WEBVTT 00:00:00.281 --> 00:00:00.561 Amen. 00:00:00.561 --> 00:00:04.451 I'd ask you to take your Bible and turn over to the book of Isaiah. 00:00:04.451 --> 00:00:12.603 If you're new with us or you don't have a Bible, you'll find a Bible in the pew in front of you and you can turn to page 600. 00:00:12.603 --> 00:00:14.869 And we'll be in chapter four. 00:00:14.869 --> 00:00:17.361 So that's like page 602, somewhere in that area. 00:00:17.361 --> 00:00:21.573 Isaiah starts on page 600, and we're just in the early chapters. 00:00:24.381 --> 00:00:43.048 We started our study of Isaiah following a study of the book of Matthew, and when we studied the book of Matthew we reached back into the Old Testament and pulled in a lot of the themes and pictures and imagery of the Old Testament as Matthew unfolded the revelation of Jesus Christ in his gospel. 00:00:43.048 --> 00:00:49.709 And now we're in the book of Isaiah and we're kind of doing the same thing, but from the opposite perspective. 00:00:49.709 --> 00:01:03.311 Now we're in the book of Isaiah and we're going to see its themes brought forward into the New Testament, and so this morning we're going to capture a glimpse of that in the passage that we're going to be looking at. 00:01:03.311 --> 00:01:05.346 Before we do, let's pray together. 00:01:05.346 --> 00:01:10.170 Lord, we ask your blessing upon our time and your word. 00:01:10.170 --> 00:01:19.349 Give us an illumination by your spirit to understand those things that you have for us today, and we pray this in Christ's name, amen. 00:01:21.042 --> 00:01:22.847 My Bible happens to finish. 00:01:22.847 --> 00:01:26.990 We're on one page where we finished the sermon last Sunday. 00:01:26.990 --> 00:01:29.605 We stopped at chapter four and verse one. 00:01:29.605 --> 00:01:34.641 Then the very bottom of my page here is chapter four and verse one. 00:01:34.641 --> 00:01:39.159 And when you look at chapter four and verse one you're going to note a little phrase there. 00:01:39.159 --> 00:01:49.676 It says on that day, and then it describes something very grim about the future of Judah and Jerusalem. 00:01:49.676 --> 00:01:59.004 There's this speak about seven women grabbing a hold of one guy saying we're going to eat our own bread, we're going to provide our own clothing. 00:01:59.004 --> 00:02:03.171 Just let us bear your name and take away our disgrace. 00:02:03.171 --> 00:02:11.608 Here's seven women binding together to provide for their own needs but making a marriage alliance with one guy. 00:02:11.608 --> 00:02:25.915 Because so devastating has been the war that there's been that much loss of life among the soldiers that seven women have to grab a hold of one guy and say we just need a marriage. 00:02:25.915 --> 00:02:29.489 What a horrific picture that is. 00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:36.794 So terrible is the pronouncement of judgment in chapter 3 that we get here. 00:02:36.794 --> 00:03:05.104 But when you look at the beginning of chapter 4 and verse 2, you read the same words on that day and you pause and you think well, I've just read these words in verse 1, on that day and what's going to come next? 00:03:05.104 --> 00:03:11.254 And we wince like I'm not sure I want to read more. 00:03:11.254 --> 00:03:15.007 How much horrible can it get? 00:03:15.007 --> 00:03:16.790 What's coming next? 00:03:16.790 --> 00:03:22.112 More humiliation, more death, more despair, more brokenness, more judgment. 00:03:22.112 --> 00:03:22.614 What's on that day? 00:03:22.614 --> 00:03:23.638 Despair, more brokenness, more judgment. 00:03:23.638 --> 00:03:26.651 What's on that day? 00:03:27.401 --> 00:03:29.024 But look at verse 2. 00:03:29.024 --> 00:03:42.384 On that day, the branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of Israel's survivors. 00:03:42.384 --> 00:03:47.293 What an abrupt movement from judgment to glorious beauty. 00:03:47.293 --> 00:03:57.825 Where God promises an abundance in place of desolation, or cleansing in the place of blood, guilt and filth. 00:03:57.825 --> 00:04:02.175 Where God threatens no more loss but rather a bounty. 00:04:02.175 --> 00:04:08.544 Where, as we go through the rest of the chapter, we find that he's creating something new and something better. 00:04:11.429 --> 00:04:14.054 What is this sudden movement from judgment to hope? 00:04:14.054 --> 00:04:17.483 Well, it's something we've seen before. 00:04:17.483 --> 00:04:27.095 Look at the end of chapter one and see how it moves into chapter two, the end of chapter one of Isaiah. 00:04:27.095 --> 00:04:31.997 You will become like an oak whose leaves are withered and like a garden without water. 00:04:31.997 --> 00:04:35.007 The strong one will become tender in his work. 00:04:35.007 --> 00:04:40.249 A spark, both will burn together, with no one to extinguish the flames, judgment. 00:04:40.249 --> 00:04:54.047 And then verse one of chapter two, the vision that Isaiah, son of Amos, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem In the last day, the mountain of the Lord's house will be established at the top of the mountains and will be raised above the hills. 00:04:54.047 --> 00:04:56.091 All nations will stream to it. 00:04:56.091 --> 00:05:01.187 Many people will say come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. 00:05:01.187 --> 00:05:05.154 He will teach us about his ways so that we may walk in his paths. 00:05:07.079 --> 00:05:26.274 Judgment, hope, judgment, hope, judgment, hope, just sandwiched together Judgment in chapter 1, judgment in chapter 2 and 3, judgment, as you'll find out next week, in chapter 5. 00:05:26.274 --> 00:05:35.754 But the filling inside the three slices of judgment are hope. 00:05:35.754 --> 00:05:42.112 What's going on here, this shift back and forth from judgment to hope? 00:05:42.112 --> 00:05:45.750 Well, the structure is teaching us something. 