Today's message is entitled,
Comfort to God's People in the Midst of Captivity. We're going
to be reading Isaiah chapter 40. Our main text for today is
going to be Isaiah chapter 40, the first two verses. But we're
going to read actually verse 1 all the way through verse 18.
Isaiah chapter 40 verse 1 says, Come for ye, come for ye my people,
says 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. The voice of hand that
cries in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make
straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall
be exalted. and every mountain and hill shall
be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the
rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath
spoken it. Verse 6, The boy said, Cry, and he said, What shall
I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the
godliness 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. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but the Word of our God shall stand forever. O Zion,
that bringeth good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem, that bringeth good
tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up, be not
afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah,
Behold your God. Behold, the Lord God will come
with strong hand and his arm shall rule for him. Behold his rewards with him,
and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like
a shepherd. He shall gather the lands with
his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead
those that are with young. who hath measured the waters
in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heavens with the span,
and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighted
the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath
directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor, hath
told him? with whom took he counsel and
who instructed him and told him in the power of judgment and
told him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding.
Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted
as a small dust of the balance. Behold, he takes up the isle
as a very little thing, and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor
the beasts thereof sufficient for a burn offering. All nations
before Him are as nothing, and there are counted to Him less
than nothing in vanity. To whom, then, will you liken
God? Or what likeness will you compare
Him unto?" That's the reading of the Word of God. As I said,
our main text for today is the first two verses. And this message... It's a message for God's people
and God's people alone. And the reason why I say that
is because God's people will rejoice in the proclaiming of
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Other people do not. Yesterday we got the opportunity
to celebrate my daughter Graciela's fourth birthday. Her being my
daughter and also my niece Yasmin and my niece Bella. Bella turned
nine, I mean Bella turned ten and Yasmin turned nine and Graciela
turned four. When I talk to Graciela and I
tell her things, I tell her, you know, daddy will protect
you, daddy loves you, right? When I tell those things, perhaps,
to even my niece, Yasmin, or my niece, Bella, They wouldn't
take my words as comforting as my own daughter would. My daughter,
being my daughter, she knows that Daddy would be there for
her, to protect her and to love her. The same way, when we read
these words, when we read in Isaiah chapter 40 verse 1, it
says, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, says God. God is speaking
in that relationship type. where He is our Father. We are
His children. What a comforting thing that
is. Just right there and then, if you think about it, and for
the verses that we read, even when we began, when we read Daniel
chapter 40, I mean, Daniel chapter 4, where it talks about God's
sovereignty. God the Creator, God that spoke
everything into existence, out of nothing, like Genesis 1 says,
Him, He is your God. I mean, what a comforting thing
that is right there. So the words that we hear today,
it's actually from our Father to His children. And if you are
His children today, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, then
you could take comfort in the message that we're going to hear
today. To recount, it says in Isaiah
chapter 40 verse 1 and 2, it says, Come for ye, my people,
says God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she has received
of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Now to picture,
to give you a background picture of what's happening in Isaiah
chapter 40, we must recall that the background, in the historical
background, has to do with, this is around 540 B.C., where Cyrus,
the Persian, had unified the Persian tribes, right, and he
had already began to subdue the surrounding kingdoms. By 538
B.C., He had taken over Babylon peacefully and emerged as a master
of the Near Eastern world. You can read about that in Isaiah
41, verses 2 and 4. Now these events provide the
background for Isaiah 40 and Isaiah 55 actually. What I'm reading right now is
the historical background and it will provide you a background
to Isaiah chapter 40 all the way to Isaiah 55. And at the
beginning of Isaiah, the people of Judah are in captivity in
Babylon. Being in captivity, If you put
yourself in that situation, as we read in the Word of God, be
sensitive and try to put yourself in their shoes. Here you are,
the people of God, in captivity. Wouldn't that make you, because
of our own sinfulness and our own weakness, right? Wouldn't
that make you start questioning things about God? I mean, if
we were real with one another, it would, right? Would God come
and save us? Would God actually take this
bondage that we're in, this captivity, right? Because there's a nation
ruling over us. We're slaves now, right? We're slaves, and yet we're still
the people of God. So, Jerusalem had, without a
doubt, clearly failed to be the people of God, right? God is
holy, and He has called us to be what? Holy. Don't we often
fail to do that? I mean, I know I don't. We must admit that, right? We
often fail to do that. Due to their own sins, due to
the sins that Jerusalem had committed, they came under the captivity,
right? So, as a people of God being
under captivity, you start thinking, will God again work in our midst? Or will He simply abandon us?
