Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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40th chapter of Isaiah Isaiah chapter 40. Comfort. She comrades 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, the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted.
And every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The voice said, cry, and he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it.
Surely the people is grass, the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. O Zion, that bringeth good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem, that bring us good tidings. Lift up thy voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah, behold your God. Behold. The Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him. Behold.
His reward is with him and his work before him.
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd, He shall gather the lambs with his arms and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.
Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains and scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor, hath taught him with whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding?
Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket.
And are accounted as the small dust of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the aisles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beast thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity.
To whom then will ye liken God, or what likeness will ye compare unto Him? The Workman melteth a graven image, and the Workman.
And the Goldsmith spread it over with gold and cast a silver change.
He that is so impoverished that he hath no ablation, chooseth a tree that will not rot. He seeketh unto him a cunning Workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved. Have ye not known? Have ye not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers, that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as.
To dwell him that bringeth the Princess to nothing. He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yeah, they shall not be planted. Yeah, they shall not be sown. Yeah, their stock shall not take root in the earth. And he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away. A stubble. To whom them 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.
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 Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary. There is no searching of His understanding.
He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increases strength. Even the used 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. Well, this beautiful chapter in the prophet Isaiah brings before us the greatness of God's power and his care for us.
And I believe there are many things that we can learn for our own souls from a chapter like this.
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As it begins here, comfort she comfort ye my people, saith your God. And then the next verse speaks of her warfare being accomplished and her having received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. You know, when I first read a chapter like this, I used to think, well, what comfort is there in this? How could we speak it of it as as a comfort when it speaks about warfare and receiving of the Lord's hand double of all her sins?
But I believe, brethren, when we see what the Spirit of God is bringing before us in this chapter, it is indeed a great comfort to us. And the point I believe is this, that the comfort is that it takes us a long time to learn the truth of that verse. The flesh profiteth nothing. And when we have learned it, then we have real comfort in our souls. I believe that most of our problems are because.
That we don't.
Submit to the ways of God. We're looking for something through our own efforts, through something that we can do. But God must bring us to the end of ourselves. The Sinner doesn't get blessing until he comes to the end of himself. As long as he clings to any of his own works, any of his own feelings, anything that he can do, he'll never have peace with God. But when he comes to the point where he, as it were, throws up his hands and says, I have no righteousness of my own.
I can't save myself. I can't depend on my feelings. If there's any blessing for me, it's got to come outside of myself. It's got to come from the Lord. And then he looks in faith, just like the Israelite when he was bitten with a serpent. As long as he was trying to fight away the serpents, as long as he was trying to get medicine to be cured from the serpent bite, why there was no peace in his soul, no comfort for him. But when he realized.
That there was nothing he could do but just simply look at that serpent of brass that had been provided. Why, immediately there was healing for him, and then his soul could indeed be comforted. And it's also so, brethren, after the Lord has saved us, God is continually seeking to teach us this very important lesson. And that is without me, He can do nothing.
Or again, it is the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing.
The two great lessons that God was seeking to teach his people in the wilderness were these to humbly to prove thee, to show thee what was in thy heart, letting them discover themselves. And there was nothing there for God, nothing good in the flesh. In me, that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. But the other lesson was the all sufficiency of the Lord to lead them through the wilderness, that great and terrible wilderness.
All the serpents and all the troubles and enemies that were in the wilderness, the Lord was greater than the maw. Their feet didn't swell, their raiment didn't wax. Old God in faithfulness brought them through. And at the end of the journey you and I are going to realize in the glory above, that all things are of God, that there was nothing of ourselves, that it was all from Him. The salvation of our souls, the strength for the.
Pathway restoration. When we fail, everything must come from Him.
And perhaps that gives some thought as to why this chapter begins like this. Comfort. She comforts ye, my people. As I say, we see how God had been dealing with them and had been dealing with them for a long time and all that they were passing through when it says they received at the Lord's hand double for all her sins. It isn't the thought of punishment in the sense.
That our our sins deserve eternal banishment from God's presence.