00:05:45.750 --> 00:05:54.262 It's teaching us that judgment's going to happen, but it also tells us that hope is also going to be realized. 00:05:54.262 --> 00:05:58.932 And to understand, that is to understand the whole book of Isaiah. 00:06:00.420 --> 00:06:21.209 We're learning something here, just in these first few chapters, these themes in which we come across these prophecies, in which God reveals his terrible majesty, and when we read these things we can only be moved to pray that God might not speak that way to us, so terrible are his judgments. 00:06:21.209 --> 00:06:35.834 And yet at the same time, we find ourselves leaning into words that, in addition to his plans of judgment, he also has purposes to show his mercy. 00:06:35.834 --> 00:06:44.048 God cannot leave Judah and Jerusalem alone wallowing in the shameful consequences of their sin. 00:06:44.048 --> 00:06:51.523 He's not merely inflicting his righteous indignation against them and showing them the vengeance of his wrath. 00:06:51.523 --> 00:06:57.774 He's also opening up a way and even more so for his grace. 00:06:57.774 --> 00:07:05.591 For his grace, Isaiah has been called the fifth gospel. 00:07:07.194 --> 00:07:08.697 Like a strange thing. 00:07:08.697 --> 00:07:10.259 It's in the old testament. 00:07:10.259 --> 00:07:19.648 It's not sandwiched up next again Matthew, mark, luke and John, but it's called the fifth gospel and Isaiah, as a prophet, has been called the the fifth evangelist. 00:07:19.648 --> 00:07:27.505 There are statements in here that we can transfer directly over into the life of Jesus Christ without skipping a beat. 00:07:27.505 --> 00:07:39.552 But there are also themes that talk us about the gospel hope that's coming, that push the people in the Old Testament forward to a day that's now realized in our own time. 00:07:39.552 --> 00:08:02.071 And so this morning, when we go through Isaiah, chapter 4, I want us to discover this gospel movement that Isaiah has to capture a little better, why he's called the fifth evangelist and to recognize why we're looking here in the Old Testament at something that's easily and very aptly described as the fifth gospel. 00:08:02.071 --> 00:08:08.002 So I want us to look at this by way of asking some questions and answering them. 00:08:08.002 --> 00:08:15.648 We're going to have five questions this morning in order to pull out of chapter four this gospel hope, this gospel hope. 00:08:15.648 --> 00:08:21.326 And the first question we want to answer and we'll do so very, very briefly is when will this happen? 00:08:21.326 --> 00:08:22.970 When will this happen? 00:08:22.970 --> 00:08:25.353 Well, it goes back to that phrase that we just looked at. 00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:26.903 Take a look at verse 2. 00:08:26.903 --> 00:08:30.608 On that day. 00:08:30.608 --> 00:08:32.624 That's all it says. 00:08:32.624 --> 00:08:37.570 On that day, it looks into the future, but it doesn't give a date. 00:08:37.570 --> 00:08:42.731 It looks into the future, but it's still vague and undefined. 00:08:42.731 --> 00:09:00.303 It looks to the future, not so we can circle a day on the calendar, but so that we might know that there's going to be a time when God acts, and when he acts it will be so dramatic that no one will miss it. 00:09:00.303 --> 00:09:13.024 On that day, the only chronological indicator that we get is that day of hope is going to come after judgment. 00:09:13.024 --> 00:09:15.328 That's all we've got. 00:09:15.328 --> 00:09:22.548 But God will continue to act beyond the judgment into a place of hope. 00:09:23.730 --> 00:09:31.585 On that day, the second thing we're going to ask ourselves is well, where is that hope found? 00:09:31.585 --> 00:09:33.808 Where is that hope found? 00:09:33.808 --> 00:09:38.721 And in verse 2, we're given an understanding of where that hope is. 00:09:38.721 --> 00:09:46.914 It gives us an understanding by way of some imagery in order to identify where that hope is. 00:09:46.914 --> 00:09:59.172 On that day, the branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of Israel's survivors. 00:09:59.172 --> 00:10:11.491 So, before we get to the identity, let's just sit a little while with this imagery that's here, this branch of beauty, this branch of glory. 00:10:12.961 --> 00:10:21.855 Now, our English word branch brings some things to mind that the Hebrew didn't necessarily seem to indicate. 00:10:21.855 --> 00:10:29.643 Seem to indicate. 00:10:29.643 --> 00:10:31.871 We've got words that we could use branch, shoot, sprout and none of them really, really, really work. 00:10:31.871 --> 00:10:33.216 We think of a branch, we think of a part of a tree. 00:10:33.216 --> 00:10:38.451 When we think of a sprout or a shoot, we think of the little beginning parts of growth. 00:10:38.451 --> 00:10:46.712 It's better described as the growing thing, the growing thing that has promise of a flourishing growth. 00:10:46.712 --> 00:10:50.629 It starts out small but it will develop and develop and grow. 00:10:50.629 --> 00:10:56.392 It's a growing thing with abundant vitality and fresh life within it. 00:10:59.181 --> 00:11:35.910 So take that image and picture, if you will, judah and Jerusalem after the devastating war that has come across them, as Babylon has wiped away everything homes, rubble strewn throughout the area, the temple emptied of all of its instruments of worship, the people vacated from the land, taken in captivity to Jerusalem. 00:11:35.910 --> 00:11:45.610 Picture, if you will scorched earth, war and devastation, emptiness and brokenness. 00:11:45.610 --> 00:11:47.893 Nothing seems alive. 00:11:47.893 --> 00:12:01.793 And if you've been to a desert, that sort of barrenness of desert or if you've been to a place where a lava has strewn itself across the place, a lava field, that's just one expanse of emptiness. 