(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Good evening, tonight we're in Isaiah chapter 52. Isaiah 52, the Bible reads. Awake, awake. Put on my strength, O Zion. Put thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city, for thenceforth there shall no more common to thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust. Arise and sit down, O Jerusalem. Loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus saith the Lord, ye have sold yourselves for naught, and ye shall be redeemed without money. For thus saith the Lord God, my people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. Now, therefore, what have I here, saith the Lord, that my people is taken away from naught? They that rule over them make them to howl, saith the Lord, and my name continually every day is blasphemed. Therefore, my people shall know my name. Therefore, they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak. Behold, it is I. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, as saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice, but the voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Break forth unto joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem. For the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing, going out of the midst of her, be ye clean that bare the vessels of the Lord. For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight, for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your reward. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. As many were astonished at thee, his visage was so marred more than any man, and him formed more than the sons of men. So shall he sprinkle many nations, the kings shall shut their mouths at him, for that which had not been told them shall they see, and that which they had not heard shall they consider. Let's pray, dear Lord God, just thank you for this night that we come together to hear the preaching of your word. Lord, just please bless this service, Lord, and please bless the preaching. Phil Pastor, we're here with your Holy Spirit as he preaches unto us, Lord. We pray this all in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Okay, we're continuing this evening with our Bible study in the book of Isaiah, we're in chapter 52, and I mentioned a couple weeks ago that some of these chapters towards the latter end deal primarily with the ministry of Jesus Christ. You'll see a lot of the chapters and passages that deal directly with his sufferings, with his ministry, and these are often referred to as the servant's song, and this is actually one of them, but chapter 52, the latter end primarily deals with that. The majority of the chapter is actually referring to something else, but it's still coupled in with the servant's song. So we're gonna go over that this evening. Tonight we're gonna talk about the return of Zion, the response of God's people, the rejection of Babylon, and ultimately the redemption of God. Now here we have some foreshadowing of the new heaven and the new earth. A lot of the latter end of the book of Isaiah actually deals with the new heaven and new earth, and specifically in this chapter is the new Jerusalem. And the literal application to this that we find here in the book of Isaiah is that Israel's returning back to his homeland. If you remember, obviously during this particular time, you have the children of Israel who have gone into exile into Babylon, and the prophecy says that they're gonna be in Babylon for 70 years, and that is essentially a punishment upon them for their rejection of God, their worship of false gods. God is chastising them, he's punishing them, and he's allowing them to be dispersed into exile into Babylon. And so they're there for 70 years, and in fact, Jeremiah the prophet tells them, he prophesies unto them, and he tells them, you need to plant vineyards, build houses, get comfortable in Babylon, because you're not leaving anytime soon. And in fact, one generation's gonna pass, another one is gonna arise, you guys are gonna be there for a very long time. So obviously, the return of Babylon through the sanction of God, through the king, I can't, what's his name? Can't think of his name right now. Persian. Cyrus the Persian, Cyrus the Great. Obviously, it's because of the fact that they began to call upon the name of the Lord, but unfortunately, though many returned back to Jerusalem, there's a portion of them that actually stayed behind. There's a portion of them that decided not to leave. And you think to yourself, why would they stay? Well, if you're there for 70 years, you basically dug your heels deep in there for economic reasons or for whatever it may be, there is a lot of Jews that end up staying in Babylon, and of course, we know what the result of that is. A lot of these Jews became apostate, and this is not the sermon, but this is basically where the Babylonian Talmud came from, right? This is where the office of the Pharisees came from. This is where the origination of synagogues came from because of the fact that they weren't worshiping in Jerusalem, they wanted to create gatherings whereby they can worship, and they call those synagogues. And in fact, in the New Testament, the word synagogue literally means a gathering together. And so that's the Greek word there, but synagogue has that connotation of the religion of Judaism, the religion of the Pharisees, that which is not the religion of God. And so that's not the sermon this evening, but I am wanting to address the fact that they're coming back from that. So this is what that's referring to there. But here's the thing is that there's obviously a future application to this, right? Though Israel's returning back from Babylon, from their exile, into Jerusalem, this is obviously foreshadowing one day the new heaven and the new earth, where God's people from the Old Testament, along with all believers made up of all ethnicities, will go into the new Jerusalem. So you never wanna emphasize the actual physical Jerusalem that's here in this world at the expense of the Jerusalem which is from above, right? And in fact, the Jerusalem which is from above is actually more important than the Jerusalem that currently exists right now. Now, it held some importance in the Old Testament for sure. That was definitely a place of importance where God chose to place his name, but as of now, of course, it's not considered, in the eyes of God, a true Jerusalem. And in fact, read the book of Revelation, it's considered Sodom and Egypt. That's according to God. And so that's important to note there. Now let's look at what we, at verse number one here, we're gonna look at the return of Zion. It says in verse number one, Awake, awake, put on strength, O Zion, put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city, for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the clean. So the first thing he tells them is wake up, put on strength. And this is kinda like the theme over the last couple of chapters is God is trying to awake them, not from a physical slumber, but rather from their carnality, right? He