Will He leave us there? Could God even act? I mean, look,
we're in captivity. Could He even act? Is He all-powerful? We start thinking of that, right?
We begin, and I bet the Israelites in the midst of this have a crisis
of faith. Have you had a crisis of faith? Here though, is a merciful God
that He does not leave His people abandoned. Why do I say that? Because He chose to speak to
His people through a man, Isaiah, but He chose to speak to them
with words of comfort, with words of surety. Because if you read
Isaiah chapter 1 all the way to Isaiah chapter 39, It's all
about the activity. This right here, Isaiah chapter
40, turns the whole thing upside down because it's proclaiming
the liberation of Jerusalem to come as if it already has happened. Because God says that the warfare
has ended and that Her iniquity has been poured in. Only God,
our God, can actually speak of things that haven't even occurred,
as if they're already going to happen. Why is that? Because
He rules everything. He rules every spectrum of history. That's what I say, like when
people always ask, you know, often ask and wonder, where was
God when 9-11 happened? Where was God when these bad
things happened? Where was God when such and such
happened? Our God is always at His throne,
at His throne, ruling everything. And we can take comfort in that.
We have chapter 40 as we read. We have it, this chapter, I say
chapter 40 is broken down in two sections. Verse 1-8 contains
God's proclamation of forgiveness and the response to it. Verse
10-31 actually comprises an extended hymn of praise to God. I love
hymns. Hymns are wonderful things that
the people of God use to proclaim the goodness of God towards us.
And it's a wonderful tool actually as a parent to teach your children
the truth. I was reading Pastor Kevin DeYoung. He says, Chapter 40 is a turn
of the page. Isaiah moves from speaking about
the contemporary situation relative to the Assyrians to taking a
prophetic look a hundred years into the future when Babylon
will be a superpower. that will conquer Judah and send
the Jews into captivity to Babylon for 70 years." So Isaiah 40 is
now transitioning. It is looking into the future
of what the Lord will speak to His people. when they will be
in captivity years after this prophetic war. Though they've
been saved now because of the Hezekiah's faith and humility,
as the Lord sees them continuing on the path of disobedience,
the Babylonians will eventually conquer them. They will be put
into exile and will be strangers in a strange land." There was
a period that due to King Hezekiah's faith and humility, actually
God restrained his punishment towards Jerusalem. Right? It is because of the King's faith
and humility. Right? That right there shows
us a great picture of actually Nehezekiah but our own King. The King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. Our own Jesus Christ. That it is because of His faith
and His humility that God, not temporarily, has saved us but
permanently. Israel was temporarily saved
by King Hezekiah's faith and humility. A true and lasting
fulfillment of this is that the people of God, the true Jerusalem
as we read in Galatians 4, verse 26, have been saved permanently
by King Jesus' faith and humility. Hebrews 12 says, That's an amazing
humility right there. And if you don't mind, turn with
me to Philippians chapter 2 so we can just think and ponder
a little bit more about the humility of our King, Jesus Christ. In Philippians chapter 2, verse
1 says, If there be, therefore, any consolation in Christ, if
any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any vows and
mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the
same love being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done
through strife or vainglory by lowliness of mind. Let each esteem
other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own
things, but every man also on the things of others. Here it
is, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,
who being in the form of God, Though it not robbery to be equal
with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon
him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man,
and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. So while
Jerusalem was saved temporarily due to the faithfulness and humility
of King Hezekiah, we know as Christians, we know that we are
saved permanently because of the faith and humility that our
Lord Jesus Christ displayed. If we go back to Isaiah chapter
40 verse 1, And I hope to unpack the first two verses, because
there's a lot in the chapter, so I didn't want to grab too
much. I'd say, God help me with this
message, and I think the first two verses were enough, I believe. In chapter one, Chapter 40, verse
1, we read again, it says, Now, this is a direct commandment
because God is telling Isaiah to deliver a message. This is a direct commandment
from God to His prophet Isaiah. We know that God gives direct
commandments to His prophets, to the pastors of God's flock.
