Good morning. If you would, open
your Bibles to the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 40. The title of my message this
morning is, There Is No Comparison. It could also be titled, Hallelujah,
What a Savior. There are four passages of scripture,
four verses, that I want to look at this morning that all have
the word compare or compares in them. So before we begin,
let's get two important facts about the word compare. First, what does compare mean?
Well, compare means to take two or more things and look at them
against each other. So we could say, I'm going to
compare Ballard and his dad, Brandon. So we'll take the two
of them and we'll say, who's taller? Well, we'd stand them
back to back and we'd find out who's taller. We could also take
two things that we can compare that are very close or they could
be very far apart, but it's taking two separate things and putting
them together to see what they compare to each other. Now, one
very important fact about comparing two things is that there is not
a choice when you compare two things. That's different. This
is not as if I said, which one, Ballard or his daddy, liked chocolate
the most. because they both might say,
I like it the most. That's a choice, we can't compare
that. We have to use facts, all right? So this morning, we are
gonna compare different things about us, comparing it to things
about the Lord. So here in Isaiah chapter 40,
look at verse 10. Behold, the Lord God will come
with strong hand, and his arms shall rule for him. Behold, his
reward is with him and his work before him. He shall feed his
flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead
those that are with young. Who hath measured the waters
in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span,
and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed
the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath
directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor hath taught
him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught
him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and
showed to him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a
drop of a bucket, and are counted as a small dust of the balance.
Behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon
is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient
for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as
nothing, and they are counted to him less than nothing in vanity."
Look at verse 18, "...to whom, then, will ye liken God? Or what likeness will you compare
unto Him? Look at verse 21. Have ye not
known? Have ye not heard? Hath it not
been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the
foundation of the earth? It is He, it is God, that sitteth
upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants there are
as grasshoppers, that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain,
and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in, He bringeth the
princes to nothing, he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted,
yea, they shall not be sown, yea, their stock shall not take
root in the earth, and he shall also blow upon them, and they
shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.
To whom, then, will ye liken me, or shall I be equal, saith
the Holy One?" Who can compare to God? As we read in these verses,
he said how he's in control of all things. How you can't plant
a seed, you can't make it grow, you can't do anything without
me. He says, all the mighty men, everyone is in my hand. Everything
is with me. So if we compare to God, Genesis
1.1 says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. God is the only creator. Do you know that man, there's
never been one single man or woman, one person, apart from
our Lord, who's ever created anything. The only thing we can
do is we take what God has given us and we reshape it, or we put
two things together. We say, well, I made a cake.
No, we actually just took an egg and we took some flour and
some other things that we had and made something else. We can't
create anything. In Romans 9, it says, For the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might
stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. Our God not only
created all things, but He chooses all things. He has elected a
people. Thankfully, our unworthiness
does not compare to His election. Thankfully, our characteristics,
the things about us that we'll look even more at here, they
don't have any part and don't compare or can't fight against
or can't do anything against His choice and His power. Turn
with me to Romans chapter 11. I've made an assumption, and
I'm not going to spend a few minutes to determine this. But
I'm assuming that everyone understands who we are as humans, that we're
sinners. And if you're not sure about
that, this comparison we'll keep going through, you will understand. But in Romans 11, verse 5, it
says, But if it be of works, then is
it no more grace? Otherwise work is no more work.
