Isaiah 40:Comfort Pt 1

0:01 All right this morning, let's start in the Book of Jeremiah. I know it feels like we're taking a detour, but we're not. Jeremiah chapter six, Jeremiah chapter six. We're gonna look at two verses in the Book of Jeremiah that I think are very relevant for a couple of reasons to what we're trying to do. Obviously, we've been working on Isaiah forty through fifty five. We've tried to provide kind of an overview of Isaiah forty through fifty five. We've done some outlining, We've tried to do some summarizing. We've also did some going back and providing context. But then we got to Isaiah forty verse one, and I feel like there's something we have to spend some extra time on. So Jeremiah chapter six, verse fourteen, we read these words, they have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people, slightly saying peace, peace when there is no peace. They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people, slightly saying peace, peace when there is no peace. If you go to Jeremiah chapter eight, verse eleven, you'll see the exact same words. Jeremiah chapter eight, verse eleven Jeremiah eighth, chapter eleven. Will read the again the identical words Jeremiah eight eleven. For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying peace, peace,

1:38 when there is no peace. Now, if you look at those two verses, this is Jeremiah basically referring to the priests, the prophets, the religious leaders. And well, they've done something right, they have what's the first thing they have? What healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people? But how have they healed them? Slightly? Right? Slightly? And what brought this slight healing to the people by saying what peace? Piece? But what's the reality? There is no peace? So what's the healing that they slightly received? They received some sense of comfort, maybe some sense of peace, some sense of hope.

2:23 But it's always slightly because it's not real. It's false, it's fraudulent. It's not a real comfort. It is a false comfort, it is a false hope, it is a false piece. Now this is very important because we're studying Isaiah forty through fifty five, which is often called one What is Isaiah forty through fifty five often called the Book of Comfort or the Book of Consolation. The title of that the Book of Consolation or the Book of Comfort, reflects the opening words of the Isaiah chapter five, verse one, which reads comfort ye, comfort ye my people, where God commands comfort for his people. The chapter emphasizes all of Isaiah Chapter forty million in some ways Isaiah forty through fifty five. It emphasizes hope, It emphasizes restoration. It emphasizes God's faithfulness to his covenant people despite their exile and suffering. Now, if we remember the Book of Jeremiah. The Book of Jeremiah serves both as a warning and as a message of hope, addressing the spiritual, moral, and social corruption of Judah during a time during a time of a probably a critical period in their history, and its primary themes basically involve a culture repentance, Jeremiah's commissioned by God to call the people of Judah back to faithfulness. The book

3:55 emphasizes Judah's persistent idolatry, They're in justice and the rejection of God's covenant through vivid imagery and prophecies. Jeremiah warns that failure to repent will lead to judgment, so he is trying to tell the people they're in sin. He tries to warn them of judgment. Yet the religious leaders of his time are going to the people saying, what, don't worry about it. Peace, peace, there's no judgment. Everything's going to be okay. So there's the religious leaders contradicts Jeremiah's message, or I think it's fair to say the religious leaders, the prophets, and the priests were actually rejecting and going contrary not only to reality, but to the very word of God. Also, the Book of Jeremiah, not only is it a call to repentance, what is central to Jeremiah's message is the announcement of the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exiles. Somewhere around five eighty six PC. This judgment is portrayed as the result of Judah's covenant unfaithfulness, illustrating God's righteousness and justice. Now you see a correlation, right and Isaiah forty verse one. That message of comfort is to whom, to those in Babylonian exile, Jeremiah's warning everyone what is coming Babylonian exile and Jeremiah's time.

5:26 In fact, throughout the book, the religious leaders, the prophets, and the priests consistently offered the people a false comfort, a false peace, and a false hope, which directly contradicted Jeremiah's warnings from God. This dynamic is significant theme in the book, and it highlights the corruption of Judas's spiritual leadership and their role in leading the people astray. Now, why am I going to talk about that when we're right here in Isaiah forty Because we did all of the background work right. We did the overview, we did the survey, and we went to Isaiah thirty nine. Remember that tells us that Babylonian captivity is coming. Then we went from Isaiah thirty nine to Deuteronomy twenty eight, and we showed that everything happening is connected to the Covenant and the promises of blessing and the promise of cursing, that Israel had violated everything that they were supposed to do, so now they're getting the curse, which is going to be Babylonian captivity. They're going to suffer. We talked about the suffering in there. We had it all set up right, and then we went to Isaiah chapter forty, verse one, and what I was about to do last Sunday was I was about to go into kind of a mini word study on the word comfort. I was going to go in there, and I was going to kind of take it apart. But I realized at that point, it's about twelve oh five, I don't really have time to do that, so I kind of stepped back and started

6:56 talking about comfort in a more general way. All right, And my perspective on Christianity and comfort obviously is somewhat controversial. In fact, I could even kind of feel the temperature and the building change when I started talking about it. But if I was to summarize my feelings about Christianity and comfort, I would probably say something like this, which is probably offensive to every Christian on the planet. I would say, Christianity consistently offers nothing more than fraudulent promises, false comfort, shallow peace. It offers nothing more than an illusion of hope. It's nothing more than a lie, a sham, and it leaves people confused and broken. Now. I know I'm not supposed to say that as a pastor. I know I'm not supposed to say that as a Christian podcaster, But ladies and gentlemen, that's how I feel about it.

7:47 The Christianity constantly offers nothing more than fraudulent promises, false comfort, shallow peace, an illusion of hope. It's a lie, it's a sham, and it leaves people confused and broken. And why I say that, because all of our discussion, the whole reason we're in Isaiah forty is for what reason? Because I'm sick and tired of listening to sermons about Isaiah forty all the way to Isaiah fifty five. Where pastors come in and what do they do over and over and over the whole reason for the series. They open up their bibles, they tell you to turn to Isaiah forty Isaiah forty three, and they immediately do what insert us into the text and move out the original recipients.

