Okay, Lord willing, this evening
we'll take a look at Isaiah 52 verse 7. How beautiful, how beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings. The man that would bring the
gospel message unto us. Well, that's a wonderful thing.
That's a beautiful thing. God has ordained the preaching
of the gospel to call out his people. So that's a good thing. The Lord would send the gospel
preacher that bringeth good tidings, that publish peace, that bringeth
good tidings of good, none good but God, bring good tidings of
God who is good, that publish and declare and preach salvation. Salvation. We know that salvation
is by the free and sovereign grace of God. Salvation by the
grace of God in Christ. That saith unto Zion, that's
the Lord's people. That's the Lord's city. That's
the Lord's church. What do they say? God reigns. Thy God reigneth. Now, I don't
know how many times that is written in the scripture. There's a reference
there to 1 Chronicles 16.31, and it repeats that again. We've seen that message repeated
in our study in the Revelation, haven't we? Hallelujah, the Lord
God Omnipotent reigneth. God is God. He reigns and rules
over all things. So I'm entitling the sermon this
evening, The Gospel Preacher's Message from the Words Found. And we'll just look basically
at verse 7. What is our message? What is
our message? It's not that God loves everybody,
that's not our message. God is love, but the love of
God is revealed in Christ, manifested in Christ. It's not that Christ
died to make salvation a possibility, or that the Lord Jesus Christ
died to make an effort to save everybody, that's not our message.
The message of salvation is salvation accomplished by the Lord Jesus
Christ. God is not trying to save everybody
and give his best effort to save everybody, that's not our message
either. Those who preach things of universal atonement, universal
love, and God trying but can't, they are false preachers. And those that believe their
lies are yet dead in their sin, and we know the Scriptures teach
that no lie can be the truth. No lie is truth. God does not
use the lies of men and half-truths of false preachers to teach men
the gospel truth. You cannot learn the truth by
listening to a lie. That's impossible. In the courts
of men, when someone does not tell the truth, When they raise
their hands and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth, so help you God, I do. In the courts
of men, when someone does not tell the truth, they're charged
with perjury. Perjury, which is a pretty severe,
serious crime. When we don't tell the whole
truth of salvation before God, He charges us with treason. treason,
and blasphemy before God. That's a terrible thing to be
charged with. The Apostle Paul, writing to
the believers there in the epistle to the Romans, and encouraging
sinners to call upon the name of the Lord for salvation, quotes
this passage and applies it to gospel preachers. Gospel preachers. We place, as the scriptures do,
we place great importance upon the preaching of the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Not just upon preaching, but
upon preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's
a difference. There's a difference. There's
a lot of preachers. Woods are full of preachers.
Preachers everywhere. Everybody is a preacher of some
kind. But we know that it pleased God
through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. God
sends out his gospel ministers. He said, I charge you to go everywhere
and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth,
what? Believeth the gospel. He that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved. The Apostle Paul asked
those important questions there in Romans chapter 10. Don't turn
back there, let me just read it to you. How then, he said,
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Call upon the name of the Lord, who he is, what he's done, shall
be saved. But how shall they, how then
shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? How shall
they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach except
they be sent? God sends out gospel preachers
with the message of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. You
cannot call and believe upon someone that you have never heard
of, can you? You can't call upon an unknown,
unrevealed Christ. That's why God has ordained the
preaching of a gospel, the true gospel of Christ, to the salvation
of his people. You must hear and believe the
true gospel in order to know and believe the truth. Now that
just makes common sense, doesn't it? It is necessary to hear the word
of truth in order to be saved in the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle writes this, who
then is Paul? Who then is Apollos? But ministers
by whom you believe. even as the Lord gave to every
man. And then he said, I planted upon
us water, what? The word of God, but it's God
that gives the increase. So we do not discount the means
that God has ordained. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the word of the Lord. So there must be a preaching
of the true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ And that's what
God has ordained to call out his people. It's the means that
God has ordained. So then what is our message?
What are we to preach? Well, I think this one verse
right here pretty well sums it up. Isaiah 52, seven. Pretty well sums it up. The first
thing we learn is about the importance of preaching. How beautiful upon
the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,
that bringeth good tidings of good. How beautiful, how wonderful,
how gracious God is to send us a faithful, God-called, God-taught
preacher of the gospel. God says of them that they're
blessed, their feet are blessed. Their feet carry them where they
go. I came in here this evening walking upon my feet. The Lord
has given us feet to walk. They are, that is, God's preachers
or sinners with a message to other sinners about the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We preach not ourselves, as Paul
said, but ourselves your servant for Christ's sake. For God, who
commanded the light to shine in the darkness, has shined in
our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Preaching is one beggar telling
another beggar where he found bread. And the Lord Jesus Christ
is the bread of life. He's everything in salvation.
