Good evening, tonight we're in Isaiah chapter 52.
Isaiah 52, the Bible reads,
"Awake, awake, put on my strength, O Zion.
"Put thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city.
"For thenceforth, there shall no more come into thee
"the uncircumcised and the unclean.
"Shake thyself from the dust, arise and sit down, O Jerusalem.
"Loose thyself from the bands of thy neck,
"O captive daughter of Zion.
"For thus saith the Lord, ye have sold yourselves for naught,
"and ye shall be redeemed without money.
"For thus saith the Lord God, my people went down a four time
"into Egypt a sojourn there,
"and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.
"Now therefore, what have I here saith the Lord,
"that my people is taken away for naught?
"They that rule over them,
"make them to howl, saith the Lord,
"and my name continually every day is blasphemed.
"Therefore my people shall know my name,
"therefore they shall know in that day
"that I am he that doth speak, behold, it is I.
"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him
"that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace,
"that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation,
"as 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 unto joy, sing together,
"you 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.
"Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from vents,
"touch no unclean thing, go ye out of the midst of her,
"be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord.
"But ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight,
"for the Lord will go before you,
"and the God of Israel will be your reward.
"Behold, my servant shall deal prudently.
"He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.
"As many were astonished at thee,
"his visage was so marred more than any man,
"and him form more than the sons of men.
"So shall he sprinkle many nations.
"The kings shall shut their mouths at him,
"for that which had not been told them shall they see,
"and that which they had not heard shall they consider."
Let's pray.
Dear Lord God, just thank you for this night
that we come together to hear the preaching of your word.
Lord, just please bless the service, Lord,
and please bless the preaching.
Fill Pastor Mahid with your Holy Spirit
as he preaches unto us, Lord.
We pray this all in Jesus' name, amen.
- Amen.
Okay, we're continuing this evening
with our Bible study in the book of Isaiah.
We're in chapter 52.
And I mentioned a couple weeks ago
that some of these chapters towards the latter end
deal primarily with the ministry of Jesus Christ.
You'll see a lot of the chapters and passages
that deal directly with his sufferings, with his ministry.
And these are often referred to as the servant's song.
And this is actually one of them.
But chapter 52, the latter end primarily deals with that.
The majority of the chapter
is actually referring to something else,
but it's still coupled in with the servant's song.
So we're gonna go over that this evening.
Tonight we're gonna talk about the return of Zion,
the response of God's people, the rejection of Babylon,
and ultimately the redemption of God.
Now here we have some foreshadowing
of the new heaven and the new earth.
A lot of the latter end of the book of Isaiah
actually deals with the new heaven and new earth.
And specifically in this chapter is the new Jerusalem.
And the literal application to this
that we find here in the book of Isaiah
is that Israel's returning back to his homeland.
If you remember, obviously during this particular time,
you have the children of Israel
who have gone into exile into Babylon.
And the prophecy says that they're gonna be in Babylon
for 70 years.
And that is essentially a punishment upon them
for their rejection of God, their worship of false gods.
God is chastising them, he's punishing them,
and he's allowing them to be dispersed
into exile into Babylon.
And so they're there for 70 years.
And in fact, Jeremiah the prophet, you know,
tells them, he prophesies unto them,
and he tells them, you know, you need to plant vineyards,
build houses, get comfortable in Babylon
because you're not leaving anytime soon.
And in fact, one generation is going to pass,
another one is going to arise.
You guys are going to be there for a very long time.
So obviously, the return of Babylon
through the sanction of God, through the king--
I can't-- what's his name?
I can't think of his name right now.
Persian.
Cyrus the Persian, Cyrus the great.
Obviously, it's because of the fact
that they began to call upon the name of the Lord.
But unfortunately, though many returned back to Jerusalem,
there's a portion of them that actually stayed behind.
There's a portion of them that decided not to leave.
And you think to yourself, why would they stay?
Well, if you're there for 70 years,
you basically dug your heels deep in there for economic reasons
or for whatever it may be.
There's a lot of Jews that end up staying in Babylon.
And of course, we know what the result of that is.
A lot of these Jews became apostate.
And this is not the sermon, but this is basically
where the Babylonian Talmud came from, right?
This is where the office of the Pharisees came from.
This is where the origination of synagogues
came from because of the fact that they weren't
worshipping in Jerusalem.
They wanted to create gatherings whereby they can worship,
and they call those synagogues.
And in fact, in the New Testament,
the word synagogue literally means a gathering together.
And so that's the Greek word there.
But synagogue has that connotation
of the religion of Judaism, the religion of the Pharisees,
that which is not the religion of God.
And so that's not the sermon this evening.
But I want to address the fact that they're
coming back from that.
So this is what that's referring to there.
But here's the thing is that there's obviously
a future application to this, right?
Though Israel is returning back from Babylon,
from their exile, into Jerusalem,
this is obviously foreshadowing one day
the new heaven and the new earth,
where God's people from the Old Testament,
along with all believers made up of all ethnicities,
will go into the new Jerusalem.
So you never want to emphasize
the actual physical Jerusalem that's here in this world
at the expense of the Jerusalem which is from above, right?
And in fact, the Jerusalem which is from above
is actually more important
than the Jerusalem that currently exists right now.
Now, it held some importance in the Old Testament for sure.
That was definitely a place of importance
where God chose to place his name.
But as of now, of course,
it's not considered in the eyes of God a true Jerusalem.
And in fact, read the book of Revelation,
it's considered Sodom and Egypt.
That's according to God.
And so that's important to note there.
Now, let's look at verse number one here.
We're going to look at the return of Zion.
It says in verse number one, "Awake, awake,
put on strength, O Zion.
Put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city,
for henceforth there shall no more come
into thee the uncircumcised and the clean."
So the first thing he tells him is, wake up, you know,
put on strength.
