The sermon, titled 'Christ Our Comfort; Christ Our Hope' by Mike Davenport, focuses on Isaiah 51:1-16 and centers on Christ as the source of comfort, hope, righteousness, and salvation. It highlights the importance of looking back to the origins of faith, symbolized by the rock from which believers were hewn, emphasizing Abraham's faith and God's promises. The sermon underscores that Christ enriches His people through the Holy Spirit, providing comfort, peace, and joy. It discusses the provision of eternal salvation and righteousness, contrasting the temporary nature of the world with the eternal nature of God's promises. The sermon addresses the challenges of fear, forgetfulness, and fretting, urging believers to trust in God's strength and promises. It emphasizes the need for the church to listen to Christ and fulfill the commission to proclaim His word. The sermon calls for repentance, faith, and reliance on Christ's sufficiency, urging believers to find comfort in their identity as God's chosen people and their role in His divine plan.

Go ahead and take your copies of scripture and turn to Isaiah 51. The text for this morning is Isaiah 51 1 through 16. Listen to me you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the Lord. Look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the hole of the pit from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you, For I called him alone and blessed him and increased him For the Lord will comfort Zion.

He will comfort all her waste places He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the Garden of the Lord joy and gladness will be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. Listen to me my people and give ear to me, oh my nation, for law will proceed from me and I will make my justice rest as a light of the peoples for my righteousness is near my salvation has gone forth and my arms will judge the peoples the coast lands will wait upon me and on my arm they will trust Lift up your eyes to the heavens and look on the earth beneath For the heavens will vanish away like smoke The earth will grow old like a garment and those who dwell in it will die in like manner But my salvation will be forever and my righteousness will not be abolished. Listen to me, you who know righteousness, you people in whose heart is my law. Do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their insults, for the moth will eat them up like a garment and the worm will eat them like wool but my righteousness will be forever and my salvation from generation to generation awake awake put on strength Oh arm of the Lord Awake is in the ancient of days, in the generations of old.

Are not the arm that cut Rahab apart and wounded the serpent? Are you not the one who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, that made the depths of the sea erode, for the redeemed to cross over? So the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

I even I am he who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of man who will die and of the Son of Man who will be made like grass. And you forget the Lord your Maker, who stretched out the heaven and laid the foundations of the earth. You have feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor when he is prepared to destroy. And where is the fury of the oppressor?

The captive exile hastens that he may be loosed, that he should not die in the pit, that his bread should not fail. But I am the Lord your God, who divided the sea whose waves roared the Lord of hosts is his name and I have put my words in your mouth I have covered you with a shadow of my hand that I may plant the heavens lay the foundations of the earth and say to Zion you are my people. Let's pray. Lord of hosts we thank you that your word is read. Lord now let it be declared in teaching.

I pray Lord that you would not help us, that you would help us not forget our sins Lord, that we would look to you, that we'd look to your spirit for guidance, that you would help us to repent, that we would give you glory in our heart as we hear this morning. In your name we pray, amen. Well today we return once again to the stage that is set before us. And for the sake of those who may be visiting with us today, just to kind of give you a context of where we are. Having allowed us, as it were, back in chapter 49, to eavesdrop on a holy and heavenly conversation between God the Father and God the Son regarding their intention, their purpose to save a people, Isaiah concludes that section of chapter 49 with the following exhortation, sing, O heavens, Be joyful, O earth, and break out in singing, O mountains, for the Lord has comforted His people and will have mercy on His afflicted." But Sadly, the very next verse in chapter 49 shows that the people of Zion are without joy.

They are without singing. They are unable to comprehend or receive the message of comfort. They are ready to blame God for their circumstances, the circumstances that they find themselves in as captives in Babylon. In this condition, they bring an accusation against God. But Zion said, the Lord has forsaken me and my Lord has forgotten me.

We are so self-absorbed. We feel and respond to all that is happening around us as if everything revolves around us. We are ruled so often by our circumstances. We judge our condition based on where God is in relation to us, not where we are in relation to Him. They say, the Lord has forsaken me.

My Lord, my God has forgotten me. But our gracious, long-suffering Savior does not leave His sheep wandering in their confusion, distress, doubts, and misery. And starting in chapter 49 verse 15, he begins four chapters of dialogue to recalibrate his people's thinking about his person, about his work, and about His church. What they need most is to behold their God. What they need is the proclamation of A glorious servant, a submissive servant, a suffering servant.

And that's what we saw last week in Isaiah chapter 50. The Father sets before us that glorious, submissive, and suffering servant. And what a stark contrast is drawn between this complaining people and their suffering Savior. Their accusation is that they have been forsaken by their God, and they hadn't. But the suffering servant, he truly was forsaken by God on the cross.

