But turn again, if you would,
to Isaiah chapter 40. These verses that we're going
to look at this evening have often been called the threefold
cry of evangelism. And certainly this is the cry
of every servant of God. These three points, the three
points that I have in my message tonight, are in every gospel
message. Now, they won't all be named
exactly, The subject of these three points is in every gospel
message because it is the gospel. All flesh is grass. The word
of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to endure forever and
behold your God. All flesh is grass. That's who
we are. The Lord Jesus Christ, he's going
to do it forever. Now you look to him, that's the
gospel. Well, here's the first cry. All
flesh is grass. Let's begin in verse six. The
voice said, cry. And he said, what shall I cry?
All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the
flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely
the people is grass. Now the voice, God's preachers,
they're just voices. Now they're men sent from God,
but they're just a voice. And the saving power is not found
in the voice, the saving powers in the message, the saving powers
in the Christ that we preach. God's servants are voices, but
now a voice has to be directed by the brain, doesn't it? Otherwise
there'll be sound, but it'll just be gibberish. The voice
has got to be directed by the brain. That's the gospel preacher. That voice is directed by God. God gives us the message. And
all we do is turn around and say what he said, thus sayeth
the Lord. In every service, God's servants
seek the message. Now, we already know the message.
The message is Christ, isn't it? But what we seek, what we
pray, the spirit will show us, show us Christ in the text. Give
us the message that you have for your people in this hour.
The message for this hour. This is the message for this
hour. I'm convinced of it. That's what the prophet's saying
here. What shall I cry? What's your message, God, for
your people in this hour? Well, here's the cry. Here's
the command. Every gospel preacher is to cry, all flesh is grass. Now, we say all flesh is grass.
We're not talking about nice grass. I'm not sure what kind
of grass it is. They grow on golf courses that
look so smooth and manicured. I think, Mike, they got a different
kind on the green, don't they? Oh, it looks, wow. That's not
us. That's not the grass we're talking
about. Our flesh is not even as nice as crabgrass. You know
that crabgrass you try to get out of your yard? That's not
even us. We're not even that nice. This
grass that we're talking about here is just weeds. Weeds that are good for nothing.
Don't you spend a lot of time trying to get weeds out of your
yard, out of every little crack in the sidewalk and stuff. Weeds,
weeds, weeds. You just spend a lot of energy
and time and effort trying to get rid of these weeds. The next
time you see a weed growing up in the pavement, just stop and
think. That's me. good for nothing to
be pulled up and thrown away. You can't even pull it up and
lay it down because it's going to sprout more. It's got to be
pulled up and thrown away. That's all I am. My flesh is
no better than a weed. And when we say all flesh is
grass, now this is what we mean. There's no goodness in our flesh.
There's nothing good. There's nothing valuable about
our flesh at all. Now I know sometimes a weed will
get some sort of flower on it. You mothers have gotten lots
of flowers over the years or really just weeds. You didn't
say so, but you know that's what they are. There might be some
sort of flower on that weed for a very short time, but it's going
to blow up and dry away and turn to nothing very quickly. It's
just that that's the beauty of this flesh. the beauty and flower
of this flesh, all it is is a dandelion. Just give it a couple days, it'll
turn white and blow away to the four corners of the wind. So
what this tells us is our flesh, there's nothing good in it and
it can't produce anything good. Our flesh can't produce any spiritual
goodness at all because there is no spiritual goodness in the
flesh. There's no spiritual soundness in the flesh. All we can produce
is more weeds. We can never produce the wheat
for the bread of life. All we can produce is more weeds
that are just good for the same thing we are, be plucked up and
thrown away. And I don't care who we are. I don't care who
we are. I don't care what our family
tree is. All we are is a weed. I don't
care what we've done or what we haven't done. All we are is
a weed. I don't care what we know. I
don't care what we've experienced. All this flesh is, is a weed. And there are times you might
think, well, I think I might see some goodness there in the
flesh. Don't believe it. It's fool's gold. All it is is
fool's gold. It might look good to the natural
eye for a short time, but trust me, it's worthless. That's what
God's word says. It's worthless. and that will
be revealed quickly. Now that's true spiritually.
