“Out of Darkness Into Light”

"Out of Darkness Into Light"

(No. 2397)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, JANUARY 27, 1895.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
FEBRUARY 13, 1887.

"That You may say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in
darkness, Show yourselves." Isaiah 49:9.

THIS, of course, is a prophecy of what the Messiah would do. The Lord
Jesus Christ, when He came among the sons of men, was to open the
prison doors and to say to the prisoners, "Go forth," and to those who,
in addition to being in prison, were in a dark cell, shut away from the
light, He was to say, "Show yourselves."

What wonders Jesus Christ has worked! There are many of us who are
living proofs of what Jesus Christ can do, for, when we were in prison,
He said to us, "Come forth," and we are now free as the air, our
spirits are buoyant and full of gladness and rejoicing! Some of us also
sat in darkness–gloomy, thick, Egyptian night–but when Jesus came to
us, that darkness fled away and now we walk in the Light of God as He
is in the Light, and we have fellowship with Him, and with His Father,
too, through the ever-blessed Spirit. Wonders of Grace belong to
Christ! He has already worked enough to keep His redeemed amazed
throughout all eternity with the splendor of the achievements of His
Grace! Though He were never to work another miracle of mercy, He has
already done enough to set all Heaven in amazement throughout all the
ages that are yet to come, such a wondrous Savior has He proved Himself
to be!

The liberty which Jesus gives to prisoners is something very marvelous.
To be a prisoner for life must be a horrible thing–to be immured in a
dungeon for all one's days must be almost worse than death. Yet there
is a slavery of the soul that is worse than wearing chains upon the
wrist! There is an imprisonment of the heart that is far more terrible
than being shut up within stone walls or iron bars. When Jesus comes to
the soul, He delivers us from that direst of all bondages, fetches us
out from that most cruel of all slaveries, the bondage of the spirit,
the slavery of the heart!

Then we are told that if there are any who are in a worse state than
that of mere captivity, namely, in darkness as well as in bondage, the
Lord Jesus Christ comes to them and says, "Show yourselves; rise, and
come out of the darkness; hide away no longer, come forth into the
light, and enjoy it." And when He speaks, His Words are effectual! When
He says, "Come forth," they come forth, and when He says, "Show
yourselves," they show themselves! He speaks and it is done, for every
Word of Christ is the fiat of Omnipotent Love.

Now I am going to try and deal with those who are, spiritually, in the
dark, in the hope that the time has arrived when they are to come forth
out of the darkness and to show themselves. My business will consist,
then, in two things. First, I want to find out the characters mentioned
in the text. And, secondly, I will repeat the exhortation that it
contains.

I. First, I have to try to FIND OUT THE CHARACTERS mentioned in the
text–"Them that are in darkness." Some of them are here tonight–let
me see if I can, with my Lord's gracious guidance, put my finger on
them.

I observe, first, that they were not always in darkness. She was a
bright young spirit once, after a fashion–up to all manner of fun and
levity. And he–I know him very well–he seemed to be everything that
mirth could make youth to be, sporting like a butterfly in summertime
among the flowers. It was remarked of him that he seemed to enjoy life
perfectly and, certainly, it was his intention to do so, even if he
shortened his days in the process–he dashed at the flame, even though
he singed his wings! But, all of a sudden, there came a cloud in the
sky, both to her and to him–I mean, to you. It may be that some time
ago a death happened in the family, or sickness came, or if it was
neither of these things, at any rate, the mind suddenly grew strangely
quiet and a stillness came down upon the spirit. And with that
stillness there fell a gloom over the whole being. The fun and levity
which had been enjoyed before were like the bubbles and froth upon the
cup–there was nothing substantial or real in them at all–so, when the
man or woman began to think, the bubbles and froth disappeared and then
life grew flat, stale, dull and unprofitable.

