Our Lord said here in verse 1,
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Two things stand out here. My
people and your God. My people and your God. You know
the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The whole world,
the heavens is his throne. The earth is his footstool. And
He reigns upon the earth, and He reigns over the children of
men. He says He does according to
His will in the heavens, and the sea, and in the earth, and
in all deep places. He does whatever pleases Him.
Then He turns around here and says, My people, My people. There's a certain number that
He calls My people. He calls them His chosen, His
elect, His purchased, He calls them even his peculiar people.
And look what is said down here in verse 12. This is what I'm talking about. He
who hath measured the waters in the halls of his hand, meted
out the heaven as a span, comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure,
and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance.
Oh my, behold the nations are as a drop in the bucket, A small dust on a balance. And
then he turns around and says, I'm your God and you're my people. That don't sound like the God
of this age, that's for certain. But oh, he calls them my people.
We're his property, his children, his peculiar treasure, vessels
of mercy, sheep, elect. And everything in this world
and all the fullness of it belongs to him. Yet he says, my people.
And he said, blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes
to approach unto thee. And oh my, he brought these people
near to himself. He said, he drew us with the
cords of a man, loved us with an everlasting love and drew
us, grew us with the cords of a man. My people. Can you by faith put yourself
in this number? Say, My people, My God. Can you say like Thomas did? My Lord and My God. Can you say
that? Can you read your title clear
written in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? Can you say I'm
accepted in the Beloved? Well, God is full of care, love
for his children. In fact, he says, comfort ye.
Mentioned it twice. Comfort ye, comfort ye. Not just
anybody. Comfort my people. Oh, God said, I want my children
to have comfort. He's not talking about earthly
comfort. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about
spiritual comfort. Comfort for the heart. Comfort
for the soul. Comfort for where we're gonna
go in eternity, what's gonna happen to us. And I tell you
what, he says, comfort, comfort you, my people. And you know,
who is it that God uses to comfort his people? Well, the first thing
he uses is the Holy Spirit. He said, I go away, I'm leaving
this world. But I'm not going to leave you
like orphans. I'm going to send a comforter,
another comforter. The Holy Spirit, when He comes,
you know what He's going to do for you? This is comforting.
He's going to guide you into all truth. And He's going to
teach you that truth. And He's going to take the things
of mine, and He's going to show them unto you. And so that's
comforting to know that the Holy Spirit, Christ left us the Holy
Spirit here, and it's the Holy Spirit that teaches us the truth,
guides us to the truth. We ain't been guided to all the
truth yet. But I tell you what little truth
I've been guided to, I sure love it and cherish it, don't you?
I don't know much about it, but I do know this, what He's guided
me into, I love it and thank God for it. And I tell you, He
uses instruments. He uses instruments for his people.
He uses preachers. Well, let me say this. Let me
mention this. He uses angels to comfort his
people. Do you know that? Now, you keep Isaiah 40. Look
over here with me in Hebrews chapter one. You know, you find Jacob. Jacob
was, angel came to him. Michael came to Daniel and strengthened
him, encouraged him. There was a great army around
Elisha one time. He was in his house and in this
army, you know, everywhere they went, somebody would tell them
where they was and what was going on. He said, is that bird around
here that's carrying the message to the Israelites? Because when
we set up the battle over here, they were there. And he said,
well, so what they've done, they just got their whole army and
surrounded Elijah's house, one prophet. And boy, his servant
went out and he looked up and he saw chariots and armory and
looked all around and saw armies. And you know what he said? Lord,
open his eyes that he may see. He said, there's more for us
than there is against us. The angel opened the doors for
Simon Peter. And when he knocked on the door
and said, let me in, they said, oh no, that can't be Peter, he's
in jail. No, an angel come and woke him
up. And the chains fell off of him. And Paul was standing on
his ship, fixing to sink the ship, fixing to sink. Been in
a storm for over 14 days. Didn't see the sun, the moon,
or the stars. Wind and rain and storms beat
on him. He's getting ready to crash,
getting ready to sink. And Paul said, oh man, be in
good cheer. What there to be in good cheer
about, man? We're fixing to go. Those ships falling all to pieces.
He said, the angel of the Lord stood by me this night and said,
there's not one of you going to be lost. Not one of you. So I tell you, God uses angels,
and here's where, He sends them oftentimes to be ministering
spirits to us. But look here in verse 13 of
Hebrews 1. But to which of the angels said he at any time, sit
on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool?
Well he didn't of course, Christ has got that position. And he
said, this is what he said, are they not all ministering spirits?
