Alright brethren, it's good to
see everybody. Let's turn in our Bibles to Isaiah
40. Isaiah 40. I just want to pick
up where we left off on Sunday. I was blessed by the message,
studying it and preaching it. And I was blessed by the fact
that the very next word is some sweet, sweet words of our Lord
to His preachers. And this is what he says here.
He said in verse 1, 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. Now this is the Lord God
speaking. This is the Lord speaking. And
he's speaking to his prophet Isaiah, but this is his word,
his charge to every one of the messengers that he sends to preach
the gospel. This is his charge to me to preach
to you. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,
saith your God. He says it twice. Our Lord will
have his people comforted. He's intent on having his people
comforted. The Lord calls and He saves through
the preaching of the Gospel of Christ. From the first hour to
the last, this is how He's saving us through this message of the
Gospel. And through this message, the
Spirit of God He will reprove and rebuke. He'll convince us. He'll convict us of sin. Convince us of sin. The Lord
will correct us. He'll chasten us. He exhorts. He entreats. That means He beseeches. It's to call to His side. He'll call you to His side through
this gospel. All this he does through the
preaching of the Word. The Spirit of the Lord works
this in the heart of his people. This is why the Apostle Paul
told Timothy, he said, preach the Word. Be instant, in season,
and out of season. When you feel like it, when you
don't feel like it. full of the gospel and your heart's
on fire and when you feel empty as a drum. Preach the gospel,
be instant, in season and out of season. Reprove and rebuke
and exhort with all long-suffering in doctrine. For there'll come
a time when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their
own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching
ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and
shall be turned into fables. This is all done through the
preaching of the word. convincing and rebuking and reproving
and rebuking and exhorting. But this also is done through
the preaching of the Word. It is to comfort. Now the Lord
had just convicted Hezekiah of his sin. He sent Isaiah preaching
the gospel and he convicted Hezekiah of his sin, the pride of his
heart being lifted up and He told Hezekiah that the Lord would
turn Judah over to Babylon and they would go into captivity.
His sons that would be begotten to him would be eunuchs in the
king's palace. And the Lord said that all those
treasures that Hezekiah was so proud of, they would all be taken
away. They would all be taken away. Then immediately, Immediately,
after the Lord spoke that to Hezekiah, rebuked him, reproved
him, admonished him, after the Lord said that, immediately the
Lord tells his messenger, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith
your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
speak to her heart. Speak to their heart. Speak to
them as one of them. Speak to them as a sinner saved
by grace just like them. speak to their heart, cry unto
her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquities pardoned,
for she's received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins."
Even when God rebukes. And I'm telling you, He does
this most through the preaching of the gospel. If the preaching
of Christ is set forth clearly, the preacher doesn't have to
do things extracurricular. He doesn't have to run around
trying to hedge people about and corral folk. He just preaches
the gospel. The Lord will do the work in
the heart through the preaching of the word. But even when he
rebukes and corrects, the Lord is also gonna comfort his people
in Christ and by Christ. The purpose of preaching, the
purpose of preaching, is for edification, for the edification
of his people, not for the destruction of his people. It's for the edification
of his people. Paul said that as God's preacher,
Paul said he had authority and the Lord gives his preachers
authority. But Paul said, listen, he said
he had authority which the Lord has given us for edification
and not for your destruction. The purpose of preaching is to
turn God's child from sinful self, from self-righteous self,
from this world, to Christ. And when God's child has been
turned to Christ, and their heart's been broken, and they've been
brought to submit to Him and cast all their care into His
hand, that's the whole purpose of preaching the Gospel. and
to keep us walking this pilgrimage the whole way looking only to
Christ, trusting Christ and not trusting in ourselves at all. Looking only to Christ. Hezekiah,
when he heard that word, the Lord humbled him in his heart
and he said, good is the word of the Lord. The Lord comforted
him as he corrected him. The Lord made him to know he
had peace with God. And it was done in truth. It
was done through Christ's surety. That was the faith he could see.
Christ's surety who would lay down his life on his behalf so
that God would be just to show him mercy. And he knew that he
would have that peace and comfort. So, as soon as Hezekiah got finished
talking to Hezekiah, the next chapter opened. Comfort ye, comfort
ye, my people, saith your God. I want to preach to you about
the consolation of the gospel. The consolation of the gospel.
