chapter 40. Isaiah 40 verse 3. 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. before Christ came forth, making
Himself known publicly in the earth, He sent forth His messenger,
John the Baptist, with the Gospel. And He declared, He proclaimed
the arrival of Christ the King. That's what John the Baptist
did. And Christ entered into public ministry thereby. And that's how Christ is going
to enter into these earthly carcasses of His redeemed people. He's
going to enter in through the proclamation of His glory and
of His name. and he'll enter in thereby. The title of the message is The
Voice of One. Whenever the Lord called Israel
out of Egypt, look here with me at Exodus chapter 19. I will probably reference this
again very soon because this has to do with where we are in
1 Peter chapter 2 as well. But let me show you something
here. Verse 3, Exodus 19, 3. Moses went up unto God, and the
Lord called unto him out of the mountains, saying, Thus shalt
thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel,
You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bear
you on eagles' wings and brought you unto Myself." They had to
admit this happened because they were slaves in Egypt. That's
all they were, slaves in Egypt. And He came in and got them and
brought them out. Brought them out. Verse 5, Now
therefore, if you will obey My voice indeed, the voice of the
Lord, very important, the voice. If you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure
unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And ye
shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Remember what Peter said in 2
Peter chapter 2? You are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation of peculiar people, treasure,
purchased people. Well, when the Lord spoke this
through Moses, He was saying here a condition, a conditional
covenant. He said there in verse 5, if
you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant. That is
every law he was about to give them out of Mount Sinai. You obey my voice and you keep
my covenant. Then, he said, you shall be a
peculiar treasure unto me above all people. For all the earth
is mine. And you shall be unto me a kingdom
of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which thou
shalt speak unto the children of Israel." Well, immediately
after that, the Lord told them, they said, they heard the words
from Moses and they said, we will do that. We will do that. And immediately the Lord appeared
to them in Mount Sinai, thundering and quaking, and every one of
them that had come out with their chest poked out saying, we'll
do it, all ran back and said, Moses, we need somebody to go
between for us. And all throughout the Old Covenant,
the Lord had been sending forth His prophets, His messengers,
teaching His people, It's going to take me coming.
It's going to, the Lord say, I'm going to have to come to
where you are and bear you up on Eagle's wings and save you
just like I did when I brought you out of Egypt. And the people
kept on and kept on hearing those prophets and hearing those messengers
come forth and they kept saying, I wish he would tell us something
else. Can't he see we're more than
capable of keeping the whole covenant of God? Why don't he talk to us about
how well we've kept this covenant? Why don't He talk to us about
what a good job we're doing of keeping this covenant? Why do
they keep coming and telling us this? And the Lord God said
through Isaiah, You have made a covenant with death and with
hell. Now there was nobody there who
said, Oh, I don't need the Lord, I'm making my covenant with death
and hell. Nobody said that verbally. But
they did that in their hearts by thinking, we can keep God's
covenant and we can make ourselves a royal priesthood and we can
make ourselves His holy nation. And all through the old covenant,
the Lord told them, He said, only the high priest can come
near me. He showed them that in the law.
Only the high priest can come to me. And when he comes to me,
he's got to come to me decked in the snow white linen garments
of purity. And so, knowing that, seeing
that in the law, that only the high priest could come. And nobody
else could come near. And he had to come decked in
snow white linen garments. And he had to come with blood.
The Lord was declaring all along, you can't make yourself a royal
priesthood. You can't make yourself a holy
nation. But the people kept on saying
to the prophets, we don't need any of that. We don't need to
hear that. We don't need to hear about that. We have the temple,
and we have a priesthood, and we have sacrifices we're making
here. And not only that, We have alliances
with Assyria. We have alliances with the Philistines. We've joined forces with those
that are without. And we're all one big happy nation. And the Lord said, I'm going
to break down the hedges. I'm going to take down all the
distinctions that I've made. that separated you from one political
nation from another political nation. I've taken down all of
that, every bit of that. He said through Hosea, he said,
say, call that first son that's born of the wife of Hortums,
call him Lorami. Let me see that, turn there to
Hosea. Let's see that, Hosea. Hosea chapter 1 verse 9, Lo Ami,
verse 9, chapter 1 verse 9, Then said God, Call his name Lo Ami,
for ye are not my people, and I'll not be your God. Why? Because they never once, had
they kept the whole covenant of God, they would have been
his royal priesthood, his peculiar treasure, his holy people. That's
exactly what God said, but they never did. And you know what
God said to that political nation Israel? You're not my people.
