Keep sharing good news without ads.
Isaiah 51:13-52:11
In just excitement, we know, we know, Lord, we are sinful. We know that our sin is egregious to you, but we also know, Lord, that from before the foundation of the earth, your love was unlimited and it didn't depend on us, it depended on you.
We thank you, Lord, that you're sending your son to the cross, he willfully went. Nobody took his life, he gave it for us. The cup of wrath was taken so that we can have a relationship with you. We pray, Lord, as we read your word today, as Jeff opens your word, that we would see that, we would grow in it, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
So the book of Isaiah is 66 chapters, even as the Bible is 66 books. There is some parallel between the first 39 chapters being correlated toward the Old Testament and the last 27 being correlated with the New.
However, you don't want to overstep that because there's so much New Testament hope in the opening chapters as well. It's not a strict line there, but what I think you can see in the book of Isaiah is that beginning in chapter 40 through 48, you have the trial of false gods and the false gods of the nations are rebuked and put on trial and shown to be nothing but idols that cannot do anything.
Simultaneously, beginning in chapter 40 and moving through the end of the book, you have this ramping up to a mountain peak of the revelation of the Son of God in the Old Testament. And that becomes the most clear in chapter 53.
So we are building toward that. Remember in chapter 42, if you want to turn there, we have the First Servant Psalm. And in that 42nd chapter, the First Servant Psalm presents Christ as the one who will bring justice, bring forth justice.
He will, however, be merciful. A wounded reed he will not break off and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. The First Servant Psalm. And then turning to chapter 49, we have the Second Servant Psalm.
And here we see that his salvation that the servant will bring will reach to the ends of the earth. It wasn't enough just to reach Israel, but this gospel will go to the ends of the earth, a light to the nations.
And then in chapter 50, we begin to see his suffering. Chapter 50, verse six. I gave my back to those who struck and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spit.
The suffering of the servant is beginning to be revealed. Now, as we ramp up from that Third Servant Psalm until the Fourth Servant Psalm, which actually begins at the end of chapter 52, we have these marvelous pictures of salvation.
In the 50th chapter, you have salvation from the Lord and those who will accept it will be saved and those who will reject it will be like kindling for the fire. Turn with me, if you will, to Isaiah 51, 17.
And today we're going to take it right up to the base of that mountain, which is Isaiah 53, the Fourth Servant Psalm. Today we see salvation offered. We see beautiful pictures of salvation and it's all leading to that picture of Christ.
So John, would you read for us verses 17 to 20, where we left off?
Wake yourself, wake yourself. Stand up, O Jerusalem. You who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering. There is none to guide her among all the sons she has born.
There is none to take her by the hand among all the sons she has brought up. These two things have happened to you. Who will console you? Devastation and destruction, famine and sword. Who will comfort you?
Your sons have fainted. They lie at the head of every street like an antelope in a net. They are full of the wrath of God, the rebuke of your God.
Okay, so it begins again with the problem and that is the wrath of God unleashed against the sinfulness of man. That's the human condition here. Notice that what we're lacking in this section is someone to mediate, someone to stand in the gap.
In Isaiah chapter 50, verse two, it says, why when I came was there no man? Why when I called was there no one to answer? There is a lack in Israel of a righteous man. There's none righteous, no, not one.
So when he says, wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, oh Jerusalem, he then pronounces the guilty verdict. You have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath. You have drunk to the dregs, the bowl, the cup of stagnant.
Picture that image. There's a cup and that cup is described as wrath. If you were to go to the end of the Bible after the seven seal judgments and the seven trumpet judgments, what do you have? The seven bowls of wrath, a bowl full of wrath.
That's quite a picture. Now look what it says, you have drunk to the dregs. What does it mean to drink to the dregs? The very last bit. When our kids have like a bag of Doritos or something, you get the whole Dorito and everybody wants that.
