What a thing to know and sing
well with my soul. Go with me, if you would, back
to 1 Peter chapter 1. Our text this morning will be the
last two verses of this chapter. And verse 24 begins with the
word for. That word means because. All right, now hold on to that
for a minute. Keep that sitting beside you.
Because. We've been going through first
Peter mainly on Wednesday night. and everything that Peter has
written in this chapter is good news. Everything he has written
in this chapter is wonderful news because verse 24 says, 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 the word of the Lord endureth
forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you." Peter declared some glorious
words in this chapter. In verse two, he declared God's
election. elect according to the foreknowledge
of God, chosen by God, chosen unto salvation, selected to salvation. That is wonderful news because
all flesh is grass and all the glory of man is as the flower
of grass, and the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth
away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is
the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. In verse
3, Peter declared God's abundant mercy. And he declared our lively
hope Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according
to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. In verse four,
he told us about the incorruptible inheritance that is reserved
for all of those who, verse five says, are kept by the power of
God through faith unto salvation. in verse 18. He told us of our
redemption. He told us who redeemed us and
what he redeemed us with. Verse 18 says, for as much as
you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your
fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb,
without blemish and without spot. He told us that in spite of the
fact that we died in sin, completely died in sin, in verse 23 He said,
we've been born again. Not of corruptible seed, not
through anything that the corruptible seed of this flesh could accomplish
but by the incorruptible Word of God which liveth and abideth
forever. All of that is wonderful news.
That's all wonderful news because all flesh is grass. It's all
grass. And the glory of man is as the
flower of grass and the grass withers and the flower falls
away. And this is the word of the Lord
that by the gospel is preached unto you. You know the message of God's
sovereignty. The message of God's sovereignty. The message of God the Father
choosing a people to save. And the message of God the Son
redeeming, that means paying the price for those particular
people, those select individual people. And the message of God
the Spirit irresistibly calling those people, honestly, that
is the sweetest, most loving and kind message that has ever
been preached. It really is. No sweeter message,
no more loving message, no kinder message has ever been told. The
message of God showing mercy. choosing those people, Christ
dying for those people. That is the exact opposite of
an excluding message. The exact opposite. Have you
ever felt like, well, we have an excluding message? Has that
ever crossed your mind? It's us, for, and no more. That
is the exact opposite. of an excluding message. It is
the exact opposite of God being hard and excluding men and women
from salvation. The exact opposite. Not only
is it the most including message that there is, it is the only
including message that there is. It's the only one. The message
that puts sovereignty in man's hand. The message that says it's your
choice and it's your work and it's your call. The message that
puts everything in man's hand. Man earning his own salvation. That message actually produces
no acceptance at all. That's a completely excluding
message. No one is included in God's favor.
No one is included in God's kingdom. No one is included in God's love
through the things that man does. Not one thing that man produces,
not one work. Because all flesh is grass. That's the reason. All flesh
is grass. And all the glory of man is as
the flower of grass, and the flower withers and falls away. Man cannot do anything other
than wither and fall away. That's all he can do. Wither
and fall away. But God in His kind, tender mercy,
He chose some of that grass. That's the message. God chose
some grass. Grass that should have been cut
down and burned. God, in his including mercy,
chose to preserve some of that grass. He didn't have to do it. They did not deserve for him
to choose them. But the Father purposed to choose
them. Christ purposed to die for them. The Spirit has purposed
to call them. And verse 25 says, the word of
the Lord endureth forever. It endures forever. If that's
what He said He will do, then that's what He will do. That's
exactly what He'll do. And that's good news. That's good news. In spite of
what we are and what we've done, who God is and what He has done,
is the good news that's preached unto us. That's what Peter said.
