In his sermon 'Put on Your Beautiful Garments,' Scott Brown explores Isaiah 52:1-12, focusing on a call for spiritual awakening and renewal. The passage urges the people of Zion to 'awake' from their spiritual slumber, shedding their metaphorical chains and worldly influences to embrace holiness and the beauty of the Lord. Brown contextualizes this awakening as a process of redemption and transformation, moving from sin and judgment to productivity and fruitfulness in the Christian life. He emphasizes the importance of outwardly displaying the beauty of holiness and strength, likening it to putting on beautiful garments that reflect God's glory. The sermon draws parallels between the historical Babylonian captivity and the spiritual captivity of sin, highlighting God's mercy and the power of conversion through the Holy Spirit. Brown also discusses the necessity of evangelism, using the imagery of 'beautiful feet' that bring good news and proclaim salvation, as referenced by the Apostle Paul in Romans 10. The sermon concludes with a call to depart from uncleanness and embrace a life marked by joy, obedience, and the assurance that 'your God reigns.'

Isaiah 52 from 1 to 12. Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion. Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city. For the incircumcised and the unclean shall no longer come to you. Shake yourself from the dust.

Arise, sit down, O Jerusalem. Lose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thou sayeth the Lord, you have sold yourself for nothing and you shall be redeemed without money. For thou sayeth the Lord God, My people went down at first into Egypt to dwell there. Then the Syrians oppressed them without cause.

Now therefore, what have I here, says the Lord, that my people are taken away from nothing. Those who rule over them make them well, says the Lord, and my name is blasphemous continually every day. Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore they shall know in that day that I am he who speaks. Behold it is I.

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, your God reigns, Your watchmen shall lift up their voices. With their voices they shall sing together, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord brings back Zion. Break forth into joy, sing together, your waste places of Jerusalem. For the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem the Lord has 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, depart, go out from there, touch not unclean things, go out from the midst of her, be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord for you shall not go out with haste nor God by flight for the Lord will go before you and the Lord the God of Israel will be your rear guard We praise you Lord for your work.

We praise you that you still come for your people. We praise you that you still redeeming people. Oh God I pray that today Father to be a time that you open the eyes and the ears for the unsafe. I pray, Holy Spirit, that you convict us, you convict our hearts, and you help us to see you more clear who you really are Lord. Oh Lord I pray that you speak to your church Father in Jesus name.

Amen. Well here in Isaiah 52 1 through 12 God is calling his church out of her groggy and unkempt state to behold the beauty of the Lord, to actually to display the beauty of the Lord. They've been punished through the Babylonian captivity. They've been taken down into bondage there. And now they're being called to wake up and to put on their beautiful garments, to be bouncing back really from their time of chastisement.

And I think it pictures a people who have endured the judgment of God, the chastisement of God. They felt the pain of their sin. They've seen how unprofitable it was. They've seen how harmful their sin was. They've seen the judgment of God, how God took them to account for their sin, and they're feeling that, and now they're down in the dust.

And God is calling them out to awake. And this is really part of God's design for discipleship, for the discipline of the Lord. And what it is, is that God takes us into times of difficulty like he did with the Babylonian captivity so that he would raise us up to a whole new level of productivity and fruitfulness. And this really, This is the power of conversion. The power of conversion is that your whole nature changes and you're given a new power and a new beauty in the Lord.

Your old man dies away and the beauty of the Lord replaces the filthy rags of your own righteousness. And as it was with all those who've been converted, you become a new man or a new woman. You're actually born again. But here we have a people, they're despondent, their sins have been uncovered, they've suffered dramatically for their sins. And as we've seen, as we've been walking through this context in Isaiah beginning in chapter 49 verse 15, The verses from 49-15 all the way up to 52-12 are some of the most encouraging words that we find in the whole prophet of Isaiah.

And then right after that is Isaiah 53, this prophecy of Christ, perhaps the most powerful declaration of the atonement of Jesus Christ and of all the Bible. And so it's a call to awaken and Then next week we'll get into the beginning of Isaiah 53 and we'll see the price that God paid to awaken His people in the giving of His Son. So this is a long section and the call is consistent. Now in chapter 52 we encounter another call to awake and stand and to throw off the chains of worldliness and to rise up to a whole new level of productivity and faith. And so that's the context.