You're not my people." What was the Lord about to do? Look there
in Hosea 1, verse 4. The Lord said unto him, call
this one's name Jezreel, and he's talking in symbolic language. He's saying what he's about to
do literally. He said, for yet a little while, and I'll avenge
the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Yehu and cause to cease
the kingdom of the house of Israel. I'm going to cause to cease the
kingdom of the house of Israel. And it shall come to pass in
that day that I'll break the bow of Israel in the valley of
Jezreel." I'm going to completely make this people not to be a
people anymore. Now, what was the Lord declaring
through that? What was the Lord declaring through
that one nation Israel to me and you sitting right here today?
He was declaring to us that if we're going to be a royal
priesthood, we're going to be a holy nation. If we're going
to be His peculiar people, it's going to have to be because Christ
Himself, the King of His holy nation, the High Priest who makes
His people a holy priesthood, Because He comes forth and the
Lamb of God sacrifices Himself to make His people the righteousness
of God in Him that His people might offer an offering unto
God in righteousness one way, by hearing His voice speaking
to their heart, saying to them in their heart, I have fulfilled
My covenant Myself. and I am making with you now
an everlasting covenant. Not a if you will, you shall
be, but a I have and therefore you are. I have and therefore
you shall. I have and therefore it's finished. And so Isaiah here And our text
is saying the Lord's going to start this work before He comes. He's coming forth and He's going
to send forth a messenger. He's going to send forth someone
declaring, this one is here now. This one God's been declaring
throughout all the history of the world, throughout all the
history of national Israel, throughout all the history. He's been sending
this forth. Guess what? He's here. That's
what he's going to send forth this one to declare. He's here.
Look at Malachi chapter 3. Malachi chapter 3. Last book
of the Old Testament. The Lord said this in Malachi
3 verse 1, Behold I will send my messenger and he shall prepare
the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek shall
suddenly come to His temple." You know what Peter told us?
He's not talking about a physical temple. He doesn't worship in
a temple made with hands. He's coming to the temple He's
made. That temple He's made of the incorruptible Word, of the
incorruptible seed, those living stones. He's made a spiritual
house. He's made a temple. He's going
to come and abide in them. He's going to come first in a
temple made without hands, a body that God has prepared for Him.
He's going to come in that temple. And then through this gospel,
He's coming into that spiritual temple that He makes, where He
makes His people anew. That's where He's coming. Even
the messenger of the covenant, you see, He's the one that's
coming to declare, I have fulfilled the covenant. My blood that I
shed is the blood of the covenant. It's the blood of the New Testament
which was shed for the sins of many. I've shed my blood. I'm
the messenger. He's not only the testator of
the covenant. He's not only the mediator of
the covenant. He's the one that's going to come into the heart
and declare the messenger of the covenant. Christ the Lord
is going to do this through the gospel. Whom ye delight in, behold,
he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts." Now this applies,
we know, to John the Baptist. It says here about him, it says
here, 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. Why was it John was crying in
a wilderness? Why does it say, he said, prepare
you the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway
for our God. Why does it say that? In the
context here in Isaiah's day, we saw that the Lord just said,
I'm letting Babylon have Israel. I'm going to let them have Israel.
They're going to be broken down and not a people under me anymore.
Well, when the Lord came, when the Lord Jesus Christ came, that
political nation Israel was Babylon. You couldn't tell it from the
heathen, whoreish nations all over the world. They had a temple. God had given them a temple,
but they worshipped that temple. They had a priesthood that God
ordained, but they thought they really were priests unto God,
and they thought they were a priesthood. They had some sacrifices, but
they thought they were made holy by those sacrifices. They had
a nation they thought that still existed, but it didn't really
even exist anymore. It was a people completely broke
down, completely a wilderness in the earth. And so it is with
every individual sinner to whom this gospel comes forth and Christ
the King comes to. He's a wilderness and no people
at all. He's a people in need of mercy
and no people at all. That's not just so of Gentiles,
that's so of Jews. Whether you're born a natural
Jew, thinking you're a natural descendant of Abraham, or whether
you're born a natural Gentile, it's the case of both. Look at
Romans chapter 9. You mean the Lord would use a
whole people like that to show that they were just made, that
they thought they could obey and thought they could keep the
law and thought they could present themselves to God? He'd use a
whole people like that to show for that people can't save themselves
by themselves? And then He'd just discard them
when He's done with them? Look at verse 22. What if God, willing
to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath made up or fitted to
destruction? and that he might make known
the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had
aforeprepared unto glory, even unto us whom he hath called,
not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles, as he said in
Hosea, I will call them my people which were not my people, and
her beloved which was not beloved. Is He talking about just the
Jews? Was He just talking about the Jews? The political nation? Paul said, "...even us whom He
hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles."
