Help Is On The Way - [Isaiah 40]

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Let me ask you, have you ever called 9 -1 -1 and they say, what, what is your emergency?
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Now, how many of you have answered a 9 -1 -1 call, a real 9 -1 -1 call?
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I see one hand. Really? Okay.
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I used to do that all the time. The Sheriff's Department, also known as the
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Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, but one of the finest law enforcement agencies in the world and the best in Los Angeles, they sent their 9 -1 -1 calls.
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If you lived in an area, amazingly enough, the calls came to the desk of the station in your area.
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And I say amazingly enough because the second best agency in Los Angeles who remain nameless, really big department, they're on TV a lot, they have a central repository where all the calls go.
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So, you know, just as a side note, I got a call one time and it was somebody on the suicide prevention hotline calling our station and saying, yeah,
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I've got somebody on the other end who's trying to, who's talking about killing themselves. And I said, well, where are they?
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And it was in the LAPD's area. And I said, let me connect you to LAPD's 9 -1 -1. It rang and rang and rang.
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Thank you for calling the LAPD 9 -1 -1 hotline. Seriously, it was a recorded line.
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Sad. But when you would call 9 -1 -1 at our station, and if I answered,
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I'd listen and I'd say, okay, that's either not an emergency, please call back on our business number.
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Or, you know, I'd type up the call and we'd send out a unit. Funny thing has happened though, over the last few years, because the
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Sheriff's Department now sends a car to every 9 -1 -1 call. It doesn't matter what it's for.
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So I've seen screen captures of some of the calls that they send out. And I'll just give you the most ludicrous.
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They sent a unit to investigate a UFO. And, you know, back in the day,
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I mean, I used to get calls like this. There was a woman who lived in our area and she would call and she'd say, she was elderly.
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And she'd say, you know, my name is so -and -so and I'm all alone. And? Well, I'm just all alone.
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Okay. Emergency calls. If you call 9 -1 -1, what do you expect to happen?
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You expect the appropriate response. If you need a fire truck, you want a fire truck dispatched.
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If you need a police car, you want a police car dispatched, ambulance, et cetera, et cetera. You want to know that help is on the way, right?
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And today in our passage, we're going to see Israel. Now I'll go through the historical context in a minute, but we're going to see basically a 9 -1 -1 call answered before it's ever made.
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Let's go to our text, Isaiah chapter 40, Isaiah chapter 40.
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And I'm going to start at the beginning of the chapter, Isaiah chapter 40. Comforts, comfort my people says your
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God, speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the
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Lord's hand double for all her sins. A voice cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of the
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Lord, make straight in the desert, a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low.
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The uneven ground shall become level and the rough places a plane and the glory of the
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Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the
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Lord has spoken. A voice says, cry. And I said, what shall
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I cry? All flesh is grass and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
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The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it. Surely the people are grass.
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The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
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Go up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news. Lift up your voice with strength,
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O Jerusalem, herald of good news. Lift it up, fear not, say to the cities of Judah, behold your
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God. Behold, the Lord God comes with might and his arm rules for him.
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Behold, his reward is with him and his recompense before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd and he will gather the lambs in his arms.
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He will carry them in his bosom and gently lead those that are with young.
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Now for the last couple of weeks, I was in Genesis and I really wanted to set kind of a
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Christian worldview, address a number of issues. And somebody asked me this morning, well, when are you going to get to Acts?
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I don't know exactly. I've been kind of thinking about Isaiah, this chapter in Isaiah for a few months now.
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And I just thought not to get all charismatic or anything.
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I thought our congregation just needs some comforts. So a few weeks here in Isaiah, Isaiah has 66 chapters.
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The first 39 kind of mirror the Old Testament. Basically it's
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Israel, Judah, southern kingdom of Israel acting faithlessly, even pursuing protection from other nations.
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And what is God Yahweh told them not to do? Don't do that. Don't seek protection from other nations.
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Don't turn to them. Trust in me. Hezekiah is the king of Judah, the king of the southern portion of the kingdom who ruled during the time of Micah.
