Healing and Pardon
(No. 1905)
A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JUNE 20, 1886,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell in
it shall be forgiven their iniquity." Isaiah 33:24.
This whole chapter was a gracious message from God to a people who were
in extremis. They were made to drink the foulest dregs of sorrow
through the invasion of the Assyrians. The highways were waste, the
wayfarer ceased. The earth mourned and languished. Lebanon was ashamed
and hewn down. Sharon was like a wilderness and Bashan and Carmel shook
off their fruits. Then did God arise. When the worst had come to the
worst, He laid bare His arm and brought deliverance for His people! Is
not this a general rule with God? Is it not a Truth of God fraught with
comfort to any of you whose day has darkened down into a seven-fold
midnight? When nothing else is left you, God remains and God appears!
When all your own strength fails you, your strength shall be to sit
still while God arises and becomes your arm every morning, your
salvation in the time of trouble!
I would encourage all who are in spiritual distress to gather hope from
this chapter, since it is addressed to Zion in her sore affliction. If
it is really so, that the joys and blessings which are described in the
passage before us come to a people who are driven to the last
extremity, why should not such blessings come to you? We have often
noted how the Lord delights to look upon the poor and needy and comes
with succor to those who are in distress. It is the way of the Lord to
look in pity upon those who are cast down. Lift up your heart to Him
and cry unto Him out of the depth! Let your prayer rise to His Throne
out of the low dungeon. Expect that He will be very pitiful and will
have compassion upon you in your misery. Jerusalem was on the brink of
destruction when the Lord answered the prayer of Hezekiah and smote the
vast host of Assyria. The peril of Jerusalem serves as a dark
background to bring out the brightness of my text. The city might have
been destroyed by pestilence through its sins, but the Lord says, "The
inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell in it shall
be forgiven their iniquity."
The great result of God's gracious dealings with His afflicted people
is that they glorify His holy name. Observe how in this chapter God is
spoken of as being "exalted, for He dwells on high." He is called, "the
glorious Lord." Truly our Lord never appears more glorious than in the
eyes of those who are brought low and humbled in their own esteem.
Their distresses, out of which they are graciously delivered, call upon
them to exalt their Savior! They hear a voice saying, "Oh that men
would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to
the children of men! For He has broken the gates of brass and cut the
bars of iron in sunder." Our God gets little praise in this fair world
which is a masterpiece of His skill, for man refuses to adore. Creation
ought to make our voices ring out perpetual Psalms, for it is full of
wonders! Providence ought, also, to keep us always making music upon an
instrument of 10 strings, but, alas, we yield our praises to inferior
workers. We are always backward and slow in the praises of the Lord.
Will a man rob God? Yet we rob Him of His Glory. And so He brings us
into straits, that He may display the majesty of His Grace and the
infinity of His power in rescuing us. Then are we moved to astonishment
and adoration! Then we burst forth into a song as we abundantly utter
the memory of His great goodness! At sight of His amazing love, we
magnify the Lord and ask others to magnify Him with us, that we may
exalt His name together. This is as it should be–let it be so now. Oh,
you that have tasted of the Lord's rich Grace in the hour of trouble,
praise Him at this good hour! Let the hallelujahs of your soul go up to
Him in the courts of the Lord's House. If you cannot speak out your
praise, let it wait for God in Zion and unto Him let the vow be
performed. Let your expressive silence mean the praise which you cannot
sound forth with your tongue. The Holy Spirit who makes intercession in
us with groans that cannot be uttered will also put into us praises
inexpressible by words!
As we saw in the reading of this chapter, the Prophet seems to take
wing as he proceeds. He rises from note to note, as if, like David, he
said, "Selah"–lift up the strain! He makes each note more high, more
sweet, more loud than those which preceded it, for he sings unto Him
that does great things for His people. The climax is in this
verse–"The people that dwell in it shall be forgiven their iniquity."
