Isaiah chapter 52. And our text will be found in
verse 1 and 2. The Scripture says, Awake! Awake! Put on thy strength, O Zion! Put on thy beautiful garments,
O Jerusalem, the holy city. For henceforth there shall no
more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself
from the dust. Arise and sit down, O Jerusalem. Loose thyself from the bands
of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. Now, I did struggle
a little bit with the title of this message, and I came up with
this one, wake up, get dressed, and sit down. Wake up, awake,
O Zion, get dressed, put on thy beautiful garments, and sit down,
in verse 2, shake thyself from the dust, arise and sit down.
Now this passage of Scripture here, awake, is the third in
a series of these, the same phrase used by the prophet. It begins
back in chapter 51 and verse 9, and I'm going to recap. I've
preached these already to you. And I would I would say avail
yourself to these. They're on the internet. You
can download them. You ask Scott for them. It's
important. I believe that you recap, because
I'm going to briefly go over these, so they're not going to
be as full. But here he, in this third chapter,
our chapter, he says, cries, awake, awake. And this begins
back in verse 9 of chapter 51. He says this, awake, awake. Put
on strength, O arm of the Lord. And this, no doubt, has reference
to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Savior of spiritual Israel. He says, Are you not the one
that cut Rahab and wounded the dragon? That has reference to
the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. And we know that this
has spiritual reference to how the elect are saved. by the blood
of Jesus Christ, the Passover Lamb, and by the water, which
is a picture of His blood and righteousness that allows us
to walk through the law, through the justice of God. Jesus saved
us as our Passover Lamb and representative surety by which we walk through
to God. We have access to God. And therefore,
in verse 11, Isaiah says, after he had realized this, he had
said, Awake, O through the deliverance of Israel.
And he says in verse 11, therefore, the redeemed of the Lord shall
return. In other words, he's sure of
this now. Because of the Lord, he was in trouble and he cries
out to God, awake, are you asleep? I don't understand. There's trouble
and you haven't saved us yet. And then he remembers the gospel. the deliverance of Israel from
Egypt, and then he assured of this, that all of the redeemed
of the Lord shall return. That all Jesus redeemed by his
blood shall at the appointed time come to Jesus Christ. They all will come to him, even
as Jesus said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. This is, that is all of the elect,
all of spiritual Israel, eternally loved and sovereignly chosen,
given to Christ, and by free grace and power of the Holy Spirit,
they will all come to Him. How will they come to Him? He
says in verse 11, they'll come with singing. They'll come with
singing. They'll come joyfully. They'll obtain gladness, and
sorrow and mourning shall flee away. And this is the experience
of every true believer in Christ. Every true believer in Christ.
We come to Christ not as unwilling, by nature we are unwilling, but
by the power and grace of God we are made willing. Made willing
to come. But we began this experience
of grace when He gives us a new heart, not necessarily by singing.
When you first heard of the gospel, were you necessarily singing?
No, we were weeping. We were lamenting our sins. That's
the first experience of grace, is that we begin to weep over
our sins. Sorrow and mourning shall flee
away. You see, you have to have sorrow
and mourning before it flees away. There has to be guilt over
sin and remorse for sin, and that's what it does when the
gospel comes to us. So he says, Awake, O Lord, first
of all. Now, the second time he says,
Awake, is in verse 17. In this one, he says, Awake and
stand up, O Jerusalem. This is the cry of the prophet
after he had heard the gospel himself. After he had heard of
God's deliverance and remembered that the redeemed shall be saved,
he was given boldness to cry out then to Jerusalem. And what
does he say to the lost? He says, Awake out of your sleep. Awake out of your dead condition. Believers in Christ, when we
hear the gospel, the result of this is always the same. We desire
others to hear. Isaiah is showing this by his
desire for Jerusalem to wake from the dead. He is calling
the dead, just as Ezekiel called those dry bones, to life. That's what he was doing, is
preaching to the dry bones. And Isaiah is doing the same
to Jerusalem. He says, Awake, O Jerusalem,
which has drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury. What is this talking about? This
is talking about man's depravity. He said, You've already been
judged of God by Adam. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men, for all have sinned." When Adam sinned against God,
it was no light matter. It was no light matter. Listen,
your father and my father murdered us. When he sinned against God, he
knew what he was doing. and he plunged us all into spiritual
depravity. I know this, lost men always
ask, what does Adam have to do with me? Why are you always speaking
about Adam? Because God says it has everything
to do with you. It has everything to do with
you. When this man sinned, the cup of fury was drunk by him
and it passed to us all. And this word is very offensive
and radical and foolish to those dead in sins. But by his one
sin, the whole race of his race was held captive and under destruction. And that's what he says in verse
19, he said, these two things are come upon thee. Who shall
be sorry? For thee, desolation and destruction
and famine and the sword, by whom shall I comfort thee? This
is a warning to all the lost. Listen, one day God is going
to gather all the nations and people and you, everyone. And He's going to judge them.