8:34 And then they claim that the promises are for whom us, so they offer some kind of comfort. But that's not our comfort, that's not our promises, that's not our hope. So therefore the hope it's nothing. It's no different than the religious leaders in the days of Jeremiah saying peace that you can't tell me peace when that piece is not for me. You can't tell me that I have some promise when the promise is not for me, and to make that it matters worse. Most of the promises to Israel are connected to what we've talked about this over and over and over. They're connected to the Covenant, and within that covenant promises, what kind of promises are given to Israel. Those promises are material, they're tangible, they're physical.

9:23 We can't take tangible, material, physical promises to Israel and apply them to us. But Christians run around say, oh, you have a problem, God's gonna fix it. God's gonna do this, God's gonna do this. And all you're doing is lying to people. You're slightly why, you're slightly healing them because you're giving them some sense of what hope. But what happens sooner or later reality steps in knocks them across the face. Now, either they can continue to pretend, well, God was here and God did this and God did that, or they're gonna be like hmm. I think Christianity is a bunch of garbage because it lies to me over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, and at some point you get furious, and I think what happens is the church is made up of two kinds of people.

10:11 You have the one kind. They're more than happy. Using Plato's allegory of the cave, They're more than happy to sit in the cave look at the images on the cave wall, and they don't care to ask any questions, and they're just going to accept whatever it is, and they're happy to live in their little make believe land. And there's going to be a small minority that goes, wait, there's a light back there. I'm going to leave the cave and go figure out what's out there. And when they walk out there, they see reality, and they realize reality does not necessarily correspond to the images on the cave wall. Everyone else is happy to sit in church, look at the images on the cave wall, and walk around pretending. But some of us are like, that's a bunch of it's a bunch of garbage. It doesn't it's all lies. So that's the reason where in Isaiah forty through fifty five and Jeremiah is a great example of what people were saying about the worn of the Babylonia captivity.

11:02 So what I want to do is I want to spend a little time summarizing and kind of discussing the false piece and comfort in Jeremiah six, fourteen and eight eleven, and then we're going to connect that to Isaiah forty verse one. Then we'll finally get to the word comfort and hopefully what we can get this all taken apart now separate from what I'm doing in Isaiah forty I've also started a series for the podcast on Christianity's false Comfort, where I talked about all the negative consequences that come from Christianity's false comfort because it does a lot of damage to people. And then the next thing I'm going to do in that series is go through all the ways Christianity offers false comfort. But we're seeing a little bit of it right here. In fact, this last month, what I have seen is sermon after sermon after sermon, take Isaiah forty verse one, or things in Isaiah forty three make them about us, offering us promises of comfort or hope, which is not there. On the podcast that look to Deuteronomy thirty two once again a song of Moses about Israel and the wilderness making it about us.

12:16 And then the other night I listened to a sermon on Hebrews chapter six once again making it about us and completely removing it from its original context. This is like, this is not like a oh, this is an odd thing. This is an exception. It's the rule. Pastors take the Bible. They could care less about context, They could care less about being truthful to the text. They make it about us, us and people in the pew. That's what they want. And if you come along and challenge that, you offend Christians. So I'm going to try to build this case by going to Jeremiah six fourteen and eight to eleven. As we have already read, okay, in those two verses, is condemning the leaders of Judah, the prophets, and the priest who offer superficial assurances of peace while ignoring the true underlying spiritual crisis of the nation. I'm going to state it this way. The priest, the prophets, the religious leaders of Judah offered superficial assurance of peace and ignoring reality.

13:30 They ignored reality. One of the biggest problems I have with Christianity is Christianity's inability to recognize reality. Christianity should not exist as a alternative to reality. Christianity should exist acknowledging reality. I'll give you an example of how Christianity denies reality. What almost every church in Abilene, what do they teach you about what happens to you when you become a Christian? You become a new creation. O things have passed away, all things have become new. Now what's reality?

14:13 It's not that, I mean reality contradicts that, correct, Because if I'm a new creature, old things have passed away and all things have become new, then what's the logical conclusion? I should stop sinning? Okay, that's just one example. Right. Christians constantly will say things like, oh, God will do this, and God will do this for you, and God will take care of this, and God will intervene here and God will do this. Just look at the reality of the world. If God is doing all these things, then why do we have all the children that's been molested within churches? Why why do we have all of this and this disease and this and this and that. You can't keep saying God is doing and going, God's gonna take care of and God is going to do all of this stuff. When reality goes maybe maybe we sh it's stop making those promises. Maybe we should stop they were denying reality. Christianity denies reality, and a Christianity that denies reality is a Christianity that isn't worth being a part of. Because why do you want a religion that takes you out of reality? You should want a religion that can address reality and acknowledge reality. Now, acknowledging reality makes Christians very uncomfortable, does it? Because I mean, just think about it. We have an all powerful God who's all knowing as present everywhere at all times. I could sit right here for the next hour list all the horrible things that's happened in the last seven days in the world, and anyone who looks at that there's a problem, right, Well,

15:44 if God is all powerful, what's the obvious thought? He could stop it, he could fix it. If he's all knowing, he knew it was going to come before it was going to happen. And if he's present everywhere at all times, then he doesn't have to go anywhere to fix it. He's already there. So then we come up with all of our little Christian cliches and well it's the devil, Well who made the devil? So that doesn't work. Who knows gonna happen? Well, he's got a plan in it. What good does that tell someone who's been molested for ten years? Oh, God's got a plan and you being molested for What good does that tell a woman who's laying in a hospital bed on a Friday night at three am, who's just been raped. What good does that do?

