Good evening, let's begin our
evening service by standing and singing. I gave you a paper there
from Don Fortner's bulletin. We've come to worship you, our
God, if we want to sing that. We've come to worship you, our
God, sinners redeemed by Christ's shed blood, to hear the gospel
of your grace, and from our hearts sing forth your praise. O Lord, come down in mighty power,
with your Spirit fill us this hour. Speak through your servant
once again, or else our worship is in vain. Help us, we look
to you, our God. Reveal our Savior through your
Word. Open our hearts, pour in your
grace. Drive out the world, fill us
with praise. Thank you. Let's turn to Luke chapter 24. Let's begin in Luke 24 verse 34. Some men came who had been with the Lord, and
says, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And
they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known
of them in breaking of bread. And as they thus spake, Jesus
himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace
be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted,
and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them,
why are ye troubled? And why do thoughts arise in
your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet,
that it is I myself. Handle me and see. For a spirit
hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had
thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while
they yet believed, believed not for joy, And wondered, he said
unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of
a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb, and he took it, and did eat before
them. And he said unto them, These
are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law
of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning
me. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the
Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus
it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the
third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should
be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these
things. And behold, I send the promise
of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until
ye be endued with power from on high. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your glorious messenger, who declares to us your grace,
your salvation, that it's been accomplished, and all things
are made ready, and all things are fulfilled and complete in
our Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, we have nothing of ourselves
to boast in, and we thank you for that, because it's by your
grace that we have knowledge of our Savior, that we know you
and have faith in him and look away from self and look to him
alone. Lord, we thank you for that.
We thank you for this mercy and grace which you've shown to us
abundantly in your son, Jesus Christ. Lord, keep our hearts. Keep us ever looking to your
salvation, to your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray that
you would help us now. Be with us, be in our midst,
be in our hearts. Help us to worship and praise
you and to glorify you. Lord, we pray that you would
hear our concerns and our prayer for our brethren. We think of
Scott, who is not well and trying to get better. Lord, we pray
that you would help him, that you would heal his body, that
you would strengthen him, and that you'd restore him again
to our fellowship. And Lord, all those that are
sick or exposed to sickness, that you would heal them and
protect them. and restore them to us. Lord,
we pray that you would bless this body, that you would add
to this body, and that you would grow us and strengthen us and
settle us in the Lord Jesus Christ. We could do nothing apart from
you. Lord, we have no strength, no ability, nothing to do this
work ourselves, but we look to you and trust you to do for us
what is pleasing to you in the glorification of your son, Jesus
Christ. We pray that you bless this hour.
It's in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we
pray. Amen. Let's sing 385. Take the world,
but give me Jesus. 385. In the world, but give me Jesus,
all its joys are but a name. God is love, abideth ever, through
eternal years the same. O the height and depth of mercy,
O the length and breadth of love, O the fullness of redemption,
pledge of endless life above. Take the world, but give me Jesus,
sweetest comfort of my soul. My Saviour watching o'er me,
I can sing the billow's roll. O the height and depth of mercy! O the length and breadth of love! O the fullness of redemption! Pledge of endless life above! Take the world, but give me Jesus,
let me view his constant smile. Then throughout my pilgrim journey,
light will cheer me all the while. O the height and depth of mercy,
O the length and breadth of love, O the fullness of redemption,
pledge of endless life above. Take the world, but give me Jesus,
in His cross my trust shall be. Till with clearer, brighter vision,
face to face my Lord I see. O'er the height and depth of
mercy, O'er the length and breadth of love, O'er the fullness of
redemption, pledge of endless life above. Thank you. Good evening. Take your Bibles and turn to
Isaiah 52. Isaiah 52 and I want to look
at verses 7 through 12. Last week we were looking at
the first six verses and we saw how that the Lord gave command
to his people. to do that which we have no power
or strength in ourselves to do. And we saw how that the Lord
commands, and what He commands, He gives. He gives, and He performs
that will and purpose of His for His people. He performs it
in His people by the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's a work of grace,
and by His Spirit, He works His grace in our hearts effectually. effectually. And He is gracious
and merciful to His people to bring forth all the fruits and
