Thank you. That was such a blessing. I want you to open your Bibles
this morning to the Old Testament, 1 Kings chapter 8. This is where I'm going to begin. Then I'll be going to Isaiah. But first of all, here in the
book of 1 Kings chapter 8, The scripture is always setting
before us that our God has given great, unusual promises to his
people. In fact, Peter says in 2 Peter
1 in verse 4, that which is given to us, the promises are great,
exceeding great and precious promises. And all of God's dear
promises are to His people, to His people. There's a verse here
in 1 Kings 8, the words were spoken by King Solomon. And I want you to look with me,
if you would, in 1 Kings 8 and verse 50 Verses 55 and 56. This is Solomon
speaking. And he stood and blessed all
the congregation of Israel with a loud voice saying, Blessed
be the Lord that hath given rest unto his people Israel according
to all that he promised There hath not failed one word of all
his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant."
If our God makes a promise to his people, not one word will
fail. And you who are the people of
God, you recognize the fact there are a multitude of promises given
to us in the Word of God. His promises cannot fail because
God can't fail. You see, the certainty of a promise
that is made is dependent upon the faithfulness of the one who
makes it. And our God, being God over all,
blessed forever, and all things are under His dominion and under
His control, when He makes a promise to His people, nothing in heaven,
earth, or under the earth can interfere with the fulfillment
of that promise. So they can't fail, the promises
can't fail, because God cannot fail. Our Lord Jesus said to
His sheep, He promised His sheep, I give you eternal life and they
shall never perish. There's a wonderful promise.
Doesn't that give you hope and comfort and peace? We can't perish. And the reason we can't perish
is because all of our sins have been made atonement for in the
bloody sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. When it says, they
shall never perish, that helps me because I'm a sinful man.
I'm like you. I eat, drink and commit sin. I am sin all the time. There is within me no good thing. There is not within me any good
thing. I'm a sinner from the top of
my head to the very bottom of my feet. And then the Lord comes
in reassuring mercy and He says, you're not going to perish, you're
one of my sheep. He's brought me to believe Him.
He's brought me to cast my soul with all of its sinfulness upon
the mighty Savior. And the mighty Savior is the
refuge and the rock of my salvation. I cannot, I will not perish because
our Lord upholds me. You see, I'm a sinful man and
I need the exceeding great precious promises of the Word of God. And the most vital of the promises
of God is that of eternal life. Titus chapter 1 and verse 2 says,
In hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised. God promised. before the world
began. He has made that promise to you. Are you a believer? You feel
weak? You feel sinful? You wonder,
will I make it to the end? Well, God has given you a good
hope through grace. That's a good expectation of
a future good ending of glory. because of whom the promise was
made to originally our Lord Jesus Christ, the hope of our salvation
is found in Him. There is the promise that God
has given to us of eternal life. He promised to us before the
world began that we will be kept by His power. God has promised
us eternal life. Now, keep in mind a few things
as I get into this message this morning. Number one, every promise
of God is made to us in, through, and by Christ Jesus. If you haven't underlined this
verse, you ought to. Jot it down anyway. 2 Corinthians
1.20, which says, For all the promises of God in Him, in Christ
Jesus, are amen unto the glory of God by us. They're sure. They cannot fail. And secondly,
keep this in mind, all of the promises of God in Christ belong
to and are only for those who believe Him. Now those of you
who are unbelievers, we pray that God will do a work of grace
within your heart, that God will save you by His mighty mercy,
that the Spirit of God will quicken you. But you cannot claim the
promises that God has made to His people until you have some
assurance that you are one of His people. These are made to
those who believe the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you believe Him? Is
He all of your hope? Is He all of your salvation?
