COMFORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT FROM THE LORD
J. S. Gray
Isaiah 40: 1, 2, 6–11; Matthew 16: 13–18; John 14: 1–3
I feel sure that the Lord would give to us a distinct word of comfort and encouragement and establishment. That is my simple desire, to convey that it is in God’s mind for us that we should be comforted. It is a remarkable thing that God should repeat this statement here twice, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people”. God is saying this to His earthly people directly here, and we might say things had been rather bad. God’s chastisement and discipline were needed to correct much that had come in amongst His beloved people. Yet this is what God has in mind, that His people should be comforted. We will speak about how it may come about, but let us have that settled in our minds, beloved brethren, that God desires that we should have comfort from Him. I want to convey an impression of God’s feelings as to this. His relationship with His people had not been given up. God was still their God, and He is still addressing them as His people. I think that is for our assurance and encouragement in the present time.
The period in which Isaiah prophesies, as will be seen from the opening of the prophecy, extends to king Hezekiah, and it was the son of Hezekiah, that is Manasseh, who was one of the most evil kings to be over God’s earthly people in those times. So you may say that there is yet further departure that would come in after Isaiah’s prophecy. How can God speak like this with more discipline yet to come? God is anticipating the end of what His desires are for His people. God is assuring His people that He will never give up the relationship. Let us, beloved brethren, in our day, consider seriously the blessing of the relationship in which we stand with God revealed as Father, and take this voice from God to ourselves in our times.
There have been sorrows. How well we know it! God’s desire is that we should not be diverted by the incoming of sorrow which might appear sometimes to overwhelm. God will stand by the relationship which He has committed Himself to. Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. How is it going to be brought about? It seems to me that it is going to be brought about by two things specially. One is by apprehending that the word of God abides for ever. How assuring that is! Whatever God has said will stand. How assuring that would be to people who thought about it in Israel. Some might think a long way back; they might think back to God saying, “Let my son go, that he may serve me”, Exodus 4: 23. They might think back to God saying. “then shall ye be my own possession”, Exodus 19: 5. I would leave this word with the brethren for our establishment and comfort that, as it says in verse 8, “the word of our God abideth for ever”.
But then first of all there is this question of the ground of comfort, and the starting point must be that we recognise that there is nothing in man, “All flesh is grass”. The Lord teaches that grass is a thing of a day, the Lord says, “which is today, and tomorrow is cast into the oven”, Matthew 6: 30. The poet writes about man as ‘the creature of a day’. How puny man is, and the rest of this chapter includes beautiful statements from God as to His majesty and His personal greatness in contrast to the smallness and insignificance of man. Yet God has His thoughts as to man for blessing, but our starting point in view of comfort from God is to recognise that “All flesh is grass”. There is nothing in flesh, but the word of God abides for eternity, and this is glad tidings to us. That is what Peter says in his epistle when he quotes this scripture, “But this is the word which in the glad tidings is preached to you”, 1 Peter 1: 25. Peter is there speaking of the total necessity of God’s work in a new start. That is what should accompany in our minds the thought that there is absolutely nothing in man, “All flesh is grass”, there must be a new start with God. So there are glad tidings from God to assure us that God’s word remains.
Then the other thing that I specially wanted to point out was that the comfort will come through the incoming of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what the glad tidings bring, they announce that the Saviour is coming. What news for God’s people Israel! How wonderful it will be actually when it comes about. He came to them first, of course, as it says, “He came to his own, and his own received him not”, John 1: 11. How sorrowful that was, but the glad tidings are for us. The comfort and the establishment and the encouragement are in seeing that not only does God’s word stand, but it will come to pass through making way for the Lord Jesus Christ and His incoming. It will come about in us by looking for Him, His appearing, and our being with Him for ever; and then that He should be consciously known in each and every one of our gatherings together. So the word here is as to the glad tidings. This is not a matter to be hidden, or kept quiet; this is a matter to speak about, to enjoy in our conversation. Let us be concerned about our conversations that they bring the Lord Jesus in, bring in His name, bring in the prospect of His coming. Let us bring it into our households, bring it into our conversations, glad tidings concerning the One who is coming in.