16:28 That doesn't do any go stop your nonsense. What good does it do when a kid is standing there at the grave of his parents and like, well, God's got a plan and all of it that people said that to me and my mom's grave. God has a plan in it. All things work together for good. Just stop talking to me, like, give me an atheist, They'll give me words of comfort. Christians just lie to me. Oh there's a reason for it. There's a reason my mom is dead. Well, thank you so very much. I can't wait to discover that reason. I'm now fifty seven. I shall haven't figured out the reason why she's dead. Nobody, but all the Christians ensured me there was one. Because Christians do what they slightly heal the hurt of the people by giving you lies that deny reality. That's exactly what these religious leaders do. And every pastor who tells everyone, did you come to church this morning needing comfort. Well, go to Isaiah chapter forty, verse one, because we're going to talk about the comfort that God brings to us and our times of pain, utilizing what happened to Israel as a promise of what God's going to do for us.

17:34 Do you understand how fraudulent that is. That's like in medicine, that would be malpracticed. The pastor should be sued because that's not You cannot do that in any tangible way. So let's talk about Let's talk about what they did and how this all comes into play. All right, Look, let's look at go to is or Isaiah, go to Jeremiah six fourteen. We can go to eight eleven or six fourteen to see exact same words Jeremiah six fourteen. And what do you read there? They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly. So I want the first thing I want you to see.

18:23 The key points in about Jeremiah six fourteen and eight eleven is they offered superficial healing. Superficial healing. Listen to how this translation reads. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. When pastors stand behind the pulpit and offer you some kind of fraudulent comfort, false hope, some kind the trash encouragement based off the misapplication and misinterpretation of a text.

19:06 You know what they're doing. They're treating you as if your problem isn't that serious. I hate to say this. All those Christians who walked up to me at my mother's grave site, they didn't treat my hurt as if it was serious, because you know what they did. They said their little garbage, and then I never saw or heard from them ever again. So who cares about the little their little Christian comfort. It was fraudulent, It was meaningless. They offer a meaningless healing. According to one commentary, this means they offer shallow remedies rather than addressing root problems. Let me rephrase that they offer shallow remedies rather than addressing reality. Israel's covenant on faithfulness and rebellion against God was obviously a root problem. Here, they provided a sense of security, suggesting that everything is fine, when in reality the nation was on the breep of disaster. They offered offered a superficial healing that did what that was shallow but a denied reality. As a Christian, we cannot offer hope to people and deny reality. For example, when as a Christian, what can we not tell anyone who's going through a difficult time? What are some things we cannot tell people who are going through a painful, tragic time?

20:28 What are some things we cannot say as Christians? What are some things we just cannot say? Well, let's definitely we probably should say we can and we should never say we understand because most of the time we don't, right because we're not there. Even if you've gone through the exact same thing, your feelings is going to be different than their feelings. But we can't say things this. Can we say God is going to make it better? No, we cannot say God is in this life. We cannot say God is going to make it better? Or can we say God is going to intervene, God is going to provide, God is gonna We can't say any of that. Okay, we can't. We can't say any I mean, we may say God as a plan, but that really does not help anyone because we typically when we say God as a plan, what are we insinuating Okay, that what happened somehow wasn't his plan and so he's got another plan or that that was his plan, which that doesn't make anyone feel better, right, Like I remember when my uh, when my mother died. Now I wasn't living at home, so I was only kind of partially connected to it.

21:41 But myda, my sister obviously was little right ten years old, nine ten, I can't remember, and women from a I think it was First Baptist Church, Buffalo Gap, Texas. They brought my sister this little book trying to explain to her why God took her and that God needed her mommy for them. What kind of trash is that? Hey, God needed your mommy more than you did. What God? First of all, I didn't need my mom Okay, so that's just and then that just says God killed my mom. I mean the whole thing was evil, right, And I'm like, when I saw it, I think I think I actually burned the book and I don't even like burning books, but I wanted to think so far away from my sister is that could be because it was like, this is evil trash and I just wanted Christians to leave my sister alone and I wanted Christians to leave me alone because none of it was all trash. There's things we cannot say. I can't come to church and open the Bible and just take a verse and say, God's gonna help you. God's gonna provide, God's gonna protect, God's gonna do this, God's gonna make it all better, God's gonna fix it. I can't say any of that. All I can say is what God has provided salvation in Jesus Christ. By putting our faith in him, our sins are removed as far as the ess from the west.

23:05 His righteousness is imputed. To my account, I've been adopted into the family of God. I'm a co heir, joint heir with Christ. And one day I'll be in heaven and there'll be no more pain, no more suffering, and no more death, and I'll have a new body. That's it. Anything about what God may or may not do now, I cannot say. And I think anytime we take passages of scripture trying to promise what God's going to do, Number One, most of the time they actually reference back to Israel. And those promises to Israel are based off a covenant that God has not made with us. Or two, I think in many cases, if they take any New Testament passages, we've got to be very careful because I may.

23:45 I think in most of those promises, it's promises of what God is doing for us spiritually, spiritual comfort, spiritual provision, because in this life we know there's no gear. Christians go through the same pain, the same suffering as a lost person. So that that's that's just superficial healing. When you're offering healing, that's not really facing reality. So that's a key point here is they offered superficial healing. Number two, they were a denial of God's judgment. I'm gonna just say, a deny denial of reality, all right. Superficial healing is superficial healing because it denies reality. And number two, it was just a straight denial of reality. I know, if that's a little redundant. The leaders avoid come they read this again. The leaders avoid confronting the people with the reality of God's coming judgment. They proclaimed peace, creating the illusion that no danger was imminent. By ignoring or minimizing God's warning, they led the people further into complacency. Let me state it this way, I like the way they stated that they he read it exactly. They You see, the leaders avoided confronting the people with the reality of God's coming judgment. I want to just say, the leaders avoided confronting the people with the reality of the situation.

25:14 As Christians, we cannot ignore reality. The reality there was judgment was coming. It was a denial of God's judgment. It was a denial of reality. Christianity is not a denial of reality. Christianity is supposed to be what an acknowledgement of reality while maintaining what faith in a God that that reality calls into question. Remember we talked about this in Psalm eighty three. We talked about this over and over that as Christians, where do we live in this life, in the midst of reality? We have faith in a God in whom we cannot see, and that reality calls into question the very existence of that God.

