this morning to get to open up God's Word together, what a blessing it is for my family to get to worship with you. There's very few places like I go that my kids are like, well, we're going, right? And the feeling of family here among the Grace Bible Church is just a sweet, sweet, sweet blessing. And so it's a privilege to get to be with you. We're going to spend a little bit of time in the Old Testament this morning exploring a passage really at the heart of the book of the prophet Isaiah. We're gonna be exploring chapter 40. We're not gonna go verse by verse through every single verse because we'd be here a while. But we're gonna cover the whole chapter. We're gonna kind of walk through what God has revealed through Isaiah in this 40th chapter. But this 40th chapter of Isaiah, just to take a quick step back, give a little bit of context is really It's interesting because the first 39 chapters of the book of Isaiah are all about the trustworthiness of God, and the glory of God, and the beauty of God, and the fact that God is the eternal reality, and He is the ultimate reality in all of life and in all of the world. And it contrasts that truth and that reality with the consistent rebellion of his people, right? With the fact that his people oftentimes look elsewhere for reality. They look elsewhere for truth. They would look elsewhere for hope. But then the second portion of Isaiah, so that's the first 39 chapters, kind of in a very brief nutshell. But the second portion, verses 40 through 66, is all about God's promise that he will redeem. His promise that a Redeemer will come, a suffering servant, famously in Isaiah 52-53, that a Redeemer will come and that God has not left His people, but that He will redeem them. But in this first chapter of the hinge, in this switch from God's glory and the fallenness of His people to His promise for redemption, what's interesting to me about this 40th chapter, is that God doesn't jump directly to the redemption. We don't get the promise of the suffering servant right in chapter 40. But he meets them in the midst of their rebellion, and in the midst of the consequences of their rebellion, not with a bunch of theological truths to throw at them, but with a sweet and gentle invitation. that invites them to see and know him. He meets them, and before he offers them all the promises of redemption that are to come, he meets them where they're at, and he simply comforts them. He's not telling them everything they need to know, at least not yet. He's simply telling them, okay, I know it's been rough, but I'm here. You don't have to worry, I am here. Maybe more specifically, he's telling them, I am is here. The I am the God of the universe is here with you. And so before we really dive into this passage, and this passage on the comfort of God, this chapter really on the comfort of God, I want to stop to consider this idea of comfort. I think some of you may This letter was written in the midst of rebellion, in the midst of fallenness, in the midst of seeing all the God's people in the north being taken into exile, and really it was given to them as in preparation for the fact that they were going to go into exile. This is a letter they need to take with them because their lives are about to completely fall apart. I mean, in decades, but he was preparing them, and he knew this was coming. And some of you may be in that dark place right now. You might be ready for this note. You might be ready for this letter. You might be yearning for comfort, just like God's people were in the darkness of exile, having their dreams smashed, their way of life completely destroyed. And my prayer is that as we walk through this, I don't know how well you can receive comfort from a sermon. This is an awkward, like, setting to give you comfort, but my hope is that you will see, not me or a sermon, but that you will in this see God, be reminded of Him, and that He might bring you the comfort that only He can. But some of you might hear a sermon on God's comfort, and you might say, man, I'm so glad this message is here for the other people here who need that. It's nice for other people, but it may not even be, at least in this moment, not that compelling to you. You might feel pretty comfortable. On your list of needs, you might need a number of things from God. You might need wisdom, you might need provision, but if he says, I offer you my comfort, you're like, okay, I mean, I guess that's good too. But that's why I think we're given this absolutely timeless message, because he reminds us, even in the book of Isaiah, that needing comfort isn't something that is optional for the human life in a fallen world. We all will need comfort. We all oftentimes need comfort more than we even care to admit. And in the lead up, interestingly, in the lead up to this chapter, he gives us this kind of a warning in the story of King Hezekiah. This is a little bit of background, I can't help it, because it's such a fascinating story. There's this background in the story of King Hezekiah from Isaiah chapter 36 up to 39, just leading up to this chapter of comfort. And so we back up to Isaiah 36, we read about King Hezekiah, and Assyria was prepared to invade Jerusalem, and Judah, just as they had invaded the northern Israel, and in fact the king of Assyria had sent his army to the city, and they had arrived at the walls, they had surrounded the city, so the Assyrian army is surrounding the city, and he's bringing, and he delivers warnings and threats to the king, to King Hezekiah. But then he says, you know what? I don't just want to give threats to King Hezekiah. I want to make sure that the armies of King Hezekiah, everybody on the wall, hears my threat. And so he doesn't just deliver it to the king, but he delivers it to all the armies that are on the walls, kind of prepared to defend this city. And