Worship & Word Celebration - Part 1

To recommend to you today a book by Philip Hacking called Isaiah, because that's the book that we're going to be studying together, the Spring Harvest Bible reading book. This new book by Philip Hacking on Isaiah is ideal for personal and home group Bible study. It's part of a series that EA has published with Crossway Books, a whole variety of contemporary Bible teachers bringing out the truth of Scripture in a way that's easy for us to understand with special graphics, concise summaries, a strong and lively application of each passage. You can read a bit a day. It's good for daily Bible study, daily Bible reading. It's pastorally encouraging. If you are one of those people who never buys Bible commentaries, this is the one to buy, because this series makes it easy. If you like reading sort of day by day through your Bible, this is an ideal accompaniment. This series is absolutely excellent. It's about the sixth one out and we really do recommend it to you. If you're someone who always buys Bible commentaries and would like something to actually take off the shelf, then this one is really excellent, highly commended, available in the Wesley Owen Bookshop. Program update. Day 2. Now I know we never change the program, just one or two minor additions or amendments. Day 2, 1545, I Believe 3 moves to Marquee 4. 1545, I Believe 11 moves to Marquee 2. 1545, Decisive Years Workshop moves to Marquee 3. 1545, An Amazing God 19 moves to Marquee 2. Any further queries, do ask at the information office. Developing your spiritual life special stream, read Harvest News for major program changes. The ones I just read to you were minor ones. Make sure you obtain your copy of Harvest News each day, because it contains the program update. Special opportunity to meet Doug and Sue Barnett of Salt Mine at the Salt Mine Reception, 1 o'clock, Marquee 1. Doug and Sue Barnett available at the Salt Mine Reception, 1 o'clock, Day 2. Really worth going to. Take your sarnies with you. They may even serve light refreshments. You never know your luck, but it's really going to be a great opportunity to meet with Doug and Sue and find out more of what they're doing. Youth for Christ have a reception in search of teenage disciples, which is something they've nicked off Jesus, but that's another issue. Day 2, 1 o'clock, in the Enchanted Castle. Lol, I hope you're going to pray through it first. But it's the Enchanted Castle today, 1 o'clock, YFC Reception. Christian Service Area, 3 o'clock, Meet and Hear the artist Joy Giroun. I probably pronounced that wrongly and apologized to her for it. Keynote Celebrations, the speakers tonight, in Rick's place, Faith Forster, and in the showboat, Floyd McClung. The subject, God, the Holy Spirit. God, the Holy Spirit, Faith is in Rick's place, Floyd McClung here in the showboat. And that's the end of the notices. That was amazingly painless and I got through those as fast as I could because I want to tell you a story. When I met Ruth, the girl I was going to marry, we fixed a wedding day and the engagement really fouled up. We threw rings at each other more often than we care to remember. If people say that the worse the engagement, the better the marriage, we have lived on that principle. But it is not unkind to say that our marriage, to be, was falling apart before it started. A friend of mine, a guy named John Oliver, was due to be my best man and John said, there is no way that I'm going to be best man at the wedding of you two because it won't last the year. What I'd love you to do is I've got a friend, a guy named Doug Barnett, and I'd like you to go and see Doug and Sue because when they talk to you, Ruth, I guess they might come up with something that will save a disaster. And so we went to see Doug and Sue, convinced that we knew how this was going to work out. Either they were going to say, yes, you go and get married or no, you don't. And they said neither. They said, why don't you put it off for a year? Let God do something in your lives and try again next year. That's what we did and 20 enormously happy years later. I've always been grateful to Doug. I'd like you to welcome Doug Barnett. Sorry about the intro, mate. Oh, I'm very pleased that you were able to say that, Clive. Very pleased. Doug, we want to talk for a bit about Salt Mine, which is a mission and evangelistic agency. But Doug, because we've known each other so long, I can be a bit rude to you. I mean, Doug, you've been involved in evangelism a long time. I mean, how many years? Thirty-three years. Now, after 33 years, I mean, you're kind of an evangelist evangelist. You've mentored so many of us, you've lost count. Why on earth are you involved in a young agency like Salt Mine? I mean, aren't you a bit out of place, mate? Really? Probably. Probably, yes, I am probably right out of place. But I think one of the important things, Clive, that you mentioned there is mentoring people. And Salt Mine is about training and teaching and encouraging people to use the gifts that they've got, to release the gifts they've got, in the service of God. And for someone like myself, it's a privilege and a thrill and an excitement to guide people, to train people, to help people, to do better than I ever could the work of evangelism. Just like you did me? Possibly, yes. Possibly. Have you had any successes in Salt Mine? Any people who you've seen go on to things? They're not our successes, they're God's successes, because when God gifts people, he develops that gift and he uses that gift. And it's a thrill to us in Salt Mine to see the people who've been in our teams, who've been in the band, now moving out from where we are, serving God as youth pastors in various Baptist churches around the country. One of our team was assistant to RT Kendal at Westminster Chapel for a while. He's now at Bible College with his wife. And there's a young lady that was in our children's team who's now working full-time in a school in Lebanon, in Beirut, teaching and training young Lebanese there as well. So yes, we've seen so many of our team move out into Christian work in the fullest sense of the word, and others who have moved out to serve God in their old careers and with their old skills as well, which is equally as valid and equally full-time service as well for God. Now, if I was a betting man, I would have been laying a wager how long we would get into this interview without you saying the word Lebanon. I mean, why the passion for the Middle East? Salt Mine has extended itself so much overseas. Why, Doug? Well, because in 1988, I was here at Skegness, and I was asked, along with Rob White, to look after a young man called John Segarian. And John Segarian is an Armenian Lebanese who is the director of Lebanon Youth for Christ. And while I was looking after John, I got a taste of what Lebanon might be like. And then he asked me and the Salt Mine Theatre Company if we would go to Beirut to work with him. Now, the war was on at the time, and we prayed about it, and we thought about it, and our trustees prayed a lot about it, and gave us the approval to go. And I went to Lebanon, and Lebanon got into me. It really got to me, the people, the nation. And I saw that we in Salt Mine had something we could offer that would help our brothers and sisters in Lebanon. And ever since then, I've been going back with Salt Mine teams to train, to teach, to