Isaiah chapter 40, our text will
be found in verses 1 and 2, and the title of the message this
morning is Take Comfort. Take Comfort is the title of
the message this morning. Take Comfort. And this prophecy of Isaiah here,
just before this text of Scripture, this wonderful text of Scripture
that we read, verses 1 and 2, speaking of the comfort that
the Lord gives His people before this, in chapter 39, the Lord
does not speak great comfort. And I believe that our chapter
and verses division, they provide a good reference help but many
times they separate things that shouldn't be separated. And I
believe that this here is an instance of that, that chapter
39 and chapter 40 are of one discourse. And you have the prophet
Isaiah giving tidings of woe unto the king Hezekiah. He tells them in chapter 39,
verses 5 and 7, He tells Hezekiah this, that the Babylonians are
coming. These Babylonians whom you are
befriending now, whom you are seeking fellowship with now,
they will soon come and take away everything that your fathers
have stored up. They will soon come and take
away everything that your fathers have stored up, and they will
take your children, they will take your sons, and they will
make them eunuchs." In other words, he's saying that their
family line is going to be cut off. This, no doubt, brought great
grief to Hezekiah. This brought great sorrow to
know that his people were going to be in utter ruin. That his
line was going to be cut. And yet this is a great picture
of what has happened to the race of Adam. This is exactly what
has happened to our race. Just as the Babylonians came
and took all of the treasures of Judah, so did sin come into
God's creation and take all that was good from us. It took all
the treasure that God had given us as an inheritance by our Father. The Scriptures tell us that death
came by sin. Adam who was the highest of God's
creation, the brightest of God's creation, the best of God's creation,
and here he was, made perfect and holy and right and good.
There was nothing wrong with Adam. He was perfect. He walked
with God Himself. Imagine that, walking with God
in the cool of the day together. He was perfect. He inherited
all of the blessings of God. All of the things that God had
were His and He had given them unto Him. And yet when He sinned, He and
all His posterity were cut off from all the blessings and so
death passed upon all of us. Death passed upon all of us because
of sin. And this is the message of hopelessness.
that the natural religious age rejects. They say, surely God has left
man something. Surely sin has not robbed me
of everything. Surely I have a free will. Surely
I have a right to come to God. Surely God has left me some semblance
of that character of Adam. Surely He didn't take everything.
That's what the natural religious age says. Surely He didn't totally
leave me devoid of all hope in myself. Surely there's something. That's the voice of the religious
age that we live in. Therefore, they go about seeking
to obtain their own righteousness before God. They go about seeking
to obtain their own righteousness and reject God's Word concerning
themselves. They reject it. They will not
have it. The ruin of man. The ruin of
man. So they say, let us break their
bands asunder and cast their cords from us. We will not have
this man to rule over us. Preacher, you're talking about
a total depravity. I don't believe that. Of course
you don't. Of course they don't. The religious
age won't. The natural man will not receive
the things of God because he cannot receive the things of
God. But this was not the response
of King Hezekiah. When King Hezekiah heard of the
destruction that was to come, when he heard of the ruin of
his people, listen to what he said. Look at that in chapter
39 and verse 8. Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah,
good. What? Good? Good is the Word of the Lord?
Is that what he said? Yes! He said, Good is the Word
of the Lord. Right is the Word of the Lord.