One of the highest notes of praise is in the 103rd Psalm–"Bless the
Lord, O my Soul; who has forgiven all your iniquities, who heals all
your diseases." Our text is another form of that verse–"The inhabitant
shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell in it shall be forgiven
their iniquity." Healing and forgiveness are placed in happy
conjunction and both bestowed on the Lord's people when they looked not
for them.
I shall speak upon our text thus, if the Holy Spirit will help me.
First, there is such a thing as present forgiveness– "The people that
dwell in it shall be forgiven their iniquity." Secondly, with this
forgiveness there comes the removal of the consequences of sin–"The
inhabitant shall not say, I am sick." And, thirdly, this makes a
remarkable change in the language of the favored people–"The
inhabitant shall not say, I am sick." They shall be so greatly blessed
that their language shall lose its complaining tone! They shall no
longer sigh and lament. They shall now have other things to talk about
than their own infirmities and sufferings. "The inhabitant shall not
say, I am sick, the people that dwell in it shall be forgiven their
iniquity."
I. First, then, Beloved, I introduce to you a topic upon which I am
sure you have no question, but still, it may do you good to be
confirmed in the acknowledged Truth of God. THERE IS SUCH A THING AS
THE PRESENT FORGIVENESS OF SIN. "The people that dwell in it shall be
forgiven their iniquity."
There must be a present conscious enjoyable pardon of sin, otherwise
there would be no joy in the world for thoughtful minds. To the
thoughtless and careless, there might be a flash in the pan, a noisy
mirth as the crackling of thorns under a pot, but to the penitent, to
the serious, to the careful, where could there be a spark of joy if sin
were unforgiven? When we once begin to feel what sin is, to discern its
true nature and to understand the just punishment which must follow
upon it, we cannot rest under its condemnation. Though God should give
us dainties from day to day, clothe us in scarlet and fine linen and
set us among the princes of the earth, we would be restless–we would
be wretched as long as sin preyed upon our heart. Sin–this casts
darkness upon the sun, eclipsing its meridian light. Sin is the blast
which withers all the flowers of life. Sin is the gall of bitterness–a
drop of it would turn an ocean of pleasure into wormwood! Sin would
again blight the Garden, could it be restored. Yes, it would turn
Heaven into Hell could it enter there! Sin is a burden which an
awakened conscience cannot bear. It crushes the spirit into the dust
and threatens further to bear it down, even to the lowest Hell.
But when sin is pardoned, then our hymn which we have just now been
singing leaps joyfully to our lips–
"Now, oh joy! My sins are pardoned." Is not this a necessary ingredient
in that overflowing cup which the Lord puts to the lips of His redeemed
ones? "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through Jesus Christ our Lord." But without that justification there
can be no peace and no enjoyment of life. Believers are spoken of as a
blessed people who joy in God–they are bid to always rejoice! The
Apostle says, "Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice."
Such rejoicing would be impossible if sin were not pardoned and,
therefore, we conclude that sin may be pardoned, that it may be
pardoned now and that we may know it! If forgiveness is essential to a
state of mind which we are exhorted to exhibit, then forgiveness may be
enjoyed at this present hour!
Further, dear Brothers and Sisters, there must be forgiveness of sin,
otherwise the main motive and fountain of love would be dried up.
Forgiveness begets gratitude, gratitude creates love and love brings
forth holiness. She that washed the Savior's feet with tears and wiped
them with the hairs of her head–would she have done it if she had not
loved much because she felt that much had been forgiven her? The motive
power of action to a believing man lies hard by the realization that
God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven his iniquities. When I see my
Lord, His own Self, bearing my sins in His own body on the Cross and
blotting out my faults forever by His death, then my spirit glows with
love, my eyes stream with tears, my heart dedicates itself wholly to
Jesus and my life begins to show the effect of my inward emotion!