encourage, to resource, and just to be alongside Lebanese brothers and sisters to help them to develop their skills and use their skills in the service of God. And also to try and help them to network with each other, because Christians in Lebanon have nothing like spring harvest. And there are barriers between denominations, and it's strange how God uses foreigners to help those barriers to break down. And I've found that God has used me to bring people from different denominations and backgrounds together who would never come together otherwise. So I feel that God is saying to me, you know, use what you can do at this moment in Lebanon to teach and to train and to help folk to get a vision for their own country. And two years ago, we brought 40 children from Lebanon, disadvantaged children, to England for three weeks of holiday and ministry. And we saw lots of them converted, and lots of them going on with God. And there were children from all religious backgrounds in that group as well. So that's why Lebanon, because I love the people, and I feel God has told me I've got something at this moment to do in Lebanon, and I want to do that. Now you're not, I was cheeky earlier, but you're not the only old hand working in salt mine trying to train and disciple others. I mean, you've got other regular spring harvest folks working with you too. Yes, Dave Pope is the founder of Salt Miner. Stuart Paschal is a colleague in directorship there in salt mine. So there are three directors and five teams at the moment. Now Dave's another old friend of mine, and I'm just checking out on the truth of the rumour whether he's taken out shares in Cadbury's. No, he hasn't taken out shares in Cadbury's. Because, I mean, he's appeared at spring harvest in a variety of disguises, including Bertie Bassett. And this year I'm just noticing Cadbury's cream eggs floating all over the place. Yeah, we couldn't get Dave into a chicken's outfit. That was the problem. There wasn't one big enough for him. Hey, if you do, there's a fiver going to salt mine. Oh, that's very good. Ten? Ten, it's coming up. Fifteen? Twenty? I'm not bidding in this, because I'm a colleague. But no, over the years we've said to God, you know, how can we encourage people in a time of recession to think about how they can be of practical help in the work of ministry. And the work of ministry in salt mine has been helped through all sorts. This year, it's cream eggs. And if people will come along to our stand, or come along at one o'clock to mark E1, we will tell them about the project, which is, you go along to our stand in the exhibition centre, get a Cadbury's cream egg. In replace for a Cadbury's cream egg, we'll give you this lovely little box with a picture of Dave Pope on it, and Stuart Paschal. And then you can fill the box with 20 pea pieces, and that little box filled with 20 pea pieces will make 20 pounds. And that 20 pounds will be invested in the work of salt mine in Lebanon, in training people, in the project that we've got going in Lebanon at the moment, which is to build a training centre for Lebanese who have a burden and a vision for children's work and youth work, to build a campsite there, and also to build an adventure playground. Because there's no adventure playground in Lebanon at all for children. So that's what we want to do. And if you help us with this, 20 pea pieces in the box, and that will help us with those projects. Doug, that's brilliant. Mark E1, one o'clock to hear more. Exhibition centre, any time to get up to the salt mine stand, try and do it today. And I want to say, I am grateful for new men and women getting released into ministry through salt mine. I'm grateful for older friends who've put it in their hearts, who've received it from God, to train new people for new ministry, and they need your help, and we'd really encourage you to go there and catch. Danger! Low-flying eggs! Thanks very much, Doug. Doug Barnett. Morning by morning, we'll be meeting together for worship and word, and there's a great danger of putting those two words into separate little units and boxes, and assuming that worship is only something that happens when we're singing, or word is only something that happens when we're either reading or preaching it. We want to try as much as possible these mornings to bring the two together. Paul says to Timothy, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, and we want to do that. So, if you've yet to find where Isaiah is in your Bible, don't panic, because you don't need to find it now. You've got at least twenty minutes to sneak in the index at the beginning, you know. But morning by morning, we'll be expounding and looking at in detail four major sections from Isaiah. But right now, we want you to listen to some passages from Isaiah 40, which is our passage for today, read from the Dramatized Bible. So just, you may just want to close your eyes, sit back and allow God's Word to wash over you, and the Holy Spirit to apply its truth to your life. Comfort my people. Comfort them. Encourage the people of Jerusalem. Tell them they've suffered long enough, and their sins are now forgiven. I have punished them in full for all their sins. A voice cries out. Prepare in the wilderness a road for the Lord. Clear the way in the desert for our God. Till every valley, level every mountain. The hills will become a plain, and the rough country will be made smooth. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind will see it. The Lord Himself has promised this. A voice cries out. Proclaim the message. What message shall I proclaim? Proclaim that all mankind are like grass. They last no longer than wildflowers. Grass withers and flowers fade when the Lord sends the wind blowing over them. People are no more enduring than grass. Yes, grass withers and flowers fade, but the Word of our God endures forever. Jerusalem, go up on a high mountain and proclaim the good news. Call out with a loud voice, Zion. Announce the good news. Speak out and do not be afraid. Tell the towns of Judah that their God is coming. The Sovereign Lord is coming to rule with power, bringing with Him the people He has rescued. He will take care of His flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs together and carry them in His arms. He will gently lead their mothers. To whom can the Holy God be compared? Is there anyone else like Him? Look up at the sky. Who created the stars you see? The One who leads them out like an army. He knows how many there are, and He calls each one by name. His power is so great, not one of them is ever missing. Israel, why then do you complain that the Lord doesn't know your troubles or care if you suffer injustice? Don't you know? Haven't you heard? The Lord is the everlasting God. He created all the world. He never grows tired or weary. No one understands His thoughts. He strengthens those who are weak and tired. Even those who are young grow weak. Young men can fall exhausted. But those who trust in the Lord for help will find their strength renewed. They will rise on wings like eagles. They will run and not get weary. They will walk and not grow weak. Let's turn to number 85 as we think about the greatness and transcendence of God and yet His personal tender love and care for us, for you and for me. Meekness and majesty. Manhood and deity. Let's stand together as we sing. Kneels in humility and washes our feet. Oh, what a mystery. Meekness and majesty. Oh, what a mystery. Meekness and majesty. Oh, this is your God. This is your God. Fondness, pure radiance, perfect in its sense. Yet let His obedience to death on the cross. So free to give us life, long free to sacrifice, and as they crucify, praise Father for me. Oh, what a mystery, meekness and majesty, bow down and worship, for this is your God, this is your God. Wisdom unsearchable, God the invisible, love indestructible, friends even here. Lord of infinity, stooping so to believe, lift our humanity to the heights of his love. Oh, what a mystery, meekness and majesty, bow down and worship, for this is your God, this is your God. Oh, what a mystery, meekness and majesty, bow down and worship, for this is your God, this is your God. Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you, there is no greater thing. You're my all, you're the best, you're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you Lord. Let the women lead us. To be found in you, I know that you're true. To possess my faith, what I do. Oh, what a mystery, meekness and majesty, bow down and worship, for this is your God. Oh, what a mystery, meekness and majesty, bow down and worship, for this is your God. You're my all, you're the best, you're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you. Oh, to know the power of your risen Lord, and to know you in your sufferings. To become like you, in your soul with you, truly and never. Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you, there is no greater thing. You're my all, you're the best, you're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you. Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you, there is no greater thing. You're my all, you're the best, you're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you. Spend a few moments just expressing your personal love to the Lord. You can do that silently, you could speak it out, softly, you could even sing it out. But let's just give our personal expressions, our personal bouquets of love to Lord Jesus. Let's do that as the instruments play. Lord God, we love you. Your love is so beautiful. You're so tender and you're so kind. So gentle, so forgiving. We thank you, Lord. Pouring out your love upon us. Thank you, Jesus. Knowing you. Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you, there is no greater thing. You're my all, you're the best, you're my joy, my righteousness. You're my all, you're the best, you're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you. Enjoy a few moments of silence. You sit down. We begin our Christian journey by coming to know God. And we spend the rest of our Christian journey getting to know him better. And helping us in that quest this week, morning by morning, exploring sections from the book of Isaiah, is someone who is principal of Cape and Ray Bible College, one of the foremost training centers for short-term training for mission and evangelism that's having an impact around the world. He's someone who's not only there, but he seems to be everywhere else at the same time as well. He's a world traveler, a lovely man. And though we won't sort of applaud everything that moves on this platform day by day, certainly at the beginning of a series of bringing us God's word together, let's make Charles Price feel very welcome. Charles. Well, thank you very much and good morning. Good morning. You seem warmed up now. Thanks, Graham, you got them responding. If you got your Bible, I'd like you to turn to the book of Isaiah in chapter 40. If you don't have a Bible with you, then other mornings I recommend you bring it. If you didn't bring one with you to spring harvest, visit the bookshop, buy one. It'll be a good investment. Or lost property, somebody over here says. Because the theme of spring harvest this year is encountering God. That is, the object of this week is that we have a meeting with God. And we've begun to do that already in the seminars. And if you attended one of the seminars this morning, we began to look at who God is and how we may know Him. And in these Bible studies for these four mornings, we're going to continue that whole exercise by looking into these four chapters in the latter part of Isaiah, chapters 40, 49, 53, and 65. And if you are able to read them in advance, all the better. Because they're long and we're not going to read them all in each of the sessions. Now, before considering the actual text of chapter 40, I want to say something about the context. Because you would have discovered that reading the prophets can be hard work if you don't know what's going on behind the scenes and the kind of circumstances they're addressing. Now, Isaiah's period of ministry is given to us in chapter 1, verse 1. Don't turn to it now, but he says that he prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Now, that won't get you very excited, unless you know something about these men and their times. And in the year the king Uzziah died, you may remember that Isaiah had a vision of God that transformed his life and propelled him into the ministry as a prophet. You can read about that in chapter 6. Uzziah died around 739-740 BC, and Isaiah's ministry went on through to the end of Hezekiah, around 50 years. If you want to read the details of what went on, you can read it in the second part of 2 Kings and also 2 Chronicles. But I want to summarize a little bit, because during that 50 year period, some very significant events took place on the world stage. Assyria, with its capital city Nineveh, that is known to us because of one or two events, like Jonah's ministry that took place in relation to Nineveh, rose during those 50 years to become the superpower of its day. Now, in Israel itself, the nation, after the reign of Solomon, 200 years before all of this, you may remember, split into two. The ten northern tribes formed the nation of Israel with its capital city in Samaria. The southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin primarily formed the southern kingdom of Judah with its capital in Jerusalem. They coexisted side by side for around 200 or so years. And then when the Assyrians began to dominate the Middle East, they invaded the northern kingdom devastated the land, took most of the inhabitants out of Israel and scattered them throughout their empire, leaving just a few to care for the place, keep it tidy, and send some Assyrians to oversee them who intermarried with them, produced children who became known as Samaritans. Samaritans, of course, were not pure Jews, but they were half Jewish, half Assyrian, and the Jews never accepted them right through to the time of the Lord Jesus. They left Judah, though, intact. But there was good strategic reason for that because the only other power to contend with Assyria at the time was Egypt, who were south of Judah, and it was very convenient to leave Judah as a buffer state, as a sort of protection between the two superpowers. So if Assyria was to invade Egypt, they would have to come through Judah, which would give advance warning to the Egyptians, and vice versa. But they didn't leave them independent. They breathed down their neck. At one stage, Assyria did invade Judah, though it didn't take the people off at that stage into exile. Now, this is the period in which Israel, in which Isaiah lived and ministered in Judah in the southern kingdom. And the first 39 chapters of