Barriers Obliterated
(No. 2847)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1903.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER 16, 1877.
"I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a
cloud, your sins; return unto Me; for I have redeemed you." Isaiah
44:22.
WE noticed, as we read the chapter, the extreme folly of a man
attempting to make a god for himself, or to worship anything as God
save only the one living and true God. We consider the heathen to be
very foolish for worshipping their hideous idols. Yet, you know, to be
an idolater a man need not make an image of wood, or stone, or gold,
for he can worship his own thoughts, his own ideas, his own notions.
And every man whose great objective in life is anything less than the
Glory of God is really a worshipper of idols. If that statement is
true, and I challenge anyone to prove that it is not, London swarms
with spiritual idolaters! He who lives to himself, practically worships
himself. That, you know, is a very extreme form of idolatry, for even
the heathen do not bow down and worship themselves. But there are many
who do not call themselves heathen who do that. He who lives only to
make money–what is he but a worshipper of the golden calf? And he who
cares continually for the opinion of his fellow men–what does he
worship but that shameless creature, Fame? He lives upon the breath
from other men's nostrils and counts it worth his while to make himself
a slave that he may win the applause of his fellow slaves! If we live
to You, great God, we live wisely, for You alone are self-existent, and
you can reward us and bless us. But if we live for anything less than
You, we live foolishly since, even if we could attain the objectives
which we seek, they would soon pass away from us, or else, by death, we
should pass away from them. For an immortal spirit, there is nothing
worth living for but to please God. "To glorify God and to enjoy Him
forever" is the only worthy end of mortal man!
Now, Beloved Friends, it is strange that this, which seems so simple,
is continually being forgotten. Indeed, by the mass of mankind, it is
not remembered at all. They go their way and burn their sacrifices and
their incense to this idol and to that, but God is not at all in their
thoughts. And the worst of this evil is that even His own people have
far too great a tendency to this kind of idolatry. Even those who are
born-again and who love the Lord, find within themselves an evil heart
of unbelief in departing from the living God and I feel sure that I am
addressing many who, to a greater or lesser degree, have been guilty of
turning away from the only true God. And it is for them that my text is
meant–"I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions and,
as a cloud, your sins: return unto Me; for I have redeemed you." I am
speaking, of course, to those who really are God's people, but who have
lost somewhat of the fervor of their love and who have not been truly
faithful to Him. But while I am especially addressing them, I hope that
a good many others, who could not yet say that they are the Lord's
people, will, nevertheless, perceive that the door of God's mercy is
also open to them–and that they will enter in even while I am setting
it open for the Lord's wandering children. Remember that if you do get
in, you will never be put out! Whether I know that I have a right to go
through the gate of mercy, or not–if I once get in, I am in, and I
shall never be turned out. If I am only like a dog that goes into a
house uninvited, yet, so long as I am once inside, there is no power
that can expel me, for the Lord Jesus, Himself, said, "Him that comes
to Me I will in no wise cast out."
There are four things in our text that are worthy of notice. First, the
dividing medium–a cloud of sins, a thick cloud of transgressions.
Secondly, its complete removal–"I have blotted out, as a thick cloud,
your transgressions and,
as a cloud, your sins." Thirdly, the tender command–"Return unto Me."
And, fourthly, the sacred claim–"for I have redeemed you." I must
speak briefly upon each point.
I. First, here is AN INTERPOSING AND DIVIDING MEDIUM–a cloud of sins.
A vapor, says the Hebrew and, then, a thick cloud.
God's people ought always to dwell in fellowship with their God. There
ought to be nothing between the renewed heart and God to prevent joyful
and hallowed fellowship, but it is not so. Sometimes a cloud comes
between, a cloud of sin and, whenever that cloud of sin comes between
us and God, it speedily chills us. Our delight in God is no longer
manifest–we have little or no zeal in His service, or joy in His
worship. Beneath that cloud we feel like men who are frozen and, at the
same time, darkness comes over us. We get into such a sad state that we
hardly know whether we are God's people or not. Sin comes between us
and our God and all our joy departs. To be near to God is to live in
the sunlight, but to sin against God soon brings us under very heavy
gloom. We are like men in a thick London fog–we can scarcely see our
own hands and we have, sometimes, to stand still in utter astonishment
and ask, "Where am I, and what am I doing? I thought I was a child of
God, but if I were to die just now, where would I go?" Sin is the cloud
which comes between us and God–and chills and darkens us.