First of all, who is this comfort for? God says, he says, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. My people. Secondly, why is this
charge given? Why does God say comfort my people? And thirdly, what's the comfort
we're to comfort God's people? What is the message that comforts
the hearts of God's people? Now first of all, this word is
for God's people. He said, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. Well, I thought everybody in
the world was God's people. That's what some preachers stand
up and tell you. Some preachers will stand up
and say to just everybody indiscriminately, God loves you, He wants to save
you, this and that. Listen, this book declares to
us that God has a particular people that are His people. His people. They're chosen by
God, and God calls them My people. And God says to you that He's
chosen, I'm your God. That's what He says. Chosen by
God our Father in Christ by sovereign free grace before the world was
made. Not based on anything in us.
Not expecting anything from us. Solely by the grace of God He
chose His people in the Lord Jesus Christ. Without any cause
in us, the cause was all in God. The cause was all in His Son.
The cause was to glorify Himself and bring honor and glory to
His name and to save a people that would give Him all the glory.
That was the purpose. God chose His people. They're
His covenant people. The triune God entered covenant
to save His people Himself. He didn't leave any bit of the
work in the hands of His people. The triune God entered covenant
to save His people. God the Father chose them, Christ
the Son entered covenant to redeem them, the Spirit of God would
regenerate and call us to Him and keep us and comfort us. This
is the work of God, salvations of the Lord. God's people are
called His redeemed. They're His purchased possession. That's what redemption means.
To purchase. To purchase. In Ephesians 1.14
we're called Christ's purchased possession. Don't you like that? God says they're my people. They're
my purchased possession. God purchased His church with
His own blood. That was the price, demand. We
were held for ransom. We fell in Adam. We sinned. We
became ruined. The law said, I can't let them
go. I can't let them go and God remain
holy. A price has got to be paid. A
ransom has got to be paid to let these children go. And Christ
said, I'll pay the ransom. He came down just like Hosea
came down to where Gomer was on the slave block. and nobody wanted her, and nobody
would bid for her, and Hosea said, I'll purchase her. I'll
pay the price. That's what Christ did for His
people. And He came to this place, and the price was His precious
blood. The wages of sin is death, and the price was His blood.
And He came and He purchased His people with His own blood. That's who God's people are.
They're His purchased possession, His redeemed. Next time you hear
The scriptures speak of us as the redeemed. You remember that
means we're his purchased possession. That's why he says, Comfrey sheep,
Comfrey sheep, my people. They're my people. I bought them.
They're mine. I'm not letting them go, God
said. The Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his
inheritance. God the Father calls us my people. Christ calls us my sheep. My
sheep. where He is. God's children are
also the people of God are those who are called by His grace. This is what distinguishes them.
They are chosen by God. They are His covenant people
that He entered covenant to save. They are the redeemed that Christ
came down and paid His precious blood and redeemed Himself. They
are His purchased possession. And thirdly, they are His called
people. He successfully sends this gospel to His people wherever
they are. and he speaks to them through
the preaching of the word and the spirit of God regenerates
the heart and one day you find yourself where as you had no
interest whatsoever. I see the young ones and I think
of myself when I was that age. I would sit and I would diddle
with a pen and I would make paper airplanes and I would do anything
I could do to keep from hearing that word that was being preached.
But the Lord is able to penetrate our walls. We got the walls of
Jericho walled up and He's able to make those walls fall down.
And one day you start hearing. One day you start hearing the
Word. And the Spirit of God gives you faith to submit to Christ
as your only righteousness. He first starts making him your
wisdom because you start hearing this word and you start thinking,
that makes sense to me. I am the sinner. I do need a
savior. And the Word starts opening to
you and you start being able to look through the Scriptures
and see and compare Scripture to Scripture. And whereas before
you were just blind, now you can see what's happened. Paul
said in 1 Corinthians 2, He'd given us the mind of Christ.