They are in the situation they are in because of their sins, but as we saw last week, Christ was in the situation He was in, not due to sins of His own, but the sins of His people. Though these people are not in total darkness, they are without hope, but as we saw last week, Christ walked in total darkness yet he hoped in God these people having received the Word of God they rebelled but the suffering servant, having received the Word of God, he submits. And having not listened, they grow weary. But he, having listened, is equipped with the word for the weary. And so as we come here today to chapter 51, I propose to you that we have a continuation of the words of Messiah that began in the previous chapter.

We find in the text before us today what I think truly is a word in season to Him who is weary. We have before us words of comfort, a promise of comfort, a promise of righteousness, a promise of peace, and a promise of joy. Promises to those who considered themselves forsaken and forgotten. It is the comforting words of our Savior. Now the opening words of our text are, listen to me.

Listen to me. In fact, in our passage this morning, we are told to listen and look several times. Here in verse 1, listen to me. Then also in verse 1, look to the rock, look to Abraham. Then again in verse 4, listen to me.

Then in verse 6, lift up your eyes and look and then in verse 7 again listen to me. Why ought we to listen? Well first because this word is from him who has the tongue of the learned." He said that back in verse 4 of the previous chapter, the Lord has given me the tongue of the learned. That's why we should listen. But secondly, since it is from him who has the tongue of the learned, it is a word in season.

It supplies the want of him who is weary." There again, back in verse 4, that I should know how to speak a word in season to Him who is weary. Thirdly, fearing God is tied directly to obeying the voice of Christ. Look back at 50 verse 10. Who among you fears the Lord? Who obeys the voice of his servant?

So to listen to Christ is to fear the Lord. And then lastly, unopened ears are a mark of rebellion. Look back at verse 5 of chapter 50, the Lord God has opened my ear and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away. So why should we listen? Because an unopened ear is a sign of rebellion.

Well, who here is called to listen? Who is called to listen? To whom are these exhortations to listen given? Well, it is definitely not the hearers addressed back at the start of chapter 48. Those hearers were described in the following way, who are called by the name of Israel and have come forth from the wellsprings of Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth or in righteousness, for they call themselves after the Holy City and lean on the God of Israel." But with each exhortation to listen in this passage before us today, the hearers are described in a much different manner than that.

In verse one, the hearers are described by what they do. In verse 4, they are described by who they are, and in verse 7, they are described by what they possess. So first of all, the audience described by what they do here in verse 1, you who follow after righteousness. That's who he says, listen to me, you who follow after righteousness. Now the Hebrew word here, follow, is to pursue or persecute.

So this Hebrew root, think of it as the two Saul's, the Saul of the Old Testament and the Saul of the New Testament. Think of King Saul pursuing David throughout the wilderness. And in the New Testament, think of Saul of Tarsus as he pursues those who follow after Christ before God converts him to persecute them. It's that kind of pursuit, that kind of pursuit after righteousness. But also he says, you who seek the Lord.

The Hebrew root word here is to seek in order to find, to seek in order to secure, to seek the face content with nothing less. And so we see here this pursuing of righteousness and seeking of the Lord. Righteousness cannot be had apart from Christ. A pursuit of the Lord is a pursuit of righteousness. And as you cannot have righteousness apart from Christ, neither can you have Christ apart from righteousness.

And the psalmist says in 24-6, this is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, who seek your face. But then in verse 4 we see the audience described by who they are. Not just what they do, but who they are. He says, listen to me, my people, and give ear to me, O my nation. The Hebrew word here for people can be translated and is often kinsman.

Listen to me my kinsman. And the word nation is from an unused root meaning to gather, to gather, hence my gathered ones. And so to be his people requires to be gathered in. It requires a movement from where you are alienated from him to where you are gathered in Him. It is to find yourself under Him who is a banner to the nations.

The ones whom He is addressing here are those who cry out like we saw back in Isaiah 2-3, come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. But we also see this audience described by what they possess. What they possess. Verse 7. So you who know righteousness, you people in whose heart is my law.

So we see that true recognition and understanding of righteousness as well as whole-souled embracing of that righteousness." Let me say that again. We see true recognition and understanding of righteousness as well as whole-souled embracing of that righteousness. Quoting from Isaiah 2-3, again, these people are saying, He will teach us His ways and we shall walk in His paths." So this is who Christ is speaking to, who He says to, listen to me. So this is the path that lies before us, God helping us this morning. We will see first from verses 1 and 2, Christ the one who calls.

Then from verse 3, we shall see Christ the one who enriches. Verses 4 through 6, Christ the one who provides. Verses 7 through 8, Christ the one who preserves. Verses 9 through 11, Christ the one who redeems, verses 12 through 15 Christ the one who comforts, verse 16 Christ the one who commissions. And if we were to finish this chapter today I would propose to you the last section.

You would find Christ the one who pleads our calls. So verses 1 and 2. Christ the one who calls. Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the Lord, look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the hole of the pit from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you for I called him alone and blessed him and increased him." So having been instructed to give ear to the Word of Christ, the first thing we are told to do is to look back.

Look back. Note the condition from whence Christ has called. You think you are forsaken and forgotten? Have you forgotten? Have you forgotten where you came from?

