Isaiah chapter 40, what made
me want to start reading this and want to deal with it was
I was reading the Gospel of Mark, which begins this way. The beginning
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written
in the prophets. Behold, I send my messenger before
thy face. which shall prepare thy way before
thee, the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare ye
the way of the Lord. Make his path straight. That's
Isaiah 40. It made me want to deal with
this. And I looked at all the Gospels,
and all four Gospels say that. All four Gospels quote Isaiah. Prepare ye the way of the Lord.
All the prophets All the apostles, all true preachers, that's what
they are to do. Preach Christ the way. We're going to see how the scripture
says in Luke 1 that God has prepared a people for the Lord, to receive
him, to believe him, for him, for his glory, for his honor.
So Isaiah 40, and so you need not wonder what the messenger,
the true messenger is going to preach. You may wonder where
he's going to preach from, but he's going to preach Christ.
I started going through Isaiah, just, it's amazing. Christ is in every page in there. It begins in verse one, and I
intend to, you know, we've looked at this many times together,
and mostly we've looked at the message of the prophet, all flesh
is grass and behold your God. I'm not going to get that far.
Didn't get that far. We won't, probably won't get
past verse five. Okay. This begins, comfort ye,
comfort ye, my people. Say it, your God. Comfort ye,
comfort ye. There's a time for reproof. There's
a time for rebuke. There's a time for correction.
But here our Lord says, comfort my people. Comfort ye. Comfort ye. Who? My people, saith
the Lord. Your God. Verse 2. Speak comfortably
to Jerusalem. And I kept emphasizing, cry unto
her. You know good and well he's not
talking about that nation, that city over there. But New Jerusalem
is spoken of in the Revelation as the church coming down from
God out of heaven. That's who he's speaking to.
He's talking to you. Speak ye comfortably to my people, Jerusalem,
New Jerusalem, the church. Tell her. Here's the things I
want you to tell her. Zion, Jerusalem, Judah. Judah,
verse 11. Didn't you enjoy that verse 11? His flock. His flock, like Ezekiel
34. His flock. Now it says, it talks
about God's people, God's chosen people, His elect. Yes, here I go again. Isn't it
wonderful? Truly, people, this is our great
comfort. This is where it begins, that
God hath chosen us. Isn't that what Paul wrote in
Ephesians 1, when he spoke of all the blessings of God? Blessed
be God who accordingly hath chosen us. And then it goes on to talk
about forgiveness of sin. And that's what he's going to
talk about, Isaiah. Election. Amazing, marvelous
grace that God in great love, sovereign love, and great mercy,
sovereign mercy. He said, I'll be merciful. I'll
show mercy to whom I will. But He shows mercy. Keeping mercy
for thousands. Amazing, marvelous mercy and
grace that God would choose one person let alone a number which
no man could number, as the stars of the sky and the sand of the
seashore. You reckon you could possibly
be in that number? Come on. He's telling us how
you can't number them. And who was he numbered with?
Transgressors. When Peter said, give diligence
to make your calling and election sure, How can you know you're
one of the elect if He calls you? If He calls you by the Gospel. Right? Shall I quote it again,
John? 2 Thessalonians 2, 13, we're
bound to give thanks again, always, to God for you, brethren, beloved
Lord. Because God has, from the beginning,
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit.
What does the Spirit do? You know this thing. John 14,
John 16, the Lord said out, the Holy Spirit will take the things
of mine and show them unto you. The people prepared for the Lord,
people that the Holy Spirit comes through the preaching of the
gospel, and the preachers cried to them. Through a man, yeah. It shows in you through sanctification
of the Spirit and beliefs of the truth. Whereunto he called
you by our gospel. Our gospel. God's people have
a gospel. The world has a gospel. It's
not the gospel. He called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. To see
His glory. To be with Him in glory. Comfort
ye, comfort ye, my people. Some of you have already been
smiling and nodding your head. You know what I'm going to say
before I say it. You know these scriptures. You must be one of
these. I told you, you know, God's people
love God's Word. They love the truth. It's an
old way. We're in, it's a good, the old
paths we're in is a good way. You find rest for your soul.