You know, we go back to Isaiah 49 verse 14, where there's a question that's posed and everything after this question, from then up until now, God is answering that question. And they say, the Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me. And now, in this third appearance of the terms, awake, awake, he continues on to say, no, I have not forgotten you and and so now in 52 1 through 12 Isaiah through the mouth of the Lord issues several commands that help us arise out of the time of sin and judgment. And it is the power of conversion. And there are seven of them.

Wake up, get dressed, shake off the dust, sit down, take off your chains, sing for joy, and depart from uncleanness. This is biblical counseling for those whose hope is flagging, who feel like maybe the judgment has been too hard, that it's been too discouraging. And here God comes and He gives His people a way out. He's counseling His people so that they can arise out of the dust. And so this is a picture of the church arising out of a time of sin, a time of chastisement, and even a time of sleepiness.

And one thing that's so clear from this passage is that if God can raise you out of your sleeping, if God can raise Jesus Christ from the dead, He can raise you out of His sleepiness. But He does give us things to do. There are things that we must do in order to find the fruitfulness of our awakening. The fruitfulness of our Christian lives isn't just some magical thing that happens. We take action as well.

It is by the power of the Holy Spirit, but God also calls us to action. And here there are these seven appeals to action that lead us to understand how we might have a life of greater fruitfulness and productivity even after times of terrible sin. And we learn a lot about the the mercy of God here. You know how sinful do you have to be for God to forget you? And the answer is that you cannot be too sinful for God to forget you and not raise you out of the dust.

These chastisements that God brought upon them, they were deserved. And though they were deserved, God comes and he lifts his people back up. So these are pictures of awakening and the commands to the church that cause awakening. And the first is to wake up. Awake, awake.

And as you know, As you've been following with us in our studies in Isaiah, this is the third time in the last two chapters that this phrase has appeared. And the first appeared where it was a prayer to God for God to awaken and arise and help his people and then last week we we talked about in verse 17 in this in in the last chapter where we read awake awake stand up Jerusalem you have drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury And here you have this picture of a drunken woman and people who are laying on the streets. They're being walked all over by the authorities and by the worldlings of their day. And God says, I'm taking the cup of wrath from you and I'm giving it to another." So then now we come to this third awake and again it's a picture of a church that's asleep. And This is the great concern for the Church of Jesus Christ and for any individual Christian is to ask am I asleep?

Am I dozing through the war? Am I just slumbering and he kicked I keep hitting the snooze button of my spiritual life, and I'm not arising out of my slumber. A.W. Tozer said that there's both a moral sleep and a spiritual sleep. And when you're asleep, you're in danger and you don't really even know it because of your grogginess.

And so there's this call to awake. You know, when you find these same calls in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul says to the Ephesian church, awake, sleep, or arise from the dead. This is a command that we find. You know, you can be morally awake and spiritually asleep. That's perhaps one of the great dangers, to be so morally attuned, but it's just all head knowledge, but to be actually spiritually asleep, where there's no fire, there's little love, there's little prayer, there's little worship, There's little desire for the things of God.

This is a state of sleep. I read an article last week by a man who was saying that he couldn't choose to fall asleep, but he could put himself in a position to sleep. Like you can't make yourself fall asleep, but you have to put yourself in a position to sleep. And I think that's true with our lives with the Lord and with all of our discipleship. We can put ourselves just in the position of sleep, and it'll happen.

Or you can put yourself in the position of wakefulness, and it'll happen. And that's why the Lord is saying, Awake, awake, get out of the sleep, get yourself in a different position here so that your usefulness can be seen. And I think that this is perhaps one of the great keys of awakening in any church, where a church puts itself in the position of wakefulness. A church can be in its position of sleepiness. And there are different ways that that happens.

Maybe when we get to the discussion time, we can talk about how a church puts itself in a position to sleep and so then it just doses right off. You can do this in your family, you can do this in your own heart, you can do this in your church. And so he's saying, you know, awake, awake, And then he says put on strength o Zion now This beautiful image of Zion this city this heavenly Jerusalem that is good that That at the end of the age is going to come down from heaven Is this picture of the power of God and the beauty of God being demonstrated in the world. And from Isaiah 52 to 54, you're going to find Zion to be very prominent. We're going to read about Zion over and over again.

