Isaiah 26:13

DISCOURSE: 895
HUMILIATION WITH ZEAL

Isaiah 26:13. O Lord our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.

MANY devout songs are composed in Scripture for the use of God’s Church and people in the latter day. But, amidst their praises for mercies vouchsafed unto them, care is taken to keep up in their minds a remembrance of their former sins, and a sense of those duties which they owe to their heavenly Benefactor. On a review of the past, they are taught to acknowledge the evil of their ways; and in a prospect of the future, to consecrate themselves, with all due solemnity, to the service of their God. Now, at this season [Note: New Year’s Day.], I cannot do better than recommend to your adoption,

I. Their retrospective acknowledgment—

It is probable, that, in the words before us, respect is had to the civil bondage to which that nation had again and again been reduced on account of their iniquities [Note: 2 Chronicles 28:5; Nehemiah 9:36.] — — — But, considering for what period the song is prepared, we cannot doubt but that there is a reference also to the moral bondage in which they have been held by their corruptions. And in this sense, the acknowledgment well becomes us at this day; since we are told by an inspired Apostle, that “to whomsoever we yield ourselves servants to obey, his servants we are to whom we obey [Note: Romans 6:16.].” And what has been our conduct through life?

The greater part of us have “served only our own lusts and pleasures [Note: Titus 3:3.]”—

[Look at all around you: or, rather, look within your own bosoms; and say, to whom have your lives been devoted, to God, or Mammon? — — — Verily, there is but too much reason to confess, that “God has not been in all our thoughts [Note: Psalms 10:4.]” — — —]

Of those who have had some respect to God, still must this acknowledgment be required—

[”Other lords besides God, have had dominion over you. The lip and the knee perhaps you have devoted to Jehovah in the observance of outward duties, both in the public assemblies of the Church, and in your own closets; but where has been the heart [Note: Isaiah 29:13.]? You “have had the form of godliness perhaps, but where has been the power [Note: 2 Timothy 3:5.]? Call to mind your prayers and your praises, how cold have they been! Have they not even frozen, as it were, upon your very lips? On the other hand, see with what ardour and delight you have followed your earthly pursuits, whether intellectual or corporeal, and whether for pleasure or honour or emolument — — — But God says, “Give ME thine heart;” and in the want of this, all the services you have rendered him are no better than “the cutting off a dog’s neck for sacrifice, or the offering of swine’s blood [Note: Isaiah 66:3.]” — — —]

Whilst I recommend the deepest humiliation before God in the review of your past lives, I cannot but urge for your adoption what is here suggested for,

II.

Their prospective determination—

The Israelites were forbidden to make mention of the name of any of the gods which were worshipped in the land of Canaan [Note: Exodus 23:13.Joshua 23:7.]. By them no other name than that of Jehovah was to be uttered; because He, and he alone, was God. Hence “the making mention of his name was equivalent to an acknowledgment of him as the only true God, and was therefore considered as a just description of his peculiar people [Note: Isaiah 62:6.]. But this must be done in sincerity and truth; else it would be regarded only as an act of hypocrisy and profaneness [Note: Isaiah 48:1.]. It must comprehend all that attachment which is due to the supreme God, who is the only proper object of fear, or love, or confidence — — —

Now, then, I recommend this to you,

1. As your duty—

[Who else is entitled to any of these regards, except in entire subordination and subserviency to Him? — — —]

2. As your interest—

[Who can so recompense your services, or so avenge the want of them? — — —]

3. As your happiness—

[Ask the most successful votaries of this world what they have ever gained? Ask them what solid satisfaction they have ever found in all that the world could give them? Then ask the servants of the living God, whether they have not found his service to be perfect freedom, and “his ways to be ways of pleasantness and peace?” As to the eternal world, it is almost superfluous for me to speak: for there are none so ignorant as not to know, that the pleasures of sense all “perish with the using,” and that those only who seek their happiness in God can ever enjoy “the pleasures which are at his right hand for evermore” — — — I therefore confidently say to all of you without exception, Let this be the determination of you all, that henceforth you will make no mention of any name in a way of fear, or love, or confidence, but “the name of Jehovah only.”]
Thus far I have spoken to you as men only. But what shall I say to you as Christians?

[Tell me, whether, as “bought with the precious blood of Christ,” you have any duty, any interest, any happiness, worthy of a moment’s consideration, in comparison of his service, his honour, his glory [Note: 1 Corinthians 6:20.]? — — —]

Let me, in conclusion, submit to your consideration the following questions—
1.

Who amongst you does not need to make this retrospective acknowledgment? — — —

2. What will the acknowledgment avail you, if you do not make, and carry into effect, the prospective determination? — — —

3. To what purpose will it be to begin well, if you ever “become weary in well-doing [Note: Galatians 6:9.]?”

[You must maintain “a patient continuance in well-doing, if ever you would attain eternal life [Note: Romans 2:7.].” If ever you draw back, whatever your attainments for a season may have been, “you will draw back unto perdition:” for “God’s soul can have no pleasure in you [Note: Hebrews 10:38.]” — — —]

I must not, however, dismiss you without one most important and necessary caution—

[The resolution which I have recommended must not be made in your own strength, but entirely in dependence upon God. This is very particularly intimated in my text: “By thee only will we make mention of thy name.” In the very words before the text is it said, “Thou hast wrought all our works in us.” Yes, “our sufficiency is of God alone [Note: 2 Corinthians 3:5.].” The Apostle Paul himself was constrained to say, “By the grace of God I am what I am [Note: 1 Corinthians 15:10.]:” and if any of you confide for one moment in your own strength, you will fall [Note: Proverbs 28:26.]. On the other hand, if you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are assured, in this very Song, that your “strength shall be according to your day [Note: Compare ver. 3, 4. with Jude. ver. 24.].” “Be strong, then, in the Lord, and in the power of his might [Note: Ephesians 6:10.]:” and then let the Psalmist’s resolution be yours, and his song be yours; “My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of the Lord God: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only [Note: Psalms 71:15.].”]