God’s Commitment to Redeem • 04.06.25
God’s Commitment to Redeem
Isaiah 52:1-12
Heeding the call to embrace God’s salvation
- Recognize God has established his plan to redeem
- Put on the appropriate response of obedient faith
Manuscript:
Good morning, church family! (Introduce self + welcome guests)
Dismiss 4th + 5th graders
Ushers + Bibles (Isaiah 52; page 728)
I am so excited to be back with you this morning to continue our study in Isaiah! We’ve been in a section where God is interacting with his people on some very important matters. On Judah’s side, they have been grumbling and accusing God of forgetting and forsaking them. “God, don’t you care about us languishing in exile in Babylon?!” On God’s side, He has told them that he could never forget them and that he is actively carrying out his grand plan of redemption to protect/glorify his name and comfort his people.
These chapters of Isaiah capture a consistent struggle between God and man, a struggle that still exists to this day. I should point out that it is really our struggle, not God’s. We are the ones who introduce it into our relationship with him.
You see, we often forget that we only see and know in part what God is doing at any time. We like to think that we have clear vision and can perceive what is going on, that we have knowledge, if you will… And then when things are not going the way that we want, we get upset about it. We believe God is not there. We take issue with him for having forgotten or forsaken us.
The struggle comes from men thinking they know what God is doing, but these chapters remind us that God works on a much grander scale than we fathom. AND His goals are much HIGHER than our usual self-focused goals of comfort, ease, and a good life, however we define those things. As we’ve seen and heard throughout our study of Isaiah, God intends to draw people from every nation to Himself and as we will hear by the time Isaiah is finished – God intends to MAKE a people for Himself and be in relationship with those people for all eternity! That is the ultimate outcome of God’s grand plan of redemption, and it is to the glory and praise of the One, True God!
If you did not know, that is the overarching plan of God from start to finish in the Bible. Isaiah just happens to be one of the clearest and most thorough revelations of it in the Old Testament! One of my hopes as we’ve worked our way through this book has been that each of us would grow in our awe and appreciation for how the whole of God’s Word fits together and reveals God’s grand redemption plan. Not to mention that we would also learn to trust God and follow him as he works out this redemption plan.
Today, as we dive into Isaiah 52, we are going to witness the redemption they’ve been waiting for – the return of God to his people and their call to respond accordingly. Let’s turn our attention to the Word now. I’m going to read 52:1-12 for us.
Isaiah 52:1–12 (ESV)
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 I am.”
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.
We’re going to stop there today. I’d like to save the final Servant song of Isaiah, which begins in the very next verse, for next week. You’ll want to be back next week to hear the beauty and power of that passage!
Verses 1-12 reveal God’s call to his people to embrace his salvation. Notice that it began very similarly to what we heard last week in 51:9 and 51:17 – “Awake, awake”. In 51:9 Judah cried out with the same words to God – for him to wake up because they thought he was asleep at the wheel and didn’t care about them. In 51:17 God pushed back and told them they were the ones who needed to wake up from having drunk the cup of his wrath. He was planning to show mercy to them by moving his wrath to their oppressors. He was giving them the opportunity to return to him! And now in 52:1 he calls them again to wake up and respond to the reality of what he has done!
As we study this passage today, our goal is the same as God’s for Judah…
Heeding the call to embrace God’s salvation
This section of Isaiah is unapologetically all about putting your faith in Yahweh and receiving the redemption/salvation that he provides. And so, as we seek to heed the call to embrace that salvation, we must first…
- Recognize God has established his plan to redeem
When I say established, I mean that it is not a mere possibility; it is an absolute certainty! God is not a liar and what he has declared he will carry out. Hear his words again:
Isaiah 52:3
“…you shall be redeemed without money.”
That is the promise…
Isaiah 52:9
Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem.
And now we have its fulfillment! “He has redeemed Jerusalem.”
Redemption has come! And one of the driving factors for this redemption was revealed to us in verses 5-6.
Isaiah 52:5–6 (ESV)
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 I am.”
God has established his plan to redeem for his name’s sake. The nations, including his own people, need to know that he alone is the incomparably great, One, True God. He is the only God. The God who foretells what will be and then brings it to pass, as he is doing with their physical redemption from Babylon and as he will do with their more ultimate spiritual redemption through his Idealized Servant.
God will not tolerate his name being despised. He is the Sovereign Lord who is most worthy of honor and praise. There are many times throughout Scripture where God acts to protect his name’s sake. Let’s go back to the Exodus account, where God calls and sends Moses to redeem the people from Egypt. I want you to notice the emphasis on God’s name here:
Exodus 3:13–17 (ESV)
13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”
15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, 17 and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’
God is the Great I AM – the God who really is and who is really with you. And nothing in heaven or on earth can or should try to degrade his name. And because he has linked his name to a specific people, he is committed to protecting and redeeming them, so that his name is not despised!
