The Lord Will Save His People

God Keeps His Promises

The Gospel is Comforting

Isaiah 40:1–2 CSB

1 “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. 2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and announce to her that her time of forced labor is over, her iniquity has been pardoned, and she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

is 40 1-

God wants to comfort His people. Notice how He choses to comfort. His Message: Repent, a Way is being prepared for you to come bake to Me

Isaiah 40:3–5 CSB

3 A voice of one crying out: Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert. 4 Every valley will be lifted up, and every mountain and hill will be leveled; the uneven ground will become smooth and the rough places, a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord will appear, and all humanity together will see it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Isaiah hears the voice of John the Baptist more than 500 years before he is born:

Luke 3:2–6 CSB

2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, God’s word came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the vicinity of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah: A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight! 5 Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be made low; the crooked will become straight, the rough ways smooth, 6 and everyone will see the salvation of God.

luke 3 2-

John the Baptist’s message was clea

Jesus said in , am the Way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus is the highway Isaiah sees!

God wants to comfort His people, so He wants the message of judgment declared. He wants people everywhere to hear the mes

ILLUSTRATION: How is this comforting?

I had a friend who was coming to visit us not too long ago. What is the first thing you tell someone who is coming to visit Slayden from Memphis? You tell them: When you get to Piperton, go the speed limit…it is a speed trap!

I am not trying to offend my friend. I am not accusing my friend of being a serial speeder. I just want to make sure that my friend pays careful attention to the signs as they come out of Collierville that say 40, and 55, and 45. I am trying to comfort my friend. I don’t want them to be troubled when they get to me.

This is what God is doing. Peter 3:9, says that God doesn’t want anyone to suffer judgment, but He wants all people to come to repentance.

God wants Isaiah to comfort His people, and Isaiah hears the voice of John the Baptist sometime in the future saying: Repent, Judgment is coming! A highway (Jesus) is being prepared for you to come back to God! God wants His people to be comforted by the Gospel.

God Keeps His Promises

We are taking the Lord’s Supper this morning.

The Lord’s Supper is a picture of the promise that God has made concerning our salvation.

Isaiah 40:6–8 CSB

6 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. 7 The grass withers, the flowers fade when the breath of the Lord blows on them; indeed, the people are grass. 8 The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever.”

is 40

The Bible says that our life is a vapor. Like the grass, we are here today and gone tomorrow. But the word of God is forever!

In the Garden, God promised that He would send one from the seed of the women who would crush the head of the serpent—he would remove the results of sin forever.

So that they would remember this promise, God killed an innocent animal or animals to cloth Adam and Eve with the skins.

God set His terms for salvation: the shedding of the blood of the innocent on behalf of the guilty. There would be an innocent One who would die on behalf of the guilty.

Cain and Abel

10 generations after Adam: Noah

10 generations after Noah: Abraham and Isaac

Abraham’s descendants multiply into a great nation like God promised. They were enslaved by the Egyptians. God’s redemptive picture was lost and forgotten by many, but God judged the Egyptians through 10 plagues…the 10th plague made God’s Redemption Picture the clearest yet: THE PASSOVER (the blood of the Lamb, the unleavened bread) (mark their calendar…do this every year so they could pass the Promise and the Picture on to their children)

Because of the people’s sin, they went through periods of time when they did not remember God’s Redemption Promise, but when this happened, God would raise up stewards of His word to remind the people to cling to the promise and the picture of redemption.

When David became king, He was one of these such stewards. God made the redemption promise even clearer by promising him that the Innocent One who would die on behalf of the guilty would also be a King from David’s lineage. His kingdom would endure forever.

David wrote , which begins: My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? (The words Jesus spoke from the cross). The rest of the Psalm describes the crucifixion in detail.

David believed the promise, and he clung to the picture of the promise by bringing blood sacrifices to God. David believed that one day God would fulfill His redemptive promise to one day send the Innocent One (the great Passover Lamb) who would die so that the guilty could be saved.

The prophet Jeremiah saw a day when God would send the Promised One who would be called THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS

Isaiah saw a day when the Lord’s salvation would reach to the ends of the earth.

Ezekiel saw a day when the Lord would provide atonement for sin.

Joel saw a day when anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!

John the Baptist came preaching: Repent, the Kingdom of God is at hand.

When he saw Jesus, he said: behold the Lamb of God!

Andrew heard him and told his brother Peter: we have found the messiah!

Jesus was the Innocent One God had promised Eve, Abraham, and David. He commanded all people to repent of their sins, believe Him, submit to Him, and obey His commands.

He told Nicodemus that he needed to be born again.

He told woman caught in adultery to sin no more.

He told he paralysed man who was let down through the roof of the house: Your sins are forgiven.

He told blind Bartemaus: your faith has saved you

He told his disciples: I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father except through me.

He told the wind and the waves to be still.

He told Lazarus to come out of the grave.

He told the crowd: if I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all people to myself.

On the night of the Passover, Jesus gathered His disciples in the upper room to eat the Passover feast.

He told them that He was establishing a new Covenant. He told them to continue to cling to God’s promise of Redemption…to continue to cling to the Picture of Redemption. But they would no longer have to bring a blood sacrifice to God. Jesus was the final blood sacrifice that God had promised.

Jesus was the Passover Lamb. Jesus was about to die on a cross so the guilty could be saved.

He took the bread and explained that it was to remind them of his body being broken for them.

He took the wine and explained that it was to remind them of His blood poured out for them.

When we take the Lord’s Supper, we are remembering the promise and the picture. God’s word remains forever. God made a promise and 4000 years later, He fulfilled that promise.

Jesus, the Innocent One, died on the cross so that we can have forgiveness of sins, He rose from the grave on the 3rd day. He promised to return one day in the future to judge all people by their faith in Him.

This is the gospel: 1, 2, 3