Sin forgiven leads to sin forsaken. Is it not so? Doubt whether you are
forgiven and what can you do? Can you preach a Gospel which has not
brought you pardon? Can you go into the Sunday school to try and bring
little children
to a Christ who has not forgiven you your sins? But understand that
through the one great Sacrifice your iniquities are forever pardoned
and then you must love the great Sacrifice and you must praise the Lord
who gave Him to die for your sins! Is not this the song of the
perfected–"Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His
own blood, unto Him be Glory forever and ever"? There must be a
consciousness of forgiveness, or our lives will be limp, weak,
purposeless.
It must be so, that sin can be pardoned and that we can know it,
otherwise we would be always in bondage through fear of death. In what
jeopardy would we stand every hour, since we might at once sink into
Hell! The prospect of death– how terrible would it be to us if sin
still accused us unto God! Many of us now contemplate the approach of
death with a calm, quiet patience of hope. As our years advance, we are
not distressed with the thought that the time of our departure daily
draws nearer. This world is not our rest and we do not desire to always
live! We anticipate the hour when we
shall–
"Our body with our charge lay down,
And cease at once to work and live." But how could this be if we
enjoyed no sense of pardoned sin? It has been my intense delight to be
with many members of this Church in the hour of their departure and I
have invariably found them rejoicing in hope! I have sometimes heard
them sing and I have joined in their holy hymns. More often I have
heard their steady calm acknowledgement of their joy in the prospect of
being "forever with the Lord." But how could this have been if sin had
not been pardoned? Is not this true which we sing–
"If sin is pardoned, I'm secure, Death has no sting beside! The law
gives sin its damning power; But Christ, my Ransom, died"?
"The sting of death is sin" and you cannot take away the sting of death
if sin is not taken away! There could be no looking forward with
expectancy if there were no acceptance in Christ! It would be
impossible to be in a strait, as Paul was, when he said, "For I am in a
strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ,
which is far better." To be willing to be offered up and joyfully to
say, "The time of my departure is at hand," would be utterly impossible
if Believers did not know and, know of a certainty, that their sins are
all forgiven! Once we cried, "Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow!"
We were not in error in that prayer and now, that we have been washed
and have heard our Master say, "You are clean every whit," we are not
deluded! "We have joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we
have received the atonement." We say at this hour, "O Lord, I will
praise You! Though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away
and You comforted me." Has not the Lord declared, "I, even I, am He
that blots out your transgressions for My own sake and will not
remember your sins"? Yes, great Lord, it is even so! "There is
forgiveness with You that You may be feared." There is a city whose
inhabitants are forgiven their iniquities! Blessed be the Lord who
passes by the trespasses of His people!
Once more–there must be forgiveness, for otherwise the whole system of
Grace would be a dead letter and its glorious privileges would be mere
shells without a kernel. Where would be salvation, itself, without
pardon? How could we be saved from our sins if not forgiven? What
glorious Gospel could there be if sin could not be cancelled? We read
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, "to as many as received Him, to them
gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on
His name." But how can we be sons under condemnation? How shall I
reckon myself to be a beloved child if my Father is still my Judge and
holds over me the sword of Justice? "Your sins which are many are
forgiven you," is necessary before the spirit of adoption can enter, to
make us cry, "Abba, Father!" There is certainly no possibility of
acceptance or justification while sin is unforgiven! I have already
shown you that there is no motive to seek sanctification if we are
hopelessly condemned for sin. What is even the gift of Christ, Himself,
if He does not put away our sin? The whole of the blessings of the
Gospel seem to me to have lost their charm unless, first of all, there
is cleansing from all iniquity.
Let us now bend our thoughts to a consideration of this great blessing
as it is treated of in this chapter. It is plainly promised in the
text, "The people that dwell in it shall be forgiven their iniquity."
Nor is this a lone word–the same is often declared. I will not occupy
your time by quoting the many passages of Scripture in which the pardon
of sin is expressly promised. Is it not in the Covenant, "I will
forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more"? "He
that believes is justified from all things from which he could not be
justified by the Law of Moses." Pardon is a promised
blessing. It is God's prerogative to forgive and He delights to
exercise it. He says expressly, "I will pardon them whom I reserve." He
has pardoned, He does pardon, He will pardon. So stands the Covenant of
Love!
