May it please God to bless us
together this morning as we consider his word. Let's turn to the chapter
we read, the 40th chapter in the prophecy of Isaiah, and we'll
read verses 6, 7 and 8. The prophecy of Isaiah, chapter
40, and reading verses 6, 7 and 8. The voice said, cry. And he said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the
goodness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon
it. Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Isaiah brings to us here a very
simple analogy and the analogy is to direct us to recognise
the situation with regards to grass and flowers on the one
side, and on the other side, the truth of God, the word of
God, which abides forever. And the point being made is that
grass and flowers, they don't last forever. They don't last
very long at all really, and they soon pass away, and they
soon fade away. The reality is that the Prophet
tells us that we're like that, we're like the grass, we're like
the flowers, we don't live forever, and however good we may appear
to be, we shan't live forever, we shall pass away. But, says
the Prophet, and this is the great strength for us all to
know this word, but the word of our God shall stand forever. And that should be a great strength
and a great comfort to us. You see, the Prophet commences
this chapter by saying, Comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Well, what can be more comforting to us than to know that the Word
of God is true? The Word of God is that which
you and I can rely upon, because it's that which God has spoken.
in this transient world, in this fading world, in this passing
world, to know that we have something which is so firm and so sure
and will not be moved, it is the Word of God. Now may that
be an encouragement to us. And as we then read these words
this morning, because the voice said, crying, who was it speaking? It was God that was speaking.
God was speaking, and he was telling the Prophet, here is
a message that is to be put forth. Here is the word of the Lord.
Cry, not whisper, not mumble, but cry. Speak it loudly, so
that the people will hear, and the people might understand.
And the question was, well, what should I cry? What should I cry? What should I say? The Lord told
him what to say. And it's important for us to
realise these things are important. And the illustration is then
drawn. All flesh, that's you and me,
our bodies, our natural bodies, is as grass. And all the goodliness
is as the flower of the field. You know, anything which we may
consider in ourselves is good. And we're very self-righteous,
aren't we, very often? We look and we think, well, that's
a good thing, and I'm good here, and I'm doing that good thing.
Well, let us not forget, first of all, that we read that all
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And you may say, well,
just explain that a little bit. Well, I will. What it means is
that in anything that we do, that anything we think is good,
there is something bad in it. And you might say, well what
do you mean by that? I mean this, you'll find if you look at it
very carefully, there's some pride in it. And you think, well
I'm doing this well, and I'm doing this and it's pride. And
of course pride is sin. So that's the situation. So here
we have this word. The Lord tells Isaiah to say,
all flesh is grass and all the goodness, however good it may
appear, thereof is as the flower of the field. So we have a picture,
don't we? We have a picture of the grass, and we have a picture
of a flower. And they're both there in the
field, you can see them, they're both pleasant to look at. But,
do they last forever? And that means, does our flesh
last forever? Well, here we have the statement,
the grass withereth. Grass doesn't live forever, does
it? It has its seasons, it comes and it goes, and not only does
the grass wither, but the flower fades. We know that, don't we? We see flowers, we see them spring
up, we see them bud, we see them come forth, and we love to look
at them, perhaps they give a good scent, we like to smell the scent.
It doesn't last long, does it? Perhaps a few days, perhaps a
few weeks, perhaps a few months, but that's the longest that any
flower lasts, doesn't it? And they fade away. And that's
the picture then that we have here. The grass withereth, the
flower fadeth. Have a good, have a beautiful
it looked, have a wonderful it was. It still fades, and that's
like us. We're like that. You see, when
we're perhaps young, when we're perhaps in our teenage, Our early
years of manhood and womanhood, you know, we're proud perhaps
of our position and what we look like and our strength and the
beauty and the prettiness. But you see, these things don't
last forever, do they? And they're very passing. And
a very short time, isn't it? You think of your life and my
life. And we ought to always remember this. Our life is as
we read, has just been a vapour. A vapour, you know what a vapour
is, when the kettle boils, or a saucepan boils from water,
and the steam comes up, and it's a vapour, but it just disappears,
doesn't it? It's gone, isn't it? You can't
grab hold of it, you can't keep it, it disappears. And that's
just like the flower disappears, and it's just like our life,
which disappears. Although we've been perhaps have
been healthy at one time and strong, yet that gradually fades
away. Doesn't it? It's evident, isn't
it? We see it in all our lives. We get old. We're not able to
jump around and run as fast as we used to. Perhaps we can only
creep around as we get older. We see our life fading away.
