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My sermon text this morning as we continue our consideration of the
book of the prophet Isaiah is a short passage found in Isaiah chapter 4 verses
2 through 6. Now I’m going to begin reading back in chapter 3 verse 16 and
read to the end of chapter 3 and into chapter 4. So let us
hear God’s Holy Word. You’ll find this our passage for today in Isaiah 4 verses
I’m sorry on page 676 in your pew Bibles but again beginning at chapter 3
verse 16. Let us hear dear friends the Word of our God. The Lord said because
the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks glancing
wantonly with their eyes mincing along as they go tinkling with their feet
therefore the Lord will strike with a scab the heads of the daughters of Zion
and the Lord will lay bare their secret parts in that day the Lord will take
away the finery of the anklets the headbands and the crescents the pendants
the bracelets and the scarves the headdresses the armlets the sashes the
perfume boxes and the amulets the signet rings and nose rings the festal robes the
mantles the cloaks and the handbags the mirrors the linen garments the turbans
and the veils instead of perfume there will be rottenness and instead of a
belt a rope and instead of well-set hair baldness and instead of a rich robe a
skirt of sackcloth and branding instead of beauty your men shall fall by the
sword and your mighty men in battle and her gates shall lament and mourn empty
she shall sit on the ground and seven women shall take hold of one man in that
day saying we will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes only let us be
called by your name take away our reproach in that day the branch of the
Lord shall be beautiful and glorious and the fruit of the land shall be the pride
and honor of the survivors of Israel and he who is left in Zion and remains in
Jerusalem will be called holy everyone who has been recorded for life in
Jerusalem when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters
of Zion and cleansed the blood stains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of
judgment and by a spirit of burning then the Lord will create over the whole
site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day and smoke in
the shining of a flaming fire by night for over all the glory there will be a
canopy there will be a booth for shade by day from the heat and for a refuge
and a shelter from the storm and rain dear friends the grass withers the
flower fades but the word of our God endures forever shall we pray for the
Lord to bless the preaching of his word Lord Jesus Christ be present in the
preaching of your word this day attend with us by your spirit we beseech you
and open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word we
thank you Lord God for your God-breathed inerrant infallible authoritative word
it is indeed a lamp unto our feet a light unto our path a guide to our way
we pray Heavenly Father that the word would be implanted in our souls this day
and that by your spirit you would cause that word to bear much spiritual fruit
in our lives fruit that brings praise and glory and honor to your holy name be
with us now and bless us challenge us encourage us through the word and we
pray Lord once again that you would set a guard over my lips that I your
unworthy servant may only speak forth that which is clearly in line with your
word and faithful to that word we pray these things in Jesus name and all of
God’s people said amen you may be seated
the title my sermon this morning is the beautiful and glorious branch of the
Lord and the key words that the young people can be listening for in my sermon
today there’s five of them the words branch fruit remnant Messiah and
recreation not recreation but re-creation well dear ones the word of
God teaches us that God is sovereign over human history not only is God
sovereign over human history the scriptures teach us that he is working
out his redemptive plan within human history as I’m fond of saying and you’re
probably getting tired of hearing me say this but remember friends history is
what his story scripture teaches us beloved that this amazing divine plan
of redemption culminates and finds its fulfillment in the promised Messiah the
anointed one of God namely Jesus of Nazareth the incarnate Son of the living
God our Lord and Savior now friends the phenomenon of Bible prophecy powerfully
underscores the truth of God’s sovereignty over human history especially
when it comes to predictive prophecy in other words biblical prophecies which
predict future events predictive prophecy is proof that God is in sovereign
control over history and even over the future for he has planned out the future
by his sovereign decree and he is moving history onwards towards its
predetermined end goal we are told in in Ephesians for example that that end
goal is the summing up the uniting of all things in heaven and on earth in
Christ and the ultimate goal of God in all of his works is the glorification of
his own glorious triune being friends messianic prophecies in particular in
other words Old Testament prophecies which predict the coming Messiah serve
to powerfully underscore this truth that God has been sovereignly working out his
plan of redemption within history that plan which he carries out through the
person and saving work of Jesus the Messiah our wonderful Lord and gracious
