And therefore, perhaps, it is that this chapter is chosen for the first Advent Lesson; to prepare us for Christmas; to frighten us somewhat; at least to set us thinking seriously, and to make us fit to keep Christmas in spirit and in truth.
For whom does this text speak of?
It speaks of religious people, and of a religious nation; and of a fearful mistake which they were making, and a fearful danger into which they had fallen. Now we are religious people, and England is a religious nation; and therefore we may possibly make the same mistake, and fall into the same danger, as these old Jews.
I do not say that we have done so; but we may; for human nature is just the same now as it was then; and therefore it is as well for us to look roundat least once now and then, and see whether we too are in danger of falling, while we think that we are standing safe.
What does Isaiah, then, tell the religious Jews of his day?
That their worship of God, their church-going, their sabbaths, and their appointed feasts were a weariness and an abomination to him. That God loathed them, and would not listen to the prayers which were made in them. That the whole matter was a mockery and a lie in his sight.
These are awful words enoughthat God should hate and loathe what he himself had appointed; that what would be, one would think, one of the most natural and most pleasant sights to a loving Father in heavennamely, his own children worshipping, blessing, and praising himshould be horrible in his sight. There is something very shocking in that; at least to Church people like us. If we were Dissenters, who go to chapel chiefly to hear sermons, it would be easy for us to sayOf course, forms and ceremonies and appointed feasts are nothing to begin with; they are mans invention at best, and may therefore be easily enough an abomination to God. But we know that they are not so; that forms and ceremonies and appointed feasts are good things as long as they have spirit and truth in them; that whether or not they be of mans invention, they spring out of the most simple, wholesome wants of our human nature, which is a good thing and not a bad one, for God made it in his own likeness, and bestowed it on us. We know, or ought to know, that appointed feast days, like Christmas, are good and comfortable ordinances, which cheer our hearts on our way through this world, and give us something noble and lovely to look forward to month after month; that they are like landmarks along the road of life, reminding us of what God has done, and is doing, for us and all mankind. And if you do not know, I know, that people who throw away ordinances and festivals end, at least in a generation or two, in throwing away the Gospel truth which that ordinance or festival reminds us of; just as too many who have thrown away Good Friday have thrown away the Good Friday good news, that Christ died for all mankind; and too many who have thrown away Christmas are throwing awayoften without meaning to do sothe Christmas good news, that Christ really took on himself the whole of our human nature, and took the manhood into God.
So it is, my friends, and so it will be. For these forms and festivals are the old landmarks and beacons of the Gospel; and if a man will not look at the landmarks, then he will lose his way.
Therefore, to Church people like us, it ought to be a shocking thing even to suspect that God may be saying to us, Your appointed feasts my soul hateth; and it ought to set them seriously thinking how such a thing may happen, that they may guard against it. For if God be not pleased with our coming to his house, what right have we in his house at all?
But recollect this, my dear friends, that we are not to use this text to search and judge others faults, but to search and judge our own.
For if a man, hearing this sermon, looks at his neighbour across the church, and says in his heart, Ay, such a bad one as he iswhat right has he in church?then God answers that man, Who art thou who judgest another? To his own master he standeth or falleth. Yes, my friends, recollect what the old tomb-stone outside says(and right good doctrine it is)and fit it to this sermon.
When this you see, pray judge not me
For sin enough I own.
Judge yourselves; mend your lives;
Leave other folks alone.
But if a man, hearing this sermon, begins to say to himself, Such a man as I amso full of faults as I amwhat right have I in church? So selfishso uncharitableso worldlyso uselessso unfair (or whatever other faults the man may feel guilty of)in one word, so unlike what I ought to beso unlike Christso unlike God whom I come to worship. How little I act up to what I believe! how little I really believe what I have learnt! what right have I in church? What if God were saying the same of me as he said of those old Jews, Thy church-going, thy coming to communion, thy Christmas-day, my soul hateth; I am weary to bear it. Who hath required this at thy hands, to tread my courts? People round me may think me good enough as men go now; but I know myself too well; and I know that instead of saying with the Pharisee to any man here, I thank God that I am not as this man or that, I ought rather to stand afar off like the publican, and not lift up so much as my eyes toward heaven, crying only God, be merciful to me a sinner.
If a man should think thus, my friends, his thoughts may make him very serious for awhile; nay, very sad. But they need not make him miserable: need still less make him despair.
They ought to set him on thinkingWhy do I come to church?
Because it is the fashion?
Because I want to hear the preacher?
Noto worship God.
But what is worshipping God?
That must depend entirely my friends, upon who God is.
As I often tell you, most questionsay, if you will receive it, all questionsdepend upon this one root question, who is God?
But certainly this question of worshipping God must depend upon who God is. For how he ought to be worshipped depends on what will please him. And what will please him, depends on what his character is.
If God be, as some fancy, hard and arbitrary, then you must worship him in a way in which a hard arbitrary person would like to be addressed; with all crouching, and cringing, and slavish terror.
If God be again, as some fancy, cold, and hard of hearing, then you must worship him accordingly. You must cry aloud as Baals priests did to catch his notice, and put yourselves to torment (as they did, and as many a Christian has done since) to move his pity; and you must use repetitions as the heathen do, and believe that you will be heard for your much speaking. The Lord Jesus called all such repetitions vain, and much speaking a fancy: but then, the Lord Jesus spoke to men of a Father in heaven, a very different God from such as I speak ofand, alas! some Christian people believe in.
But, my friends, if you believe in your heavenly Father, the good God whom your Lord Jesus Christ has revealed to you; and if you will consider that he is good, and consider what that word good means, then you will not have far to seek before you find what worship means, and how you can worship him in spirit and in truth.
For if God be good, worshipping him must mean praising and admiring himadoring him, as we call itfor being good.
And nothing more?
Certainly much more. Also to ask him to make us good. That, too, must be a part of worshipping a good God. For the very property of goodness is, that it wishes to make others good. And if God be good, he must wish to make us good also.
To adore God, then, for his goodness, and to pray to him to make us good, is the sum and substance of all wholesome worship.