And therefore the Prophet reminds us of this. And we ought to know
of it. And we ought to understand it.
and that it's given us here in this illustration so we realise
we are fading. We don't live forever. We don't
live forever and therefore we should consider our life and
consider that which is before us. Remember, the Lord said to
Isaiah, he was to cry, he was to preach these things, he was
to tell the people these things so they would understand this
illustration and take it to heart. the grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it, surely
the people is grass." Well, we know the wind comes, doesn't
it? And it blows upon the flowers, and it affects them, and they
fade away. The Spirit of the Lord bloweth
upon it, surely the people is grass. This isn't the only place in
the Word of God where these things are referred to. And it's good. Now you young people, you joined
in the Sunday school, I know you've been given to learn in
parts the 103rd Psalm. Now, in the 103rd Psalm, we can
read about the position of this grass and this fading. And so
you'll be able to think of this when you learn this. And we read
in the 103rd Psalm, we read perhaps from verse 13, Like as a father
pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame, he
remembereth that we are dust. Just think of that. You and I
are only just like dust. When we die, we just go back
to dust. All our goodness, all our beauty,
all our strength has faded away and we are just like dust. And
it's good, you know, sometimes when we remember that, that we're
no better than dust. For he knoweth our frames, he
remembereth that we are dust. And the psalmist, and this is
David who is speaking, He says, as for man, his days are as grass,
as the flower of a field, so he flourisheth. For the wind
passeth over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know
it no more. And that's like our lives. You
see, we're here now, we've got friends, we're thankful, we have
got friends, we've got relatives, and they know us, don't they?
And we know them. And we're pleased that we know
them and we have that situation. But you know, there'll be a time
when we won't be here. You won't be in chapel. You won't
be at home. You'll be dead. You'll be lying,
perhaps, in the grave. And you'll be going to dust. And, gradually, your memory of
the people you knew will fade away. People won't remember you. A new generation will rise up.
You won't be known. You think back. I sometimes think,
I mentioned before, I know. You go around London. There's
lots of statues of eminent men and women of years past. And you pass the statue. You
may look at the statue. You may read who the person is.
It doesn't mean anything to you. You have no idea who they were.
They've passed away. People don't know them. They
don't remember them. That's just like us. That's like
you and me. We're just passing away. We're
not on this earth for very long. We're passing away. The wind
passes over it and it is gone. And we're gone. And we're gone. And the place they're off shall
know us no more. But, David says, but, you see
we have a but in this 8th verse here before us, and here's a
but, but the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
upon them that fear him and his righteousness unto children's
children to such as keep his covenant and to those that remember
his commandments to do them. You see, the mercy of the Lord,
though, remains. God's mercy is great. God's mercy always has been,
from the beginning of time, and it always will be, from everlasting
to everlasting upon them that fear Him. What do we make then
of this statement? Well, the important thing is
that you and I are amongst those that fear the Lord. Fear the
Lord. Well, you can ask yourselves
the question, do I fear the Lord? Do I fear the Lord this morning? Because if we do, we receive
the mercy of the Lord, and it's towards us, from everlasting
to everlasting, and His righteousness also. So we need to know this
morning whether you and I fear the Lord. And you may say, What
does that really mean? Well, I believe it means two
things. First of all, we come to fear
God because he's a holy God. And we fear what will happen
to us. We fear that because we've sinned
against God, that we should be cast away and that when we come
to die we won't go to heaven, we'll go to hell. and that's
a very real fear. But then there's another fear,
and that fear is when God has shown to us his mercy, his favour,
his love, his grace, we fear to offend him. We don't want
to do those things which are against God. So there are two
fears really, and they're quite different. But they're very important
and all of us need to know those two fears. And so we have this
statement. But the mercy of the Lord is
from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him. Well,
you must answer this morning before God. I mean, I don't know,
I have no idea what your real innermost feelings are. And the
only person that knows is you. You know, as you're before God,
whether You do actually fear God or not. Now, just be clear, you and I
must fear God, in both ways, before we die. If we are to be
those who are blessed, we must, indeed, fear God and know God. So here we have this statement,
the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it, surely the people is
grass. And then just one more reference,
and that's in the Apostle Peter wrote in his first epistle and
in the first chapter, and the Apostle wrote these words. He tells us towards the end of
that first chapter, verse 23, being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and
all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away. But, again another but
you see, the word of the Lord endureth for ever, and this is
the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Now, Peter
therefore, as it were, fills out this statement, which we
read in the prophecy of Isaiah. And it's filled out in this way,
he tells us, being born again, not a corruptible seed, but an
incorruptible. Let's just throw that out for
a moment. You see, our nature, our natural
bodies are corruptible. So that which we're born, when
we're born in this world, we're born of corruptible seed. And
corruption means it's been brought into corruption. Corruption is
something which is not good. It's corrupt. And that's brought
about, our nature is brought about because of sin. And that's
why we have that corruptible nature. And so the word tells
us here that we need then to be born again not of corruptible
seed, which will perish, but something far more important.
