SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Lowell.
SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome.
SPEAKER_01: I am so thankful for the Word of God that reminds us that our God is sovereign.
SPEAKER_01: I believe it's in the book of Job where it says that the Lord has storehouses for the snow, and every once in a while he has to empty those storehouses.
SPEAKER_01: I'm assuming that that's the way that works.
SPEAKER_01: Good reminder that when these times are upon us and we have to get up early to shovel or run the snowblower, it's an opportunity for us to be reminded of the greatness of our God.
SPEAKER_01: So, too, our Christmas theme this December, as we embark on a walk through some of Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it seems that people were reluctant to read and believe the Old Testament 500 years ago, even as many do today.
SPEAKER_01: I say that because when Martin Luther began to work on his translation of the Old Testament into German, he also composed a preface that encouraged people to read the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what Luther wrote in the preface to the first five books of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: It was so long, you know, handwritten.
SPEAKER_01: It was so long that he just composed, just translated the first five books of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what he said.
SPEAKER_01: There are some who have little regard for the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: They think of it as a book that was given to the Jewish people only, but it's now out of date, containing only stories of past times.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus says in John chapter 5, Martin Luther wrote, Search the Scriptures, for it's those scriptures, those Old Testament scriptures that bear witness to me.
SPEAKER_01: The scriptures of the Old Testament are not to be despised, he says, but diligently read.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, dismiss your own opinions and feelings and think of the scriptures as the loftiest and the noblest of holy things, as the richest of minds, which can never be sufficiently explored, in order that you may find that divine wisdom which God here lays before you in such simple guise as to quench all pride.
SPEAKER_01: Here you will find the swaddling claws and the manger in which Christ lies.
SPEAKER_01: Simple and lowly are these swaddling claws, but dear is the treasure.
SPEAKER_01: Christ who lies in them.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that fantastic?
SPEAKER_01: Luther employed the image of the manger.
SPEAKER_01: Christ, the baby wrapped in swaddling claws, strips of claws wrapped around him, binding him up as an infant, to picture the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm inviting you this December to go on a journey to sort of unwrap some of those claws.
SPEAKER_01: Claws from the Old Testament that, like a snugly bound newborn child, enwrap the good news of God's promise to send a redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: And what we're going to see as we walk down this road together is very similar to what those disciples on the Emmaus road heard from a man they didn't initially recognize.
SPEAKER_01: See, the gospel is a Christian's hope.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel is a Christian's joy.
SPEAKER_01: It's the foundation of our faith.
SPEAKER_01: But there was a time when the good news, the gospel promise, was known only as an anticipated promise, as hoped-for good news for those who waited on God's promise.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to see several aspects of that promise in the coming weeks, but we're going to begin this morning in the Gospel of Mark, now that you've already made your way in your Bibles to Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: And the road to the gospel according to Isaiah begins in Mark.
SPEAKER_01: I know that sounds backwards, but hopefully you'll come to understand what I mean by that.
SPEAKER_01: Mark begins his gospel in Mark chapter 1 in this way.
SPEAKER_01: It says, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way.
SPEAKER_01: The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
SPEAKER_01: And John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_01: Our English translations read a little bit like an introduction, followed by a sentence that introduces a quotation.
SPEAKER_01: So we have that period that ends a sentence, right?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the title to Mark's gospel.
SPEAKER_01: This is the beginning of the gospel of Christ, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, somebody's going to come and prepare the way.
SPEAKER_01: That's the way it sounds in our English translations.
SPEAKER_01: And that's not wrong, but it is a translator's interpretation of what Mark wrote.
SPEAKER_01: Because Mark didn't write exactly like that.
SPEAKER_01: None of the books in the Bible had punctuation marks when they were first written.
SPEAKER_01: The languages were written at that time without punctuation marks anywhere in the text.
SPEAKER_01: So let me show you.
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, this can come across okay.
SPEAKER_01: This may be the oldest copy of Mark chapter 1, verses 1 through 3 that we have in our possession today.
SPEAKER_01: This is what comes from what's called the Codex or the Book Vaticanus.
SPEAKER_01: Written sometime around, sometime in the 300s A.D.
SPEAKER_01: And you can see that there are no punctuation marks.
SPEAKER_01: And there are no breaks between the words.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Thankfully, all modern versions of the Greek New Testament separate the words for us so we can read it a little more easily.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why is this important?
SPEAKER_01: Why is this significant?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it makes it a little easier, I think, to grasp what Mark is doing.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go back to our English translation and take out the punctuation.
SPEAKER_01: The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, I'm sending my messenger before your face.
