Introduction
The theme of the 2002 Bible Presbyterian General Synod was "The God of All Comfort." Every seminar and sermon dealt with this theme. One of the seminars led by Pastor G.W. Fisher was titled, "The Mercy of the Lord in Times of Grief." In it, he spoke to us about the death of his mother. He was a young boy when his mother died. Too young, some thought, to understand what was going on. So, the adults around him spent most of their time comforting the older siblings and he was left to console himself. He told us how abandoned and disconsolate he felt because he not only had lost a mother, but also he had been left to his own to deal with the death of his mother in a very young age. For a long time after his mother's death, he tried to find comfort in the Scriptures and in the Lord. However, as far as he knew the Scriptures presented God as a Father to his people. He had a father. What he longed for was the warmth, comfort, and loving care that only a mother could give. He grieved deeply till somebody showed to him Isaiah 66:13, "As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem." He found out that the Lord was not only a Father to the fatherless, but also a mother to the motherless. He found out that in the same way a mother comforts her children, God comforts his children.
Isaiah 56-66 speaks of the certainty of the glorious kingdom of Christ. Starting in chapter 56 with a prophecy about the salvation of the Gentiles to the consummation of this age with the new heavens and new earth in chapter 65, Isaiah describes in prophetic, poetic, figurative, and, sometimes, literal language the glorious work of Christ in his Church. Nestled in the end of this series of warnings about the benefits of God's salvation and the severity of his judgments upon the infidel, we find a message of comfort and encouragement for God's Church. We find a promise of better days, of revival and faithfulness for his Church. We find a loving message from a loving God.
On this Mother's Day, instead of speaking about the duties of motherhood, or the virtues of godly mother, or the praises due to our mothers, I would like for us to consider the comfortable arms of our God that are placed around his people just like the loving arms of a mother are placed around her children.
I. The Scriptures Depict God as a Mother Hen Protecting Her Chicks
Ruth 2:12 – The LORD repay your work, and a full reward be given you by the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.
Ps. 17:8 – Keep me as the apple of Your eye; hide me under the shadow of Your wings.
Ps. 36:7 – How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.
Ps. 57:1 – Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; and in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, until these calamities have passed by.
Ps. 61:4 – I will abide in Your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings.
Ps. 63:7 – Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.
Ps. 91:4 – He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
Mal. 4:2 – But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves.
Mt. 23:37 – O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
A. The picture here is one of protection, rest, and peace.
"The Lord overshadows his people as a hen protects her brood, or as an eagle covers its young; and we as the little ones run under the blessed shelter and feel at rest. To cower down under the wings of God is so sweet. Although the enemy be far too strong for us, we have no fear, for we nestle under the Lord's wing." Spurgeon
B. God's people find comfort under the wings of the Almighty.
C. He is our safe haven.
Col. 3:3 – For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
II. God Comforts Us like a Mother, 13.
"As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you"
A. Isaiah is not saying that God is to be called a she.
B. He is trying to paint a picture for us.
C. God the Holy Spirit knew that by drawing this analogy to a mother most people would understand what he was trying to say.
D. How is the comfort of a mother?
1. It is a loving comfort.
2. It is a trusting comfort.
a. A mother is always there for her kids.
b. It is hard for any one to fathom a more trustworthy person than one's own mother.
c. Yet, God is even more present for his people than a mother
Ps. 27:10 – When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take care of me.
3. It is a caring comfort.
a. auies
b. Heart breaks
4. It is a providing comfort – what mother seen a child hungry, or in any kind of need, will let him/her go without doing her best to provide for him/her (the mother in McFarland when the coaches visit the house).
III. God Comforts Us like a Mother through His Church, 12.
A. If you read this chapter carefully, you will see that it revolves around Zion/Jerusalem.
B. However, the prophet is not speaking of the actual city with its rock walls and dirt roads.
C. Zion/Jerusalem here stands for the place where God dwells with his people.
D. This is no other place than his Church.
E. Thus, it is proper to present this chapter as one that speaks of God's Church and of God's people.
F. In other words, this is not speaking of something that relates to a specific ethnic group or to a future age.
G. God speaks to UShere today.
H. When he says he comforts his people, he is speaking to us.
I. If you are in Christ, God is your comfort and he will comfort you like a mother comforts his children.
J. And God will comfort his people through his Church.
K.God speaks of pouring blessings upon his church
1. The Lord will extend/stretch out his peace upon his Church.
2. Abundance (glory) of peace will flow from the Lord as a perennial river.
"Whenever therefore we behold the sad and melancholy condition of the Church, let us remember that these promises relate to us not less than to that people. Seeing that the Lord has rivers of peace which he wishes to cause to flow into his Church, let us not despair even amidst the fiercest wars; but in our distresses and straits, let us cheer our hearts and rejoice." John Calvin
L. Look at the consequences of the blessings of the Lord.
1. You shall feed – the idea here is "you shall nurse like a baby and never go hungry for the Lord."
2. You shall be carried as it were on the Church's hip.
3. You shall be caressed on the lap of the Church.
M.God pours his blessings on the Church through his means of grace.
1. Prayer – are we a praying church?
2. The preaching of the Word – we must preach Christ.
3. The sacraments
IV. Specific Ways the Lord Comforts His Church, 40:2-11.
A. The reality of the forgiveness of their sins, 40:2.
1. The judgment of the Lord will not last forever upon his people as a whole, 1.
2. God is going to deliver his people (Jerusalem).
3. He is not going to give them more than what they can bear or deserve (double = folded, exact the same, reflection).
4. People of God, are you rooted and grounded in knowing that in Jesus Christ all your sins are forgiven?
1 Jn. 1:8-9 – If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
2 Cor. 5:21 – For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Ps. 103:12 – As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Heidelberg Catechism 1 – What is thy only comfort in life and death? That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour 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.
B. The glory of the Lord displayed to us Christ Jesus, 3-5.
1. Notice that the valleys will be brought up and the mountains will be brought low.
a. That is a poetic way of saying that nothing is going to get in the way of the Lord.
b. There will be no obstacles for him.
2. Everyone will know of the glory of the Lord, 5.
3. It is a sure thing to happen because it is the Lord who has said it.
4. The NT tells us that this passage is about the coming of the Lord Jesus.
a. He is the display of God's glory.
b. Through him we know the fullness of God.
c. He is the ultimate encouragement for God's people.
5. People often want to see God do something amazing like a great miracle.
6. God says here that the most glorious, amazing display of whom he is was the coming of his Son to save his people.
C. The permanence of the Word of God, 40:6-8
1. God's promises particularly to be their God is still true.
a. Even in captivity this is true.
b. Sometimes this idea is all that we have to go on because everything around us seem to point to the fact that nothing God has said is true.
2. Everything else around us changes or passes way.
a. Our friends change.
b. The places around us change.
c. Our children change.
d. Our parents change.
e. We change.
3. These changing things will often let us down.
a. We can't rely on them as infallible things.
b. We will be disappointed.
4. But God never changes and what he has said never changes.
a. We can trust in every single word that has come out of his mouth.
b. He is going to be faithful to himself.
c. All the promises he has made to his people will come to pass.
d. All the consequences that comes form sinning will also come to pass.
D. The tenderness of God, 40:9-11
Conclusion
You should walk out of here today knowing that God has poured his blessing upon you and his arms are around you like the arms of a loving mother. The Lord will comfort you and you shall be comforted in his Church.
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