LivePrayerSermon 3441. God's Memorial Of His People
(No. 3441)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 1915.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Behold I have engraved you upon the palms of My hands." Isaiah 49:16.
A LITTLE more than eight years ago, I remember addressing you from these very words. You will find the sermon in
the printed series [See Sermon #512, Volume 9-A PRECIOUS DROP OF HONEY.]
But such a text as this is to be preached hundreds of times! It is quite impossible to exhaust it, and if we should run overthe same circle of thought in some measure, the thought suggested is of itself so precious, it were well to have our pureminds stirred up by way of remembrance.
The apprehension that God might forget us would be very horrible to a child of God. As to the ungodly, they care not whetherGod thinks of them or not. He is nothing to them and they care not whether they are anything to Him. To the Christian, itis far otherwise. He could imagine no greater calamity than for him to be forgotten of his God. He knows there are many reasonsin him why he shouldbe forgotten, and though those reasons are all met by the promises of God, yet there are times when thosereasons exercise great effect upon his mind. As, for instance, the Christian knows how insignificant he is. It is always awonder to him that God did ever think of him. Like David, when he considers the heavens, the works of God's fingers, the moonand the stars which God has ordained, he says, "What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You visithim?" The ungodly man has large ideas of himself, but the Christian has very humbling notions of his own condition and hemarvels, therefore, that God ever should have remembered him-and he fears, sometimes, lest he should be forgotten. So, too,the Christian is aware of his own unworthiness. He knows something of his natural depravity. He remembers somewhat of thingsdone in his youth, his former transgressions-he sees that even now he is not clear from sin in his daily life-and he sayswithin himself at times, "If the Lord were to deal with me according to my desert, He would certainly appoint me a portionwith the unbeliever, discountenance me and cast me away." Yes, and when he thinks of his unthankfulness to God for His manymercies, and remembers what a sting there is in ingratitude, and how it cuts sharp the person who is wronged by it, he sometimeswonders that God has not turned against His ungrateful servant and said, "You are not mindful of My goodness. You make sucha slight return for it, that I will henceforth no more remember you! The streams of My mercy shall be dried up and the sunlightof My favor shall be taken away forever." Oh, what would we do if God did forget us for any of these reasons, my Brothersand Sisters? We could bear, it might be, to be forgotten by the dearest heart that beats in the fondest bosom of our nearestrelative- bitter, indeed, would be such an affliction, to find a Judas where we hoped we had a friend-but let all creaturefriendships go sooner than God should forget us! It would be a calamity if death should visit our habitations, or if sicknessshould come and lay us low, if some calamity should strip us of our earthly comforts. But let them all go without reservation,let us be reduced to Job's extremity and sit upon a dunghill and scrape ourselves with a potsherd, sooner than God shouldforget us! That were Hell itself! Oh, may we rejoice in heart by faith that this calamity cannot occur to us! And let thistext help to remove any fear that any Believer here has ever had, that he may be forgotten of God! The text was meant to meetthat case, for so it runs, "Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion upon the son of her womb?Yes, they may forget, yet will I not forget you." And here is the reason given, "I have engraved you upon the palms of Myhands."
We come, therefore, Brothers and Sisters, by the help of God's Spirit, to consider this Divine Memorial- 'I have engravedyou on the palms of My hands." Then very briefly let us trace out the result of this memorial of God. And let us
close with a personal reflection upon the object of this Divine Remembrance-"I have engraved YOU upon the palms of My hands."