SPEAKER_01: Now you may hear the difference, but not be able to explain what you hear.
SPEAKER_01: So let me let me try to help you a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: If you remove the period from our English translations and you leave it as one long run-on sentence, what it does is it tells us that the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ is less about what Mark is doing and more about what Isaiah already did.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, our English translation, as our English translations put it, the title at the beginning tells us about Mark's writing.
SPEAKER_01: That is, Mark tells us this is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Period.
SPEAKER_01: That's the way our English translations put it, and that's not necessarily wrong, but it communicates that Mark is telling us about the beginning of the good news of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And he is.
SPEAKER_01: He is doing that.
SPEAKER_01: But if we remove the period, it indicates that Mark is telling us that his gospel story has its beginnings more directly in Isaiah the prophet.
SPEAKER_01: The story of Jesus, in other words, is found in Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: So when we talk about the good news of Jesus according to Mark, we must begin not with Mark, but with Isaiah, because Isaiah speaks about the gospel, the good news of God.
SPEAKER_01: But we can get even more specific than that because Mark is very assertive.
SPEAKER_01: He not only claims that Isaiah preached the good news, but that he preached the good news about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: See, Mark quotes Isaiah 40, and he applies it here in verse 2 to John the Baptizer, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, behold, I'm going to send my messenger.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 40.
SPEAKER_01: So he applies that to John the Baptizer in verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: John appears.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to prepare the way.
SPEAKER_01: Prepare the way for whom?
SPEAKER_01: What does Mark say?
SPEAKER_01: Prepare the way of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: But who is who is the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_01: We know the rest of the story.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Mark wants us to know is that the Lord that is being prepared for coming is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: John the baptizer is there to prepare the way for Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We know that.
SPEAKER_01: What else do we know?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we know in verse 7 that John says the one that's coming, the Lord that's coming, is greater, is mightier than John.
SPEAKER_01: How mighty is this Lord Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Well, look over at chapter 2 of Mark.
SPEAKER_01: The beginning of chapter 2, Jesus heals a paralyzed man.
SPEAKER_01: But before he heals the paralyzed man, he forgives his sins.
SPEAKER_01: Now that might not mean anything to you and I who are accustomed to coming to church and hearing about the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_01: But when Jesus says to this paralyzed man lying on a pallet on the ground, son, your sins are forgiven, the Pharisees and the scribes that are surrounding him gasp probably audibly.
SPEAKER_01: How could a human being say your sins are forgiven because only God can forgive sins?
SPEAKER_01: And that's right.
SPEAKER_01: They were right.
SPEAKER_01: That's true.
SPEAKER_01: Only God can forgive sins.
SPEAKER_01: But that's exactly what Mark wants you to know.
SPEAKER_01: Mark wants you to know that God talked about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He talked about Jesus through Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: And Isaiah said, all of this is going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: That somebody's going to come to prepare the way.
SPEAKER_01: And somebody's going to come and prepare the way for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord is going to forgive sins.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: 600 years before Jesus came?
SPEAKER_01: Are you serious?
SPEAKER_01: We could go on and on and point out more things like this, but we need to get to the gospel according to Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: So let's leave off here and go to Isaiah chapter 40.
SPEAKER_01: Mark starts his gospel according to Mark, Mark's perspective on the scriptures and what Jesus said and did.
SPEAKER_01: And he starts his gospel by saying that the beginning of what he has to say has its origins in Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah proclaimed the good news.
SPEAKER_01: And we can see in that the fulfillment of a promise.
SPEAKER_01: That a voice would come, Mark says, to prepare the way for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you wished that a snow plow would have come and prepared the way before you left home.
SPEAKER_01: John came to prepare the way for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And that Lord, Mark says, is Jesus who can forgive sins.
SPEAKER_01: Now let's go to Isaiah 40.
SPEAKER_01: Comfort.
SPEAKER_01: Comfort my people, says your God.
SPEAKER_01: Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity, her sin, is pardoned.
SPEAKER_01: That she has received from Yahweh's hand double for all her sins.
SPEAKER_01: For a voice cries, In the wilderness, prepare the way of Yahweh, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
SPEAKER_01: Every valley will be lifted up, every mountain hind hill shall be made low, the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain, and the glory of Yahweh shall be revealed.
SPEAKER_01: And all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.
SPEAKER_01: A voice says, Cry.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, What shall I cry?
SPEAKER_01: All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
SPEAKER_01: The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of Yahweh blows on it.
SPEAKER_01: Surely the people are grass.
SPEAKER_01: The grass withers, the flower fades.
