Ho! Ho!
(No. 3299)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 1912.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters." Isaiah 55:1.
THERE is a thirst which is peculiar to the Believer. He can say with
David, "As the hart pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul
after You, O God." Delightful thirst! Would God we had more of it! May
we be longing and panting after our God in that sense until we shall be
filled with His Spirit and shall dwell in His Presence to go no more
out forever!
But I wish now to speak of another kind of thirst to another class of
thirsting ones, who thirst they scarcely know for what. They have a
sense of unrest, of longing, of yearning–yet they have a very
indistinct idea of what it is their souls are pining for. It may be
that they will find out presently what it is their thirst requires.
Better still, if perhaps, by God's blessing, that thirst shall be
quenched by their drinking that Living Water of which they are bidden
freely to take.
I shall not detain you with a long preface, nor, indeed, with a long
discourse. I will try to make each portion of my address brief,
practical and pointed. May the Holy Spirit make it effectual!
Learn from my text that God has made plenteous soul-provision and that
to every thirsty soul this provision is perfectly free and gratuitous.
I. In the first place, GOD HAS MADE AN ABUNDANT SOUL-PROVISION.
We read here of "water." Water has been pronounced the simplest,
purest, fittest drink for all persons of all ages and temperaments.
Now, there is a thirst in man's body which makes him require drink. He
drinks and that thirst is removed. There is a similar thirst in man's
spiritual'nature. He needs something and he feels uneasy until he gets
it. The Grace of God, which is proclaimed to us in Christ Jesus, is
that which meets the longing of man. That is the spiritual water for
man's spiritual thirst. In the text, the word is put in the plural,
"Come you to the waters," I suppose to show the abundance thereof, as
though there were many rivers of it, so that none might fear that they
should require more than was provided–
"Rivers of love and mercy here
In a rich ocean join.
Salvation in abundance flows,
Like floods of milk and wine.
Great God, the treasures of Your love
Are everlasting mines–
Deep as our helpless miseries are,
And boundless as our sins."
The mercy of God is not a little brook which can be almost drained up
by a passing ox, but it is a vast river–it is many rivers, rivers to
swim in! "Ho, everyone that thirsts!" Stand not back because you think
there is not enough, but come you to the waters!
Or the word may be in the plural to signify variety. The soul needs
many things. Viewing eternity, God and judgment from different points
of view, it needs manifold and multitudinous mercies. They are all
provided and the word, "waters," indicates that many fresh springs of
consolation are ready for those who thirst for all spiritual blessings
as soon as the eye sees or the ear hears tell of them! You need not
fear if you need the pardon of sin, or the renewal of your nature, or
guidance in perplexity, or comfort in distress–you need not fear but
what you shall find it. "Come you to the waters." There is an infinite
variety in the Grace of God! He is called "the God of all Grace." All
the Grace that all the
sinners that ever come to Him can need, they shall find stored up in
the Gospel provisions of the Covenant of Grace. "Ho, everyone that
thirsts, come you to the waters," for God has provided for soul-needs
in plentiful abundance and endless variety!
Now, are you thirsting? It surely is not the mere play of imagination,
but the sober apprehension of a fact that convinces me there are
persons here who are thirsting in a spiritual sense. I think one of
them says, "I thirst, I thirst to have my sins forgiven and to be
reconciled to God. I know that I have done wrong–for me to plead that
I have been innocent would be to add a lie to all my other iniquities.
I am sensible in my inmost heart that I have both by omission and
commission, transgressed the Divine Law. I deserve punishment, but I
would that, by some means, I might be put into the Divine favor. I
cannot bear to think that God should be angry with me every day! Once I
laughed at this, but now I feel its meaning and it is like an arrow
sticking in my loins. Oh, that I could have my Maker to be my Friend! I
cannot fight the battle with Him–He could crush me in a moment! I
would, therefore, cast down the weapons of my rebellion and be
reconciled to Him." Come, then, you thirsty one, come and have what you
need! Come and put your trust in Jesus and your sin is forgiven and you
are reconciled–for, far off as you are, you shall be brought near by
the blood of Christ! Do you know how? It is thus–God must punish sin.
