Well, some weeks ago I. Just felt strongly impressed to Examine more the wonders and the glories of Christ and our salvation. Challenging you, challenging me, that let's find our assurance of salvation. Not so much by examining ourselves, but by examining Him. Looking to him.
Feasting upon him. Let's get away from all notions of. Patterns are plans are steps. And let's look at him. Feast on him.
And in my two weeks off recently, I just found myself meditating. On Isaiah chapter 40. Would you turn there, Isaiah chapter 40?
Now, in the providence of God, every December I purpose. to listen through Handel's Messiah at least twice. Every word in Handel's Messiah is scripture. And he has one of his numbers, which is based on Isaiah chapter 40. And um I don't know about you, but I sometimes find myself awake in the middle of the night.
Does that happen to any of you guys? It wasn't too many years ago, a man asked me, and he was about my age: have you joined the 330 Club? I said, what's the 3:30 club? He says, You wake up at 3:30 in the morning. and you can't go back to sleep.
I thought, well, I'm in several clubs. I'm in the 930, the 11, the 2. Before I'm just, depends on with the week, I'm in different clubs. But nevertheless, I find myself just. in the last two weeks really thinking on Isaiah chapter 40.
And what we find here is Isaiah the prophet. Gets a brand new commission.
Now he's hit on this, but it gets really different from chapter 40 going forward. Let's kind of unfold the context here. In chapter 39, Isaiah tells us that Israel. Judah specifically, the southern kingdom. is going to go into Babylonian exile.
Her sins have mounded up, her rebellion, her ungodliness has mounded up before the Lord. And for her chastening and correction, you could just say punishment too. They're going into Babylonian exile. Isaiah ceased this coming. One of the kings that was King during this period leading up to the exile was a king by the name of Manasseh.
Manasseh followed Hezekiah. And you would have to get up really early in the morning to be a more wicked king than King Manasseh was. King Manasseh Put idols in the temple of Yahweh, or Jehovah. They would go into the temple to worship the one true God of Israel, the one true God that is the only true God that exists. And there would be idols to Baal and Asherah.
And all these other pagan gods.
So they would go in there wearing the outer clothing of being a Jew, a true Israelite, a Yahweh worshiper, but actually they were Baal worshipers. We find far too much of that in our evangelical churches today, where we parade with the camouflage label of being devoted Christians, but far too much of our church looks like a worldly bailish entertainment complex.
Well, that's where they were. Not only that, but Manasseh actually sacrificed one of his children to one of the false gods of the lands. child sacrifice among God's chosen people. Manasseh was a repressor of true religion. He made preaching and true prophesying almost nonexistent in the land for many, many years.
But the reality is, you see, the people did not want to hear the truth anyway.
Now, you mark this down. This is a great application for us. God generally gives you the kind of pastor you deserve as a local church. You don't want the truth. Eventually, God will say, Okay, I will give you a man who will not preach to you the truth.
And that's where Israel, God, in effect, shut the prophets down for a season. You don't want to hear them? You don't deserve to have them. There were false prophets in the land, as one of the Old Testament prophets would say. The prophets prophesy falsely.
The priests rule on their own authority. In other words, the priests don't follow scripture in the structure and function of the nation. The prophets prophesy falsely, the priests rule on their own authority, and my people love it so. False religion. In the name of Yahweh, but my people love it so.
Then the phrase But what will you do in the end thereof? If you don't hear the real The truth of God's word, if you don't know the real Christ, if you don't know the God of heaven and his provision through Jesus Christ, what are you going to do on your deathbed when nothing else matters? You're not going to think about how fun and entertaining was the church. You're going to think on who is this Jesus? Who is this Jesus?
Yeah.
Well, that's where they were. They did not have ears to hear. They did not deserve the truth. They did not want the truth. But a time is coming after they go into Babylonish exile and captivity.
When they will endure Years and years of misery. Heartache and pain. And then they will be teachable again. Then they will want to hear. The word Of God.
But first, they must experience the consequences of their apostasy. But after they've suffered. After they've been in the turmoil of losing everything and so many of them being slaughtered in the armies under the force of the army of Babylon and then taken then into captivity, after they've suffered like that for a while, They are not needing a word of judgment. They now need a word of Comfort.
