You notice the reference there,
the daughters of Zion. And he speaks in verse one of
Isaiah 62 of Zion, the church, the city of God, the elect of
God, his people. And this whole chapter is promise
after promise after promise. Beautiful, glorious, the scripture
calls them precious promises. And they are from God to his
church. But these last verses are an
exhortation to you and me and everyone who's interested to come into
the place described in this chapter, come into the place of God's
favor, come into his city, go through the gates, Come into
the place of his blessing and grace. Now you think about this,
go through the gates. What gates? The gates of this
city that's being talked about through this whole chapter, Zion,
God's city, his church, the congregation of the blessed. The congregation of God's blessed
ones, the redeemed of the Lord, the holy people. those who are
in Christ, who is our righteousness. Come into the place, go through
the gates and enter into the place where God speaks to sinners.
Verse one, he said, I'll never hold my pick for your sake. I'll
speak to you like I have from the beginning. I'll keep telling
you who I am and what I've done for you. Where for the sake of these citizens
of his kingdom, he holds not his peace until every one of
them, verse one, is righteous and saved. He's just gonna keep talking until we're perfectly righteous
in his presence, in experience, and saved to the uttermost. We're
saved now, but and we're gonna, sure enough,
be saved when we're in his presence. And he's not gonna hold his peace until then. And then come into
the land of Hephzibah, that's what, the gates of Hephzibah
in verse four. Named that because everyone who
dwells there, you know what the Lord says about them? You know
why he calls us Hephzibah? It means my delight is in them. That's a gate I want to go into,
let you go through, go through the gates. Oh, what a gracious
call. Come into the land of Beulah,
married unto the Lord, one with the Son of God, because after
all, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king that
made a marriage for his son. Matthew 22 too. Come through
the gates into the place of safety, verse six, where the Lord has
placed watchmen on the walls, watchmen that never hold their
peace, day or night, and always make mention of the Lord Jesus. They make mention of the Lord,
don't they? I wanna come through the gates,
don't you? Go through into this blessed
land, verses eight and nine, where though you are unable to
provide for yourselves, the Lord has sworn that you shall receive
all you need and all you want by his work, by the arm of his
strength, and nobody can ever take it from you. How do we enter this place of
righteousness, safety, plenty, and the blessing and favor of
God? How do I get into that gate? Well, it's just says go through,
go through the gate, go through. Enter ye in at the straight gate. For wide is the gate now, and
broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there
be which go in thereat. Because straight is the gate,
and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be."
Let's find it. The Lord Jesus Christ said in
John 10, nine, I am the gate. I am the door. I am the entrance.
I am access. into the favor of God. By me,
if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and
out and find pasture, pasture that nobody can steal. And look
at the next phrase in our text. Well, this has been a wonderful
chapter and it just, it's just so beautiful to me. I love this
chapter. Prepare you the way of the people. Go through and
then make sure others can come through. Prepare the way for
them. Prepare the way. What people?
His people. Zion is a citizenry. It's not just a city, it's a
people. But not all of them are there. Not all have come through
the gate yet. Prepare you the way. Christ is
the gate. Christ is the way. Prepare ye
the way. How do you do that? Preach him.
Isn't that what John the Baptist did? We're going to read in a
minute about how it describes John the Baptist as preparing
the way of the Lord. That's what he did. How did he
do that? Let's look at it. Preach him, worship him. Let
your light so shine that men may see your good works and glorify
your father for sending his precious son into this world. He is the
light of the world. This is just the opposite of
what his enemies do. Think about this first. He said,
go through the gate, come on in, come into this glorious place
of marriage, protection, the delight of the Lord, the provision
of the Lord, the word of the Lord. Oh, go through the gate,
go through the gate. Do what you can to see others
come in, prepare you the way for the people. It's just the
opposite. Listen to what the enemies of
Christ do. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men.
For you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer you them that
are entering to go in. They're not interested in going
through the gate and they're not gonna let anybody else in
if they can help it. We're just the opposite of that by God's
grace. We go through the gate and come over. We say that the
spirit and the bride say, come and let him that hear it say,
come and take the water of life freely. Let him that's thirsty come. And so we prepare the way. As
I mentioned already, that's what John the Baptist did. Listen
to Matthew 3.1. In those days came John the Baptist, preaching
in the wilderness of Judea and saying, repent ye, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken
of by the prophet Isaiah, the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
prepare you the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight. That's
our text now. Prepare you the way. Take the
stones out of the way. Raise up the highway. That's
what John did. And that's referring to the prophecy
in Isaiah 40 in verse three, the voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord, make straight
in the desert a highway for our God. That highway is mentioned
in our text. Cast up, cast up the highway. How did John do that? If we're
to do that, let's look at what he did. You know what he did?