SPEAKER_01: But the word of our God will stand forever.
SPEAKER_01: Get up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news.
SPEAKER_01: Lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news.
SPEAKER_01: Lift it up, fear not.
SPEAKER_01: Say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, the Lord Yahweh comes with might, and his arm rules for him.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, his reward is with him and his recompense before him.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We'll stop there.
SPEAKER_01: Might pick up in a little bit to read some more here.
SPEAKER_01: We'll see what how much time we have.
SPEAKER_01: Mark uses a word in chapter one of Mark that is translated into English as gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Simply means the good news.
SPEAKER_01: Did you know that the same word is used five times in the Greek translation of the book of Isaiah?
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah mentions the gospel, the good news, five times.
SPEAKER_01: The first time that he mentions the good news is Isaiah chapter 40.
SPEAKER_01: The very passage that Mark quotes from as the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Mark refers to as the beginning of the good news about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Prophets foretold the good news, but what's the good news of which they spoke?
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's what we're going to see over the next few weeks.
SPEAKER_01: Step by step as we walk through Isaiah's gospel road, unwrapping the clause, as it were, we're going to see Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Now you might still be a little skeptical that Isaiah spoke about Jesus 600 years before Christ came.
SPEAKER_01: If so, it's this is a good place to begin because it's here that we have the opportunity to open our ears and our hearts to hear three gospel voices.
SPEAKER_01: Three voices proclaiming a message.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you caught those three voices as we read.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3 is the first voice, verse 6 is a second voice, verse 9 is the third voice.
SPEAKER_01: But before we hear those voices, we need to feel some of the tension that existed before these voices rang out.
SPEAKER_01: We need to grasp some of the first 39 chapters of Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I'm going to preach through the first 39 chapters of Isaiah very quickly.
SPEAKER_01: You see, back in the very first chapter, God said, Let me tell you about my children.
SPEAKER_01: I've raised up children, I've brought them up, but they've rebelled against me.
SPEAKER_01: He says, you know what's incredible?
SPEAKER_01: An ox knows his own owner.
SPEAKER_01: A donkey knows its master's crib.
SPEAKER_01: But my people, Israel, doesn't know.
SPEAKER_01: My people do not understand.
SPEAKER_01: It's a shocking statement.
SPEAKER_01: That's how the book of Isaiah begins.
SPEAKER_01: You see, you feel some of the tension there.
SPEAKER_01: The ruler of all things who who drew Israel to himself and promised them blessing upon blessing and began to provide that, says, they have rebelled against me.
SPEAKER_01: And God continues to do that.
SPEAKER_01: He continues to call Israel a sinful nation, overflowing, he says, with sin.
SPEAKER_01: All they did was produce more evildoers.
SPEAKER_01: They couldn't even worship God in a way that pleased him.
SPEAKER_01: Yet there's a flip side to this, and that is that God was continually willing to be merciful if they repented of their sins and turned to Him.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the first chapter, still, in the first chapter, verse 18, he says, Come now.
SPEAKER_01: Let us reason together, says Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: Even though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
SPEAKER_01: What grace and mercy is there in this God?
SPEAKER_01: That they would rebel against him, not even knowing who he is, and yet he says, I'm here.
SPEAKER_01: If you'll just come back.
SPEAKER_01: And there's this back and forth between hope in God's mercy on the one hand and judgment and condemnation for Israel's sin on the other, but that whole storyline is undergirded by the holiness of a holy God.
SPEAKER_01: We see that in chapter 6, where Isaiah is brought in a vision to the throne room of God, and it's there that the cherubim surround the throne of God and they say continually, holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of hosts.
SPEAKER_01: You remember Isaiah's reaction, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-oh.
SPEAKER_01: I'm dead.
SPEAKER_01: That was Isaiah's response.
SPEAKER_01: He said, There's absolutely no way I'm going to survive this situation.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I'm a sinful human being and I and I live in a people of sin.
SPEAKER_01: Our sin is overflowing.
SPEAKER_01: All we do is re is produce rebel.
SPEAKER_01: There's no way I'm getting out of this situation alive.
SPEAKER_01: And if the prophet was too sinful to stand in the presence of a holy God, then what would that mean for God's people?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, but there's another part of that story, isn't there?
SPEAKER_01: There's another part of that vision where God says, in essence, to Isaiah, yes, you're right.
SPEAKER_01: You are sinful.
SPEAKER_01: Let's take care of that.
SPEAKER_01: And an angel takes a pair of tongs to a heavenly altar and picks up a glowing coal from that altar.
