Well please open the Bible with
me to Isaiah and the 52nd chapter, the 52nd chapter. There is no deeper and greater
union, there is no richer joy, no greater consolation than to
be in Christ and to have that fellowship with the Father and
with His Son and to know that fellowship among men. And I'm
very thankful for your pastor. I'm very thankful for each one
of you. I'm thankful for the one who bought us and sought
us, washed us with his blood and loved us despite what we
were, before we even were. And let us look at once more
his glory and his beauty and the gospel of our salvation,
the good the good news. Nikolaus Zinzendorf lived at
a time when Europe was plunged into war and amidst flaming worlds
in these arrayed was his experience. Our world is in great upheaval,
but it is still the one true and only consolation that Jesus,
Thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress,
midst flaming worlds in these arrayed, with joy shall I lift
up my head. Bold shall I stand in that great
day, for who ought to my charge shall lay, fully absolved through
and you'll pardon me but these hymns they go through so many
revisions in my hymn book back home it says fully absolved through
thee I am from sin and fear from guilt and shame we're looking
this morning at a people who once were not a people those
who are about to receive mercy who did not deserve mercy. Those
who are afflicted and drunk but not with wine. They're drunk
with the fruit and the reward of their sin. They're afflicted
because in their hand is a cup of trembling. We're told that
it is the cup of His fury. Apostle Paul, when he's writing
to the church at Rome, He says, I am not ashamed of the gospel,
for it is the power of God unto salvation. And he wants to preach
that gospel wherever he goes. He is a debtor to Jew and to
Greek. He rejoices in that gospel because it's the gospel of God,
which he promised before through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. It's the gospel concerning his
son, Jesus Christ. It's the gospel where that son
is declared to be the son of God with power. And he says,
it is the gospel in which the righteousness of God is revealed
from faith to faith or from faithfulness to faith, his faithfulness and
his faith, that gift, reveal the gospel for the Jew and the
Greek. And he says, as he begins to
preach that gospel, the just shall live by faith for the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven. The wrath of God, if that wrath
is ever revealed, to any of us. What a cup of trembling. What
a cup of trembling is held in our hands. The dregs, just the
dregs of the cup of his fury. It's a terrible thing to come to the knowledge of sin. And yet, it is part of a wonderful
thing. The proverb says, The full, the
satisfied soul loathes, treads underfoot the honeycomb. But
to the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet. Every bitter
thing is sweet. Our Lord comes to a woman here,
a woman that is in chains because she's told to take the bonds
off her neck later on. A woman who is in rags, A woman
who is trembling with the cup that she cannot give up and yet
must be her destruction. And this is a picture of the
church in her native state, in her nature. By nature we are
children of wrath even as the others. But God reckons us to be something
else and that is what matters. And that cup he comes, that terrible
cup. That cup that will be given to
others. He says, that cup's not for you. That cup's not for you. See, I have taken out of your
hand the cup of trembling. It's a wonderful thing, you see.
We can't give it up. We can't push it away. But he
says, see, I have taken out of your hand the cup of trembling.
You shall drink of it no more. But I will put it in the hand
of those who afflict you." Lord Jesus said of his little
ones that believe in him, of his called ones, it's better
for a man that he'd never been born than he makes one of those
little ones to stumble. Better for a man that great stone
should be put about his neck and he should be cast into the
midst of the sea, then that he should make one of those little
ones to stumble. Others will drink of that cup, but we never
shall. Why is that? I don't remember
the whole hymn, but I remember some years ago in Australia singing
a hymn and it had a refrain, it said, that bitter cup He drank it up. He drank it up. In the days of
his earthly ministry, in the days of his incarnation before
his death and resurrection and ascension, glorification, our
Lord Jesus sweated in a garden. Forsaken, his disciples slept
for sorrow. For sorrow, it's what a sleep
it is to sleep for sorrow. But he wrestled in the garden
and he said, Lord, Heavenly Father, if it be possible, take this
cup from me nevertheless. Not my will, but thy will be
done. That bitter cup, he drank it
up. That's why we shall drink of it no more. It is empty for
us. It is drained. Even the dregs
of his fury, it's gone. For he drank it up. He bore our
sin in his own body, our sins in his own body on the tree.
He died once for all for sin, the sins of his people. And so
there's not a cup. There's something that that's
taken out of our hands. There's something that's taken
away. And there's something that's given to us. If this morning
we know the voice of the beloved, we will have heard his call.
