This Key Is Going To Give You Victory Over Sin and Satan!

I’m going to go to Isaiah chapter 40. Begin at verse 1. I like the first word. It says,

“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.”

The Bible calls God, the God of all comfort. He has a message of comfort.

“Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem.”

The Hebrew says, “Speak to the heart of Jerusalem.” That’s a real art to speak to people's heart, isn’t it? Not just to their heads.

“And cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, or ended, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

“The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”

The voice said, “Cry.” And he said, “What shall I cry?” And this is the answer:

“All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.”

There’s the difference between the temporal and the eternal. All flesh is grass. And the scripture indicates there, it can be very beautiful. It can have blooms and flowers, and be lovely. But it’s not going to last. It’s going to wither. It’s going to die. And the scripture actually says there, it withers because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it. In other words, God causes it to wither. Why? My answer is because He wants to wean us from the temporal to the eternal.

Because it depends on your particular stage of pilgrimage through life. But you see, everything that we see, that we love, that’s beautiful, our children, our wives, our homes, they’re all withering physically. There’s no permanence in any of them. And God has arranged it that way. He lets us fall in love with these things, to draw love out of us, to give us a desire for the beautiful and for what He has, and then He lets the very things we love wither. Why? Because there’s something else that doesn’t wither, but He can never show it to us first. He has to reveal the temporal before He can reveal the eternal.

This is the theme of poets and philosophers throughout all ages. I could quote to you verse after verse from Shakespeare, where he was occupied with this problem. Why the woman I love, the thing I love, why is it going to wither? Why is it going to die? Why is it going to decline? Why isn’t there any permanent? In fact, I will quote Shakespeare. It’s unusual, but he said,

“When I consider everything that grows, holds in perfection but a little moment, and this huge stage presenteth naught but shows, whereon the stars in secret influence comment.”

That was a brilliant man disillusioned, looking for something permanent, and nowhere knowing where to find it. And yet God gives us this beautiful world. And I love, I love the trees, I love the scenery, I love Florida. I tell you, I’m happy in Florida. I like sun, I like sea, I like sand. I’m never asking God to move me anywhere else till the rapture comes. And yet, and yet, it’s impermanent. It’s not going to last.

You see, you see a young couple get married. They’re beautiful. They love one another. The children come. But I’ve lived long enough to know one day, maybe they’ll live together 30 years, 40 years, but one day, one of them will die. And there’ll be left a very heartbroken, grieving, old person. True. Just the way it is. And the deeper their love for one another, in a sense, the greater the heartbreak. Does God permit them? He arranges it. The flesh withers. The grass withers because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it.

God says, “I don’t want you to get wrapped up in anything temporal.” It’s all going to pass. But there’s something that won’t pass.

“The word of our God abideth forever.”

And in this recent experience that I’ve been passing through, in a new way, I’ve begun to lay hold in my spirit on the eternal, unchanging truth of the Word of God. I’ve been a preacher of the Word. I’ve been a fanatic about the Word ever since I went into ministry. But in a new way I’ve grasped the fact that the one eternal, unchanging thing that comes our way is the Word of God.

“The word of our God shall stand forever.”