And the Lord Jesus has taken care of that. He has borne all that. But there is his governmental way with us, that which we learn in our pathway here. And how often the Lord has to pass us through things over and over again because we're so slow to learn this great lesson that in ourselves there's nothing we can't trust in the flesh.
And I say again when we have in some measure.
Learned that then our souls are comforted. We say, well, I'll just rest in the Lord.
As when we were speaking a little of job.
This morning in the little Bible reading here.
And you know, Job lost all his possessions in one day. He lost his family. And after he had lost them all, he could have said, well, the Sabaeans came and the men of the East, and these people have taken away all my possessions. And it was rather sad that that terrible wind came up and blew the house over and my children died. But he didn't say that. He said the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.
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Blessed be the name of the Lord. In other words, he looked beyond all those things. Paul was a prisoner in Rome. He could have said, I'm a prisoner under the most cruel monarch that ever sat upon a throne, and that would have been true. But he didn't say that. He said, I, Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ.
There was submission, wasn't there? He, he took it from the Lord that his very position as being under Nero there, the Lord had allowed it and he called himself the prisoner of the Lord and brother. And I say it is something that I need to learn too, but I believe there's real comfort and there's real peace for our souls when we have learned to take everything that comes as from him.
In first Peter chapter 5.
It says casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.
But one is sometimes commented that the verse before is part of the same sentence, and the verse before says this. Humble yourselves, therefore unto the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Why is it that we often can't cast our care upon the Lord? Well, I speak for myself. It's because I haven't accepted the situation as from the Lord. I haven't first.
Looked up and said, Lord, I accept this. As for me, when we do that, then we're able to cast our care upon the Lord, but not before. And then we get comfort for our souls. Then we get blessing for our souls when we have come to that point, for that is the time of blessing. Think of those two on the road to Emmaus. Why were they discouraged and cast down? Why were they troubled and sad?
Well, they had expected that the Lord at that time would deliver Israel, they said to the Lord as he walked beside them. We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. That is the expected, the Lord being the Messiah of Israel, that he would bring about deliverance. And now he had been crucified, He had been slain, He had been buried.
And at this point, they didn't really know that he had risen.
Again. And all their hopes were dashed. In other words, they expected something, and it didn't happen when they expected it, and so they were discouraged. Has the Lord yet had his rightful place? Has He yet redeemed Israel? No, that's the future yet.
Almost 2000 years have passed and he still hasn't redeemed Israel. He's going to do it. He's going to bring blessing to that nation. But if they had seen that his crucifixion, his death, was in the ways and purposes of God for blessing, they wouldn't have been discouraged as they walked down to a Mass, as they would have realized, as it says, ought not Christ to have suffered these things?
And entered into His glory.
And when the Lord Jesus opened the scriptures to them, their heart burned within them. They invited them into their home. Their sadness was changed to gladness, and they could rejoice because they had seen that everything was still in the Lord's hands. He was over the whole situation. So this verse speaks to each one of us. Comfort ye, my people. And we have to pass through many, many things in our lives.
In order to learn this. And so that's why he brings this in in the second verse, that after all that they had passed through and now they're in a state to receive their Messiah when he comes as their deliverer. And as it tells us later on in the prophet Isaiah, they will have to say we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth. That doesn't sound like them today, does it?
They say that they're one of the most developed nations.
They have the best army, best equipment, and they think that they can look after themselves. They're really boasting in their military power and in their unity and all this.
But God is going to bring Israel to the point where they're going to have to say, we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth. We haven't done anything. And then when the Lord comes, they'll say, lo, this is our God. We have waited for Him. He will save us, and then He will save them. Then He will bring them into blessing. So it says in the third verse, the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord.
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Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
God, remember how John the Baptist took this cry up and announced to the Lord, to the nation, that the Lord Jesus was coming as their deliverer, and so He was the forerunner. He announced this fact, but the nation didn't receive him. They rejected their deliverer and all what they've passed through ever since. They're scattered in every nation in the earth.
Been persecuted, had to suffer. Just think of what they've had to go through.