You see, here's the point. The King's not coming to a temple
made by hands. The King's not coming to anybody
who's made themselves holy. because me and you can't do that.
He's not coming to a people who because you're a Jew or you're
a Gentile. He's not coming to his people
because you're a male or a female. He's not coming to his people
because you've cleaned up your act and you've got a whole lot
of good moral qualities about you that's better than a bunch
of immoral people in this world. He's not coming for that reason.
How do I prepare the way of the Lord? How to make straight in
the desert a highway for our God? Well, how? The hands have got to be empty.
The righteousnesses have got to be cast aside. The vain imaginations
have got to be done away with. The malice and the guile and
the hypocrisy and the evil speakings. What kind? I'm a Baptist. I ought to be saved. That's an
evil speaking. Well, I gave my heart to Jesus.
I led Him into my life. He ought to save me. Hypocrisy. Hypocrisy. We be the children of Abraham. Don't you know who I am? We were
never in bondage to anybody. God, pretend, a show, an act,
a sham. Come to this people and tell
this people, you're not my people and I'm not your God. Now don't tell me that you're
not Clay don't preach to the people and tell them that Tell
it to somebody else, but we you know, we are your we're two people.
We're two people Preach smooth things to us Listen to me listen to me John
the Baptist came declaring The Kings coming the high priest
is coming. The prophet is coming This is
the one who is the salvation of His people. He's come. And
without Him, apart from Him, you cannot be saved. There's
nothing you've ever done, nothing you have ever said, nothing you
shall ever do, nothing about you, nothing about me whatsoever,
wherein we can glory, or wherein we can find acceptance with our
God. And you know what the people in whom His Word had a place,
the people in whom the Spirit came when John the Baptist preached,
the people who were actually made living stones, the people
who were actually made to bring forth fruit, meat, fit for repentance,
true repentance. You know what they said? Amen. Amen. And you know what the vile
hypocrites said as that message was going forth and tearing down
every false refuge, every false hope, every false idea of who
they were and why they ought to be saved? You know what it
did to them? They said, this man, he's got a devil. God didn't send him. God didn't send Him. That's what
they said to John the Baptist. They didn't send Him. But what
does the Spirit of God do through this Gospel? Look at verse 4.
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. Every valley, everyone, when
this gospel was being set forth, when John the Baptist was coming
forth, those low and brokenhearted and contrite in spirit, those
who were destitute of any hope whatsoever in themselves, those
who heard they had no hope, no way, no way of saving themselves,
those who were not actually holding on to their decision, you know
what they did? They heard a glorious message. They heard the warfare is accomplished. They heard all our iniquities
pardoned. They heard the Lord has rewarded
us double for all our sin. He's not only forgiven us, He's
made us the very righteousness of God in Him. and all those mountains and those
hills, those ones who were walking around and oh, they thought they
were somebody and they thought they were just, they had all
the knowledge and all the intelligence and all the letters and they're
on their road to Damascus and they're fixing to do everything
they can to God's people and they're going to destroy God's
people and they're going to reject this gospel. If it's the last
thing they do, they're going to reject this gospel. You know
what they found out? They found out they thought they
were mountains, but they were ant hills. They were mole hills. They were dung hills. And they
were brought down by this gospel. Those who were crooked, those
who were living in malice and guile and hypocrisy and envy
and that vain show of flesh, you know what happened to them?
