want us to turn to that latter
portion that we read in Isaiah 64 Isaiah 64 and I'll read again
from verse 9 through to verse 12 neither remember iniquity forever
behold see we beseech thee where are all thy people thy holy cities
are a wilderness Zion is a wilderness Jerusalem a desolation our holy
and our beautiful house where our fathers praised thee is burned
up with fire and all our pleasant things are laid waste wilt thou
refrain thyself of these things O Lord wilt thou hold thy peace
and afflict us very sore well we read of course also from the
closing parts of the previous chapter there in chapter 63 from
verse 15 look down from heaven and behold from the habitation
of thy holiness and of thy glory and so forth now I read these
two portions the end of chapter 63 the end of chapter 64 because In the previous portion we have
the beginning of a prayer. That prayer begins there at verse
15, and the prayer really runs through to the end of chapter
64. So, the portion that I want us
to consider is really the end of the prayer. And what we have
in these four verses is the lamentation of Isaiah the prophet. It's interesting when we think
about it because as I said in this portion we really have a
prayer the prophet is there the mouthpiece of God he is time
and again speaking to the people of God the Lord's mouthpiece
in the Lord's message But as he speaks to the people so it
seems at times he is constrained to turn away from addressing
them and addresses God in prayer. We see the same when we come
to the New Testament in the epistles of Paul. He writes to those various
churches that had been established as a result of his preaching. He gives them instructions and
exhortations. and again there Paul is sometimes
moved to turn from addressing the churches and instead we find
him turning to God in prayer for example at the end of Ephesians
chapter 3 verse 14 he says for this cause I bow
my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the
whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant
you according to the riches of his glory, and so forth. And we read through to the end
of the chapter where we have that doxology, unto him be glory
in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without
end, Amen. And so there from verse 14 through
to the end we might say that we have Paul also praying He
addresses the church at Ephesus but he also turns from them and
addresses God on their behalf and it's exactly the same that
we have here in this part of Isaiah's book in chapter 63 from
verse 15 right the way through to the end of chapter 64 we have
a prayer, a lament We plead with God to look down and to behold
their sad desolations. Now, he was ministering about
a hundred years before the captivity, before Jerusalem fell to the
armies of the Babylonians. But he speaks of that terrible
catastrophe that was going to come upon the people and here
he is, he wants to be a comfort and a support to the godly remnant. There would be a remnant that
God would preserve, they would be those who were to be removed
and taken into captivity. Remember that was made quite
clear when he received his call, his commission there in the sixth
chapter. He asks the Lord, verse 11, then
said, I, Lord, how long? And He answered me, Until the
cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and
the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord are through movement
far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the
land, but yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return. For these are those to whom the
prophet must address his ministry. And so he does, there are promises
given, promises of an answer to prayer, they will
be judged because of their sins, they will be taken away into
exile, but they are not going to languish forever. Oh no, God
in the appointed time would bring them again out of the captivity
and restore them to the land of promise. And here we have
such A promise in chapter 62 verse 4, Thou shalt no more be
termed forsaken, neither shalt thy land any more be termed desolate,
but thou shalt be called Ephzibah, and thy land Beulah, for the
Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. Oh, he encourages in that godly
remnant. What is he doing then here, where
our text is found tonight in this prayer from verse 15 of
the previous chapter? He is praying, praying for the
restoration of the Jews. The promise is there. He had
received the promise, he had spoken the promise, he had faithfully
declared the Word of God, But how he pleads, how he prays over
the promise that God has given. Or the prophet Hosea, contemporary
with Isaiah, says, take with you words and turn to the Lord
and say, take away all iniquity and receive us graciously. God
gives his word. And when God gives His Word,
when that Word is spoken to us and brought home to us, surely,
the consequence must be that then we will pray, we will plead
with God. We might feel that we have not
words. I think again, words flow apace
when you complain, says the hymn writer. Do we not have the Word
of God to pray over, to plead? Do we not have the Holy Spirit
of God? He helpeth our infirmities, says
the Apostle. We need Him to help us and to
move us, even in our groanings and our sighs and our cries.
The Spirit helpeth our infirmities. He maketh intercession for us,
says Paul, with those groanings that cannot be uttered. Well, let us come to consider
what is said here in the in the prayer look at what he says in verse 8 now O Lord thou art
our father we are the clay thou our putter we are all the work
of thy hand Again, at verse 9, he says, Behold, see, we beseech
thee, we are all thy people. Oh, he's asking God to consider
them. And there is a certain emphasis
here, a repetition. Behold, he says. Fix the eye.
