I'm okay, I'm okay. Well, that was weird. So there's two waters, I guess they're both mine, are they? Take your pick.
All right. Great way to start. I'd like you to turn your Bible place to Isaiah chapter number 40. This is the last time I was here with you folks.
We looked at the first, well, the goal was to get from verses 9 to 31 and Sunday, and I think we all knew that probably wasn't going to happen. So Isaiah chapter 40, somebody's called the book of Isaiah. Like a mini Bible, like the first 39, 39 chapters are kind of Old Testament-ish and then verse 40 takes on a whole new flavor, kind of like the first 39 books of the Bible. And then once you get to that 40th book of the Bible, the book of Matthew, the different tone, different, quite a noticeable difference.
But before I get to that, I just wanted to say good morning and thank you folks for your prayers and for your thoughts and texts and emails and gifts. It's pretty humbling as I look out and see different people who have had me in their home over the years and meals and prayers and gifts. It's pretty amazing actually. I don't want anybody think for a second that our family takes that for granted.
We do appreciate all of it. And you probably saw or you may have heard through Facebook or through emails or friends or something that our family was in Newfoundland for two weeks. How many people already knew that? More than half.
So that was pretty exciting. The set of circumstances came about that we ended up going to St. John's and spoke two Sundays ago today at the Faith Bible Chapel. Somebody said to say, how do you folks, Colleen Jones said, please say hi to my friends at North but I've missed them so much.
You're not going to forget, are you correct? I said no, I won't forget. You promise me, you're not going to forget. I promise you, I won't forget.
I hope I'm thinking of my brain. I hope I don't forget. But Colleen Jones sends her greetings. So I preached there on the 17th and then actually the 17th was also Abby's 13th birthday.
So we officially have 14 angels now. So yeah, I was figured to have 14 angels. You had to be kind of old and not attached and irrelevant but it turns out that's not the case. So what I did is I gave a five minute update on the 10th.
Then on Monday night, the 11th I had like a two hour evangelism training thing. And then on Thursday, Friday, Saturday afternoon and evening we were out on the streets of St. John's. Has anybody on this room ever been on or near George Street in St.
John's Newfoundland? Yeah, okay, well, you know exactly what I'm talking about right there. If there is a more needy place in the planet and Canada, I'd be very surprised. I think it holds the record for the most liquor establishments per kilometer in all of Canada, if not the world.
Anyway, so we went down there with the sketchboard on Thursday afternoon, Thursday night and Friday night and Friday night and Saturday afternoon, Saturday night and presegauss will pass out tracks, talk to people. And there were some quite probably about a dozen Christians from a couple of different churches that joined us. So, you know, that was pretty good. That was really good.
I actually had a real good chat with several different people. And then so then we left there on the 17th and we went west, spent a night in Gander, two nights in Groesmore and a night in Lancel Meadows. We went on the Western Brook Pond boat tour, if anybody knows what I'm talking about. If you just want to Google that and have your mind blown this afternoon, it's even better to be there.
So we kind of sell very fortunate and blessed to be able to take a little four day family vacation before we head back. Last Friday, or I guess it would have been, was it a week ago Friday? Yeah, I guess we got home a week ago. Friday, so that was pretty cool.
Thanks to those who were praying for us. We, you know, we're driving at night thinking, oh man, we've heard all these stories about moose and Newfoundland, you know. Somebody told me there's more moose. If you don't count St.
John's, there's more moose and Newfoundland than people. So we were just driving all white knuckle at night and like, oh, we don't want to get a moose in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully, we didn't even see a single moose. I thought I did once.
I put the car in reverse and I back up. That's a horse daddy. Oh, okay. So, yeah.
Oh, Friday night was a, I always enjoyed the night. So, I said, I said, Dan brings his guitar and Nick brings his ghorn and we got lots of more voices out there. And it's a real special Friday. And some of you have joined us for those in like Friday night was another one of those.
Well, when you know it, that old John Wells gets up there and preaches. Not one, not two, not three, but four police cars show up. And now you're thinking, oh, no, what happened? Well, it wasn't, it wasn't that bad.
Actually, as far as police scenarios go, this is probably the best one I've ever been a part of. The guy jumps out of his car and I can't remember his name. I think he says his name was Darcy, I'm not sure. And he was pretty happy.
He goes, hey, you guys, what's going on tonight? We got a noise complaint. So I just check it out. You know, big smiles.