Savior as I hope to demonstrate today dear friends our passage for this Lord’s
spiritually rich and powerful messianic prophecy as it uses old covenant language
and imagery and concepts to describe the promised Messiah and to describe the
blessings of the messianic new covenant age that would be ushered in with the
coming of the promised Messiah the Lord Jesus Christ but not only does this
passage have great redemptive historical significance it also has great
doctrinal significance this passage as we will see touches upon and alludes to
many important Bible doctrines for example as we will see this brief passage
of God’s word touches upon doctrines related to Christology Christology being
the doctrine of the person of Christ that that branch of theology that studies
what the scriptures teach about who Jesus is as the God man the word made
flesh our passage also touches upon matters having to do with soteri ology in
other words the doctrine of salvation and some of the important doctrines
related to salvation that are described in this brief passage have to do with
divine election of the remnant theology redemption from sin renewal and new life
and so forth and this passage also touches upon matters having to do with
ecclesiology in other words the doctrine of the church it’s important
for us to understand this passage within its broader context one of the
challenges in reading books of the Bible like Isaiah is it’s Isaiah is not the
kind of portion of scripture it’s not the kind of book of scripture that you can
read in isolated proof text form Isaiah is meant to be read in broader blocks it
is it is an ongoing unfolding revelation of God in and through the
prophets Isaiah our passage for today is a prophecy of messianic hope and
expectation but it’s a prophecy of hope and expectation that serves to bookend a
larger section of Isaiah that is primarily a judgment section remember
I’ve said in the past that that you read through Isaiah and it kind of goes back
and forth between passages prophecies of judgment and gloom and doom on the one
hand and then prophecies of messianic hope and joy and expectation on the
other hand this larger section that our passage for today represents the final
book end to began back in chapter 2 verse 1 and it goes all the way through
verse 6 of our passage for today remember friends that back in chapter 2
verses 1 through 4 that passage is the opening book end which is a prophecy of
hope predicting the spiritual glories of the messianic latter days but then
immediately after that passage follows a lengthy section of doom and judgment
which predicts the final judgment day at the end and then kind of telescopes in
more narrowly to focus on near-term historical judgments that Yahweh would
bring against Judah and Jerusalem as we saw in our consideration of chapter 3
but now friends now after gloomy predictions of judgment against the
godless and unbelieving now the spirit leads Isaiah to end this larger section
on a note of joyful messianic hope and expectation what do we learn from this
larger context and setting that’s important to ask ourselves because
we’re meant to read this passage in light of what has preceded it what do we
learn then from this larger passage what is its overarching theme or dear ones I
would suggest to you that the overarching theme of this section of
Isaiah is that the righteous and holy and infinitely just God the God who
manifests himself as the just judge of the unrepentant and godless this very
same God is also a God who manifests himself as the Savior protector and
preserver of his redeemed people another way to put it is to say that in this
section of God’s word that we’re considering here from the book of the
prophet Isaiah in this section we see that in wrath God remembers mercy so let
us turn our attention to the details of our passage for today and the first
thing I want to point out to you beloved in verse 2 is the promise of the
messianic branch if you’re following along in your sermon outline this is
the first point we note here the promise of the messianic branch it says in verse
2 in that day the branch of Yahweh the term Lord there in all capital letters
L-O-R-D that indicates that the English translator is translating the Hebrew
name Yahweh which is the covenant name for God it’s the name for the Lord that
has in view the Lord’s special relationship with his people Israel in
that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious and the fruit of
the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel and so we have
the promise of the messianic branch when will this promise take place well how
does Isaiah begin this verse he says in that day in what day this same kind of
in that day language is used in the immediately preceding verse in verse 1
to refer to a time of God’s judgment against the daughters of Zion a time
when the male population of the land will have been decimated by war because
of the judgments of God and therefore the daughters of Zion will will compete
have to compete for husbands as verse 1 says and seven women shall take hold of
one man in that day saying we will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes
only let us be called by your name take away our reproach that’s what the in
that day is referring to in verse 1 but obviously in verse 2 this in that day
