Let us turn to the portion of
Scripture we were reading just now in the prophecy of Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 60, and I'll read the last two verses,
and then the end of verse 3 in chapter 61. Isaiah chapter 60,
verse 21. Thy people also shall be all
righteous. They shall inherit the land forever,
the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may
be glorified. The little one shall become a
thousand, and the small one a strong nation. Ay, the Lord will hasten
it in His time. And then in the following chapter,
the end of verse 3, that they might be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. And really, for the text to take
those words that I've just read at the end of this third verse
in Isaiah 61, that they might be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord. And that's the theme. that I
want to address for a while with the Lord's help this morning. Now, we read the 60th chapter
through and you may have observed how clearly the historical context
has to do with the fact that God was going to restore the
children of Israel after the 70 years of exile in Babylon. As I said on previous occasions
this man Isaiah the prophet was ministering probably 100 years
before that terrible events befell the kingdom of Judah when Nebuchadnezzar
and his armies came and overthrew Jerusalem, destroyed the temple,
removed the people away to Babylon where they languish for some
70 years. But here we have prophecy that
that period will come to its conclusion, it will fulfill its
course, and God would then restore his people. The land wouldn't
be left in that desolate state forever. So in verse 10 of chapter
60. the sons of strangers shall build
up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee. For
in my wrath I smote them, but in my favor have I had mercy
on them. Therefore thy gates shall be
opened continually, they shall not be shut day nor night, that
men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their
kings may be brought." And then again at verse 15 there, "...whereas
thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee,
I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations." Although
there was judgment, in His wrath God would remember His mercy,
He would restore them. But When we come into the 61st
chapter, we really have the key for a true and a spiritual understanding
and interpretation of what is being said. Because these words
at the beginning of chapter 61 evidently speak of another day
altogether. They speak of the gospel, they
speak of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, Remember
how those opening verses, those first three verses in chapter
61, these are the words that were read by the Lord Jesus after
his baptism, after his 40 days in the wilderness, being tempted
of Satan, coming again into Nazareth, going into the synagogue, as
was his custom, on the Sabbath day, about, as it were, to commence
his public ministry. And the minister there gives
him the book of the prophet, and the Lord turns to Isaiah
61, and he reads. He reads these first three verses,
we have the record there, in Luke chapter 4 verse 16 following
and having read the passage all the eyes in the synagogue were
upon the Lord Jesus and he says this day is this scripture fulfilled
in your ears so there is a greater fulfillment than the restoration
of the Jews out of Babylon a far greater fulfillment of the passage
with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that ministry that
He exercises, and how there is restoration there, not only for
Jew, but there is restoration, there is salvation for Gentiles
also. And we see it quite clearly,
really, in the words of that 60th chapter. Verse 3, the Gentiles
shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy
rising." Again at the end of verse 5, "...the abundance of
the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles,"
or as the margin says, "...the wealth of the Gentiles shall
come unto thee." Again at verse Verse 11, we read the words just
now, the end of that verse, that men may bring unto thee the forces
or the wealth of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. Verse 16, Thou shalt also suck
the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breasts of kings,
and thou shalt know that I, the Lord, am thy Saviour and thy
Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." There's a purpose that God is
going to fulfill that will embrace sinners of the Gentiles. And
of course, remember how Paul enters in some measure into these
things in his various epistles. For example, There in Romans
chapter 9 and 10 and 11 he speaks of the calling of the Gentiles,
the rejection of Israel and so on. The end of that 10th chapter. Romans 10 19 that I say did not
Israel know? First Moses said, I will provoke
you to jealousy by them that are no people and by a foolish
nation I will anger you. But, Isaiah, that is Isaiah Isaiah
being the Greek form of the name. Isaiah is very bold and says,
I was found of them that sought me not. I was made manifest unto
them that asked not after me. That's the Gentile nations. But
to Israel he says, all day long I have stretched forth my hands
unto a disobedient and again saying people. All God's great
purposes the salvation of sinners of the Gentile, God's work in
salvation, but turning to consider in particular what he said here
in our text at the end of verse 3 in this 61st chapter, that
they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of
the Lord's, that he may be glorified. Our God works, and works in a
remarkable fashion. Again there at the end of that
60th chapter, verse 21, My people also shall be all righteous.
They shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the
work of my hands, that I may be glorified." Well, let us for
a while consider something of this work as it's spoken of under
this imagery of the Lord's planting. Trees of righteousness, the planting,
of the Lord. First of all, we are reminded
that this is God's work, this is God's handiwork. That is quite
evident, there's an emphasis being placed upon that fact.
We have it there in that 21st verse, the branch of my planting. And then again, here at the end
of verse 3 in chapter 61, the planting of the Lord. Now, It is all the sovereign
work of God. And then we see it so clearly
in the Old Testament, where of course we have Israel as a wonderful
type of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, that church that
is made up of Jew and Gentile. And we see it in type in the
Old Testament in God's dealings with the ethnic nation of Israel. What did God do? He planted them
as His vineyard, when He brought them out of the bondage that
was Egypt, as He had promised to their fathers, Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob, He would set them in that land of Canaan that
He had promised. And so it was. And there, in
this book of Isaiah, the Prophet reminds them of these things,
back in chapter 5. Now will I sing to my well-beloved,
the song of my beloved, touching his vineyard. My well-beloved
hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill, and he fenced it. and gathered
out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and
built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress
therein. And he looked that it should
bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes." And it speaks
of how God will deal with them because of their sinful ways
and their disobediences. But it's evident that This is
a parable of Israel in the Old Testament. Verse 7 in that chapter. For
the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the
men of Judah his pleasant plant, and he looked for judgment, but
behold, oppression, for righteousness, but behold, a crime. It's a figure that is used much,
really, here in the Old Testament, not only in the prophecy of Isaiah,
but you can think of the words that are employed by the psalmist
in such a psalm as Psalm 8. In verse 8, thou hast brought a
vine out of Egypt. and has cast out the heathen
and planted it. Thou preparest room before it
and it caused it to take deep root and it filled the land."
Oh, it was God who did this. It was the Lord's doing. It was
so marvellous in their sight. And it reminds us, of course,
that only God can effect the work of true conversion in the
soul of any sinner. Because what is the Church of
the New Testament made up of? Is it not made up of those who
have been wrought upon by the Spirit of God, who have been
brought and taken out of the wide wilderness of this world
and planted in His earthly courts, in local churches? and the Lord
Jesus himself declares that in the course of his ministry Matthew
15 13 he says every plant which my heavenly father hath not planted
shall be rooted up all the work is God's he is the one who plants
his people who establishes them in his true church here upon
the earth And how are we to discern that work of the Lord? How can
we know whether we have experienced it ourselves, or how are we to
discern it in the experiences of others? Well, there are two
things I would mention. First of all, where there is
the planting of the Lord, it will be evident by fruits. This is a figure that's being
used of the Lord planting a tree. And again we think of the words
of the Lord Jesus in the course of his preaching there in Matthew
7, the Sermon on the Mount. We're familiar with the words
of Matthew 7, 16. Christ says, Ye shall know them
by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns
or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth
forth good fruit. But a corrupt tree bringeth forth
evil fruit, a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither
can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. It's all so basic
really. Every tree that bringeth not
forth good fruit, says the Lord, is hewn down and cast into the
fire. Wherefore, by their fruits ye
shall know them. Well, this is the way whereby
we can discover if this is the Lord's true planting. Again,
the language of the Psalmist, in Psalm 92, and there at verse
13, we read, Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall
flourish in the court of our God, they shall bring forth fruit
in old age, they shall be fat and flourishing." Those who are
planted by the Lord. The Lord's planting is fruitful. And where is the glory? The glory
doesn't belong unto the tree, but the one who has planted it.
