Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Please remain standing and let's turn our
attention to Isaiah chapter forty. Through the
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month of December, I want to
bring various sermons to you that reflect on
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the incarnation of our Savior. I
want to do that today from the Old
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Testament, this passage and Isaiah forty, versus one through eight, which which
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begin with these words comfort, comfort
my people, which are, of course,
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words of a hymn which will sing
a later after the sermon. Let's
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hear God's Word Isaiah Chapter Forty.
Comfort, comfort my people, says your
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God, speak tenderly to Jerusalem and
cry to her that her warfare is ended,
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that her iniquity is pardoned, that
she has received from the Lord's hand
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double for all her sins. A
voice cries in the wilderness. Prepare the
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way of the Lord, make straight
in the desert, a highway for our
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God. Every valley shall be lifted
up and every mountain and hill shall be
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made low, and the uneven ground
shall become level and the rough places a
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plane, and the glory of the
Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall
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see it together, for the mouth
of the Lord has spoken. A voice
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says, cry, and I said, what shall I cry. All flesh
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is grass and all its beauty is
like the flower of the field. The
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grass withers, the flower fades when
the breath of the Lord blows on it.
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Surely the people are grass. The
grass withers, the flower fades,
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but the word of our God will
stand forever. I'm going to keep reading
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verse eleven. Get you up to
a high mountain, Oz ion, harald
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of good news, lift up your
voice with strength. Oh Jerusalem, Harold
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of good news, lifted up,
fear not, say to the cities of
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Judah, behold your God, behold
the Lord. God comes with might and
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his arm rules for him. Behold, his reward is with him and his
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recompense before him. He will tend
his flock like a shepherd. He will
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gather the lambs in his arms,
he will carry them in his bosom and
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gently lead those that are with young. Amen, you may be seated.
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So, as I said, it
is from Isaiah forty that we have this
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hymn comfort, comfort, e my
people. You'll find it in your hymnals
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on page to nine, the eight
and if you'd like to track along,
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these words written by a German Lutheran
Pastor, later translated by a very smart
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and educated Englishwoman who learned German and
translated these hymns for us and others as
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well. This one another's. This
hymn comes to us and brings are we
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have this hymn and it brings to
us this message of Isaiah. It takes
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the prophecy here of chapter forty and
it turns it into melody, which,
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as you'll see, there is a
good reason for this, very good reason.
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There's good reason to sing this song. The reason is is that there
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is comfort in God's word. There
is comfort in his promises, and a
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very empowering comfort, if I could
put it that way. So what I'd
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like to do is read through these
passages with you and consider what they say
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along the way. Will track with
the hymn so that we can see how
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it corresponds with God's word. Well, verse one of the Hymn Communicates to
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US versus one and two of Isaiah
forty. Verse one communicates to US versus
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one and two of Isaiah forty.
What happens in these verses? Well,
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the is versus. God Commands His
Messenger to go and speak to Jerusalem,
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and this is a message of comfort, obviously right. It begins with these
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words comfort. Comfort, my people, says your God. I love this
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twice repeated word. Comfort. Comfort. Speak tenderly. This is what mothers
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do right when they hold their children
and they repeat these words. Sh It's
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okay, it's okay. Comfort.
Comfort, later we have the image of
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the Lord carrying gently lead those that
are with young. He will carry his
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flock in his arms. The Lord
is like a tender mother speaking comfort to
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her or to his children. She
is soothing with her voice. Comfort.
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Comfort. God wants to speak through
the Prophet Isaiah this way, and this
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is important because, or significant and
for a number of reasons, including this,
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that for the last several chapters,
which we didn't have an opportunity to
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read this warning, there was a
cry of judgment, warning distress. I'm
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God was promising that the people would
be would suffer as a result of their
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sins. But now God is God
wants to remind them that all will be
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well. Comfort. Comfort, my
people, says your God. What is
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the reason for this comfort? It
is, amazingly a very powerful message.
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God does not coo us with empty
words. He says, your warfare is
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ended, your iniquity is pardoned.
These promises of the future put in the
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past tense confirm the certainty of this
fulfillment. Comfort is going to come to
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people who are hurting, who are
broken, who are sad, but there
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is hope, because it is God
who speaks. What we have is sort
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of this victory war cry becomes a
comfort to the people, a proclamation of
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victory, because it comes with God
as their champion, and it also comes
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because their sins are being pardoned.
This is where we have to remember the
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context here, and that the warfare
that they are enduring, the suffering that
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they are going to endure, is
because of their sin. Israel has been
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faithless, Israel has chased after other
gods. Israel has heartened her heart.
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Israel has sinned against the Lord again
and again and again, tearing apart their
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bonds with him and with one another. God has been patient with them,
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God has been given all kinds of
forbearance, but judgment is going to come.
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This judgment that Israel will fit,
is soon to face and would face
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is a judgment that predicts, in
a way or foreshadows the final judgment of
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God, the judgment in which God, on the last day, sets all
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things right, judges all sin what
Israel was expecting there, in that moment
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and in that time, and eventually
did come, as Babylon came and destroyed
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her, was just a foretaste of
the coming judgment of God. And why?
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As I said, because of her
sin. And so then, for
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God not only to announce that your
warfare is over, but also your sin
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is pardoned, means that he is
going he is solving all the way down
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to the very root of the problem. And so we have in these words,
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these comforting words, a promise of
victory, of pardoned. She has
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received from the Lord's hand double for
all her sins. The phrase that either
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means that God has perfectly met the
demands, or perhaps that he has even
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given more than is what is required. Either way, the point is this
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that here we have the glory of
the Lord and that God's people are perfectly
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safe because of his strength and because
of his power. That's expressed for us
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in the following verses, in verses
three through five, we have this what
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I think of as a red carpet
scene. Do you know what I mean?
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Have you ever heard of a red
carpet kids? Maybe this is a
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new phrase to you, but when
we talk about rolling out the red carpet,
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we mean that we roll out this
big Red Rug for somebody fancy and
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important to walk on. Right.
So there. They don't deserve to just
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walk on the normal ground. Right. We do something special for them and
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we give them the special treatment by
rolling this carpet out. Well, I
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think of this passage in my own
mind is sort of the red carpet passage,
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but to an extreme degree. Listen
again to the words. A voice
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cries, not roll out the red
carpet, but in the wilderness, prepare
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the way of the Lord, make
straight in the desert, a highway for
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our God. Every valley, those
are all the low prit places in the
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earth. Every valley shall be lifted
up and every mountain and hill shall be
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made low, and the uneven ground
shall become level and all the rough places
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plain. When you build a new
house, right, it's a wise thing
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to level the ground right and not
just have a big rocky place for your
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health's shifts and moves. If you
want a nice, smooth path to walk
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on, what do you do?
You lift up the low places, you
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lower down the high places and you
smooth it out. That's exactly what's being
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talked about here, but we're not
talking about a path or a backyard or
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even a house. This is the
whole world. When God reveals himself,
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when God comes in glory. The
announcement doesn't make it a little easier for
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him, but it is this great
and victorious scene where the earth changes.
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It is an earth changing, world
changing, epic event. Why? Because
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Yahweh is coming, the Great Almighty
King. He is coming. This good
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news is, of course, harolded
in similar ways when Jesus is born.
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Angels Boom, appearing to the shepherds
in the middle of the night, crying
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out glory be to God, Star
in the sky leading the wise men to
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the savior, prophecies being fulfilled left
and right, of virgin conceiving and eventually
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giving birth, one thing after another. There is this catacclysmic world shaking event
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that is happening. This is what
happens when when Jesus comes, and yet
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even still, even with all of
those things, he's glory is still veiled.
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His glory is still veiled in some
ways. I think of the fact
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that he is in human flesh,
a child, that he is born in
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a manger, that he is born
in a not in the capital city,
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but in a small town he is
born and immediately upon his birth he herod's
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trying to kill him. We have
infanticide, many other things, but this
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glory that begins to break through with
the cries of the Angel and the cry
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of his cousin, right before his
ministry, John The baptist, who does
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say these words? Who is that
voice crying in the Wilderness? Prepare the
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way of the Lord. Remember what
John says. Behold the lamb of God,
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who takes away the sins of the
world. He's here. He will
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do things that I cannot do.
I baptize with water, he will baptize
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with the Holy Spirit. John,
the Great John that everybody was coming out
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to see. This voice that was
crying in the Wilderness. Prepare the way
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of the Lord said I'm not even
worthy to untie the strap of his Sandal.
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The king is here. I want
you to imagine for a moment a
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good king, a perfect king,
who rules a perfectly good kingdom, and
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then one of his decis citizens are, maybe even a group of citizens,
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decide that they don't like this goodness
anymore and that they are going to rebel
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against him, and a all of
his citizens. They blow up bridges,
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they commit various acts of terror,
they murder other citizens, they do everything
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they can to try to destroy an
undermine his law. What should this good
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king do? You should protect his
kingdom right, injustice and in might.
