THE FATHER’S ELECT SERVANT
(Missionary Sermon.)
Isaiah 42:1; Isaiah 42:4. Behold My Servant, &c.
These words belong to one of the most impressive portions of the prophetic Scriptures, and unquestionably relate to the character and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. This might be argued with sufficient certainty from the internal evidence of the passage itself; but it is expressly affirmed, moreover, by an inspired expositor (Matthew 12:17-21). Our text is descriptive of the whole work and administration of the Messiah. It calls us to behold, with admiring attention—
I. THE MESSIAH’S OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND QUALIFICATIONS.
1. Our blessed Saviour is the Father’s Servant. It is entirely in reference to His mediatorial work that our Lord is denominated the Father’s Servant (Isaiah 52:13; Isaiah 53:11; Isaiah 49:6). In His divine nature, as the SON, He possesses, from eternity to eternity, an essential equality with the FATHER. But, for the purpose of recovering our fallen race to holiness and happiness, and of re-establishing that divine dominion over man which sin had subverted, He laid His glory by, and sustains the character of a servant to Him who sent Him (Philippians 2:6-7; Hebrews 10:7). Nor was it only in His mediatorial humiliation that He acknowledged the Father’s will and conducted Himself as a servant. He does so now in His mediatorial exaltation. That exaltation He enjoys as the recompense of His acts and services of filial submission and zeal (H. E. I. 919); and He administers His kingdom with a view to the glory of the Father, to whom He will ultimately resign it, that God may be all in all (Philippians 2:9-11; 1 Corinthians 15:27-28; H. E. I. 985).
2. Our Redeemer is the Father’s Elect—called of God to the mediatorial office (Hebrews 5:4-6). In Him alone did God behold the attributes and perfections indispensable for the work of salvation.
(1.) None but a divine person could, as the great prophet of the Lord, manifest the Father’s name to a world which had not known Him (John 1:18; H. E. I. 847–848).
(2.) He was ordained to offer a vicarious sacrifice for the sins of the world, and to present effectual intercession for as many as should come unto God by Him. The merit and prevalency of these acts depended materially on the spotless purity and infinite dignity of the sacrifice which was to be offered, and of the Priest who was to intercede (Hebrews 7:26-28).
(3.) The government was to be on the shoulders of the Messiah. He was to undertake the administration of a spiritual kingdom which requires for the proper transaction of its vast and immensely complicated concerns a wisdom and energy such as no creature can exert. On all these accounts, when the servant was to be chosen to whom the business of salvation was to be intrusted, the elect must needs be the FELLOW OF JEHOVAH.
3. The Divine Person thus and for these purposes chosen by the Father appeared in the form of a servant, by assuming human nature into an ineffable union with the divine nature which belonged to Him from eternity. To qualify that human nature for the momentous duties which the office of Mediator involved, it was made the subject of an unexampled and peculiar anointing from the Holy One: “I have put my spirit upon Him” (cf. Isaiah 11:1-2; Isaiah 66:1-3; and Luke 4:17-21; John 3:24; Hebrews 1:8-9). From all these texts we learn that there were certain qualifications of our Lord’s human nature as essential, in their place and measure, to His success, as the higher attributes which belonged to the divine nature; and that these qualifications were not supplied to the humanity directly and immediately by the simple fact of its personal union with the divinity, but mediately by the unction of the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:38). [1351]
[1351] The rational soul in our Lord’s nature was a distinct thing from the principle of Divinity to which it was so united; and being so distinct, like the souls of other men, it owed the right use of its faculties in its exercise of them on religious subjects, and its uncorrupted rectitude of will, to the influence of the Holy Spirit of God.—Horsley.
4. Thus chosen and qualified for the service of God, in the discharge of His functions He is upheld by His Divine Father.
(1.) This may refer partly to the personal succours afforded to our Lord in the course of His life and ministry on earth at seasons of peculiar emergency and trial (Matthew 4:11; Luke 22:43).
(2.) But it more especially refers to the divine supports afforded to our Redeemer in His mediatorial administration and government. Every dispensation of Providence toward individuals and nations is arranged in entire subserviency to the great purposes for which Christ lived, died, and rose again. So that while He is the Father’s Servant, all are His servants (Ephesians 1:20-22).
(3.) This expression also intimates the high sanction and supreme authority of Jesus Christ. From His teaching and administration, though He be a servant, there is no appeal to the Father who employs Him. God will for ever uphold, and in no one case, nor on any account whatsoever, will He counteract or alter the measures of His Son’s government (John 5:22-23). Let this teach us how seriously and carefully we ought to study the will of Christ.
5. He is also acceptable and approved; one in whom the Father’s soul delighteth.
(1.) This delight has respect, generally, to Christ Himself, as the Agent of redemption (John 5:20; Matthew 17:5).
(2.) It has a particular respect to the sacrifice of atonement made by the death of Christ for guilty man (John 10:17; Ephesians 5:2).
(3.) It has a reference to the Mediator in His present character and operations as the Head of the Church, and the Agent by whom the plans for its gradual enlargement and ultimate perfection are constantly superintended, and shall be brought in due season to a prosperous issue. The salvation of man by Jesus Christ is the concern which is nearest and dearest to His heart, and in the process and consummation of which He takes the highest pleasure.
From the view now taken of the official character of our Saviour we may derive instruction in reference to all Christian ministers and missionaries. He that will as such be God’s servant must, like the Mediator Himself, be able to allege God’s choice and call of him to that office (John 15:16). Upon all God’s chosen servants Christ is ready to put the same Spirit of power and holiness which the text describes the Father as having put upon Him. For such full baptism of that Spirit, let them apply in prayer and faith. Many other qualifications for their work are desirable, but this is indispensable. Having that, let them be thankful for the high honour God has conferred upon them in putting them into the ministerial office, mindful of its momentous responsibilities, careful to do God’s will faithfully, diligently, and heartily, and, like their great Pattern, be so intent on their Master’s work and glory, as never to allow any selfish interest or gratification to interfere for one moment with their ministerial duties. Such men will be upheld in their work by divine grace and providence; and God will smile with acceptance on their labours of love. Thus, in truth, He in one respect accomplishes the promise made in the text to the Mediator Himself.
To the Church of Christ our text speaks the language of instruction in righteousness. It reminds us of our duty to pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth such labourers into His harvest.
II. THE WORK FOR WHICH MESSIAH HAS RECEIVED THIS OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND QUALIFICATION.
“He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles”—a prediction of the illumination and conversion of heathen tribes. Great privileges were once granted to the Jews exclusively (Psalms 147:19-20); now privileges still greater are extended to benighted nations. By “judgment” we are here to understand—
1. A direct, well-attested, and solemnly obligatory revelation of the will of God as to the salvation and duty of man (Psalms 119:13; Psalms 19:9-11; Isaiah 51:4). Revealed truth and precepts are called “judgment,” because they contain not only light, but law; not only a rule, but a decision. They are the standard by which we ought to judge ourselves, and by which we shall infallibly be judged of the Lord. When once brought or published to us, they become ipso facto binding on us, and demand our instant acquiescence and obedience. This view of revelation, so admonitory to ourselves, also evinces the propriety of its being communicated to those nations that are unacquainted with it. They need it. Nothing else can root out their inveterate errors, and settle their otherwise interminable disputations.
2. That dispensation of power which accompanies the publication of the Gospel.
(1.) Christianity is not only a system of law, but of soul-subduing grace (Psalms 19:7). This energy “brings forth judgment unto truth”—obtains in the hearts of men a sentence in favour of the truth, induces them to become obedient to it, and thus gains for it a glorious victory.
(2.) The power of Christ which accompanies the Gospel extends also to the restraining of Satan, and to the special counteraction of his agency and influence (John 12:31; Luke 10:18-19).
How interesting and important is the work of Jesus Christ as the Illuminator and Deliverer of immortal men! What true philanthropist can be indifferent to it?
III. THE MANNER IN WHICH THE MESSIAH EXECUTES HIS TASK.
Isaiah 42:2-3 teach us that in the exercise of His functions our Saviour was to be—
1. Humble and unostentatious. It was in connection with an instance of our Lord’s aversion to pomp, noise, and parade, and His readiness to sacrifice His personal credit to the great interests of His public mission, that St. Matthew quotes our text (Matthew 12:15-21).
2. Peaceable and inoffensive. The kingdom which He administered was opposed “not to Cæsar’s, but to Satan’s empire;” and therefore He submitted in all civil affairs to the government of His country, discountenanced all schemes of ambition and violence, and abstained from everything clamorous and contentious. He was willing to suffer rather than to strive.
3. Gracious and benignant in all His dealings with His people, however weak and unworthy [1354]
[1354] Of such persons a reed, frail and insignificant in itself, and still more so when bruised by an external agency, and the wick of an almost extinguished lamp, which no longer flames, but only smokes in its socket, and cannot be rekindled but by a fresh application of external fire, are striking emblems. Such reeds the Messiah will not break, but strengthen and restore; such smoking wicks He will not quench, but rekindle and revive (H. E. I. 951; P. D. 474).
In all these particulars, our great Master is to be admired and imitated by all who work for Him. Let them study with the closest attention this Divine model. If they work the works of Christ, let them imbibe and exemplify the spirit of Christ (2 Timothy 2:24-25).
IV. THE SUCCESS WHICH SHALL CROWN THE MESSIAH’S UNDERTAKING.
1. The work of Christ shall ultimately succeed.
(1.) “Judgment shall be set in the earth.”
(2.) This happy effect shall be produced, not only in a few nations, but universally, for even “the isles,” the most distant Gentile nations, “shall wait for Christ’s law” (cf. chap. Isaiah 2:2-3).
2. Before this work shall be finally accomplished, it will encounter formidable obstacles, but they cannot hinder its triumph. He who is at its head “shall not fail nor be discouraged till He have set judgment in the earth.”
3. The certainty of success rests on such grounds as these:
(1.) The almighty power and inviolable faithfulness of God, who has called the Messiah to this work, and will therefore uphold Him in the discharge of His office (Isaiah 42:5-6).
(2.) God’s regard to His own honour (Isaiah 42:8; Isaiah 42:13-14).
APPLICATION.—The subject teaches us—
1. The great and beneficial results of our Saviour’s advent, and of the dispensation of the Gospel.
2. The duty of perseverance in our endeavours to spread the light and grace of the Gospel.
3. The necessity of a personal submission to Christ.—Jabez Bunting, D.D.: Sermons, vol. i. pp. 21–50.
We find it easier, in human affairs, to discover a fault than to suggest a remedy; we complain without an effort to redeem or to amend. It is not so with Scripture, which is the Word of God. There each word of rebuke is a means to an end. There is no exposure of evil to exhibit the censor’s superiority. There is no delight in the merciless anatomy of sin. There is no mockery of distress by the presentation of sorrow that is hopeless, or leprosy beyond cure. Equal to the need and surpassing it, present as soon as the need is felt and acknowledged—there is redemption To illustrate this thought you have only to look at the verses immediately before the text (Isaiah 41:28-29). As soon as you have realised this necessity, while the heart is yet paining under the sadness which the thought of it has created, the bright light is in the clouds, and in the midst the vision of the Redeemer: “Behold My Servant,” &c. This passage refers to Christ and His great work in the world (Matthew 12:18, &c.)
