Turn in the word of God to Isaiah
chapter 40.
I shall read verses 1 through 17 and
then verses 26 through 31.
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your
God.
Speak ye tenderly to Jerusalem and cry unto
her that her warfare is accomplished, that her
iniquity is pardoned.
For she hath received of the Lord's hand
double for all her sins.
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.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain
and hill shall be made low, and the
crooked shall be made straight, and the rough
places plain.
And the glory of the Lord shall be
revealed, and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord of hosts
has spoken it.
The voice said, Cry.
And he said, What shall I cry?
All flesh is grass, and all its beauty
is like the flower of the field.
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the
breath of the Lord bloweth upon it.
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the
word of our God shall stand forever.
O Zion that bringest good tidings, get thee
up into the high mountains.
O Jerusalem that bringest good tidings, lift up
thy voice with strength.
Lift it up, be not afraid.
Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your
God.
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.
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.
Who hath measured the waters in the hollow
of his hand, and measured out heaven with
the span, and measured the dust of the
earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains
in scales, and the hills in a balance?
Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord,
or, being his counselor, hath taught him?
With whom took he counsel?
And who instructed him, and taught him in
the path of justice, and taught him knowledge,
and showed to him the way of understanding?
Behold, the nations are like a drop of
a bucket, and are counted as the small
dust of the balance.
Behold, he taketh up the coasts as a
very little thing.
And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor
its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering.
All nations before him are as nothing, and
they are counted to him less than nothing
and vanity.
To whom then will ye liken me, or
shall I be equal, saith the Lord, the
Holy One?
Lift up your eyes on high, and behold,
who hath created these things?
Who bringeth out their host by number?
He calleth them all by names, by the
greatness of his might, for he is strong
in power, not one faileth.
Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O
Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord,
and the justice due to me is passed
away from my God?
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.
He giveth power to the faint, and to
those who have might he increaseth strength.
Even the youth shall faint and be weary,
and the young men shall utterly fall.
But they that wait upon the Lord shall
renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary, and
they shall walk and not faint.
May God help us today to see how
great he is.
The first king and monarch had died, and
all of the royalty of Europe was assembled
in the huge cathedral to witness the funeral.
The heads of state were there—emperors and kings
and queens and great men of political stature—and
the casket wherein this monarch lay dead was
surrounded by tributes, the cost of which could
have fed a city.
Wherever you looked you saw pomp and power
and wealth and prestige.
And then the clergyman stepped to the altar
to open the funeral service.
I know not who he was, but as
he surveyed that crowded cathedral, as he saw
the gold and the glitter, the uniforms, he
said, Only God is great.
And if the prophet Isaiah had been in
that congregation, he would have jumped to his
feet and said, Amen.
Only God is great.
In fact, that's the whole theme of Isaiah
chapter 40, the greatness of God.
Isaiah gave this message to a group of
strangling, straggling, struggling Jews.
The prophet was looking down through the years
and saw the day would come when the
exiles of Israel in Babylon would be coming
home.
And so he wrote them a message.
And the message of Isaiah chapter 40 is
a message of encouragement.
God is great.
Here is this motley crew of Jewish exiles.
And now the door has been open.
Go back to your land.
Go back where you belong.
And they look around at the greatness of
Babylon.
They look ahead and see the meagerness and
the littleness of Israel.
And they look at themselves and they see
how weak and broke they are.
And they say, we can't do it.
The world is filled with people who say
it cannot be done.
Somebody here today is facing some problem.
I don't know what it is.
But as you look at your circumstances and
as you look at yourself, you're saying it
can't be done.
And Isaiah, the prophet says to you and
to me what he said to these exiles,
don't look in the wrong direction.
Look at the greatness of God.
And as you look at the greatness of
God, you will say it can be done.
Now, today, I want us to contemplate the
greatness of God.
Only God is great.
It's a good thing the word great is
in our evangelical vocabulary or many churches would
not be able to write great buildings and
great sermons.
I have been reading and studying sermons for
some 30 years.
I'm not sure I know what a great
sermon is.
Great preachers, great ministries and over and above
all of this evangelical promotion comes the voice
of a prophet saying only God is great.
And the sooner you and I acknowledge that
fact, the better off we're going to be.
Now, the prophet Isaiah is not just a
theologian.
He's a pastor.
He takes the greatness of God and he
brings it right down to where we live.
