The Beautiful Message of the Beautiful Feet - Isaiah 52:1-12

You have heard it said that the good news of the Gospel is only as good as the bad news is bad.  The bad news is very, very bad.  That makes the good news of redemption magnificent.  Most of us, because we have been the recipients of the Lord’s saving grace and mercy, understand that.  However, the goodness of the gospel is not dependent upon our perception of it.  The Gospel is not good because we think it is good.  The Gospel is good regardless of how good we may or may not perceive it to be.  In fact, the Gospel message is infinitely better than we will ever comprehend it to be in this life.  The Gospel is unique in that way.

For example, suppose I were to say to you, “I have some very good news!  We’re gonna have the best BBQ pork ribs you’ve ever tasted in your life for lunch today after church!”  Now some of us would think that is really great news!  Others may think, not so much.  The goodness of BBQ is relative.  It depends upon each person’s subjective desire.  But the goodness of the Gospel is objectively and inherently good regardless of what people may think of it.

I were to say to you, “Hey, do I have some good news!  Our church just received a gift from an anonymous donor of one million dollars!”  That would be extremely good news.  Wow!  What we could do with a million dollars!  Good news indeed . . . until we had to collectively decide what to do with it.  A million dollar gift could easily become the worst thing that ever happened to Grace Fellowship.  It’s goodness is relative.

But suppose I were to say to you, “Man, I have the best news ever!  God has sent His Son into the world to set His people free from their sin!”  How good is that news?  From a God-centered, heavenly perspective, that is infinitely good news.  But from a man-centered, worldly perspective, the Gospel is only as good as sin is perceived to be bad.  If in our estimation sin isn’t all that bad, then the good news isn’t all that good. 

I had a conversation recently with a good friend about the gospel and salvation.  It was brought to my attention by my friend, once again, that nobody is perfect.  I have NEVER heard anyone EVER argue about that!  Aside from the very rare person who is truly self-deceived, EVERYBODY readily agrees that none of us are perfect, which being interpreted means we’re just not all that bad off.  Pretty much everybody is, more or less, pretty good.

That is the reason why people aren’t particularly interested in the very, very good news of the Gospel.  We have trouble believing we’re sinners.  We remind ourselves repeatedly that our real problem is that we are somewhat less than “perfect.“  This is because, in our eyes, sin isn’t that bad.  It can’t be all that bad if people are basically good.  If sin were bad, people wouldn’t love it.  We even have a major metropolitan area out west that is routinely referred to as “Sin City” and we call it by that name without apology.  In many people’s minds, the name “Sin City” has an allure to it.  No doubt Sodom and Gomorrah could have been referred to in the same way.

•    If sin is fun,
•    If sin is desirable,
•    If sin is big business and can make you rich,
•    If you love sin, and
•    If sin only has the effect of making one just a little bit less than perfect,
•    And if such an insignificant degree of imperfection can be easily overlooked by God . . .

Then why would we want or need to be delivered from sin? 

Let me ask the question this way: What has to happen to cause people who naturally love sin and hate godliness, and who don’t really perceive sin to be a big problem -- What must happen in order for such a person to change their attitude so that they see their desperate need to be saved from their sinfulness?  What has to happen in order for the good news of the Gospel to become good news in the eyes of the sinner?  We see the answer to that in the history of the Jews in the Old Testament.

The people of Judah loved sin and hated God.  That is no surprise.  They were not unlike all people everywhere.  That is every man’s natural spiritual condition.  Men are naturally lovers of sin and self, and they are naturally haters of God and righteousness.  It was not until God began to bring extreme misery to bear upon Judah as a direct result of their sin, that they earnestly desired to be delivered from it.  They wanted to be delivered from the consequences of their sin.  They learned from first-hand experience that the wage of their sin was death and destruction at the hands of evil men whom God sent against them. 

But while God hated the sin of Judah and brought an end to much of it (particularly the sin of idolatry) primarily through their near annihilation, He also never wavered from the covenant He made with Abraham to love His remnant people by delivering them from the just consequences of sin and ultimately from the very presence and power of sin through the work of a coming Savior.

That is the picture we see when we look at God’s dealings with Judah at the hands of the nations.  The people loved sin and hated God.  They followed the ways of the pagan nations around them by rejecting the Word of God.  It was not until the entire nation of Judah had been destroyed and the survivors of the destruction of Jerusalem were taken captive in Babylon that they began to realize the cost of their love of sin and their rejection of God.  It almost cost them their very existence as a people.

