[0:00] Before the preaching of God's word, please take your Bibles and turn to the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 40, 4-0.
[0:13] We're continuing to read and we will start at verse 12, 12 through 25. Isaiah chapter 40. Let's hear God's word. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand?
[0:28] Or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket? Or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who has understood the mind of the Lord or instructed him as his counselor?
[0:44] Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him? And who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding? Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket.
[0:56] They are regarded as dust on the scales. He weighs the islands as though they were fine dust. Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires, nor its animals enough for burnt offerings.
[1:09] Before him all the nations are as nothing. They are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing. To whom then will you compare God? What image will you compare him to?
[1:21] As for an idol, a craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and fashions silver chains for it. A man too poor to present such an offering selects wood that will not rot.
[1:34] He looks for a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not topple. Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning?
[1:45] Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
[1:59] He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
[2:15] To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal? Says the Holy One. Amen. Let's hear the word of God preached. Comfort.
[2:28] Comfort, my people, says your God. And so began chapter 40 of Isaiah's prophecy. It's part two of his book.
[2:42] And this is a prophecy given to Isaiah 100 years before Judah would go into captivity in Babylon. By then Isaiah would be dead and gone.
[2:55] And so it's a prophecy laid up for the future. A prophecy perfectly suited for their future need when, because of their sin, their land would be decimated.
[3:08] Jerusalem, their capital, would be destroyed. The temple of God would be burned. And their people would be scattered throughout the realm of the Babylonian empire.
[3:20] And that was to last, as they would learn, for 70 years. So chapters 40 to 66, the second part, would find the people of Judah discouraged, losing heart, and losing any hope of better days.
[3:37] And it's in such sad circumstances that they would read these words of God to his prophets, sent to the people, telling them, Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
[3:51] Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Tell them that their hard service is completed. In other words, God doesn't discipline his children forever.
[4:02] And his discipline for your sins is ended. And he is now coming, coming to deliver you in a wondrous display of his glory. Verse 5, the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all mankind together will see it.
[4:18] Now, this promised deliverance included Judah's deliverance from Babylon, which did happen in 586 B.C. But the deliverance was not exhausted, and this prophecy was not exhausted by that deliverance.
[4:34] Rather, it also pointed to the coming glory of the Lord when Jesus Christ, God the Son, would visit our planet. Both the first coming and the second coming and the glory of the Lord would be revealed in him.
[4:51] So Isaiah's prophecy from chapter 40 right on to the end not only speaks of the deliverance from the Babylonians, but speaks of salvation and deliverance from sin and Satan, from death and from hell.
[5:05] Indeed, it speaks of the day when a new heavens and a new earth would be created, and all things would become new, and the curse would be reversed, and God would dwell with man forever and ever.
[5:23] So these promises in the second part of Isaiah's prophecy were comforting promises. They were universal in scope.
[5:33] It was to fill the whole heavens and earth, and they were breathtaking in glory. But they were also hard to believe when the people would look at the circumstances in which they were living.
[5:47] Again, it was bondage. It was slavery under the rule of the Babylonians. So many obstacles preventing these promises from ever happening.
[6:00] The powerful men and nations that stood in the way of these promises. They're referred to in verse 4 as mountains and hills and valleys and rugged ground, as we saw the voice in the desert proclaiming.
[6:16] Difficulties that seemed to mock the promises of God. And they were to be removed. And the sure foundation for our comfort is God's word.
[6:30] We saw that in verses 5 and 8. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken, and the word of the Lord stands forever. That's what was to encourage these people that the promises would indeed happen.
[6:45] God said it. And that alone is reason enough for encouragement and comfort and joy, even in our depressing circumstances. But the Lord knows our doubts.
[6:58] He knows our unbelief. And in this great act of condescension, He stoops to our weakness to strengthen our tottering faith. What I mean is this.
[7:11] If you were in great danger, walking with me in some dark alley at night, and I said to you, don't worry, I'll protect you. My words alone might not be enough for you.
