3441. God’s Memorial of His People

A Sermon Published On Thursday, January 14, 1915.

Behold I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands. {Isa 49:16}

For other sermons on this text:

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 512, “Precious Drop of Honey, A” 503}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2672, “Neither Forsaken nor Forgotten” 2673}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3441, “God’s Memorial of His People” 3443}

   Exposition on Isa 49:1-17 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2397, “Out of Darkness Into Light” 2398 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Isa 49:1-23 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2703, “Preservation of Christians in the World, The” 2704 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Isa 49:13-26 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2265, “Harvest Joy” 2266 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Re 7:9-17 Isa 49 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3238, “Vision of the King, A” 3240 @@ "Exposition"}

1. A little more than eight years ago, I remember to have addressed you from these very words. You will find the sermon in the printed series. {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 512, “A Precious Drop of Honey” 503} But such a text as this is to be preached from hundreds of times. It is quite impossible to exhaust it, and if we should run over the same circle of thought in some measure, the thought suggested is by itself so precious, it would be good to have our pure minds stirred up by way of reminder.

2. The apprehension that God might forget us would be very horrible for a child of God. As for the ungodly, they do not care whether God thinks of them or not. He is nothing to them, and they do not care whether they are anything to him. For the Christian, it is far otherwise. He could imagine no greater calamity than for him to be forgotten by his God. He knows there are many reasons in him why he should be forgotten, and though those reasons are all handled by the promise of God, yet there are times when those reasons exercise great effect on his mind. As, for example, the Christian knows how insignificant he is. It is always a wonder to him that God ever did think of him. Like David, when he considers the heavens, the works of God’s fingers, the moon and the stars which God has ordained, he says, “What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you visit him?” The ungodly man has grand ideas of himself, but the Christian has very humbling notions of his own condition, and he marvels, therefore, that God ever should have remembered him, and fears sometimes lest he should be forgotten. So, too, the Christian is aware of his own unworthiness. He knows something of his natural depravity. He remembers some of things done in his youth, his former transgressions; he sees that even now he is not clear from sin in his daily life, and he says within himself at times, “If the Lord were to deal with me according to my deservings, he would certainly appoint me a portion with the unbeliever, disregard me, and cast me away.” Indeed, and when he thinks of his unthankfulness to God for his many mercies, and remembers what a sting there is in ingratitude, and how it sharply cuts the person who is wronged by it, he sometimes wonders that God has not turned against his ungrateful servant and said, “You are not mindful of my goodness; you make such a slight return for it, that I will from now on remember you no more: the streams of my mercy shall be dried up, and the sunlight of my favour shall be taken away for ever.”

3. Oh! what should we do if God did forget us for any of these reasons, my brethren? We could bear, it might be, to be forgotten by the dearest heart that beats in the fondest bosom of our nearest relative; bitter, indeed, would be such an affliction, to find a Judas where we hoped we had a friend, but let all creature friendships go sooner than God should forget us. It would be a calamity if death should visit our habitations, or if sickness should come and lay us low, if some calamity should strip us of our earthly comforts, but let them all go without reservation, let us be reduced to Job’s extremity and sit on a dunghill, and scrape ourselves with a potsherd, sooner than God should forget us. That would be hell itself. Oh! may we rejoice in heart by faith that this calamity cannot occur to us; and let this text help to remove any fear that any believer here has ever had, that he may be forgotten by God. The text was meant to handle that case, for so it runs, “Can a woman forget her nursing child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet I will not forget you.” And here is the reason given, “I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.”

4. We come, therefore, brethren, by the help of God’s Spirit, to consider this divine memorial: “I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands”; then very briefly let us trace out the result of this memorial of God, and let us close with a personal reflection on the object of this divine remembrance: “I have inscribed YOU on the palms of my hands.”

