Isaiah chapter 62 And the title of the message
this morning is, The Labor of Preachers. The Labor of Preachers. And my text will be found in
verse 10. 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
a standard for the people. Now, in the opening part of this
chapter, the Lord proclaims His sovereign purpose and decree
of faithfulness for His elect. He says in verse 1, "...for Zion's
sake." I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will
not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness,
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth, and the
Gentiles shall see Thy righteousness, and all the kings Thy glory,
and Thou shalt be called a new name. which the mouth of the
Lord shall name." In the opening here, God declares, He will not
hold His peace or rest until the righteousness or the salvation
of His people shine forth. He won't rest, He won't stop
declaring or working until the salvation of His people is accomplished,
until they see it. He says, "...and the Gentiles
shall see thy righteousness." This, no doubt, is Jesus Christ. This is the prophecy of the coming
of Christ, who is the righteousness of Zion. Christ is the salvation
of Jerusalem, the holy city, His church. And God has sworn that He will
not be silent. His Word concerning Christ will
not cease, nor will God rest until all of the elect come to
Christ by faith in Him. He will not rest or be silent
until He calls all those to faith and life, and He will keep them
until the day of Jesus Christ, in which day all of them will
be made perfect. John says this of believers.
It doth not yet appear what we shall be. Go look in the mirror. It doth not yet appear what we
shall be. But when He shall appear, we
shall be like Him. For we shall see Him as He is."
Then will be fulfilled what John saw of the city of God, Zion,
spiritual Zion. He saw in Revelation chapter
21 and verse 2. Go over there and look at this.
What did John see concerning the church, concerning the elect?
God says, I won't be silent until they're saved, until every one
of them is saved, until every one of them appear in the likeness
of My Son. And this is what John saw in
verse 1, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven
and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea.
And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from
God out of heaven. prepared as a bride adorned for
her husband. And look at verse 9, And there
came unto me one of the seven angels, which had the seven vows,
full of seven last plagues. And he talked with me, saying,
Come hither, and I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. What is that? That's a picture
of the church. The church in its glorified state. The bride, the Lamb's wife. It
is a picture of the church triumphant. There is coming a day. in which
all the church in her full glory and perfection will shine in
the very brightness of Christ. And we shall appear as we were
purposed to be, holy and without blame before Him. That's how
we're purposed to be. And God says, one day it's going
to come a passing. I'm not going to stop speaking.
I'm not going to rest until it's done. I'm not going to stop until
every one of them see the glory, the righteousness of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. He won't stop. It's not been true. God not proven
that, that He won't stop. How many men have tried to stop
Him? How many men have tried to put
aside His Word or kill His people, put His name out? They even crucified
His Son that did nothing but further His glory. And so that
everything God is doing in this world is for the furtherance
of that gospel. Everything God is doing is for
the salvation of His people. Everything is happening in time
and sequence for a purpose. And that is to call in His elect
so that they should see the righteousness of God in the face of Christ.
And then ultimately, He should glorify His church, His bride. You remember, Jesus in that high
priestly prayer, He said, Father, give me the glory You had which
I share with You. And that glory, I'm going to
give them. I'm going to glorify them with
my own self. I'll glorify them. And look what
He says in that revelation. He says in this time, in this
city, in this Zion, this glorified Zion, verse 21, He says, I'm sorry, verse 27, "...and there shall
in no wise enter into anything that defileth, neither whatsoever
worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which are written
in the Lamb's book of life." Who's going to be in this glorified
church? Only the elect. That's it. Only those written
in the Lamb's Book of Life from the foundation of the world.