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And during the time of Isaiah is a good king. He gets rid of a lot of the, well, all the idols, all the places where people were worshiping idols, but he gets sick.
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And the king of Babylon, a great military power sends emissaries supposedly to wish
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Hezekiah well. And many of you will know this, but what does he do? He's not feeling well and he's kind of,
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I guess you could say impressed that the king of Babylon would send these representatives to see him.
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So he shows them all of his wealth. Look at everything I have. Isn't this great? I mean, this would be like the president giving somebody a tour of Fort Knox.
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Look, this is how much gold we used to have. Sorry. I want to read just Isaiah 39, just back a chapter, just a couple of verses here to sort of set the scene.
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Isaiah 39 verses four to seven. He, Isaiah, the prophet, right?
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This is the, he, Isaiah said, what have they seen in your house?
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In other words, what have you done? Hezekiah? Hezekiah answered, they have seen all that is in my house.
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There is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them. Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, hear the word of the
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Lord of hosts. Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and that which your fathers have stored up till this day shall be carried to Babylon.
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Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. And some of your own sons who will come from you, whom you will father shall be taken away and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.
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This is the judgment of God on Judah. Now, this morning, as we go through the first 11 verses of Isaiah 40,
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I have four Ps for us drawn from this text, which demonstrate without a doubt that Jesus Christ is our only hope.
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We're going to see that he was for Israel and he is for us. He is our help.
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Help is on the way in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In a really, in a very real sense, the situation in Isaiah 40, the situation that Israel's in is a trial of God's faithfulness.
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He's the one who sent them into Babylon, right? He's the one who caused them to be carried away into judgment, which meant what?
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It meant much of the city of Jerusalem was destroyed. It meant the temple was destroyed.
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So now is he going to abandon his faithless people? Those who did not trust him?
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Is he going to leave them in Babylon? Will he abandon his people today? Will he abandon you?
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These are the questions that come up. This is ultimately a test of the character of Yahweh.
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Is he a covenant -keeping God? And the answer is absolutely yes. So first, first P, the promise of forgiveness, the promise of forgiveness.
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Look at verse one, comfort, comfort my people says your
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God. As I was thinking about this last night, this is just the grace of God on full display.
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And at first glance, it might seem a little odd. Again, in 39, we saw what
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Hezekiah did. And now the consequences or God said that the consequences of his display of wealth were going to be that his people were going to be carried off into captivity.
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But why comfort, comfort? I mean, aren't we missing the whole part where they get carried off? Well, that's elsewhere in the
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Old Testament. This presumes that's already happening. And so Isaiah is looking down the corridors of time, if I could say that.
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He's got a word from the Lord of comfort to people who are in captivity.
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They're in Babylon. And again, if the first 39 chapters of Isaiah are about Israel's sinfulness, chapters 40 to 48, commentator
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Oswald says, speak of a God who knowing that his people would forsake him, nevertheless promises in advance to redeem them.
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I'm going to read that again because it's so good. And just think about how this applies to each of us. A God who knowing that his people would forsake him, nevertheless promises in advance to redeem them.
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This prophecy is recorded more than 100 years before the Babylonian captivity. Yet Isaiah has been given words of consolation by the
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Lord for his chosen people. Yahweh knows that they're going to need this. And comfort is in the imperative sense.
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In other words, this is a command. He's telling Israel, God is, to be comforted in the same way that a mom, when a baby's crying, picks him up and pats him on the shoulder, right?
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And just whispers in his ear and tries to comfort him. That's the picture here. This is the comfort of Yahweh.
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Yahweh is declaring his intent to deliver Israel from her well -deserved exile.
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And not only does Yahweh express his desire to comfort, notice he also does it to, quote, my people, my people, ownership of them.
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And it's fascinating. Why? Not because, you know, my people, we would expect that, wouldn't we? Except if we think about Isaiah, when he's first commissioned in Isaiah chapter 6, how does
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God refer to Judah, the southern kingdom, again? I keep saying Israel, but we have
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Israel as the northern kingdom and Judah being the southern kingdom when they break apart. What did
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God say when he commissioned Isaiah back in Isaiah chapter 6? I'm going to read verses 8 through 10 in Isaiah chapter 6.