Look back to that rock. You were hewn from a rock, an inanimate object. For you children, that means it just sits there. That rock doesn't do anything. It's an inanimate.

It's motionless. It sits there, unable to do anything, unable to produce anything. And you're not even the rock. You're hewn from the rock. You did not separate yourself from the rock.

You were hewn by the hands of another. Look back at that hole, at that pit. That was the hole from whence you were dug. Not from the side of some magnificent mountain, but from a pit. Your beginnings were meager.

True emptiness existed and you came from that state. Not dug out from a stockpile, but from a pit. And you did not even rise from the pit. You were dug out. But Christ here also draws attention to Abraham, the father of Israel, the father of the promise, the father of all who are in faith.

Abraham was called from the land of Ur. Do you know where Ur is located? It is located just south in Babylon along the Euphrates River. In many ways, Judah has gone, as it were, back to start. They're back almost in the very place from which Abraham was called.

In Isaiah 49-20, we read that Zion is barren and childless again. She has lost her children. The promised land is now far away and it lies desolate and Christ here says, look to Abraham, look to Sarah. They were hewn from this very rock. They were dug from this very pit.

Christ said, I called one man, one. I called Abraham alone. And the promise was that he would be the father of many nations and yet that promise did not come when expected. Years went by. Circumstances began to shout to Abraham, God has forsaken you.

He has forgotten you. That's what all the circumstances were shouting, but Abraham never let his circumstances dictate the state of his faith. Paul says this about Abraham and his faith in Romans 4, 18 to 21, who contrary to hope, in hope believed so that he became the father of many nations. According to what was spoken, so shall your descendants be. And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead since he was about a hundred years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb.

He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief but was strengthened in faith giving glory to God and being fully convinced that what he had promised he was able to perform. Christ is the one who calls. His church is the ecclesia, The called out ones. They are what they are by what His grace has made them to be. Christ has called.

Christ has hewn. Christ has dug. John Calvin in his commentary on Romans 4 verse 20 says, let us also remember that the condition of us all is the same with that of Abraham. Our circumstances are all in opposition to the promises of God. He promises us immortality, yet we are surrounded by mortality and corruption.

He declares that He accounts us just, Yet we are covered with sins. He testifies that he is propitious and benevolent toward us, yet outward signs threaten his wrath. What then are we to do? We must close our eyes, disregard ourselves and all things connected to us so that nothing may hinder or prevent us from believing that God is true. Christ the one who calls.

But verse 3, we see Christ the one who enriches. Christ the one who enriches. For The Lord will comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste places. He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord.

Joy and gladness will be found in it. Thanksgiving and the voice of melody. Christ is not only the one who calls but he is the one who enriches his people. Those who are called are blessed. The hewing and the digging of Christ have brought us out of the condition we were in and we have been brought into a better place, a new place, a blessed place.

You who are here this morning and have never come to Christ because you think that you do not want to miss out on the things, the pleasures of this world, Do not pity me. Do not pity the believers in this room. We are a people called and enriched. If you do pity us, pity us as you would the two-year-old only son of a king who finds such great delight in playing with the bird's feather though the entire kingdom is his inheritance because Christ is the one who enriches his people. Now the first thing he mentions here is comfort.

God will comfort Zion. He will bring comfort to those parts laid waste, those desolate places. And the second thing Christ promises is that He will make her wilderness like Eden. He will make her desert like the gardens of Jehovah. And thirdly, Christ says that he will fill Zion with joy and gladness and thanksgiving and singing.

Now as I studied these things, I couldn't keep my mind from running to the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the New Covenant. This enrichment here in our passage involves comfort, and Christ, in what has come to be called the upper rune discourse referred to the Holy Spirit as the paraclete that is the comforter And this enrichment we see in this verse involves fruitfulness, deserts, and desolate places becoming like the Garden of Eden. And we have seen earlier in Isaiah that it is God's provision of rivers and streams and pools in the deserted places that cause them to flourish like a garden. These rivers, streams, and pools. And if you recall, we looked at John chapter 7 verses 37 through 39 where Jesus describes the sending of the Holy Spirit as the flowing of the rivers of living water.

Also we see that the blessings of the Holy Spirit are indeed called fruit and we see some fruit mentioned here in our passage. Here is what the Garden of Jehovah, this spiritual Eden, will have for fruit, joy, gladness, thanksgiving, and singing. Paul tells us in Romans 14 17 that The kingdom of God is righteousness and joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. Recall the words of Isaiah back in chapter 32. People shall mourn upon their breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.

On the land of my people will come up thorns and briars, yes, on all the happy homes in the joyous city because the palaces will be forsaken, the bustling city will be deserted, the forts and towers will become layers forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks. Until, until the Spirit is poured out from on high and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field and the fruitful field is counted as a forest, the peace of God reigns. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. The work of righteousness will be peace and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings and in quiet resting places.