5. I. Our first point is:—THE DIVINE MEMORIAL.

6. We have here a metaphorical speech to show the impossibility of God’s forgetting us. “I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.” I will give a catchword to each particular explanation of this metaphor. The first word is present. When we have a thing fresh in our minds, and we want to make others know that we have it close to our memory, we say we have it at our finger tips. I say to such a one, “I shall not forget you; I constantly remember you; your name, and your business, and your circumstances are at my finger tips.” Everyone understands what is meant by the expression; it is a present memorial; but the figure of speech used here is more beautiful than that. “I have you as near to me as if I had you always in the palms of my hands.” That by which I remember you is most near to me. A dear friend told me that, when travelling in the East, he frequently saw people who had the portraits of their friends printed on the palms of their hands. I said to him, “But did they not wear out?” “Yes, sometimes,” he said, “but very frequently they were tattooed, marked right into the hand, and then, as long as the hand was there, there was the image of the friend, roughly drawn, of course.” Oriental art is not very perfect, but there it was, drawn on the palms of the hands, so that it could be always seen. A person never had to say, “Run and get the portrait; run and bring the memorial down to me”; he always had it present with him. So the Lord Jesus always has his people present with him at all times. He is the head: they are the members. The members are never far off from the head. He is the Shepherd: they are the sheep; and the careful shepherd, in time of danger, is never far from his sheep. Christ is not far from any of his people, and, therefore, his memories of them are not difficult to be maintained. He keeps the memorial of them in his hands—present with him. There is no fear, therefore, that he will forget them.

7. The next thought that arises from the metaphor may be remembered by the catchword of permanent. As I have already said, the impression made on the hands, as intended in this metaphor, was permanent—as long as the person lived, there it was. You engrave your friend’s name on a sapphire, and you may lose it; you may write it on a rock, and the rock may crumble; you may get for yourself the most precious and lasting form of matter, and stamp the impression of your friend on it, and eventually it may erode away; but when Christ says that he writes his people’s names on his hands, unless he himself can perish, their memorial must endure. As long as Jesus lives, he must bear with him the memories of his people. It is inconceivable that Christ should be without a hand, and what is inscribed deep on those palms, never to be erased, must abide near to him for ever and for ever. Oh! think, Christian, you are never forgotten by God! Never in your darkest night of sorrow, never in your most wayward moment of personal doubt and wandering, never forgotten, and you never shall be. If you live to the decrepitude of old age, he will bear and carry you. If you lie long on a lonely pallet, where few shall observe your suffering, he will not forget you. If you are migrate to some remote part of the world, far from all you love, he will be just as near. Time shall roll on and come to its close, but Christ will not forget you then, and in the eternity that comes amid the burning of the world and the judging of mankind, the inscription on his hand shall be as permanent as ever, and you shall still be remembered by the Lord, who loved you even before the earth was. Present and permanent, then, is the memorial which Christ cherishes of his people.

8. We have recently seen an unusual number of rainbows, and I must confess that nothing gives me greater joy than to see the rainbow. It is the memorial of the covenant. I like to look at it. But there is something more cherishing to me than looking at it myself: it is the thought of that text where God says “the rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look at it so that I may remember the everlasting covenant.” It comforts me that I can look at the sign of God’s faithfulness, but it comforts me much more that God looks at it—that his eye is on it. Had I been an Israelite, I think it would have given me much pleasure to see the blood sprinkled on the lintel and the two side-posts of my house. I should have known I was secure. But there is something better than that. You remember the text, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” It is God’s sight of the blood that saved you. So here it is Christ who looks at the palms of his own hands; who sees the memorial; always looks there, and does not have to look far, for his hands are not far removed from him—they are part of himself. It is on himself he bears the memory—the permanent memory of all whom he has bought with blood; therefore, be comforted, and do not think that you are overlooked.

