God’s Glory Displayed

We return again to this wonderful
passage in Isaiah chapter 40. If you would take your Bibles
and begin turning there. We have previously noted that
this is the opening of the second major division in Isaiah’s prophecy. The first division, the first
39 chapters, is replete with heaviness and condemnation, and
it generates an overwhelming sense of a need for God’s help,
salvation. But the second division, chapters
40 through 66, we identified as the good news of Isaiah’s
prophecy, and that is because the focus shifts dramatically
from judgment to comfort. It shifts from this heavy judgment
of sin to comfort, the comfort even of salvation. And here,
in the opening verses of chapter 40, verses 1 and 2, God himself
shifts Isaiah’s tone to one of hope and a sure promise of a
coming Messiah. And briefly, in review of our
consideration of those first two verses last Lord’s Day, we
saw there that God himself is giving directives to his messengers. And that immediately includes,
obviously, the prophets, but it would also include the apostles,
the evangelists, pastors, and really anyone who seeks to proclaim
the gospel. God is resetting the tone of
his messengers, and he makes three demands of them. First
of all, he gives his messengers a directed objective. God tells them what he wants,
namely, to comfort his people. This is God’s flock, and he has
a divine right to stipulate how it is that people are treated. He wants them to be comforted. Secondly, his second demand,
related to the first, is the messenger’s expected demeanor. speak kindly to them, God says,
literally speak to the heart. Don’t just lay out the facts
to those to whom you talk about Christ, speak to the heart, address
their innermost hurts and sentiments. His third demand of his messengers,
God sets forth the instructed declaration to the messengers. what it is they’re supposed to
say when they open their mouths. And in our consideration of verse
two, we understood that it is essentially the gospel of which
God speaks here. Look at verses one and two. Her
warfare has ended. Mankind’s enmity with God has
been conquered. There is no more war. Her iniquity
has been removed. Our sin has been paid for in
full by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. And thirdly, we have
received double an overwhelming supply of God’s mercy and grace
in place of our sins. And As the opening of chapter
40 provides directives to God’s messengers, the subsequent verses
provide the specific announcements that the messengers are expected
to deliver. There are three distinct messages. We’ll look at each of them, but
together they detail the manifestations of God’s glory in his unfolding
plan of redemption. These are some of the most exciting
verses in all of scripture. Would you read along with me
beginning in verse one will course down through verse
11. Comfort, O 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 her sins. A voice is calling. 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. And let the rough ground
become a plain and the rugged terrain a broad valley. Then
the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh will see
it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. 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, the flower
fades when the breath of the Lord glows upon it. Surely the
people are grass. The grass withers, the flower
fades, but the word of our God stands forever. 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 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 arm, he will gather the
lambs and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead the nursing
ewes.” In this section, it seems that we are allowed to listen
in on a throne room conversation. We’re not told who is present.
who is speaking, or who is listening. Only their voice is heard, verse
three. The voice is not identified,
nor are we told who is being addressed. And as I said, there
are three distinct messages all pertaining to the Messiah that
Isaiah alluded to in verses one and two. God is the subject and
focus of these verses, but it is Messiah Jesus Christ, not
the Heavenly Father who is in view. Let me show you a subtle
little thing here. Look please at verse three, if
you would, where the voice speaks about a highway for our God. Jump down to verse 8. Here, the
voice speaks of the Word of our God. And finally glance at the
end of verse 9, where the voice announces, here is your God. In each instance, God is mentioned,
but each message pertains to the Messiah. In other words,
the Messiah is God, and here in verses 3 through 10, we have
the glory of God displayed in the Messiah. We see in verses
