Let's turn together to Isaiah
chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40. In the 39th chapter, Isaiah told
Hezekiah and Judah that the nation would be carried away into Babylon
as captives. They would be carried away into
Babylonian captivity as God's punishment for the sins of the
nation. Now try to imagine Isaiah speaking
to the king as he did. This nation that we love, this
nation of which I am a part, this nation for which our fathers
have died, this nation that we cherish above all nations on
the earth has rebelled against God and God will bring a pagan
king to take this nation into captivity and its right. This is what we have earned.
This is what we deserve. That's called a man with a message
from God. This was God's punishment for
the nation. And yet there was an elect remnant
in Judah who truly believed God, just as there is an elect remnant
in this nation. who truly believe God, a people
who worship Him, who have been called by His grace, who remain
faithful to Him because He remains faithful to them. And lest this
elect remnant should be overcome in their hearts with grief and
despair as though somehow they too were brought under the judgment
of God because of God's judgment upon the nation, Isaiah is here
instructed of God to assure His people of the nation's sure restoration. of the certainty of God's purpose
and of his grace toward his own. In this 40th chapter, Isaiah
tells us what the Lord told him to tell his people. And yet,
the scope of this passage clearly goes beyond Israel and Judah.
clearly goes beyond the nations living at the time when Isaiah
wrote and spoke and prophesied. The scope of the passage includes
you and me today. It is as much addressed to us
as it was to the children of Judah in that day. In these 31
verses, God the Holy Spirit tells us what it is that every man
who is sent of God to preach the gospel must proclaim. unto the generation in which
we live. Ron just prayed that God would use us to proclaim
his grace and glory in this generation. And we are at no loss to wonder
what the message is. God sends his prophets to different
people in different ages and circumstances to preach the word
of his grace. These men who are sent of God
to preach the gospel vary greatly from one another. Some are educated
and very refined. Some are uneducated and very
rough. Some are scholars. Some are very
simple, simple fishermen. Some are like Moses, Elijah,
John the Baptist, thundering out the word of God, bold, courageous,
obviously so. Others are like Isaiah in the
king's court. or like John, the tender-hearted,
beloved disciple of our Lord, or Paul, the great scholar. But always God's messenger is
a man, a man sent of God with God's message, God's man, God's
man. When I talk to preachers, young
preachers, I gave up a long time ago trying to tell folks too
much about anything, just wait and let them learn. But they
ask me things about conducting themselves. I say find what God
would have you to do. Find the direction God would
have you to go in. Take His word and don't back
up a second for anything. Don't pause for anything. Don't give consideration to compromise. If God Almighty has sent you
to do His work, You have no reason to apologize for doing it. I
have a very dear friend who used to stand up and preach and he
would apologize and he was sincere. He's a very tender-hearted, humble
man. And I pulled him aside and sat
down one day and had a long talk with him. I said, don't ever
apologize again for speaking God's Word that He's given you.
If you don't have any business up there preaching, don't do
it. Don't do it. proclaim God's Word as a man
with God's Word. God's servants are men with God's
message to men. They have a message. Now, if
all I have done tonight is prepare a sermon, a doctrinal or theological
discourse, if all I have done is prepared for you an exposition
of these 31 verses, you can do all right without hearing it.
You can do alright without hearing it. Because you can read just
as good from most anywhere. You can sit down on television
and listen to somebody else read it. But if I've come to you,
if I've come to Bobby and Judiestas with a message from God Almighty, you don't want to miss that.