What, do you think, were those thoughts that brought such a sobering
influence into your life? They were somewhat like this–I can tell you
about them from my own experience, for they happened to me while I was
yet a boy. I thought, "I have not lived as I ought to have lived. God
made me, yet I have never truly served Him. He is my mother's God, but
I have forgotten Him. He is my father's God, yet I have never sought
Him. Ah, me! What shall I do? God must punish me. He must punish me! If
He does not do so, He ought to–He cannot be God if He does not act
justly and I cannot, in my heart of hearts, reverence Him if He winks
at my wrongdoing, for much wrongdoing has been mine. What is to become
of me?" So I cried out in my agony and I struggled to be right. I
thought it would be easy work to do that which would please God. I went
to the helm of my ship and hoped to reverse its course. But I soon
drifted into the old courses, again, and what I thought to be very easy
I found to be extremely difficult–no more–absolutely impossible! I
seemed soft as wax towards evil, yet hard as cast-iron or steel towards
anything that was good! I could not be molded, or fashioned aright.
Then I grew sad in soul and heavy of spirit–I forsook the ways of the
mirthful and stole away from my companions that I might get alone. I
read my Bible a great deal and the more I read it, the more the
darkness thickened about me. Then I tried to pray and, ah, me, I know
now that they were true prayers, but then it seemed as if my prayers
were no better than the barking of a dog! I could not hope that God
would accept such prayers as those–and so the darkness increased
around me.

I think I hear someone say, "Yes, that is my experience." So you are
here, though your spirit is in the dark! I am right glad to meet you
and while you are there in the dark, I give you my hand, for I
sympathize with you–I know what this darkness means! You were not
always in that condition, but I thank God you are now where you are.
Perhaps you think me cruel to thank God for your misery, but I do, for
this is the gateway into a joy that will be worth your having! This
loss of the sham will be the finding of the real thing! This nailing of
the counterfeit upon the counter will be giving you the minted gold
that shall be current in the markets of Heaven!

Beside this, a sense of sin has settled upon you. I know it did upon
me. I ate my bread at the table, but I sometimes wondered it did not
choke me. I walked the earth and sometimes I was under such a sense of
sin that I marveled it should continue to bear me up. I thought of the
wrath of God and it did, indeed, seem to me to be "the wrath to come."
I thank God that I did not, in those days, hear any of those fine
preachers who tell you there is no wrath to come and you need not want
to meet with such servants of the devil, for his emissaries they really
are. When my conscience convinced me of sin, I verily believe that if I
had heard any of these men, I would have loathed them from my very
soul! The arrows of God stuck fast within my heart and I knew there
must be a wrath of God against sin, for I was angry, even, with myself
on account of my guilt! If God had taken me to Heaven with unforgiving
sin still within my spirit, I would not have been happy! I was utterly
miserable and I felt that I must continue so unless, by a Divine
miracle of Grace, some great change could be worked upon me. The
conscience of man, when he is really quickened and awakened by the Holy
Spirit, speaks the Truth of God–it rings the great alarm bell and if
he turns over in his bed and says, "A little more sleep, and a little
more slumber"–that great alarm bell rings out again and again, "The
wrath to come! The wrath to come! The wrath to come!"

The soul I am describing is in the dark and the darkness settles down
in conviction of sin and, dear Friend–for I am speaking to you (though
I do not know you, I am speaking straight at somebody–God knows
who–who is in the dark), you have no hope. You go to hear sermons,
longing that some Light of God may break in upon you. Some of you have
been hearing the Gospel for a very long time, yet no Light has come to
you. Why is it? One reason is because you shut out the Light of God.
There are some of you who refuse to be converted–you are like sick men
who, when meat is brought to them, refuse it. They turn against it, as
the Psalm says, "Their soul abhors all manner of meat." I am not going
to blame you, dear Heart, but I do deeply pity you, for I know that now
you are hardly in your right senses, like the men at sea, of whom the
Psalm says, "They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and
are at their wit's end."

You hear and yet you do not hear! You have had the Gospel of Jesus
Christ preached to you, and very plainly, too, but you know that it is
one thing to hold a lantern to a man's eyes and it is another thing to
take the scales off those eyes and make him see. So is it with
you–your eyes are covered with scales and you do your utmost to keep
them there! You will not come to Christ that you might have life and,
therefore, there is no star visible to you! There is not even the
faintest rim of the new moon, much less is there any light of the sun
shining upon you. You are in the dark and, at present, there is nothing
to break through that darkness or to drive it away.

