Neil's brother who's not well and in the hospital so we could be praying for for him and Brings my heart great joy for if you're here and you're a visitor. Thank you for coming welcome. It's good to see you and for all you regulars Especially good to see David and Murna here today together David showed up yesterday at the men's fellowship and it was a joy to our hearts for him to be with us and at the end of that Fellowship we had a little we sang a hymn and David's Difficulty with his lungs did not impede him He sang with all his heart as he always does and it was such a joy to be there in that little room and to hear that voice raised up and We thank God for your you're being with us David so much Without God he would not be here. I know it's a miracle.
It's a miracle Couple months ago I was my privilege to speak with you and it was Mother's Day as you might remember and I Enumerated all the reasons why it's wrong to choose Mother's Day as a day to speak if you're a guy and Father's Day too for that matter But anyway, so when David contacted me and said would you speak in the month of August on the 18th? I said sure and he said don't worry. It's not Father's Day or Mother's Day All right, but he said it is National Fajita Day and but you don't have to have a special message for fajitas And and I thought who else would David Mcdonald would come up with National Fajita day? What a sense of humor that guy has but I thought well, you know what?
Maybe I should just check out and see what special day it is maybe it is a holiday of sometime even it is a special day So I went online and checked it out and Happy National Fajita day everybody Can you believe it 365 days out of the year and one of them is a fajita day of all things? There's only a limited number of days right so you know fajitas, but I thought about speaking on fajitas I thought maybe I could come up with a message or at least a story about fajitas, but I could not so I decided I would write a song I struggled with that a little bit and it just turned out to be a wrap If you don't know what a fajita is you'll never get that joke, but anyway all right, so That's why I never made it as a stand-up comedian. All right, horny jokes Good to be with you and I want today God willing to speak to you about the four voices of comfort the four voices of comfort How God has in the past and is still comforting me is a wonder to my heart And I know that it probably you have at times felt the comfort of God in your life and God calls upon us if we have been comforted by God to comfort other people and I want you to come with me Please to 2 Corinthians chapter 1 for our this is not a pretext. This is a preliminary text Alright, this is a text that meets the criteria of being legitimate for this message I want to start here, but I'm not gonna end here I'm gonna go somewhere else for the bulk of the message But I wanted to start in second Corinthians chapter one because it does mention the God of comfort second Corinthians chapter one And we're gonna look at verses three and four I'm reading from the new American standard and if you're looking at the screen you are too Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of mercies and the God of all comfort Who comforts us in all our affliction so that we are able to comfort those who are in any affliction With the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God Blessed be his name.
He is a God not only of mercy and compassion, but he is a God of all comfort He wishes to comfort us and he does comfort us Let's pray father. We pray that as we look into your word this morning that your Holy Spirit will guide and direct not only my words But the thoughts of our hearts may we have thoughts that are appropriate that are right that are correct and they're led by your spirit And the truth about yourself and about what you would have us to do in the realm of comforting one another We asked this today in Jesus name. Amen God is the father of mercies that word means compassion He is a compassionate God and because he is a compassionate God because we are on his heart He reaches out to us in the time of our difficulty and who has not had a time of difficulty hands up Not yeah, oh trick question. Okay, who has not had none of us could raise our hand legitimately We have all had if you haven't had one a time of difficulty yet hang on all right They're coming those times come in this life But God is a God of compassion and and of all comfort the word all there means every kind of comfort He has the ability to comfort us no matter what our situation is whatever our affliction as the verses is whatever our trouble Whatever our tribulation whatever our trial whatever the oppression is in our life God is a God of comfort and is able to bring that comfort to us have you known God's comfort and also have you shown God's comfort to other people.
I want to encourage you in both of those areas now What does it mean comfort? What does that word mean to comfort sometimes we say comfort? We're thinking of nice upholstery in our car You know you sink into that leather upholstery or the comfort of certain foods We all have these comfort foods that we like they bring comfort to us with a comfort of a warm fire in the winter time But that's not what I'm talking about here It's not what the scripture is talking about this is a different kind of thing a different kind of comfort the word comfort that is used the Greek word That is used here means a calling to one side you call somebody to your side Have you ever been comforted by someone as they called you to their side? They knew that you were going through a difficult time and so they said come close here I want you to be close to me.