He pointed at God's son and said, there's God's lamb. You got any sin that needs taken
away? There he is right there. That's how you do it. Prepare
the way for his people. Cast up the high, can we do that
by the way? Can we do that? Just everything
we do here and say and sing and pray, oh, points to, exalts, worships,
honors God's son. It must, it shall. May God shut
us down before he ever lets us stray one step from that. Cast up, cast up the highway. That means exalt it, raise it
up, build it. The highway, not a highway. Christ said, I am the way. And this also is what John did
as we saw there when he preached the kingdom of God and pointed
to Christ. Make a highway for our God. Make a highway. And then he said this, gather
out the stones. Remember the law concerning the
cities of refuge. We won't take the time to turn
there. If you want a little homework, you can turn and study the cities
of refuge in the scriptures. But let's just refresh our memory
a little bit. When a person was guilty of manslaughter, there
was an avenger of blood that was legally assigned to kill
him. An eye for an eye now. An eye
for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But if it was unintentional manslaughter,
there were cities of refuge built, established, and assigned to
which the offender could flee. And if he made it into that city
of refuge, the avenger of blood couldn't touch him. What a beautiful
picture. Flee to Christ, run to Christ
with all you have. You see why the Lord said the
kingdom of heaven is taken by storm? If you don't want to die
and perish forever, run to the city of refuge and go through
the gate. There's one place of safety.
There's an ark, there's a city of refuge. There's a rock where
God covers you with his hand. They could flee there, and listen,
if you study it, you look at it, it'll say this about it.
Every obstacle in the way, there was a road to be, to go in and
out of that city now, and every rock, every stone, every obstacle
of any kind was to be removed from the way. It's a path to
the city without obstacle, without obstruction. Boy, that's important,
isn't it? What does that teach us? When
he says, raise up the highway and gather out the stone, may
we never do or say anything that would hinder anybody from getting
to Christ. You know, we could be obstacles.
Not that we can thwart God's purpose. If God's gonna, has
purpose to save a sinner, he'll save a sinner. But I don't wanna
get between him and that sinner, do you? No, no, no. No, it'd be better for a millstone
to be hanging around our neck and we'd be cast into the sea.
But every obstacle now, Christ is our refuge from the avenger
of blood. We are blood guilty and we're
under legal penalty of eternal death. But there is a place.
There is a place where Jesus sheds the oil of gladness on
our heads. A place that all besides more
sweet. It's the blood-bought mercy seat.
Those who preach and testify of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
refuge for sinners from the wrath of God, must not place obstacles
in the way by what they say either, or the way that they declare.
Paul said, seeing we have such hope, seeing that it's so desperate
in need, sinners have got to get through the gate. They've
got to come through the gate. And seeing that that's true,
that it's necessary, that it's eternally vital, we use great
plainness of speech. We talk just as straight as we
can with no obstacle, no confusion, no compromise. Enticing words of man's wisdom
are an obstacle, and we don't encumber sinners with a yoke
of bondage. We say to them, lay aside every
weight. and run the race set before you.
Run for Christ with all your heart. We don't place on anyone
a yoke of bondage that no one, by the way, has ever been able
to bear. Our message is all who are thirsty,
come and take the water of life freely. We preach the simplicity that
is in Christ. He is all that you need. You just have one need. And it
says go through, go through the gate. Go through, come, take, drink,
eat, rest. Look and live. Is that complicated? You don't have to be able to
walk to look and live. You have to be able to see in
the Lord. He opens blind eyes as the gospels preach, doesn't
he? He may give you eyes to see, look to the son of God and live. Come and drink, come and rest.
It's so simple, it's so clear. Is it really that simple? Yeah,
if you're coming to him, it's all about who you're coming to. And it says this, lift up the
banner. At the last part of verse 10, we not only remove every
obstacle, but we fly the flag of salvation. Here he is right
here. It's over here, over here, safety,
refuge. What a picture, what a beautiful
picture. Go through the gates. Come on in. There's a highway. This thing wasn't done in a corner.
Wisdom stands in the streets and cries out. It's not difficult. It's impossible, but it's not
difficult. When the Lord said to that man,
stretch forth thy hand, it was impossible for him to do that,
wasn't it? But it wasn't hard. He just went
like that. It's not hard to do. We not only remove every obstacle,
but listen, Psalm 60 in verse four, thou hast given a banner
to them that fear thee. And it's not the Christian flag.