God hates the sin we naturally love.  Our sinful condition cannot be described as merely falling a few feet short of perfection which God can somehow easily overlook and sweep under the rug in order to let us into Heaven.  Sin, as Isaiah graphically describes it in chapter 64, is repulsive and disgusting to God.  Therefore our sin makes us unacceptable to a perfect, holy God.  The KJV states it this way:

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. (Isaiah 64:6a KJV).

All our righteousnesses, all the good stuff we do apart from those relatively few things that make us a little less than perfect, is all filthy in the sight of God.  When God saw the religious things which Judah performed simply because it was required of them by the Law of Moses, God said His soul hated them.  He loathed their empty religious rituals.  And the religious stuff is always at the top of our lists of “righteousnesses”!  That’s the good stuff that is supposed to earn us Heaven Points!  But God’s assessment of it is:

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, . . . make us slightly imperfect.  No, the text does not say that.  And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. (Isaiah 64:6 ESV).

Our righteous deeds, done as unsaved, unconverted, unredeemed, natural men, are like a polluted garment and we are blown away by them like the wind!  Last week I was in a store when a short, very bearded man walked past me.  I didn’t see him at first.  But I did smell him.  I was very glad we weren’t riding in the same vehicle.  He was outwardly pleasant.  He even smiled and spoke cordially to me.  But he reeked!  He stunk!  His “uncleanness” was obvious to anyone who was breathing within ten feet of him. 

The person who believes their multitudinous good deeds will outweigh the very, very few bad deeds they have committed which has resulted in their being rated on God’s Goodness Scale as “slightly less than perfect” needs to wake up and smell the stench.  And until a person is brought to that point -where the sin they love becomes a stench in their own nostrils - the good news will not be perceived as the fabulously excellent news that it is.  If the good news isn’t the greatest news, then it is not saving news for the one hearing it.

Turn with me to Isaiah 52. 

    [52:1] Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion;
    put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city;
    for there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean.
     [2] Shake yourself from the dust and arise; be seated, O Jerusalem;
    loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
 
     [3] For thus says the LORD: “You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.” [4] For thus says the Lord GOD: “My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian oppressed them for nothing. [5] Now therefore what have I here,” declares the LORD, “seeing that my people are taken away for nothing?  Their rulers wail,” declares the LORD, “and continually all the day my name is despised. [6] Therefore my people shall know my name.  Therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here am I.”
 
    [7] How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news,
    who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation,
    who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
     [8] The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy;
    for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion.
     [9] Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem,
    for the LORD has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem.
     [10] The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations,
    and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
 
    [11] Depart, depart, go out from there; touch no unclean thing;
    go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves, you who bear the vessels of the LORD.
     [12] For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight,
    for the LORD will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.  (Isaiah 52:1-12 ESV)

God is speaking in verses 1 and 2 to the “captive daughter of Zion,” the people of Judah, the surviving remnant of the people of Jerusalem who have been exiled in Babylon for 70 years.  Chronologically, this has not yet happened.  Isaiah is speaking of their near future captivity and their far future deliverance.  The time will come when they will leave Babylon.  Their exile will be finished and God will call for them to wake up, get up out of the dust, get dressed, put on their beautiful garments and shake off the dust of their captivity.  “Loose your chains, go home to Jerusalem and once again become the city of God and the people of God.  Your punishment is ended and your redemption is here.”

But this is also about the ultimate redemption of God’s people from their captivity to sin.  The church is held captive in the Babylon of this world.  But our redemption will be accomplished, not with money, but with the blood of Christ, the Holy One of Israel.  In that day, when we are set free from this life, the New Jerusalem will be filled only with the righteous.  The unclean and the uncircumcised of heart will never enter that city forever.

In verses 3 through 6, we see a glimpse of the suffering of the children of Israel in the world.  They were “sold” into the hands of the Babylonians by the Lord.  They were oppressed of the Assyrians by the Lord.  They had been enslaved by the Egyptians according to the purposes of God.  And all of this misery is the direct result of either their own sin, or the sinfulness of others.  The world is filled with sin because the world is filled with sinners.  And always, the inevitable result of much sin is much misery.  Sooner or later, great sinfulness leads to great woe.  According to verse 5, it resulted in the leaders of Israel wailing and railing against God.  But He is going to turn that around and send them good news.

