Turn with me again to Isaiah 40. Let's look at these verses that I just read. I just want to consider what is said right here in these first 11 verses, and then I want to tell you something, something that I believe will be a blessing to you.

The heading at the top of my page for the verses of Isaiah 40, it's the next page over from verse one, it says, glad tidings of the gospel. I don't believe I've ever noticed that before. Maybe I have. But that's what this is. That's what Isaiah 40 is. Glad tidings of the gospel. That's what we're about to read. And that's what we're gonna end this message with, glad tidings of the gospel.

Verse one says, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Who's saying that? God is. God is. Aren't you so thankful that God is who he is and how he is? Aren't you so glad? That's a direct commandment from the Lord God Almighty. Who is he saying that to? Well, he's saying it to his preachers. He's saying it to the preachers of his word. Every man called to be an ambassador for him. What's he saying to them? What's the command to them? Comfort ye. Comfort ye in everything. Comfort ye.

You know, in truth, there is comfort. There's comfort in truth. The stability of truth. In glad tidings, there's comfort. Happy news, there's comfort in that. But do you know even in rebuke and chastening from our Lord, there is still comfort? There's still comfort. For who the Lord loves, he tells the truth to. Who the Lord loves, he tells the truth to. If you love somebody, you tell the truth to them. Who the Lord loves, he speaks peace to. And whom the Lord loves, he chastens. He does, he chastens. Everything he says to us and does concerning us is proof of his love, and that's where our comfort is.

You know the story. Many, many, well, most of you know the story of many years ago, our dear brother, Walter Groover, took his family to Mexico to be a missionary to Mexico. This was back in the 1960s. And he and his wife, Betty, they brought four kids down there and four young kids, and one day a little girl, a native girl, knocked on their door asking for food.

And Betty, Walter's wife, fed her. And then the next day, she came back and asked for food. and Betty brought her in and fed her and this became a regular thing and she started playing with their children and she was always at their house and she just integrated into their family to the point that Betty searched out her mother and found that her mother was a single mom and had quite a few children and she just couldn't afford to take care of them, couldn't afford to feed them.

So Betty asked this woman, do you mind if she just lives with us and we will take care of her, we'll feed her, we'll clothe her. And this girl's mother said, yes, that'll be fine. So she just became a member of their family and played with the kids and everything was fine until the roughhousing got too much and it was time to discipline the kids.

And their four kids were always taken to the back for discipline, but not this little girl, Chayla. And it became obvious to everybody, it became obvious to their four kids, we're the ones suffering all the punishment. It was resentful to them, but it was something else to Chela. So one day she just dropped in the floor and pitched a tantrum and started screaming and kicking and crying.

And Walter comes into the room and he said, what are you doing? And she's just screaming and hollering. And he said, stop that. And she just screaming and hollering and said, if you don't stop that, I'm going to take you into the back and spank you. And she turned it up a notch, screaming, hollering. He said, let's go. So they went in the back and he spanked her.

And then he came out and he told Betty that after it was over, that little girl with big old tears running down her face, crawled up into his lap, hugged his neck and said, now I know that you love me. Now I know that you love me.

Everything that our Lord does concerning us is proof of his love. It is. It is proof of his love. That's where our comfort is. That's where our comfort is. Everything that he does is proof of his love.

So the Lord our God is speaking here. He's speaking to his preacher, commanding comfort. And who is he commanding the comfort for? His people. His chosen four known, four ordained, four loved, elect people, his people. Verse one says, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Why? It's because they need some comfort. God's people need comfort. There is no greater comfort than what that represents right there. I mean there is no greater comfort.

God's people are sinners. We are sinners who are plagued by the constant attacks and fiery darts of our sin. And our sin is what brought, what that represents right there. God's people are sinners who have been beaten up and defeated in every warfare they've tried to enter into with their sin. And the Lord God said, you go tell my people that I fought their battle for them and I won. And that's comforting. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. That means to the heart. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. That word warfare means appointed time. Her appointed time is accomplished. That her iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

That's the cry of the gospel from the cross of Calvary. That's the cry of the gospel from the empty tomb. That's the cry of the gospel from the throne of glory. It is finished. The battle is over and Jesus Christ has won. Your sin is pardoned, paid for, blotted out. You are free in that broken body and in that shed blood, in that right there. You're free. You're free. And it's because you have received justification and sanctification in him. That means your deeds have been righted and you have been righted. You have received righteousness and redemption by the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Double, double.

Verse three says, the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. In the glad tidings of the gospel, every tiding is concerning Christ our God. Prepare the way for him. Step aside for him. Everybody step aside. He's going to do it all. He's going to do it all.

Verse four says, every valley shall be exalted. Every low, bowed down, heavy laden, guilty, poor, and needy sinner is going to be raised up and comforted. And every mountain and hill shall be made low. Every proud, haughty, self-righteous enemy of the gospel is going to be cut down. Verse 4 says, And the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain. Every lie is going to be stripped away. Verse 5 goes on to say, or it says, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. Christ himself, the brightness of the Father's glory will be revealed. All of his brightness, all of his glory, it's all seen in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. And from that very face, out of that very mouth, comes the decree of his glory. You know, Moses said, show me your glory. And he said, here it is. I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious.

Verse five goes on to say, and all flesh shall see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. The voice said, cry. And he said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass. You know that's our comfort. Doesn't it comfort you to know your flesh is nothing more than grass? Nothing more than good for burning or get your lawnmower out and cut it down. Just grass. That's the truth. The truth is comforting.

The voice said, cry, and he said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass. And that's so, this grass is withering, this flower is fading.

