Isaiah 52, we're going to read
verses 7 and 8. We're primarily going to be in
verse 8 this morning. Let's read it together. 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 undesigned, Thy God reigneth. Thy 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. Now in those days a messenger
would carry the news from place to place, from a city to another
city. And the watchman stood on the
top of the walls of the city or in an elevated tower and he
would watch for the messenger coming. And then when he got
the message, he would declare, lift up his voice and declare
to everybody in the city what the message was, what the news
is. Now last time we looked at this, we saw how that verse 7
is speaking of Christ particularly. The feet of Him. How beautiful
are the feet of Him. But in Romans 10 the Apostle
Paul quoted this verse and he applied it to gospel preachers
which it also is applicable to. So we know he said how beautiful
are the feet of them. And so today we're going to look
at the feet of them. We're going to see what God says
of His preachers. And this is the one thing I want
you to get. The means that God has ordained
to save His people is the preaching of the gospel. You can find that
in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. And our text tells us what all
God's ordained preachers are and what they shall do. And these
are the things we're going to see this morning. First of all,
verse 8 says that God's preachers are thy watchmen. They're thy
watchmen. God's preachers are Christ's
ascension gift to His people. In Ephesians 4, 8 we read, He
saith, when He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive
and gave gifts unto men. He gave some apostles, and some
prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.
These were his gifts to his people. So when the Corinthians, the
brethren at Corinth, were saying, well, I'm of Apollos, and the
other would say, well, I'm of Simon Peter of Cephas, and the
other would say, well, I'm of Paul. Paul said to them, all
are yours. They're thy watchmen. And so
he said this to them, Therefore let no man glory in men, for
all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas. All are yours, he said. They're
thy watchmen. And he said, and your Christ
and Christ is God's. And he says, so let a man so
account of us as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the
mysteries of God. Instead of counting, well, that's
mine, or another one saying, that's mine, and this other one
saying, well, that's mine, he said, account of us as the ministers
of Christ. We're his, he said, and we're
yours. That's what he said. Now, note
here, too, in our text, it says they are watchmen. They're not
watchwomen. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 2.
1 Timothy chapter 2. In the church, women are to learn
in silence for it's God's order. This is God's order. And because
it was not the man but the woman that Satan deceived in the garden.
Look here at 1 Timothy 2 and verse 11. Let the woman learn
in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach,
nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then
Eve. You see the order? Adam was formed,
then Eve. And Adam was not deceived. But the woman being deceived
was in the transgression. You see there? She was beguiled.
She was tricked. And so God's order is that his
watchmen will be men. They'll be men. Now turn with
me to Ezekiel chapter 3. Ezekiel chapter 3. God's preachers are called thy
watchmen because they watch for your souls. They watch for your
souls. God's preachers are made watchmen
by God. Now, I'm not talking about all
preachers. There's a lot of preachers, and I wouldn't give you a penny
for them, but I'm talking about God's preachers. God's preachers
are made watchmen by God. Ezekiel 3.16, he says, And it
came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the Lord
came unto me, saying, Son of man, I have made thee a watchman
unto the house of Israel. And then God's faithful preachers
get their message from God and deliver it to his people. Verse
17, he says, therefore hear the word at my mouth and give them
warning from me. And then verse 18 tells us that
God's preachers must give account to God. If a man's a false preacher,
he's going to fail to faithfully declare what God has given him
to declare. And he will be held accountable
for that. And God's true preacher will give warning from God. He
will give. And therefore, he shall be delivered
from the blood of others even if they refuse to obey. Let's
read that. Verse 18. When I say unto the
wicked, Thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning,
nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his
life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity. but his
blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked,
and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall
die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul. Again,
when a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness and commit
iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die,
because thou hast not given him warning. He shall die in his
sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered,
but his blood will I require at thine hand. And then he says,
nevertheless, if thou warn the righteous man that the righteous
sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because
he's warned. And also thou hast delivered
thy soul. Do you see how serious this matter
is of preaching? This is one of the reasons why
when you've studied all week and you've been in prayer all
week and you get a message that you believe that God has given
you and it's needful for His people. And you see the storm
clouds on the horizon or the snow clouds on the horizon and
I know this place is going to be full of activity and distraction. That's why it weighs heavily
on me. Because we're going to be held accountable for what
we heard and what we could have heard. And we don't need any
distraction. We got enough of that with this
one that we stare at in the mirror without having any outside distraction.
This thing is very serious and that's why the Spirit of God
says in Hebrews 13, 17, Obey them that have the rule over
you and submit yourselves, for they watch. They watch for your
souls as they that must give account, that they may do it
with joy and not with grief, for that's unprofitable for you.