I won't elaborate too much on Zion right now, But we will as we get on in our studies here. And then, and of course, in chapter 53 we find the price that God paid to beautify Zion. So the first command is to wake up and the second is to get dressed put on your beautiful garments Oh Jerusalem the holy city. This is this is a call for the church to display the beauty of the Lord Outwardly outwardly. Okay, it's your faith is not just your own and It isn't just only about your heart the adornment of the power of God is not just inward It is outward and So the church shows her true nature by her outward appearance.

You know, the Christian life isn't just simply a matter of the heart. It's not a matter of the, only of the inner heart, but it's also a matter of the outward appearance. That's why the Apostle Paul says that a woman's adornment should not merely be outward, but also the hidden person of the heart, as he's speaking about matters of matters of clothing. It's interesting he's talking about you know putting on beautiful clothing and clothing is a category of scripture that has meaning it points to something greater Everything points to something greater and clothing does point to something greater. In 1st Timothy chapter 2 we read that women in their modesty are quote professing godliness with good works.

So even your outward appearance is a profession of godliness. And I think both men and women need to recognize that their clothing is a profession. It's an outward profession of an inner godliness. And So we can't disregard clothing. We can't say if you make a comment about clothing or make some kind of principle regarding clothing, it's legalism.

It's not at all because clothing actually means something in scripture. God has given garments in order to serve as a type and garments were originally given in the Garden of Eden in order to cover shame. That's really the beginning and the heart of the meaning of garments is is the covering of shame and man clothed himself with his own garments. He made up his own way of his own look after he had sinned and it wasn't right. And so God came and clothed him with garments that did cover his shame.

And this will always be the case. When man wants to figure out his own way of garments, he always makes up the wrong ones. But when he looks to God and says let these be the garments that declare that my shame has been covered then then he's thinking rightly about it garments actually declare salvation And this is why you read about garments of holiness in Psalm 110 verse 3 and Isaiah 61 verse 10. But garments cover shame and they do many other things. You could read Psalm 45-13 and speak of the royal daughter who is all glorious within the palace and her clothing is woven with gold.

She shall be brought to the king in robes and colors. We could go to Revelation 3 5 where we read, he who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments And I will blot out his name, and I will not blot out his name from the book of life But I will confess his name before my father. This is all reflective of the whole Old Testament view of garments. In Exodus 28 2 we learned that Aaron was to make holy garments for glory and beauty. And when that happened, we learned something about our own clothing in the New Covenant era, because we're clothing the temple of God, and all of these images are carried forward into the new covenant era.

And salvation is seen in garments, and clothing is a type. It points to your salvation. And it's not gaudy, it's not expensive, it's not revealing. These are the things that you're reading in 1 Timothy 2 particularly. But the whole point is that you're putting on beauty for ashes.

That God calls His people to be clothed beautifully. Of course, clothing here is figurative. It's about the beauty of the holiness of God. Being clothed with garments that just say that. And I think He's just speaking of the holiness of the true church.

And he says, put on strength. So they're beautiful garments. And then he says, put on strength. And this is really a theme here because when we get later on into this sort of interlude in verses 7 and 8 about the beautiful feet who bring good news, the whole message is, Your God reigns. So this is strength.

The church ought to be putting on garments of strength, not cowering away, not shutting up in the face of the liberal pressures that are upon us today, not shrinking back, but going out in strength. You know, Isaiah already said, for Yah, the Lord is my strength and my song. And you put on strength by obedience to God. The strength of the Lord is the power of His Word that's being demonstrated in the daily activities of His people. This is how the strength of God is demonstrated.

You know, we just finished this conference on church discipline, and I heard a number of stories of the strength of God, how God, through the obedience of a church and moving in discipline, causes power to be displayed. I got a letter from a man who's a pastor of a church not very far away and he said that a few years ago they excommunicated a lesbian and she fought it for three years And finally she came back to the church and was reconciled. And then she married a man in the church and has a baby. This is the power of God. This is the power of obedience.

