Micah McCormick: Turn to Isaiah.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah chapter 51.
Micah McCormick: If you're using the Pew Bible, you should find that on page 648.
Micah McCormick: And as we have occasion to say, if you don't have a Bible of your own and you'd like one, you're welcome to take the one there in the pew.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah chapter 51.
Micah McCormick: We've got a fair bit of scripture to cover today.
Micah McCormick: The passage we're going to look at as we continue on this journey through Isaiah is chapter 51, verse 9, down through chapter 52, verse number 12.
Micah McCormick: I'm not going to read that entire portion to start today, but I am going to read Isaiah 51, verse 9, all the way down through verse 22 of chapter 51.
Micah McCormick: So Isaiah 51 9 through 22, this is what God's Word says.
Micah McCormick: Wake up, wake up, arm of the Lord, clothe yourself with strength.
Micah McCormick: Wake up as in days past, as in generations long ago.
Micah McCormick: Wasn't it you who hacked Rahab to pieces, who pierced the sea monster?
Micah McCormick: Wasn't it you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the seabed into a road for the redeemed to pass over?
Micah McCormick: And the ransomed of the Lord will return and come to Zion with singing, crowned with unending joy.
Micah McCormick: Joy and gladness will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee.
Micah McCormick: I am the one who comforts you.
Micah McCormick: Who are you that you should fear humans who die, or a son of man who has given up like grass?
Micah McCormick: But you have forgotten the Lord, your maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth.
Micah McCormick: You are in constant dread all day long because of the fury of the oppressor, who has set himself to destroy.
Micah McCormick: But where is the fury of the oppressor?
Micah McCormick: The prisoner is soon to be set free.
Micah McCormick: He will not die and go to the pit, and his food will not be lacking.
Micah McCormick: For I am the Lord your God who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar.
Micah McCormick: His name is the Lord of armies.
Micah McCormick: I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand, in order to plant the heavens, to found the earth, and to say to Zion, You are my people.
Micah McCormick: Stand up, Jerusalem.
Micah McCormick: You who have drunk the cup of his fury from the Lord's hand, you who have drunk the goblet to the dregs, the cup that causes people to stagger.
Micah McCormick: There is no one to guide her among all the children she's raised.
Micah McCormick: There is no one to take hold of her hand among all the offspring she has brought up.
Micah McCormick: These two things have happened to you.
Micah McCormick: Devastation and destruction, famine and sword.
Micah McCormick: Who will grieve for you?
Micah McCormick: How can I comfort you?
Micah McCormick: Your children have fainted.
Micah McCormick: They lie at the head of every street like an antelope and a net.
Micah McCormick: They are full of the Lord's fury, the rebuke of your God.
Micah McCormick: So listen to this.
Micah McCormick: Suffering and drunken one, but not with wine.
Micah McCormick: This is what your Lord says.
Micah McCormick: The Lord, even your God who defends his people.
Micah McCormick: Look, I have removed from your hand the cup that causes staggering.
Micah McCormick: That goblet, the cup of my fury.
Micah McCormick: You will never drink it again.
Micah McCormick: Let's pray again.
Micah McCormick: Lord, how can we come to you enough?
Micah McCormick: How can we plead with you enough for your aid, for your help?
Micah McCormick: Lord, save us.
Micah McCormick: Lord, be alert to listen to our cries today because we desperately need you.
Micah McCormick: In and of ourselves, we don't have light, we don't have strength, we don't have understanding, but in your light, we see light.
Micah McCormick: So shine on us today.
Micah McCormick: We pray in Jesus' name.
Micah McCormick: Amen.
Micah McCormick: I went to a Christian college that had a good amount of rules.
Micah McCormick: That didn't bother me.
Micah McCormick: You know what did bother me?
Micah McCormick: People who snooze their alarms.
Micah McCormick: You're in a dorm room, a small dorm room with two other guys, and someone gets the bright idea.
Micah McCormick: I'm gonna get up at 5 a.m.
Micah McCormick: tomorrow to steady for the test.
Micah McCormick: 5 a.m.
Micah McCormick: rolls around.
Micah McCormick: Beep, beep, beep, beep, smack, snore, 5.15 rolls around.
Micah McCormick: Beep, beep, beep, smack, snore.
Micah McCormick: By the time 6 30 a.m.
Micah McCormick: hits, I'm ready to take that alarm clock and throw it out the window.
Micah McCormick: Wake up already.
Micah McCormick: In our passage today, there are repeated calls for Israel to wake up.