Nothing causes more grief to a pastor than to have somebody
that won't be taught, that they're not teachable. They stiffen up
their neck and so on, and it's unprofitable for that person
because they're not obeying God's ordained means. And those that
will not have Christ's preacher to rule over them will not have
Christ to rule over them. That's the problem. That's why
it's unprofitable for them. Whenever they rejected Samuel,
in 1 Samuel 8-7, the Lord told Samuel, they have not rejected
you, Samuel. He said, they have rejected me
that I should not reign over them. There's the issue. But
nothing's more joyful to a pastor than to have a people who delight
to be taught and delight in the message. That's great joy. John
said, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk
in truth. And it is a great joy. Now that's
the first thing. Now secondly, back in our text,
Isaiah 52, our text says that God's true preachers declare
the truth of God boldly. Verse 8. Thy watchmen shall lift
up the voice. They shall lift up the voice.
Now false preachers hold back certain doctrines. They won't
declare it. Or when they do declare it, they
say it in such a way that it doesn't offend anybody. And so
they basically make it of no effect whatsoever. They don't
declare the truth. And the truth is offensive. The
truth is offensive to a natural man. But in Isaiah 8, the Lord
said to the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to
this word, the problem is there is no light in them. That's the
issue. No light in them. But it's not
so with God's preachers. God's preachers speak with a
lifted up voice to all to whom they preach. And they don't change
their message when they're in front of certain people. They
preach the same message to all. The Lord said, I've set you as
a watchman upon the walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their
peace day or night. I've set watchmen, He said. They
will not hold their peace. They're going to declare day
and night the truth. And then the kind of warning that God
gives to me to give to you is this. Those of you who refuse
to believe on Christ Jesus, right now, where you sit, you are in
grave danger. In grave danger. The wrath of
God is upon you. That's a serious thing. The fact
that it doesn't cause a man to fear and tremble when he hears
that says something about the hardness of the natural heart.
But the wrath of God is upon you. If you died today, you'd
go to hell. He would send you to hell, justly
send you to hell before your iniquity. He would cast you there
because you, your sins have separated you from God. Now listen to this,
you can't save yourself by your works. You can't do things yourself
to save yourself. Salvation is not in our hand.
We come into this world in the negative and we can't get back
into the positive by anything we do. We're unable to save ourselves
by our own works. Salvation is through faith in
Christ. Salvation is by taking everything
out of our hands, emptying our hands of even our very best righteousnesses
and even those things that we thought would commend us to God
and coming to Christ empty in the heart by faith and trusting
Him alone to save us. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him while he's near.
Let the wicked forsake his way. Forsake his way. Let him return
unto the Lord, and he'll have mercy upon him. And to our God,
for he will abundantly pardon. Go to him now. Go to him now. And those of you who do believe,
Peter said be sober, be vigilant. Because your adversary the devil
as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom
resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions
are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. Now thirdly,
Isaiah 52, our text says God's preachers are in agreement with
each other. Verse 8, together with the voice shall they sing,
for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again
Zion. The apostles and the early believers,
they literally saw Christ eye to eye. Now that's not what made
them believe. They believe by faith just like
we do. But they literally saw Him eye to eye. John said, the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. The glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. In 1 John 1, John
said, that which was from the beginning, which we've heard,
which we've seen with our eyes, which we've looked upon and our
hands have handled of the Word of life. He said, for the life
was manifest. The life's a person. It's Christ.
He said, and our hands have handled of the Word of life. he says
that which we've seen and heard declare we unto you that you
also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is
with the father and with his son Jesus Christ but even those
who don't see him those in our day they're taught his preachers
are taught by the same Holy Spirit of God and therefore they see
Christ by faith and therefore they're in agreement when it
comes to the essentials of the gospel we may not be in agreement
about the way we conduct a church service or something that's a
minor issue, but we're in agreement when it comes to the essentials
of the gospel. What do you mean by the essentials of the gospel?