I. THE NEED OF THE WORLD.
This is affirmed in this passage to be the bringing forth or establishment of God’s “judgment.” The word has many senses in Scripture, but there are three to which we may especially refer (cf. first, Psalms 147:19-20, and Isaiah 1:17; secondly, Luke 11:42 and Psalms 119:20; thirdly, in the quotation of the text in Matthew’s Gospel it would seem to have reference to the dispensation of grace). These meanings discover the world’s strongest necessity to-day—a bringing forth of “judgment”—
1. As a revelation of God’s Word and will. Who that looks abroad upon the world but must mourn over the bewilderment and confusion of its inhabitants in relation to the things of God? Where there is no revelation there is obscure and distorted vision, and the people perish. Who that looks into his own heart, and frets himself with the many problems of existence which the human mind hath no skill to solve, can forbear the longing for a higher wisdom, for a voice which can make itself heard, and which, when heard, can silence the battle of strange tongues, and in imperial tones proclaim to us the true? This yearning is answered when the judgments of God are revealed to men. In the life and teaching of our Lord we have this revelation.
2. As essential rightness. The original derangement, how thoroughly has it infused itself into every part of the universe, and into every faculty of man! There is no light, no hope. Through the long darkness the eyes strain upward for the glimpse of the day; “the isles wait for the law;” the universal conscience cries out for its coming, and for lack of it “the whole creation travaileth together until now.”
3. As a dispensation of power, because ignorance and impurity are helpless and “without strength,” until “in due time Christ dies for the ungodly.” Without the revelation of this power all other would be an aggravation of the torture. The effect of the Saviour’s mediatorial work is described as the “judgment of this world,” and the casting out of its prince from his usurped dominion. As the special anointing for the great work of deliverance, God says of Christ, “I have put My Spirit upon Him.” That Spirit is a spirit of power. Where He works there can be blindness and feebleness no longer. Here, then, are the wants of the world met by the bringing forth of judgment from the Lord. The world needs nothing “save Jesus only.” All its wants are met in the person of its Surety. Let Him work to the completion of His purpose, and Aceldama must bloom into Paradise. All social wrongs will vanish. All religious evils will be ended. Scepticism will not shake the faith, nor blasphemy curdle the blood. Fanaticism will no longer be grafted upon the reasonable service of the Gospel; men will rejoice in the white light of truth, and blush that they have been accustomed to obscure or distemper its rays; Charity will be no longer a fugitive, housed by stealth in hearts warmer than their fellows, but her rejoicing shall be in the habitable parts of the earth, and her spirit the inspiration of the kingdom “which cannot be moved,” for He shall reign whose right it is, and Christ shall be all in all.
II. THE DESIGNATION OF THE WORLD’S DELIVERER.
The terms here applied to Jesus abundantly show the harmony of counsel in the Godhead touching the great work of man’s rescue from ruin.
1. Christ is called “the Servant” of the Father. In at least three other places in this prophecy is this term used (Isaiah 52:13; Isaiah 53:11; Isaiah 49:6). It is evident from these passages that our Lord is called the Servant of the Father in reference only to His Mediatorial work. He is not essentially a servant. He “took upon Him the form of a servant,” and, with glad heart and willing feet, went forth to do a servant’s work. There was confided to Him a task which no other could accomplish.
2. He is called again the “Elect” or Chosen of God, in whom His soul delighteth; or, as Matthew renders it, almost in the very words in which the Father attested the Son from heaven, “My Beloved, in whom I am well pleased.” If proof were wanting of His essential equality with the Father, and that He was “Emmanuel, God with us,” we might surely find it here. Though in the form of a servant, He had the heart and love of a son. He was chosen to this work because none other was trustworthy. He only could “perfect for ever, by one offering, them that are sanctified.” He was not only chosen to this work, but beloved on its account. Deep and everlasting as had been the love of the Father to the Son, it was intensified on account of this (John 10:17). And He was the subject of special anointing from the Spirit. To this the text refers. Again, Isaiah 11:1-2; Isaiah 61:1; Isaiah 61:3, quoted by the Saviour in the synagogue of Nazareth. In unmeasured fulness the influences of the Spirit were upon Christ, to hallow and to counsel, to sustain and to make mighty, every act of His incarnate life. Even His sinless human nature needed the anointing of the Spirit to reunite it with all suitable qualifications. Thus we see the whole Deity at work for man. This should hush rebellion and scatter unbelief and indifference.
III. THE MANNER AND ISSUE OF THE REDEEMER’S WORK.
We are told that He works—
1. Unostentatiously. “He shall not cry,” &c. This is in keeping with all the characteristics of the Saviour. And so quietly has Christianity spread its influences upon men. It does not “strive nor cry,” but without strife or crying makes its way into the conscience of the world.
2. Tenderly. “A bruised reed,” &c. The perfection of gentleness. If man were in question, how would the bruised reed and smoking flax be treated? The Saviour is great in gentleness; His mightiest energy is to redeem and save. And so tenderly does He watch over the progress of the Gospel in the world.
3. Perseveringly and successfully. “He shall not fail,” &c. It is a plain and unmistakable prediction. This is a settled matter, which the risen Saviour “sits expecting” to realise, and which the faith of believers may anticipate on the warrant of His Word. He is not discouraged by sinister omens or unwonted opposition, by faithless traitors or by wearied friends. Against embattled earth and gathered forces of the pit He shall bring forth judgment unto victory, until He rests from His labour, until He gathers His children, until He wears His crown.—W. M. Punshon, LL. D.: Sermons, vol. i. pp. 18, &c.
I. THE CHARACTER OF THE MESSIAH.
1. He was God’s Servant. Supposes—
(1.) Subordination and inferiority. Should this appear mysterious, so it must remain.
(2.) Service or work to be done. Jehovah had work to be done in this part of His dominions. Could be effected by Christ alone.
(3.) Subjection (Matthew 21:39).
2. He was God’s Elect. To elect is to choose: Christ was chosen (Psalms 89:19; 1 Peter 2:4-6). This shows that the act of redemption originated in the Divine will; that it was free and not necessitated; that man’s salvation is infinitely dear to God.
3. He was God’s Elect, in whom His soul delighted. He was God’s “dear Son,” and His “beloved Son,” who was in the bosom of the Father; and “yet He spared not,” &c.
II. THE QUALIFICATION OF THE MESSIAH.
“I have put My Spirit upon Him.” God put His Spirit upon Christ—
1. As a public recognition of His Messiahship (Mark 1:9-11).
2. To fortify Him against the attacks of temptation (Luke 4:1-2).
3. To anoint Him for preaching the Gospel (Luke 4:18).
4. For the purpose of working miracles (Matthew 12:28; Acts 10:38).
III. THE WORK OF THE MESSIAH (Isaiah 42:1). The term “judgment” is differently interpreted. (See other Outlines.)
IV. THE TEMPER OF THE MESSIAH (Isaiah 42:2-4). “He did His work.—
1. Unostentatiously.
2. Tenderly and compassionately.
3. Courageously and fearlessly. An example for all who are now working for Him.
CONCLUSION.—
1. Seek to have the Messiah’s work accomplished in you.
2. Seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit, in order that you may be able to accomplish any work to which He has called you.—Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons, vol. iv. p. 284 (new ed.)
THE ELECT AND BELOVED SERVANT
(Christmas or Missionary Sermon.)
Isaiah 42:1. Behold My Servant, &c.
This is a call to attention. It is the announcement of a Saviour. When the infant Jesus was brought to the Temple, Simeon recognised in Him the Lord’s Anointed, whom he was to see before his death. He concluded his song with words borrowed from the sixth verse of this chapter: “A light to lighten the Gentiles.” The whole passage is quoted Matthew 12:18-21.
“Behold the man,” said Pilate. “Behold My Servant,” says God.
I. His DIVINE APPOINTMENT
The text is the Father’s authentication of His Son’s commission and appointment to His redeeming work.
1. As a servant. A servant is subordinate to his employer. There may be equality of nature while there is subordination in office. The son of a king is equal in nature to his father, while he takes a subordinate position as appointed by him to some office. The Son of God took upon Him “the form of a servant.” He was “made of a woman, made under the law.” He took the nature of man, that He might be in the position of servitude proper to man, render a full obedience to the law, and suffer on the cross the curse due to those who had failed to render the obedience to which they were bound.
2. As a chosen servant. “No man taketh this honour unto himself” (Hebrews 5:4-5). Among all beings in the universe, human or angelic, no other was found competent to the great redeeming work. He was therefore chosen and appointed from eternity. “Mine Elect.”
3. As a satisfactory servant. “In whom My soul delighteth.” At His baptism, and again at His transfiguration, the Voice from heaven was heard saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” By the resurrection from the dead He was “declared to be the Son of God with power.” The Father was well pleased with Him from all eternity. He was well pleased with the manner in which He performed His work on earth.
4. As a supported servant. “Whom I uphold.” Although for a season He veiled the splendours of His divine nature, His human nature was not left without divine support. During all His earthly career there was the most intimate fellowship between the Father and Himself. Some of His mightiest works were performed after special seasons of prayer. The consciousness of His Father’s supporting presence kept Him from breaking down beneath the load of suffering, care, and human sin that continually pressed upon Him.
II. HIS SPECIAL ENDOWMENT.
“I have put my Spirit upon Him.” Read Isaiah 61:1-3, with Luke 4:17-21. The relation between the persons of the Godhead cannot be fully apprehended by us; nor can we fully apprehend the action of the Father upon the Son, nor of the Spirit in connection with the Father and the Son. It becomes us to keep close to the letter of Scripture. Still Scripture speaks clearly of some distinction between the Persons of the Godhead, and of a mutual action or going forth of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost in connection with the redemption work. Thus the Son of God, who became a servant, received His qualification and anointing as man for His work. God gave not the Spirit by measure unto Him. He possessed it during His earthly ministry; and then, after His glorification, shed it forth on His Church.
This anointing of the Saviour, corresponding to the ancient anointing of the prophets, priests, and kings of the former dispensation, answers to the threefold office of Christ, which relates to the threefold requirement of our nature.
1. We are ignorant and blinded by sin. Christ received the Spirit as the Teacher of the Church. All that heard Him were astonished.
2. We are guilty and condemned. An atonement was necessary, but was out of our power. He is the anointed Priest. In that capacity He has offered the sacrifice of Himself.
3. We are unholy and depraved. Yet we are under obligation to be holy. Christ is the anointed King. He sends His Spirit into our hearts, and we willingly submit to His authority. “Being by the right hand of God exalted, He hath shed forth this”—
(1.) On the Apostles, so that they were endowed for their work of preaching and teaching (John 14:26). Hence we have the record of His words, the inspired Epistles, the doctrine of Christ.
(2.) On such as are called to service and office in the Church. His ministers must be called and qualified by His Spirit. He gives sympathy with His work of saving men; willingness to consecrate life to it; love that seeks no personal interest, regards only the grand spiritual end and the immortal issues of labour for Christ.
(3.) On all who are interested in His grace (Romans 8:9; 1 John 2:19).
