Isaiah chapter 40. We studied from the first few
verses of this Sunday, and as I was continuing reading, I believe
the Lord gave me the message for tonight. The title of the
message is, A Message from the Wilderness. A Message from the
Wilderness. We'll begin our reading in verse
1. 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. Isaiah here, the prophet, he
is given the command to comfort God's people. And the means by
which he does this is by a prophecy. A prophecy that God gives him
that begins in verse 3, the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness. Isaiah is prophesying of the
coming here of John the Baptist. This man that cries in the wilderness
is John the Baptist who was the heralder of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, every king, every king before
he came into a country, would send a heralder, would send someone
to cry out of His majesty and the reason for His coming. And that's what the office of
this man John was to be. He was to be the heralder. He
was the chosen man of God for this specific special office. And he was truly a prophet like
all those that were before him. But as Jesus said in Matthew
chapter 11, I tell you that John was more than a prophet. More than a prophet. John was
more than a prophet because he was the last prophet and the
first preacher of the New Testament. He was the last prophet and the
first preacher of the New Testament. In Luke chapter 16 and verse
16, He said, Jesus says, the Law and the Prophets were until
John. Until John. And there was none
of Adam's race, the Lord Jesus Christ, that was greater than
John the Baptist. He said, there is not a man born
of woman that is greater than John the Baptist. His office
was such a high and honorable office that no other man had
that position. It was one of a kind. You consider
Mary being the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was
only one of her. There was only one of her. That's
a special place. That was a special place that
He had ordained for her. And John was a man like that. He was prophesied of that he
would be the voice crying in the wilderness. Jesus tells us
that John was the fulfiller of that prophecy concerning Elijah. The Scripture says before Christ
would come, Elijah would come. Not the person of Elijah, but
the spirit of Elijah. He had the same zeal. Was John
not zealous? John was a zealous man in preaching
the gospel. Matter of fact, if you remember,
when those self-righteous rulers came up to hear him, he said,
who told you to come out? He said, you vipers, who told
you to repent? Who told you to come out here
and hear the Word? You that would later crucify
and kill the Lord of glory. you generation of vipers, who
hath warned you to flee from the wrath of God to come." He
had a very special spirit that no other man possessed. And now
John, John was not the promised one. John recognized his place. John said, I am not the Christ. But I am the voice crying in
the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord."
That's what he knew his office was to be. And second of all,
notice this forerunner, John, who was prophesied here, the
voice that crieth in the wilderness. Notice his place of crying. His place of preaching was the
wilderness. The wilderness. I told you that
when a king would send a forerunner, a heralder, to announce his coming,
he would not send him into the wilderness. He would send him
into the city where there was the most people, where there
were the honorable people. Earthly kings wanted to be honored
by the honorable. They wanted the noble men. They
wanted the self-righteous men. But not God's king. Not God's
king. Those heralders had fine clothes,
colorful banners, and a long procession. It was a parade when
they came. It was a grand spectacle, but
not this forerunner. This forerunner's place of preaching
was the wilderness. His message was not to the noble,
it was not to the wealthy, it was not to the self-righteous.
John's message was to the wilderness, to the outcast. John's message
was to be to the lowest, to the vilest, to sinners. Now you remember that woman that
the Lord Jesus Christ came to out at that well. You remember
He came to her in the middle of the day. Why? Because she
was an outcast. She did not come with the rest
of the women. She was an outcast. She came
at a specific time by herself. But that's the one the Lord came
to. He came to the outcast. And this
is the message that John was to preach was in the wilderness.
This accounts for the surprise of John seeing those Pharisees
come. He said, I'm preaching to the
outcast. Why are you here? Why have you
come? Does this not comfort you? That
the message of God has always been to the outcast. The message
of God has always been to those in the wilderness. That God would
send His man to declare the coming of Christ to sinners. Sinners. And now see the message. He's
not only to come and cry as a heralder, but he's to come to the wilderness
and here's his message. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a
highway for our God. John was to prepare the way of
the Lord. How? By proclaiming His coming. That's how. This has always been
God's means. This is always how God declares
His salvation. Through preaching. He was to
preach. He was to say, prepare the way.