There's no such thing. Somebody made that up and it's
stupid. It has an idol on it and it's stupid. Thou hast given a banner to them
that fear thee, that it may be displayed, that it may be displayed. We raise up the banner. I want everybody to know what
we preach here. I don't care if they hate us
for it. I wish they wouldn't, but I want them to know. The
banner is raised up and listen to the rest of it. Thou hast
given a banner to them that fear thee that it may be displayed
because of the truth. Psalm 60 in verse four, that
thy beloved may be delivered. Save with thy right hand and
hear me. That's what the banner's about,
it's about the truth. It's about sinners being saved,
those who are beloved of the Lord being saved, seeing the
banner and going through the gate and entering in by the door. The Lord Jesus Christ, he's the
door, he's our refuge, he's the one we're married to, he's the
one. that protects us and loves us
and delights in us. Song of Solomon 2.4, he brought
me to the banqueting house and his banner over me was love. Think about what banners signify
in this world. I respect and love the American
flag, don't you? I'm glad to be an American. I'm
so happy the Lord made it so that I was born here, aren't
you? We still have some freedoms left. And there's nothing like
freedom. There's nothing like, it's so
good to be free. To a great extent, we're still
free. And I'm so happy about that. And that flag signifies
that. It signifies the sacrifice that
those who bled and died on battlefields throughout history to protect
the freedoms that we enjoy. It signifies that, and so I respect
it. I put my hand on my heart and I sing it. I don't sing it
very good, but I sing it. Oh, say can you see? But listen,
as believers, there's something that transcends all of that,
so far as high as the heavens are above the earth. What is
the banner under which we gather? and are happy and proud and that
we glory in the love of God. And you know what love is? Herein is love that he, not that
we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the
propitiation. That's my banner, Christ and him crucified, not
some flag that we might put up here on a podium and look at.
Oh, we got something way more important and better to look
at. With the eye of faith, we look to the Lamb of God who gave
himself for our sins. Oh, my. Not that we loved him,
but that he loved us. His banner over me is love, and
I want to raise that banner, don't you? Oh. That you were
all that everybody I know everybody that I love everybody I've ever
met was such as I am You could see you could know Experience
the love of God in Christ Look at the first part of verse
11 Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed
unto the end of the world, say. The Lord hath said, say. Well, that's pretty clear, isn't
it? The Lord said, say. The Lord said, open your mouth
and talk about it. Remember how this chapter started?
I will not, for Zion's sake, I'm gonna hold my peace. And
I'm gonna set watchmen on the walls that aren't gonna shut
up either. That's what this is, the Lord said say. This is how
salvation is accomplished in the experience of it. Our salvation
was accomplished on Calvary by Christ alone, by his precious
blood. But in the experience of it,
when he saves us, when he causes us to know who Christ is and
what he did for us, and we embrace him and believe on him and fall
in love with him, This is how it's done. By God, say and say, and we do
by his grace. For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching, heralding, declaring. To save, to save them
that believe. For the Jews require a sign,
they wanna see some miracle. The Greeks seek after wisdom.
They're trying to philosophize about everything and figure out
the meaning of the word meaning But we preach Christ He is the miracle And he's the meaning of everything
Christ crucified under the Jews a stumbling block and unto the
Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called, both Jews
and Greeks, Christ the power." Oh, the Jews are looking for
some kind of a display of power, you know. You don't know what
power is until you see the Lord Jesus Christ. And the wisdom
of God. Everybody will argue about what
it is to argue. People argue about, they'll take
one word from the scripture and argue for a year about it. and
miss the forest for the trees. You don't know wisdom either
till you know him. You're gonna have to arrive at
your doctrine through him, not the other way around. You're
not gonna find him in what men call doctrine. What men call doctrine is not
this. By the way, you know that, right? When they're talking about
their doctrine, they're talking about what they've written, what they think about this. And
it doesn't matter how good it is. That's not how God saves
sinners. It's by the preaching of this, Christ crucified, the
gospel concerning his son. Christ is the power of God, and
you won't be looking for a miracle anymore when you see, when he
does a miracle in your heart. That's all the miracle you need.
