Transcript

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 or plans or 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 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 3-30 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 9.30, the 11, the 2, the 4, I’m just, depends on what 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 mounted up, her rebellion, her ungodliness has mounted up before the Lord. And for her chastening and correction, you could just say punishment too, they’re going into Babylonian exile. Isaiah sees 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 Baalish 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 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, a priest don’t follow scripture and 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 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 gonna do on your deathbed when nothing else matters? You’re not gonna think about how fun and entertaining was the church. You’re gonna think on who is this Jesus? Who is this Jesus?

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 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 6:6-11. You remember the scene, Isaiah’s 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 we’ll 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 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 the 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 going to 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. Isaiah 40. And we look at the verses 6 through 8 here. He says, remember who I am.

A voice calls, Isaiah 40:6. “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, it grows up, withers, it’s gone.

Verse 8, 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 [Isaiah 40:9]. “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. 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 40:12-15. 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 hills in a pair of scales.”

Verse 13 [Isa. 40:13], “Who has 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 [Isa. 40:14], “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 [Isa. 40:15], 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 like 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 [Isa. 40:15-17], “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’re 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 they would 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 40:3. “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 40:1-2. Comfort, now this is God speaking to his prophet. “Comfort, O 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 of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

Oh my goodness. That’s why I entitled this message, The Wonderfully Glorious Faithfulness of God. The Wonderously 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, as you’re suffering for your own sin and lift you back up to hope and comfort and relief.

Isaiah 40:9, 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’s 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 willing, we’ll finish it next week. All right.

First of all, let’s note an elect compassion. An elect compassion. Notice the word there, Isaiah 40:1, the very first phrase, comfort, oh comfort. It doesn’t end there, does he? “Comfort, oh comfort”, a particular special group by 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 heart is a heart of concern, deep concern for you, for his children.

And Israel, they were in fact His chosen people. Unique in all the earth, “comfort my people, says their God”. Yahweh is the creator of everything. He’s the one and only true God and He’s the God of Israel. 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 worshiped 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 longsuffering 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.

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 Syrians or to the Egyptians or to the Babylonians. This kind of word did not come to the Edomites, or the Arameans, or the Phoenicians, or the Philistines. This kind of compassionate concern did not come to the Moabites, or the Amorites, or the Hittites.

Why? Because it pleased God to bring it only to the descendants of Abraham, his chosen people. Have you ever heard that God does what he pleases? He didn’t have to think about you or anybody else. He didn’t call a committee or a board. No accountability. God does what he 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 sun 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 elect choice.

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. Genesis 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 seashore, and your seed shall possess the gates of their enemy”. In your seed, referring to Jesus ultimately, “all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice”.

So 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 discern that? Only one thing. 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 was pleased to do it. So Isaiah is writing to a people who are going into exile and captivity and the misery and pain under the viciousness of the Babylonian king and kingdom. 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.

Now, two quick thoughts here. Well, maybe three quick thoughts. For us and for them. These are so simple, 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. God crushed you into oblivion right then, just like that. Me too. And God shouted us through the prophet Isaiah. Just remember, child. You may suffer for your own sin, but I have 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. 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. Doesn’t 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”, 10% of all of those in Israel who go into exile will be ultimately saved from it. 10%. 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. It’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 9:6-7. “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 walked down to the front. Don’t trust that you’ve taken a preacher’s hand. Don’t trust that you filled out a card. 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.

All for 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. He is. Wondrously glorious faithfulness of God, and we’re just getting started on Isaiah 40 verses 1 and 2.