Isaiah 4:2-6
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
[READING]
2 In that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth will be the pride and the adornment of the survivors of Israel. 3 It will come about that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy—everyone who is recorded for life in Jerusalem. 4 When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, 5 then the Lord will create over the whole area of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, even smoke, and the brightness of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory will be a canopy. 6 There will be a shelter to give shade from the heat by day, and refuge and protection from the storm and the rain.
[PRAYER]
[CONTEXT] After the superscription of Isaiah 1:1, which introduces us to the historical time-frame of Isaiah’s prophecy, we are then introduced to judgment in Isaiah 1:2-31. That judgment, however, gives way to salvation in Isaiah 2:1-4…
1 The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 Now it will come about that In the last days The mountain of the house of the Lord Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. 3 And many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4 And He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war.
Although that salvation in coming in the last days, in the days of Isaiah Israel had not been walking in the light of the Lord, so in Isaiah 2:5-4:1 more judgment from God is announced.
But again that judgment gives way to salvation here in Isaiah 4:2-6…
2 In that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth will be the pride and the adornment of the survivors of Israel. 3 It will come about that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy—everyone who is recorded for life in Jerusalem. 4 When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, 5 then the Lord will create over the whole area of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, even smoke, and the brightness of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory will be a canopy. 6 There will be a shelter to give shade from the heat by day, and refuge and protection from the storm and the rain.
As with Isaiah 2:1-4, I believe that Isaiah 4:2-6 will ultimately be fulfilled when Jesus comes again revealing His Kingdom in full, conquering His enemies for all eternity, and sanctifying His people forever.
In other words, Isaiah 4:2-6 is about the salvation that Jesus—the Branch of the Lord—will bring to His people when He comes again.
[CIT] In this passage of Scripture, the living God revealed the Savior, those saved, their salvation, and the shade and shelter that would cover them for all eternity.
[PROP] Because we have been grafted into the people of God through faith in Jesus, the Savior, this passage in Isaiah is for us—for our hope, for our encouragement.
[INTER] But what does it teach us about our Savior, about ourselves, about our salvation, about the shade and shelter that we will live under for all eternity?
[TS] Well, let’s take a look at v. 2, and see what we can learn about our Savior.
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
#1: The Savior (v. 2)
#1: The Savior (v. 2)
2 In that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth will be the pride and the adornment of the survivors of Israel.
[EXP] God spoke against the wicked leadership in Judah in Isaiah 3. He said in Isaiah 3:14-15…
14 The Lord enters into judgment with the elders and princes of His people, “It is you who have devoured the vineyard; The plunder of the poor is in your houses. 15 “What do you mean by crushing My people And grinding the face of the poor?” Declares the Lord God of hosts.
But God promised in Isaiah 4:2 to raise up a new leader for the people of God—the Branch of the Lord, whom we know as Jesus Christ.
Why is He called the Branch of the Lord?
He is called the Branch of the Lord because He is the promised righteous branch or shoot from the stem of Jesse who will reign as King, act wisely, and do justice and righteousness in the land (Isa. 11:1; Jer. 23:5).
In Isaiah 11:1, God says…
1 Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
In Jeremiah 23:5, God says…
5 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the land.
As I said this morning, the place-name ‘Nazareth’ means ‘branch’.
When Jesus was about two-years-old magi brought gifts to Him as King, but when Herod the Great heard about this new king, he tried to have Him murdered.
Joseph was, however, warned in a dream to take the child to Egypt, and then told in another dream to take the child back to Israel after the threat had passed.
Listen to Matthew 2:20-23…
20 “Get up, take the Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for those who sought the Child’s life are dead.” 21 So Joseph got up, took the Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Then after being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee, 23 and came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: “He shall be called a Nazarene.”
In other words, He will be called “The Branch.”
Why is He called beautiful and glorious?
Beauty and glory described the very best qualities of attractiveness and honor.
The wicked leaders of Judah described in Isaiah 3 had no beauty or glory; their wickedness has made them spiritually ugly and dishonorable.
The prideful women of Isaiah 3 had a false beauty and glory, but it was worldly and stripped away by God’s judgment.
When the Branch comes, He will be the beauty and glory of God’s people.
Why will the fruit of the earth be the pride and the adornment of the survivors of Israel when He comes?
Some take ‘fruit of the earth’ as another name for the Messiah.
Others take 'fruit of the earth’ as a symbol of spiritual fruit.
Others take it as a reference to literal produce from the Promised Land.
And others take it to refer to all of the above.
I do think that the land of Israel will be abundantly fruitful when Jesus comes again and begins to rule from Jerusalem.
I do know that Jesus is the One who bears good spiritual fruit in perfect obedience to God.
But I think ‘fruit of the earth’ is parallel to ‘Branch of the Lord’ as another name for the Messiah.
As one commentator remarked, “Just as the (Branch) of the LORD, belongs to Him, and finds its origin and sour in Him, so the fruit of the land, belongs to the land, and therein finds it origin. Is it then going too far to say that the phrase ‘The (Branch) of the LORD’ points to the deity of the Messiah and the phrase, ‘fruit of the earth,’ points to His humanity?”
I don’t think it is going too far.
