I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn back with me to the book of Isaiah chapter
40. Isaiah chapter 40. I began this particular study in Isaiah
40 again last Wednesday and had it in my mind that I was going
to deal with verses 1 through 8 last Wednesday evening. After looking at that passage
again, I felt as though, no, I better
look at it in two messages. And so I decided I would preach
out of verses 1 and 2 last Wednesday and then I would deal
with verses 3 to 8 today. I began to look at the Scriptures
again. And I feel as though this morning
that it is best, the right thing, I believe this is the mind of
the Lord for us this morning, for me to look at verse 3 in
Proverbs chapter 40 in this first verse. And then I will take,
and actually I'm looking at part of verse 3. And then Lord willing
in the second message I'm going to try to take the latter part
of verse 3 and go through verse 8. There is something amazingly
wonderful that is said in this passage of scripture. A passage
that we deal with often. Quote often. We looked last Wednesday
evening and I'll just make a couple of comments. And then I'll go
right into verse 3. The Holy Spirit had instructed
the prophet Isaiah to bring a specific message to a specific people. And this morning, I want to just
say that that specific message to a specific people is still
the command of our Lord for us. Isaiah was to preach to and to
comfort God's people. Comfort ye my people. The only people that will be
comforted by the Word of God is those that the Lord has called
out of spiritual darkness and has given a heart, eyes to see
and ears to hear of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. So
Isaiah and none of God's preachers are left to wonder as to the
message there to comfort the people of God. And what is that
message that Isaiah was told? To preach, what was it? The Lord
told him, He said, I want you to speak comfortably, speak to
her heart. And you cry, you herald, you
preach unto her, you tell her that her warfare, her appointed
time is accomplished. The time of her captivity. Listen,
people of God, I want to tell you something again. And I'll
tell you Lord willing, again. And I'll tell you again, the
time of your captivity and misery in a state of unbelief before
the Lord gave you a heart to hear, before He gave you understanding,
before the Spirit of God came unto you and in power regenerated
you, you were in a state of captivity, bound in trespasses and sin.
in a state of unbelief. But I'm going to tell you something.
That time's over. We still struggle with the presence
of sin. I understand that. But I want
you to know the Lord has sent preachers to tell his people
your time of warfare, your time of captivity is over. And here's how it was over. It
is over through the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ on the
behalf of His people. The Lord has laid down His life
for His own. So I've got a word of comfort
to you. God has given you life. God has
given you a new heart. God's given you a spirit that
knows and loves and beholds Him as their life and way and truth. And the second thing I want to
tell you is this. Your iniquity is pardoned. Your iniquity is pardoned. You don't owe anything to the
law of God. There is no debt for you. Your iniquity has been put away. Listen, you've been reconciled
to God. God has reconciled you, us, to
Himself by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And also, let me
tell you this, God in Christ is pleased with you. He's pleased. You're not dead in trespasses
and sins. You're not dead. The presence? Yes. The state of being dead? No. You're alive. Almighty God
has given you life in Christ. Christ in you. The hope of glory. Your iniquity is pardoned. And
the Lord has given you something, he's done something for you that
is unbelievably mysterious. The scripture says, latter part
of verse 2, for she hath, you tell her, you tell her, her victory's
pardoned, her warfare's over, for because she hath received
of the Lord's hand double. You remember the passage in Job
chapter 11 verse 16. Word double, it means the secret
of wisdom. That's what that word double
means. Here's what God's done for you. He's done something
for us that is so mysteriously wonderful and it's secret. We can't possibly understand
it. Who can find out? The Lord. How
can we know higher than the heavens, deeper than the hell? That's
what scripture says. Wider than the earth and the seas. We see
through a glass darkly, but we see. We know in part, but we
know. But I'm telling you, oh, the
mystery of God's wisdom. The depth of the riches, Romans
11 says, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable
are His judgment and His ways past finding out. Now that's the message that we
proclaim to God's people and we comfort them. That is comforting.
You don't owe anything to God's law. That's comforting. We've
been reconciled to God. That's comforting. God is pleased
in Christ with us. That's comforting. But then the
Spirit of God moved upon Isaiah to prophesy of one that would,
in particular, herald the Lord's coming. It was a man that was
specifically ordained to be the voice, crying in the wilderness,
the forerunner. of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Messiah. And it was going to be a man
that was going to be born 700 years after Isaiah prophesied. And his name was John the Baptist.
Verse 3 says, the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,
prepare ye the way of the Lord. Now that's what I've entitled
this first message. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. And then Lord willing, I'm going
to make in the second message, this is the title of the second
message this morning, make straight in the desert a highway for our
God. Now, I'd like for us to look
for just a few minutes at this first exhortation by the Spirit
of God to John the Baptist, but to every preacher of the gospel.
