Alright brethren, let's turn
our Bibles to Isaiah 52. Isaiah 52. Our subject this morning
is reasons for joy. Reasons for joy. He said in verse
9, break forth into joy, sing together ye waste places of Jerusalem. God will have his people to be
full of joy, to be comforted. That's so of God toward his people. Now, his elect are Jerusalem. They're his Jerusalem. All God's
elect are his Jerusalem. He says, break forth and sing
together, ye waste places of Jerusalem. We're the waste places. Just like Jerusalem was overtaken
by Babylon and walls were broken down and much inside the walls
of Jerusalem was wasted. That's us by nature, brethren.
Wasted by Satan's deception in the garden. Wasted because Adam
turned from God to his own way and broke the one law God gave
him in the garden. Wasted because we were conceived
of Adam and so we have a corrupt nature. We're guilty before the
law and have a sin nature dead in sins. Wasted by our own sin. Wasted. That's us. But God says,
break forth into joy, sing together ye waste places of Jerusalem.
Why is that? That's gonna be our divisions.
We're gonna see reasons for joy. First of all, we joy because,
verse nine, the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed
Jerusalem. Secondly, because God hath made
us to know Christ, made us to know him, made us to to, he's
called us to himself, made us to know Christ. He said, verse
10, the Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the
nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation
of our God. Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out
from thence. Touch no unclean thing, go ye
out of the midst of her. Be ye clean that bear the vessels
of the Lord. And then three, we joy because
the Lord shall protect us. He shall preserve all his people. Verse 12 says, for you shall
not go out with haste, nor go by flight, for the Lord will
go before you, and the God of Israel will be your re-reward. That means he'll go behind you,
before you and behind you. Now, first of all, our first
reason for joy is the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath
redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord will have us be comforted.
Ain't that good news? The Lord will comfort His people.
It's His will that His people be comforted. And the gospel
is the message that gives that comfort because it's the message
of what God has done. The Lord hath. That's the message.
The Lord hath. It would have been no comfort
to tell the children of Jerusalem In Babylon, it would have been
no comfort to them to say, now, you have to free yourself from
Babylon. That wouldn't have given them
any comfort. They were captives. They couldn't free themselves.
That was us. We couldn't free ourselves. We
were in Babylonian captivity. It would not be comforting to
say, by your will and by your works now, redeem yourself, free
yourself from this captivity. There's no comfort in that message. If Cyrus had entered into Babylon
and started whipping the children of Jerusalem That would have
been no comfort to them but and it wouldn't be comfort to us
for a preacher to come to you and start whipping you with the
law and telling you you must do this and you must do that
and you must keep the law to be saved that would not give
you any comfort because That's the whole reason we're in bondage.
We couldn't keep the law and But that's what Christ has freed
His people from. He's freed us from that pharisaical
eye that finds fault and condemns. He's freed us from it. He's freed
us from all our captivity. The gospel is the message of
what God has done. It's the message of what He's
done. The Lord hath comforted His people. He hath redeemed
Jerusalem. The Lord hath chosen His people.
And the Lord hath sent forth His Son And the Lord has provided
for every need of his people in Christ. He has redeemed his
people. Our Savior, when he walked this
earth, you know what he did? He declared the works of God.
Psalm 22 is our Lord speaking, and listen to what he said. In
Psalm 22, in verse 22, he said, I will declare thy name unto
my brethren in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. And I love how he says this.