SPEAKER_01: And he takes it over to Isaiah and he touches Isaiah's lips with it.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever thought that that coal was too hot for the angel to grab?
SPEAKER_01: And then he touches it to Isaiah's lips.
SPEAKER_01: What's God doing?
SPEAKER_01: He's atoning for Isaiah's sin.
SPEAKER_01: He says, You're absolutely right.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot stand in my holy presence and live.
SPEAKER_01: So let's take care of your sin.
SPEAKER_01: Let's atone for it.
SPEAKER_01: Let's get rid of it.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the angel was doing, so that Isaiah can then be commissioned to go out and to serve Christ in his world.
SPEAKER_01: God atoned for Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: Sin from a heavenly altar because only God can forgive sin.
SPEAKER_01: And then Isaiah is commissioned to go out and preach.
SPEAKER_01: And what is Isaiah to preach?
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 6, chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: God says, Here's what you're to preach, Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: Go out and tell the people, keep on hearing, but do not understand, keep on seeing, but do not perceive.
SPEAKER_01: Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah asked how long he was supposed to preach without anyone responding to his preaching with repentance.
SPEAKER_01: And God said, Do this until cities lie waste without inhabitants, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, and the Lord removes people far away.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah preach a gospel that people aren't going to respond to until I destroy them.
SPEAKER_01: It's devastating.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Isaiah would write in chapter 13, verse 6, wail, for the day of Yahweh is near.
SPEAKER_01: Wail.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 30, verse 9, it says, They are a rebellious people.
SPEAKER_01: They are lying children.
SPEAKER_01: They are children unwilling to hear the instruction of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: And they would say, Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine that?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you have have experienced this in your own life where you have a family member who has who has said to another family member, I don't want to ever see you again.
SPEAKER_01: I want nothing more to do with you.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Israel was saying to her God.
SPEAKER_01: The God who redeemed her.
SPEAKER_01: She said, I don't, I don't, I don't want to hear anything, don't want to talk about God.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want nothing more to do with God.
SPEAKER_01: It's devastating.
SPEAKER_01: Israel had so abandoned God that they no longer wanted to hear about him, yet God was still merciful, for he says in chapter 30, verse 18, therefore Yahweh waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself in order to show mercy to you.
SPEAKER_01: For Yahweh is a God of justice, and blessed are all those who wait for him.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see this tension between sin and rebellion against a holy God on the one hand, and yet on the other, God saying, I'm still here and I'm waiting to show mercy to you.
SPEAKER_01: And back and forth we go, back and forth, again and again.
SPEAKER_01: And we find that even a righteous king leading God's people, a righteous king named Hezekiah, could not turn back the flow of sin and evil among the people.
SPEAKER_01: Hezekiah's reign was a good one.
SPEAKER_01: It was prosperous and righteous.
SPEAKER_01: He was obedient to God, and God caused the nation to prosper.
SPEAKER_01: You might say it was a time of low unemployment, low inflation, and everybody was doing well.
SPEAKER_01: The economy was thriving, people were happy, they were trusting God with their lives, everything was good.
SPEAKER_01: And God even extended Hezekiah's life by 15 years.
SPEAKER_01: When Hezekiah was sick and about to die, and he repented and mourned over his sin, and God said, Okay, I'm going to give you 15 more years.
SPEAKER_01: But then Hezekiah did something faithless.
SPEAKER_01: Faithless.
SPEAKER_01: He let in some foreign dignitaries.
SPEAKER_01: That happened.
SPEAKER_01: Dignitaries came to town to visit.
SPEAKER_01: He let them in, and in his pride, he displayed all of his wealth to them.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Let me show you how God's blessed me.
SPEAKER_01: Look at all that I have.
SPEAKER_01: It's as though he took them to Fort Knox and opened the door and said, Can you see how wealthy I am?
SPEAKER_01: Look at all this.
SPEAKER_01: And he did it out of his pride.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, that's Isaiah chapter 38 and 39.
SPEAKER_01: It's Isaiah 38 and 39.
SPEAKER_01: And God promised judgment from that nation in chapter 39 of Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: That ancient nation of Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: He said they would come and destroy Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: They would wipe it out, they would take everything that they had seen, and they would even take Hezekiah's own children back to Babylon as slaves.
SPEAKER_01: And Hezekiah said, okay, that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to be in my children's time, not mine.
SPEAKER_01: That's good.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: What kind of a response is that?
SPEAKER_01: So even there, in a righteous king, we have this tension of rebelling against God and God being merciful.
