“THE TENDERNESS OF GOD’S SALVATION” (Isa 66:13)
April 10th, 2003 (Don Bean’s Church)
Int. From our text we see that God promises to comfort His people:
1. A DIRE NECESSITY FOR US ALL.....COMFORT.
A. NONE CAN COMFORT LIKE A MOTHER.
1. William Jay's Evening Exercises (S-3-5) pg 399
"ALONE WITH JESUS."
Alone with Thee, how sweet to rest,
My Saviour dear, upon Thy breast;
Thy tender sympathizing care
In all my sorrows hath a share;
2. Our Daily Homily. F. B. Meyers. pg. 284 We enjoy Comfort because:
1. Comfort, because sin is forgiven.
2. Comfort, because God is on His way to deliver.
3. Comfort, because the Strong Deliverer has a tender heart.
4. Comfort, because He faints not!
3. Octavius Winslow said: “As a system of comfort, Christianity has no equal. No other religion in the wide world touches the hidden springs of the soul, or reaches the lowest depths of human sorrow, but the gospel of Christ.”
4. (Jer 8:18) "When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me."
5. (Lam 1:21) "They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me:
6. (2 Cor. 1:3) “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;”
B. COMPARE GOD’S LOVE WITH THAT OF A MOTHER.
I. God is as tender as a Mother, and more so!
2. God is as unfailing as a Mother, and more so!
3. God is as effectual as a Mother, and more so!
a. The Rich man in hell was tormented, while Lazarus was comforted. (Lk 16:25)
4. (2 Cor. 1:4) “Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”
Blest be the Father and his love,
To whose celestial source we owe
Rivers of endless joy above,
And rills of comfort here below.
5. C. H. S. said: “Trembling one, read it, believe it, feed on it, and plead if before the Lord. He whom you fear is only a man after all: while He who promises to comfort you is God, your Maker, and the Creator of heaven and earth.”
6. Horatio Bonar on the tender mercies of God, said: "We will not give God the credit when he speaks in his tender mercy. We listen, as if His words were hollow; as if He did not mean what he says; as if His message of grace, instead of being the most thoroughly sincere that ever fell on human ears, were mere words of course. His words are not mere random expressions, such as man often uses uttering vague sentiment, or trying to produce an impression by exaggerated representations of his feelings. God's words are all true and real....the genuine expressions of the mind of that infinitely truthful being"
II. A DEPLORABLE INCAPACITY.
A. EARTHLY FATHERS CAN NEVER COMFORT LIKE A MOTHER.
1. A father doesn’t know how to comfort a weeping baby.
Ill. Milton Cyrus keeping Nursery on Mother’s day.
2. A father doesn’t know how to teach a little child his A. B. C.’s
3. C.H. Spurgeon The Cheque-Book of the Bank of Faith. "A mother's comfort! Ah, this is tenderness itself. How she enters into her child's grief! How she presses him to her bosom and tries to take all his sorrow into her own heart! He can tell her all, and she will sympathize as nobody else can.”
4. When John Kitto, a poor boy on a back street of Plymouth, Englnad, cut his foot with a piece of glass, God bound it up so successfully that he became the great Christian geographer, and a commentator known among all nations.
5. So every wound of the soul, however insignificant, God is willing to bind up. At at the first cry of the child the mother rushes to kiss the wound, so God, our Mother, takes the smallest wound of the heart, and presses it to the lips of divine sympathy.
a. "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you."
6. Gray & Adams: "Carrying Children in the East.---- “Labor in the East, as in all uncivilized countries, falls principally to the lot of the women. It is possible that from this cause they cannot so well carry their young children in their arms, and hence the custom of their sitting across their mothers' hips, or, as rendered in Bible words, being "borne upon her side." (Vr. 12)
a. “For example, in India the women grass-Cutters are out the whole day, searching for the fine grass required for the horses of the regiments. Towards evening they may be seen returning with their bundles on their heads. One hand is generally up to keep their burden in its right position, while the vacant arm is round the waist of a young child, seating across its mother's hip. It is astonishing, the ease and comfort with which, in this manner, they are enabled to carry their little ones; and how, with their arms comparatively unemployed, they can the more easily, and with less fatigue, perform the duties allotted them.”
III. A DIVINE COMFORTER.
A. GOD HAS A MOTHER’S PATIENCE WITH HIS PEOPLE.
1. (Rom 15:5) “Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:”
2. (Rev 1:9) “John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
3. (Isa 49:14-15) "But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. {15} Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee."