We know that. We know that God takes ownership
of His people. He speaks to them. That's an
amazing thing that God does, that He would speak to us. That
He would speak to us and He would speak to us in such a comforting
way through a man. In the Bible we read, And I will
give you pastors according to My heart, which shall feed you
with knowledge and understanding. in First Peter, he says, not by constraint, but willingly,
not by filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither as being lords
over God's heritage, but being an example to the flag. And when
the chief shepherds shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory
that fadeth not away. It's a wonderful task and an
amazing thing that our beloved pastor does every week to preach
the Word, to teach us about Christ, to share the message of the Gospel
with us. Don't ever take that for granted
because there's a lack, there's a need of the Gospel being preached
all over the world, not just here in America. just because
of the persecution that we're going through right now. The
government is trying to use the COVID-19 as an excuse to shut
the church down, to tell us we can't get together, to put restrictions,
right? I was sharing with my wife what
an amazing thing that it is to see our God ruling everything,
and He took away the wisdom of all these foolish people trying
to pass all these foolish laws that says, hey, you can't gather
together in an indoor place, right? What a wonderful thing
that is. You know why? Because we can
still gather together outside. So we can still abide their nonsense
rules, but yet we're going to follow our God, our King, above
everything else. So while we can meet together,
perhaps, in a building with lights and AC and all those wonderful
things, right? That we Americans, we're so accustomed.
We can still gather together outside if needed, right? All
the churches around California actually are doing that. Because
while our church is small, right, in numbers, all the churches
who are huge, they have to go outside and meet together. And
that's a wonderful thing. And please pray for them. Pray,
don't ever disregard that we are one body. In the entire world,
there's only one body. There's not this church over
there, that church over there. We are one body with one head. Christ Jesus. And it's a wonderful
thing. And it's a wonderful thing to
see pastors, you know, that God has given a message to them to
preach unto us. It's a wonderful thing that Pastor
Rick flew all the way to Alaska to do a wedding, to preach the
gospel to that wedding. Because why? Because the woman
represents the church and the man represents Christ. And there's
a union, right? There's a vital, unique union
that's going to occur when they get married. And that's a wonderful
thing. So, I just wanted to bring that to your attention that God,
you know, gave a direct commandment to Isaiah. It says, Comfrey ye,
Comfrey ye my people, says your God. And that word Comfrey is
actually found 66 times in the Bible. The Hebrew word here is,
and I'm sorry if I don't pronounce it correctly, but it says Nashmu. is a word, it's an old school
type word where we can read it as comfort. It's not like a sentimental
type word, but it's actually to strengthen, to encourage. So what God is saying to Isaiah
is to strengthen by what he's going to share the message to
Jerusalem, to strengthen Jerusalem, to encourage Jerusalem. It instills
a sense of security. God is saying, encourage my people. In the middle of their discouragement,
give them courage. Speak to them tenderly. Speak
to their heart. That word comfort, like I said,
is found 66 times. And then the first time that
it is found in the Bible is actually in Genesis chapter 5 verse 29
where it says, And he called his name Noah, saying, This shall
comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because
of the ground which the Lord hath cursed. For the people of
God, God hath always provided a man as a comforter. This is
not the man Noah, but rather the one whom Noah pointed to,
the man Christ Jesus. For there is one God and one
mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." 1 Timothy
2 verse 5. God gave us Jesus as our comforter,