Maybe that comforting person was a hugger There are some huggers among us and they know how to hug and they can see it written all over your face when you're going through Affliction and so come here come to my side come close get a hug or smile or a handshake or a call or a coffee Or maybe a card in the mail my wife comforts by sending cards some of you have received some of her cards That's what she does she comforts by sending cards She sees somebody who's in distress and affliction and God and places on her heart to desire to send a note out to somebody That's how she does that that's one of the way she does that how do you comfort other people? How is God comforted you if you've been comforted in a certain way? Maybe that's a way that you could extend comfort to somebody else years ago when my uncle Ernest the youngest of my brother my father's family Was very very ill he'd had his third major heart attack. He was in the hospital not only a heart attack But he had a stroke at that time and they took him to the hospital and he was he was there and he was not in good shape In fact the doctors told us later that he was only 10% of his heart was functioning I was called along with some other family members to come to the hospital to pray and to be with the family And we some of us gathered the immediate family were in the hospital room and some the rest of us the cousins We have a large family and some of our cousins were gathered in in the lunch area of the hospital We weren't gathered for lunch.
You don't go for lunch at the hospital, right? We were gathered there to pray and as we sat there a pastor Tim Fraser Some of you may have known pastor Fraser He's with the Lord now But he was the pastor the Baptist church and that area where my uncle attended and he came down to the lunch room And he sat with us and he said it won't be long now. I have sat with many people I've heard the death rattle. He's not with us very much longer and we began to pray We did not know but in that hospital room gathered with my uncle was my aunt and some of the children And my uncle began to tremble apparently in a hospital bed he began to shake in my aunt will leta Instinctively put down the side of the hospital bed and climbed into the bed with her husband She wrapped her arms around him and she whispered in his ear.
It's all right earnest. I'm here and I love you in Moments the shaking stopped and my uncle went on to live for a couple of decades after that 10% of his heart functioning suffered a stroke he had to learn to walk and to talk all over again He was the miracle man of your ameth hospital anytime the doctors and nurses on they would say we just can't believe you're still here I believe with all my heart It was the comfort of his wife as she lay next to him and reassured him I'm here and I love you now. These are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ to us today I am here and I love you no matter what your circumstance no matter what your situation he is here and he loves you He is here and he loves you. Do you know that today?
Have you known that experience of having him close to you whispering in your ear that he's here and he loves you and he's gonna look after you True comfort every kind of comfort every kind of comfort that is godly comfort must be founded in the person of God I want to quote now. I'm gonna ask the gentleman in the back to put my quote up on the wall It's actually not my quote, but it's a quote that I found from a theologian by the name of Edward Young and Mr. Young as I was studying this passage he wrote these words true comfort Consists in setting forth the entire truth concerning the people's tragic condition and in causing them to see God as their only hope Look at it again. Let this sink into your heart true comfort real comfort We can we can you know say things, you know, we just great one another I was watching David as he was up there and you were thinking we need a gavel to bring things to order here because people just wanted a fellowship Right and you may was trying to get everybody back to their seats and we can get together and usually when we shake hands And sometimes we get in the conversation sometimes just how you doing hey there?
I thought you know and it's okay. That's good. We need to greet one another but true comfort true comfort when somebody is really hurting has to go Deeper than that doesn't it hey? How you doing?
We lie fine fine great I remember hearing stories of mr. Fox who used to preach here and and I know some of you will remember this I didn't know mr. Fox about I met him once but but those of you who know him would tell me that mr. Fox who grab your hand and shake your hand and say How are you doing he'd look right in your eye right?
How are you doing really? Not not glibly. How are you doing really because he cared and everybody knew that apparently they knew he cared and he Didn't want the pad answer he wanted the truth right true Comfort can set consist in setting forth the entire truth. It's not it's not glossing things over It's not making things up to be better than than they are but it's the true It's the entire truth concerning the people's tragic condition because sometimes things are pretty tragic in our lives and then causing them This is the point in causing them to see God as their only hope now That's comfort when we see God as our only hope that's when we have true comfort in our hearts because What a wonderful hope he is right you can have no better hope you can hope in your doctors if you want to you can hope in your Neighbor if you want to you can hope in your bank that if you want to but all of those things will fail He alone is the true comforter and the only hope Now that's the preliminary text.
