As I mentioned, our scripture reading this evening is found in the prophet of Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40, the first 11 verses. Isaiah 40, beginning at verse 1. Brothers and sisters, this is God's word. Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity is 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. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Get you 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. Thanks be to God for his word. And the Lord said, Call his name, not my people. For you are not my people, and I am not your God. Perhaps you recognize this verse that is found in Hosea chapter 1, where the Lord told Hosea to name his third child Lo-Ami, which in Hebrew means, not my people. The Lord had Hosea do this to signify to the people of Israel and the people of Judah that the Lord no longer counts them as His people. They have forsaken Him. They have prostituted themselves to the nation. For the covenant people of God, nothing could be worse. For them not to be God's people, and for God to tell them that he is not their God, means they no longer have their identity. This is who they are. They are God's people. But the Lord is telling them, that's going to end. Similar to this bad news from the prophet Hosea, Isaiah speaks in the passage immediately preceding what we read. Isaiah 39, beginning at verse 5. 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 all which your fathers have stored up till 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. They shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Because of the people's unfaithfulness to the covenant, They were going to undergo exile. And the promised land was going to be destroyed by Assyria and Babylon. King Hezekiah's own sons will be eunuchs in Babylon. Not only did God's people have their identity in being His people, but they also found their identity in the land that God had given them. Especially in the city of Zion, where the temple was. To be told that this tomb would be taken from them. is the ultimate curse for the people. This was the message that the Lord continually brought to his people through his prophets. And through Hosea as expressed most vividly in the name of that child, Loa me, not my people. Bad news upon bad news, but yet it was all deserved because of the people's unfaithfulness. They had broken the covenant that they had made with God. But then comes the first verse of Isaiah 40. Comfort, comfort my people. There is good news in Isaiah 40 verse 1. Something has changed in the relationship between God and Israel. They are called His people again. And even more so, the verse continues, says, You're God. God identifies Himself as the God of Israel. and the God of his people again. Immediately after speaking to King Hezekiah about this impending exile to Babylon, because of the sins of the people come these words, Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. And verse 2 continues by giving the substance of this comfort, the reason why the people are again called God's people, and why God is again their God. The time of pain and suffering of Jerusalem is over. Their sins have been pardoned. The broken relationship that Israel had with God has been restored. It's been restored because their sins have been atoned for by an acceptable sacrifice. In Isaiah 53 especially, we read about that acceptable sacrifice, don't we? The propitiation of Christ. The turning away of God's wrath. the sacrifice of Christ's own body. That work of Christ that he was going to perform 700 years in the future was so certain for Isaiah that he speaks of it here in our passage in the past tense. Her iniquity is parting. She has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Isaiah assures the people the Lord's will will be done. It may not look like it now. This is God's Word. This is God's promise. What does Isaiah mean when he says that Jerusalem will receive double for all her sins in verse 2? Simply what Isaiah is saying here is that there is a completeness to her judgment. Or that her sins have been sufficiently atoned for. This doesn't mean that the Lord somehow was a tyrannical judge. It demanded from His people double what they deserve. They're going to really pay for their sins. No, God is a just God. He's not a tyrant. God brought salvation to His people because their iniquities and their sins had been exactly paid for. Well, verse 2 gives the negative side of salvation. There had to be payment. There had to be an acceptable sacrifice to be offered on behalf of the sins of God's people. The sacrifice was our Lord Jesus Christ, who took upon Himself our sins and gave us His righteousness, which Isaiah speaks so clearly of later in chapter 53. Then in verses 3-11 of Isaiah 40, give us then the positive side of this salvation, the comfort that it is for God's people who are again called His people. And He is their God. Well, there are three voices who speak to God's people about this comfort. So think with me this evening about what these three voices proclaim. First, they proclaim that God's glory will be revealed. Second, they proclaim that God's word will endure. And finally, they proclaim that God's shepherd will come. May we, too, be comforted by what God has revealed to us in His written Word, but also in that Word that became flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ. So first of all, God's glory will be revealed. Now, children, do you ever help your mom and your dad prepare your house for guests to come over? Maybe you have family visiting from out of state this summer on their summer vacation. What do you need to do? Pick up your room? Make sure all your toys are awake. Make sure the backyard looks good. There's a lot that needs to happen to prepare your house for special guests. Well, that's precisely what the voice is saying in verses 3 through 5. The Lord is coming. We make sure everything is ready. Now, we don't know who it is that is