JOY OF THE REDEEMED!
Rev. Bernt P. Tweit
Epistle Lesson; James 5:7-10
Gospel Lesson; Matthew 11:2-11
Sermon Text; Isaiah 35:1-10
Advent is a season of great joy. In one of our popular Christmas hymns, we proclaim, "Joy to the world the Lord is come, let earth receive her King!" Today from our text we see a wonderful picture of Heaven. A picture that brings great joy to us, who are redeemed children of God. This great joy has been received because Jesus came to save us.
The desert and the parched land will be glad;
the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom;
it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;
they will see the glory of the LORD,
the splendor of our God.
Strengthen the feeble hands,
steady the knees that give way;
say to those with fearful hearts,
"Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
he will come to save you."
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then will the lame leap like a deer,
and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert.
The burning sand will become a pool,
the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.
And a highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness.
The unclean will not journey on it;
it will be for those who walk in that Way;
wicked fools will not go about on it.
No lion will be there,
nor will any ferocious beast get up on it;
they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,
and the ransomed of the LORD will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Isaiah 35:1-10
Isaiah in our text today tells us of the great contrast between the parched land of the desert because of the lack of water and the same desert that has water gushing through it like a river.
In the chapters before our text, Isaiah had spoken out against God’s people, and foretold of their impending capture and exile. A day would be coming when they too would be captured and taken into captivity, because they had neglected and rejected God’s Word. Their hearts had become dry and parched like a desert. They had followed in the way of the nation of Israel, who during Isaiah’s lifetime had been carried off into the Babylonian captivity.
Most of the chapters of Isaiah, to this point, have focused on Israel’s judgment and punishment. How depressed the people must have been, knowing that they would be disciplined because they didn’t follow what God had commanded of them.
Now in our text, Isaiah switches gears to comfort believers. We, like the Israelites, will still go through some very difficult times, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Isaiah likens this to the transformation of a desert.
We have seen what water means to an arid desert region. Even in our country, out west, in the Great Basin, we have a desert that has come to life and the land made productive through the irrigation of the land with water. Golf courses are in the middle of the desert, and are lush and green because of the water. Just as the desert rejoices and blossoms, we shout for joy and rejoice because we have been saved, and watered with saving faith to life everlasting.
Today as we look at this message of "Joy of the Redeemed" we see its two-fold message:
1. A warning of impending judgment from God because of our persistent sins.
2. The promise of God’s comfort and help in our distress.
A warning of impeding judgment from God because of our persistent sins.
I have a plant that I keep in my office that I want to share with you this morning. It is a plant that I keep on a shelf and let its leaves gracefully lay over the edge. If you were able to see it, you would notice how dry and limp the plant is. It has become such a fixture in my office that I often times neglect this poor little plant.
Usually it takes a co-worker to come in and say, "Pastor Tweit, your plant could really use some water."
After receiving some water, the plant quickly bounces back and comes back to life.
Our faith is like that plant. When the plant has water it looks full of life and vibrant, but when the water evaporates and dries up, so does the plant. Everyday I walk by this plant, and yet look at how neglected it is. This plant is a lot like our faith. God’s Word should be a part of our life everyday, yet how often don’t we forget to water our faith with God’s Word. I know that we don’t water our faith like we should. For example when trouble comes our way, we worry instead of handing things over to God. When others say things about us, we jump to conclusions and assume the worst, instead of putting the best construction on everything. When we let sin dominate our life, and neglect God’s Word, our faith looks like this plant. How can we correct that?
There may be times when we try to produce our own solutions to the sin that dominates our life. We may look at others and compare ourselves to them.
How often do we revel in other people’s sins? We like to point out the speck of dust in another’s eye, and fail to see the 2 X 4 in our own eye. We try to keep God’s Law in most aspects to the letter, but blatantly neglect to apply God’s Law in other areas. We do what Matthew the gospel writer describes as, "We strain out a gnat but swallow a camel."
Outwardly we appear to others as righteous but on the inside we are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. What a dismal change sin makes in us. It turns a healthy plant into a parched plant. It takes a healthy faith and dries it up.
It is depressing to hear about our sin. Isaiah says that, "Our sin has separated us from God." And without God there is not life.
That is why I am glad Isaiah goes on to say; do not despair though your plant is parched. It will come back to life and to blossom again. It will be like a crocus. Even the land, which lies waste and parched, will burst into bloom. Springs will come forth in the desert, and streams refresh the parched ground so that you may rest and be refreshed, with nothing to remind you that it once lay withered and dying. Only by God’s grace could that spring well forth in a desert. Only by God’s grace can faith well in our hearts.
The promise of God’s comfort and help in our distress.
Jesus is the promise. He came to restore us. He came to strengthen our feeble hands and weak knees. He came to open our eyes, unstop our ears and loosen our tongue. He has saved us, not because of righteous things we have done, but because of his mercy. Jesus is the way of holiness. He is the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to God the Father except through Him.
What a joyous picture of Heaven! Oh the joy that we have being redeemed and bought back from sin by the blood of Jesus’ death on the cross.
We will walk on the way of holiness with shouting, for we will know that the burden, which would have made it impossible for our entrance into Heaven, has been removed. We are the redeemed of the Lord. We have a crown of everlasting joy!
Isaiah in our text says that joy and gladness will overtake us. There is no joy when we are in the depths of sin. Now joy overtakes us to accompany us on our way to Heaven. And sorrow and sadness flee away. They do not merely depart; they flee, for they cannot be present with rejoicing and gladness. What a striking and blessed contrast to the preceding chapters! How joyful is the future for God’s redeemed. How joyful is the future for God’s redeemed.
Even from the Old Testament, Isaiah points us to the Savior. He points forward to the saving work of Jesus. Behind all the joy and gladness that rest upon our heads like a crown, is the suffering and death of Jesus. The Bible says, "Be faithful, even, unto the point of death and I will give you a crown of life."
We will enter Heaven with singing, because our sins have been forgiven through our Savior, Jesus.
We don’t look better in God’s eyes by comparing ourselves to other, we don’t look better by pointing out sin in others’ lives and failing to see the sin in our own. The only way we look good in God’s eyes is through the birth and death of Jesus. What joy we who are redeemed have! Joy that leads to singing, on our way to Heaven.
Joy to the earth, the Savior Reigns!
Let all their songs employ,
While fields and floods,
Rocks, hills, and plains,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.
Amen.
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