All right, you want to turn in
your Bibles to the book of 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. We've been going
through the book of 1 Peter. It may seem like we're taking
a long time, especially since we took a detour and studied
the entire book of Ruth in the process. But there's no hurry. No hurry. I want to start reading today
from verse 23, and we'll read verse 23 through verse 25. Here it says, in God's own words,
written by the apostle Peter under the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit of God, that we are born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and
all the glory of man is 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. Those are sweet words, aren't
they? Those are meant to be sweet words to us. I've entitled today's
message, Good News for Withering Grass. Good News for Withering
Grass. All flesh is as grass, all the
glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and
the flower thereof falleth away. It's springtime. I was out yesterday
walking, and the flowers are all in bloom. Even the weeds
are growing this tall and taller. They're just thriving. But soon
it will be fall, and all of these weeds will dry up, in California
at least. The flowers will fall off, and
it'll be wintertime again. We know this is true, we see
it happen every year. And the Lord is describing us
in this way, all flesh is as grass. That means all that we
are by what we received from our parents, all that we are
in ourselves apart from Christ is but grass. That's why this
chapter, that's why all of the gospel is good news. Because
if it weren't for the gospel, we would remain only grass. It says here in verse 23, being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by
the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. God's people
are born of God. But their birth is not natural,
it's not physical, it's spiritual. We know it's by the Spirit of
God, and he uses the Word of God. And in verse 25 of this
chapter, we just read it, the Word of God is preached to us
in the gospel. It comes to us in the gospel.
How do we know what God wants us to know? How do we know the
mind of God concerning his people? The gospel. the Gospel. We can read in, let's say, Leviticus
or Deuteronomy or Isaiah, Jeremiah, the Psalms, Matthew, 1 John,
any place in the Word of God. But if we don't read it with
the Gospel itself, that message of Christ and His saving work
as the interpretation of it, as the message of it, then the
Word of God won't give life to us. Jesus said, the words that
I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life. John 6, verse
63. The next verse says, in verse
24, for all flesh is as grass. That word for, is translated
because in the literal translation version of the Bible, J.P. Green was able, J.P. Green Sr. was able to translate
the entire Bible, and his aim was to make it as close to the
original as possible in our language, and he writes that verse this
way. He says in verse 23, this is J.P. Green's literal translation,
being regenerated, not by corruptible seed, but incorruptible through
the living word of God and remaining forever. And notice in verse
24, the first word he translates is, because all flesh is as grass. That explains much to us because
it's because we are but grass that the gospel is good news. It's because we are grass that
it was necessary for any to be saved that God had to act. He had to act when we were but
grass. That's why in this chapter, if
you go back to beginning at verse 1 and summarize through here,
and then you draw the lines like I used to like to do when I was
a little kid, they had these multiple choices and you had
to align what's on the left with what's on the right and draw
a line between them, match them up. Well, everything on the left
is what has been said up to this point. And everything that you're
drawing it to is because, the good news is because we are but
grass. God acted when we were nothing. It's impossible for men, but
it is not impossible for God. And that's the good news of the
gospel. Look at verse 1. He says, we
were strangers. Strangers. We are strangers. They were strangers to whom Peter
wrote, but he's talking to all of God's people as sojourners
in this world. The world is strange to us, and
we're strange to the world. Because we see a kingdom that
is not of this world, we see a king who rules over this world
that the world cannot see. Verse 2 says, elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Elect means God chose,
God selected. He chose out of all of the grass. a people for himself. And when
God elected those people, God elected them, when he elected
them, there was no world yet formed. Not only was there no
world yet formed, but everything necessary for them to be what
he elected them to, God also had to ordain to be brought to
pass. In that act of election, God
decreed, He foreordained everything necessary to make those He chose
to be holy and without blame before Him in love, as it says
in Ephesians 1, verse 4. And that's why here in verse
20, in 1 Peter verse 20, he says, who Christ, the Lamb, was foreordained
before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these
last times for you. God chose a people, He chose
them in the Lord Jesus Christ, and He chose them in the Lord
Jesus Christ because it would be in Him alone that they could
be made holy, and without blame before him in love." Everything
God chose them to, and the whole just and righteous and true purpose
of God in choosing them, had to be fulfilled in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's why elect is such a big
word here. That's why it's such good news
to withering grass. Had not God chosen a people,
had He not exercised His free grace in His sovereign will,
all the grass would wither, all the flower of grass, the goodliness
of the grass would fall, and there would be nothing left.