I wanted to leave with you now I want to turn to the major text and begin the four voices of comfort and the major text is Isaiah 40 I am not going to get through this today. So this will be part one. All right And if there's another great holiday coming up and I get asked I will come again and we'll finish this all right Isaiah chapter 40 and we're gonna begin at the very beginning of this chapter Isaiah 40 beginning at verse 1 comfort Oh comfort my people says your God speak kindly to Jerusalem and call out to her that her warfare has ended that her Iniquity has been removed that she has received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins a Voice is calling clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness make smooth in the desert a highway for our God Let every valley be lifted up and every mountain and hill made low and let the rough ground become a plane and the rugged terrain a broad Valley then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh will see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken a Voice says call out then he answered what shall I call out? All flesh is grass and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field the grass withers the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows Upon it surely the people are grass the grass withers the flower fades But the word of our God stands forever get yourself up on a high mountain Ozai and bear of good news lift up your voice mightily oh Jerusalem bear of good news lift it up Do not fear say to the cities of Judah here is your God Behold the Lord God will come with might with his arm ruling for him.
Behold his reward is with him and his recompense before him Like a shepherd he will tend his flock in his arm He will gather the lambs and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead the nursing use I See four voices. I hear four voices in this passage There's the voice of God to start with and we're gonna begin with that voice the voice of God crying out now Isaiah is an interesting study if certainly we do not have time to go through the book of Isaiah together today And and I wouldn't be the person qualified to do that really with you anyway But what little I know of Isaiah is that is divided into two major parts the first 39 chapters are Chapters of woe where Isaiah is calling out to Judah and Jerusalem and saying hey guys You have been sinning against God and God is going to have to judge you for your sin 39 chapters of explaining to the people the whoa that is coming their way because of their sin God is going to send judgment upon you That's not popular preaching Isaiah had his difficulties too because of the message he was given by God to give But then after chapter 39 when you come to chapter 40 everything changes in this book in chapter 40 from 40 to 66 You have chapters of in wonderful encouragement and comfort and it begins with that comfort your comfort my people says the Lord I find it interesting that Isaiah with 66 chapters. Well, that's the same number of books.
We have in our Bible, isn't it? 66 books 66 chapters in Isaiah 39 of those chapters in Isaiah are chapters of woe in God's judgment 39 books of the Old Testament isn't that amazing and then 27 chapters of Isaiah are about good news And we have the New Testament with 27 chapter 27 books, excuse me I don't know maybe it's just the way that the chapters were you know God didn't put chapters in the Bible Those were put in there by ourselves, but isn't it interesting that the book is divided up that way Good news, and I'm not saying that the Old Testament is awful of bad news It's not but the Old Testament does tell us are standing before God It does show us where we stand as sinners before God and the New Testament is God's answer to our dilemma is not The first voice that we hear in Isaiah chapter 40 as we begin this new part of Isaiah is a voice of comfort It's a voice of God comforting saying comfort my people When I was first saved and first started fellow shipping among believers I had gone to church all my life, but fellow shipping among believers and going to church two different things Right I had gone to church all my life But when I when I came to no crisis my Savior I began to fellowship with believers I began to want to be hanging around hanging out with Christians And I began to fellowship and I ran into this guy that I had never known before he was a great big Burly Frenchman his name was Larry Larry Dion and I've told some of you stories about Larry Dion before but he was a big impact in my life He was a huge guy just a young man, but a huge guy and he had been hired Comes from West Pune of Ascotia and he had been hired by the locals to be a bouncer in the local dance hall because they used to have real problems They had to have the police there week after week after week breaking up fights between the West Sideers and the Cape Islanders It was just a tradition when the Saturday night dance happened there would be a fight So they hired Larry and Ronnie Porter two guys to come in and just sort of calm things down and they did they calm things down There were Cape Islanders and West Sideers lying lying on the floor everywhere where they had cleaned up right a big burly strong guy Right just a massive man and and you come up to Larry and Larry got saved wonderfully saved It was great and you come up to Larry and say hey Larry What do you know for sure and his face would open up into a smile like no other smile on the planet and say I'm saved I'm saved the first voice of comfort in this passage is the comfort of salvation the comfort of knowing and being able to say With all assurance. I'm saved Larry Dion knew it for absolute sure he didn't continue being a bouncer By the way, all right, he went on to better things, but he knew for sure absolutely the moment he trusted Christ is his Savior He could say I'm saved and I'm going to heaven Can you say that this morning? Can you say it with all your heart and soul and know it as an absolute certainty?
