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Well, brothers and sisters in Christ, please remain standing for the reading of God’s
Word.
My sermon text this evening, as we consider Isaiah, our sermon text is Isaiah chapter
35.
It’s a shorter chapter in this work, known to us as Isaiah, it’s 10 verses long, begins
on page 707.
In your pew Bibles, I’ll read the chapter in its entirety.
Let us hear God’s holy word, Isaiah chapter 35.
The wilderness and dry land shall be glad.
The desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus.
It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.
Open the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who have an anxious heart, be strong, fear not.
Behold, your God will come with vengeance.
With the recompense of God, he will come and save you.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then shall like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
For waters break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
The burning sand shall become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water.
In the haunt of jackals where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
And a highway shall be there and it shall be called holiness.
The unclean shall not pass over it.
It shall be long to those who walk on the way.
Even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.
No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it.
They shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing.
Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.
They shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.
Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the preaching of his word.
O true and living God, Heavenly Father, we praise you for you spoke the word and by your
breath you created the heavens and the earth by your sovereign word of power.
And by your word you are also able to speak new life into our souls and you are able
to cause new life to blossom forth even in the desert wilderness.
We pray, Lord, that by your spirit you would bless the word not only as it has been read,
but bless it as it is proclaimed this evening.
We pray that once again you would set a guard over my lips that I, your unworthy servant,
may declare and speak forth only that which is faithful and true to your word.
And we pray that your word would indeed find a lodging place in each and every one of our
souls.
We pray that this word would bring forth new life and great fruitfulness for your kingdom
in our hearts and lives and in our church.
We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said.
Amen.
You may be seated.
My sermon this evening is Streams in the Desert.
And there are five key words to listen for tonight, the words life, land, streams, holiness,
and Zion.
Well, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, because the Bible is the very word of God
himself, it has the power to speak into the lives of God’s people facing all kinds of
different circumstances and situations in life.
And because it is God’s word to his people, it is especially relevant to the covenant
community of the church in its various conditions, in its various circumstances, whether we’re
talking about the church existing in prosperity or the church in adversity, oppression, and
persecution, the church under temptation, and so forth.
And friends, this is particularly the case when it comes to this powerful passage of
God’s word that we are considering on this Lord’s Day evening.
For even though the Holy Spirit inspired Isaiah the prophet to write these powerful words
at a particular point in redemptive history, when God’s ancient covenant people were facing
specific issues and specific dangers, nevertheless, this passage of scripture speaks into the
situation of the church of Jesus Christ even today.
And it speaks into the lives of us as individual believers.
So just to give you some examples, let’s consider the example of the individual.
Let’s say that you’re a believer who is going through a long painful season of spiritual
dryness.
I imagine many of us have been there.
The older writers used to call it a dark night of the soul, a season where even the diligent
use of the means of grace, even devotional exercises like prayer and Bible reading and
church attendance feel fruitless, feel dry, feel futile.
And where God seems absent, uninvolved, unconcerned, perhaps even you feel that God has abandoned
you.
If this describes you, this passage is a reminder, a gracious reminder that our Lord promises
in this Messianic age to dispel our spiritual dryness with streams in the desert.
If your walk with Christ feels like a desert, brother, sister, living water are on their
way.
But bringing this to the level of the church, to the persecuted church, this passage urges
the suffering people of God to in essence be strong and courageous because the Lord
promises ultimate vindication in the end.
As we’re told in verses three and four, Isaiah writes, strengthen the weak hands and make
firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who have an anxious heart, be strong, fear not.
Behold your God will come with vengeance.
With the recompense of God, he will come.
To the lukewarm church in need of spiritual renewal, revitalization and perhaps even reformation,
this passage points to our Lord’s power to create new life and to produce spiritual fruit
even in a spiritual wasteland.
For just as our sovereign Lord is able to cause the desert to blossom forth with new
and fruitful life, so he is able to bring new life and new growth even to a spiritually
barren church.
