Why We Can Trust in God's Promises

Would invite you to take your bibles and turn with me to the

book of Isaiah. Going to be looking at Isaiah

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

chapter 40 today. If you're using the red Bibles

and the chairs around you, the page number for that passage is

printed for you in the bulletin. Those of you that are visiting

with us or haven't been with us for very long won't know that we

have been working our way through the book of Isaiah.

We took a break back in May. We had made it all the way to

chapter 39, and so we took a break for the summer, and now

we're coming back to it and picking up where we left off,

which is a key turning point in the book of Isaiah, as we will

see today and in the coming weeks.

Before we jump in to look at Isaiah chapter 4, let me give

Isaiah 4 · chapter mention

all of us a short reminder of some of the context of Isaiah.

We're told that it was written by a man named Isaiah.

We don't know a lot about him. We're told that he was the son

of Amos. That doesn't help us a whole lot

because we don't know who Amos was or anything about him.

We know that Isaiah was married and that he had children and he

ministered in the second-half of the 8th century BC, probably

starting his ministry around the seven 40s or seven 30s BC.

And he was a prophet for about 40 or 50 years.

He lived and he ministered in what was the southern Kingdom of

God's people called Judah, but he also addressed the northern

Kingdom of Israel and the nations that were around Israel

and Judah. He was a contemporary with Hosea

who also ministered in Judah. Now, if any of you are familiar

with Isaiah's Hebrew, then you know it is exquisite.

It is beautiful and complex. It contains poetry and

alliteration, metaphors, analogies, word play.

Chapters 40 through 66 of Isaiah are some of the most beautiful

poetry in all of the Bible or any literature for that.

For that point, we're told that Isaiah was called by God because

there was a problem that God wanted to address with his

people. We saw in chapter 1 the the

language of a courtroom. A jury was called to assemble.

Charges were made. God's people had rebelled

against the Lord. They had broken the relationship

between the Lord and them, the covenant relationship.

Their religion was heartless, their worship was empty rituals.

They had a lack of justice and care for the poor and the

oppressed, and they worshipped idols literally and in their

hearts. A verdict was announced that

they were guilty of these charges.

A sentence was pronounced that judgement was coming for the

northern Kingdom of Israel. They were taken into exile.

They were conquered and taken into exile by Assyria in about

722 BC. The southern Kingdom of Judah

would be taken into exile by Babylon in around 586.

Now, as we looked at the first part of Isaiah, chapters one

through 39, again and again and again, we saw judgment being

pronounced, but we also saw words of hope that were

sprinkled in. Ultimately, God would not

abandon his people. He would not leave them or

forsake them. He would bring this people back

from exile. He would preserve a remnant of

his people. And ultimately, we saw in the

first part of the book the promise that a Messiah would

come to save his people from their sins.

Now as we transition to the last half of the book, there's

there's a movement that takes place, a movement from

condemnation and judgment to a focus of hope and even comfort

for God's people. You can see that in the very

first words that we read in Isaiah chapter 40.

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

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 in 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.

A voice says, Cry, and I said, What shall I cry?

All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the

field. The grass Withers, the flower

fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it.

Surely the people are grass, The grass Withers, the flower fades,

but the word of our God will stand forever.

Go on up to a high mountain. O Zion, herald of good news,

lift up your voice with strength.

O Jerusalem, herald of good news, lifted up.

Fear not, say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God, Behold

the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him.

Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

He will tend his flock like a shepherd, He will gather the

lambs in His arms, He will carry them in His bosom, and gently

lead those that are with young. Who has measured the waters in

the hollow, the hollow of His hand, and marked off the heavens

with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and

weighed the mountains and scales and the hills in a balance?

Who has measured the spirit of the Lord?

Or what man shows him his counsel?

Whom did he consult, and who made him understand?

Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him

knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?

Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are

accounted as the dust of the scales.

Behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.

Lebanon would not suffice, suffice, suffice for fuel, nor

are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.

All the nations are as nothing before him.

They are accounted by Him as less than nothing and emptiness.

To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness Compare with

Him? An idol.

A Craftsman casts it, and a Goldsmith overlays it with gold

and casts it for silver chains. He who is too impoverished for

an offering chooses wood that will not rot.

He seeks out a skillful Craftsman to set up an idol that

will not move. Do you not know?

Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from

the beginning? Have you not understood from the

foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the

circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like

grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and

spreads them like a tent to dwell in, who brings Princess to

nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has

their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them and

they wither, and The Tempest carries them off like stubble.

To whom then will you compare me that I should be like him?

Says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and

see who created these, Who He who brings out their host by

number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of His

might, and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, my way is

hidden from the Lord, and my right is, My right is

disregarded by my God. Have you not known?

Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is

unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and

to him who has no might he increases strength.

Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall

exhausted. 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. Let's pray together.

