Now, if you would, let's stay
right there at Isaiah 66. The title of the message tonight
is, Comfort for Those Who Tremble. Comfort for Those Who Tremble. Now, you don't normally think
of comfort in the context of trembling, do you? Somebody's
trembling, you think of them as being scared or nervous or
uncertain of something. But that's not what this passage
here relates. Those who tremble are the people
of God who rest in His Word, who rest in Christ, and we'll
see that. But I want you to understand
the progression of how this prophecy that God gave through the prophet
Isaiah, how it progresses, how He concludes it, is something
really to see. And I hope that your journey
through the book of Isaiah has been blessing to you as it has
been to me as I've studied it and taken my own journey through
it. Certainly we've seen how this is a book of Christ just
as much as any other book of the Bible, a prophecy of the
glorious person and the finished work of Christ. And that's what
this last chapter is about. But it sets forth Christ in His
glory in two ways. First of all, it sets forth Christ
in His glory against the dark background of the depravity and
unbelief and idolatry of the natural man. In fact, in that
realm, you're going to see how the book of Isaiah, in a lot
of ways, ends or concludes in about the same way that it started.
And we'll turn back to Isaiah 1 tonight to see that. So that's
one way it sets forth the glory of Christ. and Him crucified
and resurrected again, the glory of His person and His finished
work. Setting it like that diamond that is laid on that black cloth
that we always hear about, that sets forth the radiance of the
diamond and how many facets it has. Well, this is the same way.
The second way that the glory of Christ is set forth is through
the redemption and the calling and the gathering together of
His church. And it's called Zion's glory,
but it's not a glory of her own. You see, we as the church of
God, the people of God, the body of Christ, we have no glory of
our own. Our glory, which we can honestly
say is our glory, is Christ, who is the head of the church,
who is the redeemer of the church, who is the husband of the church,
who is the chief cornerstone and the foundation of the church.
You see, He's our glory. and removed from Him, or without
any relation to Him, we have no glory. And that's what people
need to see today, you see. It's not a combined glory of
what you bring to God and what He brings to you. It's all Him.
All Christ. And He is our glory. So let's
take some time and look at these first few verses. The first four
verses here, very descriptive. And I want you to see that one
of the things that it refers to is a future destruction of
Judaism as a system of worship, and even of the nation Israel
as a nation under the Old Covenant. That system of worship will be
put away. Now, the Old Covenant was instituted
and ordained and put into motion by God on Mount Sinai to the
nation Israel. But that covenant was destined
to be temporary. Now sometimes you'll read in
the scriptures, especially in the book of Jeremiah, about how
it is an everlasting covenant. But that word everlasting has
to be kept in its context. What that means when it comes
to the old covenant is that it was going to last as long as
God ordained it to last. And that may seem like forever
to man, you know, it lasted about 1,500 years. That was the total
time period of it. But it had an end. You see, when
Christ came, the scripture says, he taketh away the first, the
old covenant, that he may establish the second. It wasn't because
the first was no good. It had a purpose, and its purpose
was to be accomplished. Now, when you speak of Judaism,
you're speaking literally of a perverted view of the old covenant. And that's what Isaiah is going
to be describing here. He uses some very graphic language
here to describe the perversion of Judaism as it perverted the
Old Covenant. What I mean, well, I'll show
you that in just a moment. But here we have a prophecy that
that system is going to be taken away and a new system is going
to be brought in by the coming of the Messiah. So hold your
finger there at Isaiah 66 and turn to Acts chapter 7. I want
to show you that. Now, you know Acts chapter 7
is Stephen's message in Jerusalem. And you know what happened. Stephen
preached the gospel, and in preaching the gospel, he related the whole
history of Israel, pretty much, from Abraham on. And in Acts
chapter 7, if you'll look at verse 49, he quotes from a few
of these verses in the first four verses of Isaiah 66. Let's look back up at at verse
44 of Stephen's message here, Acts 7. Here he says, Our fathers
had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had
appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according
to the fashion that he had seen. You know who that tabernacle
represented. It represented Christ and all
His glory and all His power and all His offices. Every bit of
that tabernacle had something to do with the person of finished
work of Christ. That's what his testimony was.