And this is kind of like the theme
over the last couple of chapters,
is God is trying to awake them, not from a physical slumber,
but rather from their carnality, right?
He wants them to awake to righteousness and sin not.
He wants them to wake up to the things of God,
to the word of God.
And he's telling them to put on strength.
Physically speaking, why?
'Cause you're gonna, you have a long way to go,
back home, right?
They're traveling by foot back to Zion.
And he says there, put on your beautiful garments.
Now, what is he talking about?
Well, it's a celebration, right?
We're going back home, back to the homeland.
And so put on your best garment, your Sunday's best,
so to speak, because of the fact that you're going back home
to the place from whence he came, from where you belong.
And he's saying there, you know,
you no longer have to wear the garments of mourning
and of sorrow because you're singing the song of the Lord
in a strange land.
You're not under some oppressor any longer,
some foreign land, some strange land.
You're going back home, physically speaking.
Therefore, it's a time of rejoicing.
It's a time of singing.
It's a time to put on your best garment.
He says, "O Jerusalem, the holy city."
And I want you to notice as he says,
"For henceforth there shall no more come into thee
the uncircumcised and the clean."
Now, what is this referring to?
Well, obviously it's referring to symbolically,
if we're to symbolically represent this,
referring to the garments of salvation.
And when he talks about the garment,
the beautiful garments is the garments of salvation.
But the reason he refers to the uncircumcised
and to the unclean is because in the Old Testament,
anybody who wasn't of the nation of Israel
were essentially uncircumcised and unclean people.
Uncircumcised physically speaking,
but unclean ritually speaking,
according to the law of Moses, right?
But here's the thing though, you know,
when you think about this, you know,
how was this fulfilled immediately?
Because there were uncircumcised and unclean people
going into Jerusalem, you know, thereafter.
You know, think about 70 AD,
where they went into exile and you had the Romans come in
and destroy Jerusalem and destroy the temple
and take it over.
So you kind of wonder like, well, is this really fulfilled?
Well, here's the thing, preterists.
No, it wasn't fulfilled in 70 AD.
Because if the promise here is given,
hey, no uncircumcised,
no unclean person will ever enter into there.
Well, obviously that's not referring to 70 AD
because there were uncircumcised
and unclean people going there.
And the fact that he's saying no uncircumcised
or unclean person will ever go into Jerusalem
is implying that the children of Israel
will remain in Jerusalem.
Now, let me ask you this.
Have they remained in Jerusalem
over the last couple of 2,000 years?
Absolutely not.
You know, the Jewish diaspora
referring to the dispersion of the Jewish people
into all nations was fulfilled
because of the rejection of Jesus Christ.
And essentially we could say that that started in 70 AD
with the destruction of the temple.
So you would have to take this verse and say,
this obviously wasn't fulfilled in their immediate future.
This has a future fulfillment in the New Jerusalem, okay?
And so that's important to note there
that obviously when he's referring to this,
he's not talking about their immediate future.
Yeah, you know, when they came back,
maybe they experienced a time when the uncircumcised,
the impure, the unclean people
were not coming into Jerusalem.
But let me just tell you,
right now there's uncircumcised
and unclean people in Jerusalem, right?
So obviously that's not referring to, you know,
from the first century all the way up until today.
This is obviously talking about a future event
that has not yet taken place, okay?
Now, before we get into that,
let me just talk about the beautiful garments once again,
because he's talking about the beautiful garments
as far as like, wear your best when you go back to Zion,
but it's symbolically representing salvation though, right?
For us in the New Testament.
And in fact, you can turn with me if you would
to Revelation chapter six.
Go to Revelation chapter six.
I'm gonna read to you from Isaiah 61 and verse 10.
It says, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord.
My soul shall be joyful in my God,
for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation.
He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.
As a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments
and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels."
So the reason he's telling them
to physically put on beautiful garments
is because those beautiful garments essentially symbolize
the deliverance of his people, right?
The fact that God is delivering them
from the oppressors of Babylon
and bringing them into their homeland.
But this obviously is also figurative
of salvation through Jesus Christ
because when we believe on Jesus Christ,
we are clothed with the righteousness of Jesus, right?
We are given those garments of salvation.
Now this is important
because it kind of ties into the New Testament
doctrine of salvation,
that it's not by works of righteousness,
which we have done,
but according to his mercy, he saved us.
And in fact, in Isaiah, it also says
that our righteousness are as filthy rags, right?
The good that we can do,
the righteousness that we have
are as filthy rags in the eyes of God.
So when you present your righteousness
as an unsaved person to God,
he views them as rags.
He views them as leaves.
He views them as insufficient
to cover the nakedness of sin.
Therefore, it's necessary to be clothed
with the righteousness of Jesus
through faith in him, right?
The garments.
And in the New Testament,
as far as, you know, in heaven,
I don't know how this is gonna look,
but the Bible talks about us wearing these robes.
And they represent the righteousness of God.
Righteousness of Jesus.
Look at Revelation 6, verse 10.
It says, "And they cried with a loud voice,
saying, 'How long, O Lord, holy and true,
dost thou not judge and avenge our blood
on them that dwell on the earth?'"
And it says, "And white robes were given
unto every one of them.
And it was said unto them
that they should rest yet for a little season,
until their fellow servants also,
and their brethren, that should be killed as they were,
should be fulfilled."
So here we see that the martyrs of Jesus Christ
during the great tribulation are handed white robes.
What do these white robes represent?
The righteousness of Jesus Christ.
We can say that spiritually we have those robes
on right now, but apparently they're given to us
when we get to heaven as well.
Look at chapter seven and verse number nine.
It says in verse number nine,
"After this I beheld a little great multitude,
which no man could number,
of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues,
stood before the throne and before the Lamb,"
listen to this,
"clothed with white robes and palms in their hands."
Now, this is obviously referring to what?
The rapture, okay?