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And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send? You remember this? He's calling
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Isaiah to full -time ministry, to be the prophet. Whom shall I send and who will go for us?
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Then I said, this is Isaiah, here I am, send me. And he, God said, go and say to, not my people, but this people.
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Distance, say to this people, keep on hearing, but do not understand.
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Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn and be healed.
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Isaiah's ministry was one of judgment on Israel, on Judah, the southern kingdom.
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But again, this people, this people, distance, not faithful people, not people of whom
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God was expressing ownership and kindness and compassion, this people.
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But now in chapter 40, it's my people. Then look at verse 2, speak tenderly to Jerusalem.
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Well, I just said, Jerusalem doesn't really even exist anymore. Not in this future, this look into the future here, they've been carried off into Babylon, but he's talking to my people.
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He's talking to his people. So speak tenderly to Jerusalem.
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I listened to S. Louis Johnson this week, and he said that he goes, this language, and this is, this is what it means.
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It's, it's kind of a, a wooing language. This is the way that you would talk to your girlfriend or your boyfriend.
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You know, remember before you got married and you were nice S. Louis Johnson.
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Now this was from 1969. He said, you know, the way you used to talk about it, if you're going to take somebody out on a date and you're going to talk nicely to them, as you would pitch a woo,
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I was like, pitch a what? It just means if you're trying to woo somebody, you just talk nicely to them.
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He talked kindly to them. And that's the idea here. Speak tenderly, speak in that woo kind of voice.
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Like you really are inviting somebody to respond. God is enticing or entreating basically
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Jerusalem to trust him, to come to him, despite their many transgressions against him.
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Imagine what it would have been like to be forcefully taken out of your home in Jerusalem and then shipped off to Babylon to go from freedom, from normalcy to slavery.
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What sort of questions would you have? You're God's chosen people.
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And now all of a sudden you're serving some foreign king in Babylon. What are you thinking?
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Has God abandoned us? Does he still care about us? Are we beyond his forgiveness?
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God invites them to trust him. Look again at verse two, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned.
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Seventy years they're in exile. That was enough to turn their hearts.
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That term warfare really can mean like military service. And it has in the idea of a specific term limit.
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When I was in the army, I enlisted for three years. And it was probably one of the main reasons I joined the army.
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Marine Corps wanted four years. Navy wanted, I think, four years. So did the Air Force. And I was just like, nah,
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I want three. So we have specific enlistment periods.
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And that's the idea here. Their period of enlistment, their period of service, you could say their sentence is over.
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What was it? What was this punishment? Well, it was ultimately to discipline them, to correct them, to help them get their minds right.
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A couple of scriptures come to mind here. Does God discipline people when they sin?
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Often, yes. Deuteronomy 8 .5 says, know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, the
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Lord your God disciplines you. Talking to Israel. Hebrews 12 .10,
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he disciplines us believers for our good that we may share his holiness. Again, what do you suppose that 70 years in exile taught the people of Israel that they had sinned, that they'd wronged
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God, and many of them had repented?
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Back to verse two, talking about iniquity being pardoned.
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And how about this? That she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.
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You would get the idea if you just read this, that maybe this 70 years, the sentence here was sufficient to pay for their sins, right?
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Her iniquity is pardoned, and then she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. In other words, they should have only got 35 years, but God gave them 70.
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Is that right? What is the penalty for sinning against a holy
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God? 35 years? Life without possibility?
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Is there any amount of time that would pay for it? In other words, can you pay for your sins on earth?
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People say, I'm going through hell right now. Interesting.
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I mean, I like to just stop somebody when they say that and go, so you're facing the infinite wrath of a holy
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God right now? I find that hard to believe. Why aren't you screaming?
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If every sin against God merits hell, and it does, eternity in hell, is there some kind of double hell?
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Is there some kind of way that you could pay double penalty and just get out of hell? No. What amount of suffering can we do to make ourselves right with God?
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The answer is none. If you think that you are suffering, and some of you are in this lifetime, multiple of that times infinity, and you have just the beginning of an understanding of what hell is really like.
