Isaiah opens the 40th chapter
of this prophecy with these words. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
sayeth your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. Verse 27. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and
speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment
is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known, hast thou
not heard, that the everlasting God The Lord, the Creator of
the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary. There is no searching of his
understanding. He giveth power to the faint,
and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even
the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall
utterly fall. but they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as
eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk
and not faint. Hast thou not known hast thou
not heard that the everlasting God the Lord the creator of the
ends of the earth fainteth not neither is weary there is no
searching of his understanding he giveth power to the faint
and to them that have no might he increaseth strength he giveth power to the faint In what way? What power does
he give? And who are these who are faint
without strength? The power he gives to those without
strength, to those who faint, to those who are broken, to those
who are nothing, is the gospel. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
sayeth your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. This is a chapter full
of the Gospel. It's a declaration of the Gospel. It's a summary of the Gospel.
It begins with a shout to Jerusalem, to the Lord's people, to be comforted. a declaration to them that their
warfare is accomplished, that the battle's over, that the victory's
been won, that their saviour has taken away their iniquity,
that they're pardoned. And it's that declaration, it's
that shout of joy and victory and to those who are faint, broken,
bruised, without strength, cast down, ruined. Faint is that declaration that
is the power which the Lord gives to these faint that they may
wait upon the Lord and renew their strength that gives them
that strength to mount up with wings as eagles that they should
run and not be weary and that they should walk and not faint I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ says Paul for it is the power of God unto salvation
and it's that power and that gospel which brings the comfort
that Jerusalem so needs. And it's the preaching of that
gospel which brings that comfort to the faint, to the brokenhearted, to the Lord's. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
say if you're God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Speak ye comfortably. Now what
is it to speak comfortably to the Lord's people? And what is
it that brings them comfort? It is not smooth words. It is not the sugar coating of
truth and reality. It is not to cry unto a people,
peace, peace, when there is no peace. It is not to persuade
men that they are fine as they are, if they but just accept
the Jesus who loves all men. There is no comfort in lies and
in believing lies and in preaching lies. The comfort which Isaiah
goes on to declare in this chapter has nothing to do with crying
peace, peace, where there is no peace. It does not involve
easy believism. It does not comprise telling
wicked men that all is well. But it is a declaration of the
truth that man is nothing. That man is a rebel against God. That he is as grass which grows up one day and is
cut down the next, that he is nothing before a holy and a righteous
God. Isaiah in this chapter shows
forth the preparatory work of the Gospel, the going forth of
the Spirit of God before the coming of Christ that shows man
what he is. But then which goes on to declare
unto man in such a state, Behold your God. Isaiah lifts up the Lord God
Almighty to the gaze of the sinner here. To the gaze of man. And he shows his almighty eternal
power. He shows how the nations before
this God are as nothing. He shows how the might and power
of all mankind and the greatest of nations is as nothing before
this God. And he brings before us the reality
of life and death. That essentially where we stand
before this God is all that matters. And the only comfort we will
truly know is to know that all is well between us and this God. Then to tell men, women, children
that all is well between them and God when all is not well,
when they're full of sin and when the price of their sin has
not been paid. And when they are cascading towards
death, swept along as it were in the torrents of rapids that
are leading them to a falls from which they cannot escape and
yet they are swept along full of sin and with no answer to
that sin. It's to tell them a lie. There's
no comfort in saying peace, peace to a people who are at war. where the war continues to rage
and where their enemies are set to devour them. Isaiah's comfort
that he is called to declare unto Jerusalem stands in these
words. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. that her iniquity
is pardoned. That's the comfort of the gospel
and that's the power to those that faint because we're in a
war and we have enemies that can rip us to shreds and except
that warfare is accomplished There is no peace, there is no
comfort, there is nothing but terror, if you but knew it. We are at war with sin, both
without us and within us. We are at war with many enemies
who would seek to devour us. man has an adversary called the
devil who goeth about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour
and he knows every subtle way and means to cause men to stumble
he is the father of lies and he will tell you every lie to
lead you astray He will tell you every lie in religion to
lead you astray. He will come crying comfort,
comfort, peace, joy. He will come speaking of a Jesus
who'll lead you to glory. But he'll lead you another way
from the way that Isaiah makes plain in this chapter. He'll
lead you on that broad way that leads to destruction, not the
narrow way and the straight gate of which Christ spake, which
leads unto life eternal. He'll lead you on a way and promise
you hope and promise you joy and promise you eternal life.
