DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, AUGUST 17, 1879,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"For I will not contend forever, neither will I always be angry; for
the spirits would fail before Me, and the souls which I have made. For
the iniquity of his covetousness was I angry, and smote him: I hid and
was angry, and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart. I have
seen his ways, and will heal him: I will also lead him, and restore
comforts to him and to his mourners." Isaiah 57:16-18.
The high and holy One that inhabits eternity is here speaking with
Himself concerning Israel. The Lord is holding high soliloquy. He is
not so much addressing the sons of men, bidding them do this or that,
as speaking to Himself of what He intends to do among them. He allows
His Prophet to stand where he can hear the sacred soliloquy of the
great Supreme. And he hears it and then, under the dictate of the
Divine Spirit, he records it in the Inspired Book where it remains to
this day for our instruction. Hear, then, these words of the living God
and let your hearts be satisfied concerning the secret purposes of
Jehovah!
Although the Lord may say many things to Himself which we do not hear
and which it were not well that we should hear, yet He never retracts
in secret what He has spoken in public! So we may rest assured that He
never speaks in the dark places of the earth concerning the house of
Jacob, "Seek you My face in vain." No decree of God is contrary to the
Gospel–we may always be sure of that. Whenever He unveils before us
His private thoughts, we never find them to be less gracious than His
published Words. The same love which spoke itself through Prophets and
Seers dwells in the silent heart of God and abides forever at the
fullest even when it finds no voice.
In the verses before us we find words of exceedingly great mercy and
special tenderness. And we see moving before our adoring eyes the
eternal Wisdom, the infinite Patience and the immutable Love of the
great Father. May it please the Lord, in very truth, to restore
comforts unto His mourners by the subject which shall now engage our
attention, for under the blessing of the Holy Spirit it is in every way
calculated to cheer the contrite heart.
I. The first Truth of God to which I call your attention is that God
contends with men and that THE DIVINE CONTENTION IS WELL DESERVED on
their part. He says, "I will not contend forever," in which it is
implied that He does contend sometimes. Where He has purposes of
eternal Grace, the Lord, at the opening of His saving work, comes into
contention with men. Smiting comes before saving. He bends His bow and
points His arrow against the heart's sin before He pours out His balm
for the heart's wound. He usually gives the spirit of bondage before He
sends the spirit of sonship–He thunders by the Law before He waters
the soul with the soft shower of the Gospel. Nor need we wonder at
this, for there is so much in man that is altogether opposed to the
Divine Nature and alien to the object and design of God, that there
must be a conflict till the opposing principle is overcome and removed.
The strong man will not go out except by force and neither will the
Lord enter the soul except as a Conqueror.
First I would speak of this to the seeking sinner. It may be that there
are, in this house, anxious persons who were once careless and at ease,
but now there is a striving within them and a conflict which rages
terribly. The Lord has a controversy with them. However unhappy it
makes them, I am right glad that they are feeling the inward strife.
Anything is better than the horrible calm of the dead sea of spiritual
indifference! My Friend, your deadly peace is broken; your fatal sleep
is ended; the magic spell of Satan has lost all its power; you are
awakened and sadness rules the hour. Your wisest friends are glad of
this–they welcome your return to feeling even as we rejoice to
discover signs of life in one who has been snatched from a watery
grave!