Besides that, it threatens us. A great black cloud over one's head
makes us wonder what may be in it. It may be charged with tempest and
may burst upon our devoted heads. Backslider, when you get away from
God, I do not wonder that you begin to be in distress and alarm! The
thought of death distresses you. At one time you could have met death
with a calm countenance, but you could not do so now. You begin to have
thoughts of judgment and of eternal wrath and destruction from the
Presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. You know you do,
for he who is under the frown of God because of sin never knows what
woe may come out of that dark cloud! He is full of alarm and distress
and has no true rest of heart. Affliction seems to be the judgment of
God upon you who are in this sad state! And your present distress of
mind, great as it is, seems to be nothing compared with what you think
will come upon you. You fear that you will be utterly deserted, that
God's mercy will be taken from you forever and that He will be
favorable to you no more. It is your sins that look so black upon
you–you have the dark side of them turned to you and can you wonder
that it is so if you have been getting away from God, loving the world
and acting like a fool in forsaking the Most High?
Remember, dear Friend, if you are in that condition, that clouds are
earth-born things. There is not a drop of water in the cloud yonder but
what went up, first of all, from the earth or the sea! And so your
present darkness and distress have all arisen from your sins. You say
that you go to the House of God and get no comfort. Remember the times
when you used to go there and pay but little attention? And when you
used to go home and pick holes in what you had heard, finding fault
with your spiritual food, like naughty children do with food for the
body when they have no appetite and cannot eat this, and do not like
that? Like they, you need to be put on "short commons" till you get
your spiritual appetite back again!
Do you remember how it used to be with you? You once had bright days
and happy times, but then you used to be very careful of your walk and
conversation. At that time you were almost afraid to put one foot
before another, for fear you would not tread in your Lord's footprints!
You used to watch your words. You were very particular as to the
company you kept. You would not consort with worldlings, then–but now
you can do, without compunction, a thousand things which you would not
have done then! Things for which you have severely censured others, you
now tolerate in yourself. And now you say, "There is a thick black
cloud over my sky." Do you wonder that there is? With all those bogs
and morasses of sin, is there any marvel that the mists of doubt and
fear should have arisen around you? Your iniquities have come between
you and your God!
Ah, there are some of you who used to be very fervent and earnest in
Divine things. You used to speak of Christ to others and you were even
the means of bringing some souls to Jesus. But now you have yourselves
turned aside from Him! Oh, it is a sad thing when one who used to be a
Sunday school teacher has forgotten the lessons he taught to his boys,
or when the man who was once a street preacher, or even the pastor of a
Christian Church has himself become a profaner of the Sabbath! Yet such
things do happen.
I will mention only one more thought under this head, a very
encouraging one. It is this–though your sins are like clouds which
chill you and darken you–and though those clouds are of your own
making, yet remember that the sun is not affected by the clouds. Though
hidden for a while, it is still shining! This is a most comforting
truth, but be careful
not to pervert it. The everlasting love of God to His people is not
changed even by their wanderings and their sins. The child thinks that
the clouds have destroyed the sun, but high up above the clouds it is
as bright as ever–always glowing like a mighty furnace are you, O sun!
And our damps and fogs quench not your brilliance! And, Backslider, the
love of God, the Grace of God, the mercy of God, the power of God to
bless–and the willingness of God to receive you back again remain just
the same as ever they were, notwithstanding the density of these
horrible vapors of sin and transgression! Do not, I pray you, make an
ill use of this great Truth of God. If you do so, you will give sure
evidence that you are no child of God, but a base hypocrite! But if
there is any spiritual life within you, this blessed Truth will tend to
bring upon you compunction of conscience to think that you should be
offending against a God whose love is still the same, notwithstanding
all your backsliding–and who does not turn aside from His Covenant,
nor cast away His people whom He did foreknow!
II. Now, secondly, we are to consider THE COMPLETE REMOVAL OF THIS
BARRIER–"I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions,
and, as a cloud, your sins."
Nobody but God can get at the clouds and drive them from the firmament
of Heaven. There they are, floating high above our heads, and no known
human power can remove them. So it is with your darkness and doubts–if
you have fallen into sin, you cannot get rid of them. You may sit down
under them in despondency and weep–and be almost in despair–but there
they are and there they will remain. You may go to the so-called
priests, if you like, as the poor African goes to the pretended
rain-maker and asks him to bring rain when he needs it. And the priest
can do just as much for you as the rain-maker can do for the
African–certainly not any more. He and the rain-maker are a couple of
deceivers, so do not be duped by either of them! There is no one who
can forgive sins save God, only, so do not be deluded into the belief
that there is any other forgiver in the whole universe!