III. HIS EXPANSIVE WORK.
“He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.” Observe—
1. What He will bring forth. “Judgment.” Synonymous, as in Psalms 119, with the divine law or revelation. Hence the method of the divine government, and eventually the manifestation of the Gospel.
2. To whom. “The Gentiles.” The old prophets frequently dwell on the incorporation of the Gentiles with the Church. The opposite of the spirit of exclusiveness that characterised the Jews. The Gospel is expansive. It contemplates the day when the knowledge of Christ shall be diffused over the wide world.
3. How. By the universal proclamation of Christ as the world’s Saviour.
Christ is the manifestation of God’s wisdom and love. Let us remember His love. Let us yield to His claim of expansive love and devoted service. Let us be co-workers with God in the endeavour to attract attention to Him who is chosen and appointed, as He is exclusively qualified to be the centre of faith and hope to human souls. Cry, Behold Him!—J. Rawlinson.
I. “Behold My Servant, whom I uphold.” These words must be understood of Christ in His mediatorial capacity. If He be not viewed as Jesus upheld by the Father, there is something unintelligible in the prediction; if our Redeemer be not God, in every sense equal to the Father, co-eternal, co-essential, the whole of revelation is flimsy and worthless. But it is often necessary to speak exclusively of His humanity; and Christ Jesus, as man, is the subject of the prophetic announcement. As perfect man, He was the Father’s servant (Philippians 2:7; John 4:34; John 7:16, &c.) Is it necessary to suppose that His nature was fallen nature in order that such a sacrifice might have its force? Not so; but believing as we do that His human nature was not fallen nature, we still believe that it was preserved from becoming so by the energies of the Holy Spirit, communicated without measure by the Father. It is to deny the nature of a creature to suppose it incapable of falling; we cannot ascribe to man properties that would make him cease to be man. God upheld Christ’s humanity by the power of the indwelling Spirit, so that the potentiality of sinning never passed over into actuality. He was so completely upheld, that not the least element of sinfulness could ever be traced to a single action of His. Still, by being allowed—if the expression be not too bold—to become, sometimes almost overpowered, He learned to have a fellow-feeling—sympathy in the true sense of that word—with the believer in his conflict, though He never had partnership with him in his transgression (Hebrews 5:7; H. E. I. 849, 866, 873).
II. “Mine Elect, in whom My soul delighteth.” Christ Jesus was the Elect of God, in that from all eternity Infinite Wisdom had chosen Him to execute the sovereign purposes of infinite mercy (Hebrews 5:4-5). It lay beyond human conception to imagine the Father reconciling the sinner to Himself in the complex person of our Surety. Had the thought been suggested, we should have expected to see the human temple burned up and turned into ashes by such a sublime and mysterious union.
Why should God delight in this elect Mediator? Because—
1. The mediation of Christ magnified every Divine attribute (2 Corinthians 3:18; Hebrews 1:3). Christ became the shining forth of God’s glory to man (John 14:9). He stood in the midst of an evil generation, but He made it manifest that He was a Being of another world; He was armed with power, before which every created thing bowed down. Note especially, the degree in which Christ Jesus glorified God by His vicarious sufferings and obedience. Contrast holiness, truth, power, and wisdom, as manifested (for they should have been manifested) in man, left an outcast through the first Adam, and man made perfect through the mediation of the Son, and you will not fail to perceive that Christ crucified is the Father glorified—that Christ suspended on the cross for man is God exalted, and avenged, and vindicated.
2. It met every human necessity. Man had been brought under condemnation, and Christ endured that condemnation. Man, even when freed from condemnation, has no righteousness of his own that can be acceptable in the sight of God; but Christ obeyed in all points of the law; and now, where God does not impute sin, He does impute the righteousness of His Son. Man, though pardoned through Christ’s death, though justified through Christ’s life, is yet unfit to enter into the association of the pure; but Christ has risen to intercede for him and procure the gift of the Holy Spirit for his sanctification; and thus, beyond his title, he acquires a meetness for his inheritance (1 Corinthians 1:30). “Behold,” then, “Mine Elect, in whom My soul delighteth!”
CONCLUSION.—Try yourselves by the simple criterion which this subject presents. Is your dependence placed on the might by which the Mediator was upheld? Do you delight in Christ for any of the reasons which made the Father well-pleased in Him, or are you wrapped up in that formality which is the pestilential blight of so much religion?—Henry Melvill, B.D.: Sermons, vol. i. pp. 67–74.
Religion, if it be important, is all-important. However little importance we may attach to it, God attaches a great deal. Mark its personal aspect. “Behold!”—a message to every member of the human family. We are not addressed in the mass, but in our individual characters. As in the judgment-day each shall find himself singled out from the crowd, so every man in Scripture has a distinct and personal message sent to him, as having the deepest personal interest in the promises and threatenings of the Word of God. We love to escape this personality, to mingle in the crowd, to escape reflection. But God mercifully will not permit this, for we should lose much by it. To young and old, rich and poor, He says, “Behold My Servant,” &c.
I. BEHOLD AND WONDER at the extent of love which pervades the scheme of our redemption. “Behold!”—it is a word of wonder, and indeed there is in Christ a world of wonders. Everything is wonderful in Him. The whole Christian religion is a concatenation of wonders, “a chaining together of mystery upon mystery.” He is wonderful in His person, in His name, in His offices, in the design and character of His work—bringing into life by His death, to glory by His shame. He is the great centre of attraction to heaven and earth; the Father loves Him, angels adore Him, all the redeemed repose their eternal confidence in Him.
“Behold” the display of love that reigns in our redemption—in the selection of such a Saviour, in the benefits that flow to us through Him. Consider the depth of degradation from which it raises, the height of glory to which it conducts. Study this love! In all times the world has been astonished at the extent of God’s love to His people—in their deliverance from their greatest enemies, in the establishment of their brightest hopes. Jethro was astonished at their deliverance from Egypt (Exodus 18:9-11); the neighbouring natives at their rescue from Babylon (Psalms 126:2). But the love of Christ is more surprising still. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the Jews said, “Behold, how He loved him!” But His love for us passes the knowledge of the holiest saint on earth, of the wisest angel in heaven. Mourn the apathy of the world—let us mourn our own—to the claims of Christ.
II. BEHOLD AND TRUST. If God intrusts Him with the weight of His glory, you may with all the weight of your salvation. He is God’s “Servant,” God’s “Elect,” the object of God’s delight. Why is this said but to show that whatever He did in the business of our salvation He did under the seal of Divine authority? He was God’s Chosen—chosen to be the Head of the Church, the great Peacemaker between earth and heaven. It is a great prop and encouragement to our sinking faith, a great satisfaction to the troubled conscience, that in all that Christ did for us, and in all that He works in us, He is the object of Divine complacency and delight. In all our approaches and applications to God, let this minister boldness to us, that we go to Him in the name of One whom He loves (P. D. 2314).
III. BEHOLD AND LOVE. If God delights in Christ, we should too. The estimate in which Christ is held by us is the most decisive test of oneness of sentiment between God and us. “If God were your Father, ye would love me.” Christ is God’s Elect, God’s Chosen; if He be not ours, there is a great contrariety between Him and us. Great is His love for us; let us return it. He sets a high value on the pardoned sinner’s love. “Unto you that believe, He is precious” (H. E. I. 1003, 1004, 3367, 3369, 3909; P. D. 2338, 2341).
IV. BEHOLD AND LIVE (Colossians 3:3-4).—Samuel Thodey.
THE UNITY OF THE GODHEAD MANIFESTED IN THE SALVATION OF MAN
(Trinity Sunday.)
Isaiah 42:1. Behold My Servant, &c.
“The Lord our God is one Lord.” But He has been pleased to reveal Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The mystery of the Holy Trinity is inexplicable by us, but it is certainly Scriptural. Three Persons, but one God! By our text we are reminded that the unity of the Persons in the Holy Trinity has been manifested in the salvation of man.
I. THE LOVE OF THE FATHER.
We must never forget that the mission of the Son had its origin in the Father’s pitying love for us [1357]
[1357] If we have any saving acquaintance with the Gospel, we are at all times disposed to offer to the Son of God the homage of gratitude and praise for the work of redemption. But there are times when we are in danger of falling into the mistake of regarding the Saviour as offering Himself as a sacrifice to propitiate an angry God. We are prone to contemplate the Father as a stern, uncompromising, and unpitying Judge, actuated by vindictive feelings, taking pleasure in exacting punishment and inflicting pain; or a personification (so to speak) of the attributes of almighty power, unerring wisdom, and unswerving justice. But there our view of the great Creator stops, and there our apprehension of Him who is the Moral Governor of the world becomes defective.… Contemplating the bleeding Victim, voluntarily bleeding to atone for the guilty, and to bring back rebels to reconciliation and peace, the justice, power, and love of the Father are well-nigh forgotten in the sight of the tenderness and self-abandonment displayed by the Son.… But this Scripture combines with others to teach us that if we would love Him “who first loved us,” we must pass on from Calvary to Him whose will is accomplished by the death and passion of His Son.—Kemble.
1. The Son was sent forth by the Father. He came to accomplish the Father’s purposes (1 John 4:9-10; John 3:16).
2. It was because our Lord undertook to fulfil the purpose of the Father’s heart that the Father loved Him: “Mine Elect, in whom My soul delighteth.” The Father loved the Son eternally as God in the heaven of His own glory; but it is of the Father’s love to the Son while living in a servant’s form that He speaks here. Our text teaches us not only that the Father appointed the Son to the work, and was willing that He should succeed, but was well pleased when He saw Him going forth on His high enterprise of mercy. Thus the whole scheme of redemption redounds to the glory of the Father.
3. How near that scheme lay to the Father’s heart was manifested also in the manner in which He upheld His Son while He was engaged in its accomplishment: “My Servant, whom I uphold.” It was by means of the grace of the Father that He was enabled to make the sacrifice needed for our salvation (Hebrews 2:9). He not only appointed His Son to the task, but ensured its fulfilment by supplying the strength required, and sustaining Him through the protracted conflict with the powers of darkness [1360]
[1360] Concerning this great mystery, see Dr. Bunting’s comments in the Outline THE FATHER’S ELECT SERVANT, and the note by Bishop Horaley appended thereto.
All this serves to confirm the inspired announcement, “God is love.” Oh, that we could more fully realise the Father’s love to our souls, and yield some larger measure of gratitude to Him who thus so wonderfully, even from everlasting, “first loved us” (H. E. I. 390, 2319–2321).
II. THE CONDESCENSION OF THE SON.
Though Lord of all, He became a “servant;” though worshipped by the seraphic hosts, He voluntarily became the despised and rejected of men. Though of spotless holiness, He took upon Him the world’s sin, became a “curse” for His people, and humbled Himself to the worst male factor’s most ignominious death, “even the death of the cross.”
III. THE CO-OPERATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
“I have put My Spirit upon Him.”
1. It was by the Holy Spirit that the Son was qualified for the accomplishment of the work He had undertaken (John 1:16; John 3:34).
2. It is by the Holy Spirit that the work of Christ is now carried on in the hearts of men (John 16:7-8).—Charles Kemble, M. A.: Seventeen Sermons, pp. 325–349.
CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE AS THE SERVANT OF GOD
Isaiah 42:1. Behold My Servant, whom I uphold, &c.
We need have no doubt about this text applying to Christ, for it is so stated by the Holy Spirit, (Matthew 12:17-21). Our Lord in His human nature, “in the form of a servant,” needed to be “upheld,” even as we do, by the Divine power. It was this that carried Him through the work given Him to do (Psalms 16:8; Isaiah 50:7). “Though He were a Son”, yet learned He obedience “as a servant.” It is so with all God’s servants here on earth; they are sons of God, but they are called to prove their sonship by their service.
“Mine Elect.” He was chosen of God for this service, called of God, sent of God to do God’s work. It is so with all God’s servants. They do not choose God’s service, but are chosen and sent of God. Just as in common life a master selects his own servants.
“In whom My soul delighteth.” This was from all eternity, and throughout the whole period of His earthly service (Proverbs 8:30; Matthew 3:17; Matthew 17:5).
“I have put My Spirit upon Him.” This was to qualify Him, as man, for His undertaking, as He declared in the synagogue at Nazareth (Isaiah 61:1; Isaiah 11:2). So is it again with all God’s servants: His Spirit rests upon them, and only by His help can they serve.
“He shall bring forth judgment unto the Gentiles,”—declare God’s will to them, and set up His statutes and ordinances throughout the world.
In these things we see the reality of His manhood, and what was needed to qualify Him for His work as the servant of God.
In speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ as the servant of God, we must understand it of the office He undertook, and actually did accomplish, through the union of His manhood with the Godhead. Remembering this, let us consider the characteristics of a good servant, and see how they were exemplified in our Lord.
A servant is one who is under a master; who does as he is told; who is willing to do and not to do; who receives his master’s will as his rule, and does not evade, nor qualify, nor object, but does it all; who has his master’s honour and interest at heart, always working and labouring for him. Such was Christ. The object of His whole life was to show Himself the servant of God. This should be our object. Observe—
1. How absorbing this service was to Him. It swallowed up all besides. Nothing was ever allowed to interfere with it (John 4:6; John 4:34; John 6:38; John 9:4; Matthew 26:39; John 17:4).
2. How love animated Him in all His service (Psalms 40:6-10). Especially notice, “Mine ears hast Thou opened;” or margin, “digged.” The meaning of this we learn in Exodus 21:2-6. Christ served voluntarily and cheerfully, because He loved Him whose will He came into the world to accomplish (John 10:18).
3. How thorough was His service. He had but one object—to do the will of God. For this He lived, for this He died.
Are you following Christ as your example? Is your service of God absorbing, loving, thorough? What do you live for? To do God’s will? If not, there is no conformity to Christ.
To follow Christ’s example, a man must be born again of God’s Spirit. It is the renewed will which desires and strives to do God’s will. The desire may be but as a grain of mustard seed, but if cherished by prayer and practice, it will grow; though at first faint and feeble, it will become supreme (Matthew 25:29).
Every creature must be a servant, either of God or of self—of self in its lowest sense, the self of the “old man.” But in serving God we serve self in its noblest sense.
Do you really long to serve Christ as He served His Father? But you are thinking to yourself, “What a character mine is! Mine is no fit character to take service with such a Master; I am such a sinner.” Well, then, listen—
1. Christ takes His servants without a character. We know how important character is among men; how many fail of service for want of it; how hard it is to gain when once it is lost. If we never entered Christ’s service until we had become fit for it, we never should enter. But He takes us just as we are. He asks only, “Are you willing to be My servant?” Where He finds this will, He gives character. Christian character is formed in Christ’s service. Nowhere else can it be formed. Many try to form a character before they come to Him, but in vain. Come first.
2. He gives the best wages: pardon, peace, acceptance with God here, everlasting life hereafter. Look at the world’s wages and see the difference (Romans 6:23). There are good wages in the service as well as for it (Psalms 19:11; Isaiah 48:18; Proverbs 3:17).
3. His work is light. It is called a cross, a yoke, a burden, that no man may take it up without counting the cost; but, when once taken up, it is light (Matthew 11:29-30; 1 John 5:3). Besides, who ever felt work hard for one he loved? (Genesis 29:20; H. E. I. 3336–3341).
4. There is no dismissal. No; they who enter Christ’s service are taken for life—not for this life only (John 10:28). When their period of service is done here, He says, “Friend, come up higher,” and the believer goes to Christ for ever (Revelation 7:15).
Will you be Christ’s servant? Give yourself to Him heartily, wholly. Think of the difference between the servant of sin and the Lord’s freeman, now and hereafter. Come to Christ, and He will say of you what God says of Him, “Behold My servant, whom I uphold.”—J. W. Reeve, M.A.: Doctrine and Practice, pp. 182–205.
BRUISED, NOT BROKEN
Isaiah 42:1-4. Behold My Servant, &c.
There is no difficulty in determining the subject of this passage,; one interpretation alone is equal to its demands. In inviting attention to its terms, let us consider it as affording—
I. A DIVINE ESTIMATE OF MAN. A crushed reed, a dimly burning wick. These are symbols of impaired, broken, perishing life; they convey the ideas of feebleness, helplessness, almost of worthlessness. There is in the crushed reed no power of self-recovery; the dimly burning wick is the merest mockery of a light. So is man as seen by the eye of God. We can estimate the reed and the lamp; what we see them to be, God sees man to be.
The estimate is not limited to the penitent and broken-hearted; the words signify apostate humanity. The scope of the passage implies the larger application. He is to bring forth judgment to the Gentiles; He has to set judgment on the earth, and the isles are to wait for His law; He is to encounter opposition—the reed and the wick will refuse His ministrations. But “He shall not cry,” &c. Note the undertone of suffering. Men sneer, laugh, jeer, shout, rave, and gnash their teeth; His heart of pity yearns, and He says, “Bruised reeds and smoking wicks!” None more maimed and nearer to death than the impenitent.
II. THE DIVINE METHOD OF TREATING MAN.
“A bruised reed shall He not break,” &c. He does not use mere naked power, but patience.
1. Think of how He might have treated man. The text does not say, cannot break, cannot extinguish. Nothing hindered but grace. Christ was that truth unto which judgment should be brought; He was, and He declared, God’s everlasting righteousness and love.
2. Think of Him, the Truth, taking hold of weak, helpless humanity to give it life, health, and soundness. He will not use force for man’s destruction; neither by force will He restore, but by truth. As force is discarded, suffering is incurred. He who will save by truth must suffer; there is no help. Christ must be made a curse for man that He may bring redemption to him. The idea of suffering pervades the text; the “Elect” One must be upheld; for the salvation of the bruised must He be sustained; there is upon Him a grinding pressure, and under Him He will need, and must have, the Eternal Hand. The Immortal King must be succoured while He stands bearing the tremendous burden of a world’s sin and sorrow. By no omnipotence will He put that burden away, yet He will put it away. He triumphs by the Cross. He is God, bent on saving man by love and truth. The Incarnation and Atonement are both here (John 18:33-37). He must suffer, and He must wait. “But He will not fail nor be discouraged.” He knows that patience will triumph. Truth has ever to wait for victory. The light cannot chase the darkness till its hour comes.
3. The text is, among other things, a brief but wonderful exposition of the providence and government of God upon earth. It reveals the principles of that government and is an interpreter of human history (Lamentations 3:22).
III. THE DIVINE CERTAINTY OF RECOVERING MAN.
The Servant, the Son, has not been sent forth on a chance or fruitless errand; the King is a triumphant Sufferer (Isaiah 42:4, Isaiah 53:11, &c.; H. E. I. 979, 1168).—W. Hubbard: Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv. pp. 291–293.
It is agreed on all hands that the text alludes to weak and afflicted believers, setting forth the care and gentleness of the Lord. It is not quite so clear as to the source of the metaphor. Adopt the theory that the reed referred to is the shepherd’s reed, his instrument of music. The reed is bruised. It was a mean instrument before, but now it is almost useless. The shepherd does not break it up and throw it away; it may recover its injuries, or, if it should not, it will emit some sort of sounds. The shepherd does not break his reed, for—
I. He remembers its former services. Often has its strains cheered him and others; old and precious memories are connected with it. Our Lord does not forget the services the weak and afflicted have rendered.
II. He remembers there is a paucity of such reeds. The shepherd would rather have the imperfect instrument than no reed at all. There is a scarcity of music in the moral world. The sweet notes of gratitude, and love, and hope are sung by few. The Lord loves the song of the upright, and when they lose the power of rejoicing He bears with them.
III. He knows the possibility of the reed being rectified. It is only bruised. The shepherd will use every means to restore it. The Lord knows the certainty of the recovery of His bruised ones. He teaches them to say, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? for I shall yet praise Him.” He will not cast off those who say they are useless. Not cast off the aged. His design is by means of the bruising to make His children more joyful and useful in His house.
IV. He prizes it because He fashioned it.
1. The Lord chose the reed. He delights in the possession.
2. It cost Him very much. 3. He bruised the reed—by design.
CONCLUSION.—Recognise the fitness of the metaphor. Believe the declaration. “He will not break.” Believe much more. The bruised reed shall be restored. He will carefully keep, and constantly seek to make it more useful than it was before.—R. A. Griffin: Stems and Twigs, p. 241.
THE BRUISED REED
Isaiah 42:3. A bruised reed shall He not break.
Of all the plants mentioned in Scripture, perhaps the reed was the most obscure and inconspicuous, the weakest and most worthless [1363] It was peculiarly obnoxious to mischances; it grew where the wild beasts had their lairs, and it was so slim and fragile. Yet, abject and homely as it looked, a skilful hand could turn it to good account [1366]
[1363] The vine; the palm, the pomegranate yielded delicious fruit; the pine, the oak, the cedar were invaluable for their solid timber; and though the rose and the lily yielded no fruit, and could not be cut into timber, they owed a special endearment to their lovely tints and exquisite perfume. But this poor waif of the wilderness was bereft of every attraction. No one saw any beauty in its russet plume; no one could have tried to rub a morning meal from its chaffy husks, or to rear his cottage from its frail and hollow stems. And instead of growing in picturesque localities—instead of mooring its roots in the sides of Lebanon, or tossing healthfully in the breezes which sported and frolicked over the hills of Galilee—like a recluse or a reprobate, it sought the miry places, and grew in those oozy solitudes where fevers lurk and the foul air rises. So that for uselessness and ungainliness it became a perfect proverb; and of all errands it was the idlest to go out into the wilderness to see “a reed shaking in the wind.”—Hamilton.
[1366] The stronger sorts were converted into that measuring-rod or mete-yard of which we read so frequently, or they furnished the light but serviceable staff on which the traveller leaned, or with which Bartimæus, old and blind. would grope his way. And the more slender sorts supplied with their appropriate weapons the warrior and the scribe. Shaped into arrows, they filled the archer’s quiver or rang from the strings of Jonathan; and shaped into the writer’s pen, a little sheaf was always suspended in the scholar’s girdle; and if that scholar were a man of God, a Moses, a Daniel, or a John, the reed which erst shook in the wilderness would be consigning to immortal leaves the mind of Inspiration.—Hamilton.