He says, by the way, I think you guys are doing a great job. He says, are you all from the same church? He's like, John said, no, actually there's three or four different assemblies represented in this group. Are you kidding?
What a great, oh, that's so great to see unity amongst the body. He says, that's an interesting term. Unity amongst the body. Hmm, this guy might be a Christian.
This other guy shows up in this other police officer and he looks like he's ready to throw somebody in the slammer. You know what I mean? He just got this look at his face and he walks up and he goes, hey, everybody, watch him get constable. I forget, constable connor.
He goes, he needs to be saved. And I'm like, what? I don't think I've ever heard of police officers say that. Actually, I know I've never heard of police officers say that.
So anyway, he goes, well, how loud are we talking here? And we said, well, Warren, we're just going to get up and preach. Warren, why don't you get up and do a little demo for the police officer? So Warren gets up on the block where at Pizza Corner, there's that stone thing across from the pizza corner there.
Warren gets up and he's got a little microphone here and he's got the speaker here. He starts before he preaches. He usually sings, so he starts singing. And police officer goes, you guys are good.
Take care. Sorry, bother ya. Jump since car drives away. I was like, man, that couldn't have gone any better.
So that was pretty cool. So the only thing I could figure is that there must have been Christian's brain for us Friday night. I can't see any other explanation of that. So thank you.
We recognize that this is a combined effort. Even though you might not have physically been there, we know that there are people backing us up every Friday night in prayer. I wish I could tell you how much that means to me. And to everybody, not just me.
I'm not even in the city as much anymore as I used to be. As most of you know, we've been kind of focusing more on Moncton. But you pray for me because I'm going to be totally honest. I have a hard time in Moncton.
I think I said that this year once in this pulpit. I don't prefer Moncton at all. But that's we're closer to there. So just pray for us.
I appreciate it. So we're in Isaiah chapter 40. Look at the last three words of verse 9. Let's say the last three words together, verse 9, collectively on the count of 3.
1, 2, 3. Behold, you're God. I don't know if you'd have to think about it. I don't even know in the last time.
I think it must have been in May or June. What do you think about when you think about God? Mr. A.W.
Tozer said this, the most important thing about you is what comes into your mind when you think of God. If I would have mentioned the word God to you immediately, something pops into your brain. And I'm reminded of a meme that a friend of mine put on Facebook once. And I used it as a theme.
This past summer, I thought, I guess it was the last summer. I taught the teens at Arrowhead and Native Bible camp. And God is not who you think he is. God is who he says he is.
Because there are people today that believe that Heavenly Father used to be just like you and me. And he was so awesome and so holy and so obedient that when he died, he was elevated to a position of Godhood. And his name was Elohim. And that's exactly what the Mormons teach.
That, I can't actually think of a harsher blasphemy than what I just said. That is completely unbelievable. There are people that teach. There are people that teach that the first thing that Jehovah did was create Jesus Christ.
Before he did anything. Before he even said, let there be light, he created Jesus Christ. If friends of Jesus Christ is a created being, then his blood means absolutely nothing. Because Acts 20 verse 28 says that the blood that was shed was God's blood.
So it's very important that we establish who we're talking about through the Word of God. I know that's pretty basic, it's like, the curse obviously. But you'll be amazed, even as I travel around evangelical churches and I talk to people and they tell me what God is like. And I wonder if they're talking about the same God.
Like they pray as if God is kind of handcuffed and he's kind of old and he's kind of decrepit and he's kind of out of touch with reality. And I'm thinking surely we can't be talking about the same God. By the way, I just realized that I forgot in my introduction to read a letter from my son. I'm not going to read it now because I'm into the message.
Kyle is taking a year internship with Northern Canada Evangel Commission. He's working starting in a couple of weeks for a whole year with NCM at Arrowhead Need a Bible Camp where he's been very faithful for the last several years. So I meant to read you something that he wanted me to read to you and I completely forgot. So if you didn't get the email and some of you have already told me that you have, if you didn't get the email from Kyle and you'd like to get it, you could come see me after.
And I will forward that email onto you. Because now that I've started the message, I think this is far more important. But I did want to kind of mention that. Tell me what you think of God, once the allogians said.
And I will tell you what is the direction and the trajectory of your life. High views of God ultimately leads, a high view of God ultimately leads to high worship and high and holy living. While low views of God lead to trivial worship, manipulative evangelism, everything in one way or another hinges upon your understanding of who God is. God is that important.
