Okay, let's go back to Isaiah
27. And our text is verse 6 through 13.
Now, tonight's focus will be looking at the Lord's care for
His church. We had noted last week that this
chapter shows the difference between the Lord's care for His
church and what He does for her and in her. as opposed to what
he does to his enemies. He destroyed, he killed Leviathan,
that serpent there, in verse 1. And so, being his people,
he saved us for a purpose, and he has a purpose, which he's
working in his people, and so this week, we'll look more seeing
how he's the one that bears fruit in us. And that source of our
fruit is Jesus Christ. It all flows from him. And we'll see how he does this
work. One of the ways that we see manifested
that he does this work. And brethren, we see that we
have been plucked from, delivered from from that spiritual Babylon,
that kingdom of darkness. the ways of this world and all
those that are perishing. Our Lord has delivered us from
that way and he's delivered us into the way of his Son, the
Kingdom of Light. And so we're gathered into the
body of Christ. So remember that as the Lord
teaches you and reveals himself to you, remember these blessings
that we have, because that's what they are. These blessings
we have all flow from Christ, who did that beautiful salvation
work for us undeserving sinners. He did that for us, and that's
why our Lord deals so kindly with us. So that's what I want
to show you tonight from this passage. Our title is Pruning
in Measure. Pruning in Measure. And we're
going to begin first looking at the fruit by pruning, fruit
by pruning, bearing fruit by pruning. So let's see this first. Now last week we ended with that
view that revealed to us the will of our God for his people,
that he saved us for the purpose of bearing fruit in us, or he's
going to bear fruit in his people. And we saw last week that we
take root in the vine. We are rooted into the vine,
which is Christ. And that's why and how we bear
fruit unto the Lord. So we take root in him, and in
him we shall bear fruit. Let's look at verse 6, Isaiah
27, 6. He shall cause them that come
of Jacob to take root. Israel shall blossom and bud
and fill the face of the world with fruit. So tonight, I want
to look at this with you, how the Lord works this in us, how
he brings forth this fruit in his people. Now, fruit bearing,
this bearing of fruit, it's not a work of the flesh. It's not
a work of our flesh to bear fruit that's acceptable unto God. And
what do I mean by the flesh? That's our nature, man's nature,
his sense of things, his reason of things, right? When we're
born, when we come forth and we begin to learn from our parents
and our siblings and in school or in churches, we learn things
naturally. We have a natural sense and reason
about things. And what we think is right or
wrong, we have a moral sense of certain things, of what's
right and wrong. And of course, by nature, we have a sense of
God and what pleases Him. And the Lord reveals to us that
by nature, none of us knows the Lord. We don't know what pleases
Him or how to bring forth fruit that is acceptable to Him. So, by flesh, that's what I'm
talking about, our nature, our natural selves without any influence
from the Holy Spirit, except for the light that He gives us.
And we don't know the true and living God by that nature. So,
it's not a work of the flesh, but it's a spiritual work. The
fruit that we bear that God is pleased with, that God accepts,
is work that He bears in us by His Spirit. And that's what Christ
had mentioned to us, right? It's a new birth, a new birth. God isn't bringing forth fruit
to the praise and honor of His glory by our flesh and our flesh's
ability and our flesh's talents. He's bringing this forth in the
new birth, in the new man, by His Spirit. You know, in Ephesians
chapter 4, verses 22 through 24, Paul says, that ye put off
concerning the former conversation the old man. Put those things
off. What's the old man? Our nature. That's our nature. Put off that
former way of thinking and your natural sense and ways of what
you think is right and how you do things. Put that off. That
doesn't add anything to our God and to his kingdom. It's corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts. likes the things of this world.
The flesh is attracted to the things that this world is attracted
to. He says, put them off. Don't
walk in the flesh, right? Walk not in the flesh, right?
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind. We've been born
again. Understand that we've been born
again by the power and grace of God and that ye put on the
new man. How do we put on the new man,
which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness,
right? After we've believed and we're
baptized, we're not given a shirt that we can put on each day as
we come out of the water, right? We don't have something like
that, like a new man. No, he's saying walk in the Spirit.
