Isaiah 40:25-31

[0:00] Y'all flip with me to the Old Testament, the book of Isaiah, chapter 40.! Thank God it's chapter 40. If you're a Bible reader, you should know that the first 39 chapters of Isaiah are filled with rebuke and judgment and all kinds of what we would consider bad stuff.

[0:25] But chapter 40, the tide starts turning a little bit. You can see that in the first verse where he says, comfort me, comfort you, my people.

[0:38] But that's not words of sentimental comfort that is being spoken there. It's words of covenantal comfort. As I said, the first 39 chapters of Isaiah are filled with all kinds of rebuke from God.

[0:55] Now, there's some good parts about it as well. And invitations from God to His people to repent of their ways. Isaiah chapter 1 has one of my favorite verses of Scripture where he says, Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.

[1:17] Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. And that's found in Isaiah chapter 1. So there's invitations all throughout it, but it's mostly about judgment and rebuke because the people, God's people, have gone other ways.

[1:31] They've gone to other nations. They've gone to idolatry. If we really begin before this, in Isaiah chapter 38, you read about a man named Hezekiah that we should all be somewhat familiar with.

[1:46] Hezekiah, the Bible says in Isaiah 38, he was sick unto death. The Bible doesn't specify what his illness was, but we know he was deathly ill.

[1:57] And because of fervent and earnest prayer, God extended his life by 15 years. The Bible teaches that God added to his life 15 years.

[2:09] And I've used that several times. I understand that the book of Hebrews teaches that the point of none of the man wants to die, and after this, the judgment. That means we've all got an appointment on God's calendar out there sometime.

[2:21] But folks, in Isaiah 38, it says that God added 15 years to the life of Hezekiah. You cannot add to something that doesn't have an end. So Isaiah's life had an end.

[2:34] He had an appointment. But God added to that. And God can do that. God can change those appointments if he wants to. And in his mercy, sometimes he does that, such as he did for Hezekiah.

[2:47] But we read about this in Isaiah 38, and Isaiah prayed again very earnestly, and God extended his life. In Isaiah 39, we read the prophet Isaiah coming to Hezekiah.

[3:01] Well, first we read about the bands of people coming to Hezekiah. And Hezekiah shows everything off that he has. He shows the fortune that he has.

[3:13] He shows the things of the temple and all these other things. And Isaiah comes to him and says, what do these men want? What do they want to see? And Hezekiah fesses up to them what he had done.

[3:23] And he'd done that in pride. Hezekiah did. And once again, Isaiah 39, judgment is pronounced. But the end of chapter 39, we see Hezekiah say that the word of the Lord is good.

[3:36] Right after judgment had been pronounced, he said, all these things are going to be carried off into Babylon. All these things that you showed them are going to be carried off. Even some of your kinfolk, Hezekiah, are going to be carried off.

[3:48] And Hezekiah says the word of the Lord is good. They're at the end of chapter 39. So that brings us to chapter 40. Chapter 40 again begins with, comfort ye, comfort ye, my people.

[3:59] So we have this word of comfort being spoken. But again, this isn't sentimental. This isn't God patting them on the back. Saying it will all be okay.

[4:10] This is God saying, you are part of my covenant. You are part of the covenant that I made with your father Abraham. All the way back in Genesis chapter 12. When that was first spoken.

[4:20] And it's reiterated several times throughout the book of Genesis. And of course we all know it's reiterated to Isaac. And it's reiterated to Jacob as well. And the twelve sons of Jacob.

[4:32] But, God comforts His people there. Then He begins to remind them of whom He is. God begins to remind His people of whom He is. And He reminds them of these gods that they've gone whoring after.

[4:47] The lands that they had gone unto. You read in Isaiah chapter 30. Where they were turning to Egypt for protection. They were making an alliance with Egypt.

[4:59] And God rebukes them for that. And so they had made an alliance with all these outside nations. And God says, who are these people? Who are these gods that they have? He says, they're nothing but wood.

