The Need and Nature of Conversion
(No. 2797)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1902.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
OCTOBER13, 1878.
"Let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts:
and let him return to the LORRD, and He will have mercy upon him; and
to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." Isaiah 55:7.
SOME years ago [Sermon #1195, Volume 20–ABUNDANT PARDON] I
preached from the last four words of this verse, laying special stress
upon the abundant pardon which is given to repenting sinners through
the rich mercy of our God. On this occasion, I am going to put the
emphasis upon the first part of the verse, speaking more upon the
necessity of the sinner forsaking his evil ways and of the unrighteous
man abandoning his evil thoughts. There is urgent necessity for us to
continually insist upon this course of action. This Chapter, as we
noticed in our reading, is full of Gospel teaching and it expresses,
under the most striking and cheering metaphors, both the fullness and
the freeness of the Gospel. But the Prophet also insists most clearly
that the wicked man must forsake his ways and the unrighteous man must
turn from his thoughts and return to the Lord that he may obtain the
mercy and pardon that God is waiting and willing to bestow.
This is not a merely legal demand–it is a Gospel demand found in the
center of a Gospel Chapter in the writings of the most Evangelical of
all the Prophets. The Chapter begins with a number of gracious and wide
invitations and so, naturally, leads on to the promise of the coming
Savior. Only God Himself could find a Savior for our ruined race and
none but God's own Son could be that Savior. Then there follows, in due
order, the promise of a people to be saved. The Savior shall not come
to the earth in vain. He shall call a people unto Himself and "nations"
shall run to Him. Then, following the promise of a Savior and the
declaration of the certainty that many shall be saved by Him, there
comes in this loving invitation, "Seek you the Lord while He may be
found, call you upon Him while He is near." Since He is to have a
people who shall be His, forever, put in your claim to be among them!
And since, as a Savior, He is near to you, call upon Him and He will
hear your call!
This brings us to our text which is consistent with the rest of the
Chapter even though some people think it is not. Here we are told,
first, that the wicked must forsake his ways. There is no Savior for
the man who will not forsake his sin. Such a man can never be among the
people who shall run to Christ, for how can he run to Christ while he
continues in the way of sin? Such a man shall seek the Lord in vain and
call upon Him in vain, for, while he hugs his sin, he cannot embrace
the Savior who hates sin with a perfect hatred. This is the theme upon
which I am going to now speak and I want to do it in the spirit of the
Master, of whom Malachi wrote, "For who may abide the day of His
coming? And who shall stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's
fire, and like the fuller's soap, and He shall sit as a refiner and
purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge
them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering
in righteousness." May the Master bless His own searching Word–and He
shall have all the praise!
I. First, then, let us meditate a while upon THE NECESSITY OF
CONVERSION. If a man is to be saved, he must turn from his sins. "Right
about face!" is the marching order for every sinner! There is no hope
of forgiveness for him if he will continue with his face as it now is.
He must turn from his sin if he would be saved.
This will be at once evident to you when I ask the questions, "How
would it be consistent with the holiness of God for Him to put aside
our past sins and then to allow us to go on sinning as we did
before?How could He be thought to be
just and pure if He should remit the punishment for past transgressions
without seeing in us any determination to abstain from such sins in the
future?" Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, but He never
came here to spare their sins. God would never have sent His Son to
this earth to be the messenger of sin, yet Christ would be nothing
better than the messenger of sin if He had come and said to men, "You
may continue in your sin, yet I will forgive you. You may live as you
like, yet you shall find mercy with the Lord at the last." It must
strike you, in a moment, that such a course as this would be
inconsistent with the Character of the Judge of all the earth who must
do right! There is no such teaching as that in the whole of the
Scriptures–and he who dares to believe it, believes a lie! Nowhere in
the whole compass of Revelation is there a promise of forgiveness to
the man who continues in his iniquity!