Appealing to the significance and glory of God’s name is a regular occurrence, especially in the Psalms.
Psalm 8:1 (ESV)
1 O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Psalm 9:10 (ESV)
10 And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.
Psalm 20:7 (ESV)
7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
Psalm 25:11 (ESV)
11 For your name’s sake, O Lord,
pardon my guilt, for it is great.
Psalm 29:2 (ESV)
2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.
Psalm 31:3 (ESV)
3 For you are my rock and my fortress;
and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me;
These passages show us that God’s name is synonymous with his character and glory. And because his grand redemption plan is directly tied to his name, you can be certain that he will accomplish it. Because his name MUST be exalted. There is no name more majestic, no name more glorious, no name more worthy of our trust, no other name by which we may be saved!
The name of the One, True God must be lifted high. So, for the sake of the exaltation of his name, God has established and will carry out his plan to redeem.
And God also has the power to carry out his established plan. The imagery in chapter 52 is quite rich. In verses 7-12, Isaiah transitions from God speaking to the people about his plan to redeem, to a vision of a messenger running along the mountains of Judah to the capital city, Jerusalem. The watchmen of the city spot him coming and rejoice as they realize he is a bearer of good news! His message is one of peace and salvation; he declares to them, “Your God reigns.”
Can you imagine it? This is what they have been waiting for… longing for… Our God reigns! He has returned to his people! The long-awaited redemption is here!
So, they lift up their voices in singing; for they have seen the return of the Lord to Zion with their own eyes! The call spreads through the city to rejoice. Even the desolate places break into singing for the LORD has comforted his people and redeemed Jerusalem. Verse 10 gives us the imagery of God’s holy arm being revealed to the nations. I couldn’t help but thinking of God flexing – showing his strength – that he is a God mighty to save!
He is doing a work of redemption that all the earth shall see and cannot deny. God saves his people! Now, there is something that I found fascinating as I studied these verses. They do not use language specific to their Babylonian captivity. So, while it absolutely applies to their redemption from Babylon, it also applies in many other settings for God’s people throughout history. As I mentioned last week, God’s pattern is to reveal his standard of holiness, for mankind to fall short of it, and then for God to faithfully discipline us and reveal the plan of redemption to follow. This pattern is repeated throughout the Scriptures and into our lives today.
Our God is a god who saves. He comforts and redeems his people! He does that for Israel/Judah over-and-over again…
There are even similarities here between the first Exodus from Egypt and this one from Babylon. God is sending them out and he promises that he is going before them to prepare the way and behind them as their protection. But there are also differences. They had to flee Egypt in haste, in the middle of the night, but this time they are not in a hurry. Cyrus’ decree will allow them to go on their way without opposition.
This pattern of Exodus for God’s people is a theme that is repeated in the New Testament. We see it in Jesus’ early years in order to fulfill the prophecy of Hosea. We read about it in the Gospel of Matthew:
Matthew 2:13–15 (ESV)
13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
Jesus’ journey was modeled after the entire nation’s exodus from Egypt! How fitting for the one God had sent to save his people from their sins. To be their Redeemer. He was experiencing what they had gone through.
Each of these Exoduses are part of God’s plan to redeem. But the ultimate exodus is found when Jesus leads us out of our bondage to sin to new life in him. Not to spoil too much of next week’s text, let me share with you just two verses about the Suffering Servant:
Isaiah 53:10–11 (ESV)
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
This Servant would suffer on behalf of the people he came to save; he would drink the cup of God’s wrath as the perfect guilt offering, so that his offspring (his people) could be forgiven and redeemed – accounted righteous in God’s sight! This was an exodus from dead in sin to alive in him! … God has established his plan to redeem!
Of Jesus, the disciples would say:
Acts 4:11–12 (ESV)
11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
2 Corinthians 5:17–21 (ESV)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
There is a greater need than mere physical redemption. Every man, woman, boy and girl needs spiritual redemption. To have the hope of the forgiveness of our sins and the salvation of our souls. And that is what is offered through God’s Idealized, Suffering Servant, whom we know is none other than Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Son of God.
It is through faith in Jesus that we are prepared for the final Exodus, which is our redemption from this sin-cursed world to the New Heaven and New Earth. We find this hope most clearly articulated in the book of Revelation, where it says:
Revelation 21:1–8 (ESV)
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
God has established a good plan of redemption for his people that he is working out by his power and protection. He has had this plan of redemption from eternity past and has been working it out ever since the creation of the world. Each generation of his people have experienced his redemption as they obey God’s call to separate themselves from impurity and sin. We heard it just now in Revelation 21, earlier in 2 Corinthians 5, and also in our primary passage in verse 11:
Isaiah 52:11 (ESV)
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.