We preach the same thing that John preached. We do the same
thing that John did. And that's what I wanted to do.
I wanted to look, I want to hear what God had to say concerning
what He commanded John to say and to do. And then I want to
look in the second message at what John did. What did he do
in response to what the Lord commanded him? So I want us to
look for just a minute at prepare ye the way of the Lord. Now you know, when it comes to
preparation, of an event, something that's coming up. You know, something
that's going to have some significance for us or for somebody. You know,
we understand the necessity of preparation whenever I want to
prepare for these messages. Okay, well for me to prepare
for these messages, there's multiple things that must be done. They
must be done. I think about this passage of
scripture very often. Knock. Seek. And ask. Knock. It'll be open.
Seek. You'll find. Ask. It'll be given.
And so what I do is somebody might think, you know, well,
I'll tell you what we're going to do. We're just going to. OK. Now, y'all turn to. No. No. In the preparation of the
messages, there's a seeking of the Lord, an asking. And I may
look at something, I'm looking at Proverbs, I'm looking at 1
Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, I'm looking at Isaiah here, and I'm
asking. It's not mechanical. You ask. And when the Lord is pleased
to put upon your heart a message, then you go in that direction.
And I'm constantly asking, constantly seeking, three messages to prepare
in a week. And the thought of coming into
this without preparation is unheard of. There's no possible way. After I've got these notes, I've
got these notes and I'll go over these notes again and I'll change
them. I'll rewrite them and I'll just, you know, and it's just
to continue. I come here on Sunday morning
and before these services start, And I'm telling you, somebody
would say, well, you've probably all settled, huh? No, this is
the most wound up time for me. I'm just, you know, here I am. You know, you know, you know
what I'm talking about. Preparation. If the President
of the United States was coming to Fairmont, it would be preparation
made. Security measures. We're going
to have a Bible conference? Preparation. We're going to have
preparation. There's going to have to be meals, there's going
to have to be songs, there's going to have to be preparation.
So here, whenever the Spirit of God instructs John and all
God's preachers, He says, prepare ye the way of the Lord. I want to know what that means.
I want to look in God's Word and I want to understand Whenever,
if the Spirit of God that told John tells this preacher, you
prepare the way of the Lord. That's a serious issue. Now that truth was set forth
to two different prophets. He told Isaiah, right here we
just read it. And then in the book of Malachi,
chapter 3, verse 1, Behold, I will send my messenger. He's still
talking about John the Baptist. and he shall prepare the way
before me. And the Lord whom you seek shall
suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant
whom you delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts. But when the Spirit of God was
telling John and us, all God's preachers, prepare ye the way
of the Lord, what was he saying? What is the meaning? Well, as
I've tried to express so many times, we look up these words
and we seek to know the sense, the tense, the meaning. I want to know what that word
means. Now if you hear that word prepare,
humanly speaking, it means basically what I was just talking about.
Make some preparations, get some things done, set some things
in order, That's not what this word means. The word prepare
means, in this scripture, turn or face, look, behold, and mark. It's a command for us to consider
by looking unto the way of the Lord. to look unto Him who is
the way, and the truth, and the life. So when John the Baptist
was commanded to prepare the way of the Lord, what the Spirit
of God was telling him, was instructing him to exhort men, exhort women,
I want you to behold You look, you turn your face toward God's
way. And what did John do? Hold your
place and turn. John 1. John chapter 1. That's the first thing that he
did. Like I said, he said something else. He said, prepare you the
way of the Lord. Make straight. That's what we'll
deal with, Lord, in a minute. But what did the Spirit of God
tell John to do? He said, you tell them to look.
You tell them to look to Me. Don't look to their works. Don't
look to their way. You look to My sign. This is
My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. You hear Him. That's
what He said. You prepare the way. Look at
John chapter 1 verse 29. The next day John seeth Jesus
coming unto him, and he saith... Now listen, what did he do? What
did the Lord tell him to do? He said, you prepare the way
of the Lord. And what did John do? Behold
the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. That's
who I want you to look to. You look to Him who takes away.
Don't look to your works and your will and your abilities. You look to the Lamb of God which
taketh away, that beareth away the sin of the world. This is
He of whom I said, after me cometh a man which is preferred before
me. For He was before me. Who am I telling you to look
to? I want you to look to the Eternal God. You look unto Him. the everlasting God. And I knew Him not, but that
He should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing
with water. And John bare record saying,
I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode
upon Him. And I knew Him not, but He that
sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom
thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him the same
as He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and I
bear record, this is the Son of God. This is Him. What do we do in preparing the
way of the Lord? Here's what we do. You look to
Him. I want you to look also at Numbers
21. Numbers 21. this very truth set forth in this precious
passage of scripture. Numbers 21, verse 4. If you look
at verse 4 to 7, concerning the people who were in the desert,
come out of Egypt. And they journeyed, Numbers 21,
verse 4, they journeyed from Mount Har by the way of the Red
Sea to compass the land of Edom. And the soul of the people was
much discouraged because of the way. And the Lord spake, listen
to this, the Lord spake against God and against Moses. Ask this question,
wherefore Have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the
wilderness? Now you think about this question.