Worse still, you fear future and eternal night. I think I hear you say,
"I am afraid, Sir, that I shall die in the dark." I trust not, I trust
not, for I have something to say to you which, I hope, may be God's
voice to pierce that darkness and disperse it! It would be an awful
thing, certainly, to pass out of this world without a hope, and to take
the last dread plunge into the unutterable blackness without so much as
a single spark of light to guide you on your way. And, since you may
die at any moment–(remember how our friend was taken away, two
Sabbaths ago, just as he entered this House of Prayer)–since you may
die at any moment, see to it that you do not die in the dark! You have
but one little candle–do not waste even a fragment of it, but use
every beam of light it gives you–

"While the lamp holds out to burn,

The vilest sinner may return,"

but if that lamp is once quenched, then will you be forever beyond the
reach of hope, for the Gospel is not preached in Hell–where your soul
will be found if you die unforgiven! Here, mercy is offered to you, but
pass away rejecting it and you have sealed your doom forever!

I am not going to dwell any longer upon the seamy side of my subject,
because that might only increase your darkness. Yet I know that you
would feel a kind of mournful satisfaction if I were to do so. Do I not
remember how I read through the Book of Job and its blackest pages
seemed suitable to me? How did I take to heart the language of Jeremiah
in his Lamentations and how did I roll those unsavory morsels under my
tongue again and again! But I rejoice to believe that it is to people
in such a state as this that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is sent. Christ
did not die to save the righteous, but to save the unrighteous!
Salvation is not meant for men who are not lost, but for men who are
lost! It is not because of your riches that Christ came, but because of
your poverty–not because of your worthiness–but because of your
unwor-thiness! He has not come because you do not need Him, but because
you do need Him! And the more terrible your necessity, on account of
the thick darkness in which your spirit is enshrouded, the more am I
encouraged to believe that Jesus Christ has come to save YOU–yes, even
you, for the text says–"To them that are in darkness, Show
yourselves."

II. Now, secondly, I am going to REPEAT THE EXHORTATION of the
text–"Show yourselves." What does that mean?

First, it means that you are running away from Divine Justice and that
your wisest course will be to go and deliver yourself up. I have been
thinking, several times this week, of that unhappy man who is believed
to have committed a murder and who has been going from place to place
to escape detection. What a miserable week he must have spent! How he
must have trembled every time anyone looked at him! The sight of a
policeman must be terrifying, indeed, to him. I know not where he has
been, nor apparently does anybody else, but he is seeking to hide
himself from the officers of justice. There was a murderer, some time
ago, who escaped for a time from those who were searching for him, but
what a wretched life he lived while he was hiding! Now to any of you
who are trying to hide away, thus, God says, "Show yourselves; come out
of your hiding place."

"But what am I to do?" asks one. Give yourself up. "What? Give myself
up to justice?" Yes, to Almighty Justice. Come and surrender yourself.
Do you not know that you are not really hidden? God sees you wherever
you are! There is no hiding away from Him! I might not ask you to give
yourself up to your fellow man, but I do pray you guilty sinners, who
do not like to think of sin and are trying to hide yourselves, to
abandon that folly and come out and give yourselves up. "Give myself up
to God?" you ask. Yes, that is the first thing for you to do–to submit
yourself to God, to lie at His feet pleading for mercy! I have heard of
one who found that his life was sought for on account of a frightful
crime that he had committed. When it was announced that whoever would
bring that man's head, even though he, himself, had been a traitor, he
would be pardoned, he did a very sensible thing–he obtained admittance
to the king and said, "I have brought this man's head and I demand to
be pardoned, for I have complied with the condition mentioned in the
proclamation." So he had, though it was his own head that he had
brought and, somehow, the grim humor of the action seemed to touch the
heart of the king, and he said, "Well, you must live."

I want you to do the same thing as that criminal did–come to God, and
say, "Lord, I am a wicked sinner. If there is a man upon the earth who
deserves to be cast away from Your Presence, forever, on account of
sin, I am that guilty one." Deliver yourself up to God, surrender at
discretion! Say, "You must do with me as You will, Lord, but I cannot
run away from You, nor do I wish to do so. I know that all the earth is
but one great prison when You are seeking me, for You can see me
anywhere. You can spy me out in the darkest night and find me in my
most secret hiding place–therefore I will deliver myself up into Your
hands. Do with me as You will." Now then, you that are in the dark,
come and deliver yourselves up! Say, as Esther did, when she resolved
to go into the presence of Ahasuerus, "So will I go in unto the king,
which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish." I wish I
might be privileged to bring you to that point! May the Lord, Himself,
bring you there! In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom God
anointed to save sinners, I command you who are in darkness to show
yourselves, by surrendering yourselves now to your God, submitting
yourselves unreservedly to Him! "Kiss the Son lest He be angry, and you
perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little."