So truly an antidote against the sense that God has forsaken or forgotten us is to remember that Christ enriches His people and He enriches us with the Holy Spirit. Dear brothers and sisters, Christ calls you to listen to Him. He is the one who calls. He is the one who enriches. And now thirdly we see Christ the one who provides.

Christ the one who provides. Verses 4 through 6. Listen to me my people and give ear to me oh my nation for law will proceed from me and I will make my justice rest as a light of the peoples. My righteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth, and my arms will judge the peoples. The coastlands will wait upon me, and on my arm they will trust.

Lift up your eyes to the heavens and look on the earth beneath, For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, the earth will grow old like a garment, and those who dwell in it will die in like manner. But my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will not be abolished." You see where Christ has called He has promised to enrich, and where He has promised, He will provide. Our passage opened up with a description of a people who are pursuing righteousness and seeking the Lord and those who pursue and seek are not left wanting. The message of God for Judah in chapter 45 was, I have not spoken in secret in a dark place of the earth. I did not say to the seed of Jacob, seek me in vain.

I the Lord speak righteousness. I declare things that are right. Look to me and be saved all you ends of the earth. So Christ here states that with His coming to earth, law or instruction will proceed for Him. Justice will be established as a light for his people.

His righteousness will be near and salvation is at hand. Unto us is given the provision of a son, one upon whose shoulders shall rest the governing of his kingdom. Far from forsaking or forgetting us, he shall be to us Wonderful, a counselor, our mighty God, our covenant father forever, the prince of our peace. Of the increase of this government and peace there will be no end. And this is why he addresses them in this section as my people and my nation.

Christ here states that with his coming to earth, law or instruction will proceed from him. Justice will be established as a light for his people. And the promise was that he would order and establish his kingdom with justice and judgment from that time forward, even forever more. So we see here his arm ruling for him. We quoted once again this morning from Isaiah 53, to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

Here we see his arm ruling for him. The same arm that will judge the nations will uphold those who trust in that mighty arm. And what a comfort to know the strength and yet the gentleness of this arm. The arm that feeds the flock. The arm that carries and gathers the lambs.

That arm that holds the mountains in the scales and the hills in a balance. That arm that stretches out the heavens like a curtain. That hand even that holds the waters of the earth and the measures and measures the heavens and its spanned. This is the arm on which we rest. This is the arm on which we trust.

This is the arm which will provide an eternal salvation and a righteousness that will not be abolished or broken. The provision from Christ's own arm is not temporary. That which has been from the beginning, the very heavens and earth, which seem to be constant, which seem to be eternal, these will vanish, will grow old like a garment, and man will fare no better. Those dwelling in the earth will die in like manner. Christ asks his people to lift up their eyes and look, to behold, to ponder, to consider.

He is drawing a contrast and He selects the most seemingly sure and stable things around us. But Christ's provision of righteousness and of salvation? Eternal. Eternal. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1, 4 that according to his abundant mercy, he has provided an inheritance, an inheritance that is incorruptible, that is undefiled, and that does not fade away.

Christ draws our attention here in this passage to himself as the one who provides by calling them my salvation, My righteousness. And this eternal aspect of his salvation and righteousness flow out of who he is. The psalmist proclaims this in Psalm 102. He says, of old, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will endure.

Yes, they will all grow old like a garment, like a cloak. You will change them and they will be changed. But you are the same and your years will have no end. The children of your servants will continue and their descendants will be established before you. Why?

Because it's His salvation. It's His righteousness and it's forever and will not be abolished. But before leaving this point, please note that Christ's provision of salvation goes hand in hand with righteousness. There is no salvation without righteousness. Righteousness imputed and righteousness that is imparted.

Were that righteousness to be abolished and in the Hebrew that word abolished we have here is were it dismayed or broken in pieces, then his salvation would come to an end. But the righteousness of Christ procures our justification so that he may then work that righteousness into his justified by people whereby we become more and more conformed to the image of the Son of God. Fourth point, verses seven and eight. Christ the one who preserves. Christ the one who preserves.

Listen to me, you who know righteousness, you people in whose heart is my law. Do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their insults. For the mouth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool but my righteousness will be forever and my salvation from generation to generation." Isaiah was all too familiar with reproach and the insults of men. After all, he was preaching and writing to a people whose eyes had been blinded and whose ears had been stopped up. We should expect, we should even anticipate the reproach and insults of men.

If they persecuted our Savior whom they hated, will they do any less to His followers? Have we forgotten the truth that Paul shared with Timothy, that All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution? Have we redefined the meaning of blessedness set by Christ in Matthew 5 that we are blessed when men revile us, persecute us, and say all kinds of evil against us falsely? Have we refused to receive the exhortation of Peter in 1 Peter 4, 16 that if we suffer as a Christian, that we should glorify God in this matter. Have we shunned the example of the apostles who in Acts 5 rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ.