You don't want to miss that. Pray that God will be pleased
to speak His message to your heart. through the lips of his
servant, not just tonight, every time one stands to proclaim the
gospel of God's grace to you. Now God's message never changes,
never changes. Every man who is sent of God
to preach the gospel is sent of God to preach the same message. The preacher must not be examined
by his personality, by his appearance, by his education, by his mastery
or lack of it of the English language or of the ancient languages. The preacher must be examined
by his message. When the time comes that God
Almighty is pleased to call me home to glory or pleased by whatever
means to make me incapacitated to serve as your pastor any longer,
if that happens tomorrow or if that happens 25 years from now,
When you start to look for a man to fill this pulpit, one issue. Now listen to me, just one thing,
only one thing to be considered. What's his message? What does
he preach? What does he preach? Now look
in verses 1 through 5. We're going to look at these
31 verses together. Here, the prophet of God shows
us what the preacher's work is. What preachers are supposed to
do. What is it that the work of the ministry involves? Most
people think that preachers are supposed to build up the church
membership, that preachers are supposed to visit the sick, marry
the young, bury the dead, attend to civic affairs, and perform
the whims of the people. I have an uncle from my mother's
side. He's not a great deal older than I am. He pastored down in
North Carolina, or wears the title anyway. Folks in the church,
when the ladies want to go shopping, they call him up and bring the
babies over to sit in his office so he can babysit them. If folks
want to take the kids somewhere, they call him up and take the
kids to a ballgame if they can't go, because that's what preachers
are. Preachers serve the whims of people. No, no, hirelings
do, not preachers. Hirelings do, not God-serving.
By modern standards, any good social worker, any good crooked
politician, any good coach, any good businessman, any good bandleader,
any motivator would make a good preacher. But by the standards
of men, whatever men think and say with regard to spiritual
matters is totally wrong. Whatever men think about pastoring
and preaching, whatever they think about it, whatever the
natural thought is, Like all other things spiritual, the natural
thought is totally wrong. What is it God's service is supposed
to do? Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, comfort them, comfort
them. Visit the fatherless and the
sick and the widows in their affliction, yes, by all means,
but that's not pastoring, that's godliness. Did you get that? That's not pastoring, that's
true religion. That's not preaching, that's true religion. The pastor's
business is to comfort from here, from right here. And the only
way you can do it is from back yonder in the stud house. Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem. Cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. Four, that is because
she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. My people, Ron, our business
in preaching is to preach to God's people, minister to God's
people. Our concern is for God's people,
the people of his choice. The people loved of Him with
an everlasting love, redeemed by the blood of His darling Son,
called by His Spirit. They are my people. My people
who are saved already, my people who shall be saved, my people
who have been saved. They are all my people. And our
aim is to minister to God's people. We preach the gospel to all men.
But our aim is for the hearts of God's people. Because, you
see, we don't know who they are until God calls them by His grace.
Comfort ye my people, saith the Lord. Now, in order to comfort
God's people, we've got to speak to their hearts. The words, speak
ye comfortably to Jerusalem, would better be translated, speak
ye to the heart of Jerusalem. That's impossible. That's impossible. No man can do that. No man. But I pray daily that God Almighty
will cause me to have no ability to speak, except He give me grace
and power by His Spirit to speak to your heart. I'm not playing games with your
souls. I travel a good bit, as you know, and I'm thankful for
your gracious, kind, generous attitude in supporting the labors
around the world. But I'm not interested in entertaining
folks. I'm interested in speaking to
your heart right now, to your heart. And the only way I can
is if God will be pleased to speak through me. Speak ye to
the heart of Jerusalem. The basis of comfort. How do
you comfort them? How do you comfort them? Let
me tell you how you comfort, folks, God's people. I'm not
talking about the worldly out there. The unbelieving, those
who will not believe God, they have no basis of comfort whatsoever. Let them draw comfort from wherever
they will. They draw comfort from luck or faith or chance
or religious experience or religious philosophy. Let them have whatever
they want, whatever they can get. But how do you comfort God's
people? The only way to comfort God's
people is to declare to them what God has done for them. I love what Brother Scott Richardson
said. I said it right here one time years ago. Many of you remember
it. I remember when Judy told me
she had cancer, she quoted this statement. She said, there's
been no bad news since I got the good news. Oh, what a word. Comfort my people. Tell them
what I've done. You see, nothing comforts the
hearts of needy sinners in any time, in any circumstances, like
the good news of salvation accomplished. False prophets talk about salvation
made possible. They talk about salvation offered,
salvation if. God's servants proclaim salvation
accomplished. We declare God reigns. He saves. He has saved His people from
their sins. We declare to every sinner who
trusts the Lord Jesus Christ, Your warfare is over. Your warfare
is over. You've been fighting God all
your life, and God settled the issue a long time ago. You've
been opposed to God all your days. God settled the issue a
long time ago. The daysman has won the day.