wants them to awake to righteousness and sin not. He wants them to wake up to the things of God, to the word of God, and he's telling them to put on strength, physically speaking, why? Because you have a long way to go back home, right? They're traveling by foot back to Zion, and he says there, put on your beautiful garments. Now what is he talking about? Well, it's a celebration, right? We're going back home, back to the homeland, and so put on your best garment, your Sunday's best, so to speak, because of the fact that you're going back home to the place from whence he came from where you belong. And he's saying there, you no longer have to wear the garments of mourning and of sorrow because you're singing the song of the Lord in a strange land. You're not under some oppressor any longer, some foreign land, some strange land. You're going back home, physically speaking, therefore it's a time of rejoicing, it's a time of singing, it's a time to put on your best garment. He says, oh Jerusalem, the holy city, and I want you to notice that he says, for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the clean. Now what is this referring to? Well, obviously it's referring to symbolically, if we're to symbolically represent this, it's referring to the garments of salvation. And when he talks about the garment, the beautiful garments is the garments of salvation, but the reason he refers to the uncircumcised and to the unclean is because in the Old Testament, anybody who wasn't of the nation of Israel were essentially uncircumcised and unclean people. Uncircumcised physically speaking, but unclean ritually speaking according to the law of Moses, right? But here's the thing though, when you think about this, how was this fulfilled immediately? Because there were uncircumcised and unclean people going into Jerusalem thereafter. Think about 70 AD, where they went into exile and you had the Romans come in and destroy Jerusalem and destroy the temple and take it over. So you kind of wonder like, well, is this really fulfilled? Well, here's the thing, Preterist, no, it wasn't fulfilled in 70 AD. Because if the promise here is given, hey, no uncircumcised, no unclean person will ever enter into there, well, obviously that's not referring to 70 AD because there were uncircumcised and unclean people going there. And the fact that he's saying no uncircumcised or unclean person will ever go into Jerusalem is implying that the children of Israel will remain in Jerusalem. Now let me ask you this, have they remained in Jerusalem over the last couple 2000 years? Absolutely not. You know, the Jewish diaspora referring to the dispersion of the Jewish people into all nations was fulfilled because of the rejection of Jesus Christ. And essentially we could say that that started in 70 AD with the destruction of the temple. So you would have to take this verse and say, this obviously wasn't fulfilled in their immediate future, this has a future fulfillment in the new Jerusalem, okay? And so that's important to note there, that obviously when he's referring to this, he's not talking about their immediate future. Yeah, you know, when they came back, maybe they experienced a time when the uncircumcised, the impure, the unclean people were not coming into Jerusalem. But let me just tell you, right now there's uncircumcised and unclean people in Jerusalem, right? So obviously that's not referring to, you know, from the first century all the way up until today. This is obviously talking about a future event that has not yet taken place, okay? Now, before we get into that, let me just talk about the beautiful garments once again, because he's talking about the beautiful garments as far as like, where you're best when you go back to Zion, but it's symbolically representing salvation though, right? For us in the New Testament. And in fact, you can turn with me, if you would, to Revelation chapter six, go to Revelation chapter six. I'm gonna read to you from Isaiah 61 and verse 10. It says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom, decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. So the reason he's telling them to physically put on beautiful garments is because those beautiful garments essentially symbolize the deliverance of his people, right? The fact that God is delivering them from the oppressors of Babylon and bringing them into their homeland. But this obviously is also figurative of salvation through Jesus Christ, because when we believe on Jesus Christ, we are clothed with the righteousness of Jesus, right? We are given those garments of salvation. Now this is important because it kind of ties into the New Testament doctrine of salvation, that it's not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. And in fact, in Isaiah it also says that our righteousness are as filthy rags, right? The good that we can do, the righteousness that we have are as filthy rags in the eyes of God. So when you present your righteousness as an unsafe person to God, he views them as rags. He views them as leaves. He views them as insufficient to cover the nakedness of sin. Therefore, it's necessary to be clothed with the righteousness of Jesus through faith in him, right? The garments. And in the New Testament, as far as in heaven, I don't know how this is gonna look, but the Bible talks about us wearing these robes, and they represent the righteousness of God. Righteousness of Jesus. Look at Revelation 6, verse 10. It says, And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true? Dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And it says, And white robes were given unto every one of them. And it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season until their fellow servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled. So here we see that the martyrs of Jesus Christ during the Great Tribulation are handed white robes. What do these white robes represent? They represent the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We can say that spiritually we have those robes on right now, but apparently they're given to us when we get to heaven as well. Look at chapter seven and verse number nine. It says in verse number nine, After this I beheld the low of great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, listen to this, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands. Now this is obviously referring to what? The rapture, okay? If someone ever asks you where's the rapture in the book of Revelation, chapter seven, how do we know? Because it's a multitude which no man could number suddenly showing up to heaven. Now I don't know about you, but if you were to try to number all the believers from the beginning of time, from Adam up until the end of time, you would say it's a multitude which no man could number, right? And it is of all ethnicities, people of different languages, and all of them are believers in Christ and they're given white robes. Think of verse 10, and cried with a loud voice saying, salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb. Look at, skip down to verse 13 if you would. It says, and one of the elders answered saying unto me, what are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they? Meaning where do they come from? And I said unto him, sure thou knowest. And he said to me, these are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, the Bible says. So the reason the robes are white is because these people have believed on Jesus Christ and through that, they've received the redemption that comes through the blood of Jesus Christ that washes them of their sins. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus, right? And so it's important to note there. So when he talks about these beautiful garments, the most beautiful garment that he could ever possess is salvation, right? The garments of salvation that fully clothes your nakedness, it takes away your shame, it removes the blotch of sin from your life through Jesus Christ. It's not your garment, it's not your righteousness, it's not something that you earn or something that you merit it's something that's given to you freely as a gift. And this is a common theme throughout the New Testament regarding these garments of righteousness. Let me read to you from Matthew 22 in verse 11. This is a parable here, it says, And when the king came in to see the guest, he saw that there was a man which had not on a wedding garment, and he said unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to his servants, bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called but few are chosen. I remember reading this as a new Christian and thinking, well, that's kind of, you know, a little dramatic. He can't, you know, he's not wearing a wedding garment. So they, he's like, tie them up and go throw them somewhere out in the dark, you know? But obviously, what it's referring to is the wedding of the bride of Christ, right, in the book of Revelation. And what it's saying here is that the person who does not have on the wedding garment through their faith in Christ is cast into hell, that's what it's talking about. They're bound hand and foot, they're taken away, they're cast down to outer darkness, and there's weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. And obviously, because this is in the book of Matthew, chapter 22, it's specifically referring to the Jews. This applies to everyone, because everyone who doesn't believe on Jesus Christ is going to hell, but he's specifically addressing the Jews on this, which is why he's even, the guy's even there in the first place, because he thinks that just because of his own garments, because of his own ethnicity, because of his supposed covenant that he thinks he has, he's allowed into, you know, the wedding, but then God tells him, you don't have on the wedding garment, you know, you didn't believe on Jesus Christ, and he's gonna be like, that's what it means when it says speechless, right? All the world, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God, okay? So the beautiful garments that we see in Isaiah 52 is a picture of the beautiful garments of salvation that we received at salvation. So let's talk about the uncircumcised and the unclean. Obviously it's referring to, in the Old Testament, any nation that's not of Israel, because in order to be a member of the nation of Israel, in order to be a citizen of the nation of Israel, you have to be physically circumcised. Obviously it didn't apply to the women, but you have to be physically circumcised as the head of the household, and the men there had to be physically circumcised, because that was the covenant, that was the sign of the covenant of the Old Testament, okay? And of course, anybody who's not of the children of Israel, they're obviously not adhering to the laws of purity, the dietary laws, the moral laws of God, and so they would be considered unclean, right? And this is why a lot of these laws of the Old Testament regarding the unclean animals, being ritually impure, those picture Gentiles who are not sanctified through the covenant, you understand? And obviously that's something that was instituted for a very small window of time, you know? What I'm saying there is that in the New Testament, circumcision is not a thing. Physical circumcision is not a thing. Now I don't think we should be mocking circumcision. I see that a lot online where people mock circumcision, and obviously it's not a practice that we should practice as Christians. It's not something that we should be promoting as Christians because of the fact that it's an Old Testament thing, but it was the sign of the covenant of the Old Testament. So we should speak of it in such a manner when talking about the Old Testament. Now the only time I'll essentially quote unquote mock circumcision is when you think circumcision can save you, because if you think you're justified by circumcision, you're falling from grace, okay? And you know, you have a ton of people who think that. And obviously there's even Christians who practice circumcision for whatever, because they think that that's just the thing to do, because the Bible teaches it, but they obviously don't know that the purpose of circumcision was not for cleanliness, by the way. It was literally a sign given to Abraham and to Israel as a means to prove that they're of that nation. Now why did he give them that specific covenant, or why did he give them that specific practice of circumcising? Because the New Testament teaches that in order to be a part of the people of God, your heart has to be circumcised, spiritually speaking, right? And so the uncircumcised of the Old Testament, the Philistines, the Canaanites, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, they were all uncircumcised. They were not citizens of the nation of Israel, just as any ethnicity who doesn't believe on Jesus Christ is not a citizen of the New Jerusalem. They're not partakers of that covenant, because they haven't believed on Jesus Christ. That goes for also unbelieving Israel. They could be physically circumcised, they're not part of this covenant. This is why we say that we're God's chosen people and they're not, why? Because just as it required physical circumcision to be a part of the people of God in the New Testament, it requires a circumcision of the heart by your faith in Jesus Christ. Bible says in Romans chapter two, verse 28, that he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew, I know people hate to hear that. He is a Jew, which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter. What does it mean by not in the letter? The letter in the New Testament is referring to the Old Testament, the Old Covenant. When you hear that phrase, the letter, it's often in context referring to the Old Testament. So it's like, this is a circumcision in the spirit, not in the letter, the spirit referring to that New Testament. So that's often a distinction between the two. Old Testament, New Testament, Old Covenant, New Covenant is like the letter and the spirit. So the circumcision that God views as being a legitimate circumcision that merits the citizenship of Israel, according