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And you're there in Isaiah 52, Isaiah 52, and look at verse number 7. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good. The title for the sermon tonight is Bring Good Tidings. You know, God is saying that your feet are beautiful when you come and you bring good tidings. That's good news. You come and bring good news to the multitudes. Well, we're going to see what these good tidings are in context of Isaiah, and then we're also going to see what these good tidings are from a spiritual application. But Isaiah 52, boy, I wish I could show you how many cross-references I had in this chapter. This chapter's found all over the Bible, in many different areas, and I had to really edit the sermon down so it can be an appropriate time to preach this. But let's start in verse number 1. Just verse number 1 has so much. Verse number 1. Awake, awake, put on thy strength. Now, if you're asking somebody to awake, awake, what are they doing? They're sleeping, aren't they? They're sleeping. Wake up, wake up, awake, awake, put on thy strength. Who is God speaking to? Oh, Zion. So we say Zion is another word for Jerusalem, right? And that's true when it comes to the Old Testament nation of Israel. Zion there represents earthly Jerusalem, understood. But you know, sometimes in the church we sing the hymn Marching to Zion. And when we sing Marching to Zion, are we thinking about getting excited to go to the Holy Land and visit the earthly Jerusalem? Is that in our minds when we sing that song? No, we know that Zion also represents heavenly Jerusalem, doesn't it? So what do you think about it? What is this? You know, God is asking Zion to put on its strength. And its strength is, well, we're sleeping, right? Now, it's been asked to wake up. It says, put on thy beautiful garments. So Zion is to put on its beautiful garments. Old Jerusalem, there it is. Old Jerusalem, the holy city. For henceforth, there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Now, what's funny about this is that some people say, well, this is the restoration of the nation of Israel in 1948. You know, God is bringing them back, you know, the sleeping Jews, and they've gone back into Jerusalem, the holy city. Yeah, but the Bible says that there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. And Jerusalem today is full of uncircumcised, okay? So it's obviously not a reference to 1948 modern day Israel, okay? Now, there are two applications to this. We know that Isaiah has been prophesied about the coming captivity of Babylon. We've read that many times. And he's also prophesied that they would be released from Babylonian captivity, right? And that is, I guess, the primary application from when Isaiah wrote these words. That as the Jews, because the Jews were judged by God because they were so wicked, they had turned their hearts to false gods, false gods that God would use Babylon to drive them out of their land. But then when they were to return, it'd be a new generation, a generation that's been humbled, a generation that loves the Lord and wants to go back to the old paths. And so God would say, you know, there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. And so we know that there's a physical circumcision that the Jews will do in the Old Testament, but that would be reflective of the circumcision of their hearts, okay? So the moment you believe on Christ, the circumcision represents the putting away of the flesh. We're not trusting our flesh. We're not trusting our efforts. We're not trusting our works. We're putting that aside. We've been circumcised in the heart, and with the heart we've believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, come with me to Revelation 21, please. Come with me to Revelation. Keep your finger there in Isaiah 52. And come with me to Revelation 21. Revelation 21. Revelation 21 and verse number 9. Revelation 21 and verse number 9. And the Bible reads in Revelation 21, 9, so we're near the end of the Bible. It says, And there came unto me one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials, full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither. I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. So this is really exciting. The angel's finally going to reveal to John who the bride of the Lamb is. I'm going to show you the bride, the Lamb's wife. Now, if you've been going to Baptist churches as much as I have, who is the bride of the Lamb that they say? They will say it's the church. You say, Well, what church? Because when you ask the Baptist church, they will say, Well, we're all independent churches. Okay, but who's his bride? Oh, the church. Well, who's the church? Well, all the believers. Yeah, but not all believers go to church. Like, not all believers go to church, and not all people that go to church are believers. All right, so the church is the bride. Well, let's have a look, because it's about to be revealed. Look at verse number 10. So the angel says to John, I'll show you the Lamb's wife. I'll show you the Lamb of Christ, okay? Sorry, the bride of Christ. All right, so it must be the church. No, no, it's the great city. Heavenly Jerusalem descending from heaven, coming upon the earth, in not the millennial reign of Christ, but when God creates the new heaven, and the new earth after the thousand reign of Christ, that holy Jerusalem descends to the earth. And remember what it said in Isaiah 52. Okay, now look at verse number 27, same chapter. So when Isaiah 52 says the unclean will not enter, well, who are the unclean? Well, we have an example there, right? Those that work abomination, those that lie, those that cause it to be defiled, the only ones that will be allowed to enter are those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And so this Jerusalem, the reason it will not be defiled is