Nothing new at all. You don't want to hear anything
new. This is how you know the gospel is gospel to you. Though
it's the same things over and over again, it's new, it's fresh,
it's mercies are new every morning. It's compassions that fill out
the Gospel. You've got to hear it. You've
got to hear Him. You love these Scriptures. You
love Isaiah 40, don't you? Two or three of you texted me
and said, I love this chapter. I venture to say there's lots
of people who call themselves Christians You don't know this
chapter. There's a man in, I've told you
this, but somebody hadn't heard it, I'm sure. There's a man in
Crossfield, Tennessee, Floyd Boren. He's gone to be with the
Lord. He was a former Armenian free
will preacher. I think he might have been Pentecostal
like Donny Bell was. But he knew the scriptures. He
could quote them. I mean, he could quote them.
And the Lord saved him. He realized that he didn't know
God at all. And he knew all these scriptures. He didn't know them
because he didn't know Christ. He didn't see Christ in him.
In fact, the Lord revealed himself to him through Brother Donny
Bell's preaching. Well, Floyd, oh, he loved the
gospel, and he knew the scriptures, and he'd preach with you. I don't know how many times I'd
be down there preaching, and Floyd would just, man, his answer
is like a sounding board. He'd answer you. And one time
I was getting to a scripture that I wanted to shout out and
declare, and I stopped and said, Floyd, I want to tell this. Because he'd start a scripture
and he'd finish it. But that's fine. That's wonderful. I miss that man. I know Donnie
does. He's got three daughters. They
all know the Lord. They all know the Lord. And I think their husbands do. His wife, Eleanor, married a
man from a church in Lexington, Joe McSherry, and the Lord took
him, a believer. The Lord sure is good through
the gospel. This is what the Lord uses. They've
got, My people, My people. Malachi 3, listen to this. We
just looked at this. God said, Comfort ye, comfort
ye, My people. Verse 16, Malachi 3, they that
feared the Lord spake often one to another. What do we talk about? Christ. You get together, we get together
at times, don't we, in each other's homes, and we just hope the conversation
comes around to Christ. If it doesn't, we feel like the time has been vain.
But it's those that feared the Lord. They spake often one another
of His Son, His great salvation. The Lord hearkened. He heard
it. And a book of remembrance. What is it? You hold it in your
hand. You remember Christ said, This do in remembrance of me. Peter said, I want to stir up
your pure hearts by way of remembrance. What, Peter? Of Christ. It's all about Him. A book of remembrance to remind
us who Christ is, that we belong to him. And they that feared
the Lord have thought upon his name. And he said, they'll be
mine, saith the Lord above. They're going to be mine, my
people. When I make up my jewels, when
God, the jewels in his crown, trophies, his trophies of grace,
All of us boys and girls. My sister had more trophies than
the rest of us. Then us three boys put together. She was a
track star. I hated it. When I was 16, my
sister was faster than me. I played basketball, baseball,
and football. She could outrun me. It made
me mad. Man, she was fast. She had trophies
and medals galore. We are his trophies. trophies
of His grace. Look what I did. He said, I'll spare them as a man
spareth his own son. These are my people, my children,
my family. My people. Comfort ye, comfort
ye, my people. The world doesn't need comforting,
they need warning. God's people and know Him. How do you know you're one of
God's people? We've been looking at that lately, haven't we? The pity of God for His people.
How do we know? These things are written unto
you that believe that you might know. How do you know? Well, you believe the truth. Do you really? A fair few people
do. Most people hate it. Already, what I've been talking
about tonight, 99% of people hate the mention of election.
Don't they? Sunday, if we deal with that
and talk about God who sends fire and brimstone and kills
people and destroys everything, you're going to make the whole
world a mad preacher. That's got the Bible in it. Do you believe
that? God's people believe the truth.