The next way of showing yourselves is somewhat different–"Say to them
that are in darkness, Show yourselves," that is, you are very lonely
and you have been avoiding your best friends. You like to get away into
a secluded corner and you do not care to be spoken to about
religion–yet all the while you have the heartache and know not how to
get it cured. To you who wish to be always alone, you who are so
retiring, so nervous and so sensitive that you never speak to anybody
about the sorrow you so keenly feel, thus says the Lord to you, "To
them that are in darkness, Show yourselves." Come out of your
retirement! If you cannot speak to any mortal man, yet speak to the
Immortal Man, the Christ of God! Go and tell all your sorrows to the
best of friends! You remember that we sang just now–

"Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to Your bosom fly."

O you lonely one, I want you to speak thus to Jesus and to fly to His
bosom and tell Him all that ails you! You cannot speak to mother, you
say, dear girl? Then speak to the Lord Jesus Christ! "Oh, I cannot
speak to my father!" says the boy. No, I have often found that children
cannot talk to their earthly father, but you can go and speak to the
Lord Jesus Christ! He will meet you in your little room. He will be by
your bedside tonight! Get somewhere, alone, and say to Him, "Lord
Jesus, I have not a friend to whom I can go for relief. Perhaps there
are many who would be my friends, but I am so frightened and so timid
that I dare not go and speak to them. Even when I go to the Tabernacle,
I am afraid lest someone should talk to me about my soul." Speak thus
to the Lord Jesus, first, and it may be that He will give you courage
to allow some Christian person to converse with you and help you "out
of darkness into light." Even if you have not courage enough for that,
it shall be an all-sufficient help to you to show yourselves to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Seek His acquaintance and if only like one groping
in the dark you do but touch Him and lay hold of Him by faith, you will
be saved! And in due time you will come forth into the light of His
Countenance.

Thus I have given you two meanings of the text, but I want, now, to
tell you another–"Say to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves."
This passage may be applied to you who are sick, who are concealing
your disease. I want every man here who is troubled about the state of
his heart, and every woman, too, to come and show themselves to Christ,
just as they are, in all their sin. I remember a friend of mine who
was, for years, suffering from an ailment that I need not name. And
after a while his malady reached a very sad condition and he was most
seriously ill. A physician was called in and when he had examined my
friend, he said, "This ought to have been seen to years ago! Why was it
not properly attended to before? Have you no doctor?" "Oh, yes! The
doctor has been in and out of the house many times. He has been here
almost every month." "Well, what did he do for you?" "Oh, he
prescribed, different things."

Then the physician asked, "But did he never examine you to find out
what was the matter?" And my friend replied, "Oh, I always shrank from
a medical examination!" "But," rejoined the physician, "you will soon
be dead unless God deals very graciously with you–and if you had been
examined and rightly treated, a few years ago, probably this mischief
was then such a very small affair that your life might have been
saved."

Do you not think that such a thing as that often happens–that we are
afraid of a thorough examination and do not want to know our real
condition–and, therefore, it continues to get worse? Well now, I want
you who are in darkness to come to God and to say to Him, "Lord,
examine me thoroughly." Go and exhibit to the Lord your sins and your
sores, yes, though they are putrefying sores! He is accustomed to
seeing such things, therefore hide nothing from Him. Go and tell Him
the tale of all your sins and your sorrows. In your prayers to Him,
make a full confession of your sin. I remember one who used to pray,
"Lord, pardon my sin," and he went over a list of a number of sins that
he had not committed–but he used to say very little about those that
he had committed! "I am afraid I take a little drop too much," he would
sometimes confess, but he never obtained peace until he said straight
out, "Lord, I am a hard drinker, I am a drunk–but by Your Grace I will
take no more strong drink." Then he was delivered from the evil!

If I were a priest and you were fools enough to come and confess your
sins to me, I would not ask you to call a spade a spade, for some
spades are better called by another name–but when you go to God, pour
out all that is in your heart, confess all your wrong-doing!
Acknowledge that you are proud and conceited! Admit that you are
murmuring and rebellious! Confess that you do not want to be converted!
Acknowledge that you have companions you would not like to give up!
Confess that you are living in the practice of a secret sin! Admit it
all! Show yourselves, exhibit yourselves to God just as you are! It
will be a dreadful sight, but the Great Physician will then operate
upon you with His wonderful power which cures and cleanses, too!
Remember this text, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." You
who are in darkness, show yourselves to God by a full and wholehearted
confession of your sin–and a humble acknowledgment that you deserve to
suffer His righteous wrath!

