Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vols. 13–63

Verses 1, 2. Comfort you, comfort you My people, says your God. Speak you comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she has received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins.God would have His people happy. He knows that we are not in strong, vigorous state, neither do we honor His name while we are lacking in holy joy. Let the sinners be uncomfortable. Let them be "like the troubled sea that cannot rest." But as for God's people, it is His great joy that they should be happy. He bids His servants again and again to comfort them! Sometimes we are in a condition of warfare and we are under the chastising rod, but now the Lord appears graciously to His servants, and He says, "Your warfare is over: your chastisement is ended." Now the Lord returns in mercy and He grants a sense of forgiven sin.

3. The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare you the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.You know this was John the Baptist coming to proclaim the Savior. That was the best comfort God's people could have—the coming of the Lord. So it is now. The joy of the Church is the coming of the Lord! And toeach one of us the greatest source of joy is the drawing near to us of our Lord. If He appears to us, our winter is over, our summer's sun has come! If Christ is with us, the time of the singing of birds has come and our heart is glad.

4, 5. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places, plain: And the Glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it Wherever Christ comes, it is so. All things are right at His appearing and if the Lord but manifests Himself to us tonight, each one, we shall find the crooked things made straight. We shall see the mountains of difficulty, leveled, and the deep depressions will all be filled up and there will be a causeway along which the Lord triumphantly shall ride to display the greatness of His power! There is nothing that shall hinder the coming of the Lord to us, and when He comes, there is nothing that shall stand against Him!

6-8. The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the fields. The grass withers, the flower fades because the breath of the LORD blows upon it: surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades: but the Word of our God shall stand forever Now that is a cry that we all need to hear—the death cry of all creature confidence—for man at his very best is only like grass and the flower. They will be mown down in due time, but if the scythe comes not near them, yet will they fade in their season, for they are transient things and every hope and confidence which is based upon that which is seen, must be temporal and must pass away. All the joy that you have tonight—all the hope and all the confidence you have which is based upon an earthly thing— must, by degrees, all disappear. Nothing is eternal but that which springs out of the Eternal. Unless our hope is in the Lord, alone, that hope will at some time or other fail us! This is a cry we need to hear because, until we are sick of the creature, we shall not turn to the Creator! Till we have done with false confidences, we shall not make God our trust!

9. O Zion, that brings good tidings, get you up into the high mountain! O Jerusalem, that brings good tidings, lift up your voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! Look away from these fading things and behold your God. Look away from the brightest joy you have, though it is like the meadow, all alive with many colored flowers, and look to your God, and to your God, alone! "Behold your God"—your God in Christ! Your God who has come through the wilderness, making a highway for Himself, that He may come to you. Rejoice in Christ, your Savior, and you shall have a joy that never shall be taken from you!

10. 11. Behold, the Lord God will come with a strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him: behold, His rewards are with Him, and His work before Him. He shall feed His flock like a shepherd. Do you belong to the flock tonight? Then let this comfort you. Never mind about the fading flowers. "He shall feed His flock like a shepherd." He has brought you into the pasture tonight. Depend upon it, He has not led you by a wrong way. And now, though your soul is hungry and thirsty, you shall not lack, for, "He shall feed His flock like a shepherd."

11. He shall gather the lambs with His arm. The feeblest, first. The most care for those that need most care. "He shall gather the lambs with His arm."

11. And carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. Your sorrow is to come. It is known to yourself alone. None can sympathize with you. He will gently lead you. There is no overdriving with Christ. Sometimes His ministers, in order to get God's people right, one way, overdrive them another, and it is possible while rebuking the hypocrite, to cause grief to the sincere Believer, but our Lord is a better Shepherd than the under shepherds are at their very best. "He shall gather the lambs with His arm, carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." Oh, what a blessed Helper we have! Let us rest in Him.

12-17. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out Heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being His counselor, has taught Him? With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him and taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and showed to Him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance. Behold, He takes up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before Him are as nothing: and they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity. Who would not trust such a God as this—this only God? How well may we be content to turn away from the fading creatures to this eternal Lord and put our trust in Him! Indeed, the wonder is that we trust the creature and do not trust the mighty Creator! Faith, which seems so difficult, after all, is nothing better than sanctified commonsense! It is the most commonsensething in all the world to trust in Omnipotence—in infinite, unchanging love—in Infallible Truth. To trust anywhere else needs a great deal of justification, but to trust in God needs no apology. He well deserves it. O My soul, trust you in

Him!

