Turn to Isaiah chapter 52 in your Bibles today. Right at 24 years ago, September will be 24 years, my wife Debbie and I moved here from Amarillo, Texas, to start Canyon Ridge Baptist Church. We moved here just feeling led of the Lord. We didn't know anybody. We didn't know where we were going to meet. There weren't people waiting for us here. We didn't have a team of folks that were going to help us unload our Hertz Penske moving truck. Nobody gave us a fruit basket. Nobody sent flowers. It was me, Debbie, Judith, and Natalie, and that's all that there was. There was nobody looking forward to having us come.
We didn't have a lot of money. At the time, San Diego was reported to be the second most expensive city in America to live in. According to Forbes magazine last October, now we're the number one city in America to live in. The benefits of a blue city! We were getting support from churches, and the support that we got totaled $1,800 a month. Our sending church, Central Baptist Church in Amarillo, Texas, gave us $1,000 a month to help with the church plant, and then eight or ten other churches gave some money, totaling $1,800 a month.
We rented a house over off Gramercy Drive, the second house on the south side of a very busy street, for $1,700 a month. We had a whole $100 a month left over to do whatever we wanted, like buy food, gas, electricity, and clothes for our daughters. If you are wondering how we survived, it was by the goodness and grace of God. That's it.
My friend Steve Chappell, who pastors up in Oceanside, California, went to college with me. Steve said, "Hey, I'm going to help you out financially." Steve helped us out that first year, and then he said to me, "My brother pastors up in Lancaster, California, and I'm going to call him, and I'm going to put in a good word for you." A good word. How many have heard that phrase before, "a good word"?
What does "a good word" mean? All of us know it. It's an idiom that seems to cross even language barriers. "A good word" means I am going to say something good to them about you. So Steve called his brother Paul and put in a good word. Paul supported us every month for a year, and then Paul liked us, called some of his friends, and put in a good word, and some of them helped us out. It was a great blessing. Every dollar was important to us at the time, and it helped because one person gave a good word about us to another person, who said a good word about us. Before long, a lot more people began to help us out, all because somebody told them something good about what we were doing.
I was having lunch not too long ago with one of our teenage boys, and we were talking about his life and what he was doing. He had asked to have lunch together, so we were enjoying a burrito and talking. I said, "So do you have a job?" He said, "No, but I'm about to get one. I have a friend who works over here, and he's going to talk to his manager." It was interesting for a 53-year-old guy to hear from a 17-year-old boy who said, "And he's going to put in a good word for me." A good word.
I want to preach to you today on this subject out of Isaiah chapter 52: "A Good Word." Now, if you're from Canyon Ridge, you know that we often don't go to the Old Testament as much, but we will get there. The Book of Isaiah is called a major prophet, meaning it has a lot of chapters. The prophetic books are divided into two groups: the major prophets with a lot of chapters, and the minor prophets with fewer chapters. They are not minor in value, nor do the major prophets have more value. They are simply larger books.
Isaiah is obviously a major prophet. We are going to talk today in Isaiah chapter 52 about the period of the nation of Israel's Babylonian captivity, where Nebuchadnezzar came in and took the nation of Judah captive for 70 years between 607 and 537 BC. They endured this because they rejected God and ignored His plan.
It is interesting to note and vital to understand that when Isaiah wrote this, the captivity was still 100 years in the future. As Isaiah writes about the return of the nation of Israel from Babylon—modern-day Iraq—back to Israel, he is somewhere about 170 years removed from the events that will transpire. Though we look back at it, when it was written, it was prophetic in nature, looking forward.
Now, I know some people don't enjoy prophecy like other people, but 25% of the Bible was prophetic. I don't think we should ignore 25% of the Bible. It was written so that:
"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." — Romans 15:4
God put this in there for us to learn some things about who He is, His character, and His nature. Isaiah chapter 52 employs a prophetic perspective. Isaiah is writing as if he is writing during the Babylonian captivity, looking back over the Egyptian exodus and the Assyrian invasion of the Northern Kingdom that happened in 722 BC. It is a technique that allows the prophet Isaiah to address the exiled Judeans by framing their experiences within a broader pattern of divine judgment and divine restoration.
