(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, so in chapter number 40 here, there's a very clear transition from what we were just reading, the multiple chapters leading up to chapter 40 here. This is no longer chapters about Hezekiah, king of Judah, and this is starting off directly just with, like, God speaking. So in verse number 1, the Bible says, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Right, so obviously the words are attributed to God, and he's saying comfort my people. Comfort the people. Why? Verse 2, it continues, Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her welfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received the Lord's hand double for all her sins. So he's basically saying here to say, hey, comfort my people, comfort the people because their punishment is complete, like, their punishment's over. And essentially he says they've paid double for all her sins. She says she's received the Lord's hand double for all her sins. And, you know, as a child of God, you know, we ought to have that healthy fear of God because God is going to chasten and chastise every son that he receives. The Bible says that, you know, of whom much is given, of the same shall much be required, that you, the more you know, the more knowledge you have, even just being a child of God, God expects and demands and requires more of you. So yes, God has commandments that are applicable to every person on earth, right? Every human being, everybody that lives on this earth, but God expects more out of his own people. And that's multiple, I mean, you could see that all throughout scripture. You go, you know, 1 Corinthians 5, the apostle Paul was saying, you know, I told you before in the letter not to accompany with fornicators, adulterers, and he's saying, but now I'm telling you something a little bit different or clarifying it more really is what he's doing, is saying if anyone's called a brother, because he's like, you know, if you're going to not accompany with these people, you just have to go out of the world because the world standards are really low, right? But among God's people, we ought to have high standards because we care about one, we care about the word of God, you know, we should love the word of God and the law of God, and we should have a fear of God and know that if we choose to disobey the word of the Lord that we are going to pay for our sins. Now, not in the eternal sense of being damned to hell, because that punishment has been paid for. The curse of the law has been paid for, Jesus Christ has made a curse for us so that we don't have to suffer that punishment, but in the temporal sense, on this earth, you know, the chastening and the correcting that we need, God is going to come down on us and I'll tell you what, he's going to come down on us hard, and the more you know, and that's why he says here, she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins, because God's getting angry and says, you know what, you're going to get it, I'm coming down on you because you should know better, but at the end of the punishment, at the end of the scourging, of the chastising, there's a comfort, and this is where he's at, where he's saying, hey, comfort the people now because you've made it through your disciplining, right? It's the, you know, when the child receives a spanking, it's good to then comfort your child once you've meted out the punishment and just say, alright, it's done, it's over, you're not getting any more spankings, it's done, right, and just let the past be the past, you paid for what you've done wrong, move forward, and this is the moving forward part, now, this is an awesome moving forward part, and this is prophesying the point to where his people are at, you know, when they've already paid for their sins double and things like that, all the bad things that happened unto them, this is right before the coming of Jesus Christ, is what is the event he's prophesying and the time being attributed to comfort ye my people, right, why? Because the Lord's coming, because, you know, they've already, the Jews at this point had already been taken captive and gone back out and then, you know, they're under Roman rule and everything else, you know, they've already suffered quite a bit just in general and God's saying, okay, look, you know, you've paid your dues, you've received the Lord's hand double for all our sins, but now, now get ready, okay, we're gonna put that behind us, now get ready, verse 3, the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God, what he's doing here, and obviously extremely famous passage we're gonna go, and this verse is quoted in the New Testament in all four gospels, and if you wanna start turning, you can turn to Mark chapter 1, I mean, this is how Mark 1 starts, literally, the book of Mark starts off with this, with John the Baptist being this voice that cries in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, this is the message, you know, the whole point is saying you guys need to get ready, prepare, the Lord is coming, so you should prepare your hearts, you should prepare that the fact that God is coming to visit you on this earth, the fact that there's a Savior coming, get ready, get ready for the Savior, make straight in the desert a highway for our God, you know, it's akin to, like when the apostle Paul was preaching to the Gentiles, you know, in the book of Acts, he was saying that, you know, the time of this ignorance God winked at, but now call off all men everywhere to repent, like, look, whatever you've done before, you think you got away with it, whatever, all this stuff, but look, now it's time to get right, now it's time to repent, and in a similar fashion, he's like, look, you guys, you've been in sin, you've been chastised, you've been disciplined, but now get ready, because Jesus is coming, and this is what's being prophesied in Isaiah chapter 40, and we know that this prophecy is fulfilled through John the Baptist. Mark chapter 1, verse number 1, the Bible reads, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in the prophets, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his past straight. This exact quote from Isaiah chapter 40, verse 4, John did baptize in the wilderness and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, and there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. Now when it comes to John the Baptist and preparing the way of the Lord, it's my firm belief that one, yes, he was getting people saved and baptized, but I think even more than getting people saved and baptized, he was baptizing people, and especially probably a lot of people who were already saved, but they were getting right with God, because you, I mean, this is when baptisms started. There was no, no one was getting baptized prior to John the Baptist baptizing people, so it wasn't part of the