Sermon/Thoughts on Isaiah 42
Mountain View, California
December 11, 1909
Previously unpublished. Incomplete.
Isaiah 42:1-3. I remember when I was in a camp meeting, my brother, two years older than myself, the Spirit of God came right upon him, and he stood up before the congregation and read these words. It just came into my mind what an impression it made upon the people. He held up his right hand—he knew he was going to die in a little while—and read this part: “He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he set judgment in the earth, and the isles shall wait for his law.” [Verse 4.] 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 1
Verse 5. Here our attention is drawn to the work that God is carrying on constantly with His people, those that will dedicate themselves to Him. The Lord God of Israel is their God, and they are His people. Verse 6. “Thine hand.” What greater evidence can we have than this? “And will keep thee ... Gentiles.” Now that special point I want you to keep in view, “a light to the Gentiles.” It is not to just get up our meetings and feel perfectly satisfied with our camp meetings—the world is to be warned. The message is to go forth in power to the people. And we are not to restrain our labors within our own borders, but we are to advance constantly, that the truth shall go to those that are in the darkness of error. God wants us to be light-bearers to the world. And we are not excused if we neglect this work. We have a special work to do. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 2
Verses 7, 8. Now, we want to remember that part. We do not want to depend merely on the representation of figures. We do not want to spend money in that line, but we want the truth to stand forth in its beauty. The simplicity that I see in this house is strikingly represented. We want the simplicity of godliness in all that we do here. Why? Because there is a world to save. There are missionaries to go out everywhere, and they are to be sustained. We are not to indulge ourselves in any extravagance. We are just to glorify the Lord in our simplicity, and the children learn to work with the parents, and the parents with the children, and be sure that the household is sanctified to God. That is our business. We are to carry the truth in every line possible in the home life, to connect the children, that we may carry the truth forth in the power of true godliness. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 3
Verses 8-10. “New song.” That is something that has struck me particularly. Verses 10, 11. Now what does all this mean? We are fulfilling it. It is working so that we can go into the mountains, we can go into the hills, we can go into the highways, and we can go into the byways; but the cities are neglected. And the Lord would have us take up a missionary work for our cities. They are afraid to enter the cities, and they know it will be an expense to do it. They know that, and they have not very much encouragement, but we have got to change upon this point decidedly. Here are the cities that are unwarned, and we want the Spirit of the Lord to go with us at every step, to know that we are glorifying Him, that we are honoring the Lord upon the earth. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 4
Verse 11. Now I have had the privilege of going into Pennsylvania, and of seeing our sanitarium there. And in several places where I have been, I have been taken by a certain sister that was wealthy, and she wanted to know where to dispose of her means. She would show me the places all around where I would go, and where we could go, but the time did not seem to have come to go there yet. And I want to say there are places everywhere, the highways, yes, mountainous ways, and byways; I have seen them, and the places where you would think that nobody could get the truth before them. I have been in these places. I have seen those that have been labored for by the ministry of the servants of God. I have seen these souls converted, and I was invited to go into the highways and the byways—just to take a look. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 5
Well, it was quite a journey for me, but I did it. I am glad I did. I saw gray-headed fathers and mothers, and they were studying what they might do. “Here is our family,” they say, “young men who have embraced the truth, and we have got to get a home for their families; for they want to plow right into the highways, and into the byways. They want to go there and work, and we cannot forbid them.” 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 6
They were three or four young men, smart, intelligent men who had been brought in through the influence of the Madison school. There they began to work, hard work. I asked the father about it. Why, said he, they are trying to cure the land. What is the matter with the land? It has been poisoned by raising tobacco, and now we are trying to bring it back to its healthful state, that our families can be left here, and we go into all this country and the highways and the byways. They cannot come to us out here, they have no decent clothes to wear, and we must—here is a beginning, and we want you to speak to us right here today in this little house. It was a schoolhouse; they made it into a meetinghouse. Well, I did. I never had greater liberty than I did speaking to that congregation. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 7
Verse 11. And these were some, their houses were placed in the very tops of the mountains. I looked at the father, a noble looking man, and I looked at the mother, an aged woman, and her four sons dealing out the little portions of land to them—they were to go out into these places where nobody else would go, and they had quite a large company there near Madison, and Madison tries to send out help to them whenever they can. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 8
Verse 10. “End of the earth.” You will do it when the missionary spirit get in you. “Ye that go down to the sea—inhabitants thereof.” Yes, there are just such places that are missionary fields, as well as the cities. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 9
Verse 11. “Rock, sing.” Yes, there were inhabitants right on the rocks. “Let them sing from the top of the mountains.” And there were places right in the top of the mountains. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 10
Verses 12, 13-16. Now these encouragements are given for just such a work as I have been seeing carried forward. I make contributions of my books wherever I can in such places. I tell them, Let them have the books, and when they are used up, just let me know and I will supply them. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 11
Verses 18-22. “spoiled.” But what I want to read is a little further. Isaiah 43:1. “Redeemed thee.” When I came to that part of it seemed as though I could hardly contain myself. “I have called thee by thy name ______” verse 3. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 12