Question, how big is the God that you serve today? How big is the God that you serve today? You say, Kirk, I'm going through some trials, man. I'm going through some difficult, you wouldn't believe.
You wouldn't believe some of the things that happened to me over the last couple months. Maybe I wouldn't. But my question is, is your God bigger than your circumstances? Sometimes we can be careful.
We can buy into this philosophy and this mindset that God is somehow, you know, he's just not quite as sharp as it used to be. At one time he did amazing things, but now, you know, it's been a long time. I would strongly encourage you to abandon those thoughts. And we have a tendency to do that.
We have a tendency, if we're sons and daughters of Adam, which everybody is, we have a tendency to elevate ourselves and we have a tendency without even realizing it to drop God down. And if we're not careful, we can fool ourselves into thinking that the gap between us and God is really all not that significant. But the Bible says he must increase and I must decrease, right? John chapter 3 verse 30.
So the goal really is very simple. The goal is to widen that gap as far as I can this morning through the Word of God. Verses like Isaiah 55, for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are his thoughts. Higher than our thoughts and his ways and our ways.
Do you believe that this morning? No, I'm going to go a little quickly through the verses 12, 13, 14, because we covered him last time I was here. I drew your attention to verse 12, his infinite power. Who has, who, question, who has measured the waters in the hall of his hand?
There's a little bit of space there in your hand and if you can go home and measure how much water you can hold in there. It's actually not that much, really. But the Bible says all of the waters, plural, are in the hall of his hand. They say, how much does the Atlantic Ocean weigh do you think?
A lot. God says, yeah, it's not right there. Not a big deal. Who, check it out.
Who has meted out or who has stretched out the heavens with a span? This particular galaxy called the Milky Way, they figure is about 100 million light years in diameter. And there are, they're best gas and I think it is a gas. There's 100 billion galaxies just like, well, not just like, but similar to this one.
100 million light years, that's, a light year is a distance, is a distance. It's not like, you know, you can measure it in meters and kilometers. Like, you got to go how far you can go in a year traveling at 300,000 kilometers per second. That's a significant distance.
And it's a ticket about 100,000 years traveling to be like just to get across the Milky Way from one end to the other. And they think there's probably 100 billion other ones. I wouldn't be surprised if in the next 20 to 50 to 100 years we find out that that number is puny compared to what's really out there. The Bible says that God, he meets out all of it.
Yeah, it's about like that to him. It's not a big, it's not a real big deal. By the way, why did he make the universe so vast and so astounding and so incredible and so mind-numbing? I think the primary reason, there'd be several reasons, but one of them would be to show us that he stands outside of it.
He's the one who created it, that he's far more incredible and amazing than you could even imagine. That's why he made the universe as impressive as he did and so vast as he did and so incredible as he did, to show us that nothing is too hard for him. Verse 12 points us to his infinite power. He has, who has comprehended or counted the dust of the earth in a measure?
How many dust particles you think are on this planet? To him he's got it like, he can put it on a little scale, it's not a big deal for him. And who has weighed the mountains and scales and the hills in a balance? Friends, I'm here to tell you this morning, just as a friendly reminder that God is all powerful.
Do you believe that this morning? We have a tendency to think, man, maybe, well Kirk, did you forget about the tsunami? Listen to the way Christians talk when a tsunami hits. You think that God was kind of napping?
Or God, you know, sometimes even here this, you know, God allowed it. Really? Like God was kind of like handcuffed? Okay, not at the last second.
You think there's one molecule, one H2O molecule on this planet that is not, that has power more than God does? Let's be careful friends. Let's not forget. We have a tendency to forget history.
Let's not forget that God, people call it Noah's flood. It wasn't really Noah's flood. It was, who's flood? There's God's flood.
No, it didn't flood the world. Noah didn't kill every, everything that had the breath of life and its nostrils, the Bible said, died, except for those who were in the ark. Let's not forget that that was an act of God and that was the will of God. And somehow we think that God, you know, maybe, you know, maybe he messed up or he was supposed to just be a little wave, but it turned into a big wave or something like that.
Friends, God is huge. God is amazing. God is all powerful. I shared with you the last time I was here just to jog your memory.
Those songs, the hymn writers got this, right? The hymn writers got this because when we open our hymn books and we say we don't go, a tiny fortress is our God. Right? What, how do we sing that?
Does he, what fortress? My team. You don't think that the hymn writer had been reading Isaiah chapter 40 or, how mediocre thou art? Is that how it goes?