Micah McCormick: And these are very serious calls.
Micah McCormick: Chapter 51, verse 17 repeats.
Micah McCormick: Wake up, wake up, chapter 52, verse 1, which we didn't read, says again, wake up, wake up.
Micah McCormick: God has many things that Israel needed to hear.
Micah McCormick: They're suffering under judgment from Assyria.
Micah McCormick: They're going to be brought under judgment from Babylon, but God had good news to share with them, and their spiritual lethargy put them in danger of missing God's good news.
Micah McCormick: The Apostle Paul offers a similar instruction to New Testament Christians.
Micah McCormick: Romans 13, verse 11 says, Besides this, since you know the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep.
Micah McCormick: Because now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
Micah McCormick: Don't let spiritual apathy cause you to sleep and miss God's message.
Micah McCormick: I've heard this before.
Micah McCormick: Snooze.
Micah McCormick: My life is really just too difficult right now.
Micah McCormick: I just I just need some rest so I can just not focus on the problems in my life.
Micah McCormick: Snooze.
Micah McCormick: How long do I have to wait for God to fulfill his promises?
Micah McCormick: Snooze.
Micah McCormick: These are all temptations Israel could have been drawn to.
Micah McCormick: And they're temptations that we can indulge as well.
Micah McCormick: But don't sleep on God's message.
Micah McCormick: Wake up.
Micah McCormick: That's the message for today.
Micah McCormick: Wake up.
Micah McCormick: There's an urgency in this passage.
Micah McCormick: It's like it's like someone's grabbing our arm and shaking us.
Micah McCormick: Wake up, wake up.
Micah McCormick: And the passage gives us three reasons why we should wake up.
Micah McCormick: Here's the first reason.
Micah McCormick: We should wake up because God is working.
Micah McCormick: Look at verse 9 of chapter 51.
Micah McCormick: Our passage begins with a call to wake up.
Micah McCormick: Although this call is directed to God if you look carefully.
Micah McCormick: Wake up, wake up, verse 9 of 51.
Micah McCormick: Arm of the Lord, clothe yourself with strength.
Micah McCormick: Wake up as in days past, as in generations long ago.
Micah McCormick: It almost sounds blasphemous, doesn't it?
Micah McCormick: Like Isaiah is grabbing God's arm and saying, Lord, are you too tired from your saving activity in the past that you don't see we got a great need right now?
Micah McCormick: Lord, wake up.
Micah McCormick: We know from Psalm 121, verse 4, God never slumbers or sleeps.
Micah McCormick: And Isaiah knows that.
Micah McCormick: He's not trying to impugn the character of God.
Micah McCormick: But what Isaiah is doing is pleading with God to act on his promises.
Micah McCormick: God's given promises all throughout the book of Isaiah.
Micah McCormick: We saw even last week, earlier in chapter 51, God says, I'm going to bring the Garden of Eden from your wilderness.
Micah McCormick: I'm going to bring comfort to you.
Micah McCormick: I'm going to bring justice to the nations.
Micah McCormick: And Isaiah is saying, God, do all that you said you were going to do.
Micah McCormick: Arise and act on behalf of your people.
Micah McCormick: And then the Lord responds in verse 12, down through verse 16.
Micah McCormick: And God essentially reminds the prophets, Oh, I'm very much awake and at work.
Micah McCormick: You don't have to fear that.
Micah McCormick: He's been working in the past, our God.
Micah McCormick: He works in the present.
Micah McCormick: He'll work in the future.
Micah McCormick: And you notice the way verse 12 starts.
Micah McCormick: I.
Micah McCormick: What did verse 9 start with?
Micah McCormick: Awake, awake.
Micah McCormick: The double call to rise, and the Lord says, I, I.
Micah McCormick: One commentator points out this doubling comparison and says that the Lord is reiterating to Isaiah, I'm every bit as awake as you may need.
Micah McCormick: So as we think about how God works, we wake up because God is working.
Micah McCormick: How does he work?
Micah McCormick: I'm going to plot five movements of God's work in history from this passage.
Micah McCormick: We'll move through these.
Micah McCormick: But the first movement is creation.
Micah McCormick: Look at verse 13.
Micah McCormick: You have forgotten the Lord, your maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth.
Micah McCormick: If anyone really thought that God had forgotten or that he was sleeping or not working, it's because they don't understand God.
Micah McCormick: This is the God who merely spoke and galaxies spun out.
Micah McCormick: And he still sustains those galaxies.
Micah McCormick: Why is the earth lasted?