You understand that, He rescued a people that was once His chosen people, but they went down to Egypt to keep from starving to death. They treated them as slaves. Then the Lord took hold of them again. They felt sorry after he had let them go. He made a path for Israel through the sea, and they were delivered. Now we have a God, and it is best for every one of us to have more trust and confidence in our God than we yet have manifested. We want to stand, as we read these things, where God can work with His people. We know not what times are before us, and we want to be in a position where we may honor and glorify God. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 13
Isaiah 43:1. “Redeemer.” Praise the Lord! We have enough to praise God for, why do we have so little praise? Don’t you think that angels in heaven would look upon us with pleasure if we realized with thanksgiving in our hearts how much the Lord has done for us? I believe they would. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 14
“I have called thee by thy name”—verse 3. There He speaks of the judgment that He brought upon Egypt because they would not let Israel go. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 15
Verses 4, 5. Thus He goes on with this promises. You can read it, chapter after chapter right along, chapters 44, 45, and so go on in Isaiah. I need not repeat it for you, because you can read it yourselves. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 16
But I do want to tell you, there is altogether too little appreciation of what the Lord has done for us, and what He will do for us if we will follow on to know the Lord; we shall know His going forth is prepared as the morning. Now that is just what we want to know. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 17
Now I am not going to take up your time this forenoon, I will give you time, every one of you that can, to bear your testimony. I want to speak to you again before I go. And I want you to look over these chapters and see what God has covenanted to do with us. When I consider how little we appreciate the encouragement that God has given us, I cannot sleep. I have not had a night’s sleep, but a very few hours that I could sleep, night after night. I get up at one o’clock, and sometimes at twelve o’clock, and I commence to write and write for the people of God to arouse. The time is passing, and we cannot afford to have it pass unless we see more missionary work, and more missionary spirit that shall come into our churches. We see that the Lord God of heaven uses us, because His name can be glorified, even into the highways and the hedges. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 18
But here are the cities. The cities are scarcely touched, and what answer can we bring to God in the day of reckoning that we have left them alone? What can we say? God help us to understand, and every one of us to feel that there is not a penny of anything unnecessary that we must expend in just show, in just pride. I do not see any here that are extravagantly dressed, and I want to say, I hope you never will be. I hope that we shall walk humbly with God. I do not want you to feel that I am making any raid on you at all. I want that every one of us in simplicity of faith can come to the Lord just as we are, and cast our helpless souls upon Jesus Christ. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 19
These young men may be working here. Perhaps they are, perhaps they are children of those that work, but these young men can be learning. I took up the work, young men, when I was twelve years old, and then I could only do a very little. I could read a few passages in the Scriptures, and I could weep. I was an invalid. But they would come to see me, and them I would tell them about the Saviour, how I loved Him, and they could love Him. We want our children to be workers together with us. We want them to feel that they can be laborers together with God. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 20
And in this situation here, where so many of the publications go forth, we want to say that with the publications work must be done. There must be work done for the people more than we are doing. Every chance that you can get, go to those that know not the truth, get into their congregations, and ask for an opportunity to speak. You need not make any drive on them at all. But you take the Scriptures, and you can read the Word of God just as I have read it to you, passage after passage, and it will be a blessing to them. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 21
What we want is the simplicity of true godliness. We want it today. We want it every day. I have not had a night’s sleep for months. I go to bed and I can sleep a few hours, then I wake up, and I cannot sleep anymore. I have to get right up and take my pen and commence to write, and write out to this family and that family and the other family, and try to reach some of them that I know are in danger. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 22
God will help us to work for one another, but we need the simplicity of true godliness. We want to humble our own hearts before God, and we want to feel pity for the young that are exposed to temptations. We want the young in our families to be converted, thus we be laborers together, yes together with God. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 23
Now, I do not intend to talk with you long, but we want the simplicity of true godliness. Every one of us, that is what we want. And we want to put away our pride of opinion, and any such thing as that. But we want to throw ourselves right in the channel, the current of life where we can bear the message of truth to those that are perishing out of the knowledge of Christ. We are not excused if we put our candle under a bushel. Bring it out, and let it shine forth to those that are in the darkness of error, that they by seeing our light will be led to understand what light from God is. That is what we want to do, and that is what we have been trying to do. My son said, No, mother, I won’t ask you to go but to College View, etc. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 24
I thank God that He will give us courage in the Lord if we will exercise our sanctified human capability. If you do that, you can reach many souls. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 25
Now I am not going to hold this large congregation here. I want to tell you there is a heaven to win, and our ministers and all can take hold with the simplicity of true godliness. They can search how it is spoken of the highways, it is spoken of the wilderness, it is spoken where I have been reading to you in all places, that the salvation of God is to be revealed and souls are to be converted. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 26
God help us that we may be among those that have brought these souls to the knowledge of the truth, and then what? There will be more praise to God that you hear now. Your own hearts will be led out, and you will feel so thankful that you cannot hold your peace. You will just praise God, and then others will praise God, just as we read when David fled from Saul, and he followed after him to get him. Well, he came right on to one school of the prophets, and he began to prophesy. The Spirit that was there took hold of him. He was after David, but he did not get David, but David had to hide away from him. We have strange experiences in the work, and we want to stand [incomplete]. 24LtMs, Ms 138, 1909, par. 27