Just like when you see those verses, walk in the Spirit and
you'll not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. That's exactly
what he's saying in Ephesians 4. Don't walk in the flesh, brethren. Walk in the Spirit. Walk in that
newness of mind, knowing that we're saved unto this very purpose
by our God. And so, the Lord, by causing
us to walk in the Spirit, He's severing us. He's breaking that
love and that fellowship that we have naturally with the world. He's suffering that. Alright,
in 1 John 2 verse 15, he says, Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. Does your Heavenly Father
leave you to figure that out? Does He leave it to you to figure
that out and work that out to not love the world anymore? No. No, He's the one who's tenderly
and with great care and love and compassion teaches us that. And He separates us from the
love of the world. We can't do it. We can't do it
naturally in this flesh. We're dependent, utterly dependent
on the grace of our God to do this for us. So it's His good
will to sever this relationship. And by it, He's conforming our
will to His will. He says in 2 Peter 2 verse 9,
The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations,
and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. The Lord knows how to do this,
and he'll do it. He does it for his people. So,
this is what we see the Lord doing here in this text. This verse is giving us insight
into one of the ways that the Lord helps us in this purpose,
in severing that relationship from the world. Look at verse
seven, Isaiah 27, seven. Hath he smitten him, hath he
smitten his child, as he smote those that smote him? Or is he
slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him? All right, does the Lord treat
us, does the Lord deal with us, you his children that have been
called out by Christ into Christ and to know him and serve him,
does he treat us the same way he treats his enemies? No. No, he doesn't treat us the way
he destroys his enemies, right? We saw he destroyed Leviathan,
he destroyed him, he destroyed his works. But he doesn't destroy
us, he doesn't throw us into hell, instead he tenderly cares
for us. And we see this care outlined
in this verse. And that word smitten, we see
that word smitten, and that reveals to us that it's a form of chastening. The Lord is dealing with us in
a way that he deals with sons and daughters. It's a form of
chastening. Not punishments. Not punishment. He's not punishing you or getting
you back for doing some sin. That's not how He deals with
you. That's a natural way, right?
We do that to other people that offend us. We get them back,
and we treat them spitefully and wrongfully, or even if it
seems right to us, we treat them with malice and hatred and harshness. God doesn't treat his people
in that way. He's not getting you back for
things like that and teaching you a lesson in that way. But
rather, through various afflictions and trials, The Lord uses these
things for our good. He's fixed us in Christ, and
He's bearing fruit. He's going to bear fruit for
us, in us, alright, or for Himself, for useful, good things. So,
the Lord uses these means to prune us, to prune us, to cut
us back where we need to be cut back, and for the purpose of
bringing forth more fruit. Now look at verse 8. That's what
he's saying there, Isaiah 27.8. In measure, in measure, when
it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it. He stayeth his
rough wind in the day of the east wind. Now we know that the
Lord has compared his church to a vineyard, a vineyard of
red wine, purchased by Christ. And it says there, in measure,
when it shooteth forth, thou wilt abate with it. He's speaking
about pruning the branches that come off the vine. I have a couple of blackberry
bushes in my backyard now, and right at the tip there, When
Carl Sr. was over, he showed me, he pointed
out those things, and he said, right there, that's where you
want to snip it, right there, because then it's going to branch
off, and it'll produce more fruit for you, right? And that's the
way the Lord does it. He's determining which branches
that he's going to snip off. He's debating within himself,
not with us, but within himself, and he's determining where he's
going to snip and prune back, because if he does it here, well
then, you know, certain fruit is going to be born, in this
part of the body over here and in this abundance, right? All
working his will by his wisdom. He's the master gardener. He
is the husbandman of his vineyard and so he's the one determining
which things are going to be pruned, when, so that certain
fruit is born of this part and in this abundance for this purpose,
this use and this purpose. And our Lord tells us that in
John 15 too, He said, Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth
it, he prunes it. Why? That it may bring forth
more fruit, more fruit. So He's doing this work, it's
His work. And so, by measure He determines
what's necessary for and in his people, and he's bringing it
to pass for their good and the good of their brethren, right,
as he's determined and purposed it, because it's, we're bringing
forth things that are useful and have a purpose in the body
of Christ. There's a use and a purpose of
these things, and they're profitable to the brethren. And so it's
all according to his will, which we saw in verse 6, to fill the
face of the world with fruit. And it's all to his glory and
his praise. Now, these verses, they use some
words that aren't that soft, right? They're not very soft
words. It's not things like speaking of warm and gentle summer breezes,
right? It doesn't use those words. It
says smitten, right? It's smitten and slaughter and
winds, right? There's a harshness to it so
that we understand the Lord's operating on his people. He's
going to work. He's pruning things back that
he's determined we have need of being pruned back. And so,
it's in a manner, though, that's always profitable to the kingdom. He's removing things that need
to go, and he's assuredly bringing forth fruit where it's needed.