he tells them, don't trust in Hezekiah, don't trust in the Lord, or you will eat your own dung and drink your own urine. It's an interesting threat. And then he goes on, he says, but if you surrender to me, you will eat your own vine and fig tree and drink fresh water from your own well. It's interesting. But if you're standing on the wall, you're like, well, that sounds better. King Hezekiah feels the power of this threat, feels the imminency of it, feels trapped and afraid, and the king turns to the Lord. He seeks his help and God in his power and his grace delivers Hezekiah and Jerusalem from the army of the Assyrians and gives them years after this of peace. In chapter 38, we see a similar story where Hezekiah is in need and God provides for him. Hezekiah gets sick, sick to the point of death, and he literally would have died if God had not intervened, but he cries out to God, asks God for help, and God not only heals him, but says, and I'm going to give you 15 years of health. Over and over we see Hezekiah desperate and relying on God. Desperate and relying on God. But in his reliance on God and in God's blessings to him, even after God poured blessing after blessing after blessing, Hezekiah became a bit complacent. The blessings were from God, but he said, well, thanks for giving me these, God, now I'm gonna figure out how to hold on to them. I may have needed you back in the day when I was younger, when I didn't know better, thanks for helping me out, but now I've got this. And Hezekiah, when the threat from the Assyrians rises again, doesn't turn to God, but turns to the Babylonians, makes an agreement with them. And when the Babylonians send some of the representatives to Hezekiah to form this covenant, this treaty between them, Hezekiah shows them all of his riches and all of everything he has. He shows them all of his entire arsenal. And the Babylonians go, that's good to know. We'll keep that in mind. And it becomes the seed, actually, of the downfall of Hezekiah and of Israel because of his pride, not depending in God, after time and time again that God provided, but trusting in himself. And on top of this, when Isaiah rebukes Hezekiah for his pride, for his self-promotion, for his trust in himself. Isaiah directly rebukes him, and he says in Isaiah chapter 39, so just the chapter just before where we're reading today, in chapter 39 verse 5, Isaiah says to Hezekiah, hear the words of the Lord of hosts. Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and that which your fathers have stored up to this day shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord, and some of your own sons who will come from you who you will father shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Isaiah gives him this rebuke. And listen to what Hezekiah says in verse eight. The word of the Lord you have spoken is good. For he thought there will be peace and security in my days, What a jerk, right? The pronouncement of judgment comes, your sons are going to be carried off to exile. And he's like, well, at least it's not going to be me. And we see in this, it's fascinating, a warning, I think, of complacency in the blessings of God, assuming that we don't need the comfort of God, assuming that when the troubles come, there might be a time that we get beyond needing to turn to God, beyond our desperate dependence on God. In the latter part of the book, Isaiah gives them this letter coming after this. It says, you're going to need this. You're going to need this reminder. Maybe today, but maybe not today. Maybe tomorrow. The famous line from Casablanca, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday. You're going to need this message of comfort. So I want you to hear it, and I want you to carry it with you. So my goal is to, just as we work through some of the highlights of Isaiah 40 this morning, Either have it meet you where you're at, or give it to you to carry with you. As Peter writes in his first epistle, Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. It says when the need for comfort comes, something strange isn't happening to you. This is life in a fallen world, and it's particularly life following Jesus. He gives them this letter to fold up, to keep in their pocket, to remember. And the letter doesn't begin with a rebuke. The letter doesn't begin with a big theological reminder. The letter begins with God himself simply saying in verse one, comfort. Comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended. that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double all that is owed for all her sins. As one commentator puts it, Isaiah's new message here is for people whose whole world has been shattered, and for people like that, cheap comfort is not only a waste of time, it's cruel. But comfort that is grounded in the reality, in the reality of God, is the true comfort we need. So what is the comfort that is grounded in reality? Well, it's the reality, he says here in verse 2, that God will end, one day, external threats. He says His warfare has ended. And the reality is that God will deal with our internal threats. His iniquity is pardoned. That He will speak to us gently and tenderly. It's the comfort of being reminded of His goodness. that no matter what happens, God is good. And He will bring about good. Look at verses 10 and 11. It says, Behold, the Lord comes with might, and His arm rules for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense is before Him. He will tend His flock like a shepherd, and He will gather the lambs in His arms. He will carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. You know, the classic depiction of Jesus looking gentle in a soft light and holding a lamb in his arms, right? I think that picture of Jesus gets a bad rap, right? We look at it and we're like, oh, like that's, actually, we have a, in our church