And to the worldly wayward church, tempted to give in to the pressures of an ungodly
culture, this passage is a powerful reminder that the road to the heavenly Zion is the
way of holiness, not the way of unbelieving, unrepentant compromise with an ungodly world.
And so friends, here in this chapter of God’s word, we find hope for the hopeless and discouraged.
Here we find comfort for the afflicted.
Here we find strength for the weak.
Here we find warning for the wicked.
Here we find rejoicing for the redeemed.
Now this passage comes to us in the context, in a larger context in Isaiah, that has been
described as an oasis.
In fact, Dr. Derek Kidner in his commentary on Isaiah says this about our chapter.
He introduces it with these words.
He says, the glory of this chapter is enhanced, if this is possible, by its setting as an
oasis between the visionary wasteland of chapter 34, which we read earlier in the service,
and the history of war, sickness, and folly in chapters 36 through 39.
He goes on to say that the theme is the coming Exodus, a greater than the first.
This is a common theme in the prophet Isaiah, that a newer Exodus, a greater Exodus is coming
on the way, a greater Exodus, a greater deliverance.
It was one thing, God’s people enslaved under Pharaoh and the Egyptians, that physical slavery
was awful enough, and the Lord rescued His people out from slavery in Egypt.
But this passage points to a new and greater Exodus, namely the deliverance of God’s people
from a greater bondage, the bondage of sin and the devil.
And this deliverance is accomplished through the redeeming work of a promised Messiah,
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
So as we turn our attention to the details of our passage for this Lord’s Day evening,
the first theme that I would direct your attention to is found in the first four verses
of this text.
We see the theme here of new life in a barren land.
This marvelous chapter opens up with these words, the wilderness and the dry land shall
be glad.
The desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus.
It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy in singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.
Now here Isaiah uses personification as he often does.
Here he personifies nature itself in order to illustrate how the power and presence of
God’s spirit can transform both nature and people, even when they are affected and afflicted
by the curse of sin, as all of us have been.
In verse one, we see reference made to a wilderness, to dry land, to a desert, illustrations borrowed
from creation to picture spiritual barrenness.
And spiritual barrenness was a reality among the people of God in Isaiah’s day.
Spiritual barrenness was the norm among God’s people in Isaiah’s time.
The spiritual barrenness of God’s professed covenant people who were often guilty of idolatry,
covenant breaking, even apostasy, all of which ultimately led to their exile into Babylon.
Indeed, the covenant community before the Babylonian exile was on the whole a spiritual
wasteland of faithlessness and covenant breaking.
But God says it’s not going to stay that way.
For what does the Lord say?
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad.
Oh yes, there would be exile, there would be judgment, but after the judgment, there
would be gladness, there would be joy.
The desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus.
It shall blossom not just a little bit.
It shall blossom, we’re told, abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing.
The dead and barren wilderness is personified as bursting forth with new life.
You see, friends, in the eschatological age of the promised Messiah, which is the age
of the Spirit, there would come radical change, radical transformation.
And brothers and sisters, through the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel is a radical gospel.
It is a gospel that reveals a radical grace, a grace for even the worst of sinners.
For we see the power of the gospel to transform those who are God-haters into God-lovers,
those who are rejectors of Christ to those who are servants of Christ.
Another prayer that mention was made in Isaiah’s prayer this evening of the Apostle Paul.
Saul, the persecutor of the church, is transformed into Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles.
The gospel has power when the Spirit of God.
And in verse two, one of the things I want you to notice here is notice even though the
Lord paints a picture of a barren desert, yet in that barren desert, there will result
not just new life, fruitfulness, but joy.
Notice, my friends, the theme of overflowing joy that this new divine life will bring to
the people of God.
It says, it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing.
God is not a cosmic killjoy.
God is working for our joy, brothers and sisters.
And then reference is made to these various locations in the promised land.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it.
The majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
What’s the significance of these locations?
What would that have communicated to the original audience that Isaiah was preaching to?