blessings of salvation in His Son. And you believe Him, you
believe the Savior because of His grace, because of His mercy
toward you by His power and glory in the Lord Jesus Christ our
Savior. Now in these verses, verses 7
through 12, we see here the triumph of Christ. And we see the triumphant
Christ is the one whose feet stand upon the mountain, who
has come from a far country to accomplish our salvation. And
he comes and declares to us, it is finished. The works are
done. Lay down your works. Put down
your hands of works and don't be afraid anymore. Don't be fearful. Your God has accomplished your
salvation. He's done all things necessary,
made all things ready for you. And so we see our Savior who
comes declaring the finished work and the accomplished salvation
that He's done for His people and He declares it. in our hearts. He speaks to our hearts. He reveals
His salvation to you. Not all who hear this word rejoice. Not all who hear the gospel receive
the call. Not all hear that call. Not all
are drawn by the Lord. But in mercy, the Lord draws
you and makes you to hear His grace, makes you to know His
peace. And so we see here a beautiful
picture of the declaration by our Savior, and we see how he
fits his people, giving them that message, making them to
hear it by sending pastors and teachers and people who have
understanding to declare the truth. He sends them that we
should declare this gospel and make it known to you, his people. You should hear it and be fed
and nourished and comforted by the salvation of your God. We see the tenderness of our
God here in this passage. I've titled this passage, Lift
Up Your Voice. Lift up your voice. And so we see here in verse seven,
our text, it opens with talking about someone's feet. there's
a description of someone's feet and because there's a focus on
the feet we understand the Lord's talking about a messenger. There's
a messenger who's come and his feet are described as beautiful
because he comes with a good word, he comes with good news,
glad tidings for you that have no hope of salvation, oh but
there is. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the one who comes and declares these words to his people. 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. And so that first and most excellent
thing that you can understand when you read this verse is know
this is the Lord Jesus Christ. There's been many messengers,
but the most glorious messenger, the one we look to, The one in
whom we have confidence and trust in is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is called in Malachi 3.1 the
messenger of the covenant. Christ is called the messenger
of the covenant because he is the one who was sent to fulfill
the covenant of grace. He is the one that was sent of
God to establish and fulfill the covenant of grace for God's
people and then having established it Having performed all things,
he publishes that word. He publishes that good news. He makes that word known to his
people. And the way he established that
was he wrote it and established it in his blood. He's the mediator of the covenant
because he stands in the gap between holy God and his sinful
people. his people who cannot save themselves,
his people who cannot fulfill or keep the law of God. We have
no righteousness of our own. We have no ability to save ourselves
and to make ourselves acceptable with holy God. But Christ the
mediator came willingly as the sacrifice, the fit sacrifice
for his people so that our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we declare
and speak of In Him, every promise of God is fulfilled to you His
people. In the Lord Jesus Christ, all
the promises of God are yea and amen. We need look no further. We don't need to look beyond
Christ. There's no salvation apart from
Him. There's no salvation beyond Him. There's no knowledge or
understanding that we need apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. God
has made Him everything to us. He has committed all things and
gathered all things together in Christ that we would look
to one and only one, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are told by
His own blood Christ entered in once into the holy place having
obtained, past tense, having obtained eternal redemption for
us. Meaning that we are the purchased
possession of our Savior. And we stand complete in Him. We stand complete in Him. It's
not yet to be worked out, and there's a wonder and a mystery
whether or not it's going to come to fruition. Christ has
completed all the work of salvation for you whom He loves, for you
whom He's called, for you whom He sent the Spirit and revealed
faith in, to trust in Him, to look to Him, and to believe Him
and love Him. And so like a messenger on a
great journey, we see him coming up over a mountain range. And think about that. The indication
is that he's come from a far country. Christ has come to us
from a far country, a country that we could never get ourselves
to. We can never cross that span. We can never bridge that gap.
There's nothing we could do to fill in the blanks. Christ had
to come to us. And we know that he laid aside
his glory, taking up, taking upon him the humiliation of flesh,
the lowliness of flesh to be made like his brethren. that
He should be the fit sacrifice, able to lay down His life for
them. After that He fulfilled all righteousness
for us in keeping the law perfectly. And in whom we keep the law perfectly,
in Him. We are told that as our sacrifice
He was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. And so our Savior who came, he
conquered every foe. He defeated all our foes, all
those that were too strong for us. He defeated sin, And death,
he defeated the grave. And Satan, he defeated the world.
