Well, I want you to come back
with me to Isaiah chapter 27 and the last two verses, though
predominantly the last verse, verse 13 of the chapter. The Gospel Trumpets Call is the
title I've given this message. Last week we were looking at
the first six verses of Isaiah 27. The Israel of God kept in
an alien world. The Israel of God is the people
of God. It's got nothing to do, in these
days it has nothing to do with that political entity in the
Middle East called Israel. Nothing to do with it whatsoever.
I told you last week, the true God, the living God, bestows
no favours on anybody because of race or ethnicity. None whatsoever. None whatsoever. All the blessings
of God are in one place only. And you know what that is. It's
in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is nowhere else. Outside
of Him there is no blessing for eternity. But in Him is all the
blessings of the living God. We're blessed with all spiritual
blessings. Riches beyond measure in eternity. Treasure in heaven. So Israel,
the people of God, live in this alien world, which is the kingdom
of Satan. I hardly need to prove it to
you, it's evident, isn't it? The philosophy of this world,
everything about it is utterly opposed to the God of the universe. Everything about it, as Stephen
said in his prayer, man does not like to retain God in his
knowledge. Oh, there is no God. But you
know what the scripture says? The fool has said in his heart,
no God for me, there is no God. The fool! How foolish, how foolish
to live in a world which is so evidently made by the intelligent
design of a sovereign God and yet live like the vast majority
do, as if there is no God. To live as if there's no... we
don't need a God, we don't need a God to justify our existence,
to explain our existence, we need nothing to do with God,
we want nothing... This is what they say, and you
know it's nothing new because Job said it. You know, the first
book written in the Bible was the book of Job, we think. And
he said, all those years ago, he said, this is what man naturally
thinks. Who is God that I should have
anything to do with him? Who is God that I should listen
to what he says? Who is God that he's got anything to say to me
whatsoever? I know nothing to do with God. I want nothing to
do with him. It's what they call in these days, those of us who
believe are colloquially, mockingly called God-botherers, those who
bother God, whereas the majority of people either think there
is no God or want nothing to do with bothering God. They're
quite happy to go on as they are, but what a foolish position
to be in. But no, God keeps His Israel,
His people, His true people, the Israel of God. He keeps His
people in Christ. He keeps them in this alien world.
Jesus said, I pray not that you will take them out of the world,
that's speaking of His people. He prayed, John 17, the night
before his crucifixion, I pray not that you will take them out
of the world, but that you will keep them from the evil that
is in the world. And do you know what we see?
We see Revelation 13, don't we? And then we see verse one of
chapter 14. the 144,000, the people of God at any one time
in this earth, reigning on Mount Zion with the Lamb, the Lamb
who was slain to save us from our sins. Well, the next block
of verses, 7 to 11, they talk about God dealing with his people
in chastisement. He chastises his people, for
we still live in bodies of sin and we still commit sin and if
we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us. It talks about God's chastisement of his people, that judgment
begins at the household of God. And then in verses 10 and 11,
he compares that chastisement, which is for the good of his
people, he compares it with his strict legal justice, which is
against all false religion. The defense city is talking about
Babylon, and Babylon represents all false religion, all idolatry. And then, And this is what I
want to do, is we come to verses 12 and 13, where we see God's
declaration that he will gather all his Israel by a great gospel
trumpet call to his presence in Zion. Look at it. And it shall
come to pass in that day that the Lord shall beat off from
the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall
be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel, And it shall
come to pass in that day that the great trumpet shall be blown
and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of
Assyria and the outcasts in the land of Egypt and shall worship
the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem. But what is God to
you? What is God to you? I've already
said the majority would say God is nothing to me. God is nothing
to me, I want nothing to do with God. Let's talk about anything
you like, but let's steer off things to do with religion, and
especially true religion. Well, that may be so. God may
today be nothing to you, but there is a day coming when God
will be everything to you, whoever you are. There is a day coming
when God will be everything to you. In verse 12 we read, in
that day. In verse 13 we read, in that
day. In what day? The day of the Lord. The day of the Lord. Not a day
as in 24 hours necessarily, not that only, but a season. And
not any one season, but in any one's experience, any one person's
experience, a season, a time. There will be a time in everyone's
experience, either for good or for bad. Especially for eternal
good, and also for eternal bad. Either a day of great blessing
and liberation, or a day of dreadful trouble and distress. This is
very serious. This is very solemn. A day when
God's power is felt. You see, the living God is sovereign
over everything. He it is that brings down from
a high position, just as it's Him who lifts up from a lowly
position. It is He who wounds and kills. That's not the language of modern
religion, is it? But it's the language of Scripture.
He it is who wounds and kills, and it's Him that heals and quickens,
makes alive. You know Hannah, the mother of
Samuel, and she prayed God for a son, and He gave her a son,
and then in chapter 2 of 1 Samuel, she sings out her prayer of thanksgiving
to God, and in verse 6 she says this, and it's so true, The Lord
kills and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and
brings up from the grave. The Lord makes poor and makes
rich. He it is that brings low and
lifts up. This, this is the God of the
Bible. It's not the God of today's so-called
Christianity. You go round any number of churches,
you will not hear that. The God that they worship is
a God who is more akin to the Baal of the ancient religions
than to the true God of Scripture. No, this is not the God of modern
so-called Christianity, but it is the God of the Bible. One
who is sovereign over all things. And he has a day in everyone's,
without exception, everyone's experience, either for good or
for bad. There was a day with the Israelites,
when they came out of Egypt after the Passover. They came out of
Egypt and the Egyptians firstborn had all been slain by the angel
of death. And the reason they'd been slain
was because the angel of death did not see the blood on the
lintel and the doorposts. But for the Israelites, there
was the blood of a lamb painted on the doorpost and on the lintel.
And when the angel of death saw the blood, he says, I will pass
over. and he didn't come. That was
a just death. In the reckoning of God who is
holy, and man who is sinful, there was nothing unjust about
that. But when he came where the Lamb had already shed its
blood, pointing to Christ, the Lamb of God, who would shed his
blood at Calvary in the fullness of time when that came, and God
sent forth his Son made of a woman, made under the law to redeem
those who were under the law, that's what that blood looked
forward to. When the angel saw it, He passed by, for there was
no need for death, for the sins had been paid for. But for the
Egyptians there wasn't, and they came out. The Egyptians told
them to go, and they got to the Red Sea, and the Egyptians pursued
them because they changed their minds. And there were the people,
the Israelites, crying out to Moses for fear. They're trapped
between the proverbial rock and a hard place. On the one hand,
the Egyptians pursuing to drag them back to slavery, and on
the other hand, the Red Sea there waiting to drown them. as they
went in there. And that day turned out to be
a day of great deliverance for God's people, but a day of great
disaster for the enemies of God. Each and every one of us, young
and old, rich and poor, simple and smart, will experience their
day of the Lord. For it's appointed to all men
to die once, and then the judgment. All men, without exception, And
it calls forth, if there's any movement of the Spirit of God
in you, the question, how can I be right with God for that
day? How can I be right with God?
For God is a consuming fire who must judge and condemn sin. What must I do, as the Philippian
jailer said, what must I do to be saved? I'll tell you what
you must do. I'll tell you what you must do.
One thing only, you must hear what God has done. The gospel
is not what you must do. The gospel is what God has done.
And all you must do is hear it. Hear it. Lord, whilst on others
you are calling, do not pass me by, cause me to hear it. God
has chosen his Israel, his people, from every tribe and tongue and
kindred, a multitude that no man can number, but a number
that is fixed by the eternal God in eternity. He chose them
in electing sovereign grace. Why does it say sovereign? Because
it's his choice, and it's his choice alone. not of the will
of man, nor of the will of the flesh. It's not because of those,
it's the will of God, the will of God. And he did that before
time. And in Christ, when he sent Christ
into the world, when Christ came, the second person of the glorious
Trinity, he undertook to redeem, to redeem, to pay, to buy, to
pay the price to buy, to pay the price to buy the liberty
of those people the Father gave to Him who are sinners in the
flesh deserving of condemnation. And them alone He redeemed. He came to pay the price with
His precious blood of all those, each and every one, and only
those whom the Father gave to Him from before the beginning
of time, to redeem them from the curse of the law. It says
in Galatians 3, 13. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of
the law. What's the curse of the law? Cursed is everyone who
does not continue in all things that are written in the book
of the law to do them, without fail, without any failure whatsoever,
absolute perfection in everything that they do. And if you don't
do that, cursed, says the law. Cursed is everyone who doesn't
continue constantly, all the time, to do it. But Christ has
redeemed us from that just curse. How? By being made a curse for
us. So that the justice of God and
the demand of God that the soul that sins it shall die, that
demand was met for the people of God in the Son of God, the
perfect Son of God. When He shed His infinite precious
blood, the blood as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,
And in his day, the day of the Lord, in that day, he brings
each one, each one of them to experience salvation out of their
sinful condition. Look, it says, verse 12, ye shall
be gathered one by one. He brings each one of them to
experience salvation out of their sinful condition. Now verse 13
tells us how he does this. And it says, it shall come to
pass in that day that the great trumpet shall be blown and they
shall come. The great trumpet, the blowing
of the great trumpet. You know, a trumpet is a very
particular instrument in the orchestra. Those composers writing
music, if they want to do something which is quite stark and calling
to attention, very often it's the trumpet that is used. Very
often, the trumpet. just like in the military I don't
know whether they still do it in the modern military with all
of our modern communications but in the military of a hundred
plus years ago it was the bugle that gave different tunes on
the bugle, different little sets of notes on the bugle, called
the soldiers, called the troops, to do particular things. Either
to go to bed or to get up or to stand in line or to do...
The bugle, the trumpet, called them. Why? Because the bugle,
the trumpet, gives a very clear sound. Michael's not here, he
might be watching. He might be watching, I don't
know. Michael used to play the trumpet, and he got quite good
at it, and I wish he would continue it, but he would tell you that
playing the trumpet noisily is a very easy thing to do. Playing
the trumpet quietly is not an easy thing to do. We used to
be in Welling Garden City Choral Society for one season, and we
love, Christine and I love, four-part harmony singing. There was one
problem with it, that the concerts, all the practices were done with
a very proficient pianist, but the concerts were done with the
Welling Garden City Orchestra, and the strings were OK, not
the best, but they were OK. And the woodwind, there was some
oboe playing and some flute playing, which was very, very good. But,
oh boy, when the brass sounded up, they couldn't play quietly.
Have you heard the expression, it's like a traffic jam in a
Spanish street? You know, when there's a traffic jam in a Spanish
street, what happens? Nobody tries to patiently sort
it out. All the car horns start blowing. It's a very arresting
sound. There's a great trumpet call
in the gospel. A great trumpet call. In Numbers
10, God says to Moses, make thee two trumpets of silver. Out of
a whole piece of silver shall you make them, that you may use
them for the calling of the assembly. When you want to gather everybody
together, don't stand there, Moses, shouting. They won't hear.
Blow the trumpet. The trumpet will call them. And
for the journeying of the camps, blow the trumpet. And in Leviticus
25, verses 9 and 10, we hear about the same trumpet being
blown to announce the jubilee. You know what the jubilee was?
You know, in the economy of God, the number seven is greatly significant. It's God's number of perfection.
And so we have a seven-day week. Isn't that remarkable? in the
secular world, isn't that remarkable? We still have a seven-day week.
I think the Soviet Union tried a ten-day week because they thought
that was more efficient and they had to give up after a while
because the human body couldn't cope with it. We have a seven-day
week. Seven-day week. And seven is very significant.
And there was the Sabbath day. Now, by the way, just as a very
quick aside, Sunday is not the Sabbath in its Christian form.
No. Christ is the Sabbath in its Christian form. Christ is
our Sabbath. We rest in him. We don't just
stop doing things we want to do on a particular day of the
week. We rest in Christ. He's our Sabbath. But there was
also the Sabbath of years. So every seven years, the land
had to be left fallow. And there was enough food provided
from the previous years, but the land had to have a rest.
And then seven sevens, 49, and the 50th year was the year of
Jubilee. That's where we get our royal
jubilees from, you know, the silver, the golden, the diamond,
that's where we get our jubilees from. But the jubilee is a year
of liberty. In those 49 years, People had
gone into slavery because of their debts. People had had to
mortgage their lands. People had had to borrow money
because they couldn't survive without going to those who had
more than them. But the 50th year was the year
of Jubilee and in that year there was a blowing of the trumpet.