Our flesh is just grass. We can't do anything to please
God any more than a weed growing in your yard pleases you. We
can't do anything to please God. That's true spiritually. And
this is true physically too. The beauty, the flower of the
flesh fades so quickly. Are you proud of your physical
beauty? Just wait. Just wait. You're going to be
ashamed because the flesh decays and rots and turns ugly. My brother used to run a nursing
home and he said, told me one time, anybody that does not believe
the flesh is grass, all they need to do is spend a day in
a nursing home. The beauty fades and it decays and turns ugly.
Are you proud of your strength? Just wait. You'll end up ashamed. This flesh is going to rot and
decay and all you are is dust and to dust you shall return.
The weakness of that dust is going to be revealed. You proud
of your mind? God given you a good mind that
can learn things and remember things and figure things out.
Be thankful for it. Don't be proud of it because
you're going to end up ashamed. Now the flesh rots and decays,
you'll end up with Alzheimer's, and if you get out of this world
without Alzheimer's, you're gonna be dead, and that brain's nothing,
just turned to nothing. The grass is gonna wither, the
flower's gonna fade, and all it takes for the grass to wither
is for God just to breathe on it. God just breathes on it,
and it turns to brown, dry, dead grass. Because God's angry with
the wicked. God's angry with sin. And the
hot breath of God's anger turns this flesh brown, dead, just
like weeds after you've sprayed them with Roundup. Look over
in Philippians chapter three. So what does that tell us? All
flesh is grass. Well, it tells us don't put any
trust in the flesh. Don't put any trust even in the
best of flesh, in the princes of men, don't put any trust in
him now. There's no hope to be found in dead, depraved, fallen
flesh, yours or anybody else's. And I reckon if there was a man
who ever lived, that could have had some confidence in his flesh,
some confidence in his law keeping, it would solve Tarsus, don't
you reckon? Well, look what Paul says about that. Philippians
three, verse four. though I might also have confidence
in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that
he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more, I can one
up him. Circumcised the eighth day at
the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the
Hebrews. My mama was a Hebrew, my daddy
was a Hebrew. As touching the law, a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting
the church. Touching the righteousness which
is in the law, blameless. But what things were gained to
me, those I counted loss for Christ. See, they're just weeds. He learned, God showed him, those
are just weeds, aren't they? Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things. I've
suffered the loss of all that I trust in, being circumcised
eighth day, my family tree, touching the law of Pharisee. I lost all
that, and do count them but done, that I may win Christ and be
found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness
which is of God by faith, that I may know him and the power
of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made
conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto
the resurrection of the dead. Don't look for shelter from the
breath of God's wrath in your flesh. Don't put any trust. Don't look for a shelter in your
flesh any more than you look for shelter from a hurricane
in a grass hut. Don't do it. All flesh is grass. But now this is still a message
of comfort to God's people, isn't it? Comfort ye, comfort ye, my
people. Well, let me give you a word
of comfort. All flesh is grass. Now don't put any trust in your
flesh. But don't fear the flesh either. Now don't fear men. All
they are is grass. You don't have to be afraid of
the grass. They're just grass. David said in Psalm 56, verse
four, in God I've put my trust. I will not fear what the flesh
can do unto me. I put my trust in God. I'm not
gonna fear grass. You don't have to fear men. All
they are, just like you, they're grass. That's the first cry. All flesh is Christ. That's an
important lesson. Here's the second thing we cry.
The word of God stands forever. God's word is eternal. Look at
verse eight, Isaiah 40. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Now what
is this word of God that shall stand forever? Well, it's Christ. Is Christ the incarnate word?