Micah McCormick: Because God set the earth on its foundations.
Micah McCormick: Yeah, this side of the fall, there is death in the world, but nothing's outside of God's control.
Micah McCormick: When the seas rise up and surge and roar, it's because God's the maker of the oceans.
Micah McCormick: Verse 15 calls us to God's creative work in stirring up the sea, and that brings us to the next movement of God's work.
Micah McCormick: So he's in creation, he works.
Micah McCormick: He also was at work in the Exodus.
Micah McCormick: I know there's a lot of things that take place between creation and the Exodus, but again, we're trying to hit on what is Isaiah highlighting here.
Micah McCormick: Look at the end of verse 9.
Micah McCormick: There's a rather strange statement, chapter 51, the end of verse 9.
Micah McCormick: Wasn't it you speaking of the Lord?
Micah McCormick: Wasn't it you who hacked Rahab to pieces?
Micah McCormick: Who pierced the sea monster?
Micah McCormick: When we think of Rahab, our minds might go, well, there's the Rahab that was in Jericho.
Micah McCormick: The Lord didn't hack her to pieces.
Micah McCormick: She had faith and got rescued and brought in to God's.
Micah McCormick: That's a different Rahab.
Micah McCormick: Who is this Rahab that God is hacking to pieces?
Micah McCormick: Well, there was already a big clue earlier in the book of Isaiah.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah 30, verse 7.
Micah McCormick: Egypt's help is completely worthless.
Micah McCormick: Therefore I call her Egypt, Rahab, who just sits.
Micah McCormick: So Egypt is compared to Rahab.
Micah McCormick: Egypt was like a big sea monster that was chasing Israel.
Micah McCormick: And what happened when God led Israel out and through the waters?
Micah McCormick: He caused the same waters that he created to collapse and crush the Egyptian army, Pharaoh, and his hosts.
Micah McCormick: He hacked that sea monster to pieces.
Micah McCormick: So God's work in creation connects to his work in the Exodus.
Micah McCormick: There's a spirit in creation hovering over the waters.
Micah McCormick: Here's God in the pillow and the fire with his people.
Micah McCormick: In the creation account, this serpentine-like creature tries to tempt the people of God, and it seems like he wins, and there's sin and death, and yet God says, I'm going to crush the serpent's head.
Micah McCormick: Then you come forward to the Exodus, and what's going on during that time, this serpentine-like Pharaoh with his staff is trying to stamp out the people of God, but God comes and crushes that giant serpent, Rahab.
Micah McCormick: So Isaiah picks up a pattern in God's working and creation into the Exodus, and he sees this pattern is going to happen again.
Micah McCormick: So that brings us to the third movement of God's work.
Micah McCormick: Return from exile.
Micah McCormick: Verse 11 of chapter 51.
Micah McCormick: The ransomed of the Lord will return and come to Zion with singing.
Micah McCormick: Yes, Assyria's going to have their captives.
Micah McCormick: Yes, Babylon's going to have their captives.
Micah McCormick: But Israel's coming back.
Micah McCormick: They're going to come back with singing.
Micah McCormick: What did Israel do when they came through the Red Sea?
Micah McCormick: They sang a song of victory and triumph.
Micah McCormick: What are they going to do when they come back eventually from Babylon?
Micah McCormick: They're going to be singing the victories and triumphs of the Lord as they march toward the promised land once again.
Micah McCormick: There's a lot of time between these events, but this pattern of creation and exodus and return from exile.
Micah McCormick: It's Isaiah's way under inspiration from God of encouraging the people to see that God is at work.
Micah McCormick: Is that the end of the story?
Micah McCormick: It's not.
Micah McCormick: I'm going to skip ahead to the fifth movement.
Micah McCormick: I'll come back to the fourth.
Micah McCormick: Don't worry.
Micah McCormick: We've got creation, Exodus, return from exile, and ultimately, God's going to work and bring about a whole new creation.
Micah McCormick: Look at verse 11.
Micah McCormick: We're told that people will be crowned with unending joy.
Micah McCormick: That sorrow and sighing will flee.
Micah McCormick: That sounds permanent.
Micah McCormick: Unending?
Micah McCormick: When the people came back from exile, there was rejoicing, but it but it was it was it really permanent?
Micah McCormick: There were people that were crying.
Micah McCormick: They remembered the temple from before, even though the temple was being rebuilt.
Micah McCormick: Permanent joy is reserved for the new creation.
Micah McCormick: Verse 16 points in this direction as well.