Your sin has incurred penalty, but He exacted your debt from your
Surety. He punished Jesus for your sins which you have committed, if
you believe in Jesus as your Substitute! He endured, that you might
never endure, the whole of the Divine wrath! God can now, therefore,
without marring His justice, reconcile to Himself the offending sinner,
be agreed with him, receive him into friendship, yes, receive him into
sonshipand adopt him as His child! That troubled conscience of yours
will soon have peace if you will but trust in the bleeding Sacrifice of
the Lamb of God for slain sinners! Put your hands upon His dear head,
once crowned with thorns for you, and you shall prove that God is our
Friend, and know that your sin is forgiven! Ho, everyone that thirsts
for pardon and for reconciliation, come you to the waters, and have
there your desire!
I think I hear another say, "I desire that same blessing, but I need
something more. I want to conquer the sin that dwells in me.I want to
be pure and holy! I cannot bear to be in the future what I have been in
the past! I feel the chains of habit that bind me–I need to snap them
off. I would no longer be an example of vice–I want to be a pattern of
everything that is lovely and of good repute. But I have struggled
against sin and it gets the mastery over me. I do for a time escape,
but still I bear my fetters upon me and am dragged back to my prison. I
cannot be what I would, oh, that I could escape from the power of sin!"
Ah, you thirsty one, it is a blessed thing to desire as you desire! And
let me tell you that God will give you the desire of your heart, for
Jesus died that He might deliver His people from the power of Satan! He
came on purpose that He might destroy the power of sin in His people
and make them so free that they should not serve sin, but become a
people zealous for good works. If you will come to Jesus and simply
believe in Him–that is, rely upon Him, trust Him–His Grace will come
and refine you, implanting a new nature, taking away the heart of stone
and giving a heart of flesh–and you shall yet put your foot upon the
neck of all your corruptions! You shall cast them out little by little,
and you shall be made meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the
saints in light! Ho, everyone that thirsts for purity and virtue and
for victory over indwelling sin, let him come to the waters that flowed
with the blood from Jesus' side–and let him taste and his thirst shall
be appeased forever!
In some persons this soul-thirst takes the shape of an anxious desire
for perseverance and security. "I would like," says one, "oh, how I
would like to know myself saved, and so saved that I never can be lost!
Would that I could get on the Rock and feel the steadfastness of my
refuge, that I might be able to sing–
"'My name from the palms of His hands
Eternity will not erase!
Impressed on His heart it remains
In marks of indelible Grace!'''
1 recollect how I longed and panted after this, for no salvation ever
seemed to me to be worth the having that would not last me to the end.
No sign of Grace within seemed worth the having, but a sign that could
never be cut off. The dread, "perhaps," haunted me lest the enterprise
should be, after all, a failure, and the prospect of final deliverance
should be defeated by some superior power of evil. I wanted the
indwelling of Eternal Life, of that incorruptible life which lives and
abides forever! Now, such a life as this it is that we read of in the
Bible. Jesus said to the woman of Samaria, "Whoever drinks of the water
that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall
give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting
life." You who want security, who wish to know that you are saved and
to rejoice in it,
may well listen to these words–"Ho, everyone that thirsts, come you to
the waters." If you come to Christ for this blessed satisfaction, you
shall have it! Give yourselves up to Christ and you shall sing, in the
words of our song–
"I know that safe with Him remains Protected by His power, What I've
committed to His hands Till the decisive hour."
Yes, be your thirst for pardon, for reconciliation, for sanctification,
for deliverance from sin, or for perseverance and safety, you shall
have any and all of these in the waters which God has made to flow!
There are persons in the world, however, whose thirst takes another
form. They have a thirst for knowledge. They want to know, to know
infallibly. Through how many theories some people wade! There are minds
so naturally inclined for cavil and controversy, for reasoning and
reconsidering, that the more they study, the more skeptical they grow.
Always learning, they never come to the knowledge of the Truth of God.