SPEAKER_01: Hezekiah just blew it off.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Yeah, it's not going to happen in my time.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to have to worry about it.
SPEAKER_01: Guess you could maybe draw a parallel to the way our nation addresses its own debt.
SPEAKER_01: We're not going to have to worry about that.
SPEAKER_01: Now it'll be the next generation, the next generation after that.
SPEAKER_01: Israel's sin was so great, her sin debt was so great that in his justice, the holy God, the holder of that debt, would come to collect by means of a foreign invader who would destroy everything and take everything of value back to his home.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the heavy, heavy picture that we are left with before God says, Comfort.
SPEAKER_01: Comfort, my people, says your God.
SPEAKER_01: Justice would be carried out.
SPEAKER_01: Judgment would come for sin.
SPEAKER_01: But in his mercy, God offers comfort.
SPEAKER_01: How does God offer comfort?
SPEAKER_01: Through words.
SPEAKER_01: Interestingly, when this was translated into the Greek language so that the people coming back to Israel after that Babylonian judgment could understand it.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't, they kind of lost most of their Hebrew, and so they had to translate it so that people could understand their Bibles again.
SPEAKER_01: They used a word here for comfort that Jesus would use when he spoke of sending the Holy Spirit to his people to be another comforter.
SPEAKER_01: The words that God spoke to comfort his people in Isaiah would one day be replaced by the very Spirit of God giving power to those words as he indwelt his people.
SPEAKER_01: So now we have the background that helps us to understand some of the difficulties here.
SPEAKER_01: The people weren't listening to God, they had turned off their ears.
SPEAKER_01: Strangely, my parents said that to me sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: And Isaiah was to keep on preaching to people who wouldn't hear, who wouldn't listen.
SPEAKER_01: And what does God provide to those people that wouldn't listen to give them comfort in the midst of judgment?
SPEAKER_01: Words.
SPEAKER_01: He speaks.
SPEAKER_01: He speaks words of hope and comfort to people that would tune them out.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's all the background to these three voices.
SPEAKER_01: Three voices cry out.
SPEAKER_01: And before we get to these three voices, it's worth asking us.
SPEAKER_01: What voices do we listen to when judgment comes?
SPEAKER_01: What voices do we listen to when disappointment looms largely in front of us?
SPEAKER_01: What words do we listen to?
SPEAKER_01: What voices do we listen to when we're thriving in prosperity?
SPEAKER_01: See, the underlying element here is: do we listen when God speaks?
SPEAKER_01: The first voice is in verses three, four, and five, and it is a voice of preparation.
SPEAKER_01: A voice cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of Yahweh, make straight in the desert a way for our God.
SPEAKER_01: Every valley shall be lifted up, every mountain and hill be made low, even an uneven ground shall become level, rough places a plain, and the glory of Yahweh shall be revealed.
SPEAKER_01: And all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.
SPEAKER_01: You know, a good a good practical application of this is every Sunday, or even even the Christmas season.
SPEAKER_01: The key to a successful Sunday morning of worship and gathering together as God's people to hear Him speak and to be challenged and to be motivated towards sanctification and growth.
SPEAKER_01: That preparation begins before Sunday ever starts.
SPEAKER_01: The key to a successful Christmas season begins with preparation.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you have been listening to Christmas songs for months now, and I don't understand that.
SPEAKER_01: You're preparing yourselves, though.
SPEAKER_01: That's good, I guess.
SPEAKER_01: Preparation.
SPEAKER_01: Prepare your hearts, prepare your ears to hear.
SPEAKER_01: And this first voice was a cry to the people to get ready.
SPEAKER_01: It's likely a nod to the way that ancient kings would arrive in a new territory.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine the preparations that go on for a community today to receive a dignitary like a president.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of work that goes into that, a lot of preparation.
SPEAKER_01: Now imagine an entire people, an entire world preparing to receive their God.
SPEAKER_01: The language here is all about making the reception go off without a hitch.
SPEAKER_01: Straighten the highways, level the pathways, smooth out the road, make sure the potholes are all filled, repair the bridges, paint over the graffiti.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Our God is coming.
SPEAKER_01: This is the cry of preparation.
SPEAKER_01: Preparing for what?
SPEAKER_01: For beholding the glory of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: And the glory of Yahweh shall be revealed, verse 5, and all flesh shall see it together.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah may be referring here back in Israel's history to Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_01: Remember when they came out of Egypt so miraculously, they crossed the Red Sea and they went to the mountain of Sinai, and God said, This is where I'm going to set up all of the parameters and the laws and the regulations that are going to guide me ruling over my people.