And he defeated this wicked flesh of ours. He overcame the wicked
heart that is within us. And so our Lord conquered every
foe. When he was speaking to Pilate,
Pilate thought that he was something. Pilate thought that he had power
to let Christ go. That man had no power, no ability
to do anything. Because Christ came willingly.
And God the Father delivered him by his determinate counsel
and will to obtain your salvation through the death of his son.
And he told Pilate in John 18 verse 37, to this end was I born. And for this cause came I into
the world that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone
that is of the truth heareth my voice. heareth my voice. And so this is the one who stands
upon the mountains, who's come from a far country, overcoming
all our enemies and all our foes and doing that which we could
never do, to declare, to publish, to make known his voice, to make
known the truth to your hearts, that salvation is not in the
things that we do. It's not in the things that we
don't do. Salvation is in the Lord. and salvation is of the
Lord. And that's what He reveals to
you and makes known to you, that He is salvation. And He makes
us to know our need of that salvation and to cry out to Him and call
upon Him, Lord have mercy on me. on me, the sinner, Lord save
me. And he does this and makes his
voice known to us, publishing peace, that in him we now have
peace with God. It's not yet waiting for us to
have peace. We that believe the Lord Jesus Christ, we in whom
he's revealed this faith, have peace right now with God. You are right now fit and complete,
to stand in the courts of your God, to stand before Him faultless. Having no shame, no guilt, no
nakedness, you are covered in the righteous garment of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Our Savior came and as it says
at the very end of verse 7, Thy God reigneth. thy God reigneth."
You see, in Adam, when Adam sinned against God, when he rebelled
against God and trespassed against that law of God, Adam fell in
sin. Adam lost everything. And we
in Adam, all his seed in him, became corrupt as he is corrupt. We died in sin and he died in
sin. Sin and death entered into the
world. I'll show you that, just in case there's someone that
He doesn't believe it. Romans 5 verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man, Adam
he's talking about, sin entered into the world, and death by
sin. And so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sin. That's Romans 5 verse 12. And
so Adam lost everything. We lost everything. We lost fellowship
with God. We have no spiritual life. We have no flicker of light,
nothing in us that is savable. There's nothing in us that's
good or that would cause God to be merciful to us. There's
nothing of us that God should be merciful and kind and gracious
to us. Adam lost it all. But Christ
comes and says, Thy God reigneth. Meaning, though Adam fell, God
isn't removed from the throne. God's will and purpose to do
you good for His people that He chose from before the foundation
of the world. That's not lost. God's not changed
His mind. God isn't unable now to save
you. He's able. And he's willing because
it's his will and purpose in the Lord Jesus Christ before
we ever fell, before we were ever created, before this world
was ever created. The purpose and will of God for
his people is to redeem them by the blood of Jesus Christ.
And he sent his son and his son accomplished that work and he's
publishing it and making it known to his people. The works are
finished. Finished in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's what he's doing,
he's continually bringing forth good tidings. It says bringeth,
it means it continues. From that day and it continues
all the way on to this day. He bringeth good tidings, he
publisheth peace. He publisheth salvation and saith
unto Zion, thy God reigneth. That ETH means it's continual. it hasn't ceased. He continues
to publish it to this day in the ears and hearts of his people. So we bless God for that. Now,
we see that Christ is the messenger and his feet are beautiful. He
comes bearing a wonderful message. An important message, a message
we need to hear. He comes bearing that message
and declares this glorious word of salvation to us. So how do
we hear that glorious word? How do we hear this word of salvation
of our Lord? Well, the Lord tells us that
we hear them by watchmen. by watchmen. That would be pastors
and preachers and teachers and any child of God with a voice
who's willing to make known to the people what Christ has done
for his people, what he has accomplished. Anyone willing to declare this
news, that's how the people are going to hear this word. The
Lord is able to send that word out in such a way that he has
all power and control over it. You know even in Acts 8, Acts
7 is where Stephen was stoned and following Stephen's stoning
There was persecution that went out to the church, persecution
of the people who confessed Christ. And it was under the hand of
Saul, Saul who became the Apostle Paul. And we're told that in
that persecution, we're told in Acts 8, 4, they that were
scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. they went
preaching the word. So the Lord sent that word out
that the people should hear, because at first it was contained
there in Jerusalem, and it had to go out to the surrounding
regions. And then from all of Judah, it went to Samaria. Actually, Philip, it says next,
went to Samaria and preached the gospel. And then it went
out to the ends of the earth. And so our Lord is able to get
that voice raised loudly, lifted up so that all could hear the
voice, the voice, the voice of Jesus Christ, the word of God,
the word of our salvation, the word of our hope, Jesus Christ,
the voice that we must hear. Look at verse eight, concerning
these watchmen. Isaiah 52.8 Thy watchmen 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.