Christ is coming. What was John's message? Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Prepare ye the way. He preached Christ coming. Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He prepared the way
by preaching the same message that Christ was to preach. You
notice that after John was taken captive, what was the Lord Jesus'
message? Repent. for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand." It's the same message. What is the message of the apostles?
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What is our message
tonight? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand. You see, this is not a complicated
matter. We're not reinventing the wheel
every time we come here. I'm preaching to you the same
message. The same message. This was the preaching of John,
it was the preaching of Christ, and the preaching of the Gospel.
What does it do? What was John doing by saying,
prepare the way? In other words, he's saying,
take out all obstacles in the way. That's what it is. Prepare
the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a
highway for our God. John in his preaching was to
uproot all obstacles and leaving no doubt as to who Christ was
and what He came to do. Now let me ask you, did John
fulfill that? Did John fulfill that prophecy?
Did he make it to where there was no doubt? Go over to John
chapter 1. Look at John chapter 1. Verse 19. And this is the record
of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to
ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed and denied not,
but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then?
Art thou Elias? And he said, I am not. Art thou
that prophet? And he answered, No. And they
said unto him, Well, who are you? All you're telling us is
who you're not. Who are you? That we may give
an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?
He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make
straight the way of the Lord. As said the prophet Isaiah, and
they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked
him and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then? If thou be not the
Christ or Elias, neither that prophet. John answers, saying,
I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom you
know not. He it is who coming after me
is preferred before me, whose shoelatches I'm not worthy to
unloose." These things were done in Bethphara beyond Jordan, where
John was baptizing. And the next day, John seeth
Jesus coming unto him. And he saith, Behold, the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is He
of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before
me. For he was before me, and I knew
him not. But that he should be made manifest
to Israel, therefore I come baptizing with water. John bare record
saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it
abode upon him. And I knew him not. But he that
sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom
thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same
is he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bear
record that this is the Son of God. Does that not leave us with
any doubt? Does John's record leave us with
any doubt as to who the Christ was? No! He takes away all obstacles
out of the way. John says, this is the Christ. This is the man that was preferred
before me because He was before me. He's stating His deity. This is God manifest in the flesh. And what did He come to do? He
said, behold the Lamb of God. What is the Lamb for? The Lamb
is to be slain. The Lamb was the sin offering. John testified that this man,
I'm pointing to Jesus of Nazareth, this man is the Christ, the Son
of God. He is the Lamb of God. He testified
to this and left no obstacle. The highway of the Lord, there's
no obstacle here. There's nothing in the way. And
I like this. John says, you know, I knew Him
not. Isn't that a confession? Now John was preaching. He knew
what he was. He knew who he was. He was not
the Christ. He wasn't that prophet. But he
knew he'd come to point him out. He just didn't know who he was.
Now he knew him personally. He was his cousin. Jesus was
John's cousin. So he did know him physically.
But he didn't know until that time. Until the Spirit of God
descended on him like a dove. At that time, John says, I know
that's the one. That's the one. Jesus is the
Christ. John makes no hesitation. Behold
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And John's
message, my message. John's message in that wilderness
is my message in this wilderness. Behold the Lamb of God which
taketh away the sin of the world. What a message! What a message
for who? For sinners! Sinners. Behold,
Jesus is the Son of God who became man, that He should be the Lamb
of God. He said, A body Thou hast prepared
for me. Offering, burn offering and sacrifice,
Thou wouldest not. Thou hast no pleasure in those
things. Lo, I come to do Thy will. What is His will? His will was to make an offering
for sin. And friends, this is always my
goal, as the preacher of the gospel, to remove all obstacles
out of your way. I have one message, and it concerns
one man. It is Jesus Christ, the Son of
God. And my message is simple. Believe on Jesus Christ. rest completely, wholly, and
absolutely on Jesus Christ. This reminds me, this highway,
reminds me of those highways that the Jews were to make concerning
the cities of refuge. And I believe it is Deuteronomy
chapter 19. The Lord says that they were
to make a way, make a highway to these cities of refuge. The
Jews then were commanded. They were commanded to keep these
highways open. These ways were to be plain and
direct. There were to be signs placed,
pointing in the direction of the city of refuge, so that there
was no mistake. They were to mark the way for
those running for their lives. And so it is with preaching the
gospel. I am to make it plain and simple. The ministers of
God are to clear out all the obstacles that stand in your
way. Even those obstacles you place
in front of yourself. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. Believing on Jesus Christ. The biggest obstacle in your
way is you. Move it. You have absolutely nothing to
do with your salvation. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, but my faith is so small. Jesus said that if your faith
be as though a grain of a mustard seed, you should be able to say
to this tree, be removed and cast into the midst of the sea.