SPEAKER_01: Moses went up on the mountain and God met him on the mountain, and there were dark clouds all around.
SPEAKER_01: There was lightning, there was fire.
SPEAKER_01: Moses comes down and the people are shaking in their sandals and they're saying, Moses, we don't ever want to experience God's glory and God's speaking ever again.
SPEAKER_01: You go.
SPEAKER_01: You go and you talk to God and you come back down and you tell us what he said.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to hear him, we don't want to see his glory, we don't want to have any part of it because we are afraid.
SPEAKER_01: Here, the prophet Isaiah that reveals the mouth of God speaking again, declaring that comfort for his people is going to come when they prepare the way for their God so that they might behold his glory again.
SPEAKER_01: Notice the parallel too with Isaiah chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: Remember Isaiah's vision?
SPEAKER_01: Beholding the Lord high and lifted up.
SPEAKER_01: Holy, holy, holy.
SPEAKER_01: He thought he would die because he was a sinful human being who lived among sinful human beings.
SPEAKER_01: But God, in his mercy and grace, atoned for Isaiah's sin.
SPEAKER_01: Now God promises that people will behold his glory just like Isaiah did in that vision, and it will be a comfort to them, not a fear.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because of verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: Their iniquity is pardon.
SPEAKER_01: They're going to be able to stand in the presence of a holy, glorious God because their sins are forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: But who alone can forgive sin?
SPEAKER_01: Only God, right?
SPEAKER_01: This is rich, and I wish we could camp here for a while.
SPEAKER_01: But notice just a couple of tidbits.
SPEAKER_01: The cries of these voices come in the context of repentance and the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_01: Her iniquity is pardoned.
SPEAKER_01: My friends, it is only as our sin is forgiven by a holy God that we can dare to stand in his presence.
SPEAKER_01: The cry of preparation is preparation for repentance.
SPEAKER_01: We read it in Mark.
SPEAKER_01: Mark began by saying that the good news, beginning in Isaiah 40, with the promise of a voice crying out to prepare the way for the Lord, was preparing for John the baptizer.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen to Mark chapter 1, verse 4 again.
SPEAKER_01: John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of what?
SPEAKER_01: Repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_01: John is crying out exactly what God said would happen in Isaiah chapter 40.
SPEAKER_01: God is going to come and prepare the way to forgive his people's sins so that they might receive and behold the glory of God yet again without fear.
SPEAKER_01: So as we unwrap the manger clause, we hear a voice crying, and it reminds us that our greatest preparation is not for the gifts under the tree or for the family gathering together, but preparing to repent of our sins in order to behold the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The second voice is a voice that is a crying about opposites.
SPEAKER_01: The first voice cries out for us to prepare to behold the glory of God, and the only way we can do that is through repentance and forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: Then a second voice cries, and it cries out, You are not God.
SPEAKER_01: Don't know if that's a surprise to you or not, you are not God.
SPEAKER_01: And the point here is simple to see.
SPEAKER_01: Grass and flowers fade.
SPEAKER_01: At the very least, they get covered by snow in North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: We will all go the way of the flowers and the grass.
SPEAKER_01: But God's word remains forever.
SPEAKER_01: Again, there's much richness here to mine out of this cry, much that we could learn about God's word, much that we could learn about humanity.
SPEAKER_01: But for now, we need to ask the question: how does this fit into Isaiah chapter 40?
SPEAKER_01: Because on the surface, it seems a bit out of place, honestly.
SPEAKER_01: That's why the context is so important.
SPEAKER_01: Because as you read through Isaiah, you get this sense of the changes that happen in political powers.
SPEAKER_01: Governments come and go.
SPEAKER_01: Nations rise up and nations disappear.
SPEAKER_01: There are shifts in political philosophy, there are shifts in religious attitudes.
SPEAKER_01: And the greatest shift now that we have heard is the announcement of judgment on God's people.
SPEAKER_01: The same nation that Hezekiah welcomed and blabbered to about his riches is the same nation that's going to come and carry it all away.
SPEAKER_01: My friends, here is the point of this cry.
SPEAKER_01: Everything that you indulge in this Christmas will fade away and be forgotten.
SPEAKER_01: The toys will break, maybe on Christmas Day.
SPEAKER_01: The socks and the underwear will wear out.
SPEAKER_01: The food will be enjoyed.
SPEAKER_01: Once, twice.
SPEAKER_01: By the third day, you're getting sick of the leftovers.
SPEAKER_01: The landscapes of our states, of our country, of our world may change.
SPEAKER_01: Don't put your hope in it.
