A sermon preached by Stafford Humphreys at Dunvegan Primary School

October 28, 2003

      There are certain scientific principles at work in the universe today called the laws of Thermodynamics. The Second Law of Thermodynamics (which is a basic law of nature, without any known exceptions) states that all the working systems of creation tend to become disordered and simpler. All things tend to grow old, wear- out, run down, and die. The great hymn, 'abide with me' has those immortal lines…."Change and decay in all around I see, Oh Thou that changest not, abide with me." Apart from God this principle is at work in everything. Even the heat of the sun, if it were given enough time would fizzle out and die. The scientists also tell us that there is a fixed number of atoms in the universe and that there is a fixed amount of energy in the universe but whenever energy is used up it becomes useless in its new format. Let me explain:- When you burn coal in the fire the heat energy is released into the air and the energy that was in the atoms of the coal is transferred to atoms in the air. But what is left of the coal? It’s ash, nothing but worthless ash and when all our coal reserves been burned there is no way that we can reuse the energy that has been expended. That is a simple illustration of the law of thermodynamics.... Impressive bit of scientific knowledge? Well…not really. Anyone who reads the book of Genesis is aware of this law of decay. This is only what occurred at the fall when Adam and Eve brought sin into the world; when God cursed the earth and ordained that man should eat bread by the sweat of his brow. At that time The Lord changed the way that he dealt with the universe and into creation entered pain and misery and …death. Another thing that we are now sadly aware of in life, is that everything must be preserved in order to hold back the power of this decay. If you do not paint a garden fence it will decay much sooner than if you did. If you do not put meat in the fridge it quickly goes off. Jesus used a similar illustration to show how His people are like a preservative in the world: He said that we are to be salt and light in the world. Salt in those days, before fridges, was used as a preservative and it’s not unknown even these days to use salt as a preservative. I saw Salt Mackerel advertised for sale in the Free Press only the other day.

    So you see….decay and death are only here, in this world, because of sin and because man is not right with God, it means that the whole of creation is not right with God either. Nothing gets better if it is left to itself. We either have to make something brand new or we have to preserve it and that is the condition that the universe is in. The whole of creation is in pain, groaning we are told, like a woman who is in the agonies of labour. The universe is not now like it was when God first created it. It’s not working correctly and it won’t work correctly until the plan of God has come to pass. When every believing soul whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life has been redeemed and all the saints are gathered in to glory, then will the end come. God shall fold up the heavens like a garment. The elements shall melt with fervent heat and after this God will create a new heavens and a new earth and in that earth there will be no curse, no decay, no sorrow or death, in a word no more second law of thermodynamics. God will say, Behold, I make all things new. The only other thing that shall remain will be the souls and the resurrected bodies of the adopted sons and daughters of God who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ to the saving of their souls. And why will they remain?..Well, it is because they have been made new creatures in Christ. The Spirit of God, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
      Now this principle of death and decay is at work in the spiritual world also. Consider Adam…The Lord told Adam concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…. in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Did he die? Well,….yes and no. He didn’t drop dead immediately but the power of death, this principle of decay, began to work in his body. But spiritually he was dead, the spiritual life principle had ended and now God declares that by nature, we are dead in trespasses and sins. You think about the nature of sin and wickedness in the world, if God does not intervene in the life of a person or a nation even, then that person or nation declines into more and more wickedness. Just look at our own nation, Britain, the influence of The Lord is becoming less and less and each week new laws are passed which allow people to do things in our land which were once considered great immoral, crimes. So you see, that spiritual decay, just like physical decay, never can get better unless God stops the rot.
     And so as we come back to our text, keep these principles in your mind. This chapter 40 of Isaiah was written to the Jews to comfort them during the days when they were at there lowest ebb. The Lord wanted to comfort His beloved covenant people who were in captivity. Israel had been chastised for their sins. They had fought many unnecessary battles, they had been humiliated and humbled and carried of to Babylon and the great City of God, Jerusalem, had become a deserted, abandoned ruin. How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! So there they were, slaves in Babylon, defeated by their enemies and far away from their beloved homeland, they had been cruelly treated and they cried out saying, ‘My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God’. What does this mean? What were they saying? They were saying, ‘God has forgotten me’, God does not care about me any more’. Oh…what a terrible state of mind for a true child of God to be in. To believe that The Lord no longer pays any attention to you, that your way is hid from His eyes and that He does not look upon you any more as His beloved child. This was the condition of Israel and, of course, it is understandable. When every thing in life is an uphill struggle that’s how we begin to feel. I wonder if there is anyone here tonight who feels as though God has little or no interest in them? Or feels that they have declined in their life so far that they cannot rise out of the miry clay. Well,if you do, then this chapter is for you and when we have looked at its promises and taken them to heart then I guarantee that you will go away from this meeting tonight rejoicing and with fresh hope in your heart.
