The incorrigibleness of man under all persuasions becomes the ground of the necessity and the vindication of the righteousness of God's judgment.
Isaiah says, "Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more." And Jeremiah had to say of the generation in his day, "Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved"; and again, "I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done?" Are we then to wonder that the sword of the Chaldean entered the land?
The generation in the day of Christ was tested in every way. John mourned, the Son of man piped; but there was neither lamentation nor dancing (Matt. 11). In His own Person, the Lord assayed Israel in every way, according to their own prophets. He came as the Bethiehemite, according to Micah, but they sought his life (Matt. 2). He came as the light from the land of Zebulon and Naphtali, according to Isaiah; but He was challenged instead of followed (Matt. 4). He came as the King, meek and lowly (Zech. 9:99Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. (Zechariah 9:9)), but they received Him not (Matt. 21).
Then in the three parables which the Lord delivers at the close of these testings of Israel (see Matt. 21 and 22)—I mean those of the two sons, the husbandman of the vineyard, and the marriage of the king's son—He convicts His people under the law, under the ministry of John the Baptist, and under grace.
Are we not, therefore, prepared to see the Master rise up to shut to the door? The need of sovereign grace, as well as the vindication of judgment, is made to appear. "Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma." Rom. 9:2929And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha. (Romans 9:29). Man is past moral correction. He is incorrigible and incurable.
It has been said of him, Man is prone to evil, and this arises from the impotency of the will, which, when it turns to evil, is rather passive than active; through the grace of Christ alone it is free. Very just. Not only has man fallen from God and become a sinner, but he is the bondman of sin. Having been overcome of Satan, he has been brought into bondage to him (2 Pet. 2). He is "sold under sin" (Rom. 7:1414For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. (Romans 7:14)).
And this state of incurableness and incorrigibleness has had a constant illustration in the Book of God, from the beginning to the end. Man has shown himself to be in full bondage to sin so that he will go in the way of it in defiance of every argument and every influence which may be used with him.
It is solemn to look at this, but it has its profit for us to do so. We can have no difficulty tracing a line of these illustrations all through Scripture.
Cain went on with the desperate purpose of his heart, though the Lord came and pleaded with him to turn him from his purpose (Gen. 4).
Nimrod made Babel the center of his empire, though God's judgment had just before so awfully signalized that place (Gen. 10).
Pharaoh repented not to yield himself under God's hand, though that hand had given witness after witness of its supremacy, and had demonstrated that it was vain to kick against the pricks (Exod. 1 and 14).
Amalek fought with Israel, though the glory in the pillar and the water from the rock were before him, the witnesses of God's wondrous majesty and power (Exod. 17:8-168Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. 9And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. 10So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. 13And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. 14And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. 15And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi: 16For he said, Because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. (Exodus 17:8‑16)).
Israel murmured and rebelled again and again in the midst of divine marvels and mercies which spoke to them of love and almightiness (Numbers).
Judas betrayed the Lord after years of converse with Him (Matt. 26).
The high priest invented a lie in the face of a rent veil; the Roman soldiers consented to that lie in the face of a rent tomb (Matt. 28).
The Jews stoned Stephen, though his face was shining under their eye like the face of an angel (Acts 7).
These are among the samples or instances of the fact that man by nature is under bondage to sin, and that no moral influence is powerful enough to work his deliverance. The creature that has proved itself able to withstand such arguments and persuasives as these cases exhibit has proved itself to be beyond the reach of all moral influence. Hell itself would not cure him or deter him. Man is incorrigible and incurable. Again, we may say with Isaiah, "Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more." Sovereign grace and power must come in. If God have not a seed it will all be Sodom.
The Apocalypse (Revelation), closing the Book of God, closes also this testimony against man. There, in the face of the most awful judgments executed again and again, man refuses to repent, going on the rather to ripen his iniquity like Pharaoh of old, upon whom plague after plague spent itself all in vain. And thus, we may say, this book of the Apocalypse (which is eminently a book of divine judgments—judgments not on Israel only, but on the whole world) is the vindication or justification, as well as the history of judgment. We read there of judgments; but we learn at the same time the necessity and demand for judgment. For the incorrigibleness of man, the desperate hardness of the heart, is fully exposed again. It is Pharaoh refusing to repent, Amalek defying and insulting the glory, or man as well as Israel saying, Where is the "God of judgment"? Man is found to be the same from first to last. The Ethiopian has not changed his skin, nor the leopard his spots.
Are we then, I still ask, to wonder that the Lord's hand is still stretched out! that seals, trumpets, and vials have still to usher forth the judgments of God, and that the sword of Him who sits upon the white horse has still to do its work of death?
Judgment is God's strange work, but it is His needed work likewise. When we have looked at these cases and read the history of the trial of man's heart from the beginning to the end of it, we may surely ask, Is there not a cause? And I am sure it is well for the soul to hold this fact—this truth about man and his incorrigibleness—in remembrance; for as I have been observing, it justifies the thought of divine judgment, and tells us of the necessity of sovereign grace and the interference of divine power.
Judgments are to introduce the kingdom. The earth is to be conducted into a scene of glory by the taking out of it all that offends and does iniquity. For as grace has been despised and the Lord who made the world has been disowned and cast out of the world, judgment must clear it ere it can be the scene of His glory and joy.