Comfort My People
Sermon Transcript
0:00:14.0
Revival, reformation, even awakening are the kinds of words that we often use to describe the sovereign work of God when He is wooing and calling His wayward people back to Himself. These same words—revival, reformation and awakening—are also words that we often use to describe how God will spiritually awaken unbelievers in our world. Pastors, theologians and church historians have always been intrigued about how and why and when revivals take place and spiritual awakenings take place in our world.
0:00:56.3
Of course, the first great spiritual awakening took place 2000 years ago. The book of Acts tells us that on the day of Pentecost 3000 people came to faith in Jesus Christ there in the holy city of Jerusalem. It was an incredible day, an incredible day of spiritual awakening and the revival of God’s people when, in a very dramatic way, the Holy Spirit gave birth to the early church in tongues of fire.
0:01:24.6
And, of course, throughout church history there are other notable revivals. I made a note of some of them myself, like the first and second Great Awakening in America or the Wesleyan revival in England, the Fulton Street Revival in New York City. Or how about the Welsh Revival in the early 1900s? And on and on and on we could go. It’s perhaps been some time since America has experienced a great awakening or a revival of God’s people and His church unless, of course, you go back to the mid-1990s, and some people point to the Promise Keeper Movement as a time of revival in the church. And many people are asking the question- is America poised for the next great awakening or a revival in the church? I say yes. And we all want that to happen.
0:02:17.2
This past week in an article for Newsweek Magazine, Pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California drew an analogy between two technologies separated by centuries. I’m talking about the Gutenberg press that was introduced in the early 1500s at the time of the Protestant Reformation and the livestream digital technology that we’re using even right now. Many historians have gone back to the time of the Protestant Reformation in the early 1500s and have noted that it might not have happened were it not for the introduction of the Gutenberg press, new technology at that time. Because, you see, it was the Gutenberg press that was used to print Bibles. And for the first time Bibles were placed in the hands of lay people. Up until that time and for centuries leading up until then, the Bible was chained to pulpits in churches and written in a language—Latin—that only the trained clergy knew. But at the beginning of the Protestant Reformation the simultaneous introduction of new technology accelerated the Reformation. That new technology was also used to print the writings of reformers like Luther and Calvin and Zwingli and others. And the mass distribution of their writings, again, helped accelerate the Protestant Reformation.
0:03:40.4
And Laurie compares that, maybe, to the use of new technology now. He writes, “For decades the church has been trying, seemingly in vain, to reach America’s youngest generations with the gospel.” He’s talking about millennials and generation Z. He says, “Enter a global pandemic. Could it be that simply by responding as best and as quickly as we could to something nobody saw coming, we’ve unwittingly stumbled into part of God’s answer to a generational riddle?” And Laurie goes on to quote a young millennial that watched one of his Harvest livestreams and said, “Just sitting alone in my living room watching Sunday services with no one watching me, with no pressure to behave or performs, I had an encounter with God that was truly powerful.”
0:04:33.6
And testimonies like this from a young millennial kind of remind me of the testimonies we often hear from people who listen to Christian radio or watch Christian television. They may be people who would never under normal circumstances be in a church. But in the privacy of their place, maybe a car or their own home, they listen to a radio broadcast or a television broadcast or, in this case, they’re part of a livestream church service. You may be here today, and under normal circumstances, you wouldn’t be in church. But somehow you found your way to this livestream broadcast. And Laurie was just positing the possibility that God in His sovereignty is using this time specially to reach a younger generation with the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, because young people oftentimes connect first digitally before they ever connect face to face and incarnationally we might say.
0:05:37.4
In fact, over the past several weeks our church, Atlantic Shores Baptist Church right here in Virginia Beach, we’ve seen a four- to fivefold increase in the number of people who are gathering with us for worship. Again, I say thank you for being here today whether you’re a part of our local congregation in Virginia Beach or someplace else. And it’s been amazing to see all this. It includes young people and, quite frankly, older people who have been resistant to the digital tsunami that has come our way in this generation. Now many older people, I’m hearing, are comfortable with technologies like this. We all want to get back to in-person worship gatherings. No question about that. And an in-person, incarnational worship gathering will always be preferred to one digitally. But there are many people who are saying…and I am certainly among them…that livestream worship gatherings are here to stay and might just be the kind of tool that God is using to bring about, could it be, the next great awakening or revival in our church.
