CONTENTION ENDED AND GRACE REIGNING – Charles Spurgeon
Contention Ended and Grace Reigning
“For I will not contend forever, neither will I always be angry; for the spirits would fail before Me, and the souls which I have made. For the iniquity of his covetousness was I angry, and smote him: I hid and was angry, and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will also lead him, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.” — Isaiah 57:16-18
God’s High Soliloquy
The high and holy One that inhabits eternity is here speaking with Himself concerning Israel. The Lord is holding a high soliloquy. He is not so much addressing the sons of men, bidding them do this or that, as speaking to Himself about what He intends to do among them. He allows His Prophet to stand where he can hear the sacred soliloquy of the great Supreme. And he hears it, and then, under the dictate of the Divine Spirit, he records it in the Inspired Book, where it remains to this day for our instruction. Hear, then, these words of the living God, and let your hearts be satisfied concerning the secret purposes of Jehovah!
Although the Lord may say many things to Himself which we do not hear, and which it would not be well that we should hear, yet He never retracts in secret what He has spoken in public! So, we may rest assured that He never speaks in the dark places of the earth concerning the house of Jacob, “Seek ye My face in vain.” No decree of God is contrary to the Gospel — we may always be sure of that. Whenever He unveils before us His private thoughts, we never find them to be less gracious than His published words. The same love which spoke itself through Prophets and Seers dwells in the silent heart of God and abides forever at the fullest, even when it finds no voice.
In the verses before us, we find words of exceedingly great mercy and special tenderness. And we see moving before our adoring eyes the eternal Wisdom, the infinite Patience, and the immutable Love of the great Father. May it please the Lord, in very truth, to restore comforts unto His mourners by the subject which shall now engage our attention, for under the blessing of the Holy Spirit, it is in every way calculated to cheer the contrite heart.
I. The Divine Contention is Well Deserved
The first truth of God to which I call your attention is that God contends with men and that THE DIVINE CONTENTION IS WELL DESERVED on their part. He says, “I will not contend forever,” in which it is implied that He does contend sometimes. Where He has purposes of eternal Grace, the Lord, at the opening of His saving work, comes into contention with men. Smiting comes before saving. He bends His bow and points His arrow against the heart’s sin before He pours out His balm for the heart’s wound. He usually gives the spirit of bondage before He sends the spirit of sonship — He thunders by the Law before He waters the soul with the soft shower of the Gospel.
Nor need we wonder at this, for there is so much in man that is altogether opposed to the Divine Nature and alien to the object and design of God, that there must be a conflict till the opposing principle is overcome and removed. The strong man will not go out except by force, and neither will the Lord enter the soul except as a Conqueror.
First, I would speak of this to the seeking sinner. It may be that there are, in this house, anxious persons who were once careless and at ease, but now there is a striving within them and a conflict which rages terribly. The Lord has a controversy with them. However unhappy it makes them, I am right glad that they are feeling the inward strife. Anything is better than the horrible calm of the dead sea of spiritual indifference! My friend, your deadly peace is broken; your fatal sleep is ended; the magic spell of Satan has lost all its power; you are awakened and sadness rules the hour.
Your wisest friends are glad of this—they welcome your return to feeling even as we rejoice to discover signs of life in one who has been snatched from a watery grave! There is now some hope for you. The Spirit of God has come to you as a spirit of bondage, and this makes you fear, but fear is often the outrider of faith. The Lord’s design in contending with you is to convince you of your sin. You will never see sin to be exceedingly sinful unless the Holy Spirit throws His own light upon it.
II. The Divine Contention Will End with the Contrite
We now advance to the next truth of God, namely, that THIS DIVINE CONTENTION WILL COME TO AN END WITH THE CONTRITE. We know that it will be so, for the words are very clear — “For I will not contend forever, neither will I be always angry.” Oh, hear this, you humble and contrite ones with whom God has been contending! Here is a word of gracious, absolute, unconditional promise for you! May the Holy Spirit enable you to draw consolation from it!