9. The third word shall be personal—present, perpetual, and personal. “I have not inscribed you in the book of record, but I have inscribed you on myself, on the palms of my hands.” It means this—I will put it in one short, compact sentence—that Christ could as soon forget himself as he could forget his people. He has stamped them into himself; yes, more, he has taken them into such vital, indelible union with his own person, that to forget one soul that he has bought with blood would be to forget himself. The mother does not forget her child because there is an intimate relationship between them. The head cannot forget the members because there is an even more intimate relationship there. My finger does not need to tell my head that it suffers; and when a limb is full of pain and agony, it does not need to send express messengers up to the brain to say to the head, “Think of me, for I am full of grief.” No; the head feels that the limb is a part of itself, knit to itself; and Christ has a personal interest and a personal union with all his people. Oh! precious thought! You are dearer to Christ than any treasure could be to him, because you are of his flesh and of his bones. This is the reason—this is one reason that is given in Scripture—for conjugal love, because the woman was taken out of the man, and she is bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh; and when our blessed Second Adam fell asleep in death, God took his Church out of his side, and the Church is bone of Christ’s bone and flesh of his flesh. He cannot forget her; he looks on her with a love that never can change, and never can be indifferent.

10. The next word I shall give you after this one of personal is painful. “I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.” I may be permitted to illustrate this by our Saviour’s hands. What are these wounds in your hands, these sacred stigmata, these ensigns of suffering? The engraver’s tool was the nail, backed by the hammer. He must be fastened to the cross, so that his people might be truly inscribed on the palms of his hands. There is much consolation here. We know that what a man has won with great pain he will keep with great tenacity. Old Jacob valued much that portion which he took out of the hand of the Amorite with the sword and with the bow, and so truly does Christ value what he has conquered at great expense. Child of God, you cost Christ too much for him to forget you. He remembers every pang he suffered in Gethsemane, and every groan that he uttered for you on the cross. The inscription on his hands brings to his memory the redemption price which he paid down so that you might be set free. Oh! what better reason can you have for believing that Christ remembers you than this, that he loved you and gave himself for you? Treasure up that thought.

11. The other word is practical. “I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands”; as much as if God would say, “I can do nothing without remembering my people.” If he creates the world, it is with the hand that has his people inscribed on it. If he uses his hand to uphold all things, that upholding hand upholds his saints. With his left hand he strikes the wicked; but he cannot strike his people, for he sees them in the palm of that very hand. All that God does has an eye for his people. When he divided the nations, he divided them according to the number of the children of Israel. The world only stands for their sake; it is only a stage for the display of his grace to them; and when the number of his elect is accomplished, he will take it all down and put it away. Oh child of God, the Lord has given you the richest consolation when he tells you he can do nothing without remembering you, for on the hand with which he works he has stamped your name.

12. Note before I leave this, that it does not say, “I have inscribed you on the palm of my hand,” but “on the palms of my hands,” as if there was a double memorial before the Lord for ever. With his right hand he blesses, and his people have a share in that; with his left hand he deals out vengeance, but he sees his people there, and gives no vengeance to them. “His left hand, the hand of his angry power, is under my head,” says the spouse, “and his right hand, the hand of his beneficent love, embraces me.” A left-handed or a right-handed God, he altogether loves us, and, remembers us on the right hand and on the left. By both his hands, by all his power, he pledges himself never to forget one of his saints. Oh! this is a rich text! and we trust we shall handle it so as to bring out the juice from the luscious sentences, throw it in the wine-press, and tread it again and again with active feet, and it shall always yield fresh sweetness, and give out even more and more luscious draughts to slake your thirst, if you know only how to use it. Dear, enduring, precious memorial of our crucified Lord, you charm away our fears. He never can forget us.

13. II. And now, briefly, not for lack of matter, but for lack of time:—WHAT WILL BE THE RESULT OF OUR BEING DAILY REMEMBERED LIKE THIS?

14. Children of God, God remembers you to make you joyful. How does the text run? “Sing, oh heavens, and be joyful, oh earth.” The Lord, who thinks of you, will give you heydays and holidays sometimes. You shall not always be in the dark. Do you remember how John Bunyan describes it, that after Giant Despair’s head had been cut off, Mr. Ready-to-Halt, and, Miss Much-Afraid, and Miss Despondency, all of them had a feast, and they had a dance, too, and Mr. Ready-to-Halt leaped on his crutches. The very weakest and most limping among God’s saints sometimes have their times of joys and rejoicing, and so shall you. You daughters of depression, you sons of sorrow, God has inscribed you on the palms of his hands. You have had your evenings, you shall have your mornings; you have had your droughts, you shall have your floods.