And in the blowing of the trumpet there was an announcement. All
the debts are cancelled. All the slaves go free. All who
mortgaged their lands and gave them to another must have those
lands restored to them. You see, it is a glorious thing,
is this year of Jubilee. The trumpet announces it. And
in Luke chapter 4, verses 18 and 19, Jesus comes back. He started his ministry and he
comes back to Nazareth, where he grew up. where he was raised
in the carpenter shop. He comes back there and he goes
into the synagogue and they give him the scroll of Isaiah and
he turns to chapter 60, somewhere around there, when he talks about
this day of jubilee. This is the day, the blowing
of the trumpet of liberty for the captives, of freedom. and
he says this day is this scripture fulfilled in your hearing because
you are hearing the one of whom it spoke come and announce jubilee
jubilee salvation he says it's the gospel the gospel the jubilee
and the trumpet is the equivalent the exact equivalent of preaching
and the gospel. The trumpet is the preaching,
the jubilee is gospel liberation, freedom from the curse of the
law, liberty for the captives, liberty for those who deserve
nothing other than condemnation. So much in our day claims to
be gospel, but it's man-made, it isn't true. It portrays, it
presents a false Christ. I wrote the article last week
in the bulletin How does it present that? It's not that false religion
comes to the true Christ in the wrong way. Their Christ is the
false Christ. He's not... How do you know?
Look at Scripture. Look at Scripture. If the Christ
that they're preaching is a poor pathetic specimen who's trying
to get everybody to believe him, that's not the Christ of Scripture.
For the Christ of Scripture is the one who was to be called
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. No, so
much pedals a false Christ and with it an empty hope. I just
stagger at the dedication of so many people with their religion
when it's an empty hope. but the true biblical gospel
is a declaration. It's not an offer. The true gospel
is not an offer. I know that sounds shocking to
some when I say it, but the true gospel is not an offer. The true
gospel is a declaration of what God has accomplished for his
elect. How do I know if I'm one of his elect or not? You don't
until you believe the gospel. This is what Paul said to the
Thessalonians. How do I know you're the elect
of God, chosen from him before the beginning of time? He says,
it's by sanctification of the Spirit and your belief of the
truth. You believe the Gospel. That's
the testament that you are amongst those that God in sovereign grace
chose before the beginning of time, and that true biblical
gospel is a declaration of what God has accomplished in Christ,
in sovereign grace choosing, in particular redemption, redeeming
those people, in making satisfaction to the offended justice of God,
in setting forth the one who is the substitute and the surety
of his people, in his shed blood, his blood, his infinite precious
blood, the blood of the God-man the blood which is human blood
for the life is in the blood and the soul that sins it shall
die and the blood must be poured out and it must be human blood
and yet it's the blood of the Son of God who is the infinite
Son of God and so therefore it's of infinite value of infinite
value to take away sin And in it, there's a restoration to
the original state. And more than that, if you're
a believer, you're in a better position than Adam was in the
Garden of Eden before he sinned. Because before he sinned, he
was on probation and capable of falling. But believers in
the Lord Jesus Christ are kept, are kept. He will keep his people
to the end. The debts are cancelled, the
sin debts are cancelled. It isn't what Philpott calls
a Galatian gospel, which is no gospel at all. You know, the
Galatians believed the gospel that Paul preached and then the
Judaizers came in and told them that they needed to add their
works to what Christ had already done. They mixed works and grace. They mix the redemption that
Christ has accomplished with their own best efforts at holiness. Is that not what we hear so much
in these days? It's always been the case. The
human heart always wants to do something. The human heart always
thinks it can make a contribution. The human heart is very poor
at just accepting that which God says he's done. Now, nor
is it of man's eloquence It isn't just on the power of persuasion. It isn't just that some are better
at persuading people to accept the offer and believe than others.
No, not at all. God does use appointed men. This
is his appointed method of calling people to salvation through the
foolishness of preaching. But the Holy Spirit of God must
blow that gospel trumpet in individual hearts. He must come, just like
you must be born again, just like You must be born again if
you would see the kingdom of God. You must be born again.
That gospel trumpet must be blown by the Holy Spirit of God in
your heart. How will God bring each of his
elect to know they're citizens of Zion? To know that they're
there in the Holy Mount at Jerusalem? Jerusalem being heavenly Jerusalem,
not physical earthly Jerusalem. Heavenly Jerusalem. How do they
know? by the true gospel preached, it's as arresting as any military
bugle would have been to soldiers of old times. That true gospel
preached when it comes to a sinner who is searching and seeking,
it's as arresting as any military bugle. That gospel trumpet calls
certain people out of this world. Now let's have a look at those
whom, those certain people whom the trumpet calls. It says, they
shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria
and the outcasts in the land of Egypt. That seems an odd way
to put it, doesn't it? Those that are ready to perish
in the land of Assyria and outcasts in the land of Egypt. They shall
come. They shall come. We know where
Egypt is today, but where's the kingdom of Assyria? Well, it
isn't. It's split up and is in a terrible mess at this very
moment. Most of it is modern day Iraq
and Syria and all around that sort of area. It's in a terrible
turmoil. But he says, those that shall
come when that trumpet calls sounds are those who are ready
to perish and outcasts. It only sounds for these because
only they need to hear it. They're naturally enemies. That's
why he describes them not as Israelites but as Assyria and
Egypt. They're ready to perish in Assyria.
They're outcasts in Egypt. They're enemies of God's kingdom,
naturally. They're sinners in the flesh,
naturally. They're like everyone else, but
these are brought by Holy Spirit conviction to feel it. Everybody's... there's non-righteous, no not
one, there's none that does good. God looked down from heaven to
see, it says, before the flood. He looked down and every imagination
of the heart of man was only evil continually. Is it not so
today? That's the specimen, that's the
species. The heart of man is wicked above
all things, deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
Who can know it, says Jeremiah? And they're brought by the Spirit
of God to feel something of the holiness of God. This is it. Nobody has any thought for God,
but they're brought to feel something of the holiness of God. Or that
we might have some sort of sense of how holy the true God is. He dwells in unapproachable light.
cannot look upon sin, he's of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. The God who has made all things
and upholds all things in the very essence of his character
is absolute, utter perfection. Righteousness. What is righteousness? It's everything that God is.
How do we define righteousness? Oh, well, if you do this, that,
and the other, no, no, no, you're not coming close. It's what God
is. What God is. He is holy. And when we see something by
Holy Spirit revelation of what He is, that's when we start to
feel something of what we are. You know, you see the stain on
the white garment when you hold it up against something that
is really white. When you hold it up against the
fresh fallen snow, you see how dirty it really is. You see that
the best fleshly efforts, the very best fleshly efforts, are
as Isaiah says, Isaiah 64 verse 6, they are but filthy rags.
Filthy, what we regard as, oh that was a holy, that was a kind,
good thing to do. No, filthy rags, if done in the
strength of the flesh, brought to feel the power of temptation.
and the weakness of the flesh to resist it. This is what it
is. This is what it is. To be an enemy of the kingdom
of God but coming under the conviction that we're ready to perish. That
we're not amongst them and we're ready to perish. We feel the
power of temptation in the flesh and the weakness of the flesh
to resist it. The proneness of the flesh to
religious idolatry and trusting in the arm of the flesh, fearful
of our eternal state. ready to perish, knowing our
qualification for hell, knowing that if God sends me to hell
now, he's being perfectly just, perfectly just, for he's the
God who has made all things. We only exist because he exists
and because he has given life. And what we are is a complete
affront, a complete offense to the nature of God, and thereby
we're qualified for banishment from the presence of God for
eternity. That's hell. That is hell. And then, those
people, knowing that they're aliens from the kingdom of God,
and they're ready to perish, they're as good as perishing,
they hear the great trumpet of the gospel. And what does that
great trumpet come and do? It announces liberty. Year of
Jubilee. It announces liberty. It's a
great trumpet because they know they're great sinners. It needs
to be a great trumpet. to break through. It's a loud
trumpet to break through, because Satan constantly is blinding
the minds of those who don't believe in the world. They need
a loud trumpet to break through all of Satan's devices and schemes
to block the ears, to block the spiritual ears, not to hear the
Word of God. They're God's elect, because
only God's elect are brought through this experience. They're
God's elect, but they don't know it yet. They can't perish because
they're God's elect, but they feel that they're as good as
perishing. This is what it is. They're as
good as perishing. They're ready to perish. There's
no strength in themselves. They're like the drowning man
who's given up all hope of being saved. They know they are ready
to perish. They say that there's a There's
a place on the Niagara Falls and when you enter that place
you're in a place from which it is said to be unsurvivable.
If you enter that spot you will not survive. Nobody's ever survived
entering that spot because you go over into such a turmoil that
you are bound to drown, you cannot possibly recover from that. And
this is what it is, to feel and know, ready to perish. As good as perishing, has God,
by his grace and in his mercy, troubled you to know that you
are alienated from his kingdom and ready to perish? Because
if he has, let me encourage you, that's a good sign. You see,
Those who are furthest from God in truth think they are nearest
by their own religious worth. We often refer to the Pharisee
and the tax collector, the publican, praying. Jesus pointed them out
to his disciples and the Pharisee was the man who was so proud
of his religious heritage and of his religious good works and
his law keeping. And he stood there thinking that
he was so close to God saying, God I thank you that I'm not
as other men but I do this and I do that and I am justified
by all these wonderful things I do and at least I'm not like
this terrible tax collector. And Jesus said, now look at the
tax collector who would not lift up his eyes, who would not look
up because he was so conscious that he was ready to perish,
ready to perish. ready to perish. And he said,
God be merciful to me, a sinner. Jesus said that tax collector
went away justified and not the other man. But also it says,
outcasts in the land of Egypt, outcasts, cast out of God's sight
for he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. You know
Isaiah himself in chapter six when he had that vision of God.
It was the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ that he saw in the
temple. His train, his robe filled the temple and there was smoke
and there were, I don't know, noises. It was an overwhelming
experience of the presence of God. And Isaiah seeing that,
the prophet of Israel, the prophet of Israel, oh he'd be a holy
man, wouldn't he? Do you know what he cried out? Woe is me.
I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips and
I dwell amongst a people of unclean lips. Mine eyes have seen the
Lord. Job, in chapter 9, verses 30
and 31, he says this, if I wash myself with snow water, there's
no more pure water than snow water, and make my hands never
so clean, you couldn't see a spot on them. Yet, in the estimation
of God, yet shall thou, God, plunge me in the ditch, cast
me out, and mine own clothes shall abhor me." Even Daniel,
you know, of all the patriarchs, you know, Moses killed a man,
Abraham lied about Sarah being his wife, all of them, there's
a litany of painful truth about the sin of God's people, but
of Daniel, we read not a solitary thing against the man, and yet
when he has his vision of Christ, when he's given that glorious
picture of how things shall unfold. Daniel, such that upright man,
and he's an old man by this stage, he said, his life drained from
his body. He fell on the ground as though
he were dead in the presence of such a holy one. Peter, the
apostle, who preached so powerfully on the day of Pentecost. Peter,
the apostle, in the boat when Jesus comes to him, And Peter
sees who he is, and Peter says, Depart from me, Lord, for I am
a sinful man. I'm a sinful man. I can't stand
in your presence. Job, once again, Job had heard,
he tells us at the end of the book, he'd heard about God, but
now his eye has seen, and having seen something of God, he knows
what he is. Him who was so righteous in the
eyes of men before his troubles came upon him, he said, I abhor
myself, I hate myself, and repent in sackcloth and ashes. Outcast,
outcast, with no access to God. Like Ezekiel 16, we read about
the newborn babe cast out in the open field, polluted in its
own blood, and God in salvation comes and washes and washes clean
and clothes. You see, it's only the elect
of God chosen in Christ, redeemed by his blood, destined for eternity,
that God brings to feel that they're ready to perish and outcast. Is that clear? It's only the
elect of God that he brings to feel that they're ready to perish
and outcast. The world is left to its own
comfort, as he says of Ephraim, he says, when they've gone completely
after idolatry, he says, leave them alone, leave them to his
idols, he's gone after his idols, just leave him alone. God leaves
the world to its own comfort and its own consolation, but
his people he brings to feel that they're ready to perish
and outcast, but those God has determined to save from sin,
these ones he brings to know some measure of their true state
as sinners. For them alone the great gospel
trumpet is blown in their hearts. For them alone it announces that
the sin which casts them out and calls for them to perish
has been fully paid by the blood of the Lamb. It's been fully
paid for. The debt has been paid. Have
you heard it? Has it caused you to long for
peace with God? Oh, what a blessing is peace
with God. Peace like a river. When peace
like a river attends my way, it is well with my soul. Peace
with God. And what do they do then? How
do they respond? What's their response to the
trumpet's call? They shall come. Verse 13, they
shall come, and then at the end, and shall worship the Lord in
the holy mount of Jerusalem. And I'll be brief. They shall
come, and they shall worship the Lord. Many hear the gospel
with physical ears, but are only increasingly hardened to it.