Does your soul rest only in this mighty Redeemer who died for
sinners, who was buried for sinners, and raised again for sinners,
and who intercedes for sinners up in glory right now? Is He
all of your hope? You say, yes, He is. I have no
confidence in myself. Then all the promises of God
are yea and amen in Christ, and they all belong to you. All of
them. And I'll tell you the third thing,
the very glory of God is wrapped up in the fulfillment of and
the accomplishment of all of those promises that are yours
in Christ Jesus. God's going to make good on all
of them. You see, if God should fail to make good on even one
of His promises to you, He'd lose His glory. And that shall
never happen. Oh, so many promises. The Bible
begins with, in Genesis chapter three, it begins with the promise
that the seed of the woman was coming. And for 4,000 years,
that promise was not fulfilled, but that length of time did not
affect the certainty of that promise. For in 4,000 years,
the seed of the woman came. Christ was born of a virgin.
He came into this world to seek and to save that which was lost. The Lord said that He would crush
the head of the serpent. Four thousand years went by before
that was fulfilled, but it was fulfilled when our Lord Jesus
died upon the cross of Calvary. All of these promises. Now I
want to show you one, just one promise more this morning, and
I'll labor on this a little bit. It's found, it's kind of hidden
away in the book of Isaiah. If you would turn to Isaiah,
I'm going to put my ribbon here. Isaiah chapter 66. And here's my subject this morning.
I want to talk to you about the promise of comfort. Here's my subject, that's the
title of the message, The Promise of Comfort. Isaiah 66, last chapter
in the book, of course. I'll read two verses to you,
verses 12 and 13. Isaiah 66, verse 12. For thus saith the Lord, Behold,
I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the
Gentiles like a flowing stream. Then shall you suck, you shall
be born upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees." Now,
especially verse 13. As one whom his mother comforteth,
God says, so will I comfort you. And because God is the one who
made the promise, it says, and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. This is a wonderful promise given
to the children of God because we're constantly in need of comfort. We need comfort because as Job
said, Man is born to trouble as the sparks go upward. We have
lots of troubles. And if you're not having troubles
now, wait till this afternoon, or wait till tomorrow, you'll
have trouble. And this message, as I prepared
it, I thought, I know there are several folks in our congregation
going through some troubling times, but maybe you aren't.
But you need to file this away in your memory banks because
our God is the God of comfort and He promises He will give
to His children comfort. So if you don't need this today,
maybe you'll need it tomorrow or next week. Maybe you needed
it yesterday, I don't know. But the Lord laid this upon my
heart. and I hope it will be a blessing
to you. We've needed comfort ever since
our parents fell in the Garden of Eden. When I read about their
treason against God, When I read that Adam was our federal head,
that we became sinners in him and under the sentence of death,
when I read that, I'm looking for comfort in the Word of God
to help me, because I'm a sinner, I'm one who fell in Adam in the
garden. I need some comfort, and I can't
find it in myself. But I do find comfort in the
fact the Lord said, the seed of the woman is coming. He's
coming. And all through the Old Testament,
that promise rings out continually like a bell in a church steeple
continues to ring. It rings out. He's coming. He's
coming. Malachi said in the last chapter
of his prophecy, he shall come. And he did. He did. And that gives us comfort because
He didn't come to merely make His presence known in this world. He came to do something. He came
to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to redeem those
who were in bondage to the law of God. He came to break the
captivity of those who were held by Satan captive at His will. He came to do something about
our sins, our sins, and He put them away by the sacrifice of
Himself. I need this kind of comfort that
only God can give me through the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going
to ask some questions and I'll do my best to answer them. I
wouldn't ask you a question if I didn't know the answer, okay?