Well here again, Christ speaks with the tongue of the learned. He speaks of that which was his experience in chapter 50. He gave his back to those who struck him. He gave his cheek to those who plucked out the beard. He gave his face to shame and spitting of his creatures.

Yet, yet He knew that his God would preserve him. He says, for the Lord God will help me. We read on in chapter 50 last week that he was encompassed by adversaries, those who dared contend with him, those who dared even to condemn him. But again he says, surely The Lord God will help me. In fact, in the midst of this persecution, he says with confidence in his father that he is aware of the fact that his adversaries would grow old like a garment and would be eaten up by the moth.

Look back at verse 9, it's there. Surely the Lord God will help me. Who is he who will condemn me? Indeed they will all grow old like a garment. The moth will eat them up." Our Savior is here in our passage giving to us, giving to us here in verses 7 and 8, the very thing that he had learned from his father as he was awakened day by day by the fresh words of his Father.

But this is my fear, that we know nothing of the comfort found in the preserving work of Christ because we have failed to own His name as we should. We would rather glorify God on our terms and not his. We think ourselves worthy of better things than to bear his reproach and shame. We don't consider suffering for Christ as something in which to rejoice. And if we suffer, it is more likely due to our own sin, just as Judah's suffering was due to her own sin and not due to the cause of Christ.

And because of our propensity to suffer more like Judah, because of our sins, we like Judah are more apt to feel as though God has forsaken us and forgotten us. But if we were to enter into the suffering of our Savior we would glory and rejoice in the truth that Christ preserves His people. We would like Him confidently rest in the arms of our Father. And it was mentioned already in our service today, but God is now providing His church with an opportunity, a new opportunity to suffer for His sake, to be willing like our Savior to give ourselves to reproach and insults. A few days ago, the Supreme Court of these United States took it upon themselves to call evil good.

They have sought to break the bands of God asunder by redefining an institution of our God and by so doing they have passed down a ruling that will, as was prayed earlier, reveal the true spiritual state of individual churches and professing Christians. It will reveal whether they truly know righteousness. That's what these two verses were introduced by. Listen to me, you who know righteousness, you people in whose heart is my law. It will reveal whether they truly know righteousness.

It will reveal whether the law of God is truly in their heart and not only upon their lips. It will reveal whether they will listen to the God whom they say they serve, and it will reveal whether they are willing to suffer the reproaches of the Savior whom they claim. So here's the reason that we can rest in him. Our adversaries, which are his adversaries, will be eaten by the moth and worm. But we will Know and experience the everlasting nature of His righteousness and His salvation.

So as we stand before this ruling of the courts, know that we do not need to fear. We do not need to be afraid for the moth will eat them up like a garment and the worm will eat them like wool. But God's righteousness will be forever. His salvation from generation to generation. Oh beloved, let us rest in the truth that Christ is the one who preserves.

Let us commit ourselves to Him who preserves as we are directed in 1st Peter 419. Therefore, let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good as to a faithful creator. Number five, Christ the one who redeems. Christ the one who redeems, verses 9 through 11. Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord.

Awake, as in the ancient days and the generations of old. Are you not the arm that cut Rahab apart and wounded the serpent? Are you not the one who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, that made the depths of the sea a road for the redeemed to cross over. So the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness.

Sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Christ the one who redeems. Now our passage takes a very interesting turn here in these verses. From the opening verse of chapter 50 up through verse 8, it seems Christ has been speaking to his people. And it could be that he continues to speak.

I wrestled with this during the week. There are different ways to look at this passage, but I believe that here in these verses it seems to me that his weary people begin to experience the reality that his tongue is speaking a word in season. I believe that the previous weariness is giving way to renewed strength as they wait upon their God. Three times in verse 9 Zion seems to cry out to the Lord to awaken again his arm of salvation. Why is there suddenly a cry of God to awaken?

Why is there now such an awareness of the need for the redemption of God? Why is there such a longing to see the saving acts of God as exhibited in the ancient days in the generations of old? Where has God gone? Why is he not seemingly acting? Well the first question that we must ask ourselves, the very first question is do we feel the same passion to see the saving arm of the Lord revealed?

Do we cry out, awake, awake, awake, put on strength, oh arm of the Lord? Are we longing to see God's salvation in our families, in our church, and in our communities? Are we truly longing to see the ransomed of the Lord returning, coming to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. Do we long for sinners to obtain true joy and gladness, to experience the relief of the banishment of sorrow and sighing? Christ is the one who redeems.

Are we crying out for his redemption? But the second question that we must ask ourselves is if such Seeming inactivity on God's part is due to our estrangement from him. Is it due to our estrangement from him? Remember the words of Christ to the Jews of Jerusalem back in Matthew 23, 37, how often I wanted to gather your children together, but you were not willing. Or his words to the church at Laodicea in Revelation 420, behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will. I will. Are we listening? And one of the reasons that I tend to lean more towards the fact that this is a response from the church is notice the arguments, the arguments presented for awakening. Are you not the arm that cut Rahab apart and wounded the serpent?