3 through 5, the preparation of our God. In verses 6 through
8, the declaration of our God. And in verse 9 and 10, the introduction
of our God. Let’s consider each of those
divine revelations this morning. First of all, The first manifestation
of God’s redemption is the preparation for our God. Now, I didn’t plan
it this way. Totally in God’s providence,
we read Luke chapter 3 this morning. And Luke chapter 3 is exactly
detailing what Isaiah says here. A voice is calling, clear the
way for the Lord in the wilderness, make smooth the desert, a highway
in the desert, a highway for our God. Now, here in this first
section, it seems that the prophet Isaiah, or perhaps an angel,
begins to ready the people for the Lord’s coming by calling
them to repentance. A voice is calling. We saw a
moment ago, Isaiah identifies him only as a voice, which is
very deliberately undefined. The voice calls out with a message. In one sense, it seems almost
to be a proclamation by God to an angelic messenger. We’ll come
back to that thought. The identity of the speaker is
undefined, and in a sense, it’s unimportant. It’s unimportant
who the voice is, it’s the message. that is at the forefront because
this voice begins to ready the people for Messiah’s coming. It’s vital to capture. from the
start that by the Holy Spirit’s influence, all four gospel writers
cite this passage. Each of them cite this passage
in their introduction of John the Baptist’s ministry. And all
four bring out important revelations about that ministry. For a rapid
review of these four accounts, would you kindly turn to Matthew
chapter three. Keep a finger in Isaiah. We will
be back. Matthew chapter three. Matthew chapter three. And here,
Matthew’s gospel identifies that the voice that Isaiah mentions
is that of John the Baptist. Matthew also reveals that the
messenger is Isaiah the prophet. Now that throne room conversation
comes into view. Matthew gives this particular
account in the opening three verses of chapter three. Would
you just glance down? Now in those days, John the Baptist
came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, repent, for
the kingdom of heaven is at hand, for this is the one referred
to by Isaiah the prophet. when he said, and then Matthew
quotes Isaiah 40 verse 3, the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. The
Holy Spirit highlighted to Matthew two elements that revealed the
identity of the one to whom Isaiah prophesied. that the forerunner
of the Messiah, John the Baptist, would be in the wilderness, and
that his ministry would be one of preparation. Would you please
now turn to Mark chapter one? Mark has something to share with
us. Mark’s gospel provides additional
detail. Mark chapter one. And listen,
if you would, to the opening words of the gospel of Mark.
the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
as it is written in Isaiah, the prophet. Mark here reveals that
Isaiah was pointing to the introduction of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
the good news. And Mark here quotes from two
Old Testament prophets, Malachi 3.1, and our passage, Isaiah
40 verse 3. Would you flip over to Luke?
I know you’ve been there already, a well-worn path. Luke chapter
3, and down in verse 3 of that chapter,
Luke highlights something new and different still than what
Matthew and Mark shared with it. records that John the Baptist
came preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
This clarifies for us what kind of preparation to which Matthew
only alluded. Matthew said he was going to
come and prepare the way. Now Luke tells us that this preparation
was one of repentance. It was a making the people aware
of their sinfulness. It was meant to bring about a
subsequent brokenness for their sin and humility together with
a repudiation of that sin. their self-righteousness, their
self-sufficiency, their self-security, all of those things, John the
Baptist’s role was to rebuke their pride, to bring them to
humility and to repentance. And then Luke immediately proceeds,
if you’re still in the passage, to cite this same passage from
Isaiah chapter 40, verse three. So the synoptic writers, all
by revelation of the Holy Spirit. They all identify John the Baptist
as the voice, but the Gospel of John, John the Baptist himself
reveals that he is the voice. Would you turn to the Gospel
of John and briefly? In chapter one of the Apostle
John’s Gospel, he records John the Baptist as interacting with
the Jewish priests and Levites. And in that dialogue, they were
pressing him as to his identity. Who are you? And John the Baptist
is quick to eschew the idea that he could possibly be the Christ.