Well, Lebanon, Carmel, and Sharon, brothers and sisters, these were abundantly fertile
and fruitful parts of the promised land.
And they’re being used here to illustrate God’s promise that the lifeless barren desert
will burst forth with new life.
And this ultimately, again, points us to Jesus Christ, our Savior, because Christ is the
living water and Christ as the living water brings new life and new joy to dead, dry,
barren souls.
And what will the result be?
Well, it’s the end of verse two, we read, they shall see the glory of the Lord.
But I thought we, no one could see the Lord and live, but with the eyes of faith and by
the Spirit, we do indeed see the glory of Yahweh, our faithful covenant-making, covenant-keeping
God.
We see the majesty of our God.
We see that revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And though it refers to, though Paul is speaking to a different context, this passage here
in Isaiah reminds me of what the apostle writes in 2 Corinthians 4, verses one through six.
Let me just read those verses to you and you’re welcome to follow along in your Bibles
if you wish.
2 Corinthians chapter four, verses one through six, where Paul talks about his ministry as
an apostle.
And he says, therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart,
but we have renounced disgraceful underhanded ways.
We refuse to practice cunning and to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement
of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.
In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them
from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your
servants for Jesus’ sake.
For God who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
We see the glory of God revealed through the gospel in the face of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ.
We see this only with the eyes of faith, but it is real, it is the living Lord Jesus Christ.
And then verses three and four again, as I’ve already touched upon these verses, but here
we see this exhortation in essence to be strong and courageous.
Verse three, strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees.
If you have weak hands and feeble knees, you cannot stand firm in the face of opposition,
especially if that is true of those facing a battle.
If you’re a soldier on the front lines of battle, you need to stand firm.
Your hands need to be strong.
Your knees need to be firm.
But here, here the people of God in Isaiah’s time are living in fear.
The threat in Isaiah’s time that was causing the people to be fearful was of course the
Assyrian military threat.
The pagan nation of Assyria, the pagan empire of Assyria was cruel and they were expanding
their territory and threatening Judah and Jerusalem at this time.
So Isaiah is encouraging the people not to be fearful.
Here the Lord through Isaiah is in effect telling the people not to let the Assyrian
threat strike terror in their hearts nor to weaken their resolve.
Instead, let them trust in Yahweh, their faithful God, and let them trust in his promises of
deliverance and vindication.
Likewise, brothers and sisters, though we do not face the Assyrians, we face the world,
the flesh and the devil.
So let us be strong and courageous again.
The wording here reminds us of how Yahweh the Lord had instructed Joshua back in Joshua
chapter one.
Let me just read a few of these verses, Joshua one verses six and seven.
These should be very familiar to you, but we need to hear them again.
As the Lord has called Joshua to lead the people into the promised land, he says, only
be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses,
my servant, commanded you.
Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever
you go.
This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day
and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.
For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success.
Have I not commanded you?
Be strong and courageous.
Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever
you go.
And then skipping down to verse 18, whoever rebels against your commandment and disobeys
your words, whatever you command him shall be put to death.
Only be strong and courageous.
The Lord says again and again, be strong and courageous.
The Lord through Isaiah here says this to you and to me, fear not, be strong, behold
your God will come with vengeance and recompense.
He will come and save you.
Now there are many takeaways, many applications that we could glean from this passage of God’s
word, but let me just offer a few applications.
This passage reminds us, brothers and sisters, that God and God alone is the giver of life.
He’s the creator of our natural life.
He created the heavens and the earth.
He’s the one who gives fruitful fields, who causes streams in the desert to bring forth
new life, new vegetation.
But he is also the giver of new life in Christ.
Let us pray for him to enliven us as believers and let us pray for him to enliven the church
that we might be faithful in our worship and service to our God.
We also are reminded in this passage that God of holy vengeance against the wicked who
dare to persecute his people.
Let us not fret because of evildoers as the psalmist urges us not to.
Instead, let us be patient and trust in the Lord’s ultimate vindication for we have God’s
word of promise that he will ultimately vindicate us.