The opening verse depicts Jerusalem, Zion, being freed from bondage and rising from the dust to assume a position of royalty—a transition from captivity to restored dignity. That is what Isaiah chapter 52 helps us understand. There is a group of three chapters here, 51 and 52, that are prophetic, and then we get to the coming Christ in Isaiah chapter 53, a Christological prophecy looking forward to Jesus Christ's death on the cross for the sin of mankind:
"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." — Isaiah 53:3–4
Isaiah chapter 51 deals with God's removal of the cup of judgment, discipline, and chastisement from the nation of Israel. The Lord would transfer the cup of judgment to the oppressors of His people and cause the redeemed to be victorious over all their enemies. They would become more than conquerors.
Notice in verse number one of Isaiah chapter 52, this passage starts with a promise to the nation of Israel, a promise of a beautiful future:
"Awake, awake; put on thy 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 unclean." — Isaiah 52:1
This is a day of hope. Jerusalem, their crown jewel, had been ransacked by Nebuchadnezzar and his armies. The uncircumcised and unclean had entered and devastated the city of Jerusalem and the nation of Judah. God is saying to them, "All of that is about to change. There is a brighter day coming. Put on thy strength, O Zion. Put on thy beautiful garments."
In Isaiah 52:1, God is personalizing Jerusalem as a woman, talking about her beauty, wonder, and attraction to the people of Israel. He is letting them know that although they are in a state of difficulty, sin, sorrow, and challenge, a brighter day is coming. A brighter future is on its way. God is wonderful and gracious, and when He forgives, His forgiveness is absolute and complete. He doesn't forgive halfway; He forgives all the way. Aren't you thankful for that?
I'm thankful for a God who washed away my sin on the cross of Calvary by His blood. Hebrews 9:22 teaches us that without shedding of blood is no remission, and:
"In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;" — Ephesians 1:7
I'm thankful that the salvation of God and the redemption of Christ through His blood wasn't a partial cleansing, but a complete cleansing. John Newton, former slave trader turned pastor and songwriter, wrote in 1779: "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see. 'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come. 'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home." Verse number one is a beautiful picture of God's grace.
Why did they need a beautiful picture of God's grace? Because of the pain of their foolish decisions in verse number two:
"Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion." — Isaiah 52:2
Notice the imperatives that Isaiah uses about the nation of Israel in their present and future condition. He says, "Shake thyself from the dust." They were so discouraged, despondent, and defeated that they were literally lying prostrate in the dust of the ground. "Arise" is another imperative verb: get up. He says, "Sit down," which means to sit up, going from lying prostrate to sitting up. Then he says, "Loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion." They were lying on the ground, oppressed by sin.
This painful suffering happened because of a profitless exchange:
"For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money." — Isaiah 52:3
He says, "You have sold yourselves for nought." Literally, you walked away from God believing that the world would make you happy, and the world didn't make you happy. It gave you nothing in return, and you gave the world everything. You gave the world everything, and the world gave you nothing. Initially, you thought this was a great exchange. We walk with God, things are going well, and then we face temptation. We say to the world, "What do you have to offer us?"
The world says, "Nothing, really. Nothing lasting. What you'll get will be temporary joy, temporary pleasure, and temporary satisfaction, but at best it is temporary."
Israel says, "Oh, interesting. What would that cost us?"
The world says, "It will cost you everything. Everything that you have, we want. We want not only what you have; we want who you are, your identity, and everything about you."
"So you want everything about us, and all you're going to give us is temporary joy and pleasure that won't even last one generation?"
"Right."
"And you're going to charge us everything?"
"Everything. No negotiation."
Here is what Israel did: "Okay, you can have everything, and we get nothing."
"Oh, you do get something. You're going to get oppression, discouragement, feeling defeated, feeling despondent, having no joy, feeling friendless, and living your entire life with regret. That's what we can offer you."
