Isaiah 55:11 So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please… I. TRUTH IN ITS MISSION. "It shall accomplish that which I please," etc. 1. We may take our first illustration of this mission from the spirit and contents of the truth itself. It; is "the Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Nature is the Word of His power. The Bible is the Word of His mouth. That belongs to the few who have the key or can find it: this is in language vernacular to the race. These two records are equally true in what they teach; but their teaching is in different dialects. Nature is a system of material facts: the "Word is a revelation of supernatural thought. One is a manifestation of being: the other is a declaration of will. The one appeals to the senses and thence to the reason, making science: the other is a voice from within the veil, speaking to the consciousness of faith, creating a religion. Hence, while the teaching of the two records is equally Divine and true, their methods of teaching are essentially distinct. That something is at the back of all the complex and orderly working of nature, accounting for and actuating it, which itself is not nature, is patent to all who think. What that something is, is nowhere apparent. We see only phenomena. But " the entrance of Thy Word giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple." The one grand secret that has put the Bible down into the heart of man and made it the most precious, as it is the most potent, of his treasures, is this directness and power of its witness. 2. Then, there is the regeneration the truth is intended to effect. "It is the power of God unto salvation." It "effectually worketh." There is a method in this regenerating process. First of all, life is to be infused into dead souls. In the prospective history of humanity as that contemplates a state of future perfected being, we have a still further insight into this mission of truth. Paul, when affirming the scope of his own ministry, enunciates this thought: "Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." The one type after which this perfection is to be constructed is "Christ Jesus." There is this final result. "That we may present every man perfect in Christ" — man in his nationalities, in his generations, in his separate individualities, to the end of the ages, perfected by the truth. This is its mission. II. THE OBSTRUCTIONS THE TRUTH HAS TO ENCOUNTER. "It shall not return void," etc. On the magnitude of the conflict depends the greatness and glory of its victory. There are obstructions arising from the nature of the truth itself, and from the disposition of man. 1. Truth is a holy thing; it can fraternize only with what is kindred to its own spirit: man is not a holy being. Hence antagonism. "Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil." In the natural world, there are ten thousand things which we cannot see with the naked eye: they can be reached only by an extra-natural sense. So it is in the kingdom of God. "They are spiritually discerned." 2. Truth is dogmatic in its teaching. It speaks "as one having authority." It has little consideration for the whims or passions of men. It postulates rather than argues its positions. Against this lofty dogmatism of inspired truth man lifts up his heel of proud contempt. 3. It was said by a distinguished sceptic of the eighteenth century, that if the solution of one of Euclid's problems could be shown to war against the selfishness or the pride of the human heart, there would not be wanting men to contradict it. A startling concession, and yet a conceivable fact. Euclid's problems do not touch our moral nature. They provoke no suspicion. It is otherwise with the truth. It reveals what we are shy of discovering. It affirms what we dislike to believe, and therefore wish to doubt. It asks what we are unwilling to yield. It puts in a plea for all rights which place themselves on the side of God; and so makes confession of our wrong-doing a first step in our becoming right with God. III. UNDER THESE DIFFICULTIES, TRUTH HAS ITS ENCOURAGEMENTS. "As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven — so shall My Word be." Here are grounds of confidence. 1. There is the relation truth sustains to a purpose. 2. There is the connection of truth with a suitable agency. And this directness of supernatural agency carries over the truth from its relation to a purpose into the efficiency of an act. When the telegraph sends its message through the air or under the sea, there is something more than electricity at work. There is a mind, a personal intelligence, from whose directive will that electricity gets its action. So in the efficiency of truth. It supposes a power not in the truth, not in man, but in God; a power which, however inscrutably to us, works after its own methods — going down to the conscience, and up to the intellect, conquering prejudice, and silencing doubt, and turning men "from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God." 3. There is confidence in the end which this Word is to accomplish. "It shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." What is that thing? There is the promise of the Father: "Ask of Me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." This is already done in purpose, but not in effect. There is the advent of the Spirit. There is the glory of the Church. There is the millennium of man. There is the triumph of the Cross. God's time-plan sweeps through our human centuries, making a day out of a thousand years, and a thousand years into a day. 4. There is the calm, dignified attitude of truth in view of opposition. "It shall not return unto Me void; it shall accomplish that which I please; it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." Shall it? Then the Divine and the human plans are manifestly in collision. Men say it shall not prosper. "It shall prosper." Then the fears of the timid and the calm determination of the Divine mind are not in harmony. "It shall accomplish that which I please." Then the machinations of the adversary must be defeated. "It shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." Then man universally shall receive and know and obey the truth; for to man singly, and to man as a race, "is the Word of this salvation sent." (J. Burton.) Parallel Verses KJV: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. |
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