And it tells us being born again of incorruptible, incorruptible
seed, something which is not affected by sin. And what is
that? That's our new nature. That's
the new nature which the Spirit of God gives to us. And that
is something that you and I all need to know that we possess. This life of God in our souls. That is the new nature. That
is incorruptible. And that's what it means to be
born again. Remember what the Lord spoke
when he addressed, in the third chapter he addressed
that man who came to him and asked questions, and he told
him so clearly that he needed to be born again, born again
in the Spirit. And the Lord spoke out to this
person so very, very clearly. And so, very important it is,
Nicodemus was the man that the Lord spoke to in this way. And
he told him, except a man be born again, he cannot see the
Kingdom of God. He cannot see the Kingdom of
God. Now, we've read about the wind
blowing, haven't we? And here we have it again, when
the Lord Jesus tells Nicodemus these truths, he says, marvel
not, because he was, he couldn't believe it, marvel not, and we
mustn't marvel, we must believe it, that I said unto thee, ye
must be born again. And how true it is, my friends,
this morning, all of us here, Without exception, we must, we
must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof. We hear the wind blowing, don't
we? That's true. But we cannot tell whence it
cometh and whither it goeth. And it's true, don't we? The
wind comes, we don't know where it's coming from, it passes us,
we don't know where it goes to. And the Lord says, and with it
goes, so is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Yes, it's just like that, the
wind blows, the Spirit of God comes upon us. That Spirit of
God, and what does it do? It produces life within our soul. Oh, what a wonderful thing that
is. And so here, the Word tells us,
being born again of incorruptible spirit by the word of God which
liveth and abideth forever. Not something which is transient
and passing away. This is eternal. If you and I
possess this gift of spiritual life, it's eternal. It will not be taken away from
us. And it's incorruptible. Nothing can corrupt it. Isn't
that a wonderful thought? What is it? Let me tell you,
it's the gift of God. God gives eternal life. So, this morning, have we received
that gift of eternal life? Now, don't forget what the Lord
Jesus said. You must be born again. We must receive that gift of
eternal life. How important it is. We're thankful,
aren't we? We've got the Word of God that
spells these things out to us so very clearly. so that we may
understand the great need that we have. And so here we have
the illustration then flushed out in this way as the Word of
God tells us, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever for all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the
flower of grass. As I said earlier, you see the
goodness of man, the glory of man, man proud in himself. What is it? Just like the flower
of grass, what happens? The grass withereth, and the
flower thereof falleth away. Yes, you see, all our greatness
that we anticipated, we thought of ourselves, has to be taken
down, so that we become as nothing, nothing, nothing. See, we brought
nothing into this world, and it's certain we should carry
nothing out. Yes, and how good it is when the Spirit of God
shows to us that we really are nothing. We're not an important
person. We're not somebody that people
should, as it were, stand to attention and salute as they
pass by. We're as nothing. The grass withereth
and the fowler forth away. Well, the very clear sign is
when the Spirit of God works in our heart to show to us that
really, in and of ourselves, we are not important, we are
as nothing. We're unimportant. We're unimportant. When we stand before God, we
are as nothing, as grasshoppers. But, again, the word of the Lord
endureth forever, and this is the word which by the gospel
is preached unto you. So we have the The same statement
really here in this 8th verse that Isaiah was instructed to
say, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Now we may
ask, therefore, having established that we, individuals, are as
nothing and we must perish and we must pass away and we are
as dust of the earth, but by comparison we have this great
truth, the word of our God shall stand forever. Now, let us believe
the Word of God. It tells us here, it shall stand
forever. And that is true. So what you
and I read in the Word of God will not pass away. We will not
think, or we should not think, that as time goes on, and when
the world is finished, when it's all passed away, and There is
that eternity still. It is there. It will not pass
away, because the Word of God tells us the truth. It gives us a clear picture that
this world will fade away, but eternity, remember, will go on
forever. And that is the whole purpose,
really, of directing our attention to the importance that we have
an eternal soul. Our bodies will go to dust, our
soul will live forever. And the great truth is that our
soul needs to know that we are born again of the Spirit of God. And if we are born again of the
Spirit of God, to realise that it is because of the grace of
God. It is because of his favour toward
us. It is because of his love toward
us, his mercy. And it comes down to this, as
the Lord Jesus tells his disciples, when he was in that upper room,
just after he had instituted the Lord's Supper, on that wonderful
occasion, that Passover night, when he proclaimed the truth
to them, he told them this. He said, you have not chosen
me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should
go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain.
