Open our Bibles now to Isaiah
chapter 52. Isaiah 52. We'll begin reading in verse
one. 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. For thus saith the Lord, ye have
sold yourselves for naught, ye shall be redeemed without money.
For thus saith the Lord God, my people went down aforetime
into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian oppressed them
without cause. Now therefore, what have I here,
saith the Lord, that my people has taken away for naught? They
that rule over them make them to howl, saith the Lord. And
my name continually every day is blasphemed. Therefore, my
people shall know my name. Therefore, they shall know in
that day that I am he that doth speak. Behold, it is I. 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. 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. Pray forth into joy. Sing together,
ye waste places of Jerusalem. For the Lord hath comforted his
people. He hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare his holy
arm in the eyes of all nations. And all the ends of the earth
shall see the salvation of our God. 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.
For you shall not go out with haste, nor by flight, for the
Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your
reward. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we humbly bow. before
your throne of mercy and grace this evening, begging a blessing
from your storehouses of grace. Father, how we beg that you would
meet with us this evening in the person of your spirit and
that you give us an hour of true worship. Father, I pray that
you would be with me as I dare open the word of God to preach
the gospel to the people of God. Father, enable me to rightly
divide the word of truth. Speak to my heart and open my
mouth that I might in clear and simple terms preach the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, be with your people
as we hear. Give us a hearing ear. Give us a believing heart
to receive and believe the word that you would have us look into
this evening. Let us open your word and see
the Lord Jesus Christ and worship him in thanksgiving, awe and
wonder at his matchless person and the perfect salvation that
he's provided so freely for his people. Father, we thank you for this
place. Thank you for the place that you've provided. We're thankful
for this family of believers that you've called out, brought
together. Father, I pray that you would
bless each home with your presence. Bless each home with your leadership. Continue to meet with us and
bless us and supply our needs in the future as you've done
so richly in the past. Father, we're thankful for all
your countless many blessings to us, how thankful we are. And
Father, for those that you brought into the time of trouble and
trial, we do pray for them. We freely confess we are the
most blessed people on the face of the earth. But in this flesh,
we are poor and needy people. We need your grace. We need your
mercy. We need your hand to provide
for us our daily bread. Father, we pray that you would
be with Dale and Amy as they face these treatments. We pray
that you'd be with Ron as the doctors decide the best course
of action for him. We pray for Maggie and Daisy
as Daisy gets ready to go through these treatments, Father, that
you'd undertake on her behalf. She prayed she'd be a sooth,
she'd heal and strengthen her body, Father. And others that
are going through different pressures and difficulties and deep waters,
Father, we pray for them. How thankful we are to know you're
able and that you've promised to be with your people, to never
leave nor forsake them. That when we go through the waters,
you'll be with us. When we pass through the fire, you'll be with
us. that you're able to heal, comfort, and deliver in your
time. Father, bless us, we pray. Let the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ be magnified above all in our service this evening.
For it's in his matchless name we pray and give thanks. All right, here in Isaiah chapter
52, we're gonna begin looking in verse seven this evening.
The title of the message is Good News in Christ. Now, you all
know that the word gospel, it means good news. God has a message
of good news for sinners. And I pray the spirit tonight
will teach us, will show us that the good news of the gospel is
Christ. Not only is all the good news
of the gospel found in Christ, but the good news of the gospel
is Christ. That's what I want us to see
by God's grace this evening. So here's my first point. Christ
is the good news of the gospel because Christ is the messenger
of the gospel. Verse seven, how beautiful upon
the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings.
Now the scene here that's pictured is a walled city. They're in
a, the city's in a bad situation. There's more than likely an important
battle going on nearby that will determine the fate of the city.
If the enemy wins the battle, the city will be destroyed, the
people will be killed or taken captive. All the city is waiting
to hear news from the battle. It's much like David. Remember
when David's forces went out to fight the forces of David's
rebellious son Absalom? David just sat there waiting.
