Sovereign Grace Chapel, located
at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia, invites you to
listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. If you'd like to follow along
I'm gonna be in Isaiah chapter 40 chapter 40 I Want to begin reading in verse
6 The voice said cry and he said
what shall I cry I 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. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but the word of the Lord 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
reward is with him and his work before him. 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. I'm gonna stop right there. Many preach hell to frighten
people. Many preach heaven to bribe people. And many preach works for rewards
to motivate people. Now, I'm gonna be clear the scriptures
do talk a lot about hell about heaven and about works But that's
not the message That's not the message saved sinners Preach
Jesus Christ and him crucified To some he's a stumbling block
to some he is foolishness but unto the called Christ Jesus
is the power of God and the wisdom of God and he is our message
now Title of our message today, it's
called the twofold message of evangelism Sound good All right,
it's found here in Isaiah chapter 40 the twofold message of verse
6 The voice said cry Now let's be clear. This is the voice of
the Lord because Here's the thing the voice said cry Why is that? Well, here's a fact There is
always a message for the people of God always and Here's the
other fact There always has been a message for the people of God. As a matter of fact, you can
look in verse one and you'll see this in chapter 40, verse
one of Isaiah. Comfort ye, comfort ye, comfort
ye. My people, saith the Lord, saith your God, excuse me. What
does it say? 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. There is a time to speak to the
Lord's people comforting, comforting words, comforting. But there's
always a message. And here's the thing, the word
of God is a comfort for the people of God. And God's people are commanded
to speak. The voice said cry. And that's exactly what he meant.
Cry out. Now these words are directed
at the minister, at Isaiah here, to cry. But here's the thing,
every believer is to be ready to give an answer to every man
that asketh you of the reason of the hope that is in you with
meekness and fear. It's a fearful thing to speak
for God. It's a fearful thing. I try not to look it, but I sometimes
get terrified up here. Especially if I lose my place
But it is I Remember looking at me one time. He told well,
he told everybody this one time He said he was on his way up
as Scott Richardson was on his way down Scott Richardson stopped
and she can said Remember you're speaking for God And I'll say
well, thanks a lot Can't forget it and it is fearful But here
What'd the preacher ask? What'd the prophet ask? And he
said, what shall I cry? Now, I got a feeling that in
a lot of pulpits today, all around us and everywhere else, there's
a lot of people that didn't ask this question. What shall I cry? What is the message? What do
I say? And please understand, this is
a very, very good question. Especially for preachers. It's
a good question to ask yourself when you're talking to someone
face to face. But it's vital when you stand behind here. Vital question for the preacher
to ask, because here's the thing. I don't want to be up here trying
to proclaim my message. I want his message. I don't want
mine. And believe me, folks, you don't
want mine. I want his message. Because it is his message that
must be proclaimed. It's his gospel that must be
preached. Now, yes, it is our gospel if
we believe it. It is my gospel if I've received
it. But it's his message. It's his message. So what is the message of the
Lord here in Isaiah chapter 40? What is the word of our God? All flesh is grass. I'm gonna
tell you something. That's the first part of the
twofold message of evangelism. All flesh is grass. Now this is a metaphor. Because
in truth, flesh is flesh and grass is grass. But he's gonna
give us an example and he's gonna tell us what he's talking about
here in just a minute. But this is the statement. This
is the word of the Lord. What does he say? All flesh is
grass. And that's true. It's exactly
true. And this is the message of the
Lord for his people. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.