Father, we thank You that Your Word stands forever and as we

read this portion of it today, we ask that you would be at work

right now, right here in this place, in our hearts and our

minds, opening our hearts and minds to see what You want us to

see from this portion of your word.

Do it because we ask it in Jesus name.

Amen. When I was 16 or 17 year old

years old I got a summer job at Fred First Ford dealership in

Richmond, IN. The owner was a man named Mr.

Nottingham. He was a Christian man.

He was a godly man in our community, was also a family

friend and I was hired to do a bunch of odd jobs around the

dealership. I painted the light poles in the

parking lot. I cleaned out the drains in the

maintenance garden, the garage, I cleaned out the bathrooms, I

ran errands and I even cleaned out an old, old refrigerator.

Kind of. I was the beginning part of the

summer. It was one of the first tasks

that I had been given to clean out this old refrigerator to de

ice it. It was in the employees break

room and I had a solid block of ice covering where the the dials

were for the temperature. So I went and got a hammer and a

chisel from the tool supply area and I began chipping away at the

ice near the dial on the refrigerator.

Finally I got all the way through the ice to the dial, was

able to turn the dial off and let the freezer defrost.

But then I quickly realized that with that much ice, it was going

to take a really long time for it to melt.

So I figured I would speed things up, started using the

hammer and the chisel to chip away at the ice.

And at one point I hit something with the chisel that didn't feel

like ice and it made a funny sound.

And then all of a sudden the ice started turning orange.

And this liquid began spraying out of the freezer and onto the

floor. And I grabbed A rag that I had

nearby and I put it up to where it was spewing out and it was so

hot I couldn't keep my hand there to to block it.

And then I couldn't breathe. I had punctured the Freon coil

of the refrigerator and liquid Freon was spraying out of the

freezer into the room. I turned around to to get out of

the room, to get out of the break room, and I opened the

door that went into the office area of the car dealership.

The cloud of Freon followed me into the office area and pretty

soon none of the office workers could breathe either.

We had to evacuate the entire area of the dealership.

The fire department was called. They showed up in their hazmat

suits. They wheeled the refrigerator

out on a Dolly and set up these large box fans to clear out the

Freon from the dealership. It probably took a couple of

hours before the office workers could get back in to do their

work. Mr. Nottingham came to find me.

I was sitting on some steps in the garage area and the first

thing he wanted to know was whether I was OK or not and I

was. Then he asked me to explain what

happened and I did, and then he said don't worry about it, don't

worry about it, Take the rest of the day off, go home and rest

and then come back tomorrow and we'll have more work for you to

do. Now Mr. Nottingham had no reason

to trust me at that point. This was the beginning of the

summer. In fact, I had given him a

reason not to trust me, a good reason not to trust me.

I had shut down his dealership in the middle of the day.

But Mr. Nottingham, being a believer and a godly man and a

family friend, trusted me to come back to work and not blow

something up or shut the dealership down again.

Do you trust the Lord? Do you fully trust the Lord?

Do you completely trust the Lord?

We have every reason to trust Him, to trust His promises, to

trust His Word, to trust His work and our lives.

Unlike me with Mr. Nottingham, the Lord has never given us any

reason not to trust Him, not to trust His promises or His Word

or His work. Even when we've had hard and

difficult and painful things in our lives, we still have every

reason to trust the Lord, but we often fail to do so.

We often find it very hard to trust the Lord and His Word.

We often put our trust more in the things of this world than in

the Creator and the King of this world.

And in that way we are no different than the people who

Isaiah was speaking to. They had every reason to trust

the Lord, to fully trust Him, to trust His promises and His Word,

But they failed to, again and again and again.

As we move into the last half of the book of Isaiah, the words of

Isaiah focus in on this truth that God's people can and must

trust the Lord. As we'll see in chapters 40

through 66, these words are written to God's people in the

future who were going to be in exile.

The northern Kingdom of Israel was taken into exile during

Isaiah's ministry, but the southern Kingdom of Judah

wouldn't be conquered and exiled until about 100 years after

Isaiah's ministry. Through the supernatural work of

the Holy Spirit guiding and leading Isaiah in his words, God

was speaking hope and comfort to his people who were in exile,

reminding them again and again they can trust the Lord.

They must trust the Lord even though they had been removed

from the Promised Land, even though they were living in

exile, even though they were living under harsh foreign and

Pagan nations, even though life was hard and difficult and

painful. They can and they must trust the

Lord in his promises. That's really the message of

Isaiah chapter 40. Let's look at this chapter and

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

see the reasons why God's people can trust the Lord.

