BY THE REV. DONALD GRAHAM, SHIELDAIG, LOCHCARRON.
Preached at Opening of Synod in Inverness Church
on 4th July, 1911.
“Behold, my servant shall deal prudently; he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonished at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him; for that which had not been told them shall they see, and that which they had not heard shall they consider.”—ISAIAH lii. 13-15.
ISAIAH was a prophet of Judah, and he is supposed to have been of the royal family. He began to prophesy in the reign of Uzziah, and continued his ministry till after the death of Hezekiah. He is said to have been put to death, being sawn asunder by order of Manasseh when that king was in the height of his enormous wickedness. Isaiah has been called “the evangelical prophet,” on account of his having plainly foretold so many things concerning the birth, ministry, sufferings, and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the glorious times of the Gospel. We may say that this book is most admirably adapted to promote the spiritual edification and consolation of believers.
The design of these prophecies was threefold: first, to declare to the Jewish people the greatness of their wickedness; second, to exhort all classes among them to repentance on account of their transgressions; third, to comfort those who truly feared the Lord with promises of divine support, to assure them of the coming of Christ, and to encourage their expectation of the future enlargement and permanent glory of the Church.
The account of the invasion of Judea by Sennacherib, king of Assyria, and the destruction of his army in answer to the prayer of Hezekiah, is a remarkable instance of the omnipotent power of God, and of His love and care for His people. “For I will defend this city to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake. Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses” (Isaiah xxxvii. 35, 36).
The most remarkable prophecies delivered by Isaiah relate to three momentous subjects: first, the captivity of the Jews in Babylon on account of their sins, and especially the sin of idolatry, and their certain deliverance from that idolatrous city by Cyrus, the Persian conqueror, whom Isaiah foretold by name nearly two hundred years before his birth; secondly, the circumstantial particulars concerning the birth, ministry, sufferings, and death of Christ as an atonement for sinners—many of which are described by the prophet with the accuracy of a present observer and eye witness of their fulfilment; thirdly, the growing enlargement of the Church in the time of the Gospel dispensation, increasing in numbers and prosperity until “the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth” in the full millennial glory.
This brings us now to consider more particularly our text, and I would wish to draw your attention very briefly to three things in particular.
I.—The person brought before us here—”my servant”;
II.—The work assigned to this servant, which is the great work of redemption; and
III.—The effect of this great work; “He shall sprinkle many nations,” etc.
I.—The person brought before us in our text, “my servant.” He is the Father’s servant. He said, “I came not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” I may say that the doctrine of the Trinity is very clearly brought before us in our text. In the great scheme of salvation, each person of the glorious Trinity has his own place, and work in the accomplishing of it. God the Father, purposed from all eternity to save some of the lost race of Adam. God the Son, undertook to work out that salvation. And God the Holy Ghost, applies the redemption purchased by Christ to the elect. And we may say that those three persons are brought before us in our text. The Father is brought before us here speaking of His own only begotten Son, under the designation of “my servant.” “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
i. God the Son is the person brought before us under the designation of “my servant.”
In order to become a servant, He would require to assume human nature, and we find him saying to the Father, “A body hast thou prepared me. Behold I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God.” He is a divine person who is co-equal with the Father, of whom the Apostle says, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Oh, wonderful love, matchless love, God the Father giving his only begotten Son to be a servant, knowing what that implied! This was an act of pure, free, matchless love, bearing upon the elect. There was nothing in them to cause this love to rest upon them. But there was much, yea, very much in them to cause His wrath to be poured out upon them throughout an endless eternity. And oh, the matchless love of God the Son, in giving Himself for them, knowing full well what He would have to suffer on their behalf. But he says Himself, “For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked and there was none to help, and I wondered that there was none to uphold; therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me, and my fury it upheld me.”
2. He is the Father’s servant, being chosen by the Father from all eternity as the Mediator.
The Father says, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my Spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.” He is the Father’s delight, being one with him. “I and the Father are one.” The Father saw His own image in the Son, who was the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person.
3. The person of whom the Father says “my servant,” is not only a divine person, co-equal with Himself from all eternity, but He is Immanuel—God in our nature, God and man in two distinct natures and one person for ever.
This same prophet foretold His birth. “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” And again, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulders; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” This, then, is the person brought before us under the designation of “my servant.”
II.—Let us now briefly, in the second place, consider the work assigned to the Servant.
