Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1905
“And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell in it shall be forgiven their iniquity.” Isaiah 33:24.
This whole chapter was a gracious message from God to a people who were in extremis. They were made to drink the foulest dregs of sorrow through the invasion of the Assyrians. The highways were waste, the wayfarer ceased. The earth mourned and languished. Lebanon was ashamed and hewn down. Sharon was like a wilderness and Bashan and Carmel shook off their fruits. Then did God arise. When the worst had come to the worst, He laid bare His arm and brought deliverance for His people! Is not this a general rule with God? Is it not a Truth of God fraught with comfort to any of you whose day has darkened down into a seven-fold midnight? When nothing else is left you, God remains and God appears! When all your own strength fails you, your strength shall be to sit still while God arises and becomes your arm every morning, your salvation in the time of trouble!
I would encourage all who are in spiritual distress to gather hope from this chapter, since it is addressed to Zion in her sore affliction. If it is really so, that the joys and blessings which are described in the passage before us come to a people who are driven to the last extremity, why should not such blessings come to you? We have often noted how the Lord delights to look upon the poor and needy and comes with succor to those who are in distress. It is the way of the Lord to look in pity upon those who are cast down. Lift up your heart to Him and cry unto Him out of the depth! Let your prayer rise to His Throne out of the low dungeon. Expect that He will be very pitiful and will have compassion upon you in your misery. Jerusalem was on the brink of destruction when the Lord answered the prayer of Hezekiah and smote the vast host of Assyria. The peril of Jerusalem serves as a dark background to bring out the brightness of my text. The city might have been destroyed by pestilence through its sins, but the Lord says, “The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell in it shall be forgiven their iniquity.”
The great result of God’s gracious dealings with His afflicted people is that they glorify His holy name. Observe how in this chapter God is spoken of as being “exalted, for He dwells on high.” He is called, “the glorious Lord.” Truly our Lord never appears more glorious than in the eyes of those who are brought low and humbled in their own esteem. Their distresses, out of which they are graciously delivered, call upon them to exalt their Savior! They hear a voice saying, “Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He has broken the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron in sunder.” Our God gets little praise in this fair world which is a masterpiece of His skill, for man refuses to adore. Creation ought to make our voices ring out perpetual Psalms, for it is full of wonders! Providence ought, also, to keep us always making music upon an instrument of 10 strings, but, alas, we yield our praises to inferior workers. We are always backward and slow in the praises of the Lord.
Will a man rob God? Yet we rob Him of His Glory. And so He brings us into straits, that He may display the majesty of His Grace and the infinity of His power in rescuing us. Then are we moved to astonishment and adoration! Then we burst forth into a song as we abundantly utter the memory of His great goodness! At sight of His amazing love, we magnify the Lord and ask others to magnify Him with us, that we may exalt His name together. This is as it should be—let it be so now. Oh, you that have tasted of the Lord’s rich Grace in the hour of trouble, praise Him at this good hour! Let the hallelujahs of your soul go up to Him in the courts of the Lord’s House. If you cannot speak out your praise, let it wait for God in Zion and unto Him let the vow be performed. Let your expressive silence mean the praise which you cannot
sound forth with your tongue. The Holy Spirit who makes intercession in us with groans that cannot be uttered will also put into us praises inexpressible by words!
As we saw in the reading of this chapter, the Prophet seems to take wing as he proceeds. He rises from note to note, as if, like David, he said, “Selah”—lift up the strain! He makes each note more high, more sweet, more loud than those which preceded it, for he sings unto Him that does great things for His people. The climax is in this verse—“The people that dwell in it shall be forgiven their iniquity.” One of the highest notes of praise is in the 103rd Psalm—“Bless the Lord, O my Soul; who has forgiven all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases.” Our text is another form of that verse—“The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell in it shall be forgiven their iniquity.” Healing and forgiveness are placed in happy conjunction and both bestowed on the Lord’s people when they looked not for them.