By Rev. JAMES MACLEOD.
“The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.” (Isaiah 50, 4.)
THIS portion of the Word of God opens with the words:—”Thus saith the Lord, where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I put away?” This goes back to the very origin of the race of Adam. The fallen, the ruined, the blind, and the lost sinner. Some grammarians, and theologians adhere to the strict letter of the law and apply the doctrines to the Jewish Church as if the lesser were greater than the whole. It is a common practice among even smaller minds to adhere to the strict letter of the text as if the larger issues involved were out of the range of their mental vision. In building a house one must get to the foundation. This must be done in the case of every house. If rubbish is left the building will crack, and the rents will enlarge till the whole building is down some day from the top to the ground. That will be verily true in the case of him who ignores the fact of the fall of Adam as if it were not included; and involved in every text, and occasion on which the preacher addresses his fellow man. Christ came to save that which was lost. And where were they lost? How then can the gospel be preached without any reference to the fall, and lost condition of man? Never. It is a fond delusion to think that the doctrines of the fall can be ignored, dispensed with, and conveniently forgotten in order to please the carnal ear of the ungodly. In the language of the Word of God it is said:—”Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” It is most sinful to deceive the poor ungodly sinner with high expectation, and “good hope” for the future, when he is under the wrath and curse of God. We believe it will be part of the burning hell of lost souls in eternity that while on this earth they were so busy entertaining and deceiving one another and promising one another a happy eternity! What that will mean is fully explained in the parable of the rich man. If we do not understand our lost condition in Adam we will never understand the gospel savingly. We may learn much about it, and be able to speak about it, profess it, and do many things in the support of the gospel and yet be utterly ignorant of the saving power of the gospel. “The law and to the prophets.” To the Word of God the test-stone for all we know, see, or handle. If our knowledge will not correspond with that Word in this life we deceive ourselves to think and hope that the Most High is different from His Word. We are fully convinced that the people of this country lost the gospel largely due to this, that men who were not themselves “born again” began to preach to the poor, blind people “another gospel” which ignored the “truth of God.” Let us be aware of this shipwreck. “If we say that we have no sin (original and actual), we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (I. John 1, 8.) Again we read, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.” (I. John 1, 10.) “And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thy blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.” (Ez. 16, 6.) That is the spiritual state and condition we are in by nature; polluted in our guilt before the all seeing eye of God. We are dead till the moment God will say, “Live.” “Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there none to answer?” The blind could not see, the deaf could not hear, and the lame could not walk! The whole head was sick to the death in the loins of fallen Adam. Death covered us, and Satan was our master. We are of course very much alive, and active feeding the swine of our own lusts—without God and without hope in the world. Let us now turn to the portion of the Word read.
First of all we have here One who is learned.
Nicodemus said, “We know that Thou are a Teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.” “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned.” This is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. For among the children of men all had become brutish in knowledge. There was none that could teach or shew the way. For there was no way. The original way was lost, and man knew not of another way. In his fallen state man became so low that his conception of God was such that he thought fig leaves would cover his nakedness! The Lord Jesus was a Teacher come from God. He had verily the tongue of the learned. He was the Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (Jo. i, 1.) “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” (Gen. 3, 8.) This was He of whom it is written “that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.” The blessed Lord Jesus! He has “given me the tongue of the learned.” As the Eternal God He could not speak to us but in wrath. As the God-man He can speak to us in mercy, love, and peace. He can reveal to us what was hid from us in our low estate, for He thought of us, and had pity upon us, for His mercy endureth for ever. He is infinite in knowledge. The Bible is a revelation from God. “The holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God, the only rule of faith and obedience.” In this sense the “tongue of the learned” is the written Word. When He (The Lord Christ) was on earth His appeal was to the written Word. The Holy Ghost will appeal to nothing else. Was it to corrupt, ungodly philosophy, and ignorant men He would appeal? No, but to the Word inspired by His own infinite wisdom, power, and mercy. No one ever