But the message of the gospel is that when it was impossible
and hopeless, and we were helpless in this, God himself chose to
save a people in the Lord Jesus Christ. elect. God put everything in purpose
and plan and decree when he chose us in Christ. Everything that
was necessary, all the attributes of God made to shine forth in
their greatest brightness in that act of his, that will of
his that Christ fulfilled it would all be brought to His glory,
the praise of the glory of His grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. And now that is good news because
all flesh is grass, you see. It's all good news. Look at the
next verse in, or the next part of verse two of 1 Peter chapter
one, verse two. Not only will we elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father, not our knowledge of
Him, but His knowledge of us, through sanctification of the
spirit. That's what we just read in verse
23, we're born again, we're regenerated. We were called with an almighty,
life-giving, irresistible call from spiritual death, raised
with Christ to spiritual life, even when we were dead in sins,
because of his great love wherewith he loved us. He gave us, He quickened
us, He made us alive by His Spirit with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
sanctification of the Spirit. Unto obedience and sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ, Christ became all to us. All
that He did in shedding His blood on the cross and in His obedience
became our cleansing and our clothing. And so he says to you,
grace, grace to you and peace be multiplied to you withering
grass. Because you are but grass, this
is good news. Do you see it? The next verse
says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which according to his abundant mercy, not our, not our deserving,
but to His mercy, all of this is described, He has begotten
us again, that's being birthed, as it says in verse 23, being
born again, begotten us again, He birthed us again unto a lively,
a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Resurrection is our justification. His life is our life. Because
I live, Jesus said in John 14, 19, you shall live also. I am the resurrection and the
life. So He is. He is our life. He is our resurrection. And we, by God's grace, were
in Him when He lived. What he did was counted ours. When he bore our sins, when he
died under the curse of God, it was counted our suffering
and our cleansing for our sin. And when he rose again, it was
our justification. Everything is in our Lord Jesus
Christ. We were begotten again by the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, raised
with Him, created in Him, born of Him, given life in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ by His Spirit came to
live in us, and He living in us is our life. His life is our
life. We live Not by the life that
we have of ourselves, but by Christ living in us, and in that
life we trust Him. We live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. And then he goes
on in verse 4. This is also good news because
God has begotten us again as his children now to be his heirs
and joint heirs with Christ. He says it this way, to an inheritance
incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved
in heaven for you. We don't have it here, not on
this earth. Abraham looked for a city which
has foundations. God promised to give him all
that his eyes could see. And in Romans chapter 4, he says,
when he said that to Abraham, he was speaking of not this physical
land of Canaan, but the world. In other words, the new heavens
and the new earth. Jesus told the Sadducees, he
says, God is not the God of the dead, the God of the living.
He's the one who said, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
They live in Him. And every one of God's people
never die because Christ is the resurrection and the life. And
then in verse 5 he says, we're kept by the power of God through
faith to salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Our
inheritance is in heaven. We don't see it except by faith.
We're kept now by God's power through faith. He upholds our
faith. The Lord Jesus Christ prays for
us. He prays for our faith that it
would fail not. And this faith will emerge, it
will be complete and terminate in our ultimate salvation when
that at the last time is revealed when Christ comes in glory. And
then he says, wherein now you greatly rejoice, though for a
season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations. We live in this life with all
kinds of discouragements, all kinds of setbacks, all kinds
of anxieties and fears and discouragements. And were it not for the faith
that God has given to us, it's through faith, the hope that
he's given to us by his spirit, then we would be utterly discouraged,
we would be utterly destroyed. But he says, we greatly rejoice
even though now we for a time are in heaviness through this
manifold temptation. And that trial is a trial of
our faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes. And even though our faith is
tried with fires, he says in verse seven, it will be found.