15. If God remembers us, we may rest assured that he will provide for all our needs. If the shepherd remembers the sheep, the sheep shall not starve. If the gardener remembers the plant, it will be cared for. God, who is the great gardener, remembering the plants of his garden, says, “I will water them every moment.” If the mother remembers her babe, it is to give him all he needs, and lull his griefs to rest. God will give us all we need. Sons of poverty, you who feel your need, be of good comfort: you are inscribed on the palms of Jehovah’s hands.

16. We shall not lack any good thing if he remembers us, so let us reflect that we shall get chastened sometimes. A child forgotten by its parent, never feels the rod. I have been comforted sometimes when I have been smarting, to think I was not quite cast off. The goldsmith will not put a common stone into the furnace. He places some value on what he spends his coals on. If the Lord afflicts you, oh heir of heaven, he has not cast you away: be sure of that. The refining that you are undergoing proves that he sets a price on you. He has taken trouble and care with you. By the furnace, maybe, he will deliver you from your dross and your sin. Oh! to be remembered, even if it is with a blow, is better than to be forgotten, and to be left to riot in this world’s pleasures. Let me be, my God, only able to know I am yours by your rod, sooner than have to live in doubt and fear concerning whether I am yours or not. If God remembers us like this, and we get chastened, we may also know that we shall have consolation in chastening, and be delivered in due time out of the trial.

17. If you are inscribed on the palms of God’s hands, though you should have to lie long and pine on that couch of suffering, he will not forget you. Oh! my dear young friends, whose pale faces often grieve me when I see you sad, let us look up to God for comfort. Though you are marked for death, he does not forget you; he will cheer those days of growing weakness, and as you get nearer to the grave you will also get nearer to heaven. Many a poor woman lying in a lone cottage, or dying in a workhouse, has had more joy than some of the princes of earth in all their wealth and pride. Christ never leaves those who are his in the world, but to them he reveals himself more sweetly than to others.

18. I would like to say to every child of God here, because God remembers you, all that you lose between here and heaven he will be sure to give you. All you ask for that is right, you shall have, and a great deal you never thought of asking for; you shall have as much sweet and as much bitter; you shall have as much of everything that is good for you, as shall be best, and afterwards you shall have the fulness, you shall have the glory; for, being inscribed on the palms of God’s hands, he will not forget to bring you home to the place where he is, and to appoint you a mansion among his own chosen.

19. I wish I could speak more at large on this, but we have hurried over it. Only take it home: chew the cud on this. It is worth it. Here are subjects for meditation that any thoughtful mind may bring out. If God remembers me, it is all I need. You know that verse we sometimes sing that ends, “This my Father knows; this my Father knows.” Oh! yes, your needs, he sees them all. Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of these things. There is nothing more required to comfort your hearts. If he knows it is good for you, you shall have it.

20. III. And now to close, who is it that is:—THE OBJECT OF THIS REMEMBRANCE?

21. “I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.” “You”—pass it around. Let each one before God, as though he saw Christ on the judgment throne, ask himself, “Am I inscribed on the palms of Jesus’ hands—am I?” It is nothing that his whole Church is there—his Zion. He is immediately thinking of his truly blood-bought, regenerate people—there they are—all there. He has in his eyes the circumstances as he has on his hands the names of many who are greatly afflicted.

22. Notice the context of the passage, it is to the afflicted that he is speaking there. He says, “The Lord will have mercy on his afflicted,” and he says that their names are on his hand. Do not say, then, that you are not the Lord’s, because you are afflicted. Because you are low in circumstances, or sick in body, do not conclude, therefore, that you are not in Christ, but rather pray more earnestly than ever that these trials may be greatly sanctified to you. Nor, beloved, do not conclude that you are not Christ’s, because you feel you are sinful. Observe how the context runs, “He will have mercy on his afflicted.” Now mercy is for sinners. I may be a sinner, but yet inscribed on the hands of Christ; for, indeed, all whose names are written there are by nature guilty, but they have obtained mercy. The greatness of my past guilt does not prove that I had no interest in Christ. If I have faith in him; if I come and put my trust in him, then my name is written on the palms of his hands.