because it's made up of only believers, only those that are circumcised in the heart. Okay, so we know what the greater truth is, or the spiritual truth is, the future truth that we're reading in Isaiah 52, is that this coming Jerusalem will be undefiled only for believers of all time. Now you're in Revelation, come with me to Revelation 19. Because we saw about this city in Isaiah 52, it's being told to put on its beautiful garments. So does the city have garments? Yes, even this holy city in Revelation has garments. Look at Revelation 19 and verse number 7. Who's his wife again? The holy city, heavenly Jerusalem, right? Look at this, verse number 8. So this city needs to put on its fine linen because it's getting ready for the marriage, right? Well what's that fine linen? Clean and white, look at this. For the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. So what is going to beautify the city? What's the fine linen that's clean and white to the city? It's the saints. Believers of all time, even from the time of Isaiah to today, all believers of all time before the Old Testament, Old Testament believers, New Testament believers, believers in the tribulation, believers of the millennium, we're all going to make up this city, we're all going to dwell in this city, and our righteousness, because nothing that enters it will be defiled, right? It's all righteousness will beautify this city, and so this city made up of all believers is essentially the bride or the wife of the Lamb. Now, we're in Isaiah 52, aren't we? So what is the 52nd book of the Bible? Remember I said not brother Tim or brother Daniel for a change? Does someone else know what the 52nd book of the Bible is? Well instead of Tim, I'll ask Timothy instead. 1 Thessalonians, praise God, come with me to 1 Thessalonians please. 1 Thessalonians is famous for one particular passage especially. It has the clearest reference of the rapture. It doesn't matter what you believe in the rapture, what position, what timing, everyone agrees that 1 Thessalonians 4 is the rapture or the main rapture passage. So in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse number 13. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse number 13. Now remember when we read Isaiah 52 verse 1, God is telling Zion to awake, awake, put on thy strength O Zion, put on thy beautiful garments. So wake up, wake up. Well 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 13 says, God is saying there are brethren that are asleep. Who are these brethren that are asleep? Those saints that have passed away. Now this doesn't teach soul sleep. Death is when the soul and spirit leave the body. What is asleep is the body. And what we mean by sleep is dead. But one day that body is going to wake up once again. When God gives us those resurrected bodies. And it continues in verse number 14. Do you notice that it's not soul sleep? Because those that are asleep in Jesus, it says that God will bring them with him. So if God's coming from heaven to the earth, he's bringing the saints. He's bringing the souls that are with him. Alright? And then it says this in verse number 15. Well we will not go before those that are asleep. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. So we can see the correlation. Being asleep are those that are dead in Christ. They shall rise first. Alright, so that's Isaiah 52 verse number 1, has it all. Wake up, wake up! Right? Why? Because a resurrection needs to take place. This holy Jerusalem needs to put on its beautiful garments. So we need those new resurrected bodies at the rapture to come back to life. And that we can all believers of all time can enter into that city and beautify that city. And that city is the Lamb's wife. It's a city that is made up of the circumcised and the heart. And it does not allow anyone that is defiled, all unbelievers would be cast into the lake of fire by this point in time. Now you're still there in 1 Thessalonians. Come with me to chapter 5 very quickly. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse number 6. 1 Thessalonians 5, 6 it says, Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober, for they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. Now this is not the same reference as those that are asleep in Jesus. Those that sleep in Jesus are saints that have passed away. But the sleep here is being correlated with the drunken, drunken in the night. So this is a different group of people. I just want you to notice that, okay? But we can take another application here, okay? Because those that are not saved, those that are not expecting the coming of Christ are also asleep in many ways, right? And as we go and we preach the gospel to them, we're kind of like telling them, Wake up! Wake up! Like be part of the holy city. Be part of God's people. Because those that are unsaved, you know what? They actually are dead. The Bible says they're spiritually dead. Not bodily, okay? But spiritually they have died. And you know, the moment you believe in Jesus, you're born again, you're born of the Spirit. The Spirit that we have within us experiences a resurrection, but our physical body still requires a resurrection to come at the rapture. So come back with me to Isaiah 52. Isaiah 52 and verse number 2. Now the Bible speaks about when we die that our body returns to dust. And so when you get to verse number 2, it says, Shake thyself from the dust. Alright? Because God's raised them from the dead. Arise and sit down, O Jerusalem. Loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. So again, I guess you can take the direct application. The captive of Zion was when they were taken into captivity by Babylon. Again, you need to understand, there are multiple layers to all of these passages. That's why as I was preparing, man, I had so many references. It would take about two hours to get