But the very bottom of it, we call the dregs of society. It's just the dregs at the bottom. Nobody really wants it because everybody's touched them and they're just crumbled pieces. But then sometimes, you know where I'm going with this, if all that you have left is the dregs, the kid will stretch out the bag.
And drink the dregs of society, the dregs of the Dorito bag,.
Drinking it in full to the very last drop. That's the picture here.
But what's in that bowl?
It doesn't taste good. It's a bowl of wrath, a bowl of wrath. Verse 18, there's none to guide her among all the sons she has born. Do you see what's missing in verse 18? Someone to guide her, a leader.
In chapter 50, verse two, we saw there was none. This problem is presented as a problem throughout the Old Testament, right? Ezekiel looked for someone to stand in the gap,.
But there was none.
The problem in Israel is that none are righteous.
And there's a longing, there's a waiting for this one,.
Just one who would be righteous. And of course, this is foreshadowing Christ. Job, he had some friends that could come sit by him, right? But they couldn't comfort him. Until finally, what does he say?
I know that my Redeemer lives. He's looking for the Redeemer, that one who can stand for him, the one who can mediate for him, stand in the gap. This is the longing of verse 18. There's none to guide her among all the sons she has born.
There's none to take her by the hand among all the sons she has brought up. These two things have happened to you. Who will console you? Devastation and destruction, famine and sword. Who will comfort you?
Why has Assyria come upon Israel? The Assyrians came right up to the neck of Jerusalem. It was judgment from God, right? Babylon now, coming against them.
Why?
Yeah, it's judgment for sin, yeah. So these things have come upon you. These warring nations, these invading empires, it is the judgment of God. Your sons have fainted.
They lie at the head of every street.
Like an antelope in the net. Isn't that a great simile? This antelope caught in a net. That's how their sons are. They can't stand. They're drunk, they're flopping around. They're full of the wrath of the Lord, the rebuke of your God.
So the first thing we see as we open the passage is the problem of sin and judgment. The soul that sinned must die. There's wrath poured out from heaven, revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness of men who suppress the revelation of God.
Jude.
What's that?
We're talking Jude.
Jude, yeah. We're talking Jude. Yep, and the mighty one will come in burning fire with 10 ,000 of his holy ones. Or Romans one, the wrath of God revealed from heaven.
Okay, that's the problem.
Now let's read 21 to 23. We're gonna spend some time here because this is a beautiful promise. John, would you read it for us?
Therefore, hear this. You who are afflicted, you who are drunk, but not with wine, thus says your Lord, the Lord, your God, who pleads the cause of his people. Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering, the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more.
And I will put it into the hand of your tormentors who have said to you, bow down, that we may pass over. And you have made your back like the ground and like the street for them to pass over.
Therefore, what does justice demand that it follow? Therefore, if they have sinned, if they're guilty, they deserve to be trampled underfoot and drink to the dregs, the wrath of God. Justice demands that.
Therefore, the assumption is you will drink it to the dregs. But what does it say?
Therefore, hear this.
You who are afflicted, the sinner who's afflicted by judgment of his own sin, you're drunk, not with wine, you're drunk with wrath. Verse 22, thus says the Lord. This is beautiful gospel hope. The Lord, your God who pleads the cause of his people.
It's God himself, your God, will plead for you. God himself will be a mediator for you, a lawyer who will plead on your behalf. Now, how is it possible for God to plead for a guilty people? Wouldn't that make him unjust?
How can he be just and justifier?
How can he be just and justifier? And the answer is right here in Isaiah as well as Romans 3, 21 to 25. It is that he himself, the intercessor, is going to take this cup and drink it to the dregs. Look at this.
Verse 22, behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of stagnant, the bowl of my wrath. You shall drink no more. Somebody please turn to Luke 22, 42. And if you got it, say, I got it.
That makes you the reader.
Rick, you got it.
Saying, father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.
Rick, what cup is he referring to there?
Cup of wrath.
In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is praying and he's being tempted in the garden by the devil to not go through with it. Now, when the angel comes to strengthen him, does the angel take the cup from him?