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So what does this mean? The word double means to fold over, or to fold in half.
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Now it's clear to you, right? No, not really. One commentator says this, he says, this is a dealing with sin that includes realities beyond our comprehension.
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He says, they've received double for their sins. Well, what does that mean? Has this idea of doubling over, and then on one side, some writers think, on one side is the wrath of God, and on the other side is the grace of God.
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I like what Motyer says here about the realities beyond our comprehension, because we can't really understand fully the justice of God.
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How do we fathom a thrice holy God who says, but I love to forgive sin.
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But there's a foreshadowing here, when it says they've received double, that their iniquities are forgiven.
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What a foreshadowing of Isaiah 42, of Isaiah 49, of Isaiah 50, of Isaiah 53.
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In other words, of the servant songs, which speak about Christ. This is our introduction to this idea of forgiveness in Christ Jesus, of one who will come and redeem his people from their sins.
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This is the promise of forgiveness, the grace of God. That's our first P, the promise of forgiveness.
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Second P, the promise of redemption. A voice cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of the
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Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low.
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The uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
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Now, first of all, I'd notice, or I would note for you, right at the beginning, it says a voice cries.
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This is the second of four voices. In verse one and two, we clearly heard the voice of Yahweh.
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Well, what's this voice? It's a prophetic voice. We don't really know. Clearly, Isaiah wrote this, but we don't know what this voice is.
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But we do understand from the New Testament that the voice is very familiar. Matthew 3, verses one to three.
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I mean, as I was reading that, you should have just been thinking, what? John the Baptist, that's right. In those days, in Matthew 3, in those days,
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John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, when he said, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the
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Lord, make his path straight. John the Baptist came to prepare the way. Now, what does it mean to prepare the way?
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To make his path straight and do all these other things? I mean, it sounds like a lot of, if I could use this word, terraforming.
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How many of you have ever heard the word terraforming? Most of you probably are sinful game players.
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But, says the sinful game player, terraforming means, you know, you change the the lay of the land.
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You change terra, being earth, form. You're changing the form, the shape, the height of the earth.
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And just, again, think about it. What does it say? Every valley shall be lifted up, right?
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Low spots raised up. Every mountain and hill be made low. The uneven ground shall be made level, and the rough becomes a plain.
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What's that all about? Why? In the ancient Near East, here's what would happen.
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Let's say, I don't know, let's think of a good example.
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I'm trying to think of a really great one. If we had some massive dignitary come to West Boylston.
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West Boylston might want to put on some kind of a show. Well, let's just say, you know, some important person was coming to Bethlehem Bible Church.
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May we get our parking lot rid done? I don't know. But, you know, the high points made low, and the low points made high.
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The idea was that you would dedicate some kind of new road to this person, so they would come in and be impressed that you had made their way into town nice and smooth and easy.
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John the Baptist came to be a forerunner, right? To sort of prepare the people for Jesus Christ.
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And it's this same idea of smoothing out things, of getting the people ready.
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So what is Isaiah writing here? That the Lord, Yahweh, the covenant -keeping
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God, is coming to save his people in Babylon. Look at verse 5.
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And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, right? All these things are going to happen like this, this flattening of terrain.
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Why? Because somebody important is coming to Babylon, and that important person is
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Yahweh himself. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
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For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.
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This isn't just the ramblings of a man, this is the Word of God. And he has a very specific message, and that is, everybody's going to see what
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I'm about to do. What was he about to do? We'd see it in Isaiah chapter 45, where he announces that somebody is going to come, that man, the servant is named
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Cyrus, and he's going to set the Jewish people free. Humanly speaking, if we just think about it from a human perspective, this idea that Israel is going to be set free from Babylon is crazy.
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Israel has no power. Israel has no army. Israel is enslaved.
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How is the Lord going to rescue them? If we're to kind of, because this applies,
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I mean there's a historical context. Let me just put it in non -academic terms here for a moment.
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We see a fulfillment of these words in the time of the captivity, right?
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The Lord delivering Israel from Babylon. That's true, but bigger picture, longer term, the truth of this is we are beneficiaries of the work of Yahweh.