Number one, who is our comforter? The work of comforting His people
is not too condescending for our great God to do. It's true sometimes He uses instruments,
but in this text of Scripture, He does not say that He'll send
an angel to comfort, or even that he'll send one of his preachers
to comfort. He says, as one whom his mother
comforted, so will I comfort you. I need divine comfort, don't
you? I need God Almighty to speak
to my heart in the midst of trouble, in the midst of trial, in the
midst of sickness, in the midst of my sinfulness. I need God
to speak to my heart and say to me, I will comfort you. That's not a job He gives to
somebody else. He may use instruments, but all
true comfort can only come from the God of comfort. God says, I will comfort you. I will be your consolation. I will give you rest. That's
what the Savior said. I tell you, when a heart is made
heavy by the providence of God, and is in need of consolation,
in need of comfort. There's only one hand that can
heal the wounded, and that's a blood, a nail-scarred hand,
the hand of our Savior. He's a great physician who heals
the wounds of our heart. First of all, the Father comforts
us. And you know, isn't it a comfort just to be able to address God
as your Father? Why, that's comforting there.
And to know that He will hear us, for He adopted us into His
family before the world began. He purposed that we would be
His children. And we have the privilege to
call on Him and say, Abba, Father. Why, that's comforting in itself. Everybody can't say that. God's
not the Father of all men indiscriminately. He's the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and He's our Father. You remember the Savior said
to His disciples, I go to my Father, and then what did He
say? And your Father. He's your Father. He gave you life. You live because
of the good seed of the Word of God. where He has adopted
children. It may be that you're going through
a severe trial, and it's as though a sword has pierced your heart. But to know that that sword is
in the hand of your loving Heavenly Father, that's comforting. He will never wound you without
a good and wise purpose. He's our Father. And the cup
of bitterness that perhaps He has called you to drink, it is
a mixture, a potion designed for you by your heavenly Father. That's comforting. That's comforting. No wonder Paul says in 2 Corinthians
1, Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforted
us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them
that are in any kind of trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God. Our Father, God actively comforts
His children. And I'll tell you when it will
really be a true comfort to you, when the Spirit of God reminds
you and fills your heart with this truth, I'm one of the Lord's
little ones. And He's always watching out
for me. He chose me in the salvation. He appointed for me a Savior,
a substitute. He gave His Son to be sacrificed
for my sins. He sent His Spirit to me to quicken
me through the preaching of the gospel of the grace of God found
in the Lord Jesus Christ. My Father is the God of my salvation. Before the world began, He designed,
He purposed everything that would ever happen to me from my conception
all the way into eternity. That's a comfort to me. Nothing's
going to happen to me but that which has been purposed by my
all-wise Heavenly Father. The Father comforts us. And I'll
tell you this, the Son of God comforts us. In fact, he is called
in Luke chapter 2, he's a consolation of Israel. Look back at Isaiah
61. Isaiah chapter 61. Just a page or two back. Verses
1, 2, and 3. The Spirit of the Lord God is
upon me. Because the Lord hath anointed
me to preach the good tidings unto the meek." Who's speaking
here? That's our Lord Jesus Christ. And the Savior says, He hath
sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. Anybody in here brokenhearted?
Any of God's children, that is? Christ was sent to bind up the
wounds and to proclaim liberty to the captives. and the opening of the prison
to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn. Our Savior, the Lord Jesus, he's
the comforter of those who mourn. And to a point unto them that
mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of
joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting
of the Lord, that he might be glorified. Child of God, take
another faith look. upon the Son of God who loved
you and gave himself for you. He shed his blood to wash away
your sins. He was obedient unto death to
establish everlasting righteousness for you. See Him by faith bearing
the tremendous load of your sin to the cross of Calvary, and
enduring the penalty of sin, and putting all your sins away,
and then having died, come back from the dead. He's gone back
to heaven. He's your advocate, your law,
you're in heaven. Here's your comfort. You have
one who represents you before the majesty on high. And as you come to God through
the Lord Jesus Christ, you will always be accepted. Isn't that something? God is
absolutely holy, and you and yourself and me and myself, we're
absolutely unholy. But we can have an audience with
the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ who comforts us. And then the Spirit of God comforts
us. What the Spirit of God is called,
the Comforter. He birthed us into the kingdom
of God. He dwells within us. He's the
one who revealed Christ the Savior to us. He stirs up within us memories
and thoughts of the sweetness of the Lord Jesus Christ and
His sacrifice on our behalf. The Spirit of God does that.
