Isaiah 40 We looked at verses 1 & 2 last
week. We'll go ahead and read them
along with the next few verses. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith 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 him that crieth
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. Let's pray. Gracious Father, how in awe we
should be of your word. The power of your word and your gospel
to save. As it reveals, Lord, our Savior
and God. how it is that you can be God
and yet have mercy on a worm. May we not take lightly the things
that we speak of and hear of tonight. Cause in our hearts the reverence
that you deserve. Comfort your people, Lord, through
the preaching of your word. Take a voice, the voice of a
man. Speak to the hearts of sinners.
Speak life and peace. That we might live before you
in Christ and honor you in him. Thank you
for all of your tender mercies toward us. Bless us together
tonight. In his precious name, amen. Now
we know from our Lord's clear teaching in the New Testament
that these words in Isaiah 40 verses 3 through
5 there refer to John the Baptist, the voice. John was the voice. Matthew 3.1, I'll read it to
you. In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the
wilderness of Judea, and saying, repent ye, for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken
of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, the voice of one crying in the
wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make his paths
straight. Now the word for in verse 3 where
I just read is key. John said repent ye and the reason
that he said that is because he's that voice that God said
would prepare his way. So how is the way of the Lord
going to be prepared? How are people going to be prepared
to receive the gospel from the very Son of God himself by changing
their thinking on everything. By being torn down. You remember
John said the axe is laid to the root. There can't be any
growth until the dead wood is cut away. That's the preparation
of the heart for the Lord. God's got to cut us down. And
then we're ready to hear from the Son of God. Of course, it's
him that does that, too. He does all of it. But you see,
he uses John here in a special ministry to prepare the way. How did he do that? Repent. Quit
trusting the fathers. Quit talking about your religious
heritage. Quit trusting your works. Now John knew and confessed this
concerning himself. Listen to this in John 1.19.
It says, this is the record of John. When the Jews sent priests
and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? John the
Baptist was creating quite a stir. He spoke with authority like
the Lord did because he spoke the same message that the Lord
did. He had a little bit different
ministry in the sense of, you know, he was in the preparing
business and the Lord just came and just spoke of himself, you know,
and of course we'll see that about John too. But he was creating quite a stir
and had some authority and God, you know, the Lord said he's
the greatest man ever born of a woman. And I'm sure people
noticed that. And they came and they said,
who in the world are you? Are you Isaiah? Are you one of
the prophets? Are you the Christ, they said.
In verse 20 of John 1, and he confessed and denied not, but
confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, what then?
Are you Elias? Are you Elijah? And he said,
I am not. Are you that prophet? And he
answered, no. Then said they unto him, Who
are you then, that we may give an answer to them that sent us?
What sayest thou of thyself? And he said, I am the voice. You know, that's humble, isn't
it? Just a voice. I'm the voice of
one crying in the wilderness. I'm just a voice crying in the
desert. But a very powerful voice in
the sense that the message Paul said it's the power of God unto
salvation, the gospel of Christ. So a powerful voice, but John
said just a voice. You know, you can't be Dr. Voice, can you? Reverend Voice.
That just doesn't fit. You're just a voice. That's it. make straight the way of the
Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah. So John owned it, he knew it,
he was aware of it. The Lord Jesus identified him
as the voice. The first way he's described
in our text is that way, the voice of one crying. We'll talk
about him crying and what he cried, but this emphasizes how
it is that God saves sinners. He does it by a voice. John came preaching. Well, that's
a key word. That's what God's voices do.
They preach. You remember the Ethiopian eunuch?