So here Isaiah is in these latter years, and suddenly God gives him a new word. A word of comfort. A word of restoration. A word of reassurance. And oh, how they needed that word.
But first of all, let's review right quick Isaiah's original charter. Isaiah chapter 6, verses 6 to 11. You remember the scene, Isaiah is there, and he sees the vision of the Lord and the holiness of God is everywhere. The train of his robe filled the temple, the whole earth shook with the greatness and the glory of God. And then after that scene.
Verse 8 of Isaiah chapter 6 will begin. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I, send me. Isaiah says, I'll go be your prophet, I'll go be your true preacher, I'll go to these people. Verse 90 said, Well, go and tell this people.
Keep on listening, but do not perceive. Keep on looking, but do not understand. Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, their eyes dim, otherwise they might see with their ears and see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and return and be healed. He said, They don't want to hear anything. They're dull.
They're spiritually dull. They don't want to understand the truth. They want fun and games. They want Baal. They want Asherah.
They don't want Yahweh.
So preach to them that God's going to help close your ears and help shut your eyes, that is to true things and spiritual things.
So, this is a form of judgment upon them. Verse 11. Then I said, Well, Lord, how long? How long do I have to preach this negative? Message of judgment and condemnation.
Here's the answer. Last phrase, verse 11. until cities are devastated and without inhabitant. Houses are without people and the land is utterly desolate.
So basically, up through verse chapter 39, that's the pattern of Isaiah's preaching. Judgment, condemnation. Exile, captivity. And it's all because of your own hardened hearts and stubborn rebellion. Heavy stuff.
But now? The word of judgment has come to pass.
Now Isaiah is given a new word. For this crushed and scattered people. Not a word of judgment. But a word of real, substantial comfort and hope. They have experienced God's deep displeasure and his punishment.
And now this sudden change. The prophet now brings A new message of God's glorious, gracious, magnanimous favor and blessing. But the people are gonna wonder. this sudden change. We've been in such misery and woe and pain and despair.
And now here Isaiah comes again. Hadn't heard from Isaiah in a while.
Now he comes with a strong word of comfort to us. Can it be true? They're wondering. Is this really right? We've hurt the other for so long.
We've been in captivity for so long. We've suffered for so long. Can it be true that we're going to be restored and comforted?
Well, God knew they would think that way. And so he says, well, let me remind you of who I am. Because I keep my word. When I tell you something, you can bank on it. Mm-hmm.
Isaiah 40. And we look at the verses, verses six through eight here. He says, remember who I am? A voice calls. Verse um six of Isaiah forty.
A voice says, Call out. Then he, that would be the prophet, answered, What shall I call out?
Well call out and tell the folks this. All flesh is grass. And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. And the grass withers. The flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows upon it.
And surely the people are grass. He said, everybody you know and all of you, you're just a bunch of nothing. Compared to me, you amount to nothing. Just like grass that grows up, withers, it's gone. Verse eight, the Grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.
Don't you trust anything anybody tells you. Trust the word of God. That's what he's saying. Why would you trust a blade of grass? and not trust the word of the Almighty God.
And God says, I'm coming with comfort for you now. I'm coming with Consolation and reassurance. Believe me. Verse 9. Get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion.
Bear of good news. Lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem. Bear of good news. Lift it up. Do not fear.
Say to the cities of Judah, here is your God. But he's showing up this time, not in wrath. Not in exile, captivity, and condemnation, but in comfort. And blessing and reassurance.
Now, a little bit more of this because God says you're still wondering, you're still thinking, can this be true? Isaiah 40:12 through 15. God said, just remember what I'm like, who I am. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? God said, I can do that.
And marked off the heavens by span. God says, I've done that. And calculated the dust of the earth by measure. God says, I can do that. and weighed the mountains in a balance, and the heels in a pair of scales.
Verse 13, who's directed the spirit of the Lord? Or, as his counselor has informed him, have I ever had to sit down and somebody counsel me on what to do? No. Verse 14, with whom did he consult, and who gave him understanding? And who taught him in the path of justice and taught him knowledge and informed him the way of understanding?