Consider the matter carefully, closely. Behold, see. we beseech
thee. We are all thy people. Is it not the Lord God himself
who has made them? We can think of the way in which
the apostle takes up that idea of the potter and his clay and
the making of vessels unto honor and unto dishonor. You know that
great passage there in the ninth of Romans. There at verse 21. Hath not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and
another unto dishonour? Or the sovereignty of God, and
it was God who had made the children of Israel a people. They were
what they were, a distinctive nation, all because of God, because
of the mercy of God, because of the sovereign grace of God. And how they are reminded of
that when the Lord brought them out of a previous captivity. They were there in bondage in
Egypt, but by Moses, the Lord, delivered them from all of that
cruel bondage. Why did God do it? Well, Moses
tells them there, Deuteronomy 7, 7, The Lord did not set his
love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number
than any people. For you were the fewest of all
people, but because the Lord loved you. and because he would
keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers after the Lord
brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of
the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Now therefore that the Lord thy
God, He is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and
mercy with them that love Him and keepeth His commandments
to a thousand generations." Who is this God? Why He is that one? He is the faithful God of the
covenant. He has given His promise and
He has confirmed that promise with an oath. You only have I
known, He tells them. You only. of all the nations
of the earth. And there they are, they are
dependent upon God, they are dependent upon Him in all the
sovereignty of His grace. And so in His prayer our The
Prophet reminds the Lord, Thou art our Father, we are the clay,
Thou our potter, we are all the work of Thy hands. Behold, see,
we beseech Thee, we are all Thy people. What is it that he wants
God to look upon and to consider? He wants God to consider their
sad plight, their awful condition. He is lamenting them. Thy holy
cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a
desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house
where our fathers praised thee is burned up with fire." The
language is so very similar to the lamentation of Jeremiah that
we find at the end of the book of Jeremiah, the lamentations.
But the interesting thing is that Isaiah is praying this prayer
a hundred years before Jeremiah. Jeremiah was contemporary. He
lived to see Jerusalem in that desolate condition. And so this
lament really is also a prophetic words. And I want us to consider
just what is being said here in these verses at the end of
chapter 64. Two things, he speaks of the
state of Jerusalem, the state of Jerusalem, the condition that
they will be brought into because of their sin. And then also,
he's really lamenting over the fact that God seems to be silent.
The silence of God. First of all, the state of Jerusalem. And we have it here, of course,
in verse 10, the desolations. Thy holy cities are a wilderness. Observe, it's the plural cities,
how the armies of the Babylonians had come down from the north
country, they'd fallen upon all the walls, all the defense cities,
and they'd come to Jerusalem, and Jerusalem itself had fallen. Many cities have been destroyed
but it does seem that here this plural word city seems to refer
to the upper and the lower parts of the Holy City, Zion and Jerusalem. Zion and Jerusalem. Oh, it was
Nebuchadnezzar and we have the history of course there at the
end of the second book of Kings all that came upon those cities
because of their sins, because of their idolatries. And as I
said, the language is so akin to what we have in the Lamentations,
that remarkable little book of lamentations. How doth a city
sit solitary that was full of people? How is she become as
a widow, she that was great among the nations, and princess among
the provinces? How is she become tributary? She weepeth sore in the night,
and her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers she hath
none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously
with her. They are become her enemies. And then again, verse 4, the
ways of Zion do mourn because none come to the solemn feast,
all her gates are desolate, her priests sigh, her virgins are
afflicted and she is in bitterness. So it goes on through the book,
chapter 2, after the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud
in his anger and cast down from heaven onto the earth the beauty
of Israel and remember not his footstool in the day of his anger."
