THE CHURCH, Isaiah 54:11-12.
I. The distressed condition of the Church. Without. Within. II. The promised glory of the Church. Completed. Adorned. Perfected with grace. III. The perpetuation of the Church. Her children instructed—blessed with abundant peace. IV. The inviolable security of the Church. Established. Protected from oppression, fear, terror.—Dr. Lyth.
THE AFFLICTED AND BEAUTIFIED CHURCH
Isaiah 54:11-12. O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, &c.
These verses, which doubtless had a reference to the future glory of Israel, are in a spiritual sense true of God’s people in all time. In them God sees His people as they often are, and as they will be when His purposes concerning them shall have been accomplished. We find in them—
I. GOD’S PEOPLE DESCRIBED. “O thou afflicted.” How often this has been true of the Church; of the individual believer (Psalms 34:19). “Tossed with tempest.” How often have heresies and dissensions shaken the Church to its foundations! “And not comforted:” all ordinary sources of comfort having proved vain; the true source of comfort not having been sought. How often it is our own fault that we are comfortless! Herein we are apprised—
1. Of God’s knowledge. How important is this, that God knows our sins and our sorrows! (John 10:14).
2. God’s sympathy. The tone is sympathetic; the speaker is touched with a feeling of our infirmities.
3. God’s affection. This is not a taunt, nor a complaint, nor a rebuke. Love speaks here: true love, deep love, Divine love. Mere friendship leaves us when our dark days come; but love calls us by our name in the darkness as in the light.
II. GOD’S PROMISE DECLARED. We may leave all fanciful speculation and content ourselves with seeing here the contrast between the present and future condition,
(1) of Israel;
(2) of the Church.
This is a picture of a beautiful city; its pavements fair, its foundations firm, its windows—or rather its battlements—all radiant, its gates like a burning coal, its borders—its whole circuit—full of glory. We may note—
1. That God promises what is needful. Stones, foundations, battlements; no city is complete without these. It is that which we most need that God offers to bestow upon us.
2. God promises that which is valuable. Zion is to be rebuilt, not merely with “stones,” but with “precious stones.” God acts like Himself in blessing His people. He gives the best of the best.
3. What God promises He undertakes to carry out (Joshua 21:45; Joshua 23:14; 1 Kings 8:56). “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” Who will “taste and see that the Lord is gracious?”—Walter J. Mayers.
I. A desolate condition described. Apply it—
1. To the history of the Church at large. Like a vessel in a storm, but always saved from shipwreck.
2. To the experience of individual Christians. It may be with—
1. Outward calamities.
2. Mental griefs.
3. Fore-boding fears. But God beholds with a complacent eye. He is no indifferent observer. All the relations He sustains breathe consolation (Isaiah 54:5). Make sure of the friendship of Him who is the pilot of the vessel, and then commit your interests to His guidance; otherwise when storms come you will have no anchor, and when death comes no hope.
II. The gracious promise given. Not only taken off the tossing wave, but promised a city rising from ruins. A promise of the final restoration of the Church, begun on earth, perfected in heaven.
1. The skill of the architect. God claims the work as His own (Ephesians 1:19).
2. The strength of the foundation. Combining beauty and durability.
3. The beauty of the super-structure. What beauty like the beauty of holiness.
4. The happiness and security of the worshippers.—Samuel Thodey.
GOD’S PUPILS
Isaiah 54:13. All thy children shall be taught of the Lord.
Teaching and learning are the universal and everlasting occupations of all mankind. It is well to learn of wise men; it is better still to learn of the all-wise God. A precious promise is this given to Israel, and through Israel to mankind.
I. THE SCHOOL. What, where, is God’s school? The largest and truest answer is—
1. The world, which to those who apprehend it aright, is not altogether a workshop or a play-ground, but a school, in which the highest lessons are taught and may be acquired.
2. The Church, which is a higher form of the school, where the teaching is, as it were, more advanced.
II. THE SCHOLARS. All who will learn may learn.
It is the education of mankind which is proceeding in this school; and there are those who do not know it, who little think it, who are the pupils of the giver of light and wisdom.
III. THE TEACHER. Upon this, in-deed, all depends. The Lord under-takes to be our teacher. This office He fulfils by His servants inspired to convey His mind and will, but, above all, by His Son, the Great Teacher, “the Light of the world.”
IV. THE LESSONS. They are mainly—
1. God’s truth concerning His own character and relationship to men.
2. God’s will, which is the same as our duty, the summons addressed to our faith and obedience.
V. THE DISCIPLINE. Knowledge alone is no blessing. In all education the moral result, the influence upon character is of supreme concern. God’s discipline is unspeakably precious. Just it is; and yet, gentle too.
VI. THE PURPOSE EFFECTED BY DIVINE TEACHING AND TRAINING.
1. Knowledge. When of the right sort a priceless boon.
2. Character. The ultimate result of the highest teaching.
3. Usefulness. God teaches us, that, through us, He may teach our fellowmen.
4. Eternal life. Life is eternal learning, and heaven is the approach of the soul to Him from whose fulness it drinks in unfailing and everlasting supplies.
Application. There is needed, in-order to learn, a lowly and teachable disposition. The cry of the heart should be, “Teach me Thy way, O God!”—Homiletical Library, vol. ii., p. 76.
I. The relation which believers sustain to the Church—thy children. II. The advantages they enjoy in the Church. 1. Divine instruction.
2. Great peace: “the peace of God”—profound, strengthening, satisfying, enduring, &c.
Isaiah 54:14. I. The foundation of the Church—righteousness. II. The security of it. III. The comfort of it. Oppression, and terror, and fear excluded. IV. The permanency of it.
Isaiah 54:15. I. The last combination of the Church’s enemies. II. Its unauthorised character. III. Utter abortiveness. IV. The blessed assurance.
Isaiah 54:16-17. I. All agencies and forces are the creation of God. II. He licenses, employs, controls them as He pleases. III. Hence no weapon or power can prosper against the Church which He has redeemed.—J. Lyth, D.D.