to God, is to be circumcised in the spirit, not in the letter. And I want you to notice this, whose praise is not of men, but of God. What does that mean? When it says praise is not of men, but of God, it means God recognizes, when he praises, he recognizes you as being a legitimate Jew. Even if we're not of, physically, the ethnicity of Judah, but we are of Christ, who is of Judah, and we believe they're on Christ, therefore, God views us as legitimate Jews. Now, this is not to say that we should walk around calling ourselves Jews, I definitely don't wanna do that. I would just pull out that card and flex on someone who thinks that they're a Jew and they're not, but do lie. Okay, so if they look down on me and they're like, I'm a Jew, you know, and you Christians, I'd be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm a Jew, okay? And in fact, I remember one time I witnessed to a Jew, he had the jerry curls and everything and the funny-looking hat, and he didn't wanna talk to me unless I put that little skullcap on, and he handed it, I didn't put it on, but he handed it to me, and then I was witnessing to him, and then he's just kinda like, after I started quoting the Bible that he claimed to believe the Old Testament, then he's like, well, you should really not read the Torah, it's the Talmud that you should be reading, you know? And then he basically said, you know, we Jews are God's chosen people, we have a covenant with God, that's where we're going to heaven, and I said, well, actually, I'm more of a Jew than you are. And he kinda like looked at me like, you know, what's this guy talking about, you know? And I'm like, yeah, I'm actually, because the Bible, and I quoted him Romans 2, 28, and obviously it just went over his head, because, you know, they can't understand the Bible, right? Because they're blind, right? Until they turn to Christ, then they couldn't understand the Bible, but it's true. We're all more Jew than the so-called Jews that exist today. And obviously, we're more Jew than any Jew that claims to be a Jew because they're ethnically a Jew, or they're religiously a Jew. Obviously, those are two different things, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter, because then whose praise are we looking for at the end of the day? Whose recognition are we looking for? Whose standard are we trying to meet? It's God's standard, and according to God's standard, the person who believes on Christ is the legitimate Jew. And this is why Romans 9 tells us they are not all of Israel, which are of Israel, implying that there are certain people in the physical land of Israel during Paul's day that were not believers in Christ, and God said, that's not my Israel. But the believers in Israel, such as Paul, he's like, that's real Israel right there. Those are the Israel that God wants to associate with. You know, because people always say, yeah, you know, God still has a plan for them, though, because he's gonna make a covenant with them with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, and I say, yeah, not according to the covenant which he made with their fathers, though, you know, because he found fault with them, and he regarded them not, say it to the Lord. And I always tell him, let me explain to you the covenant that he's making with them. It's called the new covenant. So it's just like, here's the new contract. This is what you gotta, you gotta just sign here. Oh, oy vey, but it says I have to believe on Jesus Christ. Yeah, that's what you have to, this is the new covenant that I've made with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah. Because I found fault with you in the previous covenant. The previous contract, you breached it. Oy vey, but you know, we're all, la, la. And it's just like, no, you worship false gods. And so you breached it. So my son came, right, the Lord Jesus Christ came, and his blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat, therefore inaugurating the New Testament. So here's the new contract. Because people are like, oh, you're saying that God breaches the contract or something? No, they breached it. He was loyal, he was faithful the entire time. But how can you have a people that wanna be included into the contract, but they don't worship the God of the Bible? So therefore, God has to make a new contract. It's called the new covenant. And thankfully, circumcision is not involved in that, amen. Neither is our animal sacrifices. We can eat pork. I know some of you are not fans of pork. I love pork, I think it's delicious. Bacon's delicious, okay. Pork chops taste good, all that stuff. You know, we can have shrimp. We could have, I don't know if you like catfish, but you could have all the bottom feeding you want. The point is is that those meats, drinks, and diverse washings were imposed upon them until the time of reformation, and another word for reformation is when things are made better. So the new covenant is better than the old. And so I don't know how it got off on that thing, but it applies somehow with what I'm talking about here. Okay, talk about the uncircumcised. So God views them as the uncircumcised. Their hearts have not been circumcised through Christ. And so what's the opposite of a circumcised heart? It's a heart made of stone. It's a hardened heart that has not been made flesh, right? It's not believed on the Lord. And the Jews of today obviously are not the only ones. Anybody who's not saved has an uncircumcised heart. They haven't believed on the Lord, right? The difference would be though is that most people have a hardened heart towards the gospel, whereas, or excuse me, most people have an uncircumcised heart towards the gospel, but the Jews happen to have like a hardened heart, which is the reason why it's harder to win them to Christ. Because they think they're already saved. But just remember, God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. That's what John the Baptist said. And so that's what the uncircumcised and the unclean is referring to in the Old Testament and the New Testament is talking about, the unsaved. Let me read to you from Ephesians five, you're in Revelation, go to Revelation 21, if you would, Revelation 21. Ephesians chapter five, verse five says, for this ye know that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. So the uncleanliness of the Old Testament, the person who's unclean, ritually unclean, is a person who is not abiding according to the laws of God. The New Testament, on the other hand, the unclean person is a person who hasn't been washed from their sins through the blood of Jesus Christ. Person who's not saved. Look at Revelation 21, in verse one, it says, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. So this is the Jerusalem that we should be aiming to go visit. But here's the great thing is that it's gonna come visit us. So many Christians out there are like, let's take a mission trip to Israel, brother, and Jerusalem, and see where all the things happen. I'm interested in the New Jerusalem. I'm not trying to go over there. And in fact, Abraham