Sunday, December 15, 2024 PM

Let's open our Bibles and turn to Isaiah. We'll be reading out of chapter 4 this evening. Isaiah chapter 4. Let's begin with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for today. We thank you for your word.

We thank you for your promises. We thank you for the hope that we have in your Son, Jesus Christ. We ask that you would help us as we read your word to rejoice in its truth and to be rightly affected by it.

We pray these things for Christ's sake. Amen. Isaiah chapter 4, beginning in verse 1. And in that day, seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own food and wear our own apparel.

Only let us be called by your name to take away our reproach. In that day, the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing for those of Israel who have escaped.

And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy. Everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem. When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning, then the Lord will create above each dwelling place of Mount Zion and above her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night.

For over all the glory there will be a covering and there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat for a place of refuge and for a shelter from storm and rain. So we have a promise of the Lord's branch, the hope that Israel is to have in the Lord's branch.

Here in chapter 4, even as at the beginning of chapter 2, attention was placed on the Lord's house. There is a better Mount Zion, there is a better Jerusalem, there is a better house, a better temple that God promises.

And the attention of Jacob is to be put there. Even Jacob and all the nations are invited in to Zion. And then here in chapter 4, there is a focus on the Lord's branch, which is often used to describe Messiah as his title, as he is a branch, a naseer from Nazareth or branch town.

And it refers to him branching out from David and from the Lord. It refers to his special status, one person but two natures, divine and human. And also there is the idea of regrowth, something new. The tree was cut down but out of the stump here comes a branch.

It has the sense of reaching out far as we read other prophecies of him branching out even to the coastlands and to the islands, even to all of the nations. So the attention is on the Lord's branch. Israel tries to have her own glory, Judah tries to glory in herself.

The daughters of Zion will cover themselves in 21 layers of finery but there is no glory to be found there. All of this is folly and it does not sustain. But there is glory in the Lord's branch and that is where Israel is to look.

So they are to glory in the Messiah, not in themselves. He is the greater son. He is the greater servant. He is the substance and they are the shadow. So even as John the Baptist had the right idea, so also these old covenant members should have the same idea.

He must increase, we must decrease. That should be the nature of their hope. We have looked at verse 1 and thought about the bride being convened, the convening of the new bride in verse 1. The need to be named by the Messiah, to have his name to take away our reproach.

In verse 2 we thought about the crowning of the new David. Looking at these titles, the branch of the Lord and the fruit of the earth. We see these themes throughout Old and New Testaments. Now we come to verses 3 and 4.

Attention is given once again to Zion and to Jerusalem. So much has been already expressed about Zion and Jerusalem. About all the corruption, about all the failure, about all the idolatry. About all of the injustice in Zion and in Jerusalem.

And how the Lord will bring his judgment and he will cleanse away all of these things. But there is also, just like in chapter 2, so also here, hope in a new Jerusalem. A cleansed and holy place where the corruption is not going to return.

There is going to be success concerning this Zion. There will be covenantal faithfulness concerning this Jerusalem. So this is the hope that these children of woe are to have in their only true redeemer who is the Lord.

They are supposed to put their attention upon him. So let's read verses 3 and 4 again. And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy. Everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem.

When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst. By the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning. So we've had right in a row, three verses right in a row that talk to us about a particular time.

Verse 1 says, and in that day. Verse 2 says, in that day. And then verse 3 carries the theme forward. And it shall come to pass. So it's in the same sense of we're looking at a future day. Isaiah is preaching to his audience and he's saying, and we're looking forward to a day.

And what a day this will be. There's certainly going to be judgment. There's certainly going to be the exercise of God's wrath. But God is going to glorify himself in salvation through judgment. There's going to be a new thing that he is going to do.

This is a major theme throughout the book of Isaiah. Wherein Isaiah promises God will bring holy judgment against his sinful people who are covenant breakers. But this is not the end of the story. There's not a period there.

