Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 779
Delivered on Lord’s-day Morning, NOVEMBER 3, 1867, by, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
“Yes, you heard not; yes, you knew not; yes, from that time that your ear was not opened: for I knew that you would deal very treacherously, and were called a transgressor from the womb.”- Isaiah 48:8.
THE ancient people of God were most annoyingly emotionless, and although the Lord taught them very plainly and repeatedly, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, yet they would not understand His will. More especially, in order to convince them that Jehovah was the only true God and that the gods of the heathen were not gods, He was pleased to send them Prophets to foretell things to come. And when those events transpired which had been so plainly predicted, one would have thought that ordinary sense and reason would have led them to adore the God who thus proved His existence and His foreknowledge. But even this powerful proof did not convince them! They still paid more respect to the gods of the heathen than to the one and only living God, and their souls hankered after the idols of the nations.
The Lord rebukes them for this folly in the verse before us. “Yes, you heard not,” though I spoke so plainly that the deaf might hear, yet you would not listen to My voice. Though taught by God-sent Prophets, yet the people refused to be instructed. “Yes, you knew not,” though your own internal consciousness might have taught it to you, apart from any voice, yet you would neither learn from without nor consider within. Nothing can exceed the obstinate stupidity of the unrenewed heart. It will not learn, let the teaching come as it may. “From that time that your ear was not opened,” for your ear had become as though sealed up, impervious to sound. Your heart had become so vile with iniquity as to be incapable of feeling. And this was not because the Jewish people were foolish or naturally devoid of intelligence, for, as we all know, to this very day there is no sharper generation under Heaven than the sons of Judah.
And yet, in the days of Isaiah and until the captivity they proved themselves to be most arrant fools in that they still went after the idols which had brought them no blessing, and forsook the Lord who alone could benefit them. As in a looking glass, let us see ourselves! Let the unconverted man see his own picture! God has spoken quite as pointedly to you as ever He did to the seed of Israel. He has called you by Providences of different kinds. His mercies have wooed you to the worship of a generous God. Afflictions have called you to kiss the hand that smote you and to turn unto the Lord who smites us out of mercy to our souls.
Providence has spoken to you with many tongues, with singular patience and persevering tenderness. As for the Bible, which is open before you and in all your houses, has it not often addressed you with a voice most clear and simple, “Turn you, turn you! Why will you die?” There is not a lack of express texts of Scripture to assure you that the way of sin is not the path of peace, and that only the path of obedient repentance and trust in the Lord Jesus can lead you to happiness here and hereafter. You have, some of you, been called by the admonitions of affectionate and godly parents, who, perhaps from the skies are beckoning you this morning in spirit to follow them to Paradise. You were further invited to the path of holiness by loving friends in Sunday school—the recollections of whose earnest warnings have not quite faded from the tablets of your memory.
Frequently the voice of God’s minister has bid you to come to Jesus from the pulpit. And Conscience, a nearer pleader still, if you would but hear his voice, has often echoed the voice of God setting its seal to the testimony of God’s Word, bidding you turn from your evil ways and acquaint yourself with God that you might be at peace. And yet up till now it may be said of many of you, “Yes, you heard not; yes, you knew not; yes, from that time that your ear was not opened.”
As yet the plow has been driven upon a rock which has not felt its power. The bread has been cast upon the water and after many days there is no return. Three times a “yes” is put in our text, as if to show God’s wonder at man’s obstinacy,
and the certainty that such was the state of the heart. It was certainly so. You heard, but it went in one ear and out the other! You heard and heard not—you heard as sticks and stones might hear—or as cold, insensible steel. You knew not though the knowledge was before your eyes and you might have known it. You are, I fear, many of you, among the blind people that have eyes and the deaf people who have ears who refuse to use their eyes and fast close their ears through willful ignorance. You know not what you might have known. The very birds of the air know their time, and the fishes of the sea obey the laws of the world’s great Governor—but ungodly men are more stupid and foolish than irrational creatures! The net is spread before us and yet we fly into it! The lure is laid before our very eyes and yet we willfully are ensnared!