Friends, what did the Lord Jesus Christ say many times concerning
His own disciples? He said, O you of little faith. But I tell you, if your faith
be so thin as a spider web, It would never break. Because the anchor, the anchor
that holds you is Jesus Christ. Your faith does not save you. It is the object of your faith
that saves you. Does that not remove many obstacles? That should remove every obstacle.
Jesus Christ is all our salvation. I don't feel saved. It's not he that believeth and
feels saved, is it? It's he that believeth on the
Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. It's not a matter of our feeling.
It's not a matter of the size of our faith. Remember, if you
have any faith at all, is it not a grace of God? Do you struggle? Do you feel
the struggle between the old man and the new? Is that not
evidence that God has been gracious to you? What else do you need? Our Lord told us that when we
come to faith in Christ, when we believe on Him, did He say
everything would become easy? Or did He tell us that it would
become very difficult? And now that it's difficult,
why are we surprised? Why are we faithless? Every obstacle
must be removed. Flee to Christ. Flee to Christ
in an instant. And I tell you, you have a refuge.
A refuge that will endure for eternity. Eternity. And what does the message of
John do to prepare the hearts of men for Christ? Well, first
of all, It exalts and it abases. Look at that in 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. The gospel, when it is preached,
every valley is exalted and every mountain is made low. What does that do? If you were
to bring the valleys up and the mountains down, what does that
do? It makes it level, doesn't it?
Is not the gospel the great leveler of men? It is. It brings men who appear high
and it says, come down. Come down before God. And to
you who feel that you are the vilest, that you are beyond salvation,
what does it do? It brings you up and it makes
you level, that you are all nothing before God. It makes us all sinners
in need of mercy. In need of mercy. The gospel is a leveler of all
men. All men are the same. Those who
are the most despised, the scum, the thugs of the earth, are just
as much a sinner as the most religious. In verse 6, the prophet says
this, that all flesh is grass. And all the goodliness thereof
is as the flower of the field. What good is that? The grass
withereth, the flower fadeth. Do you not see that all our goodness,
all our what we think is acceptable, is nothing but grass that withers? When the Spirit of God blows
on it, it withers. When God exalts His righteousness
and holiness before our eyes, what becomes of our goodness?
It goes away. There's nothing left. You see,
the gospel must first abase man. All men who would see the truth
that we are nothing, that all our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags, and is accounted as nothing when the Spirit of God burns
it up. The Gospel prepares the way for Christ by abasing us
and revealing the truth concerning our sin and inability to save
ourselves. I like that in Hosea. God says,
first, I'm going to take you to the wilderness. And then He
preaches a message of comfort. Only after what? Only after He
brings us to the wilderness, only after He strips us of all
that we think we have, and He abases us together, will He come with His gospel
of Jesus Christ. And in this state, He says, repent
from your righteousness. Repent from your sin. Repent
from yourself. Repent from your works, for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand. The king of the kingdom is at
hand. Come to Him. You who are in a desert place,
you who have nothing in and of yourselves, you who are sinners,
repent and be washed from your sins. How? By faith in Christ
alone. By faith in Christ alone. John
came baptizing. What was the picture of baptism?