There is the dwelling place of God. And what that means is not
that God was contained in that tent, or even when the temple
was built, that God was contained within that building. You can't
contain God. That's what he's going to say
in Isaiah 66, and that's what Stephen's going to quote here.
If you think you can contain God, What it is, you see, people
think that they contain God to themselves, like to their denomination. You say, we have God, but you
don't. And you can't say that now. God
is in Christ, the Scripture says. He said, Philip, if you've seen
me, you've seen the Father. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And that doesn't mean God is
contained within boundaries, but Christ is God Himself. So
you can't build a building saying, I'm going to put God there. You
can't make a tent and say, I'm going to put God there. But the
Jews said, here's a nation. We're going to put God there.
And you can't have God or have anything to do with God or any
blessing from God until you get in there with him. In other words,
you've got to become a Jew. No, sir, you can't do that. That
was not the witness of the tabernacle. The tabernacle was witnessing
of the dwelling place of the Shekinah glory of God. And that
was all in the salvation of a sinner by God's grace in Christ. So
look at verse 45 of Acts 7. He says, Which also our fathers
that came after brought in with Jesus, that's Joshua, into the
possession of the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face
of our fathers unto the days of David, who found favor before
God and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. But Solomon
built him a house. Solomon built the temple. David
wanted to build it, but Solomon built it. Howbeit the Most High
dwelleth not in temples. Now here is where he is quoting
from Isaiah 66. Howbeit the Most High dwelleth
not in temples made with hands, as saith the prophet. Heaven
is my throne, and earth is my footstool. What house will you
build me? How could you contain such a
God? Sayeth the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Hath
not my hand made all these things?" And what Stephen was showing
them in that message, now go back to Isaiah 66, what Stephen
was showing them is that in their perversion of the Old Covenant,
which included the tabernacle, or later on the temple, the sacrifices,
the ceremonies, the priesthood. In their perversion, they had
totally missed the message of God. They had totally missed
God. Now, we know the reality of that because that old covenant
was given as a schoolmaster to lead them unto Christ. And the
point that Stephen's making here is if you miss Christ, if you
miss Jesus of Nazareth, you've missed God. You've gone somewhere
else. You're not worshipping at the
feet of God, and you're not trembling at God's Word. You're not obeying
reverently God's Word. That's what that means. So look
at it as it's related back here in Isaiah 66. This was the same
situation in Isaiah's generation. It was no different. He says,
thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne. That's what he
was quoting. That's what Stephen was quoting. The earth is my
footstool. Where is the house that you build
unto me and where is the place of my rest? It's foolish. It's
utter foolishness for men to think that God can be contained
in buildings. But my friend, it's just as foolish
for us to think that God can be contained anywhere. I don't
care where it is. It's our denomination, our church
building or whatever. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. That's
what the Scripture says. So what was he saying? He said,
if you're going to find God, you've got to find Christ. You've
got to go to Him through Christ. That's why Christ said, I'm the
door. That's the door to God. That's the door to salvation.
That's the door of grace. He said, I'm the way, the truth,
and the life. So it's foolish. Were you going to build a house
for God? Where are you going to build
a place for God to lay down and rest? You can't do that. God
says in verse 2, For all those things hath mine hand made. He
made those things. And all those things have been,
saith the Lord. Everything that's been, He made.
But now look here, and I want you to see this. But to this
man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite
spirit, and trembleth at my word. God will take notice of that
man or that woman who is poor in spirit, who is contrite of
heart. What does that mean? It's a broken
heart. God dwells in broken hearts. Not that He's contained therein. You can't contain Him. But He
dwells in grace. He dwells in mercy. Look over
at Psalm 34. Listen as the psalmist writes
of this. He says in verse 16, or verse
15, he says, the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous.
Now who are the righteous? They are sinners saved by the
grace of God. Sinners made righteous by Christ.