And we can see how there's things in our lives, things that have
happened, We wouldn't do it that way. We wouldn't want that for
ourselves. We wouldn't choose to go down
that path or have that thing have happened to us. But through
it all, the Lord has always turned us to Christ. He's always turned
us to the Savior. And the Lord, through it all,
that's where he's brought us now, and he's brought this body
together, all through those things, right? When you were young or
younger or past days, you didn't see yourself here, but here you
are. all by the work of the Lord. The Lord does it. And he tells
us in Hebrews 12, 6, for whom the Lord loveth, for whom the
Lord loveth, he chasteneth. He chastens those that he loves. You that are chastened, he chastened
you because he loves you. He loves you. And scourgeth every
son whom he receiveth. It's really amazing, isn't it,
just that the Lord, the harshness, the hard things, the few and
evil days that you've had, like Jacob, what he said to Pharaoh,
my days have been few and evil. Those few and evil days that
you've had have been done for you in love. and that scourging
that you've endured and gone through, he's done it for you
in love. And he receives you because you've
endured those things. And he receives those as sons
and daughters who endure the scourging and endure the chastening.
And he says, verse 11, now no chastening for the present seemeth
to be joyous. This is Hebrews 12, sorry, Hebrews
12, 11. No chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward, it yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby. And he's exercising his people.
He's pruning his people according to the measure that he's determined
is most profitable and useful unto them and to the brethren.
You may not recognize it or realize it or feel it or see it, but
it does produce fruit that is profitable and useful to your
brethren. And isn't that a good thing?
Isn't that a good thing? You don't know how to minister
to your brethren, but the Spirit of God does, and He knows how
to use you and what to do so that you bear that fruit which
you may not even realize. Lord, Lord, when do we do that?
I don't remember doing that. but the Lord knows, and he gets
all the praise and glory. So our wise and loving Heavenly
Father, he's determined what we're gonna bring forth and when
and how it's gonna be used in this kingdom, and it all achieves
his purpose, his perfect will, his glorious will and purpose. And so through it all, we give
him all the thanks and the praise for it. Now we're told in verse
nine, Isaiah 27, nine, By this, therefore, shall the iniquity
of Jacob be purged." By this, therefore, shall the iniquity
of Jacob be purged. Now, I want to be clear here. When it says that there, it's
not speaking of the work that Christ did. It's not speaking,
it doesn't mean it in that sense, when he had by himself purged
our sins. Our sins are purged by Christ. What I want you to understand,
Christ put away our sins. By His death, He put away our
sins. By His fulfillment of all righteousness,
He made us righteous in Himself and He died to justify us. He shed His blood to cleanse
us of our sins. Christ did that, so don't think
that by the chastening that that somehow purges our sin, our stain
of sin and the guilt of our sin. That's not what he's saying here.
But what he is saying, what we do see in this is that this blessing
of being chastened, this blessing of being chastened, this care
that the Lord shows us in severing us from this world, and that
work which the Lord does in separating us unto himself to be his precious
vessels in his house, we are his workmanship, he's brought
us in for His purpose and His use, that very blessing, because
that's a blessing to be used of the Lord, for the Lord to
save you for Himself, that blessing is derived out of the work that
Christ did. Alright? Everything that we do
here all flows from the fact that Christ did that blessed,
glorious work of salvation for us. Otherwise, God wouldn't deal
with us in this way. He'd deal with us as He dealt
with the Leviathan. We'd have no part in Him if Christ
didn't do that great work, that sacrificial work which He did
for His people. So that's why He deals with us. So understand that, that the
blessing that we have is derived because of what Christ has done.
Now because of this blessing, because our God does chasten
us to remove the workings of sin and to turn our heart to
Him, He says, and this is all the fruit, all the fruit of the
chastening to take away his sin, that is the removal of that practice
and that love of certain sins that are causing us to be weak
and lazy and unfruitful and unprofitable in the kingdom. is going to remove
those things. So, the stain of sin, right,
Christ put away all that. He put away that. And all the
blessings of the Lord chastening us and dealing with us to produce
fruit is because of what Christ did. And so, that's all he's
saying there, to take away his sin, he means that practice of
those sins that the Lord is removing from us. And very specifically,
we see he's talking about idolatry. and just the foolishness that
we have by nature of how we think to worship God. Because it's
not acceptable, right? By nature, we don't produce any
good fruit. We don't worship God in spirit
and in truth by nature, by this flesh, right? And so we see that,
when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalk stones,
right? We beat them to fine dust that are beaten and sunder, the
groves and images shall not stand. So the end result of what the
Lord's doing in the chastening because of, derived from, the
fact that Christ has put away our sin and made us righteous
and acceptable to God, well, the Lord's working in us. He's
chastening us to deliver us from idolatry and delivering us from
glorying in self and delivering us from trying to worship God
with the works of our hands and our own self-righteousness. He's
putting that all away, you see that there? He's doing all that
work, so we'll worship our God instead of worshiping self and
being idolaters who don't know God and are ignorant of our God.