[5:10] They're nothing but metal. They are dead. And that's all the pagan gods were. Were dead gods. They were doing them no good. And God reminding His people of whom He is.

[5:22] All that being said, Isaiah chapter 40. Beginning at verse 25. The Word of the Lord says, To whom then will you liken Me? Or shall I be equal?

[5:34] Sayeth the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high. And behold, who hath created these things? That bringeth out their hosts by number. He calleth them all by names.

[5:46] By the greatness of His might. For that He is strong in power. Not one faileth. Why sayest thou, O Jacob? And speakest, O Israel? My way is hid from the Lord.

[5:58] And my judgment is passed over from my God. Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard? That the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not.

[6:12] Neither is weary. There is no searching of His understanding. He giveth power to the faint. And to them that have no might, He increaseth strength.

[6:23] Even the youth shall faint and be weary. And the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

[6:33] They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. And they shall walk and not faint. And that last verse there, verse 31, is probably the one that we're most familiar with.

[6:46] That's a much quoted scripture in the church world. That we shall mount up as eagles.

[6:57] Mount up with wings as eagles. And I appreciate that verse. But we'll get to that in due time. Back to verse 25 of Isaiah 40.

[7:08] Again, the Lord says, Again, in the first part of this chapter, God is reminding the Israelites of whom He is.

[7:24] He's reminding the Jewish people of whom He is. And folks, many times, we as the New Testament church, we need reminded of whom God is.

[7:35] Unfortunately, our problem, just like the Israelites, our problem is not ignorance. If you're sitting here tonight, and you've been born again, you're sitting here tonight, and God has saved your unworthy soul, you are not ignorant of God.

[7:50] And you are not ignorant of His power. Our problem is not ignorance. Our problem is amnesia. We forget about the goodness of God. And we forget about the mercy of God.

[8:00] And that's exactly what these Israelites here were guilty of. And that's exactly what we as the New Testament church are guilty of. Many times we forget about the good things that God has done in our lives.

[8:12] Sometimes we forget all about the fact that He saved our soul. We forget about the times that He's healed us. We forget about the times that He's healed the sick that we have prayed for. We forget about the times that there's been no food in the pantry, but somehow, some way, God provided.

[8:28] We forget about the times that the bill has needed to be paid. And somehow, some way, God made a way for that to happen. We forget about the goodness and the graciousness of Almighty God.

[8:39] We forget about what He has done for us in the past. Folks, I encourage you tonight. In fact, I charge you outright not to forget the goodness of Almighty God. What does the psalmist say?

[8:49] He says, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all of His benefits. He's encouraging us there. Encouraging the Jews of His time. And encouraging us thousands of years later not to forget the benefits of the Lord.

[9:05] Why would He feel a need to do that? Because He knows our frame. God knows our frame. He knows we are but us. And He knows that we are apt to forget what He has done for us.

[9:16] And I encourage you now not to forget. God says here in verse 25, To whom then will you liken Me? Or shall I be equal? Folks, there is no one to liken God unto.

[9:27] God says several times over in the Scripture, I am the Lord thy God, and beside Me there is no other. There is no God like Him. There is no God dead that is like Him.

[9:39] There is no God that's worshipped by some outside nation. Or some other denomination. Or whatever the case is. There is no God like our God. But unfortunately, people have concocted gods in their own mind.

[9:51] Even in the church world, people have concocted a God in their own mind. They have made up a God in their imagination. A God that does not hate sin. A God that does not demand repentance.

[10:01] A God that will let us just go out our own ways. Do our own thing. He will sweep our sin under the rug. There is no such God in this world. There is no such God of the Bible.

[10:13] The God of the Bible. The Bible says at one time, He weak demands ignorance, but now commands men everywhere to repentance. God demands repentance. God hates sin.

[10:24] He punished sin. And Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, so that you and I can walk free, and God will be with Him. One day after a while. Hallelujah. God hates sin.

[10:37] He despises sin. Don't you listen to these people on the TV, or these folks on the radio, or these folks on YouTube, that say, well, God will just sweep that under the rug. God will overlook that.

