Emory University in Atlanta has a big collection of the writings of Martin Luther, who set off the Reformation in the early 1500s, and emphasized justification by grace alone, through faith alone.  A couple of years ago, they found this old document, which was printed in 1520, 3 years after the Reformation had begun, on which someone had handwritten a note. It turns out after they studied it, that this note is from the hand of Martin Luther himself, who’d written a comment on this page, mocking the Pope, who had excommunicated him for his beliefs!  It was a surprising discovery, and now of course that document is one of the treasures of Emory University, as they have the very words of Martin Luther Himself on that document!  

That pamphlet is quite a treasure; but the fact is, every one of us has something far greater in our hands today: we have the very words of God himself, in the Bible! Isaiah 40, our passage for today, talks about the confidence we can have in God’s word, and the comfort we can find in it, as well as the attention that we should pay to it.

Isaiah 40 is a favorite Christmas time passage for many, George Fredrick Handel put several of Isaiah 40’s verses to music in his famous oratorio “Messiah,” which opens with its words “Comfort ye,” right out of Isaiah 40:1. So I thought it would be fitting for us, as we enter this Christmas season, to look at the text of this famous song, right out of scripture, and the message that it has for us today.

I. The Certainty of the Word of God

In this passage we find several indications of the certainty of the word of God:

— Verse 5 concludes by saying: “For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” In other words, Isaiah says that what he ha spoken here WILL happen. This isn’t just Isaiah’s “feeling”, or “impression”, which may or may not come about. He says, this is “the mouth of the Lord.” GOD has said it, and it WILL happen.  

— And then :8 tells us: “The grass withers, the flower fades. But the word of our God stands forever.” He says, the things of this world are temporary: grass comes up; “flowers”  blossom for a day, but they wither quickly away. And he says that WE as human beings are like that, too: verse 8 says, “all flesh is like grass.” We are here on earth for just a brief time. He says in :7 “surely the people are grass.” People come and go. Even “great men” — presidents and rulers — come and go. 

For example, In Isaiah 6 Isaiah said that “in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord.” This was significant because King Uzziah had reigned over Israel for 52 years — that’s like 13 consecutive terms for our President of the United States!  52 years! So the people of Judah had gotten used to King Uzziah; they felt secure with him, like he was their stability. But King Uzziah couldn’t guarantee anything for the people of Israel; he was just a man; “grass”, the Bible says, who would one day disappear forever, just like every one of us. The strongest of us as human being are like grass; we are only temporary. But he says: “the word of our God stands forever.” God’s word does not change. 

So God very emphatically describes here in Isaiah 40 the confidence that we should have in His word.  “For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.” This is GOD’s word! Not only the Book of Isaiah, but all of the 66 books of the Bible. These are not just a bunch of good ideas that a group of men have put together. This is literally the Word of God! We should treat it that way.

In several denominations, when they have finished the scripture reading in their service, the pastor or whoever is reading will say: “This is the word of the Lord.” I don’t think that’s a bad tradition. We NEED the reminder that what is found in this book is not just the words and opinions of men, but the words of God: “The mouth of the Lord hath spoken this”!

It’s just like II Timothy 3:16 says: “All scripture is inspired by God.” As many of you know, the word “inspired” in that verse means “God-breathed.” God Himself breathed the words of scripture through the human authors of this Book. These are His words, all of them. 

You may be familiar with, or maybe you even own, what they call a “red letter” version of the Bible. In those versions, they put the words of Jesus in the New Testament in red, and all the others in the Bible, in black ink. And that’s ok, I guess. But in another sense, it can be kind of misleading, as it almost implies that all the OTHER words in the Bible are NOT His. Folks these are ALL God’s words! There is a very real sense in which if we are going to have a “red letter Bible,” that ALL of the words should be in red!  Because hey are ALL His words. We can say of all scripture like Isaiah 40 does here: “For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it”!  

And we see this borne out: what God said here in Isaiah would happen, did indeed happen. God told Israel in the first 39 chapters of this book that they would be punished if they continued to sin against Him, and they were. If you look back at the last verses of Isaiah 39, the Lord told Hezekiah in :6 that his treasures would be carried away to Babylon, and He said in :7 that some of Hezekiah’s own sons would be taken captive to Babylon. This did in fact come to pass. In 586 B.C., King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded Israel, surrounded Jerusalem, broke through the walls of the city, blinded the king, and carried him and his sons and many of the country’s leaders and their treasures into captivity into Babylon. It happened exactly as God said — “For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it”!