I. THE DIVINE MEMORIAL.
We have here a metaphorical speech to set forth the impossibility of God's forgetting us. "I have engraved you upon the palmsof My hands." I will give a catchword to each particular explanation of this metaphor. The first word is present When we havea thing fresh in our minds and we need to make others know that we have it close to our memory, we say we have it at our fingertips.I say to such an one, "I shall not forget you. I constantly remember you. Your name, your business and your circumstancesare at my fingertips." Everyone understands what is meant by the expression. It is a present memorial, but the figure of speechhere used is more beautiful than that. "I have you as near to Me as if I had you always in the palms of My hands." That bywhich I remember you is most near to Me. A dear friend told me that when travelling in the East, he frequently saw personswho had the portraits of their friends printed on the palms of their hands. I said to him, But did not they wear out?" Yes,sometimes," he said, but very frequently they were tattooed, marked right into the hand, and then, as long as the hand wasthere, there was the image of the friend, roughly drawn, of course." Oriental art is not very perfect, but there it was, drawnon the palms of the hands, so that it could be always seen. A person had never to say, "Run and fetch the portrait. Run andbring me the memorial"-he always had it present with him! So the Lord Jesus always has His people present with him at alltimes. He is the Head, they are the members. The members are never far off from the Head. He is the Shepherd, they are thesheep and the careful shepherd, in time of danger, is never far from his sheep. Christ is not far from any of His people and,therefore, His recollections of them are not difficult to be maintained. He keeps the memorial of them in His hands presentwith Him. There is no fear, therefore, that He will forget them.
The next thought that arises from the metaphor may be remembered by the catchword of permanent. As I have already said, theimpression made upon the hands, as intended in this figure, was permanent-so long as the person lived, there it was. You engraveyour friend's name upon a sapphire and you may lose it. You may write it upon a rock and the rock may crumble. You may getto yourself the most precious and lasting form of matter and stamp the impression of your friend upon it, and by-and-by itmay fade away. But when Christ says that He writes His people's names upon His hands, unless He, Himself, can perish, theirmemorial must abide as long as Jesus lives, He must bear with Him the memories of His people. It is inconceivable that Christshould be without a hand-and what is deeply engraved on those palms, never to be erased, must abide near to Him forever andforever! Oh, think, Christian, you are never forgotten by God! Never in your darkest night of sorrow, never in your most waywardmoment of personal doubt and wandering, never forgotten-and you never shall be! If you live to the decrepitude of old age,He will bear and carry you! If you lie long upon a lonely pallet, where few shall observe your suffering, He will not forgetyou! If you are drifted to some remote part of the world, far from all you love, He will be just as near. Time shall rollon and come to its close, but Christ will not forget you, then, and in the eternity that comes amidst the burning of the worldand the judging of mankind, the engraving on His hands shall be as permanent as ever! You shall still be remembered of theLord, who loved you before the earth was! Present and permanent, then, is the memorial which Christ cherishes of His people.We have lately seen an unusual number of rainbows and I must confess that nothing gives me greater joy than to see a rainbow.It is the memorial of the Covenant. I like to look upon it. But there is something more cherishing to me than looking on itmyself-it is the thought of that text where God says, "The bow shall be in the clouds and I will look upon it that I may rememberthe everlasting covenant." It comforts me that I can look on the sign of God's faithfulness, but it comforts me much morethat God looks at it-that His eyes are on it! Had I been an Israelite, I think it would have given me much pleasure to seethe blood sprinkled on the lintel and the two side posts of my house. I would have known I was secure. But there is somethingbetter than that. You remember the text, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." It is God's sight of the blood thatsaved you! So here it is Christ that looks at the palms of His own hands-that sees the memorial-always looks there and hasnot to look far, for His hands are not far removed from Himself-they are part of Himself. It is on Himself He bears the memory-thepermanent memory of all whom He has bought with blood! Therefore, be you comforted, and think not that you are overlooked.
The third word shall be personal-present, perpetual, and personal. I have engraved you not in the Book of Record, but I haveengraved you upon Myself, upon the palms of My hands." It means this-I will put it in one short,
compact sentence-that Christ could as soon forget Himself us He could forget His people! He has stamped them into Himself!Yes, more-He has taken them into such vital, indelible union with His own Person, that to forget one soul that He has boughtwith blood would be to forget Himself! The mother does not forget her child because there is an intimate connection betweenthem. The head cannot forget the members because there is a still more intimate connection there. My finger does not needto tell my head that it suffers, and when a limb is full of pain and agony, it does not need to send express messengers upto the brain to say to the head, "Think of me, for I am full of grief." No, the head feels that the limb is a part of itself,knit to itself! And Christ has a personal interest and a personal union with all His people. Oh, precious thought! You aredearer to Christ than any treasure could be to Him because you are of His flesh and of His bones. This is the reason-thisis one reason that is given in Scripture-for conjugal love, because the woman was taken out of the man, and she is bone ofhis bone and flesh of his flesh-and when our blessed Second Adam fell asleep in death, God took His Church out of His side,and the Church is bone of Christ's bone and flesh of His flesh. He cannot forget her! He looks upon her with a love that cannever change and can never be indifferent.