What then? Israel hath not obtained that
which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and
the rest were blinded." Thankfully, our sin is no comparison to His
grace. It says in verse 5, there is
a remnant according to the election of grace. The election of our
God is from His grace. Not only is it before time and
it's written many places that we were not yet born, we just
read that about Jacob and Esau, that the Lord chose Jacob have
I loved and Esau have I hated. It's obviously not of them. But
we read over and over that His election is of grace. It's not
of anything that we've done. In Ephesians 2 it says, For by
grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God. And in 1 Peter it's written,
But the God of all grace, all grace is from God, who hath called
us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After that ye have
suffered a while, make you perfect, established, strengthened, and
settle you. Look over a couple pages to Romans
8. Let's look at our second comparison
it tells us to see here. In Romans 8, look at verse 18. For I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us. The question here is what
can compare with God's glory. Look at verse 14 in this same
chapter. This is the buildup to where
it says that the sufferings of this present time cannot be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Verse 14 says,
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons
of God. For ye have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit
of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself
beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs,
heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we
suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. This tells us that we must suffer. It tells us if we are to be children,
then heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, so be that we must
suffer with him. That is a scary thought if you
don't know what comes with him. What if we compared our trials
that we are going through, or we will go through, versus His
providence? God told Abraham to go and kill
his son Isaac. Can we imagine that trial? In
Genesis 22.8, this is what God's providence does to His children
in trial. And Abraham said, my son, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And what did
God do? He provided his son a lamb, a
ram in the thicket. And that is what our father does
for his children. We all need a lamb. We need a sacrifice. and He will
provide it. In Hebrews 11, it says, God having
provided some better thing for us. His providence, whatever
it is that He provides, it's greater than the trial. What
if we compare our need versus His supply? Our need versus the
Lord's supply. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth
me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil,
my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever." We needed a sacrifice. He provides
one. Our needs will all be provided
for. Now, am I saying everything we
think we need, He will give us? No. All of our Father's promises
are all given to us in the Lord Jesus Christ in eternity. Everything
that we are promised in this book, all of it are spiritual
promises. Just because I pray and I want
something does not mean that that's what I will get. Thankfully,
the Lord's supply, the Lord's providence overweighs my needs
and my wants. All right, what if we compare
our troubles with His comfort? Because we are constantly in
trouble. Whether we actually realize how much trouble we're
in or we think we're fine, we're always in trouble. But our Lord
never withholds His comfort. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
49. Isaiah chapter 49. Remember, we're looking at our
troubles versus His comfort. We're comparing those two things.
Isaiah 49 verse 13 says, Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth,
and break forth into singing, O mountains. For the Lord hath
comforted His people and will have mercy upon His afflicted. A couple chapters over it says,
Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem.
For the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. When it says he's comforted his
people, we misunderstand that term often. His comfort to us,
we would like it to mean that we're happy, we feel good, and
we get what we want. But that's not what His comfort
is. In that verse I just read, it says, For the Lord hath comforted
His people, He hath redeemed them. That's our Lord's comfort
to us. If you want to find comfort in
a moment of trial, if you want to find comfort in a moment of
tribulation, sorrow, or however you're feeling, think about the
Lord Jesus Christ paid the debt for His children. Think about
the Lord saved His people. That's where you find comfort.
And then look with me in Isaiah 66. There are very few things in
the world better than the embrace, than the comfort, than the hand
of one's mother. A small child, an infant, finds
no peace and comfort except in their mother's arms. That's the
place they find it. And in Isaiah 66, 13, it says, The Lord, as one whom his mother,
this is us, as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort
you, and you shall be comforted. The Lord says here that he will
comfort us as a mother comforteth their child. And I love in the
middle it says, ye shall be comforted. There are a lot of people who
are trying to comfort me right now. There's only one person
who can truly comfort me. And I am so thankful that he
says, they will be comforted. The person who's being comforted
has no say in this. I can't say, no, no, I'm good
right now. I don't need the comfort. Or I can't try to make the comfort
myself. The comfort is of the Lord. Our true comfort comes in the
knowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ saved his people. Nothing
in the world should trouble us because we are found in the Comforter. Okay? What about our sickness
versus His healing? Our Lord says throughout the
Scripture when He was on this earth, it says about Him that
He healed all manner of sickness and disease. It says He was healing
every sickness and every disease. And it says He healed everywhere. We see countless illustrations
in the New Testament of the Lord healing someone, of the Lord
healing young, healing old, healing those that were extremely sick,
healing those that were already dead. There is no doubt that our Lord
can heal anything. There is no illness, there's
no disease, there's nothing He can't heal. There is also no
doubt that our Lord doesn't heal everyone. We see many examples
of someone being healed in the scripture. All of them died. The healing that we need is not
of this world. The healing that we desire is
not of this flesh. The sickness that we want to
be healed from is not of this flesh. The sickness is our sin. The sickness is our inability
to save ourselves. In Luke 9 it says, He received
them and spake unto them of the kingdom of God and healed them
that had need of healing. How did He heal them? What did
He do? What did the Lord do to heal
them? He spoke unto them of the kingdom of God. That is where
we find our healing. Our sickness and sin and that
disease is what we need remedied. Thankfully, the Lord has provided
a remedy in His Son. Okay, look at Mark chapter 4.
