Isaiah 45:19

COMFORT TO SEEKERS FROM WHAT THE LORD HAS NOT SAID

Isaiah 45:19. I have not spoken in secret, &c.

We might gain much solace by considering what God has not said. In our text we have an assurance that God will answer prayer, because He hath not said unto the seed of Israel, “Seek ye my face in vain.” The proposition I come to deal with is this: that those who seek God, in God’s own appointed way, cannot, by any possibility, seek Him in vain; that earnest, penitent, prayerful hearts, though they may be delayed for a time, can never be sent away with a final denial (Romans 10:13; Matthew 7:8).

I. I shall prove this, first, by the negative, as our text has it. It is not possible that a man should sincerely, in God’s own appointed way, seek for mercy and eternal life, and yet a gracious answer be finally refused. For several reasons.

1. Suppose that sincere prayer could be fruitless, then the question arises, Why, then, are men exhorted to pray at all? Would it not be a piece of heartless tyranny if the Queen should wait upon a man in his condemned cell, and encourage him to petition her favour, nay, command him to do it, saying to him, “If I do not send you at once an answer, send another petition, and another; send to me seven times, yea, continue to do it, and never cease so long as you live; be importunate, and you will prevail.” And what if the Queen should tell the man the story of the importunate widow—should describe to him the case of the man who, by perseverance, obtained the three loaves for his weary friend, and say to him, “Even so, if you ask you shall receive,” and yet all the while should intend never to pardon the man, but had determined in her heart that his death-warrant should be signed and sealed, and that on the execution morning he should be launched into eternity? Would this be consistent with royal bounty—fit conduct for a gracious monarch? Can you for a moment suppose that God would bid you come to Him through Jesus Christ, and yet intend never to be gracious at the voice of your cry?

2. If prayer could be offered continuously, and God could be sought earnestly, but no mercy found, then he who prays would be worse off than he who does not pray, and supplication would be an ingenious invention for increasing the ills of mankind. For a man who does not pray has less woes than a man who does pray, if God be not the answerer of prayer. The man who prays is made to hunger; shall he hunger and not eat? Were it not, then, better never to hunger? How, then, can it be said, “Blessed are they that hunger”! &c. The man who prays thirsts; as the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so he pants after his God; but if God will never give him the living water to drink, is not a thirsty soul much more wretched than one who never learned to thirst at all? He who has been taught to pray has great desires and wants; his heart is an aching void which the world can never fill; but he that never prays has no longings and pinings after God, he feels no ungratified desires after eternal things. If, then, a man may have these vehement longings, and yet God will never grant them, then assuredly the man who prays is in a worse position than he who prays not. How can this be?

3. If God do not hear prayer, since it is clear that in that case the praying man would be more wretched than the careless sinner, then it would follow that God would be the author of unnecessary misery. Now, we know that this is inconsistent with the character of our God. We look around the world and we see punishment for sin, but no punishment for good desires, &c.

4. Should there still be some desponding ones, who think that God would invite them to pray and yet reject them, I would put it on another ground. Would men do so? Would you do so? Can God be less generous than men?

5. Have you forgotten that this is God’s memorial, by which He is distinguished from the false gods? (Comp. Psalms 115:5; Psalms 65:2.) One of the standing proofs of the Deity of Jehovah is, that He does to this day answer the supplications of His people. Could you seek His face, and yet He should refuse you, where would be His memorial? The answer may tarry, but only that it may be the more sweet when it comes (H. E. I. 3895–3898).

6. If God do not hear prayer, what is the meaning of His promises? (e.g., Psalms 50:15; Psalms 91:15; Jeremiah 33:3; Isaiah 65:24, &c.) How shall He make His veracity to be proved if He do not answer His people? But His word must stand, though heaven and earth should pass away.

7. If God hath virtually said to us, “Pray, but I will never hear you; seek ye my face in vain,” then, I ask, what is the meaning of all the provisions which He has already made for hearing prayer? I see a way to God; ’tis paved with stones inlaid in the fair crimson of the Saviour’s blood. I see a door; it is the wounded side of Jesus. Why a Mediator, an Intercessor, &c., &c., if prayer be unavailing?
8. I use the argument which the apostle uses upon the resurrection. If God hear not prayer, what gospel have I to preach? As the apostle said concerning the resurrection, “then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain; ye are yet in your sins.”

9. Where, then, were the believer’s hope? Hang the heavens in sackcloth, let the sun be turned into darkness, let the moon become a clot of blood, if the mercy-seat can be proved to be a mockery.

10. What would they say in hell, if a soul could really seek the Lord and be refused? Oh, the unholy merriment of devils then!

I have been arguing against a thing which you know theoretically is not possible; but yet there are some who, when they are under conviction of sin, still cleave to this dark delusion, that God will not hear them. Therefore I have tried, by blow after blow, if possible, to smite this fear dead.

II. That the Lord does hear prayer may be positively substantiated by the following considerations:—

1. For the Lord to hear prayer is consistent with His nature. Whatever is consistent with God’s nature, in the view of a sound judgment, we believe is true. Now we cannot perceive any attribute of God which would stand in the way of His hearing prayer.

2. It is harmonious with all His past actions. If you want a history of God’s dealings with men, turn to Psalms 107:3. What does He mean by His promises? As I said negatively, if He did not hear, where were His promises? so I say positively, Because of His promises He must hear. God is free, but His promises bind Him: God may do as He wills, but He always wills to do what He has said He will do. We have no claim upon God, but God makes a claim for us; when He gives a promise, we may confidently plead it. Promises made in Scripture are God’s engagements, and as no honourable man ever runs back from his engagements, so a God of honour and a God of truth cannot, from the necessity of His nature, suffer one of His words to fall to the ground.

CONCLUSION.—Try for yourself. If you would know that God hears prayer, you must test the fact, for you will never learn it through my saying, “He heard me;” you will only know it through His having heard you; and I therefore exhort you, since it is not a peradventure but a living certainty, that “he that asketh receiveth,” &c., pray to Him even now to save your souls. Pray as if you meant it, and continue as Elijah did, till you get the blessing.—C. H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 508.