He'd given us the Spirit that we might know the things that
are freely given to us of God. That's when you find out He makes
Christ your righteousness. He makes Him righteousness unto
you. You start seeing you don't have a righteousness. You start
seeing you need a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness
of the scribes and the Pharisees. And that can't be done by you
just trying harder. You need a righteousness that
is of God, of God's providing. And that righteousness is His
Son. And He makes Him to be your righteousness. You see, you need
holiness. You see, you've got to have a
new heart. And what's happened is, in this process of Him sending
the Gospel, the Spirit of God has entered in. Christ has come
in and He sanctified the place. You know, when He would enter
into the tabernacle, when He entered that tabernacle and that
place was filled with smoke, and the priests couldn't minister,
they couldn't go in there because the Shekinah glory filled the
place. That's what He does in the heart
of His child. And when Christ enters in, wherever He is, remember
when Moses came to the burning bush and He said, take your shoes
off your feet. This place is holy. You're on
holy ground. Wherever Christ is, it's holy.
And when He enters in, you're holy by His presence, by His
holiness. And it's through His righteousness
that He sanctified us. And that's when we find out that
He's our redemption. He's the one that purchased us.
He's the one that bought us. He's the one that owns us now.
And then you know what happens? We stop glorying in ourselves. A sinner glories in self just
by not believing Christ. That's glory in ourselves. If
you walk in and hear the gospel preached and walk out without
being on your, in your heart, being on your knees before the
Lord, thanking Him for His mercy and His grace in saving you,
that's glory in self. If you can walk out from hearing
the gospel and not hit your face make your heart be broken and
you just be seeing your need of Christ and be so thankful
that God's had mercy on you, that's glorying in self. You
don't have to go around boasting about your works and boasting
about what you do to glory in self. Just simply not believe
in Christ is glorying in self. That's saying I don't need Him,
I'm fine without Him. But when He's called you, And
if you are somebody glorying in yourself, when He's called
His child and comforts you in your heart and made Himself your
wisdom and your righteousness and your sanctification and your
redemption, you stop glorying in yourself then, you start glorying
only in the Lord. Only in the Lord. God's given
you a heart to follow Christ with a true heart's desire to
please Him. He's turned you from your self-righteousness. He's turned you from your self
is self-salvation. And He's turned you to the Lord
Jesus Christ and made you see that in yourself all you are
is wretched, just a sinner. That's all you are. You say,
how is this comforting to anybody? I don't understand. You that
know Him know how this is comforting. This is how He comforts. It's
a mystery to the world. It's a mystery to the unregenerate
man. Because before you can be comforted, before you can have
a Savior, you've got to have a need to be saved. And this
is all part of Him showing you who He is. But we know our need
of God's presence, don't we? We want to serve Him. We want
to follow Him. We want to obey Him now. He's our Lord. We want to please Him. but we
know our need of His presence because He's made us know what
we are. I'm trying to tell you who God's people are. This is
different from who this world's religion is. I'm telling you
who God's people are now. We know we need His presence.
We see our sin and we see our need of Him to keep us and we're
crying with David You get so down, don't you get so down when
you see your sin? Don't you start calling out,
really crying out to God and say, oh Lord, created me a new
spirit, created me a right spirit, a clean heart. Cast me not away
from thy presence, Lord. Take not thy Holy Spirit from
me. Don't you cry that. I think this
is something that God's child cries more than anything else.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Hold me with thy free
spirit. Then will I teach transgressors
thy ways. The only way you're going to
be able to teach somebody else and bear witness to Christ to
somebody is if you know He's the way. And that's just what
the Lord's teaching us. Here's something else about God's
people. They're His peculiar people. They're His peculiar
treasure. He has sought out people, He
has treasured people. That's who we are by God's grace. He chose us for His own, to be
His own. 1 Peter 2.9 says, You are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation of peculiar people. That you should show forth the
praises of Him that has called you out of darkness into His
marvelous light. I know that peculiar means that
It doesn't mean as we usually think of the word as strange.
It means we're His precious, chosen, beloved people. But I'll
tell you this, the world does think we're strange. The world
doesn't understand God's people, especially the religious world.
The Lord said, and John repeated it, he said, Behold what manner
of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not because it knew him not. We're a paradox to this world.
We're a paradox to our own selves. You see yourself You see yourself
as you hate your sin, you know you have a sin nature, and you
hate your sin. And you want to serve the Lord.