And so again, we see this picture here, this beautiful, powerful picture of new life bursting
forth in a barren land.
But next, as we move on in our passage, we see next the theme of healing streams of the
Messianic age.
We find here the healing streams of the Messianic age being predicted here.
And as we move through this passage, one of the things we notice is that it speaks of
healing that ought to remind you of the earthly ministry.
It says in verse five, then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the
deaf unstopped.
Then shall the lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy for waters
break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
The burning sand shall become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water in the haunt
of jackals.
Where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
As I read this passage, I’m reminded of times, perhaps you’ve experienced this.
Let’s say you’re on a beach somewhere, maybe you’re on vacation, and it’s really hot outside
and you step off your towel to go towards the water.
And the sand is burning, your feet are burning up as you’re making your way towards the water.
So you skip along quickly because your feet are hot.
But here, this burning sand will become a pool again, life in a lifeless place.
These verses ultimately point to the consummation of Christ’s kingdom when Jesus returns in
glory and brings us into his heavenly Zion.
And of course, the miracles and healings that our Lord Jesus performed during his earthly
ministry and which these verses anticipate.
Those miracles were signs of the in-breaking of God’s kingdom, his reign of grace and salvation
that has drawn near in the person and saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse six mentions streams in the desert.
After mentioning these miracles of healing, the eyes of the blind being opened, the ears
of the deaf being unstopped, the lame man leaping like a deer, the tongue of the mute
Speaking and singing for joy again, our Lord Jesus performed these miracles in his earthly
ministry as signs of the kingdom of God and signs that he was indeed the promised Messiah.
We see at the end of verse six, for waters break forth in the wilderness and streams
in the desert.
This also reminds us of Ezekiel’s vision of water flowing from the temple.
Do you remember that vision recorded in Ezekiel chapter 47?
I’m not going to read that section in its entirety, but the temple is depicted and there’s
a trickle of water coming out from underneath the temple.
And then that trickle turns into a water that’s deep enough to walk in and then it’s up to
the knees, then it’s up to the waist.
And then downstream, it’s so much water that you can swim in it.
In Ezekiel 47 verse 12, just read that one, verse says this, Ezekiel 47 verse 12 in this
marvelous vision.
It says of this living water, this water coming forth from the temple, from the presence of
God.
And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food.
Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every
month because the water for them flows from the sanctuary.
Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.
The sanctuary represented God’s throne, God’s presence and reign amongst his people.
And from that, that reign of God in Christ flows the hope of the gospel to all the nations.
And ultimately, this is fulfilled in Christ, our savior, for Jesus himself promises living
water.
If you turn to John chapter seven, let me just read verses 37 to 39.
It says this, on the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood and cried out,
if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of
living water.
And then John explains what that means.
Now this he said about the spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as
yet the spirit had not been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
And then verse seven of our passage, again, the burning sand shall become a pool, the
thirsty ground springs of water, in the haunt of jackals, the desolate places where only
animals associated with desolate places would tend to congregate.
In the haunt of jackals where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
What a powerful picture of new life, of renewed life and fruitfulness.
When these healing streams come in the new covenant messianic age, it will not be a mere
mirage, instead it will be reality.
For the burning sand shall become not a mirage, but a pool, an actual pool.
There shall be substance, there shall be reality.
Oh dear sinner, have you come to Christ, the living water, to find refreshment for your
soul?
Is your soul thirsty?
Thirsty for forgiveness, thirsty for salvation, Jesus Christ by his spirit is the living
water and he promises that if you turn to him, resting in him and his finished work,
he will refresh your soul, he will give you grace and strengthen you.
And that all brings us to our final point as we consider the closing passage of this
chapter, verses eight through 10.
We see in this section of chapter 35, the highway of holiness, which is the road to
the highway of holiness, the road to Zion.
Verse eight, and a highway shall be there.
Now I think we are meant to understand this in contrast to the wilderness wanderings of
the children of Israel.