Sit forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. Oh my, our Lord Jesus Christ When Lazarus died, you know who
came and got him? An angel carried him into Abraham's
bosom. Let me give you somebody else.
Who else does the Lord use to comfort his people? Preachers. You say, well, boy, that's, well,
that's what we're called to do, called to comfort the Lord's
people. I know sometimes they don't feel comfortable. You know,
people used to say all the time, you know, said, boy, that preacher
got all over my toes. If that's the only place he got,
he didn't do you a bit of good. That's not comforting, get on
your toes. It's the heart. It's the heart that needs comfort.
It's the heart we have to deal with. And God uses preachers
to comfort his people. And ministers are called angels
of the church, lights of the church. But I know one thing
you can't do, you can't, hold their hands, you can't baby them,
and you certainly can't stroke them. You know what? Me and some
preacher friends, every once in a while, we'll talk about
people that's high maintenance. You ever been around anybody
that's high maintenance? Church members are high-maintenance.
Some are very high-maintenance. And boy, you get a high-maintenance
church member, and it's not good. It's not good. I'm a low-maintenance
person, so you know if you're a high-maintenance person, you
done got the wrong preacher, I'm afraid. But here, preachers
are called to minister and comfort the Lord's people. And you know
how they do it? By preaching the gospel of grace. Preaching the gospel of grace.
Preaching the gracious doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
no other doctrine that'll comfort a saint. No other doctrine. Free
willism and Arminianism won't comfort a heart. It can't possibly
comfort a heart. Is there any comfort in preaching?
You're a child of God and then may fall away? A child of God
today and a child of the devil tomorrow? No. To say you're redeemed
by the blood and yet say the blood is not sufficient for you
unless you add your thoughts, your actions, your good deeds,
your graces, your faith? That our standing depends upon
us? What comforts that? What comforts
that? Oh, but the grace of God. And
that's why, listen, God makes preachers and use the gospel
to comfort them. You know, look what he said here
in verse two. And this is, you're talking about
comforting right here. This is something we preach.
Speak ye to the heart. See what that says in the margin?
Comfortably to the heart. To Jerusalem. Jerusalem's the
Lord's people. Spiritual Israel we're talking
about. Tell her that her warfare is accomplished. The victory
has been won. No more warfare. No more warfare. No more war with God. No more
war with the dead. No more war. Her warfare is accomplished. The victory's been won. And that
her iniquity is pardoned. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity. And listen to this. She hath
received double. She hath received of the Lord's
hand double for all her sins. I think there's two things there
that we can talk about. You know, You got a match, sin,
it's light, it's a match, it's a fire. And you got this match
burning, and you take a bucket full, a whole three gallon bucket
full, and you dump it to put that fire out, that match out. Well, that's what God does for
us. He gives us a bucket full of grace. Where grace was sin abounded. You know what? Grace super abounded. Huh? And I'll tell you something
else. Another thing too. We receive punishment for our
sins. That's one way. And then the
second way is, is that we were rendered and regarded as obeying
the law ourselves, so our sins are paid for, and then God turns
around and charges us like we've never sinned, and we've kept
the law from the day we was born till the day we die. You know,
he said, I come that you might have life, and how much you gonna
have of it? Abundantly. He said he gives
grace, And then after he gives grace, he said, more grace. He
gives grace for grace. He gives you grace and then gives
you grace for that grace. That's pretty comforting, ain't
it? Oh, comfort you, comfort you. My people, oh my, you know,
Wednesday nights, in my opinion, for years, was the best service
night for me, for years. And used to have a set a little
thing down here and I'd have everybody sit on one side and
do my preaching or teaching from right there. And we've had the
best, because the church is here on Wednesday night. God's people,
people that's really truly interested, people that want to be fed, people
that want to be warned, people that want to be encouraged. They
want to be out of the world for a little while. And that's a
wonderful, wonderful thing. But there was a preacher one
time, I won't tell you his name, but he's ended up getting out
of the ministry, and it's a good thing he did. I thought he was
a very good preacher, and then he was called to be a pastor.
