We're in Isaiah chapter 40, and the Bible reads,
come for ye, come for ye my people saith your God.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, cry unto her,
that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned,
for she hath received the Lord's hand double for all her sins.
The voice of him that cryeth in the wilderness,
prepare ye the way the Lord makes straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be made low and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places
Plain and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it
The voice said cry and he said what shall I cry all flesh is grass and all goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field
The grass with earth the flower faded because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it surely the people is grass
The flower faded, but the word of our God shall stand forever.
O Zion, that bring us good tidings, get thee up into the high mount.
O Jerusalem, that bring us good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength.
Lift it up, be not afraid, say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God.
Behold, the Lord God will come with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him.
Behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd, shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with the young.
Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in the measure, and weighted in mountains of scales, and hills in a balance.
Who hath directed the spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor hath taught him?
With whom took he counsellor and who instructed him and taught him in the path of judgment and taught him knowledge and showed to him the way of understanding
Behold the nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as small dust the balances
Behold he taketh up the aisles as a very little thing
Lebanon is not sufficient to burn nor the beasts are sufficient for a burnt offering
All nations before him are is nothing and they are counted to him less than nothing in vanity
To whom, then, will he like in God?
Or what likeness will he compare unto him?
The workman melted the graven image,
and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold,
and casteth silver chains.
He that is so impoverished that he
hath no oblation chooses the tree that will not rot.
He seeketh unto him a cunning workman
to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved.
Have you not known have you not heard has not been told you from the beginning have you not understood from the foundations of the earth
It is he that sit upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants there are far as grasshoppers that stretch without
The heavens as a curtain and spread it them out as a tent to the wall in that bring it the princess to nothing
He make it the judges of the earth as vanity
Yea, they shall not be planted, yea, they shall not be sown, yea, their stalk shall not take root in the earth,
and they shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.
To whom, then, will ye liken me, or shall I be equal, say it to the Holy One?
Lift up your eyes on high, and behold, who hath created these things, that bringeth out their hosts by number.
He called them all by names, by the greatness of his might.
for that he is strong in power, not one faileth.
Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel?
My ways hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God.
Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard?
That the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator, the ends of the earth fainteth not.
Neither is weary. There is no searching of his understanding.
He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseeth the strength.
Even the youth shall feign and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall.
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings as eagles.
They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not feign.
Let's pray.
Father God, we thank you for the King James Bible, dear God.
We thank you for this wonderful church you've given us.
We ask that you please bless Pastor Meheir tonight as he preaches your word onto us.
In Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen.
Amen. Okay, tonight. We're continuing our series with the Bible study on the book of Isaiah and tonight
We're in chapter 40. We took a little bit of a break last week
And so we're continuing this evening and if you remember from chapters 38 and 39
it was essentially the conclusion of the situation with Hezekiah and of course we see that Hezekiah eventually
allowed the Babylonians to come into his house,
view all the treasures, and eventually,
essentially view everything that he had.
And of course, that marks the beginning
of when the Babylonian Empire wanted to come and take over
because they saw his resources, they saw his gold.
and that was a foreshadowing of the fact that one day the Babylonians would come and take them over
and take them into captivity. Now here in chapter 40 the tone of the book of Isaiah
actually begins to shift and it shifts to a more consoling tone. In other words this would be
considered basically like the New Testament of the book of Isaiah. If you remember in the beginning
of our Bible study we talked about the fact that the book of Isaiah is kind of like the Bible with
the Bible, right? And we see a lot of themes there that kind of match up with the chronology
of the Word of God. Well, chapter 40 all the way to the very end would be considered somewhat
of the New Testament of the book of Isaiah, starting off with the prophecy of John the Baptist.
And so if you're to break up the book of Isaiah and study it, it would be broken up into three
sections. We have chapters 1 to 35, which focuses mainly on condemnation, right? A lot of judgment
a lot of punishment is being distributed, a lot of negative preaching, chapter 36
to 39 is about confiscation. The fact that the Babylonian Empire is going to
come and take over Judah and punish them. So 1 to 35 is condemnation, 36 to 39 is
confiscation, and then 40 through 66 is consolation. So this is more positive,
the more positive aspect of the book of Isaiah. It's not to say that we didn't see
but the majority of those chapters were filled with a lot of judgment,
a lot of negativity, a lot of punishment, and a lot of what's going to be covered now
is more positive, talking about the millennial reign, how God is their Savior,
and how the Messiah is going to come. Now tonight we're going to look at four different aspects
here in this chapter. We're going to look at the Lord's messenger, the Lord's shepherd,
the Lord's greatness, and the Lord's strength. Now this chapter is very popular for two reasons,
see of John the Baptist. If you paid attention as Brother Hyke was reading, you see that
there is a very evident prophecy of the forerunner of Jesus Christ, which is John the Baptist.
But it's also popular because of the latter end of the chapter, right? If you look at
the latter end, it says in verse 31, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their
strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary,
and they shall walk and not faint. And I can't tell you how many times I've read that in
through a hard time or I'm just weary and well-doing, I'm reminded of this
particular verse and it's strengthened me, it's given me a lot of hope and so
this is a very powerful chapter to essentially commend and elevate the
strength of God when we are in weakness. So let's look at the Lord's messenger
here and the comfort of Jerusalem. Verse number one says, come for E, come for E, my
people say it's your God.
speaking comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is
accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned for she has received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. So what is he referring to here? He's talking
about the fact that
You know, God has already punished Judah, he's allowed Chastisement to come,
he's allowed foreign nations to come and destroy them,
and this is essentially an extension of God's punishment upon
that land for their sin against God.
And now he's basically saying, okay, now that the punishment has already been done,
now it's time to comfort, now it's time to console.
