Welcome to Reign of Grace. This program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And now for today's program. Welcome to our program today. I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along in your Bibles, I'll be preaching from the book of Isaiah. I've been preaching several messages just as a sort of a survey of the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament. And I'll be preaching from Isaiah 52. And the title of the message is The Heavenly Jerusalem. the heavenly Jerusalem, and I want you to follow along on this, and I hope it's a subject that you're really interested in, because it is very important for our understanding, both of the Old Testament and the New Testament, and it's important for our understanding of the future, when we consider the second coming of Christ. But as you know, in the Bible, when it's in the Old Testament historical books, we talk about the city of Jerusalem, the physical city of Jerusalem, which originally was the capital city of the state of Israel as it began. And it was called the city of David because that's where David established his kingdom, the seat of his kingdom. And that's where the temple was built. And that's where the people of Jerusalem were to go to worship. Now, you know, after Solomon died, David's son Solomon died, the kingdom was divided into two kingdoms. You had the northern kingdom, which in the Bible remained to be called Israel. And it consisted of 10 tribes, 10 of the 12, or some people say the 13 tribes, because after the tribe of Joseph was divided into two tribes, his sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. But anyway, there were 10 tribes in the Northern Kingdom, and it established its capital as Samaria. And so then they had a temple built there. You might recall in John chapter four where the woman of Samaria that Christ confronted, she said, we worship in this temple, you worship in Jerusalem. And they had a temple. There was a false temple. And of course, all the kings of the Northern Kingdom were evil kings. It was never said of any king of the Northern Kingdom that he did that which was right. in the sight of the Lord. Now the southern kingdom was made up of two tribes mainly Judah and then Benjamin and the kingdom was called Judah and the capital remained to be Jerusalem and Judah is the tribe from which we derive the term Jew. A Jew was really one who came from the tribe of Judah. It wasn't just a general Israelite to start off with. It was one who came from the tribe of Judah. And Judah was the kingly tribe, the royal tribe, through whom the kings of Israel, the kings of Judah, were to come. And it was the tribe, the earthly tribe, from which the humanity of Christ was created and born. Born of Mary, who both Joseph and Mary were of the tribe of Judah. And of course, Christ was born as a virgin birth, and he was born of Mary, but he was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh, and that's the kingly tribe. So, Jerusalem. Now, in the Bible, we see a transition from where the old covenant law of Moses ended, and that was at the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, Because you remember when Christ spoke those words, it is finished and he gave up the ghost and the veil and the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, indicating that was a sign from heaven that the Old Covenant was over. And the new covenant was about to begin, the new covenant church, the new covenant testimony and witness. And that new covenant is the fulfillment in time of the everlasting covenant of grace made before time. The Bible talks about an eternal, everlasting covenant that never changed. That's the gospel, that's the salvation covenant in which God the Father chose the Son, God the Son, it's the Trinity now, and placed all of the conditions of the salvation of His chosen people upon Christ. Well, Christ was made the surety of the covenant. He was made the substitute. He had to be the substitute. And in order to substitute himself in the place of his people and perform the work of a surety, which is paying their sin debt, which was imputed to him, he was made sin, he had to come to earth and he had to unite with sinless humanity and obey the law. The Bible says in Galatians 4 and verse 4 that he was made of a woman in the fullness of the time God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law. And so we see that covenant. Well that establishment in time of the terms and conditions of the everlasting covenant made before time that establishment in time is the new covenant. And Christ ushered that in with His death, His burial, His resurrection, and His ascension. And it was inaugurated, you might say, at Pentecost when Peter and the other disciples preached the gospel. And you see the fulfillment of the prophecy of the prophet Joel, where the Holy Spirit descended in a special way. And that began the New Covenant, the New Testament ministry. Well, in that transition, That was where God, the state of Israel had already been virtually abolished because back a hundred, or I'd say about a hundred years before Christ came into the world, or you might say it might be a little bit less than that, but anyway, it was about, Well, it was actually 490 years from the time that Israel went back to Babylon, or back to Jerusalem from Babylon. But even before that, the state of Israel was under a foreign government. And when Christ came, they were under the Roman government. And so that was the end of it. Well, Israel, Jerusalem, the temple, all of that physical stuff under the Old Covenant were types and pictures of heavenly things, spiritual things, eternal things. For example, the state of Israel, they were typical of God's elect out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation chosen before the foundation of the world whose names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And you can't make all the things that Israel did fit with that type because most of Israel were unbelievers. But under the New Covenant, you wouldn't find any unbelievers in the kingdom of God. Jeremiah spoke of that. He said, they shall all know me from the least to the greatest. And God said, I'll give them a new heart and give them faith to believe. And then the temple, that was typical of Christ and His church. So we're not looking for a physical temple today. The temple today is Christ and His church. Christ tabernacled. among his people, John 1.14. He dwelt among us. That's tabernacle. And God says, you are the temple, that is the church, believers who know the gospel. And then that type has been fulfilled in Christ and the church. And then Jerusalem physical Jerusalem was typical of the heavenly city. And of course, we see that. Before