Are you not the one who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep that made the depths of the sea erode for the redeemed to cross over?" And if you remember from back in chapter 30 in Isaiah, chapter 30 I believe, verse 7, there was another reference to a Rahab. And this is not the Rahab of Jericho, but it's a reference to Egypt. And that was the context that we saw that in back in chapter 30. And so this whole context, because you can see all around even this word, Rahab, the context of deliverance from Egypt. And so he's talking about awake as in the ancient days in the generations of old.

Now notice the arguments provided by God back in chapter 50 verses 2 & 3. Chapter 50 verses 2 & 3. Christ here says, why when I came was there no man? Why when I called was there none to answer? And here seems the same arguments.

Is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem or have I no power to deliver? Indeed with my rebuke I dry up the sea. I make the rivers a wilderness. Their fish stink because there is no water and die of thirst. And if you remember the cloud that separated the Egyptians from the Jews, he says, I clothe the heavens with blackness and I make sackcloth their covering.

And so it seems to me back in chapter 50 that the argument was I came and I found no man. There was none to answer. It's not because my arm is short and that it cannot redeem remember what I did in Egypt my arms not short where are you men where are you where's the answer and it just seems to me here you see it looks to me as a people saying awaken awake we do remember we do remember it's isn't it your arm that delivered from Egypt awaken as in days of old as in generations gone by awaken put on strength the arm of the Lord Because these people had forgotten. They said God had forgotten, they had forgotten. And so I believe we see how a word in season revives the weary heart.

And what does that revive the weary heart to do? Well, first of all, it's a remembrance of the past works of God. It's a remembrance of the past works of God. It's a remembrance of the past works of God, awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. There's a remembrance of these past works.

But this reviving of the weary heart also, it brings about a reminder of the power of our God. Here he says over and over, are you not? Are you not? There's a reminder of that power of God. And thirdly, I think it revives the heart to a return to the purposes of God.

A return to the purposes of God. So the ransomed of the Lord shall return. This is the purpose. Awake, awake. Put on strength, the alarm of God.

Oh weary one, Christ is the one who redeems. Do not forget the rock from which you were hewn, or the hole of the pit from which you were dug. Abraham was alone. He was one. Sarah was barren, past the age of being able to conceive.

His hand is not shortened that it cannot redeem. There is a hymn that says, Jesus, where'er thy people meet, there they behold thy mercy seat. Where'er they seek thee, thou art found, and every place is hallowed ground. For thou within no walls confined inhabitest the humble mind. Such ever bring you when, where they come, and going take thee to their home.

Here may we prove the power of prayer to strengthen faith and sweeten care to teach our faint desires to rise to cry out awaken and bring all heaven before our eyes. Lord, we are few, but thou art near, nor short thine arm, nor death thine ear. Oh, rend the heavens, come quickly down and make a thousand hearts thine own." So thus far we have seen that Christ is the one who calls, who enriches, who provides and preserves, and who redeems. Now sixthly we see verses 12 through 15, Christ the one who comforts. Christ the one who comforts.

I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die and of the son of a man who will be made like grass? And you forget the Lord your maker who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. You have feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor when he was prepared to destroy and where is the fury of the oppressor the captive exile hastens that he may be loosed that he should not die in the pit, and that his bread should not fall or fail. But I am the Lord your God, who divided the sea whose waves roared.

The Lord of hosts is His name." The accusation that God has forgotten or forsaken His people doesn't form out of thin air. It comes from the heart of a people who fail or refuse to listen to Christ and instead listen to their own heart Or to the boasting of the Ravshakas of the world, or to the whisperings of the evil one who said to Eve, has God really said? In these verses Christ speaks specifically to three typical responses that he finds in his people. And in revealing their hearts to them, he seeks to strip from them all that would keep their hearts from receiving his comfort. First, Christ addresses the fearful heart.

Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die and of the Son of man who will be made like grass. Skipping down the middle of verse 13, you have feared continually every day. So first Christ addresses the fearful heart. And The question he asks is not why. He doesn't ask why.

He knows why. Because of the fury of them who intend the harm. He says it down below. He knows why. But his question is who.

Who. Because it's not about what's out there. It's about who you are. Fear may be the right response of an unbeliever, but you? Who are you that you should fear?

How often we are like the people here of whom Christ said, you have feared continually every day. And the fear was due to the fury of men prepared, notice that word he uses here, prepared to destroy. We often fear that which never comes. It grips us. It takes our eyes off of God and the comfort that we can have in Him.

So Christ here asks them directly, and where now is that fury you so much feared? Where is it? Do not fear them. That can do nothing beyond destroying the body. Remember the nations are as a drop in the bucket in the sight of Him who fills the earth and the heavens.

They are counted as less than nothing in His sight. He will merely breathe and kindle such a blast that will consume them. Find comfort in the words of Christ. Do not Be afraid. But secondly, secondly here Christ addresses the forgetful heart.