Christ the written word. You can't separate Christ from
his word. Christ is the word of God. And now what the apostle
John told us in John 1.1, in the beginning was the word. The
word was with God and the word was what? Was God. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
So we preach the word. Typically, we preach God's word
verse by verse, line by line. That's how we preach God's word.
Because when you preach the word that way, if you're gonna deal
honestly with the scriptures at all, you have to preach Christ. Because Christ is the word of
God. Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believe it. And the Lord Jesus Christ shall stand forever. Now you can put your trust in
him. He's gonna stand forever. Now that's stark contrast to
the flesh, isn't it? Everything about this flesh is just gonna
fade and wither and dry up and blow away. And we need to understand
that. We need to understand that our
flesh is useless so that we'll understand how completely dependent
upon Christ we really are. If our flesh is grass, we can't
save ourselves. We're dependent on Christ to
save us and for him to give us life in the new birth. That passage
in first Peter that I read to open the service. That's what
he's saying. All flesh is grass. So we're
dependent on Christ to save us. We're dependent upon his sacrifice
and we're dependent on him to give us life and a new birth.
That we can't have any hope of shelter from God's wrath in his
flesh. But here's the good news. There's complete salvation. There's
complete safety in the Lord Jesus Christ because he stands forever.
Christ has already stood as a substitute for his people, and he's already
withstood the storm of God's fury against the sin of his people,
and that makes him a safe hiding place. Look back a few pages,
Isaiah chapter 32. We saw this just a few weeks
ago. Christ has already stood the storm of God's wrath against
sin so we can hide in him. Isaiah 32 verse one. Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment, and a man,
this is the word of God, become a man, and a man shall be as
a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest,
as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock
in a weary land. Christ is the safe hiding place.
He's gonna stand forever. And this is why we preach Christ. We're not going to get pulled
off and all these other tangents and all these other issues of
the day. We preach Christ because Christ is the only Savior. Christ
is the only message that'll last. I don't care how long this earth
exists until our Lord returns. However long that may be, it
might be tomorrow, it might be 300 years, I have no idea. But however long it is, I do
know this, Christ will be the only good news there ever be
found for sinful flesh. I don't care how long it lasts.
I don't care how long this earth lasts, Christ will always be
the only savior for flesh that's nothing but grass. Now, this
is a message of comfort. Let me give you a word of comfort.
The word of God shall stand forever. Don't be alarmed by changes in
this earth. It constantly changes and seems
to us like every time it changes, it changes for the worse, doesn't
it? Don't be alarmed. Change and decay and all around
I see. But Christ, who never changes,
he will endure. That's the one who abides with
thee. who abides with his people. He never changes. He'll endure
forever. Hide in him. That's the second
cry. The word of God stands forever.
Here's our third cry. Now behold your God. Verse nine. O Zion that bring us good tidings,
get thee up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem that bring us good
tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up. Be not
afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah,
behold your God. Now God's commandment is when
you cry this threefold message of evangelism, you get to a place
where you can be heard. You get up to the high mountain
where you can be heard and where you can be seen and you cry it
out loud. And isn't that what we do here
in the public worship service? We publicly announce the time
of we're gonna gather together for public worship. We're on
the radio, we're on the internet. You can listen to it anytime
you want. We're getting to a high mountain
where anybody who wants to hear can hear. And lift up your voice
with strength. Cry it as loud as you can so
that people who have ears can hear. Cry it out. Plainly, bluntly,
in love and in compassion, tell the truth. Don't be afraid. Don't
be afraid of the reaction of the flesh. I can tell you how
the flesh is going to react before we get started. The flesh is
going to hate this message of the gospel. But don't be afraid. It's only grass anyway. God may
be pleased to save it. Don't be afraid of persecution
and hatred from this world. It's perishing anyway. And this
is important. Don't ever be afraid that the
message of Christ won't be enough. Don't ever be afraid of that.
