MAN is born in sin and in his heart goes astray from God from the very womb. His heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah xvii. 9). God is not in all his thoughts and there is no fear of God before his eyes. All these things the Scriptures assert. Sin has stripped man of every vestige of desire and ability to seek, in any degree, the praise and honour of his Creator, and at heart he is full to overflowing with enmity and rebellion against the revealed Name and declared will of Him that is Most High. “The carnal mind is enmity against God” (Rom. viii. 7); and this is all exposed as man is portrayed in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and as his conduct is viewed from one generation to another in the light of these same Scriptures. By his wicked works, innumerable and diverse as they are, the godless, immoral and unspiritual condition of his heart is discovered and made manifest. As the Lord Jesus declares, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Matt. xv. 19). And those who contend that there is any good thing in man, are still in spiritual darkness and “do greatly err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.”
Yet however desperately wicked the heart of man is, the Lord, and He alone, can give a sinner a new heart, which He does in the case of all whom He hath loved with a sovereign and eternal love. As He says, “And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you: and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in My statutes, and keep Mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be My people, and I will be their God” (Ezek. ii. 19-20). This word “heart” in its particular meaning, of course, applies to the seat of the affections in man. Yet throughout the Scriptures it refers frequently to the whole soul and is also used by the Holy Spirit to denote the different faculties separately and distinctively as the case may be. For example, we read in Galatians, chap. iv., v. 6: ” . . . God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father.” Now this does not imply that God merely sent the Spirit into the affections
of those who were the sons of God by adoption, but into the inner man of all the faculties of their souls. Then, on the other hand, we find that Paul in Romans, chap. i, in dealing with the matter of the wilful ignorance of men with respect to God, writes: “. . . Their foolish heart was darkened” (v. 21); that is, that the understanding was darkened. So that we see the term “heart” is used to denote any and every faculty and the whole soul as such, as the inspired writers were moved by the Holy Ghost. And thus when God gives a sinner a heart to know and love Him, He deals with the whole soul by the powerful and regenerating operations of the Holy Spirit, through His Word (law and gospel), and implants within that new heart, the religion that is from heaven, which is spiritual, saving, deep and enduring. “. . . He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philip i. 6).
Now, on the memorable occasion of Pentecost, when Peter preached at Jerusalem and charged home upon his hearers the guilt of having crucified Jesus, being imbued with power from on high in his ministrations, “. . . When they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren what shall we do?” They were in their consciences brought in guilty before the bar of God and were at a loss what to do, to have the arrows of conviction from the Almighty removed from their hearts. And in the mercy of God, the continued work of the Holy Spirit through the law brings the sinner in his heart to die to any hope of salvation from sin by the deeds of the law, as the apostle says, “But when the commandment came sin revived and I died” (Rom. vii. 9). Yes, the sinner dies in his heart, in his soul’s experience to all hope in himself. Then when God’s time of deliverance comes, and Christ Jesus in the glory of His righteousness and atoning death is made manifest by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God to the undone sinner, how does the helpless sinner attain unto an interest in Christ, deliverance from sin and condemnation and the possession of peace with God and life everlasting? We read, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephes. ii. 8); and it is “with the heart man believeth unto righteousness” (Rom. x. 10), and by that faith which cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Rom. x. 17); which faith upon Christ Jesus is also of the operation of God—that is, wrought in and implanted within the heart by the work of God’s Spirit. This is indeed a divine and deep work in the soul which brings joy and peace in believing to the heart of the poor sinner.
Now such as are enabled to believe by the grace of God bestowed upon them, are led not only to look upon the Lord Jesus Christ whom they have pierced, but also to mourn for Him, to mourn after a godly manner over their sins laid upon Him and suffered for by Him. This is indeed a rending of the heart in spiritual grief towards God,
“For godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, not to be repented of” (II Cor. vii. 10). And whatever fruits of necessity appear outwardly answerable to repentance—repentance has its seat in the heart, for “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Ps. li, 17). Then further, the Church says, “We love Him because He first loved us” (I John iv. 19), and whatever degree of affection the saved sinner has for God, this has been shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost. Attachment to Christ, His Word and the things of His Kingdom is not in mere words, deeds and profession, but a gracious disposition of the heart which is the product of a divine work within. And further, what a blessed hope is begotten in the hearts of the subjects of grace—a “hope of the glory of God” grounded upon the one foundation laid in Zion, even Jesus Christ. And however weak and faint this hope may be at times through manifold temptations, yet it is implanted deep down within, and shall be a tree of life to them ultimately; for “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick, but when the desire cometh it is a tree of life.”