Philip can't join himself under that chariot and said, do you
understand? He happened to be reading Isaiah. Or we're reading tonight. A little
different chapter. Chapter 53 he was reading. And
Philip said, do you have any idea what you're reading? Do
you understand it? And he said, how can I except
some man should guide me? Some man. And Philip began right
where he was reading. What if he'd have been reading
in Genesis? Well, he had started right there
then. It doesn't matter where you cut it. It doesn't matter
where you slice it. It's Christ. But he began right
where he was reading, right there in Isaiah 53, and did what? Remember the next word? And preached. John came preaching. Philip preached. How are you going to understand
anything from God? By the preaching. That's how God reveals his son,
his gospel. How he saves sinners. By the
preaching. He preached unto him what? Jesus. And John preached unto people
Jesus. He said, behold the Lamb of God. Your religious heritage is not
going to help you with regard to your sin. But there's God's
Lamb that takes away sin. The blood of bulls and goats
can never take away sin. But that Lamb takes away sin. He preached the Kingdom of God.
What does that mean exactly? Well, he said, one cometh after
me that is preferred before me. He's the king. I'm just a messenger. I'm just a servant. He's the
king. He's the exalted one. He's the preeminent one. He preached
the kingdom. He said the kingdom of God is
at hand. Well, wait a minute, John. It's going to be thousands
of years before the Lord comes back to this earth. That's not
what he's talking about. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming.
The first time the kingdom of God is at hand. He is the kingdom of God. He's talking about Christ himself.
Behold Him. Do you need your sins taken away?
Behold God's Lamb. Every voice that speaks for God
speaks of the Lord Jesus. Philip preached unto him Jesus.
Paul said we preach Christ crucified. Next it says he was crying. He
was crying. It's an urgent message, isn't
it? You don't mumble it. It doesn't have to be shouted. But there's got to be some feeling
to it, doesn't it? It comes from somebody that feels
it, that has lived it, that has experienced it. That's how you
can cry the gospel. crying in the wilderness. And
he may well have preached outside of the city gates, and that may
have something to do with the word wilderness, but this is
mainly speaking of the spiritual wilderness that this place had
become. The place that in years past,
in ancient times, were blessed of God. The Jews were God's earthly
people, and they had much advantage, Paul said. In every way, to them
were committed the oracles of God. They had the law, they had
all of the types and pictures, the ceremonies that all pointed
them to Christ. But now, for 400 years, God had
been silent to them. Can you imagine that? I know
churches that have turned into wildernesses in a year not having
any guidance from God. And God went 400 years without speaking to his people
on this earth. That's a long time. You talk about a wilderness. It don't take long for us to
turn into dry death. We got to hear from God. This
ain't just coming to church, is it? It's not just social.
It's not just, you know, Sunday go to meeting. We got to hear
from God. We dry up. And so in the wilderness of religion,
John cried. There's something to that now,
he cried. Prepare you the way of the Lord.
Repent ye. Behold God's Lamb. The kingdom
of God is coming to you. Get ready. How do you get ready? Repent. Quit thinking like you
do. Quit trusting in what you trust
in. Quit doing the religious idiocy
that you do. How do you prepare for the gospel,
for the truth, by getting rid of everything that's false? You've
got to clean house first, don't you? Now the Lord does that. He uses John in a specific ministry
here, but that's everywhere the gospel is preached now, even
now. That happens. The gospel has
a clearing of that first. We got to abandon all of our
preconceived notions of who God is and what we are by nature
and how God saves sinners. The way of the Lord got to be
prepared. There's got to be that repentance before there can really
be faith. Change your mind. That's what
repent means. Change your mind. Change your heart. Stop. Stop being what you are. And
you see that all in, remember Luke 3, we studied Luke 3 not
long ago. Verses 1-18 if you want to look
at it again to refresh your memory. But remember what John preached
there. The publicans came to him and said, what do you mean
works of repentance? He said, quit stealing from people.
That'd be a good start, wouldn't it? You've got to renounce what you
are before God. You've got to own your sin and
your guilt before God and repent of it. Be sorry for it. For what you are. Now we're not saved because we
repent. We repent because we're saved.
We know that. 2 Timothy 2.25, Paul told Timothy,
how many times have I quoted this verse? This is key now.
This is a key verse. They're all, they all are. But boy, listen to this one again.