[10:49] Well, God is holy, and God is righteous, and He will not, and cannot let sin go unpunished. And people will either spend all of eternity paying for their own sin in a lake of fire, or they will accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, except the beating, and the mockery, and the crucifixion that He suffered on their behalf.

[11:11] There is no middle ground. That's the two punishments for sin. We will either pay for it ourselves, or we have allowed Christ to pay it for us. Praise God. I'm in the ladder of those two.

[11:23] Christ has paid my sin death. To whom will you liken me? Or shall I be equal? There is none, none to liken unto God. There is none to liken unto Him, and there are certainly no equals with Almighty God.

[11:38] Sayeth the Holy One, verse 26, Lift up your eyes on high, and behold, who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number. He calleth them all by names, by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power.

[11:55] Not one faileth. What is the prophet here encouraging the Israelites to do? He says, Lift up your eyes on high, and behold, who hath created these things. He's saying, Lift your eyes up toward the heaven.

[12:07] Folks, the psalmist declared that the heavens declare the glory of Almighty God. And God here, through His prophet, is encouraging the Israelites to look up toward the heaven.

[12:18] It says, Lift up your eyes on high, and behold, who hath created these things. Who created the sun? Who created the stars? Who created the moon? Who created all of these things?

[12:28] Folks, and this isn't the first time that we see this in the Scripture. When Abraham himself began to doubt God, in Genesis chapter 15, God brought him outside. He said, Look toward the stars.

[12:40] See if you can tell them. Tell me their number. And such as they are, so shall your seed be. He told Job, in Job chapter 38, He told Job, He said, Can you ban Pliadices?

[12:54] Can you loose the bands of Orion? Again, directing him toward the heaven. Directing him toward what God has orchestrated. Folks, I tell you now, child of God, one of the most encouraging things that we can think of, if God holds the stars of the heaven in His hand, and He knows them all by name, and they are set in the order that He has decreed, and He has kept them in that order for all of these eons of time, they have been in that order since He first created them.

[13:21] Don't you think for one moment that God will forget the name of one of His redeemed? Hallelujah! My God will not forget me. If He can keep those things in order, if He can keep the sun just far enough away from the earth to keep from scorching us, and just far enough away from the earth to where we don't freeze, if He can keep the stars in the order that He set them in, if He can keep the moon where it is at, so that the gravity is not too strong, or it's not strong enough, if God can do all these things, He will not forget one of His own, praise God.

[13:59] God will not forget me. And that's what the prophet here is trying to get across to these Israelites. Well, he's trying to get across to them. Lift up your eyes on them, and behold, who hath created these things, that bringeth out their hosts by number.

[14:12] He calleth them all by names, by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power. Not one faileth. Not one star in the heavens has failed. And people will say, well, there's stars that burn out all the time.

[14:26] If there's stars that burn out all the time, it's because God has decreed Himself that they burn out. They have spent their time. God is finished with them. Such as Brother Mike was preaching this morning, hey, if we're still here on this earth, it's because God still has a purpose for each and every one of us here.

[14:42] When God is finished with us, our time on this earth is through. It is finished. And we will go on to be in glory with Him forever and ever. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

[14:55] He's strong in power. Not one, not one of His stars will fail. Not one of them has failed. Not one of them will fail. Verse 27.

[15:05] Amen. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?

[15:16] Why are you saying these things, O Jacob? Why are you uttering these things, O Israel? And I ask you now, church, why do you utter such things? Why do you utter, where is God?

[15:29] That's what he gets into in the next verse. Where is God? In the next verse, verse 28, hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary, there is no searching of His understanding.

[15:49] Why are you asking about these things, is what the prophet here is asking the Israelites. He says, hast thou not known? Yes, we have known. I just got through saying a few minutes ago, folks, we are not ignorant of God, and we are not ignorant of the works of God, of the power of God, or of the things of God.

[16:08] So why do we find ourselves asking the same questions that the Israelites did? The Israelites are getting ready to go into bondage. It's already been pronounced.