There is a promise of pardon to the sinner who forsakes his wicked way
and turns from his evil thoughts. There are many promises of
forgiveness to those who confess their sins in humble penitence and who
seek to live new lives under the power of the Holy Spirit. Possibly
someone would remind me that the greatest promises are given to those
who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is quite true, but the faith
which believes in Jesus is a living and active faith which works in the
soul a hatred of sin–and if a man says, "I believe in Christ," and yet
continues to delight in sin, he is a liar and the truth is not in him,
for, "faith, if it has not works, is dead, being alone." Only that
faith alone which is proved to be a vital and real faith by bringing
forth "fruits meet for repentance" will save us! It is no use wanting
or trying to be saved without a change of heart and a change of life.
"You must be born-again," is Christ's own word to all unregenerate
sinners! Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. "Be not deceived;
God is not mocked: for whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap."
There has never been any revocation of these Truths of God and I repeat
again that in the whole compass of the Word of God there is no promise
of pardon to the man who continues in his iniquities!
Neither, dear Friends, is there a single case in fact, nor one emblem
in parable that would lead any man to hope that he could keep his sins
and yet be saved. If you remind me of the woman in the city who was a
sinner, I also remind you that her life had been completely changed,
otherwise our Savior would not have permitted her to wash His feet with
her tears and wipe them with the hairs of her head. Saul of Tarsus was
guilty of the great sin of persecuting the saints, but see what a
changed man was Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles! Zacchaeus, the rich
tax-gatherer, offered to make full restitution and recompense to any
whom he might have wronged. So it always is where the Grace of God
works effectually. When the Lord Jesus Christ saves a sinner from the
punishment of sin, He also saves him from the love of sin–He makes him
holy as well as makes him happy and safe!
The same lesson is taught in our Lord's parables. For instance, there
was no rejoicing over the lost sheep while it was still wandering away
from the fold–the joy began when that lost sheep was foundand was
brought home on the shepherd's shoulder! A more striking example is
that of the prodigal son. There was no joy over him while he was in the
far country and no kiss for him from his father while he was feeding
the swine. He must come back. He must say, "Father, I have sinned."
There must be the forsaking of his former evil ways or else there could
be no enjoyment of his father's forgiveness. We must always say, as
plainly as we can possibly say it–If you will keep your sins, you
shall go to Hell. And if you would go to Heaven, you must part company
with your sins. He who would be married to Christ must first be
divorced from sin. There is no possibility of walking in the way of the
Lord and, at the same time, treading the pathway of evil. "No man can
serve two masters." No one can, at the same time, be a servant of the
Savior and a servant of Satan.
Besides, dear Friends, our common sense tells us that it would be
highly dangerous to societyif men were to be pardoned and yet were not
to be renewed in character and life. If Christ should meet with a man
and say to him, "I forgive you because of the precious blood I shed for
you on Calvary–go and be a drunkard still! Go and be unchaste! Go and
be a thief!" This would be the way to undermine the very pillars of
society and, very soon, we would not be safe in our beds. If there were
no laws, or if the laws had no system of punishment for the guilty,
human society would cease to be endurable! He who rules all things
righteously will never set up such a scheme as this! The Judge of all
the earth must punish sin! He will by no means clear the guilty.