The strength of the church is found in her obedience to the Word of God. Lyle Weinberger told a story of this really famous court case in Texas where a woman leveled a lawsuit against her church for exposing her adultery and the thing went to the court. The church actually won the case, but he said that later on she repented and she returned to her husband. But it was because the church was obedient. But a strong church is an obedient church.

You'll always find a weak church where you find a weak stomach for obedience. And that's what we see here. The second command, get dressed, put on the beautiful garments and express the strength of the Lord in those garments. And then the third, shake off the dust, verse 2. Shake yourself from the dust, arise, sit down, O Jerusalem.

Shaking off the dust is getting out of the mire of your evil sleepiness. You know, earlier we read that Babylon will go down to the dust and Here we learned that the church the true church will arise and you come out of the dust as as new creatures You are walking on the highway of holiness You're in the upward call of God And this is a picture of how God lifts His people up out of the dust. The Bible says, He who exalts himself will be brought low. When God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. But here, Israel is sitting in the dust, and God is saying, come out of the dust, dust yourself off, shake it all off.

And then the next appeal is to sit down, sit down, oh Jerusalem. I take this to be, take the position of learning. Open your ears. Listen. Have the ear of a ready learner.

Morning by morning, hearing from the Lord, opening up your heart by opening up your ears and taking the position of a disciple or a learner. It's really a position of rest. It's a position of receiving. You know, when I was first converted, I was so taken by the word disciple, the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. And a disciple is just a learner.

A disciple is someone who sits at the feet of Jesus and who learns. And so he says, he says, sit down. And then fifthly, take off your chains. Verse two, loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, oh captive daughter of Zion. Now the word that he uses here, it's a word that is used for different things like prison and bonds, But it's a word that has to do with confinement.

So when the Bible wants to speak about confinement, of being hemmed in, held in, it often uses this word, restricting your freedom. And there's nothing more restricting of a person's freedom than sin. And here the prophet is crying out to the people to take off their chains, the things that have made them prisoners, to get free of their idols. And I think, you know, when you read this, you know, you should ask what's got me around the neck? What's got me around the neck?

What's binding me up in that sense? In what sense has some part of this world got me around the neck? In what sense have I become a slave to the world? But the truth of this is that God can deliver the church from her confinement, from her solitary imprisonment, from the bonds that are holding her, and she can be free. She can know the truth, and the truth will make her free.

Rather than being conformed to this world and its bondage, she can be free. And this is why in Colossians chapter 3 verses 9 and 10 we read, Therefore, put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience in which you yourselves once walked and lived in them." But this is the whole idea of putting off, putting to death. And here in this passage we see the exact same pattern we see in the New Testament, where you put off the old man and you put on the new garments, you put on the new man, take off your chains. You know, you just have to consider what are the chains.

You know, as the children of Israel were lying in the dust as they were sort of at the bottom of their captivity and God was setting them free. I'm sure they could consider carefully what their bonds were, what had gotten them around the neck. Everybody has something around his neck. And it's such a blessing to be able to consider it and then to be free of it. What a blessing.

God is so kind to set his people free. And then after these first commands, then there are reasons that are given for why awake. Why in the world should you awaken and put on and put off that he's saying that he's been saying so now you're going to get the reason why we ought to do that and why it's madness to ignore it And the first reason that he gives is that we're redeemed without money. Verse 3, for thus says the Lord you have sold yourselves for nothing and you shall be redeemed without money. Now what does that mean?

So picture two parties. There's a seller and there's a buyer. You got that? And the buyer was Babylon And Israel is the seller who sold herself. And when she sold herself, she sold herself for nothing.

And so there's this illustration in verses four and five. For thus says the Lord God, my people went down first into Egypt to dwell there, then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. Now therefore what have I here?' says the Lord, that my people are taken away for nothing. Those who rule over them make them wail, ' says the Lord, and my name is blasphemed continually every day. So you have these you have these these two parties the buyers and the seller you have the buyer and the seller and you have Egypt and you have Syria.

The seller is Israel herself. Israel sold herself and did not gain anything. She gave nothing and got nothing basically from it. No money changed hands. And because no money changed hands, then the Lord is open to recover his property.