And it lay in that sad condition for many years, 70 years. And
then Ezra returns and there is the rebuilding of the temple,
but it's a slope. It's a slow business. We find Nehemiah also hearing
and lamenting the sad state of Jerusalem even after the work
of Ezra. And there in the opening chapter
of that book, the wall of Jerusalem, he says, or he hears he's broken
down, the gates thereof burned with fire. These are the very
things that are being spoken of then here in the text, thy
holy cities. are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolation, our holy and our beautiful house where
our fathers praised thee is burned up with fire and all our pleasant
things are laid waste." Lamenting over Jerusalem, lamenting over
the fact that God is going to judge his ancient people, but
observe here how in the prayer the prophet is also reminding
God that he has a desire towards Jerusalem the language that we
have there at the beginning of verse 10 he says thy thy holy
cities oh yes he goes on in verse 11 to say our holy and our beautiful
house we'll come to that presently but there in verse 10 He reminds
the Lord how he had such a desire towards Jerusalem. Had he not
chosen Jerusalem? When they first came into the
possession of the Promised Land, the Tabernacle was established,
set up at Shiloh. It was there that they went to
worship the Lord. But then, in the days of King
David, when Jerusalem, the city of the Jebusites, fell to David,
it was there that he established His capital, it was there that
he wanted to build the Temple of the Lord. The tabernacle was
brought there during David's reign, but he was never permitted
to actually build that Temple of the Lord. But how the Lord
delighted in it, because his son Solomon was the one who did
build the Temple of the Lord. And see how the psalmist speaks
of the glories of that place. The 132nd Psalm, the Lord hath
chosen Zion. He hath desired it for his habitation.
This is my rest forever. Here will I dwell, for I have
desired it. Or the Lord God had said that
He would meet with them at the mercy seat. There He would come
and commune with them, that mercy seat covering the Ark of the
Covenant. set in the very Holy of Holies in the midst of the
tabernacle then of the Temple. It was God's presence, the Shekinah
Glory. Our God had a great desire then
towards this city, the holy city of Jerusalem. And so, how bold
now the Prophet is, he reminds the Lord, Thy, Thy holy cities,
are a wilderness, he said. Oh, it was such an affront to
God himself that the temple and the city were left in that desolate
condition. This terrible thing that had
occurred. The prophet Jeremiah, as I said,
witnessed all of these things. He was there in the days of Nebuchadnezzar. And what does the prophet say? Jeremiah 14.21, Do not disgrace
the throne of thy glory. Remember, break not thy covenant
with us, he says. Or do not disgrace the throne
of thy glory. Or there were those, you see,
and they simply looked to the externals. and Jeremiah rebukes
them. All they could say was the Temple
of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord. The Temple of the Lord
are these. All they thought they were secure
because God had said He had chosen Zion above all the dwellings
of Israel. It was that special place. Surely
they would be secure there, but they're just trusting in the
mere externals of religion. That was their father. God did
have a desire towards him. Now on another occasion they
could say a glorious throne from the beginning is the place of
our sanctuary to those who were spiritual Jews but these people
you see they had departed from God why did God send the judgment
of the captivity upon them because of their idolatrous ways and
now this prophet also reminds them of that there was a reason,
there was a cause In their folly they had tried to copy the practices
of the nations round about them. Now they are asked there in the
40th chapter, to whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness
will you compare unto Him? The workman malter the graven
image, the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold and casteth
silver chains, and so on. Oh, have you not known? Have
you not heard? Has he not been told you from the beginning?
Has he not understood from the foundations of the earth? It
is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants
thereof are as grasshoppers, that stretches out the heavens
as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in. Oh,
it is that God who is the Invisible One, He is the Holy One of Israel,
and here they are, you see, it's their sins that have brought
all these desolations upon them and yet here the prophet does
remind God of himself, of his promises, of his covenant, thy
holy cities he says. Oh it is interesting when Daniel
is moved to pray at the end of those 70 years. You know that
we have that prayer that's recorded in the ninth chapter of the book
of Daniel. He's reading there in the book
of the prophet, reading the language of Jeremiah, and he understands
how God is going to accomplish some 70 years upon the desolations
of Jerusalem. And then he sets his face to
seek my prayer and supplication with fasting, he says, and sackcloth
and ashes, and I prayed unto the Lord my God. And what does
he plead? Well, look at what we read there in In Daniel 9.18
he says, O my God, incline thine ear, hear, open thine eyes, and
behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name.
For we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses,
but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear, O Lord, forgive,
O Lord, hearken, and do defer not for thine own sake. O my
God, for thy city, and thy people are called by thy name." It's
all about God. This is what he's pleading. Nothing
of himself. It's thy city. It's thy people. It's thy name. It's thine own
sake. It's thy great mercies. These
form the very basis of his pleadings with God. God did have a delight
in that city. God has a delight in is spiritual
Zion. We're not to lose sight of that.
