Good evening tonight, we're in Isaiah chapter 52, Isaiah 52, the Bible reads,
Awake, awake, put on my strength those Zion, put thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the Holy
City, for thence forth, 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 nought, and ye shall be redeemed without
money.
For let's say at the Lord God my people went down a four-time into Egypt a soldier in there and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause
Now therefore, what have I here say at the Lord that my people has taken away from not they that rule over them
Make them to how will say at 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 does 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, that saith unto Zion thy God reigneth.
Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice, with the voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion.
Break forth unto joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.
The Lord hath made bear 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 thence, touch no unclean thing, going out of the midst of her, be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord.
Be 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 re-reward.
Behold, my servant shall deal prudently.
He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.
As many were astonied at thee, his visage was so marred more than any man, and him formed
more than the sons of men."
So shall he sprinkle many nations the kings shall shut shut their mouths at him for that which had not been told to them
Shall they see and that which they had heard heard not heard shall they consider?
Let's pray the dear Lord God
Just thank you for this night that we come together to hear the preaching of your word Lord
Just please bless this service Lord and please bless the preaching fill pastor
Mahir with your holy spirit as it 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 servants 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 going to go over that this evening.
Tonight we're going to 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 in the book of Isaiah is that Israel is 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 going to 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 tells them,
he prophesies unto them and he tells them,
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.
What's his name?
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,
you know, there's a portion of them that actually stayed behind, okay?
There's a portion of them that decided not to leave.
And you think to yourself, like, why would they stay?
Well, if you're there for 70 years, you basically dug your heels deep in there,
you know, 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 you know a lot of these Jews became apostate
and you know 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 the origination of
synagogues came from because of the fact that they weren't worshiping in Jerusalem they wanted to
create gatherings whereby they can worship and they call those synagogues and in fact in the New
The word synagogue literally means a gathering together, okay?
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 am 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, 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.
You know, 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.
You know, that's according to God and so that's important to note there now
Let's look at what we verse number one here. We're gonna look at the return of Zion
It says in verse number one awake awake put on strength those Zion put on thy beautiful garments
Oh, Jerusalem the holy city for henceforth there shall no more come into the the uncircumcised and the clean
So the first thing he tells them 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?
Because you're going to, 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.
Holy City and I want you to notice that he says for henceforth. There shall no more come into the the
uncircumcised and the clean now what is this referring to well
Obviously it's referring to symbolically if we're to symbolically represent is referring to the garments of salvation
And when he talks about the beautiful garments, the garments of salvation,
but the reason he refers to the uncircumcised and 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 is this fulfilled immediately because there were uncircumcised and unclean people going into Jerusalem, you know
They're after 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 preterist. You know, 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 7080 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 two thousand years absolutely not
You know the Jewish diaspora referring to the dispersion of the Jewish people into all nations
Was fulfilled because of their 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 where you're 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
It's 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
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 unsafe 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 cloned 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 going to 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 lot of voice saying how
long oh Lord holy and true does thou not judge an avenger a blood on them that
dwell in 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.
But apparently they're given to us when we get to heaven as well.
Look at chapter 7 and verse number 9.
It says in verse number 9,
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 is the rapture in the book of Revelation?
Chapter 7.
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 siteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb.
Look at, skip down to verse 13, if you would.
What are these which are arrayed in white robes and whence came they meaning where where do they come from?
And I said unto him, Sir, 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 a on a wedding garment
And he said it's him friend. How came is 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,
thinking, well, that's kind of a little dramatic.
He's not wearing a wedding garment.
So he's like, tie him up and go throw him
somewhere out in the dark.
But obviously what it's referring to is the is the 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 down to outer darkness and there's weeping and wailing in the nation 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
Because 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.
Because 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, it sort of 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 in the unclean obviously it'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 didn't apply to the women
But you have to be physically circumcised as the head of the household and the men there had to be physically circumcised because 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, you know,
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 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 you practice circumcision for whatever because you know
They think that that's just the thing to do
You know, 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, because they haven't believed on Jesus Christ.
And, you know, that goes for also unbelieving Israel.
They could be physically circumcised. They're not part of this covenant
You know, this is why we say that we're God's chosen people and they're not why because just as a 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
Bible says in Romans chapter 2 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 the distinction between two old testament new testament old covenant 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 a member of God means God
recognizes when he praises he recognizes you
as being the 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 there 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'll be like whoa. Oh, I
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 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 could you should really not read the Torah. It's the Talmud that you should be reading, you know and
And then he basically said you know we Jews are God's chosen people we have a covenant with God
That's where 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 boy talking about?
And I'm like yeah, I'm actually I'm because the button 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 couldn't 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 in 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 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 right there
Those are the Israel that God wants to associate with you know because 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 with the house of Judah
And I say yeah, not according to the covenant with what you made with their fathers though
You know because he found fault with them and he regarded them not say it 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 gotta, you gotta 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 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 like, lie, lie.
And it's just like, no, you worship false gods.
And so you breached it.
So my son came, right?
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 they want to 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
it's 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 is 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 feeder you want
Point is is that those meat 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 Coven is better than the old and so I don't know how to get off in that tent
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 an 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, 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.
Because 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 is 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 chapter 5 verse 5 says,
So the uncleanliness of the Old Testament, the person who's unclean,
ritually unclean, is a person who's 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 and verse 1.