did or indeed could appeal or make the same use of the Word of God like Him who was the Word incarnate. If referring to Satan, wicked men, or Divine providence His appeal was to the Word of God! What majesty and purity He saw in the Word! The value He set upon it! This is the highest example for us to follow. This is the learned “tongue” to listen to, to obey, and follow. When blind ignorant men will set up unsanctified reason, and appeal to it, and corrupt conscience before the written Word of God they shew what camp they are in and how destitute they are of that saving knowledge of the majesty, and purity of the Word of God. The Moral Law reveals how infinite are its holy claims on fallen man. The spirituality of the Law claims perfect obedience in thought, word, and action. The command is “do it.” When the sinner is awakened to a real sense of his lost condition, and listens to the claims of the Moral Law, he finds himself confronted with eternal justice, holiness, righteousness, majesty, and purity which he cannot deny; nor can he escape from the Creator, Lawgiver, and Judge against whom he has sinned. nor can he cover his nakedness with his own moral actions although he should offer his body to the flames for the sins of his soul. He finds in truth, and experience, all “his righteousnesses” as filthy rags. The Law demands obedience from the rebel that cannot think one right thought. The Lord’s Day that he trampled under foot speaks louder than the thunders of Sinai in his guilty soul. Poor sinners think in their gross ignorance that while their own consciences are dead the Law of God is dead. No. The Law will speak in mercy or in judgment. If in mercy the sinner will know by experience what is meant and implied by the word of the Apostle Paul, “When the commandment came sin revived and I died.” The silly notion that the gospel abolished the Moral Law is wicked and extremely blasphemous. Is Christ the minister of sin? If not why do men calumniate His blessed name as if He by His gospel opened up the sloughs of the kingdom of sin and Satan for men to commit lewdness with greediness? “What is the moral law?” “The moral law is the declaration of the will of God to mankind, directing and binding every one to personal, perfect, and perpetual conformity and obedience there to, in the frame and disposition of the whole man, soul, and body, and in performance of all those duties of holiness and righteousness which he oweth to God and man: promising life upon the fulfilling, and threatening death upon the breach of it.” (Larger Catechism.) The Moral Law will stand in everlasting perpetuity! It cannot be changed. It is of infinite importance that men should observe the claims of the Moral Law on the inward, and outward conduct of sinners. To abuse it will mean death if the sinner persists in that course to the end. Eternity is endless and to continue in sin will mean endless death, suffering, and pain. Men may have no pain now nor consciousness of guilt but that is no proof at all that the claims of the Law of God are changed. A man may be guilty of a certain crime and not feel any qualms of conscience for years, and yet that same sin, and crime will one day stare him in the face when it will be set in order before him by the God of truth. A dead conscience is no proof at all that God is dead. The Lord brought very plainly before the Samaritan woman her secret sins. He had the “tongue of the learned.” The Sabbath desecration that is going on to-day will one day meet poor sinners, confound, and put them to everlasting shame if not repented of in mercy. There will be no excuses before the White Throne of eternity. Carnal reason will have a very low place there! Conscience will then speak. The secret sin will be no longer hid, nor excused, nor will rocks, and mountains cover from the all seeing eye of the Lord. The god Mammon will be silent. The god of carnal pleasure will be equally silent. When the “Books will be opened” and memory recalls the sins of the past life, and conscience accuses, what terror will take possession of the lost sinner! The “book” of providence will be opened, the mercies, the kindness, and the opportunities the sinner had, set before his eyes in perfect order! The “book” of the Moral Law, and Gospel Ordinances all opened to their fullest extent before the lost sinner. What tongue can describe the despair that will enter like iron into that soul. He, who has the “tongue of the learned” has plainly described it already in most terrible words that should cause the stoutest heart to tremble. What excuses can Free Presbyterians offer at the Great Day who will be found on the left hand of the Judge? Can they blame Ministers and Missionaries in that day? The blessed Bible will then speak as never before. Can any one dare say even now, “I never heard of hell, the pain, and woes of those who will be lost?” The Bible will be the greatest and swiftest witness in that day. Can ministers regenerate souls? No. They can make church members, and add names to the communion rolls, and insist that poor unregenerate sinners “join the church” but that is not regeneration. That is not the “New-Birth.” The Holy Ghost is the sole Author of regeneration. Adam had a son after his own image. Ministers may have sons and daughters after their image to whom the Lord will say at the Great Day, “I never knew you.”
In the second place we will consider how the Lord knows to speak a word in season to the weary.