unto the praise and honor and glory of God at the appearing
of Jesus Christ. Now, these things are wonderful,
aren't they? And they're so much more wonderful because all flesh
is as grass. We're nothing. We're nothing
but grass. The very best we do is like the
flower on that blade of grass or that weed that grows up. It
looks glorious for a moment and then just a few weeks it begins
to wither and fade and the beauty of that flower is lost. My orange
tree is blooming out right now. The bees are all over it. And
they're just so hungry, they're pulling at the little petals
on the flowers, and they're knocking them off. The ground is littered
with these white blossom petals that have fallen to the ground
because the bees have destroyed them, just trying to get at the
honey, the nectar that's there. The hummingbirds are hovering
above it. Where is this fragrance coming from? And pretty soon,
in a couple weeks, all those flowers will be gone. The fruit will be there, but
the flowers will be gone. And soon that fruit will be ripe
and fall off, because that's the way we are. Our life, the
very best of us. You growing up, you look in the
mirror, especially when you're 12, 13, your body is beginning
to develop, you're getting strength and muscles and beauty that you
didn't realize were possible. You look in the mirror and you
say, what could be more glorious? Then 30 years later, you go,
what happened? What happened? I don't feel like
I did. I don't spring like I once did. And then you get sick, and
it seems like it takes weeks to get over what used to take
you a day or two. You know why that is? Because the flower is
fading. But it's even more true in a
spiritual way because all of our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. The very best that we can produce
is nothing but temporary flicker. It's just a little bright temporary
glory and it's only glorious in the appearance and the estimation
of our own selves and our own minds. And it's foolish to think
of things that are so temporal and passing as being glorious. God is trying to teach us that
the best we are We should never count it worth anything because
the Lord Jesus Christ is our all. That's what he's saying
here. And he goes on, he talks about the precious blood of Christ
in verse 19, which we've covered, and he talks about that faith
he's given us. We believe in Christ, we believe
in God by him. He raises us from the dead with
him. He birthed us as God's own dear
children. These things are glorious. Why?
Because all flesh is as grass. All flesh. And he goes on in
verse 25, verse 24 he says, not only is all flesh grass, all
the glory of man as the flower of grass, the grass withereth,
the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endures
forever. The word of the Lord endures
forever. If we could just believe this, everything is failing. Jesus said in Matthew 24 in verse
35, Heaven and earth shall pass away. Take it to the bank. Heaven and
earth shall pass away. But my word shall never pass
away. The Son of God, who created all
things by his word and upholds all things by his word, says,
my word shall never pass away. It says in Isaiah 54 and verse
10, if you remember that verse, we had this as a memory verse
a long time ago, it says, for the mountains shall depart and
the hills be removed. But my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,
saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. They shall. So what
is the one thing that endures? The word of the Lord, the word
of the Lord. And how do we know God's mind? How do we know the message of
the book of God, the word of God, the gospel? This is the
word which by the gospel is preached to you. Faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God, and the faith that we are given
by God comes to us according to His great power, not ours. It comes to us by hearing the
Gospel of His Son. In verse 23, he said, being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word
of God. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached to you. Faith comes by hearing the gospel
of Christ. We cannot believe on Christ unless
we hear Christ preached. That's why we love to hear Christ
preached. This is the food of our souls,
isn't it? Jesus said, whoever eats my flesh
and drinks my blood dwells in me and I in Him. This is our
life. He is our life. So we take it
in, we delight in it, and we want our faith in Christ to increase. We want to see that this world
is but a passing thing. Our bodies are going to pass
away. Everything in life is going to
pass. But here's the fact. Christ will be exalted in our
eternal salvation and we will be given glory because of his
victory over our sin, over Satan, this world, our flesh, over everything. We will be given the victory.
And now that's what we want to look at here is how the Lord
has brought this good news to us who are but withering grass.