He said, I've learned nothing from no one. I haven't learned anything from anyone ever. Because I'm God. Verse 15, these nations who have threatened them, these nations who have terrorized them, these nations who have conquered them and now taken them into captivity, specifically Babylon, what are they? Behold, the nations are a drop from a bucket.
If God did not purpose to use Babylon as his rod of correction, they would have never been able to conquer Judah to start with. Behold, the nations are dropped from bucket, verse 15, regarded as a speck of dust on the scales. Behold, he lifts up the islands like fine dust. Even Lebanon is not enough to burn, nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before him.
They regarded by him as less than nothing and meaningless.
So they're focusing on men mainly and nations and kingdoms and kings and what these people are doing to them and the misery and the pain they put them through. And God says, but I'm better than every one of them. I'm stronger than all of them. That's how you know you can trust my Word.
Now, here we have this Old Testament prophecy, and like all of Old Testament prophecy, remember this: there's always a meaning for the original audience, the original people it was written to, but It finds its fullest and deepest meaning In Jesus. And in his church. And in his work. And eventually his eternal kingdom. And how we see that so powerfully here.
These people will eventually see themselves released by Cyrus the Persian, who will overcome the Babylonians. Cyrus had a policy to let the people go back to their homelands and serve their gods in their own lands. And that was a partial answer to this fulfillment, if you will, of the prophecy specifically to these people of this day. But as wonderful as these words of comfort and promise and return to the land is for these exiles of Judah in this very day. What words of comfort would they be for them in this historical original context.
Yet, they also speak of something exceedingly greater. They speak of our rescue through Jesus Christ. Our comfort through Jesus Christ. The reassurance of hope through Jesus Christ. Matter of fact, even John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus, is pointed out in this text.
Look at Isaiah chapter 40, verse 3. A voice is calling. Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness, and make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. That's basically the New Testament says that was about John the Baptist. As the fullest and deepest understanding.
of that prophetic word. Listen, here's what I want you to know. Here in Isaiah chapter 40. We have the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because the gospel of Isaiah 40 is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It's a new word. It's the gospel of grace and restoration and comfort. And it absolutely must be proclaimed. It must be proclaimed.
Now let's look at our text. Isaiah 40. Verses one and two. Comfort.
Now this is God speaking to his prophet. Comfort, oh comfort my people, says your God. Speak kindly to Jerusalem. Not the city, it means the people of Jerusalem. And call out to her.
That her warfare has ended. That her iniquity has been removed. And that she has received it. of the Lord's hand Double for all her sins. Oh, my goodness.
That's why I entitled this message. The wondrously Glorious. Faithfulness of God. The wondrously Glorious. Faithfulness of God.
Here they are. In captivity. It's gone on for so many decades and so long in the misery and the woe. And the heartbreak. And then this amazing, powerful, penetrating.
Word of grace. comes to them. Do you not see yourself in that? A faithful preacher will preach you down to hell.
So that he can give you Jesus to lift you back up.
Well, they've been through hell, humanly speaking. And now here comes divine hope.
So, this must be proclaimed. I mean, gloriously, it must be proclaimed to Judah, and that's what Isaiah's job was. But it must be proclaimed everywhere from all the mountaintops because it's more than just Israel. It needs to be proclaimed to all the world that there is a Savior. He can take you in your misery, in your pain, and your suffering for your own sin, and lift you back up to hope and comfort.
In relief. Isaiah chapter 40, verse 9. That's why he says in 40, verse 9. Get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good news. Lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news.
Lift it up, do not fear. I say to you to the cities of Judah: here is your God. Proclaim it everywhere. That's where we get the old song, Go Tell It on the Mountain. Over the hill and everywhere, go tell it on the mountain.
That Isaiah prophesied, yes, but more than that, what was he prophesying that Jesus Christ. Is born. God is with us. Come see your God.
Now, we're just going to get started on the outline, and we'll have to chop it off. And God will and will finish it next. Wake. All right. First of all, let's note.