25:58 We acknowledge that reality calls into question the existence of God. To deny that, you're out of your mind. And many Christians are like, oh, but I know God is real because God did this for me, or God did this for me, and God did this for me, And I always want to raise my hand. Okay, Well, if you think God did all of those things for you, what about all the people He didn't do any of that for. They now never have an answer for that, right other than doing what blaming the people that it's because of their sin or they don't have enough faith, which is just pure evil. All right, So superficial healing a denial of reality. Number three, It misleads people. The leader's assurance of peace deceive the people into thinking they do not need to repent or change their ways. This false comfort lulls them into a falsenesse of security, making them unprepared for the consequences of their rebellion. Well, when pastors take Isaiah forty verse one, Jeremiah other books and they basically give a misapplication to it, it misleads the people. Right First, it misleads them in two ways. It misleads them into thinking that God has promised them something that he hasn't, and sooner or later they're going to be confronted with the reality. And what else does it mislead them on?

27:20 Number two? Misleads them in how to handle scripture. It misleads them in how to handle scripture. And if you try to handle scripture correctly, Guess where you find yourself. You'll find yourself in opposition to Christianity. That's the frustrating part. If you try to handle the scriptures correctly, you will find yourself in opposition to Christianity at large. All of these sermons that led me to this entire kind of conflict were all chosen at random. I didn't like, go find the sermon and then create the point. I just started listening the sermons and then realize, in fact, all of twenty twenty four, because we've been doing the Sermon's two point oh you know, sermon challenge for this entire year, and we're fast approaching the end of it, all the sermons basically are to have fallen into two categories. No, No, this stuff's been going on forever. I mean we even in this series. We went all the way back to watch sixteen eighty seven Pilgrim's Progress. He was already allegorizing and taking Isaiah. He was taking Isaiah forty three. This has been going on forever. Because was it Karl Marx who said religion is the opiate of the masses. I think it was Karl Marx, and he's right. People come to religion for comfort. That don't come to religion for truth.

28:53 People come to church to feel better, to be encouraged, to make friends, to have community, to have a pot luck, to hold hands and see kumbaya. They don't come for truth. If you are a church. If you are a church and all you care is about giving people truth, you know what you get look around, okay, because people don't want that. They don't want to deal with the text. They don't want to deal with the difficulty. They don't want to deal with the contradictions. They don't want to deal with the logical fallacies. They just want a little nice three point sermon. They just wanted to feel like church because they want their hint of opium. They want their drug. They just they come to church, they pull up their sleeve and say I need my fix, make me feel good, and they get their little shot. And the old church was so wonderful, it was so encouraging, it was such a blessing. Oh it was so great.

29:48 And what did you get? They'll think they got the Bible, but they don't. They did not get the text. So when pastors do this, it misleads the people into thinking they're getting the text and again listening to all these sermons this year, two things happened over and over and over and over and over and over. Almost all the sermons would either fall into the category of basically say, hey, now that you're a Christian, you basically stop sinning. You can say no to sin, yes to God, and basically you're a new creation and you're good to go. And if you do continue to sin, you're probably not saved, all right. That's why most of them fell in. And then the other ones was a constantly Hey, we're in Nehemiah, it's about us. Hey, we're in Ezekiel, it's about us.

30:30 We're in Isaiah, it's about us. We're here, it's about We're in Exodus. It's about us. And it's just us, us, us, us, and the original people get thrown out of the text. And that's my concern. That's why we're doing Isaiah forty through fifty five. So number one is superficial healing. Number two it denies reality. Number three it misleads the people, and number four it focuses on external issues. The leaders likely address surface level problems are find an optimistic rhetoric, but they failed to deal with the deeper spiritual and moral corruption that plagued Judah. Their failure to apply the truth of God's word effectively made their ministry hollow and deceitful.

31:14 So focusing on external issues. I don't know if that really helps us As far as how it works in our time, I think it is simply just. It just causes us to be not We don't see things clearly. It blinds us. It gets our focus on the wrong thing. Itf facts. I will say this, It gets us to focus on a false reality instead of focusing on reality. See, it got them to focus on Hey, there's peace, everything is good. When pastors do this, it gets us to focus on this world that you're listen to Christians talk, they talk the language of a fake reality. Like if you just listen to Christians talk, you're like, what what are you talking about? The best example is at my church in Nebraska. Oh, I cannot believe we had to do it. It was the Experiencing God book that was so famous at the time. Everybody was doing Experiencing God. And if you look read the Experiencing God books. By the time, I mean I got so frustrated, I almost didn't want to go back to church. I could not handle it anymore because the Experiencing God books. Every chapter there's this story, you know, oh we needed this and God provided this, and then God did this and God did this, and God did this and God did this, and you read the book, you're like, well, then why isn't God doing any of this for me? Why is He not doing

32:45 any of this for me? And so then you have to what's your I mean, you're left with very few answers, right, Let see, well, maybe I'm not spiritual enough. Well, maybe I'm not saved, maybe I don't have enough faith. Well that just leads you into a like a downward spot of despair. But the rest of the Christians and the church were like, hey man, it was so encouraging, and it's like, what are you talking about? What do you There's nothing encouraging about it. It's a lie, it's trash. But Christians can live in this fake reality. I don't know how they do it. I don't know how. I've never understood how they do it. I don't understand because I've always heard are Christians talk and I'm always like, do you not watch the news? Do you not look at the world? Like how do you live in this fraudulent world where you act like God is just right there taking care of every little problem, fixing every little thing, And sometimes they're they're able to convince themselves of that until well, until reality hits right, until reality. I mean, I went to church with a lot of people who talk that big game. And then one of the men of the church. I don't know if he was a deacon, but he was, you know, very well respected in the church.