Now let me ask you a question. Can that be said of Zion now? No. No. Christ said in this world the
wheat will grow with the chaff. The wheat will grow with the
tares. The sheep will graze with the goats. The goats will graze
with the sheep. God is from the beginning, chosen
a people, His church, His elect. In a covenant of grace, He purposed
and loved to save those chosen sons. And the Father has willed
that these sons be given to Christ, and Christ has purchased their
salvation, made them perfect and holy. This covenant of grace
that was between the Father and Son is fulfilled. For who? The elect. For all that the Father
giveth Me. Who will come to Christ? All
that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me. And Him that cometh
to Me I will in no wise cast out. This is the will of the
Father that sent Christ, that of all He hath given Me I should
lose nothing. Therefore saith the Son with
great boldness, that he would lose nothing. And seeing that
God hath willed his elect to obtain salvation, seeing that
Christ is accomplished, and that none of those for whom Christ
died shall fail to experience this glorified state, yet we
see something in our text, that this city that is spoken
of in our text is not yet the glorified city, not yet the glorified
church, but rather God here is speaking of a work that must
be done in this present church. He is speaking of the church
not triumphant, but the church militant. He's speaking of a
city. Remember, Zion is a city. Jerusalem
was a city. And so God is speaking of a city. So the picture here is God says,
I'm not going to rest until this city, this people is saved. Until My church is saved. I've
covenanted their salvation. I've accomplished their salvation. And listen, they will experience
this salvation. But while they dwell here, we realize that we are not yet
in our glorified state. Why? Because God still has a
people in this world. The reason we are not yet in
our glorified state, you realize that, the reason that this world
still moves is because God has a people. still in this world. The reason His church is not
taken up into heaven immediately is because God has a people He
must save. The church is described, go over
to Isaiah chapter 20, 26. Listen how this city is described,
this church, the church now is described, not as a glorified
church, but he says, in that day shall this song be sung in
the land of Judah. We have a strong city. Salvation will God appoint for
walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates, that the righteous
nation which keepeth the truth may enter in." Now, in the glorified
church, you know, John, he describes the doors open all the time.
His doors don't close. They're open all the time. The
righteous go in and out. Why? Because there's no more
sin. There's no more separation. Everybody that's in there is
supposed to be in there. But that's not true now, is it?
You can join a church, but that doesn't mean that you're part
of the church. And so therefore, we are a strong
city, a city of bulwarks and walls. He's walls within walls
and bulwarks within... In other words, this is not a
triumphant city, it's a defensive city. Our city now, the church
now, is not glorified, but rather defensive. We have bulwarks and
walls set up. Bulwarks are just defensive walls. You know, they're walls within
walls. When they built these big cities, they had a wall. And it wasn't just one wall.
It wasn't a fence. It was a wide wall that people
could walk on the top of it. In Nineveh, they said that you
could ride chariots up and down the tops of these walls. They
were fortified cities, and that's what this city is. Our cities
are strong cities, fortified. And on the outside of this city
are who? The lost. The lost. But yet, look what God says in
verse 2 concerning that strong city. He says, open the gates. And only a certain people were
allowed in, that the righteous nation, people who belong in
here. We open the doors for those who
belong in this city. Who are they? They're the righteous.
They're the righteous. Yet, that describes none of us
by nature. How in the world we get in? How
did you get in? This city is only for the righteous.
How do we get in? How is the door open to you?
We, by nature, even the elect, by nature, were born dead in
trespasses and sins. We, by nature, were estranged
from the womb, speaking lies. We were shaped in iniquity and
dead sons of Adam. Yet God, this is it, this is
how God decreed our salvation. That Christ who has accomplished
our salvation and now he has sent men. to declare this salvation. This is what it is to open the
doors for the righteous, to those that God has chosen, to those
that Christ has redeemed. Therefore, for Zion's sake, God
will not hold His peace, but rather has sent His men into
the world to proclaim His gospel. This is how men enter in. They hear. They hear the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ leaves
us with no doubt that all of the elect will come in and believe
on Him. And these elect sheep, Jesus
said, other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them I
also must bring. Well, how does He bring people
into this city? He brings them in by sending
out His messengers. His messengers. In that 26th
chapter, He says to His servants, open the doors for them. And
in our very text, these are the same servants. Look at your text
now. Seeing that God won't be silent, seeing that He sent Christ
and Christ has accomplished salvation, now then He is going to bring
His people into His holy city and He commands certain men,
He commands certain servants, go through Go through the gates,
prepare ye the way, cast up, cast up the highway, gather out
the stones, and lift up the standard for the people." There's a certain
group of people God sends to a work concerning these people. And these are called the servants
of God. These are men called of God to a work to go through
the gates, to open the gates. And who are these commanded laborers
to cast up the highway? These are men gifted and called
to the work of the ministry. In Psalm 68, the Lord, by prophecy,
says this, Thou hast ascended on high, and led captivity captive,
and received gifts for men. Now the apostle in Ephesians
chapter 4, he quotes that Scripture, but one word is different. He
says, "...Wherefore he saith, he was send up on high, led captivity
captive, and gave gifts unto men." Now Christ having accomplished
redemption for His people, He received He received those gifts,
and now as the sovereign Lord, He pours those gifts out to men,
which was displayed at Pentecost. You remember when those apostles,
the Spirit of God was poured out, and those disciples were
chosen to be His apostles. And therefore, these gifts that
Christ received and now gives is the work of the ministry.