this prophecy are all devoted exclusively to that period. The first 35 chapters are primarily messages. There's a little bit of historical detail, but primarily messages relevant to Isaiah's own lifetime. And they are basically full of woes, full of gloom, doom, condemnation, the expectation of judgment, in contrast to God being held up as the Holy One of Israel, probably deriving from Isaiah's vision when he saw the Lord in the temple and the cherubim saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The earth is full of His glory. He's referring back to the holiness of God. But in contrast, his other theme is the judgment of that holy God on a disobedient people. Now, God never broke His covenant with His people, but He would judge them for their rebellion and their apostasy. That's the first 35 chapters. Chapters 36 to 39 is just a historical interlude from the reign of Hezekiah when Assyria did invade and attack Judah. Though God saved them from any demolition at that time. But then when you come to chapter 40, which is where we begin to look this morning, the whole scene changes. The whole atmosphere changes. World history has turned a corner. It's a different era. More than 150 years have passed since Isaiah's record to chapter 39 before the circumstances to which he's speaking of in chapter 40. Israel is in exile. World politics have changed. Assyria has declined. And at the Battle of Carchemish, which was a key event in 605 BC, the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar defeated the Egyptians who at that time held that key strategic position on the Euphrates River, came through the river and began to dominate the whole of the Near Eastern world. Initially, they came into Judah. They took some of the folks to Babylon but left Judah intact. More than 20 years, in 587, they conquered the city of Jerusalem after an 18-month siege and reduced it to rubble, demolished the temple, and took most of the inhabitants into exile. They stayed there for 70 years. As Jeremiah, amongst others, had told them they would. And now, towards the end of this century, the 70-year period, Babylon is waning and a new empire, the Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great, is beginning to overrun the Babylonian territory and has become the new superpower of the world. In fact, Cyrus is mentioned by name in chapter 45 of Isaiah and it's to this period where Babylon is about to fall, the Persians are about to overrun them, that these chapters, chapters 45 onwards, sorry, chapter 40 onwards, is addressed. Now, of course, the whole timing of this section gives rise to critical questions about the authorship of this prophecy and we're not going to look into that because it would be too tedious to do so and not of interest to you. In any case, I really don't know the answer to all the questions raised about this, but I think there's good reason because Jesus spoke of the unity of Isaiah as did Paul, as did Matthew, as other New Testament writers, but we're not going to discuss that. Some see this as an entirely separate writer from chapter 40 on. Some see two, three, some more writers of this last section of the prophecy behind the human author, of course, our primary concern is that God is speaking. Although he used human men and women to whom he did his work, it's God we're listening to. We don't believe the Bible because of what it says. We believe the Bible because of who is saying it. It's God speaking and I'm going to assume that Isaiah is speaking prophetically. We believe in a God who can give insights, accurate insights into the future for whom naming Cyrus by name is no more difficult than naming a virgin as one who will conceive which was a fantastic prophecy given in Isaiah chapter 7. But our purpose is to understand the message behind this. If you turn now to chapter 40, I've given you plenty of time to find it. A setting, as I said, is towards the end of the exile. Everything is bleak and dark. The morale of the nation has been broken. They've been humiliated, chastened, and they're licking their wounds as servants of a foreign power. And Isaiah says, I've got a message for you. It begins in verse 1. Comfort, comfort my people, says the Lord. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, her sin has been paid for, and she is received from the Lord's hand double for all of her sins. Why does Isaiah speak of comfort in a situation like this? It was never God's purpose for Israel to be driven out of Judah or out of the northern kingdom. He told Abraham long before, I'm going to give you a nation. And from that place, from those people, they will bless the world. The centuries have been kicked around by the world. No one has looked to Israel and said that's the source of blessing. They've said these are folks we can push around, abuse, exploit, take advantage of. And Isaiah writes to them in this situation with this recent history, the lifetime of most of these people has been one in exile, humiliated, and he says comfort. I've got something good to say to you. Because although Isaiah can see the humiliation and the brokenness and the devastation of the people, he's going to look beyond that and he's going to say to them in verse 9, we'll come to this later but I'll read verse 9, he says you who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid, say to the towns of Judah, in other words, this is my message, shout it from every mountain top, here is your God. As the authorize says, behold, look, your God. And Isaiah is saying this, although in your circumstances things are painful, they are tough, there's an agenda from heaven and that is that through all of this you will see God. You see, so often, we see God and discover God when we least expect Him. Tough situations are rarely the enemy of God. They're more often the means by which we discover Him in ways that we never do in all His will. The judgment of God has come on the nation, Nebuchadnezzar has strutted across the world, he's bragged about his accomplishments as he is recorded in Daniel chapter 4, he said, is not this the great Babylon I have built by my mighty power for my glory and majesty? He was the tyrant of his day, crushing the world between his feet. But Isaiah says, I'm going to ask you to open your eyes and look in a different direction. Here is your God. Shouldn't God be embarrassed by His people in this situation? No, this is God's workshop. You and I learn far more from our tears than we ever learn from our laughter. You'll know that in your experience as I know it in my experience. It's often the tough situations that we discover a revelation of God we never find when things are going well. In chapter 43, just over the page, sorry, chapter 45 in verse 3, writing to the same circumstances, he says in verse 3, I will give you the treasures of darkness. I love that expression. The treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places that you may know that I am the Lord. God says there, I've got treasures, but they're stored, they're in darkness. They're in the place where you least expect them. I have riches, but they're in secret places and not where you'd expect to find them. Do you know who it was who said in the Old Testament, addressing God, he said this, my ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. You'll recognize there's a big difference between your ears hearing and your eyes seeing. Whoever