We declare your iniquity is pardoned. The debt is fully paid. Every
sinner who believes on the Son of God, do you trust Christ? Do you now believe on the Lord
Jesus? I tell you, God has no cause
of anger against you and never shall have. Your debt Your horrible
debt has been paid in full by Christ Jesus the Lord. And you
have received from the Lord's hand double for all your sins. God not only put away your sins,
He makes you perfectly righteous in His sight, in Jesus Christ
His Son. All is well. All is well. Hear me, children of God. All
is well. All is well. God smiles on you. God has pardoned all your sin. God declares you perfectly righteous
before Him. Having said that, no matter what
you experience tomorrow, no matter what comes down the
road, no matter what foe you face, no matter what obstacle
you must overcome, no matter what enemy comes against you,
all is well. My Father who sits on the throne,
smiles on me, accepts me, declares that I'm right before Him, and
He has no cause ever to be angry with me. All is well. Now look
at verse 3. He says, prepare ye the way of
the Lord. The work of the gospel preacher
is to prepare the way of the Lord. 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,
every mountain shall be made low, and the crooked shall be
made straight. and the rough places plain. We know clearly from the New
Testament, in every one of the Gospels, these verses have reference
to John the Baptist, their prophecy concerning him, but they don't
speak only of John the Baptist, they speak of everyone who comes
as the forerunner of Christ, and all who proclaim the gospel
of his grace are forerunners of Christ, for Christ comes to
his people in the way of gospel preaching. As John the Baptist
came to lay a highway right across the desert of apostate Judaism,
God's servants today, by the preaching of the gospel of Christ
Jesus, lay a highway across the desert of apostate religion,
upon which the Son of God comes to his people in saving power.
The preaching of Christ is like building a big house. And whenever
you do any building, you've got to do some excavating. No matter
where you build, you've got to do some excavating. Every valley
of hopeless despair must be filled. Every mountain and hill of self-righteousness
has got to be pushed down. Every crooked bend of works religion
must be made straight. Every rough place of legality
must be made plain. And then God's servants are given
this word of assurance. I wish I could, by God's grace,
believe half as good as I preach. But this is the word of assurance. And it's good. And the glory
of the Lord shall, did you see that? Shall, shall be revealed. And all flesh shall see it together. for the mouth of the Lord has
spoken it. The glory of the Lord shall be
revealed at the cross when justice is satisfied by blood atonement.
The glory of the Lord shall be revealed in the judgment of sinners
in the last day. The glory of the Lord is revealed
in the gospel we preach, declaring that the warfare is over, that
iniquity is pardoned, that you've received of the Lord's hand double
for all your sins. Christ Jesus will come to his
people all over the world by the preaching of the gospel,
revealing the glory of God in redemption and grace. God's elect
shall be saved. Every one of them shall. No question. They shall be saved. And that's how he reveals his
glory. shall be saved for the mouth
of the Lord has spoken it. That's the work of the gospel
preacher. Now, let's look at his message. In the rest of the
chapter, verses 6 through 31, the prophet tells us what the
preacher's message is. Now our object in preaching,
twofold. Twofold. The glory of God, number
one. The glory of God. The salvation
of God's elect, number two. and really the two can't be separated.