But what a mercy it is that God can remove these clouds of sin! He can
do it and do it effectually. How quickly God sweeps the sky clear of
clouds! Sometimes, in this fickle climate, we have all sorts of weather
mixed up together so that we experience spring, summer, autumn and
winter in the course of a few hours. You have seen the clouds hanging
thick and heavy all over the sky. You have gone into your house and
said, "It will be a very wet day." But you have hardly gone indoors
before there has been a clear blue sky above you, with not a cloud the
size of a man's hand to be seen anywhere! Thus can God quickly sweep
away the clouds and He can just as quickly take away sin. Before you
can even get out of this building, you who are groaning under a sense
of sin may be completely delivered from it! You who now see the clouds
of your transgressions and iniquities hanging black above your heads,
may, in a moment, be able to see the clear sky of God's forgiving love
with not a trace of your transgression and iniquity!
The mercy is, that when God drives away these clouds from us, though we
may see other clouds, we shall never see those black ones anymore. When
the Lord takes away His people's sins, they are gone and gone forever!
They shall not be remembered against them anymore, forever. Whenever I
get upon this topic, I feel as though I should like to keep on speaking
upon it and go no further. The glorious forgiving love of God is an
indescribable theme and it is altogether inexhaustible! We may continue
to talk about it year after year, but we shall never get to the end of
it. Yes, even throughout eternity we shall never be able to tell all
the splendors of the pardoning mercy of our gracious God. O Backslider,
He can take away all your sin this very moment! He can shine forth upon
you like the sun in its strength and, then, every shadow and cloud
shall be driven from your soul!
Now I am getting near to the very heart of the text, but I have not
quite reached it yet, for the glory of it is that the Lord has already
done this great work of Grace. The text does not say, "I can blot out,
as a thick cloud, your transgressions." Nor, "I willblot them out,"
but, "I HAVE blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions." It is
done–fully done, forever done! Did you hear this, poor wanderer?
Perhaps you say, "I cannot come back to God, for I have been so long a
wanderer from Him and my sins still lie heavily upon me." But, my
Brother, my Sister, the Lord has forgiven you all your sin! He says,
"Think no more about it, for I have blotted it all out." If you are,
indeed, a Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are like a child who
has offended his father and run away from home, perhaps. In a distant
land, in sin and sorrow, that son is longing to return and he gets a
message from his father saying, "All is forgiven. Come home!" It is so
with you, you wandering child of God–if you have repented of your
wanderings, all is forgiven! Even the guilt of this backsliding of
yours was laid upon Christ. If you are believing in Him, that is the
clearest possible proof that all your transgressions were laid upon Him
and that He has made a full and complete Atonement for them all.
Even while you are coming back to Him, all your sin is forgiven through
the superabundant mercy which moves Him to run to meet you even as the
father of the prodigal ran to meet his son! And before He falls upon
your neck, before you have begun to confess your transgressions in His
ear, He has already blotted them all out! What say you to this wondrous
display of Sovereign Grace which He, Himself, bids us proclaim to you?
He knows whether He has forgiven your sin, or not, and it is He who
says, "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and,
as a cloud, your sins." Often and often have I mused upon this great
Truth of God! The Lord has loved me with an everlasting love and He has
washed me in the precious blood of Christ–and forgiven me all my
transgressions–and whenever I think of that, I feel my heart drawn
still more closely towards Him.
Unbelief will never bring you rest of heart, but faith will. I am
speaking now to any of you who have wandered quite a long way from
Christ. I may be even addressing some member of the Tabernacle who has
not lately been very regular in hearing the Word. You have fallen into
a very lean, sad state, my Brother. You are finding fault with other
people, but it is yourself who ought to be blamed. Many things do not
suit you, now, as they used to do, and you lay upon others the blame
which you ought to bear yourself. You could sit on any hard seat once,
but you need a soft cushion now. You could stand in any hot place to
hear the Gospel in those days, but you are too grand a gentleman to do
that now. I do not know what we can do to get you into a good temper,
for, after all, you are the one who is wrong! You know it is so, yet,
notwithstanding that, I want to whisper in your ear that your Father is
still your Father, that Christ is still your Savior, that the Holy
Spirit is still your Guide and Teacher! So, come home! Stay no longer
away because you fear your Father's frown. You have grieved Him, you
have vexed His Holy Spirit, you have dishonored His Son, yet He has not
changed! Still does His heart yearn for you, still does He cry, "How
can I give you up?" And He will not. Come back to Him, for it is His
mercy that is calling you!