Don't ever be afraid preaching Christ is not enough to save
the lost. Don't ever be afraid that the
simple preaching of Christ will not be enough to comfort and
encourage and feed the hearts of God's people. You don't have
to take the message of Christ and attempt to make it tasteful
to the flesh. If you've done that, you've ruined
it. Just preach Christ in confidence, knowing He's enough. I preach
Christ because I know He's all I need. And I know He's all you
need. So we preach Christ. We preach
Christ without any fear that God's elect will ever be lost.
They'll hear, God will speak to it. You behold your God, cry
that out with strength. Now we still have this message
of comfort. What's the word of comfort in this third cry? Behold
your God. Are you brokenhearted? Are you full of fear and doubt? Don't
know what's going on? Oh, behold your God. Behold Him,
look to Him. Have comfort for your soul. You
look to Him, you're going to forget about this stuff. Behold
the true and living God. Now, not the God of man's imagination. There's no comfort there. Behold
God as He is. Behold God as He has been pleased
to reveal Himself to men. Look at verse 10. Here He is,
behold your God. Behold, the Lord God will come
with strong hand and His arms will rule for Him. Behold, His
reward is with Him. His work is before Him. And here's
the first thing we see when we behold God. We see the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only manifestation of God we'll ever see. Behold, Isaiah says
here, the Lord God, Jehovah God, God our Savior. That can only
be Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus Christ is God our Savior. And if our Savior's God, he cannot
fail. Now behold your God. Get a hold of this now. God our
Savior came in the flesh so he could save sinful men and women,
boys and girls. All flesh is grass, worthless
grass. Almighty God took on him the
form of human flesh. He took on him the form of grass
so that he could save his people who are nothing but grass. Try
to comprehend that. Just behold that. That'll comfort
you. Well, he came, he took on him the likeness of grass to
save sinners. Did he do it? Did he get the
job done? Here's the second thing we see
when we behold our God. He came with a strong hand. The
Lord Jesus Christ came mighty to save. Mighty to save. He didn't come as a beggar. He
didn't come attempting to do something. He's mighty to save. He did indeed save His people
from their sins. He's mighty to save. The righteousness
of Christ, Christ our righteousness, is enough to make His people
righteous. The blood of Christ is mighty
enough to cleanse His people from all of their sin. Their
sin in Adam, their own sins, their secret sins that we looked
at Sunday, everything, sins of ignorance. His blood has power
to cleanse from all sin. The life of Christ is powerful
enough to give his people eternal life. Christ has the power to
give life in the new birth. He gives the dead life and Christ
has the power. to raise these bodies from the
grave. When He returns, He's gonna raise these bodies from
the grave in power and take us to be with Him forever. Oh yes,
He got the job done because He's mighty to save. Now behold Him,
that'll comfort your heart. Well, can anyone or anything
derail God's purpose in saving His people from their sins? Well,
here's the third thing we see when we behold our God. Christ
our Savior's sovereign. His arm shall rule for him. He's sitting on a throne ruling
and reigning. Jesus Christ is the sovereign
of heaven and earth. He rules in the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his
hand. None can stop his will. None
can even say unto him, what are you doing? Because he's the unquestioned
monarch of heaven and earth. And this sovereign ruler has
promised to save his people from their sin. He's going to do it. Nothing can stop his sovereign
will. He has promised to deliver his people. Now he's going to
do it. No trial is so deep and so great
he can't deliver. He's got unquestioned sovereign
power. Here's the fourth thing we see
when we behold our God. Christ, our Savior, is the reward
of his people. He brings the reward with him. Well, what reward is he bringing
with him? Himself. He's the reward. Isn't that what he told Abraham?
