Well, I'm going to read the entirety of Isaiah 40 today, and the text is verses 21 through 31, so you'll see how wonderful these verses are today in light of our current context. 21 verse 31, but I want to set the context and hear the whole chapter, so this is Isaiah chapter 40, and I do encourage you to, let's back up a few verses there. in Isaiah 39, in verse 5, and we'll read. Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord of hosts. Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and that which your fathers have stored up to this day shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. 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. Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good, for he thought there will be peace and security in my days. Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare has ended, that her iniquities pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. A voice cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 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 and the glory of the lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the lord has spoken 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 the grass withers the flower fades when the breath of the lord blows on it hold that thought the breath of the lord blows on it it's going to say it here again in a minute and I think you'll catch it, the connection. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. 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. Behold the Lord God comes with might and his arm rules for him. Behold his reward is with him and his recompense before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arms. He will carry them in his bosom and gently lead those that are with young. Who's measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who's measured the spirit of the Lord or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice and taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are accounted as the dust on the scales. Behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before him. they are accounted by him as less than nothing in emptiness. To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness compare with him? An idol, a craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts it for silver chains. He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot. He seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move. Here's our text. Do you not know, do you not hear, has it not been told to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth, it's he who sits above the circle of the earth? And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers who stretch out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them like a tent to dwell in, who brings peace to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. Scarcely they are planted, scarcely sown. Scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth. When he blows on them, they wither. And the tempest carries them off like stubble. To whom then will you like, whom will you compare me? That I should be like him, says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these. He brings out their hosts by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might. And because he is strong in power, not one is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel? My way is hidden from the Lord and my right is disregarded by my God. have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might, he increases strength. Even you shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not be faint. And may the Lord bless this morning the hearing of his word. I was reading this week the article in the Wall Street Journal that identified really with more than anything else that I've read so far through all this stuff that we have been facing. And the title was Pandemic Fatigue is Real and It's Spreading. And it was a really interesting little article it went on to say that under all these regulations that people have been put under and all that has been leveled upon us the article goes to say that people no longer are able to handle it and it's recognized the great problem this has caused for for doctors and what typically is not talked about on the news the great problems that people are facing with mental stress health issues through all of this it's serious it's real um in the article uh one of the persons who was interviewed in the article said something that i i found found absolutely interesting for this sermon i thought helpful for this sermon but she said i'm so sick of this i just need something to look forward to i need something to look forward to i thought that was really helpful little comment. If you're finding yourself with no motivation, if you're finding yourself with no strength, if you're finding yourself with constant discouragement, what you are experiencing is the weariness of what is clearly a period of duress and distress that has been sent upon us. If you can't figure out why you're experiencing that and why you're experiencing that or living that, I'm telling you right now, you need to understand that this is the kind of effect that such a period of distress and difficulty brings on people. That's reality. It's what it brings. We, of course, have this great hope and help from the Lord to get out of this mess, but obviously, you know that this is not our greatest problem, even though the world has told us that this is our greatest problem. Everyone wants us to think that the problems of the virus and the problems of the election are our real issues in life, are the most important and pressing issues of life, and that is just not the case. All the problems that we are experiencing, as you know, as has been taught from this pulpit from the beginning, is about the issues and our consequences of sin. These are all symptoms of a much greater problem and symptoms of things that the Lord has allowed to happen to teach us this. But this sense that there's nothing to look forward to has devastating effects on people's lives. That's what I want to focus on just for a minute. This sense of when does this stuff end? When does all this end? When is there an end point to this? If you don't have answers