At the end of the chapter, he said, they shall come and shall
declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born,
that he hath done this. That's our message. We declare
what God has done. And by that message, he causes
his people to be born again. Psalm 145, four, one generation
shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty
acts This is the gospel. This is what the message is. The world is preaching man's
works, what man must do for God. God's done all he can do. Won't
you let God? Won't you accept God? Won't you
do for God? That's not the gospel. The false
gospel puts you in the judgment seat and it puts Christ on trial. The true gospel declares the
truth. God's in the judgment seat. You're
the one on trial. And Christ is the one that's
done all the works. It's good for me to draw near to God. I've
put my trust in the Lord God that I may declare all thy works. On that day of Pentecost, people
question, you know, about speaking in tongues. I do believe in speaking
in tongues. It's over now. There's no need
of it now, but I believe in speaking in tongues. It's the language
of a real legitimate language that his apostles had never learned,
that God gave them the ability to speak. And on the day of Pentecost,
all these different nations were there in all these languages,
and here's what they said when they began to hear this gospel
preached. They said, we do hear them speak
in our tongues the wonderful works of God. The wonderful works
of God. This gospel's the good news the
Lord hath conferred his people. He hath redeemed his people. That's why the charge to his
preacher is, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished. The Lord has rewarded her double
for all her sin. Her iniquities pardoned. It's
accomplished. The Lord has done it. The joy
of the gospel is Christ. He's the joy of the gospel and
what he has done is that he has redeemed his people. He hath,
he came, God came to where we are and Christ took flesh and
went to the cross and redeemed his people, purchased us, he
bought us. As by one man sin entered the
world and death by sin and for that reason death passed upon
all men, one man. By the obedience of one, by the
obedience of one, shall many be made righteous. And that one
is Christ. He hath, he hath walked perfectly
under the law of God in place of his people. He hath fulfilled
every law for his people. He hath gone to the cross and
paid all our sin debt. He hath, he hath, and now he
hath risen. And he's sending this gospel
forth now. and commanding affectionately
in the heart of his people, be joyful. And he fills you with
this joy of this good news. Are you bound by your sins like
the children of Jerusalem were bound in Babylon? Are you bound
and you're hearing this message and joy is filling your heart
that Christ has done it all? If so, that's of the Lord, brethren.
He fills the heart of his people. He makes us to know The chastisement
of our peace was upon Christ, and God bruised Christ in place
of his people, and with his stripes, we are completely, totally, thoroughly,
forever healed. That's the good news. We'll be
like, when you hear this message, you're like Babylon. They said,
we're like them that dream. Our mouth's filled with laughter
and joy. We're like them that dream. Can
this be true, that the Lord has redeemed me? That's the good
news, that's the joy he fills the heart of his people with.
Secondly, we joy because the Lord has made us know his salvation. He's revealed his salvation,
he's revealed his righteousness to us, and it's his son, the
Lord Jesus. Verse 10, the Lord hath made
bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations. and all the
ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. Depart
ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing,
go ye out of the midst of her, be ye clean that bear the vessels
of the Lord. Who is this arm of the Lord?
It's Christ. Look at Isaiah 53 verse one. Who hath believed our report?
Who's believed our gospel? To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? What's the next word? For he
shall, the arm of the Lord's a person. It's the Lord Jesus. It's the Lord Jesus. You know,
the arm signifies power. Power. Well, God's all powerful. He's all sovereign. We know that.
He does what he will in heaven and in earth and none can stay
his hand or question him. We know that from Isaiah, I mean,
from Daniel 4. But his holy arm's more than
that. His holy arm is his son. and
what his son accomplished. God sent you the gospel to reveal
his holy arm, to reveal Christ. Christ is the righteousness.
This gospel must be revealed by divine revelation, and Christ
is the righteousness God reveals. He said, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believeth, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. The Lord reveals. What's his righteousness? He
said to declare his righteousness, that God might be just and the
justifier of them that believe in the Lord Jesus. That's God's
chief attribute is holiness. And so for God to be merciful
to us, he must be holy and just to do it. And that means that
He has to pour out the judgment that his people earned, that
we deserved. He has to pour that out upon us, and we have to die.
We have to die. The law was given by Moses. If
there had been nothing else given, just the law, we'd have been
condemned, and there would have been no way for me and you to
be saved. But grace and truth, grace and righteousness, mercy
and righteousness, came by Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus came to
declare God's righteousness. That's His purpose. That's the
number one thing that Christ came to do. He's saving us in
the process, but He came to show how God is righteous in saving
His people. The Lord Jesus Christ had to
bear the sin of His people. He was made flesh because He
had to be like unto His brethren that He came to save. Made under
the law to redeem us from under that law. He was made sin for
us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. With the sin of His people on
Him, He was made a curse for us. He bore the condemnation
we deserve and redeemed us from that curse. Now He's made higher
than the heavens and He's the one, the whole context of Isaiah
52 is how He comes across the mountains and how He comes with
the good news of this gospel. and His feet are beautiful because
He reveals to us through the Spirit of God that He is the
power of God unto salvation. He's the righteousness of God.
He made God's just now because He poured out justice on all
His people in His Son, and God is just to be merciful to us
because He settled His own law, justified us by His own law.
He's just and He's the justifier. Me and you did, you know, Faith
is presented to sinners as being the justifier, and by that, saying
that the sinner justifies himself by believing. This is what, men
believed Christ died for everybody, so now it's, the slate's clean.