The question arises — when may we expect that this promise will be fulfilled? Kindly notice the verse which precedes the text, for that assures us that God has no controversy with the humble and the contrite. This is self-evident, for He declares that with such He will dwell, and the God of Grace will not dwell in a house that is full of contention! He contends where He does not abide, but where He abides, there is peace.
When a man is humble and contrite, then God’s contention with him has come to an end. Omnipotence will not lift its hand to overthrow one who yields himself up. Greatness does not strike a fallen foe who craves forgiveness. Majesty will not wreak vengeance upon suppliant misery. Surrender unconditionally, be you saint or sinner! Throw down the weapons of rebellion, doff the plumes of pride, and sue out a pardon on your bended knee. Cry out, “Lord, I am undone, for I have done ill! I am cast away, for I have cast Your fear away! I must die, for I have slain myself! But God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
III. God Finds Reasons for Ending the Contention
I would now ask your loving attention to this choice fact — that GOD HIMSELF FINDS REASONS FOR ENDING THE CONTENTION. We could not have found any, for in ourselves there is much cause for the Lord’s anger and none for His Grace. A convinced sinner can give no reason why he should be saved. It is a part of his conviction that his mouth is closed as to self-justification. He can make neither apology nor appeal — he feels that he will have to say, “Amen,” to his own damnation if God drives him away from the Mercy Seat.
But the Lord Himself finds reasons for His Grace! Two of these He mentions in our text. The first is found in human weakness, and its inability to bear the Divine contention. “I will not contend forever, neither will I always be angry; for the spirits would fail before Me, and the souls which I have made.” The Lord’s chastisement is meant to be corrective, not destructive! His intent is curing, not killing, and therefore He will not make His medicine too potent, or His surgery too severe.
He presses His heavy hand on the sinner until he cries out with David, “Day and night Your hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer.” He felt as destitute of life-moisture as if God had wrung him out as men do a wet sheet and made him dry as cloth which has hung up in the hot sun. All his life and spirits were gone out of him and he felt that his bones were dried and fit only for the morgue. When things have come so far, the merciful Lord says, “But I do not desire to kill him. I do not purpose his destruction, for I hate nothing that My hands have made. No, I love with all my heart this poor, troubled soul whom it is in My mind to bless.” “The Lord does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
IV. God Proposes Another Method for Ending Contention
This brings us to the fourth and last point, which is this — God Himself, having found a reason why He should cease from contention, no, two reasons, the one in our weakness and the second in the failure of His own chastisement by reason of the flesh — HE INVENTS AND PROPOSES ANOTHER METHOD FOR ENDING HIS CONTENTIONS and making us right with Himself.
It is an astonishing method — “I have seen his ways, and will heal him.” Hear this, O you heavens, and be astonished, O earth! God’s mercy is not blind mercy! He is merciful in spite of His clear vision of our sins! I have seen his ways, and yet I will heal him.” If God had not seen man’s sin, His passing by it would be easy to understand. What the eye does not see, the heart does not regret. But it is wonderful that it should be written, “I have seen his ways, and will heal him.”
The Lord seems to say, “I see him become more obstinate the more I smite him. I see him provoking Me over and over again though I chide with him. I see not only his ways, but I see through his ways the rebellious heart which dwells within. I see that he is worthless, undeserving, ill-deserving, and Hell-deserving! I see that his mind is set on mischief, that he is altogether estranged from Me, even from his birth, and that his whole nature is tainted with rebellion.” Yet the Lord adds that astonishing word of Grace, “I have seen his ways, and will heal him.
May the Lord help us see His amazing grace, the end of His contention, and the beauty of His mercy. Amen.
The Lord’s Tenderness and Divine Contention
The Lord marks man as “fragile,” much like we mark boxes of glass that must not be roughly handled lest they are broken. In this frailty, He finds a reason for tenderness—let His name be adored for it! His second reason is, to my mind, even more extraordinary. It is given in the next verse—”For the iniquity of his covetousness was I angry, and smote him: I hid and was angry, and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart.” This argument is founded on the inoperativeness of the Divine contention upon the heart which is to be won. The Lord says, “I was angry with him and smote him.” Did he repent? No. I hid My face from him. Did he humble himself? “He went on backsliding in the way of his heart.”