Just is the Word of the Lord. That's what he said when he heard
of the ruin of his people. When God comes by His Spirit,
this will be the response of every sinner that is made sensible
of his sin. If you have been made sensible,
if you have been made aware of your nature, if you have been
exposed to the ruin of your nature, you will say, yes, God, you are
right. Your Word is good, and I believe
it. When God comes to a man and he
sees the hopelessness of his state, the ruin of his soul,
when he sees his sin is not only what he does, but who he is. When he sees that the best of
his religion is nothing more than filthy rags in the sight
of God. When a man sees that he is fit
for nothing but hell itself. When a man realizes that his
works and his will will not save him, when he comes to this, he
will say this, good is the word of the Lord. Good. That's right. He says this, God, if you send
me to hell, you're right to do it. God, if you send the entire human
race to outer darkness, you are right. Good to do so Have you
come to see that? Have you been brought down to
that place to see that God is right to cast you to hell. Have
you seen that? I Have I Know that if God were
to cast me into hell, I would have nothing to say nothing. I Take God's side against myself. I And I'll tell you, it is at this
place that a man recognizes his sins. It is only at this place
will God ever send the message of hope. It is only when a man
realizes there is no hope in himself, then God comes and He
sends this message. When Hezekiah said, good is the
Word of the Lord, what did God say? Comfort ye, comfort ye,
my people, saith the Lord. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,
saith the Lord. Speak 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." This morning I want to ask you two questions concerning
this text. Two questions concerning this
matter of comfort. Is there anyone that needs comfort? Is there anyone that needs rest? And my friend, you must answer
these two questions. Who are to be comforted? Who
are the ones God is speaking to? That's vitally important,
isn't it? Who are the ones God's speaking
to? Number two, what is the source of this comfort? The two questions,
who are they that God comforts and what is the source of this
comfort? First of all, who are to be comforted? I just told
you that all men are dead by nature. All men are dead in sins. All men are rebels by nature,
unable and unwilling to come to God. If all men deserve hell, who
gets comfort? If all men deserve hell, who
then gets comfort? This message of comfort is given
to a certain group of people. According to the text of Scripture,
it is given to a certain group of people. It is directed here
in its context to the nation of Judah. When Isaiah was speaking
this, it was in a literal sense given to the nation of Judah. They were fixing to be ruined.
Everything they had was fixing to be destroyed and taken from
them. How would you feel for somebody to come and say, your
children will be taken from you? If you believed that message,
you would be very distraught, wouldn't you? You'd be very distraught. But if there's comfort, who then
is given comfort? This message was for the Judah
at that time, but in relationship, Judah is nothing more than a
type of the church. It's a type of God's people,
the elect of God. The elect of God. This is who
the message of comfort is sent to, the elect of God. How do I know that? Read the
text. Read it. Comfort ye who? My people. My people." This is the people
of God, the elect, whom God has chosen from all eternity by His
sovereign, free grace. God has chosen a people to give
comfort to. And they are the ones chosen
by His grace. Isaiah 44, verse 1 says this,
"'Yet now, hear, O Jacob, My servant, whom I have chosen."
Whom I have chosen. We know that Jacob and Esau were
born of the same mother. They were twins. Born in the
same womb together. Came from the same father. And
yet, what does the Scripture teach us concerning these two
men? Romans chapter 9 tells us that
these men being born, not yet having done good or evil, that
the purpose of God according to election might stand. It is
written, for Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Yes, all the sons of Adam fell. All of us here in this building
this morning have fell in our father Adam. Every one of us.
None of our children sitting here this morning has escaped.
Not one of them. Not one of us has escaped this
fall. We are all born this way. Yet God, by His grace, purposed
to save some of us. Therefore, He chose a people
to whom He would send comfort, and they are deemed His elect."
2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, "...but we are bound to give thanks to
you, brethren, beloved of the Lord." Why? Because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Well, preacher, if to elect or
to get comfort, how does that help me? Well, then you must
ask the question, who are the elect? Isn't that right? If you
want to receive comfort, if you are in need of comfort this morning,
then you must know if you are in this group. You must know
if God has chosen you. And how can that be? How is it?
How do we know who these are? If we're all dead in sin and
yet God purposed to save some, who are they? I'll tell you who
they are. First of all, they're the ones
in need of comfort. They're the ones in need of comfort.
You see, this lost generation of religious folks, this depraved
people, they see no need of forgiveness. I heard a man preaching one time
on the television and he had told his people that they needed
to go outside the church and find sinners. They need to go
outside the church. No, you don't need to go outside
the church to find sinners. There's a bunch of us right here.