And you won't be seeking wisdom other than just, Lord, teach
me more about you. because you will have come to
know the wisdom of God. Paul said, we preach the wisdom
of God in the mystery and we know all things. Notice what the Lord said to
say. The Lord said, the Lord proclaimed, say, say ye to the
daughter of Zion, say those to those whose citizenship is in
Zion. Even if they haven't come through
the gate yet, they're citizens of Zion. They may not even know
it yet, but they're daughters of Zion. Say to them, what are
we gonna say to them? Not here's what you need to do.
You see that? It doesn't say anything about
here's what you need to do. Your salvation is coming. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. That's what we're to say. We're
to show the daughters of Zion the salvation of God. Here, they
were saying he's coming. We say he's been here. He's done,
he's finished the work that the father gave him to do and he's
coming. Oh boy, it's him, isn't it? It's
him. The salvation of the Lord is
a him. You see that there? Thy salvation cometh. Who is
that? God's salvation is a he. Thy
salvation cometh, behold, his. Whose? Thy salvation. God's salvation is a he. And notice also that the reward
is his and the work is his. His reward, his work. That's what I need. I need his work to be my righteousness. I need his reward to be my salvation,
my inheritance. The gospel message is not what
you need to do. The gospel message is what Christ
has done and the result of it, which is the reward. His work,
his reward. His work is before him. His reward,
think about this, it is his because he earned it. He earned it. And it's his to give. The word
is wages. His wages. His wages are with
him. In a sense, that's us. But in another sense, it's every
blessing that God has for man. His reward as a man is every
blessing that God can bestow. All of the spoils of victory
are his. And listen, the word is wages,
which reminds us of something. You don't want your wages. The
wages of what you do is death. The wages of sin is death, but
the wages of what he did is eternal life. I'm glad his wages are
with him. His reward, the wages of sin
is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ, our Lord. The gift of God is what? Eternal life, the gift of God. Listen to this. For as the father
raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them or giveth them life, even
so the son quickeneth whom he will. And here's why. For the father judgeth no man
but hath committed all judgment unto the son. all decision-making. You look that word up. It means that word judgment there,
it means the determination of him who decides. That's what
it means, you look it up. He's committed that to the son.
He said, I can quicken whomever I want to and the father has
given me the authority to make that decision. That's exactly
what he's saying there now. Well, I'd bow to him. I'd bow
to him. May we bow to him. And be the mercy beggars that
we ought to be. That all men should honor the son, even as
they honor the father. He that honoreth not the son
honoreth not the father which hath sent him. His reward, His
work. The work was before him, not
you. Not here's what you need to do. There's a work before you to
do. No, the work was before him. No part of the work is before
you. It's his work and it's before him. Those who go about to establish
their own righteousness before God only increase their sinfulness
before God. You don't want it to be your
work because you don't want your wages. The wages of your sin,
which is everything you do, is death. We want his wages, his
work, and his wages. That's what we need. Paul said, my heart's desire
and prayer to God for Israel is that he would save them. And
then he went on to tell what the problem is. They're going
about to establish their own righteousness rather than submitting
to Christ, who is the righteousness of God. Romans chapter 10. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
must be about my father's business, the work. was before him, wasn't
it? From all eternity, he agreed.
He became surety for us. I love that phrase, the Lord
showed it to me fresh that we saw this morning in our message
where it says in the garden, he knew what was about to happen
to him. Knowing what was about to come
to pass, he said, take me and let these go their way. Oh, that's
beautiful. The business was set before him
from the beginning, wasn't it? The business of fulfilling all
righteousness. The business of redeeming all
that the father gave him in the eternal covenant of grace. He
accomplished the work and he rewards those for whom he accomplished
it. The work is his and the wages
are his, but the wages are ours because he giveth us the victory. And the results in verse 12,
here's the results of it. Of his work and his wages, here's
what it is. And they shall call them the
holy people. When he's done, when he's come,
oh, and remember where he said, lo, in the volume of the book,
it's written to me, I come to do thy will, O God. And he did
it, and having done it, here's what we're called, holy. The
holy people, not everybody calls us that. We're called a cult
by some and probably a lot worse than that by others. I don't
care what other people call us, do you? God says you're the holy
people, the redeemed of the Lord. And thou shalt be called sought
out, a city not forsaken. That's the result of his work.
That is his reward that we not be forsaken, that we be with
him forever. I will that they be with me.
