Isaiah 52, Isaiah chapter 52, and I'm taking the title from the message that's found in verse 7, the gospel preacher's message. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him. that bringeth good tidings, that publish peace, that bring good tidings of good, that publish salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigns. Thy God reigns.

Now, without doubt, we can make application of this scripture to the Lord Jesus Christ. For He came walking among men, His steps being ordered of God, What a beautiful path the Lord in his earthly ministry walked among men doing what? Preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, healing those that were diseased, giving God all the honor and glory. That's a beautiful thing, isn't it? about the person and work of Christ, how he ministered to those who were in need.

And I love, as you read through the gospel writers, the Lord never turned a mercy beggar away. All those who came to him, you remember the scripture, it said, all who came in need of healing, he healed them. He never turned a mercy beggar away. And that's what we are. We are mercy beggars. We are mercy beggars. And we come to the throne of grace. We come to the throne of grace over and over and over. He said, come boldly to the throne of grace that you may obtain mercy, find grace to help in time of need.

So what is a preacher's message? Well, it tells us right there, doesn't it? They publish peace. They bring good news. They publish how God saves sinners. They publish salvation that's of the Lord. And they say, God's in charge. I'm not in charge. You're not in charge. God's in charge. God reigns over all things, over all events, over all people. over all creation, over all providence, over all salvation, thy God reigneth. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he, heaven, earth, seas, and all deep places.

Now what is our message? Our message is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ and salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation in him and him alone. What is our message? Well, it's not that God loves everybody. That's not what the Bible teaches. Our message is not that Christ died to make an attempt to save everybody. That's not our message. Our message is not that the Lord came to make salvation a possibility. It's not that God's trying to give his best effort to save everybody. That's not our message. Our message is God reigns. Our message is God's, the salvations of the Lord.

Those who preach such things that God loves everybody and Christ died for everybody and he's trying his dead level best to save everybody, they're not sent of God. He never sent them. They're false prophets. God does not use the lives of men and half-truths. of false preachers to teach men the gospel truth. You can never arrive at truth believing a lie. That's just not going to happen. No lie can ever be the truth. No truth can ever be a lie. We studied that in 1 John 2.21. No lie is the truth. You can tell a lie 10,000 times. It never becomes the truth, does it? Truth is always true. Our Lord said, you shall know the truth, and the truth, it will set you free.

Now in the courts of men, when someone does not tell the truth, they are charged with perjury. When you raise your hand and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, and if you take that oath and then you're on the witness stand and then you lie about the facts, they call that perjury. Not telling the truth. When we don't tell the whole truth of salvation before God, He charges us not with perjury but treason. He charges us with blasphemy. Paul put it this way, to preach another gospel, if any man preach any other gospel than that which we've preached unto you, let him be damned. That's pretty strong language, isn't it? That's what the gospel's about. It's truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.

Now the Apostle Paul, writing to believers at Rome and encouraging sinners to call upon the name of the Lord for salvation, quotes this passage of scripture and applies it to gospel preachers. We place great importance upon preaching of the gospel of Christ because our God does. Our God puts great importance upon preaching the gospel.

Now, not just preaching. A lot of people call themselves preachers. They don't know anything about preaching the truth. Now there's a difference. There's a difference. Our Lord said to go on, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, not just go out there and carry on and rant and rave about some feeling or emotion or some experience you had. That's not gonna help anybody. He said, go into all the world and preach the gospel, the personal work of Christ.

Our God places great importance upon preaching the gospel. Our Lord was a preacher. He came preaching the gospel. Paul writes, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save his people, to call out his people. And then Paul, his last words to Timothy as he's waiting to be executed for the gospel, he writes back to Timothy and says, I charge you before God, make sure you preach the word. Preach the word. Be always ready to preach the word. Always ready to preach the word.

Then the apostle asked those five important questions recorded in Romans chapter 10, as we read just a moment ago. 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've not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent of God? Those who are sent of God, they all preach the same message. Salvation is of the Lord and salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't call and believe upon someone that you've not heard of. That is why God has ordained preaching in the gospel of Christ to the salvation of his people.

You must hear and believe the truth. You must hear and believe the true gospel in order to know and believe the truth. It's necessary to hear the word of truth in order to be saved by the truth. Paul writes about being a minister, Paul and Apollos, were nothing but ministers by whom you believed. They heard, they preached the gospel and they heard the word of truth and faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. If his own will begat he us with the word of truth.