religion, it wasn't part of the ritual, it wasn't part of any tradition and things that they would do, so this is something new, and we know that baptism is a command, they're commanding people to get baptized, it makes sense that if you were a believer at the time of John the Baptist, you already were saved, you're already a believer, you're already trusting by grace through faith in God that he's the savior, you're gonna go and listen to what John's saying, and hey, he's trying to get people right, people are confessing their sins, you know, you don't have to confess all of your sins in order to get saved, but what's happening here is like a revival, it's people going, man, we need to get right with God, oh man, he's baptizing people, let's die to self, he's showing the death, the resurrection of Christ, we're gonna go and get baptized of God and get things ready, and these crooked paths, we're gonna make them straight, we're gonna start doing things right, and John the Baptist is leading people in that way, he's his voice in the wilderness, just way off in the wilderness, which is where he was doing his ministry, he's out in the wilderness, he's eating locusts and honey, and he's kind of a rough guy, and he's out there just preaching, preaching these hard sermons, and people are coming out to see, like, what does this guy say, and a lot of people thought, well, man, is this the Christ? Because of the power with which he was preaching and all the activity and, I mean, the baptisms and stuff, it's like, they didn't know what to think of him, but he had such an impact that even Jesus Christ said, among them are born of women, are not risen greater than John the Baptist. So the work that he was doing was great, he literally was preparing the way for the Lord, through his ministry, he's trying to get all the people ready, hey, Jesus is coming, the Lamb of God is coming, get ready, get right with God, so you've got multiple people coming, they're confessing their sins, they're getting baptized, you know, yes, some people are getting saved and baptized, but plenty of other people who are already saved are getting baptized as well, and they're getting right with God, and, you know, there's something about baptism, because it is a spiritual activity, no doubt about it, and it's not just myself, I'll give a little testimony of my own, but so many other people I've talked to have some very similar experiences, for myself, I got saved when I was 20 years old, but I didn't get baptized until I was like 27. So there was a seven year stretch in my life where I was saved and not baptized, and guess what, those seven years of my life, I did almost zero, I mean almost zero Bible readings, I barely went to church, you could probably count on two hands the number of times I went to church in those years, but when I got baptized, I got serious about serving God, I was, you know, for myself, I was making the path straight, obviously, I wasn't getting ready for Jesus to come, but it was just, it was this moment of going, hey, I'm gonna get right with God, I got baptized and shortly after that, I mean, it's just, not even sure, it's just right away pretty much, going to church regularly, start going soul winning, getting sin out of your life, doing all that growth, why? Happened after the baptism, the first step of obedience, and not everybody has that same testimony, but many people do, many people, it doesn't matter how long you've gone between being saved and baptized, I've heard so many people say like, you know, and I've witnessed it myself, people who get baptized, and then start living for God, now not everybody who gets baptized just starts living for God, but it definitely is a significant moment of impact, it should be for you to understand you're dying to self, right, and you should be walking in that new man and living for Christ, that you're burying those sins and moving forward, that's one of the symbolism, one of the things, one of the great truths and symbolisms of baptism. So John the Baptist is preparing ways, getting people right with God, people are coming and confessing their sins, and we're not gonna read it, so if you go to Luke chapter 3, I want to point out one more thing here, but if you see, if you were to keep reading, you're gonna see other people in the same passage going, well, you know, hey, what should we do, and what should we do, and, you know, and the soldiers are coming to say, what should we do, be content with your wages and do violence to no man, you know, and various people are just saying, hey, well, what should we do, what should we do, what should we do, why? Because he's preparing a way for the Lord, he's getting them right with God, he's teaching them and instructing them, he's getting baptized, like, hey, get ready, Jesus is coming, we need to be as ready as possible for the Savior to come, it's a great job, it's awesome, and I just want to point this out since we're kind of going over this and covering the passage from Isaiah 40, look at verse number 7 now in Luke chapter 3, the Bible says, Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come, bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance. Now, people will take this out of context into saying, oh, well, you know, prove to me, they won't even say prove to me, they'll say, if you don't do anything, like, if I can't see you doing something good, then you're not saved. And people will say it like that, and it's like, that's not even what he's saying, well, John the Baptist taught repent, and you know, show me the fruit of your repentance, but if you just keep reading, he explains what he's talking about here. Bring forth therefore fruits worthy repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father. So what was he wanting to see the repentance of? The fact that they were trusting that they were Jews, that they were physical seed of Abraham, that they have a genealogy that they could point back to through, you know, going all the way back to Abraham and through the law, like keeping the law and just, well, we're children of Abraham. And what's somewhat, you know, ironic, unfortunately, is how many Christians believe that the Jews are special people by virtue of being a child of Abraham, like a physical descendant. And they think that, you know, even Christians, some Christians believe that that somehow gives them a free pass into heaven or something because, well, they are Jews. Well, no, I mean, Jews today do not have a free, no one has a free pass into heaven by virtue of who your parents are and who your grandparents are and what lie you descended from. Nobody does. No one gets into heaven that way. But these people, John the Baptist, is warning, saying, hey, look, don't think the same with yourself, for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children of Abraham. He's like, that means nothing. Like