Now let us just for a moment ponder the great truths that
the Lord Jesus spoke in those chapters, in the 14th, 15th and
16th chapter of the Gospel of John. What great truths they
were. And the Lord Jesus then had instituted
the Lord's Supper on that Passover night. Now this is the Word of
the Lord. This is the Word of God. And
what had occurred? The Passover had been celebrated,
of course, every year, more or less. I know there were some
periods when Israel weren't able to actually keep it as such.
But more or less, the Passover had been kept from, and I wonder
if you children remember when the Passover was instituted.
Well, the Passover was instituted on that great night when Israel
came out of Egypt. It was when the firstborn of
all the Egyptians and all their cattle were slain at midnight,
there was that cry went out. Yes, my friends, it was a most
solemn time. And the angel of the Lord went
over Egypt. Pharaoh had been told very clearly,
if he did not let the children of Israel go, there were many
warnings, if he did not let them go, then all the firstborn would
be slain. And the only way that there was
to be any deliverance was shown to Israel. And you may remember
what occurred. They were told to take a lamb,
a perfect lamb, as pure as possible, and to slay it, to take the blood,
and to put it on the doorpost and the lintel of their dwellings. And what they were told was this.
you must go through that door, inside your dwelling, so that
when the angel passes over to destroy all the firstborn, the
angel will observe that blood and it will pass over that house. Now what was to occur was that
that lamb, which had been slain, was then to be roast in the fire
And the Israelites were to eat that roast flesh. And what did
it signify? That lamb signified the Lamb
of God, which signified the Lord Jesus Christ. And it was roast
in the fire. And the Lord Jesus Christ really
was roast, as it were, with the wrath of God. as he was crucified
upon that cross at Calvary. Now, that was the great and glorious
picture that the Israelites were given on that Passover night.
And they were delivered. Pharaoh let them go. And they
went. All of them went out. They all
left Egypt. They went into the wilderness,
as we know. They travelled through that wilderness and eventually
came into Canaan. But the significance of that
occasion, which they maintained as a ceremony every year, that
Passover tonight was to remember that there was only safety as
they were under the blood. Now then, come back to the upper
room, come back to that time when the Lord Jesus therefore
instituted the Lord's Supper. Remember, the word of our God
shall stand forever. Jesus had taken of that Passover
and now he instituted the Lord suffered. There was no need anymore
to remember the Passover. Why not? Because the Lord Jesus
Christ was the Passover Lamb. And the Lord Jesus Christ was
then to be taken and to be crucified, to give his life. And what was to occur? He was
to shed his most precious blood. And that precious blood, my friends,
is sin atoning blood. What does it mean? It means this,
that their blood was shed to atone for our sins, to pay the
price for our sins. The price was the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord, on that Passover
night, in the upper room, instituted what we refer to today as the
Lord's Supper. And the Lord told his disciples
this, do this in remembrance of me. And therefore it's a wonderful
institution that we're able then to remember the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ and in dying his broken body and his shed
blood. And there we see the wonder of
salvation. Salvation means the saving of
the soul. That's what you and I need, my
friends, to have our souls saved and our souls can only be saved
if we are born again of the Spirit of God. And we can only be born
again of the Spirit of God if you and I are under the blood,
if we are amongst those for whom the Lord Jesus Christ came in
this world to die. Now then, you see the great glory
of the Gospel here. But the Word of our God shall
stand forever. These truths, my friends, will
remain forever. and you and I can rely upon them.
