A Highway for Our God

I just want to read a few well known verses from Isaiah chapter 40. I think we could perhaps do without the lights. Might make us feel a little cooler. Thank you. Isaiah, chapter 40, from verse three. The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of the Lord; make level in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The voice of one saying, Cry. And one said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the breath of the Lord bloweth upon it; surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand forever. O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up on a high mountain; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold, your God!  These verses are very, very well known. And all I want to do this morning is, as it were, to draw your attention to them and underline perhaps one or two very real lessons. I think they come very much out of this week that we have spent together, and perhaps in some ways draw some of the strands together. And the first thing I want you to notice in verse three is this voice of one that crieth, prepare ye in the wilderness the way of the Lord. Make level in the desert a highway for our God. We know from Mark and chapter one that this was fulfilled in John the Baptist’s ministry when he went before the Lord Jesus Christ, crying. It says in Mark 1:2 even as it is written Isaiah, the prophet, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ye ready the way of the Lord. Make his path straight. John came, who baptized in the wilderness and preached the baptism of repentance unto remission of sins. And there went out unto him all the country of Judea and all they of Jerusalem, and they were baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. We know that this has had a fulfilment, but we also know that those same scriptures that speak of John coming in the power and spirit of Elijah, the Lord Jesus said, and he is yet to come. In other words, we understand from this passage that it has a first fulfilment in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ on earth when he was born at Bethlehem. And yet it has not been exhaustively fulfilled. For we cannot say, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. We know that there is still coming a day when the knowledge of the glory of God is going to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. And in the same way that there needed to be, as it were, a people prepared for the first coming of the Lord, so there is a need for a people to be prepared for the second coming of our Lord. And if the first coming of our Lord was glorious, what will be the second coming of our Lord when the glory of God is going to be finally, fully and forever revealed? The voice of one that crieth, prepare ye in the wilderness the way of the Lord. Hasn't that got a message for us? Are we not as the people of God in a kind of wilderness, a world in confusion, a chaotic, war-ridden, strife-torn world? Unhappiness on every side, emptiness, a vacuum? It's a wilderness. It's not the garden of Eden. It's not a paradise. It's not a new Jerusalem. It's a Babylon. Every foul and evil and filthy thing inhabits it. It is a wilderness. And the voice of one crying in that wilderness make ready a way for the Lord. Now how did John, how was John's ministry fulfilled? In what way was there a way prepared in the wilderness for the Lord? How was a highway for our God made level in the desert? Was it not in those people who, heeding to that cry of John, first repented and confessed their sins and then waited for the coming of the Lord and when he came, joined themselves to him? How can you and I prepare a way for the Lord in this wilderness? How can you and I make a highway for our God? Think of it, a highway. What is a highway? A lane is a lane. A country road is a country road. But a motorway is a highway. Why, it used to take us hours and hours just to get up to Sheffield. And now you can zoom up to Sheffield in an hour or just over. [laughter] Well, you know what I mean. I mean, there's a highway there. Relatively speaking, there's a highway. A highway is for speed. A highway is for direction. It's for getting something done. It's a direct way. A highway for our God. What does this mean? That the Lord may be enabled to fulfil his purpose as swiftly and as quickly as is possible. God wants to get to a certain place. He wants to get to a certain stage. He wants to, as it were, finish with a certain phase. He wants to close the whole parenthesis of time. He wants to, as it were, usher eternity in. He wants the city of God to come down out of heaven, having the glory of God, so that the whole original purpose of God may start on its way. Don't ask me what God's original objective really was, other than to have a people for himself, other than to have a bride for his Son, other than to bring a people into absolute union with himself. I don't know what eternity holds for us, what new things God will do, his creative genius, if I may speak reverently of him, when perhaps he will create new universes or do new wonders, I don't know. But all I know is this. He wants a people joined to himself through whom he can manifest his glory. And if this poor old earth, with all its sin and all its breakdown and all its darkness and all its crookedness, still reveals something like some old Greek or Roman ruin, something of the original beauty, something of the original glory, something of the original dimensions, oh, what will it be when the King comes, when finally the earth and the heavens are released from their bondage to the fall, to sin, to Satan, liberated into this glorious liberty of the children of God? God wants a highway just as he needed a highway to get Calvary, an accomplished fact. Just as he needed, as it were, a way prepared in the wilderness so that he might reveal his glory in the person of his Son to those who had eyes to see. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. God needed a highway in order to get that great work of our salvation and redemption done, so that there could be an eternal and everlasting basis that not anything in hell, on earth, or in heaven can gainsay, an eternal basis for our acceptance in the presence of God. God needs a highway today, in the closing stages of this age, in the light of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the shadow of the beast, in the very shadow, the beginnings of what we seem to feel, is the ten kingdom confederacy into which we are entering. God wants a highway in the desert made level, bulldozed by a people who shall show forth his praise. God wants a way for himself in the wilderness so that he may be enabled to fulfil his purpose and bring this whole age to an end. But how can we make a way for the Lord? Shall we all go to theological seminaries? Shall we all take up correspondence Bible courses? Shall we stuff our heads with doctrine? What shall we do? Let it not be understood that I am despising doctrine or teaching or instruction at all. But that's not the way. It is summed up in one single word. Well, not a single word, but two words. Follow me. Follow me. Jesus, when John said to those disciples, behold the Lamb of God, Jesus said, what do you want? Where do you live? Where do you abide? they said. He said, follow me. He found them fishing and he said, follow me. He found them mending the nets, follow me and I will make you to become fishers of men. In that simple little command is the whole key for a highway for our God. Why, you may know your Bible from Revelation, from Genesis to Revelation. You may know all about prophecy. You may know the complexities of whether we're going to go before the tribulation, during the tribulation, or after the tribulation, whether there's a millennium or no millennium. You may be able to sit down and discuss it for hours. But if you are not following him, there's no highway for God. You can sing your head off, but if you're not following the Lord, there's no highway for our God. We can have meeting after meeting after meeting, but if we're not following him, there's no highway for our God. The only way that the work of God can be accomplished, can be finalised, the purpose of God realised, is to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes. To be so near to him. And what does that mean? It means this. If any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever shall lose his life, the same shall find it. And whosoever shall hold on to his life, the same shall lose it. Now that you will find in Mark and chapter eight. But if you look at the following verses in chapter nine, what is it? The transfiguration of our Lord in glory. Glory always follows the cross. No man can lay down his life without the spontaneous and ultimate issue being glory. If it is a following of the Lord, you can go down into death, you can go into the grave, you can let go of your life, you can surrender it, you can say farewell to it, and it will come back to you in glory. But you can hold on to it with your little puny hands, my little hands, avaricious and greedy and egocentric. We can take hold of our life and say, I will even have my spiritual life in my hands. I will keep my hand upon it. I will dictate what I shall do with my little life. No one's going to tell me anything, and we've lost it. There's no glory. There's no praise. What does the Lord say? He says about the church, a people that shall show forth my praise. That is a life that somehow speaks of the glory of the Lord. A poor life, yes. A weak life, yes. A life perhaps with many faults, but in it there's divine fire. Oh, dear friend, it doesn't matter if you're an old thorn bush. Even a dried up thorn bush, even a dead thorn bush, so long as there's fire in you. Let the other Christians smirk. Let them deride. Let them say a fox will push down what they are building. Who worries at all if it's a thorn bush with fire in it? Its ultimate vindication is absolutely assured. Why? Because it's a highway. It's a highway. It's a means for God to travel. It's a means for God to travel along it and do something. It's the means by which God moves from one point to another. A voice crying in the wilderness, prepare ye a way for the Lord. Make level in the desert a highway for our God. Does it really matter, dear child of God or dear people of God, if we are despised or derided or criticised or whatever else? If finally it means that the glory of the Lord is going to be revealed? To be in it. To be in it. For listen to these immortal words. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. I don't know how long we have, but oh, for a life that's a highway for God. Oh, for a life that's made it easier for the Lord. Oh, for a life that's not continually holding the Lord up, making it difficult for him, but is in fact advancing his purpose, is cooperating with him. The glory of the Lord. Follow me. If we follow the Lord, some of our choice preconceptions have got to be let go of. Some of our ideas as to what's going to happen, like some cast iron mould into which everything must be poured, will be put on one side. We shall follow him. Is it not true of those disciples that they couldn't understand him? He did this and they didn't understand it. He did that and they didn't understand. He said this and they didn't understand it. Oh, you know, murmuring is an extraordinary capacity of the human heart. They murmured amongst themselves, what does he mean? Why does he do this? Even just before the cross, when a woman took her alabaster cruise of precious ointment and broke it, they all murmured, he shouldn't have done it. They said, the Lord shouldn't have allowed this. It could have done some good missionary work. To follow him means sometimes we don't always understand and we don't quite know what he's doing, but we know we are following him. Now, of course, there might be dangers there, but I can't stop with that this morning. Just to underline this one thing, a highway for our God. Oh, answer me a question in your heart. Are you a highway in the wilderness, in the desert, or are you a spectator? Are you in this move of God to make a way for him, or are you holding back —reservations, conditions, many other things? God help us. There were many people who heard John the Baptist and smirked. There were many people who probably thought, how ridiculous a man there, sort of half-naked in some skin, standing there shouting his head off, how ridiculous the whole thing. But history has vindicated John the Baptist, and our Lord's own words have vindicated him. None born of woman is greater than he. Does it matter to John the Baptist that 75% or more of the nation derided him, when he knows that his name has gone down as eternal in the annals of the work of God? In the history of the work of God? And so shall your name be found in the annals of God's work as well. For the Lord has a book, and then those that fear him and spoke oft one to another, he will hearken and wrote it down and is writing them down in a book. It's the ultimate vindication that matters, dear friend, not the present. But I must, oh, look, my time's gone. Let me just say two other things very swiftly, and the second is in verse four. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill be made low, and the uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain. Oh, I like the new English Bible version. In this last part, it says, and the rugged places shall be made smooth, and mountain ranges shall become a plain. How beautifully put. Rugged places shall be made smooth, and the mountain ranges shall become a plain. There are two things here for those of us who would give ourselves to God that a highway may be made for the Lord in the wilderness, in the desert. First, the reversal of the natural. Oh, the reversal of the natural. The whole principle of God's work is the reversal of the natural. He reduces everything that's mighty and big to zero, that his power and his glory and his might, his authority may be made manifest. Why, many of you who know your Bibles, you must think of scripture after scripture in connection with this. Isn't this a reversal of the natural? Valleys are normally deep places. Mountains have normally altitude. But it's a reversing of the natural. The valleys shall be exalted, the mountains and the hills shall be made low. Have you ever heard of such a thing?And you look at me a little puzzled. What does that mean? Does it mean some great earthquake physically, maybe at the coming of the Lord? I don't know. But I'm quite sure of this, that when our Lord Jesus first came, no valley was exalted physically, and no mountain or hill made low physically. What does it mean? It means simply this, that God reverses the natural order. Now, isn't it true that this world's way is might, money, natural resources, natural personality, all those things? And what does the word of God say? Not many mighty, not many noble, not many great are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the things which are wise and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and things which are not, hath he called that he might bring to naught, to zero, the things that are. The reversal of the natural. Oh, dear, dear friend, dear child of God, how we need to just see this. The cross, Calvary, is the reversal of the natural order. How would you have saved the world? By millions upon millions upon millions of angels being revealed in flaming power and might? So that the nations would have trembled at the presence of God in the heaven, so that a great voice would have trumpeted forth, here is my Son, now then everyone. But no, he was bound and spat upon and beaten and nailed by the creatures he created to wood which he had created, and was crucified. The Lord