these rocks, God could raise up seed on Abraham for those rocks. That doesn't mean anything. Don't be trusting in that. Don't be trusting in anything other than Christ. See, he was baptizing people that believed. They had to believe in order for them to get baptized. So he's not going to baptize people who are trusting in the fact that they're a Hebrew to be saved. Like, no, basically show me that you're not trusting in the fact that you're a child of Abraham. Verse 9, and now also the ax is laid under the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. And this goes way more outside of the depth of what I want to get into tonight. But you know, Matthew 7, Jesus talks about how you can identify false prophets. You should know them by their fruits. Not any believer, but the false prophets you can identify by their fruits. Because a prophet's going to bring forth after their own kind. They're going to get converts, proselytes, right? So the false prophet, the false teacher, when they make a proselyte, they make them twofold more a child of hell than themselves. Like the Pharisees would do. But the prophet of God, the man of God, that's making proselytes, is going to make good fruit. Which means that they are going to be saved. They are going to be children of God, not children of the devil. A child of the devil is going to bring forth more children of the devil. A child of God is going to bring forth more children of God. And, you know, not every tree brings forth fruit. But the man of God is going to bring forth fruit. But that's how you know what type of tree it is. So if you have a person who's not getting any converts, of any kind at all, just no converts, well then that tree isn't bringing forth any fruit. So you can't judge, you know, the Bible says here, every tree brings forth good fruit is hewn down, cast into the fire. Because it's a good, you know, the bad trees are the ones that get thrown into the fire. And, you know, the Bible says a good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. It's impossible. So, anyways, that's a whole other subject. Let's go back to Isaiah chapter 40. I do not want to go down that road because Isaiah 40 has so much content here that I want to get into. This is just the tip of the iceberg. So, the voice of men that cry within the wilderness. Obviously prophesying John the Baptist. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, all record this, all attribute this scripture to John the Baptist and his ministry preparing the way of the Lord. And then that verse continues into verse number four. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be made low. Now this isn't talking about physical events. He's not talking about literally like mountains being brought to nothing and valleys literally like lifting up through earthquakes and stuff. He's talking about God exalting the humble, those that are low, lowly and meek and bringing down the proud and lofty ones and abasing them. And this is what he did. I mean, look, the ministry of Jesus Christ and John the Baptist, for that matter, going around preaching, they definitely brought down the high, mighty, you know, arrogant Pharisees and Sadducees and scribes and lawyers and anyone else that they came across, they took them down a notch. I mean, I just preached a couple weeks ago through the book of Luke, some of the hard preaching and stuff by Jesus Christ. I mean, he kept targeting these guys and what's he doing? He's bringing them down. He's bringing them down. He's rebuking them for their, you know, always wanting to have the chief rooms at the feasts and the salutations and the marketplaces and all that stuff. He's calling them out and bringing them down. And likewise he's taking the poor and the maimed and the blind and healing them and lifting them up. It's what he was doing. And this is what's prophesied here as well. And the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain. So everything's being brought into, you know, kind of overcome there. So let's keep going. Verse number five, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. So obviously the glory of the Lord here is talking about Jesus Christ being revealed and all flesh seeing it. Verse number six, the voice said, cry. And he said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the earth. And the flower of the field, the grass wither at the flower fadeth because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people's grass, the grass wither at the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Keep your place here and turn to 1 Peter chapter number one. And this is, you know, this passage is talking about our flesh, you know, the human being being like the grass, being like the grass out in the field and, you know, the flesh and the grass and the goodliness of your flesh is like the flowers, right? So flowers make the grass look prettier, whatever. Well, just as grass comes and goes, it dies and then you just toss it into the fire, right? It becomes good for nothing. It doesn't last very long and not much really comes of it. He's saying that's basically how he's attributing to humanity in your flesh, right? Your flesh is going to come and go like a blade of grass. It's here for a little while and then it's going to go back down into the dirt and just be consumed and brought to nothing. And yeah, you can pretty up your flesh a little bit here and there, but it's just like a flower so it's also going to fade and that's also going to be cast away and, you know, used for nothing. And he's comparing that, though, with, you know, with your flesh, with your body, with things like that, with the word of the Lord. Because the grass withereth and the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. The word of God stands forever. I love this, you know, this is such a great truth about the immutability of God's word. It doesn't change about the preservation of God's word, that, you know, there's promise after promise in Scripture. This is a promise. I mean, it's a statement that is just proclaimed in Scripture. The word of our God shall stand forever. It's never going to stop. It's never going to end. It's never going to fail. It lasts forever. It's eternal. 1 Peter chapter 1, look at verse number 22. Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. The word of God lives and abides forever. It never ends. It never fails. And it's incorruptible. The word of God is incorruptible, and what we're seeing here is that that's also how we're born again. We're born again of incorruptible seed. What brings us that life is the word of God that's brought of an incorruptible seed, and because of that, because of that life source, it brings us eternal life in turn. You have the eternal seed, the eternal word of God bringing us eternal life inside of us. Continuing on here in 1 Peter chapter 1, for all flesh is as grass. Look familiar? And all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word of the Lord, and this is the word of the Lord forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Praise God that He preserves His word forever. It's the word of God that saves, and because, you know, if God didn't preserve His word, people would no longer be able to get saved. Because it's an incorruptible seed that brings forth the life. And look, we can't let this doctrine slide by the way. Generations come and go, and people, you know, if we don't do a reset and go just back to the clear truths of scripture, what they say, you know, people start using man's wisdom and thinking, well, I mean, God's real powerful and He could just save anyway. Look, we know God's powerful, but look, God told us how He was going to save. God told us the way things work. It's like the person that says, well, I mean, I can't judge. You know, if you ask people, well, do you know for sure we're going to heaven? Well, I don't know. I mean, God knows that. No one could know that. And I understand a lost person saying that. I mean, I get it. They're blind. They don't understand. But when the Christians start saying things like that, it's like, hold on a minute, buddy. You know, yes, we can know. Yes, we do know. Yes, we do know how people are saved because the Bible tells us how people are saved. I mean, Romans 10 tells us that how shall they heal without a preacher? How shall they preach except they be sent? We know the formula. We know if it's not followed, it's not going to happen. If people aren't hearing the word of God, then they are not going to get saved. You can't show them a color book. You can't show them, you know, just explain things without the word of God because the word of God is what's quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. The word of God is what's able to divide asunder both soul and spirit and is able to pierce through to the heart. Not your words, my friend. God's word. Don't ever slide away from this, well, I mean, I kind of, first of all, you know, you start coming up with ideas like, well, I mean, if God's word weren't to be around, well, you know what? It will always be around. You have to doubt. You have to wonder, well, what would happen if God's word, it's not going anywhere because it shall stand forever. I mean, do you even believe the word of God? No, we'll never back down on this doctrine. The word of God stands forever. This is why we're King James only for English language speakers. This is why we use the Bible that we do because we understand that the word of our God shall stand forever. God's word is eternal and God's word doesn't change. So we don't need these Bibles that keep on changing things all the time. That's just a real clear sign, well, that must not be the word of God because it keeps changing every year or every few years or every few decades or whatever. They keep on coming out with all these new versions and new updates and new revisions. We don't need that. Once you've got the word of God, you've got the word of God. And anything that keeps changing, you know, don't be given to change. Let's go back to Isaiah chapter 40. And, you know, even in Matthew 24, Jesus said, you know, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. It's eternal. The word of our God shall stand forever. Never going to end. Isaiah 40, verse number 9. Oh, Zion, that bringeth good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain. Oh, Jerusalem, that bringeth good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up, be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah, behold your God. You say, Pastor, why are you yelling? Did you see the exclamation mark at the end of behold your God? I'm serious. This is meant to be a passionate statement here to Zion and Jerusalem saying, look, there's good tidings. Get up into a high mountain. Preach the good tidings. Lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up, be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah, behold your God. This is how God wants us serving him. This is where he says, hey, look, prepare your way, make the way straight. Get ready. God's coming. Lift up your voice like a trumpet and sound forth the word of God. Verse 10. Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him and his work before him. What great news. It's awesome. Can't wait, right? Look at verse 11. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young. And here we see the nurturing side of the Lord, the bishop of your souls, right? The great bishop, the great shepherd. And he's comparing here Jesus to the shepherd, the shepherd, the good shepherd that cares for his flock. He watches over and protects another reason to rejoice and be excited at the coming of Jesus. He's a shepherd over us. He's there to watch over us and protect us and guide us. And he says he's going to gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom. The closeness of a shepherd, a great shepherd that cares so much to carry the young lambs in his bosom, it says, and shall gently lead those that are with young. So he's not driving those that are with young, the moms that just gave birth. They have these young ones trying to keep up with them as they're moving around, as the flock moves. The good shepherd is being gentle with them and making sure that everybody is cared for and provided for and is well nurtured and taken care of. One more aspect of Jesus that is a great thing to look forward to, right? When you're preparing the way of God, hey, what the good shepherd is coming. That's awesome. Verse number 12. Now we have a little bit of a transition here in the passage. Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and meted out heaven with the span? So it's talking about measuring the waters in the hollow of his hand. It's talking about the waters of the whole earth, right? They can't measure all the seas and oceans in your hand, he says, and meted out heaven with the span. The span is a tool, right? It's like the length of your arms, the span, and meted is, there is an older way of saying like measured. Who's meted out heaven with the span and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure. Like you can't take all the dust of the earth and just put it together and measure it in any type of container, utensil, and weighed the mountains and scales and the hills in a balance. So it's talking about the expanse and the greatness of this earth that we live on, right? God's creation. And asking the question, well, who is able to measure all this stuff? Who could even do that? And as we continue, because the whole rest of this passage is exalting the Lord. And this is similar to what we see in Job, right? Like, well, where were you, huh? When all this stuff was done and when all these creatures are created and everything else. And then do you know about all