Turn in your Bibles to Isaiah
52. God does give and give and give
more grace. In Isaiah 52, the Lord speaks by the prophet
these prophetic words to his church, to Zion. Put on thy strength, O Zion. Put on thy beautiful garments,
O Jerusalem, the holy city. For henceforth there shall no
more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself
from the dust. Arise. and sit down, O Jerusalem. Loose thyself from the bands
of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus saith the Lord,
You have sold yourselves for naught, and ye shall be redeemed
without money." For thus saith the Lord God, My people went
down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian
oppressed them without cause. Now therefore, what have I here,
saith the Lord, that My people is taken away for naught? They that rule over them make
them to howl, saith the Lord. And my name continually every
day is blasphemed. Therefore my people shall know
my name. Therefore shall know in that
day that I am He that does speak. Behold, it is I. How beautiful upon the mountains
or the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth
peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation,
that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth." This past week, a man that was very dear to me, A member of the 13th Street Baptist
Church in Ashland. His name was Jim Eccles. Such a sweet, spirited man. Such a stalwart in the faith. He passed from this life to be
in the presence of our Savior. And his pastor, who is my dear
friend as you know, Brother Jim Byrd, he told me something that the
family had said concerning Jim in those last days, most of which
he spent asleep. They said that at some point,
he roused up out of his sleep, kind of raised up, and spoke
two words. He said, God reigns. And he laid back down, and he
went back to sleep. Likely never awoke out of that
sleep. And I thought about it, what
a wonderful truth. That even in the greatest of
afflictions, even in the face of imminent
death, What a soft pillow that makes
for the Lord's people. If the Lord has brought that
truth home to your heart, you can lay down and sleep. God reigns. You see, this is a peculiar treasure. and a particular blessing that
belongs to the people of God. This truth belongs to this Zion
that he speaks of. To this holy city which is none
other than the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this truth, according to
what we read in our text, is at the very heart, is at the
very center of the glad tidings and the good news of the gospel. We read this statement here in
Isaiah chapter 52 and verse 7, And we read it again in the New
Testament, spoken by the Apostle Paul in Romans 10. And those
that are described here, especially the one who is described here
in Isaiah 52-7, how it has to be the God-man Himself, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And yet we know it is also a
picture and an illustration of Zion, the church as we are in
this world, and those who proclaim this gospel. In Isaiah 40, he says, O Zion,
that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain,
O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with
strength, lift it up, be not afraid, say unto the cities of
Judah, Behold your God. In Psalm 68 he says, "...the
Lord gave the word, and great was the company of those that
published it." This is to be proclaimed. This is to be preached. This is to be borne witness to. And that even though it is a
rejected and shocking and despised and sobering message to this
world, to Adam's fallen race who imagines
that we are so independent, and so self-sufficient, and so in
control of all things, so determining our own destiny. But to that world we are to proclaim,
God reigns. That is, it is not man, it is
not man's will, And it is not what man does that turns the
earth, or what determines what is done on the earth. God reigns. And He does so as the absolute
Sovereign of the universe. He rules and He reigns. And He holds universal sway and
dominion over all people and all creatures and all elements
and all activities and all powers, even among those and over those
who are considered to have the greatest powers. He reigns over
tyrants and he reigns over terrorists. God simply reigns. And as one great king found out,
a man by the name of Nebuchadnezzar, and was brought to confess this,
this glorious truth, saying, and all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing, And He, that is Jehovah God,
He doth according to His will in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand or
say unto Him, What doest Thou? He found out that God reigns. And the psalmist who says in
Psalm 47, God reigneth over the heathen, God sitteth upon the
throne of His holiness. Whether it be Jew or Gentile,
whether it be believer or unbeliever, God reigns over all. Or again in Psalm 93, when the
psalmist says, the Lord reigneth, He is clothed with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength,
wherewith He hath girded Himself. The world also established that
it cannot be moved. Why? because God reigns. And there is no man, whether
great or small, whether in one place or another, there is no
man that can alter what God has ordained, and no flesh that can
thwart His purpose. And although there are some who
are able to say in a brief admission, yet not totally, that God is
in control. When you talk to them about salvation,
evidently they think in that He has no control. But in all things, God reigns. And He reigns in everything right
down to the very details of what goes on in our nation at this
moment. We'll have an election not too
far away. And men will cast their vote,
some out of just simply a need to do so to get for themselves,
some for personal conviction, some for party, some for this,
that, or the other. But the writer of Proverbs says
this, the lot is cast into the lap. Or as we would say, the
boat is taken, or the dice are rolled, or the cards are played,
or whatever phrase it is. He says, the lot is cast into
the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord, because He reigns. And this is even true. as it
relates to the failures and the falls and the falls of the Lord's
people. A man by the name of Eli, who
was the Lord's priest, who had two sons who were so wicked and
so vile that the Lord slew them. But when he was told everything,
when Samuel told him every wit and hid nothing from him, he
said, it is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. He knew that God reigns. And as I said, many may say this
in part, And they may say it's true in everything except that
one area upon which God's glory most depends, and that is the
salvation of men's souls. That is, that salvation which
He has already said is of the Lord. But this is in reality the area
that His people, that these who are described as His elect, as
these who are chosen in Christ Jesus and who are brought to
believe the truth, this is that which they delight in most. They delight that this is our
God. Our God reigns. No matter who's in power, no
matter what takes place, no matter how anything appears to be, the
truth is, our God reigns. And if He wasn't like this, then
we nor anybody else would never ever be saved. But He reigns. Look over in Psalm
115. You see, what is so amazing is
that knowing what we are, having been shown what we are in ourselves,
and having been shown also how God is, then our delight is that
when we could not and would not ever act for ourselves, God acted
for us. The psalmist says in Psalm 115,
therefore, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Name
give glory for Thy mercy and for Thy truth's sake. Wherefore
should the heathen say, Where is now their God? It does no good for men to mock,
It does no good for them to ask questions. It does not alter
God as He is. It does not alter God for what
He's made Himself to be to us. He continues, "...but our God
is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He hath
Pleased. And therefore, we know, we are
taught in His Word, we are brought to believe, and we are delighted
to confess in that believing that we know that the grace of
God is sovereign grace. Sometimes people ask me, What
do you all mean by sovereign grace? Well, we mean by sovereign grace
exactly what we find in the Scriptures. We believe and we proclaim that
salvation is all of grace. But it's not grace like men define
it. It's grace as God Himself defines
it. It is grace that is displayed
and shown to those who He would do and be gracious to. He saves whom He will. He saves
when He will. He saves how He will. And it
is never dependent upon either the will or the works of the
creature. You see, the truth is, if you
and I were in total control, if you and I had any control,
so to speak, we would all be lost forever. So why is it that we in our natural
state, in our rebellion, in our blindness, in our spiritual deadness,
in our defiance and rebellion against God, how is it that anybody is saved? It's because God reigns. It's because His grace is sovereign
grace. It's because God's grace is an
extension of Himself in His glorious sovereignty and power, ruling
over all, and therefore able to be gracious to whom He would
be gracious. That's exactly how He described
Himself to Moses. Not only how he described himself
to Moses, but what he said to Moses was his great glory. He said, I will make all my goodness
pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord
before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and
will show mercy on whom I'll show mercy. What a revelation of our deadness. What a revelation of our blindness
and our ignorance, both of God and of ourselves, that we would
fly in the face of and rebel against the only hope we have, which is that God reigns. He reigns. And not only does
he say that to Moses, he said that to the Apostle Paul. And
Paul is led of the Spirit to remind us of that very thing
in Romans 9 when he quotes what was said to Moses. For he saith
to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I
will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. And were it not that He was the
God of absolute sovereignty, and were it not that He as God
acted alone, not only without the help of man, but in spite
of us, and sent forth His salvation, You and me and everyone who hears
me and everyone that's ever lived, you would die in your sins. But when you come to that seventh
verse of Isaiah 52, and what is announced and what
is prophesied is described as good news and glad tidings, and
how is it expressed? He says, how beautiful upon the
mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, that
publisheth peace, that bring good tidings of good, that publisheth
salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth." Now, if you
notice there, the description of those feet are of a singular
person. How beautiful are the feet! And when the Spirit of God leads
Isaiah to record these words, they are recorded of such blessing
and grace and good news and hope that are to come to them through
a man who has feet." I've thought about this often
this week. What an amazing thing it is that the Lord Jesus Christ, the
One who is our Savior and Redeemer, is described here as a man who
has feet. When He lay there in that manger,
just having been born of a virgin, He lay there, and there are those
tiny feet, but they're the feet of a sinless child. And as He lived all through this
life, And those feet trod all the various places wherein He
was raised up from childhood to manhood, and facing all those
things that He faced, He did so yet without sin. And then at that appointed time, Especially at that appointed
time, when they took Him and hung Him up on that cross. And the Scripture says that the
nails that they nailed through His hands, they nailed also through
His feet, so that He died. Do you think that the Spirit
of God didn't know what was going to happen to Him? No, rather than that, He talks
about how through the dying of our Lord Jesus Christ, through
God being made manifest in the flesh, through His walking in
this world yet without sin, Isaiah pictures Him as this man, this
Savior who comes forth Good news. And he's laid in a tomb. And
the next thing we know, those feet are walking the ground again
on this earth. Raised from the dead. He's alive under God. And in
those feet, this glorious person, the God-man, is carried up into
glory, and He's seated at the right hand of the Majesty on
high as the victor, as the accomplisher, as the Savior, and the deliverer,
and the Redeemer, and the surety of His people. What do you suppose the odds
would be of that ever happening? When you look back at that birth,
when he lay there as a tiny child, or even before he was ever born
of this virgin, every person in power sought to destroy him. The king set out men to seek
and to make sure that this one never assumed any kind of a throne,
ever lived much as accomplished anything, so they sought by killing
out every male child in a certain race of people. And do you suppose that as he
grew up he suffered, or he endured, or he was faced with any less
trials, any less trouble, any less temptation than you and
I are? No, it says he was tempted in
all points like as we are yet without sin. And as he became
a man and his ministry became public, everywhere, every person
it seemed like, especially those in power in not only the world,
but in religion, they sought to stone him. They sought to shut his mouth.