And they were sold but not with money, and therefore their captors have no right to keep them forever. And they can be taken back. It was a temporary captivity because there was no ownership. The seller got no money and so the logic is the Redeemer needs no money. The Redeemer Jesus Christ does not buy his people back with money.

And so a person sells himself into bondage, they get nothing for their idolatry. They get nothing good for it. You know, just before the service I was talking to a man who said, who was talking about all he got from his drinking and carousing and smoking was sickness. All he got was a bunch of sickness. I think that's part of the meaning here.

You get nothing. You get what is worthless. You know, even the word for for idle is the word nothing. Now Paul makes a similar point in Romans 621 where he speaks of how unprofitable it is to serve your lusts. He says, I'll begin in verse 20, for when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

What fruit did you have in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things was death. But now having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, You have your fruit to holiness and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." You know, he asks this amazing question, what fruit, what profit was there from your sin? And the answer is absolutely nothing, because the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And again we run across this theme that we see all over the Word of God that all you get from the devil is a bunch of garbage. He seers your conscience, he kills every vestige of beauty, He steals your happiness. All you get from the devil are a bunch of broken promises. All you get from him are accusations because he's the accuser of the brethren. You get the destruction of your soul.

He came to what? Kill, steal, and destroy. That's the deal. And so the wages of sin is death. But he says here in Isaiah, and you shall be redeemed without money.

So instead of buying you back with money, God redeems us from the world and the flesh and the devil, not with perishable things like money. 1 Peter 1 18 and 19 tells us what we are redeemed by and it's not money. This is fulfilled In the Lord Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross, He's shedding His blood for sinful mankind. 1 Peter 1, 18 and 19, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers. But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, he indeed was ordained before the foundation of the world and was manifest in these last times for you who through him believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope are in God redeemed without money redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb.

You know, when we get to Isaiah 55, we're going to read about it again, some of my favorite words in the whole Bible, ho everyone who thirsts, come to the water, he who has no money, come buy and eat. You cannot buy your salvation. You cannot buy it with anything. There's no righteous deed, no righteous feeling. There is nothing that can buy salvation, and especially not money.

There are examples in the Bible where people did try to buy salvation by money. But it never works. Isaiah says in Isaiah 55, why do you spend your money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy." He says, listen to me, let your soul delight itself in abundance. And what he's talking about is salvation by grace alone in Jesus Christ alone. So the people, they were not paid for their slavery when they went in, and they did not pay for their redemption.

Now, I think there's a historical, a literal historical type of this in Cyrus and Artaxerxes who paid for the captives to rebuild Jerusalem. Another party came in and The Jews didn't have to pay money for it. It was paid for them. But that is fulfilled in Christ and where God pays the price of His Son and His Son gives His blood. You know you find this in different places in the New Testament.

You remember when Peter was at the beautiful gate and there was a lame man and he was begging you remember that story and The beautiful gate it says it's clad with silver and gold. So there's all this opulence around and the man is begging to Peter and he says, he says silver and gold have I none but such as I have give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. We're not bought with money, not with silver and gold. We have no silver and gold to offer anybody here in this church for salvation.

Only the blood of Jesus Christ. It's our only hope, it's our only message, that Jesus Christ's blood is the source of our redemption. Nothing else at all can do anything for our redemption. And then in verse 6 we also see another reason. He says, Therefore my people shall know my name.

Therefore they shall know in that day that I am he who speaks. Behold is I." Why should you wake up? Why should you position yourselves differently? Why should you awake out of your slumber? Why should you stop playing around in sleepy, drowsy work?

Why? Because His people will know His name. There's no greater treasure in the world than to know God. And to be known by God, there's nothing greater than that. Why should you awake?

Because you can know God by being awakened. And so here the word Therefore is in verse 6, therefore my people shall know my name. Why? Because you were redeemed without money, you will know my name. The only way to know his name is to be redeemed without money, but by the precious blood of the Lamb.

And they look back and they see how they wailed and how terrible the Egyptians were and the Assyrians were, and then they see their own worthlessness in the kingdom of the idols, and they turn to God, they recognize that there's only atonement in Jesus Christ. And they see the Lord. My people shall know my name. You know, one of the books I've recommended hundreds of times will continue is Knowing God by J.I. Packer.