speaking here. But what we do know is that the message he is proclaiming is important. In the midst of all this bad news and suffering that the people of Israel and Judah have been hearing, here comes a voice proclaiming to them, The Lord is coming. His glory will be revealed. This is really good news for God's people. Throughout Isaiah, there is a lot of prophecy about the destruction of all the nations around Israel and Judah, but also about Israel and Judah themselves being destroyed because of their unfaithfulness. But the Lord is faithful to the covenant that he made with Abraham so many years before. And he will restore his people. He will again be their God and they will again be his people. The Lord God will dwell with his people just as he had in the past. Well, the Lord himself will then prepare for his coming by removing all obstacles, making his way straight. The voice here in Isaiah is speaking figuratively of this preparation for the Lord's coming. We're not meant to read this literally as if somehow all the valleys are going to be made high and all the mountains are going to be literally cut low and make everything a plain. No, the Lord is not hindered in any way by His creation. So what does it mean then that the way needed to be prepared for the Lord's coming? To put it plainly, it means that the people's hearts needed to be prepared. There needed to be repentance on behalf of the people. This is precisely what we see happening in the New Testament, don't we? Isaiah 40, verse 3 is the only verse in the Old Testament that I could find that was quoted by all four gospel writers. And they all apply it to the work of John the Baptist. John the Baptist's ministry was to call the people to repentance, to baptize them for the forgiveness of their sins, To prepare them for Christ's coming. The people of God needed to realize they were still sinners. They still needed a Savior. They needed to realize that even though they were again settled in the promised land. They needed to realize they were still enemies. Still exiles of God. Because of their unfaithfulness. They needed to repent. They needed to turn to the Lord. when the angel Gabriel came to Zechariah in Luke 1 to announce the coming of his son John. This is what the angel Gabriel said. That he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will go before them in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. It's not the valleys or the hills that literally needed to be removed. It's the stony, cold, dead hearts of men that are obstacles to the good news of comfort that is being proclaimed. Men need to repent and believe. But what are all these preparations for? Why do men need to repent and believe? Because the glory of the Lord is going to be revealed. Throughout the Old Testament, the glory of the Lord signifies His dwelling with His people. It was the glory of the Lord that filled the tabernacle and then filled the temple as if with a cloud. Now again, the Lord will dwell among His people. His glory would be revealed. Although now the glory of the Lord wouldn't be seen in a cloud, but in a man. The incarnate Son of God, Emmanuel, God with us. And it was John's mission then to prepare the way for this revealing of the Lord's glory. A revealing of glory that would be seen by Christ healing the sick, casting out demons, calming stormy seas, ultimately, and is being raised from the dead. The initial preparation of the people for the coming of the Lord is calling them to repentance, to put their trust in the One greater than John, promised Messiah, who is to fulfill the law of God and redeem God's people. But Isaiah's prophecy in chapter 40 will actually be fulfilled twice. There's another fulfillment of God's glory being revealed beyond Christ's first coming. This will be revealed by His second coming as well. Peter in his first epistle tells us that we will rejoice and be glad when Christ's glory is revealed. Revelation 21, too, tells us about God dwelling with His people. That they will be His people and they will be His God. They will be His children. With the first coming of Christ, there needed to be preparation in the hearts of men. The same thing is true for the preparation of Christ's second coming as well. Although this time there isn't a John the Baptist who will proclaim the coming of the Lord's glory. Now there are ministers of the gospel preparing the way, calling people to repent and believe. Paul speaks of this in Romans chapter 10. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? How are they to hear without someone preaching? How are they to preach unless they are sent? So faith comes from hearing. Hearing through the Word of Christ. Preachers are sent by God. The preached Word creates faith in the hearts of the people. It gives them belief. Brothers and sisters, is your heart prepared for the revealing of God's glory? God has promised by His Holy Spirit that all obstacles will be removed. He will regenerate us. He will give life to our cold, dead hearts. So that we can then trust and believe in Jesus Christ. Just as we heard this morning in John chapter 3. Repentance is the dying away of the old self and coming to life of the new. This only comes through the working of the Holy Spirit. Primarily through the preaching of God's Word. Just as God sent voices in Isaiah's time to proclaim this message of comfort, so too does God in our day send voices as His ambassadors during this time of waiting before Christ's first coming and second coming. Ambassadors that come and preach the gospel and prepare the way for Christ's second coming. The message I saw in John the Baptist 2,000 years ago is the same message today. The glory of the Lord is coming. Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Why can we be sure of this? How do we know that this is true? Because God's word will endure. Which brings us to our second point. In verses 6 through 8, there's a second voice that makes a proclamation concerning the frailty of human life. And he does so in very descriptive language that we can even understand very easily today as well. We know, children, don't we, that if you don't water your plants or water your grass, it'll die. It'll turn up to be brown and wither. Even beautiful flowers eventually lose their beauty. They fade and they fall. What the Lord does here in Isaiah 40 is tell us that these things happen when the breath of the Lord blows. He is the Creator God. He gives life with His breath, but He also brings death. Not only is this true with vegetation and plants, but also with people, as the end of verse 7 very plainly tells us. Surely the people are grasped. The glory of man quickly fades because we are just like the grass. This is not only true with our outer beauty, but also with any inner beauty we might have had as well. In fact, only Adam and Eve had true inner beauty in the Garden of Eden before they sinned and plunged themselves and their posterity into sin and death. There is no beauty in the heart of man now. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, Paul tells us in Romans 3. So we're faced with a pretty bleak picture, aren't we? The grass withers, the flower fades, yet there is good news. The word of our God stands forever. We may say to a loved one going through a tough time, I won't be there for you. We don't know that. We don't know if the Lord is going to cause us to wither and die even the very next day. Our words fail over and over again. Something we said yesterday can be proved untrue tomorrow. We very easily break our promises even if we don't intend to. In contrast to our frailty is the enduring Word of the Lord which will never wither. It will never fail. Even in Isaiah's time, God was faithful to His covenant. The people were undergoing His judgment and wrath because of the covenant they made with God on Mount Sinai. They were now breaking. But the Lord is always preserving for Himself a remnant. Because of the covenant that He had made with Abraham 400 years before Sinai. Because the word of the Lord endured, the Messiah would come. The Messiah would have come fulfilling the word that the Lord proclaimed all the way back in the Garden of Eden, much earlier than Abraham. Throughout the Bible, especially in the Psalms and the Prophets, the biblical authors use the Hebrew word chesed, which means God's covenant faithfulness. It's usually translated in ESV as steadfast love, which gets at the same idea. We can trust God because of his steadfast love, his covenant faithfulness. He will never break his promises. In verse 6 where we read, all that's beauty is like a flower of the field. The word beauty there is actually the Hebrew word hesed. Man's covenant faithfulness is like the flower of the field. It may look beautiful for a while. quickly fades and turns into covenant unfaithful. Brothers and sisters, are you trusting in God's enduring word? Perhaps throughout your life you have been disappointed so often by the words of men that you have a hard time trusting anybody. Maybe you can't even trust their pastor when he tells you about the promises of God. But remember that all men are sinful and that we do need to then forgive them. God never has to ask for our forgiveness. His Word is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We can trust God's promises because they have been proven to be trustworthy. Just look at all the promises and prophecies contained in the Old Testament. God's Word will endure despite men withering and fading and failing Him. This word of God, in fact, will come to his people. And to this end, a third voice proclaims, Behold your God. Which brings us to our final point, that God's shepherd will come. Have you ever watched the President's State of the Union address? There in the House chambers with all the senators, representatives, judges, and other officials, the sergeant of arms declares in a loud voice to the Speaker of the House, the President of the United States. That voice is to announce to everybody, the President is coming into the room. All attention immediately goes on to him. In verse 9, the final voice is told to go up on a high mountain. And with a loud, strong voice, declare the good news to the cities. Behold your God. Now, this is no mere announcement of an earthly ruler of an earthly kingdom walking down an aisle. But an announcement, the Lord God Himself is coming. Listen to verses 9 and 10 again. Get you 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. All eyes are to be on the covenant God. The covenant Lord, the Almighty God, Maker of heaven and earth. He has come. This is truly good news. This is truly the Gospel. God has come in all of His glory. The Lord is coming with might and with a strong arm. The Lord has displayed His might and His strong arm before in the redemption of His people. Listen to these words sung by the people of Israel after they were saved by the Lord going through the Red Sea. Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, I will sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously. The horse and the rider He has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song. And He has become my salvation. This is my God and I will praise Him. My Father is God and I will exalt Him. The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is His name. Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? You stretched out your right hand. The earth swallowed them. This is who our God is. This is who the people were expecting their Messiah to be. Coming with might and with a strong arm. The Lord as a man of war. Majestic in holiness. Awesome in glorious deeds. Doing wonders. And then this mighty God comes with His reward. With His wages paid in full according to verse 10. God is not lacking anything. He will accomplish His purposes in redeeming for Himself a people. What an interest. The people who are waiting 700 years for this Messiah to come had to imagine what all of this was going to look like. It would be glorious. But then comes verse 11. Isaiah has a shocking description of this mighty God who is coming. He will be a shepherd. Gathering lambs in His arms. carrying them in his bosom, gently leading those with young. This does not sound like the same God who Moses and the people spoke of in Exodus 15. Brothers and sisters, this is our God. He is Lord and servant. He is the Almighty God and the shepherd of his people. The Lord knows what his people need. They need a good shepherd. in ezekiel 34 the lord goes after the shepherds of israel the shepherds of israel and judah who were getting fat off of the sheep they were not taking care of them the lord says through ezekiel i myself will be the shepherd of my sheep and i myself will make them lie down declares the lord i will seek the lost i will bring back the strain i will bind up the injured i will strengthen the weak and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice. I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David. He shall feed them. He shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God. And my servant David shall be a prince among them. I am the Lord. I have spoken. This is what the Lord promised to his people. And after much waiting, but still in God's perfect timing. There was another announcement of God's coming that is in very many respects similar to what we read in Isaiah 40. Listen to this announcement. And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. This great announcement to the shepherds was made by an angel of the Lord with the glory of the Lord shining around them. A little bit later, there was a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased. Wow! What an announcement! Behold your God indeed. No earthly ruler has ever had their arrival announced by a host of angels singing from heaven we would expect nothing less from the son of god well if you've been paying attention you probably figured out that it left out a little bit of the angel's first announcement to the shepherd what is the end of that announcement this will be a sign for you you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Behold your God. Humble, poor, lying in a manger. This one shepherd of the people that came into the world in such an extraordinary way is none other than Christ Himself. He is the Good Shepherd. Unlike all those previous shepherds of Israel and Judah. This shepherd knows His sheep. He cares for them. He gently leads them. He carries them. But this shepherd, remember, is also the mighty God. A God of war. A God unlike any other. Christ showed His might and is going to war when He fought the ultimate battle against sin and death and defeated them. But He didn't win that battle with the biggest army ever amassed on earth. He didn't fight with swords and spears on mighty chariots. No, as Isaiah says later in chapter 53, this battle was won when the good shepherd laid down his life for the sheep. Listen to Isaiah 53, 4-7. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, that we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgression. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was a chastisement that brought us peace. With his stripes, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter. Like a sheep that is before its shearers is silent. So He opened not His mouth. The Almighty God poured out His wrath upon His Son. He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquity. Behold your God, who is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Brothers and sisters, it is because of this work of Jesus Christ that we now have Him as our shepherd. One who tends his flock, who gathers his lambs in his arms and carries him, gently leads those that are with the young. And Christ, as our shepherd, is still tending to his flock, even though he has now ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven. Christ is tending his sheep to the officers of the church. God calls under-shepherds to serve Christ and his flock, the ruling and guiding of the church and elders. and ministers, and serving the church and the deacons. These ordinary men have been set apart by God for this task. The one true shepherd, working through the ordinary means of preaching and the sacraments to grow, nourish, sustain his sheep. Brothers and sisters, listen to these words of Isaiah. Behold your God. Behold your God whose glory is revealed and before whom all obstacles have been removed, even our stony heart. Behold your God whose word endures forever, even when we are frail, dying both inside and out, like the grass and flowers of the field. Finally, behold your God who came with might in the flesh, but yet as a shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep. Truly our God is our God. And we are His people. Looking forward to the day when God's glory will be revealed again at the close of this age. And as we wait for that future hope, Christian, listen to the words your God says, Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Amen. Let's pray. Most gracious Heavenly Father, as we open up even the Old Testament to hear about the coming of Your Son, Jesus Christ, we just stand at amazement on all that You have done. That You have come down and called us Your people. That You have identified Yourself as our God. Despite how many times we have failed not only our brothers and sisters or our neighbors, but how many times we have failed You, time and time again. But yet, Lord, You are still calling us Your people because of Your Son, Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, the true Shepherd, who laid His life for the sheep. And the ultimate act of might and power hanging on a cross for us. Lord, as we are reminded of that again this evening, may we continue to rest in that fact as we go out into the world beaten, Burden, failing you, failing our neighbors. But may we rest and trust in Jesus Christ alone. And it is in his name we pray. Amen.