Perhaps it's just a comma. Perhaps it's a semicolon. But the sentence continues because there's something new that he's going to do. And replace and put into the same place that it once was. So we have different illustrations.

The one city is taken out of the way for a new city to be there. The tree is felled and there's only a stump. But wait, there's new growth out of that stump. And so there's hope even in the midst of the promises of judgment.

And one of those hopes that we find time and again is this idea of a remnant. Now we see this beginning in verse 2. It's a little bit there in verse 1. But we see it especially in verse 2 moving into verse 3.

So at the very end of verse 2 it speaks about those of Israel who have escaped. So it sounds like these are the lucky ones. These are the ones who were able to escape. Somehow, someway they survived the great tragedy.

But as we think about those who have escaped, we find that it's not mere happenstance. It's not some sort of random act. It wasn't because of their cleverness that they were able to find some way to survive the terror of the judgment.

We find that those who are left in Zion and remain in Jerusalem are both called holy by God. So he's doing something in their lives. He is cleansing them and making them holy. And we notice that these are the ones who are recorded, meaning written down in a book.

So we discover that the survivors or those who escape, those who were saved, that this was an intention of God. It's something that he had planned. It was something that he has brought about. And we're going to think more about this theme of the remnant.

Later on in the Bible we learn more about the remnant as we read in various passages like Romans 9 and in Romans 11. In Romans 11 verses 5 through 6, even though Paul is despairing about how many of his own brethren, the ethnic Jews with whom he had great affinity, we see that throughout the book of Acts.

He always goes to New City, finds his brethren in a synagogue somewhere, and starts preaching to them until they annoy him. And they won't listen to him anymore. He says, fine, I'm just going to preach to the Gentiles now.

But he says it over and over again in more than one city. But he always starts at the synagogue because he has a passion and a zeal to see his Jewish brethren come to faith in the Messiah. But in Romans 11 verses 5 through 6 he says,.

Even so, then, at this present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. Meaning there is a remnant, those who have escaped the judgment, those who are saved and redeemed. But it wasn't because of their cleverness.

It wasn't something random. It wasn't that they were able to figure it out. It's because of the grace of God. Verse 6 of Romans 11,. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.

But if it is of works, it is no longer grace, otherwise work is no longer work. You should appreciate the logic there. A cannot be both A and not A at the same time in the same relationship. Paul is saying grace is not works and works is not grace.

So how is it that they have escaped? Is it because they were able to achieve covenant faithfulness and escape the curses and the judgments of God as were listed in the old covenant?

No.

No, they have escaped and they are saved by grace. Meaning the gift of God. Because somebody else was faithful for them. A little bit earlier in chapter 10 he talked about those with zeal tried to achieve righteousness but they couldn't achieve righteousness.

Because the righteousness was in Jesus Christ. And that those who did not try to achieve their own righteousness found it in Jesus Christ. So when we are thinking about this theme of the remnant, we see it again in verse 3.

It shall come to pass that those who are left in Zion and remain in Jerusalem. Those who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem. Now given the timing of the first two verses, I think the attention is still being given here to the glory and the good that God achieves through judgment.

And this is a judgment that he will bring that falls upon Zion and it falls upon the old covenant. The book of Hebrews says that he found fault with the old covenant but not in the sense of the parameters of the old covenant, the promises of the old covenant, the scriptures of the old covenant.

No, he found fault with them. He found fault with them, the people of the old covenant. Because they did not obey him. They were not faithful. Their hearts were far from him even as they tried to honor him simply with their lips.

And so the people, there is going to be a change. Before the people were full of corruption and full of deceit and full of sin. But now there is going to be a holy people. This is one of the chief differences between the old covenant and the new.

To be an old covenant member, you simply had to be born into the right family, into the right tribes and have the covenant sign inscribed upon you. If you were a boy. But in the new covenant, you don't enter in simply because you had a family member who was already in.

