A Sermon by C C Macintosh
Isaiah 55:8,9. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are Your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
If an earthly prince was to make a proclamation of pardon to a portion of his subjects who had rebelled against him, we should expect that there would be some exceptions. And we should expect that the exceptions would consist of those who from the place in which they stood, from the share they took in fomenting the rebellion, or from the special malignity of their conduct, had rendered themselves unfit objects of mercy. We should expect then that some would be excepted, because they were regarded as incurable traitors, in whom rebellion was so deeply rooted that there was no hope of it being eradicated; or because the prince could not find it in his heart to pardon them; or because it would be unsafe, and a general encouragement to rebellion, to suffer them to escape unpunished. But no such exceptions are found noted in the gospel proclamation. Are they wicked and unrighteous who hear it announced? Is their guilt great – even when compared with that of the wicked and unrighteous one? The call is equally to all: “Let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon”.
Firstly, are there any incurable sinners to be found among the children of Adam and in our Christian congregations? The awful fact revealed in the Scriptures cannot be questioned: even in this world, there are some who are left of God to a reprobate mind; the Spirit, in just and jealous displeasure for being long resisted and despised, ceases to strive with them. This dreadful state is found in connection with unbelief and rejection of the gospel. But while it is our duty to take heed to this truth solemnly and earnestly – lest any of us become like Esau, or Cain, or the body of the Jewish nation – we must also consider that, with respect to the mercy of God, with respect to the free offer of that mercy, and with respect to the efficacy of Christ’s blood, there are none in an incurable state.
But it may be said, What is the benefit of declaring this, since many will not receive mercy? It avails much, for it shows that, though God in just sovereignty may withhold those influences which would make comfort valued, there is comfort for all who value gospel comfort. Do you feel yourself a guilty sinner in need of the mercy of God? Do you feel yourself a naked sinner in need of the righteousness of Christ? This very feeling shows that you are within the reach of mercy; indeed, that mercy waits to greet you and to receive you.
Secondly, Are there any whom God cannot find it in His heart to pardon? No, God delights to pardon. In God there is no disposition to punish any sinner for the sake of doing so. There may be such a disposition in earthly princes, but it would be blasphemy to assert this of Him who “so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. God does not rejoice in the sufferings of any of His creatures.
There is indeed one dreadful passage of His Word which we must not forget or pass over: “It shall come to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought” (Deut 28:63). And again, “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all My counsel, and would none of My reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh. . . . Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me” (Prov 1:24-26,28).
But while these words may show the impenitent what they may expect if they continue their impenitence, they do not show that God rejoices in the sufferings of the greatest sinner on account of the sufferings themselves. He may indeed rejoice in manifesting His justice and the dreadfulness of His wrath, when mercy has been insulted and despised; but He does not rejoice in the misery of any sinner. He does not will that any should perish. “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” Again, the call to every sinner is, “Repent, and be converted”; “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish”. God knows exactly the various states of each one of us; He knows our past state, and what it shall be in the future; and He foreknows whether there are any in this assembly to whom impenitence will finally prove their destruction. But the call to repentance clears God of the charge of desiring their destruction; and if they perish, the blame will rest with their own impenitence, and not with God’s will.
As these two exceptions have no place in the gospel proclamation of pardon, so the third exception which we spoke of as applying to the proclamations of an earthly prince also does not apply. It cannot be unsafe for the ends of justice that the God of grace should pardon even the worst criminal in His dominions; therefore there is no reservation of this kind in His gospel
message. It cannot be unsafe for the ends of justice; for justice, in smiting Christ, smote a victim incomparably nobler than any other or than all others. In making its sword red in the royal blood, the blood of the King’s Son, its unbending character was asserted and its claims honoured, more than though at one stroke it had avenged itself on all His rebellious subjects.
And so surely is justice exalted in reference to any sinner that now flees to the covert of Christ’s righteousness that, instead of hiding its head as if dishonoured, it claps its hands and triumphs in his acquittal. Every act of pardon, while it is a special manifestation of grace, is in fact an equally-definite manifestation of justice; for it is a new call to contemplate the honour paid to it by this satisfaction of God’s Son. And just in proportion to the honour paid to it by this satisfaction – above what justice would have received in the punishment of the sinner – is the new honour brought to it by the forgiveness of any particular sinner, above what it would receive from him suffering the penalty. There is a sense therefore in which even justice unites with mercy in calling on the guilty to receive pardon.
And in the way of example to the universe, the acquittal of the guilty is all on the side of holiness and against sin. There is no such thing in God’s dominions as a pardoned rebel who is still a rebel at heart. If the spectacle could be exhibited of a criminal secured by the word and oath of God from punishment, and yet continuing in his rebellion, or of one who was made more secure in sin by having his sins pardoned, then indeed we might say, Let us continue in sin, for grace abounds. But such a character is a fiction; it is not to be found among God’s redeemed and pardoned ones.
God’s pardon is not a cold, dry, barren document, merely conveying the words of pardon, but leaving the heart where it found it; it is an overwhelming, overpowering pardon, sweeping before it the pride and disloyalty of the sinner, melting his hard heart and making him live to the praise and glory of God. And the measure of the heart’s actings is according to the words, Much has been forgiven, therefore there is much love. In proportion to the sense of guilt and unworthiness is the love and obedience that is returned. In proportion to the amount of debt forgiven is the humiliation and the wonder wrought in the experience of mercy.