If we wish to obtain this free pardon, it will be granted in answer to
prayer. Read the second verse, "O Lord, be gracious unto us." This is
short, but full. There is sound doctrine in that cry. "The people that
dwell in it shall be forgiven their iniquity" is a suitable answer to
that petition. If you want pardon of Him who is waiting to be gracious,
seek it! It is to be had without money and without price by the man who
will stretch out his empty hand to take it. It is all of Grace. If you
will have it, God is ready to grant it in answer to your humble cry.
"Where sin abounded, Grace does much more abound." The Lord Jesus is
exalted on high "to give repentance and remission of sins." "If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." Go
to your knees and see if the Lord will not be gracious to you!
Pardon is given in connection with the exaltation of God. Read the
fifth verse–"The Lord is exalted." He does not grant this forgiveness
until we begin to recognize that He is a great God and a Savior. We
must see that He is great in justice and we must bow in penitence and
honor that justice! And then we must get some thought of the greatness
of His love in giving His Son to die that He might justly forgive us.
The greatness of our Lord's compassion in passing by iniquity,
transgression and sin must be confessed or we shall never find pardon.
Friend, you will never get mercy for your great sin from a little God!
He must be a great God to you, or you will never receive the great
mercy you need. You must learn to say of Him, "Who is a God like unto
You, that pardons iniquity and passes by transgression?" Low thoughts
of God create doubts of pardon and doubt holds us in bondage under sin.
But high thoughts of God beget hope in the soul and hope leads to
confidence–and confidence brings assurance of forgiveness.
God grants pardon when men are humbled. See the seventh verse–"Their
valiant ones shall cry without: the ambassadors of peace shall weep
bitterly." Crying and weeping are good preparations for pardon. In the
dust of self-abasement is the place for hope. Jeremiah says of the
afflicted, "He puts his mouth in the dust; if so there may be hope."
God never pardons the proud–He knows them "afar off," and has enough
of them at a distance. With the humble and contrite He dwells,
delighting to hear them honor His Law by bemoaning their breaches of
it. When you say, "God be merciful to me a sinner," though you dare not
lift up your eyes to Heaven, the eyes of Heaven look down on you. You
shall go to your house justified if, in God's Grace, you have confessed
yourself to be condemned. God also grants this pardon when the heart is
searched. Read the 14th verse–"The sinners in Zion are afraid;
fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with
the devouring fire?" When we begin to examine ourselves, to fear
because of sin and to turn from all hypocrisy, then the Lord will
accept us. There must be a laying aside of all insincerity, a dealing
with God in truth, before the gracious God can put away our iniquity.
Sincerity is indispensable to mercy. How can the Lord be other than a
devouring fire to hypocrites?
God will also pardon us when He is acknowledged to be our Ruler and
Lord. Look at the 22nd verse–"The Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our
Lawgiver, the Lord is our King." Will you have God to reign over you?
If so, He will forgive you, but if you will continue to rebel, His
wrath shall abide upon you. How can you receive the kiss of love if you
do not give the kiss of allegiance? "Kiss the Son, lest He be angry."
Accept His rule and He will accept your prayer. We must love His Law or
we cannot be discharged from its curse. Be willing to obey and He is
ready to forgive.
He will also forgive us when we put our trust in Him. Read the last
clause of the 22nd verse–"He will save us." Faith must look for
salvation only from the Lord and then salvation will come to it. Oh,
how I wish that some poor heart here present would cry this morning,
"He will save me! I will take Him to be my King and my Lawgiver, and I
will believe for myself that He will have me!" It is that touch of
personal faith which brings peace to the soul. If you will not trust
God, neither shall you have peace. But if you will come now, just as
you are, and believe that He is able to forgive you and trust Him to do
so, then you shall have this promise verified in your experience–"The
people that dwell in it shall be forgiven their iniquity."