We're here. I need forgiveness. God's elect will understand this
principle. We need mercy. God's elect needs mercy. Jesus
said, I came not to call the righteous, but who? Sinners to
repentance. If there's no sinners in here,
He ain't called any of us. He ain't called any of us. Oh,
but you're a sinner. There's altogether a difference
if you need mercy. They that need no mercy, my friends,
they don't need any salvation. It's not comfort for them. But
all God's elect will see their need of complete mercy. You see,
I don't need partial mercy. I don't need pity. I need absolute,
complete mercy. I need mercy from the beginning
to the end. I don't need mercy to start and
then let me go on my own. I need mercy to start me, to
keep me until He comes and gets me. That's what I need. I need
mercy all the way. God's elect needs mercy all the
time. We have seen our wickedness and
our inability to please God by our works. If you've seen that,
my friend, if you're in need of mercy, I've got comfort for
you. If you need mercy, if you need comfort, then this is it.
This is it for you. This is God's people. And I point
you, my friends, all of you here in this building, under the sound
of my voice, I point you to One that can give you comfort. I
point you to only One who can give you peace. I can point you
to only One who can save your soul. And His name is Jesus Christ
of Nazareth. This is the God-man mediator.
He has come and He said, to all, come unto Me, you that are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Anybody heavy laden? No, preacher,
I'm doing pretty good. No, I'm talking to you. Move
out of the way. I need to get somebody else.
I have this illustration of a man on the side of the road going
through a construction site, and he's got a big old tub of
water on his back, and he yells, water! Water! Water! And somebody says, well,
I'm not thirsty. I'm not talking to you. I'm talking
to somebody who's thirsty. I'm talking to somebody who needs
water. I'm talking to somebody who needs comfort. Do you need
rest for your souls? Have you been trying to be saved? That's a heavy burden, isn't
it? That's a burden too heavy to bear for any man. My friend,
Christ tells you that are heavy laden, come on, come to Me, and
I will give you rest. I will give you comfort. Comfort. for your souls. If you need mercy,
if you have a heavy burden, then come to Christ. All the elect
that God has chosen will come to Christ in this manner. They will all come to Christ
in this manner, heavy laden with their sin, their guilt. And my
friends, the result of everyone who comes is mercy. Everyone who comes
is mercy, mercy. If you need mercy, there's comfort
only in Christ. Well, how do we come? How is
it that the elect come? If they realize they need these
things, how is it that they come? They all come by one way, by
faith. They all come by faith. Through
faith in Jesus Christ alone. You see, salvation is by grace. God chose us by grace. He redeemed
us by grace. But I'll tell you this, anyone
who is to receive these things, he must receive them, how? Through faith. Through faith. Without faith, none of this is
for you. None of this is for you. A man
must believe. And I'll tell you this, our faith
is not our comfort. When you come, don't come on
your faith. It won't stand. Faith is just the channel by
which the graces of God flow to us. Every one of y'all got
pipes underneath your sink. But you know the water doesn't
come from your pipes. It goes through them. It comes
from the source. It comes from the water company.
And you know that that water is pumped all the way through
and through your pipes. But if your pipe busts, what
happens? Water spews everywhere. The water is directed by the
pipes, but it's not the source. We don't trust in our faith. We trust in the object of our
faith. I rest my faith only in Christ. And in that flows from Him comfort
to my soul. No matter what's going on around
me, comfort flows from Him to me. How? Through faith. I believe. I rest in His comfort. I rest
in what He has done. This is it with the elect. And
therefore, God says to us who believe, To us who have come
to Christ, to us who have been sanctified by the Spirit and
have come through the belief of the truth, He says to us,
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. You, my friend that believe,
you are the elect of God. You are the elect of God. How
else did you come? How else did you come? Remember,
you were dead. You were ruined. How is it that you rise, that
you raised up out of the ashes of your ruin? God gave us grace
and faith and life. And those of you that have life,
you are His people. And God says to me, His minister,
comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Now then, we know who this comfort
is given. So now then, I want to look secondly
at what then is to be our comfort. Go back to your text. Look at
that in verse 2. He says, "...speak comfortably
to Jerusalem and cry unto her." What am I supposed to cry to
you? What am I supposed to tell you? This is it. One, that her
warfare is accomplished. This is number one source of
your comfort, believer. Your warfare is accomplished. What message of comfort does
God give His people? What does He give His children,
this first, that our warfare is accomplished? Let me ask you
this. When you came to Christ, when
God gave you faith, you elect of God, beloved of the Father,
When He gave you faith and you came to Christ, did the clouds
part and the rain leave and the sun shine on your path every
single day? I mean, do you wake up in the
morning just so happy and joyful and nothing happens to you? Everything
is smooth and perfect? Is that your experience? If it
is, you're lost. That's just true. You're lost
if that's your path. That was that man's path. I believe
his name was Ignorance in the Pilgrim's Progress. He just went
along his path and everything was fine and good. If that's
your path, then you are not in the way, my friend, because God's
people, Jesus Himself said, you shall have tribulation. You see, God's elect, we have a lot of problems. We
have a lot of concerns. And we have a lot of difficulties
in this life. Jesus said this to those who
don't have difficulties. He said, you're not of this.