And this is essentially the balance of how Chastisement is distributed by God, right?
He punishes, he chastises, and once that nation
or that person comes to repentance, then he consoles,
then he comforts them, and he confirms that.
And this is a pattern that we see not only with God,
but this is also a pattern that God wants us
to essentially also practice when it comes to church, right?
You know, church is a place where church discipline
should be done.
And in fact, we're gonna be talking about church discipline
this weekend, this Sunday.
But church discipline, what are we talking about?
We're talking about excommunicating someone from the church
because of sin, because of something that's very grievous
that they're unwilling to repent from.
Well, once that person is excommunicated,
once they're punished by being removed from the congregation,
the goal is for that person to,
it would be for them to be ashamed
and ultimately to repent of that sin, right?
And once they repent,
They come back to the fold and what do we do? Do we hang that sin over them?
Do we just keep reminding them of their wickedness and all their bad mistakes?
No, actually what we do is we console them, right? We comfort them.
Why? Because they've received of the Lord's hand double for their sin, so to speak.
and so the punishment has already been distributed, it's already been dished out, now it's time for
consolation. And so the Lord here is seeking to comfort Jerusalem after he afflicts them for
all of their sins. So this is the pattern that we see here. And now we're going to get into the
It says, the voice of him that cryeth in the wilderness,
prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God,
every valley shall be exalted,
and every mountain and hill shall be made aloe,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough places plain,
and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."
Now this is a very powerful passage,
because it's prophetically referring to
the forerunner of Jesus Christ, which we know to be the cousin of Jesus, John the Baptist, right?
This is actually quoted in the New Testament, Matthew chapter 3.
Let me read it to you in verse number three.
It says, in those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying,
Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, for this is he that was spoken of by the prophet
Isaiah, referring to Isaiah, saying the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way
of the Lord, make his paths straight. Now, the reason this passage in the book of Isaiah is so
It's because it's telling us, it's explaining to us, how is it that John the Baptist prepared
the way of the Lord?
How did he do that?
Well, it says there that every valley was exalted, every mountain and hill was made low, the crooked
was made straight, and the rough places plain.
And of course, in verse number three, it says, make straight in the desert a highway for our
God.
Well, if you think about it, you know, Jesus Christ said of Himself that He is the way,
the truth and the life, and that no man comes with Him to the Father but by Him, right?
In other words, Jesus Christ, we have to come to Jesus in order to have eternal life, to
go to the Father.
But who's going to bring people to Jesus, though?
It's through Jesus that we go to the Father, but the question is, how do we get to Jesus?
for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord,
shall be saved, amen.
But how shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed?
How shall they believe on Him in whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach except they be sent?
You know, and it goes on to tell us how beautiful are the feet of them
that preach the gospel of peace, glad tidings of good things.
And what is basically showing us here is that we, just like John the Baptist,
prepare the way of the Lord, so to speak.
And the reason it's using this language here in Isaiah chapter 40 is because it's kind of giving us this imagery that those are row to Jesus, right?
And, you know, a lot of religions, specifically, of course, religions within Christianity, they don't make the path straight.
It's crooked, there's obstructions, there's hills, there's valleys, it's crooked, there's
bends in the road, and it makes the path to Jesus very confusing.
It's not clear.
It's filled with obstructions and hindrances.
Whereas John the Baptist, when he came, he spake plainly of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He made the path very plain of who Jesus Christ was.
He filled up the valleys, he brought them high.
Those crooked paths, he made them straight
so that when people who were seeking salvation
can see plainly that it's through Jesus Christ
and Jesus Christ only, right?
And this happened in a very literal way.
Because if you remember during John the Baptist's ministry the Jews sent priests and Levites to John and they asked them like are
That the Christ and he was just like I am not the Christ he confessed and deny not that he was not the Christ
And they're like are you the prophet he said no and he's just denying all these
Accusations that he was Christ and then later on in the chapter in John chapter 1
You know Jesus Christ comes and he says behold the Lamb of God
who should take away the sins of the world.
He wasn't like, is this the Christ?
I don't know, maybe it is, maybe it isn't.
And here's the thing is that when it came to Jesus,
when it came to John the Baptist preaching about Jesus,
everyone was very clear what he was saying, like,
this is the Christ.
The person that people were confused about was John.
A lot of people were like, are you the Christ?
Are you Elias?
He came in the spirit of power of Elias.
Are you that prophet?
But there was no confusion whatsoever
You understand what I'm saying?
And so his ministry was essentially to remove all obstructions and hindrances for people
to understand who Jesus Christ actually was.
And even though this was essentially his ministry, this is our ministry as well.
Our ministry as Christians participating in the ministry of reconciliation is that we
make the message of salvation very clear.
You know if you don't work, then you're not really saved or you know, can you lose yourself? I don't know. Can you?
Maybe it's a possibility. I don't know. That's an obstruction to salvation, right? You're making the message crooked
You're placing a mountain before the answer. You're placing a valley before the answer
And therefore people cannot come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ
Whereas you know as the apostle Paul put it that he used great plainness of speech
He didn't say hey, just give your life to God
You know just give your life to him and you know just whatever the terminology the liberal church is used
I don't know all the terminology probably the most famous one is this give your life to God
You know and and that's a very confusing phrase
You know what do you have to do to be saved? Well, you have to give your life to God
Well, why do you have to give your life to God when Jesus Christ gave his life for you?
What is that's called a crooked path?
Right, it's just like well what you have to do. Yeah, of course you have to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior
But you also have to do works because faith without works is dead. You know, I call that I call that a crooked path
to salvation
right because you're making the
The message of salvation very much confusing you're placing a bend in the message
Causing people to go astray into a false gospel
And obviously we've all spoken to people at the door
Or maybe they've given an answer like that.