"Wait a minute, how come you didn't say that upfront?"
"How come you didn't ask upfront? You're already in this deal."
Judah was incredibly foolish. Notice what verse three says. By the way, this is where some of you who don't know Christ are today. "You have sold yourselves for nought." Nothing. You get nothing out of what you've sold yourselves for. Whenever folks walk away from God or reject God, they never get what they're promised. Why?
"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." — John 8:44
Satan cannot help but lie. You sold yourself for nothing. You thought that you'd go to that party, hook up, have one night, play the part, and experience no consequences. You sold yourself for nothing, and now you are living with the consequences. You thought, "I'll just take one hit, hang out with one friend, or get drunk this one time, and it won't be a big deal." You sold yourself for nothing. The word "nought" implies a complete, absolute nothingness. You gave yourself for nothing, and now you are in a state of despondency.
"For thus saith the Lord GOD, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause." — Isaiah 52:4
And it led to a disparaged Savior:
"Now therefore, what have I here, saith the LORD, that my people is taken away for nought? they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the LORD; and my name continually every day is blasphemed." — Isaiah 52:5
The word "howl" means to cry out in suffering, discouragement, and sorrow. This is what sin always does. This is where captivity and walking away from God always lead. In America and throughout the world, we like to make foolish decisions and then ignore the suffering that follows. In a military town, people sometimes make foolish decisions and ruin relationships because they think they can just PCS somewhere else in three years, never confronting the foolishness or sinfulness of their decisions. Or we make foolish decisions, and rather than dealing with them and becoming more like Christ, we turn to prescription drugs so we don't have to think about the foolishness of our past.
Notice what verse five says: "And my name continually every day is blasphemed." To be blasphemed is to be looked down on with disdain and treated disrespectfully. The nations of the region knew that Israel followed Jehovah God, that Jehovah God was their defender, and that He cared for them. Because of their own foolishness and sin, they walked out from under God's protection. They exchanged the beauty of God's protection for the oppression of the enemy, and they did that for nothing.
The nations of the world knew that. In Babylon, people were saying, "I thought these Jews followed Jehovah God. What kind of God is Jehovah God that allows His people to be held captive? He must be a false god with no power. Our gods are more powerful than Him." The name of God was being blasphemed every day.
However, the painful decision is made beautiful because of a restored relationship:
"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." — Isaiah 52:6
God will restore Jerusalem. God does not leave His people in bondage, and He will not leave His people without knowledge of who He is. There are people today on social media, and even some professing conservative, reformed, or liberal pastors, who feel that God is done with the nation of Israel and that the church has replaced Israel. That is called replacement theology. But God made a promise here in Isaiah, in Genesis 13, throughout the New Testament, in Matthew 24, and in Romans 8 through 11, that the nation of Israel is still God's chosen people. One day, Israel will again be set up as the center of God's rule on this earth.
In the millennial kingdom, Jerusalem will sit enthroned as the capital of the world. It will never again be held captive by a foreign nation. In the millennial reign, the thousand-year period after the tribulation, Jerusalem will be the holy city, the seat of God's government where He rules and reigns.
"For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." — Romans 11:29
God will set up the nation of Israel to be His crown jewel again, and the church does not replace Israel. We are not preaching the perfection of Israel; we are preaching the perfection of a creator, sovereign God who chose the nation of Israel to be His own people, and He has not forsaken them. If He could forsake them, He could forsake me, and He promised never to leave me nor forsake me. The scriptures are clear that Israel is God's chosen nation. Though they do not sit as the center of declaring His goodness at this time in human history, the day is coming when they will again. We are commanded to pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love her.
"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!" — Isaiah 52:7
Notice the joy of sharing the good news. This message leads to the joy of the people:
"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." — Isaiah 52:8
When Christ returns to the earth, Jerusalem again will be the seat of both government and religion. Every eye on earth will see Christ and witness the glory of His person and His kingdom in the city of David.
"Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem." — Isaiah 52:9
This message of good news is a message of comfort. True, lasting comfort comes from Christ alone. If you will find Jesus Christ as your Savior, He is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. He will never leave you nor forsake you. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Jesus loves you, died for you, and will put a song in your soul if you put your faith and trust in Him.
"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." — Isaiah 52:10
"All the ends of the earth" points to the Messiah's kingdom when Christ returns and sets up His kingdom on this earth. He will exercise absolute power and authority against all the brutal, wicked nations of the earth at the Battle of Armageddon, defeat them all, go before us, and protect our rear guard. The victory of our holy, righteous God should comfort our minds and encourage our souls.
Consider verse number seven again: "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!" How beautiful it is that somebody would bring good news, the gospel, to a discouraged people.
The gospel is a message of encouragement. I was a sinner destined for an eternity in hell, separated from God, and I needed a Savior. Christ came down and died for my sin, and not only my sin, but the sin of the whole world. Anyone who puts their faith in Christ and calls on the name of Jesus will be saved. You simply cry out in your heart for Christ to forgive your sin and come into your heart, believing He is the Son of God, and He promises that He will save you and give you eternal life.
My dad pastored for 49 years and six months, and he has been preaching the gospel for almost 60 years, sharing the gospel with people continuously. Over the years, my dad has preached the gospel to thousands of people, and untold numbers have been saved because of his preaching and personal one-on-one evangelism in his day-to-day life.
But the story doesn't start there. The story starts with my Uncle Dale. My Uncle Dale is eight years older than my dad. My Uncle Dale invited my dad to go to church at every opportunity he had. My dad was an alcoholic by the time he was 17. My grandfather was an alcoholic his whole life and was incredibly abusive to my grandmother and his eight children. He left home when my dad was six years old, and my Uncle Dale became a father figure to my dad.
My dad joined the Army at 17 as an alcoholic, got out at 20, turned 21, and moved back to Texas. My Uncle Dale started inviting him to Eastside Baptist Church in Borger, Texas, and my dad told him no all the time. My uncle would say, "Hey Gerald, I want to invite you to Christmas at Eastside Baptist." My dad would say, "Oh Dale, I'm going to spend Christmas Day with Mama, but I don't have time to come to church this time." Easter would roll around, and my uncle would invite him, but my dad would come up with a reason not to go. They would have a missionary come with slide pictures, and my uncle would invite him, but my dad kept telling him no.
Finally, one day my Uncle Dale said, "Gerald, this coming Friday night, there's an old professional wrestler that you used to watch, Tommy 'The Nature Boy' Phelps." Tommy Phelps had accepted Christ as his Savior at a tent revival under the preaching of evangelist John R. Rice. He went around the country telling his story and preaching the gospel.
My dad said, "Dale, I've told you no every single time, but I'll come and hear Tommy Phelps preach, only because I used to watch him wrestle at the Borger Texas Convention Center when we were kids." That night, my dad went to Eastside Baptist Church and sat near the back. By the time Tommy Phelps finished preaching that night, my dad ran to the altar and accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior. It was glorious.
Easter is coming, and our church is going to do a lot to reach people. But let me remind us that God has put people in your life that you know and love—your family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, bowling partners, or workout partners. God has placed you in their lives for the sole purpose of sharing the gospel with them. Sometimes we fail to invite them because they told us no once in the past.
Be faithful in sharing the gospel with a lost and dying world who, like my dad, might need to be invited 15 or 20 times before they finally say yes. Be an evangelist to the world God has placed you in. It is often easier to share the gospel with a stranger than with someone you know, but people will come if a friend invites them.
I am thankful for the people who gave a good word about me and Debbie when we were starting a church, but how much more does Jesus deserve a good word? Are you willing to put in a good word for the Lord? We shouldn't be embarrassed to give a good word for Jesus. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings.
If you are here today and you don't know Christ as your Savior, let me put in a good word for Jesus. You cannot save yourself, and you will never know salvation apart from the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. If you have never repented and trusted Jesus, I pray that today you will repent and trust Him as your Savior.