They sought to stop his life. They sought to stop what he had
come into this world to do. But Isaiah says, here He comes. And the fact that He comes into
this world as a man, the fact that He comes as the surety of
His people, the Savior, the Redeemer, the Deliverer of all His people,
the King of kings and Lord of lords, the fact that He comes
and He lives and He dies and He raises again, what does He
say? He has a message for His people. He says, Thy God reigns. over life. He has reigned over
sin. He has reigned over death and
hell and the grave. He has reigned over the natural
state of men. He has reigned over the condition
of these who are dead in trespasses and sin. And He saves us. He has saved us and called us,
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ before the world began. When you imagine not only all
that was necessary to bring this life, to bring this One, to pass
all the events, all the individuals, all the particulars, when you
stop and think about what was necessary to bring Him to this
life and to this cross, it's only because God reigns. Paul said if the princes of this
world had known who He was, they wouldn't have crucified the Lord
of glory. But God reigns. He reigns over
all. He reigns over all men and all
things in order to accomplish that purpose of grace which was
given to us in Christ. And God determined and brings
all things to pass in order to assure the salvation of everyone
that He gave to Christ. And at the center of this purpose,
is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ for them in order to satisfy
His justice on their account. And so when they took the Lord
Jesus and they hung Him on that cross, one of the first things that
the Lord has His servant Peter to proclaim is the fact that
Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and for knowledge of
God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." In other words, in doing what
they did, in being accountable for what they did, The overriding,
overruling purpose of God and His grace to His people was accomplished. Because God reigns. He reigns. Peter again says, "...the kings
of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together
against the Lord and against His Christ. For of a truth against
the Holy Child Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod and
Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were
gathered together, for to do whatsoever." Thy hand and Thy
counsel determined before to be done." Because God reigns. Turn over
to Colossians. Colossians chapter 2. You see, it would be imagined
by some and would naturally seem to us that when He hangs there
on the cross, that would be the evidence that God did not reign. But listen to the Apostle Paul
in Colossians 2 and verse 14. when He says, "...blotting out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His
cross." But now notice this next verse.
and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of
them openly, triumphing over them in it." You see, the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ was a glorious triumph for him. Because in that cross death,
He accomplished what He came to do. He accomplished the full
salvation of His people. He made manifest the basis, the
just basis upon which God can save us from our sins, forgive
us of our sins, and count us righteous in His sight. You see, God could not be stopped. And God manifest in the flesh
could not be stopped. And therefore, God in His gospel
cannot be stopped. Is there any part or point in
any measure, at any time, in any place, At any age where his gospel can be stopped
or hindered or his church stymied, I hear all these foolish statements
by people speaking of the Lord's church. They say things like, we need
to revive the Lord's church. One politician said we need to either motivate or call into
service or something like that, the body of Christ. But the truth is, the church
has never been stalled or stymied. The message that we are called
upon to bear, which is the gospel, has never been stopped. The Bible, which is the Word
of God, though attacked on every hand in every age, still stands. It reminds me of the man that
went into the blacksmith shop. He looked over there in the corner
of the blacksmith shop and there was a big box that was full of
broken hammers. He said, you sure have had a
lot of hammers, haven't you? He said, I have. I've broken
many a hammer. He said, how many anvils have
you ever had? He said, I've only had one. The
hammers break on the anvil. And that anvil is like the Word
of God. It's like the Gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ. It's been hammered against many
times, but it always breaks the hammer. His Word will not return unto
Him void, but it will always accomplish the purpose whereunto
He sends it. Because He reigns. He rules and He reigns. And when you look over in Romans
chapter 10, in Romans chapter 10, where we
have a reference by the Apostle Paul to this same statement. But in Romans chapter 10, And verse 15, where he's talking
about the gospel. And he says, "...whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, but how then
shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed?" And
how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they
preach except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them." that preach the gospel of peace
and bring glad tidings of good things." Because God reigns, neither could
God manifest in the flesh, neither could He be stopped or overruled.