If someone ever asks you,
where's the rapture in the book of Revelation?
Chapter seven.
How do we know?
Because it's a multitude which no man could number,
suddenly showing up to heaven.
Now, I don't know about you,
but if you were to try to number all the believers
from the beginning of time, from Adam up until the end
of time, you would say it's a multitude
which no man can number, right?
And it is of all ethnicities,
people of different languages,
and all of them are believers in Christ
and they're given white robes.
Look at verse 10.
And cried with the law of voice saying,
salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne
and unto the lamb.
Look at, skip down to verse 13, if you would.
It says, and one of the elders answered saying unto me,
what are these which are arrayed in white robes?
And whence came they?
Meaning, where do they come from?
And I said unto him, sure thou knowest.
And he said to me, these are they which came out
of great tribulation and have washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of the lamb,
the Bible says.
So the reason the robes are white is because
these people have believed on Jesus Christ
and through that, they've received the redemption
that comes through the blood of Jesus Christ
that washes them of their sins.
You know, what can wash away my sins?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus, right?
And so it's important to note there.
So when he talks about these beautiful garments,
the most beautiful garment that you could ever possess
is salvation, right?
The garments of salvation that fully clothes your nakedness,
it takes away your shame,
it removes the blotch of sin from your life
through Jesus Christ.
It's not your garment, it's not your righteousness,
it's not something that you earn
or something that you merit,
it's something that's given to you freely as a gift.
And this is a common theme throughout the New Testament
regarding these garments of righteousness.
Let me read to you from Matthew 22 in verse 11.
This is a parable here.
It says, "And when the king came in to see the guest,
he saw that there was a man
which had not on a wedding garment.
And he said to him, 'Friend, how camest thou in hither
not having a wedding garment?'
And he was speechless.
Then said the king to his servants,
'Bind him hand and foot and take him away
and cast him into outer darkness.
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth
for many are called, but few are chosen.'"
I remember reading this as a new Christian and thinking,
well, that's kind of, you know, a little dramatic.
He can't, you know, he's not wearing a wedding garment.
So they, he's like, tie him up
and go throw him somewhere out in the dark, you know?
But obviously what it's referring to is the wedding
of the bride of Christ, right, in the book of Revelation.
And what it's saying here is that
the person who does not have on the wedding garment
through their faith in Christ is cast into hell.
That's what it's talking about.
They're bound hand and foot, they're taken away,
they're cast out into outer darkness,
and there's weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.
And obviously because this is in the book of Matthew,
chapter 22, it's specifically referring to the Jews.
This applies to everyone,
'cause everyone who doesn't believe on Jesus Christ
is going to hell,
but he's specifically addressing the Jews on this,
which is why the guy's even there in the first place,
'cause he thinks that just because of his own garments,
because of his own ethnicity,
because of his supposed covenant that he thinks he has,
he's allowed into the wedding,
but then God tells him,
"You don't have on the wedding garment.
"You didn't believe on Jesus Christ."
And he's going to be like...
That's what it means when it says speechless, right?
All the world, that every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world may become guilty before God, okay?
So the beautiful garments that we see in Isaiah 52
is a picture of the beautiful garments of salvation
that we received at salvation.
So let's talk about the uncircumcised and the unclean.
Obviously that's referring to, in the Old Testament,
any nation that's not of Israel.
Because in order to be a member of the nation of Israel,
in order to be a citizen of the nation of Israel,
you had to be physically circumcised.
Obviously it didn't apply to the women,
but you had to be physically circumcised
as the head of the household,
and the men there had to be physically circumcised
'cause that was the covenant,
that was the sign of the covenant of the Old Testament, okay?
And of course, anybody who is not of the children of Israel,
they're obviously not adhering to the laws of purity,
the dietary laws, the moral laws of God.
And so they would be considered unclean, right?
And this is why a lot of these laws of the Old Testament
regarding the unclean animals, being ritually impure,
those picture Gentiles who are not sanctified
through the covenant, you understand?
And obviously that's something that was instituted
for a very small window of time, you know?
What I'm saying there is that in the New Testament,
circumcision is not a thing.
Physical circumcision is not a thing.
I don't think we should be mocking circumcision.
I see that a lot online where people mock circumcision.
And obviously it's not a practice
that we should practice as Christians.
It's not something that we should be promoting as Christians
because of the fact that it's an Old Testament thing,
but it was the sign of the covenant of the Old Testament.
So we should speak of it in such a manner
when talking about the Old Testament.
Now, the only time I'll essentially
quote unquote mock circumcision
is when you think circumcision can save you.
Because if you think you're justified by circumcision,
you're falling from grace, okay?
And you know, you have a ton of people who think that.
And obviously there's even Christians
who practice circumcision for whatever,
because they think that that's just a thing to do,
because the Bible teaches it,
but they obviously don't know
that the purpose of circumcision
was not for cleanliness, by the way.
It was literally a sign given to Abraham and to Israel
as a means to prove that they're of that nation.
Now, why did he give them that specific covenant,
or why did he give them that specific practice
of circumcising?
Because the New Testament teaches
that in order to be a part of the people of God,
your heart has to be circumcised,
spiritually speaking, right?
And so the uncircumcised of the Old Testament,
the Philistines, the Canaanites, the Babylonians,
the Assyrians, they were all uncircumcised.
They were not citizens of the nation of Israel,
just as any ethnicity who doesn't believe on Jesus Christ
is not a citizen of the New Jerusalem.
They're not partakers of that covenant,
'cause they haven't believed on Jesus Christ.
And that goes for also unbelieving Israel.
They could be physically circumcised,
they're not part of this covenant.
This is why we say that we're God's chosen people,
and they're not, why?
Because just as it required physical circumcision
to be a part of the people of God in the Old Testament,
in the New Testament, it requires a circumcision
of the heart by your faith in Jesus Christ.
