All right, good morning, brethren.
Our text this morning is from Isaiah chapter 62. Isaiah 62,
and we'll be focusing on verse 11. Now, these verses here at the
end of the chapter, they are declaring to us the sovereignty
of our God in the salvation of His people. God is in perfect
and total control of the salvation of His people. You that believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, your God is in perfect, total control
of your salvation. Nothing, nothing can touch you
Nothing can come to pass in your life except God permit it and
will for it to come to pass. And these words here that we'll
see in verse 11, they're comforting words. They're blessed words. God is giving assurance to his
people that their salvation is a sure and certain thing. He brings it to pass. It's certain
for the children of God. The prophet Jonah was brought
to say, being taught by the Lord, being brought through the experience
himself, he said, salvation is of the Lord. And truly, salvation
is of the Lord. It's his work. He's the one that
brings it to pass for his people. And when we're talking about
our salvation, when we're talking about man's salvation, there's
a need there. Man must be saved. Man must be saved. And what we're
saying there is that man is in bondage. Man is ruined. Man is corrupted. He's fallen
in sin and he needs salvation. and he needs another to do that
salvation for him. He cannot save himself. And our God is the one who in
grace and in mercy is the one who accomplishes. He has accomplished
and he does accomplish salvation in and for his people. We understand
that God chose a people in eternity. He chose a people for this salvation. We understand through the scriptures,
through the revelation of God, that the Son of God came and
accomplished that salvation, fulfilling the will of the Father
to obtain eternal redemption for his people, to deliver them
out from darkness, to deliver us from that second death which
comes upon the inhabitants of the world who have rebelled in
iniquity and in wickedness against the true and holy God. And we
understand that it is the Spirit of God who seeks out the sheep
of the Lord, who seeks out the people of God to bring this salvation
to them, to make them to know this good news of what the Savior
has done and accomplished for his people in going to the cross
for them bearing their sins, bearing their iniquity, being
the propitiation, made the propitiation by God for the people, meaning
turning the wrath and anger and judgment of God from the people
who rightly deserved it on to Himself in their place, in their
room instead. bearing that judgment for them,
taking that curse to himself so that his people would go free. And the Spirit doesn't just let
us go off free to do our own thing, but in grace and mercy
comes and brings us into that salvation, gathers us into the
fold of God, where he gathers his people and feeds and nourishes
his people. And our God preserves. He preserves, having effected
this salvation, having done everything from eternity to now, having
done everything for our salvation, our God preserves us unto the
end, to the obtaining of that eternal day when we shall stand
in the presence of our God before his throne, faultless, in spotless
righteousness, obtained for us, given to us by the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so these verses, verses 11
and 12, which we'll focus on 11 today, but these give us an
outline. They are a cluster of what is
called the doctrine of grace. The doctrine of grace. We see
in this doctrine five pillars. five doctrines, but they make
up one. They stand or fall together. They are one, gloriously declaring
what our God has done. Now, to help us remember these
doctrines, to help us remember what God is teaching us about
salvation, men have come up with an acronym called TULIP. It's spelled T-U-L-I-P, TULIP. Maybe you've heard of that. And
TULIP, it stands for total depravity. The T stands for total depravity.