Micah McCormick: I've put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand in order to plant the heavens to found the earth.
Micah McCormick: It's something that God is going to be doing.
Micah McCormick: Well, didn't He already create the heavens and the earth?
Micah McCormick: He did, but the whole world is fallen.
Micah McCormick: Creation's groaning, longing to be made new.
Micah McCormick: God's going to plant it and establish it once again forever.
Micah McCormick: According to His promise, we look for a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells.
Micah McCormick: So you've got the work of God coming full circle from creation to new creation.
Micah McCormick: You've got the exodus of Israel and their return from exile.
Micah McCormick: It's like this story within a story.
Micah McCormick: This is not an inception thing.
Micah McCormick: This is real history, okay?
Micah McCormick: And the story of Israel is meant to tell us about the story that God's going to do for the whole world.
Micah McCormick: His work in Israel's past is a work of what he's going to do ultimately for all those who truly know him.
Micah McCormick: So I said I left out that fourth step in God's work.
Micah McCormick: How do we get from return from exile to the new creation?
Micah McCormick: It's God's servant.
Micah McCormick: That fourth movement here is redemption.
Micah McCormick: Let me show you this.
Micah McCormick: Verse 12, I am the one who comforts you.
Micah McCormick: There's the Lord.
Micah McCormick: Verse 15, I am the Lord your God.
Micah McCormick: There is the Lord speaking again.
Micah McCormick: Verse 16 begins.
Micah McCormick: I, so still the Lord God speaking, have put my words in your mouth.
Micah McCormick: Whose mouth?
Micah McCormick: Well, perhaps Isaiah.
Micah McCormick: Certainly he was a prophet inspired by God.
Micah McCormick: That's true.
Micah McCormick: But the text says, God has put his words in your mouth in order to plant the heavens and found the earth.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah was a messenger of God.
Micah McCormick: Isaiah didn't bring about this eternal, permanent new creation.
Micah McCormick: So this has got to be someone else the Lord is speaking about here.
Micah McCormick: And throughout the last several chapters of Isaiah, we've been brought again and again to this figure called the servant.
Micah McCormick: It's not as explicit in this passage.
Micah McCormick: The fourth servant song.
Micah McCormick: So there's these different poetic descriptions of this character called the servant, his person, his work, will start the fourth servant song next week at the end of chapter 52.
Micah McCormick: But I take it here, the Lord is alluding to his servant.
Micah McCormick: The Lord's put his words in the mouth of his servants.
Micah McCormick: And even though Isaiah is a servant of God, and other people and even groups of people are servants of God, friends, there's one great servant of God that we've seen again and again.
Micah McCormick: It's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Micah McCormick: God has put his words in the Lord's mouth, and it's only Jesus that can bring about new creation.
Micah McCormick: But before he brings about new creation, he brings about redemption.
Micah McCormick: There's tokens of redemption throughout the verses that we read.
Micah McCormick: Verse 10, God calls his people the redeemed.
Micah McCormick: In verse 11, they're called the ransomed.
Micah McCormick: In verse 14, there are prisoners that will be set free.
Micah McCormick: Redeemed, ransomed, prisoners set free.
Micah McCormick: Yes, that language is used of God's work in the Old Testament to rescue Israel, but those types of descriptors often point forward to what God's going to do climactically in the person of Jesus Christ to bring about the redemption that's needed most, redemption from sin and slavery there.
Micah McCormick: The blood of the animals led Israel out of Egypt.
Micah McCormick: It's the blood of Jesus that gives us freedom from sin.
Micah McCormick: Jesus came, he said in Mark 10, 45, to give his life a ransom for many.
Micah McCormick: And how does the Lord bring about that redemption through his servant?
Micah McCormick: Look at verse 22.
Micah McCormick: This is what your Lord says, the Lord, even your God who defends his people.
Micah McCormick: Look, I have removed from your hand the cup that causes staggering.
Micah McCormick: That goblet, the cup of my fury, you will never drink it again.
Micah McCormick: God's wrath is compared to a beverage that is so strong it just leaves you sick and spinning.
Micah McCormick: And the Lord says, I'm gonna take the cup away from you.
Micah McCormick: Do you remember our Christ in the garden, his prayer?
Micah McCormick: Lord, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me.
Micah McCormick: Why would he use language like that?
Micah McCormick: What does a cup have to do with the wrath of God?
Micah McCormick: Because it's a comparison from the Old Testament.
Micah McCormick: And Jesus Himself is the one who drank all of the wrath of God so that we wouldn't have to, beloved.