of glory. That is a reversal of the natural order. For Jesus Christ and him crucified is the power and the wisdom of God. No wonder it's a stumbling block to the Jew and foolishness to the academic mind, it's a reversal of the natural order. How is it that this one, crucified in weakness, should through that very death defy and beat, conquer, bring to naught him that had the power of death? It's a reversal of the natural order. Now all God's work is done by reversing the natural order. He takes people who may be something in themselves and he reduces them to zero. He takes a Moses, a mighty man, a prince in Pharaoh's house and takes 40 years in the desert to reduce the dear man to a Bedouin shepherd. Nothing. And then the fire gets into the Bedouin shepherd and he leads the people of God out and in to the promised land. He takes a person like David and reduces him by years and years of pursuit, although he knew he was meant for the throne, until he was nothing, and then brings him to the throne, having offered him the possibility of slaying his great enemy, the person who occupied the throne, just to see if he would do it. But he wouldn't. Oh, God's ways are beyond us. It's the reversal of the natural. So, dear friend, if you're going to be part of this highway for our God, remember the principle of this whole work is the reversal of the natural. It's not strength and it's not just personality and it's not just natural resources and it's not just natural gifts, it is the glory of God and the power of God and the authority of God. Now someone says, does that mean that God just chooses those who have no personality, no natural resources? That's not true. Now you come to a very important point. If you've got any personality at all, if you've got any natural resources at all, you're in for a tough time, because before God will use those resources and that natural personality of yours, he's got to reduce you to zero. He must reverse the natural order, lest you trust in yourself. Time has really gone. But I really had quite a bit more, really, to say. It's not just the reversal of the natural order, but it's the impossible that's done by the reversing of the natural order. How does God get the impossible done? He makes rugged places smooth. He makes mountain ranges a plain. How does he do it? By reversing the natural order. That's how he does it. He takes a man like Gideon with 30,000 and says, get rid of them. Far too many. 30,000. And the Midianites, why, their camels are as the sand of the seashore. Great exaggeration, but that's what was said in a dream vision. How are we going to do it? 30,000? No, you get rid of them. Cut him right down to 300. The reversing of the natural. And you know how they won the battle? Empty pitchers and torches and a trumpet. Are you an empty pitcher and is the flame of God in you? And is the word of God in your mouth? Or are you like the 30,000, relying on our numbers, our numerical strength, our cohering, as it were. Oh, there's much, much more that we could say. But here is this great lesson. Let me finally just say we are told that script, all flesh is as grass. Why does the Lord say that? Because he's trying to say to us, with all your personality, with all your gifts, with all your natural resources, it withers and fades. It is the word of the Lord that stands forever. And if the Lord says, this mountain shall become a plain, it shall become a plain. And if the Lord says, this valley shall be exalted, it shall be exalted. And if the Lord's mouth says, all flesh shall see my glory, and shall see it together, all flesh will see the glory of the Lord together. Now, is it not interesting that this little passage ends with this cry to someone, to these dear ones, get up. Get up onto the highest places, and from the tops, the pinnacles of the mountains, shout! They've already been told to shout, evidently not on the pinnacles, but to themselves, all flesh is as grass. The word of the Lord standeth, and that was to themselves. Now they are told to get up and shout to the people of God everywhere, behold your God! How beautiful that is. How pregnant. Behold your God. No more. Then it goes on. Behold the Lord God will come. But, oh, how pregnant with meaning is that little word? Behold your God. That's the key. Not behold us, not behold our message, but behold your God. And that will have to be our message in the closing days of the age, when everything else that can be shaken will be shaken and will fall away. Behold your God. He is an everlasting rock, and all who put their trust in him shall not be confounded. May God help us in the light of his coming to be those who, at any cost, are right with the Lord and right with one another, and who are making a highway for the Lord, becoming a highway for the Lord in the desert, preparing a way for the Lord in the wilderness. Lord, we pray together that every one of us might know in our own hearts the witness of thy spirit to thine own word. And we pray, Lord, that indeed we may be those prepared. Grant, Lord, that we may not be those who are heedless or who make excuses or evade, but those who face up to thy word and are a people who are a highway for thyself. We ask it together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.