Well, just having sung that hymn
of John Newton, I might just encourage you, if you haven't
read the life of John Newton, to do so. It's a very wonderful
account, and it's good to read and to realize how great and
glorious and powerful God is. He was in the life of John Newton,
and he is the same God today. Well, as God may be pleased to
bless us together this morning, I will direct you to the 40th
chapter of Isaiah, and we'll read the first two verses. The
prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 40, and reading the first two verses. Come forthye, come forthye, my
people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for
all her sins. I expect most of you know a little
of the history of Israel. And this, of course, was written
in the days of Hezekiah. And if we just turn back to the
full 39th chapter and just read from verse 5, it'll give you
a little background. The background is this. Then
said Isaiah to Hezekiah, hear the word of the Lord of hosts.
Behold, the days come that all that is in thine house, and that
which thy fathers have laid up in store, until this day shall
be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, saith
the Lord. And of thy sons, that shall issue
from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away, and they
shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Then
said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord which
thou hast spoken. He said, Moreover, for there
shall be peace and truth in my days. Well, those words and the
40th of Isaiah were written before, of course, Israel were taken
captive, were overpowered by the Babylonians and went down
into Babylon for 70 years. And Babylon wasn't just around
the corner. It was many days journey. It wasn't as though they could
pop back to Jerusalem and have a quick look and see what it
was like. No, they were a long way away. And so with that prophecy
of what would happen to Israel, and of course God's Word is always
true, and it came to pass. And they did go down to Babylon.
And it must have been a miserable 70 years for them. We do read a little how they
were asked to sing the songs of Zion by the Babylonians. And
they said, how should we sing the songs of Zion in a strange
land? They just felt not able to do
it. And so the Lord in his amazing
love and mercy, then gave to them, well the rest of Isaiah
of course, but this 40th chapter. So as you could imagine they
were taken captive which had been prophesied not only by Isaiah
but also by Jeremiah and Ezekiel and there they were in a miserable
condition and they only had themselves to blame because they'd walked
contrary to God. They'd been warned many times
to turn back from their evil ways and they ignored those gracious
words of instruction and rebuke. But God is not to be mocked and
God was not to be mocked on this occasion, as is not to be mocked
in our lives today. And so we find that the Babylonians
came and took the Israelites into captivity. Well, try and
imagine, from having lived a pleasant existence in Jerusalem and now
in a very miserable existence in Babylon, What were they to
do? Well, they had, blessed be God,
the word of God which God had given to them. Not of course
all of it as we know today, but part of it. And it would have
included this prophecy of Isaiah. So let's imagine us there in
Babylon and having been taken away, lost all our possessions,
left all our houses, everything behind in Jerusalem and now in
Babylon. And God gives these words. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith the Lord, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. And Jerusalem,
of course, represents the Church of God. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. Again, it's important that we
try and visualize the scene in really a very sad condition.
And you're able to read great and glorious statements that
are contained in these latter chapters in Isaiah. Really, it's
from chapter 40 in Isaiah that the scene changes. And there
are some glorious chapters to read, to be encouraged by. And
so, no doubt, Israel were encouraged as they sat and perhaps had these
read to them. They wouldn't have all been able
to read, but there would have been scribes that could read
to them. And to read this, the word of God, and to be encouraged,
come for ye, come for ye, my people. That's the message, saith
your God. Again, it's not something which
is just hatched up by somebody passing by. It is a direct word
from Almighty God. They were aware of God. They
had a history. They knew how God had wonderfully
been with them and delivered them and been gracious to them. And now God, because of His mercy, because of His love to His church,
comes and doesn't leave them destitute. They deserved, didn't
they, to have nothing. And yet you see, God's love God's mercy in giving them a
glorious prophecy which forecast what would occur to them in the
time to come now most of them of course would not see it some
would and yet there was the time all the time when they were here
in Babylon They could encourage each other through the Word of
God and comfort each other. And as the words tell us, speak
ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Yes, tell the Church of God,
tell the Church of God about the promises of God. It was good in those days. It's good in our day. We have
many, many wonderful promises in the Word of God. And we should
desire to remember them and to recall them and to testify of
them one to another so that we might indeed be strengthened
and encouraged. And so speak ye comfortably the
word in itself is encouraging isn't it to have a comfortable
word spoken to us as we journey on through this
difficult world and the world's never got any easier has it it's
never got any better and so we still need God to come to us
and to speak comfortably comfortably to us and then the Lord instructs
what's to be spoken. And again, not mumbled and not