They were made straight. They were taken out of that crooked,
false, ignorant thing show and made straight. You know what
happened to those rough places? Those that had that stone heart
that said, you're not getting to me with that. They had that
stony heart taken out and they were given a heart of flesh and
they were made to fall at the feet of the Redeemer and say,
Lord, save me else I perish. You know why this happened? Look
there in the text. Verse 5, because the glory of
the Lord was revealed. You know who that is? Where was
Moses when he saw God's glory? God put him in the cleft of the
rock. You know who the cleft of the
rock is? It's Christ the Lord. You know who we're going to see
if we ever see the glory of God? We're going to see Christ Jesus
the Lord. He came forth and He didn't come
forth and mince His words and say, you know, God's wanting
to save you. He stood up in the temple and
He said there was a bunch of widows in Israel. And God went
to one in Sarepta. There was a bunch of lepers in
Israel. God saved one who was a, healed
one that was a Gentile. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. It might not be
by my natural kinship. I might truly have to be born
of the Spirit of God. You do. I do. It might not be
by my works of righteousness, which I've done. I might really
have to be found in Christ and Him alone. You will. I will too. It might be that God will come
to me and bring His message to me and make it alive in my heart
and draw me and cause me to cast all my care upon His Son and
come to Him with no other foundation, with no other sacrifice, in no
other altar, with no other blood, with nothing else but the Lord
Jesus Christ. He will. If we're His, He will. That's exactly what He'll do. You know why I know that? Look
at the next word, verse 5. All flesh shall see together. Well, now, there was a bunch
of people in the day that our Lord came forth, there was a
bunch of people that saw Him and they totally, completely
rejected Him. We're not talking about them.
The Word didn't go forth vain without accomplishing what it
came for. He, the Word, Christ the Word
made flesh and brought to life. He came unto His own and His
own received Him not. He came unto that nation, that
natural political nation Israel. They didn't receive Him. But you know who did? those who were born not of the
flesh, not of the will of man, but of God. And you know what
He did to them? You know what He did to those
fine, upstanding, natural sons of Abraham, those fine, upstanding,
natural citizens of that political nation Israel? You know what
He did to them? He gave them the right, the privilege, the
power to become the sons of God. You mean they weren't already,
but all that? Not at all. Not at all. No, this is the point. He makes His people, His spiritual
temple, His holy priesthood, He makes them accepted of God
in Him. He makes them His royal priesthood,
His holy nation of a people who were not a people. No matter
what your background, no matter what my background, of a people
that were not a people, And He makes them, and He does this
all by making them to behold the glory of God in the face
of Christ Jesus. You know what they beheld when
they beheld Christ? When He came forth, John said, Behold, the Lamb of
God. That lamb that's been pictured
in every lamb that's ever been slain throughout time. That Lamb who is God's choice
Lamb. That Lamb who is the one that
God examined through and through and found perfectly spotless.
That Lamb upon whom God put the sin of all His elect people. That Lamb who was slain in their
room and their stead because He's the only Lamb that could
take away their sin. and make propitiation, satisfaction
to God. And that Lamb is the Lamb of
God which taketh away the sins of the world. Whether it's God's
elect in the North, God's elect in the South, God's elect in
the West, God's elect in the East. Whether it's God's elect
male, elect female, elect Jew, elect Gentile. Whether they're
in prison or whether they're out here walking the streets
free. Whether they're educated or they're uneducated. None of
those things play a part or contribute or have anything to do with it
whatsoever. How is this salvation wrong? If you will hear my voice. God the Father said to his son,
I have a people. My justice has got to be satisfied.
My laws got to be completely, perfectly upheld, fulfilled.
And you'll have to die. But I'll resurrect you. And I'll bring you to myself.
And he heard the voice of God the Father, and he obeyed it
in every precept and every penalty. If you will indeed keep My covenant."
He came forth and He said, I am the messenger of that covenant.
This is the blood of that covenant. I am the mediator of this covenant. I am the testator of this covenant. And until the testator dies,
the covenant is of no effect. And I'm dying that you might
have life. And through the Gospel when He
speaks this word, You know what he does? That incorruptible seed
enters in and it gives life where there was not life. It gives
repentance where there was not repentance. It gives faith where
there was not faith. It gives everything that's required
where there was absolutely nothing but a void, empty, worthless
rebel against God Almighty. And you know what this power
of this Word, this messenger of this covenant does when He
writes this covenant in the heart of His people? You know what
He causes His people to do? Not sometimes, not maybe, not
some of them, every one of them all the time. You know what He
causes them to do? My people hear my voice. It's like He heard the Father.