No, it goes how what? How great. Now it's right now. No prayer, ladies and gentlemen, is too hard for God to answer.
No circumstances too hard for God to overturn. No obstacle is too difficult for God to remove. No door is too hard for our God to open. No heart is too hard for our God to humble.
And no soil, no soul is too wretched for our God to save. Do you believe that? Amen. Well, I went fast through verse 12 and I'm going to do the same with verses 13 and 14 because I do want to get to the end of the chapter.
Not only his infinite power, we praise God for his infinite power, but look at verses 13 and 14. We praise him for his inscrutable wisdom. Who has directed the spirit of our Lord or being his counselor? He taught him question mark.
With whom? Took he counseled and who instructed him and taught him in the path of judgment and taught him knowledge and showed to him the way of understanding. Now it's one thing friends to have power and to have great power. It's another thing to combine it with wisdom.
You've seen examples in history of people with power and no wisdom and it can be catastrophic. Right? God has never learned a single thing. I learned stuff almost every day.
I think, oh, that never even occurred to me. I was sitting here talking with Brian yesterday in his living room and all of a sudden I learned something new. I was like, oh, I never saw it from that angle before. That happens to me pretty much every day.
That's never happened to God. God's never gone. Oh, yeah. Actually, if you, okay.
I see that now. That's never happened to where God. He knows it all and he balances it with perfect wisdom. To whom?
Did God consult? If you want a little side study, you can read Isaiah, Job. And God starts asking Job some questions. I think there's quite a few questions, like 70-some questions toward the end of the book.
And like a wise man, Job does this. He doesn't answer the Lord. Lord, wherever you, Job, when I laid the springs in the seas, scientists just found springs in the seas less than 100 years ago. And God said thousands of years ago that they were there.
I don't know about you, but I'm very thankful that not only is God, I have infinite power of verse 12, but he's got inscriptable wisdom. He's got wisdom, young wisdom. And if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask God. James chapter 1 verse 5, who gives to all men liberally and evaporated not.
We also talked last time I was here, verses 15-20, his immense glory. His immense glory, the glory of God is a whole subject in and of itself. Behold, the nations, plural, nations are as a drop of a bucket. All of the glory of all of the nations throughout all of history are like a drop in a bucket to God.
And they are counted as a small dust of the balance. He takes the islands up as a very little thing. The Lebanon is not sufficient to burn nor the beasts are sufficient for a burn offering. If you're going to be offering Old Testament sacrifices like they were in Isaiah's day, when you see Lebanon, it's usually a reference to the cedar trees of Lebanon.
They've even got it on their national flag. They're very famous for their cedar trees. If you're going to make a burn offering and you're going to use cedar trees, well, you could use all of Lebanon. That's not sufficient to burn.
And you could take all of the beasts and for these sacrifices, you're never going to come close. And then a very powerful verse. Oh, by the way, verse 69, almost missed it. All nations before him are as nothing and are counted to him as less than nothing.
How do you get less than nothing? Have you stopped to think about that? I don't know how you can get less than nothing, but apparently the nations are as less than nothing to him. Somebody approached, somebody approached G.
Campbell Morgan. I think I used the illustration last time I was here. Little old lady, he was preaching on prayer. And little old lady comes up to Mr.
G. Campbell Morgan after the sermon and she said, Mr. Morgan, can I pray to God about little things in my life? Or do I only have to pray to God about the big things in my life?
Does anybody remember what G. Campbell Morgan answered? I think I shared it last time I was here. This is what G.
Campbell Morgan said to her, ma'am, everything in your life is little to God. Just by asking the question, she thought that some things might be too big for God. And the answer was, everything in your life is little to God. Actually, let me quote him.
I don't want to miss quote him here. He said, dear woman, everything in your life is little to God. There is nothing in your life that is big to God. Like all of the islands are as a very little thing.
Like, you know, how much does Australia weigh? And he's got it like a marble. It's not a big deal. We need to think this way, friends.
We need to expend. We need to allow God through his word to show us just how majestic, just how incredible he is. Because look at verse 18. Verse 18 has been in the Bible for a long time.
To whom will you liken God? And to what likeness will you compare to him? You know what? I've heard people do this.
I've heard people say, well, God is kind of like water, boys and girls. You've got the liquid and ice and you've got the vapor. You know, three and one. Don't compare God to water.
The Bible says to whom? He's kind of like an egg. You know, you've got the shell and the white stuff and the yolk and you've got the yolk. No, please don't compare God to an egg.