whispered, they're told, and cry unto her. That means, with
a loud voice, let the church of God know these great and glorious
promises that her warfare is accomplished? Well, we have a warfare. There was a warfare then, physical
and spiritual, and the physical warfare has waned to and fro,
but the spiritual warfare has remained, and again in sometimes
stronger than other times, and yet here we have this desire
is to tell the Church of God that her warfare is accomplished. Well, you may say, well, what
does that really mean? Well, it really means, and this is
the glory of the gospel, it's accomplished not through what
the Israelites did, not through what you and I do, but it's accomplished
through what the Lord Jesus Christ did. He accomplished the way
of salvation. He completed The work that his
father gave him to do. It is a warfare. There is a battle. And yet to think that Christ
has fought that battle for us. He's overcome. He's overcome
the devil and all his cunning plans. The devil was defeated
at Calvary. Oh, friends, what a glorious
truth it is for us now just realize the Israelites didn't have the
benefit of this knowledge. They had to look by faith forward,
believing the day would come when they would indeed be in
that position where the warfare is accomplished. Now, of course,
we still have a warfare, but we know by the grace of God,
that we are more than conquerors through Him. Oh, what a blessed and firm foundation
that is. Christ did not fail in the work
that His Father gave Him to do. No, He fulfilled every detail
of it. And therefore, the Hebrews tells
us, and we are more than conquerors through him, through him. Do we therefore view the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ,
as that one who has conquered sin, death, hell and the grave
for us? He's fulfilled all that was necessary. Well, we can look back, can't
we? And we can read the wonderful
work of the Saviour when He was on the earth. And the wonderful
way that He conquered the devil. It wasn't an easy path, was it?
It wasn't an easy path. But what a blessing it was that
He did conquer. And so we should be thankful
today to read such a statement as this. speak he comfortably
to the Church of God and cry unto her, tell her loudly that
her warfare is accomplished, that Christ has died, yea rather
is risen again and is now ascended up into heaven, there to intercede
for us. And one day known to the Father
will return in all his glory to take the whole Church of God
to be with Him forever. This is the wonderful blessing
for the Church of God, the wonderful prospect for the Church of God,
and how we should rejoice in it, and again to think that God
has given us Isaiah and other prophecies to encourage us as
we journey on through life, the journey on this earth, is not
easy for the Church of God. It never has been, it never will
be. We're not promised an easy journey.
Indeed, the Word of God tells us, Jesus tells us very clearly,
it's through much tribulation we shall inherit the kingdom
but be of good joy. I, the blessed Saviour, I have
overcome world and we shall overcome through him and so let us be
thankful today that it is a wonderful blessing to realize that the
warfare that we are battling with day by day you see the devil
never gives up my friends he always tries to overturn us to
overthrow us to defeat us and to turn us away from the things
of God. But what a mercy to know and to believe. The devil is powerful, but God
is all-powerful. And to think that He will not
be able to overcome us in the end. Those that endure unto the
end shall be saved. The pathway of a true Christian
is one of endurance. The Word of God doesn't encourage
us in any other way than to realize that it is a difficult journey,
but to think that we have a glorious Savior who has indeed conquered. He's accomplished all that was
necessary. What a wonderful, great blessing
it is to realise this great truth and to be encouraged by it and
to thank God for it and to realise therefore that we can thank him
for the wonderful favour and blessing recorded in the Word
of God to strengthen us. You know, way back in the beginning
of this prophecy of Isaiah, the Lord speaks to us and encourages
us and tells us, he says, come now, come now, not tomorrow,
come now. come now and let us reason together
saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet and this indicates
when any article was dyed to produce the color of scarlet
he had to be double dyed and our sins doubly bad. Now come and let us reason together,
saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be
as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. Well, that's not through anything
that you and I can do, but it's through what the great and glorious
Saviour has done. And so the The Prophet goes on
and says, if ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good
of the land. It's good to desire, to pray,
that we may be willing to do God's will, and that we may be
willing to be obedient to His Word, and to therefore enjoy
the good of the land. in a spiritual sense to bless
God for that spiritual food that he gives. And yet there's a warning,
but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with a
sword for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. My friends, we
are to not be disobedient, even if the pathway seems hard what
a mercy it is therefore to have such a god to have such a god
who is kind and gracious and merciful well it's good to have
a statement like that in the first chapter of isaiah to think
that it has a reference as we read on and come to this 40th
chapter And here the prophet says her warfare is accomplished. And he goes on and says that
her iniquity are sins, are sins. We can't hide them, can we? You
can't hide sin. God knows. when we sin. And that can be in deed, it can
be in word, it can be in thought. We cannot find that we are not
sinners. We are sinners. And the sad thing