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So if I say, okay, humanly speaking, Israel had no chance. Judah had no chance, right?
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They're captured, they're enslaved, they have no army, they have nothing, and they're stuck in Babylon in the middle of nowhere.
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Well, humanly speaking, every person God is going to save has no chance.
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They have no power within themselves to redeem themselves. Why? Because they are enslaved.
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They're enslaved not to a kingdom, but to sin. They sin by their nature, and they sin because it's what they want to do, right?
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They just sin. Sin comes easy to us. But just as God said he would redeem his people from Babylon, what does he say about believers?
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He says he's going to redeem every one of them. In John 6,
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Jesus said this, and this is the will of him, the father who sent me, Jesus, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
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For this is the will of my father, that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
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What does that mean? That means that Jesus Christ is going to save every one of his chosen people, that not one will be left behind.
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Do you think that when Yahweh went to Babylon that he left people behind there?
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The answer is no. He got them. All of his chosen from the nation of Judah went back to Israel.
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The London Baptist Confession of Faith, our confession, says this, by the decree of God, listen, for the manifestation of his glory.
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In other words, to display his glory. Some men and angels are predestinated or foreordained to eternal life through Jesus Christ to the praise of his glorious grace.
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God puts his glory on display. Why? Because it's the right thing to do. He's God.
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And here he says, we're about to see the glory of God as I deliver my people from Babylon.
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So we've seen the promise of forgiveness, the promise of redemption, third P, the power behind the promises, the power behind the promises.
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It's one thing to understand that God makes promises, but can we trust those promises?
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He starts by showing us why we shouldn't depend on people, why we can't even depend on ourselves.
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Look at verse six, a voice says, cry. And I said, what shall I cry? This is the third voice, by the way.
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A voice says, cry. And I said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass. This is the response.
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All flesh is grass. And all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades.
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When the breath of the Lord blows on it, surely the people are grass. Everything around us, everyone around us is temporary.
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I got a text from my brother yesterday. He and his sons went out hunting and he sent me this picture.
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I couldn't even believe it. It looked like they killed a dinosaur. It was some like 400 pound, uh, boar.
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I, I, I couldn't even believe how big that thing was. And I said, well, I, I hope he brought a hoist or something.
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You know, I mean, it was massive. Life is temporary.
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Everything around us is temporary. We're weak. We're frail. My brother said, I brought some help.
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He's, you know, four guys, and I'm sure they were going to have to really haul it. I just thought, this is just a picture of how not only the beast dying, but about how frail we are.
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We can't just go like that. It takes a lot of effort. Our lives are brief.
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I mean, 70, 80, 90, a hundred, 110 years. Sometimes I hear on the news, they talk about, you know, it's possible people might live to be 130 years old or whatever.
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And I'm like, I don't want to be like four foot six, right?
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Gravity doesn't lose. It just keeps compressing you your whole life time and gravity do not lose.
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But those timespans 70, 80, 90, 110 years, right? Or even if we go to the old
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Testament, we look at how some of those in Genesis, how long some of those people live. What is that though, compared to eternity, compared to a being who's outside of time, who looks at time, like it's a painting.
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The idea that God can blow on some person and cause them to fade tells us what about our days that they're in the hands of God, right?
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That they're brief. Even just thinking about genealogy, you know, based on my Mormon background, if you think about genealogy,
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I was talking to my aunt not long ago, and she started recounting to me on my mom's side, some of the people in our family.
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And it was like a generation or two, none of the names sound familiar. They were all different last names and everything else.
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And I'm like, who are those people? But these were like my great, great grandparents.
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So it wasn't that many generations. What does that tell us? That we're like grass, that we're easily forgotten, but deeper than our transitory physical nature is our transitory spiritual nature.
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How long do we have to look at people of the Bible? Take your pick, Old Testament, New Testament, to see the people who profess great love for God, right?
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Great thanks to God. We're delivered from Egypt. We love you,
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Lord. We just love you. We're going to obey all your commandments, break out the golden calf. Peter, I would,
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I would die for you. I'll cut somebody's ear off for you. I deny him. I don't know him.