The Spirit of God is our Comforter. He dwells within us as the Spirit
of Life, the Spirit of Light, the Spirit of Truth. And He shows
us the things of the Lord Jesus. Think of this. The Holy Trinity, the Father,
the Son, and the Spirit, all three of them are engaged to
comfort you. And that ought to comfort you,
knowing that. I understand that There was the
triune cooperation in the creation of the world, before that in
God's purpose of salvation. But I'll tell you, the great
three in one cooperate to give great consolation to the Lord's
people. Well, then let me ask the second
question that I know the answer to, and you will too, shortly.
The second question is, how does God comfort His people? Well,
number one, through His Word, through the Scriptures. Romans
15 verse 4 says, For whatsoever things were written aforetime
were written for our learning, that we through patience and
comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Read the Word of God. It's very comforting. It's soothing
to the soul. How does God comfort His people?
I'll tell you another way, through the preaching of the Gospel.
Turn back to Isaiah 40. Isaiah chapter 40. God uses vessels of clay, preachers
of the Gospel, to comfort His people. Isaiah chapter 40. These are the Lord's instructions
to Isaiah and to every preacher of the Gospel. Isaiah 40, verses
1 and 2, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Speak ye comfortably. Speak with understanding. Don't
speak over everybody's heads. Speak simply. Speak clearly. Speak with understanding to Jerusalem,
to that city of peace. and cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished. The war is over. My daddy was
in World War II. He was in the Navy. Brother Ken
was in the Navy. He and I talked about, and maybe
some of the rest of you were in the Navy. I don't know. My
dad was in World War II in the Pacific. And he said when word
came that Japan had surrendered He said, boy, there was great
celebration broke out. He said, the war is over! No
more shelling, no more bullets, no more bombs. And at night,
he said, we turned every light on the ship on, where it had
remained dark during the war, because he was just outside of
Japan. Your warfare, the Lord said,
is accomplished. The war is over. And you see,
our warfare is ended. Christ our Savior, He was wounded
for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement
of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we're healed.
The war is over. It's over. And then He says,
her iniquity is pardoned. Now that's comforting too. Your
sins are pardoned. You're forgiven. And she hath
received of the Lord's hand double for all of her sins. In other
words, not only forgiven, but you're made the righteousness
of God in Christ. This is my comfort. that I preached
to you this morning. I can't put it in your heart,
but I can remind the people of God, be comforted. Look what God through Christ
has done for you. And if that doesn't give you
any comfort, you're not gonna get any comfort. The warfare is accomplished. Did not the Savior say it is
finished? You say, well, I still struggle
with sin. I know you do, and I do too.
But as far as God is concerned, our sins have been separated
from us as far as the East is from the West. I made the righteousness
of God in Him. Justice has been satisfied. My
sins, which were many, are all washed away. Another enemy that I'm going
to have to face is death. But wait a minute, death has
already been conquered. Because our Lord Jesus died for
our sins, but He was raised again because of our justification.
