Prayer notes for Isaiah 40.

These verses make it unmistakably clear that the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC will not be a sign that Yahweh’s ancient promises have failed

or that Yahweh is impotent in the face of the people’s sin.

His goal is not to condemn them but to encourage them (“comfort,” v. 1; cf. 51:12).

Four stanzas announce

(1) Yahweh’s intention (vv. 1–2),

(2) Yahweh’s coming (vv. 3–5),

(3) humanity’s weakness (vv. 6–8), and

(4) Yahweh’s rule (vv. 9–11).

Commands to speak are prominent; the good news must be proclaimed.

It’s humanities weakness that I want to draw your attention to. "A voice was saying, “Cry out!” Another said, “What should I cry out?” “All humanity is grass, and all its goodness is like the flower of the field. "The grass withers, the flowers fade when the breath of the Lord blows on them; indeed, the people are grass. "The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever.”” ()

40:6–8 Humans will present no barrier to God’s grace on behalf of his people.

Humans are like grass and wild flowers: they wither and fall to the ground (v. 24);

They have a short-lived & fragile beauty.

They are completely unreliable.

In contrast, “the word of our God endures forever”

(v. 8; cf. , which uses this passage to affirm the infallibility of God’s word, especially in its life-giving power).

Our prayer time is all based off of the idea that’s communicated in v7

Carson, D. A. (Ed.). (2015). NIV Zondervan Study Bible: Built on the Truth of Scripture and Centered on the Gospel Message (p. 1394). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Carson, D. A. (Ed.). (2015). NIV Zondervan Study Bible: Built on the Truth of Scripture and Centered on the Gospel Message (pp. 1393–1394). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

"The grass withers, the flowers fade when the breath of the Lord blows on them; indeed, the people are grass.” ()

Several times in Scripture this is used of God’s wrath which is likened to the destructive east wind (; ; ).

We are thinking about how God withers people before He saves them and that’s what we want to pray for today.

"The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith.” ()

When the law condemns a man, he flies to Christ to seek forgiveness;

but until he has received the sentence of the law in his own soul,

he never will fly to Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice,

to be set free from sin.

If the law is rightly used, it drives the sinner to the Savior.

and there was hope concerning this scribe, because he evidently knew the requirements of the law.

This guardian was a slave and would’ve been responsible to take their young pupil for instruction and protect him from all harm until he came of age.

A “guardian” was a slave responsible for a child’s training, especially for pointing out and punishing misbehavior (see 4:1, 2).

Like a guardian, the law pointed out sin and punished it.

"Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are subject to the law, so that every mouth may be shut and the whole world may become subject to God’s judgment. "For no one will be justified in his sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.” ()

3:19 The law speaks to all, whether or not men have the Scriptures (2:14–15), and it condemns all. This should stop every mouth now and will do so at the judgment.

3:20 There is no hope of earning acceptance with God by trying to keep God’s law. What the law does do, when correctly understood, is expose our sin as in a mirror (by the law is the knowledge of sin).

All the law can do is to show us our sin.

The law is a mirror, and looking in it you can see your spots; but you cannot wash in a mirror.

Beeke, J. R., Barrett, M. P. V., & Bilkes, G. M. (Eds.). (2014). The Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible (pp. 1618–1619). Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books.

If you want to be cleansed from your stains, you must go somewhere else.

The object of the law of God is not to cleanse us,

but to show us how much cleansing we need;

to reveal our disease,

not to find a remedy for it.

It is like a looking-glass that shows us our blots, but it does not wash them away.

Spurgeon, C. H. (1894). The Two Pillars of Salvation. In The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons (Vol. 40, p. 191). London: Passmore & Alabaster.

It is like a looking-glass that shows us our blots, but it does not wash them away.

The law is the standard which shows us how short we are of God’s glory; but it does not make up our shortcomings.

It is a killing, not a saving thing.

By the law, no man ever was, or ever will be, saved.

By the law, we guilty ones are condemned.

"because the law produces wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.” ()

So that the law is not for justification, but for condemnation.

It is the law that reveals sin, and that shows sin to be sin; so men can never become right with God by the law.

4:15 the law brings wrath. Sinful humans cannot fulfill God’s good and holy law (7:12).

The law cannot liberate sinners from their helplessness but

simply confirms that they, indeed, fall far short of God’s standard (3:20; 5:20; 7:7–11).

"For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slander.” ()

Sin is not a splash of mud on a man’s exterior; it is filth generated within himself.

15:15–20 Jesus taught that the human heart is innately corrupt, but he also described his followers as “pure in heart” (5:8). From this we conclude that following Jesus results in a transformation of the heart that greatly diminishes our love of sin.

Spurgeon, C. H. (1995). 2,200 quotations: from the writings of Charles H. Spurgeon : arranged topically or textually and indexed by subject, Scripture, and people. (T. Carter, Ed.) (p. 267). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

"What should we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin if it were not for the law. For example, I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, Do not covet. "And sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind. For apart from the law sin is dead.” ()

7:7–8 The law itself is not evil or sinful, but one of its functions is to reveal sin.

In fact Paul speaks as if sin is an unknown entity apart from the law when he says,

Spurgeon, C. H. (1870). Feathers for arrows (p. 221). London: Passmore & Alabaster.

I would not have known sin if it were not for the law.

Beeke, J. R., Barrett, M. P. V., & Bilkes, G. M. (Eds.). (2014). The Reformation Heritage KJV Study Bible (p. 1625). Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books.

Sin, seizing an opportunity, uses the law to motivate the flesh (fallen nature) to action.

Once again Paul personified sin almost as Satan himself.

(v8)sin is dead. Sin was comparatively dormant until its prohibition in the law of God

actually made it more attractive to a rebellious nature.

Evil often sleeps in the soul, until the holy command of God is discovered, and

then the enmity of the carnal mind rouses itself to oppose in every way the will of God.

“Without the law,” says Paul, “sin was dead.”

Evil often sleeps in the soul, until the holy command of God is discovered, and then the enmity of the carnal mind rouses itself to oppose in every way the will of God. “Without the law,” says Paul, “sin was dead.” How vain to hope for salvation from the law, when through the perversity of sin, it provokes our evil hearts to rebellion, and works in us neither repentance nor love.

How vain to hope for salvation from the law, when through the perversity of sin,

it provokes our evil hearts to rebellion, and works in us neither repentance nor love.

"When they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles: “Brothers, what should we do?”” ()

2:37 Peter’s audience was pierced to the heart because they realized their guilt in the execution of Jesus,

plus they were convinced by Peter’s passionate eyewitness testimony and

his description of how the events surrounding Jesus’s death and resurrection fulfilled OT prophecies about the promised Messiah.

This prompted them to ask the question that anyone hearing the gospel should ask, Brothers, what should we do?