Thus I hope I have, in another sense, put this matter plainly enough–

"Say to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves."

The next thing you have to do is to show yourselves as healed ones
bound to confess Him who has cured them. If you believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, then you are healed of the leprosy of sin! If you trust
Christ, your sins are forgiven–but remember that this is the full
Gospel message–"He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." "If
you shall confess with Your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in
your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.
For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation." When the 10 lepers were cleansed,
our Lord Jesus Christ said to them, "Go, show yourselves to the
priest," in order that he might examine and see whether it was a real
cure that had been worked, and so might bear testimony that Christ had
healed the leprosy.

Now, if Christ has saved you, you are required to come out and show
yourself! Come to the Church of God, and ask to be admitted to its
fellowship. "Oh but I mean to go to Heaven in the dark!" Do you? Do you
expect to find a dark Heaven when you get there? "But," says one,
"there are a great many secret Christians!" How do you know that there
are? Did you ever know one? "Yes," says somebody, "I remember one."
But, if you knew him, how could he be a secret Christian? I do not know
whether there ever was a secret Christian! I will not say anything
about that matter because I am out of the secret in such a case as
that, but this I know, nobody has a right to be a secret Christian. Our
Lord Jesus said, "Whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me,
cannot be My disciple." "Lord," says one, "I am Your disciple, but I am
going to take it easy on the sofa." "No," says Christ, "that kind of
life will not do for one of My disciples, for he that takes not his
cross and follow after Me, is not worthy of Me." You who were in
darkness, if Christ has brought you into light, show yourselves! Stand
forward and say, "Here is a proof of what the Grace of God has done–

'I am the chief of sinners, Yet Jesus died for me'"

and I desire to come out boldly and publicly to acknowledge what He has
done for me! It is the very least that I can do to show my gratitude to
Him."

I have sometimes called some of you, who say you love Christ, but do
not confess Him before men, "rats behind the wainscot." You just come
out, as it were, to nibble a bit of cheese, and then go back, again,
into the darkness. But is that the way that a Christian man or woman
ought to act?–

"Jesus! And shall it always be? A mortal man ashamed of Thee!" No! Let
it not be so! You who have been brought out of the darkness, show
yourselves and confess your Savior and your

Lord!

But I am going to carry the text a little farther. There are some young
men here, perhaps some young women, also, who have been saved. They are
no longer in the dark and God has given them Grace and talents–yet
still they are hiding themselves away! They are chosen ones loath to
take their place of service. Remember when Saul was elected king, the
people could not find him. He was a fine tall fellow, who stood head
and shoulders above the rest of his countrymen, and though they ought
to have spied him out even if he had been sitting down, they could not
find him. Where was he? Hidden away among the stuff. He did not appear
to like that idea of being king, so he hid himself away, and the people
cried, "Come out, Saul! Come out!" And they brought him forth and
proclaimed him king.

There are certain Brothers and Sisters whom God means to place where
they do not want to be placed. There is one who ought to be a Sunday
school teacher, but he is not willing. Where is he? Come out, Sir, come
out! I must fetch you out from among the stuff. "Say to them that are
in darkness, Show yourselves." There is a young fellow who ought to be
preaching the Gospel–he made a very pretty speech, the other night, at
the Mutual Improvement Society. He can speak well enough as a
politician and if there were an election, we would find him talking
fast enough. But he is dumb so far as the Church of Christ is
concerned! Come out, Brother! If the Lord has saved you and if He is
pleading for you in Heaven, it is time you began to plead for Him on
earth! Perhaps it is for the mission-field that the Master wants you
and, my Brother, my Sister, if it is so, the message of the Lord comes
to you tonight, "You that are in darkness, hiding yourselves away, Show
yourselves."

And, mark you, our text also applies to persecuted ones who shall be
acknowledged and honored of God. There will come a day when God's
people, who have long been in the dark through persecution, slander and
misrepresentation, shall hear the Lord speaking to them out of Heaven,
and saying, "Gather My saints together unto Me; those that have made a
covenant with Me by sacrifice." "Say to them that are in darkness, Show
yourselves." What a change will come for God's poor despised people in
that day! "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the
Kingdom of their Father." And, "They that turn many to righteousness
shall shine as the stars forever and ever." Oh, I know that they sneer
at you and call you names–"a Methodist, a Presbyterian, a cant, a
hypocrite." Stand fast for Christ and the day will come when He shall
say, "You that are in darkness, Show yourselves."