An elect Compassion. An electronic. Compassion. Notice the word there, Isaiah chapter 40, verse 1, the very first phrase. Comfort, O comfort.
But doesn't end there, does he? Comfort, oh comfort. A particular Special group. My people. Then he further emphasizes that by saying says their God.
In other words, I want this done, Isaiah. I'm the God of Israel. I want them comforted. They're my people. I am their God.
That's unique. It shows God's deep feeling and God's deep concern. And may that be a blessing to your heart, child of God, this morning, that wherever you are and whatever you're going through, and even if your own selfish, foolish, and sinful decisions have gotten you in the quagmire of despair you find yourself in, I want to tell you if you're God's, his heart is. To comfort you. His car heart is a heart of concern.
Deep concern for you. or his children. And Israel They were in fact his chosen people. people. Unique in all the earth.
Comfort my people says They're God. Yahweh is the creator of everything. He's the one and only true God, and he's the God of Israel. And I think the point of this is. You've been clamoring after, you've been admiring, you've been wanting to emulate the worshipers of Baal and Asherah and all the false gods of the land.
But what God like me can come get you in your condition? and lift you back up to hope and restoration. He wants you to get the contrast. I'm greater, I'm more powerful, and I'm more faithful, and I'm more compassionate than any other that's being worshipped out there. That's who I am.
Well How did Israel get here? God chose a man named Abram. Living in Ur the Chaldees. To be the beginning. The father of a nation that would be uniquely God's people.
Because when you think about it, you can study all through the canon of Scripture. You can find no direct personal word of compassion and comfort to any other people. It's not there. This is elect compassion.
Now stop right there unless you put God in some sort of frame that's unbalanced. God shows compassion to all people. God shows love to all people. God shows long suffering to all people. Why do you think all the people on the earth who do not know him are still breathing?
God brings the rain on the just and the unjust. His compassion, his care, his concern, his love. Smothers all on the earth. But there is a unique covenant compassion for his own. That's why he makes it very clear.
Isaiah. Comfort my people. For I am their God. For example, he did not have a word of compassion like this. It didn't come to the Assyrians.
or to the Egyptians, or to the Babylonians, This kind of word did not come to the Edomites. Are the Arameans? Are the Phoenicians? Or the Philistines. This kind of compassionate concern did not come to the Moabites or the Amorites or the Hittites.
Water. Has it pleased God to bring it only to the descendants of Abraham? Chosen people. Have you ever heard That God does what he pleases. He don't have to think about you.
Or anybody else? He didn't call a committee or a board. No accountability. God does what he does. Pleases.
And it pleased him to call a sinner among all sinners, a man named Abram. and make a great nation. There is no explanation under the son why God would do that except his elect choice of Abraham. Abraham had not done anything different. Abraham had not earned it.
Abraham had not shown any special virtue. The Bible tells us nothing about any of that. God's elected. Jealous.
Well, let's look at this call again, just briefly from the Old Testament text. In Genesis 12, the Bible simply says, Now the LORD said to Abram, Just out of the blue. Go forth from your country. From your relatives? And from your father's house.
Go to the land that I will show you. He didn't know where the land was going to be, that he was going to be the father of this new nation, but. He said, I'm going to do what God says. And I will make you. A great nation.
And I will bless those who bless you. And make your name great, and so you shall be a blessing. A lot of messianic implications in all this. And I will bless those who bless you. And the one who curses you, I will curse, and in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed.
Then this covenant was reaffirmed in Genesis chapter 22 when He had faithfully obeyed God, willing to give up his own son, Isaac. It is 22:17. Indeed, I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens. As the sand which is on the sea shore, and your seed shall possess the gates of their enemy. In your seat.
Referring to Jesus ultimately. All the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. OS.
So it's uh It's an elect. It's a sovereign compassion. Why were you born in Alabama. Why were you born in America? Why have you heard strong, clear preaching of the gospel and your children?
And there are people around the world who will never hear the name of Christ. How can you how can you How can you discern that? Only one day. We all deserve hell. All of us.
every person who's ever walked the earth. And if God chooses for his own pleasure and his own glory to save some, Blessed be the name of the Lord. Nothing inherently good about this country.