23. But is it so, dear reader? Is it so? Have you trusted Christ or not? Answer, I say again, as though Christ were here on the throne of his judgment. Answer now. Do you rest your soul only on Jesus Christ? If you do, all that is implied in having yourself imprinted on the hands of Christ is yours. Take it—enjoy it—be glad. What consolation should this Scripture itself afford! But if you have not believed, do not touch these sweet things, but rather say, “Lord, help me to believe tonight.” To believe is only to trust—to rest yourself on Christ. Watts calls it falling:—

   A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,

      On thy kind hands I fall.

24. Here I am leaning now on this rail. If this that I lean on fails me, down I must go. I have no other support. Lean just like this on Christ. You have seen a fainting person at last throw himself back on another. Do that to Christ; faint away into Christ. Relax all your own power—let it all go. That sham power you think you have, and that merit you think you have, and all the hopes you ever had—let them all go, and now drop into Christ’s arms. I have heard it said that if a man would only lie still when he falls into the water—lie on his back—he would float, but the tendency is to struggle. Do not struggle, sinner, after righteousness in your own strength: fall back and rest on the infinite love of God in Christ Jesus. It is all you have to do; to stop doing, and let Christ do everything; and when Christ has done that everything, then you shall begin doing again on quite another principle—not with a view to merit, but out of gratitude to him who saved you. I pray that some may be saved tonight in this house. Before they go down those steps, may some of you look to Jesus. There is life in a look.

25. I cannot help bringing out these simple truths many times, but they are constantly forgotten. Those who were bitten by the serpent in the wilderness did not have anything to say, did not have anything to feel, did not have anything to think of; all they had to do was just to look to the serpent lifted on the pole: and you have nothing to do, or feel, or be, in and of yourself; all you have to do is to look straight away to Christ. There is not any good thing in you. Know that to begin with. You say, “But I am bad.” I know you are; you are ten thousand times worse than you think you are, bad as you may conceive yourself to be—worse than that by fifty thousand times, but your goodness is in Jesus, your hope is in Jesus. Look straight away now to those dear wounds of Jesus; look straight to him; and if you perish trusting in Christ, you will be the first sinner that ever perished there. It will be a novelty in hell, and the news will be spread on earth, and even in heaven, that there was a sinner who trusted Christ and then perished. Farewell to the gospel then. Put away the Bible. We are finished with Christ himself if that could be true. But it never can be. “Whoever comes to me, I will by no means cast out.” Look, man; look, woman; look, child; whoever you may be, there is life in a look at the Crucified One, there is life at this moment for you. Look, sinner; look to him and be saved. Look to Jesus, who died on the tree. May God bless you all for Christ’s sake. Amen.

Expositions By C. H. Spurgeon {Isa 42:1-17 43:18-25 Ro 10:1-19}

This book might well be called “the gospel according to Isaiah,” for it is full of evangelical truth.

Isaiah 42

1. Behold my servant, whom I uphold: my elect, in whom my soul delights I have put my Spirit on him: he shall bring justice to the Gentiles.

Of whom does the prophet speak this, but of the Messiah—Jesus of Nazareth? He was upheld by the mighty power of God. He was the Lord’s chosen. The Spirit of God rested on him, and today this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears, for he has brought righteousness to the Gentiles.

2. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.

He shall be no clamorous seeker after applause. He shall not shout as those who seek for the mastery. Now the Saviour was quiet, gentle, meek, and humble. When he lifted up his voice, it was for God and for the sons of men—not for himself. He was meek and lowly of heart.

