xxviii. 12. _To whom He said, This is the rest wherewith ye
may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing:
yet they would not hear._
Isaiah was one of the most eloquent of preachers, yet he could not
win the ears and hearts of those to whom he spoke. He spoke more of
Jesus Christ than all the rest of the prophets, yet the message of
love was treated as though it were an idle tale. His doctrine was
clear as the daylight, yet men would not see it (chap. liii. 1). It
was not the fault of the preacher that Israel rejected his warnings:
all the fault lay with the disobedient and gainsaying nation. The
people to whom he spoke so earnestly were drunken in a double sense:--
1. They were overcome with wine (vers. 7, 8). How is it likely that
the truth shall enter an ear which has been rendered deaf by this
degrading vice? How is the Word of God likely to operate upon a
conscience that has been drenched and drowned by strong drink? Flee
from this destroyer before your hands are made strong and you are
hopelessly fettered by the habit.
2. They were also intoxicated with pride. Their country was fruitful,
and its chief city, Samaria, stood on the hill-top, like a diadem of
beauty crowning the land, and they delighted in it. Among them were
many champions whose strength sufficed to turn the battle to the
gate, therefore they hoped to resist every invader, and so their
hearts were lifted up. Moreover, they said, "We are an intelligent
people; we are men of cultured intellect, instructed scribes, and we
do not need persons like Isaiah to weary us with the ding-dong of
'precept upon precept, line upon line,' as if we were mere children
at school. Besides, we are good enough. Do we not worship our God
under the form of the golden calves in Dan and Bethel? Do we not
respect the sacrifice and the holy days?" So spoke the more religious
of them, while the rest gloried in their shame. Being intoxicated
with pride, it was not likely that they would hear the message of the
prophet who made them turn from their evil ways. Pride is the devil's
drag-net, in which he taketh more fishes than in any other, except
procrastination.
The two forms of drunkenness are equally destructive. Whether body or
soul be intoxicated, mischief will surely come of it. Let us not get
drunk with pride because we are not drunkards; for if we are so vain
and foolish, we shall as certainly perish by pride as we should have
done by drink.
I. THE EXCELLENCE OF THE GOSPEL as it is set forth in the passage
before us. This Scripture does not allude to the Gospel primarily,
but to the message which Isaiah had to deliver, which was in part the
command of the law and in part the promise of grace: but the same
rule holds good of all the words of the Lord; and indeed any
excellence which was found in the prophet's message is found yet more
abundantly in the fuller testimony of the Gospel in Christ Jesus.
+1. The excellence of that Gospel lies, first in its object.+ For
(1.) _It is a revelation of rest._ Christ's ambassadors are sent to
proclaim to you that which shall give you ease, peace, quiet, rest.
It is true that we have to begin with certain truths that disturb and
distress; but our object is to dig out the foundation into which may
be laid the stones of restfulness. The object of the Gospel is not to
make men anxious, but to calm their anxieties; not to fill them with
endless controversy, but to lead them into all truth. The Gospel
gives rest of conscience, by the complete forgiveness of sin through
the atoning blood of Christ; rest of heart, by supplying an object
for the affections worthy of their love; and rest of intellect, by
teaching it certainties which can be accepted without question. Our
message does not consist of things guessed at by wit, nor evolved out
of men's inner consciousness by study, not developed by argument
through human reason; but it treats of revealed certainties,
absolutely and infallibly true, upon which the understanding may rest
itself as thoroughly as a building rests upon a foundation of rock.
The Word of the Lord comes to give believing men rest about the
present by telling them that God ordereth all things for their good;
and as for the future, it brightens all coming time and eternity with
promises. The man who will hear the Gospel message, and receive it
into his soul, shall know the peace of God, which passeth all
understanding, and shall keep his heart and mind by Jesus Christ.
(2.) _It is the cause of rest._ "This is the rest wherewith ye may
_cause_ the weary to rest." The Gospel of our salvation is not only a
command to rest, but it brings the gift of rest within itself. Let
the Gospel be admitted into the heart, and it will create a profound
calm, hushing all the tumult and strife of conscience, removing all
apprehensions of Divine wrath, stilling all rebellion against the
supreme Will, and so working in the spirit by the energy of the Holy
Ghost a deep and blessed peace.
(3.) _This rest is especially meant for the weary._ "This is the rest
wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest." Oh, ye that are weary with
the round of worldly pleasure, worn with ambition, fretted with
disappointment, embittered by the faithlessness of those you trusted
in, come and confide in Jesus and be at rest. Here is the rest, here
is the refreshing. Jesus expressly puts it: "Come unto me, all ye
that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
Despondent and despairing, condemned, and in your conscience cast out
to the gates of hell, yet look to Jesus and rest shall be yours.
