of their sacrifices were rejected by
him.
Verse 12
[12] When
ye come to appear before me
who hath required this at your hand
to tread my
courts?
To appear —
Upon the three solemn feasts
or upon other occasions.
Who required —
The thing I commanded
was not only
nor chiefly
that you should offer
external sacrifices
but that you should do it with true repentance
with faith
in my promises
and sincere resolutions of devoting yourselves to my service.
Verse 13
[13]
Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons
and sabbaths
the calling of assemblies
I cannot away with; it is iniquity
even the solemn meeting.
The solemn meeting —
The most solemn day of each of the three feasts
which was the last day.
Verse 15
[15] And
when ye spread forth your hands
I will hide mine eyes from you: yea
when ye
make many prayers
I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
Blood —
You are guilty of murder
and oppression.
Verse 16
[16] Wash
you
make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes;
cease to do evil;
Wash —
Cleanse your hearts and hands.
Verse 17
[17]
Learn to do well; seek judgment
relieve the oppressed
judge the fatherless
plead
for the widow.
Learn —
Begin to live soberly
righteously
and godly.
Judgment —
Shew your religion to God
by practising justice to men.
Judge —
Defend and deliver them.
Verse 19
[19] If
ye be willing and obedient
ye shall eat the good of the land:
If — If you are fully
resolved to obey all my commands.
Shall eat —
Together with pardon
you shall receive temporal and worldly blessings.
Verse 21
[21] How
is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness
lodged in it; but now murderers.
The city —
Jerusalem
which in the reign of former kings was faithful to God.
An harlot — Is
filled with idolatry.
Murderers —
Under that one gross kind
he comprehends all sorts of unrighteous men and
practices.
Verse 23
[23] Thy
princes are rebellious
and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts
and
followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless
neither doth the cause
of the widow come unto them.
Rebellious —
Against me their sovereign Lord.
Companions of thieves — Partly by giving them connivance and countenance
and partly by
practising the same violence
and cruelty
and injustice that thieves used to
do.
Gifts —
That is
bribes given to pervert justice.
Verse 25
[25] And
I will turn my hand upon thee
and purely purge away thy dross
and take away
all thy tin:
And purge — I
will purge out of thee
those wicked men that are incorrigible
and for those
of you that are curable
I will by my word
and by the furnace of affliction
purge out all that corruption that yet remains in you.
Verse 26
[26] And
I will restore thy judges as at the first
and thy counsellors as at the
beginning: afterward thou shalt be called
The city of righteousness
the
faithful city.
Thy counsellors —
Thy princes shall hearken to wise and faithful counsellors.
Called faithful —
Thou shalt be such.
Verse 27
[27] Zion
shall be redeemed with judgment
and her converts with righteousness.
Redeemed —
Shall be delivered from all their enemies and calamities.
With —
Or
by judgment
that is
by God's righteous judgment
purging out those wicked
and incorrigible Jews
and destroying their unmerciful enemies.
Converts —
Heb. her returners
those of them who shall come out of captivity into their
own land.
Righteousness —
Or
by righteousness
either by my faithfulness
in keeping my promise
or by
my goodness.
Verse 29
[29] For
they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired
and ye shall be
confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.
The oaks —
Which
after the manner of the Heathen
you have consecrated to idolatrous
uses.
Gardens — In
which
as well is in the groves
they committed idolatry.
Verse 31
[31] And
the strong shall be as tow
and the maker of it as a spark
and they shall both
burn together
and none shall quench them.
The strong —
Your idols
which you think to be strong and able to defend you.
As tow —
Shall be as suddenly and easily
consumed by my judgments
as tow is by fire.
The maker — Of
the idol
who can neither save himself nor his workmanship.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Isaiah》
01 Chapter 1
Verses 1-31
The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz
Isaiah the son of Amoz
This is not Amos the inspired herdsman.
It is his glory simply that he was the father of Isaiah. Like many another he
lives in the reflected glory of his offspring. The next best thing to being a
great man is to be the father of one. (S. Horton.)
Isaiah’s father
The rabbis represent his father Amoz as having been a brother of
King Amaziah; but
at any rate
if we may judge from his illustrious son’s
name
which means “salvation is from Jehovah
” he was loyal to the national
faith in days clouded by sore troubles
political danger threatening from
without
and deep religious decay pervading all classes of the community. (C.
Geikie
LL. D.)
The vision of Isaiah
The word “vision” is used here in the wide sense of a collection
of prophetic oracles (Nahum 1:1; Obadiah 1:1). As the prophet was called a
“seer
” and his perception of Divine truth was called “seeing
” so his message
as a whole is termed a “vision.” (Prof. J. Skinner
D. D.)
The time when Isaiah prophesied
Why does the Bible tell us so particularly the time when Isaiah
prophesied? Does not the thinker belong to all the ages Does not the poet sing
for all time? Why weight the narrative with these thronelogical details?
Because you can only judge either a man or his message by knowing the
circumstances of his time. If you take a geologist a new specimen he not only
wants to know its genus and species
but the matrix out of which it was hewn.
The best men not only help to make their times
but their times help to make
them. He who is moulded entirely by his surroundings is a human jelly fish--of
no account. He who is not influenced at all by “the play of popular
passion”--the set of public opinion--is an anachronism
a living corpse. (S.
Horton.)
Isaiah’s manly outspokenness
It is a living man who speaks to us. This is not an anonymous
book. Much value attaches to personal testimony. The true witness is not
ashamed of day and date and all the surrounding chronology; we know where to
find him
what he sprang from
who he is
and what he wants. (J. Parker
D.
D.)
Hear
O heavens
and give
ear
O earth: for the Lord hath spoken
God finds vindication in nature
I well remember two
funerals going out of my house within a few brief months during my residence in
London.
There were cards sent by post and left at the door
in all kindliness; but one
dark night when my grief overwhelmed me I looked at some of the cards and could
find no vibration of sympathy there. I had not felt the touch of the hand that
sent them. I went out into the storm that moaned and raged alternately
and
walked round Regent’s Park through the very heart of the hurricane. It seemed
to soothe me. You troy I could not find sympathy there. Perhaps not
but I at
least found affinity: the storm without seemed to harmonise with the storm
within; and then I remembered that He who sent that storm to sweep over the
earth loved the earth still
and then remembered that He who sent the storm to
sweep over my soul
and make desolate my home
loved me still. I got comfort
there in the darkness
and the wild noise of a storm on an autumn night
which I
found not in cards of condolence
sincere as in many instances the sympathy of
the senders was. Ah me! when man not only failed to sympathise
but also forgot
all gratitude and rebelled against his Heavenly Father
I can imagine God
looking out to His own universe
to the work of His own hand
and seeking
vindication
if not sympathy
as He spoke of man
his rebellion and folly. (D.
Davies.)
The sinful nation
I. THE
PRIVILEGES OF THE NATION. It was no mean prerogative to become the chosen
people of God
but for what was that choice made? Not because of perfect
characters surely; but rather to declare among the nations the messages of God;
not a nation holy in character
but with a holy errand. When the ten tribes
revolted
leaving only a remnant
that remnant must do the errand appointed.
Thus did God speak of them as “My people
” “My children.” Our privileges cannot
save us
and even our blessings may become a curse. God cannot give to us
personally what we will not receive.
II. THE
NATIONAL CORRUPTION. What the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans is in
the New Testament
that is the first chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy in the Old.
Deeper degradation than that of Israel it would be hard to find. In Isaiah’s
time
gold and silver idols glittered on every street of Jerusalem. By royal
authority
worship was given to the sun and moon. At the opening of each new
season
snow-white horses
stalled in the rooms at the temple entrance
were
driven forth harnessed to golden chariots to meet the sun at its rising.
Incense ascended to heathen gods from altars built upon the streets. Vice had
its impure rites in the temple itself. The valley of Hinnom echoed the dying
screams of children offered as sacrifices in the terrible flames of the hideous
Moloch. Words fail in depicting the deep corruption. There is the sting of sin
in the plain statement of the awful history
“They have forsaken the Lord
”
etc.
III. THE
RELATION OF RITUAL TO MORALITY. The more pronounced the ceremonial
the more
tenaciously will men cling to it. Thus
in Isaiah’s day
they who had swung
their incense to the sun and moon; who had worshipped Baal upon the high places
and in the groves; who had cast their children into the burning arms of Moloch
turned immediately from these heathenish practices to worship in the temple. Of
burnt offerings and sacrifices there was no end. The purest spiritual worship
like that of Enoch and Abraham and Melchizedek
did not need it; it was given
when a nation of slaves
degraded by Egyptian bondage
could appreciate nothing
higher
and it was taken away when the true
light was come. There was neither
perfection nor spirituality in such a ritual; yet in such a system God tried to
elevate the nation to spiritual truths they could not yet apprehend. The ritual
could not make morality.
IV. ANY
WORSHIP TO PLEASE GOD MUST BE REASONABLE. The Divine appeal claims the
undivided attention of the profoundest thoughts; “Come
now
and let us reason
together.” (Sermons by the Monday Club.)
The sinful nation
The message to the “sinful
nation” with which the book of Isaiah begins has for ourselves the tremendous
force of timeliness as well as truth.
I. We are
led to consider
that STATE AND NATION ARE INVOLVED TOGETHER. The country is
“desolate
” the cities are “burned with fire
and the daughter of Zion is left
as a cottage in a vineyard
as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers
as a besieged
city.” We remember indeed that the saints have survived in “the dens and caves
of the earth.” But these victories of truth and righteousness--God’s power to
overrule wickedness--by no means contradict Isaiah’s vision. If it is true that
the Founder of the Church can maintain its strength notwithstanding civil
turmoil and decay
let us also consider how God magnifies the Church through
days of peace and virtue. Jesus Himself waited until the nations were still And
what may be the possibilities for His kingdom of the continued growth and
happiness of our own country
it is entrancing to contemplate. The treasuries
of love
how full they may be! The pastors and teachers for every dark
land
--what hosts there may be prepared!
II. Aroused
to the consideration of such a problem
we readily appreciate the prophet’s
reference to THE RESPONSIBILITY OF RULERS (verse 10). Our own happy visions of
the future may all be over clouded if there be but one Ahab in authority. The
exhortation
therefore
addresses those who as citizens are to be charged with
the duty of placing men in power.
III. We
find the prophet distinctly TRACING THE NATIONAL CALAMITIES TO THE NATION’S
WICKEDNESS (verses 4-8).
IV. THE
PROPHET’S MESSAGE TO HIS COUNTRYMEN IS PARTICULARLY DIRECTED AGAINST THEIR
IMPIETY. They have forms of religion enough
indeed. But out of the people’s
worship the heart and life have departed. Only the husks remain. Perhaps it
will be seen in the end that the Pharisee is not only as bad
but as bad a
citizen too
as the glutton and the winebibber. The Pharisaic poison works with
a more stealthy force and makes its attacks upon more vital parts. We are to
look not only for a sinful nation’s natural decay
but besides for those mighty
interpositions of Providence in flood and famine
in pestilence and war
directly for its punishment and overthrow.
V. THE
VALUE OF A “REMNANT.” God has been saving remnants from the beginning--Noah
Abraham
Moses
Nehemiah--and the little companies of which such souls are the
centre and the life in every age. God’s plans are not spoiled by man’s madness.
If many rebel against Him
He saves the few and multiplies their power. The leaven
leavens the whole lump again.
VI. Most
impressive
therefore
is THE TENDER AND EMPHATIC PROCLAMATION OF MERCY AND
PARDON in this chapter. (Hanford A. Edson
D. D.)
I. THE
WRITER (verse 1).
The sinful nation
II. THE
CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE (Isaiah
1:2-6).
III. THE
FRUITS OF THIS CHARACTER (Isaiah
1:7-9).
IV. FALSE
EFFORTS TO OBTAIN RELIEF (Isaiah
1:10-15).
Murderers may be found at church
making their attendance a cloak for their
iniquity or an atonement for their crime. God cannot become a party to such
horrible trading.
V. THE
TRUE WAY OF DELIVERANCE (Isaiah
1:16-18). God
not only describes the disease
but provides the remedy. The fountain is
provided; sinners must wash in it--must confess
forsake
get the right spirit
and do right. (J. Sanderson
D. D.)
Isaiah’s sermon
The sermon which is
contained in this chapter hath in it--
I. A HIGH
CHARGE exhibited in God’s name against the Jewish Church and nation.
1. For
their ingratitude (verses 2
3).
2. For
their incorrigibleness (verse 5).
3. For
the universal corruption and degeneracy of the people (verses 4
6
21
22).
4. For
their rulers’ perverting of justice (verse 23).
II. A SAD
COMPLAINT OF THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD which they had brought upon themselves by
their sins
and by which they were brought almost to utter ruin (rots. 7-9).
III. A JUST
REJECTION OF THOSE SHOWS AND SHADOWS OF RELIGION which they kept up among them
notwithstanding this general defection and apostasy (verses 10-15).
IV. AN EARNEST
CALL TO REPENTANCE AND REFORMATION
setting before them life and death (verses
16-20).
V. A
THREATENING OF RUIN TO THOSE THAT WOULD NOT BE REFORMED (verses 24
28-31).
VI. A
PROMISE OF A HAPPY REFORMATION AT LAST
and a return to their primitive purity
and prosperity (verses 25-27). And all this is to be applied by us
not only to
the communities we are members of
in their public interests
but to the state
of our own souls. (M. Henry.)
A last appeal
The prophets are God’s
storm signals. This was a crisis in Israel’s history. Mercy and judgment had
alike failed. The mass of the people had become more hardened. Judgment alone
had now become the only real mercy. The prophet was sent to make a last appeal;
to warn of judgment.
I. THE
CHARGE. They have proved unnatural children. Have disowned their Father. Have
failed to meet the claims due from them. Have frustrated the purpose of their
national existence. Have
as a nation
wholly abandoned themselves to sin. In
spite of exceptional privileges
they have lowered themselves beneath the level
of the brutes. Nature witnesses against them
and puts them to shame.
II. THE
DEFACE. The prophet imagines them to point to their temple services
--so
regular
elaborate
costly
--in proof that their natural relations to their
Father have been maintained. But this common self-delusion is disallowed
exposed
repelled. Not ritual
not laborious costly worship is required
but
sincerity of heart
integrity of purpose
rightness of mind. Acceptable
religious observance must be the spontaneous expression of an inward religious
life.
III. THE
OFFER OF MERCY. But the day of grace is not even yet past. One last attempt is
yet made to arouse the sleeping spiritual sensibilities of the nation by the
offer of pardon. Reconciliation is possible only upon amendment.
IV. THE
THREAT OF JUDGMENT. Fire alone can now effect the change desired. God cannot be
evaded. He is as truly merciful in threatening as in offering pardon. The
nation shall be purged
yet not destroyed. Evil shall be consumed. But thereto
who
like gold
can stand the fire and come out purified shall be the nucleus
of an ideal society
and remodel the national life. All social amendment has
its roots in complete purification of individual hearts. The prophet’s dream
was never realised. Yet it was not therefore wasted. It was an ideal
an
inspiration to the good in after ages. It will one day be realised through the
Gospel. (Lloyd Robinson.)
I have
nourished and brought up children
and they have rebelled against Me
The Fatherhood of God in relation to Israel
Israel is Jehovah’s men Exodus
4:22
etc.); all the members of the nation are His children Deuteronomy
14:1; Deuteronomy
32:20); He
is the Father of Israel
whom He has begotten (Deuteronomy
32:6; Deuteronomy
32:18). The
existence of Israel as a nation
like that of other nations
is effected
indeed
by means of natural reproduction
not by spiritual regeneration; but
the primary ground of Israel’s origin is the supernaturally efficacious word of
grace addressed to Abraham (Genesis
17:15
etc.); and a series of wonderful dealings in grace has brought the growth and
development of Israel to that point which it had attained at the Exodus from
Egypt. It is in this sense that Jehovah has begotten Israel. (F. Delitzsch.)
Israel’s apostasy
Two things that ought
never to have been conjoined--
I. THE
GRACIOUS AND FILIAL RELATION OF ISRAEL TO JEHOVAH.
II. ISRAEL’S
BASE APOSTASY FROM JEHOVAH. (F. Delitzsch.)
The Fatherhood of God in the Old Testament
Sometimes we imagine that
the Fatherhood of God is a New Testament revelation; we speak of the prophets
as referring to God under titles of resplendent glory and overpowering majesty
and we set forth in contrast the gentler terms by which the Divine Being is
designated in the new covenant. How does God describe Himself in this chapter?
Here He claims to be Father: I have nourished and brought up sons--not
I have
nourished and brought up slaves--or subjects--or creatures--or insects--or
beasts of burden--I have nourished and brought up sons: I am the Father of
creation
thefountain and origin of the paternal and filial religion. (J.
Parker
D. D.)
Ingratitude
As the Dead Sea drinks in
the river Jordan and is never the sweeter
and the ocean all other rivers and
is never the fresher
so we are apt to receive dally mercies from God and still
remain insensible to them--unthankful for them. (Bishop Reynolds.)
God man’s truest Friend
We are obliged to speak of
the Lord after the manner of men
and in doing so we are clearly authorised to
say that He does not look upon human sin merely with the eye of a judge who
condemns it
but with the eye of a friend who
while he censures the offender
deeply laments that there should be such faults to condemn. Hear
“O heavens
and give ear
O earth: I have nourished and brought up children
and they have
rebelled against Me
” is not merely an exclamation of surprise
or an
accusation of injured justice
but it contains a note of grief
as though the
Most High represented Himself to us as mourning like an ill-treated parent
and
deploring that after having dealt so well with His offspring they had made Him
so base a return. God is grieved that man should sin. That thought should
encourage everyone who is conscious of having offended God to come back to Him.
If thou lamentest thy transgression
the Lord laments it too. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
The parental grief of God
and its pathetic
appeal
(with Isaiah
1:3):--I
look upon this text as a fragment of Divine autobiography
and as such
possessing the greatest significance to us.
I. It
presents to us in a striking manner THE SOCIAL SIDE OF GOD’S CHARACTER. It is
well for us to remember that all that is tender and lovable in our social
experience
so far as it is pure and noble
is obtained from God. The revelation
which we have of God presents Him to us
not as isolated from all His
creatures
but as finding His highest joy in perfect communion with exalted
spirits whom He has created. I love to think that man exists because of this
exalted social instinct in God. Further
when God said
“It is not good that
the man should be alone
” methinks I hear but the echo of a Divine
of a God
felt feeling. Among the mysteries of Christ’s passion we find an element of
suffering which
as God and man
He felt--“Ye shall leave Me alone”; “My God
My God
why hast Thou forsaken Me!” Our God is to us an object of supremest
interest because He holds with us the most sacred relationship.
II. Our
text represents GOD ON THE DOMESTIC SIDE OF HIS CHARACTER. It is the parental
rather than the paternal that we see here. The word father does not express all
that God is to us. The illustrations of this Book are not exhausted with those
that refer to His fatherhood: “Can a woman forget her sucking child
” etc. (Isaiah
49:15). All
that is tender in motherhood
as well as all that is strong in fatherhood
is to
be found in Him. It is as a parent that He speaks here: “I have nourished”--or
“given nutriment.” In other words
“Out of My rich resources of blessing have I
provided for their need; I have nourished and brought up children.” Here we
have God’s grief revealed in the light which can only come through such tender
and loving channels as parental patience and wounded love.
III. Our
text reveals GOD’S CHARACTER IN ITS REPROVING ASPECT. The folly is emphasised
by the comparison with two creatures
by no means noted for their intelligence.
Yet both are domesticated creatures
and feel the ties of ownership. What is it
that domesticates a creature? The creature that recognises man as his master
by that very act becomes domesticated. The higher type of knowledge possessed
by the domesticated animal is a direct recognition of its master. The finest
creatures possess that. There is a lower grade of knowledge
but yet one which
stamps the creature as domesticated. That is an acknowledgment
not of the
master directly
but a recognition of the provision which the master has made
for its need. “The ox knoweth his owner.” The ass does not do that; but the ass
knoweth “his master’s crib.” The ass knows the stall where it is fed
and it
goes and is fed there. By that act it indirectly acknowledges the sovereignty
of its owner
because it recognises his protection.
IV. The
text presents to us THE TENDER AND PATHETIC SIDE OF GOD’S CHARACTER. This is
God’s version of human sin. His rebukes are full of pathos. With the great
mantle of charity that covers over a multitude of sins
and with the Divine
pity that puts the best construction upon human rebellion
He puts all down to
ignorance and folly. Observe further
that although they have rebelled against
Him
He does not withdraw the name He gave them
Israel--“Israel doth not know:
My people doth not consider.” He does not repudiate them. The last thing that
love can do is that. There is something exceedingly pathetic in God here making
an appeal to creation relative to His relationship with man. What if it gave a
relief to the heart of God to exclaim to His own creation that groaned with Him
over human sin
“Hear
O heavens
and give ear
O earth!” Am I imagining? Do we
not find a Divine as well as human feeling in Christ’s going to the wilderness
or the mountain top in the hours of His greatest need? There
amid God’s
creation
He found His Father very near. Here the fact that the child does not
know his Heavenly Father is represented as the burden of God’s grief. But in
this case the ignorance was wilful This was the burden on the heart of Christ
in His prayer (John
17:1-26).
There everything is made to depend upon men knowing God as their Father. That
is just why we preach. We seek to make it impossible for you to pass through
God’s world
and receive from His hands blessings great and boundless
and yet
not know Him. We seek to make it impossible for you to look at the Cross and
listen to the story of an infinite sacrifice
and yet forget that “God so loved
the world
” etc. (D. Davies.)
The heinousness of rebellion against God’s
paternal government
The criminality of
rebellion must
of course
be affected by the nature of the government and
administration against which it is exerted. It must be measured by the mildness
and propriety of the system whose authority it renounces
and by the patience
lenity
and wisdom with which that system is administered. If the government be
despotic in its character
and administered with implacable or ferocious
sternness
it can hardly be unlawful
and may be deserving of commendation. If
the government be paternal in its character and administered with paternal
sensibilities
then criminal to a degree absolutely appalling.
I. THE
PATERNAL GOVERNMENT OF GOD. This is seen in--
1. The
object of its precepts. The entire and simple aim of all and every one of His
commands
and the motives by which He urges them
appear to be an advancement
in knowledge
holiness
and felicity
that we may be fitted for His own
presence and intimate communion; for the exalted dignities and interminable
bliss of the realms where His honour dwelleth.
2. The
length of His forbearance. Who but a father
surpassing all below that have
honoured this endearing name
could have borne so long and so meekly
with the
thankless
the wayward
the audacious
the provoking! Who but a father
such as
Heaven alone can furnish
would return good for evil
and blessing for cursing
hundreds and thou sands of years
and then
when any finite experimenter had
utterly despaired
resolve to vanquish his enemies
not by terror
wasting and
woe
but by the omnipotence of grace and mercy! Who but a GOD
and a paternal
GOD
would have closed such a strange and melancholy history as that of Israel
by sending “His Son into the world
not to condemn the world
” etc.
3. The
nature of His tenderness. The philanthropist commiserates the distresses of his
fellow creatures
and magnanimously resolves to meliorate them. But he is not
animated by that lively
that overpowering
self-sacrificing tenderness which
prompts the exertions of a father in behalf of his suffering child. No; that
tenderness shrinks from no expenditure
falters before no obstacles. And such
was the tenderness of God
for it is not said that He so pitied
but that “He
so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son
” etc.
II. IF SIN
BE THE RESISTANCE OF THE COMMANDS AND CLAIMS
THE MOTIVES AND EXPOSTULATIONS
THE GRACE AND MERCY OF ONE WHO HAS GIVEN US SUCH ILLUSTRIOUS PROOFS OF HIS
PATERNAL REGARD AND
GOODNESS--CAN IT BE OTHER
THAN REBELLION? Can it be other than rebellion of a most aggravated character?
The consideration should silence every whisper of pretension to meritorious
virtue
and stir up the sentiments of profound contrition. It should take every
symptom of stubbornness away
and make us self-accusing
lowly
and
brokenhearted. (T. W.Coit.)
Verse
3
The ox knoweth his owner . . . but Israel doth not know
Isaiah’s message
What does Isaiah teach about God?
A prophet of his times had much to do in clearing the minds of the people from
the confusion
or something worse
into which
as the history shows
the Jews
were only too prone to fall. They were surrounded by idolatrous nations
and
there was a danger that they might regard Jehovah as though He were like these
gods of the nations. Even when they did not sink to this level they were prone
to regard Him as their national God
not as the God of all the earth.
I. What the prophet sought to
do was to communicate to them something of that view of the MAJESTY OF HIS
GLORY AND THE BEAUTY OF HIS HOLINESS which had impressed itself so deeply on
his own mind. He had seen God
and he would fain have them see Him also. And
where can we search for more sublime conceptions of the spirituality
the
holiness
the majesty of God than those which we find in this book?
II. But the teaching of the
prophet includes another conception of God which we should be still less
prepared to find in the Old Testament. If the lofty conceptions of the Divine
spirituality surprise
still more are we impressed with the revelation of THE
DIVINE TENDERNESS AND THOUGHT FOR MAN. This is the basis of all those urgent
appeals addressed by Isaiah to his own generation. The first chapter strikes
the keynote. Here is not a distant God so absorbed in the care of His vast
empire that He has no remembrance of His poor children here
and so far removed
that between Him and them there can be no sympathy. The prevailing note is that
for which we are least prepared--that of Love. There is no dallying with the
sin. The apostasy of the people is set forth in its darkest aspects
and the
enormity of the rebellion only serves to make more conspicuous the glory of the
grace which is proclaimed to these sinners. All their iniquity
their
ingratitude
their pride of heart
their forgetfulness of God have not turned
the heart of their God from them. Surely these are wondrous teachings to find
in this old world record. Isaiah had them from God Himself. (J. G. Rogers
B. A.)
The inconsiderateness of mankind towards God
I. A SERIOUS FAULT
common
yea
universal. “Israel doth not know
My people doth not consider.”
