Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1593
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, April 17, 1881
“To whom He said, This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.” Isaiah 28:12.
ASSUREDLY Isaiah was one of the most eloquent of preachers and yet he could not win the ears and hearts of those to whom he spoke, for it is written, “they would not hear.” Beyond all question he was thoroughly evangelical, for, as Dr. Watts truly says, he spoke more of Jesus Christ than all the rest of the Prophets and yet the message of love was treated as though it were an idle tale. His doctrine was clear as daylight and yet men would not see it, so that he had to ask with sorrow, “Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” It was not the fault of the preacher that Israel rejected his warnings—all the fault lay with that disobedient and gainsaying nation.
The people to whom he spoke so earnestly were drunken in a double sense. They were overcome with wine and so general was this vice that Isaiah says, “But they also have erred through wine and through strong drink are out of the way. The priest and the Prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink. They err in vision, they stumble in judgment. For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.”
What can be conceived of more potent to blunt the point of Gospel Truth than intoxication or excess? When a man is given to wine, how can the Spirit of God dwell in him? How is it likely that the Truth of God shall enter an ear which has been rendered deaf by this degrading vice? How is the Word of God likely to operate upon a conscience that has been drenched and drowned by strong drink? I charge you, if any of you are given to drunkenness, flee from this destroyer before your bonds are made strong and you are hopelessly fettered by the habit! It is small wonder that the preacher is defeated if his ardent zeal has to compete with ardent spirits! When Bacchus rolls the wine cask against the door, it is hard to force an entrance even though we demand it in the name of King Jesus. Men are in an evil state for hearing when the barrel and the bottle are their idols. It is not at all marvelous that the Gospel should be neglected by men who have put an enemy into their months to steal away their brains.
The people to whom Isaiah spoke were also drunken in another sense, namely, intoxicated with pride. Their country was fruitful and its major city, Samaria, stood on the hilltop like a diadem of beauty crowning the land—and they delighted in the glorious beauty which is on the head of the fat valley. They, themselves, were brave and among them were many champions whose strength sufficed to turn the battle to the gate. Therefore they hoped to resist every invader and so their hearts were lifted up. Moreover, they said—“We are an intelligent people! We need no teaching, or if, indeed, we endure instruction, it must be of a high class! We are men of cultured intellect, instructed scribes and we do not need persons like Isaiah to weary us with their ding-dong of ‘precept upon precept, line upon line,’ as if we were mere children at school. Besides, we are good enough. Do we not worship our god under the form of the golden calves of Belial? Do we not respect the sacrifices and the holy days?”
So spoke the more religious of them, while the rest gloried in their shame. Being intoxicated with pride, it was not likely that they would hear the message of the Prophet who bade them turn from their evil ways. Even so, he that is righteous in his own esteem is never likely to accept the righteousness of Christ. He who boasts that he can see, will never ask to have his eyes opened. He who claims that he was born free and was never in bondage unto any man is not likely to accept the liberty of Christ. Pride is the devil’s dragnet in which he takes more fish than in any other except procrastination. The destruction of those who are proud is certain—for who can help the man that refuses to be helped—and where is the likelihood that there shall be either repentance for his sin or faith in Christ in the man who does not know that he has sinned and who believes that if he has done so, he can easily wipe away the stain?
The two forms of drunkenness are equally destructive and I beg to call your attention to this fact. Whether body or soul is intoxicated, mischief will surely come of it. Many are pleased if I speak against drunkenness of the body and I feel bound to speak as earnestly as I possibly can, for it is a monster evil. But I beseech you who are sober and, perhaps, total abstainers, to dread the other intoxication—for if any one of us should be intoxicated with pride on account of our own sobriety—it will be ruinous to our souls! What if we are temperate and self-denying—there is nothing in this in which to glory—we ought to be greatly ashamed of ourselves if we were not so. Let us not get drunk with pride because we are not drunkards, for if we are so vain and foolish, we shall as certainly perish by pride as we should have done by drink.