33:58 His wife, what was she thirty one, thirty three, thirty four got cancer. They had two small children. She was dead six months. Hey, God, where's God? I thought? God protects and promises and he's gonna do this, and he's gonna do what what were What do you tell these kids there? I mean they were little, you know, and their mom's dead and six months diagnosed. God, Yeah, you can't be acting like God is doing all of these things when that kind of stuff happens, you know, like then you have to just say, well, God chose not, Sorry, kid, God chose not to heal your mommy. Maybe if you had more faith, maybe if you're maybe if your dad was more godly. It just it's it's a tragedy. How that occurs. So we see in Jeremiah that they offered a superficial healing that denied reality, that misled people, and it got them to focus on a fraudulent reality. Now why is this problematic? Why is this a problem? Well, false peace and comfort described in these verses are problematic because number one, it distorts God's truth by proclaiming peace when there is no peace. The leaders misrepresent God's word purpose showing a disregard for the seriousness of God's word.

35:23 They show a disregard for the seriousness of sin and judgment. It distorts God's truth. When we have pastor after pastor go to these passages and insert us in it, it's a distortion of God's truth. And every sermon that we reviewed on the podcast on Isaiah forty, I mean, it was a running joke on the podcast get your stopwatch out, how fast do we get inserted into the text? Let's hit play like the one sermon forty seconds forty seconds at Isaiah forty, he already inserted us into the text. It took zero seconds because the title already inserted us into the text. And it's like, but the people in the pew, what were they all doing during the sermons, Amen, Amen, what are you ameny? A distortion of God's truth, but no one really cares if the text is being handled correctly.

36:20 So it's a distortion of God's truth. Number two, especially in the case of Jeremiah's day, it delayed repentance. I mean, obviously the people are not called a repentance because they're given a sense of false assurance, leaving them unprepared to face the consequences of their actions. I think what for us it delays. It delays us coming face to face with reality. I think, if we wanted to put it in our context, look, sooner or later, every Christian's going to have to face reality. Every Christian's going to have to face sooner or later, reality is going to hit, right, And I think most Christians are not prepared to face reality because they live in it. They even a reality that tells them why God's going to do this. God's going to do this, false promise, false promise, And I go, well, wait a minute, you know God's going to do what he did for me for Israel. There's no you can't take those promises. So it delayed repentance, or it delays us seeing reality. Number three, for them, it promoted complacency with no urgency to change. The people continue in their rebellion and idolatry, deepening their estrangement from God. It promotes complacency.

37:31 I don't know what it promotes in us, but I know what it does. I guess the one thing that promotes It promotes us. Ever, actually, it promotes a careless, mindless approach to scripture. Right, It distorts God's truth, It delays us facing reality, and it promotes a careless handling of the word of God. And number four, it results in greater destruction. The false comfort ultimately leads to greater destruction because it blinds the people of the truth of their situation. Well, you know what happens when you give people false comfort, false comfort, false comfort, and then when they get hit with reality, you know what happens. It can lead to the actual rejection of the faith, and it can lead people to completely deconstruct and think Christianity is trash. You know where else. It leads them to walk out the door and never go back to a corporate church because they see the church is lying to them, and the church did lie to them. Every pastor who stands up and takes passages of scripture and applies it to us when it's not us. That's that's gonna at some point you're gonna be like, none of this stuff works and you're gonna you're gonna walk out. And I mean I almost did the same thing. I mean, all the trash people said about my mom. It led me.

38:56 I mean, well, it definitely helped contributed to me trying to kill myself, but it also almost led me to saying Christianity is a lie, Christianity's fake, Christianity's fraudulent. Because all I was told is God, you should find comfort that God is all powerful because God's power he uses that power for you. Well, all I needed was God to I don't know, I just prayed for something simple, like wake my mom up so that we could have one conversation before she dies. That's all I wanted. God wouldn't even grant me that. Well, what good is this power if it's not gonna do that? So the power brought me no compan So that led me to lots of issues. So those are some of the reasons this is problematic. It distorts God's truth. In Jeremiah's case, it delays repentance. For us, it delays facing reality. It promotes complacency.

39:47 For us, it promotes a careless attitude towards God's word. It results in a greater destruction, not only for Judah, but then for us. It results in a greater destruction because when we're finally confronted with reality, it does not help help us in any way, shape or form. So how do we apply Jeremiah's warnings? Well? In Jeremiah six fourteen and eight to eleven, these warnings are relevant for both ancient Israel and us in our modern context. It highlights the dangers of leaders who avoid addressing hard truths, who offer shallow solutions, and prioritize comfort over faithfulness to the text, The warning is clear. This speaks and gives us the dangers of spiritual leaders who avoid addressing hard truths, avoid shallow solutions, and prioritize comfort over truth. All right, everybody got that? How is it applicable? This is a condemnation of spiritually who avoid addressing hard truth avoid addressing reality, and a lot of Church is the last place you want to come to hear about reality, because it's not gonna give it to you. It offers shallow solutions. And number three, it prioritizes comfort over truth, and a lot

41:18 of people want comfort over truth. We should want truth over what comfort. In fact, I will argue truth is what rarely comforting rarely. Right now, with all of that is the foundation, now we can bring it to Isaiah forty verse one. Now go to Isaiah forty verse one, because this is the section. All right, now, we're gonna bring all of these three things. We're gonna bring Jeremiah six fourteen, Jeremiah eight eleven, Isaiah forty one. We're gonna put them all together. Now, Okay, Now here's the problem.

42:00 Many pastors misuse texts like Isaiah forty verse one, which is meant for Israel to offer comfort to modern audiences. This creates a sense of false security and peace detached from the original context and reality. So let me state that again. What is the problem. Pastors use misuse texts like Isaiah chapter forty verse one, which is meant for whom Israel or Judah. Right, I mean, Isaiah thirty nine five through eight sets the context as we talked about last week, right, So many pastors misuse texts like Isaiah chapter forty verse one to offer comfort to a modern audience.