Sinners washed in His blood. And he says, and His ears are
open unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against
them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from
the earth. The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth. He hears
their cry, their cries of sorrow, their cries of pain, their cries
of mercy. O Lord, be merciful. And delivereth
them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that
are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. You can build the biggest concrete,
crystal, steel cathedral that man has ever seen on earth. And
I want to tell you something, you don't impress God at all. You can fill it full of stained
glass windows. You can trim it in gold. You
can have the most comfortable seat and you can fill it up with
people, but you won't impress God at all. There's only one
thing that impresses God, and that's a broken heart, a contrite
spirit. And you want to know why that
impresses God? Because that is God's creation. That person is
the work and product of the grace and power of God. Look over at
Psalm 51. You see, by nature, we're not
brokenhearted and of a contrite spirit over sin. We might be
sorrowful. We might be contrite about many
things. but not about sin, and not about
self-righteousness, not about the things that are aimed in
opposition to the glory of God. You can make sinners sorry in
an ungodly way. Paul wrote about that in 2 Corinthians
chapter 7. He told the Corinthians that
his desire in ministering unto them through his letters was
to make them sorry for what they were doing. What were they doing?
Well, they were dividing over preachers. dividing the brethren. They were letting a scandalous
sin go unrebuked within their church. They were abusing the
Lord's Supper. They were treating the poor,
that is economically poor, wrong with contempt. They were doing
all kinds of things. They were letting false preachers
come in and preaching another Jesus. And Paul said, my aim
was to make you sorry. You need to be made sorry. That's
what he said. But not so as to do you damage,
he said, but you need to be made sorry and contrite and brokenhearted
over your sin after a godly sort. And what's the difference? What's
the difference in just being made flat sorry and wallowing
in your despair and being made sorry after a godly sort? I'll
tell you the exact difference. Those who are made sorry and
contrite of heart in a godly sort end up finding peace and
comfort and salvation and deliverance in Christ and Him alone. That's
the difference. If you can find it anywhere else,
you're just a sorry sinner. That's it. Legally sorry. You're just sorry. Somebody says,
you're just sorry. You know, if you don't have Christ,
that's all we are. Just sorry. But look here in Psalm 51. You
know this psalm was written. It's David's psalm of repentance
over his being brought to godly sorrow over sin, a broken heart,
a contrite heart, a broken spirit. And he says in verse 16 of Psalm
51, he says, For thou desires not sacrifice, Else would I give
it. Thou delightest not in burnt
offering. The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit." At this point in time,
David was so broken in spirit. Remember back up here, he said,
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with
thy free spirit. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit and broken in a contrite heart. O God, thou wilt not despise. You see, that's a work of grace
right here. It's a work of mercy. And that's what he's saying here
back in Isaiah 66 too. To the man will I look. God will
take notice. God will look favorably. That's
what he means here in verse 2. He will look graciously. He will
look pitiably, as one writer said. Even to him that is of
poor and a contrite spirit. And then he says, and trembleth
at my word. What is it to tremble at God's
Word? It doesn't mean to run scared. It doesn't mean to be nervous
or anxious. It means to respect and regard
and revere and believe God's Word. You see, this pour of spirit,
this contrite spirit, this broken heart, is not one that wallows in the
slew of despond, as old John Bunyan put it in Pilgrim's Progress. It's not one who sinks up to
the ears in the slew of despond and stays there. It's the broken
sinner. who knows his frame, who knows
his sin, who knows his depravity, who knows his helplessness and
his hopelessness within himself and in anybody else except one
and one alone, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ, the crucified
One, the risen One, the One who is seated at the right hand of
the Father ever living to make intercession for us. Oh, my soul,
if we can ever find peace in the Prince of Peace, There you'll
find that mercy beggar, that contrite spirit, that one who
trembles at the Word of God. He has a reverence and a respect
and a regard for God's Word of grace in Christ, the gospel of
salvation conditioned on Him alone. That's what he's talking
about. Look at verse 3. He says, now,
here's the opposite now. Here's the opposite of the broken
heart, the contrite spirit. He goes back to their worship
services, their ceremonies, their sacrifices. He said, now here's
the reality of it. He says, he that killeth an ox
is as if he slew a man. Here's a person coming to sacrifice
an ox or a heifer. And God says through the prophet,
this is no different than if you went out and murdered somebody. Now that's pretty serious, isn't
it? You might as well go out and kill somebody. It's no different
in God's sight. He says, he that sacrifices a
lamb as if he cut off a dog's neck. Think about that. You might
as well bring an old dog, cut his neck, and bring him. It's
no different in God's sight. You see this? The prophet didn't
hold back. He must have missed Dale Carnegie's
book. I don't know. But this isn't
it. You say, Isaiah, you're going
to make somebody mad. This is the Word of God. You
see, their fight was not with Isaiah. It's with God. He goes
on. He says, He that offer an oblation,
that is like a thank offering or something like that, as if
he offered pig's blood. Boy, you talk about insulting.