They believe the living and true God. They believe the truth about
God. And they love that he is. They
don't just believe it with the heart, man, believe it. The heart
is the affection. We love that he's God. We hate
anything that brings him down from his glory and his honor
and his name being blessed. We hate that. We hate man's glory
and honor. We love God's. We believe the truth. We believe
the gospel. I've got to go on. The God's people believe. They
love the truth. They hear His voice. Christ said,
My sheep hear My voice. What's that? Peter said, You're
born again, not a corruptible thing, but incorruptible, by
the Word of God. which liveth and abideth for
ever." The gospel of your salvation. We hear his voice, the gospel.
And like Ruth, we say to our Lord, your God is my God. How do we know we're his people? We love him because he first
loved us. And when he said, Jabal, this love in our heart, we love
God as God. We love his truth. We love his
word. We love his son. We love each other. And we hate
every false way. Your God's my God, Ruth said.
Your people, that's my people. That's my people. Mindy and I
were watching a movie, and it looked like it might be pretty
good. And it wasn't, like most of them. And we quickly turned
it off. But it was a cerebral movie. It was set in Oxford, the University
of Oxford. And all these college kids, oh,
they thought they were so smart. Oh, they were just so heady and
high-minded. like 2 Timothy 3, weren't they? And they were talking
about poets like Sir Walter Scott, you know, and I thought, I'd
rather hear a coal miner named Scott. And we quickly turned it off, didn't
we? Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools. And they were all, you know,
together in their vanity of self-conceit. And I thought, that's not my
people. The wise and the prudent. This
is my people. A bunch of nobodies from nowhere. Simple people. This is who God
chooses. And these people have a wisdom
given from above. I was reading Daniel. If you
want a blessing, start reading Daniel. I was reading of Daniel,
Melanie, and it says that they were wiser, fairer, fatter, wiser,
and understood more than all the astrologers and everybody
in all of Babylon. That's God's people. Why? They
know God, the true God, and they know the truth. If you don't
know God, you don't know anything. If you don't know the truth,
then everything else is a lie, isn't it? Truth about God, truth
about man, truth about salvation, truth about life after death,
eternal life, truth about Christ. Christ is the truth. Is the truth. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. This is our comfort. that God
hath chosen a people whom he did foreknow. There you go again.
Yes, sir. You want to hear it? For whom
he did foreknow, he did predestinate. Whom he did predestinate, he
called by our gospel. Whom he called, he justified. That is, God gave him faith. He justified that faith. Whom he justified, he glorified. We've already been glorified
in the sense that we've seen his glory. Isn't this glorious? Pity the poor people that go
to church and so-called church and come away just having been
entertained with music and some kind of moral sermon or whatever
and been dazzled by this and that and the other. But blessed
are the people that hear the truth. That's what Jacob said. All the truth you've shown me.
Not worthy of it. Whom He did predestinate, He
called, justified, glorified. Comfort ye My people. Comfort
you. Tell them they're My people. I chose them. And if He chose
them, and if we're His people, He'll never cast you out. If you've been called by the
gospel, You've heard the gospel, heard his voice. He'll never
cast you out. You'll never perish. Because
the calling of God is without repentance. He didn't take it
back. You have pets. You chose those
pets. You paid for them. As worthless
as they may be. They all are. Mine are. But you
chose them. You gave them a name and you
called them. You started calling them by their name, didn't you? You keep calling them. If they
run off, you say, well, I'm tired of him. I'm not going after Bodie.
I'm not going after him anymore. Is that right, Sarah? No. You keep going after them. You
don't need them. You don't need those dogs. There's
plenty more where they came from, right? Why are they so special?
They're your dog. That's your dog. And God says,
those are my people. And who he calls, he keeps calling. He keeps calling. There he goes
again. He's run off again. Leave Eve
from her alone. Nope. I'm not going to give up on her.
