Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1075
“A root out of a dry ground.” Isaiah 53:2.
THE Prophet is speaking of the Messiah. He declares of Him, “He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.” It is marvelous that with such plain prophecies concerning the Messiah the Jews should have made such a fatal mistake in reference to Him. They looked for a temporal prince who would come in splendor, notwithstanding that this and other Scriptures speak of His humiliation in express terms. Every unprejudiced person might have seen from this passage that the Messiah, when He came, was not to be surrounded with pomp but would come as “a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” to be, “despised and rejected of men.”
Yet, though the Truth of God was written as with a sunbeam and the Jewish people were pretty generally acquainted with their own Scriptures so that they had the opportunity of knowing it, yet when the Messiah came unto His own, His own received Him not. And though favored with the clearest prophecies concerning Him, they rejected His claims and cried, “Let Him be crucified!” Does not this teach us that the most plain instruction, earnestly and forcibly delivered, will not be understood by the unregenerate mind? The carnal mind discerns not spiritual things—its eyes are darkened, its ears are heavy. Inspiration itself cannot put a spiritual Truth of God so clearly that men will see it unless their eyes are opened by the Holy Spirit. Vain is the best light to blind men!
Beloved, remember that what was true of the Jews is equally true of the Gentiles. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the simplest thing in the world, but no man truly understands it until he is taught of God. There are preachers who labor after simple words and seek out instructive similitudes by which to make the Gospel clear to every apprehension—but still, of the unregenerate it may be said, “Their foolish heart is darkened.” Sin has brought upon the human race a mental incapacity with regard to spiritual subjects. They rush on in darkness, though the Gospel creates a noonday around them—they grope for the wall like the blind, though the Sun of Righteousness shines with infinite brightness!
Alas, to what has our nature fallen! How is the image of God marred within us! How ardently should we adore the Holy Spirit, that He stoops to us even in this, our blindness, and is pleased to remove the scales and pour light into our souls! Whatever we have rightly discerned has been revealed to us by His teaching, for apart from His illumination we should have been as obstinately unbelieving as the Jews. Dear Hearers, how is it with you? Are you, also, blind? Though living in the Gospel day, it may be you have never seen the Savior with the eyes of faith. Are you blind, also? Oh, if you are, may He who alone can teach you to profit, instruct you in the faith of Jesus and in His light may you see light!
Now, turning to the text itself, you will observe that Isaiah describes our Lord Jesus as growing up like “a tender plant,” a weak branch, a suckling, a sapling, a plant that very readily might be destroyed. We cannot pass over that comparison without a note or two, though we intend to dwell mainly upon the next clause. Our Lord Jesus Christ in His humiliation appeared in great feebleness. He was born a helpless Babe. He was, in His infancy, in great danger from the hand of Herod, and though preserved, it was not by a powerful army, but by flight into another land.
His early days were not spent amid the martial music of camps, or in the grandeur of courts, but in the retirement of a carpenter’s shop—fit place for “a tender plant.” His life was gentleness—He was harmless as a lamb. At any time it seemed easy to destroy both Him and His system. When He was nailed to the Cross to die, did it not appear as if His whole work had utterly collapsed and His religion would be forever stamped out? The Cross threatened to be the death of Christianity as well as of Christ—but it was not so, for in a few days the power of the Divine Spirit came upon the
Church!
We perceive the blossoms of hope upon it and expect soon to gather goodly clusters of success. Christianity in our own hearts—the Christ within us—is also a “tender plant.” In its springing up it is as the green blade of corn which any beast that goes by may tread upon or devour. Oftentimes to our apprehension it has seemed that our spiritual life would soon die. It was no better than a lily with a stalk bruised and all but snapped in two. The mower’s scythe of temptation has cut down the outgrowth of our spiritual life, but, blessed be God, He who comes down like rain upon the mown grass has restored our verdure and maintained our vigor to this day! Tender as our religion is, it is beyond the power of Satan to destroy it! Weak as we are, we have not utterly fallen, nor shall we—for the feeble shall be victorious and the “lame shall take the prey.”