through, okay? So I had to really edit this down. But I want you to understand, there's a direct application when Isaiah's preaching about Babylon, and there's also a future application for us that we can apply. Verse number 3 says this, For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for naught. So they were taken into captivity, right? They were taken. It's not like they said, okay, we'll serve you king of Babylon, but you've got to pay us a salary. No, you go free of charge. You're taking you into captivity, right? You're as spoils of defeat, sorry, of conquering your nation. And it says this, And ye shall be redeemed without money. So because Babylon did not buy you, they just took you, In the same way, you will also be redeemed without money. So when they were taken out of captivity, okay, they were free to go, right? There was a pronouncement that they were allowed to go back and rebuild the city, you know, and it's not like the Jews had to pay Babylon to let themselves go free or anything like that. They were let go freely. But again, there's more to this than meets the eye, because we also know this is talking about believers that make up the heavenly Jerusalem, okay? So let's read verse number 3 again. For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for naught, and ye shall be redeemed without money. What does that sound like? Redeemed without money? Well again, there's a spiritual truth to this as well. So if you come with me to 1 Peter chapter 1, 1 Peter chapter 1, 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse number 18. 1 Peter chapter 1, verse number 18. 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse number 18, please. So we've been redeemed without money. We're in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse number 18. It says, Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers. So we as saved people, when we were redeemed by Christ, we were not redeemed by gold and silver. We were not redeemed with money, right? We were redeemed without money. We were redeemed without the silver and gold. How were we redeemed? Verse number 19. But with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without spot. So yeah, you know what? We weren't redeemed with money, right? Our salvation did not come like, it's not like, who are the richest men on the earth? Elon Musk. Who else? Jeff Bezos. Jeff Bezos. What's that other guy that's in the stock that's like the, that's the guy that controls like the US politics? Warren Buffett. Warren Buffett, thank you brother. Warren Buffett, Donald Trump and all the Saudi princes out there with the oil money, okay? It doesn't matter how wealthy you are, you know, that's not going to save you. You cannot redeem your soul with money, gold or silver or even the vain traditions of your fathers. Well, you know, my kids might say, well, I'm going to heaven because my dad's a pastor. It's not going to help you. It doesn't matter what's happening, you know, in your background. The Jews were like that. Well, where are we? God, we're children of Abraham. That's not going to help you. Who cares? Okay? You need to be redeemed by the blood of Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ. Your faith in his blood. As you can see, it's like, well, what are we learning here? We're learning that when the Jews came out of Babylon and back into the promised land, that this is again a picture, a type of salvation once again, right? You know, they were kicked out of the land because of their wickedness, right? They're back into captivity. It's just like Egypt. It's the same thing over again, right? They're serving a foreign power. They've got no private, you know, land for themselves. The families have been divided and stripped away and they don't have any prosperity. But one day, God would move in the hearts of the king of the Medo-Persian empire and they would be brought back into the land without any payments. And those that came back, you know, initially that new generation had a heart for the Lord, a desire for the old ways. And, you know, many times our salvation kind of paints the same picture that, you know, we're lost and we're without power, we're out of control, we're taken into captivity by the power of darkness and of the devil. But when the light of the gospel shines in our hearts and we believe on him and, you know, when the blood of Christ is put to our accounts, then it's like, you know, we're in that land. We're in the promised land with our Lord God spiritually speaking. And, you know, our sins have been forgiven us and our position before God is the righteousness of Christ. We return, we're back in the land as it were, right? We're saved and we have a circumcised heart that has believed on Jesus Christ. Verse number four, please. For thus saith the Lord God, my people went down a full time into Egypt. I mean, I just said that. I just said it's like Egypt. Anyway, there it is, okay? Isaiah is confirming, it's just like Egypt, right? My people went a full time into Egypt sojourned there and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. Oh, that's a different story. That's when they were trying to get, they were trying to build allegiance against Babylon, right? And so they were like, Egypt, you help us, right? And then the Assyrians still found them there and many of them died even by the hands of the Assyrians. Verse number five. Now therefore, what have I here saith the Lord that my people is taken away from naught? Naught is zero, right? They get taken away into captivity. They that rule over them make, sorry, that they, sorry, they that rule over them make them to hell 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. So what God is saying, look, when you're delivered out of captivity, when you're made free, you'll know that it's God that made you free, that it is Him. And you know, it's just like