And then when you pin them or you corner them,
they end up giving you the right answer.
And possibly it's because of the fact
that they got saved, but they're in a church
where the terminology is just really bad.
The pastor is just a liberal, right?
And he uses Lebanese when explaining
the doctrine of salvation.
Whereas the terminology that we should be using is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
Right place your faith in Jesus Christ one saved always saved
Salvation is a free gift
Through Jesus Christ for my grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves?
It is the gift of God not of works less than any man should boast well
What I like to do is use illustrations. Well, it's great to use illustrations, but not at the expense of using scripture
You know, they should be used in tandem with scripture, but you have to pick one over the other to use scripture
It's kind of weird when people only want to use illustrations thinking as though like their illustration is just communicates the message of salvation so much better than the Bible
Folks faith coming by hearing and hearing by the word of God
And so if you want to make the path straight if you want to bring down the mountains and
Fill up the valley and make straight the crooked paths. You got to use the word of God
Great plainness of speech and one thing I've noticed is that when you read through the Bible the New Testament specifically
When dealing with salvation, it's very clear
What salvation is?
You know the Bible makes it very clear what salvation is. You know it uses terminology that's very simple to understand
It doesn't make it complicated at all.
And John, the apostle John, uses some of the most
just elementary phrases when it comes to salvation, right?
He that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life.
He that believeth not the sun shall not see life
but the wrath of God abideth on him.
And it's almost as if if you believe on the sun, salvation.
You no believe, no salvation.
You believe heaven, you don't believe hell
It's like it's a very good way to explain it. It's almost as if that's how he's saying it
It's almost plain. It's very straight. It's not crooked
You know the crooked way is it's like yeah, but faith without works is dead though
And that is absolutely true for the person who's already saved
But it's not true for the person who's trying to get saved
Okay, because the Bible says not by orcs of righteousness, which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us and
You know when it comes to this message of salvation
We have to make it clear and obviously there's different facets of salvation that people have to understand
One facet that people keep bringing up over and over again is just like yeah, but you have to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved
Yes, that's what it says you have to do
Well, how do you know because it plainly says that in the Bible
Like God placed that since Genesis chapter 4 and just so happens the most clearest passage of how to get someone saved in Romans chapter
10 it has its own verse
For whose service shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved
And we were using why I thought you just have to believe yes
Then why do you have to call because how can they call on him and whom they have not believed?
Meaning that if you make if you work your way backwards from those passages one is needed for the other
The preacher is needed to preach and the person who hears the preaching has to believe the preaching
And therefore call upon the name of the Lord in order to be saved
Now let me just say this is that people who get saved in our church
They don't have a hard time understanding that it's very plain to them
The only people who struggle with that are people who've been listening to false teachers like Norma Diamante
online
Those are the only people that struggle with that message
I've never I've never had anybody at the door
The hundreds of people that I've led to the Lord over the years. I've never had anybody like we call upon wait a minute
Hold on a second. I thought he said it's just believe
Whoa, you sound like you're adding works
How many you've ever had a brand new person just at the door tell you that who just got saved no one does
The only people who struggle with it are those who have listened to these false teachers who are making the path crooked
who are placing a mountain on in the path who are raising up a valley who are not speaking plainly of salvation
They're making it muddy is what they're doing
And it's crazy. It's just like yeah, but but I thought it was just by placing your faith and I always ask him
Then why do we have Romans 10 9 through 10 12? You know 11 12 and 13. He's like, well, yeah, but but I thought it was just my belief
You know, well, you know what? It's just by believing. It's just by grace. It's just by mercy. It's just by Jesus
It's just by your faith. It's just by calling upon the name of the Lord. Yeah, it's just by all those things
It's just by Jesus, but it's just by the Father. It's just by the Holy Spirit, too. I
Don't know if you know this but all of them participate in our salvation
That's plain it's clear
You know, that's what John the Baptist did is that he removed all obstructions from the message and
You know, this is why it's important for us to never become these
Apologetic soul winners not that they exist
But you know most these people all they want to do is just argue and
Pontificate and just kind of puff themselves up and just kind of show themselves to be just eloquent in their gospel presentation
But really what they do is they put more obstructions on the path
You know, give me just a good old-fashioned Romans road presentation. Amen
Good old-fashioned your sinner you deserve hell Jesus Christ died on the cross
He went to hell for three days and three nights. He resurrected on the third day
If you believe on him you're saving you can never lose that salvation and all the verses that include that
Sounds good. Oh, but that's just not as you know
It's just not as scholarly as the other presentations.
Well, the scholarly presentations
doesn't get anyone saved.
It just leaves people as confused as a termite with a yo-yo.
It's just people don't know what to do.
They're just like, oh, it sounded good.
It sounds great.
It sounds smart.
It sounds great, but they're not even saved.
Whereas the person who just listens
to a regular gospel presentation with the Romans road,
they actually walk away saved.
And you know what? We're not trying to use words of man's wisdom in order to receive the praise of man
You know, we want to put the cookie on the bottom shelf
Meaning that we want to make the path straight
And so the ministry of John the Baptist was just that, you know, he was there to exalt Christ, he must increase that I may decrease the Bible says, right?
And that's why people didn't really understand who John the Baptist was because he was decreasing, he wasn't about himself, he wasn't about explaining who he was.
He's not like, hey, you know, look me up in the Old Testament, for they wrote of me, you know, he's not even like, hey, you know, Jesus is my cousin, by the way.
Because he was right. They're like cousins basically
He's just like behold the Lamb of God who should take away the sins of the world
You know, he's he's preaching. He's quoting scripture and and no one batted and I added they understood what he meant when you preach them to them
Not only that but we see that you know, he came in the spirit and power of Elijah as well. He wasn't Elijah reincarnated by the way
He just came in the spirit of Elijah and just let me let you let me just explain some to you the spirit of Elijah is the spirit of God
Okay, and so he was filled with the spirit
He was used greatly of God to prepare the way of the Lord and that is our ministry as well
You know when we go out and preach the gospel we were getting people save we are making the path straight
We are removing all obstructions and part of removing obstructions is also telling people that they're wrong
It's saying that Catholicism is wrong orthodoxy is wrong. Joe's witnesses are wrong Mormons are wrong
Buddhism is wrong Hinduism is wrong. You said why are you doing that because we're removing the mountains
We're filling up the valleys
We're removing the crooked paths. We're just showing them all of this is wrong. This is the only way of salvation. It's through Jesus Christ
And so very powerful here that you know John the Baptist gets a prophecy in the Old Testament very very important ministry
If you think about it, and by the way when it says that he came in the spirit of Elijah
Notice that he didn't do any miracle like Elijah
So the spirit that he's referring to what it enabled him to do was to preach the word of God with boldness and really that is the greatest
miracle that a person can perform right is that of getting someone saved
And, you know, changing someone's mind,
reforming their mind to believe the truth and get saved.
And so, it's an amazing thing.
Look at verse 6.
It says, the voice said, cry, and he said,
what shall I cry?
All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.
The grass withereth, the flower fadeeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it.
Surely the people is grass.
The grass withereth, the flower fadeeth, but the Word of our God shall stand forever.
So here we see a contrast between the brevity of life and the eternal Word of God.
And there's a reason why Isaiah is bringing this up.
Obviously the Lord is bringing this up through the prophet Isaiah.
Really what he's saying here is that, you know, your life is but a vapor.
It's here for a moment, gone the next.
It's like the grass that fades.
It's like the flower that fades, the beauty that fades of this world.
And so we need to place our faith in that which is stable
and that which endures forever, which is God's Word.
This is an important message for us today because of the fact that we place a value on that which is temporal quite a bit
Not that we purposely do so, but you know what that's just our human nature
We place value on possessions that are temporal on monetary wealth that is temporal even our own lives
That's temporal folks. Our lives is like grass that faded the way
And it says there the flower faded the flower
What is basically saying there's the beauty of this life because flowers are beautiful, right?
They say you know the flower eventually fades it dies and so your beauty will die
You know your your handsomeness whatever if you think you're handsome, you know, that's gonna die your good looks will be gone one day
You know you will become deceased you will rot
You will go back into the ground. You will no longer physically exist one day
But hold on a second the word of our God shall stand forever though
And so what the Bible is telling us here is we need to make sure that we esteem God's word
Far more than that which is temporal and it requires practice so to speak
You know for us on a daily basis to understand, you know, all this is temporal all this is going to disappear one day
I need to make sure that I'm walking with God and I'm reading the Bible because this endures forever. This will be read
by the generations that come after me. My children will read this when I'm long gone.
My grandchildren will be reading this long gone. This will be changing lives long after I'm gone.
It's changed lives long before I was here. It'll continue to change lives long before long after
I have a small window of time to preach the Bible and to change lives through the preaching of God's Word and get people saved
But at the end of the day I as grass shall fade away you as grass will fade away you as a flower will fade
Therefore place your investment in that which is most important, which is the Word of God
Hey, you know, it's January. What is it the second already? Man feels like it's already the 10th. I'm just kidding, you know
I hope you're reading the Bible
You're like, well, you know, I kind of I miss yesterday so I was thinking 2026 would be my year
Catch up
Read the Bible
Esteem your walk with God far greater than whatever it is that's taking your attention from the Word of God
Why because it endures forever
You know get a Bible reading calendar if you haven't already and you know read through the word of God at least once
Or if you were up to the challenge get the two twice in a year Bible reading calendar read it twice
Get some more Bible content in, but place the Word of God as something that's important in your life
because it does stand forever.
Let me read to you from 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 23. Obviously the apostle Peter
knows about this passage in Isaiah because he says here, being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
by the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever.
For all flesh is as grass, he says.
and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof
falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel
is preached unto you. So your glory shall fade. You know, our strength will fade.
Our power will fade but God's word remaineth forever and ever the Bible says in Psalm 12 verse 6 the words of the Lord
Are pure words as silver tried in the furnace of earth purified seven times thou shalt keep them
O Lord thou shalt preserve them from this generation
Forever Psalm 119 verse 89 says forever O Lord thy word is settled in
Heaven I hope that in 2025 you're steaming God's word above it all else
The Bible says, I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary foods.
And so it's important for us to esteem God's word because it abides forever.
Look what it says in verse 9.
We're going to look at the Lord's shepherd.
So we see the Lord's messenger, which is John the Baptist.
And the charge to proclaim these glad tidings verse 9 says oh Zion
That bring his good tidings get thee up into the high mountain. Oh Jerusalem that bring his good tidings
Lift up thy voice with strength lift it up
Be not afraid say unto the cities of Judah behold your God
Behold the Lord God will come with strong hand and his arm shall rule for him
Behold his reward is with them and his work before him. So we see here a charge
to proclaim good tidings and what is it referring to when it talks about good tidings well another
way of saying good tidings is the gospel gospel means good news tidings is referring to news
and of course the good tidings of great joy is referring to the fact that Jesus christ
And this is what God wants us to proclaim.
It says in verse 9,
Get thee up into the high mountain,
Lift up thy voice with strength,
Lift it up, be not afraid.
What is it saying?
Go preach the gospel!