Not just the fearful heart, but the forgetful heart. And you, verse 13, forget the Lord your maker who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. He says you have forgotten me. Remember that's how it all started right? They said God you have forsaken us you have forgotten us God says you're a people feared with forgetfulness you have forgotten me you have forgotten my power My brother and sister have you forgotten who your father is?

Have you forgotten? Oh what a forgetful people we can become. We are so quick to forget and to doubt. The psalmist says in a couple of places in God I have put my trust. I will not be afraid What can man do to me?

He did not forget his God He placed his trust in the Father even as Christ did and that is why God commissioned Isaiah as well as John the Baptist to say to the cities of Judah, behold your God. In beholding him we receive comfort. In beholding him we receive strength in which we can mount up with wings like the eagle. In beholding Him, the fear of man vanishes from our sight. Find comfort in the words of Christ.

Behold your God. Do not forget. But lastly, Christ addresses, I believe in verse 14, the fretful heart, not just the fearful or the forgetting, but the fretting heart. The captive exile hastens that he may be loosed, that he should not die in the pit, and that his bread should not fail. How often we feel that we must get ourselves out of the situations into which his providence has placed us.

And because of gripping fear and misplaced or weak faith, we feel as though it all depends on us. Our hearts that so often seek to convince us that we are forsaken, we are forgotten, they compel us to lean on the arm of flesh. In this condition, we look to ourselves for freedom. We look to ourselves for life. We look to ourselves for sustenance.

And that's why I think in this passage you see this exile hastening. He may be loosed. Can't die in this pit. My bread's gonna fail. I must do something.

Our souls are often disquieted within us. So we hasten. So we fret. We do not speak to our souls as the psalmist and say, hope in God. Hope in God.

Oh, brothers and sisters, be still. Be still and know that He is God. Do not fret. Christ says it only causes harm. And so Christ the one who comforts redirects our attention to himself, the great conjunction of contrast, but, stands right here before us.

Look at verse 15 after saying you are fearful, you are forgetful, you are fretful, but but I am the Lord your God. I am the Lord your God. We may be fearing, forgetting, and fretting, but in the midst of it, He has not changed. He is the Lord our God. Find your comfort first in who he is He is the Lord our God the Lord of hosts is his name Find comfort in who he is But second find your comfort in what he will do on your behalf.

He is the one who divided the seas whose waves were threatening." That's what he says here. But I am the Lord your God. I am the Lord of hosts. That's my name. I am the one who divided the sea with the roaring waves." And do you recall the words of Moses to the people before God divided that sea?

They are recorded for us in Exodus 14 13 to 14 and Moses said to the people do not be afraid stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace. But our Savior is not only the one who calls, the one who redeems, The one who enriches, who provides, who preserves and comforts. But lastly, we are to listen to and look to Christ, the one who commissions.

Christ the one who commissions. Verse 16. This one who says, Don't forget, I am the Lord your God, the Lord of hosts is my name, and I have put my words in your mouth. I have covered you with the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, you are my people. Christ is the head of this church.

We the church are His body. What the head does, the church is to do. The arm of the Lord that we saw, that redeems that we saw earlier in this chapter. The arm of the Lord is operational through the arm of the church as the authority that was given to Christ now strengthens the arm of His church to, under that authority, make disciples of the nations and teach them all things that he has commanded. And so I believe here we see Christ who is the Lord of hosts and who has the tongue of the learned in order to speak a word in season, now proclaiming to his listening church that he has placed these comforting words in their mouth.

And having put these words in the mouth of his church, he promises the shadow of his hand for a covering. Lo, he is with us always, even to the end of the age. Christ has commissioned us. We are to proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness, who from that rock has hewn us and from that hole in that pit has dug us, we are to proclaim his praises. And note the glory of the work we are commissioned to.

Far from being forsaken and forgotten, Christ has commissioned us as His people to something great, to something glorious, to be used as the means of His establishing the heavens, laying the foundations of the earth and calling and comforting his church. And this is what God is doing. Isaiah 65 17 through 19 says, for behold I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind but be glad and rejoice forever in what I create for behold I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing and her people a joy I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying." This is what God's doing, and He's commissioned us to it. If you're His child, He has commissioned you. You are to go to Zion and proclaim that He has not forgotten or forsaken her.

They are His people and He has proclaimed that He will rejoice in His Jerusalem and joy in his people. And as the church awakens and becomes the arm of the Lord in proclaiming his eternal righteousness and salvation, then we will see the realities of verse 11 happening before our very eyes. So the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Author and producer Tim Kesey, in a reflection of the work of missionary Hudson Taylor, says the following, but what about today? What about today?

Where does gospel advance appear really impossible? This isn't about our willpower, It's about God's power and the faith in action to believe and follow Him. Yet as His servants, we settle for what we can see and find comfort in the shadow of the wall, never seeing God shake Jericho or move mountains. Why? Because we're not listening.