The next word I shall give you after this one of personal is painful. I have engraved you on the palms of My hands." I maybe permitted to illustrate this by our Savior's hands. What are these wounds in Your hands, these sacred stigmata, these ensignsof suffering? The engraver's tool was the nail, backed by the hammer. He must be fastened to the Cross, that His people mightbe truly engraved on the palms of His hands. There is much consolation here. We know that what a man has won with great pain,he will keep with great tenacity. Old Jacob valued much that portion which he took out of the hand of the Amorite with thesword and with the bow, and so truly does Christ value that which He has conquered at great expense! Child of God, you costChrist too much for Him to forget you! He recollects every pang He suffered in Gethsemane, and every groan that He utteredfor you upon the Cross. The engraving upon His hands brings to His recollection the redemption price which He paid down thatyou might be set free! Oh, what better ground can you have for believing that Christ remembers you than this-that He lovedyou and gave Himself for you? Treasure up that thought.
The other word is practical. "I have engraved you upon the palms of My hands." As much as if God would say, "I can do nothingwithout remembering My people." If He creates the world, it is with the hand that has His people engraved on it. If He putsforth His hand to uphold all things, that upholding hand upholds His saints. With His left hand He smites the wicked. ButHe cannot smite His people, for He sees them in the palm of that very hand! All that God does has an eye to His people. WhenHe divided the nations, He divided them according to the number of the children of Israel. The world stands for their sake-'tisbut a stage for the display of His Grace to them. And when the number of His elect is accomplished, He will take it all downand put it away. O child of God, the Lord has given you the richest consolation when He tells you He can do nothing withoutremembering you, for on the hand with which He works, He has stamped your name! Note before I leave this, that it does notsay, "I have engraved you on the palm of My hand," but "on the palms of My hands," as if there was a double memorial beforethe Lord forever. With His right hand He blesses, and His people have a share in that. With His left hand He deals out vengeance,but He sees His people there, and gives no vengeance to them. "His left hand," the hand of His angry power, "is under my head,"says the spouse, "and His right hand, the hand of His beneficent love, does embrace me." A left-handed or a right-handed God,He altogether loves us and remembers us on the right hand and on the left. By both His hands, by all His power, He pledgesHimself never to forget one of His saints! Oh, this is a rich text! And we trust we shall so handle it as to bring out thejuice from the luscious sentences, throw it in the winepress and tread it again and again with active feet-and it shall alwaysyield fresh sweetness-and give forth yet more and more luscious draughts to slake your thirst, if you know but how to useit. Dear, abiding, precious memorial of our crucified Lord, you do charm away our fears! He never can forget us. And now,briefly, not for lack of matter, but for lack of time-