Moreover, it would be a serious injury to the man himselfif he could be
pardoned and yet not be changed. For God to forgive us without renewing
us would be a frightful peril to ourselves. A man, finding himself so
easily forgiven and having no change of heart, would plunge into sin
worse than ever and, so far as my observation is concerned, I have come
to the conclusion that the very worst form of character is produced in
a man who, for some reason or other, thinks himself to be a favorite of
Heaven and yet continues to indulge in sin. I remember the horror which
passed through me, in my
youthful days, when I heard a man who was accustomed to be drunk boast
that he could say what none of his drinking buddies could say, namely,
that he was one of the elect of God! I felt, child as I was, that he
was one of the devil's chosen followers and I do not doubt that he
really was. If a man once gets into his head such a perverted notion of
the Free Grace of God as to imagine that it is compatible with the love
of sin, and a life of sin, he is on the high road to being made into
the worst conceivable character! And if such a man as that could be
delivered from all the consequences of his sin, from all such
consequences as might be looked upon as arbitrarily fixed by the
punishing hand of God, (I know that I am talking of an impossibility),
even then he must be miserable! Such a man must go on from bad to worse
and sin, whatever we may think of it, is misery! The worm that never
dies is sin. The fire that is never quenched is sin. And Hell is sin
fully developed. "Sin, when it is finished, brings forth death," and
that second death is Hell. O Sirs, if you could get rid of the disease,
the pain, the headaches which follow upon indulgence in the qualms of
conscience sin, it would be a mischievous riddance for you, for the
very pain that is caused by sin is part of God's way of calling to you
to come back to Him. As long as you are in this world, the consequences
that follow after certain forms of sin are really, with all their
bitterness– and they are bitter–but a healthful tonic that should
make you give up sin and turn to God.
If you go on sinning, you cannot be saved. If you continue to love sin
and to practice it, you cannot be saved. Think, for a moment, what any
other result would involve. If it were possible for a man to live in
sin and yet be forgiven, what would be the value of the work of the
Holy Spirit? He has come in order that we may be born-again and have
new hearts and right spirits. But if men could be forgiven without
having new hearts and right spirits, of what service would the Holy
Spirit be? This would be contrary, also, to the whole design of Christ
in our salvation. The angel said to Joseph, before our Savior's birth,
"You shall call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their
sins." But if they can be saved in their sins, where is the meaning of
His name? When He hung upon the Cross and one of the soldiers pierced
his side with a spear, "forthwith came there out blood and water." But
what is the use of the purifying water if we need not be purified and
can be pardoned without being cleansed? Paul wrote to Titus that Christ
"gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and
purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." But how
can that purpose be accomplished if men can be pardoned and yet
continue to live in sin?
Beside that, the very character of Heaven prevents such a thing being
done! We know that the unholy cannot enter there–nothing that defiles
can pass the watchers at the pearly portals. Therefore, be you sure of
this–that you can never enter Heaven and you can never have
forgiveness if you continue to cling to your sins! You must forsake
them, or mercy cannot be yours.
II. Having spoken thus upon the necessity of conversion, I turn, for a
little while, to the second part of our subject, THE NATURE OF THIS
CONVERSION. How is it described here?
First, it deals with the life–"Let the wicked forsake his ways."
Observe that it is, "his ways" that he is to forsake. That is, his
natural way, the way in which he says he was brought up, the way that
his natural affections, propensities and passions lead him. He must
forsake his ways, even though it is the way in which he has walked
these thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, or even 80 years! He will
have to get out of his ways, however much he may delight in them!
Possibly, he now loves sin so much that he says he could not give it
up. There are some sins which men roll under their tongues as dainty
morsels–but if you are to be saved, you will have to give them up. If
you would have the mercy of God, you must give them all up! You must
give up your old sins, your sweet sins, your pet sins. The sins of the
flesh with all their pleasure and the sins of the mind with all their
pride must be given up, for notice that word, "forsake." "Let the
wicked forsakehis ways." It does not say, "Let him admit that his ways
are bad."
There are some who will say, "Oh, yes, I know that my way is very
wrong," and there they stop. Such an admission as that will not save
you, my Friend! You must forsake your way as well as admit that it is
wrong. To know that it is wrong and yet to go on in it will double your
sin! This kind of confession will not help you in the least. On the
contrary, it will only increase your guilt. You must forsake your
wicked way if you are to be forgiven. "Oh, Sir," you say, "I am very
sorry for all the sin that I have committed!" I am glad that you are
and I hope that you will be still more so, but that sorrow, alone, will
never save you. It is not saying, "I am sorry," nor yet your being
sorry for your sin that will save you! That is right as far as it goes,
but you must forsake the sin as well as be sorry for it.