[7:25] You might want to know how many martial arts I've mastered and what guns I'm packing. Because the comfort of my promise to you would be no greater than my ability to fulfill my promise.
[7:40] And so God knows that we can sometimes treat His promises with the same sort of doubt and wonder. Our circumstances stand as mountains in the way of our deliverance.
[7:53] And they distort our vision of reality so that man looks big and God looks small to us. And we want to know, is God able to deliver us?
[8:05] Is He able to move mountains insurmountable? Is He able to keep His words to fulfill His promises? And here God in grace stoops to our weakness and He assures us that indeed He is more than able.
[8:21] And so as we've come to part two of Isaiah 40 this week, the focus of chapter 40 is now shifting ever so slightly from the Word of God to the God of the Word.
[8:38] Shifting from the promises of God to the God of the promises. We saw this shift at the end of verse 9.
[8:50] What discouraged saints need is to behold your God. See Him for who He really is and is for you. For the comfort of the promise of God is no greater than the God of the promise.
[9:08] And so our text for today, verses 12 to 25, is setting before us the God of the promise. His greatness and glory, His wisdom and power and sovereign rule over all things.
[9:21] Nothing can stop Him from fulfilling His promises to us. And so as such, it will be a striking challenge and even a rebuke for our puny thoughts of God.
[9:35] It was Martin Luther's words to the Renaissance scholar Erasmus, your God is too human. God made us in His image and someone said we've returned the favor and created Him in our image as if He were like us or just a better version of ourselves.
[9:56] And the atmosphere we live in, in the world, we see the world with their belittling views of God. They dismiss Him as the greatest irrelevance to their lives and to this world.
[10:07] And sadly, the same view of a small God, a God with His hands tied, a God who is not sovereign and powerful, has crept into the church, a God more to be pitied than to be worshipped with reverence and awe for His greatness and glory.
[10:24] And so, twice in this chapter, we're met with this challenge. To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?
[10:36] Says the Holy One. And so, He comes to confront our small thoughts of Him if we're thinking and wondering, can He fulfill such promises? The greatness and glory of the God of the promise is first seen in the realm of creation.
[10:52] And so, a series of questions are asked, displaying the contrast between God and man in view of creation. So, verse 12 begins, Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hands?
[11:08] The answer to these questions, all of these questions, is no one but God. Now, God has no hands, but He's spoken of here and in other places of Scripture as if He did have hands just to show us how much greater He is than us.
[11:27] Do you know how much water you can hold in the hollow of your hand? About a tablespoon. That's it. How long would it take you to use your hand as a measure of the water, to measure all the water in Lake Michigan?
[11:46] Well, it would take more than your lifetime, wouldn't it? you couldn't do it. Yet, God measures all the waters and all the lakes and rivers and streams and oceans and seas in the hollow of His hand.
[12:01] You see the comparison of God to man in light of the creation that He's made. Or, who with the breadth of His hand has marked off the heavens?
[12:13] Now, we still measure some things by the breadth of our hands. Don't, we measure horse's height by a hand breadth. And so, a horse may be 15 hands high.
[12:27] That's how tall the horse is. But, to measure a horse is one thing. Would you measure the distance from here to Chicago with a hand breadth?
[12:38] No, you wouldn't. How about measuring one end of the heavens to the other with a hand breadth? Only God, just a few hand breaths, He marks off the heavens with.
[12:54] No, when you and I come to measure the expanse of the heavens, we abandon our unit of measurement of a hand breath, don't we? In fact, we abandon our yardsticks.
[13:06] We abandon miles, the measurement of a mile. And instead, we use the measurement of a light year. the distance traveled in one year at the speed of light.
[13:18] That's 670 million miles per hour. That's moving. How far can you go in a year? That's a light year. And that's how we now are measuring the heavens.
[13:30] So, just to go from one end to the other of our Milky Way galaxy, traveling at the speed of light would take you over 100,000 years.
[13:42] And there are billions of such galaxies. And God marks off the heavens with His hand breath. To whom will you compare me?