[16:20] The wheels are already turning. It's going to happen. God has offered repentance over and over and over to change the direction, for the Israelites to change their direction, and they would not listen.

[16:35] So judgment is coming. Judgment is coming. The Babylonian army is on its way. They're going to race Jerusalem. They're going to race the Jewish nation.

[16:47] They're going to take them into captivity. How would you feel? How do we feel? How do we feel sometimes when we're alone at night and we're crying out to God?

[16:59] Do we feel like, God, where are you? God, why aren't you answering my prayer? God, do you even hear me? God, are you there? And we can look out the window and see His handiwork in the heavens, knowing that God exists, and knowing how many times we have cried unto Him in the past, folks.

[17:18] I praise God for the verse and psalm that says, Weeping may to endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Folks, we have all cried our tears at night, but God, my God, knows every one of those tears that has fallen.

[17:30] He is well aware of the tears that I have shed. He's well aware of the tears that you have shed. And He has not forgotten the cries of His people. Praise God. Hast thou not known?

[17:42] Hast thou not heard? That the everlasting God, He goes into this big description of God, the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, the Creator of the ends of the earth, the Creator of the furthest reaches of the land, the furthest reaches of the entire earth.

[18:01] God is the Creator of those. The places where the prophet Isaiah didn't even know existed during this time. Neither did the Israelites. Folks, they didn't have the knowledge of the earth that we have now.

[18:14] They did not have that knowledge. They didn't have globes. They didn't have satellites. They didn't have all those things. All they knew was that the earth went on and on and on. And it went a long way.

[18:25] But God created the furthest ends of the earth, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He fainteth not. Neither is weary. Folks, you and I, you and I in our frailty, we get weary.

[18:40] You and I in our frailty, we get tired. We faint sometimes. But our God, the Bible describes Him as the God who watches over Israel, never sleeps.

[18:51] He never slumbers. God's hand is never idle. It is always doing work of some kind at some point in the world. Hey, even over there, even again, as Brother Mike was preaching this morning, when the disciples were on the boat with Jesus Christ, He was asleep in the stern and the shed.

[19:09] Even so, Jesus still had control over the entire world. His omnipotence. And His omniscience. They go to Jesus.

[19:20] They say, Master, carest thou not that we perish? Yes, He cared. Yes, He cared. But He fainted. Now, Jesus, in human flesh, being truly God and truly man, He fainted.

[19:35] He got weary. And He was asleep in the stern of the ship. But folks, the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, the Lord, as the Scripture here says, says that He fainteth not.

[19:49] He fainteth not. Neither is He weary. We're weary. Folks, although you and I faint, and although we physically get weary, but not only we physically get weary, our faith gets weary sometimes.

[20:01] Spiritually, we get weary sometimes. But God does not. God is all-powerful. He has always been all-powerful. And He ever will be all-powerful.

[20:12] He does not faint. He does not weary. He does not tire. He does not get old. He does not get feeble. Hallelujah. This is the God that saved my soul. And He's the same God that saved your soul.

[20:25] He does not get weary. And He does not faint. There is no searching of His understanding. Not only does He not get weary, and that He does not faint, there is no searching of His understanding.

[20:36] In other words, God's a whole lot smarter fellow than you or I, either one. God is a whole lot smarter. He's a whole lot more brilliant. He has a whole lot more wisdom than anyone that has ever lived on this planet.

[20:48] Anyone that is alive right now has lived or will live on this planet. God has more wisdom. His wisdom. There is no searching of His understanding.

[20:59] Verse 29. This is where the Gospel really starts to come to life. Here in verse 29. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might, He increases strength.

[21:11] He giveth power to the faint. We just got through reading in verse 28, how the Lord, the God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, how He fainteth not, and nor does He get weary.

[21:25] But it says here, He giveth power to the faint. I just got through telling you that God is all-powerful. He is absolutely, positively omnipotent.

[21:35] He has all power. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 28, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Our God is all-powerful. But He does not keep His power to Himself.