You come in by the new birth. As Jesus said to Nicodemus, if you want to see the kingdom of God, you must be born again. And there wasn't anybody who was higher up in Israel than Nicodemus hardly. He was the teacher of Israel, but even he could not see the kingdom of God until he was born again.

To come into the family, the spiritual family of God. So this people are going to be purified with God's power. And all that God has found fault with that we've seen in chapters 1 and 2 and 3. All of that which he found fault with is going to be dealt with.

And God thus is going to be glorified in salvation through judgment. So look at this people. This people are those who are left and who remain and those who are recorded among the living. Now, there is still a stark tone here.

The idea is that a whole lot of people have died. Many have gone the way of destruction. Broad was the way. Wide was the gate. And look how many went into destruction. But narrow was the gate. And straight was the way.

Difficult was it. Few were those who found it, but there were those who were saved. There was a remnant. And so these were those who were left and who remained and who were recorded among the living. So, yes, there was much death and destruction.

And you have the sense of some sort of grim search for survivors. A banding together after the great disaster. And a bit of a mournful roll call to see who's still alive. And yet, there's hope here. For they have sought for themselves a name which will take away their reproach.

They look to the name of the branch. Remember? The cutting down of the tree leaves a stump. But there's a branch. A shoot will come up out of it. So their hope is in the branch. And to have his name. And notice his name is beautiful and glorious and excellent and appealing in verse 2.

Therefore they, if they have his name, they will be called holy. And so they are the ones who are left. Those are the ones who remain. They are the ones who are alive. But notice their location. They are left in Zion.

They remain in Jerusalem. They are the ones who are recorded as the living in Jerusalem. And this is important for our understanding of the New Covenant Zion. And the New Covenant Jerusalem. Their location is important.

They are first found in the branch. And thus they are found in Jerusalem. They are first found in the branch. And thus they are in Mount Zion. That's how we enter in. That's what Hebrews 12 says. We come to the firstborn.

We come to the assembly of the firstborn. We come to Christ. We come to the mediator of the New Covenant. And that's why we are in Zion. And that's why we are in Jerusalem. Those ideas that we find in the New Testament have deep, pun intended, roots here in the prophets.

So salvation is expressed not as, well, I managed to figure it out or I just randomly escaped. But it is expressed as God making sinners holy and recording them. Those who are recorded. Their names being written down.

What a beautiful metaphor we have in the scriptures. That our names are written down in the Lamb's book of life. Here their names are recorded amongst the living in Jerusalem. Recorded in the record of the living.

Written in the Lamb's book of life. Very similar metaphors. Now this purification, we'll notice, is the act of God. Notice that they will be called holy. Everyone who remains in Jerusalem will be called holy.

Notice how this happens. Verse 4. When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst. So who's doing the purification? It's the Lord who's doing this purification.

And this term wash takes up the ceremonial cleansing. This is the word used for ceremonial cleansing. How many different ceremonial cleansings were there in Leviticus? But notice it's the Lord doing it here.

It's not them doing it. It's not them going to the brazen labor. Or them going outside and getting into their pot just outside their front door. To grab the water that they need to do their ceremonial cleansings.

The Lord is the one who is doing it. It is the Lord who cleanses them. And so since the Lord is doing it, we can assume that this is the real deal. It's not the shadow, it's the substance. It's the actual fulfillment of what he's all about in teaching them to do the ceremonial cleansings in the first place.

And this term purge, to purge the blood of Jerusalem from her midst. This is a term that emphasizes thoroughness. We remember that during the days of Manasseh, that he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood from one end to the other.

We remember that so much of the Old Covenant, whether it was what God dealt with Noah, or Abraham, or Israel, or David, how many times in those stories is God dealing with what happens when innocent blood is shed?

Think about the covenant God made with Noah. Think about Abraham, we just read a little bit of Genesis 14. What was Abraham doing in chapter 14, the very last verse that Josiah read for us, and of course our English translations are so nice, it says,.