We're to pray. Oh, we're to pray for the well-being
of Jerusalem, the spiritual Jerusalem, the people of God. How the Lord
Jesus Christ himself has told us in that pattern prayer, after
this manner, therefore pray. And what do we pray? Our Father
which art in heaven, and the first petition, hallowed be thy
name, Or we pray that God will hallow his name, sanctify his
name, and then we pray thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Or we pray for the coming of
that kingdom, we pray for the spread of the gospel. And yet
we live in a day when we see the whole scene so desolate,
the low states of true gospel churches, just a remnant. And he was not dissimilar really
in those days of the Prophet. Right there in the very first
chapter in verse 9 he says, Except the Lord of Hosts hath left unto
us a very little remnant, we should have been as Sodom, we
should have been like unto Gomorrah. Well, we look around us and we
are Sodom and Gomorrah. We're worse than Sodom and Gomorrah.
And yet there is still a remnant. So we feel ourselves to be so
insignificant We feel ourselves to be so despised, even by those
who profess themselves to be Christians. Look at the language
of the prayer back in verse 16 of that previous chapter. Doubtless
thou art our Father, though Abram be ignorant of us, and Israel
acknowledge us not. Thou, O Lord, art our Father,
our Redeemer. Thy name is from everlasting. Although we are so despised,
it's our privilege to plead with God and to pray that God would
honor His own cause. We seek that God would come and
vindicate His Gospel, that His Son, who is the only Savior of
sinners, might have that preeminence that is due to Him. This is how
the Prophet then is praying, he's aware of what will come
upon the city because of the sin of the nation, the desolations,
and yet he comes to pray and he reminds God that he has an
interest in these things, thy holy cities. But then also, those who are the true people
of God, they also have a delight in these things. thy holy cities,
our holy and our beautiful house, where our Father's praise is
burned up with fire, and all our pleasant things are laid
waste. Why God's interest, and the interest
of those who are His true children, they are one and the same. And how here they speak, or Isaiah
speaks, of our pleasant things. Again, the language so similar
to what we find in the Lamentations of Jeremiah. The adversary hath
spread out his hands against all her pleasant, or as the margin
says, all her desirable things. Or the hand of the adversary,
how they had come. Oh, those heathen peoples, those
Babylonians, that come to despoil the temple of the Lord. Though
we have these godly men, these gracious men, time and again
bemoaning all that had taken place, the desolations, how they
lament. Look at the language of Asaph
there in the 74th Psalm. Verse 3, following he says to
the Lord, lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations, even
all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary. Thine
enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations. They set up
their signs for ensigns. One can envisage them coming
into the temple with all their paraphernalia, all their ensigns,
all their banners. Thine enemies roar in the midst.
They set up their ensigns for signs. And then he remembers
a man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the
thick trees, or when that temple was built in the days of King
Solomon, the glories of it. But now they break down the carved
work thereof at once with axes and hammers. They have cast fire
into thy sanctuary. They have defiled by casting
down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground." God's people. love the things of God, the pleasant
things of God. We're to spiritualize all of
this, surely we are. We should be those who are concerned
for the well-being of God's spiritual Zion. Or we should seek the face
of God for the prosperity of gospel churches that the Lord
would come again and hear the cry of His elect and revive revive
that great work of grace. Again, look at the language of
the Psalmist in the 137th. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember
thee, let my tongue cleave to the root of my mouth. If I prefer
not Jerusalem above my chief joy, Remember, O Lord, the children
of Edom in the day of Jerusalem who said, Raise it, raise it
even to the foundation. O daughter of Babylon, you are
to be destroyed. God will destroy his enemies.
God's judgment came upon those Babylonians. It wasn't the Babylonians
who released the Jews from the captivity. No, it was Cyrus the
Persian who had overthrown the mighty empire of the Babylonians.
God judged the enemies of his people. Or are we those friends
who are moved then to pray for God's spiritual Zion? To lament
over the low states of real religion in our nation? There's so little
that is real. And what is real is that that
is wrought of God. There might be religion But men
think that they can make themselves Christians. Oh, we're in a sad
state. We don't equate the United Kingdom
with Israel in the Old Testament. We don't believe in an established
church. But we know that God does deal
with nations, and we see our nation in such a sad, sad condition. A new government, but we wonder
where will the scene end yet? Evils abound in high places.
Men do all that is right in their own eyes, they seek their own
ends. When we come, we pray for our nation in terms of the remnants,
that spiritual Israel that is in the midst of a wicked nation. We want to see the prosperity
of the true churches of Jesus Christ. Now, What is Isaiah doing
here? He's lamenting, as I said, just
as Jeremiah makes his lament or Asaph there in Psalm 74. But
these men, when they lament, it's not an indication of hopelessness
and helplessness. No, what they feel as they witness
these awful things taking place, or in this case in Isaiah, it's
a prophetic word, yet it hadn't happened yet, but it would come.