And if you can if you can that brings comfort to your soul does not to be able to say that no matter what your affliction No matter what your situation or circumstance. I know that I am saved I know that I'm going to heaven. I know that my sins are forgiven Larry could say that I can say that I hope you can say that this morning I'm saved The scripture says God says Comfort oh comfort my people says your God speak kindly to Jerusalem the word kindly there speak kindly means speaking to the heart Literally it means speak to the heart of the people as I said earlier if we're going to comfort somebody We need to speak to their God would speak to our hearts with me God is the God of compassion and therefore like Mr Fox he doesn't just glibly say how you doing he speaks to our hearts And he says I want to know you and I want you to know me speak to the heart God says to us speak To the people around about us now I realize what I'm doing here is making an application I want you to understand that this passage of scripture was given to the Jews Isaiah was speaking to the people of Jerusalem and Judea and He was speaking about God's compassion for them in God's comfort for them after the time of tribulation that they're going to go through All of this is prophetic all of this is future in Isaiah's day the people of Judah and Jerusalem had not gone through a time of trouble It was still to come in Isaiah saying it's coming. It's really coming You are going to experience a great day of trial But I want you to know that God still cares for you And I want you to know that he's going to comfort you at the end of this so all of this is prophetic all of this is future And I say is day I am taking this passage of scripture and making application to our day Okay, I'm making application so that you and I can apply we're not Jews and we're not living in the time of Isaiah Or the time of their persecution that you were she gives but we are living in a day and age when we experience trouble And I want you to know God wants me to say God is telling us to say to one another to speak to one another's hearts and say you need to be Confident because God cares God is here and he loves you call out to her now What is the message of this comfort the comfort of salvation?
I think there are three blessings of salvation and they're all going to start with P It makes it easier to remember first of all call out to her and you'll notice that there are three that's call out to her that First of all her warfare has ended That's good news, isn't it when warfare is ended and that's the peace that God brings the peace the warfare is over Her warfare is ended the time of forced labor some translations make it the time of hostility the time of heart service for the Jews The time that was coming when they would be carried away into captivity into Babylon that would come to an end and Isaiah is speaking of that day when it does come to an end your Captivity is over your warfare has ended for them. It was that captivity that he was speaking of for us It's the time of bondage that we experience when we are under Satan's control the time of forced labor when we are the servants of the enemy of God It's a forced labor and God wants us to be free from that and when we are free there's a piece that settles upon our hearts It's over God says it's over on Tuesday May the 8th 1945 That day is known as VE day the British Daily Mail put as a headline in the newspaper. It's all over I didn't live during that time, but I can I've seen pictures of how people responded to that day Dancing in the streets partying carrying on right celebrating people hugging one another It's all over that time of terrible warfare was over That's what God wants us to hear he wants to hear the declaration It's over and it can only be over when the second piece is understood and realized in the second P her in equity that her in equity has been removed the second P is pardon There can be no peace in our hearts unless there's been pardon granted to us for our sins I wonder if you've ever been pardoned for your sins. I'm not talking about a judicial pardon here in this world I'm talking about a pardon from God and the only way that pardon can be yours is if you if you acknowledge that you're a sinner You say well, I'm not sure that I'm not bad a person.
I think they're probably okay I always thought that I was okay. Don't we all think that we're okay? It's everybody else that has the problem, right? We're okay But I wasn't okay.
I wasn't okay One day I realized that there were a lot of difficult a lot of problems with me And if you take the book of Exodus and you read those ten not suggestions but ten commandments of God and you start going down through the list You will have no other gods before me. You will not make any idol that you will fall down and worship You will not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. You will Keep the Sabbath day holy you will honor your father and your mother. You will not commit murder You will not commit adultery.