Micah McCormick: It's an amazing thing that he would redeem sinners and he took it all.
Micah McCormick: There's not one drop left for us.
Micah McCormick: We just have to trust in him.
Micah McCormick: So wake up.
Micah McCormick: God is working.
Micah McCormick: Second reason we should wake up, and these last two reasons will be a little bit quicker than that first one.
Micah McCormick: But wake up, number two, because redemption draws near.
Micah McCormick: If you look at chapter 52, verse 1, here's God repeating this call.
Micah McCormick: Wake up, wake up, and then in the first six verses of chapter 52, God reiterates many of the things we already talked about with redemption and new Exodus.
Micah McCormick: But as you look through these verses, there's an increased urgency and a personal invitation to step into what God is doing in redemption.
Micah McCormick: So we could talk about God working from the 20,000-foot level of all the way from creation to new creation.
Micah McCormick: He's always at work.
Micah McCormick: But what does that look like for us today, right in the middle of God's redemption story?
Micah McCormick: Well, redemption is drawing near.
Micah McCormick: Verse number one, Jerusalem is told to put on beautiful garments.
Micah McCormick: This is verse one of chapter 52.
Micah McCormick: These may be priestly garments, that's what some commentators suggest.
Micah McCormick: And that would fit with the idea of unclean people being kept out of this holy city.
Micah McCormick: But if it's true that these are priestly garments, then it's all of Zion, all of Jerusalem, all of the people of God who can now put on these garments and be priests.
Micah McCormick: Not just the Levites.
Micah McCormick: What did the apostle Peter say?
Micah McCormick: You're a royal priesthood, a holy nation.
Micah McCormick: Redemption has drawn near.
Micah McCormick: We don't have to come through another human mediator.
Micah McCormick: We can come to God directly through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Micah McCormick: What a privilege that is.
Micah McCormick: Maybe it's both.
Micah McCormick: We're the bride and we're this kingdom of priests.
Micah McCormick: What a ceremony this is.
Micah McCormick: And then in verse 2 of chapter 52, there's the invitation to remove the bonds from the neck.
Micah McCormick: We don't have to wait.
Micah McCormick: Redemption's here.
Micah McCormick: If you're here today and you haven't embraced the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord's servant, what's keeping you from doing that?
Micah McCormick: Oh, the Lord wouldn't take me.
Micah McCormick: Oh yes, he would.
Micah McCormick: He's taken all of us.
Micah McCormick: We're sinners just like you.
Micah McCormick: Come and receive free grace.
Micah McCormick: If I come to the Lord, then I I'd have to live for him, and that means I'd have to give up.
Micah McCormick: Give up what?
Micah McCormick: The chains, the bonds, give up temporary, slight joys, and long frustrations in exchange for the wonder of knowing God?
Micah McCormick: That's not a trade.
Micah McCormick: Redemption is near.
Micah McCormick: It's near for you, friend, today.
Micah McCormick: And there's a beautiful word of assurance for us among all the assurances of this passage.
Micah McCormick: Verse number six, when God concludes this reiteration of his new Exodus work through Jesus and redemption coming to be here, verse six says, Therefore, my people will know my name.
Micah McCormick: They will know on that day, I am he who says, Here I am.
Micah McCormick: God came to Adam in the garden.
Micah McCormick: Where are you, Adam?
Micah McCormick: Adam had to eventually step forward and say, Well, I was I was hiding.
Micah McCormick: I sinned.
Micah McCormick: Genesis 22, verse 1 says that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and Abraham says, Here I am.
Micah McCormick: And Abraham did agree to sacrifice his son after he and his wife had already tried to have a child through their own means.
Micah McCormick: Genesis 31, 11, God appears to Jacob in a dream, and Jacob says, Here I am, Lord.
Micah McCormick: Jacob the deceiver.
Micah McCormick: Exodus 3 4.
Micah McCormick: God calls Moses from the burning bush, and Moses says, Here I am.
Micah McCormick: The same Moses that didn't make it into the promised land.
Micah McCormick: A very familiar passage for many of us.
Micah McCormick: God comes with a boy Samuel.
Micah McCormick: And Samuel says, Here I am, your servant's listening.
Micah McCormick: And Samuel gave God's message to the people.
Micah McCormick: And yet we learn he didn't do very well by his own sons in honoring the Lord.
Micah McCormick: Earlier in the book of Isaiah, who will I send?
Micah McCormick: Who will go for me?
Micah McCormick: Isaiah says, Here, here I am, send me.
