Please remain standing for the reading of scripture. Our New Testament lesson tonight comes from Matthew's Gospel, chapter three. Matthew three, verses one to six. Listen to the words of God. In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Now John himself was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him, and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Turn now to our Old Testament lesson and sermon text from Isaiah 40, the very passage that Matthew, the evangelist, quoted from Isaiah 40, and we will read verses three to five. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill brought low. The crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places smooth. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Amen. You may be seated. I wonder how many of you are familiar with the concept of text painting. You ever heard of text painting? A text or word painting, and I quote, is the musical technique of composing music that reflects the literal meaning of a song's lyrics or story elements. In other words, With text painting, the music matches the words. The music matches the words. It follows the grooves of the text. The music isn't arbitrary, it actually fits the lyrics. And this is the case par excellence with Handel's Messiah. Again, we're in the midst of a series looking at the texts that were used in the libretto of Handel's Messiah, and I'm gonna quote from an essay published by the Handel and Haydn Society. That Messiah became an institution is a testament to Handel's unparalleled skill in musical storytelling. Much of the appeal of Messiah lies in Handel's bold and subtle use of text painting. Through this, he constructs relationships between different parts of the oratorio. Okay, so in this quote, It's drawing attention to the fact that Handel is a master of text painting. In fact, this is what Handel did with the text we just read. We just read verses three to five of Isaiah 40. The essay continues, talking about these set of verses. In the aria, every valley shall be exalted, Handel writes explicitly crooked and straight melodic lines for both the voice and instruments as musical elaborations of these words. So on the car ride here, we were listening to John Eliot Gardner's Monteverdi quieter recording of the Messiah, and we listened to this aria to hear the crooked and straight melodic lines. So after the service, you'll have to turn on the Messiah and listen to see if you hear how the music matches the words. It's a classic illustration of text or word. Painting, another famous example of this in the Messiah is the line, and I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land, where the singer's voice literally shakes as he says the word shakes. It's a great example. Well, you might say, what does that have to do with the sermon? Well, tonight I want us to talk about a different kind of text painting. You could say, text painting in a heavenly key. One in which... the music of our lives matches the tone of the text. One in which the melody of our affections reflects the contours of God's word. In other words, not to be merely hearers of the word, but doers of the word, so that the relationship between your life and the scriptures is not arbitrary, but fitting. We could call this spiritual text painting. And this really is, whatever you want to call it, the urgent summons of the voice of one crying in the wilderness in our text. Prepare the way of the Lord. make straight in the desert a highway for our God. It is a call to spiritual text painting, for our lives to match the reality of Christ's coming. By God's grace tonight, we're gonna look at this passage. Under two headings, we're gonna look at the man, and we're gonna look at his message, and along the way, I want us to seek to connect the dots between the music of our lives and the tone of the text, to engage in spiritual text painting as we not only prepare to celebrate Christ's first coming, but we do so in anticipation of his second. coming. Let's begin with the man. And just to put this... This text, in a little bit of context, this is the prologue of Isaiah 40. It runs as a prologue from verse one to verse 11. Last week, we saw that this prologue opens with a commission or charge to Isaiah to comfort God's people by speaking comfort to Jerusalem, to speak upon her heart. And it was a glorious message of consolation. And yet, when you look at that, message, it's primarily negative. Her warfare ended. Her iniquity pardoned. And in our passage, we're gonna look at tonight, that message of comfort continues, but with a more positive thrust. And yet before we get to that message, we really need to consider the messenger, the man. The man sent by God to bring these tidings of joy. And we see the man identified in verse three. The voice of one crying in the wilderness. Who is Isaiah talking about? Who is this man, this messenger? Well, he's simply called the voice. What's the voice doing? It's crying. crying out, reminds us of verse two, cry out to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned. There's a connection here. And where is this happening? Well, the voice is crying in the wilderness, in the desert, in a remote and wild place. Well, that's what it says. What does it mean? Well, if we look at this, These verses, clearly the verse is describing a prophet who is prophesying. A prophet who is proclaiming a message from God. I'll remind you, as I've said before, the Bible has a certain movement to it. Some people have described the Bible's movement as moving from priest to king to prophet. That with Moses, we have the giving of the law, which concerns the priest. Samuel comes upon the scene, and then at that point in Israel's history, we have kings arise who are called to exercise wisdom. And then at the end of the Old Testament economy, you have people like Elijah come, who are prophets, who are bringing oracles of salvation and judgment to God's people. Well, at this latter stage of the Old Testament history, not only is Elijah the model prophet, but there's some striking similarities between