to that, if you don't have hope to look forward to through all of this, the constant weariness and more weariness that might soon come can leave a lot of despondent and people suffering serious problems. And you may see that. There has to be a sense of release. There has to be a sense of help. There has to be a feeling of way out of something. And that's what I want to focus on thematically somewhat today. This comment by this woman in the Wall Street Journal, I need something to look forward to. And that's where I think Isaiah 40 does that. Isaiah 40 is the answer in a moment like this to help us that the Lord has that for you. The Lord has spoken this to you. The Lord has helped you through this. The greatest way that Isaiah 40 is going to say is simply by stopping and thinking a little bit. Number one, about what you've always known and learned, which you've forgotten. But reflecting on what you know to be true and thinking about how it applies to this. We have to be able to apply these things. I think sometimes I feel that we've been scared of the right way to apply things, and we have to do it. It's what this is doing for us. So that's my goal this morning as we look at Isaiah 40. That's why the church matters. That's why I contended from the beginning. It's so important, especially through periods of duress and distress, and when the calm periods are, that you give yourself to the ministry of the word. That's your help. This is what the Lord, and I look at a church today full of people who I know that's why you're here, and that's why you've come. Well, Isaiah 40 this morning, I want you to notice that the people addressed in this particular passage were facing one of the most distressing times that they had ever lived and ever known. We see this in their complaint that comes out that the Lord captures there, which is the heart of it. There's a big complaint in this passage that the Lord zeros in on is working all around it. The complaint and then the consideration that Isaiah challenges the people with and then the consolation that he leaves them with. So it's a beautiful passage to help these people through a very difficult time. The context is important. The context is important. Isaiah predicts something to King Hezekiah that was coming. and it's going to be bad. Behold, the days are coming. Now, listen to this carefully for a minute. Behold, the days are coming when all that's in your house and what you've accumulated to this day shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, and they shall take away your sons who will descend from you, that you will beget, and they shall become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. whoa, I want you to put yourself in their shoes for a minute. This is not the kind of preaching you would like. You might get mad at Isaiah, right, for saying such things. All that they'd built, all that they had done, all the glory of their kingdom, the temple, the prosperity, 46 years in making, the prosperity that had been given to them from the Lord, all the blessing, a generation was coming when all of that would be taken. All of it. And they would experience the loss of everything because of rejection of the Lord and because of idolatry, which permeates this passage. They would be carried away to Babylon by a wicked tyrant named Nebuchadnezzar. Now, nothing was going well before this happened. Everything in their society, everything in their life in Israel, everything had been turned on its head. All the prosperity and all the good times that they enjoyed. A time of chastisement had fallen on Judah. Serious time of chastisement. Isaiah prophesies this and the state of things is captured and has Hezekiah's response, isn't it? The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good, But Isaiah gives us insight into his heart when he says, well, at least there's going to be peace in my days. Well, that's kind of selfish, isn't it? What a degenerated time that everyone was living so much for themselves, they were not considering what was about to happen to their children. And they didn't seem to care. Now, it's in this context that God announces a devastating disaster that's coming. I want you to think of it here. I want you to imagine it. God is uprooting their freedoms. God is uprooting their homes, taking them from their homes. All the stuff that they've accumulated in the course of their life. All their prosperity, all their bank accounts, all empty in one day. Gone. That's the effect of this. All of life as they would know it would be taken away and hauled off into Babylon. Can you imagine that for a minute? I mean, we might get really serious about our faith then, right? All of a sudden, everything taken from you. and God was sending a messenger to do it. I want to say it's not that things were going well in Judah before this. There was nothing but political turmoil. They were in constant threat by the Assyrians. They were greatly oppressing them. It was evident that dark days had come upon them. So they were very discouraged, and they were a very despondent people. And Isaiah knows that the time is drawing near to the time of their exile to Babylon. This is going to be hard. This is going to be devastating. And as soon as this great blow is given, the darkest announcement is given, the greatest, darkest judgment announcement is given to Israel and Judah, the greatest chapter of encouragement comes. The greatest chapter of comfort comes. Comfort. Comfort my people. Speak to them tenderly. I will pardon Jerusalem's sin. Give them the good news. I will forgive them. I will help them. Now, I want you to understand here for a minute with me the prevailing spirit of the people during this time as it was leading up to their exile. The heart of this passage is addressing a certain complaint that the people have against the Lord. It's really a good moment to think about this and listen to it. A mindset. It wasn't always spoken. But a mindset had filled the people, and you could see it in the way they lived, in the way they thought, in the way they conducted life. A mindset had prevailed among the people, from God's people, about the Lord himself. How they thought about him, what they thought about him. It's in verse 27. 