Verse 7, how beautiful upon the
mountains are 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. That there's
no shortage of bad news in this world is apparent to us all. And of all people in this world,
God's people, more than any other, understand why this world is
as it is. This world is a place of wonder.
Our Creator is a God of wonder. But God's people understand that
this world is a fallen and corrupted place. Romans 8 tells us that
the whole of creation groaneth and travaileth in pain. And God's
people know more than any other people and understand more than
any other people the fallen nature of mankind. We know how the transgression
of our father Adam earned us corruption in this body of flesh. And so God's people are not immune
to the ills and the woes of this world. We have strife and we
have conflict. These bodies are weak and they
get sick and they eventually succumb. Our lives are short
and we experience the weaknesses of our flesh every day. Every human suffers the consequences
of sin in this world. And yet, at the same time, as
believers we will never be pessimistic. We will never be despondent about
the future. Believers have a glorious God
and a glorious inheritance. In Romans 8 we read that the
suffering Sufferings of this present time are not worthy to
be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. We are creatures of time, and
we have a tendency to be short-sighted. But there is a glory to be revealed. And to this end, the Lord our
God has graciously given us good tidings, tidings that infinitely
transcend all our present troubles. Tidings that speak of a Saviour. Remember how the angel visited
those shepherds at night in Luke 2 and he says, Fear not, fear
not. Behold, I bring you good tidings
of great joy, which shall be to all the people. For unto you
is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is
Christ the Lord. I've titled this message, Good
News. Good News. And that's what good
tidings are, they're good news. And for the children of God,
this is the best news they have ever heard. And this news is
by far the most important news anyone could ever hear. It is the good news concerning
a person, the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ, a Saviour,
which is Christ the Lord. Romans 1, Paul makes this introduction. Just let me read it to you. Paul,
a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto
the gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his prophets
in the holy scriptures concerning his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. This news, this message, this
gospel has just one subject, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is
the Lord Jesus Christ, which was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power,
according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the
dead. by whom we have received grace
and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations
for his name. Turn with me just for a moment
to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. There is only one saviour. So
too, there is only one gospel. And this message is an exclusive
message. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel. The gospel. Paul did not say
to the Corinthians, I declare unto you a gospel, as if there
are many interpretations of that gospel. He says, I declare unto
you the gospel. The gospel. Christ is the life.
Any other way is death. Christ is the truth. Any other
way is a lie. There is but one gospel, there
is but one way, one saviour, one gospel, and that being the
case, it would be wise for you to make it your business to find
out what that way is, who that saviour is, and learn what that
gospel is. He goes on, which I preach to
you, this gospel which I preach to you, which also ye have received
and wherein ye stand. What do we need to learn of Christ? What do we need to learn of Christ?
We don't need training programs. We don't need to learn techniques.
We don't need to learn apologetics. What do we need? We just need
the word of God and a preacher. This is the gospel message, which
I preached unto you, which also ye have received, wherein ye
stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached
unto you, unless ye believed in vain. For I delivered unto
you first of all. That which I also received, how
that, how that. Historical facts are not the
gospel. We want to know the how. We need to know how. How that
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, verse four,
and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according
to the scriptures. We need to know how men are saved. How that Christ redeemed His
people by sacrifice. How that death could not keep
Him down and hold Him. How that Christ raised Him up
for our justification. We worship a living Saviour. Notice that this message is always,
always according to the Scriptures. according to the Scriptures,
according to the Scriptures. The Scriptures are our only source
of absolute truth. This is the message. God is light,
and in Him is no darkness at all. There is no darkness in
God. There is no ignorance. This is
a message of absolute truth. This is a message of illumination. It is a revelation of God, and
there is no greater revelation So at this point I'd just like
to make a few statements concerning this Good News. What it is, and what it is not. There are a lot of points to
be made, I'll only just make a few. This message, this Gospel message,
this Good News, is one of grace. For it is by grace you are saved.