"Oh," such a man seems to say, "if I could but get hold of something
that was true, some fact, some certainty." Well, Sir, if you thirst for
this, let your soul be given up to a belief in Christ and you shall
soon find certainty! I believe that the religion of Jesus Christ is so
certain a truth to that man who has believed it, that it is so verified
to his inner consciousness, and so interweaves itself with his entire
being that no proposition of Euclid could ever be more demonstrable, or
more absolutely conclusive! We have known and believed the Revelation
that this Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. We have tasted, felt and
handled the good Word of Life. I know, and many here know, that since
we have believed in Jesus we have come to live in an entirely new
world. We have broken through the veil that parted us from a kingdom of
which we know nothing, and we have been brought into this new Kingdom
and live in it, and are as conscious of new sensations, new emotions,
new sorrows and new joys as we are conscious of the old sensations
which we possessed before! It is true, Sirs, certainly true! Have not
our martyrs stood at the stake and burnt for this Truth of God? That is
a stern Truth for which a man will dare to burn! Twisted as their
nerves and muscles were upon the rack, and their very hearts searched
after with hot claws of fire by their tormentors, yet have they learned
to sing in the midst of anguish, to tell of present enjoyment and to
triumph in the absolute Truth of the Doctrine whereof they were the
witnesses! If you need to get your foot upon a bit of rock, to feel
your footing and express your conviction–"Now, this is true whatever
else is not"–you must believe in Jesus Christ! Then you will be no
more shifted about like an unguided vessel by every wind and every
current, but you will be sailing with the heavenly Pilot on board,
directing you to the haven of everlasting peace!
But there are those whose thirst is that of the heart It is not so much
something to believe as something to love which they need. Well, my
dear Friend, if you would have something worthy of your affection, a
Person whom you may love to the fullest possible extent and never be
deceived, whom you may adore and never become an idolater, let me say
to you–Come you to the waters, and drink of the love of Christ, for
they that love Him much may love Him more–they cannot love Him too
much! He never disappoints any confidence that is reposed in Him. His
dear, sweet love which He pours into the souls of those who love Him is
recompense for any sorrow they may have endured for His sake–a
recompense that makes them forget their wrongs and woes in the
exceeding weight of glory which it entails!
Oh, did you but know my Master, you would find out that to know Him is
to love Him! All things else in this world are insignificant in
comparison with Him. As a candle is not to be compared to the sun at
noonday, so the joys of this world are not worthy to be mentioned in
the same century as the joys of communion with Christ! Get this, and
you shall have overflowing joy! You shall be satisfied with marrow and
fatness and drink of the wines on the lees well-refined!
But time would fail me if I were to try to mention all the different
forms of soul-thirst. Whatever they may be, God has provided a supply
for them all. Sinner, you cannot need anything which God cannot give
you! Your soul cannot crave for anything but He can bestow it. You
cannot be so soul-sick but He has medicine that will heal you. You
cannot be so naked but He can clothe you, nor so black but He can wash
you, nor so devilish but He can sanctify you, nor so near being damned
but He can save you! Christ is All-in-All. If you are just now ready to
die. If you have brought yourself down to the gates of the grave by
your sin. If you are suffering in the body the results of your
iniquities. If your own conscience has pronounced on you the dread
sentence of doom–know this–my Master's arm is strong, and long as
well as strong! He is able to reach the worst, the vilest, and the most
abandoned! And when He once reaches them, He will never let go of them
till He has taken them out of the miry clay, out of the horrible pit
and set their feet upon a rock and estab-
lished their goings! I wish I had an angel's tongue, or could sound a
trumpet that would be heard right round this world! How loudly, then,
would I proclaim the glad tidings that God has in store for needy
ones–everything they need! No sinner need die of famine, for there is
no famine in this land of Grace. No traveler through this world needs
to die of thirst, for the well is deep, and it eternally springs up. No
sinner needs to starve, for the oxen and fatlings are killed and the
Gospel message is, "Come, for all things are ready." God grant that
knowing how bountifully all these things are provided, we may, none of
us, keep back, turn a deaf ear to the general call, refuse the special
invitation, slight the Grace, or scorn the Gospel!
II. Observe, secondly, that THE GOSPEL PROVISIONS ARE FREE TO ALL
THIRSTY SOULS.
Do you notice the first word of the text? "Ho!" That is like the cry of
the salesman at a fair. He calls out to passersby, "Ho! Look! listen!
