Mt. Zion Church of the Holy Spirit - Sermons
Comfort Ye My People
Isaiah 40:1, 2 “Comfort ye, comfort 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.”
In the book of Isaiah, many of the chapters between chapter one and chapter thirty-nine are God’s pronouncement of great judgment upon the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel had rebelled against the Lord, turning from him and worshiping idols and false gods. In these chapters, the Lord describes the sins of the nation and the judgment to come because of these sins. Then, in Isaiah 40 the prophet’s message begins to change; the prophet Isaiah begins to see past the judgment of the Lord, past the Babylonian invasion and all the destruction that it brings, past the deportation of the Jews to the land of Babylon and their captivity there. Isaiah receives a message from the Lord, a message of hope to bring to the exiles. For many years the exiles will be in captivity and the prophet begins to speak words of life, hope, comfort and strength to them. It is very much in God’s heart to comfort their grief. God passionately loves His people, and He is moved with compassion over their great sufferings. He comes to them with a word of great comfort to strengthen their hearts. What I want us to understand is that as much as this is a word to comfort to the children of God in that time, it is a word of comfort to the children of God in our time. God’s word is eternal, and it has something to speak to our hearts today. In our text, Isaiah 40, the word of God states, “The word of our God shall stand forever.” When God speaks something, it speaks to all generations.
WHAT DOES THE LORD DESIRE TO SPEAK TO OUR HEARTS TODAY FROM ISAIAH 40?
Going back to the children of Israel in their time of captivity and great trouble, God is comforting and assuring their hearts that their time of captivity is coming to a close, and once more they are going to return to their homeland and experience the favor and blessing of the Lord.
WHY IS THE LORD COMFORTING THEIR HEARTS? WHY IS HE SPEAKING GREAT WORDS OF COMFORT TO HIS PEOPLE?
God desires to comfort their hearts because he sees something grievous in their hearts.
Isaiah 40:27 “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?'” God desires to comfort His people because His people feel like they have been forgotten by God; they feel like they have been abandoned by the Lord. They feel as if God is indifferent to what they are going through. They have been in captivity and in this place of trouble for so long that many feel God has deserted them, and many others feel that God is truly unconcerned with their troubles. It is in this place of great trouble and in this state of feeling forgotten and abandoned that the Lord desires to comfort their hearts.
WHAT ANOINTED WORDS OF COMPASSION AND COMFORT DOES THE LORD PUT WITHIN THE HEART OF HIS SERVANT, ISAIAH?
First of all, God begins to speak to His people about a great and tender Shepherd who would walk closely to His people, leading them and caring for them. He speaks to His people about a Shepherd who would walk in the awesome strength of God, doing powerful things in their behalf, wroughting great victories and performing powerful miracles in their hearts and lives, and yet at the same time this Shepherd of great power and strength would be very tender toward them. Isaiah 40:10, 11 “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. 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.” Here the Lord reveals again the coming of the Messiah, the coming of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of the Lord upon the prophet Isaiah is careful to reveal the tenderness of Christ. He is a great Shepherd that will gather the lambs in His arms, and carry them in His bosom.
IN THIS PASSAGE OF SCRIPTURE, WHO DO THE LAMBS REPRESENT?
The lambs represent the weak and those that struggle. Beloved, we all grow weary at times; we all experience times of great weakness and struggle in our walk with the Lord. Here the Lord is saying, “It's in your time of weakness and struggle that I carry you close to My heart. You think that I have forgotten you, or that I am indifferent to what you are going through, but I have never been as close to you as I am now. It is My tenderness and strength that are carrying you through this time.”
Beloved, when I think about the tenderness of Christ I cannot help but think about the hands of Jesus. All through the gospel you see the tenderness of His hands. When the leper fell before Him and said, “If you will, you can make me clean (Mark 1:40).” The scriptures say that Jesus touched him with a tender hand and said, “I will. Be thou clean (Mark 1:41).” On the mount of transfiguration, the glory of God came upon that mountain and Peter was very afraid. The scriptures say that Jesus laid his hand on Peter and said, “Don’t be afraid (Matthew 17:2-7).” When a woman was sick the Bible says that Jesus gently touched her hand, and her fever left her (Matthew 8:14-15).