language is referring not to a time of judgment but a time of restoration here
in verse 2 it refers to a hopeful time a time of reformation that would arrive
with the coming of the Messiah and his kingdom the spiritual blessings of the
messianic age in which we now live in this new covenant era were typified and
anticipated of course by Old Testament historical events such as the reforms
that were carried out under the good King Hezekiah and also the rebuilding of
the temple and the renewal of God’s covenant people in the days of the post
exilic community when God brought his his exiled people back from their
Babylonian exile but all of those things that took place in Old Testament times
are not the ultimate fulfillment of this passage the ultimate fulfillment of this
passage beloved is found in the coming of the Messiah who again is here
described in this interesting botanical and agricultural imagery as the
beautiful and glorious branch of the Lord now the first thing I want to do
beloved is to establish the messianic identity of the branch because there are
some Bible scholars and commentators out there who would who would say that well
this is not technically a direct messianic prophecy and they would interpret the
branch of the Lord not as the prediction of the coming Messiah but as something
else but again I agree with dr. EJ Young who translates this as sprout instead of
branch and dr. Young writes in the present passage the sprout is that shoot
which comes from the tree of David which has been cut down and which springs to
life from its fallen trunk and brings the tree to more glorious and wondrous
heights than before remember friends that the Old Testament predicts that the
coming Messiah the promised Messiah would be great David’s greater son he
would be a descendant of King David and indeed the Lord Jesus was a descendant
of King David the royal the royal line of David but again not all commentators
believe this branch refers to the promised Messiah for example some argue
that the branch is a collective term for God’s people as a whole however
friends I think that when we compare scripture with scripture that it is
clearly established that this is a reference to the Messiah and we see and
let me just take you to a few passages to support this one of these passages is
found here in Isaiah itself if you skip ahead to Isaiah chapter 11 verse 1
Isaiah chapter 11 verse 1 also refers to this branch and this is clearly Isaiah
11 is clearly a messianic prophecy and it says in Isaiah 11 verse 1 there shall
come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse and a branch from his roots shall
bear fruit and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him and so forth this
indeed shows that the branch referred to by Isaiah in chapter 4 is the same
branch that is being referred to here in chapter 11 namely the shoot from the
stump of Jesse and the branch from the roots that shall bear fruit in other
words the promised Messiah but the prophet Jeremiah also uses the same kind
of branch language if you turn to Jeremiah chapter 23 and look at verse 5
Jeremiah chapter 23 verse 5 we read these words
behold the days are coming declares the Lord when I will raise up for David a
righteous what a righteous branch and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and
shall execute justice and righteousness in the land this is clearly referring to
a king that comes from the line of David and this king this messianic king is
described here by Jeremiah as the righteous a righteous branch and keep
your finger in Jeremiah and turn to chapter 33 verse 15 Jeremiah 33 verse 15
we see similar language being used there where Jeremiah prophesies he says in
those days and at that time I will cause a what a righteous branch to spring up
for David and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land and one
more passage from the Old Testament prophets that I want us to look at is
Zechariah chapter 3 verse 8 Zechariah chapter 3 verse 8 in that passage we
read these words here now oh Joshua the high priest Joshua or Yeshua Jesus
being a type of of Christ our great high priest here now oh Joshua the high
priest you and your friends who sit before you for they are men who are
assigned behold I will bring my servant the branch notice the branch is called
my servant and our Lord Jesus Christ is indeed the suffering servant of the Lord
and other considerations could be mentioned but I hope that by showing you
these other passages in scripture that I have established for you beloved the
messianic identity of the branch that we read of in our passage for today and one
of the other things that’s very interesting to note about verse 2 is the
parallelism between the branch and the fruit of the land what we have here is
very typical in in Hebrew prophecy and and it’s parallelism where you say one
thing and then you say the same thing in a slightly different way and so it says
in that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious and then to
recap and reaffirm what he’s just said he uses different language he says and
the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel see
I tend to agree again with Dr. Young that the Hebrew parallelism here shows
that the branch and the fruit of the land are both references to the promised
Messiah the Lord Jesus Christ and he goes on to make the case and I agree with him