2 Timothy 2.25, Paul said to Timothy, an old preacher instructing
a young preacher, he said, now in meekness, instruct. Come down like John, just a voice. You're not Dr. Tim. You're not
Reverend Tim. In meekness, instruct. Those that oppose themselves,
they're their own worst enemy. And understand that. You don't
beat a blind man over the head for being blind. You have some
compassion toward those that oppose themselves. And here's
why you're doing that, Tim. Here's why we teach. Here's why
we preach. If God, per adventure, God said that it pleased him
by the foolishness of preaching and teaching the truth of Christ
to save them that believe. So if you teach those that oppose
themselves, teach them of him, then peradventure God will give
them repentance. To the acknowledging of the truth.
You're not going to acknowledge his truth. That's why the way
has to be prepared. You're not going to receive his
truth. which Christ was the truth of God. He's not going to be
received unless you repent first. God's going to have to give you
that. And he might just do it if somebody teaches. John was
that man. He was one of them. A voice. The voice of one crying in the
wilderness. Now the next verse shows the
necessity for change. Back in our text in chapter 40
of Isaiah, 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. Here's the thing, now why do
we need to change? Well, if the mountains are fixing
to be knocked down, and you're a blooming mountain, you might
need to change. You see what he's saying? Come
down. Come down. Humble yourself before
God. Understand and own the fact that
everything you know is wrong. Everything the Pharisees trusted
in was a lie. But they were proud in it. They
were high. They were exalted like mountains.
The mountains are going to be brought down. Repent. Pretty good advice, isn't it?
Pretty good advice. God's going to bring the mountains
down. And you're one of them. God's going to lay the axe to
the root of the dead tree. And that's what you are. That's
what he said in Luke 3. And I've heard that the high
and the mountains and the valley, that's pretty clear. And the
crooked, that's all of us. We're perverted. And the Pharisees
were perverted in their thinking, in their doctrine. They had twisted
the word of God around 400 years of silence. They had taken the
word of God and twisted it to where you wouldn't even recognize
it if you had any idea who God was. When the rough place is plain. This has to do with pride and
humiliation. The valleys will be brought up,
lifted. Blessed are the poor in spirit. They're going to see God. They're
going to inherit the kingdom of God. Salvation is a bringing
down. It's pictured in Zacchaeus, isn't
it? So clearly and beautifully. You know, we learned a lot of
the clear, simple, glorious gospel truth when we were little kids.
We probably didn't even know it. Zacchaeus, what was the first
thing the Lord said to him? Come down here. Come down. He says that to every sinner.
by the preaching of the gospel. Come down. Get off your high
horse. He brought Saul of Tarsus down
into the dust. And it's very simple, isn't it?
The Pharisees came to our Lord saying, we know more than you.
And who are you? What kind of an authority are
you? You didn't go to the schools we went to. You don't have the
degrees that we have. We know more than you know, you
don't measure up to our standard of religion. And they looked
down on him and everybody else. And our Lord said to them, you're
a generation of snakes. That's the mountain coming down
and that's the axe being laid to the root of the tree. Everybody
thought the Pharisees were great religious, you know, godly people.
You have the poison of snakes under your lips, he said. He
brought the mountains down, didn't he? He's still in that business.
Has he brought us down? We still got a little room underneath
us though, don't we? We still got a little room underneath
us, but he knows how to bring us, doesn't he? He knows how
to bring us down. And when he does, once he begins
that work, we thank him for it, don't we? I see that I need to
come down. John, this same man, said he
must increase and I must decrease. You know, that's in here. He's
not, he can't get any higher than he is in reality, but in
here he can increase and he must. We must somehow, is that what
we're, is that what we're aiming for? When we, when we look into
the word of God, let's try to see him high and lifted up like
Isaiah saw him. He's able to show us himself
that way. And John said, I've got to come
down some more. Well, John, aren't you pretty
humble now? Aren't you in the dust? Well, I know I'm nothing,
but I could know it a lot better. Couldn't you? I'm going to bring that fly down
in a minute. But you see how simple that is? I love the way our Lord teaches
us. I need that, don't you? I'm not a Bible scholar, I'm
a child. The Pharisees said, we know more
than you, we're better than you, I'm not like that publican, I'm
high, I've done this and I've done that, and the Lord said,
you're a bunch of snakes. The leper on the other hand came
and said, Lord, If you will. I'm a vile, hideous wretch, but
if you will, you can make me clean. And he said, I will. The
valleys will be exalted. That publican said, oh God, have
mercy. Be merciful to me, the sinner.