Abraham, I am your exceeding great reward. His reward is with
him because he's the reward. And his work is before him. When
Christ came, he wasn't stumbling around as this little boy trying
to figure out, what am I doing here? He's trying to figure out,
what's my job? That's foolishness. His work
was before him. He knew what he was doing, and
he came to do it. And he finished the work. Now
I want you to listen to this. We don't trust the finished work
of Christ. We trust Christ to finish the
work. See the difference? Now there's
a difference there. We don't trust the finished work
of Christ. We trust Christ to finish the
work. The glory of God is not so much
the finished work of Christ. The glory of God and the reward
that God's people have is Christ who finished the work. His work
was before him and he finished it. Here's the fifth thing we
see. We behold our God. Oh, we see compassion, the compassion
and tenderness of Christ our Savior. Look at verse 11. He
should feed his flock like a shepherd. He should gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom and should gently lead
those that are with young. Christ is the great shepherd.
And he does all the work of a shepherd for his people. Now, shepherds
weren't lazy men sitting under a tree playing a flute. I mean,
these are hardworking men. Christ was the great shepherd
who does everything for the sheep. They're lost. He came to seek
and to save them. And when he finds his sheep,
you know what he does? He gathers them up and he feeds
them. They've been lost. They haven't
been in a place where they had any green pastures. So He feeds
them with Himself, the bread of life. Christ finds His sheep. They're too weak and too weary,
too bruised and too battered by their sin to go on. It's all
right. You know, that mighty arm, His
mighty arm that rules for Him, His sovereign arm that no one
can stay that hand. He takes that hand and picks
up that sheep carefully, gently, and carries him in his bosom
safely. When Christ finds his sheep,
he never drives them. He gently leads them. He has
compassion on his sheep. They need to be led now. They're
too dumb to be left by themselves. It's hard telling where they'll
go, left to their own devices. They're dirty and stinky. They've
got to be washed. They've got to be cleaned. They've
got to be tended to. They're prone to wander, but
in his goodness, in goodness only God can have, he has compassion
on those stinky, dirty sheep that are prone to wander off
from, and he leads them gently by his power and by his grace. Now that's what we see when we
behold our God. We behold Christ through the
preaching of the word. And you know, there's a reaction
to this. In God's people, there's a reaction
to this message. Because when God is pleased to
reveal himself to his sheep, you know what he does? He sends
him a preacher. Look back up here at verse three
now, Isaiah 40. The voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight
in the desert a highway for our God. Now you know this is John
the Baptist. John was the forerunner of Christ.
John came just a few months older than Christ, began his public
ministry just a few months, you know, he was a few months older
and he began his public ministry just a few months before Christ
did. And he came announcing he's the forerunner. He's going before
and announcing Christ is coming. Now you get ready. Make ready.
Christ the King is coming. Here comes the Savior. Make yourself
ready, make yourself ready to look for him. You remember those
Pharisees, John's out there in the wilderness preaching and
boy, he's causing a commotion. Everybody's hearing about him
out there, wanna go see this preacher. And the Pharisees sent
a group to John to ask John, who are you? Now John could have
said a lot of things, couldn't he? He could have said, I'm son
of Zachariah, the high priest. He could have said, I'm the last
of the Old Testament prophets. There's not going to be another
one, boys. He could have said, I was supernaturally born from
parents who are too old to have children. But he didn't say anything
about himself, did he? He said, I'm a voice. I'm just
a voice crying in the wilderness. And John had to cry in the wilderness
because he was not accepted into the, you know, with open arms
into the organized religion of the day. And that's good. That's the way it is for every
servant of God. If you're going to hear from God, you have to
get into the wilderness now. You're not going to hear from
God in man's religion. God doesn't speak there. He speaks
to his people in the wilderness. And the cry of John the Baptist
in the wilderness was Christ is coming. This is the Christ. You see what he says here? You
prepare a way in the wilderness. Isn't that what he says? Prepare
ye the way of the Lord. You make straight in the desert
a highway for our God. You prepare a way in the wilderness
of your own heart. Now that our heart is a wilderness.