III. I have already passed into the third division of my subject almost
before I was aware of it. We have already seen that there is a barrier
between some souls and God and that the Lord can clear that barrier.
Now we are to consider THE TENDER COMMAND–"Return unto Me." "The great
barrier that separated us is removed–so let us not be divided from one
another any longer."
Perhaps, my Brother, you have thought that God had left off loving you,
but He has not. You have begun to quarrel with God because you imagined
that He had a quarrel with you, but it is not so, for He loves you
still. It was your sin that He hated. Kindness is in His heart and
words of Infinite Love are on His lips, still. Surely, if you know that
the sin which has come like a great mountain chain between you and Him
is regarded by Him as mere vapor–a cloud which He has removed by the
power of His Almighty Grace–you will give heed to Him when He cries to
you, "Come back. Come back. Come back. Bygones shall be bygones. The
guilt of all your wanderings I have laid on the great Scapegoat's head.
I have drawn My pen through the record of your sin in My Book of
Remembrance and have struck it all out. Come back. Come back!" When, in
your soul, you hear God speak to you thus, do not your hearts at once
respond, "Lord, since You have taken away the barrier that separated
us, we will come back to You and we will come back this very hour"?
When He says, "Return," He means that He wants you to give up that
which has grieved Him. You cannot come back to God, you know, bringing
your love of sin with you. Some of you professors, who are, I hope,
still the Lord's people, fall into various evil ways which grieve the
Holy Spirit. And then the black clouds form a great barrier between you
and your God. He requires you to give up that which has caused the dark
clouds to cover your sky. What is it that has brought about this sad
result? I have known some professors fall into a sad state through
keeping evil company. They have associated with some very fascinating
person who has been able to greatly amuse them, but who certainly could
not edify them, for he knew nothing savingly of the things of God!
I have known some professors go, by degrees, into very gross sin as the
result of giving way to the habit of tippling. They would not like to
be called drunks, but I am sure I do not know what other name I could
give them. And some nominally Christian trades people do things in
their business which they would not like to have generally known. They
seem to forget that God sees them and knows all about them. Now, any
sin that is known and tolerated, will soon separate a Christian from
his God as to any conscious enjoyment of His Presence. Be very careful,
then, dear Brothers and Sisters, as to anything which is grieving your
God. And though it should be a loss or a cross to you to give it up, do
not hesitate a moment, but give it up and come back to your Heavenly
Father. Nothing can compensate for the loss of His
Presence and you cannot have His Presence as long as you continue to
hug your sin! Therefore, give up the sin which He hates, especially as
He has forgiven you in the past.
If a young man has left his father's house in anger, but his father
writes to him, and says, "William, the trouble is all over. My Boy, I
fully forgive you, so come back to me," will he still stay away? Let us
hope not and, dear child of God, your Father says to you, "Return unto
Me, for I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and
as a cloud, your sins." So, give up your sin, seeing that God has
blotted it all out.
The Lord's gracious invitation, "Return unto Me," also means, "Come
back, and love Me. See how I have loved you? I have already forgiven
you your sin, you who are, indeed, My child, but whose faith has almost
disappeared. Though you have provoked Me by your sin, I still love you.
Though there is nothing lovely about you, yet I still love you. For My
name's sake and for My Son's sake, will you not love Me?" After such
pleading, can you keep on in this cold-hearted state toward your God?
Some of you professors make us weep when we think of how you live and
how far you get away from your God. I do pray that He may cast the
cords of His Almighty Love about you and bind you to Himself, so that
you cannot escape from Him if you would and would not if you could.
The Lord also means, when He says, "Return unto Me," "Return again to
your old joys." Oh, you who have got away from the sunlight through
making your sins into a thick cloud, come back into the sunlight! I
would like to refresh the memories of some of you who are here as to
the happy times you once had. Ah, then you were the people who loved
the Prayer Meeting! How sweet the gatherings of the saints were to you!