The Bible says in Romans chapter two, verse 28,
that he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly.
Neither is that circumcision outward in the flesh.
But he is a Jew, I know people hate to hear that.
He is a Jew, which is one inwardly,
and circumcision is that of the heart,
in the spirit, and not in the letter.
What does it mean by not in the letter?
The letter in the New Testament is referring
to the Old Testament, the Old Covenant.
When you hear that phrase, the letter,
it's often in context referring to the Old Testament.
So it's like, this is a circumcision in the spirit,
not in the letter.
The spirit referring to that New Testament.
So that's often a distinction between the two,
Old Testament, New Testament, Old Covenant,
and New Covenant, is like the letter and the spirit.
So the circumcision that God views
as being a legitimate circumcision
that merits the citizenship of Israel, according to God,
is to be circumcised in the spirit, not in the letter.
And I want you to notice this, whose praise is not of men,
but of God.
What does that mean?
When it says praise is not of men, but of God,
it means God recognizes, when he praises,
he recognizes you as being a legitimate Jew.
Even if we're not of physically the ethnicity of Judah,
but we are of Christ, who is of Judah,
and we believe they're on Christ,
therefore, God views us as legitimate Jews.
Now, this is not to say that we should walk around
calling ourselves Jews, you know,
I definitely don't want to do that.
I would just pull out that card and flex on someone
who thinks that they're a Jew and they're not,
but do lie, okay?
So they're just, if they look down on me
and they're like, I'm a Jew, you know,
and you Christians, I'd be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
I'm a Jew, okay?
And in fact, I remember one time I witnessed to a Jew,
he had the jerry curls and everything
and the funny looking hat,
and he like, didn't want to talk to me
unless I put that little skull cap on,
and he handed it, I didn't put it on,
but he like, he handed it to me,
and then I was witnessing to him,
and then he's just kind of like,
you know, after I started quoting the Bible
that he claimed to believe, the Old Testament,
then he's like, well, you gotta,
you should really not read the Torah,
it's the Talmud that you should be reading, you know,
and then he basically said, you know,
we Jews are God's chosen people,
we have a covenant with God,
that's why we're going to heaven,
and I said, well, actually, I'm more of a Jew than you are,
and he kind of like, looked at me like,
you know, what's this goy talking about, you know?
And I'm like, yeah, I'm actually,
I'm because the Bible, and I quoted in Romans 2, 28,
and obviously, it just went over his head
because, you know, they can't understand the Bible, right?
Because they're blind, right?
Until they turn to Christ,
then they can understand the Bible, but it's true.
We're all more Jew than the so-called Jews
that exist today.
And obviously, we're more Jew than any Jew
that claims to be a Jew because they're ethnically a Jew
or they're religiously a Jew.
Obviously, those are two different things,
but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter
because whose praise are we looking for at the end of the day?
Whose recognition are we looking for?
Whose standard are we trying to meet?
It's God's standard, and according to God's standard,
the person who believes on Christ is the legitimate Jew.
And this is why Romans 9 tells us
they are not all of Israel, which are of Israel,
implying that there are certain people
in the physical land of Israel during Paul's day
that were not believers in Christ,
and God said, "That's not my Israel."
But the believers in Israel, such as Paul,
he's like, "That's real Israel."
Those are the Israel that God wants to associate with.
You know, 'cause people always say, "Yeah, you know."
God still has a plan for them, though,
because He's gonna make a covenant with them
with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
And I say, "Yeah, not according to the covenant
which He made with their fathers, though."
Because He found fault with them,
and He regarded them not, saith the Lord.
And I always tell them, "Let me explain to you
the covenant that He's making with them.
It's called the New Covenant."
So it's just like, here's the new contract.
This is what you got to just sign here.
Oh, oh, hey, but it says I have to believe on Jesus Christ.
Yeah, that's what you have to-- this is the new covenant
that I've made with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah.
Because I found fault with you in the previous covenant.
The previous contract, you breached it.
Oh, hey, but you know, we're all lying, lying.
And then it's just like, no, you worship false gods.
And so you breached it.
So my son came, right?
The Lord Jesus Christ came.
And His blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat,
therefore inaugurating the New Testament.
So here's the new contract.
'Cause people are like,
oh, you're saying that God breaches the contract
or something?
No, they breached it.
He was loyal.
He was faithful the entire time.
But how can you have a people
that wanna be included into the contract,
but they don't worship the God of the Bible?
Doesn't work.
So therefore God has to make a new contract
called the New Covenant.
And thankfully circumcision is not involved in that, amen.
Neither is our animal sacrifices.
We can eat pork.
I know some of you are not fans of pork.
I love pork.
I think it's delicious.
Bacon's delicious.
Okay.
You know, pork chops tastes good.
All that stuff.
You know, we can have shrimp.
We could have cat, I don't know if you like catfish,
but you could have cat.
You can have all the bottom feeding you want.
Point is, is that those meats, drinks,
and diverse washings were imposed upon them
until the time of Reformation.
And another word for Reformation
is when things are made better.
So the New Covenant is better than the old.
And so I don't know how it got off of that.
But it applies somehow with what I'm talking about here.
Okay, talk about the uncircumcised.
So God views them as the uncircumcised.
Their hearts have not been circumcised through Christ.
And so what's the opposite of a circumcised heart?
It's a heart made of stone.
It's a hardened heart that has not been made flesh, right?
It's not believed on the Lord.
And the Jews of today, obviously, are not the only ones.
Anybody who's not saved has an uncircumcised heart.
They haven't believed on the Lord, right?
The difference would be, though,
is that most people have a hardened heart
towards the gospel, whereas, or excuse me,
most people have an uncircumcised heart
towards the gospel,
but the Jews happen to have like a hardened heart,
which is the reason why it's harder to win them to Christ,
'cause they think they're already saved.
But just remember, you know,
God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
That's what John the Baptist said.