Micah McCormick: And yet this is the same Isaiah who had to confess, woe is me.
Micah McCormick: I'm a man of unclean lips.
Micah McCormick: I live among a people of unclean lips.
Micah McCormick: All the while the Lord is stepping forward looking for a faithful covenant partner.
Micah McCormick: And all the while there's failures.
Micah McCormick: But the Lord's name is Redeemer.
Micah McCormick: And redemption draws near.
Micah McCormick: And here in verse 6 of chapter 52, there's a day coming when it's not a human partner that reports for duty and fails.
Micah McCormick: It's not a human partner who commits spiritual adultery and breaks the marriage covenant.
Micah McCormick: It is a human, yes, a true human, but it's none other than the Lord of glory.
Micah McCormick: And we find a wonderful fulfillment of this passage in Hebrews 2.13.
Micah McCormick: Listen to these words, put on the lips of Christ.
Micah McCormick: Here I am and the children God has given me.
Micah McCormick: Christ represents us.
Micah McCormick: He has come to fulfill all of the lack, all of the failures, and we belong to him.
Micah McCormick: Redemption is right here.
Micah McCormick: We have received it, can testify.
Micah McCormick: And we get to experience it together.
Micah McCormick: Christ is among us here.
Micah McCormick: Verse number six: my people, the plural will know my name.
Micah McCormick: They will know me on that day.
Micah McCormick: We're rejoicing together every Lord's day that Christ has drawn near to redeem us.
Micah McCormick: And doing it together is one of the things that makes it so special.
Micah McCormick: I'm going to take a little risk of distraction and give you an example.
Micah McCormick: Let's say you're at a Yankee playoff game.
Micah McCormick: Now stay with the techs.
Micah McCormick: Don't get too focused on what that's going on now.
Micah McCormick: Let's say you're at a Yankee playoff game and you come in and you see over in the corner of the food court, there's a guy over there with one hot dog.
Micah McCormick: He's got a little black and white TV.
Micah McCormick: That's kind of weird.
Micah McCormick: And you go into the stadium, you're cheering on the Yankees if you're a Yankee fan.
Micah McCormick: And the seventh inning stretch comes and you go out to the bathroom, and this guy's still sitting over there.
Micah McCormick: I gotta figure out what's going on.
Micah McCormick: So you go up to this guy, you say, excuse me, I had to ask.
Micah McCormick: What are you doing?
Micah McCormick: He's like, Oh, I'm just kind of watching the game here.
Micah McCormick: I'm I'm I'm a Yankees fan.
Micah McCormick: And you say, Well, did you did you sneak in?
Micah McCormick: Didn't you have to pay to get in?
Micah McCormick: And he said, Oh, yeah, yeah, I paid for my ticket.
Micah McCormick: I I I I wanted to be here.
Micah McCormick: I knew it was the right thing to do.
Micah McCormick: He said, Well, why are you out here?
Micah McCormick: Why don't you why don't you come in?
Micah McCormick: Is it a problem with your seat?
Micah McCormick: Well, we'll we'll get you into our row somehow.
Micah McCormick: And he says, Well, you know, just just for me, being a Yankees fan, it's it's a very personal thing.
Micah McCormick: You're missing half the joy of it.
Micah McCormick: Part of the gladness is being with everybody else cheering on the team, right?
Micah McCormick: Why would you want to stay home and watch a worship service online when we've got free front row tickets right here?
Micah McCormick: There's still four seats down here ready to be claimed.
Micah McCormick: And if you're if you're coming out of a sense of duty, I know I need to be there, we're glad you're here.
Micah McCormick: This is that's a great step.
Micah McCormick: But look around.
Micah McCormick: Take in the joy of what others are experiencing, what we trust is in your heart too.
Micah McCormick: Greet someone, hug someone, say amen to something, we're redeemed.
Micah McCormick: Wake up because God is working, wake up because redemption draws near.
Micah McCormick: And then the last reason we should wake up this morning wake up is because we have good news to share.
Micah McCormick: So we gather.
Micah McCormick: To worship this Lord, and then we go out to spread these good tidings.
Micah McCormick: Chapter 52, verses 7 and 8.
Micah McCormick: How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the heralds who proclaims peace, who brings good news of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says, To Zion, your God reigns.
Micah McCormick: The voices of your watchmen, they lift up their voices.
Micah McCormick: They shout for joy together.
Micah McCormick: Every eye will see when the Lord returns to Zion.
Micah McCormick: Freely we've received and freely we give.