is, the devil encourages us to sin. He makes things appear very
viable and very pleasant. And therefore we find that we
turn against God, we disobey God, just like Israel. That's why really, if you read
the Word of God, you will find right from Genesis, there's a
catalogue of so many, many sins of God's people. how they've
turned their back upon God again and again and again. You see,
these words are written for our instruction that we should not
think that we're righteous in and of ourselves. It's a good
thing when we come recognizing that we are indeed a deep-dyed
sinner, a sinner indeed. What a mercy it is to realize
that God is kind and gracious, and God is merciful. The Lord has told us that we
are to pray for forgiveness. Do we pray for forgiveness? You may say, well, of course
we pray for forgiveness. Well, you may speak words, but
do we pray for forgiveness? from our heart because we have
offended God, because we have disobeyed God, because we walked
in our own way. It's very easy to just mouth
words, but the reality is that true prayer emanates from our
heart, not from our head, from our heart. What a blessing it
is when God gives to us then this spirit of prayer to pray
that God would indeed look upon us and indeed forgive us and
therefore recognize this great promise that her, that means
the Church of God's iniquity is pardoned. And again, it's
not a trivial thing. It's not a trivial thing. You
and I will never get to glory unless our sins are forgiven. But we have some wonderful statements
in the New Testament to encourage us. And what a great blessing
it is if we do recognize God's favor and God's mercy. We can
read it in the Ephesians, in the first chapter of the Ephesians,
in the first chapter of the Colossians. Very similar, almost identical
words. And we read this in Ephesians
1, verse 7. Well, let me just read the previous
two verses, according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world. And that's an amazing statement
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having
predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself. according to the good pleasure
of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein
he hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us, in all wisdom
and prudence." Well, it's a glorious statement, isn't it? We have
redemption. All of us, my friends, must be
redeemed. We must have our sin taken away,
our sin atoned for. And this is the only way. Redemption
through His blood. The blood that the Saviour shed
at Calvary. Oh, what a great act of love
that was to hard-hearted sinners. How does it affect us? Each one of us, I think, today.
Do we have this redemption through His blood? Which gives the forgiveness
of sins. And it is according to the riches
of His grace. A free and merited favour. Again,
sometimes it's good just to sit and think and meditate. What
was there good in me? What was there good in me? Well,
if God gives us the right meditation, we are to conclude, in me, as
the Apostle Paul said, in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. We are unworthy of any favour,
and yet to think that God, in his great love, has given us
this redemption. And then, as we read, wherein
he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. He's
given us a spiritual understanding. That's very humbling, isn't it?
You look around today, the millions of people who have no spiritual
understanding, how humbling it is. if God has
given us wisdom to understand the great and glorious plan of
salvation. And then he goes on, having made
known unto us the mystery of his will according to the good
pleasure which he has purposed in himself that in the dispensation
of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things
in Christ both which are in heaven and which are in earth, even
in him." Well, these are wonderful statements, aren't they? And
then we can go on to Colossians. And again, the first chapter
in Colossians, where we read very similar words. Again, the Apostle Paul tells
us, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet, to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Isn't
that wonderful? By the grace of God, given this
inheritance, to be a partaker of it with the saints in life,
who hath delivered us from the power of darkness that condition
we were born into the power of darkness and hath translated changed us
into the kingdom of his dear son and here we have this truth
again in whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness
of sins who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
of every creature. For by him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by him
and for him. And he is above all things. By
him all things consist. So to think then of this wonderful
redemption. And so Isaiah says that her iniquity
is accomplished, her warfare rather, is accomplished, that
her iniquity is pardoned. For she has received of the Lord's
hand Double for all her sins. And then thinking of what we
said earlier in that first chapter, those scarlet sins, double died,
and therefore we have this statement here, double for all her sins. Every sin, my friends, taken
away. It's hard to realize, isn't it?
It's hard to think. as we are rebels, hard-hearted,
in opposition to God, following our own way, rebellious, hard-hearted,
and yet to think that it is because of the amazing love of God the
Father, the amazing love of God the Son, the amazing love of
God the Holy Spirit, that we have been chosen, that we have
been redeemed, that we have been loved with an everlasting love. And because of that, the whole
plan of salvation was worked out and the whole plan of salvation
was accomplished. And therefore we can look back,
can't we, to those New Testament accounts and rejoice in the wonderful
work of the Saviour. Well, she has received of the
Lord's hand double for all our sins. Well, how do we stand before
God? Do we think we're a small sinner?