What is the reason for this wicked petrifying of the heart? Here is the key to the cause—
“Law and terrors do but harden
All the while they work alone.
Nothing but a blood-bought pardon
Can dissolve a heart of stone.”
Affliction often drives the child of God into impatience, and of itself, it has a hardening and not a softening influence. Even the convictions worked in us by the Spirit of God are often perverted into causes of unbelief, and Satan comes in and drives the soul to unworthy thoughts of God. Such is our evil heart that it even curdles self-loathing and hatred of sin into a reluctance to go to God and into a persuasion of the impossibility of mercy! I have known humiliation and self-despair, which are so much to be desired, lead to unbelief, which is the saddest of all crimes.
“Therefore,” says the Lord, “I will not contend any longer; for My anger seems to excite rebellion rather than to subdue it.”
A Father’s Tenderness and God’s Change of Method
See a wise father when he has a proud and obstinate boy who has become estranged. He puts him under strict rule and discipline and he chides and chastens him. But if the child evidently grows more stubborn, if he is manifestly of such a spirit that the more you drive him, the more he will not be driven, his father says within himself, “I will try other methods with him and see what gentleness will do.”
Such is the mind of God, who says—”For the iniquity of his covetousness was I angry and smote him: I hid and was angry and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways and will heal him: I will also lead him, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.”
If wrath will not humble us, the Lord may yet, in His Grace, try what love can do. He will love us to a better mind, till our heart sings—
“And do You still invite my love,
And court me to be blessed?
Will You my friend and patron prove,
My refuge and my rest?
Convinced, ashamed, amazed, I now
Obey Your gracious call.
To love’s command I freely bow,
And offer You my all.”
God’s Method of Healing and Grace
This brings us to the fourth and last point, which is this—God Himself, having found a reason why He should cease from contention, no, two reasons: the one in our weakness and the second in the failure of His own chastisement by reason of the flesh—HE INVENTS AND PROPOSES ANOTHER METHOD FOR ENDING HIS CONTENTIONS and making us right with Himself.
Here it is, and we note, in the first place, that it is an astonishing method—”I have seen his ways, and will heal him.” Hear this, O you heavens, and be astonished, O earth! God’s mercy is not blind mercy! He is merciful in spite of His clear vision of our sins! “I have seen his ways, and yet I will heal him.” If God had not seen man’s sin, His passing by it would be easy to understand. What the eye does not see, the heart does not regret. But it is wonderful that it should be written, “I have seen his ways, and will heal him.”
The Lord seems to say, “I see him become more obstinate the more I smite him. I see him provoking Me over and over again though I chide with him. I see not only his ways, but I see through his ways the rebellious heart which dwells within. I see that he is worthless, undeserving, ill-deserving, and Hell-deserving! I see that his mind is set on mischief, that he is altogether estranged from Me, even from his birth, and that his whole nature is tainted with rebellion.” Yet the Lord adds that astonishing word of Grace, “I have seen his ways, and will heal him.”
O Soul, God sees what you are! He knows your secret wickedness and you have not half such an idea of your own sin and perverseness as He has! And yet, over the head of it all leaps the eternal, boundless mercy, “I have seen his ways, and will heal him.”
Note that it is an effectual method. I have seen his ways, and will heal him”—not, “I will smite him again,” but, “I will treat his sin as if it were a disease.” That is a very wise thing to do with persons who grievously offend you. When a man’s action is very provoking, I like to hear people say, “Surely he must be a little wrong in the head. Poor man, he must be out of order or he would not act so.” Put the best construction you can upon an offense and treat it as if it arose out of disease.