It's the Lord's work, it's the Lord's doing. Or remember the
words of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself when He uses again the
figure of the vine. In fact, He declares Himself
to be that vine. I am the vine, He says. Ye are
the branches. I am the vine, ye are the branches.
He that abideth in me, and I in him, He says, the same bringeth
forth much fruit. for without me you can do nothing
and there of course we have one of those great I am statements
that we find throughout that gospel according to Saint John
where the Lord is declaring his deity, he is the great I am that
I am, he is Jehovah, he is God manifest in the flesh and he
is the true vine and all the fruit can only come from him
and again we are reminded of that in the Old Testament in
the words of the prophet Hosea God says from me is thy fruit
found but fruitfulness is that that will be so evident where
the Lord has done his work where the Lord has planted someone
in the house of the Lord brought him out of the world and set
him amongst his true children but then another mark of the
Lord's planting is that where there is that planting, there
will also be a certain purging. What does Christ say again there
in John 15, where he speaks of himself as the true vine? Every
branch that beareth fruit, he says the Heavenly Father purges
it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Oh, the Lord will deal
with his people then. and deal with them in the way
of purging, that means there will be cuttings, there will
be that that brings distress, difficulties. It won't be an
easy way, it will be a difficult way. Well to them that are at
ease in Zion, says the Prophet. Oh it's God's work is it not
to make us to understand something of what we are by nature, make
us to to feel our sinfulness, our inabilities to teach us our
complete and our utter dependence upon himself? Does he not do
that at the very outset? Remember the language of of Moses
in Psalm 90 how God turns man to destruction and then says
return ye children of men he brings a man to the end of himself
but it's not just a one-off experience God is constantly dealing with
his people in the way of purgings in the way of chastenings in
the way of troubles and sufferings and there's always a gracious
end in view because God will make his people to increasingly
conformed to Himself, where His workmanship, says the Apostle,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. The work of my hands,
it says, the work of my hands that I may be glorified, the
planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified. It's God's
work And what is this work that God is doing? Well, it's a holy
work, it's a righteous work. There at the beginning of this
21st verse, in chapter 60, thy people also, it says, shall be
all righteous. And then again, in that third
verse of the following chapter, that they might be called trees.
of righteousness. Trees of righteousness. The holy work of God taking place
in the souls of these people. How are they made that we read
of in the text? How are they made so righteous?
How are they formed as such a holy people as this? But there are
those two aspects, aren't there, to what the Lord does with his
people. they're sanctified, and they're
justified. Those two great gospel doctrines,
sanctification, justification. Think for a while what we're
to understand by their sanctification. We think of it sometimes in terms
of eternity, because the basic meaning of the word, to sanctify,
is to set apart and to separate and that's what the Lord has
done with his people we have the words there at the beginning
of that little epistle of Jude at the end of the New Testament
that the church is sanctified in God the Father preserved in
Jesus Christ and called. How are they sanctified? in God
the Father? Well, that's by their election. God has made choice of them.
God has separated them from all others. He has set them apart
for Himself. That's the basic meaning of the
word then, we think, in terms of eternity. They're sanctified
from all eternity. But then they experience that
sanctification in time, of course. And how do they experience it
in time? Well in time they have a new
nature imparted to them. They become partakers of the
divine nature. And all of that we know is rooted
in regeneration. The new birth. And again think
of the language of the Lord Jesus, Matthew 12.33. He says, either
make the tree good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt
and his fruit corrupt. For the tree is known by his
fruit. What is the Lord saying there?
Well, that tree must first be made good, if it's going to be
a fruitful tree. The tree is known by his fruits. And it must be seen to be a fruitful
tree. When the Lord makes it good,
that's what the Lord does. He plants a tree and it's a good
tree. He makes it a good tree. That's regeneration, that's the
new birth. and without that new birth there can be no good fruit
because by nature of course we are those who are corrupt we
are those who have been conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity
sin has come down all the generations from Adam and Eve none is able
to bring a good thing out of an evil thing it is the work
of God then to come and to do that gracious work in the soul
of the sinner when there is a new birth and the consequence will
be that there will be good fruit the fruit of righteousness and
how does the Lord make his people ever more fruitful? Well again,
it's that idea of the scourging that Christ speaks of with regards
to the vine and its branches. It's by the Lord's dealings.
When the Lord comes and cuts and convicts, when the Lord comes
and chastens and corrects, Paul tells us, no chastening for the
present seemeth to be joyous but grievous. not a pleasant
experience, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruits
of righteousness. He says, to them who are exercised
thereby. This is how the Lord makes His
people such a holy, such a righteous people. And how David knew it. He says in the psalm, it is good
for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes.
The way the Lord has to correct us and teach us His laws and
His commandments and make us conform the more to that pattern
that He has set before us in His Holy Word. There's that work
then of sanctification in the soul that's rooted in the new
birth as the one who has been sanctified in eternity and chosen
in the Lord Jesus Christ comes to experience that grace of God.
But God's people are also made holy in another way. because
they're justified. In sanctification there's the
imputation, as it were. In Christ Jesus there are sanctified
people as they become partakers of that divine nature. Of Him
are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us, wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification. And redemption, says Paul, But
then justification is quite different, and we need to always be clear
with regards to the difference between these two important gospel
doctrines. In justification, it's not impartation,
but imputation. In fact, Luther, who we very
much associate with the rediscovery of that great doctrine of justification
at the time of the Protestant Reformation. Luther says that
justification is really an alien righteousness. Now, what does
he mean? How can we speak of justification
as an alien? Well, it's something, in a sense,
foreign to us. It's not our own, it's that that
is reckoned to us. It's someone else's righteousness
that's imputed to us. And Paul, of course, was brought
to understand that great truth, wasn't he? As a Pharisee he thought
he was righteous. He thought he had accomplished
the righteousness of his own by his obedience to the Lord
of God. Touching the righteousness of the Lord, his boast was he
was blameless. But when the Lord deals with
him, he sees that that righteousness was no righteousness at all.
All his righteousness was filthy rags, really. And so he expresses
his desire there in Philippians 3.9 to be found in him, that
is in Christ. He says, not having mine own
righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. It's
an alien righteousness. It's not my own, what I've done.
It's what someone else has done, and yet he's been reckoned to
me. Well, this is the way in which
the Lord accounts his people to be a righteous people. It's
through the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, when the fullness of
the time has come, we are told how God sent forth his Son, made
of a woman, made under the law. all the Lord Jesus Christ comes
as one who is subject to the Lord of God and he comes to fulfill
it, to obey it and he does all of that why the Lord is well
pleased for his righteousness he will magnify the Lord and
make it honorable and now the Lord has done that in his life that life that was all together
in conformity with the Lord of God holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens. Why, He is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth." That's the righteousness you
see, the alien righteousness of justification, the righteousness
of Christ, imputed to the sinner. Thy people shall be all righteous. And then, he is also of course
honored and magnified that same law in terms of its penalties,
not just in terms of its precepts, not just by obeying every commandment,
but he has borne the punishment of all the transgressions of
that Holy Lord of God as a substitute in the place of his people. And this is the Lord's doing,
this is the Lord's work. All He has made His people holy
and righteous in sanctification. They're born again, they're partakers
of the divine nature. The Lord is dealing with them,
teaching them, instructing them, establishing them. But they're
also accounted righteous by their justification. Thy people shall be all righteous. that they might be called trees
of righteousness, it says, the planting of the Lord, that he
might be glorified. And as it is the Lord's work,
it's the Lord's planting, so here we see in a sense it's a
work that God does with some urgency. Certainly there at the
end of the 60th chapter, I, the Lord, he said, will hasten it
in his time. A little one shall become a thousand,
and a small one a strong nation. I, the Lord, will hasten it in his time. It's all in the
Lord's time sometimes. Do we not feel that the Lord
is doing nothing? We look around us and we see
the situation in the churches and there seems to be so little
happening. We look to ourselves and sometimes
we feel everything seems to have become so stagnant and so lifeless. And we feel it. We feel it and yet we can so
easily misjudge the Lord and the ways of the Lord. We know
that the Lord will have us sometimes to be still does he not say as
much in the psalm, be still and know that I am God well it's
not easy to be still, it's not easy to be those who would simply
wait upon the Lord again the psalmist tells us what he did,
I waited patiently he said upon the Lord and he heard me I waited
patiently. The margin there in Psalm 40
tells us that the Hebrew literally says, in waiting I waited. In waiting I waited upon the
Lord. We'll come back to the historical
context here. We think of the children of Israel. And here is the prophet ministering to them some 100 years before
ever the Babylonian captivity would come, but it would come.