So what is the message we're to preach? Well, right there it is in verse seven. The first thing we learn about is the importance of the gospel message, the importance of preaching. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tiding, that publish peace, that publish peace. God says of them, their feet are even blessed. Their path is chosen of God. The steps of the Lord's people are ordered They are sinners with a message to other sinners about the gospel of Christ. I'm just a sinner telling other sinners that salvation's in the Lord. Someone described it this way, it's one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread. I'm just a mercy beggar telling other beggars where bread is found in Christ Jesus. Paul said, we preach not ourselves but Jesus Christ the Lord and ourselves, your servant for His sake, his sake.

Many of you remember Scott Richardson. He was, I thought when I first met him, I was in my late 20s. And when I first met him, I thought he was an old man. And he preached way up in his 80s. But I've got a picture in my study there, you can come and look at it sometime, taken just recently, taken recently before he died, recently taken before he died. And there's a caption on there that he had this quaint saying. He said, what is a preacher? A preacher is a nobody who tells everybody about the one somebody who can save anybody. A preacher is a nobody who tells everybody about Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the mighty one to save.

One of the greatest blessings God can give to any people, community or church, is a faithful gospel preacher who is not afraid to declare the gospel of God's grace, who's not afraid of the frowns of men, Nor is he preaching to please men. He's God's servant, son of God, to declare the gospel. Paul said, if we preach simply to please men, we're not God's servants. We're not God's servants. Rather, God's servants are bold to declare unto all the counsel of God, keeping back nothing that is profitable unto you. As Paul said, we're not ashamed to declare the gospel of Christ, He said, I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.

Well, a lot of times people quote that, not ashamed to declare, or we have declared, Paul declared the whole counsel of God. It doesn't say the whole counsel of God. It says all the counsel of God. All the counsel of God is Christ. Christ, determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and him crucified. So we've kept back nothing profitable unto you, we've not shunned you, declared unto you all the counsel of God. And I wrote down here, Christ, Christ, Christ. Christ is all, and in all. These are the men who were sent of God with God's message, God's message.

And you remember from Isaiah 40, turn back there, Isaiah 40, Isaiah 40. You remember this, Isaiah 40? Verse six, the boy said, cry, and he said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass, all the goodliness thereof is the flower of the field. The grass wither, the flower fades because the spirit of the Lord blows upon it. Surely the people is grass. The grass wither, the flower faded. But our God, but the word of our God shall stand forever. So all flesh is grass, the word of God stands forever.

Oh, Zion, verse nine, that bring us good tidings, get thee up into a high mountain. Oh, Jerusalem, that bring us good tidings, lift up by voice with strength, lift it up. Be not afraid, saying to the cities of Judah, what? Behold your God. All flesh is grass. The word of the Lord stands forever, and behold, you're God. Look unto me, and be ye saved. I am God, and beside me there is no other.

The gospel preacher down in verse 8 is called a watchman. You see that? Isaiah 52, verse 8. The watchman shall lift up the voice. With the voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye to eye. when the Lord shall bring again Zion." The watchmen are to lift up their voice. You remember what our Lord said to His Apostle? He said, what I tell you in secret, don't go around the corner and whisper it. He said, what I tell you in secret, you preach from the housetop. You publicly declare. the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't whisper the gospel. Hey, did you hear God elected a people? No, we declare that God chose a people from eternity. We don't go around and say, well, you know that Christ just only died for his elect. No, we sound it abroad. We publish it on the radio, on the TV, on the internet. We publish it in books and bulletins. We publish salvation. We're not ashamed of it. We declare the gospel.

The gospel preacher is a watchman. He used to lift up his voice. In ancient days, when the cities were walled, cities, high stone walls of defense around those cities. You remember, like Jericho, it was a walled city. Jerusalem was a walled city. But they had on those high stone walls, what did they have? They had watchmen. They had guard towers. And the watchman, when he saw the enemy approaching, what did he do? He didn't go around and whisper, hey, there's somebody out there going to attack us. No, he cried aloud. The enemies out there, get ready for battle. Get ready for battle. And that's what the watchman does. Lift up your voice. Lift up your voice. The Lord, cry aloud and spare not.

The Lord has given Zebulun Grace Church a watchman. I'm the watchman. that God has sent. What does a watchman do? I'm going to watch your steps. That's not what he's talking about. A watchman declares the word of truth, the word of God. I watch out for the wolves in sheep's clothing, the false prophets. The watchman is the messenger God has sent I'm to warn you of the dangers around us and tell you to look to the Lord Jesus Christ, the only refuge. Beware of false prophets." We've seen that through the Word of God. So beware! Beware.

So they declare the truth and then they warn about false prophets and false doctrine. And then, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings of good. Good tidings of good things. Now, what would be good tidings of good things? Oftentimes, people might say, well, you know, I've got some bad news and I've got some good news. And there's enough bad news around. But I like hearing about the good news, don't you? I want to hear about the good news, salvations of the Lord.

