Isaiah 40:1-11 - Finding Comfort in God's Promise

Turn to Isaiah, chapter 40.

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

If you've got Bibles with you, that's wonderful.

If you don't have a Bible, you can take the Bible right there in the pew in front of you and turn to page 738.

Isaiah, chapter 40.

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

Our text this morning comes from the first 11 verses of this chapter.

So we've been taking some bigger chunks.

We're going to slow down just a little bit.

In this chapter it's got a lot, and we'll look at chapter 40, verses 1 through 11.

And I'll start by reading these words for us, this is what God's word says Comfort, comfort, comfort, my people, says your God, speak tenderly to Jerusalem and announce to her that her time of hard service is over, her iniquity has been pardoned and she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

A voice of one crying out, and the glory of the Lord will appear, and all humanity together will see it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

A voice was saying cry out.

Another said what should I cry out?

All humanity is grass and all its goodness is like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flowers fade when the breath of the Lord blows on them.

Indeed, the people are grass, the grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever.

Zion, herald of good news.

Go upon a high mountain.

Jerusalem, herald of good news.

Raise your voice loudly, raise it, do not be afraid.

Say to the cities of Judah here is your God.

See the Lord.

God comes with strength and his power establishes his rule.

His wages are with him and his reward accompanies him.

He protects his flock like a shepherd.

He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them in the fold of his garment.

He gently leads those that are nursing.

Lord, again, we're just pleading with you.

We're hungry for the word.

We're hungry to know this scripture, but not just to know the words, to know you through the words.

So help us, oh God.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

God is the only one who can bring lasting comfort.

God is the only one who will bring lasting comfort.

Our passage today in Isaiah 40 opens with this repeated word, the word comfort.

You can see it right there Comfort, comfort.

My people says your God.

God is the only one who will bring lasting comfort.

Now, many of you would say, yeah, I agree with that.

I know I've got to go to God first and foremost.

You don't have to convince me of that?

If that's true, then why do we so quickly and easily run to other things for comfort?

Why does it take us sometimes time and time to go to God?

When we're weary, when we're hurt, when we're feeling conviction, when we're seeking consolation, what do we do?

We binge watch our favorite TV shows.

We put in the earbuds and tune everyone else out.

Earbuds and tune everyone else out.

We garden, we cook.

Why is it called comfort food?

Sadly, sometimes people turn to vices like pornography or violence or excessive alcohol.

But whether it's a clear God-forbidden vice or it's a hobby, that in and of itself may not be wrong, we run to things for comfort and not God.

So we may be quick to confess that God is the only one who will bring lasting comfort.

But we have to be persuaded more and more to live out that confession, to seek God and more.

To live out that confession.

To seek God, to seek his promises, to seek his comfort easily, quickly and often, and in our passage, god is so kind to assure us of good intentions.

He's not an ogre waiting to thrash us when we come to him in humility and faith, ogre waiting to thrash us when we come to him in humility and faith.

He says comfort.

It's not a suggestion, it's a promise.

Four steps for the message this morning as we think about this God as the only one who will bring lasting comfort.

Four steps, step number one our need for comfort.

Four steps Step number one our need for comfort.

Step number two our foundation for comfort.

Step number three our encounter with comfort.

And then step number four, our testimony of comfort.

So we'll start with that first step, our need for comfort.

Most of us would acknowledge there have been times in our life in the past.

There have been times in our life, probably in the present or certainly in the future, where we will need comfort.

Few people would say no, I never need any comfort.

And just to be clear, when we're talking about comfort from this passage, we're talking about God's consolation, his response to things in our lives.

So I'm not talking about the kind of comfort that's like you know, I'd like to live a comfortable life, you know, just a nice couch, a drink in one hand, a remote in the other.

That's not what God's promise is here.

Kevin's not wearing his favorite shirt today, but comfort wants you dead.

That kind of comfort I thought about texting this morning and saying do you have it, wear it, but I don't want to confuse people, right?

That's something different this morning and said do you have it?

Wear it, but I don't want to confuse people, right?

That's something different.

I think we realize here what God's speaking about is consolation, and that's a comfort we need, and we need it specifically in two broad areas areas of suffering and areas of sin.

And you can see both of those areas in verse number two.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and announce to her that her time of hard service is over.

There's suffering.

And then it continues on.

Her iniquity has been pardoned.

She's received from the Lord's hand double for all of her sins.

So these two categories of suffering and sin.

And God steps into people and says there's comfort for you.

Oh, there's comfort for you.

Thinking about suffering, isaiah's writing to the nation of Israel.