No.
In fact, he strengthens him in order to drink it to the dregs. He strengthens him so that his flesh doesn't fail and he died beforehand under the weight. The Bible tells us in the garden of Gethsemane, even then, his capillaries were bursting and he was sweating drops of blood.
But that wasn't the weight of our sin yet. He was in anticipating the cross where the full weight of the world would be laid upon his shoulders. And he goes and he's whipped. He offers his back, his beard pulled from his face, spat upon, rejected.
So much so, he didn't look like a man.
How did the Jews interpret that?
Could the Jewish people possibly interpret that as anything else?
Well, I've heard that Orthodox Jewish synagogues will not allow the reading of where this goes into Isaiah 53.
They don't even read it.
They're not allowed to read it. Not allowed yet.
It's forbidden. One of their forbidden books.
And it's generally true that they'll stay in the Torah. They won't venture into the Prophets often. But this is pretty well forbidden.
Yeah, Rick.
I had never thought about that. The angel appeared to strengthen humanity.
Yes, yep.
That is an interesting thought.
And not to take the cup from him. He had to drink it in full. He wouldn't give up the spirit until he had drunk the punishment of our sins in full. So look at that verse.
This is gospel hope right here.
I have taken from your hand a cup of stagnant. That cup that he held in the garden was my cup. I deserve it. I deserve that wrath poured into me. Instead, he takes that cup from me.
Awesome.
And he drinks it in full. What cup do I get in exchange for his cup? Remember the garden before the garden? The last supper? The third cup?
The cup of forgiveness.
He takes my cup of wrath and drinks it to the dregs and he gives me the cup of forgiveness. Forgiveness in his blood at the last supper. And every time we take communion, we remember the cup of forgiveness in his blood.
He did not owe us.
We owed a debt we could not pay.
Amen. Yep.
So it's a great exchange, isn't it? This is the great exchange. This is him taking our sin, impugning our sin to himself and burying that in his body and his righteousness being given to us. It's an exchange.
He takes our cup and gives us his cup. He was in perfect unity with the Father, enjoying the presence of the Father where we could not tread. And he gave that cup to us to drink. The cup of communion with the Father, he gave to us and he took this.
So look at those words in verse 22. Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering. Thank you, Jesus, that you took my cup of staggering. The wrath owed to me and you took it from me and you drank it in full down to the dregs.
Every last drop of that cup of wrath. The bowl of my wrath. Now, verse 23. For whom did Christ die? I will put into the hand of your tormentors who have said to you, bow down that we may pass over. And you have made your back like the ground and like the street for them to pass over.
What goes into the hand of the tormentor?
The wrath of God.
Listen, if Christ propitiates your sin on the cross, it is atoned for.
So for whom did Christ die?
The sheep, all of us.
Those who will come to believe in his name.
The ones elected by the father before the foundation of the world. For whom Christ intercedes with his precious blood, which actually accomplishes the forgiveness of sin.
He pays the price in full.
Because he drinks it on our behalf. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The lamb intercedes and exchanges his life for ours.
Yes?
I'm a little stunned by that terminology, I have taken from your hand. Because when you think about it, it doesn't say, I asked you to give me your cup. It says, I have taken from your hand. Almost like he's saying, give me that.
Yes, you don't want that.
You, I have taken from your hand that cup.
Wow.
That's crazy.
Yes. That's awesome.
Salvation, all of the Lord, it belongs to, he did this. I didn't even know how desperate my situation was.
When I was dead in my sin. But then he came and just took it from me. He took it all the way back at Calvary. Now, the Trinitarian salvation, the father elects, the son pays the price in real time. But now, the spirit applies what Christ has done.
On my behalf.
So because he died for me, now the spirit applies salvation to me. So you can look at regeneration, the work of the spirit, as being perfectly consistent with the work of the father and of the son. There's no disharmony in the Trinity.
You see that? The father does the work of electing, the son does the work of accomplishing redemption on the tree, and the spirit does the work of regenerating, of applying that work in our lives in real time.
So we're dead in our trespasses and sins, the spirit now applies what Christ has done for us when we're born again, enlightening us, changing our heart of stone to a heart of flesh. It's a perfect, consistent Trinitarian work.
That's also the teaching of Ephesians one. You see that Trinitarian harmony in salvation. And here it just makes perfect sense. The son has done this, but in verse 23, if the son has not taken their wrath, who bears it?
The sinner.
And not all will repent, not all will come.
The tormentors, many are killing Christians right now. Vladimir Putin. I've heard, what is it, 16 children have already died? Fox News the other night showed a little six-year-old dying and being given CPR, but doesn't make it.
That blood is on Putin's hand.
Unless the Lord grant him repentance and faith, he goes to the grave, a sinner, dead in sin, and will bear the full wrath of God for that. What we were owed, yes.
You've got the pictures of a Ukrainian.
Trying to stop a tank.
Yeah. Yeah.
Bow down that we may pass over you is what the tormentor says.
Wow. Yeah.
And you have made your back like the ground and like the street for them to pass over. And then we hear Christ, who offers his back for his people, interposing, standing in between.
Yep, yep.
Wow, what a great salvation.
Okay, let's go on. Chapter 52, the call to awake. So this is the needing of regeneration, the coming alive, the Spirit's work in making alive. You were dead in your trespasses and sins, but God made us alive together with him in Christ.
So we need to be called to wake. And John, would you read that, 52, one and two?
Awake, awake. Put on your strength, O Zion. Put on your beautiful garments. O Jerusalem, the holy city, for there shall be no more come into you, the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake yourself from the dust and arise.
Be seated, O Jerusalem. Loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
The call to awake. We already saw this in 51 .9 and 51 .17. This wake, wake, it's calling to life the dead. Let's also see in Malachi 4 .2, Kristen. And Romans 13 .11, Rich, you wanna grab that one? And Barb, would you do Ephesians 5 .14?
Awake, awake. That's the call. If anybody's getting sleepy, wake up, wake up. Pay attention, this is God's word. We do need to be called, again, even believers. So we're called to regeneration. He calls us awake from the dead.
But then we tend to get sleepy, like who was the guy sitting in the windowsill?
Eutychus? Eutychus.
When he's hearing the word and then he falls asleep and falls out the window. As Christians, sometimes we get sleepy and we need to be reminded, wake up, wake up.
Hear the word of the Lord.
So who's got Malachi 4 .2?
That's me.
Kristen.
For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.
But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. For you shall go out leaping like cats from the stalls.
The sun rising with the light of the day and bringing to life what was dead.
Yeah.
I just had this mental picture. We like watching shows. There's a show called Heartland. And they have pictures every now and then of horses or cattle.
And the little ones, just this exuberance. They can't hold it back. It was a dance roll, but yeah, they just go out.
Romans 13 .11? Romans 13 .11.
And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
And Ephesians 5 .14.
For it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said, wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
So we're called awake by the Holy Spirit in the regenerating work of salvation. But we're also called, when we start getting drowsy and sleepy, and you know, it's been a long time since he promised to come, wake up, wake up, your redemption draws nigh.
Be like that bounding goat, or whatever.
52, let me read it to you.
A large part of the church is falling asleep.
Oh, yes, yes.
Sad.
Yep, the church in America, I think,.
Has been lulled to sleep.
Ivan's been teaching similar to that on Monday nights. 52 .3 -6.
For thus says the Lord, you were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money. For thus says the Lord God, my people went down and first into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian oppressed them for nothing.
Now therefore, what have I here, declares the Lord, seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? The ruler's wail, declares the Lord, and continually all the day, my name is despised. Therefore, my people shall know my name.
Therefore, in that day they shall know that it is I who speak. Here I am.
Okay, so again, he's calling them to salvation. He's calling them to wake from their sleep. And here, the comparison is interesting in verse three. Thus says the Lord, you were sold for nothing. Sold for nothing.
What did you get from the idols that you followed? Sold for nothing. And in fact, Ezekiel has even more, almost crass language in chapter 16 to describe how they sold themselves. He says, you're like prostitutes.
Remember Hosea, how Israel's a prostitute? Well, in Ezekiel chapter 16, he says, but you're not an ordinary prostitute. You give yourself for nothing. Most prostitutes will be given gifts. He said, but you chase them to give gifts in order to prostitute yourself.
You get nothing. That's what it is to practice idolatry. It promises something, but instead it's nothing, and in fact, it's the opposite of that.
It promises some taste of life.
Instead, it's death. You're sold for nothing, but look at the second half of the verse.
This is our God.
We who've given ourselves, we had God in the Garden of Eden, but mankind gave it away for a bite of an apple.
That brought death.
Sold for nothing, but you shall be redeemed without money. Not with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of the Lamb, we shall be redeemed. So who would like to read 1 Peter 1?
18 and 19.
Maybe someone who hasn't read yet.
Ron.
Knowing that you were ransomed from feudal ways and inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb with that blemish or spot.
It's the price of our redemption. It wasn't silver or gold. Without money. Redeemed without money, but redeemed at the cost of the blood of the Lamb. How much did we pay for that?
Nothing.
In money. Zero dollars and zero. How much did we work for that, to earn?
Nothing. Nothing.
That's the idea.
We brought nothing. We can't save ourselves. We're sold into sin, slaves to sin. But there is redemption that we cannot buy. We contribute nothing to it. We earn nothing. And yet, it's given freely by the good giver.
What does he do? He intercedes for us with this precious blood. You shall be redeemed without money.
It is the gift of God, not of works. Blessed be the name of Jesus.
Amen. Amen.
It's all the work of God. Salvation is his, and he receives all the glory. We shouldn't boast in it whatsoever. There was nothing better about me that I would believe it, that I would be saved. I'm not more humble than my next door neighbor.
There's nothing about me. It's just his gift. Without any money, without any contribution from me, he chose to redeem me, to reveal the son to me.
And how do I know that I'm chosen?
Well, if you remember from 1 Thessalonians 1, he sent the gospel to me. It came through my parents. They were the ones that told me of this Jesus who died and rose. It came with deep conviction in the Holy Spirit.
I saw in their lives that what they said was life transforming, and I believed. It came by the gift of faith, that I would receive it in my heart. He softened this heart of stone.
And gave me a heart of flesh.
He gave me eyes to see when I was blind.
He gave me ears to hear when I was deaf.
It was all his work. He granted repentance and faith, resulting in good works. All of that is a gift of God. Not what I did, I'm chosen by his grace, as are you who believe. It's all of him, not of us, without price, without contribution.
As Rick said, not by works, lest anybody should boast.
It reminds me of what God said about Abraham. He believed and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Yes, yep. Genesis 15, seven. All right, Isaiah 52, seven to 10.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, your God reigns. The voice of your watchmen, they lift up their voice.
Together they sing for joy, for eye to eye they see the return of the Lord to Zion. Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people. He has redeemed Jerusalem.
The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
This is a chapter about salvation and we're leading right into a couple verses from now. We go into the great fourth servant psalm. It's about Christ, his salvation.
What has God done?
He's bared his arm, he's revealed his muscle, he's shown his strength and he himself has actively reached in to save his people. He's the one active here. So then look at verse seven.
Okay, can I? Yeah.
I just want to touch verse six.
Yes.
Because the power of that, therefore my people, you've been emphasizing, this is not the world in its entirety, it's his chosen people, it's those who know, those who believe, those who seek, they shall know.
And it talks about my name and it is I who speaks and there's the ego of me again.
Yes. Here I am, here I am.
These people will know, not just perceive or hear.
They'll know it.
And what will they know, Rick?
Look at verse six. Rick has been teaching for years at his community group.
What does it say?
My name.
Guys, we need to recognize what the name signifies and it signifies all that he is, my name. We know this, the Jews would not speak the name. In fact, I heard Joe Foch saying, I was listening to it yesterday, Y-H-W-H, we pronounce that Yahweh.
But it might have been more like,.
Hew, whew.
Like you can't even get a sound out of it.
Hew, whew. Yeah.
What is that sound?
It's unspeakable. They would write, they would go and wash their hands when they came to the point where they'd write the tetragrammatron, Y-H-W-H. They would write it and then they'd run and wash their hands again.
Every time they came to writing the name of God. And they would never speak it. Why can we speak the name? Because now we know that name is Jesus. He condescended to us, the word became flesh and made known to us the name that is above every name.
And we are to speak it to the world. In fact, verse seven, Ego emi, what are we to go do? Go tell it on the mountains. How beautiful upon the mountains. Ivan, do you have something?
Well, yeah.
I mean, it's an unbelievable foreshadowing that the veil came. Because in John, in John 12, when Jesus enters Jerusalem, the people finally say, Hosanna, Lord in the highest. And he announced who he is.
Here I am. Yes. Here I am.
And that, but imagining 750 years before, this is being foreshadowed. He is going to enter all Jerusalem and say it.
It's an amazing, amazing thing.
And when they came to arrest him, he's standing in the garden of Gethsemane, the cup that's given to him.
What do they say?
They're asking for Jesus of Nazareth. And his answer is? Ego emi, the very words that end verse six.
I am who I am.
Here I am.
And as he says it, they fall down. The power of the confession of his name.
I am.
That's the name. He could have wiped them out.
Oh yeah. Yep.
Verse seven. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet. And this of course reminds us of Romans 10. How shall they hear the name?
Unless somebody preaches.
And how shall they preach? Unless they are sent. Luis in the back, your role as missions coordinator,.
A sender.
You're helping to send the missionaries. And Rick's on that missions committee. The sending of missionaries is the making of beautiful feet.
Because what makes the feet beautiful.
Is that they're carrying in their hearts and in their mouths the confession of who Christ is. And when these missionaries go to the end of the earth, their feet are beautiful as they travel. We have, when's Israel coming?
I believe it's in March that he mentioned that.
He might show up in May or something like that.
He had emailed.
Yeah, I think Israel and his wife will be here and they'll give a testimony in the next couple months. On Friday, Craig Wayant is passing through town. He's only in because he's visiting somebody, but I'm gonna meet him for coffee for an hour.
He's a missionary to Brazil. We have missionaries in China. And how does Trump say that?
China.
We have missionaries in, yeah. Where else do we have missionaries?
France.
Philippines.
Philippines, Japan.
Craig missionaries in Brazil or Portugal?
Brazil, both.
The Portugal is the Kamlins and the Quintanas.
We have both.
Yeah, we have Brazil, Portugal.
How beautiful.
Guys, remember missions.
It's important.
It's how the gospel goes to the ends of the earth. And now there's countries sending missionaries here, which is needed as well.
Yeah, that's what they say, we need it.
Who publishes peace. How do you have peace with God? Through the Son.
Jesus. Yep.
The only way.
Is it Romans five, verse one or six?
Romans five, I guess.
Yeah, it's Romans five.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we publish, peace through him. Reconciliation. And by the way, that's the reconciliation spoken of in 2 Corinthians, the ministry of reconciliation.
It's a vertical reconciliation. We're not gonna make peace in the world. We can try to make racial reconciliation and economic. We can do what we can. But what the Bible concerns itself with is peace with God.
Because the problem that we have is our sin.
The wrath of God abides on us,.
And there needs to be peace made, as you talked about in our prayer meeting, satisfaction. That wrath of God against sinners needs to be satisfied. And it's only when the Son drinks that bowl on our behalf that the Father is then satisfied, satisfaction has been made, and we have peace with God.
That's the reconciliation in view here. We publish peace, bring good news of happiness. Who publish salvation? Who says to Zion, your God reigns. We should be preaching, our God reigns. He is king of kings and Lord of lords.
We should boldly proclaim. We don't go to the nations suggesting.
That they might want to possibly think.
About maybe one day considering that Jesus might be a possible good answer for them.
What do we publish? Our God reigns.
Submit to the Lord Jesus Christ, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. We go preaching boldly with authority. Jesus spoke as one having authority. Verse eight, the voice of your watchmen,.
They lift up their voice.
Together they sing for joy.
What's up, brother?
It says, for eye to eye, they see the return of the Lord to Zion. There's coming a day when every eye will see Him. They will see Him as He sets His foot on Mount Zion. Break forth together into singing.
You waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted His people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared His holy arm before the eyes of all the nations. Again, this is looking forward to the millennial reign.
It's seeing once Christ has come, the first time, which I don't think Isaiah would necessarily have seen both mountain peaks distinct from one another. The gap of the church age would have been invisible to him.
But he's seeing the coming of the Lord to Zion. The first time, He bears the sin of His people. And the second time, He comes in judgment to reign in Zion. The bearing of God's arm as He comes in power, the Lord has bared His arms.
But where, who sees it? That's it, that's it.
Before the eyes of all the nations.
And here we are at the ends of the earth. You realize New Jersey is the ends of the earth from Jerusalem. We're clear on the other side of the globe.
Can you imagine if this were the decade?
Even Putin would have to acknowledge it.
Yeah, every tongue confessed. Now when it says in Philippians 2, not every tongue is confessing in joyful trust and obedience. There are those who are confessing under judgment.
Yeah, yeah.
But even the demons will shudder and confess. All will confess that Jesus is Lord.
Every tongue on earth and heaven and in heaven.
Some screaming in anger and wrath, but others joyfully. This is a picture of joy. Do you see that in verse nine? Break forth together in singing. We're excited and joyful about what God has done. All the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.
Lastly, verses 11 and 12, and then next week we hit the mountain peak. Not next week, not next week, because we're gonna do a spiritual gift.
That's a mountain peak.
Yes, yes. But at the beginning I said the mountain peak, and then we go to Isaiah 53. Kind of the pinnacle of this book that's been building with the servant songs, the salvation all coming. It culminates there.
So would you read verse 11 and 12?
Depart, depart, go out from there. Touch no unclean thing. Go out from the midst of her. Purify yourselves. You who bear the vessels of the Lord. For you shall not go out in haste. You shall not go out in flight.
For the Lord will go before you, and the Lord God of Israel will be your rear guard.
Whenever we pray for missionaries when they come,.
I normally pray as we lay hands on them,.
Lord, go before them and be their rear guard.
Keep your hand upon them.
That's how we pray to send out missionaries. And that's the case with all of us. Do you know that your champion, your captain goes before you?
He leads you into battle.
We don't know, Zelinsky, if this man is good, bad, or ugly, by the way, but as far as his bravery in standing in the front of his people, that's been a good example. But behind the scenes, it might turn out that he himself is a globalist socialist too, so we don't want to jump on the bandwagon of everything you see on social media.
But he didn't run when the adversary came and he's been standing strong there. We have a true champion. He goes before you into war.
So what do we have to fear?
When he comes back to the earth, he's leading us and we're following in his wake. He's riding a white horse and we're on horses behind him.
Wearing white robes.
Even now, he's leading us into battle. So when you go out preaching,.
You have him leading you.
He's your rear guard.
Guys, the more aggressive we are in this war, the more arrows are gonna be shot at us. But we have a rear guard. We don't need to fear that. We don't have a spirit of fear, but of love and peace and a sound mind.
So we're protected by our rear guard. Now, there's one more major point here to make.
Before the end.
If these things be so, if Christ has borne his arm to save us, if he's taken our cup and drunk it to the dregs on our behalf to save us, what then is our relationship to the world? Look at verse 11. Depart, depart.
