“COMFORT YE, comfort ye my people, saith your God.” These words are as a fountain of comfort to the Lord’s people. Comfort repeated, according to Hebrew usage, to emphasise its abundance and, in this place, the wholehearted goodwill and generosity of its Divine source. Though abundant and most generous, nevertheless it is not unrestricted. Indeed, we must beware of that type of Gospel whose large-hearted generosity overflows the bounds of Scripture and preaches comfort to all and sundry—the modern gospel of Universal Fatherhood. Here, as in other places in Scripture, the bounds are definitely set by the words, “My people” and “Your God.” There is evidently a close personal relationship between the Lord Himself and all those whom He purposes to comfort. It is a relationship acknowledging and claiming possession on both sides. These people are the Lord’s people. He claims them as His own, thus making a distinction between them and all others who are not His people. They are His by covenant love and electing grace, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. They are His purchased possession; the purchase price being nothing less than the precious blood of Christ, the Lamb without blemish and without spot, who loved the Church and gave Himself for the Church.
They are also His by the effectual and gracious call of the Holy Spirit. One or two were sanctified from the womb, but in the case of all the others they were born in sin and brought forth in iniquity, dead in trespasses and in sins, showing at that time no evidence in heart or conduct that they were the Lord’s people. But in the great mercy and love of God a time came when they were called effectually by the Holy Spirit, who convicted them of the truth of God’s Word, and convinced them of sin, righteousness and judgment, and revealed to them the substitutionary nature of Christ’s sufferings and the true meaning of His death as a “sacrifice to satisfy Divine justice and to reconcile us to God,” and imparted to them regenerating grace, making them willing and able to embrace Jesus Christ as He is freely offered in the Gospel. In Him they abide and He in them, as the branch in the vine, from Him is their fruit found. Him they follow as the sheep follow their shepherd, and another will they not follow
but will flee from him. Hence not only are they the Lord’s people, but He is their God; their God in distinction to all those idols which blinded nations fear.
With what holy irony and biting sarcasm does Isaiah in this 40th chapter of his prophecy describe the invention and manufacture of the idols of man’s sinful imagination. But the Lord’s dear people have all been delivered from the snare of idolatry; and, oh! what an unspeakably great mercy for them! Each one of them has come to see in a saving way the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, which is the glory of the one living and true God, a just God and a Saviour. Like Ephraim they resolve to finish with idols. “What have I any more to do with idols?” “They turn from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven.” They are His people and He is their God. What more precious, what more important relationship could there be as between the Eternal God, the God of all grace and comfort on the one hand and a poor sinful creature on the other! Salvation, blessing, joy everlasting; grace and glory derive from it and are secured by it.
For all those in this relationship there is a divinely ordained ministry of comfort. “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.” Before departing from this world and going to the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ made it a chief concern to reassure and comfort His disciples in the distressing prospect which faced them. His loving thought and concern were always for them and not for Himself, and for this the Church will be eternally in His debt. “I will pray the Father and He shall give you another Comforter that He may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of Truth.” From this we understand that Christ as Great High Priest has entered into the holiest of all, even into heaven itself, there to appear in the presence of God for us. He there carries the concerns of His redeemed people while they are still in the world and greatly in need of comfort. The result of His intercession is no less a blessing than this: “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” Now the Lord’s people profess to believe in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and in the ministry of the Holy Spirit as the Divine Comforter of the Church, and yet must it not be acknowledged that few of those who thus believe understand as they ought and appreciate in the way of daily experience the real meaning of this most precious of all gospel gifts, even that God the Lord should dwell among men, with the rebellious also. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is not merely the exercise of a general oversight over the whole Church on earth: it is much more than that.
It is a direct personal indwelling in each believing heart. “He dwelleth with you and shall be in you.” In you, that is, as the spirit of life, which He communicates and imparts to the soul, thereby quickening it into spiritual and heavenly life and activity. His power of
direct access to each faculty of soul is a very mysterious and wonderful fruit of the gospel. By means of that access He ministers comfort to the whole soul. The understanding is savagely enlightened in the great doctrines of the Christian faith, the conscience is purified and a living principle of holiness imparted, the memory is enriched with the remembrance of the things Jesus has said, the affections are captivated by the love of Christ; and the will, that otherwise impregnable bastion of Mansoul, is graciously won over, without in any way doing violence to its liberty, and henceforth the “will of God” revealed in the gospel becomes its supreme rule and authority in all its exercises. In all this indwelling the Holy Spirit fulfils His office as Comforter. Through this ministry the gracious soul enjoys the comfort of forgiveness of sins, rest from weariness, peace of conscience, and renewal of strength. The source of this comfort being a Divine Person is infinite and inexhaustible.