Here we read of One whose heart is as kind as His hand is skilful. Though so mighty that nothing can obstruct the progress of His purposes (Isaiah 42:4), He is as remarkable for His benignity as He is for His prowess. It is by kindness that He conquers. It is by cherishing the smoking flax till it burst into flame that, with knowledge of Himself, He lightens every land, and by cementing and healing the bruised reed that He fashions those sharp arrows, those polished shafts by which He subdues the nations under Him.
The lesson which this passage teaches is, that the Saviour is infinite in kindness. Let three classes of persons lay it to heart.
I. Some of you have had dull feelings from thinking you were too inconsiderable for the Saviour’s notice; you are not a rose of Sharon nor a cedar of Lebanon, but only one reed in a marshy thicket. But it is a chief glory of the Saviour that no littleness can evade His eye, no multitude of objects divide His heart. He is like His Heavenly Father (Matthew 10:29-31). In that forest of reeds He can take account of every blade that grows as easily as He can reckon the angels in each legion or the stars of heaven. Moreover, remember that your own is the very nature which Immanuel wore and still wears. He is not ashamed to be called your Brother; He who best understands what immortality means is pervaded by a profound and tender solicitude for all the deathless interests of your soul (H. E. I. 4631). If no man cares for your soul, the Saviour cares (Isaiah 49:15; H. E. I. 947).
II. This omniscient Saviour is gracious and gentle, and does not break the bruised reed. However high we may hold our heads, we are all bruised reeds.
1. Sin has bruised us. Just as far as we have broken God’s com mandments, our integrity, our uprightness, our rightness with God is broken. It is well when the sinner becomes aware of his ruined condition, and recognises himself as a bruised reed; for this is just the mood in which He longs to find us (Psalms 51:17; Psalms 147:3).
2. Afflictions bruise us. Nay, Christ sends them that they may bruise us. There are evils in us that cannot be got rid of in any other way. It would seem as if even Omnipotence could not sanctify a fallen and sinful spirit without the employment of sorrow. But when we are like a reed snapped asunder and all but broken through, let us remember how tender and sympathetic the Saviour is in applying these painful processes. He does not break the bruised reed; He apportions the trial to the exigency; He supports the fatigued or fainting soul (H. E. I. 179).
III. The reed is bruised, but the Saviour will not fail nor be discouraged until He have made it an implement of use, of beauty, or of majesty (H. E. I. 951). Its very weakness will elicit His divine power and matchless skill.
1. The sinner is obscure, but the Saviour is omniscient
2. The sinner is a thing of grief and guilt, but the Saviour is gentleness and grace impersonate.
3. The sinner is in Himself worthless, but the Saviour is mighty, and out of the most worth less can make a vessel of mercy meet for the Master’s use [1369]James Hamilton, D.D.: Works, vol. vi. pp. 163–177.
[1369] In the days of His flesh the Saviour went out among the hills of Galilee and into the wilderness of Judah, and there He found reeds shaking in the wind. He found a few peasants, plain, ignorant, incompetent, carnal and coarse-minded, a crop as unattractive and unpromising as ever tried the patience of Infinite Love or the resources of Infinite Power. But still the Saviour set His heart upon them. He chose them out, and commenced His transforming process on them; and, notwithstanding their refractoriness, He did not fail nor get discouraged, till—Whence came those pens, so nimble and so apt, with which the Holy Spirit wrote the things which Jesus began to do and to teach until the day that He was taken up? That one so steady, broad, and clear in its Hebrew strokes? That other, so like “a feather from an angel’s wing,” so limpid, pure, and loving? And those arrows in the Gospel’s first crusade, so sharp in the hearts of the King’s enemies—those bolts of fire which subdued the people in Pentecostal hours—what are they, and whence came they? Ah! these were reeds of the wilderness once—reeds growing on the edge of Gennesareth, shaking, battered reeds; but passing by, Jesus set His love upon them. Dingy, He did not despise them; bruised, He did not break them; but by dint of His divine painstaking He sharpened some into the pen of a ready writer, and, barbed with truth and winged with zeal, He polished others into shafts of celestial power. He did not fail nor get discouraged till, with pen and arrow forged from a bruised reed, He conquered the world, judgment was set in the earth, and the isles waited for His law.—Hamilton.
THE GENTLENESS OF CHRIST
Isaiah 42:3. A bruised reed shall He not break, &c.
In this prophecy Isaiah foretells the gentleness of Christ (H. E. I. 951–961; P. D. 47, 1630). St. Matthew quotes it when he is recording the long-suffering of our Lord with the Pharisees. His ministry was not a public disputation, with clamour and popular applause, with factions in the city, and a following of people; it was silent and penetrating, “as the light that goeth forth; “spreading everywhere with resistless power, and yet from a source often withdrawn from sight. So soft and light, the text seems to say, shall be His touch, that the reed which is nearly asunder shall not be broken down, and the flax which has only not left off to smoke shall not be put out. It was in His gentleness, His tender compassion, His long-suffering and patient endurance of sinners, that this and other like prophecies were fulfilled.
I. EXAMPLES OF CHRIST’S GENTLENESS RECORDED IN SCRIPTURE.
1. In all His dealing with His disciples. The first faint stirrings of faith and love He cherished and sheltered with tender care; in His teaching He led them on little by little (Luke 9:55; John 14:9; Mark 9:33-34; John 20:27; John 21:15-17).
2. And so in like manner to all the people (Matthew 11:28-30). He permitted so near an access to all men that it was turned to His reproach; He was “a friend of publicans and sinners;” “This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them” (Luke 7:36-48; John 8:3-11).
II. SOME GREAT TRUTHS TAUGHT US BY CHRIST’S GENTLENESS.
1. It implies that where there is so much as a spark of life in the conscience, there is possibility of entire conversion to God. Where there is room to hope anything, there is room to hope all things. Such is the nature of sin and of the human soul; such, also, the virtue of the blood of Christ and such the power of the Holy Ghost, that the greatest of sinners may become we dare not say how great a saint (Isaiah 1:18; H. E.I. 1071). Illustrations often become our snares; e.g., we speak of the stains of sin, the soils of lust; but the spiritual nature, though really sustaining these, is capable, as the body is not, of a perfect healing. The very life of sin is the will. By conversion, from being corrupt and unclean, it becomes cleansed and pure. It is imperfect, as subjected to the flesh; but when disembodied, what shall hinder its being as pure as if it had never sinned? And if so, how can we limit its purification in this world? In a moment the human spirit may virtually and truly anticipate an habitual condition of the soul; in a true death-bed repentance there is contained a life of purity though it be never here developed into act.
2. The only sure way of fostering the beginnings of repentance is to receive them with gentleness and compassion. This is a truth which is in the mouth of more than rightly understand it. Some Christ received with a Divine love and pity, and some with a piercing severity; but these last were those only of whom, it seems, there was hope no longer; the reed was already broken and the flax quenched (Matthew 23:13-15; Matthew 21:31-32; Luke 7:30). But sometimes the pure severity of compassion is confounded with personal harshness of temper. Truth told without love is perilous in the measure in which it is true; but encouragement of sinners before they are penitents is even more dangerous. With ineffable compassion Christ spake words of fear and warning (Luke 13:3; Matthew 18:3; Luke 13:24; Matthew 20:16; Matthew 10:22; Luke 9:62, &c.) One great hindrance to true conversion is an imperfect knowledge of His Divine character; sinners fear to come within the range of those eyes that are “as a flame of fire.” It was in this peculiar wretchedness of sin that the gentleness of Christ gave to sinners both solace and hope; it was a strange courage—boldness without trembling, awe without alarm—which came upon them in His presence; it was an affinity of the Spirit working in penitents with His Spirit that made them draw to Him; their fears were quelled, and this opened a new future to them. Knowing the nature of man, its strange depths and windings, He knew that this was the surest way of winning them to Himself”. And have we not made trial of this same gracious and tender compassion? How long some of us have neglected or rejected Him! How is His forbearance and compassion tried in the slow formation of our religious character! Our trials are all so wisely measured to our strength that the bruised reed is never broken.
CONCLUSION.—How great a consolation there is in this Divine tenderness of Christ! Be your beginning never so late, yet if it be true, all shall one day be well. It is a word of cheer to us all. Alas! for us if He were soon wearied out as we are, soon provoked, ready to upbraid, sharp in the strokes of His hand; where should we have been long ago?—Henry Edward Manning: Sermons, vol. ii. pp. 377–400.
Strictly interpreted, this is a description of the manner in which the Saviour will effect the triumphs of His kingdom. Unlike other conquerors, He will not proceed by destroying the weak. As His progress is to be unostentatious (Isaiah 42:2), so it is to be merciful. But this is to be because He is merciful; and so this verse may be regarded as an intimation of His personal character, and may be used to comfort sincere but desponding Christians. Consider—
1. THE EMBLEMS OF OUR TEXT
A bruised reed. A reed is a slender, tender, and exceedingly fragile plant, and is therefore a very-suitable emblem of weakness. If you lean upon it it will break; the slightest collision may bruise it. A reed in its best estate is of little value; a bruised reed is altogether worthless.
Smoking flax, or, as it might be rendered, “a smoking wick,” referring to the wick of a lamp, whose flame is not bright, because it has only just been kindled, or of which the flame has died away, and in which nothing but a spark of fire remains.
These emblems set forth—
1. What we all are. We are all reeds, feeble, fragile, bruised; in us all the flame of piety burns faint and dim. Alas! in how many it is dying utterly!
2. What many feel themselves to be. This consciousness of weakness and worthlessness is very humbling and painful. Yet it is a step towards safety and true blessedness (Matthew 5:3; Isaiah 66:2).
II. THE DECLARATIONS OF OUR TEXT.
“A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench.” More is intended than is here expressed. The reed must break if He will not strengthen it; the smoking flax must be quenched if He keep not the flame alive. In each of these declarations there is an expression of the tenderness of Jesus to the feeblest of His followers.
A bruised reed shall He not break, that is—
1. He will not leave those who are impressed with a sense of their guilt to sink into despair.
2. He will not leave those who have been overthrown by some fierce blast of temptation and almost broken off from Him to perish.
The smoking flax shall He not quench, that is—He will not despise the day of small things in relation to our piety. He will fan the feeble spark of our devotion into a flame.
III. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS.
1. Let none but sincere believers dare to draw comfort from this text. There is a broad line of demarcation to be drawn between the man who willingly remains weak and immature in Christian excellences, and the weak Christian who is sincerely endeavouring to grow in grace, but makes slow progress therein, and thereby is tempted to despair.
2. There may be perfect sincerity where there is great weakness. It is about our sincerity that we should be most concerned, and there are certain infallible tests by which it may be ascertained. The feeblest saint is the sworn and steadfast enemy of sin; he longs to be like God; he diligently uses the means of grace; he clings to the Saviour, acknowledges Him before the world, and endeavours to live to His glory.
3. Where there is great weakness, Christ will manifest great tenderness (Isaiah 40:11). Let us not dishonour Him by distrust of His mercy.