You want to please Him in everything you do. But you see your sin, and the
more He grows you in grace, the more you see your sin, and He
keeps you humbled by showing you your sin. But at the same
time, as you see your sin and you hate your sin, there is a
part of you that loves sin just as much as you always did. That's
right. There is a sin nature in us that,
and if like Hezekiah, if the Lord takes His hands off, if
He leaves us, that sin nature will bring you into bondage,
just like it did Hezekiah. But we've been made honest to
confess that about ourselves. We've been made honest to tell
one another we know that about each other. We don't have to
pretend like that's not the case with it. I know that's so of
you that believe because it's the same with me. And we don't
have to pretend. Isn't that a good thing? When
your religion quits being phony and you don't have to pretend
anymore? He makes you confess your constant need of His keeping
hand. We're crying out constantly,
O wretched man that I am. That which I would do, I don't
do. That which I hate, that's what I do. God's children do good works.
We do good works, but we see too much of our sin to go around
boasting of our works. And besides that, we want Christ
to have all the glory for the works He's done for us. We won't
talk about His works. We don't talk about our works.
This is who God's people are. This is who His people are. Comfort
ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God. Chosen by God, redeemed
by the blood of Christ, regenerated, called out, converted by the
Spirit of God, peculiar, precious to God, strange to this world,
my people. Are you one of His people? Can
you say He's my God? I'm His and He's mine? Is He
your only hope? Then be sure to get this. If
He's your all, then the Lord of glory says, I am your God. That's what He says right here.
I'm your God. I'm your God. You're my people
and I'm your God. Listen to this. Because Christ
redeemed His people, we've been made joint heirs with Christ.
That means everything that's His is ours. Everything that's
God's is ours. You go on and read, you go on
tonight and you read the rest of Isaiah 40. I think I'm going
to preach through it. This is that great chapter. It
talks about Him spreading out creation with a span. That's
that right there. That's Him going pew! And He
just made everything. This is who our Savior is. The
same one that is the sovereign, omnipotent creator of heaven
and earth is our Savior. That's what this chapter is telling
us. And He says to you, everything that's His is yours. Listen to
1 Corinthians 3.21. Let no man glory in men. You
know what that means? They were, you know, some were
saying, I'm for Paul, I'm for Apollos. Well, don't do that,
but also don't be afraid of men. That's glorying in men. Don't
be afraid of things and the world and troubles, because that's
glorying in men. That's putting more, that's exalting
them as being higher than our Savior, our sovereign God. He
says, let no man glory in men, for all things are yours. Whether
Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, all his ministries are yours.
He says, or the world, or life, or death, they're yours. Or things
present, or things to come, all yours. And you're Christ's, and
Christ is God's. Now that's good, that's comfort,
isn't it? Isn't that comfort? Alright, so that's who this is
for, it's for my people. Now secondly, why is this charge
given? Why does he say, comfort ye,
comfort ye my people? Because God will have his people
comforted. That's why he'll have his people
comforted. Remember that night when our
Lord, the night He was betrayed, and He was talking to His apostles.
He spent that whole time facing the cross. He spent that whole
night saying to them, let not your heart be troubled. You believe
in God, believe in Me. He'll have His people comforted. God our Father knows we need
comfort. He knows we're weak. He knows we're dust. He knows
we need comfort. He knows we get depressed. We
get down. And you can't get up, can you?
And He delights to comfort His people. Psalm 103.10, He not
dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities. As the heavens high above the
earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As
far as the east is from the west, so far have He removed our transgressions
from us. Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. For He knows
our frame, He remembers that we are dust. He gives this charge
to comfort my people because He delights to comfort us, but
now only in His Son. Only in His Son. Now this is
the thing right here. This word comfort means console. He's the consolation. Christ
did. He's the consolation. Paul said, We have a strong consolation
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
us. And he said that hope is Christ our forerunner. He's entered
in. He's our strong consolation.
This is why God tries His people. This is why He took His hand
off Hezekiah and tried him so Hezekiah would know what was
in his heart because He will have us having all our comfort
and our consolation only in His Son. only him and his son. God gave Hezekiah everything
he had. But Hezekiah started looking
at all those treasures and all those earthly riches he had and
he started glowing in those things. And he started being proud of
those things. Those things were becoming his salvation. They were becoming his strength.
