xxxii. 13-15. _Upon the land of my people, &c._
This chapter commences with a prophecy of the appearance and the
kingdom of Christ. But instead of finishing the painting of that
beautiful scene, with what might be anticipated as the effect of this
appearance, Isaiah proceeds, in our text, to paint a scene of great
desolation and barrenness. So, when our Saviour came, the effect of
His appearance was by no means such as might have been expected;
after gathering a few out of the Jewish nation and thus planting the
first Christian Church, He retired from the nation, on account of its
impenitence and unbelief; and the land is still abandoned to
desolation and barrenness. That barrenness, and the spiritual
barrenness and blindness of that despised people, will continue until
the arrival of the important event predicted in the last verse.
Though the immediate bearing of these words is upon the state and
prospects of the Jewish people, yet they may be considered as
assigning the reason why the nations of the earth continue in so
wretched a state, with respect to things spiritual and Divine, as
they now exhibit; and as directing our expectations, and regulating
our confidence, respecting the final termination of this state of
things. The momentous truth taught in this passage is, that _the
ultimate success of missions depends upon the communication of the
Spirit._
That the Spirit of God is afforded at present to the Church is
evident from its existence; for, since the Church is entirely a
spiritual structure, raised and preserved by that Divine Spirit, if
it had been utterly withdrawn the Church would have been annihilated.
But the especial time here announced has not yet arrived; the Spirit
is not "poured from on high" in that plenitude and variety of gifts
which may reasonably be expected.
I. That the success of missions depends on the outpouring of the
Spirit of God, appears to be manifest, 1. From the Scriptures
(_text:_ chap. xli. 19, 20; Zech. iv. 6, xii. 10; Joel ii. 28-32,
with Acts ii. 16-18; Ezek. xxxix. 29). 2. From the record concerning
the Great Captain of our salvation, He did not enter upon His work
until He was anointed by the Spirit of God (Luke iv. 18, 19). 3. From
the experience of the apostles. Until the effusion of the Spirit from
on high, on the day of Pentecost, they were not qualified for their
work in the nations to which they were sent. 4. From the testimony of
the apostles. All their successes they attributed to a Divine agency
(Acts xi. 21, xiv. 27, xvi. 14; 1 Cor. iii. 5-7, &c.). 5. From the
testimony of those who have had the greatest success in preaching the
Gospel in heathen as well as in Christian lands.[1] 6. From the
records of their most eminent successes.[2] 7. From the nature of the
work to be accomplished. Considering the state of men, it is
impossible to suppose that anything less than a Divine power can
change the heart.[3]
II. There are two reasons why we are in danger of forgetting our
dependence on the Spirit of God. 1. We cannot arrange the time and
manner in which the Divine agency will be exerted; and we are called
upon to exert ourselves in much the same way as though there were no
such doctrine existing in our creed, and no such expectation existing
in our minds. Consequently, even while strenuously attending to our
duty, we are very apt to lose sight of that mysterious Divine agency
on which the success of all our efforts must depend, and to direct
our attention exclusively to the apparatus we are setting in motion.
2. This is an invisible power, and is manifest to us only in its
effects; whereas our own actions and plans are objects of distinct
observation. It is one thing to believe that there is an agency of
the Spirit, and quite another thing to have a deep and practical
persuasion of it, and to regulate all our actions and expectations in
dependence on it.
III. Some practical results which should follow from our belief that
the success of missions depends on the agency of the Divine Spirit.
1. In attempting the work of the evangelisation of the heathen, we
ought to renounce all expectations of success founded on our own
strength or resources. 2. In connection with every attempt for the
conversion of the heathen, there should be earnest prayer. In every
period of the world, a spirit of prayer for this great object has
been the precursor of real success. 3. In the manner in which we
prosecute this work, we should be exceedingly careful not to grieve
the Spirit of God. There must be nothing in our conduct or temper
opposed to the simplicity and purity of the Christian dispensation.
Our mission must not be made the instrument of ostentation and
gratification, or of amusing the public by a display of gaudy
eloquence. All rivalry between different societies that has not for
its end the knowledge and service of God, is offensive in His sight.