And I read this in Revelation chapter 20. It says that the
books were open and another book. There was books and then there
was a book. That book was the Lamb's Book
of Life in whom is written all the names of the elect. But in
those books were written all of the works of men. All of your
works, all of your deeds are written down by God, and He will
bring them to your account. And it says He would judge not
out of the book, but out of the books. God will judge all men out of
these books. And listen, every man will receive
a just reward. You know, you're going to get
exactly what you deserve. That's just so. God is going
to give you exactly what you deserve. You'll receive a just reward
according to your works. Now, O son of Adam, What are
your works? Not your works in your eyes, but before God. Are your works pure? Are they
holy? Are they perfect? In action and
in motive? Remember, God looketh not on
the outward, but on the heart. Jesus said, Whosoever looketh
upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery already
in his heart. You see that the law is not just
outward, it's inward. It has to do with the thoughts,
the intents, the motives. Covetousness, Paul said, is idolatry. and your works will receive a
just reward. The soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. Therefore, we cry, Awake! Wake
up! Wake up and see the truth that
you by nature cannot please God. This is what we cry. This is
the cry of the prophet. It's the cry of every preacher.
So where then is there hope? There's hope found in verse 22.
He said, Thus saith the Lord God, that pleadeth the cause
of his people. Behold, I've taken out of thine
hand the cup of trembling and the dregs of the cup of my fury,
and thou shalt drink it no more. What is the hope? What is the
hope of Adam's race is that Jesus Christ took our dregs and endured
the wrath of God for our sins. that He offered Himself, the
just for the unjust. And as a representative man,
He did for us what we could not do ourselves. He suffered the
justice of God for our sins, and he obeyed the law of God
perfectly. You know this? I'm going to get
exactly what I deserve. You know what I deserve? Exactly
what my representative did for me. That's what I deserve. Therefore,
in the books, under my name, all my wickedness has been blotted
out. So when God opens the books,
He's going to see what? Nothing. Nothing. Because Christ hath blotted out
my sins as a thick cloud. And you know what? He's not only
going to see that I didn't commit any sins, He's going to see all
of the positive righteousness that Christ did in my place. And therefore, my name has been
written in the Lamb's book of life, and this is why my name
was blotted out, my sins have been blotted out, and I have
the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And so now then, let's come to
our text, and we'll see this. He says this, third awake. So
the first one was the prophet crying to God awake. The second
one is the prophet crying to the dead or to the lost. And
this third one, it says this, awake and put on strength, O
Zion. Now then, who is he talking to
here? He is not talking to those who are dead in trespasses and
sins, but rather he is addressing Those who are saved by grace. That's who Zion is. Zion. Throughout Scripture, Zion is
a picture of the church of God. You remember, it was David that
built his city on this mountain, Zion. It was here that Solomon
built the temple It was upon the mountain of Zion that the
atonement was made, that God in His Shekinah glory dwelt,
where? In Mount Zion. And all of these pictures of
Zion point us to the church of Jesus Christ. For Jesus is our
King and has built His holy church on Himself. Behold, I lay in,
where? Zion, a stone, a precious cornerstone. And Jesus said, I build my church, where? In Zion. And the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it. Jesus has established his presence
in Zion, his church, for we are the temples of God because the
Holy Spirit dwells in us and because of his blood atonement
for our sins. God himself makes his abode with
us. You not see then that all the
pictures of Zion point to us. You who are the church, that's
who Zion is. O believer, let us therefore
sing praise to our God who has built his church upon Christ. Isaiah 65, 1 says, For praise
waiteth for thee, O Lord, in Zion. Behold, you, believer,