"I must forsake it? Well, I resolve that I will do so." Yet that
resolve by itself will not save you, for there are plenty of good
resolutions that are good for nothing! You have to actually forsake
your wicked ways before you have complied
with the requirements of our text. I know how the devil will try to
deceive you, when you have made a good resolution. He will say, "Ah,
you are a fine fellow and that is a splendid resolution of yours!" Yet
mere resolutions are not worth a penny a thousand! We must act, not
simply resolve what we mean to do. We must not be like the man who owes
a lot of money and has not a penny to pay, yet who keeps on saying to
his creditors, "I hope I shall be able to pay you tomorrow." Then, when
that day comes, he says he is very sorry, but he missed the friend he
expected to see, so he must postpone the payment for a few days. Yet,
when the few days have passed, there is still nothing forthcoming. So
it is with many who resolve to forsake sin–they are like those who
promise–but never pay. This will not do! You must forsake your sin if
it is to be forgiven!
"I will tell you what I will do," says one, "I will still keep to my
old ways but I will not travel quite so rapidly in them. I will not
live such a fast life as I have done." I tell you, Friend, that you
must forsake that old way of yours altogether if you would be saved. If
you stand still in it, if you are decent and respectable in it, all
that will avail you nothing! You must clear right out of it, for so our
text puts it, "Let the wicked forsake his ways." In plain terms, the
Prophet means just this. Is your way the way of the drunk? Now, no
drunkard can ever inherit the Kingdom of God as long as he continues a
drunk, so you cannot be saved if you remain in that condition. Are you
a thief? Do you privately cheat in business? All that kind of thing
must be given up! It is no use for you to say, "I will do it and yet go
to Heaven." You will be damned unless that sin, as well as others, is
given up. Or have you been a blasphemer? Do you talk profanely or
filthily? You must wash all that foulness out of your mouth if you
would be saved. "Let the wicked forsake his ways." Am I addressing any
who have practiced vice in unmentionable forms? Oh, how many there are
who do that and yet are not ashamed! You must forsake all that, young
man, or old man, too–it is no use mincing matters with you. If you
mean to go to Hell, go on with your wickedness! But if you would be
forgiven for the past, you must cut all connection with these evil
things for the future. I most solemnly assure you, in the name of God,
that there can be no compromise about this and every other sin. "Let
the wicked forsake his ways," whatever the ways may have been. If it is
a filthy way, a fleshly way, a way of lust, a way of
self-indulgence–any way of sin–it must be forsaken. You must abandon
it, or else you must abandon all hope of ever getting to Heaven!
"That is pretty strong language," someone says. Do you think so? I
shall have to use still stronger expressions presently, for the next
point concerning the nature of this repentance is that it deals with
the man's thoughts–"Let the wicked forsake his ways, and the
unrighteous man his thoughts." "But thoughts are free," says some
unthinking person, "I shall never be hanged for my thoughts." No,
perhaps not, but have you never heard that old saying, "A man may not
be hanged for his thoughts, but he may be damned for his thoughts"? For
in thought is often the very essence of sin. A deed might in itself be
colorless, but the motive for doing it–the thought at the back of
it–puts the venom, virus and guilt into the deed.
As that is the case, what sort of thoughts must the unrighteous man
give up? He must give up a great many fine opinions of which he is very
proud–his opinion about God, for instance. It is possible that he has
thought nothing of Him, or if he has thought of Him at all, he has
dared even to judge his Creator and to find fault with what God does!