We'll see at least three. First of all, it's because God

loves his people. Secondly, it's because God is

able to keep his promises. And thirdly, it's because God is

at work in his people. So first of all, why can God's

people trust him? It's because God loves his

people. Now you can imagine the folks

that were in exile wondering, does God even care about us

anymore? Yes, He said He was going to

keep a remnant of us and bring us back from exile and restore

us. But does he even want to do that

anymore? Does He even care about us

anymore? And the 1st 11 verses of chapter

40 answer that question. Yes, you can trust the Lord in

His promises, because the Lord loves His people.

Look at verses 1 and 2. They're told a time is coming

when judgment will be over, when restoration will take place,

when warfare will be ended. Iniquity will be pardoned.

The penalty for sin will be covered thoroughly.

There will be double comfort for God's people.

Verses 3 through 5. The restoration of God's people

will come from the Lord himself. He loves his people so much He

would roll up his sleeves and intervene on their behalf.

The way in the desert between the people in exile and their

home in the Promised Land would be made straight.

A highway for God's people to return and be restored will be

prepared, it says. No obstacles will be in the way.

Valleys will be filled in, and mountains and hills will be made

low. Any difficult terrain will be

made into a flat plain. Uneven ground will be made

level. The Lord himself will restore

his people and reveal his glory, and everyone will see it, He

says. And we can trust that this is

true, because it comes from His mouth.

Verses 6 through 8 No human power or force, no condition of

this world can prevent the fulfillment of God's promises.

Human flesh is like grass. It's beauty is like a flower.

The Lord breathes on it and the grass Withers and the flowers

fade. No human flesh can thwart the

plans and the promises of the Lord.

His Word will stand forever. Verses 9 through 11 Remember

that the Lord is the Good Shepherd.

He tends his flock, He gathers his lambs, He carries them and

he tells them, proclaim it to the people with a strong voice,

point them to the promises of the Lord.

The Lord comes with might, He comes with an arm that rules for

him. He comes with reward and

recompense. Why can you trust the Lord?

Why must you trust the Lord? Because the Lord loves his

people. He hasn't forgotten them, He

hasn't forsaken them even while they are in exile.

He's coming for them to restore them, to bring them to comfort,

and He will do it himself because He's their shepherd.

They are His sheep, and He will tend and care for them.

You can trust the Lord because He loves His people.

Secondly, God's people can trust the Lord.

They can trust His promises. They can trust His word because

He's able. He's capable of keeping His

promises. Now, to prove that, Isaiah turns

to the fact that the Lord is the Lord over all of creation.

Look at verses 12 through 14. He begins, but with a series of

rhetorical questions to show the power, the strength, the

uniqueness of the Lord. Who can hold the waters of the

earth in the hollow of his hand? Who can measure the heavens?

Who can measure the dust of the earth?

Who can weigh the mountains and the hills of the earth in a

balance? Who can measure the Holy Spirit?

Who can give counsel to the Spirit?

Who is wise enough to have the Holy Spirit consult with them?

Who can teach the Holy Spirit knowledge or give him

understanding? Verses 15 to 17 The most

powerful, the most influential nations of the world.

There is of nothing to the Lord. They're like a drop of water

from a bucket, like dust on scales.

Great. And many trees of Lebanon can't

suffice for the fuel that the Lord can provide.

If we rounded up all of the animals of Lebanon, it wouldn't

be enough for the sacrifices that are worthy of the Lord.

This is how big God is. This is how powerful God is, how

capable God is. He is able to keep His promises.

Verses 18 through 20. To whom can we liken God?

What likeness compares with him? An idol.

That's ridiculous. Isaiah says an idol is just

something that is made with human hands.

It can't even move. No idol can compare with the

transcendent, all powerful, mighty God of Israel.

He is the one who is fully capable of keeping His promises.

And then in verses 21 through 26, Isaiah essentially double s

down and says the same truths again.

Verses 21 and 22, the Lord is transcended and He rules over

nature. Verses 22 and 2023 and 24 The

Lord is transcended and He rules over the nations.

Princess and rulers and kings are nothing to him.

Verses 25 and 26 To whom can we compare the Lord?

Look up into the heavens. Look at the heavenly beings,

even they were created by our God and he calls them by name.

This is how great and powerful the Lord is.

So can you trust the Lord? Yes, you can trust Him because

He loves His people. And yes, you can trust Him

because he is able to keep his promises.

But thirdly, God's people can trust the Lord because he's at

work in US. And notice this section that

starts in verse 27. Notice that the section starts

with a mistaken belief that God's people were tempted to

have while they were in exile to the right passage here. 27 Why

do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, my way is hidden from

the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God?

This is a sense of the people in exile asking, Why are my ways

hidden from the Lord? Why is he disregarding me?

Why is he not with me? Why isn't the Lord at work in

me, making right all of the things that are wrong that I'm

experiencing? Do you see the answer that

Isaiah gives? Don't you know?