I think the Lord Jesus (and not just produce) will be the pride and adornment of the survivors of Israel when Jesus comes again. As Isaiah 28:5 says…
5 In that day the Lord of hosts will become a beautiful crown And a glorious diadem to the remnant of His people;
[ILLUS] Pastor Derek Thomas tells of exploring the town of Carmarthen in Southwest Wales as a boy. He said it was the nearest ‘big’ town to where he lived, and it was noted for an old oak tree which, as legend had it, grew from an acorn planted in 1659 to mark the town’s proclamation of Charles II as King of England. Another legend regarding the tree (supposedly dating back to King Arthur and Merlin) said that if ever the tree fell so would the city of Carmarthen: “When Merlin’s tree shall tumble down, then shall Carmarthen town.”
But when Derek Thomas was a boy, Carmarthen’s tree was just a stump of decaying bark.
Now even the stump is gone, and the town is still there. So much for the legend.
But Thomas writes, “Judah was like (Carmarthen’s) decaying tree in so many ways. Its life seemed almost at an end. But from it would emerge a ‘Branch’ that would give it fresh life and renewal.”
[APP] We know that Branch was and is Jesus, and we know that we don’t have to wait until He comes again to begin experiencing the fresh life and renewal He offers.
By repenting of sin, trusting Him as Savior, and following Him as Lord, we can experience now the qualities of eternal life that will be ours in full when He comes again.
Right now, if we will give ourselves to Jesus, make Him our pride and adornment rather than this world, we will get a foretaste of His second coming.
And He is coming. Hebrews 9:28 says…
28 so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.
[TS] We’ve looked at the Savior; let’s now look at the saved in v. 3.
#2: The Saved (v. 3)
#2: The Saved (v. 3)
3 It will come about that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy—everyone who is recorded for life in Jerusalem.
[EXP] God’s desire is for His people to be holy as He is holy. In Leviticus 19:2, God told Moses…
2 “Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
In Matthew 5:48 Jesus said…
48 “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
This holiness means to become the possession of YHWH and to behave as the possession of YHWH, i.e., to behave according to His Word.
No matter the lip-service paid to YHWH, the people of God in Isaiah’s day had not been the exclusive possession of YHWH for they had turned to many idols.
In Isaiah 2:8 says…
8 Their land has also been filled with idols; They worship the work of their hands, That which their fingers have made.
This means that people of God had often belonged to pagan idols.
And they had not behaved as the sole possession of YHWH.
In Isaiah 3:9 it says that “they display their sin like Sodom; They do not even conceal it.”
This means that people of God had often behaved in pagan ways.
We could say, they belonged to the world and behaved like the world.
But this is precisely what makes Isaiah 4:3 so surprising; some of these wicked, wordly, pagan-like people will be made holy because their names have been recorded for life in Jerusalem (Isa. 4:3).
Notice two things about the saved in this verse.
One, the saved are saved to holiness.
When Jesus, the Branch of the Lord, came the first time, it was to deal with the power and penalty of sin.
The power of sin is the law (1 Cor. 15:56); in Romans 3:20 Paul wrote…
20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
The penalty of sin is death (1 Cor. 15:56a); in Romans 5:12 Paul wrote…
12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—
But when Jesus came He broke the power of sin by fulfilling the law for us and removed the penalty of sin by dying on the cross for us.
In his magnificent chapter on the resurrection of Jesus and our resurrection after Him, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:55-57…
55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; 57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
That was what the Branch of the Lord did when He came the first time; He dealt with the power and penalty of sin.
But when Jesus comes again, He will deal with even the presence of sin.
First, the nations will come to Him and say, “Teach us your ways that we may walk in your paths,” (Isa. 2:3).
Then will come the New Jerusalem, which as Revelation 21:27 says…
27 and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
And that brings us to the second thing to notice about the saved in Isaiah 4:3.
Two, the saved are saved by grace.
In Isaiah 4:3, those saved to holiness are saved because their names have been recorded for life in Jerusalem, which I believe is referring to the New Jerusalem of Revelation 21.
Moses referred to this record of life as God’s book in Exodus 32:32.
David referred to it as God’s book of life in Psalm 69:28.
Jesus referred to it as the record in Heaven in Luke 10:20.
And, as we’ve seen, Revelation 21:27 refers to it as the Lamb’s book of life.
How do the saved get their names written in the Lamb’s book of life?
Do they have their names written therein because they are more righteous than others?
No. Romans 3:10-12 says…
10 as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; 11 There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; 12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.”
Do they have their names written therein because they work harder than others?
No. Romans 9:16 says…
16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
Those who have their names written in the Lamb’s book of life have their names written therein only by God’s grace…
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
The saved are saved to holiness and saved by grace.
[ILLUS] The story goes that C.S. Lewis walked into a meeting in which a heated discussion was taking place.
“What’s the rumpus about?” he reportedly asked.
And when he learned that it was a debate about the uniqueness of Christianity, he immediately said, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.”
Lewis also wrote, “How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing, it is irresistible.”
[APP] We have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus. The proof that our names have been written in the Lamb’s book of life is our trusting and following Jesus. In His death and resurrection the power and penalty of sin have been dealt with, and when He comes again, even the presence of sins will be dealt with.
But we can get a foretaste of eternity to come by walking in holiness now.
11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
[TS] If the Lord’s wills we will pick up with the rest of Isaiah 4:2-6 next Sunday night.
Conclusion
Conclusion
[PRAYER]