In the sermon titled 'Comfort My People, Says Your God!', Scott Brown explores the profound comfort found in Isaiah 40:1-2. He emphasizes that true Christianity is marked by the comfort provided by the gospel of Jesus Christ, which believers are called to share with one another. The sermon outlines the end of spiritual warfare, the pardon of iniquity, and the abundance of God's grace as central messages of the passage. Brown highlights how the beauty and depth of Isaiah's language capture the essence of Christianity, urging believers to find their identity and comfort in Christ rather than in worldly vanities. He also discusses the transition from judgment in the earlier chapters of Isaiah to themes of salvation and comfort in chapters 40-66, portraying an expansive view of Christian doctrine, including themes of redemption, the lunacy of idolatry, and the majesty of God. Through this exploration, the sermon encourages the church to become emissaries of comfort, reflecting the peace and satisfaction found in Jesus Christ.

Good morning. Let's read together Isaiah 40 and we're going to read verses 1 & 2. Comfort, yes. Comfort my people says your God. Speak comfort to Jerusalem and cry out to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins." Let's pray.

Oh Lord, we come before you this morning as your people. Lord we are so thankful that you are the God of all comfort. Lord that you are a God who is present and attentive and active in all areas of our lives that you take an interest even in the mundane and that Lord you carry us through all trials and all tribulations and we have this hope and promise of eternal life Lord and we are so thankful for that and we do pray today that you would help us not to take refuge in cheap substitutes, that we would not look to vanities and things for our identity or for our comfort, but that we would look unto Christ. Lord, would you help us today and give us hearts that are hungry, hearts that are attentive to your word. Lord, for those that are feeble and low today in their spirits, we do pray that you would attend to them and help them and lift them up, not just temporarily, Lord, but that you would fix their eyes on you.

And Lord, as Mr. Brown gets ready to come and to deliver your word, we pray that you would strengthen him, comfort him as a leader and the other elders as well, and that you would use the words that he is to speak to be a strength to us, Lord, you tell us that just as we receive comfort, that we are to comfort others as well. And so we pray that we would all be ambassadors of Your Word and ambassadors of Christ in this regard, Lord. Thank You for all You're doing this day. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

Of all the things we've ever comforted ourselves with in our lifetime, we come across the thing here today that truly comforts. We're here in the place where comfort is truly found, and what a blessing it is to be here. This is one of the most important chapters in the Bible. It stands in a crossroads of prophetic literature and speaks of things far, far away in history from its own time. It's remarkably beautiful.

The language is elegant. It's masterful language. In fact, the beauty is so remarkable that you can you can just be captivated by its beauty. This is why perhaps it is you know every Christmas season people are absolutely captivated by Handel's Messiah and it is captivating. It's such Handel's Messiah is built upon the whole structure of Isaiah chapter 40, perhaps one of the most well-known pieces of music ever written.

And, you know, I saw this happening in Duke Chapel just recently this Christmas season during a presentation of Handel's Messiah. It was just so remarkably moving and beautiful. The words were so helpful to my soul. I loved it, but I realized that there were people that were singing that song and their souls weren't moved the same way mine was. You know, some of them were singing beautiful words, but those words of comfort had never gotten down into the depths of their soul.

And so they could say the words and it would sound beautiful, but it didn't resonate as deep in their hearts as it could have if there had been a true connection with the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I also just want to say that this passage of Scripture identifies what is the essence of true Christianity? If you could summarize the effect of the gospel on a person, what word would you use? And I would just like to suggest that the thing that brings everything together in the gospel is found in the very first word of Isaiah chapter 40, comfort. And you know, how do you know if you have embraced true Christianity?

Well here in verse 1 you'll find a touchstone from which to understand whether you have been touched by the stone of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. How do you know that you have embraced the Lord Jesus Christ and that the Christianity that is in you is actually authentic Christianity or is it some cheap substitute that you bought a long time ago or maybe even just recently. And the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ is that he provides a comfort deep within the human soul. And that comfort causes that person to speak of comfort. He cries out to his brothers and sisters and he tells about that comfort.

He tells of the comfortability of the Lord Jesus Christ to the soul, how the soul is soothed, how it's made happy, how it's brought peace to him. True Christianity brings comfort, and those who receive it speak comfort to one another. That means that true Christianity makes you a different kind of person. You speak about totally different things. You speak about things that are truly comfortable.