1. Men are most inconsiderate
towards God. One would pardon them if they forgot many minor things
and
neglected many inferior persons
but to be inconsiderate to their Creator
to
their Preserver
to Him in whose hand their everlasting destiny is placed
this
is a strange folly as well as a great sin. If it were only because He is so
great
and therefore we are so dependent upon Him
one would have thought that
a rational man would have acquainted himself with God and been at peace; but
when we reflect that God is supremely good
kind
tender and gracious
as well
as great
the marvel of man’s thoughtlessness is much increased.
2. Then
again
man is
inconsiderate towards himself in reference to his best interests.
3. Thoughtless man is
inconsiderate of the claims of justice and of gratitude
and this makes him
appear base as well as foolish. The text says
“Israel doth not know.” Now
Israel is a name of nobility
it signifies a prince; and there are some here
whose position in society
whose condition amongst their fellow men
should
oblige them to the service of God. That motto is true
“noblesse oblige
”--nobility
has its obligations; and where the Lord elevates a man into a position of
wealth and influence
he ought to feel that he is under peculiar bonds to serve
the Lord. I speak also to those who have been trained in the fear of God. To
you more is given
and therefore of you more is required.
4. One sad point about this
inconsiderateness is
that man lives without consideration upon a matter where
nothing but consideration will avail.
5. This inconsideration
also
occurs upon a subject where
by the testimony of tens of thousands
consideration would be abundantly remunerative
and would yield the happiest
results.
II. AGGRAVATIONS WHICH ATTEND
IT
in many eases.
1. And first
remember that
some of these careless persons have had their attention earnestly directed to
the topics which still they neglect. Observe in this passage that these people
had been summoned by God to consider. The heavens and the earth were called to
bear witness that they had been nourished and brought up by the good Father
and in the fourth verse they are rebuked because they continue to be so
unmindful of their God. Now
if a person should for a while forget an important
thing
we should not be surprised
for the memory is not perfect; but when
attention is called to it again and again
when consideration is requested
kindly
tenderly
earnestly
and when because the warning is neglected
that
attention is demanded with authority
and possibly with a degree of sharpness
one feels that a man who is still unmindful is altogether without excuse
and
must be negligent of set purpose and with determined design.
2. The prophet then mentions
the second aggravation
namely
that in addition to being called and
admonished
these people had been chastened. They had been chastised
indeed
so often and so severely that the Lord wearied of it. He saw no use in smiting
them any more. Their whole body was covered with bruises
they had been so
sorely smitten. The nation as a nation had been so invaded and trodden down by
its enemies that it was utterly desolate
and the Lord says
“Why should ye be
stricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more.” I may be addressing someone
whose life of late has been a series of sorrows. Know you not that all these
are sent to wean you from the world? Will you still cling to it! Must the Lord
strike again and again
and again and again
before you will hear Him?
3. It was an additional piece
of guiltiness that these people were all the while that they would not
consider
very zealous in an outward religion.
4. Yet further
there was an
aggravation to Israel’s forgetfulness of God
because she was most earnestly
and affectionately invited to turn to God by gracious promises. “Come now
and
let us reason together saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet
they
shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson
they shall be as
wool.” A man might say
“Why should I think of God? He is my enemy.” O man
you
know better.
5. As a last aggravation
note that these very people had ability enough to consider other things
for we
find that they considered how to get bribes
and were very shrewd in following
after rewards; yet they did not know and did not consider their God. Oh
how
quick are some men in the ways of evil
and yet
if you talk to them about
religion they say it is mysterious
and beyond their power of apprehension.
Those same persons will discuss with you the knottiest points of politics
or
unravel the abstrusities of science
and yet they pretend they cannot
understand the simplicities of revelation. “I am a poor man
” saith one
“and
you cannot expect me to know much”; yet
if anybody were to meet that same
“poor man” in the street and tell him he was a fool
he would be indignant at
such an accusation
and would zealously prove that he was not inferior in
common sense. “I cannot
” says one
“vex my brain about such things as these”;
yet that very man wears his brain far more in pursuit of wealth or pleasure. If
a man has an understanding
and can exercise it well upon minor matters
how
shall we apologise for his neglect of his God?
III. THE SECRET CAUSES of human
indifference to topics so important.
1. In the case of many
thoughtless persons we must lay the blame to the sheer frivolity of their
nature.
2. I have no doubt that in
every ease
however
the bottom reason is opposition to God Himself.
3. Upon some minds the
tendency to delay operates fearfully.
4. Some make an excuse for
themselves for not considering eternity
because they are such eminently
practical men. I only wish that those who profess to be practical were more
truly so
for a practical man always takes more care of his body than of his
coat
certainly; then should he not take more care of his soul than of the
body
which is but the garment of it? A practical man will be sure to consider
matters in due proportion; he will not give all his mind to a cricket match and
neglect his business. And yet how often your practical man still more greatly
errs; he devotes all his time to money making
and not a minute to the
salvation of his soul and its preparation for eternity!
5. I have no doubt with a
great many their reason for not thinking about soul matters
is prejudice. They
are prejudiced because some Christian professor has not lived up to his
profession
or they have heard something which is said to be the doctrine of
the Gospel
which they cannot approve of.
6. In most cases men do not
like to trouble themselves
and they have an uncomfortable suspicion that if
they were to look too narrowly into their affairs they would find things far
from healthy. They are like the bankrupt before the court the other day who did
not keep books; he did not like his books
for his books did not like him. He
was going to the bad
and he therefore tried to forget it. They say of the
silly ostrich that when she hides her head in the sand and does not see her
pursuers she thinks she is safe; that is the policy of many men.
IV. A few words of
EXPOSTULATION. Is not your inconsiderateness very unjustifiable? Can you excuse
it in any way? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Instinct compared with reason in its recognition of persons
Adam
previous to his fall
instinctively recognised the relations
in which he stood to God
to his only existing fellow creature
and to the
beasts of the field. He recognised God as his Creator and Preserver; Eve as
partaker of the same nature and the same sympathies with himself
--as one
therefore to whom he owed a debt of benevolence and support; the inferior
animals as vassals put under his feet. But no sooner did he fall
than his
natural acknowledgment of these several relations forsook him. The relations
indeed
themselves existed still; but he lost all sense (or nearly all sense)
of the obligations grounded upon them. Of all the three ruptures which took
place at the fall
the first was--not only far the most serious
but also--the
most total and complete. We do not assert that the natural man has lost all
sense of obligation to his fellow creatures and to the beasts of the field. We
do not desire to derogate from this amiability
this considerateness
this
benevolence;--let them pass for what they are worth. At the same time it should
be remembered that such traits of character
however pleasing in themselves
rather aggravate than extenuate the fact of the man’s godlessness. What shall
we say to man’s acknowledgment of his family and dependants
but that it gives
point to the insult of withholding acknowledgment from God? Nor
although the
brute creation revolted from man in the hour of his fall
and became
intractable
was this breach of separation total and complete. “The ox knoweth
his owner.” Even those animals whose instinct is less keen
whose very name has
passed into a proverb of stupidity and stubbornness
do not fail to recognise
the place in which
and the hand from which
they are in the habit of receiving
their daily sustenance. “The ass knoweth his master’s crib.” (Dean Goulburn.)
Man in his relation to God
I. COMPARE THE RELATIONS
SUBSISTING BETWEEN AN INFERIOR AND A SUPERIOR CREATURE WITH THOSE SUBSISTING
BETWEEN A SUPERIOR AND THE CREATOR. And it will at once suggest itself that
though these relations may be susceptible of comparison
yet there is an
insufficiency in the lower relation to type out the higher. The distance
in
point of faculties
between man and the inferior creatures
if great
is at
least measurable. Man has the superiority over the brutes in respect of his
reason
--but in respect of our mortal bodies
the subjects of infirmity and
decay
we are both entirely on a par. Whereas the distance between finite man and
the Infinite God is
of course
incalculable. This inadequacy of the comparison
suggested in our text will become more evident
as we enter into a
consideration of its details. The dumb creature recognises the master
whose
property he is “The ox knoweth his owner.” What constitutes man’s right of
ownership to the ox? Simply the fact that he has given in exchange for it an
equivalent in the gold that perisheth. It was not he who created the ox. If he
supports its life
it is only by providing it with a due supply of food
not by
ministering to it momentarily the breath which it draws. So much for man’s
ownership of the ox. Turn we now to God’s ownership of man. What constitutes
God’s right of ownership in us
His intelligent creatures?
1. The fact that we are the
work of His hands. This constitutes a claim to our services
a property in all
our faculties
whether bodily or mental
which no one creature can have in the
faculties of another.
2. But creation is not the
only ground on which God’s ownership of man rests. Of all things which we may
be said to own
our property is most entire
in those things which
having been
once deprived of them by fraud or violence
we have subsequently paid a price
to recover. That claim
grounded originally upon the fact of creation
has been
confirmed
and extended by the fact of redemption. “Ye are not your own
” says
the apostle Paul; “for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in
your body
and in your spirit
which are God’s.” Where
in the whole realm of nature
shall we seek a claim so overwhelmingly powerful as this
upon the unreserved
devotion of our hearts
--of all that we are and all that we have?
3. But our text suggests to
us another detail of the claims which our heavenly Owner has upon our allegiance.
“The ass knoweth his master’s crib.” He knows the hand that feeds him and the
manger at which he is fed. It asks no scintillation of intelligence
no high
effort of an almost rational instinct
to recognise this claim. If man seems to
ignore those claims of God which are established by creation and redemption
it
might haply be pleaded in his behalf that he is a creature of the senses
and
that the facts of creation and redemption are not cognisable by the senses.
These stupendous facts are transacted and past
and as far as our animal life
is concerned
we do not seem to derive any present benefit from them. But is
not even this paltry justification entirely cut off by the fact here implied
that man is indebted to his God for his daily maintenance
for the comfort and
the continuance even of his animal life? Our every period of refreshment and
repose
of ease and relaxation from toil
is from the unseen hand of our
heavenly Owner. It is not
then
the brute creation in a savage state
whose
relations towards man are here drawn into comparison with the relations of man
towards God. The inspired writer has chosen
as best adapted to illustrate his
argument
instances from the domestic animals
who are domiciliated with man
who share his daily toils
and live as his dependants in the immediate
neighbourhood of his home. He mentions not the wild and untamed buffalo
which
ranges in the distant prairie
but the patient ox and ass
accustomed from
early youth to the restraints of the yoke
and familiarised by long habit with
their master’s abode and ways of life. Neither
on the other hand
in drawing
out the contrast
does he mention mankind generally; the charge of ingratitude
is here brought against a specific portion of the human race. Israel doth not
know--My people doth not consider.” It were
in some measure
excusable that
the Gentiles should refuse acknowledgment to the living God. They possess no
revelation of His will. If Israel entertain a secret distaste for the things of
God
it is not that such things are strange to him
--jar with his old
prejudices or grate upon his early associations. And that which enhances so
peculiarly the guilt of Israel enhances yet more the guilt of that Gentile who
by the reception of the first sacrament of the Gospel
has become a fellow
citizen with the saints and of the household of God. We might reasonably
expect
then
that the baptized at least
whatever others may do
will yield to
their Creator
Redeemer
Benefactor
and adopted Father some heartfelt tribute
of acknowledgment.
II. A CONTRAST IS DRAWN
BETWEEN THE ACKNOWLEDGMENT MADE BY DUMB ANIMALS OF THEIR RELATION TO THEIR
OWNERS AND ISRAEL’S REFUSAL OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO HIS GOD.
1. And first of the dumb
animal’s acknowledgment of his owner. “The ox knoweth his owner.” I understand
the term “know” in the ordinary sense of recognising. The cattle recognise the
voice of their owner. A word
either of menace or of caress
if addressed to
them in the well-known accents of their lord
has an instantaneous effect. Not so
the menaces or caresses of strangers. What a cutting proof upon the
insensibility of God’s people!
2. “Israel doth not know” The
professing members of God’s household
the Church
heed not the calls which He
is daily addressing to them by the dealings of His providence without
and the
pleadings of His Spirit within them.
The distinction between knowledge and consideration
It would appear
from this verse
that the children of Israel
neither knew nor considered--but still there is a distinction suggested by it
between these two things. And in the Book of Malachi
we have a similar
distinction
when the Lord says to the priests
“If ye will not hear
and if ye
will not lay it to heart.” It is
in fact
possible for a man to do one of
these things
and not to do the other. He may know the truth
and yet he may
not consider it. He may hear
and yet not lay it to heart. And thus it is that
we may gather the difference which there is between knowledge and wisdom. The
one is a speculative acquirement. The other is a practical faculty or habit. By
the latter
we turn to its profitable use the former. Thus it is that there may
be great folly along with great scholarship; and
on the other hand
may an
unlettered mind be illustrious in wisdom. You have perhaps seen when there was
great wealth
and yet
from the want of judicious management
great want of
comfort in a family; and what stands in beautiful contrast with this
you may
have witnessed the union of very humble means
with such consideration in the
guidance of them
as to have yielded a respectable appearance
and a decent
hospitality
and the sufficiency of a full provision. And so
with the
treasures of intellect
the acquisitions of the mind
whereof one may be rich
being possessed of most ample materials in all knowledge
and yet have an
ill-conditioned mind notwithstanding; and another destitute of all but the most
elementary truths
may yet
by a wise application of them
have attained to the
true light and harmony of the soul
and be in sound preparation both for the
duties of time and for the delights of eternity. All have so learned to number
their days as to know the extreme limit of human life upon earth; yet all have
not so learned to number their days as to apply their hearts unto wisdom. (T.
Chalmers
D. D.)
Knowledge and wisdom
I. This distinction between
knowledge and wisdom is abundantly realised even on THE FIELD OF EARTHLY AND OF
SENSIBLE EXPERIENCE. The man of dissipation may have his eyes open to the ruin
of character and of fortune that awaits him
yet the tyranny of his evil
desires constrains him to a perseverance in the ways of wretchedness. The man
of indolence may foresee the coming bankruptcy that will ensue on the slovenly
management of his affairs
yet there is a lethargy within that weighs him down
to fatal inactivity. The man of headlong irritation may be able to discern the
accumulating mischief that he raises against himself
and yet continue as
before to be hurried away by the onward violence that seizes him. In all these
instances there is no want of knowledge in possession. But there is a want of
knowledge in use
or in application. The unhappy man has received the truth
but he does not give heed unto the truth.
II. But what we have affirmed
even of those events and consequences that take place along the journey of this
world
is still more strikingly apparent of THAT GREAT EVENT WHICH MAKES ITS
TERMINATION. There is not a human creature of most ordinary mind
and who hath
overstepped the limits of infancy
that does not know of death
and with whom
it does not rank among the most undoubted of the certainties that await him.
And it is not only that of which he is most thoroughly assured
but it is that
of which
in the course of observation and history
he is most constantly
reminded. But how is it truly and experimentally? That death of which we all
know so well
is scarcely ever in our thoughts. The momentary touch of grief
and of seriousness
wherewith we are at times visited
speedily goeth into
utter dissipation. It seems not to work the slightest abatement in the
eagerness of man after this world’s interests. It needs no impetuous appetite
to overbear the thought of death; for in the calm equanimity of many a sober
and aged citizen
you will find him as profoundly asleep to the feeling of his
own mortality as he is to any of the feelings or instigations of
licentiousness. Death is the stepping stone between the two worlds; and so it
somewhat combines the palpable of matter
with the shadowy and the evanescent
of spirit. It is the gateway to a land of mystery and of silence
and seems to
gather upon it some thing of the visionary character which the things of faith
have to the eye of the senses. And so
amid all the varieties of temperament in
our species
there is a universal heedlessness of death. It seems against the
tendency of nature to think of it. The thing is known
but it is not
considered. This might serve to convince us how unavailing is the mere
knowledge
even of important truth
if not accompanied by the feeling
or the
practical remembrance of it. The knowledge in this case only serves to
aggravate our folly. Thus
the irreligion of the world is due not to the want
of a satisfying demonstration on God’s part
for this might have excused us;
but to the want of right consideration on ours
and this is inexcusable.
III. Let us now pass onwards to
THE INVISIBLES OF FAITH--to those things which do not
like death
stand upon
the confines of the spiritual region
but are wholly within that region
and
which man hath not seen by his eye
or heard by his ear--to the awful realities
that will abide in deep and mysterious concealment from us
so long as we are
in the body. This character of unseen and spiritual is not confined to things
future. There are things present which are spiritual also. There is a present
Deity
who dwelleth in light
it is true; but it is light inaccessible. And
yet
even of this great Spirit we may be said
in one sense
to know
however
little it is that we may consider Him. There are averments about God which we
have long recognised and ranked among our admitted propositions
though we
seldom recur to them in thought
and are never adequately impressed by them. We
know
or think we know
that God is; and that all other existence is suspended
upon His will; and that He is a God of inviolable sacredness
in whose presence
evil cannot dwell. Now
as a proof how distinct this knowledge of God is from
the consideration of Him
we will venture to say that even the first and
simplest of all these propositions is
by many unthought of for days and weeks
together. In the work that you prosecute
and the comforts that you enjoy
and
even the obligations of which you acquit yourselves to relatives and to
friends
is there any fear of God before your eyes?--and is not the fear of
disgrace from men a far more powerful check upon your licentiousness
than the
fear of damnation from Him who is the judge and the discerner of men? This
emptiness of a man’s heart as to the recognition of God runs throughout the whole
of his history. He is engrossed with what is visible and secondary and he
thinks no farther. When he enjoys
it is without gratitude. When he enjoys
it
is without the impulse of an obedient loyalty. When he admires
it is without
carrying the sentiment upwardly unto heaven. Now
this is God’s controversy
with man in the text. He there complains of our heedlessness. And this
inconsideration of ours is matter of blame
just because it is a matter of
wilfulness. Man has a voluntary control over his thoughts.
IV. But the distinction
between those who only know and those who also consider
is never more strongly
marked than in THE PECULIAR DOCTRINES OF THE GOSPEL. And fearful is the hazard
lest knowledge and it alone should satisfy the possessor. The very quantity of
debate and of argument that has been expended on theology
leads to a most
hurtful misconceiving of this matter. The design of argument is to carry you
onward to a set of accurate convictions. And yet
the whole amount of your
acquisition may be a mere rational Christianity. There are no topics on which
there has been so much of controversy
or that have given rise to so many an
elaborate dissertation
as the person and offices of Christ. Yet
let it not be
disguised that the knowledge of all these credenda is one thing
and the
practical consideration of them is another. First
He is the Apostle of our
profession
or we profess Him to be our Apostle. Let us bethink ourselves of
all which this title implies. It means one who is sent. How it ought to move us
with awe at the approach of such a messenger when we think of the glory and the
sacredness of His former habitation! And what ought to fasten upon Him a still
more intense regard
He comes with a message to our world--He comes straight
from the Divinity Himself
and charged by Him with a special communication. By
your daily indifference to the word that is written
you inherit all the guilt
and will come under the very reckoning of those
who
in the days of the
Saviour
treated with neglect the word that was spoken. There is one topic
which stands connected with the apostleship of Christ
and that stamps a most
peculiar interest on the visit which He made to us from on high. He is God
manifest in the flesh. In the character of a man hath He pictured forth to us
the attributes of the Divinity. And we
by considering this Apostle
learn of
God. But this leads us to another topic of consideration
the priesthood of
Christ. The atonement that He made for sin has a foremost place in orthodoxy.
But
a truth may be acquired
and then
--cast
as it were
into some hidden
comer of the mind
--may lie forgotten
as in a dormitory. And therefore would
we again bid you consider Him who is the High Priest of your profession we call
upon you
ever and anon
to think of His sacrifice; and to ward off the
legality of nature from your spirits
by a constant habit of recurrence
upon
your part
to the atonement that He hath made
and to the everlasting
righteousness that He hath brought in. Without this
the mind is ever lapsing
anon into alienation and distrust. (T. Chalmers
D. D.)
Inconsiderateness
It is not a charge brought against the human family in general.
The terms are special
“My people doth not consider.” If
then
the chiefs and
leaders of society have fallen into inconsiderateness
what wonder that the
nameless multitude should be giddy? The salt has lost its savour and the high
city has concealed its beauty. It was not left for unbelievers and scoffers to
bring the severest accusations against the Church; God Himself has marked her
shortcomings and loudly charged her with sin! Never has He been the special
pleader of His people; He never sought to make out a case for them in spite of
facts or even appearances; with solemn fidelity and poignant grief He has shown
the Church her corruptness and made her ashamed in the presence of her enemies.
We shall dwell on the subject of Inconsiderateness as it bears upon the Church
and upon men generally. There are two noticeable points common to both. Why do
not men consider?
1. Not for want of
opportunity. There are the great heavens which David considered; there are the
lilies which Jesus Christ charged men to consider; there are the signs of the
times
full of significance; a thousand objects
indeed
daily challenge our
thoughtfulness.
2. Not for want of reproof or
encouragement. Failures
disappointments
blunders
beyond numbering
have
shown us the mischief of inconsiderateness. On the other hand
consideration
has always rewarded us with the quietness of a good conscience; yet again and
again we cease to be thoughtful. Let us look upon inconsiderateness--
I. IN ITS REASONS.
1. Inconsiderateness saves
intellectual trouble. Men do not like to think deeply. They prefer to skim the
surface
and instead of working steadily for results
they choose to snatch at
anything which may serve them for the passing moment. A decline of
thoughtfulness is also a decline of moral strength! The Church thinks but
little. Nearly all its propositions have been accepted on trust. Observe! Jesus
Christ always challenged the thought of those who beard Him. He never
discouraged honest and devout inquiry. He never said a word in praise of
ignorance. No authority of His can be quoted for intellectual indolence.
Christianity vivifies the intellect.
2. Inconsiderateness
mitigates moral compunction. It does this by concealing a man from himself.
Men
in many instances
dare not consider themselves. One look at their own
hearts would affright them! We may think well of ourselves simply because we do
not know ourselves. Pain comes with self-knowledge; but if pain drive men to
the Healer
it will be to them as the angel of God.
3. Inconsiderateness escapes
social obligation. There is ignorance to be taught; but we don’t go into the
question! There is misery to be alleviated; but we think nothing about it!
There is a man dying in the road; but we pass by on the other side! (Proverbs 24:12.)
II. IT ITS RESULTS.
1. Practical atheism. God is
acknowledged with the lips
but He hath no place in the heart. Things are
viewed from the outside
and secondary causes are looked upon as primary and
original.
2. Spiritual feebleness.
Without consideration no man can be strong. He has no abiding convictions.
There is nothing about him or within him which he is unprepared to cast off
under pressure.
3. Needless alarm. The man
who has spent no time in quiet thinking mistakes the bearing of unusual
circumstances. A shadow frightens him. He has no grasp of history. Having eyes
he sees not.
4. Self-deprivation. (J.
Parker
D. D.)
Fatal inconsideration
I shall treat of the charge here brought against the ancient Jews
in a double view--
I. AS IT MORE ESPECIALLY
CONCERNS IMPENITENT SINNERS. It is the proper character of all the impenitent
that they do not and will not consider. This is the ground of their guilt
and
the fatal cause of their ruin. Consideration is the same as attentively
applying the mind to things
according to their respective nature and
importance
in order to our having the clearer apprehension of them
and
knowing how we ought to act in relation to them. And
forasmuch as the things
of religion are of the highest nature
and the utmost conceivable importance
our considering these things must imply our looking into them
and pondering
them with the greatest care
and seriousness
and impartiality; and this with a
view of our being able to form a truer and more distinct judgment concerning
them
and concerning the manner in which they ought to influence our actions;
to the end we may be effectually led and determined to act as we ought
and as
the nature and importance of the things should persuade us to do. We must
attend carefully
examine impartially
think and reflect seriously
that we may
judge
and resolve
and act rightly. I shall--1. Instance some particulars in
which it is manifest the persons I am now speaking of do not consider.
2. Set before you the
deplorable consequences of this neglect of serious consideration.
Application--
II. AS IN A LESSER DEGREE IT
TOO FREQUENTLY AFFECTS PERSONS OF SINCERE PIETY. All that consideration which
is necessary to the essence of virtue and piety
they practise; but not always
that which is requisite to a state of greater perfection. There are several
things which too plainly prove their want of consideration.
1. The errors and failings of
which they are too often guilty. I do not mean those which are so incident to
human nature in the present state
that it is next to impossible to preserve
ourselves entirely free from them; but those which
with due care and
circumspection
we might easily enough avoid.
2. Sloth and inactivity in a
virtuous and religious course of life is another argument of a defective
consideration
even in good men. Akin to this is--
3. That indevotion in the
exercises of religious worship
which Christians are too apt to slide into
and
which too visibly argues their disuse of that consideration which would be of
admirable service to fan the sacred fire
when it began to grow dull and
languid. “While I was musing
” saith the Psalmist
“the fire burned.”
4. The love of the world
which has too much the ascendant over some pious minds
and their being so
greatly moved
if not unhinged
by the shocks and changes of it
must often be
ascribed to the same cause.
5. A misplaced and
misconducted zeal; a zeal for opinions and practices we know not why
and this
zeal under so little government
as to occasion bitter strife and animosity
among Christians
and raise such disturbances in the Church of God
as hinder
its flourishing state; this likewise shews that men do not consider.
6. It is many times because
they do not consider that they who are religious do not enjoy their religion. (H.
Grove
M. A.)
Reasons for consideration
1. Consideration is the
proper character of reasonable beings: this faculty is the main distinction of
the man from the beast; and the exercise of it
of the wise man from the fool
2. We show that we can
consider in the things of this life; and why not then in the things of
religion?
