Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1110
“You have loved my soul out of the pit of corruption.” Isaiah 38:17
(Marginal reading).
THE means used for the restoration of Hezekiah’s body to health was a lump of figs laid as a plaster upon the boil, but the means used for the renewal of his soul from the disease of despondency was something equally effectual and far sweeter—what if I say that the Lord laid to the sore of Hezekiah’s heart some of the leaves of the Tree of Life which are for the healing of the nations? The fact is that Hezekiah, under such a mass of troubles, had sunk very low in doubts, fears and dark forebodings until he almost despaired and, therefore, the Lord shed abroad in his heart a sense of Divine love— deep, true and mighty—and as Hezekiah’s body recovered, so Hezekiah’s spirits also rose. And instead of chattering like a crane, he began to sing the praises of the Host High. The remedy for his soul’s sickness was love. His heart was fetched up from the grave of its despair by love—love was the hand of power that drew him up and love the cords by which he was lifted.
Now, what was true of Hezekiah with regard to his sickness and depression is true in the fullest sense of all Believers. See, dear Brethren, where we lay by nature—in the grave of death. Yes, and more—in the pit of corruption. We were so destroyed by sin that we were like men who had rotted in a pit and were corrupt, for sin is a foul putrefaction of our nature and it has worked in us to the most dreadful degree. We are like the slain upon the battlefield, rotting with foul decay—obnoxious to God, corrupt and abominable. At this present moment, by Sovereign Grace, those of us who have believed in Jesus have been brought up out of the horrible pit. Our standing, now, is a blessed one, for our feet are upon the Rock of Ages—immutable promises and eternal purposes are now the bases of our confidence.
Now shall our head be lifted up above our enemies round about us and, therefore, with joy will we offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy! We will sing, yes, we will sing praises unto the Lord! It is hardly necessary that I remind you that it was the love of God which moved Him to have compassion upon us when we were in the pit of corruption. The Lord loved us even when we were in that loathsome condition. This is a deep mystery of love. Well does the Apostle speak of “His great love wherewith He loved us even when we were dead in trespasses and sins.” To love us when there was no good in us, but every evil in us—to love us when we were unlovable and even hateful—this is not after the manner of man, but is worthy of the infinite heart of God.
Now we know that this ancient, primeval love which had no cause except itself, devised the way of lifting us up out of the pit. We were to be brought up by Substitution, by the sacrifice of Another in our place. We were to be brought up by the operations of the Divine energy—that same power which brought our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead was to bring us up from our death in sin. Love planned this admirable method of mercy and we are equally ready to admit, this morning, and to exult as we admit it, that it was love which supplied all the provisions necessary for carrying out the plan. Love brought the Savior to the Cross. Love made Him bear our sins in His own body on the tree. Love led Him to give up His precious life on our behalf and to become a hostage in the tomb. Love sent the Holy Spirit to quicken us, to illuminate us, to strengthen us and to dwell in us forever. Love found the materials for our redemption and love applied the redemption when it was completed. Love led us to the Savior’s Cross. Love regenerated us. Love has supported us till this day and will keep us to the end.
I shall not, however, call your attention to this great Truth of God, but to one of the same order. The text sets forth a charming fact which I desire to insist upon as God’s Spirit shall help me. It is this—not merely that love desired our salvation, planned it, provided it, and so on—but that the instrument which love has used has been love. In order to get us out of the pit we have not been drawn out of it by power, nor driven out of it by terror, but we have been loved out of it. “You have loved my soul out of the pit of corruption.” The other Sunday morning [DIVINE LOVE AND ITS GIFTS
NO. 1096] I spoke to you upon our loving souls into Christ and tried to show in a few sentences the power of love to lead sinners to Jesus. Now that is what the text means—that God’s love has loved us out of the pit of corruption—it has been the energetic means which has brought the saved ones to be what they are.
This subject has carried my own soul away in my private contemplations, but I fear I cannot set it forth to you as I would wish. I am like the child which said to its mother, “Mother, I will bring the sea to you,” and the little one went down to the shore and filled its little palm with the water, but before it reached its mother it had spilt ten times as much as it had carried and if it had carried all it had taken up, it would only have brought a few drops and left behind it the great and wide sea altogether undiminished. I am hopeless of being able to convey to your souls a tenth of what I feel! I could have danced with David before the ark while I was drinking the new wine out of the golden cup of the text. I am hopeless of transferring my joy to you and if I could succeed in it, I should have accomplished little compared with the glory of the text before me.