Micah McCormick: We can't bring in God's redemption with our own strength, but we can testify to the work that God is doing and the redemption that is drawing near.
Micah McCormick: We can go out and say, the Lord reigns.
Micah McCormick: And in and of itself, the Lord reigns, only that is not good news, but the Lord reigns and there's good tidings of salvation.
Micah McCormick: There's a phrase in the middle of verse 7 of chapter 52.
Micah McCormick: If you're looking at uh Christian Standard Bible, that's the Pew Bible.
Micah McCormick: It says this person brings news of good things, or your Bible might say who brings good news of happiness.
Micah McCormick: I I like the King James Version here.
Micah McCormick: It captures the emphasis of the original.
Micah McCormick: The King James Version, if you have one of those Bibles, says this person bringeth good tidings of the good.
Micah McCormick: But there's been this double emphasis awake, awake, awake, awake.
Micah McCormick: And the Lord says, I, I comfort you.
Micah McCormick: And now here is this call.
Micah McCormick: Now when you go out, you better bring good news of the good.
Micah McCormick: Isn't that a beautiful repetition there to keep that emphasis?
Micah McCormick: And the last word for good that's used there is the very same word that's used way back in Genesis chapter 1 when God looked out over all that he had made and saw that it was all very good.
Micah McCormick: We get to go out and say, the Lord reigns, yes, the world is broken down, and yes, I'm a sinner, but the Lord's making all things new.
Micah McCormick: It's going to be good again for those who repent of their sins and trust in the work of Jesus Christ.
Micah McCormick: Come and receive it.
Micah McCormick: Are we known as people of good news?
Micah McCormick: That means at least two things.
Micah McCormick: It means first that we have to talk.
Micah McCormick: We have to speak.
Micah McCormick: And we can do that because the Lord has spoken to us.
Micah McCormick: So in chapter 51, verse 16, here's the servant saying, You are my people.
Micah McCormick: Now armed with that confidence, with that rest, we don't if the Lord owns us, it's okay how people respond.
Micah McCormick: We've got freedom to go out and say, Here's a message from God.
Micah McCormick: Please listen to it.
Micah McCormick: But we have to be willing to speak.
Micah McCormick: Micah, I I just I really let my actions do my talking for me.
Micah McCormick: Our actions don't say the Lord reigns and Jesus saves.
Micah McCormick: Don't get me wrong.
Micah McCormick: Our actions are important.
Micah McCormick: Our actions can provoke people to ask questions.
Micah McCormick: Our actions can adorn our message.
Micah McCormick: We certainly don't want to be all talk and no walk.
Micah McCormick: I'm not arguing for that.
Micah McCormick: But we have to be willing to open our mouths.
Micah McCormick: You know, heralds and watchmen, they said, well, talking's not really my thing.
Micah McCormick: Well, you're in the long wrong line of work if it's not really your thing.
Micah McCormick: It doesn't mean we'll all talk the exact same amount or in the same ways or same places, but we have to be willing to speak.
Micah McCormick: And then if we're going to be people that are known as people of good news, we have to be willing to speak.
Micah McCormick: But it doesn't mean we have to just talk.
Micah McCormick: When we talk, we have to get around to the good.
Micah McCormick: Are you hearing that?
Micah McCormick: We want to be people from our passage here in verses 7 to 10 who are just brimming with joyful good news.
Micah McCormick: You're in Times Square.
Micah McCormick: There's always that one guy out there.
Micah McCormick: God's gonna judge the wicked.
Micah McCormick: You have to say amen to that.
Micah McCormick: That's true.
Micah McCormick: Then you go into the MM store and you come out 20 minutes later and he's saying the same thing.
Micah McCormick: You're like, well, that that is true, but I'm not really sure if he understands the gospel because he never seems to get around to the good news.
Micah McCormick: We we have to get to the good.
Micah McCormick: So speak and get to the good news.
Micah McCormick: If you're at a parent meeting and you're talking with another parent and they say, Boy, the only hope for our kids is if we get some better teachers in this school, would you be willing to consider saying, you know, the real hope for our children is if they trust in Jesus Christ and He's an amazing Savior.
Micah McCormick: Can I just tell you more about Him?
Micah McCormick: If you're on Instagram or X or Facebook, and I stress if, don't feel guilty if you're not, but if you feel compelled to be on social media platforms and if you find a compulsion to speak about weighty matters, are you known as a person of good news?
Micah McCormick: Or are you known as the person who mainly or even only complains about all the bad things in the world?