Ah, Sir, you must give up all such thoughts of God and you must come to
reverence Him and to regard Him as so great that you are less than
nothing in comparison with Him! You will also have to give up your
opinion concerning God's Law. You thought it was too severe, too
stringent and that you could improve it a great deal. You will have to
confess, with the Apostle Paul, that the Law is spiritual and that you
are "carnal, sold under sin." You will have to change your mind upon a
great many subjects if you really wish to be saved. You will have to
forsake your old thoughts concerning sin. You said, "Oh, it is a mere
trifle–a peccadillo! Poor helpless creatures as we are, God won't be
angry with us for such a little thing as that!" You will have to feel
that sin is exceedingly sinful–a great and deadly evil–or you will
never be likely to seek and to find peace with God! You will also have
to change your mind about the Lord Jesus Christ. He is nothing to you,
now, but He will have to be everything to you if you are to be saved by
Him. You will have to change your mind about yourself–you fancy that
you are a fine fellow, now, but you will have to regard yourself as
less than nothing before you come to your right position before God. If
ever you are to find mercy at His hands, you will have to forsake your
present thoughts on all these matters.
Do you ask, "What other thoughts shall we have to forsake?" I reply–a
whole set of thoughts in which many people indulge. To the ungodly man
it is often quite a treat to sit down and think of what he calls the
jolly days of his youth
when he sowed his wild oats. He wishes that he had a handful or two of
them left. Ah, Sir, you will have to give up all thoughts of that
sort–and you will have to think of those past days with bitter tears
of sorrow over the sins that you then committed. The ungodly man often
pictures to himself scenes of carnal delight and if he cannot have a
share in such scenes, he often wishes that he could. I would remind any
of you who have ever done so, that you may commit every sin forbidden
in the Decalogue–without having actually committed any one of them–by
simply reveling in them in your thoughts! Remember that solemn
affirmation of the Lord Jesus Christ concerning the Seventh
Commandment, "I say unto you, That whoever looks on a woman to lust
after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart." And
learn from it how our Lord meant His interpretation to apply to the
whole Law of God, so that we should understand that the very thought of
evil is sin–and to suck it down as a sweet morsel to think upon, even
though we never dared to perpetrate the act is still a gross evil–and
if we would be forgiven, we must forsake all these vile,
flesh-delighting thoughts!
We must also forsake our thoughts in the sense of turning from all
purposes of evil. That, indeed, is the main meaning of the Hebrew word
used here–"Let the unrighteous man forsake his purposes." You say that
you will do this or that, without any thought of whether God would have
it so or not. Possibly it is your purpose, as you express it, "to have
your fling." You have come up from the country, young man. You are
pleased that you have gotten away from your mother's apron strings and
now you are going to have your own way. Forsake all such thoughts, I
implore you! And, if any whom I am now addressing have formed any
purpose of sin–if you have resolved to indulge in this or that evil,
whatever it may be, I charge you, if you desire to have eternal
life–to hate all such purposes and thoughts of sin. The garment
spotted by the flesh must be flung away from us and the very thought of
evil must be banished from our minds as far as it is possible for us to
do so!
Nor is this all, for the text further says, "and let him return to the
Lord," so that this conversion deals with the sinner in his relation to
God. He who would find mercy must return to God to obtain it. Do you
ask how you are to do so? Well, first, you must begin to thinkabout
God. I really believe that some of you do not think half as much about
God as you do about the Sultan of Turkey! And with some of you, almost
anybody is a greater factor in your life than God is. With some of you
it would not make any difference it there were no God at all, except
that you would be rather glad if that could be proved to be the case,
for you would feel easier in your mind and could, in such a case, go on
in your sin without any of the compunction that you now feel. Yet, is
it not a singular state of mind for a man who knows that he is a
creature made by God, but who really cares so little about Him that if
he could be assured that there were no such Being, he would be better
pleased than he is now? Oh, what a wretched state your heart must be in
if it feels like that! It will have to be greatly altered if you are
ever to be saved!
So, first, you must begin to think of God and then, thinking of Him,
you must yield to Him–give up your will to His will and, doing that,
you must pray to Him, cry to Him for mercy and then you must trust Him.