Verses 6 through 10 are some of the most joyful words in all the book of Isaiah.  When misery is the greatest, good news is the best.  These are words of comfort and joy and singing and peace and happiness and deliverance.  It is a word concerning the sovereign hand of God in the affairs of nations and men and His own people.

On August 14th of 1945, the Japanese surrendered to the Allied forces in the Pacific.  It marked the end of World War II and the bloodiest conflict in the history of the world.  The instantaneous relief and joy and happiness over the ending of the war was captured in one photograph published in LIFE Magazine.  It was a picture of a sailor in Times Square grabbing a young woman, a nurse who was a total stranger to him, and passionately kissing her.  That photo illustrated the collective, uncontrollable joy and celebration of an entire nation that had become very weary of the misery of war. 

The joy that Judah would feel in being set free from her captors reminds me of that photograph in LIFE Magazine.  The Jews would be so ecstatic to hear the news of their redemption that even the feet of the messenger that brought the good news would be beautiful!  He would be the best looking guy in the world, regardless of who he was or what he actually looked like, simply because of the greatness of the message he would bring.  His good news was so good, it would result in Judah’s watchmen breaking into singing! 

[7] How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news,
    who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation,
    who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
     [8] The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy;
    for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion.
     [9] Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem,
    for the LORD has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem.
     [10] The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations,
    and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

There is dancing in the streets here!  This is unrestrained joy because their warfare is over.  Their days, their decades of pain and suffering and heartache because of sin are done, and the day of redemption and deliverance has finally come. 

Paul quotes verse 7 in Romans 10 and he likens it to the preaching of the Gospel to the nations.  The reason he quotes it there is because of the joy that accompanies salvation.  The Gentiles had been captive to sin and death and hopelessness for millennia until the coming of Christ.  But now, the preaching of the good news among the nations resulted in great celebration.  The first few centuries of the church saw explosive growth among the Gentiles because, to them, the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was GREAT NEWS!  Thousands upon thousands greeted the news of the Gospel withopen arms because the effects of centuries of unrestrained sinfulness had become unbearable for them.

What effect has the Gospel had upon you?  How do you feel when you think about who you were, and the things you did, and the misery you experienced, and the deliverance God granted to you when He saved you?  How often do you meditate upon that happy day?  Do you ever reminisce about your conversion and weep with gladness and joy that God did not leave you to wallow in your own depravity?  That He did not abandon you to the eternal consequences of your sinfulness?  Just how good was the good news when you first believed?  What thoughts do you have of those who first brought the Gospel message to you?  When you think of your own redemption, do you want to sing? 

This is how we’re supposed to think and FEEL about our salvation!  It is supposed to make us happy!  We’re supposed to be glad!  We’re supposed to sing and shout for joy over sins forgiven and deliverance from death and judgment and hell!  We are supposed to love God for His great mercy towards us by not giving us what our awful sinfulness against Him has earned us.

In fact, if you’ve never felt these things as a result of understanding the truth of the good news of the gospel message, you need to take a very serious look at your own heart and ask yourself the question, “Am I really a Christian?  Has God really granted me redemption?  If I was truly burdened by the guilt of my own sin against God, and if I was genuinely fearful of His just judgment against me, then wouldn’t the forgiveness of all those horrible sins and the granting of eternal life cause me to sing for joy?”  If that has not been your experience, I would remind you to do what Paul said to the Corinthians:

    [5] Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith.  Test yourselves.  Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!  (2 Corinthians 13:5 ESV)

Could Jesus Christ be in you and you not know it?  Is that possible?  I think not!  That is what Paul is saying!  If the gospel message of redemption in Jesus Christ is not the absolutely best news you have ever heard in your life, then you cannot be a true Christian.  You are still in your sins, Christ is not in you, you are still in bondage to the sin you love, you’re a captive to this world, and your hope of ever being good enough to be acceptable to God is vain.  You are not merely imperfect, you’re unacceptable.  You are still in your sin, and in God’s sight, you are filthy.  But the good news is you don’t need to remain that way.

Finally, notice verses 11 & 12:

[11] Depart, depart, go out from there; touch no unclean thing;
    go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves, you who bear the vessels of the LORD.
     [12] For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight,
    for the LORD will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

God’s command to the people of Judah as they leave Babylon to return to Jerusalem is to be holy.  When we are delivered from our bondage to sin and we loose the bonds that held us, we’re commanded by our Lord to “touch no unclean thing.”  And while the Jews carried some of the holy vessels of the Lord back to Jerusalem to be used in the temple that would be rebuilt, we who are set free from sin today are ourselves the holy vessels in whom Christ dwells.

