Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Isaiah chapter 40. We'll read two verses. The name
of the message is Comfort Needed. Now, the preaching of the gospel
of salvation through Christ is so very needful, so very needful,
because we humans are born sinners. And the only way for us to be
saved from our sins is in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And We who are the born-again, blood-washed saints of God, and
those who are the elect that he has not regenerated yet, he's
already saved them 2,000 years ago, but they're not born again
yet, and they haven't been given faith to believe, when they are
born again, then they will need comfort too, just like we need
comfort through this world. Now, this world is a world of
woe. And let us remember that we are
Christians. First and foremost, we're not
of this world. We're born into this world, and
then we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God, and this
world is not our home. The scripture says we're pilgrims
and strangers. This isn't our home. And the
Lord said to his apostles, and this is to his people as well,
marvel not that the world hates you, it hated me. If the world
loves someone who claims to be a Christian, If the world loves
him, there's something wrong. There's something wrong. My oh
my. So as we go through this world
of woe, we need comfort. We need comfort. Listen to this
in Isaiah chapter 40 verses one and two. God tells his preachers
this. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people
saith your God. So I can't personally bring you
comfort, but I can tell you about the one who's comforted my soul
and the one who's comforted your soul if you're a born-again believer.
And so how does a preacher then comfort God's people? By preaching
the gospel of salvation through Christ and by his blood and righteousness
alone. And then it says, speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem, inquiring to her that her warfare is accomplished.
She now has peace with God. The church, the bride of Christ,
now has peace with God. Who is the bride of Christ? All
the elect of all the ages. Her warfare is accomplished.
Her iniquity is pardoned. Hallelujah. God's people's sins
are pardoned. They're forgiven. For she hath
received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Now, some preaching,
in this world is not profitable. Religious preaching is not profitable. A theological exhortation disguised
as a sermon is not profitable. And when some preachers preach,
they're like the gladiators of old. They fight for spectacle. They're up there like they're
putting a show on. You know who they're like? They're
like professional wrestlers. Their preaching is little more
than religious entertainment, beloved. That's all it is. That's
all it is, with a predetermined outcome. I was listening to an
advertisement for a local church. Come and have fun! Come and have
fun! No, come and hear the gospel,
because there's no gospel there. Just come and have fun. Come
and enjoy our music. We're going to give you a good
time. And I thought, that's a waste. They don't care about those people's
souls. Now, that kind of preaching doesn't
comfort true believers. It doesn't comfort true believers.
And all around us, through the week, think of this, think of
this, beloved. All around us through the week, we battle the
world. The world comes at us. We leave
this doors, and the world comes at us. Even if we're just at
home for the week, because we're watching TV, or watching YouTube,
or watching things on the internet, and the world's just coming right
at us, isn't it? Oh, it just throws all kinds of stuff. Distract
us from Christ. Get our minds away from Christ.
Just distracts us. Oh my, and then we battle with
the devil. Oh my, we have spiritual wickedness
in high places. Scripture tells us we have three
enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. And then the third
one that I just mentioned as the middle one, the flesh, that's
the worst. We battle with our flesh all
week long. Even when we're sitting in church,
we're battling with our flesh, aren't we? Even when I'm preaching
the gospel, I'm battling with my flesh. Things come into my
mind, I'm like, oh my. Keep your eye on Christ, Wayne.
I preach to myself too, don't I? My, oh my. So we're in a battle all week
with the world, the flesh, and the devil. We come into church.
No one has to tell us that the devil is real and that our flesh
is weak and that the world hates the believer. No one has to tell
us that. We come in battered and bruised, don't we? We come
into this oasis. And what do we need to hear?
Comfort. Comfort tell me things about Christ that comfort my
soul tell me about my king who's victorious You don't need you
don't need a pulpit pound into you. You don't need me to sit
up here and pound the pulpit I get excited because I love
the Lord and and I love He's put this message on my heart.
I love it. I want to tell everyone about
it But I don't need to bang the pulpit do I? No I don't need
to tell you how wicked you are, we already know we're wicked.
I don't even have to tell you how wicked the enemy is, because
you already know that. I don't even have to tell you
how weak the flesh is, because we already know that. My, I don't even have to tell
you how bad the world is, we see it all the time. And we were
in it, and we're still in it, but we're not of it. Praise his
mighty name. So God's people, when they come
to listen to a message, they don't need chest-thumping demonstrations
of powerful preaching. You ever hear that word? It used
to be a buzzword years ago, powerful preaching. You know, a man just preaching
the gospel in the middle of nowhere to a handful of saints, that's
powerful preaching. And they're doing it faithfully.
faithfully each week, that's the Lord's work. And the only
one who can make it powerful is our great God and King, right? Only Him. It's not the greatness
of the preacher, because we're nothing. I was listening to a
message today, and that verse came up where Paul's like, he
said, who's sufficient for these things? And then last night when
we did our Bible study in John 15, Christ says, without me you
could do nothing. So there's nothing in the preacher,
it's not the greatness of the preacher, we're nothing. It's
the greatness of our Savior. And who strengthens us? Who strengthens
you as God's people? Who strengthens me as God's people?