0:06:46.3
Certainly, any serious follower of Jesus Christ needs to desire God to revive His people and to awaken an unbelieving world to the truth of Jesus Christ. I always make that separation between revival which happens in the church and among God’s people and spiritual awakenings that happen among unbelievers. And every serious follower of Jesus Christ should desire that to happen. But such a movement, I would say, though perhaps aided by technology…it was aided by the Gutenberg press centuries ago, and perhaps one is being aided by the technology we’re using in our day. But such movements like revivals and spiritual awakenings, though aided by technology, well, they require much more than machinery and automation and computers. As low tech as it sounds in our high-tech world, friends, revivals and spiritual awakenings always have certain characteristics.
0:07:48.3
Let me give you a working definition. That’ll be important for us today and throughout this five-week series that we’re introducing today. Revival, which is always the sovereign work of God, invariably happens with genuine confession and repentance follow the conviction of sin brought about by the Holy Spirit. Let me say that again because this is important to get down. Revival or spiritual awakenings, which are always the sovereign work of God…what I mean by that is we can’t manufacture it. We can use a tool like technology to aid in that, but it’s always the sovereign work of God. Such revivals invariably happen when genuine confession and repentance follow the conviction of sin brought about by the Holy Spirit.
0:08:40.0
Friends, my growing conviction over the past several weeks as we’ve been dealing with this worldwide pandemic and the pause that it has brought to our world—not just globally, but personally—my growing conviction is that this is a time for every one of us to self-examine and to deeply reflect on our relationship with God. Don’t miss that opportunity. Don’t miss the opportunity in the midst of the pause to be still and know that He is God. To tune your ears to what God is saying to you personally as much as to the world around us. A time for self-examination. A time for deep reflection. Don’t miss that opportunity.
0:09:24.9
And to aid us in that, today I’m beginning a brand-new series of messages titled “Revive Our Hearts.” And I want us to spend the next five weeks in a chapter that I’ve been spending some time in personally over the last several months, and that is Isaiah 40. I’m asking you to join me over the next five weeks, and in doing so, to ask God to revive our hearts. It’s His sovereign work that makes that happen, but we can position ourselves for revival. We’ll learn as time goes on there is some work that we need to do as it relates to confession and repentance and contrition and getting us prepared for the coming of our God. But let’s ask God together to revive our hearts.
0:10:15.5
And that bring us to Isaiah 40. I’ve titled today’s message “Comfort My People.” And I want to focus just on verses 1 and 2 today. But by way of introduction, I want to read the first five verses of this great chapter in the Bible, Isaiah 40. You follow along as I read in my Bible. “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’”
0:11:21.7
Now, let me tell you a little bit about Isaiah 40, a little background that will help us understand how God can use this to revive our hearts. Isaiah 40 begins a Hebrew poem that stretches really from chapter 40, some say through chapter 55, others say all the way through the end of this book that contains, yes, 66 chapters. Isaiah is a major, major prophet in the Old Testament. This Hebrew poem begins in Isaiah 40. It might be the greatest poem ever written.
0:11:58.8
There are two sections of scripture in this great poem that are at least familiar to us. Maybe asdfIsaiah’s book is intimidating to you, the 66 chapters. You’ve never read it through. But there are some sections of this book that are familiar to us, beginning with chapter 40. You might remember the classic movie Chariots Of Fire with Eric Liddell, the Olympic runner. Well, that movie made famous chapter 40 in a scene where Eric Liddell is in the pulpit of a church. And he’s doing a scripture reading. And believe it or not, he’s reading from Isaiah 40. He doesn’t read all 31 verses, but he reads selected verses. And he finished in verse 41 with these words that should e familiar. “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” I love those verses, and many of you do as well, those of you who are familiar with Isaiah 40. Eric Liddell, this great Olympic runner, was inspired to run for the glory of God and to fly like an eagle, as it were, as he read Isaiah 40:31.
