Word of Salvation – Vol.12 No.47 – November 1966

 

Comfort, Comfort Ye, My People

Sermon by Rev, J.J. van Wageningen on Isaiah 40:1-8

Scripture Readings: John 1:1-34 & Isaiah 40:1-8

Suggested Hymns:

Psalter Hymnal: 162; 420:6,4; 211:4,6,7; 397; 464

 

Beloved Congregation,

The Lord will comfort His people.  He calls His servants the prophets and charges them, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.”  He calls His servants who have to proclaim His Word, and gives them still the same charge: “Comfort ye, comfort ye, My people.”

And His people so need this comfort.  We hear about the warfare, the slavery, and the iniquity of His people; about the wilderness and the desert, about withering grass and fading flowers.  And how great and sure is this comfort: The glory of the Lord shall be revealed!

Over the terrible reality of wilderness and desert, of sin and destruction, the mercy of the Lord will prevail.

God Himself will come to His people in the wilderness; in the desert.  This is what we remember at Christmas: God’s coming to His people, in Jesus Christ, His Son.  But in the wilderness the way of the Lord must be prepared; in the desert a highway for our God must be made straight.

Only in the way of conversion His people will be comforted and this will happen, for the Lord, the God of the Covenant, will comfort His people.

The comforting of God’s people in the desert.

1.  Through the pardoning of their sins.

2.  By the coming of the Lord.

3.  In the way of conversion.

4.  As a divine certainty.

1.  God’s people are in the desert, in the wilderness.  Here the Babylonian exile is meant.  This terrible event took place about one hundred years after Isaiah’s death.  But the Lord made him see in the Spirit, such a long time in advance, the distress of His people: Judah carried away to Babylon, Jerusalem and the temple destroyed.  God had angrily withdrawn from His people, who were scattered among the heathens, because of their awful sins, their stubborn disobedience.  A terrible situation.  A situation of spiritual darkness, without any light, without any hopes as far as man was concerned.  Sin and punishment, wrath and destruction, suffering and loneliness, a people without God in a world without God.  This is the desert, the wilderness.

Is it not a reason to be much distressed, to be full of sorrow?  Indeed it is!  “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, says your God.”

Hear, God calls His servants, the prophets (and all His servants) to comfort His people.  (comfort ye, comfort ye is in the plural, it is said to more than one person):

What a comfort is there already in the fact that God speaks about His people, and that He is still called: your God, the God of His people.  “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, says your God.”

God has punished Judah, and withdrawn from them, but He does not forsake them forever.  They are still His people, and He is still their God.  Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem.  Jerusalem is here the representative of the people of Judah.

What is the first thing the servants of the Lord must say to comfort Jerusalem, to comfort God’s people?  “Cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”  Her warfare, her hard labour as slave, is finished.  Now the cup of her suffering is full.  The Lord graciously considers it is enough, more than enough.  This is the meaning of the statement that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.  It is the zeal of God’s love for His people.  It is enough, more than enough!  He will make haste now to bring her suffering to an end.  Cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned!

Her iniquity, her unrighteousness, her sins are forgiven!  This is the greatest comfort, for her sin is the cause of all her misery, for it is just, as the prophet says (in chapter 59): “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear.”

What a comfort for His people in the wilderness: “your iniquity is pardoned, your sins are forgiven!”  We know that this is not because of the sufferings of God’s disobedient, sinful people, but because of the sufferings of Him, on Whom the Lord has laid the iniquity of us all, who was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities.  (Is.53).

We live in a world full of sin and unrighteousness, full of misery and suffering; a world without God.  How many so-called Christian nations, how many so-called Christian people live without God, in disobedience, in unbelief?  It is really like a desert, a wilderness.  And what about us?  Do we realise that our iniquities have separated between us and our God?  Do we really feel sorrow because of our sins?  If we do, then there is comfort: Comfort ye, comfort ye My people.  In the name of the Lord I may say unto you that your iniquity is pardoned.  It is the comfort of the gospel of the Lord Jesus.  He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities.

2.  The comforting of God’s people in the desert by the coming of the Lord.

“The voice of one that crieth: prepare ye in the wilderness the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God”.

It is the voice of the herald, who exhorts the people to make the necessary preparations because the Lord comes back.  God, the God of the covenant, gathers His people together, those who were driven out of the land of their fathers and He brings them back.

But He leaves them not alone.  He himself comes to His people.  The Lord returns to Judah and Jerusalem, which He had abandoned for a time, because of the sins of His people; now He returns to be with them in His favour,

“And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”  The God of Israel will reveal Himself in His power and majesty, in his faithfulness and goodness toward His people,

Her warfare is accomplished, her slavery is finished.  The Lord changes the hopeless situation into a new and bright future, He drives away the darkness and makes His light shine, the light of His love and mercy; He fills the hearts with joy and happiness – so He reveals His glory in the salvation of His people,

So He will be in the midst of them with His holy and comforting presence.  So the people will see His glory, even all flesh will see it.  That means: not only Israel, but the heathen world as well.  God is great in the midst of His people,

From the New Testament it is clear that this prophecy has not completely been fulfilled at the time of the return of the people from Babylon to Judah.