And so that's what the uncircumcised and the unclean
is referring to in the Old Testament
and the New Testament, it's talking about,
you know, the unsaved.
Let me read to you from Ephesians 5.
You're in Revelation.
Go to Revelation 21, if you would, Revelation 21.
Ephesians 5 verse 5 says, "For this ye know,
that no whoremonger, nor unclean person,
nor covetous man, who is an idolater,
has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."
So the uncleanliness of the Old Testament,
the person who's unclean, ritually unclean,
is a person who is not abiding according to the laws of God.
The New Testament, on the other hand,
the unclean person is a person who
hasn't been washed from their sins
through the blood of Jesus Christ,
a person who's not saved.
Look at Revelation 21, in verse one.
It says, "And I saw a new heaven and new earth,
for the first heaven and the first earth
were passed away and there was no more sea.
And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,
coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."
So this is the Jerusalem that we should be aiming
to go visit.
But here's the great thing is that it's gonna come visit us.
So many Christians out there are like,
let's take a mission trip to Israel, brother,
and Jerusalem and see where all the things happen.
I'm interested in the New Jerusalem.
I'm not trying to go over there.
And in fact, Abraham didn't even care about
that physical lamb.
'Cause the Bible says that he sought for a city,
he sought for the heavenly city.
He wasn't thinking about the current city,
he was just like, he didn't even get to see it.
Because he thought about the most important one,
which is heavenly Jerusalem, that which is above,
that was the most important thing.
Look at verse 26, skip down to verse 26.
Let me just remind you, Revelation 21 takes place
after the great white throne judgment, okay?
So at the great white throne judgment,
you have those who are not saved
being judged out of the books and out of the book of life.
So in other words, what happens is,
you have everyone who's not saved,
they're in hell for those thousand,
that millennial reign of Jesus Christ,
they're in hell throughout that whole time, okay?
It's not until afterwards
that you have the battle of Gog and Magog,
and then after the battle of Gog and Magog
is the White Throne Judgment,
where every single unregenerated, unsafe person
is essentially reunited with their physical bodies,
and then they're judged.
And it's not like, let's see how much good you did.
You know, that's what the world thinks, right?
Well, I'll see what happens.
You know, God, while he's gonna weigh my good and my bad,
you ain't got no good, there's only bad.
There's nothing to do with good, no, not one.
And what's gonna happen is that
they're gonna stand before God,
God's gonna open up the book,
which I believe to be the Bible,
and then he's gonna open up the book of life,
the registry and be like, oh, your name's not on the list
and you're guilty of everything.
And then it's just like to the lake of fire.
And then the Bible says that both soul and body
are cast into hell, there shall be weeping
and wailing and ashen of teeth.
Well, after all that's done, you know,
you have death and hell being thrown into the lake of fire.
And then after that's done,
then you have New Jerusalem descending upon the earth.
And essentially the earth becomes regenerated, okay?
It's like it gets saved, so to speak.
The physical earth gets saved.
It's the redemption of the earth.
And obviously you can see the picture there.
It's like the rapture taking place, right?
The resurrection of all individuals.
And so that is the New Jerusalem.
It's like that new man descending upon the old man
known as the earth, and then it transfigures
and then you have a new earth, okay?
Look at verse 26, it says,
"And they shall bring the glory and honor
of the nations into it, and there shall in no wise
enter into it anything that defileth,
neither whatsoever worketh abomination or makeeth a lie,
but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life."
The Bible says, look at chapter 22.
Look at chapter 22.
So you see the same wording there, right?
From Isaiah chapter 52, it says that the uncircumcised
and the unclean will not enter into it.
Well, this is when it happens,
because uncircumcised and unclean
have gone into Jerusalem since then.
So the fulfillment of that is Revelation 22.
Look at 21 and 22.
Look at verse 14 of 22.
It says, "Blessed are they that do his commandments,
that they may have right to the tree of life
and may enter in through the gates into the city,
for without our dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers
and murderers and idolaters,
and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie."
Showing you here the fulfillment of Isaiah chapter 52.
So even though, you know, they had that hope
that no uncircumcised or unclean person
would ever enter into that physical Jerusalem,
eventually that did happen.
And so this is why it's important
that when we read the Old Testament,
we read it with the understanding
that there's always dual fulfillment.
'Cause then you might end up retarded like a preterist.
Oh, did I say the R word?
Oh, I'm sorry.
No, I'm not sorry.
You know, it was just like, explain this.
How is it that no unclean or uncircumcised,
how was this fulfilled?
Are you gonna tell me there's no unclean
or uncircumcised people in Jerusalem now?
Well, it's symbolic of what?
Well, of like a spiritual,
there's nothing spiritual over there.
So try again, pull out another card, go fish.
Go back to Isaiah.
This is obviously referring to the fulfillment
of the new heaven and the new earth.
And of course we know that in the new heaven and new earth,
there is no sin, there's no unsafe people.
It's literally the conclusion of humanity
because of the fact that all that is completely removed.
And obviously that's in the way distant future, by the way.
Like, way out there.
It's nowhere near where we're at right now.
And when I say nowhere near, I mean nowhere near.
Even if the tribulation were to happen
within the next three and a half years,
that's still not even close enough
to get us to the new heaven and new earth.
Because again, that's 1,000 years into the future
after Daniel 17th week.
Verse two says, "Shake thyself from the dust,
arise and sit down, O Jerusalem.
Loose thyself from the bands of thy neck,
O captive daughter of Zion.
For thus saith the Lord, ye have sold yourselves for naught,
and ye shall be redeemed without money."
So they say, you know, get up, it's time to go home,
it's time to go back to Zion,
it's time to go worship the Lord, rebuild the temple.
It's time to, you know, get back home, shake off the dust.
You sold yourselves for naught,
but I'm going to redeem you without money.