[13:54] Or who is my equal? He asks. Or who's held the dust of the earth in a basket? Have you carried a five-gallon bucket of dirt lately? I carry it like this.
[14:08] It's heavy. And if you've got much to carry, you need a wheelbarrow. And maybe if you're really carrying a lot of it, you need earthmovers and dump trucks.
[14:20] God carries all the dirt in the earth as if it were a basket of flowers from the garden. To whom will you compare me?
[14:30] And as for those heavy mountains and hills that are standing in the way of fulfillment of the promise, why? He picks them up and he measures or he weighs the mountains on the scales and he weighs the hills in a balance.
[14:45] So what the created world is to us is one thing. What it is to God is another thing. And our need is to view the creation as it is to God in reference to who he is.
[15:01] So I have to ask you, are you just seeing creation? just seeing it in a surface way? Or are you letting it lead you to understand something of the greatness of its creator?
[15:16] The whole earth is full of his glory. Are you seeing him? Or are your mountains hiding him and his glory from your view? So, the difference between God and man is seen in light of creation.
[15:33] Verse 13 and 14 shifts from God's power in creation and greatness in creation to his wisdom and understanding in creation.
[15:44] Who has understood the mind of the Lord or instructed him as his counselor? Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him or show him the path of understanding?
[15:56] Who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge? So when we look at creation, what are we meant to do? We're meant to be struck with the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of its maker?
[16:15] So take rain, for example. Does it send you to the creator of rain and to marvel at his wisdom? Water's heavy and its destructive power is well known.
[16:28] wisdom. And in his wisdom, God invented the water cycle with just the right conditions needed for evaporation for the water to lift up into the air.
[16:42] Amazing, isn't it? Just certain pressures and situations have to be precise for that water just to lift up in the air.
[16:53] There's gravity pulling down. But God is wise and it goes up and it creates clouds, clouds that carry the water over land that otherwise would be barren.
[17:06] And so these clouds are holding billions of tons of water over our heads. Do you feel anything of the threat of that? Or haven't you thought of it?
[17:17] And if the clouds would drop all of it at once, it would smash us to smithereens. But God in His wisdom has so designed things that it only releases it in little droplets that bless us instead of crushing us.
[17:36] Oh, the wisdom and knowledge of God. What wisdom to create the heavens and the earth and everything in them, you and I included.
[17:47] we are fearfully and wonderfully made with a heart that pumps for 80 years without needing an oil change or a valve job.
[17:59] Eyes that can focus on things distant and the next moment read things up close and all in full color. Ears that can detect what direction the sound is coming from.
[18:14] We're walking wonders of the wisdom as well as the power of our Creator. And what our text is telling us and reminding the people of God is that when God created the world, He did it all by Himself.
[18:32] Not needing anyone to teach Him or to give Him counsel. And with that same wisdom with which He created it, He now governs it and rules over all He's made.
[18:43] Ordering all things according to His most wise providence. Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable His judgments and His paths beyond tracing out.
[18:58] And though He didn't consult with anyone to enlighten Him or to teach Him, man has not hesitated to give Him counsel about the right way to manage His world and His life.
[19:10] To criticize Him. To complain about Him. You should have made me a boy instead of a girl. You should have made me tall instead of short. Blonde instead of black hair. I don't like what you're doing in my life.
[19:22] You should have done this instead of that. We find that even godly Job can fall into that trap in the midst of severe trial.
[19:36] Thinking that God needed His counsel. Questioning His wisdom. Questioning His justice. in ordering the events of His life. Remember what God did with Job?
[19:50] He listened for a long time but then He took to speaking and He took Him to creation. And His providential rule over all creation. And asked Job, where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
[20:04] Tell me if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know. Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set? Or who laid its cornerstone while the morning star sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
[20:19] In other words, Job, I got along just fine without you there to counsel me. Have you ever given orders to the morning or showed the dawn its place?
[20:30] Have you ever journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have you ever comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me if you know all this.
[20:41] What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside? Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths of their dwellings? Surely you know for you were already born.
[20:52] You've lived so many years. Well, by the time God is done with some four chapters of such questioning of Job about the wonders of His creation and providence, Job's ready to put His hand over His mouth and to repent and say, Surely I spoke of things I did not understand.
[21:13] Indeed, things too wonderful for me to know. Do you, with your wisdom, sometimes think that you know better than God what is best for you?
[21:27] Are you qualified to sit in judgment on the wisdom of God? Can you create a soul a sun, gravity, a dark hole in space, a tree with changing colors that makes people stand in awe?
[21:47] And so, as in Job, so here in Isaiah 40, God turns to creation to display His own power and wisdom, wisdom to know what is best in ordering His world and power to do what is best.
[22:02] that's our God of glory. If I had God's power, I would change a lot in my life, but if I had God's wisdom, I wouldn't change anything because God's wisdom cannot be improved upon.
[22:18] And that is the God revealed in Isaiah 40, to whom then will you compare me? Well, He turns from creation to the nations in verses 15 to 17.
[22:30] The nations were the fearful powers that caused Judah fear and discouragement. They were right now under the thumb of the Babylonian captivity when they would be reading this in this chapter and what follows.
[22:49] And this is what it says in verse 15. Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket. They're regarded as dust on the scales. He weighs the islands as though they were fine dust. So when carrying a bucket of water to the garden, if you spill a drop, you don't stop and go back and refill.
[23:06] Why not? Because it's inconsiderable. It's really nothing. And when you go to the deli and ask for a pound of ham shaved, you don't say, please dust off the scales before you put my meat on there.
[23:21] I don't want to pay for any more than what I'm really getting. Why? Because dust is inconsiderable. It doesn't show up on the scales. And God says, surely the nations are like a drop in the water, a drop in the bucket, like dust on the scales.
[23:39] There's nothing in them to challenge God, to threaten God from fulfilling His promises. Then He drives home the point, another point, with one of the nations, Lebanon, verse 16.
[23:54] Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires, nor its animals enough for burnt offerings. Now, Lebanon was famous for its trees, especially the cedars of Lebanon. And Isaiah, God is saying through Isaiah, if you could take all those mammoth trees in the land of Lebanon and somehow cut them down and stack them up and on top put all the animals in Lebanon, it would not be a sufficient offering worthy of God, the Creator of them.
[24:25] tonight we'll be remembering the one sacrifice that was worthy of God. And it's only in and through Christ's sacrifice that our worship this morning is worth anything in God's sight.
[24:42] As He sees us believers in Christ, our mediator, and receives our worship because of our attachment to Him.
[24:52] verse 17, before Him all the nations are as nothing. They're regarded by Him as worthless and less than nothing. Now, I know what nothing is, but I'm not sure I know what less than nothing is, but it's not much.
[25:10] Less than nothing. Pile all the nations together. They are no threat to God. No challenge to His sovereignty. And so we need to see the nations not as they are compared to us, but as they are compared to God.
[25:28] To whom then will you compare God? Verse 18 asks. He's incomparable to any in wisdom, power, and glory. No man, no nation, no idol, which is His next discussion.
[25:40] What image will you compare Him to? Well, man, almost from the beginning, has been making his idols and comparing God to these images.
[25:57] The conquering nations boasted in their gods and in their idols of having superior power over the conquered nations. And indeed, Israel herself repeatedly forsook the living and true God to serve the idols, the gods of the nations.
[26:13] around them. And so in verse 19, the challenge goes out. To whom will you compare me? To what image will you compare me to? As for an idol, a craftsman casts it and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and fashions silver chains for it.
[26:30] Now how much help can man receive from something his own hands have made? There's the iron ore dug out of the earth, heated into molten iron, poured into a mold by a craftsman.
[26:45] And then a goldsmith comes and covers the ugly iron with a veneer of gold making it look like it's something that it's not. And then dresses it up with silver chains made to look like decorations instead of the supports that it needs to keep it from falling over.