4. Let us learn to imitate the tenderness of our Redeemer (Romans 14:1; Romans 15:1-7). A censorious Christian is utterly unlike Christ. Unnecessary wounds innumerable have been inflicted, unspeakable mischief done, by the severe and rash judgments of narrow-minded Christians. Let us remember what we once were, to whom we are indebted for our attainments, and our Lord’s warning respecting humble Christians (Matthew 18:10).—William Reeve.
The virtues of mortals, when carried to a high degree, very often run into those vices which have a kind of affinity to them. “Right too rigid hardens into wrong.” Strict justice steels itself into excessive severity, and the man is lost in the judge. Goodness and mercy sometimes degenerate into softness and irrational compassion inconsistent with government. But in Jesus Christ these seemingly opposite virtues centre and harmonise in the highest perfection. Hence He is at once characterised as a Lamb and as the Lion of the tribe of Judah: a lamb for gentleness towards humble penitents, and a lion to tear His enemies in pieces. He is said to “judge and make war,” and yet He is called “The Prince of Peace.”
The general meaning of the text seems to be, that the Lord Jesus has the tenderest and most compassionate regard to the feeblest penitent, however oppressed and desponding, and that He will approve and cherish the least spark of true love toward Himself. Regard—
I. The character of a weak believer as represented by “a bruised reed.” The idea conveyed is that of a state of weakness and oppression. Under some burden or other many an honest-hearted believer groans out the most part of His life. He finds himself weak in knowledge, in love, in faith, in hope, in joy, in everything in which he should be strong. These weaknesses or defects the believer feels painfully and tenderly, and bitterly laments them; and in this is the grand distinction between him and the rest of the world. He is sensible that his weakness has guilt in it, and therefore he laments it with ingenuous sorrow. He is a bruised reed (H. E. I. 1276–1285, 1995–2003, 2513–2516, 2633, 3366, 4475).
II. The character of a weak believer as represented by “smoking flax.” The idea conveyed is that of grace true and sincere, but languishing and just expiring, like a candle just blown out, which still smokes and retains a feeble spark of fire. It signifies a susceptibility of a further grace, or a readiness to catch that sacred fire, as a candle just put out is easily rekindled. It means religion in a low degree. The weak Christian has very few, and but superficial, exercises of mind about divine things; but he feels an uneasiness, an emptiness, an anxiety within, under which he pines, and all the world cannot heal the disease. His soul “pants for God;” the evaporations of the smoking flax naturally ascend toward heaven. He cannot be reconciled to his sins,—not through fear of punishment, but from a sense of the intrinsic baseness of sin.
He is jealous of the sincerity of his religion, and afraid that all his past experiences were delusive. Hell would be a sevenfold hell to a lover of God. Sometimes he seems driven by the tempest of temptation from off the rock of Jesus Christ; but he makes towards it on the stormy billows.
In short, the weakest Christian sensibly feels that his comfort rises and falls as he lives nearer to or farther from his God.
III. The care and compassion of Jesus Christ for such poor weaklings. Who is there that does not believe it? But it is no easy thing to establish a trembling soul in the full belief of this truth. The understanding may be convinced, but the heart may need to be more deeply affected with this truth.
Dwell, then, upon the emphatic testimony of Holy Scripture that Christ has a peculiar tenderness for the poor, the mourners, the broken-hearted (Isaiah 56:1-3; Isaiah 66:1-2; Isaiah 57:15). He charges Peter to feed His “lambs” as well as His sheep, i.e., to take the tenderest care of the weakest in His flock; and He severely rebukes the shepherds of Israel (Ezekiel 34:1-4). See the contrast in the character of the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls! (Isaiah 40:10-11; Psalms 102:16-20). His people in every age have ever found these promises made good. David (Psalms 34:4). But why multiply instances? Go to His cross! There you may read the same evidence of His compassion as Thomas had of His resurrection.
CONCLUSION.—Why should the bruised reed shrink from Him when He comes not to tread it down, but raise it up? Do not indulge causeless doubts and fears concerning your sincerity. Examine them, and search whether there be any sufficient reason for them; and if you discover there is not, then reject them and set them at defiance (Psalms 43:5).—President Davies: Great Sermons of Great Preachers, pp. 433–445.
I. In seasons of sorrow and dejection the words of our text are all-powerful to supply consolation.
II. They are not less instructive as a directory of our conduct towards the young and inexperienced. That great tenderness and forbearance combined with wisdom and discretion are necessary in the moral and intellectual training of youth, the recollection of our own early years may well enforce. Great diversity of means and method will be found necessary to adapt our measures to the various capacities, dispositions, and tempers of the young (H. E. I. 817–821).
III. These words are to be remembered in the exercise of discipline within the Church. While wilful inconsistency is not to be tolerated in its members (1 Corinthians 5:11-13), those who are unwillingly betrayed into sin, and are sorrowfully struggling against it, are to be treated compassionately and helpfully (Galatians 6:1-2).—Samuel Warren, LL.D.: Sermons on Practical Subjects, pp. 358–360.
THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE MESSIAH
(Missionary Sermon.)
Isaiah 42:4. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, &c.
The coming of Christ was the great object of expectation to the Church for 4000 years. The leading design of all prophecy was to keep alive that expectation. The text introduces Christ to us (Matthew 12:18-21).
I. THE GRAND AND COMPREHENSIVE OBJECT WHICH CHRIST CONTEMPLATES. “Till He have set salvation in the earth.” This was—
1. A very needful object. Man, guilty and depraved, needed both a Saviour and a Sanctifier.
2. A very benevolent object, and accords with the large and extensive grace of the Son of God.
3. A very difficult object—one to which none but Christ was equal. The claims of the law must be met, the honours of the Divine administration upheld and repaired, the enmity of the human heart subdued, all the powers of evil overcome. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested; from these difficulties He did not shrink. He descended to Bethlehem, to the wilderness of the Temptation; exposed Himself to the contradiction of sinners through life; agonised in Gethsemane, bled on Calvary, ascended from Olivet. In its prosecution He never faltered while He was on earth; and in heaven He devotes to it His Divine power. It is indeed a work that requires the constant agency and superintendence of Him who commenced it.
II. THE SPIRIT AND CONSTANCY WITH WHICH HE CARRIES IT ON. The prophecy is true still that He shall not fail nor be discouraged till all the results of His mediation are complete in the final spread of the Gospel. To a human eye there are in the moral state and condition of society, after Christianity has been in the world so many hundred years, many grounds for discouragement, such as—
(1.) The benighted condition of the heathen world. Calculate the numbers upon whom the light of truth has never shone.
(2.) The present state of Christendom at large—those nations which possess the Gospel, and have partially acknowledged its claims, but through the blinding influences of corrupt forms of Christianity are almost hopelessly involved in mental delusion and error.
(3.) The controversies that prevail at home, and the slow progress of vital Christianity in the most-favoured circles, in our congregations, in religious families. In all these fields we perceive what we might easily suppose are omens of failure.
But by none of them are we to be discouraged. By them all Christ is not moved. Let me assign some reasons why He is not apprehensive as to the results of His sacrifices and endeavours, and why we should not hesitate in our efforts to extend the Gospel.
1. The long reign of evil and the long contest between truth and error have been distinctly foretold, and are parts therefore of His own system of moral government, and are all comprehended in His calculations. Foretold from the beginning. First promise asserts it. All the prophecies suppose it. Our Lord’s parables declare it. The Book of Revelation announces it: the woman is to be a long time in the wilderness, &c. Religion in our world is a strange plant in an ungenial soil. The boar out of the wood will try to waste it; the wild beast to devour the vine. The poison is slowly extirpated. The Son of Man goes on conquering and to conquer. It is a part of the Divine designs that evil should display itself; that truth and error should meet in open conflict; that no unsettled controversy should remain.
2. The victory obtained upon the Cross, when the empire of darkness was essentially broken, contains the germ and the pledge of final and complete triumph (John 12:31-32). The power that conquered then can conquer always. We know not the nature and extent of the conquest, how much was involved in it, and what great results were comprehended in it; but other and superior natures do. Angels rejoice in it (Psalms 68:17-18). Devils tremble at it. They always knew that in Christ was their conqueror (Mark 1:24, &c.) No attempt was made by the infernal powers during the forty days after the resurrection; a sufficient proof that they felt their overthrow.
3. There is in the works of God a character of progressive developmnt, of which we find strong traces in religion itself. The progress in the dispensations: Antediluvian, Patriarchal, Mosaic, Prophetic, Christian. Our questionings respecting the slow progress of Christianity seem to imply that while human works admit preparation, the works of God must be done instantly. But this expectation is contradicted by the whole course of Nature. For though God may at once do all His pleasure, yet for wise reasons He employs means, and allows such a gradual operation of those means as admits of a progress in which one thing prepares the way for another, giving notice of its approach. God in the revelation of religion seems always to have proportioned His discoveries not only to the actual wants of mankind, but to their capacity of receiving truth and their means of communicating it to others. The same means must be used for diffusing Christianity as for spreading any other system of truth; but in addition to these it has the twofold support of Divine providence and Divine influence. Having these, though the progress is slow, we must not fail in our efforts, nor be discouraged. In that which sometimes saddens us there is nothing surprising.
4. God has given to the Church an instrument of proved efficiency and power—truth, Divine truth! Falsehood has no unity, no stability. In Scriptural truth there is a real adaptation to man (H. E. I. 1151, 2421–2427). When fairly propounded before him, it is felt to be “a faithful saying.” “The power of God unto salvation.” The weapons of this holy war, what victories have been already achieved by them! (2 Corinthians 10:4). Jesus retains in His own hands the influences that make the truth effectual (John 14:16; Matthew 3:11).
5. The inherent vitality of religion encourages the hope of its final prevalence. Religion is in the world—that is something. Religion, though long opposed, hated, despised, is not extinguished! Had Divine truth been capable of being crushed by power, it would have been crushed long since—by the giants before the Flood, by the Pharaohs of Egypt, by the monarchs of Babylon, by ancient Rome under the Cæsars (H. E. I. 643, 1165).
6. The agencies of Providence are constantly going on to prepare the world for the truth, and to send the truth to the world (H. E. I. 979, 4029, 4030).
III. LESSONS.
1. Hope much for the world from Christianity.
2. Cordially co-operate with all who love the Gospel.
3. Act as though all depended on your individual exertion.
4. Be sure you are on the right side yourselves.—Samuel Thodey.
Assuming, what the context abundantly confirms, that this is spoken of our Lord and Saviour, we have here a prophetic picture of the constancy which characterised our Redeemer in pursuing His work on earth. It has been common enough for the Christian pulpit to discuss “the final perseverance of the saints;” it may not be amiss, for once, to consider the “final perseverance of their Saviour.”
I. THE FACT OF HIS PERSEVERANCE IN THE WORK WHICH HIS FATHER GAVE HIM TO DO.
1. The fact implies His true humanity. If He were not “very man” as well as very God,” we could hardly speak of His persevering.
2. It also bids us behold Him pursuing His glorious enterprise. It was a unique as well as a noble spectacle. It was verily “a new thing in the earth.” The world had had its warriors, statesmen, judges, kings, patriarchs, poets, and prophets; but in His purpose this “Servant” of God differed from them all.