Is not this a large promise? One might descant upon it by the week
together and, indeed, one might rejoice in it to all eternity! I leave
it to your quiet musings. If the Prophet says, "Your heart shall
meditate terror," viewing it as past and gone, how much more may you
muse on mercy, world without end, viewing it as forever your own?
II. Now, with extreme brevity, I want, in the second place, to say that
WHEN SIN IS PARDONED, THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN ARE ALSO REMOVED. Sin had
made these people sick as Isaiah says in his first chapter–"The whole
head is sick, and the whole heart faint." But when iniquity is
forgiven, then, "the inhabitant shall not say, I am
sick." Special chastisement is usually removed when any peculiar sin is
forgiven. God, under a former age, very manifestly visited sin with
chastisement in this life and when He forgave it, He removed the weight
of His hand from the offender. Read the history of Israel and see a
host of instances. There are still instances in which personal
chastisement does follow personal sin in this life, especially among
Believers and especially among Believers in Church fellowship. We read
of the Corinthians, when they misbehaved themselves, "For this cause
some are sickly among you, and many sleep." Within the chosen family
there are chastisements unknown to the outside world. But when we go
with our confession and find pardon of the Lord, the temporal
chastisement is usually removed, or else it is so changed in its
purpose as to become quite another thing. Oftentimes, also, great
sinners who have, by their gross misconduct, brought themselves into
grievous trouble, have found no way of escape from it till their evil
ways have been forsaken. The valley of Achor has been their door of
hope. Where they have bewailed their fault, they have received
deliverance. When the root of bitterness is taken away, the evil which
grows out of it has also been removed. When Nineveh repented, its
threatened destruction was averted.
But, further, when I speak of the consequences of sin being taken away,
this is very apparent in respect of certain sins. A man being a drunk
brings himself to poverty–he asks forgiveness for the drunkenness and
he ceases from it. By honest industry his abject poverty is soon ended.
Within a few weeks you see a difference in the very aspect of the man.
Oftentimes when, by some sin of impurity, a sinner weakens his body and
injures his health, his cure is much helped by his repenting and
forsaking his uncleanness. It may not be so with some great
transgressions, for they may leave scars which cannot be healed in this
life, but true repentance will turn even these into a means of
humiliation and make them serve as safeguards against any return to
folly. When sins are frankly confessed and forsaken, then the gracious
message comes– "The Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die."
Further, in the case of Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, if some of
the temporal results of sin do not cease, yet it is only in appearance
that they remain, or rather they remain for other purposes, benign and
useful–not as wrathful inflictions. If by past sin one has brought
himself into a state of sickness, or poverty, or depression, these may
leave their traces upon him, but from the day in which he finds pardon,
these will not be punishments inflicted by a Judge, but chastisements
lovingly appointed by a Father. A father may chasten his child very
severely, but this is not the same as pain inflicted by the sentence of
a judge. It is one thing for a parent to shut his child in a room
because he has done wrong, but it is quite another thing for a
magistrate to send him to prison for a crime! The act may seem the
same, but the feeling of the authority commanding the chastisement is
very different. Believers do not escape the sorrows of this life, but
then, no sorrow that comes to a Christian is sent as a penal
infliction. It is not sent as a vindication of Law, but as a tender
parental discipline. Vast is the difference between the chastisement of
love and the infliction of justice. To the forgiven man, "all things
work together for good," yes, even those things which naturally follow
upon the sin which is now forgiven. The curse is turned into a
blessing! The poison acts as a medicine! That which kills the
impenitent helps the cure of a Believer!
Yes, look at death itself. Do Christians die as a punishment for sin?
God forbid! God lays no punishment on those who have accepted Jesus as
their Substitute, for He has borne the whole of their punishment and it
is not possible that God should exact punishment twice–first at the
hands of their Surety–and then again at their own. Death is no
punishment to the Believer–it is the gate of endless joy! It is not
death to die, now that Jesus has died, yes, rather, has risen and gone
into Glory on our behalf! We thank God that the bitterness of death is
past. Death itself is mentioned in the list of our possessions–"All
things are yours, whether life or death." Maybe we shall not die at
all, for our Lord may come all of a sudden and if He comes while we are
alive and remain we shall not sleep, though we shall all be changed in
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. Rest
assured, Believer, that since God has forgiven your sins, He has dried
up the well of bitterness and you shall drink no more of it. Or, if it
seems to come to your lips, it shall be so changed in its character
that it shall be a healing draught!