So, each voice of every preacher is going to sing that melody
of grace. We're going to sing with the
voice of our Savior, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We're
going to declare that same good word. We're going to publish
those good tidings. We're going to publish peace
through His name. We're going to lift up the voice. And the picture there is that
we are exalting the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the banner that
we're raising up. He's the ensign, the one to whom
he draws all his people to himself. We exalt him. We lift up the
voice. We raise our voices and we declare
him. You know, even each one we see
in their appointed hour, they're going to come forth singing this
song of redemption. We're going to come forth declaring
what Christ has come and declared in his person and his work. we're
told Peter standing up with the eleven this is when when in Acts
chapter 2 when when the spirit was given as our Lord promised
when the spirit was given and and the spirit rested on each
one as as a flaming tongue of fire and they went out declaring
in every man's tongue like words in languages they themselves
didn't know but The people that were gathered there, some from
Egypt, some, it says, from Arabia, some, it says, even strangers
from Rome and other Greeks from Crete and other areas around
there, Furgia and Asia and everywhere around. They preached the glory
of God to those people and they wondered at it and Peter stood
up with the eleven and it says that he lifted up his voice and
said unto the people, Acts 2 14, what did he say? He exalted the
voice, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what the messengers
of Christ do. We take our voice and we exalt the voice. We lift
up the voice of the son of God. We declare what he's accomplished
for his people. He's the voice you must hear.
He's the voice we want to hear. And he's the voice that comes
powerfully to the hearts of his people, releasing them, giving
them life and setting them free from sin and death. And so we
see here how constantly, we see how the apostles even published
peace to the people. Peter went on to say, therefore,
let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made
the same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. And so
you see there, when he was lifting up his voice, he exalted and
glorified the Lord Jesus Christ before the people. because that's
the message that the Lord blesses. That's the message that he uses
to comfort and nourish and feed his people. That's the message
that he uses to free his people and to deliver them from their
captivity. All right, now turn over to Romans
10. Romans 10, and let's pick up
in verse 13. We see here that the Lord makes
his people to know that Christ is our salvation. He turns us
away from the things that we look to in the flesh. We look
to religion and doing religious things and doing what we're told
in religion. We look to the law, we look to
religious things and to religion to save us, but the Lord turns
His people to look to Christ. He turns us away from the flesh
to look to Christ so that we call upon Him, that we look to
Him for salvation. And we're told in verse 13, for
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's not just a careless call,
well, yeah, I believe on Jesus. No, he makes us to know that
we're sinners in need of that salvation which he has provided
in himself. And that's who we call upon,
the one who saved, the one who accomplished salvation, the one
who reveals salvation to his people. And then, because we
must know this one, we see here in Romans 10 and verse 14, He sends his messengers to make
him known, because our Lord says, my people shall know my name.