didn't even want to like, didn't even care about that physical land. Because the Bible says that he sought for a city, he sought for the heavenly city. He wasn't thinking about the currency, he's just like, he didn't even get to see it. Because he thought about the most important one, which is heavenly Jerusalem, that which is above, that was the most important thing. Look at verse 26, skip down to verse 26. Let me just remind you, Revelation 21 takes place after the great white throne judgment, okay? So at the great white throne judgment, you have those who are not saved being judged out of the books and out of the book of life. So in other words, what happens is, you have everyone who's not saved, they're in hell for those thousand, that millennial reign of Jesus Christ, they're in hell throughout the whole time, okay? It's not until afterwards that you have the battle of Gog and Magog, and then after the battle of Gog and Magog is the white throne judgment, where every single, unregenerated, unsafe person is essentially reunited with their physical bodies, and then they're judged. And it's not like, let's see how much good you did. You know, that's what the world thinks, right? Well, I'll see what happens, you know, God will, he's gonna weigh my good and my bad, you ain't got no good. There's only bad. There's nothing to do with good, no, not one. And what's gonna happen is that, they're gonna stand before God, God's gonna open up the book, which I believe to be the Bible, and then he's gonna open up the book of life, the registry, and be like, oh, your name's not on the list, and you're guilty of everything. And then it's just like, to the lake of fire. And then the Bible says that both soul and body are cast into hell, there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Well, after all that's done, you know, you have death and hell being thrown into the lake of fire. And then after that's done, then you have New Jerusalem descending upon the earth, and essentially the earth becomes regenerated, okay? It almost, it's like it gets saved, so to speak. The physical earth gets saved. It's the redemption of the earth. And obviously, you can see the picture there. It's like the rapture taking place, right? The resurrection of all individuals. And so that is the New Jerusalem. It's like that new man descending upon the old man, known as the earth, and then it transfigures, and then you have a new earth, okay? Look at verse 26, it says, and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it, and there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life, the Bible says. Look at chapter 22, look at chapter 22. So you see the same wording there, there, right? From Isaiah chapter 52, it says that the uncircumcised and the unclean will not enter into it. Well, this is when it happens, because uncircumcised and unclean have gone into Jerusalem since then, so the fulfillment of that is Revelation 22. Look at 21 and 22, look at verse 14 of 22. It says, blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city, for without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie, showing you here the fulfillment of Isaiah chapter 52. So even though, you know, they had that hope that no uncircumcised or unclean person would ever enter into that physical Jerusalem, eventually that did happen. And so this is why it's important that when we read the Old Testament, we read it with the understanding that there's always dual fulfillment, because then you might end up retarded like a Preterist. Oh, did I say the R word? Oh, I'm sorry. No, I'm not sorry. You know, it's just like, explain this. How is it that no unclean or uncircumcised, how is this fulfilled? Are you gonna tell me there's no unclean or uncircumcised people in Jerusalem now? Well, it's symbolic of what? Well, of like a spiritual, there's nothing spiritual over there. So try again, pull out another card. Go fish. Go back to Isaiah. This is obviously referring to the fulfillment of the new heaven and the new earth. And of course, we know that in the new heaven and the new earth, there is no sin. There's no unsafe people. It's literally the conclusion of humanity because of the fact that all that is completely removed. And obviously, that's in the way distant future, like way out there. It's nowhere near where we're at right now. And when I say nowhere near, I mean nowhere near. Even if the tribulation were to happen within the next three and a half years, that's still not even close enough to get us to the new heaven and new earth because again, that's 1,000 years into the future after Daniel 70th week. Verse two says, shake thyself from the dust, arise and sit down on Jerusalem. Loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus saith the Lord, you have sold yourselves for naught and ye shall be redeemed without money. So you say, get up, it's time to go home, it's time to go back to Zion, it's time to go worship the Lord, rebuild the temple. It's time to get back home, shake off the dust. You sold yourselves for naught, but I'm gonna redeem you without money. And obviously, the picture there obviously is also salvation. Verse four says, for thus saith the Lord God, my people went down a four time into Egypt to sojourn their own in the Assyrian, oppress them without cause. Now therefore, what have I here, saith the Lord, that my people is taken away for naught? They that rule over them make them to how, saith the Lord, and my name continually every day is blasphemed. Therefore, my people shall know my name. Therefore, they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak, behold, it is I. Simply confirming that there will be a day where the Old Testament Israelites will be a part of that new Jerusalem, be a part of that new heaven and new earth, and they're gonna know the new name of God. Because right now, obviously we know that that name is Jesus Christ, but the Bible also tells us in Revelation three, verse 12, that he will be revealed by a new name as well, that we're gonna find out in the future in the new heaven and new earth. All right, look at verse seven. So what is the response of his people? How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, thy God reigneth. Now, I love this passage here, because what's the picture here? Well, as Israel or Judah returns back to their homeland, you have these messengers just running through the hills, running through the mountains. They're running through the hills and the mountains, and what are they doing? They're bringing glad tidings of the deliverance of God. It's like, God delivered us from Babylon. He delivered us from judgment. He delivered us from destruction. And they're out there knocking on all the cottages. They're knocking on doors, telling them God's people are coming back, God delivered. And he's saying, how beautiful are these feet of the people who are talking about the deliverance of God? Because he talks about those good tidings. What is a good tiding? The gospel. And in fact, gospel literally means good news, okay? You know, he's saying, how beautiful are