Isaiah 40. I want to bring a
message, Lord willing, from verse 3 down to verse 11. And I want to bring a gospel
message. I'm entitling the message from
what is said here, what shall we preach? What shall we preach? Notice verse 6. The voice said
cry, or declare, or cry out, and preach. And he said, well,
What's the message? What shall I preach? What shall
I cry? Well, all flesh is grass. And the goodliness or the righteousness
thereof of any sinner is just like the flower of the field. It's here for a while and it
fades away. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it. Surely
the people is grass. The grass withereth, verse 8,
the flower fadeth, The word of our God shall stand forever. What shall we preach? What shall
we preach? What is the primary purpose here
at Zebulon Grace Church? What is our purpose in meeting
together? Well, to worship the Lord and
to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Preach the gospel
without reservation. Preach the gospel with strong
convictions. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ that Paul called, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ, it's the power of God and the salvation to everyone
that believes. Preach the gospel without compromise,
without hesitation, without apology, but always and only declaring
the unsearchable riches of our Lord Jesus Christ. His person,
God Almighty, manifest in the flesh. His work, successful. to declare what he has done for
us in saving mercy and in saving grace. What has he done for us?
Everything, everything. Paul put it this way about preaching.
Though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity
is laid upon me, yea, what would it have done to me if I preached
not the gospel? Now, if we're gonna preach, we
better preach the gospel. If we're not gonna preach the
gospel, We better hush. We better hush. Again, Paul instructed
Timothy on this matter of preaching. He said, preach the word. Preach
the word. Preach Christ. Preach Christ
all the time. Paul was determined to know nothing
among the Corinthians but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Jesus
Christ and Him crucified is all our hope of salvation. Again,
the Apostle writes in 2 Corinthians 4, we preach not ourselves. This
has been on the front of our bulletin for 32 years almost. We preach not ourselves, but
Jesus Christ alone. Ourselves, your servant for his
sake. We preach not ourselves, but Christ. We are the servants
called of God to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our
object and goal in preaching is two things, primarily two
things. Other things are involved, but
these two things are essential. What is our goal in preaching?
The glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the grand design of everything
that God has given us and everything around the gospel is all about
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, his glory. As Paul said, God
forbid us a glory except in Christ and him crucified. The second
part of that, the primary The object of this ministry is to
preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's called the
gospel of God concerning Christ. It's called the gospel of His
glory. And the second thing is this,
the salvation of God's elect. God uses the preaching of the
gospel. He has ordained that as the means
to call out His people. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing
what? The gospel. The word of truth. the word of truth. So we use
the means that God has given us and he's given us so many
excellent means that you think about just even a hundred years
ago. I mean communication was difficult,
but we have so many ways to communicate The message of the gospel today,
don't we? Radio, TV, internet. I mean,
it goes all over the world. Our radio message that goes out
Sunday morning, that's streamed on the internet live. You can
hear it in Tokyo or China, wherever. If you got internet access, you
can hear our message. When we were traveling out west
quite often during the summer on vacation, Oftentimes I'd be
out in the middle of nowhere, but if I had an internet signal,
I could listen to our Sunday morning program, sitting out
there in the middle of Wyoming. Two hour difference, I have to
get up a little bit early, but that's no problem. So we have
such excellent means that God put in our hands. TV, newspaper,
radio, books, and we do try diligently to get
this message out. God has told us to go into all
the world and preach the gospel. He didn't say go to all the world
and preach the gospel to the elect. I don't know who they
are. God does, but he said go into
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, the
gospel now, to every creature. So that's what we try to do.