See the tenderness of it, “say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!” You say, But we have had sorrow. Yes, we have had assembly sorrows and interruption of family relationships such as we would never have wished; but now see what God is saying, see what He is doing.
He has in view comfort. He has in view assurance. He has in view His own end and it will be for good, for blessing, for peace and joy. “Behold, the Lord Jehovah, will come with might, and his arm shall rule for him”. No doubt this is a reference to the appearing of the Lord Jesus to His earthly people when He comes again, but think of the tenderness of this in its bearing upon us. Think of how the Shepherd would move in our places and in our households tenderly in view of encouragement and establishment. Let us make way for Him. I think it can be done in a simple way by speaking of Him, by bringing His name in, the precious name of Jesus. Let the young people not be ashamed to speak of Jesus in the home. Jesus said this, or. Jesus did this or that. Let us have these glad tidings in our mouths and in our hearts and in all our circumstances because they are the way of blessing and the way of comfort. Jesus can use His arm. He can feed like a shepherd, “He will feed his flock like a shepherd”. Let us be with the flock when we can. Jesus feeds His flock like a shepherd, “he will gather the lambs with his arm”. They do not need to be separate for that, they can be in the flock, but He will gather them specially. He can give a word specially for the lambs. Think of the arm of Jesus, one arm, and He can gather them all up.
Dear young brother, young sister, you are intended to be part of the company, you are intended to be in the flock with the arm of Jesus around you. May we older ones be able to give this impression from the Lord Himself, that the flock is where the young people are to be freely and joyfully and consciously part of that circle which enjoys the comfort and assurance and love of the precious Saviour. It says, “he will ... carry them in his bosom”. Think of the love of Jesus ready to do that.
We might notice it specially in time of need, but at any time He is ready to hold us to Himself. Oh let us, beloved brethren, be able to convey this impression of love from the Saviour to His beloved precious ones! Then “he will gently lead those that give suck”. Think of His tenderness in taking account of the actual circumstances of need of His beloved people and providing for whatever is needed. Let us see the joy and the blessing of bringing the Lord Jesus into everything that we do and all our gatherings, because it can only be for blessing and peace, and for salvation and liberty.
Now I just say a little more to expand on these two points of comfort. Further as to what God has said certainly coming to pass; I speak of that in Matthew. There are other instances in the Scriptures of outstanding statements of God which show how totally we can rely upon what He says coming to pass. I would like just to refer for a moment to Psalm 89. God is speaking again to His people, “My covenant will I not profane, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness; I will not lie unto David—His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me; It shall be established for ever as the moon, and the witness in the sky is firm. Selah” (Psalm 89: 34–37). How precious to think of God going as far as to say to His people that He would not alter the thing that had gone out of His lips.
How assuring to us! God need not say it for Himself I need hardly say, but He says it for us, and these things are for our encouragement and establishment, that God will not change what He has said, but will bring it to pass.
Then I wanted to speak of this remarkable reference which Jesus makes to the assembly. The Lord says, “But ye, who do ye say that I am?” “Simon Peter answering said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”. What a full statement that is as to the glory of the person of Jesus. I have thought that a way to find a true believer is to hear what is said about the personal glory of Jesus. Peter had known the company of Jesus, and he had found Him to be the One who had words of life eternal. Peter is saying, as it were, Lord I know that Thou art different, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”. Others had previously said that Jesus was the Son of God, but not “the Son of the living God”. Let us have an impression in our souls as to the complete power of Jesus, to accomplish everything for God. If God has given His word and it stands, here we have the thought of the Accomplisher. He is the One who is totally competent to be the Accomplisher of what God has said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”. There had never been another like that before, yet as come into manhood, what grace is there. He is the expression of all God’s thoughts, which were to be established by His going into death and His rising again. He was going to go into death. He had life in Himself, but He was manifested to be Son of the living God through resurrection. Who else had power over death? No one!