Well, the Apostle Paul didn't think he was a small sinner,
did he? And David didn't think he was a small sinner. And under
the influence of the Holy Spirit of God, you and I won't think
we're a small sinner. We may at one time think we're
a small sinner. But what a blessing it is when
the Holy Spirit comes to us and convinces us of our sin. Not able then to justify ourself. No, condemned under the law of
God. And what does it make us do?
Plead for mercy. Plead for mercy. And mercy is
welcome news indeed to those who guilty stand. And we do stand,
there will be a time When we will stand before a holy God,
and God will be holy, he'll be righteous, and we'll be unholy,
and we'll be unrighteous, and we'll need to realize that we
have a God who is full of compassion, and loving kindness, and doesn't
deal with us as our sins deserve. And we can therefore then rejoice
in such a statement as this. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. It's a great blessing when
God comes and shows to us that we have received forgiveness
by Almighty God to take away all our sins. We weren't able
to deliver ourselves. We weren't able to pay the price
required to free us from the condemnation of the law, which
said, the soul that sinneth it shall die. We stood guilty before
God. Yes, we were judged before a
holy God, and we were guilty before God. But then to think,
the Savior came and stood between in garments dyed in blood. And to have some appreciation
of the cost of our salvation. It wasn't trivial. It cost the Lord of life and
glory, God himself, his life. And he died a most painful death. in order that you and I might
receive the wonderful favour and the wonderful gift of eternal
life. You know, it's interesting, isn't
it? We have in this book of the Prophet, the 53rd chapter of
Isaiah, which is a very glorious chapter, but it opens with this
question. Who hath believed our report? That's the first question. And
the second is, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Well, two questions which you
and I need to be able to answer positively. That God has given
us grace to believe the truth of scripture and that he has
revealed to us the arm of salvation. He has shown to us his great
and glorious love toward us. And then as the prophet traces
out what the Saviour was when he was on the earth, he shall
grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a
dry land. He has no form nor comeliness.
And when we shall see him, There is no beauty that we should desire
him. And it's just good to take on
board a statement like that, because there are so many artist's
drawings, aren't there, of what they think Jesus looked like.
And none of them, I'm sure, give a picture like this. It tells
us so very clearly there's no beauty that we should desire
him. No, naturally, you see, there's
nothing that we should desire. He is despised and rejected a
man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it
were, our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. yet we did esteem him stricken
smitten of God and afflicted but he was wounded for our transgressions
for our sins he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement
of our peace was upon him and with his stripes We are healed. It's difficult for us to recognize
and realize the cost of our salvation and to realize Almighty God took
this punishment upon himself in order to redeem our souls. So when we read this word, for
she hath received the Lord's hand double for all our sins,
Oh, the compassion of almighty God. Oh, we like sheep have gone
astray. Yes, so easily we've gone astray.
We've turned everyone to his own way. We've chosen our own
way. We've said in our heart, we will
not have this man to reign over us. And the Lord has laid on
him the iniquity of us all, all our sins. laid upon the Saviour. What a burden. What a burden. Oh, what a great and glorious
Saviour. We won't go through the whole
chapter. It's worth going through, it's worth reading, but just
to say, it pleased the Lord, our God and Father, to bruise
Him. He hath put Him to grief, when
Thou shalt make His solemn offering for sin. he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. He shall see of the trouble of
his soul and shall be satisfied. Well, that's a grand statement
which is really beyond our natural comprehension to really appreciate. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Yes, for she hath received the
Lord's hand double for all her sins, washed in the precious
blood of the Lamb. Well I trust we can enter in
some measure into the great glory of the Gospel. Here it was spelt
out by Isaiah to the Israelites that they would have before them
when they were there in captivity for those 70 years were able
to meditate upon the promises of God and we now today my friends
can look back on the promises of God and can indeed rejoice
in them and rejoice in that wonderful promise that the Lord gives through
the Apostle John in that 14th chapter when he tells us, let
not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to repair a place for you.
And if I go and repair a place for you, I will come again. and
receive you under Myself, that where I am there ye may be also. And whither I go, ye know, and
the way ye know. Well may these words this morning
be to us as the first verse says. Come for thee, come for thee,
my people, saith your God. These words are recorded for
the comfort of the Church of God. Comfort in the days they
were written, comfort through the Babylonian captivity, comfort
in all those years up to the time of the crucifixion of the
Saviour, and have been ever since, and ever will be, I'm sure, down
to the end of time. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God, These are the very words of God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. Amen.