“I AM SO GLAD I WAITED”(15)

Isaiah 40:27-31 (KJV) 27  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? 28  Hast thou not known? 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. 29  He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 30  Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 31  But 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.

From that 31 verse we will use to get our thought for this message:

31 But 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.

Our subject this morning is:

“I AM SO GLAD I WAITED”

I recently went through an ordeal that everyone of you know about. With the out-come that I knew was going to happen, as I stand before you today, I can truly say:

“I AM SO GLAD I WAITED”

Andrea Crouch said it best, “If I never had a problem, I never would have learn about having faith in God’s Word. Why? Because through it all, through it all, I learn to truth and depend upon His word.

Our subject this morning is:

“I AM SO GLAD I WAITED”

I recently went through an ordeal that everyone of you know about. With the out-come that I knew was going to happen, as I stand before you today, I can truly say:

“I AM SO GLAD I WAITED”

Andrea Crouch said it best, “If I never had a problem, I never would have learn about having faith in God’s Word. Why? Because through it all, through it all, I learn to truth and depend upon His word.

Satan spends every waking minute of his time, trying to do dirt to people.

· He has to be the most miserable being alive.

Especially having been in heaven and know all that heaven has to offer,,, and loose it.

Especially knowing that he placed in the highest position of all the angels in heaven.

Remembering that he was the best looking angel in heaven.

Remembering that he could talk to God any time he wanted too.

Knowing that he had the best of all that heaven had to offer anyone.

But now!!!!!!!!

· He is guaranteed the hottest seat in Hell,,,, and there is nothing he could ever do going forward to change where he will spend eternity.

·And to add insult to his injury,,, He has spent th the last five years of his life,,,, having to endure the lost of “THE TOP BILL BOARD HONOR” of being the most talked about person in the world.

That position,,, has been ,,,taking away from him,,, for the last five years,,, by the one and only (Donald Trump).

And with him losing his job as President of the United States of America,,, I am encouraged again that what Isaiah was preaching to those people by then, is the message God wants his preachers to preach to His people today,,,,,

God watches over His people (40:27–31)

Isaiah’s readers were under the threat of Assyria. Years later Isaiah’s readers during the Babylonian Captivity were under the domination of a godless empire. So, Isaiah encouraged the people to remember that God never relaxes; He is always watching His people,

40:27. God’s people should never think He has forgotten them.[1]

Isaiah 40:27 (KJV) 27 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?

God knows about the difficulties and problems of His people. If you belong to Him, He is able to quiet the storms of life, but sometimes there are lessons for His own to learn in the storm. When you find yourself in the midst of a storm, instead of sitting and weeping and criticizing God, why don't you look around and find out what lesson He wants you to learn? God will not let you go through trials unless He has something for you to learn.

The lesson may be this:

Isaiah 40:28 (KJV) 28  Hast thou not known? 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.

We have a great God. He never gets tired. He is not like man.

"THINK ABOUT THIS”: all of us go through difficult times in our lives.

For some of us the difficulties are few and far between, and the issues are not that serious.

But for others of us the difficulties are almost constant and their nature is very serious,

sometimes even life-threatening.

When circumstances are overwhelming and the outlook is totally bleak,

what can we do?

To whom can we turn?

Is there any hope?

The resounding answer is “Yes!”

In God’s Word we find the most wonderful and encouraging news: God promises to set His people free from:

their world of hardships and heavy burdens,

from their captivity and enslavements by the wicked of this world.

He also promises to walk with true believers through every trial and misfortune they experience.

But He not only walks with His people through their trials,

He also brings them through victoriously.

So no matter what grips a person’s life, he or she can be liberated by God’s salvation. God will rescue or deliver His people

from whatever forces hold them in bondage

or hold them down.

This is the wonderful message of this present Scripture.

At the time Isaiah wrote this wonderful message of salvation, he knew that the Jews were facing 160 plus very difficult years. For about 93 years they would witness a stream of unparalleled wickedness, which will flow through their nation.

This stream of wickedness would only gain momentum

it would rush madly to its inevitable end,

the fall of their nation to Babylon.

They would then be deported out of their land.

They would spend 70 long years scattered throughout the Babylon Empire.

They, God’s people would suffer the unbearable cruelty of the ugly face of discrimination,

and the hardship of a slavery.

Church,,,, these people needed a word of encouragement

— they needed to feel that God care for them

— they needed a word of comfort coming from God through preacher

—these were faced with many long difficult years ahead.

These people needed to turn from their sinful ways.

They needed to once again live righteous, godly lives before God, so that as they could be set free by God.

they needed to keep hope alive in their hearts

they needed to once again turn to the Lord with all their hearts

So that God would deliver them from their captivity and lead them back to Judah, the promised land of God. To keep their hope alive, the Lord stirred Isaiah to preach this much-needed message founded in Isaiah 40:1-31.

Isaiah 40:27 (NASB) 27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God"?

· Assyria, Assyrians. Ancient empire considered the symbol of terror and tyranny in the Near East for more than three centuries.

o Assyria received its name from the tiny city-state Asshur, on the western bank of the Tigris River in northern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq).

o The city was the seat of worship of the sun god Asshur (also spelled Ashur). The Hebrew name occurs frequently in the Bible and is translated Assyria (Gen 2:14),[2]

· There is a belief held by Naturalists, which tells of an invisible line

o real,

o definite,

o unchangeably fixed,

o This line is located at a given altitude above sea level—

o This line is known as the “snake line.”