the feet of them that publish salvation, the salvation of God for Zion? And you gotta picture this, you know, people are just running, they're just so excited to just get out there and tell people, no matter who it is, like God did it, he's delivering his people. Hey, he's delivering his people. Hey, come out, he's delivering his people. Let me tell you about the deliverance and salvation of God. It's like cold waters to a thirsty soul, right? As the Bible puts it, so is good news from a far country. And so that's what literally happened. But what is this symbolic, what is the secondary application to this? Well, this is quoted in the New Testament in the context of the gospel. Well, we would know the gospel to be the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the Bible says that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? How shall they believe on him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written, the Bible says, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, that bring good tidings of great joy, the Bible says, right? And so, you know, hey, if you got some ugly feet, physically speaking, if you got those nasty-looking, fungus-filled, you know, rotting toe, diabetes-looking, no, I'm just kidding, if you got nasty feet, go preach the gospel, and God will say, those are beautiful feet. Why, because how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things, the Bible says. So just as the people of Israel, the people of Judah, rejoice and they're excited about preaching about the deliverance of Zion in like manner, God says he wants his people in the New Testament to be in like manner excited to go out and preach the gospel, you know, to run through those mountains and run through those valleys and go to that apartment complex and go to that neighborhood and go to that mission field and go to that nation and go to Mexico and go to Belize and go to Central California, Northern California and the States of America and go all over the place, go around the corner and go preach the gospel of peace. Where are your feet taking you today? You know, if your feet are taking you to a lost person to preach the gospel, God looks at that and says, those are some beautiful feet. You know, you're like, no, man, I haven't got a, what do they call it, a pedicure? You know, I haven't gotten a pedicure, my nails aren't done, I got ingrown toenails, you know, you got athlete's foot, we'll fix it, but here's the thing though, until you fix it though, go preach the gospel and God says you have beautiful feet. Now, hopefully you just got both, amen. But hey, if your feet are worn out though, if your feet are worn and torn from preaching the gospel, oh, it doesn't matter what they look like physically because in God's eyes, they're beautiful, right? Because God views the work that you do with your feet. You know, God esteems and values where your feet take you and you know what, we have Christians today that they allow themselves and their feet to take them to sin, to take them to things which do not profit, to take them to abominations, to take them to things that don't matter and it's not to say that we can't do things that are fun, but hold on a second, what is your priority as a Christian though? Priority as a Christian to take, that our feet should take us to the door to preach the gospel, right? Bless my feet, oh Lord, that it may take me to someone who wants to hear the truth. The doormat of a person who's been lost is looking for salvation to preach the gospel unto them. God views soul winners as possessing beautiful feet and you know, let me read to you from 1 Corinthians chapter 12, it says in verse 22, name much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary and those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor and our uncommly parts have more abundant comeliness. So here in chapter 12, 1 Corinthians, it's often, it's talking about the members of the body of Christ and it's relating it to like physical members of the body, right? And it's talking about like the uncommly parts. What's an uncommly part? It's like an ugly part of the body and I think it's probably referring to the feet, right? And it's saying here that the uncommly parts of the body, we actually should bestow more honor upon that particular member because it's like the most important part and when I think of this, I think of like churches that think like, oh, you know, they don't esteem evangelism, they don't esteem soul winning, they don't esteem going out and preaching the gospel. Why? Because it's almost uncommly for them to do. Oh, that's just too confrontational and that's just too radical, we just like to leave a door hanger, we just like to leave a track, we don't want to impose and they're almost viewing soul winning as an uncommly thing to do but the Bible says that we should bestow more honor upon that quote, unquote, uncommly part. In other words, we should exalt soul winning, we should exalt evangelism, we should exalt people going out and preaching the gospel and getting people saved. Preach deliverance from the wages of sin through faith in Christ, amen. Go ye into all the world, that's what the Bible tells us to do. Let me ask you a question, have you gotten someone saved this week? Have you been able to preach the gospel to someone this week? Have you been able to preach the gospel to someone this month? How's your heart when it comes to the loss? Do you care still? You still care about lost people? And look, I'm asking you because that's something I have to ask myself all the time. As a full-time pastor who preaches for a living, I have to make sure I keep my heart right with God and keep my heart tender and soft towards the loss and not lose a love for the lost person that I would be motivated to say, Lord, please, please help me to get someone saved this week. Give me an opportunity to talk to someone about the gospel. Give me the chance to preach the good tidings of great things to someone. Help me not to go a week without getting someone saved. Help me not to go a week without preaching the gospel to someone. Why? Because I want beautiful feet. This is the purpose from which I am here. And you know what? If you find yourself just becoming hardened towards the things of God, one thing that'll help you, if you find yourself being bored with the things of God, growing apathetic towards the things of God, I'll tell you what will help you to get back on track is preaching the gospel. Because that kind of puts you back in the fight. When you talk to someone who's unregenerated and you see the light bulb go on, the understanding just turned on, then you're like, this is it right here. This is what it's all about. This is the difference that I'm looking to make. I just changed this person's eternal destiny. You know, this week we were out preaching the gospel and it was somewhat of a rough area. And the doors, you know, this was that area where the doors, either they're aren't opening, and if they're opening, they don't want to talk. And between doors, I'm just like, please, God, someone. Give