are Zion. And God hath said that all nations
shall flow into Zion. And you are come by faith to
Mount Zion, Paul said, the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels to the general
assembly and church of the firstborn." Now then, why then does he tell
the church, Zion, to wake up? He says, wake up! Wake up, Zion! Put on strength! How is it that the prophet calls
Zion to wake up? Now surely the lost are spiritually
dead. The lost are spiritually dead
and they need to be raised from the dead. But we as believers
are not dead. We're not dead. But I tell you
this, we can sleep. Because we still have this old
nature. Because we still have this old
nature from birth, we are prone to sleep of sin and unbelief. I noticed back in the first cry,
when I told you he's crying to God in chapter 51 of verse 9,
he says, Awake, arm of the Lord, and put on strength, display
your power, reveal your salvation to me. Isaiah was in trouble,
and he thought God was asleep. He didn't think God understood
where he was or his trouble. And so, he cries out to God. And I'll tell you, God did graciously
answer his prayer, didn't he? He did show him his strength.
He did remind him of his gospel. He reminded him that he is the
God that saves Israel. Yet here in our text, we see
it was not God that was asleep. It was not God who was without
strength, but rather Zion. I'll tell you, sometimes when
we cry out to God and we think God is asleep, it's most likely
we're asleep. God doesn't sleep. And so if
you think God doesn't know your plight, it's probably because
you're asleep. I want to illustrate this. Go
over to Mark chapter 4. I want to show us an illustration
of this. In Mark chapter 4, in verse 35, the Lord here says
to His disciples, let us pass over to the other side. You remember,
He's going to that Gadarean. He's got that man over there
that He is going to deliver from those demons. And so He tells
them, boys, get in the boat. We've got to go to the other
side of the sea. And when He sent the multitudes
away, He took them in a ship, and there were also with Him
other little ships. And there arose a great storm
of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now
full. And where was Jesus? He was asleep
in the hindered part of the ship, asleep on a pillow. And what
did they say? Awake! Awake, O arm of the Lord. Isn't that what Isaiah said?
This is what they're doing. They're crying to Jesus. He's
asleep. Obviously, He don't know what's
going on here. Obviously. He's asleep, so He doesn't have
a clue. So they have to go and wake Him
up. They said, Awake, Master, care not that we perish. And see the patience of Jesus.
He arose. rebuked the wind and the sea,
and said, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there
was a great calm. And he said to them, Why are
you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? Jesus was asleep in the ship.
This storm arose on these disciples. Now consider this. These guys
were skilled sailors. They were not novices. They had
been on the sea all their life. They knew storms. And so Jesus
was in the bow asleep. They said, surely here comes
some storm. We can handle this. We can ride
upon the waves. Surely we'll make it to the other
side. And so the waves began to beat on their little ship,
and the storm prevailed, and the waves beat, and it flooded
their vessel. This vessel was full of water. And what did they do? They rose
up and said, Awake! Awake! Don't you care that we
perish? Save us! Believers, is this not
often our case? Are we not at times so confident
of our skill? We see the storm approaching.
We see it coming. And we say, surely we can weather
this. Surely in our strength and our
skill we can do this on our own. We're so assured of our strength
and faith that we presume to conquer our foes and ride the
storms of our troubles without God's help. This happens too
often, too often. I like this little poem that
says, we boast of our sailing ability so long as we're upon
the shore. But as soon as the storm surges
and the waves beat upon us, we confess that we are better sailors
on the sand than the sea. We're better sailors on the land
than the sea. But when we fail, and our foes,
our sins, our fears beat upon our soul, when troubles are bark
or flow, we cry, Awake, O Lord! Carest Thou not that we perish?