building, we have a stained glass window literally of that picture, right? I think people are like, oh, it's so simplistic, it's so typical. And in one sense, that's true. God, Jesus is more than that. But this is where this picture comes from. that God depicts Himself, and ultimately, His Savior, as a shepherd, as a good shepherd, that God cares for us like a compassionate shepherd, that when we're hurt and suffering, He picks us up in His arms, and He holds us close to His chest, and He leads us forward gently. But what does that mean? What does it mean to be held close to God's chest? God is reminding us of his consistent and never-changing closeness, that his goodness is extended to us in his nearness to us, that he is never far away, that he is never disinterested, that he is never neglectful, but that he is always present, always near, always engaged, always intentional, always working. He's reminding us of his presence and his goodness. No matter what the world around us looks like, no matter what pain we might be experiencing, he's reminding us of his goodness. And when we feel otherwise, What we feel isn't reflecting reality. He says, I want to remind you of reality, and the reality is that I am good and I am close. The way that he has chosen to speak to us and to combat the lies that we're tempted to believe is through his word. As Peter quotes in his first letter, Isaiah looks at all the destruction in the fallen world and reminds his readers, look at verse 8, that the grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever." God says, I am near. I'm near and I am always present, always holding you close. And through His Word, He is whispering and reminding us gently of truth. Did you ever wonder why the Word of God, you're like, well, I can open it or I cannot. I come to it and I don't know, I'm not forced to it, I'm not chained to it, but it's always there. That's because God is saying, I'm always here, always ready to speak to you. I'm not throwing things in your face, but I'm here with my message, ready to speak for you. And the words that we hear from His Word, are the words he wants to bring us of comfort. Now, it doesn't always feel like that. When you open up, you're like, okay, I opened up the word just yesterday. It wasn't my experience. We're going to get to that. But I think it's important for us to recognize that there's a difference between being consoled and being comforted. I think sometimes we think of God as consoling us. But being consoled is just a surface-level alleviation of grief or sorrow. Being consoled is what you do when you just want your kid to stop crying. Right? Like, they're there, it's okay, just stop, take a deep breath, it's going to be all right. You're just trying to get somebody to calm down. But being comforted is different. I think sometimes we actually, that's how we view God. Hey, just stop crying, okay? It's going to be all right. They're there." God says, no, no, I don't just come to console you. I come to bring comfort. And comfort is the deep heart-level experience of being given hope, even in the tears. It's what you do when you hold your child close and assure them of what is true. in order to shape their perspective in the midst of the pain. It's filled with genuine assertions of truth. It's a reminder, right? When you hold them close and tell them, I will always love you. God does more than console us in our pain. He comforts us by reminding us of His goodness. He speaks comfort into our hearts by promising not only His presence and unconditional love, but by promising his future redemption. This is why chapter 40 is the beginning of a whole letter focused on his redemption. But it starts here, for this purpose. But if we are going to understand the reality of God's comfort, we have to understand more than just his goodness. Because I think sometimes we might understand his goodness, and this is where what we see in Isaiah 40 here, God wants to remind us of more than just His goodness. He also wants to remind us of His power. Because what brings us comfort, true comfort, is not just that He is good, but also that He is all-powerful. I've seen my kids, and particularly when they were younger, I would watch them try to comfort one another, and it was so sweet. Right? A kid gets hurt, struggling, afraid, A sibling comes and is like, you know, wants to try to bring the comfort. But a little child doesn't want a sibling. Right? They don't want a sibling. They want a parent. They want somebody who actually can do something about the situation. Right? They want somebody who might be able to reassure them that they need somebody who has greater power than just a peer in that moment. And in the same way, One of the biggest reasons the comfort of a parent is so significant is because they have power to put their goodness into effective action. And in the same way, God's goodness would not be comforting if he wasn't all-powerful. And by all-powerful, I don't mean really powerful. I don't mean more powerful than you can imagine. I mean all-powerful. True comfort from God comes when we remember that He is not only perfectly good, but He has absolute power. Look at verses 12 and 14 of our passage. It says, Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand and marked off the heavens with a span? enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance. Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?" Again, don't miss what Isaiah is doing here. He's not rebuking you in your tears, as if like, hey, God's powerful, just stop it. He's not just trying to console you. He's reassuring you that the one who is for you, the one who is promised to redeem you, the one who is working to redeem you is also the one who measures the waters in the hollow of his hand. Just think about this. The oceans on earth contain 325 million cubic miles of water. You have no idea what that is. I mean, it's pretty impossible. Even just our physical world is impossible for us to wrap our minds around. But just to give you one little piece to chew on, because this is new to me, and I've been amazed by it just for the last two weeks. Actually, it was just last weekend that I heard this. And I was like, what? Did you know that every continent on Earth, every land mass, think of every single continent, fits in the Pacific Ocean? If you were to cut them out and put them, that's how big the Pacific Ocean, most of you are like, no. You can Google it later, don't Google it now. But you can Google it later, it doesn't matter. But like, every continent on Earth fits, not in every different ocean, in the Pacific Ocean. Plus the Atlantic, and the Indian, and the Antarctic, and he says God holds, that measures the waters, in the hollow of his hand. Did you know that the heavens, he says, are in a span? The heavens, the known universe is 93 billion light years. That means if you are traveling at the speed of light, it'll take you 93 billion years to go from one end to the other. He says he measures it in a span, the distance between his pinky and his thumb. He's not like, really powerful. He's not like a little bit more powerful than you, or a really powerful machine. God is all powerful. And the one whose goodness is never-ending, the one who promises his redemption to you, is all powerful. to bring it about. And we were reminded of all of his power. His power gives depth and significance to the promise of his comfort. Imagine me saying to you, you know what? I'm so sorry things are so hard for you. I will gather you in my arms and hold you close. You're like, that's just awkward. It's not even nice. Not comforting at all. But when the God of the universe says I, Hold you close. I know everything that is going on. I know every pain. I know every heartbreak. I know intimately the inner workings of your heart and experience. And I, he says, hold you close. Again, because lots of things in this world promise Comfort. Lots of people in this world promise comfort. But God is reminding us only He can bring, and His goodness and His power can bring true comfort. And when we look to things other than God for comfort, like God's people in Isaiah had done, this is why Isaiah was reminding them of this, because they kept, just like Hezekiah, They received comfort and then they looked elsewhere for comfort. They received comfort from God and then they ran off to look for something else for comfort. They would stand on the platform God had given them and then still look elsewhere for comfort. And I don't know about you, but I resonate with that so deeply. After years and years and decades of receiving God's goodness and blessings and His comfort, my heart and my flesh still Look elsewhere. On a Tuesday afternoon when things are getting hard, when something comes out of nowhere and I did not see it coming, when the things you thought that life was about fall apart, we tend to look elsewhere for comfort, which is why God is calling us back here in Isaiah 40. It makes me think of this classic children's book. Actually, I found it on my kids' bookshelf this morning, so I brought it. Are You My Mother? I don't know if you've ever read it. Have some of you read Are You My Mother? I love this book. It's been around since most of you were kids. A lot of you were kids. In Are You My Mother, there's this bird, and the bird hatches out of his egg. And when he hatches, so you've got the mother flying away, the bird hatches, he comes out, he looks around, but mom has gone to go get food. And so he comes out of his egg and doesn't know where his mom is. Not only doesn't know where his mom is, he doesn't know who his mom is. He just came out of the egg. He doesn't know. And so he goes on this trek looking for his mother. But again, remember, he's never met his mother. So he keeps asking over and over. So he asks the kitten, are you my mother? And he goes to a hen and a dog and a cow. And he says, are you my mother? And apparently, getting more desperate or confused, he sees a boat and says, are you my mother? And an airplane and eventually a backhoe, which he calls a snort. It's a whole thing. But what's fascinating to me about this book and this search is every time I read, I couldn't help, every time I would read it to my kids, I couldn't help but see myself in it. Not looking for a mother, but looking for comfort. Looking for something other than God. And when you look to your career to bring you comfort, right? What you're asking is, are you my God? When you look to alcohol for comfort, you're asking, are you my God? When you turn on Netflix looking for comfort, are you my God? When you eat food looking for comfort, are you my God? In the children's book, the saddest thing about many of the places this little bird looks for his mother is that his question isn't met with an answer, his question's met with silence. It asks the kitten, and the kitten doesn't even respond. It asks the boat, and the book says, the boat didn't stop. The boat just went on. When it saw the plane, it cried out, here I am, mother! It says, but the plane did not stop. The plane went on. And inevitably, whenever we look to anything other than God, we don't get comfort. More often than not, we just get silence. Right when the career begins to wind down, the alcohol runs out, the Netflix show ends, or the food has been consumed, just silence. But it's into this silence that the one true God of the universe who sits above the circle of the earth speaks and says to the exiles in Babylon and says to you and to me, I am here to gather you into my arms, to hold you close, to bring you what you are looking for that only I can do. At the end of this book, the bird is actually returned back to its nest by the backhoe, by