Turn with me, if you would, back
to Isaiah 35. Isaiah 35. Here are my opening comments
for this message. Grace is for those who can't
earn it. Mercy is for those who don't
deserve it. Salvation is for those who cannot
save themselves. The gospel is for sinners. It's for sinners. Grace, the
free gift. That's what grace means. The
free gift. The unmerited favor. Unmerited favor. That's for those
who cannot give God anything for it in return. Nothing. Not a right heart. Not a right
attitude. Not a faithful following. Nothing. Nothing. Mercy, that sparing
of judgment, not giving the punishment that's owed. That's only for those who don't
deserve it. That's only for those who, when
you look at them, you think they don't deserve it. I know you've
had that happen before. You've seen somebody do something.
You think they don't deserve it. Salvation, deliverance, that's
what salvation is. Deliverance from sin, deliverance
from self, deliverance from death and hell. That's only for those
who cannot save themselves. And the gospel, the good news. The good news of the free gift
of deliverance. through the saving blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's for sinners. That truly
is, it really is for sinners, those who are sinners. They still are sinners and can't
stop sinning. Now, with that being said, Isaiah
35, verse three, we're gonna pick up with verse three, it
says, Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble
knees. Say to them that are of a fearful
heart, be strong, fear not, behold, your God will come with vengeance,
even God with a recompense. He will come and save you. That is God's command to His
preachers. That's His command to His preachers.
He said, strengthen the weak hands. Confirm the feeble knees. Encourage the fearful heart.
That's His command to preachers. In Isaiah 40, he said, comfort
ye, comfort ye my people. Comfort them. Comfort them. He said, speak comfortably to
them. Speak peaceably to them. Speak to their hearts. In John
21, he said, feed my sheep. Feed them, nourish them. Build
up my people as they endure the journey of this life. The journey
of this life is so difficult. It's just so difficult. The longer you go, the greater
your desire to to be through it. And to. Inner glory, be with the Lord.
It really is, it's just so difficult. And our Lord lovingly, so kindly
told his preachers, I'm calling you to preach to my people. And
I want you to strengthen their weak hands. I want you to confirm
their feeble knees, encourage their hearts, comfort them, build
them up. I want to do that tonight. The
reason I want to do that is because my hands are weak hands. And my own knees are weak knees. And my heart is a fearful heart. Fearful heart. I turned to this
passage and I read this and I thought, well, I just need to preach that
to myself. In my flesh, that's all that
I am. And I know that's all you are. That's all that God's people
are. That's all that they are. We all want to be strong. We're
trying to be strong for each other, for ourselves. And the Lord and things just
constantly remind us, I'm not as strong as I think I am. I
think I'm something, but I think I'm starting to realize I'm nothing.
I'm nothing. That's all that we are. Weak
hands can't do. And that's what will be revealed
to us. We can't do. We just cannot do what we think
we can do. Feeble knees can't stand. They just can't stand. And a fearful heart can't trust. You say, well, trust the Lord.
But when you have a fearful heart, it can't. Fearful heart cannot
believe. It wants to, it cries, Lord,
I do believe, help my unbelief. It's just a fearful heart. Gloriously
though, God's command in the gospel is strengthen those hands,
confirm, firm up those knees, and speak words of great encouragement
and great assurance. to the hearts of my people, speak
assurance to them, cause them to trust, cause them to believe.
And the reason he said that's his message is because God has
done something for his people. And God is going to do something
for his people. And he tells us what it is right
here, right here in Isaiah 35. God has given a message right
here. And he tells us who the message
is to. He tells us what the message
is. He tells us what the message
will produce. And he tells us the end result
that the message will bring. Now, we'll see this as we read
down through this in a moment, we'll read down through these
verses, but. Based on what's said here, this is who the message
is to. This is who he's writing to.
It's to, verse three says, the weak, the feeble. Verse four says, the fearful. It says the lost, those who need
to be saved. That's who he's... speaking to.
Verse five says it's to the blind, to the deaf. Verse six says he's speaking
to the lame. He's speaking to the dumb, the
mute, can't cry. Think about that. Can't cry.
Well, just cry out to the Lord. Can't cry. Mute. That's who he's
speaking to. Those who are outcast in the
wilderness. Verse seven says he's speaking
to the parched, the thirsty, the dead. Verse eight says he's
speaking to those without a way. Those without a way, those without
holiness, the wayfaring. Verse nine says, is to those
who need redemption. That's who he's talking to. The
ones who are standing in need of redemption. Verse 10 says,
is to those who have gone astray, who are sad, sorrowful, and sighing. Destitute. That's who God says
this message is to. Now, do you fall into any of
those categories? That's who this message is to. If God has given us faith, we
will all say, I fall into every single one of those categories.