But He'll ask merely for your decision and your acceptance
of a Jesus who loves everyone. and should you give that decision
and should you follow his lies he'll promise you peace and you
may be deluded into thinking you have that peace and you may
go many years in this journey having that peace and you may
go with your great company of others who are so deluded like
the children that follow the Pied Piper and only when you're
led to destruction will you know. Only when you come before the
Lord Jesus Christ will you know that the Jesus you followed,
the Jesus you accepted, the Jesus you received was a deception
of the evil one. was one who never accomplished
your salvation, was one who left the warfare raging. And you will
stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and will say, Lord, Lord, I've
done this in thy name and that in thy name. I've defended your
cause. I've spoken of Christ. I've spoken
of your death. and he'll say to you, depart
from me, I never knew you. Because the warfare was never
accomplished for you who received, believed and propagated the lies
of that evil one that leads so many to destruction. Comfort
is not in lies. Comfort is not to be found in
false religion, however sugar-coated and pleasing it may be to the
ears of men. And if that seems like a hard
division, if Isaiah's desire to divide the precious from the
vile to prepare the way of the Lord, to make straight in the
desert a highway for God, to exalt the valleys, to bring low
the mountains, to make straight the crooked places and make plain
the rough places. If his desire to humble man before
Almighty God and to show man that he is nothing, and to strike
at the pride and the arrogance of man. If his desire to make
it plain that there are those who will speak comfort and lies
to men to lead them astray, but that in contrast there is a gospel
which brings power to the faint, that in contrast there is true
comfort to the people of God, which stands in that message
of the gospel in the truth of Jesus Christ that their warfare
is accomplished and their iniquity is pardoned. If that distinction,
if that divisive message, if that offence of the cross offends
you and makes you say that's not sweet, that's not kind, that
will scare people away That will lead to you just being amongst
yourselves. You'll never get the world into
your churches. If that offends you, then go
your way and get the world into your churches and enjoy your
temporary peace in your large congregations. Peace, peace,
grace, grace, comfort, comfort, where there's nothing but destruction
in the end. If that's what you want, go with
it. But the comfort of God. stands exclusively in the truth
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a finished work, an accomplished
salvation, a warfare which is over, iniquity which is truly
pardoned, and a message which makes it plain. Isaiah was sent
of God called of God, prepared by God to preach the Gospel of
Christ. He was sent to bring a prophecy
pointing the people unto God. He was prepared, he was separated
unto this work. But his message was not one that
the natural man would receive. It was not one to bring comfort
to the wicked, but it was one that brings comfort to God's
people. There is a difference. We are
not sent with the gospel of God's grace to comfort all men. We are sent to find the lost
sheep of Israel. Those who are cast out and rejected
of men. Those who know and are brought
to know that they are nothing. Those who have a need. Those
who fate. Those who are weary. Those who
are without strength. We're called to find them and
to bring them a message. of an accomplished salvation,
a message which brings power to the faint, a message which
comforts my people, saith the Lord. Isaiah was sent, comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. If Isaiah's message
If Christ's message, if our message brings you no comfort, then I make no apology. But if
you believe this gospel, if God makes known unto you this power,
then you'll know what it is to find comfort like no other. This wonderful chapter sets forth
the gospel in such glory It opens with the comforting, the comforting
cry of God under his people that their warfare is accomplished. The battle's over. There's nothing
to fear. Your enemies are conquered, every
last one of them. Your sin has been blotted out. Blotted out. Your sins have been
blotted out by the blood of Christ on the cross when he laid down
his life in the place of sinners. Your sin has been taken away
by the sacrifice of the body of Christ once and for all. The
accusations of the accuser of the Brethren, Satan, have all
been answered. The Lord's demands have been
fulfilled in Christ's death. The opposition and hatred of
Satan has been taken away. He has been destroyed. He is
a defeated foe. He goes about as a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour, but he cannot get his teeth into
the children of God. Should he try, they have a great
defender. Oh, he may strike out. Oh, they
may feel his bruises. Oh, they may be buffeted about.