Of all of our conversation about things that we think might be comfortable to us and others, there really is only one thing that's truly comfortable, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And so this passage, it takes us to the heart of Christianity, but it also identifies one of the things that happens to you when you embrace true Christianity. Your mouth opens and you start talking different and you speak comfort to Jerusalem, to the people of God. And It indicates one of the great marks of true Christianity, that the true church of Jesus Christ loves the gospel so much that they speak the comforts of the gospel to one another. They cry out for this thing called the comfort of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are three main messages in our very short passage that we have here this morning. The first is that there is an end of the war. Secondly, there's the pardon for iniquity. And then thirdly, there's the abundance of the grace of God. But these things are the heart of Christianity, and as we are here gathered as a church, It's here to help us to understand what is the center of everything in our church.

And you know I think it's hard for me to read this first verse without thinking about the first question of the Heidelberg Catechism. Maybe you're familiar with it, but it summarizes the whole doctrine of Isaiah chapter 40 verses 1 & 2. Here's the question, what is thy only comfort in life and death? Answer, that I, with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who with His precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins and delivered me from all the power of the devil, and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head, yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation. And therefore, by his Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me sincerely willing and ready henceforth to live unto him.

The chief mark of Christianity is a comfort from the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why the apostle Paul, when he spoke of God, when he thought of God, what did he think? Well, in 2 Corinthians chapter one, he speaks of God as the God of all comfort that we might be able to comfort. And that's really a big, big point right here in these first two verses, that God comes and He comforts His people, and what do they do now for the rest of their lives? They turn and they comfort their brothers and their sisters, and they become emissaries of this great comfort that Jesus Christ has brought.

You know, there is nothing more contradictory to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ than a fitful and frustrated and unhappy and uncomforted church. There is nothing more contradictory to the true gospel than that. Now, I'd like to speak a bit about Isaiah chapter 40 through 66. I've just spoken about these two verses, but now I'd like for us to speak about this new section that we find ourselves in because we just completed the first part of Isaiah up to chapter 39 and now we begin a new journey into the second half. And first of all, I want us to recognize that to stand at the beginning of Isaiah chapter 40, it's as if you're standing at the top of the tallest mountain in the world.

And you're looking across the whole landscape you're looking across thousands of miles and what you see are mountains mountain peak after mountain peak and Isaiah chapter 40 through 66 is going to take you to each one of the great mountain peaks of the Christian faith and of Christian doctrine So get ready strap on you're getting ready for a great journey Into some of the most remarkable Territory it's It's the territory of the kingdom of God. And it spans hundreds of years. It's a very long view. You'll find the Babylonian captivity up ahead. You'll find the incarnation of Jesus Christ up ahead.

You'll find the final judgment up ahead. You'll find the new heavens and the new earth. So when you stand at the beginning here at Isaiah 40, you're looking across all the way to the end of the world and to the end of history. And It's such a remarkable view that we're given. There are also many themes that are here.

We're going to pass by many, many themes. You're going to hear sermons about all kinds of things, imagery that's absolutely, you know, Isaiahic, In other words, astonishing, only in the way that you find Isaiah speaking of it. His mind is so fruitful and graphic and he speaks of all these earthly things that point to heavenly things and It's going to be a beautiful journey. We're going to pass by remarkable imagery, more freeze-frame moments that we've had in the past so far. Here are some of the great doctrines.

We will see the majesty of God. And we'll find the Christian saying, behold your God. God is so magnificent. There's a view of God here in Isaiah 40-66 that will warm your heart, and it'll put rebar in your spine. It'll make you happy.

It'll help you see how good God is and how mighty he is. Secondly, you'll see the lunacy of idolatry. I mean, Even in the next 10 chapters, Isaiah is constantly mocking idolatry. He mocks the idols. It's hilarious in many ways.

He paints these pictures of idolaters. We shouldn't think of idolatry wrongly when we get to these pictures of idolatry because he's talking about us but he is constantly mocking idolatry. You know he'll say the idolatry cuts down a tree and he takes half of it and he burns it and he cooks his eggs in the morning and then he bows down and worships the other half what in the world you know in another place he has this image of you know he carves this he carves this image and then he's kind of like up on a ladder, nailing it so it won't fall down and then he gets down and worships him. How stupid is that? You know, Isaiah just goes on and on about the stupidity of idolatry and it hopefully will show us our own stupidity in our in holding onto our idols petting them hanging on thinking them that they're going to help us in any way at all.