Turn here! Here is a bargain–something worth your attention!" So God
condescends, as it were, to cry out to those who are busy with this
world's cares, its business and its barter, its buying and selling,
"Ho! Ho! Ho! Here is something worth your minding, you that would be
rich at little cost, you that are in want, you that are in need, you
that would find something that shall exactly meet your case." Ho!–this
is the Gospel note! A short, significant appeal, urging you to be wise
enough to attend to your own interests. Oh, the condescension of
God–that He should, as it were, become a beggar to His own creature
and stoop from the magnificence of His Glory to cry, "Ho!" to foolish
and ungrateful men!
Notice the next words, "Ho! Everyone"–not some of you that thirst, but
everyone–you rich ones, you poor ones, you great men, you little men,
you old people, you young folk. "Ho! Everyone that thirsts." Now, it
does not say, "Everyone except–except–except." No, no! Here is an
amnesty published without exception or exemption. Here is an invitation
given to every longing, thirsting one–and not a single name struck
out–"Ho! Everyone that thirsts."
And then it is added, "come." Not, "make yourselves ready." Not, "bring
your money," or, "prove your title," but, "come!" Come just as you are.
The coming is believing, trusting. Believe, trust, then, while you are
as you are! Rely upon Christ–"comeyou to the waters." Come now. Read
the invitation for yourselves. It is written in the present tense. Obey
the summons–come, come at once! Though you have no money, you may come
and take a drink, for it is freely provided for you. As I walked over a
long sandy road one day last week when the weather was sultry and the
heat far beyond our common experience in this country–almost
tropical–I saw a little stream of cool water and, being parched with
thirst, I stooped down and drank. Do you think I asked anybody's
permission, or enquired whether I might drink or not? I didn't know to
whom it belonged and I didn't care! There it was and I felt, as it was
there, it was enough for me. Nobody was there to call out, "Ho!" My
inward craving called out, "Ho!" I was thirsty and water was there
inviting to my taste! I noticed, after I had drunk, that two poor
tramps came along and they stooped down and drank in like manner. I
didn't find anybody marching them off to prison. There was the
stream–and the stream being there, and the thirsty men being
there–the supply was suited to their need and they promptly partook of
it. How strange it is that when God had provided this Gospel, and men
need it, they should require somebody to call out to them, Ho! Ho! Ho!
And then they will not come, after all! Oh, if they were a little more
thirsty, if they did but know their need more, if they were more
convinced of their sin–then they would scarcely need an invitation,
but the mere fact of a supply would be sufficient for them and they
would come and drink–and satisfy the burning thirst within.
Now, although the Gospel provision is free to all thirsty souls, there
are many who cannot believe this. Some cannot believe it because they
stumble at the Doctrines. What Doctrine frightens you, dear Friend? Is
it the Doctrine of Election? Well now, I believe the Doctrine of
Election, and I thank God that I do. It is a precious Doctrine. And let
me tell you, dear Friend, that the Doctrine of Election shuts nobody
out, though it shuts a great many in. "But I may not come and trust
Christ." How do you know that? God says you may–in fact, He says, "He
that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed,"
thus making it a sin not to believe! So you really have such a right to
believe that it becomes even your duty! Whatever the Doctrine of
Election may be, or may be meant to be, we will not talk of that just
at present, for it is quite certain that it cannot contradict any plain
practical direction of Scripture. Here is a plain text, which no one
can deny, "He that believes on Him is not condemned." If, then, you
believe on Jesus Christ, you are not condemned–election or no
election! But let me tell you, if you believe in Christ you are one of
His elect! And it is because He elected you that you come to believe in
Him–it is because He chose you that you are led to desire Him and made
to accept Him! Let not that Doctrine ever terrify you, or provoke your
distrust, for if you rightly understand the
Revelation, it is rather a finger beckoning to Christ than a specter
that should intimidate you, or drive you away from
Him!
Then your spirit of legality will tell you that the Gospel is not free
to you. Why not? Oh, because you are not fit to receive it. This, I
say, is a spirit of legality and is clearly contrary to the Gospel!
There is no fitness needed to receive Christ! You see men go to wash.
What is the fitness for washing? Why, to be dirty–and that is no
fitness. All the fitness a sinner can have for Christ is simply to need
Christ. If you are empty, you are fit for Christ and He will come and
fill you. If you are poor, you are fit for Christ to make you rich. He
that is sick is fit for a physician. He that is needy is fit for pity.
He that is guilty is fit for mercy. I beseech you, get rid of that
pestilent and soul-destroying idea of fitness for Christ! You cannot
come to Godas you are, but you may come to the Savior as you are. All
black and unwashed you may come and wash in the fountain which He has
opened! Let nothing, then, by way of legality, make you think that the
Gospel provisions are not free to you.
But what if your unbelief should tell you that the provisions of Grace
are not for you because you have been such a great sinner? Did not
Jesus come into the world to save the very greatest of sinners? He
said, "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men." You
may have soared as high as the mountains in your sin, but God's flood,
like, that of Noah, can go over the tops of all your iniquities! Do not
limit the Holy One of Israel by your unbelief! Believe Him and you
shall be forgiven, even though you were worse than you are!
Ah, Brothers and Sisters! Whatever the devil may say, and whatever your
irritated conscience may say against the freeness of God's mercy, I
tell you solemnly it is as free to every thirsty one as the drinking
fountain at the street corner! It is as free as the air that blows over
the mountain and into the valleys–free to every lung that breathes–so
free is the mercy of God! God stints not His mercy when men need it. Be
they but thirsty, let them but long for it, and they shall have it! If
there is any difficulty, it is on your part, not on God's part. You are
not straitened in Him–you are straitened in yourselves. O guilty
Sinners, if you find no mercy, it is not because God is unwilling to
give, but because you will not trust Him! Because you will not think
that He can save you! The prodigal never could have believed his
father's heart to be so kind as it was had he not tried and proved it.
Come and try my Master's heart! I tell you that He will blot out your
sins like a cloud and your transgressions like a thick cloud! Only rest
on Him and you shall find Him better than you ever dreamed Him to be!
As for my words, they cannot fully set Him forth. May you be brought to
try Him, for then you will be sure to find that He is a mighty Savior!
The provisions of Grace must be free to thirsty ones, why else were
they provided?Why should there be a Savior for sinners if God will not
give salvation to sinners? Why those wounds? Why that bloody sweat? Why
that crown of thorns, why those expiring throes if God will not receive
sinners? The dying Savior is the best answer to the caviling of
unbelievers. He must be willing to forgive who spared not His own Son!
If the Gospel were not free to thirsty ones, why is it published? If it
were not meant for you, why are we bid to tell it to you and to
continue sounding it in your ears? If it were meant for a few in a
corner, why publish it in the streets? Why gather the crowds together,
as we are bound to do, and find out those in the highways and hedges
with a mandate to compel them to come in? Why do all this if God
intends to bar the door in their faces? The very fact that the Gospel
is preached to the sinner is God's love-token that He will accept you
if you will come to Him! Why is there a Mercy Seat? Why are you allowed
to pray? Why are you bid to pray, if God will not hear? This were a
mockery of which you cannot accuse God–that He should encourage a
sinner to pray with no intention of hearing him! Let me ask you
again–How is it that others have found God's mercy so free when they
have come and trusted Christ? Why is that multitude in Heaven, all once
as guilty as you are, but all having washed their robes in the precious
blood of Jesus? Why those on earth who have found peace? They had
nothing to recommend them any more than you have. They will all tell
you that they came just as they were, in all their rags and beggary,
and Jesus did not reject them. No, glory be to His name, He received us
freely!
Come, then, fellow Sinners, come! May the eternal Spirit draw you now!
Even now, "come you to the waters." Though you have no money and no
price and no goodness, come and rest in Jesus and find everlasting
life! Ho, everyone that thirsts, come you to the waters." That is my
message. There is your welcome. Come! Do come! So my errand will speed.
So your souls will be blessed. So God's name will be glorified! Amen.
ISAIAH55.