It was a picture of cleansing. It was a picture of resurrection
from the dead. It was a picture of what Christ
would do when He came. He said, I came baptizing with
water. But when He comes, when Christ
comes, He'll baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, sinners
come They came to John because they needed to be cleansed. And
why is it that you come to Christ? Is it not to be cleansed? Is
it not to be washed? You, though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as wool. Why? They're washed in the blood. I read this today. It was not
the hyssop that saved. It was the blood. It was not
the hand that put the blood on the lentil that saved. It was
the blood on the lentil that saved. And it is the blood of
Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sin. It's not our effort. It's not our works that cleanse
us from all sin. It is the blood of Christ that
cleanses us from all sin. Repent and believe on Christ. He is the fulfillment of all
God's promises of eternal life and peace. Jesus is the hope
for the hopeless. In Him alone are all the providences
of God seen, that are seen as crooked, are made straight. Is
that not right? The providence of God, do they
not seem to you like they're crooked? How can they be made
straight? How can you reconcile these things? Only by faith in Christ can you
reconcile these things. Only by faith can these providences
be made and seen to be straight. In Christ alone are the rough
places of life's journey made smooth. By His cross. By the blood of
His cross, He has made peace with God for us. I have peace with God. Now, I
may not have peace in this world. Matter of fact, Jesus said, I
came not to bring peace, but a sword. Who has not experienced
a sword with their family? Who? Who among us who have believed
on Christ have not experienced a sword with our friends? Division
with our friends, our families, our workers, everything around
us. There's a division. He said, I came to bring a sword
in this world, but I came to bring peace with God. Peace with
God is the only thing that matters. Peace with my family, that doesn't
matter. Peace with God matters. Peace
with God matters. Believer, have you ever questioned
why God does what He does? Have you ever been like Asaph? I know God's good to Israel,
but as for me, I don't know. Lord, if You are powerful and
You are sovereign, if You are our Father and You love us, then
why are we so vexed? Why? Who has asked that question?
Who? If we would be honest, we know
we have. What then makes these seemingly
crooked things and rough things plain and straight? The only
thing that makes any sense is Jesus Christ and Him crucified,
Jesus Christ and Him risen from the dead. I know that in Him
is the fullness of all God's blessings. I know that in Him,
I have in union with Him, I have all things. All things are mine. All things are yours, believer.
God says they're yours. And all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to His purpose. God who predestinated us, Purpose
to save us by Jesus Christ has called us by His Holy Spirit
and given us His Word. Shall He fail then to bring us
to Himself? Will He fail? Are these seemingly
crooked things going to take us out of the way? No. Because He didn't save you because
of you. He saved you for His own namesake. And He said, I will not have
my name polluted. I'll save you because I will.
And nothing in heaven or in earth or in hell will stop me. Is that
not something that can comfort your heart? Believer, no matter how things
seem to be, these circumstances and this life are but a brief
day that will fade away. How many times have you heard
this too will pass? And has it not passed? It will
pass. It will pass. This life is fading
and these circumstances are fleeting. And what do we do in the midst
of these things? The same thing you did before
they came. Trust in Christ. Believe in Christ. The just shall
live how? By faith. By faith. Faith in
what? Faith in Christ according to
the Word of God. All flesh is grass, and all the
flower of the field. The grass withered, the flower
faded, but the Word of our God shall stand." How long? Forever. Forever. In Christ, who is God, are all
the perfections of God in human nature, the glory of God, that
Moses could not see and live is now revealed plainly to us
by the appearing of Jesus Christ. He says in verse 5, And the glory
of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord had spoken it. Believer, comfort
yourselves in this, that everything God has promised to fulfill,
He's fulfilled. Did He not promise John would
come? And when John came, what did He say? He said exactly what
God said He would say. He did exactly what God commanded
Him to do. To point unto us the Christ.
And He has. Jesus is the Christ. He is the fulfillment of all
Scripture. All shadows are taken away. All
types are gone. He is the fulfillment of righteousness
and peace with God through His blood and obedience. The Word of God is made plain
to us. He is the glory of God and He
has bowed our hearts. He has brought us low. He has
leveled us. He has abased us. And we have
turned to Him. We have believed on Him. And now that you believe, believe. Now that you trust on Him, trust
on Him. No matter what comes. The Word
of God endures forever. His promises are sure. His Word
is faithful. Don't look to yourselves. Keep
looking to the Savior. And in that you'll find comfort.
In that you'll find peace. And come as you are. Don't wait.
Don't wait. Don't wait till your heart melts.
Bring your old, cold, dead heart to Him. just as you are. He'll melt it. He'll melt it. Don't wait to get better. Go
now. Believe now. Trust now. And then
keep trusting. I pray that God will bless this
to your hearts. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer.