If you would turn with me in
your Bibles to the 40th chapter of Isaiah. Isaiah the 40th chapter. And in this chapter of Isaiah,
God commands His servants to comfort His people. In verse 1, He says, Comfort
ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. Now by nature, we have
no comfort. But in the Lord Jesus Christ
we have great comfort. God tells Isaiah to comfort ye
my people. God's servants are to comfort
God's people. The gospel of God and Christ
will not comfort anyone, dear friends, but those who trust
in Christ and long for redemption. Christ is salvation. Christ is
our comfort. There's no comfort for those
who do not believe in God's Word. God tells Isaiah exactly what
will comfort them. In verse 2, he says, "...speak
ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, proclaim 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." Now to speak comfortably means to speak to the heart.
Comfort comes from the heart. If you do not hear the good news
of the gospel with your heart, it will not profit you. Someone
once said that the difference between being saved and not being
saved is the knowledge of Christ from here to here, just a short
ways. From the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. So my prayer this morning is
that may God enable me to speak that which will comfort your
heart. That's what God's preachers,
teachers, and servants do. That's what they're commanded
to do. And if what I say to you week after week does not comfort
you, then I've missed God's commandment to me. I take this very seriously. This is an awesome responsibility. How do I or any servant comfort
God's people? The method has never changed.
We cry and proclaim all that belongs to the people of God
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me say that this cry
shows saints their comforts and at the same time shows unconverted
lost sinners their transgressions. We don't preach one message for
the saved and another message for the lost. It was the preaching
of Christ and Him crucified that some 27, 28 years ago, God used
to show me my sin. You see, when a sinner is made
to see that redemption is only accomplished by the cruel death
of God's Son. Being He who was made sin-force,
hung upon a tree, paying our sin-debt, it's then that God
allows the sinner to see something of the depravity of his sin.
If Christ had to be crucified to pay my sin debt, then how
horrific must my sin be? So it's the same message that
saves the lost and comforts the believing. So let me tell you
just as briefly as I can what belongs to you as a child of
God that should comfort you. We just read it. First of all,
your warfare is accomplished. Now, if you're a soldier that's
been in the heat of battle, that's good news. You, as God's child,
can be comforted in the fact that your salvation is already
accomplished. You don't have to do a thing,
but believe. This fact will comfort those to whom God has shown that
they can do nothing to merit, earn, or deserve redemption. Have you seen that? You can't
do anything to merit, earn, or deserve God's love. When our
Lord said from the cross, it is finished, He meant just that. Your salvation is accomplished. Christ finished the work that
we could not do. We couldn't do it because we're
dead in trespasses and sin. What can dead men do? What can
dead women do? The second thing that should
bring you comfort is your iniquity is pardoned. By the substitutionary
work of God's beloved Son, your sin is forgiven and forgotten
by God, who all our sin is against. David said, Against thee and
thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Our sin
is against God. And it's God that's forgiven
us. Your iniquity is pardoned. Now let me ask you, does that
comfort you? It will if you've been made to see that you are
nothing. Less than nothing. And that you
have even less than that to pay. You have nothing, nor can you
do anything that God will accept. Only God can pardon our iniquity. Only God. Third thing is that
you've received of the Lord's hand double for your sin. Now
the sufficiency, listen, the sufficiency of Christ's blood
and the sacrifice He made has obtained complete and total satisfaction
from God and God's strict and holy justice has been satisfied
in Christ. God requires no more than what
Christ has accomplished. His mercy being infinite gives
more than double of what God demands. So in that respect,
we receive a double blessing. Also, it's a double blessing
because our sins are gone, forgotten and forgiven, and by Him being
made sin for us and made double when the believer is made to
receive His perfect righteousness. Christ took my sin, gave me His
perfect righteousness. Christ was made to be sin, taking
ours, and we're made righteous by freely being given His. Are those not comforting words?