42:52 What does this create? A false sense of security and a false sense of peace that is detached from the original text and detached from reality itself. All right, So, offering comfort based on God's attributes or promises misapplied from scripture results and a superficial peace that ultimately fails when confronted with real world suffering and tragedy. Let me give you that's my thesis statement. Let me give it to you one more time. All right, you ready, here's my thesis statement, offering comfort based on God's attributes or promises misapplied from scripture. Now you please know what I put in there, offering comfort based on God's attributes? Remember that was the thing that kind of I think turned to temperature last Sunday. What do I mean by that? What are some of God's attributes? All knowing, all powerful, present everywhere at all time. Right we say omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. Right, using the theological term telling people that I should find comfort and those attributes is meaningless. What comfort do I find in God's power unless what happens? Unless that power

44:23 is being utilized to fix my situation? In fact, it could actually make me feel worse, couldn't it? Right? If I'm driving home today, I'm in a car wreck, and I'm laying in Hendrix and I'm paralyzed, and you come in and go, well, find great comfort that your God is all powerful, all knowing, and present everywhere at all times. When you leave the room, I may call security and say, never let that person back into the hospital again, because that is useless information to me. Now, if God uses that power to do what well, If you had use the power to stop the wreck from happening, that would have been good. If it would use the power to fix my legs so I could walk again, that would be good. But God being present, being all knowing, and being all powerful only makes my suffering worse. It doesn't make it better. In fact, it's torturous, right. It's like, Hey, right there next to your bed is the eternal God, who's present everywhere, who knows all things, who's all powerful, but he's just watching you suffer. So I'm not supposed to say that in church because we don't want to face reality. But that's reality, is it not? Nobody likes that?

45:39 So what is my thesis statement offering comfort based on God's attributes or promises misapplied from scripture results in what kind of peace? A superficial piece that will ultimately fail when confronted with real world suffering and tragedy. How long does that fraudulent comfort last until you get punched in the face? What's the famous saying in boxing? Everyone has a plan and everyone has a strategy until when until you get punched in the face. Then all of a sudden, your planet strategy goes out the window. Right, So we have to be willing to have a system that faces reality.

46:29 So let me read the thesis statement again. Offering comfort based on God's attributes or promises misapplied from scripture results in a superficial piece that ultimately fails when confronted with real world suffering and tragedy. We have to offer comfort that acknowledges reality, doesn't create a fraudulent reality. Sure, I hate to say it. You know, in a lot of ways, you know what church is. It's no different than going to a movie. Why do people go to movies to escape reality? Why do people go to church? Come on, let's just acknowledge it to escape reality. Church is no different than a movie, theater, movie, theaters give you a false world, right, and what a church give you false world?

47:21 Fraudulent world, a made up world as set of facing reality. So let's look at Isaiah forty verse one and context. Now, all right, So what is my thesis? Offering comfort based on God's attributes or promises misapplied from scripture results in a superficial piece that ultimately fails when confronted with a real world suffering and tragedy. So look at Isaiah chapter forty, verse one in some kind of context. How does the text begin? Comfort ye, comfort ye my people? All right, says your God? Who is the original audience? We can say Israel? Or go to Isaiah thirty nine five through eight.

48:05 What does that refer to? Especially those in Babylonian exile, who's assured of God's coming deliverance? So let's me make sure any promises and found in Isaiah forty to fifty five then primarily is addressed to whom those in Babylonian captivity. Can I take those promises and assurances and make them mine? If I do? What am I doing misapplying scripture? What kind of comfort did I get? Well? Let me read it this way. There's the text. There's a little bit of the context. Help listen to this. The comfort in this passage is rooted in a specific promise of the restoration for Israel. This message is tied to the covenant relationship between God and Israel. Cannot stress that enough. Any promise of deliverance, any promises to protect, to preserve, is based on God's covenant promises that go back to Deuteronomy twenty eight, go all the way back to the Abrahamic Covenant.

49:09 Not to us. Pastors extract this verse to suggest that God's attributes creator powerful should comfort us in any situation. It ignores the specific historical and thiological context of Israel's restoration. So Isaiah chapter forty verse one is the text that gets misupplied, ripped out of context. And then what do they do with it? They do the same thing that the religious leaders were doing in Jeremiah six fourteen and Jeremiah chapter eight, which is offering comfort and peace where there is no comfort or peace. Right. So there's Isaiah chapter forty verse one. Now let's go to Jeremiah six fourteen.

49:57 If you want to look at Jeremiah six fourteen, I know we've already looked at it times and Jeremiah eight eleven. They say the exact same words. They have healed the wound of my people lightly or slightly saying peace piece where there is no peace. Jeremiah six fourteen and eight to eleven say the exact same words. Jeremiah condemns leaders who offer superficial peace rather than addressing reality or addressing the root causes of Israel's problems. This false comfort, downplayed reality. I cannot stress that enough. They're false comfort, downplayed reality. So what is the parallel? Modern pastors using verses like Isaiah forty one to provide comfort without addressing the real cause of pain or to address reality, are the exact same way. They're doing the exact same thing the prophets and priests were doing. And Jeremiah six fourteen and eight eleven.

50:53 That's how it all fits together. Every time you listen to a sermon where a pastor takes a text and hurts us into a text where we don't belong, takes those promises, that comfort, that provision, and says it belongs to you, they are doing the exact same thing the religious leaders were doing. And Jeremiah six fourteen and eight eleven and it's a fraudulent hope and it's a fraudulent comfort. Right does everyone see how Isaiah forty verse one and Jeremiah six fourteen and eight to eleven all fit together. It's a perfect parallel God's attributes and false assurance. Pastors often appeal to God's omnipotence omniscience to reassure believers. Now this is not my words. This assurance feels hollow when God's attributes do not manifest and tangible interventions. Did everybody hear that God's attributes do not provide comfort? Or if it does, that comfort will feel hollow, will feel empty when those attributes do not manifest in a tangible intervention.