He's not giving a lecture to young theologians
who want to understand all the philosophy of
God's greatness.
What he's doing is applying medicine to people
with broken, wounded hearts.
He's bringing light in the darkness.
He's bringing strength for the weary.
And how does he do it?
Well, he makes three declarations about the greatness
of God.
And in these days, when you and I
are tempted to think man is great and
what man has built is great, it might
be good for us to listen to these
declarations of the greatness of God.
In verses 1 through 11 of Isaiah chapter
40, the prophet says God is greater than
your sins.
And then in 12 through 26, he says
God is greater than your circumstances.
And then in 27 through 31, he says
God is greater than your feelings.
God is greater than your sins.
God is greater than your circumstances.
God is greater than your feelings.
Oh, get a hold of the greatness of
God.
God is greater than your sins.
Now the Israelites had sinned.
There was no question about that.
That's why they were in Babylon to begin
with.
They had rebelled against God and broken his
law and slandered his name.
They had defiled his land with idols.
They had bowed down before heathen gods.
God says, all right, you want to live
like the heathen?
Why don't you just live with the heathen?
He took them off to Babylon.
And in Babylon, they woke up and said,
oh, we've sinned.
He said, well, I'm going to keep you
here a little while until you really learn
your lesson.
They had sinned.
And you have sinned.
And I have sinned.
All have sinned and come short of the
glory of God.
If we say we have not sinned, we
make him a liar.
His truth is not in us.
And in these first 11 verses, the prophet
says, will you get a hold of the
greatness of God?
God is greater than your sins.
The very first word he speaks, comfort.
Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your
God.
Speak ye tenderly.
And that Hebrew word means to the heart.
Speak ye to the heart.
Speak ye tenderly to Jerusalem.
Well, what shall we say to Jerusalem?
What shall we say to the people of
God?
Shall we say, stew in your own grease.
You made this trouble.
You live in it.
No, he didn't say that.
Oh, they suffered.
There's no one who sins who does not
suffer.
Sin brings its own suffering.
God doesn't have to send an angel down
to spank.
A sin brings its own suffering.
What is the message that her warfare is
accomplished?
That means the time of your disciplined service
is now over.
I have brought you here.
Your time is up.
That her iniquity is pardoned for she has
received of the Lord's hands adequately for her
sins.
Must have been good news to those people.
Their iniquity is pardoned.
In these 11 verses, you're going to find
a number of voices.
This first voice is the voice of pardon.
The good news that God has forgiven your
sin.
That's good news.
If I speak to someone right now who
carries a dirty conscience, you have something on
your heart that should not be there.
I have good news for you.
In Jesus Christ, there is the pardon of
sin.
Who is a pardoning God like thee and
who has grace so rich and free following
the voice of pardon.
There is the voice of preparation.
The voice of him that crieth in the
wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord.
My people are going to go back to
their land.
Now level off all of the mountains, fill
up all the valleys, straighten out those curves,
smooth out those rough places.
My people are coming.
I'd like to read verse four up and
down the streets of Chicago.
Have you driven in Chicago lately?
I wish that someone would come in Chicago
and make the rough places smooth.
We have potholes big enough to be used
for parking lots.
The voice of preparation, I have pardoned you.
Now I'm going to prepare the way for
you to go back.
They couldn't get on a jet plane.
There wasn't an airlift.
There was no Amtrak.
Here they were having to cross the wilderness
to get from Babylon back to Palestine.
How could they do it?
God says, don't worry about it.
I'm preparing the way.
The same God who pardons you prepares the
way for you.
Another voice comes out.
It's the voice of promise.
The voice said, cry.
What shall I cry?
All flesh is grass.
Don't you Jews think you're any better because
you've suffered here?
You're still grass.
I can mow you down.
All the leaders that you trusted are dead.
All the people that you trusted are dead.
But one thing is not dead.
The word of God is not dead.
It's living.
It abides forever.
Flesh is like grass.
It withers and dies.
But the word of our God shall stand
forever.
And when my word says go, you go.
Even today, we can hear the voice of
pardon that says, comfort, I've forgiven you.
The voice of preparation.
Don't be afraid.
I'm going before you.
The voice of promise.
Don't trust yourself.
Trust in my word.
And there's a third, fourth voice that comes.
There's the voice of pity.
Oh, Zion, that bringeth good tidings, good news.
Get up on the mountain.
Shout it out now.