Let us guard against the least disposition to depreciate or hide in
silence the success of others; which shall lead us to look coolly on
the most splendid acts of missionary labour, unless they emanate from
ourselves, or bring honour to our party. 4. Our dependence for the
men and the means wherewith to carry on this great work, must rest
absolutely and exclusively on God. Whensoever He puts forth the
influence of His Spirit, some of His servants will devote themselves
to the work, and others of them will gladly contribute to it of their
wealth (Isa. lx. 5-7). 5. The doctrine of the text teaches us to
regulate our confidence with respect to the success of every
particular mission, at the same time that it animates that confidence
in regard to the final success of the success itself. 6. If success
in any field of effort does not reward our toil, instead of charging
God with any arbitrarily withholding of the help of His Spirit, let
us examine the instruments wherewith we are endeavouring to effect so
great and important a charge, and see if there be not in them
something unworthy of the enterprise, and keeps back the needed
blessing. 7. However success may seem to delay, let us acquiesce,
without repining, in the dispensations of God; and let us point our
views forward to a future period, that will certainly come, when the
Spirit will be poured out from on high, and when the Redeemer will
take to Him His great power, and reign universally in the hearts of
men.--_Robert Hall: Works,_ vol. vi. pp. 158-180.
As regards the final and universal triumphs of the Gospel, believers
cannot entertain a doubt. Glorious things are spoken of Zion, &c. We
are explicitly assured that the kingdoms of this world shall one day
become the kingdoms of Christ.
But what is to secure this? Our hope hangs on one thing--the promise
of the Spirit. Every past conquest has been the effect of union and
communion with the Comforter; and our own ability for the enterprises
of the future must be derived from the same source. The chapter
begins with a cheering account of the approach of a brighter day
following a season of gloom and depression, which is to be terminated
finally and only by the pouring out of the Spirit from on high. So
always. Large as are our resources, we were never more dependent on
help from heaven than now. Without special Divine aid we can do
nothing.
I. The Spirit of God must be with us, _or we shall not use the right
means for converting the world._ Our work is a vast one, but we are
not left in uncertainty as to the way in which it is to be
accomplished. The Gospel made for man. Sending the knowledge of
Christ abroad through the nations is the appointed method of saving
men. 1. More faith is needed in God's instrumentality. The cause may
seem unequal to the effect, but a Divine unseen agency accompanies
it, and difficulties must pass away. 2. No part of our business to
make experiments for the relief of human woe or guilt; or dig
channels for our compassion other than those in which the Saviour's
flowed. Calvary our sole expedient, &c. 3. We need to keep to the
means by which all this is accomplished without deviation or
faltering. A downward tendency in the best of men, even when engaged
in the holiest of work, which nothing but a constantly exerted
influence from God can effectually counteract. Charters,
subscriptions, pledges will not do it. 4. Must not lay our strength
out on extraneous matter. Our true service only performed while
relying on Divine aid.
II. Unless the Holy Spirit be with us, _we shall never prosecute our
work with proper energy._ An enterprise like ours cannot be expected
to flourish unless it takes fast hold on the hearts and sympathies of
its friends. It is a cause of too much import to be carried on
lukewarmly. One of the main purposes of the Church, her own
self-extension. How shall we get up to this state of feeling, this
standard of action? Never! until we have more of the Spirit of God.
Again, half our strength has to be expended in trying to keep our
enterprise up to the lines already reached. We seem at times to be
merely stationary, and this side by side often with great secular
prosperity. Why this falling off? And that as contrasting with the
success of primitive believers? They seem to have carried with them a
never-failing assurance, that where they planted and watered, God
would give the increase. The Church can never come up to this
standard until the Spirit is more copiously poured upon us from on
high. We are shut up to this single resource.
III. That the Spirit must be given us, _or we shall never see our
efforts crowned with success._ Something in a simple dependence on
Divine help which imparts to our labours a character so earnest and
decided as betokens a favourable result. We work best ourselves when
we feel that God is working in us and by us. Nothing so nerves the
arm and strengthens the heart as confidence in Him. So Luther,
Whitfield, Paul wrought. Nothing else will keep zeal alive in the
Church.
Hence arises 1. _Our encouragement._ Faith in the efficacy of the
Gospel preached under the influence of the Holy Ghost is to be the
mainspring of all our efforts. The Spirit is to take of the things of
Christ and show them to men. We can only be straitened on that side.
2. _Our duty._ All converging to a single point--prayer.--_David
Magie, D.D.: National Preacher,_ vol. xxi. p. 221.
Let it be supposed that the invader and the conqueror have been in
our land. Cultivation has disappeared, impoverishment and neglect
reign over its once fertile and well-cared-for fields. The city,
formerly the centre of life and activity, depopulated and desolated.