The glory of God and the salvation of His elect. How do we accomplish
this purpose? By what means can we both glorify
God our Savior and persuade sinners to come to Christ? What's the
message we're to preach? I know what the world says, and
when I say the world, I'm talking about the religious world, and
right now I'm thinking very distinctly about folks who claim to believe
free grace, preachers who try to somehow make the gospel of
God's free grace palatable to folks who hate God, and it can't
be done. Sometimes preachers act like
they have greater mercy than God has, act like their love
is bigger than God's love, and they say, well, somehow we've
got to tell the world God loves them. Find me a place in this
book. Find me a place in this book,
any place, any place, where the scriptures declare to unbelieving
men God's love. Find me one place. We teach our
babies to sing, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells
me so. Where? Where? Where? The only place
on this earth where the love of God is revealed to sinners
is in Christ. And you can't know the love of
God, what you think is the love of God, is a delusion until you
believe on His Son. God is love. But His love is
seen and known and manifest and revealed only in Christ Jesus
and only by faith in Him. The world says preach the power
of positive thinking. God says proclaim the immutability
of His sovereign purpose. The world says declare man's
dignity. Make men think they're somebody.
God says declare their depravity and tell them they're grass.
The world tells us to talk about God's love. God loves you and
we do too. How often do you hear it? Do you ever think about how stupid
it is to what folks say? You hear these fellas on television
as though they're looking into your living room and see you
sitting there on your sofa and they know who you are and say,
I love you. Now how are you going to love somebody you don't know?
That's nonsense. That's nonsense. Oh no, we're
not here to tell you God loves you. We're sent into this world
to declare to a generation who doesn't know God that God is
great. And you desperately need him.
You desperately need him. All right, let's see what he
says. In these verses, Isaiah shows us these three things.
Number one, he says, tell the people all flesh is grass. Look at verse six. The voice
of the Lord said, cry, or the voice of the prophet said, cry,
and he said, what shall I cry? This is what you cry, all flesh
is grass. Now that doesn't mean all flesh
is Bermuda grass, or all flesh is blue grass, or all flesh is
fescue grass. This grass is the kind of grass
you try to keep out of your yard, just weeds. All flesh is weeds. Just useless, worthless weeds. And all the goodliness thereof. All that you think makes you
special. Everything that causes you to
put your thumbs in your suspenders and strut like a peacock. All
the goodliness thereof. All that which distinguishes
one worm from another. All that which distinguishes
one worm on a dung heap from another worm on a dung heap.
All that that makes you think I am somebody. All the goodliness
thereof is like the flower of the field. You look out in the
springtime, see the weeds pop up on an uncultivated field,
and just a little while you see little bitty flowers. Boy, they're
so pretty. I recall several years ago when
they had all these thistles around here. I'm talking about thistles. Man, you look everywhere and
see thistles. My sister was up here. And she lives in the city,
and bless her heart, she didn't know what a thistle was. She
looked out and saw those purple blooms, and she said, oh, those
are so pretty. I wonder if I could take some
home. I said, I promise you, just take and cut one off. Take
it back and just shake it out in the yard and Jimmy will love
you. Thistles. You want some? What makes that one distinct
from a bar patch? Just the bloom. Just the bloom.
The worthless bloom on a worthless weed. A preacher? That sure doesn't leave any room
for the flesh to glory. You got it. You understood the
message. All the goodliness thereof is
as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth. How come? Because the Spirit
of the Lord bloweth upon it. God Almighty is going to kill
you. He's going to snuff the breath out of your nostrils,
and you're gone. The grass withers, the flower
fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely
the people is grass. The grass withereth, did you
hear it? The flower fadeth. All that you're so proud of is
going to wither with you. But, oh hear this, the Word of
our God shall stand forever. His Word, His Word. Almost every week I get a letter
from somebody or a telephone call. They want me to send them
a confession of faith. Tell them what our church creed
is. And most can't understand this. You got it right here. Right here. So that's ambiguous.