Oh, Jerusalem, shout out the good news.
What's the good news?
Don't be afraid.
If you were to stop every other person
on the streets of Chicago and say, please
tell me the truth, are you afraid?
They would say yes.
Our doctors are treating people today who don't
have physical afflictions.
They're just afraid.
Some are afraid of the past.
It might catch up with them.
Some are afraid of the present.
It has caught up with them.
Some are afraid of the future.
They don't know where they're going.
Fear.
He said, here's the good news.
Don't be afraid because the Lord is going
to come with a strong hand.
He's going to come as a mighty conqueror.
He will go before you.
But would you notice in verse eleven, this
strong arm of the soldier becomes the tender
arm of the shepherd.
And God is saying to his people in
the voice of pity, I'm going to gather
you like a shepherd gathers his sheep.
I'm going to watch over you.
I'm going to smooth out the way for
you.
You've had it rough.
I have pardoned you.
I have given you my promise.
I'm preparing the way for you.
And I'm going to go with you and
lift you up and hold you close to
my heart.
The voice of pity.
My friend, God is greater than your sin.
This whole chapter talks about the greatness of
God.
And the first thing he says is God
is greater than your sin.
Marvelous grace of our loving Lord.
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt.
Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured there where the
blood of the lamb was spilled.
Grace, grace, God's grace, grace that can pardon
and cleanse within.
Grace, grace, God's grace, grace that is greater
than all our sin.
Now, where do you find that grace?
At Calvary.
Who purchased that grace?
Jesus did.
How can God be greater than my sin?
Because his grace is greater.
There's no need for any person here today
to carry the guilt and the stain of
sin.
God is greater than your sin.
And someone sits here today and says, Pastor
Wiersbe, I know I'm saved, but every once
in a while the devil digs into my
diary and he comes up with a dirty
page and he wraps mud around it and
he throws it at me.
And when he does that, you just look
the devil straight in the eye and say,
God is greater.
My sins have been buried in the depths
of the sea and he remembers them against
me no more.
God is greater than your sins.
Now in verses 12 through 26, he tells
us that God is greater than our circumstances.
The king said to the Jews, go back
home.
God raised up the leaders to go with
them.
And they said, how can we do it?
Our little ones, they can't walk through the
desert.
And there are armies that are going to
attack us.
And here's the great Babylon.
Look, these great monuments and these great statues
and buildings, they've been protecting us.
And now we're going to go out there.
I find that Christians more than anything else
are concerned about their circumstances.
For some reason or other, circumstances are always
bigger than God.
You ever notice that?
God sent the Jews into the promised land
and said, go in, take over.
It's all yours.
They said, let's spy it out first.
So they spied it out.
And the spies came back.
It was a typical committee meeting.
The majority said nothing could be done.
A committee, as you know, is a group
of people who individually can do nothing and
collectively decide nothing can be done.
And the minority said, we can do it.
God is greater.
Did you see those giants?
Ah, but we saw God.
God's bigger than the giants.
Did you see the walls around those cities?
Yes, we did.
But we looked higher and we saw God
up there.
I speak to someone right now who is
greatly concerned about circumstances.
Things are not going the way you think
they ought to go.
And God doesn't know what he's doing.
And Isaiah the prophet says, God is greater
than your circumstances.
It's beautiful how he does this.
First, he says, look at the things on
earth.
Did you ever measure the water in the
palm of your hand?
You ever walk up to the ocean and
say, I'm not going to measure the ocean.
One, two, three, four.
Can't do it.
God can do it to God.
The ocean is just a drop in the
bucket.
Do you ever weigh the mountains?
Have you noticed that you drive along the
highway?
You see a sign that says way station
for the trucks.
Have you ever actually seen a truck being
weighed in a way station?
I never have.
They're always closed.
Ever notice that?
And here are these, this little band of
Jews.
And they're looking at the roadmap back to
Palestine.
Oh, the mountains.
God says, you ever weigh the mountains?
I can do it.
I've hefted them more than once.
Do you ever count out the dust of
the earth?
I've done it.
The prophet says, look at the world around
you.
God made it.
And the God who made this world is
big enough for your circumstances.
He's not afraid of the ocean.
He's not afraid of the desert.
He's not afraid of the mountains.
Then in verses 14, 13 and 14, he
gets kind of close to home and says,
look, you think you're smarter than God?
Were you around to give God advice when
he made the world?
You know, one of the greatest things today,
if you don't want to have to work
too hard, become a consultant.
Be a consultant.
Be an expert.
An expert is an ordinary spurt under pressure.
Did God consult you when he made things?
No.
Has God consulted you about how to run
them?
No.
Then what are you worrying about?
Quit trying to second guess God.
And he gets us from the earth.
He looks at the nations of the earth
in verses 15 and 16 and 17.
Here's great Babylon.
Where's Babylon today?
Have you heard much?
Any news releases come out of Babylon lately?
All of these great nations that you fear,
says Isaiah, they're just less than nothing to
God.
He's not worried about history.
He's in control of history.
He puts one man up, takes another man
down.
The God who made this world can control
the circumstances of life.
The God who manages the affairs of history
can control the circumstances in our lives.
Then he says, lift up your eyes to
the heavens.
We look at the earth now, the dust
and the water and the mountains and the
nations.
Now lift up your eyes to the heavens.
The circle of the earth.
He sits upon the circle of the earth.
God is enthroned in the heavens.
He's the ruler of all the rulers.
He's the king of all the kings.
He put all the stars out there.
He's named all those stars and not a
one of those stars ever fails.
Lift up your eyes on high and behold
who hath created these things, who bringeth out
their host by number.
You can't number the stars.
He can.
He calleth them all by names.
I have a hard time remembering the names
of a few hundred people.
He knows the names of all the stars
and calls them by name.
He calleth them all by names by the
greatness of his might for he is strong
in power.
There's a remarkable statement back in the book
of Psalms that has encouraged me on more
than one occasion.
Psalm 147, let me read it to you.
Verses three and four.
He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth
up their wounds.
He appointeth the number of the stars.
He calleth them all by their names.
The psalmist puts two verses together that are
remarkable.
The God of creation is the God of
the broken heart.
The God who named the stars knows the
wounds down inside.
And the prophet says God is greater than
your circumstances.
Are there mountains in your way?
He knows how much they weigh.
Is there a desert you have to cross?
He knows how much dust there is there.
Are there waters you have to span?
They're but a drop in the bucket to
him.
God is greater than your circumstances if you
trust him.
At the end of Isaiah chapter 40 he
comes to a third declaration verses 27 through
31.
God is greater than your feelings.
Here is where the rub comes in.
Here is where you and I have to
bow in shame and say oh God you
have found me out.
More Christians live by their feelings than by
faith.
He talks about their feelings here.
Why sayest thou oh Jacob and speakest oh
Israel?
My way is hidden from the Lord.
He doesn't know about me.
I've been forsaken.
And the justice that is due to me
is passed away from my God.
You know what they're saying here?
They're saying two things.
God doesn't know and God doesn't care.
You find a Christian who starts talking like
that he is a candidate for trouble.
God doesn't know.
God doesn't care.
I feel rejected.
I feel forsaken.
I feel so weak.
Can you imagine this small group of exiles
facing this long journey back home?
And they're looking at each other and saying
we'll never make it.
We'll never make it.
Do you feel like that?
Sitting next to you could be a person
who is carrying today a burden that would
crush you and yet that person is able
to sing and praise God and greet you
and not run around and complain, make merchandise
of his misery.
What's the difference?
Why are there some Christians who are able
to plow right through, keep right going?
There are other Christians who collapse and fail
and become critical and miserable, make everybody else
miserable.
The Christians who win are the ones who
have learned that God is greater than their
feelings.
Hast thou not known?
Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God,
the Lord, the creator of the ends of
the earth never gets tired and there's no
searching of his understanding?
He giveth power to the faint and to
those who have no might he increases strength.
Oh the young man will fall and the
youths are gonna be weary and faint.
But whether you're young or old, rich or
poor, smart or dumb, doesn't make any difference.
God is greater.
How can you and I start living above
and beyond our feelings?
I don't feel like praying.
I don't feel like serving God.
Did you know that most of the work
being done in this world is being done
by people who don't feel good?
Did you know that?
Did you know that much of what's going
on in this world is being done by
people who are handicapped?
See the answer is not running away from
responsibility or giving in to our feelings.
The answer is God.
The God who is greater than my sins,
the God who is greater than my circumstances,
is the same God who is greater than
my feelings.
So I'm fainting.
He doesn't faint.
So I'm tired.
He never gets weary.
So my mind is befuddled and I can't
think straight.
There's no searching of his understanding.
What's the secret of getting victory over your
feelings?
Feelings of resentment, feelings of criticism, feelings that
poison us down inside and sap away from
us the strength that we need to live.
Feelings that make us impatient and indignant and
independent.
They that wait.
Our American public doesn't like this word wait.
We don't wait for anything.
Wait?
Wait.
We're always in a hurry.
Christians are running from one meeting to another
meeting, from one thing to another thing, on
the go, constantly, a religious roller coaster that
never ends.
And we call this spirituality.
And then we start checking them off as
they fall by the wayside, fall by the
wayside, casualties, casualties.
Oh, God didn't say, and those that run.
No, no.
He said, those that wait.
They that wait upon the Lord shall exchange
their strength.
That's what that word renew means.
Exchange, exchange your weakness for his strength.
Waiting on the Lord.
What do you do when you wait on
the Lord?
You listen to him speak to you.
You, you, you look at his greatness, his
glory.
We are too busy today just to wait
before God and let our heart calm down.
Let our mind calm down and behold the
greatness and the glory of God.
And my friend, when you do that, everything
else gets in perspective.
That neighbor who drives you up the wall
doesn't look so big.
That responsibility at work that's kept you awake
at night doesn't seem so threatening.
All of these giants and mountains that have
hemmed you in begin to get to their
right perspective.
When you spend time waiting on God, they
that wait upon the Lord shall exchange their
strength.
They shall Mount up with wings as eagles
that takes care of the mountains.
But you know, you can't always be doing
that.
It's marvelous when God gives you that grace
to put out your wings and you soar,
but you can't always do it.
Even eagles are not always flying.
But in the crisis hour of life, God
enables us to soar like the eagle.
They shall mount up with wings as eagles.
They shall run and not be weary.
There are those days and weeks we just
got to keep on going.
But he gives us strength as we wait
before him.
But the hardest part is not soaring like
an eagle, and the hardest part is not
running.
The hardest part is walking step after step,
yard after yard, mile after mile.
When I face crises in my life and
I come to God, he always gives me
the wings of faith to soar.
When there are demanding days, he gives me
the strength to run.
But I've discovered I need to spend more
time before God in those routine days of
life.
When you're just walking step by step by
step, that's when people fail.
As these exiles began, it was like taking
off in a jet.
We're going home.
And they mounted up with wings like an
eagle.
A few days later, they're running.
Oh, we're going home.
Are we there yet?
No, we have several hundred miles to go.
And they start slogging along a step at
a time.
I read an interesting couplet the other day.
It said this yard by yard.
Life is hard.
But inch by inch, life's a cinch.
That's what Isaiah is talking about.
Walk and not faint.
The daily routine of life, nothing exciting, nothing
special.
Fix the beds and do the dishes and
mop the floor and fix the meals.
And nothing exciting is happening except one thing.
The greatness of God has touched your life
and what you are doing.
You are doing in a great way for
the glory of God.
You see, a believing Christian is not a
person who does great things.
A believing Christian is a person who does
little things in a great way and they
all add up to great things.
So God is great.
God is greater than your sins.
Have you trusted him?
God is greater than your circumstances.
Are you looking to him by faith?
God is greater than your feelings.
Are you waiting before him?
You see, if you and I are trusting
him and looking to him and waiting before
him, the greatness of God is going to
be shared with us.
And life won't get out of proportion.
Life won't get out of perspective.
And all of this greatness is ours because
of the greatness of his grace and the
greatness of his mercy and the greatness of
his love.
The great God came down here as a
baby.
The great God grew up on this earth.
The great God went to Calvary and bore
on his body my sins and became a
great savior and a great high priest.
Oh, God is great.
God is great.
Let his greatness move into your life.
Yield yourself to Jesus Christ.
Rest upon his word.
And you will be soaring, running, walking, and
you won't give up.
Heavenly Father, who can measure your greatness?
We have no problem measuring our littleness, the
littleness of our minds.
Our thoughts are so small, the littleness of
our faith, the littleness of our love.
But oh, how great you are.
Forgive us for our busyness.
We've been too busy to wait before you
and see how great you are.
Forgive us for our unbelief, for looking at
the giants and the walls and the mountains
instead of looking to our God.
Gracious Father, send us forth realizing that we
belong to a great God who will never
forsake us.
May someone here today trust in the savior
and experience that great salvation.
I pray in Jesus name.
Amen.