52:13 Unless the attribute turns into a tangible intervention, then the comfort offered by those attributes is empty, hollow, and vain at best. Yet, that's exactly what you're taught if you go to anything. If in fact, I don't have the book here, I think it's back in the library. I'll get it. I have this huge book on God's attributes. I had to use it in multiple schools. It's probably like eight hundred pages, maybe seven hundred pages, And in almost every chapter, what does it tell you to do when you're preaching, take God's attribute and then offer comfort to the people from said attribute. But that's not a comfort. That's just stating what it's a fact about God. It doesn't provide comfort unless the attribute is activated in a way that does what something specific for me? So even I mean, I think anyone being willing to be honest will realize the how hollow and empty these that comfort would come it disconnect. There's a disconnect between philological claims and observable reality. I want you to hear that again.

53:21 There can be a disconnect between a philological claim and observable reality. Everybody hear that observable reality philological claim. Sometimes there's a disconnect. Lots of times there's a disconnect. What does that lead to? Whenever you make a philological claim and it's disconnected from reality, what does that lead to? Anybody? What does that lead to? Philological claim reality disconnect? What does that lead to? Disillusionment, doubt, disbelief, abandonment of the faith, deconstruction, all of that because you're constantly told things that are just not true. That's the reason I've been talking about this false comfort so much over the last few weeks.

54:15 Because it's mine again. Just take any idea. You become a Christian and what are you told? You're a new creation? All things have passed away, all things have become new. You can now say notice in and say yes to God. Now what happens when reality fits in? Hits in you? Either maybe I'm not really a Christian, Maybe there's something wrong with me, maybe I'm demon possessed. Who knows? You go? You start looking for anything because there's a disconnect. Now, what do you do when there's a disconnect between the philological claim and reality? What should you do when there's a disconnect? Well, first you've gotta go see if the philological claim was fraudulent, because if it's so disconnected from reality, there's a possible problem. Right when charismatics walk around saying healing is guaranteed in the atonement, for now, that's a theological claim. What is reality? Show? There's a disconnect? So what do we do? We throw that out because we're not charismatics, but we do the exact same thing the charismatics do. We make all kinds of claims that are disconnected from reality. But if I confront that, then all of a sudden, oh no, you're an anthea, and all of a sudden, everybody gets mad at me. But I'm gonna if anyone's in crisis a new creation, old things have passed away, all things have come new that is not connected to reality. So that claim has to be

55:46 looked at. Now, So then what do well that is true? Positionally? Okay? Now see now I can make sense when a charismatic says healing is guaranteed in the atonement. I can say amen, because it is ultimately guaranteed in heaven, where I get a new body and there'll be no more painsickness than death. So sometimes we have to understand. Maybe we get we're misunderstanding the theological claim or we're misupplying the philological claim. But you've got to be able to acknowledge the disconnect, right, you gotta be able to understand the disconnect. We talked about this with prayer. Okay, So we're gonna pray to God, all right, now, let meet. We're gonna typically when we pray to God, we're asking for God to intervene, for God to do this, or for God to do that, or for God to do this. Now wait a minute, alright, So all right, there's a bad situation. Now I'm gonna pray to God. Now who am I praying to? Remember we talked about this. I'm praying to a God who, at the very minimum allowed it to happen. Well, that's hard.

56:48 So if he allowed it to happen, why am I gonna ask him to change what he allowed to happen. That's confusing. At the very most, he decrete it to happen, So why am I going to pray? Okay, now this gets really confusing? Right, So there's a disconnect between not only would we say theologically, but with reality. So we have a difficult time. And what did we discover? Well, most of the time we borrow our ideas from prayer, a lot of times from the Old Testament. Well, their prayers are different than our prayers because their prayers are given by Jews who are praying in connection to what the Covenant made to them. And then that covenant, what did God promise them? Physical provision, physical protection, physical promises?

57:38 All right, so they are staying true to God. We can't come in and pray the exact same way. So if we're going to be true to our theology, our prayers are more like God, I accept what is happening. I don't like this. I would like for you to change it, but I understand you at the very minimum allowed it, or at the very motion you decrete it. And I don't understand it, and I'm confused by it. But I'm going to trust you, even though this situation makes me question your existence. Like I know, you're not supposed to say that in church, but that would be more honest, and that would bring a connection between the theology and reality. When there's a disconnect, there's a problem.

58:22 There's a disconnect. So in many cases, pastors make these theological claims that are completely disconnected from an observable reality. So this leads to doubt and disillusionment. I'll give you. I've given you a bunch of examples. Here's an example. God is in control. Now, on one hand, that's a theological statement, right, but if it's offered in the face of disaster, yet the disaster remains that because we see, wait a minute, if God is in control yet this is happening, there can be a disconnect. What do we do that? Well, that raises problems. Now in church, we just are it's almost thrown out as God is in control with the implication wide he's gonna fix it, He's gonna make it better. That's a disconnect. Does everybody understand we have to be in the church willing to say, well, God is in control because that's a theological truth. How does that connect to reality that can be disturbing and nobody likes to necessarily admit it. We have to be willing to face that or for those who just came in for the first hour, we've been looking at Jeremiah six fourteen and Jeremia eight to eleven, where Jeremiah is condemning the prophets for offering false hope, false peace, false comfort.