Elijah and the voice in our passage. Elijah, we know, was a hairy man wearing a leather belt around his waist. He was a wild man. as a lone voice of dissent. He cried in the wilderness. He was a desert prophet, a lone voice. In fact, he thought he was the only one left when really there were 7,000 who hadn't bowed the knee to Baal. And yet, when you look at Elijah, clearly he's pointing beyond himself and his ministry. Really, he's pointing to someone like Isaiah. And Isaiah is the one who's initially given this commission to comfort, yes, comfort my people. He's the one who was called to cry out to Jerusalem that your warfare has ended, your iniquity is pardoned, you've paid double for all your sins. He cried out to the exiles. It's time in the future, calling out to them, it's time to come home. And as we saw last time, clearly, Isaiah is even himself looking forward to a future figure from him, to the servant of the Lord, of the great servant songs. Isaiah's pointing ahead into the future, and that's where we come, in the New Testament, to the key to interpreting this text. We just read it from Matthew chapter three, verses one to six. Who does Matthew identify with the voice crying in the wilderness? Not merely the historical Elijah, not Isaiah or one of the sons of the prophets, but ultimately he points to John the Baptist. John the Baptist, an Elijah-like forerunner who comes before the Messiah, clothed like Elijah in camel's hair, leather belt around his waist, eating desert food, locusts and wild honey. And John, like Elijah, like Isaiah, is a lone voice of dissent. A lone voice, not only baptizing in the Jordan River, but crying out in the wilderness, repents. for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. John the Baptist is really the last Old Testament prophet. The last who's pointing as the final prophet to the Messiah to come. John the Baptist is the voice of one crying in the wilderness who is preparing the people to receive Jesus. Before we move to his message, I think it'd be helpful to remind ourselves that we are a church in the wilderness. That though we are more than conquerors in Christ, yet we are a pilgrim people, we are a church in the wilderness, in some measure in captivity, in exiles. We are citizens of the kingdom of heaven, even as we are pilgrims in this present age, on this earth, and we know what that's like. We know what that's like in a post-Christendom world. We feel what it looks like to be marginalized. And as a church in the wilderness, as a church in exile, as a church that is increasingly marginalized, as a church facing an increasingly hostile world, there are two choices before us. On the one hand, We can take the path of compromise and capitulation in the name of winsomeness. I heard recently that a number of evangelical elites, David French among them, have said they agree with the so-called Respect for Marriage Act, at least that seems to be my reading of their work. And I'm concerned that evangelical elites often want a place at the table And in the name of winsomeness, they're willing to compromise and to capitulate even on clear biblical teaching. Now having said that, I should just point out that this option won't work. This option won't work. Either the world will eventually reject you anyway, or Eventually, you'll become just like the world. You'll compromise to the point where your Christian witness is meaningless. You'll look just like the world. You'll be willing to join them rather than be shamed by them. The congregation is a better way. There's a better way than compromise and capitulation in the name of winsomeness. I'll call this the John the Baptist option. And it's the call to take a firm stand on the word of God. To recognize that we know we're a church in the wilderness. We know the world hates Jesus. We know that we're up against the world, the flesh, and the devil, and we're going to embrace that prophetic role. That in the spirit of John the Baptist, We will stand in the wilderness and declare the word of the Lord. We will embrace our prophetic voice. And however lonely and uncomfortable, we will know that we are being faithful in bearing witness to the Lord Jesus. And if the world hates us for that, We won't be surprised. We won't count it a strange thing to pass through fiery trials. They crucified our Lord. They will persecute us. And yet know this, congregation, that through many tribulations, we will enter the kingdom of God. The church in the wilderness is destined to be the church triumphant in heaven, in the new Jerusalem. The church militant on earth reflects the church triumphant in heaven. The church persecuted in this age will be the earth triumphant in the age to come. The voice of one crying in the wilderness. Well, John the Baptist cried out, and we cry out, but what shall we speak? What shall we say? What did Elijah say? What did Isaiah say? What did John say? And that moves us really from the man, the messenger, to the message. As we look at the message of the voice, it comes to us in two parts. There's a command and there's a promise, and both of them are addressed to God's people. message for you, the new covenant people of God. The first part of this message is a command. Look at verse three. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. First command is to prepare. The commentator E.J. Young says that this word suggests the idea of turning aside obstacles that may be in the way, as well as setting in order or arranging. Get ready. Prepare yourselves. Prepare for the Lord to come. Prepare the way. of the Lord's, get the way ready for His arrival. And this is parallel with another command, make straights. Straighten the way so that it may be crossed. The image here is one of God coming through the desert along a highway to visit his people in exile. This is an image that we should be familiar with if we know our Old Testaments. The children of Israel were enslaved. for 400 years in Egypt, and God came to them through the deserts to rescue them through the exodus. Having led them through the Sea of Reeds, he then led them through the wilderness, through the deserts in their wilderness wanderings until they came, after 40 years, to the land of Palestine. And he led them through the waters, he led them into the land, And we know from history that they sinned, they broke God's law, they gave themselves to idols, they broke his Sabbath, and God sent them into exile. And yet, as Isaiah in this book is looking ahead to the exile, he is telling them that a day is coming. When the Lord will once again come to you through the desert, through the wilderness, a highway will be prepared and he will come and he will lead you out from Babylon. He will bring you home. He will lead you in a victory march through the wilderness, back again to Zion, that the Lord is coming in judgment and salvation. So get ready, put things in order, prepare the way, make straight his paths. And you might wonder, in this picture of getting ready, of preparing, of making straight, how does a people do that? How do you prepare for the Lord to come? Well, again, if we go to Matthew chapter three, it's very clear that the way is prepared when the people are prepared, and the people are prepared when they repent. We prepare through repentance. We prepare to meet our God by confessing our sins and turning to him for forgiveness. Be ready to receive him and the only way you can be ready for his coming is by repenting of your sin, turning from your sin, turning to the Lord. Repent before he comes because in coming, He will come both to bring salvation to those who are repentant and to bring judgment upon those who are unrepentant. His coming is good news for those who are washed in the blood of the Lamb, and His coming is bad news for those who are unprepared. This was true for Israel under Elijah's ministry. It was true of Judah under Isaiah's ministry. It was true of Judah once again under John the Baptist's ministry, and it remains true today. as we on the other side of Christ's first coming confess that from there he shall come to judge the living and the dead. That just as Elijah and Isaiah and John were pointing to Jesus, we too as gospel ministers point to Jesus Christ, not for him to come a first time, but to come a second time on the clouds of heaven. As we celebrate at this time of the year, his first coming, we do so in anticipation of his second coming. And congregation, when we get hold of this, this becomes spiritual text painting. Because as we look for that blessed hope of the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, as we look to the horizon line with anticipation, with faith, hope, and love, as we purify ourselves in readiness for His appearing, we are allowing our present lives to match future reality. We are ensuring that our earthly lives match heavenly reality. The music of our affections reflects the tone of the text. God, as the great composer, loves spiritual text painting. He wants your life to match the truth of the gospel. When God comes, what happens? The voice has told everyone to get ready. highway in the desert, and now the Lord is coming, the Lord is appearing, the Lord is on his way. What happens when he comes? And that leads to a promise, a twofold promise of redemption and revelation of God's word and of God's deed. The first part of the promise is one of redemption. We see that in verse four. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low. The crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places smooth. This is a promise that there's going to be a great redemption, greater than the exodus, greater than the return from exile, an act of redemption that involves a series of reversals and transformations. That what is presently low, the valleys will be exalted. That what is presently high, the mountains will be brought low. That what is presently crooked will be made straight. And that what is rough will be smoothed out. Transformation. And what we begin to see is that, yes, God wants his people to prepare the way, but ultimately it is the Lord himself who's going to remove the last and really ultimately all the obstacles. He's the one who's going to prepare the way. Yes, working through his people, but ultimately doing what only God can do. He will remove the obstacles. He will lift up the valleys. He will bring down the hills. He will straighten everything out. He will make a road for himself and he will come He will come to his people in exile so that he can bring them home. He will prepare the way. He will come along the way, and he will lead his people in triumph. This is the promise of redemption. Even though we live 2,000 years after Christ's first coming, even though we have, by faith, been united to Christ and are justified, sanctified, adopted, We still live in a state of sin and misery. You look around the world, it's broken. Look at your own lives. There's tragedy. There's fragility, brokenness. Things are crooked. Things are rough. The congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, however messed up, be encouraged that God on the basis of this text has promised us that he will put the world to rights. It's true in principle now. In principle, it's true. Jesus has come, and one day it will be true in manifest perfection. Every valley shall be exalted. Every mountain and hill shall be brought low. The crooked places shall be made straight. The rough places plain. This is my Father's world. Let me ne'er forget that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my father's world. The battle is not done. Jesus who died shall be satisfied and earth and heaven be one. This is our message of hope that we know the end of the story. We don't just have the book of Genesis that records the fall. We have the book of Revelation that records the glorious ending, where the curse is reversed, where the garden has become a garden city, where the woman who had been defiled by her sin is transformed into a glorious bride. We have that final vision through John's pen of the new Jerusalem as a bride adorned for her husband, descending out of the third heaven to earth. We have a vision of final redemption. The battle is not done, and Jesus who died shall be satisfied. Well, this is majestic, and you'd almost think at this point, the voice is certainly done, but he's not finished speaking. He's not content merely to proclaim the promise of redemption. He has an even greater message. He wants to go beyond redemption to the promise of revelation. He wants to go to God's primal purpose, even in the creation of the world. We see that promise in verse five. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. The glory of Jehovah shall be revealed. In congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, this goes beyond the salvation of men. This goes beyond the redemption of the human race. This goes to the glory of God. The radiant splendor of God himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. the revelation of God's glory. This is ultimately the voice of comfort that comes to us through the voice crying in the wilderness. This message has been building throughout the Old Testament scriptures. Genesis 1.1, the glory spirit filled the heavenly temple. The glory cloud hovered over the face of the waters. That same glory of God in the person of the Holy Spirit filled the tabernacle, filled the temple, and yet the temple was destroyed. Ichabod, glory gone. Isaiah, with the eyes of faith, sees a future day of even greater radiance. Not only will God reform his fallen world as a cosmic temple, but he's going to fill it afresh with his glory as the waters cover the sea. The day is coming when the song of the seraphim will be sung afresh, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. The whole earth is full. of His glory beyond redemption, prior to redemption, is God's purpose to manifest His glory, His weight, His value, His light to all the worlds. And although we know that the perfect fulfillment of this promise awaits the consummation, the end of the age, yet I tell you that God's glory has been revealed. in our present darkness, in our crooked, rough life. I tell you that the glory of God has been revealed, that John the Baptist came, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, and as every prophet before him had done, he pointed to Jesus. But this time, Right there on the scene, the Messiah was present. Every other prophet had said, one is coming, one is coming, one is coming who's gonna put everything right. And John the Baptist stood there and said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, he's here. And John was right. Jesus came, the Word, who being the brightness of his Father's glory became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father. Jesus came, and though his glory, we could say in one sense, was veiled, veiled in flesh, for God had seen at his baptism, the glory spirit descended upon him, and the Father said, this is my beloved son. in whom I'm well pleased, he glorified him. Jesus in the Mount of Transfiguration had his glory unveiled. Radiant in white robes of splendor, and the Father declared out of the cloud of glory, this is my beloved Son, listen to Him. And ultimately Jesus Christ was lifted up upon the cross. He was exalted in His sacrifice. He was glorified in His execution. and he breathed his last. It is finished. And the third day, he was raised up by the Father in the power of the spirits in glory, raised in glory. After 40 days, ascended on high, sat down at the majesty on high, and one day will come again on the clouds of heaven, bringing the glory of God to bear afresh. Before he went up to heaven, he promised his disciples that he was going to pour out the glory of the Lord in a special way. That's what Jesus did in the day of Pentecost. The Father through the Son poured out the Holy Spirit. As it says in the prophet, and it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. That's what Joel said. That's what Peter cited on the day of Pentecost. I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. What's the language of our passage? And all flesh will see it together. Well, 2,000 years ago, the ascended Christ poured out the Holy Spirit upon all flesh, and all flesh together saw His glory. This revelation of glory was not done in a corner. It was public. Indeed, it was universal. The Savior of the world, the Lord of glory. And one day, one day, this promise of revealed glory will be finally and fully realized as we look for that blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And that's where we stand at this point in history. Yes, God's glory has been revealed in Christ, and yet we look for a day where God's glory is made manifest finally, fully, and forever. And as you live in this crooked, rough and messed up worlds. Perhaps some of you wonder, well, how can I know? How can I know that the glory of the Lord shall be revealed? How do I know that Jesus Christ will come again? How do I know? The scoffers say, he won't come. It's been 2,000 years. How can I know? And we can know because of the end of this passage. for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. By faith, we know that the glory of the Lord shall be revealed in the second coming of Christ because God has spoken it. It's a done deal. It's as good as done. It's signed, it's sealed, it's delivered in the pages of Holy Scripture. Beloved, now we are sons of God. and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear in glory, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. In the meantime, in the intervening period of time between now and the second coming of Christ, what are we called to do? Well, we're called to engage in spiritual text painting. May the music of your life match the tone of the text. May the melody of your affections conform to the contours of God's word. May your present earthly life reflect future heavenly glory. In other words, prepare to meet your God. Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. This is what it means, especially during the Christmas season, to celebrate Christ's first coming in anticipation of his second coming. This is spiritual text painting. Even so come, Lord Jesus, amen. Let's pray.