They bring good tidings of good things. The gospel of Christ is good news to the guilty, to the guilty sinners. To the guilty sinners, the gospel says, look unto me. Our Lord said, look unto me and be ye saved. I am God beside me. There is no other. Behold, you're God. There's mercy for the miserable. There's grace for the guilty. There's salvation for sinners in Christ alone. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. Christ came to save sinners. Isn't that good news? It's good news to sinners. It's good news to the ungodly when we were yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. It's good news to those who are ungodly. It's good news to the guilty, their salvation to be had in Christ.

Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I'm not going to try to diminish that. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, God Almighty, they call because they've been quickened and born of God and they shall be saved. There is mercy for the miserable, grace for the guilty, salvation for sinners in Christ. He came to seek and to save the lost. We declare good news of God manifest in the flesh. Call his name Jesus, he shall save his people from their sin. We declare in you the good news that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our salvation by his sacrifice for our sin. He was wounded for our transgression, bruised for our iniquity, and the chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes, what did we read? With his stripes, we are healed. Now, it's not talking about physical ailments, but talking about all of our spiritual diseases. The Lord has healed us with His blood atonement.

We declare the good news of salvation accomplished. He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. We declare unto you the good news that the Lord Jesus Christ justifies the ungodly totally by His sovereign grace. justified freely by His grace through the redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, this is good news. Those who are sin of God have good news. They bring good tidings of good. And then it says they publish peace. They publish peace.

Peace, we declare the good news at salvation of the Lord. Thirdly, God's gospel preachers declare and publish peace Reconciliation with God in Christ Jesus. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, but had committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Reconciliation, that's what the fruit of the atonement is. We have reconciliation. Reconciliation. God was in Christ, reconciling us to himself. In all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest, and things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." Hebrews 2, 17. He reconciled us unto himself. That's how peace is made. He made peace for us with his own blood.

People oftentimes in religious circles say, well, I'm trying to make peace with God. Forget it. You can't satisfy God's offended justice. You can't make peace with God, but Christ did. He made peace for us with his own blood. He reconciled us unto God. Our sin separated us from God. How can we be reconciled? Only in Christ. He's reconciled, and we're reconciled to Him in Christ. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, peace made by His blood. There is no peace with God apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no peace.

Turn over a few pages, look at Isaiah 57. Isaiah 57 verse 19, I create the fruit of the lips, peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, sayeth the Lord, I will heal him. But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. We only have peace with God in our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no peace with God apart from Christ. None at all.

Back to Isaiah 52, 7. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bring in good tidings, that publish peace. Peace was made. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And then the fourth thing we see is this. God's preachers publish salvation in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. They say, that bring the good tidings of good, that publish salvation, that say that salvation is of the Lord. Look at verse 10, Isaiah 52 verse 10, the Lord hath made bare his holy arm, In the eyes of all nations and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. One day, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. We publish salvation accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only Savior of sinners. Neither is there salvation in any other. but the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Savior who really saves His people from their sin. He is a Redeemer that really redeems us unto our God. He bought us with His own blood. Salvation is always by the free and sovereign grace of God through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. Salvation is determined by Him, accomplished by Him, dependent upon Him, and applied by Him. That's salvation that's of the Lord. That's what this book teaches.

They publish peace. They bring good tidings of good. They publish salvation, and here's what they say. Here's what they say of the Zion. Zion there is God's church, his chosen. I've set my king upon my holy hill, Zion. What do we say? God reigns. God reigns. God is sovereign. God is sovereign. Those who sin of God and are taught of God declare unto Zion, the people of God, that God reigns. That is, our God is the absolute sovereign in heaven and earth.

I've been reading through Jeremiah. and it's been a few years since I've read through the book of Jeremiah, but I'm reading through, and I ran into chapter 32 of Jeremiah, and Jeremiah there was God's prophet, son of God. He had God's message and God's word, and he wasn't afraid to declare it. But there was a king in Judah, I believe it was Zedekiah, who didn't like the message. Jeremiah said the enemy's going to come and he's going to conquer us and he's going to take us away into captivity for seventy years. Zedekiah didn't like to hear that. You know what he did? He put Jeremiah in prison, about to shut him up. But you know what Jeremiah did? He called out unto the Lord. And here's what he said. This is Jeremiah 32, 17. Ah, Lord God, behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm. There's nothing too hard for thee, the great, the mighty God, the Lord of hosts. With God, all things are possible. Anything too hard for the Lord? And you know what happened? The Lord sent a message to Jeremiah saying, Here's the Lord's answer to Jeremiah's prayer. Behold, I'm the Lord, the God of all flesh. There's nothing too hard for me. Nothing too hard for me. God blessed Jeremiah, and exactly what he said was going to happen, happened. Anything too hard for the Lord? Nope. God is either God over all or he's not God at all. This book knows nothing of a weak, impotent God. God who is God does all things after the counsel of his own will.