You will not steal you will not lie. You will not covet when you go through those ten commandments You're gonna find one or two there that you've broken in fact if you want to spend some time with me I'll show you how you've broken them all all right every one of them. We're guilty Absolutely guilty and if we stand before almighty God the righteous judge. He is not gonna give us a pass He's not gonna say oh well.
You were young no, he's gonna say those were commandments Those are what I said you must do and not do and you have broken every single one And the wages of sin does anybody know what the wages of sin is death God's judgment Folks what we need is a pardon for sin and there only way that God could pardon sin is by sending his son into the world to take the penalty For us and that's just exactly what he did when he sent the Lord Jesus Christ into the world The Lord Jesus Christ went to Calvary and he died on the cross our death my death your death for you and God would give you a pardon Because of what Christ has done if you will only come to the point of repentance for your sin and say I acknowledge it I am a sinner I have broken your law and I need pardon. Oh God. I need you We sang it a little while ago. Oh, I need you how I need you We tend to think that we can get by by ourselves that our goodness will be good enough.
We don't have any folks We don't have any We need God and we need his salvation We need his provision of a Savior and so pardon is the second blessing of salvation And is a comfort when we have pardon when we come to Christ when we come to the cross of Christ acknowledging our sin and saying Lord Jesus I realize that you died on the cross from my sins and that that penalty that you paid was my penalty and you embrace that God pardons your sin It's the only way you can he can pardon it because it's paid for now it's paid for But he says if you do not embrace that if you do not take that I'm sorry those sins will remain upon you So you want pardon for sin you can have pardon for sin simply by coming to Christ as your Savior And what a blessing it is Do you know the blessing of sins forgiven? What a comfort that is to know a comfort it is to know that I have peace with God through my Lord Jesus Christ that my sins are pardon they're no longer to my account. I'm clear I'm clear They're gone as if they never were ever to on my account. They're gone pardon her in equity has been removed and then thirdly the third P Is provision there is peace for the person who comes to Christ there is pardon and there is provision look what it says That her in equity has been removed that she has received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins She has received the Lord's hand double for all her sins and I wonder what what does that mean?
Would God punish Judah twice as hard as she deserves that means she's received double for all her sins Doesn't seem like God to do that. He's fair isn't he so what does it mean? Well? Just quickly flip over.
I know just quickly with me to Isaiah 61 I want to show you a passage here that I think answers what that means Isaiah 61 That she has received double for all her sins The first passage here in the first part of chapter 61 is the spirit of the Lord's pomming the Lord Jesus quoted these verses when he was ministering in Galilee at one time and then it says if we just for time's sake I'm gonna bring you down to verse four He says then they will rebuild the ancient ruins. They will raise up the former devestations We've had a time of affliction. We've had a time of trouble obviously They will repair the ruins cities the desolations of many generations strangers will stand and pasture your flocks Foreigners will be your farmers and your vineyard dressers But you will be called the priests of the Lord You will be spoken of as ministers of our God You will eat the wealth of nations and in their riches you will boast and look at verse 7 Instead of your shame you will have a double portion Instead of humiliation they will shout for joy over their portion. Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land Everlasting joy will be theirs.
I Think what we're talking about here in Isaiah 40 in this part where it says she shall she has received of the Lord's hand double That is a double blessing God is amazingly gracious and he takes a ruin center like me He not only pardons my sin but he makes provision for me. He provides for me and he gives me double double double portion a double portion More than I ever deserve. Have you ever experienced that from the hand of God? I'm talking about wealth necessary I'm talking about riches.
I'm talking about all the things that are intangible but are real Things that we can't touch but that mean the most to us Peace the pardon the provision of God in our lives the things things that we want most in our lives Isn't it comforting to know that these things are ours through the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ? There are three other three other voices to hear from three other means of comfort from God and we will look at those Some other time God willing let's pray. Thank you Lord for the opportunity to be together today It's warm and we have fought fatigue and drowsiness. I know that but I thank you for just being able to hear from your word today Thank you for the salvation that can be ours through Christ and I pray for anyone here today that may not know the Lord Jesus The burden of sin is still heavy upon them.
The warfare is still there I pray Lord that they might surrender to the Lord himself and find forgiveness for their sins I pray for each one of us that do know salvation and do have the blessing and the comfort of salvation that we would be reaching out to other people And seeking to extend that comfort to them as well in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray amen. Thank you