Go get him. Go fetch him. How are you fetched
again and again and again? Huh? Same gospel. The same gospel. Comfort ye,
comfort ye my people. This is our comfort. This is
our comfort. And it says here, comfort ye. Who's he talking to? He's talking
to me. He's talking to the preacher primarily. Okay? That's who he's
talking to. Jeremiah. He said, what shall
I cry? Lord told him. Cry then. Talking to Jeremiah.
But he's talking to you too. We're to comfort one another.
Right? Listen to 1 Thessalonians 4. And what's it talking about?
What's 1 Thessalonians 4 talking about? What's any scripture talking
about? Christ. It's talking about Christ's
coming. And listen to this. It says,
This we say by the word of the Lord, that the Lord shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, the
trump of God, and a dead in Christ shall rise. And we which are
alive and remain be caught up together, the dead in Christ,
the living in Christ, those in Christ, will be caught up together
with them in the clouds to do what? Meet the Lord. To meet the Lord in the air,
and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort
one another with these words." So you comfort. Exhort one another. So much more as you see the day
approaching. Hopefully, Sunday's message,
hopefully every message is becoming more and more urgent. We see
the day approaching, don't we? What day? The day of the Lord.
The day of redemption. Lift up your hands. Your redemption
is drawing nigh. Comfort ye, comfort ye. Me, you,
all of us, speak ye. Verse 2, Comfortably to Jerusalem,
to my people, to my church, come to the heart. Don't preach to
my head. One of our preacher brethren
said, Brother Scott Richardson. I mentioned a coal miner named
Scott. If you don't know him, I'm talking
about Scott Richardson, Fairmont, West Virginia. He preached here
many times. Faithful preacher of the gospel.
I heard him preach from a boy all my life. And he was pastor
of the same church in Fairmont where Brother Marvin is now,
until he died. But he came up to one of the
young preachers years ago that started preaching, and this man
told this story that Scott came up And he said he put his finger
right in his chest. He said, a bony finger. He poked
him right in the chest. He said, son, preach to the heart. Preach to my heart. Preach to the heart. Hmm. With the heart man believes.
Out of the heart are the issues of life, isn't it? A heart convicted of sin. Not
a head convinced of sin. A heart convicted of sin. Right? A broken and a contrite
heart. That's what God will not despise.
To this man will I look. He is poor and a contrite heart. That's who will hear the gospel.
And the only thing that will comfort a broken heart over sin
is the gospel. Christ crucified. Here it is. Here it is. Speak to her heart
and tell her her warfare is accomplished. Now someone say, we're not in
a war. It's a time of peace. No, they
say peace, peace. There is no peace. There's a
warfare. Always has been. Tell my people,
go to Isaiah 14, go back to Isaiah 14. Tell my people, her warfare
is accomplished. It's over. The world is worried about a
World War, another World War, aren't they? World War III. Well,
there have been wars and our Lord said there will be wars
and rumors of war. That's not the warfare He's talking
about. And that's not the one we need.
We don't need to be worried about Putin. How do you say his name? Putin. Or Kim, that South, North
Korean. We don't need to worry about
those men. God has Putin in His hands. Putin can't do a thing. He can't do one thing unless
Jesus Christ says so. That's comfort, isn't it? There is no comfort other than that. We don't need to worry
about those men. Christ told us not to fear man who kills
a body. That's all he can do. And besides,
man doesn't kill the body, God does. The warfare, this warfare started
before the world began. You know that? It started in
heaven. It's a mystery. And you read
it in Revelation 12, that Michael and the angels fought, there
was war in heaven. Satan and his angel, and this
is not some fairy tale or allegory, this is true. Our Lord
Jesus Christ said it, I beheld Satan fall from heaven like lightning. How did he behold that? Because
he's the one that took hold of him and cast him out. Isaiah
14, look at it, verse 12, says, How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the
ground, which did weaken the nation? For thou hast said in
thy heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God. I will, I will. Verse 14, I will
ascend. I'll be like the Most High. Satan warred against God. That's a losing battle. And he
did. And our Lord Jesus Christ, who's
been Lord from the beginning, laid hold of him and cast him
out. It's a mystery. It's found in Revelation 12, cast out by
Christ. When did Christ cast him out? When did Christ bruise the serpent's
head? Do you know the answer to that? Sure you do. On Calvary. That's where the warfare was
fought for our souls. Paul said, we're not wrestling
with flesh and blood. But principalities and powers,
rulers of the darkness, were a spiritual wickedness in high
places. And you and I are no match. Adam was no match. Eve
was no match. We're not fighting this battle.
