I. Introduction
A. Isaiah 35:3–4 Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. 4 Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not!”
B. I don’t like to talk about myself much in my sermons because it’s not about me. But I am going to do so this morning briefly for illustrative purposes.
1. I have been in ministry now for over 40 years. So much sermon and teaching preparation, so many meetings, so much planning, so much counseling, so many visits, so many retreats and funerals and weddings, so much set up and take down and clean up.
2. With my dear wife I have raised 11 children, changing their diapers, cleaning up their messes, feeding them, teaching each one to be potty-trained, to read, to play ball, to drive a car, to relate to others. We thought the burden would ease when they were grown, but it has not.
3. Mary Ann and I have been together for 50 years. Fifty years of helping her and listening to her. Fifty years of learning to adjust to another person very different from me, of discovering my own selfishness and pride, of learning lessons through failures and hurts. Fifty years of being at her side during hard times, during sick times, during sad times, during nine pregnancies and deliveries, dozens of surgeries, countless doctor appointments and visits to the ER.
4. I’m not saying anything about being a home owner, about managing my own health issues, about dealing with finances, parents, siblings, relatives, friends, neighbors, businesses, governments etc.
5. I’m not unique. So many people have experienced more burdens than I have.
6. I’m not sharing this to generate your compassion. I’m just putting before us what life is like.
7. The title of today’s sermon comes from the 3rd verse of It Came Upon a Midnight Clear. It’s entitled, Beneath Life’s Crushing Load.
8. And the day after Christmas is actually a good day to think about this, for even though Christmas season is a time of celebration and reunion, it is also a time of stress. How many of you feel it?
II. Life is hard.
A. “Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.” – Job 5:7
1. “For you yourselves know that we are destined for [afflictions].” – 1Thessalonians 3:3
B. It’s not just every once in a while.
1. In Gen.3 we’re told that God subjected mankind to pain as a result of human sin (Rom.8:20).
C. We experience a lot of pressure in life, a lot of burden, a lot of pain. Life is hard.
D. And as a result, we get weary. We get weak. We get shaky. And discouraged.
1. Sometimes it’s enough to make our hands weak and our knees wobbly. We don’t function well when we get really discouraged.
2. We’re not unique. Every person fights a battle with discouragement.
a. Moses did; Elijah did; Jeremiah did.
b. Martin Luther did; Charles Spurgeon did. Even godly people sometimes get very down.
3. Every one of us faces temptations to worry and fret, temptations to feel overwhelmed, temptations to give up. That’s just reality.
E. So, one of the greatest challenges of life is managing our morale. We need uplifting. We need strengthening. We need encouragement.
F. There are no easy answers to this, though there are plenty of superficial voices which make it out to be easy: “Be encouraged! Be strong!” they say – as if we can just choose to be strong and happy.
G. In Psalm 119:25 the psalmist says, “My soul clings to the dust.” That’s what it’s like, isn’t it?
1. Souls cling to the dust. They don’t just fall into the dust, so you can pick them up and dust them off. They cling to the dust. The wording implies that even when attempts are made to lift oneself up, they are often of no avail. “My soul clings to the dust.”
2. Sometimes pulling your heart out of the dust is like digging up a stump.
III. The Bible does offer us help, though. It tells us – in Isaiah 40:29–31 – that God gives power to the faint, and increases strength to him who has none. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
A. So God gives strength. But it isn’t automatic. It’s not like every time a person begins to feel weak, God zaps him with strength. God may do that at times, but primarily, and especially as we grow into maturity, God gives us to tools to deal with our discouragement.
B. At first, Isaiah 35:3 seems to just be commanding us to be encouraged: “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.” But it’s so much more here than that.
C. The Bible is not a long series of pithy statements. In my opinion, one of the qualities of good preaching is that it teaches the listener how to mine the Bible for gold on their own.
1. One of my goals is to not only present gold to the congregation, but also to teach them how to mine for it themselves. And one of the first lessons to learn is to read verses in context.