One of the greatest blessings God gives unto His people is
a faithful gospel preacher who is not afraid of the frowns of
men, but he's bold in the Lord to preach the gospel truth. We
don't preach the gospel to please men. If we preach to please men,
we're not the servants of God. We preach His word. Thus saith
the Lord. Whether men frown or whether
men smile, it makes no difference. God's servants are bold to declare
unto all the counsel of God, declare unto all people the eternal
purpose and counsel of God, keeping back nothing that is possible
unto you, preaching publicly and privately repentance toward
God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We boldly declare the
message that there is salvation in none other than the Lord Jesus
Christ. These are men who were sent of
God with God's gospel message. Turn back over here to Isaiah
40 for just a moment. Isaiah chapter 40. And here we
see again what the message is. Isaiah 40 Look at verse 6 Isaiah
40 verse 6 and the boy said cry, and he said what shall I cry?
What shall I preach all flesh is grass you see that and all
the goodness thereof is as a flower the field the grass withered
the flower faded because the spirit of the Lord blows upon
it surely the people's grass and The grass withers, the flower
fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. All flesh,
sinful, guilty flesh, but the word of the Lord shall stand
forever. Look at verse nine, Isaiah 40,
verse nine. O Zion, that bringeth good tidings,
get thee up into a high mount. O Jerusalem, that bringeth good
tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up, be not
afraid. saying to the cities of Judah,
behold, you're God. So there's a threefold message
right there. All flesh is grass. The Word of the Lord endures
forever, and behold, you're God. It says repeatedly in the book
of Isaiah, our God said, I am God, beside me there is no other.
The only just God and Savior. The gospel preacher is the watchman. Notice, he's called the watchman
here, In Isaiah 52 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. They lift up their voice. The
gospel preacher is the watchman. The watchman. In ancient times
when The cities were walled around with high stone walls. There
was a watchman on the wall, and when he saw the enemy approaching,
he would sound an alarm. The enemy's coming! The enemy's
coming! If he didn't cry out, well, he'd
be in big trouble, and the city would be in big trouble. As the
watchman that the Lord has given to us here, As the watchman of
Zebulun Grace Church, the Lord has called me to this position,
this office, if you will, to pastor this church. The messenger
that God has sent unto us and unto you were to warn of the
dangers around us and to tell us, to tell you to look. unto the Lord Jesus Christ for
all of salvation. So I'm to warn you, warn you,
and then to point you to flee from the wrath to come and to
point you to the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's an important thing and
it's a blessed thing to have a watchman. I have a watchman
here. And I pray to the Lord when my
days are done here and my ministry is over, that the Lord would
be pleased to send another watchman. Another watchman. Another preacher
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the second thing
I want to see in verse 7 is this. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings of good things. Good tidings of good things.
The gospel of Christ is the good news. Good news to who? Who's the gospel good news to?
To the guilty. The gospel is good news to the
guilty. The Lord Jesus Christ died for the ungodly. Good news
to the guilty. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ
for all of salvation. There is mercy for the miserable.
There is grace for the guilty. There is salvation for who? Our Lord said, I didn't come
to call the righteous sinners to repentance. The Lord Jesus
Christ, in due time, when we were yet without strength, the
Lord Jesus Christ died for the ungodly. We studied in 1 Timothy
1. This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, the Lord Jesus Christ came to save
sinners. He came to seek and to save the
lost. We declare good news. The good
news of God manifests in the flesh. Why did He come? In the
fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. He is
our Redeemer. We declare the good news of God
manifest in the flesh without controversy. Great is the mystery
of godliness. Think of it. God was manifest
in the flesh. God, who inhabits eternity, inhabited
the body of a real man and dwelt among us. And John said, we beheld
his glory. The glory of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and full of truth. We declare
to you the good news that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
all of God's purpose. Remember, he prayed, Lord, I
finish the work you gave me to do. Everything that God sent
him to do and God's eternal purpose as a lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ perfectly accomplished
all the will of God. We declare the good news that
the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our salvation by The sacrifice
that he gave for our sin, and he said on Calvary 3, it's finished. I've done it. I've completed
everything God gave me. I've put away the sin of God's
people. I've established righteousness
for them. We declare unto all that will
hear the good news that the Lord Jesus Christ justifies the ungodly
by his sovereign, free, Grace alone. Grace alone. Grace alone. Grace always. For by grace are
you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it's
a gift of God. God justifies sinners freely
by His grace through the redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace, grace, grace alone. Grace chose us in that eternal
covenant. Grace called us out of darkness
into His marvelous light. Grace transformed us and made
us new creatures in the Lord Jesus Christ. God's purpose and
grace given us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the
world. We declare good news. That's good news, is it not?
