Sermon Tone Analysis

In preaching through Isaiah’s Prophecy, we’ve entered a segment of the Foretelling where the Prophet has looked 140 years into the future and sees Judah in captivity in Babylon.

The nation has been destroyed.

The city of Jerusalem lies in ruins.

The Temple of the Lord has been looted and torched.

The people who have survived have been carried off as slaves to Babylon.

There they hang their harps on the branches of the Willow trees because there is nothing to sing about.

They weep and despair of ever seeing home again.

But God has given the Prophet a message of hope: “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.”

Then there follows a marvelous, unbelievable prophecy that there will be a visitation of God.

He will come to His people:

/“A voice of one calling: “In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.

And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it.

For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”/

(Isaiah 40:3–5, NIV84)

But how can the people be sure?

How can they have confidence in the Lord’s visitation?

Because God has said so, and His Word stands forever.

The verse that follows is one of the great passages defending The Authority of God’s Word.

Because God’s Word stands, His prophecy that the people would be restored to their land was sure to be fulfilled.

The verse breaks into two natural parts, and makes a contrast: Some things are temporary—like grass and flowers, but some things are permanent—like God’s Word.

!

I. SOME THINGS IN THE WORLD ARE TEMPORARY

* /“The grass withers and the flowers fall ... “/ (Isa.

40:8a, NIV)

#. everything we see in this earth is temporal and transient

#. we live in a dissolving culture

#. nations that were once powerful, are no longer

#.

kings and potentates that once ruled, are in their tombs

#. economies that once dominated, have gone bust

#. in verse 7, Isaiah reminds his readers that, like the grass, nations and their leaders fulfill their purposes and then fade away

* /“As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.

But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children— with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.”/

(Psalm 103:15–18, NIV84)

#. more than any other book in the Bible, Ecclesiastes speaks of the futility of all the things we seem to value in this life

#.

anyone who has ever read the Book of Ecclesiastes will recognize that it has an almost haunting theme

#. it’s text seems melancholy and even cynical

#. the writer has taken a look at life and concluded that much — if not all of it — is meaningless

#. and he tells us so in no uncertain terms!

In the very first chapter, we read these words:

* /“Meaningless!

Meaningless!” says the Teacher.

“Utterly meaningless!

Everything is meaningless.”

What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?

Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.

The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.

The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.

All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full.

To the place the streams come from, there they return again.”/

(Ecclesiastes 1:2–7, NIV84)

* /“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”/ (Ecclesiastes 1:9, NIV84)

* /“I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven.

What a heavy burden God has laid on men!

I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”/

(Ecclesiastes 1:12–14, NIV84)

#. the rest of the book continues in the same bleak and disillusioned tone

#. the author tells us that he has carefully looked at life for meaning and found none

#. he tells us that wisdom, the pursuit of pleasure, toil and hard work, riches and material wealth are all meaningless because they are all transitory—they will wither like the grass and fade like the flower

#.

Solomon reaches a crescendo of fatalism in chapters eight and nine when he says that all men, weather righteous or wicked, weather good or bad, weather spiritually clean or spiritually unclean, weather they offer sacrifices to God or not, all face a common destiny

#. that destiny is death

#.

Solomon has examined every area of life:

#. his search covered all the Humanities: Literature, Law, History, Philosophy, Religion, the Performing Arts, Technology, Anthropology, and Cultural Studies

#. he examined wealth, power, religion, relationships, work, and play and finds them all transient, temporary, and meaningless

#. ultimately, they do not fulfill

#. is life truly meaningless?

#. of course not

#.

Solomon concludes his book, not in cynicism but in faith

#. he writes in /“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”/ (Ecclesiastes 12:13, NIV)

#. in the end, Solomon reminds us that God and His Word, as found in his commandments, alone holds the key, and he must be trusted

#.

Some Things—in Fact Almost All Thing—in this World Are Temporary

!

II.

SOME THINGS IN THE WORLD ARE PERMANENT

* /“ ... but the word of our God stands forever”/ (Isa.

40:8b, NIV)

* /“For, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.”

And this is the word that was preached to you.”/ (1 Peter 1:24–25, NIV84)

#. the close connection between God and his word means that the qualities attributed to God’s word also describe God’s own personal character

#. the Old Testament is filled with descriptions of God’s Word

#.

God’s Word is ...

#. creative (Ps.

33:6),

#. good (Mic.

2:7),

#. holy (Jer.

23:9),

#. complete (Jer.

26:2),

#. flawless (2 Sam.

22:31; Pss.

12:6; 18:30; Prov.

30:5),

#. all-sufficient (Deut.

8:3; Isa.

50:4; Jer.

15:16),

#. sure (Isa.

31:2; 45:23; Jer.

44:28),

#. right and true (Judg.

13:12, 17; 1 Sam.

3:19; Ps. 33:4; Isa.

55:11),

#. understandable (Deut.

4:10, 12, 36; Neh.

8:12),

#. active (Hos.

6:5),

#. all-powerful (Pss.

68:11–14; 147:15–18),

#. indestructible (Jer.