Lord, wilt thou pursue thy worm to death? Lord, are you asleep? Are you
unaware of our trouble? And just as surely as Jesus arose
and calmed the storm for his disciples, he does so for us. Isn't that gracious how he does
that? He doesn't first give them the rebuke. He first calms the
storm and then comes the rebuke after. But he does not rebuke. What's your first instance when
somebody tries to wake you up? Leave me alone! I'm sleeping! I'm tired! That's not his first
response. His first response is grace and
mercy to his people. He graciously answers our prayers. The Lord comes by way of the
gospel and He says to our souls, peace be still, fear not, I have
redeemed thee, thy sins are forgiven, my righteousness is imputed to
thee. The Word comes in power in our
storms and says, if God be for us, who can be against us? His
Word says, There is therefore now no condemnation to those
who are in Christ Jesus. Believer, our God hath by His
counsel and oath sworn by Himself so that you may be comforted
and assured of your perfect security. Go to Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6. After Paul deals with an apostate,
he knows the church is going to be troubled. So he gives them
by the Holy Spirit this gracious word of comfort. He says this in verse 16, he said, For men
verily swear by a greater, and an oath for confirmation is to
them an end of all strife. You know, when you were a kid,
you said, man, you tell somebody something, don't believe you,
you say, man, I swear on my mother's life. And what'd that do? Well,
that ended all the doubt, didn't it? You swore by something greater. And your friend said, oh, okay,
I believe you now. You said that. You said, cross
my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye. That ended
all doubt, didn't it? That ended all confirmation there.
And so that's how men do it. They swear by a greater, and
that should end all doubt. But here it is, wherein God, verse 17, wherein God willing
more abundantly to show to the heirs of promise the immutability
of his counsel confirmed it by an oath. Listen, God is more
abundantly willing to show you To settle all doubt and dispute
regarding the success of Jesus Christ on your behalf, God willingly
shows you the immutability of His counsel. What is His counsel? That's His sovereign will. God's
sovereign decree. God says, I will, and it shall
come to pass. It was His sovereign will and
decree to love you, to save you. That was His will. And He says,
I'm willing to show you this. I'm willing to show it to you.
And how does He show it to us? The counsel. How does He show
us His counsel is unchanging? He confirms it by an oath. In
other words, God swore an oath. God swore an oath, believer,
to save you. And when He could not find anyone
higher than Himself, you know what He did? He swore by Himself. Do you realize the magnitude
of that? Do you realize how great that is?
God says, I swear to myself that I will bring you home. That's
what God said. He is so much our surety that
if God were to lose one, he would be a liar. Do you not see the magnitude
of God's desire for you to be assured of your salvation? He confirmed it by an oath He
swore by Himself that cannot lie. That reminds me of that surety
that Judah had for Benjamin. He said, if I bring not the lad,
let me bear the blame. And God says, if I don't bring
you to heaven, let me bear the blame. Now that should bring
you some comfort. Man, that should settle any storm
that comes your way, any trouble that comes your way. God says,
I am willing more abundantly to show to you heirs of promise,
the immutability, the unchangeableness of My counsel, that My counsel
shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure, so I swore by Myself
that I'll bring you to Myself. I swore. In every storm, the Lord says,
lay hold upon My Word. Behold My refuge. Lay hold on
the hope set before you. Hope is not a wish. Hope in Scripture
means a solid rock. Assurance that all the promises
of God that are given to you in Christ are yea and amen. and behold the power of thy Savior
against the foes of thy soul, see him arise by his word and
say this to you, peace, be still. Believer, thy hope, your confidence
is not in this world. It's not in this body. So you can lose everything in
this world and even lose your own life, but you won't lose
your hope because your hope is not in the world. Your hope is
in heaven. Your hope is seated in heaven. And he said, this is an anchor
for your soul, both sure and steadfast, unmovable. If you are in Christ, do you
realize how secure you are? How safe you are? Does this not calm your every
doubt and settle your every fear? Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe
on His gentle breast, there by His love o'ershaded, sweetly
my soul doth rest. Now then, His disciples, then
notice his rebuke to his disciples back in Mark, he rebukes them,
he says, where was your faith? Where was your faith? Was there any chance they would
not make it? Now he said, let's go to the
other side. He himself, Jesus, was in the
boat. Was there any chance this boat
would sink? No. Matter of fact, the boat
was already full of water, the Scripture said. You could have
took the whole sea of Galilee and put it in that boat and that
boat would still float. It wouldn't sink. You could take
all the troubles and powers of hell can assault your soul, but
Zion, listen, you will make it because Christ is in you. There's no chance of our being
left behind. This is the comfort He would