3. Do your part
and God will
not with hold His grace
by which you shall be enabled to do all required of
you.
4. By time and use this
exercise
however ungrateful at first
will become more easy and pleasant.
5. Consideration is further
recommended by its most blessed effects. As
to mention only two of a more
general nature: the first
our being converted from the error of our ways; the
other
our constant perseverance in the practice of holiness.
6. Were there nothing else
but this one motive to engage you to consider
this one should be irresistible
that it is absolutely necessary: it cannot be dispensed with; the consequence
of neglecting it is fatal
and never to be retrieved. (H. Grove
M. A.)
Man shamed by the lower animals
A fine pass man is come to when he is shamed even in knowledge and
understanding by these silly animals; and is not only sent to school to them (Proverbs 6:6-7)
but set in a form below
them (Jeremiah 8:7); “taught more than the
beasts of the earth”Job 35:11)
and yet knowing less. (M.
Henry.)
Inconsideration
Inconsideration of what we do know is as great an enemy to us in
religion as ignorance of what we should know. (M. Henry.)
God’s grief became His children do not know Him
An ancestor of mine was once imprisoned for righteousness’ sake
and among the tenderest traditions which have been handed down to me is this
that when that strong man entered gaol not a nerve quivered
and not a look of
sorrow was seen upon his countenance. Again
when he was released and met his
friends
he bore up heroically; the joy of deliverance did not break him down:
but when he entered his home
and when the little child on the mother’s knee
that a month or so before had known its father
did not know him
but turned
away from him
the strong man wept as a child. He burst into tears and sobs.
The grief of God here is that His own children did not know Him. (David
Davies.)
Verse 4
Ah
sinful
nation
God’s indignation against
sin
The word “ah” is not an
interjection
indicating a mere sighing of pity or regret; the word should not
be spelt as it is here
the letters should be reversed
it should be “ha
” and
pronounced as expressive of indignation.
God does not merely sigh over human iniquity
looking upon it as a lapse
an
unhappy thing
a circumstance that ought to have been otherwise; His tone is
poignant
judicial
indignant
for not only is His heart wounded
but His
righteousness is outraged
and the security of His universe is threatened
--for
the universe stands in plumb line
in strict geometry
and whoever trifles with
the plumb
with the uprightness
tampers with the security of the universe. (J.
Parker
D. D.)
A sinning nation
The original words used in
reference to God’s ancient people are “a sinning nation
” which denotes a
nation sinning habitually. There are three ways in which a nation becomes
sinful.
I. WHEN THE GREAT BODY OF THE PEOPLE CONSENT TO OR APPROVE OF THE
SINS OF FORMER GENERATIONS. Thus Christ said to the Jews
“Truly ye bear
witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers.”
II. WHEN THE GREAT BODY OF THE PEOPLE CONSENT TO THE SINS OF THEIR
RULERS. Thus the Jews were a sinful nation
because they approved of the deeds
of their rulers in killing the prophets and in crucifying Christ
and these
sins are expressly charged against them
and were visited upon them nationally.
III. WHEN THE GENERALITY OF THE PEOPLE ARE LIVING IN THEIR OWN REASONS.
Such was the state of the Jews when Isaiah charged them with contempt of God
hypocrisy and manifold habitual transgressions. (Original Secession
Magazine.)
Savonarola and Florence
Florence
in the days of
Lorenzo the Magnificent
had become practically a pagan city. She had fallen
from Christ as Jerusalem from Jehovah. One of her historians descants upon her
as being “hopeless morally
full of debauchery
cruelty
and corruption
violating oaths
betraying trusts
believing in nothing but Greek manuscripts
coins and statues
and caring for nothing but pleasures.” It was into such a
city
to which Isaiah’s prelude would almost literally apply
that Savonarola
came. Seeing
as he expressed it
“the world turned upside down
” he traversed
the streets and wandered along the banks of the Arno
musing and weeping over
the great misery of the world
and the iniquities of men
and the enormous
wickedness of the people of Italy. Then
after a time of probation at the
convent of San Marco
he burst upon the Florentines as a prophet of fiery
eloquence and uncompromising virtue
of a fearless character
and with Divine
insight akin to that of his great prototype
Isaiah of Jerusalem. Through
internal troubles
and assaults from without
he warned the people and their
rulers
endeavouring to turn their hearts to God
and to stay them upon Him. To
the priests he said
that the false and lukewarm among them
the dumb dogs that
could not bark
had perverted the people
and prejudiced them against the
truth. “Before all
the wicked priests and servants of the Church are the
guilty causes of this corruption as also of the coming calamities.” “He cried
aloud to the populace
Thou knowest
thou knowest
O Florence
that I would
have thee a spiritual State. I have always shown thee clearly that a kingdom is
only strong in proportion as it is spiritual
by being more closely related to
God.” Thus faithfully and boldly spoke out Savonarola what was in him from the
Holy Spirit. (F. Sessions.)
Corrupters
“Corrupters”
Sons that are as
cankerworms; sons that throw poison into pellucid water streams; sons that
suggest evil thoughts to opening minds. (J. Parker
D. D.)
The force of example
Have fellowship with the
lame and you will learn to limp. (Latin Adage.)
The corrupt are corrupters
One rotten apple will
infect the store; the putrid grape corrupts the whole cluster. (F. Jacox.)
Companionship in evil
Men love not to be found
singular
especially where the singularity lies in the rugged and severe paths
of virtue: company causes confidence
and gives both credit and defence
credit
to the crime
and defence to the criminal (R. South
D. D.)
The contagion of character
“Do you see
” said Dr.
Arnold to an assistant master who had recently come to Rugby
“those two boys
walking together? I never saw them together before; you should make an especial
point of observing the company they keep;--nothing so tells the changes in a
boy’s character.” (F. Jacox.)
Bad company injurious
He that lies down with
dogs shall rise up with fleas. (Spanish proverb.)
Leading others astray
A father bade his son set
up some bricks endways
in regular line a short distance apart. “Now
” said he
“knock down the first brick.” The boy obeyed
and all the others fell with it.
“Now
” said the father
“raise the last brick and see if the others will rise
with it.” But no
once down
they must be raised singly. Said the father
“I
have given you this object lesson to teach you how easy it is for one to lead
others astray
but how difficult for him to restore them
however sincere his
repentance may be.” (Sunday School Chronicle.)
They have forsaken the Lord
A specific and terrible
indictment
What have they done? They
have done three things. It is no general accusation that is lodged against
Judah and Jerusalem
and through them against all the nations of the earth; it
is a specific indictment
glittering with detail.
I. “THEY HAVE FORSAKEN THE LORD.” By so much their action is
negative; they have ceased to attend the altar; they have neglected to read the
Italy writing; they have turned their backs upon that towards which they once
looked with open face and radiant eye.
II. “THEY HAVE PROVOKED THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL UNTO ANGER.” Observe
how the intensity increases
how the aggravation deepens and blackens; they
have grown bold in sin; they have thrown challenges in the face of God; they
have defied Him to hurl His thunderbolts and His lightnings upon them.
III. “THEY ARE GONE AWAY BACKWARD.” They forsook
they provoked
they
apostatised. Sin has its logical course as well as holiness. Men do not stand
still at the point of forsaking God: having for a little while forsaken Him
they will find it almost necessary to provoke Him
that they may justify
themselves to themselves and to others
saying
Even provocation cannot awaken
the judgment of heaven with any sign of impatience; and having provoked the
Holy One of Israel
the next point will be universal apostasy
a thorough
off-casting of the last traces and semblances of religion. See if this be not
so in the history of the individual mind. (J. Parker
D. D.)
Moral gravitation
There is a law of
gravitation
spiritual as well as physical
and now the man who has begun by
forsaking will end by going backward
his whole life thrown out of order
decentralised; and he perpetrates the irony of walking backwards
and his
crab-like action will bring him to the pit. (J. Parker
D. D.)
The Holy One of Israel
The Holy One of Israel
That is
“He who shows
Himself holy in Israel.” (Prof. T. K. Cheyne.)
Verse 5-6
Why
should ye be stricken any more?
--
The power of
evil habits
There
are no passages in Holy Writ more affecting than those in which God seems to
represent Himself as actually at a loss
not knowing what further steps to take
in order to bring men to repentance and faith (Isaiah 5:4; Hosea 6:4). Of course
the chastisements may be continued
but the experience
of the past attests but a strong likelihood that further afflictions would
effect no reform. God
therefore
can only ask
and the question is full of the
most pathetic remonstrance--“Why should ye be stricken any more?”
1. Now
observe that it was a long course of misdoing that had
brought the people into such a morally hopeless condition. It was the habit of
committing sin
the habit of resisting the admonitions and the chastisements of
God that had at last exhausted the resources of Divine wisdom. The words in
which Jeremiah states the tremendous power of habit are very striking--“Can the
Ethiopian change his skin
or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good
that are accustomed to do evil.” Yet our text
probably
puts it in a yet more
affecting point of view--the considering wherefore it is that men who have long
been accustomed to do evil
thereby bring themselves morally into such
condition
that God
as if in despair
is forced to exclaim “Why should ye be
stricken any more? The whole head is sick
and the whole heart faint.” Now
they can know very little of their moral constitution
and of the tendency of
their nature
who are not thoroughly aware how
as a general rule
the doing a
thing twice facilitates the doing it again. We have no right to complain of
there being such a law
for it is of universal application
and will therefore
be every jot as beneficial to us if we aim at doing good
as detrimental if we
allow ourselves to do evil. The man who has yielded to a temptation will undoubtedly
find himself less able to resist when that temptation assails him again. But if
he have overcome
he will as undoubtedly find himself better able to withstand.
The inveterate habit and the seared conscience are so far necessary companions
that when we wish to induce a man to abandon a long-cherished practice
we do
not reckon on any such keenness of the moral sense
as will make it second our
remonstrance
or give point to our advice; and this it is which renders almost;
desperate the case of those who have been long living in any known sin. Such
men must have won that most disastrous of victories--the victory over
conscience. Therefore
we hardly know under what form to shape our attack. Our
position takes for granted that there is an internal monitor
so that the voice
from without
answered from the voice from within
may force for itself an
audience
and cause a present conviction
if not a permanent resolution; but
now the internal monitor is wanting; the voice from without calling forth no voice
from within
would seem to have no organ to which to address itself
and
therefore our words will be as much wasted as though spoken to the air. Hence
it is we are so urgent with the young that they put not off to a later day the
duties of religion. The young seem to imagine that the question between us and
them is simply a question as to the probabilities of life; and that if they
could ensure themselves a certain number of years
they should run no risk in
delaying
for a time the giving heed to religion. Thus they take no account of
the inevitable result of a continuance in sin
namely
that there will be
generated a habit of sin
so that when the time shall be reached which they
themselves may have fixed as suited to repentance
they will be widely different
beings from what they are when resolved to delay--beings tied and bound with
fetters forged and fastened by themselves
and wanting in the principle which
might urge them to the breaking loose from the self-imposed bondage. It is this
which makes the aged sinner so unpromising a subject for the ministrations of
the Word--not his being old in years
but his being old in sin. This is the
first evidence which we advance as to the truth of that fearful fact which we
derive from our text--the fact that habitual sin brings even God Himself into a
perplexity as to how to deal with the sinner; makes it difficult for Him to
employ further means for recovering that sinner from wickedness.
2. There is a yet worse thing to be said. The man who persists in
sinning
till to sin has become habit
alienates from him that Holy Spirit of
God whose special office it is to lead us to repentance
and renew our fallen
nature. It is not by an occasional act of sin that a man may “quench” the
Spirit; though his every transgression may “grieve” that Spirit. You will
observe what a correspondence there is between quenching the Spirit and
quenching the conscience. So connected
if not identified
are conscience and
the Holy Spirit
so actually is the one an engine through which the other
works
that in proportion as man succeeds in deadening his conscience
he
advances towards quenching the Spirit. Why wonder then at the expression of our
text?
3. Our text implies a great difficulty rather than an impossibility
and it ought not therefore to be without some measure of hope that the minister
addresses even those who are the slaves of bad habits. The Spirit
it may be
does not so depart as to determine that He will not return We may rather regard
Him as hovering over the transgressor who has so pertinaciously grieved and
withstood Him; and let there be only the least intimation of a wish for His
presence
and He may descend
and take up His abode in the soul which He has
been forced to forsake. And
if conscience were but roused
there may be a
desire for the return of the Spirit. Whilst we do not shut the door even
against habitual sinners
our great effort must be that of persuading men
against the forming bad habits. (H. Melvill
B. D.)
The power of
evil habit
If a
man be a confirmed drunkard or gambler
it has almost passed into a proverb
that there is but little hope of reform
and you regard it as little short of
miracle if he be brought to abandon the wine or the dice. In such instances
the habit forces itself on your notice in all its fearful tyranny. The efforts
to break sway are made
in a certain sense
in public
and whether they fail or
succeed
you are able to observe. But if these be the more notorious cases of
striving against the power of an evil habit
you are not to think that the
power may not be as actuary
or as injuriously exerted in cases where there is
little or nothing of manifest tyranny. There may be habits of mental or moral
indulgence; habits of self-indulgence; habits of covetousness; habits of indifference
to serious things; habits of delaying the season of repentance--these may be
and often are found in one and the same person; and though
unquestionably
no
one of these can be parallel to the habit by which the drunkard or the gambler
is enthralled
yet they resemble so many lesser cords tying down a man in place
of one massive chain; and the endeavour to break loose will be equally likely
to be unsuccessful. (H. Melvill
B. D.)
The
deceitfulness of sin
In
this
and in the like cases
it is especially by and through its deceitfulness
that sin produces final obduracy
making “the whole head sick
and the whole
heart faint.” The man is blinded to the fact
that he is being hardened; it is
all done underhand; and while there is the rapid formation of an inveterate
habit of indulgence
a depraved inclination
or a habit of covetousness
or a
habit of selfishness
or a habit of procrastination
there may be great ease
and satisfaction
and a feeling of cordial commiseration for those slaves of
their passions who may be said hardly to put forth exertion
and to be led
captive by Satan at his will. Away then with the limiting the power of evil
habits to persons who live in the practice of gross sins. (H. Melvill
B. D.)
Sin not
self-reformatory
It
might seem
if sin can be called unnatural and monstrous
that nature could
shake it off
and return to her own law. It might seem also that the results of
sin would cure the sinner of his evil tendencies
and send him back on the path
of wisdom. We grant that a man in a state of sin may be led to abandon some
sin
or some excess of sin
from considerations of prudence. We grant also that
affliction softens many characters which it fails to lead to sincere
repentance
by lowering their pride
or by sobering their views of life. We
have no doubt that the seeds of a better life are sown amid the storms and
floods of calamity. And for the Christian it is certain that sorrow is a
principal means of growth in holiness. Nay
it may even happen that a sin
committed by a Christian may
in the end
make him a better man
as Peter
after his denial of Christ. We admit
also
that a life of sin
being a life of
unrest and disappointment
cannot fail of being felt to be such
so that a
sense of inward want
a longing for redemption
enters into the feelings of
many hearts that are not willing to confess it. But all this does not oppose
the view which we take of sin
that it contains within itself no radical cure
no real reformation Man is not led by sin into holiness. The means of recovery
lie outside of the region of sin
beyond the reach of experience
--they lie in
the free grace of God
which sin very often opposes and rejects
when it comes
with its healing medicines and its assurances of deliverance. The most which
prudence can do
acting in view of the experienced consequences of sin
is to
plaster over the exterior
to avoid dangerous habits
to choose deep seated
sins in lieu of such as lie on the surface. (T. D. Woolesey
D. D.)
Sin not
self-reformatory
That
sin by no process
direct or indirect
can purify the character
will appear--
I. FROM THE SELF-PROPAGATING NATURE OF SIN. If sin has the nature to
spread and strengthen its power
if by repetition habits are formed which are
hard to be broken
if the blindness of mind which supervenes adds to the ease
of sinning
if sin spreading from one person to another increases the evil of
society
and therefore reduces the power of each one of its members to rise
above the general corruption
do not all these considerations show that sin
provides no cure for itself
that there is
without Divine intervention
no
remedy for it at all? Can anyone show that there is any maximum of strength in
sin
so that after some length of continuance
after the round of experiences
is run over
after wisdom is gained
its force abates
and the soul enters on a
work of self-restoration!
II. FROM THE FACT
THAT THE MASS OF THE PERSONS WHO ARE TRULY
RECOVERED FROM SIN
ASCRIBE THEIR CURE TO SOME EXTERNAL CAUSE
--nay
I should
say to some extraordinary cause
which sin had nothing to do with bringing into
existence. Ask anyone who seems to you to have a sincere principle of
godliness
what it was that wrought the change in his case
by which he forsook
his old sins. Will he tell you that it was sin leading him round
by the
experience of its baneful effects
to a life of holiness? Will he even refer it
to a sense of obligation awakened by the law of God? Or
will he not rather
ascribe it to the perception of God’s love in pardoning sinners through His Son?
Nor will he stop there; he will go beyond the outward motive of truth to the
inward operation of a Divine Spirit. You cannot make those who have spent the
most thought about sin
and had the deepest experience of its quality
admit
that spiritual death of itself works a spiritual resurrection. Moreover
were
it so
you could not admit the necessity of the Gospel. What is the use of
medicine
if the disease
after running its course
strengthens the
constitution
so as to secure it against maladies in the future? Can truth
with all its motives
do as much? To this it may be added
that the
prescriptions of the Gospel themselves often fail to cure the soul; not half of
those who are brought up under the Gospel are truly Christians. This again
shows how hard the cure of sin is.
III. WE DO NOT FIND THAT INORDINATE DESIRE IS RENDERED MODERATE BY THE
EXPERIENCE THAT IT FAILS TO SATISFY THE SOUL. A most important class of sins
are those of excited desire
or
as the Scriptures call them
of lust. The
extravagance of our desires--the fact that they grow into undue strength
and
reach after wrong objects
is owing to our state of sin itself
to the want of
a regulative principle of godliness. But no such gratification can fill the
soul. How is it now with the soul which has thus pampered its earthly desires
and starved its heavenly! Does it cure itself of its misplaced affections? If
it could
all the warnings and contemplations of the moral philosophers might
be thrown to the winds
and we should only need to preach intemperance in order
to secure temperance; to feed the fire of excess
that it might the more
speedily burn out. But who would risk such an experiment? Does the aged miser
relax his hold on his money bags
and settle down on the lees of benevolence?
IV. THE PAIN OR LOSS
ENDURED AS A FRUIT OF SIN
IS NOT
OF ITSELF
REFORMATORY. I have already said that under the Gospel such wages of sin are
often made use of by the Divine Spirit to sober
subdue
and renovate the
character. But even under the Gospel
how many
instead of being reformed by
the punishment of their sins
are hardened
embittered
filled with complaints
against Divine justice and human law! We find continual complaints on the part
of the prophets that the people remained hardened through all the discipline of
God
although it was fatherly chastisement
which held out hope of restoration
to the Divine favour. Such was a large experience of the efficacy of punishment
under the Jewish economy. Turn now to a state of things where the Divine clemency
is wholly unknown or seen only in its feeblest glimmerings. Will naked law
will pure justice work a reform to which Divine clemency is unequal?
V. REMORSE OF CONSCIENCE IS NOT REFORMATORY. Remorse
in its design
was put into the soul as a safeguard against sin. But in the present state of
man remorse has no such power for the following reasons--
1. It is dependent for its power
and even for its existence
on the
truth of which the mind is in possession. Of itself it teaches nothing; it
rather obeys the truth which is before the mind at the time. If now the mind
lies within the reach of any means by which it can ward off the force of truth
or put falsehood in the place of truth
sin will get the better of
remorse
--the dread of remorse will cease to set the soul upon its guard.
2. Every sinner has such means of warding off the force of truth
and
so of weakening the power of self-condemnation
at his command. The sophistries
which a sinful soul plays off upon itself
the excuses which palliate
if they
do not justify transgression
are innumerable.
3. Remorse
according to the operation of the law of habit
is a
sentiment which loses its strength as the sinner continues to sin.
4. But
once more
suppose that all this benumbing of conscience is
temporary
as indeed it may well be; suppose that through these years of
sinning it has silently gathered its electric power
but
when the soul is
hackneyed in sin and life is in the dregs
will give a terrible shock--will
this work reform? Will there be courage to undertake a work then for which the
best hopes
the greatest strength of resolution
and the help of God are
wanted? No! discouragement then must prevent reform. The sorrow of the world
worketh death.
VI. THE EXPERIENCE OF SIN BRINGS THE SOUL NO NEARER TO RELIGIOUS
TRUTH. For sin
amongst other of its effects
makes us more afraid of God or
more indifferent to Him. The first inward change wrought by sin is to beget a
feeling of separation from God. To this we may add that a habit of scepticism is
contracted in a course of sinning
which it is exceedingly hard to lay aside.
It became necessary in order to palliate sin and render self-reproach less
bitter to devise excuses for the indulgence of wrong desires. Is then such a
habit easy to be shaken off? Is it easy
when habits of sin have brought on
habits of scepticism
to become perfectly candid
and to throw aside the doubts
of a lifetime
which are often specious and in a certain sense honestly
entertained? The blindness of the mind is the best security against
reformation.
1. From the course of thought in this discourse it appears that our
present life shows no favour to the opinion that sin is a necessary stage in
the development of character towards perfection. The tendency of sin
as life
shows
is to grow blinder
more insensible
less open to truth
less capable of
goodness.
2. And
again
the experience of this world throws light
or
I
should rather say
darkness
on the condition of the sinner who dies
impenitent. There is no tendency in the experience of his whole life towards
reform. How can it be shown that there will be hereafter!
3. Our subject Points
as with a finger that can be seen
to the best
time for getting rid of sin. All we have said is but a commentary on that text
“Exhort one another daily while it is called today
lest any of you be hardened
by the deceitfulness of sin.” Sin is now shapening your character; he is adding
stroke after stroke for the final countenance and form. If you wait all will be
fixed; his work will be done. (T. D. Woolesey
D. D.)
Isaiah a
physician as well as a seer
He
says
you are vitally wrong
organically out of health: the whole head is sick
the whole heart is faint: the chief members of your constitution are wrong. It
is a question of the head and the heart. Not
the foot has gone astray
and the
hand has been playing an evil game
or some inferior member of the body has
given hint of restlessness and treason; but
the head
where the mind abides
is sick; the heart
continually keeping the life current in action
is faint
and cannot do its work. Until you see the seriousness of the case you cannot
apply the right remedies. (J. Parker
D. D.)
What is human
nature?
Do not
consult the sanguine poet
for he takes a roseate view of everything: he sees
in leprosy only the beauty of its snowiness; he looks upon the green mantling
pool
and sees nothing there but some hint of verdure. Do not consult the
gloomy pessimist
for at midday he sees nothing but a variety of midnight
and
in all the loveliness of summer he sees nothing but an attempt to escape from
the dreariness of winter. But consult the line of reason and solid fact
or
undeniable experience
and what is this human nature? Can it be more perfectly
more exquisitely described than in the terms used by the prophet in the fifth
and sixth verses of this chapter? Do the poor only fill our courts of law? Are
our courts of justice only a variety of our ragged schools? Is sin but the
trick of ignorance or the luxury of poverty? Or the question may be started
from the other point: Are only they who are born to high degree guilty of doing
wrong? Read the history of crime
read human history in all its breadth
and
then say if there be not something in human nature corresponding to this
description. (J. Parker
D. D.)
Verse 8
A cottage in a vineyard
A lodge in a garden
The true point of the
comparison will not appear until the crop is over
and the lodge forsaken by
the keeper.
Then the poles fall down or lean every way
and those green boughs with which
it is shaded will have been scattered by the wind leaving only a ragged
sprawling wreck
--a most affecting type of utter desolation--“as Sodom
and
like unto Gomorrah.” (Thomson’s “The
Land and the Book. ”)
Verse
9
Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very mall remnant.
The influence of good men
1. God’s greatness in the
universe. The “Lord of hosts
” or Jehovah of hosts. Who are His “hosts”?
Angels. Who shall count the number of these troops? He is their Creator and
Sustainer.
2. God’s authority over good
men. He is here represented as having “left a very small remnant.” whilst an existences
are absolutely His
He has a special interest in the good. He keeps good men
here as long as He thinks fit. He removes them at His pleasure.
I. THEIR INFLUENCE IS HIGHLY
BENEFICENT. From what evil did this remnant deliver the country? The answer
will come out with potency by replying to two other questions.
1. What was the moral
condition of Sodom and Gomorrah? Their sin was “very grievous” (Genesis 18:20).
2. What was their doom? (Genesis 19:24-25.) Now
it was from this
moral corruption and terrible doom these good people
it is said in our text
delivered others. “Ye are the salt of the earth
” History abounds with examples
of moral declination
and all hearts are conscious of this gravitating force
What is the counteractive? The life of Christ in man. That life flashes a light
upon the corrupt heart of society
and makes it blush. But few will dare to sin
in the presence of living holiness. Vice cowers under the radiant eye of
virtue.