We hear His. And we hear Him say, you're my
sheep. I have finished the work. And
we hear that voice. And you know what we do when
we hear that voice? We follow Him. We follow Him. And you know
what we follow Him doing? We follow Him believing absolutely,
completely, that because He has kept the covenant and fulfilled
the covenant and accomplished the covenant, Because we behold
that God the Father fulfilled the covenant, raising Him from
the dead by the Spirit of holiness, declaring Him King of kings and
Lord of lords by faith in this One. You know what we do? We
keep the entire covenant of God. You mean then we turn around
and start trying to keep... No! I mean believe in Him who
kept it. We keep it! That's the law written
on our heart. That's the covenant written on
our heart. That's the everlasting word of promise written on our
heart. It is finished. And it's finished. Look now at the last word. For
the mouth, verse 5, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Two things here. Did John the
Baptist come forth and do all this? Yep. Did he come forth and preach
this gospel? Yes. Did John go forth? I mean, Peter, did he go forth? Did Apostle Paul go forth? Did
they all go forth and preach the gospel? Yes. You know why? The Lord said they would. The
mouth of the Lord spoke it. He said, I'll send my messenger. He said, I'll give you pastors
after my own heart that will feed you with knowledge and understanding.
And he does. And they do. Because the mouth
of the Lord has spoken. The mouth of the Lord has spoken. How shall they preach except
they be sent? Not another after John the Baptist
came. Apostle Paul is the only exception.
He was called directly of Christ himself. He's an apostle. Not another person in the New
Testament was called any other way without a gospel preacher. And not a gospel preacher in
that New Testament preached a lie, but they preached the truth.
Why? The mouth of the Lord has spoken
it. He said he would. He said they would. Second thing,
as John the Baptist preached, how come that word was effectual? The mouth of the Lord was speaking.
Look down at verse 6. The voice said cry. Back up there at verse 5 it says,
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness. Down at verse
6 it said, The voice said cry. See, John didn't just come forth
saying whatever just popped into his head. He came forth saying
what the voice told him to say. Look with me over at Isaiah 52. Isaiah 52. I like how that throughout
all the Gospels, when you read about John the Baptist coming
forth, it says, the voice of one, the voice of one, the voice
of one. That's why I tell it's the voice
of one. Well, I thought this was talking
about the voice of John the Baptist. It is, but it's talking about
the voice of Christ. It's talking about the voice
of one. Look here, Isaiah 52, 6. Therefore my people shall
know my name. Therefore they shall know in
that day that I am he that doth speak. Behold, it is I. This
is the Lord speaking. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth
peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation,
that saith undesigned, Thy God reigneth. Now watch this. Thy watchman, plural, shall lift
up the voice. That's what John the Baptist,
the voice of him crying in the wilderness. They'll lift up the
voice. Look at that next word. With the voice together. Does that mean they'll all speak
the same thing? Yeah. But it means together with
the voice will they sing. How come? For they shall see
eye to eye. All of them? Not all of the watchmen,
but each of the watchmen with the voice himself, they'll see
eye to eye. That's right, they'll see eye
to eye. When the Lord shall bring again Zion, break forth in a
joy, saying together, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the
Lord hath comforted His people. Oh wait, I thought he said at
the beginning now, speak ye comfortably, speak ye comfortably to my people. He did. He told his messenger
to go forth doing that and they go forth doing that and that's
what John the Baptist came forth doing. But Paul said, yet not
I, but the grace of God which worketh in me. Who does it say
right here gets the glory for comforting his people? For the
Lord has comforted his people. He hath redeemed Jerusalem. So, if you get any comfort, if
you're rebuked, this is what we're apt to do, this is what
the Pharisees did when John the Baptist came forth. If he said
something they liked, they said, that's the Lord's speaking. But
if he said something that rebuked them in their heart, That's a
man that's got a devil right there. That can't be the Lord's
beacon. Just humor, just humor the Lord and entertain the thought
that it might be the Lord's beacon. That's what we ought to do. Just
entertain the idea it might be the Lord's beacon to me if I'm
rebuked, if I'm brought down. And if I'm comforted, if I'm comforted, Let me rejoice. I can't comfort you. I'm commanded
to. And I'm trying to tell you something
that's very comforting to a believer, but I can't comfort anybody. And I can't make the crooked
places straight and the hills, valleys, and the valleys. I can't
do any of that. But the Lord can. And if He does,
the Lord's done it. The Lord's done it. And He gets
all the glory for doing it. Because He's done it. That's what He said, He that
sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one. And
He said, I'll sing praise unto thee in the midst of the church.
That's what He did when He came forth. That's what He's still
doing right now. And this is a, and he says to
us now, and you sing together with the voice. Praise him. Amen.