Well, they should be comforting when we consider who it is speaking
here. What does verse 1 say? Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. These words were spoken
to God's servant Isaiah. As I said, this is a command
that God gives all his servants, as I said a moment ago. And what
a responsibility is this command to his servants. For God says,
comfort my people. And this brings us to another
consideration. God's preachers are not to comfort
all people. They can't. You can't comfort
all people, for how can we cry peace when there is no peace? Jeremiah 8-11, God says, comfort
my people. Well, who are God's people? That's
a good question. God's people are those that He
elected, chose, and called by the gospel of His dear Son in
sovereign grace and mercy before the world began. He set his affection
on them. How do I know if I'm one of God's
elect? How do you know if you're one
of God's elect? Let me ask you a question. Do
you love God? Do you believe on Him and the
Lord Jesus Christ whom He has sent? Is He everything to you? Do you know why we need comfort?
Well, it goes right back to the same thing. We have already answered
that question. We need comfort because of who
and what we are. We're wretched sinners whose
hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And I say again, only God can
reveal that to you. I used to think I was okay, in
pretty good shape. Then God revealed to me what
I was. He didn't have to. He could have
just passed right on by and still been no less God. But you see,
He chose me before the foundation of the world, and He crossed
my path with the preaching of the gospel. And the preacher
told me of my sin, my hatred towards God, and I knew it was
so. God had already done a work of grace in my heart. By nature,
friends, we will not have the blessed and only potentate the
Lord of lords and the King of kings to rule over us. the natural
man receiveth not the things of God. However, the child of
God, by divine intervention and distinguishing grace, rejoices,
finds comfort in the fact to be under the rule of such a loving
and compassionate God." No better place to be. He who rules and
reigns and not a sparrow falls to the ground that he doesn't
know about, nothing happens. without His decree. Nothing. If I'm going to be under somebody's
rule, that's whose rule I want to be under, and I find great
comfort in that. I find great comfort in that.
Oh, what comfort we find in Him who loved us and gave Himself
for us. It is He that hath made us and
not we ourselves. And friends, we can say right
along with that, it is He that has saved us and not we ourselves. We cannot save ourselves. He
made us and He saved us. We can do nothing. We are His
people. His people and the sheep of His
pasture. And we have great comfort in
knowing that he is our great and good shepherd. Oh, and he
loves his sheep with an everlasting love. We're here and we pray
that God blesses our work here, not to build numbers, not to
build a bigger church, a new building, but that God might
yet bring other sheep into the fold. God doesn't take goats
and make them sheep. There's sheep out there that
He chose before the foundation of the world, and He's going
to bring them into the fold. And we have comfort in knowing
that. Do you have this blessed comfort that's only found in
Christ? So let me ask you a question that God asked in verse 27 of
chapter 40. Look down from verse 1 and 2
down to verse 27. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and
speakest, O Israel, that my way is hid from the Lord, and my
judgment is passed over from God? Now, let's just try to put
that in more plain English. God says, why would you ever
complain, O Jacob? Why would you ever whine, worry,
or fret, O Israel? Do you really think that God
has lost track of us? Look at verse 28. "...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 He weary, there is no searching of His understanding." Do we
think that God has lost track of us? Do we think that He doesn't
care what happens to us? Hast thou not known? Do we really
know anything? Hast thou not heard? Haven't
you been listening? God doesn't come and go. God
never changes. You can be confident of this.
You can find comfort in this, that He which hath begun a good
work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. If God
ever begin a work of grace in your heart, He's going to finish
it. He's going to finish you. What comfort! Men stand and tell
people all the time, now, you know, you've got to be faithful,
you could lose your salvation. Not if God saved you. Not if
the God of this Bible saved you, you're not going to lose it.
But He won't ever let you go. No man can pluck them from My
hand. He's the Creator of all things.
