Download Isaiah 40:3-5 - Grace Church at Willow Valley

June 5, 2016
Grace Church at Willow Valley
CORE VALUES
God’s Glory,
Our Focus
September - May
The Bible
Our Authority
The Gospel, Christ’s Church,
Our Passion
Our Family
The Stories of Eight
Ancient Kings Who
Sought God’s Glory
above Their
Own!
In Pursuit of Glory
Sunday Mornings at Grace Beginning June 26th
AWE
Why It Matters For Everything We Think, Say, & Do
“Isaiah 40 addresses the massive number of
Christian people who remember God, but
the God they remember is small, distant,
disconnected, uncaring, and seemingly
unwise. In a way, they are suffering not just
because of the size of the things they are
facing but also because of the smallness of
the God they are trusting.”
AWESOME
Seeing God for Who He Is and Why It Matters
for Everything We Think, Say, and Do
(an in-depth study of Isaiah 40)
Sunday mornings June 5th, 12th, 19th
A Closer Look at the Most Misused
Verses in the Bible
United Kingdom
of
Israel
King Saul
King David
King Solomon
Divided Kingdom
Northern Kdg of Israel
Civil War
(King Jeroboam)
Southern Kdg of Judah
(King Rehoboam)
Total of 39 kings (8 godly!)
Jeremiah 35:15
I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending
them persistently, saying, ‘Turn now every one of you
from his evil way, and amend your deeds, and do not go
after other gods to serve them, and then you shall dwell
in the land that I gave to you and your fathers.’ But you
did not incline your ear or listen to me.
Israel
722 BC – Conquered by
Assyrian Empire
Judah
586BC – Conquered by
Babylonian Empire
Isaiah prophesied from
740 – 680 primarily to
Kingdom of Judah
Isaiah 1-39
Isaiah 40-66
Prophesies of Condemnation Prophecies of Consolation
Tone of Judgment
Tone of Hope
Emphasis on God’s holiness, Emphasis on God’s grace,
righteousness, and justice
compassion, and glory
(some Messianic prophecies)
(many Messianic prophecies)
740 - 680 BC
The Immediate Context
Isaiah 39:1-3
At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of
Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to
Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had
recovered. 2 And Hezekiah welcomed them gladly. And he
showed them his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the
spices, the precious oil, his whole armory, all that was found
in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all
his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.
The Immediate Context
Isaiah 39:5-7
Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of
hosts: 6 Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your
house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day,
shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says
the Lord. 7 And some of your own sons, who will come from
you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall
be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
Isaiah 40:1
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Now in these opening verses of Isaiah chapter 40 there
are four different voices that cry out and herald good
news in the midst of this bad news. Four voices that
bring four messages of comfort to God’s people
then (and to us as we live in a frequently turbulent and
often painful world). And the fourth of these voices
cries the longest and the loudest!
Message #1 - “Your sins are forgiven!”
Isaiah 40:2
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her
warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that
she has received from the LORD's hand double for all
her sins.
“to fold over; to fold in half ”
Message #1 - “Your sins are forgiven!”
1 Peter 1:3:18
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for
the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God
is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Message #2 – “I have a plan and I am working that plan!”
Isaiah 40:3-5
A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the
LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill
be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and
the rough places a plain. 5 And the glory of the LORD shall
be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth
of the LORD has spoken.”
Message #2 – “I have a plan and am working that plan!”
Isaiah 40:3-5
A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the
LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill
be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the
rough places a plain. 5 And the glory of the LORD shall be
revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of
the LORD has spoken.”
Message #1 – “Your sins are forgiven!”
Message #2 – “I have a plan and am working that plan!”
Message #3 – “You can take me at My Word!”
Isaiah 40:6-8
A voice says, “Cry!”And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of
the field. 7 The grass withers, the flower fades when the
breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are
grass. 8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the
word of our God will stand forever.
“If this book had not been the book
of God, men would have destroyed it
long ago. Emperors and popes, kings
and priests, princes and rulers have all
tried their hand at it; they die and this
book still lives.”
(James Hastings, author of Hastings Bible
Dictionary)
Message #1 – “Your sins are forgiven!”
Message #2 – “I have a plan and am working that plan!”
Message #3 – “You can take Me at My Word!”
Message # 4 – “Behold your God!”
Isaiah 40:9-10-8
Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good
news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem,
herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities
of Judah, “Behold your God!”
Message # 4 – “Behold your God!”
Jeremiah 9:23-24
Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his
wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let
not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who
boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows
me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love,
justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these
things I delight, declares the Lord.”
Message # 4 – “Behold your God!”
John 17:3
And this is eternal life, that they know you the
only true God, and Jesus Christ. W
Daniel 11:32b
The people who know their God shall stand firm and
take action.ou have sent.
The Root of the Righteous
“Probably the most widespread and
persistent problem to be found among
Christians is the problem of the lack
of spiritual progress. Why, after years
of Christian profession do so many
persons find themselves no further
along than when they first believed?”
A. W. Tozer
(1897-1963)
The Root of the Righteous
“The causes of this lack of growth are many. It
would not be accurate to scribe the trouble to
one single fault. One there is, however, which is
so universal but it may easily be the main cause:
failure to give time to the cultivation of the
knowledge of God. The Christian is strong or
weak depending upon how closely he has
cultivated the knowledge of God.”
A. W. Tozer
(1897-1963)
Philippians 3:8, 10, 14
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the
surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For
his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count
them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ…that I
may know him and the power of his resurrection, and
may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his
death…I press on toward the goal for the prize of the
upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
The Root of the Righteous
“God can be known
satisfactorily only as we
devote time to him.”
A. W. Tozer
(1897-1963)
“Go back and read Isaiah 40 two or three times
slowly. Give your heart time to absorb the
awesome glory depicted here. As you read,
notice how the prophet is literally stretching the
limits of human language to portray for you the
glory of God. Pay attention to how hard he is
working with descriptive words to leave you
in heart pounding, silence inducing, worship
stimulating awe of God.”