The Lord said, your sins are gone. The religious Jews were about
to stone that woman, taking in adultery. That's about as low
as you can get, can't you? I'm busted. I'm what they say
I am, and I deserve to die. And it's fixing to happen. And our Lord, and the Pharisees,
you know, they said, well, you know, we're the ones to do it. But the Lord brought them down
and lifted her up. That's what Isaiah is talking
about. That's it. He's still doing that. He's still
doing that. So which are we? Do we come to
him saying like those ones in Matthew 7, I believe it is. Look
what all we've done for you. Look what we've done in your
name. Or do we come to Him saying,
oh God have mercy on me. My only hope, my only hope is
if you have mercy on me. If you're going to say the latter
and not the former, God's going to have to give you repentance.
Because by nature, you're a mountain. You remember in Psalm 2 where
it says God speaks to the kings of the earth? And says, you bow
to my son. That's all of us. That's not
just the kings. That's all of us kings. All of
us by nature are sitting on little thrones, aren't we? We're sitting
on little stupid thrones. And we don't have to be knocked
down. You remember what Job said? He's taking the crown off of
my head. King Job is not a king anymore
now. He's a wretch, scraping his boils,
crying for mercy. He took the crown off my head,
he shut my mouth, and now I see him. But you see, that's the
preparation. If you're going to see him, your little plastic throne has
got to be broken. The mountain's got to be brought
down. Oh, I thank him for doing that
for me. And I've still got to increase,
decrease, I mean, I've still got to decrease, don't I? John
had it right. John, greatest man born of a woman besides the
Lord himself, and he said, I've got to decrease. I've got to
come down some more. Me too. Verse 5 back in our text,
in the glory of the Lord, shall be revealed." You see this now?
You see the progression? John came preparing. Repent! He's coming! The kingdom of God
is on your doorstep. And those who did, by God's grace,
were able to repent, were able to see themselves for what they
were, and God for who He is, and how That God doesn't save
sinners by my religious heritage or my religious works or my observances
of the law. Those who truly were able to
repent, the glory, here comes the glory now. God's prepared
the way, now here he comes. The glory of the Lord shall be
revealed. Now think with me, the glory
of the Lord is not something that the Lord has. It's something
that the Lord is. You see his glory. The glory of the Lord is revealed. And it's done this way in this
exalting and abasing and straightening and smoothing. The glory of the
Lord is Christ himself. God who commended the light to
shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Do you know, do you have a knowledge
of the glory of God? Only if you've looked into the
face of his son. Hebrews 1.1 God who at sundry
times and in diverse manners spake in times past unto the
fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto
us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also
he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory."
Let me say it again, who being the brightness of his glory. It's who he is, he is the brightness
of the glory of God. and the express image of his
person and upholding all things by the word of his power when
he had by himself purged our sins. The brightness of God's
glory never shined brighter than when he by himself purged our
sins. And then he sat down on the right
hand of the majesty on her. The glory of the Lord shall be
revealed. If you've seen that, you've seen
the glory of God. Christ crucified is Himself the
destruction of all human pride. He reveals on that cross that
it takes the very blood of God. You're that bad. You're that
bad. If there had been a law whereby
salvation could have come, then salvation would have been by
the law. But since there wasn't, since
there was nothing we could do, we have to conclude that we were
so far gone. If he died, Paul said, then all
were dead. That's why he had to die. Because
we were dead. We were dead. And we ought to
live for Him now. He is the destruction of all
self-righteous religion, and He is Himself the salvation of
all who are weary and heavy-laden, those that mourn their sin, those
who are broken-hearted. Christ crucified, you see what
I'm saying, brings down the haughty. and exalts the poor, the bankrupt,
the broken hearted. He himself breaks the sinner's
heart and then he mends it and gives a new one. I say this
glory of God is Christ crucified because Though Christ now was
the embodiment of God's glory in all that he did, everywhere
he went. Just himself. He's the brightness
of God's glory. They got a glimpse of it at the
Mount of Transfiguration. And it put them on their faces.