salvation, like the moment you're saved, there's something wrong if you get saved and you're like, I did my best. I've accomplished it. You know, it's like, no, no, it's all Jesus. You need to know His name is what saved you. His blood is what saved you. His sacrifice is what saved you. His death, His burial, resurrection, it ought to be Jesus. When you ask somebody, how do you know you're saved? If they say anything else but Jesus, there's something wrong. And they're probably not saved. Because they trust, oh, well, I've gone to church my whole life. You know, I'm the pastor's child. I know I'm saved. That doesn't save anybody. What are you talking about? These are corruptible things. When somebody's truly saved and you ask them, how do you know you're saved? Their answer is going to be Jesus. Because of Him. And nothing else. He did it all, right? Verse number six again. Therefore my people shall know my name. Jesus, right? For us today. Therefore they shall know on that day that I am here that doth speak, behold it is I. And then he says these words in verse number seven. 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. I'll read verse number eight quickly. Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice, with a voice together they shall sing. For they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Okay, what is the first application? Again, when Babylon releases the Jews back into the land, the Lord shall bring again Zion, they're going back into the land, and the pronouncement is made that the Jews are coming back, they're going to rebuild Jerusalem, they're going to rebuild the temple, right? They're going back to the road paths. You know, when those announcements were made, the Bible says these were good tidings, you know, of good things. This salvation that is being published is the salvation of the nation, that they've been delivered from captivity once again. We know that's the first application when Isaiah is preaching, right? He's given them good news that one day they'll be released from Babylon. Now, we said that the 52nd book of the Bible is 1 Thessalonians. I hope you're still there. Come with me to 1 Thessalonians, please. 1 Thessalonians chapter three this time. 1 Thessalonians, and just keep your fingers in 1 Thessalonians, because I've got a couple of other references there. 1 Thessalonians chapter three, please. So we're talking about publishing good news, good tidings. And in 1 Thessalonians chapter three, I just want to show you the correlation here in verse number six. Paul writes, But now when Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that ye have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us, for we also to see you. You know, Paul is saying, man, I sent Timothy to go and see you, Thessalonian church. I heard about your love. I heard about your charity. I heard that you still remember us, and you're praying for us, you're thinking about us. Paul says, boy, that's good news, good tidings, good remembrance of us always. These are good tidings that I've heard. You know, it ought to be that way amongst our brothers and sisters in the Lord. That, you know, if I share updates about Blessed Up Baptist Church to New Life, you know, that ought to, for them, could be good tidings, but great. You know, we can hear about the church down in Sydney and the great things they're doing for the Lord, and let's pray for them. And also vice versa, right? When I'm able to give you guys news of New Life Baptist Church and what's developing there, it ought to be good tidings of good things that we get to share with one another what we're doing for the Lord. But Isaiah 52, verse 7 has a greater connection in the Bible, and that's found in the book of Romans. So please come with me to the book of Romans and Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. While you're turning to Romans 10, I'll just read verse number 7 again. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings. I don't think many people think of feet as beautiful, but God does. If they're bringing good tidings, how beautiful upon the mountains, mountains, to bring good tidings. Like this person's so excited to bring the news, to make the announcements of the good news to come, that they're willing to climb the mountaintops and go through that effort. You know, there are some places when we go door to the soul winning. Like, I know on the Sunshine Coast, there are some places that are just like steep, these steep driveways. There was one place that I was knocking, because where we meet for our church it's Little Mountain, the suburb of Little Mountain. The reason it's called Little Mountain is because it's a little mountain. And so there are really like these really steep driveways. And I'm just knocking this area that I've not locked in a while and like, oh man, I'm looking at the driveway. It's like that. It's far off. It's steep. And I'm getting a bit older. I'm climbing up, climbing up, climbing up. I'm like, oh, they're going to not be home. And sure enough, they're not home. It's like, oh, okay, walk down. Another steep driveway, right? Okay, get up there. And I started to take like a younger soul winner with me. So I just like, you go up there, and if you need any help, let me know. But you know, when we're bringing good news, it doesn't matter how high the mountain is. We ought to desire to get it out there and publish the good news. One day, one day, one of those steep driveways, I'm going to get a salvation. I've been having preached the gospel, but I've not seen someone call upon the name of the Lord just yet. But yeah, I mean, like, you know, it's kind of saying like, man, if we've got this news, nothing should stop us. No mountain should be great enough to stop us from preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. And that's the teaching that Paul takes in Romans 