Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1279
“I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comfort unto him and to his mourners.” Isaiah 57:18.
THERE are a few objects in Nature which never cease to astonish the beholder. I think Humboldt said he could never look upon the rolling prairies without astonishment. And I suppose some of us will never be able to look upon the ocean, or to see the sun rise or set without feeling that we have before us something always fresh and always new. Now, I have been, not only for the love of it, but because of my calling of preaching it, a constant reader of Holy Scripture and yet after these 25 years and more I frequently alight upon well known passages which astonish me as much as ever. As if I had never heard them before, they come upon me, not merely with freshness, but even so as to cause amazement in my soul!
This is one of those portions of Scripture. When I read the chapter describing the wickedness, the horrible wickedness of Israel—when I notice the strong terms which Inspiration uses and none of them too strong to set forth the horrible wickedness of the nation—it staggers me! And then to see mercy following instead ofjudgment! It overwhelms me! “I have seen his ways, and”—it is not added, “will destroy him,” or, “I will sweep him away”—but, “I will heal him.” Verily, God’s Grace, like the great mountains, cannot be scaled! Like the deeps of the sea, it can never be fathomed and, like space, it can never be measured!
It is, like God Himself, wondrous, matchless, boundless. “Oh, the depths! Oh, the depths.” I shall try to set forth the astounding Grace of God, as His Spirit shall enable me, by showing, first, that the sinner is beheld by God—“I have seen his ways.” And yet the sinner is nevertheless the object of Divine mercy—“I will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.”
I. The text declares that THE SINNER HAS BEEN OBSERVED OF THE LORD. Many a man will relieve an unknown person in distress whom he would not think of helping if he knew his character. Some generous hearts are perpetually victimized this way—they deal out their money to those who are altogether unworthy—but if they knew of this unworthiness they would not be so free with their gifts. Now, the Lord is aware of the unworthiness of those to whom He deals out His Grace and it is the glory of that Grace that He pours it upon the utterly undeserving. He knows exactly what men are and yet He is kind to the evil and to the unthankful. He gives His Grace to those who, like Manasseh, and Saul of Tarsus, and the dying thief, have nothing but sin about them and deserve His hot displeasure rather than His gracious love.
Notice, first, that God’s Omniscience has observed the sinner. Man, while living in rebellion against God, is as much under his Maker’s eyes as the bees in a glass hive are under your eyes when you stand and watch all their movements. The eyes of Jehovah never sleep. They are never taken off from a single creature He has made. He sees man—sees him everywhere—sees him through and through so that He not only hears his words but knows his thoughts! God does not merely behold his actions but weighs his motives and knows what is in the man as well as that which comes out of the man. One is often led to cry, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me! It is high, I cannot attain unto it.” That God should know all, even all the little things about man’s sin is a dreadful thing for unpardoned souls to think of.
I was reading, the other day, a very pretty observation upon one of our Savior’s sayings and I cannot help telling it to you. You remember He says two sparrows are sold for a farthing and yet one of them does not light on the ground without your Father? But in another passage He says, “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings? And not one of them is forgotten of God.” Do you notice that? Two for a farthing—five for two farthings, so there is an odd one thrown in for taking a double quantity.
Only a sparrow! Nobody cares about that odd sparrow, but not one of them is forgotten by your heavenly Father— not even the odd sparrow! And so no stray thought of yours, no imagination, no trifle which you have quite forgotten, which, indeed, you never took any heed of, has escaped your heavenly Father’s notice. The text is true to the fullest possible extent. “I have seen his ways.” God has seen your ways at home, your ways abroad, your ways in the shop, your ways in the bedchamber, your ways within as well as your ways without—the ways of your judgment, the ways of your hope, the ways of your desire, the ways of your evil lusting, the ways of your murmurings, the ways of your pride. He has seen them all and seen them perfectly and completely!
And the wonder is that, after seeing all, He has not cut us down, but instead of it, has proclaimed this amazing word of mercy, “I have seen his ways, and will heal him. I have seen all that he has done, and yet for all that I will not cast him from My Presence, but I will put My mercy and My wisdom to work with Divine skill to heal this sinner of the wickedness of his soul.” While we were reading the chapter I could not help feeling that it was a chapter almost too strong to read in public! I looked it through and through, and I said, “Shall I read it?” Some of its allusions are so painful that one can think of them, but one would not like to explain them.