[27:02] And then when he's finished, he bows down to it and he worships it and he fears it and he trusts it and he expects success and good from it. Not everybody can afford such a fine idol made of metal and covered with gold.
[27:24] Not to worry, they can be made of wood too. Verse 20, a man too poor to present such an offering selects wood that will not rot. He looks for a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not topple.
[27:37] And you can just hear Isaiah's words dripping with sarcasm and scorn for the stupidity of idolatry. You know, it's hard to find good wood anymore to make an idol that won't rot.
[27:52] And it's even harder to find a craftsman skilled enough to keep those idols from toppling over if they just don't make them like they used to. And all the while it never registers.
[28:04] That if the idol cannot even keep itself from rotting and falling over, what real help can it be to them? Their foolish hearts were darkened and they trusted in pathetic, useless idols.
[28:23] And even the Israelites fell into such stupid idol worship, exchanging the almighty creator for some created thing.
[28:35] The glory and greatness of the God that made them for a chunk of wood or metal shaped into the form of man or an animal were a creeping thing.
[28:49] And so follows the challenge in verse 21 and 22. Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning?
[29:00] Have you not understood since the earth was founded? In other words, you ought to know this by now. Israel, you've heard it enough. Nations, you ought to know it. It's not the idols or the powerful leaders who rule the world.
[29:14] Rather, verse 22, He, God, the creator, sits enthroned above the circle of the earth and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
[29:30] It's the Lord who reigns from His throne in heaven. He who created the earth also rules over it and that with ease. So great is this king that the entire heavens are like a little canopy, a little tent that's set up over His head.
[29:47] And the mighty peoples of the earth, well, they're like grasshoppers compared to Him. Kids, are you afraid of grasshoppers? What is there in a grasshopper to threaten you?
[30:02] Matthew Henry, well, let me hold on that for a moment. No, there's nothing in a grasshopper to scare you, is there? And so, with these mighty men and nations of the earth that scare us to death, there are nothing to God.
[30:19] These Babylonians and the warring nations surrounding them that caused them such fear and dread. Earlier, God compares the people to grass.
[30:30] It's quickly passing. Here, He compares the peoples to grasshoppers, easily smashed beneath His feet.
[30:43] Compared to you, they seem big. God says, compared to me, they're mere grasshoppers. And here's where Matthew Henry says, proud men may lift themselves up like the leap of a grasshopper.
[30:56] But what happens, kids, after that leap and going high in the air? They're soon down again, aren't they? So it is with the proud men of the world that puff themselves up with importance and push their weight around with the other nations around them.
[31:13] Oh, they're high now, but they're coming down like a grasshopper. Look what God does to the great world leaders that scare others.
[31:24] He rules the rulers. Verses 23 and 24. He brings princes. The ones seated on the throne above the earth, He brings princes to naught. He reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
[31:36] No sooner are they planted. No sooner are they sown. No sooner do they take root in the ground than He just blows on them and they wither and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff and they're gone.
[31:50] Their place knows them no longer. So we think of Kim over there in North Korea and Putin over in the Kremlin and Jinping in China and Ricey in Iran.
[32:02] I wondered, does it cause you to live in fear? To think that the arsenal of nuclear weapons is at the fingertips of a madman like Putin.
[32:16] The Lord says, I know you have problems with men like these, but they're no problem for me. That's all I need to do and they're gone.
[32:29] Where are kings and empires now of old that went and came? But Lord, thy church is praying yet a thousand years the same. Where are Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar?
[32:41] Nations are in uproar. Kingdoms fall. He lifts his voice. The earth melts. Come and see the works of the Lord, the desolations that he has brought about.
[32:56] Yes, it's God who is the sovereign Lord over all creation and the nations and the leaders of those nations and history and he's working out his glorious plan to glorify his son, Jesus Christ.
[33:09] And so he foils the plans of nations. He thwarts the purposes of the people in order to bring about his own plans and purposes. So don't fear men and don't put your trust in men.
[33:27] As Isaiah says in chapter 2 and verse 22, cease from men altogether who have but a breath in their nostrils. Of what account are they?
[33:39] The man with his finger on the button is nothing but a man with a breath in his nostrils. And in order to continue living, he needs the next breath.
[33:54] And God says that breath is in my hands. Now rest, child of God. I have plans for this world and they will be fulfilled.
[34:04] and if some madman thinks that he's going to bring about some other plan, I will thwart that plan. I will foil it. I will cause it to come to nothing.
[34:16] They're just a breath away from death and it's our God that holds that breath in his hands. So he says in Isaiah 51, 12 and 13 to his people, I, even I, am he who comforts you.
[34:32] Who are you that you fear mortal men, the sons of men who are but grass? That you forget me, the Lord, your maker who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth.
[34:48] Who are you that you forget me and live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor who is bent on destruction? Where is this wrath of the oppressor?
[34:58] You're coming back from Babylon, he says. The prisoners will come back home because I, the Lord, rule over the rulers of the world. And so the challenge ends for our text this morning.
[35:11] To whom then will you compare me? Or who is my equal? Says the Holy One. Which is to say the separated one.
[35:22] The one who's separate from all other men. Set apart in a class all of his own. in a category of one. That's what it means to be the Holy One.
[35:35] There's none like him. There is none but him who rules supremely. So, what have we seen this morning? We've seen this great and glorious God alongside of creation and mighty nations.
[35:50] It's leaders and idols and men. And nothing and no one compares to him. So believer, is this your God? Is this your God?
[36:00] And I'm not talking about in theory. We all know what God is as Isaiah 40 says. As the Bible says. I'm not asking that. Is this your God in practice?
[36:12] Is this the God you live with every day? The God how you are thinking of him. Is it the God you rely upon and rest on and rejoice in?
[36:27] You see, we too, like Judah, have received amazing promises from God and his word. Promises that are meant to comfort and encourage us to give us to live this life with solid hope and great expectation of good in our God.
[36:44] Promises to deliver us from sin and Satan. from sin, from death, from hell. Promises to work all things together for good in our lives.
[36:57] Promises to govern our lives with infinite wisdom, power, and love. Promises to make us more than conquerors through anything in this life. Promises to bring this world that you now live in to the place where you won't recognize it hardly anymore because there will be no more curse, no more death, death, no more tears, no more sorrow, a new heaven and a new earth.
[37:24] Glorious promises he's given us. But people in our lives and problems in our lives and providences in our lives can seem to mock these promises and to steal the comfort of the promises, leaving us fearful, discouraged, downhearted, and hopeless.
[37:43] and our God knows this so he sends us further comfort. Behold your God. Consider the one who's made the promises, the God of the promise.
[37:59] Is he able to keep his promise? Is there anyone or anything in all creation to stop him? You know, there were a few things to stop Abraham from having a son in his old age from a barren old wife, Sarah.
[38:16] And yet the Bible says that he was fully persuaded that God was able to do what he had promised. Are you? Are you fully persuaded that God is able to do what he has promised?
[38:30] We can scoff at the idols that others live for, but we may have idolatry of our own to repent of. It was A.W. Pink that said, the essence of idolatry, boil it all down, bring it down to its essence.
[38:46] The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of him. How do you think about God?
[39:00] As you're sitting in the waiting room waiting for a report back from the doctor or when you've gotten that report back and it's not good. How do you think of your God when you see what's happening in your family and in the world around you?
[39:19] Is your God bigger than your problems? Oh, the little thoughts we have of our big and great and glorious God.
[39:32] What does your discouragement meter say about the size of the God you live with? That may reveal your truest thoughts about him because we're smart enough to quote the confession or to quote the scriptures and we think this is how, this is the God that I serve and live for.
[39:51] but our encouragement and discouragement meter is perhaps a better revelation of the God as we really think of him.
[40:04] And that's what God was putting his finger on in Judah as he wrote Isaiah 40 and that he means for us, his people today. Is your God big enough to enjoy? to delight in?
[40:18] To always rejoice in? To encourage you? Is he wise enough to know that he knows what is best for you?
[40:31] Or does he need you to enlighten him? Are his dealings with you so wise that you know you can't improve on them? Is your God powerful enough to do what is, what he knows is best for you?
[40:48] Is he loving enough to want what is best for you? Behold your God. Are you beholding him?
[40:59] You know, he himself is the greatest encouragement for discouraged saints. He's putting himself out there on the line. I'm your best shot.
[41:09] I'm your best, so I'm all you need to be encouraged in your trouble. So where do we behold him? If that's the command, behold your God, where do we behold him? Well, we behold him everywhere.
[41:21] In creation, the whole earth is full of his glory. Are you seeing him? The glory of creation is pointing us away from itself to its mighty and glorious maker.
[41:33] Don't stop short of beholding him. Don't stop short of praising him. As you're enjoying his gifts, make sure you're enjoying the creator. That's where you behold him in creation.
[41:45] You behold him in providence. He rules over all and that includes the nations. It includes this nation and its president and its Congress and its Supreme Court.
[41:57] God has not set aside his rule in our land. He still reigns here. He reigns in the Kremlin. God reigns above it all. And he reigns over your life and the providences of your life.
[42:11] Every single one of them. He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth. The king is there. He's saying his arm rules for him.
[42:27] He reveals him. Where do we behold him? Creation, providence, in scripture. It's here that we behold our God. This is the self-revelation of God. This is where he teaches us and tells us who he is and what he's like.
[42:41] Like here in Isaiah 40. This is where we see him. And we have 66 books where he reveals himself to us.
[42:55] Are you beholding him in his word daily to correct the distorted views that we keep seeming to trip into and fall into where God looks small and man looks big?
[43:08] And is such a sight of God changing you, encouraging you, comforting you? That's why it's there. So that through the endurance and encouragement of the scriptures you might have hope.
[43:20] Hope in this world. Where do you behold God? You behold him clearest in his son, Jesus Christ. Who is himself the word of God. Who is himself God.
[43:34] And so as you see him, you behold God. You behold him in his miracles. You behold him in his teachings. But you behold him especially and clearest of all on Calvary's cross, dying for sinners.
[43:50] God with us. God with us. Paying the cost that our sins deserve. Making the ultimate sacrifice to bring us to God.
[44:01] To know him. That we might enjoy him. That we might behold him and see him and glorify him and live for him. It's at the cross that all of God's attributes are put on their brightest display.
[44:15] Indeed Paul in writing the Corinthians speaks of the cross as the power and wisdom of God. Those are themes right out of Isaiah 40. Creation displays the power and wisdom of God.
[44:27] Oh, the cross. What wisdom to devise a way that God can stay holy and yet live with sinful men.
[44:39] Amazing wisdom. Power to bring that about in time, space, history. Yes, it's in Christ and in him crucified that we behold our God and then we behold his glory and the resurrection from the dead.
[44:55] And one day these eyes will behold him face to face as we wait for the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Do you know him?
[45:06] He's welcoming one and all to come to him today. You'll find in him what you need to make you right with God. Let's stand and sing Behold Our God a song that was taking some of the themes that we've looked at this morning and let's sing it to his glory and praise.
[45:29] Let's pray. Our God and Father thank you for this revelation of yourself in Isaiah 40. Thank you for the revelation of yourself in creation in providence and in your son at the cross at the empty tomb and one day returning in the clouds of glory.
[45:50] And we too must bow as Job and put our hands upon our mouth and say forgive us Father for complaining of your dealings with us as if we knew better.
[46:04] Forgive us that we often live with thoughts of you that are so far beneath what you say about yourself and what we say we believe.
[46:15] Oh help us Lord that we would indeed believe what we say we believe and what we profess that God himself is enough to make us happy all by himself.
[46:27] Give us help to that end that we might glorify you as a people who find everything that we need in our great saving God through Jesus Christ. Bring us back tonight to wonder again at that great sacrifice that was made to bring us into relationship with you.
[46:47] We ask it all in Jesus name Amen. Amen.