We should not overlook the reality of death and its flowing in amongst us. From one standpoint these things happen according to nature, yet God brings death in and His timing of things is perfect. And we feel for our brethren in their continuing bereavement, but think of knowing and confessing the One who is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Hades’ gates cannot interfere with that. This One is superior to the power of hades’ gates. Let us think of the power that is available to establish and carry us through in spite of external sorrows and breakdown. The Lord says, “thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly, and hades’ gates shall not prevail against it”. That is to say, in the words of Isaiah, “the word of our God abides for ever”. It is uttered by God, by the Lord Jesus come into manhood, but it is the word of God, “hades’ gates shall not prevail against it”. How? Because of the One who is the Son of the living God. He has power to overthrow death. Death is the great power which is manifested as in the hands of the one who is behind hades’ gates. Satan wields the power of death but his forces have no control or power over the Son of the living God. Let us come to know Him better, let us come to trust Him better, beloved brethren, the One who has overthrown death, who has brought life and incorruptibility to light through the glad tidings.
So I leave this word of assurance, “on this rock I will build my assembly, and hades’ gates shall not prevail against it”. That is to say, apprehension of the glory of Jesus personally as “the Christ, the Son of the living God”, was what was going to carry things through without breakdown. Peter confesses this and he was going to be one who would be involved in the carrying through in expression of this character of things which would never break down.
How wonderful it is to think of the sovereign actions of God! The Lord says to Peter, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in the heavens”. What sovereignty! Let us bow our hearts at the sovereignty of divine work which has chosen us, and has attracted us to Jesus, and has wrought in our souls so that we might have an appreciation of this One who has power over hades’ gates. We might think of how this came to pass actually. Hades’ gates of course closed in upon the Lord Himself. We have often noticed, and let us feel it more, how the anticipation of the power of death came in upon the Saviour in His closing days. Hades’ gates suggests a combination of power from Satan, which may be unseen and hidden, but operating against Christ and all that is His. It came against the Saviour, but He was superior. He, as the hymn-writer says, ‘Trod all our foes beneath His feet, in being trodden down’. He submitted to what the will of God involved and eventually bowed His head and delivered up His spirit. Oh, but now He has risen. His resurrection and ascension, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, have established the assembly, that which is of Himself. There is a work in the souls of believers which can never be overthrown. How wonderful it is to think of the stability of this structure of which the Son of the living God says, “I will build my assembly, and hades’ gates shall not prevail against it”.
I just want to refer by way of illustration to two instances in the book of the Acts which show that hades’ gates did not prevail against the assembly. More instances may be found no doubt. I refer to the mission of Saul of Tarsus, and you will notice that it says that he had letters to Damascus from the chief priests. I think that is an illustration of hades’ gates, that is, there was a combination of religious opposition to the name of Jesus sufferingly. Was it going to prevail? There had been a scattering abroad after the persecution on the occasion of Stephen (Acts 8). The apostles were left at Jerusalem at least, but there were disciples in Damascus. There was one particular disciple in Damascus, and we are given his name, but he was not the only disciple in Damascus, there were other disciples there. Saul of Tarsus, when he was converted, remained with them for some days, and they were of great service to him later. But I refer to the organisation of religious opposition to the name of Christ. Is it going to prevail? The grace of Jesus the Saviour in glory comes in, and the light shines upon Saul of Tarsus and brings him down, and he hears a voice, “Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me?”, Acts 9: 4. Oh the grace of that voice from heaven to that, one might say, master opposer, an instrument of hades’ gates! No, hades’ gates are not to prevail, the opposer is brought down; but not brought into judgment. No, he is turned right round and made subservient, subdued under the grace which flowed out to him from Jesus in the glory.
Hades’ gates were not going to prevail against the assembly. According to 2 Corinthians 11, we find that in the same city, the governor shut the city up so that Paul could not escape (2 Corinthians 11: 32). It seems to me from the later verses in chapter 9 of Acts that the Jews were in league with the authorities. It appears to me that they were against Paul specially after his conversion, and putting it along with what Paul says himself about the governor shutting the gates of Damascus so that he should not escape, I would suggest that there was another instance of hades’ gates, that is, combined working of opposition to Christ and His operations in grace and power. But the disciples took him by night and let him down in a basket through a window. How thankful he would be for the disciples! Let us be thankful, beloved brethren, for those with whom we have been set, the disciples of a suffering Lord.
