Cast Up the Highway

to Isaiah 62. Both of our messages this morning are gonna come from this chapter. I was very blessed studying the first message and so I wanna preach the second one from the same chapter. This time we're just gonna look at one verse. Let's read Isaiah 62 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. Let's ask the Lord's blessing. Our gracious Father, Lord, we pray now you would open the scriptures to us. We pray our great shepherd would cause our hearts to burn within us and open to us the scriptures. Make us to see, Lord, which you would have us to know. We pray you would make it clear to us and give us faith to receive it and believe on you.

Thank you, Lord, for this day. Thank you for each of our brethren. Thank you for bringing us here. Thank you, Lord, for giving us a hunger for Christ, our righteousness. Lord, it's all of your hand. It's all of your grace and your mercy that we have an interest in your word and in your son. We pray now that you would grow that, grow that interest and grow that desire, Lord, for Christ alone.

It's in his name we ask it. Amen. 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, the picture, the illustration, children of Israel were in bondage in Babylon. They typify God's spiritual Israel. We were all in bondage. We were under the curse of the law. We come into the world in bondage to our sin nature, so we're a people that were in bondage in Babylon by nature.

But the Lord sent King Cyrus from a far land, and King Cyrus redeemed, he delivered the children of Israel out of Babylon. God sent the Lord Jesus Christ, and he paid his blood and redeemed his people from the curse of the law. Then he sends this gospel to deliver us from our sin nature, give us faith to trust him and deliver us.

So by what Christ has done, he's opened the gates of the heavenly city. He's opened the gates and the gates to his church will remain open. He promised that, we saw that in Isaiah 60 and Isaiah 61. He said in Isaiah 60 verse 11, thy gates shall be opened continually. They shall not be shut day nor night, that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentile, and that their kings may be brought. Whenever Christ entered above, when he arose and entered in Mount Zion, into heavenly Jerusalem, Scripture said, open ye the gates that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.

So that's the picture. Jerusalem typifies the heavenly city. It typifies the church, even the local church. Jerusalem had a wall around it to protect it. We have our walls are salvation. We saw in Isaiah 60, that's Christ. Christ is the wall of protection around us. They would set watchmen on the walls to blow the trumpet, and Christ said, I've set watchmen on the wall. He set his preacher on Christ, and the trumpet we're blowing is the gospel, the preaching of the gospel. And so the city had gates, Jerusalem had gates on every side. You can read about this in Revelation, the heavenly city, gates on each side.

The picture of that is God has a people, in every direction, in all parts of the world. Remember Isaiah 43, 5, he said, fear not, I am with thee, talking to the church. He said, I will bring thy seed from the east, and I'll gather thee from the west. I'll say to the north, give up, to the south, keep not back, bring my sons from far. and my daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone that's called by my name, I've created him for my glory.

So the gates being on each side of the city pictured his people in all parts of the world. Now, between Babylon and Jerusalem, there was one highway. And so when he delivered them out of Babylon, the way they got to Jerusalem was that highway, traveling that highway. And that's why this verse says, go through, go through the gates.

He's saying, go out to the people, go to my people that are scattered in the world and bring them in, go bring them in. And he says, and prepare you the way of the people. Cast up, cast up the highway, gather out the stones so they don't get tripped up as they're going to Jerusalem. And he says, and lift up a standard for the people.

We'll talk about that in a moment. So our subject is cast up the highway. This is the charge that the Savior gives you and me who he's already called. We're to be his witnesses. We're to go to his people and bear witness of Christ and invite them or bring them to the city. Bring them in. And he tells us here what we're to do, and he tells us the message we're to preach.

Now, let's look at, learn what we can from this verse. First of all, Christ tells his witnesses, go through, go through the gates. He's saying, go out and find my lost sheep. Go out of Jerusalem, go out of the city. We're gonna, we gather here today in the city, and when it's service is over, we're gonna go out. And he said, now when you go out, go out to find my people.

We saw recently the gates of the cities where judgment was settled. Well, the Lord Jesus came and he settled judgment for his people. The promise to Abraham was, thy seed, he will conquer the gate of his enemies, and he did. Christ came forth and settled judgment for his people. He put away all our sin. He brought in righteousness for us. He justified us. And so, therefore, we must be called. Everyone he died for must be called.