All the more, then, should we as followers of the Lord Jesus “purify ourselves” for His name’s sake.  This is why we see repeatedly, in the letters of Paul in particular, that believers should not live like unbelievers, but like disciples. 

    [17] Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. [18] They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. [19] They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. [20] But that is not the way you learned Christ!— [21] assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, [22] to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, [23] and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, [24] and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.  (Ephesians 4:17-24 ESV)

The deliverance of Judah from Babylon is a picture of our redemption from sin.  Their departure from Babylon to return to Jerusalem and become the separated people of God once again is a precursor to our being separated from the world and eventually departing from this sinful and godless world entirely in order to be in the home which Jesus has prepared for those who love Him and live for Him.

So I ask you once again this question: How good is the good news to you?  How good does it sound to you to leave this world of woe to live in a place where righteousness dwells and sin is unknown?  Is the Gospel of your salvation cause for rejoicing and singing, or is the Gospel a personal thing, something we shouldn’t go overboard about?  Are you happy about the forgiveness of your sins, or are you satisfied with being less than perfect and willing to take your chances with a holy God whose soul despises the sin you love?


Poor Jack!  by James Smith, 1858

A few years ago it pleased the Holy Spirit to work a saving change in the heart of a poor sailor, while out at sea. Jack knew nothing of real religion, nor had he one on board with him to whom he could open his mind. Convinced of sin, afraid of hell--he was terrified and alarmed, and knew not what to do. He prayed, obtained a Bible, read it, and sunk still deeper into distress of soul. At length all hope that he could be saved was taken away, and self-despair seized him. He considered his case to be singular, and was now tempted to drown his convictions in the intoxicating cup, and then to end his miserable life by suicide.

At length, when he had done business in these deep waters of despair for a time, the Holy Spirit revealed Jesus to his soul as an able and willing Savior; and, committing himself entirely to Jesus, to be saved wholly by him--he found peace with God, and was filled with unspeakable joy.

In this state of mind he reached the port, and soon inquired where he could hear the Gospel. He was directed to a place of worship, where a friend of mine was preaching. When Jack entered, he was all eyes and ears. The first hymn was full of Christ, and poor Jack felt his heart swell. In the prayer, the minister appeared to speak the very feelings of Jack's soul. As sweet as the first hymn was--the second appeared to be sweeter, and the tears flowed down poor Jack's cheeks!

At length the minister arose to announce his text, which was Colossians 3:11, and fixing his eyes on the poor sailor--he emphatically pronounced the words, "Christ is all!" When the minister once more said, "Christ is all!" Jack could contain himself no longer, and at the top of his voice, Jack shouted--"And poor Jack's nothing at all!"

This was just the poor sailor's religion--"Jesus Christ is all in all--and poor Jack is nothing at all!" And this is the religion of every one who is taught of God!

The work of the Holy Spirit has a twofold tendency--to humble the sinner, and exalt the Savior! And just in proportion as we are taught by the Spirit of God, shall we have low views of ourselves--and high thoughts of Christ. As the sinner sinks--the Savior rises in his estimation.

Christ is all that the sinner needs--and all that the saint desires. He is a perfect Savior--and an infinite portion. Christ has all, and gives all that we can need: his blood procures our pardon, his righteousness secures our justification, his Spirit sanctifies our nature, and his fullness supplies all our needs! He is just suited to the sinner--and the sinner is just suited to him. He loves to save, to save freely, to save perfectly, and to save forever; and the sinner who is taught of God, feels that he needs just such a Savior. And this makes the Gospel so sweet and precious to every truly convinced sinner, because it proclaims as from the mouth of God, that the Lord Jesus is a perfect Savior--a present Savior--a willing Savior--who never did, and never will, cast out one that comes to him.

Reader, are you truly saved? If so--your religion is the same as poor Jack's, and you can say:
"I am a poor sinner and nothing at all,
 And Jesus Christ is all in all!"

You must be brought to this--before you can be saved, for salvation is entirely of grace, and grace only saves the unworthy. Grace will save you--if you feel that you are lost, and unable to do anything toward your own salvation, and are willing to be saved gratuitously through simple faith in Christ. Anyone may be saved in this way--but there is no possibility of being saved in any other way; for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we can be saved. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ--and you shall be saved!" For, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him!" 1
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1. www.gracegems.org