this person is, he says, I've heard what there was to know about God. I could give you all the right answers. I could dot my i's and cross my t's. I heard what there was to know about God, but I've seen you. Big difference. Do you know who said that? Somebody tell me who said that. Job. Hey, you're smart. When did Job say that? Was it the end of his spring harvest week? Had he just been listening to some fantastic sermon? Had he been to Toronto? When did he say this? He said it after thirty-seven chapters of suffering. When he lost his ten children, lost all his livestock, therefore his income, most of his servants, his wife turned nasty, the devil was on his back, both guns blazing. He became so depressed he wished he was dead. His friends gave him rotten advice and only heaped on him a sense of guilt. Worst of all, he said at one point, I look east, I can't see God. I look west, I can't see God. I look north, I cannot see God. I look to the south, I find no trace of God. I can't even see God in this. But God brought treasures out of the darkness. And he said at the end of the book, I've seen God. This may be a very relevant word to many here at Spring Harvest this week. Are you here in some kind of darkness? Maybe circumstances that have overwhelmed you? Maybe in your personal life you've come this week with a sense of defeat? You've lost your way? There are circumstances over which you have no control, which overwhelm you, pull you down. Maybe there's some sin in your life for which you find no solution. Maybe you can't see God. People say, if you've got an up-to-date testimony, you have to say, no, can't see God anywhere at the moment. Maybe in your family life, maybe things are tough. Maybe your relationship with your spouse isn't easy. Maybe your children are kicking over the traces. Maybe there's some family feud that saps the strength out of you. Many are here this week in leadership. Maybe you're leading but nobody's following. It's very discouraging. Maybe there's conflict. Maybe you're amongst the 85 percent in that statistic Louis gave us last night of pastors and ministers in the United States who would quit if they could find an equal-paying job. We don't have that problem in England, of course. I mean, you get an increase if you took the dole probably. But you know the sentiment. But to quit is embarrassing. Everybody asks you, why, what's gone wrong? But if you could, you would. Maybe it's in the national life of our country. We're saying, where is the moral leadership? Where is the credibility? Where is the recognition of truth? And out in the workplace and the marketplace, you feel overwhelmed by the tide that's going downstream fast. You feel yourself pushed along with it. And as you look around, you're tempted to despair. This would be the situation to which Isaiah writes. And he says, comfort, comfort. Here's your God. This is where you'll find Him. I want to make the key to this chapter, verses three to five. Let me read it. And then I want to see in the rest of this whole chapter the outworking of these verses. In verse three, he says a voice of one calling. In the desert, prepare the way for the Lord. Make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley should be raised up. Every mountain and hill made low. The rough ground should become level. The rugged paths a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed. And all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. He says, in the desert, there's a voice. There's several voices in this chapter. We're not going to comment on them, but read to it sometime and look for the different voices that speak. And here's the voice. It says, Isaiah, in the desert, in the wilderness, in the barrenness of the circumstances in which you find yourself. And the voice says, make a highway for God. There's a road, he says, a road that leads out of the desert, out of the wilderness. And it's a road in which you're going to find God. And I'm going to take you on that road in the time that we have left this morning. Along the highway in which we're going to find God. Because the greatest need that you and I have is not to change our environment. That's the easy option that we usually look for. But our greatest need is to find God irrespective of the environment. Christian life is not about changing our circumstance. It's about changing our relationship. It's not about a place that's easy. It's about a person who's adequate and sufficient. And there's a highway, he says here, that is a highway for God that will bring you to God. And the antidote to many of our needs is to rediscover God and under the new covenant in which we're a part to rediscover Him in Christ. Now, I'm going to suggest there are four turns on this road from this chapter. The first two verses he talks about the past and he says in verse two speak tenderly to Jerusalem proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed that her sin has been paid for. She has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. The first step in reconciliation with God of course is dealing with sin. And the fundamental ingredient in a living relationship with God is that we know how to deal with sin. Isaiah says speak tenderly don't speak harshly her sin is paid for. Now, I've just had 39 chapters of judgment and condemnation and woes. If you go back through them don't now but I'm just at random opening my Bible the heading in my version the NIV chapter 28 is woe to Ephraim chapter 29 woe to David's city chapter 30 woe to the obstinate nations heading of chapter 31 woe to those who rely on Egypt chapter 32 is a good one the kingdom of righteousness chapter 33 distress and then help chapter 34 judgment against the nations and so on and you find that these chapters are all about judgment condemnation and now he says speak tenderly because although sin has to be faced sin can be dealt with now in its strict context here where he says her sin has been paid for he's speaking of the years of exile they're paid for their own sin of course we wonderfully live in a day when we're never called to pay for our own sin God doesn't judge us in this life I have difficulty seeing God as judge in events in national life we often say God is judging us seems to me there's going to be a judgment day one day in the meantime it is possible to turn your back on God live as you please walk out and never be hit by a bus live till you're 99 and seemingly get away with it he does chastise those of us who are his children we'll talk about that another morning but judgment you see is going to come one day but in the meantime all the judgment that God makes on your sin and mine has been met in Christ if our understanding of God's attitude to sin is simply God forgives sin we'll have a very inadequate understanding of God if we just see God as someone who forgives sin we'll end up as Dietrich Bonhoeffer described with cheap grace do what you like come back and say please clean up the mess and go back and do it again tomorrow and come back for another cleanup the operative word as is here is sin is paid for that's a big difference God doesn't just forgive he pays for sin and in the Lord Jesus Christ we'll look in Isaiah 53 later this week that wonderful prophetic description of Christ on the cross as our substitute paying in full for our sin and what that means we'll talk about that but I just want to say something about sin