The original is brother's son. Why is that important? Brothers. Why is that important? Because brothers had been attacked, and the covenant that God made with Noah in chapter 9 talked about the brothers of those whose blood had been shed had to come to avenge them.

So, how much of the innocent blood being shed is an issue that God is dealing with? When we get into the covenant God made with Israel at Sinai, how much concern was there about blood being shed? What happens when you find a dead body, somebody murdered between two towns?

You have to pace it off and figure out which town is closer to the dead body, and then those elders of that city have to resolve the issue, and they have to offer a sacrifice up to God because they can't solve the mystery of the murder.

There is so much concern about what happens when innocent blood is shed. Remember that David, on more than one occasion, had to deal with the fact that innocent blood had been shed, and judgment of God was upon them because of certain things that Saul, the previous king, had done against those who were under the protection of God's promises, or David himself caused innocent blood to be shed, and so he had to reckon with that.

All the way through you have this issue of innocent blood being shed, and how is there ever going to be a rightful cleansing of that innocent blood? This is a major theme throughout all the Old Covenant, and where did it begin?

It began with Abel, didn't it? It began with Abel before God made a covenant with Noah, before God made a covenant with Abraham, and so on. It all began with Abel, the shedding of innocent blood. And so when you come to Hebrews chapter 12, what does it say?

When we come to Jesus Christ, his blood speaks better things than that of Abel. All throughout the Old Testament, Abel's blood keeps ringing through all the covenants, and what does Abel's blood say? Where is justice?

Where is justice? Where is justice? And then Christ sheds his blood on the cross, and he says, here is justice, here is justification, here is righteousness. So, in this promise that he's going to purge the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, this is an idea of the alleviation of true guilt, the alleviation of condemnation, real, genuine, thoroughgoing forgiveness.

The problem of Judah was that their sins were too great, and their sacraments were too small. No matter what they did, it was never enough. All their worship and all their liturgy couldn't help. Remember, how often does the psalmist or the prophet say that God demanded faithfulness, not sacrifice?

You keep sacrificing, you keep sacrificing, but what I want is faithfulness. I want a faithful and righteous covenant keeper. And only God can provide that. And only God can cleanse and purge and wash and sanctify and save.

He alone is the redeemer of these hopeless children. So we see the promise of purification, and we see the assurance of power. So, God is the one who cleanses, he's the one who makes holy. But how? By his power, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning.

That's how he accomplishes the cleansing, it says. So, we know that the timing is his day, and it's the day of Messiah. It's the day of the passing away of the old covenant and judgment, but also the day of the arrival of Messiah as Savior.

And, of course, this is the day of the new covenant, this is the day of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So, when we read the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, we're not reading about two random spirits, differing angelic beings obeying commands.

This is the Holy Spirit. He is the spirit of judgment. He is the spirit of burning who rests upon Messiah and accomplishes salvation. In Isaiah 11, when it describes the branch from Jesse, the rod from the roots of Jesse, the spirit of the Lord rests upon him, a seven-fold anointing of the Messiah, and the spirit blesses Messiah, and we see Messiah ruling in righteousness and in judgment.

First, we see him anointed with the Holy Spirit, and then we see how righteous he is in his judgment. The spirit of judgment. We also see that he is the spirit of burning. What did John the Baptist say about the arrival of Messiah?

He says, I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with fire, meaning, and the Holy Spirit. The spirit of fire and burning. Now, what happened on the day of Pentecost, Acts chapter 2? The Holy Spirit arrived in tongues of fire, burning upon the heads of the disciples, and all those who were there in the upper room.

We find that this looking forward to that day, in that day, when this comes about, is definitely a looking forward to the arrival of the new covenant, and the arrival, therefore, of the Holy Spirit, the advent of the Spirit.

And this is new covenant promises. Now, why is this so important for Judah to pay attention to and to rejoice in? Well, because they're in covenant with a holy God. God is holy. He is holy in his character.