I get into chapter 52 of Isaiah, let me just read you this. This is verse 22 of Hebrews chapter 12. Verse 22. And what the writer says here, but you are come unto Mount Zion. Now, Zion or Zion, the same thing. That was a hill outside of, in Jerusalem, where David built a house. And it's typical of the church. And he says, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, the firstborn being Christ, his church, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men, righteous men, made perfect, that's the justified sinners who are in heaven now, because they're without sin, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, the New Testament, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel." Speaking of Abel's lamb. In other words, we don't have the blood of animals now to worship God. We have Christ, the Lamb of God. The blood of animals only typified Christ, the Lamb of God. So the heavenly Jerusalem. The book of Revelation speaks of the heavenly Jerusalem. Jerusalem, which is above. Paul made a distinction in Galatians 4 between Jerusalem which is above and Jerusalem below. And he said Jerusalem which is below is in a bad way, lost in their sins, but Jerusalem which is above, the heavenly Jerusalem, populated by true believers, sinners saved by grace. Now if you go back to Isaiah 52, Isaiah is going to be talking about Jerusalem here, but what he's actually talking about is not the physical city of Jerusalem, but a heavenly Jerusalem, a better Jerusalem, an eternal Jerusalem. And of course you know the name Jerusalem, it means city of peace, and that's what God's kingdom is. It's peace between God and sinners based upon the blood of Jesus Christ. And so he says, look at Isaiah 52 verse one, he says, awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion. Now Zion, again, spiritually speaking, is speaking of the church, the place where God dwells. And he says, put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city. For henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Now all of these things have a spiritual application that is intricately woven in the prophecy of Isaiah. For example, put on thy beautiful garments. He's not talking about physical clothing here. He's talking about righteousness. the righteousness of Christ, which in the Bible, metaphorically, is called a garment. And it's not a garment because we wear it on the outside or anything like that. And I've heard false preachers speak against righteousness imputed, because they think, well, that means you have a righteousness on the outside, but you don't have anything on the inside, and that's not true. Now, we don't have a righteousness on the inside, but we do have the Spirit of God, if we're believers now, if we're born again, we have the Spirit of God, we have a new heart, new life, new knowledge, faith, all of that. But that's not our righteousness before God. The believer's righteousness is the merit of Christ's obedience unto death as my surety, my substitute, and my redeemer. It's his righteousness imputed, charged to me. We read about that in the book of Romans in several places. Romans 4, for example, in verse 6, where Paul is quoting King David from Psalm 32, speaking of the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works. And, of course, he's speaking of a righteousness that Christ alone worked out in His obedience unto death for His people And God has laid that righteousness to their charge, to their account. And I often use a banking analogy to explain that. It's kind of like if you were in debt, and you didn't have one penny to pay off that debt, and you went to the bank to throw yourself at their mercy, And then they opened up the books to see your name and see your account. And they look on there and they say, wait a minute, somebody has paid your account. You don't owe a thing. Well, that's what Christ did for his people on the cross. He paid my debt in full. Have you ever sang that hymn? Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Some of them sing it this way. Jesus paid it all, all the debt I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. When we talk about sin being purged, when we talk about sin being washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ, What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood. What we're talking about is that Christ, having the sin debt of his people charged to his account, The Bible puts it this way, he was made sin, 2 Corinthians 5.21, our sin debt charged to his account. Not everybody's now. Not all without exception. It's only those who are brought to faith in Christ. But their sin debt was charged to him and he went to the, he kept the law perfectly and went to the cross and died for those sins, paying the full redemption price. You see that? Now that's what happened. And then, if you're sitting there at the bank and you just find out that your debt has been paid in full, you don't owe a dime. Boy, what joy would that bring to your mind and your heart. But before you leave, the banker has some more news for you. I've just told you half the story. Like old Paul Harvey, here's the rest of the story. Listen to this. Not only was your debt fully paid by someone who was able and willing to do it, You have a million dollars put to your account in the positive. They've given you this. And that's what we talk about. That's what Christ did in His righteousness imputed to us. My sins were imputed to Him, charged to Him. His righteousness is charged to my account. So that when God looks upon the account books at judgment, what does He see for me as a believer in Christ, a sinner saved by grace? He sees righteousness. imputed to me by his son. Now that's not the only thing that salvation, that's the ground of salvation. It's the ground of justification. But now salvation doesn't stop there. For those that he has died, Christ died for them and paid their debt, to whom he has imputed righteousness, he also gives them life from the dead in the new birth. They shall be born again, and they shall be given the gift of faith, and repentance, and perseverance, the gifts of God, spiritual blessings. That's what's happened to them. And when we look at this passage in Isaiah 52, it says here, verse one, awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion. Well, what is this being awake? Well, by nature, we're spiritually dead. We're in the sleep of death, spiritually. And we have to be awakened, we have to be raised from the dead. Well, that's what God does when he sends the spirit in the new birth. to give life under the preaching of the gospel. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Paul said, Romans 116, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, the Jew first, the Greek also. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed. What is that? That's the righteousness of Christ. From faith to faith, from knowledge revealed to knowledge received and believed, And he says, it is written, the just, the justified shall live by faith. So wake up. This is the call of the gospel, and it's an invincible call. If this call comes to you, you will never turn it down. Because it's the product of the invincible calling power, convincing power of God the Holy Spirit. And you cannot ignore it, you cannot deny it, and you cannot leave it. That's the truth. So he says, awake, awake. And then he says, put on thy strength. How do I put on my strength? Well, who is my strength? Christ is my strength. I'm not my own strength. I have no strength. Paul said, when I'm weak, I'm strong. Why is that? Because when God brings me down from my self-righteousness and my self-ego, and makes me weak, shows me my sin and my depravity, that's when I cling to Christ, who's my strength. Christ is my stronghold. Christ is the power of God, the wisdom of God, all of that. So when you put on strength, you cling to Christ, you believe in Him, you look to Him, you rest in Him. And then it says, put on thy beautiful garments. Look to Christ for righteousness. Rest in Christ for righteousness. That's what's putting on. Put on the Lord Jesus, the scripture says. Putting on Christ. What does that mean? Does that mean I put him on like a coat? No, it means I believe in him. I submit to his righteousness as my only ground of salvation. For Christ, Romans 10, four, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe. And he says, oh, Jerusalem, the holy city. Now, physical Jerusalem didn't do this. Somebody says, well, they may do it in the future. Well, God has a people among all nations, Jew and Gentile. And at some appointed time, when God brings them under the gospel, they will wake up, they'll be raised from the dead, they'll be born again by the Spirit, they'll be given new hearts and new minds, they will cling to Christ, they will believe in Him. And the Bible says it's only a remnant according to the election of grace. And he says, for henceforth, from this time forward, There shall no more come into thee uncircumcised and unclean. Well, what is it uncircumcised? Well, you know, that's what the Jews called the Gentiles. But uncircumcision basically was a type of an unregenerate person. one who didn't know the Lord, who was not born again. Paul dealt with that in Romans chapter two in verse 28 when he said that circumcision, he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, physically, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is not of the flesh but of the heart. That's talking about the new birth. In other words, in this holy city of Jerusalem, this heavenly city, This kingdom of God, kingdom of salvation, the church, no one's coming in who is uncircumcised and who is unclean, who is not born again and who has not been washed clean by the blood of Christ. But everybody, everybody who has been regenerated and converted, born again and washed clean by the blood of Christ, all for whom he died, they're coming in. And how are they gonna come in? They're gonna put on Christ. They're gonna put on that garment. They're gonna realize that Christ is their only righteousness. Well, look at verse two. He says, in Isaiah 52, he says, shake thyself from the dust, arise and sit down, O Jerusalem. Loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. You know what he's talking about there? When a person, when a sinner, having been chosen by God before the foundation of the world, having been redeemed by the blood of Christ, having been called by the Spirit, you know what happens? They're called out of legalism, the bondage of legalism, the dust, the dirt of salvation by works, and they're freed, they're liberated from that bondage which was so heavy that they could not bear. You see, if salvation is conditioned on me or you, that's a burden we cannot bear. We won't make it. Paul spoke of it in Romans nine when he talked about Israel followed after righteousness, but they didn't attain it because they sought it not by faith, but by works of the law. Well, what is it to seek righteousness by faith? It's to seek it in Christ. So he says, loose these bonds, oh captive daughter. Verse three, he says, for thus saith the Lord, you have sold yourselves for naught or nothing and you shall be redeemed without money. Sinners by nature, unregenerated, not born again, sell themselves out to false religion and it's for nothing because it will end in eternal damnation. But all whom God chose, whom Christ died for, they're redeemed without money. In other words, it's free. It's unconditional. All conditions were placed upon Christ and He fulfilled those conditions and secured the salvation of all of His people under glory. Think about that. That's what this is all about. The heavenly Jerusalem, verse four says, for thus saith the Lord God, my people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. This is talking about the nation, the Hebrew nation, and the nation of Israel, who was always attacked, always in bondage. He says in verse five, 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 howl, saith the Lord. and my name continually every day is blasphemed." You see that? Now that's a picture of us by nature, but look at verse 6. He says, therefore my people, God's elect, shall know my name. They're going to know who God is. They're going to know God by the truth of the scriptures revealed in the power of the Spirit. And he says, therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak, behold it is I. And how are they going to know that? Verse 7, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publishes salvation, that saith undesigned, thy God reigneth. That's the gospel. Preachers preaching the gospel. And he says in verse eight, the watchman 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. They're not gonna be in disagreement here. They're gonna see eye to eye. And so he says in verse nine, break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem, and the Lord hath made bare his holy arm, his power in the eyes of all nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. That's the heavenly Jerusalem. That's not physical Jerusalem. That's not the state of Palestine that's over there today. No, sir. That's the church of God, the living God, the elect of God, the redeemed of the Lord, the justified, the caught, regenerated, and called who come to Christ. I hope you'll join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, Write us at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening today and may the Lord be with you.