27 is a crucial verse in this passage. Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel? My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God. That's really important for this passage. The chapter is an answer to that. The chapter is an answer to that question. The chapter is answering that mindset that had developed. Listen, my way is hidden from God. God doesn't even seem to care anymore about my way. He's too busy elsewhere. He's too big to care anymore. He's too busy to think upon us. He's too great to consider his people. Especially me. Especially, and at least this much seems evident, is that he's left us. He's left us. He's abandoned us. He's not interested in helping. He's not interested in helping us. We really don't believe he will help us. We're completely disregarded by him. And you hear the frustration in that, that God has made all these promises and that God has provides and that God tells us he will care for us. And what the sense of complaint was against God is God has turned his back on us. He's not listening to our prayers. The question, of course, was were they listening to his word? Were they considering who they were praying to and what they were fashioning with their hand? Deep in their hearts is this suggestion, why would God ever do this to us? Deep in their hearts is this suggestion, this God has failed us. Notice the dig at the end of that question. My God. Why would God do this? This is a somewhat big moment in Isaiah. When you read this, you come up with this. This is a people, to summarize this, who have given up. This is a people who don't believe the Lord is going to help them. And that's by choice. You really don't catch it when reading it, but in verse 27 it says, you keep saying my way is hidden. And you keep speaking this way. There was this entire prevailing spirit among the people that the situation in which they found themselves had become so bad. The situation had become so evil. The situation had become so oppressive that there was no way, looking at it outwardly, that they could say God still cares. That's where it got. no way so what happens weariness enveloped the people weariness the weariness of it all the weariness crushed the hearts of the people no hope they saw no future especially after an announcement like this this is an important moment to think about let me say up front that we here in americans are as americans america is not israel i need to say this uh i need to say that uh you can't draw direct lines that way but it would be wrong not to capture here and take the true experience of god's people living in this world which is what this is meant to do and apply it to the seasons that come upon us this way there are serious things happening. There are serious things happening. Who's asleep right now, right? I mean, there are serious things happening in this world. And it's negligence to not recognize providence. I'm not talking about reading it specifically, but recognizing it. It's negligence. God has told us, we sing all throughout the Psalms, I judge the nations. That's what Jesus was talking about. Woe to you, Tyre and Sidon. It's been better for Sodom and Gomorrah than you. God has told us in the New Testament that he sends periods of testings upon the whole world. That's revelation to one of the churches. I'm going to test the whole world. I'm going to bring the world into a situation of great test. And I'll keep you through it, he said. God has told us that calamities, is there a calamity that the Lord has not created? God has told us that calamities serve a ultimate plan of leading to the final judgment. That's what birth pains are. Matthew 24. So it's at these moments that we're called to take seriously what God's people had to think about through the past when they faced these kinds of bitter providences. There's a time for building up, and then there's a time for tearing down. And I would suggest, and who knows exactly how anything's going to play out in this country in time, but you are Christians living in the tearing down of a nation. You realize that? No nation's ever stood except one. Except one holy nation. You're living in the time of the tearing down of a nation. I don't know what that's going to look like. You don't know either. You're living upon the time of tests that's hit the whole world. You're living in a difficult season. You're living what the Apostle Paul warned, that in the last days, dangerous seasons, dangerous epochs would come. Understand this, that there will be this, for people will be in these epochs lovers of themselves, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless. unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power. You're in one. You're in one. You're in it. You're in the thick of it. The weariness that has fallen on everyone is something to behold as God has taken a little virus that really is not much and halted the whole world humbling the whole world with this little virus that no one can stop and that everyone's terrified of a spirit of delusion following on the whole world what a moment who knows tell me who knows what to believe with coronavirus nobody and guess what's happened weariness is everywhere. Wall Street Journal. A worldwide phenomenon. Whatever position you take on anything, the fact is that a spirit of confusion has enveloped the whole earth. This week is one of the most significant elections in U.S. history. And before us is a divided nation living a kind of cold war that we have no idea what it's going to look like next. Fires, Storms, economic woes. What more could happen in 2020? Well, 2021 is coming, right? I don't know. And right now, everyone wants a savior. No matter what side you're on, everyone wants a savior. Who's going to deliver us? Who's going to deliver us? That's the question. And I think one of the great exposures of that, that that's in the hearts and minds of everyone, including Christians, is how obsessed we are with politics. It's proof that's the question of the day. And many people go on as if God doesn't exist. And the questions of this text are just as alive as ever before. People somehow pass over thinking about God, hoping that some political figure will solve this. Because if you can't pacify