10. Romans 10, verse number 12. He says, for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. Now the reason I read verse 12 is, again, there's no difference between the Jew and the Greek. Now when we're reading Isaiah 52 about the beautiful pit upon the mountains, we know that's about the Jews. Like the direct context of that, okay? The primary context when Isaiah's preaching, it's about the release from Babylonian captivity and the pronouncement of those good news. All right, so that's the Jews, all right. But there's no difference between the Jew and the Greek, okay? Verse number 13. For whoso shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? And now notice the next words. As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. So Paul takes this teaching from Isaiah and he says, you know what? There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. This is a lesson for all, right? The beautiful feet represents the sole winner. The one that gets out there and you take your steps and you're like, oh man, I've gone door after door after door. No one's home, no one's interested. I've done my 10,000 steps and I'm just doing a lot of walking. Even when you do a lot of walking and maybe no salvations, your feet's doing the work and God looks down at your feet and goes, those are beautiful feet. They're hard working feet. Their feet bring in the good tidings of peace, the gospel of peace. This is why there's no difference between the Jew and the Greek. When you read Isaiah 52, okay, you understand it's about the physical nation of Israel in the old covenant in the time of Isaiah, but then hey, there's no difference. This is for you too. You know, we too ought to be people that pronounce the good tidings. The title of the sermon was, or is still, Bring Good Tidings. That's our responsibility to see so and say, it doesn't matter if it's a Jew, it doesn't matter if it's a Greek, it doesn't matter if it's Aussie, it doesn't matter if it's a Syrian, right? We go there, we knock doors, it doesn't matter how high the mountain is or how steep the draw, it doesn't matter a little bit, but it really shouldn't stop us from getting out there and giving people the good news of Jesus Christ. Bring your good tidings, bring the good news of the gospel. Look at verse number 16. But they have not all obeyed the gospel, so we understand that, right? We go, we preach the gospel, but they don't all obey the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our reports? So how do you obey the gospel? You believe the gospel. That's how you obey the gospel, right? But it's true that when we go out there, we pronounce the good news, not all are going to obey, not all are going to believe the reports. Verse number 17. So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. This is why it's essential for you to bring good news and preach the gospel to the lost. You need to do it by the word of God. You need to quote scripture, you need to show them from the Bible this is what it says, alright? And it's that which brings forth faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So brethren, you know, you've done a great job in 2024. If those numbers are correct, Brother Matthew, I think you said 300 salvations, excluding the... That's crazy. I mean, that's wonderful, I should say. By crazy, I mean wonderful. That's amazing. I didn't think our church would have 300 salvations here in 2024. That's amazing, brethren. You know, it's a great work, and you know, what is the thing about 2025? You know, we need to continue giving the good news. Did you know most people in Sydney are not saved? Like, no surprise there. You know, we have a community of people that need to be reached with the gospel. And boy, if you don't do it, you know, your feet aren't beautiful. Beautiful feet. I want God to look down at your feet, and normally our feet... You know, the Bible uses the illustration of your feet sometimes, like... You may recall in the Last Supper, when Jesus came and had to clean the feet of his disciples, right? And Peter's like, no, Lord, you're not going to wash my feet. And he says, you know, well, if I don't wash your feet, you'll have no part with me. We need to have clean feet. And the illustration there is that, you know, to clean our feet... It's because as we walk, our feet get dirty. You know, and that is an illustration of our spiritual walk. Our position before God's always righteous, but our walk gets messed up. Because we commit sin, we're in darkness, we get selfish, we do our will rather than God's will. And so we need to go to God and ask Him to forgive us and wash our feet, right? So our walk with Him can be a good one. So, you know, the Bible uses our feet sometimes as well. That's what gathers the dirt. That's true, but how can we make our feet really beautiful to God? By preaching the gospel. You know, by bringing the good news of what His Son did for us on the cross. And preaching that to the community. Back to Isaiah 52, please. Isaiah 52 and verse number 8. Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice, with a voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Sorry, I read that before. Verse number 9. Again, apply it both ways as you read this. God's speaking about the return from Babylon. God's speaking about the Holy, Heavenly Jerusalem also to come. Alright? We know how are we redeemed? Not with money, but by the blood of Jesus Christ. Verse number 10. In the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. So once again, what's verse number 10 applying? All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of the Lord? Well that's talking about when Christ rules over the entire earth. Okay? They're all going to see the Lord God in His glory. Verse number 11. Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence. I want you to remember those words. Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence. Go out from there. Touch no unclean thing, that ye go out of the midst of her. Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. So go out from thence, go ye out of the midst of her. Maybe those words should sound similar to some of you. I'm not sure. Alright? Let me show you how the Bible uses these words in multiple ways. If you can keep your finger there and come with me to Jeremiah 51. Come with me to Jeremiah 51. Jeremiah 51 please. So in the time of Jeremiah, Babylon did overtake Jerusalem. Alright? They were taken into captivity. So God used Babylon to judge Judah. And then God would use the Medo-Persian Empire to judge Babylon. Alright? And in Jeremiah 51, verse number 45. We're speaking here about the judgment of Babylon. But it says in Jeremiah 51, verse number 45. My people, go ye out of the midst of her. And deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord. So God is speaking about his people that have remained in Babylon. When their judgment is coming, he's saying, look, go out. Get out of Babylon. And deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord. So because God's about to judge Babylon, so if you stay in Babylon, you're going to get judged with wicked Babylon. Another way to deliver a man's soul is to tell others, hey, we need to get out of Babylon. God's about to pass judgment. God's wrath is about to fall on Babylon. And once again, the parallel is there with us. When we go and we preach the gospel to the lost, we're telling them, look, deliver yourself out of God's wrath, out of God's judgment. Believe in Christ. Deliver your soul out of his wrath. And so the first, again, one of the first applications we see here is the physical Babylon in Jeremiah's day. God is telling his people, look, when my judgment's about to fall, you need to get out of there. And then we have the future passage in Revelation 18. Come with me to Revelation 18. Revelation 18, please. Revelation 18. There's too much to go through, but you probably remember in the book of Revelation, there's another Babylon. Mystery Babylon the Great. The final end times empire which persecutes the people of God. And in Revelation 18 and verse number 4, as God begins to pronounce judgment on Babylon, he says this. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. So the believers that get saved after the rapture, okay, you know, if they're part of Babylon, if they're in that city, God's telling them, look, it's time to get out because we know that city of Babylon will be destroyed within an hour. Okay. So I just want to show you how, again, it's like, man, Isaiah's linking up with Jeremiah, it links up with the book of Revelation, and that's the challenge with the book of Isaiah, is just how many layers it has. And so it's a deep book, but I want you to really, when you read and study the book of Isaiah, I want you to really focus, okay, what is God saying in the time of Isaiah, and what is the lesson for me? What else is God teaching us that is still coming in the future? Now come back with me to 1 Thessalonians, remember 1 Thessalonians, sorry, the 52nd book of the Bible, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, please. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. So while you're turning there, I'm just going to read Isaiah 52, 11 again. Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean things, go ye out of the midst of her, be ye clean, and bear the vessels of the Lord. Now look at 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse number 3. 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse number 3. The Bible says, for this is the will of God. Now, you say, pastor, I don't know what God's will is for me in my life. Okay, here it is. For this is the will of God. Even your sanctification. Now you're already saved, but your sanctification is your ongoing cleansing. Alright, you need to understand that, praise God, you're saved. And you add nothing to it, you take nothing away, it's Christ alone. But now that you are saved, God's will for you is to be sanctified. You need to get better. We should be more like Christ. Like, at the end of 2024, we should be more like Christ than at the start of 2024. Does that make sense? We need to be more holy, more righteous. And you say, pastor, I still sin, of course you do. But we should be having victory in our lives, right? We should be walking the new man, in the spirit that God has given us, more so than we ever have. This is the sanctification that God gives us. So for this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication. That every one of you should know, look at this, how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor. So notice that your vessel is there, your body. And again, going back to Isaiah 52, I'll just read to you 11, and it says, be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. So one thing that we notice is that our bodies are a vessel, but it's the vessel of the Lord. You know how these bodies belong to God? God's purchased us to purchase our bodies. This body, this everything, belongs to God. God should be in control of our lives. And so when it comes to this vessel, one of the problems that happens amongst young people many times is the sin of fornication. Taking the vessel that God has given us that belongs to the Lord and defiling it, right? With premarital sex. That should not be your life. It's not saying that you're not saved. You're saved, but you need to be sanctified. These are temptations that are too great to overcome. You need to get away from those relationships, get away from those friendships, and understand that your body belongs to God. He wants you to be clean. I'm going to read verse 4 again. That every one of you should know how to possess this vessel in sanctification and honor. God is saying honor your own bodies. When