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He should squash the rebellion and protect
that which is good, protect the weak,
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protect those who are not doing evil, not doing wrong. But then
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imagine that, instead of doing that, that king gives his only son to
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pay the penalty for their terrorism and
their rebellion, that instead of taking their
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lives, he says, I love
them so much that I want to take
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the life of my son instead,
and all the wrath and the curse that
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belongs to these evil, wretched,
terrible citizens I will place on them so
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that I can make them wholly and
bring them close to me. This is
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what our good king does when he
sends his son into the world to pardon
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our sins. And that's important,
because when we read of the good things
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that God does for us, it
brings US comfort, not just to know
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that we're forgiven, but that were
forgiven by him. We know his love,
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His mercy, his peace and this
glory that is revealed in Christ.
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As we read in Verse Five,
the Glory shall be revealed and all flesh
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shall see it together. The announcements
of this good news about Jesus, in
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this word that comes into the world
goes out to all the earth. God
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broadcasts it through all of these channels, saying to all the rebels, come
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in, it's okay now. Trust
in my son, believe in this salvation
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and you will be saved, you
will be forgiven. Your warfare with me
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is over. That's why, in
the hymn it talks about our pining sadness
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turning eternally into ever springing gladness.
Why? Because as God, as rebels
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and enemies against God, we don't
find our lives, we don't find freedom,
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we find warfare and sin and misery
and curse, we find death.
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I'm suffering and sorrow. But to
be brought into the love of God,
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to be brought into the good news
of this king who comes and with this
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glory, means to find comfort and
peace. The power of this is expressed
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in verses six through eight. A
voice says cry, and I said what
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shall I cry? All flesh it's
talking about. The US is grass and
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it's beauty is like the flower of
the field. Well, how are we
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like flowers? Isaiah says we're like
flowers in this way, that we wither,
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we die, we spring up and
we're pretty for a moment and then
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we we fall away. They surely
the people, are like grass. But
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the word of our God will stand
forever. That's an amazing thing because it
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means that instead of trusting our plans
and our sins and our self, instead
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of priding ourselves in our strength,
we ought to trust him and it means
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that even though we might fade away, we will still have the life that
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he promises, because the word of
our God will stand forever. This concludes,
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at least for now, in the
next versus versus nine through eleven,
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where we have this amazing turn in
speakers. The beginning of the chapter calls
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the profit to speak to Jerusalem,
Tell Jerusalem this good news, Tell Jerusalem
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the Gospel. Come for her with
my promises that in me and in my
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power and in my glory and my
word, everything will be okay. And
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you know what happens? Everything is
Okay and Jerusalem, instead of fading away
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into nothing, becomes the speaker.
She begins it begins by she is the
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one who is spoken to and now, by the power of God's word,
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she is empowered to be the one
who speaks, the one who brings the
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message of comfort, and we've seen
that here this morning in these professions of
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faith, in our own, and
in the brothers and sisters who came up
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and joined this fellowship, this church. God did something in their lives,
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and that what happens. They stood
up here this morning and they spoke and
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they said this is who the Lord
is and this is what he's done,
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and I believe it. They become
confessors, they become speakers, they become
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evangelists. So then we have verse
nine. This is exactly what happens to
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God's people when he works his word
in them. Get up to a High
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Mountain, Oh Zion, Harold of
Good News, Zion, lift up your
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voice with strength. Oh Jerusalem,
Harold of good news, lifted up,
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fear not, say to the cities
of Judah, behold your God, behold,
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the Lord comes with might and his
arm rules for him. Behold,
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his reward is with him and his
recompense before him. He will tend his
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flock like a shepherd, he will
gather the lambs in his arms, he
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will carry them in his bosom and
gently lead those that are with young so
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my encouragement to you this morning is
to hear this word and believe it so
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that you may speak it. Hear
the good news about God who comes into
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this world, receive that promise,
that pledge, that token, and then
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give it to others. Spread the
word. When you consider your sins,
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and I know that you do,
don't despair, but hear the word of
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the Almighty God who can bring a
mountain down and raise a valley up and
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enter into the world to save the
world, this light of light, very
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god of Very God, our Savior, Jesus Christ. You have heard the
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good news this morning. Believe it, spread it. Let's pray