And the apostle said in 1 Corinthians 10, verses 13 and 14, he tells
us, there hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common
to man, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you, to be
tempted, above that ye are able. But will, with the temptation,
also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. In other words, he's doing all
the work. He's not giving you a choice
to decide, am I gonna go door A or door B, and then you'll
be blessed if you choose the right one. No, no, no. He's provided
a way. He's provided Christ, and we
turn to him, and we look to him and rest in him, and he's always
gonna do that which is good and right. and will be brought to,
in the end of it all, will be brought to the feet of our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And what does he say? Wherefore,
my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. That's what Paul said,
very similarly to what we see here in 1 Corinthians 10. Flee
from idolatry, brethren. And that's what the Lord's doing
here, through the chastening, through the temptation, through
the trial and the affliction, that's what he means by it, the
sorrows and the hardships that we go through, It's to teach
us and separate us from that idolatry. And don't you, when
you're humbled and you see what the Lord has done, what he's
worked in your heart that nobody else sees, and you know the idolatry
in your heart, and how the Lord separates you and delivers you
again from that, are you proud and arrogant and hard with your
brethren? No, you're gentle. You're gentle,
because you've been brought low. You're humbled, and you know
you've got nothing to boast in. You're here because of the Lord.
Once again, you're here because of the Lord, and you're giving
Him the thanks and the praise for it. Okay? All right, now
let's go on to the next point. We'll see how that our flesh,
the work of our flesh, is rejected. It's rejected. So knowing how
we're saved by the blood of Christ. how that it's His Spirit that
now dwells in us and that we walk by His Spirit, not by the
flesh. We're learning and being taught
to put on the new man and walk in the Spirit, put off the old
man, not in the flesh, right? What do we know about this flesh
now? What has God taught us about
the flesh? Is it improved? Has it changed? Has our flesh,
has your flesh or my flesh gotten any better? No, not at all, right? It doesn't bring forth any good
works unto the Lord. So the Lord rejects it. And that's
what we see here in the next two verses, 10 and 11. It says,
yet the defense city, Isaiah 27, 10, yet the defense city
shall be desolate. He's not touching our flesh right
now. The flesh is left void and desolate. And the habitation forsaken.
and left like a wilderness. He's left it like a wilderness.
And we leave it like a wilderness. We don't walk in the flesh, we
seek to walk by the Spirit. Not in the lust of the flesh,
but in the Spirit. It's a forsaken wilderness. It's not getting any better until
the Lord comes again and raises it anew after the likeness of
His body. And there shall the calf feed,
and there shall he lie down and consume the branches thereof."
And what is shown there is that even in our flesh, right, in
our flesh, when we walk in the flesh, what am I? I'm just a
brute beast, right? If I'm a pig, if I'm a sow, and
I see the pit of mud there, am I stopping and saying, go on
son, go on hun, get on in there, enjoy yourselves. No, I see it,
I'm going right forward, and I'm doing what I want to do.
And if I see a corn husk, I'm not inviting some other pig to
get it before me and enjoy it. No, I'm going there and I'm eating
it myself. I'm doing what I want to do,
right? I'm just a brute beast. I'm just going to do what I do.
in the flesh, being a self-willed beast, living and serving only
myself and my own pleasures, feeding upon the branches of
what the flesh produces and brings forth, just the dead fruits of
the flesh. And so what we see there is that
no spiritual, no profitable spiritual fruit is coming forth from this
flesh, from our natural self, from our sense and our reasoning
of how things are done. We put off those old ways. We're done with those ways. We
know that that doesn't help us. So we're seeking unto the Lord,
Lord help, help me to walk before you in spirit and in truth. And
so Paul encourages us, I'll just quote a couple from Galatians
5, he says, this I say then, walk in the spirit and ye shall
not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And then again in Galatians 6,
8, for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap
corruption, but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit
reap life everlasting. So, that's why your God faithfully
strips you, strips you down of those things that we think we
need in the flesh, that if I just had this, things would be good.
The Lord strips us and denies us many of those things for our
good. to keep us humble, to keep us
ever needing Him and not getting self-sufficient in and of ourselves. Because what would we do? We
would live like brute beasts and pat ourselves on the back
and think that we're something and charge our brethren with
evil and not seeing our own evil in our own hearts. And so the
Lord humbles us and He keeps us low so that we do love Him
And we love our brethren, and we're thankful for the brethren,
because he's working all that fruit in us. And then it says,
verse 11, when the bows thereof are withered, and that comes
by his chastening hand, these bows are withered, they shall
be broken off. The women come and set them on
fire, for it is a people of no understanding. Now we're not
going to choose to do this, but it's for our profit. Therefore
he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed
them will show them no favor. And that's what our God does.