00:12:01.793 --> 00:12:11.160 Expanse of emptiness. 00:12:11.160 --> 00:12:13.043 That's what we're looking at here. 00:12:13.043 --> 00:12:14.605 Here is this desolated land, not one green thing left. 00:12:14.605 --> 00:12:26.851 The lava of God's holy wrath has spread its devastation along a ruining path the whole of Israel, barren like a desert, lifeless, like a lava field. 00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:47.692 And in the middle of it, in the middle of this devastation, there shoots up a green thing, a branch we call it in this translation here this growing thing, this living sprout. 00:12:47.692 --> 00:12:52.595 It starts off extremely small. 00:12:52.595 --> 00:13:01.836 It starts off very insignificant, so small, so insignificant that the eyes don't see it. 00:13:01.836 --> 00:13:11.111 It's hidden, still to our eyes, unrecognized for what it is. 00:13:11.111 --> 00:13:18.655 The sprout of life is submerged under the movements and processes of human history. 00:13:18.655 --> 00:13:23.850 We don't even see it, and if we thought about it. 00:13:23.850 --> 00:13:47.575 We might even be doubtful that it's actually living, but the promise is that it is alive and that it's going to grow and its vitality is going to be strong and it's going to come to the place where it's a bounty there's a fruit of the land, there's a harvest that's overflowing. 00:13:47.575 --> 00:13:50.711 This is the imagery here. 00:13:51.745 --> 00:13:56.673 Now let's understand what is this branch, what is this growing thing? 00:13:56.673 --> 00:14:06.567 Well, it's ambiguous in this passage because it's just been introduced to us, but it doesn't mean the Old Testament's silent about this idea. 00:14:06.567 --> 00:14:14.990 The identity of this branch comes into fuller and fuller and fuller revelation and exposure. 00:14:14.990 --> 00:14:24.995 It tells us that something, someone is coming and will bring this new life to the people. 00:14:24.995 --> 00:14:30.995 Isaiah, chapter 11, just a few pages over. 00:14:30.995 --> 00:14:33.630 Let's read the first verse. 00:14:33.630 --> 00:14:49.000 Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:59.317 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and strength, a spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. 00:14:59.317 --> 00:15:19.932 Lord, the branch coming from the stump of Jesse, and this imagery moves us into the identity of someone who is the Messiah, and this term branch becomes a messianic title. 00:15:19.952 --> 00:15:28.460 Title Maddie, read for us Jeremiah, chapter 23, verses five and six. 00:15:28.460 --> 00:15:41.229 Look, the day is coming this is the Lord's declaration when I will raise up the righteous branch for David. 00:15:41.229 --> 00:15:44.115 He will reign wisely as king and administer justice and righteousness in the land. 00:15:44.115 --> 00:15:49.692 And in his day Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. 00:15:49.692 --> 00:15:52.538 And his name will be called the Lord. 00:15:52.538 --> 00:16:10.235 Our righteousness, the branch is becoming identified as this one from the line of David, this one who will act with justice and equity and righteousness and will stand as the righteousness of his people. 00:16:10.235 --> 00:16:18.105 Jeremiah 33 almost exactly quotes Jeremiah 23. 00:16:18.105 --> 00:16:25.399 In those days, at that time, I will cause a righteous branch to sprout up for David and he will administer justice and righteousness in the land. 00:16:25.399 --> 00:16:32.365 Those days, at that time, will cause a righteous branch to sprout up for David and he will administer justice and righteousness in the land. 00:16:32.365 --> 00:16:36.205 And then we get to Zechariah, chapter 6. 00:16:36.205 --> 00:16:37.128 This is what the Lord of Army says. 00:16:37.128 --> 00:16:48.600 Here is a man whose name is the branch he will branch out from his place and build the Lord's temple, the branch he will branch out from his place and build the Lord's temple. 00:16:53.404 --> 00:16:55.812 So here in the Old Testament, even in this statement here, as ambiguous as it is in its first declaration. 00:16:55.812 --> 00:17:10.913 It gets clearer and clearer and clearer again that they are to expect someone who's going to come, someone from this devastated line of Davidic kings brought into captivity and no king sitting on any throne anywhere. 00:17:10.913 --> 00:17:42.464 There's going to come, one who will and his reign will not end, and his reign will be described by justice and equity and righteousness on behalf of his people, and that he's going to build a meeting house with God and people, called a temple, and that the people are going to say this is the Lord, our righteousness. 00:17:42.464 --> 00:18:04.986 Well, hang on with me for a moment as we kind of bring this into the New Testament, as we go into the New Testament and as Matthew begins to unfold the gospel of Jesus Christ for Jewish people who are familiar with the Old Testament, who have read it many, many, many, many times, who have expectation of this branch who is to come, who are looking forward to a Messiah who will arrive. 00:18:04.986 --> 00:18:08.574 Matthew is speaking in a language they understand. 00:18:08.574 --> 00:18:15.271 He's speaking with themes that they know and he knows they know to look for a branch. 00:18:15.271 --> 00:18:21.040 And so in Matthew, chapter 2, and in verse 23,. 00:18:21.040 --> 00:18:29.404 And in verse 23, writing about Jesus, he says these words. 00:18:29.404 --> 00:18:41.300 Then he went this is Jesus and he settled in a town called Nazareth to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets that he would be called a Nazarene. 