They may hear His roar from time to time. They may hear the roar
of the dragon from time to time. They may hear this roar from
their enemies. But they can do no harm unto
this people. Their enemies are defeated. The
opposition of all men, the hatred of all men which is set upon
Christ and His Gospel, and therefore repeated against every witness
of Christ and his gospel has been answered. On our journey
we may feel like we have many battles. We may feel like we
battle with our own sin in the flesh. We may feel like we battle
with the opposition of men. We may feel like we battle with
the hatred of the world and the religious men, and we may feel
like we battle with the hatred of the scribes, the Pharisees,
the custodians of religion, who rejected Christ and reject his
people today. We may feel we're in a battle,
but believer, Be comforted. The warfare is accomplished. Your iniquity is pardoned. Your foes, your enemies, are
conquered by Christ in his death. There is nothing that man can
do to God's people to ultimately bring them any harm. They are
in Christ. They are washed of all their
iniquity. They have the righteousness of
God in Jesus Christ. They have eternal life that cannot
be taken away. They are in the hands of the
Savior, as he says in John 10, and they cannot be plucked from
his hands. Your iniquity is pardoned because
of the power of the gospel. the message of the Gospel, what
Christ wrought in the Gospel, the effects and the fruit of
that Gospel, the life which the message of that Gospel brings,
the life of the message of the Gospel as it's declared by the
Spirit of God to the soul. There is victory and there is
comfort. Isaiah, having opened with such
a victorious statement, such a ground of hope, goes on to
set forth the Gospel in its order. In verse 3 he says, 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. Every valley shall
be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and
the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and
the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall
see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. By nature all men, you and I
included, are rebels against the Holy God. Rebels against
the creator of heaven and earth. Rebels against the very one who
sustains our life at that moment at which we hate and rebel against
him. He gives us the very strength
to shout out in His face. He makes our heart beat. He puts
the air in the sky to breathe. He shines the sun upon the land. He gives us the food to eat and
the life He's put within us is that by which we in rebellion
turn around, lift up our voice and cry out against Him. Oh the
wickedness that lies within us, that with the very blessings
of life, natural life that God has given us, we turn around
and rage at him. that's effectively what Adam
did in the beginning in that glorious garden having walked
with God in the garden having had so much given to him he turned
around and said I will I will do what I will and every man
woman and child you and I included ever since has done the same
thing and with a world full of people
like that who will not listen who have a conscience within
that says there is a God who can look out upon the creation
all around them and see the handiwork of God who have the declaration
of God's word given to them in the record in the scriptures
who may from time to time be blessed to hear a preacher come
and preach of the Lord Jesus Christ. In a world such as this,
full of the children of wrath, who hate and rage at Almighty
God, God sends forth a voice crying in the wilderness in which
they dwell. prepare ye the way of the Lord. Now in the Gospels we read that
prophecy in an outward fulfilment seen in the preaching of John
the Baptist as he went before Christ before
Christ went forth in his ministry John the Baptist received Jerusalem
at Jordan and prepared the way of the Lord. He preached unto
them repentance. He declared unto them that they
were gone astray, that they were full of sin, that they had rebelled
against God and that the wrath of God burned from heaven against
their sin. And he cried out, repent. and having completed his work,
when the time was fulfilled, Christ came unto him and came
unto the people before him. And John cried out of Christ,
Behold the Lamb of God. This is the one whom I have been
preparing you for. I can speak of your sin. I can speak of your need to turn
unto God. I can speak of the need for repentance. I can declare unto you what you
are. But he's the one who threw his
death as the Lamb of God by the shedding of his blood. will actually
cleanse you from your sin. He's the Saviour. And as such,
John was the fulfilment of all that Isaiah speaks here. He speaks of this one crying
in the wilderness, he speaks of the preparation. And then
in verse 9, he says, Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your
God! Behold your God, behold the Lord
God will come with strong arm and his arm shall rule for him
and behold his reward is with him and his work before him. There's a preparation. The Gospel
has a beginning. It has a commencement. It doesn't
commence with a declaration of the love of God or the mercy
of God or the grace of God. many will say they preach the
gospel and those are practically the first words they preach they
go straight to the third chapter of john's gospel and quote from
john 3 16 for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son but john's gospel doesn't begin at chapter 3 It begins in chapter 1 with the
light shining in the darkness and the darkness comprehending
it not. It begins in chapter 1 with a
man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a
witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him
might believe. It begins in chapter 1 with John's
declaration of Christ, saying, This was he of whom I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred
before me, for he was before me. And of his fullness have
all we received, and grace for grace, for the law was given
by Moses. But grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Mark when he records his gospel
in the scriptures starts at the beginning of the gospel. where
he writes, Mark 1, 1, the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, as it is written in the Prophets, Behold, I send
my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before
thee, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye
the way of the Lord, make his path straight. And he goes on,
John did baptise in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance
for the remission of sins. John said, they come if one mightier
than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy
to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have baptized you with
water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. run as it
were is set forth as a figure of the old covenant preceding
the new covenant of God sending his law to a wicked people to
prove that that people were sinners for man by nature will say all
that the Lord have commanded that will I do Israel of old
when Moses brought down that law from Sinai said all that
the Lord commanded that will we do and they fought in their
self-righteousness that they could attain unto God that they
could live in a manner pleasing unto God by their own strength that God had to send a messenger
before Christ John with as it were that law to declare unto
this people that they had broken it every day in every way and
they must repent, they must... Paul when he declares the gospel
when he sets it forth in doctrinal terms in Romans opens by saying
he's not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power of God unto
salvation for therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by
faith but he commences the revelation of that gospel he commences the
opening of that gospel in chapter one right through to the middle
of chapter two by saying The wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. Through these chapters he shows
us what we are and he proves both Jew and Greek that all are
under sin. Jew and Gentile, religious and
irreligious, there is none righteous, no not one. And he concludes. Now we know that what thing soever
the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who are under the law, that
every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty
before God. Galatians again Paul speaks of
the law in chapter 4 as being a schoolmaster which we were
under unto Christ but when faith is come When Christ has come,
when the prophet has declared, behold your God, and set the
finished work of Christ before us, when faith is put in our
hearts to believe him, we're no longer under that schoolmaster. Yet it was a schoolmaster. For
there is a voice that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye
the way of the Lord. 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 the grass withereth the
flower fadeth but the word of our God shall stand forever. What does this voice tell us?