They'd suffered so much and they would suffer more.

Verse two speaks of hard service.

Some of your translations might use the word warfare there in verse number 2.

They've been enslaved to Egypt, even coming out of Egypt.

This is many years before Isaiah writes.

They were attacked by other nations In Isaiah's own day.

Assyria is ready to pounce on them, as our brother Ted brought out from Isaiah the last few weeks.

Babylon is on the horizon.

There's much suffering.

If you look throughout the whole first 39 chapters of the book of Isaiah, you'll see that Israel suffers a lot, but comfort's coming.

Comfort Comfort, the Lord says.

Most of us don't wake up with the fear that another nation is going to come in suddenly and enslave us all tomorrow.

We don't face that kind of fear of suffering and warfare.

But there's suffering in our lives.

Difficult, long-loved spouses pass away, children wander from the Lord.

Aches and pains in our body tend not to get better with age but worse with age, Whether it's great or small.

We suffer and the Lord says I've got comfort for you.

We need that comfort.

Coworkers might slander us, those that we care about turn their backs on us.

And the Lord says you suffer, you suffer, but don't worry.

Comfort's coming.

The second area that cries out for comfort is this area of sin, and this is the more important area, because, if you notice, in verse 2, isaiah says once hard service is over, but he then mentions sin two times, not once.

Her iniquity has been pardoned there, it is the first time and she's received from the Lord's hand double for all of her sins.

So not only is this category of sin mentioned more prominently than suffering.

There's a connection between the two here.

For Isaiah, for the people of Israel, their suffering was the direct result of their sin.

They were not isolated and disconnected things.

And again, you can see this all throughout the first 39 chapters.

They're suffering because they've sinned against God.

And that's what sin is.

It's rebellion against God.

It's not a mistake, it's not an oversight, it's not just weakness, it's us saying no to God's way and choosing our own way.

And if you really see yourself, you're going to see.

That's so pervasive in my life.

Apart from the Lord, the comfort I need, I have to have divine aid.

I have to have divine aid.

I mean you can find a new job, you might be able to bear up under chronic pain, you can weather grief that comes from a loss, but where do guilty consciences go for comfort?

Now I want to be clear.

I'm not saying that every single experience of suffering in our lives is directly connected to some specific sin that we committed.

Look at Job as an example of that.

But what Isaiah is telling us here, through the nation of Israel, there's a pattern here for us, ultimately, the reason why suffering is in the world at all is because sin is in the world and we have all contributed to that sin that's in the world.

We've contributed our jealousy, our covetousness, our greed, our lack of reliance on God, our ignoring him, our not thanking him.

The list can go on and on and on.

So don't seek to shut out that guilty conscience by turning on the TV, turning on the oven, spending more time at work.

Get down on your knees and say God, please give me comfort.

My guilty conscience seeks no sacrifice besides the one that you can give.

We have great need of comfort.

But that brings us to the second step.

We have a foundation for comfort that God gives us here, and it begins with his voice.

Look at verse one Comfort comfort.

My people says your God, isaiah, is not ultimately the one bringing comfort to the nation, he's only a mouthpiece for God.

God is the one speaking through Isaiah.

God says through Isaiah, god says I've got comfort for you.

The end of verse five reiterates the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

This is the voice of God that shakes the forest and strips the oaks bare.

This is the voice of God that rides on the wind and the waves and in the storm.

It's a voice that sometimes, like Elijah, had to learn.

It can be a still small voice, but it's still God's voice nevertheless.

In the hour of our need, amidst the whole sojourn of our weary lives, should we not continuously seek God's voice for comfort?

And how do we do that?

I don't want this to go assumed or unstated.

We seek God's voice for comfort, and how do we do that?

I don't want this to go assumed or unstated.

We seek God's voice through his word.

The whole book of Isaiah that we've been studying exists because God spoke.

He inspired the prophet to write down these words that we might have his voice forever until he returns.

Verse 8 reminds us the word of our God remains forever.

God's creation can bring a measure of comfort, a nice walk on the beach.

I recently took a little backpacking trip up in New Hampshire.

There's beauty there.

Just this morning I stepped outside short walk over here.

These two red birds maybe cardinals, I guess just flying.

There's something soothing about that.

But creation doesn't give us words.

The comfort it brings can only do so much for our souls.

God's given us a whole book of his words, thousands of words, and we have to come here for comfort.

Charles Spurgeon said why do we look anywhere else for consolation but to God's word?