Isaiah is going to mock us in our idolatry and it will be a blessing to us. We'll pass by many many occasions where the power of the word of God is stated. We'll pass by many many places especially in the next 10 chapters of the suffering servant our Lord Jesus Christ. Here's one thing that you'll see. There is no Old Testament prophet that understands Jesus Christ like Isaiah.

We'll find the theme of redemption. The word redemption or redeemed is mentioned 27 times It has to do with the buying of a slave off of the slave block and setting him free We'll find the joy of salvation spoken of over and over again. We'll really see the doctrine of missions here and the spread of the gospel throughout all the earth. We'll see the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It'll be described for us.

What you experience now as a Christian will be explained in some of the most beautiful language you've ever read. The final judgment is here. The new heavens and the new earth are here. That's what we have in store. Now there's some differences to consider, differences compared to the first part of Isaiah to the second part of Isaiah.

We see a continual disclosure through Isaiah that God is going to preserve his people. We've seen that theme already. It will continue on in different ways that God is the deliverer of his people. And we've just finished the historical section, which is a demonstration of this second section of Isaiah, where you see in chapters 36 through 39, an army is destroyed and a king is miraculously healed. God uses those two incidents to prove His absolute sovereignty and loving kindness to preserve His people.

And what He's saying is, I killed that army, I brought that man back to life, I can do the same thing to you. I can destroy your enemy and I can bring you back to health. And that explanation is found in chapters 40 through 66. How is it that God destroys the enemies of his people and how is it that he brings them back to health spiritually deep within their hearts because the physical things of chapters 1 through 39 are really foretellings or pictures or types of the spiritual healing and protection and grace that God has for his people. Now also as we move from chapter 39 to chapter 40, the prophet is most of the time prophesying from the perspective that the Babylonian captivity has already been concluded.

And he's speaking in the future, but he's speaking of them as if they're past. That's the perspective that Isaiah has in this. E.J. Young, the commentator on Isaiah says, it is Jerusalem not Babylon, which is at the heart of chapters 40 through 66. So you pick up really after the destruction of Babylon, looking forward to Jerusalem, to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection on the cross.

And then also I think we should just mention briefly the liberal scholarship and Isaiah. In the 19th century critics of the Bible started writing that there were multiple authors of Isaiah that Isaiah did not write this or he didn't write all of it and their contentions rest really on the fact that there is a change of tone in chapter 40 and because there's a change of tone it's a change of men. How could Isaiah possibly write chapter 40 and chapter 1 at the same time. So this is their proposition and so they propose that there are two or three authors. They also say that there are different word usages and different themes and different emphasis and they also mention that because Cyrus is mentioned hundreds of years before he comes into the the theater of history that how could it be true?

Well here's what we should recognize. Our Lord Jesus Christ believed that there was one author of this book and his name was Isaiah. And in John chapter 12 verse 38 he quotes Isaiah 53 verse 1, in John 12 39 He quotes Isaiah 6 9. Within a span of two verses, the Lord Jesus Christ is quoting both sections of Isaiah, both the first and the second section, attributing them to Isaiah. In John chapter 12, verse 41, Jesus said that Isaiah spoke concerning him, and Jesus believed that Isaiah wrote all of Isaiah.

So there you have it. That's my position. Jesus believed it and so do I. And so I think that's really the answer. What we find here is that the Assyrian army has just fallen as a shadow of things to come.

Now, the first two verses of Isaiah, which we find ourselves in now, brings us to our only true source of comfort. So let's look at these two great verses. And as we look at them, I want us to think about ourselves. I'd like you to think about yourself individually. But I'd also like us to think about ourselves as a corporate body.

And What is it that we obsess about in this church? Because there's nothing worse or more contradictory to the gospel than a fitful, frustrated, unhappy, uncomforted church that doesn't speak of the great comfort that is in Jesus Christ. Okay, so let's look at this first phrase. You'll see in your outline There's first of all this call to comfort in the first verse. Comfort, yes comfort my people.