Its factories dilapidated, its exchange a ruin, its streets overgrown
with grass. Such was the ruin the prophet saw about to befall his
country. How long would it continue? Until God should pour His Spirit
upon the people, so as to turn them from their iniquities. When the
moral scene changed, the material scene would also. Prosperity would
return. The city would again be populated; the country resume its
beauty and fertility; the wilderness would be a fruitful field, and
the fruitful field be counted for a forest.
It is a picture of the world's moral desolation without the Gospel;
of the time when the power of the Gospel shall be displayed; and of
the happy state of the world in that day of its power. These topics
are presented in the text; the necessity, the certainty, and the
condition of the world's salvation.
I. ITS NECESSITY. It is a fallen world. Scepticism at present
criticises the Christian representation of the moral state of human
nature as too low, while its standard is too high. Whatever may be
said of the latter part of the indictment, the former part must be
denied. The alienation of the human heart from God; its aversion to
His holiness; the depth of its pollution, as evinced in the crimes
and vices which disfigure the face of society, and are too patent to
be refined away. With all the restraining influences around us, we
have enough at our hand to justify the representation that man is
morally fallen and desolated. Add to this the idolatry, with its
attendant cruelty and impurity, prevalent over so large a population
of the human family. And to this the extreme and manifold wickedness
of men in history. The Christian representation of the state of human
nature is fully justified. There is universal sin. There is need of
mercy, change, conversion. Not merely the adoption, by large masses
of men, for various reasons, of new religious names and forms. It is
a personal conversion. Men need the change one by one.
II. ITS CERTAINTY. We should despair of the world's conversion if our
vision were limited to its existing state. We should pronounce it as
hopeless as the attempt to tear up the everlasting mountains from
their roots, or to drive the ocean from its bed. But we are not thus
limited. We are not at liberty thus to limit our vision. In the Word
of God we find it declared that the redeeming dominion of Christ
shall be co-extensive with the globe. Plain statements sometimes,
utterly inexplicable except in this way. Including these in our
vision, we have nothing to do with the difficulties, but only with
the great duty of their destruction.
Include in the vision the words of Christ. His declarations and
commands before leaving the world contemplate the universal diffusion
of His salvation. And we must include His work. The expenditure will
bear some relation to the result. It cost the death of the incarnate
Son of God. That the event is long delayed proves nothing when we
remember how long the world had to wait for His coming.
III. ITS CONDITION. The moral desolation will continue until the
Spirit be poured upon us from on high. The Gospel only saves as the
Spirit makes it efficacious. The human heart and will are opposed to
the entrance of the truth. Not only evidence but influence is
required. It is essentially a spiritual work, and only the Holy
Spirit is equal to it. It is a work in hearts opposed to God, and His
power can alone produce the willingness which is the very essence of
the saving change. Every time we pray for the conversion of sinners
and for the coming of God's kingdom, we practically acknowledge the
necessity of the Spirit's work. The universal necessity is the
necessity of the individual case. The world's conversion is pictured
out in the conversion of every sinner. The power of the Spirit is the
security for the fulfilment of the Word (Joel ii. 28-32; Acts
ii. 17-21; Ezek. xxxvii. 1-14; John iii. 6-8; 1 Cor. ii. 4, 5,
iii. 6, 7).
From the text, then, we may learn two or three lessons relative to
the work of Christ's Church in the world.
1. That all such work should be conducted in humble dependence on the
Holy Spirit. Such dependence does not supersede labour, any more than
the consciousness that the sun and the air and other mysterious
influences of nature are necessary, supersedes the husbandman's
labour.
2. That it should be conducted in a spirit of prayer for the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Whatever God promises to His Church,
it is warranted to ask in prayer. Prayer is the condition, on the
Church's part, on which the promise is suspended. In that wonderful
passage of Ezekiel where the Spirit is promised in His cleansing and
renewing power, the condition is expressly named (Ezek. xxxvi. 37).
While the hundred and twenty disciples were gathered together
praying, the Holy Ghost fell upon them. How often does the great
missionary apostle ask those who have been brought to Christ to pray
for him in his continued work among those who have not.
3. That all Christian effort should be conducted, therefore, in
_expectation_ of the outpouring of the Spirit. Do we not dishonour
Him, when we fail to believe in the Spirit's work as a living
reality--when we do not _expect_ prayerful work for Christ to be
followed by proportionate success! "Until the Spirt be poured upon us
from on high," all is desolation; when the Spirit shall be poured
upon us from on high, all shall be beauty.--_John Rawlinson._