00:18:41.300 --> 00:18:42.045 Now just hang with me for a second. 00:18:42.045 --> 00:18:45.498 We'll get to the point. 00:18:50.119 --> 00:18:51.384 Jesus grew up in a town called Nazareth. 00:18:51.384 --> 00:19:01.758 He's called often in the scriptures Jesus of Nazareth, just like we might say Ethan of Valley Stream. 00:19:01.758 --> 00:19:05.247 Right, there's so many Ethans in Valley Stream we got to around our area. 00:19:05.247 --> 00:19:10.945 We have to say this is the Ethan of Valley Stream, as opposed to the Ethan of New Hyde Park or the Ethan of Franklin Square, whatever. 00:19:10.945 --> 00:19:13.848 Jesus of Nazareth. 00:19:16.791 --> 00:19:20.816 But Nazareth was an obscure Galilean village. 00:19:20.816 --> 00:19:34.066 In fact, in all of the writings that we have of Jewish literature, from the 7th century BC all the way up to the time of Christ, there is not one single mention of this village. 00:19:34.066 --> 00:19:38.752 Nazareth, it's just an obscure little village. 00:19:38.752 --> 00:19:42.940 No one paid any attention to None. 00:19:42.940 --> 00:19:47.296 No one paid any attention to None, literally none. 00:19:47.296 --> 00:19:54.204 You could go to the wiki page for Nazareth in Jesus' day and it'd be blank. 00:19:54.204 --> 00:19:57.057 It's a town in Galilee. 00:19:57.057 --> 00:19:59.431 Next item, that's all it would say. 00:19:59.431 --> 00:20:00.955 Notable people from Nazareth. 00:20:00.955 --> 00:20:05.453 Nobody's listed. 00:20:05.453 --> 00:20:10.106 But here's Jesus Went and lived in a town called Nazareth. 00:20:10.887 --> 00:20:14.054 Now notice the next phrase of Matthew 23. 00:20:14.054 --> 00:20:22.550 So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets that he would be called a Nazarene. 00:20:22.550 --> 00:20:35.045 So where are all the prophecies of Jesus, the coming Messiah, being called a Nazarene? 00:20:35.045 --> 00:20:38.913 Nowhere. 00:20:38.913 --> 00:20:41.357 Have we just found the first big mistake in the Bible here. 00:20:41.357 --> 00:20:44.621 Wait a second. 00:20:44.621 --> 00:20:48.567 No, not just one prophet. 00:20:48.567 --> 00:20:54.138 The prophets speak about this coming one being called a Nazarene. 00:20:54.138 --> 00:21:06.630 Well, he's obviously not quoting any direct Old Testament prophecy, because there is no direct prophecy talking about the Messiah coming from Nazareth or being called a Nazarene. 00:21:06.630 --> 00:21:12.769 This is why, when in Jesus' day they all went, how could he be the Messiah? 00:21:12.769 --> 00:21:15.678 Can any good thing come from Nazareth? 00:21:15.678 --> 00:21:19.988 What's going on here? 00:21:19.988 --> 00:21:41.076 Matthew is a Jewish man speaking to Jewish people, telling them about the Messiah and the themes that they've understood, and he's peppering his gospel with these little clues that aren't so little if you understand what he's trying to say. 00:21:43.907 --> 00:21:57.900 The prophecy of Isaiah 11, the prophecy of Isaiah 4-2, a shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse, from his roots, a branch will bear fruit. 00:21:57.900 --> 00:22:10.444 The word for branch in Isaiah 11 is nasser, a netzer. 00:22:10.444 --> 00:22:16.329 The word for Nazareth and Nazarene net, nazareth, nazarene. 00:22:16.329 --> 00:22:19.417 They sound in Hebrew and Aramaic almost identical. 00:22:19.417 --> 00:22:33.107 Matthew is making an association of sound here with the name of the town and the word title branch. 00:22:33.107 --> 00:22:36.010 He will be called a branch. 00:22:36.010 --> 00:22:42.276 He lives in Nazareth because he will be the fulfillment of the branch. 00:22:42.276 --> 00:22:58.480 He will come from an obscure place like this little shoot rises out of the obscurity of destruction, the sound and the spelling. 00:22:58.480 --> 00:23:08.259 If you reduced the Hebrew and the Aramaic to its consonants, nazareth and branch have the exact same three letters. 00:23:08.259 --> 00:23:31.605 Matthew's point is here that sprouting up from this obscure little village in Galilee is a branch, is a branch. 00:23:31.605 --> 00:23:33.028 He is identifying for us the fulfillment of Jesus. 00:23:33.048 --> 00:23:40.249 In the prophecy of Isaiah, in chapter 4, in chapter 11, in Jeremiah 23, in Jeremiah 33, and in the book of Zechariah, the branch is here. 00:23:40.249 --> 00:23:44.397 He came to his own and his own received him not. 00:23:44.397 --> 00:23:46.470 We looked and we didn't see it. 00:23:46.470 --> 00:23:50.972 It was so small, it was so insignificant we didn't even think there was life in it at all. 00:23:50.972 --> 00:23:52.711 There was nothing to see. 00:23:52.711 --> 00:23:55.834 We thought Nothing but continued judgment and devastation. 00:23:55.834 --> 00:24:03.203 But God says on that day a branch is going to rise and it'll start off small. 00:24:03.203 --> 00:24:16.607 It'll start off insignificant, but that branch is going to flourish and the power and the effect of that branch is going to be unmistakable for all eyes to see. 00:24:16.607 --> 00:24:21.253 It's going to be beautiful and glorious. 00:24:21.253 --> 00:24:27.026 That new growth is going to be splendid beyond anyone's imagination. 00:24:29.369 --> 00:24:43.107 Later, in the book of Isaiah, isaiah says that when the Messiah comes, he'll have no form or majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him, that he's a reproach of men. 00:24:43.107 --> 00:24:45.115 We turned, as it were, our faces from him. 00:24:45.115 --> 00:24:48.394 This is visage was marred more than any man's. 00:24:48.394 --> 00:24:50.506 Oh. 00:24:50.506 --> 00:24:51.852 But he's not like that anymore. 00:24:51.852 --> 00:24:58.944 He's ascended into the heavenly, sat at the right hand of the majesty, on high ruling and reigning. 