Mark 4. Our first comparison is what
can compare to God, or who can compare to God. The second was
what can compare with His glory. And the third one in Mark 4 here
is what or where can compare to His kingdom. Mark 4, verse
30. And He said, Whereunto shall
we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall
we compare it? Let's look at our world versus
the kingdom of God. This is a foolish comparison.
Our world is evil. His world is perfect. We're full
of sin. There is no sin. Our world is
full of death. His world is life. Obi went through
many of them comparing us to our God. In Galatians it says,
Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver
us from this present evil world according to the will of God
and our Father. What if we looked at our accomplishments
versus his accomplishments? Again, another thing that's silly
to compare, but unfortunately, many people think this comparison
needs to be made. Many people think that their
accomplishments can somehow be used or can be presented against
what he has already done. Isaiah 64, 6 says, But we are
all as unclean things, and all our righteousnesses are filthy
rags. And we do fade as a leaf, and
our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. We are so
bad, we are so full of sin, that we have actually convinced ourselves
we aren't that bad. That's the ultimate naivete that
you think that you are so good, I'm sorry, that we're so bad
that we've convinced ourselves that we're good. That's what
false religion has done. That's what they play on. They
play on the fact that men love to be told how good they are
and we don't want to know about our sin. in Christ and His accomplishments
become our accomplishments. So when we compare who we are
against who He is in this life, it's very scary. But thankfully,
if we're found in the Lord Jesus Christ, all of His accomplishments
become our accomplishments. The fact that He lived perfectly,
we live perfectly in Him. The fact that He paid our sin
debt means that we have life. We just need to realize that
all of these things He's done has nothing to do with what we've
done. What about our earthly desires
versus His glory? The things we want in this world
usually are of the flesh. We strive for them, we reach
for them, we fret over them and they consume us. We want the
things of this world. No matter who you are, what you
do, we always think of the things of this earth. Our earthly desires
are of no importance. The things we spend so much of
our time on don't matter. The only thing worse than us
spending all of our time thinking about the things we want on this
earth is when we actually strive for these earthly things with
the thought and the mistake that they actually give us heavenly
benefits. All of our actions must have
one true goal at heart. Let me read a line from three
or four different Psalms. All our actions must have this
goal at heart. Given to the Lord, the glory
do His name. Glory ye in His holy name. Let them praise the name of the
Lord, for His name alone is excellent. His glory is above the earth
and heaven. Every single thing in our God's
providence is for His glory. If we do things for our own glory,
We are trying to obtain our own salvation. We need to have a
mindset of everything is about the glory of our Lord. All right,
our fourth comparison, our last one, Psalm 89. Turn to Psalm
89. Psalm 89, which Dwight read this,
but I'm going to read a bit of it. Look at verse 5. And the heavens shall praise
thy wonders, O Lord, thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the
saints. For who in the heaven can be
compared unto the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty
can be likened unto the Lord? God is greatly to be feared. in the assembly of the saints,
and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.