Look at Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40, we are all
that God has said, all this is great comfort for us, and now
he's going to give it to us in the prophecy of Isaiah, and we're
gonna look at this for a minute here. I want you to spend the
rest of our time looking at these words here. Notice here. In these
verses, the first 11 verses, which I'm going to focus on here,
we're going to see that the Lord, who is God, is our God, and that
we are his people. and that we are identified as
his people in a certain way, and that there's a message that
he sends to his people, and it's a message designed by God to
be their comfort. Notice in verse one, he doubles
it. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. Comfort ye, my people, saith
your God. This is a command to Isaiah,
but it's a command to every servant of the Lord Jesus Christ who
ministers to his people. What a privilege to be an instrument
in the hand of Christ to deliver what to him requires a doubling
of emphasis because even though Isaiah was not reluctant, even
though he desired to bring the word of God, the word of the
Lord Jesus Christ throughout this prophecy, yet who was the
one who had this desire, this intention, this purpose of grace
to comfort his people? It was Christ himself. Comfort
ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God. God himself in the
Lord Jesus Christ is our comfort. Jesus said in John chapter 14,
I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. And you can
read that in John 14, where he's about to depart from his disciples.
He's concerned with their comfort. In this world, there's going
to be all kinds of reasons for trouble. He says to them, but
be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Comfort ye. Comfort ye. Notice, my people. My people. And notice this, your
God. Your God. God is the God of his
people. They are his people. He is their
God. He will therefore save them.
He will comfort them. He will bring them to himself.
And how does he do this? Well, the context here is that
ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ that would come right on the
heels of John the Baptist, notice. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. It says in the margin of my Bible,
because this is the way it's also translated, we look at this
when we're in the book of Ruth. that when Boaz spoke to Ruth,
she said, you have spoken very comfortably to your handmaiden. And it says here in the margin,
to the heart, to the heart. The Lord Jesus Christ speaks
to the heart of his people. And he speaks comfort. He speaks
himself as our comfort. So he says, speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem. What Jerusalem? Is this the physical
capital city of the land of Israel where we can go by an airplane
now and walk through the streets? Not at all. He says in Galatians
4, the Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children,
that physical city is just the center of that earthly, worldly
man's religion. And there's no comfort there,
there's no salvation there, there's only bondage. They're in bondage
with their children. But he says, but the Jerusalem
which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. All
those born of God are born through the ministry of the gospel, which
comes out of God's people, which are called the heavenly Jerusalem. In Hebrews chapter 12, verse
22, you are not come unto the mount that might be touched and
that burned with fire. nor into darkness and blackness
and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words,
which they that heard it entreated that it should not be spoken
to them anymore. But you are come to Mount Zion and to the
heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels. And he goes
on and talks about the people of God and the blood of Christ.
So this is what we're come to, not a physical place, not a religious
group, not a people descended from Abraham, but a people called
out by God's electing grace in whom His Spirit dwells and who
trust Christ. They're in the Lord Jesus Christ,
therefore they're joined to Him by His Spirit, and they're brought
to Him to trust Him, and God's name is put upon them. and they're
called his people, the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
heavenly city, Jerusalem, which is above. And so he says here,
to them, to this city, he said, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry to her that her, notice, who are these people? Who are
the people of God? Who are the people that Lord
says, comfort ye my people and your God? Look down a little
bit further. He says in verse 7, the grass
withereth, the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord
bloweth upon it. Surely, notice, the people is
grass. But up here, what does he say?
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. What is this? But a distinction.
A distinction is being made between the grass and my people. Yes, by nature they are nothing
but withering grass. but they're my people. And even
though this city Jerusalem in history was the one who killed
the very prophets that God sent to them and would kill the Lord
of those prophets who was sent to them, God's own son, and they
would crucify the son of God. Yet in Luke chapter 24 and verse
47, Jesus tells his disciples, now you go first to Jerusalem,
and then to the uttermost parts of the world, to this city, historically,
that were the least likely, the most objectionable, the ones
who should have been accepted from the preaching of the gospel.
God says, you go there first, and you tell them, comfort ye,
comfort ye my people, and cry to them, and cry to them. Notice,
this is how they are known as God's people. Look at verse number
two, he says, her warfare, her warfare. The city is called her
because it's the mother of us all, the bride of Christ, her
warfare. And notice it says her warfare
is accomplished that her iniquity is pardoned that she hath received
of the Lord's hand double for what? All her sins. What are these things describing?
