Isaiah 1:18

Isaiah 1:18

What are a few of the leading lines of God's instruction to the soul?

I. He teaches through conscience. Conscience is a "necessary idea." Nothing is so certain as that; from east to west, from north and south, comes testimony to that fact. The poems of Homer, the awful hints and warnings of the tragic poets of Greece, the religious teachings of the farthest East, the ethical form of the strong Egyptian faith in immortality, all combine to record the existence of this "necessary idea." Let each of us obey the invitation by keeping an ear ready for the warnings of conscience; let us lose no time. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord."

II. The soul is instructed by the providence of God. The Bible, from beginning to end, is ever exhibiting this blessed truth. The beautiful stories of the earlier patriarchs, the incidental episodes (such as that sweet picture of dutiful devotion in the Book of Ruth), the proclamations of the Prophets, the tender verses of the Psalms, as well as the whole history of the chosen people, conspire to witness to the consoling fact that "the Lord careth for His people." To learn, with ready mind, the lessons of Divine providence is to listen to the Divine invitation, "Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord." Among His many lessons, surely there are two that He would teach us: (1) the blessing of a bright and patient spirit in those who are trying to serve God; (2) seek earnestly God's guidance in all times of difficulty, and confidently trust in Him.

III. God instructs the soul of the creature by the revelation of Jesus Christ. What does Jesus Christ teach? (1) In His example, as exhibited in the Gospel, He shows us a righteousness so transcendent that it corroborates the teachings of conscience, a course of action of such unvarying tenderness that it illustrates and manifests the providence of God. (2) He gives the most vivid, the most appalling, revelation of human sin; but with it, what conscience could never do of the most loving, most complete forgiveness to the penitent, and the brightest hope (after sorrow) as to human destiny, in the tragedy the love-marked tragedy of the Passion. (3) And beyond that, He displays to us a prospect and a power of attainment to the heights of spiritual longing, by revealing the method and confirming the promise of the implanting of His own life, of His own image, ever more and more fully in the soul of His creature, which is the daily, hourly work of God's blessed Spirit in those who diligently seek Him.

W. J. Knox-Little, Manchester Sermons,p. 1.

I. God, having made this proposition, proceeds on the assumption that He knows Himself to be right in this case.

II. God proceeds on the assumption that man ought to be prepared to vindicate his conduct by reasons.

III. The sinner is invited to take his case to the fountain-head. It is God who invites us to state the case directly to Himself.

IV. From a proposition of this kind, what can I infer but that God's purpose is, in making it, to mingle mercy with judgment?

V. The sinner is left absolutely without excuse.

Parker, City Temple,vol. iii., p. 49.

References: Isaiah 1:18. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. vii., No. 366, and vol. xxii., No. 1278; Ibid., My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi,p. 213; J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,1874, p. 33; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 117; S. Cox, Expositions,3rd series, p. 427; R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons,vol. ii., p. 193.Isaiah 1:22. H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xx., p. 228. Isaiah 1:31. Preacher's Monthly,vol. v., p. 207.