3. He shall not break a bruised reed, and he shall not quench the smoking flax: he shall bring out justice for truth.

How exactly these words describe the Lord Jesus! He was so gentle that he did not break or break off the bruised reeds. We read that he did not answer the scribes and Pharisees. They were so powerless—such bruised reeds in his esteem—such worthless, smoking flaxes—that he left them alone until eventually he came to bring out justice to victory. And now the weak, the feeble, the gentle, the poor in spirit, shall never find Christ to deal harshly with them. “He will not break the bruised reed: he will not quench the smoking flax.”

4. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, until he has established justice in the earth and the isles shall wait for his law.

Oh! what a blessed thing it is that we have a Saviour to trust in, who will not fail, and he is one who will never be discouraged. He will carry out the salvation of his people, and never give it up as a hopeless case. Poor sinner, if he begins with you, he will not fail nor be discouraged; nor will be even with the whole earth. He will not take back his hand until surely all flesh shall see the glory of the Lord. He who has undertaken man’s redemption is not feeble of spirit and easily baffled. He shall not fail or be discouraged.

5, 6. Thus says God the Lord, he who created the heavens, and stretched them out; he who spread out the earth, and what comes out of it; he who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it: “I the Lord have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will keep you, and give you for a covenant of the people, for a light to the Gentiles;

See what God has made his Son, Jesus Christ. If you want to have a part in the covenant of grace, you only have to lay hold on Christ, for Christ is given as a covenant to the people. He is the embodiment of the covenant—the sum and substance of it—the seal of it—the surety of it. He is, indeed, the covenant itself. And if you want light, you only have to get Christ. He is the light of the world, and here we are told that God has given him for a light to the Gentiles.

7. To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison-house.

Hear this, you melancholy ones, you who are desponding, you who cannot get out of the prison of bad habits, or shake off the chains of sin. Behold a liberator has come—one whose very business it is to open the firmly closed cells of sin, and set the captives of Satan free.

8, 9. I am the Lord: that is my name: and I will not give my glory to another, neither my praise to carved images. Behold, the former things are come to pass, and I declare new things: before they happen I tell you about them.”

One great proof of the truth of the deity of Jehovah is that he can foresee and foretell, so that long before events happen he makes them known. Now Isaiah, by God’s Spirit, told the Israelites concerning Christ hundreds of years before Christ came; and yet the details are so precise that one might almost think that they were written after the event. But does God not know; and is he not the God who sees through the mists of ages, and looks at the things that are to be as though they were? Truly he is God.

10, 11. Sing to the Lord a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it; the isles, and its inhabitants. Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.

For the coming of Christ is the coming of music into the world. When he hung on the cross, new stars were lit up to cheer earth’s night. No, what if I say that the sun itself had risen then to chase away the darkness once and for all? Oh Lamb of God. Creation made the angels sing; but redemption makes us fallen men to sing, for it lifts us up to sit among the angels, through your most precious blood.

12. Let them give glory to the Lord, and declare his praise in the islands.

Now for his enemies. While God is so graciously dealing with men, he determines to make an end of the powers of evil.

13. The Lord shall go out as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yes, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies.

Do not imagine that the gods of the heathen will always sit on their thrones—that the powers of antichrist will always darken the earth. Ah! no. God will bestir himself before long.

14. “I have held my peace for a long time; I have been still, and refrained myself: now I will cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once.

Oh! what a time will that be when God comes out in the splendour of his power to put down all the hosts of evil.

15. I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their vegetation: and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.

What an awe-inspiring God he is! When he once reaches out his hand for deeds of justice and of vengeance, who can stand before him, but yet see how his mercy walks arm-in-arm with his justice?

16. And I will bring the blind by the way that they did not know; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them and crooked things straight. I will do these things for them, and not forsake them.

Oh! the condescension of God that even when his right arm is bared for war, and thunder girds his cloudy chariot, yet he still stoops out of the chariot of wrath to look after poor, blind, helpless souls, and lead them in the way of peace and mercy. But as for his enemies:—

17. They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, who trust in carved images, that say to the molten images, ‘You are our gods.’”