00:24:58.944 --> 00:25:12.977 And as the gospel proclaimers in the book of Acts, in chapter two, said, this is the very message of the king from the throne Repent and believe on Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins. 00:25:12.977 --> 00:25:39.990 And the beauty of the gospel has traversed its path from that point to ours, across all nations, until the effect of that little, little, little growing thing out of the field of devastation has turned into a beauty, a beauty to behold of redeemed people from every kindred, tribe and tongue. 00:25:41.593 --> 00:25:42.775 This is the hope. 00:25:42.775 --> 00:25:46.599 When is this hope going to happen On that day? 00:25:46.599 --> 00:25:51.932 Where is that hope to be found In the branch? 00:25:51.932 --> 00:25:55.058 Who receives that hope? 00:25:55.058 --> 00:25:58.814 That's the next question we want to ask in Isaiah, chapter 4. 00:25:58.814 --> 00:26:09.948 When is this hope later? 00:26:09.948 --> 00:26:10.869 Where the branch who receives it? 00:26:10.869 --> 00:26:19.984 Verse 2 on that day, the branch of the lord will be beautiful and glorious and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of israel's survivors. 00:26:19.984 --> 00:26:28.440 Whoever remains in zion and whoever is left in Jerusalem will be called holy. 00:26:30.886 --> 00:26:31.809 What is this idea? 00:26:31.809 --> 00:26:48.630 Well, it's when we introduced the book of Isaiah, we said that there were three horizons that look out onto the future the horizon that looks into the immediate time and the extended history of the Old Testament people of Israel. 00:26:48.630 --> 00:26:54.669 Another horizon that looks out on the messianic age as the Messiah comes. 00:26:54.669 --> 00:27:03.436 And then another horizon that we can see as we go higher up yet and we can see to the reaches of the new heavens and the new earth in that eternal day. 00:27:03.436 --> 00:27:07.664 We can see to the reaches of the new heavens and the new earth in that eternal day. 00:27:07.664 --> 00:27:26.669 And so he's moving us in this sort of smashed figure that brings some of these horizons into one expression that there'll be people left after the devastation of Babylon, but there's a hope of fulfillment yet beyond that. 00:27:26.669 --> 00:27:32.155 Those who are left, as the NIV puts it, or he who is left, as our translation puts. 00:27:32.155 --> 00:27:40.217 It is used 27 times in the book of Isaiah and all of those times it talks about despair or hope. 00:27:40.217 --> 00:27:45.476 And here's one of the hope passages that there's going to be a remnant. 00:27:45.476 --> 00:27:49.515 There are going to be a few people left. 00:27:53.965 --> 00:27:58.637 Paul took up this idea when he quotes Isaiah in Romans, chapter 9. 00:27:58.637 --> 00:28:00.894 In fact, he quotes two passages in Isaiah. 00:28:00.894 --> 00:28:08.473 He said Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, though the number of the Israelites be like the sand of the sea. 00:28:08.473 --> 00:28:19.571 Only a remnant will be saved, since the Lord will execute his sentence completely and decisively on the earth, just as Isaiah predicted. 00:28:19.571 --> 00:28:29.792 If the Lord of hosts had not left us an offspring, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah. 00:28:29.792 --> 00:28:32.224 Isaiah 1, we've already looked at that. 00:28:32.224 --> 00:28:43.682 The picture looks bleak, the devastation is pervasive, but there's a people. 00:28:43.682 --> 00:28:49.891 There's a people and they'll survive and there'll be a growth and there'll be a harvest and there'll be abundance. 00:28:49.911 --> 00:28:59.678 And so, as Paul continues his thought in the book of Romans, starting in chapter 9, he moves into chapter 11, and he asks this question has God rejected his people? 00:28:59.678 --> 00:29:04.900 I thought there were Old Testament promises that there would be a people. 00:29:04.900 --> 00:29:06.786 Has God rejected them? 00:29:06.786 --> 00:29:09.910 Absolutely not. 00:29:09.910 --> 00:29:13.634 He says how does he know? 00:29:13.634 --> 00:29:23.614 He says for I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin. 00:29:23.614 --> 00:29:31.329 God has not rejected his people, whom he foreknew. 00:29:31.329 --> 00:29:50.125 Paul says the fact that I've come to Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I am one of the remnant that are promised in the Old Testament. 00:29:50.125 --> 00:29:52.471 Don't you know what the scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleaded with God against Israel? 00:29:52.471 --> 00:29:53.693 Lord, they've killed your prophets. 00:29:53.693 --> 00:29:54.715 They've torn down your altars. 00:29:54.715 --> 00:29:55.744 I'm the only one left. 00:29:55.744 --> 00:29:57.387 They're trying to take my life too. 00:29:57.387 --> 00:29:59.470 What's God's answer to him? 00:29:59.470 --> 00:30:05.096 I have left 7,000 for myself who have not bowed down to Baal. 00:30:05.096 --> 00:30:15.491 And so Paul says in the same way, there's also, at the present time, a remnant chosen by grace. 00:30:15.491 --> 00:30:31.929 Here we find the branch has a people who come from the nation of Israel, and the branches people are the remnant people. 00:30:33.411 --> 00:30:34.132 But it gets better. 00:30:34.132 --> 00:30:47.326 In Romans 9, paul continues his argument and he says God is making known the riches of his glory on objects of mercy rather than wrath. 00:30:47.326 --> 00:30:56.954 There's going to be a people that he's going to show mercy to, that he's prepared beforehand to glory on us, the ones that he has called. 00:30:56.954 --> 00:30:59.479 Paul says I'm one of those few. 00:30:59.479 --> 00:31:06.557 And then he says, but not only to the Jews, but also from the Gentiles. 00:31:06.557 --> 00:31:27.221 There's going to be a remnant people, and he quotes the book of Hosea I will call not my people, people, my people, people, people, people, my people, people. 