Proclaim it, right?
The Bible says in Matthew 10 verse 27,
What I tell you in darkness,
That speaking in the light,
What I tell you in the ear,
That preach ye upon the housetops.
Now hyperbole is being used here, okay, meaning that he doesn't really mean like hey all of us
Get up on the roof here and just start screaming nor does it mean get a blow horn and go stand on the corner
And just annoy oncoming traffic, right?
Go get a sign that says turn or burn and go get a blow horn and just start sounding like a jagged box drive-through
Where no one can understand you that's not what it's referring to, okay?
When it says, you know, what I tell you in darkness that speaking in the light when I tell you in the year
I preach you upon the house tops or what as Isaiah puts it get the up into the high mountain
He's basically saying be open about the gospel
Have urgency about the gospel. Don't be ashamed of the gospel if you're going on the house top
You're basically saying like I'm not ashamed. I want everyone to hear this
If you're going to the mountaintop you're basically saying like I want everyone under the sound of my voice to hear this message
That's very important, right?
What is he saying, you know lift up your voice with strength meaning, you know have some zeal when you preach the gospel and
You know as a church we can't lose our zeal for the gospel
And by the way, aside from the goal that you have of reading through the Bible, I hope
you have a goal of not just soul winning, I hope you have a goal of just how many souls
you want to win.
Why not?
You know, you should have a goal, say, this year, you know, I want to win more souls to
Christ this year than I did last year.
And you may think to yourself, well, I don't know how many souls I won last year, great.
That's great.
So now you can just come up with a number for this year.
Right?
But the goal should be, you know, I don't want to be ashamed of the gospel. I want to make it a priority
I want to lift up my voice with strength. I don't want to be ashamed of the gospel and
You say well, you know, I'm not ashamed. I go on preach the gospel. Yeah, but what about when you're with your friends though?
What about the company that you keep that are not Christians that know that you're a Christian?
Have you preached the gospel to them?
Well, that's different, you know, I mean I
You know I have a tendency to compartmentalize my life here, and I you know I have a life outside of church, you know
Yeah, but we all have a life outside of church, but guess what?
Preaching the gospel is like a 24-hour thing though like any time we get an opportunity
We should be able to preach the gospel to people right and not be ashamed of it now. I'll give you an example
I was sometime earlier this week
My wife took my kids to like an outing and so I had the house to myself in the morning
I was like, oh goody, you know, and so you know because because when you have a house of five kids
It's just a little loud, you know, and so I told my wife
You know make my breakfast my omelette and then I was like, you know, I'm gonna go to the balcony
I'm gonna eat my omelette there drink my coffee take my Bible and just look at nature and just you know
Just just end of year great just kind of you know
So I had my omelette have my cup of coffee and I go to the balcony and I got my Bible
I'm like no one's gonna disturb me
There's no children to disturb me right now.
There's no wife to disturb me.
I'm just kidding.
There's just no one there.
I just have privacy.
And so I go there, and the neighbor just comes out.
And she sparks up a conversation with me,
and she's asking about something completely just
irrelevant to the topic at hand.
But then she's just like, hey, so you're a pastor?
And I was like, yeah, because we gave her a Christmas card.
And it said, like, pass from here on there.
I'm like, yeah, I'm a pastor.
She's like, oh, so she starts asking me all these questions.
And then, you know, I'll be honest with you.
Like, I'm carnal.
Sold under sin, you know what I mean?
I'm just like, I'm carnal.
I'm just thinking, like, my omelet's getting cold right now.
My coffee's getting cold.
My omelet's getting cold.
And it's just, like, it's right there in the back.
And I'm just kind of looking over at it.
I'm like, because it was a cold morning, too.
You know it's a very cold morning, so I'm like my Alma's done like it's just and then you know
She's just asking questions, and I'm thinking to myself like I don't want to answer these questions right now. I
Want a priest it is it's like in the morning. I'm like I'm not trying to preach the gospel right now
I'm not trying to talk about church. I'm not trying to talk about I want to eat my omelette read my Bible
But then you know that the Holy Spirit is just kind of prompting me, and I'm just thinking to myself like
Omelettes or no omelettes, this is important
because this is like a divine appointment.
And so she begins to talk to me about,
she's like, oh yeah, my husband's not saved.
And then in my mind, I'm thinking to myself like,
or the inner man is telling me like,
well then check if she's saved.
And then, but the flesh is like,
yeah, but what about saving your omelette though?
Salvation, you know, it's getting cold, you know, and then, you know, and about there's no
Jell in my hair either. Let me just throw that in there. How many have ever seen me
without gel in my hair? Oh, a handful of people. The majority of people have knots.
I'm a completely different-looking person. I'm very throwy when if I don't have
I look crazy, OK?
It's very wild.
These people lied and said that they saw me with gel.
They have not truly seen me without gel.
I'm just kidding.
It's just like, it's always out there like that.
And I'm thinking like, I'm not trying to see anybody right now.
And then I end up, but the Holy Spirit, the inner man,
is just like.
Obviously, this is for a reason, and I thought to myself, well, if I truly esteem his word
more than my necessary food, you know, and I'm on the house top right now, right?
So I said, well, what do you think you have to do to be saved?
And she gave me, you know, a crooked answer, so to speak, you know, a mountain answer,
a valley answer.
And so, you know, and then I asked her,
I said, do you think you could lose your salvation?
And she ended up saying yes.
So then I thought to myself, well, I can't just
leave this person like this.
You know, omelet or not, I got to, you know,
I have knowledge that this person is ignorant of the gospel.
And she thinks she's saved.
So, you know, I began to give her the gospel,
I gave her a lot of verses, and she didn't get saved there.
But she even told me she said you know what?
