The Day of Power

"And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel." (Isaiah 29:18,19)

What a picture does the Holy Spirit draw in this chapter of a professing church "having a form of godliness, and denying the power thereof!" (2 Tim. 3:5) And with what a solemn woe does it open: "Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt!" Ariel means "the light of God," and is the name given to Jerusalem, as being the place where the Lord specially manifested himself; for "out of Zion went forth the law, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem." (Isa. 2:3) But the Lord saw into what an dreadful state Jerusalem had fallen; and therefore, though the Holy Spirit still calls her by the name of Ariel, "the light of God," viewing her according to the position in which he had originally placed her, yet he pronounces a woe on her, because that light was become dim, and burnt not as brightly as when David dwelt there. He therefore says, "Add year to year"--go on still in your dead and lifeless profession; "let them kill sacrifices"--let all the forms still be observed, but do not think that these things are acceptable in my holy eyes, or that I can be satisfied with the form while the power is lacking.

The former part of this chapter is obscure, and probably contains much that remains to be fulfilled; but the latter part is sufficiently plain. God the Spirit files in it a dreadful bill of charges against the professing church. Let us see what they are.

We read, then, of a general sleep. (Isaiah 29:10) "The Lord has poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed the eyes of the prophets and your rulers, and the seers," and the effect of this general slumber, which the Lord thus solemnly declared to have proceeded from himself in a way of judgment, was, that neither the learned nor the unlearned knew the power of God's truth. "For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say to him, "Read this, please," he will answer, "I can't; it is sealed." Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, "Read this, please," he will answer, "I don't know how to read." (Isaiah 29:11-12) The learned could not read the book, for it was "sealed;" and the unlearned could not, because they were "not learned," and thus, secondly, the effect of general sleep, was generalignorance.

The third charge which the Holy Spirit files against the professing church, is general hypocrisy. "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men." (Isaiah 29:13)

The first step then, in the apostasy of the professing church, was judicial sleep; the second, as its effect, general ignorance; and the third, as the fruit of general ignorance, was general hypocrisy; they drew near to God with their lips, while their hearts were far from him; and their fear was not the godly, filial fear which is a fruit of the Spirit, but a base counterfeit, taught by the precept of men.

The fourth charge is general perversion and confusion; "You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!" (Isaiah 29:16) Right and wrong, bitter and sweet, good and evil, light and darkness, were all confounded; truth was perverted, and error substituted for it; and thus universal confusion prevailed.

The fifth charge is that of general rebellion. "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, He did not make me? Can the pot say of the potter, He knows nothing?" (Isaiah 29:16) The creature dared to arraign God's power, "He did not make me;" "My own will and power made me a Christian;" and to doubt God's wisdom, "He knows nothing;" "Man's wisdom outshines the Lord's."

See then, what an dreadful bill of charges the Holy Spirit here files against Ariel, the professing church of God--general slumber, general ignorance, general hypocrisy, general perversion, and general rebellion. Can we find a counterpart to this picture? Do you think that any church ever existed since that time resembling the one which the Holy Spirit has here described? Yes! the professing church of the day in which we live presents a perfect counterpart to the picture here given; nor could we have a portrait of it more minute in all the details, or a more graphic, vivid, or powerful description of what the professing church is in the day and generation in which our lot is cast. Are not the five marks I have mentioned now so plainly stamped on its forehead, that he who runs may read?

Has God, then, abandoned his people? Has he forsaken his church? "Is his mercy clean gone forever? does his promise fail for evermore? Has God forgotten to be gracious? has he in anger shut up his tender mercies?" No! he has reserved to himself "a remnant." Therefore we read in the text, "In that day," (that day of general slumber, general ignorance, general hypocrisy, general perversion, and general rebellion), "in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel." We see here a gleam of sunshine breaking through the black cloud that overspreads the earth; the Lord still appears on behalf of his people, whom, that they may not be here mistaken, he here describes by peculiar marks.

