The Word Remains; Isaiah 40:8

Introduction

In life, and especially in American culture, we are prone to set our sights on the things we can see. Obviously, it’s human nature. It is most natural to us to look at the things we see in front of us and around us and over time, we get consumed in them…it’s deceiving.

But, we really live in a “consumeristic culture”…we wear name-brand clothing, or we wish we were wearing name-brand clothing. We are prone to compare ourselves with others based on what kind of house we have, what kind of car we drive, what cool “toys” we have…i.e., boats, or whatever else…

AND, I’m not exempt! I really love bass fishing. I would love to have a nice bass boat and a nice garage to put my bass boat in…but, we have to keep ourselves in check about what those desires do to our heart. Because, if we don’t, our hearts will deteriorate in discontentment, dissatisfaction, ungratefulness, and even entitlement and pride.

The truth is, we don’t deserve anything, and we don’t truly need any of those things.

When I was a new Christian, my mentor taught me Colossians 3:2 “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” and an easy way to memorize the gist of that verse is “eternal desires > earthly desires”. That verse and theme has stuck with me more than any other verse in Scripture. It literally occurs in my brain a hundred times a day, every day. No exaggeration!

Well, why do I start with this today? I start on that note today because having our mind set on the right thing is the thematic thread that runs through our text today. I’m keeping it simple today: our text is just one verse; but, it is profound. The verse is going to be familiar to you if you have been attending Edgewood for any length of time and have sat under Pastor Roger’s preaching. Pastor Roger quotes this verse often after he reads the preaching text in his sermon. Praise God we have a Senior Pastor who consistently and so faithfully points us to the value of God’s Word!

If you have a Bible with you, you can turn to Isaiah 40:8.

Context

The book of Isaiah is a diverse collection of prophetic messages. Isaiah is a prophet. A prophet is any person directed by the inspiration of God to proclaim His will.

The first two-thirds of Isaiah emphasize the sin of the tribe of Judah, calling them to repent and warning of God’s coming judgment on Judah and the nations, but throughout the book there are hints of God’s plan to redeem and restore His people. The last third of the book emphasizes the themes of salvation and restoration following judgment.

The beauty of this verse is in the context. Chapter 40 marks the shift in the book of Isaiah from judgment to hope, with the first verse proclaiming “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God”!

Scripture

Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.”

Overview

This single verse gives us a simple, clear, and important reminder and perspective for our life. It also breaks the sermon down to three main points. So, here it is:

1. The grass withers

2. The flower fades

3. The Word of our God will stand forever

1. The Grass Withers

The two verses prior to verse 8 are helpful. Isaiah 40:6 tells us “all flesh is grass” and verse 7 tells us “surely the people are grass”.

So, here’s what we learn: we are the grass, and the grass withers. So, you and I will wither.

This is likely not too surprising for you. It’s probably more surprising to you that I’ve chosen to preach on this today at Family Camp on the beach!

We can understand that we will wither…except, kids might not see this yet…

In a world where we see cancer raging seemingly without answers to solve the problem, ALS and MS giving tragic life sentences, dementia and alzheimer’s breaking our hearts as we see our loved ones suffer and appear to be so out of character compared to who they used to be…not to mention just the typical daily and annual aging that we experience personally that’s inevitable…we understand that we are withering away and we can seemingly do nothing about it.

We often don’t like the topic of death, but as Christians, we know that death is actually the doorway to really living…our eternal home in heaven with the Lord is when we’re really living our best life! And that is a glorious reality that we can truly look forward to. As followers of Jesus, we have that hope. If you’re not a follower of Jesus, you do not have that hope…but, you can if you commit your life to Jesus, declaring Him as your Lord and Savior.

I was reading an article by Desiring God recently and something the writer said was quite interesting… The writer of this article is a pastor, and he said he keeps a skull on his desk in his office. The skull represents death; and in that reminder, we are reminded that this life is finite, and it will end, and we will become that skull someday…SO, we must live for eternity, setting our minds on things above, and not on earthly things (Colossians 3:2)!

Make today count. Yes. But, at the same time, what we do today is not what we put our hope in…it’s not “it”. There is something better in store for us.

We cannot get too consumed with the things of this world because we have the reality of life in heaven waiting for us someday. So, yes, there’s heartbreak in this life, but Jesus says in John 16:33 “…In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”” Hear that True reality today…Jesus has overcome the world! He is superior. He has won.

The day will come when the Lord, Himself, will wipe away every tear from our eyes and death will be no more. Isaiah tells us that in Isaiah 25:8–9 “He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.””

2. The Flower Fades

If the grass is “us”, who or what are the flowers?

Two verses earlier tells us in Isaiah 40:6 “…All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.”

Then, in verse 8 we’re told that flower fades.

The flower is our beauty, or the “fruit” that comes from us… This refers to both physical beauty and moral beauty.

Now, in light of the aging and disease example I gave earlier, we’re probably not shocked to see here that physical beauty may fade and change. But it is thought provoking to consider that also our moral “goodness” will fail. Our efforts will fail and are weak. Our endurance in this area…or our “moral steadfastness” as Alec Motyer puts it.

In our flesh we can only have patience for so long before we burst with frustration. In our flesh we can only be generous for so long until satan temps us to be convinced we’re being taken advantage of.

It’s much easier for us to be Christlike and generous, and such, if it doesn’t hurt us or affect our standard of living.

Jesus, of course, says in Matthew 26:41 “…The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.””

Our faithfulness is not perfect. If you need more convincing of this, look at the examples we see in the disciples in Matthew 26 when Jesus is in Gethsemane and is betrayed…

Judas betrays Jesus after he explicitly said he wouldn’t.

Peter denies Jesus three times after he explicitly said he wouldn’t.

The disciples abandoned Jesus in Gethsemane after they all commited to never leaving Him.

Matthew 26:56 “…Then all the disciples left him and fled.”

3. But, The Word Of Our God Will Stand Forever!

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever!!!

Here is our HOPE!

Despite the failings of our flesh, our strength is in the Lord!

I love sharing this Tim Keller quote: he says ~ “When falling off a cliff, strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch.”

Our salvation is not dependent upon our ability to hold on, but it is dependent upon God’s ability to hold us! … and we know He is trustworthy and strong enough to hold us.

John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

This third and final piece of Isaiah 40:8 says “…the word of our God will stand forever.”

A good friend of mine asked me last week: “Stand on what?” As in, “what will the Word of God stand on?” I thought, “well, I don’t know…everything!”

The literal meaning of the Hebrew word here is “rises up”. So, “the Word of our God rises up forever”… the word is used to express not just the continuance of the Word of God while all else wilts and dies, but it’s used to express the certainty of fulfillment and its capacity for active intervention… “to stand up and be counted” Alex Motyer writes.

The word means “rise, arise, get up, stand up; come to fruition; endure; belong to; stay fixed…

This ought to cause us to PRAISE THE LORD!

We are so often prone to forget and neglect this Truth though…that the things of earth will pass away, but the things of God will not. This human tendency is depicted in Isaiah 40:18–20 “To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains. He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move.”

We are prone to idolize things made by human hands!

Here’s the response to that in the following verses; Isaiah 40:21–23 “Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.”

We’re compared to grasshoppers!

This isn’t to say grasshoppers aren’t cool. This is saying that we are nothing in comparison to an Almighty, Sovereign, God!

The things of God are bigger and better and more exhilarating than we could ever imagine. I often think of something J.D. Greear said in a sermon once…something like “what makes you think, with your pea-sized little brain, that you can understand the things of God?!” - THAT is the concept God is speaking through Isaiah here.

Gospel

So, what about the hope I mentioned earlier?

I just painted for you a picture of our human condition: our frailty, our depravity, our weakness, and brokenness…it’s rooting in the sin that we were born into…

Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

I also just painted a picture of the greatness of God that we can’t even fathom…

Isaiah 40:25 “To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One.”

A true reality that is equally unfathomable is the FACT that God loves you so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to come to live, to die, and to rise again, so that you and I will be saved when we commit our life to Him.

John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

That also points us to Jesus. He laid down His life for us because He loves us.

AND, if that love wasn’t enough, remember there is “no greater love” than that! - If that love wasn’t enough, He also CARES for you. It’s not just “love and done”, though that would certainly still be incredible…He cares for you and for me in the midst of our pain!

1 Peter 5:7 tells us to cast “all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

Get this! He ALSO is present with us. He also listens to us.

How about this Truth: Zephaniah 3:17 “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” !!!!

He delights in you!!!!!!! God actually likes us!

What a reason to PRAISE!!!

Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.”

Three parts.

Part 3 is glorious in light of parts 1 and 2 because the Word of God is authored BY GOD, not by us (who will wither and fade)! Our HOPE is in GOD!! The Author of all things good!

The Gospel is this: Christ came to pay a debt that He didn’t owe because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay.

We believe the Gospel because it is the Word of God…but, it’s also the POWER of God!! It will stand FOREVER!

In Romans 1:16 Paul says “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…”

Ephesians 2:1–9 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Pray

Lord, thank You for this glorious Truth, this glorious reality. Even in the depth of our sin, You called us out of that darkness and into Your marvelous light. An incredible gift of grace. Everything in this world will pass away, but Lord, You will stand forever. Your Word will stand forever and will never fade. Help us to trust You. Help us to remember that we need to rely on You, Your strength, and Your Word. In Jesus’ Name… Amen.

Communion

We are going to join the rest of our brothers and sisters in Waupun, Fond du Lac, Beaver Dam, and Sheboygan in taking communion this morning.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed, before going to the cross, Jesus gave us the Lord’s Supper as a way for us to remember the sacrifice of his body and blood for us and be in communion with Him. Communion gives us a tangible experience of the Gospel.

At Edgewood, we welcome all true believers in Jesus Christ to partake of the bread and the cup with us. Communion is intended for those who have personally accepted Christ’s Body broken for them and His Blood shed for their sin by repenting of sin and trusting in Christ. If you have not trusted in Christ, we ask you to please not partake of the elements. Or, perhaps, today is the day you admit your sinfulness to God and trust in what Jesus did alone to save you.

You may now open the communion elements and hold them in your hands, please.

1 Corinthians 11:23–25 “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.””

Pray

Lord, we thank You for what You have done for us on the cross. Though the grass withers and the flowers fade, You, Lord, stand forever. No matter who we are or what we have done, we can rest in the promise of Your Word in Psalm 32:1–2 “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” … That is true because of Your grace poured out for us on the cross…in the breaking of Your body and the pouring out of Your blood. Thank You, Jesus…

Eat the bread

Let’s eat the bread together, remembering Christ’s body broken for us…

Drink the cup

Let’s drink the cup together, remembering Christ’s blood shed for us, for the forgiveness of sins…

Thanks be to God for this indescribable gift!

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Closing

Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

You are loved!