that the branch of the Lord points to our Lord’s divine origin and Godhood after
all he is the branch of Yahweh he is from the Lord this underscores his divine
nature but he is also the fruit of the land and in that imagery of the fruit of
the land this points to our Lord’s human nature as being of the earth this is
what I meant by the way when I said earlier that this passage touches upon
matters of Christology the doctrine of the person of Christ and so we learn
that this promised Messiah is going to be a branch of the Lord and he is going
to be both God and man but he is described as the fruit of the land
because among other things he will bear much gospel fruit the Bible makes it
clear that much gospel fruit will be born in the messianic New Covenant age
this age in which we are privileged to live and we are told here that in that
day the branch of the Lord shall be what beautiful and glorious think about that
language beloved this is saying that Jesus Christ the promised Messiah our
glorious Lord and Savior he is beautiful and glorious our Lord Jesus Christ is
indeed objectively speaking as the Word made flesh as Emmanuel God with us he is
beautiful and he is glorious of course the unbelieving world does not see the
beauty of our Savior they don’t recognize his beauty nor his glory nor
do they care unless and until the Spirit does a work of grace in their hearts but
again while the unbelieving and the impenitent may not perceive the beauty
of our Lord Jesus for those of us who know ourselves to be hell-deserving
sinners sinners in desperate need of a merciful and all-powerful and pure and
all-sufficient Savior for those of us who know our need Jesus Christ our Lord
and his gospel are indeed beautiful and glorious to us and it goes on to say
that the fruit of the land shall be what the pride and honor of the survivors of
Israel the survivors of Israel what we have there as I’ll point out in a few
minutes we have the remnant theme we have a focus on divine election in that
passage but what does it say about the fruit of the land again Jesus with
respect to his humanity he shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of
Israel now pride is not a good thing in it you know sinful pride is not a good
thing boasting in ourselves is not a good thing but there is a legitimate
pride that we can take a legitimate boasting that we can have for our
boasting is not in ourselves our boasting is in the Lord as God’s redeemed
people we boast not in ourselves not in our works not in our merits or
worthiness for we have none apart from grace no friends our boast is in the
Lord and I’m reminded of the words of the prophets I’m sorry of the Apostle
Paul which he writes in 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verses 26 to 31 let me just
read that that passage and he’s speaking to the Corinthian believers reminding
them that when they were called when they were savingly called into the
kingdom it’s not because they were of great position or power or wisdom he
says for consider your calling brothers not many of you were wise according to
worldly standards not many were powerful not many were of noble birth but God
shows what is foolish in the world to shame the wise God shows what is weak in
the world to shame the strong God shows what is low and despised in the world
even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are so that no human
being might boast in the presence of God and because of him you are in Christ
Jesus not because of you by the way because of him you are in Christ Jesus
who became to us wisdom from God righteousness and sanctification and
redemption so that as it is written let the one who boasts boast in whom let
the one who boasts boast in the Lord oh dear listener is Jesus the Messiah
beautiful and glorious to you do you trust him as your Savior do you boast in
yourself in your own worthiness or religiosity your own worth your own
merit or do you boast in the Lord but pastor I need to have self-esteem that’s
what the world tells you got to have self-esteem now we are all created in
the image of God and so we should have a proper view of ourselves you have
dignity and worth because of you were created in the image of God but the
Bible never tells us to have self esteem our culture constantly bombards us with
this message that hey you’re you’ve got it made you’re you’re a good person
esteem yourself view yourself view yourself with heightened affirmation
seek self-esteem the by the word the world says but the Bible says the
opposite Jesus says if any man would come after me what should he do seek
self-esteem no he should take up his cross and deny himself stop boasting in
yourself stop seeking self-esteem have Christ esteem and by the way the ironic
thing is that that as you are focused on Christ on the glory of his person and
saving work as you are living your life in union with Christ you will have a
proper sense of yourself a proper esteem for who you are as a child of
God in Christ it is as you seek but if you follow the way the ways of the world
and seek your own happiness and your own worth in yourself you will be miserable
because we are to boast not in ourselves but in the Lord the Lord who is the
beautiful and glorious branch the promised Messiah we see next in our
passage the messianic cleansing and purification of the chosen remnant this