Now, if you just flip a page, and mine's one page away, but Isaiah chapter 6, consider the holiness of God in character. In verses 1 through 5. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Above it stood seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. We have God displayed, revealed, manifested as thrice holy, supremely holy, overwhelmingly holy. Not even the holiest and most powerful of all creatures may look upon God, show themselves to God, or alight upon the train of his robe that fills the holy temple.

Six wings. Why six wings? They may not look, they may not expose, and they may not alight down upon the train of his robe. This is how holy God is. So, three pairs of wings correspond to the thrice holy, holy, holy.

What is holiness? Holiness is otherness. It's the opposite of common. Holiness is otherness, but it's otherness suffused with glory. It is as full of danger as it is full of delight. It is both martial and majestic.

This holiness pushes back and it draws in. It throws us down and it lifts us up. This is what we see here in the throne room. Now, notice God's holiness in action, verses 6 and 7. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

And he touched my mouth with it and said, Behold, this has touched your lips. Your iniquity is taken away and your sin purged. The Lord made Isaiah holy. See, holiness in action, right? Now, it was burning.

It was a live coal from the altar. It was searing. It was fire and smoke in the face of Isaiah, only adding to the terror of the prophet, and yet it cleanses him and it makes him holy in the presence of God.

The Lord is self-sufficient. He is powerful. He is gracious and free. And his holiness is well enough to solve the crisis of sin and guilt. His holiness supplies salvation to all these people. What about those who are left?

What about those who remain? What about those who are recorded as living in Jerusalem? Well, he is holy for them. He is holy for them. He is holy for them. Truly, the Lord is the redeemer. His holiness confronts, then it cleanses, and then it creates anew, which is verses 5 and 6.

But before we get there, it's important to recognize that sin deserves death, as we're told from Genesis 2 and on. Sin deserves death. And that the shame of sin is filthy and foul, bringing deep and heavy guilt.

Sin's stain is irreversible by our own hand. And we are easily indicted, we are fully convicted, and we are dreadfully sentenced. All that hope which in Adam died, all that hope which in Adam died, the old covenant simply amplifies the sinfulness of sin.

Paul says, by the law, I know just how sinful sin really is. But the old covenant amplifies that crisis so that we may look to the new covenant, look to Christ, who bears our guilt in his crucifixion.

So when we think about Jesus Christ, remember his display in his picture, how he's manifested in Revelation chapter 1. Is he not as glorious? Is he not as overwhelming? Is he not as heavy and bright and compelling in Revelation 1, as the revelation of God in Isaiah 6?

And he's Savior. He's our Savior. He's the one who has given himself for us. He was dead, but he's alive forevermore. He is our Redeemer, gave himself for us. So just like Judah, so many, so many centuries ago, thousands of years ago, their attention was to be placed upon the Lord's branch.

They were a mess. We've seen that. Chapters 1, 2, and 3. Wow, Judah was a mess, so thoroughly sinful and guilty. But their attention was then to be placed upon the Lord's branch, to look upon the Messiah for the cleansing of their sin, and so also for us.

A God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. You see, we have to say what God says and say the truth if we're going to be in fellowship with him.

And the blood of his Son, Jesus, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. That's 1 John 1, 8. 1 John 1, 10 says if we say that we have not sinned, we lie and do not practice the truth.

Verse 9 says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. How in the world does he do that? The very next chapter, chapter 2, verses 1 and 2.

It's the propitiation of Christ, his death upon the cross by which we are cleansed and forgiven from our sins. So, whether it's Isaiah 4 or 1 John 1 and 2, we are to hope in the Lord's branch for the cleansing of our sins.

Next time, we're going to consider the creation, the creating of the new tabernacle in verses 5 and 6. But for now, let's close by singing the doxology. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him, all creatures here below.

Praise him above ye rains, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen, and we are dismissed.