It is true that sin is much more than a disease and God might treat us altogether and only from its criminal side, but still, it is a disease and, therefore, He resolves to treat it as such. Our great Lord in effect cries, “Oh, this wicked creature of Mine will not acknowledge its Creator! This sinful child of Mine will persist in rebelling against My love! Surely something ill’s him. I will not chasten him again, but I will treat him as a sick man and I will heal him. I will change his nature. I will take away the heart of stone out of his flesh. I will give him a heart of flesh. I will take those dry eyes and fill them with tears. I will take that dumb tongue and inspire it with prayer. I will take that careless heart and melt it with holy penitence. I have seen his ways and will heal him.”
It is an astonishing way! It is an effectual way! Notice further that it is a tender way—”I will also lead him.” Observe that word. The sinner will have his own way and the Lord has been driving him into another, but he will not go. Now the Lord will come to him in gentleness and lead him. He will say, “Come now, let us reason together.” He will appeal to him, and say, “Do not contend with Me any longer. I can strike hard and I could, if I would, strike you into Hell! Do not fight with Me. Let us make peace.” “As I live,” says the Lord, “I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies, but that he should turn unto Me and live.”
The Comforts of Grace
Come unto the Lord, you poor broken-hearted one! He has only strived with you to wean you from your sin and make it possible for Him to save you! Stand not up in your puny insignificance to contend against your God! Do not brazen it out with Him—the mere strap of His belt will break you—as for His sword, if He uses it upon you, you are utterly slain! Come, for He will put your sin away.
He will cease from His fierce anger and reveal His love. He proclaims pardon. Free Grace and dying love are the charming bells which ring you into the banquet of Grace. The Lord leads the contrite soul step by step—there is no driving—but like a shepherd goes before his sheep, so the Lord Jesus goes before broken, humble, and contrite spirits—and they know His voice and follow Him.
Observe, also, how complete is this method. As if all that went before were not enough, it is added, “I will restore comforts to him and to his mourners.” How tender this is! He will take away the sorrow as well as the sin, the killing grief as well as the killing disease! He will give us the true balm of Gilead and will pour such wine and oil into our gaping wounds that all shall be healed and the bones which He had broken shall rejoice!
I do not know whether I have succeeded in striking you all with an impression of my Master’s great love, but it is very much upon my soul at this time. It amazes me that though He has been contending with us, after all, it is no contention of His heart, but only of His hands! When we have resisted and kept up the contention, He says, “I have struck you and you revolt more and more. Why should you be struck any more? Your whole head is sick and your whole heart faint with My striking you. I will chasten you no more, but change My method. I have brought you down almost to death’s door by affliction and yet you still kick and struggle, as if the last breath in you should be spent in fighting against Me.
I will conquer you, but if it cannot be accomplished by fear, it shall be achieved by love. If you will not yield to My thunder, you shall yield to My sunshine! If you will not bow before My Throne, you shall fall before My Cross. I will die for you and so I will win you. I will let My own heart be broken for you, that at last you shall look at Me and your heart shall be broken. I will love you. I will love you into life. I will love you up from the very gates of Hell. I will love you till you love Me.”
O irresistible Love! Who can stand against You? O Lord, this morning Your people, if they have rebelled, come weeping back to You to ask You, again, to give the kiss of reconciliation! We yield! We yield, submitting ourselves without reserve to You! Many a poor sinner who has given up the hope of being saved under the crushing blows of conviction and chastisement, should now cry, “I can hold out no longer—“Lord, what hard heart can still withstand,
And still rebellious prove?
Refuse to bow to Your command,
Or to accept Your love?
O’ercome by glorious Grace,
I now my former war give over.
To Your command I gladly bow,
And would contend no more.”
Oh, come, you wanderers, and rest in Jesus! Come, you most lost, most ruined, most hopeless and find Heaven begun in Christ! Oh, you that sit on the edge of Hell, who have made a Covenant with Death and a league with Satan, whose death warrant seems to be signed and put into your hands so that you read it by the flames of Hell, whose fury you anticipate—come to Jesus and that handwriting of death shall be blotted out! The impending judgment seems even now to scorch your souls—come and find deliverance from it, for God Himself invites you! Tarry no longer! May Jesus sweetly lead you to Himself. Amen.