God looks to the sinner for nothing. There is nothing that God needs
from sinners, is there? What does God need from vile
sinners? Salvation is by the free grace
of God, the free favor of God. And that means you cannot earn
His grace. You cannot obligate God to bestow
His grace. given to chosen sinners without
cost to the sinners. The cost was borne by God, borne
by Christ at Calvary. Life of the Son of God given
to the chosen sinners. Salvation is by grace alone and
the message is received by faith. Secondly, the Gospel message
is the declaration of the righteousness of God. Romans 10 tells us that the Jews
had a zeal for God, but they were ignorant. Let me just read
verse three of chapter 10. For they, being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness,
had not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes it. Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness. He is the righteousness they
missed. The truth is the vast majority of this world are ignorant
of Christ. They are ignorant of God's righteousness. But Christ is all the believer's
righteousness. And if God gives you His righteousness,
you'll have all the righteousness you'll ever need to be accepted
by Him. Believers are accepted in the
Beloved because of His righteousness. Thirdly, the preaching of the
love of God is not the focus of this Good News. It's not the
focus of this message. We love to rejoice and sing,
don't we, about the love of our Saviour. me, but the preaching of the
love of God is not the focus of this message. The love of
God is the cause of His favour. The cause of His favour, the
focus of the message, is not in John 3.16. It's actually in
John 3.14. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so the Son of Man must be lifted up. God has provided a
substitute. Christ must die or there is no
salvation. Christ must die or there is no
redemption. All who believe on this one who
died and obtained eternal redemption are born of God. The next point is the preaching
of this message is not an offer of salvation, which so many in
our days seem to believe it is. It's not an offer. There is a game they play in
casinos called roulette and it involves a spinning wheel and
a marble. And you lose or win depending
on where the marble falls. God doesn't play roulette with
the salvation of his beloved people. Nothing is left to chance. God doesn't take uncalculated
risks with the redemption of those he loves. God does not gamble with the
lives of his people. He has a people. And the preaching
of the message is a message which declares salvation accomplished. It is a declaration. It is a
proclamation. It is a finished work. It is
a completed work for a particular people, elect, chosen in Christ
and the covenant of grace before the world began. Our God is faithful,
isn't he? Our God is faithful, he can be
relied upon, and his people are secure in him. The Lord said
in John 10, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. We have a sure hope. Why? Because our God is invincible. Our God is faithful. word, faithful to his promises
and faithful to everything he's declared. And finally, this good news is
heralded by gospel preachers, just a man in a pulpit with an
open Bible, so that sinners might hear that message and be persuaded
by the Spirit of God to call on him. Still in Romans 10, let
me just read this. Here is the means of that call.
He writes in verse 13, whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. 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. Paul is of course quoting from
a passage in Isaiah 52. I trust these things are good
news to you. A message of good news. Glad tidings. Glad tidings. And glad tidings are always welcome
to those who desperately need it. Turn with me, if you will,
to Proverbs 25. Proverbs 25. Verse 25. As cold waters to a thirsty soul,
so is good news from a far country. Perhaps you've seen those survival
stories where someone gets lost in the desert without water and
soon they find themselves dying of thirst and desperate, desperate
for water. I've been thirsty in my time
but I don't know I've been that desperate to need it so much
that I've just been about to die, but I have been very, very
thirsty, and I'm sure we've all experienced it. But of course,
the proverb is speaking of the thirst of the soul, the spiritual
thirst. The Lord uses this picture of
thirst himself. In Matthew 6, the Lord says,
blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled. And the question that we should
ask is, are you thirsty? How needful are you of His righteousness? How thirsty are you for your
sins to be pardoned? Or do you think you have your
sins under control? Are you thirsty for that water which is the water
of life? The Lord Jesus said to that woman at the well, whosoever
drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh
of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the
water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing
up into everlasting life. As cold waters to a thirsty soul,
so is good news from a hard country. And the Lord Jesus Christ himself
is that good news from a far country. From a far country. It speaks of the gospel. It speaks
of the gospel. It is good news. It speaks of
grace and it speaks of the favour and the goodwill of God to men.
It is good news of the provision of a saviour. And that's good
news, isn't it? That's good news to those who
know they can't save themselves. This is good news for needy sinners
and it's good news of salvation being brought out by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And this good news comes from
a far country, a far country, a better country than Canaan,
of which Canaan was a type. It comes from heaven. Gospel
comes from our and it's a good news brought by the prophets
of the Old Testament. It was proclaimed by the angels
at the birth of the Lord Jesus. It was proclaimed by John the
Baptist as the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it
was proclaimed, of course, by Christ himself who was anointed
to preach good tidings to the meek. who is himself, he is both
the message and the messenger of good news. And it was proclaimed
by the apostles and all the faithful ministers of his word. And so
our verse in Isaiah, our verse in Isaiah reads, how beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings. Good news, good news. Those mountains,
geographically speaking, are great obstacles to our path,
enormous barriers, and our sin is like an infinitely high mountain
barrier between God and us, and we have no hope of overcoming
it. But there is one who did. I love
reading that little passage in Song of Solomon, chapter two,
which describes that beautiful approach of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me just read it to you. Song
of Songs, chapter two, verse eight. The voice of my beloved. Behold, he cometh leaping upon
the mountains, the hills. Those mountains pose
no limitations to our Saviour. Can you picture Him coming to
His beloved church in His glorious work of redemption,
leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills? I love how our
friend Mr. Hawker comments on this verse.