me someone. I don't want to talk to someone. I want to be able to win someone. And sure enough, the lady with their son, just in a stroller. And you know, look, I'm a pastor of 18, or I've been a Christian of 18 years, a pastor of, how long has this church been around, like nine years or something? You know, you would think that I would like already be accustomed to doing this, but I get nervous too, though. I still get nervous. He's like, you don't show it. Yeah, because I know how to, you know, I don't wear my emotions on my sleeve, amen. But I get nervous. And I saw her and I was just like, can I give you this invite? She's like, oh yeah. And then it's just like, ask her the question, bro. Drop the question. And I asked her and she's just like, I don't know. And she's kind of like looking at me like, you gonna tell me? And I'm just like, well, look, give me a couple minutes. I can show you from the Bible and you can know for sure. She's like, okay. And you know, fast forward 12, 15 minutes into it, she's calling upon the name of the Lord, getting saved. And you know what? And I just think to myself like, thank God for this privilege. You say, well, do you rejoice like that every time you say someone's saved? You know, I don't know if I do, but I hope I do though. And I hope that I can inspire you to go and rejoice over winning someone to Christ as well. I hope I get to pastor a church where the people's hearts are tender towards the lost. That you don't go by a week without at least trying to preach the gospel to someone. And you know, you're like, I haven't gotten anybody saved. Let me ask you, have you prayed though? To get someone saved. You have not, because you asked not. Like, oh, that's my area. It might be you though. I had to break it to you. Might be you. Because you know what? I can attest to the fact that when I prayed unto the Lord, God, please send me to someone who wants to hear the truth. It happens 99.9999999% of the time. That's a fact. And you know what? Have I gone a week where maybe I didn't get someone saved? Yeah, but you know what? I go back devastated. And I get discouraged and I say, Lord, I prayed. Send me someone. Because I prayed for this. You want me to serve you, you want me to get someone saved? Then send me someone in my neighborhood or where I'm out and about. Someone who's willing to listen to the gospel. And you know what? It happens every single time. And I get the chance and I win someone to Christ. Have you won someone to Christ this week? Hope so. And if not, you should try to. And if not, you should pray to. Let's get beautiful feet at First Works Baptist Church. Not pristine feet that's just never willing to get dirty and go out and preach the gospel. You know, let your feet go to the lost. It says in verse eight, thy watchmen shall lift up the voice. With the voice together shall they sing. For they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion. I find this really interesting because he talks about the messenger who's bringing glad tidings of great joy. But then he also references the watchmen. And both of these people sort of serve the same purpose, but at different capacities. One is bringing the good news. One is warning of bad news, right? The watchman is the man who's saying, hey, you know, there's wrath coming, there's judgment coming. He's the one who's supposed to warn people about the judgment to come. And I like what it says in verse eight that it says, for they shall see eye to eye. Like the one who's bringing the glad tidings shall see eye to eye with the watchman and they're both gonna sing, they're both gonna rejoice together. Now I believe that as Christians, we should be both. Like our gospel presentation should have a watchman, but also a messenger of the good news. You know, you have people out there like Ray Comfort that all he is is a watchman and he's a horrible watchman at that. But all he's doing is talking about hell. All he does is like, just make people feel like crap. Oh, you know, are you living in holiness? Are you living in sanctification and holiness? You're not living in sanctification and holiness, you uncircumcised, unclean fool. Yeah. You're not saved. All he wants to talk about is the wrath of God and the judgment of God and hell. But you know what? There's no gospel there and I'll tell you why. Because he preaches a false gospel. And you know what? A false gospel is no gospel. I don't care if you mention Jesus 10 times, you mention faith 10 times, but if you mention repent of your sins, you mix that in with a false gospel, it's no gospel. It's a false gospel, it's another gospel. So you have people out there that are just watchmen, but they're not messengers of the gospel. We need to be both. Then you have people out there that are kind of like messengers of the good news, but they're no watchmen. They only want to talk about the grace of God, have a relationship with God, loving God, but they don't want to talk about hell. Folks, we need to see eye to eye. The watchman needs to see eye to eye with the messenger of the gospel. We need both. We need to tell him, hey, you deserve hell. This is what the Bible says. For all have sinned, come short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death. And you know what? We don't need to drive that in because most people already know that. Rarely will I run into someone who's just like, no. Every once in a while, we get someone like that. But in general, people already understand that. We're there, but then after we tell them that, we're there to bring them the good news, tell them about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. All right, let's move on here. Verse nine said, because that 91 is about to close, so we gotta get out of here, amen. You gotta take my feet to my vehicle and head home. Verse nine says, break forth into joy. Sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem and the Lord hath comforted his people. He hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations. And all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. Now, what's interesting is in chapter 51, God's people were like, awake, O Lord. Show us your arm. He's like, show us your strength. And now we see here that his holy arm is made bare in the eyes of all the nations. Now, the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 12 talks about the members of Christ. So, we could say like, we're the arm of the Lord. Because how does God get people saved? Through us, right? When God extends his arm of salvation, those fingertips are believers bringing the gospel to people, you know? And that's why I have no beef with saying, I got someone saved. You know, last Sunday, Brother Gio and I co-laborers together. He's got a fever, so this is why he's backslidden. So, we'll excuse him. He's sick right now. But you know, what a great story on Sunday. You know, he's out there preaching the gospel. And he's trying to get this six year, I think he's like a six year old. He's trying to get him saved. But the kid was just kind of like, you know, he's being a