The Message and the Mission (Part 1 of 2)

Music playing... How will the new year be different from last year?

That's a fair question. Life keeps pushing us forward and with it comes a whole lot of change. Maybe a better question would be, what will be the same in the new year? Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg brings a clear reminder that there are things that will never change.

Music playing... I invite you to turn with me to Isaiah and chapter 40, and we're going to read from verse 1 to verse 11. Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she is received from the LORD's hands, double for all her sins. A voice cries, In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low. The uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

A voice says, Cry, and I said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows on it. Surely the people are grass, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news. Lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news.

Lift it up, fear not. Say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God! Behold, the LORD God comes with might, and his arm rules for him. Behold, his reward is with him and his recompense before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arms.

He will carry them in his bosom and gently lead those that are with young. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Father, thank you that your Word is fixed in the heavens. Thank you that all that was written in the past was written, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Bible, we might have hope. Grant to us then an understanding of your Word and a willingness to see it applied to our lives this day, both individually and as a church family. And we ask this in Christ's name.

Amen. Well, I turned somewhat arbitrarily last Sunday to Isaiah 40, and having done that and having begun to read it and read on through the chapter, which is a familiar chapter to many of us, I said to myself, I think, actually, verses 6 through to 11 provide us with a very helpful passage for this first Sunday of the new year, insofar as it provides us with an opportunity to receive a clear reminder of the message that we are to proclaim and of the mission that we are to fulfill. So, our title would simply then be The Message and the Mission. We should remind ourselves that this prophecy of Isaiah, written a long, long time ago, first for the people who were its initial readers, and pointing ultimately to its fulfillment in the Lord Jesus, and yet written also for those of us who live now post-ascension of Jesus and in anticipation of the return of Jesus. So that, as we've often said in reading the prophets, it's about like hill walking in the Lake District of England. You come to what would appear to be the summit, only to reach it and find that there is another vista that takes you on beyond.

And so it is in light of that—and I won't say more than that— it's in light of that that we look at this passage, if you like, in the understanding of that more comprehensive element. Now, I find myself in these days—and I assume that I am not unusual, at least in this respect—with time for reflection. You sit and you think. You're traveling in a car, a people start on New Year's resolutions, and so on. And it would be unusual if we didn't ponder where we've been and where we're going. And as I was chewing on some of these things during the week, I had a fairly vivid recollection of a friend of mine, back in the year 2000, saying to me one day, Alistair, what do you want to be when you grow up?

Now, the fact that I was forty-eight years of age at the time took me back just a little bit. But what he then went on to say was, No, what I'm asking is this. What do you see yourself doing, let's say, ten years or twenty years from now? And I replied with words largely to this effect, Well, I see myself doing what I'm presently doing, but hopefully more effectively.

Although he didn't say it, I could tell that he was unimpressed by that response. After all, at that moment in May of 2000, we were just on the threshold of a new millennium. And there I sat, and in response to his question, all I was able to come up with was essentially the same message and the same mission.

And even today, it happens all the time—not just to me but to any who fulfill a role similar to my own. People will come, and they'll say, So, what's new? What's the plan?

What do you have for us? After all, Apple is going to build a car. Elon Musk is going to take you to Mars in 2026. Are you really going to tell us, Alistair, that in light of all of this and the vast development of our world, that you're really prepared to stand there and say, Yes, same message, same mission? Answer?

Absolutely. And as I was thinking about this, I had another vivid recollection—you'd be amazed how many vivid recollections I have—and it's absolutely true, but I had to go find the exact quote, but I knew it. And that is in Franco Zeffirelli's version of Jane Eyre, in that movie, in the Jane Eyre movie. At one point, Jane Eyre is putting her charge—her pupil, if you like—to bed. And as they are getting ready for bed, the little girl, Adele, says to Jane Eyre, What's going to happen tomorrow? And Jane Eyre says, Well, we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. And she says, Mademoiselle, will we be very happy? And Jane Eyre says, Adele, we will work hard, and we will be content. Well, it doesn't sound like much, does it?

I think it's pretty good. There's a difference between contentment and complacency. Contentment is not the absence of ambition.

And ambition still exists side by side with contentment. So with all of that in mind, look, then, at why I say it's a reminder of the message, first of all. A voice says, Cry, and I said, What shall I cry? Remember we said last time that the voice of God says to his messengers, I want you to declare comfort to my people. The people have received this tender message of comfort.

And now the voice comes again, calling out the messenger, What is it that I'm supposed to say? Now, the message that is to be conveyed, let me just give you two observations on it. First of all, it is quite startling.