this stuff? No, you don't know about this stuff, right? Why? Because God is awesome. Because God is almighty. Because God has all knowledge and God is all powerful and you are nothing. We're going to get a little bit of that as we continue here, but we're going to keep on, we do a little bit of back and forth as we continue the rest of this passage of the exaltation of God and his power and his might and his strength versus people who would take that great power and might and try to make God like some object, like some piece of creation. We'll get into that in a minute. Let's keep reading about the awesomeness of God and his creation. Verse 13, who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord or being his counselor, who taught him? Like, who taught the Spirit of God? He teaches you, right? No one, you don't teach him. Verse 14, with whom took he counsel and who instructed him and taught him in the path of judgment and taught him knowledge and showed to him the way of understanding. What a great testimony to the power and greatness and wisdom of God. You know, who are we? Even the best of mankind. The pinnacle of human achievement is nothing compared to the Lord. Verse 15, now he's going to put things in perspective after making all these statements, these rhetorical questions. Verse 15, behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. So in God's mind, in God's perspective, he's saying, you know, nations to us are big, powerful, full of might and glory. You know, many nations are just glorious nations or whatever, right? God is like, it's a drop in a bucket. And even there's that phrase, a drop in a bucket, what does that mean? Well, if you've got a bucket of any size, right? I mean, this would be like a small bucket. If this is all full of water, you add a drop to that, you're not going to know where that drop went. It makes no difference to the overall volume of whatever, you know, it's just, it's like, it's like it's nothing, right? You think of a bucket, it's just a drop in a bucket. It takes lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of drops to even get any amount of anything that's worth talking about or looking at, right? And God's saying, the nations, we consider those to be real big, the nation's just like a drop in a bucket. It's nothing. In the isles, the islands, it's a very little thing. Verse 16, and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. Now, Lebanon is, you know from reading scripture, is always attributed with the forests of Lebanon and the trees and the wood and, you know, that's kind of like the standard, the high mark of the best quality, the most wood and things, like that's what they're known for, right? That's what Lebanon's famous for, and what he's saying here is that even if you just were to cut down and burn all of Lebanon, that's not sufficient. That's not sufficient for God. The beasts are not sufficient for a burnt offering, like none of that's good enough for God because he's so great and because what's on this earth is like nothing, which is what the next verse, verse 17, says, all nations before him are as nothing and they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity. Obviously, because we're making a point here, less than nothing, like why would we regard, give any regard then to the nations of the earth and wow look at this and look at that and to God it's less than nothing. Vanity means it's empty, it's meaningless, it's just good for nothing, doesn't matter at all, zero meaning, but we think of the pride of nations. National pride, so maybe you have national pride, you have proud to be American, proud to be what it doesn't matter, it's not just America, believe me, it's every nation has all this pride and the nations before God are less than nothing. But there's a lot of people that like to think they're so great and mighty and powerful, especially the rulers of the nations that get the God complex, like is illustrated with King Nebuchadnezzar is a good example in scripture of someone who had great power and was over this great mighty nation and you know in his eyes wow look at all these great things that I've done and all the great victories that I wrought and all you know all of my great works and successes and I'm so powerful and I'm so great and people bow down to me and I can make whatever laws I want you know and start to feel like they're God and then God comes along as like, you fool, everything that you have is only there because it was given to you and guess what? Be taken away in an instant and you could do nothing about it, absolutely nothing, because your power is nothing against God at all, not even a thought for a nanosecond of God going like, oh man, I wonder what he's going to do. No, no, because all the perceived power you think you have is nothing to God and your achievements, accomplishments, you were only allowed to get to that point because God let you and in many of these cases God let them get there so that they could be brought down really low and so that his name could be exalted. But just like Nebuchadnezzar, many rules get full of themselves, full of pride, and that's why they're brought low and you know the beginning of this of this passage in Isaiah is talking about the high hills being brought low, right, and the valleys being exalted. And don't get caught up in this this nonsense though, even with the United States, you know, people like, you know, the great superpower, United States of America, the United States is less than nothing to God, less than nothing. But we got all the nukes, we got the greatest military in the world, we, you know, we got the tanks and the bombs and the planes and the guns and we're so mighty and we're so powerful, nothing, nothing to God. I'm not saying you have to hate the place you live, but get the right perspective. It's nothing, and you know what, this country is wicked. All countries are, I don't know of a country out there that isn't full of wicked rulers and wicked people. I mean, I'm not saying there's a better one than the United States. I don't know of any. But don't get caught up in the vanity and the pride of these nations before God, because to God it's nothing, and if it doesn't mean anything to God, why should it mean anything to you? I'm not, you know, we don't teach our kids to pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, by the way. It is part of their curriculum, but we don't teach them that, and we tell them we don't do that. We don't pledge our allegiance to some flag of a nation that God really doesn't care about. That's nothing. It's less than nothing to God, that flag. You know who we pledge allegiance to? Jesus Christ. That's who you should be pledging your allegiance to. I pledge your allegiance to the Holy Bible. Why in the world would you, you know, some nation that's not even of God anymore? That's been on my mind a little bit. You're going to hear that in another sermon coming soon, so we'll just move on here from that point before I ruin my sermon coming up for Sunday. Verse number 18, to whom then will ye liken God? So after saying these things, you know, basically who could measure, you know, the waters and the dust of the earth and the mountains and weigh the mountain, you know, all these things, all these great things, and then he brings up the nations, and the nations are nothing. They're less than nothing. So now he's saying, well then if that's the case, then who are you going to liken God to, right? I mean even the nations are less than nothing, so who, how are you going to liken God to? What is God like, or what likeness will you compare unto him? The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold and casteth silver chains. He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot. He seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved. I love how the Word of God illustrates the absurdity of what people do to create their gods out of objects. He just gets done like elaborating and saying, you know, God is so great and so far beyond anything on this earth, any human being, any, you know, this is his creation. Like you can't count and weigh and measure the earth, you know, and look, even science today, you may think, you know, they want you to think that they know everything about everything about everything, and there's a formula for everything, and they could, you're so smart, and they, you know, we have so much technology, we know so much. They can't tell you how many grains of sand there are by the sea. You can do some experiments, and you can, you can, you can count a certain amount and try to extrapolate that, but you're gonna be, it's so far of an estimate, you have no idea, and the different depths, like there's no way, no way you could do it. There's no way, and anyone that tells you that they could do it, because we've got the technology to do it, is full of it. They're full of the stuff, they're trying to count, they're full of sand, right? Go, tell them to go pound sand, because there's no way that you can tell me how much there is. It's just not. You think you're smarter than you are, they don't know it. But then these people, you know, after even just considering all this stuff, are gonna take a piece of wood, but they have to choose one that's not gonna rot, because otherwise it's just gonna be gone, right? So we've got to find something that's not gonna, gonna just disintegrate on us to be our God, and then we're gonna, you know, dress it up with some gold and some silver and make it look real pretty and fasten it so that it doesn't move. Well guess what, it's gonna move. It doesn't matter how big you make it, it's gonna move. It's gonna be, because the power of God will bring it down. I mean, people have done this in the past, they try to build these great statues and great, you know, they all come down. They all come down. God makes sure that they all come down. They all are brought to nothing. But this person says here that's so impoverished, he doesn't even have an oblate, he has no, he has nothing to give, yet he's trying to seek out and create this God, instead of seeking the true God, you know, hey, maybe God's been trying to get through to you, you're so impoverished, instead of continuing to turn your neck away from God and just make up your own God. But some people never learn, and they just want to have their own God their way. And you know, that's, that's what idolatry really represents, is people, they're not seeking the truth. They're making up a God as they see fit, or following a God that someone else made up as they saw fit. It should be self-evident that an object is not God, that a carved work, stone or wood and overlaid with metal. A man made that. That's not God. Man doesn't make God. God made man. You've got it completely backwards. But it's, it's people who are deceiving themselves that want to believe a certain thing, not because of the truth, just because that's what they want to believe. And, and, you know, pointing out this absurdity here, look at verse number 21. Have you not known? Have you not heard? He's like, why, why are you doing this? Haven't you heard about God? I mean, don't you know? Has it not been told you from the beginning? God's Word is eternal. Man has always known who God is. Now, look, it is incumbent on us to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and the way of salvation. And without preaching that gospel, people won't be saved. But people know who God is. God has revealed himself and made himself known to all people. He, even through his own creation, testifies of the Creator. People without excuse. And anything else, I mean, from the beginning, there was never a time where people didn't know about God. Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? I mean, from the very beginning, from the absolute beginning. Why? Because there was nothing else but God in the beginning. And then God created everything. And that whole time, God has made himself known unto man. You don't have an excuse. Why are you creating these false gods? Haven't you known? Haven't you heard? It's been the same from the beginning. Look, and by the way, it doesn't change. The gospel of God, the everlasting gospel is what's preached. The everlasting gospel as preached in Revelation is the everlasting gospel of all time. It doesn't change in the end days. Just as the gospel was preached unto Abraham, if you were reading Galatians today, you read that. Just as the gospel was preached unto Moses in the church in the wilderness, just as the gospel is preached by the Apostle Paul, there's one gospel. It's from the beginning. God's plan of salvation hadn't changed from the beginning either, by the way. Yes, there were two covenants made, but God knew the plan all along. And salvation has always been by grace through faith. It has never been accomplished or achievable through the law, ever, not once. Man has never been able to keep the law to be saved, ever. The whole point of the law was to point people to the Savior, to schoolmaster. Revelation 13, 8 says, and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose name is not written in the book of life, of lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Jesus Christ is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It's always been the plan from the beginning. Haven't you heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Let's continue this thought because verse 22 is going to tell us who it is. Haven't you known, you people who are making these idols? Verse 22, it is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants are of his grasshoppers, that stretches out the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in, that bringeth the princes to nothing. He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted. Yea, they shall not be sown. Yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth, and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. So he's telling them, look, God is not these works of your hand. He's a real living being that doesn't exist in that wood that doesn't rot, but he sits upon the circle of the earth. And I love the wisdom of the scripture here back in Isaiah's time being revealed that the earth is a circle. And I am not going to spend very much time on this subject. You all know what I'm talking about because of all the foolishness that has just abounded online. And maybe it's just I'm not seeing as much of it, but it seems like it's died down quite a bit. I don't know. Hopefully it has. The utter nonsense of the flat earthers. Look, does this tell you if the earth is flat or round or any other shape other than a circle? It doesn't. Flat earthers want to point to it and say, see, look, it says right there it's flat. No, it doesn't actually. It says the circle of the earth. And if we're going to be fair, I can understand if you think that the earth is a disk and you're looking at a disk from the top, it looks like a circle. That's fair enough. If this is all we ever had to know about the shape of the earth, you could reasonably say, well, maybe it is like that because that can be called a circle. And I agree, you could call that, I mean, that's a circle, right? If you were to look at it, if you give a kid a disk and they turn it that way, oh, look, find the circle. There's a circle, right? But if you turn it on its side, well, it's not really a circle anymore, right? It could be like a rectangle if you look at it from that perspective. A sphere, on the other hand, doesn't matter which way you look at it from, you're always going to see a circle. I mean, a circle is a two-dimensional object, so, well, we're taking the Bible literally here. Well, you know what, a circle, it's 2D, at least the way that we understand a circle. Now, if you were going to make a 3D object based on the rules of a circle, well, what's the rule of a circle? Anyone know the rule of a circle? That every point on the circumference is equal distance from the center, right? I mean, that's the definition of a circle, that's what makes it a circle. Every point that goes around it is an equal distance, so every single one. Well, if you turn that into a 3D object, it's a sphere. So a true circle in three dimensions is a sphere, just saying, right? And when you look at every other body in the heavens, what do you see? Spheres. I'm going to make the fire of the Earth's head explode with this one, because, you know, I love that song that talks about us on this terrestrial ball, right? People have known this for a long time. The circle of the Earth, though. God, but, you know, I'm not even going to get into it. It stretches out the heavens in a tent. See, it's a tent, so it must be flat, because a tent covers the ground. It's like, look, a tent covers above you. Anywhere you are in the Earth, you look up, there's stars in the heavens above you, like a tent would cover you. It doesn't have to be, I literally told me that, someone had someone tell me that the Earth was flat, because the Earth was God's footstool. He said, well, what shape is a footstool? No, he didn't say what shape. He said a footstool is flat, right? And they're actually here, and we have footstools. So I grabbed one of these, and I was like, I said, are you telling me that this is the shape of the Earth? Is it, this is, so, I mean, if we're going to say what you're saying, the Earth is the Lord's footstool, then the Earth looks like this. All right, so there we go. Let's put it in the science textbooks. Yep, it's flat on top, but then you've got hinges, and it kind of rocks back and forth. I mean, that's a footstool, right? If you're going to take it like that, you know, people just need to see the stupidity of what they say sometimes, because all they want to see is, well, it's flat on top. But even that's not flat on top. It's actually kind of curved, because there's a cushion in there, and it curves around the edges. And look, it's all perspective. You look at the, the ground here is flat, right? From our perspective, it all looks flat. You know, you can look out at the streets, but you know what, there's also hills. So even to them, if you were to say, well, the Earth's flat, well, how come that I could go up mountains and come down everything? It's not flat. The water's always flat on the level. I'm done. I'm not going any further. But back at this time, there may have been people who thought that the Earth was flat back in Isaiah's day. I don't know. I wasn't around. But the fact that the Bible is here saying that the Earth is a circle, I think shows it's ahead of its time, and it shows the truth that we know today for a fact, the sphere of the Earth, God sits upon the circle of the Earth. And what does that mean? Does it mean that God's literally like, like right now is sitting on the Earth, like he's just taking a break and resting? Of course that's not what it means. It's demonstrating how big God is in relation to us and his creation and things like that, which is also why it says the inhabitants are ever as grasshoppers. This isn't meant to provide a perfect scale of, well, let's see, a grasshopper is two inches long, and this must mean that he's come looking at a distance. It's illustrating the greatness of God and how big he is compared to us on the Earth and the glory of his creation and how magnificent and huge it is and how we are nothing. And the princes are nothing. The rulers, those in charge, they think they're all high and mighty and powerful, but they're not. Not compared to God. Verse 24, yea they shall not be planted, yea they shall not be sown, yea their stock shall not take root in the earth, and you shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. To whom then will you liken me, or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One? So again, he's bringing up this question, like, who, you're going to make some image like unto me? How can you make anything like me? Verse 26, lift up your eyes on high, and behold, who hath created these things that bringeth out their host by number? He called them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, not one faileth. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? And don't ever think that just because God is so big and God is so great and God is over all this stuff, that your way is hid from God. Your way is not hid from God. You can't hide from God, right? If you ascend up into heaven, what? He's there, right? Behold, he's there. And if you make your bed in hell, guess what? He's there also. You can't dig down real deep. You can't hide in a mountain. You can't call, you know, get under your covers and turn off the lights and think that your way is going to be hid from God. It doesn't work like that. God knows, sees everything. And my judgment is passed over from my God. No, God doesn't pass over judgment either. Hast thou not known, verse 28, hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary, there is no searching of his understanding. God doesn't get tired, ever. God does not get wearied. And this reminds me of Elijah, right? One of my favorite stories in the whole Bible was when he brings the prophets of Baal together, right? And he's like, okay, we're going to do this thing, and you guys offer your offering, and I'm going to offer my offering. God answers by fire. That's going to settle it once and for all who God is, right? Whether Baal's God or whether the Lord is God, right? So they're out there, and they're cutting themselves, and they're chanting and screaming and jumping up and down and doing all the rituals and everything they need to do to try to get Baal to receive their offering. And then Elijah starts going like, well, cry a little bit louder. Maybe he's gone away on a far journey, and he hasn't come back yet. Or maybe he's sleeping, you need to wake him up. I mean, he's a God, right? So he's mocking them and ridiculing them because what they're serving is no God. It's the work of man's hands. They've made it up. They've just fabricated a God that's not real. Because God isn't weary. God doesn't sleep. God, you know, he's all being almighty, all powerful, doesn't miss anything. Everything is under the power of the Lord. And so there is no searching of his understanding. Like, we can't even begin to comprehend what God knows. Verse 29. And I love how this closes out because this is great encouragement for us. We have a God that doesn't get weary. We have a God that doesn't fail. We have a God that provides strength, that is strength. Verse 29. He giveth power to the faint. So God has all this strength, and you know what? He's able to strengthen you. When you get weary, when you get faint, God is able to strengthen you. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might, he increaseth strength. Look, that's supernatural. God will do that for you. God will do that for his children. Remember, we were just reading about him being that shepherd and nurturing and everything else. God wants you to succeed. God wants you to win. God wants you to stand. God wants you to get through this life and serve him. And when you get weary, and I was just preaching about this on Sunday, you know, there's no time for being weak. There's no time for fainting. Look, look to God for your strength. You believe he's real, right? Well, do you believe this? Do you believe Isaiah 40, verse 29? Internalize that. Know that. Live that. He giveth power to the faint, and then they have no might. He increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. Even the young people that seem to have all this energy, and they bounce, you know, teenagers and young men, young ladies, they get all this energy, and it seems like they could just keep going on and on and on. You know what? They get tired. They do wear out. It may take a little bit longer than the older folk, but you know what? They wear out. And they crash, and they sleep. The teenagers seem to have all this energy. They're sleeping till like 12 or 1 on Saturdays, you know, just, they get weary, right? They sleep. But, but, so you know, the youth, they're going to faint and be weary. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. You know, physically speaking, these young people have all this energy, they get, they get weary. But you know what? When you get weary, God will renew your strength. God will give you more to keep going. And I'm a living testimony of this because I'm tired like every Sunday, but God gives me the strength every single Sunday to keep going. And it may, you know, it's a silly example. It's real small. It's not that big of a deal, but it's a way where I can see God working in my own life. And, and you know, obviously that is a very small weariness of the flesh, but he does keep me going. But even bigger things than that, obviously much bigger things that might cause you to be, I mean, really weary, and really want to quit, and really want to faint. You know, like, like when bigger things happen, maybe you lose your job because of your faith, and it's going to make you want to be like, man, I don't know if I should, you know, maybe, maybe I just need to shut up and not say anything. Right? Don't make that choice because God can see you through. God can renew your strength to do what's right, and to keep moving forward. They that wait upon the Lord, serving God. And I love that, you know, the Bible uses wait upon the Lord. I studied this out, and I don't think I've ever really preached on this, but I love that phrase, wait upon the Lord, because there's two definitions of the word, wait. One of it's going to be like serving, like a waiter. Right? Waiting upon the Lord as in serving him, but there's also waiting on the Lord, like waiting for him, and being patient. Right? And, and in some cases, it's hard to tell kind of what it's talking about, but you know what, usually both are applicable. Both could be true. Like, hey, wait on God, because he'll provide for you, he'll do something, and wait on him as in keep serving him, and don't get weary, because you could keep serving him, and he'll keep adding to strength to you. God doesn't want you to stop serving him. So even when you feel like, I don't know if there's any more I can give, well you know what, ask God, go to God, he'll renew your strength. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. We serve a big God. Look at the vastness of his creation. We have so many reasons to be rejoicing and joyful for the Lord. You know, going back to all of Isaiah 40 here, preparing the way of the Lord, having his glory revealed unto all mankind, not trusting in our flesh, but I love the lifting up the voice. Lift it up and be not afraid. Behold your God. It's kind of right in the middle of this passage, and I mean, behold your God, right? How great he is. He's not like these idols made of men's hands. He's there to strengthen you. Let's bow our heads and pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you. We thank you so much for this passage, for all the great truths that we can learn from it, dear Lord. I pray that you would please just help us to continue to learn and to grow and understand more about you and more about what you would have us to do, dear Lord. We love you. Thank you for preserving your word, that it's everlasting, and there's so many great truths. It's so hard to even scratch the surface on such a wonderful passage like this. God, I pray that you would please help us to continue to learn and understand more. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.