0:13:13.1
Another section of this larger poem from Isaiah 40 and forward in the book of Isaiah, another section that is familiar is Isaiah 53. The span of this great poem contains this great messianic chapter that predicts the coming of the suffering servant. In fact, Isaiah 53 also explains a bit of a mystery that is first introduced in chapter 40 as it relates to the restoration of God’s exile people. We have to wait in the poem to get the answer to that, but we wonder- how will God’s people be returned to the Lord, and how will that restoration and revival take place? Well, Isaiah 53—this should sound familiar—“But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” What a great section of scripture, Isaiah 53, part of the larger poem that Isaiah 40 begins.
0:14:28.2
Both Isaiah 40 and 53, of course, must be understood in the larger context of the poem. And this poem must be understood in the larger context of the book of Isaiah, and, of course, the book of Isaiah in the larger context of the Bible. All of that for another time of study.
0:14:47.6
What I want to do starting today and for the next five weeks, though, is zero in on chapter 40 of Isaiah. This chapter, 31 verses in length, actually forms the introduction to the larger poem. And to understand it best and to receive it best, let me just say this. Isaiah 40 must be understood prophetically, and it must be applied personally. Understood prophetically and applied personally.
0:15:21.5
Let me explain what I mean. The book of Isaiah, intimidating for a lot of people not only for its size—it’s 66 chapters—but it contains a lot of prophecy. Prophecy that was maybe near-term to Isaiah, longer term, you know, pointing all the way to the coming of Jesus Christ, and then really long-term prophecy all the way to the end of the age. And sometimes it’s intimidating to navigate all that.
0:15:47.7
But as we go through chapter 40 we need to kind of keep all of that in mind, starting with the idea that the Babylonian captivity of the Jews is still future to Isaiah as he is writing chapters 40 and forward. That Babylonian captivity started in 586 B.C. when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, invaded Jerusalem and took the Hebrews captive. Among them was a guy named Daniel. And that captivity lasted for 70 years. And God made all that happen. He made no bones about the fact that He was using the ruthless, pagan, superpower of a nation called Babylon to invade Jerusalem, take captive His people, and really to discipline His disobedient people for 70 long years, seven decades. All of that is future to Isaiah. But Isaiah 40 begins envisioning a time near the end of that captivity and Israel’s return to Jerusalem and how they would come back and how they’d be restored. We need to keep that in mind prophetically.
0:17:05.6
Secondly, it’s important to understand that Isaiah 40 and the longer poem here points prophetically to Jesus. Isaiah 40 talks about the coming of a king, our God who is coming. Ultimately, this is answered in Isaiah 53 as to who that is. It’s the suffering servant. And, of course, as Christians we understand Jesus to be that suffering servant. But all of this points longer term, prophetically, to Jesus. It also points prophetically to John the Baptist. We are going to hear the echoes of John the Baptist here in Isaiah 40, because John the Baptist quoted from Isaiah 40 to describe his own ministry when he says, “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord.’” And John the Baptist called people to repentance in preparation for this highway that is built for our God. And this is language from Isaiah 40. As we prepare for the coming of our God, even as we prepare for arrival, we have the opportunity, we have the responsibility as God’s people, almost like a construction crew, to prepare for His coming and to build a highway for our God. And we’ll talk more about that next week. But all of these prophetic points lead us, finally, to the idea that Isaiah 40 applies personally as a pathway to revival. And that’s where I want us to go over the next several weeks.