      The main reason why Christians become weary and begin to faint is due to the fact that they forget who they are and they begin to concern themselves to much with the things of this world. You know yourself that if you neglect to spend time in prayer, if you neglect to go to church, fail to read your Bible and watch too much television, your going to feel very distant from The Lord. Anything that takes us away from communion with Our Lord is an idol and there are no blessings to be had from these idols. What’s more, God is a jealous God, and he will not share his glory with our idols. Look at poor King David, his idol was his beautiful son Absolom, who stood head and shoulders above all other men and had the face of an angel, but he was not like his father, a man after God own heart. There was no grace in Absoloms heart, he was a wretched man and yet King David doted upon him so much. Absolom would have killed his father, he rose up against him with a mighty army and he even raped his fathers concubines in the sight of all Israel and yet when The Lord took away the life of this wicked man David was broken hearted, he covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!...But again…it’s so understandable. How could his heart not yearn after his own son? I know myself having 7 sons how it feels when they act so foolishly and try to find happiness in this cursed world. But we can find ourselves making idols out of anything, absolutely anything, our work, our bad habits, our pleasures, those areas of our lives which we do not want to share with The Lord. The converted Christian and the unconverted can both suffer from the same problem, worldliness. And worldliness too, is so understandable; we are creatures of this world, and our fleshly nature cries out for gratification and we find it hard to mortify the deeds of the flesh. ‘The flesh wars against the spirit’ and I have to admit that very often the flesh wins but when the fleshly nature gets the upper hand we feel so miserable. When we get on with our lives and we do not acknowledge God in all our ways, it is sin and we become captives and slaves to that sin just like those Israelites in Babylon and we feel the hand of The Lord heavy upon us and we say, ‘My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God. We feel that God is scowling at us and we don’t realise that we have created the problem for ourselves.
      But look here in this text. What does God say to try and alleviate their sadness? Well look, the whole chapter is full of words of comfort and promises, ‘Comfort ye my people’ God says to Isaiah, tell them that there warfare is accomplished, tell her that her iniquity is pardoned, Be not afraid say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! The glory of the LORD shall be revealed. He calls them His flock. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom. And then after he has told them of his tender love He convinces them of His sovereignty. It isn’t the dumb idols of this world or the dumb idols of the Babylonians that have anything to do with their circumstances. No says Isaiah, It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: Before Him the nations are as a drop of a bucket. This is the way God encourages them. He shows them that their God is the only true and the living God. To whom will ye liken me? Saith The Holy One. He tells them to lift up their eyes to the heavens. Why? Because the heavens are telling the glory of God. Then He chides them for their forgetfulness, 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? They, of all people had heard and should have known the ways of God. But here is a more wonderful truth. They were the ancient people of God, the sons and daughters of the old covenant who waited patiently for the coming Messiah, but we, we are the sons and daughters of the new covenant. We look back in hindsight, knowing that God made His own Son a curse for us. When we read that our iniquity is pardoned and that double has been paid for our sins, what does that mean to us who are saved by the blood of Christ? We look back and say Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God:
      But then comes the great remedy. Look at verse 29 ‘He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he increaseth strength’ Like the Psalmist says, They go from strength to strength. Usually, if we are walking, we go from strength to weakness; we start fresh and in good order for our journey, but after a while, especially if the road is rough, and the sun is hot, we sit down by side of the road, and then we get up again and go on our weary way. But the Christian pilgrim we are told here shall walk and not faint. In fact we are told that they shall RUN and not be weary. Now you see how this is working against that natural law which is at work in the world, everything decays and dies. Well for the Christian, he increases in strength not his own but the strength given to him by God. But just in case anyone is still thinking physically, I need to point out that this is a metaphor. Our flesh will become weary an eventually it will die but our spirits will be strong, changed from glory into glory and in this life now from a spiritual point of view we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us and gave Himself for us. In this world; man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. Jesus has told us in no uncertain terms: In the world ye shall have tribulation but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. This is the antidote to weariness and defeatedness. This is why the great saints of old could say, ‘The LORD is my strength and my shield, the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. But there is a huge proviso which many Christians overlook. It shoots out of the text like a bolt of lightning. Look at verse 31, But, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They that wait upon the Lord not all Christians shall know the joy of victory over the power of the curse in this world, only those who wait upon the Lord. And look how high they shall rise above the power of sin in the world. Like eagles they shall mount up with wings. I live in place where several eagles have nested and sometimes I see them circling so high that I have to use binoculars to identify them AND God choose His metaphors so well, because eagles don’t flap their wings in order to rise higher and higher. They just launch themselves of a cliff and open their wings and the currants of air simply lift them higher and higher. Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.
       When we spend time in prayer and open the scriptures and look to the Lord to wait upon Him it usually isn’t long before we realise who we are and why we are here and where we are going. If you are a Christian remember that you are not a citizen of this world. Your name is written in heaven, engraved upon the palms of His hands. Your purpose in this life is to shun all friendship with the world and glorify God and to enjoy Him.
      There are times when all the promises and doctrines of the Bible don't have any effect on us, unless the gracious hand of God applies it to our hearts. Sometimes we can be thirsty for the things of God, but it's as if we are too faint even to crawl to the water. You think of a soldier who has been wounded in a battle, and he cannot move. Sometimes our Christian life can be like that spiritually. it is of no use for the soldier to know that there are hospitals with medicine and bandages and nurses to look after him and take away his pain. If he hasn't got the strength to get there what he needs is to be carried to the hospital, so that the treatment can be given. It is the same with our souls, our souls become, as it were,  war torn by the things of this world. We know that we should be walking victoriously, above the things of this world but sin brings us down, we listen to the voice of temptation and worldly reasoning, we listen to Satan as he deceives us saying, "go on, sin, get on with your life without God's help...Ye shall not surely die" and what happens? We end up miserable, wishing we hadn't sinned, wishing we had waited upon the Lord. We end up like the soldier, wounded by the fiery darts of the enemy, entrenched, pinned down and surrounded on every side by the devil the flesh and the world. We want to hear those words of The Lord telling us that, 'our warfare is accomplished BUT the noise of the battle, the clamour of the world is so loud, we fail to hear His voice and our spiritual eyes are clouded by worldly anxiety. We fail to see that He is watching us, and not just watching us but is even there with us and even WITHIN us.  Now if you are a Christian, The Lord will not let you die spiritually (your soul has already been redeemed from the power of eternal death because Christ has died for you and He will come again and take you to Himself) but he may leave you wounded on the this spiritual battlefield in your misery whilst you are in this world if you will not seek His face and wait upon Him. Is The Lord saying to you, 'Look unto Me', is he saying, 'Be still and know that I am God', 'Be still and see the salvation of your God' To meet our needs in this worldly battle God sends His Spirit, even the Spirit of truth, who takes of the things of Jesus, and applies them to us. Don't think that God is far away from you. He draws near, and gives us his peace in our hearts. If you are tonight labouring or feeling distressed, remember that God is a Father who has given us these promises, and the promises he has written in the Word He will write them again on your heart. He will manifest his love to you, and by his blessed Spirit, He will take away your cares and troubles. We should never forget the character of our God. He is The God who wipes every tear away from the eyes of his people. The good Samaritan did not say to the wounded man, "Here's some wine, and here is the oil for you"; he actually poured in the oil and the wine bound up his wounds. And in the same way Jesus gives you these sweet promises, and if we cry out to Him, He doesn't demand something impossible from us in order to bless us, no, in fact the opposite is true. He doesn't just bless us and strengthen us, He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength (Notice the word increaseth, He gives more and more strength!), He bears us up with eagles wings. The Gospel is so wonderful, it not only provides everything for the helpless sinner....it goes on to turn him into a new creature, a creature who is not of this world.
      This death defying, spiritual life is essential to a Christian in order to rise above the power of the curse. There must be spiritual life — that vital principle infused into us by God the Holy Ghost. If you only have the mere name of being a Christian then in actual fact you are spiritually dead, we must be filled with God's Spirit in order to have His divine life. This life of God is mysterious but when it is there in your heart then you can say with Paul ‘for me to live is Christ and to die is gain’. Our bodies are dying but our spirits (if we wait on Him) are no longer decaying NO, they are alive in Christ. The only way to stop the decay in your life and to feel the power of God in your life is to trust The Lord. Stop believing that you can have peace and happiness in this world OR the world to come without Christ. The power of death and sin both in your body and soul WILL defeat you. It is a law like the laws of thermodynamics, Jesus has said...'Without Me, ye can do nothing'. And so without Christ, without faith and trust in Him we cannot hope to overcome the world. We must be like the wounded soldier and cry out to Him to carry us out of the battle and you must be like the eagle and launch yourself away from the earth, in faith of course, and leave the world behind and He will bear you up in His arms. Remember the words of Jesus concerning you, 'Ye are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.'

It is written, If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.