Isaiah 40:1-11, Psalm 85:1-2, Psalm 85:8-13, 2 Peter 3:8-15, Mark 1:1-8
A). COMFORT YE…
Isaiah 40:1-11.
We have before us a passage which may well be familiar to us: yet please do not allow its very familiarity to breed contempt. This is a little Gospel, a sort of proto-Gospel written by the prophet many years before the event. Our task is to ask Isaiah concerning the what? when? why? and who? of his message - and the what? of ours.
1. What is his message?
It is a message of comfort (Isaiah 40:1), of good tidings of great joy to all people (Luke 2:10).
It has been hinted at already (Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 9:6-7) as Isaiah prepares us for Immanuel’s land (Isaiah 8:8).
It is a message of preparation, of levelling the land and clearing the highway to make way for the coming of the LORD (Isaiah 40:3-4).
It is a message of revelation (Isaiah 40:5), when the presence of the LORD draws near in the Person of His own Word (John 1:14).
It is a message of certainty (Isaiah 40:8).
It is good news concerning the coming of the Lord (Isaiah 40:9), which brings renewal of strength (Isaiah 40:31).
He brings judgement against those who oppose Him, but reward for those who have persevered in His seeming absence (Isaiah 40:10).
This message speaks of the tenderness and compassion of the Good Shepherd (Isaiah 40:11).
2. When, what time, does this message speak of?
After 39 chapters of comparative doom and gloom, judgement and warning, Isaiah leads us out on to a new plain. It is a word of comfort for the children of Israel under the Assyrian threat.
It is a message of encouragement for the exiles in Babylon 150 years later (Isaiah 40:2).
It is a word for the generation who would hear the preaching of John the Baptist (John 1:23), who proclaimed the coming of Jesus.
It is for the church in all generations, and for the church to proclaim to all generations.
3. Why?
By now Israel has suffered enough for her sins (Isaiah 40:2). “Double” may mean tit for tat, an exact mirror image of what she deserves - or it may even mean she has paid more than enough. Whichever it may be, her warfare is accomplished, her iniquity is pardoned.
For the Christian this means we no longer have to suffer the full penalty of our sin. This is not a license to sin, but a severing of our former relationship with sin (Romans 5:21-6:2). Sin does reap consequences, but the penalty of our sin has been paid by our Lord Jesus Christ (1 John 1:9-2:2).
4. Who shall proclaim this message?
The prophets from Isaiah himself through to John the Baptist;
Jesus (Isaiah 2:2-3), and His Apostles (Acts 1:8);
the Church and ourselves.
5. Who is this message for?
It is for Isaiah’s contemporaries in times of upheaval.
It is for those in the Babylonian captivity, and those returning from exile.
It for those who await Messiah in John the Baptist’s days.
It is for us, as we await Jesus’ return.
Yet let us not stand gazing into heaven (Acts 1:11): we need to be proactive as a living witness to those around us. There is no end of people who need a word of comfort, good news, and encouragement in the midst of the doom and gloom of World news.
6. What shall we cry (Isaiah 40:6)?
We remind the church of her forgiveness (Isaiah 40:2), her need for preparedness for the return of Jesus (Isaiah 40:3), and her mission (Isaiah 40:9).
We remind the people around us of the brevity of life (Isaiah 40:6-8), but also of the certainty of God’s word (Isaiah 40:8).
B). THE EMBRACE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND PEACE.
Psalm 85:1-2, Psalm 85:8-13.
In Psalm 85 we have first a prayer (Psalm 85:1-7), then what has been termed “an answer of peace” (Psalm 85:8-13).
The Prayer begins, not with personal desires, but by recalling to mind God’s past favours (Psalm 85:1-2).
We must learn to “count our blessings, name them one by one,” as the hymn writer exhorts us, to raise up our “Ebenezers,” our “stones of help” as the word means, saying with Samuel of old, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us” (1 Samuel 7:12). This will temper our prayers with gratitude, and also fuel our faith as we recognise that whatsoever we ask in accordance with His will, God is able and willing to perform: that He is able to do “exceeding abundantly above all” (how many superlatives are there in Ephesians 3:20?) “all that we ask or think.” How so? “According to the power that worketh in us.”
The Psalmist - the believer, standing for the church - stops in his tracks and listens to what God has to say (Psalm 85:8-9). It is as we systematically and habitually study the Bible that we will be in a position to hear the still small voice which applies God’s Word to our own perplexities. This is a good place to receive an answer to our prayers.
The LORD promises peace, providing we do not return to folly (Psalm 85:8). When we have a true evangelical fear (reverence) of God, the fullness of His salvation draws near (Psalm 85:9). God’s glory returned to the Temple in Jerusalem (Haggai 2:9), and from there the peace of the Gospel emanated throughout the world (Acts 1:8).
The vision of this salvation is seen in the pencil sketches of the closing verses (Psalm 85:10-13). Four characteristics meet and embrace (Psalm 85:10), and heaven and earth work together to secure our salvation (Psalm 85:11-12). The LORD Himself is seen walking in our midst (Psalm 85:13), just as He did in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:8).