He does, however, identify himself further if you just glance down
at verse 23. He said, I am a voice of one
crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the
Lord. As Isaiah the prophet said, he identifies himself as the
mysterious voice. So all the gospels reveal that
John the Baptist was the voice referred to by Isaiah, You could
head back to Isaiah now. He’s the voice that would initiate
the ministry of the gospel, which would be grounded in a call to
repentance, and which would ultimately culminate in the revelation of
God’s glory. But even once the voice is identified,
the truth still remains. The voice is unimportant, it’s
the message that’s paramount. And this is his message. Glancet, verse three. A voice
is calling, clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness, make
smooth in the desert a highway for our God. And Isaiah says
explicitly that John the Baptist’s main objective, his mission,
is to prepare for our God. clear the way, make smooth the
highway. He’s commanded for Isaiah’s coming. By the image of the wilderness,
the desert, we can capture that image. Isaiah here pictures a
very unrefined place, arid, dreary, rocky, weed-covered. John’s place
of ministry was the wilderness. But this is all just a metaphor
to illustrate the condition of the human heart. Sinful, God-forsaken. And likewise, the task before
him, in keeping with this illustration, is to remove the obstacles in
the footpath, to roll away the rocks and clear away the dead
branches. Spiritually speaking, Christ’s
forerunner was to clear the way by awakening people to their
wretched condition as sinners. So John the Baptist is to prepare
the way for the coming King, the Lord Jesus Christ, and verse
four just provides the detail, the explanation of this, let’s
call it road making. What it pictures is a hilly,
undulating desert through which a road somehow must be built. And rather than wandering here
and there around every obstacle, Isaiah envisions a direct course,
a straight path between two points. And to do
this, every valley must be lifted, every mountain and hill made
low, And that addresses the larger elements of the topography. The
last lines deal with the smaller elements, the rough ground, the
rugged terrain. The whole illustration points
to a straight and level, smooth highway, an avenue on which a
king may travel. All hindrances have been removed.
And then in verse five, and only then, shall the glory of the
Lord be revealed. Only when sinners’ hearts have
been readied through the humility and repentance shall Christ be
presented. That’s a pretty common understanding,
isn’t it? I remember one famous preacher
used to say that some people think themselves to be saved
before they ever really realize they need a Savior. We need to
preach about sin. We need to tell people about
their sin. We need to speak to the heart,
and then we need to present to them the Savior. This glory,
as Isaiah declares it, it will be witnessed by everyone. All
flesh will see it together. As John 1 14 proclaims it, the
word Jesus Christ became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw
his glory. Glory is of the only begotten
from the Father, full of grace and truth. Though this Messiah had been
long promised, now he had come for all the world to behold.
And Isaiah, As he closes this first section, he humbly bows
and reverts back to the shadows. Though he is the one who addressed
John the Baptist with this message, he is just God’s servant, a conduit. But it is, as he says in closing,
the mouth of the Lord that has spoken. But Isaiah has another
message, he’s unfolding the most fantastic display of God’s glory,
namely the promised Messiah, and he’s appointed to us, he’s
open to us rather, the first of three manifestations of God’s
redemption through Christ, the preparation of our God, and the
second we find in verses six through eight, the declaration
of our God. This manifestation opens to us
the revelation of God’s word. Would you just look at verse
six through eight. A voice says, call out. Then he said, what shall I call
out? All flesh is grass and all its loveliness is like the flower
of the field. The grass withers, the flower
fades when the breath of the Lord blows upon it. Surely the
people are grass. Grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God stands forever. The same probing questions
that we faced in verse three, the identity of the voice, must
again be asked here in verse six. The circumstances around
this announcement are different, and we have no New Testament
citations of this verse that identify the voice like we did
in verse three. There, it was shown to be Isaiah
who was speaking, and John the Baptist was declared as the voice. And while that may be the case
here in 6 through 8, it’s not as clear, we’re led to listen
in on a conversation. And it could be a heavenly conversation
or an earthly dialogue. It could be God speaking or it
could be an angelic messenger. And much like it was in verses
3 through 5, it isn’t the messenger here who’s important. It’s the
message. The interaction begins with a
command, call out. And no sooner is the command
given, the messenger asks, what shall I call out? What is my
message? What am I to say? The voice abruptly
begins to supply the answer. It’s a message about the nature
of man, contrasted with the nature of God’s word. Look at verse
seven. All flesh is grass and all its
loveliness is like the flower of the field. He starts with
a rather uncomfortably blunt point, doesn’t he? He doesn’t
even say all flesh is like grass. He says all flesh is grass. Human flesh, he says, has no
more staying power than your front lawn. With enough heat and drought,
grass cannot endure. His point, of course, is that
our lives here are fragile and fleeting. We wither and die like
a parched field in the summer heat. Such is the natural state
of our humanness. The second phrase at least seems
to soften the prophet’s point a bit. speaks of our loveliness. The loveliness of our humanness
is like the flower of the field. We look good for a while. But
while no one would argue against the stunning beauty of a field
of wildflowers, we hurriedly take in that view, don’t we?