Mercy being thus in every way secured in its honourable exercise, the proclamation of pardon issues forth free, full and unfettered; it is carried on the wings of the gospel to every creature under heaven. Though your sins reach up to heaven, here is a mercy which is above them; though they reach down to hell, here is a mercy which extends to the lowest hell. However great your guilt is, whether you are old or young in sin, whether you are a cold formalist or an openly-profane person, whether you are a professor or
an open despiser, though you have sinned against light, privileges and opportunities, the call is to you: “Return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy”.
We shall now conclude with some application in order to bring the important doctrine of the text to our hearts and consciences.
- What a view this gives of the character of God! His heart is all graciousness, mercy gushing out from its inmost depths, leaping over the view of the sinner’s guiltiness. The Father’s heart yearns over His Son; mercy stoops to save those who were like very devils: offering them pardon, receiving them with open arms; pardoning them freely, fully, heartily and unalterably; rejoicing over them to do them good; and at last raising them to be partakers of His own blessedness and glory.
This is the God of the gospel – whom to know, and His Son Jesus Christ, is life eternal. There is no other god than this; and if we worship any other being, we worship an idol, and we must share the doom of idol-worshippers – vanity and confusion and everlasting disappointment. But if we insist that we worship a god, it is a god as vile and polluted as ourselves; and is this a god to trust in? Is this a god who will save us in the great and terrible day of the Lord? There is no other doctrine but this of the free and rich mercy of God that will ever raise a sinner from the pit of a stupefied conscience and from the prison of a guilty conscience, to walk in the light and liberty of a child of God.
- We should take the opportunity to enquire whether we know this God. We would propose the following questions: Have we seen God as so glorious in holiness, and dreadful in His punishment of sin, that we have trembled before Him and have felt ourselves exposed to His wrath, with nothing to cover us? Or do we think lightly of sin and speak lightly of it? Do we, as is said in the Book of Job, hide sin as a sweet morsel under our tongue? If so, we do not yet know the God of the gospel.
Do we see God to be the just and blessed One, even when His law condemns us? Or do we count Him a hard and austere master because He will not come down from His throne to where the bright flame which surrounds Him may not consume us? Do we find it hard to believe that it is the very same God who punishes sin eternally, who is also infinite in mercy? Every one who knows God savingly knows Him thus. If we think we have believed, does our faith make us look with less reverence on God? Does it make us less afraid of sin, and less cautious of its approach? Does it lead us to forget the precept, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling?” If so, we have yet to be made acquainted with the God of the gospel.
- This subject speaks comfort to all who feel they are poor and guilty sinners. We would say to such a person: Though your sins were those which
drowned the old world, though they were those which drew fire and brimstone from heaven upon Sodom, yet “return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon [you]”. Does the holy, violated law make you afraid? Flee to the covert of Christ’s blood, and there see the law magnified and made honourable; and the law will rejoice that you have escaped its inflictions. Is your conscience burdened with guilt which neither your groans nor prayers nor duties can wipe away? Flee to Christ’s blood, and your conscience shall be wiped as clean as if it had never recorded any sin.
Have you been guilty of all kinds of sin? of unbelief, of blasphemy, of profaneness, of wickedness toward your neighbours? And knowing what one sin deserves, do sins unnumbered weigh you down? See Christ bearing the sins of a world, and is He not able to bear yours? Do you fear that God is not willing to receive you; and do you feel as if His glory required you to be punished? See Him wounding His own Son, and continuing to smite until the Sufferer said, “It is finished”. And having borne Him through all this, does His mercy fail; does His grace fail now?
- What a vivid and intense light does this subject throw on the justice of God in the punishment of those who are finally impenitent! Having refused His mercy, they shall endure His wrath while He lives. Bear with me, my friends, while I address a few words to you solemnly. We speak to all unregenerate persons. You are exposed to the wrath of God, and no one can know the dreadfulness of that wrath but those who have experienced it; and you have no assurance that it may not gush out upon you at the next moment. It is said, “If they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” And if God’s justice spared not His own Son when He stood for sins not His own, shall it spare you when you bear the guilt of unnumbered sins of your own contracting?
But there is hope for you: “Return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon [you]”. And this mercy will be as free to you as the daily bread of His providence, or as the air you breathe. If you felt the burden of unpardoned sin and heard the invitation as coming from God Himself, it would make your heart leap for joy! The call to repentance includes a promise of justification, sanctification and every blessing that you need. But if you leave this place indifferent and unconcerned after hearing this warning, you will be taking the direct road to ruin your souls. We entreat you then – feebly indeed for so important a subject. But we entreat you earnestly and tenderly, by the worth of your immortal souls – for they are very precious. We entreat you by the nothingness of this passing world, by the sufferings of Christ upon the cross, by the sweetness of communion with God, by the delusions and infidelity of a world lying in wickedness and hastening to destruction, by the
near approach of that day when many shall curse the day of their birth because they rejected the only Saviour – we entreat you to open up your ears and your hearts to the call of mercy.