00:31:27.221 --> 00:31:34.936 And she who's unloved, I'm going to call her beloved and there will be a place where they're told you're not my people. 00:31:34.936 --> 00:31:43.089 They will be called the children of the living God. 00:31:43.089 --> 00:31:51.393 These survivors of Israel that Isaiah 4, 2 talks about are the ones who have reservations in their name. 00:31:51.393 --> 00:31:55.548 They're the called ones to receive mercy. 00:31:59.211 --> 00:32:04.403 It says here in verse 3, all in Jerusalem, written in the book of life. 00:32:04.403 --> 00:32:18.665 There's this idea, running through the scriptures, of some record, a registry, a life record of names that are written there, that God has put down that they'll be recipients of his mercies. 00:32:18.665 --> 00:32:23.200 Jesus told his disciples don't rejoice that. 00:32:23.200 --> 00:32:25.207 The spirits are in subjection. 00:32:25.207 --> 00:32:30.838 Do you rejoice at your names written in heaven and in the book of Revelation? 00:32:30.838 --> 00:32:41.589 There is a book of life and it says that those who have their names written in that book have a right to enter through the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem. 00:32:41.589 --> 00:32:47.779 Through the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem, who are these people? 00:32:47.779 --> 00:32:58.993 The ones God has chosen to show mercy, surprising mercy, because what they deserved was judgment. 00:32:59.013 --> 00:33:01.036 Now, what brings this hope into reality? 00:33:01.036 --> 00:33:03.018 Is the next question. 00:33:03.018 --> 00:33:06.641 When will this happen In that day? 00:33:06.641 --> 00:33:10.164 Where is that hope found In the branch? 00:33:10.164 --> 00:33:12.125 Who received that hope? 00:33:12.125 --> 00:33:16.653 The remnant? 00:33:16.653 --> 00:33:16.953 Who are called? 00:33:16.953 --> 00:33:18.719 What will bring this hope into reality? 00:33:20.970 --> 00:33:22.635 Take a look at verse four. 00:33:22.635 --> 00:33:39.804 When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the blood guilt from the heart of Jerusalem by a spirit and judgment and a spirit of burning, then the Lord will create a cloud of smoke by day and a glowing flame of fire by night. 00:33:39.804 --> 00:33:43.615 The Lord's going to do it. 00:33:43.615 --> 00:33:46.346 How is this going to happen? 00:33:46.346 --> 00:33:52.971 Is it going to happen because the people that are left just happen to be the righteous ones and by their own righteousness they've survived? 00:33:52.971 --> 00:33:55.875 No, no, not at all. 00:33:55.875 --> 00:34:26.141 The people that were talked about in chapter three, the people that were talked about in chapter 3, the ladies who were filling their wardrobes and emptying the pockets of the poor as their husbands sweeped across society and raked all in all of the benefits and bounty of the people for their own personal use and gave it to their wives to flaunt in the streets, these daughters of Zion, these are the ones. 00:34:26.141 --> 00:34:37.023 They're going to be some of those guilty ones who are surviving and the Lord is going to cleanse them and wash them and make them holy. 00:34:37.023 --> 00:34:47.018 He's going to bring about a work that will be a judgment, but that judgment will mean their cleansing. 00:34:47.018 --> 00:34:50.619 That judgment will mean their washing. 00:34:50.619 --> 00:34:53.920 That judgment will mean their state of holiness. 00:34:53.920 --> 00:34:59.961 He's going to do it by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning. 00:34:59.961 --> 00:35:12.192 It comes when the Lord does it. 00:35:12.192 --> 00:35:13.536 Jeremiah, chapter 5, talking about the same people. 00:35:13.556 --> 00:35:21.059 A little bit later than Isaiah's day, god told Jeremiah to go walking around the streets of Jerusalem, to walk up and down the areas around. 00:35:21.059 --> 00:35:22.806 He said roam through the streets of Jerusalem, to walk up and down the areas around. 00:35:22.806 --> 00:35:28.536 He said roam through the streets of Jerusalem, investigate, search in her squares. 00:35:28.536 --> 00:35:38.766 If you find one person, one person who acts justly, who pursues faithfulness, then I will forgive the whole city. 00:35:38.766 --> 00:35:42.226 Find me one, Jeremiah, then I will forgive the whole city. 00:35:42.226 --> 00:35:43.690 Find me one, jeremiah. 00:35:43.690 --> 00:35:47.494 And in Jeremiah 5, you can read what Jeremiah does. 00:35:47.494 --> 00:35:49.755 That's exactly what he does. 00:35:49.755 --> 00:35:51.958 He goes walking around the streets. 00:35:51.958 --> 00:35:53.920 He goes knocking on every door. 00:35:53.920 --> 00:35:56.141 He's looking for one righteous person. 00:35:56.141 --> 00:36:00.465 And at the end of his search he comes back and he says God, I couldn't find anybody. 00:36:00.465 --> 00:36:13.001 There's no one, no one, not one man, not one woman, not one person who is righteous to save the people. 00:36:16.650 --> 00:36:46.393 Until you get to Jeremiah 23 and Jeremiah 33, the days are coming this is the Lord's declaration when I, the Lord, says when I will fulfill the good promise that I've spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah, in those days and at that time I will cause the righteous branch to sprout up for David and he will administer justice and righteousness in the land. 00:36:46.393 --> 00:36:51.403 And in those days, his days, israel shall be saved. 00:36:51.403 --> 00:36:57.094 The one man comes, but only by God's doing. 00:36:57.094 --> 00:37:06.525 He will bring that servant, that righteous servant who will rule with righteousness, who will rule with justice. 