0:18:37.0
Now, the question that Isaiah 40:1-2 answers is simply this. As God is wooing His wayward people to come back to Him, to return to Him, why should we do that? If I could be so crass as to ask, what’s in it for us? (0:19:00.0) I believe this is a time, perhaps, in our nation’s history and in our personal lives and history where God is saying, “Come back to Me. Come home. Come home, wayward people, wayward body of Christ,” calling unbelievers to come home to their spiritual home and a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Okay. Why should we respond to that? Think of the people of Israel who were nearing the end of their 70 years of captivity. It was a hard seven decades where they’d felt the heavy-handed discipline of God through this wicked, pagan nation called the Babylonians. Why, at the end of that time, should they respond to a God who is wooing them to come back to Him and to return to Him? What’s in it for them?
0:19:51.8
That’s what verses 1-2 answer for us, and there are seven reasons. Seven is a perfect number in the scriptures. Good number, (0:20:00.1) seven of them. Write these down. Are you ready for this? And let me just frame it in this context. When our God comes or when revival comes, as He is wooing us to return to Him, what can we expect Him to do for us?
0:20:16.2
Number one, when our God comes, He will comfort us. Look at it in verse 1. “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” This is how Isaiah 40 begins, this great Hebrew poem. “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” God is telling His prophet Isaiah, “Tell the people that I have come to comfort them. Tell these people who have been in harsh conditions for seven decades, 70 years of Babylonian captivity, I have come to comfort them.” The repetition of the word “comfort” brings emphasis to an aspect of God’s character in the same way that the word “holy” is repeated three times in Isaiah 6 when Isaiah is caught up in that heavenly worship experience and he hears the angels sing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.” The God of the Bible possesses an enormous capacity to comfort, to soothe, to console, to reassure His people. By the way, this is why the Jewish rabbis called Isaiah 40-66 the book of consolation. They are comforting words and consoling words and reassuring words to God’s people who have been held in captivity for all these years.
0:21:42.7
After 70 years of Babylonian captivity, their nerves were more than shot and jangled, as it were. It was a time to reverse their weary course and bring a spiritual salve to their souls. You know, it makes me think of how the President of the United States is both Commander in Chief and comforter in chief. You’ve heard that phrase before. Ever since George Washington became known as the father of our country, we have expected presidents to comfort the nation during difficult times, just like a father comforts his family. Nobody did that better than Abraham Lincoln, who, by the way, back during the Civil War period was known as Father Abraham because of the way he comforted the nation. Following the Civil War he did his best to bind up the nation’s wounds. President George W. Bush played the role of comforter in chief right after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and he did a wonderful job of that. Even recently, President Donald Trump, he sent two Navy ships, hospital ships, to the west and east coast of the United States. Do you remember the names of those? Have you seen this is in the news? One Navy ship was named Comfort, the other one Mercy. And it’s a reminder, again, of how even our God is a God who comforts us.
0:23:06.5
After seven long and harsh decades of captivity under these ruthless Babylonians, the word of the Lord brought comfort to God’s people and to the prophet Isaiah. Friend, do you need some comfort today? Do you need the Word of God to console and to soothe and to reassure you? I think it’s interesting that as God begins in Isaiah 40 to woo His people back to Him, His first order of business is to comfort them. Consider 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, which says, “Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ,”—now, listen to this—“the father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all of our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we are ourselves are comforted by God.” Do you need God’s comfort today? It is abundantly available. He has an enormous capacity not only to be, as it were, the sovereign commander in chief, but also the comforter in chief in our lives.
0:24:21.0
So when God comes, when He woos us to return to Him, He will comfort us. Secondly, when our God comes, He will relate to us personally. Let’s go back to verse 1 and not be so quick to leave it. Again, it says, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God,” emphasis now on the personal pronouns “my” and “your”. “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” It speaks to just the personal nature of our God. He is not emotionally detached or removed from us. He is not impersonal in the way He relates to us. Bette Midler sang a hit song years ago saying, “God is watching us, God is watching us, God is watching us from a distance.” And it almost conveyed the idea that God is detached and He’s impersonal. He’s like the God of the deists who sort of created the world and wound it up like a toy, and then left it to unwind on its own. No, that’s not the God of the Bible. He is a personal God who is personally involved in and cares about our daily lives.