Haven't you heard the Lord? He says, and it's all capitals

in your Bibles. That means it's the word Yahweh,

the Lord God, Yahweh, our covenant keeping God is

everlasting. He is the creator of all

creation. Our God does not faint, He

doesn't get weary, He doesn't get tired, He doesn't need to

rest, and his understanding and knowledge is unsearchable.

There's nothing that he doesn't know or understand.

There's nothing that we need to explain to him.

He knows us. He knows our condition, our

context, and our hardships. And he goes on to say God is at

work in his people. How verse 29, He's at work

giving power to the weak. He's at work giving strength to

those who need it. Verse 30, he says even young

people who have lots of energy, who who can go and go and go,

eventually they're going to get tired and weary and exhaustive,

exhausted. But in verse 31, those who wait

for the Lord, those who trust the Lord, the Lord is at work

renewing their strength. The Lord is at work making them

fly like eagles. The Lord is at work enabling

them to walk and to run and not grow tired or weary or faint.

Can you trust the Lord? You can trust Him because He's

at work in His people. God's people have every reason

to trust the Lord fully trust Him completely trust Him

consistently. Trust Him to trust His Word and

His promises. Because He loves us.

He is completely capable of keeping His promises that He's

made to us, and He is at work in US.

That's true for God's people in exile in the days of the Old

Testament. They had every reason to trust

him, and it's true for God's people today.

So the question that we have to reflect on, the question that we

have to ask ourselves as we leave today, do you trust the

Lord fully, completely, with all of your heart, with all of your

soul, with all of your mind? And here's the thing, we have

even greater reason to trust the Lord with all of who we are than

the people who received these words at first, because we know

the rest of the story. The Lord had told His people

that He would never forsake them, that He would come for

them, that He would restore them, that one day he would send

his great Messiah not just to rescue them from exile, but to

rescue them from themselves, to do a work that would pay for

their sins, to cover their iniquity forever.

And we know the rest of the story.

That Messiah came in the person and work of Jesus.

Jesus came into this world and lived a life of perfect love for

his Father, a life of perfect obedience to his Father.

And then he willingly, he, he graciously, he mercifully gave

up his life on the cross. He took the wrath and the

judgment of God that we deserve to get, and he took it on

himself so that we would never have to experience it.

And he paid for it in full through his death on the cross.

And then we are given the righteousness of Jesus, His

perfect righteousness, such that we are called the righteousness

of God because of Christ. The Lord said He would do that.

He said that all the way back in the Garden of Eden to our first

parents, Adam and Eve. He promised that He would

provide a solution for the fall, a solution for our sin, a

solution for our broken relationship with God.

He promised that He would restore us to a right

relationship with Himself. He promised that He would secure

eternal and eternal inheritance for us that would never fade or

go away. He promised that He would

conquer death and sin. And He did everything that He

promised through the coming and the living and the dying and the

resurrecting and the ascending of Jesus.

Do you trust the Lord? Do you trust the Lord?

We have every reason to trust Him.

He loves us as His people, and He's demonstrated that love in

so many ways, supremely in the person, in the work of Jesus.

We can trust Him because he's fully capable of keeping his

promises that he's made to us. We can trust Him because he's at

work enough, strengthening us, sustaining and preserving us,

filling us with his peace and with his comfort.

So as we finish today, what is something in your life right now

about which you need to trust the Lord?

That's not a rhetorical question.

I want you to actually think of something.

What is something right now about which you need to trust

the Lord? Maybe it's that His ways and His

Word are better than giving in to some sin that tempts you.

Maybe it's that He will give you strength that you need to get

through physical challenges that you're experiencing.

Maybe it is that He knows and cares for you as His heart

breaks over adult children who have walked away from the Lord.

Maybe it's that He will provide for your physical needs.

Maybe that He will be at work through His Word and means of

grace to strengthen your faith. Maybe that He knows and He cares

for you and He will give you the strength if you're in a

difficult marriage. Maybe that the gates of hell

will never prevail over the Lord's church, no matter how

dark and evil the world seems. Maybe that fighting and leaning

against sin and rooting it out of your life is better, always

better, than giving into it. What is something in your life

right now about what you need to trust the Lord because He is

worthy of your trust. He loves you.

He is fully capable of keeping all of His promises that He's

made, and He's at work inside of you.

Let's pray together. Father, we confess that it is so

easy to not trust you. It is so easy to put our trust

and other things and other people, and in as much as we do

that, we pray you would forgive us.

We thank You for Your word that it stands forever.

Bring us back to it again and again and again where you show

us, You prove to us. You point us to the truth and

the reality that you are the God to be trusted and that trusting

in You is what is good for us, what will cause us to flourish,

what will cause us to follow you the way that you want us to.

As we come to the Lord's Supper, we pray that you would feed us

from the Lord's Supper, reminding us that you are fully

worthy of our trust, demonstrated in the Lord's body

and His blood. All this we pray in Jesus name,

Amen.