space cadet and he's not paying attention. So then he ends up going in, he doesn't get saved. But his sister comes out and she gets saved. And I think like the mom was like, dragging him in or something. But she ends up getting saved. Well, both mom and the daughter come to church on Sunday night. And I thought there were former church members from the old building, so I approached them. And I ended up getting the mom saved. Now the funny thing is, is like I'm preaching the gospel to both of them. And because I thought both of them, you know, they're not saved. And then I'm just like, yeah, and salvation is. And the little girl's like, a gift. I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you got it. And that's why she's like, you can't lose it. Yeah, yeah, for sure, yeah. You know, she's like answering. And after a while I was like, are you saved already? And she's like, yeah, I got saved earlier. Because I didn't know that Jill had, you know, got her saved. I'm like, oh, cool, man, she got it, you know. So they get saved, they get baptized. And I posted on my social media account. And I put like, Jill Fran got this girl saved. And someone was like, uh, sir? Excuse me, sir? Let me just correct you on that, sir. Jesus saved her, sir. Go ahead and correct that. I just want to reach in that Instagram. And I sent him a couple verses. I was like, of course Jesus saved them, but we saved them too. You know, some have compassion making a difference. Others, saved with fear, pulling them out of the fire. Right? And he's like, well, I get that, but Jesus is the one who gives them eternal life. And I said, he can't give it to them without us. We need to open our mouths boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel, amen? We are that holy arm of salvation from God. When missionaries go to Belize, it's God's arm going into that country to get people saved and pulling them out of the fire. When we cross the border to go to Mexico to preach the gospel, it's God's arm extending into Mexico through the soul winners to snatch people out of the fire through the gospel. We are that holy arm of salvation. Says in verse 11, depart ye, depart ye, go out from thence, touch no unclean thing, go ye out of the midst of her, be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord, for ye shall not go out with haste nor go by flight, for the Lord will go before you and the God of Israel will be your reward. So, re-reward. So here we see that what he's referring to specifically is the fact that obviously they have a choice to come back to Jerusalem, right? They have a choice, Judah has a choice to come back. And that's why he's telling them, depart, go ye out thence, touch no unclean thing, just get out of there, get out of Babylon. And he says there, you're not gonna go out with haste nor by flight. So in other words, they're not forcing them out, they have to go on their own accord, which is one of the reasons a lot of them stayed behind. Now, this is actually prophetic of Revelation 18 with the destruction of Babylon, and he's telling his people to come out from her, right? And I don't necessarily know what the significance of that is, if someone has an idea of what that means, you know, tell me after the service, but you know, by 8.30 or so, cause I'm gonna take off. But obviously what's being referred to here in Isaiah chapter 52 is God telling them like, hey, don't bring any Babylonian stuff over here, right? Don't bring any unclean thing, you know, any of the vessels over there, depart from her, don't touch anything, come clean, in other words, right? Don't bring the world into Judah. Don't bring Babylon with you, right? And obviously we as Christians, we live in Babylon, but hey, touch not the unclean thing, the Bible says, and come out from among them, save the Lord, and I will be your God and you shall be my people. So obviously the New Testament, you know, application to this is that we need to live separated lives unto the Lord and be sanctified through the word of God. Verse 13 says, behold, my servant shall deal prudently. This is the servant song towards the latter end. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. So this is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 14 says, as many were astonished at thee, his visage was so marred more than any man and his form more than the sons of men. And what is it referring to is it's prophetic of the fact that when Jesus Christ was scourged, when he was beaten and spat upon, his visage referring to his countenance was essentially destroyed. You know, these depictions that people put out there isn't accurate. You know, obviously some of it may be near accurate with his back and the wounds, but the Bible says here that his face was marred more than any man. So he's kind of like unrecognizable from the sons of men. That's how brutally beaten he was by the Romans when he was being crucified. And this is just referring to his visage, his countenance. We know that he was scourged and his back was beaten. He was just, you know, he was abused greatly all over his body, but here it's talking about his face being marred more than any man. And obviously, you know, we need to think upon that and recognize like he did that for us. You know, he was bruised for our iniquities, for the chastisement of our peace was upon him, by his stripes, we are healed. And so we need to be thankful for that. And lastly, verse 15 says, so shall he sprinkle many nations. The king shall shut their mouths at him for that which had not been told them shall they see and that which they had not heard shall they consider. And of course, the sprinkling there is indicative of the blood of Christ being sprinkled on all nations, salvation being available to all nations through his blood. So beautiful chapter here. I love the aspect of the beautiful feet. And if you take anything from this sermon, from this Bible study, take this, you know, look down at your feet. Where are your feet taking you this week? Make sure that out of all the activities that you got going on this week, one of them needs to direct your feet towards the lost, towards the person who needs the truth, you know? And so preach the gospel, let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. Thank you for Isaiah 52. And I pray that, Lord, you'd help us to take these things to heart. Help us all in this room get someone saved this week, Lord. And I pray that you fill us with your spirit to preach the gospel to someone and help us to be prepared, ready to preach the gospel, but also not just ready in the verses that we memorize, but just ready in our hearts that we would think about people when we see them and think about their lost condition. And Lord, we stray, I know I do, in my heart when it comes to the gospel sometimes, and maybe my heart is not as tender towards the unregenerated as it should be. And so this is just a little reset button, a little reminder to us all that we are to be ministers of reconciliation. And I pray you bless us as we go on our way. Bless our weekend in Jesus' name we pray, amen.