Verse 1. Ho, everyone that thirsts, come you to the waters, and he that
has no money; come you, buy, and eat; yes, come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price. [See Sermons #1161, Volume 20–without
money and without price and
#1726, Volume 29–BUYING WITHOUT MONEY.] The description of Gospel
blessings grows sweeter as it advances. "Waters'' first, "wine and
milk" next, and still all "without money and without price." We preach
no narrow salvation–we rejoice in the Covenant of Grace–it is the
backbone of our theology, but the Gospel has wide arms, a loud voice
and persuasive tones! "Ho, everyone that thirsts, come you to the
waters." In Christ there is a full supply for all our
necessities–bread and water and yes, there are luxuries sufficient for
our largest desires–wine and milk and He wants us to bring nothing in
payment for them! "Without money and without price." That is, indeed,
Free Grace! Some people object to that expression and say that it is
tautology, for Grace must be free–but we mean to keep on using it that
all may know that Grace is free, gratis, all for nothing!
2. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? And your labor
for that which satisfies not? The less value there is in any religion,
the more you have to pay for it. The pardon that costs a shilling is
not worth a farthing, but that which costs us nothing is worth more
than the whole world!
2. Hearken diligently unto Me, and eat you that which is good, and let
your soul delight itself in fatness. [See Sermons
#2278, Volume 38–FEEDING ON THE WORD and #2786, Volume 48–THE SOUL'S
BEST FOOD.] All that your largest desires can long for, you will find
in Christ. You shall have not only necessities, but delicacies,
delights that shall satisfy you to the fullest! You shall not be able
to conceive of anything that shall be more rich and full than the Grace
of God. The Gospel is "that which is good." Yes, it is the best food
our souls can ever eat! It gratifies, it satisfies and fills our
spirits with holy joy and exhilaration!
3. Incline your ear, and come unto Me-[See Sermons #2092, Volume
35–GOD'S OWN GOSPEL CALL and #2316, Volume 39–TWELVE COVENANT
MERCIES.] This is the gate by which salvation enters into
man–Ear-Gate–by hearing and believing. "Incline your ear," bend it
forward as if you would catch every word– "and come unto Me"–
3. Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Only think of a
Covenant made with needy sinners, thirsty sinners! God striking hands
with guilty men in the Person of Jesus Christ. It is a sure Covenant,
too–not made up of "ifs" and "buts" and "perhapses," but a Covenant
sealed with blood and signed by Him who gives an oath with it that He
will never turn from it, that you may have "strong consolation."
4. Behold, I have given Him for a witness to the people, a Leader and
Commander to the people. [See Sermons #2534, Volume
43–THE GREATEST GIFT IN TIME OR ETERNITY and #2787, Volume
48–CHRIST'S TRIPLE CHARACTER.] He who is our greater David comes to us
to bear witness to the Immutable Love of God and to be to us our
Captain and our King! Happy are the souls that accept this David to be
their Leader. You remember how David, in the Cave Adullam, gathered to
himself "everyone that was in distress, and everyone that was in debt,
and everyone that was discontented, and he became a captain over them."
Even so, the great Antitype, David's Son and David's Lord, is willing
now to gather to Himself those who are spiritually bankrupt,
discontented and weary with the world, and God says, "I have given Him
for a witness to the people, a Leader and Commander to the people."
5. Behold, You shall calla nation that You knownot, andnations that
know You notshallrun unto You because of the LORD Your God and for the
Holy One oflsrael; for He has glorified You. What joy this gives to you
who love Him! Jehovah has glorified His Son, and given to Him the power
to call to Himself a people that He knew not in a saving sense, and He
shall so call nations that knew Him not that they shall run unto Him!
We do not preach the Gospel at hapha-zard–we are sure of results. If
we speak in faith, in the name of Christ, men must be saved, they must
run to Christ. It is not left to their option–there is a Divine hand
that secretly touches the springs of the will of men so that, when
Christ calls them, they run to Him! Oh, that He would just now call
them, even those that are furthest off, that they may run to Him and
that He may be glorified! A Savior without souls saved by Him would be
only a Savior in name. A head without a body would be a very ghastly
thing. A shepherd without sheep would be a man without occupation. A
Christ anointed to save the lost, and yet no lost ones coming to
Him–where would His Glory be? But sinners, drawn by His Almighty
Grace, run to Him, and so God glorifies Him!
6. Seek you the LORD while He may be found, call you upon Him while He
is near. In those happy Gospel times when Christ is set forth on
purpose that "He may be found," seek Him, call upon Him! He is very
near when the Gospel is preached with holy unction, when Christians are
praying, when hearts are breaking for the conversion of sinners, and
when His Spirit is working in their hearts that they may repent of sin.