The complete, real fulfilment begins, when John the Baptist as Herald announces the coming of the Lord.  He preaches in the desert, in the desolate and desperate wilderness of Israel’s religious life.  The glory of the Lord will be revealed in the coming of Christ Jesus, our Saviour and King.

We are going to celebrate Christmas.  Christ is born.  He came into this dark world which did not know about Him, He came to His people, who did not ask for Him, who were not expecting Him.  He came into a sinful, lost world, to a sinful and lost people, who were seated in darkness and in the shadow of death.  Christ comes, who is the reflection of God’s glory – Who is the Immanuel, God-with-us!  In Him, in His suffering, death and resurrection the glory of God is revealed, the glory of His righteousness and mercy, the glory of His power and majesty.  Through Him we have the knowledge of the glory of God – This is the true comfort of all His people: Christ came into this world to save us, to restore the communion with God – He is God with us.  This gospel must be preached in this world, all flesh, all men, the heathens too, must see the glory of God in Christ Jesus.  All men will see it, the whole world: “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then shall He render unto every man according to his deeds.”

Then this prophecy will completely be fulfilled: the Lord will come and His glory will be revealed.  Do you see His glory?  Is it your comfort, your only comfort in life and in death?

3.  The comforting of God’s people in the desert takes place in the way or conversion.

The way of the Lord must be prepared in the wilderness, a highway for our God must be made straight in the desert.  And this will surely happen: Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain.

Do you understand what it means that God wants His people to prepare His way in the wilderness?  Your heart and your life have to be changed.  The Lord desires to come, in order to bring redemption, to dwell among His people, to live in your heart, to grant you the wonderful blessings of His love and favour.  But are we ready to receive His redemption, to meet with our God, to live with Him, to accept His blessings?  There is so much in the way: our egoism, our pride, our indifference, our lukewarmness, our half-heartedness, our worldliness, our self-satisfaction, our self-righteousness, our unfaithfulness, our disobedience, our sinful habits.  There is so much, that must be cleared away, so much that must be broken down, so much is wanting, that must be supplied.

In one word: it means conversion, where you have deviated from the well-beaten ways of God as revealed in His Word and followed crooked ways, you have to return to the straight paths.

God wants you to humble yourself, to repent, to confess your sins and to call upon Him.  This is the way along which He will come, this is the way along which you will meet with Him and receive His salvation,

So John the Baptist summoned the people to be prepared for God’s coming in Jesus, the Saviour and Lord.

So we are called to prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness, to make straight a highway for our God in the desert.

The Lord’s people will listen to His voice for God works through His Word and Spirit.  Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.

Here God declares what will assuredly happen.  The way shall be ready for the coming of God through the Redeemer and all flesh shall see His redemption, His glory in the Messiah, in our Lord Jesus Christ.  Nothing will prevent Him, everything is prepared for His coming.  He will come and all will see Him.

But the question for each one of us is: have we prepared the way for Him?  Are we prepared ourselves?  For His coming will mean redemption, blessing, joy only to those that are prepared.

Only in this way you will be comforted.  This is the way to celebrate Christmas.  This is the way to see the glory of the Lord, your Saviour.

4.  God’s people in the desert will be comforted, this is a divine certainty for “the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.”

You can be sure that it will happen.  The word of our God shall stand forever, you can rely on it.

Our text lays strong emphasis on it by showing the contrast between man and the Word of God.  Man is perishable, powerless and weak.  “All flesh is grass.”  Surely, there is goodliness, there is still beauty in the life of man, flowers in the wilderness, thanks to God’s goodness, but it is all passing away.  “The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows upon it.”  By the breath of the Lord the wind is meant; when the Sirocco, the hot wind starts blowing nothing is left of the beauty of spring: soon it is gone.  Surely the people is grass.  You are to be pitied, if you put your confidence in men, if you expect comfort, deliverance, salvation from man.  Then you will remain in exile forever, you will never come home, in Jerusalem.  Men cannot help you, the grass withers, the flower fades – but – the Word of our God shall stand forever.  His promises to Israel, His promises to His people, He will surely fulfil them.  Comfort ye, comfort ye My people.

God came to His people after the exile.  He dwelt again among them in Jerusalem in His holy temple, what a comfort!  God came to His people; Christ was born; the Saviour, the Word became flesh; the eternal Word, and dwelt among us, and we saw His Glory, Glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.  What a comfort!

God will come to His people, for Christ the Lord will return from heaven, to judge the living and the dead, to redeem His people.  What a comfort:

Is this your comfort?  Are you ready to meet Him?

Be sure, the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.

Amen.