There is now some hope for you. The Spirit of God has come to you as a
spirit of bondage and this makes you fear, but fear is often the
outrider of faith. The Lord's design in contending with you is to
convince you of your sin. You will never see sin to be exceedingly
sinful unless the Holy Spirit throws His own light upon it. You love
sin too much to deal with it impartially–you are so tainted by it in
your nature that your conscience by no means censures you so much as
your iniquity deserves. Though some say that conscience is the
vicegerent of God, there is nothing in the Scriptures to prove that
statement, neither is it true. Conscience is an imperfect guide and
monitor–and like all the other faculties, it is weakened and vitiated
by the Fall so that it is a very prejudiced judge of right and
wrong–and too often it puts bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
Conscience is often blinded by self-love and at all times apt to
slumber. Until the Holy Spirit quickens your conscience, you will never
discover the enormity of sin. You may know it to be evil as a matter of
dogma, but you will not feel it to be evil as a matter of experience,
nor will you see how greatly, how continually, how wickedly you have
offended the Law of God unless the Lord opens your eyes. This He
intends to do and He will not cease to strive with you till His purpose
is performed! My dear Friend, the Lord will probably keep up the
controversy in your soul until your beauty consumes away and, instead
of admiring yourself, you come to loathe yourself! Though you wash
yourself with snowwater and make yourself ever so clean, yet will He
plunge you in the ditch till your own clothes shall abhor you. You
shall see your righteousness to be filthy rags and your person to be
under the curse–and then part of the Lord's design will be
accomplished!
The next reason for the Lord's contending with you will begin to
operate when the first purpose has been accomplished. You will, in your
self-abasement, be driven to look to the Grace of God. It is hard to
part a man from his sin. It is still harder to divorce Him from his
self-righteousness and this is a part of the Lord's contention with
awakened souls–He determines to rid them of all self-confidence
because it is false confidence–and they, on their part, appear to be
resolved to hold to self as long as there is a rag or a thread left.
That our salvation is entirely of the Grace of God is a lesson which we
are slow to learn and yet we must learn it or perish.
Dear anxious one, if ever you are saved it must be by an act of
undeserved favor on God's part! I do not care who you are, you are
guilty and if you escape execution, a free pardon will have to be given
to you by the Great King for reasons found in Him alone, for there is
nothing in you which can constitute a claim for mercy. You may never
have fallen into adultery or murder, nor even have committed theft or
false witness, but the same Grace is needed to save you as to save an
adulteress or a murderer! You have no merit to plead, nor any claim
upon God–such claims as you had as a creature you have forfeited and
you have done nothing to create any other. You have committed treason
against God and you are already condemned by His unquestionable
justice. If you shall ever be saved, it must be by a high act of the
Lord of Mercy, passed in His infinite Sovereignty, not because of
anything in you deserves it, but because He will have mercy on whom He
will have mercy and He will have compassion on whom He will have
compassion.
So stands the matter and this controversy between you and your God is
meant to bring this fact before you and push the question to an issue
with you. When the Lord contends with a Mansoul and the Law of the Lord
enters his spirit, it hides pride from him and lays his glory in the
dust. In fact, the truly awakened man cannot find a place low enough to
lie in, nor words black enough in which to describe himself! He is
driven to a deep spiritual despair of self and to a horror of soul at
his presumption in having dared to offend against the God of
Heaven–and a still deeper horror that he should have transgressed
against the Christ of Love and should have rejected Him year after
year! May God bring you down to this prostrate condition if He has not
done so already!
If the Lord has now begun to trouble you, He will not have done with
you till He has laid you even with the ground! This will not only make
you know that you must be saved by Grace alone, but it will cause you
to value Grace, itself, as more to be desired than much fine gold! A
soul with whom God has entered into the lists prizes every Word of
promise and every single look of Grace, for he sees himself to be in an
evil plight unless Divine Grace shall intervenes. The tears of Jesus
over sinners are very precious to hearts with whom God is contending.
But more precious is the blood, the blood of Jesus with which He takes
away sin. They can speak lightly of Grace who have never had a heavy
heart on account of their transgression–but give a man to feel the
burden of sin and the faint hope of Grace will be worth all the king's
jewels to him!
O Sirs, sin is a burden such as an angel's shoulders could not bear! It
crushes a man not only into the dust but into the grave! No, even there
he cannot find rest! If nothing else were prepared for the impenitent
in the next world except a sight and sense of their own sin, it would,
of itself, create a Hell within the human bosom! Stake and rack are
nothing compared with the torments of remorse! It is God's design to
make us feel something of this, that we may bless His name if He does
but look upon us or think upon us in a way of Grace and that we may
praise and magnify Him with all our hearts forever and ever when He
freely pardons us for His own sake and accepts us in Christ Jesus. Do
you wonder that God has a contention with seeking souls when such
necessary and beneficent designs are answered thereby?
Moreover, no one can be surprised that the Lord lets forth a measure of
His wrath upon seeking sinners when we see how they behave, even while
they are seeking. We have known them red hot one day and icy cold
another and, albeit that they long for mercy, you will see them, at
certain seasons, acting as if they despised it! At times they tremble
at God's Word and then they are hardened against it. I may be speaking
to some of you who know that during the time of your conviction of sin
you have tried to stifle your feelings and you have sought to kill the
messenger within who has so effectually awakened you. Many of you have
run after carnal amusements and evil pleasures in order to drown
conscience and escape from rebuke. Others of you have run to this, that
and the other pretended way of salvation instead of running to Christ,
alone, for His free Grace. All this provokes the Most High and,
therefore, it cannot be amazing that the Lord should have a contention
with you.
But now I turn to the people of God. Sometimes, my Brothers and
Sisters, our Lord has a contention with us. And then He covers the
daughter of Zion with a cloud in the day of His anger and He burns
against Jacob like a flaming fire which devours round about! This is
not at all amazing when we consider how unworthy we often live towards
His sacred name. Indeed, "it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not
consumed." His contention with us will show itself, occasionally, in
adverse Providences. He will aim a deadly shaft at the beloved objects
of our heart–perhaps not once, alone, does the arrow fly, but He seems
to empty out His quiver and finds no other targets but the breasts of
those who are our other selves. With one Believer the Lord contends by
a sickness in his own person. With another by the pining away of a
beloved wife or child.
The contention which the Lord has with His elect frequently displays
itself in troubles connected with their temporal circumstances. Nothing
prospers with them. They make a ship to go to Tarshish for gold and it
is broken by a storm. A worm eats up all their increase. The
caterpillar devours the garden and the locust, or the blight, or the
drought, or the exceeding moisture destroys the produce of the field.
When God has a controversy with His own people He smites again and
again in this fashion. Nor does He stop at bruises and bleeding wounds.
Our heavenly Father never spares the rod! No sin of Eli can be alleged
against Him.
Even more severe are His blows when it comes to be a controversy
carried on by His Spirit within the mind. When the light of God's
Countenance is withdrawn. When conscience is allowed to point out
inconsistencies, hypocrisies and wanderings of heart. When the promises
cease to be wells of comfort; when the means of Grace appear to be dry
and barren. When private prayer becomes rather a task than a pleasure
and communion with God seems to be little more than looking up to an
angry Father who only frowns–this is much worse than any Providential
chastisement! When God smites a man in the heart, the blow is a
staggering one.
The affliction of the soul is the soul of affliction. God will touch
His people in their bone and their flesh and in their very hearts. Ah,
my Brethren, if you remember your laxity in life, your dullness in
prayer, your forgetfulness of God's Word, your hardness of heart at
times towards poor sinners, your indifference to the Lord's cause, the
lack of life, the need of love, the absence of power, the need of
holiness, the need of the mind of Christ within, the lack of delight in
the Divine will–you will perceive that there is quite enough in us to
lead the Lord to have a controversy with us! Has He not said that He
will walk contrary to us if we walk contrary to Him? Is it not His
special Word to us, "You only have I known of all the people of the
earth; therefore I will punish you for your iniquity"?
Chastisement must come to the beloved child of a wise father. The
servant may escape. The bastard may know no touch of the rod. But the
true-born and well-beloved child of God must smart if he sins, not
because his Father dislikes him, but because He loves him! The dearer
we are to the heart of God the more jealous He is and the more does He
resent any wandering of our heart from Him. His love is strong as
death, blessed be His name! But as a natural consequence His jealousy
is cruel as the grave! He will not endure impurity of heart in the
beloved object of His eternal choice.
I have, however, said enough upon this topic, if we are now ready to
confess that the Divine contention with us is well deserved.
II. We now advance to the next Truth of God, namely, that THIS DIVINE
CONTENTION WILL COME TO AN
END WITH THE CONTRITE. We know that it will be so, for the Words are
very clear–"For I will not contend
forever, neither will I be always angry." Oh, hear this, you humble and
contrite ones with whom God has been contending! Here is a word of
gracious, absolute, unconditional promise for you! May the Holy Spirit
enable you to draw consolation from it!
The question arises–when may we expect that this promise will be
fulfilled? Kindly notice the verse which precedes the text, for that
assures us that God has no controversy with the humble and the
contrite. This is self-evident, for He declares that with such He will
dwell and the God of Grace will not dwell in a house that is full of
contention! He contends where He does not abide, but where He abides
there is peace. When a man is humble and contrite, then God's
contention with him has come to an end. Omnipotence will not lift its
hand to overthrow one who yields himself up. Greatness does not strike
a fallen foe who craves forgiveness. Majesty will not wreak vengeance
upon suppliant misery. Crouch in the dust and Jehovah's wrath, which
like His thunderbolt smites lofty things, will pass you by!
Surrender unconditionally, be you saint or sinner! Throw down the
weapons of rebellion, doff the plumes of pride and sue out a pardon on
your bended knee. Cry out, "Lord, I am undone, for I have done ill! I
am cast away, for I have cast Your fear away! I must die, for I have
slain myself! But God, be merciful to me, a sinner." Majesty is ever
pitiful to misery. Nor is it majesty, alone, that you may look to with
hope, but Mercy, also, is your friend. Mercy is very speedy where
confession is complete. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins." Be humbled, for to such God gives Grace.
The river of His goodness flows along the low valleys. Talk no more of
your good works. Boast no longer of your Christian experience, your
bright profession, your precise religiousness–but fall at Jesus' feet
and lie down.
Tears for your eyes are more becoming than rings for your ears!
Sackcloth suits your case rather than fine attire. Be humble because
you are a nobody! Be contrite because you are a sinner. It is wonderful
how the pity of God has, in some cases, been excited even by a
temporary repentance. When wicked Ahab rent his clothes and put
sackcloth upon himself, the Lord took note of it and said, "Do you see
how Ahab humbled himself before Me? Because he humbled himself before
Me I will not bring the evil in his days." When the Ninevites repented,
though probably there was very little spiritual about their humbling,
yet it was sincere as far as it went and the Lord turned from His
fierce anger and there was a reprieve for the wicked city! This plainly
shows that the Lord is speedily moved by true humiliation–and if any
soul will but lie before Him in self-abasement and lowliness–He will
no longer contend, but will put away His anger.
Besides, His truth is compromised in this matter for He has given a
promise of Grace which runs thus, "Humble yourselves in the sight of
the Lord and He shall lift you up" (James 4:10). He cannot spurn those
who submit themselves before Him, for it is written, "Though the Lord
is high, yet has He respect unto the lowly." He is full of Grace and
that Grace is for the poor and needy. Condescension to the lowly is His
Glory, as the blessed Virgin sang of old, and as many fainting ones may
sing at this moment if they will–"He has put down the mighty from
their seats and exalted them of low degree. He has filled the hungry
with good things and the rich He has sent away empty."
The Lord delights in mercy and His mercy delights to come to those who
are most abased in their own esteem and judge themselves to be least
worthy of it. We are quite sure that the Divine contention will come to
an end with the humble and contrite because, as we have said, the
promise is, "I dwell in the high and holy place with him, also, that is
of a contrite and humble spirit." Do not say, dear cast down one, "God
will never look at me. I have no hope, no strength, no merit." This
self-abasement prepares you for Him! By this is your house swept and
emptied for God to dwell in! He has two houses–one is above, in Glory,
and that high house above is none too high for Him.
His other dwelling is below in all His condescension and the lowliest
heart is none too lowly for Him. He comes not to wholehearted men who
bear their heads aloft and scarcely acknowledge their need of His
favor–He comes not to those who trust in themselves and think but
little of His Grace–
"He bids His a wful chariot roll Far downward from the skies, To visit
every humble soul That low before Him lies."
Lowly roofs attract Deity. He comes to those who are broken in heart
and when He comes, the contention is over. And what else does the Lord
promise to do? He says He will dwell with the humble and He adds that
He will revive them. You are fainting now, poor Soul. You are very
feeble. You are as one that is slain–the Lord will come and revive
you–that is, give you new life. He will give you life enough to hope
in His mercy; life enough to believe in Jesus Christ, His dear Son;
life enough to see your transgression covered forever, never to be laid
to your charge. He will not contend forever, for, on the contrary, He
will revive the spirit of the humble.
Perhaps He means, by adding a second, "revive," to make us a promise of
comfort, "to revive the heart of the contrite ones." Weeping one, He
will wipe away those tears! Despairing sinner or desponding saint, if
you will lie low at His feet, He will stoop to you and cheer your
heart! So anxious is He to cheer His mourners that the third Person of
the blessed Trinity has undertaken this special work! The Holy Spirit,
the Comforter, loves to come where there is comforting work to do! Look
up, now, from your beds, you soul-sick ones, for the Great Physician
comes to heal you! He ends the inner conflict of your nature by
becoming, Himself, your peace! Look up now, you that sit in darkness,
in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, bound with affliction and iron,
for the time of your deliverance has come!
I know your plight, for I have been in it myself, and while I am
speaking to you I am remembering the time when my chains clanked as I
walked and when, as I lay down to sleep, they entered into my soul so
that the visions of the night alarmed me! Job's cry was mine–"I was at
ease, but He has broken me asunder! He has also taken me by my neck and
shaken me to pieces and set me up for His mark." Thus was it with me
once, but it was not so forever, for in tender pity my Lord laid down
the sword and spoke comfortable words to me. Just when I had come to
the worst and I thought no hope would ever visit me, I was made to
realize the blessed Truth of the text, "I will not contend forever,
neither will I be always angry," and of that other promise, "With this
man will I dwell, even with him that is poor and of a contrite spirit
and that trembles at My Word."
Encouraged by my own experience of great love, I feel bound to comfort
others! Penitent hearts, He will revive you! He will give you comfort
again! Your mourning He will turn to dancing and your sackcloth into
beautiful array! Do not, I pray you, sorrow as those that are without
hope! This is not the den of despair–so long as this life lasts, it is
the hill of hope! Neither are you a person who has any cause to
despair, since those whom the Lord chastens, He certainly has not cast
away. Men do not prune the vine which they mean to root up and cast
into the fire! This chastening is not unto death. There is a measure to
your stripes which cannot be passed and there will be a speedy and
happy end to the scourging!
The Lord's anger endures but for a night and that night will end in a
hopeful dawn. When your proud spirit is conquered, the Lord's
controversy with you is ended!
III. I would now ask your loving attention to this choice fact, that
GOD HIMSELF FINDS REASONS FOR ENDING THE CONTENTION. We could not have
found any, for in ourselves there is much cause for the Lord's anger
and none for His Grace. A convinced sinner can give no reason why he
should be saved. It is a part of his conviction that his mouth is
closed as to self-justification. He can make neither apology nor
appeal–he feels that he will have to say, "Amen," to his own damnation
if God drives him away from the Mercy Seat. But the Lord Himself finds
reasons for His Grace! Two of these He mentions in our text.
The first is found in human weakness, and its inability to bear the
Divine contention. "I will not contend forever, neither will I always
be angry; for the spirits would fail before Me, and the souls which I
have made." The Lord's chastisement is meant to be corrective, not
destructive! His intent is curing, not killing and, therefore, He will
not make His medicine too potent, or His surgery too severe. He presses
His heavy hand on the sinner until he cries out with David, "Day and
night Your hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the
drought of summer." He felt as destitute of life-moisture as if God had
wrung him out as men do a wet sheet and made him dry as cloth which has
hung up in the hot sun. All his life and spirits were gone out of him
and he felt that his bones were dried and fit only for the morgue.
When things have come so far, the merciful Lord says, "But I do not
desire to kill him. I do not purpose his destruction, for I hate
nothing that My hands have made. No, I love with all my heart this
poor, troubled soul whom it is in My mind to bless." "The Lord does not
afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." He aims at whipping
self out of us, but it is not His will to crash the humble under His
feet. In measure will He debate with us, for He aims at our
conviction and conversion–not at our condemnation. If He were to go
forth to fight against us, it would be as when fire enters into battle
with briars and thorns! He would go through us and burn us all
together.
Our weakness shall plead for us, even as it is said in the 78th Psalm,
at the 38th and 39th verses–"But He, being full of compassion, forgave
their iniquity and destroyed them not: yes, many a time turned He His
anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath. For He remembered they
were but flesh; a wind that passes away, and comes not again." Upon
certain strong minds God lays a heavy lead of conviction, as, for
instance, upon John Bunyan, whose five years of inward contention you
will find mapped out in his, "Grace Abounding." But these cases are not
the rule and in such instances the Lord means to make a peculiarly
useful and experienced man. In the formation of a competent leader and
a spiritual champion, the Lord exercises the man to make him expert in
dealing with others.
But He does not do this with poor, weak minds which are rendered still
weaker by the assaults of Satan and their inward fears. "He gathers the
lambs in His bosom and does gently lead those that are with young." "I
will not contend forever," He says, "for the spirits should fail before
Me, and the souls which I have made." Some men, under a sense of sin,
have been driven to lay violent hands upon themselves. Others have been
scarcely able to eat or drink and many have been severely injured in
their health by the inward corrosion caused by strong conviction. A
sense of sin fills some souls with gall and wormwood to such a degree
that they are drunk with it and are as men at their wits end–but God
stays His rough wind and holds in the rage of His tempest.
In due time He says to Moses, "Stand back, and let your law-work cease;
you have been faithful as My servant, now retire and let My Son come
in, for He is meek and lowly in heart, and those who tremble at My Word
shall now find rest unto their souls by His knowledge." Yes, this is
God's reason for being gentle with His people–"For My name's sake will
I defer My anger, and for My praise will I refrain for you, that I cut
you not off." Sometimes when He sends them correction after correction,
chastisement after chastisement, they can scarcely bear up under it.
But it is never His intention to destroy His own children and,
therefore, He stays His hand and says that He will not always chide,
nor keep His anger forever, for, "Like as a father pities his children,
so the Lord pities them that fear Him; for He knows our frame; He
remembers that we are dust."
If any of you are enduring such a variety of troubles that you are
staggered and feel that you can hold up no longer, then you must appeal
to the pity of the Lord. If your heart is like a lily when the stalk is
bruised, drooping on its stem, and your soul is pining like a
consumptive child and your heart is melted like wax in the midst of
your bowels, let your weakness appeal to God! Yes, it is appealing even
now! He says, "I know their sorrows. I have surely seen the affliction
of My people and I have heard their cry. I have visited their
transgression with the rod and they are brought very low, but they can
bear no more, therefore shall the sighing of the prisoner come before
Me." The Lord marks man, "fragile," as we do boxes of glass which must
not be roughly handled lest they are broken. In this frailty He finds a
reason for tenderness–let His name be adored for it!
His second reason is, to my mind, even more extraordinary. It is given
in the next verse–"For the iniquity of his covetousness was I angry,
and smote him: I hid and was angry, and he went on backsliding in the
way of his heart." This argument is founded on the inoperativeness of
the Divine contention upon the heart which is to be won. The Lord says,
"I was angry with him and smote him." Did he repent? No. I hid My face
from him. Did he humble himself? "He went on backsliding in the way of
his heart." What is the reason of this wicked petrifying of the heart?