Oh, brothers and sisters, I'm ashamed to have to say it, but we go to our neighbors or relatives and we cry have pity upon me, have pity upon me, oh, my friends, and it ends with our crying.

Miserable comforters are you all.

When you do go to people and it's okay to go to people with recognition you might not get what you're looking for.

When you go to others, go to those that are gonna give you God's word.

That's the best way to be comforted.

Don't just go to someone who's going to pat you on the back and tell you how wonderful you are.

That'll help for a little while.

That's meager compared to what they can give you in this divine voice of God speaking through his scripture.

When you find yourself looking for a church, go to a church that gives a lot of God's word.

And when we look in God's word we find so much comfort, and particularly we find comfort in the message of good news of the gospel.

You can see the phrase good news in verse number nine.

That's what the word gospel means.

It just means good news.

Are you suffering?

God has good news for you.

Are you sinful, that's all of us.

God has good news for you and you sinful, that's all of us.

God has good news for you, and the good news is pronounced already back up in verse number two Pardon for iniquity.

That's the best news we could ever receive.

That's the best comfort we could ever experience.

Your sins, though they're as scarlet, can be as white as wool.

The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

No one can forgive like God forgives.

So this morning, if you feel like you're beyond God's forgiveness, you've sinned too much, you've sinned too often.

You don't understand the heart of God.

He pardons iniquity.

He showers his people with comfort.

He brings the weary ones to himself like a nursing hen gathers her chicks.

This is the heart of our God.

Don't doubt his promise, but receive and believe it.

In the book Pilgrim's Progress, at one point the main character, pilgrim, finds himself in the castle of the giant despair.

It's a doubting castle and he's locked up in this dungeon in the bottom and he realizes wait a minute.

I've been sitting here chained up in my doubts all this time, but I have a key in my pocket.

But I have a key in my pocket I have a key that unlocks every single door in Doubting Castle, and that key is promise.

You may doubt yourself, but don't doubt God's word.

There are promises, rich and full, and the promise here in Isaiah 40 is the promise of comfort through forgiveness.

It can all be wiped away your jealousy, your envy, your greed, your pride, your sins from the past, the sins you'll commit today or tomorrow.

It can all be wiped away by the Lord.

If that's not comforting, I don't know what is.

This message of good news tells us more.

It tells us that God has a heart of forgiveness and comfort.

It tells us how God has brought about reconciliation through Christ, because the God that Isaiah saw, who is holy, holy, holy, is the very same God who brings comfort.

Comfort because he sent his son to live and die in the place of sinners, to bear our sins.

Son to live and die in the place of sinners, to bear our sins, not just to acknowledge or empathize with our sin, but to take our sin on himself, to suffer and die.

And he's risen.

There's no more payment left for us, because Christ has already risen.

He's already paid those wages.

His perfect righteousness is given as a gift to us and the tomb is empty.

So God sweeps us up and says you're forgiven, you're mine, I love you.

And that brings us to the third step.

God is the only one who can bring lasting comfort.

He's the only one who will bring lasting comfort.

We've got a need, given suffering, given sin.

We've got a foundation for comfort in the voice of God, through his word and the message of the gospel.

What about our own encounter with comfort?

To actually receive it, the Lord is so gracious.

He doesn't give us two comfort pills and say call me in the morning.

He gives himself to us, verses three to five, a voice of one crying out prepare the way of the lord in the wilderness, make a straight highway for our god in the desert.

Every valley will be lifted up, every mountain and hill will be leveled, the uneven ground will become smooth and the rough places a plain, and the glory of the Lord will appear and all humanity together will see it.

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

The Lord's coming.

He's going to show up with personal comfort.

And if you look at verses three and five, you'll see the word Lord.

There is in all capital letters.

That's Yahweh, the personal name of God, the name God revealed to Moses back in the wilderness.

So God's not offering from a distance, he's coming.

And these words from Isaiah are fulfilled in the New Testament.

Read about those in the scripture reading today.

John the Baptist will be this voice crying out in the wilderness, and John the Baptist is crying out about the coming of the Lord, jesus Christ.

So what that means is that Jesus Christ is identified with the Lord, he's identified with Yahweh.

He's no mere man, he's fully divine, and that's utterly necessary, because no mere man can bring lasting comfort, but the Lord himself can.

So we have the divine son, who's distinct from the father, yet identified as Yahweh, as the divine one.

There's a scene from Shakespeare's Henry V where, the night before a battle, henry the king disguises himself as a common soldier and goes out among the tents and speaks with the men to encourage them, in part, in a far, far, far greater way, the word became flesh, and Amidst Job's suffering, no one's able to give him comfort, and then the Lord shows up and shows him his character.

