Cork Free Presbyterian Church, 10 Briarscourt
(Annex) Shanakiel, Cork, Ireland
Pastor: Colin Maxwell. Email: colin.maxwell@fpcmission.org
READING: ISAIAH 42:1-25 TEXT: v18 LOOK AND HEAR ETC.,
Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.
This passage is very clearly a Messianic passage in Scripture i.e. it relates very clearly and closely to the Lord Jesus Christ
It's opening words (v1-3) are directly quoted in Matthew 12:17-21 while the words "a light of the Gentiles" are quoted in Luke 2:32
It would not be hard to go down the passage, verse by verse and link it
up, at least indirectly, with the life/ministry of Christ as it is
revealed to us in the gospels and in the epistles and the
Book/Revelation
In the context of our text, there is clearly a bit of rebuking going on
The Gentiles who are idolaters are rebuked in v17
These are they who embraced the idols and worship them
In v19, God ups the ante a little and appears to reproach himself
(or as Gill dares to put it: he appears to correct himself, pointing
out that not only do the Gentiles need rebuke, but His own servants
i.e., the Jews
We use the word appears because God is using here a rhetorical
device for affect - laying down a lesser observation and then
introducing a great one to heighten the effect
Bad enough that the Gentiles have strayed - what about the Jews?
What about those whom I call "My servants?"
They too are depraved and must be addressed in order to have this sin dealt with in a way that is glorifying to Me
What instruction does God impart to these people with whom he has a controversy? Before we answer:
Let us be thankful that there is a communication from God, because a silent Heaven is the forerunner to sure/certain doom
When God turns his back upon a soul, that soul is abandoned
The writing/wall as surely as it appeared on the plastered wall of
Belshazzer, telling him: the show was over and the doom about to begin
This communication from God is a gospel command
These words are effectively employed by every gospel preacher
What is the job of the preacher or the witnessing Christian?
Ans:- Bid the blind to see and the deaf to hear
Nothing more and nothing less
3 things to see from our text as we preach the gospel this evening:
1) THESE WORDS DESCRIBE THE UNSAVED WITHOUT CHRIST:
These words obviously have a spiritual import upon them
A/ A man in Christ is a soul who can both see and hear spiritual things
The Bible is not a closed book to him as once it was
He is no longer the carnal mind that is always at enmity with the
things/God - There is no meeting/the eyes in agreement when in enmity
There is a blindness to the position of the other
Again: 1 Corinthians 2:14
But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him:
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
He may peruse them, but he cannot and will not grasp their message
Yes…He knows enough to see that the Bible condemns his behaviour
"What part of 'Thou shalt not (whatever)' do you not understand?"
B/ But let there be the preaching of the Cross/salvation by grace etc.,
Let it be the need to die to this world in order to live to the next etc.,
The unsaved man will just not see it
His eyes have been closed to these essential and saving truths:
[i] Blinded by the god/this world - Satan actively blinds people
[ii] Blinded by self choice and love of sin: John 3:19-20
C/ Being blind, the sinner cannot, in himself, see certain things:
[i] The beauty of Jesus Christ who is Altogether lovely
Let him lift a hymnbook or a devotional book or (better still) the Bible
And he will put it down in but a few moments
If he studies these things at all, it is for purposes other than devotion
Perhaps he is looking for a theological argument - but not for Christ
[ii] Cannot see his own sinfulness as God sees/reveals it
Harsh condemnations/Scripture are always for others
Which is why offence is often taken when the preacher keeps hammering away at basic home truths: "Is he condemning me?"
[iii] Therefore he cannot see his danger/need before a holy
God - subsequently there is no thought of salvation or urgency
He is blind to spiritual reality - lost in his own little world of darkness
[iv] Cannot look to Christ for salvation as required in Isaiah 45:22
D/ Not only blind, but coupled with this self affliction (which is the worse kind/affliction) is that of deafness as well
Again. it is a self imposed deafness and carries the same idea of enabling the sinner to reject the gospel almost out of hand
Thus the sinner is found in a very unenviable state indeed
2) WORDS/TEXT GIVE THE BLIND/DEAF A DIRECT COMMAND:
Hear, ye deaf and look, ye blind…
This action on the part of God carries great significance:
A/ It shows that God is still interested in the wayward sinner and has
something to say to Him: Nothing worse than a silent Heaven
Past stubbornness/ our part has not prevented God from speaking to us
What if God was blind to us and deaf to us?