2 Chronicles 20. Go over there. 2 Chronicles 20. This is going
to be your favorite chapter in the Bible. If it isn't already. 2 Chronicles 20. Alright? Satan began warring. against God in heaven, and the
Lord cast him out on earth due his will. And he turned man against God
according to the will of God. And man became the enemy of God,
and man began warring against God. Do you hear me? And you and I did. We were enemies against God. Say not me? Yes, you. All of
us. You don't come from the womb
praising God. Huh? No, no. But Satan warred and
he tried to destroy God's creation and mankind. And like Paul said,
we're not wrestling with flesh and blood. principalities and power. And
our Lord Jesus Christ, when He came down to earth, when He came
to this earth, and as a man, the first thing He did, what's
the first thing the Lord did? He faced Satan. Remember that? This is our covenant
head. This is the second Adam. The
first Adam failed miserably and plunged all of us into despair.
Death. Sin and death by one man. Well,
one man came. And Isaiah, all through Isaiah,
says, he saw there was no man. And his right arm came. He put on righteousness as a
breastplate. Don't you love those scriptures,
John? He's going to obtain the victory.
He's going to do this work, this warfare, by himself. Like Samson. Like David. 2 Chronicles 20. I love this. You know how Israel was surrounded
by the enemy. More than they were. Stronger
than they were. Jehoshaphat was the king. In
verse 12. They prayed. They all got together.
Oh, our God, wilt thou not judge these enemies? We have no might
against this great company that come against us. We don't know
what to do. Our eyes are upon thee. And all
Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, their wives,
and their children, looking to the Lord, calling on the Lord
to fight against their enemy. And the Lord sent a man, a preacher,
named Jehaziel. As far as we know, it's the only
sermon he ever preached. Boy, was it a good one. But it
wasn't anything new. Moses already preached it. Look
down here in verse 15. Harken all Judah. Who's he preaching
to? You. Me. All the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, the church, and King Jehoshaphat. Thus saith
the Lord unto you, be not afraid. Played that song, How Firm a
Foundation. Be not dismayed by reason of
this great multitude. The battle is not yours, but
God's. Verse 17, You shall not need
to fight this battle. Set yourself. Just sit down. Just stand still and see the
salvation of the Lord. Why? Because salvation is there. The warfare for our souls was
fought by Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree, and he won. And I'm just as convinced as Armageddon
was fought on Calvary's tree. And Jesus Christ fought that
battle by himself. And it says, all of them bowed
their head and worshiped the Lord. And they said, and Josaphat
said, let's just start singing. And they saw all their enemies
dead. All our sins. And now back to
our text. It says in Isaiah 40, a warfare
is accomplished. Do you remember where you saw
the word accomplish? Do you remember seeing that in
the Scripture anywhere else? And I'll tell you. When the Lord
took Peter, James, and John up on the mountain, the Mount of
Transfiguration, to peel back His robe of flesh that He had
Himself veiled in. The Lord of glory, not just Jesus,
it's the Lord Jesus. It's God manifesting the flesh.
And He chose three men to show them who He is. Who? I Am that
dwelleth in light. Our God who is a consuming fire.