All he could think about was when will he hear news of the
battle? All David wanted to hear was
news of Absalom. And as he waited there, David
had watchmen that were watching the horizon, watching for just
the first sign that a runner was coming, that a messenger
was coming with news from the battle. That's what's going on
here in verse seven. They're waiting to see if God's
going to send a messenger. And will the messenger bring
good news? And this is important because
you remember the prophecy here. Israel is going to be going into
captivity in Babylon. And while they're in captivity,
they're going to be watching the horizon. They're going to
be watching to see, is God sending a messenger? Is God going to
send a message to his people that he's going to set them free
and bring them home? And they're just watching for that messenger.
And the important picture here that's given to us is a picture
of sinners. They're lost and they're in bondage
to sin. They're in bondage to false religion. They're in the bondage to their
own flesh, to the weakness and decay of this flesh. And they're
longing to hear a message from God. Will God send us a message
of salvation and freedom in Christ? They're watching and waiting
to hear. And the watchman, see on the distance, a messenger
approached. He's beginning to approach. And
the watchman see the runner coming and they say, oh, his feet are
beautiful. David was happy to hear that
the running of one of those messengers was a high mass. David said,
well, it must be good news. Because a high mass, he's a good
man. It must be good news. Well, the runner, the watchman
see coming with a message from God. is the Lord Jesus Christ. There at the end of verse six,
he said, I'm he that does speak. Behold, it's odd. This is the
Lord Jesus Christ coming with the message. It's him that speaks
and the watchman see him coming and see he's altogether love. I will see this in a moment.
The news he brings is all about himself. It's all, it's all about
Christ. It has to all be good news. The
news of salvation in Christ is such good news that even the
feet of the messenger that brings that message, even his feet are
beautiful. Now I'm telling you, feet don't
look like much, but if your feet are beautiful, you're beautiful. I mean, that's just, there's
no other way of saying it. That's Christ. He's altogether lovely
and he is the messenger sent from God to men. He's the messenger. We see this all throughout the
Old Testament. Most times when you read in the Old Testament
of an angel making an appearance, most times that angel's Christ. An angel is a messenger. This
is Christ, the messenger of the covenant. He's coming, bringing
the message of grace and peace in Christ, in himself. The writer
to the Hebrews said, God hath in these last days spoken unto
us by his son. Christ is the messenger of the
covenant. Well, what makes his feet so beautiful? Well, I thought
of three or four things. First of all, his feet are beautiful. Because if the son of God has
feet, he had to be made a man. If he's got feet, he had to be
given a human body and a human nature. Now you can look a long
time and you can't find anything more beautiful than the son of
God humiliating himself to take on him flesh and become a man
so that he could be the representative of sinful men. So he could be
the savior of sinful men by the sacrifice of himself. His feet
are beautiful because if he's got feet, he became a man to
be the savior of sinners. Second, the feet of Christ are
beautiful because it's his feet that carried him to his people.
You know, in this day, feet were the most common means of transportation. If you're going to go somewhere,
you're going to hoof it. You'd walk them. Well, Christ
came on a long journey, didn't he? Deity was made flesh. Longest journey that ever has
been taken. And Christ came on that journey for a purpose. He
came to bring good news to his people. He came to bring the
good news of the gospel. The man Jesus came walking on
all those mountains that surround Jerusalem. And he preached to
people. He preached the gospel. He brought
the gospel to people in those mountains. The Sermon on the
Mount. Christ walked on that mountain.
Found a place to sit down and teach the people. He taught them
the gospel. And he's still coming to his people. There are huge
mountains of our sin and rebellion that separate us from God. But
Christ our Savior came walking over all of them. In Song of
Solomon, Solomon described Him as leaping and skipping over
the mountains, all in order to bring salvation to His people,
to bring the news of salvation in Him. And if you're in bondage,
those are beautiful feet because they bring a beautiful message. I thought of a mountain, a specific
mountain, that the feet of our Savior brought Him to. The feet
of Christ carried him to Mount Calvary where his feet were nailed
to a cross. And that's the third way that
the feet of Christ are beautiful. Because in order to bring good
news of salvation to His people, Christ had to purchase that salvation. And the way Christ purchased
salvation for His people is by giving His human body. The Son
of God was made flesh and He gave that body And he also gave
his human soul as a sacrifice for the sin of his people. When
the father made his son sin, Christ the Savior took the sins
of his people into his precious, perfect body on the tree, and
he put it away through the sacrifice of himself. Not just the sacrifice
of his body, but the sacrifice of his soul, the sacrifice of
his whole self Look across the page, Isaiah 53, I'll show you
that, verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin. In verse 11, he shall see the
travail of his soul and be satisfied. The sufferings of Christ were
soul travail. That's how he put away the sin
of his people, through the sacrifice of himself. Then fourth, the
feet of Christ are beautiful because those are the feet of
the messenger who brings good tidings. Jeanie doesn't offer
them, he brings them. Oh, he brings them. Christ doesn't
come and tell his people, I got some good tidings for you. If
you'll, you know, fulfill certain rules and regulations, if you
walk an aisle, if you'll be baptized, if you join the church, Christ
doesn't come and tell his people about a possibility of anything.
He brings good news to his people. He puts that good news in the
heart of his people by applying the blood of his sacrifice to
their heart of the new birth. He puts it in. He puts that good
news in his people by giving them a new nature and him dwelling
in them. He brings good tidings to his
people. He's the messenger. of the gospel. Second, Christ is the good news
of the gospel because Christ himself is our peace. See here
verse 7, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him
that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace. Now Christ
the messenger of the gospel brings good tidings and that gospel
publishes peace. That gospel declares that Christ
is our peace. Now that's good news because
there's a war going on. Man has declared war on God. Now you'd think, I'd like to
watch a history channel and these stories about World War II. I
see the world then was nothing like today. You know, today if
we were watching for news, we'd be watching on our phone or the
internet or something. People, they had to wait for
the newspaper to come out. They had to wait on news. Well,
there are dark days that kept getting bad news, kept getting
bad news. The headlines were not good. The man's declared
war on God Almighty. You can't expect anything but
bad news. By our sin, by our rebellion,
we've started a war we can't win. You're not going to take
God off his throne. You can't win that war. We've
made God our enemy. God who has all power, who has
all authority, you'd think in justice he'd simply destroy us
and that's the end of it. That's the only good news we
can expect because of the war we've started. But that's not what God's done.
In infinite mercy and grace, God chose some of those rebels
to save. He chose them and he chose to
pay their sin debt with the blood of his own son. He told him he
chose to make them righteous by giving them the righteousness
of his son. And through the sacrifice of
Christ, through the blood of Christ, Christ removed the sin,
the sin of his people that made God angry. And now God's not
angry anymore. He's at peace. Let me show you
that Colossians chapter one. God's at peace because the blood
of Christ removed the sin that offended him. Colossians 1 verse
20. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross. Christ has already made peace
with God through the blood of his cross. That's how God is
at peace with his people. God's not at war with his people
anymore because the blood of Christ removed their sin. But
if there's going to be true peace, both warring parties have to
be at peace, don't they? Those warring parties have to
be reconciled so they become friends. Well, God's reconciled
by the blood of Christ and God reconciles his people to himself
with the very same blood. Look on here now, Colossians
1 verse 20. And having made peace to the
blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself,
by him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in
heaven. And you that were sometime alienated, enemies in your mind
by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of
his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and
unreprovable in his sight. That's the peace that Christ
publishes. He applies that peace with God
by applying his blood to the hearts of his people. He sprinkles
his blood on the hearts of his people in the new birth. And
they're at peace. God's at peace because the sin's
been removed. His people are at peace because
they've been given a new heart. And there's peace. That peace
is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our peace. Well, here's
the third point. Christ is the good news of the
gospel because Christ is the righteousness that is declared
in the gospel. Always be careful. Don't just
talk about the gospel declaring a righteousness. That wouldn't
be accurate. The gospel declares Christ our
righteousness. Isn't that what he says in verse
seven? That bringeth good tidings of good. Now that word good,
good tidings of good, it means men and women who are good. All of us are the opposite of
that, aren't we? We're all sinners. We're not good, we're completely
bad. Everything we do is bad. We're completely corrupted by
sin. So how can sinners like us be
made good? Only in Christ our righteousness.
Now Christ, the son of God, was made a man. And he was made a
man to be a representative man. And what that means is a representative
man, he represented somebody, didn't he? He represents his
elect. Now there's only one other representative
man. The first representative man
was Adam. Adam represented his race, the whole human race. And
the whole human race did whatever Adam did because he's our representative. When Adam sinned, all of us sinned. When Adam died, all of us died. When Adam sinned, we became sinners. Now we didn't just become guilty
of sinning. We didn't just have sin legally
imputed to us even though we never sinned. We became sinners. We received a nature of sin when
Adam sinned. We became sinners through and
through. Yes, his guilt was legally imputed to us, but we also received
a sin nature when Adam sinned. We received the nature of our
representative. But then in the fullness of time,
Christ came as a second Adam, as the second representative
man, as the representative of his people. And whatever the
Lord Jesus Christ did, His elect did because He's their representative.
When Christ was perfect, His people were perfect. When Christ
died to the law, His people died to the law. When Christ was raised
again for their justification, they were raised again to newness
of life. Now when Christ obeyed the law perfectly, He made His
people righteous. not just legally righteous. Now
there's not only a legal righteousness that's imputed to them. They
were actually made righteous. They're given a righteous nature,
the nature of our representative. Christ made his people righteous.
The exact same way Adam made his people sinners. Now can I, that's so, but can
I show you that from scripture so you believe it? Look at Romans
chapter 5. Now that's so, this is important.
It's so, and I don't want you to believe it just because I
said it, I want you to believe it because God says it. Christ made his
people righteous the exact same way Adam made his people sinners.
Romans 5 verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man, by
Adam, the first representative man, sin entered into the world,
and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned, all sinned in Adam. Now verse
15. But not as the offense, so also
is the free gift. For through the offense of one,
many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace,
which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And
not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment
was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses
under justification. For if by one man's offense death
reigned by one, much more, they which receive abundance of grace
and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus
Christ, the second Adam, the second representative man. Therefore,
as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation,
Even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon
all men under justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one, shall many
be made righteous. You see, God's elect are not
just declared to be legally righteous, are they? It's more than that.
They're made righteous. Given their righteous nature,
their righteous They're made the righteousness of God in Christ.
And not someday. Right now. When did you become
a sinner? Was it sometime after you were
born and you first sinned? Nope. It's when Adam sinned. That's when you were made a sinner,
isn't it? That's what Scripture says. But when is a believer
made righteous? When we awake in glory in a perfect
body? No. in Christ. When Christ made us righteous,
if you believe Christ right now, you'll never be more holy or
more righteous than you are right now. You've been made that in
Christ. You've been given the nature
of your representative. Now that's good news because
without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. No man shall be
at peace with God. So Christ is the righteousness
that the gospel declares. Fourth, Christ is the good news
of the gospel because Christ is the salvation of his people.
Back in our text in Isaiah 52 verse seven, that bringeth good tidings of
good that publisheth salvation. Christ publishes salvation because
salvation is in him. Salvation is not in our obedience
to the law. We don't make ourselves saved
or savable through our religious activity or by doing the best
we can do. Salvation is in Christ because
Christ is our salvation. Christ saved his people by becoming
their substitute. He saved his people from sin
by taking their sin away as their substitute. Christ saved his
people from the curse of the law. by being made a curse for
them as their substitute. Christ saved his people from
eternal death by dying for them as their substitute. And Paul
said in Romans 10 verse 13, for whosoever should call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, why will anybody who calls
on the name of Christ and believes Christ, why will they be saved? How can Paul be so sure? Because
Christ is salvation, that's why. Everything that was required
for salvation to be accomplished was accomplished in Christ. So
all it takes for the sinner to be saved is to believe Christ.
For by grace are you saved, through faith. Just believe in Christ. And that, not of yourselves,
it's a gift of God. Christ didn't come to make salvation
possible for anybody who might choose to accept it. He came
to save his elect. He came to publish their salvation. The angel said, you call his
name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. And
do you know Isaiah saying the exact same thing? He shall save
his people, his bride, from their sin. The word salvation is in
the feminine form, which tells me Christ came to save his bride,
the bride that he loved, that he betrothed himself to. He came
to save his people from their sins. He is their salvation. Now here's the fifth thing. Christ
is the good news of the gospel because Christ rules as king
to guarantee their salvation. He says here at the end of verse
7, that saith unto Zion, thy God reigneth. Thy God reigneth. Now that's important for us to
believe and understand that Christ is King. He's the monarch over
all. I understand the flesh hates
that because the flesh does not want to bow to King Jesus and
beg Him for mercy and beg Him for salvation. But the elect
who've been given a new nature, they love to hear that Christ
is King. That's the foundation of their
hope. He's King. And this makes preaching very
simple. God says, you just say this to Zion, thy God reigneth. When you preach the gospel, you
declare the sovereign savior. And that's good news because
the gospel cannot be good news to a sinner. If Christ does not
reign as king, if Christ is not a sovereign savior who will accomplish
his will, there's no good news for a sinner. Christ cannot bring
salvation to the hearts of His people unless He reigns as King
over all flesh. Thy God reigneth. Christ couldn't
keep the peace. He couldn't keep war from breaking
out in the hearts of His people again unless He reigns as King
in their hearts. Thy God reigneth. Christ could
not make His people something they're not. He couldn't make
them righteous. He couldn't do What's impossible? Unless he reigns as absolute
king, always doing his will. Christ could not save his people
from sin, death, hell, and Satan, unless he is king who rules over
sin, death, hell, and Satan. And Christ tells his people to
trust him. Trust him to save us, trust him
to keep us. Well, we'd have no reason to
trust him. Unless he's king, he'll do what he says he'll do.
He's got all authority to do as well. How many times in our
study in Isaiah have we read Isaiah say not fear, not fear,
not fear, not fear, not. Brethren, we have every reason
to fear. If Christ is not king, but you
say design, thank God reign. So fear not fear, not he's king. Christ reigns as King everywhere,
all the time in creation. When God spoke this world into
existence, Christ reigned as King. He made it exactly as He
will. Christ reigns in providence.
Every event, from what we call big events to what we just say
are insignificant events, every event that's ever happened on
this planet has happened under the direct control of Christ
the King. He reigns in providence. Christ
reigns in salvation. He'll save whom He will, when
He will. And whoever He wills to save
cannot be lost because thy God reigneth. Now Christ reigns everywhere. So everywhere you go, you say
to yourself, Christ reigns. You get in the car to go to work
in the morning. Maybe better yet, when you wake up and you're
bleary eyed, you got to get yourself out of bed to go to work in the
morning. You say to yourself, Christ reigns. When you lay down
to sleep at night, tonight, when you lay down to sleep, you say
to yourself, Christ reigns. When the Lord just showers you
with blessings, you just, oh, you're so thankful. for the blessings
he's given you. You say to yourself, Christ reigns. And when the Lord sends trials
and you suffer pain, you suffer fear, you suffer weak faith.
You say to yourself, Christ reigns. He's on the throne. When you
enjoy fellowship or you have times of loneliness, whatever
two opposites you can think of, whatever situation you find yourself
in, you say to yourself, Christ reigns. Thy God reigneth. If you desire to see sinners
saved, if you desire to see sinners bow at the feet of Christ, then
you preach to them this message, Christ reigns. Now you bow before
him. If you desire to correct God's
people, to encourage God's people, you preach to them this message,
Christ reigns. If you desire to comfort the
hearts of God's people, you preach to them this message, Christ
reigns. That's the gospel. King Christ
reigns. And this is the message that
every one of God's servants preach. Look here at verse 8. Thy watchman
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. Now the watchman here, these
are the men who are stationed on the wall, and they're watching
for the messenger. And the messenger comes up to
the wall, tells them the news, and they turn around and tell
the people exactly what they just heard. The watchman is just
repeating what they've heard. That's their job. And they're
all gonna lift up their voice together. They're all going to
say the exact same thing. They're going to all sing the
exact same song. He says here, they shall see
eye to eye. That means they're all going to agree. They're all
going to agree on the message because they all got their message
from the same person. Their message all is the same
person. And yes, they'll agree. Every one of God's servants,
every one of God's people, they all agree that man is lost in
sin and he can't do anything for himself. Every one of God's
people agree that the only way a sinner can be made righteous
is in Christ our righteousness. Not by any works of our own.
We don't add to it. Nothing of our own. It's all
in Christ. Every one of God's people agree.
There could be no salvation without faith in Christ. There can be
no salvation without a new birth. If you're not born again, you're
not saved. I heard somebody the other day talking about this
fellow, born again Christian. Well, there can't be any other
kind. The only saved people are born again. It's impossible to
be saved without the new birth. Every believer, I don't care
where you find them, they all agree. that they cannot be lost,
they cannot perish, they cannot fall away if Christ already died
for them. It's a sure salvation. Now look
here in Romans chapter 10, we read this to open the surface.
The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the church at Rome, quotes
Isaiah here, but you'll notice he says something a little different.
Romans 10 verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call
on him in whom they've not believed? See, that's the necessity of
faith. How shall they believe in him in whom they've not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they
preach except they be sent? As it's written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. Now Isaiah was talking about
Christ the messenger. He's the one that brings the
gospel of peace and the glad tidings of good things. But here,
Paul applies what Isaiah says to Christ the messenger to all
of God's preachers. And you know he's right to do
it. He didn't do any violation to the scripture to say that.
Because God's preachers are the watchmen. They're not making
up the messages as they go along. All they're doing is repeating
the message that Christ the messenger gave them. They're just repeating
it. They're just repeating the good news of Christ that they
received from Christ. So they all have one message.
Back to our text. They all have the same message.
Their message is Christ. The Old Testament prophets, the
New Testament apostles and preachers today all agree and have the
same message. Verse nine. Break forth into
joy. Sing together, ye waste places
of Jerusalem, for the Lord hath comforted his people. He hath
redeemed Jerusalem. All God's preachers, they have
the same message. And they preach to sinners who
are lost. He says here, ye waste places
of Jerusalem. That's us by nature. That's our
soul and hearts by nature. They're just, they're waste places.
They're garbage dumps. They're a desert where nothing
can grow, where everything's dead. But he says, you waste
places. You have nothing good in yourself. You break out into joy when you
hear the message of Christ. And notice this, the message
that saves is the same message that comforts the hearts of God's
people. He says, the Lord hath comforted his people and he hath
redeemed Israel. How? by him publishing, bringing
good tidings and publishing peace that brings good things, good
tidings of good that publishes salvation. They say undesigned
by God reigneth. He comforts and redeems his people
through the preaching of Christ. So just preach Christ. Just preach
Christ. God will see to the results.