II. WHAT WILL BE THE RESULT OF OUR BEING THUS DAILY REMEMBERED?
Children of God, God remembers you to make you joyful. How runs the text? "Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth." The Lord,who thinks of you, will sometimes give you heydays and holidays. You shall not always be in the dark. Do you recollect howJohn Bunyan describes it, that after Giant Despair's head had been cut off, Mr. Ready-to-Halt, Miss Much-Afraid and Miss Despondency,all of them, had a feast? And they had a dance, too, and Mr. Ready-to-Halt leaped on his crutches! The very weakest and mostlimping among God's saints sometimes have their seasons of joys and
rejoicing, and so shall you! You daughters of depression, you sons of sorrow, God has engraved you upon the palms of His hands!You have had your evenings, you shall have your mornings-you have had your droughts, you shall have your floods. If God remembersus, we may rest assured that He will provide for all our needs. If the shepherd remembers the sheep, the sheep shall not starve.If the farmer remembers the plant, it will be cared for. God, who is the Great Farmer, remembering the plants of His garden,says, I will water them every moment." If the mother remembers her baby, it is to give it all it needs and lull its griefsto rest. God will give us all we need. Sons of need, you who feel your need, be of good comfort-you are engraved on the palmsof Jehovah's hands! We shall not want any good thing if He remembers us, so let us reflect that we shall get chastened sometime. A child forgotten of its parent, never feels the rod. I have been comforted sometimes when I have been smarting, tothink I was not quite cast off. The goldsmith will not put a common stone into the furnace-he sets some value on that whichhe spends his coals upon. If the Lord afflicts you, O heir of Heaven, He has not cast you away, be sure of that! The refiningthat you are undergoing proves that He sets a price upon you. He has taken trouble and care with you. By the furnace, maybe,He will deliver you from your dross and your sin. Oh, to be remembered, even if it is with a blow, is better than to be forgottenand to be left to riot in this world's pleasures! Let me be, my God, only able to know I am Yours by Your rod, sooner thanhave to live in doubt and fear as to whether I am Yours or not. If God thus remembers us, and we get chastened, we may alsoknow that we shall have consolation in chastening and be delivered in due time out of the trial. If you are engraved on thepalms of God' s hands, though you should have to lie long and pine on that couch of suffering, He will not forget you!
Oh, my dear young Friends, whose pale faces often grieve me when I see you sad, let us look up to God for comfort! Thoughyou are marked for death, He does not forget you! He will cheer those days of growing weakness, and as you get nearer to thegrave, you will also get nearer to Heaven! Many a poor woman lying in a lone cottage, or dying in a workhouse, has had morejoy than some of the princes of earth in all their wealth and pride. Christ never leaves those who are His in the world, butto them He reveals Himself more sweetly than to others! I would like to say to every child of God here, because God remembersyou, all that you lose between here and Heaven, He will be sure to give you. All you ask for that is right, you shall have,and a great deal you never thought of asking for! You shall have as much sweet and as much bitter. You shall have as muchof everything that is good for you, as shall be best, and afterwards you shall have the fullness, you shall have the glory,for, being engraved on the palms of God's hands, He will not forget to bring you home to the place where He is and to appointyou a mansion among His chosen! I wish I could speak more at large on this, but we have hurried over it. Only take it home-chewthe cud upon this. It is worth it. Here are subjects for meditation that any thoughtful mind may bring out. If God remembersme, it is all I need. You know that verse we sometimes sing that ends, "This my Father knows; this my Father knows." Oh, yes,your needs, He sees them all! Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of these things. There is nothing more requiredto comfort your hearts. If He knows it is good for you, you shall have it! And now to close. Who is it that is-
III. THE OBJECT OF THIS REMEMBRANCE
"I have engraved you upon the palms of My hands." " You"-pass it round. Let each one before God, as though he saw Christ uponthe Judgment Throne, ask himself, "Am I engraved upon the palms of Jesus' hands-am I" It is nothing that His whole Churchis there-His Zion. He is immediately thinking of His truly blood-bought, regenerate people-there they are-all there. He hasin His eyes the circumstances as He has on His hands the names of many that are greatly afflicted. Notice the connection ofthe text-it is to the afflicted that He is there speaking. He says, "The Lord will have mercy on His afflicted"-and He saysthat their names are on His hands! Don't say, then, that you are not the Lord's because you are afflicted! Because you arelow in circumstances, or sick in body, don't conclude, therefore, that you are not in Christ, but rather pray more earnestlythan ever that these trials may be greatly sanctified to you! Nor, Beloved, don't conclude that you are not Christ's becauseyou feel you are sinful. Observe how the connection runs, "He will have mercy on His afflicted." Now mercy is for sinners.I may be a sinner, but yet engraved on the hands of Christ, for, indeed, all whose names are written there are, by nature,guilty, but they have obtained mercy! The greatness of my past guilt does not prove that I have no interest in Christ. IfI have faith in Him. If I come and put my trust in Him, then is my name written on the palms of His hands! But is it so, dearReader? Is it so? Have you trusted Christ or not? Answer, I say again, as though Christ were here upon the Throne of His JudgmentSeat! Answer now. Do you rest your soul alone on Jesus Christ? If you do, all that is implied in having yourself imprintedupon the hands of Christ is yours!