the greater Noah, the true Noah. It is Jesus who indeed has saved
us from the deluge that it is the wrath of God to come. Noah
built the ark. However, Jesus Christ is the
ark of God, by which any man may be saved. The Word of God
says, Neither there is salvation in any other, for there is none
other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved, Acts 4.12. We read, Jesus says unto him,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. It says in John chapter 3 that
whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him
shall not perish but have everlasting life. It is Jesus Christ. the comfort of our soul. It is
Jesus Christ, the true comfort for the Christian. It is Jesus
Christ, the only comfort. So, today my message is all about
Jesus, because we need to hear more about Him. When God told
Isaiah to speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and He told him that to proclaim
to Jerusalem the warfare is over, There's two things that I want
you to be clear about. He told Isaiah to speak tenderly
to Jerusalem, verse 12. Literally, it says, speak to
the heart of Jerusalem. This is a poetic expression that
represents an intimate and loving speech. Sincere and heartfelt. A good example, if you read in
the Old Testament, it's about when Boaz spoke to the heart
of Ruth. He spoke to her, and if you read
those verses where Boaz has the interaction with Ruth, he spoke
with kind, he spoke with loving words, he spoke with gracious
and generous and tender words to Ruth. In the same context,
in the same type of way, here God is speaking to His children
tenderly, lovingly, securely. He wants Jerusalem to find comfort
in the words that Isaiah is going to speak to them. He wants them
to recall that this is a relational, it's in a relationship, in a
father to a children type message that Isaiah is going to deliver
to them. In Boaz, in Ruth, we know that
we see that, you know, Boaz representing Christ and Ruth representing
the Church. We see that Christ spoke to her
in Boaz, right, in Ruth. He speaks to us in an eternally,
tenderly way. It is for us, as men who are
married, to actually speak to our wives in the same way. As
we represent Christ, we must not speak to them harshly. We
must speak to them tenderly and lovingly and graciously. We must
seek to love them and care. It says in Colossians 3.19, it
says, Husband, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
That's a big thing for us to follow, right? And it is a necessary
thing as we seek to represent Christ and love our wives as
Christ indeed loved the Church. So much Christ loved the Church
that He gave His life. This is the practical lesson
of the message. I hope the husbands wrote that
down. God says to Jerusalem, the warfare
is over. Have you felt like you were in
a war zone, spiritually? Or have you been in a literal
war zone, physically? Would not the news that the war
was over be comforting to you as you experience or living through
a war or a war zone? Again, the emphasis here is the
tenderly and loving care of the words that God told Isaiah to
proclaim unto Jerusalem. To strengthen her, to encourage
her. And the way that He's going to
encourage Jerusalem and the way that we are going to be encouraged
by the message today is that our warfare is over. God is letting Jerusalem know
of things to come, as if they already were. God is letting
Jerusalem know of things that are sure, something that can
be trusted. Our God is the God who spoke
the world into existence, ex nihilo. out of nothing. He says in Isaiah 55, 10, 11,
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and
returneth not hither, but weareth it the earth, and maketh bring
forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread
to the eater. So shall my word be that goeth
forth out of my mouth, and shall not return unto me void, that
it shall accomplish that which I please, that it shall prosper
in the thing where I say unto it." Here God says the warfare
is over. And it's over because God said
so. The war will end. The warfare, the hardship, the
difficulty, the ordeal, it's over, says Isaiah. This implies
that one, Israel was going through a war. Israel was going through a hardship.