The gospel of Christ cannot be good news unless God reigns supreme in all things to execute his will and purpose. We say, for example, God wills our salvation, but he doesn't have the power to accomplish it. No, he wills our salvation and he has power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as the Father has given to him. He worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. Now you can't preach God too high, too sovereign, can you? And you can't preach man too low and too sinful. You can't give God too much honor and glory. I want to be guilty of that. You're giving him too much honor and glory. You can't give him too much. He's absolute sovereign over all things.

We have seen this plainly declared throughout the word of God. You remember Isaiah 46, 9? He said, I've spoken it. I bring it to pass. I purpose it. I will do it. I will do it. God is sovereign over all things. Say, and you've heard this before, Psalm 96, say among the heathen, what? The Lord reigneth. What do the heathen need to hear? God is God. How many times in Isaiah have we read, I am the Lord, beside me there is none else. Look unto me and be ye saved.

Our God reigns in creation. He created all things by the word of His power. Our God reigns in providence. What comes to pass in our life? It's not accidental. I don't like to use that word. Well, he had an accident. No, God sent something to you or to them. There's no accidents. God doesn't save sinners by accident. He saves sinners on purpose. All things work together for good to them who love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. Purpose. God does everything on purpose. He saves every sinner whom he wisely saves on purpose.

Purpose. God reigns in creation. God reigns sovereignly in providence. God reigns absolutely in salvation. Our God reigns. There is the reign of grace. Where sin abounded, grace does much more abound. That sin hath abounded, even so grace does reign through righteousness unto eternal life. That's sovereign grace, is it not?

One local preacher told me one time, said, you can't show me in a word sovereign grace. Well, you know the word sovereign is not actually written in the Word of God, but the word reign is. God reigns over all things. He reigns through righteousness unto eternal life. That's sovereign grace right there. That's what that verse is teaching. Sovereign grace. He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy. What does that mean? That's sovereign grace, isn't it? He has power over all flesh and He should give eternal life to as many as God has given to Him. That's sovereign grace, isn't it?

Well, how does that line up with whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord? It lines up because God says it does. Both are true. The only reason we call is because God has sovereignly done a work of grace in our heart to make us to call out out of need for Him. You see, God reigns over all things.

Now let me send you home with this. Verse 8, 9, and 10. The watchman shall lift up the voice, With the voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion. All believers see eye to eye on the vital, critical issues of the gospel. The faith of God's elect acknowledges the truth to be the truth, and we don't differ over the, we see eye to eye. We agree that God is God. We agree that Christ is successful in salvation. He shall save His people.

And then verse 9, they sing together, break forth into joy and singing together. You waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord hath comforted His people. What does He comfort us with? Our Lord said, when He, the Holy Spirit, has come, He'll comfort us. What does God, the Holy Spirit, comfort us with? Ah, not with good feelings. Feelings come and feelings go. Feelings are deceiving. My warrant's a word of God, nothing else is worth believing. What does God the Holy Spirit comfort us with? You know what it is? Christ, isn't it? He'll take the things of mine and show that unto you. Christ is our comfort. When he talks about comfort you, comfort you my people in Isaiah 40, Tell her that her sins, her warfare is over and her sins are paid for. That's our comfort. Who did that? Christ.

They sing together, they rejoice together, they are comforted together with the good news of the gospel. For He has truly redeemed all His elect and none will be lost. His sheep, they hear His voice and they follow Him. Our Lord said, all that the Father had given to me, They'll come to me, and those that come to me, I'll never, I'll never cast them out. No man can pluck them out of my hand, or my Father's hand. I'm my Father, we are one.

Verse 10, in closing, the Lord may bear His holy arm. That's His holy power. The Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation. In all the eyes of all nations, the Lord may bear His holy arm, In the eyes of all nations, He has a people redeemed out of every tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue under heaven.

The Lord has a people. And all the ends of the earth shall see, what do they see? They see the salvation of the Lord. They see the salvation of our God. From election, The Lord Jesus Christ is the alpha and the omega of our salvation. From election until final glorification, salvation is of the Lord. Of the Lord.

So how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bring us good tidings, that publish peace, that bring good tidings of good, that publish salvation, salvation in Christ, that saith unto The Lord's people, what do we say? God is God. He reigns. He reigns. He rules from everlasting to everlasting. His rule and his reign is eternal, sovereign and holy as himself.