give you. This is the assurance He would give you. There's no
chance of them being lost, and there's no chance of any of God's
elect being lost. So it was not Christ who was
unaware of the trouble. It was the disciples who were
asleep and not Christ. Do you see that? They were the
ones blinded, not Christ. And so when you're in trouble
and you cry out to God, know this, if anyone's asleep, you
are, and not God. He is fully aware of everything
that happens to you, everything. They were asleep to the truth
of who was in their vessel. And if the disciples were mindful
of Jesus' person and work of redemption, they surely would
not have feared to die at sea. Even so it is with us in our
troubles, if we fear and doubt. It is not because God is asleep,
but rather Zion is asleep, because we are asleep. Therefore now
hear, O Zion, you holy mountain, you church of the firstborn awake,
says the Lord. If you are doubting God's grace,
God's love, Christ's blood, it's surely because of our drowsy
condition and not God's. We become like the Shulamite
bride who called for her husband to enjoy his presence, but he
came at an inconvenient hour and found her asleep. Believer, does he call to you? Does thy master call to you?
You know when he usually calls? At a most inconvenient time. That's when he calls. Does he
call for you to commune with him? He does every time the gospel
is preached. Isn't that true? Where two or
three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst. And you say, Oh Lord, come! Oh
Lord, deliver me! And yet, You know he's here every
time. But I'll tell you what, it's
usually inconvenient, isn't it? It's usually inconvenient. He calls us to prayer. He said,
be instant in prayer. Pray without ceasing, Paul said.
Paul said, we have access to the throne of grace. Believer,
does Jesus Does Jesus ever put his hand to the hole of the door
of your heart in your sleep? And are your bowels not moved
for him? Does this not convince you and
convict you of your sin and failure to commune with him? Then awake,
awake and put on strength That's what our text says. Awake, Zion. Awake and put on strength. Not your strength. His strength. Put on His strength. Not yours. But His strength, which is displayed
in the gospel. His strength has put away your
sin. His strength has quickened your
soul. His strength keeps you in the
faith. And now, why do you languish
in pine? I like this. Why does a living
man complain? You believer are living. You
know that. You've been raised from the dead. Why do you complain?
What do you have to complain about? Hath not thy Savior taken
care of all thy sins? done away with all thine iniquity,
given thee the righteousness of God? Hath He not made you
acceptable? Then put on faith, put on Christ
by faith, and rest upon His grace and power to deliver you. Trust
His Word, and forsake everything else. That's what it is to put
on strength, is to believe. I'm not telling you to believe
in God. I'm telling you to believe God. It's a big difference. Big difference. And secondly,
he said this, not only wake up, but know this, he said, put on
thy beautiful garments. Behold what Christ has made for
us, His bride, in the beauty of holiness, even the garments
of His righteousness. You not see what He's made for
you? Wake up. Wake up and see. Put on thy beautiful
garments. When God promised us, He said,
I will give you a new heart and I will make you righteous. Isn't
that what He promised in the covenant of grace? Ezekiel chapter
36, this is the promise of God. He said, I will sprinkle clean
water on you. I shall make you clean from all
your filthiness and from your idols will I cleanse you. A new
heart will I give you. A new spirit I'll put within
you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give
you a heart of flesh. Listen, I will put my spirit
within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and keep my judgments
and do them. He said, I'm gonna give you a
new heart and I'm gonna make you righteous. That's what he
promised. Can he lie? Can he lie? Cannot lie. Yet he also promises us in the
same chapter, he says in verse 31, he says, I'm not gonna, I'm
gonna give you this righteousness, but I'm not gonna let you see
it. What are you going to see? He
said, then you shall remember your evil ways and your evil
doings that were not good, and you shall loathe yourselves in
your own sight. This is what God promised. He
said, I'm going to give you a new heart, I'm going to make you righteous,
but then I'm going to make you not see that righteousness, but
see your evil. I'm going to make you see and
loathe yourselves. How true is this? We know our sin. We see our sin. We experience our depravity and
loathe ourselves. Yet God says, put on by faith,
not by sight, put on by faith those robes of righteousness
that I have made for thee. Put them on. They're yours. Put them on by faith. Not by
observation, not by feeling, but by faith. even the righteousness
of God which Christ obtained for us." This is that robe of righteousness
worn by the saints in glory. This is that wedding garment
made by, not made with our hands, but made by His hands. You remember that poor soul In
the parable of the wedding garments, everybody had their wedding garments
on, but this one man, he had a garment on, but it was not a wedding garment. It was one that he made. And the master of the house said,
friend, why are you coming thus? Why are you doing this? This
is offensive to me. Where's your wedding garment?