It would come for certain because of the sins of the people. But
what is it really that the lament leads to? It leads up to Ernest
crying to God, calling upon God, and that's what we have in verse
12. Will thou refrain thyself of these things, O Lord? Will
thou hold thy peace and afflict us very sore? His concern is
that God seems to be silent. There is the cry and yet these
things are taking place. However, two things here. He
recognizes that God cannot really restrain His mercy, He knows
that. He knows that. Wilt thou refrain
thyself for these things? Canst thou contain thyself, and
not act in the light of these things? How the psalmist cries
out when God is silent, Keep not thou silence, O God, he says. Hold not thy peace, and be not
still, O God. He wants God to act. Hold not
thy peace, O God of my praise. Surely it's not possible that
God should be unmoved when he considers the plights of his
people. Surely God will be moved when
he sees all that is transpiring, all that is taking place. Look at the words that we have
here in the previous chapter. At verse 5, God says, I looked
down, and there was none to help, and I wondered that there was
none to uphold. Therefore, mine own arm brought
salvation unto me, and my fury it upheld me. God looks down,
and God sees, and God takes account of these things. We know that
that was the reason why deliverance came to the children of Israel. when they were in bondage in
Exodus. The Lord heard. The Lord heard
their prayer. And what were their prayers?
Well, you know the language there at the end of the second chapter,
Exodus chapter 2. We're told how the children of
Israel sighed by reason of the bondage and they cried and their
cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage and God heard
their groaning and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with
Isaac and with Jacob and God looked upon the children of Israel
and God had respect unto them. Oh God, He's a gracious God,
He has respect even unto us and to our poor prayers. And interestingly
there In the very next verse, the beginning of chapter 3, Now
Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest
of Midian, and he led the flock to the backside of the desert.
And he came to the mansion of God, even to Horeb, and the angel
of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the
midst of the bush. or their sigh, their cry, their
groans, all of this is heard and answers. God does take account,
He hears the prayers of His people. We know that. We know that. And so how does the Prophet pray? Verse 9, Be not wrath very sore,
O Lord, neither remember iniquity forever. Behold, say we beseech
thee, we are all thy people." Oh, he's going to plead now in
terms of the Covenant. How does he address God? He addresses
God by His Covenant name. In verse 8, But now, O LORD,
now, O Jehovah, thou art our Father. We are the Be not wrath very sore, O Jehovah! Behold, see, we are all thy people."
All they are God's people. Surely God will take account
of His people and God will take account of us. He has made provision
for us to pray. We have not an high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmity, says the Apostle.
No, the Lord Jesus Christ was tempted tempted in all points
like us we are yet without sin and therefore or therefore we
can come boldly to the throne of grace. God cannot, God will
not restrain His mercies. Wilt thou refrain thyself for
these things, O Lord? Surely God will appear when He
sees the plight of His churches. Wilt thou hold thy peace and
afflict us very sore. God cannot restrain His mercy,
but the wonderful thing is that God does restrain His wrath. God does restrain His wrath. Wilt thou hold thy place and
afflict us very sore, very sore, to the uttermost? What we have
here at the end is that that is excess, extremity. And the Lord will not deal with
His people like that. Oh yes, He will deal with them. He'll
visit them for their iniquities. He'll chastise them because of
their sins. But again, look at the language
that we have in that remarkable third chapter of Jeremiah's Lamentations. There in Jeremiah 3.31, the Lord
will not cast off forever, but though He cause grief, Yet will
he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies,
for he does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men."
Oh God restrains his wrath. In wrath he remembers mercy and
he will hear and answer the prayer of his children Again in that
74th Psalm, that lament of Asaph. Arise, O God, plead thine own
cause. Or we ask God to plead the cause.
We are to plead the cause of God, the cause of truth. We can
plead with God that he would plead his own cause. It is time
for thee, Lord, to work, for they have made void thy law,
says the Psalmist. or that we might learn then to
pray. Even as the prophets in the Old Testament pray, even
as the apostles in the New Testament pray, they cannot help it, these
men, as they are handling the Word of God, they move to pray
to that God who is the God of the Word. Oh God, bless to us
in these words at the end of this chapter. here in Isaiah
64 and the verses 9 to 12. The Lord bless the word to us.