The four characteristics are:
1. Mercy, arising out of a steadfast covenant love;
2. Truth, and faithfulness to the truth;
3. Righteousness, or justice, arising out of a right relationship with God;
4. Peace, indicating completion, perfection, fullness, health, success, well-being, rest, harmony, and prosperity.
Where do mercy and truth meet together, righteousness and peace embrace? In the Cross of Jesus Christ, where God is both just and the Justifier (Romans 3:26): meting out just judgment upon sin whilst at the same time being merciful to the sinners (Isaiah 53:4-6). There God’s justice is not violated, but rather His righteousness fulfilled; and there we are “justified by faith, and have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).
God’s truth is personified in our great High Priest, who in the incarnation effectively “sprang out of the earth” (Psalm 85:11). God’s righteousness looks upon those whom He has justified as being made righteous in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Thus we see the joining of the interests of heaven and earth in the mission of our redemption (Luke 2:14).
Subsequently, we see the earth yielding her increase (Psalm 85:12). This is clearly a gift of God, but also a consequence of right priorities (Matthew 6:33). Only when we put God first will righteousness flourish, and have free course in the world of men (Psalm 85:13).
C). THE PATIENCE OF THE LORD.
2 Peter 3:8-15a.
2 PETER 3:8. Peter wishes to emphasize to his “beloved” friends that the longer the Lord’s delay, the more time there is for repentance. To the LORD a thousand years are but as a day when it is past (cf. Psalm 90:4). Yet He stretches out the day of opportunity for just as long as it is going to take to gather in His people.
2 PETER 3:9. This is the Lord’s patience. He is not willing that any should perish, but His coming is delayed to give the greater number of people the greater opportunity to repent (cf. 2 PETER 3:15a). We also have a part to play in this (cf. Matthew 24:14).
2 PETER 3:10. Yet when He comes it is “as a thief” (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:2). This indicates something sudden and unexpected (cf. Revelation 3:3). And it has a cataclysmic result (cf. 2 PETER 3:12b).
How should we conduct ourselves in consequence of these truths?
2 PETER 3:11. We should be marked out by holy conversation and godliness.
2 PETER 3:12a. We should be looking forward to, and hastening toward His coming.
2 PETER 3:13. We should be living in the expectation of the promised new heavens and new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.
2 PETER 3:14. We should be walking in peace, spotless and blameless.
2 PETER 3:15a. The longer the Lord’s delay, the more time there is for people to embrace the salvation on offer. But this is no excuse for us delaying to do so while we still have life!
D). PREPARE YE THE WAY.
Mark 1:1-8.
MARK 1:1. Mark entitles his account: “The gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” The word “gospel” means ‘good news.’
This is the good news concerning the Anointed Saviour of the world. He is no mere man: He is the Son of God. He is God become man in the Person of His own dear Son.
The good news is summarised in the words of the Apostle Paul: ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself’ (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:19).
MARK 1:2. Just before Jesus began His ministry, God sent John the Baptist to the River Jordan.
This was in fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy: ‘Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me’ (cf. Malachi 3:1).
MARK 1:3. The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the LORD;
Make straight in the desert
a highway for our God’
(cf. Isaiah 40:3).
MARK 1:4. John preached the “baptism of repentance.” Baptism is a dipping of the physical body into water. The baptism administered by John signified a turning away from sin and a turning unto God.
Every wicked act, every unguarded word, every wayward thought; every failure in our love towards God, towards His people, and towards our neighbours is SIN, and offends the LORD.
We must be aware how sin separates us from God, and turn away from it to Him, purposing in our hearts to be no more the servants of sin, but of the LORD who has loved us, and who is merciful to those who turn to Him through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
MARK 1:5. For a while the people were content to submit themselves to the teaching of John, and crowds from all over Judah came down to the River Jordan to be baptised by him.
MARK 1:6. Clothed with camel’s hair and wearing a leather belt, and living on a diet of locusts and wild honey, John the Baptist came in the spirit of the prophet Elijah.
MARK 1:7. John was a popular preacher. Yet his preaching always pointed away from himself to Jesus. John’s commission was to prepare the way for Jesus, not to seek honour for himself: “There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.”
It is good to follow the crowds who listen to the Gospel, but it is better to follow the Jesus whom we preach!
MARK 1:8. John spoke of another kind of baptism which Jesus would administer: the baptism with the Holy Spirit. There is the need to be inwardly ‘born again’ of the Spirit of God (cf. John 3:3-8).
God the Father is God for us: ‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’ (cf. Romans 8:31).
God the Son is God with us: ‘They shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated, God with us’ (cf. Matthew 1:23).
God the Holy Spirit is God within us. When you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, trust in Him, and repent of all your sins - then the Father and the Son come to dwell in your heart in the Person of the Holy Spirit (cf. John 14:23).