Believe, once more, that all the eternal penal consequences are gone
from the forgiven man. For him there can be no condemnation at the Day
of Judgement! For him there can be no, "Depart, you cursed!" For him
there is no blackness of darkness forever! For him no worm that dies
not, no fire that never can be quenched! In Christ Jesus he stands
before God as if he had never sinned! Yes, he wears the perfect
righteousness of Christ and, arrayed in that precious robe, he can face
the terrors of the last tremendous day without alarm! "Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God
that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yes,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also makes intercession for us." Sin gone, the root of all evil is
gone! "Comfort you, comfort you My people, says your God. Speak you
comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her, that her warfare is
accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she has received of
the Lord's hand double for all her sins."
III. The specialty of what I want to say lies in my last point–that
THE LORD EVEN CHANGES THE TONE OF
HIS PEOPLE'S SPEECH. "The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick." That is
the point! Why shall they not say, "I am sick"?
First, they have no need to say it when the Lord comes and dwells with
them, for the Sun of Righteousness has risen upon them with healing in
His wings. When Jesus healed the sick of the palsy, He said to him,
"Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you." Pardon and healing
were one! Spiritually the pardoned one shall not need to say, "I am
sick," because his soul diseases then receive a healing medicine.
All spiritual disease receives its deathblow when sin is forgiven. Sin
is crucified by the same Cross which brings Atonement. You may have to
struggle with it, for the corruption of the flesh still remains, but
"sin shall not have dominion over you; for you are not under the Law,
but under Grace." The Lord's name, to the forgiven one, is
Jehovah-Rophi–"The Lord Who Heals You." Albeit, you may feel full of
distempers, any one of which might be fatal to you if left alone, yet
in the reception of pardon, there comes to you a new life which will
conquer all those distempers. "Whoever is born of God, sins not." The
new nature sins not. John says, "Whoever is born of God does not commit
sin," that is to say he cannot sin as others do–it is not the rule and
drift of his life. There is a change worked in the Believer of the most
wonderful kind, as it is written, "A new heart, also, will I give them,
and a right spirit will I put within them. I will put My fear in their
heart, and they shall not depart from Me." Now though we can say that
the old nature is sick and sick to death, so that the sooner it is
utterly destroyed the better, yet speaking of ourselves as renewed by
the Holy Spirit we delight in the Law of God after the inward man. God
has made us to be holy in our desires and aspirations–and has renewed
the image of His own perfect Self within us, so that we have no longer
need to say, "I am sick."
Here, also, is a very wonderful point in the passage before us
concerning danger averted, for you know that when a city is besieged,
one of the most certain consequences in old times was the plague. The
inhabitants could not get out to receive fresh air. They were denied
necessary provisions and so they became faint and ready to be preyed
upon by pestilence. Yet the Lord promised that when He worked
deliverance for the cooped up inhabitants of Jerusalem they should not
say, as other besieged citizens do, "I am sick." I will take up my
parable and show the spiritual parallel to this. God will avert the
pestilence of sin from pardoned men. They shall be preserved from those
moral pests which slay their thousands. You were once the victim of
every fever of sin, but now your sin is forgiven. You pass unharmed
through the temptations which surround you. God will preserve the true
Believer from the malaria of corruption which is in the world through
lust. He shall be "kept by the power of God through faith unto
salvation." You shall not be obliged to say, "I am sick," because
others are so, for the Lord shall keep you from the pestilence that
walks in darkness, even from insidious and deceitful errors and sins.
Remember that marvelous promise, "The Lord shall preserve you from all
evil: He shall preserve your soul." The Lord shall preserve your going
out and your coming in. In answer to your morning prayer, "Lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from the Evil One," you shall be
preserved in purity and uprightness and from all the devices of the
devil, for "that Evil One touches you not."