The U stands for unconditional election. The L stands for limited
atonement. The I for irresistible grace
or irresistible calling. irresistible grace, and the P
stands for the perseverance of the saints. Now there may be
some better words that we could use, but you'll notice these
are all adjectives describing what God does for his people. And there may be some words that
we could choose that might better define that, but man has come
up with this handy little acronym, TULIP, to help us remember. This
is what our God does for his people in salvation, what he
does for sinners. I've titled this message, Say
Ye to Zion the Good News. Let's read verse 11. Behold,
the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion,
Behold, thy salvation cometh. Behold, his reward is with him,
and his work before him. And so our Lord is declaring
that He has a message for His people. She is described here
as the daughter of Zion. Those are the people of God,
the daughter of Zion. And this word is to go out to
the world, to the whole world, out to the ends of the earth. in order to reach this news,
to reach the ears of the daughter of Zion. He's given a word which
God has ordained for his people, the church, to preach this word
to the daughter of Zion. And that tells us there is a
people of God. God has a people whom he has
in mind, whom he has in view, to hear this word, to receive
this word, to hear the good news of their salvation. And he tells
his people, you take this word that you've heard, that you rejoice
in, and you carry that word out. You take it out of the gates,
out from the safety of the walls and bulwarks of salvation. That
which I've provided for you, you take that word that keeps
you safe, that keeps you enwrapped in the arms of God, in the arms
of your Savior, Jesus Christ, and you take that word out. to
the ends of the world, and you preach this word to the daughter
of Zion. You go and tell the people. Look
at verse 10. We saw this last week, but verse
10, he says, go through, go through the gates. Prepare ye the way
of the people. Cast up, cast up the highway. Gather out the stones. Lift up
the standard for the people. And so God is saying, this word
is to go out to the ends of the world, to the end of the earth.
You keep preaching it both in time and in space. You keep declaring
this word to the end of the world. for this good word to reach the
ears of the daughter of Zion. And so he's telling us there,
this word, this salvation is not just for the Jews. It's not just for those who are
in that political land of Israel. This word is for all my people. the daughter of Zion. And that
tells us that his people are scattered among the nations. His people are found in this
tongue, this tribe, this nation, this people. He has his people
scattered throughout the world. And so this word is to go out
to the ends of the earth and to the end of the world throughout
all time until he returns again. And what this tells us is that
all people, his people, scattered throughout the world, there is
one salvation. There is one Savior. There is
one word of salvation that God gives to his people. And this
word is to go out, because there is no other salvation besides
this in the Lord. And the reason why this word
is to go out is because we're all sinners. Every one of us
is a sinner. We're all fallen in iniquity.
We're all, by nature, in bondage to our sin, to our darkness. We are in death because of our
sin and our darkness in Adam. Turn over to Romans chapter 3.
Let's go to Romans chapter 3. We're familiar with the scriptures.
I'll just read the first three verses of what I'm looking at. That is verse 10 through 12.
Romans 3, 10 through 12. Here the apostle says, as it
is written. God tells us this. He's been
telling his people this in the scriptures. He says, as it's
written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There's none that
understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. And a man might say, well, wait
a minute. I seek after God. I'm a religious person. I read
the Bible, or I go to services. I seek the Lord. No, we don't.
No, we don't. God is not a liar. We're liars. We're in darkness by nature.
We're the fools. And God is telling us, no you
don't. We don't seek the true and living God according to nature,
according to nature's light, according to our own goodness.
We try to. But that's not seeking God. We're
coming in our own strength, in our own power, in our own will. And the Lord says, there's none
that seeks me. Not in truth, not in spirit.
They are all gone out of the way. They are together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. And what our God is telling us.
lest we should think otherwise, is that every one of his people
are sinners in need of this good news, in need of hearing that
God has provided salvation for his people. We don't save ourselves. We cannot save ourselves. We
won't save ourselves. We won't even try. Not according
to the perfect will of God. We'll try in our own way, in
our own strength, by our own wisdom, but it all falls short
of the glory of God. And this word must go forth because
there is salvation in no other. God is telling us, I don't have
another salvation for the people. I don't have another way that
man can be saved. There's one name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. We're gonna be saved
by God, it's through the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore,
it says in Isaiah 62 verse 11, behold, the Lord hath proclaimed
unto the end of the world, say ye to the daughter of Zion. And what our God is saying is
that there is a people. There is a people to whom this
word goes, to whom this word is sent out to reach their ears. Say ye to the daughter of Zion,
say ye to those whom the Lord will have saved, that salvation
is come. There's a people who must hear. There's a people whom he makes
willing to hear, and they shall hear this good news, and they
shall rejoice, and be thankful, and be glad in the Lord for what
he has done for them. And so the message that we are
sent to God's people is in the second half here, verse 11. Behold,
thy salvation cometh. Behold, his reward is with him
and his work before him. When you read these words, behold,
your salvation comes. God's reward is with him. He's
coming. His salvation is with Him. His
work is before Him. Notice that that message speaks
of a definite atonement. something that is accomplished,
something that shall not fail, nothing's going to prevent it,
nothing shall derail it, nothing shall turn God away from his
purpose to bring this salvation to the daughter of Zion, to you
that are his people. It is sure, it is certain, it's
not gonna stop until it has accomplished the purpose for which God has
sent it. and God always accomplishes His
will and purpose. God is never frustrated. He's
never turned away. He never goes away in disappointment
and frustration. That's us. That's us. Feeble,
weak, fickle man. That's us. We get turned away. We are disappointed. We fail.