II. Their influence is highly
beneficent
HOWEVER FEW THEIR NUMBER. “A very small remnant.” A little goodness
on this earth goes a great way. Even one man like Moses
Elijah
Paul
Luther
Whitefield
Wesley
may stop the flow of depravity and turn the destinies of an
age. Conclusion--
1. The criminal ignorance of
nations in relation to their true benefactors
2. The supreme value of
Christianity. (D. Thomas
D. D.)
Beneficial influence of goodness
On a hot summer’s day
some years ago
I was sailing with a friend
in a tiny boat on a miniature lake enclosed like a cup within a circle of
steep
bare Scottish hills. On the shoulder of the brown sunburnt mountain
and
full in sight
was a well with a crystal stream trickling over its lip
and
making its way down towards the lake. Around the well’s month and along the
course of the rivulet a belt of green stood out in strong contrast with the
iron surface of the rocks all around. We soon agreed as to what should be made
of it. There it was
a legend clearly printed by the finger of God on the side
of these silent hills
teaching the passer-by how needful a good man is
and
how useful he may be in a desert world. (W. Arnot
D. D.)
The
Lord of hosts
Jehovah of hosts
or of armies
is a favourite expression of the
Hebrew writers
and especially of Isaiah
Jeremiah
Zechariah and Malachi
by
which they recognise Him as the universal governor of heaven and earth
“who
has ordained and constituted the services of men and angels in a wonderful
order
” and who employs His kingly and almighty power to rule the nations in
righteousness
and
as now
both to punish and to save His chosen people. (Sir
E. Strachey
Bart.)
Verse 10
Hear the word
of the Lord
ye rulers of Sodom
The true prophet deals
with the needs of the present
It is a very
miserable thing for a preacher when he lives wholly either in the past or in
the future
and so allows either the one or the other to divert him from the
duty he owes to God in the present.
What is more pitiful
more unlike the idea of a true prophet
than to find one
whose work is to preach to men of the twentieth century occupying his time in
discoursing of the sins of the Jews centuries before Christ
or even of those
sinners of Jerusalem who crucified the Lord
unless his first care be to warn
them lest they fall after the same example of unbelief? And Isaiah would have
done a very poor service to the Jews at that time if
instead of holding out to
them light for their present guidance and wisdom to direct them in the
emergencies of the terrible crisis through which they were passing
he had
simply been forever inviting them to contemplate the glories of a future into
which they would never enter. He was there to tell men what God’s will was in
relation to themselves
to deal with their own difficulties
to answer the
problems by which their hearts were agitated
to cheer them under the reverses
by which they were disheartened
to rebuke them for the evil which was
separating them from God
and warn them of the judgment which God would bring
upon them; but
at the same time
to assure them of His infinite pity and compassion.
(J. G. Rogers
B. A.)
Plain speaking
This is plain
speaking; but God never sends velvet-tongued men as His messengers. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
Corrupt rulers
The fish stinks
first at the head. (Turkish proverb.)
Verses 11-15
To what purpose is the
multitude of your sacrifices unto Me?
saith the Lord
Hypocrisy and partiality
in religion
These words are not to be
understood absolutely but comparatively
and with respect to the manners of
these men. For--
I. GOD
COULD NOT ABSOLUTELY REJECT SACRIFICES
because they were of His own
appointing
as we are abundantly certified in the Books of Exodus and
Leviticus. And they were instituted for very good put poses.
1. As federal
rites between God and His people
that by eating of what was offered upon His
altar they might profess their union and communion with Him
that they were of
His family
He their Father
and they His children. And this is what made
idolatry so odious to Him
and for which He declares Himself a jealous God
that when they sacrificed to idols they made the same acknowledgments to them.
2. Sacrifices
were instituted to expiate sins of ignorance and trespasses of an inferior
nature. It is true
St. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews affirms
that it was
impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should purify the conscience
so
as to wash away the guilt of sin
which only can be atoned for by the Lamb of
God
slain from the foundation of the world. But yet they availed to the
purifying of the flesh
and were accepted of God in lieu of temporal
punishments.
3. Sacrifices
were designed to teach men that without shedding of blood there could be no
remission of sins. They were hereby led to consider that infinite justice
properly required the life of the offender
but that infinite mercy accepted of
a vicarious life.
4. Peace
offerings
or sacrifices of gratitude were offered to God in hope of obtaining
some favour
or as a thanksgiving for having received some signal mercy from
Him.
5. Sacrifices
were instituted for types and representatives of that final sacrifice of the
Son of God in whom they all centred and were consummated. (Psalms
40:6; Hebrews
10:5-6) “He
taketh away the first
that He may establish the second
” i.e.
the
sacrifice of Himself; and consequently Paul calls the law our schoolmaster to
bring us to Christ
and Christ the end of the law
because it was ended in Him
and by Him. In this sense it is that our Lord affirms that He came not to
destroy the law and the prophets
but to fulfil them. He fulfilled the moral
law by His perfect holiness and virtue
and the law of sacrifices by His death
and passion. From all this I infer that God does not reject sacrifices as such
and therefore we must conclude that--
II. HIS
AVERSION TO THEM WAS OCCASIONED BY THE ILL MANNERS OF THOSE THAT OFFERED THEM
who had no concern to accomplish the good ends which were intended by them
nor
considered that by these sacraments they laid themselves under renewed
obligations to be sensible of their own demerits
to repent and reform whatever
they found amiss in their lives
and to abound in the love of God
and the
fruits of His Holy Spirit. It appears from the characters of these men
especially in their latter and worst times
that they satisfied themselves with
the opus operatum
the external duties of religion
and had no regard to
the renovation of their hearts and minds. (W. Reading
M. A.)
Religiousness
The common man’s commonest
refuge from conscience. (Prof. G. A. Smith
D. D.)
Sin offensive to God
1. The
Scripture for our understanding ascribes senses to God
and here we find every
sense displeased with their sins.
2. Neither
were their sins only displeasing to His senses
but also grievous to His mind
and therefore He tells them
their new moons and appointed feasts His soul did
hate; which is an emphatical speech
and an argument of God’s hearty
detestation. (N. Rogers.)
Dissembled piety
Dissembled piety is double
iniquity. (M. Henry.)
Moral whitewash
God is not mocked
and
even man is not long imposed upon by a vain show of devotion. We once heard
Father Taylor
a noted preacher to sailors in America
pray that men who
thought themselves good
and were not
might be undeceived; and he cried
“Lord
take off the whitewash!” (D. Fraser
D. D.)
Religious hypocrisy: Dukes
Orleans and Burgundy
On the 20 th of November
1407
the two cousins heard mass
and partook of the holy sacrament together at
the church of the Augustins. Never was there a blacker instance of sacrilegious
hypocrisy. At the very moment when he thus profaned the most solemn rite of
Christianity
Jean sans Peur had deliberately doomed his enemy to a bloody and
violent death. (Student’s France.)
Formal religion
Dickens describes how in
Genoa he once witnessed “a great fiesta on the hill behind the house
when the
people alternately danced under tents in the open air and rushed to say a
prayer or two in an adjoining church bright with red and gold and blue and
sliver: so many minutes of dancing and of praying in regular turns of each.” (H.
O.Mackey.)
Inconsistency
Writing of Lorenzo de
Medici
Mr. Howells says: “After giving his whole mind and soul to the
destruction of the last remnant of liberty
after pronouncing some fresh
sentence of ruin or death
he entered the Platonic Academy
and ardently
discussed virtue and the immortality of the soul; then sallying forth to mingle
with the dissolute youth of the city
he sang his carnival songs
and abandoned
himself to debauchery; returning home with Pulci and Politian
he recited
verses and talked of poetry; and to each of these occupations he gave himself up
as wholly as if it were the sole occupation of his life.” (H. O. Mackey.)
“Holiness becometh Thine
house”
When Ruskin was making
explorations about Venice
in the Church of St. James
he discovered
engraved
on a stone
these words
“Around the temple let the merchant’s weights be true
his measures just
and his contracts without guile.” (Sunday School
Chronicle.)
The Paris Figaro mentions
that a curious discovery was made recently when the famous robber gang of
Papakoritzopoulo was broken up. In the pocket of this most notorious of
European brigands was found a small Bible
neatly bound and wrapped in a clean
silk handkerchief
a prayer book
holy relics in tiny boxes
a cross
and other
religious objects.
Inconsistency
The son of Sirach asks of
him that washeth himself after the touching of a dead body
and then touches it
again
what availeth his washing? “So is it with a man that fasteth for his
sins
and goeth again
and doeth the same: who will hear his prayer? or what
doth his humbling profit him?” (F. Jacox
B. A.)
Audacious hypocrisy
When Pope Hadrian II
consented at last to admit Lothair to the holy communion he warned him
“But if
thou thinkest in thine heart to return to wallow in lust
beware of receiving
this sacrament
lest thou provoke the terrible judgment of God.” And the king
shuddered
but did not draw back. (F. Jacox
B. A.)
Detestable worship
Dr. South says of him who
by hypothesis
comes to church with an ill intention
that he comes to God’s
house upon the devil’s errand
and the whole act is thereby rendered evil and
detestable before God. The prayers of a wicked man are by Jeremy Taylor likened
to “the breath of corrupted lungs: God turns away from such unwholesome
breathings.” (F. Jacox
B. A.)
Smuggler and preacher too
The letters of Robert
Louis Stevenson tell an astonishing story of smuggling in the Shetlands. The
revenue official had great trouble with a man known as Preaching Peter
who
whenever he returned with his spoils
sent round handbills to announce his
coming
and went about the country preaching. After he had much prayed and much
preached
he gave the benediction
and this was the signal for all who knew him
to crowd round. “How many gallons shall I give you? How many do you want?” Such
was the conversation; and so he sold his smuggled spirits and improved the
people’s souls while he filled his own purse. Worship and wickedness:--A
famous brigand in Sicily was constantly robbing and sometimes murdering. But he
would never go forth on his expeditions without first kneeling at a little
shrine in his cave
where he kept an image of the Virgin. (Christian
Commonwealth.)
Pew holding
Emerson
in an essay
refers to “what is called religion
but is
perhaps
pew holding.”
A red-handed religionist
There is no name in
Scottish history round which darker or grimmer or bloodier associations gather
than the name of John Graham of Claverhouse. He hunted and harried the men of
the Covenant. He shot some of them with his own hand. He brought misery and
weeping
widowhood and orphanhood
to many a lowly and godly home. Yet he was
scrupulous in the observance of all religious ordinances. Let me beware of this
double life. (A. Smellie
M. A.)
Verse
13
The calling of assemblies
I cannot away with
Service not services
1.
Many think religion
flourishes if services are well attended. But
unless we are “willing and
obedient” our “fat things” will not make us fat. They will rather harm us. Paul
says
“Ye serve the Lord Christ.” Your vocation is the main part of your
service for Him
provided you are in the place where He would have you be. If
you are not clear about that point
be sure and inquire of Him. In a
well-ordered house there are many servants
and
if one tried to do another’s
work
there would be confusion. Do your work and do it faithfully. If God has
special and occasional service
beyond this
He will direct you to it.
2. Again
remember what the
apostle says about service
“Not slothful in business
fervent in spirit
serving the Lord”--fervent
that is
quite not
boiling. You might as well run
a locomotive without steam as try and serve the Lord without fervour. How shall
you get it? You can get it in a measure from the influence of those who
themselves are warm in God’s service. Catch fire from such as Samuel
Rutherford
whose volume reminds me of a contrivance they had before matches
were invented. It was a kind of bottle
containing some mixture
into which you
dipped the match
and it immediately took fire. These letters of Rutherford’s
are just like that. When you feel dull
lukewarm
read one or two of those
letters
and
provided your heart is sincere
see if it does not set you on
fire. But we have better than that. We have Rutherford’s Master. The central
source of holy zeal
of burning love
is there.
3. Again
be willing to do
what is humble
what seems useless
if He so direct. It is a great trial of
patience. Moses tended sheep forty years. God’s chief difficulty with us is
not filling
but emptying us; not edifying or building up
as it is pulling us
down. Look at the history of the Church
and you will see that most
if not
all
of those whom God has employed in a signal manner for His glory
have
been
in one way or another
among the most afflicted of men either in heart or
in body
sometimes in both. Therefore
do not be afraid of suffering; it helps
service. The work of God is mostly hidden work
fully known to Him
known
partly to those who are the immediate objects of it
scarcely known to
ourselves. I am afraid
nowadays
there is a great deal too much speaking about
the work done or doing. I have sometimes thought how well the apostles got on
without newspapers--and the work was done all the same!
4. if we are thus doing God’s
work fervently
humbly
patiently
though obscurely
looking to Him alone
we
like our Master
will finish the work that He has given us to do. Only as we
abide in Christ
can we be able to complete our work. Mere machinery and
outward activity are of no account without this daily dwelling in
and drawing
from
Him. (T. Monod.)
Acceptable worship
To adore God for His goodness
and to pray to Him to make us good
is the sum and substance of all wholesome worship. Then is a man fit to come to
church
sins and all
if he carry his sins into church not to carry them out
again safely and carefully
as we are all too apt to do
but to cast them down
at the foot of Christ’s Cross
in the hope (and no man ever hoped that hope in
vain) that he will be lightened of that burden
and leave some of them
at
least
behind him. (C. Kingsley
M. A.)
Verse 14
I am weary to
bear them
God oppressed
Wonderful
expression this! It suggests the idea that the Almighty is oppressed with the
weight of human sins.
I. THE EXQUISITE MORAL SENSIBILITY OF GOD. God is not mere force or
intellect
He is heart
He is infinite sensibility. All events and actions
vibrate on His nature--He is feelingly alive to all.
II. THE AMAZING PATIENCE OF GOD. If He is “weary” why does He “bear”
it? Why does He not quench in the midnight of eternal extinction all the
authors of sin.
III. THE REMEDIAL AGENCY OF GOD. Because sin is so abhorrent
and the
sinner so dear
He sent His “only begotten Son” into the world
in order to
“put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” (Homilist)
Verse 16
Wash you
make
you clean
Repentance necessary and
possible
Two things are
necessarily to be acknowledged to encourage endeavours after piety.
1. To be assured that God will not be wanting to afford the
assistance of His grace and Spirit.
2. That by this assistance we are enabled to do our duty. There are
two things which no wise man doth submit to his care or thought
namely
necessaries and impossibles. For things necessary
he needs not to charge
himself with them
for they will be done of course; and for things impossible
it is a vain thing for him to undertake. We are not to consider ourselves to be
in a state of impossibility
therefore we must suppose that God is with us by
His grace and assistance; and while God is with us that we are able to do those
things that He requires of us--to wash and make us clean
etc.
which words are
to be considered according to their form and according to their matter.
1. According to their form
they are an exhortation
and so it is not
in vain that we are exhorted to duty.
2. In respect of their matter
they afford these two observations--
Ill habits do
strangely bias our faculties; but though they do this
yet they do not
absolutely determine our faculties or sink them
for these faculties are of the
essence of the soul. It is with much difficulty they are overcome Jeremiah 13:23); but the faculty is free notwithstanding any habit acquired;
otherwise it were impossible ever to recover any habitual sinner.
I. GOD DOTH PRIMARILY DESIRE THE GOOD OF ALL HIS CREATURES (1 Timothy 2:4; Isaiah 5:4).
II. GOD DOTH NOT DESIRE MAN’S SALVATION WITHOUT HIS RETURN. For it is
impossible that any man should be happy in a way of obstinacy and rebellion
against God
III. GOD DOTH NOT DESIRE MAN’S RETURN WITHOUT HIS OWN CONSENT. For if
He should desire this
He should desire that which cannot be: for being intelligent
and voluntary agents
we cannot truly be said to do that which we do against
our minds. For to a human act two things are necessary; that there be the
judgment of reason in the understanding
and the choice of the will If the mind
do not consent
it is not a free act; and if not done freely
and of choice
it
cannot be an act of virtue; and if not an act of virtue
it cannot be of any
moral consideration. It is no less an act of the will
though a man be at the
first attempt unwilling and averse; yea
though he suffer great difficulty to
bring himself to it. For this man hath brought himself to it by reason
consideration
and argument
and so his consent is the better grounded.
Application--
1. We ought to be thankful to God
and to acknowledge Him for the
gracious assistance that He doth afford unto us.
2. We ought to make use of and employ this Divine assistance
which
is in the apostle’s language
not to receive the grace of God in vain (2 Corinthians 6:1). (B. Whichcote D. D.)
Moral ablution
I. THAT SIN CAN BE SEPARATED FROM MAN’S NATURE. Sin is no more a part
of human nature than a stain is of a garment.
1. Human nature has existed without ever having been touched by sin.
Christ through all His life could say
“The prince of this world cometh
and
hath nothing in Me.”
2. Human nature does exist after having been cleansed from sin. It
does so in heaven.
II. THAT SIN SHOULD BE SEPARATED FROM MAN’S NATURE. There are three
obvious reasons for this command--
1. Because your pollution conceals the moral image of Himself which
your Maker has impressed upon your nature. Sin is such a besmearment of the
moral mirror of man’s being
that scarcely a Divine ray is seen reflected.
2. Because your pollution enfeebles your moral health. Physical
pollution is inimical to physical health. Sin renders a man powerless for good.
3. Because your pollution injures society. (Homilist.)
Practical regeneration
The call is
made to the class that are usually given up. Two questions come up in
connection with this subject.
1. When a man is wrong in his life
is wicked on account of the
strength of constitutional peculiarities
and is organised with such passion
such will
such temper
such pride and avarice
that that organisation compels
as well as controls him
is it possible for him to change that organisation and
its fruits?
2. Whatever may have been the proportions in which a man’s faculties
are given to him
if he has been cast in the midst of temptations
is it in his
power
if he be an average man
to break away
to assert his own sovereignty
and recover himself? Can a man control
first
himself inwardly
and second
himself outwardly? Did not Peter wrestle success fully with his constitutional
organisation? There is an example which is still more remarkable in some
respects. The account which Paul gives of himself is most striking. Here we
have a precisionist
a narrow and intense bigot
a man whose conscience was
logical
and who therefore followed his conscience without scruple and without
the restraint of any meliorating principle. Not only was he man of the most
malign feeling in the service of religion
but he was a man of the utmost
firmness of purpose. Nothing could stop him on sea or on land. He was a man of
the most sensitive pride. Now
turn to the thirteenth chapter of First
Corinthians
and see what the fruit of Paul’s change was. It may be said to be
a record of his experience. Then
as to the other question
Can men control
their circumstances? If a man can overrule a constitutional peculiarity
how
much easier can he control that which is not of himself
but is exterior to
himself! The experiences of the Gospel for thousands of years show that men can
be reclaimed from all forms of vice. Men can break through and rescue
themselves from the power of wickedness when it takes on an external and social
form. That is the voice of the Old Testament. Is it a false proclamation
based
upon a false view of life and possibility? Preeminently it is the voice of the
New Testament. The invisible things of God are more and mightier than the
visible. If a man treats himself simply as a physical organisation
and
believes in nothing but what he can see and handle
it may seem to him as
though this world were simply a gigantic crushing machine
irresistible in its
impulses
and as though the best way for him were to submit himself to it
and
let it take him whither it will; but we are taught
and we believe that the
whole heaven is full of powers which are mightier than any which are seen. (H.
W. Beecher.)
Renewing forces are silent
and gentle
Nature itself
gives us an illustration of it. When the spring draws the sap out of the ground
into the trees the actual force which is exerted is greater than that of all
human machines put together. Never was there an engine built that could for one
mingle moment compare with the development of actual physical power in an oak
tree standing in a field
acre broad
every spring. Yet you see nothing and
hear nothing. But it has been measured and estimated. There is in the silent
influence of the seasons more power than in all the storms that ever swept over
the earth since creation. The invisible forces of nature are mightier than the
visible. Look into a household. The bustling husband who drives the children
here and there
and will have order
has nothing but disorder; while the mother
sits still
and loves
rules over every child in the family
and secures
perfect obedience. The silence of love is mightier than all the physical or
moral force of boisterous strength. Now
this truth
which we discern even in
the lowest forms of matter
and which grows more and more striking as you
ascend along the line of human society
meets the great declaration of the
Divine Word
that God has given the Holy Spirit
and that this invisible and
silent force in the universe is such that more are they that are for a man who
wants to turn than are they that are against him. The whole heaven is God’s
apparatus for helping men to unharness their faults
to lay aside their habits
to change mightily their whole internal economy
yea
to so revolutionise
themselves that
whereas before the animal
the physical
was in the
ascendency
now the angel
the spiritual
is. Is there
then
such an influence
existing in every community? Yes
in every community. (H. W. Beecher.)
In regeneration man must
cooperate with God’s Spirit
If men would
have the help of the sun they must not sulk in caves; if men would set the sun
to bringing forth vines and corn and other grains they must employ it according
to the sun’s laws and methods. If they do this they shall have the benefit of
its might. All the power that is in nature is mine if I but study natural law
and obey it. Now
the invisible influences in the Divine nature
we are taught
very abundantly in the Word of God
are to be sought as men seek the seasons.
If the power that is in God is to come to the help of a man there should be at
least as much seeking as men give to the laws of nature when they seek them.
How do men attempt to renovate their spiritual nature? With what dalliance
what carelessness
what facile discouragement
what intermissions
what
associations that neutralise or blur that which is bright in us do men seek to
bring the Divine influence to bear upon their constitutional peculiarities! Are
you proud? You know how to extract the roots of the mightiest tree that ever
grew; you know how to attack it and draw it forth; and yet the influences by
which a man may extract by the roots all the evil influences within him are a
hundred times greater
if men had some conception of the necessity. A man can
overmaster his pride. Paul did it. Can a man change his basilar passions so
that they shall be held in abeyance? Certainly he can. Something can be done
for every man by physiological methods. A man of violent temper
easily
excited
an excessively meat-eating man
or a man addicted to the use of
stimulating drinks
can hardly expect to overcome the animal in himself while
he is gorging him
and is building fires under the very caldrons which he would
cool off. If a man choose to go through the necessary practice
he certainly
can change; but if a man say to himself
“I do not believe in religion; I will
change by and by; it is not convenient now; I do not under stand this great
change
and I do not like to go into anything which my reason does not
comprehend
” I say to him
Do you insist
when you are sick
and you send for
your physician
upon entering into an argument with him? Do you say to him
“What is the matter with me?” and when he prescribes for you do you say
“Sit
down and tell me the whole history of this medicine
who invented it
what its
use is
who has employed it
and what right the man had to compose it or mix
it”? You do not act so. A man under such circumstances instantly makes a
practical matter of it
and takes certain practical steps. On the other side
no man can tear himself away from surrounding temptations and evil influences
without an adaptation of his life and will to the peculiar work which is
required. Shall a man attempt to change himself from evil to good
and do it
easily and thoughtlessly and carelessly? Such a change never comes by accident
nor by a little striving. Here is the simple fact of this whole subject: both
philosophy and example teach that in our strife for virtue the passions and
appetites
the infelicities of our organisation
can be overmastered; that we
can take ourselves out of our constitutional faults
and that if we have fallen
under temptations
it is possible for us to break the net and escape from them.
When Jesus came
one of the most matchless and eloquent of all His utterances
was that He had come to open the prison doors
to break the shackles
to give
the prisoners liberty
and to let those that were bound go free. (H. W.
Beecher.)
Verse
16-17
Cease
to do evil; learn to do well
An inoffensive
life
The
order in which these words are placed
was evidently designed to teach us
that
the foundation of acting right is avoiding everything wrong.
Several other parts of Scripture lay down the same rule in almost the same
terms (Psalms 34:14; Psalms 37:27; Am Romans 12:9; 1 Peter 3:11); and many express or imply the same doctrine
putting repentance
before faith and obedience (Mt Mark 1:15; Acts 20:21; Titus 2:12-13). Even heathen authors
in very distant ages and countries
have
given the like direction. And indeed everyone must own the justness of it: but still
very few appear to perceive or attend sufficiently to its importance: which
therefore
I shall endeavour to shew you--
I. IN RESPECT OF OUR CONDUCT IN GENERAL. It is plainly the natural
and rational method to begin with removing what else will obstruct our
progress
and to make unity within our own breasts our earnest care. He who
hath only consistent pursuits may follow them with a prospect of success: but a
mind
distracted between contrary principles of action
can hope for nothing
but to be drawn backward and forward by them continually
as they chance to
prevail in their turns. Things
indeed
that do but accidentally give some
little hindrance to each other now and then
may be prosecuted together
and
the due preference
when they interfere
be adjusted well enough. But sin and
duty are so essentially opposite
that their interests can never be reconciled
They flow from different motives
proceed by different means
aim at different
ends
and thwart one another perpetually. And it is to men’s overlooking this
obvious truth
that the miscarriage of their good intentions
the irresolution
of their lives
the incoherence of their characters
in a great measure
owes
its rise. Every one of us knows
in the main
what he ought to do: everyone
feels an approbation of it; and so far
at least
a disposition to it. But then
he feels also dispositions quite adverse: and though he sees them to be
unwarrantable
yet it is painful to root them out
and not pleasing even to
take notice of them. So
to avoid trouble
both sorts are allowed to grow up
together as they can; and
which will thrive faster
soon appears. Perhaps but
one or two sorts of wickedness were intended to be indulged: but these have
unforeseen connections with others
and those with more. Or
had they none
when men have once yielded to do but a single thing amiss
they have no firm
ground to stand upon in refusing to do a second
and a third: so gradually they
lose their strength
God withdraws His help
and they fall from bad to worse.
II. IN RESPECT OF OUR BEHAVIOUR TO EACH OTHER. It is a remarkable
thing in the constitution of this world
that we have much more power of
producing misery in it than happiness. Everyone
down to the most
insignificant
is capable of giving disquiet
nay
grievous pain and affliction
to others
and often to great numbers
without the least difficulty; while even
those of superior abilities in every way
can hardly discover the means
unless
it be within a very narrow compass now and then
of doing any great good
or
communicating any considerable pleasure. Besides
the effects of kindnesses may
always be entirely lost: but those of injuries too frequently can never be
remedied. And therefore we ought to watch over ourselves with perpetual care
examine the tendency of all our words and actions
and
not contented with
meaning no harm
be solicitous to do none. The harm that we do through
heedlessness is certainly not so criminal
as if it were purposely contrived:
but may be almost
if not quite
as severely felt notwithstanding: or though it
were but slightly
why should we be so inadvertent
as unnecessarily to cause
but an hour’s
nay
a moment’s vexation or grief to one of our brethren; or
deprive him of the smallest of those innocent gratifications
that help to
alleviate the sorrows of life
and make the passage through it comfortable? (T.