We need not fear death. Death is just going to sleep
in this world and waking up in glory. Actually, the soul doesn't
go to sleep. We're here one moment and in
glory the next moment. How does God comfort his people? Well, through the preaching of
the gospel, through the word of God, through the preaching
of the gospel, through the working of divine providence. You see,
providence directs all things that happens to everybody, but
most especially to the people of God. You remember, and I may
preach on this sometime soon, in the book of Ezekiel, chapter
1, Ezekiel saw a wheel within a wheel. And providence is mysterious. It's like a wheel that's always
turning. And God is turning the wheel.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. How
does God comfort His people? By providence. And by secretive
means unknown to us. You know, sometimes, and this
is, I'm just speaking myself, but I suspect it's happened to
you before too. Sometimes I go to bed at night
and my heart is heavy about something or somebody and I tried as best
I can, cast my burden upon the Lord, knowing that He cares for
me. And I go to sleep with that burdened heart, and I wake up
in the morning, and I don't have any anymore. Has that ever happened
to you? It's mysterious. What it is,
it's the working of the Spirit of God within your heart, speaking
peace to you, whereas you were troubled, but the Spirit of God
gives you a blessed quietness and rest, even though circumstances
in the morning were just like they were the night before. But
something happens. It's the mysterious, miraculous
work of the Spirit of God who whispers, as it were, be peaceful,
be comforted. And sometimes he uses the ordinances. Baptism. It's the answer of a
good conscience toward God. The Lord's Supper. But let me get to this third
question. And that is, in what manner does God comfort us? Go back to my text in chapter
66. In what manner does God comfort us? He's very specific here. Verse 13, 66, 13, "...as one
whom his mother comforted, so will I comfort you." I'll tell you this, a father
can comfort a troubled child, but not like a mother can. Not
like a mother can. God is always set forth in the
masculine. And He sets Himself forth as
our Father. But to show us His tenderness,
and that He pities us, and that He's full of compassions that
do not fail, He uses the mother as an illustration of a comforter. You see, fathers, we try to comfort
our children, but we're not nearly as good at it as moms are. And you dads know what I'm talking
about. We try to comfort. I'll tell you what, when a child
falls and skins up his knees or his elbows or his hands or
whatever, it's not daddy, daddy. It's mommy, mommy. I need mama. Where's mama? because it's like a mother knows
by instinct what to do. There is placed within a mother
a genuine sympathy and compassion and a tenderness that us dads,
we'd like to have, but we don't have it. It's the mother who's always
ready to help a troubled child. And us fathers, we try to, but
we're a little awkward at it. We're not the best at it. It's
mothers always seem to feel the pain of the child. I miss my mama. And when I was little, I got more stitches than Carter's
got liver pills. I always had a bunch of accidents,
falling out of a tree, doing various other somewhat
dangerous things. I don't ever remember calling
for my daddy, although he would have helped, and I'm sure I did
on occasion, but mainly it was mom. Or if I was running a fever,
and she'd put her face down to my face and feel my temperature. And then she'd put a cold cloth
perhaps on my brow and put a kiss on my cheek or on my forehead.
Hey, you remember, don't you? Nothing like a mother's love.
Once a mother, always a mother. She's still being a mother to
her and to our son in Japan. And God would have us to know
the tenderness of his heart toward his children. And he says, as
one whom his mother comforted, I will comfort you with feeling." What this is saying is God is
very concerned about His children. We fell in the fall of Adam.
We lost our standing, lost the fellowship with God, lost our
beauty, lost our acceptance. It's the Father who stepped in
Pity and tenderness and yet injustice sent his son to make all things
right. And just like you moms, and several of you are now grandmas,
and maybe even a great grandma, Just like it's so comforting
to your child for them to still kiss you on the cheek. Showing a mother's love. You
know what the church says of our Lord Jesus Christ? Let him
kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. Just shower me with your
love, oh God of glory. We have fallen in Adam, but our Lord picks us up, and
like a mother, he hugs us to his breast, and he plants a kiss on our cheek,
and he says, all is forgiven, and all is well. I will take care of you. I have
watched over you from old eternity. I'll take care of you all the
way to the end. Well, oh, I got one more question,
don't I? The fourth question is, what
is the result of God comforting us? Well, it's a really good
answer because it's the last statement of verse 13. And ye
shall be comforted. If God comforts you, you shall
be comforted. And you may need it again in
the next hour. He'll comfort you then. You'll
need it tomorrow. He'll comfort you then. And He
says, I am thy Redeemer. I'll never leave thee nor forsake
thee. That gives me comfort. And I'm thankful He will never
abandon. any of his children. That's the
promise of comfort. The Lord Jesus said, come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. What'd he say? I'll give you rest. I'll give
you comfort. Let's sing a closing song. 205.