There are many who hear the gospel again and again, but just become
hardened to it. They're familiar with it, they
could define it to you, but they only develop a growing disregard
for it. But God's elect, God's elect,
ready to perish and outcast, they're burdened and heavy-laden
with a consciousness of sin. It's a burden on them, like the
burden on Pilgrim's back in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.
They're heavy-laden. They know that they have sinned.
They know that they're great sinners, deserving of total condemnation
from God. But those who are burdened and
heavy laden with sin, Christ bids to come, come unto me, all
you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Come to Christ believing. They obey the gospel trumpet
call, like the soldier in the barracks in the 1800s, hearing
the bugle, would jump out of bed and get there on parade.
They obey the gospel trumpet call. They gladly grasp the full
free forgiveness of sin. They rejoice in the extent of
all that Christ has done for them. Not so with a legal gospel. Not so with a Galatian gospel.
One with any mixture of works, whatever it might be. You know,
there are people who make even the faith of believing a work
that they do. It isn't. It's by grace you are
saved, through faith. Through faith. Faith is just
the means. Faith is just the window through which we experience
the salvation that grace has procured. No, not a legal gospel,
not with anything added to the finished work of Christ. We are
the true circumcision, the true Israel of God, who worship God
in the spirit. We worship the Lord in the holy
mount at Jerusalem. Worship the Lord in spirit and
in truth. who rejoice in Christ Jesus,
because he alone is our salvation, and we have no confidence in
the flesh. Where do we worship? In Zion,
in the holy mount at Jerusalem, the holy mount of Zion. It's
a picture of the church. Zion, city of our God. Glorious
things of thee are spoken. Zion, city of our God. The holy
mount where Christ reigns with his people. You see, true worship
It says they shall worship the Lord. Those who come shall worship
the Lord. True worship is not just something
we do in a slot on a Sunday, or if we meet any other time.
No, it's not that. It's a heart state. It's a constant
state of the redeemed children of God. In the church where Christ
reigns with his people, I've already mentioned it, Revelation
13 is the world in which we live, but Revelation 14 1, there I
saw the 144,000 redeemed ones. stand on Mount Zion in this world. Do you know, as it says in Revelation
1 to 3, the churches in the world, the seven churches, representative
of all churches in all time, and what's happening? Christ
is in the midst of them. Christ is moving amongst the
golden candlesticks, which are the churches witnessing to his
light in this world. This is all of God's grace. pure
and simple. It's all of the sovereign eternal
pleasure of God. His eternal good pleasure. An innumerable multitude are
chosen. An innumerable multitude, every
one of them, saved by grace. What is the will of the Father?
That of all that he has given me, said Christ, I should lose
nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. Everyone. Behold, I and the children whom
he has given me, Behold, I and the... This is Christ speaking
prophetically. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
and lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in, saved by grace through faith, brought to know
the true state in the flesh, ready to perish, and outcasts
aliens to Zion, but called by the gospel trumpet, irresistibly
drawn, by everlasting cords of love. You have loved me with
an everlasting love, therefore with cords of love have I drawn
you. Give a new life from God that gives him, that new life
gives all the glory to God. And the desire of everyone who
has come is that all who have not, that we know and love, that
you would hear it and that you would come too. As I said earlier,
what was that little hymn? Savior, dear Savior, hear my
humble cry. Whilst on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by.