And because He reigns, neither can His gospel, His church, or
those who preach the true gospel be stopped. If you and I could look back from the day that Christ died
on the cross to this very day, And if we could see the entirety
of all the people, and all the kings, and all the popes, and
all the religious figures, and all the people who have done
their dead-level best, as we say, to rub out His church, to erase
from the face of this earth His gospel, and to silence the preaching
of it from this world, we would be overwhelmed. But they haven't prevailed because God reigns. Because our God reigns. And not only that, but His people
will be brought to hear it. They will be brought to hear
that gospel of peace that is the news that Christ made peace
by the blood of His cross. And it doesn't matter if a million
false prophets are screaming otherwise in their ears. It doesn't matter if their father,
or their mother, or their sister, or their brother, or their husband,
or their wife, or their best friend seeks to steal away that
truth from their heart. It will never happen. Because
God reigns. Paul said, we go and we preach
the gospel. He writes to the Corinthians
in 2 Corinthians 2, he says, and that gospel that we preach,
it goes up like incense to God. Not only in those that are being
saved, but also in those that perish. But He says He causes
us in all things and at all times
to triumph. How in the world can a pitiful
lot like we are as a local church, or especially me As a preacher
of the gospel, how could we ever be said to have any triumphing over
anything? It's because God reigns. He can
take little and do much. As a matter of fact, that's His
mode of operation which assures that He gets all the glory. And every one of His people will
be brought to hear this message of salvation in Christ alone. They'll be made to hear the good
news that God has not imputed to them their sin, but rather
imputed them to Christ and made them the righteousness
of God in Him. And though that message is the
most A contradicted message of our
day. A message of the free and sovereign
grace of God in one outside of ourselves, already accomplished
by Him. His people are going to believe
that. They're going to hear it. They're going to believe it. Because God reigns. He reigns. He doesn't send His preachers
forth with a message of a pitiful, weak, helpless, if you will,
He will kind of God. Or a pitiful, pathetic, weeping
Jesus. But the message of one who in
His cross triumphed over not only the matter of their sin,
but every force and power against his people and against himself through his death. Paul says that as sin hath reigned
unto death, Even so might grace reign through righteousness unto
eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." You see, grace is
God reigning in righteousness in the salvation of that people
He gave to the Lord Jesus Christ. The psalmist says, the Lord reigns. Let the people tremble. He sitteth
between the cherubims. Let the earth be moved." And one day when we are gathered
together in the immediate presence of His glorious throne, It will be as John saw in the
Revelation. When he says in chapter 19 and
verse 6, And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude,
and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings. What voice is that? That's the
voice of all His redeemed. And they're not quiet about it.
The voice is many thunderings. Even as those they loved on the
earth are cast into the pit at that hour when they will not
love them anymore. But it says that voice saying,
Hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigns. He always has, He is right now,
and He always will. And so a consolation, not only
in the matter of our sin, not only in the matter of the affairs
of this world, But even in the matter of our
afflictions, the afflictions of our loved
ones, the cares, the problems, the
troubles, they just happen every day. There is one place of refuge,
one consolation, and that is in the midst of it all, God reigns. He brings it to pass. Many are
the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out
of them all. And one day last week, my friend, facing that darkest, deepest
valley as we describe it, He laid down His head and He
went to sleep with this sure knowledge and confidence. Whether
in life or in death, God reigns. He does. He reigns. The Lord reigneth. Let the earth
rejoice. Let the multitude of isles be
glad thereof. Our Father, this day we thank
You for Your mercy to us. Your grace, Your salvation, every
blessing which could never be ours, did You not reign, rule,
do Your will, prevail over the fallen wills and wants of men,
accomplish our salvation. We are thankful that when there
was nothing in us, nothing to be seen done by us, nothing in
righteousness, no seeking of you, no doing of good, no value
of person, but only rebellion and sin. when there was nothing
in us to move you toward us, that you reigned and determined
that you would be gracious to us just because you could. Thank you for your mercy. Thank you for this good news Put this declaration in our heart. Cause us to speak it to this
world. The Lord God reigneth. In the face of all the murmurings,
the mumblings, the complaints, let us declare, It is the Lord. Let Him do what seemeth Him good. We thank you that you reign,
and that yours is a reign of grace to your people, and victory over your enemies.
We thank you and praise you in the worthy name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.