We're gonna know his name. And he says, how then shall they
call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And so Christ, who is Lord of
all, will see to it and ensure that a messenger, you hear a
messenger preaching Christ, that you hear a messenger who preaches
the gospel and brings this gospel to you and continues to bring
this gospel to you, publisheth continually peace, publishing
his peace and his good tidings to you, his people. And sometimes
going to great lengths, right? We see and hear of missionaries
who will sail off from their home from their homeland and
go out to jungles and over mountains and over seas and over the air
and walking through dangerous places just in order to bring
that message to the people. Because that's how important
it is and how beautiful it is to the people who need it, who
are hungering and starving. and thirsting for that righteousness
which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they come lifting up the
voice of salvation, Jesus Christ. Verse 15, Romans 10, 15. 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. And so there
is a people whom the Lord loves. And you know this by your experience,
the love and grace and mercy of your God toward you to separate
you out to hear this gospel and to reveal faith in your hearts,
to believe not in religion, to believe not in morality, to believe
not in the law, but to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
trust Him for everything. And we see this in 2 Thessalonians
2. Look there in 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2 verse 13-14. Paul says, But we are bound to
give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the
Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth, so that the choosing of God led
to him separating you out by the Spirit, sanctifying you for
the purpose, for his own purpose, to hear this word, and he revealed
faith in you so that you believed that word of truth that you heard,
whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And how did you obtain it? You
heard the voice. You heard the voice of the Son
of God in the preaching of the Word. He says in John 5, verse
25, he says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming,
and now is when the dead That's all of us, dead in trespasses
and sins, dead in Adam, when the dead shall hear the voice
of the Son of God and they that hear shall live. And he wasn't
talking about the resurrection, which is to come. He was talking
about the first resurrection, our resurrection from spiritual
death and giving us spiritual life and making us born again. by His Spirit, by His seed, to
know and love and believe our Savior, to believe our God. All
right, now this next verse, go back to Isaiah 52, verse nine.
This next verse describes that salvation come to the sinner
saved. He says, break forth into joy. Our salvation is made effectual
in our hearts by the spirit. All your enemies have been destroyed.
And the Lord says, break forth. That is, he's shattered the shackles
that are keeping us captive. The prison door is swung open.
There's no one standing in your way. There's nothing to prevent
you or to slow you down. The Lord says, come forth, come
out, come into the light. And he reveals himself to us
in the light. And he says, sing together, ye
waste places of Jerusalem. You family of God, sing together
the song of redemption. Boasting and rejoicing in what
Christ has done for you for the Lord hath comforted his people
he hath redeemed Jerusalem The city of Jerusalem is the bride
of Christ. That's what he's talking about
the New Jerusalem the Church of God It's his bride that he's
cleansed in his blood and washed in the water of his words The
voice of your husband has cleansed you of all sin. He's delivered
you from that death. He's delivered you from your
captivity. He's removed all that burden of guilt and shame and
fear and laboring under that, which benefited you not one bit. He's delivered you from that
and brought you into the family of God, being adopted of him
and hugged of him and clothed of him, making you fit to stand
in the court of your king. accepted of him. Verse 10 now,
the Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our
God. And so the holy arm is Jesus
Christ. And when he speaks of bearing
his arm, it's as though he's rolling up his sleeves. And he's
coming to do that difficult work of salvation, which was impossible
for us. And he did the difficult labor
in accomplishing that salvation for his people. And dying in
our place, bearing our punishment, being laid in the grave and rising
again. He rolled up his sleeves and
did that work for us, for you, his people, to comfort you and
to bless your hearts. Alright now, so we see the wondrous
accomplishment of his salvation to us and now we come to these
last two closing verses and what our Lord is doing here is he's
giving instruction to his church, he's giving instruction to his
messengers, those who go forth lifting up the voice. And those
who are publishing the word, his word, declaring Christ is
the light of the world, just as he said, look to him, look
to him, believe him. And so he tells us how we are
to depart out from this death. And that being departed from
it, he calls us out of dead religion, he turns us away, he gives us
repentance from dead things, dead works, to believe the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he tells us how we are to
continue in the truth, how we are to continue in that pure
word of God. And that's good because historically
we've seen how those who claim to be the church have fallen
into captivity and been ensnared again in dead works religion. We saw it repeatedly in the history
of Israel. Time and time and time again
they went back into captivity, they went back to dead works.