Warfare, iniquity, and sins. This is describing people who
are shameful in themselves, isn't it? A shameful people in themselves,
but they're God's people. Notice how he says this, speak
ye comfortably to Jerusalem, cry to her that her warfare is
accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received
of the Lord's hand double for all her sin. Verse three, the
voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way
of the Lord. You see that one word there,
the way of the Lord, in uppercase, all capitals? Who is that? Jehovah. Jehovah, that's what the word
here is, Jehovah. Prepare ye the way of Jehovah. Make straight in the desert a
highway for our God. And he goes on, he says, every
valley shall be exalted, every mountain shall be made low, the
crooked shall be made straight, the rough places plain. And notice
verse four, five. The glory of the Lord, Jehovah
again, shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together
for the mouth of Jehovah has spoken it. Look at verse 10.
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. And then it describes him, he
shall feed his flock like a shepherd, he shall gather the lambs with
his arm, and shall carry them in his bosom, and shall gently
lead those that are with him. Who is this describing? Who did
John the Baptist go before? Whose way was he sent to prepare? Jehovah. But who was the Lord
Jesus Christ? He was Jehovah. He was the one
who came. He was the one who came after,
whose way John the Baptist prepared. So this is talking about the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Lord, our God, and he's
the one who sends his comfort to his people. Now, going back
here in verse Verse three, he says, the voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight
his paths. Yeah, make straight in the desert
a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted,
every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked
shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. What is this
talking about? Well, it's talking about mountains
being squashed, valleys being exalted and raised up, everything
being made smooth like a highway, a way for our God. But what is
it talking about? Is it talking about tractors
and heavy equipment making roads? No. It's talking about a spiritual
work of God in which he's going to remove all the mountains and
lift up the valleys and make a very plain way, a highway for
our God. Now, we have to understand this
in terms of what happened in the fulfillment of it in the
New Testament. So look at the New Testament in Acts chapter
19. I want you to see this, because
there's no doubt that this is talking about the ministry of
John the Baptist, where he says, the voice said, cry, because
this is quoted in the New Testament as applying to him. But look
at the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 19. We wanna find out
what was the ministry, what was the message of John the Baptist
here in this? Because obviously he fulfilled
this when it said, the voice said, cry. What is he crying?
It says in Acts chapter 19 and verse 1, it came to pass that
while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the
upper coast came to Ephesus and finding certain disciples said
to them, have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?
And they said to him, we have not so much as heard whether
there be any Holy Ghost. But we know that John the Baptist
preached about the Holy Spirit, didn't he? He says, he shall
baptize you with fire and with the Spirit of God. So he spoke
about him. And obviously, the dove descended
from heaven upon him. And he said, I saw the Spirit
of God descending from heaven as a dove and lighting upon him.
And he says, this is the witness that this is the Son of God,
all right? So we know that his ministry
included the message of the ministry of the Spirit of God. So these
people who said they believed, he asked them, have you received
the Holy Spirit since you believed? What did they believe? What did
they understand? And they said to him, we have
not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. So there
was something deficient in their faith, wasn't there? He said
to them, Unto what then were you baptized? And they said,
unto John's baptism. Well, then we naturally want
to know, what was his baptism about? Verse four, Paul said,
John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying
to the people that they should believe on him which should come
after, that is, on Christ Jesus. What was his message then? In
baptizing, he was telling them, you need to turn from unbelief. Your mind needs to be changed.
You're trusting in your works and your own righteousness. You need to be turned from that
to trust Christ alone. That's what he's saying here.
They were to believe on him that should come, to be turned from
that, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ which should come.
Now, who were these who were to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ that should come? I can take you to these verses.
Let me take you to these, because this is very important. Matthew
21, let's look at this. In Matthew 21 and verse 32. Because
it's important that we get this. This explains what we're reading
in Isaiah 40 about the valleys being exalted and the hills being
brought low. Matthew chapter 21, verse 32.
It's very important because this is necessary for our comfort.
Let's read from verse 28. What think ye, Jesus is speaking
now to the Pharisees, a certain man had two sons. He came to
the first and said, son, "'Go work today in my vineyard.' And
he answered and said, "'I will not.' But afterward he repented
and went. "'And he came to the second son
and said likewise. "'And he answered and said, "'I
go, sir,' and went not. "'Whether of them twain, which
of these two, "'did the will of his father?' Jesus asked.