II. THE DIFFICULTY OF HIS PERSEVERANCE.
To realise this we must remember that He was “the man Christ Jesus.”
1. He was almost alone in His great work. Often He felt that only “the Father was with Him,” so out of joint was He with all around Him (John 16:32).
2. He was very poor; and a man is heavily weighted in doing a great work if he is very poor.
3. His views were unpopular. In His principles and practices He ran counter to all parties in the Church and State, and especially was He out of accord with the religious thought and people of His day. He carried on His great work not only without any such aid, but in the teeth of a strong and united opposition.
4. His own family derided Him (John 7:5). No light thing or trifling hindrance.
5. He had recreant followers. Some evinced pride, some anger, some ambition, some fear; one was covetous, most were ignorant and carnal, one denied Him shockingly, another betrayed Him foully, while “all forsook Him and fled.” What a trial and difficulty this was to the Master to have such weak human elements in His chosen companions we can never fully know.
6. He was terribly tempted; and this, I take it, was by far the worst of all. Really tempted “in all points as we are;” terribly tempted, for “He suffered” through it. After this brief review who will dare to say Christ’s difficulties were small or that He had nothing to discourage Him?
III. THE SUCCESS OF CHRIST’S PERSEVERANCE.
The prophecy became fact. He did not “fail” nor was He “discouraged till He had set judgment in the earth.” His success is seen in the fact that—
1. He taught the truth He came to teach (John 18:37).
2. He did the work He was sent to accomplish. He could cry at last, “It is finished.”
3. He suffered all it was necessary He should endure, even to death itself. He was taunted and tempted to “save Himself and come down from the cross,” but He would not; He persevered to the “bitter end.”
4. He showed His victory over sin and death by rising from the grave and ascending into heaven.
5. We see His success through His Apostles and His Church since. Let the Pentecosts and the world-wide spread of the Gospel at the first, and the reformations and revivals of more modern times, be the proof. The remotest “islands” have not only “waited” for, but have actually and joyfully received, “His law.” His success is still thus accruing, and it shall yet go on till “the whole earth shall be filled with His glory,” and He has seen “of the travail of His soul” and is “satisfied.”
IV. THE SECRET OF HIS PERSEVERANCE.
What was it? Let us “spoil the Egyptians” by finding the answer in the taunt of His foes. He trusted in God! Jesus Christ was the Greatest Believer as well as the only Saviour (John 14:10). His strong, and abiding, and incomparable faith in God is the secret of His constancy. This led Him to pray to God and work for God as none ever prayed or toiled before or since. And all for the glory of God. “I have put my Spirit upon Him,” is the prophetic explanation in the context, and that of the New Testament is like unto it (John 3:34-35).
V. THE PRACTICAL LESSON OF HIS PERSEVERANCE.
It is twofold—
1. There is example and encouragement here for those who are Christ’s followers. Example as to how they should persevere; encouragement to hold on their way (Philippians 1:6).
2. Here is also something to induce those “without” to come and live. “He will not fail,” whatever you need, “nor be discouraged,” though you have done so much to make Him so. “He saveth to the uttermost.” He “receiveth sinners” still.—John Collins: The Study and the Pulpit, New Series, pp. 119–122.
A revelation of Christ’s tenderness and constancy in His mediatorial work. Perseverance is a high virtue.
I. The work in which the Saviour is engaged. It is described as “setting judgment in the earth.” Denotes the benevolence and rectitude of His undertaking. It is no selfish work—no attempt to overreach and destroy His enemies. But He saw that the laws of God had been set aside in this earth, &c., and He came to correct these flagrant evils, and restore the world to purity and peace.
II. The discouragements that rise up before Him. The assurance that He will not fail nor be discouraged implies that He will meet with much to discourage Him, and His work will be inconceivably difficult and painful. This was verified all through His personal residence on earth. In what state did He find the world?
1. Sin.
2. Selfishness—a cold individualism.
III. The victory that will eventually crown His cause. The assurance of this fact rests not on a single passage or promise of Scripture. There shall be the triumph—
1. Of the moral over the physical.
2. Of the real over the ideal.
3. Of the social over the selfish.
4. Of the true over the false.
1. Great will be the results of these mighty changes.
2. Let us take encouragement from the Saviour’s example.—J. T. Peck, D.D.: Sermons by Fifty American Preachers, pp. 193.
I. THE OBSTACLES WHICH OUR LORD MEETS IN HIS WORK OF KINDNESS TO MAN. The assurance that the Servant of the Lord will “not fail nor be discouraged” implies that His work will be difficult and painful, and that He will meet with much to discourage Him. We might consider these obstacles as they were presented in the world He came to redeem. His own people were involved in such pride and earthliness, that although His advent had been amongst them the subject of prophecy during many hundreds of years, they scorned His instructions and resisted His claims (John 1:11). The Gentile nations, ignorant, desperately corrupt, hopeless (1 Corinthians 1:21; Romans 1:21-32; Ephesians 2:12). What a world to visit, what a race to address, what a work to accomplish! But the world had, and still has, to be redeemed by the redemption of individuals. Let us, therefore, call to mind the obstacles which any single human being presents to Christ when He comes forth in the power of His grace to seek and to save.
1. What is the bent of his inclinations? Whither run his affections? What is the tendency of his will? Of what character are his moral instincts? He is an earthly creature. He may be more or less intellectual in his pursuits, but he is still earthly and sensual. He desires earthly things as the means of his enjoyment. He lives to himself, not to his Maker. Unholy selfishness is the principle which puts into motion his activity in all its forms. Yet he has the most exalted conceptions of his personal merits and security. What obstacles are here to Christianity, to the salvation offered by Christ! what strongholds must be demolished, what fierce animosities must be subdued, ere the dominion of Christ can be established in any human soul!
2. Consider the indisposedness of man to receive instruction. How vast is the influence of all this pride and worldliness upon the mind. Its distinctions of good and evil are confounded, the understanding is blinded, the affections are enslaved. Man has no disposition honestly to seek the truth or to retrace his steps to the paths of godliness (Proverbs 14:12; John 3:20). The approach of spiritual light is painful to him. Religious instruction alarms rather than delights his mind. The corrupt heart resists the admission of God’s claims (Psalms 58:3-5). We love the sounds that lull, and the counsels which gratify our passions (H. E. I. 2669–2679).
3. Observe the use which we make of instruction when actually received. With what unequal steps do we advance along the paths of heavenly science! Into how many by-roads do we turn! What inconsistency and irresolution are visible in our daily conduct! How prone to let go the truth and to take up error! What dulness to discern, and what indolence to pursue, the whole will and counsel of God!
Let these facts be considered, and the obstacles in the way of Christ will appear insuperably great.
II. THE PATIENCE AND TENDERNESS WITH WHICH HE MEETS ALL THESE OBSTACLES.
With what constancy He pursues His gracious object amid all the difficulties by which it is encompassed! He counted the cost ere He engaged in the work of redemption; He fully understood the human heart, and had anticipated all the baseness of its ingratitude; and therefore nothing could turn Him away from the fulfilment of the errand of mercy on which He came (Hebrews 12:2-3). He remains the same, unchanged in His counsels of peace, unwearied in His efforts to enlighten and to save. And not in vain. His religion has overthrown the polytheism of ancient nations. Into how many a cold, reluctant, rebellious heart has His Gospel at length forced its way, and shed a late though lasting peace over the tumults of conscience and the perturbations of passion! What a history of forbearance and compassion on the part of Christ would the secret but detailed memoirs of individual believers compose!
III. THE ULTIMATE TRIUMPHS OF HIS GRACE. “He will not fail nor be discouraged.” Viewed separately, many events may appear contradictory to His purpose; but, under the silent and strong control of an unseen Agency, the complicated system of this world’s occurrences in really “working together for good” (H. E. I. 4024, 4030).
1. Numerous as are the strongholds of idolatry and superstition, truth shall yet brighten every land, and religion have dominion over a willing and converted world (Revelation 11:15; H. E. I. 979, 1166–1168, 2541, 4829, 4831).
2. It is in reference to the completion of Christ’s work of love upon the individual heart that the subject assumes to us the deepest interest. If towards His redeemed servant, notwithstanding all his inconstancy, our Lord has hitherto been compassionate and indulged, it is with the intention to cleanse him from all iniquity. It is a consideration full of comfort for an honest mind which trembles under a sense of weakness and unworthiness, that redemption is a settled and deliberate plan of mercy to bless the wretched and save the lost; that Christ is the Mediator of an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure; and that God has connected the manifestation of His own glory with the deliverance of His people from the captivity of sin. To what conclusion do these considerations bring me? To love my Benefactor more warmly, and to throw myself afresh into the combat with evil (1 John 4:4; Romans 8:37; Jude 1:24; H. E. I. 1070).—Hon. Gerard T. Noel, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 142–158.
Introduction.—Briefly give the spirit of Isaiah 42:1-3, dwelling especially on the greatness of the work to be done, as contrasted with the apparent feebleness of the means to be employed.
I. The hopeful spirit of this Servant of Jehovah. Draw attention to the discouragements arising from the character of the work, and to the hindrances alike in the world, the Church, and the individual. The tendency of workers to lose heart, to grow “weary in well-doing.” The effect of this losing heart on the quality of the work and its efficiency.
Two things essential to hopeful working—
1. Faith in truth.
2. Faith in the possibility of accomplishing the work (H. E. I. 1928–1931; P. D. 1162, 1176).
See both these in the Servant of Jehovah.
1. His trust in God; in God’s word, “it shall not return void;” His calm outlook and untroubled mind, giving dignity and power to every word He spake.
2. His unbounded faith in the power of the Gospel to subdue and save men; in the ultimate triumph of the truth.
II. This spirit of hopefulness is essential to all successful working for Christ. Give illustrations of the power of faith to quicken and inspire, and also to generate faith in others. Luther’s words have been said to be “half battles.” Men felt that he believed in the truth he proclaimed, and had no doubts as to the ultimate issue. Trace this hopeful spirit in the life and work of the Apostles, and of some of the most successful workers for Christ. Contrast the jubilant love of scientific workers in our time with the Elijah-like depression among Christians. They are on the scent of the truth; their past successes embolden them to hope for greater things. Sometimes they may be over-confident, yet their spirit inspires others. So let Christians be hopeful. Give illustrations of the well-grounded character of hope here. As the Jew could look back upon his eventful history, bright with tokens of Divine favour and power, so we can look back to the triumphs of the past, e.g., success of mission work in nineteenth century; some recent triumphs of Christianity showing that the power is the same.
Close by urging the importance of faith in Christ, in His promises, and in the power of the Gospel to save men and nations (H. E. I. 1161–1168).—J. Fordyce, M.A.: The Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i. p. 20.
IS CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?
Isaiah 42:4. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, &c.
In these days we often hear it said that Christianity is a failure; and on this theme many pens have been employed and many addresses have been made. As if foreseeing this state of mind, two thousand five hundred years ago the prophet took up his harp and sung these sweet notes, saying, “He shall not fail nor be discouraged.” These words apply to the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 12:18).
I. The purpose of Christ is the conquest of this world; and, in carrying out this great work, He is not to fail or be discouraged until He has set judgment in the earth—that is, until the system of truth which He teaches is everywhere understood; until the principles of all government shall be brought into harmony with His Word, and men everywhere shall understand and practise the great lessons of truth and holiness.