And obviously the picture there obviously is also salvation.
Verse four says, "For thus saith the Lord God,
my people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there,
and in the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.
Now therefore, what have I here saith the Lord,
that my people is taken away for naught?
They that rule over them make them to how saith the Lord,
and my name continually every day is blasphemed.
Therefore my people shall know my name.
Therefore they shall know in that day
that I am he that doth speak.
Behold, it is I."
Simply confirming there will be a day
where the Old Testament Israelites
will be a part of that New Jerusalem,
be a part of that New Heaven and New Earth,
And they're going to know the new name of God because right now obviously we know that that name is Jesus Christ
But the Bible also tells us in Revelation 3 verse 12 that he will be also
Excuse me
He will be revealed by a new name as well that we're going to find out
In the future in the new heaven and new earth. All right, look at verse 7
So what is the response of his people?
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 now. I love this passage here because what's the picture here?
Well as israel or juda returns back to their homeland
You have these messengers just running through the hills running through the mountains
They're running through the hills and the mountains and what are they doing?
They're bringing glad tidings of the deliverance of God. It's like
God delivered us from Babylon. He delivered us from judgment
He delivered us from destruction and they're out there knocking on all the cottages
They're knocking on doors telling them god's people are coming back
God delivered and he's saying how beautiful are these feet of the people?
Who are talking about the deliverance of god because he talks about those good tidings. What is a good tiding?
The gospel and in fact gospel literally means good news
Okay, you know he's saying how beautiful are the feet of them that publish salvation the salvation of god
For xion and you got to picture this, you know people are just running
They're just so excited to just get out there and tell people no matter who it is
Like god did it. He's delivering his people. Hey, he's delivering his people. Hey come out
He's delivering his people. Let me tell you about the deliverance and salvation of god
It's like cold waters to a thirsty soul, right? The bible puts it so is good news from a far country
And so that's what literally happened. But what is this symbolic? What is the secondary application to this?
Well, this is quoted in the new testament in the context of the gospel
Well, we would know the gospel to be the death bearer and resurrection of jesus christ
The bible says that whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved
But how shall they call on him and whom they have not believed how shall they believe on him and whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent
As it is written the bible says how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace
That bring good tidings of great joy the bible says right and so
You know, hey if you got some ugly feet physically speaking
If you got those nasty looking
fungus filled
you know
rotting toe
Diabetes looking i'm just kidding you got nasty feet go preach the gospel and god will say those are beautiful feet
Why because how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things
The bible says so just as the people of israel the people of juda rejoice and they're excited about
Preaching about the deliverance of zion in like manner
God says he wants his people in the new testament to be in like manner excited to go out and preach the gospel
You know to run through those mountains and run through those valleys and go to that apartment complex and go to that neighborhood
And go to that mission field and go to that nation and go to mexico and go to belize and go to
Central california northern california in the states of america and go all over the place go around the corner and go preach
The gospel of peace where are your feet taking you today?
You know if your feet are taking you to a lost person to preach the gospel
God looks at that and said those are some beautiful feet, you know, you're like no, I mean
I haven't got a what do they call a pedicure
You know, I haven't gotten a pedicure. My nails aren't done. I got ingrown toenails
You know, you you got athletes foot well fix it
But but here's the thing though until you fix it though go preach the gospel and god says you have beautiful feet
Now, hopefully you just got both. Amen
But hey if your feet are worn out though if your feet are worn and torn from preaching the gospel
Oh, it doesn't matter what they look like physically because in god's eyes
They're beautiful because god views the work that you do with your feet
You know god esteems and values where your feet take you and you know what?
We have christians today that they allow themselves and their feet to take them to sin
To take them to things which do not profit to take them to abominations to take them to things that don't matter
And it's not to say that we can't do things that are fun. But hold on a second
What is your priority as a christian though prayer as a christian to take that our feet should take us to the door
To preach the gospel, right?
Bless my feet. Oh lord that it may take me to someone who wants to hear the truth
The doormat of a person who's been lost is looking for
Salvation to preach the gospel unto them. God views soul winners as possessing
Beautiful feet and you know, let me read to you from first corinthians chapter 12
It says in verse 22 name much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary
And those members of the body which which we think to be less honorable upon these
We bestow more abundant honor and our
Uncumely parts have more abundant cumminess. So here in chapter 12 first corinthians
It's often it's talking about the members of the body of christ and it's relating it to like physical members of the body
Right, and it's talking about like the uncomely parts. What's an uncommon part? It's like an ugly part of the body
And I think it's probably referred to the feet, right and it's saying here that the uncomely parts of the body
We actually should be stole bestow more honor upon that particular member because it's like the most important part
And when I think of this, I think of like churches that think like oh, you know that they they don't esteem evangelism
They don't esteem soul winning. They don't esteem going out and preaching the gospel. Why because it's almost uncomely for them to do
Oh, that's just too confrontational
And that's just too radical. We just like to leave a door hanger. We just like to leave a track
We don't want to impose and they're almost viewing soul winning as an uncomely thing to do
But the Bible says that we should bestow more honor upon that
Quote/uncomely part. In other words, we should exalt soul winning. We should exalt evangelism
We should exalt people going out and preaching the gospel and getting people saved
Preach deliverance from the wages of sin through faith in Christ. Amen. Go ye into all the world
That's what the Bible tells us to do. Let me ask you a question
Have you gotten someone saved this week? Have you been able to preach the gospel to someone this week?
Have you been able to preach the gospel to someone this month? How's your heart when it comes to the loss?
Do you care still? You still care about lost people? And look, I'm asking you because that's something I have to ask myself
all the time. As a pastor, as a full-time pastor who preaches for a living,
I have to make sure I keep my heart right with God and keep my heart tender and soft towards the loss and not lose a
love for the lost person. That I would be motivated to say, "Lord, please, please
help me to get someone saved this week. Give me an opportunity to talk to someone about the gospel.