[21:47] It says He giveth power to the faint. Those of us that are weak in our faint. Those of us that are weak in our walk. Those of us that are weak. Period. God gives us power.

[21:58] He gives us strength. He doesn't keep it to Himself. That's the God that we serve. That's the God that we serve. That's the goodness of God. And folks, that is grace.

[22:09] That is grace that He gives us to us. Why do we get weary? Why do we faint? It's not merely because we are human, but it's because of sin.

[22:22] It's because of sin. I'm going to dare say, Adam didn't grow tired before the fall. Eve didn't grow tired before the fall, folks.

[22:32] It was a perfect garden that God created. It was a perfect world that He created. And it was perfect people that He created. But the fall happened. Sin creeped in. And with sin came sickness.

[22:44] With sin came weariness. With sin came tiredness. With sin came faintness. With sin came death. But God, even though we being rebellious creatures, even though we have Adam's sin nature, that we have inherited Adam's sin nature, God still gives us power when we are faint.

[23:09] He gives us power. He gives us strength to go on. But not just for ourselves. He gives us strength to go on for His glory. It is to the glory of God that you and I live here in this world.

[23:21] It is to the glory of God that we have assembled here tonight within these four walls. It is to the glory of God that we wake up tomorrow morning, if God allows. Everything is done to the glory of God.

[23:33] Paul wrote, whether you eat or whether you drink, do it all to the glory of God. We are to live our lives to the glory of God. God gives us power that we can go on another step.

[23:45] That we can go on another yard. That we can go on another mile. But we do it for His glory. He giveth power to the faint. And to them that have no might, He increaseth strength. Folks, this is purely and utterly by grace that God gives us this.

[24:00] The gods of these other lands, they had no use for weak people. They had no use for those that were weary. For those that were faint. And folks, it's been like that. I mean, even in the course of some of our own lives.

[24:14] Adolf Hitler, he had that kind of attitude. If someone was crippled, he had no use for them. If someone looked wrong, he had no use for them. If someone was disheveled, he had no use for them.

[24:26] And He would execute them or have them executed. So, it's not just in Bible times we're talking about here. We're talking about within the last century of our own time frame that we're in right now.

[24:39] These types of things have happened. But God gives power to those that are weak. He strengthens those that are without mind. Folks, I've been without mind.

[24:50] And if you're honest with yourself, we have been without strength. And we have been without mind in and of ourselves for most of our Christian walk. If it were not for God giving us His power by His grace according to His will for His glory, you and I would have been gone a long time ago.

[25:10] But God strengthens those who are weary. And He gives power unto those that have no mind. Verse 30, Even the youth shall faint and be weary.

[25:22] And the young men shall utterly fall. Now this sounds kind of dark. This sounds kind of eerie. You know, we've gone from pretty positive things here to the Scripture saying, Even the youth shall faint and be weary.

[25:37] And the young men shall utterly fall. But folks, this is simply God stating facts through His prophet. Even the young shall faint. Even the youth shall faint and be weary.

[25:50] And the young shall utterly fall. Folks, all of us have been young at some point in our lives. All of us remember the vitality that we had 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago, whatever it was.

[26:02] All of us remember what it was like to be 20 years old versus what we are right now. God is saying here that even the young shall fall. Even the young shall grow weary.

[26:13] Even the young shall faint in their own time. Folks, hey, we cannot rely on our own strength. You look at Samson in the book of Judges. He killed 30 men of Askelon.

[26:23] He killed a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. He picked up the gate of Gaza and carried us up on the hill. He's done all kinds of things, but it could not stop him when it comes to moral decay.

[26:36] Amen. His strength did not help him then. That was his own strength. Yes, it was given of God. But folks, that strength diminished. That strength diminished.

[26:47] It went away because of moral decay. Again, folks, we grow weary because of sin. We grow weary because of sin. Not one specific sin in your life.

[26:59] That's not what I'm saying. We live in a fallen world. And we have decaying bodies from the time that we are born. Because of sin. Because we live in a sin-cursed world.

