Although the whole of His word is of himself or from himself, and woe be to us if we undervalue any part of his word; I speak not of a woe of destruction, but I am sure of a woe of loss; although the whole be God's word, yet there is emphasis in this"Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, SAITH YOUR GOD." It is the GOD of comfort, the GOD of all comfort that here speaks comfortably to his people. And what is the message he sends to them? It is concerning the consolation of Israel. And by whom does he speak effectually? It is by the Holy Spirit, the Comforter; and the more you and I know of him as the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the more shall we understand these few words "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your GOD." I know there is a danger of our thinking too much of comfort, and one may only value the word preached as it administers comfort; this is a great error, because all Scripture is given by inspiration of GoD, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, as well as for comfort; although I do believe that the word that comforts us the most is often that which reproves us the most deeply. But whilst there is a danger of valuing truth preached according to the measure of comfort it affords at the time, still most surely the whole tenor of the Gospel is an administration of comfort. If you turn to the second chapter of Hosea and the fourteenth verse, you will see how the Lord deals with his people; and I trust some of us can transcribe it out of that chapter into our own lives, and say, thus hath the Lord dealt with "Therefore, behold, I will allure her"-I will draw her gently step by step as she is able to bear it-I will deal gently with her-I will not overdrive the little ones, nor despise those that are with young; but I will allure her; let who will despise her I will me. not-let who will deal harshly with her I will not; "I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness," and when she is there, I will not leave her to be terrified in the wilderness, but there I will "speak comfortably unto her." It is the whole administration of GOD, it is the whole tenor of his dealings providentially and graciously. He allures her into the wilderness, and there he speaks comfortably unto her. I need hardly remind you of our Lord's legacy which I lately preached upon— "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” But there are other portions of the word to which I would call your attention. When the Apostle Paul, in the fifteenth chapter of the Romans and fourth verse, speaks of the Scriptures, he says, "Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning; that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." So that one great end which even the Scriptures have in view, is not only to lead us to patience in suffering, but to comfort us under suffering. You will observe, too, that when the apostle speaks of prophesying, in the first epistle to the Corinthians, fourteenth chapter, third verse, he says, "He that prophesieth, speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort." When the same apostle speaks of his own tribulation in the second epistle, first chapter, sixth verse, he says, "And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation, and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation." Turn to the epistle to the Thessalonians, and there observe how the apostle exhorts the Thessalonian church speaking of the coming of the Lord, "Then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up Then together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." observe, he says, "Wherefore comfort one another with these words"-encourage one another. And observe, in the eleventh verse of the next chapter, he says, "Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do ;" and in the fourteenth verse, "Comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men." Do not say they are dark and legal, but comfort them. Do not find fault with them, but comfort them and encourage them, and tell them they must look out of themselves to Christ in order to be comforted. So that we find the Lord whether he speak by his gracious dealings, his providential dealings, or whether he speak by his word, by his prophets, by his apostles, yet, still he says, "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people." But observe, The Lord is the Speaker. Oh, my dear hearers, it is one thing for man to speak comfort, it is another thing for God to speak comfort. Let it be our earnest prayer that with the word of Jehovah there may be power to-day. "When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble, and when he hideth his face, who then can behold him."-Job, xxxiv. 29. Let the affliction of the afflicted bear witness how he can dry up tears-let the trouble of the troubled bear witness how he can deliver and how he can support, how one word of his applied by his blessed Spirit can give a liberty, a quietness, and a rest the world knows nothing of. And while the world which lieth in darkness is a stranger to all real comfort, yet remember that GoD himself condescends to be the comforter of his people; and whilst he makes use of men, whilst he sends ministers, whilst in a sermon, in a conversation he may speak, yet it is himself that gives the comfort-nobody but himself. Now observe, Secondly, THE PER SONS THAT ARE HERE SPOKEN TO. "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people." The Lord has a people upon earthHe has never been without a people. He has a people whom he loveth, and has loved with an everlasting love-he chose them in his Son before the world was. These are they that are redeemed by precious blood-these are they that are called by sovereign grace-these are men that sigh and cry and mourn for inward sin-these are they that feel the festering plague within-these are they that are taught to mourn over secret principles as well as outward carnality. And if you ask them for the character of their