"'They said, the first.' Jesus said to them, "'Verily I say
to you.'" Now listen now, this is helping us understand the
ministry of John the Baptist. What was it? He baptized unto
repentance, telling them they should believe on him who should
come, that is, on Christ. He said, Jesus said, verily I
say to you, that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom
of God before you. For John came to you in the way
of righteousness, and you believed him not. But the publicans and
the harlots believed him. And you, when you had seen it,
repented not, afterward that you might believe." The harlots
and the publicans believed John's message concerning Christ. That's what his message was.
Believe on him who should come. Turn from unbelief. Your mind
must be changed. God works that work. He gives
repentance to them and the remission of sins. They trust Christ. They're
baptized. And John's baptism was just that.
Now he talked about Jesus who should come. After Jesus came,
he sent his disciples to baptize in his name because he had come.
The same baptism, but one looked forward and the other one looked
back to the accomplishments of Christ. But the message here
is, is that that message from John was believed by sinners,
right? Sinners whose hearts were turned
to trust Christ as everything. So when he's talking in Isaiah
40 about the valleys being exalted and the hills being brought down
and the rough places made plain and the crooked paths made straight,
what's he talking about here? He's talking about the ministry
of the gospel, how that in the gospel every barrier between
God and His people is declared to us as having been removed
by the Lord Jesus Christ. The hills, our self-righteousness,
our opinion of ourselves, that we are right with God, that's
brought down and squashed. and our fear that we'll stand
before God in judgment without an answer to God for our souls
because we know ourselves to be lost sinners needing a Savior,
that's going to be lifted up because He's going to direct
us to the Lord Jesus Christ. See, all of this is the activity
of the gospel and this is the message he tells in Isaiah 40
is about to take place in prophecy that all the hills will be brought
down, the valleys will be exalted, the crooked will be made straight,
and the rough places will be plain. Everything is going to
be smoothed out because the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come
and he's going to bear the sins of his people. He's going to
remove that which suppresses them and brings them down, their
publicans and harlots, and he's going to lift them from the dunghill
and set them among princes, as he says in 1 Samuel 2, verse
8 and 9. He's going to save his people
from their sins, and they're going to love it. They're going
to hear it, and they're going to be so delighted in this. And
so he tells them this. Now, listen to this. Jesus says
in Matthew chapter 12, I'm sorry, Matthew chapter 9 in verse 12.
Listen to these words. He says, the whole, the healthy,
the whole, need not a physician, but they that are sick. And I'm
talking about sin sick. Sick. Sick with sin. They need a physician, and you
know what they say? I am sick. I need a physician
who can heal me from my sin, sickness. He says in Matthew
18, verse 11, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save
that which was lost. What do the publicans and harlots,
those God has made by his operation through the word of God has made
them low so that their sin has so brought them down that they
have no hope. He says, he's come to seek and
to save that which was lost. What do they say? I am lost. I am lost. I'm sick and I am
lost. I can't find my way. I need someone
to find me, seek me and find me. I need someone to come to
me in my sickness. I can't even move. I'm like the
paralytic let down by four through the roof where Jesus was. And
then, listen to this verse in Luke chapter 15. Listen to these
words. This man, receiveth sinners. Now what do the publicans in
the harlot say? What comfort, what a smooth highway this is. The sin that pushed me down and
was like a heavy burden upon me, the Lord Jesus Christ has
said, come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden, I'll
give you rest. God has prepared the way. John
the Baptist says, believe on him which is to come. The publicans
and the harlots hear that. They turn. They have been like
the valley suppressed by their sin, pushed down, depressed,
and made low. And now they're lifted from the
dunghill of their own thoughts of God and their own thoughts
of themselves. They can't stand before God in
judgment. And they see that in Christ, everything that God required
of them, that would push them down, has been answered and made
smooth. And the judgment has passed in
the Lord Jesus Christ. But the high hills, the Pharisees
are told, you heard John, you saw them believe and you did
not repent and believe that you might be saved. Because he says,
I didn't come to call the righteous. I didn't come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. The message of the gospel is
a message of comfort to sinners. Those are the people of the Lord. Look back at Isaiah chapter 40,
verse two. Look at the description of her.
Her warfare, her iniquity, and her sins. Do you see those words? This describes a shameful people.