We are told that in certain mountainous areas in New England one of the first questions of a prospective purchaser of a farm is likely to be: “Is this farm above the snake line?”

These people believe that

· below that line there may be deadly reptiles, endangering man and beast;

· above that line no snake can live.

· Below that line an unsuspecting child or a careless adult might fall victim to one of these deadly reptiles;

· Above the snake line, they may move about untroubled about their security.

The upper altitude or line is kept securely inviolate,

· not by any visible defenses or man-made barriers,

· but by an undisputable mandate of the living God,

o dating back to the creation of the reptile world,

o in which God said in effect, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther!”

Church the Security for these people is purely a matter of altitude, height or elevation:

· If one pitch their camp below the snake line,

· They invite into their situation a possible disaster;

· But and if they pitch camp above the snake line, they would be safe!

Scripture suggests a line similar to the “snake line” of the naturalists,

· which marks the division between a lower and an upper spiritual altitude.

· Below, the soul is never secure against the molestations of Satan,

· that wily reptile, that deceiver and destroyer of souls;

· above, Satan cannot come. Below, there is spiritual depletion, spiritual poverty, weariness, exhaustion, and collapse; above, there is spiritual replenishment, abundance, security, and endurance.

The upper altitude is suggested in Paul’s reference to the blessedness of sitting “in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6) and in his exhortation: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col. 3:1, 2).

Similarly, the Prophet Isaiah speaks of God as dwelling “in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit … (Isa. 57:15). There, near to the heart of God, “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” (Isa. 40:31). This text is an invitation not merely to spend a holy hour in the upper altitude, above the spiritual snake line, but to pitch camp and abide. “Waiting upon the Lord” means more than an occasional coming up for air, or an occasional flight to the upper altitude for refuge. Instead, it calls for trustful abiding like that of the babe nestled in its mother’s arms. The text suggests that there are two levels on which the Christian life may be lived or attempted, and draws attention to the results to be expected:[3]

Conclusion:

Jesus had His “Snake Line” event in his life. It started with Him coming down through 42 long generations when He went to his own and His own people rejected Him. They rejected Him because of the “Snake Line”, they were living “Below the “Snake Line” and because they were living under the snake line they had believed the lie that was told them by the “Father of the Lie”, who had deceived them down through those 42 generations that started back in the Garden when Adam & Eve came to the “Snake Line” and decided to go to the down side or low-side of the “Snake Line”.

· They went to the low-side of the “Snake Line” by accepting the lie instead of the truth.

· They went to the low-side of the “Snake Line” by taking and eating the unformattable fruit.

· They went to the low-side of the “Snake Line” by running away from God instead of running to Him to let him know that they had sinned and come short of His glory.

· Men & women today have come face to face with that same “Snake Line”.

· That “Snake Line” that I am talking about, then just start today,

o No, No, No, it didn’t just start today,,, It started back in the garden, when,,,

o that “Old Serpent”, which you know was more subtilled than any beast of the field.

o That same “Old Serpent”, said to the woman, over in:

Genesis 3:5 (KJV) 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Did you hear that? That SLY devil told them from the beginning, your eyes will be open and you will know something you never knew before nor did God ever want them to know and that was this thing that we call “EVIL”. Good should have been enough for them, I know that it would have been good enough for me.

o you can eat of the fruit & not die.

o That same “Old Serpent”, which said unto the woman, God know that you will become and smart as Him if you eat of the fruit.

· They have made their decisions down through the years, whether they would believe God of the lie of that “Old Serpent”

·

[3]Koller, C. W. (1964). Living above the Snake Line. Christianity Today, 9(5), 257–258.

Introduction: all of us go through difficult times in our lives. For some of us the instances are few and far between, and the issues are not that serious. But for others of us the difficulties are almost constant and their nature is very serious, sometimes even life-threatening. When circumstances are overwhelming and the outlook is totally bleak, what can we do? To whom can we turn? Is there any hope? The resounding answer is “Yes!”

In God’s Word we find the most wonderful and encouraging news: God promises to set His people free from their world of hardships and heavy burdens, from their captivity and enslavements by the wicked of this world. He also promises to walk with true believers through every trial and misfortune they experience. But He not only walks with His people through their trials, He also brings them through victoriously. So no matter what grips a person’s life, he or she can be liberated by God’s salvation. God will rescue or deliver His people from whatever forces hold them in bondage or hold them down. This is the wonderful message of the present Scripture.

At the time Isaiah wrote this wonderful message of salvation, he knew that the Jews were facing 160 plus very difficult years. For about 93 years they would witness a stream of unparalleled wickedness flow through their nation, a stream that would gain momentum and rush madly to its inevitable end, the fall of their nation to Babylon. They would then be deported and spend 70 long years scattered throughout the Babylon Empire. They were to suffer the unbearable discrimination and hardship of a subjected, enslaved people.

Thus, encouragement—a deep sense of God’s care and comfort—would be desperately needed during these long, difficult years. The people needed to trust God, to believe in His glorious promise of deliverance. They needed to live righteously and godly as they looked forward to the day of their redemption by the Savior. Within their hearts they needed to keep alive the hope of God’s salvation, the hope that He would deliver them from their captivity and lead them back to Judah, the promised land of God. To keep their hope alive, the Lord stirred Isaiah to preach this much-needed message: this is, Set Free Through God’s Salvation and Greatness, 40:1-31.

Preacher's Outline and Sermon Bible - Commentary - Isaiah II.