is the second point in your sermon outline as we move on to verses three
and four consider next the messianic cleansing and purification of the chosen
It says this in verse three and four and he who is left in Zion and by the way he
who is left is referring to the same folks that were referred to at the end
of verse two namely the survivors of Israel and he who is left in Zion and
remains in Jerusalem in other words those whom God has spared from his
judgment against the wicked and the hypocritical amongst his professed
covenant people it says he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be
called holy everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem when the
Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the
blood stains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit
of burning now let’s consider first of all the identity of those whom he who is
left of he who is left in Zion as is referred to in verse 3 and he who is
left in Zion who is that referring to well again as I pointed out it’s
referring to the survivors of Israel mentioned in verse 2 it’s referring as
well to those recorded for life in Jerusalem and did you notice what are
they recorded for they are recorded for not for death not for judgment they are
recorded for life and ultimately this refers to those whose names are written
in the Lamb’s book of life eternal life is what this is pointing to what this is
referring to another way to put it is that this these these survivors of these
who are left in Zion these who are recorded for life these are the elect
remnant the judgment which had been predicted in the previous section would
remove the fruitless branches from the vine in other words the godless and
hypocrites would be removed from amongst the visible covenant community
through through judgments such as the Babylonian exile and so forth only the
election of grace only those recorded for life ultimately eternal life only
those who are predestined by sovereign grace for eternal life and thus recorded
in the Lamb’s book of life will survive and they will be called holy or set
apart there are many passages of scripture numerous passages that refer
to the people of God being recorded in the book of life and so forth and so for
example if you turn to Revelation 20 and let me read verses 12 through 15 of
Revelation chapter 20 we read these words and here this is speaking of the
final judgment the great white throne judgment and it says and I saw the dead
great and small this is Revelation 20 verse 12 and following and I saw the
dead great and small standing before the throne and books were opened then
another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged by
what was written in the books according to what they had done and the sea gave
up the dead who were in it death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them
and they were judged each one of them according to what they had done then
death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire this is the second death
the lake of fire and if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of
life he was thrown into the lake of fire if your name if by sovereign grace your
name has been written in the book of life and the evidence of that will be
that you repent of your sin and you trust Christ as your Savior from sin
then be assured your salvation is secure praise be to God but if not then
there’s only the lake of fire oh be warned and turn from the wrath to come
to Jesus Christ and if you do you will be saved and it’s it’s interesting to
one more passage to consider in this context Acts 13 verse 48 if you turn to
look at verse 48 speaking of this this matter of God’s election unto life we
read this and here Paul and Barnabas are preaching the gospel at Antioch and
Pisidia and and Paul says that God is sending the gospel to the Gentiles and
it says in verse 48 of Acts 13 and when the Gentiles heard this they began
rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord and as many as were appointed to
eternal life believed did you catch that it doesn’t say as many as believed
were appointed to eternal life it says as many as were appointed to eternal
life believed because if you’re dead in your trespasses and sins if you’re not
born again by the Spirit you have no desire for life you’re responsible for
your sin if you are lost you have no one to blame but yourself but if you’re
saved you have no one to credit but the Lord who in sovereign mercy awakened
you renewed you raised you from spiritual death to newness of life in
Christ and brought you to faith in Christ yes you must believe upon the
Lord Jesus Christ if you would be saved but who are the ones who believe those
who have been appointed for life eternal and getting back to our passage that
would include those whose names that would include everyone who has been
recorded for life in Jerusalem and notice how these are described here in
verse 3 it says they will be called holy my friends the elect the chosen remnant
are chosen not because they are worthy or holy or because God foresees that
they will be worthy of his salvation or that they will be holy but rather they
are chosen unto holiness by the sovereign grace of God as the Apostle
Paul writes in Ephesians 1 in that wonderful opening doxology in verses 3
and 4 Paul writes blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has
blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly
places even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we
should be what that we should be holy and blameless before him not because he
foresaw that we would be holy and blameless but in order that we might be
holy and blameless before him but all of this is only possible because of the
redemption and cleansing of the remnants that is spoken of in verse 4 of our
passage where it says when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the
daughters of Zion and cleanse the blood stains of Jerusalem from its midst by a
spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning this reference to blood stains
the language here seems to indicate blood stains as a result of violent
death and there was violence that came upon the unfaithful among the people of
God the professed people of God in in the Old Covenant era such as the
violence that was visited in judgment upon them with the Babylonian conquest
and the exile of the people into Babylon but even then God would
cleanse even the filthy daughters of Zion as an act of sovereign grace the
daughters of Zion against whom judgments had been pronounced in the previous
section even their filth would be cleansed Jesus died for sinners not for
people who are worthy or righteous in themselves but for sinners like me and
like you the cleansing and purification is only made possible by the messianic
atonement that Jesus our Lord offered on the cross of Calvary again to quote from
dr. young he says this wondrous act of God was accomplished when the his
eternal son the Lord Jesus Christ shed his precious blood upon the cross of
Calvary then was washed away all the guilt and power of sin of those for whom
he died you know what this reminds me of reminds me of that wonderful hymn of the
church what can wash away my sin you know the answer right nothing but the
blood of Jesus think about it dear brother sister in Christ Jesus poured
out his life blood on the cross to save you and save me the blood represents the
life Jesus poured out his life that your life and my life might be spared for he
atoned for our sins have you been cleansed dear listener by the blood of
Christ the lamb have you given all diligence to make your calling an
election sure you say well how do I know again you know by trusting Christ it is
by looking to Christ that you see your election in him and by the way as an
aside this is not a sermon on the doctrine of election but many Christians
are intimidated by that doctrine it’s not a doctrine that is revealed to cause
us despair or to make us feel threatened it’s actually presented in
scripture as a comforting doctrine because what it means brothers and
sisters in Christ is that even before he created the universe God set his saving
love upon you even though he knew you would be a fallen sinner he chose you
from before the foundation of the world he’s loved you with an everlasting love
and that should be a great comfort to you are you resting in his love for you
in Christ but finally beloved as we wrap up our time in the word today I would
have us turn to verses four and five as we consider and this is the final point
in your outline the recreation of the messianic people as Yahweh’s dwelling
place the recreation of the messianic people as Yahweh’s dwelling place one of
the things that you may have noticed if you’ve tried to read through the Bible
in its entirety you ever tried to read through Exodus the book of Exodus a
wonderful portion of scripture it recounts God’s rescue his redemption of
his people from their slavery in Egypt under Pharaoh it recounts the
supernatural plagues that God had poured out upon the Egyptians it recounts how
God rescued his people brought them through the Red Sea on dry land and how
he gave them his holy law on Mount Sinai but then a large section at the end of
Exodus contains some rather detailed instructions about the construction of
the tabernacle now why does God do that why does God the Holy Spirit inspire
Moses to record so many details about and to take up so much space in in the
book of Exodus recording the details of how to construct the Ark or rather the
tabernacle including the Ark of the Covenant well because God redeems and
rescues his chosen people that he might dwell among his people and this concept
is if you don’t understand this that this is a central theme of scripture that
God comes to dwell in the midst of sinful man he does so ultimately and
supremely in the person of Christ who is the Word made flesh who came to
tabernacle to pitch his tent make his dwelling amongst us this is a central
theme of Holy Scripture and it’s a theme that comes out in verses five and six
where it says then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and
over her assemblies a cloud by day and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire
by night for over all the glory there will be a canopy and so forth the word
that is here translated as create the word that Isaiah uses here is the same
word that is found in Genesis 1 verse 1 where it says in the beginning God Barah
he created the heavens and the earth the language that Isaiah uses here makes it
absolutely clear that this amazing work of renewing his people of recreating
his people would be a gracious work of God and God alone did anyone help God in
the beginning to create the universe no he did it all by himself by his sovereign
