CHEERING WORDS AND SOLEMN WARNINGS
Isaiah 3:10-11. Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat of the fruit of their own doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him; for the reward of his hands shall be given him.
Into these two orders, the righteous and the wicked, the Bible is accustomed to divide the whole population of the globe.—A crimson line runs between the righteous and the wicked, the line of atoning sacrifice: faith crosses that line, but nothing else can. There can be no righteousness where there is no faith.—This distinction is so sharp and definite, that no man can dwell in a borderland between the two conditions. A clear line of demarcation exists between life and death, and such a division is fixed by God between the righteous and the wicked. There are no monstrous nondescripts, who are neither sinners nor saints. This text ought, therefore, to lead to great searching of heart.
I. The well-being of the righteous.
1. It is a great fact that it is well with the righteous. It is well with him always: in prosperity, which is a time of peril; in persecution, which is hard to bear; in childhood, manhood, and old age; in time, and throughout eternity.
2. We are assured of this fact on Divine authority. Reason might assure us of it, but it is better to have it under the hand and seal of omniscience. If thou canst not see it, let God’s word stand thee instead of sight.
3. It is the will of God that His people should know this great fact. He would have his saints happy, and therefore He says to His prophets, “Say ye,” &c.
4. With God’s people it is emphatically “well.” When GOD says it is “well” with a man, it must be well indeed.
5. There are many obvious reasons why it is well with the righteous.
(1.) His greatest trouble is past. His greatest trouble was the guilt of sin.
(2.) His next greatest trouble is doomed. The dominion of sin over him shall speedily come to an end.
(3.) His best things are safe. His treasures are in heaven.
(4.) His worst things work only for his good.
(5.) He is well fed, for he feeds upon Christ; well clad, for he wears the imputed righteousness of Christ; well housed, for he dwells in God who has been the dwelling-place of His people in all generations; well married, for his soul is knit in bonds of marriage union to Christ; well provided for, for the Lord is his Shepherd.
(6.) God has put within him many graces, that help to make things well; faith, which laughs at difficulties; love, which accepts them; patience, which endures them; hope, which expects a rest to come.
(7.) Day by day, God the Holy Ghost visits him with fresh life and power.
(8.) He has a bank that never breaks—the glorious “throne of grace;” and he has only to apply on bended knee to get what he will.
(9.) He has ever near him a most sweet Companion, whose loving converse is so delightful that the roughest roads grow smooth, and the darkest nights glow with brightness.
(10.) He has an arm to lean upon that is never weary, never feeble, never withdrawn.
(11.) He is favoured with a perpetual Comforter, who pours wine and oil into every wound, and brings to his remembrance the things which Christ has spoken. It is well with the righteous in life, well when he comes to die, and well after death.
6. The blessedness of the righteous rests upon a solid ground. The text says, “they shall eat the fruit of their doings.” Those are the only terms upon which the old covenant can promise that it shall be well with us; but this is not the ground upon which you and I stand under the gospel dispensation. Absolutely to eat the fruit of our doings would be even to us, if judgment were brought to the line and righteousness to the plummet, a very dreadful thing. Yet there is a limited sense in which the righteous man will do this. “I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat,” &c., is good gospel language; and when the Master shall say, “Inasmuch as ye did this unto one of the least of these my people, ye did it unto me,” the reward will not be of debt, but still it will be a reward, and the righteous will eat the fruit of his doings. I prefer, however, to remark, that there is One whose doings for us is the ground of our dependence, and we shall eat of the fruit of His doings.
II. The misery of the wicked. To expound the woe pronounced against him, you have only to negative all that I have already said about the righteous. It is ill with the wicked; always ill with him; we know this on Divine authority; it is emphatically “ill” with him; and it shall be ill with him for ever [547] But why is it ill with the wicked?
1. He is out of joint with all the world. Ordinary creatures are obedient to God, but he has set himself in opposition to the whole current of creation.
2. He has an enemy who is omnipotent.
3. His joys all hang on a thread. Let life’s thread be cut, and where are his merriments?
4. After these joys are over, he has no more to come.
5. Of all the comforts and hopes of the righteous, he is utterly destitute.—C. H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. xiii. 13–24.
[547] Many sinners who seem so jocund in our eyes have not such merry lives as you think. A book may be fairly bound and gilded, yet have but sad stories writ within it. Sinners will not tell us all the secret rebukes that conscience gives them. If you will judge of Herod by the jollity of his feast, you may think he wanted no joy; but at another time we see that John’s ghost walked in his conscience. And so doth the Word haunt many, who appear to us to lay nothing to heart. In the midst of their laughter, their heart is sad: you see the lightning in their face, but hear not the thunder that rumbles in their conscience.—Gurnall, 1617–1679.
Suppose a man were in prison, committed for some great offence, and condemned to die under the displeasure of his prince or state, and his servant should come to him, saying, “Sir, be of good comfort; your wife is well at home; you have very sweet children, an excellent crop of corn; your neighbours love you dearly; your sheep and cattle thrive, and all your houses are in good repair.” Would he not answer that servant, “What is all this, so long as I am condemned to die”? Thus is it with every wicked man. He is under the displeasure of the great God, a condemned man, and God is angry with him every day; and if his heart were open to be sensible of it, he would say, “You tell me of my friends, and goods, and name, and trade; but what is all this, so long as I am a condemned person, and God is angry with me every day I rise?”—Bridge, 1600–1670.