And what a world of spiritual activity goes on in that heart where true religion has been set up by the grace of God. There is a hungering and thirsting after righteousness; the Spirit maketh intercession there with groanings which cannot be uttered; there are longings for renewed views of the Redeemer; there is a cleaving to the Lord and the “Words of eternal life”; there are the constant breathings of the soul in prayer and a constant sense of need and shame over sin, ignorance and unworthiness; there is the desire to meditate “on the law of God day and night,” and rejoicing of heart at tokens for good; there is the desire to praise the Lord for works of wonder done; and then as Paul relates, there is a warfare within, “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. vii. 22-25).
Thus the religion of the true, living Christian is a religion pre-eminently of the heart, and will bear its own blessed fruit in the outward life and conduct in relation to God and man, “for by their fruits ye shall know them,” saith Jesus. And with all their imperfections, genuine believers have “oil in their lamps,” and the Lord who looketh upon the heart, knoweth them that are His. Now, if we profess to have spiritual heart religion, let us look well and seriously to the claim we make, in view of the eternal world and the judgment of the great day. “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (II Peter i. 10-11).
Action Sermon.
Preached in St. Jude’s F.P. Church, Glasgow, on Sabbath,
12th November, 1950.
By REV. JOHN COLQUHOUN, Glendale.
“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.”—Isaiah lxiii. 1.
The Book of the Prophet Isaiah has often been referred to as the fifth gospel, and that, because of how much the prophet speaks beforehand of “the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” For instance, if we take the fifty-third chapter of the prophecy, although, in common with the rest of the book, it was written about seven hundred years before the coming of Christ in the flesh, yet His sufferings are so minutely described that one would think that the writer was sitting at the foot of the Cross of Calvary when the unspeakable sufferings of the Son of God were taking place. Not only so but, in the same place, he makes a clear mention of the glory that should follow when he says, “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many.”
In the verse, chosen at this time as the basis of meditation, we find the prophet, as if he were transported into the New Testament dispensation, beholding the triumphant march of the Messiah on His return from conquering His own and His Church’s enemies, asking questions concerning this mighty Person who is attracting the attention of all who see Him.
From the words read we shall notice, as enabled, at this time, three things in particular:—(1) The Person spoken of; (2) From whence He comes; (3) His own answer to the inquiry.
(1) The Person spoken of. There are two things said of Him in our text. He is “glorious in his apparel,” and He is “travelling in the greatness of his strength.”
We cannot understand the words of the text as applying to any other but to the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who appeared in this world to save poor lost sinners of our race. He is here represented as “glorious in his apparel” in order to show that to Him belongs great honour and dignity, as it is true concerning men who are high in the estimation of the world that the garments which they wear show the rank which belongs to them. The one spoken of here is one who has infinite honour and dignity in His Person as God and man in two distinct natures and one person for ever. It is true that in assuming human nature He veiled His Godhead so that in the world He was “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” but to the eye of faith
He was “the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world,” and in various ways His glory as the God-man appeared when He tabernacled among men.
That glory appeared in the miracles which He performed. In connection with turning water into wine at the marriage in Cana of Galilee we read, “This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him” (John ii. 11). The same thing is true also of His other miracles in healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, giving speech to the dumb, and life to the dead, and these manifestations of His glory enabled His Church to say, “He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death” (Psalm lxviii. 20).
On the Mount of Transfiguration the disciples saw His glory shining brightly, with their bodily eyes, as He conversed with Moses and Elias. One Evangelist records, “But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him” (Luke ix. 32). This manifestation of His glory was given them in order to substantiate the wonderful matters which they heard, for they heard the conversation He had with Moses and Elias respecting “his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem,” and they heard the voice from the excellent glory saying of Him, “This is my beloved Son: hear him.”