And here is our hope of eternal life, resting in what Christ
has done. Not resting in what we've done,
not our goodness, not how well we've done on the earth. We might
think, well I've lived a good life and I've done this and done
that. It's of no value. But my friends,
the blood of Christ is invaluable. And you and I today need to know
that blood of Christ was shed for our sins. The Apostle Peter,
again in that first chapter of Peter, he tells us, redeemed
with the precious blood of Christ. Redeemed with the precious blood
of Christ. What a redemption, isn't it?
What a redemption. And I think particularly at this
time of the year, as we think of the birth of the Lord Jesus
Christ, How important it was that Christ was born. If He hadn't
been born, He wouldn't have died. If He hadn't died, there would
be no hope for us. My friends, the Saviour lived
that perfect life. Sinless life. Yes, and His sacrifice
was therefore acceptable. You see, the Passover, the Lamb
that was slain was a sacrifice. Yes, in the place of those people,
the households that took that land as a sacrifice, offered
up in the place of those people. My friends, the Lord Jesus Christ
has been offered up in the place of his church. Just think of
that. This is the truth of God. This
is the wonderful message. The Lord Jesus Christ gave his
life that we might receive life, this spiritual life, this new
life, being born again in the Spirit. It's only because of
what the Lord Jesus Christ did when he died upon Calvary's cross
so many years ago. The Word of our God shall stand
forever. These truths are immovable. These truths are precious. These
truths are that which we rely upon for our salvation. Do we bless God today then, for
the words of God, for the truth of God's word. Here it is, spelled
out so wonderfully here, so clearly for us to understand with this
illustration. The grass withereth, it's there,
it withers. The flower fades, it's beautiful,
it's gone. But, the Word of our God shall
stand forever. And the Word of God tells us
then, that if we are amongst those who have been born of the
Spirit of God, we shall receive eternal glory. You know, going
back to that statement or that sermon that Jesus preached in
the Upper Room, Remember, he began, he spoke of those words
in the 14th chapter. He said, let not your heart be
troubled. You believe in God. Believe also
in me. In my father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place
for you, I will come again. to receive you unto myself, that
where I am there ye may be also." What a word of truth that is. Just think, my friends, that
the Lord has gone to repair a place for us. If we possess that new
birth, that new life, the Lord's gone to repair a place for sinful
wretches like you and me. Those of us who rebelled against
God, who walked away against God. And Lord's mercy is great. His love is free. Yes. Which from the pit delivered
me. Oh, to bless God this morning. If we have the wonderful evidence
of the work of the Spirit of God in our hearts, to be able
to confess that we are born again of the Spirit of God and therefore
have that hope that when we leave this earth it will be to go and
to be with Christ eternally in heaven. Oh my friends, what a
prospect there is then for the Church of God. What a wonderful
thing it is. Remember, we are as dust, we
are fading away. For the word of the Lord endureth
forever. the grass withereth, the fowl
fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Yes, it
shall stand in eternity, my friends. It will be a blessed place for
those who are known, for those who are chosen of God, for those
who are redeemed. Oh, then how important it is
for us this morning, every one of us, you boys and girls, every
one of us to know here this morning that we are amongst those who
are born again in the Spirit of God, who are redeemed with
the precious blood of God, who will, when we come to die, go
to be with Christ. You've come here this morning
to hear the Gospel. I hope you've come here to hear
the Gospel this morning. I hope you've come here to hear the
Word of God. This is the Word of God, the great and glorious
truth of the Gospel. And so, may we understand what
the Lord commanded Isaiah to speak forth. This word, cry,
what shall I cry, says Isaiah. The Lord told him, here it is,
all flesh is grass, and all the goodness thereof is as the flower
of the field. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord floweth upon it. Surely the people is grass, the
grass withereth, the flower fighteth, but the word of our God shall
stand forever. Praise God. Amen.