It's a dry, dead desert. Now you, Christ is here. Christ
is being preached, you prepare to bow and you prepare to do
it quickly. You quickly prepare to beg for
mercy. You follow Christ. Christ is
being preached, now you follow him. God commands you to repent. God doesn't command somebody
else to repent for you. God commands you to repent. He
commands you to believe. He commands you to come to him.
And you know what? God's elect are gonna do just
that. They will. They will prepare a way in the
wilderness to meet Christ. Whatever obstacle it is in their
mind and in their heart, they're going to do their best to get
rid of it. Anything that'll keep them from
believing Christ has got to go. And they'll say, well, I was
always raised in religion. I've been hurt. You got to, you
got to, Decide to accept Jesus. You've got to decide to do some
good works, you know, before you can be saved. You got to
join up with the church. You got to follow their rules.
You got to be baptized according to their criteria. My friends,
listen to me. Those obstacles got to go. They've
got to go before you can receive faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And God's elect are going to do that. They're going to make
those preparations in their heart. And you know why? God's already
begun preparing their heart. He sent him a preacher as he
began to prepare their heart to receive him. Here's what happens,
verse four, when we see Christ and Christ is formed in the heart.
Every valley should be exalted. Every mountain and hill should
be made low. The crooked should be made straight
and the rough places plain. Now when Christ comes in the
heart, all those that have been laid low, I mean laid low, in
sin, they're going to be lifted up. They're going to be comforted.
They're going to be lifted from the dunghill to sit among princes.
And all those mountains, those mountains that they've exalted
themselves. I mean, they have made themselves
high in their own estimation. When Christ comes, they're going
to be abased. They're coming down. They're
going to be just down flat on the desert floor. They're going
to, you know where you'll find them? not up here at the mountain. You're going to find them at
the feet of Christ. That's where you're going to find them. Grace,
God's grace to the guilty is the great leveler in it. It brings
the sorrowing and those who are brokenhearted, the low brings
them up and those that are high brings them down so that they're
all found at the feet of Christ. And when Christ is formed in
the heart, the crooked places are made straight. Now that's
a new nature. that's formed in the heart of
a believer. And all those old crooked, perverse ways of living,
they're going to be made straight. Zacchaeus is a perfect example
of this. What bears ever a crook? There
he was. He's a crooked man. The Lord came to his house and
Zacchaeus come down. I must abide at your house today.
There's a new sheriff in town. And our Lord didn't tell him,
Zacchaeus, you gotta do this, you gotta do this, you gotta
do this, you gotta do this. He said, I'm taking up residence.
I'm king. This is my house. And Zacchaeus'
only response was, Lord, half my goods I give to the poor.
And if I've taken anything from any man by false accusation,
you reckon this man's a rich man from cheating people, he's
a crooked man. He said, I'm gonna restore it
fourfold. crooked was made straight. There's a new nature born. And
when Christ is formed in the heart, those rough places are
made plain. That rough old heart, that natural
rough heart, oh, it's as hard as plain. You can't change it,
you can't mold it, you can't do anything with it. It's rough
as a cob. It's gonna be replaced with a
soft heart of grace and love. And then lastly, Christ is formed
in the heart. We behold our God. Now we see
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Verse five,
and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. Now we can't see
it on our own. God's got to reveal it, but he's going to reveal
Christ to his people. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed
and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has
spoken. The glory of God is revealed. when we see the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the person and the work
of Christ that enables God to be just and justifier. The glory
of God that's revealed is how God saves sinners through Christ
our Savior. Have you come tonight out of
the world, beaten, battered and weary, so weary. Behold your God. Oh, he'll bring
you up. Have you come too big for your
britches? Forgetting all flesh is grass? Thinking we can do
something on our own? Behold your God. He'll take care
of that. He'll make that rough place plain,
won't he? He'll humble us. Humble us and put us at the feet
of Christ. And that's where we'll become. All right, let's bow
and pray.