Isaiah 43

18, 19. “Do not remember the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing: now it shall spring out; shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

Do not imagine that what God has done in the past will never be repeated. It will be excelled: he will do even greater things. Of all the mercy and love which God has shown, we may say that these are only prophecies of what he will yet reveal. There are now things yet to come in which the splendour of his mercy shall be even more clearly seen than in all the former things.

20, 21. The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen. I have formed these people for myself; they shall proclaim my praise.

However barren your soul may be, and however all your surroundings may seem to be stamped with death, God can come and make you happy and blessed, and surround you with delights, and he will do it in order that in you, whom he has formed for himself, his praise may be seen.

22. But you have not called on me, oh Jacob.

Prayer has been neglected: praise has been suspended. There has been an ungracious negligence in the service of God. “You have not called on me, oh Jacob.”

22. But you have been weary of me, oh Israel.

“You thought the service long—thought the time for prayer came around too soon—refused to give to my cause, and said it was a tax. You have been weary of me, oh Israel.”

23. You have not brought me the small cattle of your burnt offerings; neither have you honoured me with your sacrifices. I have not caused you to serve with an offering, nor wearied you with incense.

“I have not taxed you. I have not drawn heavily on your resources.”

24. You have bought me no sweet cane with money, neither have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices.

“I left you to give or not to give, so that your free will might be seen in all your deeds of love, but nothing has come of it. On the contrary.”

24. But you have made me to serve with your sins, you have wearied me with your iniquities.

This is a solemn charge which God lays against his people. Now see the next verse and read it with wondering eyes.

25. I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your sins.”

He has pointed out the fault: he has shown that he is not forgetful of it; and then he pronounces absolution. The transgression is put away. Blessed be his name!

Now let us turn to the New Testament, and read in the Epistle to the Romans, the tenth chapter, and we shall see there the way in which pardon is brought home to the soul.

1-3. Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.

A fault—a pitiable and grievous fault—that men should be in earnest and very zealous, and yet nothing should come of it, because they spend that zeal in a wrong direction. Men would make themselves righteous. They would come before God in the apparel of their own works, whereas God has made a righteousness already, which he freely gives, and for us to try and produce another is to enter into rivalry with God—to insult his Son, and dishonour his name. May God grant that any here who are very zealous in a wrong direction may receive light and knowledge, and from now on turn their thoughts in the right way.

4, 5. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses describes the righteousness which is by the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.”

That is the righteousness of the law. We are not under that covenant now. We shall never attain to righteousness that way.

6-9. But the righteousness which is by faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who shall ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, “‘Who shall descend into the deep?’” (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what does it say? “The word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart” (that is the word of faith, which we preach): that if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.

How very simple! No climbing, no diving, no imagining, no long reckoning of the understanding, no straining of the mental faculties. It is just believe God’s testimony concerning his Son, and you shall be saved.

10, 11. For with the heart man believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in him shall not be ashamed.” For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek;

[Gentile] in this matter.

12, 13. For the same Lord over all is rich to all who call on him. For “whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

This was the old prophecy of Joel. The Jews knew it. It is the new teaching of the gospel. The Gentiles know it. Oh! who would not wish to be in that broad “whoever,” so that he might find salvation?

14, 15. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, unless they are sent? as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”

So that, properly looked at, the humblest preacher of the gospel stands in the most solemn relationship towards mankind. His Master sends him. He tells his message. Men hear it, believe it, and by it are saved. Happy is the messenger. Well may his heart rejoice, even when his soul is heavy, because he has such work to do in his Master’s name.

16. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?”

And what Isaiah says, many many preachers since have had to say. “Woe, woe to us for this.”

17-19. So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, “Have they not heard?” Yes, truly, their sound went into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. But I say, “Did not Israel know?”

Did not the Jewish people have a time of hearing and instruction? Certainly they knew, and they also knew that the gospel was not to be confined to them. They had a warning that it should even be taken from them and sent to other nations.