That's the gospel that's preached. Now those two verses are quoting
Isaiah 40. And I'd like for us to finish
this message in Isaiah 40, seeing what he has to say right here
in greater detail. Isaiah 40, let's read the first
11 verses here. Isaiah 40, verse 1 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. O Zion, that bringest good tidings,
get thee up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem, that bringest good
tidings, lift up thy voice with strength, lift it up, be not
afraid, Say unto the cities of Judah, behold your God. Behold, the Lord God will come
with strong hand and his arm 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 yon. Now you know normally I'm a line
by line, verse by verse kind of preacher. We start at the
beginning and we go down from there. This morning I want to
do it a little differently. We're going to bounce around
a little bit. I don't want to make everybody dizzy. But I want
to go point by point as opposed to verse by verse. I have five
points to declare in those 11 verses that we just read. And
I want to go ahead and tell you what they are. Five points. Number one, there is a God. Number two, He has a people. Number three, who are His people? Number four, what has he commanded
concerning his people? He said, cry to them. And that'll
bring us into number five. What shall I cry? All right,
verse one. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Point number one, there is a
God. There is a God. It scares me
to know that most people on this earth do not believe that there
is a God. Or they do believe that there
is a God, but they do not believe that He's actually God. Actually
God. They are not one bit afraid to
go stand before Him. They take no thought of His judgment
concerning them. No thought. How's God gonna judge
me? I don't know. No thought. I say this with sadness. They
will. I say this with sadness. There is a God. And not just
a God. There is THE God. There is one
true and living God and all of us are going to have to stand
before him. This is what's going to happen
when we do. It's going to become a reality. We hear about it.
We hear about it. We think about it. We wonder
about it. It's going to become a reality. And there will be. This is what will happen when
we do. Verse 3 says, The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,
prepare ye the way of the Lord. You see that capital L, capital
O, capital R, capital D? That's Jehovah. That is the Almighty. That's the one we're dealing
with. That's the one who's seated on the throne. reigning over
everything, none can stay his hand, or saying to him, what
are you doing? Why did you make that decision? Verse three, 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. The God is our God. And our God is coming, and He's
coming quickly. He is coming quickly. Make straight
in the desert a highway because He's coming quickly. When we
meet Him, verse 4 says, every valley shall be exalted. Everything that man believes
is hidden. Secret things. Secret sins. Sins that man believes are hidden
down in the shadows where God can't see. So long ago, God forgot
about them. Sins in the mind. Sins in the
heart. There's not a person in this
room that does not have something that when they, every time it
comes up in their mind, they think, oh. And then they think,
I'm so glad nobody knows about that. There's not a person in
this room. God says every single one of
them are going to be brought up into the open. They're going
to be exalted up, set forth for all to see. The books are going
to be opened. Verse four says, it goes on to
say, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, all pride
all arrogance, all self-righteousness, all self-worthiness, everything
and everyone that is puffed up before God is going to get cut
down. Verse 4 goes on to say, and the
crooked shall be made straight. You woodworkers grab a piece
of lumber and you run it through a table saw. or you run it through
a joiner. What are you doing when you do
that? You're making the crooked places straight. You're cutting,
getting rid of the crooked. Spiritually speaking, what does
God say is crooked? Anything that is not in line
with His Word. Verse 4 goes on to say, "...and
the rough places plain." Again, You woodworkers run a piece of
lumber through a planer. What are you doing? Planing off
all the rough places. Spiritually speaking, what does
God say is rough? Anything that goes against the
grain of this word. He said, make straight a highway. Get ready. The God is coming. In verse 5, He said, The glory
of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. There is a God. But
listen to this. He has a people. He has a people. Verse 1 again. Comfort ye, comfort
ye My people. saith your God." Do you see how the end of verse
7 says, Surely the people is grass. You see that? The people,
my people. The people, my people. The Lord
has put a difference. He said in 2 Corinthians 6, Come
out from among them and be ye separate. He said in John 17,
my people are not of this world. He said, I pray for them, I pray
not for the world. Hold your place right here and
look with me at Exodus 11. Exodus 11 verse 4 says, Moses
said, Thus saith the Lord, this is God speaking, About midnight
will I go out into the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh
that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the
maid servant that is behind the mill, and all the firstborn of
beasts. And there shall be a great cry
throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it,
nor shall be like it anymore. But against any of the children
of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast,
that you may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between
the Egyptians and Israel." There is a God. He has a people. Now, who are his people? Who
are they? Go back to Isaiah 40. In verse 2, let's see if we can
find six words. In verse 2, see if you can find
her warfare. And then look for her iniquity. And then the last two words of
the verse say, her sins. His people are a people who are
struggling and fighting a warfare of iniquity and sin. That's who
his people are. Laden with iniquity and sin. Laden with iniquity and sin.