He said some apostles, some prophets, some pastors and teachers. And the reason He does this,
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body. How long will He send these men
out to this work? How long will they be sent? until
all come in the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son
of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the statue of
Christ." Until we are in that glorified state, God is going
to send out laborers into His harvest. He is going to send
out men for the work of the ministry for your sakes. That's why He
sends them. He sends them as gifts to you. A minister is a gift. He's a
gift of God to the saints. Paul said, I endure all things
for the elect's sake. Otherwise, I wanted to die. I
wanted to go home. I didn't want to stay, but for
your sakes, I'm here. Good. I'm glad he was there,
aren't you? I'm glad he was sent because
now we have the Scriptures. We have this Word for us. And
so until we're in that glorified state, God sends out His men,
His laborers, first the apostles to lay the foundation of the
Word of God. The apostles and prophets. All the foundation for our doctrine
and practice is right here. This is it. In the Holy Scriptures,
this is the foundation of all of our doctrine and practice.
Right here. The Holy Scriptures. The apostles
and prophets laid the foundation for us. That was their calling. That was their gifts. There are
no more apostles. There are no more prophets. Why? Because the vision is sealed
up. The prophecy is done. There's no more need for them,
that office. They're gone. They laid this
foundation. How do we know? Their work was
legitimate because Christ is the cornerstone. The weight of
all their work rests on Jesus Christ and His success, His victory,
His accomplishment and fulfillment of the Scriptures. So what's
left? He gives some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists,
Philip was an evangelist. Philip had no specific place
where he settled to preach until later in his ministry. He went
about preaching in different locations. I've seen men do that. I've known of men that do that.
There are some evangelists. They don't have the same gifts
that Philip had, but they preach the gospel. And then there are pastors and
teachers. And you'll notice that prophets,
apostles, and evangelists, there's no and in between those, but
it says pastors and teachers. Why? Because that's the same
person. He's showing you that these two are one and the same.
Pastors and teachers. And these are gifted men who
are called to preach and teach the Word of God to settle you. To settle you. It's not the church of God easily
riled up. It doesn't take much. I just
told you we're moving from this building to another. Man, the fears and floods that
just come up, I mean, we're just moving to another building. That's
just something simple. That's not what you really deal
with. That's just one small little thing. Your sin, oh, that's a
struggle, isn't it? So what is it that we do? We
settle you. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith the Lord. See, we have a directive. We're
not given this ministry for anything to do with us. Now, you guys
know I moved here for the money, right? You know, I moved here for the
fame. That's right, huh? No, you know
that's not so. It's not for that and no man
of God does that. We don't care about prestige.