We come short. But God, never. Never. This salvation is sure and certain
for you his people. He says thy salvation cometh. Is there any uncertainty in that?
Is there any uncertainty in what God is saying? He's saying your
salvation comes. It's coming. I'm bringing it.
I'm bringing your salvation. I'm accomplishing your salvation.
You're not I'm doing it. I'm doing the salvation. His
reward is with him. God isn't waiting to see, do
you think that they'll want this? Will they agree to this? Will
anybody want this salvation? No. None of us wants this. None of us is righteousness.
None of us is good. None of us seeks God. None of
us wants to listen to God. We all want to go and do our
own thing. But God is saying, this salvation is sure and certain. You think of a child, one and
a half, two years old, more like two, two and a half, three. They're
filthy. They're dirty. It's bedtime.
You're going to bed, and you ain't going to bed filthy. You're
going to get clean. I don't want to get clean. They
scream. They run. They try to run away. You take them, and
you put them in the bath, and you clean them. It doesn't matter
what they want. They're going to lay down, pure and clean,
and rested peacefully. because you've done what needed
to be done for them. And you, brethren, that are the
Lord's people, you're going to lie down in peace, in perfect
righteousness, because your God has brought your salvation. He's
accomplished your deliverance. He's accomplished your cleaning.
He has purged you of your sins, and you're going to lie down
in that grave clean. You're going to lie down in perfect
rest, in perfect sleep, clean, because God has accomplished
your salvation. Look to Him. Believe Him. His
word is sure and certain, and it shall not fail. His work is
before Him. God is bringing His salvation
to whom He will, to you who are the daughter of Zion, to you
who hear, Lord, that's me. I need this salvation. I cannot
save myself. Save me, Lord. Take me from this
pit. Deliver me, Lord. Have mercy
on me. Yes, because God has given you
the cry of adoption. By the spirit of adoption in
your hearts, Lord, save me. Don't leave me behind, Lord.
Don't forget me. Save me. God has given you that
cry. God has given you that cry. That's
the cry of the daughter of Zion. And so this salvation does not
depend on man. Whether man's looking for it,
whether man is asking for it, Whether he feels his need of
it, this salvation is sure and certain. He's going to bring
all that cry in his child. He's the one who brings us to
know our need. He's the one who makes us to
see. He's the one who makes us to
desire him. He that is the desired one of
the nations. He's the one that is needed and
is salvation. is full, complete, pure, precious,
holy, righteous, just. He's the one whom we need and
he's the one that brings us to know that need of him. And so
God says, I'm bringing my salvation. It's coming. I've brought it
to you. I'm bringing it to you. Nothing's
gonna stop it. Doesn't matter what you want
or how you feel, God's bringing it because you need it and you're
his people. He loves you and he's saving
his people. He says in Romans 9, 15, and
16, he sayeth to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy. I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. Nothing's going to stop me from
having compassion and show mercy to the one whom I love. And I
shall be merciful and compassionate to them, not because they've
earned it, They haven't earned it. Not because they've done
anything to catch my attention. They haven't. All they've shown
me is sin, and rebellion, and turning away, and iniquity. That's
all they can do. But I'm going to have mercy on
the one whom I will have mercy. And I'm going to be compassionate
to that one whom I will be compassionate. So then it's not of him that
willeth. Our will is corrupt and defiled. It's not of him
that runneth. Our works are filthy. Our works
are dead fruit. Our works are corrupt and vile.