Because we know it’s not going to last. James uses this same illustration,
James 1.9, let the brother of humble circumstance glory in
his high position and the rich man glory in his humiliation
because like the flowering grass, he will pass away for the sun
rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass and its flower
falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed. Here
in verse seven, the prophet just expounds on his message here. He tells us about the process.
The grass withers, the flower fades. This point was largely
left to conjecture in verse six. Here the prophet just says it
plainly. Because of the fall of Adam and Eve, death is now
inevitable. for humanity. Mankind is as transitory
as grass and flowers. And the transitory of humanity
is a theme that God employs over and over throughout the Bible.
Just listen. Job 14, man who is born of woman
is short-lived and full of turmoil. Like a flower, he comes forth
and withers. Psalm 90, in the morning they
are like grass which sprouts anew. In the morning it flourishes,
it sprouts anew. Toward evening it fades and withers
away. Psalm 102, my days are like a
lengthened shadow. I wither away like grass. Psalm
103, 15, as for man, his days are like grass, a flower of the
field so he flourishes. When the wind has passed over
it, it is no more. Note that here in Isaiah verse
seven, Isaiah attributes mankind’s demise to the Lord. The grass
withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows
upon it, and surely the people are grass. The prophet’s purpose
here is again to creatively articulate man’s perishable frame. In nature, wind, is an unwelcome
enemy to trees and plants. In the spring, a strong gust
will snap large branches like a twig, sometimes uprooting entire
trees. In the summer, a scorching afternoon
wind desiccates, dries out, and withers delicate plants. And in the fall, what few leaves
remain are ripped away from the stems. So the illustration is
suitable. What if Almighty God were to
blow on his creation? Mankind would be rendered to
dust. David humbly acknowledges this
reality in Psalm 39. Lord, make me to know my end. And what is the extent of my
days? Let me know how transient I am. For the sake of emphasis, the
prophet repeats his theme in verse 8. The grass withers, the
flower fades. But here he presents something
new. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God
stands forever. All along, it has seemed that
the prophet’s sole purpose was to point out the frailty of human
flesh. That’s not the case. Humanity’s
fleeting nature is just a backdrop for Isaiah’s primary point here. God’s Word is eternal. It is
imperishable. It will not fade away. Mankind’s
longevity is limited to some 80 years, not so the Word of
God. Peter, in the opening chapter
of his first epistle, cites this same passage from Isaiah to make
the same exact point. Just listen. He tells his readers,
you have been born again, not of a seed which is perishable,
but imperishable. That is through the living and
abiding word of God. God’s word is eternal. Mankind
weakens and ages and changes and withers and dies. God’s Word
is imperishable and steadfast. It endures forever. There’s a third point that the
prophet wants to make here, the third manifestation of our God’s
redemption. not only the preparation for
our God and the declaration of our God, but the introduction
of our God. Would you look at verse nine?
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. The prophet
is proclaiming the glory of God in his presentation of the Messiah. He’s laid out the two manifestations
of his redemption thus far, the preparation, the declaration.
Here in verses nine and 10, he presents the introduction of
our God. Here is your Messiah. Here is
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is prepared and instructed
as his messengers, and here he has this new and exhilarating
directive given to the messenger. Get yourself up on a high mountain,
O Zion, bearer of good news. Like so many of God’s servants
before him, this messenger is instructed to get up on a high
mountain, to take a place of prominence so that all may be
able to hear the news. King David did this. It’s recorded
in 1 Samuel 26, that David stood on top of the mountain and he
called out to the people. It served as kind of an elevated
pulpit for him so that all could hear his message. And this is
what the prophet metaphorically calls God’s messengers to do,
to shout it from the rooftops, so to speak. Get yourself up
on a high place. Let everybody know. The place
of declaration needs to be fitted to the occasion, a high mountain,
a mighty voice. And he calls on his people, identified
by Zion in Jerusalem, to declare Messiah’s arrival. Say to the
cities of Judah, here is your God. As we noted last week, the
last remaining tribe of the Jews, Judah, had been exiled to Babylon,
held captive in a foreign country. They needed words of comfort.
