Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church,
located at 2709 Rock Springs Road in Kingsport, Tennessee,
would like to invite you to listen to a message of sovereign grace
by their pastor, Gabe Stoniker. For information and service times,
visit www.ksgc.church. And now, Gabe Stoniker. If you would like to follow along
in your Bible, our message will come from Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40, and I would
like to read the first eight verses of Isaiah chapter 40. Verse one says, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for
all her sins. The voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight
in the desert a highway for our God, Every valley shall be exalted,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low. And the crooked
shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. And the glory
of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the
goodliness 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." I want
us to be comforted by this message. That's how I want to begin. That's
the first word I want to say. I want us to be comforted by
this message. I want the truth to be preached. I want the gospel to be preached. And I want us to be comforted
by this message. But more so than our being comforted,
I want us to see Christ. I deeply want us to be comforted.
I do. But more so than that, I want
us to see Christ. I want us to glory in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what I want us to do.
I want us to see what he did for sinners like us. The title
of this message is Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Prepare
ye the way of the Lord. When you look up the word prepare
in the Bible dictionary, it means turn toward. That's what it means. Turn toward. It means look at. It means face. Behold. Mark. That's what it means. The way
of the Lord. Turn toward, face, look at, mark
the way of the Lord. That's what I would like for
us to do. I'd like for us to look at, turn
toward, behold, mark the way. Do we know who the way is? The
Lord said, I'm the way. I want us to look at Christ.
Look at the Lord Jesus Christ. I want us to see, truly see what
he did for us. And in doing that, I pray we
will be comforted by it. I pray we will. Now, in these
verses, our Lord is speaking concerning two groups of people. You may have recognized that
as we read down through it. His people and all people. The scriptures constantly mention
these two groups of people, His people and all people. Now, let me point this out. His
people are included in all people. But all people are not necessarily
included in his people. Does that make sense? His people
come from the world. They are out of the world from
the same lump, just like everybody else. His people are included
in all people when it talks about all people. But all people are
not necessarily included in his people. So what he has to say
right here concerning all people, He's saying this to every person
in this world, you and I included. And what He has to say concerning
His people, He is saying it to every person in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, I want to be in Christ. I
pray that we might be found in Him. I pray that we might win
Christ and be found in Him. Now let's begin with what He
has to say concerning all people. All people. Look with me at the
middle of verse six. He said, all flesh. That's all people. He said, all
flesh is grass. Now, what a way to describe all
of mankind in his natural flesh. What a way to speak of man. The
Lord God said, mankind, all men and women. All men and women,
boys and girls, all flesh is grass. All men and women are
grass. He said that's all they are. You know, if you really
think about it, grass is something that you step on, right? Grass is something that you cut
down. Grass is something that you cast
into a fire. Sometimes people will gather
up all their clippings and burn them. God said, that's all that the
flesh of man is before me. That's all that the flesh of
man is good for before me. Stepping on, cutting down, and
casting into a fire. That's something, isn't it? Let me say this. That's offensive. Do you find that offensive? That's
offensive. That is offensive to the flesh. But do you know that's the truth? I'm looking at this word just
like you are. We're looking at this together. I didn't write
this. You didn't write this. God did. We're reading this together
and it's offensive. But can we not both agree that
because God said it, it's the truth? If God said it, it's the
truth? The scripture says, let God be
true and every man and woman a liar. If God said it, it's
so. In the eyes of God, according
to the word of God, he said the sinful flesh of man is worth
nothing more than a blade of grass. That's it. Just a blade
of grass. He said, all flesh is grass. When this program is over, go
outside and pick you a blade of grass out of your yard. Lay
that blade of grass in your hand and then assess how much value
are you holding in your hand? How much value really? Look at
that blade of grass and assess how much worth is right there. Really? How much significance
are you holding in that blade of grass? Are you holding? Oh,
that's significant right there. That's worthy of something. That's
worth of something. No. How much value? How much worth? How much significance? None. You just blow on it. Let
it go. It means nothing. It means nothing. The root of man's sin and man's
rebellion against God is in the fact that man thinks he is significant. This is where the root of man's
rebellion against God and his sin against God comes from. It
comes from the fact that man thinks he is valuable. Man thinks
he has a worth before God. He thinks that he is significant. worth something. When God says
that in man's flesh, he's not. Now, believe me, I know. I know. You don't have to tell me. I
know. The flesh of man does not like that. The flesh of man is offended
by that. The flesh of man hears that. I tell you what the natural
response of this flesh is. Turn the TV off. I don't want
to hear that. Don't tell me that. There's a
precious story of a man many, many years ago who was watching
TV and a preacher was preaching the true gospel on that television.
And in the days of those old vacuum tubes, you used to turn
the TV on and take a second and the picture would come on. And
so the man turned the TV on and there was a preacher with his
finger pointed like that. And he said, now you and I come
from different walks of life. We have a different upbringing.
And he said, we're different in many ways. But he said, you
and I have one thing in common. We're both sinners before God. We're both sinners in the eyes
of God. And that man was so offended. He turned that TV off. He said,
don't you say that to me. I don't want to hear that. Don't
you tell me that. And he sat there for a minute and he thought,
well, you know what? Maybe I am a sinner. Turn the TV back on. And he listened to the goodness
of God for sinners through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ
and God saved him. Precious brother in Christ. I
know that God's truth is offensive. I know that. I know that the
flesh of man wants to reject it. I know the flesh of man wants
to rebel against it and rebel against God because of it. I
realize that. But the Apostle Paul said, if
a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth
himself. The Apostle James said, what
is your life? It's a vapor. like a puff of
fire, one vapor. Job said, my life is wind. That's it, wind. David said, man at his best state,
man at his best state, a man or a woman who you can look at
and say, that's a fine man or that's a fine woman right there.
David said man at his best state is altogether vanity, empty,
empty. That means worthless, nothing
before God. Now before each other, yeah,
I know men and women who are worth something to me, but none
of us are worth anything in our flesh before God. If we believe we are, that means
we have a pretty low view of God. He is so much higher than
we are. He's so much holier than we are. Right here in Isaiah 40, our
Lord said in verse 15, if you have your Bible, look with me
at verse 15. He said, Behold, the nations
are as a drop of a bucket, just a drop in a bucket, and are counted
as the small dust of the balance. He's saying when you weigh something
on scales, After you take whatever you were weighing, that's worth
something off. And there's just some dust that
fell off of it there. It's nothing that's, that's worthless. That's not even being weighed.
He said, the nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as
the small dust of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the aisles,
the islands all over this globe as a very little thing. And Lebanon
is not sufficient to burn. Everybody's so proud of the cedars
of Lebanon. Oh, we got cedar trees in Lebanon. He said, Lebanon
is not even sufficient to burn. Nor the beast thereof sufficient
for a burn offering. All nations before him are as
nothing and they are counted to him less than nothing in vanity. Do we hear that? Nothing is pretty
low. But he said it's lower than that.
It's less than nothing and vanity. Emptiness, emptiness, emptiness. Man hears that. The flesh of
man hears that and this is the response. I hate that. That's
what man naturally says. I hate that. Don't you tell me
that. I do not want to hear that. Look at verse six. It says the
voice said, cry. And he said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the
goodliness 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." It will stand forever. Now, why would God tell
his preacher to declare this? It's because this is the means
that God uses to open blind eyes. This is the means God uses to
reveal to men and women this shocking truth of the glory and
the highness of God and the low and sinful state of man. And
if there is going to be any hope for us, we need to realize this.
We must realize this. Man's natural response again
is, I don't want God's word to stand forever. If that's God's
word, I don't want it to stand forever. I want my own word to
stand forever. But here's the problem. Our word
will not stand forever. We can try to reject it and rebel
against this and we can try to convince ourselves that our word
is going to stand above God's word, but it won't. It won't. Mercy is God revealing that to
us right now. Judgment is God revealing that
to us in that day as we stand before him saying, not your word,
my word, not your will, my will. We won't win. We will not win
against this God because of the rebellion of the flesh of man.
This word says God is going to deal with all flesh. I tell us
this because I care about us and I care about our eternal
state. And I pray God would reveal this to us. God is going to deal
this God who's bigger than us and mightier than us. This God
is going to deal with all flesh and he is going to deal with
it in this way. Verse four it says every valley
shall be exalted every low thing every hidden thing every rebellion
every sin. is going to be exposed. Every
valley is going to be exalted. It's going to be brought up and
exposed in the light of Christ, in the judgment of Christ. It's
going to be exposed. Nothing will be hidden down in
the shadows. Nothing. Verse four says, and every mountain
and hill shall be made low. All pride, the pride of man. All self-righteousness before
God. I don't need your righteousness.
I don't need the righteousness of Christ. I have my own. All
pride, all self-righteousness is going to be cut down. The
valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill shall be made
low, and the crooked shall be made straight. Every wrong, that's
crooked, that's wrong, that's evil, that's wicked. Every wrong
and every error Every sinner is going to be straightened out.
I'm sure you heard that growing up. You'd get in trouble for
something and your parents say, I'm about to straighten you out.
I heard it and I'm thankful for it. But that's what he's saying. It's going to be straightened
out. And he said the rough places, everything that goes against
his grain, is going to be planed off like a woodworker running
a planer across a piece of wood, running a sander on a piece of
wood, making it smooth. All those rough places are going
to be gotten rid of. Now, who is he going to do this
to? Who did he say he was going to do this to? All flesh. That includes us. All flesh. All have sinned against him.
That includes us. That's what every blade of grass
deserves. That's what you deserve. That's
what I deserve. And that's what we see when we
prepare the way of all flesh. When we look at, when we behold,
when we turn to and see all flesh, that's what we realize. But now
according to the commandment of our God, Let's prepare the
way of the Lord, okay? Let's prepare the way of the
Lord. Verse three right here, the voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. We just
looked at the grass. Now let's look at the Lord, okay?
Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a
highway for our God. Let's turn to and behold and
mark the way, the salvation, of the Lord. He said, I am the
way. God the Father chose some people
out of all flesh, out of all nations, kindreds, tribes, tongues. And he gave those people to the
Lord Jesus Christ. He calls them his people. And for his people, do you know
what the Lord Jesus Christ did? Do you really know? Do I really
know? Now I say this so fearfully, I say this so reverently, I say
this so humbly because I do not want to disrespect our Lord,
but I say this to his glory. I say this for our good and to
his glory and honor and praise. Do we know what he did for his
people? Here it is. The Lord Jesus Christ
made himself to be grass. The Lord made himself to be grass. He made himself to be a true
substitute for his people. Our Lord Jesus Christ made himself
to be everything that grass is. everything that grass deserves,
everything that grass is worthy of receiving, and I'll show you
that in Isaiah 53. If you turn with me just a few
pages over to Isaiah 53, it says in verse 1, who hath believed
our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For
he shall grow up before him as a tender plant. A tender blade. He said, and as a root out of
dry ground, a root that springs up a blade out of dry ground. That's what Christ made himself
to be for us. Verse two goes on to say, he
hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there's
no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we
hid, as it were, our faces from Him. We did not prepare His way. We did not turn to. We did not
face. We did not look on Him. We hid
our faces from Him. And we esteemed Him not. He was
despised and we esteemed Him not. But verse four says, surely
he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. That's what
God the Father sent him to do. Verse four says, he hath borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows yet. God sent him to do that
for us. Verse four says, yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded
for our transgressions, all of our sins, our deep sins, our
low sins, our hidden secret sins. They were all exalted. They were
all raised up. They were all exposed in him. I told you that his people are
among all flesh. His people are a part of all
people. And the Lord said, this is what's going to happen to
all people. And for His people, that happened in Christ on the
cross of Calvary. All of their sins were brought
up before God, exposed in Him. Verse 5 says, And He was bruised
for our iniquities. All of our pride, all of our
rebellion, our self-righteousness, it was all cut down. When He
was cut down, He was being cut down for His people. He was all made low in Him. Verse five says, the chastisement
of our peace was upon Him. He endured the fire for us. He
went into the fire for us. Everything that was crooked about
us, it was straightened out in Him. Everything that was rough
about us that went against the grain of God, it was all planed
off in Him. And verse five says, with his
stripes, because of the judgment of God stepping on him and cutting
him down and casting him into the fire, because of that, we
are healed. Does that do your heart good?
Does that make your heart rejoice? Now that's the reason why in
Isaiah 40, verse one says, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith
your God. to those that I have redeemed
out of all flesh through the sacrifice of my son, dealt with
through the sacrifice of my son, made him to be the substitute
for, sent him to be cut down and to endure the fire for, to
all of my people, God said in verse two, speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem. That means to the heart. You
speak to their heart and cry unto her that her warfare is
accomplished. That fire has already consumed. It has already consumed. He said,
you tell her that her iniquity is pardoned. It is finished in
the Lord Jesus Christ and what he accomplished for her. It's
finished and she's safe. He said, for she hath received
of the Lord's hand double for all her sins, the bride of Christ,
the bride that was chosen and given to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He said, you speak peace to her. You speak rest to her. You speak comfort to her. Because
concerning the fire of God's judgment that will come to all
grass, outside of Christ, judgment is still coming. In Christ, judgment
is over. Boy, if that doesn't do our hearts
good, I don't know what will. In Christ, who was made to be
grass, for her, for his bride, for his love. He's already suffered
that judgment for her and she's safe. Totally, totally safe. He said, tell her that. Remind
her of that and you comfort her with that. Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. I pray we are His people. I pray we are the sheep of His
pasture, and I pray that that has brought comfort to our souls.
You have been listening to a message by Gabe Stoniker, pastor of Kingsport
Sovereign Grace Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. If you would like
a copy of this message, or to hear other messages of sovereign
grace, you can call or write to the number and address on
your screen, or visit www.ksgc.church. Tune in at this same time next
week for another message of God's free and sovereign grace.