He stood there that day in Jerusalem and he said he knows his sheep. He said, I know my sheep. And he was talking to the Jews. He said, I know my sheep among mine elect and among the Jews. But he said, other sheep I have. that are not of this fold." And he said, them I must bring. And there should be one fold and one shepherd.

Whether we're Jew or Gentile, he brings us into one fold, one church, and makes us one in him with one shepherd, Christ Jesus, and one gospel. Now that's what he's done, just like Cyrus went and delivered them from Babylon, Christ has come and delivered his people. He delivered his people from the curse of the law. He had to bear the condemnation to honor the law, and he did that so that we don't have to bear it. There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. but we're still a captive in our sin nature, so he has to deliver us from our sin nature. And he's gonna do that through the gospel, and he's gonna use us, he's already called, to preach the gospel. And he's gonna do that through the preaching of the word. So today, this is his command to us.

Go through, go through the gates, go out to my people and call them in. I was talking with a pastor just this past week, And he reminded me of something Brother Henry Mahan used to say. He said, it's the pastor's responsibility to fill the pulpit. In other words, my responsibility is to get a message from the Lord and show up with that message to deliver to you. And he said, and it's the brethren's responsibility to fill the pew, to invite people to come. And here's the important point there, he said, If the pastor starts thinking it's his job to fill the pew, he'll alter the message to fill the pew. Paul said, he didn't send me to baptize, he sent me to preach Christ and him crucified. My goal is to preach Christ, that's my charge.

But the Lord says here to his people, you go out of the gates and you gather my people, you bring my people, invite my people. We can't make anybody come. We can invite them, but the Lord said, I will say to the north, give up, and to the east, keep not, but he will bring them. So you never know, the one you're talking to might be one of his, invite him. I think some of the best witnessing ever was when one apostle went to the other apostle and said, come see. We found him, come see. And so that's the word. Another application here of this, the gates are the gates of hell. The devil has gates. The Lord spoke of this as the devil having gates that he uses to try to keep his people in bondage. Just like Babylon had their wall and had their gates to try to keep the children of Israel inside Babylon.

But our Lord gave us this promise that the preaching of the gospel He's gonna penetrate those gates. If he has a elect child in Babylon, he's bringing them out, and he's gonna do it through this gospel. Our word came that he might destroy him that had the power of the devil, power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. He did it. Now he's gonna call them and deliver them from their Captive sin nature and deliver him out of false religion deliver him out of the world and he gave us this promise Concerning his gospel.

He said the gates of hell shall not prevail against it He will break down those gates and bring his child out Just like we see the great picture of it when he told him to march around Jericho And all they did was march seven times around Jericho blowing a trumpet and holding up the ark. That's a picture of us preaching Christ, blowing the gospel trumpet, exalting Christ, and he made the walls of Jericho fall. That's what the Lord says he'll do. The gates of hell will not prevail. They're meant to keep his people in bondage. He said they won't prevail against his gospel by his power.

Anybody that is hearing this that might be one of his lost sheep, you know, when he delivered them, when he delivered the children of Israel out of Babylon, do you know that there was people who didn't leave? There was children of Israel who would not leave Babylon. It was good in Babylon. Babylon was the biggest city in the world and very prosperous, and they treated the children of Israel pretty good, better than they had at Jerusalem. And so when the gospel came to them, when Cyrus came and delivered them, they didn't want to leave. He said in Isaiah 48, 20, go ye forth of Babylon, flee from the Chaldean. And this is what he tells you and me to cry. He says, with a voice of singing, declare ye, tell this, tell them, leave Babylon. Utter it to the end of the earth.

Say, the Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob. And this is what he promises, while you're traveling on that highway, we're on the highway traveling to heavenly Jerusalem. And he said, and they thirsted not when he led them through the desert. He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them, just like he did when they brought them through the desert and brought them to Canaan. Christ is that rock, he's that smitten rock who bore the smiting his people deserved and so the water of life's gonna flow freely from him to his people.

So you sitting here that are hearing this, that have not believed on Christ, that are yet in bondage, he says go forth, flee from Babylon, leave it. And if he speaks this word effectually, that's what you'll do. And I pray that's what he'll make us do. is flee. Let me show you what he promises.

Look back at Isaiah 52 verse 12. Why anybody would stay in false religion, under a false gospel, or why they would stay in the world. It just shows you the depravity of our sin nature. That men would prefer that over Christ and His people and His gospel and eternity with Him. But look at what He promises.

When you leave Babylon, and this is His promise to us, verse 12, let's read verse 11. Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence. That's what He's saying. Leave falsehood, leave Babylon, leave. Touch no unclean thing. Go ye out of the midst of her. Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. For you shall not go out with haste nor go by flight. You're not gonna be afraid.

Here's why. For the Lord will go before you and the God of Israel will be your reward. That means he'll come behind you. He's gonna protect us on every side. Go back to Isaiah 49 and look at verse nine. were to preach to the prisoners and say, go forth to them that are in darkness, show yourselves. Now here's what the Lord promises.

They shall feed in the ways and their pasture shall be in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat or sun smite them. For he that hath mercy on them shall lead them even by the springs of water shall he guide them. I will make all my mountains away and my highways shall be exalted. That's his promise. They'll come from far, they'll come from the north, from the west, from the land of Sinai.

Isn't it true, you that know the Lord, you can tell a new, somebody that's just hearing the gospel, and they're afraid and they're trembling, you know how it was when the Lord first called you. You can tell them, it's been nothing but good since the Lord called me. He's been leading, He's been feeding, He's been providing, protecting, and He won't lose us. You can tell new believers that because it's true.

Go back now, let's go back here to Isaiah 62. Christ teaches His witnesses what we're to do. Verse 10, He says, prepare ye the way of the people. cast up the highway, gather out the stones. Now you notice here, there's but one way. He says, prepare ye the way, the way. There's just one way.

Fallen sinners think there's many ways. People think this is where it's wrong to look at people and look at this earth and try to discern God looking at this world. Because what people do is they see all these different kinds of religions and all these different denominations. And so they start thinking, are they all wrong?

Surely, well, they must have their way. And they have their way. And I remember in the 80s, I remember Billy Graham saying, you know, the Hindus have their way. And Muslims have their way and Christians have their way, but we're all going to the same place and we're going to end up in the same place. That's not so. That's not so. There's one way. Christ said, I am the way. There's not, you have your truth and I have my truth. Christ said, I am the truth. He said, I am the life.

If he's the only one giving life, then it's gonna be his way, and it's gonna be his gospel, and not another. And that's so of the Lord Jesus. There's a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. He told John the Baptist this very thing, cast up, cast up the highway, prepare the way of the people, and by God's grace, That's what every one of his witnesses are doing. We're here together to send the gospel forth, together. We're sending the gospel out, and we're preaching one message, and Christ Jesus is that high way.

He's the high way. There's salvation in no other. There's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. He is the one way. There's one God. There's one Savior. There's one faith. There's one hope. There's one spirit. There's one gospel. There's one way. That way is Christ. How do we prepare the way? How do we cast up the highway? How do we get the stones out of the highway so people don't get tripped up? We preach Christ. We preach the light. We preach Christ. He's gonna make it effectual in the heart of his people, and we preach him. He's the God-man. There's one mediator.

That means there's one way between holy God and his sinful people, and Christ is that one way. It's only by his faithfulness that his people are made righteous. By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. the earth and try to discern God. Look into God's word and look to God and hear what He said. He said, by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

That's the message of grace. There might be a whole lot of religions and a whole lot of denominations, but there's just one message that's true. That's salvation by the grace of God. That's salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. All the others, they all have this one thing in common. They're putting something in your hand to do, and that's the message of works. They're not different. They're all the same. They're giving men something to glory in. There's one gospel that gives Christ all the glory. He sanctified his people by his own blood. He justified us by his blood, and he sanctified us by his blood. The will of God was in his heart. The law of God was in his heart. He came to do the will of God.

I'll hear people sometimes from time to time and they'll say, I think I should keep the law. Well, we're gonna see when we go through Luke that there's things in the law that aren't in the message Christ preaches to his people. that he commands his people. There's some things that you're not gonna find in the law that he commands his people. But beside that, let me tell you what fulfilling the law is. The law is fulfilled by perfect love. Christ said that. Perfect love to God and perfect love to your neighbor. That's the fulfillment of the law. And there's only one that ever did it. It's the Lord Jesus Christ.