First: who are the weary? The awakened soul becomes very weary of sin; and the aged believer is very weary of the “body of this death.” The blessed Saviour is their comforter. He knows them, whether old or young in the faith. They are His own by covenant. He paid the price of their redemption. He is learned by experience. He was tempted in all points like His brethren, yet without sin. His is the experimental tongue of the learned. From soul experience He speaks to them. He loves to do it. He was weary Himself, although pure and perfectly holy. He was truly human. If He had not taken “bone of their bone, and flesh of their flesh” He would not know, in this experimental sense, the nature of their soul weariness, pain, and weakness. What a Saviour to look to! What a friend to have! What a hell to be without him! “My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. His head is as the most fine gold, His locks are bushy, and black as a raven.” (Sol. 5, 10-11.) He loved His Church with infinite love. He heals the wounds of their soul by His Word, Spirit, and blood. He reveals to them His hands, and His feet bleeding, and suffering for them in love. His love to them, to the Father, to God the Holy Ghost, to law, justice, holiness, truth, and purity. He hated iniquity with an infinite hatred. He loved righteousness with an infinite love. He had an eternal delight to be with the sons of men. He loves their habitation. The dwelling place of His people. His eye was on Britain from all eternity. The Islands of the sea were in His eye, and He purposed to come with the gospel of the grace of God to our fathers in the fulness of the time appointed. He found them naked, savage, guilty, dead, burning their children trying to appease their gods. Their altars were many, their gods were many when He came to them with the gospel of the grace of God. He saw them weary in their sin and misery. What a sight to the all seeing eye it must have been to behold from afar the lost ruined condition of perishing men! No eye to pity them. The devil as a mighty warrior holding the palace in the peace of death and ignorance. But it was written, “who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in His apparel, travelling in the greatness of His strength? I that speak in righteousness mighty to save.” Isa. 63, 1.) He, who is mighty to save came to Scotland changed the dark night into the light of the morning. “Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun.” (Ecc. 11, 7.) The gospel brought this pleasant light to the souls of many. How sweet it was can only be understood by those who found the darkness horrible, and the light of mercy, and love, most sweet to their souls. They will be for ever indebted to God for His mercy. He did not pass by them. He came to them. That will cause them to long for the salvation of others to the utmost bounds of the inhabited earth. When Abraham was weary, the Lord promised him a son. This was the “word in season” to His faithful servant. When Jacob was weary he saw a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.” Here was poor Jacob tired and weary on his way to Haran little expecting such a wonderful visitation from heaven and such a wonderful promise as he got from the Lord. “And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south, and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” (Gen. chapter 28.) This surely was a gospel promise to weary Jacob which extended far beyond the strip of land known as Palestine? It took in all lands, nations, and tongues to the end of time. The Lord, his Saviour, had the tongue of the learned, and He could speak a word in season to weary Jacob. When Paul was weary with sin, Satan and the world the Lord said to him “my grace is sufficient for thee and my strength is made perfect in weakness.” It is the same still. The Lord will comfort the weary soul. His Word is a living Word in the hand of the blessed Spirit. He warns His people of their danger, and rebukes them when they go astray from His Word. He warns them against enemies secretly and of dangers long before they are confronted with the reality of the cause of the warning. They may not know at first why He warns them but the time will come when they will know why He was secretly warning them and exhorting them to watch, and pray!