Israel was going through difficulty. And two, it implies that the
war ended, that the enemies were defeated, that the hardship of
Israel was eased. Tranquility was brought in the
midst of Israel's difficulty. What a gracious and much needed
message that is to the people of Jerusalem. That the time,
at the time, and at this time, we, much like Jerusalem, do experience
warfare, do experience hardships, and difficulties. All kind of
difficulties. So much, that just like Jerusalem,
we often wonder if God will bring an end to our war. an end to
our difficulties. Or we even doubt whether we're
going to win this war. Will God take away all our hardships? Will God bring tranquility in
the midst of my difficulties? The answer to all those questions
is yes. God has brought an end to the
warfare we experience. God has brought ease to the hardship
we experience, God has brought tranquility in the midst of our
difficulties." The word that Isaiah speaks here
gives us an opportunity to ask, the word with who? Or with what? The hardship of what? Or from
what? The difficulties of what? We are indeed involved in a war. In a war not like any other war
we hear about or witness. This war the Bible calls is a
spiritual war. In Isaiah, Ephesians chapter
6 verse 12 says, For we wrestle not against flesh or blood, but
against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of
the darkness of the world, against spiritual weakness in high places. The reality is clear that we
do and we are involved in a war, a spiritual war. Do you guys
believe that? So that it's not science fiction
to you guys, please turn to 2 Kings chapter 6. In here we're going
to see how God is so gracious that He will open up the heavens
and He will let the servant of Elijah see what we often are
blinded to see. In 2 Kings 6, verse 8, I'm going
to try to read as quick as I can because if I start at verse 8,
it will give us the context, but the verses that we're going
to be focusing on is actually at the end, verse 17. It says,
2 Kings 6, verse 8, And the man of God sent unto
the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place,
for thither the Syrians are come down. And the king of Israel
sent to the place which the man of God told him, and wandered
him off, and saved himself there. not once, not twice. Therefore
the heart of the king of Assyria was sore troubled for these things. And he called his servants and
said unto them, Will ye not show me which of us is for the king
of Israel? And one of his servants said,
None, my lord, O king, but Elisha the prophet that is in Israel.
Telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy
bedchamber. And he said, Go and spy where
he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying,
Behold, he is in Dothan. Therefore send him hither horses
and chariots and as a great host. And they came by night and come
past the city about. And when the servant of the man
of God was risen early and gone forth, behold, a host come past
the city both with horses and chariots. And his servants said
unto him, Alas, my master, how shall we do? And he answered,
This is Elijah speaking, Fear not, for they that be with us
are more than they that be with them. And Elijah prayed and said,
Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord
opened the eyes of the young man and he saw. And behold, the
mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire around about
Elijah." This is no science fiction, ladies
and gentlemen. This is the truth. We are indeed
involved in a spiritual battle. There could be an army of God
surrounding us right now. But we're just too blind to see
it. And it takes the prophet of God to pray to God, to be
so kind to open up the heaven like he did here, right? And he, the servant, so. And
we must never neglect the fact that we are in a spiritual war.
Now, our war, it's spiritual. It's not against men or women. We have enemies in this world. As the people of God, we have
enemies. We do. The world is the enemy
of God's people. If John chapter 5, 19 says, if
you were of the world, the world would love his own, but because
you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hates you. Proclaiming to be a Christian
is not an easy thing. Don't let nobody fool you. Proclaiming
to be a Christian is a wonderful thing, but it's not an easy thing.
The world hates us. So don't be surprised. We often,
you know, find us to be surprised that the world is hating on the
church and they're all for this and that thing, but they're totally
against the church. Well, the Bible is very clear.
