The Lord's Invitation to the Ends of the Earth

Next Part The Lord's Invitation to the Ends of the Earth 2

"Look unto Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth – for I am God, and there is none else." Isaiah 45:22

When in a solemn moment of spiritual meditation, and such, through mercy, we sometimes have we take a review of what has passed through our hearts, dropped from our lips or occupied our minds, during any space of time, say, the last week, what little genuine religion do we seem to find in our souls. When we separate from the Spirit's work all the doctrines we have learned in the flesh, all the practice we have performed through fear of man, and all the false experience that Satan has deceived us with; and, in a solemn moment, weigh up in the balances of the sanctuary what God has given and taught us, and done in and for us, how small the amount appears. But what a mercy it is to come to this conclusion! What a mercy to feel to have so little religion!

Some may say, "I do not understand what you mean by that expression, that it is a mercy to feel to have so little religion; I cannot agree with you there; for I feel it to be no mercy at all, as my desire is to have a great deal more than I seem to possess." But suppose that you and I had all the religion which we wish to have, would there not be a great danger of our setting up that 'religion' in the place of Jesus Christ; and instead of coming poor and needy, empty and bare to the Lord, as we are now obliged to come, having nothing and being nothing in ourselves--would we not be rather disposed to come to Him with our religion as something to rest upon, and recommend us to His favor?

Is it not, then, really a mercy to find and feel we have so little religion, if it bring us poor and needy empty and bare, to receive out of Christ's fullness, and grace for grace? For the less we feel to have, the more we want to possess; the more empty we find ourselves, the more we desire to be filled, as well as have a greater capacity to receive; the more weak we are, the more we want Christ's strength to be made perfect in our weakness; the more foolish we feel, the more we need God's teaching; as well as the more is God's wisdom magnified in our foolishness; and the more helpless we are, the more we need help from the Lord.

So that, instead of its being a sad and deplorable thing to feel that we have so little religion, when we come, under a sense of our emptiness, to receive supplies out of Christ's fullness, it is our mercy to be sensible how little we have. We then come, not under the description of the rich whom the Lord "sends empty away," but of "the poor" whom He fills with "good things;" and instead of being among the "mighty" whom He puts down from their seats, we are found among the humble and meek whom the Lord exalts to honor, "setting them among princes," and "making them to inherit the throne of glory."

Now, if we look at the Lord's invitations in the Scriptures, to whom are they addressed? Are they not spoken to those who are poor and needy, hungry and thirsty, wearied and heavy laden? Are not these the very people whom the Lord enriches, feeds, refreshes, and blesses? Look, for instance, at the words of the text. There is an invitation in it; for the Lord speaks and says, "Look unto me." But to whom are the words addressed? "Look unto me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else." He does not, then, speak to those who are near, but to those who are afar off, the ends of the earth, and to them He addresses this gracious invitation.

I. In examining these words, let us, first, look at the people to whom this invitation is addressed, "The ends of the earth."

II. Secondly, at what the Lord says to them, "Look unto me, and be saved."

III. Thirdly, at the gracious reason why they should look to Him, and why they are saved by looking, "For I am God, and there is none else."

I. The PEOPLE to whom this invitation is addressed. "Look unto me all the ends of the earth." To all the ends of the earth, then, the Lord here speaks. Now He cannot mean the literal, or natural earth, for that has no ears to hear, being nothing but so much inanimate matter. He must, therefore, certainly speak to the inhabitants of the earth, to those who dwell in the ends of the earth, and not to the earth itself. But what people, experimentally and spiritually, are here called "the ends of the earth," to whom the Lord thus addresses Himself? An expression in Psalm 61:2, throws a light upon the question. "From the end of the earth will I cry unto you, when my heart is overwhelmed – lead me to the rock that is higher than I." "The ends of the earth," then, represent characters at the farthest possible distance from God in their feelings, at the remotest bounds of creation, and separated by all this wide interval from that God whom they desire to fear, and in whose approving smile they long to bask.

1. Let us see, with God's blessing, what it is that brings the soul to feel itself to be in this spot, for it is soul feeling here spoken of. Let us see how a vessel of mercy gets to the ends of the earth; because he must come spiritually into that place to feel the suitability and enjoy the application of the promise. Before the Lord, then, quickens our soul into spiritual life, we can draw near with our lips when our heart is far from Him; are full of presumption, pride, and ignorance; and can come into the presence of the Majesty of the Most High without one check in our conscience, one conviction in our soul, or one sense of brokenness before Him.

A. But no sooner do true spiritual light and life enter together into the soul, than the character of God is made known in the conscience, and our own character too, as standing naked and guilty before His great tribunal; and when we thus see and feel the purity of Jehovah, and our own impurity and vileness, and are spiritually shown what wretches we are by nature and practice, a sense of guilt falls upon the conscience, and by that sense of guilt we are driven out from the presence of the Lord.

It was so with our forefather Adam; when sin lay upon his conscience, he hid himself from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden; and so it is with every sensible sinner – he departs from the presence of the Lord, because it is too terrible for him to bear. Like Jonah, he will flee unto Tarshish, or the remotest parts of the earth, to get from the presence of the Most High. GUILT, then, charged upon a man's conscience, will drive him out to "the ends of the earth," and place a barrier between the Lord God and his soul. And if a man has never felt guilt, and experimentally known distance and separation from God in consequence, the promise does not belong to him, nor does the Lord speak to him in the text.

B. Not guilt only, but SHAME also and confusion of face join to drive the soul to "the ends of the earth." We never know the filthiness of sin until it is opened up in our conscience; we may know indeed something of its guilt, and what sinful wretches we have been; we may fear too the punishment of sin; but we can never know its filthiness, until, in the light of the Spirit, we see God's purity and holiness, and then shame drives us out from the presence of a holy God. Until Adam knew sin he knew not shame.

C. Darkness of mind also – an experience we are utterly unacquainted with until light and life make it manifest – darkness coming upon our soul, such as fell upon Abraham, when the sun was going down Ge 15:12, drives us from Him who is pure light, to the very ends of the earth, where the rays of the sun seem no more to shine.

D. If the Lord has ever brought us near to Himself, and we have basely departed from Him, BACKSLIDDEN from His gracious ways, been overcome by the world, been entangled in Satan's snares, or our own vile lusts and passions; if we have done things unbecoming and inconsistent with our profession – and who here can hold up his head, and say he has not so done? these things bring guilt on our conscience, and banish us in soul feeling to the ends of the earth far away from the presence of God.

But when, in soul feeling, we are thus at the ends of the earth, we learn lessons there which cannot be taught us in any other place. There we learn what it is to be at a distance from God, with a desire to be brought near; there we are brought to know the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and there begin to learn the value of the blood of Christ to purge the conscience; there we become clothed with shame and confusion of face; there we are taught to feel our thorough helplessness and complete inability to bring ourselves spiritually and experimentally near, and feel what it is to wander in confusion without being able to get near the source of light, life, and truth, or feel access of soul to God.

Thus, to be at "the ends of the earth," is a painful but a profitable place; for there we learn lessons which we could not learn anywhere else, and are taught to feel something of the purity of Jehovah, and of our own defilement before Him. Now, it is to those who thus feel themselves to be at "the ends of the earth," that the Lord speaks in the text. He will never encourage presumptuous professors, those I mean who daringly rush on without His sanction, leadings, or drawings. It is better to tarry at "the ends of the earth" all our lives long, than to rush unbidden into the sanctuary, or advance presumptuously into the presence of the Most High. For there is a day coming when the Lord will "thoroughly purge His floor;" and then how many presumptuous intruders into His sanctuary, how many burners of false fire, and offerers of unclean sacrifices, will be detected, and driven out! If the will of God be so, it is better to be poor, condemned criminals at "the ends of the earth," waiting in humility for a smile, pleading in sincerity for a promise, than rush presumptuously on, and claim His gifts as our right and due.

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