And may God grant that if any of us have not, that he will
call. Like the Shunammite, he says, the voice of my beloved,
behold, he skips upon the hills. Beautiful, fragrant, powerful
voice. of one who is the beloved, the
husband, the great protector, the great, as it were, provider. Awake, he says, awake. Put on
your strength. But she has no strength. Her
hands tremble. She's chained. Put on your strength,
O Zion. Put on your beautiful garments. Oh, Jerusalem, the holy city, for the uncircumcised and the
unclean shall no longer come to you. Shake yourself from the
dust. There she is in the dust, defiled
and naked and chained. Shake yourself from the dust.
Put on your beautiful garments. Loose the bonds from your neck.
Sit down. Sit down, O Jerusalem. And her name is so sweet now.
Sit down, O possessor, possession of peace. Of peace. O captive daughter. No longer
the captive of sin. but the captive of Christ. The
captive of Christ. An old writer said this, it was
Robert Hawker. Never a more encouraging invitation given for sinners
to be happy. Never a more encouraging invitation
given for sinners to be happy. For what is the strength of Zion
but the salvation of Jesus? What the beautiful garments but
His robe of righteousness. And who can put it on the believer
but the Holy Spirit of our God. That's what we have here. We
have the glorious work, the loving work, the work from eternity
to eternity, the work of grace and goodness, the work that no
man could do, the work of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. putting on beautiful garments,
setting free the Heavenly Father's captive daughter, the Beloved
Son's bride, and the Holy Spirit's dwelling place, a holy temple
unto the Lord, building the walls of Jerusalem, the heavenly and
holy city. People today, they look at these
prophecies with a veil over them and that veil is taken away in
Christ. They look for an earthly city. They look for some future
for an ethnic people whom they believe are Israel, a city that
they believe is Jerusalem. But we're told that even in the
day of our Lord Jesus Christ, that Jerusalem which was below,
which now was, is in bondage with all her children. But the
Jerusalem that is above, which is the mother of us all, is free,
is free. The bride of Christ is free. Come the the prophet that one
of the brethren, that preacher that John was led through heaven
by. Come, he says, and I'll show
you the bride, the Lamb's wife. And it's said of her that she
is adorned as a bride for her husband. That's the Jerusalem
of which Isaiah speaks. That's the Jerusalem. And the
beloved of which he speaks is Christ. He is a redeemer, for
thus says the Lord. It's interesting what Joe read,
verse 22 of the previous chapter to us. Thus says your Lord, the
Lord and your God. In verse 3 of the next chapter,
for thus says the Lord, you have sold yourselves for nothing. Solomon, the great king, he said,
what profit is there of a man for all his labours under the
sun? What profit is there? We're sold in sin and for nothing. The wages of sin is death. A man can work, a woman can work
and labour all their life. They can labour to be accepted
by God. They can labour to have significance
in the community. They can labour to raise their
children and see them well on their way into the world. They
can labour with their fears and they can labour with their hopes
and they can labour with their dreams and there is no profit
because they are already sold into sin and the cup of trembling
is all that awaits them. And that was our native condition. But thank God it was not His
eternal intention. You have sold yourselves for
nothing. Your nature is no different from any other man or woman upon
the earth and neither is mine. We're sinners. You shall be redeemed without
money. No price that could be paid in
this world can be paid to redeem you. But
the price that is needed will be paid. You shall be redeemed
without money. Peter tells us, doesn't he? You are not redeemed with corruptible
things like silver and gold. but with the precious blood of
Christ as a lamb without spot and without blemish. People sold
for nothing and redeemed pricelessly once forever. That's the one
who is called to awake, to awake from that sleep of death, the
powerful and effectual call. Her husband comes to her. Her God indwells her. He breathes
and she lives and He speaks. And for the first time she hears,
because He is there and He will never leave. Because I live,
the Lord Jesus said, Because I live, you shall live also."
And so in this marvellous condition, what is she called to? Well, not what the Shulamite
was called to before her beloved came. Her brothers made her the
keeper of their vineyards, but her own vineyards she had not
kept. Her brothers drove her out into the wilderness until
she could say, I am black. Do not look upon me because I
am dark, because the sun has tanned me. My mother's sons were
angry with me. They made me the keeper of the
vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept." Her life had
been one of ceaseless labours for the approval of others, of
wilderness. She felt the burning heat of
the sun and it marked her permanently. What will her beloved call her
to? What does it mean to put on the
garments of salvation? Is it a set of overalls so you
can work to be worthy of him? No, it's not. It's a bridal garment.
A bridal garment because you're going to be wed to him and he's
going to keep you. He's going to be a husband to
you. You're going to stay with him. Forever. Do you remember
Hosea and Goma, that unfaithful wife, that wife on the block,
that wife in chains? Here he comes down, comes down
through the city, comes down to the slave market and all the
religious people are standing either side saying he's come
to gloat. He's come to gloat. There she
is, naked, that harlot, that adulteress. Here comes the prophet. He's going to fix her now real
good. And he pays the price of her
redemption. He pays the price to set her free. And he puts
a new garment on her. And he takes off her chains.