You might as well just slaughter a pig and bring it. He says,
He that burneth incense as if he blessed an idol. It's idolatry,
he's saying. Your worship is idolatry. You say, well, he must be talking
about some really mean folks. No, he's talking about Israel.
He's talking about sincere religionists who have missed the gospel. And he says, "...and their soul
delighteth in their abominations." Look back at Isaiah chapter 1.
This is the exact same thing that Isaiah said when he began
his ministry as a prophet of God. In verse 11, what was the
problem? Why would the Lord, through Isaiah,
bring so much graphic language? Couldn't he
tone it down a little bit? I read an article the other day
that says that preachers today have either never had or lost
the ability or the desire to offend people with the gospel.
You know, that's called the offense of the cross. And we're not to
water it down. Now, we're not out to offend
anybody, but the gospel is offensive to the natural man. That's what
the Scripture says. But look at verse 11. He says,
and here's the key to it now. To what purpose is the multitude
of your sacrifices unto me? Why are you doing it? What's
your motive? That's the key. You bring an
offering, an oblation. You bring a sacrifice. You pray. Why? What's your motive? And
he says, this is, saith the Lord, he said, I'm full of the burnt
offerings of rams and the fat of fed beast. I delight not in
the blood of bullocks or of lambs or of he-goats. When you come
to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand to
tread my courts? Now, somebody might look up and
they'd say, well, didn't God command them to do this? Not
for this purpose. Not for the purpose they were
doing it. Not the way they were doing it. They had corrupted
it. They had perverted it, you see.
So who hath required this, you see? Verse 13, bring no more
vain oblations. That is empty oblations. Incense
is an abomination unto me. The new moons and sabbaths, month
after month, day after day, week after week, the calling of assemblies,
your services, I cannot away with that. That means I've had
enough of them. I can't get away with them fast enough. And he's
away from him. He says, it's iniquity, even
the solemn meeting. And he goes on, when you spread
forth your hand. You can read the rest of it. But that's what
he's saying over here in Isaiah 66. It's the same thing. Expressing
God's hatred. Here's what he's expressing.
God hates false religion. God hates perverted religion. God hates a proud look. That's
the problem. It was God who commanded Israel
to worship. But you know what? They perverted
God's way of worship. And this is like men and women
today. They have a Bible, but they pervert it. They want to
add their little fling to it. They want to add their little
stuff to it. Their take on it. And they pervert it. Remember
what was wrong with Israel's worship. Remember, there's three
things. Let me remind you. Number one, it was worship without
truth. Worship without truth is idolatry. It's a lie. That's what worship
without truth is. You say, well, some are closer
than others. I think it was Brother Scott
Richardson who made this point. He said, rat poison is 99% good
food. But you're not going to eat it,
are you? I hope you don't. Just that 1% is enough to kill
you. And that's the way Christ said, a little leaven leaveneth
the whole lump. And their worship was without
truth. They didn't see the ultimate purpose of the Law of Moses,
to bring them in as guilty, defiled, depraved sinners and leave them
with no hope but Christ and Him crucified and risen again. You
see, they used it to seek righteousness by their works. What were they
supposed to do? What did God command them to
do? Look to the promised Messiah as their only righteousness before
God. They perverted it. You see, without
Christ, it's nothing. Secondly, it was worship in pride.
It was self-righteous. They did these things self-righteously,
legalistically, thinking that the acts and the intentions would
recommend them unto God. And then thirdly, it was worship
without heart. without spirit, without love. It was hypocrisy. Our Lord said
it this way in Matthew 15, verse 8. He said, This people draw
nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me. And that reduces everything they
do, every sacrifice they bring, every prayer they make, to what
God calls an abomination. Somebody said one time, said,
what we need in this nation is a nation that prays. No, sir. Are you shocked to hear me say
that? We don't need a nation that prays. We need a nation
that prays to God through Christ. That's what we need. We need
a nation that prays to the true and living God through the Savior,
the Redeemer, the true Messiah. and High Priest, the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what we need. Not just to pray. You see somebody
on their knees, you may be impressed. I'm going to tell you something.