We don't care about the things of this life. What we care about
is the church of God. We care about the gospel and
Christ being preached in truth. That's what we care about. The
defense of this gospel to settle you, to comfort you. These are
the servants of God. And they're called to the labor
of our text. These are servants of God. Now listen. I know this, I do
serve you. Do I not? This morning, I'm serving
you. I take the food given to me and
I say, here, Scott, here, I'm serving you. I'm not your servant. I'm God's servant. And God, my
master, has commanded me to serve you. And I do that. How do I
do that? Faithfully preaching the Word. Preach the Word, Timothy, Paul
said. Be instant in season, out of
season, when it's popular and when it's not popular. When it's
convenient and when it's not convenient. Preach the Word. I have not many
things to do. I have one thing to do. Preach
the Word. Preach the Word. Preach the Word. And by this, I tell you, that's
exactly what our text is telling us. Go through the gates. Go through the gates. And see,
he mentions this twice because of urgency. It shows you a sense
of the urgency of our ministry. Go through. Go through. He says
it. Go through the gates. Remember
this wall. The walls surround this city.
The bulwarks surround this city. And yet there are gates. There
are gates. What is the gate of this city
that we are to open? Jesus said, I am the door. If any man enter in by me, he
shall come in and out and find green pasture. What then do we
do when we go through the door? We go through Christ. We open Christ to you. We preach Christ to you. You remember when the Lord sent
the wedding feast. He sent out His servants into
the highways, into the hedges. And He said, bid them to come.
Why? All is ready. All is ready. That's the message that we go
through. That's the message we preach
to you. All is ready. We go into the highways and the
hedges because those are the people that God has saved. It's
sinners. We go to sinners. The unrighteous,
the unworthy. Those outside the gate. And we
open to them saying, come, all is ready. All is ready. These outside the gate are blind
and full of lusts and love and sin and the vanities of this
world. All that are outside the church
despise the Son of God. I tell men of God's holiness
and justice, I tell them of eternal damnation and death to all who
won't come to Christ. And you know what this does to
the lost? It only infuriates them more to sin. It only excites
them more to sin. You know that's what the law
does? The law only excites to sin. That's it. Don't do this. And the flesh says, I want to
do that. I didn't know anything about it until you said don't
do it. And then when you said don't do it, the flesh wants
to do it. Men by nature are like those sodomites. You remember
when they were blinded? Can you imagine that? They were
trying to beat down that door to get to those angels, and then
they were blinded, and you know what it did? It only excited
them to get to the door more. Their lust was only enraged by
it. And so when I preach the gospel,
you know what happens to the lost? Their lust and passion is only
enraged. It's only infuriated. And they
grope more for sin. But God has commanded us as servants
to go out anyway to these people, to the lost. And our message
opens the doors of God's salvation and bids this, all who need salvation
come. All who need a perfect Savior
come. Now, there's no sense in you
trying to come through this door if you need a partial Savior.
You need somebody to help you, you're in the wrong place. If
you need somebody to do it all for you, you're in the right
place. Come to Christ. You can do nothing of yourself.
Come to Christ. All is ready. You see, the door's
open to you. The door's open to you. God has sent His Son, which is
a fountain open for sin and uncleanness. Jesus has obtained perfect righteousness,
perfect redemption. And therefore God says to all
that labor and are heavy laden, come unto me and I will give
you rest. And so this morning I'm speaking
to those outside of Christ. I'm speaking to those outside
of the church and I'm saying the door is open. Come, come.
There's a qualifying mark. You must be Worthless. You must have nothing. See this
door? This door that enters into the
city of God, it's narrow. You can't bring anything with
you. You must come stripped. I think John Bunyan had written
this. He said in an allegory, he said,
I saw this wall that separated me from the saints of God. I
saw them on the mountain in the light, and they were basking
in the light and enjoying the light, and I was in the darkness
on the other side of the wall, and I couldn't find a way over,
I couldn't find a way under, but I saw a narrow passage there. But I could not go through except
I be stripped of everything. And I'll tell you, you can't
come to Christ unless you're stripped of everything. If you are, come,
come. If you are nothing, you fit right
through easy. Come on, come to Christ. But
you can't come with your self-righteousness. You can't come with your own
works. You come empty. It's narrow in that it's only
one. There's only one way into this building. You can go all
the way around this city, the church of God, and you won't
find but one door, one entrance, Christ. Christ is all. Christ is all. Christ is all. And so all that
enter in, all that enter in, hearken diligently, hold everyone
that thirsteth, come to the waters, come by." Wine, that's joy. Milk, that's nourishment without
money and without price. Why do you spend your money for
that which is satisfieth not? Isn't that what men are doing
right now? Man, they're looking for satisfaction. They've got to have satisfaction.