But upon hearing such glorious news, the news of the promised
Messiah, Judah was to proclaim it to the nations. That wasn’t
new. They would be the first to hear
of the Messiah, but they were in turn called to proclaim him. That wasn’t new. The Jewish people
were always supposed to function as a witness, a light, to the
other nations, as Isaiah repeatedly says in his prophecies. But over
the centuries, the Jewish nation had fallen into this false and
selfish notion that God and his salvation were their exclusive
privileges. The Gentiles had no real God
of their own, without whom they were steeped in superstition
and ultimate doom. And so here the implication is
that the salvation provided is for both Jews and Gentiles. And so Israel, Israel was supposed
to testify. They were supposed to bear witness,
proclaim the good news. But just what exactly was that
good news? When they lifted their voice
mightily, what was it that they were supposed to say? What were
they supposed to declare to the other nations? It is this good
news of a Messiah, that the Messiah was coming, the savior of the
world. But even as the details began
to pour forth, even the nation of Israel, to the last man, couldn’t
have predicted the nature of this Messiah. As God himself,
or perhaps an angelic messenger, begins to provide the detail
of this Messiah, even the most self-respecting Jew would have
been astounded to preview his credentials. Here in verses 9
and 10, God opens up to all mankind a fourfold glimpse of the character
of the Messiah. What would he be like? Glance down at the passage briefly,
if you would. I’m near the middle of verse
nine. Say to the cities of Judah, here is your God. This is the third such statement,
a revelation about God in this section. Make a highway for our
God, the word of our God stands forever, and here, here is your
God. And in this third manifestation
of God’s glory and redemption, the prophet speaks here about
the divine nature of the Messiah. He is God. In taking on human flesh, Jesus
yielded nothing of his deity. In Matthew’s introduction of
Jesus, he points out that Mary was found to be with child by
the Holy Spirit. God. And when Joseph, remember,
pondered divorce, it’s the same explanation that the angel provided
him. Do not be afraid to take Mary
as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is
of the Holy Spirit. But what is implied there in
those two verses by the Holy Spirit and of the Holy Spirit
is now stated explicitly as Matthew provides his conclusion. Listen
to this. Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by
the Lord through the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall be with
child and bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel. which translated means God with
us. Isaiah quotes here from Isaiah
14, or rather Matthew quotes here from Isaiah 14, that God
has come to take on human flesh, and thus he is called Emmanuel. Not his official name, mind you,
but his identifier as God with us. Jesus Christ is God. John chapter 10 verse 30, Jesus
is revealed in scripture here as co-equal with God the Father,
I and the Father are one. Jesus is spoken of as pre-existing
from all eternity in the opening words of John’s gospel, John
1, 1 through 5. In the beginning was the Word,
the Word was with God, the Word was God, He was a separate and distinct
entity from God the Father because he was literally face to face
with God. He was in the beginning with
God from all eternity. All things came into being through
him. He is co-creator. And apart from
him, nothing came into being that has come into being. And
in case people are still bewildered as to who the word is, John 1
14 says the word, That is, Jesus Christ became
flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus Christ is God. The scriptures
declare that Jesus is, in essence, God. Colossians 2.9, in him all
the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. Hebrews 1.3,
he, that is Jesus Christ, is the radiance of his, that is
the Father’s glory, the exact representation of his nature,
and upholds all things by the word of his power. Jesus even goes on to say in
John chapter 14, he who has seen me has seen the Father. What
is more, The titles that are given to him, Christ, Lord, Master,
the worship that is given to him, the miracles that are performed
by him, the attributes that he possesses, all testify to his
divine nature. The fact that Jesus Christ is
God in the flesh is the plain teaching of scripture. And Isaiah
announces here that the Messiah has come. Here is your God, and
He’s bringing three things. Would you just glance down at
verse 10? 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. Isaiah makes two statements here
in verse 10, and he tells us that Christ is coming bearing
three things. if I can simplify this for us.