generally because of what's going to follow in the next couple of verses and I'll digress from the passage just for a moment you see when we talk of sin we normally tend to think in terms of telling lies stealing committing adultery and all of that of course is inadequate but that's inadequate as a definition of sin sin is not primarily the bad things that we do because the word sin literally means to miss the mark the word I understand was used in archery if you took an arrow and you fired at a target and you missed the target it was called sin if you missed by half an inch it was called sin if you missed by half a foot it was called sin if you missed by half a yard it was called sin if you missed by half a mile it was called sin if you shot in the opposite direction it was called sin by how far you missed was irrelevant sin is not primarily a measurement of how bad we are it's primarily a measurement of how good we're not if you understand the difference there is a sense in which God isn't particularly interested in how bad you are he's interested in how good we're not that we've missed the mark if you miss a bus by a minute you've missed it miss it by an hour you've missed it you don't congratulate yourself on missing it by the minute you say that was pretty good I only missed it by a minute I really feel good how bad you are is an irrelevancy it's how good we're not we missed the mark what is the mark? Romans 3:23 all have sinned and come short of the what? glory of God the word glory occurs with slight variation of meaning in scripture depending on its context but essentially the glory of God is the character of God Vine in his expository dictionary of New Testament words says that the glory of God is the character of God what he essentially is and does in his moral character the target we've missed is the glory of God the character of God when God made Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden he said let us make man in our image not a physical image because God isn't a physical being but I suggest whatever else is involved in that he made man in his moral image that is he created human beings in such a way that the way we live and behave and act reveals something of what God is like in his moral character so if you and I were a fly on the wall in the Garden of Eden and we saw the way Adam treated Eve we would have seen what God was like if we saw the way Eve treated Adam we would have seen what God was like if we saw the way they handled the animals the way they patted the cat and stroked the dog sorry you don't pat the cat you pat the dog you stroke the cat you would have seen what God was like because to be in his image means you look at human beings you see what God is like God intended to reveal himself in human beings man sinned and came short of the glory of God whether you steal lie cheat murder is of course important but it's irrelevant to your godliness that's why the object of the Lord Jesus Christ is not simply to cleanse us of our sin that is a necessary ingredient but if the first step in this road is that he says your sin is paid for for us come to the cross we'll never know a relationship with God that is living and vital until we know what it is to be clean not just once but we come back again and again and we're cleansed and allow the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive us but then he goes on to say in verse five and the glory of the Lord will be revealed now then sin is coming short of the glory of God so what is God's purpose having cleansed us of our sin is to restore the glory of God and Isaiah says your sin is paid for now there is the possibility of coming out of your sin out of your sense of guilt in order that once again the glory of God will be revealed within the nation that is when the neighboring countries look at Israel they see God it says in chapter 43 in verse 7 let me just read this over the page he says everyone who is called by my name whom I created for my glory God says there to them I've created you for my glory that is that in you there might be displayed what God is like in chapter 44 and verse 23 he says there the last phrase of this verse for the Lord has redeemed Jacob he displays his glory in Israel this is the end product of salvation this is the end product of cleansing not just that we're clean he didn't die in order to clean us up he died rose again from the dead that he might impart once again the very life of God that looking at you looking at me the neighbors begin to see something of what God is like this had been true for Israel in their history you don't need to turn to it but back in the book of Joshua chapter 2 you may remember that when the Israelites were about to occupy the land of Canaan Joshua sent spies to the city of Jericho which was the first major obstacle once had crossed the Jordan river these spies came to an arrangement with a lady called Rahab that she should put them up in her home on the city wall and then when they came to conquer the land she would allow a scarlet cord to hang from her window and they would preserve her life having made that arrangement they went up onto the roof of her house to go to sleep and she came to see them before they went to sleep let me read you what she said Joshua chapter 2 verse 8 this is an inhabitant of Canaan an enemy of the people of God she said I know that the Lord has given this land to you and a great fear of you has fallen on us so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you we heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt that was 40 years ago what you did to Sihon and Og the two kings of the Amorites East of the Jordan whom you completely destroyed that was in the last year prior to this when we heard of it our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you why she explains for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below she said we've looked at you folks you don't just have a God in heaven above now there are lots of Christians who have a God in heaven above but yours is a God on the earth below how do we know we've looked at you and we've seen him we've seen him in action now says Isaiah it's getting back to the purpose which God set the nation apart that once again the glory of God the character of God might be demonstrated in you the nation set apart to be the means by which he'll do his work and reveal himself you see it's wonderful to come out of our sin but the novelty of a clean conscience gets stale after a while as the novelty for the Israelites of getting out of Egypt got stale they wanted to go back because they'd never come in to enter the fullness that Canaan represented now in the same way in your life and mine it's possible to come out of our sin to have a Christ that died for us and to have come in true repentance and know what it is to be cleansed and forgiven but never discover that beyond the cross is the impartation of the Holy Spirit to live the life of Christ within us and restore us once again to the image in which we have been created Paul in Colossians says this was a mystery for centuries for generations but he says at last that mystery has been made known Christ in you your hope of glory that doesn't mean heaven in evangelical slang we talk of heaven as glory people die and go to glory that is not the biblical use of the word glory is what we've come short of glory is the character of God glory is