I mean TULIP. You know the acronym TULIP. Have
you ever heard that? For you that are bearing witness
to somebody at your job or in your neighborhood or something
like this, this would be good for you to remember. TULIP. The T
stands for total depravity of all men. That means in Adam all
died. You can go to Romans 5 and find
plenty to show somebody on this. Romans 5.18 says, By the offense
of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Adam was
a representative man and what he did put us all under condemnation
so that we can't save ourselves. U stands for unconditional election
by God the Father. Unconditional election. Look
at Romans chapter 9 with me. Romans chapter 9. Look at the middle part of verse
10 there. When Rebecca also had conceived
by one, even by our father Isaac. These children had the same mother,
they had the same father. The children being not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil. This is why we say unconditional. They had done neither good or
evil. that the purpose of God according to election might stand
not of works but of him that calleth. It has nothing whatsoever
to do with who who you are. It's not of works, but of him
that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the
younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? Was that your thought when you
heard this? When you heard God say, Jacob have I loved, but
Esau have I hated, did you think, well that's not fair? I tell
you what the question we need to ask is, how could God have
mercy on Jacob? Jacob, he was a scoundrel. He was worse than Esau. But it
wasn't based on anything in them, good or evil. That's God's grace. It's His unconditional election.
God forbid, there's not unrighteousness with God, for He said to Moses,
I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy, and I'll have compassion
on whom I'll have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that shows mercy.
You see that? I tell you when a man will delight
in that, when he sees his sin, when God makes him to see how
ruined he is, and how undeserving of any favor from God he is,
and then God makes him to see that God chose him before the
foundation of the world, that's when he'll start singing with
Paul and say, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places, according as He chose us in Him before the foundation
of the world. Paul saw his sin. He said, I was a blasphemer and
a persecutor. He held the coat while they stoned
Stephen. He said, I'm thankful God chooses
who He will. And then El, T-U-L. El is limited atonement. That
means God the Son, Christ Jesus, laid down His life for those
that the Father gave Him before the foundation of the world and
made atonement for them and for them only. for them only. You see, He laid down His life
for a particular people. He had the sins of a particular
people put upon Him, so that when He died, He was dying for
a particular people. When He purchased this gift of
righteousness and salvation and eternal life, He purchased it
for a particular people. He said, I am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. And then
he said, as the father knoweth me, even so know I the father,
and I lay down my life for the sheep. And then he said to some
standing there, but you believe not, because you are not my sheep. That right there tells us he
didn't die for everybody. In John 17, verse 1 he says,
He was taken from prison and from judgment. Isaiah 53 says, And he said later in that chapter,
and my righteous servant shall justify many. He'll justify many
for he shall bear their iniquities. This thing of atonement being
made is a particular work done for a particular people. Then
I, T-U-L-I, I means irresistible grace. Psalm 65 verse 4 says,
Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach
unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts. We shall be satisfied
with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. God
causes His people to come to Him. In John 6, verse 44, the
Lord said, No man can come to Me except the Father which has
sent Me. Draw him. He said, And I will raise him
up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, They shall be
all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto Me. And He
said in John 6, It's the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profits
nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they're spirit and they're life. I get a chuckle sometimes at
these books that men write about how to be born again. Well, it
really could be a really short book. You've got nothing to do
with it. That's the end. God does it or it won't be done.
That's how it is. We depend entirely upon the mercy
and grace of God. But God, who's rich in mercy,
with His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, quickened us together with Christ. By grace you're
saved. By grace you're saved through faith. And that's not
of yourself. It's the gift of God. Not of
works, lest any man should bow. We're entirely the workmanship
of God. All His people. And His people
delight for it to be so. And then P. T-U-L-I-P. P. Perseverance of the saints
due to the preservation of our triune God. Philippians 1-6 says, being confident
of this very thing that He which has begun a good work in you
will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians
1.8 says, He shall also confirm you unto the end that you may
be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful
by whom you were called unto the fellowship of His Son, Jesus
Christ our Lord. We're made partakers of Christ
if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the
end. That doesn't make us to be a
child of God if we hold on to the end. That bears record that
we are a child of God and the fruit of His grace and His power
working in us is we persevere until the end. You understand
that? We never take the cart and put it in front of the horse.
We always keep everything where it's supposed to be. God is the
first cause of everything and His salvation is entirely of
Him. A depraved man doesn't like it
because what a depraved man wants is glory. He wants to be applauded. He wants to be praised. He wants
to be thanked for him doing something for God. But a sinner, a real
sinner, that God's made a sinner, delights to know This is all
in God's hand. It has been from before the foundation
of the world. And He's going to save me. God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Salvation
is of the Lord. That's the most wonderful, that's
good tidings of good. That's all that is. It's just
good news. But not only do God's preachers,
look back here now at Isaiah 52, not only do God's preachers
lift up their voice in agreement, His preachers lift up their voice
together with the voice of Christ. Now I touched on this last time,
but at the end of verse 6, the Lord says, My people shall know
in that day that I am He that does speak. Behold, it is I. And then verse 7 says, How beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of Him that brings good tidings.
This is first and foremost about Christ. And then verse 8 says,
Thy watchman shall lift up the voice, with thee voice together
shall they sing. Christ the messenger of the covenant.