That's good news. We declare unto sinners, unto
you, the good news. that salvation accomplished and
righteousness established and imputed and freely given to undeserving
sinners. We read that in Romans 10, Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
Believers are not going about to establish a righteousness
by their doing. That would be an insult to God. If righteousness comes by the
law, Christ is dead and vain. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
righteousness before God. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth righteousness without works. We have a righteousness
given of God that answers the demand of God's holy law. Isn't that good news? That's
what we declare. That's why Paul said, I count
everything else lost, dung, ruined. that I may win Christ and be
found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own, but the righteousness
which is of God in Christ Jesus." That's good news. We have redemption. We have righteousness in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect, it is God that justifies. It's Christ who would
die. We declare unto you that His salvation is the everlasting
gift of God of His love and His grace in Christ Jesus. It's the
everlasting gift. The wage of sin is death, right? That's what sin deserves. The
soul that sinneth, it must surely die. The wage of sin is death. That's the bad news. The good
news is the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Our Lord said, My sheep, they
hear My voice. I know them. I give unto them
eternal life. And they'll never perish. They'll
never perish. You see, we're one with Him.
That's the good news we declare. We declare unto you good tidings
that bring good tidings of good. None good but God. The third thing we see is this,
God's gospel preacher declares and publish, we publish peace. What is that peace? Reconciliation. That's what peace is. We have
reconciliation with God. It says over here in Isaiah, 59 verse 2, but your iniquities
have separated you between you and your God, and your sins have
hid His face from you that He will not hear. Our sin did what? Separated us from God. In Adam
all sinned, in Adam all died. In Adam, that one man, the first
man, is the earth earthly? The second man is the Lord from
heaven, and that one man, disobedient, and his sin imputed to us, we've
been separated from God. Now, what is the opposite of
separation? Reconciliation. So how are we
reconciled? Let's see if we can find out.
Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. How are we reconciled to God? Well, certainly not by something
we do. We can't fix the mess we're in.
2 Corinthians 5, look at verse
18. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18, And
all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus
Christ, and hath given to us this ministry of reconciliation. Verse 19, To wit, which means
namely, Chiefly, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world
unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and has
committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, verse
20, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled. For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Grace reigned through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. The law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign. Grace does reign through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5, 20 and 21. So we preach reconciliation with
God in Christ, through Christ. We publish peace, peace, peace. We read in Romans 10, 15, the
gospel is called the gospel of peace. The Gospel of Peace, Romans
10, 15. We have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember Romans 5, 1. Being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He reconciled us to God. We have peace with God. That's
good news, is it not? God's angry with the wicked every
day. How can we have peace with God? I can't make peace with
God. No man can. The Lord Jesus Christ made peace
for us with His own blood. He made peace for us. And because
of that we have, you know what we have? We have peace of conscience. Peace of conscience. The Lord
Jesus Christ put away all our sin and reconciled us unto God.
Now make sure you understand this. There is no peace with
God apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn over a couple of
pages and look at Isaiah 57. Isaiah 57 verse 19. I create the fruit of the lips,
peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near,
saith the Lord, I will heal him. But the wicked are like the troubled
sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
There is no peace, saith my God to the wicked." Now, wait a minute. I thought salvation is for the
wicked. Yes, it is. There is no peace for those wicked
men who go about to establish righteousness before God by the
deeds of their hands. That's wicked. I can't think
of anything more wicked than to try to establish peace and
righteousness by your own doings. God said, away with it. It is.
You remember Isaiah 64? All your righteousnesses are
as filthy rag. God said, away with it. Away
with it. Away with it! There is no peace
with God apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. No salvation apart
from Christ. No righteousness, no redemption
apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot make peace with God
by your puny efforts at self-righteousness. Why not? Why can't I just be
moral enough, good enough, right enough? Because you cannot meet
the standard that God has put. The standard is not the best
we can do. The standard is the best that
God can do. He's the standard. And we have
come short of that. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Well, how can we meet that standard
of God's righteousness? In Christ. in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It all gets back relative to
Him, isn't it? Without Him, we have no salvation.
Neither is there salvation in any other. Now, here's the fourth
thing. God's preachers publish salvation
in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, they declare
that salvation is of the Lord. They preach peace. They bring
good tidings of good that publish salvation. Salvation. Call His name Jesus. He shall
save His people from their sin. You remember Simeon picked up
that babe that day in the temple. And God told the old man, you
would not die. You're not going to die, Simeon,
until you've seen the Lord's Savior. The Lord's Christ, and
he picked up that child, 40 days old, and looked right in his
face and said, Lord, I'm ready to die. Let me die now. I've
seen thy salvation. Salvation is in the person. The
Lord Jesus Christ. So we publish salvation in Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Savior that truly saved. He's the only one. He's the only
Savior of sinners. There's not another. There's
not another. There can't be another. The one
that God sent. The one that God anointed. The
one that accomplished all God's purpose. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the only Savior that saves. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only Redeemer that truly redeems us from all our sin. He obtained
for us, not with the blood of bulls and goats. As our great
high priest, He didn't bring the typical animal sacrifice,
did He? What did He bring? He brought His own blood. And
with His own blood, He obtained eternal redemption for us. He
obtained it for us with His own blood. We are redeemed with the
precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is always by
the free and sovereign grace of God through the blood and
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is purposed
by Him, determined by Him, accomplished by Him, dependent upon Him, and
applied by Him. You say, well, Is a sinner absolutely
passive in that? In the accomplishment of it,
he is. He receives salvation, but that's
by faith, and that's a gift of God. Here's the fifth thing. God-preachers, those sent of
God, taught of God, declare and design the people of God. Look
at the last part of verse 7. Isaiah 52, 7. What do they say? Well, God reigns over most things. He reigns here in the United
States, but he doesn't reign over there in Russia, China.
He didn't reign over there. That's not what it said. God is the king of all the earth.
God reigns everywhere. He's a sovereign in all nations
over all things. Behold, thy God reigneth. God is the absolute sovereign
of all heaven and all earth. Everywhere. He's omnipotent,
almighty, all-powerful. And you can't run too far with
that. God is God. Beside Him, there is no other.
There is no other God. He does what according to His
will in the armory of heaven and among the habitants of this
earth, and none can say to Him, Lord God, what doest Thou? I
jotted this down. We're going to read in Revelation
19. When we get there, Lord willing, I heard, as it were, the voice
of a great multitude, as the voice of many waters, as the
voice of many thundering, saying, Hallelujah! The Lord God Omnipotent
reigneth. He reigns and rules over all
things. God has never, ever He stepped
off His throne. He always rules and reigns over
all things. We've seen this throughout our
study in the book of Isaiah. God reigns forever and ever.
He reigneth forever and ever and ever. Look at Isaiah 46. Turn over there. Isaiah 46. Remember verse 9? The former
things of old, the former days of old, for I am God and there's
none else. I am God and there is none like
me. What's he like? He declares the
end from the beginning. Remember that revelation? He
said, I'm the beginning, I'm the end, I'm alpha, I'm omega. Declaring the end from the beginning
from ancient time to things that are not yet done, saying my counsel
shall stand. My will shall stand. He worked
all things after the counsel of his own will. I will do all
my pleasure. The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. Calling a ravenous bird from
the east, the man that would execute my counsel from a far
country, I have spoken it. I will also bring it to pass.
I purposed it. I will also do it. That's the
God of Scripture. God who is God, reigning and
ruling over all things. Our God reigns in creation. Created
all things by the word of His power, didn't He? Our God is
sovereign in providence. Whatsoever the Lord please, that's
what He does in heaven, earth, sea, and all deep places. Our
God reigns supremely and absolutely in salvation. He will have mercy
on whom He will have mercy, and He will harden whom He will harden.
Who makes you to differ from another? What do you have that
you didn't receive as a gift of God? It's God who has made
us to differ. Now, let me send you home with
this thought. Look at verse 8, 9, and 10. All believers see
eye to eye on these things. We agree, because that's what
the Word of God teaches. Thy watchman shall lift up the
voice, with the voice together shall they sing, for they shall
see eye to eye. We agree. God is God. Man's a
sinner. The Lord Jesus Christ is everything
in salvation. When the Lord shall bring again
Zion. Break forth in joys. Sing together. We see eye to eye together. We
sing together. Ye waste places of Jerusalem.
For the Lord hath comforted his people. He hath redeemed Jerusalem. He hath redeemed his church.
He loved the church and gave himself for it. The Lord make
bare his holy arm in the eyes of all nations. All the ends
of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. Every knee is going
to bow. We read it in Philippians 2.
Every knee is going to bow. Every tongue is going to confess.
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. We see eye
to eye on those things, don't we? Every believer does. Every
preacher does. They all preach the same thing.
That is those who are sin of God and taught of God. Salvations
of the Lord. From election before the foundation
of the world until final glory. is enjoyed throughout eternity.
They're going to sing unto Him who loved us and washed us from
our sin in His own blood. To Him be all the honor, glory,
and blessing both now and forever. Amen. Amen. What shall they preach? Oh, they preach salvations of
the Lord.