Take it-enjoy it-be glad. What consolation should this Scripture itself afford! But if you have not believed, touch not thesesweet things, but rather say, "Lord, help me to believe tonight!" To believe is but to trust-to rest yourself upon Christ.Watts calls it falling-
"A guilty, weak, and helpless worm, On Your kind hands I fall."
Here I am leaning on this rail. If this that I lean upon, fails me, down I must go! I have no other support. Lean just likethis on Christ! You have seen a fainting person at last throw himself back on another. Do that to Christ-faint away into Christ!Relax all your own power-let it all go. That sham power you think you have, and that merit you think you have, and all thehopes you ever had-let them all go and now drop into Christ's arms! I have heard it said that if a man would only lie stillwhen he falls into the water-lie on his back-he would float. But the tendency is to struggle. Don't struggle, Sinner, afterrighteousness in your own strength-fall back and rest on the Infinite Love of God in Christ Jesus! ' Tis all you have to do-toleave off doing and let Christ do everything! And when Christ has done that everything, then you shall begin doing again onquite another principle-not with a view to merit, but out of gratitude to Him who saved you! I do pray that some may be savedtonight in this house. Before they go down yonder steps, may some of you look to Jesus. There is life in a look! I cannothelp bringing out these simple Truths of God often and often, but they are constantly forgotten. Those that were bitten bythe serpent in the wilderness had not anything to say, had not anything to feel, had not anything to think of-all they hadto do was just to look to the serpent lifted on the pole! And you have nothing to do, or feel, or be, in and of yourself-allyou have to do is to look straight away to Christ!
There is not any good thing in you. Know that to begin with. You say, "But I am bad." I know you are-you are ten thousandtimes worse than you think you are! You are bad as you may conceive yourself to be-but worse than that by fifty thousand times!But your goodness is in Jesus, your hope is in Jesus. Look straight away now to those dear wounds of Jesus! Look straightto Him! And if you perish trusting in Christ, you will be the first sinner that ever perished there! It will be a noveltyin Hell, and the news will be spread on earth, and even in Heaven, that there was a sinner that trusted Christ and then perished!Farewell to the Gospel, then! Put away the Bible. We have done with Christ, Himself, if that could be true. But it never canbe! Him that comes to Me, I will in no wise cast out." Look, Man! Look, Woman! Look, Child! Whoever you may be, there is lifein a look at the Crucified One! There is life at this moment for you! Look, Sinner! Look unto Him and be saved! Look untoJesus, who died on the Cross! May God bless you all for Christ's sake. Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ISAIAH 42:1-17; 43:18-25; ROMANS 10:1-19.
This book might well be called the Gospel according to Isaiah," for it is full of evangelical Truth.
Verse 1. Behold My Servant, whom I uphold: My Elect One, in whom My soul delights: I have put My Spirit upon Him: He shallbring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Of whom speaks the Prophet this, but of the Messiah-Jesus of Nazareth? He was upheldby the mighty power of God. He was the Lord's Chosen. The Spirit of God rested upon Him and this day is this Scripture fulfilledin your ears, for He has brought forth righteousness to the Gentiles.
2. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street He shall be no clamorous seeker after applause.He shall not shout as those that seek for the mastery. Now the Savior was quiet, gentle, meek, humble. When He lifted up Hisvoice, it was for God and for the sons of men-not for Himself. He was meek and lowly of heart.
3. A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench: He shall bring forth judgment unto truth.Howexactly these words describe the Lord Jesus! He was so gentle that He did not break or break off the bruised reeds. We readthat He did not answer the Scribes and Pharisees. They were so powerless-such bruised reeds in His esteem-such worthless,smoking flax-that He left them alone until, by-and-by, He came to bring forth judgment unto victory. And now the weak, thefeeble, the gentle, the poor in spirit shall never find Christ to deal harshly with them. "The bruised reed He will not break:the smoking flax He will not quench."
4. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He has set judgment in the earth and the isles shall wait for His Law. Oh, whata blessed thing it is that we have a Savior to trust to, who will not fail! And He is one who will never be discouraged. Hewill carry out the salvation of His people and never give it up as a hopeless case. Poor Sinner, if He begins with you, Hewill not fail nor be discouraged-nor will He even with the whole earth. He will not take back His hand till surely all fleshshall see the Glory of the Lord. He who has undertaken man's redemption is not feeble of spirit and easily baffled. He shallnot fail or be discouraged!
5, 6. Thus says God the LORD, He that created the heavens, and stretched them out; He that spread forth the earth, and thatwhich comes out of it; He that gives breath unto the people upon it and spirit to them that walk therein: I the LORD havecalled You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand, and will keep You, and give You for a covenant to the people, for alight to the Gentile. See what God has made His Son, Jesus Christ? If you want to get a Christ in the Covenant of Grace, youhave only to lay hold on Christ, for Christ is given as a Covenant to the people. He is the embodiment of the Covenant-thesum and substance of it-the seal of it-the surety of it. He is, indeed, the Covenant, itself! And if you want light, you haveonly to get Christ. He is the Light of the world, and here we are told that God has given Him for a Light to the Gentiles.
7. To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and they that sit in darkness out of the prison house.Hearthis, you melancholy ones, you that are desponding, you that cannot get out of the prison of bad habits, or shake off thechains of sin! Behold a Liberator has come-One whose very business it is to open the fast closed cells of sin and set thecaptives of Satan free!
8, 9. I am the LORD: that is My name: and My Glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to engraved images. Behold,the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth, I tell you of them. One great proofof the truth of the Deity of Jehovah is that He can foresee and foretell, so that long before events happen, He makes themknown. Now Isaiah, by God's Spirit, told the Israelites concerning Christ, hundreds of years before Christ came-and yet theterms are so express that one might almost think that they were written afterthe event. But does not God know? And is notHe God who sees through the mists of ages and looks upon the things that are to be as though they were? Verily He is God!
10, 11. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and His praise from the ends of the earth, you that go down to the sea, and all thatis therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villagesthat Kedar inhabits: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. For the coming ofChrist is the coming of music into the world! When He hung upon the Cross, there were lighted up new stars to cheer earth's night. No, what if I say that the sun, itself, had risen then to chase away the darkness once and for all? O Lamb of God!Creation made the angels sing, but Redemption makes us fallen men sing, for it lifts us up to sit among the angels throughYour most precious blood!
12. Let them give glory unto the LORD, and declare His praise in the islands. Now for His enemies. While God is thus graciouslydealing with men, He determines to make an end of the powers of evil.
13. The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man, He shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: He shall cry, yes, roar; He shallprevail against His enemie. Do not imagine that the gods of the heathen will always sit on their thrones or that the powersof anti-Christ will always darken the earth. Ah, no! God will bestir Himself before long.
14. Ihave a long time heldMy peace; Ihave been still and refrained Myself: now willI cry like a travailing woman; I will destroyand devour at once.Oh, what a time will that be when God comes forth in the splendor of His power to put down all the hostsof evil!
15. I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs: and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dryup the pools. What a terrible God He is! When He once puts forth His hand for deeds of justice and of vengeance, who can standbefore Him? But yet how His mercy walks arm-in-arm with His justice!
16. And I will bring the blind by the way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will makedarkness light before them and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them. Oh, the condescensionof God, that even when His right arm is bared for war, and thunder girds His cloudy car, yet still He stoops out of the chariotof wrath to look after poor, blind, helpless souls, and lead them in the way of peace and mercy. But as for His enemies-
17. They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, who trust in engraved images, that say to the molten images,You are our gods.
ISAIAH43:18-25.
Verses 18, 19. Do not remember the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing: now itshall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. Do not imaginethat what God has done in the past will never be repeated! It will be excelled-He will do yet greater things. Of all the mercyand love which God has shown, we may say that these are only prophecies of what He yet will reveal. There are now things yetto come wherein the splendor of His mercy shall be yet more clearly seen than in all the former things!