spirits, they will tell you at once it is found in the seventh chapter of the Romans. "The good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do." Or if you contend against that interpretation of God's word-and I wonder if ye do so-yet I will take you to confessions you must make: "We have left undone what things thou hast commanded, and we have done what thou hast forbidden, and there is no health in us. Look not upon us, but look upon the face of thy anointed," Yes, the Lord has a people, and he loves them as the apple of his eye; and he has given costly proof of it; for he gave his own Son to die for their sins. It was for them he was wounded and bruised and put to grief. It was for them that he watered his couch with his tears. It was for them he was spit upon and bare reproach and contumely, and was content to die. It is for them he pleads in heaven at this moment. When you and I think upon our poor prayers-when we reflect upon our unpraising praises—when we think what sins have been committed within these walls when others have thought us, as our brother confessed to day in his prayer, so holy, living so near to God; and yet the heart knoweth its own bitterness, and a stranger intermeddleth not with it; but the Lord knoweth it altogether; yet in the midst of all, the Lord pleadeth at the right hand of God as our great intercessor; when we have ceased to pray, his prayers go up as much incense, and his boundless merit pleadeth louder for us than all our evil ingratitude can ever plead against us. The Lord has a people; and if he has a people he will try them, and they shall not be found summer flies just resting on the surface of things, but they shall be found to be those that know the truth in the power of it, and they shall be made to feel and experience the worth of it. It shall not be enough for them to say I am a sinner, but they shall feel the wretchedness of being a sinner, they shall not only confess that Christ is precious, but they shall be placed where they shall know him to be precious. Be assured, my dear hearers, there is nothing that lies more upon my heart at this present moment when I am preaching, than the full consciousness that when the Lord cometh he will find numbers that have thought themselves Christians, who have thought that they shall see and that they now know Christ, and when that solemn hour shall come, their profession shall be found to be nothing but a mere empty lamp in their hand. Oh, there is something deeply affecting in all this! God will try his own work-he will put his own people in trials and temptations, and there shall not be a grace of his spirit but what shall be tried. He will put his gold into the furnace he will put his people into the valley of humiliation in order that they may know and feel the worth of the great deliverer. The Lord has a people; and it is a most blessed consideration to reflect that while he has a people, he is their GOD. If you turn to the epistle to the Corinthians, sixth chapter and sixteenth verse, you read, “ And what agreement hath the temple of GoD with idols? for ye are the temple of the living GOD: as God hath said, I dwell in them, and I walk in them; and I will be their God and they shall be my people." Oh I hope never to forget that truth of that dear man of GOD Goodwin, describing all the blessings of the covenant, he says, "The covenant has all fulness, grandeur, and glory, yet the greatest of all is, that GoD is the GoD of his people-that he has made himself over as their GoD-that he not only has taken their nature-that he not only watches over them by night and by day, but that he has made himself over as their GoD-that there is not a perfection of his nature but what is their bulwark that there is not an attribute of his name but what is that wall of fire that surrounds them night and day." My dear hearers, if you have GoD for your God I will suppose you poor, and empty, and tried, and outwardly wretched-I will suppose you friendless and homeless-I will suppose the most destitute case that ever has been, or ever can be in this world, and yet if when you go to your cheerless residence you have GoD as your God, I would say with abasement and reverence of soul, you have more cause to bless GoD, you have more cause to adore him, you have more cause to shout for joy than the highest angel or archangel that is now surrounding his throne. Talk not of your wretchedness and your poverty and your disease-talk not of your weakness and nothingness, if God be your God not only heaven is your home but you have that without which heaven would not be worth the having. GOD has a people-no wonder then he comforts them-his eye is upon them from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. They are the salt But now observe the LORD'S MESSAGE UNTO HIS MINISTERS. "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people." of the earth to him, and he that touches | David had his courtiers-David had his them touches the apple of his eye. An harp-David was a man of taste and a unkind word to them is an unkind man of war, but what did David esword to himself, and every cup of cold teem to be that which made him blesswater given to them is the same as if ed? Look to the thirty-second Psalm : they gave it to the GoD of heaven. "Blessed is he whose transgression is Jesus himself tells you so he himself forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessproclaims it—" inasmuch as you have ed is the man unto whom the LORD done it unto the least of these my imputeth not iniquity, and in whose brethren, ye have done it unto me." spirit there is no guile." My dear brethren, the great contest Satan has with our consciences is about the pardon of our sins, be assured of it. When you and I draw near to death, or think we draw near to death, when something of a cold shiver comes on us that reminds us-thou mayst be summoned from time into eternity-this may be God's message to thy soul-this may be that moment when thy soul may be required of thee, be assured