And when he got to be a pastor, he turned into one of the meanest
men in the pulpit I ever seen. I talked to him, Henry talked
to him, Don talked to him, but nobody could tell him anything. He told his congregation one
time, he said, if you come here for me to give you comfort, he
said, I'm not here to give you comfort. You want comfort, you
go someplace else. Now wouldn't that be awful? That'd
be awful. And there was a woman in his
congregation, she owned a beauty shop, and I was out there, and
every time I was out there, she'd cut my hair. And she'd come to
Cherokee one time, cut my hair at Cherokee, and cut some of
the women's hair. And she got cancer, and I mean she got sick. She just started withered away
on the bone. So she come in one morning, late. He's told her, he said, if you
can't get here on time, just stay at the house. And I tell you what, that's,
now, if you ever hear me acting that way, Y'all pick up songbooks,
pick up a baseball bat, pick up anything and start throwing
them at me. Oh God, you know how could anybody that's got
the grace of God in them mistreat one of the Lord's people? Our
Lord said, Oh my, be careful that you despise not one of these
little ones, for their angels do always behold the Father's
face. And oh my, I do know, but I'm
like Scott one time. Every time he'd hear a preacher
preach, he'd come up to me and say, one thing I didn't hear.
What's that? I didn't hear nothing about a
lamb. didn't hear nothing about a lamb. And I tell you what,
like Abraham, when he found that lamb caught in that thicket,
do you know what comfort he had? What assurance he had? What a
blessing it was to him? When we hear about Christ being
put in our place, bearing our sins in his own body on the tree,
bearing them away, bearing them away to never ever bring them
against us again. Now I tell you what, thank God
we've got a lamb. And that's just the next thing
it's going to tell us about here right now. He says, the voice
of him, verse three, the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,
prepare you the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a
highway for our God. Now we know that's John the Baptist.
So when he says, he said, I'm just a voice crying in the wilderness. Prepare you the way of the Lord.
Now listen to this. Make straight in the desert a
highway for our God. That word straight means don't
make it straight and narrow like that. That means you put this
thing down there where when he comes, you make people understand
who he is when he gets here. And they'd ask him, say, are
you the Christ? No, I'm not. There's one coming after me who's
shoelached, I'm not worthy to let him loose. He said, I'll
baptize you with water, but when he comes, he'll baptize you with
the Holy Ghost. And then after a while, the Lord
Jesus come to him to be baptized. And he said, oh no, Lord, you
ought to, you ought to, no, no, you ought to baptize me. He said,
no, no, it suffers us to fulfill our righteousness. I want to
be righteous and perform God's law in everything I do. And John
the Baptist, you know, he made that way so clear, so plain,
that the last time he saw Christ, you know what he said? He said,
there comes the Lamb of God and takes away the sin of the world.
What happened? Andrew followed him. And Peter followed him. And then he went by a fellow
sitting under a tree. And he saw that fellow named
Philip, and he said, Philip? He said, oh, he said, how? He
said, you know, he introduced him, Andrew talked about Christ,
and he said, can there any good thing come out of Galilee? And
our Lord said, you know, Philip, well, you're sitting under that
fig tree. I saw you, and I know what you're
thinking. His enlightenment indeed is who
know God. He said, oh, you're the Messiah,
you're the Lord. John made it clear when you saw
him who he was gonna be, who he was gonna be. And that's what
he did. And oh my, and he said this,
he said, and every valley shall be exalted. Oh, when you're down
there, down there low, he gonna lift you up. He gonna lift you
up, and listen to this, and every hill shall be made low, brought
down where you could go straight, and the crooked, the crooked,
we're crooked in Adam, just as crooked as we could be, he said
the crooked's gonna be made straight. He gonna make the way straight
for us, and then look what else he says. Oh my, and then the
glory of the Lord shall be revealed, Oh, listen, you know when this
was revealed? There's so many instances in the New Testament
and Old Testament where he was. But I'll just give you a quick
illustration. You know, when Simeon was an old man, I've told
you this and preached this so many times, but Simeon was an
old man, and he said the Lord wouldn't let him depart until
he had seen the Lord's Christ, to receive salvation. He picked
up a 40-day-old baby when they went to dedicate him to the Lord.
He picked him up, and he said, Lord, now let thy servant depart
in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, son and a
baby. And that's what he says, make
us in the desert a highway for who? Our God, our God. And I tell you, our God, He said
He's gonna make the rough places straight, plain. He's gonna make
all the rough places plain. Oh my. And the glory of the Lord's
gonna be revealed. Ain't you glad, ain't you thankful,
ain't you blessed, God, that you've seen the glory of Christ?
The glory of His power, the glory of His grace, the glory of His
person, the glory of His work, the glory of His death? The glory
of his resurrection, the glory of his ascension. Oh, we've seen
the glory of the Lord. And listen to this. And all flesh
will see it together. And that don't mean everybody.
That means Jew or Gentile. Same thing as John 3, 16. It
means the same thing. All flesh will see it together.