May I say, by the way, that this should serve as an ominous reminder to OUR nation today. America cannot continue to rebel against the word of God, and do whatever seems right in our own eyes, and think that He will continue to withhold His judgment forever. Just like He was with Israel, God has been very patient with our country. But as Psalm 103 clearly says: “He will not always strive with us; nor will He keep His anger forever.” We cannot continue to murder unborn babies, redefine marriage and gender, practice immorally, ignore the poor and needy, live selfishly, and ignore God our Creator and King, and think that judgment won’t come upon us. God’s judgment has come upon every nation in history which has practiced these things, and it will come upon us too. There WILL come a time of judgment for America unless we repent. It’s not a question of “if;” it’s only a matter of when. “For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it”!  His word is certain. 

And what is true for our nation is also true for us as individuals. “The mouth of the Lord has spoken” the things that He commands us to do in His word. So we need to pay attention to it. Galatians 6:5 says “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” Listen: there is a very real sense in which you don’t “break” God’s commandments; rather, the commandments of God will break YOU if you disobey them — and we see this tragically played out in people’s lives all around us every day. People may not believe it; they may ignore it; but they WILL pay the consequences for disobeying his word. What God’s word says is certain; it WILL come to pass. “For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it”!

II. The Comfort of the Word of God

But this same word of God which promises judgment, also promises His comfort and love:

— In fact, Isaiah 40:1 opens with those hopeful words which are quoted in Messiah, “Comfort, comfort My people, says your God.” 

—:5 says “Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see it …”.

— :9 speaks of the “good news” which will be proclaimed to the cities of Judah, saying “Behold your God!”

— And :11 says He will come and “like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs.”

And because these weren’t just Isaiah’s words, but “the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it,” all of this too came to pass. We are celebrating this Christmas season how God DID come to earth, and He DID comfort His people, in His promised Messiah/Son, Jesus, about 600 years after these words were spoken. He came to earth to gather His lambs in His arms, just like Isaiah foretold. It was no accident that when Jesus came to earth, He said in John 10 “I am the Good Shepherd … and I lay down My life for the sheep.” He fulfilled Isaiah prophecy: He came to be our Shepherd, and love us, and lead us, and even pick us up and carry us when we need it. 

But before He could really be our Shepherd, He first had to do something about our sins which had separated us from Him. As I mentioned before, the first 2/3 of this book of Isaiah speaks about the sins which the people of God had committed against Him, and the judgment that was coming upon them because of their sin. If you read Isaiah, you’ll see that we today are just like those people were! We too have broken God’s commandments in the same ways that they did; in our actions, in our words, in our thoughts, and attitudes, and in the things He commanded us to do that we have left undone. Isaiah puts it this way in 53:6, “All of us like sheep have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way.” That’s a great picture of what’s happened between us and God: we’ve each just gone off in our own direction, instead of following the Lord as our Shepherd. That’s what sin is. 

And as we’ve talked about numerous times before, God can’t just “ignore” our sins. He is holy. We can’t have fellowship with Him when we sin. Isaiah says in Chapter 59:2, “your iniquities have caused a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.” Our sins have separated us from Holy God. That’s why so many of us do not know God, or feel close to Him right now: our sins are separating us from Him. And we deserve that. We’ve chosen to sin.

But amazingly, even in our sin, God still loved us; He wanted to be our Shepherd, and He wants us to be able know Him, and to fellowship with Him. So He Himself came down to earth, just as Isaiah 40 said He would: “Behold the Lord God will come …”. And God the Son DID come, as Jesus Christ. And by taking our sins in His body on the cross, He removed the barrier that had separated us from God. Isaiah 53 puts it this way: “All of us like sheep have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on HIM.” All of the punishment for all of our sins, was placed upon Jesus on the cross. 

