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🎵 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 that the Lord's hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough place is 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 withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. O Zion, thou bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mount. O Jerusalem, thou bringest 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 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 a measure, and weighted in mountains the 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 counselor, and who instructed him, and taught him 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 of the balances. Behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing, and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts are sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as nothing, and are accounted to him less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will ye liken God, or what likeness will ye compare unto him? The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains. He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot. He seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved. Have ye not known, have ye not heard, hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in, that bringeth the princes to nothing. He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea they shall not be planted, yea they shall not be sown, yea their stock shall not take root in the earth, and it shall also blow upon them, and it 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 host 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 way is 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, of 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 increaseth strength. Even the youth shall faint 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 faint." 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 Mejia tonight as he preaches your word unto us, in Jesus' name we pray, 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 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 within 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 were 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, a lot of judgment on the nations, a lot of punishment is being distributed, a lot of negative preaching. So 1 to 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 consolation in the previous chapters, 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. One being that it's the prophecy of John the Baptist. If you paid attention as Brother Huyck 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. I can't tell you how many times I've read that in times of difficulty, when I'm going 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 ye, come for ye my people, saith your God, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath 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 for nations to come in 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 going to 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 ministry of John the Baptist, look at verse three. It says, the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted 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 three, 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 you the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Now the reason this passage in the book of Isaiah is so powerful when it comes to John the Baptist is 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. Now, what is this referring to? 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 cometh unto 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? Well, the Bible tells us in Romans chapter 10, verse 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, amen? 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 given us this imagery that there's a road to Jesus, right? And you know, a lot of religions, specifically, of course, religions within Christianity, they don't make the path straight, right? 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, right? He made the path very plain of who Jesus Christ was. And essentially what he did by his preaching was that he brought the mountains down. 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 thou the Christ? And he was just like, I am not the Christ. He confessed and denied 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 one, 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, you know, I don't know. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, you know. And here's the thing is that, you know, 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. This is it. The person that people were confused about was John. A lot of people were like, you know, are you the Christ? Are you Elias? You know, he came in the spirit of power of Elias, are you that prophet? There was no confusion whatsoever as far as what his preaching was about. 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, right? Our ministry as Christians participating in the ministry of reconciliation is that we make the message of salvation very clear. You know, it's not like, you know, oh, yeah, it's a gift, but, you know, 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 churches use. I don't know all the terminology. Probably the most famous one is just give your life to God. You know, and that's a very confusing phrase. 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? It'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 what I call that? I call that a crooked path to salvation, right? Because you're making 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 it's, you know, possibly it's because of the fact that they got saved, but they're in a church where the terminology is just really bad. You know, the pastor is just, you know, just a liberal, right? And he uses liberties 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. Once saved, always saved. Salvation is a free gift through Jesus Christ for my grace are you saved through faith in that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Well, what I like to do is use illustration. 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. 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 cometh 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 in the Bible makes it very clear what salvation is. You know, it uses terminology that's very simple to understand. Doesn't make it complicated at all. And you know, John, the Apostle John uses some of 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 light, but the wrath of God abideth on him. And you know, you know, it's almost as if like, if you believe on the sun, salvation, you know, believe no salvation. You believe heaven, you know, 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 works 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 four and just so happens the most clearest passage of how to get someone saved in Romans chapter 10, it has its own verse for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And we were using, well, 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 Norm 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 be like, wait, call upon, wait a minute, hold on a sec. I thought you said it was just belief. Whoa, you sound like you're adding works. How many of you have 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 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 I thought it was just by placing your faith. And I always ask him, then why do we have Romans 10, nine 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 by, 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 of 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. You're a 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 saved and 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 with, as a termite with the 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. But 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, my cousin, by the way, because he was right there, like cousins, basically. Jesus, 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 no one batted an eye at it. They understood what he meant when he preached 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 something to you. The spirit of Elijah is the spirit of God. OK. 