Now right at the beginning we need to get our wits about us about the voice that's speaking here. Now first of all God is speaking to His people, okay, that's the first thing. God is speaking to His people and God is telling His people what they should say. You got that? And here we have another example of the way that God leads his people.

And he teaches his people how to live. He's teaching us what to say to one another. We shouldn't just say whatever we want to say to one another. We should say the things that God has told us are beneficial and right that we ought to say to one another. So there's the whole matter of how we talk together as a church.

What are we talking about as a church? And he gives us the very words to say and further he shows us even how to say it. That we should cry out. In other words, and we'll talk about that later in a little bit more detail What does it mean to cry out but here God is instructing his church? About what to say the very words to utter and the way to say it And so we have to understand get get the voice right It is God speaking to his people, commanding them about what they ought to say.

And so These words, of course, they indicate a very sharp change of the emphasis of Isaiah. There's a change from the horrors of judgment to the comforts of the gospel. The key word in chapters 1-39 is the word woe. The key word in chapters 40 through 66 is inaugurated here in this verse verse and that word is comfort. The word woe is found 18 times in chapters 1 through 39 but only twice in chapters 40 through 66.

The word comfort is found only twice in chapters 1-39, but 13 times in chapters 40-66. Woe and comfort. These are the two marking points of the emphasis, not the exclusive message, because you do find some woe in the second half and you find comfort in the first half as well. So it's not exclusively that way, but definitely the themes change here in this passage. Judgment is the theme of 1 through 39, salvation and comfort is the theme of 40 through 66.

Punishment for sin and God's chastisement is the focus of 1 through 39, and forgiveness of sin is the theme of 40 through 66. The unfaithfulness of Judah is the theme of the first 39 chapters, ending with the announcement of the Babylonian captivity, then in chapters 40 through 66, there's a disclosure of God's faithfulness to rescue his people even from their captivity. So as we move from chapter 39 to 40, the prophet has without question changed direction. Now comfort, comfort, what is comfort? Let's define comfort.

The theological word book of the Old Testament indicates that the origin of the root of this word reflects the idea of breathing deeply. You know what that's like. It's like a big gigantic sigh of relief. That's sort of the imagery that this word comfort should bring about. It's a physical display of one's feelings, usually sorrow, compassion, or comfort.

This really is the heart of the matter for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, because there is nothing worse or more contradictory to the gospel than an uncomforted, frustrated, unhappy church, where their obsession has been shifted to the wrong things. Now God here has as he has done many times for us in the book of Isaiah he shows us a picture of God's intentions for his people. And it shows what God is doing. It shows what God wants to do to you. People are often very afraid of God, of what he wants to do.

They refuse to come to him because they think that he will ruin their life. They think that God is going to deprive them of some pleasure, that God is going to keep them from some really fantastic thing. And so people turn their faces away from God. But it's because they have a corrupt view of God. They don't really know God and so they hate the things that he says are beautiful.

But here what we find is that there is something that God wants to do in your heart and in your life. There's a way that He desires you to be. And he's telling of what is the very essence of the effect of faith in Jesus Christ. You know, what is the effect of true faith? There it is.

It's bound up in this word of comfort. And it's really a disclosure that God is not going to leave you alone in your sins. God doesn't say to the repentant sinner, you made your bed, now you sleep in it. That's not what God does. He comforts his people.

He rescues sinners from their path to destruction. And he doesn't say, you made your bed, now you just sleep in it for all eternity. No. He rescues sinners. This is what true Christianity is.

He lifts us out of our bed of pain and sorrow and confusion and He moves us into His house. He's like the good Samaritan who finds the person who's been robbed and beat up and bleeding and nobody can help him, nobody will help him, but God comes and he picks up the man and he puts him and moves him to a place of healing and he gives him medicine and food. That's what God does. So here is really the essence of what God does in a person's life. He brings him comfort.

This is the exact reason that David said in the 23rd Psalm, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. David said it in Psalm 71, he says, you comfort me on every side. This is what God does. Now, let's recognize here that there is a command here. Not only is there a reality that exists being produced by the gospel of Jesus Christ and His mercy upon the repentance center.

It's also a command. Remember what I said at the very beginning? This is God commanding His people to speak comfort to one another. God is declaring that he is a comfort to his people, but this command is not like, is not that. God is commanding his people to speak comfort.