59:43 And so that's and we're connecting that to Isaiah chapter forty verse one. Right, So I'm gonna at least finish well, well, all finish this part, okay, and then we'll make the next hour a little shorter. All right, here we go maybe in theory, all right, okay, So what do we need? We need a philologically grounded comfort. If we're going to offer comfort to people, we need one that's theologically grounded. All right, So true comfort for Israel. The promise of comfort in Isaiah forty verse one was tied to their specific covenant and God's plan of deliverance from exile. Can we be on is that fair? The comfort offered to them in Isaiah forty one is connected to God's covenant and his plan for their deliverance from exile. For the Church, comfort must be grounded and promises explicitly made to us, not made to them. And what are some of those promises explicitly made to believers? Salvation through Christ, forgiveness of sins, the hope of eternal life. Immediately we know most of our promises are not material or tangible or physical. They are primarily what spiritual. And if there's any tangible physical promise, they have to be placed where in heaven Where then

1:01:13 those tangible things will be made real? Does that make sense? Or if not, you're gonna end up with what a fraudulent false comfort. So we have to ground it in a theological truth. We have to avoid false peace. We have to address reality. We have to call for repentance, acknowledge the brokenness of the world, and point to the ultimate hope in Christ. If we're gonna have a thiologically grounded comfort, we have to face reality. Church is not the place to give you a fraudulent reality. But it's to make you face reality, all right. The famous Unshackled radio program Right unshackled, the program that forces you to face yourself and think. Right. It's about making you say yourself, that's what it's about. Christianity is about facing reality. Christianity is not about pulling the curtains and we all close the door and then we talk about a world that doesn't exist. It's about going no, the world exists, and we've got to be honest with it instead of making these psyllological claims that are disconnected from it. The church has to stop its superficial platitudes. We need to focus on the long term promises of scripture that are universally applicable and stop taking passages and ripping them out of context.

1:02:38 We have to stop that. So what should a pastor do and preaching? We should rightly divide the word of truth. We should ensure the text like Isaiah forty verse one are used in their proper context. We have to avoid appropriating promises made to Israel and applying them. To hold to the modern church, you cannot do that. We have to offer realistic comfort, acknowledge the reality of pain and suffering without pretending God will intervene in a way that we desire. There is no promise God is going to intervene. There's no promise God is gonna help. There's no until when eternity. Until then, I can't make any promises. Where should I then point people to find hope? And in scripture and the spiritual promises, I cannot give people hope in their circumstance. I know when people, when the wills come off and life falls apart, and they come to a pastor, they want to hear that God's gonna do this or this, or that. I can't offer you any hope.

1:03:46 I can't offer you any I can't tell you your situation is gonna get better. It may actually get worse. I can't tell you anything. All I can tell you is eternity. But guess what, that can seem pretty meaningless and the face of reality. So sometimes it's better to do what lie, shut up, be quiet, all right? But I mean, well, in some cases I understand that, and we have to warn against what false peace, using Jeremiah six fourteen and eight to eleven as a warning against superficial or misleading assurance we cannot do that. We have to remind the people in the congregation as a pastor of the importance of looking at the text correctly. And I know, looking at the text correctly is it doesn't feel like church because a sermon, a sermon is designed to be a speech. It's to be a presentation, it's to be a form of almost entertainment. It's not designed to say, hey, guys, we're here to look at this, because if you start breaking this down, all of a sudden, well nobody comes to church because nobody really wants it, say they do. So pastors have to give the sermon, but they have to do enough manipulation to make everyone feel like they're actually getting the text. But if they were actually getting the text, it wouldn't feel like a sermon because sermons are not designed to really break yet down the text. And that's why I hate the entire

1:05:18 sermon structure. So how can we how can we conclude this false comfort is rooted in misapplied scripture, and it is dangerous and it ultimately fails to address the deeper issues and reality of life. When we hear that again, false comfort is rooted in the misupply and misapplying scripture. It is dangerous, and it ultimately fails to address reality. True comfort must be grounded in the Gospel of Christ and the eternal promises of God, not in superficial assurance of peace and security in this life. Pastors must preach the truth even when it's uncomfortable. Do not heal the wounds of God's people lightly, but direct them to the true bomb found in Christ alone. That last paragraph, that's AI.

1:06:16 AI can figure it out. Preach the truth even when it's uncomfortable. Do not. This is the AI's exact words. Do not heal the wounds of God's people lightly, but direct them to the true bomb found in Christ alone. How can AI get that right? But we can't. You know why AI can get it right. It's not bound by who if I take. If I take, why it doesn't have a heart right, Hey, if I take everyone off, everyone's gonna leave my church. AI doesn't care if everyone leaves my church. AI doesn't care. AI is not committed to a team. AI is just like. Look, these passages are being misused by pastors. If they care about the text, they should stop doing it. Are they gonna stop? No?

1:07:20 Because when people walk into that door. They're expecting a movie that helps them escape reality because the truth is not so good. There's there's Jeremiah six fourteen eight to eleven, Isaiah chapter forty verse one. Now this sets us up for Isaiah chapter forty verse one, and we'll start that in a couple of minutes, and now we can get to the text. But we had to do all of that. Hopefully that was beneficial. And because when I was working on all of this, the Jeremiah passages just kept coming to my mind, like peace where there's no peace. Peace, there's no that's what people do. So yeah, I'm really bothered by the false comfort. And we'll get started here in a minute, in the next hour, and then we'll put this all together. Let's pray, Lord, God, we come before you. Lord, forgive me, as a pastor and teacher, if I've ever offered false comfort, false hope, false peace, forgive me forever misapplying scripture and taking texts that were not meant for us and applying them to us. And forgive anyone else in this room who've done the same thing, or have offered the same kind of false comfort to anyone else. Lord. The Church has mishandled your word over and over and over in history, and we just want to make it about us, and we want you to do things for us, and we almost recreate you in an image that's more like us than who you truly are.

1:08:52 Forgive us for that, and help us as we study Isaiah forty through fifty five, that we somehow try to stay true to the text wherever that it takes us, no matter how comfortable uncomfortable that may be, because that's what we're called to do. And we ask for forgiveness, and we are thankful that we find that forgiveness in your son Jesus Christ. And it's his name we pray. And God's people said