2. So, let’s look at the context which surrounds this morning’s passage, Is.35:3-4a.
IV. Before Isaiah 35 says in v.3-4, Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. 4 Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not!”
A. It says in Is.35:1-2: “The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; 2 it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God.”
1. Verses 1-2 told OT believers that their world was a desert which would one day be transformed into a lush garden.
2. The wilderness/garden language seems to be based on the creation story and the fall of mankind in Genesis 1-3. Originally, man was placed in a garden (Gen.2:8). But after he sinned, he was driven out of the garden to dwell in a wilderness of thorns and thistles (Gen.3:23-24).
3. Adam was tempted in the garden and his disobedience brought us all into the wilderness of sin.
4. But now in Is.35 God says He is going to reverse this process. And, of course, we know that the way He reversed this process was through Christ, who was tempted in the wilderness and by His obedience brought us into the garden of His grace.
5. Thus these verses in Is.35 are actually the basis of the song, “Lo, how a rose e’er blooming,” and the birth of the expression, The Rose of Sharon, a popular title for Jesus.
6. Our translation doesn’t mention a rose; it mentions a crocus. The fact is that we don’t really know what flower the Hebrew word there refers to. When the song was written 500 years ago, Bible scholars thought it was probably a rose, now they think it most likely refers to a crocus.
7. But the point is, this is part of a running theme in the prophecy of Isaiah which speaks of the coming of Christ and its effect on the world. And now this process of transforming the desert into a garden has begun with the coming of Christ.
a. It continues today with the expansion of His kingdom by the preaching of the gospel & work of HS.
b. But it won’t be finished until the return of Christ and the re-creation of the heavens and the earth, described with garden language, including the tree of life from the garden of Eden, in Rev.22:2.
8. The point here is this: it may seem like things are getting worse and worse in this world, but the reality is that there is something much more profound and much more powerful going on.
a. Jesus has purchased a piece of worthless, scrub real estate – land which no one else wanted – and He is turning it into a lush, scenic, exquisite, flourishing, fertile, blooming, bountiful garden.
9. What is this wilderness which is being turned into this paradise?
a. It’s the people God has given to His Son. They are the wilderness being turned by Him into a fruitful garden.
10. It started out very small — like a mustard seed. But gradually it “becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” (Mt.13:31-35)
11. Through the gospel of Christ and the power of the HS, God is in the Extreme Makeover business.
a. It doesn’t always happen quickly. It doesn’t always happen dramatically.
b. Miraculously, inevitably, and gloriously, it’s happening according to His agenda, according to His timing, according to His perfect wisdom, and nothing can prevent it!
12. In light of this glorious reality, can we not “strengthen our weak hands, and make firm our feeble knees”?
B. The main weapon God has given us to fight temptations to be discouraged or give up is the truth.
1. This is the means by which God revives our souls.
2. This is the tool by which we should expect God to rescue us from our discouragement.
3. You see, one of the main distinctions between a believer and a non-believer is that they have very different interpretations of the world.
4. And the Bible tells us how to interpret reality. It tells us what is actually happening.
5. The truth is that God is turning the wilderness into a paradise. He tells us this in His word. And He wants this to become our interpretation of reality.
a. Your life may feel barren and dry like a wilderness. But that’s just the way things look right now.
b. The truth is, if you’re a believer in Christ, your life is in the process of becoming a glorious garden. Your present may look and feel like a desert, but your future is like a garden paradise!
6. It’s sort of like watching a movie you know has a happy ending.
a. Or watching a recording of a game which you know your team wins.
7. When things were really hard and frustrating, it’s so important for us to not listen to appearances, but to listen to God’s word.
8. While the plot is building, we sometimes begin to feel overwhelmed and hopeless. But then we go back to the promises of God, and we remember where all this is heading, we find new vigor and encouragement. That’s why we need the truth!