He doesn't get tired. He doesn't get tired. He doesn't
pause to catch His breath. And He knows everything inside
and out, because He's the cause of all things. Verse 29, He giveth
power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increaseth
strength. Paul said, when I'm weak, then
am I strong. But sadly, friends, in our lives,
and let's just be honest with one another, we exhibit, even
as believers, too little comfort, too little peace, and entirely
too much doubt, worry, and fear. Now is it not so? Do we not worry,
doubt, and fear way too much instead of resting in these comfortable
words of our Lord and Savior? Why is it so? Why is it so? because of sin and unbelief.
The disease of fear came into man's heart with sin. Adam never
was afraid of God till he had disobeyed God's word. When the
Lord walked in the garden in the cool of the day and Adam
heard the call of the Almighty, he ran to commune with Him as
a child does a loving father. But the moment he partook of
the forbidden fruit, he ran away and hid himself. And when God
said, Where art thou Adam? Adam came cringing and trembling,
for he was afraid of God. Sin brings fear. It's sin and the consciousness
of it that makes cowards of us all. Mr. Spurgeon once said,
though he who made us is a consuming fire, and we should always have
a holy awe, a holy respect, a holy reverence and fear of him, yet
the fear that brings bondage would never have come into our
spirit if we had not, first of all, transgressed his law. Sin
is the mother of fear which gives us such torment. Your warfare is accomplished. Comforting words. Your iniquity
is pardoned. Comforting words. I'm going to
give you a double blessing for all your sins. Oh, how comforted
I am in that. And then I turn around and I'm
afraid. Oh, what about this? What about
that? What if this happens? What if that happens? Fear continues
in men and women because sin continues in them. And if we
could get rid of sin, we could get rid of fear. Do you hear
what I'm saying? If we could get rid of sin, we
can get rid of fear. And we would have true comfort. But should we not already have
comfort? For our great God has already
said that our warfare is accomplished. He's already told us in His Word
that our iniquity is pardoned. He's already told us that we
receive from Him a double portion of blessing from His sovereign
hand in exchange for our sins. But the reason that we fear is
still because we war with that old sin nature. But by faith
our warfare is accomplished. If we can get hold of that by
faith, we can truly have comfort. But by reason of weakness, sin
prevails, often prevails, and we lose our comfort and worry
prevails. It's kind of like fear looks
upon the heart and says, ah, I see his heart is still prone
to wonder. But I pray, friends, that our
faith will grow stronger and that we will rejoice with the
Apostle Paul and say, where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound. And as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through the righteousness unto
eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now if you would look
at Isaiah chapter 41 with me, again God gives us words of comfort
and I preach these words of comfort to you. Look at verses 8 and
9 of chapter 41. God speaking here says, but thou
Israel art my servant. Jacob whom I have chosen, the
seed of Abraham, my friend, thou whom I have taken from the ends
of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and
said unto thee, Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee, and not cast
thee away." Those of you that trust Christ, you're the chosen
of God. That should bring you comfort.
He would and He's gone to the ends of the earth and called
you who are nothing from those who think themselves to be chief.
You're His children, the seed of Abraham. And if you look at
verse 8 again, He calls you His friend. Blessed be the name of
the Lord, He calls me His friend. And then in verse 10, which is
my text, He gives us a sovereign command. Fear thou not, for I
am with thee. Be not dismayed. Now I want you
to consider, He does not say, do not fear so often. It's not
what He says. But fear not. He doesn't say,
try not to fear. He says, don't fear. Fear not
at all. Be not dismayed. That word means
disturbed, distressed. Be not disturbed or distressed
at all. But how? How is that possible? Because He says, for I am with
thee. He says, for I am thy God. Or you can read it this way,
which I really like to read it this way. For I am thy God. The great I am is our God. Let's
read all of verse 10 together and I'll hurry this up. Fear thou not, for I am with
thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee. Yea,
I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. Now I'd have you notice something
that I believe again was Mr. Spurgeon that pointed out in
this verse. Five times in this verse, single
verse 10, you get some form of the pronoun thou or thee. And
five times you get the pronoun I, speaking of God Almighty. So whatever there may be of you
that causes you their fear, there shall be as much of God that
tells you you shouldn't fear. that commands you not to fear.