He comes across the mountains with the good news. And as soon
as his watchman gets his message from Christ, he lifts up his
voice together with the voice of Christ. And that's why he
said, I've set you as a watchman. And he said, therefore thou shalt
hear the word at my mouth and warn them from me. That's why
Christ said that when he speaks to his preacher and he makes
his word effectual, he said in John 10, my sheep hear my voice. And I know them and they follow
me. They hear my voice. That's why
Paul said to the Thessalonians, for this cause also, thank we
God without ceasing. We didn't have anybody else to
thank but God, Paul said. And we thank Him because when
you received the Word of God, which you heard of us, you received
it not as the Word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of
God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. I can sit here and preach to
you until it gets dark tonight, and it won't do any good whatsoever. But if Christ speaks into your
heart, through the message, and just speaks one word, He could
say, live. You're going to live. He could
say, show yourself, and you're coming out of darkness. He could
say, come to my light now, and you're stepping out. And he says,
believe on me. You're going to believe on him.
He never gives a command that he doesn't give the power to
perform. He makes his people willing in
the day of his power. So, to each of you here, this
is the thing. Never neglect hearing the preaching
of the gospel. Now let me warn you, you know
this, that there's not a lot of preachers preaching the truth.
Who is getting the glory? Who is getting all the glory? When you listen, you think of
that. It's something to be put in man's hand to do. If it is,
God's not getting the glory. But God has to get all the glory.
But find you a gospel preacher. If you're too far from one and
you can't hear one, then you can listen on the internet. But
it's better to get in a place and sit under the sound of the
gospel than listen on the internet. But hear the gospel. Those times
when you just don't feel like it and you think, I just don't
feel like going to hear today, those are the times when you
need to hear the gospel the most. Just tell yourself that because
that's true. Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the
word of God. And when we don't want to hear God speak, unbelief
is the problem. I don't care if you say you're
down on your back. It's unbelief. That's the problem. It goes deeper
than the back. It goes to the heart. That's the issue. And
faith comes by hearing. and hearing by the Word of God.
The Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation, for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, from Christ
who is faithful to that faith He gives as His gift into the
heart of His people, and to just live by faith. We're born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And this is the Word
which by the Gospel is preached unto you. Remember this too,
when he says we're saved through the foolishness of preaching,
it's not just in the first hour, it's in every step we take in
this life of faith. We have to continually hear the
gospel, continually. You have to eat your bread, your
common bread daily, don't you? You don't just eat a big mess
of food on Monday and say, well that will hold me until next
Monday. And then you go back to the table and you eat again.
And you go back to the table and eat again. And if you stopped
doing it, you'd shrivel up and starve to death. The same is
true of the gospel. We have to eat. We hunger and
thirst because God's given his people a hunger and a thirst
after righteousness. We hunger and thirst for the
bread of life. And listen to this, Mark 4, 24. Don't simply hear and then go
home and forget it. hear, then search the Scriptures,
asking God for understanding. Listen to this word. In Mark
4, 24, the Lord Jesus said unto them, Take heed what you hear. Now listen to this. This is a
proverbial saying. But listen to what he said. With
what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you. That was
like an old country saying that the folks said in his day. And
that's what he said. With what measure you meet, this
gospel, it shall be measured to you. And unto you that hear
shall more be given. Now look over at Acts 17.11.
I'm almost done here, but I just want to show you this one thing.
Acts 17.11. Now, if you've heard what I'm
saying here, more importantly, if you hear Christ telling you
this, you'll do this. You'll hear this gospel. You'll
go home and search the Scriptures. And how you meet, how you diligently
give yourself to what you've heard is how you'll be increased. Now, watch this. Acts 17.11.
It says, speaking of the Bereans, it says, It says, These were
more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word
with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily,
whether those things were so. Therefore, now didn't he say,
with the same measure you meet it, it will be given to you? They went home and searched the
Scriptures to see if these things were so. Therefore, many of them
believed. Who gave that to them? He did.
And also of honorable women, which were Greeks, and of men,
not a few. You see, He said, with the measure
you meet it, it will be measured to you. Now, only those who are
truly called by grace, only those who are being preserved by the
grace of God, will hear what I've said today, and will take
it to heart, and will do these things. And here's why. It's
only those who are called by grace. Because the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. The man who
is perishing and who will die under his sin says, I don't have
to hear that gospel. I don't believe a word he's saying.
I mean, that's foolishness. I don't have to do it that way. You're
going to do it God's way or no way. I guarantee it. It's true. But unto us which
are saved, this gospel is the power of God unto salvation.
The power of God. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Amen.