(4.) In addition to bringing us rest, _the message of mercy points to
a refreshing._ "This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to
rest; and this is the refreshing." If the rested one should grow
weary again, the Good Shepherd will give him refreshing; if he
wanders, the Lord will restore him; yea, He has begun His gracious
work of renewing, and He will continue it by renewing the heart from
day to day, blending the will with His own, and making the whole man
more and more to rejoice in Him.
Now, note with peculiar joy that Isaiah did not come to these people
to talk about rest in dubious terms, and say, "There is no doubt a
rest to be found somewhere in that goodness of God of which it is
reasonable to conjecture." No; he puts his finger right down on the
truth, and he says, "_This is_ the rest, and _this is_ the
refreshing." Even so we at this day, when we come to you with a
message from God, come _with definite teaching;_ we proclaim in the
name of God that whosoever believeth in Christ Jesus hath everlasting
life: this is the rest, and this is the refreshing.
_Nor did he preach a rest of a selfish character._ They say we teach
men to get peace and rest for themselves, and make themselves
comfortable, whatever becomes of others. They know better, and they
forge these falsehoods because their heart is false. Are we not
always bidding men look out from themselves, and love others even as
Christ has loved them? We abhor the idea that personal safety is the
consummation of a religious man's desires, for we believe that the
life of grace is the death of selfishness. This is one of the glories
of the Gospel, that "this is the rest wherewith ye may cause the
weary to rest." Get rest yourself, and you will soon cause other
weary minds to rest. That secret something which your own heart
possesses shall enable you to communicate good cheer to many a weary
heart, and hope to many a desponding mind.
+2. The other excellence of the Gospel of which I shall speak at this
time lies in its manner.+
(1.) _It comes with authority._ The Gospel does not pretend to be a
speculative scheme or a theory of philosophy which will suit the
nineteenth century, but will be exploded in the twentieth. No; it
comes to men as a message from God, and he that speaks it aright does
not speak it as a thinker uttering his own thoughts; but he utters
what he has learned, and acts as God's tongue, repeating what he
finds in God's Word by the power of God's Spirit.
(2.) _It was delivered with great simplicity._ Isaiah came with it
"precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a
little." It is the glory of the Gospel that is so plain. If it were
so profound that we must take a degree at a university before we
could comprehend it, what a miserable Gospel it would be for mocking
the world with! But it is Divinely sublime in its simplicity, and
hence the common people hear it gladly. As the verse seems to imply,
it is fitted for those who are weaned from the breast; those who are
little more than babes may yet drink in this unadulterated milk of
the Word. Many a little child has comprehended the salvation of Jesus
Christ sufficiently to rejoice in it. I bless God for a simple
Gospel, for it suits me, and thousands of others whose minds cannot
boast of greatness or genius. It equally suits men of intellect, and
it is only quarrelled with by pretenders. A man who really has a
capacious mind is usually childlike, and, like Sir Isaac Newton, is
glad to sit at Jesus' feet. Great minds love the simple Gospel of
God, for they find rest in it from all the worry and the weariness of
questions and of doubts.
(3.) _It is taught us by degrees._ It is not forced home upon men's
minds all at once, but it comes "precept upon precept, line upon
line, here a little and there a little." God does not flash the
everlasting daylight on weak eyes in one blaze of glory, but there is
at first a dim dawn, and the soft incoming of a tender light for
tender eyes, and so by degrees we see.
(4.) _The Gospel is repeated._ If we do see it at once, it comes
again to us, for it is "precept upon precept, line upon line, here a
little and there a little." From morning to morning, from Sunday to
Sunday, book after book, by text after text, by spiritual impression
after spiritual impression, the Divine gentleness makes us wise unto
salvation.
(5.) _It is brought home to us in ways suitable to our capacity._ It
is told to us, as it were, with stammering lips (see ver. 11), just
as mothers teach their little children in a language all their own.
In much of the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, God
condescends to lay aside His own speech and talk the language of men.
He bows to us and tells us His mind in types and ordinances, which
are a sort of child-language fitted to our capacity. If you do not
understand the Word of God, it is not because He does not put it
plainly, but because of the blindness of your heart and the besotted
condition of your spirit. Take heed that you are not drunken with the
wine of pride, but be willing to learn; for God Himself hath not
darkened counsel by mysterious words, but He has put His mind before
you as plainly as the sun in the heavens. "Precept upon precept, line
upon line, here a little and there a little."