I have to go think about this because I never really thought about any of those passages that you just brought to my attention and
Now you know I didn't I really need to think about that. I might think about it
You know and I don't I told I said if you want I can go and witness to your husband and you know
We can talk about these things, you know and even though she didn't get saved. That's not necessarily the point
The point is is that you know the flesh
Is thinking like this is me time?
But the inner man is just like, that's his time, though.
You need to redeem the time because the days are evil.
And now go eat your cold omelet, okay?
Go drink your cold coffee.
No, I'm just kidding.
I did, though.
But, you know, I can't be ashamed.
Because I could easily have been like,
well, you know what?
Let me get back to you on that.
I'll come knocking your door later, later.
I'm kind of doing something right now.
You know, I got my breakfast right here
if you could just give me a couple moments or something.
But you know what, now's the appointed time.
Today's the day of salvation.
For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God,
that's the salvation to everyone that believeth.
And you know what, I'm on the rooftop here.
You know, I'm on the mountain
and I can't be ashamed of the gospel.
And regardless if I'm a pastor or not,
because she's like, you're a pastor,
not gonna easy come up with the excuse of like,
oh, I definitely have to preach the gospel
because I'm a pastor, but just as a Christian though.
And so, you know, you're gonna have instances like that
throughout this year where you're talking to someone
and you're like, man, I think I have to give
this person the gospel.
And I feel like I'm in this situation
for a particular purpose.
And you know, it might be during your me time.
You know or you know you're just doing your thing and it's just a little inconvenience to you
But folks at the end of the day, you know
God is telling us lift up your voice with strength go on the mountain time proclaim those good tidings
Because that's what's important to do. Don't be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord
Look what it goes on to say in verse 11 it says here he shall feed his flock like a shepherd
He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young
Of course, it's referring to the Lord Jesus Christ that he is our chief shepherd leading us and
Ultimately, of course, he leads us to you know when we die and go to heaven
He's leading us eternally there look at verse 12. He says who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
and meet it out heaven with the span and comprehend of the dust of the earth in a measure and weigh the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance.
Who hath directed the spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor hath taught him, with whom took he counsel, or who instructed him and taught him in the path of judgment,
and taught him knowledge and showed to him the way of understanding.
So why is he asking these questions?
And he's basically saying, like, who do you know has this much knowledge and power aside
from the Lord?
No one does.
You know, do you know anybody who is able to meet out in heaven with a span?
Can you comprehend the dust of the earth in a measure?
Well, God can.
So God knows the beginning from the end.
He is the Creator.
You know, who's directed the Spirit of the Lord?
Who's given counsel to the Lord?
And what Isaiah is doing here, he's basically saying, like, you need to go to the Lord for
We'll see later on
That he begins to compare himself with the nations and the reason he's doing that is because
Judah is accustomed to going to the nations for these answers and
The Lord is saying like how are you gonna compare me to the next like I'm God
You know, who's gonna give instruction to me?
The Bible says in Romans 11 33 old the depth of the riches of both the wisdom and knowledge of God
How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out?
For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor?"
Look at verse 15.
It says,
Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance.
Behold, he taketh up the isles or islands as a very little thing.
And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn nor the beasts are of sufficient for a burnt offering all nations before him or as nothing and
They are counted to him less than nothing and vanity
So this is a slam obviously on all the nations that Israel's the Judah's been depending on to deliver them, right?
And the Lord is saying like you're depending on these nations who are literally a drop in the bucket
They're literally counted as a small dust of the balance. What is he saying?
This is nothing compared to what I can do.
And, you know, a lot of times,
God's people will often depend on something outside of God
because of the fact that that something seems to be bigger than what God can do.
And at the end of the day, we need to kind of put in our minds and think about this
and realize, like, these things are as nothing before God.
The Lord is far more powerful, far more strong.
He has more resources.
And so the nations are as nothing compared to the Lord.
They shouldn't be going to Egypt.
They shouldn't be going to Ethiopia.
They shouldn't be going to Babylon.
They shouldn't be going to the Assyrians.
They shouldn't be going to any nation for any kind of help
because there is nothing before the Lord.
You know, the wicked shall be turned into hell
in all nations that forget God.
These nations shall be judged by God.
The Bible says in Psalm 9 verse 20 put them in fear, oh Lord, that the nations may know themselves to be but men.
Selah.
And so remember that the next time some nation threatens the United States of America.
Right? Like, oh man, but China, oh man, but Russia, or whatever.
It's just like, well, you know, at the end of the day, these nations are nothing before God.
And so, you know, instead of investing so much into what America can do, why don't we invest in thinking about what God can do for us, right?
And how God can protect us, and how He is sufficient for us, because the nations are as nothing.
He goes on and continues with this comparison in verse 18.
He says, to whom will you liken God?
Or what likeness will you compare unto Him?
The workman melteth a graven image and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold and casted silver chains
He that is so impoverished
That he hath no oblation chooseeth a tree that will not rot
He seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved. So what is he talking about?
Let's talk about the fact. Why are you know, why would you depend on idols to deliver you and
It says at verse 20 that he that is so impoverished
that he have no ablation will choose an idol.
He's like, yeah, people who are just broke.
They're so broke they can't even afford an ablation
and animal sacrifice, yet they choose an idol.
Now, what I think of when I read that is India.
India can't afford even just food or sanitation at that.
But yeah, what do they do?
They serve idols.
You know you would think to yourself, you know if idolatry or you worshiping these idols was so good and so helpful
Then why are you guys in the condition that you're in?