And in the eyes of all those people that are expecting justice,
vengeance, she receives a full reward. his
mercy, the reward of his love, the reward of his labour. And
he says, you shall stay with me many days. You shall be a
wife to me and I shall be your husband. It's a beautiful picture,
Hosea and Gomorrah, but it's a greater picture. You see, it's
a pale picture compared to the love of Christ for his people. A voice of my beloved, behold,
he comes leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved's
like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, he stands behind that
wall. See him through the windows. He shows himself through the
ladders. He's looking and she's singing. And my beloved spoke
and said to me, rise up, my love, and come away. Come away. Why? Because the time of unfruitfulness
and barrenness and coldness and darkness is past. The winter
is past. The rain is over and gone. The
flowers appear on the earth. The time of singing has come
and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land. The fig
tree puts forth her green figs and the vines with the tender
grapes give a good smell. It's all fruitful. It's all fragrant. It's all fertile. It's all comfort
and pleasure and joy. This is where He brings her.
It is His home. It is His creation. It is His
garden. And she is his bride. Rise up,
my love, my fair one, and come away, O my dove, in the clefts
of the rock." In the secret places of the cliff.
Let me see your... I can't ever... I'm like your
dear pastor. How can it be? I long to see
His face, to hear His voice. His voice is sweet. His face
is lovely, the face of our Redeemer and our friend. But how would
He long to see our face? Why? How is it that He can long
for our voice and it is sweet to Him? He says, I have loved you because
I've loved you. Clothed in beauty, not her own. Clothed in beauty, not her own.
It can only be that reflection of himself, that righteousness
in which she is arrayed, that holiness that she has now been
made. She's been separated. The mountains
of Bitha, are the mountains of separation.
That word means separation. She's passed over a great gulf.
She's been separated. Our text tells us that she's
come out bearing the vessels of the Lord, that she's no longer
to touch the unclean thing. She's no longer to dwell in Egypt.
She's no longer to be oppressed by the Assyrians. The New Testament calls it translated
from the kingdom of darkness and you'd expect the consonant
of it to be the kingdom of light, wouldn't you? Translated from
the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of... but it says translated
from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of the Son of
His love. The Son of His love. Light is to know the love of
Christ and the love of Christ is light. So there she is, the beautiful
bride. Why is she beautiful? Because her garments are beautiful.
Why is she a bride? Because she's been set free from
bondage and all the terrible burden that brought her into
that state of having nothing of her own and no freedom in
any sense It's been taken away and she stands fast now in a
glorious liberty and the New Testament tells us what that
is in Galatians. The liberty wherewith Christ
has set you free. Those who the Son sets free are
free indeed and need never ever be entangled again in the yoke
of bondage. But so many people want to put
us there. And so often, our flesh, we start
measuring things by what it used to be like to be there. We start again to look at things
according to the outward appearance. But that is not how the Lord
looks upon us. And so, having told her of her
Redeemer, having wooed her with an irresistible call and love,
having revealed to her what will be her only glory and what is
her beauty, his blood, his righteousness, having put upon her the beautiful
garment, Having brought her out of Egypt, the exodus was nothing
compared to the exodus of Christ's true people, who in triumphal
procession in every place are granted to walk in His victory
train. They were taken away for nothing.
Those who once ruled over us made us wail. And his name was blasphemed continually
every day. But he says, not for you. No
longer to take the name of God vainly upon your lips, in your
bondage and slavery. No longer for you. You are going
to know that it is I who speaks. You are going to know my name. people in the world today and
we, if we were once in fallen, futile, fleshly religion, there
was a name that we took upon our lips and we did not know.
