Isaiah 29:13-14 Why the Lord said, For as much as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me… Let us use these words (ver. 13) as Jesus Christ used them in Matthew (Matthew 15:7). There are three points — 1. The importance of plain speaking on all questions affecting the interests of truth. Jesus Christ was preeminently a plain speaker. 2. The far-seeing spirit of prophecy. Jesus Christ said to the men of His day, "Esaias prophesied of you." Observe the unity of the moral world; observe the unchangeableness of God's laws; see how right is ever right and wrong is ever wrong; how the centuries make no difference in the quality of righteousness, and fail to work any improvement in the deformity of evil. If any man would see himself as he really is, let him look into the mirror of Holy Scripture. God's book never gets out of date, because it deals with eternal principles and covers the necessities of all mankind. let us then study the Word of God more closely. No man can truly know human nature who does not read two Bibles, — namely, the Bible of God as written in the Holy Scriptures, and the Bible of God as written in his own heart and conscience. Human nature was never so expounded as it is expounded in holy writ. 3, The high authority of the righteous censor. When Jesus Christ spoke in this case He did not speak altogether in His own name. He used the name of Esaias. All time is on the side of the righteous man; all history puts weapons into the hands of the man who would be valiant for truth. The righteous man does not draw his authority from yesterday. The credentials of the righteous man are not written with ink that is hardly dry yet. It draws from all the past. (J. Parlor, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: |
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