And they say, this is going to do it. When I get this, then
I'll be happy. And they get that, and it lasts
for a little while, and it falls to nothing, and they start looking
around for something else. So next weekend, boy, next weekend
is going to be, oh, that's going to be the best weekend ever.
They get there, do their thing, it's gone. And what's that? Next weekend. Oh, the next weekend
is going to be the best. I'm going to just work for the
weekend. I think there was a song, Working
for the Weekend. That's all they do. Work for the next big thing. Never satisfied. Why? Why do
you do that? Won't satisfy. Hearken diligent
to me. and eat that which is good. Delight
your soul in fatness and live. Here's the door. And I know this
for a fact. Nobody goes into this door except
they be born of the Spirit. Nobody's going to know anything
about this door or have a desire to go in except they be born
again. This is a work of God. I'm going
to plead. I plead with you. Come in. Come
in now. Don't wait. Come in. But I know
this, you'll never hear that except the Spirit of God give
you life. And when you have life, there is nothing else going to
satisfy you except to get in that door. The kingdom of God
suffereth violent and the violent take it by force. I must have
Christ or I die. I must have Christ or I'll die. That's the one that's born again
of the Spirit of God. Now secondly, we go through,
and I'll tell you this, we go through the door before you.
Every preacher that's called to open the door has already
gone through. We're saved. We understand what
this Gospel is. We know the Gospel because we
ourselves have experienced the grace of God. And that's how
we tell you. I tell you only what I know.
I don't want to tell you what I don't know. I know this, Christ
is on the way to God. I know this, He accomplished
salvation. All is ready. Come in. If you die in your sins,
listen, it will be your fault. If you die in your sins, you
will suffer damnation and it will be your fault. Now, if you
go through that door, all the glory belongs to God. It's His
work that caused you to go through that door. And what's going through
the door? It's faith. Faith. And secondly,
what else are we to do? We're not only to go through
the gates, open the gates, prepare ye the way. What is this? Preparing the way. This is like
road workers. He's likening us to road workers. Back then they didn't have paved
roads. When a king wanted to go somewhere, he sent out his
servants to hack down the trees in the jungle and fill up the
marshes and make a road. Make a way. Preachers are sent to make it
plain. Isn't that what it is? The road was always, the way
was always there. You look at a map, you say point
A, point B, yeah, that's the way. But I tell you what, you
go out there and look at that, sometimes it's confusing. What
we're to do is clear out all the obstacles in the way. We're
to clear out the way and make this gospel as plain as we possibly
can. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Anybody miss that? I'm always pointing you to Christ.
Because that's the way. That's the way. What about church
discipline? Hack. Cut that off. Christ is
the way. What about this? Christ is the
way. You know, I don't want to spend
too much time talking about doctrinal debates or anything. I don't.
I point you to Christ. I'm showing you the way. Showing
you the way. Prepare ye the way. Isn't that
what John the Baptist did and what was his message? Behold
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. How do
I prepare the way? Point you to Christ. This is the King's
highway. Point you to Christ. Which way
do I go? Go to Christ. What shall I do?
Believe on Christ. I'm only going to tell you Christ.
And thirdly, look at this. He says, cast up, cast up the
highway. What is that? When they built
this road, they would pile in the rocks and the dirt and they
would make this thing high, this road so high. Why? Because of
wild animals, beasts, robbers. You see, robbers do things in
secret, the corners. But where the road is high, everybody
can see. They can't rob you. And so what
is this casting up? It's simple. It is showing you
the firmness of this road. This road is sure. Sure. Listen to this. He hath entered
in with his own blood and hath obtained eternal redemption for
us. Is that sure? What about my sin? What about
your sin? If you have obtained eternal
redemption, you're redeemed. How long? Forever. Forever you're
redeemed. Forever His blood has satisfied
the justice of God. What about righteousness? I'm
not righteousness. I'm not righteous. I've sinned
all the time. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. unto and upon all them
that believe." Why are you complaining? You have the righteousness of
God in Christ. You have it all. This is to cast up the promises
of God. Did not our Savior say it is
finished? And all these promises, are they
not just reminders to you? Do I tell you anything new? No. I pile up the same precious stones
week after week, showing you the firmness of this foundation.