This describes a people who are lost, who are sick, sin sick,
who are sinful, and they need to be saved. A savior is needed. And what does the Lord say? To
them, my people, these are my people and they're identified
by this. In themselves they are ungodly, they are without strength,
they are sinners in their minds, they're enemies of God and they
know this. God has made it known to them
and they have no hope and they see they're just withering grass.
And yet, this is the word which by the gospel is preached to
us. He says, speak ye comfortably to them, cry to them that her
warfare, our warfare is with sin. Lord, save me from my sin. There's a warfare in my breast.
We just sang that song, right? And there is nothing that oppresses
us more than what? Our sin. The believer is made
to feel and to languish under the burden of their sin. And
just cry out, I'm lost, I'm sick, I'm sinful, I'm a wretched man. And then he says, you cry to
them. Your warfare is accomplished. Christ is risen from the dead.
Your sins have been buried in the sea of God's forgiveness
and the sea of his judgment, so you're forgiven. Your iniquity
is pardoned. You have received of the Lord's
hand double for all your sins. What does that mean? You've received
double for all your sins. Well, I'm not entirely sure,
but I know this. Christ was both made sin and
he was made a curse for his people, a twofold condemnation. He had to be made sin, who knew
no sin, and he who was the son of man was made, was cursed for
us. Now, not only that. but we are
more than delivered from the warfare. We're delivered from
our warfare, we're pardoned from our sin, but what else? We're
not only delivered from our sins, but we're made to sit among the
princes. We're made to sit among the children
of God. We're brought into the relation
of God as the heirs of God, the joint heirs with Christ. Eternal
glory is ours because we're in Christ and all that is His is
given to us. We don't deserve anything. We
deserve condemnation only. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ
has not only removed our sins from us, clothed us in His righteousness,
He's given His Spirit that we might know Him and dwell with
Him and be with Him where He is, and we will be brought to
glory, and God will reveal to the universe, to the onlooking
universe, that He, from the beginning, foreordained us to be His children,
to clothe us in Christ, and to give us eternal glory with Him.
That's double, isn't it? The price of Christ's precious
blood was so high that it more than paid for our sins, it brought
us into a relationship of sonship and everlasting glory. We've
received double. What a great glory this is. I
want to get down to verse, I don't want to take up
too much of your time, but look at this in verse 10. Actually, verse 9 too. He says,
O Zion, that bringeth good tidings. You see, this is the gospel.
Good tidings, glad tidings, good news. Get thee up into the high
mountain, O Jerusalem, that bringeth good tidings. Lift up thy voice
with strength. Lift it up. Be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah,
Behold your God. Remember the thief on the cross?
Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And look at
verse 10. Behold, the Lord God will come
with strong hand and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his
reward is with him, his work before him. He shall feed his
flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm, and notice this, and he'll carry them in his bosom. Is that comforting? If you're
just a lamb, you cannot walk. What is he going to do? He's
going to scoop you up, and he's going to carry you in his bosom. The apostle John laid his head
on Jesus' breast, and he said, the disciple whom Jesus loved
laid his head on his bosom. the lamb that cannot walk, the
sinner who's lost, the sinner who's sick and cannot heal himself,
he needs a physician, the one who is sinful before God, who
faces God's judgment and has no hope in himself, God says
to them, behold your God, look on the Lord Jesus Christ, the
lamb of God, This is great comfort, isn't it? This is good news to
the withering grass. Because all flesh is grass, God
has done a work. He's exercised His sovereign
almighty power to save us from our sins. And we look to Him
for that, don't we? Every day of our life. And we
expect, we are anticipating that time. when in the moment of our
greatest weakness, even in our death, and in our circumstances,
whatever they are, Christ will be exalted out of our weakness
because our victory is His victory. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for your wonderful salvation in our wonderful Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Help us, dear Lord, to find ourselves
among his lambs who in ourselves are unable to walk. We can't
do one thing. We need everything given to us
and brought to us and us brought to Christ. And we look to him
at all times to be our Savior and to save us to the uttermost.
May you be glorified out of our weakness. May you be glorified
out of your salvation of us from our sins. May you be glorified
in bringing us and making us known as your sons, whom you
purpose to save, set your love upon from eternity, and given
this glorious gospel to know and to trust Christ. In Jesus'
name we pray, amen.