But of God that showeth mercy. Praise God. You that are sinners
know, praise God, that he isn't looking to my works, that he's
not looking to my decision, he's not looking to my will. Thank
God that for his own sake, in sending Christ for Christ's sake,
that he has mercy and is compassionate to me, that he is gracious to
me, an unworthy, vile sinner. Thank God for your grace and
mercy, Lord. Thank you. Thank you. And that's
the prayer. That's the heart that he gives
his people to whom he brings this salvation. And so this is
Good news, good news. Let me just back up since we're
talking about TULIP and all we're gonna look at is that T today,
total depravity. But the question is, why do people
need salvation? Why do we need salvation? Why
can't we get ourselves saved? Why can't we turn things around? Why can't man save himself? And we look at this because it's
important for us to know this about ourselves. The Lord makes
his people. He teaches his people in his
word and by his spirit through the preaching of the gospel.
And in our experience, we know I am totally depraved. I cannot save myself. I can't
work a righteousness. I can't turn it around. I can't
repent. and turn myself around to work
a righteousness for myself. I can't stop doing the sin and
make myself pure and to roll back all the other former sins
that I've done. I need God to do this work of
salvation because I cannot do it myself. I can't do anything
to help myself. I need total, complete, perfect
salvation which the Lord brings. And so he's making us to understand
this truth about ourselves. So man is depraved. Man is totally depraved. Now what does depraved mean? It means that we are corrupt. It means that we are evil. It means that we are wicked. It means that we're perverted.
It means that we're perverted. And when people hear that, they
immediately think, you're saying I'm sexually deviant? You might
be. But what it's really saying is
what God created what God, how God created man in the garden,
I've perverted from that. I've gone astray from that. I'm
not what God made. I'm not righteous. I'm not upright.
Solomon said, lo this only have I found that God hath made man
upright, but they have sought out many inventions. And so,
we've gone astray. We've defiled ourselves. We fell
in Adam. We sinned in Adam. We were in
Adam when he rebelled against God. And we see the nature of
man. Man is enmity against God. And how do I know that? Right
from the very start, when Adam and Eve, when Adam ate that fruit,
and then both their eyes were open when Adam ate that fruit,
when they heard God walking in the garden, they ran. and hid
themselves. And God said, why did you hide?
I was afraid when I heard your voice. And that's what we are
by nature. So that man is laboring in fear and terror and worry
and doubt because he doubts the truth and the holiness and the
perfection of God. He doubts the compassion and
the mercy of God. He runs from him and does his
own thing, loving the darkness. And so when we say that man is
depraved, he doesn't like that because he doesn't want to think
of himself as corrupted and evil and wicked and defiled and perverted. He doesn't like to think of himself
by that. But he thinks of, well, I have reason. And man does have
the light of reason. And when you compare us to an
animal, it's pretty incredible, the reason, and the logic, and
the problem solving that we have. You know, you think of a deer
out in the meadow. He's out there, and he's eating
the grass. He's just munching along, filling his belly. That's
what he knows, and that's what he does. And he hears something.
And he lifts his head up from eating. in the direction he heard
it from, or maybe he catches a scent, and if he hears something
else that he don't like, or he smells a scent that he isn't
familiar with, he flees in danger. He runs away. That's all he can
reason. That's all an animal can do.
It just has some instinctual behaviors that it reacts to and
acts on. But you have reason, the light
of reason. A couple weeks ago, I was sitting
in the house, and it was nighttime, and I thought I heard something.