We have already mentioned that it was the great work of redemption. When a master engages a servant he has work in view for that servant; and, speaking with all reverence, when God the Father engaged the person of whom He says “my servant,” He had work in view for Him. This wonderful servant tells us what His Master said to Him when He engaged Him. “And he said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for naught and in vain; yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God. And now, saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob; I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the earth.” We see here the work assigned to this servant—it was to bring back the tribes of Jacob, and not only they, but the Gentiles also; which we will have to consider more fully in connection with the last head of our text.
We see from the context that they were in bondage. This brings before us the sad condition in which we are, each and all of us, as we are by nature, Jews and Gentiles. We are all lost and ruined under the curse of a broken law, exposed to the wrath of an infinite, eternal, unchangeable, and holy God, who is a consuming fire to sin, and shall continue to be so to every sinner who shall not be found in Christ. Oh, my dear fellow sinner, may the Lord enable you to lay this to heart while it is to-day—while you are in the room of mercy. To-morrow may be too late! We do not know what a day or an hour may bring about. “To-day, if ye hear my voice, harden not your hearts.” I may relate an anecdote of Rowland Hill. He said that no sermon should be preached without having three R’s in it—the first R being ruin by the Fall; the second R, redemption by Christ; and the third R, regeneration by the Spirit. We have these great and important doctrines implied in our text. The Fall brought mankind to an estate of sin and misery; yea, we are ruined by the Fall. I know that many in our day deny the doctrine of the Fall, but that does not alter the fact, and those who deny the Fall deny the imputation of Adam’s first sin to his posterity. If there were no Fall, there was no need of redemption. And if there were no imputation of sin, there is no need for the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. But the whole Word of God testifies to the contrary. “Therefore, as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” (Romans v. 18, 19).
As long as man continued in a state of innocence, he was able perfectly to keep all the commandments of the holy law of God, and in this way to secure eternal life for himself and his posterity.
“But in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.” This was the tenor of the covenant of works. The first Adam was a covenant head, and he became bankrupt, and ruined himself and his posterity. But the last Adam—Jesus Christ—is the covenant head of His people, and He came in the fulness of the time appointed to repair the ruins. And in order to do so, He not only had to give perfect obedience to the divine law, but He had to suffer the penalty, and pay the debt already incurred by the Fall, if any of the lost race of Adam were to be saved. So He took their place under the law, and in taking their place He took their nature, in order that He would have a nature in which He could suffer. Oh, let us consider a little of what is indicated in this; Immanuel, God in our nature. The Creator of heaven and and earth assumed human nature. The eternal One took our nature. That divine person, who was in the bosom of the Father from all eternity, He, in whom the divine nature subsisted in its infinite fulness from all eternity, became man, and so was and continueth to be God and man in two distinct natures and one person for ever. In both natures then, but in one divine person, He accomplished the great work of redemption. In doing so He is brought before us in our text as the Father’s servant. “My servant.”
His sufferings, which were an eminent part of the great work, are suggested to us in these words—”As many were astonished at thee, his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form than the sons of men.” Oh, think of what He suffered from the stable to Calvary. His sufferings began while He was yet an infant. That wicked tyrant, Herod, as soon as he heard that the King of the Jews was born, sought to kill Him. Earth and hell raged against Him. He says Himself in the 22nd Psalm:—
“But as for me, a worm I am,
And as no man am priz’d:
Reproach of men I am, and by
The people am despis’d.
All that me see laugh me to scorn;
Shoot out the lip do they;
They nod and shake their heads at me,
And, mocking, thus do say,” etc.
I remember hearing the great Dr. Kennedy correcting the way in which even some good men used to express the obedience and sufferings of Christ. He said that some would express it in this way—”the obedience of His life and the sufferings of His death,” as much as to convey the idea that Christ had no sufferings in His life, and no obedience in His death. But he said, “It would be more correct and better to put it this way—’The obedience and sufferings of Christ’s life and death.’ He had obedience and sufferings combined in His life, and He had obedience and sufferings combined in His death, until He finished the work which the Father gave Him to do, when He cried with a loud voice, ‘It is finished.'” We may say that the highest act of His obedience was performed on the cross when He said, “It is finished, and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” He bowed his head in full resignation to the will of the Father. It was while on the cross that the vials of divine wrath were poured out upon Him, to the full infliction of the penalty due to the elect, a countless number which no man can number. Oh, think of Him, the spotless Lamb of God, suffering as if He were the greatest of malefactors. He suffered in His soul and body. His divine nature could not suffer, but it was a divine person that was on the cross, and cried, “It is finished.” So we find the Apostle Paul enjoining upon the Elders of Ephesus, saying, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood” (Acts xx. 28).