00:37:06.525 --> 00:37:23.905 This is the branch, the good shepherd, the son of David, the wise king who will be the righteousness of his people. 00:37:23.905 --> 00:37:39.840 Beyond Isaiah's understanding, beyond Jeremiah's comprehension, there was going to be one who is coming, whose goodness and integrity and moral perfection would belong to the people and his righteousness would be credited to their account. 00:37:39.840 --> 00:37:44.621 They will say of this one, the Lord, our righteousness. 00:37:44.621 --> 00:37:51.217 All of these things have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. 00:37:51.217 --> 00:37:57.570 The gospel talks about him, who is our righteousness. 00:37:57.570 --> 00:38:05.925 And when we hear this melodious song of the righteous branch that Jeremiah and Isaiah speak about. 00:38:05.925 --> 00:38:16.322 We know that that song is Christ's song, that it is his righteousness, because the scriptures tell us that all of his righteousness belongs to us. 00:38:16.322 --> 00:38:26.092 All of his righteousness fulfilled the law that we could not fulfill, that all his suffering satisfied the judgment that we could not fulfill, that all his suffering satisfied the judgment that we could not endure. 00:38:26.092 --> 00:38:35.757 And that God will deliver his people through a spirit of judgment, but not on us, on him, on him. 00:38:35.757 --> 00:39:00.150 And so, if you trust in Jesus Christ, hear what the words of the New Testament say you are washed, you are cleansed, you are sanctified, using the very words of Isaiah. 00:39:00.889 --> 00:39:02.811 Paul the apostle looked around like Jeremiah did. 00:39:02.811 --> 00:39:13.561 He knocked on every door, he walked down every street, he gazed at every person and he came to the same conclusion that Jeremiah did there's none righteous. 00:39:13.561 --> 00:39:14.362 No, not one. 00:39:14.362 --> 00:39:18.126 There's no one who understands. 00:39:18.126 --> 00:39:19.806 There's no one who seeks God. 00:39:19.806 --> 00:39:24.490 They're all turned away. 00:39:24.490 --> 00:39:25.472 They've together become worthless. 00:39:25.472 --> 00:39:28.297 There's no one who does good not one. 00:39:28.297 --> 00:39:30.460 Paul cried like Jeremiah cried. 00:39:30.460 --> 00:39:32.945 Is there not one? 00:39:32.945 --> 00:39:39.672 Nobody. 00:39:39.672 --> 00:39:41.516 Is there any hope for humanity? 00:39:41.516 --> 00:39:44.543 Sure, doesn't seem like it. 00:39:47.650 --> 00:39:58.976 Then he writes but now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, of which the law and the prophets testify. 00:39:58.976 --> 00:40:00.398 What is that? 00:40:00.398 --> 00:40:03.422 Jesus Christ? 00:40:03.422 --> 00:40:11.257 A righteousness from God that's been made known, the exact kind of righteousness that Jeremiah talked about. 00:40:11.257 --> 00:40:17.278 The exact kind of holiness and washing and cleansing that Isaiah is talking about. 00:40:17.278 --> 00:40:35.072 The righteousness of God himself, given to his people so that when we look at Jesus Christ, we would cry out and say to him the Lord, our righteousness, I stand before God as holy, I stand before God cleansed. 00:40:35.072 --> 00:40:49.362 I stand before God washed of any blood guilt, because the spirit of judgment has landed on my Savior and not myself, and his obedience has come to me and everyone else who believes. 00:40:54.751 --> 00:40:56.373 When is this hope going to happen? 00:40:56.373 --> 00:41:07.829 In the day of where that hope is found, in the branch of where that hope is found in the branch, who are going to receive it? 00:41:07.829 --> 00:41:10.516 The few who are called? 00:41:10.516 --> 00:41:11.639 What brings it to happen? 00:41:11.639 --> 00:41:17.737 Only the Lord's activity, and what will that hope look like? 00:41:17.737 --> 00:41:29.068 Our last question Take a look at verses five and six. 00:41:29.130 --> 00:41:46.181 Then the Lord will create a cloud of smoke by day and a glowing flame of fire by night, over the entire side of Mount Zion and over its assemblies, for there will be a canopy over all the glory and there will be a shelter for shade from the heat by day and a refuge and a shelter from storm and rain. 00:41:46.181 --> 00:42:07.980 God promises that that day of hope will be a day of his presence, and he uses the imagery out of the book of Exodus of a cloud by day and a fire by night to talk about the presence of God that will be among his people, despite their sin, despite the judgment. 00:42:07.980 --> 00:42:16.795 God is going to be with them and the glory of God will rest upon the assemblies of the gathering of the people. 00:42:16.795 --> 00:42:18.853 Wherever they are. 00:42:18.853 --> 00:42:25.291 He will be, but not only will his presence be there, but his protection will be there. 00:42:25.291 --> 00:42:33.324 They will have protection from the heat of the day and the storm and the rain. 00:42:33.324 --> 00:42:38.563 There's going to be a protection on this threatened, barren city. 00:42:38.563 --> 00:42:45.251 There's going to be a canopy over Israel that will watch over them and keep them from all the elements of harm. 00:42:45.251 --> 00:42:59.994 And all of this imagery comes out of the book of Exodus, where it was God's ultimate goal to be among his people and to dwell with his people and to watch over his people and to protect his people. 00:42:59.994 --> 00:43:11.936 He'll live among them, he'll watch over them and in their presence, his presence, they'll know security and they'll know safety and comfort and well-being, all the things that we crave. 00:43:11.936 --> 00:43:25.335 And this is why the last words of the book of Exodus don't end with a flourish rush out of Egypt across the Red Sea, but end with these words in Exodus 40. 00:43:26.150 --> 00:43:37.481 The cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day and was a fire inside the cloud by night, visible to the entire house of Israel throughout all the stages of their journey. 