What flesh? Oh, he does start, that told
us what flesh is gonna see. My people. My people, they're going to see.
They're the ones that are going to see. And they'll see it together.
And here we are, we're all together and we see it. For the mouth
of the Lord has spoken it. The mouth of the Lord has spoken
it. And I tell you what, when we
find out that we're grass, that our flesh is as grass, And there's
nothing goodly about grass. You know, you got to keep it
mowed or it'll just take over. But the grass, oh, the flower
withereth and the flower fades. Spirit of the Lord blows upon
it. And I tell you, when God makes us know just how frail
we are, how weak we are, that we're just like a flower fading,
that we're just like grass that we walk on, just like grass that
we stand in the middle of, like grass and just, you know, and
we said, this is what you are. And when you find that out, He comes and comforts you. And
look what He says next. The grass withers and the flower
fadeth, but here's something that we can find comfort in.
The word of our God shall stand forever. You know, this is what's so wonderful.
When we get to heaven, God's word ain't going to change one
bit. It ain't. It ain't going to change. You
know what they talk about opening the books? This is the books. And
if you don't believe that book here, you surely ain't going
to believe it there. And I tell you, bless His name, the Word
of our God, He said it's going to stand forever. Now that's
comforting. I'm fading away, but His Word
stands forever. I'm just like grass, and I'm
getting frailer and frailer. We're these days like the grass
when the spirit and the wind blows on it, and the river blows
on it, and the frost blows on it. That ain't worth nothing,
and that's exactly the way we are. And then he comes along
and says, listen, you may not be much, but I'll tell you what,
my word will stand forever. You trust me. You trust me. And look what else he says here.
And old Zion said, bring us good tidings. Oh, bring us good tidings. Get up, get up on the mountain
now. Oh, Jerusalem. And tell Jerusalem, tell my people,
that bring us good tidings, lift up your voice with strength,
lift it up and be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah,
say unto the Lord's people, behold your God. My, behold your God. Well, who is he? Measures the
waters in the hollow of his hand, stretch out the heavens as a
span, takes all these nations of the earth He says, you know
what they are? They're just a drop in the bucket.
You know what they are? They're just dust on a balance.
You don't blow the dust. You don't expect somebody to
blow the dust off of a balance. You go buy a pound of bologna,
do you? Because you think it's going to make it way more. No, no. That's what he is. That's
the way he is. That's the way our God is. Oh,
my. And then listen to what he says.
Behold, the Lord God will come with a strong hand. And oh, how
he came with a strong hand, raised the dead, cleansed the lepers,
and he come with such a strong hand that he could take out the
stony heart and put in a new heart. He could take a mind that
was dark and subdue it. He could take a man and bring
him down. Oh, listen. And his arm shall
rule for him. He don't need no, that's all
he needs is an arm. Just an arm. Just an arm. And then all these folks get
together and lift up their hands, you know, like you're doing something
for, just give Jesus a big praise, will ya? And look what he says
here. His arms shall rule for him.
And listen to this. His reward's with him. What does he reward
you with? Salvation. He brings it with
him. When he comes and sits up in
your heart, sends up in your will, he brings his reward. What's his reward? Salvation. Father, you gave him to me. And
because you gave them to me, they're gonna come to me. He
said, oh, all right, listen. And he brings his salvation.
When Lazarus was dead, don't you think when Christ said, Lazarus,
come forth, what a reward that Christ brought with him. He raised
the dead. Lepers come to Him and said,
oh, then our Lord Jesus would touch them and they'd be clean.
Beggars would say, for mercy, oh Lord, and Christ give them
mercy. People say, I'm hungry, and Christ
give them bread. People say, I'm thirsty. Well, drink of the water of living
water. Ah, listen, I tell you what,
that's comforting, ain't it? Oh, that's comforting. And I
listen to this. And his reward with him and his
work goes before him. Oh my, he had everything established
before him. And listen to this now, and he
shall feed his flock like a shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. Listen to this, he gonna gather
these lambs, babies, newborn babies, babes, He said, you know
what he's going to do? He said, I'm going to gather
the lambs in his arm. Then what's he going to do? He's
going to carry them right up here, right in his bosom. And she'll gently lead those
that's got the young. He's going to gently lead them
along. And oh my, so much comfort here for us. And let me tell
you another thing here. I hope I'm not taking too long. You know, when he says, comfort
my people, I'll tell you something else God uses to comfort His
people. He uses His people to comfort one another. He uses
His people to comfort one another. Look over here with me in 2 Corinthians
chapter 1. Look at this out with me. 2 Corinthians
chapter 1. Starting in verse 3. You know,
if you've tasted that the Lord is gracious, be gracious. When
you're up, help those that are down. When you're sad, find somebody
who's happy and joyful and go to them and get some comfort
from them. But he said here in verse three,
blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
listen to this, the Father of mercies and the God of all comforts. The God of all comfort. Here
He says, comfort you, comfort you, my people. God said, I'm
the God of comfort. God of all comfort. And then
look what He goes on to say, who comforts us in our trials,
comforts us in our tribulation. You know, people go through things
in this world. Have someone in their family
dying. Someone that you have to live with is dying. Something
in your body just breaking down on you and you're getting weaker
and weaker and weaker as time goes on. But who comforts us
in our trials? Who comforts us in our tribulation?