Do you not also remember your little room where, kneeling by your
bedside, you had such communion with God that although you are very
cold, now, you never can quite forget that holy fervor? You were not a
hypocrite, were you? You know you were not! Oh, how your feet used to
trip along as you went up to the House of God with the multitude that
kept holy day! How earnestly you used to tell others of the joys of
true religion!
Possibly you say, "Do not remind us of that joy, for we have lost it."
Yes, but you can have it all back again! God can give you, once more,
the years which the locusts have eaten. Those wasted days, those joys
which have been starved to death, you shall have them back again and
you shall yet lift up your voice with the sweet singer of Israel and
praise the Lord that His mercy endures forever! Yes, though you feel
like guilty Peter, when he denied his Lord, you may yet come back like
Peter and be all the stronger for your past bitter experience. Your
Heavenly Father bids you return and I, your Brother in Christ, would
stretch out my hand to you and say, "Come, my Brother. Come, my
Sister–
'Come let us to the Lord our God, With contrite hearts return.
IV. My last point is THE SACRED CLAIM WHICH BACKS UP THE GRACIOUS
INVITATION–"Return unto Me," said the Lord, "for I have redeemed you."
I do not know whether you see the meaning of this, but I think I do. It
is this–"I have loved you so much that I redeemed you with the blood
of My dear Son and, having loved you so much in the ages past, I still
love you. Come back to Me. I did not make a mistake when I first loved
you, through which I shall have to change the object of my choice. I
knew all about you from eternity–all that you ever would be or could
be, I knew–I saw it all with My foreseeing eyes and yet I loved you,
and bought you with the precious blood of Jesus, My only-begotten and
well-beloved Son. And I love you still. Therefore return unto
Me–return, return!"
But even that does not convey the full force of this gracious
invitation. It further means this–"I have a right to you. I have
bought you. You are Mine and you shall not go away from Me. Come back
to Me, for Redemption's sign, the blood-mark, is upon you." Many of you
bear in your very bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus, for you have been
immersed in water, in the name of the Sacred Trinity, on profession of
your being dead to the world and alive unto the Christ. It is utterly
impossible for you to get that watermark off you! It is upon you
forever! And Christ has marked you as His own with His own blood and He
will not let you go! Listen to what He says about the matter–"Behold
these wounds on My head, and hands, and feet, and side. I bought you
with the very blood of My heart, so do you think that I will lose you?
Did I bow My head in unspeakable agony and cry, 'My God, My God, why
have You forsaken Me?' and shall I lose those whom I purchased by My
death?"
Who is he that shall snatch out of the hands of Christ those whom He
has bought with His own blood? Shall the arch-enemy come and steal away
the sheep of Christ? Shall the lion of Hell devour even one stray lamb
out of His flock?
No, verily, our Greater David shall tear him in pieces, first, and
deliver every one of the innumerable souls that His blood has redeemed!
Buy them with His death and then leave them to be damned? I find no
such sham redemption in this blessed Book, nor would I care the turn of
a farthing for the value of it! But that Redemption which Jesus Christ
has worked is a Redemption that does redeem! He has paid too great a
price for His people for Him to ever lose those whom He purchased with
His blood!
So He says to each one of you who have believed in Him but who have
gone astray from Him, "Return unto Me, for I have redeemed you and I
will have you. Your league with Hell is broken and your covenant with
death is no more! Come back to Me. Come back to Me. You will never find
rest anywhere else. You may go into sin, but you shall never find
pleasure in it, neither shall you be content with it. If you were one
of the swine, you might fill your belly with the husks that they eat,
but you are My child and you must starve till you come back to My
table. For you there shall be no mirth, no music, no feast, no robe, no
joy until you come back to Me. I have redeemed you and I will hedge up
your way with thorns until you return to Me! I will not let you go. I
will turn you out of your wicked paths. I will beat you as with blows
of a cruel one. I will smite you with affliction upon affliction, but I
will have you–I will not allow you to perish! Return ere this rough
treatment is meted out to you. Return at Love's gentle wooing and with
Mercy's tender voice, for I have redeemed you. 'It is hard for you to
kick against the pricks.' I have you in hand and I can do with you as I
please– and you shall, after all, be drawn back among the rest of My
people."