It says, And I saw a new heaven and new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away
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 going to come visit us.
You know, so many Christians out there are like,
let's take a mission trip to Israel, brother, and Jerusalem and see where all the things have.
I'm interested in the New Jerusalem.
You know, I'm not trying to go over there and in fact, you know, Abraham didn't even want to like didn't even care about that physical land
Because the Bible says that he saw for a city, you know, he saw for the heavenly city
You know, he wasn't thinking about the currency. He's 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, you know
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 wide-thrown judgment. Okay, so at the great wide-thrown judgment
You have you know 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 know
You have everyone who's not saved there 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, well, he's going to weigh my good and my bad.
You ain't got no good.
There's only bad
There's none 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
They're 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 almost like 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 defile it,
neither whatsoever work at the abomination or make it the 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, 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,
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 we read the Old Testament, we read it with the understanding that there's always dual fulfillment.
Because then you might end up retarded like a preterist.
Did I say the R word? Oh, I'm sorry. No, I'm not sorry.
You know, I was just like explain this how is it the 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
The 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 I don't it's nowhere near where we're at right now, and I want to 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 a thousand years into the future after Daniel 70th week
Verse 2 says shake thyself from the dust arise and sit down on Jerusalem loose thyself from the bands of thy neck
Oh captive daughter of Zion for they say at the Lord you have sold yourselves for not 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 we build a temple
It's time to you know get back home shake off the dust you sold yourselves for not but I'm gonna redeem you
without money and obviously the picture there obviously is also salvation.
Verse 4 says, for thus saith the Lord God, my people went down a foretime 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 say 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 does 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 gonna 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 Judah 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?
Cause he talks about those good tidings.
What is a good tidings?
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 Zion.
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 so the Bible puts it so it's good news from a far country
And so that's what literally happened,
but what is this symbolic,
what is this 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, barren resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And the Bible says that,
whose service shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved.
By 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
They 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 Judah
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, and 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'm in I haven't got a what do they call it pedicure?
You know, I haven't gotten a pedicure. My nails aren't done. I got ingrown toenails
You know 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
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, right?
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?
Prioritize a Christian to take that our feet should take us to the door to preach the gospel
Bless my feet, O 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 let me read to you from 1 Corinthians chapter 12 that says in verse 22,
And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable,
upon these we bestow more abundant honor,
and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.
So here in chapter 12 1 Corinthians,
it's often, it's talking about the members of the body of Christ
and it's relating it to physical members of the body, right?
And it's talking about the uncomely parts.
What's an uncomely 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 uncommonly parts
of the body, we actually should 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, 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
Uncommonly 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
Uncommonly thing to do but the Bible says that we should bestow more honor
Upon that quote-unquote uncommonly 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 to save 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 a week without getting someone saved.
Help me not to go a week 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'll 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,
it's preaching the gospel.
Cause 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 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, lady with her 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 nine 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? 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
She's kind of like looking at me like you gonna 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 safe, 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 ninety nine point nine nine nine nine nine nine nine nine percent 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'm 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 where 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?
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 is 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 what is I find this really interesting because he talks about the messenger
Who's bringing 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 eight that 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 watchmen, 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.
Oh, 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 mention Jesus 10 times,
you mention faith 10 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 him, hey, you deserve hell.
This is what the Bible says,
for all I've sinned 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 you get something 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 said it cuz you know that 91 is
You gotta take my feet to my vehicle
Verse 9 says break forth into joy sing together you waste places of Jerusalem for the Lord hath comforted his people
He hath redeemed Jerusalem the Lord hath made bear 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 are 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 bear in the eyes of all the nations
now
The New Testament in 1 Corinthians 12 talks about the members of Christ, so we could say like we're the arm of the Lord.
Because 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 Geo and I co laborers together. He's got a fever. So this is why he's back slidden
So we'll 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 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 them 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 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, yeah, you got it 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 a while I was like are you saved already and she's again
I got saved earlier because I didn't know that you had had you know God or saved
I'm like, oh, cool, man, she got it, you know?
So they get saved, they get baptized,
and I post it on my social media account,
and I put like, Jill Fran got this girl saved.
And someone's like, sir?
Excuse me, sir?
Let me just correct you on that, sir.
Jesus saved her, sir.
Go ahead and correct that.
Just wanna reach in that Instagram.
And I said to him a couple of verses,
I was like, of course Jesus saved them,
but 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
Departee, departee, go out from fence, touch no unclean thing, go ye out of the midst of her, be ye 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, rearward. 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, right? They have a choice. Judah has a choice to come back.
And that's why he's telling them, like depart, go y'all fence, touch no unclean thing, just get out of there, get out of Babylon.
And he says there, you're not going to go out with haste nor by flight, so in other words, 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 his people to come out from
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 he shall be my people.
So obviously, the New Testament 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's song towards the latter end. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.
So this is talk about the Lord Jesus Christ verse 14 says as many as many were astonished at the
His visage was so marred more than any man and his form more than the sons of men
Now what is he referring to is it's prophetical 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 this is just referring to his visage, his countenance.
We know that he was scourged and his back was beaten.
He was abused greatly all over his body,
but here's talking about his face being marred
more than any man.
And obviously, we need to think upon that
and recognize that he did that for us.
He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chest, the eyes 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.
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 memorized
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