Oh no, it's not ambiguous. It's not ambiguous. I'll tell
you what happens. I'll tell you the reason I adopt
no creed. And I'm not saying they're not any good. I've read
lots of good creeds, very good creeds. But I tell you why I
don't adopt any, and won't lead the church to adopt any. Because
just as sure as you adopt a creed, that becomes the creed, and this
book must be made to bow to the creed. And I can show it to you
throughout history, I can show it to you in your lifetime. There's
no such thing as saying we believe this confession of faith, this
is our confession of faith, and believe in this book. This alone
is our authority. If I cannot show you from this
book why we do the things we do in this assembly, we have
no business doing them. If you cannot turn to this book
and show from the words of this book why we believe and preach
what we do, we have no basis for believing it and ought not
to preach it or believe it. The word of God, this written
word, stands forever. The decrees of God. The Word
that John saw, that book sealed with seven seals written inside
and out in Revelation 4, that book that Christ stands in Revelation
10 in His hand with the book open fulfilling the Word, the
decree and purpose of God stands unalterable forever. Be no change
with Him. And the Lord Jesus Christ, He
who is God, the Word incarnate, is the same yesterday, today,
and forever. He never changes. Now here's
the third thing. Isaiah says to us, behold your
God. Look at verse 9. O Zion, that
bringest good tidings. If you have a marginal translation,
O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion. O preacher, O preacher. 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
to the cities of Judah, Behold your God. How do you comfort God's people? How do you minister to God's
people in troublesome times? I know we live in this day when
the poorest folks in the world try to find them a shrink somewhere.
Gotta have somebody to help them through their problems. Such
terrible days, such terrible problems. Let me tell you something. If you don't have God, you need
something. You need some pills, you need
a shrink, you need something. But if you know God Almighty,
in the saving operations of His mighty arm. Lean on Him. Behold your God. We're talking about God, our
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. The only way you
can know, see, hear, speak to God or be spoken to by God is
through Him, who is God incarnate. Behold your God. Behold Him. He's the mighty Savior. Look
at verse 10. The Lord God, behold the Lord God will come with a
strong hand and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his reward
is with him and his works before him. Isaiah says to the children of
Israel, look out younger, your savior is coming. His arm is
mighty. He's coming to do his work. His
work is before him. He knows what he's got to do.
He knows what he's got to do. Sworn to do, and His reward,
His salvation is with Him. Look at verse 11. This mighty
Savior is a good shepherd. He'll feed His flock like a shepherd.
He'll gather the lambs with His arms, and He'll carry them in
His bosom, and gently lead those that are with YAH. What on earth is that talking
about? That means when His sheep walk
through this world, He'll feed them, and He'll protect them,
and He'll care for them. And when they need it, He'll
pick them up in His arms and tote them. He'll watch out for
them all the time. You need something else. The
Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He's a good
shepherd. Read on. Behold your God, He's
the omnipotent, omniscient Creator. Verse 12, Who hath measured the
waters in the hollow of His hand? All the waters of the earth,
all that water we've seen on television the last four weeks
down in Florida and off the eastern coast of the United States, all
of that, that's not even a thimbleful by comparison. All the waters
of the earth, He has measured in the hollow of His hand this
same hand that stretched out mighty to save. He met it out
to heavens with a span. He took a yardstick and measured
the heavens. He comprehended the dust of the earth. The dust,
not the dirt. The dust, not the sand. The dust,
not the rocks. Even the smallest particles of
material. He comprehended in a measure. He weighed the mountains in His
scales and the hills in His balance. Who hath directed the Spirit
of the Lord? You think you're going to tell God what to do?
You think He needs some instruction from you? or being his counselor
hath taught him? With whom took he counsel? Who
instructed him and taught him in the path of judgment? Now,
Lord, you got to do this. This is what you ought to do.