0:25:37.7
You know, today people have personal trainers and personal bankers, and some people have personal chefs. Why not a personal God? This is the God of the Bible who is up close and personal. He is Immanuel, God with us. Christianity is not a religion as much as it is a personal relationship with a personal God. Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ today? Maybe you feel far from Him? He has come toward you in the person of Jesus Christ, and He wants to get personal with you.
0:26:14.5
In the context of Isaiah 40, God took a personal interest in His chosen people Israel, even during their years of captivity under the Babylonians. He related to them like a loving father who disciplines his children even when they have behaved poorly. He never forsook them. He never abandoned them. No, He was personally involved. It might have felt, under the heavy hand of this disciplinary nation, that God had left them. But now at the end of their time of discipline, the 70 years of captivity, God is calling them back and wooing them back. He says, “You are My people, and I am your God.”
0:27:00.7
Thirdly, when our God comes, He will not only comfort us and relate to us personally, but He will speak to us tenderly. Go back to Isaiah 40. Verse 1, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” Now, listen to this, “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.” Does that word “tender” or “tenderly” surprise you? When you have a picture in your mind about how God is, is He a tough guy or a tender guy, or maybe a combination of both? Some people view God as Ford-tough. You’re a Ford truck kind of guy, a pickup kind of guy. You’re a Ford-tough kind of guy. And the God you imagine in your own mind…maybe not the God of the Bible…but the one you imagine Him to be is a tough guy. And for that reason, you’re finding it difficult to have a personal, even a tender relationship with Him. Sometimes an authoritarian earthly father who failed to show his love toward us in a tender way can negatively influence our view of our heavenly Father who relates to Israel after this difficult time they’ve been through in a tender way. He has been, perhaps, tough with them in a disciplinary way. They were disobedient. And it was time, as it were, like a father with his child, to send His child in timeout. That timeout lasted for 70 years under the ruthless handoff the Babylonians. But He never abandoned them. “They were My people; I am your God.” And now He is wooing them back to Him, and He is speaking to them tenderly.
0:28:48.6
You know, sometimes it’s tough when God disciplines His own kids. And for a season we feel like He’s a tough guy when we need some tenderness. But remember the words found in Hebrews 12:5-6. It encourages, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him, for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.” Yeah, so sometimes God…it feels like He’s a tough with us when the discipline comes. But it’s a sign that you’re a child of God. Hebrews goes on to say if you’ve never been disciplined by the Lord, then you don’t belong to Him. But He disciplines His kids as a father would discipline the child that He loves. But that balance between toughness and tenderness comes into play here. Sometimes a tough hand works to stop us from continuing in our rebellious ways, right? We need a tough hand, and the Lord brings discipline to our lives.
0:29:55.4
But more often than not, the Lord’s kind, gentle and tender persuasion works just as well. In fact, we prefer for Him to relate to us that way, don’t we? And that’s why I believe Psalm 23 is one of the most beloved psalms in the Bible, because it speaks of our God who is a shepherd. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” And that picture of a tender shepherd to leads His sheep makes it one of the most beloved chapters in the Bible. It’s really a gamechanger for a lot of us when we envision our relationship with God.
0:30:29.8
Jesus in the New Testament said, “I am the good shepherd.” I also think of the hymn writer who wrote, “Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, calling to you and to me. Come home. Ye who are weary, come home.” He’s calling. He’s wooing us softly and tenderly. Isaiah 40:2, “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.” They’ve been through a hard time. And then come the tender, kind words of our God. His gentle persuasion wooing us to come back to Him.
0:31:06.3
Fourthly, when God comes, He will not only comfort us, He will not only relate to us personally and speak to us tenderly, but, fourthly, He will bring peace to our troubled times. Look at the next phrase there in the middle of verse 2. “And cry to her that her warfare is ended.” Wow. “Cry to her.” That word “cry” refers to a shout, to a loud noise. It’s the idea that God wanted everybody in Israel to hear, “The time of your warfare is ended. This difficult season of seven decades, 70 years in Babylonian captivity, it’s done. It’s over with.” And the Lord wanted to make sure everyone heard the cry.