you go out there and you commit fornication, you're dishonoring yourself. You're saying my body's just garbage. It can be defiled. It can be used. It can be abused. No, it belongs to God. It belongs to the Lord. Like, this church belongs to the Lord. Could you imagine if I just start defiling this church? You know, we get rid of the Bible. We get rid of the King James. We bring in some modern perversion. We bring in the rock bands. Right? Whatever. I don't know. What else do we do? No, we get rid of the soul. We replace it with something else. What do we replace it with? Movies? I don't know. That's what some churches do, right? Let's just watch the latest Hollywood movie. Let's watch the latest Harry Potter. I don't know what's happening. What are some movies that are out? There's always a Terminator. The latest Terminator movie. And then I'll preach a sermon, how you can find God in Terminator. Pastor Kevin, this is not what I wanted for church. You defile in God's house. But what about when you commit fornication? What about when you defile your body? It's all to be honorable to the Lord. It says, look in verse number 5, not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God. It's common amongst the Gentiles, lust and fornication, right? But it shouldn't be that way. It says in verse number 6, that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter, because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. For God have not called you unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. God have not called you unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. When you defile these bodies, you are making your body unclean. Now there's a proper place for all of that. Marriage, right? I mean, if that's your desire, and you found the right person, and the right person is a believer, should be a believer, surely your spouse should be a believer. And I would say, and someone that loves you. At the bare minimum, believe in someone that loves you, that will care for you. Get married. That's a proper place for such activity. But when you commit fornication, God says it's unclean, and God has called you unto holiness. This is why, again, you take another application. Okay, getting out of a physical Babylon, but Babylon also represents just the world system. It represents the ways of the world. You know, we should not be, as God's people, we should just, Lord, teach me how to live my life. What is God's will for me? Sanctification, cleanliness, holiness, righteous living, and the way we know is by His word. Or you go to the world, all right, world, tell me how to live, and what it would be. Drunkenness, fornication, chase money, what else? I don't know. I don't know anymore what the world does. Everything else, right, that defiles the Lord, and quite often it has to do with defiling and destroying your body. Isn't it? Isn't that what it is? Go and commit fornication, go and commit adultery, it destroys your body. Go and drink alcohol, it destroys your body. It's almost like everything they prescribe, it just destroys the body. And it's the body that God's given us. It's His vessel. It belongs to Him. He's called it to holiness. Back to Isaiah 52, please. Isaiah 52 and verse number 12. Verse number 12 says, 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 rear reward. Now, I didn't know what this word was, brother, when you read it. I mean, when I was looking into it, I thought it just meant reward. Just another fancy way of saying reward, the Lord will be your reward. But I looked into it, and it actually comes from the word like rear, your rear, behind, okay? So basically it's saying that, you know, as you walk the pathways that God has set for you, that He's going to defend your rear. Like, we're just to look forward. We're to go the way God wants us to walk, His holiness, His ways, His commandments, and we don't look back. We don't look back at Babylon. We don't look back at Sodom and Gomorrah. We don't look back at anything like that. God's got your back. God's got you different. Don't worry about it, all right? God's got your back. He's supporting you. You just walk the way that God wants you to walk in His holiness. Verse number 13. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. All of a sudden, verse 13 just comes out of nowhere. God speaks here of His servant. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Do you guys know who that's talking about, verse number 13? Jesus. Yeah, 100% Jesus. It's not Isaiah. Isaiah is a servant of God, but this servant's going to be exalted, extolled, and be very high. Who is this servant? Verse number 14. As many as were astonished at thee, his visage was so much more than any man and his form more than the sons of men. So we learnt about this servant, that his visage, his appearance is so much, more much than any man. Now, I get emotional sometimes when I think about it, but when Jesus died on the cross, I don't know what picture you get of the Lord just hanging on the cross, what kind of mental image you get of that. Hollywood has tried its efforts to make many Jesus movies but, you know, I don't really like them because they're usually so contrary to the Bible. But many, many years ago I watched, what's it called, The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson's movie, whatever, and I don't recommend it. I've only seen it once, I've never seen it a second time. But it was the first time that I had seen a crucifixion, on film of course, you know, but so grotesque, like so uncomfortable. It's just like, oh man, this is just, and I don't recommend the movie because it's got like Roman Catholic, you know, it's, what's that? Undertones, you know, it's got like the Virgin Mary, whatever, but you know, like I wouldn't recommend it, but just to, you know, have the depiction of what Christ might have looked like on