It would come in God's appointed time and it would last as long
as God had appointed it to last 70 years and then there would
come the restoration. But Israel, Israel were to be
some 70 years in captivity. Jeremiah was actually ministering
at the time of the captivity so he's ministering really to
those who had gone into exile at the beginning of that dreadful
period in their history and Jeremiah speaks very specifically of the
70 years for example in Jeremiah 25 verse 11 He says, This whole land shall
be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve
the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when
seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of
Babylon and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity
in the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it a perpetual
desolation. so God is going to deal with
the Babylonians and when he deals with the Babylonians he will
restore the children of Israel out of the captivity and bring
them again into the promised land but 70 years 70 years in
captivity and 70 years is a lifetime when we think of the teaching
of the word of God Psalm 19, verse 10, the days of our years,
it says, are three score years and ten. If by reason of strength
they be four score years, yet is that strength, labor, and
sorrow? Well, people do live in excess
of 70 years, but how do they increasingly feel the burden
of those years? Because God has appointed man's
lifespan Our 70 years, the days of our years. 70 years, that's
a lifetime. That's a lifetime. And we, you see, have to learn
something of the Lord and the ways of the Lord. We become so
impatient. Go and think of the language
that we have in 2 Peter chapter 3. there at verse 8 he says Beloved be not ignorant of this one thing
that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand
years as one day then he goes on the Lord is not slack concerning
his promise as some men can slackness but his long suffering to Oswald
not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance? Who are the usward? Well it's
those that he has written to in the opening words of that
epistle and also the opening words of the first epistle and
it's those who are the Lord's people that people that he has
chosen and appointed for himself and will in his own time plant
in his own house God is not slack concerning his promises I the
Lord, He says, will hasten it in His time. Here at the end of the 60th chapter. Our time is ever ready, but the
Lord's time is not yet. We need to learn then to wait
upon Him, to look to Him, to trust in Him, to commit our
way to Him. Cooper says in the hymn, his
purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have
a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. Well, God's time is that best
time. It's the time that he has appointed in his wisdom. And
it is better than that that we would want to prescribe in our
following. We have to learn to look to him.
It's the Lord's work. and He will do it, He will accomplish
it in His own way, He will accomplish it in His own time again. Look
at the language that we have here previously in the 25th chapter. And there in verse 9, "...which
shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God, we have waited
for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord, we have waited
for Him. We will be glad and rejoice in
His salvation. Lord the Lord be pleased then
to teach us that patience, that endurance to be looking and waiting
and watching and waiting in prayer upon Him and committing our ways
to Him and recognizing that the work is altogether His own work. Thy people also shall be all
righteous. They shall inherit the land forever,
the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may
be glorified. And then again in the text, here
in verse 3, or the end of the verse, that they might be called
trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be
glorified. And that is the ultimate end,
isn't it? It's all to the glory of God. But that glory of God
is to be found in the good that He does in the souls of His people
when He accomplishes His goodwill and pleasure. May the Lord grant
that we might be that that we sang of in our opening praise,
that garden of the Lord planted by His own hand. The Lord bless
to us His own word. Amen.