That's what we're going to be seeing all throughout this chapter, isaiah 40, the breathtaking character of God.

Amidst Isaiah's sinfulness, all he can do is cry out woe is me, for I'm undone, but the Lord visits him with cleansing and atonement.

True comfort, lasting comfort, is all about encountering God himself in his majesty, in his power, in his condescension and saving grace.

This passage in Isaiah it doesn't comfort us with don't worry, you're not that bad.

It comforts us with don't worry, god is greater than you could possibly imagine.

And our passage is a wonderful example of how these different attributes of God that seem so opposite come together so harmoniously and beautifully.

So God is the one whose word remains forever verse 7.

Well, that's because he's the one who remains forever.

He's eternal, unlike the rest of us who were just grass here today and gone tomorrow.

So this God, who is not limited by time, is outside of time, yet in Christ, through his humanity, stepped into time and was born and lived and died.

It's amazing to try to comprehend.

In verse number 10, we see God as the one who rules with absolute strength and power.

As the one who rules with absolute strength and power, and yet in verse 2, he speaks tenderly.

In verse 11, he's gentle as a shepherd.

Power and gentleness coming together and think about how these attributes of God help us better seek and trust God's promise of comfort.

If God's not eternal, how could we know this comfort's going to be lasting?

But if he knows the end from the beginning, any promise of comfort is never going to stop.

What about the ability to actually change what's going on in our heart, our lives, our situation?

He has the power to do that.

If all you can do is empathize, that's a certain form of comfort, but that can only go so far.

You children that might be here today you fall down and get a boo-boo and then your mother kisses the boo-boo to make the pain go away.

I don't want to startle anyone this morning.

It's a trick.

Just your mother doesn't have any secret power in her lips, she just knows it's probably going to stop hurting after a while.

So she pretends like she's got the power to heal the boo-boo.

The Lord can actually step in and make things right.

Time doesn't heal all wounds, but the Lord can.

And we might have scars, but those will all be washed away in glory.

And even in this life he says there's hope for you, there's care and tenderness, and that's why his gentleness is so critical.

If he's eternal and able to bring lasting comfort, if he has the power to do that, but will he actually do it.

Of course he will.

He's more gentle and tender than any mother could be.

Look again at verse 11.

He protects his flock like a shepherd.

He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them in the fold of his garment.

He gently leads those that are nursing.

You've had people that have been harsh with you, not the Lord.

The Lord won't be harsh, but those who repent and come have been harsh with you, not the Lord.

The Lord won't be harsh, but those who repent and come.

He'll welcome you.

We sing a song sometimes Come ye sinners, poor and wretched, weak and wounded, sick and sore.

Jesus ready stands to save you, full of pity, joined with power.

He is able, he is able, he is willing.

Doubt no more.

Draw near to God and he'll draw near to you.

And that brings us to the last step for this morning Our testimony of comfort.

In verse number three we have this prophecy that's fulfilled in John the Baptist, who would be the voice crying out in the wilderness.

What an amazing privilege that John gets to be the one to introduce Jesus to the stage of human history, to say behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

That's a privilege that we don't have.

But Jesus says everyone who's least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist, because we've actually seen more of Christ's redemptive work than John the Baptist got to see.

He had his head taken off before he saw the end of all things.

We've got more of the ministry of Christ, more of scripture, the coming of Pentecost and the pouring out of the spirit.

We've got even more to testify about, and God does call us to testify of the gospel comfort that we've received.

And there's a significant clue right here in Isaiah 40.

Look at verse 9.

Zion, herald of good news, go up on a hill in South Jerusalem.

Now it's kind of obvious a mountain's not going to actually talk.

But Zion is often used in the Bible figuratively to refer to the people of God, the community.

And you can listen to how that's carried through in the New Testament.

In the book of Hebrews, chapter 12, god says that new covenant believers have come to Mount Zion, which is the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

So it's yes, we come as the people of God to this heavenly Jerusalem, especially every Lord's day, to celebrate the resurrection, to worship.

But then we're called to go out from here and proclaim this message, the message of the Lord's coming, of his life and birth and death, of the forgiveness of sins, of the hope of a future to come with no more suffering, no more crying when the former things.

A future to come With no more suffering, no more crying when the former things have passed away.

That now, in Christ, you can be a new creation.

Simply turn to him and receive all of his finished work.

We're called to be proclaimers.

We're called to be proclaimers.

Who are you proclaiming that to Now?