With perfect love for the Father, to show how righteous and just he is and honor his law, Christ willingly was made sin and then made a curse. And with the same perfect love for his people, he willingly gave himself to be made sin for us and made a curse for us.

It's so sad that when people get upset with somebody over their sin, that's why they crucified Christ. They thought he was a sinner. They thought he blasphemed God because he declared he's one with God. And so their answer was to separate themselves from him. Here we were, his people, who had broken the whole law of God, Christ didn't separate himself from us. Here's the fulfillment of the law. He came to us and united himself with us in our humanity and then went to the cross and said, take all the shameful, horrid sin that they are, which he hated.

And he said, put it on me. And he bore it. And then the wrath of God that demanded eternal condemnation He said, pour that on me, don't pour it on them. Just like he stood between the Pharisees and that woman caught in adultery and said, if you got a stone to throw, throw it. They gonna have to hit him first. Just like he, when the soldiers came to arrest him, he said, take me, but you gotta let these go free.

That's the love of the law. That's the only way the law's fulfilled, what Christ did. And that's what, when God says he's the end of the law for righteous, what God is saying is he's the only one that ever fulfilled the law. He's the only one that ever perfectly loved God and perfectly loved his people. And the way he did it is he laid down his life for both. That's the fulfillment of the law.

You and me have never come close to that, never. But he did it, and so he arose, and he entered the holy city, and he opened the gates for his people, and he is the highway to heavenly Jerusalem. And he doesn't give you a heavy yoke to bear. He doesn't give you a bunch of rules and regulations. He says, believe me, cast all your care into my hand, and I'll bring you there. That's light and easy. and he even gives you the grace to do it and gives you the faith to do it and sustains it in us.

And the law of the kingdom is in regard to when we fail each other. We're constantly failing because we're sinners still. We're not saying, God's people want to go out and break the law. We're not saying that, but we know better than to boast that we've ever kept the law. And every command Christ gave to his people is in regard to your brother or your sister not doing what they ought to do.

Forbearance, long-suffering, mercy, forgiveness, It's all in regard to me and you failing each other. Because that's exactly what he continues to do for us every single day. He's continually long-suffering with us, continually merciful with us. How can God forbear with us? How can he be long-suffering with us? Because in Christ, his people are absolutely perfect. And so he knows we're weak, he knows we're flesh, and he keeps sustaining us, he keeps being merciful to us, he keeps giving us this gospel and strengthening us in our inner man to keep walking this highway looking only to him.

Now we have a new and a living way. This way that you come to God, it's not the old dead way. That old dead way was, you had to have a high priest go in there for you, and he had to pick up that heavy veil and go under it, and only he could do it, and he did it once a year, but he had to do it again next year, because it never put away any sin. Now, we have a new way, a new highway, a living highway, which Christ has consecrated for us through the veil. That veil split from the top all the way to the bottom. And you know what that declared? I'm done with the old way. The old way's over.

The new way is Christ only. Christ only. And he comes to you through this gospel, and he gives you a new heart, he gives you the assurance of faith, he sprinkles you from an evil conscience, he washes our body in pure water, and he says, come. You have Christ your high priest and by his blood you're perfect. Now you can come to God on the highway, on the Lord Jesus.

So the stones that we have to cast out is this notion of a sinner saying, what must I do to be saved? Somebody in my family was talking to me recently and they were talking to somebody that we've known for a long time. telling them the gospel. And the person said, well, I believe everything you're saying, but I still believe we have to do our part. And I told them, I said, it's that have to that shows that they think their works count. If they had said, I believe everything you said, and that makes me want to, that's a whole different message. That's a whole different spirit. but to say, I believe the gospel, but I believe we have to do our part. That's the same as the first. They say, except you keep the law, you can't be saved. That means it's all law. That took all faith out of it, but that one motive of the heart, it made it all to be law. Everything they trusted in. So we have to take these stones out, and the only way you can do it is just keep preaching Christ.