Here is the key to the cause–
"Law and terrors do but harden
All the while they work alone.
Nothing but a blood-bought pardon
Can dissolve a heart of stone." Affliction often drives the child of
God into impatience and, of itself, it has a hardening and not a
softening influence. Even the convictions worked in us by the Spirit of
God are often perverted into causes of unbelief and Satan comes in and
drives the soul to unworthy thoughts of God. Such is our evil heart
that it even curdles self-loathing and hatred of sin into a reluctance
to go to God and into a persuasion of the impossibility of mercy! I
have known humiliation and self-despair, which are so much to be
desired, lead to unbelief which is the saddest of all crimes.
"Therefore," says the Lord, "I will not contend any longer; for My
anger seems to excite rebellion rather than to subdue
it."
See a wise father when he has a proud and obstinate boy who has become
estranged. He puts him under strict rule and discipline and he chides
and chastens him. But if the child evidently grows more stubborn; if he
is manifestly of such a spirit that the more you drive him, the more he
will not be driven, his father says within himself, "I will try other
methods with him and see what gentleness will do." Such is the mind of
God who says–"For the iniquity of his covetousness was I angry and
smote him: I hid and was angry and he went on backsliding in the way of
his heart. I have seen his ways and will heal him: I will also lead
him, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners."
If wrath will not humble us, the Lord may yet, in His Grace, try what
love can do. He will love us to a better mind, till our heart sings–
"And do You still invite my love, And court me to be blessed? Will You
my friend and patron prove, My refuge and my rest? Convinced, ashamed,
amazed, I now Obey Your gracious call. To love's command I freely bow,
And offer You my all."
IV. This brings us to the fourth and last point which is this–God
Himself, having found a reason why He should cease from contention, no,
two reasons, the one in our weakness and the second in the failure of
His own chastisement by reason of the flesh–HE INVENTS AND PROPOSES
ANOTHER METHOD FOR ENDING HIS CONTENTIONS and making us right with
Himself. Here it is and we note, in the first place, that it is an
astonishing method–"I have seen his ways, and will heal him." Hear
this, O you heavens, and be astonished, O earth! God's mercy is not
blind mercy! He is merciful in spite of His clear vision of our sins!
"I have seen his ways, and yet I will heal him." If God had not seen
man's sin, His passing by it would be easy to understand. What the eye
does not see, the heart does not regret.
But it is wonderful that it should be written, "I have seen his ways,
and will heal him." The Lord seems to say, "I see him become more
obstinate the more I smite him. I see him provoking Me over and over
again though I chide with him. I see not only his ways, but I see
through his ways the rebellious heart which dwells within. I see that
he is worthless, undeserving, ill-deserving and Hell-deserving! I see
that his mind is set on mischief, that he is altogether estranged from
Me, even from his birth, and that his whole nature is tainted with
rebellion." Yet the Lord adds that astonishing word of Grace, "I have
seen his ways, and will heal him." O Soul, God sees what you are! He
knows your secret wickedness and you have not half such an idea of your
own sin and perverseness as He has! And yet, over the head of it all
leaps the eternal, boundless mercy, "I have seen his ways, and will
heal him."
Note that it is an effectual method. "I have seen his ways, and will
heal him"–not, "I will smite him again," but, "I will treat his sin as
if it were a disease." That is a very wise thing to do with persons who
grievously offend you. When a man's action is very provoking, I like to
hear people say, "Surely he must be a little wrong in the head. Poor
man, he must be out of order or he would not act so." Put the best
construction you can upon an offense and treat it as if it arose out of
disease. It is true that sin is much more than a disease and God might
treat us altogether and only from its criminal side, but still it is a
disease and, therefore, He resolves to treat it as such.