If we look, then, at the words of the text, we see four characters mentioned in it--the deaf, the blind, the meek, and the poor. And we find certain promises addressed to each and all of them--the "deaf shall hear," the "blind shall see," the "meek shall increase their joy in the Lord," and "the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel."

In speaking, therefore, from these words, I shall attempt to trace out, as far as the Lord shall enable me, the characters mentioned, and the promises addressed to them. And as it might create confusion if I were to separate the character too far from the promise, I shall endeavor to take up the text as it lies before me, and, following God's order, examine the separate clauses as the Spirit has here revealed them. And may he give me "the tongue of the learned," and you the ear of the wise, and crown the whole with his special savor and blessing to my and your consciences.

The text commences, "In that day." It cannot have escaped your observation, if you are an attentive reader of the Scriptures, that the phrase, "in that day," is much made use of by the prophets, and especially by Isaiah, and that great and glorious things are usually connected with this day. Now, if you will look carefully to the connection where the phrase, "in that day," is used, you will find, for the most part, that two distinct things are spoken of as taking place in it; and that it is either a day of TROUBLE, or a day of joy. For instance, we read, (Isa. 2:11,12) "The day is coming when your pride will be brought low and the Lord alone will be exalted. In that day the Lord Almighty will punish the proud, bringing them down to the dust." This day, we read, is to be "upon all the towering cedars of Lebanon, the lofty oaks of Basham, the proud ships of Tarshish, and upon every stately vessel;" and the effect of that day is, that "the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low." (Isa. 2:17) Again, we read, (Jer. 30:7) "Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it; it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it." We read also of "the day of Lord" sometimes as a day of darkness, as Amos 5:18-20, "Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?"

But, in other places, we find "the day of the Lord" spoken of as a day of deliverance, and therefore connected with JOY, praise, and thanksgiving. "In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah." (Isa. 26:1) "In that day you shall say, O Lord, I will praise you; though you were angry with me, your anger is turned away, and you comforted me." (Isa. 12:1)

But some might ask, "How does it come to pass, that the same expression, "that day," can refer to things so opposite? Why does the Holy Spirit speak of one day, when the things that occur in it are so completely different? How can darkness and light, sorrow and joy, affliction and consolation, all happen in the same day?" It is not so. That is not the meaning of the Holy Spirit. But by the expression he means a day of power. It is not the same day as to time, but as to operation; "the day of the Lord" is different from every other day; for it is the day in which the Lord stretches out his hand, makes bare his arm, and conspicuously appears. The same expression is therefore used when the Lord lays low, or when he raises up; when he makes poor, or when he makes rich; when he condemns by the law, or justifies by the gospel. Each is "the day of the Lord," because it is a day of power; either power to kill, or power to heal; power to pull down, or power to build up. When, therefore, we find the expression, "in that day," or "the day of the Lord," we may assign to it this meaning--a day of power, because it is a day which the Lord calls his own.

But which of these two meanings does it bear in the text? Evidently a day of deliverance--a day of mercy for the church of God. "In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book."

I. The DEAF. We come, then, at once to one of the characters before hinted at as descriptive of a living soul, and to a promise suitable to such. But what are we to understand by the expression, "deaf?" Whom does it represent? I think it describes the elect of God in two points of view--what they are before, and what they are after the quickening work of God the Spirit on their consciences. The elect, in common with all men, before God gives them spiritual life, have no ears to hear what the Lord speaks; are utterly inattentive to all he has declared in his word of truth; are deaf to his providences, promises, warnings, and precepts. But the promise runs, "In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book." "The ears of the deaf shall be unstopped;" (Isa. 35:5) and then, and not until then, have they ears to hear what God speaks.