And if they had listened to John the Baptist and received their Messiah, he would have blessed them.
He wept over Jerusalem and said, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, if thou doest the things that belong to thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes. Yes, the Lord would have brought in that time of deliverance is going to in a future day. But just think of all this time and they've had to pass through so much when they could have had the blessing if they had only listened to what John the Baptist said and received their Messiah. So the 4th.
Every valley shall be exalted in, every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight into rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
Every valley shall be exalted. The valley perhaps speaks of those low spots, but they'll see that those two were necessary, even as they have been in our lives. The things where the Lord has brought us down, they haven't been very pleasant experiences. None of us like those kind of experiences where we have to get down, as it were, and go through the valley. Perhaps the valley of Baca, the Valley of Weeping.
But when we look back.
Back in the coming day, I were going to see that those things were really for blessing. We'll see that in the wisdom of God's ways, He was passing them, us through them. And then it says every hill shall be made low. Those times that we thought were perhaps the best and the most prosperous may not have been the best for us. Sometimes when everything goes well and we prosper, we often lose.
In our souls there's a verse in Jeremiah that says, I spake unto thee in thy prosperity, and thou saidst I will not hear. And isn't it often true that when everything is going well, we rest on our oars? We depend upon ourselves and provisions that we have made, until the Lord finally passes us through something?
And so those it says, the hills would be made low, the valleys would be.
Resulted in.
And the crooked shall be made straight in the rough places plain, all those things that seemed like crooked paths and rough places. Why they're all in his ways for us, for blessing as we read of the children of Israel passing through the wilderness those 40 years, how much we can learn from the experiences that they went through. Who of us haven't been blessed as we have read about when they came to the.
Time.
When they murmured.
God brought the water out of the smitten rock, and how when they murmured, when the waters were bitter, the tree was cast in, and the waters became sweet. All these things now as we read of them, we we get a blessing from them. And so.
The crooked will be made straight in the rough places plain.
Think of the case of Jill is a phenol that Joseph passed through.
I remember one time my father was speaking about Joseph and he said Joseph passed through so much trouble he was sold into Egypt. And then when he got down to Egypt, why he was falsely accused by Potiphar's wife when he got in prison, why he expect a little help from the Butler, but the Butler forgot him.
All these things seemed to be very hard, but I remember my father commenting.
He said someday I'm going to meet Joseph in heaven, and if I ask him.
Which one of Jacob's sons would you like to have been if you had the choice? He said, I think you'll say I would like to have been Joseph. And so, you know, isn't it true that when we see our lives pass into review and learn the wisdom of all God's ways, I will say that As for God, his way is perfect. And so it tells us here the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh.
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See it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, not the mouth of man. Man would never say that. But man looks back in these things. Why, he doesn't see good in them at all. But when His glory is revealed, when we're in His presence where there's fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore, then his glory will be revealed and all flesh will see it. This poor world with all its trouble, it'll.
See that the one that they rejected and set away with him, we will not have this man to reign over us. He's the one that will bring in that time of peace and blessing to this poor troubled earth.
So the voice said cry, and he said, What shall I cry?
All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is is the flower of the field.
That's what he was told to cry, and that's what perhaps you say. That's what I'm trying to say this afternoon. That's what I want to learn for myself.
Now that we get so taken up thinking that somebody is going to help us, somebody's going to do something for us, and they disappoint us over and over again. This happens through life and we're let down, as it were, and we have to come to this point. All flesh is as grass.
All the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. That is what it tells us. In another place the grass comes, and then the next day it's cast into the oven. What is there in the grass? The grass speaks of all man's boasting, all that he can glory in. And think of King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon.
When he had.
Built that great city of Babylon and was so pleased with what he had done. It was one of the seven wonders of the world and he said.
Is not this great Babylon that I have built by the might of my power, the Excellency of my majesty? He thought, look what a great king I am. Look at my accomplishments. Look at those beautiful hanging gardens. And the message went forth that Babylon was to fall. So that's the way it is with all man's progress. And I say again, so each one of us get hold of this point.
It's a hard lesson we seem to have to go through.
So much before we come to it that there is real comfort in just accepting everything that comes as from the Lord, whether it's rough or whether it's smooth, whether it's plain or whether it's otherwise. If we can just accept things from Him of a blessing. We think of the Lord Jesus when he was here upon earth, rejected by those cities, that he had done those mighty works, and he looks up.
To his Father. And it says, he rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. There was the man of perfect submission, perfect obedience to his Father's will.
Who could say for the joys that before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and it sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Remember reading about a a blind boy and he was in a Sunday school class I think it was. And the teacher was asking a lot of questions and this blind boy seemed to be the one who knew all the answers, was giving just.
Very nice. And it answers to the questions. And at the end of the hour the preacher went to the boy and said, oh, you gave such nice answers to all the questions. Why has the Lord allowed you to be blind? You have perhaps more interest in these things than some of these other children that can see. Why is the Lord allowed you to be blind? And that was his answer. Even so, Father.
For so it seemed good in thy sight. All that boy had peace. He had comfort in his soul.
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And I believe this is what is brought before us.
So it says in the seventh verse, The grass withereth, the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people of his grass, the grass withereth and the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. You and I have in our hands what's going to stand forever.
All man's progress. You pick up the daily paper and you read about all that man is doing and what he plans to do and read up all his publications, and they're just full of what man is planning to do and what he thinks he has done through the course of this world.
Tells us in Isaiah that God is going to stain the pride of all flesh. It's going to bring it all down. But this blessed book brings before us the one whom God delights to honor the man of God's counsels who is going to fulfill all his will.
And so He turns to occupy us with him. The ninth verse O Zion, that bring us good tidings, get thee up unto the high mountain. O Jerusalem, that bringeth good tidings, Lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up, be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God. And you can read this in the Psalms. If you read of the time somewhere around 93rd, 4th, and those Psalms I. It speaks of the time when the.
Lord takes the Kingdom prophetically, it looks on to it, and they go out and announce to the nations the Lord reigneth, and they tell of the fact that at last the Lord has His rightful place and the blessing is going to come, and so the nation is going to have the privilege of going out and announcing it. That is the godly remnant of the nation.
They will go out and this expression, O Zion.
You know, when Israel were first brought into the land, the Tabernacle was set up in Shiloh.
And Shiloh brings before us Israel, blessed on the ground of responsibility. And you'll notice how everything broke down. You see, all kinds of things came in and shallow until finally they took the ark from Shiloh and carried it out into the battlefield against the Philistines, and said it shall save us from the Philistines to become occupied.
With that tent.
With the ark, simply as shouldn't I say, a piece of furniture, it really they had lost sight of the Lord, They had lost sight of their real condition before him, and the ark didn't save them. And although God saw to it that his name was honored among the Philistines and the ark was returned, it never returned to Shiloh.
And it tells you in the 78th Psalm that he forsook Shiloh. And then it says He chose the Mount Zion that he loved. Anything that depends on our responsibility will fail. Brethren, it's good for us to realize this, but everything that depends upon His grace is sure of fulfillment. And so Zion brings before us that when everything had failed.
In responsibility, the nation had entered the land. They fell into the worship of idols, God.
God raised up judges, he raised up the priesthood, he raised up the kings, and everything broke down in the hands of man in the position of responsibility. So God, as it were, said, if there's going to be any blessing, it's got to be undeserved. And he chose the Mount Zion. And he said, this is my rest forever, here will I dwell. And in that coming day when everyone of us get home to glory on the ground of pure grace.
We're going to just pray.
Is him and acknowledge that it's all of grace. It says He shall joy over thee with singing. He shall rest in his love. That's why Zion is brought in here.
And the good tidings, looking away, not to some other nation to help them in their conquests, but they say, Behold your God.
He's the one and the only one who could help them. Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him. Hold. His reward is with him and his work before him, although he will come. And when they see him, they will see those marks in his hands. They'll say, What are these wounds in thy hands? And he'll say, Those with which I was wounded in the House of my friends.
And so as they look upon those wounds, in their hands, in his hands.
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Rather that they'll mourn every family apart and their wives apart. They'll mourn and they'll look forward to the time.
When the Lord brings in the Kingdom and the blessing for them, as he will when they take their place in repentance, and so it says, he'll come with a strong hand, His arm shall rule. A king will reign in righteousness, and his reward is with him. This is precious too, is the Lord.
We're going to pick out of your life and mine those things that we're pleasing to him. Oh indeed, he will.
He is actually going to reward everything that's been done for him. A thought upon his name.
Notice when the king sets up his Kingdom in the 25th of Matthew are those who sheltered the messengers that were sent out are brought into blessing. And you know the Lord's not going to forget any little thing that you and I do for him.
Although we can't do anything for ourselves, we can in some ways show our appreciation for what he has done for us.
And a thought upon his name.
Anything that has been done to please him will be rewarded.
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arms and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with Yum.
I think this is very beautiful too, as bringing before us the Lord Jesus as the Good Shepherd and also his care for those who are young.
When the Lord Jesus talked to Peter after his resurrection and Peter gets restored because Peter had denied his Lord, and when he gets restored, the Lord mentions 2 Things He said feed my sheep and feed my lambs. He spoke about both, didn't he? And he has a care for those of us who perhaps have been saved for many years. We thank Him for His grace.
That has saved us and preserved us as the Good Shepherd. He gave his life for us.
As the Great Shepherd, he is caring for us all along our pathway, and in another day, as the Chief Shepherd, He is going to reward everything that has been done for any of his own.
Because it tells us that when the chief shepherd shall appear, he shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. When it speaks about the chief Shepherd, it shows that he is the one who is the shepherd. But if you and I have something of that, care for his own, like he said to Peter, feed my lambs and feed my sheep. The Lord is going to take notice of this.
And the chief Shepherd, the Lord.
Himself is going to reward what has been done for His people. Sometimes we don't think very much about this, but any little kindness that's shown to one of His people, the Lord values it as though it were done to Himself. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, He have done it unto me.
Man tells us, gather the lamp gazettes the lambs with his arms, and carries them in his bosom. He has a special care for those that are young. I think this ought to encourage us to.
Have a special care for those who are young.
Because perhaps they were not prepared for many of the things that they have to meet in life. And those who are older, we perhaps had some experiences in the ways of God. What a blessing when we try to help those that are younger.
Mentions about Israel and how they were to teach these things to their children and to their children's children so that they would know the works of the Lord and what He had done for them.
There's a special care here for those that are young.
And now he brings before us the Lord as Creator from the 12TH verse down to the end of the 17th verse. It brings before us the greatness of God's power as Creator. And when we perhaps have a tendency to get a little bit proud of ourselves now, then we begin to look out in the vast creation about us.
And see the wisdom of God.
There have been some very interesting little articles on the Backpage of the Sunday School paper. Bring before us some of the wonders of God's creation. But when we think of the person who planned all this, and to know that, as it says here, he weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a bounce.
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Needed out the heaven with a span.
Men have.
Tried to measure something of the vast expanse of the heavens above us, but God could measure it with a span. That's not very much when you think of spanning your hand a few inches, but He can measure the heavens with a span. This is the God with whom we have to do when the children of Israel were going to enter the Lamb. We know that Moses sent out spies and some of the spies when they saw the giants in the land.
They said we felt like grasshoppers.
Beside those spies. And so we just felt that we could never, never be beside those giants. We just thought we could never handle those giants. We felt so small beside them. But there were two of them, and they didn't measure themselves beside the giants. They measured God beside the giants. And God was far greater than those giants. Maybe those giants were a lot taller than them, but what were the size of the giants in comparison?
God, why? When we think of the giants with six fingers and perhaps 10 feet tall and so on, we can see how that that would strike awe into them. But when we think of the one who can measure the heavens with a span, why, what are the giants? And isn't that like us? Brethren, we see giants of trouble, we see things, we measure them with our own hands. 6 cubits in a span was the height of Goliath. And so we think, how can we?
Handle a situation, but he says just look out on the creation. Can God handle things? Can he make the sunrise and set? Can he make the trees grow? Can he order all things in the creation about us? Then surely if he can do that, he can order our little lives, because in comparison we're like nothing to the vast creation.
Says in the 17th verse, all nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity.
And then he puts in contrast with it those who made idols of their own.
Now, this perhaps might not seem to have a message to us because I don't think any of us have made idols like the Heathen did. But still we can have things that we depend on, things of our own making. Think I got this all planned out. Now, why didn't that plan work out? And maybe that plan was our idol. Maybe we had something that was sort of like the work of our own hands and it didn't work. It was just like.
Nothing. And so he compares all the skill of the workmen in making these idols to the one who spreads the heavens, and weighs the mountains and balances and the hills and scales, and says.
In the 22nd verse it is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers, spreadeth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.
This is rather interesting. In the 22nd verse, you know it took centuries before they found out that the earth was round. But here it tells us in this 40th chapter of Isaiah when it's talking about God's greatness as the Creator, it is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth. Why, if man had only read that verse, that would have realized then that the earth was round. He sits on the circle of the earth.
But it took centuries for man and all.
His wisdom to find this out, so it says in the 23rd verse, that bringeth the Princess to nothing. He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
Then the 26th verse. Lift up your eyes on high and behold.
Who hath created these things that bringeth out their hosts by number? He calleth them all by names, by the greatness of His might, For that he is strong in power, not one faileth.
We were talking a little bit about the stars and the constellations and the Milky Way and all that there is in the heavens, and it says He calleth them all by names, by the greatness of his might. Just think of how everything is in God's hand. It says in Job if he thought only of himself, and gathered to himself his breath and his spirit.
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All flesh would perish together.
Man would return again to the dust. He not only created all things, but he upholds all things by the word of his power. And who is this one that upholds all these things? Oh brethren, how wonderful. It's the person who came down to this world and became a man because he loved you and because he loved me. It says in me first chapter of Hebrews.
Who being the brightness of his glory and the.
Express image of His person and upholding all things by the word of His power. When He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of God.
There's a work far greater than creation. It's the work of redemption.
God could just create all these worlds about us by just speaking. It says He spake and it was done. He commanded and He stood fast. He only had to speak, and all those mighty orbs were brought into being. But to make one of us fit to be in His presence, God's own Son left those courts of glory, came down and went to Calvary and died for us. Who? His own self.
Bare our sins and his own body on the.
Tree. Oh, how marvelous. We're going to look into the face of that Blessed One and know that He loved us and gave Himself for us. He became a man, and wonder of wonders, He remains a man for all eternity in order to have our company up there in the Father's house.
Till he says, just look up and see all those stars, and he calls them all by names. And then when he talks about us it says he calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. He says the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Have often said you haven't got a friend that ever counted your hairs, but there's one who does and cares that much about you and about me.
And so he says in his 27th verse.
He began, so to speak, to reason with us. 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.
It says in Isaiah 11, Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be a scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like Crimson, they shall be as wool. What person would there be if they are all filthy dirty? It wouldn't be glad to get cleaned up. And I ought to think of a Sinner in his sins that doesn't want to come and be made white as snow in the precious blood of Christ. But then he.
Asks another thing here, he says, is it where I want to reason with you? Why are you saying that the Lord doesn't enter into and understand what I'm passing through? That's exactly what it means. My way is hid from the Lord and my judgment is passed over from my God. And sometimes we can be like this, even dear John the Baptist when he was shut up in prison.
And the Lord didn't deliver him, he got so discouraged.
He sent a message to the Lord through the through his disciples and said.
Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Just think of how discouraged he was. He thought I have announced the coming of the Messiah, the one who is going to make the crooked straight and going to make the rough ways plain. And now he's allowing me to be in prison, and he's not acting as my deliverer, and he couldn't understand it.
And Satan actually brought a doubt into his mind whether this one.
Whom he had announced was really the Messiah after all. It just shows how the enemy can get all kinds of doubts come into our minds. And that's what it means here when it says my way is hid from the Lord and my judgment from my God. The Lord doesn't say if he saw, I'm sure he'd Take Me Out of this problem. He mustn't see, He mustn't know how difficult and hard it is. He said, Why do you say that?
If you really have seen him as the one who is the Creator, if you've seen Him as the Good Shepherd, he's seen him carrying the lambs in his arms. If you've seen that it says that the flesh profits nothing, and the only comfort is coming to the end of self and learning that Christ is all and in all. He says, Why should we say, my way is hid from the Lord? And then he makes a little appeal to us in these last few verses.
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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.
Sometimes when we've helped the person enough, we just get weary. We said, well, I think I did enough for them and I I'm just tired of trying to help them. But the Lord doesn't. The Lord doesn't. The one who keeps Israel never slumbers nor sleeps. He never gets weary or tired of us having loved his own which were in the world. He loved them unto the end.
Later on in Isaiah, it says, in all their affliction he was afflicted, and the Angel of his presence saved them, and he bare them, and carried them all the days. Of all the things that they passed through, the Lord not only sympathized with them, but he actually came down and lived in a tent among them.
I've always enjoyed that thought, that when Israel, when Israel sinned and in their hearts turned back into Egypt, rejected the message of the spies.
Then the Lord said, well, they won't believe that. They're going to have to wonder these 38 years in the wilderness, Why then it tells us that they were going to have to live in those tents. Not a very pleasant experience, you know, after having their houses in Egypt and looking forward to those houses in Canaan, now to have to spend their 38 or 40 years there living in tents. But the Lord says to Moses.
Make me a tent.
That I may dwell among them.
He said they're going to have to suffer because they didn't believe the message that it was a good land that I was going to bring them in. But he said, and all that they go through, I'll live in a tent among them, and I'll provide a way of approach into my into my presence. And so he came down. And when the tent was set up, the Lord came and dwelled among them, and he took not away the pillar of fire.
By night as a pillar of fire by night, nor the cloud by day in all their journeys, and later on when?
When King David said by the Lord's living in a tent and I am dwelling in a house, I want to make a house for the Lord, the Lord said, did I ever ask that you'd make a house for me? And he said, and no, he hadn't ever asked that they should make a house. Well, he said, when the people have rest, then I'll let Solomon build a house.
Shall I put it this way, as though the Lord were saying.
As long as my people don't have rest, why I want rest. But when the time comes that I can bring my people into rest, then I'll rest. And that's what it means when it says, He shall joy over thee with singing. He shall rest in his love. And now he died for us at Calvary's, but he's up there living for us, and he's doing a work for us to carry us through the wilderness as our High Priest and our advocate.
To bring us through. But when the time comes that he himself has his own with him, then, as a little hymn says, the rest of God, our rest to come, our place of liberty.
So he says he doesn't faint, he's not worried. He never slumbers or sleeps. There's no searching of his understanding. But he gives. What does he give?
Well, perhaps not the deliverance that we would like now.
God could have brought them into Canaan in 11 days. It was only a short journey, but they had to wander those years in the wilderness. And we have many things to learn down here in our pathway. But it gives power to the faint and to them that have no might. He increases strength. And so do we need strength for the pathway? Do we? Oh indeed we do. The Lord Jesus said without me he can do nothing.
Paul found it difficult too, as we all do. And when the Lord allowed him to have that thorn in the flesh, I think sometimes that Paul thought, oh, it's the Lord, but only take that away. I'd be able to serve him so much better. This is a hardship for me. And why doesn't he remove this thorn in the flesh so I could serve him better?
And the Lord said, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. And when he had learned that the Lord didn't take away the infirmity, instead he said, My grace is sufficient for thee. And Paul could later say.
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Most gladly, therefore, I rather glory in mine infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. He said it's caused me to learn more on his power, and that's what I need. And so it is, brethren, He giveth power to the faint. Do you feel faint? Well, he gives power to them that have no might. We don't have any in ourselves, but he increases strength, and then he speaks of nature. Even the used shall faint and be weary. And the young men.
Utterly fall sometimes when we see the energy of youth, we often say we're older. Oh, I wish I had energy like that, but we don't have it, you know. But he says here even you shall faint and be weary. And that is even natural strength at its best wears out, gets rundown. But the Lord never wearies. He never wearies, He never slumbers nor sleep. So he says. But they that wait upon the Lord shall.
Knew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.
Here we find the Lord as a resource for His people, and sometimes we too come to the end of ourselves and of all human resources. For I believe that's the whole lesson of the chapter. When we come to that point, then we have a comfort, because we lean upon His mighty arm, we prove His sufficiency, we prove that leaning upon Him, there is truly that comfort in that peace.
So I've rather enjoyed noticing these three different things here. The wings as eagles. Now the birds fly above everything that goes on down this earth. We look up and we see them flying over matter how much trouble there is or anything down here. They're they're flying above it. And sometimes the Lord does help us to rise above difficulties, you know, just get as it were above them.
It says.
In the 18th Psalm, he maketh my feet like hind's feet. He maketh me to ride upon my high places. And you know that little hind, the little deer, when it comes to an obstacle, the obstacle doesn't have to be removed. There's enough spring in the back leg of those little animals that they can just jump over the the obstacle and they come out on the other side. And so sometimes the Lord lets us, as it were, rise.
Above the difficulties. And that's what it means with wings as eagles, sometimes we can't seem to rise above the difficulties. They just seem insurmountable. But we can still keep on.
Faint yet pursuing, as the Bible says. Perhaps you say, well, I can't seem to rise above the difficulty, but don't give up running. Even if you can't get above it, just just keep on running. Oh, you, Sir, can't even do that. I get slowed down even for that. I will. It says they shall walk and not faint, but don't stop, don't stop, It says keep on.
When Moses got pretty discouraged at one point, when he said to the Lord, What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stone me. What did the Lord say?
Did he say, oh, Moses, give up, it's no use Now He said, go on before the people. And so here's this little word of encouragement for us. We're living in days when the enemy is using his great tool of discouragement. So many trials in the world, in homes and businesses and assemblies. An enemy is trying his best to get us discouraged. But I believe there can be real comfort, there can be real encouragement when we look to the Lord.
Lord, when we see that what He is passing us through is teaching us that we can't depend upon ourselves, the trials teach us not to depend upon ourselves, but to depend upon Him to find that He has wisdom, He has strength, He knows the whole situation, and as the Creator He has all power. But there's more than that. He's not only the Creator. He gathers the lambs in His bosom. He carries them.
Arms, He is going to come in a future day for our deliverance. He's going to come as Israel's deliverer, and he's going to come for us with a shout and say, come up, hit her. And I like to think of those three things that we read of there when it says the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. And it says three things, the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God.
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There's his shout, as though the Lord Jesus were waiting.
More anxiously for that day than we are. And what a shout of joy will come when the Father says, And soon the hours come. And when He comes and calls us, His joy will exceed ours. He will come with a shout to call us to be with Himself. And then when it says the voice of the Archangel, I like to connect that with that passage in Hebrews 2, where it says that the angels are ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of.
Salvation and so He comes, and that angelic protection now will have come to an end. He comes with myriads of angels, and I believe that He is going to, as it were, call us up and we won't need angelic protection in heaven so that the voice of the Archangel, as it were, all his care over us and we experience that in our pathway. You won't need that angelic protection and have that'll be all ended.
And the Trump of.
God, the trumpets were made in Israel for the gathering of the assembly. It makes our hearts sad to think there are no doubt thousands of real believers right here in this city of Detroit, but they're not all gathered to Christ. But if the Lord gave the shepherd right now, every one of them would be gathered to him. And what joy it will be to his heart as he sees the travail of his soul satisfied. So the trumpet is for the calling of the assemblies.
And the gathering together of the camp. And so they come. And what a moment it will be when he comes and receives us to himself.