Our great Lord in effect cries, "Oh, this wicked creature of Mine will
not acknowledge its Creator! This sinful child of Mine will persist in
rebelling against My love! Surely something ill's him. I will not
chasten him again, but I will treat him as a sick man and I will heal
him. I will change his nature. I will take away the heart of stone out
of his flesh. I will give him a heart of flesh. I will take those dry
eyes and fill them with tears. I will take that dumb tongue and inspire
it with prayer. I will take that careless heart and melt it with holy
penitence. I have seen his ways and will heal him." It is an
astonishing way! It is an effectual way!
Notice further that it is a tender way–"I will also lead him." Observe
that word. The sinner will have his own way and the Lord has been
driving him into another, but he will not go. Now the Lord will come to
him in gentleness and lead him. He will say, "Come now, let us reason
together." He will appeal to him, and say, "Do not contend with Me any
longer. I can strike hard and I could, if I would, strike you into
Hell! Do not fight with Me. Let us make peace." "As I live," says the
Lord, "I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies, but that he
should turn unto Me and live." Come unto the Lord, you poor
broken-hearted one! He has only strived with you to wean you from your
sin and make it
possible for Him to save you! Stand not up in your puny insignificance
to contend against your God! Do not brazen it out with Him–the mere
strap of His belt will break you–as for His sword, if He uses it upon
you, you are utterly slain!
Come, for He will put your sin away. He will cease from His fierce
anger and reveal His love. He proclaims pardon. Free Grace and dying
love are the charming bells which ring you into the banquet of Grace.
The Lord leads the contrite soul step by step–there is no driving–but
like as a shepherd goes before his sheep, so the Lord Jesus goes before
broken, humble and contrite spirits–and they know His voice and follow
Him.
Observe, also, how complete is this method. As if all that went before
were not enough, it is added, "I will restore comforts to him and to
his mourners." How tender this is! He will take away the sorrow as well
as the sin, the killing grief as well as the killing disease! He will
give us the true balm of Gilead and will pour such wine and oil into
our gaping wounds that all shall be healed and the bones which He had
broken shall rejoice! I do not know whether I have succeeded in
striking you all with an impression of my Master's great love, but it
is very much upon my soul at this time. It amazes me that though He has
been contending with us, after all it is no contention of His heart,
but only of His hands!
When we have resisted and kept up the contention, He says, "I have
struck you and you revolt more and more. Why should you be struck any
more? Your whole head is sick and your whole heart faint with My
striking you. I will chasten you no more, but change My method. I have
brought you down almost to death's door by affliction and yet you still
kick and struggle, as if the last breath in you should be spent in
fighting against Me. I will conquer you, but if it cannot be
accomplished by fear, it shall be achieved by love. If you will not
yield to My thunder, you shall yield to My sunshine! If you will not
bow before My Throne, you shall fall before My Cross. I will die for
you and so I will win you. I will let My own heart be broken for you,
that at last you shall look at Me and your heart shall be broken. I
will love you. I will love you into life. I will love you up from the
very gates of Hell. I will love you till you love Me."
O irresistible Love! Who can stand against You? O Lord, this morning
Your people, if they have rebelled, come weeping back to You to ask
You, again, to give the kiss of reconciliation! We yield! We yield,
submitting ourselves without reserve to You! Many a poor sinner who has
given up the hope of being saved under the crushing blows of conviction
and chastisement, should now cry, "I can hold out no longer–
"Lord, what hard heart can still withstand,
And still rebellious prove?
Refuse to bow to Your command,
Or to accept Your love?
O'ercome by glorious Grace,
I now my former war give over.
To Your command I gladly bow,
And would contend no more."
Oh, come, you wanderers, and rest in Jesus! Come, you most lost, most
ruined, most hopeless and find Heaven begun in Christ! Oh, you that sit
on the edge of Hell, who have made a Covenant with Death and a league
with Satan, whose death warrant seems to be signed and put into your
hands so that you read it by the flames of Hell, whose fury you
anticipate–come to Jesus and that handwriting of death shall be
blotted out! The impending judgment seems even now to scorch your
souls–come and find deliverance from it, for God Himself invites you!
Tarry no longer! May Jesus sweetly lead you to Himself. Amen.
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Remember Lot's Wife