But there is another sense, and that which I think the Holy Spirit means here, in which a person is called "deaf," and that is feelingly and experimentally so, according to these words, (and striking words they are,) "Bring out the people who have eyes but are blind, who have ears but are deaf." (Isa. 43:8) What a strange people must these be. Blind people that have eyes, and deaf people that have ears. And they are to be brought forth conspicuously as a strange and peculiar people, that they may be "wondered at." Naturally it would be a contradiction, and they would be monsters; but spiritually, no contradiction exists, for they feel their blindness and yet see, and feel their deafness and yet hear.

Now, it is with us spiritually, as it was with Paul literally and actually--the first entrance of light makes us feel blind. Did not the light from heaven which shone round about him as he was journeying to Damascus blind him? and was he not three days without sight? So spiritually, we never feel ourselves blind until we begin to see--as long as we think we have light, we are in darkness--but immediately that we begin to see, we begin to feel blind; and when we begin to hear, we begin to feel deaf. The reason of this is, that a new faculty is given to us to see and hear with; and this faculty being as yet weak and feeble, and yet we being able to see and hear with no other, are made to feel how blind we as yet are to the blessed truths of the gospel, and how deaf to hear anything for our peace, joy, and comfort.

Now, the Lord says, "In that day," the day of power, when he stretches forth his hand to do his own work, "shall the deaf," the feelingly and experimentally deaf, "hear the words of the book." What is "the book" here mentioned? It is the book on which I now lay my hand, the sacred Scriptures, the revelation of God's mind and will to the children of men. In this book are "words;" and those words the experimentally deaf are brought to hear, "in that day" when God the Spirit unstops their ears.

But what are the words which the deaf hear? The expression "words" has a very comprehensive signification; for in God's book are words of thunder, and words of "a still small voice; words that terrify and alarm, and words that comfort and console; words from Mount Sinai, and words from Mount Zion; words like a two-edged sword, and words that drop like the dew and rain into the parched soil. "The deaf shall hear the words of the book."

And the first words which they hear are from Mount Sinai; those words which when the people heard them, they "entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more, for they could not endure that which was commanded; the words that manifest the spirituality of God's law, the holiness of God's character, the sinfulness of sin, and the vengeance due to the transgressor." These words of the book the deaf hear "in that day" when the Lord puts forth his hand, and unstops their ears. And they find, as king Josiah did, when the book of the law was discovered in the temple, that they are "living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword;" and have a power "to pull down and to destroy," according to one branch of Jeremiah's commission." (Jer. 1:10)

But the words of the book which the deaf hear "in that day" are for the most part comfortable words--for they are usually quick enough to hear all that makes against them, but are deaf to what makes for them. The words, therefore, which they need to hear are those which bring peace, pardon, love, and salvation into their conscience; and because they cannot hear these words of the book to their soul's comfort, they feel to be deaf.

How often has the case of the poor, tried child of God been described from the pulpit, and yet he could not receive the testimony to his soul's comfort! How often have the very invitations and promises suitable to his case been laid before him, and yet he could not hear them for himself, because he felt his need of the power of God to apply them to his conscience.

But, "in that day," the day in which the Lord speaks, "shall the deaf hear the words of the book;" the book of divine revelation, that shows forth the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; the book where God has unfolded his love in the Person and work of Jesus; the book gemmed and studded with promises, like the stars in the midnight sky; the book written for the consolation and edification of God's living family. "In that day," that day of general profession and darkness to the church--but of power to God's people, "in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book." And when they hear the words of the book, so as to have them sealed on their conscience and applied to their heart, they find a new Bible, a new God, a new heaven, and a new salvation.

To "hear the words of the book," coming with divine power into their souls from the lips of God becomes all their desire. It is not eloquence, nor wisdom, nor learning that they care to hear, but the words of the book sealed with a divine power. Let God only speak out of the book, it is enough, for "where the word of a King is there is power." (Eccl. 8:4) A promise is sweet, if he but speaks it; a rebuke is felt, if he but applies it; a precept is obeyed, if he but lays it on the conscience; and every truth is precious, if he but makes it known.

Next Part The Day of Power 2

Back to J. C. Philpot Sermons