Now, it's up to you. If you believe, you'll be saved. He made you righteous if you
believe. You justified yourself by believing
him. Or if you reject him, then he's going to condemn you because
you reject him. That's not the gospel we preach. An atonement
that was made for everybody but redeemed nobody is no atonement
at all. The true atonement was made for
a particular people. If I was going to pay your mortgage,
first of all, you're going to have to choose somebody that
you're going to pay their debt. You have to choose who you're
going to pay their debt. you'd actually have to pay that person's
real debt. It's just not this ambiguous,
generic payment of debt. You'd have to pay somebody's
particular debt. And that's what Christ did. He
came to justify a particular people and save a particular
people. And by him, now mercy and truth
are met together. Righteousness and peace gets
in harmony because of what he did. Justice and judgment are
the habitation of that throne mercy and truth shall go before
thy face That's that's God. That's what who Christ is What
he's accomplished. That's the message of substitution
May Christ really took the place of his particular people and
for his particular people Accomplished our redemption. That's the joy
of the gospel. That's the good news of the gospel
to say Christ made atonement equally for Judas as well as
for John, and then God turned around and poured out judgment
a second time on Judas, that's unjust, that's double jeopardy.
There's no good news in that. That puts it all in the sinner's
hand, and that doesn't offend any sinner. I can choose him,
I can reject him, it's all up to me. That's not the gospel. No, the Lord Jesus, he didn't
die for Judas. He died for John and he died
for all his elect and he accomplished our redemption. Substitution
for a particular people, that's God's wisdom and power and holiness
and his holy mercy. His holy mercy. I want you to turn to Psalm 98.
Psalm 98. Look here in verse one. Oh, sing
unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm
hath gotten him the victory. The Lord hath made known his
salvation. His righteousness hath he openly
showed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered his mercy
and his truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the
earth have seen the salvation of our God. When he says all
the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God, he's
talking about his elect. Now it's true that the Lord was
crucified openly and all know about Christ. It wasn't done
in a corner. Everybody knows about the crucifixion
of our Lord Jesus. But when he says all shall see,
it means all his people scattered in the four corners of the earth.
He sends this gospel And by divine revelation, he gives you eyes
to see and a heart to believe in. No matter where his lost
sheep are, Christ comes to us over the mountains with this
gospel and his feet are beautiful. He comes declaring the gospel
of peace, how he brought peace. As the gospel is preached, the
Lord commands his child and regenerates us by his power, by his voice,
and gives us faith by his voice. He commands the blessing, and
he says to you, verse 11, depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from
thence, touch no unclean thing, go ye out of the midst of her,
be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. And you take the
children of Jerusalem in Babylonian captivity, and you picture Cyrus,
the king, comes to Babylon, and he tells them, I have redeemed
you, leave this place, go out of it. Don't start trying to
gather up things from Babylon and take Babylon's possessions
with you. That's all unclean. Don't take
that with you. And that's what, when the Lord
comes to us, he calls you out of Babylon, out of this world
and out of the sin and out of the sinful sin nature of ours. And he says, don't bring any
of that out with you. Don't look to the world, don't
look to Don't try to bring out anything with you. Don't look
anymore. Don't bring out any more. This notion that you're
saved by your will and your works, all of that, leave it. And that's
repentance. He makes you leave all of that
for Christ. And you come to Christ. And do
you think Babylon, do you think the children of Jerusalem in
Babylon, do you think they had to be talked into leaving Babylon? When He makes you know your sin
and your captivity and makes you see He's redeemed you, you
don't have to be talked into leaving. He commands it and you
go out. He sets you free. And He says,
touch no unclean thing. Make a clean break. Go out. And He commands you, He declares
to you, you are clean by Him washing you in regeneration.
You're clean by Him washing you in His blood on the cross. And
so He says to you, be ye clean. Be ye holy, that's what he's
made his people. To just be something is to be
something. He's made you clean, he's made
you holy. And you're bearing the vessels
of the Lord. Now, they did, when Babylon took
over Jerusalem, they carried the vessels of the Lord, actual
items that the Lord used in his worship, they carried those with
them to Babylon. And so the children of Israel
carried those vessels back to Jerusalem with them. But brethren,
you and me are the vessels. His elect are the vessels, and
he's filled us with his riches. And we're carrying this gospel. We have this gospel. We're carrying
it. And he says, now be clean, ye
that carry this. You've been washed in his blood.
You've been washed in regeneration. He said, now you are clean through
the word which I've spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. That's what he's saying in our
text. Abide in me and I in you. You are clean by my word. Now
abide in me. You know, the moment you start
looking to you and your works, you're defiled. You have to be
washed. And so he's keeping you looking
to him. We were defiled by our sin, but it's the grace of God
that washed us. And this is so of God's people.