Whatever there may be of your weakness, there shall be as much
of God's strength. Whatever there may be of your
sins, there shall be as much of God's mercy to meet it. Now
we all know there are many things that cause fear. Many things. Different things for different
people. Each of us can name several. But there's no need to because
fear is fear. regardless of what causes it.
The comfort we find here is that God tells us not to fear first,
because He's with us. Man, what a reason not to fear.
Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Paul said, If God be for
us, who can be against us? Jeremiah said, and they shall
fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee,
for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee. Acts chapter
18, verse 9 and 10, Then spake the Lord to Paul in night by
a vision, and said, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace,
for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee. Fear not what man can do to you.
God is with his people. He said, I've got much people
in this city. God tells us not to fear secondly, because he
says, I am thy God. We should not fear because the
one who says I am with thee is the great I am thy God. Now, do we believe this? When
I ask him, I'm going to start acting like it. Worry, fret,
complain, gripe, murmur. God has promised to be with me. God has told me that I'm His
own. You're my people, He said. And
I'm your God. And He commands me to be not
afraid. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is He that condemns it? It's Christ that died. Our great
God says, I will strengthen thee. I'm weak, Lord. I'll strengthen
thee. I'll strengthen thee. And then Psalm 95, verse 4 says,
In his hand are the deep places of the earth. The strength of
the hills is his also. If there's anyone that can strengthen
us, friends, it's the God of this Bible. in times of fear,
in times of affliction, in times of trouble, in times of trial.
It is the omnipotent God which gives us strength. Do you need
strength? Call upon your God, because He's with you. He's with
you. Never a time that He's not with
you. Years ago that song came out,
God is watching us from a distance. I hate that song. God ain't watching
nobody from a distance. God is with thee. God is with thee. Even the wicked,
God controls and causes the rain to fall on them the same as He
does His people. Look at verses 13 and 14. For I, the Lord thy God, will
hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee. Fear not, thou worm, Jacob, and
ye men of Israel. I will help thee, saith the Lord,
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. That's what the next
words of our text says. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee. And then here's the most blessed
thing of the verse. Lastly, God says, I will uphold
thee, now look at this, with the right hand of my righteousness. Who's that talking about? I will
uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." That's
speaking of Christ. God upholds us in Christ. God hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the worlds. who being the brightness of his
glory and the express image of his person, and upholding, upholding
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high." Hebrews 1.13, But to which of the angels said he at
any time, Sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy
footstool? That place at the right hand
of God, which symbolizes all authority and power, is reserved
for Christ. He is the right hand of God's
righteousness. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross, despising the shame, and he sat down at
the right hand of the throne of God. Isaiah 42, 21. Turn over
a page. 42, verse 21. The Lord is well pleased for
His righteousness sake. Whose righteousness sake? The
Lord Jesus Christ. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. Now listen, that's the gospel. Our Lord Jesus Christ in perfect
righteousness kept magnified and made God's law honorable
for us. For us. And now we're upheld
by the perfect righteousness that God gave us in Christ. You
see how our comfort always comes back to knowing Him? Every time.
And this is life eternal. This is life eternal. Our Lord
said this Himself, that they might know Thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. I'm telling you, my
heart breaks this morning to think that this text does not
belong to some of you. Because you do not belong to
Christ. Oh, how I desire that you may yet have the promises
of the covenant for your own. Fear not. I am with thee. I am your God. I'll strengthen
you. I'll help you. I'll uphold you
by the right hand of my righteousness. If you confess with your mouth
the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart that God hath raised
Him from the dead, dear friends, thou shalt be saved. For why
do you tarry? Trust Jesus Christ and the promises
are yours, every single one of them.