God said, Behold, I lay in Zion a foundation. How long has this
road been here? How long has this road been here?
From eternity. And yet you fear in that little
span of your life, you fear that this somehow is going to fall
off. This road is sure. You keep following
this road. Believe on Christ. The just shall
live how? By faith. By faith. And so this is how
we follow the king's highway. Once we've entered into the city,
we follow along this highway. This highway that is prepared,
that is plain. This highway that we cast up
week after week so that the beast, they can only howl at you. They
can't reach you. The highway is too high. They
can't get to you. Notice this. He says also, gather
out the stones. You know, on some of these roads
in these days that they had mountains, they would burrow through these
mountains and sometimes avalanches would fall in. Now, it would
do nothing to the road, but it would impede the progress of
the traveler. And I tell you, some stones fall.
The stone of your flesh often falls on you, falls in your way. the stone of Satan or the stone
of the world. They fall in our way. They impede
our growth and our progress in this way. What are preachers
to do? We take them out of the way.
We remove the stones. What shall hinder Christ from
keeping you and sustaining you in this way? Did He not put you
in this way? Listen to this, he that hath
begun a good work in you shall perform it unto the day of Jesus
Christ. Now is that not removing every stone out of the way? I will never leave you nor forsake
you. Does that not break apart every
stone that impedes your progress? You bet it does. That's what
we do. That's all I do is remind you of these things. And the
stones break. They break. Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people. And lastly, we are called to
lift up the standard. Look at that. He said lift up
a standard for the people. On this way, sometimes believers
fall Sometimes we go out of the way. You remember in Pilgrim's Progress,
they saw a way that would look smooth. The way for them was
too rough. It was rough and it was hurting
their feet and they were struggling. And then they looked over here
and said, man, that's a smooth path. Let's just take this. Surely
this will go around back and we can get back on the road.
And they ended up where? Dowding Castle. You know where
every time you leave off from Christ, you end up? Doubting
castle. Giant of despair. But you remember, He had the
key the whole time. He had the key the whole time,
right here in your hands. It's the Word of God. And you
know what we do? We stand on the road with a banner.
We wave the banner so that all that are out of the way have
a rally point. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. The banner of His love is over
me. And you know what God's people
do? They come back. Man, I believe to be a believer seemed to have gone away. And someone told me, encouraged
me, if he's God's, he'll be back. That's right. And so, all the
while he's gone, what am I doing? I'm waving the banner. And you
know what? God still see it. He'll come
back. The banner is what? Christ. And then every child
who comes back, the scripture says, we are like a terrible
army with banners. Oh, may God bless you, His church. You who have entered in may comfort
you, sustain you, and keep you. Pray for the laborers. Pray that
God send out more laborers. And what is this laborers to
do? We're to open the gates. Christ is all. We're to prepare the way. Preach
Christ. We're to cast up the highway. All is ready. It is finished. Lift out the stones. He will keep you until the day
of Jesus Christ. And we wave the banner for those
that are backslidden, come to Christ. And you know what's going
to happen? Verse 12 of that same chapter
at the end, it says, you shall be called, not a city forsaken,
but the redeemed of the Lord. And thou shall be called sought
out and not forsaken. You were sought out. Isn't that
right? You entered in. He set your feet on the highway
and He's given you a man to labor in this gospel for your comfort. Should we not praise Him for
that? I'm thankful for God in His grace. And I know one day
this city militant will be city triumphant. And there'll be no
more need for pastors. We'll have one shepherd, one
foe, one Lord. Pray God will bless you with
it. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer.