God Announces the Shepherd Pt1

We have taken occasion for several
years to consider, especially during the Advent season, some
of the messianic passages that are here in this great book of
Isaiah. But I’ve seized upon the occasion
this year, having now been out of Romans for two weeks already. And with Advent nearly upon us
to attempt to tackle an entire chapter of Isaiah in seven weeks. Not having preached through any
book of the Old Testament in its entirety, These occasional
excursions into Old Testament passages allow me to work the
rust off of my Hebrew and to delve into the riches of God’s
word. But this year our excursion has
an additional function. In Romans 9 1 through 5. We were
just reminded three Sundays ago. How much God had done for the
nation of Israel. How very privileged they were
spiritually. Paul mentions that they were
Israelites to whom belongs the adoption as sons and the glory
and the covenants and the giving of the law and the temple service
and the promises whose are the fathers and from whom is the
Christ. Incredible privileges. And there
is perhaps no greater chronicle of the privilege bestowed on
the nation of Israel than here in the book of Isaiah. So, as
I said, a seven-week series. It’s not really about, not really
limited to the Advent season. If you wanted to stretch it,
you could call it Advent, an Advent series. We’ll be in it,
this chapter, roughly seven weeks, and I hold purpose to cover the
entire chapter, chapter 40. I think you will find it, as
I have, to be just incredible. An incredible chapter tell you
just a little bit about Isaiah the man we’ve touched on him
before he is referred to affectionately as the Apostle Paul of the Old
Testament. He answered God’s call dramatically
as dramatically recorded in Isaiah 6. His lengthy ministry ranged
from 740 all the way down to 680 B.C. from the end of King
Uzziah’s reign right near the end of it all the way down through
King Hezekiah’s reign and the captivity and exile into Babylon
of the nation. Isaiah specifically ministered
to the kingdom of the southern kingdom of Judah and his primary
purpose throughout the course of his ministry was the correction
of their error most notably their worship of false gods. but also
their comfort, their comfort in the coming Messiah. As one
characterized it, Isaiah lived during this time of great military
threat to Judah and warned its kings against trusting in alliances. That was their tendency. This
syncretism, not just from a spiritual standpoint, but they found their
strength not in God, but in other nations. Briefly again about
Isaiah, the book. Some will appreciate that the
book of Isaiah has been count has been referred to as the Mount
Everest of Hebrew prophecy. And so we come to just as you
already know one of the greatest books in scripture it has been
referred to also as the Bible in miniature. Now some of this
gets overplayed grossly overplayed. If you will the first thirty
nine chapters. point or I guess equate to the
first 39 Old Testament books as they refer to things like
righteousness and holiness and justice. Well those things aren’t
absent in the final 27 books but the fact that there are 66
chapters in Isaiah probably provoked some creative individual to go
and attempt. In fact it provoked a lot of
creative individuals to go and attempt to sync up every chapter
in Isaiah with every book of the Old Testament. I’ll get to
that in a second. The last 27 chapters beginning
at Isaiah chapter 40 do break into themes like glory and compassion
and God’s great favor. And those chapters begin to deal
with the great theme of restoring Israel. And so there is that
great hope And there are many, many prophecies given in there
that have a dual reference, not just to this immediate release
of Israel from Babylon, but also and ultimately to the coming
Messiah. Now, as I said, some have called
this the Bible in miniature, and as I said, many go way too
far with it. For instance, you’ll know exactly
what I’m talking about with just a very few Examples Isaiah 1
corresponds with Genesis in Isaiah 1 God calls upon the heavens
and the earth to hear his complaint. In Genesis 1 God created the
heavens and the earth. Well now to step back and to
begin to think that in any chapter of Isaiah you can find in any
book of Genesis or in any book Something that refers or relates
in some way, shape or form to what was said in Isaiah. It’s
almost silly, but the silliest has to be in Chapter 32. In Chapter
32 is a contrast with Jonah, Isaiah 32, 20. Blessed are ye
that sow beside the waters. Well, Jonah refused to sow beside
all waters. He did not want to preach to
the Gentiles. And so you see, that kind of absurdity is what
we want to avoid. But. The book does contain 66
chapters and Isaiah or the pardon me. The book contains 66 chapters
and the scriptures can contain 66 books. The Bible has two main
divisions and so does Isaiah. The first division of the Bible
is referred to as the Old Testament, 39 books. The first division
of Isaiah essentially does contain 39 chapters. But that’s about
the extent of this phenomenon. The theme of this second portion
is definitely linked or parallel to the theme of the New Testament
and the theme you could sum it up in one word is salvation.
The word salvation occurs 26 times in Isaiah’s writings and
only seven times in all the other prophets combined. So this is
the theme of Isaiah’s writing. Give you just a brief outline.
I’ve already told you the 39 and 27 division. But if you were
to outline the book, especially the latter half, the first eight
chapters, pardon me, the first nine chapters, 40 through 48,
form a kind of a division. We’ll talk more about that as
we get into it. And then the next nine and the next nine.
And so you have three divisions of nine chapters. And we are
going to cover but one small portion of that. Many of you
know that I am. I came clean a couple
of years ago and declared myself a big fan of Handel’s Messiah. And it is from that very piece
that these opening words are taken. These opening words literally
open Handel’s Messiah. If you would, As I have indicated,
we’ll be in this chapter for seven weeks. I want to give you
just the framework of the chapter as we read through it. I’ll give
you just a brief heading and then we’ll read the scriptures,
the chapter in its entirety. If you would, Isaiah chapter
40. I have titled this series, God Announces the Shepherd. That
will become patently evident as to why as we get through here.
But what Isaiah does here is give us glorious truth. He opens
up glorious truths to us regarding the Messiah’s advent, the first
of which is the comfort of peace, the comfort of peace. Look at
verse one comfort. Oh, comfort my people, says your
God, speak kindly to Jerusalem and call out to her that her
warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed, that she has
received of the Lord’s hand double for all of her sins. That opens
the way to the Herald’s announcement, yet undefined, where he calls
us to a preparation for glory. A voice is calling, verse three,
clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness, make smooth in
the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted
up and every mountain and hill be made low. Let the rough places
become a plain and the rugged valley, pardon me, the rugged
terrain a broad valley. The glory of the Lord will be
revealed and all flesh will see it together for the mouth of
the Lord has spoken. That gives way to a series of
messages, the first of which has two parts. There is an exhortation
that a messenger is tasked with declaring, proclaiming, the first
of which is the eternality of God’s word. Look at verse six.
A voice says, call out. Then he answered. What shall
I call out? All flesh is grass and all its
loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers
and the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows upon
it. Surely the people are grass,
the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God
stands forever. The second part of this initial
message is the shepherding ruler. and that the messenger is to
proclaim the hope that is this shepherding ruler. Look at verse
9. Get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good
news. Lift up your voice mightily,
O Jerusalem, bearer of good news. Lift it up, do not fear. Say
to the cities of Judah, here is your God. Behold, the Lord
God will come with might, with His arm ruling for Him. Behold,
His reward is with Him and His recompense before Him. Like a
shepherd, He will tend His flock. In His arms, He will gather the
lambs and carry them in His bosom. He will gently lead the nursing
ewes.” So ends the first message, which opens immediately to the
second message. The God of peace. The nature
of this God. who has given us peace and called
us to preparation and introduced us to the shepherd who in verse
twelve has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and
mark off the heavens by the span and calculated the dust of the
earth by the measure and weighed the mountains in a balance and
the hills in a pair of scales who has directed the spirit of
the Lord or as his counselor has informed him. With whom did
he consult and who gave him understanding and who taught him in the path
of justice and taught him knowledge and informed him of the way of
understanding. Behold, the nations are like
a drop from a bucket. And are regarded as a speck of
dust on the scales. Behold, he lifts up the islands
like fine dust. Even Lebanon is not enough to
burn, nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations
are as nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less
than nothing and meaningless. The second message is ending.
Which opens to the third message, the contrast of God and idols. To whom then would you liken
God? Or what likeness would you compare with him? As for the
idol, a craftsman cast it, a goldsmith place it with gold and a silversmith
fashions it chains of silver. He who is too impoverished for
such an offering selects a tree that does not rot. He seeks out
for himself a skillful craftsman to prepare an idol that will
not totter. Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not
been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood
from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle
of the earth. And its inhabitants are like
grasshoppers who stretches out the heavens like a tent curtain
and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. It is he who reduces
rulers to nothing, who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely they have been planted.
Scarcely they have been sown. Scarcely has their stock taken
root in the earth. But he merely blows on them and
they wither. The storm carries them away like
stubble. To whom, then, will you liken
me that I would be his equal, says the Holy One. Lift up your
eyes on high and see who has created these stars, the one
who leads forth their host by number. He calls them all by
name because of the greatness of his might and the strength
of his power. Not one of them is missing. Which
leads to the concluding message, the strength of the Lord. Why
do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, my way is hidden from
the Lord and the justice due me escapes the notice of my God. Do you not know? Have you not
heard? The everlasting God, the Lord,
the creator of the ends of the earth, does not become weary
or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary
and to him who lacks might, he increases power. Though youths
grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet
those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will
mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not get tired.
They will walk and not become weary.” Handel’s Messiah opens with those
opening words. set for years, I understand that
Handel’s Messiah isn’t for everybody. I think it was several years
into it that I discovered that it was referred to as light opera,
an oratorio, which sends shivers down my spine that I’m a fan
of opera. It is literally, though, scripture
set to music. And the music absolutely captures
the mood of these passages. In weeks to come, I’ll provide
you with An opportunity, this isn’t an advertisement, it’s
an opportunity to to go and to to see Handel’s Messiah, listen
to Handel’s Messiah if you’ve never done so. Handel was a composer,
George Friedrich Handel, who found himself penniless, absolutely
broke, and because of that, depressed and sleepless, almost beside
himself. And then in the summer of 1741,
he got a series of letters that would really change his life.
There was one that was from the Duke of Devonshire, inviting
him to the capital, Dublin, to produce a series of benefit concerts. And then a friend of his sent
him some lyrics. A friend of his sent him a series
of scripture passages that he had set down as lyrics. Immediately
Handel began to look and to revere these great passages and eventually
set them to music. As I suggested before, I think
everybody should see Handel at least once and for many that
will be plenty. But for me, the best way to see
it when I go is to see it with an open Bible in front of me
and not the least of which is this chapter. The genius of Handel’s Messiah
isn’t so much the music, it’s the scripture that God inspired. It opens with this extremely
solemn instrumental that captures and presents to the audience
the human struggle with sin and sinfulness, and then it begins
coursing through these Old Testament prophecies about Christ, beginning
with the passage that we’ll be considering this morning. Messiah Handel’s Messiah is often
performed at Christmas but the tradition that was originally
slated for an Easter worship service. Which has led a number
of people to question the accuracy of Handel’s exegesis. Are these
indeed prophecies that point to the Messiah the Lord Jesus
Christ. Some have even called Handel’s
Messiah the gospel according to Handel. It is a Christmas
song. It is a song that proclaims the
Messiah, proclaims Christ. And this Christmas song, if you
will, was set to music, though it was set to music by Handel
in 1741. The lyrics were written 700 years
before Christ was even born. And these lyrics represent arguably
the greatest Christmas hymn of all time. May offer is proof just ahead
of time will spend much more time in these passages in the
days and weeks to come. When John the Baptist ministry.
Which is detailed in all four of the gospels when John the
Baptist ministry broke. It was this passage versus three
and four three through five actually that were cited. testifying of
John the Baptist which brings the entire chapter into bold
relief. It is the Savior who’s being
proclaimed even though we see them in essentially code as much. Israel would have seen them.
They would have seen these as having a near reference only
to the fact that somehow some way a shepherd was going to come
and was going to rescue out of rescue them out of this captivity
in Babylon. There are other passages that
are directly quoted, many that are specifically alluded to in
Scripture. One of the other most poignant
ones. Occurs in verses six through eight. Which occurs also in first
Peter, chapter two, where Peter quotes it directly, all flesh
is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass, the
grass withers and the flower falls off, but the word of the
Lord endures forever. What Peter is pointing to there
is the gospel, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and bringing
this passage in as he does, he legitimizes not just what Handel
has done, but what exegetes for centuries have discovered that
Isaiah is pointing here in chapters 40 through 66 to the advent of
the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. To chapter 40 the immediate
context was this captivity. You can you can take your time
to read about it in second second Kings chapter 25 and the demise
of Judah second Chronicles chapter 36 where the kings finally had
sinned their last and God would have no more. And God took them
into captivity to punish them to bring them to repentance.
And what we find in Chapter 40 is the dawn of that redemption. If you would go back to verse
one. Back to verses one and two, where
God announces the shepherd in this comfort of peace. Passage
opens comfort of comfort, my people says your God. Those words to any of us who
have ever wrestled with the doctrine of election should immediately
bring to mind God’s sovereignty and salvation. God has a people
and those people by God’s own mercy alone can call them their
God. He’s not everyone’s God and not
every person is his people. He has created everyone. He owns
everything in the entire world. And yet there is a specialness
that is announced in those words, my people. There is a peculiarness
to them in the most blessed way that God selected them out, and
because of that, they now can look to him as their God. To us, that sounds almost egotistical.
To go to your neighbors, to go to your friends, maybe your unbelieving
family and to say, do you know my God? But he’s not just your
God. Yes, he is. If God has said his
love upon you, just as we saw in those beautiful verses through
chapter eight of Romans, if the God has if God has said his love
on you, then he is your God and you are his people. You’re part of his family. Now,
we know that this could easily be referred to as Israel and
Israel exclusively, and at the time, absolutely, they laid claim
to this title. But the title absolutely expands
in God’s providence. Spurgeon said it this way. There
is a people scattered among all the peoples of the earth whom
God Almighty calls my people. A people who are God’s own peculiar
property and possession. Here is a wonderful revelation
of grace. Your God, God Almighty, the great
I am, here declares to you and me that I am your God. What great comfort. If that’s
all you had in Isaiah chapter 40, that’s enough. That’s enough
to give us comfort. That’s enough to give us motivation,
a prompter to live for him, a new name, a new identity, a new purpose. It’s enough. That you are his
people and he is your God. But these commands that flow
in this verse. And there are three. These commands
comfort, speak kindly, Call out. To whom are they given? The speaker of this section,
this opening section specifically is clear, it’s God himself. And
it is equally clear that his target audience ultimately is
his people, as we just talked about, what isn’t so clear is
to whom are these commands given? Some have suggested that they
were given to the angels. The angels were to come and to
comfort the languishing Israel, they were to come and comfort
God’s people. One suggested in these terms
that if evil spirits assault us, doubtless good spirits must
guard us. If Satan can cast us down, then
God gives his angels charge over us to keep us in all our ways. Was this given to angels? Most
likely, but it wasn’t just to angels. What about to Isaiah? Well, absolutely to Isaiah. Absolutely
to Isaiah. One characterizes it this way.
We have here the commission and the instructions given. Isaiah
had already been commissioned to the ministry, and now he is
given a specific and a new and glorious message for God’s people. The instructions are given to
this prophet himself when he saw Judah and Jerusalem by their
daring impieties, ripening apace for ruin. Do you hear what he
says? He says they are day by day getting nearer and nearer
a precipice. For which there is no other remedy
but God. And God and his providence hastening
ruin upon them. Let them be sure that notwithstanding
all of this, God had mercy in store for them. God says, Go
stand and proclaim comfort, even in the midst of this great calamity.
Proclaim comfort to them. But not just to Isaiah. Really,
this is said to all the prophets and so many of the prophets we
see fulfill this very thing. Haggai, the prophet, then spake
Haggai that Lord’s Messenger, Chapter 113, and the Lord’s message
to the people saying, I am with you, saith the Lord. Haggai 2.9,
the Lord of this latter house shall be greater than the former,
says the Lord of hosts. And in this place, I will give
peace. Many of the prophets had proclaimed
very similar messages, Zechariah likewise. The Lord answered the
angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words. The prophets were tasked. The
prophets were tasked with this very thing. Not just the angels
were given the task of comforting God’s people, but also the prophets
themselves. And moving into the New Testament,
the apostles, the disciples were constantly tasked to go and to
tell, go and to share, go give the good news of the gospel. pastors, evangelists, shepherds, earthly shepherds
are given the same task. Matthew Henry said it this way,
we have here the commission and the instructions given not to
this prophet only, but with him to all the Lord’s prophets, nay
to all of Christ’s ministers. To proclaim comfort to God’s
people, God’s ministers being employed by the blessed spirit
as comforters and as helpers of the joy of Christians. So
as those who name the name of Christ that are placed into his
service, they are given the great task of bringing comfort. But
it’s not just earthly comfort. It’s not just platitudes. It’s
not just good words. It’s the good news of the gospel
and the good news of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is comfort. He is the only comfort. Spurgeon said it even more powerfully
when he said ministers are bound to comfort God’s people. They
cannot do it unless they preach the good doctrines of truth,
except they preach grace and gracious doctrines. It is our
duty to reprove, to exhort, to invite, but it is equally our
duty to console. And all of us who serve Christ
are given that task. Really, that opens up. To all
of us who name the name of Christ, all of us are called to comfort.
If you have been comforted, if you have received the gospel,
if you have come to know the Savior, then you are in turn
bound, urged admonished to go into be comfort. One said it
so strongly when he said, do not use your ministers and as
an excuse for the discharge of your duties. In other words,
he says, hey, look, don’t take this attitude that he’s the paid
guy. They’re the elders of the church.
They’re responsible for sharing the gospel. They’re responsible
for evangelizing the city. Don’t use your ministers and
excuse for the discharge of your own duties when God said comfort
my people. He spoke to all his people to
comfort one another, and who is there that knows the Lord
and has tasted of his grace who cannot comfort his brethren,
if you know Christ, if you know the forgiveness of sins, if you
know the righteousness that comes by faith, then you are tasked
with this great call to comfort. And you’re to do so through public
worship, you’re to do so through the communion of God’s people,
you’re to do so through sharing with friends and family and neighbors. I’ve said it many times, you
know, that every time you partake of the Lord’s table, it’s a testimony.
Every time that you gather here with God’s people, it’s a testimony.
Don’t let people roll into town and take you to brunch. Let your
testimony be to the people. Let your testimony be to your
family and your friends who roll into town with the audacity to
take you to brunch on a Sunday morning. Let your testimony be
comfort to them because you must be with God’s people. Isaiah,
Chapter 40, go back again. We know who he’s and we know
who’s speaking. Now we know who he’s talking
to and we see immediately that with which we are tasked comfort.
comfort my people. It’s fascinating to me. This divine command that was
given not just to angels and prophets, but to all of us who
named the name of Christ, it literally means to cause to breathe
again, breathe life into them. And it’s such a fascinating imagery
that when the Septuagint and remember, let me remind a few
of you, the Septuagint was the Greek translation of the Hebrew
Bible. Do you know that when the trans
when the Septuagint was translated, when they looked at this passage,
do you know what word they used? For the Hebrew here in comfort. Which had this this intentionality
to cause to breathe again. Paracleto. Where we get our word, you’ve
heard it before, Pericles, the comforter. The one that comes
alongside and encourages, it’s a compound word, and we’ve looked
at it before, but it’s the encourager in the New Testament. It’s the
Holy Spirit himself who breathes life into us. And what God says
is go and to take the message of hope, which will breathe life
to them. It’s the only thing that will. Note this command is an active
one, it’s continuous. God’s people are to be ever ready,
constantly ready to declare the good news of comfort, the comfort
of the Messiah. To a world who does not know
him. Think of the. The Christmas hymns
that we so often sing. One of the most poignant lines
in all Says this and ye beneath life’s crushing load whose forms
are bending low, who toil along the climbing way. I shared this
with the people several years ago. We went out to the mall
downtown and we were singing these lines and tears came to
my eyes as I’m looking at people looking at us who had no clue
what we were singing about. No clue. Broken, troubled, hurting,
lost. Damned. And ye, beneath life’s
crushing load, whose forms are bending low, who toil along the
climbing way with painful steps and slow, look now for glad and
golden hours come swiftly on the wing. Oh, rest beside the
weary road and hear the angels sing. Many hymns at Christmas proclaim
this, but do we? Peace on Earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled. How silently, how silently the
wondrous gift is given. So God imparts to human hearts
the blessings of his heaven. No ear may hear his coming, but
in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive him still,
the dear Christ enters in. Now that will gut a lot of the
hymns this Christmas. When you go to Walmart, when
you walk into Starbucks, they will gut a lot of these Christmas
hymns. But there’s one they never seem
to be able, unless they make it just a purely instrumental
piece, in which case the words are rattling around in people’s
brains. They can’t take these lyrics away, joy to the world,
the Lord is come, let Earth receive her King. We come with comfort. When we
go to the world, we come with comfort. We come with the same
message that Christ came. His yoke is easy. His burden
is light. He came to pay for the sins of
sinners. We come to a lost, hurting, sinful,
lonely, downtrodden, broken, discouraged, frustrated, angry,
embittered, hopeless, estranged, sad, aimless, proud, self-sufficient,
deceitful, hedonistic, misguided, deceived people. And we come, we come with this
message, we come with the message of comfort. But it doesn’t have to be that
way anymore. The Messiah has come, the comfort has come, redemption
has come, forgiveness from sin has come. Look at the passage,
I told you there were three commands here. Speak. Is the first. Speak, call out. Pardon me, comfort is the first,
speak is the second, call is the third. Look at this second
one, speak. And here you see the attitude
of the address. In a sense, we’ve already given
the ultimate goal of the address is to comfort the hurting. But
here we have the attitude of the address, speak kindly. Now, that really would be helpful
for a lot of us, wouldn’t it? A lot of times, you know, I said
this before, I hate chick tracks. I don’t like them. Ultimately,
I like the message. If you don’t know what they are,
don’t even bother. They’re just harsh, venomous treatments of
the gospel that are totally in people’s faces and are just harsh
and foreboding. God here says, go, go and comfort
people, go and take them the comfort of the gospel. Jesus
Christ is a good thing. Not a hateful and venomous thing. Literally, it says here, speak
to the heart. How many of us? A lot of times
we get to the head. We’re very concerned with the
head, aren’t we? We’re very concerned with knowing the facts of the
gospel so that we may present them in their entirety so that
they have no excuse. And we take the gospel with that
kind of a mentality and we lay it before them and we demand
a response. How many of us speak to the heart?
How many of us really go and and to put ourselves in their
shoes and to empathize with their hurt and their weaknesses and
their struggles? You know it well. You know where
you were. You know your sin. You know what
God rescued you from. How can we forget that? Matthew Henry translates this
literally. Speak that which will revive
their heart. Speak as if to bring them back
to life. Speak words of hope. This word
is used in Genesis where God said speak tenderly
to her. That’s the word. Speak tenderly
to people. Don’t be harsh. Don’t be heavy
handed. Don’t be callous. Don’t be heartless. The King James said it well when
it said speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Speak with kindness
to these people that are so hurting. Speak to their hearts. As Henry
would say. Henry goes on to say, speak that
which will revive her heart, be a cordial to her and to all
that belong to her and wish her well, do not whisper it. But
cry and her cry aloud to show the saints their comforts as
well as to show the sinners their transgressions. What we share. When we go to
share with people, we share with the inner man, not just facts,
not just head knowledge, not just that which appeals to the
mind, but the truth. That is spoken from the heart
to the heart, and it will have great reward. There’s a third command that
was giving not only the overarching goal to comfort, but the attitude. That we are to speak kindly,
But the third portion of this, the third command is the content.
Call out to her. What do we call? What do we say
when we speak? The first thing that Isaiah says
that her warfare is accomplished, that her warfare is ended. Literally, it means that her
affliction, this battle that’s been going on and the battle
is always between the sinner and God. It’s not between us
and others. I mean, it has those effects. It’s not just a literal battle
here, this is a spiritual battle and it’s a battle between the
sinner and God and God says it’s over. That her affliction has
become full, it’s come to an end, it has ceased. The word
literally referred to military service, and in other words,
it’s as if the soldier shows up dressed and ready. Gun is
cleaned and loaded, ready for battle. And he gets there and
the general says, sorry, the war is over. Go home. King James says her warfare is
accomplished. As one described it, the days
of her trouble are numbered and they are now finished. Her warfare
is accomplished. The time of her service, the
campaign now has ended. And what it figures there is that
human life itself is warfare. We are at enmity with God in
our natural state, we are absolutely in a death match with God himself,
and God says it’s over. And when God says it’s over,
it’s over. This war with God that unbelievers
are locked in so severely, God says
he’s done away with it. The peace now has come, peace
is available, peace is offered. The war, this enmity, there’s
no more striving, there is to be no more skirmish. There’s
to be no more battle, there’s to be no more war. The God of
peace has enacted a peace treaty through his son, the Prince of
Peace. And the war, the warring madness
of a sinful life is over. What else do we say? Not only
that the war is over, but that her iniquity has been removed. That the very cause of the strife
between The sinner and their God has now been taken away that
Christ has paid that penalty. As one Puritan said, the cause
of her trouble is taken away and when it is removed, the effect
will cease. Tell her that iniquity is pardoned,
that God is reconciled to her and she shall no longer be treated
as one who is guilty before him. Nothing can be spoken more comfortably
than this. Son, be of good cheer, thy sins
are forgiven, the troubles are then removed in love when sin
is pardoned. You can go you can go to the
hurting, you can go to those who do not know Christ, you can
go to those who up to this point have been at war with God and
say, you know what? God has enacted a peace treaty and he’s done
it through the blood of his own son and the war is over. It doesn’t
have to continue. You don’t have to take up arms
anymore against God. Your iniquity has been removed,
your sin has been paid for in full. Place your faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. There’s a third message, and
it’s interesting, sadly, that Handel’s lyrics makes one glaring
omission. The King James has it, so there
was no excuse. But the very last line, That she has received of the
Lord’s hand double for all her sins. That’s not in the Messiah’s
version. It should be. Double for all
her sins. That God not only met, but he
super exceeded. All one. There is nobody that
can ever come to God and say, you don’t know my sin. You don’t
know my situation. Because no matter who it is or
what they’ve done, God’s grace and God’s provision of the Savior
is so perfect and so thorough that nobody can ever lose out
because of the nature of their sin. Nobody. She has received the double double
for the cure of all of her sins. As one pastor said, true penitence
have indeed in Christ and his sufferings received of the Lord’s
hand double for all their sins because of the satisfaction that
Christ made. With such of such infinite value. That more than it more than doubled
the demerits of sin for God spared, not his own son. It reminds us, doesn’t it? of
that New Testament truth, that where sin abounded, grace superabounded. That God has provided double,
more than we ever needed, that Christ’s sacrifice superseded
it. Now, you come to a world that
is broken with divorce, that is just absolutely decimated
by sin itself. And then you add to that the
physical struggles, hurts, loss of work. The difficulties that face our
nation, you talk about a need for comfort. The troubles that
come upon us, we’re not carted off and carried into captivity
yet. That our friends, our loved ones
need comfort. Truth be told, many of us needed
comfort these last several weeks. Charles Virgin. Said it quite
powerfully. When he said whenever a Christian
man sinks under affliction, when he does not seek grace from God
to battle manfully with his sea of troubles, when he does not
ask the father to give him a great weight of consolation whereby
he shall be able to endure in the evil day, When we may say
that he does dishonor the high and mighty and noble principles
of Christianity. Did you hear what he says? If
you let yourself show the effects of the despair and the trouble
and the difficulty that is in this world. Then you do dishonor
to Christianity, to the name of Christ. It is the boast of
the gospel that it lifts men above trouble. It is one of the
glories of our Christianity that makes us say, although the fig
tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vine. The
labor of the olive tree shall fail and the fields shall yield
no meat. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord.
I will joy in the God of my salvation. But when the Christian gets sad,
and miserable run to him, brother, wipe that tear from his eye,
tell him to cheer up, or at least if he is sad not to let the world
see it. If he fasts, let him anoint his
head and wash his face that he appear not. To men to fast, let
his garments always be white, let his head like no oil, let
him be happy. For so he gives credit to his
God. Comfort, oh, comfort my people,
says your God. Our merciful King, we humble
ourselves at your feet and we found ourselves even to be languishing
at times and sinfully so. But Lord, we are heartened by
your word and we are stirred by the truth and the content
of it. that you have called us, called out to us comfort. And
having received that comfort, we are given a divine mandate
to turn and to share with those who are so broken and so devastated
and so deaf and dumb and blind that they do not know the God
of all comfort. Grant us the grace, Father, to
reach out and to first and foremost be comforted ourselves And once
we find that comfort in Christ, to turn and proclaim it to the
glory of God. It’s in Jesus’ name that we ask. Amen.