Go out from there.
Repentance is an essential part of salvation. We must come out from the world to belong to Christ and we must have a lifestyle of repentance.
For the rest of our lives.
Go ahead.
It reminded me of Revelation 18, four where it says, come out of her, my people.
Come out of her, my people.
Psalm 106 has got bookends. In the front end, it's just comfort and trust and praise of God. And at the back end, it's similar to that. But in the middle, it's our fathers as we have sinned. And it's a listing of all of the variations of sins that they had done in building up an idol.
And in the middle of it is, I think, the peak of all. It says, and they did not kill all the nations as they were told.
What is this?
Psalm 106. And it's a picture of compromise and acceptance. And if we're to depart and go out from there, we are to depart and go out from there and not keep one foot in the wrong camp.
Touch no unclean thing. Some of the boys after church like to explore.
The woods back there.
And they discovered an animal carcass with feathers and it looks kind of disgusting. But for them, that's all, that's cool, right? So, if they touch something like that, how do they purify themselves?
Take a hot bath, wash your hands.
They probably don't do anything.
They probably don't.
So in the Old Testament, if Samson had touched a carcass, which he did, remember that? And he took the honey from it, out of the eater, something to eat, out of the strong, something sweet.
He was a Nazarite, he shouldn't have done that. But no Israelite should touch dead things, right? It would make them unclean. When someone was unclean, they would purify themselves. And here it says, purify yourself.
Christian, when we're in this world, at times we'll touch unclean things. We'll stumble into sin. Paul, in Romans 7, talks about even what he wants to do, he doesn't always do. And what he doesn't want to do, he doesn't.
How does a Christian purify himself? Do we go for a ritual washing at a bath at the temple?
1 John 1, 9.
Thank you, that's where I was gonna go. Quote it for us, I bet you can.
If you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive you your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
Cleanse you from all unrighteousness. We have to have this depart from Babylon spirit, this repentance is a part of the Christian life. Confession, whenever we recognize that we've sinned, to confess right away, to keep a short list.
Confess your sin, he is faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. The Christian who's in danger is the one who just thinks it's no big deal.
It's already paid for anyway.
Might as well just go on. No, we must be confessing our sins, repenting constantly, examining our hearts. Is there some unpure way in me, Lord?
Look and try me, Lord.
Cleanse me with hyssop that I may be clean, Psalm 51. This is the idea here. The gospel is for our salvation. And it's also therefore a call out about, call to repentance as well as faith. So it says in Luke 24, 47, that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
So the application, go tell it on the mountains. And if it's true that we're bought without price, wouldn't it be cool if we had a tract that was in the shape of money and looked like a stack of $100 bills?
Only when you open it, you found the gospel of John. I have a box of them and I'm going, and they're in my office right now. All of you, this is the application.
Grab one on your way out.
Don't just leave it on your neighbor's doorstep, but think of some person that you could hand it to so that you could then follow up with that. All right, so it's a hard challenge, but somebody. If you're nervous to do that, at least leave a note in it with your phone number and leave it on your neighbor's doorstep.
Then run away.
So here's the point. Go tell it on the mountains. In my office, there is a box of tracts.
I'll put it out there in the hall.
As I run to pick up the kids. But on your way out, grab one, okay? Give it to somebody that they could also believe the good news. Leave your contact information so they could know what to do with this.
We were redeemed without money, but at the price of the precious blood of the lamb. Close with some prayer, brother.
Oh, Lord God, the cup of wrath is something we deserve because of our sin and because you are a just God. Your son took that cup of wrath and gave us a cup of new life in his blood. Our call, Lord, to go out and tell it to the mountains.
I pray, Father, that we would be so motivated by this truth and so awed by the forgiveness and aware of the darkness of the world that we would go and tell it to the mountains, knowing the Lord goes before us and that he is our rear guard and he's the one who gives the increase.
We thank you in Jesus' name, amen.