Years back, as a new-born in Christ I was in a time of great struggle, weary and discouraged. I was in a prayer meeting, and I remember praying in my heart, “Jesus, if you will just touch me I think I can make it. If you will just put your hand upon me, and comfort me, I think I can make it.” Suddenly I felt this hand touch my shoulder and I almost jumped. I thought it was the very hand of Jesus! This dear brother in the Lord began to pray, “God, I pray for my brother. I know he’s in a time of struggle, and I just pray that You will pour Your love into his heart. I pray that You comfort and strengthen him.” In that prayer meeting I felt the wonderful tenderness of the Lord in a way that changed my life forever. Jesus used my brother’s hands, and I felt the tenderness of the Lord. In his prayer, I heard the Lord’s great compassion and kindness, and I left that prayer meeting strengthened by the Lord.
IN ISAIAH 40, WE SEE THE CHILDREN OF GOD, FEELING THAT GOD HAD FORGOTTEN THEM AND WAS INDIFFERENT TO WHAT THEY WERE GOING THROUGH, FELT SUCH DESPAIR IN THEIR HEARTS BECAUSE ALL THEY COULD SEE WAS THE HUGENESS OF THEIR CAPTIVITY AND THE IMPOSSIBILTY OF DELIVERANCE.
Many of us today would never speak it out of our mouth that we feel forgotten and abandoned by the Lord, but it is plainly revealed in our focus. We look at our great troubles and problems, and we are so consumed by them. They look so massive, and we feel overwhelmed by how big our problems and troubles seem.
WHAT IS GOD’S RESPONSE WHEN WE LOOK AT OUR PROBLEMS AND TROUBLES AND FEEL CONSUMED AND OVERWHELMED BY WHAT WE SEE? HIS RESPONSE IS TO REMIND US OF THE HUGENESS AND GREATNESS OF OUR GOD!
Isaiah 40:12 “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 weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?” The Lord is saying, “You think that your problems are too big for Me? I am the Creator of all things! The Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean and all the seas, I hold them in the hollow of My hand! The highest mountains are like a speck of dust in My hand! The vastness of the entire universe is no wider than the span of My hand.”
Isaiah 40:15, 17 “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 as a very little thing... All nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity.” One of the things the Lord is saying here is this: “Do you see all these world powers? They are nothing to Me. All these Islamic nations that look so frightening and powerful are nothing to Me. All the nuclear weaponry and military machines are nothing to Me. With one word from My mouth they would disappear from off the face of the earth.”
Isaiah 40:16 “And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.” Lebanon was known for the vastness of its trees, and God is saying, “If the truth be known, all the trees of Lebanon are not enough to offer Me a sacrifice My size. I am a huge God. All the animals in the world are not sufficient to offer Me a burnt offering. That is how huge I am.”
Isaiah 40:25, 26 “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.” Think about this: science says that there are over 400 billion stars in our galaxy. Our galaxy is just one of many galaxies. Each galaxy has over 100 billion stars. God says, He measures the galaxies with the span of His hand and calls each star by name and not one star is lost. God says, if you want to know how big I am, go outside and look in the sky!
Why would the Lord use language like this? Why would He tell His people that He holds the oceans in the hollow of His hands and that the mountains and nations are a speck of dust to Him? Why would He speak to His people this way? Because He knows our problems. He knows how big they look to us. He knows all our troubles and He tells us that He is much, much, much bigger and greater than our problems. Ultimately what God is saying is, “What problem do you have that is too big for Me?”