The Bible says, don't do that. To whom will you liken God? You can't liken the creation to the Creator. It's not even, I can't even think of an illustration compared to because it's just so ridiculous.
We need to be careful, friends. It's actually repeated in verse 25. Almost word for word. It's even implied as a question.
There's no answer given because the answer is rhetorical. You can't liken God to anything. How can you liken the creation to the Creator? The workman melts a graven image.
Verse 19. This is idolatry. It's been around. The workman melts a graven image and the goldsmiths res it over the gold and the cast.
Silver chains and it's so impoverished, he has no ablation. He chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks for himself a cunning workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved. This has been going on for millennia.
People create images and then they worship the image. This thing's got ears, it's got a face, but it can't see. It's got lips, but it can't talk. You read Romans chapter 1.
We tend to worship the creation over the Creator. We tend to love the Christmas gift more than the one who gave us the Christmas gift. It's just human nature. Do not lower the greatness of God in your minds, friends.
Be careful not to fall into the trap of making an idol. That's what Tobit tozer said, the essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts of God that are unworthy of Him. Isaiah, being led to the Holy Spirit, pens these timeless words.
Not only does he see God in his infinite power. Verse 12. In his inscrutable wisdom, verses 13 and 14, and his immense glory, and verses 15 to 20. But look at verses 21 to 26.
Look at verses 21 to 26. We see as invincible sovereignty. Have you not known, question? Have you not heard?
The actually, the implication is yes, you have heard this. Yes, you do know this. This is not new information. By the way, they even know this too.
I used to, the verses debug me in Romans chapter one. I remember the first time I was studying and reading through the book of Romans and teaching it when I was a pastor at Son and I was Baptist Church. And even when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful. The Romans one, I think that's verse 21 or 21.
They, Paul talks about we and then they in Romans chapter one. The we as Christians, the they are on Christians. There's a distinct change in verse number 18 in the book of Romans chapter one. He starts talking about they, the first 16, 17 verses about we, the last verse from 18 on is about they.
And in that section, even when they knew God, and that bugged me, I thought, what do you mean? Unbelievers don't know God? As they did, they did the Christians. Oh, they know God, all right.
They know that God exists. But the Bible says also in Romans one that they suppress the truth and unrighteousness. Romans three, John three. This is the condemnation that men love darkness rather than light because their needs are evil.
And they're not gonna come to the light lest their deeds should be exposed and they be shown to be the filthy vile monsters as George Whitfield called them monsters of iniquity. By the way, in that we open our preachers, like we've known for quoting Whitfield and saying, you know, call them your monsters of iniquity. A lot of people don't realize in that same message what he called them monsters of iniquity. He says, if you will not wait for your souls, then I will wait for your souls for you.
And he put his head back and the history records will be wept for about 20 minutes in the open air for these souls of these people who couldn't even wait for their own souls. So next time you hear somebody talking about monsters of iniquity remind them that in the same sermon there were tears from Mr. Whitfield. Verse number 21, have you not understood?
Have you not understood from the foundation of the earth? They know there's a God, but they don't want God as God. There's a guy, his name was Walt, George Walt, he went to Nobel Prize, he taught at Harvard, he was not a fool or a stupid man. But he said this, he said, this is a paraphrase, but it's pretty close.
He said there are only two explanations to how this world got here, how life began. One is a spontaneous generation leading to evolution, the other is a special creative act of God. He said, he said, Louis Pasteur and others proved spontaneous generation impossible over 100 years ago, but that only leaves one option, which is a special creative act of God. I refuse to believe in God, so therefore I embrace that which is scientifically impossible.
This guy won a Nobel Prize, this guy taught at Harvard. He was not a stupid man, by any stretch. His IQ was most likely off the charts, but what is that? That's when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful.
He knew there's a God, but he doesn't want to answer to him, he doesn't want to humble himself, and there's the real rub, is it not? Verse 22, we see, look at verse 22 with me. Have you not known, have you not, sorry, yeah. It is he that sits upon the circle of the earth.
This is not only why the early Christians believed that the earth was actually a sphere, and they got laughed at like they were fools. What, the earth is, oh, tell us again, they're Bible boy, how the earth is a sphere. It's not flat, right? It's not flat.
So what about those people on the bottom of the earth when they fall off? People got mocked, people got mocked because they believed that verse. Like you're a stupid idiot if you don't believe the world is flat. That was the general rules, the science taught, that if you've traveled far enough in your boat, you might fall off, and who knows where you'd end up.
Those are the best scientists on the globe. We're talking that way, and mocking Christians, and the Christians are going, well, I do have verse 22 and Isaiah chapter 40, and the Christians are saying, I'll stand with God, even though I've never actually gone to the moon and looked at a picture of the globe and it's circular, but I'm going to stand with God, and Christians have been doing that for thousands of years. And thankfully, scientists are starting to catch up with the Bible. I'm going to be not this week, but next week, I think I have my plane ticket bought, so I think I'm going to be in Dallas, Texas at an evangelism summit.
And one of the speakers is Dr. Jason Lyle. I don't know if you guys, Dr. Jason Lyle's a PhD scientist, he's astrophysicist, he's a very intelligent man, and he also does evangelism.
And I'm going to ask him, you know, what's the, if I get a chance, it's probably going to be hard to get him one on one or one or two or whatever. I'm going to ask him, what are the latest theories as to time space travel? I know Dr. Humphries has come up with some good stuff, and some different guys have their theories on how, you know, that's the number one thing I hear on the streets is, oh, we know that the world has to be billions of years old, because how would the light from those stars that are billions of years old get here?
And there's different theories, I know there's a relationship between, I think it's been pretty much proven now that the speed of light is not a constant thing. And I don't, this wasn't meant to get down that road because there's people in the room that know a lot more about this than I do, but I do know they have taken an atomic clock at sea level and put it on a high mountain, and there's a slight variation in the time, not much, but it's there. So I'm hoping to talk to him, and maybe you can point me to some good links, or email me some links, talk about, you know, I don't think science, maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think science quite understands that the relationship between time and distance and light, that doesn't bother me, that doesn't bother me. It's one day science will catch up to the Bible, just like verse number 22.
It is he that sits upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof, as grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like as a curtain, and he spreads him out as a tent to dwell in. Friends never forget that God, God is outside of creation in the sense that he rules over it, and look at this, look at verse 23, he brings the princes to nothing, he makes the judges of the earth as vanity. If God so chose, he could, he could, if God so chose, he could have Justin Trudeau on the ground, on his hands and knees, eating grass like an ox this afternoon, if he wanted to do that.
And while he doesn't sometimes surprises me, I'll be honest with you, I'm being honest, I'm being honest, did he not take Nebuchadnezzar and do the Viseri same thing? How long was Nebuchadnezzar eating grass like an ox friends? Seven years, seven years. And then God spoke a word, and it changed, and he got his senses back, and he recognized that the only reason he got anything from God was his great kindness and his great mercy, and he recognized God for who he was for the first time.
By the way, God can do that, not just to Justin Trudeau, he can do that to anybody he wants at any time for whatever purpose he wants. He doesn't need our permission. Verse 24, yeah, they have planted, yeah, they have not sown, their stock will not take root in the earth, and he shall, and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the world wins, he'll take them as a sown. Do you know what Irma is to God?
Do you know what Irma is? People are like, whoa, that's a big hurricane, yeah. They said, you ever take a dandelion in the spring and go, that's Irma to God. I mean, Irma, even though, please understand, is it awful?
I've heard there's parts of the Philippines that may never, ever get electricity again. It was hit so bad. So am I here to demean the plight of our brothers and sisters, and even unsay people in these countries? No, I'm not.
But I'm here to say that the way that people have been talking, you think that Irma somehow had a leg up on God. And not just Irma, there were three or four of them, right? Are these tremendous hurricanes? The Bible says, and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.
I have a friend who drove unknowingly, he said, what's that? And anyway, he was driving past the tornado. And he thought there was pieces of debris, like shingles floating around. Those are trees and cars going around.
He just once he realized what he was seeing, he's from Canada, and he was in the States, and he got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, and thankful he lived. He said, Kirk, I can't even describe it to you. There's not even words to describe what I saw in the immense power. That would be kind of like God just blowing a dandelion, not a big deal.
There's that warning again, to whom, verse 25, she'll liken me, or shall I be equal, says the holy one. And then last but not least, his inexhaustible grace. Like, I guess you could have ended the chapter. The whole spirit could have ended at verse 26.
It would have been an amazing chapter. It would be a glorious chapter. It would be a reason to praise him for his infinite power and for his inscrutable wisdom and for his immense glory and for his invincible sovereignty. Be like, wow, thank you, God.
You're so awesome. You're so amazing. But, of course, there's this inexhaustible grace. Look at verse 27, why do you say, oh Jacob, oh Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from God.
Give or stop, give or think that way, give or say, why does not God know? He's so powerful, and he's all knowing how his God forgotten about me. How has God forgotten about my family? Does he not know?
Does he not know what unemployment is? Does he not know what physical pain is? Does he not know what death is? I got a call last night at about 11 o'clock, and one of my best friends, his father-in-law died.
His name is Ross Allen. Maybe you knew him from Truro. He was a Gideon. And he passed into the presence of God last night, and there's a family hurting.
Not hurting. They don't have no hope, obviously. They don't sorrows those who have no hope, because Ross knew the Lord to thank the Lord. But we have a tendency in our situations and in our plates, and say, God, how could you let this happen?
If I had a literally without exaggerating, if I had a quarter for everybody that turned their back on God, because God didn't line up with how they planned out their life to go, I could probably buy a used vehicle this afternoon with all those quarters. I'm not kidding you. It's like the idea is that God blew it. God, we had a deal.
I was going to love you and serve you, and trust you, and follow you, and obey you. And you let my sister get killed in that car accident. And you let my little girl die of cancer. And you let my mom die way too young.
And there's a million stories out there just like that. And maybe you've lived some of those stories. And the idea is, verse 27, that my way is hid from the Lord. Like God apparently knows everything, but he must have blown it this time.
The hot, this is the newest thing coming down to pipe and atheism, and the Batman versus Superman, even put it in a movie, it says, if God is good, he can't be all loving. And if he's all loving, he can't be all good. That's very popular. If you have somebody, a relative, a child, or a grandchild, go into university, or go into some kind of a secular, non-theistic, humanistic education system, there's a pretty good chance that they actually believe that if God is good, he is not all loving.
And if he is all loving, then he's certainly not good. Because you certainly can't be both good and loving, and all powerful, all at the same time with all of the stuff that's going on in the world. Well, if there wasn't a fall, if there wasn't a fall in Genesis 3, they actually might have a point. But what they failed to recognize is that man was handed a perfect world, and man rebelled against God, and death passed upon all men for that all are sinned.
Not only was Adam cursed, not only was Eve cursed in Genesis 3, not only was the serpent cursed, but what was the fourth thing that was cursed, do you remember? In Genesis 3, cursed is the ground, for your sake. Even the ground is cursed. Even the ground is cursed.
And so this is part of the reason why we're still seeing the aftershocks of this global catastrophe called the flood and earthquakes and tsunamis. And it's just if there was no fall, there wouldn't be. There would be no death. And that would have changed this world dramatically, dramatically.
But his inexhaustible grace. By the way, these people, Isaiah's writing to people. The people in Isaiah's day needed a fresh reminder of who God was because this was written in a day in which the Assyrian empire is threatening the Northern Kingdom, and soon the Babylonian empire will rise up against the Southern empire, and they will be carted off for 70 years of captivity. They would need to recapture an extraordinary view of God.
And my friends, I'm not here to trivialize or minimize what you're going through, but I am here to say that God has not forgotten about you, and God has not ceased to be sovereign when the calendar year turned to 2017. God is still on his throne, and all things literally do work together for good to those that love God, to those that are called according to his purpose. Look at verse 28, have you not known? Have you not heard?
Yes, you have. That the everlasting God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, he neither feints nor is weary. I love this verse. I'm getting, try not to laugh.
I'm getting older. And I'm starting to realize, even though I'm only 46 years old, that I'm not 26 years old anymore. And some of you are like 66 and 76 years old. Listen to this, give me a break.
You don't have a sweet cluke, okay, well, that's probably right, you're probably right. I will give you the fact that I probably shouldn't even be saying this because it's so minuscule. But the fact of the matter is, I, I, verse 28, I faint and I get weary. Do you faint and get weary?
You say, Kirk, you got no clue, man. The young people, actually I could see the faces. The young people off my right of all, they're going, oh, you wait. I faint and I get weary.
Especially when I'm standing on concrete for hours and hours and hours on end. The old, everything from here down just starts seizing up and it's tough and it's tough sometimes, especially in the cold. Have you not heard, no, have you not heard the everlasting God, the creator, the ends of the earth, not just the earth, but the ends of the earth. Everything that's out there was created by God.
He neither faints nor gets weary. Oh, thank you, God. There is no searching of his understanding. There's no searching.