But his glory is displayed at its highest and brightest at
Calvary. We see that in the scripture.
That's from the word of God, or I wouldn't say that now. In
his great high priestly prayer, as he was going to Calvary, you
remember what he said? Father, the hour has come. The
hour has come. What's the next word? Glorify. Glorify thy son, that thy son
may also glorify thee. That's what happened on Calvary. In His justice, in His holiness,
in His love, in His grace, in His mercy, in all of His glorious
attributes, He is lifted high on Calvary. And also now, listen to this.
Let's turn together to John 3rd. I haven't had you turn to any
scripture today much, Let's look at John chapter 13. What are we talking about now? The
glory, Christ is himself the glory of God. And that shone
forth, that was displayed and revealed on Calvary more than
any other time or place. And we can see it now, though
we weren't there then. It's still Christ crucified.
John 13.21 I want us to see this whole passage
here for a reason. When Jesus had thus said, speaking to them about himself,
he preached himself, he said, he that receiveth me, receiveth
God. And when Jesus had thus said,
he was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, why was he
troubled? What in the world would trouble
him? Verily, verily, I say unto you,
that one of you shall betray me. You know, that's a mysterious
thing. The Lord said that Judas was
a devil from the beginning. And yet in Old Testament, in
prophetical language, He says, it was my own friend,
it was my friend that turned his heel against me. If it had
been a stranger, he said, I could have borne it. But it was my own familiar friend.
Can you explain that? Can you explain that? Somebody that he had walked with
and taught and ate with and You know, when he walked up to Judas
in the garden, he said, Friend, betrayest thou the son of man
with a kid? Our Lord's not ever facetious.
He doesn't say friend in a hypocritical way. He'd been a friend to Judas. I don't understand that, but
I know what the Word of God says. But he was troubled in spirit
about this. It wasn't just, oh, well, he's a devil, I knew that,
and just, you know, we tend to, we can't put ourselves in his
shoes, can we? But we can believe what's clearly
revealed. It troubled him. It broke his heart. And I say unto you that one of
you shall betray me. Then the disciples looked one
upon another, doubting of whom he spake. Boy, I mean, these
are the twelve. These are the choice few. The
inner circle, his hand-picked disciples, apostles. One of us? Now there was leaning on Jesus'
bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore
beckoned to him that he should ask who it should be of whom
he spake. You know, there's so much, it's
so interesting to think about all the personalities and the
way that the disciples, you know, they were just like us. They were so sinful and foolish
that Peter thought, you know, he'll tell John. They're so close,
he'll tell John and then we'll all know who it is. So he said
to John, ask him who it is. He then, lying on Jesus' breath,
saying unto him, Lord, who is it? And Jesus answered, He it
is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it. And when
he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son
of Simon. And after the sop, Satan entered
into him. And then said Jesus unto him,
That thou doest do quickly. Now no man at the table knew
for what intent he spake this unto him. They still, he told
them. I'm going to show you who it is and they still didn't believe
it. It can't be Judas. He's the treasurer. He's the most trusted among us. For some of them thought because
Judas had the bag that Jesus had sent unto him by those things
that we have need of against the feast or that he should give
something to the poor. He then having received the sock
went immediately out And it was night. Therefore, when he was
gone out, now you think about what's happening here. He's going
to betray him. And through that means, the Lord's
going to be arrested. Not taken by force. He said,
I am, and knocked them all on their backsides. But he submitted
himself to them. And through these means, through
the betrayal of Judas, and through, and he said, now, The events are set in motion
now. This is the end. This is it. What's happening
now, Lord? What's happening? Judas has gone
to betray you. What's going on here? Now is
the Son of Man glorified. You know what he's talking about.