Especially you must accept His ways of salvation by faith in Jesus
Christ. And when you do that, then you will be sure to love Him. When
you get as far as that, you will be altogether a new creature! Then God
will delight in you! Then it will be misery to you to be out of His
Presence and it will be the highest joy of your life to have constant
communion with Him.
III. Now I finish with the third part of our subject, that is, THE
GOSPEL OF THIS CONVERSION.
Possibly somebody says, "You have been preaching the Law to us, Sir."
No, I have not! The Law says nothing about repentance. The Law curses
you from the very first moment when you have broken it. That gracious
message, "Repent you, therefore, and be converted, that your sin may be
blotted out," is not the utterance of the Law of God, but of the
Gospel!
I will try briefly to show you the Gospel of it. It lies, first, in the
fact that God has promised that He will abundantly pardon those who
turn from their evil ways–"Let him return to the Lord, and He will
have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." To
the man who confesses his guilt, the Law says, "Yes, you are guilty,
and you must suffer the penalty attached to your crime." If a person
pleads "guilty" in a court of law, the judge does not say to him, "If
you will promise amendment, you may go free." No, he pronounces
sentence upon him! And God, the righteous Judge might justly have done
the same to us but, instead of doing so, He says, "Forsake your wicked
ways, and your evil thoughts, and turn to Me, and I will abundantly
pardon you. Only repent of your iniquity and abandon it, and it shall
all be blotted out. All the evil of your past life shall be forgiven
and forgotten and your sins and your transgressions I
will not remember against you any more forever." Oh, precious Gospel
messages! Who would not turn from his sin when such a gracious promise
awaits him in the turning?
Yet there is even more than that, a great deal more, for not only does
God bid men turn to Him, but He enables them to turn to Him/So the
Gospel of this passage is that God the Holy Spirit is freely given to
sinners to turn them, first in their hearts and then in their lives.
What you cannot do of yourself, the Holy Spirit will enable you to do!
There is no form of sin which you cannot conquer by the power of the
Spirit of God–and that Spirit is freely given to all who sincerely
seek His aid. He is still here on earth. On the day of Pentecost He
descended from Heaven and He has never gone back. "But," says someone,
"the Holy Spirit was given to the saints." Yes, I know He was, but He
was also given to sinners like yourself, for Peter said to those who
were awakened on the day of Pentecost, "Repent, and be baptized,
everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,
and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is
unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as
many as the Lord our God shall call." I wish that many of you would
pray the prayer, "Turn us, O God, and we shall be turned." You must be
turned, by Sovereign Grace, if you would really turn unto the Lord–and
you must forsake your wicked ways and your evil thoughts if you are to
be saved–but you cannot do this of yourself–the Holy Spirit has been
given on purpose to enable you to do it!
There is a further Gospel message in the fact that Jesus Christ Himself
came into the world on purpose that this Divine Spirit might be given
in connection with the exercise, by men, of faith in Him. One of the
simplest declarations of the Gospel is, "He that believes on the Son
has everlasting life." And one of the last sayings of our Lord Jesus
Christ before He went back to Heaven was, "He that believes and is
baptized shall be saved." To believe is to trust–and whoever trusts
Christ Jesus depends upon the merit of His death, relies upon the
excellence of His atoning Sacrifice and proves the reality of his faith
by confessing it in the Scriptural way–such a man shall is assuredly
saved. And, in order to his being saved, he shall receive the gift of
the Holy Spirit by whose almighty power he shall be enabled to conquer
the sin that still dwells within him!
Once more–and this is the part of the Gospel that is the best of
all–in order that you might be able to believe that God can have mercy
on the guilty and in order that you might be saved, God gave His Son,
Jesus Christ, to offer a full and complete atonement for sin. I never
weary of preaching that glorious Truth of God to you, but I long that
when I have done so, you may close in with Christ and that Christ may
close in with you, that you may be eternally saved. According to the
righteous Law of God, sin must be punished. Conscience tells you that
it is not possible that guilt should go without its due penalty.