Yes, we are eager to send out people like the Driscolls and the Coonies, who are going to farther mountains than Bear Mountain and farther hills and valleys than Valley Stream and other places here locally.

So we're eager to send out those to the ends of the earth because, just as Jesus Christ has come down from the glories of heaven to live and walk on this earth that all flesh might see and hear, we can go from our local place to distant places.

But though we won't all go to the very farthest mountains or valleys, we are all called to testify, to share, to speak of our God the song we sing.

Behold Our God.

That's an invitation, that's an exhortation to all of us as we're singing about the Savior and his glory, the Lord reigns.

Isaiah has that message here.

But there's comfort comfort for you and how, how we live in a world that needs comfort.

We have good tidings to bring.

Thought about that.

Why would you withhold good tidings from your neighbors, from your friends, from your family?

And the good tidings we bring to you and your kin are tidings of the real meaning of the birth of Christ.

It's not about figgy pudding I don't even know what that is.

It's about the gospel message.

He's called Jesus because he'll save us from our sins.

He is Emmanuel, god with us, and our testimony of comfort extends not just to the watching world.

It should be quickly given to others, right here in our own body.

Listen to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1.

Listen to how often he uses the word comfort.

Maybe he even had Isaiah in his mind here.

Blessed be God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and the God of all comfort.

He comforts us in our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction.

So this is more on the suffering side, still important Through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also, through Christ, our comfort overflows.

If we are afflicted, it's for your comfort and salvation.

If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings that we suffer.

And our hope for you is firm, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, so you will also share in the comfort.

God's comfort isn't just for you, it's for someone else through you, it's for someone else to look at you being comforted and to bring balm to their souls.

So look around you.

Who looks like they're suffering, who looks like they're burdened with the weight of sin.

How could you bring comfort into their life this day or this week?

Well, if they're hurting, it's probably messy, and I don't really want to get involved in the mess.

Well, that wasn't the attitude of Jesus.

It's God's grace, it's God's promises, it's God's very presence that brings comfort.

And we are the body of Christ.

We are a reflection, albeit imperfectly, of the real presence of Christ with one another, bringing the very divine grace of God's almighty comfort.

God is the only one who will bring lasting comfort.

And you look around.

Our world needs it.

We have more material comfort than almost any generation.

And yet what do we see?

Anxiety is up, medication is up, loneliness is up.

Guilt is maybe not up because we have so many shiny distractions.

But isn't God kind to keep us restless that we might seek him, and seek the comfort that can only come from him.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

One person said the waters of comfort cannot run up the hills of pride.

They fall down into the valleys of humility.

Isaiah 51, 12, I, I am the one who comforts you, says the Lord.

Psalm 119, 50, it's his word, it's his gospel.

This is my comfort and my affliction.

Your promise has given me life.

All of God's promises, all of them are yes and amen in Christ.

Don't seek comfort apart from Christ.

Seek comfort through him.

What gift of grace is Jesus, my redeemer?

There is no more for heaven now to give.

He is the lasting comfort of God.

God wants to step into your life with his own character, with his own loving presence.

Receive that comfort today, friends, let's pray Lord, humble us to believe you.

Forgive us for our small thoughts of you.

Forgive us for our unrighteous thoughts of you that don't want to picture you as a God of comfort.

You've given us every promise, every evidence of grace.

How many times we've turned and not followed you as we could have or should have.

And you receive.

You receive, just like the prodigal son's father.

You run to your people with arms of open and willing forgiveness.

You run to the aid of those who are hurting.

Lord, we pray for those who are suffering today, for those who might be suffering nearness of death, those who might be suffering difficult medical medical choices and future fears.

Pray for those who just hurt that they would have this comfort from you.

And, lord, we pray especially for those who feel the burden of a conscience that is not cleansed from sin.

Oh, let this be the day of everlasting comfort.

Let this be the day when they fall down and say Lord Jesus, I receive you, receive me, lord, that we would walk this week not as discouraged people, but as people that are comforted.

Our labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Our hope remains certain and steadfast, because the Lord lives.

We too will live Death.

Your sting is gone forever and the trials of this life are momentary.

The afflictions are light compared to the far exceeding weight of eternal glory.

Lord, we pray that you would so kindly even bring us out of ourselves to how we can comfort someone else this day and this week, that we might give them a hug, give them a scripture verse, give them the encouragement to say the Lord reigns, he rules with powers, roars with him, and he's gentle as a shepherd, and our Savior could even say that we come to him and we find rest for our souls, because his burden is easy, his yoke is light.

Thank you for the gentle Savior.

We come to you in his name, amen.