The man was speechless and he cast him out into outer hell.
Listen, if you come to God with your own robe, you come to God
with your own righteousness, you will be forever cast out
into eternal darkness. If you come with some mixture
of Christ's righteousness and your own, God will cast you out. Christ will profit you nothing. But we, we who are Zion rejoice. We rejoice to be clothed in the
garments of Jesus Christ. Isaiah 61 verse 10 says this,
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful
in my God, listen why, for he hath clothed me with the garments
of salvation, hath covered me with the robe of righteousness. Awake, believer, avail yourself
to God's Word. Avail yourself to communion with
your Savior, so as to put on strength, the strength of His
salvation. Awake, believer, and put on by
faith His spotless righteousness, and listen, with His righteous
garments on, I'm as holy as God's Son. And this gives me peace. This gives me great cause for
peace. And thirdly, he said, henceforth
shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Believer in Christ, we are fully
secure so that none shall ever enter in and remove us from salvation. Wake up. See this. No one and
nothing shall remove you from God. What about my trouble? Will that
ever remove you from God? Remember, Christ is your foundation. No one can undermine his foundation. Remember, Christ is a wall of
fire round about you. The arrows of accusation and
sin shall not fly over the wall of this great fire. Remember,
Christ is thy refuge over thy head, and the justice of God
shall never fall on you. Zion, are you asleep? Are you
asleep in the dust and mire? Then he says this, shake off
thyself from the dust, arise and sit down. Rest. Shake off the dust of this world,
the cares of this life. Cease your working for any merit. Come and sit down. Loose thyself
from all the bands. For Christ hath set thee free.
You are free indeed. Free from the law, O happy condition! Jesus hath bled, and there is
remission. Cursed by the law, bruised by
the fall, Christ hath redeemed me. once for all, once for all. Loose thyself from thy sin and
guilt, for Christ hath redeemed thee. Don't look to the law, look to
Christ, who is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. Therefore, Zion, we sing, a debtor
to mercy alone, of covenant mercy I sing, nor fear with thy righteousness
on my person and offering to bring. The terrors of law and
of God can meet with me, have nothing to do. Christ's obedience
and blood hide all my transgressions from view. See again the Holy
Scripture, friend, is very real and relevant to God's saints. Are you asleep? Wake up, O Zion. Wake up, O Zion. Put on thy beautiful garments. Henceforth shall no more come
to thee, the uncircumcised, the unclean. That's speaking of our
sin. Shake thyself from the dust of
this world, the cares of this life. Come and sit down and rest. Rest. You know what sitting down means?
It's done. It's done. I didn't say get up
and go to work, did I? Get up, put on my beautiful garments,
sit down. The work's done. The work's done. By this, God alleviates us from
all our troubles. If you dwell there, No matter
how much trouble you have, you will find perfect peace and rest. May God even bless this to your
hearts tonight. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.