It is quite startling. Last time, I hope we realized the speed with which God's word of comfort followed upon the pronouncement of doom that was represented back in chapter 39. If your Bible is open, I could just point it out to you. Isaiah 39. And Isaiah is speaking to Hezekiah. And he tells him, Listen, the days are coming—verse 6 of Isaiah 39—"when all that is in your house and that which your fathers have stored up till this day shall be carried to Babylon.

Nothing shall be left, says the LORD." And then he goes on to describe the significance of what's going to happen in the exile. That's chapter 39.

When you read 39 straight into 40, without a break—because, after all, there were no breaks in the original text—you realize how startling it is. The word of the prophet in relationship to the exile of the people, the word that has declared their great difficulty and the darkness that will befall them, is immediately followed up by the story of God's comfort. Now, if you like, the story of the Old Testament could be encapsulated in relationship to the people of God by a consideration of just two elements. One would be the exodus from Egypt, where God comes and redeems his people and brings them out, and then the restoration from the exile in which they found themselves—salvation and restoration. The intentions of God for his people triumphed over their rebellions.

Notice that. The intentions of God for his people triumphed over their rebellions, and the intentions of God for us his people triumph over our frailties. The people who have known struggles in their lives, who have strayed from God's ways in perhaps a singular fashion—those individuals, within the arena of salvation, within the context of God's comforting love, are the ones who are able to speak most directly and fondly of the wonder of God's embrace, of this amazing transition from the wilderness wanderings and the darkness of the heart and the rebellion that is marked us, and to be caught up in his amazing love.

So that's the first observation. It is quite startling, this message, and it is also a serious message. And that is, as you will see back in verse 5, on account of the fact that the mouth of the Lord has spoken. The mouth of the Lord has spoken. Calvin, in his Institutes, has a wonderful sentence when he says, God deigns to consecrate to himself the mouths and tongues of men in order that his voice may resound in them.

God deigns to consecrate to himself the mouths and the tongues of mere men in order that his voice may resound in them. That is the significance of it. That is why it is so unbelievably significant and why it is so serious.

We're not simply dealing here with just any old piece of material. The infallibility of Scripture. We don't believe that Scripture is infallible because we can prove it to be infallible. We can't prove it to be infallible. On what basis, then, do we declare the infallibility of the Bible? The answer is that the only ground of witness to the infallibility of Scripture is Scripture itself. Scripture testifies to its own origin, to its own power, to its own character, and to its own authority. For there is nothing higher or stronger than Scripture itself. You can think that out on your own, but we must proceed.

Sticking with that, notice, then, the source of the message is here before us. All flesh is grass, all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades. When the breath of the Lord blows on it, surely the people are grass.

The grass withers, the flower fades. By the word of our God will stand forever. So the Bible is no ordinary book. The Bible is breathed out by God. In Hebrews we read that it is living and active.

It discerns the thoughts of people's hearts and minds and the intentions of people's lives. We don't actually come, as I say to you, to understand the Bible. We don't come to submit to the authority of the Bible by simply human logic or by compelling arguments. You will never, ever come to believe the Bible savingly. You will never, ever come to trust the Bible unreservedly as a result of someone giving you compelling, logical arguments that come from outside the Scriptures themselves.

I guarantee you, it will never happen. The only way that a man or a woman will ever come to a convinced view of the Word of God is by the persuasive influence of God himself—that God the Holy Spirit brings God's Word to bear upon one of God's creatures in such a way that they say, I believe it. Now, the Bible makes this clear.

The natural person does not receive the things of the Spirit, because they're foolishness to them. You go back to work tomorrow and tell people, Well, we had a bit of a talk yesterday concerning the message we're supposed to proclaim to the world. Oh, says a friend, and what was that?

Well, it's the message about God coming in Jesus and Jesus providing a sacrifice for sin. Oh, the person says, Please, we're done with that in this age. Don't you know that Apple's going to have an electric car?

Don't you know that you can go to Mars? Don't you realize the world has moved on? And we are just left saying, Well, what in the world happened to me? What happened to me? Well, the Scriptures made you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. You started to read the Bible, and the Bible pointed you to Jesus. And as it pointed you to Jesus, you discovered that life is found in Jesus.

And having discovered that life is found in Jesus, you came to invite Christ to be your life, that his life might be lived in and through you. Now, that is just to say a word concerning the source of this message. The source of the message is Scripture itself. What is the substance of the message? Well, I'm not going to reread it, but it is there in these verses before you.

What is the messenger to cry? Coming back to where I was a little earlier, I mean, this is a question I get all the time. People say to me—and I'm sure they say to my colleagues the same thing—"How do you come up with something every Sunday?" You know, there's so many Sundays in the year. What do you do?

You go away, and you have to stay all by yourself, and then you come back. How do you come up with something? And I always say, You should be very glad that I can't come up with something that I don't come up with something. God actually warns his people about prophets who come up with something. You can read this in Jeremiah 23. Thus says the Lord of hosts, verse 16, Don't listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes.