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 saved. 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. Jehovah's Witnesses are wrong. Mormons are wrong. Buddhism is wrong. Hinduism is wrong. So 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 is 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 six. 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 wither it, the flower faded because the spirit of the Lord blows upon it. Surely the people is grass, the grass wither it, the flower faded. 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. And 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 away. And it says there, the flower faded. The flower, what is basically saying there is the beauty of this life because flowers are beautiful, right? And he's saying, you know, the flower eventually fades, it dies. And so your beauty will die. You know, your your handsomeness, whatever you think your hands, you know, that's going to 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'm gone. It'll continue to save people long after I'm gone. 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, it 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 are 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 is something that's important in your life because it does stand forever. Let me read you from First Peter, Chapter one and verse twenty three. 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 follow the way. 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 twelve verse six, the words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in the furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shall keep them, O Lord. Thou shall preserve them from this generation forever. Psalm one nineteen verse eighty nine says forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. I hope that in twenty twenty five, you're steaming God's word above all else. Right. The Bible says I've 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 nine. We're going to look at the Lord Shepherd. So we see the Lord's messenger, which is John the Baptist. Now we're going to look at the Lord Shepherd referring to Jesus Christ and the charge to proclaim these glad tidings. Verse nine says, O Zion, that bring us good tidings. Get thee up into the high mountain, 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 strong hand and his arm shall rule for him. Behold his reward is with him 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 came to this earth. He was crucified on the cross. He resurrected the third day. And this is what God wants us to proclaim. It says in verse nine, 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, meaning that he doesn't really mean like, hey, all of us, let's get up on the roof here and just start screaming. Nor does it mean get a blow horn and go stand in the corner and just annoy oncoming traffic. Go get a sign that says turn or burn and go get a blow horn and just start sounding like a jack in the box drive through where no one can understand you. That's not what it's referring to. And it says, you know, what I tell you in darkness, that speaking in the light, what I tell you in the ear, preach ye upon the housetops or what as Isaiah puts it, get thee 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 housetop, 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 sowing up. 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 could just come up with a number for this year. Right? Got to start somewhere. 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 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 what 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. 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 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 omelet. And then I was like, you know, I'm going to go to the balcony. I'm going to eat my omelet there, drink my coffee, take my Bible and just look at nature and just, you know, just end the year great. Just kind of, you know. So I had my omelet, had my cup of coffee, and I go to the balcony and I got my Bible. I'm like, no one's going to disturb me. There's no children to disturb me right now. There's no wife to disturb me. No, I'm just kidding. You know, there's just no one there. You know, I just have privacy. And so, you know, I go there and the neighbor just comes out, you know? And then, you know, she sparks up a conversation with me and she's asking about something, you know, completely just irrelevant to the topic at hand. But then she 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, pastor here on there. I'm like, yeah, I'm a pastor. So she starts asking me all these questions. And, 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 was a very cold morning. So I'm like, my omelet'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 to preach. It is. It's like in the morning. 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 omelet and read my Bible. But then, you know, the Holy Spirit is just kind of prompting me. And I'm just thinking to myself, like, you know, omelets or no omelets, this is important because this is like a divine appointment. And so she begins to talk to me about, you know, she's like, oh, yeah, my husband's not saved. And, you know, and then, you know, 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, you know, the flesh is like, yeah, but what about saving your omelet, though? What about that omelet needs salvation? You know, it's getting cold, you know, and then, you know, and there's no gel in my hair either. Let me just throw that in there. How many have ever seen me without gel in my hair? A handful of people. The majority of people have not. I'm a completely different looking person. I'm very fro-y if I don't have gel. Thank God for gel. Okay. Because if not, I'm just like, boom. I look crazy. Okay. 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. You know, it's just like, it's always out there like that. You know, and I'm thinking like, I'm not trying to see anybody right now. You know, and then, you know, 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 housetop 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. Not a very clear answer. And so, you know, and then I asked her, I said, so 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 give 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 really need to think about that. I might think about it, you know, and I told her, 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. 