He shows the works of our flesh no favor. So that's why it's
just a deserted wilderness. We're not looking to walk in
that wilderness anymore or be there. We want to serve the Lord
in the spirit of what he's doing in us. Okay? So we're turned
from all that. Now by His grace we come to understand
what He's done in and for us. That it's all by His grace, we
didn't earn it. And it says in 2 Corinthians
4, verse 16 through 18, For which cause we faint not, but though
our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by
day. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. while we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal." So that's why we're learning to trust Him
and be patient and just wait upon Him for His work. And so
those that would work righteousness and are trying to earn favor
with God They shall meet an angry God, and they shall be consumed
like Leviathan, unless the Lord gives them repentance and delivers
them as well from it. Okay now, let's move on to our
final point, which is gathered in Christ. So unlike those that
labor in darkness, we're delivered from idolatrous, dead religion. We're delivered from that. And
he does this for all his people. all his people throughout history,
throughout time, the Lord has always done this for his people.
For the Jew and for the Gentile, so that every one of us is saved
through Christ. We all are saved looking to the
Lord Jesus Christ, both Jew and Gentile. And so all will experience,
to some degree, as it pleases our God, this chastening and
this stripping of our works, and it's all done to the degree
that He's determined. It's all His choice. The pruning
is by His measure, His debate, His determination to do it. And
so it continues for us at the beginning, and it continues all
the way through to the end. The Lord blesses us with the
gospel, because as we're going through the chastening, we don't
understand a lot of times what's going on, and we're certain it's
because I'm such a vile, wretched sinner. It's because I have no
part in Him that He's caught up to me, and now I'm getting
my comeuppance, and I'm getting what I've worked and I deserve,
and I'm doing that. So we need that gospel continually,
so that we see No, He's not punishing you. He's stripping you, yeah,
sure. He's stripping you and turning
you from self. But we see in that the mercy
and the grace of God so that He gives us that desire and that
heart that, yes, Lord, I do want to know you. Keep doing what
you do, Lord. Even when I cry out to be delivered
immediately from it, Lord, I know that in your patience you're
working your perfect will and the fruit is going to come forth
unto your glory and praise so you just do Lord what you need
to do and help me to just fall and submit to your will in it
Lord. So he does that through his gospel. Now look at verse
12. And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall
beat off, all right, or as one labors to pluck fruit or beat
the wheat from the chaff from the wheat, right, and separate
it from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and
ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. Now, that could mean, to some
degree, that it's a few that are gathered in, one by one.
That thought could be seen there. But what we also see is that,
what he reveals in the gospel, that first it came unto the Jew,
right? First the Jew, the Lord revealed
the gospel first to the Jew, and then to the Gentile, right?
One by one, each one in his own order. First the Jew, then the
Gentile, each time. First the Jewoyi children of
Israel, and now the Gentiles, verse 13. And it shall come to
pass in that day that the great trumpet shall be blown, the gospel
trumpet, and they shall come which were ready to perish in
the land of Assyria and the outcasts in the land of Egypt. We see
a picture there of those that are starving for righteousness,
those that are thirsting for righteousness and have nothing.
those outcasts which are strangers to the things of God and have
no part in the things of God by nature, all those outcasts,
they're being described here and they're going to come and
shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem. And so we see there that through
it all the Lord is working this and calling his people through
the gospel and settling them in the kingdom of Christ. He's
putting us, taking us out of the body of Antichrist and delivering
us unto the kingdom of light of his son. So take heart brethren,
be joyful. If you're being pruned and you're
being stripped and you're being put through whatever that thing,
the sifter, if you're being sifted, it's all the work of the Lord.
It's not because he hates you, it's because he loves you. and
He's bringing you to Himself to lean on Him and trust Him.
So I pray the Lord to bless that word and make it a comfort to
you. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank You,
Father, for Your great wisdom and Your great patience with
us and Your tender mercies, Lord, in revealing Your Gospel to us
and showing us that Your Son has put away the sins that He's
put away our sin, that all who look to Him are assured of forgiveness,
assured of righteousness, because we have none in ourselves. And
Lord, being Your people, You chasten us as sons and daughters.
Lord, help us to see it's all Your work. Show us how, indeed,
we are connected to the vine. and that this work that you do
in us is bearing the fruit that you have purposed to bring in
us and bear in us, making us profitable and useful to one
another in your kingdom. It's in your name we pray and
give thanks. Amen.