And I turned down the sounds, I'm listening, and I hear this
little... This little scraping sounds, and I said, you know,
it's August, I bet you that the tree out front has grown, and
its branches have extended, and the leaves have grown, and it's
way down. I bet you it's leaning on the roof there. And that's
what's making the noise in the wind. It's just rubbing against
the roof there. I didn't run out of the house
into the dark, scared, and run away. I reasoned, I think I know
what this is. Sure enough, the next day I go
outside and that's exactly what it was. The branches had grown
longer. They hadn't done it in years since I've been there in
the front. But I trimmed them up in a day or two and lifted
it off. I used reason, right? We can
logically problem solve and we can think through things and
we can come up with inventions to make improvements and to do
things more efficiently and better. But our minds are corrupt. And now we have motivations that
are defiled and corrupt. You know, I can make a lot of
money if I do this. And I can beat out my competitor
if I do this. And I can do things to improve
my situation and make theirs worse if I do this. And so we
see how we now think of things in a corrupt and a vile way.
We do things for ourselves, even at the expense of others. Sometimes
we do things that are nice, but they're often filled and plagued
with the want for fame, the want for recognition, the want for
increased influence and power, the want of money. We want to
do things for ourselves and with vile and corrupt motives. And
so that's what we see. Man, yeah, he is quite an amazing
creature and he can do a lot of things, but his will and mind
and thoughts is corrupt. It's polluted. It's vile. And
so we need salvation. We need the salvation of God
because now we look to do evil. We drink in sin. like water. I can just pick this up as if
it was sin and just drink it down because
that's what I am by nature. And I can go off into all manner
of pollution except God keep me. Except God keep me and turn
me back into the way of righteousness and keep me there. Deliver me
from that grave. Deliver me from that pit of wickedness. I need God to do that. And so our Lord tells us that
we're polluted, dead in trespasses and sins. Turn over to Ephesians
2. Look at Ephesians 2 there. he shows us that we have a way
and it's the way of the world and that world is under sin and
death and darkness it's under the the power and influence of
the evil one and so Ephesians 2 verse 1 through 3 And you,
so this is speaking to you who are saved, to you whom God has
brought you deliverance, but he shows us we all were sinners,
we all were in that death and Adam. And you hath God quickened,
given life, who were dead in trespasses and sins. wherein
in time past he walked according to the course of this world."
Everything I was describing to you is the course of the world,
our influence, our motivations, how we do things or don't do
things. According to the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit that now worketh and the children of disobedience, among
whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." And
so this is describing man as he is, totally depraved, totally
depraved. We're undone, we're wicked. And
so we're shown in the scriptures the fruits of man's depravity. When it comes to salvation, our
God shows us what we think about salvation and our need of it.
What we think that we can do and what we're capable of doing.
And it's not what the Lord teaches, what he does for his people.
We go astray. Being left to ourself, we manifest
fruits of death. We manifest fruits of darkness
and wickedness. And so the Lord, in one of his
parables, he teaches us that by nature, we cry out, we will
not have that man to reign over us. We don't want Christ reigning
over us. We don't want the salvation God
provides in his son. Left to myself, that's where
we are. And so he gave parables to show
us our undone-ness. He gave parables to show us that
God has provided salvation, but we won't hear it. We won't have
it. And then what did we do? Both Jews and Gentiles agreed
to put Christ to death on the cross. We put the Lord of Glory
to death because we would not have that man to reign over us.
Turn over to John 5, John 5, 39 and 40. John 5, 39. Christ said, search the scriptures.
For in them you think you have eternal life. But they are they
which testify of me. A man is happy, happy to read
his Bible. He's happy to go to services.
He's happy to make sacrifices. He's happy to light candles.
He's happy to say prayers. He's happy to do things that
he thinks obtain eternal life for himself. and give him grace
from God and obtain little favors from God by the things that he
does, by the trinkets he gives to God, the little tokens and
the little beads, shiny beads that he gives to God by his works.