25, 26. To whom, then, willyou liken Me, or shall Ibe equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and behold who has created these things that bring out their host by number: He calls them all by names by the greatness of His might for that He is strong in power; not one is missing. There is no other power that hangs yon lamps of Heaven in their places and keeps them always burning, except the power of His Word! This whole round earth of ours hangs on nothing but the bidding of the Most High. I remember how Luther used to console himself in troublous times by saying, "Look at yonder arch of blue. There is not a pillar to hold it up, and yet, whoever saw the skies fall?" Nothing but the power of God keeps them up. My Soul, if all the worlds were made by His Word, cannot you hang on that Word? If all things exist but by the will and Word of your Father, can He not support you, and can you not trust Him? Oh, this confidence in the invisible and eternal ought to be natural to us as God's children! But, alas, here is our great sin—that we frequently trust in an arm of flesh and forget our God!

27. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment ispassed over from my God?He forgets no star among the myriads, no creature among the multitudes. He has marked in His book the track of every single atom of air and every particle of dust, and every drop of spray—how can you be forgotten?

28, 29. Have you not known?Have you not heard that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator ofthe ends of the earth faints not, neither is weary? There is no searching of His understanding. He gives power to the faint. He loves to pour out into empty vessels. He does not give His power to the strong, but, "He gives power to the faint," and the more faint you are, the more room for His strength. Trust in Him! If you are so burdened that you cannot stand, lean on Him! The more you lean, the better will He love you. He delights to help His people. "He gives power to the faint."

29- 30. And to them that have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall.We sometimes wish that we were as young as some, and that we had all their overflowing spirit—all the effervescence of their juvenile ardor. Ah, well, we need not wish for it, for mere mortal power shall droop and die—and earthly vigor cease—while such as trust the Lord shall find their strength increased. "Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall."

31. But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength: they shall mount up with wings as eagles—That is very much when they begin. They are all for flying and God gives them a glorious flight, and they are so happy and so delighted. But they will do better than that!

31. They shall run, and not be weary. Is that better than flying? Yes it is—a better pace to keep up, but God enables His servants at length to stay along the road of duty and to run in it. But there is even a better pace than that!

31. And they shall walk and not faint. It is a good steady pace. It is the pace that Enoch kept when he walked with God. Sometimes it is easier to take a running spurt than it is to keep on, day by day—walk, walk, walk in the sobriety of Christian conversation. Many under excitement can run a race, but it is the best of all to be able to steadily to walk on, walking with God the Lord. The Lord bring us to that pace! "They shall walk and not faint."

JOHN129-42.

Verse 29. The next day John saw Jesus coming unto him, and said, Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.John lost no time. He had no sooner discovered the Savior than he bore witness of Him. "The next day." As soon as ever his eyes lighted upon Jesus, he had his testimony ready for Him. "Behold!" he said, "the Lamb of God."

30- 33. This is He of whom Isaid, After me comes a Man which ispreferred before me: for He was before me. AndI knew Him not: but that He should manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John bore record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from Heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him. And I knew Him not. At first.

33, 34. But He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom you shallsee the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I saw and bare record, that this is the Son of God.Notice how very clear John is. There is no mistaking him. He repeated himself lest there should be any possibility of an error. And he gives the detail of the mode by which he recognized the Savior, in order that all might be persuaded to accept Jesus as in very truth the Messiah and the Son of God! And so we are to preach very plainly—not with enticing words of men's wisdom—but with demonstration of the Spirit and with power. What have we to conceal? No, we have everything to reveal and our business is that men should be convinced that Jesus is the Christ—and should come and put their trust in Him.

35, 36. Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as He walked, he said, Behold the Lamb of God!There is no objection to preaching the same sermon twice if it is on such a matter as this! "Behold the Lamb of God," he said one day. And the next day he did not vary the phraseology. He had no new metaphor— no new figure with which to set forth Christ, but, as striking a nail upon the head and the same nail will help to fasten it, and may do more service than bringing out a new nail, so he gets to the same word and the same subject—"Behold the

Lamb of God."

37. And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. They went beyond their teacher. And oh, what a mercy it is if our hearers can go Christward far beyond us! John was well content to be left behind if they followed Jesus, and so may any minister of Christ rejoice if his people will follow Jesus, even if they go far beyond his attainments.

38. Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and said unto them, What do you seek?Christ wants intelligent followers, so He asks the question, "What do you seek?"

38, 39. They said unto Him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master), where do You dwell?He said unto them, Come and see.Which is often His answer to enquirers—"Come and see." "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good." Learn by experience. Do not merely hear what I say, but come and see.

39-42. They came and saw where He dwelt, and abode with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two which heard John speak and followed Him, was Andre w, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother, Simon, and said unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. This is how the Kingdom began to grow—by individual effort. "Andrew found Simon"—one convert must bring another—"and He brought Him to Jesus."

42. And when Jesus beheld him, He said, You are Simon, the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A Stone.There was a meaning in the change of names, for there was about to be a change of character— the timid son of a dove soon to become a very rock for the Church!