Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1194
Delivered on Lord’s Day Morning, September 20, 1874
“Behold, Iand the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts, which dwells in Mount Zion.” Isaiah 8:18.
WE might possibly have had some difficulty in explaining this verse, or we might have referred it to the Prophet Isaiah and his sons, had not Inspiration been its own expositor. Turn to the New Testament and the text will be no mystery to you. Its key hangs on its proper nail. In the second chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and at the 11th verse, we read—“For both He that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare Your name unto My brethren, in the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto You. And again, I will put My trust in Him. And again, Behold, I and the children which God has given Me.”
We have thus, from Divine Revelation, assured evidence that it is our Lord who speaks, and speaks of His people as His children. This clue we will follow. The context sets forth, as is most common throughout the whole of Scripture, the different results which result from the appearance of the Savior. He is rejected by many and accepted by others. He was set for the fall and rise of many in Israel. To those who received Him, He is a glory and a defense, but to others, “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.”
Even now His Gospel is a “savor of death unto death” as well as a “savor of life unto life.” The election of Divine Grace is always being worked out. The separating process continues and will continue until the eternal purpose has been completely fulfilled. Those whom the Lord has chosen feel the attractions of the Savior and come to Him—while others willfully and wickedly close their eyes to His brightness and reject Him—and He leaves them in their willing unbelief. “He came unto His own and His own received Him not, but to as many as received Him to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on His name.”
Of those who received the Lord, we find it written that the Testimony of God would be left in their charge. “Bind up the Testimony; seal the Law among My disciples.” The outside world rejects the Testimony of God—its own thoughts and opinions are much more pleasant to it—but among the Lord’s disciples His commands are prized and His teachings sacredly preserved. They see the seal of the living God upon the Gospel and they also set to it their seal that God is true. They accept the Gospel of Jesus as the very Truth of God and hold it, and mean to hold it against all comers.
To the true disciples of Jesus there may come times of darkness. It has been so with the Church of old and will always be so. But they have this star to gild their midnight—Christ, their Master and Representative—is waiting upon the Lord and expecting and pleading for brighter and happier times. “I will wait,” says He, “upon the Lord that hides His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him.” Christ, in the dark ages of Judaism, looked for the dawn of the Gospel day and even now He sets Himself upon His watchtower and looks for a golden age for His redeemed people. So interested is He in their welfare that He will not rest till their brightness shines forth as a lamp that burns!
Having thus noted the context, we will come closely to the text. On this earth a people exist who have accepted the Messiah and have become His disciples—and look for all from their Lord. Of these people the text says, “Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given Me.” Here we shall notice, first, a remarkable relationship ascribed to Christ. Secondly, a spontaneous avowal of it—“Behold, I and the children whom You have given Me.” And thirdly, a common function—common to the Lord and to His disciples—they are appointed to be “signs” and “wonders” in Israel from the Lord of Hosts which dwells in Mount Zion.
I. First, here is A REMARKABLE RELATIONSHIP. Jesus is called a Father. Now, this is not according to precise theology, or according to the more formal doctrinal statements of Scripture, so we must, therefore, take care that we do not confuse ourselves. Jesus is not, “the Father,” and we must always carefully maintain the distinction of Persons in the
Godhead. The Son of God is one with the Father, but He is not the Father. And we must take care we do not ascribe to the Son acts which are peculiar to the Father. According to correct speech, it is the first Person of the Divine Trinity whom we call the Father, who has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And when we say, “Abba, Father,” “Our Father which are in Heaven,” and, “Thanks be unto the Father,” we do not refer to the Lord Jesus, but to “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”