Verse eight says, the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. That's been referred to as the threefold message of evangelism. Number one, all flesh grass. All flesh is grass, as worthless and withering as grass. In our flesh dwells no good thing. In our flesh, no man or woman can please God. That's why this had to happen. You know why Christ died on the cross? It was because in our flesh, no man or woman could please God. In our flesh, we have no righteousness. In our flesh, we have no sanctification. In our flesh, we have no redemption. There's nothing redeeming about this. Man at his best state is altogether vanity, altogether empty. In our flesh, we have no hope. In our flesh, we have no help. Vanity of vanity, all is vanity, but in spite of us.

You know, we read this morning, Hebrews 2, where it says that our Lord took not on himself the nature of angels. Two different groups, El, angels and men. And God chose to pass by the angels and to redeem the men. took on himself. He didn't take on the, he could have taken on the nature of the holy, sinless angel. He didn't do it. In spite of us, in spite of what we are, in spite of who we are, in spite of what we've done and what we deserve, the word of our God, the good and certain, true and unchangeable, merciful, gracious word of our God shall stand forever.

And because of that, verse nine says, O Zion that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up, be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah, behold your God. All flesh is grass. The word of our God shall stand forever. So behold your God. Behold your God, all flesh is grass. The word of our God shall stand forever. I love that. All flesh is grass. The word of our God shall stand forever. So behold your God.

Verse nine, it says,

O Zion that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain. Jerusalem that bringest good tidings lift up thy voice with strength lift it up be not afraid say unto the cities of Judah behold your God behold what about God behold what about our God look at verse 10 behold the Lord God will come with strong hands and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him and his work before him. All flesh is grass. The word of our God is going to stand forever.

So behold, God will come. He will rule. His arm shall rule for him, his ward is with him, his work is before him.

Behold the man that came down, behold the man that came down. The one that was promised, the one that was prophesied to come, he came in the form of a baby to grow into a perfect man. To live as a man, our Lord is our substitute, came into the world exactly as we come into the world. We all came as babies, that's why he came as an infant. Why did he come as an infant? That's how we had to come. He's our substitute.

He came to be our substitute in every way, shape, and form. We were all conceived in the womb. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb. And he was born. And he grew and he lived as a man and he died as a man. He died the way that we die. But he was raised again. As a man. And he ascended up to glory. As a man. To reign as a man.

Behold the God-man. Behold your prophet, your priest, your king. Behold, this God Almighty is your shepherd. This is your shepherd, the shepherd of the sheep, the good shepherd, the great shepherd, chief shepherd. That's your God. Behold.

Verse 10 says, behold, the Lord God will come. with strong hand and his arm shall rule for him. That's what he did in life on this earth. He ruled. That's what he did in death on this earth. He ruled. That's what he does right now in glory. He rules. Verse 10, behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him and his work before him. He did all the work, therefore he gets all the reward. He gets all the glory. Verse 11 says, he shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young. Behold, after everything he did, I'm so glad that that right there is at the end of everything we just read. You know, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass. The grass is gonna wither, flowers are gonna fade, the Lord's gonna blow on it. The word of our God is gonna stand forever. Behold your God. Cry unto Zion. Lift up your voice with strength. Behold your God. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. After all that, he shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with him. That verse right there is the reason we're here tonight.

One month ago, after I read the story, that account of what mangers were used for in ancient Israel regarding sacrificial lambs. You know the story I'm telling you about how these shepherds, they raised these lambs for sacrifice and they had to be males of the first year without blemish. So they would wrap them in cloths and lay them in a manger to keep them without blemish. And the angel said to the shepherds who did that, This will be a sign to you. You will understand this. You're going to find a baby wrapped that way, laying in a manger to show that as God's king, you're going to go seeking him saying, where is he that is born king? As God's king of redemption, he's not going to be headed to a palace. but he's headed to a sacrifice. Headed to a sacrifice to appease God. All right, now I love that recorded fact. I know you do too. After that message was over, a brother brought me a historical record that was a similar blessing to him, and he thought it would be a blessing to me, and it was. And I got it out this last week and I was reading it again and it blessed my heart so much in light of that verse of scripture right there. I immediately turned over here to Isaiah 40 and read verse 11 and I knew this is our message tonight.

But just listen to this. Every once in a while, A ewe, a female sheep, will give birth to a lamb and reject it. And what this is saying right here is so. I looked it up and verified and this is so. But every once in a while, a ewe will give birth to a lamb and reject it. If the lamb is returned to the ewe, The mother will kick the poor animal away. Once a ewe rejects one of her lambs, she will never change her mind. These little lambs will hang their heads so low that it looks like something is wrong with its neck. Their spirit is broken. These lambs are called bummer lambs. Unless the shepherd intervenes, that lamb will die, rejected and alone.

So do you know what the shepherd does? He takes that rejected little one into his home, hand feeds it, and keeps it warm by the fire. He will wrap it up with blankets and hold it to his chest so the bummer can hear his heartbeat. Once the lamb is strong enough, the shepherd will place it back in the field with the rest of the flock. But that sheep never forgets how the shepherd cared for him when his mother rejected him. When the shepherd calls for the flock, guess who runs to him first? That's right, the bummer sheep. He knows his voice intimately. It is not that the bummer lamb is loved more It just knows intimately the one who loves it.

Oh, the love and the care of that cross. Oh, the love and the care of every day of our lives because of that cross.

Behold, the Lord God will come Bummer lamb, you got your head hanging down so low? Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lamb with his arm and carry them in his bosom. and shall gently lead those that are with you.

Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. We have all the comfort we need in Christ, don't we? We have all the comfort we need in the sacrifice that the Lord Jesus Christ made for us. Us bummers. We have him, we're bought with a price, we're his, we belong to him. unto him that loved us and gave himself for us. Amen.

Now we're going to remember our Lord and our shepherd in his table. Brother William, you come and read for us.