Charles Spurgeon » God Study Wisdom Doctrine

Isaiah 46:4—“Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.”

The doctrine of the text is the unchanging nature of God, and the constancy of his kindness towards his people in providence and grace.

Proof of God's unchanging nature

We need scarcely prove the unchanging nature of God's dealings with his people, during the short period of mortal life, when:

• In nature we see many things unchanged during seventy or eighty years: sun, ocean, rocks, etc. 
• We see his word and gospel to still be the same 
• Prayer, praise, communion, and holy service are the same 
• Our experience is similar to that of saints in the olden time 
• We remember the very nature of God places mutability beyond the range of supposition

Proof of God's immutability

Of the Lord's dealings in providence and grace it is scarcely necessary to prove the immutability, when we remind you:

• The mercies of one age are mainly identical with those of another; and the promises are altogether unaltered
• Holy men are ready to testify to the faithfulness of God, and both now and in the past the witnesses to his divine truth and immutability are many
• Divine strength is not dependent on man's weakness; divine love is not changed by man's demerits; and divine truth is not affected by lapse of years.
• The completion of the body of Christ requires the preservation of all the saints, and therefore the Lord must abide the same to every one of them.

Peculiarities of "old age"

Yet without doubt "old age" has its peculiarities, which do but serve to evidence the firmness of God's grace.

 

 It has its peculiar memories

1. It remembers many joys, and it sees in them proofs of love
2. It remembers many visits to the house of sickness, and it recollects how the Lord cheered its desolate chamber
3. It remembers many trials in its loss of friends, and its changes of condition, but it sees HIM to have been ever the same
4. It remembers many conflicts with temptation, doubt, Satan, the flesh, and the world; but it remembers how HE covered its head in the day of battle
5. It remembers its own many sins; and it is not forgetful how many professors have made shipwreck of faith; but it clearly sees covenant faithfulness in its own preservation

All our recollections are unanimous in their testimony to an unchanging God.

 

It has its peculiar hopes

It has now few things to anticipate; but those few are the same as in younger days, for the covenant abides unaltered.

1. The ground of its hope is still Jesus, and not long service
2. The reason of its hope is still faith in the infallible word
3. The preservation of its hope is in the same hands
4. The end of its hope is still the same heaven, the same crown of life and blessedness
5. The joy of its hope is still as bright and cheering as before

It has its peculiar solicitudes

Cares are fewer, for business is curtailed, and the needs which remain only serve to show that God is the same.

1. The body is infirm, but grace makes amends for the departed joys of youth, health, and activity
2. The mind is weaker, the memory less retentive, and the imagination less vivid; but gracious doctrines are more sweet than ever, and eternal verities sustain the heart
3. Death is nearer, but then Heaven is nearer too. Earth may be less lovely, but the home-country is dearer, since more loved ones have entered it, and have left us fewer ties to earth
4. Preparation by examination is now more imperative, but it is also more easy, since repetition has removed its difficulties, faith has more constancy, and tried promises afford richer comfort. All these prove God the same

It has its peculiar blessedness

Deprived of certain enjoyments, age is enriched with others.

1. It has a long experience to read, proving the promise true
2. It has less wavering in its doctrines, knowing now what once it only guessed
3. It has less to fear in the future of life, seeing the way is shorter
4. It has more divine unveilings of the celestial regions, for it is now in the land Beulah
5. It has less business on earth, and more in heaven, and hence it has an inducement to be more heavenly-minded

Here is divine love made manifest as still the same.

 

It has its peculiar duties

These are proofs of divine faithfulness, since they cause men to bring forth fruit in old age: 

1. Testimony to the goodness of God, the unchangeableness of his love, and the certainty of his revelation
2. Comfort to others who are battling, assuring them that they will come off safely
3. Warning to the wayward: such warning coming with tenfold force from the aged saint
4. And frequently we may add: Instruction, since the old man's experience has opened up many a mystery unknown before.

Divine strength is not dependent on man's weakness; divine love is not changed by man's demerits; and divine truth is not affected by lapse of years.

From the whole we gather:

• A lesson to the young to make this God their God, since he will never forsake his people
• A solace for men in middle life to persevere, for they shall still be carried in the arms of grace
• A song for the aged, concerning undying love and unchanging mercy. With mellowed voice let it be sung

 

Quotations

Dr. O. W. Holmes says, "Men, like peaches and pears, grow sweet a little while before they begin to decay." This is true; but Christian men should be sweet from the hour that they are renewed in heart. Yet even then maturity brings a special mellowness.

 

Of the Christian it has been said: "The decay, and wasting, and infirmities of old age will be, as Dr. Guthrie called these symptoms of his own approaching death, only 'the land-birds, lighting on the shrouds, telling the weary mariner that he is nearing the desired haven.'"

 

It is a favorite speculation of mine that, if spared to sixty, we then enter on the seventh decade of human life, and that this, if possible, should be turned into the Sabbath of our earthly pilgrimage, and spent Sabbatically, as if on the shores of an eternal world, or in the outer courts, as it were, of the temple that is above, the tabernacle that is in heaven.— Dr. Chalmers.

 

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