an angry God, then why not look to somebody else, they think? It's hopeless. It's hopeless. This is exactly what happened with Jeremiah, by the way. Behold, I'm fashioning a disaster. And then he says, repent. And they said, in response, Jeremiah 18, this is hopeless. So, we will walk according to our own plans, and everyone will obey the dictates of his own evil heart. Is that 2020 he was talking about? Isaiah, Lord, they're saying, you don't hear us anymore, you don't care. It's led to a spirit of indifference to him, believing his judgments are simply for the sake of judgment. Is that why God does this? Is that why God's doing this, just for the sake of it? Just so that he might make life hard on everyone. Is that why he's doing this? And that hopefully there's just another way out of this. That's what I fear with the election, that there's so little hope and so much weariness that we're more hopeful in a president than God. I worry about it. Look at the letdowns that could happen this week. Because we just don't believe he'll do anything. Welcome to 722 B.C. This is where Isaiah is wonderful. Have I painted the picture? Isaiah is wonderful. What's one of the ways that the Lord answers this? Well, when you back up, you see that he answered it before it was even raised, before he even got to the question. He was already answering the issue, the first issue they were raising. And he essentially says to them, listen, stop it. Consider what you know. Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told to you from the beginning? How much preaching have you guys listened to? Right? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? Hasn't God expressed something to you that you've always known, that you've always heard, that's always been proclaimed to you, that you've always read in the Bibles that he gave you? It's he who sits enthroned, listen to this language, above the circle of the earth. What an awesome imagery that he's given us. The inhabitants of the earth are like grasshoppers. Hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, hop. They're annoying, aren't they? He stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. Everything originates from me, says God. You know this. I fashioned everything you see. Back to verse 12. Who's measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span and closed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains and the scales and the hills in a balance. The way that you have come to think and are acting like is that what's happening in this world says that I don't care about all that I've made, number one. Or that I've given up on maintaining it, number two. Or that I don't control any of this, number three. That's what your loyalties elsewhere look like. That's why you're fashioning idols. That's why you're creating men to be your gods. Lift up your eyes and see. Who created all this, he says. he brings out the host by their number, calling them all by name. By the greatness of his might, and because he's strong in power, not one is missing. I know everything I have made. I know every beast of the field. Look at the cattle. Look at everything that's made in this world. I know it all. I've declared it all. I've named it all. It's mine. This is a really remarkable thought. When you think about it, I uphold everything. Are you asking the question, am I too far off or too great to care about you? Are you really asking that? You think I've forgotten you? Is that what you think? Is that how you're living? Really? Stop and look at your life. Is that how you're living? Psalm 139, Lord, you've searched me and known me. You know when I sit down. You know when I rise up. You discern my thoughts. You know he's even reading your thoughts right now, whether you want to be here or not. You search my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word on my tongue is, behold, you know it all together. You hem me in behind him before. You lay your hand on me. You see, in power, he upholds everything. In his great omniscience and knowledge, he knows everything, which includes you. He knows you intimately. He knows you personally. He knows how he made you. He knows how he fashioned you. He knows the distresses of your life and the distresses of your heart. He knows exactly what's come upon you and your question's all wrong. Your question's all wrong. You think all this is happening just for judgment? You think this craziness is happening just for judgment's sake? This is happening to bring you back to me. That's what he's saying in this text. God is that great and God still cares and God knows you and all that he has made he is providentially caring for and loves and upholds and you see it's in the seasons of adversity it's in the dangerous seasons that that truth must be set before us and God says something here to remind us of that something important to remind us of that I want you to know I'm going to prove this to you through your own rulers what does God say here look carefully what does he say here in verse, look down, where he talks about the rulers. Such an important verse. In verse, I'll find it. Somebody can yell it out if I haven't found it. See, that's good. What was it? 23. Listen to it. Who brings princes to what? Nothing. And makes the rulers of the earth as what? emptiness. And you're trusting them to help you. That's an amazing verse. It's an overwhelming verse to simply sit and meditate upon. Daniel had to remind the nation, don't you understand the living are going to know something? The living are going to know that the most high rules over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whomever he chooses? Odds, polls. Are you kidding me? He who's in the heavens laughs at this whole thing. I'll give it to whom I choose. And it may be that who I choose is a time to bring my people back to me because they need it. It's quite a perspective no matter what happens. Ruthless Nebuchadnezzar was about to come in ruin them. And God says in verse 24, when he decides, when he decides, I'll blow on them and they're done. This is why Calvin would say God sometimes uses wicked tyrants to restrain the wickedness of the people and judge the wickedness of the people. Verse 24, when he decides to blow on