Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2963
“The pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hands.” Isaiah 53:10.
You know that the whole verse says, “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief: when You shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hands.” The last words from our text—“The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hands.”
It may be that the devil thought that the death of Christ was the defeat of Christ. If so, how greatly was he mistaken, for when Christ yielded up the ghost, He won an everlasting victory! Nor is He dead. Jesus, who died, has left the dead, no more to die. He died, but could not long be held a prisoner in the grave. Loosing His cerements, He came forth in life and immortality and now is the promise fulfilled, “He shall see His seed.” From the heights of Heaven He looks upon the multitude of His seed on earth. In eternal Glory He takes His solace in the society of His seed above. As many as the stars of Heaven, as countless as the dust of the summer are the seed of our Lord Jesus Christ! He indeed lives to see His seed— while others die and their children follow them, and they know not of their progeny—Jesus lives to see, one after another, all the souls that He has redeemed, born first to earth and then born a second time to Heaven.
“He shall prolong His days.” More than 1800 years have passed since He rose from the dead to His new life, yet He still lives. And His days, we know, shall be continued while this earth shall stand. Yes, and at the end, when He shall deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father, He still shall prolong His days. “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.” Youshall endure, though the mountains perish and though the skies are rolled up like a vesture that is worn out.
“He shall see His seed; He shall prolong His days.” Nor shall His life be a long one without usefulness. He shall have a work to do, Brothers and Sisters—He still has that work to do and oh, how well He does it! It is the joy of Heaven to know that Christ still stands hard and fast to His Covenant engagements! It is a comfort to us on earth that our Lord, for Zion’s sake, will not stay His hands nor hold His peace until He has perfected the Divine will and brought all the redeemed Home to Himself!
This evening I propose to speak of our Savior’s great work and of the way in which it prospers in His hands. Coming close to our text, we shall first examine this interesting description of Christ’s work—it is “thepleasure of the Lord. ” We shall then notice how, and in what respects, that work prospers in Christ’s hands and, having done so, we shall solicit a little consideration as to our connection with that pleasure of God and that great “hand” and prosperity of which we here read.
I. From our text it is very clear that THE WORK WHICH JESUS CHRIST HAS UNDERTAKEN IS THE
FATHER’S GOOD PLEASURE. It is the work of bringing His elect out of darkness into light, from nature to Grace and from Grace to Glory. Why is this called “the Father’s good pleasure”?
We answer, for many reasons. First of all, because God’s good pleasure is the source of all saving work For many centuries and ages, the source of the Nile has been a theme of wonder. Many travelers have spent their lives and lost them in endeavoring to track that mysterious stream to its first fount—at last the deed has been accomplished to the honor of our country. But the stream of Divine Grace, from where does it spring? In what mountain does it take its rise? Arminian theology, like all the ancient travelers, has failed to make the discovery. But the Gospel, as it is revealed in Scripture, plainly tells us that everything in salvation is according to the good pleasure of the Divine will. If you ask some good Brother who is rather muddled in his theology, “What is the cause why a man is saved?” He will say, perhaps, “Well, he
is saved because he believes.” You will then ask, “But why does he believe?” He will say, “Because he hears the Gospel.” You will say, “Ah, but others hear it, too, and yet do not believe. How is it that his hearing produces faith in him?” He will say, “it is because he gives the more earnest heed.” You will say, “Yes, but why does he give the more earnest heed?” And there will come another question, and another, and another, and another, and you will keep on beating around the bush until, if you succeed in getting your Brother into a corner, he will say to you, “Well, I do not know, but I think it must be the Grace of God.” Happy is the man who begins there—who says, without going all the way round about to try and fight against a most precious and blessed Truth of God—“Yes, the good pleasure of God is that primeval source from where flows that first stream of electing love which goes widening on, forever manifesting itself more and more clearly—