Who taught him knowledge and showed to him the way of understanding? Now look at verses 15, 16, and
17. Compared to our God, all the nations and peoples of the
earth are nothing, less than nothing, and vanity. I was talking to a friend last
night, going through some trouble, and I shared with him that brief
little quote I put in the bulletin this week. I read it last week.
I thought it was so good. Philip Dodridge, he said, if a dog barks
at a sheep, the sheep never barks back at the dog. Why? Why? We're in the shepherd's
arms. Our God rules. And the nations
of the world are vanity. Vanity. They ought to be that
to us. Anyone who rises in opposition,
anyone who stands in the way, anything that looks like it's
going to overwhelm, it's going to overcome, Now, it doesn't
take much, Oscar, for something to be too big for you. That's
not much. It doesn't take much for something
to be too big for me. It doesn't take much for something to be
bigger than I can handle. Now, I don't like to admit that,
but I realize it's so. It just doesn't take much for
it to be bigger than I can handle. It doesn't take much to cause me
pain. But what's going to be too big
for your God? What is it that he can't handle?
Look at what it says, verse 15. Behold, the nations, the nations
are as a drop of a bucket. You see, God doesn't care for
but one nation. That's his holy nation, his holy
hill of Zion. The only nation he cares for,
he sacrifices all other nations for that nation. And they are
counted as the small dust of the balance. You go to the feed
store and weigh out seed next year. Weigh out grass seed. I'm
going to buy 50 pounds of grass seed and weigh it out. Put it
in the balances. Any of you ever think about fussing
with a fellow because he didn't dust out the dust out of the
bottom of it? So a preacher would be silly because it's totally
insignificant. Now hear me. All creation All men, all nations, all hell
standing in opposition to our God and his people are less than
vanity. Let's see if that's what he says.
And Lebanon is not sufficient to be burnt. He doesn't need
a sacrifice from the earth. And the beast thereof sufficient
for burnt offering. He doesn't need anything from
the earth. All nations before Him are as nothing. They're counted
to Him as less than nothing. That's about as small as you
can get. Less than nothing and vanity. So great is our God. He tells us in verses 18, 19,
and 20, nothing can be compared to Him. Old men like to make
their idols. If they're rich enough, they
make them idols of gold. But if they're so poor they can't
do that, they'll go get them a tree. Get them a good locust
post. A tree that won't rot. And they'll
save up the money and get somebody to cover it up and make it look
like it's gold. And they have their imaginations and notions
of what God is like. How God appears. He says, to
whom you gonna liken me? God is like. You wanna try filling
that in? To whom will you liken me? He
who is our God. He's the sovereign monarch of
the universe. Let's just read beginning of
verse 20. Have you not known? Have you
not heard? Has it not been told you from
the beginning? Have you not understood from
the foundations of the earth? These are things you ought to
learn in the cradle roll in Sunday school. It is He that said it,
said it, said it on the circle of the earth and the inhabitants
thereof, that includes you and me, All of them are his grasshoppers. He stretcheth out the heavens
as a curtain. He spreadeth them out as a tent
to dwell in. He bringeth the princes to nothing.
He maketh the judges of the earth vanity. Yea, they shall not be
planted. Yea, they shall not be sown. Yea, their stocks shall not take
root in the earth. And he shall also blow upon the
grass. Who? The princes, the judges,
the mighty. Remember, all flesh is grass. Just because a fellow wears a
crown, that's like having a little blossom on a weed. Just because
he wears a robe and sits on a bench, that's like having a little blossom
on a weed. The Spirit of the Lord will blow on it. Look at
it. They shall wither and the whirlwind shall take them away
like worthless stubble. To whom then will you liken me,
or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One? Lift up your eyes on
high, I'll show you who I am. And behold, who hath created
these things? He bringeth out their host by
number. How many stars are there? I don't
have any idea. Don't have a clue. Neither does
anybody else, except God. He brings them out by number.