It tells us we are nothing. It tells us, all of us, all men,
the small, the great, those in power, those not in power, the
masters, the servants, the leaders of countries, those exalted in
the eyes of others, all men, all flesh is grass. It's but grass, you're but grass. Generation after generation after
generation after generation is born. It grows up like grass
and the next day it's cut down. It grows again and the next day
it's cut down. It grows again and the next day
it's cut down. It boasts in the flowers that
are brought forth, but the next day the boasting's taken away
because the grass and the flowers are cut down. Generation is born. Generation dies. Man is born. Man dies. Women are born. Women die. Children are born. Children grow old. Children die. Don't fool yourself that life
is anything but a moment or that your importance in the world
is anything greater than that you are but another blade of
grass in the vast history of time. We are nothing. We are but grass. But the word
of our God standeth forever. having shown us what we are Isaiah
moves on to show us how great how majestic how almighty God
is and how powerful his salvation is O Zion that bringest good
tidings get thee up into the high mountain O Jerusalem that
bringest good tidings lift up thy voice with strength Lift
it up, be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah,
behold your God. O Zion, cry it out in the darkness
of this world, behold your God. O children of God today, believers
today, the church today, stand up in the midst of a fallen world,
stand up in the midst of a raging sea of opposition and cry out,
behold your God, that the lost sheep of Israel, scattered wherever
they may be, may hear and may see and may believe. Behold the Lord God will come
with strong hand and his arm shall rule for him. Behold his
reward is with him and his work before him. The Saviour has come. He came unto John, he came unto
Israel and he comes today in his gospel. He comes wherever
the Gospel is preached, wherever His name in truth is declared,
wherever the doctrine of His Gospel is spelled out, wherever
the message here from Isaiah 40 is preached in order, at the
beginning, through the middle to the end, wherever the message
goes forth, the comfort of God is declared. unto Zion, unto
Jerusalem, that her warfare is accomplished and her iniquity
is pardoned because of that Lamb of God, who John spake of, who
came into the world to save sinners, who came to lay down his life
at Golgotha. who came to be crucified, who
came to offer himself up as a sacrifice for sin, who came to the godless,
who came to the heathen, who came to the wicked like you and
I, who came to rebels, who came to those full of hatred for him,
and he came into their midst, and he allowed men to nail him
to a cross because he would take the sins of his people. and bear
those sins, and take those people upon himself, and carry them
through death. He bore on his heart, he bore
on his breastplate the names of everyone for whom he died. and He came to die for them and
with them, that He might deliver them from sin, deliver them from
death, deliver them from hell, deliver them from all their enemies,
that He might save them with a strong arm. This is His work. that he might deliver his people
from their sins. As a consequence he shall feed
his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with young. He will bring His Gospel in power
to those who are faint, to those who are sick, to those who are
cast down, to those who know they are needy, to those who
have been prepared, to those who've been broken because they
know that they cannot strive to serve God, they know they're
broken before God, they know they can't attain unto God's
righteousness. They know they're full of sin.