You know, you're so impoverished
Right, you can't even you don't even have food or proper sanitation
You can't eat the cow because it's your ancestor or whatever
Yeah, you choose a tree that will not rock you're like, oh I got the answer idol
You know, oh, I got the answer. Let's have a goldsmith, you know, create this idol that will protect us protecting from what from sanitation
You know protecting from what and what what the Bible is showing us here is that, you know, man is foolish
Man is so stupid. They're foolish and in fact go to Psalm 115 if you would Psalm 115
You know, they spent so much time melting these graving images, creating these false
gods out of gold and silver, all these cunning works just so they can not help them.
Look at Psalm 115 verse 3, But our God is in the heavens.
He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.
Eyes have they, but they see not, they have ears, but they hear not, noses have they, but they smell not, they have hands, but they handle not, feet they have, but they walk not, neither speak they through their throat, they that make them are like unto them.
He says, so is everyone that trusts within them.
Now, what does he mean by that?
Well, what is he describing here?
He's describing a dumb idol.
And so the joke here is that those who make them those who trust in them are like unto them. What does that mean? They're dumb
Foolish stupid for trusting in something that cannot save them. They can't even bear themselves
Right, they can't walk. They can't help themselves. They need someone to bear them to carry them over to protect them
You know, it's just like that that meme of some dude in Mexico, you know in a flood
And he's like carrying the Virgin Mary on his shoulder or whatever
It's just like I thought the Virgin Mary was supposed to help you
You know, that's it's it's ironic. It's an ironic image
He says oh Israel verse 9 trust thou in the Lord
He is their help and their shield and you don't even have to make an idol of him
What is the Lord saying he's saying you know what?
Don't compare me to a nation that cannot help you because the nations are as nothing there has a drop in the bucket
Don't compare me to an idol because it can't even talk. It can't see it can't hear it can't speak through its throat
It must be born look at verse 21 go back to Isaiah chapter 14
Verse 21 he talks about all creation is as nothing compared to God
He says have you not known have you not heard has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth it is he that sit upon the circle of the earth and the
Inhabitants sort of are as grasshoppers that stretch it out the heavens as a curtain and spread them out as they tend to dwell in
By the way, verse 22 is not talking to it's not proof for a flat earth by the way
Just because it says circle of the earth circle of the earth obviously he's giving it's also hyperbole
Because of the fact that if you were to take that literal as it being a literal flat disc the earth being a literal flat disc
Then you would have to literally say that he's sitting on it
Is the Lord sitting literally on the earth at this moment no
You know the earth is his foot still do we see his feet just like planted on here or something like that?
Are we literally as grasshoppers in the site?
No, but here's the thing, actually, we're smaller than that.
This is just giving us imagery to exalt the greatness of God.
To exalt His greatness, His glory, the fact
that God is big to the point where
He can sit upon the earth if He wanted to.
And let's just be honest.
If the Lord literally sat on the earth, He'd just crush us.
That's how small we are.
Okay, so this is just hyperbole here to give us imagery of how great and big and glorious God is
It says in verse 23 that bringeth the princess to nothing. He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity
Ye they shall not be planted, ye they shall not be sown, ye they're stalked,
referring to their idol, shall not take root in the earth, and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall
take them away as stubble.
To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal, saith the holy one? Lift up your eyes on high!
And behold, who hath created these things that bringeth out their hosts by number,
he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power,
not one phallus." He's saying this, don't rely upon princes because they're going to die,
they're as grass, right? They're as the flower that faded. He says, don't rely upon the judges
of the Europe because they're vanity, they're not even going to be planted. You can't compare me to
and look upon the person who could actually count all the stars.
You know, none of us can count the stars. We can't count the host of heaven.
God not only counts them, He names them. This is not one faileth.
Verse 27.
So let's look at the Lord's strength. You're almost done.
It says verse 27 why sayest thou O Jacob and speakest though Israel my way is hid from the Lord and my judgment is passed over from
My God has thou not known has thou not heard that the everlasting God the Lord the creator of the ends of the earth
Fainteth not neither is weary. There is no searching of his understanding
So the reason he's saying this is because of the fact that Jacob
Israel
Obviously is a very wicked nation right referring to the northern kingdom now not Judah
and they have this mentality that their way they can hide their sin and their
iniquity from God as if as if God can't see it and he's saying you know God's not
gonna be able to see it we can hide it from him very delusional right and the
the rebuttal to this is that you know God is not weary that he's not gonna keep
it's not like well I can't find where they're at you know I can't punish them
enough or something he's not weary his hand is stretched out still in other
You're not going to weary God to the point where he's just going to leave you alone, okay?
You know you have Christians sometimes that will get involved in sin and they're so stubborn now not willing to get
Right with God they're not willing to repent and they think maybe God would just let up or something no sorry
You know God's not gonna grow weary
It's not like he needs a reboot. It's not like he needs to be replenished. He is the source of strength
His hand can stretch out still to every generation
Has that not heard? Has that not known? And of course we have a positive
statement about this in verse 29 says he give his power to the faint and to them that have no might he increase its strength
And by the way, that's why it's important to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, right?
You know, you might be experiencing you will experience some things maybe in this year or in the coming years coming months or weeks
where you will be weary you'll be tired and
You know their trials and tribulations they come in this life
And you can grow faint meaning you know you think of someone who faints. They just like fall over. They just they quit
Well spiritually speaking you can faint
All right, grow weary of doing of well-doing
Grow weary of the Christian life grow weary of just keeping God's commandments grow weary of reading your Bible of soul winning
And what do you do when you grow weary? Do you just throw in the towel get out of church stop reading the Bible stop?