It says in 1 John chapter 3, it says, Marvel not, my brethren,
if the world hates you. Those are just the facts. And
we ought to expect it. The world will hate us. So that's
our enemy, number one. Our second enemy, it's the devil
himself. The Bible talks about, be sober,
be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion,
walketh about seeking whom he may devour. The people of God
are called to be vigilant, to be like a sentinel, always watching. You gotta stay watching. We have
enemies. Don't fall asleep. Do not fall
asleep. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse
4 says, The enemy of God, the devil, is also the enemy of God's
people. Third, the third enemy that we
have is actually a result of our own sins. Our enemy is death. The wages of sin is death. That is the truth. It says, whoever
committed sin transgresses also the law, for sin is a transgression
of the law. We, as the people of God, without
doubt had transcribed God's laws. And this might sound discouraging
to you guys, what I'm sharing with you. But before the good
news comes, the bad news must come first. If the gospel comes
in power, it comes to powers of those who need it, of those
who are sinful people in need of mercy. If we are here gathered
together and a message that may be delivered by either Pastor
Rick or myself or whoever gets the privilege to speak to us
doesn't tell us, that we have sinned and we are in need of
mercy, we live here comfortably. If I would have not known Jesus
Christ, right, and if we had somebody here in the midst that
might not know Jesus Christ, and the message that I deliver
on to you today is a message of feel good. Hey, you can do
it. Grab a couple verses here and
it's all about you and we don't ever talk about the real issue. the real thing, which is sin,
and the ramifications of that, which is death. And the only
solution to that, we live here dead in our trespasses and sins.
We live here hopeless, just like we came. And I hope to share
the Gospel with you, but first, we must listen to what the Word
of God says about why... Remember, Jerusalem was brought
into captivity due to sin. We are often brought into our
own captivity due to our own sins. And the solution, the only
comfort thing that we can find in this world, is Jesus Christ. Him crucified and Him risen from
the dead. And not only that, but Jesus
Christ ruling everything at the right hand of the Father. And
not only that, we look forward to the Lord Jesus Christ coming
back. That's the true hope that the
true believer has. The hope that the Lord Jesus
Christ will come back and He will come back. I'm going to skip a couple of
things that I wrote here just to get us to the main point,
which is in verse 2 where it says, That right there is the
most comforting thing. See, when God gave Isaiah the
message to deliver to Jerusalem, to strengthen Jerusalem, to encourage
Jerusalem, He did what we call in the Army, we do kind of things,
we use a bunch of acronyms in the Army. I mean, sometimes I
don't even know why. But we use an acronym in the
Army called BLUF. Bluff means you put the main
thing first. You get it out. You just say
the main thing that you're going to talk about. Don't write me
a long letter, like two-page essay. Just say it. Bluff. Here's
bluff. Here's the order. Such and such
unit report blah, blah, blah this time. Boom. Done. That's
the Army way. Boom. Clear, precise. to the
point, right from the get-go. That's exactly what God did by
giving this message to Isaiah. Straight to the point. Jerusalem's
iniquity is pardoned. Boom. Done. Main point. Right in the front. What more
comfort do you want? No matter what we go through,
no matter what we go through, no matter what we go through.
And I don't even know what you guys are going through, but the
Lord knows. But no matter what we go through,
the fact or the matter that what Christ did at the cross, paying
for all the sins, how many? Thank you for asking. All of
them, all of them, all the sins of every single believer were
paid at once, don't deal, at the cross, and after three days,
Jesus Christ rose from the dead to justify all the people, every
single one that would put their faith, that would put their trust,
that would take comfort in Jesus Christ. Throughout entire history,
all the way from Adam, all the way to when Jesus Christ came
back, all those people were actually justified, were actually free
from the wages of sin, which is death. We will not taste of
the second death. Some of us will taste of the
death because there are notifications. See, there's natural notifications
of sins that we all go through. Has anybody here, anybody, have
gotten the flu one time? That's just, we were not, when
God created Adam and Eve, trust me, they didn't need no medication. Because they were never about
to get sick. They were never meant to get
sick until they ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and
evil. When Samuel came to the world,
all these ramifications came into the world. All of them.
I mean, we see, we doesn't even take that, I mean, point, bluff,
right in the front. You know why? Because we have
a couple brothers, right from the get-go, Genesis chapter 4,
you can read it on your own time. What happened? Murder. Right
from the get-go. Satan came into the world, you
flip the page, boom. Somebody didn't just die, somebody
got killed. Somebody got killed by somebody
they're supposed to be loved by. I mean, boom, right from
the get-go, bluff. The Notification of the Saint
came right straight. But guess what? So is the Gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ comes in power, in strength, to encourage us, to help us,
to get us back into thinking about Putting our treasure over
there, where there could be no robbers. My treasure will never
rotten. Right? Putting our minds not
on earthly things but on heavenly things like Colossians chapter
3 says. Right? Seeking God's kingdom above everything
else. We take comfort in the message
that our iniquity is pardoned. Let me just close with that. In God's mercy to Jerusalem,
God pardon her sins. God, in His mercy, He forgives
us of our own sins. Our God is a God who saves sinners. Is this not what He did through
His beloved Son? Is this not what the Apostle
Paul says? This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, whom whom I am chief. 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse
15. And he shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins. Matthew 1.21 Notice that it is said, For she
hath received the Lord's hand double for her sins. In Isaiah,
in the verses that we read. This double does not mean that
God punished Israel twice for her sins, but rather that the
full punishment for them were done. God's righteousness law
was fulfilled and satisfied when Israel's sins were paid. The
burden of her sins, the burden of her sins, came at a price
we could not and did not pay for. The price for the forgiveness of our sins,
was the successionary atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. It
is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ which He took full punishment
that we actually deserve as our own substitute. It is Jesus who
came and died in the place of His people, taking upon Him the
full punishment that they deserve, we deserve. You know, in the
Old Testament, Israel used to do a bunch of animal sacrifices. But none of them were ever satisfied. Because all of them found their
fulfillment and they were only pointed to what the Lord Jesus
Christ can only do and did. He Himself paid for our sins. I want to finish by just reading
a couple of verses on Isaiah chapter 53. If I could make this. Because our true comfort is found
in this. In the art sense. our iniquities were poured in.
That's the message that Isaiah proclaimed unto Jerusalem, and
that's the message that I hope you take away today. That if
you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you believe in Him,
and trust in Him, you could go about this life that God has
given you, taking comfort that He knows that all the trials
that you're going through, you could take comfort that your
sins have been forgiven. And you could take that to the
bank, and that check will not bounce. It's a done deal, it's
bluff. Your iniquity has been poured
in. If you believe this, your iniquity has been poured in.
That's the comforting message that Isaiah gave to Jerusalem,
and that's the comforting message that we need to take today. Because
of everything that's going on around the world, we lose focus
on the value on the value of the thing that Christ did or
has already accomplished for us as believers. What Christ
completed is priceless. And nothing, nothing, I mean,
all of us here will go through ups and downs in this life. It
will shake our faith. But if we just run unto Christ,
He will comfort us. He will never leave us, nor forsake
us. He will take care of us. He is
the Good Shepherd who will never leave. Not one of His sheep will
get lost. Not one of His sheep will go
through anything that actually He Himself didn't go through
here. I mean, He suffered being a righteous man. We suffer being
a sinful people. And then take this, okay? Nothing in this world that we
go through, nothing, no trials or tribulations that we go through, will be something that God will
put us through that does not take us in the route that He
wants us to and it's all going to result in the same way for
all of us. You know what that is, brother?
To conform us to the image of His Beloved Son. You may go through
a bunch of other things that I won't go through. But you don't
know the trials and tribulations that I go through. But your trials
and tribulations are meant, in the same way mine are, to conform
me to the image of the Beloved Son of God. I mean, what a wonderful
thing. So in Isaiah chapter 53, we read
this. And this is a sure thing because
of what the Lord Jesus Christ did. He says, in verse 4, for
example, He says, He Himself bore our sickness and carried
our pains. When you're going through it,
think about that. In verse 5 it says, He was pierced
because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities. Punishment
for our peace was on Him and we are healed by His wounds.