The Word of God is of infinite value to the believer. It is the Word that comforts them, guides, and leads them in the right—not mere blind reason. Poor blind men who accept corrupt reason, and corrupt conscience as their guide will find out their painful mistake some day! The Lord Jesus at all times appealed to the written Word in speaking to friends and enemies. If this confused world will be delivered from its present chaos it must be through the Word of God. It is the means in the hand of the blessed Spirit. It is through the Word the Lord’s people are called, convinced of sin, justified, adopted, sanctified, and called to their eternal rest. The authority of faith is the Word. It is through the Word faith cometh and taketh possession of the soul. It is through the Word that they see Christ, the surer Word of prophecy than any thing seen by the bodily eyes, or the dreams of the night. It is to the Law and Testimony. The weary believer has need of the whole Bible. The Book of Genesis to the Book of Revelation is all useful for his instruction and enlightenment. This is the green pastures of the “Good Shepherd” and the Sheep of Christ feed on this wonderful field. If they depart from it the devil is after them to lead them quickly astray from the path of truth and righteousness. The godly fathers and mothers in Israel in the Free Presbyterian Church saw this very clearly before and after May, 1893. They warned and exhorted us to follow hard after the Lord in His Own Word and not to deviate from it for any man. The older some of us grow the more we see their wisdom and faithfulness to us. Let us be faithful to those that are coming after us and leave the Testimony pure and holy as we have received it from them. They left us the Bible as the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever. It is quite easy to go by the stream, not so easy to swim against the current. The tendency is to go with the tide of rationalism—to set up reason like the miserable French as a goddess. It was through the written Word He spoke a word in season to the weary of His flock. It was the Word of the living God. Let Free Presbyterians every where rest assured in their hearts that it is the aim of their Synod to adhere most faithfully to the Word of God. The only court assuming the name of Christianity that wickedly arrogates to itself infallibility in its decisions is the papal church. The only writing we accept as being eternally and infallibly true is the Bible. We base all our decisions on that Book whether of faith, practice, Church discipline or procedure but that does not prove that our decisions are perfect, although the Word of God is perfect. In the fear of God we do the best we can in the most difficult situations and cases that we have to deal with. The Word of God is our guide and not sentiment, prejudice, mere reason and crafty ambition. We have noticed how plausible were the speeches of the crafty men of pre-Disruption days in 1843 and again before 1893 to 1900. When they managed to sacrifice Reformation principles, the cardinal doctrines of the Bible, they became very silent, quiet and satisfied with their wicked achievements! The present-day movement is towards Rome! They are going about it very quietly but persistently. He knew how to speak a word in season to the weary.
But lastly: “He wakeneth morning by morning. He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.”
When the child of God goes to school first he must be wakened by the blessed Spirit to learn his lesson from the blessed Teacher that came down from heaven. Nicodemus was a pupil of this sort. Yes and Abraham and all of them. Blessed Abel was early in this school. Abel was a splendid pupil. Many of the Lord’s people learn quick like the thief on the cross but normally they are for many years in the school of experience. They must pass their forty years in the wilderness. The Teacher knows how to teach all the pupils however old or young they may be. They learn from the Lord something of what is in their own heart. That is a painful lesson. They must learn how ignorant they are—another painful lesson to learn. They must learn how weak they are—a serious, painful lesson. They must learn to distinguish between the religion of the flesh and the spirit. This is fully explained in the 10th Chapter of the gospel according to John. They are among wolves—the world ready to devour them and destroy them. The graceless religious world is their most dangerous and subtle enemy. They have need of the Shepherd-Christ every day and at all times. They might eat poisonous weeds—errors which would cause them pain and many tears. This is what the Galatians did. Paul was in tears over their dangerous errors. The error seemed quite simple at first. “What harm would it do to be circumcised? What harm would it do to have a little music in the congregation, a small choir, a few hymns, and on occasion a friendly social gathering in the church hall and half an hour of so of dancing. It will keep the young folk from worse places and, indeed David himself, the good man danced and, moreover, we read that there is a time to dance, and that there is dancing and music mentioned in the Bible even when that wicked fellow the Prodigal returned from his evil ways.” The Lord in His great love to His own cause “wakeneth men” from time to time to see and realise the dangers of these errors. They warn others to flee from the wrath which is to come. It was so at Reformation times. Knox was raised up to warn his fellow countrymen of their danger from the “choir” of the Harlot of Rome. Those taught in the school of Christ must learn of Him and not of the ancient philosophers and modern infidels. They must learn direct from the Lord and His sent Servants through the gospel. That will send them back to the Bible to see and understand if they are taught the whole council of God in His own Word. If not they consider the preaching defective and they cannot feed in such a field. They may listen to the sound of the words uttered but they cannot get soul nourishment from it. The canker worm is at the root of it all. They must have the pure water of life through the Word of God in law and in gospel. It is not always the fault of the preacher. The believer may be in a back-sliding condition that needs the rod of chastisement to bring him in hungry to the table of the gospel. They will all learn their lesson so that at last they are made perfect in holiness. “And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children.” (Isa. 54, 13.)