the snort. And he drops it into the nest. And when he does, the mother bird returns with a worm. And it had gone to get food, right? The mother bird returns. and hasn't ever seen, didn't know that the baby had hatched. And meeting her baby bird for the first time, she asks, do you know who I am? And the baby answers, yes. You're not a kitten, or a hen, or a dog, or a cow. You are not a boat, or a plane, or a snort. He says, you are a bird. And you are my mother. Which, it's maybe a silly illustration, but this is why God has given us His word. to call us back, to invite us back, to draw us back. And this is why he gave Isaiah this last section to his people in exile, so when they needed it most, they could pull this message out of their pocket and be reminded, so that for all of us, in our darkest moments, we could turn to God. And when he asks us, do you know, do you remember who I am? We might respond, yes. You're not a career that can be taken away. You're not a drink that will fade. You're not a show that will end. You're not a food that will be consumed. You are the one true creator of the universe. You are the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. You are perfectly good, completely wise, and absolutely powerful. You are the Savior of the world and the Redeemer of the broken. You are the friend of sinners and the hope of the lost. You are the joy of the sorrowful and the peace of the anxious. You are the central reality in all of life and you are my God. And he wants us to be reminded over and over again of his goodness and his presence and his power. Because when we see him, we're reminded in it. Everything else fades away. And the fact that we so often don't feel that way about God demonstrates to us, I think, all the more why it's so centrally important to put his message, his letter, in front of our eyes. We tend to be like, oh, I know that. I don't need to pull it out. But it just stays in our pocket. Like when the Israelites went into exile. as if they just kept this letter specifically written to them for this moment in their pocket, never pulled it out to be reminded of what He wanted them to know. Too often we go in search of these replacement gods because we've forgotten who the one true God is. We feel like He's far away. We feel like He doesn't know what's happening to us. We feel like He simply doesn't care or doesn't have the power. But these temptations in the depths of our souls are not new. They're not new to us. They're not new to humanity. It's actually the response. This exact same response was written into the very end of this exact same chapter. Look at verse 27. It says, Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel? My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God. This is not the type of question we all ask when we need comfort. And sometimes we don't think we need comfort, but the sign, just for the record, the flag that you might need comfort, might be that in your heart, these questions arise. Why is my way hidden from the Lord? Why am I disregarded by my God? Why doesn't He seem to care? And the answer he gives us, the answer he whispers into our ears as he holds us close is the reminder of his goodness and power that we've seen in this chapter. He goes on in verse 28. Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint and to him who has no might, he increases strength. He is all-powerful, he is perfectly good, and he is with you. Everything else we look to disappoints. Every effort we take on our own strength, ultimately our strength runs out. Because, and he's so beautifully here, verses 30 and 31, even youth shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. What an incredible promise. It says it comes, those who wait for the Lord. To wait on God isn't simply to mark time. It's not simply to sit and be like, okay, Whenever God... He's talking about waiting here. He's talking about an eager expectation. A patient trusting. I've been struck by repeatedly how often waiting... I've been reading through the Psalms just for the beginning of this year, and I'm struck how consistently this call on wait on the Lord comes in. It struck me because it feels unfamiliar to me. What do you mean wait? It's just this trusting expectation. that someone more powerful and more good is working. When we are comforted, we can patiently trust the comforter for the ultimate outcome of whatever it is that we're facing. So like I said at the beginning, I don't know that a sermon is the best means of comfort for you. God doesn't say to you, I stood in front of you and spoke for a half an hour. No, he says I held you close. So my hope is not just that, like, okay, even if you don't feel comforted right now, even if you're like, okay, I hear that. It sounds biblical. I don't know. My hope and my prayer is that you might be encouraged again to pull the letter, whether it's the second half of Isaiah, the letter he gives in his Psalms, the letter he gives in his Word, out of your pocket, and say, Lord, I will look to You again, even though I feel like You're far off. Even in the moments when I do feel like You've run away or abandoned me. You meet me there with reminders. Reminders of your goodness, your power, because you, you alone, bring comfort. Let me pray. Lord God, we praise you for your kindness to us. We praise you for the ways in which you meet us in surprising ways in your word. Would you draw us back again and again? Would you keep us coming to you? Not because we even know how that works or how you work, God, but your ways are unsearchable to us. But you meet us now in the midst of difficulty and pain. You meet us in whatever may come. The reminders of your goodness and your power. And not just as abstract truths, but as personal ones that reveal yourself to us. pray that you will draw us close. Thank you. In Christ's name we pray.