Every one of them describes me. Well, that's who God says the
message is to. All right, now here's what the message is. Verse
three, it says, strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the
feeble knees, say to them that are of a fearful heart." Here's
the message. Be strong. Fear not. Behold, your God will come with
vengeance, even God with a recompense. He will come and save you. Now, that's a wonderful message.
That's a wonderful message. God said, here is my message
to my people. You tell them to be strong. You
tell them to fear not. I will come with vengeance. I will recompense. That means I will dish it out. I will give what's owed. I will recompense to every man
exactly what he's owed. I will repay. I'll pay every
man exactly what he deserves, exactly what he owes. Every man
will get exactly what he's earned. You say, well, how's that good
news to me? I thought you said that was good news. How could
that possibly be good news to me? I'm weak. Exactly what I've earned. I'm
weak and I'm feeble and I'm fearful. And the reason I am is because
I know that I'm a sinner against God. And I know what my sin deserves. I know what I've earned. I know
what I'm owed. I deserve vengeance. So how's that message from God
good news to me? How could that possibly be good
news to me? Well first, let's turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter
12. Turn with me over there to 2 Corinthians 12. Paul was given a thorn in the
flesh, some thorn that the Lord gave him in the flesh. And in
2 Corinthians 12, verse eight, he said, for this thing, I besought
the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. I asked the Lord
three times if he would remove this thorn from me. Verse nine,
and he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee. My grace is sufficient for thee. And every sinner who God gives
his grace to, that sinner will come to realize his grace is
sufficient for me. It is, his grace is sufficient
for me. He said, my grace is sufficient
for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness, your
weakness. our weakness. Paul said, Most
gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that
the power of Christ may rest upon me. Paul said, I'll recognize
the fact that God is doing this to me for my good, because if
he left me alone, I would go off and do what I think is good.
And it's nothing like this. And I'd leave him and but for
the grace of God laying hold of me and bringing me back and
giving me something to make me cry, I'd be gone. Verse 10, he said, therefore
I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities,
in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I
am weak, Then am I strong. How can a sinner, a true sinner
before God, who knows what he is, who God has revealed to him
what he is, how can a true, true sinner be strong? He said, know
your weakness. Know your weakness. That's the
strongest place a sinner could be, crying, I'm so weak. I'm
so weak. I can't, I can't. That's the
strongest place a sinner could be. How can a sinner fear not? Look to Christ. Look to Christ. Recognize your weakness, he said,
and see my strength. Recognize your weakness and see
my strength. Look to me. Look at what I have
purpose to do for you. Never is a sinner more strong. Never is a sinner in a more stable
position than when he is completely destitute before the Lord Jesus
Christ. Turn with me over to Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61, this is the Lord Jesus
Christ speaking. And he said in verse one, the
spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed
me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to
bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives. and the opening of the prison
to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord
and the day of vengeance of our God." He said, I am anointed
to declare the day of vengeance of our God, so that, he said,
I'm the one anointed to declare that, so that, the end of verse
two, he said, it will comfort all that mourn. What is that day? What is that
day that will comfort all that mourn over their sin? It's the
day that Christ bore the vengeance of God for His people on the
cross of Calvary. That great day. God did come. Isaiah here was prophesying before
our Lord Jesus Christ came and he said, God will come and he
did. God did come. God was manifest
in the flesh for one reason only. And that reason was to bear the
sin of his people and suffer the vengeance of God on that
sin. I wish we could enter into what
that means. We know it. I wish we could enter
into it. I wish we could enter into what
that means. He said, be, he said, be strong
and fear not. God will come and suffer the
vengeance of God for you. All we know is the vengeance
of a man. All we know is what one man can pour out on another
man. We cannot imagine the vengeance of God on sin. Unimaginable. And he said, God will come and
he did. He came and he suffered all of
the vengeance of God on the sin of his people. All the vengeance
that was owed to us, he suffered that for us so we wouldn't have
to. There's nothing to fear in death, fear not. There's nothing
to fear in death. There's nothing to fear. All
the fear has been removed. All the fear was dealt with on
the cross of Calvary. God did recompense vengeance
on our sin right there in our substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And because of that, because Christ made a trade with us,
our sin for his righteousness, Because of that, God will now
recompense reward on Christ's righteousness in us. Because
God recompensed vengeance on our sin in Christ. God will now,
he said, I will give it. I'll dish out what's owed. He
will now recompense reward on Christ's righteousness that He
gave to us. Christ's righteousness in us.