God will make sure his sheep hear his voice. Verse 10. 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. The Lord's going to reveal himself
in power. And he talks about bearing his
holy arm. He means like a soldier in that,
you know, they wore those loose robes and that soldier roll up
that sleeve and bear that arm so he could swing the sword or
whatever weapon he used. How does God bear the mighty
arm? of the Lord Jesus Christ in saving
power through the preaching of the gospel. He's going to save
his people in power through the preaching of the gospel. When
he bears his arm, his people shall be saved. When he bears
that mighty arm, his people shall be comforted. Now here's the
reaction that God's people have when they hear the message of
Christ with faith. Someone may wonder, well, everybody here, without exception,
everybody has heard the gospel many times, without exception,
everybody in this room. How do I know if I've heard the
gospel? How do I know I've heard Christ
speak through his word with the ear of faith? Well, first of
all, If you've heard the good news of Christ, in Christ with
the ear of faith, you will refuse to trust in yourself. Verse 11. Depart ye, depart ye. Go ye out
from thence, touch no unclean thing. Go ye out from the midst
of her, be ye clean to bear the vessels of the Lord. Now the
unclean thing he's talking about here is your own righteousness,
your own doing, your rags of righteousness. If you wouldn't
dare trust in your own righteousness and your own doings of the law,
if you wouldn't depend on anything you've done for any of your salvation,
but you're forced to trust Christ completely because you've got
nothing good to offer, then you've heard the good news of the gospel
of the ears of faith. Anybody that's ever seen Christ
with the eye of faith will not trust in themselves. but they'll
trust only and completely in him. Here's the other reaction
to truly hearing the gospel through your faith. It's confidence in
Christ. Verse 12, you should go, you
should not go out with haste nor go by flight for the Lord
will go before you and the God of Israel will be your reward. Now, when I say you're, if you've
heard the gospel, you have confidence in Christ. If you've heard with
faith, if you've seen Christ by faith, you have complete confidence
in Christ. Now that doesn't mean that you'll
never fear, that you'll never doubt, that you'll never feel
weak, because that's all this flesh is. I mean, we're still
in the flesh. It's full of fears and doubts
and weaknesses, and it always will be. It's never going to
get any better. But in the new birth, there's a new man born,
and that new man He has faith in Christ. And he has no reason,
he knows there's no reason for him to be in fear if he believes
in Christ. So the believer doesn't have
to run out the back door in fear like a criminal. We were watching,
I like these police shows, you know, this guy took off running
the other day and Jan said, now where do you think he, where
does he think he's going? If you were running out the back
door, where do you think you're going? You're going to run from
God? You're going to run from His justice? You don't have to
go out the back door in fear. You go out the front door with
full confidence in Christ, with nothing to fear, with no shame,
because Christ is your Savior. Christ the Savior has satisfied
the law. Then don't you fear the law?
He satisfied it. Christ has established righteousness
for his people. Then don't you fear coming into
God's presence. Now you come reverently, you're
coming before God, but you come boldly because Christ has already
established righteousness for his people. At Calvary, Christ
crushed Satan's head. He crushed his power. Then don't
fear him. Don't pick a fight with him.
Don't go looking for him, but don't fear him either. Christ
has crushed his head. Don't fear anything in this life.
The trials of this life, don't fear them. Now, they're painful. Absolutely they are. But you
remember this, thy God reigneth. These things are under the direct
control of our Savior. Then we have nothing to fear,
do we? The sting of death has been removed when Christ died
as a substitute for his people. Then the believer has no reason
to fear death. Fear death, not if Christ died
for you. And don't ever fear falling away. Now, I say that even though that's
every believer's greatest fear, that I'm going to fall away.
But don't you fear falling away from Christ because no one for
whom Christ died can be lost. It's impossibility. This word
re-reward, you know what that means? It means to gather, or
to fetch. This is the promise of Christ
our Savior. He will gather all of His little
ones to Him and we'll struggle from time to time. We fall off
the pace. We might wander off, you know,
into the ditch or something. But don't you worry. Christ is
our re-reward. He will gather together all those
who wander off, all those who become lost He himself, who cannot
fail, will gather them and fetch them. So don't you fear. Don't fear. Don't retreat in
fear. Go forward in full assurance
of faith in Christ, who is the good news of the gospel. We don't
go forward in any confidence in ourselves now. Go forward
in full assurance of faith in Christ, who is the good news
of the gospel. All right, let's bow in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for your son, the unspeakable gift of your son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. How we thank you that he is the
savior of his people. He's the good news of the gospel
that we preach because he is the gospel that we preach. Father,
I pray that you would reveal your son to the hearts of your
people gathered here together this evening. reveal Christ to
our hearts, that we might be saved, that we might be comforted,
that we might be assured, that we might be strengthened in faith
and confidence in Him. Salvation in Him is sure and
certain and cannot be lost. And Father, we're thankful. We
break out and sing praises of joy and thanksgiving as your
people of old for Christ our Savior. Father, bless Your Word
for His sake, for the sake of Your Son, and for the good of
Your people, we pray. For it is in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, for His glory and for the good of His people,
we pray.