In our own Larry Watson’s book on the history of First Baptist Church, College Station, he writes how the church called Malcolm Bane as pastor in 1969. When Malcolm Bane was a young boy, growing up in the town of Forney, just east of Dallas, he discovered that he could “charge” items at the local grocery store from “Mr. Pipkin.” So, one summer, to impress some of his friends, he began to charge (all kinds of) items without any realization that one day he would have to pay the debt. After several months passed, the owner of the grocery store gently confronted the young Malcolm about the debt he had made, $16.75. (In that day, and to that little boy, it was an insurmountable debt. He said: “It might as well been a thousand dollars.” While fighting through tears, however, his barber “Mr. Adams” told the grocery store owner, Mr. Pipkin, “I will pay the debt.” Bane said he learned a great lesson from that event — especially about the love and grace of God.” (Larry J. Watson, Challenge to Ministry, the History of FBC College Station, pp. 137-138)

Because that is what God did for us. We have all rung up an unpayable debt to God, of thoughts, words, deeds, bad attitudes, broken relationships, thing left undone. We could never pay the debt of our sin. But like Mr. Adams, God stepped in, and said “I will pay the debt.” And Jesus came, and died on the cross, crying out “It is finished” — a Greek commercial word that means the debt is paid in full. The debt for all of our sin is paid in full by the death of Jesus on the cross for us. 

This is the “good news” that Isaiah 40:9 speaks about: “Lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news; … say to the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God!” Behold: our God, Jesus, came to die for us pay our debt with God. And because of what He did, now one day we WILL behold Him in glory. And even now we can follow Him as our Shepherd, because of what Jesus came to do for us.

More than anything else, this is what God wants you find from His word today. He wants you to be comforted because He loves you, and He is your Shepherd. And you can know that comfort: if you will admit to Him that you have gone off in the wrong direction; trust that Jesus paid for your sins on the cross; and commit your life to Him as the Lord and God and Shepherd of your life. More than anything else, He wants you to love Him, and follow Him as your Shepherd. If you’ll do that, you will be forgiven, and saved, and you’ll have the comfort God promises you here in Isaiah 40. “For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it”! 

III. Our Commitment to the Word of God

Implied throughout this whole passage is the commitment that each of us  should have to the word of God: 

— :5 says: “For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Just think about it: If the mouth of the Lord has spoken it, then that means we’d better pay attention to it!  Hebrews 2:1 says “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard.”  Because this is God’s word!

— :8 says “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.” If that’s so, then we need to be committed to this word. Listen: our world is a changing world. It seems like everything changes: science changes; educational theories change; politics changes; popular opinion changes; cultural standards of right and wrong change — but God’s word doesn’t change. Don’t build your life around the shifting sands of those ever-changing things. Build your life on the solid rock of unchanging the word of God. It will last forever.

We live in a time today of moral and intellectual upheaval. The 1700’s were actually a time like that also: it was a time of political revolution, like the United States, and France experienced, but it was also a time of intellectual and religious change. One leader in the “Enlightenment” movement which swept Europe in those days called himself Voltaire. Voltaire hated Christianity. He wrote that the Christian faith was “assuredly the most ridiculous, the most absurd and the most bloody religion which has ever infected this world.” Voltaire had a great wit, and he spent much of his time vigorously assaulting and poking fun at the Bible. And at one point he boasted that:  “One hundred years from my day there will not be a Bible in the earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity seeker.”  Voltaire died in 1778. Almost 240 years have elapsed since his death. And despite all his attacks and all of his predictions, since “his day” (as he called it), 5 BILLION more copies of the Bible have been sold! The Bible today is read in more countries around the world than it was in Voltaire’s day; it is believed by more people around the world than it was in Voltaire’s day, and the Bible is every year, year after year, THE #1 best-selling book in the world. And it is not going anywhere! “The grass withers; the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever”! “For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it”!  

So the lesson for us is: don’t follow the shifting winds of media or popular opinion. They’ll tell you one thing today, and something entirely different tomorrow. Follow Jesus as your Shepherd, and anchor your life in His words: the unchanging word of God. “For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.” 

To do that, we’ve got to be committed to reading and hearing His word, and obeying it. That just makes sense: if Jesus is your Shepherd, that means that you’re committed to follow Him. But how do you know how to follow Him? He gave us His word to listen to, and to read, and to obey. You can’t really say you’re following Jesus as your Shepherd in any meaningful way, if you aren’t studying and obeying His word.

And yet, honestly, even most people who come to church don’t do that. I just read a survey not long ago that indicated that only 20% of people who attend church read their Bibles regularly. How can we follow Jesus as our Shepherd, when we aren’t even reading His word?! We are not hearing what the mouth of the Lord has spoken to us. 