What then is our message? Our message is not what you must
do for God. Our message is what God in Christ
has already done for us. He magnifies the law of God for
us. He honors the law of God for
us. Remember Matthew 5, our Lord said, I didn't come to destroy
the law or the prophets, but I came to honor, to honor the
law of God. One of my favorite verses in
the book of Psalms is he performed all things for us. Salvation
is based upon what He has done. Remember He said, Father, I've
glorified Thee on the earth. I've finished the work You gave
Me to do. He accomplished our salvation
by His doing, His dying, not ours. Salvation has nothing to
do with the deeds of the flesh. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified. We're justified freely by His
grace through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now in our text today,
God gives us the prophecy concerning the coming of God's prophet,
known as John the Baptist, who was sent to identify the Savior
and pointing sinners to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Now John
the Baptist was no stranger to the ceremonies around the temple.
You remember his father was a priest, Zacharias. John saw John the
Baptist, son of Elizabeth and Zacharias. You think how many
lambs that he saw offered upon the altar. I mean every morning,
every evening on the day of atonement, he saw all those feast days and
all those different things. He knew all about those lambs.
He knew all about those animal sacrifices. But he points to
the Lord Jesus Christ as he sees him coming there in Bethabara
and said, behold, there's the lamb. There's the Lamb of God. That Lamb is foreordained before
the foundation of the world. There's the Lamb of God. And
what does the Lamb of God do? He takes away our sin. If you read that over there in
John chapter one, I think the marginal reference says, He beareth
our sin by taking away our sin. By taking away our sin, He beareth
our sin away. Peter's put it this way, he bear
our sin in his own body on the tree. And bearing our sin, he
bear it, bore it away. He put away our sin by the sacrifice
of himself. So John the Baptist came identifying
the Lord Jesus Christ as the only savior of sinners. And he
pointed all people to the Lamb of God. And we do the same thing
today. All God's servants today, we
declare unto all that will hear that the Lord Jesus Christ is
a prepared and only way of salvation. This is the highway that God
has prepared for us. It's a highway and a freeway
of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember, our
Lord said to Thomas, when Thomas said, how can we know the way?
Our Lord said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No man comes to the Father but
by and through me. Neither is there salvation in
any other than the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God's Savior. He is God's Lamb. He is God's
Messiah, the Christ of God, who came to accomplish salvation
for us. Now, the voice of Him that crieth
in the wilderness, prepare ye the way. Prepare ye the way,
and that word prepare has a reference to looking, looking, looking
for the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a
highway, a freeway for our God. And verse four and five, every
valley, here's the result of true preaching. Every valley
shall be exalted, 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. How is it revealed?
In the gospel, in the gospel. And all flesh shall see it together,
either now or eternally in judgment, either now in mercy or eternally
in judgment. They'll see the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ. For the mouth of the Lord, who
said so? The mouth of the Lord has spoken this. Now we see here
the fourfold effect the preaching of the gospel has upon the elect
of God. The word comes not, the gospel
comes not in word only, but also in power, in the power of God
the Holy Spirit. Those made low, he says there,
through the preaching of the word, every valley shall be exalted,
every mountain shall be made low. Those who are made low,
the valley shall be exalted. Those made low by convicting
of God the Holy Spirit shall be lifted up when the gospel
comes in power. This is exactly what happens
to a sinner when he's saved by the grace of God. were emptied
of self and filled with Christ. He came to bind up the brokenhearted,
to set at liberty those that are bruised. Every valley, every
sinner who's been convicted shall be exalted. As I've said to you
over the years, the way up is down. Down, submission. And then he lifts us up in the
Lord Jesus Christ. The second thing he says Those
every mountain shall be made low. Those who are lifted up
with religious pride and self-righteousness will be stripped bare in his
sight, will be humbled, humbled by his grace. Those who are lifted
up with pride. When we think about religious
pride and self-righteousness, I think the prime example would
be old Saul of Tarsus. He was so lifted up with pride,
wasn't he? But what brought him down? He was made low. He put his face in the dust before
the exalted Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what God does for
us in the way of conversion. Those who have been smitten low
shall be lifted and those who are full of pride and arrogance
and self-righteousness shall be made low. And those crooked
shall be straightened out And the rough places shall be made
plain. The Lord straightens us out.
Remember when you were a kid, and you messed up, and you got
in trouble, and your parent would say, I'm going to straighten
you out? That's what the Lord does with the gospel. He straightens
us out. He corrects us. The crooked shall be made straight.
He straightens us out. And those rough places, places
that we don't understand what's going on, He makes the way of
salvation plain in Christ Jesus. He knocks off the rough places,
and he humbles us in the dust. He's neither of a broken heart,
save as such as be of a contrite spirit. And all flesh shall see
his glory, in verse five. That is, among the elect of God,
there is a multitude of sinners, among Gentiles and Jew, young
and old, black and white, who shall see the redemptive glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ." When he calls them out, when he commands
the light to shine out of darkness, that shines the glory of God
in our heart, that we might see the redemptive glory of God in
the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the glory of the Lord shall
be revealed He hid these things from the wise and prudent and
revealed them unto babes. You see, salvation doesn't come
by education. It comes by revelation. He reveals
the glory of God to us. And we see that in the face of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the glory of his mercy, the glory of his
salvation. And all flesh shall see it together
when they're called of God, when they're blessed of God. For the
mouth of the Lord, who says so? The mouth of the Lord has spoken
it. Who's the mouth of the Lord?
Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the threefold message of evangelism
that we see revealed here In verse six down through verse
11, the threefold message of evangelism is number one is this,
sinners are totally depraved. All flesh is grass. Number two,
the word of the Lord shall stand forever. The word written and
the word incarnate, it shall stand forever. And then the third
thing is this, behold your God. Behold your God, behold the Lamb
of God that takes away our sin. So let's look at those three
things. The voice said, cry. And he said, well, what shall I preach? What shall I cry? Verse six,
all flesh is grass. All flesh is grass. and all the
goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass
withers, the flower fades, because the Spirit of the Lord blows
upon it. Surely the people is grass. The
grass withers, the flower fadeth, but the word of the Lord endures
forever. So all flesh is grass. young,
old, Jew, Gentile. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. All flesh, male, female, religious
or otherwise, ungodly flesh. All flesh has the inherent nature
and principle of sin. We're born that way, fallen,
ruined, spiritually dead in sin. All flesh is grass. To deny this, is to call God
a liar. Remember 1 John 1, if we say
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth, the truth is not
in us. All men individually are as grass,
but all men collectively are no different. As it says there
in verse 15 and 16 and 17 to make this point. Behold, the
nations are the drop of a bucket. Back years ago, when you put
down the bucket into the well and you would draw some water
up, did you worry too much about those drops on the bottom of
the bucket that fall off? There's nothing, it just falls
back down. The nations are the drop of a bucket before God Almighty. You think about these These nations
who think they're somebody, these leaders who think they're somebody,
China, Russia, India, our own country, United States, in the
sight of God, they are as nothing, as a drop of a bucket and are
counted as a small dust of the balance. How much does a speck
of dust weigh on the balance? It's nothing. It's vanity. Behold, he taketh up the isles
as a very little thing. Lebanon is not sufficient to
burn. Lebanon was known for all them cedar trees. Nor the beast
thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. Bring all the wood
you want, all the animals you want. The blood of bulls and
goats cannot take away sin. All nations before him are as
nothing. these rulers in this world today. You think about this verse, the
king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, and he turns it whether
so ever he will, just like he turns a river. They think they're
something or somebody, they're nothing. They're nothing. All
nations before him are nothing, they're accounted to him less
than nothing. And oh, by the way, what's less than nothing? Vanity. I know in algebra you have negative
numbers, but nothing is nothing. Vanity. Man at his best state
is altogether vanity. Vanity. Vanity. Less than nothing. All flesh is grass. In the flesh
dwelleth no good thing. The carnal-minded enmity against
God. We must preach the total depravity,
or we might say it will happen in the garden, will happen with
Adam's sin. It plunges all into total guilt
and depravity before God. There's no way for us in ourselves
to recover. That must be preached, the total
depravity of sinful men, that they might see their need of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Without understanding the problem,
we'll always seek the wrong solution. Without an understanding of sin,
you'll have no understanding of salvation accomplished by
the Lord Jesus Christ. I've often said, if you don't
understand ruin, you don't understand redemption. If you don't understand
what happened in the garden, you don't understand what Christ
accomplished at Calvary. Something else, the second part
of that, not only is all flesh grass, all the goodliness thereof is
like the flower of the field. The grass withers, verse seven,
the flower fades away because the spirit of the Lord blows
upon it. Surely the people is grass. Surely,
surely, surely. All goodliness, or we could say
all righteousness, human self-righteousness, that people think that they have
mustered up, at which we might think would recommend us unto
God, To God is nothing but a fading,
worthless flower. Hold your place there. You remember
over here in Isaiah 64. Turn over there in Isaiah 64.
Isaiah 64. All our goodlinesses, all our
goodlinesses as the flower that fades away. Isaiah 64, look at
verse 6. We're all as an unclean thing,
but we're all as an unclean thing. And all our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. We all do fade as a leaf. Our
iniquities like the wind have taken us away. There's none that
calls upon thy name that stirreth up himself. to take hold of thee,
thou hast hid thy face from us, and has consumed us because of
our iniquities. But now, O Lord, thou art our
father, we are the clay, thou our potter, and we are all the
work of thy hand." Our Lord said to those Pharisees so many times,
who were so full of themselves, so full of religious pride and
arrogance, he said, you are they which justify yourselves before
men, God knows your heart. That which is highly esteemed
among men, he says is an abomination, an abomination in the sight of
God. The only way we'll know this
is by the Spirit of the Lord blowing upon us. Men don't naturally
arrive at knowing that we are totally sinful. People talk about
doing sinful things. That's not the problem. The problem is what we are. We
do those wicked things because of what we are by nature. Totally
depraved sinners. And we see this around us all
the time. When God removes the restraining
power of His mercy from sinners, they just act and do all kinds
of crazy things, don't they? When God removes His restraining
power murder, all these different things, robberies. That's a testimony. The 6 o'clock
news is a testimony to all flesh is grass. I mean, it doesn't
matter if you watch the Huntington News or the Lexington News, it's
constant shootings, killings, robberies. It's crazy, isn't
it? That shows us, yes, all flesh
is grass. Yours and mine. Take away the
restraining grace of God, and there's nothing, nothing we would
not do. This flesh is still flesh. So
that's our message. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. The second thing is this. The
last part of verse 8, but, there's that big word again, B-U-T, but,
The word of our God shall stand forever. The foundation of God
stand assure having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are
his. He said, behold, I lay in Zion for foundation of stone,
a tried stone, a precious cornerstone. The word of the Lord shall stand
forever. And this word here is twofold.
He talks about the written word of the Lord, You remember this
scripture, he said, heaven and earth will pass away, but my
word will never pass away. His Word is forever settled in
heaven. His written Word, all Scriptures
given by what we're reading right here, what we have in our hand,
what we take home with us, is a verbally inspired Word of God. All Scriptures given by God. Holy men of old, like Isaiah,
wrote and wrote as they were moved by God the Holy Spirit.
The Word of the Lord, written, what He has written, We'll stand
forever. We'll never be diminished. We'll
never be taken away. We'll never be changed. What
a precious treasure the Lord has given unto us. His unfallible,
unfailing word. He says that we'll never return
void. You remember that scripture?
Turn over here to Isaiah 55. I believe it's Isaiah 55. Yeah,
that's it. Isaiah 55. Look at verse 10.
Well, let's go back to verse 8. Isaiah 55 at verse 8. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For
the heavens are higher than the earth, or my ways higher than
your ways, and my thoughts than yours. For the rain cometh down
in the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but waters
the earth, and maketh it bring forth blood, 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, it shall not return unto
me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereunto I send it. His word, he'll send
his word, and he sends it out, it will not return unto him void,
it'll accomplish God's purpose, it'll prosper. The word of the
Lord shall prosper. His word is powerful. You remember
Isaiah? Talks about the Word of the Lord.
Paul talks about the powerful Word of the Lord. It's quick
and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. Peter talks
about the exceeding great and precious promises we have in
the Word. It's to be prized above the Word
of any man, is it not? We rely upon the Word of God. The foundation of faith is the
Word of God. As old Martin Luther said, feelings
come and feelings go. Feelings are deceiving. My warrant
is the Word of God. Nothing else is worth believing. So we see the written Word, and
the second part of that is the living Word. The living Word
is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who is called the Word of God. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word, capital W, The Word was with God and the Word
was God, and that Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory as the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth. Don't turn. Let me get this one
for you. Remember, we read this recently. And in Revelation 19
verse 11, And I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse. And
he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness
he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire,
and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that
no man knew but he himself. He was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood, and his name is called The Word of God. God, that's his name, capital
W, Word of God, the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
the Word of God, the Word of God. His Word abides forever. He abides
forever in his divine person. He said, I'm he that liveth and
was dead. Behold, I'm alive forevermore. He abides forever in all the
divine office as mediator, intercessor, advocate. When we sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. We
have that one mediator between God and men, the God-man, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is our intercessor. He's able
to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him, seeing
He ever lived to intercede for us. who stands forever in the efficacy of his blood
and righteousness, at his sacrifice for our sin, in the fullness
of his grace, in the glory of his exaltation. Delivered for
our offenses and raised again because he justified us. So,
all flesh is grass. You know that, don't you? What
are we to do? Behold the Word of the Lord. It shall stand forever and ever. Heaven and earth is going to
pass away. His Word written, His Word incarnate, the eternal
Son of God. Now here's the third message,
the third part of that message, verse 9 and verse 10. O Zion, that bringeth good tidings,
get thee up into a high mountain. Good tidings is the good news
of the gospel. Zion there is a picture of God's
church. Jerusalem, that bring us good
tidings, lift up by voice with strength. The gospel's not to
be hidden, it's to be preached. Lift it up, be not afraid. Say
to the cities of Judah, behold your God. Behold your God. Behold the Lord God will come
with a strong hand None can stay his hand or say unto him, what
doest thou? He has a strong hand. His arm
or his power shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him. We're not working here upon the
earth for a greater reward. People talk about that. Rewards
in heaven. The more I do here, the bigger
mansion I'm going to have. That's nonsense. The Lord Jesus
Christ is our reward. What could be better? He is our
reward. His reward is with Him. His work
is before Him. Verse 11. So behold your God. Behold the Lamb of God. What
does He do? He comes with a strong hand to
save us. He rules us with His sovereign power. He is our exceeding
great reward. Verse 11, he shall feed his flock. He feeds us with his word. He's
a good shepherd who laid down his life for us. He's the great
shepherd, the good shepherd, the chief shepherd. He shall
feed his flock like a shepherd. Oh, what a shepherd. You remember
what David said? The Lord is my shepherd. I shall
not want. And then he gathers his lambs
in his arms. All we like sheep have gone astray. What does the Lord do? He came
to seek and to save the lost. He gathers us with his arm and
then he carries us in his bosom. We're on his heart. He carries
us in his heart and he gently leads those that are with Yom. He is a gentle Savior to his
people. He said, come unto me, all ye
that labor heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. The
Lord Jesus Christ is a Lion of the tribe of Judah, but he's
also the gentle, loving Savior to his people. He shall feed
his flock like a shepherd, none like him. He shall gather the
lambs with his arm, carry them, and lead them. The shepherd leads
us in the green pastures of his word, as David said in Psalm
23. Okay. Lord bless his word.