Because Christ got what was coming to us, we get what was coming
to Him. Alright, that's what He said
right here in verse 3. Isaiah 61 verse 3, He said, The Lord
Jesus Christ said, An exchange has been appointed. Okay? Between Him and His people. Verse
3. He said, To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion. all of my
chosen people who are mourning over their sin, it's been appointed
to give unto them beauty for ashes." My beauty for their ashes. The beauty of life for the ashes
of their death. It's been appointed to give unto
them the oil of joy for mourning. That's what Christ has exchanged
with His people. The oil, the spirit of His joy
for all of our mourning. The garment of praise, that glorious
robe of perfection and righteousness. The garment of praise for the
spirit of heaviness. that they might be called trees
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be
glorified. And He will be and He is. All of God's people say, thank
God for Christ. May all the glory be unto Christ
for who He is and what He did for us. Now that's where the
comfort comes from. That's where the good news is
for sinners. It's in hearing that because
of my weakness, Christ came to be my strength. Because of my
feebleness, Christ stood firm for me because I couldn't stand.
I could not stand before the judgment throne of God. Christ
stood firm right there in my place. And because of my fearfulness,
Christ came to save me. Our God said, you tell that to
my people. You give that message to my people. And he said, when you do, this
is what the message will produce in them. This is what my spirit
will do in them. Go with me back to our text,
Isaiah 35, verse three. He said, strengthen ye the weak
hands and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of
a fearful heart, be strong, fear not, behold, your God will come
with vengeance. Even God with a recompense, He
will come and save you." Now here's what it'll produce in
them. He said, then the eyes of the blind shall be opened. That's so amazing to me. This,
this work, what is produced in centers that is not by man's
might, not by man's power, not by man's anything. That's by
the spirit of God. That's by the ability and the
spirit of God. When God is pleased to call a
center to himself, one of his own to himself, he opens the
eyes of the blind. Men and women who were completely
blind to the true and living God, blind to the actual accomplishment
of Christ. Men and women are blind to what
Christ actually did. But God said, you preach the
message to them, preach my message to them of what Christ did. And
he said through that preaching, I'll open their eyes and they'll
see it. They'll see the only hope of
salvation that there is. He said, you just preach the
truth of Christ to them. And he said in verse five, then
the eyes of the blind shall be open and the ears of the deaf
shall be unstopped. They will hear Christ's voice. They will stop just listening
to the preacher. They'll stop. They'll stop going
from, well, this preacher says this, and that preacher says
that, and I'm listening to this preacher. All of a sudden, they'll
hear God through His Word in the heart. They'll hear His voice. They'll
hear His Word. Verse six says, then the lame
man shall leap. The man who cannot walk The man who cannot come to Christ
on his own. You tell people, come to Christ,
come to Christ, come to Christ. That's the message. Here's the
reality for men and women. They can't, they're dead in trespasses
and sins. Spiritually lame, can't move
a muscle. Our Lord said, you preach the
gospel to them. You tell them who Christ is and
tell them what he did. And he said, once the spirit
quickens that man to the good news of the finished work of
Christ, that man will leap as a heart. Leap as a deer. Not only will he come to Christ,
will all of God's people come to Christ? Not only will they
come to Christ, they'll leap to Christ. They'll come running
to Christ. Verse six says, then shall the
lame man leap as in heart and the tongue of the dumb sing. They will sing praises to him. With the mouth confession will
be made. They will sing the Lord Jesus
Christ paid it all. all the debt I owed. Sin had
left a crimson stain, but He washed it white as snow. Verse six goes on to say, for
in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the
desert, and the parched ground shall become a pool, and the
thirsty land springs of water. in the habitation of dragons,
where each one laid." You can tell where they laid because
everything's dead. There's this animal, this dragon,
and he's got this spot where he lays. And right there where
he lays, it's just dead. Everything there is dead. And
he said, right there where death was, life is going to spring
up. Verse seven says, in the habitation
of dragons where each lay shall be grass with reeds and rushes
life will spring up. Verse eight says, and in highway
shall be there. He said, you preach this message
to my lost people who do not know the way. And that describes
man by nature. He doesn't know the way. He thinks
he does, but he's blind to it. He's deaf to it. He's lame to
it. He's dead to it. But he said, you preach Christ
and my lost people who do not know the way, you just point
them to Christ. And once I open their eyes and
they see Christ, all of a sudden a highway will appear. A highway. They will see Christ
to be their way. Christ is the way. Christ is
the truth. Christ is the life. Christ work
alone. Christ blood alone. Christ sacrifice
alone. Christ's intercession alone.
He's the way. The only way. Verse 8 says, and
in highway shall be there and away and it, he, Christ, shall
be called the way of holiness. They'll see Christ to be all
their holiness before God. Man is trying to become more
holy. Man thinks that he started out okay, and then he fell and
ruined it, and he became a sinner, and he was down low for a while,
but then he started changing his ways, and he's trying to
climb back out of the hole, and better each day, and no, no.