0:32:04.4
This kind of reminds me of an iconic photo that was taken on August 14th, 1945, in the middle of Times Square in New York City. It’s known as “The Kiss,” and it pictures this sailor just grabbing this girl in the middle of Times Square and planting a kiss on her mouth. This photo was taken on V-J Day, Victory Over Japan Day. This was one of the responses, the celebratory responses when the world and our military learned that the war was over. This guy could not contain his celebration when he heard the war had ended. And he grabs this girl in the middle of Times Square, plants a kiss on her. This photo was a week later published in Life Magazine along with other photos that capture the celebrations of people across the country when we had learned that the war was over. And that’s sort of the idea here. He says, “Cry to her that her warfare is ended. The difficult time you’ve been going through has come to an end.”
0:33:21.0
Do you feel like you’re at war with something or someone right now? Are you going through a tough time? Maybe you’re at war with your spouse or you’re at war with a wayward child or you’re at war with somebody at work. Or maybe you’re at war with a medical condition. You’re fighting a war within your body relating to some medical condition. And this war is weighing heavily upon you. Spiritual warfare can weigh heavily upon us as well as we do battle in the spiritual realm with our nemesis, the devil himself. You’re so weary from doing battle with God or with Satan, all of that is in view here. And the encouragement is God is wooing us to come back to Him. He said, “Listen, the battle belongs to Me. Your warfare has ended. I’ve got it under control.” And He is able to bring peace to your troubled soul and to quell the difficult times you are facing.
0:34:23.0
All of this, again, in answer to the question, why should we respond to our God when he says, “Come home. Come back to Me, you wayward child”? Why should the Israelites…centuries ago when they read this in the book of Isaiah near the end of their 70 years of captivity after seven difficult decades, why should they come back to their God? Well, because when He comes and when they return to Him, He will comfort them. He will speak tenderly to them. He will relate personally to them. He will bring peace to their troubled soul.
0:34:55.5
And then, fifthly—listen to this—He will pardon our sin. Read on, middle of verse 2. “Cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned.” Now, this may be the best of the good news that the Israelites heard or that we might hear today, that our God who woos us to return to Him stands ready to forgive and to pardon all of our sins. Let’s think about the sins that had piled up for the Israelites that threw them into captivity and into a place of discipline for 70 years.
0:35:38.9
Why 70 years? Interesting study and interesting math here. In the Old Testament and under the mosaic law were things called the tithing laws. It was not just the giving of 10% of your increase, but there were also tithing laws related to the land. Every seven years the Lord said to the Hebrew people, “Give the land rest. Trust Me enough to plant and to harvest for six years, but in the seventh year, that sabbatic year, don’t plant anything and don’t harvest anything. Trust Me to provide for you.” Well, the Israelites heard that and just completely ignored it. They ignored it for 490 years, disobeying the Lord, thumbing their nose at Him, saying, “No, we know better. We’re going to plant in year 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, and in year 7.” And finally, the Lord had enough, and He disciplined His people. Why for 70 years? One year for every year over 490 years they had ignored the sabbath laws. And those sins had been piling up over a period of time. Sins that had piled up higher than a Texas sky. And the Lord says, “I’m here to pardon you. I’m here to forgive you.” No more encouraging words than to know when God is calling us back to Him. It’s not so that He can backhand us with a heavy hand, but to woo us into a relationship with Him and to pardon our sin.
0:37:24.7
Friend, do you know that your sins are forgiven. I can’t imagine somebody living this life, let alone passing from this life into the next life not knowing that your sins, those commandments that you have broken, are not pardoned and forgiven by our God. The Bible says that when he forgives us, he casts our sins as far as the east is from the west. That when He forgives our sins, He remembers them no more. Not that the omniscient God of the universe becomes forgetful all of a sudden, but He makes a choice never to bring up those sins in our presence again. He is here to pardon us abundantly. His mercy is rich, and His grace is abundant. And His pardon is free. This is good news for us.