God takes no notice of it except as an abomination unless that
prayer comes through the High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ,
by His blood and righteousness alone. Luke 16, 15. Our Lord said to the Pharisees,
He says, "...you are they which justify yourselves before men,
but God knoweth your hearts, for that which is highly esteemed
among men is abomination in the sight of God." Don't ever think
that just because it impresses men, that it impresses God. Look back at Isaiah 66, look
at verse 4. He says, I also will choose their
delusions, and will bring their fears upon them, because when
I called, none did answer. When I spake, they did not hear,
but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which
I delighted not. This is God's just recompense
for unbelief. I know all men by nature refuse
to believe, refuse to bow, refuse to tremble at the Word of God.
And I know that if we do believe and bow and tremble at the Word
of God, it's by the grace of God alone. I know that. But God
says right here in His book that the reason He's going to choose
their delusions, their deceptions, you see, and bring their fears
upon them is because when He called in the preaching of the
gospel, men and women stubbornly and rebelliously refused to believe. They would not hear. They close
their ears. Our Lord said that in the book
of Matthew, chapter 13, when the disciples asked him, why
do you speak in parables? And he said, because they see,
see not. Hearing, hear not. They close
their eyes and close their ears, lest they should hear and see
with their eyes and hear with their ears and be converted.
They don't want this conversion. They don't want to repent of
their works because they think so highly of them. They don't
want to bow to Christ and His claims. And this is what He says. Over in 2 Thessalonians chapter
2, He said that He would send strong delusion that they would
believe a lie. To whom? Those who would receive
not the love of the truth. But, look at verse 5. Now here's
where the comfort really starts. Listen to what God says. Hear
the word of the Lord, He says. You that tremble at His word.
You who reverence His Word, you who respect and regard and love
and believe His Word. That's what that means. You tremble
at the Word of God. Oh, my soul, the Word of God
has so much weight and authority to a child of God. It's not that
we're scared of what God's going to say or has said, but it's
just that it is the law. I know people don't like that
word sometimes, but what would you call it? A suggestion? Does
God say, I suggest to you, if you are of a mind to do so, or
if you think it's a good idea, to believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ? No, sir. He says, believe or
else. Now, isn't that what He says?
That carries the weight of a law. Now, that's not legalism. He doesn't command any sinner
to seek salvation by their works. He forbids that. But I'll tell
you what, we tremble at His Word when we see the weight behind
it, the glory behind it. His Word is above all things. No matter what men say, we're
going to believe God. That's what that means. So he
says, listen, and listen to what he says here in verse 5. He says,
your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's
sake, said, let the Lord be glorified, but He shall appear to your joy,
and they'll be ashamed. What he's saying is like this.
Your own families hate you and turn you out because of me. And
they taunt you. They'll say, let's see God's
glory. If God's so great, why aren't
you happy? Aren't you on easy street? Why
ain't life a bed of roses for you? But they're the ones who
are going to end up being ashamed. That's what he's saying. Not
you. And then he speaks in verse 6.
Look here. He says, "...a voice of noise from the city, a voice
from the temple, a voice of the Lord that rendereth recompense
to His enemy, God's vengeance from His holy place." Jerusalem
will be destroyed. Israel will be scattered and
lost. by the glory of God in Christ. And then these last verses
here, this whole thing from verse 7 to verse 14, is a description
of how Christ's church and kingdom is going to survive, but not
just survive. This is not just existence now.
It's going to be fully inhabited, fully populated, not one's going
to be lost, and they're going to prosper in Christ. They're
going to flourish. And here's how he speaks of a
spiritual birth here, verse 7, "...before she prevailed, she
brought forth..." God already has a people. Israel hasn't yet
been put through all this trouble. She's going to be. And you know
what's going to come out of that trouble? The birth of a nation. Now you think about that. There's
a type and picture of that back in the Old Testament in Exodus,
isn't there? Israel went into trouble, into Egypt, into bondage,
and out of that trouble came the birth of a nation physically.