He says, mountains and hills, yea, even the mountains of sin
and the hills of unbelief in our nature shall not obstruct
His sweet visits to His people, for His love and grace will cause
Him to leap over all. How beautiful upon the mountains
are His feet, His feet, the feet of our Saviour coming to rescue
us And of course, we could think
of many other scriptures that picture the feet of our Savior
as lovely. You recall that woman who was
said to be a sinner. When she knew that Jesus sat
at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster box of ointment,
and she stood at his feet behind him, weeping, and began to wash
his feet with her tears, and to wipe them with the hairs of
her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. And these beautiful gestures
were welcomed of the Lord. And he said to those round about,
her sins which are many are forgiven. For she loved much, she loved
much. From the top of his head to the
bottom of the soles of his feet. Is there anything about the Lord
that we do not admire and love? And yet those very same feet,
those very same feet, which carried the good news, were taken and
nailed to Calvary's tree. Those feet were bloody and bruised. And yet for the children of God,
those bloody, bruised feet are beautiful feet. They're the Savior's
beautiful feet. And as Colossians says, they
were fixed there for us to this end. 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. The requirements
of God upon us, the requirements of God, His laws, His precepts
condemned us at every point. And they were taken away from
us by His doing and dying. And they were nailed to that
cross forever, never to be used against us again, never to condemn
us again. So we know that the feet, the
feet are not normally associated with beauty, are they? that the
feet of our Saviour were beautified. Not only our Saviour, but all
those, all those who carry the gospel of God. I can't help but
be reminded of how the Lord washed his disciples' feet. He washed
his disciples' feet, and then he carried the good news. He
carried that gospel message. And the version speaks of those
whose feet were shod with the preparation of the gospel of
peace. to be preached in his name among
all nations beginning at Jerusalem. The good news must go out. It
must be preached to all nations and it will, it will reach all
the souls which are written in the Lamb's book of life. No exceptions,
those chosen in him before the world began. Yet we know, don't
we, we know that the gospel message is often rejected. Those same disciples who visited
the towns and houses and cities in their missionary work when
they weren't received, when they were met with rejection, they
were instructed of the Lord to shake off the dust off their
feet. symbolic of those who reject this message. And so it's for
good reason that Isaiah asks that great question at the beginning
of chapter 53. Who hath believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the
Lord been revealed? Who hath believed it? This is
good news. It's not good news for everybody.
If you take a A man who is not thirsty
and you put him beside a well of clean, cool water, that well
is totally unappealing to him. But find a thirsty man and he'll
drink with gratitude, won't he? 2 Corinthians 2 says, for we are
unto God a sweet saver of Christ in them that are saved and in
them that perish. To the one we are the saver of
death unto death and to the other the saver of life unto life. As I said before, this gospel
message is the most important message anyone will ever hear. Reject it at your peril. Either way, either way, God's
word will not return to him void. It will accomplish all that he
pleases. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings. I am to God for this gathering. How thankful we ought to be that
we enjoy true gospel preaching in this place week after week. It seems only yesterday that
our pastor responded to the call and now more than a decade later
and more than 600 sermons preached and recorded. Readily available. thanks be to a God that we are
still enjoying the sweet sound of the gospel, the good news
being proclaimed. And of course, not only here,
the Lord has his watchmen all over the world bringing his message
in unison. Look at verse 8 of our text. 52 verse 8, The watchmen shall
lift up the voice, with the voice together they shall sing. For they shall see eye to eye
when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Believers never tire of
this message. Why? Because they never tire
of hearing of their Lord, the wonder of His glorious person,
the good news of our redemption by blood, our adoration of all
that He is and all that He's accomplished. the desire we have
to know him. They all bring us back to hear
the sweet sound of this message. How lovely, how pleasant, how