So that even when Christ came, We see Pharisee, the height of
man's glory, the height of man's works, the height of what he
can do in the law. And it was all vain and worthless,
the doctrine and the commandments of men that could not save. And
even in the history since Christ, we saw how that which is called
the church, in the Catholic Church, how it just became this big puffery
of show and vanity and nonsense that is not truth, and buries
the truth, and silences the voice of Christ, and leads people into
bondage and dead religion. And it continues to varying degrees
in religion to this day. And so the Lord tells us how
we are to carry forth the continual publishing of this good news. Because this is what the people
need to hear. And this is the voice that Christ is going to
make known in the hearts of his people. He says in verse 11,
depart ye, depart ye. Go ye out from thence. Touch
no unclean thing. Go ye out of the midst of her.
Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. And so he says,
touch no unclean thing. Get out of the dead religion. When you hear the gospel, the
Lord lifts you up and takes you out from the dead religion. We
don't stay in it and try to convert them and try to help them see
the light. It's dead religion. Get out of
it. Don't touch the unclean thing. Don't bring with you all that
wickedness, all that uncleanness, all that vanity. Leave behind
the candles, leave behind the robes and the funny hats, leave
behind the incense swinging down the aisle, leave behind the candles,
the stations, the pictures, the statues, the ceilings on the
Sistine Chapel. Leave that stuff behind you.
Leave all the titles. all the puffery, all the vanity
of man, let it go. They do that because there is
no spirit, there's no life there. And they think, well, if we create
an environment of awe and inspiration, then they that are of the flesh
will look to God and be inspired to do good things. Nonsense,
this flesh is dead. We may be inspired, but it's
inspired in death, it's deadly. So come out of all that dead,
filthy religion. He says in Revelation 18, four,
come out of her, my people. that ye be not partakers of her
sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." And so we go
out of the midst of her. We leave spiritual Babylon. We depart from all this world's
religion, and trusting in it, and fellowshipping with it, and
commending it, or patting it on the back, or giving it any
comfort. The Lord delivered us from it. That's not the voice
of Christ being heard there. It's all dead religion. And then
he says, be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. And
so first to the messengers, he says, be ye clean. You that are going to sing the
song of redemption, the song of your Lord and praise his name,
you be clean, you be clean. You see, Even the messengers
and ministers are cleansed by the blood of Christ, too. We
need the blood of Christ. There's nothing special about
us. There's nothing different about us. We're dead, filthy
sinners, too, in need of His grace. And so we must be clean. We believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4, 13, we having the same spirit
of faith. As you that believe, we have
the same spirit of faith. We're saved by his grace. According
as it's written, I believed and therefore have I spoken. We also
believe and therefore speak. It's the same thing. We're cleaned
by the blood of Christ too. And being delivered by him, we
lift up the voice. We raise our voices and use our
voices to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. So you can hear his voice. And then he speaks of us bearing
the vessels of the Lord. Now, historically, this passage
is talking about Judah's captivity, when they were set free from
the captivity to Babylon, the Babylonian empire there. And
it's a picture of believers being delivered from the bondage of
spiritual Babylon, of false religion. And we know historically that
Cyrus, that monarch that let them go from the kingdom of Persia
and Media, that when they were going, he returned to them those
vessels, those precious things that Nebuchadnezzar had taken
out of the temple, out of Jerusalem when he conquered it. And so
then Cyrus says, hey, give them back their things. Let them take
those vessels again back with them. Now there's two beautiful
pictures that are contained here in this bearing the vessels of
the Lord. One speaks of Christ. One picture
is of Christ and the other of the Lord's people. And so we
all leave the fleshly trappings of religion behind, right? We
don't look to those things. And even the things that the
Pharisees were practicing, we don't look to that. And we don't
look to the law. And we don't look to sacrifices and trying
to just do religious things that we read about in here. But we
having the Old Testament and the New Testament, we bear the
precious things of the Lord Jesus Christ. showing from these scriptures
how that Christ is the fulfillment. This Jesus of Nazareth has fulfilled
all the promises of God, all the prophecies of God, everything
that had to be fulfilled. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
accomplished it all. This is the Christ. He is salvation. Believe Him. Trust Him. There
is no other salvation. Believe the one whom the Lord
has sent. We bear those things of Christ,
beginning at Moses and all the prophets, expounding unto the
people in all the scriptures the things concerning Christ,
just as he did when he was raised from the dead and came to his
people. And he taught them before he ascended to the Father. And
he made us witnesses of these things, The Lord Jesus Christ
had to come into flesh. We needed a substitute. We need a Savior. And Christ
fulfilled all our righteousness and He went to that cross faithfully
and laid down His life, dying in the place of all His people,
putting away their sins, obtaining eternal redemption, obtaining
forgiveness for His people. And so we're made witnesses of
His death, His burial, and His resurrection according to the
scriptures. According to the scriptures.