Because to know the name of Christ is to know Him. He who is wonderful. He who is King of Kings and Lord
of Lords. He who is the Beloved. He who
is holy. He who is true. He who is faithful. He who is our provider. He who
is our redeemer. He who is our peace. You shall
know these things. And that doesn't just mean here,
does it? It is as Adam knew Eve. It is as the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ knows the Son. It is an intimate, personal
knowledge that comes from relationship and discerning in the One whom
you know. All the qualities, all the character,
all, as it were, the attributes and actions and intentions and
affections of that One. Where will we know those things? Where will we know his name in
the gospel? And that's where our text leads
us. Not only to a beautiful garment prepared by a glorious husband,
but to a beautiful gospel given by a gracious husband. How beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news. who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good,
of good things, who says, sorry, who proclaims salvation, who
says to Zion, your God reigns. It doesn't say to Zion, well,
yourself reigns. But what you got to do is take
yourself off the throne and put your God there. If you put your
God on the throne, He is nothing but an idol. Because
your God, the true God reigns. And any God that you can put
anywhere is the work of your hands and your own futile imagination. But our God reigns. Our God does
whatever He wills. Your God reigns. You can see
the situation here. There's that city, Zion, on a
hillside. What's coming for these people
who are our example, who picture Christ for us and are a picture
of the true people of God, this Jerusalem, She's in captivity with all her
children. She's in exile. Her walls are
going to be broken down. Her gates are going to be burned
with fire. Her sons and daughters are going to be taken away. And
then, after 70 years, the exiles are going to return. And Ezra
is going to come, the prophet, and leading a great company of
those whom the king has released and who was given a glorious
commandment to rebuild Jerusalem. That is just a picture of what
Christ will do and has done in redeeming His people. And you
can imagine those people in Jerusalem. Those hills which the marauders,
the armies of Babylon came down. Those hills which were the place
that they saw those armies gathered upon before they plundered the
city. Those hills over which their captive sons and daughters
disappeared and went into bondage. Over those hills comes a herald,
over those hills comes a prophet, over those hills comes one who
says the captives have been set free, the city is going to be
rebuilt, the king has provided everything. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of Him who brings good news. But I tell you something,
In the first instance, in the greatest instance, this isn't
talking about gospel preachers. It's talking about a preacher,
the preacher, Jesus Christ, the King. All the preachers are there. They're his watchmen. They're
his watchmen. They're a little further down
and in the New Testament, References made to this concerning the preachers
of the gospel. But in the first sense, he who
has the most beautiful feet is he who brings the glad tidings.
He doesn't just send a herald. He comes himself. He comes himself. As he came to the Shulamite.
This is my beloved. This is my friend. How beautiful
upon the hills are the feet of him who brings glad tidings.
I have loved you with an everlasting love and therefore with loving
kindness I have drawn you. This is like, what does he say
in Isaiah, Isaiah 54 to the widow, the baron. He says, this is like
the waters of Noah to me, those terrible waters. Those powerful
waters, those final waters. Remember, those waters swept
away a world and yet there were eight souls. Those waters never
touched. This is like the waters of Isaiah
54 9. This is like the waters of Noah
to me. For as I have sworn that the
waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so have I sworn
that I would not be angry with you nor rebuke you. For the mountains
shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall
not depart from you, nor shall my covenant of peace be removed,
says the Lord who has mercy on you." No one has any right to
ever tell the children of God that he is angry with them, because
his anger is turned away and he comforts them. He comforts
them. No one has the right to tell
any child of God that what is happening to them is because
the Lord is punishing them. Because they were punished in
Him. And He has sworn by Himself that
He will not be angry with us nor rebuke us and His kindness
shall not depart from us. It's like the waters of Noah.
Can they again cover the earth? No. Why not? Because he has promised
that they shall never again cover the earth. What a beautiful and wonderful
message. What a beautiful and wonderful
messenger. Old Matthew Henry, he said this, Christ brought
this message first. How beautiful his feet. And he
goes on, and I'm just trying to summarise, and he says, How
beautiful His feet are nailed to the cross. The feet that walked
upon water. The feet that brought beautiful,
glad, wonderful tidings of great joy, nailed to the cross. How beautiful His feet. And the
watchman, that's what they know. That's all they know. They know
Him. They see Him. Your watchman, he says, how beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news,
who proclaims glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation,
who says to Zion, your God reigns. Your watchman shall lift up their
voices, shall lift up their voices. They see him coming. They know
he reigns. They rejoice in His redemption
for it is their redemption and brothers and sisters, if you
know Him, you know it is your redemption and only your redemption. He is your peace. He has broken
down the middle wall of petition. He is our peace who has made
the both one. And so they lift up their voices. With their voices they shall
sing together, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord
brings back the captivity of Zion. When he brings back Zion,
break forth into joy. Sing together, you waste places
of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people. What is
our comfort? He has redeemed. He has redeemed. Brought us back, paid a glorious,
immeasurable price. His own blood. The blood of Christ. Can you measure the life of the
Son of God? The life is in the blood. And
that is why it is exceedingly precious and priceless. And that
is why it is enough. And that is why it is a new covenant
in His blood that can never be broken, a covenant of peace.
And this supper that you and I rejoice in, this memorial that
we undertake in remembrance of Him, we remember in that cup
that it was in His blood. that covenant was sealed and
by his blood the price was paid. He has redeemed Jerusalem. He has made bare his arm in the
eyes of all the nations and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God. It doesn't say they'll all have
it. It says they'll see it. They'll see it. Because they'll
see that people, they'll see that people on that
day are found in Him, are found in Him. And until that day, the
watchmen lift up their voice and they speak of Him, who is
beautiful upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. They
echo the voice of the Beloved. They say unto His people, your
God reigns.