Who would think, now, that sees how quietly the multitude of the ungodly live, that they must very shortly lie roaring in everlasting flames? They lie down, and rise, and sleep as quietly; they eat and drink as quietly; they go about their work as cheerfully; they talk as pleasantly, as if nothing ailed them, or as if they were as far out of danger as an obedient believer. Like a man that hath the falling sickness, you would little think, while he is labouring as strongly and talking as heartily as another man, how he will presently fall down, lie gasping and foaming, and beating his breast in torment! so it is with these men. They are as free from the fears of hell as others, as free from any vexing sorrows, not so much as troubled with any cares of the state of their souls, nor with any sad and serious thoughts of what shall become of them in another world; yea, and for the most part, they have less doubts and disquiet of mind, than those who shall be saved. Oh, happy men, if they could be always thus; and if this peace would prove a lasting peace! But, alas, there is the misery! it will not. They are now in their own element, as the fish in the water; but little knows that silly creature when he is most fearlessly and delightfully swallowing down the bait, how suddenly he shall be snatched out, and lie dead upon the bank; and as little think these careless sinners what a change is near. The sheep or ox is driven quietly to the slaughter, because he knows not whither he goes; if he knew it were to his death, you could not drive him so easily. How contented is the swine when the butcher’s knife is shaving his throat, little thinking that it is to prepare for his death! Why, it is even so with these sensual, careless men; they fear the mischief least, when it is nearest to them, because they see it not!—Baxter, 1615–1691.
THE GREAT LAW OF RECOMPENSE
Isaiah 3:10-11. Say ye to the righteous, &c.
This is the testimony of conscience; conscience testifies that that which is here predicted ought to take place—that the condition and circumstances of men ought to be conformed to their character. This is the testimony of reason: in its clearest, calmest, strongest hours, it endorses this testimony of the conscience. This is the declaration of Almighty God: He here promises that He will do that which conscience and reason agree that He ought to do. Thus we have here a conclusive concurrence of testimony, and the truths announced in our text should be recorded in our memory as absolutely certain.
These declarations remind us of two things.
I. That we are living now in a season of probation. These messages are much needed, because we are surrounded by much that is perplexing. Here and now fidelity to conscience often entails much loss, sorrow, and suffering. Many of the wicked are prosperous and triumphant. Iniquity pays. Moreover, the sufferings of the righteous and the successes of the wicked are often lifelong. This contrast between what ought to be and what is, has been a source of moral disquietude in all ages (Psalms 73, &c). Yet it is absolutely necessary. Without this moral obscurity there could not have been any moral probation. There is no temptation in prussic acid, because its deadly qualities are indisputable, and because they operate instantaneously. If all sins had their penalties as clearly and closely tied to them, vice would be impossible. And so would virtue! Obedience to the Divine will would then be, not an act of choice, but the result of an irresistible moral compulsion, and it would have in it no morally educational influence, and nothing to render it acceptable to God. Not by chance, then, not by mistake, not as the result of a harsh and unloving decree, but as the result of ordinances of the highest wisdom and grace, we are now living in a season of moral probation. But,
II. We are hastening on to a season of rectifications and rewards. Conscience and reason attest that there ought to be such a season, and the Scriptures assure us that there shall be (Ecclesiastes 12:14; Romans 2:6-10, &c.)
The great facts of which our text reminds us,
1. Should give calmness and steadiness to our faith. We should not be greatly moved either by the distresses of the righteous or the triumphs of the wicked. These are most transient. The longest life is really a most inconsiderable episode in our being. This is but the beginning of our voyage; what matters it whether we clear out of port in a storm or amid bright sunshine? What will happen to us on mid-ocean is the only thing worthy of our concern.
2. They should govern us in the decisions we have continually to make in life, between courses that are right, but involve present suffering, and those which are pleasant, but wrong. The sick man who refuses to undergo the present pain which will assure him of future health, and prefers the transient ease which will presently give place to intolerable agony, is insane. Let us not imitate him in his folly. But if the rewards of every man’s hands shall be given him, how shall any man be saved? This is precisely the difficulty which the Gospel was designed to meet. It is precisely because no man can be saved on his own merits that Christ came into the world, and died for every man, and now offers redemption to every man. This offer is made to YOU. For Christ’s sake, the sins of the righteous shall be forgiven them; and for His sake likewise, they shall be rewarded according to their works (Matthew 10:42; Matthew 16:27; Hebrews 6:10, &c.) Between the doctrine of justification by faith and the doctrine of good works there is the most perfect harmony.
THE CURSE OF A WEAK GOVERNMENT
Isaiah 3:12. As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them.
“Children,” “women,” are not to be taken literally. In interpreting the second of these figures, we must remember the status of women in ancient times in the East.
I. A weak government is a curse.
1. By such a government the affairs of a nation are mismanaged, its resources squandered, and its great possibilities unrealised.
2. A weak government always becomes in the end an oppressive government. By it the national burdens are caused to press most heavily on those least able to bear them.
3. Under such a government, privileged classes and monopolies multiply and grow strong, to the hurt of the nation at large.
4. Worst of all, and as the source of countless evils, government itself comes to be despised, and the national respect for law destroyed. In short, under a weak government a nation makes rapid progress towards anarchy.
II. The curse of a weak government is not long in overtaking a nation that gives itself up to luxury and loses its regard for moral considerations.
1. It is only by such a nation that such a government would be tolerated.
2. By such a nation such a government is likely to be for a time most popular (Jeremiah 5:31).
The cures for political evils are not political but moral. Political remedies will but modify the symptoms. Political evils are really due to moral causes, and can only be removed by moral reformations. Hence, while good men will never neglect their political duties (no good man will neglect any duty), they will be especially in earnest to uplift the nation morally, and therefore will do their utmost to strengthen those agencies which have this for their aim—the church, the school, and those societies which exist for the diffusion of the Scriptures and of religious liberty Wherever the Bible becomes the book of the people, oppression by “children” becomes impossible, and the government of “women” is set aside.