Isaiah 40 | Hope for a Fallen World | Shaun McGregor

Who can give real hope to the weary?

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Thanks, Ben. Well, I wonder where you go to find comfort. Maybe when you're feeling guilty or alone, fearful, or just weary of life. Where do you go when you need comfort? For some people it might be a cup of tea, sitting by a fire. Maybe it's a cup of coffee or hot chocolate for you. Maybe there's a comfort food, ice cream or apple crumble, congee. Maybe there's a particular person. Particular person in whose company you just you feel comfortable and you find comfort. Or maybe it's just scrolling through TikTok. Does that help? In their series, uh, this term, as we're going through Isaiah, a book in the Bible, we're seeing that God has words of hope for a fallen world. And today, particularly, we're going to see that he has words of hope, which are words of comfort for people who live in a fallen world, indeed, for people who are fallen people. I want us to hear those words, but even more, I want us to see that those words can give real hope. And I want you to experience that. First of all, those words. The words, the good news of comfort. This prophet who was sent by God to his people in Isaiah 6, he actually saw God. We saw a few weeks ago that he saw God, the holy king, on his throne, and when he saw God, he said, Woe to me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and I've seen the Lord. They were an unclean people, rebellious children, full of oppression and injustice, and Isaiah was sent, sent to harden their hearts until they were destroyed, until the land was utterly forsaken. Well, we've been going through this book of Isaiah, and when you come to the end of chapter 39, even the mostly good king Hezekiah, his heart has been hardened. It's an extraordinary thing if you look down there in verse 6 of 39, just before our passage, page 724. He's told that a time, a terrible time, is coming. A time when everything in your palace, all you've stood up until today, will be carried off by an enemy power, that's Babylon. Nothing will be left. As if that wasn't bad enough. Verse 8. Some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, who we born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. What a terrible judgment to hear as a parent. But Hezekiah's heart is so hard that when he hears this, how does he respond? Verse 8. I think it's shocking. The word of the Lord you have spoken is good. How could it be good? He says. Paid for. Or a criminal goes to jail, and when her time is up, she's done her time, she is set free. It is finished. God's people, if they're listening to this, must have been astounded. They've been rebelling against God for centuries, generation after generation, and after just one generation. It is finished. How could that be? We'll find out next week. Come back in Isaiah 53. They are loved and forgiven, and so God is going to gather them. Verse 11. He tends his flock like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs in his arms. He'll gather them out of Babylon and bring them back to the land and bless them, verse 10. His reward is with him. Loved, forgiven, gathered, and blessed. What a promise. And who is going to do this? Verse 3. A voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. He himself is coming. Verse 10 the sovereign Lord comes with power. He tends his flock like a shepherd, not a messenger, but God Himself will come to comfort them. This is good news. No wonder Isaiah is told, verse 9, You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, don't be afraid. Say to the towns of Judah, here is your God. Here are words of real comfort for these people. And God says that He loves them, He will forgive them, He will gather them and bless them again. Here is your God. God kept His promise and He brought them back to the land, but it was always a great disappointment. They always felt they were still waiting for God to come. We saw last term, if you were with us. Come and see Jesus. John the Baptist, who was the one who went before, people asked him, Who are you? And what did he say? Isaiah 40, I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord. Who was that Lord? Jesus. He was God Himself come. He came with power to tend his flock like a shepherd. He was the good shepherd. When we realize our own sin, we know our guiltiness. When we feel alone and fearful and weary, there is good news. Our sin has been paid for by Jesus. He said, It is finished. He gathers us together as his people now. He's blessed us now, and he has promised us a new creation. No wonder this phrase good news here in Isaiah, it's the same word that in the New Testament is translated gospel, the declaration of good news. And Isaiah is told to do what? Lift up your voice with a shout. Good news is worth sharing, isn't it? That's why, as Christians, if you know this good news, we want to shout it, we want to whisper it, we want to sing about it like we do on a Sunday morning, we want to speak about it in our conversations. When you understand what good news it is to know Jesus, you ask, don't you, how can I share this in my conversation with people? How can I talk about it at morning tea after the service? How can I talk about it at home? How can I share it with other people? How can we as a church lift up our voice metaphorically and say to the town of Linfield, here is the comfort that you are looking for? Good news is worth sharing. But my question is, are words of comfort enough? In these first few