Now this is a plural command. So he's commanding many to speak like he's not commanding exclusively Isaiah to speak because it's plural. It's more than Isaiah. It's bigger than Isaiah and I believe he's talking to the whole nation. That the whole nation is designed to declare this comfort in the world.

I do believe he is directing this to the prophets. In the New Testament the believer is a priest, he speaks for God, and so I take this as that this is a command for all of God's people to utter to all of God's people that God commands his people to comfort one another with something, to be spokespeople of comfort, of the only true message of comfort, meaning that the gospel of Jesus Christ should be the center of all of what we are and what we think and how we talk, that we're constantly reminding one another of the gospel of Jesus Christ. How easy is it for you to get overwhelmed by your own inadequacies and your sinfulness? How easy is it for you to lose hope for yourself? Well, it's easy for me.

I'm expecting it's probably easy for you. And so the gospel of Jesus Christ Is so necessary for us. We should be preaching the gospel to one another and to ourselves It's it's such a helpful thing to remember the blessing of Jesus Christ To consider the water the bread the light of the world the gate that is there being opened by such a good Savior to remember the gospel of Jesus Christ. The speaker is God. The speaker is God.

Speak, says your God. Those three words. Says your God. Why did he say that? This is a picture of God conversing with his people.

God does not leave his people without direction. God speaks to his people. You can always have the voice of God. God is spoken. He's spoken through His Son.

He's spoken through His prophets. He's spoken through His law. God gives us a voice that we might listen to. But I think also there is personal intimacy here. He says, says, your God, your God.

In the same way that David said, the Lord is my shepherd. He's my shepherd. He cares for me. Here, Isaiah says it's your God, and indicating the personal care, the help, the intimacy, the personal protection that the Lord brings to his people. It's a sign of his ownership and of his covenant.

And it's a part of what Jesus was speaking of when he said, my sheep hear my voice. They're my sheep. So there's tremendous intimacy here. This is the spirit of the Comforter. You know, the Lord has sent a Comforter, the Holy Spirit.

And the Spirit is not just holy, He's not just guide, He's not just the one who convicts you of your sins deep within your conscience. He is also the Comforter. This is the Spirit of God at work in the world. He is a Comforter to those who have been called by His name. And this is why there is nothing more contradictory to the gospel than to have an uncomforted church.

You know, Christian people can often contradict the gospel. I'm confident that we in our church have contradicted the gospel at different times. Maybe some of you in the very way that you're feeling and thinking right now, that it's a contradiction to the gospel because there's no comfort in your soul. I mean, I'm here to say, check your comfort level. And is your comfort all seated in Jesus Christ?

Here's one thing that's so true about today and the rest of your life. If you are looking for comfort from anything other than Jesus Christ, you'll never have true comfort. Oh, you know, you can get a little bit of comfort from shopping for a short time until you go shopping again. You can get comfort from this or that, but you don't get true comfort. You've always got to go back for another injection.

But the comfort of the Lord Jesus Christ is something that he provides spiritually for his people. Now, he says, speak comfort to Jerusalem. So he tells us who to speak this to that we speak this to Jerusalem to one another And the preposition that he uses here in this phrase, it's the preposition that suggests comfort coming down and resting upon Jerusalem. That you're speaking comfort To just bathe it in comfort. Like your voice is like a wave washing over Jerusalem.

That it would like rest upon it. There would be an aura or a medium of comfort among the people of God. That we would speak it so that it would be sort of the essence of who we are. That we are a comforted people. And so we speak comfort to Jerusalem.

I believe Isaiah is addressing simultaneously three parties here. He's addressing true believers who've experienced justification by faith in the same way that Abraham did. Second, I think he's addressing the Jews to take comfort in his salvation when they are relieved of their captivity in Babylon. And thirdly, he's addressing those who live in the days of the Messiah, who find themselves hearing tidings of comfort and joy, that they hear the good news, they know the God of all comfort and they have been made happy because they have been forgiven by the Lord Jesus Christ. The audience is not the rebellious who hate God.

It is my people. The gospel is exclusive to the people of God, and he's speaking of that exclusivity here. This message is for the people of God, and That's why there's nothing more contradictory to the gospel than an unhappy and uncomforted church. And so again the question is, are you, is your soul happy in Jesus Christ? Has he set you free?