Now, I do believe we're the greatest country that's ever existed. I'd say that by the grace of God with lots of failures and problems, by the way. But God's given us more blessing than any other nation. Because we live this southern, you might say ancient Israel was given more blessing, but we have the full canon of scripture, so we still have more. But nevertheless.
It's the grace of God. He he was pleased. To do it.
So, Isaiah is writing to a people who are going into exile and captivity, into misery, and pain. Under the Viciousness of the Babylonian king and kingdom. But God's word to them now is a word of comfort. It's not over yet, child. There's blessings to come.
There are good things to come for you. There are blessed days ahead for you. Two quick thoughts here.
Well, maybe three quick thoughts. For us and for them. And these are so simple. It's so simple. But, oh, I hope by the Spirit of God it penetrates your heart.
They've been in Babylonian captivity a long time, and God comes to them with this powerful, penetrating word of concern. And comfort. Reminding them I have not forgotten you. I have not rejected you. You blew it this week, didn't you?
Yeah, you did. You blew it. He ought to crush you into oblivion right then, just like that. Me too. And God shouts at us through the prophet Isaiah.
Just remember, child. You may suffer for your own sin, but I have it. not forgotten you. And I have not rejected you. You are mine.
Nothing. Can alter that. If you've come to him through Jesus Christ.
So, and we're going to unpack, there's just richness all through here, but we're going to unpack this next week, Lord Lady. Listen to me. I want to give a balanced thought from the totality of Scripture here. Just because you were raised in a Christian family or Just because you were raised in a quasi-Christian culture. Just because you've attended a church that has faithfully preached to you the gospel and you give general assent to the things you've heard, it doesn't mean you're a true Israelite.
Does it mean you're really God's child? Because when God gave Isaiah this beginning prophecy. He gave Isaiah a special understanding of how it was going to work. That not everyone who goes into exile will return back to the promised land. Not everyone who names Israel will receive all the promises of Israel.
For example. Isaiah 6 in the original charter Isaiah was given. Note even what it says. The Lord has removed men far away. And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
Yet there will be a tenth portion. Ten percent. Of all of those in Israel. Who go into exile? will be ultimately saved from it.
Ten percent. They knew Moses. They knew the law of Moses. They knew the moral law. They knew the ceremonial law.
They understood the temple. They knew the temple services. Probably participated in all of them. Only 10% will make it. Only 10%.
And it will again be subject to burning like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is in its stump. Again, that. looks forward to Jesus, but it also states that It was a forest. And now, Israel, you've been cut down to a stump.
There's a small percentage. Of a godly remnant will receive these promises. Are you hearing me? Just a small percentage of those who call themselves followers of God. are really his.
Paul affirms this in his writing in Romans chapter 9, verses 6 and 7. But it's not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel. Nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants. But through Isaac, your descendants will be named.
Again, projecting forward to Jesus, who is of the lineage of Isaac. And Jesus is the true Isaac, the one who truly. will be the sacrifice for our sins. He said, those who come through him. will be truly mine.
So I challenge you this morning. Are you his? Are you part of that faithful remnant? Have you believed on Jesus? Is he your heart?
Is he your hope? Is he the one you're resting in? As I've said a million times to you in our Baptist and evangelical traditions of the last few decades, don't trust that you repeated a prayer. Don't trust that you've walked down to the front. Don't trust that you've taken a preacher's hand.
Don't trust that you filled out a car. Don't trust that you mocked a prayer. Like some sort of superstitious mantra. Do you know Christ? Is he your Savior?
If so, then these promises are all for you. Off you. A word of comfort. God will be faithful to his own. Even when we're in pain and we're in misery and we're in a foreign land, some of you are there right now, your life is painful.
Your life is miserable. Your life is difficult. To some degree, maybe not at all, maybe to a great degree, your own sinful choices have led you to where you are. But I'm telling you, if you're His. He is still faithful to you.
Yes. Wondrously. Glorious. Faithfulness of God, and we're just getting started. On Isaiah 40, verses 1 and 2.
Yeah.