And then we're told in 2 Corinthians 4-7 that we have this treasure,
this blessed good tidings for you. We have this treasure, this
understanding of salvation by Him. That's a precious thing. Not many have that knowledge
and that comfort. We have that precious understanding
in earthen vessels, these bodies, these bodies of dust, in earthen
vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not
of us. Not by our persuasion. It's not
by our abilities. It's by the power of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Attending that word and making
it effectual in your hearts. And so this pure preaching of
Christ, it's the command of our God. And he says, don't depart
from it. You take those vessels with you. You go preaching this
word. You go lifting up this voice.
This is how you'll be kept from every false way. This is how
you'll be kept from going to the left or the right. And you'll
stay in the way, the truth and the life. You'll stay in Christ
looking to him, preaching him, exalting him. So that brings
us to that second picture of bearing the vessels of the Lord.
So that being faithful to our King, singing His melody, this
is how we bear the vessels of the Lord, you His people. This
is how you are carried. This is how you are comforted.
Turn over to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9 and go to verse
21. And this will see that we are
the vessels spoken of. Romans 9.21, hath not the potter
power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto
honor and another unto dishonor? What if God willing to show his
wrath and to make his power known endured with much long suffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? and that he might
make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy,
which he had aforeprepared unto glory, even us whom he hath called,
not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. And so He calls
you out, makes you His precious vessels of mercy by the lifting
up of the voice. And He causes you to hear the
voice, Jesus Christ. And He promises us in verse 12,
back in Isaiah 52, verse 12. For ye shall not go out with
haste, nor go by flight, for the Lord will go before you.
God of Israel will be your reward. In other words, that's where
we stay. That's where we continue. Don't
be fearful. Don't change the message. Don't
turn from the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He'll be the one that gathers
up the weak things, and the poor things, and the lowly things,
and He'll ensure He says, don't you worry about ministering to
them. You preach to them, even the weak and lowly and the things
despised, the things cast off. You minister this word to them
because I'll protect them. I'll protect the whole caravan
of you. You don't need to leave them
behind. You just preach the word to all and the Lord will gather
them in. and protect them and bear fruit
in his people through this word. And so he's the voice and he's
the one that we continue to preach, brethren. And so I pray that
the Lord continue to delight your hearts in the hearing of
the voice of Christ, that you rejoice in him and thank him
for that. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your mercy and your grace toward us. in sending your
Son, the Word of God, the voice to whom our voice is tuned, that
voice that we sing with, the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep us ever
tuned to His song, ever tuned to the redemption of our Savior,
that you would bless our hearts and delight our hearts in Him. Lord, we thank you for this grace
and pray that you bless your people. Bless your people here
and those around this country that call upon the name of Christ. Keep us, Lord. Comfort us in
Christ. Let us never depart from him.
It's in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that
we pray this. Amen. Alright, I ask Brother
Joe to sing a closing hymn that I think goes with the message.
143. Let's stand and sing a closing hymn, 143. Rejoice, the Lord is King! Rejoice! The Lord is King! Your Lord and King adore! Rejoice! Give thanks and sing
and triumph evermore! Lift up your heart! Lift up your voice! Rejoice again I say! Rejoice! Jesus the Savior reigns,
the God of truth and love. When He had purged our stains,
He took His seat above. Lift up your heart. Lift up your voice. Rejoice again,
I say rejoice. His kingdom cannot fail. He rules over earth and heaven. The keys of death and hell are
urgent, Jesus given. Lift up your heart. Lift up your voice. Rejoice again, I say, rejoice. Rejoicing, glorious hope, our
Lord the Judge shall come and take his servants up to their
eternal home. Lift up your heart. Lift up your voice. Rejoice again,
I say. Rejoice. Thank you.