Here, again, is another point. The inhabitant could not say, "I am
sick," and yet the Assyrians died in a single night. They laid
themselves down to slumber in their tents, expecting speedily to divide
the spoil–
"But the angel of death spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in
the face of the foe as he passed. And the eyes of the sleepers waxed
deadly and chill, And their hearts but once heaved and forever grew
still." The Lord, in this case, put a difference between His people and
their enemies. Multitudes died outside, but inside the city, where you
might have expected things to be much worse, the inhabitant did not
say, "I am sick." Today we live in an age when sin abounds–a moral
pestilence is slaying its thousands. I dare not describe what is going
on in the camp beyond, into which we have no desire to enter, but the
Lord is a wall of fire around His people! If your sin is forgiven, the
plague of deadly sin shall not come near your dwelling! Even to the end
shall the Lord watch over you, so that, preserved in
moral sanity, you shall not have need to say, "I am sick." On the
contrary, you shall sing, "He restores my soul: He leads me in the
paths of righteousness for His name's sake."
Next, they shall have no thought of saying, "I am sick." He that feels
the joy of pardoned sin forgets all his pains and griefs. In my own
body I know what it is to be vexed with sore pains and yet to feel such
rest of heart that I have felt no desire to complain. When we rejoice
in Divine love we make small account of our bodily condition! If deaf,
blind, or otherwise full of infirmities of the flesh, we make small
reckoning of the whole when we know the joy of pardoned sin. The
inhabitant shall not say, "I am sick," because he says, "I am
forgiven." The Lord gives to His people, at times, such peace and joy
in believing that though they are poor, they do not say, "I am poor,"
but sing, "I am forgiven, I am forgiven!" A Brother had grievously
offended and had been put out from Church fellowship for his sin. He so
behaved that his pastor thought of him with pain and was glad to avoid
an interview with him, for it only produced a sad attempt at
self-justification. At length the Lord brought him to a better mind. He
sought his pastor and said, with tears, "Will you shake hands with me?"
The pastor replied, "Right gladly. I rejoice to feel that the past is
all forgiven. How are you?" The repentant one made this reply, "I am
quite well, now that you restore me to your esteem." The poor man was
extremely ill, but the joy of being once more in his old place in his
friend's thoughts made him refuse to say, "I am sick." The news of
victory has made lame men leap. How much more shall it be so when the
Lord Jesus manifests His power to save and the Holy Spirit assures the
heart of blood-bought pardon? Then, indeed, "The inhabitant shall not
say, I am
sick."
Many a child of God, when weary, has renewed his strength at the
remembrance of pardoning mercy. Though almost spent, the assured
Believer has gone on preaching, or visiting the sick, or conducting his
Bible class, because he has felt under such obligations to his Lord
that he could go on till he dropped. When a torrent of joy streams
through the soul, it bears it right over all hindrances caused by
weakness or weariness. Since Jesus has saved us, we ask no discharge
from His service because we are sick–our love to Him acts as a tonic
and strengthens us. We keep our name on the muster-roll, take our place
in the ranks and feel that till we die we will not ask to be excused so
long as we can creep out at our Master's call!
I find some read this sentence in the past tense–"The inhabitant shall
not say, I have been sick." The joy of pardon makes us ignore the
sorrow of the past. "You shall not remember the reproach of your
widowhood any more." Since their enemies were all gone, the citizens of
Jerusalem rejoiced in their safety and said nothing about what they had
suffered. Many of the sick left their couches, crowded the battlements
and looked out with pleasure towards the quarter where the foe had
been. The Assyrian power was broken–the great king had fled! The men
of Jerusalem forgot they had been half-starved and that the plague had
been among them. The inhabitant did not say, "I am sick." Their misery
was swallowed up in victory. Glory be to God for such mercy as this!
When God changes our estate from condemnation to acceptance, then is
our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing because "the
Lord has done great things for us, of which we are glad."