Do you need to be reminded of it today? I mean, do you just like need a reminder that Jesus Christ has satisfied God's wrath toward you and that there is nothing you can do to satisfy God's wrath toward you? There's the method of speaking. There's the way that you speak this comfort. You cry out to her.

Speak comfort to Jerusalem and cry out to her. This is a word that has to do with intensity and intentionality and focus. It's something that just should become part of how we are, how the way that we are doing. The definition of this really speaks of a verbal enunciation. The enunciation of a specific way of enunciating and it is to proclaim, to invite, to cry, to call, to proclaim, to invite, to bid, to preach.

This word is translated in those different ways in different contexts. The whole idea is that a person is urgently calling to his brother or to his sister and cry out to her. So it sort of gives a sense of the emotional nature of the Church of Jesus Christ that we have a compelling, urgent, forceful message and we Invite people into it. Invite your brothers and sisters into the comfort of Jesus Christ. Are they overwhelmed by their sins?

Are they discouraged? Call them to comfort. Call them to recognize the propitiation of Jesus Christ, that he's satisfied. The anger of God toward his people and then he gives the reason for the comfort in verse 2 you know why take comfort well he gives the reason here you know It's one thing to command that you be comforted, but the Lord has found it wise to help us to understand why we should be comforted. He doesn't just tell us to be comforted, He tells us why we should be comforted.

This happens so many times in the Bible. We are so stupid, we're so forgetful that we need to be reminded. And here God's calling His people to constantly remind one another of this, but then here in the next phrases, he gives the very reasons for why you should be comforted. And God is desiring his people to explain to one another why they ought to be comforted. Now there are three clauses that speak of this.

There are three reasons that he gives, and they are all introduced by the word that, and that finishes up this section here, these first two verses. And the first reason is that warfare is ended. You should be comforted because the warfare is ended. And you know what is what is he speaking of? He's speaking of people who've been involved in war and now their warfare is ended.

There is a conflict, there is a difficulty, there is a disagreement between God and man and it's warfare. It's when man is raging against God and God rages against man and there is no peace. And so Isaiah is speaking of a long period of turmoil and warfare. And, you know, in the previous section there have been these pictures of warfare, of an army, and of rebellion. And that's the exact same kind of terminology that's used here in this word warfare.

It speaks of an army and a conflict. And he's speaking of the conflict of our rebellion, of our rebellion against him. The Babylonian captivity is a type of warfare as well with sin. But here He's speaking of the enmity between God and man that began in the Garden of Eden where man makes war against God and God is making war against sinful man. Adam and Eve wanted something different than what God wanted to give them.

They thought that the world and the flesh and the devil would give them an upgrade. That's what they thought. They were so deceived, terribly deceived. And because of that, they were warned. They thought that apart from God, they would have something good.

But God had given them what was good but they desired something other than what was good and that's that is the the essence of this warfare this is why in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 we read And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. This enmity is the conflict between God and evil. This is the same enmity that we experience today that the Apostle Paul wrote about in Romans 8 verse 7 he said because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God nor it can be this is a picture of warfare This is a picture of the turmoil of the soul who's raging against God. There's enmity, there's conflict, and it's the same kind of enmity that James spoke about when he talked about having friendship with the world.

When you have friendship with the world you are at enmity with God. He says, adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. So the picture here is of the person who is a friend of the world and there's that conflict that results from being a friend of the world, from loving the things of the world, rather than hating the things of the world. And so this kind of conflict and enmity, this reality that nobody ever received anything good from the world, that the devil punishes.

He's the abuser of the brethren, the accuser, the misuser of every human being that ever entertains him. And that causes this warfare. You know, you who have turned to the Lord Jesus Christ, you remember that great warfare and how every day you were abused by the devil because you are at enmity with God. Sin waging war against your soul and putting you in an absolutely no-win situation incessantly by the powers of the air and the evil forces that are at work and the way that there's no peace in that soul, yet with God there is peace like a river. You can ask yourself that question to know whether you're a Christian, are you an enmity of God, or are you comforted by God?

Because God desires to break the enmity you know the Bible says the way of the transgressors is hard and it is hard you know I'm old enough to know of the frustration and the depression and the anger and the hopelessness and the suicide and the self-loathing and the broken relationships that comes from thinking for a single second that The devil has anything good for you. But here the warfare has ended. It's over. The rebellion has been broken. And I think it's broken in two ways.