SPEAKER_01: Hear the first cry so that your heart will be tuned to the glory of the coming Lord.
SPEAKER_01: For when that is your hope, you begin to trust in what lasts forever.
SPEAKER_01: You see, when God speaks, it lasts forever.
SPEAKER_01: And when God speaks comfort, that comfort lasts, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Comfort that doesn't last is not worthy to put our comfort in, for it fades away.
SPEAKER_01: You see, when God speaks, it stands forever.
SPEAKER_01: It does not fade away, he said.
SPEAKER_01: And here, God promised a voice who would cry out for people to repent and prepare the way for God Himself, a God who would come forgiving sin and displaying the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we have a third voice crying out, Behold! Behold what?
SPEAKER_01: Your God.
SPEAKER_01: This isn't just any old king coming.
SPEAKER_01: This is your God coming.
SPEAKER_01: And he's coming eventually, Isaiah says, to provide forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: Hearts prepared by repentance to behold the glory of the Lord will know that God's promises do not fade away.
SPEAKER_01: He is faithful to uphold his promise, bearing his glory, even though the toll of time will wreak havoc on his world.
SPEAKER_01: And so the third cry comes, as it were, from the darkest point of the battle when doom seems near at hand.
SPEAKER_01: When the promise of God seems most unlikely to be fulfilled, when it seems to fade with the twilight, when hope is flickering with the howling of the wind, a voice cries, fear not, for there is good news.
SPEAKER_01: Twice Isaiah records the word gospel.
SPEAKER_01: This is the first time in Isaiah that good news is mentioned.
SPEAKER_01: Get up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Lift it up.
SPEAKER_01: Fear not.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_01: You're just telling us the Babylonians are coming.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_01: Fear not.
SPEAKER_01: How in the world do you not fear when your world is in turmoil?
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember the story of the servant of the prophet when they were in the village that was surrounded by the enemy?
SPEAKER_01: The prophet said, Lord, we this poor guy doesn't get it.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you just open his eyes.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord opened his eyes and he saw the chariots and horsemen of fire surrounding them.
SPEAKER_01: How can Isaiah, how can Isaiah say to the people, Herald, proclaim the good news without fear?
SPEAKER_01: How can he do that when the Babylonians have just been to town?
SPEAKER_01: That's because Isaiah's seen the throne room of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah has beheld their God.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the basis of your comfort.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the basis of your joy.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the basis of your boldness.
SPEAKER_01: It's in beholding your God.
SPEAKER_01: He comes in fulfillment of God's word that stands forever.
SPEAKER_01: He comes in fulfillment of promise to reveal his glory before those whose iniquity has been part.
SPEAKER_01: In a world that's fading away.
SPEAKER_01: He comes with power and with strength, and he comes with gentleness and care like a shepherd.
SPEAKER_01: Really?
SPEAKER_01: Behold your God.
SPEAKER_01: Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand?
SPEAKER_01: Who's marked off with a tape measure where the heavens begin and where the heavens end?
SPEAKER_01: Who has enclosed all of the dust of the earth in a measuring cup?
SPEAKER_01: Who has weighed the mountains on a scale?
SPEAKER_01: Who has put the hills in a balance?
SPEAKER_01: Who's measured the spirit of Yahweh?
SPEAKER_01: What human being shows God the wise thing to do?
SPEAKER_01: Whom did whom did God consult?
SPEAKER_01: Who made God understand?
SPEAKER_01: Who taught him the path of justice?
SPEAKER_01: Who taught him knowledge?
SPEAKER_01: Who showed him the way of understanding?
SPEAKER_01: I think what's happening there is as Isaiah is intending us to hear the echo of Job.
SPEAKER_01: You know, when Job gets to the end of the book and he's lived through all of the suffering and all of the pain and all of the agony, and he's endured all of those terrible friends who want to help him.
SPEAKER_01: And he's saying, I just God would come and speak to me, and God comes and speaks to him and says, Who are you?
SPEAKER_01: Have you done any of these things?
SPEAKER_01: Behold your God.
SPEAKER_01: Behold the nations.
SPEAKER_01: They're like a drop in the bucket.
SPEAKER_01: They're accounted as dust on the scales.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, God takes up the coastlands like fine dust.
SPEAKER_01: Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor its beasts enough for burnt offering.
SPEAKER_01: All the nations are as nothing before him.
SPEAKER_01: They are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
SPEAKER_01: To whom then will you liken God?
SPEAKER_01: Or what likeness will you compare with him?
SPEAKER_01: Answer.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
SPEAKER_01: Behold your God.