that Satan's great controversy with us will be about the pardon of our sins. And I would say, what can render a man peaceful at that moment? Do you want to weigh the world-bring out the scales of it-place a man under a wretched agonizing conscience, and then put before him all that is in the world—put the wife of his bosom, put his children weeping, put his estates, put his money, his titles, his rank, his influence, and he will tell you that they are all as the bubble that bursteth; but one view of God's pardoning love, a drop of that blood sprinkled on his heart, a sense of God's love shed abroad on his spirit by the Eternal Spirit, and how quietly can he then lay his head upon his pillow, how quietly can he commend himself into the arms of his Father when he can realize that truth "blessed is he whose iniquity is forgiven and whose sin is covered." Well might the people of GoD then be comforted by this truth that their sins have all been blotted out as a cloud, and as a thick cloud their transgressions-that though their sins be as scarlet, yet inasmuch as they have received Christ, they The great cause of comfort to a child of GOD may be summed up in a little sentence, through eternity he never shall come to the close of it. Christ is his portion; and if you turn to the first epistle of the Corinthians, third chapter, twenty-second and twenty-third verses, you find, that as he who has the cabinet has all that is in the cabinet, so he that has Christ, who is the rich gift of the Father's love to his church, he has all in him. Observe "Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." The Lord does not say, "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people," without giving them cause for comfort. They have Christ the consolation of Israel as their portion; they have all things because they have Christ, whether things present or things to come, all are yours because Christ is yours. The weakest believer has Christ, and he that has Christ has GOD, and he has every blessing in Christ whether it be for time or for eternity. And now let me point out some few of those great and glorious and stupendous mercies that flow to a child of God in consequence of his having Christ as his portion. He has that which made David glad. Look at the thirty-second Psalm. See what it was that David counted blessing. Just by the way remark, David had his throne have received all forgiveness in him, and by one drop of his blood they are washed as white as snow. But, my dear hearers, David found another cause of comfort; and if you turn to the seventy-third Psalm and Do you ask us for another ground the last verse, you shall find in what of comfort? See it in a covenant, or- he found it-a Throne of Grace: "It dered in all things.-2 Sam. xxiii. 5. is good for me to draw near to Precious verse. Those fathers must love GOD." There is no mercy on earth it, I think, who have the love of GoD in greater than to have a GOD in heatheir heart. "Although my house be ven, and to have that God as oursnot so with God"—I do not see what to have an intercessor at the right I wish to see altogether—I see some hand-to have an intercessor in my things that affect me, and some things own soul—to have the heart of GoD— that abase me, and some things that to have the promise of GoD-to have afflict me; but " although my house the covenant of GoD-to have Jehovah be not so with GOD, yet he hath himself as my portion. Oh, blessed made with me an everlasting cove- happiness! high and exalted mercy! nant, ordered in all things and sure: "It is good for me," says David, “to for this is all my salvation, and all draw near to God." I feel persuaded, my desire, although he make it not and I humbly thank God for it, that I to grow." Though where one has am addressing numbers that have felt expected sunshine, all is darkness- the mercy that I am speaking of. You where one has expected things straight, know the worth of the throne of GODall have been crooked-where one has you have known what it is to turn to been prepared for a smooth path, all the wall and pray-you have known has been found rough; yet has the what it is to shed tears down your Lord made with me an everlasting co- cheeks and to take them to the Lordvenant ordered in all its minute details, you have known what it is to go with Jesus the great stay of it, the great a sinking spirit, and place your sinking Mediator of it, having all the blessings spirit in the hands of a tender Saviour of it not only in his hand but in his you have known what it was when heart. He is the blessed Eliakim on others have said, why do you feel so whom hang all the vessels great and much? You can say, I can take my small, and hanging there, they hang fluttering heart and place it in the bofor eternity. Oh, you that are build- som of my Father and my God. And ing on this world's sandy foundation- have you found it so to day? Oh, is you that have nothing better to go to there a mercy like it? whether it be in your homes with than the smiles of the street or in our houses-whether friends, and the welcomes of affection it be at our homes—whether it be with -you that can see your comforts the world or with the saints-wherever thick around you but are strangers to GoD places us-not where we place these truths I am speaking of, re- ourselves—but wherever God places us, member what must be the bliss of that is it not good my brother, is it not good soul who can look at a trouble and say, my sister, to draw near to GOD? When God has ordered it for my mercy-and the Spirit taketh away thy unbelief, who can look at a deliverance though reproving thy hard thoughts, thy misit be but as a hair of the head, or a givings, thy lack of expectation, giveth sparrow that falleth to the ground, and thee freedom in the presence of thy say, It is my Father, my Father. It was Father, and thou canst go and lay this that made David's heart glad, when thy request on his altar, and leave the prospect was black around him. it there, and then look up and expect |