You know that long list, people read 1 Corinthians 6, 11, you're
washed. But they fail to realize all
that list of sins that Paul gave before that, the children of,
in Corinth, the God's saints in Corinth, were guilty of everything
he listed there. But here's how he turned them
from those things to Christ again. He said, but you are washed.
Yes, you've become unclean by these unclean sins, but you are
washed. It doesn't change the fact God's
washed you. You're holy. Your new man's holy. But that's
how he washes our feet and keeps us going toward Christ. It's
this good news that you are washed. What you've done had changed
what Christ has done. You are washed. You are sanctified. You are justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. We're gonna
have sin in our flesh and we're gonna still commit sin, though
we hate it. I'm not saying go out and blatantly
determine, I'm gonna sin today. No, we hate sin. But you got
this sin nature and so you're gonna sin, you're gonna do the
very thing you hate. Paul said, I hate it. I hate
it, I wanna be free from it. But it doesn't change the fact
we're washed in the blood of Christ. We've been justified
from all our sin by the Lord Jesus. We're holy, entirely clean
in the sight of God. Our sins are pardoned. We're
perfectly righteous by God and perfectly holy by his word. And that'll never be unchanged.
Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood,
suffered without the gate. Now he says to you, when he comes
with this gospel, And anytime you stray, he comes with this
gospel and he says, now go forth to him. Leave Babylon, leave
it all. Go to him, bearing his reproach. Go to him and trust him. And
that's what he'll keep you doing. That's what he'll keep you doing.
Now here's the last thing. We see here, our joy is what
God has done. God has worked the works. He's
redeemed us. Our joy is because he's come
and he's made bare his holy arm in our sight and revealed Christ
in us and made us to rest in him, made us to depart, wash
your hands of Babylon's will works and Babylon's bondage,
wash your hands of it, having all these promises from God.
And then lastly, here's his promise. He shall keep his people and
preserve us and shall not lose one. This is the joy right here,
look verse 12. Isaiah 52.12, for you shall not
go out with haste, nor go by flight, for the Lord will go
before you, and the God of Israel will come behind you. He'll be
your reward. Unbelief is hasty. Go back to
chapter 51, look at verse 14. Unbelief is hasty. The captive
exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not
die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. You get the
picture, they're in Babylon, they're in captivity, and they're
anxious and they're hurrying, they're rushing because, and
this is before he sent the gospel to them, they're hastening, they
want to be delivered, they're trying to be delivered, they're
worried and threatened and troubled, and they're hastening and anxious
because they don't want their bread to run out. All these different
things that unbelievers do, and these things that you and me
can do by our unbelief. But he promises, you're not going
to be hasty. Faith's not hasty. Faith is not
anxious. Faith knows all is well. The Lord is ruling. The Lord
has saved me. He's keeping me all is well.
And here's why we're not hasty. He says, verse 12, for the Lord
will go before you and the God of Israel will be your reward. The Lord will go before you and
he'll go behind you. Go back to Isaiah 45. See, we can just go back into
these verses we've already looked at because the gospel is the
same message over and over and over. Put my people in remembrance
of these things. And Isaiah, the Lord has sent
Isaiah with the same message over and over and over. Isaiah
45, two. I will go before thee and make
the crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates
of brass and cut and sunder the bars of iron. And I will give
thee the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places
that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by
thy name, am the God of Israel. We've seen this so many times,
how do you grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord? by Him
continually being gracious to you and showing you that you're
saved by His knowledge. By His knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many. We're saved by His knowledge
and His grace. He said there, I'm gonna give
you the treasures of darkness, I'm gonna make the crooked places
straight, cut the gates of brass asunder and the bars of iron,
and I'm gonna do this so that you know I the Lord that called
you by your name am the God of Israel. I said to you from Romans
5, it said, not only do we glory that God has saved us, and we
stand in this grace, complete in Christ, we glory in tribulation
too, because it works patience and experience and hope, because
the love of God's shed abroad in your heart, he makes you see
more and more his holy name, that he's the covenant-keeping
God, that he's saving you. That's how you grow in the knowledge
of him. So when these trials come, brethren, we don't want
to be in them and we don't want to suffer, but really and truly
we ought to be thankful and rejoice that God sent him because this
is how he's teaching us. He's teaching us through this,
that he is truly our savior. And he said, and the God of Israel
will be your rear ward. He'll come behind you. He'll
gather up any that fall behind. Go back to Isaiah 40 and look
here in verse 11. Let's look at verse 10. He said,
behold, the Lord God will come, that's Christ, with strong hand
and his arm shall rule for him. Behold his rewards with him and
his work before him. He shall feed his flock like
a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with young. As he's leading his people, if
there's a weak sheep that falls behind, As he's the omnipresent
God, as he's going before us, leading us, he's behind us. And
any that fall or stumble, he picks them up, carries them in
his bosom, and gently leads those that are with young. He's not
going to lose anybody. He's not going to lose his people.