SPEAKER_01: An idol.
SPEAKER_01: A craftsman casts it in molten metal.
SPEAKER_01: The goldsmith overlays it with gold leaf and casts for it silver chains.
SPEAKER_01: If you're too poor for an offering, you choose wood that's not going to rot.
SPEAKER_01: You seek out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that's not going to move.
SPEAKER_01: What a great God.
SPEAKER_01: Do you not know?
SPEAKER_01: Have you not heard?
SPEAKER_01: Has it not been told to you from the beginning?
SPEAKER_01: Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
SPEAKER_01: It is He who sits above the circle of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: There you go, flat earthers.
SPEAKER_01: And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not feeling small yet, you start to get smaller and smaller.
SPEAKER_01: It's he who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, who spreads them out like a tent to dwell in, who brings princes to nothing, makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
SPEAKER_01: Scarcely are they planted, scarcely are they sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth when he blows on them and they wither.
SPEAKER_01: Tempest carries them off like stubble.
SPEAKER_01: To whom then?
SPEAKER_01: To whom then will you compare me that I should be like him, says the Holy One?
SPEAKER_01: Lift up your eyes and see.
SPEAKER_01: Look up high at night and look at the stars.
SPEAKER_01: Who created these?
SPEAKER_01: He who brings out their host by number, that means he knows how many there are.
SPEAKER_01: He calls them all by name.
SPEAKER_01: By the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.
SPEAKER_01: So why would you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel?
SPEAKER_01: Notice he's not leaving anybody out there, it's all encompassing.
SPEAKER_01: Why would you ever say, God can't see what I'm doing?
SPEAKER_01: Why would you ever say God doesn't know what's happening in my life, and my right is disregarded by my God?
SPEAKER_01: Have you not known?
SPEAKER_01: Have you not heard?
SPEAKER_01: Now remember, what has God said about his people already?
SPEAKER_01: No, they're not listening.
SPEAKER_01: They're tuning out the voices.
SPEAKER_01: And yet God is reminding them, again, have you not known?
SPEAKER_01: Have you not heard?
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh is the everlasting God.
SPEAKER_01: He is the creator of the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: He does not faint or grow weary, his understanding is unsearchable.
SPEAKER_01: He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might, he gives strength.
SPEAKER_01: Even youths faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted.
SPEAKER_01: But those who wait for Yahweh shall renew their strength.
SPEAKER_01: They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary.
SPEAKER_01: They shall walk and not faint.
SPEAKER_01: Who are the ones who hear?
SPEAKER_01: The ones who hear are the same ones who mount up with wings like eagles.
SPEAKER_01: The ones who hear are those who wait on Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: Who are those who wait on Yahweh?
SPEAKER_01: They're the ones who listen to the voices.
SPEAKER_01: They're the ones who prepare the way for his glory through repentance.
SPEAKER_01: Who understand who he is and look to behold him.
SPEAKER_01: See, the gospel, according to Isaiah, begins with a cry to prepare our hearts for repentance.
SPEAKER_01: It begins with a cry to trust fully in the promises of God that stand forever.
SPEAKER_01: And it begins with an announcement of the gospel: behold your God.
SPEAKER_01: And the rest of the chapter then challenges our perceptions of that indescribable and incomparable God who is the embodiment of the good news.
SPEAKER_01: And so it was that the shepherds on that dark night were keeping their sheep and heard an announcement about glory.
SPEAKER_01: Glory be to God in the highest.
SPEAKER_01: And so it was that the magi came to worship the king.
SPEAKER_01: And so it was that Mark wrote of a voice crying in the wilderness, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
SPEAKER_01: And so it was that another apostle, the Apostle John, would write in fulfillment, speaking of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We beheld his glory.
SPEAKER_01: Glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_01: And so it was.
SPEAKER_01: That Jesus would respond to the faith of a lame man and say to him, Here I am.
SPEAKER_01: Just like I forgave Isaiah's sin.
SPEAKER_01: I'm forgiving your sin.
SPEAKER_01: Now, rise up and walk.
SPEAKER_01: Will we behold the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth?
SPEAKER_01: He is Emmanuel, God with us.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: May you unstop our ears.
SPEAKER_01: May you give us sight and blind eyes to truly hear you, to see you, to listen to what you're trying to get across to us.
SPEAKER_01: May we come to trust in you fully and wholly forever.
SPEAKER_01: As the mighty God, who comes to rescue us, to comfort us, to forgive our sins, and to bring us to behold your glory.
SPEAKER_01: For it's to you we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.