He paid the ransom price for His people. He bought them with His own blood. O what love! O, that it would melt our hard hearts, and constrain us to take up our cross daily, and follow Him, through good report and bad report. “Ye are bought with a price, be not the servants of men.” He died that we might live, He died the death that was due to us. He was willing that the guilt due to the sins of His people should be imputed to Him, and He knew what that would cost Him. He says, “The Lord God has opened my ear and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheek to them that plucked off the hair, I hid not my face from shame and spitting.”
Let us not forget the love of the Father in giving His only begotten Son. This is the fountain from which flows the salvation of lost sinners. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” And woe be to all those who will not believe in the Son; they shall not see life, but shall eternally be damned. Oh, my dear friends, seek to lay this to heart in time. “Strive to enter in at the strait gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying Lord, Lord, open to us, and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are.”
III.—I must not detain you. Let us now consider very briefly in the third and last place the effect of this work. “So shall he sprinkle many nations, the kings shall shut their mouths at him.”
This opens a door of hope for the Gentiles; not only the Jewish nation is now to be converted, but the Gentiles. All the nations of the world who hear the Gospel, the glorious message of peace and reconciliation, are invited to come to Christ. “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else.”
This is the work of the third person of the glorious Trinity, to sprinkle nations. It is the work of the Spirit to quicken sinners. Sinners must be quickened in order to feel their need of a Saviour. And oh, how much we need the convincing power of the Holy Ghost! “When he will come he will convince the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment.” Then the sinner begins to feel his need of sprinkling, and cannot rest until he is brought to the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness. It is the Spirit that applies the redemption purchased by Christ, “He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.” And oh, what a change is now wrought by the Spirit in the soul, when the sinner, being a little before a condemned criminal at the bar of Jehovah, is now enabled by faith to appropriate Christ presented to the eye of faith, as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. Beholding Christ crucified, the poor sinner is enabled to believe in Him, to receive Him, and embrace Him as He is freely offered to him in the Gospel.
I am not to detain you, to endeavour to describe the change of state and feeling that this poor sinner has now. When the sentence of condemnation pronounced against him is removed, and a full and free pardon now proclaimed by the Judge in the soul, “Thy sins which are many are forgiven,” no tongue can express the flood of joy and happiness, and comfort that enters the soul at that moment.
There was, first, a melting of heart before the love of the Father in giving His own beloved Son to die for me—wretched me—a vile, sinful worm, whose desert it was to be in the flames of an eternal hell. And there was, secondly, a melting of heart in view of the love—the matchless love—of the Son, who came from the bosom of the Father to die for me—wretched me. And there was, thirdly, a melting of heart in view of the love of the Spirit in coming into my vile and corrupt heart to convince me of my need of a Saviour. But I must stop. No tongue can express the joy and happiness of this poor sinner, now saved by free grace. “By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”
The second thing that we were to notice in connection with this head of our text is, “the kings shall shut their mouths at him.” This has partly been accomplished already, some in mercy and others in judgment. It shall finally be fulfilled at the last judgment. Kings and queens shall be converted, as recorded in the Word of God. “The kings of Tarshish and the isles shall bring presents; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him, all nations shall serve him” (Psalm lxxii. 10, 11).
Let me now say a few words, in the way of application, to my fellow sinners who are still unconverted. I ask you, what do you think of this wonderful person? Have you seen anything of His beauty and excellence as a Saviour? Have you seen your need of Him to save you from hell? There is no other way in which you can be saved. You cannot save yourself. And if you continue to reject Him until death, you shall be eternally damned. O, that we would see Him as the Church (the spouse) saw Him when she charged the daughters of Jerusalem, saying, “I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him that I am sick of love.” O, blessed sickness! O, that it were prevalent in our midst, that it were infectious in our day among our congregations. O, that we would see and hear of many laid up with it, many put to their places of retirement with it. You will remember the answer they gave her: “What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O, thou fairest among women; what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?” So she goes on to relate the loveliness of her Beloved: “My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.” And she ends by saying, “His mouth is most sweet; yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O, daughters of Jerusalem.”
May the Lord add His blessing. Amen.