There's only one qualification, and that's to believe on Christ and believe you're the sinner entirely incapable of contributing. And he's the one that comes and teaches you that. He's the one that even comes and teaches you and gives you the faith and grants you repentance so that you trust only him. And every other qualification, perfection, perfect righteousness, perfect holiness, he is that qualification. He's met it all and he is the righteousness and the holiness. Some stumble over the stone of knowledge. They say, I just don't know if I know enough. Or they'll come and they'll say, well, I know this doctrine and I know that doctrine. That's putting something between you and Christ. Listen to this now.

This is life eternal that they may know The only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent is knowing him. It's not knowing a bunch of doctrine, it's knowing him. And if you know him, he'll teach you the doctrine. You're gonna understand the doctrine and you'll be happy about the doctrine when you know him. Let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, the Lord said. that I'm the Lord which exercise loving kindness and judgment and righteousness in the earth for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. Let him rejoice that he understands and knows me. He's the one we have to know. And that's by revelation. That's by divine revelation. That's him making us know him in spirit and in truth by divine revelation. And then there's this stumbling stone of time.

This is a bad one for a Young people, I've got plenty of time. I've got all my life, I'll deal with that later. Scripture says, you don't know what shall be tomorrow. What's your life? It's a vapor that appears for a little time, then vanishes away. You might not have tomorrow. You might not have any more time. Can you imagine closing your eyes in death and opening your eyes before holy God without Christ? It's easy to be big, bad, and cocky right now and make our boast of why we don't believe him or whatever. It won't be that way in that day.

When a person stands before God, he said they'll cry for the rocks to fall on them. They'll flee into the caves to try to hide. There's too many stones to go over. The real stone of stumbling is Christ. No matter what man's reason is, no matter what his offense is, no matter what he's given as an excuse, the stumbling stone is Christ.

What it amounts to is this. He just won't let go of his works. He won't let go of thinking himself good. He won't let go of his morality. He will not confess, all I am is a sinner and I have to have Christ. That was it. He said, Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, had not attained to the law of righteousness, wherefore, because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, because they stumbled at that stumbling stone. Christ Jesus. Only Christ can make us preach him. Only Christ can make us wait on him. And only Christ can make those we preach to believe on him. And he's gonna get all the glory. for calling us, keeping us, and bringing us and presenting us to God. So he says, you just lift up the standard. And I'm going in with this, that standard. He said there, lift up a standard for the people. Now get the picture here.

When he delivered them out of Babylon and they're going on this highway to Jerusalem, there was millions of people and he divided them into tribes And the leader of each tribe held up a large flagpole with the banner on it. And that's how the people way in the back looked and saw this is, the highway's taking a turn right here, because I see the banner going that way. And so they knew to follow that banner. Our banner's Christ.

It's just like when they came to the River Jordan. And the Lord told the priest, you dip your feet in it, and he said, and you hold the ark up real high, and all the people are far off, just look to that ark. And he dried the river up and they went across on dry ground. This is the same thing with this highway.

Hold up Christ, that's how we look and know this is the way. It's Christ. And that's what he's telling us here. He's the enzyme of the people. He's the banner. Lift him up, preach him. And he said, that's how I'm gonna lead my people to my heavenly mountain.

You know, I was thinking about people trying to mix other things and preach something. Whatever you start preaching, whatever a church starts preaching, that's their banner. If it's anything other than Christ, that's their banner. Our banner's Christ.

And I thought of this illustration. We're from the United States. I love this country. I'm so thankful God made me be born here and raised here. Can you imagine flying a flag of Cuba outside your window and boasting that that's your nation? I can't imagine flying any other flag than the Lord our banner, Christ Jesus, because what he's done for us and how he's made us a citizen of that heavenly Jerusalem, this is the only banner we're gonna fly. So he's the banner. And we'll end right there. We're gonna pick up and go through the rest of this. All right, let's go to him.

Lord, thank you for this word. Thank you for blessing us and keeping us. Lord, make us faithful to believe you. Make us faithful to preach Christ. trust you, we'll call your people, trust you to gather your people here. Lord, make us willing to invite folks and encourage them to come and listen to the gospel. Lord, thank you for this way. Thank you for Christ. Forgive us, Lord, our unbelief and our unfaithfulness and our our unwillingness. Make us willing, Lord. Make us give everything we have of ourselves to proclaim Christ. Make it urgent to us, Lord. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.

Cast Up the Highway

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Cast Up the Highway

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