All flesh is grass. All flesh is grass. Oh my. And what? And all the goodliness,
the goodliness thereof. is as a flower of the field. The goodliness of the flesh. That's the reference. All flesh
is grass, and the goodliness thereof of the flesh is like
a flower in the field. This is what he tells us. Grass is nice, I guess. Flowers
are pretty. But that's not the point. He's
going to tell us here. Because then he gives us the
explanation of what he's talking about with this metaphor. And why God wants this message
brought forth. Here it is. What's he say? All flesh is grass, and all the
goodliness of the flesh is a flower in the field. Verse seven, the
grass withereth. Wait a minute. Is that a comfort? It's a fact. It's a fact. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. And
here's another metaphor. But surely, surely, surely, the
people is grass. The grass withers, and I'm gonna
tell you this, I was looking at this, and since the flower
fades, I was looking at this in Young's Literal Translation,
because it helps sometimes for me. Because it is more closely
a transliteration than a lot of things. It actually, for a
lot of the places, it leaves the words in the order they're
in, in the Greek or in the Hebrew. But here, this actually did change
just a little bit, but without changing. Because Young's little
translation says this, withered is the grass. Faded is the flower. One's in the present tense, and
one's in the past tense. Because the KJV puts them both
in the present tense, and Young's little translation puts both
of them in the past tense. What's that mean? It means the
flesh and the best that the flesh can do, the goodliness thereof,
is worthless in God's sight. And it always has been. It always has been. Always it
doesn't matter how young your flesh is and it doesn't matter
how old your flesh is Doesn't matter how healthy your flesh
is and the heart how crippled your flesh is Present tense and
past tense it's withered and it's faded Neither the flesh
nor its goodliness has ever had any value in God's sight in God's
sight Now, we know from the scriptures that
in my flesh dwells no good thing. We also know that all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags in God's sight. It always has been that way.
It's always been that way. Now, Your husband or your wife may
think you are marvelous. Your neighbors can be so envious
of your piety or generosity. And your enemies may hate you
for your nobility and humility. Oh, but God knows your heart. God knows your flesh. And he
says it here, all flesh is his grass. your goodness your righteousness
is what is like a flower grass withered and the flower faded
away that's what you are of in and of yourselves before god
almighty that's what we all before god almighty in and of ourselves and i've had people tell me that
as an excuse or a way to justify themselves but god knows my heart
you ever heard that god knows my heart well yes he does and
that ought to scare the bejesus out of you a bad way to put it
it ought to scare you to death because god does know your heart
god does know your flesh is grass and god knows out of the abundance
of the heart the mouth speaks Never underestimate the power
of self-deception. Why? All flesh is grass. All flesh is grass. But what's
this mean? I'll say it again. The flesh
and the goodliness of the flesh are of what? No eternal value. The grass withered. It's withered.
It's withered. And they're not talking about
a manicured lawn when he's talking about the grass here. He's talking
about grain. You understand? It dies off every
year. And I was talking to Debbie when
I was talking about the flower fades. You understand, when a
flower falls off, you know what you got left? You got a weed. That's what it is. because that's
what it looks like before the flower shows up. It's only the
flower that's the beauty, the goodliness of it. But it doesn't
last. It never lasts. You can take
it, and I've seen them do it. You take them, put them in a
Bible. They call it pressing flowers. You can put them under
glass. You can dip it in, what is it?
I don't know, acrylic or something like that, you know? And they
make little, real flower, Plastic coated, but you know what? That
pressed flour and that plastic coated flour are both exactly
the same thing. They're dead. They're dead. They're
of no value. You're not in God's sight. There's a line of a song we sing. Frail children of dust and feeble
as frail. I like that. that's what we are the grass is withered the flower
is gone we are temporal creatures and i can tell you this from
personal experience and i've talked to others who've told
me more the older you get the worse your body gets it doesn't
get better and in the strength of your youth
is no strength at all i thought it was idea i mean you know i
mean i i i thought i'd be young and strong forever
or die really quick i get fall apart get some guy
to cut on my neck i'm glad he did not feel much better now your body will betray you. Why? Because all flesh physically
is grass. That's not the message, but don't,
here's the thing. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. He doesn't leave us here. All
flesh is grass. And that flower's dead. And it's
fell off and you're left with the weeds. But that's not where
he leaves us. Yes, the people are grass. Yes, and here it is. The grass
withers and the flower fades. Why? Because the spirit of the
Lord blows on it. Now this is not just the gentle
breeze that blows the grain back and forth in the amber waves
of grain in the song America the Beautiful. No, this is a
wind that will scour the ground. It will scour the ground and
it will It will blow everything away. And we are nothing but grass. The people is grass. What do
they say? All flesh is grass? That's people. That's people. People are grass. People are dead and dying. And the prophet repeats it. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Ah, there's the good news. There's the good news. The word
of our God shall stand forever. Grass withered, flower faded. God still is and God always has
been and God always will be and his word shall stand forever. Oh I like that the word of our
God Peter tells us you just look there for just a second This is first Peter 1 and 25
you don't have to turn there if you don't want to but but
but The word of the Lord endureth forever. You know what he said
right before that? Verse 24, for all flesh is as
grass. And all the glory of man as the
flower of grass. The grass withereth and the flower
thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever. And, and, and, I like this. This is the word which by the
gospel is preached unto you. Isn't that good? That's good,
yeah. You understand, Peter's preaching
the same thing Isaiah did. Isn't that amazing? Christ preached
the same things Daniel did. And Moses did. There's only one
gospel, folks. The word of the Lord endureth
forever. I like that oh my his word stands
and Matter of fact right here right now We're preaching the
same thing Isaiah preached the same thing Peter preached the
same things Jesus Christ preached Why? Because there is no other
gospel none none than the gospel of Christ This is where I got
this from. Rolf Barnard said the two-fold
message of evangelism is this. All flesh is grass. And the second
message of evangelism is this. Look at verse 9 in Isaiah chapter 40. O Zion that
bringeth good tidings, get thee up unto 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. Ah, that's the second. That's
the second. Oh yeah, that's the second part
of the message. All flesh is grass. And behold your God. Oh, I like that, I do. Behold. He didn't stop there either.
Behold your God, right? Behold your God, then, verse
10, behold the Lord God. What's he gonna do? He'll come. He'll come in his good time and
in his place and doing exactly what he wants. Behold, the Lord
will come, what, with strong hands. strong hand, and his arm
shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him. Oh, I like this. And his work before him. I'm gonna tell you something,
grass don't work. Flowers don't work. God works. The Lord God works. Oh, I like
that. Behold, the Lord God will come. Oh, what's he gonna do? His work
is before him. What's he gonna do? He shall
feed his flock. He shall feed his flock like
a shepherd or like a good shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with young. The twofold message of evangelism
is this all flesh is grass and behold your God understand There's
a truth to the fact the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation. Oh
When he comes he's coming with a strong arm and when he visits
his people When he calls out his sheep by name, he's doing
it with a strong arm And his hands go to carry him And it
says the parable he gave, he picks up the sheep, he puts it
on his shoulders, and he carries it back to the fold. And where's
that sheep at? That sheep's in the fold. What
did that sheep have to do with it? Well, nothing, because he
was lost. Absolutely nothing. Now, the
lamb could argue with the shepherd. I don't think it'd work. And
we're dumb enough to argue with God. We are. Why? Because all
flesh is grass. And all our goodness, all our
goodliness, all our righteousness is our filthy rags. He comes with a strong hand.
He shall gather, he shall carry, and he shall gently lead. We
preach a sovereign God who saves his people from their sins and
who brings them in at his good time and his good pleasure. You
know why? Because these scriptures say
this, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. Not your power. You ain't got
no power. I ain't got no power. We have
no power. We're withered. We're faded. Oh, we need a God. the Lord God
with a strong hand to come. We preach a sovereign God, a
sovereign Christ. We preach the Lord Jesus Christ
who is the King of kings and Lord of lords. And he rules and
he reigns. And right now he's seated at
the right hand of the majesty on high, and right now he's out
gathering his sheep. He can be at more than one place
at one time. We can't right now. He's gathered. He's here with
us gathered together in his name. He says there I am in the midst
I like that Here's the thing all flesh is
grass all flowers fade and The Lord thy God behold him Look
upon him trust him Here's the twofold message of the gospel.
You're nothing, and the Lord Jesus Christ is everything. That's
it. Oh, and even more. Without Him,
without Him, you can do nothing. You can do nothing. You can do
nothing. You know who said that? He did. Jesus Christ said that. Without
me, you can do nothing. We have a really hard time getting
that through our heads. We're forgetful. But it's OK. We're forgetful,
but he is faithful. We're weak, but he's strong. You know, a couple of the best
people in the Bible, you know what they were called? Dogs. Caleb. has followed me fully. And that's what Caleb's name
means, dog. And that Gentile woman that came to Christ saying,
help me, help me.