Many sinners are convinced that it is so and happy with the thought:
The following thoughts are attributed to the wicked:
And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High? (Psalm 73:11)
Again:
Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. (Psalm 94:7)
This last provocative slight on the Most High produces this retort:
He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see? (Psalm 94:9)
That God addresses even those who sometimes deny His very existence, shows that God has not turned a blind eye/deaf ear to us
B/ Furthermore, this address/command which God gives us graciously addresses our need at its greatest point:
It addresses our sinful deficiencies with a characteristic straightness
What use is it to skirt around these things?
As long as they remain, the sinner lies bound/chained and ult. lost
If God does not address them, then they will not be seriously addressed or (more necessary) dealt with by any other
Here, God steps in and deals with them directly/succinctly with a view of having these barriers removed
C/ By giving these commands, to those who are still blind/deaf, God
treats sinners as responsible people, required to do something
With what ingenuity does the sinner seek to relieve himself of any responsible towards God:
[i] Already seen: His argument that God does not know/care about sin
[ii] Might add: argument that sin is not as bad as made out to be
A leftover from the Puritans/Victorians etc.,
[iii] Or: That his sins are genetic (A favourite of the Sodomites)
[iv] That he cannot help himself - his personality makes it difficult
to refuse peer pressure - and if he cannot help it, then he cannot be
held responsible for it and therefore no punishment
All these objections are swept away with this verse and others
God does not differentiate between one blind person and another
All are addressed in one fell swoop
The rest/Bible (as seen) treats the sinner as responsible for his
condition: He is never addressed as an innocent victim/circumstances
Right from the very beginning:
Adam…where art thou? (Genesis 3:9)
Cain: What hast thou done?
Watch Cain try and poke his own spiritual eyes out and ram his spiritual fingers into his spiritual ears:
Am I my brother's keeper?
But God kept talking to him - treating him as one fully and totally
responsible and accountable and punished him for his non repentance
D/ What (in effect) is this command to the blind/deaf:
Look with those sightless eyes and be saved
Listen with those stopped ears and hear and your soul shall live
3) SUCH A COMMAND IS NOT A CONTRADICTION BECAUSE SUCH A COMMAND CARRIES WITH IT A GREAT GOSPEL PROMISE:
Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.
A/ Even some Evangelical Christians think there is a contradiction here
The sinner is bound in his sins - blinded/deaf - yet still held responsible
Say:" This is not fair!" - Cruel to bid a man do what he cannot do
Therefore, they (practically) then deny that the sinner is blind/deaf
Say: God has opened the eyes/ears of even those who remain/their sins
This lessens the idea of the depravity of the sinner
In fact, if the sinner is not blind/deaf, then this text is for him at all
B/ Other unbalanced Evangelical Christians argue that inability to look
to Christ/hear and live denotes that it is useless to urge them to do
so
Hyper Calvinists argue along that line and they resist from any gospel
appeals or urgings upon the people and oppose us who do so
C/ Why do we do it? Answer:- Our text does it
We hold the sinner responsible for his lost condition and blindness etc.,
It is self afflicted and sin afflicted and it does not relieve him of any of his responsibilities towards God
His inability to look/hear is more the reason to exhort him to do so
One day (in a similar set up) the Lord Jesus bid the man/withered hand
to stretch it forth (Mark 3) - Was the Lord Jesus mocking him?
Why ask this man to do something that he could not naturally do?
Reason: The command itself often conveys the power to obey it
The gospel message that "Jesus Saves" does not merely convey
information, as a third party, about the power of God to open ears and
eyes etc., but the gospel itself becomes the vehicle/deliverance
The power of God to heal (spiritual healing) is in the word itself:
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. (Psalm 107:20)
D/ Let the unsaved consider that Jesus died an atoning death on the
Cross to put away sin (the cause of all spiritual blindness/deafness)
etc.
By His power (demonstrated in His resurrection) He can save sinners
As it stands, all that keeps any sinner back is a stubborn refusal (for which full/total responsibility must be borne)
Your pleading: "I am blind/deaf" only but entitles you to claim this text
Others in a similar position to yours (and worse examples of it) have
come to the Saviour and sought the spiritual healing i.e. salvation
Blind Bartimaeus gives us the perfect example: Mark 10:46-52
Let that be you!
Appeal.
THE END