Lastly, these words also relate to dead ones called to resurrection. It
may be that most of us shall go down to the grave before Christ comes
and we shall lie–

"In beds of dust and silent clay," and leave these poor bodies of ours
in some cemetery or other. Perhaps in the depths of the sea, or far
away in New Zealand, or in the United States or Canada, we shall leave
our bones far from the spot where our fathers sleep. But there shall
come a day when the silver trumpet of the Resurrection Morning shall
sound and this shall be its note, "You that are in darkness, Show
yourselves!" And out from the dark we shall come, the redeemed of the
Lord, in Resurrection Glory! In the prospect of that day, I feel that I
must show myself for my Lord now–I must come to the front and bear the
brunt of the battle for the Truth of God! I must be bold for Christ,
for He has brought me out of darkness into His marvelous Light and He
deserves that I should not shrink away and hide myself!

He who has prepared a crown of life for every faithful one, expects
that you and I will be faithful even unto death, in the hope of
obtaining that crown of life which fades not! Up, up, you who are
hiding yourselves! Come out of the bushes in which you are skulking
away! If Jehovah is God, serve Him! If Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ
of God, acknowledge Him! If the Gospel is worth preaching, proclaim it
with trumpet tongue! If the Church of God is for Him, be numbered with
it and take your part in its service and in its suffering! God help
you, and God bless you by this message which seems to me to come direct
from Himself to you! You that are in sorrow, show yourselves! And all
you that are cowardly, show yourselves! And God bless you, for Jesus
Christ's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ISAIAH 49:1-17.

In this chapter, we have not merely Isaiah speaking concerning the
Christ of God, but it is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, who here
speaks concerning Himself.

Verse 1. Listen, O isles, unto Me; and hearken, you people from far. It
is very remarkable how constantly the isles are spoken of in this Book
of Isaiah, as if it had been foreseen that, in these far-off islands of
the sea, the name of Jesus would be greatly magnified. "Listen," says
the Messiah, "O isles, unto Me; and hearken, you people, from far."

1. The LORD has called Me from the womb; from the matrix of My mother
has He made mention of My name. Christ Jesus our Lord was spoken of by
the Spirit of prophecy from His very birth–and long before it–and
when He did come into the world, and was born of the Virgin Mary, the
stars of Heaven spoke concerning Him and guided the wise men from the
East to the place where the young Child lay.

2. And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword. There are no words
anywhere so piercing as the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. When you
are giving quotations from various authors, you need never write the
name, "Jesus," at the bottom of any of His words, for they proclaim
their own origin. "Never man spoke like this Man."

2. In the shadow of His hand has He hid Me and made Me a polished
shaft. In His quiver has He hid Me. The great weapon of God against sin
is His Son, Jesus Christ! God has no such means of smiting evil, or
effecting His purposes of love as His own dear Son! This is the
"polished shaft" which Jehovah delights to use.

3. And said unto Me, You are My Servant. Above all others, Christ is
the Servant of God. He is a Son by nature, a Servant by His
condescension, a Servant for our sakes.

3. O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. It is very wonderful that the
Redeemer should here be called, "Israel." It is not more wonderful,
however, than that in another place His people should be called by His
name! You remember those two passages in the prophecy of
Jeremiah–"This is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR
RIGHTEOUSNESS." and, "This is the name wherewith she shall be called,
The LORD our righteousness." There, the people of God take their Lord's
name! And here, Christ takes the name of His people and He deigns to be
called Israel. Nor is this an unsuitable name for Him, for it is He who
wrestled on our behalf and prevailed, even as Israel did at Jabbok.
Jesus is a greater Prince with God than Jacob ever was! Well, then,
does Jehovah say to Him, "You are My Servant, O Israel, in whom I will
be glorified."

4. Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent My strength for
naught, and in vain: yet surely My judgment is with the LORD, and My
work with My God. The Messiah, prophetically looking forward,
complained that, during His life on earth, He seemed to labor in vain.
The nation was not saved–"He came unto His own and His own received
Him not." He wept over the guilty city of Jerusalem, but those tears
did not put out the fires of vengeance! He entreated men to turn to
God, but they did not and they would not repent. He seemed to labor in
vain and spend His strength for nothing, and in vain.