7. Let the wicked forsake his way–It is a bad way, it is a downward
way, it is a way that will end in destruction! Do not follow it any
longer. "Let the wicked forsake his way."–
7. And the unrighteous man his thoughts. "Thoughts!" says one, "We
shall not be hanged for our thoughts!" Oh, but you may be damned for
your thoughts! No man has really forsaken the way of wickedness until
he hates the very thought of wickedness. If your thoughts run after
evil, your tongues will soon utter evil and your hands will soon do
evil.
7. And let him return–he is like one who has wandered from his
father's house–"let him return." He is like the dove that flew away
from Noah's ark and was ready to faint. "Let him return"–
7. Unto the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for
He will abundantly pardon. [See Sermons
#1195, Volume 20–ABUNDANT PARDON and #2797, Volume 48–THE NEED AND
NATURE OF CONVERSION.] What a blessed word, "abundantly," is here!
Abundant pardon to cover abundant sin, abundant provocation, abundant
rejection of His Word!
8. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My way,
says the LORD. "Says the Lord," as if He would not leave the Prophet to
speak any longer on His behalf! He Himself appears upon the scene and
speaks–"For My thoughts are not your thoughts." No doubt He refers
here to the pardon of sin. Our thoughts are narrow! We find it hard to
forgive great offenses, to forgive many offenses, to forgive many
offenders, to continue completely to forgive– all this is very
difficult to man.
9. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher
than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. Think of the
biggest thought you ever had concerning God's forgiveness of sins. Try
again. Let your thoughts rise still higher–you cannot have reached the
utmost height yet, "for as the heavens are higher than the earth," so
are His thoughts and ways higher than yours!
10. 11. For as the rain comes down and the snow from Heaven and returns
not there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that
it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; so shall My Word
be that goes forth out ofMy mouth: it shall not return unto Me void but
it shall accomplish that which Iplease, and it shallprosper in the
thing whereto I sent it. If you believe this great promise, you shall
have the full benefit of it. Let this gracious rain drop on you, and it
must refresh you. Let these blessed snowflakes come down on you, and
they shall melt into your bosom, and remain there to bless you
forever–they shall not go back to God with their mission unfulfilled!
As for us who preach that Word, or teach it in the Sunday school–we
may have a full assurance that we shall not labor in vain, nor spend
our strength for nothing! No, no–the raindrops go not on an errand
that can fail and the snowflakes that fall to the earth accomplish the
end for which they are sent! Much more shall the purpose of God's Word
be accomplished! Behold, it drops like the gentle rain–like snowflakes
fly the messages of mercy from the lips of the Lord, Himself, and they
shall not fall in vain, blessed be His holy name!
12. For you shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace: the
mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and
all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.There shall seem to
be joy everywhere when there is joy in your heart. When you receive
Christ, you have put everything round about you into its true position.
The whole Creation is a vast organ, and man puts his tiny fingers on
the keys and evokes thunders of harmony to the praise of God! When the
heart is filled with joy and peace, mountains and hills break forth
before us into singing and all the trees of the field clap their hands!
13. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree. The thorn is
everywhere, today, pricking our feet and maiming our hands. But
"instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree." Where is the thorn,
then? I see it upon the bleeding brow of Christ–He has taken it away
and worn it as a crown!
13. And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it
shall be to Jehovah for a name, for an everlasting
sign that shall not be cut off [See Sermons #833, Volume 14–THE LORD'S
NAME AND MEMORIAL; #2410, Volume 41–SPRINGTIME IN NATURE AND GRACE and
#3044, Volume 53–SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATIONS.] It shall make
men know what He is like, what gracious power He has, what goodness
dwells in Him! "It shall be to Jehovah for a
name"–"An everlasting sign." That sign is exhibited today in the eyes
of men. An evil and adulterous generation called for a sign, and this
is the sign that God has given–His converting Grace in His Church.
Instead of miracles, we have the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts
of sinners–and if any will not believe when this sign is sent to them,
neither would they believe though one rose from the dead! It stands as
"an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."