When I stand before thy throne,
dressed in beauty not my own, when I see thee as thou art,
love thee with unsinning heart, then, Lord, shall I fully know,
not till then, how much I owe. Would you turn to Isaiah chapter
52? This evening, Lord willing, I'm
going to be speaking on the parable of the lost coin out of Luke
chapter 15. Let's read verses 7 through 10 together
of Isaiah chapter 52. Now this is the message that
someone will hear with hearing ears and it will cause them to
call upon the name of the Lord. Now, if you and I ever really
call upon the name of the Lord, it will be in response to us
being enabled to hear this particular message. I've entitled this message,
What Do You Hear When You Call? Let's begin reading in verse
7 of Isaiah chapter 52. 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. break 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 the nations, and all the ends of the earth
shall see the salvation of our God. Now, every time we preach, we
must preach the gospel. You see, it's the gospel that's
the power of God into salvation, nothing else. And every time
we preach, whatever the passage of scripture we're dealing with
is, we must preach the gospel. Charles Spurgeon tells the story
of a young man who had preached, and he was feeling very good
about his sermon. And when he was walking home with an older
gentleman, he said, what did you think of my sermon? He was
expecting a positive response. And he said, it's a very poor
sermon. That'd be rough. Be rough. You
know, I don't generally ask people. I might ask Melin, because I
get it. But I don't ask him, what do you think of the sermon?
I'm afraid what people say. He said a very poor sermon. He
said, well, what was wrong with it? He said, did I give a wrong,
wrong interpretation of the text? He said, no, it was right. He
said, what my illustration for? He said, no, they were quite
good. He said, was there anything wrong with my speaking? He said,
no, it was great. He said, well, what in the world
was wrong with it then? He said, you didn't preach Christ. He
said, Christ wasn't in the text. And the old man said to him,
young man, there's an old saying that says every road leads to
London. Every text leads to Christ, doesn't
matter what it is. And your job is to find it. That
was good advice to that young man, wasn't it? And I pray that
Christ will be preached as we consider this passage of scripture.
Now, like I said, this is the passage Paul quotes from Romans
chapter 10, verses 14 and 15. And this is the actual content
of the message that the beautiful feet bring. This passage tells
us what the gospel is. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him that brings good tidings. Why the feet? You know, I don't remember any
time recently looking at a picture of feet. One foot, look, well,
some people have pretty feet, some people have ugly feet, I
know that, but still, there's not much difference between a
pretty foot and an ugly foot, is there? Feet are feet. And
I've not recently seen a picture just of feet, unless it's something
for, you know, some kind of fungal infection or something. Feet
are feet. Why the emphasis on the feet?
Because the emphasis is not on the messenger, but on the message
they bring. That's why. Just the feet. How
beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace. The man who brings this message,
his feet are like yours. They need to be washed. Just
feet. You know, even the seraphims,
when they fly around the throne crying, holy, holy, holy, They
cover their feet, don't they? They cover their feet. They're
ashamed of their walk. Well, how could a seraphim be
ashamed? Well, you know, the scripture says he charges his
angels with falling. They haven't sinned, but they
have the potential to sin. And they would sin if he didn't
keep them from it, and they know it. And so there is a shame involved. How beautiful are the feet? All
it is is feet. of them that bring this gospel
message. Their feet are beautiful because
of the message they bring. It doesn't have anything to do
with them, and that's so important. Paul said, who is Paul? Who is
Paul? A Paulist, but ministers by whom
you believed. We're nothing, nothing. The emphasis
is the message. Now what is the message? Look
with me at verse 7 once again of Isaiah 52. How beautiful upon
the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings. Now the gospel in its very nature
is good tidings. It's good news. It's news. It's not old news. It's new news. It's always fresh. It's always
powerful. The gospel doesn't get old. Now, if I hear the gospel and
it seems old to me, one of two things are true. Either I'm not
hearing it as a sinner or I'm not hearing the gospel at all.
One of those two things are true. If the gospel that I think is
being preached comes as old, it's because I'm not really hearing
in need or I'm not hearing the gospel at all. The gospel is
news. News. It means it's new. It's
something fresh and powerful. And it's good news. The angels announced to the shepherds,
fear not for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy,
which shall be unto all the people. Gospel means good news. Now,
this thing of good news is relative, isn't it? It's relative. What's good news to somebody
is bad news to somebody else. Good news is relative. I think
the most powerful example of that is the year of Jubilee,
when that silver trumpet would sound every 50 years. And can you imagine how that
trumpet sounded if you were a slave? You are not a slave anymore.
If you're in debt, all your debts were canceled. They were gone.
Whatever you lost was restored to you. Can you imagine what
good news that would be? Oh, it sounded like music in
your ears. It was music in your ears. Good
news. But to somebody else, it wasn't
good news. You know, if somebody owed me money and they didn't
owe me money anymore, it wouldn't be good news to me. If I gained
something and it was taken from me and restored to somebody else,
it wouldn't be good news to me. You see, it depended on whether
you felt like you gained from the message or whether you felt
like you lost from the message. You see, if you believe in salvation
by works in any way, the message of grace is not good news to
you. It's not something you can rejoice in. But if you are an evil person with nothing to
bring to the table, the message of free grace is good news to
you. I pray that God will enable and
allow us to hear the gospel as good news, glad tidings of great
joy. The very nature of the gospel
is it's good news. I want to hear the good news,
don't you? Oh Lord, quicken my ears, quicken my heart, enable
me to hear. Now back in our text, how beautiful
on the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,
that publisheth peace. Peace. The gospel is a proclamation
of peace. What did the angels say after
giving the shepherds the message of the good news? We read, and
suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host
praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on
earth, peace, peace, goodwill toward men. Now I'm interested
in this thing of having peace, aren't you? I mean, peace, it's
a great feeling, isn't it? to have peace, to not feel in
turmoil, to not feel unrest, but to have peace. Now the only
reason for the feeling of turmoil and unrest really is sin. If
you take sin out of the equation, You're not afraid of dying, you're
not afraid of anything. If sin is taken out of the equation,
you have peace, don't you? Now, the gospel is a proclamation
of peace. When Peter brought the gospel
to Cornelius, the Gentile, he said, the word which God sent
to Israel, peace by Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. The Lord said
in John 14, 27, peace, I live with you, my peace. I give you. Now, I tried to think
about the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ
has the peace of perfect communion, perfect perfection, perfect acceptance
with the Father. He's got the peace of having
known He's never sinned. He's got the peace of perfect
obedience. What peace there is there. And
the Lord said, my peace, I give unto you. Not as the world gives,
give I unto you. Now the peace the world has to
give is always temporary. And it's not even real, but his
peace. Turn with me to Colossians chapter one. Hold your finger
there and I'll say 52. We're gonna be coming back there in
just a moment. Look in Colossians chapter one. Here's the peace. that is published
in the gospel. Verse 20. And having made peace through
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 sometimes
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
half He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to
present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Now here's peace. First of all,
he made it. Have you made your peace with
God? Absolutely not. He made my peace
with God. He made it. He didn't make it
available. He didn't offer it. He made it. On Calvary's tree, He made my
peace with God, so that God is completely at peace with me. Seeing me as I am in His sight,
because of the blood of the cross, because He reconciled me to Himself,
He made it to where I am holy. and unblameable, nothing to blame
me of. Unreprovable in his sight. And beloved, let me remind you,
his sight is the way things really are. If I'm that way in his sight,
that's because that's I, that's me. Now, this is the publication
of peace. We read in Romans 15, 13 of the
joy and peace of believing. Our Lord said in John 16, 33,
these things have spoken unto you that in me you might have
peace. In the world you'll have tribulation.
You know that so, don't you? Be of good cheer. I have overcome
the world. Romans 5, 1, being justified
literally, having been justified. And that word justified is in
the passive tense. I didn't do anything to get justified.
God justified me. Being justified by faith, we
have peace with God. And let me remind you of something. The peace that I have is founded
wholly on the peace God has. God has peace with me through
Christ, and that's the only peace I have. Now, the gospel message,
when you hear it, it's the publication of peace through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now back to our text in Isaiah
chapter 52, verse 7. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth
peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, repeats it again, that
publisheth salvation. Now, the Bible is a declaration
of salvation. The Gospel is a declaration of
salvation. If I'm ever going to call upon
the name of the Lord, I'm first going to have to hear this declaration
of salvation. Now, understand this about God's
salvation. It's not an offer. It's not an offer. God doesn't
offer you salvation. It's a publication of salvation.
He saved us. He didn't make salvation available.
He didn't make a potential salvation. He saved us. And he called us. with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
were given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. He saved
us. Now, the concept of salvation. What
do I need to save from? Lord, save me. That's calling
on the name of the Lord. What do I need to save from?
Well, first of all, I need to save from the devil. He's a mighty
being and I don't want to have anything to do with him. I need
to be safe from him. I'm no match for him. I need
to be safe from the devil. I need to be safe from myself.
I'm my own worst enemy. I really believe that. And Lord,
don't leave me alone. Don't leave me to myself. I need
to be safe from myself. I need Him to intercept me and
intervene in my life and cause me to do His will. And don't
let me go the way I would go if He doesn't prevent it. I'm
my own worst enemy. I need to be safe from myself.
I need to be safe from my sins. Matthew 1.21 says, Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.
I need to be safe from my sins. And most especially, I need to
be safe from God Himself. He's the one I'm in trouble with.
He's the one who's holy. Fear not them that are able to
kill the body, and after that, that's all they can do. Fear
Him who after hath killed the body hath power to cast into
hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear Him
For the Lord to do something for me, he's first got to do
something for himself. I need to be saved from God himself.
Now, this publication of salvation, salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is by grace. Thank God for his salvation. The salvation Jude calls the
common salvation. Now ask any believer, how were
you saved? Every believer has the immediate response. The only
way I could be saved is by grace. Now, when you ever understand
that, you know what you're going to do? You're going to call upon
the name of the Lord. Now back to our text, the last
statement of verse seven, The beautiful feet that bring these
good tidings, they say into Zion, thy God reigneth. Thy God reigneth. The gospel that causes men to
call upon the name of the Lord is a declaration that God reigns. It's a declaration of the sovereignty
of God. Now listen to me real carefully.
I want you to hear this. Anything less than an absolute
sovereign is no God at all. Anything less then a God who
absolutely reigns in all things is no God at all. You see, God
being sovereign is God being God, isn't it? I love saying
that. God being sovereign is nothing
less than God being God. He doeth according to His will.
In the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay His hand, none can stop Him from doing His will.
or say unto him, what doest thou? Give an account for yourself.
You can't do that with God. You see, he's God, and God exercising
sovereignty is nothing less than God being God. Don't you love
to think of him just willing the universe into existence,
the galaxies, the stars, the universe? He spake, and there
it was. Light be. Light was. That's God
being God. Don't you love him being in absolute
control of everything in providence? that not even a sparrow falls
to the ground without your Heavenly Father, that the Lord is cast
into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord, that
He controls everything and everybody and every event He controls it
because He is sovereign. And we love that, don't we? Oh,
it's good news. It's good news to say unto Zion,
Thy God reigns. You know what? It's also what
the heathen need to hear. Say ye unto the heathen, the Lord
reigneth. It's what everybody needs to
hear. Somebody says, well, let's build a foundation first. Friends,
this is the foundation. It's who God is. God reigneth,
and how especially He reigns in salvation. He has mercy on
whom He will have mercy, and whom He will, He hardens. It's not of Him that willeth,
nor of Him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Now, you and I are in His sovereign
hands. Your salvation, you don't have
any control in it at all, nor do I. Somebody says, accept Jesus
as your personal savior. You know, that's the most ridiculous
thing anybody could ever say. It's not up to you to accept
him or reject him. He's not in your hands. He's
not up for vote. He's the Lord and you're in his
hands and he can do with you whatsoever he's pleased to do.
See, he's the Lord. He's Lord. Say unto Zion, thy
God reigneth. You know, anybody who believes
in free will doesn't believe God. That's all there is to it. God
reigns. Alleluia. The church says in
Revelation 19, five through seven, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to him. You know, this thing of the absolute
sovereign, you've got him reigning. It either makes you real happy
or it makes you real mad. I for one am one who makes it
real. I'm happy about it. I'm so thankful. God reigns. That's the God of the Bible.
That's the living God. He absolutely reigns. Say unto
Zion, thy God reigneth. And what a message of joy and
comfort that is. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to his purpose. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Say in design, thy God reigneth. Verse 8 of Isaiah chapter 52, Thy watchmen shall lift up the
voice, and with the voice together shall they sing, for they shall
see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion. What
is the gospel? It's a message that's universally
agreed upon by all of God's people. They all see eye to eye. They all see eye to eye. Somebody says, well, I don't
agree with what you said. Well, you're not in Zion then. You
see, all the members of Zion see eye to eye. They're all at
complete agreement with how God saves. There's no disagreement. There's no discord, the jaw of
the heavenly melody. There's one Lord. There's one
faith. There's one baptism. You know the very, I was thinking
about this this morning when I was thinking about this point,
the very idea of denominations, Baptists and Methodists and Catholics
and Presbyterians and Church of Christ and all, whatever kind
of denomination you can come up with, it's all, you can't
find that in the Bible. There are no denominations in
the scripture, is there? Not at all. All of God's people are
in complete agreement. Christ is all in salvation. We see eye to eye, don't we?
Now, you see eye to eye, you're gonna call upon the name of the
Lord. Verse nine of Isaiah chapter
52. Break forth into joy. The gospel is a message of joy. Joy. Again, the angel said, I
bring you good tidings of great joy. Paul said in Romans 14,
17, the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but it's righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. You see, God is a God
of joy. He joys in himself. You know, I love to think of,
you know, the Lord rejoicing in himself. He can't help it.
He sees himself as altogether glorious, altogether joyous,
altogether lovely. He rejoices in himself. You know,
I want to say this reverently. God's happy. You know, he's undisturbed by
any opposition against him. He's not worried. He joys in
Himself. He joys in His people. Listen to this scripture from
Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 17. He will rejoice over thee with
joy. He will joy over thee with singing. The Lord sings a song over every
one of His people individually. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
Him, the joy of saving me. He endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the majesty
on high. Because of this, I want to read
a passage from Habakkuk chapter three, verse 17. Habakkuk said,
although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit
be in the vines. The labor of the olive shall
fail, and the field shall yield no meat. The flock shall be cut
off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls."
That's bad, isn't it? That's a bad scenario. Yet, I
will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God. of my salvation. Now, Paul said
rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. And as
long as God reigns, as long as salvation is by grace, as long
as he is, so are we in the world, as long as all things work together
for good to them that love God, we have every reason to rejoice,
don't we? You see, the gospel is a gospel
of joy. Look back in Isaiah 52. Break forth into joy, sing together
ye waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord hath comforted his
people. Now the gospel message is a message
of comfort always to his people. I want you to think about that
and I want to see if you derive, I want to ask myself if I derive
comfort from this message. The message of the gospel is
a message of comfort. He hath comforted his people. Turn back to Isaiah chapter 40. Verse one. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for
all her sins. Now you comfort her with this
message. Her warfare is accomplished. It's over. When he said it is finished. Beloved, it was finished. And your warfare, all the stuff
that goes on through your mind and heart, it's already done. It's finished. Does that comfort
you? I don't know of anything that
comforts my heart any more than those words. It is finished. Soon as I say it, I can feel
tension leave my body. It's finished. Tell her that
her iniquity is pardoned. Don't tell her your iniquity
will be pardoned if you do this, this, this and this. That's not
any good news. You'll be pardoned if you...