the cross, I think it did a decent job, as far as anything else I've ever seen. But Christ's visage was more marred than any man, like I don't, like when you think about, more than any man, like when you think about warfare, when you think about soldiers shooting each other up and parts going everywhere and just gruesome, right? War is horrible. When you think about how body parts can just be so destroyed or, you know, a person who's driving a car, gets in a car accident and the car just destroys their body. The Bible says that the body of Christ, his visage is more marred than any man. And it says that his form, more than the sons of men, his form, his body, it doesn't even look like a son of man anymore. It doesn't look human being, like it doesn't look like a human. Sorry guys. Because, you know, before Christ was put on the cross, he was beaten and he was whipped, he was spat upon, his beard was ripped off his face. We get just some details in the Bible, just kind of like skips along, okay, okay, you know, he got hit and he got smashed, you know? His body was ripped apart by the whipping and the crown of thorns and, you know, when it says that his form, more than the sons of men, his form did not look like a man. You know, I don't know, like sometimes I'm driving, especially where I live in Malaney, and especially there's a lot of, every now and then there's like a dead snake, a dead wallaby or something right on the road that got smashed. Every time you just see this carcass, you know, like I don't even know what that is. Like, you know, it's like it's just been hit and it's been run over by cars over and over again, you just see, you just have some carcass, what was that? I have no idea, you know? And that's what our Lord would have looked like on the cross, just like you're passing by and you look and it's like, is that even human? Like he's suffered so greatly for our sins, you know? And so, verse number 13, Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. You know, I love that, you know, our Lord suffered so much for us and that's just the outward. What about the inward? What about all our sins being laid upon him, you know? What about the suffering of being rejected by his father? You know, it's just, it's amazing, like what, I can't even, we can't understand, but fathom what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us, right? And then it says in verse number 15, And so shall he sprinkle many nations. Now I don't know if this means the sprinkling of his blood will be upon many nations or, do you just claim, like maybe it's water cleaning, like washing of water upon many nations. It says, A 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. It's amazing, it just has, in a very nutshell, it just comes out of nowhere almost, where, you know, the Lord speaks about his suffering servant there and how he's going to be just deformed when he dies for us. But he's going to be lifted up, he's going to be extolled, we know that our Lord Jesus Christ sits right now at the right hand of the Father, and one day the kings of the earth shall shut their mouths at him, the millennium to come. Everyone's going to just bow and serve the Lord. You can't speak against the Lord in his return. And he deserves it, Jesus Christ deserves to have all the praise and all the worship of the entire world, every man, woman and child bowing themselves down, all of creation bowing themselves down to Jesus Christ. Christ is coming back, and he's coming back in power and glory, and he deserves it, because he did so many great things for us. You know, he's come to deliver all of the nations, he's just sprinkled many nations. Thank God we live in Australia, thank God in Australia I got to hear the gospel from my mum. You know, the blood of Christ is still being sprinkled upon people today, and that's the good news, right? Title of the sermon is, bring good tidings, bring good tidings. It's hard, like, we know the gospel's so good, it's so wonderful, but boy, we've got to tell people, you're on your way to hell. But that's the bad news, let me tell you the good news. Jesus was tortured, and suffered, and was deformed. We don't say those words, but that's what essentially we're telling people. His body was ripped apart, somehow none of his bones were broken though. But his outward flesh just... I don't think we even can understand what he looked like. I just think of roadkill, just hanging on a cross. You know, we don't even look like a man anymore. And that's what he did for us, but that's the good news. And that's the news that we need to share to this entire earth. And as we go out there and we preach the gospel, beautiful feet God says, they're beautiful feet. And man, doesn't Jesus Christ deserve his work, and his sacrifice to be pronounced to our neighbours, to our lost friends and family? They need to hear it, don't they? You know, and this is the best news that we can ever share. So I hope 2025 is another year that you get out there and have beautiful feet that you contemplate on what Christ has done for you, how much he's suffered for you, and so much he's suffered for this world. And there's so much wickedness in the world, don't be tainted brethren. You know, it's so easy to fall in temptation. It's so easy to just listen to the world and cave into peer pressure, and to just fall in love with some random person, and commit fornication, or commit adultery. It's not a hard thing to do, because our flesh desires those things. But you know, our flesh is the vessel of the Lord, it belongs to him. He wants it sanctified, it's holy, it belongs to him. And he's died and he's done so much for us, so shouldn't we just give him our bodies in return? Lord, you gave me your body. You destroyed your body for me, and I should be able to give my body as a clean vessel in return unto you. Alright brethren, let's pray.