I have made all my children read the book. It's such a good book about knowing God. You know, the apostle Paul said that he counted everything lost compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ. There's nothing greater than to know Jesus Christ in the midst of all your trials to know Him, to speak to Him, to hear Him, to have fellowship with Him in the midst of it and that's what he's saying here. Jesus said this is eternal life that you may know Him, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent.

That's in John 17 verse 3. You know in that book J.I. Packer's Knowing God, he says a number of I think really helpful, really profound things about knowing God. Here's one quote, one can know a great deal about God without much knowledge of him. Here's another, one can know a great deal about godliness without much knowledge of God.

And then he goes on to say that those who know God have great energy for God and he quotes Daniel 11 to the people that know their God shall be strong and do exploits." And he says those, the people who know God have great thoughts of God, the people who know God have great boldness for God, the people who know God have great contentment in God. You can find that on page 32 of a really old edition of Knowing God. So the question is, do I know Him? You can't wake up unless you know Him. Can you say, I am my beloveds and He is mine, and I know Him and He knows me?

And you know that he will not say to you, I never knew you in that last day. So then After this, God speaks. After God speaks, now His people speak in verses 7 and 8. And now we get to this beautiful section of the beautiful feet on the mountains, one of the most wonderful texts in all the Bible, verses seven and eight. How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, your God reigns.

There's a four-fold message in verse 7, proclaiming peace. This is what the awakened do. They proclaim peace. They proclaim that there's only peace with God and Jesus Christ. Now, in the historical and literal situation, there's the end of the conflict in Babylon and that their iniquity is pardoned.

That's the whole context in Isaiah 52. But in the New Covenant we proclaim the peace of Jesus Christ that the Jew and the Gentile, the pagans and all the religious people are the same before God. And then bring good tidings of good things, tidings of joy and glory to God and the highest. This is how we share the gospel. We bring the tidings of joy.

We speak of the joy that's in the presence of God. We speak of the joy and the gladness He gave us when He delivered us from our sins. He delivered us from all of our fears, our greatest liabilities removed. And then proclaims salvation. That's the fourth element of the message.

That the power of sin is broken and there's freedom from the curse of the law and the condemnation of the law, that there's salvation. Now this of course was quoted by the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 10. If you open your Bibles there, we'll see what this means that Isaiah said. It's very clear what this means and what Isaiah was talking about. There was a literal historical meaning, but it was a type of a greater meeting that the Apostle Paul speaks of here.

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him 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 unless they are sent it is written and now he quotes Isaiah How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace who bring glad tidings of good things Unquote And then he says of Israel, but they've not obeyed the gospel. Therefore Isaiah says, who has believed our report? Does that sound familiar? When the Apostle Paul was writing to the Romans in chapter 10. He had Isaiah 52 and 53 on his knee, and referring back to it.

This text brings us to the Apostle Paul's school of evangelism. Paul is himself an example who went to great lengths to preach the gospel. His feet walked so many miles and he preached to the dogs, he preached to the pagans. And he's arguing here that you preach the gospel to all people because there's no distinction between Jew and Gentile that the blood of Jesus Christ is sufficient for the sins of everyone who will call upon the name of the Lord And one of the things that comes out of Romans 10 and Isaiah 52 here is that it's so wrong to think about evangelism by just being an example to our friends. Romans 10 and Isaiah 52 makes it clear that you just cannot evangelize by example.

It's a ridiculous idea that was coined, I think, so clearly by Saint Francis of Assisi. Preach the gospel and if necessary use words That's the most unbiblical thing you can you can consider regarding evangelism because because the Bible says that your feet carry a person who brings good news and its words. And he speaks of the breadth of the call of God that it's all people, whoever, do you see those words, whoever. And we know that not every person will believe, but people of all types will believe. That's what whoever means.

And this is what is called the general call to distinguish from the efficacious call. There's a general call to people everywhere to repent and then there's an efficacious call that is received and believed and acted upon. But there's no distinction. You know, this should teach us not to make any distinctions between the religious and the irreligious and Or is of importance and we should never judge anyone as being more or less open or more or less ready to hear not at all but that the feet should carry the news. And we should avoid this idea that creeps into our minds that there are sinners with a big capital S, sinners, and then there are little sinners with small s.