Good news is already gone. No, tell her her iniquity is
pardoned. It has already been accomplished. It's already been done. Let me
remind you, this is not an offer of forgiveness, but a declaration
of forgiveness. Let me remind you, salvation
doesn't end with the forgiveness of sins. It begins. It begins. Your iniquity is pardoned. It's forgiven. It's blotted out.
It's canceled. It's put away. There's pardon
for the sins of past. It matters not how black they're
cast. And oh, my soul with wonder view for sins to come. Here's
pardon too. You mean The sins I haven't committed
yet have already been pardoned. Beloved, they were already pardoned
before he committed any of them in Christ Jesus the Lord. Isn't
that what he meant when he said it is finished? A complete forgiveness. He said, you tell her she's received
of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. On the cross, not only were my
sins punished, but full satisfaction was made. Because of what my
Lord did for me, not only do I not get what I deserve, but
I get all that he deserves. I've received at the Lord's hand
double for all my sins. Not only am I forgiven, but I'm
justified. Not only if I'm saved from hell,
I'm made like Christ. Not only am I delivered from
having nothing, I'm given all things." Now, that's comforting,
isn't it? The comfort of the gospel. Turn
back to Isaiah 52. Verse 9, Break forth into joy,
sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem. For the Lord hath
comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. Now, the
message of the gospel is an accomplished redemption. He hath redeemed
Jerusalem. Not he simply made it possible.
He hath redeemed Jerusalem. And this redemption was for a
specific people. He redeemed Jerusalem and not
he will. He hath. He hath. I love the accomplished redemption
of my Lord. It's particular. It's effectual. It's successful. It's limited to the elect. But
that's not a bad term. Somebody says that's a bad way
to put it. Well, everybody limits the atonement some way. If you
believe in free will, you limit it to man's will. I mean, everybody
limits the atonement, but this is a full, free, complete, effectual
redemption. Redeemed, I love to proclaim
it. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Oh, the message of the gospel is you've been redeemed. He hath redeemed Jerusalem from
all his iniquities. And then we read in verse 10
of Isaiah chapter 52, the Lord hath made bare his holy arm in
the eyes of all the nations. Now this represents the power
of the Lord. the omnipotence of the Lord.
And the gospel, listen to me, the gospel is a declaration of
His omnipotence, His mighty power. He's made bare His holy arm. Now, I love thinking about the
omnipotence of our Redeemer. How He's all-powerful. Now, to
be all-powerful, there's two things that you have to be. First,
you have to be able to create. what power it takes to create
something from nothing. And next, to be all powerful,
you gotta be able to do anything you wanna do. Our God is in the
heavens, he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. And how the
Lord's power is revealed in the gospel. The power to make me
to be what I'm not. He makes me to be holy and unblameable
and unapprovable. And He makes me to not be what
I am, a sinner, a sinful man. He makes it to where I'm not
that anymore. Now that takes the power of God. Oh, his mighty arm made bare. That's the Lord I call on. Lord,
save me. Save me by your power. Make me
to not be what I am. Make me to be what I'm not. Only
God can do that. One who is all my... You know,
Christ is called the power of God, isn't he? He's the wisdom
of God and he is the power of God. And notice in 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. What's the ends of the earth
mean? By definition, the word means
the nothings. Those who have nothing to bring
to the table. Do you have anything to bring? Then you're excluded from this
message. Do you have nothing to bring? Nothing. Then this message is for you. You hear this message. The message
of good news, the publication of peace, the publication of
salvation, the declaration that God reigns, the declaration that
all believers believe, they see eye to eye, the declaration of
joy, the declaration of comfort, the declaration of redemption. the declaration of His mighty
bare arm, His power. Now, if you're the end of the
earth, this message is for you. And you know what you're gonna
do when you hear this message? You're gonna call upon the name of the
Lord. Lord, save me. May God put that in the heart
of everybody in this room. Let's pray together.