The Holy Spirit of God. Through the preaching of Christ
and Him crucified. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my. My oh my. It's the greatness of the one
who the preacher preaches. It's the greatness of the one
who the preacher proclaims. And his name is the Lord Jesus
Christ. God in the flesh. God incarnate
in the flesh. Turn if you would to Colossians
chapter two. Now God's people need, what do
we need to be reminded of? Oh, we need to be reminded of
our captain, the Lord Jesus Christ, the captain of our salvation.
Oh, who fought gloriously. He fought gloriously. And in
his fighting, he destroyed the enemies of our souls. Do you
know, do you know, you know, he stomped on the enemies of
our soul. He triumphed over princes and
principalities. He honored the law and magnified
it in our Roman place. He bore the wrath of God that
was against us for our sin. Oh, my. He did all that. Let's talk about
the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where you and
I are going to be comforted, isn't it? By listening to the
Preaching of the greatness of Christ. How he's absolutely sovereign. He's in control of all things,
so no matter how horrendous something is in the world, we can know. We can know our God's in control. Our God's in control. Look at
this in Colossians chapter 2. Let's read verses 9 to 15. Look
at this. For in him, that's Christ, dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye, Paul's writing
to saints. He ain't writing to everybody
in the world. He's writing to the saints at
class. And look at what he says. And this is true of every born-again,
blood-loss believer. Hallelujah, what a Savior is
Jesus Christ our Lord. Look at this. And ye are complete
in him. That's in Christ. Complete. What's it mean to be complete?
It means to be complete. It means nothing added. It's
finished. which is the head of all principality
and power. He's in charge of everyone and
everything. That's what that's telling us. And him also you
are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands and the putting
off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of
Christ. That's to be born again, beloved.
by the power of God, the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 12. Buried
with him, that's Christ, in baptism, wherein ye also are risen with
him, that's Christ, through the faith and the operation of God.
Look, look, I like that. Look at that. The operation of
God. We must be born again. And that only is done by God,
and God alone. And then he gives us faith and
repentance before him. Faith in Christ and repentance
before God. Look at this. The operation of God, who hath
raised him, that's Christ from the dead. So the same one who
raised Christ from the dead is the same one who raised us from
our dead natural state. We were born dead in trespasses
and sins, dead. Graveyard, dead. Really dead, spiritually. Totally
dead, spiritually. And now the believer's made alive
in Christ, born again by the power of God. Look at this, look
at verse 13. And you, being dead in your sins
in the uncircumcision of your flesh, that's our natural state.
Hath he, this is God the Holy Spirit, quickened together with
him, Christ. We've been born again by the
power of God the Holy Spirit. Having forgiven you, all trust
passes. That's wonderful. Is that comforting? Is it comforting
to know that all our sins are washed in the blood of Christ?
And see this word in verse 14, blotten, it means to whitewash
in the Greek. And whitewashing, I found out,
is used with an anesthetic that just kills anything. Look at that. Blotting out, whitewashing out,
the handwriting that ordinances that was against us. The law
had a claim on us. The law of God had a claim on us. Blotted
out. Whitewashed out. When you whitewash
something, you cover it completely. My. Blotting out the handwriting
order that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took
it out of his way, nailing it to his Christ's cross. Look at this. In heaven, spoiled
principalities and powers. He, being Christ. made a show
of them openly, triumphing over them. He triumphed over them.
He triumphed over them, beloved. So God's people, in regard to
our sin, we need to be comforted. And God told Isaiah, comfort
ye, comfort ye my people. So the preacher is sent to the
people of God to tell them the heart-lifting news that through
the labors and victory of the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ,
God in the flesh, that all our sins are forgiven. They're washed
in the precious blood of Christ. For often we who are the people
of God come to church as believers under a burden of guilt. We as God's people must be reminded
each week and every time we hear the gospel, we must be reminded
of the victory. Having spoiled principalities,
He, Christ, made us show them openly triumphing over them. We, we must be reminded that Christ is victorious. And those who are sent to preach
the gospel of God are not generals. People say, oh, they're great
men of faith. We preachers aren't generals. You know what we are?
I like this. Joe Terrell said this. I like
this. We're not generals engaged in warfare. We're medics. We're
medics. sent to tend to the wounds of
the warriors, of the Christian warrior. And sometimes you, who are my
fellow brethren, bind up my wounds and you don't even know it, through
telling me about the King, telling me about the Savior, my oh my. And our wounds are binded up
by the preaching of the gospel, aren't they? That we receive
each week. And God's preachers have not
been sent to be lords to hold dominion over God's heritage,
not at all. But we're servants to wash the
feet of the weary. How do we do that? By the preaching
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're to prepare and serve heavenly
food. the heavenly food of the gospel
of salvation in and through Christ alone and his righteousness.
In preaching Christ and salvation through him alone, God the Holy
Spirit will take and use the preaching of his word to strengthen
the hearts of God's people and prepare them for the battles
that shall come. the next week, the next day,
maybe even the day they leave this building. My, and he prepares us each week,
each day with the preaching of the gospel to continue through this world.
He gives us fellowship with one another to encourage each other to uphold each other before the
throne of glory. And we will do this until we
either depart from this earth when the Lord takes us home,
or until, if we're still alive when he comes, he takes us to
glory then. Now may we, after hearing the
gospel proclaimed, May we, after hearing the gospel
proclaimed, go away not thinking, what a great preacher. No. Or what a great sermon. May we
leave saying hallelujah. What a great savior is Jesus
Christ, our Lord. Amen and amen.