Therefore it was that Jesus came and bore the dread penalty that was
due to sin. The lash of the Law of God must fall on someone, so He
bared His shoulders to its terrible blows. The sword of Divine Justice
was unsheathed and it must smite someone–so Jesus gave His heart to
that sword's point and quenched the flaming blade in the crimson
fountain of His own blood! Now that this has been done, God can be just
and yet the Justifier of everyone who believes in Jesus! And the effect
of that atoning Sacrifice upon everyone who truly trusts to it is that
he finds himself so changed that he hates the sin he formerly loved!
And he rushes out of the wicked ways in which he once delighted, he
abhors the thoughts that once charmed him and he turns to the Savior
whom he once despised!
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ISAIAH55.
This chapter might very well have been found in the Gospel according to
Matthew, or Mark, or Luke, or John, for it is so plain, so simple and
so full of Gospel teaching.
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. Oh, the freeness of Gospel provisions!
And, at the same time, their fullness, their plenty, their variety,
their sufficiency! Here is a mention of "wine and milk." It is not
enough for the Lord to bid us "come to the waters," but He invites us
to partake of the choicest luxuries upon which the soul can be fed–He
calls us to be filled even to the full and to accept everything for
nothing–"without money and without price."
2. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? And your labor
for that which satisfies not? Why do you act thus? Can you give any
explanation of such folly? The Gospel is consistent with the highest
reason. And to believe in Christ is not a thing for which we need make
any apology. It is a foolish thing not to believe in Him–a foolish
thing to
be living for the world–to be spending our time and strength for our
attainment of some inferior objective which can never satisfy the soul.
This "why" is not applicable to the Christian–it is applicable to the
worldling. Yet he often thinks himself the only wise man on the face of
the earth! "Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? And
your labor for that which satisfies not?"
2, 3. Hearken diligently unto Me, and eat that which is good,
andletyour soul delight itselfin fatness. Incline your ear, and come
unto Me. What a stress these Gospel passages lay upon hearing the Word!
"Faith comes by hearing." All the sights, all the shows, all the
gorgeous processions and all the external ceremonies in the world will
never convert a single soul! But God says, "Hearken diligently unto Me.
Incline your ear, and come unto Me."
3. Hear, and your soul shall live. Do not quibble, but hear. Do not
come to find fault with the Word of God–but "Come unto Me," says the
Lord. "Hear, and your soul shall live."
3. And I will make an everlasting Covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David. What a surprising promise this is for God to make to
men who are so poverty-stricken that they have "no money" in their hand
or in their pocket– nothing in fact, that they can bring to Him! Yet
the Lord says, "I will make an everlasting Covenant with you." Will God
enter into Covenant with a poor sinner and pledge Himself by promise
and by oath to do him good forever? Yes, poor troubled, sinful Soul, I
trust the Lord, in infinite mercy, is even now calling you by His
Grace! And as surely as you come to Him, He will make with you "an
everlasting Covenant, even the sure mercies of David."
4. Behold, I have given Him for a Witness to the people, a Leader and
Commander to the people. God's Witness of His great love to us is His
own Son! You cannot doubt God's readiness to receive guilty men, since
Christ has come in the flesh. You cannot doubt His love to sinners,
since His only-begotten Son has come to be a Witness to it. Oh, for
Grace to range ourselves under His banner and to follow His footsteps,
for God has given Him to be "a Leader and Commander to the people"! Nor
shall He be a Leader without followers, nor a Commander without an
army. Where is He to get His followers and His army? Read the next
verse.
5. Behold, you shall call a nation that you know not, and nations that
knew you not shall run unto you because of the LORD your God, and for
the Holy One of Israel; for He has glorified you. Observe, there was no
communion between Christ and these people, for He knew them not and
they knew not Him. It is the Scriptural mode of expressing the great
gulf between these. Yet, He is to call them and they are to run to Him.