The Lord has delivered them out of Egypt. He delivered them through
the Red Sea. He sent them manna. And now here
they are. They're discouraged. They're
murmuring against God. murmuring against God's preacher.
Why have you brought us out here to die? For there is no bread,
neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light
bread. We hate this manna that we have
to eat every day. Now what happened? Now let me
tell you what It just happened. The Lord has been so merciful
and so kind, compassionate. He's not dealt with them after
their guilt. Brought them out of bondage.
Sent them a preacher while they were in Egypt. And they gave them that instruction by
Moses, kill a lamb. I'm going to come through, send
all those plagues. Here's the last plague. I'm going
to come through tonight. And I'm going to deal with every
firstborn. Firstborn, all the animals, people,
all the firstborn. And I'm going to come through
tonight. But I want you to take a lamb.
I want you to kill it. I want you to take it and put
the blood on the door. When I come through, when I see
the blood, I'm going to pass over you. The people of Israel
did it. And God passed over them. Compassionate and merciful. Egypt,
firstborn, dies. God delivers them out. And here
they are. And they're complaining and murmuring
against God. And the Scripture says, They
said, we don't have any bread, we don't have any water, and
we hate what you've provided. We hate this light bread. That
light bread is the picture of Christ. All of their need was
supplied right there. What else did they need? Nothing. And what did God do? The Lord
sent fiery serpents among the people and bit the people. And much people of Israel died.
They weren't satisfied with what God provided. They complained and they murmured.
And the Lord, basically, this is what He did. You're not satisfied
with my provision? I'm going to give you something.
I'm going to give you something. And you'll have something to
murmur and complain about. The Scripture says the fiery
serpents, they bit the people, and much people, And therefore,
the people came to Moses and said, we've sinned. We've spoken
against the Lord. We've spoken against you. Pray
unto the Lord. Oh, what a picture of our great
high priest. That's a picture of Moses right
here. Pray for us. We've sinned against God. Pray
unto the Lord that He take away the serpent. And Moses prayed
for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Make thee a fiery serpent, set it upon a pole, and when it shall
come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh
upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass,
and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent
had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. You know what they were doing?
You know what Moses did? according to the instruction
of the Lord, he prepared the way to the Lord. He prepared
God's way. So that word, prepare, it means
to exhort the people to look and to behold those that murmured,
questioned God in the midst of all of their murmuring and complaining.
Oh, the mercy of God and the mercy of God that He's shown
us. How we question His providence. We ask Him, why am I going through
this? Why am I suffering? Why am I suffering these things?
Why this physical condition? Why is my family like this? Why
is my job like this? Why, why, why, why? And He who
worketh all things after the counsel of His own will sends
a word of encouragement. Look to the Lamb of God. Look unto Him. The Lord instructed
Moses, I want you to make a brazen serpent. Make an image. Make that which is biting. I've told you before. Picture
of sin. Put it up on a pole. Lift him up. As Moses lifted
up the serpent, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
Whosoever looks at Him. looks by faith shall live. So this day, in this first message,
as the Lord instructed His preacher, John the Baptist, you prepare
ye the way of the Lord. I exhort all of us this morning. Lord, keep us from beholding
and looking at your providential dealings with us. as if we're
going through some strange thing. Lord, keep us from murmuring
and complaining. Lord, forgive us. Lord, when
we question your good mercy and providence, Lord, that which
you've caused us to walk through, when I've caused you to walk
through the water, I'll be with you. Lord, all the chastisements
that you send us, Lord, they're for your glory and our good. The best thing in the world that
I could do for you and for myself whenever someone comes. And I try to remember this for
me whenever someone comes and they want to talk about something. Do you know the best advice,
the best encouragement, the best word I can tell you, well, I'm
going through this, this, that, and the other. We're going through,
and here's the best thing I can do. Look to the Lord. Look unto
Him. Behold Him. Remember His tender
mercies. They fail not. Everything that
Almighty God's causing us to go through today, it's all according
to His good will, purpose, and promise. Whom the Lord loveth. He chasteneth and scourgeth every
son that He receiveth. If we be without these chastisements,
you know what it is? It's because we're not His. May
the Lord be pleased this morning to bless this word to our understanding. As I say to all of us, look to
Him. Behold the Lamb of God. that
taketh away the sin of the world. And if the Spirit of God is pleased
to bless that word to the understanding of someone here that He's everlastingly
loved, they will look. I pray that it be so today. For
Christ's sake and our good. Amen.