WITH THIS UNDERSTANDING OF HIS GREATNESS AND POWER, THE LORD GOES ON TO SAY TO HIS PEOPLE:
Isaiah 40:27, 28 “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.” In other words, God is saying that no problem in the lives of His people is too hard for Him, and there is no problem too difficult for Him to solve. Isaiah 40:29-31 “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength. Even the youths 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.” After revealing to His people His great tenderness and awesome strength, it is as if the Lord is saying here, “Here is the conclusion of the matter: wait upon Me. You know My tenderness is toward you and that My awesome power is working on your behalf, so wait upon Me.” Here the Lord tells a people who are weary of their captivity and troubles that if they wait upon Him, He will renew their strength. The word “wait” in this passage of scripture is a Hebrew word that means, “to look expectantly toward; to hope in”. In the context of the scripture the Lord is speaking to a people who have been in a place of waiting for a long time, and God is saying to them, “Until I move in your situation, until I answer your prayers, until your breakthrough comes, do not lose confidence in Me and My Word. If you will look to Me until your answers to prayer and breakthroughs come, I will be faithful to strengthen you in times of weariness. I will be faithful to breathe life into you. I will not let you pine away in your weariness. I will not let you die of a famished heart. I will be faithful to come and breathe life, strength, hope and grace into you.”
BELOVED, I BELIEVE THERE ARE PEOPLE READING THIS MESSAGE THAT ARE IN A PLACE OF GREAT TROUBLE, FACING VERY DIFFICULT PROBLEMS, BUT THE LORD WANTS TO TELL YOU TODAY THAT YOUR HELPER, DELIVERER,
WAY-MAKER AND PRAYER-ANSWERER IS COMING.
Isaiah 49:8 “Thus saith the Lord, 'In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee.'” In other words, the Lord is speaking, “I have heard your prayers, and I have an appointed time that I am going to answer your prayers. Your breakthroughs are coming; your deliverances are coming. Your answer to prayers are coming. I am going to answer them in a way that is going to bring Me great glory. Until the appointed time comes, do not stop praying. Do not get discouraged and quit. Do not slip into unbelief. I am with you, and while you are praying, I am working.”
LOOK WITH ME AT VERSE 14, AND HERE WE SEE SOMETHING ELSE:
Isaiah 49:14 “But Zion said, 'The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.'” I believe this is the way many of my brothers and sisters in the Lord feel: “I’ve been in this trial and place of difficulty for so long I feel like God has forgotten and forsaken me.” We feel this way because we have prayed and prayed and prayed and yet have seen no answer. We are in a very hard place of trouble, and we have prayed and prayed but nothing has changed. It seems to us that our prayers are falling on deaf ears, and we feel that God has either forgotten us or He is indifferent to what we are going through.
LOOK AT THE LORD’S RESPONSE:
Isaiah 49:15, 16 “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.” The Lord is asking, “Can a mother forget her baby that is at her breast? When this child grows up, can a mother who is this close to her child ever stop caring? Even if it is possible that she can forget her child, I will never forget you. Why? Your name is engraved in the palms of My hands."
When you look into Jewish history books and read the writings of Jewish historians who lived before the birth of Jesus, you will see that some admit they are not really sure what this means. Some speculate that it means one thing; others speculate that it means another, but they are really not sure. Today we know what it means: when they drove those nails into Christ’s hands, our names were engraved there.
The Bible tells us that in Jesus' resurrected body, those nail prints are still there. When He appeared to His disciples, He walked through walls and doors and still had those nail prints. He spoke to Thomas, “Thomas, reach hither thy finger and behold my hands (John 20:27).” In heaven, Jesus is worshiped as the Lamb that was slain. According to the book of Revelation, the song that all nations will sing in heaven is this praise: “Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb (Revelation 7:10).” Beloved, when we are in heaven, and Jesus lifts up His hands, we are going to see those nail prints. Think about that! One day very soon we are going to be in heaven with Christ for all eternity! Brothers and sisters, how can He forget us? Our names are forever before His face. I want to end this message by encouraging someone that is in a very difficult place facing very difficult problems: maintain your trust in the Lord. His strength and tenderness is with you, carrying you through this time. Remember how big your God is and how small your problems are in the light of His power. Maintain your confidence in the Lord, and He will be faithful to renew your strength as you are waiting for your breakthroughs and answers to prayer. Remember, He can never forget you; your name is continually before His face and He loves you very deeply.
God be praised!