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Who is he? All flesh is grass.
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All flesh, all human beings are fallible. We fail.
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We're not just temporary physically, we're temporary spiritually. We blow with the wind.
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Or as Paul writes in Ephesians, what do we do? We go with every wind of doctrine. We're not sound in our doctrine.
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We're afflicted by our sin nature. We do what feels right, not what is right. But God always does what's right.
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The contrast between us and him cannot be more stark. Look at verse eight.
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The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.
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God is eternal. And you say, well, this has to do with the Bible about the word of God.
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True, right? The word of God stands forever. But why does it stand forever? Because of who wrote it.
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It's the nature of the word of God. It issues forth from God. That's what makes it so powerful.
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When people say, you know, the Bible is just like any other book. You know, you can compare it to any other holy book, whether it's the
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Koran, the Book of Mormon, whatever. No other book was inspired by the
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Holy Spirit. No other book reflects the character and nature of God.
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And the value of this statement here, the word of our God will stand forever for us is immeasurable.
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People will disappoint us. People will sin against us. People will overlook us.
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They'll mock us. They'll hurt us. But here's the good news.
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When God, the eternal triune God, the creator of the universe, set his affection upon us before time, before anything existed, guess what?
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He doesn't change. We change. He doesn't change. We waver. He does not waver.
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We can count on God. Oswald said, God's trustworthiness does not end at the point of disobedience.
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In other words, when we disobey, God doesn't just say, I'm done with you. We do that.
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We're done with people when they sin against us. God doesn't. The people of Judah knew that no matter how improbable it seemed, the promise of God to deliver them from their captivity was immutable.
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In other words, it could not be changed. Once he said it, it would come to pass. They could count on it more than they could count on the sun coming up the next morning.
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Spurgeon said this. He said, in the same way, the sun never grows weary of shining nor a stream of flowing.
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It is God's nature to keep his promises. Therefore, go immediately to his throne and say, do as you promised.
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Is that a bad thing to say to God? Do as you promised? No, because he promised it.
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His steadfast love, his hesed love cannot be moved.
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That's the power behind the promises. So we've seen the promise of forgiveness, the promise of redemption, the power behind the promises, and now the person behind the promises, the person behind the promises.
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Yahweh encourages boldness in his people. Look at verse nine, go up onto a, go up, go on up to a high mountain,
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O Zion, speaking of Jerusalem, that's another name for Jerusalem, herald of good news, lift up your voice with strength,
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O Jerusalem, herald of good news, see the repetition there, lift it up, lift your voice up, fear not, be bold, be brave.
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They have good news that they are to proclaim, not in what they are doing or what they have done, but in what
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God has promised. Go up to a spot where your voices will be heard and then belt it out.
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Don't be half -hearted about it, shout it out. And what is the message? Verse nine, say to the cities of Judah, in other words, all your neighbors, everybody around you, behold your
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God. God's coming to rescue us.
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We declare, behold our God, behold the Lord. God comes with might and his arm rules for him.
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Behold, his reward is with him and his recompense before him. Three times in there, behold, behold, behold, look, see.
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And again, what does it say there? Behold your God. Verse one, he said, my people, now your
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God, behold your God, reestablishing, reconnecting that covenant relationship.
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He's mighty. He comes with might and his arm rules for him. What does it mean that he's mighty?
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A couple of verses on this, Isaiah 14, 27, for the
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Lord of hosts has purposed and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out and who will turn it back?
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In other words, who can stop the will of God? And the answer is no one. Isaiah 52, 10, the
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Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our
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God. His arm refers to his strength in taking action.
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God's mighty power. What does it mean that his reward is with him?
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His recompense is before him. Reward and recompense of Yahweh are his people.
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He redeemed them and they belong to him. He had the power to rescue Judah from captivity and the power to rescue sinners from their sin.
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Jesus said this. So if the sun sets you free, you will be free indeed.
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He's more powerful than any nation state, but more importantly, he's more powerful than what?
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Than our sin nature, than the things that enslave us, than the things that would keep us from coming to him.