They know they have no strength. And they cry out unto God for
help, for mercy. And he comes unto them as a shepherd
who feeds and gathers his lambs in his arm and leads them that
are with young. And Zion cries out unto them
as it points unto him, behold your God. Behold your Saviour. Oh what a mighty God He is. Isaiah
goes on to describe Him that He have measured the waters in
the hollow of His hand and meted out heaven with the span and
comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed
the mountain in scales and the hills in a balance. Who else
has done this but He? who have directed the Spirit
of the Lord or be in his counsel have taught him no one. With
whom took he counsel and who instructed him and taught him
in the path of judgment and taught him knowledge and showed to him
the way of understanding. Behold the nations are as a drop
of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance
behold he taketh up the hours as a very little thing they're
nothing and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn nor the beast thereof
sufficient for a burnt offering you could offer up the whole
world to God to this God for your sins and you'd never offer
up sufficient so guilty Are we before him? So nothing are we
before him. Yet by his one offering for sin
forever he delivered his people and took away their warfare and
pardoned their sins. All nations before him are as
nothing and they are counted to him less than nothing and
vanity To whom then will ye liken God? Or what likeness will ye
compare unto him? The workman melteth a graven
image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth
silver chains. He that is so impoverished that
he have no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot. He
seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image that
shall not be moved. you may make your idols, you
may fashion something and say this is God but it's nothing
but something you've made and laid gold over and all your religion
and all your following the lies of Satan in religion and all
your false Jesus's that people point you to if a low here is
Jesus and a low there is Jesus is nothing but a dumb idol, fashioned
out of wood, overlaid with gold. You say it's Jesus. You make
it look pretty. You make it look appealing. but
it's got no power it doesn't live he doesn't live it's an
idol of your own imagination follow him if you think he'll
save you as these followed their idols which they made with their
own works and effort to their destruction have ye not known
have ye not heard Have it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the
foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the
circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers,
that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth them
out as a tent to dwell in. This is the God. It is He that
bringeth the princes to nothing, He maketh the judges of the earth
as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted,
yea, they shall not be sown, yea, they shall stock that shall
not take root in the earth, and He shall also blow upon them,
and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away
as stubble. To whom then will ye liken Me? Or shall I be equal, saith the
Holy One? There is only one God. There is only one Saviour. There is only one mediator between
men and God, the man Christ Jesus. and except you know this God
and this Saviour, then any other God, any other Saviour, any other
Jesus you may follow, you may imagine, you may like, you may
be pleased to worship, will just lead you to hell. To whom will
ye liken me? Or shall I be equal, sayeth the
Holy One? Lift up your eyes on high, And
behold, who have created these things, that bringeth out their
host by number? He calleth them all by names,
by the greatness of his might. For he that is strong in power,
not one faileth. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and
speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord? and my judgment
is passed over from my God. The Lord sees. The Lord knows. The Lord sees and knows what's
in your heart. What you pretend to be, what
you say before others is nothing. What you must deal with is this
God. and how you stand before him. Your way is not hid from him
and your judgment is not forgotten, he's not passed by. He will ask
what offering you have for your sins. He will ask what price
you will pay. He will ask what grounds you
have to enter his kingdom. He will ask and except you can
say that Christ is my all in all, that I am nothing, that
Christ is my all in all, that I am but grass, that I am blind
by nature, that I am deaf by nature, that I know nothing,
that I am full of sin by nature, I can do nothing, I'm faint,
I'm weak, I'm useless, but Christ is my only plea. The blood of
Christ, the body of Christ, sacrifice for me, the death of Christ,
the righteousness of God in Christ. Accept you, throw yourself upon
the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. Accept he's your only plea. Accept
Christ as your all in all. Then God will say, depart from
me. ye worker of iniquity ye worker of iniquity in the churches
with your religion as you proclaim a Jesus I never sent who is not
my son who's but your wooden idol gilded in gold whom you
glorify for your own glory depart from me hast thou not known hast
thou not heard that the everlasting God the Lord the creator of the
ends of the earth fainteth not neither is weary there is no
searching of his understanding he giveth power to the faint
in this gospel. He giveth power to the faint,
and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even
the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall
utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. and they shall walk and not faint. Because these are the chosen
of God. Chosen before the foundation
of this world. Chosen in Christ, elect, loved
in Christ as God loves his own son. Chosen in Christ, nothing
in themselves. For Christ is their all in all. These are His, His chosen, His
peculiar people, His people delivered out of darkness, His people whom
He comforts in the gospel. speaking comfortably unto them,
that by the grace of God which brings salvation, through the
death of their Saviour for them their warfare is accomplished,
their iniquity is pardoned, and they have received of the Lord's
hand double for all their sins, twice as much in the riches and
glory and inheritance they have in their Saviour and in the world
to come. O what hope they have before
them! O Judah, O Zion, behold, behold
your God! Have you not known, have you
not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of
the ends of the earth, faint if not, neither is weary? Have you not heard? For they
that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. they shall
mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary,
and they shall walk and not faint.