He's just told us and at the end of it all, he says, by the way, there's no searching of this. This is just too amazing for words. He gives, oh, I love verse 29. He gives power to the faint and to them that have no might, he increases strength.
Are you thankful for verse 29 friends? Oh, how many times have you turned your Bible in verse 29? Next time you need strength, you maybe just claim this verse. Go to Isaiah before you can even get out of bed in the morning.
He's like, oh, Lord, I'm going to need strength just to get out of bed this morning. Give me strength. He gives strength to the faint and to them that have no might, he increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary.
And the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait on the Lord. Or some of your Bible say, hope, right? They that hope in the Lord. Friends, where is your hope this morning?
Please don't put your hope in anything down here. Second Corinthians 4, verse 18 says, the things which are seen are temporal. The things which are not seen are eternal. Put your hope in the things that are not seen.
It's possible that you're here today. And you're like, you're not even a Christian. You're just here because you're kind of expected to be. You're just putting in your appearance to, I don't know, to say face for whatever reason.
I don't know. There could be many, one of various reasons why you're in this place on a Sunday morning. But I want to encourage you today. I've been speaking primarily to Christians.
But if you're here today and you're not a Christian, you're a stranger to repentance. You've never repented of a single thing in your entire existence. You don't even really know what the word means, because you're a stranger to repentance. You really don't have faith.
And the Bible says, the time has fulfilled the kingdom of God as a hand, repent, and believe the gospel. That's what Jesus said in Mark, chapter 1, Acts 20, verse 21, testify in both of the Jews and also to the Greeks, repent and store God in faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. If you're here today and you don't know Christ as Savior, let me tell you friends that it's amazing as we were singing that song boldly I approach. I often try to put myself in different scenarios.
Like, imagine singing that song 3000 years ago. Boldly I approach, boldly you're gonna approach God. Wait, is this a joke? You can't boldly approach God.
Who do you think you are? Oh no, it's not who I think I am. It's who I know Christ is. And because Christ literally as Jesus shed his blood, as Jesus gave up the ghost and the veil was rent from top to bottom and all believer priests, all police from that moment on had access to the throne of God.
We can say boldly I approach not because of who I am, but because of who he is and because of what he has done in my behalf. If you had sung that song 3000 years ago, you probably get, somebody would probably accuse you of blasphemy. But because Jesus died was buried rose again. And he took your payment on himself and he knew no sin was made to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God and him friends, that changes everything.
And you can actually come to God today, broken, vile, wretched, sinful, and say God please accept me on the basis of who Jesus Christ is and on the basis of what Jesus Christ did on that cross. And the Bible says if you confess your sins, I'm thinking of Romans 10 verse nine. If you confess whether I'm out to the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. There's no reason to walk out of this building lost.
Come to Christ today and be saved friends. And for those of you who are saved, and you may I encourage you to hope and to wait on the Lord. Cause those that wait on the Lord and hope on the Lord, verse 31 will renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles.
They shall run and they shall not be weary and they shall walk and they shall not wait. Let's pray. Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord for this chapter.
Thank you Lord that you are King of kings and Lord of lords. And there is a very real sense that every preacher who's ever preached Isaiah 40 knows that he, well he's come short because words don't really even begin to give justice to how amazing and how majestic and how incredible you are. Well thank you for your power, for your wisdom, for your glory, for your sovereignty, and for your grace all found in this incredible chapter. God, we recognize that you must increase and we must decrease.
Forgive us Lord for getting it backwards. Romans 12, three tells us not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. We do that pretty much every day. And in the process we unknowingly bring you down.
We ask for forgiveness for this Lord. Lord help us to never forget just how high and how holy and majestic and awesome you are. And forgive us when we, when we just tend to think that our circumstances are hid from you. And we tend to think that we can pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and do it ourselves Lord.
He that comes to God must believe that he is and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. So God, if there's anybody unsaved in the room, make today be the day of their salvation, may they turn from their sins and put their faith. And the one who died was buried and rose again for them. Thank you that the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
We beheld his glory the glory of the glory and we got another Father full of grace and truth. And for your people here this morning, use this chapter to strengthen and edify and encourage us because it's very possible that we're gonna go through some real deep valleys this week, some real deep valleys that we don't even know that are coming, but you do. Maybe T.S. maybe October is gonna be the hardest month of our entire life.
We don't know, but we do know the one who knows all about it, the one who can comfort and strength and help and guide us and provide for us. God continue to do this for your glory's sake. We love you. We pray in Jesus precious name.
Amen.