what was evidence in Jesus when the word became flesh and lived for a while among us said John and we saw his glory now he says Christ in you is your hope of glory coming out of sin is wonderful but coming in to the fullness of Christ and his Holy Spirit is an indispensable part of the relationship it's like getting married the Bible says the Christian life is like marriage Christ is the bridegroom the church is the bride and when a person gets married it says they do two things one is negative one is positive a man is to leave his father and mother that's the negative aspect and cleave to his partner now when we come to Christ if we're going to enjoy everything that God has the whole point of the Christian life we come out of our sin in order to come in to the fullness of life that's available to us now if you met somebody who was getting married on Saturday and all they could say was I'm really looking forward to leaving home on Saturday you'd say to yourself you're going to have a shock on Sunday because if leaving home is a necessary ingredient it isn't marriage if you went to somebody's 25th wedding anniversary and at the end of the meal the husband got up and said I want to testify that 25 years ago today I left home and I've never been back since you'd say to yourself how strange but that's the story of many Christians I've come out of my sin great, fantastic so what? Christ did not die and rise simply that we don't steal and don't cheat and don't lie he died and rose again to impart his Holy Spirit to the way we live the way we behave the way we talk to each other the way we treat each other the way as a husband I handled my wife as a parent I handled my kids demonstrates what God is like and his moral character is evident once again so there's the past to be dealt with your sin is paid for and then on that basis I didn't tell you what my second point was there's a purpose the glory is revealed that's the purpose but then thirdly from verse 10 to 26 he talks about power so the glory of God is being restored all right well how do I discover that and experience that well from verse 10 to 26 in verse 6 he has said earlier I'll just read verse 6 as well he says a voice says cry out and I said what shall I cry all men are like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the field the grass withers the flowers fall because the breath of the Lord blows on them surely the people are grass the grass withers and the flowers fall now he says there the glory that you and I can produce all the glory he says of men when the breath ruach spirit blows it disintegrates all our righteousness like filthy rags we haven't the ability to live a clean life we haven't the ability to live a life that's godly if we try to imitate Christ we cannot do it and so if all of my own glory my own ability to live this way just blows away at the first wind in these verses he speaks of the complete inadequacy of human kind and then over against that the complete adequacy of God what he says about human kind and our abilities you can find them verses like verse 8 the grass withers the flowers fall he speaks of man being like a drop in the bucket a little later he speaks of it being dust on the scales all the nations are as nothing you can read these yourself later he says we're worthless he uses that term we're less than nothing he describes in verse 19 the kind of gods that we might manufacture and he gives this pathetic picture of this god that a goldsmith has made he's made it of wood overlaid it with gold he's made silver chains for it he sticks it up and he has to make sure it doesn't topple over the wind can just blow it over everything man produces is transient and vulnerable the world when he says later sweeps them away like chaff the people are like grasshoppers he reduces them to nothing now if you're into seeing lots of good in human beings don't read this chapter it'll discourage you Lowell Shepard last night quoted from Gerald Coates God is never disillusioned with us because he was never he never suffered from any illusions in the first place that's true everything God expects of you and me is failure he knows our inability and Isaiah points out and then he contrasts that with what God says about his abilities and he says for instance in verse 8 having said the grass with us he says the word of God stands forever he says later the sovereign Lord comes with power his arm rules for him verse 11 he tends his flock like a shepherd verse 12 to 14 he talks about his abilities who's measured the waters in the hollow of his hand or with the breath of his hand marked up the heavens who has held the dust of the earth in a basket or weighed the mountains on the scales etc we haven't time to read it all he says to whom will you compare God in verse 18 he says in verse 22 he sits enthroned above the circle of the earth he says in verse in verse 25 to whom will you compare me or who is my equal says the Holy One now what did Israel go into exile why are they suffering all this humiliation I'll tell you why because they'd looked to human resources for strength and ability and stability as a nation they thought their security would lie in the hands in an alliance with Egypt on the one hand with Syria on another now says God to Isaiah comfort my people your sin is paid for the glory of God is going to be restored and revealed and he says look at your God your God is strong your God is powerful your God is totally adequate in his sovereignty in his sufficiency in his strength in his power but listen this is important not just Israel stand and view God from a distance as an admirer we're down here he's up there we've joined his fan club isn't he great that isn't what he means it leads to the fourth turn in the road and it's from verse 27 to 31 on this highway for our God now I've talked I've put in my notes he talks about practice here the past your sin is dealt with the purpose that the glory is restored that you've come short of the power it's God who works in you and through you now the practice 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 listen he gives strength to the weary he increases the power of the weak even you's grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall but those who walk those who hope in the Lord who wait on the Lord will renew their strength they will soar on wings like eagles they'll run and not grow weary they'll walk and not be faint he says this God that I want you to see is the God who isn't up there that makes you feel even more insecure and a bigger failure when you contrast yourself with him but that God is not up there he's down here to impart his strength his power do you not know and you can soar like eagles run not grow weary walk and not grow faint I love Romans 7 and 8 in the last year or so I've began to appreciate those two chapters in a way I hadn't before remember Romans 7 Paul says the good I want to do I don't do the evil I don't want to do this is what I keep on doing I know it's right don't tell me what's right I know it's right but I can't do it I know it's wrong I say I'm never going to do it again but I do it a problem that you've got not that I've got the poor hat and he says but it's not me it's nothing to do with my strengths my resources my ability he says it's sin living in me and then he talks about this law of sin a bit like the law of gravity he says it's this law at work in me