Once a man sees Christ, he'll say, Christ is my holiness. Christ
is my perfection. I need to be washed. I need to
be pure. I need to be sanctified before
God. Christ is my sanctification.
Christ is my redemption. I can't redeem myself. Christ
is my redemption to God. Verse eight says, it goes on
to say, the unclean shall not pass over it. All those who have
not been made clean in the washing of the blood of the Lamb, they
will not pass over it. But it shall be for those the
wayfaring, the wayfaring men, though fools shall not err therein. He said this highway is only
for my pilgrims. It's only for my strangers. Do you feel like a pilgrim and
a stranger here? I know we have a life here and
I know we have things that we love here and people that we
love here, but when God reveals Christ to a sinner, that sinner
wants to be with Christ. He wants to go be with him. He
wants to be in his kingdom, he wants to be in his land and everything
here is not his home. He's looking for a city that
has foundations. Nothing here has foundations.
Just when you think it does, they all get washed away. They
all crumble away. Verse nine says, No lion shall
be there. Sin is not going to enter into
the gates of this place. nor any ravenous beast shall
go up their own. It shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there." The bought ones, the ransomed
ones, the redeemed, every soul that Christ purchased shall walk
there, live there, reside there eternally. Now he said, that's who my message
is to. That's what my message is. That's
what my message will produce in my people and the ones you
preach it to. And he said this is the end result that the message
will bring. This will be the end of the of
the message. Here's the final result. Verse
10. He said in the ransomed of the Lord shall return. Every paid for soul that went
astray shall return. They're all going to be brought
back to Christ. They're all going to be brought
back to him. Verse 10 says, and they shall come to Zion. They'll
all return and come to Zion, that beautiful city of God. My kingdom, he said, my people. Verse 10 says, and they shall
come with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads." Everlasting joy. You think about
that. Everlasting joy. Joy in Christ. Here's the message. Strengthen the hands, confirm
the knees, encourage the heart. In that day is everlasting joy. Sorrow may endure for a night,
sorrow may endure for a season, but joy is coming in the morning. I know things may be bad right
now. Things are bad on so many fronts to our eyes. All things
work together for good to them that love God. But hang in there, joy is coming
in the morning. Joy is coming, joy in Christ,
indescribable joy. Indescribable peace, everlasting
joy. Don't you love moments of joy? We get small moments of joy,
but unfortunately, in this sinful world, they're always cut short.
You have a very small moment of joy and then it's cut short.
He said it's everlasting joy. Everlasting joy. Verse 10 says
the ransom of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with
songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. They shall obtain
joy and gladness. Joy means blissfulness, blissfulness,
full of bliss. And it means glee. It means exceeding
mirth. exceeding pleasure, exceeding
rejoicing. And gladness means exaltation. An exalting display, exalting
brightness, welcome cheerfulness. Do you ever say, whenever things
are just so good in a particular moment, do you ever say, I'm
on cloud nine? I'm just on cloud nine. I'm just so exalted. That's
gladness. That's what gladness is. Christ
said, listen, you comfort my people. Tell them I know they're
weak. I know they're feeble. I know
they're downcast. But he said, you tell them right
around the corner. is ever not never ending joy,
eternal peace, eternal happiness. All in me, all with me, he said,
that is the end result of this message. That's what it's going
to bring to my people. And he said at the end of verse
10, I love this line right here. He said, sorrow and sighing shall
flee away. You ever have sorrow? Do you ever have sighing? We know what that means. You
know what that means. All you can do is just sigh.
He said, it's going to flee away. In this world, we're going to
have tribulation. But he said, as soon as this
is over, it's going to flee away. Sorrow and sighing are going
to flee away, never to be seen or known or felt ever again. Never again. He said, I'm a wipe
every tear out of their eyes. No more crying, never again.
Only rejoicing in the Lamb, only rejoicing in the God who saved
us, only rejoicing with his people. Only rejoicing in the sinlessness
that we'll experience. The holiness we'll experience,
the worship we'll experience, our worship is going to be so
perfect. We'll be on cloud nine. The whole
time. just admiring and listening to
the preacher, hanging on every word for all eternity. Now, based
on that, based on that word from our God to us, here are our closing
comments tonight. Because of his message, we can
clearly see that grace is for those who can't earn it. Mercy
is for those who don't deserve it. Salvation is for those who cannot
save themselves. The gospel, the good news of
this word is for sinners. I hope that will strengthen and
confirm and encourage us tonight. I pray it will. If you from sin
are longing to be free. Look to the Lamb of God. He alone
is able to save you. Look to the Lamb of God. I want
to sing that song. It's hymn number 216.