Secker
LL. D.)
The Bible art
of reforming men
I. Its primary principle is
that REFORMATION SHOULD BEGIN AT THE
SOURCE OF HUMAN CONDUCT. Change the springs of all action and you change every
element of conduct. Ye must be born again. Out of the heart proceed all evils.
1. It does not set aside all forms of outward help--society
industry
family
church
but these are auxiliaries to the central endeavour of
the human will.
2. It recognises
too
that the complete work is by stages
gradual--though the purpose may be immediate.
II. Not only is the central element of reformation clearly
established
but what may be called THE WORKING PLAN OF REFORMATION FROM EVIL
IS LAID DOWN. (Daniel 3:27. Compare that with Matthew 3:8-10.)
1. Right-doing is the way to cease wrong-doing. Ephesians 4:28 --not enough to stop getting by stealing
but must do that by
learning how to get by working! The way to cure evil
is to set a current of
contrary action.
2. The illustration of the inward government of mind--how feelings of
one class rise or fall in answer to the excitement or somnolency of another.
3. The two faulty forms.
III. THE DIFFICULTIES OF VICE
OF HABIT
WHEN THEY ARE SIMPLY WATCHED
AGAINST.
1. They leave men lonesome--unhappy.
2. The soul develops power to overturn evil only by inspiration of
opposite virtues.
IV. THE REASON SO MANY PEOPLE BECOME NEGATIVE
FEEBLE
AND
UNINTERESTING WHEN THEY BECOME RELIGIOUS.
V. THE REASON SO MANY ARE STRONG
NOBLE
AS WORLDLY MEN IN BUSINESS
BUT WITHOUT FORCE IN SPIRITUALS. They let loose their whole selves in the one
case. They tie up the strong elements in the other
for fear of mischief--and
do not let out any other. (Proverbs 3:13-18; also 8:11
etc.)
VI. WHEN MEN TURN FROM EVIL LET THEM GO CLEAR OVER TO RELIGION! (H.
W.Beecher.)
The men for the
times
Men
are wanted who are prepared to march in the van of the army of national
civic
and personal reformers
--men with the one thought dominating them that God the
Father lives
and loves with an everlasting love every member of the human
race
--men who
influenced by this irresistible intuition
seek to purge and
purify politics and trade
society and the Church
law and custom
speech and
practice
of all things that oppress and injure
and which in any way retard
the triumph of the kingdom of God. The watchword still is
“Cease to do evil
”
etc. (F. Sessions.)
The prophetic
temper in James Russell Lowell
The
temper that was in James Russell Lowell is the temper we seek for in all our
public men--in all leaders of thought in Church or State
of local or general
following. “He sang of the wrongs of the poor and the slave; the emptiness of
life without conviction; of the nullity of poetry without purpose; the
vapidness of preaching without piety; the shame of law without justice; the
blank horror of a world without God.” (F. Sessions.)
Holding on to a
sin
A
little child was one day playing with a very valuable vase
when he put his
hand into it and could not withdraw it. His father
too
tried his best to get
it out
but all in vain. They were talking of breaking the vase
when the
father said
“Now
my son
make one more try; open your hand and hold your fingers
out straight
as you see me doing
and then pull.” To their astonishment the
little fellow said
“Oh
no
pa. I couldn’t put out my fingers like that
for
if I did I would drop my penny.” He had been holding on to a penny all the
time! No wonder he could not withdraw his hand. (J. McNeill.)
The first
principle
There
is no religion--or if there is
I do not know it--which does not say
“Do good;
avoid evil.” There is none which does not contain what Rabbi Hillel called the
quintessence of all religions
the simple warning
“Be good
my boy.” “Be good
my boy
” may seem a very short catechism; but let us add to it
“Be good
my
boy
for God’s sake
” and we have in it very nearly the whole of the Law and
the Prophets. (Max Muller.)
What repentance
is
Suppose
I am to go down to Boston tonight
and I go down to the Union station
and say
to a man I sere there
“Can you tell me
is this train going to Boston?” and
the man says “Yes.” I go and get on board the train
and the superintendent
comes along and says
“Where are you going?” I say
“I am going to Boston
” and
he says
“Well
you are in the wrong train
that train is going to Albany.”
“But I am quite sure I am right; I asked a railroad man here
and he told me
this was the train.” And the superintendent says
“Moody
I know all about
these trains; I have lived here forty years
and see these trains go up and
down here every day.” And at last he convinces me that I am on the wrong train.
That is conviction
not conversion. But if I don’t remain on that train
but
just get into the other train
that is repentance. Just to change trains--that
is repentance. (D. L. Moody.)
Evil to be
supplanted by good
Sin
is to be overcome
not so much by maintaining a direct opposition to it
as by
cultivating opposite principles. Would you kill the weeds in your garden
plant
it with good seed: if the ground be well occupied there will be less need of
the labour of the hoe. If a man wished to quench fire
he might fight it with
his hands till he was burnt to death; the only way is to apply an opposite
element. (Andrew Fuller.)
Learn to do well
The highest
education
We
hear much about various grades of education--primary
secondary
and higher
education; by the text we are reminded of that highest education which concerns
all
and which it is the main end of life to secure. Moral culture is even more
imperative than intellectual development.
I. THE NECESSITY FOR MORAL LEARNING. Numerous definitions have been
given of man
but he might justly be defined as the being who learns. Other
creatures can scarcely he said to learn; whatever pertains to their species
they do instinctively
immediately
perfectly. A lark builds its first nest as
skilfully as its last
a spider’s first embroidery is as exquisite as anything
it spins in adult life
a bee constructs its first cell and compounds its first
honey with an efficiency that leaves nothing to be desired. We know that
naturalists are not altogether agreed on this point
but we may conclude that
substantially instinct dispenses with that laborious process which we know as
learning. It is altogether different with the human creature. If we are “to do
well
” taking that phrase in its noblest sense
we must “learn” to do it
acquiring the splendid power through attention
repeated endeavour
and
manifold sacrifice. Take
e.g.
the virtue of contentment. We
are
persuaded of the reasonableness of contentment with the dispensations of Divine
Providence; yet the folly of the soul is subdued only through much failure and
discipline. Or
take the virtue of sincerity. This virtue
if it be not rather
of the essence of all virtues
we all
to some extent
require to learn
some
however
finding in the learning of it the chief task of life. It seems
paradoxical to say so
but some men are naturally theatrical; the temptation is
always to act a part. Through repeated and hitter castigations of the soul do
we master this passion for masquerading
and attain sincerity
simplicity
and
thoroughness of life. Take the virtue of veracity. We have much to learn
here--to speak the truth
to act the truth
to live the truth. Take the virtue
of temper. There is a faculty of wrath in nature
and a faculty of wrath
becomes noble men but to harmonise this faculty with reason
and to be at once
high-spirited and gentle
is a problem that may demand years for its solution.
Or
take the virtue of kindness. We pass through much self-reproach
scourging
and shame in striving to reach the beauteous ideal. St. Paul bears witness of
himself
“I have learned in whatsoever state I am
therewith to be content.”
Let us remember in the training of our children that virtue is acquired much as
intellectual life is.
II. CONSIDER THE METHOD OF THIS MORAL CULTURE. Three things are
essential to the liberal education of the soul.
1. A pattern. “Looking unto Jesus.” He is the supreme Pattern. Said
an American artist
“I would give everything I have to see Velasquez paint for
one week
one day.” But the splendid privilege is given to us to behold the
Lord Jesus live through years! “Learn of Me
” says the Master
and a loving
thoughtful glance into the New Testament every day is a lifelong vision of
perfection. Let us learn of Him in joy and sorrow
in work and leisure
in
strength and weariness
in popularity and neglect
in success and failure
in
life and death. He best teaches the art of life.
2. Power. We can never become holy except as we have a genius for
holiness
and this genius in an adequate degree only the Spirit of God can
impart. Let us in prayer seek for more inward vision
receptivity
and energy
more of the Spirit that worketh mightily in fully surrendered souls
and all
things will become possible.
3. Practice. We learn to do well through doing well. (W. L.
Watkinson.)
Life’s great
lesson
I. THERE IS NO ROYAL ROAD TO RENOWN. “You envy me
do you?” said a
marshal (Lefevre) of France
to a friend complimenting him on his possessions
and good fortune. “Well
you shall have these things at a better bargain than I
had. Come into the courtyard: I’ll fire at you with a gun twenty times at
thirty paces
and if I don’t kill you
all shall be your own. What
you will
not come! Very well; recollect
then
that I have been shot at more than a
thousand times
and much nearer than thirty paces
before I arrived at the
state in which you now find me!” The marshal’s friend saw only the success
attained; he forgot the toil
the suffering and peril through which it had been
achieved. The traveller with ardent love of beauty climbs the rugged hill
whence his view
he fancies
will be unobstructed and complete; but the first
ascent made
behold
another hill overshadowing him; and that surmounted
behold
still another frowns upon him higher yet. So with the hill of life. One
arduous ascent made
one difficulty overcome
another presents itself
another
and still another. It is ever “Excelsior!” We would not have it otherwise.
Without difficulty
there were no display of energy. Without temptation
there
were no self-discipline. Without trial and suffering
there were no fortitude
and resignation.
II. OBSERVE THE ENFORCEMENT OF THIS LESSON OF THE PART OF NATURE THE
VERY BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. We begin life as “strangers in a strange land.” We
bring nothing with us into the world
either of wealth
knowledge
or
experience. What we possess
we receive
acquire
or learn. We find the
conditions of life already existing We must “accept the situation”; meet it as
best we may
and each go on to act his part. Beginning to learn
we find nature
and her laws fixed
inexorable
demanding recognition sad obedience. Observe
these laws
heed nature’s warnings
and she is a gentle mistress
a kind
benefactress; but disregard them
disobey them
and she becomes a terrible
avenger. The penalty she never fails to inflict. If not in youth
then in
manhood; if not in manhood
then in old age. Though her voice be silent
still
nature speaks. And this is her word: “Whatever and wherever your place in
life’s arena act well your part
--learn to do well.” For the sake of your
physical well-being; for the sake of your temporal happiness; for the sake of
those to come after you--observe my commandments to do them!
III. CONSIDER THE UTILITY OF THIS LESSON AS TAUGHT BY SOCIETY AND
EMPHASISED IN EVERY SPHERE OF LIFE. The household
the school
the college
the
counting room tuitions
the business apprenticeships
civil and political laws
and institutions--whatever factors enter in to develop and improve society--are
but the outgrowth and exemplification of the precept of “learning to do well.”
They are nature’s assistants
teaching us how to do well in life. What is
self-denial? It is but another word for “learning to do well; that is
learning
to forego the lesser for the sake of the higher good; denying the present
moment for the sake of the moment that is to come--all which involves
difficulty
cost
pain
persistent effort. Persistent effort in the mastering
of difficulties lies at the basis of true advancement and success. Wisdom
skill
mastery in hall of trade or science
in field of politics or war
come
not by wishing.
IV. BUT
ALONG WITH SELF-DENIAL “LEARNING TO DO WELL” INVOLVES
SUBMISSION TO HIGHER AUTHORITY. Who could expect to become an able soldier
without first submitting to a tactician’s guidance? There must be days
weeks
months of weary taxation of eye and ear
nerve and muscle; there must be
continued restraint of body and mind; there must be submission to another’s
will--obedience to a master’s command. But--there it comes again--obedience
self-restraint
is difficult. And what is all this struggle with difficulty
for? Why
simply for the sake of “learning to do well”--to drill well; for the
sake of becoming a good soldier!
V. But the Bible declares that this life is a period of trial
on the
issue of which turns the destiny of our future being. If
then
whatever is
worth the having in this present life comes not without conflict with
difficulties
IS IT REASONABLE TO SUPPOSE THAT THE ADVANTAGES OF THE FUTURE
LIFE WILL ACCRUE TO US WITHOUT LIKE CONFLICT WITH DIFFICULTIES? Do nothing
and
still inherit eternal life? It is not so cheap a thing as that.
VI. Beyond this
THE BIBLE NOT ONLY POINTS OUT THE DIFFICULTIES THAT
OPPOSE US--IT SHOWS HOW THE DIFFICULTIES ARE TO BE MET. In the lives of its
heroes the Bible individualises every virtue
but in no one of them does every
virtue appear till we come to the perfect man
Christ Jesus. He is the Master
of goodness. And He says
“If any man will come after Me
let him deny himself
and take up his cross daily
and follow Me.” If the way seem too full of obstructions
and old sins hedge us in
and our weakness is very great
He yet kindly says to
us as to the apostle Paul
“My grace is sufficient for thee
” etc. (C. P. H.
Nason
M. A.)
The struggle
between good and evil in the human soul
We
see what the author has produced
but we do not see what he has destroyed. The
book comes out in fair copy
and we
looking upon the surface only
say
How
well done! Who can tell what that “fair copy” cost? We see the picture hung
upon the wall for exhibition
but we do not see how much canvas was thrown
away
or how many outlines were discarded
or how many efforts were pronounced
unworthy. We only see the last or best. So much is to be done in private with
regard to learning to do well. We do not live our whole life in public. We make
an effort in solitude: it is a failure; we throw it away; we acknowledge its
existence tone one: still
we are acquiring skill--practice makes perfect--and
when we do our first act of virtue in the public sight people may suppose that
we are all but prodigies and miracles
so well was the deed done. Only God’s
eye saw the process which led up to it. This is a characteristic of Divine
grace
that it sets down every attempt as a success
it marks every failure
honestly done as a victory already crowned. So we are losing nothing even on
the road. The very learning is itself an education; the very attempt to do
though we fail of doing
itself gives strength
and encouragement
and
confidence. In learning to do well we assist the negative work of ceasing to do
evil. (J. Parker
D. D.)
“Learn to do
well”
1. We must be doing; not cease to do evil
and then stand idle.
2. We must be doing good; the good which the Lord our God requires
and which will turn to a good account.
3. We must do it well
in a right manner
and for a right end.
4. We must learn to do well
we must take pains to get the knowledge
of our duty
be inquisitive concerning it
in care about it; and accustom
ourselves to it
that we may readily turn our hands to our work
and become masters
of this holy art of doing well (M. Henry.)
Verse 18
Come now
and let us
reason together
saith the Lord
Further reasoning useless
“You have nothing more to
say; all that you have already said has no value; reasoning has done its work;
if reasoning is to rule
the case must go against you--there can be no other
issue; but if yielding to the force of My reasoning
admitting it is true and
fair
you confess yourselves convicted and condemned
then My mercy shall have
its free
triumphant exercise upon you; though your sins be as scarlet
they
shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson
they shall be as
wool.
” (W. Perkins.)
Reform and pardon
“Cease to do evil
” etc.
“Come now
” etc. As early as the time of Isaiah we find the doctrine of the
reformation of character dependent on forgiveness of sin distinctly taught.
God’s remedy for sin is the same in all ages. More prominence perhaps was given
to the observance of the law in the olden times
but not to the exclusion of
grace; while in the New Testament grace appears the more prominent
but surely
not to the exclusion of law. Neither in the one nor in the other was the law
the condition of life. Both represent rather two different stages in the same
covenant of grace--the one preparatory to the other.
I. THE
DEMAND HERE MADE.
1. The
nature of the demand. It is for reformation of practice. “Wash you
make you
clean
” etc. This is the one Divine call to fallen man. In it everything is
summed up. Made in sundry times and in divers manners
it ever remains
substantially the same. The essence of moral beauty is goodness. Now goodness
is not a quality deposited in the heart and there shut up; nor yet a something to
put on as a garment at will. Rather it is the fruit of well-doing--the
outgrowth of a righteous life. This is what God requires. This is to be the
outcome of His redeeming love. But it cannot be accomplished without the
cooperating activity of the human will. While the hands are besmeared with
blood--the token of an immoral life--all natural refinements are of very little
value in His sight. God is uncompromising here. Our greatest happiness is to do
good. By doing good we shall find the highest good. This then is the great
lesson of life--“Cease to do evil; learn to do well.”
2. The
word “learn” suggests a further thought
namely
the ground of this demand for
reform. Man is evil and does evil. Even those who take the most sanguine view
of human nature admit that there is something wrong in man’s moral
constitution.
3. To
estimate rightly
however
this cause
we must consider the justice of the
demand. It is God who makes it. But He could not have made it unless it were
just to do so; nor would He have made it unless it were possible for man to
meet it.
II. HOW
TO MEET GOD’S DEMAND. Where is the power to come from? Two answers only are
possible: either it is inherent in man--this is the answer of nature or it is
supplied from without--this is the answer of grace.
1. The
answer of nature. The belief in the ability of man to reform himself is founded
either on ignorance of the real nature of his moral condition
as was the case
in the pagan world
or on a deliberate refusal to recognise the truth when it
is presented concerning that condition
as was the case in Judaism
and is the
case at the present day with those who persuade themselves to a belief in the
infinite intrinsic capability of human nature. Such is the pride of man
that
he is ever slow to admit his own weakness. No
says the modem enthusiast: I
regret the new light
for the demands it makes upon me are far too humiliating;
I see no reason why a man
given the necessary favourable environments
should
not
by a little effort
become perfectly good. Neither the religion of the
pagan world
nor the philosophy of the Greeks
nor the power and civilisation
of the Romans afford much ground for this belief in human nature. Wisdom then
under the most favourable circumstances
has failed to supply the necessary
power to reform the World. Neither the enactments of a Roman senate
nor the
Acts of a modern Parliament
nor any power of law
can make man good or even
moral. Justice by itself
no more than wisdom
can remove the evil. But nowhere
is the inadequacy of wisdom and of law to draw forth the power there is in man
to reform his own character
better illustrated than in the case of the chosen
people of Israel. They could boast of a wisdom more divine than that of the
Greeks
a system of law superior to that of the Romans; while in virtue of
their peculiar privileges as a nation they were in an incomparably more
advantageous position than any other people
to succeed in their own strength
since they had a will to it. The very possession of their superior privileges
when they abused them
brought upon them a severer punishment.
2. The
answer of grace. A power from without is absolutely necessary to enable man to
meet the demand for reform. This power is God’s forgiveness. “Come now
let us
reason together
” or better
“let us end the dispute”: “though your sins be as
scarlet
they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson
they
shall be as wool.” Although the demand precedes the offer of forgiveness
we
are not to suppose that the work of reforming is to precede the enjoyment of
the Divine gift. That indeed were impossible. As every duty of man is summed up
in the command to reform
so all the riches of grace are summed up in the gift
of pardon. But what peculiar virtue or power does pardon possess for producing
a change of life?
God reasoning with man
The gracious promise that
God will make us clean follows immediately on a most distinct commandment that
we make ourselves clean. Does this seem to you inconsistent? The Jews are here
exhorted to make themselves clean
by putting away from them the evil of their
doings--ceasing to do evil
learning to do well. In fact
they are spoken to
just as though it had wholly rested with themselves to acquire moral purity.
1. But I
dare say they were ready with their objections: they would plead that it was
really of no service to decry and exhort them in one and the same breath. “Of
what use
” they seem to say
“is it for us to make any effort
unable as we
confessedly are to keep the law of God? And even were we able to obey for the
future
is there not past disobedience for which we have yet to be reckoned
with?” It is much in this way that men still receive exhortations to repentance
and amendment; for such exhortations belong to the Gospel as much as to the
law. And what do men say in reply? The minister
teaching as he does the
doctrine of human corruption and helplessness
it is absurd that he should tell
men to repent. Is he not contradicting himself?” It was
we may believe
in the
face of such arguments as these
that God challenged me Jews to controversy in
the words of our text. “Is this the way
” the Almighty seems to exclaim. “in
which you treat My urgent admonitions to amendment! Come now
let us reason
together!” But with what sort of reasoning are the objectors met? Perhaps you
look for some subtle and ingenious argument. Yet you have no argument at all;
you have only the promise--a most free and gracious one
but still only a
promise--“Though your sins be as scarlet
they shall be as white as snow.” But
how does the promise do away with the objection? Only thus
--God states this to
be His appointed way; He designs to save men in this manner
and therefore is
this manner prescribed.
The parties to whom He
will impart additional grace are those who
in obedience to His call
are
straining every nerve to forsake evil ways. It is not that they are able of
themselves to work out a moral amendment; but it is that God intends to bestow
on them the ability whilst they are making the effort.
2. And
perhaps
the Jews raised more general objections. They may have murmured at
God’s dealings
without selecting this or that particular instance
just as men
are now disposed to arraign the appointments of Heaven as severe or unjust. The
chapter in which our text occurs is full of indignant rebuke
and vehement
threatenings
and it may not be imagined that a haughty people would fail to
resent being so sternly addressed
and deny the equity of the judgments which
the prophet foretold. If this be supposed
then God invites men to reason with
Him on the goodness of His dealings. Come
let us clear the scene for the
controversy. Come
all of you who think you are in any way hardly dealt with by
God--that His dispensations are not such as might have been looked for--“Come
let us reason together.” You need not
therefore
hesitate to utter plainly
what you think
and to make statement of your grievances. Well
what have you
to say? You urge
it may be
that your lot is one of poverty
that troubles are
multiplied beyond your power of endurance
and temptations beyond your power of
resistance. Some of you
perhaps
plead that
born as you are with corrupt
tendencies
and placed where there is everything to incite and strengthen them
you have really no chance of keeping out of vice; that you are summoned to
duties which are manifestly too arduous
and threatened
if you fail
with
punishments which are manifestly excessive. You expect that God will take your
complaints one by one
and either show them to be groundless
or
if He admit
certain evils
show them more than counterpoised by blessings. Or
again
you
expect that
as far as you have dwelt on trials peculiar to yourselves
God win
patiently weigh them
prove them not excessive
or trace out beneficial results
which they are calculated to produce. Well
this is very natural; I think it is
just what would be
if the debate were with a mere human reasoner. But you will
hearken in vain if you expect from God this careful exposure of the fallacy or
falseness of your statements. There is heard nothing but the beautiful promise:
“Though your sins be as scarlet
they shall be as white as snow; though they be
red like crimson
they shall be as wool.” (H. Melvill
B. D.)
The right use of reason
The occurrence of the word
“reason” warrants my speaking to you on the right use of reason
and warning
you against mistakes into which some are apt to fall.
1. If
you hear some objections to Christianity which you are not able to answer
do
not on that account conclude that they cannot be answered
--have the modesty to
believe that others may be able to explain what is too hard for you. There is
one evidence which I can promise you: if you read the Bible carefully and
prayerfully the Bible will speak for itself.
2. And
besides the evidences of Christianity
reason has a great part to perform in
regard to the doctrines. It would be as great a fallacy as could be alleged
against the Gospel were it to be said that it does not commend itself to man as
exactly what he needs
so that when he receives it it must be on the strength
of external testimony and not at all in the consciousness of its meeting his
necessities. I do not say that reason can trace in every point the connection
between the death of Christ and the pardon of sin; but
at all events
reason
can clearly make out that
because God’s honour is provided for by the
sacrifice of Calvary
and that this sacrifice must have been of so stupendous a
value as to render possible the salvation of every human being
--there is
therefore
nothing to shrink from in the challenge of our text. I am jealous for reason; I
will not
indeed
bum an idolatrous incense before reason; as though I held it
sufficient for man’s guidance
wanderer as he is in a darkened world; but let
reason keep her right province
and in place of jostling with revelation
she
will put revelation on a throne
and then reverently and submissively prostrate
herself before it. For it is quite wretched to think how many a man loses his
soul because he will not humble his reason. The directions are very plain; do
not puzzle yourselves with any difficulties; the directions are--“Cease to do
evil
learn to do well.” Make a beginning. Many a man loses his soul by
neglecting to act at once on some truth which has been brought home to his
conscience. (H. Melvill
B. D.)
Religion rational
I. Take
that basal truth which lies at the bottom of all reasonable religion--THE BEING
OF GOD. The doctrine of the existence of God is reasonable. To believe that
there is no self-conscious power behind the world to account for it
is
irrational. It argues nothing that all minds do not see God behind nature; all
minds do not see the beauty of art; all ears are not ravished with music.
II. Again
we are living under A MORAL GOVERNMENT that is reasonable
one that can be
defended and rested in. A moral government is here
which brings evil to its
doom
and makes right safe and successful in the long run.
It is rational
and can be
defended
as it can be understood. All sin is irrational and utterly
indefensible.
III. Take
again some of the FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS OF SUPERNATURAL RELIGION.
1. The
doctrine of the incarnation is reasonable. Whether the incarnation is or is not
reasonable depends upon your conception of God. If He is like men generally
a
sort of incarnate selfishness
out of sympathy with suffering
indifferent to
the miseries of the world
then the incarnation is unreasonable. But if God is
love
and loves His children as we love ours
then the incarnation is
reasonable
it is inevitable.
2. Then
again His life in the flesh is rational The Gospels narrate just what we might
expect God to do if He came here.
3. Then
it was reasonable that He should die. The principle was in the heart of God
from an eternity. The Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.
Sacrifice was not foreign to the nature of God and suddenly invoked for a
specific occasion or emergency; it was eternal with Him. The atonement is the
most rational of all rational truths. The principle at its heart is at the
heart of nature; it is at the heart of humanity. It is the condition on which
rests the world’s best life.
4. And
the same can be claimed for the resurrection. The resurrection of Christ is a
rational doctrine. It is the fitting climax to the life behind it
to the
mission upon which He came. It was not fitting in the nature of things that
death should hold in its grip such a life. It was due to the majesty of truth
and virtue that such vindication should be appealed to.
IV. Turn
now to some of the PRACTICES REQUIREMENTS of the Biblical religion.
1. Take
that initial requirement of faith. Faith is reasonable. The best things are out
of sight. We rise toward our highest possibilities only as we live by the
unseen.
2. Repentance
is a reasonable demand.
3. Closely
connected with faith and repentance is confession. Confession of sin is
rational
but so is the confession of Jesus Christ.
4. The
duties of Christianity are reasonable. Prayer is a rational exercise of the
soul. If we have a Father in heaven it is reasonable that we should come into
touch with Him. And so of the means of grace in their entirety. The use of the
means of grace is reasonable and right. Effects come through well-defined
causes always and everywhere. The use of the Church to the utmost of its power
to serve us is a rational procedure. We have no great saints among those who
ignore the Church of Jesus Christ. There is one conclusion: a set of opinions
and beliefs that will not bear the test of reason had better be abandoned. A
life that you cannot defend and justify had better be given up. We had better
put our life on a basis that can be justified at every point. (S. H. Howe.)
God’s argument with man
It has been pointed out to
us that in the opening verses of Isaiah’s book we seem to be present in a Law
Court
at some Assize
and it is a Crown case that is on. And the Crown is
present in person to argue and plead its own cause. God and His people Israel
are the parties concerned
and God is heard in argument establishing the charge
He makes
sweeping away utterly the pleas and excuses that are offered
until
in this verse He seems to sum up the position
and the case comes to a most
wonderful and unexpected and Divine conclusion. The people are brought in
guilty on every count. Any attempt at justifying their conduct but makes it
worse
and covers them with darker guilt. The case has gone so clearly against
them
their arguments have proved so utterly worthless
the verdict is so
certain
that we are almost waiting in silence for the dread sentence to be
uttered. But lo! instead of the sentence of condemnation and punishment
pardon
perfect and complete
is offered. I have given you the case of God versus
Israel
but it is a typical one repeated from age to age. It is equally the
Case of God versus man
God versus the sinner. It is a case in which we
are not spectators
we are ourselves the defendants. God is here in argument
with us
in argument against us
and He sums up the whole by the gracious
declaration
“Admit the force of My reasoning
yield yourselves to it
confess
yourselves convicted and condemned
and My mercy shall have its free and
triumphant exercise upon you.” (W. Perkins.)
The reasoning God
God reasons with man--that
is the first article of religion with Isaiah. God addresses man’s mind
intelligence
conscience. There are two great falsehoods in the world about
God.
1. That
He is too great to reason with man; that He never gives any reason for anything
He commands or does.
2. That
God Himself is not a reasonable Being at all. It is a falsehood not openly
declared in so many words
but a practice adopted in the lives of men. Men act
as though they believe they could impose upon God. Let us try to follow God’s
reasoning in this chapter. There is a threefold basis of reasoning laid down.
I. God
reasons with man ON THE BASIS OF MAN’S WHOLE LIFE. God said to man
“Come
let
us reason together.” “Very well
” says man
“let this be the ground of our
reasoning. Look at my life as it lies within the circle of its religious action
and exercises
the sacrifices I bring to you
the incense I offer
the fasts I
make. Let us reason on that basis
let us take our stand there.” And as you
will see in this chapter
God utterly rejects reasoning like this
and says
“No
no; I must deal with you on the basis of your whole life
not any limited
and selected part of it which you choose to present and urge.” Now there is
great significance in this connection in the opening words of this chapter. God
cries out to earth and heaven
and says
“These are the only limits of man’s
life I can recognise--the earth on which he walks
on the surface of which
everything is done
the heavens over his head
which look down upon every
transaction of his life; that is the basis of My reasoning
and that alone.” It
is well for us to remember this
for today men are trying continually to reason
with God on some narrow chosen ground of their own.
II. God
reasons with men or THE BASIS OF HIS OWN FATHERHOOD. You will see how in this
chapter He reminds all men of it
gives men proofs of it
tells men He has
fulfilled it in relation to them. “Admit
” He says
“My Fatherhood
and what
does your life look like in the light of it? How unnatural and base it becomes.
You sink below the brute.” This is God’s reasoning
and who of us can stand
against it?
III. God
reasons with man or THE BASIS OF SIN’S RESULTS. He says
“You have rebelled
against Me. Has it justified itself in its success?” And God gives the answer
in searching and terrible words “Why should ye be stricken any more?” etc.
(verses 5-8). He points them to the terrible and pitiful results which have
come to pass for the Individual and the nation through their disobedience
towards God; and He challenges them
and says
“Now
look at it as I have
reasoned it out with you.” This is God’s argument still. If we would listen
we
might hear His voice in His Word
and in our consciences
saying
“Tell me
O
men and women who are living without Me and in sin
what good has your sin ever
done you!” There is no answer. And so we are led to the crisis of my text. We
seem to be in the presence of a great dilemma. Either God must abate His
claims
lower rebellion
or else logic must rule
justice must have its way.
The first of these we know God cannot do. It would wreck His universe if God
declined from the absolute right
it would bring ruin and shame wherever
created and finite beings are found. If that be impossible
what remains? Oh
there seems to be an awful moment between that first clause of the text and
what follows. “Come now
let us bring our reasoning to an end. There is nothing
more to be said. The case has gone against you; all your arguments have fallen
to the ground.” What remains? We wait to hear
and instead of the dread
sentence of wrath and judgment come the words of mercy: “Though your sins be as
scarlet
” etc. Right in between the eternal and infinite righteousness and the
sinner’s doom mercy breaks in
pardon perfect and complete. So great the change
that when a man feels the pardon in his heart
he can turn his face and address
himself hopefully to that great ideal of life which the law of God presents.
“Wash you
make you clean
” etc. And then
the soul within us rises up and
asks
“Why is this
if God be infinitely reasonable
if He reasons with such force
and conclusion
why does He not follow out His reasoning to its logical
conclusion? Why does He spare and pardon the sinner taken red-handed in his
sin?” Why
simply because there is something more scarlet than the scarlet of a
sinner’s sin
that covers the sinner’s sin
and makes God’s pardon a just and
rightful thing. “There is a fountain filled with blood
” etc. (W. Perkins.)
Men invited to reason with
God
1. God
is a moral agent. That He has moral character is sufficiently manifest from the
revealed fact that man is made in His image.
2. God
is also a good Being--not only moral
but holy and wise. He always acts upon
good and sufficient reasons
and never irrationally and without reasons for His
conduct.
3. God
is always influenced by good reasons. Good reasons are more sure to have their
due and full weight on His mind than on the mind of any other being in the
universe.
I. WHAT
IS THAT TO WHICH THIS TEXT INVITES US? “Come now
and let us reason together.”
But what are we to “reason” about? The passage proceeds to say
“Though your
sins be as scarlet
” etc. In the previous context God makes grievous charges
against men Now
He comes down to look into their case and see if there be any
hope of repentance
and proceeds to make a proposals “Come
” etc. Produce your
strong reasons why your God should forgive your great sin.
II. The
invitation
coupled with the promises annexed
implies that THERE ARE GOOD AND
SUFFICIENT REASONS WHY GOD SHOULD FORGIVE THE PENITENT. Sinners may so present
their reasons before God as to ensure success.
III. The
nature of the case shows that WE ARE TO ADDRESS OUR REASONS AND MAKE OUR
APPEAL
NOT TO JUSTICE BUT TO MERCY. We are to present reasons which will
sanction the exercise of mercy. (C. G. Finney.)
Reasons for pardon and
sanctification
I. THE
REASONS WHICH MAY BE OFFERED WHY GOD SHOULD PARDON OUR SIN.
1. You
may plead that you entirely justify God in all His course. You must certainly
take this position
for He cannot forgive you so long as you persist in
self-justification. You know beyond all question that all the wrong is on your
side and all the right on God’s side. You might and should know also that you
must confess this
You need not expect God to forgive you till you do.
2. You
may come to God and acknowledge that you have no apology whatever to make for
your sin.
3. You
must also be ready to renounce all sin
and be able in all honesty to say this
before God.
4. You
must unconditionally submit to His discretion. Nothing lees than this is the
fitting moral position for a sinner towards God.
5. You
may plead the life and death of Jesus Christ as sufficient to honour the law
and justify God in showing mercy. Pardon must not put in peril the holiness or
justice of Jehovah. The utmost expression He could make
or needs to make of
His holiness and justice
as touching the sins of man
is already made in the
death of Christ
“whom God did Himself set forth to be a propitiation
” etc.
6. You
may also urge His professed love for sinners.
7. He
has also invited you to come and reason with Him. Therefore He has fully opened
the way for the freest and fullest communion on this point. You may also plead
His honour; that
seeing He is under oath
and stands committed before the
universe
you may ask Him what He will do for His great name if He refuse to
forgive a repentant and believing sinner. You may plead all the relations and
work of Christ. You may say to Him
Lord
will it not induce other sinners to
come to Thee? Will it not encourage Thy Church to labour and pray more for
salvation? Will not Thy mercy shown to me prove a blessing to thousands! You
may urge the influence of refusing to do so. You may suggest that His refusal
is liable to be greatly misapprehended; that it may be a scandal to many; and
that the wicked will be emboldened to say that God has made no such exceeding
great and precious promises. You may urge that there is joy in heaven
and on
earth also
over every sinner pardoned and saved. You may urge
that
since God
loves to make saints happy in this world
He surely will not be averse to
giving you His Spirit and putting away your sins--it will cause such joy in the
hearts of His dear people. You may also plead the great abhorrence you have of
living in sin
as you surely will unless He forgives you. Tell Him
moreover
how wretched you are
and must be in your sins
if you cannot find salvation
and what mischief you will be likely to do everywhere
on earth and in hell
if
you are not forgiven and renewed in holiness.
II. THE
REASONS WHICH MAY BE URGED BY THE PARDONED SINNER WHO PLEADS FOR ENTIRE
SANCTIFICATION.
1. You
may plead your present justification.
2. You
may plead your relation to Him
to the Church
and to the world--that
having
now been justified and adopted into His family
you are known as a Christian
and a child of God
and it therefore becomes of the utmost consequence that you
should have grace to live so as to adorn your profession
and honour the name
by which you are called. You may also plead your great responsibilities
and the
weight of those interests that are depending upon your spiritual progress.
Plead the desire you feel to be completely delivered from sin. Ask Him if He
has not given you this very desire Himself
and inquire if He intends to
sharpen your thirst and yet withhold the waters of life. Plead also His
expressed will. Appeal to His great love’ to you
as manifested in what Christ
has done
etc. Tell Him how you have stumbled many by your falls into sin
and
have given great occasion of reproach to the cause you love; tell Him you
cannot live so. Tell Him of your willingness to make any sacrifice; that you
are willing to forego your good name
and to lay your reputation wholly upon
His altar. Be sure to remind Him that you intend to be wholly disinterested and
unselfish in this matter; you ask these things not for your own present selfish
interest; you are aware that a really holy life may subject you to much
persecution. You want to represent Him truly. Then tell Him of your great
weakness
and how you entirely distrust yourself. Tell Him you shall go away
greatly disappointed if you do not receive the grace you ask and need.
Remarks--
1. Whenever
we have considered the reasons for God’s actions till they have really moved
and persuaded us
they will surely move Him. God is not slow--never slower than
we
to see the reasons for showing mercy and for leading us to holiness.
2. Many
fail in coming to God because they do not treat Him as a rational being.
3. Many
do not present these reasons
because in honesty they cannot.
4. When
we want anything of God
we should always consider whether we can present good
reasons why it should be granted.
5. All
who are in any want are invited to come and bring forward their strong reasons.
6. Of
all beings
God is most easily influenced to save. He is by His very nature
disposed to save the lost. (C. G. Finney.)
The cultivation of the
reason
“What a piece of work is a
man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving
how
express and admirable! in action
how like an angel! in apprehension
how like
a god!” In this well-known panegyric on man the great dramatist puts the reason
foremost: “How noble in reason!” and
perhaps
the reason is the prime dignity
of man. It is by it
more than ought else
that man is separated from the
inferior animals. It is by it that he rules over them. It is by the development
of reason that one race outstrips another in the course of progress
and this
is the accepted standard by which we measure greatness between man and man. Therefore
the cultivation of the reason must be a subject of supreme and even religious
interest to all who wish to attain to a noble and well-developed manhood. (J.
Stalker
D. D.)
The reason
I. THE
WORK OF THE REASON.
1. The
reason is the faculty by which
from things already known
we advance to
conclusions which these imply
but which
till the act of reason is performed
are unknown; so the work of the reason is a kind of creative work
and do you
not think there is an inkling of that in the kind of exultation with which we
complete any difficult act of reasoning
or even hear a speaker completing it?
I think every schoolboy feels a touch of this exultation when he sees a sum at
which he is working coming right
and every housewife feels it when she sees
that the two sides of her accounts are about to balance exactly. In a court of
law
at the conclusion of the evidence the facts often appear to the Jury a
confused mass
pointing in no particular direction; but when a skilful advocate
rises
and taking hold of the evidence
separating one thing from another
and
laying this beside that
shows that from the confused mass there emerges a
necessary
irresistible conclusion
how delightful it is to listen to that. The
whole science of mathematics is deduced from a few simple axioms. To these an
ordinary mind might give assent
without observing that anything might be
implied; but the practised intellect deducts from them
step by step
a
magnificent system of truth. Thus
the reason
bringing its forces to bear on
the raw materials of knowledge supplied by the lower faculties
infers from
them a more advanced and lofty knowledge of its own.
2. But
now
I would like to give a clearer and simpler explanation of what its work
is. The reason may be called the faculty of comparison
or the faculty by which
we perceive the connections or relations of things. These relations between
things with which the reason has to deal are of different kinds
but of
whatever kind they are
the reason has to deal with them.
II. THE
CULTIVATION OF THE REASON. This faculty is bestowed on different individuals in
very different degrees. To those intended by the Creator to be leaders of their
fellows
it is given in liberal measure. There are multitudes of others whose
ideas are habitually vague and feeble. Reason may be given in different forms
some of which are more conscious
and some more unconscious. Reason in the
unconscious form
we call by such names as tact
or common sense. The science
of logic has for its aim the making visible to the eye the process through
which the mind passes in reasoning
whether it is conscious of this process or
not
and at the same time it makes visible
so as to show their absurdity
the
different kinds of fallacious reasoning; and there can be no doubt that the
study of that science is one of the best means of cultivating the mind.
III. THE
RELIGIOUS USE OF REASON. The marks of God are on all things that He has made
and by collecting these from all places where they can be seen
the reason
apprehends His eternal power and Godhead
and never in the reason of man so
nobly employed as when thus it is collecting the indications of God
so as to
convert them into a correct and impressive conception of what He is
or when it
is vindicating His existence and His character against the attacks of unbelief.
Our text says
“Come now
and let us reason together
saith the Lord
” and one
of the commonest complaints of the Bible is that people will not reason.
“Israel doth not know
My people doth not consider.” That is the complaint all
through the prophets. It is always taken for granted that if people only would
think
they would love and obey God. One of the commonest names in the Bible
for sin is folly. At the present time we have need of a reasoned Christianity
because Christianity is tending far too much to sentimentalism and
sensationalism. Christian work is becoming so absorbing that men have not
leisure to think
and if Christians do not think
Christianity will before long
suffer the consequences
and they will be hard to bear. (J. Stalker
D. D.)
The Gospel of pardoning
mercy as preached by the prophets of the kingdom
Analyse carefully the
picture of the sins which the prophet sets before his people
as preliminary to
his glorious
full and free offer of mercy.
1. A
marked feature of the portraiture
here drawn
is that they are sinners under
the light of Jehovah’s special revelations and appointed ordinances.
2. These
sinners are such in face of every obligation of love and gratitude to Jehovah
arising out of peculiar blessings and privileges.
3. Yet
in the midst of all these mercies
sin everywhere abounds. The public men and
the people alike are corrupt.
4. All
this wickedness clothes itself in the garb of religion. Having considered to
whom he speaks
let us consider what it is the prophet says to all such. It
embraces three points chiefly.
I. A
PROPOSITION TO STOP AND REASON THE MATTER WITH JEHOVAH. The proposition is very
suggestive; both of the cause why men continue to live in sin; and of the means
and process whereby Jehovah would bring them back to Himself. The grand cause
of the continuance in sin is that men will not reason of the matter. It is not
that they do not know enough; but they do not reason concerning what they do
know.
II. THE
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE PARLEY--sin and its consequences.
III. THE
REMEDY FOR SIN--its effectiveness
certainty
and readiness. (S. Robinson
D. D.)
Pardon for aggravated sin
“Though your sins be as
scarlet
and red like crimson.” The critics tell us that one of the terms here
refers to the outward appearance
glaring
attracting and fixing the attention;
the other
from a root signifying double-dipped
refers to the ineffaceable
stain of sin upon the soul; a stain that no rain
nor sunshine
nor dew can ever
wash out
or bleach. The meaning is
however aggravated your sins may be. What
then
are some of the circumstances that aggravate sin? Sins are aggravated--
1. When
committed against special light and knowledge.
2. When
committed against special obligations of gratitude.
3. From
the social position of those who sin
or their relative position towards
others
or their peculiar gifts and endowments which give them influence over
others.
4. As
committed against special covenants and vows. (S. Robinson
D. D.)
God reasoning with man
This text strikes at the
root of the wicked notion that man is under an arbitrary government
that he is
a mere slave
or a mere machine
and that he is controlled apart from
principles that are moral. He is addressed almost as the equal of the Almighty.
(J. Parker
D. D.)
God reasoning with man
The proposition comes from
God. It does not arise from the human side at all.
1. God
having made this proposition proceeds upon the assumption that He knows Himself
to be right in this case. The man who knows himself to be in the right is
always the first to make the noblest propositions
and to offer as many
concessions as are possible without impairing the law of absolute right
truth
and propriety. If amongst ourselves we do so
it is in an infinitely higher
degree true in the case of Almighty God. He makes the proposition to His rebel.
This proposition is not only the proof of the grace of God; but that grace
itself is the vindication of His righteousness. He knows He is right in the court
of reason; that if the case be fully stated the criminal will convict himself
he will burn with shame
and cry out for the judgment that is just. We are not
wrong partially
not wrong here and there
with little spots of light and blue
between the errors
but we are wrong altogether
--shamefully
infamously wrong!
2. Yet
God knowing this
asks us to reason the case with Him. Showing us
in the next
place
that God proceeds upon the assumption that man ought to be prepared to
vindicate his conduct by reasons. God says
“Why do you do this! Let Me know
your reasons for having done so. Will you state your case to Me! I give you the
opportunity of stating your own casein your own terms.” Observe how wonderfully
influential
when rightly accepted
is a proposition of this kind. If men would
think more they would sin less. Logic is against you as well as theology.
Common sense is against you as well as spiritual revelation. This is the
strength and the majesty of the Christian faith
that it challenges men by the
first principles of reasoning to defend themselves
as sinners
before the
Almighty.
3. But
there is something to be remembered at this point. If God could trifle with
righteousness in making a case up with us
His own throne would be insecure
His own heaven would not be worth having. In taking care of righteousness He is
taking care of us. Herein do men greatly err. Talking upon religious questions
they say
“Why does not God come down and forgive us all!” That is precisely
what God Himself wants to do. Only even God cannot forgive
until we ourselves
want to be forgiven.
4. With
all this before me I am driven to this conclusion
that now the sinner is left
absolutely without excuse. (J. Parker
D. D.)
God reasoning with man
I. THE
PARTIES INVITED. Who are these? They are those of whom it is said
“their sins
are as scarlet
and red like crimson”--terms which clearly convey the idea that
there are no sins so heinous that they may not be forgiven
and no men so
wicked that they may not be saved. These terms designate bright
glowing
easily-seen colours
teaching most explicitly
in their present connection
that sin
though so large as to fill the public eye
nevertheless may be
pardoned. Indeed
I cannot help thinking that the language of the prophet here
has also a symbolical meaning
and that as crimson is the colour of the blood
there is set before us the thought that not merely the flagrant transgressor
but the atrocious criminal--the man whose hands have been imbued in the blood
of his fellow man--is declared to be within the reach of the Divine mercy. And
I am fortified in this persuasion by the words of the Master
“that repentance
and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations
beginning at Jerusalem.”
II. THE
INVITATION GIVEN THEM. “Come now
and let us reason together
saith the Lord.”
What forcibly impresses us in this statement is not only the all-embracing
sweep of the Divine mercy
but the singular way in which this mercy is offered.
The usual manner in which a superior makes known his will to an inferior is by
a command. The master gives his orders to his servant. The parent commands his
child
and the language of royal personages is never the language of
solicitation. But we have here the King of kings
and Lord of lords
very
unlike man
not employing force
authority
command
but condescending to
reason with His creatures
and trying
as it were
by argument and persuasion
to induce them to accept His grace.
III. THE
AUTHORITY ON WHICH THE INVITATION RESTS. When good news is brought to us we
sometimes hesitate about receiving it. And why? Because we think it too good to
be true
and are not satisfied of the entire truthfulness and fidelity to fact
of the person who brings it when it was told Jacob that Joseph
his beloved
son
whom he had long mourned as dead
was alive and well
and governor of
Egypt
his heart fainted
“for he believed them not.” But here
the authority
is as unassailable as the invitation is cordial
and it is issued on the
authority of God Himself.
IV. THE
PERIOD WHEN THE INVITATION IS GIVEN. All privileges urged upon your acceptance
in the Bible are strictly applicable and limited to the very time when they are
offered to you. That mental and moral inaction
so fatal to our spiritual prospects
gets no countenance from the Word of God. On the contrary
it is always
denounced as fraught with the greatest dangers to our souls. (J. Imrie
M.
A.)
Reasoning with God
From this passage we
infer--
I. THAT
MAN
THOUGH DEPRAVED
HAS STILL A FACULTY TO REASON WITH GOD.
1. This
power exists as an unquestionable fact. It is a fact--
2. This
power exists as the chief glory of human nature. What is the chief glory of
human nature in itself considered? Not its faculties of contrivance and logical
investigation
as you see them developed in the arts and sciences. But man’s
power to reason with the Infinite--to take the thoughts of God and to feel
their power.
3. This
power exists
notwithstanding the devastations of depravity.
II. THAT
MAN
THOUGH DEPRAVED
HAS NOW AN OPPORTUNITY OF REASONING WITH GOD. Whilst all
sinners forever will have the power of moral reasoning
only now on earth are
they invited to a merciful conference with God. This invitation implies--
1. The
existence of an extraordinary principle in the Divine government of God.
Antecedent reasoning would lead us to conclude that whenever a creature
rebelled against the righteous government of his Creator
banishment from His
holy presence would be the result. “The angels that kept not their first
estate
” etc. God governs humanity through the mediation of Christ.
2. It
denotes the astonishing condescension of God.
III. THAT
MAN
THOUGH DEPRAVED
BY RIGHTLY AVAILING HIMSELF OF THIS OPPORTUNITY
MAY BE
ENTIRELY CLEANSED OF HIS SINS. “Though your sins be as scarlet
” etc. Notice--
1. That
sin has taken a very fast hold on human nature. How closely and firmly attached
to human nature is sin! It has coloured not only the complexion
but the vital
current
of man’s life. Every thought
feeling
and expression
is tinged with
the stain of sin.
2. That
though it has taken this fast hold
it can be separated. The scarlet is not a
part of the texture. So of sin. Though closely identified with human nature
it
is not of it. Human nature can exist without it
has existed without it
will
exist without it. There is a moral chemistry that can take the scarlet and the
crimson from the texture of human nature.
3. That
right attention to God’s reasoning will certainly and effectively remove the
stain of sin. (Homilist.)
Desperate characters
I. I
have to PUBLISH THE LORD’S INVITATION TO DESPERATE CHARACTERS. The invitation
is to those whose sins are double-dyed scarlet and crimson in colour.
1. You
have had pious parents.
2. You
were once a member of a Christian congregation or Church.
3. I
have to give the invitation to those whose sins have made them worse than
beasts.
4. And
to those who are “laden with iniquity.”
5. And
to those who are “corrupters” of others.
6. This
all-embracing invitation is to those who have “forsaken the Lord.”
II. I am
to give REASONS WHY DESPERATE CHARACTERS SHOULD ACCEPT THE INVITATION.
1. You
say
“It is impossible for me to accept of it because my heart is perfectly
hardened.” Impossible! If your heart is hard
come and accept the invitation
because God has promised to take away the stony heart and to give you one of
flesh.
2. Again
you say
“I cannot accept it
because I am so wicked.” If you feel wicked it is
God’s Spirit showing His light in your soul in order that you may be led to the
Cross of Jesus and have your sins washed as white as snow.
3. Then
somebody else answers
“Well
I would accept it
but I have always failed.”
Though you have failed
yet come again
for our heavenly Father is noted for
receiving sinners.
4. But
another says
“Before I came tonight I said I would not be converted.” Two men
were bidden to do their lord’s will. One of them said
“I will do it”; but he
went away
and did it not. And the other was angry and exclaimed
“I will not
do thy will
” but after he had gone away he repented and went and did it. Copy
the example of the latter.
5. Perhaps
somebody still answers
“You have not put your hand on me
for I am sunk in
sin.” The Bible tells me that no man can be sunk lower than the reach of the
everlasting arms of God. Though you have lost your character
your honour
and
your self-control
yet God invites you to be saved.
III. AN
EARNEST ENTREATY FOR YOU TO COME AT ONCE. (W. Birch.)
The Lord reasoning with
sinners
Let us regard these words--
I. AS
ADDRESSED TO THOSE WHO ARE LIVING IN SIN. “Come now
and let us reason
together
saith the Lord.” Sinner
bring forth thy strong reasons; then hear
the reasons of God. What plea will you make for not turning to God?
1. You
say
perhaps
“This world is all I desire. I am well content with what it
gives. Its gains and pleasures suit me well. I wish for nothing beyond. Why not
leave me to follow my own way?” What says God in reply? “The world passeth
away
and the lust thereof.”
2. Or
wilt thou reason thus: “I have years yet before me. At a more convenient season
I will seek God”? What does God answer? “Thou fool
this night
it may be
thy
soul shall be required of thee”
3. Or
dost thou say in thine heart--“I hate the knowledge of God’s ways Religion is a
weariness to me. I will go on as I am
and take the consequences”? Dost thou
know the end of the terrors of the Lord?
4. Or
is it in thy thought to say to God
“Wherein have I sinned so much against
Thee?” Behold
He answers thee: “I made thee
O man
and every power thou hast
should be devoted to Me--thy life
thy health and strength
thy body and soul.
Have these been devoted to Me? Has thy body been kept in soberness
temperance
and chastity? Hast thou always been led by My Spirit?”
II. But
the text is addressed
in its latter part more particularly
TO THOSE WHO KNOW
THAT THEY HAVE DEEPLY SINNED AGAINST GOD
AND WOULD WILLINGLY
IF THEY DARED
RETURN TO HIM. What is the feeling of such? It may be
you are tempted to say
“There is no hope. My sin is too great to be forgiven.” God’s answer is
“Come
now
and let us reason together
” etc. Is it not well suited to your case?
III. THE
TEXT IS NOT WITHOUT ADMONITION AND COMFORT TO THE BELIEVING CHRISTIAN. (E.
Blencowe
M. A.)
Forgiveness of sin
I. THE
GRACIOUS CONDESCENSION AND BOUNDLESS LOVE OF GOD
IN ADDRESSING THIS INVITATION
TO SINNERS. Even among friends
the offended party does not first display a
disposition to be reconciled. He usually deems that the first overture should
proceed from the offender. But behold the infinite condescension and compassion
of the most high God toward sinful man. He does not wait till men come to a
sense of their delinquencies.
II. THE
IMPORT OF THE INVITATION. What is this to which God calls you? He says
“Let us
reason together.” It seems to be an expression borrowed from courts of justice
and is tantamount to saying
“Let us hear the cause of the defendants.”
1. The
sinner must listen to the charge--to the grand indictment
that he may know
both the extent of his guilt and feel the hopelessness of his case. This charge
is indeed heavy
but it must be heard. The law is holy. Let it operate on you
as it did on Saul of Tarsus.
2. Observe
God is willing to hear your defence
if you can make one honestly and truly;
but if not He will hear your confession. Which shall it be?
III. GOD
MAY BE CONSIDERED AS ADDRESSING THOSE WHO
WITH A CONVINCED AND BROKEN HEART
ARE AFRAID TO VENTURE BEFORE HIM
and who have the sentence of condemnation and
death in themselves.
IV. Let
us complete the whole of this glorious theme of salvation
by calling upon you
to observe
and admire
the great principle established by this text
that
WHATEVER THE MAGNITUDE OF OUR SINS MAY BE
THEY DO NOT EXCLUDE US FROM THE
BENEFITS OF THE DIVINE MERCY. (The Evangelist.)
Pardoning mercy
The pardon of sin has been
justly called “the life blood of religion.” It is this which runs through all
parts of the Scripture
like the blood in our veins
and is the foremost object
in the glorious Gospel.
I. The
first thing in the text is A CHARGE IMPLIED
and more particularly expressed
in the former verses of this chapter. The charge is sin--sin the most
aggravated. Scarlet and crimson are colours far remote from white
which is the
emblem of innocence
or righteousness. (Revelation
19:8.) But
here sinners are represented as in garments stained with blood. The bloody
murderous
destructive nature of sin may be intended. Sin has slain its
millions. (Romans
5:12.)
Some understand by the word “scarlet
” double-dyed; as deeply tinctured by sin
as possible; as when any garment has been twice dyed
first in the wool
and
again in the thread or piece. So great sinners are twice dyed
first in their
corrupt nature
and then again in the long confirmed habits of actual
transgression. It is absolutely necessary that each of us should personally
know that this is his own case.
II. THE
INVITATION. True religion is the most reasonable thing in the world.
1. Is
not self preservation highly reasonable? We account it the first law of nature
and should blame the man who neglects it. Is a house on fire? Let the
inhabitant escape for his life.
2. Is it
not reasonable for a man to do well for himself? Yes; “Men will praise thee
when thou doest well for thyself.” We commend the honest
ingenious
industrious tradesman. Is it reasonable for a man to mind his own business?
Well
“one thing is needful”; the care of thy soul is the business of life (Luke
10:42). Is
it reasonable to improve opportunities for business
as fairs and markets?
Redeem then the time
and catch the golden opportunities of gain to thy soul.
Is it reasonable to make a good bargain? The Christian makes the best in the
world. Is it reasonable to cultivate friendship with the wise
the good
and
the great? Oh
how wise to make Christ our Friend.
3. Is it
not reasonable to believe the God of truth? The Word of God has every
confirmation we could wish.
4. Is
not love to God and man perfectly reasonable? This is the whole of our
religion. Is it reasonable or not to love the Best of beings better than all
other beings?
III. THE
GRACIOUS PROMISE. “Though your sins
” etc. The pardon of sin is the first thing
in religion. It was the great business of Christ upon earth to procure it. The
pardon of sin originates in the free mercy and sovereign grace of God
without
respect to anything good in the creature. But we are not to expect pardon from
an absolute God. Pardon is an act of justice as well as of mercy. Mercy on
God’s part
but justice on account of Christ. Another thing is
that it is by
faith alone we are made partakers of pardoning mercy. Notice
too
the
perfection of pardon
which is expressed by making scarlet as snow
and crimson
like wool. We are to understand this of the sinner
not of his sins. Pardon
does not alter the nature
or lessen the evil of sin. (G. Burder
D. D.)
The reasonableness of the
offers and terms of the Gospel
I. THE
OFFERS OF THE GOSPEL. The Almighty here proposes completely to take away the
guilt of sin
and consequently to remit the punishment due to it. There are
various kinds and degrees of sin; sins of different colours and complexions
more or less aggravated
more or less strengthened by habit and indulgence. But
the offer of pardon extends to all alike. Is not this a blessing peculiarly
adapted to our need? Nothing but a gratuitous remission of sin can suit our
case. God deals with us in the most reasonable manner
and leaves us without
excuse
if we attend not to His offer.
II. THE
TERMS OF THE GOSPEL.
1. With
respect to faith. Is not this a perfectly reasonable requisition? Since God has
provided a salvation for you
has He not a right to stipulate the means by
which you shall apply to yourself the benefit of that salvation? And what
easier
simpler way could He have devised?
2. As to
repentance. Is there anything unreasonable in this requisition? Can it be
considered as a hard condition that we should relinquish those practices which
cost the Son of God His life; and which
if He had not died for them
would
have cost us our souls? If religion be in itself so reasonable a service
how
can you act so unreasonably as not to choose and follow it? (E. Cooper.)
Self-scrutiny in God’s
presence
I. THE
DUTY OF EXAMINING OUR MORAL CHARACTER AND CONDUCT ALONG WITH GOD. There are
always two beings who are concerned with sin--the being who commits it
and the
Being against whom it is committed. Such a joint examination as this produces a
very keen sense of the evil and guilt of sin. When the soul is shut up with the
Holy One of Israel there are great searchings of heart. Another effect is to
render our views discriminating. Objects are seen in their true proportions and
meanings.
II. THERE
IS FORGIVENESS WITH GOD. We deduce the following practical directions.
1. In
all states of religious anxiety
we should betake ourselves instantly and
directly to God.
2. We
should make a full and plain statement of everything to god. (W. G. T.
Shedd
D. D.)
Forgiveness
In this passage--
I. THERE
IS ASSUMED THE EXISTENCE OF ENORMOUS GUILT. The aggravations of sin are to be
found in their highest form where there are instituted powerful means to deter
from its perpetration
and where yet it is committed in spite of restraints
eminently calculated to direct the soul to goodness. We turn at once to the
country in which we dwell
to find the sins which are as the “scarlet” or the
“crimson” dye. Ours is a country
signally favoured with means the best adapted
to lead from transgression
and excite to obedience.
II. THERE
IS PROMISED THE BESTOWMENT OF PARDONING MERCY.
1. It
might indeed have been imagined
that
after such repeated accusations of
iniquity
there would succeed only a threatening of doom. Is God not just? Is
He not jealous of His glory?
2. Such
a promise as this is made in perfect consistency with the immutable justice and
holiness of the Divine nature.
3. It
will be proper to observe the manner in which the promised blessing is
bestowed. God communicates forgiveness through the atoning sacrifice of His
Son.
4. In
order to secure the personal application of the sacrifice of Christ
there must
be
in yourselves
the production of certain emotions and principles
by the
operation of the Spirit of God.
5. Let
us further observe
the sufficiency by which this promised blessing of
forgiveness is characterised.
III. THERE
IS DESIRED THE EXERCISE OF WISE CONSIDERATION. (James Parsons.)
Divine expostulation
I. THE
CHARACTERS WHO ARE HERE ADDRESSED. We see the Jews charged--
1. With
a gross departure from God.
2. With
carrying their abominations into the religious services of the sanctuary.
II. THE
CHARACTER IN WHICH GOD IS HERE REPRESENTED BY THE PROPHET--that
namely
of the
most amazing condescension. Various are themethods in which God may be said to
reason with us.
1. By
family afflictions.
2. By
personal inflictions.
3. By
awful providences.
4. Through
the ministry of His Word.
For what does God
condescend to reason with us? For the bestowment of pardon. Your reason
in its
highest powers
is challenged. (J. Gaskin
M. A.)
The silver trumpet
I. Our
text is addressed to SINNERS OF THE DEEPEST DYE.
1. In
the second verse you will perceive that the text was addressed to senseless
sinners--so senseless that God Himself would not address them in expostulation
but called upon the heavens and the earth to hear His complaints.
2. The text
is given to ungrateful sinners. “I have nourished and brought up children
and
they have rebelled against Me.” Oh
how many of us come under this description!
3. By
reading in the third verse
you will perceive again that the text is addressed
to men who are worse than beasts. None of us would keep a horse for twenty
years
if it never worked but only sought to injure us; and yet there are men
whom God has kept these forty and fifty years
put the breath into their
nostrils
the bread into their mouths
and the clothes upon their backs
and
they have done nothing but curse at Him
speak ill of His service
and do
despite to His laws.
4. They
were a people “laden with iniquity.”
5. They
were not only loaded with sin themselves
but they were teachers in
transgressions. “Children that are corrupters.”
6. The
blessed text we have on hand is addressed to men upon whom all manner of
afflictions had been lost and thrown away. It is a great aggravation of our sin
when we sin under the rod.
7. The
invitation is sent to men who appeared to have been totally depraved from the
sole of the foot even to the head.
II. The
text presents us with REASONING OF THE MOST PREVALENT POWER.
III. The
words of this text contain a PROMISE OF PARDON OF THE FULLEST FORCE. “Though
your sins be as scarlet
they shall be as white as snow; and though they be red
like crimson
they shall be as wool.” These colours are selected because of
their exceeding brilliancy. Now some sins are striking
glaring sins; you
cannot help seeing them; and the sinner himself is compelled to confess them.
But the Hebrew word conveys the idea of doubly dyed--what we call ingrained
colours--when the wool has lain so long in the dye that it cannot be got out;
though you wash or wear it as long as you please
you must destroy the fabric
before you can destroy the colour. Yet here is the promise of full pardon for
glaring and for ingrained lusts. And note how the pardon is put--“they shall be
as snow”--pure white virgin snow. But snow soon loses its whiteness
and
therefore it is compared to the whiteness of the wool washed and prepared by
the busy housewife for her fair white linen. You shall be so cleansed
that not
the shadow of a spot
nor the sign of a sin
shall be left upon you. When a man
believes in Christ
he is in that moment
in God’s sight
as though he had
never sinned in all his life.
IV. THE
TIME mentioned in the text
which is of the MOST SOLEMN SIGNIFICANCE. “Now.” (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
Reasons for parting with
sin
It is the great joy of our
heart that we do not labour in vain
nor spend our strength for nought. Still
there is a bass to this music: there are some
and these not a few
who remain
unblest where others are saved. It is obvious that something hinders. What can
it be? The real reason why men who have an earnest desire to be saved
and have
sincere religiousness of a certain sort
do not find peace
is this
because
they are in love with sin. “Come now
and let us reason together
saith the
Lord.” Let us have this matter out
and hear what is to be urged in favour of
God’s demands.
I. IT IS
A REASONABLE THING THAT SIN SHOULD BE RENOUNCED.
1. Because
it is most inconsistent to suppose that pardon can be given while we continue
in sin. How could the Judge of all the earth thus wink at iniquity? Only fancy
what the effect would be upon our country if a proclamation were issued
that
henceforth all manner of offences against the law would be immediately
forgiven
and men might continue still to perpetrate them. And what would be
the effect Upon the sinner himself if such could be the case? Say to a man--you
are not to be punished for your sin
and yet you may live in it still
and what
worse turn could you do him? Here is a bleeding wound in my arm; the surgeon
says he will allow it still to bleed
but he will remove my sense of faintness
and pain. I would decline to have it so. It is unreasonable that you should
expect that God will allow you to remain impenitent
and yet give you the kiss
of forgiving love. It would be neither honourable to God
nor good to your
fellow men
nor really beneficial to yourself.
2. Is it
not reasonable
too
that we should part with sin
because sin is so grievous
to God?
3. Should
it not be given up because of the mischief it has already done to man!
4. Remember
also
that unless sin is repented of and forsaken no act of yours
nor ceremony
of religion
nor hearing
nor praying can possibly save you.
II. Let
me now go further
and declare that IT IS MOST REASONABLE THAT MAN SHOULD SEEK
PURITY OF HEART. You ask for forgiveness
and in return God says to you
“Wash
you
make you clean; put sway the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes;
cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment; relieve the oppressed; judge
the fatherless; plead for the widow.” Is there not reason in this command! You
practically say
“Lord
enter into amity and peace with me.” The Lord replies
“There is no peace to the wicked: only as you become renewed in nature can
there be any peace between us.” Do you dam to ask God to commune with you while
you are a lover of sin?
III. IF
THE SINNER REMAIN IMPENITENT IT IS MOST UNREASONABLE FOR HIM TO LAY THE BLAME
OF HIS NOT BEING FORGIVEN UPON THE CHARACTER OF GOD
FOR GOD IS READY TO
FORGIVE.
IV. IT IS
A REASONABLE THING THAT GOD SHOULD DEMAND WITH THIS PARDON OBEDIENCE TO HIS
COMMAND. And what is that command? It is
“If ye be willing and obedient ye
shall eat the good of the land; but if ye refuse and rebel the sword shall
devour you.” Obedient to what? Obedient to all Gospel precepts. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
Scarlet sinners pardoned
and purified
It is a wonderful instance
of Divine compassion that God should be willing to hold a conference with man.
Of course
the first person to ask for such a conference ought to have been the
offending party. But
instead of man seeking God
and pleading
with bitter
tears
“Lord
pitifully hear me; graciously listen to me
and forgive me”; it
is God who comes seeking man. Surely it should be a great joy to a man to hear
that God invites him to a conference; he should take heart of hope from that
fact. God meets man in two ways: first
by the perfect pardon of sin
and
next
by a clean deliverance from the power of sin.
I. First
I will suppose that I have before me someone who says
“MY SINS ARE AS GLARING
AS SCARLET.” How can I ever be the friend of God as my sins are so prominent?
Some people’s sins are of a drab colour
you might not notice them; other
people’s sins are a sort of whitey-brown
you would scarcely perceive them; but
my sins are scarlet
that is a colour that is at once observed. What sort of
sins may be called scarlet?
1. The
filthier vices.
2. The
universally condemned sins
those sins which are offences against the State
and against the well being and social order of the community
such as
dishonesty
theft
peculation in all its forms
knavery
cheating
lying.
3. The
louder defiances of God. Some men dare to contradict Scripture
to express
their disbelief in it
nay
to contradict God Himself even to express their
disbelief in His existence; and
disbelieving in God
they dare to cavil at His
providence
to judge His words
and to utter criticisms and sarcasms about the
acts of the Most High.
4. Scarlet
sins may consist
again
in long-continued dissipations.
5. In
repeated transgressions.
6. In
any act of sin which is distinctly deliberate. Do you want to know how this can
be done? It is through the great atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
II. But
there is a second difficulty. The man of whom I first spoke also says
“MY
TENDENCY TO SIN IS DEEPLY INGRAINED.” He says
“If all my scarlet sins were
forgiven
yet I am afraid I should not be all right even then.” Why not?
“Because I feel impulses within me towards evil which
I think
are stronger
than in anybody else. Well
I will take you on your own ground; I do believe
that there are some persons who have a greater hereditary tendency to some sins
than others have. Still
though your sins be red like crimson
they shall be as
wool God knows how to effect this transformation by the working of the Holy
Spirit. “Oh!” says another
“I should not mind about hereditary tendencies; but
my difficulty is that I have been habitually committing sin.” The Holy Spirit
will help you to break off every sinful habit at once. You know that scarlet and
crimson are colours very hard to get out of any fabric. Neither the dew
nor
the rain
nor any ordinary processes of bleaching
will get out the scarlet.
But God knows how
without destroying the fabric
to take out a fifty years’
crimson habit
and not leave a stain behind. I heard a third person say
“The
trouble with me is that I have such feeble mental resistance to evil
I am so
weak
such a poor fool. Well
you are not much of a fool if you know you are;
the biggest fools are those who never know that they are fools. Still
there
are people of this kind. Now
if you will come and reason with God
and yield
yourself to the power of the Holy Spirit
He will put a backbone into you.
Still
perhaps
I have not quite hit the nail on the head with all of you. Some
are entangled by their circumstances. But God’s grace can deliver you. There is
nothing like making up your mind that you are coming right straight out from
everything that is wrong
let it cost whatever it may. “What shall it profit a
man
if he shall gain the whole world
and lose his own soul?” The ship is
going down
and if your little boat is tied to it
you will go down too. Up
with the axe
and cut the rope! I think I hear another say
“But I am a man of
such strong passions.” They must be got rid of; and I do not know of any
surgical operation that can do it; you will have to be born again
that is the
only real cure. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Dyeing and bleaching
All men can dye their
souls
but
as saith a quaint divine
only God can bleach them. It is in our
power to dye ourselves into all colours
but only God can make us white. The
idea is that there is no human condition too desperate for Divine treatment. (J.
Parker
D. D.)
The theology of colours
There is a philosophy of
colours; there is a theology of hues; and it hath pleased God to represent
purity by whiteness. The saints above are robed in white; they who love God are
clothed in white raiment now
and it is the harlot of the earth that is
scarleted and that lives in her significant redness. (J. Parker
D. D.)
Scarlet and crimson sins
Sins are here likened to
scarlet and crimson dye
and with good reason
indeed. For
first of all
scarlet and crimson are the most glaring and flaunting of colours; and sin is
the most audacious as well as self-delusive appearance
under which man
affronts the majesty of God in the sight of heaven and earth. Scarlet and
crimson
also
are the blush of shame. And what so shameful as sin
or rather
what can be shameful but sin! Scarlet and crimson are also the colour of blood;
and blood is on the head of every sinner
as St: Paul
told the unbelieving
Jews when they refused to be converted from their sins: Your blood be upon your
own heads” And scarlet and crimson were (whatever they may be now) colours
which it was beyond all men’s power and skill to discharge from the cloth which
had been ones dyed with them. And is it not equally beyond all man’s power to
cleanse his own soul from the dye of sin? (R. W.Evans
B. D.)
Almighty’s white
A preacher admired the
whiteness of a washerwoman’s clothes. There they hung upon the line
beautifully white
as compared with the dark slates of the roof of the house
behind them. But after a snow storm had come on
which covered the roofs and
streets with a mantle of unsullied purity
they seemed to have lost all their
whiteness. And when he said to her
“The clothes do not look quite so white as
they did
” she replied
“Ah
sir! the clothes are as white as they were
but
what can stand against God Almighty’s white?” (Life of Saith.)
Come now
“Do you know
that as I
live
” wrote James Smetham
“I become more and more impressed by one word
and
that word is Now!”
“Scarlet” sins
“We have some little
difficulty
” said a scientific lecturer
“with the iron dyes; but the most
troublesome of all are Turkey red rags. You see I have dipped this into my
solution; its red is paler
but it is still strong. If I steep it long enough
to efface the colour entirely the fibre will be destroyed; it will be useless
for our manufacture. How
then
are we to dispose of our red rags? We leave
their indelible dye as it is
and make them into red blotting paper. Perhaps
you have wondered why our blotting pad is red; now you know the reason.” What a
striking illustration of the fitness and force of this figure of God’s Word
and of the power of “the precious blood of Jesus” to change and cleanse is
furnished by the above explanation! The Spirit of God led the prophet Isaiah to
write
not “though your sins be as blue as the sky
or as green as the olive
leaf
or as black as night.” He chose the very colour which modern science
with all its appliances
finds to be indestructible--“though your sins be as
scarlet
they shall be as white as snow”; though they be red like crimson
they
shall be as wool.”
Roses speaking of sin and
forgiveness
One night in June
a few
years ago
Sister Margaret was going home from her work in the streets
sad at
heart because of the sin and misery about her
and somewhat disappointed at
what seemed a night of fruitless toil. She had taken with her a bunch of
flowers
and now they were all withered except two roses that had kept their
freshness--the one a deep red
the other a pure white. As she looked at them
the words occurred to her mind
“Though your sins be as scarlet
they shall be
as white as snow.” Suddenly looking up
she saw in the shadow of a doorway in
Piccadilly a young girl
a picture of utter despair. The sister came to her and
held out the roses; but the girl’s face at once hardened scornfully
and she
turned away. Quietly the sister followed her
when the girl turned and said
angrily
“Why do you come to me with flowers? Do you want to torment me?” “Do
you know what these roses seemed to say to me--this white and this red rose?”
said the sister
kindly. “The message they spoke was this: ‘Though your sins be
as scarlet
they shall be as white as snow.’” “Yes
” said the girl
“that is
all very well for you
but I am not fit to touch them.” “Oh
but the message is
meant for you as much as for me
” and again the sister held out the flowers.
Then the girl burst into tears
“I will take them and keep them for my mother’s
sake. She sent me two roses in her last letter. I have got them now in the
Bible she gave me when I left home to come to London. It was an easy thing now
to urge the message of love. That night the girl left her life of sin and came
simply to the Saviour. She was soon restored to her home in the country
and
her new life has been a blessing to many. Frequently there comes from her a box
of flowers to Sister Margaret
with the message: “Give these to the girls; a
flower saved me. It may do as much for somebody else.” (M. Guy Pearse.)
Verse 19-20
If ye be
willing and obedient
ye shall eat the good of the land
The obligation of all who
have received the revealed will of God to conform thereto
The text
involving the great truth which is evidently implied therein
is the sanction
with which the whole of the chapter is enforced.
I. IT IS THE BOUNDEN OBLIGATION OF ALL WHO HAVE RECEIVED THE REVEALED
WILL OF GOD
WHETHER NATIONS OR INDIVIDUALS
TO ABIDE BY THAT WILL
--as well in
the regulation of their faith and practice
as in the order and management of
their affairs
in the formation and execution of their laws; and to admit of no
other principle
nor to walk by any other rule whatsoever. Consider--
1. Whose revelation it is for a devout and universal conformity to
which we plead.
2. For what purpose God has been pleased to make known His mind and
will to us.
3. The wonderful adaptation of this heavenly will to all our wants
and circumstances.
4. The deplorable condition of man without such a light from heaven.
5. It is by God’s revealed will we shall all be judged at last.
II. THE CONSEQUENCES of adhering to
or swerving from
that Divine
revelation
in either respect. We can never suppose that God will permit any
nation or individual to disbelieve or disregard His Word with impunity; nor can
we imagine that He will suffer any nation or individual
obeying His voice
to
go without His blessing.
III. SOME OBJECTIONS WHICH MAY BE URGED.
1. All this applies to Israel of old
as a peculiar nation
raised up
in a particular manner
for a special purpose. But is not He
who was their
God
the God of all the families of the earth?
2. But does the Old Testament equally apply to us as the New?
Undoubtedly.
3. Do we meet with any intimation of this kind in the New Testament?
Certainly. (Matthew 5:17-18; Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:11.)
4. How is it possible
amidst a mixed description of character
to
bring about such a state of things? Try and leave the issue with God.
5. But would you have everything to be based upon the Divine Word
Yes
everything. I would wish to see the whole nation living in the fear of God
and striving to promote His glory. (R. Shittler.)
Sincere obedience accepted
He doth not
say
If you be perfectly obedient
but willingly so; for if there be a willing
mind it is accepted. (M. Henry.)
Guilt embitters creature
comforts
If sin be
pardoned
creature comforts become comforts indeed. (M. Henry.)
Mistaken economy
Close to Port
Arthur in the Canadian Dominion there is a little island named Silver Island.
It was known that silver was there
and a few Canadian gentlemen united in
explorations. Most of them
however
objected to the necessary outlay on works
and sold their claims to an American Company. The Americans began to dig
and
found silver not only in rich veins
but also in thick
solid sheets. The
Canadians bitterly lamented their folly in not spending the money which would
have secured the treasure
but it was too late. There are those who
though
called to enrich themselves both for time and eternity
are unwilling to give
up the sins they find so pleasant. They will not pay the preliminary price
and
discover when too late how much they have missed. Others have paid the price;
they have secured the treasure
but when regrets are unavailing
the lovers of
the present world see what a fatal mistake they have made
and have a dark
eternity in which to meditate on their folly. (Gates of Imagery.)
The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it
The infallibility of
Scripture
What Isaiah
said was
therefore
spoken by Jehovah. All Scripture
being inspired of the
Spirit
is spoken by the mouth of God. The like valuation of the Word of the
Lord is seen in our Lord’s apostles; for they treated the ancient Scriptures as
supreme in authority
and supported their statements with passages from Holy
Writ.