There is a consistent expectation and call to separate oneself from impurity or uncleanness. He’s talking about sin. Part of the definition of holy is “to be set apart”. God expects his people to be set apart from sin for him. Which brings us to our final response today as we heed God’s call to embrace salvation:
- Put on the appropriate response of obedient faith
As we’ve been discussing, there is an expected, appropriate response to all that God is doing – obedient faith. Look again at the commands of verses 1-2:
Isaiah 52:1–2 (ESV)
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.
They must fulfill their part of his plan. They are to put on or clothe themselves with the beautiful garments God has laid out for them as his holy people. When I heard this, I couldn’t help but think of the white robes of the saints seen in Revelation 7:
Revelation 7:9–14 (ESV)
9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
God’s work of redemption changes you, so embrace that change! For the Judeans, they were to stand up from the dust, shake it off, put on their new garments, and take their seat in the city. Shaking free from the bonds of their captors to embrace their identity as God’s chosen and redeemed people. This is possible because of God’s mercy and grace!
They must depart from uncleanness and purify themselves, as we heard in verse 11. No more idolatry; no more forsaking the Lord to pursue after worldly pleasures and treasures! Please know that this is not describing cleaning oneself up to receive salvation, but rather how we ought to live BECAUSE God has graciously given us salvation! Holy lives are the fruit of salvation, not the cause of it.
It’s not hard to see how this applies to Christians today. As God’s people through faith in Jesus Christ, we too must embrace our identity as God’s redeemed. And this is only possible by God’s work and grace in us!
We must depart from uncleanness and purify ourselves. This is the calling throughout the ages for God’s holy people. The Apostle Peter captures this calling so well in his letter, which was written almost 800 years after Isaiah:
1 Peter 1:13–21 (ESV)
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, (I love the tie-in to the exodus theme here! Christians are elect exiles waiting to come home to God.) 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Notice the possible tie-in to Isaiah 52:3 where it said the redemption of God’s people was without money. It is without money because they/we were ransomed with the precious blood of Christ, the Suffering Servant. What an incredible truth to consider and reflect on this morning!
Jesus willingly went to the Cross and endured the wrath of God on our behalf. He is our hope. And our appropriate response to God’s commitment to redeem is obedient faith. Our minds must be prepared to for action, we must not forget that we have been set apart and called to live for God in this world! As we heard in 1 Peter, we must forsake the passions of our former ignorance (our sinful desires from when we didn’t know God) and actively pursue the goal to be holy as he is holy.
This truly should not be a burden but a delight to us! We GET to be holy as he is holy! Jesus willingly laid down his life so that we could be holy! What an awesome calling.
Is your life dedicated to the pursuit of holiness? *pause* Let’s close out our time together today by considering what obedient faith ought to look like.
Where in your life do you need to put off desires or activities that make you unclean before God?
- Speech
- Boastful pride of life
- Gossip
- Slander
- Unwholesome, unedifying talk (Eph. 4:29)
- Crude joking (Eph. 5:4)
- Thought life
- Lusting after someone
- Daydreaming about a better life (discontentment)
- “If only I had ____ life would be good” (idolatry)
- Actions
- Participating in sexual immorality
- Acting on your greed (buying the new toy, tasty snack, etc.,)
- Forsaking your roles (husband/wife, dad/mom, ambassador for Christ)
How can you put on desires or activities that cultivate holiness?
- Speech
- Thanksgiving
- Praise
- Edifying, wholesome talk
- Encouragement
- Thought life
- Contentment (Thank you for your provision, Lord!)
- Actions
- Delighting in your spouse
- Looking for ways to give and serve others (like Jesus did for us)
- Embracing your roles (being the best possible husband/dad/ambassador for Christ)
It is past time for God’s people to take up their identity in Christ and to live in a manner that represents him well in this world. There is no time for fooling around and wasting our witness. We have been entrusted with a wonderful gift in the forgiveness of our sins through faith in Jesus Christ. If you have tasted and seen of God’s redemption, then why would you want to live any other way than in obedient faithfulness?
It was a privilege for the Judeans to rejoice in the redemption they received from God – “Our God reigns!” – just as it is a privilege for us to rejoice today. We are richly blessed by our Great Redeemer!
In just a moment, we are going to sing a wonderful song in response to the great salvation we have received through Jesus Christ. May we gladly break forth into singing “for the Lord has comforted his people; he has redeemed us”! We want the whole earth to see and know the salvation of our God. He has told us that his chosen means for accomplishing this is to send us with his Good News to the nations.
So, church, let’s close in prayer, asking God to prepare our hearts for this mission this week. Easter is coming. Souls in our community need Jesus. Let’s heed God’s calling to embrace his salvation and then take that same call to all who will hear.
Let’s pray.
Pray
Saved My Soul
Dismissal (Me)
- Invite people to ask questions/pray in the back
- Encourage everyone to make sure they know the hope of redemption in Christ Jesus
- Come back next week to hear the final Servant Song – it is incredibly rich and paints such a clear picture of Jesus in the Old Testament. An undeniable link in God’s grand plan of redemption.
- Easter Invite Cards – pass them out!