He's redeemed us. Justice demands we must be kept,
we must be saved. He's going to feed his flock
like a shepherd. He's gathering the lambs with his arm and carrying
them in his bosom. He's gently leading those that
are with young. That's what he's doing. The point
is this, Paul said, I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded
that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him
against that day. That's what he's persuading all
his people of. He's able, he's not gonna lose
you. He's not gonna lose you. So here's what we've heard and
here's what the Lord commands. He says, be joyful, be joyful. Be comforted, be joyful, and
here's why. He says, break forth into joy
and sing together. Now that's the Lord's word, that's
his command. Sing, be joyful together. He
said, because he's done all the work. He's redeemed us. He's
made us to know Christ. And he says, now break all your
ties with Babylon. Break all your ties with Babylon.
Don't try to bring any of Babylon with you. Leave it all behind.
and do so in the calm assurance of faith in the Lord Jesus that
he's leading and he's gathering up the ones that stumble and
he won't lose any of his people. Is that not reason to be joyful?
Salvation's of the Lord. That's the comfort wherewith
he comforts his people. Look at Isaiah 32. We'll close
with this verse, Isaiah 32. What's gonna be the result of
this, that the Lord's working? Verse 17, and the work of righteousness
shall be peace. We have peace with God, we have
peace in our heart because Christ has worked all the righteousness
and made us righteous. That's the fruit of it. The work
of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness,
quietness and assurance forever. and my people should dwell in
a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet
resting places. When it shall hail coming down
on the forest, and the city shall be low in a low place, blessed
are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet
of the ox and the ass, because the Lord is keeping you, and
he's not gonna lose one. That's our reason for joy. That's
a good reason to be joyful, isn't it? Good read. We got every reason
to be joyful and none, no reason to be sorrowful. None to be sorrowful. I was thinking about late last
night, yesterday in the afternoon, sometime in the afternoon, I
believe it was, Michelle Lutter texted me a picture of me and
her dad sitting in my backyard smoking cigars. And I just texted
back and said, good times. And I just thought she came across
a picture of us and sent it to me, and then I Last night, about
11.30, I was on our Facebook page, on the church's Facebook
page, and I saw that her dad died. And I didn't know it. I texted her and said, I'm so
sorry. I'd have called you right away. I didn't know that your
dad passed. What's our joy when things like
this take place? Nothing's changed with God. Nothing's
changed for you with God. We have him. He's redeemed us. He's keeping us. And he's gonna
comfort her heart with this good news, just like he comforts us
in all our trouble and all our sorrow because of what he's done, what he keeps
doing, what he shall do. He's all our joy, all our peace. I pray the Lord use that to comfort
you and fill you with joy. Let's go to him, brethren, and
thank him. Our gracious God and Father, Lord, thank you for filling our
hearts with joy, with peace, knowing salvation is entirely
of you. Salvation is of your dear son.
He is our salvation, our holiness and righteousness and redemption
and wisdom and everything we need. Lord, use this, we ask
you, according to your word, we ask you, Lord, once again,
comfort and assure your people. Make us have that calm assurance
of faith. Make us have this good hope,
knowing you have saved us. And you shall continue. But you
shall not lose one of your people. Keep us knowing, Lord, everything
you do is right and it's for the good of your people. Keep
us resting in our Lord Jesus. Thank you for continually washing
our feet, making us to let go of babbling, let go of all our
vain confidence and our sin and make us more and more just rest,
trust, look to Christ. Thank you, Lord, for working
this. Thank you that all the works of your dear son. Lord, we have every reason to
be joyful. Forgive us for our unbelief and
our sorrowing, and it's just natural for us to sorrow when
things are sad. Lord, thank you for continuing
to comfort us and give us this great joy. We pray for all our
brethren who are sick and troubled and cast down. Lord, renew them
again, remind them again of your great salvation. Keep us looking
only to our Savior, being joyful only in Him and only because
of Him. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Thank
you. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.