Give me the chance to preach the good tidings of great things to someone.
Help me not to go weak without getting someone saved. Help me not to go weak
without getting preaching the gospel to someone. Why? Because I want beautiful feet.
This is the purpose from which I am here. And you know what? If you find yourself just becoming
hardened towards the things of God, one thing that will help you, if you find yourself being
bored with the things of God, growing apathetic towards the things of God, I'll tell you what
will help you to get back on track is preaching the gospel. Because that kind of puts you back
in the fight. When you talk to someone who's unregenerated and you see the light bulb go on,
the understanding just turned on. Then you're like, "This is it right here. This is what
it's all about. This is the difference that I'm looking to make. I just changed this person's
eternal destiny." You know, this week we were out preaching the gospel and it was somewhat
of a rough area. And the doors, you know, this was that area where the doors either
they're not opening, and if they're opening they don't want to talk. And between doors
I'm just like, "Please God, someone. Give me someone. I want to talk to someone. I want
to be able to win someone." And sure enough, a lady with their son, just in a stroller,
and you know, look, I'm a pastor of 18, or I've been a Christian of 18 years, a pastor
of how long has this church been around, like 90 years or something. You know, you would
think that I would like already be accustomed to doing this, but I get nervous too though.
I still get nervous. He's like, "You don't show it?" Yeah, because I know how to, you
know, I don't wear my emotions on my sleeve, amen. But I get nervous. And I saw her and
I was just like, "Can I give you this invite?" And she's like, "Oh yeah." And then it's
just like, "Ask her the question, bro. Drop the question." And I asked her and she's
just like, "I don't know." And she's kind of like looking at me like, "Are you going
to tell me?" And I'm just like, "Well, look, give me a couple minutes. I can show
you from the Bible and you can know for sure." She's like, "Okay." And you know, fast
forward 12, 15 minutes into it, she's calling upon the name of the Lord,
getting saved. And you know what? And I just think to myself like, "Thank God for
this privilege." You say, "Well, do you rejoice like that every time you say
someone's saved?" You know, I don't know if I do, but I hope I do though. And I
hope that I can inspire you to go and rejoice over winning someone to Christ
as well. I hope I get to pastor a church where the people's hearts are tender
towards the lost. That you don't go by a week without at least trying to preach
the gospel to someone. And you know, you're like, "I haven't gotten anybody saved."
Well, let me ask you, have you prayed though to get someone saved? You have not
because you asked not. Like, "Oh, that's my area." It might be you though. I had to
break it to you. It might be you. Because you know what? I can attest to the fact
that when I prayed unto the Lord, "God, please send me to someone who wants to
hear the truth," it happens 99.999999% of the time. That's a fact.
And you know what? Have I gone a week where maybe I didn't get someone saved?
Yeah, but you know what? I go back devastated and I get discouraged and I
say, "Lord, I prayed. Send me someone." Because I prayed for this. You want me to
serve you. You want me to get someone saved. Then send me someone in my
neighborhood or I'm out and about. Someone who's willing to listen to the
gospel. And you know what? It happens every single time. And I get the chance
and I win someone to Christ. Have you won someone to Christ this week? I hope so.
And if not, you should try to. And if not, you should pray to. Let's get beautiful
feet at First Works Baptist Church. Not pristine feet that's never willing to
get dirty and go out and preach the gospel. You know, let your feet go to the
lost. It says in verse 8, "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." And I find this really interesting because he talks
about the messenger who's bringing glad tidings of great joy, but then
he also references the watchmen. And both of these people sort of serve the same
purpose but at different capacities. One is bringing the good news. One is warning
of bad news, right? The watchman is the man who's saying, "Hey, you know, there's
wrath coming. There's judgment coming." He's the one who's supposed to warn
people about the judgment to come. And I like what it says in verse 8. It says,
"For they shall see eye to eye." Like the one who's bringing the glad tidings shall
see eye to eye with the watchman and they're both gonna sing. They're both
gonna rejoice together. Now I believe that as Christians we should be both.
Like our gospel presentation should have a watchman but also a messenger of the
good news. You know, you have people out there like Ray Comfort that all he is is
a watchman and he's a horrible watchman at that. But all he's doing is talking
about hell. All he does is like just make people feel like crap. You know, are you
living in holiness? Are you living in sanctification and holiness? You're not
living in sanctification and holiness you uncircumcised unclean fool. You're
not saved. All he wants to talk about is the wrath of God and the judgment of God
and hell but you know what there's no gospel there and I'll tell you why
because he preaches a false gospel and you know what a false gospel is no
gospel. I don't care if you mentioned Jesus ten times, you mentioned faith ten
times but if you mention repent of your sins you mix that in with a false
gospel it's no gospel it's a false gospel it's another gospel. So you have
people out there that are just watchmen but they're not messengers of the
gospel. We need to be both. Then you have people out there that are kind of like
messengers of the good news but they're no watchmen. They only want to talk about
the grace of God, have a relationship with God, loving God but they don't want
to talk about hell. Folks we need to see eye to eye. The watchman needs to see eye
to eye with the messenger of the gospel. We need both. We need to tell them hey
you deserve hell. This is what the Bible says. For all of sin comes short of the
glory of God. The wages of sin is death and you know what we don't need to drive
that in because most people already know that. Rarely will I run into someone
who's just like no. Every once in a while we get someone like that but in general
people already understand that. We're there but then after we tell them that
we're there to bring them the good news. Tell them about the sacrifice of Jesus
Christ. All right let's move on here. Verse 9 says it because you know that 91
is about to close. Gotta get out of here. You gotta take my feet to my
vehicle and head home. Verse 9 says 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 what's
interesting is in chapter 51 you know God's people were like awake Oh Lord you
know show us your arm he's like show us your strength and now we see here that
his holy arm is made bare in the eyes of all the nations. Now the New Testament in
1st Corinthians 12 talks about the members of Christ so we could say like
we're the arm of the Lord because how does people how does God get people
saved through us right when God extends his arm of salvation those fingertips