these leaders, they wither. All that boasting and all that pomp, they're gone. And a whirlwind will take them away like stubble. He gives the kingdom to whom he chooses. God blows and they're gone. He blows on Biden or Trump and they're done. They're gone tomorrow and they won't fix a thing unless he decides. What more do you need then? Consider him and his sovereignty, power that is beyond compare and that he still cares for his people. That's what the passage is saying. He is your strength. He's your fortress. He's your ever-present help and need. God is our refuge and our strength. Whom shall I fear? See, Isaiah knows what has happened to God's people during this time. The discouragement and the weariness of everything was actually discouraging them to the point of turning away more from him, and his word comes and says, stop. That's why the word's so powerful in the midst of this. That's why you need this word today. Much of the weariness they had brought on themselves because of idolatry they were turning from him and as Jacob had wrestled from God God raises it right here consider oh Jacob consider oh Israel remember that remember what I did to him he tried to wrestle me how does the Lord help us how does the Lord help them how did he in the midst of all this weariness comes the greatest consolation that could come from the lips of God have you not known again have you not heard the Lord is the everlasting God the creator of the ends of the earth he does not grow faint nor weary don't put your trust in someone with all the energy in the world only god has it his understanding is unsearchable and guess what he does for you the first question they asked was about god himself does he not see the second was about their experience does he not answer and what does god do here's what he does he gives power to the faint. And to him who has no might, he increases your strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. See what he's saying? Take the strongest people you know in this life who have really no cares, and the young man in all of his strength, the young man in all of his vitality, in the prime of life, he can't handle this. He can't handle what's coming. when these seasons come. So if he can't, you're not going to be able to when chastisement comes. But listen, when you look to the Lord, he gives this. He gives power to the weak. And when people are completely overcome by circumstances, God promises you here, he'll inwardly give you exactly what you read from Philippians 4 of the apostle in prison, power in the tyranny of circumstances and weariness. He gives you power. This is what Jesus was saying when he was walking on the earth. This is what the gospel was saying. Why are you looking everywhere? You're under the heavy laden and load of your sins. You can't bear it. You can't get it. Come to me and I'll give it. I'll take it and I'll give you rest and I'll give you strength. I'll give you power to the weary. Come to me. That's why he went to the cross. To rescue us from judgment. And to tell you that no matter how we're tried and tested in this life, you belong to me. In body and soul, in life and in death. Come to me when you're weary. You don't need the alcohol. You don't need the drugs. You don't need anything else. Come to me when you're weary. Come to me when you're faint. Come to me when you can't handle this. I'll help you. I'll give you rest. When you look to the Lord, don't forget, it's God who made you, God knew you, God fashioned you, and in care, saved you. And when you were not even asking for it, in non-existence, the Son of God was on the cross saying, it's finished, actually paying and atoning for your sins, past, present, and future, when you had never even asked for it. I want to come back to the statement at the beginning of the lady who said, I just need something to look forward to. This is why I'm most frustrated with our leaders today. Anything you could criticize, it is just bad management because they give no people hope. God doesn't lead you that way. Isaiah 40 ends with a bright future ahead of you. But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not be faint. Don't you look forward to that day? That's what's ahead. That's what's ahead. That's the certainty of what's ahead. Listen to me. You're absolutely promised renewed strength. As the birds of the air, the greatest eagle soars in the sky. In might and in freedom. And in strength and in beauty. That's yours. That's how much he has you. That's how much he who has called you loves you. And in this passage, what got Israel into their mess was that they were looking to other idols. Don't put your trust in princes. God is our refuge and our strength. A very present help in trouble. May his word today bring that renewal to you, that strength, that help, that blessing through our dark hours, whatever they are, that our God made this, that our God upholds this, our God has this. And in him, we find all the strength we need every day to get up. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for being faithful and forgive us. We've been so caught up in the affairs of this life and we have been consumed with the concerns of this life that will fade like a flower and our leaders who, when you blow, are done. We've forgotten the Lord, our God, who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery with great might and great wonder. Thank you for the cross. Thank you for already delivering us. Thank you for the future that you've promised us. Let us not be cynical as we were challenged today. Let us be a people who speak words of edification and great comfort and joy to people of the hope that we have. That's what we're told. You told us. Tell others of the hope that resides within you. Thank you for giving that to us for we have it. And I pray, O Lord, that whatever happens in these coming weeks and months, that we would trust you all the more. And if all of our stuff was taken, our homes were taken, we were put in jail, may we be able with the Apostle Paul to say I've learned to be content in every circumstance that the Lord has put me in. Thank you for loving us and for saving us. Remember your promises to us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you.