There was no highway for the people of God coming out of Egypt as they made their way
towards the promise.
Certainly the Lord guided them with a pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night.
The Lord was present with them and yet they were wandering in a trackless waste.
But now under the new covenant in this eschatological age, the Lord himself will make the highway
clear, the way will be plain, the way home.
A highway shall be there.
And what is this highway?
It says it shall be called the way of holiness, the way of holiness.
This is talking about the way home.
Brothers and sisters, we are not at home here.
We are residents here in this present age.
We may reside in western Pennsylvania, but our ultimate home is the heavenly Zion, the
new heavens and the new earth wherein righteousness dwells.
We are pilgrims making our journey home, the way home to God in the heavenly Zion from
our exile in this wilderness of sin is described here by Isaiah as the way of holiness.
Now such holiness, of course, requires both cleansing, in other words, justification,
as well as consecration or sanctification.
And friends, in our spiritual and saving union with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we
are given both cleansing and consecration, both justification and sanctification as a
gracious gift of God.
But you know, this way of holiness is not ultimately a way that we travel in by our
own works, our own merits, our own steam, our own power, no.
The way of holiness is not an impersonal road that we have to travel on our own steam, no.
The way of holiness is Jesus himself.
For Jesus said, I am what?
I am the way, the truth and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father except by me.
Jesus himself is the narrow way that leads to life.
And just reflecting on this, as we keep this reference to the highway of holiness in mind,
let me just refer you to a couple passages of scripture which ought to be very familiar
to you.
Let me just read these again, Matthew chapter 7, verses 13 and 14, the Lord Jesus, as he’s
getting towards the end of his sermon on the mount, he says this, Matthew 7, beginning
at verse 13, he says, enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is
easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many, for the gate is narrow
and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few.
He’s not saying, oh, try really, really hard to find this narrow way.
No, he’s saying the way is indeed hard.
It’s hard on our pride because it requires repentance.
It requires trusting in a crucified Messiah for salvation.
But this narrow way is Christ himself.
Jesus makes that clear in passages like John chapter 14, verse 6, where the Lord Jesus
says this, and you’re familiar with this passage, Jesus said to him in response to Thomas’s
question, Lord, we do not know where you are going.
How can we know the way?
Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
And the apostles got the message because they proclaimed him as the only way to the Father.
As we read in Acts chapter 4, verses 11 and 12, as Peter and John are before the Sanhedrin,
it says this, Acts chapter 4, as they’re proclaiming Jesus to the religious authorities in Jerusalem,
This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the
cornerstone and there is salvation in no one else.
For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
Again my friends, Christ himself is the living way, the way of holiness, the living road
to the living Father in heaven.
For in him we have holiness.
In him we have the holiness of justification, legal holiness, declared righteous in his
sight and in him we have sanctification.
As we trust in him and him alone as our Savior, as we walk by faith, by trust in him, we are
also on the narrow road to life eternal, on the road traveled by the ransomed of the Lord
to the heavenly Zion as we read in verse 10, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return.
None other, the ransomed of the Lord, those whom the Lord by grace has redeemed through
the blood of Christ, the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion.
This is the heavenly Zion.
They’ll come with singing, everlasting joy shall be upon their heads, they shall attain
gladness and joy and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
But notice also, going back to verse 8, it says the unclean shall not pass over it.
Who are these unclean?
Well, he’s using here the imagery of ceremonial uncleanness.
Here the symbolism of ceremonial uncleanness points to spiritual and moral defilement.
Again only by the redeeming work of Christ and the renewing work of the Holy Spirit can
we sinners be cleansed and enabled to walk on the way of holiness.
And then verse 9 is also very comforting, for it says no lion shall be there, nor shall
any ravenous beast come up on it.
They shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.
If you walked in that part of the world, in the wilderness there, you would face many
dangers, predators, there would be snakes and scorpions and not only that, there would
be lions, there would be ravenous beasts, there would be many dangerous toils and snares.