Again, these people did not say they were sick since they had a motive
for not saying so. You remember a late sermon upon the four lepers who
went out and divided the spoil? [Sermon #1908, Who Found It Out?] They
did not say, "We are lepers"–that was forgotten and they entered tents
as if they had been in health. They went into one pavilion and ate and
drank. And then they went into another. Men free from leprosy could not
have made themselves more at home! They took away gold and silver and
hid it, though they were lepers. So, when the Lord pardons our sin,
there is a prey to be taken–riches of Grace are at our disposal.
Notice the verse that comes before the text, "The lame take the prey."
Doubtless, this was literally true–numbers of persons in Jerusalem
were scarcely able to get about, for some had rheumatism and others had
broken bones, so that they could hardly limp along the public way. But
when it was announced that the rich camp of the Assyrians was to be
spoiled, the lame made a shift to be there! Old women quite decrepit
and men who had long kept their beds suddenly rose to activity and none
of them said, "I am sick." They had a motive for getting well,
directly, for great wealth was to be had by the gatherer! From a
pardoning God there are such mercies and such blessings to be received
that we who have little faith and are weak in heart, suddenly find our
spirits revive and we gather our share of Divine gifts! A sense of
pardon strengthens the weak hands and confirms the feeble knees and we
become mighty to lay hold upon the benefits of the Covenant!
The inhabitant did not say, "I am sick," for the time was come for
glorifying the God of Israel! Everybody was shouting, "Hallelujah!" up
and down the streets of Jerusalem–who could say, "I am sick"? Children
were singing and young men and maidens were dancing because Judah was
free from her foe! And even the sick folk merged their sighs and groans
in songs and Psalms. Jehovah had triumphed! His people were free and it
seemed to be with the people of Jerusalem as it was with Israel in
Egypt–"there was not one feeble person in all their tribes." When the
Lord pardons our sin, the weakest, the feeblest, the most despondent,
the most despairing among us will not say, "We are sick," but our soul
shall magnify the Lord! Pardon impels us to duty and stimulates us to
praise! We no longer mourn and murmur, but we sing because the might of
the enemy has melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!
Yet once again, and I have done. Pardoned people shall not say they are
sick, for by a little anticipation they shall declare the very
contrary. In a little time–how little a time none of us can tell–we
shall be where the inhabitant shall never be sick again! The Lord has
begun to heal us and the healing virtue which His Grace has infused
into us will work us health and cure till we shall be without spot or
wrinkle, or any such thing! His salvation will also perfectly heal our
bodies. Today the body is dead because of sin, though the spirit is
life because of righteousness. The regeneration of the body takes place
at the Resurrection and when we shall rise again, it will be in the
image of the Lord Jesus! It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power!
We shall not rise with dim eyes, dull ears, deformed limbs, or feeble
frames. Having eaten the leaves of the Tree of Life, we shall be healed
of all that ailed us here below! We are on our way to eternal health!
We have the life within us which is to be perfect forever and ever!
Why should we, then, say, "I am sick"? If a man could be quite sure
that he would be in perfect health, tomorrow, he would say little about
the sickness of an hour. A blind man who will see, tomorrow, hardly
numbers himself with the blind! Before another Sabbath comes round,
some of you may be with the angels, yes, before tomorrow's sun shall
rise you may be where they "need no candle, neither light of the sun."
Happy men to be so nearly well–so nearly Home! Happy beings who shall
so soon be–
"Far from a world of grief and sin, With God eternally shut in!"
Then shall you realize the fullest meaning of these words, "The
inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell in it shall
be forgiven their iniquity."
Who comes this way? Who comes this way? Welcome, Brothers and Sisters,
to pardon and healing through our Lord Jesus. Who is going the other
way? Let such a sad wanderer consider his way, retrace his steps and
seek his God who, in Christ Jesus, can heal him! O you who are now sick
unto death, ask to be forgiven and healing will come from the pardoning
hand. God bless you! Amen.