cumbly, how loving, how kind, How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him that bring good tidings and declares that
it's the Lord who has delivered his church from captivity and
from sin. It's the Lord that gives her
a heart of obedience. It's the Lord that's settled
her in the truth and given her rest. Rest. Righteousness has been established for the God of the Son of God. Redemption accomplished by substitutionary
attainment and the messengers of God declare these truths to
the ears of needy sinners with simplicity and with clarity. How thankful ought we be that
God brings good tidings to us, to us, to this little gathering,
people that bring good tidings, But not only are they good tidings,
look at their verse, they bring good tidings of good. God is
good. And so these tidings are good
tidings of God. Tidings of the God man. We say
it often, don't we, that the gospel is a person. He's the
grand subject of all our scripture. And he is the grand subject of
all true preaching. And this message gives God all
the glory. Psalm 115 says, not unto us,
O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory. It is a
simple principle, isn't it? And it's served us well. God
gets all the glory in any message. These tidings are tidings of
him who came to save his people from their sins. That's good
news. Good tidings that publisheth
peace. Gospel preachers are preachers
of peace. They publish peace. The message is called the gospel
of peace in Ephesians 6. In Acts 10 it is the word sent
unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ. It is the message of peace, but
it cannot comfort where God has not converted. has not converted. We cannot cry peace where there
is no peace. We don't give false assurance
to rebels. God's messengers will never say
that sinners are able to establish peace with God by their own righteousness.
They publish peace established. Peace is established by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so there is a time to rebuke,
and there is a time to reprove, and there is a time to correct.
And God's messages are publishers of peace by the receiving, but
the receiving of this peace, the receiving of this peace is
a supernatural work of God. Paul says in Romans, may the
God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that
you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.
The true peace of God cannot be received by the natural man.
Peace is a gift of the Spirit. Scripture says the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit. Why? Because there is
foolishness under him, neither can he know. Why? Because they
are spiritually discerned. The good news of God cannot be
received by the natural man. The unregenerate man, the carnal
man cannot be comforted by the sound of the gospel unless the
Lord removes that stony heart and puts a heart of flesh in. But God's people love to hear
this message set forth and they receive it with joy. It's good
news for a reason. And the Lord gives this task
to his messengers, to his watchmen, and the Lord people with this
good news. Turn with me back a little to
Isaiah chapter 40, verse 1. Comfort to you, comfort to you,
my people, saith your God. What a sweet word of assurance
this is addressed to God's people. Yet there are many messengers
who claim to speak from God whose message is actually one of discomfort. They say, God has done everything
he can and now it's up to you. And the question is, where's
the comfort in that message? If the Lord Jesus Christ has
left any part of my salvation in my hands, or in your hands,
then no one's gonna be saved. Friends, that's not good news,
that's bad news. And not only is there no comfort
or truth to that message, it declares that Christ is a failure.
They are saying that Christ did not complete the work that the
Father gave him to do. Lord Jesus Christ actually accomplished
salvation. He obtained eternal redemption
for them. Of course, the same people will
argue free will is the reason. Free will. That God doesn't like
to impose himself, impose He wants man to choose of his
own free will. The scripture explicitly says,
it is not of him that wills. It is not of him that wills.
Believers are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God. And yet the mantra, the
mantra that we hear commonly taught everywhere, is free will,
but not here. The truth is our God makes his
people willing. You can read it in Psalm 110.
This issue of free will is a snare and a trap for many. There is
a free will church that I used to go to many years ago and this
week I went to their website to read their statement of faith.
And their first sentence was, we believe that God wants all
mankind to be saved. And to that statement I would
ask myself, if God wants all mankind to be saved, then why
aren't all men saved? Why doesn't God get what he wants?