Well, here he's talking about a trouble for Israel, a travail. And out of that trouble is going
to come the birth of a nation, a spiritual nation, spiritual
Israel. But before she travails, she
brought forth... God already has a people right
here. Isaiah is one of them. You can
reach all the way back and go back to Adam and Abel, Enoch,
keep on going, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon,
keep on going. He already has a people. So she's
already brought forth. And it says, Before her pain
came, she was delivered of a man-child. You see, the spiritual birth
of God's elect is brought to pass without the aid of man.
It's all by the power of God. He says in verse 8, Who hath
heard? Such a thing. Who ever heard
of such a thing? That's what it means. Who ever
heard of that? Well, not man. Who hath seen
such things? Shall the earth be made to bring
forth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at
once? For as soon as Zion prevailed, she brought forth her children.
The holy nation of Zion, the church, spiritual Israel, the
separated, sanctified people, were brought forth in one day. And that one day was the cross
of Calvary. It's in his death, burial, and
resurrection. You see, he shall see of the
travail of his soul and be satisfied. He shall see his seed and be
satisfied. That's a prophecy of Christ.
And then he says, look at verse 9, shall I bring to the birth
and not cause to bring forth? Is there going to be any stillborn
children out of this? No, sir. No, sir. Every one of God's people, God's
elect, Christ's sheep, are going to be brought forth out of this.
Shall I bring to the birth and not cause to bring forth, saith
the Lord? Is he ever going to fail to save even one of his
people? Shall I cause to bring forth
and shut up the womb, saith thy God? Well, here's your answer. Look at verse 10. Rejoice ye
with Jerusalem, and be glad with her. Now, when you speak of a
woman in the travail of childbirth being glad, how in the world
can she be glad? There's a healthy child brought
forth. Is that right? Be glad with her,
all ye that love her. Rejoice for joy with her, all
ye that mourn for her. Our travail for children in prayer
is not the cause, but only the side of the result of God's work.
God is going to bring forth His people through His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the only part that we have
in this whole thing is joy. Christ did all the suffering.
He suffered for the sins of His sheep. He shed His precious blood
unto death. He gave Himself. And look at
verse 11, that you may suck and be satisfied with the rest of
her consolations, that you may milk out and be delighted with
the abundance or the brightness of her glory. The church's comfort
and consolation for her children are the ministry and ordinances
of the gospel which feed us by the Word of God. We continually
feed on the milk of the Word. We continually feed on the meat
of the Word. We continually hear Christ preached. And it feeds our souls, and we're
satisfied. And when we hear other things
that don't honor Him and glorify Him or leave Him out, we're not
satisfied. Not satisfied like a starving
child. The brightness and abundance of our glory is Christ Himself,
the crucified One who was buried and rose again the third day,
who is the Lord our righteousness, Jesus Christ, who is the propitiation
for our sins, And then look at verse 12. It says, 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. You see, the
Gentiles are included here. And that proves it now. That
caps it off. Who's he talking about? He's
talking about a spiritual nation here. God's elect out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. And this peace will be extended.
It's not confined just to one nation or one group or one ethnic
group. It's going to be extended like
a river in 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. You see
the picture here, like a loving mother taking that baby, feeding
that baby, making that baby happy, dandling the baby upon her knees.
That's the peace He gives, like a mighty flowing river for abundance. He is the peace of pardon in
Christ. The peace of righteousness in
Him. Reconciliation in Him. Grace in Him. And then look at
verse 13. As one whom his mother comforted,
so will I comfort you. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.
He is the God of comfort. And our comfort is in Christ.
Christ who is the consolation, the comfort of Israel. And you
shall be comforted in Jerusalem. Here is comfort. for the poor
in spirit, comfort for the broken hearted, the contrite heart,
comfort for those who tremble at the Word of God. And it will
be in Jerusalem, in the city of God, the dwelling place of
His glory, the habitation of His people in Christ. And verse
14, and when you see this, your heart shall rejoice. When you
hear and believe the gospel, when you come to a saving knowledge
of Christ, you'll hear this and you'll rejoice and your bones
shall flourish like an herb And the hand of the Lord shall be
known toward his servants, and his indignation toward his enemies."
Oh, I'm telling you, that's comforted. That's a comfort that only God
can give. Nobody else can give that. Not
that kind of comfort, not that kind of peace to those who tremble
at the Word of God.