O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee, or to thee
faithfulness round about thee? Thou rulest the raging of the
sea, when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them. Thou hast
broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain. Thou hast scattered
thine enemies with thy strong arm. The heavens are thine, the
earth also is thine, as for the world and the fullness thereof,
thou hast founded them." Who can be compared to the Lord Jesus
Christ? The rest of my message is going
to have a few different comparisons about what situation we're in
to what the Lord provides. The first is our debt versus
His payment. The scripture talks of our sin
and says the wages of sin is death. In our criminal system, if a
person commits enough crimes, they can get what's called multiple
life sentences. There's no such thing with us. If you've committed one sin,
the payment of sin is death. That's the debt we owe. We must
die. Thankfully, the payment of the
Lord Jesus Christ for all of his children was his death. He was made sin that we might
have his righteousness. What about our sin versus his
sacrifice? The best thing about comparing
anything of us to the Lord is that there is no comparison.
When I say something of ours versus something of His, the
thing I'm saying for ours is just so that we can make the
point. What I'm saying about us has no relevance or no effect
on the Lord. Our sin is the reason for His
sacrifice. His sacrifice is the payment
for our sin. Look at 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter 2.22 Talking about our
Lord. In verse 22, "...who did no sin,
neither was guile found in his mouth. Who, when he was reviled,
reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.
Who his own self bare on our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sins, should live under righteousness
by whose stripes ye were healed." When our Lord was on the cross making a sacrifice
for His people. It says He did no sin, there
was no guile found in His mouth. When he was reviled, he reviled
not back. When he suffered, he threatened
them not, but he committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. He committed himself to God.
Who his own self bear our sins, he was bearing the sins of his
children, that we, being dead to sins, we were dead in our
sins, that we should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes
you were healed." We live under righteousness because our Lord
took stripes for us, that He died for us, His sacrifice. And do you know this is the only
verse that has the two words self and righteousness in it?
The term self-righteousness isn't in here, which leads me to the
next comparison. What about our sin versus His
righteousness? our righteousness versus His.
2 Corinthians 5 says, For He hath made Him to be sin for us
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. The only righteous being is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one Not only is
it hypocrisy to say that we have some sort of righteousness, but
it's foolish to even think that a sinful creature can do something
righteous. By the definition of sin, it
means we are not righteous. We are not holy. In Jeremiah
it says, in his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell
safely. And this in his name whereby
he shall be called, and this is all bold letters, the Lord
our righteousness. His name will be called forever
the Lord our righteousness. When we are in glory, His children
are at His feet, we will call Him the Lord our righteousness. What about our defeat, our humiliation
versus His victory? The scriptures talk of how all
we are as is grass. We are something to be compared
with that is a nuisance to us. We have to sit there and say,
I've got to go cut the grass, it's getting too long, it looks
so bad, it's awful, and we hate to do it, and we have to do those
things. That's what we're compared to. In 1 Corinthians 15, let
me turn to it, it tells us, But thanks be to God which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. If you want the
victory, the only way to get it is if the Lord gives it to
you. We can't win anything. We're
defeated creatures. We're sinful creatures. But thanks
be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ. And then one last comparison,
our death versus His life. Turn with me to Romans chapter
5. Romans chapter 5. All the comparisons I have made
up until this point, all of them lead to this one comparison. Our death, ultimately what we
deserve and what we have coming, to His life. Salvation is in
His life, in His sacrifice. Romans 5 verse 15 says, But not
as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the
offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and
the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ hath abounded
unto many. And not as it was by one that
sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was by one to
condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses under justification. For if by one man's offense death
reigned by one, much more they which received abundance of grace
and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus
Christ. Therefore, as by the offense
of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so,
by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men
unto justification of life. The only hope of a sinner to
avoid eternal death is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because He
lived a perfect life, He did what we couldn't do, and then
He willingly sacrificed Himself, being made sin, being put upon
our sins, pressed in Him. He did all of that, was died,
raised to the glory of God, and there is no comparison to our
Lord and our God. All of the comfort, all of the
peace, and all of the hope that we have is in the knowledge that
in a comparison that the child of God is just like Him. If we are found in the Lord Jesus
Christ, all of the things that He has has been given to us and
we will be saved in Him. All right. Eddie.