When you're going through it, think about that. In verse 10,
we read, Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him
to grief, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. There it is, the succionary atonement,
the perfect substitute, our Lord Jesus Christ, there, paying for
our sins. He shall see his seed, he shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. Verse 12. Therefore will I divide
him a portion with the grave, and shall divide the spoiled
with the strong, because he has poured out his soul unto death,
and he was numbered with the transgressor, and he bared the
sins of many. How many? All the elect. all the elect, all their sins,
all of them, your present sins, your future sins. Now, this does
not give you a license to sin, God forbid. That will encourage
you, that should strengthen you to live out a godly life for
God, out of devotion to Him. Not to gain salvation. We're
not talking about the nonsense that we gain our salvation or
good doing that we do. I mean, you can't even do a good
thing for a minute. You fail, we all fail after 30
seconds. And probably like 5 seconds.
We're not talking about that. We're talking about like, as
the people of God who have been redeemed by Christ, seeking out
to live our life Being comforted by what He has done. Being comforted
by the surety. We have surety. The Word of God
gives us that surety, that secure, loving Word. That we can look
forward to His coming. Some of us may not see that.
But it's okay to die. It's to be present with the Lord. You pass from this world. I mean,
I don't know anybody that wants to live a thousand years, not
in this world. I know I don't. I mean, let's face it, with all
the chaos and everything that's going on, who wants to live that
long, right? I mean, that's a lot of pain. That's a lot of bad
things to even experience, you know? But everything that God
has given us, every single day that he has given us, It's like
I said, everything will work together for good for us. Because
the main goal is to be conformed to the image of Christ. Lately I read about a story about
a pastor in Texas. He was a pastor known for preaching
Christ. He was a pastor known for being
devoted to the people of God. And I think it was last week
where in the highway, in the freeways of Texas, he saw a car
that was broken down. So he pulled over to help whoever,
right, who needed help at that time. And in the midst of him
helping the person whose car was stranded, He was killed. He was killed
by a truck. I didn't see whatever they were
doing. I didn't see all the details,
but the truck ran over him and he died. Even that worked so
that that man, that pastor, would be conformed to the image of
Christ. Even to the last minute. I just want you guys to take
comfort in that. I want you guys to be encouraged that nothing,
even everything we go through, even, I mean, even, I bet if
he was still alive, he would still be preaching Christ. Because
we take our comfort in Christ. We take our comfort in what Christ
has done. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you
so much, Father. I thank you so much that you
use my words, Father, even with my accent, Father. I thank you
that you, with all the the shortcomings of myself, Father. I thank You
that by even just reading Your Word, Father, Your people could
be comforted. By reading Isaiah, by reading what You did, Father. By sending Your beloved Son to
be born of a virgin, to upholding all Your commandments, Father.
That the cross He indeed was paying for our transgression.
That He was indeed paying so that our iniquity may be poured
on Father. Because you are a holy Father.
You are righteous. You don't just pour it in sand,
just pour it and put it under the rug. You actually pour it
because your love has been satisfied. and Your love has been satisfied
completely so that there is no drop of wrath that we could fear,
Father. We could have reverence. We fear
You, Father, because You are our Father. We look forward to
seeking to worship You and to do everything we can to share
the Gospel with men and women in this world with however years
of days we don't know. You know our days, Father. We
cannot take for granted this life that You have given us.
We thank You so much that the comfort comes because of the
Lord Jesus Christ and what He did. We thank You so much that
we could run unto Jesus and He would never, He would never,
He would never He will always take us into His arms, Father.
He will never reject us. We thank You for this. We thank
You that we can have that surety. We thank You that our iniquity
has indeed been important in the midst of everything that's
going on in this country and even around the world, Father.
We thank You that Your people all around the world could be
comforted, comforted and encouraged because of the Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. So we ask You, Father, that You
continue to raise men all over the world to preach the Gospel. We ask You, Father, that You
continue to help women in their homes to teach their children
about the Gospel, Father. We ask you, Father, for our pastor
Rick. We ask you, Father, that you
bring him safe and his wife. We ask you for traveling mercies
for them. We ask you for mercy and grace for all of us here
so that we can seek to worship you in spirit and truth every
single day, Father. We ask you this in Jesus' name.