This text, as well as being one of Isaiah’s most famous references, exemplifies why he is known as the evangelical prophet. Most famously, this text was that which converted a young Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who progressed to become one of the most popular preachers in Victorian England and whose ministry had a remarkable baptism of Holy Ghost fire. This is a Gospel preaching and a soul winning text. It is a text of invitation where all men and women are exhorted to embrace God’s salvation. Every revival of true religion is a revival of Holy Ghost filled preaching, where the Gospel is proclaimed with conviction and passion. From that perspective this text has much to teach us concerning the ordinance of preaching, it’s value in the Church and the blessedness preachers enjoy when the Holy Spirit comes down.
THE PERSON PRESENTED
At the heart of every sermon is Jesus Christ. One of the tests we can apply to an alleged move of the Spirit of God is the content of the preaching. The function of the Holy Ghost is to glorify Christ:
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
John 16:13-14
Revival preaching, if it is truly of the Spirit of God, will always proclaim Christ; Christ alone as the Saviour of mankind. Therefore, God says:
Look unto me
This is an appeal to look with the eyes of faith toward the God of Israel. It is a Gospel appeal because without faith there can be no salvation. But faith must have an object, one to rest upon; to trust.
When God reveals Himself to men it is always through His only begotten Son; we learn from God, we know God through Him. In these latter stages of Isaiah, Christ is remarkably revealed as the servant. The following verse, for example, is strangely reminiscent of Paul’s great presentation of Christ to the Philippians:
I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.
Isaiah 45:23
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
Philippians 2:10
In the later chapters Christ would be revealed as the faithful and the suffering servant servant of Jehovah:
Behold, my servant shall deal prudently,
Isaiah 52:13-14
he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
As many were astonied at thee;
his visage was so marred more than any man,
and his form more than the sons of men:
Revival preaching calls upon sinners to look upon the one whom they will one day declare to be LORD, one who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities.
Brownlow North was one of the most curious and unusual preachers of the mid 19th Century Britain. Stemming from an aristocratic background he lived a life filled with godless pleasure until he he was dramatically converted at 44 years of age. With a few short years he was Scotland’s best known preacher with hundreds hearing him wherever he preached indoors, and thousands listening to his open air ministry. Despite his position as an unordained man he gained acceptance among the Scottish Presbyterians by virtue of his sound theology, his evident gifts and his Spirit filled ministry. He found himself in the middle of the revival, which swept the British Isles from America. He travelled to Ireland during 1859, the ‘Year of Grace’; Rev Jonathan Simpson of Portrush describes North’s Christ centred ministry by the seashore in June 1859:
“Brownlow North, Esq., visited most opportunely, and, by his earnest and thrilling appeals, largely contributed to advance the glorious cause. He preached twice in the Presbyterian Church, Portrush, and addressed two open-air meetings, one in the town, and the other at Dunmull. The latter was the noblest meeting ever seen in the neighbourhood; the very sight was grand, apart from its bearings on eternity. Mr. North, accustomed to large audiences, computed it at seven thousand; and so many were stricken that day, that the people in the neighbouring houses never got to bed the entire night. So many hearts were bleeding under a sense of sin, and weeping over a pierced Saviour.”
Brownlow North’s famous sermon “Wilt thou go with this man?”, illustrates most wonderfully Christ exalting revival preaching. He took the question which Rebekah’s family asked of her, applying it to sinners as he earnestly appealed to men men and women to take Christ as their Saviour.
THE PEACE PROMISED
There is a promise attached to looking by faith; a promise which brings the peace which is only found in Christ:
Look unto me and be ye saved
To be saved is to be absolutely and completely rescued. God’s grace rescues the sinner from hopelessness, guilt and eternal damnation. It removes the fear of death and gives purpose in this life. The Gospel is the message salvation. No other religion or philosophy can offer such a clear and compromising message of hope. During revival days this message is proclaimed with such unction that thousands are swept into the Kingdom. The testimony of Brownlow North is a case in point; the turning of one’s life from darkness to light as salvation visits a lost soul.
“It pleased God, in the month of November, 1854, one night when I was sitting playing at cards, to make me concerned about my soul. The instrument used was a sensation of sudden illness, which led me to think that I was going to die. I said to my son, “I am a dead man, take me upstairs.” As soon as this was done, I threw myself down on the bed. My first thought then was, ‘Now, what will my forty-four years of following the devices of my own heart profit me? In a few minutes I shall be in hell, and what good will all these things do me, for which I have sold my soul?’ At that moment I felt constrained to pray, but it was merely the prayer of a coward, a cry for mercy. I was not sorry for what I had done, but I was afraid of the punishment of my sin. And yet still there was something trying to prevent me putting myself on my knees to call for mercy, and that was the presence of the maidservant in the room, lighting my fire. Though I did not believe at that time that I had as much as ten minutes to live, and knew that there was no possible hope for me but in the mercy of God, and that if I did not seek that mercy I could not expect to have it. Yet such was the nature of my heart, and of my spirit within me, that it was a balance with me, a thing to turn this way or that, I could not tell how, whether I should wait till that woman left the room, or whether I should fall on my knees and cry for mercy in her presence. By the grace of God I did put myself on my knees before that girl, and I believe it was the turning point with me. I believe that if I had at that time resisted the Holy Ghost—of course, I cannot say, for who shall limit the Holy Ghost? — but my belief is that it would have been once too often. By God’s grace I was not prevented. I did pray, and though I am not what I should be, yet I am this day what I am, which at least is not what I was. I mention this because I believe that every man has in his life his turning point. I believe that the sin against the Holy Ghost is grieving the Spirit once too often.”
THE PEOPLE PRIORITISED
The appeal of this text has not only a wide but a universal compass:
all the ends of the earth
This is perfectly consistent with the character of this 45th chapter, where the Gentile nations are emphasised.
Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus,whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before thee,
Isaiah 45:1-3
and make the crooked places straight:
I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places,
that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.
I am the LORD, and there is none else,
Isaiah 45:5-6
there is no God beside me:
I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west,
that there is none beside me.
I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Thus saith the LORD, The labour of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia
Isaiah 45:14
and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine: they shall come after thee; in chains they shall come over,
and they shall fall down unto thee, they shall make supplication unto thee, saying, Surely God is in thee;
and there is none else, there is no God.
Furthermore, this prophetic glimpse of the Gospel’s powerful sway over the souls of men is more than hinted out throughout these closing chapters of Isaiah:
Listen, O isles, unto me;
Isaiah 49:1
and hearken, ye people, from afar;
Enlarge the place of thy tent,
Isaiah 54:2-3
and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations:
spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;
For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left;
and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God,
Isaiah 55:5
and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.
THE PURPOSE PRONOUNCED
The text concludes with a declaration of God’s uniqueness – implying and therefore teaching that God stirs His Church in days of revival, extending His Kingdom to the ends of the world for His own glory alone.
for I am God and there is none else.
Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us,
Psalm 115:1
but unto thy name give glory,
for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.
Soli deo gloria
Clogher Valley Free Presbyterian Church 