[27:11] That's why the Scripture says Brother Ellis brought it up this morning in Sunday school. It says that the creation groans. The creation itself groans and prevails for a rebirth.

[27:22] The creation does. Why? Because the creation is under a curse of Almighty God. And one of these days, one of these days that's going to happen, the Scripture says, Behold, I saw a city coming down out of the heaven.

[27:36] The new Jerusalem. He sees the city of God coming down. Wherein dwelleth righteousness is the way Peter wrote it. Righteousness will dwell in that city.

[27:47] But folks, back to verse 30, Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. Don't depend on your own strength because it will fail you.

[27:58] I can't depend on my own strength. It will fail me. And I'm not talking about physical strength here. I'm talking about spiritual strength. If we depend upon ourselves, folks, we will fail.

[28:11] This is the Gospel. Beginning in verse 29, He give us power to the faint and to them that have no mighty and increase his strength. Verse 30, Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fail.

[28:23] Folks, if we come to God with nothing but a handful of our own self-righteousness, we will walk away from God completely empty. But if we come unto God in our brokenness, in our sin, in our need, we will go away with our thirst satisfied.

[28:39] We will go away with our hunger satisfied. We will go away from God with everything we need to continue on the way He would have us to go. Hallelujah. Amen.

[28:51] But it's only of God and by God that this will happen. And it was only by God and of God that this would happen for the Israelites. The Israelites were very bad.

[29:04] You can read several different accounts in the Scriptures depending upon their own strength. And it got them in trouble. So, I encourage you, I implore you now, don't depend on your own strength.

[29:16] Don't say, I'm strong enough in my Christian walk where I can flirt with that sin. That will get you in trouble. And sooner or later, you'll give in to that sin. You will give in to that sin, folks.

[29:28] There's no sense in us tempting ourselves. If a sin is tempting you, get as far from it as you possibly can. Run from it. Flee from it.

[29:39] Amen. Flee youthful lusts is the way it's described in the New Testament. That's not just lust of sexual lust like we might be thinking of.

[29:51] That's lust of any kind. Right. Flee them. Run the other direction. And run to God. Verse 31. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

[30:04] They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. And they shall walk and not faint. But they that wait upon the Lord. What got us here?

[30:14] Starting at verse 29 again. He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might He increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary. And the young men shall utterly fall. fall. But praise God for some of the buts that we find in Scripture.

[30:29] But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They that wait upon the Lord. And folks the prophet here is not encouraging us to be lazy.

[30:42] He's not encouraging us just to sit in a church house pew and wait upon the Lord. This is active waiting and this is active faith that He is encouraging the Israelites to practice here.

[30:53] But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. This word renew can also be entertained with the word exchange. They that wait upon the Lord shall exchange their weakness.

[31:05] They shall exchange their weariness. They shall exchange their tiredness. They shall exchange it all for the power of Almighty God and for the strength of Almighty God.

[31:16] Is that not the gospel? Is that not the gospel? We spend our entire unsaved lives depending on number one. Depending upon self.

[31:27] Depending upon me. That's how I lived 33 years of my life. But I came to God. And I waited on God. And God gave me His strength.

[31:38] And God gave me His power. And God has set up a shop within me. He dwells on the inside. And that's where I draw my strength from. It is not of me I will fail me.

[31:50] Just like you will fail you. And you will fail me and I will fail you. Our flesh will fail. But God does not. The Bible teaches in John chapter 4 God is a spirit.

[32:04] A spirit has no flesh. He can't fail. But folks even if that wasn't the case He's God. He is all holy. He is all righteous. He cannot sin. Not that He will not sin.

[32:14] He cannot sin. He is holy. And He is righteous. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles.

[32:25] I want you to see this progression here. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. What do eagles do? They shall mount up with wings as eagles. He's talking about soaring.

[32:36] He's talking about flying. Then He says they shall run and not be weary. So we've gone from flying to running. And then He says and they shall walk and not faint.