0:38:18.3
Number six, when our God comes, He will declare our punishment is over. Latter part of verse 2 says that, “She has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” Yeah, enough is enough, right? It’s not a phrase that means that God was retributive in any way, but it is a phrase that says the crime fit the punishment and enough is enough and, “No more punishment is yours.” Again, when God forgives us, He removes from us any present or future punishment for our sins. Sometimes He has to discipline us, but that’s a different matter as a father would a child. But punishment is no longer in view for the redeemed child of God.
0:39:09.0
And then finally, number seven, when our God comes, He will reveal His glory. Now I want to skip over verses 3-4, because we’ll come to that next week. But verse 5 says, “And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” When God does what He is about to do in bringing His people back from captivity, He will do it in a way that He and He alone gets the glory. And that’s always the way it is. Any revival, any spiritual awakening…when historians go back and try to piece together how this happened, why this happened, when this happened, it’s well beyond any human ingenuity or machinery or automation or computers or technology. There may be tools that aid in the process there, but God in His sovereignty did what only He can do in bringing us back to Himself. That’s why we say revival is the sovereign work of God. Oh yes, it involves confession and repentance and the conviction of sin brought on by the Holy Spirit. There is a response that we need to involve ourselves in. We’ll talk about that more in the weeks to come. But make no mistake about it, it is the sovereign work of God for which only He receives the glory.
0:40:36.6
And there are things happening in our world today that are beyond human explanation. And whatever God is doing in the midst of this global pandemic to bring people to faith in Jesus Christ, He and He alone will get the glory for it. No preacher, no ministry. Oh, they will be tools and people and ministries that He will use to get the gospel to people, but He and He alone will get the glory. And we need to remember that.
0:41:05.9
A little taste of Isaiah 40. We need to understand it prophetically, understand what’s going on here and the flow of Isaiah’s writings, the coming of Jesus, the ministry of John the Baptist, even prophecy to the end of the age. But, oh friends, the personal application of this pathway to revival, that’s where I want us to focus over the next several weeks.
0:41:33.9
Take this time for personal reflection, for self-examination. Join me in asking God to revive our hearts. And when you get a little bit nervous about what God is asking you to do as He is wooing you to come back to Him…and I know I’m speaking to somebody who has drifted far away from God. It may be a child of God that is like a prodigal son. You’ve run away from your spiritual home. Or maybe it’s somebody who, today, under normal circumstances, you wouldn’t be attending a worship service live and in person in a church, let alone by livestream here. But God has you here. And He is inviting you to come. Come back to the spiritual home for which you were created and a relationship with the God who made you and knows you better than you know yourself. Come home.
0:42:31.4
And in that moment when you say, “Well, what’s in it for me? What’s God going to do for me?”, just remember, when He comes and when we come back to Him, He will comfort us. He will relate to us personally. He will speak tenderly to us. He will bring peace to our troubled times. He will pardon our sin. He will declare that our punishment is over, and He alone will get the glory for it. Those are seven good reasons for us to respond to Him today and in the weeks to come.
0:43:07.7
Let’s pray together. Our Father in heaven, thank You for Isaiah 40. Thank You for what You have been doing and are doing in my own heart as a pastor to deeply desire a fresh work of the Holy Spirit in my life. To bring revival to those dead places. To bring an awakening and awareness to who You are in a fresh way. And, Father, I pray that for me personally. I pray that for every member of our congregation. I pray that will happen in our country from sea to shining sea and around the world. That You would not waste for one minute this crisis that we’re in. But in ways that only You can do as a sovereign God, use it to bring one person, ten people, ten million people to faith in Jesus Christ during this time. May we look back on this season as a spiritually significant, defining moment in every one of our lives because we took the time to invite you to come. We took that courageous step of faith to say, “God, okay, I’m coming home. I’m coming home. I trust You to comfort me and console me and reassure me and forgive me and pardon me.” Father, I pray that for everyone watching today and under the sound of my voice. And I pray this in Jesus’s name, amen.
0:45:09.2