Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2805
“Look unto Me, and beyou saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” Isaiah 45:22.
SINCE this text was blessed to my conversion many years ago, I have often preached from it, but, on this occasion I am not going to speak of it as a whole. There is only one thought that I shall endeavor to bring out of it and I intend to act as the gold-beaters do with the metal upon which they work, that is—beat it out very thin and, perhaps, when it covers a wide surface, some may be able to see it who have not previously perceived its preciousness and power.
The great sin of man ever since he has fallen, has been that of idolatry. He is always seeking to get away from God, who is real, but whom he cannot see, and to make for himself a god which can only be an idol, but which pleases him because he can gaze upon it. And thus it comes to pass that some with images of wood and stone—and others with carnal confidences and the like—put something else into the place which should be occupied by God alone. And they look to that something and expect good from it, instead of looking for all good to come from God, and from Him alone. This looking to anything which usurps the place of God cannot but be most offensive to Him and it must also be very disappointing to ourselves, for it is impossible for the false god to yield us any true comfort. When matters come to a pinch and we really need succor, we shall find that we have been leaning upon a broken reed if we have been trusting to anything except the Lord our God.
For a while the idolater may delight himself in the idol which he has so dexterously carved and which he has covered with silver plates and adorned with golden chains. But when he finds that he cries in vain to his god in the day of trouble—when he discovers that no answer comes to his earnest prayer—in his disappointment and vexation of spirit, he is ready to lie down in despair! It must be so, more or less, with all of us. If we trust in anything but God, we shall be disappointed. And if we are living for anything but the Unseen One, who created and still sustains us, we shall have to lie down in sorrow despite the sparks of the fire we have ourselves kindled.
Yet note the Lord’s great patience even with those who are thus provoking Him by this idolatry of theirs. What do you think, Sirs? If you had made men, sustained them and provided for them, yet they did not worship you, or serve you, or fear you, or trust you, but, instead, transferred their fear, or love, or trust to mere idols that had eyes, but could not see, had hands, but could not help—would you not feel righteously angry? Would it not grieve you to have a dead thing, which these people had themselves made, put into your place? I am sure it would! And the Lord our God is a jealous God and He has been, generation after generation, provoked by the idolatries of men. Yes, and He has even been provoked by us who profess to be His people, but who have loved something else better than we have loved Him. Why, some of us have actually trusted ourselves more than we have trusted the lord and, sometimes, in the hour of trial, we have fled to a friend and relied upon an arm of flesh, instead of trusting in the Lord alone!
Yet how patient He has been under it all! And how blessedly this chapter teaches us of the loving kindness of the Lord! Here He admonishes His ancient people with great gentleness, while He also reasons with great force of argument. Tenderly He chides the wrongdoers and then earnestly He invites them to a better way. He seems to say to them, “Have done with these idols once and for all! You have come into trouble and difficulty through looking to them, yet they could not save you. Now turn away from them and look to Me. Though you are like the very ends of the earth and have gone as
far away from Me as you could, as if you would escape from My Presence altogether if that were possible, yet, now, in the hour of your distress, turn your eyes to Me and see if I will not help you! Come and trust Me just this once. ‘Look unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. “Listen to this Divine message, you who have forgotten your God, as, in these gracious terms, He bids you turn your eyes to Him and let your expectations be from Him!
Our text, as I read it, teaches me, first, that for salvation out of any trouble, we should look to God alone. When I have spoken briefly upon that point, I shall carry the principle into deeper spiritual matters by showing you, in the second place, that, for eternal salvation, we must assuredly look to God alone.
I. First, then, FOR SALVATION OUT OF ANY TROUBLE, WE SHOULD LOOK TO GOD ALONE.
You know, Brothers and Sisters, that there are some troubles in which men dolook to God alone. I have known even the most profane, godless men turn to God, after a fashion, in the hour of supreme peril. It has often been observed that men in time of storm or shipwreck—those who had used blasphemous language and ridiculed all religion—when they have been caused to reel to and fro and stagger like drunken men, and have been at their wits’ end, they have cried unto the Lord in their trouble. And in earthquakes, when the very globe, itself, rocks and reels, as though it were as unstable as the restless sea, and huge buildings are torn in pieces, and strong towers come tumbling down, thousands of men have cried aloud to God to save them! Knees, unused to devotion, have been bent in abject terror while hearts that never felt the gracious Presence of God, have begun to tremble at the majestic display of His power. This kind of experience has often been witnessed in ungodly men at the approach of death. When, at last, the chill drops stand on their brow—when they know that life is almost over and their soul is melting in their dire distress and the dark gates of the grave stand wide open before them—then they also cry unto the Lord in their trouble.