Now, you know, we're suckers for sentimental stuff, you know.
Every year you hear somebody, along about Christmas time, you
want to buy them a special present, you can get them a star with
a certificate named after Larry Criss. Looking up yonder at Larry
Criss. Shoot, it don't matter how many
certificates you've got. Look at this. Look at this. He calleth
them all by name. I don't know what their names
are, but God named them. And he did it by the greatness of
his might. For that he is strong in power,
not one faileth. Oh, I won't get off on one of my
tangents, but green people, good way to call
themselves, frog kisses and tree huggers. When you destroy God, you're
going to destroy the earth. He holds everything in balance
by the word of His power. And I'll tell you when it's going
to come unglued, when He strikes the match and sets it on fire.
It's exactly right. Behold your God. Now this God,
this God, I told you a little while ago, you can have pills,
you can have Him. You can have a shrink or you
can have him. You can lean on a preacher, you can have him.
You can go to a counselor, you can have him. Behold your God. He's able. He's able. And just put whatever you want
at the end of it. He's able. God's greater than
all our needs. Look at verse 27. Why sayest
thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel? My way is hid from
the Lord. My judgment is passed over from
my God. Why do you talk such nonsense?
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. He never gets
tired. He never grows weary. Nothing's
a strain to him. There is no searching of his
understanding. Behold your God. He gives power
to folks who don't have any. He giveth power to the faint. Sometimes folks will say, well,
I'm not as strong as you, or I'm not as strong as this person. Quit trying to muster strength. That's when we get in trouble.
That's when we get in trouble. How many times? How many times
you face difficulty, I've got to handle it. I've got to handle
it. I've got to handle it. Go ahead and try. You'll make
a mess of it. I can't handle this. My God,
there's nothing I can do. He gives power to the faint.
And to them that have no might, He increases strength. Remember
what Paul tells us? When I'm weak, then am I strong. When I can't do anything, I look
to my God to do everything and nothing's going to stand against
me. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. He preserves
and keeps His own when others who appear to be stronger and
greater faint and grow weary and fall. Look at this. He gives
power to the faint, to those who can't do anything. He does
everything for them. But then he says in verse 30, even the
youth shall faint and be weary. The young men shall utterly fall.
But they that believe God, they that wait on the Lord, they that wait on the Lord, Give up everything to Him. Believe
Him for righteousness. Believe Him for redemption. Believe
Him for atonement. Believe Him for acceptance. Believe
Him for today and tomorrow. Believe Him for the trial and
the temptation. Believe Him in the face of every
foe. Believe Him in the face of every
mountain, at the face of every valley, in the face of every
obstacle. They that wait on the Lord shall
renew their strength. How often we rise in the morning,
some difficulty. I've got to, I've got to, I've got
to. In the Lord God calms you down
with His Word. They said, Lord, do for me. Hide
me under the shadow of your wings. I flee to you for refuge. They
that wait on the Lord shall run and not be weary. They shall
mount up with wings as eagles. They shall walk and not faint. I've said it before, but it'll
bear repetition. In the beginning of our pilgrimage,
God sakes, Soar high and fly like the eagle, and I guess that's
good. Children think they can do anything, and they always
feel good. My granddaughter and grandson
like yours, there's nothing they can't do. I can do it myself.
I soar high. Oh, I've got the world by the
tail on a downhill pull, and everything's slick. Nothing wrong.
But after a while, as we grow in God's grace, God's pilgrims,
run their race, and never weary of it. Though others do, not
God's pilgrims. In their mature years, they walk. We're marching to Zion. We'd
better sing it sometime, we're walking to Zion. We're walking to Zion. The battle's
over. more than conquerors, we're walking
to Zion. Making steady, but tranquil,
almost unconscious progress and advancement. They think not. Behold your God. All children
of God, whatever your need is this hour, Behold God your Savior
sitting on the throne. Behold your God.