Being spiritually disciplined no you go to the Lord who can increase your strength
Okay, why because he gives power to the faint and
I'm telling you right now as as someone who's been in the Christian life for the last 17 going on 18 years
There's been times when I've grown faint and I've had to learn that when I'm faint I need God's power in my life
I need God to replenish me. I need God to strengthen me
I need and it's not like well, let me just take a break from the Christian life real quick for a little bit
Let me just take a couple weeks off. Let me take a month off. Let me just not read my Bible
Let me just you know, I just need to break from God right now
No, actually I need God to break up the fallow ground and
Make me strong because I'm faint
And if I'll faint in the day of adversity that strength is small
Therefore, we need the Lord's strength who will give it to you. How? Look at verse 30. It says even the youth shall faint and be weary and
The young men shall utterly fall
Now if you're a parent, you know exactly you that could that should resonate with you
Sometimes you want to do these kids ever get tired, you know, like they're just like running around running around running around
You know some of these young guys some of you young guys in your 20s late teens
mean you can work and serve God and do a lot of physical exploits with minimal
sleep I think I mean I don't know how Gen Z is nowadays you know such a weak
generation you know I don't know back in my day I will say this like I was able
to just like go off of like two hours of sleep work a double shift and go like
hang out with my friends afterwards and like and eat and still be wide awake and
just be fine you know
But you know eventually that stuff catches up to you because even the youth shall faint and be weary, right?
So even though you know some of you young guys you're like well, I can go so many I could go to church
I can work a job. I can do all these things and I just will never grow tired tired
Well actually here it says that the youth shall faint and be weary
The young men shall utterly fall it's possible
This is a verse 31, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength
They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint
In other words, you know what the message that Isaiah is trying to get across here is that let's not rely upon our own strength
Obviously God gives us all a certain level of emotional strength physical strength
Mental strength right these types of strengths are important to us
But at the end of the day even those become depleted after a while
And we need to replenish that with the Lord how by waiting upon him and I preached on this
I don't know a couple months ago that waiting upon the Lord we think of like oh
I'm just gonna wait on God, but really what waiting means is you're serving God
You know like a waiter right he's serving someone
Well when you become depleted
You know the the goal is not or the plan should never be let me just get out of church the plan should be let me keep serving God
Let me keep going to church, let me keep winning souls,
let me keep tending the tree,
let me keep waiting upon my master
and serving him and keeping his commandments.
And through that, what does he do?
He renews your strength.
And then you realize, man, I can actually handle
a lot more than I used to be able to handle.
You know, my emotional strength increases.
My physical strength has increased.
My mental strength has increased.
And let me tell you some of the weakest Christians are those who quit and they get back into the fight
And then it gets hard and then they quit again, and then they get back into the fight later on
You're a weak Christian
And I'm not saying that as a diss. I'm not saying it as an insult. I'm just speaking reality here
You know that is not a way for you to get strong in the Lord
The way you get strong in the Lord is by going through a trial as you're simultaneously serving God
When you serve God as you're going through a trial you actually increase your strength in the Lord and
So we see here
That the Bible is teaching us that if we want to mount up with wings as eagles if we want to run and not be weary
You know have endurance in the Christian life so to speak
We want to walk and not faint we want to be able to endure the Christian life and actually enjoy the Christian life and being
This thing for the long haul. What do we have to do first of all? We have to realize we will be faint
And when we grow thing we need to wait upon the Lord maybe you have to keep serving God
You know what? Let's be a church that just keeps serving God
Through the ups and the downs right and I don't know maybe this year. I'm not a prophet
Hopefully this year is just a lot of ups. You know, we have a lot of successes
A lot of salvation, a lot of baptism, a lot of new people added to the church.
You know, hopefully you get promoted, hopefully God blesses you,
hopefully God blesses your family and your children and your marriage and everything goes great,
but let's just be honest though. That's just not always the case. Sometimes there come some
And it's those values that cost people to just get out of sync, you know, get out of the walk with God
Let's learn to renew our strength in the Lord and not just be quitters
You know, don't be a quitter on Lord when the going gets tough
You know the tough get going but really what it is is Christians just need to stick it out and
Keep going to church. Keep reading your Bible. Keep winning souls to Christ. Keep learning the Word of God. Keep applying the preaching
Okay, well this sermon is not about depression though and I need the sermon on depression get the sermon on strength
You know I'm preaching on excommunication on Sunday. I need a sermon on encouragement. Here's the encouragement. Don't get excommunicated
You need to learn about excommunication. Oh
Man that sermon is just all about doctrine. I need something to help me through my week
You know what but maybe what you need to learn how to do is actually how to learn the Bible why you're going through something
Which you need to learn how to do how to multitask life in the Christian life
How to learn how to go through a hard time cry yourself to sleep all the while like I just learned something in the Bible
That's completely irrelevant to my life, but hey, I learned something though
That's just how it is sometimes
and so you know
Keep walking with God. What's the sermon this evening?
God is our consolation and at the end of the day what he's trying to get across
to Israel is I'm the source. He's the source of strength. He's the source of
power and let's not be like Judah or should I say let's not be like Israel
that goes to everything else but God in a time of need in a time of trouble. Amen.
Let's pray. Father we thank you so much for your word and thank you for the book
of Isaiah. Help us as your people to depend on you Lord that we may take it
Pray you help us to cast our care upon you for you care for us Lord and Lord when we feel as though we're
Pressed out pressed out above measure
That we would seek you out Lord and continue to wait upon you even when we feel weak
And Lord, part of just being able to handle all the pressures of life and the difficulties,
aside from just waiting upon you and serving you, is we need to come to church so that we can be
exhorted by the brethren to continue in the faith. And we need that encouragement, not even
from the preaching, but just one on one with the brothers in Christ, Lord. And I pray you
bless us as we go on our way. Give us a great weekend to follow and give us a great year, Lord.
Help us to honor and glorify you in all that we do. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.