word of creative power he spoke the word and all things came into being and so
the point here is that in recreation as well when God recreates us makes us new
in Christ it’s God’s work and God’s work alone it’s not that God does his
part you do your part no it’s all of God sola gratia grace alone and therefore
soli deo gloria to God alone be the glory and it says here the Lord will
create over the whole site of Mount Zion Mount Zion was the temple mount where
the Lord’s special presence dwelt but it also mentions her assemblies in the
plural now I read a passage for you earlier in the service where it talks
about how God led the children of Israel in the wilderness through a pillar of
cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night this was not a natural phenomenon
this was a supernatural this is what the theologians call a theophany a
supernatural visible manifestation or symbol of the presence of God the saving
a protective presence of God as he leads and guides and protects his people
and that’s the symbolism that is being used here Mount Zion and her assemblies
which are referred to in verse 5 ultimately point to the church as it
exists in this messianic new covenant age in other words this is speaking to
matters of ecclesiology the doctrine of the church and this is speaking to
spiritual realities that we experience today brothers and sisters as those who
live in this new covenant age in Old Testament times the theophanic shekinah
glory of God had been limited at first it was limited to the pillar of cloud by
day and the pillar of fire by night that accompanied Israel on their wilderness
journeys and then it was confined to the sanctuary remember when Solomon
dedicated the the temple the glory of God was so heavy in the temple that the
priests could not stand up the shekinah glory of God that same glory that abode
in the pillar of cloud in the pillar of fire was now abiding in the temple in
the Holy of Holies dwelling above the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant
and so the presence of God was there but it was limited and confined his special
saving presence his covenantal presence but in the messianic age Isaiah depicts
this supernatural manifestation of God’s presence dwelling among his people as
being over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies do you see what
is being depicted here friends in Old Testament times this supernatural
manifestation of the pillar of cloud and fire signified to God’s people that he
dwelt among them as their divine protector and guide but now that Christ
has come and finished the work of redemption by his death and resurrection
we now have access into the heavenly Holy of Holies by faith in Christ what
happened when Jesus died on the cross of Calvary what happened in the temple do
you remember what the scripture say that temple that the curtain that separated
the holy place from the most holy place in the Jerusalem temple what happened to
that curtain it was torn into from top to bottom from God to us God opened up
the curtain so that now we who are redeemed by Christ and come to him by
faith in Christ we come directly and without fear without a craven
unbelieving fear we come directly into the presence the holy presence of God
and though we do not see the Shekinah glory with the eyes of flesh that glory
is among us the glory of God is here in the new covenant messianic assemblies of
the people of God that’s the significance of church that’s why you
should want to be in church because God is here God’s everywhere of course by
virtue of his omnipresence but he is with his people in covenant blessing and
grace in protection he is here in a special way by his spirit sometimes you
hear people say well what would what would your church do if Jesus showed up
well Jesus shows up to Grace Church every Sunday friends he is here by the
spirit and his glory is over all of Mount Zion and then it goes on to use
this wonderful imagery it says the glory there will be a canopy this term canopy
was used to describe the protective canopy that was used for wedding
ceremonies God’s protective covering will rest over all of his people and his
people we are the bride of Christ and so it sums up in verse 6 there will be a
booth for shade by day and from heat and for a refuge and a shelter from the
storm and rain dr. young writes over all the glory of the new Zion there will be
a covering and if you are in Christ you are covered in his righteousness you are
clothed in his gracious glory the imagery of course this is figurative
imagery but it points to the truth that the Lord is our refuge the Lord is our
protector again to quote from one of our hymns the Lord is a shelter in the time
of storm God dwells among his people especially when they gather in covenant
assembly God is our refuge he is our protector he is our guide may we rest in
him may we look to him in his word to guide us amen let us pray Heavenly Father
we thank you for Jesus the glorious and beautiful branch of the Lord we pray
that we might see in Christ his wonderful beauty and glory and we pray
that we might live for your glory take your word now that we’ve heard apply it
to our hearts and be with us now as we continue our worship of you and our
fellowship with one another in the fellowship meal today in Jesus name we
pray and all of God’s people said amen