Again, the Holy Spirit ministers comfort as the Spirit of Grace. The living soul can never be comfortable without adequate and renewed supplies of grace. In this world the heaven-born soul is a stranger and a pilgrim seeking another and a better country. It is his concern, and in his highest interest that he should be suitably prepared for Heaven, his Eternal Home. Grace alone can do that. He needs daily supplies of repentance; brokenness of heart and contrition of spirit. Because he is among the living in Jerusalem sin is always, and in every shape and form it assumes, a grief to him, the plague of his heart is a grief to him; these rob him of his comfort. He is acutely conscious of the spiritual idolatry, vanity, hypocrisy, and worldliness of his heart. On account of these things he mourns in secret places, and the spirit brings a melting of heart as “showers upon the mown grass.” And, oh! there is a sweetness of comfort in such penitent mourning which he would not part with for the whole world were it his—this is that godly sorrow which works repentance not to be repented of.
He needs daily renewals of faith. His faith is often under trial, fiery trial as gold is tried in the fire, and this cannot but interfere with his comfort. The remains of sinful nature in his heart give rise often to infidel thoughts, sometimes even breaking out into rebellion against God and even blasphemous thoughts. The Evil One tempts him concerning his calling and election, and suggests doubts and fears which are most distressing to him. Against these hosts what could he do were it not for the Spirit of all Comfort taking him by the hand as it were and leading him like a little child back to where he began—”He that believeth shall be saved” and “Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out,” and thereby restoring gospel comfort to his vexed soul through the simplicity that is in Christ and the liberty wherewith the Son makes free.
He needs daily renewals of love and the spirit of humble obedience inseparable from it. There is no doubt in his mind but that Christ is altogether worthy, worthy to be loved and worthy to be followed, even when such following makes the demand, “If any man will come after me let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” But while acknowledging the worthiness of the Redeemer, how often is the true disciple of Jesus harassed and perplexed with feelings of coldness, indifference and self-interest? The Holy Spirit brings to bear upon this a ministry which is boundless in its love. The believer finds himself like a small shell which the receding tide has left stranded and empty on the shore, but there is enough in the ocean to fill ten thousand such shells and yet remain as full as ever. All that is needed is just to wait for the incoming tide, and when the time appointed comes what can keep it back? “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.” If there is not comfort enough in that where else is it to come from? But there is enough and to spare, and in His application of it to the poor and needy, who could be more wise, loving and skilful than the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of all Comfort?
The sweetest source of all gospel comfort is Christ Himself revealed through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. It is the peculiar office of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth to take of the things of Christ and to show them to His followers, and so to glorify Him. Who can measure the wealth of comfort here made available to the Church, freely, graciously and effectually. It is such comfort as derives from the personal glory and fulness of the God-man Mediator—a fulness of mercy, love, power and grace never to be exhausted, accordingly it is written, “My God shall supply all your need out of His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
There is comfort in the very remembrance of the names Christ bears in making Himself and the riches of His grace known among men—Saviour, Redeemer, Shepherd, etc. There is much comfort in a believing consideration of the offices of Prophet, Priest and King which He sustains and executes as Mediator. How sweet and full of comfort is the thought of His oneness with the Father. “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me?” Through the Son each child of God has direct access unto the Father and a right and title to all the blessings and benefits of the Father’s house.
Finally, what sweet comfort to meditate on Christ’s own relationship to each and all of His people. In Him all the promises are yea and amen to the glory of God; promises great and precious having respect to every possible need and trial and providing the necessary and corresponding comfort to meet each case. Related to Him as each one of His people is, these promises are there for them and
they are assured that all things work together for good to them who love God. Through that relationship the eighth chapter of Romans becomes a mine of golden comfort inexhaustible in its wealth, beginning with “no condemnation”: it concludes with “no separation.” “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ . . . I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” He, the Comforter, shall take of mine and shall show it unto you.