Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1126
“I will mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which He has bestowed on them according to His mercies, and according to the multitude of His loving kindnesses.” Isaiah 63:7.
THE chapter opens with a declaration of our glorious Lord, as to His ultimate overthrow of His foes. He declares that He will tread down all the enemies of His people, as grapes are trod in the winepress. The chapter, as you know, begins with that remarkable exclamation, “Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah?” The Prophet, having beheld the glorious vision, and heard the proclamation of the victorious Hero, felt his soul stirred within him. It is usual for saints’ hearts to burn within them when Christ is near. The glowing flames of his heart unloosed the bonds of his tongue—he could not but speak—and the theme which suggested itself to him was the loving kindness of the Lord.
He was ravished with what he saw coming in the future, with the future triumphs of Emmanuel and the overthrow of Israel’s foes, but he felt that he must not forget the glorious victories of the bygone ages and the triumphs of the days that were. And so with determination he declares, “I will mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord.” There were some in the Prophets’ days whose business it was to make mention of the Lord. Do you not remember how He says, “You that make mention of the Lord keep not silence?” Those were persons who publicly spoke of Him—“they that feared the Lord spoke often one to another.” They were, also, persons who spoke to Him, who kept the Lord in remembrance and made mention of His mercies to them, as it is written—“You that make mention of the Lord keep not silence, and give Him no rest till He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”
It was in both senses that Isaiah resolved to mention the loving kindnesses of Jehovah—to the people that they might love God—and to God that He might not forget His people, but might continue to smile upon them in the days to come, as He had done in days of yore. This morning we have the same task as that which was set before the Prophet. May the same Spirit rest upon us as rested upon him. And, first, we shall have to give you a delightful catalog of the mercies to be mentioned. Then, as time serves us, we shall call your attention to the special points in these mercies which are to be mentioned. And we will close by noticing the practical good results of mentioning the loving kindnesses of Jehovah.
I. First, then, we have to give you a list of THE MERCIES TO BE MENTIONED. A complete summary we cannot give, for who can count the sands of the sea or the stars of the sky? Let him, when he has accomplished that task, attempt to count the mercies of the Lord! I have no need, my Brothers and Sisters, to make a catalog of my own, for I have one before me made to hand and written by an Inspired pen in the verses which follow the text. The list commences with special electing love. In the Hebrew the eighth verse runs thus, “For He said, they only are My people.” He had chosen them, alone, of all the nations of the earth to be His portion and the lot of His inheritance. As He said in another place, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth.”
He had chosen Israel to be a people near unto Him. Though they were a small nation and insignificant among the kingdoms, yet He set them apart for Himself. He chose their father, Abraham, and called him from an idolatrous family, even from Ur of the Chaldees, that he might dwell, alone, in the land of promise. Having chosen the Patriarch, He bound Himself by Covenant to favor his seed after him, not because of any goodness in then, but of His own sovereign will and good pleasure. This, therefore, the Jewish Prophet dwells upon as a first instance of love—and when we are mentioning
the loving kindnesses of the Lord it is well to begin at the beginning, or rather to magnify that favor which had no beginning.
Praise the stream but forget not the wellhead. He loved His people from everlasting—
“Long before the sun’s refulgent rays Primeval shades of slackness drove, They on His sacred bosom lay Loved with an everlasting love.” How ravishing is the thought of eternal love! Try to drink it in—if you are a Believer in Christ you were loved before time began its cycles—in that old eternity, before the earth was born, you were Beloved of the Lord! You were dear to Jehovah’s heart when this great world, the sun, the moon, the stars slept in the mind of God like unborn forests in an acorn cup! He loved you with an everlasting and infinite love. Rejoice in this and let your souls be glad. Never forget that Election is the source of every favor, for the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.