In his first statement, Isaiah says that he’s coming with might.
In his second statement, he’s coming bearing reward. In his
third, he’s coming with recompense. Let’s look at each briefly. The
first, might or strength or power, Isaiah illustrates here to be
in the Messiah’s arm. It’s an anthropomorphism, a human
attribute likened to God. And it’s a favorite image of
the psalmists and to Isaiah, the psalmist, just listen. Psalm
89, 13. You have a strong arm, your hand
is mighty, your right hand is exalted, speaking of God. Psalm
98. His right hand and his holy arm
have gained the victory for him. But Isaiah too loves this metaphor. Isaiah 51.5, my righteousness
is near, my salvation has gone forth, my arms will judge the
peoples. Isaiah 51.9, awake, awake, put
on strength, O arm of the Lord. Isaiah 52.10, the Lord has bared
his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, that all the
ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God. What a
powerful verse. Isaiah’s point in this illustration
here in chapter 40 is that Jesus the Messiah is coming in power. And it is divine power, it is
the power of Almighty God. Humbled Peter, drawing near to
the end of his days in his second and final letter, 2 Peter. He
enthusiastically speaks of Christ and his might. Just listen. 2
Peter 1 16, we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we
made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. Peter knew his power. Our salvation, all of our ministry,
the support of the church, the sovereign control of the nations,
The world, the universe, it’s all due to the strength of the
Lord. But Jesus the Messiah comes not
only with might, he comes with his reward and recompense. Two distinct things. His reward
speaks of His grace and His blessings. And especially in light of our
study of the solas of the Reformation these past few weeks, we know
that this salvation is not an earned reward. This is double
for all of our sin. We came to Christ bringing nothing
but our wretchedness, nothing but our sin. We exchanged nothing
but our putridness. And he gave us his grace and
his mercy. It’s a blessing that is only
enjoyed by faith. And so we can take this reward
to indicate the full salvation that is promised by faith in
Christ. But what about recompense? Recompense refers to God’s rendering
to us exactly what is due. And that should frighten a lot
of people. To those who have placed their faith in Christ
for salvation, they receive mercy and eternal glory. But to those
who have not judgment and vengeance, While Jesus’ immediate purpose
in coming to earth is salvation, ultimately, he will bring justice. All people will get exactly what
they deserve. This is the double-edged thought
that Paul communicates to the Jewish nation in Romans 2. Romans
2, 5-8, just listen. Because of your stubborn and
unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in the
day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
who will render to each person according to his deeds. To those
who, by perseverance and doing good, seek for glory and honor,
immortality, eternal life. But to those who are selfishly
ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness,
wrath, and indignation. Jesus Christ has come as Savior,
but he will come again as Judge. The Apostle Peter preaching in
Acts 10 to Cornelius and his Gentile friends said this, he
ordered us to preach to the people and solemnly testify that this
is the one who has been appointed by God as judge of the living
and the dead. The Apostle Paul declared exactly
the same thing, standing at the Areopagus in Athens and speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul said, therefore having overlooked
the times of ignorance, God is declaring to men that all everywhere
should repent because he has fixed a day in which he will
judge the world in righteousness. through a man, that is Jesus,
whom he has appointed having furnished proof to all men by
raising him from the dead. And to young Timothy, his son
in the faith, one of the last sentences that Paul ever wrote,
he reminds his young son in the faith this brief admonition. I solemnly charge you in the
presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living
and the dead. Preach the word. This is the
good news. This is our God. In the sending of his son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, as the Messiah, God has fully displayed his glory. He has revealed the preparation
for his coming servant through John the Baptist. He has revealed
his written word, completed in concert with Christ and his earthly
ministry. And he’s revealed his Son of
God, Messiah, in the flesh. Isaiah has one more glorious
thought to share about God’s revealed Messiah. It’s down in
verse 11. Like a shepherd, he will tend
his flock, In his arm, he will gather the lambs and carry them
in his bosom. He will gently lead the nursing
ewes. He wants to tell us about the
Messiah’s nature and his demeanor. And we’ll consider this marvelous
verse this evening. Would you humble yourself before
him?