Micah McCormick: Or the person who complains about how other people are complaining too much or not promoting what you think should be promoted or not promoted, be known as the good news gal.
Micah McCormick: Be known as the good news guy.
Micah McCormick: If they think you're a wacky good news guy or gal, that's all right.
Micah McCormick: But but don't be known as the Grinch Christian.
Micah McCormick: That's an oxymoron.
Micah McCormick: Remember, we said too that the story of Israel is really the story of the world.
Micah McCormick: So this news that's that's going out here, we want it to be going out into all places that all nations and everywhere might hear.
Micah McCormick: You see that in verse number 10.
Micah McCormick: And that's another beautiful thing about the we of all of this.
Micah McCormick: When we send out people like Kevin and Sarah or Chad and Emily.
Micah McCormick: That's that's in a sense us going out.
Micah McCormick: I I don't mean that that alleviates all of us from prayerfully considering, Lord, should I should I pick up and move somewhere for the sake of this good news?
Micah McCormick: It's good for us to consider that.
Micah McCormick: It certainly doesn't alleviate our call to to speak up in our own places of work and vocations here, but there's a sense in which these sent-out ones, when one member suffers, we all suffer.
Micah McCormick: When one member rejoices, we all rejoice.
Micah McCormick: When one member goes out, they're going out with the same message and the same pats on the back and prayers that our joy can be doubled.
Micah McCormick: That yes, we are spreading the good news to the ends of the earth.
Micah McCormick: Wake up.
Micah McCormick: Wake up because God is working, wake up because redemption draws near.
Micah McCormick: And wake up because we have good news to share.
Micah McCormick: We'll draw towards a conclusion with these last two verses in chapter 52 from our passage.
Micah McCormick: That's verses 11 and 12.
Micah McCormick: And then again, this wonderful fourth servant song will start next Sunday.
Micah McCormick: But these last two verses, there's another repetition.
Micah McCormick: Leave.
Micah McCormick: Go out from there.
Micah McCormick: So, so yes, being awake, and then and then being on the move.
Micah McCormick: This reminds us of what Israel did when they came out of Egypt.
Micah McCormick: They took these precious metals that were eventually going to be dedicated to instruments for the Lord's service.
Micah McCormick: When Israel came out of Egypt, the Lord sheltered them all along their journey.
Micah McCormick: And there's a there's a call there.
Micah McCormick: Revelation picks up on this.
Micah McCormick: In Revelation 18, there's this portrait of the destruction of Babylon, this ungodly empire.
Micah McCormick: In Revelation 18:4, a voice says, Come out of her, my people.
Micah McCormick: The call for us is come out.
Micah McCormick: It's not a geographic call.
Micah McCormick: Revelation 18.4 says, Come out of her so that you will not share in her sins.
Micah McCormick: So this is not a call for Christians in Russia to go to America or Christians in New York to go to North Carolina.
Micah McCormick: You're free to do that.
Micah McCormick: But but we're gonna be in Babylon and yet being awake and alert to the Lord and marching for him, don't we want to leave aside any remnant of sin that could be in our own hearts, that could keep us from the mission God's called us to?
Micah McCormick: We want to more and more reflect the values of our King, of the Lord Jesus.
Micah McCormick: And we're on this pilgrimage.
Micah McCormick: We're urging each other, stay awake, stay alert, he's coming again, and in the meantime, let's share that good news.
Micah McCormick: Let's pray.
Micah McCormick: Lord, we there's so much that we long to do for you, and we long to better know you that we wouldn't have such a fear of man that sometimes takes words from us.
Micah McCormick: We want to better grasp how all of Scripture fits together so wonderfully and shines a spotlight on your Son from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Micah McCormick: Thank you.
Micah McCormick: Thank you that he has come.
Micah McCormick: Thank you that he has brought redemption.
Micah McCormick: Thank you that he's sanctifying us even now in services like this.
Micah McCormick: Lord, we praise you that we can even sing, and our singing is a way to announce the victory of God, that we sing, our God reigns.
Micah McCormick: And we're telling those here today who have come to this heavenly Mount Zion, this heavenly Jerusalem with all the spirits of the just men made perfect to this angelic assembly of the kingdom of heaven on earth.
Micah McCormick: What a glory it is to be here.
Micah McCormick: And we're singing and telling each other, our God reigns.
Micah McCormick: And let us be eager to publish these glad tidings, this good news of the good.
Micah McCormick: To take it with us as we go today.
Micah McCormick: In Jesus' name.
Micah McCormick: Amen.