verses, it's all about words, isn't it? Verse 1, the Lord says, verse 3, his voice, verse 6, cry out. But words are cheap, aren't they? Have you ever experienced that when someone's made you a promise and they've not bothered to keep it? Promises are easily broken. Could words actually comfort you when you feel guilty and you are ashamed? Are words enough to face sickness and chronic pain and grief that will come to you eventually? Well, the exiles, the people in Babylon, weren't sure. If you just look to the end of the chapter, they are saying verse 27, My way is hidden from the Lord. My cause is disregarded by my God. Have you ever felt like that? That your way, that your needs, that God is not paying attention? After all, why would he be interested in you? You are so small and you are not always good. God knows their hearts and he knows our hearts. And so in this next section, he speaks words that address their heart and he blows them away with who he is. The good news of comfort comes from the incomparable God. See if you can fathom this, verse twelve. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? Or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket? Or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance. Yesterday afternoon, my wife and I we took our dog for a walk down to Curl Curl Beach. And there's a boardwalk along the beach. Have you been there? It is so worth going. And there it is, you can see the picture. The expanse of the Pacific Ocean. I said to my wife, our passage tomorrow. God holds the waters in the hollow of his hand. Have you ever tried to hold up water in your hand? What does it do? It just pours out, doesn't it? That tiny bit of water that you've put in your hand. God, imagine this. He holds the waters, not just the top of the water that I could see, but the depths of the water, the volume of the water, of the oceans in his hand. The dust of the earth, well, I didn't want to find a picture of dust. Imagine this sort of amount of dust on your bedroom table. No. The sands of the desert, the gobi desert of China. Every grain of sand, collecting it and holding it in a basket. All the mountains. Here's a picture of Mount Cook in New Zealand that I took a few years ago. And that's a small mountain. Picture God at his kitchen bench with his scales weighing the mountains. This is God. And a God of unique wisdom. Who can fathom verse 13 the Spirit of the Lord or instruct the Lord as his counselor? Who did he employ to be a consultant as he went about creating the world? Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him? Who has taught him the right way? God could have simply made a proposition here, couldn't he? God is big. God is unique. But no, he doesn't give us a proposition. He wants us to see in our mind's eye. He wants us to feel in our hearts, and he wants to take our breath away. Every time you see the ocean or the mountains or simply the autumn leaves on the ground that you cannot manage to pick up in your hands. God wants you to see this and his enormity and power and praise him. And as well as that, he wants to speak to our hearts and to what we are impressed by, what we trust in, and who we are afraid of. Verse 15. Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket. They are regarded as dust on the scales. He weighs the islands as though they were fine dust. God's people, the exiles, were impressed, I presume, by the Babylonians who had defeated them? Australia, the United States, China. Why would you be proud of your nation? Why would you trust in your nation or another nation to protect you? Why on earth would you want to make it great again? Why would you be afraid? Verse 17, before him, all the nations are as nothing. They are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing. Are you impressed or afraid of human leaders? President Qi, President Trump. Verse 23. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff. Are you tempted to worship idols? Or your ancestors, perhaps? Verse eighteen. With whom then will you compare God? To what image will you liken him? As for an idol, a metal worker casts it, and a goldsmith overloads it with gold and fashions silver chains to it. Is that a god? Verse twenty-five, To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? Many years ago a Christian wrote a book with a great title Your God is too small. I will not ask you whether your God is too small. However big you think he is. When your God is too small, then you are impressed. You trust in, you are afraid of nations and rulers and idols and even of yourself. And that is complete foolishness. Do you see? Who else would you trust in? Why would you be afraid? Do you see the incomparable God? Why is it that the exiles who've heard this word of comfort? Why is it that we who have heard words of comfort this morning need to see the incomparable God? Because the good news of comfort from the incomparable God gives hope. Finally, after all of this in verse 27, Isaiah brings it to bear. What has he been talking about? Verse 27, why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord, my cause is disregarded by my God? They have been cast out of their land, they've been defeated, their future looked hopeless. And those who've been listening to Isaiah knew it wasn't random, it wasn't just the forces of history, it wasn't that their God was too weak. No, this was God's judgment on them. And every day, therefore, they were confronted by their own guilt and hopelessness. No wonder they were saying, My way is hidden from the Lord. But should they be saying that? Is that a possibility? No, verse 28. Do you not know? Have you not heard that the Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth? He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. You see, the words of comfort that he just spoken, that they were loved, forgiven, will be gathered and blessed, they are not just words. They are words of God. Words that come out of the mouth of the Lord, verse 5. He is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth, and he is the gentle shepherd who carries the lambs close to his heart. Verse 6, all people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. No wonder we don't take words seriously. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever. You think of everything that seems secure and permanent to you. Nations and leaders, your life, your success, your wealth, perhaps your marriage, perhaps your legacy, your children and grandchildren. They are like grass. They will wither and fall because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Even the oceans and the mountains, they are in his hands, and they will not last. But the word of our God endures forever. And what is that word? It is a word of comfort. So let's apply this. Like the exiles, the people who were sent off to Babylon, do you know your guilt? Do you feel your shame? What will comfort you to hear Jesus' words? He said, It is finished. Your sin has been paid for. Like the exiles, do you feel scattered and alone? Separated perhaps from your family in another country, from your home, from your own nation? Are you perhaps disappointed by life? Disappointed in yourself, with your marriage, with your children. Then hear Jesus' words, I am the good shepherd. I gather the lambs, I gather you in my arms, and I will carry you to my heavenly home. Like the exiles, are you fearful? Fearful of your own failure? Will you ever make it in your career? Will you ever succeed in your in buying a house? Is there a bully in your family or friends or workplace who you are afraid of? Are you afraid of a sickness that will come upon you? Or the loss that will happen? Or war, perhaps? Then hear Jesus' words, God's words, all people are like grass. The nations are just a drop in the bucket to God. But especially like the exiles, are you weary? Weary, perhaps, of your guilt, living a scattered and alone life, weary of being fearful. For me, as I reflected on this, I had become weary of praying, calling out to God for myself and for those I love, and those prayers seeming not to be answered. Unanswered prayer leaves you weary. My way is hidden from the Lord. So here again verse 28. Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. Your way cannot be hidden from the Lord. If he can hold the waters in the hollow of his hand, he can see and remember and pay attention to what is happening in your life. And if he is like a gentle shepherd that carries lambs in his arms, he cares about every part of it. And it's this Lord who promises to give strength to the weary. It's a beautiful image at the end of the chapter, isn't it, verse 29? He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar in wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. I love running. And so I know what it's like to run and to grow weary. It just happens. We all know what it's like to be exhausted by the end of the day, don't we? You are busy with assignments or work and trying to keep on top of everything. You are busy caring for children through the night and then the day as well. You are exhausted from sickness throughout the day or just from the weariness of old age. We know what it's like to grow weary, and this is not a literal promise that you will run and never grow weary. Jesus is not everlasting caffeine. If you work all day and burn the midnight oil, you will grow weary. But when you face your guilt, your loneliness, your fear, when you grow weary from living in this fallen world with your fallen heart, the Lord promises to give strength in your weariness, to increase the power of the weak. How does he do that? Does he just magically impart it, beam it down to you? Do you simply ask him and you then press on? No, he tells you here, doesn't he? Who is it that he gives strength when they are weary? Verse 31. Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. Do you see? When you hear Jesus' words of promise that speak to your guilt and your aloneness and your fear and your weariness, when you hear Jesus' words and you trust them, because they are the words of the incomparable God, then they give hope. They give comfort. You are loved and forgiven and gathered and will be blessed. When you know this, then yes, you will feel physically weary. You will still be struggling on, but the Lord will give you strength. And here is to be found comfort. What do you look to to find real comfort? Words are where we get strengthened, but only if they are the words of the incomparable God. Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. So will you put your hope in the Lord and in his words? Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you that you are the incomparable God who holds the waters in the hollow of your hand. Help us to see your great power and strength and gentleness. And so, Father, help us to hear your word, your word of promise, of forgiveness, of love, that you gather us and you will bless us. Help us to believe your word and not be afraid of others and not to become weary, but rather to have strength to carry on. We ask this in Jesus' name.