He is to find His subjects and His soldiers among those who have up to
now been ignorant of Him. What a gracious Covenant promise this is!
Under the guise of a declaration made to Christ, this is really a
promise made to the elect of God that they shall be brought back from
all their wanderings and be ranged in their ranks beneath the banner of
their Lord!
6. 7. Seek you the LORD while He may be found, call you upon Him while
He is near: let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man
his thoughts: and let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy
upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. There must be
conversion–that is, a turning of the soul, and that must be manifest
in the outward life. The wicked must forsake his evil ways, but the
change must go much deeper than that–there must be a real spiritual
conversion. The unrighteous man must forsake his sinful thoughts and,
oh, how glorious it is when, after such a generous exhortation and such
a gracious invitation, God sends His Spirit to those whom He calls, to
enable them to forsake their own ways and their own thoughts, and to
turn to Him! Wherever there is any such a turning as that, it is
certain that "He will abundantly pardon."
8, 9. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My
ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so
are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
I think, dear Friends, that not only may the unconverted pick up many
crumbs of comfort as they hear about the abundant provision of Divine
Mercy, but that the tried people of God may also be much cheered as
they think upon the greatness of the Lord's plans for them! You do not
understand, tried child of God, what your Heavenly Father is doing with
you. A child cannot always comprehend His father's purposes of love–it
is not necessary that he should. Every father may say to his son, "My
thoughts are not your thoughts," but with what an emphasis does our
Divine Father say it to us! "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your
thoughts."
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 of My mouth: it shall not return
to Me void, but it shall accomplish that which Iplease, and it shall
prosper in
the thing to which I sent it Such a promise as this ought to help us to
preach in faith! How full our sermons ought to be of the Word of God,
for it is not our word, but God's Word that is certain to be effectual
to the salvation of our hearers! I remember McCheyne saying that you
will generally find that it is God's Word, not man's comment on God's
Word, that is blessed to the conversion of souls. There is a Divine
charm–a mystic power–about the very Words of the Lord. I can never
doubt the Doctrine of Plenary Verbal Inspiration since I so constantly
see, in actual practice, how the very words that God has been pleased
to employ are blessed to the souls of men–not merely their sense, but
the very language! Sometimes a plural instead of a singular noun, or
one particular word instead of its synonym, will be made, in the hands
of the Spirit of God, the means of reaching some character who,
otherwise, would not have been reached. Blessed be God that we believe
in His Book! We cannot, we will not give up a jot or a tittle of
it–the dot of an I, or the cross of a T. We believe that no part of
the Word of the Lord will return to Him void, but it shall accomplish
all His good pleasure and prosper in the thing whereunto He has sent
it.
12. For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace. That
shall be your happy condition when you have once fed upon Christ! When
you have entered into Covenant with God, you "shall go out with joy,
and be led forth with peace."
12. The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into
singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. And
many of us can testify that it is so. Once reconciled to God, all
nature seems to wear another aspect. Whatever the weather is, it
pleases us because it pleases Him who sends it to us and when we look
upon the beauties of Nature beneath the sunlight, there is a peculiar
glory upon them, for the Light of God that shines more brightly than
the sun, is, to the believing eye, upon everything!
13. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the
brier shall come up the myrtle tree and it shall be to the LORD for a
name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off Wherever God's
Word is, there are transformations. Miracles, though we see them not in
the natural world, are abundant in the spiritual realm. Conversion is
the great standing proof of the Presence of the Holy Spirit–and His
abiding Presence is the perpetual Witness to the truth of the Gospel.
Beyond all arguments from internal or external evidence, stands this
one–the Word of God is effectual in the salvation of sinners. Thorns
are turned into fir trees and briers into myrtles and, so, God is
glorified and "an everlasting sign" is thus preserved among us, "that
shall not be cut off."