are believers bringing the gospel to people you know and that's why I have no
beef with saying I got someone saved you know last Sunday we brother Gio and I
co-laborers together he's got a fever so this is why he's back slitting we'll
excuse him he's sick right now but you know what a great story on Sunday you
know he's out there preaching the gospel and he's trying to get this six year I
think he's like a six-year-old he's trying to get him saved but the kid was
just kind of like you know he's being a space cadet and he's not with paying
attention so then he ends up going in he doesn't get saved but his sister comes
out and she gets saved and I think like the mom was like dragging him in or
something but she ends up getting saved well both mom and the daughter come to
church on Sunday night and I thought there were former church members from the
old building so I approached them and I ended up getting the mom saved now the
funny thing is like I'm preaching the gospel to both of them and because I
thought both of them you know they're not saved and then I'm just like yeah
and salvation is and the little girl's like a gift I'm like yeah and that's
why she's like you can't lose it yeah yeah for sure yeah you know she's like
answering and after all I was like are you saved already and she's like yeah I
got saved earlier because I didn't know that Geo had you know got her saved I'm
like oh cool man she got it you know so they get saved they get baptized and I
posted on my on my social media account and I and I put like Geo Fran got this
girl saved and someone was like uh sir excuse me sir let me just correct you on
that sir Jesus saved her sir go ahead and correct that want to reach in that
Instagram and I sent him a couple verses I was like of course Jesus saved them
but he we saved them too you know some have compassion making a difference
others save with fear pulling them out of the fire right and he's like well I
get that but Jesus is the one who gives them eternal life and I said he can't
give it to him without us we need to open our mouths boldly to make known the
mysteries of the gospel amen we are that holy arm of salvation from God when
missionaries go to Belize it's God's arm going into that country to get people
saved and pulling them out of the fire when we cross the border to go to Mexico
to preach the gospel it's God's arm extending into Mexico through the soul
winners to snatch people out of the fire through the gospel we are that holy arm
of salvation says in verse 11 depart ye depart ye go out from fence touch no
unclean thing go ye out of the midst of her be clean that bear the vessels of
the Lord for ye shall not go out with haste nor go by flight for the Lord will
go before you and the God of Israel will be your reward so rear ward so here we
see that what he's referring to specifically is the fact that obviously
they have a choice to come back to Jerusalem they have a choice Judah has
a choice to come back and that's why he's telling them like depart go ye
offense touch no unclean thing just get out of there get out of Babylon and he
says there you're not gonna go out with haste nor by flight so in other words
like they're not forcing them out they have to go on their own accord which is
one of the reasons a lot of them stayed behind now this is actually prophetic of
Revelation 18 with the destruction of Babylon and he's telling like telling
people to come out from her right and we don't I don't necessarily know what the
significance of that is if someone has an idea of what that means you know tell
me after the service but you know by 830 or so because I'm gonna take off but
obviously what's being referred to here in Isaiah chapter 52 is God telling them
like hey don't bring any Babylonian stuff over here right don't bring any
unclean thing you know any of the vessels over there depart from her don't
touch anything come clean in other words right don't bring the world into Judah
don't bring Babylon with you right and obviously we as Christians we live in
Babylon but hey touch not the unclean thing the Bible says and come out from
among them save the Lord and I will be your God and you shall be my people so
obviously the New Testament you know application to this is that we need to
live separated lives unto the Lord and be sanctified through the word of God
verse 13 says behold my servant shall deal prudently this is the servant song
towards the latter end he shall be exalted and extolled and be very high
so this is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ verse 14 says as many as many
were astonished at thee his visage was so marred more than any man in his form
more than the sons of men and what is referring to is it's prophetic of the
fact that when Jesus Christ was scourged when he was beaten and spat upon his
visage referring to his countenance was essentially destroyed you know these
depictions that people put out there isn't accurate you know obviously some
of it may be near accurate with his back and the wounds but the Bible says here
that his face was marred more than any man so he's kind of like unrecognizable
from the sons of men that's all that's how brutally beaten he was by the Romans
when he was being crucified and and this is just referring to his visage his
countenance we know that he was scourged and his back was beaten he was just you
know he was abused greatly all over his body but here's talking about his face
being marred more than any man and obviously you know we need to think upon
that and recognize like he did that for us you know he was bruised for our
iniquities the chest the eyes men of our peace was upon him by his stripes we are
healed and so we need to be thankful for that and lastly verse 15 says so shall
he sprinkle many nations the king shall shut their mouths at him for that which
had not been told them shall they see and that which they had not heard shall
they consider and of course the sprinkling there is indicative of the
blood of Christ being sprinkled on all nations salvation being available to all
nations through his blood so beautiful chapter here I love the aspect of the
beautiful feet and if you take anything from this sermon from this Bible study
take this you know look down at your feet where are your feet taking you this
week make sure that out of all the activities that you got going on this
week one of them needs to direct your feet towards the lost towards a person
who needs the truth you know and so preach the gospel let's pray father we
thank you so much for your word thank you for Isaiah 52 and I pray that Lord
you to help us to take these things to heart help us all in this room get
someone saved this week Lord and I pray that you fill us with your spirit to
preach the gospel to someone and help us to be prepared ready to preach the
gospel but also not just ready in the verses that we memorize but just ready
in our hearts that we would think about people when we see them and think about
their lost condition and Lord we stray I know I do in my heart when it comes to
the gospel sometimes and maybe my heart is not as tender towards the
unregenerated as it should be and so this is just a little reset button a
little reminder to us all that we are to be ministers of reconciliation and I
pray you bless us as we go on our way bless our weekend in Jesus name we pray
amen