They were becoming that which gave him comfort. And God's not
going to let us have comfort in anything in this world. And
if something starts coming between His child and His Son, He's going
to take whatever that is away and make it to where you can't
find your comfort anywhere but in the Lord Jesus, His Son. He
will have us be comforted, but it's going to be in His Son.
It's going to be in His Son. You see, As He starts enabling
you, as He's growing you in grace, and He will enable His child
to put away a little outward sin. You're not going to live
like you did when you didn't know Him. And as He grows you
from a child to a little more mature, to a little more mature,
you'll put away some outward sin. But as He enables you to
put away some outward sin, He's going to make you see the sin
of your heart more and more. You know why? Because if he didn't,
we would look at those works just like Hezekiah was looking
at those earthly treasures and we would be comforted in those
and glorying in those and be as proud as those as Hezekiah
was of those earthly treasures. And so, just like the Lord showed
Hezekiah his heart and showed him his pride, and made him mourn
his sin, and then turned him to see all his comfort was in
Christ only. Christ was his consolation. This
is what God's going to do for His people. The more He uses
His child, if He grows you and uses you, He's going to try you. We all want to be used of the
Lord. We ask the Lord to grow us in
grace. But if He grows you in grace, He's going to try you.
And it's going to be painful. He used Paul more than anybody. And he took Paul, gave him a
bullet's revelation, took him up into the third heaven and
showed him all the things Paul says not even lawful for me to
utter. But to keep him from being puffed up, he gave him a thorn
in the flesh. And whatever that is, we don't
know what that was, but whatever it was, it did this. It kept
Paul knowing he was a sinner. It kept him knowing he was a
sinner. and it kept him coming to Christ. Christ made him know,
my grace is sufficient for you, my strength is made perfect in
weakness, and so his only comfort was the Lord Jesus. Christ was
his strength and Christ was his comfort. See, God will have his
people comforted, but in nothing else. He'll make it so you can't
get comforted in anything in this world. I'm telling you something
I know, brethren. I'm telling you something I know.
And he will make it so that Christ Jesus is your only comfort. Turn
over to 2 Corinthians 1. Not too long ago we looked at
this passage, but I love it. And this is why he does it. It's
so that when you're comforting others... You know how Isaiah
could preach Christ as the comfort of his people? Because Isaiah
had no other comfort but Christ. The Lord showed him what he was.
And you know how Paul could preach Christ? Because he had suffered
and Christ had been his only comfort. And that's why God does
it. So you'll go and speak to your
brethren and comfort them with no other comfort but this precious
word of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look here in 2 Corinthians 1-3.
Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. If you have comfort,
spiritual true comfort, it's from God, who comforted us in
all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which
are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted
of God. For as the sufferings of Christ
abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ." He's
the consolation. He's the comfort. Whether we
be afflicted, it's for your consolation and salvation. He said, if I'm
afflicted, that's what it's for. It's for you to be consoled and
comforted. and it's effectual and enduring
of the same suffering which we also suffer, whether we be comforted,
it's for your consolation and salvation. He's saying whatever
it is, whether we're afflicted or we're comforted, it's for
your benefit. That's right, whatever God's preacher suffers, it's
for the benefit of his people. So he can just take what God
taught him and go teach them and our comfort is in Christ
only. And that's so of you too. When you suffer or you're comforted,
either way, it's for the benefit of brethren. So you can comfort
your brethren with this comfort and it's Christ only. Christ
only. He says, Our hope of you steadfast,
verse 7, knowing that as you partakers of the suffering, so
shall you be of the consolation. And here's what it is. You know
how he said we were in Asia, pressed out of measure, above
strength, the spirit of our life. Look at verse 9. But we had the
sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God who raised us from the dead, who delivered us from
so great a death, and doth deliver, and whom we trust will yet deliver
us. That right there is the comfort. Christ has delivered us. Christ
is delivering us and we believe Christ shall deliver us. And
this is what He's showing us in every single affliction. That's
what He did with Hezekiah. Didn't He deliver Hezekiah? If
he had left Hezekiah, Hezekiah would have not even known what
had happened to him. He would have just been so overcome
with all his grandeur and all his greatness and all his treasures
that he would have just slipped right away and been an idolater
like everybody else. But the Lord, what did He do?
