Title ~ What is your problem?
Reading~ Isaiah 40
Intro~ What is your problem?
Well if you are like most people you will recognize you have them. If nothing else we all have the problem of having the old nature. The nation of Isreal had great problems of national sin and looming judgment upon her nation. Christians have the problems of the world, flesh, and the Devil to deal with. But I can say that what ever your problem we can take great comfort in knowing the following from this great chapter of the book of Isaiah.
Lets look at it.
Isa 40:1 “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.”
I. Know first what ever your problem God is big enough to fix it.
A. For the troubled conscience God gives chastening and forgiveness as with Israel
Isa 40:2 “Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins.”
B. The word always follows the rod
Isa 40:3 “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”
C. Proud persons are no problem to God, He can fix that
Isa 40:4 “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:”
D. God can straighten out the crooked.
Isaiah 40:5 “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.”
E. He can bring forth the miracle of salvation
Isaiah 40:6 “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.”
F. He can sustain a withering life as a fading flower is renewed by dew
“The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.” Isaiah 40:6-7
G. He proves this in the record of human history in His word
Isa 40:8 “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.”
I. God can give confidence to lives in shambles. Just look at God’s work in the nation of Israel.
Isa 40:9 “O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!”
H. He makes all men accountable. He will fix them.
Isa 40:10 “Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.”
I. He can shepherd our lives effectively.
He can lead us, feed us, gather us, carry us, and gently work with us. See John 10
Isa 40:11 “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.”
II. God can not only fix our problem he can handle it.
A. He is big enough. There is no problem so big He can not handle
Isa 40:12 “Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?”
B. He is wise enough
Isa 40:13 – 14 Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?
C. He has the authority.
He has the authority to fix the environment more than Al Gore.
Isa 40:15 “Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.”
D. He has the authority in this complex day to deal with the problems of His churches.
III. Man just can’t fix it and man can’t handle it.
A. Man can not fix his own salvation problem by sacrifice.
Isa 40:16 “And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.”
B. We have nothing in our hands to bring. Absolutely nothing!
Isa 40:17 “All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.”
C. Human efforts alone will make an absolute fool of us.
Just look at mans offerings to idols. India wants to purify themselves drinking a new beverage. It comes from cows and it is supposed to compete with coke. I am glad God saved me out of Catholicism and not Hinuism.
Isa 40:18-19 “To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him? The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.”
Our world is in a mess! and only God can fix it, only He can handle it.
Isa 40:20 “He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved.”
IV. He can fix it because He alone is above it.
Isa 40:21-22 “Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:”
A. Any problem you may face He is above it
B. Men in power are no problem. Putin, Castro, Chevez No Problem!
Isa 40:23 “That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.”
C. They will simply be blown away by God’s authority.
Isa 40:24 “Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.”
Close;
V.Got a problem? God is big enough can handle it, He is above it, no one else can fix it.
A. No one can compare to our Lord.
Isa 40:25 “To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.”
B. Nothing is impossible to Him. Nothing!
Isa 40:26 “Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.”
C. He specializes in hard cases. Just look at Israel’s future restoration.
Isa 40:27 “Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God”
D. Hard cases to man just bring more glory to God
Isa 40:28-29 “Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
E. How about you? Are you a hard case? Don’t fret about it Jesus has the power to handle your problem too.
“He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Isa 40:31-30
So get up and run with confidence. Amen! Halalujah!
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