Can a kind woman e’er forget
The infant of her womb?
And ’mongst a thousand tender thoughts,
Her suckling have no room?
Yet, says the Lord, should nature change,
And mothers monsters prove,
Zion still dwells upon the heart
Of everlasting love.
B. GOD IS ALSO LONGSUFFERING WITH HIS ERRING PEOPLE.
1. (Num 14:18) “The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression,..”
2. (Psa 86:15) "But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth."
3. God was longsuffering with Adam and Eve. with Abraham, with Israel, with Paul, and with us.
4. (1 Pet 3:20) “.......the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.”
5. (2 Pet 3:9). “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
6. (2 Pet 3:15). “And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation;”
C. LET US ADMIRE THE LONGSUFFERING OF GOD
1. (Exo 32:4) "And he (Aaron) received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt."
2. (Isa 1:4) "Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward."
3. We cannot stand to be provoked for 30 minutes, yet many have provoked God for 50 years.
D. AS A MOTHER ROCKS HER BABY TO SLEEP; SO GOD GIVETH HIS BELOVED SLEEP.
1. (Ps 127:2) “He giveth his beloved sleep.”
a. C. H. S. calls this “The particular Sleep of the Beloved."
2. And like a mother, (Ps 121:4) “Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.”
IV. DIVINE CORRECTION.
A. AS A MOTHER, GOD WATCHES OVER HIS OWN DAILY.
1. God is full of all the affection of a mother and then some.
a. See the mother how she loves, strives, labours, suffers, and sacrifices for her child.
b. (Ps 66:19) “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation.
2. God is full of all the long-suffering and forbearance of a mother.
3. God is full of all the forgiveness of a mother.
a. How ready to forgive her erring, wandering child — and ready to console in trouble.
4. God is full of all the correction grace of a mother.
a. God teaches in various ways, and whom He loveth He chasteneth. (Heb 12:6)
b. (Prov 1:8) "My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:"
5. King Lemuel’s mother taught him prophesy; So God teaches his children.
a. (Prov 31:1) “The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him.”
6. (Jere 30:11) “I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether.” unpunished.”
a. C. H. S. said: “To be left uncorrected would be a fatal sign: it would prove that the Lord had said, "He is given unto idols, let him alone." (Hosea 4:17)
V. DIVINE COMFORT DISPATCHED.
A. CONSIDER THE LOCATION OF THIS COMFORT. (IN JERUSALEM).
1. F. B. Meyers: "The pious Jews were comforted when in Babylon, and during their dispersion among the nations; but their comfort in such circumstances was attended with much affliction: it was when returned to Jerusalem, when resettled in their own country, and among their own people, that their enjoyment rose the highest, and was most regular."
2. The Prodical’s Father had compassion on his son and ran to him.
a. The phrase “Full of compassion” is found five times in Scripture.
b. The phrase “tender mercies” is found is found eleven times in Scripture.
B. CONSIDER THE LESSON TAUGHT IN THE LOCATION OF THEIR COMFORT.
1. We see the importance of separation from a wicked world.
2. We see the advantage regular attendance in worship.
a. It was a high privilege to dwell in Jerusalem, because of attendance at the temple for worship.
3. We see here the duty of Church-membership.
a. Jerusalem was not only the location of Divine worship, but a reminder of the local Church.
b. It is here that we hear also the promise. “You shall be comforted in Jerusalem.” (See Heb 13:5)
c. As they were to be comforted in Jerusalem, so we find comfort in the local church.
4. We see here also the value of participating in the Church ordinances.
a. The mere form of godliness is nothing. (2 Tim 3:5)
Conclusion:
The Love of God.
By Saxe Holm.
Like a cradle, rocking, rocking,
Silent, peaceful, to and fro,
Like a mother's sweet looks dropping
On the little face below,
Hangs the green earth, swinging, turning,
Jarless, noiseless, safe, and slow;
Falls the light of God's face bending
Down and watching us below.
And as feeble babes that suffer,
Toss and cry, and will not rest
Are the ones the tender mother
Holds the closest, loves the best,
So when we are weak and wretched,
By our sins weighed down, distressed,
Then it is that God's great patience
Holds us closest, loves us best.
O great heart of God! whose loving
Cannot hindered be nor crossed;
Will not weary, will not even
In our death itself be lost
Love divine! of such great loving
Only mothers know the cost,--
Cost of love, which, all love passing,
Gave a son to save the lost.-