But as we sing in that wonderful hymn, through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already
come.
His grace has led me safe thus far and grace will lead me home.
You see, unlike the treacherous wilderness that the children of Israel journeyed through
in the first Exodus on their way to the promised land, a journey in which most of them perished
in unbelief, this way of holiness, this second Exodus traveled by the redeemed is made safe
by God from all predators who would hurt and devour the redeemed.
This imagery, friends, points to the comforting truth of our Lord’s gracious preservation
of his people.
In other words, this points us ultimately to the doctrine of the perseverance of the
saints.
The saints persevere in faith because the Lord graciously preserves them.
In Christ, we who are redeemed are secure and safe from ultimate harm, for he preserves
us in faith even until the end.
This is not a promise that in this present age we will be freed from harm, but this is
speaking of ultimate harm.
The Lord preserves us from ultimate harm.
He does tell us in the word that it is through many tribulations that we shall enter the
kingdom of God, but nevertheless, he preserves us in those tribulations.
He never leaves us nor forsakes us.
And so, as it says in verse 10, the ransomed of the Lord shall return, they and they alone
shall return from a far country to their heavenly homeland, the Zion that is above.
As we’re reminded in that passage in Hebrews chapter 12, we’ve been going through this.
Isaiah has been preaching in this section of Hebrews recently, and consider Hebrews
12, 22 to 24.
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are
enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous
made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood
that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
Not only do we by grace through faith, through Christ, the way of holiness, not only do we
arrive safely in the end at the heavenly Zion, but it says everlasting joy shall be upon
their heads.
Listen, you have only begun to taste the joy that is ahead.
There is more joy ahead of us in the new heavens and the new earth, and we could even begin
to fathom everlasting joy.
This is the ultimate result of our redemption in Christ.
Brothers and sisters, this is what we have to look forward to in the glorious new heavens
and new earth that Jesus will usher in at his return.
And even now in this present age between our Lord’s first and second advance, we get a
foretaste of this joy.
As we commune with our triune God, as we bask in the joy of our precious Savior through
prayer and worship, we experience even in this present age the beginnings of what the
Apostle Peter describes as joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.
One of my favorite passages of scripture, 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 3 through 9.
Let me just read these verses as we wrap up our time in the Word.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable,
undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded
through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved
by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that
perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and
honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
And catch this, though you have not seen him, you love him.
Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and what?
Rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of
your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Through the indwelling spirit in whom we are sealed for the day of redemption, we believers
have a foretaste of that inexpressible eschatological joy, a joy that bubbles forth as streams
in the desert, as rivers of living water flowing forth from hearts redeemed by the grace of
the Lord.
Dear listener, once again, have you had your spiritual thirst quenched by drinking of
Christ, the water of life?
Have you tasted of that joy which is inexpressible and filled with glory?
What a wonderful thing to know that the Lord is working for his ultimate glory, yes, but
our ultimate joy is his ultimate glory.
So dear friends in Christ, as we continue our pilgrim journey of faith to the heavenly
Zion in this new year, 2026, may our sovereign Lord see fit to provide us as a church and
as individual believers with streams of living water in the barren wilderness of this fallen
sin-cursed world.
May we experience streams in the desert in the year of our Lord 2026, streams which produce
in us spiritual life, new spiritual life, vitality, and abundant fruitfulness for the
cause of God’s kingdom and all of God’s people said, amen, let’s pray.
Our Lord and Father in heaven, we are often weighed down by the trials and tribulations,
by the concerns and worries of this present age.
We would ask the Lord that you would sustain us in our pilgrim journey.
Sustain us Lord with that joy which is inexpressible and filled with glory.
And Lord as we make our way through this wilderness of this fallen sin-cursed world, grant us
streams of living water, streams in the desert, and may those streams refresh our souls and
burst forth with new life in our hearts and lives and in the church.
We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen.
Let’s close our time tonight by rising and we’ll sing as our closing hymn 528, Rejoice
Ye Pure in Heart, 528.