Go, poor dove, and fly over the wild waste of waters. Look North,
South, East, West, but you shall never see a log floating on the waves
upon which you can rest. That foul raven, out yonder, can light upon a
corpse and both rest and feed upon the carrion, but you cannot. Fly
where you will, O dove, there is but one rest for you and Noah, alone,
can tell you where it is! It is within the ark! But do you refuse to
return to that ark? Do you still fly, and fly, and fly till your wings
are weary, and you can scarcely keep yourself above the flood? Fly on,
on, on, till your pinions, at last, cannot bear you up any longer! But,
oh, if you will be wise, fly with your failing pinions to yonder ark
and hide yourself there, for there, alone, is rest to be found. You
shall go there, you mustgo there for there is rest for you nowhere
else!
Ah, young man, you did not think of this when you came in to this
service? You scarcely know why you came, for you meant to go with evil
companions! But if Christ has really bought you with His blood, He will
have you! So, in His name, I do arrest you and bid you trust in Him–
"Thus the eternal counsel ran 'Almighty Grace, arrest that man!'" You
are arrested in the name of the great King! Pause and turn to Him and
live!
Perhaps you remember how Colonel Gardiner, on the very night when he
had made a sinful appointment, was convicted of sin, brought to the
Savior and became one of the most earnest followers of the Lord Jesus
Christ. My dear Lord, with His sorrowful Countenance, looks into the
faces of some of you. I do not know who it may be, but He does and,
lifting up His pierced hand, He lays it upon one here, and another
there, and He says, "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your
transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins: return unto Me; for I have
redeemed you." The Lord bless you, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ISAIAH 43:21-25; 44:1-23.
Isaiah 43:21. This people–That is, God's own people. "This people."–
21, 22. Have I formed for Myself; they shall show forth My praise. But
you have not called upon Me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of Me,
OIsrael The very people whom He had formed for His praise forgot to
pray to Him, ceased to remember Him, grew weary of Him! Oh, how sad is
this and how great is the long-suffering of God, that He bore with them
so long.
23. You have not brought Me the small cattle of your burnt offerings;
neither have you honored Me with your sacrifices. I have not caused you
to serve with an offering, nor wearied you with incense. God has laid
no tax on His people. He does not ask any hard thing of us and yet,
notwithstanding that, we have been slack in His service. His yoke is
easy and His burden is light, yet our shoulders have been unwilling to
bear them.
24, 25. You have bought Me no sweet cane with money, neither have you
flledMe with the fat ofyour sacrifices: but you have made Me to serve
with your sins, you have wearied Me with your iniquities. I, even I, am
He that blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and will not
remember your sins. That is a very astonishing verse, wherever we might
find it, but to find it in such a connection is, indeed, a wonder!
These people had wearied God, yet even then, He said, "I, even I, am He
that blots out your transgressions." Note on what a sure and blessed
ground He puts it–"for My own sake." The Lord could not do anything
for such sinners as we are for oursakes, for there is nothing deserving
about us! But in order that His mercy may be the more clearly seen and
His faithfulness and Immutability may be displayed, He says, "I, even
I, am He that blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and will
not remember your sins."
26-28. Put Me in remembrance: Let us plead together: declare you, that
you may be justified. Your first father has sinned, and your teachers
have transgressed against Me. Therefore Ihave profaned the princes of
the sanctuary and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to
reproaches.
Isaiah 44:1, 2. Yet now hear, O Jacob My servant; and Israel, whom
Ihave chosen: Thus said the LORD that made you, and formed you from the
womb, which will help you. Fear not, O Jacob, My servant; and you,
Jesurun, whom Ihave chosen. You see, the Lord goes on to show His
people that if they were in trouble, they had brought it upon
themselves. If the sanctuary had been degraded, it was because both
they and their teachers had transgressed against God. But, after He has
justified His wrath, He still goes on to talk of mercy and, oh, with
what plenteousness of love does He address these wandering people of
His!
3. For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the
dry ground: I will pour My Spirit upon your seed, and My blessing upon
your offspring. Here, O you needy souls, you who thirst after mercy, is
a rich promise for you! How plenteously does God bestow it! "I will
pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground."
Your needs cannot be so great as the Divine Supply! All the Lord asks
is that you should be willing to receive His mercy, willing that your
emptiness should be filled out of His fullness.
4. And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water
courses. Your shall spring up where there were none, before, and grow
very quickly. These are our young converts. I trust that we shall have
many such springing up "as willows by the water courses"!