pulling me down all the time and he comes to the point of saying how can I be different what a wretched man I am who will rescue me it's a good question now he doesn't say what will rescue me is there a method is there a technique who is there someone he says yes thanks be to God it's through Jesus Christ and then he says this the law of the spirit of life in Christ set me free from the law of sin there's this law of sin pulling me down I can't change I know it's right I want what's right but I cannot produce what's right I've discovered there's a more powerful law than this law of sin in me than my own natural ability it's the spirit of God the law of the spirit of life which sets me free a couple of years ago I was in the city of Cape Town in South Africa speaking for a week at a week long convention main theme for the week was John chapter 15 the main passage we're looking at that discourse of Jesus in the upper room John 15 I'm the vine, you're the branches apart from me you can do nothing that the source of every genuine activity is Christ he's the source the vine man came to me that night one of those nights and he said I agree what you're saying is true but what have I got to do to make it work I said come back tomorrow night you may be jumping the gun well he came back the next night the end of it he came and said I'm still convinced it's true but you haven't told me what I have to do he said can I talk to you sometime can we meet tomorrow he said I'm free in the morning and I wasn't so he because I had some other commitment and he was busy in the afternoon it looked as though he couldn't meet then he said are you free at 4.30 I said yes he said I'll tell you what I do I'll be working then but I'm a helicopter pilot and every Friday afternoon I take up a local radio announcer and a policeman and from 4.30 till 6 I fly around Cape Town it's the busiest time of the week all the traffic leaves the city and the policeman reports back any build up of traffic and every quarter of an hour there's a live traffic report on the radio given by the radio announcer he said for me it's the most boring part of my week because I just go around in circles you can cover Cape Town in two minutes and I have to think of doing it for 90 minutes so I do circles and squares and triangles and figure eights he said it's boring but he said there's a spare seat in the helicopter would you be willing to come we can talk I said I'd love to come even if we don't talk I went down to the helipad I didn't like the sound of that but that's what we went down to the helipad and as I got out of the car there was this big sturdy helicopter on wheels looked as though it had a dozen seats in it and I thought that looks a pretty good machine met my friend we walked around this helicopter there on the other side was this little thing like a bubble glass bubble with a shaft about the size of this microphone stand coming out of the middle with a little propeller blade on top little tail little propeller at the back it was on skis it was chained to the ground I said to my friend which is our helicopter he said the little one I said the little one he said yeah the little one I said but it's so small looks so you could put it on you don't get in you put it on he said it's perfectly safe I fly it every day I said I'm very nervous he said I know you are but trust me I said I've got a wife and three children he said well they'll enjoy the story when you get home I said how's that little thing going to take us why is it chained to the ground he said to stop it blowing away we get waves off the Atlantic the wind off the Atlantic we pick that thing up and smash it against the rock I said how does it work he said what do you mean I said well how does it work he said well how much do you want to know I said well just tell me how it works I mean I'm used to standing on the ground how does that thing break the low gravity and take off he said I'll tell it to you simply you see the blades on the top they're slightly angled as they begin to rotate they create a vacuum that vacuum gives lift I said what's that called he said that's called aerodynamics then he told me some other technical things which I couldn't repeat because I can't remember them and I said alright that's that's very interesting I'm sure you're right what do I have to do now to make sure it's going to work for me he said what do you mean I said well what do I have to do do I flap he said flap I said you know flap like the birds flap he said flap he said are you joking I said yes I said I've been telling you this week it's possible to live a life that's godly not perfect but godly it's possible to go out into a dirty world and be clean to go out into the world going downstream fast and discovering you're against the tide but it's not a technique it's a relationship it's allowing Jesus Christ to be in you what you can never be for yourself it's a miracle I said now you've told me although naturally I cannot break this law of gravity there's a more powerful law the law of aerodynamics which will set me free and I read in Romans 8:2 the law of the spirit of life in Christ sets me free from the law of sin and death in fact I'm sure Paul was sitting in a helicopter when he wrote that there's this law of sin like the law of gravity there's a new law the law of the spirit of life in Christ the law of aerodynamics that sets you free from gravity and we flew around Cape Town incidentally when I told him that he said to me that's not a very good illustration I thought it was brilliant although afterwards when we landed we talked and he said I think I've got it and he wrote to me later and said I've understood it I've thought of the Christian life in terms of techniques and programs I've never thought of it in terms of god himself you see he gives strength to the weary he gives power to the weak are you weary? this morning then you're a candidate for his strength are you weak this morning? you're a candidate for his power those who wait on the lord who say I can't but I want to thank you lord Jesus Christ by your holy spirit you live in me they'll soar like eagles they'll run and they won't quit they'll walk and they won't drop no wonder Isaiah said comfort my people look beyond your circumstance behold your god he's totally adequate do you believe that this morning? then fly like an eagle run like a young man even they faint and discover strength that's not your own do you know what'll happen? folks I'm meeting you the people will begin to see god the glory will have been restored let's pray together father we thank you so much this morning that your word doesn't put our heads into the clouds it puts our feet onto the ground it teaches us how to go back into the circumstances of life in a fallen world with a fallen nature and to discover treasure in the darkness and to discover riches in secret places and to discover that in Christ we have all that we ever need for life and for godliness make this real to us write it into our hearts we pray it in Jesus name amen there's so much to think about there and for the lord to speak to us to continue speaking to us through I don't think we need to add any more at this point we are going to close our meeting now and just to remind you that the salt mine reception is in marquee 1 at 1pm may god bless you go into the day let the word of god continue to feed you thank you for coming