I want to show you something that's so important. Go with
me to Luke chapter 5. Luke 5 verse 27, And after these things he went
forth and saw a publican named Levi, also called Matthew, sitting
at the receipt of custom. And he said unto him, Follow
me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him. And Levi made
him a great feast in his own house, And there was a great
company of publicans and of others that sat down with them. But
the scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying,
Why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners? And Jesus
answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician,
but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. Now let me tell you who the righteous
are. This is so important. I'll tell you who the righteous
are. The righteous are those who assume that they are saved. That's who the righteous are.
Those who assume that they're saved. That's a lot of people. That's not God's people. Pharisees
are those who assume that they are righteous in God's eyes. That's not what God's people
assume. God's people hear His voice when He said, I came to
seek and save that which was lost. They hear it and they start
crying, I'm lost. He said, the well don't need
a physician, the sick do. They start crying, I'm sick. He said, I didn't come to call
the righteous, I came to call sinners. They cry, I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. I am a sinner. That is our evidence of being
one of his people. If God ever makes us lost, that's
my goal for every person in here. Oh, I pray God would make me
and you lost. Somebody asked the question one
time. Ask a brother, is anybody getting saved down there? Concerning
this church. Is anybody getting saved down
there? They will if God ever gets them lost. If God ever makes
a sinner lost, then he'll save them. Lost. This man receiveth sinners."
He receives sinners. There's a God. He has a people. Who are His people? True sinners. True sinners. Now what has God
commanded concerning His people? Go back to Isaiah 40. The answer to that question is
He said, cry to them. He said it two times. Verse 2
says, Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her. And then verse 6 says, The voice
said, Cry. And then he went on down in verse
9 to say, O Zion that bringest good tidings, Get thee up into
the high mountain. Oh, Jerusalem, that bring us
good tidings. Lift up that voice with strength.
Lift it up. Be not afraid. And say unto the
cities of Judah. Declare the word of the Lord
to Judah. It's going to stand forever.
Declare only the word of the Lord. Preach the word. Don't
water it down. Don't add anything to it. Don't
take anything from it. Just cry, Thus saith the Lord. What does the Lord say? Here's
number five. What shall I cry? The end of
verse nine says, Behold your God. Behold your God. Verse 10 says,
Behold the Lord God. Do you see that capital L, lowercase
o, lowercase r, lowercase d? That's Jesus of Nazareth, God. The Lord Jesus Christ. He said,
I want you to cry, Behold your God, two times. To the people, You cry in verse six, 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. But he said in verse one to my
people, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. And the margin says to the heart. You speak right to the heart
of my people and you 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. How? How is the warfare
accomplished? How is the iniquity pardoned? How has she received double? Verse 10 says, behold, the Lord
God will come with strong hand and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him
and his work before him. You cry to my people that the
valley was exalted. This is what you tell my people.
The valley was exalted. When you hear we're all going
to have to stand before God, does that strike any fear in
you? Okay, listen. This is what God told me to cry.
You already stood before God. Everybody has to stand before
God. Your time is already over. The valley was exalted. All of her sins have already
been brought up. They were already brought up
in Him. Behold, Jesus of Nazareth is
coming. Now you cry to the people, you
better behold your God. All flesh is grass. But you cry
to my people, behold your God. You cry to my people that the
hill has already been made low. Already been cut down. You tell
her she was cut down in Him. You cry to her that the crooked
has already been made straight. She's been run through a joiner.
Perfectly joined to Him. You tell her that all her rough
places, all her enmity has already been blamed off. It's gone. Verse 2 says, You speak comfortably
to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned, for she has received double of
the Lord's hand. She has received of the Lord's
hand double for all her sins. What does he mean double for
all her sins? You tell her, not only did I finish her warfare
and defeat all her enemies, which is wonderful, but you tell her
in verse 11 that I'm going to feed my flock
like a shepherd. I'm going to feed her like a
shepherd does his flock. And I'm going to gather the lambs
with my arms. And I'm going to carry them in
my bosom. And you tell her that I'm going
to gently lead those who are with young. Double. Double. That means you remind them of
the kite illustration. I'm not going to tell it to you.
But Brother Luke told me the other day, he said, I love that
illustration. He said, all you have to do is just say the kite
illustration. He said, I'm good. That's what
it means. You remind them of the kite illustration.
I made you and I bought you. Double. Double. Good news. And here's the last statement
of the message. The end of verse eight says, the word of our God
shall stand forever. It's gonna stand forever. Every promise he made, it's gonna
stand forever. Peter said, that's the gospel
that's preached unto you. All right, let's all stand together.