It's broken by repentance. The person who says, Lord, not my way, but yours. The person who says, Lord, I see how ridiculous it is for me to continue on thinking that this world can give me any pleasure. I turn to you Lord help me help me oh Lord and that that person turns and they have peace like a river because the rebellion has been broken. Doesn't mean that they've been made perfect but the rebellion has been broken and the war is over.

And then it also, I believe it implies the completed finished work of Jesus Christ to end the war. The war is ended because Jesus Christ hung on a cross and he said, it is finished. The war is over. Death has been conquered. It's done.

The Lord Jesus Christ ended the enmity, as the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 2, 18, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contain in ordinances, so as to create in himself one new man, thus making peace, that he might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity." Jesus Christ puts to death the enmity. The warfare has ended. What a blessing that is, that Jesus Christ has finished his work toward the believer. That's why there's nothing more contradictory to the gospel than a fitful and frustrated, unhappy, uncomforted church because Jesus Christ has made peace and the war is over. What a beautiful thing.

That doesn't mean that we don't wrestle against powers and principalities. It doesn't mean that. It doesn't mean that we don't examine ourselves to turn away from sin continually. It doesn't mean that, but it does mean that God has dealt a death blow to the warriors against your soul. And then secondly, iniquity is pardoned.

Iniquity is pardoned. We move from warfare ending to iniquity pardoned. So what is iniquity? The word iniquity is used all over the Bible. It's used in two different ways.

It's used of original sin. It's used of the sin nature, that you are sinful at your very core. And it is also used of sins, of particular kinds of sins. Our problem with sin is twofold. One is we have a sinful nature and our hearts are bent toward evil.

And our only hope is God working in us to turn us from sin. God has dealt with original sin through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. But we also have another problem. We not only have a problem with sin, this corrupt nature, we also have a trouble with sins, particular sins. And I'm confident that we have all walked in here having participated in particular sins.

And the Lord Jesus Christ's substitutionary death on the cross is also designed to meet us in our sins. Those two categories. Iniquity speaks of both sin and sins. This is why David said in Psalm 51 verse 5, behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me. The word iniquity means to be bent, you know, or something that's all twisted up.

So here our twistedness, the ways that we're bent in a certain wrong direction, that has been pardoned. Your twisted, bentedness has been pardoned. It means to deviate from the right, to go in the wrong direction. This has been pardoned. There are many examples of this word iniquity that we could point to.

We could quote Moses in Exodus 34, who speaks of God who keeps mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty but visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. Because God is going to punish iniquity one way or another. God will either punish iniquity upon the sinner himself, or punish the iniquity of the sinner on the back of Jesus Christ. God promises to chastise His sons for their iniquity. This is why David says in 2 Samuel 7, I will be his father and he shall be my son.

If he commits iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men, but my mercy shall not depart from him as I took it from Saul whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you, your throne shall be established forever." Here David is speaking of two realities. That God is going to discipline His sons, He's going to chasten His sons for their iniquity. He is going to do that. He's done that with all of us.

But, he says, his mercy shall not depart. God is not finished with correcting and disciplining his sons, but at the same time, he does it but without withholding his mercy. He extends both the rod of chastisement and the hand of mercy. And that's what it means to have your iniquity pardoned. This is a turning back of God's wrath.

You know, this is A legal term, pardon. Iniquity is pardoned. And what he means here is that the measured wrath of God doesn't go as far as it could go. But it's rather it's pulled back. It means that you've not been punished for everything.

God has not dealt with your sins according to the severity of your sins. He's not going to punish you that way. God is willing to pardon. The Bible says, as we even read recently in Isaiah, God casts your sins behind your back. He puts them in the bottom of the sea he separates them as far as the east is from the West That's why Paul says who will bring a charge against God's elect?

Because God will pardon Isaiah 43, 24 says, I will remember their sins no more. There's a way in which he forgets. But what does that mean? It means that he doesn't remember his wrath to fulfill it. One theologian says this, that he remembers your sins paternally as a father and he corrects you for your sin, but he forgets them judicially and he does not condemn.

He remembers them paternally because every son whom he receives is disciplined but he forgets them judicially and the punishment is laid on Jesus Christ. You know, there's that great song that we love to sing, pardon for sin and a peace that endureth. To pardon means to please, to delight, to accept favorably. All right.