Now is the Son of Man glorified. And God is glorified in him. What did he say in John 17? Glorify
thou me that I might glorify you. That's what he's talking
about here too. When the Lord Jesus Christ, our
great high priest, entered into that holy place not made with
hands with somewhat to offer, but not the blood of bulls and
goats, but his own precious blood, the glory of God was put on display
there. in the Lamb of God slain for
sinners. What's the song of eternity?
Worthy is the Lamb for thou wast slain. We're going to glorify
Him forever for what He did at Calvary. Now is the Son of Man glorified. And notice our text says that
all flesh will see this. Let me read you from Revelation
that talks about this. All flesh now are going to see,
they won't see his glory all in a saving way. But everybody's
going to see his glory. And everybody's going to confess
he's the Lord, sure enough. Now Centurion, when he saw what
happened on Calvary, he said, surely this was the Son of God.
This was the Son of God. And everybody's gonna see him.
John to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace unto you and
peace from him which is and which was and which is to come and
from the seven spirits which are before his throne and from
Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness and the first begotten
of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto
him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. and hath made us kings and priests
unto God and His Father. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen. Behold, He cometh with
clouds, and every eye shall see Him. To Him be glory. He's coming with clouds. He's
coming in His glory. He's not the carpenter's son
anymore. This is the Son of God in all of His glory, and every
eye is going to see His glory. Everybody. and they also which
pierced him. And all kindreds of the earth
shall wail because of him. Even so, amen. I am Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which
is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. You
know, his sheep, his people, his elect, those whom he, he
said, my Holy Spirit will take the things of mine and reveal
them to you. If that's me, I've seen his glory. I've seen his glory already. In a great sense, in a saving
way. And he said, the mouth of the
Lord has spoken it. Nothing's more certain than that.
The mouth of the Lord has spoken it. That's the last part of our
text. Every eye shall see Christ crucified
One way or another, sooner or later. Some now, some have, long since. There were those there that day
that didn't see it. They didn't see the glory of
God in that, in Him. But there were some who saw it
before He ever did it. Many, and many since, who were
never there. But they saw Him there, if you
know what I mean, in Christ crucified. That's who we're going to praise
in eternity, the Lamb that was slain. One way or another, sooner or
later, everybody is going to behold the Son of God in His
glory, in His redemptive glory. Every eye. And everybody's going to bow.
And everybody's going to glorify him one way or another. Every
tongue is going to confess him as Lord to what? The glory of
God the Father. Listen to it, and listen to what
it has to do with. Listen to the context of Philippians
2.8. And being found in fashion as a man, Christ humbled himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God hath also highly
exalted him. You see how it's Christ crucified
that's exalted. It's the lamb slain, which is
the song of eternity. It's Christ in his redemptive
glory. He is the preeminent one. God hath exalted him who, the
one who became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross, and hath given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven
and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. God is going to be glorified
In Charles Manson confessing that Christ is Lord. And everybody else. One way or another now. His justice
will be glorified. His mercy will be glorified.
His sovereignty will be glorified. He will be glorified as King. You will be glorified in all
of his offices and character and attributes. Now listen to
this. God will be glorified in the
bowing of every knee, even the most wretched knee that ever
bowed. But God's glory is displayed. That is the riches, the riches
of his glory. are displayed in his mercy on
sinners by the shedding of his precious blood. Worthy is the
lamb that was slain. Romans 9.23, that he might make
known the reaches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had aforeprepared unto
glory. those whom he washed in his precious
blood, and having mercy on them, God will display throughout endless
ages the riches of his glory. The glory of the Lord is going
to be revealed in a lot of things. But bless God, we've seen the
riches of his glory in Christ, in Christ crucified. Why on earth would he show us
that? I don't know. But bless God he did. Let's pray.