It's going to be a great year. Believe it. Believe it. Are you believing it?

People say, What's he talking about? I was getting a coffee three weeks ago, and there was a sign in the window that just said, Believe! I want to smash the window. Well, because the shop was closed, I want to go in and put next to it, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. But believe doesn't work. That's what God says. Don't listen to the words of the prophets who tell you, Believe!

fill you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds. They're not from the mouth of the Lord. They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, It will be well with you. And to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say to them, No disaster shall come upon you.

Well, they haven't gone very far beyond Genesis 3, have they? And then the devil says, No, it's not a problem. It's not a problem. Go ahead. In the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. And the evil comes and says, You'll never die. Don't worry about that.

Of course not. Who are you going to listen to? What's the basis of the message? Later on, in the same chapter, he says, Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream.

That's what he wants to do. But let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat declares the Lord. Now, what you have here is not simply the contrast between the frailty and brevity of life. You do have that contrast.

It is there, isn't it? The flesh is like grass. The beauty is like the flower of the field.

There are very few flowers out there at the moment. But I want you to notice that you can get this truth somewhere other than the Bible. I mean, you can get this truth just by existing. You know, as you progress, you begin to fade. Your mental powers fade, your abilities, your physical frame, and everything else that goes along. Anybody that just exists can understand that.

Everybody in the world knows that. One out of one dies. But you see, there's a phrase here that is easily passed over, and it's the key phrase I suggest to you. The grass withers, the flower fades. Why does the grass wither and the flower fade? Well, when the breath of the Lord blows on it. It's the metaphor here, isn't it? You think of the winds in California, and in the morning you get up, and your yard looks very, very nice, and they start to blow through the whole day and the night and into the next day, and before you know where you are, all the beauty has been actually devastated.

Now, let me just pause with you on this for a moment, as I think I must. Turn, if you have a Bible, there to Psalm 90 for a moment. The expression of the frailty and brevity of life is in the context of God's judgment. Now, Psalm 90 is usually regarded as the funeral psalm.

That's what people say. Well, they read this psalm at funerals, and you will have been at funerals where they do read it. But as I've pointed out to you before, almost inevitably they skip verses 7–12, which of course explains the human predicament. Look at verse 7. You won't get this at most funerals, For we are brought to an end by your anger.

Now, we're going to have to do something with that then, aren't we? We say, Lord, you have been our dwelling place through all generations. It's been a wonderful time. Old Bill was a fine fellow.

I remember we golfed frequently and so on. And in the run of events, eventually it all comes to an end, and here we are today to celebrate his life. Not a word given to why in the world it was he died in the first place or why anybody dies. We are brought to an end by your anger. By your wrath we are dismayed. Death is not the intended lot of God's creation. Death is God's judgment upon sin. In the day that you shall eat of this, you will surely die. And so, verses 9 and 10, if your Bible is open, all our days pass away under your wrath. We bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty, yet their span is but toil and trouble. They're soon gone, and we all fly away.

But who considers the power of your anger and your wrath according to their fear of you? You see, verses 9 and 10, that experience of the demise of our lives, we will never come to without the revealing power of God the Holy Spirit. You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life, talking about the message and the mission of God. He'll continue this message tomorrow. Alistair reminded us today that the Bible is no ordinary book. His word remains the same, year in and year out.

That's why our mission doesn't change. And here at Truth for Life, our mission is to teach the Bible in a way that is clear and relevant to life today. We also select books each month to help you continue to grow in your understanding of Scripture, and today we're recommending a book written by the well-known 20th century preacher Martin Lloyd-Jones.

It's called The All-Sufficient God. All nine of the book's chapters contain sermons preached by Lloyd-Jones that draw truth from Isaiah chapter 40, so this book is the perfect supplement to Alistair's current series. You've probably heard Alistair reference Lloyd-Jones, but if you've never listened to his messages or read them, you'll benefit greatly from his clear and logical teaching. In this book he answers tough questions like, what is iniquity? How is that different from sin? What does the Bible mean by repentance?

And what makes it so difficult for people to accept the gospel message? Be sure to request your copy of the book The All-Sufficient God when you give a gift of any amount visit our website truthforlife.org donate or call 888-588-7884. If you'd rather mail your donation and request the book The All-Sufficient God you can write to Truth for Life at PO Box 398000, Cleveland, Ohio 44139.

I'm Bob Lapine. Our world has a problem, but God has provided a perfect solution, the gospel. Like all good news, it's a message to be shared. Tomorrow Alistair Begg challenges us to accept our part in God's mission. I hope you'll join us then. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.