[32:46] We've gone from soaring to running to walking. And in each one of those things though we are depending upon the strength of the Lord. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

[32:59] They shall mount up with wings as eagles. We shall mount up with wings as eagles. And folks it is not of our own power. It is not of our own mind. Just like the eagle it soars above the storm.

[33:10] It's not. And the storm hasn't ceased. The storm is still raging below it. But the eagle is using the wind out of the very storm that is below it to help it soar higher closer to God.

[33:23] Hallelujah. Amen. And that's exactly what I think the prophet here is getting at. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. Folks this is endurance.

[33:35] This is endurance. They shall run and not be weary. We shall run. We shall run the race that is set before us. I believe I preached that scripture here not too awful long ago. To run the race that is set before us.

[33:48] Setting aside the sin that so easily besets us. But we run and we don't grow weary. We run with patience. We run with endurance. But folks that endurance comes from God.

[33:59] Just like the strength to run comes from God. And the power to do this comes from God. The endurance also comes from God. What does the scripture say in the New Testament?

[34:09] What does it say in the Gospels? They that endure to the end the same shall be saved. Who's going to endure to the end? Those that belong to Almighty God. And they will not endure their own power or strength.

[34:22] They will endure because God has gifted them the power and the strength to go on. That's the grace of God that gives us that. That is the mercy of God that gives us that.

[34:34] And it's the will of God that we have it. And they shall walk and not faint. We go from soaring above the clouds to running and they shall walk and not faint.

[34:48] Folks, this is the patience. This is the walking. This is the I'll take whatever path you want. Folks, God sets a race before every one of us.

[35:01] And we are to press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus according to what Paul wrote to the Philippian church. We press toward that mark. We press toward the prize.

[35:12] What is the prize? The prize is the culmination of salvation. The prize is Jesus Himself. We press toward that mark. But, when we're not running, we walk.

[35:25] We walk with patience. We walk waiting for the next time that we're supposed to run. But we walk with patience knowing that God is good.

[35:37] And knowing His graciousness. Knowing, as it says in verse 28, that He is the everlasting God. He is the Lord. He is the Creator of the ends of the earth.

[35:49] And we walk and we run and we soar knowing that He does not grow weary. We know that He does not faint. And we know that we do. And we also know that because God knows that we do, He will supply us strength.

[36:05] He will supply His own with what they need. Whether it be food. Whether it be shelter. Whether it be drink. Regardless of what it is that God sees that we need it, we will have it.

[36:16] Hallelujah. David said, I was once young. Now I'm old. I've never seen the righteous forsaken nor a seed begging for bread. Amen. God will take care of His own.

[36:28] God did not save us to forsake us. Christ on the cross. Christ was forsaken by His Father. There is no other reason He would have said than Loi, Loi, Lai subachthani My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?

[36:48] The folks, He, Jesus Christ, was forsaken on the cross. He was forsaken by His Father. He was left there in darkness to take the sin of us upon Himself and take the wrath of God upon Himself.

[37:02] He was forsaken so that you and I would never be forsaken. Hallelujah. He took that on Himself so that you and I could be made sons and daughters of the Most High God.

[37:18] So that you and I could be made sons and daughters of God Himself. so that we could be made heirs and join heirs with Jesus Christ.

[37:28] Heirs to God and join heirs with Christ. Christ took all that upon Himself. When you find yourself weak in your faith, and if you're like me, it's more often than not that you are. When you find yourself weak, God will supply that.

[37:42] You seek God. You remember God. You remember what He has done. You remember the prayers that He has answered. You remember the miracles that you have seen. You remember the miracles that you have experienced yourself.

[37:53] The miracle of salvation is enough to make us realize God is real. And He is all-powerful. And He does not weary and He does not faint. And He is still in the business of saving souls.

[38:05] Keep praying for your lost loved ones. Keep praying for those sick. Keep praying for those that are bedridden, housebound. Pray for all those in the hospitals.

[38:18] Pray for one another. God hears those prayers and He is all-powerful to answer those prayers according to His will and according to His riches and glory. God bless you all. That's the message for this evening.