20, 21. The beast of the field shall honor Me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and riversin the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen. This people have I formed for Myself; they shall show forth my praise.Howeverbarren may your soul be and however all your surroundings may seem to be stamped with death, God can come and make you happyand blessed and surround you with delights! And He will do it in order that in you, whom He has formed for Himself, His praisemay be seen!
22. But you have not called upon Me, O Jacob. Prayer has been neglected. Praise has been suspended. There has been an ungraciousnegligence in the service of God. You have not called upon me, O Jacob."
22. But you have been weary of Me, O Israe. You thought the service long-thought the time for prayer came around too soon-refusedto give to My cause and said it was a tax. You have been weary of Me, O Israel."
23. You have not brought Me the small cattle of your burnt offerings; neither have you honored Me with your sacrifices. Ihave not encased you to serve with an offering, nor wearied you with incense. I have not taxed you. I have not drawn uponyour resources heavily."
24. You have bought Me no sweet cane with money, neither have you filled Me with the fat of your sacrifices. "I left you togive or not to give, that your free will might be seen in all your deeds of love, but nothing has come of it. On the contrary"-
24. You have burdened Me with your sins, you have wearied Me with your iniquities.A solemn charge, this, which God lays againstHis people. Now see the next verse and read it with wondering eyes!
25. I, even I, am He that blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and will not remember your sins. He has pointed outthe fault. He has shown that He is not forgetful of it. And then He pronounces absolution! The transgression is put away!Blessed be His name! Now let us turn to the New Testament and read in the Epistle to the Romans, the 10th Chapter, and weshall there see the way in which pardon is brought home to the soul.
ROMANS 10:1-19.
Verses 1-3. Brethren, my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record thatthey have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of Gods righteousness, and going aboutto establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.A fault-a pitiable and grievousfault-that men should be in earnest and very zealous, and yet nothing should come of it because they spend that zeal in awrong direction! Men would make themselves righteous. They would come before God in the apparel of their own works, whereasGod has already made a righteousness which He freely gives!For us to try and produce another is to enter into rivalry withGod-to insult His Son and do dishonor to His name! May God grant that any here who are very zealous in a wrong direction mayreceive light and knowledge, and turn their thoughts in the right way.
4, 5. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. For Moses describes the righteousnesswhich is of the law, that the man who does those things shall live by them.That is the righteousness of the Law of God. Weare not under that Covenant now. We shall never attain to righteousness that way.
6-9. But the righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise, Say not in your heart, Who shall ascend into Heaven? (Thatis, to bring Christ down from above). Or, who shall descend into the deep? (That is, to bring up Christ again from the dead).But what does it say? The word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart; that is the word of faith, which we preach.That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from thedead, you shall be saved. How very simple! No climbing, no diving, no imagining, no long reckoning of the understanding, nostrangling of the mental faculties. It is just believe God's testimony concerning His Son and you shall be saved!
10, 11. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For theScripture says, Whoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek [Gentile]in this matter.
12, 13. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. For whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shallbe saved. This was the old prophecy of Joel. The Jews knew it. It is the new teaching of the Gospel. The Gentiles know it.Oh, who would not wish to be in that broad "whoever," that he might find salvation?
14, 15. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they havenot heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they are sent? As it is written,How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things?So that, rightlylooked upon, the humblest preacher of the Gospel stands in the most solemn relationship towards mankind. His Master sendshim. He tells His message. Men hear it, believe it and by it are saved! Happy is the messenger! Well may his heart rejoice,even when his soul is heavy, because he has such work to do in his Master's name!
16. But they have not all obeyed the Gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report? And what Isaiah says, manyand many a preacher since has had to say. "Woe, woe to us for this."
17-19. So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. But I say, Have they not heard? Yes, verily, theirsound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. But I say, Did not Israel know?Did not the Jewishpeople have a time of hearing and instruction? Certainly they knew-and they also knew that the Gospel was not to be confinedto them. They had a warning that it would even be taken from them and sent to other nations.