And God says, you're missing salvation. Our Lord says, you're
missing what this word is telling you. The word of God tells us
over and over and over again, faithfully telling us that we're
all under sin. that we're all sinners, that
we cannot save ourselves, we have corrupted ourselves, defiled
ourselves, and we need his salvation. We need him to bring this salvation
to us. And so Christ is saying, you're
missing. It's talking about me, the salvation of the daughter
of Zion. It's talking about the salvation
of my people. And then he says, and you, verse
40, will not come to me that ye might have life. left to ourselves,
none of us comes to Christ for salvation. We will not come to
him for life eternal, for deliverance, for forgiveness, for mercy and
compassion. Lord, save me. But in that one
to whom he gives that spirit of adoption, they cry, Lord,
forgive me. Lord, remember me. Lord, help
me. Help me, Lord. And he tells us
it's because Romans 8, 7, and 8, the carnal mind, the natural
mind that we have in Adam is enmity against God. It is not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, so then they that
are in the flesh cannot please God. And yet, in spite of man's
arrogant, proud, boastful ways and his rebellion and doing things
himself, God says to his people, the daughter of Zion, salvation
cometh. Behold thy salvation cometh behold
his reward is with him and his work before him. Christ sends this word he says
I Jesus have sent mine angel to the churches to testify of
this salvation that Christ has accomplished our deliverance
he has justified us. That in spite of us, in this
wicked description here, being totally depraved and undeserving
of this salvation, Christ came. and faithfully, willingly fulfill
the will of the Father to do everything necessary for our
salvation, for our deliverance, for our forgiveness, for our
being clothed with righteousness, for giving us his spirit, to
know what he's done for us, to deliver us out of that prison
of darkness and bondage, to take us out of that death, and to
bring us into life. into the light of our Savior,
who is our light and our life, who is our deliverance, who is
all our salvation. Everything we need to stand before
God, holy and accepted of Him, is all provided freely in Christ. And He's not waiting for you
to make a decision. He makes that decision for you.
He does it all. He brings it with power into
your heart, revealing faith in you, which says, yes, Lord, I
need that. Save me, Lord, with Christ. Cover
me with the blood of Christ. Lord, deliver me from this death
and bondage, that I may know you and the power of your resurrection,
not standing before you in my own righteousness, but in the
righteousness which you've given freely in your son. Lord, I know
you have books with the works of man in them. And in that judgment
day, you're going to open those things. Lord, don't look for
my name there. I don't want to stand before
you in that righteousness and those works. Lord, put my name. Find my name in the Lamb's book
of life. See me in his righteousness.
Because all whose names are written in that book Have no fear, he
says, of the second death. He says, you don't have nothing
to worry about. There is no second death for
you. It has no power, no authority,
nothing over you. Because I have sent my son Jesus,
whom I love, for you whom I love, and covered you with his blood
to put away your sin and your shame. And I have delivered you
by him. And he makes us to hear it and
to rejoice in him. And you that rejoice in Him right
now, it's because He's given that to you. He's brought that
salvation home to your heart and given you hope and faith
in Christ. And it is faith. We believe Him.
We look at ourselves and say, I don't see what I think I should
see, but I see Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith, the
hope of the sinner, the hope of the sinner saved. Lord, save
me, keep me, wash me in His blood so That's the hope He gives us,
brethren, the hope of Christ. And I pray that He comfort you.
Yes, by nature we are totally depraved, but He's provided everything
for you in His Son, Jesus Christ. And He gives that faith and hope
in Him, fixed in Him, looking to Him alone, believing Him,
against all the vain, foolish hopes of man, that we should
know that God has done this. God has wrought salvation for
me, for his people, and made me one of his people. Thank you,
Lord, for that mercy. I pray you bless that word to
your hearts, brethren. Amen. Our gracious Lord, we thank
you for your grace. We thank you for this word of
promise. We thank you for this word of
hope, which you have fulfilled in your son, Jesus Christ. Lord,
keep us ever looking to him. Deliver us from the bondage of
death and darkness, the foolishness of thinking that we must do something
for you before you will do something for us. Lord, save us with that
complete, whole, sufficient salvation freely given in your Son, Jesus
Christ. Lord, we pray for your people.
We pray that you would strengthen us, heal us, comfort us, keep
us, Lord. It's in the name of Christ we
pray. Amen.