His glory appeared in His teaching, and does appear in His teaching throughout all ages. In the days of His flesh we read that “the people were astonished at his doctrine for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” The scribes taught from the Scriptures and from tradition but He was, not only an infallible interpreter of the Law, but the Lawgiver Himself. Similarly, when He begins, through His Divine Spirit, to teach sinners, they feel a power, which they cannot resist, in His teaching, causing them to forsake their former manner of life, and to lay hold of eternal life, for as He Himself tells us, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live” (John v. 25). When the officers were sent to apprehend Him they felt something of that power, whether or not it was in a saving manner in their case, when they had to confess, “Never man spake like this man.” Thus His people are enabled to say in all ages, “And we behold his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.”
His glory is also seen in those offices which He executes in His estate of humiliation and exaltation. He is the great Prophet of His Church in revealing to sinners by His Word and Spirit the will of God for their salvation; the Great High Priest who offered the most wonderful Sacrifice that was ever offered in this world, entered into heaven itself with His own blood, and on the ground of the efficacy
of it, intercedes for sinners; the mighty King who conquers all His enemies, and rules His people in love. The exercising of all these offices show Him to be clothed with a glory which transcends, in an infinite manner, all the glory which our finite minds can comprehend.
The second thing that our text tells us concerning this Person is, that He is “travelling in the greatness of his strength.”
In the days of His humiliation, when it was amply fulfilled in Him what the Psalmist says of Him, “But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.” He speaks of His great power when He says, “Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father” (John x. 17, 18). This shows clearly that He was not the victim of circumstances, as many hold, but that, in every step He took, from Bethlehem’s stable to Calvary’s Cross, He was Master of every situation into which His love for sinners took Him. Pilate arrogantly said, Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?” but that He was at the time “travelling in the greatness of his strength” is evident from His reply, “Thou coudest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.”
The advancement of His kingdom shows Him to be “travelling in the greatness of his strength.” Other kingdoms and empires have prospered for a while, such as ancient Greece and Rome, but, like modern examples which flourished in our own day on the continent of Europe, have been overthrown, so that they have no place among the kingdoms of the world. This fate will never happen to the kingdom of Christ, for by His own might it shall stand for ever. “All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations” (Psalm cxlv. 10-13). Many kingdoms have turned their power against the kingdom of Christ for the purpose of putting it out of existence, and, many will exert themselves for the like purpose yet, but they shall all know, in a greater or lesser degree, what Julian the Apostate learned. He had professed the Christian religion but had become a persecutor of it till at last in a battle he was wounded. When he knew that his wound was mortal he took a handful of his own blood, and flung it into the air, saying, “O Galilean, thou hast conquered.” On account of the fact that His kingdom shall never come to an end His people in all ages will express their minds in the words which we had been singing, “Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of
truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; whereby the people fall under thee” (Psalm xlv. 3-5).
He also shows that he is “travelling in the greatness of his strength” by the way in which He rules nations and makes them subservient to His purpose though nothing may be further from the intentions of these nations than to serve Him. Some of us here have seen two wars of world-wide extent, and we know something of the disorders, uncertainties and anxieties, from the human point of view, which these wars occasioned, and, no doubt, many would be ready to conclude that God was merely acting the part of an uninterested spectator. Nothing could be further from the truth. “He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth,” “bringeth the princes to nothing,” and “maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.” The potsherds of the earth may turn covetous eyes and stretch covetous hands towards each others possessions, and strive with each other over them, but, by these very things, the Lord fulfills His purposes towards His own Church, for the ingathering of His people, “the perfecting of the saints,” and “the edifying of the body of Christ.”
His dealings in Providence shows that He is “travelling in the greatness of his strength.” We are so ready to take the recurring of the seasons of the year as a matter of course, and think little of the wonderful order in the universe and the Guiding Hand behind it all, which causes seed-time and harvest to appear at the expected time, yet on this order depends the preservation of man and beast. This, however, is, comparatively, a small portion of God’s providential work. Nothing in this world happens by chance, but all things in it are foreordained and they shall surely come to pass in the order in which they were foreordained. As the God of Providence the person spoken of in our text rules kingdoms and sustains the countless living organisms of this globe, yet not a sparrow falls to the ground without His knowledge. That He has done so, and will do so in all ages, shows Him to be “travelling in the greatness of his strength.” “The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing” (Psalm cxlv. 15, 16).