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If the sun sets you free, you will be free indeed. When Christ sets you free, you are free, free from the power of sin.
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One day free from the presence of sin, but he's not merely powerful.
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Yahweh is a tender shepherd. It's one thing to say we have a powerful God who does as he pleases.
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That would be great, but it doesn't fully describe God. It doesn't fully describe
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Jesus. Look at verse 11. He will tend his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arms.
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He will carry them in his bosom and gently lead those that are with young.
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We read that. We just think right away of John chapter 10 and we think of, I am the good shepherd, right?
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But in this context here, what is he saying? He will gather the lambs in his arms, in his mighty arms, right?
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And then carry them in his bosom. But look and gently lead those that are with young.
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This has a picture of who are the most vulnerable in a flock? Well, it's going to be the youngest ones, but how about the ones who are trying to care for their young ones?
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Jesus is not only mighty to save, but he takes special care of the sheep who need special care.
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He's powerful. He's tender. He's a deliverer and he's a shepherd.
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Now again, as I said earlier, if we looked at the situation in Isaiah chapter 39, humanly speaking, we think it's hopeless.
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The most powerful kingdom around Babylon has taken them. But a deeper look reveals an even worse situation because the people of Judah were in spiritual bondage.
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They were enslaved to sin. They were given to idolatry and other sins, but we see that God is gracious, that he has an immutable purpose, steadfast love, and the power to execute it.
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Now, when you talk to people or when you hear about people who are sharing Christianity, sharing the gospel, so often it's presented this way about what
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Christianity can do for you in your life. For example, Christianity healed my marriage.
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If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, it can heal yours. Is that true? Can be, right?
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If two believers are together, they should be able to work things out. Somebody might say, my life was all about this sin, the sin that afflicts you.
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If Jesus could turn my life around, he can turn your life around too. Is that true?
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Yeah, it can be. But is that the point of Christianity? What we often forget is that everybody, there's a universal problem, and that problem is sin.
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No matter what you've done, God has forgiven your sins. Listen carefully.
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If you are in Christ Jesus, you're not in spiritual exile anymore.
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You have his promise of forgiveness. You'll feel guilty from time to time, and you should because you violated his law, right?
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Confess your sins, get right with the
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Lord. But his promise of forgiveness is irrevocable if you are in Christ.
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Not only is every sin forgiven, but you have the sure promise of redemption if you are in Christ.
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It's so important that we understand that concept of being in Christ Jesus. All who are in Christ Jesus, even as I read earlier, will go to heaven.
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Jesus said, I will raise him up on the last day. Our triune
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God has, before time existed, covenanted with himself to save all who trust in Christ.
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And nothing can separate those, God's chosen people, from his love in Christ Jesus.
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It's like, could the king of Babylon separate his chosen people from him?
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The answer is no. Let me close with this.
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Listen to Psalm 103 verses 12 to 17. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
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As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
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For he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass.
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He flourishes like a flower of the field for the wind passes over it and it is gone and its place knows it no more.
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We are completely temporary. But listen, verse 17, but the steadfast love of the
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Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him and his righteousness to his children's children.
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His steadfast love, his righteousness are ours in Christ Jesus.
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Our salvation doesn't depend on you. It doesn't depend on us. Right? We think
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I have to pay double for my sins. I have to do this. Jesus must do it for you.
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So this morning I say to you, whatever your circumstances are right now, flee to the cross. Jesus truly
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God, truly man paid the price for the sins of all who would ever believe only
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Jesus. Perfection can merit heaven for you. You must believe on the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, what a glorious truth that you are sovereign.
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You rescue whom you desire to rescue. You have the power, the capacity, and not just a desire to save people, but you promise to save them.
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Nothing will stop you. Let that be our comfort to know that no matter what our circumstances are in this life, you have said that you will deliver us not necessarily from these circumstances, but from our greatest peril, which is to say sin, the offenses against you and you've placed them all on Christ Jesus.
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And we praise you for that. We pray for any here today who don't know you, that they would hear that they would believe that they would understand that there's nothing they can do, that you must grant them faith, that they must believe on the