And the truth is we're completely lost. And that's why in Romans 10 the appeal is to go into all the world and to preach the gospel, that the feet bring good news everywhere. And so this is about the necessity of the preaching of the gospel. It's how a church becomes a missionary society. It's how every Christian becomes a missionary in the area that he's placed in.

You know, there's no virtue in being quiet. There are only uncertain occasions that the Christian is commanded to be quiet. Evangelism is not one of them. And what do we say? Well, we say many things, but I think ultimately the primary value of what we say is your God reigns.

God, God the creator of the heavens and the earth, who gave his only son, that whoever should believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Your God reigns. Jesus Christ is the Lord of glory, and nothing can stay his hand. Repent, turn, you will not win your rebellion. God reigns.

You know I have a friend who has a tag on his emails, The Lord reigns. I always love to see it. The Lord reigns. Isn't that good? The Lord reigns.

And you know, I saw that, I saw that on his email and then I just started seeing it everywhere in the Bible. And here it is. Here. The Lord reigns. And then in verse 8 we see an elaboration of this, that the watchmen are doing their jobs.

Your watchmen shall lift up their voices. With their voices they shall sing together, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord brings back Zion. So the watchmen, those who are crying out warning of sin, they're lifting up their voices. And then it says, For they shall see eye to eye when the Lord brings back Zion." So the watchmen, those who are crying out, warning of sin, they're lifting up their voices, and then it says, for they shall see eye to eye. He's not saying they'll agree, it's meaning that they'll see one another.

That's the thrust of the Hebrew language there. It calls us to Ezekiel chapter 3 verses 17 to 21 where we read, Son of man, I made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Therefore, hear the word from my mouth and give them warning for me." And then he warns the people of Israel that if they do not cry out against sin, then they'll be held accountable for that sin. You know, I think this happens on many levels. It can happen in your home where you're not dealing with sin in your home.

It can be in your church when you're not dealing properly and biblically with sin in your church. And of course it happens mostly in your own heart when all of your Supreme Court justices are speaking to justify whatever they want. And then the next command, Sing with joy in verses 9 and 10. Break forth into joy. Sing together you waste places of Jerusalem.

For the Lord has comforted His people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. Remember these are commands to a sleepy church. And we've already seen how he said, wake up, get dressed, shake off the dust, sit down, take off your chains. Now he's saying sing with joy.

That's what people should do if they want to come out of the dust and come out of the mire, out of their pity party and their disappointments that they've had from their sins and the punishments from their sins. You know, you can get so languid, you can get so depressed about the punishments and the things that have happened because of your sins. You did something and there was a natural consequence or some judgment from God and you spend the rest of your life sorry for what you lost. And God is saying no, sing for joy. You have something greater now.

Leave that behind. Break forth into joy. Sing together. And I think this is a picture of the people of God gathering together and singing with joy. You know, pretty much only the people of God sing.

You know, you don't go anywhere else when people sing. We sing. We can't help it. Wherever we go, we want to sing. And we sing for joy.

He says, you waste places of Jerusalem. I love that language. There are many, Many times in scripture where it speaks of the waste places, and it's really your wasted life from the stupidity, from the indolence, from your sinfulness. You have these waste places, but God is not done with you in your waste place. He'll take you out of your waste place He'll turn your waste place into a garden.

It's like a garbage dump and then in time It's a beautiful garden and it's bearing fruit Just because you're in a waste place now doesn't mean that it'll always stay that way. If you awake, if you get dressed, if you shake off the dust, if you sit down and learn, if you take off the chains, if you sing for joy, your waste places will be dealt with over time. What a blessing it is to know the Lord and they shall know the Lord. I love verse 10. The Lord has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God." I don't know what you think about when you read, the Lord has made bare His holy arm.

I think of a man with a strong arm, you know, with his sleeves pulled back like that. God is flexing his biceps before the nations. In 40 verse 10 we already read, Behold the Lord God shall come with a strong hand and his arm shall rule for him Behold his reward is with him his work is before him and then it says He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. What does he do with his arm? He scares the nations and then he feeds his people and he raises them out of the waste places.

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs in his arm and carry them in his bosom and gently lead those who are with him. His arm is the power source behind the exodus, the destruction of Assyria, and also your own waste places. As he rebuilds your walls and makes the deserts into gardens, the garbage dumps into useful ground. And then the final, the final appeal.

Depart, depart from uncleanness, verses 11 and 12. Depart, depart, go out from there. Touch no unclean thing. Go out from the midst of her. Be clean.

You who bear the vessels of the Lord. So there are two parts of verse 11. The first is this running, is a connection with this running theme of getting out of Babylon. Get out of Babylon has been the watchword in this whole section of the last three chapters. And so he says it again, depart.

Get out of there. And he's speaking, again, Babylon is a literal historical situation that bears witness to something and tells us about something greater and that is fleeing evil getting out of Babylon the problem with this life is that Babylon gets in you and then you got to somehow get out of Babylon to flee idolatry. But then he says, you who bear the vessels of the Lord, dial in on that. You who bear the vessels of the Lord he's he's speaking of leaving Babylon with the temple vessels you can read about it in Ezra chapter 1 verses 7 through 11 they took the vessels out from Babylon and they took them back to Jerusalem and it's a picture of the people bringing the holy things back back to Jerusalem to worship there. It's about a holy people bearing holy vessels.

It's about worship. It's about a heart for holiness and purity and they're actually bearing the holy vessels. They're carrying them. The vessels of worship. Now in the old covenant only the priests handle them, but not in the new covenant.

All are priests. We are a kingdom of priests and we all carry the holy the holy parts of the temple. We carry the holiness of the Lord. You think about all the different parts of the temple. All of them we carry.

The bread, the oil, the wine. We carry. We carry the lamp stand. We carry all these things are ours all of those shadows and images in the temple are ours as priests you can take every one of them for you that's what it means to be a priest in the new covenant era it's a better covenant they're better promises it's better than the old You can read about this in Numbers chapter 4. You can read about it in other places as well.

And then in verse 12 he says, For you shall not go out with haste, nor by flight, for the Lord will go before you and the God of Israel will be your rear guard." Now I take this to mean you shall not go out with haste to tell us that it's a picture of work being done in peace, not fretfully, not fearfully. They're coming out in statelyness, in confidence. They see the strong arm of the Lord, His arm is being bared. Their God reigns, and so they can ride through this return in confidence and in peace and in stateliness. They're not going out in fear, they're not escaping in their own might.

There's no pressure or distraction from their joyful new life and their new garments. They're awake. They see the Lord high and lifted up. Nothing is flapping of their confidence. And then there's this promise at the very end.

For the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard. The Lord will go before you. You know, when my father joined the Army Air Corps during World War II, he was going to be shipped off to the Japanese theater of the war, and he was a fighter pilot who was going to be flying combat missions over Japan. And as he was going to leave, his father made a special trip to drive down to see him for the last time before he'd be shipped out for war. And my dad tells this story of his dad.

He gave him a Bible. It was this Bible. He gave him a Bible. And he said, the Lord goes before you. Behold your God who goes before you.

The God of Israel will be your rear guard. It's a picture, it's a picture of God going before and behind. It's a picture of the pillar of cloud and fire, the fire to protect you from the attackers behind you like it happened that night when the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea. No one could get to them because of the fire and they were protected in the front and led by a pillar of cloud. Your God reigns.

Why should you wake up? Why? Because your God reigns. The danger of not waking up is greater than you can ever imagine. Wake up!

Wake up! Is anyone asleep? Is anyone asleep today? Wake up! And how would you awaken?

You would have to have the power of the Holy Spirit to enliven you and Then you wake up and then you get dressed and then you shake off the dust and then you sit down and learn And you take off your chains and you sing for joy and you depart from uncleanness and you go out for the rest of your life and you say wherever you go the Lord God goes before me. Wake up. Let's pray. Lord we thank you for these amazing, helpful, beautiful things that you have in your word. Lord, plant them deeply within us.

Lord, I pray that you would make us a people who are awake all of us together that none would be asleep. Amen.