C. But it’s not just the truth about the future which is powerful. It’s also the truth about God.
1. You see, we see here not only that God will one day turn this wilderness into a lush garden, we also see that God is a God who turns wildernesses into lush gardens. So, it works in the little stories of life, not just in the grand scheme of history.
2. And it is also the knowledge that the day Isaiah was referring to has already begun: that our God is already at work doing His work in us and in this world.
D. Some day we will hear millions of stories of how God’s people were encouraged and strengthened by God’s word.
V. For now, we see that the truth of Christ is what we need to strengthen us.
A. God knows every one of our struggles and burdens. And He knows we need help. And that’s why He’s given us plenty of help, plenty of ammunition to fight against discouragement, plenty of resources to address it, plenty of reasons to not fall prey to its temptations.
B. Let me read the rest of Ps.119:25 “My soul clings to the dust; revive me according to your word!”
1. Here the psalmist teaches us that we need uplifting, that God is the One who revives.
2. But we also see that it is not just something which happens directly. It happens “according to Your word,” the verse says.
C. You can take a walk, you can exercise at the gym, you can eat a good meal, you can listen to music or watch a good movie. But the primary way God lifts the spirits of believers is through the truth of His word.
D. Does your soul cling to the dust? God has given you a treasury of help.
1. The Bible is an inexhaustible ocean of truth like this, to counter discouragement, along with many other dangers.
E. It tells us that Jesus Christ is on the throne, ruling over all things for good.
F. It tells us that Christ has paid for our sins upon the cross so that we have been forgiven.
G. It tells us that He is risen and has conquered death.
H. It tells us that since God is for us, nothing can be against us.
I. It tells us that although God sends us suffering, sometimes more than we feel like we can endure, it is not to harm us but to teach us not to trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead (2Cor.1:8-9).
J. It tells us that those who continue to serve Him faithfully in spite of the hardships and frustrations will reap a harvest of unspeakable joy.
K. It tells us that there is great comfort for us in Christ when we suffer.
L. It tells us that we have been given His Spirit to cry out in our hearts Abba Father! to God.
M. It tells us that God by His Spirit is working to conform us to the image of Christ.
N. It tells us that Christ will one day return, and call all of His children to Himself. And He will recreate the heavens and the earth, and we will live with Him in glory, with no more sorrow, no more pain, no more sin, no more discouragement.
O. And it tells us that right now God is turning the wilderness of human sin into a paradise of His grace.
P. But reading the Bible doesn’t automatically deliver us from discouragement or guarantee that we’ll be strengthened. That’s why we cry out to the Lord to revive us according to His word.
1. When we come to God’s word when our souls are clinging to the dust, we should beg Him to speak to us and give us the help we need. And if it doesn’t work, then ask again & again & again.
2. It’s not effortless. It’s like learning to anything. It takes effort, it takes intentionality, it takes practice. But it’s very doable for any of us.
Q. Psalm 19:7–10 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes...10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
R. Deut. 32:45-47 - These words - They are your life.
S. John 6:63 The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
VI. There’s one more part of this. We’ve only really talked about Is.35:3, “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.” But this is followed by v.4: “Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong; fear not!’”
A. It's not enough to be strong, we need to work to help others be strong. We are each surrounded by people who need daily encouragement.
1. “Say to those who have an anxious heart, ‘Be strong; fear not!’”
2. God has given each one of us an important role in the lives of the people around us.
3. Hebrews 3:13 Encourage one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
4. This word translated exhort is the same word we’ve talked about before, PARAKALEO, which is also translated encourage and comfort. It’s the same word Jesus uses when He promises He will send them another helper/comforter.
B. We’re in this together, Folks. We’re running in a race that we can’t finish alone. We need to work as a team. We need to cheer one another on. I help you when you are weak, and then you help me when I am weak. I pull you up when you are down, then you pull me up when I am down.
C. This is what we’re all about as a church. This is why I preach the Bible. This is why we have Sunday school classes and Bible studies.
D. And this is why the Bible says we should not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. – Hebrews 10:25