Isaías 40:9

DISCOURSE: 922
THE MESSIAH’S ADVENT

Isaías 40:9. Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God.

THE Gospel with all its sublime mysteries is regarded by the generality with coldness and indifference; whereas the most indistinct prospects of it were sufficient to fill the patriarchs and prophets with holy rapture. It was a view of its Divine Author which drew forth from the prophet this animated exhortation. He saw Jesus as it were already incarnate, and called upon the daughters of Zion and Jerusalem to proclaim and celebrate his advent [Note: It should be read as in the margin, “O daughter, that bringest good tidings to Zion,” &c. It was customary for women to celebrate the praises of God in public on remarkable occasions. See Êxodo 15:20, and 1 Samuel 18:6.]. That, which he proposed to them as the subject of their song, is the one great subject also of our ministrations. To call your attention unto Jesus, to set him forth as crucified before your eyes, and, with an exalted voice, to cry, Behold your God! this is our commission. But before we proceed to execute it, we shall,

I. Shew what is implied in this commission—

We cannot fail to observe, what the prophet so strongly intimates,

1. That Christ is God—

[This is a fundamental article of our fuith. The Godhead of Christ is that which stamps a value on his sufferings, and renders the whole of his undertaking so meritorious and efficient. It would be to little purpose to say with Pilate, “Behold the man,” if we could not also add with the prophet, “Behold your God.” But we are not left to doubt of this important truth: it is clearly established in almost every page of the sacred volume: we need go no further than to the writings of Isaiah; and we shall find it expressly asserted, that the person who was to be “a Child born, and a Son given to us,” was the mighty god. [Note: Isaías 9:6.] He was therefore to be called Emmanuel, because he was God with us [Note: Isaías 7:14. with Mateus 1:23.]. In the very chapter before us, his forerunner, John the Baptist, was commissioned to cry, Prepare ye the way of the Lord (Jehovah) make straight in the desert an high-way for our God. [Note: ver. 3.] But we need not multiply words on this subject, since the voice of inspiration universally proclaims him to have been, “God manifest in the flesh,” “God over all, blessed for ever [Note: 1 Timóteo 3:16; Romanos 9:5.].”

2. That the knowledge of Christ is of universal importance—

[It was through all “the cities of Judah,” and with her “voice lifted up with strength,” that the daughter of Zion was to celebrate the Messiah’s advent. And whence the need of such zeal and labour, but on account of the universal importance of those glad tidings? Indeed there is no other thing which men so much need to be acquainted with as the work and offices of Christ. No attainments can save them, if they be ignorant of Christ; nor can any past sins condemn them, if they be truly acquainted with this divine Saviour. “This,” as our Lord himself tells us, “is life eternal, to know God as the only true God, and Jesus Christ [Note: João 17:3.],” as our Mediator and Advocate with the Father. So excellent is this knowledge, that St. Paul “counted all things but loss and dung in comparison of it [Note: Filipenses 3:8.].” It is the one mean of obtaining reconciliation with God, peace of conscience, and deliverance from the power of sin [Note: 1 João 1:7.]. O that all were aware how deeply they are interested in receiving these glad tidings! We should proclaim them with infinitely greater pleasure, if we had not so much reason to complain, that “they are counted as a strange thing [Note: Oséias 8:12.].”]

Taking for granted these fundamental and indisputable truths, we shall,

II.

Endeavour to execute the commission—

The text does not limit us to any particular point of view in which we are to behold our God; we shall therefore direct your attention to him,

1. As descending from heaven—

[Lo! he comes from his bright abodes: but in what form does he appear? Does he descend in solemn pomp, attended with myriads of the heavenly host? Does he visit the palaces of the great, and assume our nature in its most dignified appearance? No: He is born of an obscure virgin, and has no better place for his reception than a stable. Go, look into his mean abode; see him wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and lying in a manger; look, I say, and behold your God! What marvellous condescension! how does it almost exceed belief, yet, incredible as it appears, we must again say, Behold your God!]

2. As sojourning on earth—

[Surely, no sooner could his incarnation be known, than all the world, like the eastern Magi, must flock to worship him [Note: Mateus 2:11.]. So one might reasonably hope; but what is that “weeping and lamentation” that we hear? The young child’s life is sought. The children from two years old and under are massacred through the whole district, that no possibility may be left for his escape: and He is saved only by the special interposition of his heavenly Father [Note: Mateus 2:16.]. See his parents fleeing with him by night to a distant, a heathen, land, not daring to return to their native country till the death of their blood-thirsty persecutor! But this was only the beginning of sorrows. View him afterwards when he assumed his proper office as the Prophet of his church: no sooner did he open his commission, than the short-lived applause afforded him was turned into the most cruel indignation; and if he had not by an exertion of his own almighty power effected his escape, his very first sermon had proved his last [Note: Lucas 4:28.]. But to pass over to the period of his death. Whom is it that we see prostrate on the ground, and bathed in a bloody sweat? Who is it that those cruel soldiers are mocking, buffeting, scourging? Who is it that is nailed to yonder cross, and that we see expiring under such an accumulated weight of shame and misery? To all this we answer, Behold your god!]

3. As exalted to glory—

[Hitherto we have witnessed nothing but his humiliation; but the shame of his cross was quickly rolled away. In vain were the stone, the seal, the watch: he burst the bands of death, and rose triumphant. Henceforth we are to view him ascending amidst myriads of exulting angels, sitting on the throne of his glory, dispensing blessings to the church below, and receiving the adorations of his church above. Sinner, lift up thine eyes to heaven, and behold thy once crucified, but now exalted, Redeemer! Now he shines forth in all his glory, and says to thee, even to thee, “Behold me, behold me [Note: Isaías 65:1.]!” O that every eye might see him, and that all, who have pierced him by their sins, might mourn and be in bitterness, as one that mourneth for his first-born son [Note: Zacarias 12:10.]! Soon indeed all shall see him: the time is shortly coming, when he will descend from heaven again, not however to stand, as before, like a criminal at man’s tribunal, but to execute judgment on the assembled universe; and then happy shall they be who have behold him here with suitable affection; they shall behold his face with inexpressible delight; and be the spectators of his glory, and the partners of his throne, to all eternity.]

Address—
1.

The careless—

[Know you what the sins, which you commit so lightly, have occasioned? Go to Calvary and behold your God; and then judge whether sin be so light and venial a matter as you are ready to imagine! The Jews and Romans were the immediate actors in that bloody tragedy; but your sins, and the sins of an ungodly world, were the real occasion of all that your God endured; and, while you continue in your sins, you “crucify him afresh, and put him to an open shame.” Ah! did David cast away the water, for which the lives of three men had been endangered, and will not you cast away the sins which have actually shed the blood of God [Note: 2 Samuel 23:16. with Atos 20:28.]? Let this thought induce you to put away the polluted cup from your lips; and and let “the love of Christ constrain you to live unto him who died for you and rose again.”]

2. The heavy-laden—

[To you especially the Saviour cries, “Look unto me, and be ye saved! “Come unto me, and find rest unto your souls!” Consider well, who it is that thus invites you; it is your Saviour, and your God; there can be no want of efficacy in his blood, or of power in his arm: he is a strong rock, a sure foundation, an all-sufficient help. Trust then in him; and, as a sight of the brazen serpent healed the dying Israelites, so shall a view of your divine Saviour prove an effectual remedy for all your wants. You shall soon, like Thomas, exclaim with holy rapture, “My Lord and my God!” or, in the language long since dictated to you by the spirit of prophecy, “Lo, this is Our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him: we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation [Note: Isaías 25:9.]!”]