He does. Then look what he does. So that
when we have these trials and these tribulations that we may
be able to comfort them which are in any trouble. You know
why God lets certain things happen to people? so that we can experience
it so when other people go through it, we can actually identify
with them and comfort them and go through it with them. Because
God comforted us when we was in trouble. And so when we get
in trouble, then we're able to comfort them that are in trouble
because we've had that experience. And I tell you where God comforted
us. You know, I remember I used to tell people, said, I never
have had a trial. If I've had a trial, I didn't
know it. But I guess the greatest trial that I believe I've had
is my two children, but especially my daughter. When she started going haywire,
that was a tough, tough trial. It's still a tough trial. It's
a tough thing to deal with. Talking about somebody just died
of a drug overdose. I certainly hope I don't get
that news one of these days. But she's tough for Mary to deal
with. She's tough for Shirley to deal
with. She's tough for me to deal with. Tough for her children
to deal with. And now when I see people having trouble with their
children, their grandchildren, I know what they're going through.
I know what they feel like. I know what they feel like. Then
when Bruce going through this thing with his wife now, spends
more and more time on the couch, more and more time on the couch.
I can identify with him. I can identify with him. I can
identify with people with depression. I can identify with them. I've
experienced lots of that. And that's why he says, we're
with God comforts us. When you see these people going
through the same thing, then you can identify with them. And
when you've had a lot of heartache and trouble in your own soul,
then you're able to help them who have trouble in their soul.
Does that make sense? That's what God said, the comfort
of wherewith he comforts ourselves. And so, God used us to comfort
one another. And I tell you, I've got a lot
of comfort, a lot of comfort from the Lord's people in my
life. And oh my, and let me finally
close with this right here. He said, to comfort, comfort
ye my people. You know why he tells us to comfort
his people? Because uncomfortable Christians,
uncomfortable Christians, they dishonor the Lord Jesus. Going
around looking miserable. I was talking to a fellow today
that used to go to Iran and go in the Mideast to take care of
business. He said, you go where the Muslims
are, he said, there's no happiness, no happiness, no joy. He said, they're just miserable
all the time because they have to live under such bondage. The
women's not allowed to show any part of their body. They gotta
walk three feet behind their husband. He said, they ain't
got nothing to be happy about. But boy, we sure do. Oh, the gospel, it lifts us up. It encourages us. It comforts
us. It blesses us. It gives us strength. It gives us light. It gives us everything we need
when we come to hear the gospel. Ain't that right? And oh my. I tell you, electing grace, that's
a great comfort. God chose us, we didn't choose
Him. Sovereign grace, free grace, that's a great comfort to me.
Ain't it you? To be, and then when we come
down to leave this world, we're like David, said, Lord, this
is all my salvation. What is it, David? The Lord hath
made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure,
this is all my salvation and all my desire. Whoo-wee, that's
some comforting things, ain't it? Oh, how the gospel comforts
us. Our Father, in the precious name,
blessed name, glorious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, thank
you for being with us this evening. What a joy, what a joy, what
a joy it is to preach the gospel, be with the Lord's people, be
with people who want to hear, who want to be with one another,
who pray for one another, love one another. Lord, I thank you
for it. And Lord, help us to comfort
one another. Let us to be a blessing to one
another. If we see a brother or sister
down, not feeling well, God, give us a word in season. Give
us some grace to say an encouraging, kind word to them. Help us please,
oh God, for Christ's sake, to honor you, love your people,
bring glory to you, and be gracious, kind, and loving for Christ's
sake. Amen. Amen. Turn your eyes upon
Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will
grow strange. lead him in the light of his
glory and grace. Well, good night and God bless
you. See you Sunday.