(Read Isa. 14:9-259Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. 10All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? 11Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. 12How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. 15Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. 16They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; 17That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners? 18All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house. 19But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet. 20Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned. 21Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities. 22For I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the Lord. 23I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts. 24The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: 25That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. (Isaiah 14:9‑25).)
IT is as a just God and a Saviour that the Lord presents Himself to us in this chapter. If He were not just, He could not be a Saviour; and it is the knowledge that He is just, that makes salvation so sweet. It is not salvation at the expense of justice, since it is perfectly righteous in all its details; for while it picks up sinners like you or me, and sets us in glory, it does it in perfect righteousness.
This passage opens with a word of counsel to one who is opposed to his Maker. I feel it is a beautiful answer to all the spinnings of man's mind as to how man was formed on the earth. God tells me His own story here.
"Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker!” Are you striving with Him? You will 'get the worst of it if you do. You cannot get out of it. There never was a man yet that did not get the worst of it, and you will find it out sometime. If you want to strive, strive with the potsherds of the earth. “Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?”
Some men say that God did not make us right; and others, He did not make us at all; that we are only developed monkeys, and so forth. O how God's Word meets all these sayings of to-day in His Word. We do not need to go out of it to answer them all.
“Woe to him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth? Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons; and concerning the work of my hands command ye me." How beautiful is the patience of God, thus to answer all these questions that rise in men's minds I They are all skeptical; and what does skepticism do? It leads men to doubt everything, and believe nothing. Beloved friend, I beseech you, if you have got tinctured by any of the infidelity of the present day, submit your mind to God's word. I like this saying,—I think it is Lord Bacon's,—" Never let what you do not understand upset what you do; for what you do not understand is connected with ignorance, and what you do understand is based on knowledge.”
You ask me, Then you believe what you do not understand? I say, Yes for when I do not understand I believe what God tells me. I see there is love in His heart to poor sinners, and that, through the cross of Christ, He can save and bless us; so I trust Him for all the rest.
The first thing you have got to learn is, that God is in downright earnest; He will even expostulate with you. "Ask of me," He says. I am the person to whom to come; I will explain it all to you. And the more a soul goes to God about a thing, the clearer it becomes, People have written many books about how the earth was created; but one line from God is enough. “I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their hosts have I commanded.” He speaks in a way that might win all hearts. Where science runs counter to Scripture, I prefer Scripture; for science is sometimes wrong, but Scripture never.
The heart says, " Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself." Man's thoughts still! Does He hide Himself? O no! The Light has come into the world, and shone in the darkness, as the first chapter of John's Gospel tells us. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." As long as the day of law went eon, God was hidden; but He has come out, in the person of His Son, into your world, that He might be able in righteousness to take you into His world. “No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." He has been declared in the person of His Son.
“They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols. But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end." The application of this Scripture is primarily to Israel, but it is also general, as the end of the chapter shows. If you are groping for truth, and seeking after God, how this Scripture meets your need Do you ask, How can salvation be for the sinner? It comes from the hand of a just God. How beautiful is the prophetic promise here, "Ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end." If you turn to Him and believe, then you will be able to say,—
“Bold shall I stand in that great day,
For who aught to my charge shall lay?”
The soul that has turned to Jesus, looked to Him, and lived, will stand calm, in the day when worlds will crash together. There is no fear in that heart in the Day of Judgment, but the deepest thankfulness to the Son of Man who has saved.
The Lord says that He has never spoken in secret, nor said, Seek ye Me in vain. No, Jesus came "to seek and to save the lost." When any one, at the end of a gospel meeting, says, Thank God I have found the Lord, I am not surprised; because the Lord has been looking for that one. It is when one is first converted that he says so; afterward he says, when looking back to that time, “the Lord found me then." He thinks more of what Christ has done than of himself now.
This is not only spoken of the heathen, for there are plenty of people here who are in the deepest darkness as to how they are to be saved. They think they must go regularly to church, say their prayers, and trust Christ too. Oh yes, they must trust Him too. Ah I but the trusting Christ comes last with them. If you had ever turned to Him in earnest, you would have been saved long ago, but you have been going on in a wrong way.
“There is no God else besides me; a just God, and a Saviour: there is none besides me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else." How sweet! how simple Will He make light of sin? Impossible I Will He pass one over? Impossible' "The wages of sin is death." Who will pay them? If I pay them I shall never get out of death; but if Christ pays them for me, then I am saved.
I want you to notice most carefully that God is a just God, absolutely holy. The gospel truth is this, that Christ suffered for sins, He came to bear the wages of sin due to me. The result is, the deliverance of the soul that looks to Him. Adam heard this, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Had God reprieved his life, His words would not have been true. But every claim of divine justice has been perfectly met by Christ. Death might come to me and say, "You are a sinner." "Yes." "Then you are mine, I claim you." "No,” I say, "you cannot claim me, for Christ has come in and paid all my debt." Look at him He is dead, but who for? For me, I know; I cannot speak for you. But faith says, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." The sting has been planted in the very bosom of Christ.
Again remark, there was the broken law, and the penalty was death; but there was something deeper than that still,—there was sin, and that was met in the cross. But I look up and see Him,— Christ, in glory now,—the One who was made sin, who at that moment was taking up all the question of sin, when He was forsaken of God, that we might never be. He is on the throne of God now, the witness of accomplished redemption, in the triumph of life over death. It is like letting poor prisoners out of their prison, on showing them the receipts for debts all paid. How many, do you think, would believe it? Would you?
Was it just in God, who ever acts holily, to forsake the Lord when He was bearing sin on the cross? It was. In Psa. 22, Jesus justifies God in forsaking Him, saying, "But Thou art holy.” He knew that the sinner and God could only meet in judgment. Then, the work of salvation done, God hastened to raise His Son from the dead; and on the third day you see an empty tomb, the clothes all lying in order. No baste, no hurry, but divine calm and power. The clothes lie untenanted, and the napkin that was about His head wrapped in a place by itself. Jesus is risen. Now, He says, "Because I live, ye shall live also." What do you say? Blessed Saviour, I am thine for evermore?
God was just in raising His Son, and the same righteousness saves every sinner that looks to Him. I am "a just God and a Saviour." "Look unto me, and be ye saved." How am I to be saved? He tells you, look to Him. I look up to Jesus, and am saved. O, you say, it is too simple. Well, read it again.
“LOOK UNTO ME, AND BE YE SAVED.”
To whom is it spoken? To all the ends of the earth. Does that take you in? Are you conscious of your need and danger? Will you not look up at the glorified One? Look, that is all; trembling sinner, look; anxious one, look up. "Be ye saved." When? His word answers it. "Be ye saved." It is so simple; there is not a word about prayer. You look, and He saves; you cannot look and not be saved.
Well, I should like to feel saved. Ah I there is not a word about that. I remember visiting a dying girl; she was anxious about her soul, and wept profusely, as she believed she was lost. I asked her if she was looking to Jesus. "Yes." Are you saved then? "No, I do not feel it." I said, " But it does not say, Look, and feel saved; but "Look, and be saved." She saw it on the spot. O, my friend, take Him at His word. "Be ye saved," is the word that comes from heaven.
“I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return., That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear." How blessed to bow to Him now? The experimental thing will come after you believe. O do not forget, that every knee shall bow to Him. This scripture is applied to Jesus in Phil. 2, a striking proof that, though man, yet He is God. You will have to render this homage to a man, but, thank God, more than man, God, a Saviour God. Whosoever looks to Him is saved. W. T. P. W.