5. 6. One shall say, I am the LORD'S, and another shall call himself by
the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the
LORD, andsurname himselfby the name ofIsrael. Thus says the LORD, the
King ofIsrael, and His Redeemer, the LORD of Hosts; I am the First, and
I am the Last; and beside Me there is no God. That is a great Truth,
always to be kept in mind–that there is no God beside Jehovah! Let us
beware of ever attempting to set up, in our own hearts, any god save
the one living and true God.
7-12. And who, as I, shall call and shall declare it, and set it in
order for Me, since I appointed the ancient people? And the things that
are coming, and shall come, let them show unto them. Fear you not,
neither be afraid: have not I told you from that time, and have
declared it? You are even My witnesses. Is there a God beside Me? Yes,
there is no God; I know not any. They that make a graven image are all
of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they
are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be
ashamed. Who has formed a god, or molten a graven image that is
profitable for anything? Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed: and
the workmen, they are of men: let them all be gathered together, let
them stand up; yet they shall fear, and they shall be ashamed together
The smith.– Note how the Lord holds up to mockery and scorn the makers
of idol gods! He shows the process of god-making, the making of idol
gods but His words may be equally well applied to the making of the
Virgin Mary and the various saints, crucifixes, and all other lumber of
this kind in the idolatry that calls itself Christian! "The smith"–
12. With the tongs works in the coals, and fashions it with hammers,
and works it with the strength of his arms: yes, he is hungry, and his
strength fails: he drinks no water, and is faint That is one of these
god-makers, you see–a man who makes an idol god, yet who himself gets
thirsty by reason of the heat of the coals in his forge! A fine god it
must be that he makes! Next comes the carpenter.
13, 14. The carpenter stretches out his rule; he marks it out with a
line; he fits it with planes, and he marks it out with the compass, and
makes it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man;
that it may remain in the house. He hews him down cedars, and takes the
cypress and the oak, which he strengthens for himself among the trees
of the forest: he plants an ash, and the rain does nourish it They like
some choice wood out of which to make their gods. So
we see that these idol gods grow first in the woods and then,
afterwards, they need a carpenter's rule, and line, and compass, and
plane in order to shape them according to his taste, or the order of
his customers!
15-17. Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof,
and warm himself, yes, he kindles it, and bakes bread, yes, he makes a
god and worships it; he makes it a graven image, and falls down
thereto. He burns part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eats
flesh; he roasts meat and is satisfied: yes, he warms himself and says,
Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire: and the residue thereof he makes
a god, even his graven image: he falls down unto it, and worships it,
and prays unto it, and says, Deliver me; for you are my god. Did ever
sarcasm–truthful and proper sarcasm–go further than this? Idolaters
in various lands have frequently been convinced of the absurdity of
their worship as they have read this very remarkable piece of Inspired
writing!
18, 19. They have not known nor understood: for He has shut their eyes,
that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand.
And none considers in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor
understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; yes, also I
have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and
eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? Shall I
fall down to the stock of a tree? Shall I, an intelligent being,
worship gold, silver, wood, or brass, however excellent may be the
workmanship of it? Shall I, an immortal being, cast myself down before
a piece of bread and worship that, as some do who first worship, and
then eat their god? Oh, what strange infatuation!
20. He feeds on ashes: a deceived heart has turned him aside, that he
cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?
The Prophet concludes that madness must have laid hold upon the minds
of men, or they never could have fallen into the debasing superstitions
which degrade them all over the world. Yet, even in this present
century old superstitions have come back to our country–it is strange
that here, where so many martyrs were burnt, the sons of these martyrs
should actually be willing to go back to the beggarly elements and
superstitions of the olden times! The Lord have mercy upon this land
and deliver it from all forms of idol worship!
21, 22. Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for you are My servant: I
have formed you, you are My servant: O Israel, you shall not be
forgotten of Me. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your
transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins: return unto Me; for I have
redeemed you. Out of all the world, God had a chosen people, His own
Israel, to whom He revealed Himself–but they also turned aside to
idols, yet here He bids them return to Him. Even to this day they
bravely bear their protest against idols. I would to God that they also
knew the Christ of God and worshipped Him. All Believers are the true
Israel after the spirit and are to maintain forever the Glory of the
one only living and true God.
23. Sing, O you heavens; for the LORD has done it: shout, you lower
parts of the earth: break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest,
and every tree therein: for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and glorified
Himself in Israel