You're if the world loves you and everything's going well for
you, something's wrong. Because Jesus Christ himself
said this, this world will hate you. You see, when we came to
Christ, we didn't enter into a rest of flowery beds of ease. No. No, my friends, we entered
into war. You didn't sign up for an easy
path. My friend, you signed up for
the army of Christ, is what you signed up for. Faith! Everyone
that comes to Christ by faith is made a soldier of the cross
of Christ. And our road is filled with suffering
and grief and pain. If they tortured our Master,
will they not also torture us? Will they not also hate us? Yes,
they will. Yes, they will. This world will
hate us. And my friend, this religious
age hates the Jesus that died for His elect. This religious
world hates the Father that chose and elect people. And this religious
world hates the Spirit of God that will save whom He wills.
They hate Him. And they hate everyone that believes
in Him. They hate everyone that believes
in Him. Therefore, they hate us. And my friend, listen to
me very carefully. If the gospel you are witnessing
to others If they do not hate it, something's wrong. Do you
know that? If the world embrace our doctrine,
then something's wrong with what we're teaching. The gospel, my friend, is always
meant to be an offense to the natural man. And my friend, if
the Word of God is not offensive, you're not saying it right. If
everybody says, oh, that just sounds really great. I like that.
That sounds really good. You know, we both worship the
same Jesus and... Oh, you misunderstood me. You're
misunderstanding me. The message that God saves whom
He wills apart from works and free will, religion, is a message
hated by this world. Paul was hated for it. Paul said,
if I preach circumcision, then why am I being persecuted? If
I preach works, why am I being tortured? But because I preach
against salvation by works, this is why they hate me. And this
is why they hate you. My friend, believer in Christ,
you are in a warfare right now. You're in a war. You're in a
war. We are at war with this world.
But our warfare is not fought the same way you would think
of a conventional warfare. I mean, I was in the service
and we were taught to kill. We were taught to kill men and
that's how you had warfare, is that you were angry and that
you would fight to the death. That's not how we wage war, my
friends. That's not how we wage war. You see, our enemies are
not somebody you can see. Although the people you see hate
us, You see, really, the enemy is somebody that's greater than
they are. The enemy is principalities and powers and rulers of darkness. Those are our enemies. Paul said
we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but against principalities
and powers. You see, things that we can't
see, those are our enemies. Those are our enemies. And my
friends, those we must fight violently against. Violently. Your enemies are the world, the
devil, and get this, yourself. And these enemies we are to hate
and to fight against violently. The kingdom of heaven suffers
violence and the violent take it by force. My friends, we are
engaged in a warfare. Don't be mistaken. Don't rest
on this that, you know, I think that some people are borderline
antinomian. They don't think it. They don't
think, well, I know we're free from the law, but they think
that they're so free that they don't need to serve God. When we come off the yoke of
sin, we put on the yoke of Christ, didn't we? He said, take my yoke
upon you and learn of me. And this yoke is our struggle,
is our battle that we must fight in service for our King. Mortify
the deeds of the body, like cutting off your arm or plucking out
your own eye. Not literally, but these things
are what we are at war with, and we are at war every day.
But God says this, your warfare is accomplished. Your warfare, there's nothing
like fighting a battle you know you're going to win. You ever play a game with somebody
that you just had this down, they didn't know anything about
it, you just knew you were going to win. That feels good. Yeah, I
can play with confidence. I know, because I am going to
win. And therefore, God says, don't
worry, go into battle with confidence. And be comforted in this, your
warfare is done. It's done. Now what does that
mean? Now I want us to understand what
that means. Because I think I had a misconception
of that before I studied the text. Back in that day, they
would set up times to fight. When they had a war, it wasn't
like we do it today where you have surprise attacks and so
forth. These people were, this warfare was kind of like an honorable
thing. They would set up and say, okay,
we're going to go to war at noon. Everybody line up and get ready.
There was an appointed time for war. But this doesn't have reference
to the appointed time of the war. This has reference to the
appointed time of the end of the war. God says the time of
your warfare is appointed an end. I know there is coming a
day that my warfare will end. Praise God. Praise God. I know many times, believer,
we are discomforted. Many times we feel defeated,
cast down. We feel faint and weary in our
souls. But I tell you, O child of God,
that your warfare is accomplished, that there is an end to our struggle
with our flesh, and there will come a time that our struggles
will be totally and completely finished. Praise God, there's an end to
this life. Praise God, there's an end to
this struggle. It's a light at the end of the
tunnel. God says, there is a time that
I will appoint deliverance for you. With us, believers, take
courage, be strong, be valiant in fight, and turn to flight
the armies of the aliens, because Christ, by His death, has won
the victory! We have won! Our victory is accomplished
in Christ, and there is an appointed time that is going to end for
us. And one day we shall no longer
have this struggle or have this fight. That should bring us Comfort. That should bring us
comfort. To know that God has appointed
an end. And the end is this. Victory. Victory. Our deaths, our ends
shall not be in defeat. He has led captivity captive.
He has set us free from the law. Free from the power of sin. The
penalty of sin. And yes, one day, even the presence
of our sin will be gone away. And we have to deal with it no
more. And this was done by His cross.
Therefore, take right now, believer, take by faith the comfort that
God has given you in this, that your warfare is accomplished.
Engage in the battle with confidence and be not dismayed, but take
heart in Christ The Scripture tells us that we are more than
conquerors through Him that loved us and gave Himself for us. More
than conquerors. More. Look back at our text,
number two. This is another reason for comfort.
Take comfort in that you are pardoned. Take comfort in that you are
right now pardoned. from all your sin. We who believe,
we readily confess our guilt. Remember David when he confessed
his guilt before Nathan? Nathan the prophet came up to
him and he said, Thou art the man, David. And David said, I
have sinned against the Lord. I have sinned against God. We
all know and confess our sins just like that. We are confessing
that we have sinned against the Lord, but in the same verse,
the words of Nathan the prophet said to David, Thou shalt not die, the Lord
has taken away your sin. He's given you pardon. Pardon. The Lord has put away
our sin. Thou shalt not die. Oh, the comfort
of this, that my guilt, my sin, my iniquity that was against
the Lord, He Himself has pardoned and not another." You know, if
I came up to you and I said, I pardon you of your sin, now
that should give you absolutely completely no comfort at all.
No comfort at all. Why? You didn't sin against me. If you do something against me,
I can forgive you. Why? Because I'm just as filthy
a wretch as you are. But God, we sinned against God. And my friend, God says to His
elect, I have already pardoned you. I have already pardoned
you of all your sin." My friend, God has so far removed our sins
from us, so far as the East is from the West, that He Himself
cannot find them. Go to Jeremiah chapter 50. I
want you to mark this. Mark this down. Jeremiah chapter
50. Hold your place here. But I just
want you to mark this in your Scripture, because this is a
good verse to have handy. When you feel the guilt of our
sin, I want you to see this. Jeremiah chapter 50 and verse
20. Listen to this carefully. In those days and in that time, saith the Lord,
The iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none. And the sins of Judah, and they
shall not be found. Why? For I will pardon them whom
I reserve. Now, my friends, in that text,
who's doing the searching for the sin? Who's doing the looking? The justice and law of God is
looking for all sin. And God Himself says this, I
will search for your sins and I will not find them. God says He won't find them. My friends, I know that I can't
forget my sins. I can't forget who I am. It's with me every day. I wake
up with it and I look at it in the mirror and I know who I am. But what I can't forget, God
says, I will not remember. God says, I will not remember
your sins. And when I search for them, I
won't find them. Why? Because there are none.
That's what God says about us. If that's not a breath of fresh
air, I don't know what is. Breathe it in. Comfort ye my
people. Why? I have pardoned all her
sins. This is the voice of truth. The
voice of our conscience that tells us of our sins. But God
says, I will remember them no more. I will remember them no more.
Why? Because I've pardoned them. I've put them away. That song
says, pardon for sin and a peace that endureth. Thine own dear
presence to cheer and to guide. Strength for today and bright
hope for tomorrow. Blessings all mine with ten thousand
beside. Great is thy faithfulness. You see, I'm comforted because
God's faithful, not me. I'm not comforted in my faithfulness,
I don't have any. I'm comforted in God's faithfulness
not to remember my sins and my iniquities. Comforted to know
that He's pardoned them. This is the voice of truth. The
voice of our conscience tells us of our sin. So then God does
not leave us comfortless. He does not leave us to our own
thoughts about this. He declares the reason for our
pardon. God doesn't leave anything for
us to imagine. You know that? Praise God. Our imagination is so vile and
wicked, we'd be out in left field in ten seconds if He didn't give
us a reason why He pardoned. Men have all kinds of ideas why
God pardoned sin. But if they're not according
to this reason, they're not right and they're a lie. God doesn't
leave anything to our imagination. He tells us why and how He pardoned
us. Look at this. 4. Back to your
text. Mark that in your Bibles. I want
you to read that later. That's good to have reference to. But
go back to your text. 4. Look at this in verse 2. He
gives us the reason. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. She had received a Lord's
hand double for all our sins. This is telling us that the Lord,
by His own hand, by the offering of His own Son, by the taking
of our sins, by the taking of the sins of the elect, He took
them and imputed them to His Son, charging His Son who stood
under the weight of all our sins, who by His sacrifice bore the
justice of God's wrath, and by His death on the cross, He satisfied
the justice of God by taking our sins out of the way. How
did our sins get removed from us? How did they get taken from
us? How are they cast from the East
as far as the East is from the West? How is that possible? Because
God hath imputed our sins and charged them to His Holy Son. That's how. God said, I didn't
leave this for your imagination. This is how I did it. I charged
them to My Son. I put them on My Son and He bore
them. That's how. That's exactly how
it's done. He did this by His blood and
by His sacrifice. And therefore, He pleased and
satisfied God's justice. He pleased God. It pleased the Lord, the Scripture
says. To do what? To bruise Him. To crush Him. because He hath laid on Him the
iniquity of us all." You see, to crush us and to send us to
hell would do nothing for God's justice, would it? For you and
I to suffer eternity in hell, my friends, it would not suffice
to save us from one sin. Not one. But take comfort that
God didn't demand it of you, but He demanded it of His own
hand. They have received of the Lord's
own hand, of the Lord's own Savior, how much? Double. Twice as much as was necessary
to save us from our sins. Gil says this, Christ's death
was ample satisfaction, being infinite, fully answers to the
demerit of our sins. His death fully answers it. And let us not look to ourselves,
let us not strive to earn favor with God, but by faith look only
to Christ. In Him is strength for the battle.
In Him is pardon for sin. So much so, His sacrifice was
counted double payment. You ever got a ticket? Sometimes
I'm always afraid if I ever get a ticket that I go down and I
pay it, something isn't paid. And something that they're going
to charge, you know, some little service fee or something that
I missed. But see, if I paid double, I wouldn't have to worry
about that, would I? But yet Christ, He paid double for what
you owe God. His sacrifice was doubly good. Doubly good. Who then can separate
us from the love of God? My friend, not even you yourself
can do that. Isn't that great? Isn't that
comfort? Nothing, no one can separate
us. Why? Because Christ died and
Christ is risen again. So take comfort, for your God
has done all that is necessary to bring you to Himself. And
all is right now, working for our good and for the glory of
God. Don't let the things of this life trouble you, my friends. No matter what they are. God
says to you, take comfort. Fight the good fight of faith.
Finish the course that is set before you. Why? Because Christ
has paid all your sins. And nothing stands between you
and God but Christ. Give Him the glory and He'll
give you the comfort. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.