He peeled back that robe of flesh and they saw, they couldn't even
look on it, fell down. And there were two men meeting
with Christ on that mountain to talk. What are they talking
about? I'll tell you. It says, they speak of the decease
which He should accomplish. That is, bringing life and immortality
to life through the gospel. Abolishing death. I'm trying
to find it in 2 Timothy 1. It says the Lord Jesus Christ
has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to life
through the gospel. Isaiah said it. Oh, death, where
is that staying? Hosea said it. Tell them. Their warfare is accomplished. Christ won. And her iniquity
is pardoned. Her iniquity is pardoned. I was
going to go to Daniel 9. Having just read that, it said,
70 weeks are accomplished in bringing in everlasting righteousness. Iniquity is pardoned and put
away. Her iniquity. Where was iniquity
pardoned? On Calvary's tree. I cried. Iniquity is pardoned. What iniquity? All of it. It's
gone. Put away. Our Lord said, her
sins and iniquity. I'll remember no more. Why? Because
it's not there. All right. She hath received
of the Lord's hand. Here's our comfort. And old Brother
Scott. Brother Scott lost his first child, a daughter. She was very young. How old was
she? Very young. Very young. That's a tough trial. Then he had other sons. One of
them was put in prison. Another one caused him nothing
but grief. The Lord gave him cancer. Gave him cancer. He had a colostomy, he wore a
colostomy, and then his bladder went out, he had to wear an ileostomy,
he had to wear two, you know what that's like. He wore them
the rest of his life. It wasn't temporary, it was permanent.
And then the Lord took his wife, took his health, took his daughter,
took his wife, took everything. And Brother Scott said, I'm going
to give you two quotes. Brother Scott said, if you knew
what God knows, you would order your life exactly like God ordered. He wouldn't change a thing. And
one day you're going to thank Him for every pain you had. Yes, you are. He does what's
right. That's good. And Brother Scott
said this, he said, He said, I've never heard any really bad
news since I heard the good news. He died in the faith. Tell them their iniquities, pardon.
That's what the Lord said to that man that was sick of the
palsy, lying in bed, never walked his whole life. Laying from birth. Laying there.
And the Lord came and said, Be of good cheer. I see the Lord
smiling. Son, good news. I got good news. Your iniquities
are pardoned. Your sins are pardoned. Not you're healed. He didn't
heal him yet. Good news. Be of good cheer. Why is that
good news? Because those whose iniquities
are pardoned and put away and given life and forgiveness of
sin through Christ, someday they're going to be completely whole
and without sin and with the Lord forever. And the Lord's
going to wipe away all tears and all pain and suffering is
gone, and they'll never have that again. But those that the
Lord doesn't do that for, who He gives perfect health, they're
going to die. And their troubles aren't over,
they've just begun. And the Lord healed the man,
but he died from something. You know, if you don't die from
this, let's say, die from something, you've got to. You've got to. Be of good cheer. Your iniquities,
pardon me, you've received from the Lord's hand double for all
her sins, double. You've not only been pardoned,
you've been justified. Not only are your sins forgiven,
they're gone. They're blotted out. You're holy, unblameable,
unreprovable in God's sight. I would say, why, Christ? He
said, now you're clean. Why? Because I said so through
the Word. Redemption. And not only has He saved you
from destroying your life, but He's given you a righteousness.
Not only no condemnation, but loving kindness. Not only are
you not going to be cast out, you have bold access to come
in. And you'll never be cast out. Double. Not only no wrath, not only are
you safe from wrath, but He loves you eternally. He's not angry
at you at all. He loves you. Not only will you never die,
but you're going to live eternally. Double all our sin. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more. Grace, mercy, and peace be what? Multiplied. I'm out of time. I am. I'm going to quit. You want
me to continue? No, I'm going to quit. Somebody
said, that's where you ought to quit. Prepare you the way. I already did. I told you the
way. I told you. Christ is the way
to be comforted. All right. Stand with me.