And they would argue, of course, that all men are not saved because
of man's obstinate free will. But the scriptures know nothing
of a God that cannot save the objects of His favour. There
is no truth, there is no comfort in that message whatsoever. Hear the words of Isaiah, in
40 verse 1, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, sayeth your God.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished. We are a people at war. This
life is a warfare. Saints have many entities to
engage with, sin, Satan, and the world. God's people, though,
need a word of comfort. God's people are weary, and they
need rest. They're hungry, and they need
feeding. They're thirsty, and they need water. They're sick,
and they need medicine, and they're full, and they need to be lifted
up. All these things are found in Christ, and in the gospel
of His grace, and the Lord, our God, delights to comfort those who mourn, to
bind up the brokenhearted, to heal the sick. And the principal
work of comforting is the work of the Holy Spirit. He's called
the Comforter. Just turn with me to John 15
for a moment. John chapter 15. Verse 26. But when the Comforter is come,
who I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of
truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify
of me. God the Holy Spirit is the Comforter. Comforter. How does he comfort? Look at chapter 16, verse 7. Nevertheless, I tell you the
truth. It is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not
away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart,
I will send him unto you. And when he has come, he will
reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
That word reprove means to convict, convince, or convict. He will convict, he will convince
his elect. wherever they are found throughout
the world. Verse nine, of sin, because they believe not on me. Of righteousness, because I go
to my father and he see me no more. Of judgment, because the
prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say
unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when he, the
Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself,
but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will
show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall
receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that
the Father hath are mine, therefore said I, that he shall take of
mine and shall show it to you a little while, and ye shall
not see me, and again a little while, and ye shall see me, because
I go to the Father. The Lord said in John 14, if
I go, I prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive
you unto myself, that where I am, Our God is a God who comforts
his people. He's a God of consolation and
he gave us this book and gospel preachers that we through patience
and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. And to them,
to those needy souls, to them, it is the good news of good tidings,
of good. We have our burdens, we all have
our struggles, but in the midst of these things, you and I who
believe the Lord ought to rejoice and have comfort. Comfort in
His Word, comfort in His will, comfort in His doing. Why? Romans 8.28, for we know all
things work together for them, to good for them that love God.
All things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are the called according to his purpose. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem, Isaiah 40, and cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received
the Lord's hand double for all her sins. She's received double
for all her sins. Now, sins must be punished. God must punish sin, and God
will punish sin. God cannot simply overlook sin.
He is just and holy and righteous. Sin must be dealt with. Your
sins and mine, wherever it is found. God's angry, angry with
the wicked every day. If he turn not, he will wet his
sword, he hath bent his bow and made it ready. There's good news,
there's good news. Look over at the next chapter
in Isaiah 53. Psalm 53. Firstly, in speaking of the work
of our substitute, he says, 53 verse 5, but he was wounded for
our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement
of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone
astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord
hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was bruised for
our iniquities, and our iniquity was laid on him. Your iniquity
is pardoned. We ought to give thanks for this
tremendous truth. Why? Because we've received,
well, we've not received what we deserve. Our iniquity has
been pardoned. We've not received what we deserve. And not only that, we've received
what we don't deserve, peace with God, life in Christ, life
everlasting. Let's go back to our verse in
Isaiah 52. I need you to have confidence
in God. Look at the last three words of that verse. Verse seven,
thy God reigneth. If only this was believed more
widely. He reigns sovereignly over all
things, at all times, especially in salvation. If my salvation is in his hands,
then I can't make it up. That means salvation is the prerogative
of God. Salvation is His choice. Salvation
is His, by His will. Salvation is all of God, be it
faith, be it righteousness, be it holiness. Christ is all the
believer's holiness, all our sanctification, and that's what
that word means, isn't it? God has made his Son all the
believer's sanctification. You can read it in 1 Corinthians
1.30. That means that God is looking
to the Son for everything, including our holiness. And if he gives you his holiness,
that's a holiness that he will always accept and has accepted. If God requires holiness from
my doing, that's not good news. That's not good news, that's
bad news. If God requires something from me that I can't provide,
that's not good news. Did the Lord say, be holy, for
I am holy? Yeah, he did. But only the legalist
will think that that is something he is capable of. Only those who have no need for
a physician will set about to achieve their own holiness. Friends,
God will not accept your puny attempts to commend yourself.
Don't disqualify yourself. A holy God only accepts perfection. And here is the good news we
so desperately need. What the Lord requires of His
people, He gives. Everything the Lord requires
of his people he gives, if you are in Christ. You lack nothing. This is the message of good news
to chosen sinners. He put his treasure into earthen
vessels, placed into weak, fragile earthen vessels. Why? That the
excellency of the power may be of God. and not of us. God has determined
that his gospel be delivered by weak and fallible men. And this message is a word of comfort to troubled
souls. The Lord said, let not your heart be troubled. You believe
in God, believe also in me. That's the word of our God. May the Lord give us the grace
we need to believe on Him through everything. Let's pray.