I make no break in this address of the prophet. The whole forms but one sermon, and a most striking one it is. I beg the reader to remark with me the very pointed terms made use of by the man of God. He calls them by the name of the men of Sodom and Gomorrah. Perhaps to intimate, that their place and people merited equal judgment. And had the Lord done so, there would have been no injustice on the part of God. Reader! let us pause over this thought, and not too hastily dismiss the solemn consideration from both our minds. As a nation, how awful do we stand, in the crying and abounding sins of our guilty land! And are we not visited as they? To what shall we ascribe it? Oh! the unknown treasures of grace in covenant love! Precious, precious Jesus! who shall calculate the infinite value of thine atoning blood; which speaks more for thy people, than all their sins against them? Reader, mark what is said in those verses concerning the inefficacy of sacrifices! And do not fail to connect with it, how and in what terms they are spoken of. The Lord calls them your sacrifices. Yes, Jehovah hath an eye only to one sacrifice, and that one of his own appointing. Reader! it is the sweetest and most precious of all thoughts; that while you and I are looking up to God in Christ for acceptance, by virtue of that one offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, whereby he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified; we are looking up by the express appointment and authority of God our Father, in his own way, for salvation. See those Scriptures, Heb_5:1-6; Heb_10:1-14.
Isaiah 1:10-20
10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.e
12 When ye come to appearf before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity,g even the solemn meeting.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieveh the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.