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 knock on 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, and 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, and I can easily 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 going to have instances like that throughout this year, where you're talking to someone, 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, you might, you might, it might be during your me time. You know, where, 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 is 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 has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who have directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor had 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? Well, this is being preached to Judah. 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 these things. 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 going to compare me to the nations? Like, I'm God, you know, who's going to give instruction to me? The Bible says in Romans 11 33, oh, 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 has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Look at verse 15 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 beast thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before him are 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 that Judah has 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 a 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 and all nations that forget God. These nations shall be judged by God. The Bible says in Psalm 9, verse 20, put them in fear, O 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 he 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 casteth silver chains. He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth 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? He's talking about the fact, you know, why would you depend on idols to deliver you? And it says in verse 20 that he that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation will choose an idol. He's like, yeah, people who are just broke, they're so broke they can't even afford an oblation 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 yet 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, yet you choose a tree that will not rot. 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. Protect it from what? From sanitation? Shower. You know, protect it from what? And what the Bible's 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 spend so much time melting these graving images, creating these false gods out of gold and silver, all these cunning works, just so they cannot help them. Look at Psalm 115, verse three, but our God is in the heavens. He has done whatsoever he has pleased. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not. 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. They're 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 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, it's ironic. It's an ironic image. He says, oh, Israel, verse nine, 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 40. 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 sitted upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers that stretches out the heavens as a curtain and spread them out as a tent to dwell in. By the way, verse 22 is 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. The earth is his footstool. Do we see his feet just like planted on here or something like that? Are we literally as grasshoppers in his sight? No, but here's the thing, actually we're smaller than that. This has just given 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. 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. Yea they shall not be planted, yea they shall not be sown, yea their stock, 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 host by number. He calleth them all by names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, not one faileth. He's saying this, don't rely upon princes because they're going to die, they're as grass, they're as the flower that fadeth. He says don't rely upon the judges of the earth because they're vanity, they're not even going to be planted. You can't compare me to them. And he says, this is what you should do, is just lift up your eyes and look upon the person who can 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. He says not one faileth. Verse 27, so let's look at the Lord's strength here, we'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? Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary. 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 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 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 words. You're not gonna weary God to the point where he's just gonna leave you alone, okay? You know, you have Christians sometimes that will get involved in sin, and they're so stubborn they're not willing to get right with God, they're not willing to repent, and they think maybe God will 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 thou not heard? Has thou not known? And of course, we have a positive statement about this in verse 29 says, he gives power to the faint, and to them that have no might, he increases 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, there are trials and tribulations that 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, right? Grow weary of well-doing, grow weary of the Christian life, grow weary of just keeping God's commandments, grow weary of reading your Bible, of sowing. 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 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. 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 of weeks off. Let me take a month off. Let me just not read my Bible. Let me just, you know, I just need a 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 thou faint in the day of adversity, thy 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 that should resonate with you. Sometimes you want to, do these kids ever get tired? You know what I mean? 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. I 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 sowing, I can go to church, I can work a job, I can do all these things, and I just will never grow tired while actually here it says that the youth shall faint and be weary. The young men shall utterly fall. It's possible. 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, they shall walk and not faint. In other words, you know, 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 going to wait on God, but really what waiting means is you're serving God. You know, like a waiter, right, serving someone. Well, when you become depleted, you know, 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 wanting souls. Let me keep, you know, tending the tree. Let me keep, you know, 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 harder 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's 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 be in 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 faint, we need to wait upon the Lord, meaning 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. We have a lot of successes, a lot of salvations, a lot of baptisms, a lot of new people added to the church. 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 comes some valleys in our life, right? And it's those valleys that cause people to just get out of sync, get out of the walk with God. Let's learn to renew our strength in the Lord and not just be quitters. Don't be a quitter on the Lord. When the going gets tough, 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 while you're going through something. That's what 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 be 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 to the Lord in prayer. I 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 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.