There is another instance I wanted to refer to, and that is the case of Herod. I refer to the scripture in Acts 12 when it says, “Herod the king laid his hands on some of those of the assembly to do them hurt, and slew James, the brother of John” (Acts 12: 1, 2). What would the brethren think of the beloved apostle being slain at the hands of a wicked man? Are hades’ gates going to prevail? Herod has plans, he sees that it was pleasing to the Jews. There is combination, it seems to me, manifested in these things. He went on to take Peter also, and put him in prison. I think that we have to remember that God may allow things to go to a great length before He intervenes. It says that when Herod had planned to bring Peter out to the people, that same night an angel of the Lord came into the prison. It says, among other things, that the iron gate which leads into the city opened of itself. How majestic it is to think of the secret working of divine power to overthrow the working of hades’ gates. God came in solemnly in judgment upon Herod, as the close of that chapter shows, but what I wanted to point out was that there are instances of hades’ gates in their power showing themselves in combination against the beloved people of God.
God is not unobservant, may I say reverently, or inactive as to these things, but He has the power to intervene according to His will and according to His time, so that His beloved saints are set free for the service which He has in mind. These things are for our encouragement. I leave this word which the Lord gives, “I also, I say unto thee”. We might encourage ourselves to seek personal communications from Jesus to us. The Lord says to Peter elsewhere, “I have besought for thee”, Luke 22: 32. Have you had any word like that? Have you ever been conscious that the Lord gave a word personally for you? If you have, and I encourage you to seek it more and more, you will never forget it. The Lord says, “I also”, that is to say, the Father had revealed something to Peter, but the Lord says, “I also, I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly, and hades’ gates shall not prevail against it”.
Now as to the coming of the Lord Jesus in John 14, let this also be for our encouragement. One would seek to promote fresh desire that we might all seek more to be sympathetic with the Lord’s thought that He wants us to be with Him. He does not want us to be going on without Him now. He does not want us to be trying to manage without Him. I believe we should bring the simplest things to Jesus and seek His assurance and comfort and guidance as to them, but especially let us have sympathy with His own desires that we might be with Him. He says, “Let not your heart be troubled”. Think of how it would pain the Lord that any of His own should have troubled hearts. Have you a troubled heart. beloved brother or sister?
The Lord feels it. He is especially speaking about His going away; that would trouble their hearts no doubt; but let us commit things to Him. How assuring these words are, “ye believe on God, believe also on me”, that is to say that we are to have faith in Jesus where He now is.
He is the object of faith for us now that He has gone away. “In my Father’s house there are many abodes; were it not so, I had told you for I go to prepare you a place”. Peter had said at the close of the previous chapter, “Lord, where goest thou?”, and the Lord said, “Where I go thou canst not follow me now”. I think that the Lord is continuing to answer Peter and the others here. Peter was going to have to face what the Lord had just spoken about, that he would deny Him thrice. None of us can trust to our own self confidence. Let us trust ourselves to the Lord. His power is sufficient to carry us through every temptation, but “Let not your heart be troubled”.
Let us look for the glorious prospect of the Lord Jesus coming again to receive us to Himself. How affecting that our Saviour should go through death to secure us in order that we might be with Him. When He says, “I go to prepare you a place”, it means that He is going to the Father and the place is prepared by His going there. Let these things be for our comfort, “if I go and shall prepare you a place, I am coming again and shall receive you to myself”. We have often noticed that He does not send anyone else. He does not summon us to the glory to be with Him. No, the tender Saviour is coming Himself, “I am coming again”. Not a word about the judgment seat; no. He will deal with it all in tenderness and in care, “I am coming again and shall receive you to myself”. We belong to Him and He knows it. May He help us not to forget it, that we belong to Him. It is for our comfort if we know now where the Lord Jesus is among His own, “the footsteps of the flock” (Song of Songs 1: 8), that is the way to go. If the Lord is in a circle of love, that is the place to be. Eventually, and for His satisfaction especially, but for our comfort and blessing, He is going to receive us to Himself that where He is, we may be also. May the Lord and the Spirit help us to be comforted and strengthened, for His name’s sake.
Address at Barnet
1 February 1997