00:43:37.481 --> 00:43:38.884 What is it saying? 00:43:38.884 --> 00:43:41.378 God will be with his people. 00:43:41.378 --> 00:43:43.398 God will be with his people. 00:43:43.398 --> 00:43:43.981 He will be with his people. 00:43:43.981 --> 00:43:46.391 He will stand with them by his presence. 00:43:46.391 --> 00:43:51.481 He will watch over them with his protection, and we'll feel it. 00:43:51.481 --> 00:43:53.565 We'll feel it. 00:43:53.565 --> 00:43:58.780 We'll feel his sheltering presence, we'll feel his comforting nearness. 00:43:58.780 --> 00:44:02.155 This righteous branch will serve his people. 00:44:02.155 --> 00:44:09.398 He will rescue his people, deliver his people and liberate his people, and there will be peace. 00:44:09.398 --> 00:44:19.257 That hope is the presence of God, that hope is the protection of God and that hope is the peace of God. 00:44:20.860 --> 00:44:25.565 This war that's coming is not the end of the story. 00:44:25.565 --> 00:44:31.702 God will move in judgment on them, but he will bring about a time of peace. 00:44:31.702 --> 00:44:40.463 As they journeyed through the wilderness, he was there, but there came a time when that. 00:44:40.463 --> 00:44:45.411 But there came a time when that pillar and that cloud left. 00:44:45.411 --> 00:44:47.173 There was a time when war happened. 00:44:47.173 --> 00:44:49.215 There was a time when pestilence raged. 00:44:49.215 --> 00:45:00.606 But there's coming a day when the presence of God will be forever and the protection of God will be forever and the peace of God will be forever. 00:45:10.050 --> 00:45:12.293 And Isaiah looks to that day and he can see it afar and he wonders what it might be. 00:45:12.293 --> 00:45:22.259 He gets glimpses of the hope that's there when it happens, and who might bring it and who's going to receive it and what it's going to look like. 00:45:22.259 --> 00:45:40.755 But it's still cloudy yet, until we get to the New Testament and we realize that Jesus Christ came and he tabernacled among us John 1, 14. 00:45:40.755 --> 00:45:43.958 The presence of God is with people. 00:45:43.958 --> 00:45:52.184 And then he says when you leave this body, you will be in the presence of God. 00:45:52.184 --> 00:45:57.402 To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. 00:46:01.271 --> 00:46:20.083 This is no out-of-date dream that Isaiah is conjuring up to give some glimmer of hope to people that are facing the oppression of nations around them that are far more powerful than they are simply speaking words of judgment to some prophet of doom in the midst of a debauched people. 00:46:20.083 --> 00:46:22.835 No, he's casting hope forward. 00:46:22.835 --> 00:46:30.498 He's casting it forward into their generation and he's casting us forward into that hope. 00:46:30.498 --> 00:46:39.742 To speak of this branch who's going to come, the only means by which we might be righteous, with a cleansing from sin. 00:46:39.742 --> 00:46:57.498 But he means to push us even further than looking to the cross, because there's something still ahead of us all the book of Revelation, chapter 21, the very last leaves of scripture itself. 00:46:59.512 --> 00:47:06.061 I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and the sea was no more. 00:47:06.061 --> 00:47:28.452 And I saw the holy city, jerusalem, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride, adorned for her husband, beautiful, holy, adorned for her husband, beautiful, holy. 00:47:28.452 --> 00:47:41.650 And I heard a loud voice from the throne Look, god's dwelling is with humanity and he will live with them and they will be his peoples. 00:47:41.650 --> 00:47:52.436 And God himself will be with them and will be their God Presence, and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. 00:47:52.436 --> 00:47:54.219 Death will be no more. 00:47:54.219 --> 00:48:04.199 Grief, crying and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away Presence and protection and peace. 00:48:04.199 --> 00:48:12.855 Then the one seated on the throne said look, I'm making all things new. 00:48:15.378 --> 00:48:34.192 He started making all things new when there was a little cry of a baby in Bethlehem, when there was a little toddler brought to Nazareth, when one solitary voice looked across at another man and said behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 00:48:34.192 --> 00:48:41.222 It was just spoken to a crowd in that area and then there began to be a publishing of the news. 00:48:41.222 --> 00:48:43.985 Who is this Jesus of Nazareth? 00:48:43.985 --> 00:48:46.173 He can't be surely. 00:48:46.173 --> 00:48:53.458 Yes, he is the branch, the branch who would bring life. 00:48:53.458 --> 00:49:17.297 This growing thing out of emptiness will bring life and the life will flourish so much that those who are called to believe on him will have the eternal presence of God, the eternal protection of God and the eternal peace of God, this nucleus of a holy people that God is marking out for himself. 00:49:17.297 --> 00:49:24.543 And the question we must all ask ourselves is am I one of those people? 00:49:24.543 --> 00:49:25.329 Am I one of those people? 00:49:25.329 --> 00:49:27.958 Am I one of those ones? 00:49:30.391 --> 00:49:35.603 The scriptures say believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. 00:49:35.603 --> 00:49:39.679 The question is are you trusting the righteous branch? 00:49:39.679 --> 00:49:42.878 Are you trusting your own righteousness? 00:49:42.878 --> 00:49:48.992 The righteous branch, or are you trusting your own righteousness? 00:49:48.992 --> 00:49:49.652 Have you gone to him? 00:49:49.652 --> 00:49:52.257 Who is the life, the God-brought life. 00:49:52.277 --> 00:49:56.201