We're not listening to Him who calls, Him who enriches, Him who provides. We're not listening to Him. He's the one who preserves. He's the one who redeems. He's the one who comforts.

And He has commissioned us. He has given us His Word, a Word in season for the weary. And so we hear the voice of Christ calling out to us today, Listen to me. Brethren, we are debtors to mercy. We are debtors to mercy and as we find our every need supplied in Christ we become like the lepers going from tent to tent one tent to another filling our every need and desire with the abundance of food and spoils as they did in the Syrian camp.

May our response be like theirs. Then they said to one another, we are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent. Now therefore, come, let us go and tell. So in closing, a few applications.

As you sit there in your chair, have you detected a spirit of accusation in your heart? Have you given in to your present circumstances such that You are doubting the presence and the power of God. Have you bought into the lies of the evil one that your God has forgotten you, that He has forsaken you? Then hear the words of Christ for the weary. There is yet hope just as there was hope for Judah.

Are you ready to listen? That's what it boils down to. Are you ready to listen? Christ comes today. He seeks as he did at the beginning of chapter 50.

He seeks for a man. He seeks for one who will answer. What will he find? Back in Isaiah 29 verses 22 to 24, the Lord speaks to Jacob these words, Therefore, thus says the Lord, he reminds them, who redeemed Abraham concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, nor shall his face now grow pale. In other words, he wasn't ready to listen.

His face was not ready to be ashamed and grow pale before the words of Christ. But when he sees his children, the work of my hands or the arm of strength that we saw in his midst, they will hallow my name and hallow the Holy One of Jacob and fear the God of Israel. These also who erred in spirit will come to understanding and those who complained and I say that's the ones who complained that God's forsaken, God's forgotten he says those who complained will learn doctrine how do you come to understanding? How do you come to right doctrine? Children, how do you do that?

You listen. And that's what we have in this passage today. Are you fearful? Do you think God's forsaken? You've forgotten.

You listen. And if you've erred in spirit, you can come to understanding. If you have complained, you can learn right doctrine to think rightly and act rightly. There is yet hope. Secondly, would you be kept from a spirit that feels forsaken and forgotten?

Would you be kept from a spirit that feels forsaken and forgotten? Then like Christ, be awakened morning by morning to find a fresh word from His hand. Go to Christ. He alone has a word in season for your weary soul. Search your heart.

Be sure that you are one who is pursuing righteousness, who is seeking the face of the Lord, who knows righteousness and has the law of God ruling richly in your heart. That's how you can be kept from a spirit that feels forsaken and forgotten. And lastly, trust in the name of the Lord and rely upon your Savior. Trust in the name of the Lord and rely upon your Savior, finding Christ your sufficiency. Look to Christ and be saved all you ends of the earth.

Look to Christ and be saved this very moment, all you who are sitting under the sound of His words today. I stand beside the Apostle Paul and echo his words to those in Corinth in 2nd Corinthians 5, 20, and 21. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf be reconciled to God for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him." And so I close with these glorious words from the Puritan George Swinock. God is all good things and every good thing.

He is self-sufficient, alone-sufficient, and all-sufficient. Nothing is lacking in Him, either for the soul's protection from all evil, or for the soul's perfection with all good. If God were your portion, you would find in Him whatever your heart could desire and whatever could lead you to happiness. Are you ambitious? God is a crown of glory.

Are you covetous? God is unsearchable riches. Are you lustful? God is rivers of pleasure and fullness of joy. Are you hungry?

God is a feast. Are you weary? God is rest, A shadow from the heat and a shelter from the storm. Are you weak? God is everlasting strength.

Are you in doubt? God is marvelous in counsel. Are you in darkness? God is the Son of righteousness, an eternal life. Are you sick?

He is the God of your health. Are you sorrowful? He is the God of all comfort. Are you dying? He is the fountain of life.

Are you in distress? His name is a strong tower to which you may run to find safety. He is a universal remedy against all sorts of misery. Whatever your calamity, He can remove it. Whatever your necessity, He can relieve it.

He is silver, gold, honor, delight, food, clothing, house, land, peace, wisdom, power, beauty, father, mother, wife, husband, mercy, love, grace, glory, and infinitely more than all these. This is our Christ. Listen to him. Let us look to him in prayer. O gracious God, we thank you for this glorious, submissive, suffering servant.

We thank you that when your word came to him, he did not rebel, he did not turn away, but with the disciples' ear, he was awakened morning by morning with the freshness of your message to him. And because of that, he now has the tongue of the learned and he has a word for all of us a word in season for all who find themselves weary. Oh God may we listen to him today And those who sit in our midst, whose eyes are blind, whose ears are stopped, such that they cannot hear, oh remove from their ears that which keeps them from hearing. Remove the blinders that the God of this earth would, who's blinding those people, oh God, this God of darkness, the evil one, remove that blindness so they can see Christ in all his glory and listening to him will come and find rest at his cross. We pray in Jesus name.

Amen.