II. Men are very ready to say that this purpose must be a failure; for—
1. The project is so vast, that it seems to man impossible. There have been great kingdoms set up on this earth of ours, but there was never a kingdom which reached to its utmost bounds. But this purpose is to found a kingdom embracing all lands, taking in its vast sweep of authority all nations of all languages and of all customs. And not only for a time, but enduring through all ages. Such a project seems to man impossible.
2. Men think Christianity must be a failure because the agencies seem to them inadequate. If the earth is to be conquered, they look for the sword, for vast armies, for the employment of agencies vast-reaching and of vast compass. But Christ sent forth His disciples to conquer this world, saying simply, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.”
3. Men say Christianity is a failure because it has not accomplished its work. More than fifty generations have risen and gone down, and as yet not half the population of this earth has been reached. And how can it be that this earth is to be conquered since in eighteen centuries so little, comparatively, of this work has been done?
4. They tell us that Christianity is likely to be a failure because, they say, there is a conflict between science and religion. They tell us that the advance of science has shown errors in the accounts of the Bible; that the Bible has become effete; that the system of Christianity has served its day; that we must look for something grander, and nobler, and stronger to call and hold the attention of the human mind.
III. It is one of the favoured expressions of these men who fancy Christianity is a failure, that in the order of this world there shall be the “survival of the fittest”—that the weaker shall pass away, and the stronger and the mightier shall remain. Now, if we contrast Christianity with other forms of religion, where shall we find its failure? We may say to-day, simply as a fact, that it still remains, and, surpassing any other system in its strength and beauty, we shall see its survival over all.
Compare it with paganism. Not that low, degrading paganism we find among the Indians of our continent or the tribes of Africa, but paganism in its palmiest hours—in the days of the philosophy of Greece and of the power of Rome, when its temples shone with splendour, when its poets sang with grace, when sculpture and architecture gathered around it their forms of beauty. Scepticism then doubted and denied; but all the scepticism of Greece or Rome never closed one temple, never dethroned one of their imaginary deities. In the midst of scepticism popular faith went right on, and the temples had their devotees and worshippers. Judaism taught the knowledge of the one true God, yet it made no advances against idolatry. But what sceptical philosophy and Judaism could not do, Christianity has accomplished. Men without earthly power, men persecuted, men in prison, men reproached, went telling the story of a living and dying and ascended Christ, and as they told this story, the temples became deserted and the idols fell, until to-day there is not a god worshipped on earth that was worshipped in the time of the philosophy and glory of Greece and Rome.
Compare it with Brahmanism—a system that has much in it that is beautiful, with many of its precepts sublime, and many of its declarations grand. We have India brought up under this system, and what is it? I have not time to dwell on its suffering, darkness, and degradation. Two hundred millions of the people of India, with their Brahmanism, are controlled by less than thirty millions of Englishmen, who used to be on an island just at one extremity of the earth. Why? How? Because the system fails to develop men. Because Christianity does develop manhood, and gives its strength to power.
Compare Christianity with the teachings of Confucius, as we find them embodied in the Chinese. Voltaire, Volney, and others spoke of the wonderful influence of this form of heathenism, and made some of us think, in our earlier hours, there was something grand in the system. But what are the results of the teachings of Confucius? What kind of men do they produce? What is the result of the teaching? China, with her four thousand years or more on her head, is bowing to young America, and sending her sons here to be educated. Japan, by her side, is asking for our teachers and our schools. Japan is the object of a resurrection; for to-day in Japan the Bible is becoming the text-book in some of the schools, and the young people are beginning to see the light and the glory that emanate from Christianity.
On the principle of the survival of the fittest, is Christianity a failure? Paganism has gone, Brahmanism is going, and Confucianism is going down. Christianity is just raising herself. Oh, I see her! There is beauty on her brow; there is lustre in her eye; there is glory on her cheek. I see her stepping on the mountains, passing over the plains; I see her with wide-open hand distributing blessings on the sons of men. She is yet young. The dew of youth is yet upon her, and she comes as an angel, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto men.
But there is infidelity! Yes; and what is infidelity? It is a negation; it has no system. Where are its temples, its schools, its hospitals? What did it ever try to do for man anywhere, or at any time, as an organised system? There was one nation, and only one, that ever tried this system of infidelity. France decreed, “There is no God, and death is an eternal sleep,” and the result was that the streets of Paris ran with blood. Society was upheaved from its very foundations, and men were glad to go back even to poor temples, for the sake of finding some relief from the error and terror into which infidelity had thrown them. Infidelity has had its era. Voltaire said he lived in the “twilight of Christianity;” and so he did. But it was not, as he fancied, a twilight deepening into darkness, it was a twilight opening up into the brighter day; and the Sun of Righteousness shines now in spiritual beauty over our entire world. England, a century ago or more, was under the dominion of infidelity. The result was a degradation of morals and of general society. But as a reaction there came forth those works of Butler and Godwin, and a host of others who defended the principles of Christianity. And we have to-day a purer and clearer and stronger Christianity because of those attacks of infidelity. But who survived? Where are the infidels of that day? Where are their writings? They have scarcely left a mark. But Christian Churches are all over England and America.
The times are full of promise. I look over the earth, and nearly everything is hopeful. Christianity is growing stronger. It is visiting heathen nations and raising man to his full height of stature before the throne of God. Where are our discoverers? Where are our inventors? Where sit power, wealth, and learning? In Christian lands. All these are gathering around Christianity, and they make us hopeful for the future. We have our mission stations; we have our Bible translated. Our missionaries know the way to the very ends of the earth, and there have been more converts this year than in any other year since the Gospel was preached in Galilee. No danger of Christianity falling. No! Dispel all fear. There is no danger of Christianity. It is standing securely. The glory of God is on it. In the last days there shall be scoffers walking in their own ungodly lusts. If there were no scoffers at Christianity, I might doubt its truth. I know there are such scoffers, and I hear them around; but they are few and far between. A lecturer might come and occupy a hall, but the churches are full. There are crowds of the nations gathering around the Cross, and the beauty of our Lord Jesus Christ is atracting more and more (H. E. I. 979, 1166–1168).—Bishop Simpson: Christian Age, vol. xix. pp. 115–117.
Some say Christianity is a failure—others that it will never convert the world. Take the text as replying to both. Two standpoints to view the text—
I. That occupied by the prophet himself. Seven hundred years before Christ. So his predictions, as well as all that was written concerning Him, had to cover that space. From Isaiah’s standpoint, He shall not fail—
1. To appear as the promised and predicted Messiah. From the Fall He had been promised. He did not fail as to time, place, or manner.
2. In the great offices and work He would fulfil. Teacher, Prophet, Priest, and Lord.
3. Notwithstanding the opposition and sorrows of His life.
4. To survive and set up His kingdom. Hence His resurrection. Preached in Jerusalem. Reigns in the midst of His enemies. Triumphs of His grace.
II. First Church did not fail. Success everywhere. Now let us take our stand in our own age, and see some reasons for reiterating the declaration of the prophet.
He shall not fail,
1. To overcome all the opposition of His enemies. None more bitter than the past, or more formidable. Recent victories.
2. To attain the universal dominion. The grounds of this are manifold.
(1.) The divine covenant (Isaiah 53:10-11, with Philippians 2:6).
(2.) The divinely repeated prophecies and declarations (Psalms 2:6; Psalms 77:17; Habakkuk 2:14).
(3.) The efficacy and sufficiency of the Gospel.
(4.) The impossibility of Christ’s failure. As the Divine, &c. The failure of Christ would be the triumph of ignorance, &c.
CONCLUSION.—The world has been full of failures. Christ never fails to be all that sinners need. Labour on and in hope. How futile all opposition. Emmanuel’s victories will be sung for ever.—J. Burns, D.D., LL.D.: Sketches and Outlines, p. 228.
THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY
Isaiah 42:4. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, &c.
Besides meeting its fulfilment in the ministry of Christ on earth, the text is fulfilled in Christianity, regarded as the Spirit of Christ moving in the world. Moving noiselessly, almost unperceived, Christianity was to accomplish the establishment of a universal kingdom.
I. The progress of Christianity shall continue until the principles of Christ’s Kingdom pervade the entire globe. In human affairs there are oftentimes failures and discouragements. In nature, in all the works of God, and in all the history of man, there are periods of progress and periods of retrogression. Men change their plans and try new instrumentalities; but “He shall not fail nor be discouraged,” or, as the margin reads, “broken;” that is, His plans shall not be broken or changed; and He shall not be discouraged, but shall wait until the great work shall be accomplished (Hebrews 10:12-13). His perseverance is indomitable.
II. But there is a modern tendency to speak of the failure of Christianity. Men speak of the failure of Christianity, “It is not answering its great design; some other system must take its place; Christianity will become one of the world’s past institutions,” &c. The cry comes to-day from the literary circle; from men of scientific pretensions. The youth of the land are taught to expect something better and higher than Christianity.
III. In what direction do indications around us point? It is thought that Christianity attempts too much. “It suits us and our civilisation; Mohammedanism suits a certain part of the earth better; Buddhism suits India,” &c. But is not the tendency of civilisation everywhere to bring man up to one great standard?
(1.) It is so in the material world.
(2.) All the discoveries of science are leading us to see a wonderful unity—a unity in all varieties—a unity in the heaven above us.
(3.) The whole human family is yet to be one brotherhood. If this be so, one religious tie is needed to bind all hearts together to the Father above.
(4.) Difference in the religious sentiment will give rise to varieties of taste, varieties in our modes of worship, &c.; but there will be one great revelation of faith.
2. It is thought that the agency is wholly inadequate to accomplish the work proposed. Men still imagine that the preaching of the Cross is foolishness. “How can it change national customs and institutions?” But the same men talk about the power of thought, about the control of the human mind. Christianity is emphatically a religion of thought. It proposes to conquer, not by the sword, but by entering into the mind of man, transforming his whole being, and changing, by this means, the order of society. Remember
(1.)—The power of thought. It has changed the face of nature; revolutionised empires. Primarily, there is no power in the universe but thought. God thought: “He spake, and it was done,” &c. It is Christian thought that is to conquer the world. Christ is represented as having a two-edged sword proceeding out of His mouth.
(2.) Every man that receives Christianity seeks to communicate it. It is like the spread of fire (H. E. I. 1162). When we think what Christianity promises, and the unseen spiritual influences that act in harmony with it to give it efficiency, we find the means adequate.
IV. The sure future of Christianity.
1. Christianity has already made a great change; and the future conquests of the earth, so far as we can see, will come under the control of the Christian nations (H. E. I. 1161).
2. Christianity has this peculiarity, that it takes up childhood in its arms. Infidelity and Paganism neglect childhood. “Give me the rising generation, and you give me the world.”
3. Out of the work Christianity is doing there comes a feeling of peace. The principle of arbitration is spreading among the Christian nations of the earth. Such is the blessing of Christianity to men. It shall not fail; for our great Leader is at the right hand of the throne; the power of the Father is His.—Bishop Simpson: Clerical World, vol. i. pp. 290–292.