It has been such a blessing to see my wife Cheryl gain back strength steadily every week since her stroke. We have been so grateful for how the Lord is bringing her back. She took another big step back this week by setting up her quiet time area in our bedroom. For years she’s had a big brown chair in a corner of our room, with a table, and her Bible, and a journal, and prayer list, and all she needs to spend time with the Lord first thing every morning. Well, as I shared before, when we were at the hospital and then at rehab 24/7, we didn’t have the ability to have a traditional “quiet time” like we’d been used to. That’s when our scripture memory became vital to us; at any quiet moment, at 3:00 a.m., or whenever we could sneak it in, we could quote Psalms and other scriptures to give us time with God and pray. 

But now that we’ve been home for a few weeks, Cheryl is starting to get around better. She’s wheeling — and walking — around the house a lot more. So one day this week she said: I want to get my quiet time corner set back up again (the chair had gotten piled up with blankets and pillows and “stuff” from the hospital). So we did that. And this week she began having her daily time in God’s word and prayer, back in her “spot” again!

She shared about this with one of her therapists at UTMBA this week, and the therapist said, “Oh, you mean like a ‘war rom” from the movie?” Cheryl said, yes, exactly. We saw in our MasterLife discipleship study, just how important it is to have a specific time and place to walk with God every day. If you don’t have that, you most likely will not do it.

So some of us today need to do that: get your “war room” set up. Get you a personal place established where you can spend time every day with God in His word and prayer. This isn’t just some thing we do to be “religious.” We do this because “the mouth of the Lord has spoken” the things in this Book. They are the very words of God, and we need to be committed to them like they are, and treat them like what they are. 

We need to commit these words to memory, memorize verses and Psalms and portions of scripture that will minister to us and others. I told you before how Cheryl told one of the doctors at the hospital that she was surprised that walking 3 miles a day, which she had been doing, did not forestall the stroke. And the doctor said that was not wasted; it saved your life. This was the kind of stroke that would have either killed you or put you in a coma. It saved your life. Cheryl said later, after we’d had those long weeks in the hospital, with no possibility of a formal “daily Bible reading time,” and we were living spiritually off of the verses and chapters we had memorized; she said:  “The doctor said that walking 3 miles a day saved my life, but memorizing scripture saved me from the darkness that followed.” God’s word brought us through the darkness!

That’s why just reading the word is not enough. This Book is different from any other book you might read: 

— The Bible is not some “novel” we are just reading for our entertainment.

— The Bible is not just a “textbook” we are studying to pass an exam. 

— “The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it”! This is the word of GOD to us. Our Shepherd wants to speak to us through it every day. We need to pay attention to it, read it, study it, memorize it — as if God Himself were speaking to us through it: because He is!

In 1536 William Tyndale was strangled and burned at the stake, for translating the Bible into English, so that everyday English citizens could read the word of God for themselves. In the introduction to his new English translation, Tyndale wrote: “As thou readest therefore, think that every syllable pertaineth to thine own self …”. In other words, don’t just read this book as history of what others have done, or study it as if it were some kind of “textbook”; read this book to hear the voice of your Shepherd speaking to YOU, leading you to DO what it says.  

This book is certain; God gave it to us to be the rock-solid foundation for our life. So let’s treat it like what it is, and commit ourselves to read it, and know it, and memorize it, and personally do what this Book says. 

“For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”  

INVITATION:

How do you personally need to respond to this message today?

— Some of us need to really believe in what this Word is; that it is the word of God. We may have some opinion, some attitude, some activity in our life that is going against this Word, and we need to correct our opinion, attitude, or activity to line up with what God’s word says we should be doing. I haven’t even mentioned a bunch of sins today, but I bet God has spoken to some of you this morning through this word, and He’s convicting you about something you need to change.

— Many, many of us need to give God’s word a more important place in our lives. Some of us are congratulating ourselves because we ready a verse in a devotional every day. That’s a great start — do it — but don’t stop there. You’re getting the baby milk, now get into the meat of the word. Read chapters and books of it for yourself, and let GOD show you what He has for YOU personally in His word every day. It’s a whole different level; a whole different ballgame. And a blessed one!

— Maybe you need to ask yourself: what if I had a stroke — or was put in some position where I couldn’t read my Bible every day — how much of God’s word would I have? 

— And have you made the most important response to God’s word: have you given your life to the Messiah this Bible prophesied over and over: Jesus Christ?  If not, ask Him to forgive your sins, and come into your life, to be YOUR own personal Lord & Savior, right now!