5. And now, says the LORD that formed Me from the womb to be His
Servant, to bring Jacob again to Him, Though Israel is not gathered,
yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and My God shall be My
strength. Even though the Jewish nation was not yet gathered to Christ,
His labor was not in vain. God will not suffer His Son to spend His
strength for nothing!

6. And He said, It is a light thing that You should be My Servant to
raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I
will also give You for a light to the Gentiles, that You may be My
salvation unto the end of the earth. What a blessed word of cheer this
is for us poor Gentiles! The favored children of Israel thought us to
be little better than dogs. But, behold, we have been lifted up into
the children's place! If Israel is not gathered, the Messiah has become
a light to the Gentiles, and God's salvation unto the ends of the
earth! Yet we cannot help fervently praying, "Oh, that Israel might
soon be gathered to Christ!" Her gathering in will be the time of the
fullness of the Gentiles.

7. Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and His Holy One, to Him
whom man despises, to Him whom the nation abhors. Who is this but our
Divine Lord, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God? These words are
spoken of Him whom man despised, of Him who was despised and rejected
of men, of Him whom the nation abhors, for that favored nation still,
alas, abhors the name of Jesus of Nazareth and will not cherish towards
the Christ anything but thoughts of contempt!

7. To the Servant of rulers. For, though He was the King of kings, and
Lord of lords, He submitted to be a Servant to the kings of the earth
and obeyed the rules of human governors. Yet–

7. Kings shall see and arise, princes, also, shall worship, because of
the LORD that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and He shall
choose You. The day is coming when He that was spit upon shall be the
admired of all mankind! No more the crown of thorns, but many diadems
of Glory shall rest upon His blessed head! And all men, with loud
acclaim, shall salute Him as King of kings and Lord of lords!

8. Thus says the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard You, and in a
day of salvation have I helped You; and I will preserve You, and give
You for a Covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to
inherit the desolate heritages. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who shall
establish all that is good–and cast down everything that is evil. He
shall staunch earth's bleeding wounds and repair her wilderness wastes.
Where He comes, flowers spring up all around His blessed feet!

9. That You may say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in
darkness, Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their
pastures shall be in all high places. When Christ leads His flock,
wherever they go they shall feed. And even if He leads them to the very
tops of the hills, He shall make the pastures grow there for them!
There is never a place where Christ leads us but what it is safe for us
to go there. The Shepherd's feet make pasturage for the sheep that
follow Him–therefore, be not afraid to go wherever He leads you, but
rather rejoice that He puts forth His own sheep and goes before them,
for–"they shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all
high places."

10. 11. They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor
sun smite them: for He that has mercy on them shall lead them, even by
the springs of water shall He guide them. And I will make all My
mountains a way. Where, naturally, there could not be a way, on those
pathless summits of the loftiest Alps, the Lord says, "I will make all
My mountains a way"–

11. And My highways shall be exalted. "I will throw up causeways." God
will make a way for you to get at Him if you want to get at Him! If you
are willing to make a way for God, He will make a way for you! The gulf
shall be bridged, the mountain shall be leveled!

12. Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north
and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim. "The land of
Sinim" signifies China. Is it not strange that, in this Book, we should
find mention of the land of Sinim, the country of China? God has a
people there and they shall come to Him! I was delighted, last Tuesday,
to meet with a Brother who had broken bread with us at the Lord's
Table–he was a poor Chinaman, so he had helped to fulfill this
prophecy–"These shall come from the west; and these from the land of
Sinim."

13-15. Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into
singing, O mountains: for the LORD has comforted His people, and will
have mercy upon His afflicted. But Zion said, The LORD has forsaken me,
and my Lord has forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child,
that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they
may forget, yet will I not forget you. Will God ever forget His ancient
people, the Jews? Never! They forget their God, but Jehovah never
forgets His chosen people–"They may forget, yet will I not forget
you."

16. Behold, I have engraved you upon the palms of My hands. "I cannot
work, I cannot even open the palm of My hands without seeing the names
of my chosen people–'I have engraved you upon the palms of My hands.'"

16, 17. Your walls are continually before Me. Your children shall make
haste; your destroyers and they that made you waste shall go away from
you. For God is full of kindness to His people, and cannot forget them.
Oh, that they would never forget Him!