Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1743
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, October 7, 1883
“Put Me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare you, that you may bejustified.’” Isaiah 43:26.
We shall mainly dwell upon the first invitation of the text—“Put Me in remembrance.” If you will cast your eyes upon the Scripture, itself, you will be struck with its singular position—it makes a paradox of the most striking kind if you read it in connection with the preceding clause—“I, even I, am He that blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and will not remember your sins. Put Me in remembrance.” [Remind Me.] This looks like a contradiction, but, as a wise teacher will win attention by dark sayings, so does the Word of God abound in expressions by which thought is excited and the lesson is more deeply impressed upon the mind. Many are the paradoxes of the Prophets and of the Lord and Leader of all the Prophets. Who can read without attention two such sentences as these in succession—“I will not remember your sins,” and, “Put me in remembrance”?
The use of such paradoxes in Scripture needs no sort of apology. Man is a living riddle. Does any man understand himself? He may think he does, but by this conceit he betrays his ignorance! The sinner is a paradox, but the saint is a double paradox! I say it is meet and right that the Holy Spirit should thus use paradoxical expressions because those whom He addresses have paradoxes lying deep in their nature and so the speech is congruous to the listener. In this verse man is invited to draw near to God. Those same men, of whom God says that He was weary of them, are bid to plead with Him. “You have burdened Me with your sins, you have wearied Me with your iniquities.” And yet it is evident that in another sense the Lord was not weary of them, for He calls upon them to come to a conference with Him, saying, “Put Me in remembrance: let us plead together.”
This approach to God is the way of our salvation! The first thing that must be done with some men is to make them think of God at all—and the best thing that can be done with any man is to draw him nearer and yet nearer to the great Father of spirits. “It is good for me to draw near to God,” said one who knew right well what he was speaking of—and every man who does not yet understand such an utterance will find it to be true if he will test it! Here is a commandment with promise—“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” Here is another—“Seek you the Lord while He may be found, call you upon Him while He is near: let the wicked forsake His ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Nearness to God is evidently the hope of the seeker! For the prodigal in the distant country, the most essential thing was that he should arise and go to his father. It would have been of little use for him to have washed himself from the filth of the swine trough, or to have broken off his acquaintance with the citizens of that country. He could never be right while he dwelt so far from his father’s house. The most sober and secluded life in the far country would not have satisfied the cravings of his heart any more than the husks would have filled his belly! True, it would have been some improvement upon spending his living riotously, but it would have worked no change in his soul and given no rest to his heart. The remedy is the father’s kiss, the father’s bosom, the father’s house, the father’s love!
Understand my text, then, however paradoxical it may seem, as being a genuine invitation on the part of a gracious God to the most provoking of men. Though they have acted so wickedly that He may well be tired of them, He presses them to hold conversation with Him! If anything has been charged upon them in error, He is willing to hear their complaints—He only longs that they will not keep at a sullen distance from Him. God grant that the invitation may be accepted by those of you to whom it will, this morning, be addressed!
We shall regard our text thus. First, it is a humbling challenge—“Put Me in remembrance: let us plead together.” Secondly, as we cannot answer the challenge, we will put another sense upon the words and accept them in an amended
version—such as penitence can carry out. And, thirdly, we shall see in it a practical suggestion—perhaps more than one. May the Holy Spirit enable us to learn the lessons and carry out the suggestions!
I. First, then, our text appears before us as A HUMBLING CHALLENGE. God had punished Israel on account of sin. Israel was not penitent and in self-righteousness judged that the Lord was harsh and severe. “Come, then,” says God, “come and plead your case with Me. Put Me in remembrance of any virtues on your part which I may have overlooked. If I have misjudged you; if you have not really been neglectful of My service and worship, let the matter be rectified. If you really have a righteousness of your own, put Me in remembrance of it.”