I. THIS IS OUR WARRANT FOR TEACHING SCRIPTURAL TRUTH. It would not be
worth our while to speak what Isaiah had spoken
if in it there was nothing
more than Isaiah’s thought; neither should we care to meditate hour after hour
upon the writings of Paul
if there was nothing more than Paul in them. We feel
no imperative call to expound and to enforce what has been spoken by men; but
since “the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it
” it is woe unto us if we preach
not the Gospel!
1. The true preacher
the man whom God has commissioned
delivers his
message with awe and trembling
because “the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”
He bears the burden of the and bows under it. They called George Fox a Quaker
because when he spoke he would quake exceedingly through the force of the truth
which he so thoroughly apprehended. Martin Luther
who never feared the face of
man
yet declared that when he stood up to preach he often felt his knees knock
together under a sense of his great responsibility. Woe unto us if we dare to
speak the Word of the Lord with less than our whole heart and soul and
strength! Woe unto us if we handle the Word as if it were an occasion for
display!
2. Because the mouth of the Lord hath spoken the truth of God
we
therefore endeavour to preach it with absolute fidelity. It is not ours to
correct the Divine revelation
but simply to echo it.
3. Again
as “the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it
” we speak the
Divine truth with courage and full assurance. Modesty is a virtue; but
hesitancy
when we are speaking for the Lord
is a great fault. Those who fling
aside our Master’s authority may very well reject our testimony: we are content
they should do so. But
if we speak that which the mouth of the Lord hath
spoken
those who hear His Word and refuse it
do so at their own peril.
We are urged to
be charitable. We are charitable; but it is with our own money. We have no
right to give away what is put into our trust and is not at our disposal. When
we have to do with the truth of God we are stewards
and must deal with our
Lord’s exchequer
not on the lines of charity to human opinions
but by the
rule of fidelity to the God of truth.
4. Because “the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it
” we feel bound to
speak His Word with diligence
as often as ever we can
and with perseverance
as long as ever we live. Surely
it would be a blessed thing to die in the
pulpit; spending one’s last breath in acting as the Lord’s mouth. Dumb Sabbaths
are fierce trials to true preachers. Remember how John Newton
when he was
quite unfit to preach
and even wandered a bit by reason of his infirmities and
age
yet persisted in preaching; and when they dissuaded him
he answered with
warmth
“What! Shall the old African blasphemer leave off preaching Jesus
Christ while there is breath in his body!” So they helped the old man into the pulpit
again
that he might once more speak of free grace and dying love.
5. If we get a right apprehension concerning Gospel truth--that “the
mouth of the Lord hath spoken it”--it will move us to tell it out with great
ardour and zeal. How can you keep back the heavenly news? Whisper it in the ear
of the sick; shout it in the corner of the streets; write it on your tablets;
send it forth from the press; but everywhere let this be your great motive and
warrant--you preach the Gospel because “the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”
II. THIS IS THE CLAIM OF GOD’S WORD UPON YOUR ATTENTION.
1. Every word which God has given us in this Book claims our
attention
because of the infinite majesty of Him that spake it.
2. God’s claim to be heard lies also in the condescension which has
led Him to speak to us.
3. God’s Word should win your ear because of its intrinsic
importance. “The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it”--then it is no trifle. God
never speaks vanity. No line of His writing treats of the frivolous themes of a
day. Concerning eternal realities He speaks to thee.
4. Depend upon it
if “the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it
” there
is an urgent
pressing necessity. God breaks not silence to say that which
might as well have remained unsaid. His voice indicates great urgency.
III. THIS GIVES TO GOD’S WORD A VERY SPECIAL CHARACTER.
1. In the Word of God the teaching has unique dignity. This Book is
inspired as no other book is inspired
and it is time that all Christians
avowed this conviction. I do not know whether you have seen Mr. Smiles’ life of
our late friend
George Moore; but in it we read that
at a certain dinner
party
a learned man remarked that it would not be easy to find a person of
intelligence who believed in the inspiration of the Bible. In an instant George
Moore’s voice was beard across the table
saying boldly
“I do
for one.”
Nothing more was said. Let us not be backward to take the old-fashioned and
unpopular side
and say outright
“I do
for one.” Where are we if our Bibles
are gone? Where are we if we are taught to distrust them! It is better to
believe what comes out of God’s mouth
and be called a fool
than to believe
what comes out of the mouth of philosophers
and be
therefore
esteemed a wise
man.
2. There is also about that which the mouth of the Lord hath spoken
an absolute certainty. What man has said is unsubstantial
even when true. But
with God’s Word you have something to grip at
something to have and to hold.
3. Again
if “the mouth of the Lord hatch spoken it
” we have in this
utterance the special character of immutable fixedness. Once spoken by God
not
only is it so now
but it always must be so. One said to his minister
“My dear
sir
surely you ought to adjust your beliefs to the progress of science.”
“Yes
” said he
“but I have not had time to do it today
for I have not yet
read the morning papers.” One would have need to read the morning papers and
take in every new edition to know where about scientific theology now stands;
for it is always chopping and changing.
4. Here let me add that there is something unique about God’s Word
because of the Almighty power which attends it. “Where the word of a king is
there is power”; where the Word of a God is
there is omnipotence.
IV. THIS MAKES GOD’S WORD A GROUND OF GREAT ALARM TO MANY. Shall I
read you the whole verse! “But if ye refuse and rebel
ye shall be devoured
with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” God has never yet
spoken a threatening that has fallen to the ground. It is of no avail to sit
down
and draw inferences from the nature of God
and to argue
“God is love
and therefore He will not execute the sentence upon the impenitent.” He knows
what He will do better than you can infer; He has not left us to inferences
for He has spoken pointedly and plainly.
V. THIS MAKES THE WORD OF THE LORD THE REASON AND REST OF OUR FAITH.
“The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it
” is the foundation of our confidence.
There is forgiveness; for God has said it. I think I hear some child of God
saying
“God has said
‘I will never leave thee
nor forsake thee
’ but I am in
great trouble; all the circumstances of my life seem to contradict the
promise”: yet
“the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it
” and the promise must
stand. Believe God in the teeth of circumstances. By and by we shall come to
die. Oh
that then
like the grand old German emperor
we may say
“Mine eyes
have seen Thy salvation
” and
“He hath helped me with His name.” (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
Verse 21
How is the faithful city become an harlot
The faithful city a harlot
A dirge in dirge metre over Jerusalem.
“Harlot” is unfaithful wife. In Isaiah “unfaithfulness” is declension from
social and civil righteousness. (A. B. Davidson
LL. D.)
Spiritual harlotry
It is not merely gross outward idolatry
that makes the Church of
God a “harlot
” but the defection of the heart
however this may
at any time
express itself; for which reason Jesus also could call the generation of His
time γενεὰ μοιχαλίς
in spite of
the strict worship of Jehovah carried on in the Pharisaic spirit. For
as shown
by the verse before us
the basis of that marriage-relation was justice and
righteousness in the widest sense. (F. Delitzsch.)
An aggravation of guilt
It is a great aggravation of the wickedness of any family or
people that their ancestors were famed for virtue and probity; and commonly
those that thus degenerate prove the most wicked of all other. “Corruptio
optimi est pessima”--that which was originally the best becomes
when
corrupted
the worst (Luke 11:26; Jeremiah
22:15-17). (M. Henry.)
Righteousness lodged in it
Jerusalem
the righteous city
Righteousness was not merely like a passing guest in the city
but
she who came down from above had there fixed her permanent abode; there she
used to tarry day and night
as if it were her home. When the prophet refers to
former days
he has in his mind the times of David and Solomon
but especially
those of Jehoshaphat
who (about 150 years before Isaiah appeared) restored the
administration of justice which had fallen into neglect since the latter years
of Solomon and the days of Rehoboam and Abijah
--a point to which the
reformation of Asa had not extended
--and who reorganised all in the spirit of
the law. (F. Delitzsch.)
Verse 22
Verse
22-23
Thy
silver is become dross
thy wine mixed with water.
Silver
The
silver represents the princes and lords
viewed with reference to the nobility
of mind associated with their nobility of birth and rank; for silver--sterling
silver--is a symbol of all that is noble and pure
and it is the purity of
light which shows itself in it
as in the pure white of byssus and of the lily.
The princes and lords formerly possessed the virtues which together are in
Latin called candor animi
--the virtues of magnanimity
courtesy
impartiality
and freedom from the influence of bribes; now
this silver has
become dross
such base metals as are separated or thrown aside. (F.
Delitzsch.)
Diluted wine
In a
second figure
the leading men of Jerusalem in former days are compared to
“choice wine
” such as drinkers like. This pure
strong
and costly wine is now
adulterated with water
or weakened; i.e.
through this addition
its
strength and flavour are diminished. The present is but the dregs and the
shadow of the past. (F. Delitzsch.)
Impaired
The
essential idea seems to be that of impairing strength
(J. A. Alexander.)
The possible
degeneracy of valuable things
There
are many valuable and good things in the world that through varied causes are
rendered comparatively useless.
I. THE SILVER OF THY CHARACTER HAS BECOME DROSS BECAUSE OF LITTLE
FAILINGS.
II. THE SILVER OF THY SERVICE HAS BECOME DROSS BECAUSE OF UNHOLY
MOTIVES.
III. THE SILVER OF THY MONEY HAS BECOME DROSS BECAUSE OF SELFISHNESS.
IV. THE SILVER OF THY TALENTS HAS BECOME DROSS BECAUSE OF INDOLENCE.
Silver is bright when kept in use. Talents are valuable when active. (J. S.
Exell
M. A.)
Sinful
compromise and its results
“Thy
wine is mixed with water”--that sounds like a compromise. Thy wine diluted; it
is the corruption of the ideal. “Thy princes are rebellions”--that is the
corruption of government. “Everyone loveth gifts and followeth after
rewards”--that is the corruption of justice. “They
judge not the fatherless
neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them”--that is the corruption of
the tenderest ties of the heart. Do you see where you begin? You begin by
mixing wine and water
you begin by illicit compromise
by lowering and
corrupting the ideal
and you end in cruelty
you forget God
then the ideal is
forgotten
then yourself is forgotten
you forget your neighbour
and the cause
of the widow makes no appeal to you. (J. H. Jowett
M. A.)
Verse 23
Thy princes are rebellious
. . . everyone loveth gifts
Rebellious princes
Instead of suppressing
rebellion
they were rebels themselves.
(J. A. Alexander.)
The rebellious princes
I. THE
PROFIT OF THEIR PLACES IS ALL THEIR AIM. They love gifts
and follow after
rewards; they set their hearts upon their salary
the fees and perquisites of
their offices
and are greedy of them
and never think they can get enough.
Presents and gratuities will blind their eyes at any time
and make them pervert
judgment (Hosea
4:18).
II. THE
DUTY OF THEM PLACES IS NONE OF THEIR CARE. They ought to protect those that are
injured
and take cognisance of the appeals made to them; why else were they
preferred? But “they judge not the fatherless
” take no care to guard the
orphans
“nor doth the cause of the widow come unto them
” because the poor
widow has no bribe to give. Those will have a great deal to answer for
who
when they should be the patrons of the oppressed are their greatest oppressors.
(M. Henry.)
Audacious corruption
Catiline
being prosecuted
for some great offence
corrupted the judges. When they had given their
verdict
though he was acquitted only by a majority of two
he said he had put
himself to a needless expense in bribing one of those judges
for it would have
been sufficient to have had a majority of one. (Plutarch.)
Political corruption in
England
The machinery of both
sides [Whig and Tory] was unlimited bribery. The degradation of the briber was
as great as that of the bribed. Berkeley writes in 1721:--“This corruption has
become a national crime
having infected the lowest as well as the highest
amongst us.” (Knight’s England.)
Francis Bacon
He was charged by the Commons
before the Lords
with twenty-two acts of bribery and corruption. He attempted
no defence. He made a distinct confession in writing of the charges brought
against him. And when a deputation of peers asked if that confession was his
own voluntary act
he replied: “It is my act
my hand
my heart. O my lords
spare a broken reed.” (Knight’s England.)
Corruption in the reign of
James I.
It was an age of universal
abuses. Local magistrates were influenced by the pettiest gifts
and were
called “basket justices.” (Knight’s England.)
Corruption checked by Act
of Parliament
[In 1275 Parliament
enacted] that no king’s officer should take any reward to do his office
such
enactment being one of the many proofs of the inefficiency of law to restrain
corruption; for within fourteen years there were only two judges out of fifteen
who were not found guilty of the grossest extortions. (Knight’s
England.)
Verse
24
Ah
I will ease Me of Mine adversaries
God’s enemies and His treatment of them
I.
WICKED PEOPLE
ESPECIALLY
WICKED RULERS THAT ARE CRUEL AND OPPRESSIVE
ARE GOD’S ENEMIES.
II. THEY ARE A SUDDEN TO THE
GOD OF HEAVEN. This is implied in His easing Himself of them.
III. GOD WILL FIND OUT TIME AND
WAY TO EASE HIMSELF OF THIS BURDEN. (M. Henry.)
Salvation through judgment
Salvation through judgment is still and ever the only means of
reproving and preserving the congregation that takes its name from Jerusalem. (F.
Delitzsch
D. D.)
Verses 25-27
And l will turn
My hand upon thee
True reformation the work
of God
I.
THE
REFORMATION OF A PEOPLE IS GOD’S OWN WORK.
II. HE DOTH IT BY BLESSING THEM WITH GOOD MAGISTRATES AND GOOD
MINISTERS OF STATE (Isaiah 1:26).
III. HE DOTH IT BY RESTORING JUDGMENT AND RIGHTEOUSNESS AMONG THEM (Isaiah 1:27).
IV. THE REFORMATION OF A PEOPLE WILL BE THEIR REDEMPTION. Sin is the
worst captivity
the worst slavery.
V. THE REVIVING OF A PEOPLE’S VIRTUE IS THE RESTORING OF THEIR
HONOUR. “Afterward thou shalt be called
the city of righteousness
the
faithful city.” (Matthew Henry.)
And purely purge away thy dross
and take away all thy tin
Purging away dross
“Purely”; R.V.
“thoroughly”; lit. “as with lye
” i.e.
potash
which was used as a flux
to facilitate the separation of the metals. (Prof. J. Skinner
D. D.)
Dross and alloy
Notice the
imagery. Here is a community
an individual
that knows and belongs to God;
redeemed of the Lord; His own. Yet into life
and into work
and into testimony
and service
there has come that which He compares to dross and to alloy in
metal The two words in the imagery (dross and alloy) are not precisely the same
in idea
Dross suggests to us that which is repulsive
as well as
worthless--the glaring inconsistency
crude
and ugly. In the alloy or tin
which looks so much like silver
and yet is different
we see rather the ore
specious and subtle ingredients of evil that enter into the Christian’s work
and life--not crying inconsistencies so much as the more interior and hidden
evil of silent self-complacency; of a tacit search for our own glory under
colour of the Lord’s; things which the soul has never fairly traced out
but
which it may plainly trace if it will firmly use God’s tests. And these are the
things of which we read: “I will turn my hand upon them and thoroughly purge
them.” (Bp. H. C. G. Moule
D. D.)
Dross and alloy
“I will purge
away thy dross.” What is the dross? That which is openly flagrant in the life.
It is different from the metal
and is comparatively easily separated from it.
But God goes further. He says
“I will take sway all thy alloy.” This is far
more wonderful
because the alloy is something which enters into the nature of
me metal
as is were
and it requires a chemical process to separate them. God
says that He will deal not only with the outcrop of sin in act
but He will
deal with the sin of which the act is the outcrop. (G. H. C. Macgregor
M.
A.)
Moral dross
What is the
dross which God sees in our heart and life? Lack of truthfulness
showing
itself in simple lying
in exaggeration
in fraud
in deceit
in slander
in
gossiping
in prevarication
in equivocation
in guile
in evil speaking. Lack
of justice and due regard to the rights of others
showing itself in a spiteful
temper
in unwillingness to give up our own way to others
in incivility
in
rudeness
in disregard of the comfort of others
in thoughtlessness
in
ingratitude
in unthankfulness. Lack of wisdom
showing itself in the misuse of
the opportunities God gives us
in our ignorance
in our thoughtlessness
in
our stupidity
in our blindness to the things of God. Lack of love
showing
itself in our pride
in envy
in malice
in hate
in unwillingness to forgive
in unwillingness to apologise for evils which we have done. Lack of
self-control
showing itself in our avarice
in covetousness
in sloth
in
lethargy
in laziness
in sleepiness
in lust
in sensuality
in gluttony
in
self-indulgence in all sorts of ways. What shall we say about our sins against
God
our want of prayerfulness
our want of knowledge of God’s Word
our want
of trust in God
showing itself in our worry; our want of love to God
showing
itself in our shameful hankering after the things of this world? The case is
indeed desperate
and calls for the Divine interference. I should go mad at the
sight of my own heart if I did not believe in the power of God to cleanse that
heart. (G. H. C. Macgregor
M. A.)
Verse 26
And I will restore thy Judges as at the first
A grand ideal
Two things are noteworthy in this passage.
1. The ideal is
political. The salvation of Israel is secured when all public offices are
filled with good men. “Judges” and “counsellors.”
2. The ideal will
be realised by a restoration of the best days of the past. (Prof. J.
Skinner
D. D.)
Social regeneration
I. ALL THE
ARRANGEMENTS OF SOCIETY ARE ABSOLUTELY IN GOD’S HANDS. “I will restore
” etc.
No man can overturn
or build up
but by His permission.
II. ALL
INTERRUPTIONS OF SOCIAL ORDER ARE UNDER THE CONTROL OF GOD.
III. NO SOCIAL STATE
CAN BE PURIFIED BUT BY RELIGIOUS PROCESSES. There are many philanthropic and
political projects which have for their aim national regeneration
but they are
all foredoomed to come to nought
because they lack the religious element.
IV. THE GREAT NAME
WILL FOLLOW THE TRUE REGENERATION. “Afterward thou shalt be called
” etc. Not
first the exalted title
but the illustrative character; not first the splendid
renown
but the glorious achievement! (J. Parker
D. D.)
National revivification
The imperishable kernel that remains becomes the centre to which
all demerits of excellence are attracted. (F. Delitzsch.)
“The city of righteousness”
With Isaiah
the giving of a name is the perception and recognition
of the real existence of what has come into outward manifestation. (J.
Parker
D. D.)
Verse 27
Zion
shall be redeemed with judgment
Evil in the
Church
I.
WHAT
ARE WE TO UNDERSTAND BY ZION. The word signifies a heap of stones--a
monument--a sepulchre. This figuratively describes the literal Zion; and
spiritually sets forth the visible and mystical Church. The true members of the
Church of Christ are as lively stones
built up a spiritual house; and for
their security God Himself has laid a foundation. (1 Peter 2:5.) Every stone of this sacred building is hewn out of nature’s
quarry
and when prepared by the transforming power of God the Holy Ghost is
placed in that part of the spiritual edifice which it is appointed to occupy.
And the building thus formed is
indeed
as the word Zion signifies
a
monument--an everlasting monument of God’s grace; whilst a mere professing
but
not a confessing
protesting
and believing Church may very properly be
compared to a sepulchre. Hence Zion of old contained a church within a church;
those who were circumcised outwardly in the flesh
and those whose circumcision
was that of the heart. According to the New Testament we understand by Zion the
Church visible and the Church mystical.
II. WHAT MAY BE CONSIDERED ZION’S TRANSGRESSION. If we look at Zion of
old
we behold formality manifestly pervading the Church
and the most lofty
and presumptuous hypocrisy characterising the outward worship of God. Now
turn
your attention to the Church of God in her present state. Such an examination
will bring to light many evils
which are serious hindrances to the spread of
evangelical truth
and afford ground for sarcasm and opposition
to the enemies
of the Church.
1. Pride.
2. Laodicean lukewarmness.
3. Abuse of doctrine and discipline.
III. ZION’S VISITATIONS AND CHASTISEMENTS. The history of the Church
as well as of nations
affords the most impressive evidence of the truth of
that often fulfilled declaration
“Be sure your sin will find you out.” Romans 11:19-22; Ezekiel 34:2-5; Ezekiel 34:9-10; Revelation 2:15; Revelation 3:1-3; Revelation 3:14-20.)
IV. ZION’S DELIVERANCE. In the exercise of justice
in the overthrow
of the enemies of His Church and deliverance of His people
as well as by the
faithful performance of His promises
God has engaged that Zion shall be
redeemed with judgment and her converts (or those that return of her) “with
righteousness.” (J. F. Witty.)
Redeemed with judgment
Jesus
lived to die. It was a voluntary necessity. We are redeemed with “judgment.”
The Judge has pronounced the sentence over the sacrifice: “This is My beloved
Son
in whom I am well pleased.” The converted soul is redeemed with
“righteousness.” “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in
His blood
” etc. (T. Davies
M. A.)
Verse 28
They that forsake the Lord
shall be consumed
Forsaking the Lord
I.
THE GUILT OF FORSAKING THE
SERVICE OF THE LORD.
1. Man
is bound by the law of his nature to obey that Almighty Being by whom he was
made an intelligent and immortal creature.
2. Many
in forsaking the Lord violate their own express and solemn engagements. (Hebrews
10:29.)
II. THE
FOLLY OF FORSAKING THE SERVICE OF THE LORD. If we do so we shall--
1. Incur
the reproaches of our own mind.
2. Forfeit
the esteem and confidence of all good men.
3. Forfeit
the favour and incur the wrath of God. And for what are all those tremendous
sacrifices made? For “the pleasures of sin
” which are but “for a season”!
III. THE
DANGER OF FORSAKING THE SERVICE OF THE LORD. “Shall be consumed.” The
threatened doom is--
1. Awful.
2. Certain.
(J. H. Hobart
D. D.)
Verse 29-30
They shall be ashamed of
the oaks which ye have desired.
God’s judgment of
destruction
“For they shall be ashamed
of the terebinths in which ye delighted
and ye must blush because of the
gardens in which ye had pleasure” (Isaiah 1:29). The terebinths and gardens are not referred to as objects of
luxury (as Hitzig and Drechsler suppose)
but as unlawful places of worship (Deuteronomy 16:21)
and objects of worship; both of them are frequently mentioned
by the prophets with this meaning (57:5
65:3
66:17). (F. Delitzsch.)
Terebinth
“For ye shall be like a
terebinth with withered leaves
and like a garden in which there is no water” (Isaiah 1:30). Their prosperity is being destroyed
and they are thus like a
terebinth which is withered in its foliage; their sources of help are dried up
and thus they resemble a garden that has no water and is therefore waste. The
terebinth (turpentine pistacia)
a native of southern and eastern Palestine
casts its leaves (which are small
and resemble those of the walnut) in the
autumn. In this dry and parched condition terebinth and garden
to which the
idolaters are compared
are readily inflammable. There is but needed a spark to
kindle
and then they are consumed in the flame. (F Delitzsch.)
Verse 31
And the strong shall be as tow
The tinder
and the spark
“The strong shall become tow
and his work a spark
and both shall
burn together”--a vivid picture of the doom of transgressors
since the mighty
man is made combustible
and his own act is that which kindles the flame.
(T. W. Chambers
D. D.)
The fire of judgment
The fire of judgment that consumes sinners does not need to come
from without; sin carries within itself the fire of wrath. (F. Delitzsch.)
The tow and the spark
These terrible words of warning are not levelled--
1. Against low and vile people (Isaiah 1:23-26). Nor--
2. Against the avowedly irreligious. The people addressed performed a
multitude of sacrifices (Isaiah 1:11)
were punctilious in their
attendance on the house of God (Isaiah 1:12-14)
were full of apparent
devotion (Isaiah 1:15). Nor--
3. Do they refer to the grosser forms of sin. These would
of course
come under the same condemnation. But spiritual sins
though more refined to
our perception
are more fatal even than sensual sins. It is preeminently a
spiritualism in root
however sensual in fruit
that is here arrived at. It is
all summed up in the one evil
“forsaking the Lord” (Isaiah 1:28). Consider--
I. THE RADICAL
CHARGE SIN WORKS IN THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SINNER. Sin
the prophet says in
effect
has a disintegrating
deteriorating
degrading influence upon the man’s
nature who yields to it. “Tow” is the coarse
broken part of flax or
hemp--waste
refuse--It is used here in contrast to that which is strong--also
as a pattern of what is inflammable.
1. Sin lowers the tone and tenor of our nature.
2. Sin
depraving and degrading the type and tenor of our nature
enfeebles our powers of resistance to the assaults of external evil. Sin is
weakness as well as wickedness; weakness as the result of wickedness.
3. Sin imparts to us an increased susceptibility to evil--makes us
more inflammable.
II. THE WAY IN
WHICH THE SINNER AND HIS SIN COOPERATE FOR THEIR COMMON DESTRUCTION. Sin is
ever multiplying itself between the sinner and his sinful deed. And the issue
is irremediable ruin. “They shall both burn together
and none shall quench
them.” The moral is
that if we would keep out of hell
we must keep out of
sin. (W. Roberts
B. A.)
Sin weakens the strong
The Earl of Breadalbane planned the massacre of Glencoe
and
carried it out in the most cruel and dastardly manner. Macaulay
speaking of
the effects produced upon the mind of the perpetrator of this atrocious deed
says that “Breadalbane
hardened as he was
felt the stings of conscience
or
the dread of retribution. He did his best to assume an air of unconcern. He
made his appearance in the most fashionable coffee house at Edinburgh
and
talked loudly and self-complacently about the important services in which he
had been engaged among the mountains. Some of his soldiers
however
who
observed him closely
whispered that all this bravery was put on. He was not
the man that he had been before that night. The form of his countenance was
changed. In all places
at all hours
whether he waked or slept
Glencoe was
ever before him.” (Tools for Teachers.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》