He had delivered Hezekiah. So what did He do? He delivered
him. And He made him know, and I will yet deliver you. And that's
what He's done for you and me. And He's that comfort. Now lastly,
what's the message by which he comforts us? This is it, verse
2, Isaiah 40 verse 2. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned, for she has received of the Lord's hand double for
all her sin. This is the consolation we have
in Christ. Her warfare is accomplished.
He said cry this to Jerusalem. This is the city that killed
the prophets. This is the place where they
rejected Christ. And you know where Christ sent
His apostles after He went to the cross and He arose? You know
where He sent His apostles first? He said, you begin at Jerusalem.
Go back to Jerusalem. Talk about mercy. Talk about
grace. Talk about it not being of us.
Jerusalem was where the sinners were. self-righteous sinner."
He said, go there and preach the gospel to them. And he tells
his spiritual Jerusalem, before they ever went into captivity,
he had told them they're going into Babylonian captivity. He
said, before they ever went into Babylonian captivity, he told
Hezekiah they were going. But the next word was, your warfare
is accomplished. Before you ever went into sin
and fell, your warfare was accomplished in Christ's surety. That's good
news, brethren. Here's the good news. Our iniquity
is pardoned. It's pardoned. What's this double
reward mean? He's rewarded us double for all
our sins. It doesn't mean that He punished
His people double for all our sins. That's not what it means.
It means God has given us more in Christ than we lost in Adam. Our comfort and our consolation
is that we have acceptance with God, peace with God, in Christ
our righteousness, and it is everlasting, eternal life, so that we can never fall again,
we can never be ruined again, we can never be lost again. safe
and secure in Christ. How so? For he hath made him
sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him." We've been made the righteousness of God in him.
It can't be undone. Christ bore our chastisement,
the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His strikes
we are healed. Every widow, you say, well, I
look at myself, I don't look like I'm whole. Well, stop looking
at yourself. Look to Christ. That's where we're whole. We're
whole in Him. Our consolation, our comforts,
Christ is our life, and that'll never change. Listen to this.
John said, this is the record. God hath given to us eternal
life, and this life's in his Son. He that hath the Son hath
life. You have it right now, child
of God. Never be undone, never taken
away. Christ said, my sheep will hear my voice, they gonna follow
me. He said, no man will pluck them out of my hand. If you're
hearing this gospel and it's comforting you for the first
time, let me tell you what the Lord says to you. Zechariah 9.12,
He says, Turn you to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. Even today
do I declare, I'll render double unto thee. That's what He says. He calls you a prisoner of hope.
If you're just starting to hear this word, you're in prison.
But he came and set the prisoners free. He came to comfort them
that mourn. And if he brings you to mourn,
he says, you turn to me, you cast all your care on me, you
trust me, and I'll render double to you. He'll give you this double
salvation, this double comfort. And for each of God's people,
go to 2 Thessalonians This is His word to us, 2 Thessalonians
2, verse 16. This is my prayer for you, this
is my prayer for us in this place. Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself
and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given
us everlasting consolation. That's the word that's in our
text for comfort. He's given us everlasting consolation
and good hope through grace. May He comfort your hearts and
establish you in every good word and work. Let's go to Him. Our
great God and our Father, our precious Lord and our Savior,
how merciful, how merciful, how merciful. to keep saving us from
us, to keep showing us there's nothing in this world to have
any comfort in, not in ourselves, not in our works, not in anything
that you've given us in this life. What mercy to keep us knowing
all our comfort, all our consolation is Christ our righteousness,
Christ our life alone. Lord, will you establish our
hearts so that we know and are comforted in Christ only. Oh,
we get so sad and so down because of our sins. And Lord, that's dishonoring
to you. We want to honor you. Will you
comfort us? Will you comfort us with Christ
our consolation? Oh, Lord, please comfort your
people. Comfort your people with this
word. We pray it in Christ's name for your honor and glory.
Amen.