He went to shed his precious blood and said, I will, here's
what I want. I want them with me forever. That's his reward
and ours. His wages, our wages because
of his work. The holy, People, when Christ's
work is your righteousness, or rather Christ who accomplished
the work is your righteousness, you shall be called holy. Because the work was set before
him and not you, God doesn't look to you to accomplish anything,
thank God. He doesn't look for us to live
up to anything in his law. Thank God. He set the work before
his son. He laid help upon one who is
mighty, and it wasn't me. It was my savior. And because the work was set
before him and he finished it, I'm holy. I'm holy. When you've done your very best,
what are you? When you've done your bit, oh,
you know, me and the man upstairs, we got an understanding, I've
done my bit. You know what your best is? Altogether, vanity. Man, verily, every man, every
man at his best state is altogether vanity. All our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags in the sight of God, but because God set the work
of our salvation before his son and not before us. We're holy,
righteous, perfect, spotless in the finished work of Christ,
in him who finished the work. He fulfilled all righteousness
and he did that for me. We've got to always remember
that now. God is holy, he's eternally, essentially, and immutably holy. He didn't need to come down here
and do righteousness for himself, he is righteousness. But as a
man, he became my righteousness, and he is my righteousness. Everything
that he did, when he said, I do always those things that please
the Father, And the Father's not just pleased, as we know
from the Beatitudes, with just outward obedience. He delighted
to do the will of God, and it pleased God Almighty. And he
did that as my representative, as my Adam, as my surety, as
my substitute. So now, my name is Holy. Just start calling me Holy Chris.
No, I don't do that. Let's just let God do that We
won't start calling each other that because people might misunderstand. Oh Boy I'm glad God calls us
that though, aren't you? Oh And redeemed redeemed Your
name is redeemed the redeemed of the Lord Not with corruptible things But
with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot You know, I love this verse Psalm 107 to let the
redeemed of the Lord say so Whom he hath redeemed from the
hand of the enemy if God has redeemed your soul with the precious
blood of his son say so Give him all the glory Don't say,
I made a decision and I walked in the aisle and I did this and
I did that. Say, the Lord redeemed me with
his precious blood. Oh, isn't it good to say so?
It's good to say so, isn't it? Let's just give all honor where
it's due. Let's say that he redeemed me.
He redeemed me. He saved me. He saved me in every
way that a man can be saved. We said so when we were baptized.
The redeemed of the Lord say so, right there, don't they?
They say, I'm buried with him and raised again in newness of
life. And oh, we reckon that since he died for us, we ought
to live for him. We're not holy in ourselves,
but we've been made, we've been washed clean and our robes are
white in the blood of the lamb. And it's because of that precious
blood. that we can stand before God, that we can even worship.
We shouldn't dare even show up here tonight if he didn't redeem
us with his precious blood. We can't even come before him.
We shouldn't mention his name. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me, he said. But we said so when we confessed him in baptism
before God and men, confessing that Christ crucified is our
life and our hope. We say so at the Lord's table.
The redeemed of the Lord are saying so when we show forth
his death until he come. And as we watch on the walls
of his city, he sets watchmen, doesn't he? And we hold not our
peace, day nor night, we cry, redeemed, how I love to proclaim
it. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb, redeemed his infinite mercy His child his daughter daughter
of Zion and forever I am redeemed Redeemed I love to proclaim.
I love to say so by his grace His child as the last phrase
of our chapter declares he has sought me out and He will never
forsake me Left the 99 And sought me out
and found me Well, I love this scripture, too You know, you'd
think we'd be tired of it by that would you you'd think we'd
be tired of it We're tired of everything else But by the grace
of Almighty God, it's more and more precious every time it listen
to this What man of you having an hundred sheep? If he lose
one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness,
and go after that which is lost, until he find it. And when he
hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth
together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with
me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. And when my father and my mother
forsake me, the Lord will take me up. Psalm 2710. Oh, if this whole world forsake
me. He said, I will never, no never,
no never forsake thee. Be content, Paul wrote in Hebrews
13, be content with such things as you have. because you've got
plenty. Nope, that's not why. Be content
with such things as you have, because we ought not to be ungrateful,
you know, we ought to just be happy with what, nope. Be content
with such things as you have, for he has said, I'll never leave
you. It doesn't matter what you have
or don't have, you have him. I will never leave, because he
said, I will never leave you. We're happy we're content having
not having I Will never leave thee nor forsake
thee so that we may boldly say Let the redeemed of the Lord
say it so that we may boldly say The Lord is my helper And
I will not fear what man shall do unto me Can you say that bold that's
pretty bold thing to say I'm not gonna be afraid of you I'm
not gonna be afraid of anybody or anything Because the Lord
is my helper And I can say that because of what he said Never
I'll never leave you And I'll never forsake you I Think I'm asleep good tonight
Let's pray