In that same strength, in the greatness of which He is travelling, His grace is very manifest. In all ages of the world, as in all ages to come, there are a people who serve Him and acknowledge Him as their Lord and Saviour. None of these presume to do so in their own strength, for “who is sufficient for these things?” They have many duties to perform which they find to be beyond their strength, and many trials, afflictions and temptations, as long as they are in the world, but in connection with all these things their Saviour says, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in
weakness.” Obstacles stand in the way of their receiving grace for their needs, and they themselves could never surmount these obstacles, but He who is “travelling in the greatness of his strength” causes them to hear His voice as the voice of their beloved, “leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.”
(2) The second thing which we indicated our intention to notice is, From whence this Person comes.
Our text tells us that He comes from Edom and from Bozrah which was the capital of Edom. The Edomites were the sworn enemies of the Israelites, and we find the Lord’s ancient people, raising their supplications to Himself on that account, “Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof” (Psalm exxxxvii. 7). It would, no doubt, be in Bozrah as the capital that all the plans of that kingdom were devised for the destruction of the Israelites, and, therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of sinners, is represented here as coming from the very citidal of His, and His people’s enemies.
We may look upon Calvary as that citidal. It was here that the greatest battle was fought, as far as revealed to us, that was ever witnessed by Heaven, earth or hell. God had foreordained that a countless number of our race should be saved and from eternity devised the plan by which they should be saved; the time had now come for the great Surety of the elect to fulfill His Covenant Engagement. The enemies of His glory and of the souls of His people were determined that He should never fulfill it, but that they should be masters of the field. All the claims of the holy law of God, and the requirements of all the attributes of the Godhead would need to be satisfied. This along with His delight to do the will of the Father, and the place which God’s holy law had in His heart, caused Him to exclaim as He approached the battlefield, “I have a baptism to be baptized with: and how am I straitened till it be accomplished.”
Among those enemies who ranged themselves against Him were the devil, sin and death, an unspeakably strong combination, skilful in all the arts of their infernal warfare, crafty beyond the comprehension of the minds of human beings, strong to retain their power over their slaves, and goaded on to exert their utmost power by the sure knowledge that here was the One, referred to in the Garden of Eden, who was to bruise the devil’s head. Every slave among their hosts bore the image of their father, the devil, in their enmity towards holiness; sin was pleasant to their carnal taste, and death prevented them seeing the fearful consequences of their captivity.
When that phase of the battle which was enacted on Calvary was actually begun it was, therefore, to be expected that these enemies should work through as many of their human slaves as were present. On the eve of the battle He, against whom all their enmity was poured
forth, could say, “This is your hour, and the power of darkness.” That it was so can be seen when, in the midst of His agonies on the Cross, “the chief priests, mocking, said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save. Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Others said, “Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself and come down from the cross.”
When men are fighting a great battle they must dispense with those comforts to which they are accustomed in days of peace, and when the Lord Jesus Christ was fighting that great battle by which He forever emancipated the whole elect of God, all comforts were denied Him. At that time the words of prophecy were fulfilled in Him: “Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters I found none. They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (Psalm lxxix. 20, 21). Because men were animated by the spirit of the devil they gave Him what would add fire to His thirst, and of the thousands whom He fed miraculously with bread and fishes, and the still greater number of thousands who hung upon His words as He preached by the seaside or upon the mountains, not one was found to minister unto Him the smallest comfort. The disciples, who had more intimacy with Him, forsook Him. Where art thou Peter, who was ready to go to prison and to death with Him? Poor Peter had shamefully denied Him with oaths and curses. Where art thou John, that beloved disciple who leaned upon the bosom of Jesus at supper? He had gone his own way for the time being. If we look to angels, those glorious creatures who are higher up in the scale of created beings, and who were employed at other times to minister comfort and strength to Him, we find none of them, by their presence, supporting Him. They cannot, they dare not, come near, for no command has been given them to help at this awful moment when the Eternal Father Himself has hid His face from Him, for from eternity it was ordained that He should have to say, “I have trodden the wine-press alone; and of the people there was none with me.”
(To be continued.)