Isaiah 28. Isaiah chapter 28. In this passage of scripture,
I'm going to read the first four verses and then the fifth one. But Ephraim we're going to read
about. Ephraim represents The Northern
Kingdom, it was one of the larger tribes of the Northern Kingdom,
and indeed in the tribe of Ephraim, that's where the city of Samaria
was located, and that was the capital of the Northern Kingdom. And Ephraim, or Israel as it's
typically called, They were an ungodly people by and large. They forsook the worship of God,
and on account of their transgressions, God was going to have the Assyrians
take them into captivity, and they will lose their identity. Let me read the first four verses
to you. Isaiah 28. Woe to the crown of pride. to the drunkards of Ephraim.
And when it says drunkards, I have no doubt what that is. It's literally
a fact, but also they were drunk on the wine of false religion,
whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head
of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine. The Lord hath a mighty and strong
one, which is a tempest of hail and a destroying storm. As a
flood of mighty waters overflowing, they shall be cast down to the
earth with the hand of God." The Lord's talking about their
sinfulness, their iniquity, their rebellion. God won't let sin
get by. You may think, well, he hasn't
punished me yet, but punishment is out there for all kinds of
sin, and mainly with Israel, they had forsaken the worship
of God. And they now were worshiping
idols. Notice what it says in the third
verse, the crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim shall be
trodden under feet, under the Lord's feet, and also under the
feet of the Assyrians. And the glorious beauty which
is on the head of the fat valley shall be a fading flower, and
as a hasty fruit before the summer, which when he that looketh upon
it seeth while it is yet in his hand, he eateth it up. The Lord
is here through Isaiah prophesying of the destruction of Israel. All because they forsook the
worship of God, they stopped looking to the Lord, they stopped
expecting the Son of God, Messiah, to come, and they started looking
to false idols, and God said, you're going to pay for this
now. You will be taken into captivity. This is what God says to the
Northern Kingdom. But in the fifth verse, he is
addressing now the southern kingdom of Judah. And though Judah isn't
mentioned by name, this is who he's speaking of in verse five.
In that day, in the gospel day, shall the Lord of hosts be for
a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty unto the residue of
his people, and for a spirit of judgment or justice to him
that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn
the battle to the gate." He now turns to Judah and he has a different
message for them. And Judah represents all of the
true people of God. You see, while the wicked are
going to suffer the judgment for their sins, yet the righteous,
the people of God, the true Judah, true Israel, shall reap the benefits
of the mercies of God and the grace of God. And in that day,
when God shows mercy to sinners, in that day the Lord of hosts,
Christ Himself, shall be for them a great crown of glory. and for a diadem of beauty."
You see, Israel had forsaken the Lord. They turned their backs
on the true worship of God, but the Lord had a remnant according
to the election of grace within the nation of Judah. And Judah
consisted of just two tribes, the tribe of Judah and the tribe
of Benjamin. That's the Southern kingdom of
which Jerusalem was the capital. And God had within Judah a remnant,
a remnant that He would save, the residue, He calls it, of
His people. And they would be honored by
the Lord. And in that day, the Lord of
hosts would be for a crown of glory. They will see Him as the
glorious, glorious King who should be should be honored and should
be crowned and should be worshipped as the king of Judah. And then a diadem of beauty. A diadem was a garland. you will
honor the Lord, you will worship Him as the King. And if God does
something for you, if God honors you with His grace, with His
salvation, with His mercy, if He honors you with the knowledge
of how the God of the Bible saves sinners, then you will put the
crown on the right head. You will put a wreath upon the
head of the Lord Jesus Christ. You will honor Him for He is
the only Savior of sinners. He's the one who alone could
do the work of redemption. He alone could reconcile us to
God. He alone could bring in everlasting
righteousness. He alone could do something about
our sins. And when we see that Christ is
the only Savior and we're brought to believe in Him and rest in
Him, I promise you, we'll put the crown on His head. We'll
take no glory for ourselves. We'll put the wreath, the garland,
the diadem, we'll put it upon the head of our Lord Jesus Christ
and we'll crown Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We'll see Him for the King that
He is and we'll see His work as being a royal work that He
Himself has finished. Now, go back to Isaiah 62. Isaiah chapter 62. So know this, the people of God,
the people to whom the Lord Jesus Christ has been revealed, we
honor the King. We delight to worship Him. This is our joy. This is thrilling
to us. To meet together, to join our
voices and sing praises to our Savior. To crown Him, as I said,
with many crowns, to crown Him as the King, as the Son of God,
as the Royal One, as the One who labored to win our redemption
and our salvation by His own labors. Now, here in Isaiah 62
is a prophecy of the Lord's people. Judah. which pictured or typified
the redeemed of God. Look at verse one, for Zion's
sake. And we've studied Zion enough
to know, and I'm gonna go back to Psalm 87 tonight, and we'll
be talking about Zion again. For the Lord's people, for the
sake of Zion, The Lord will bless His people for Zion's sake, God
said. This is not just the words of
Isaiah, this is the words of the Lord. For Zion's sake. He's
going to do something for Zion. Zion was on the heart of God
from before the foundation of the world. Zion was chosen unto
salvation. It was for Zion that Christ came
into this world to lay down His life. It's for Zion that the
Spirit of God does a work of grace in the hearts of sinners.
For Zion's sake, the Lord says, I will not hold my peace. I will
speak in power. I will speak words of majesty. I will speak royal words. And
for Jerusalem's sake, Jerusalem is the city of peace. That's
what Jerusalem means. And those who know the Lord Jesus
Christ, who have been brought into Zion, brought into the true
church of our Lord, we're a city of peace. Our peace was made
by our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Prince of Peace. And the Lord says, I will not
rest. I will not rest until the righteousness
thereof go forth as brightness, until righteousness is revealed
and imputed to every sinner that the Lord loves, and the salvation
thereof as a lamp that burneth, as a light. God says, I'm not
going to rest. Until all of my people have the
imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, I will not
rest. To all of my people are enlightened
and brought out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom
of God's dear son. God said, I won't rest. I'm gonna
do this. That's the certainty of the work
of salvation. Look at the second verse. And
the Gentiles, the foreigners, shall see thy righteousness,
and all the kings thy glory." The Lord is not talking about,
He's talking about the people of the Lord. He's talking about
Zion. He's talking about how the enemies of the gospel will
someday in the end, in the end, they will see the glory that
God has put upon His people. in the beautiful righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we're presented as Ephesians
chapter 5 says, when the Lord presents us as a people without
spot, without blemish, without any such thing, when the Lord
presents His people as trophies of His grace, look at these that
I have sent. Saved, look at these that were
once sinners marred in guilt and iniquity. Look what I've
made out of them. They didn't make themselves to
be beautiful. I have made them beautiful and
I have made them righteous. And the Lord says, I will do
this. And he says, in all of the enemies
of the gospel, They will magnify the church and they'll say throughout
eternity, throughout the time that they're gonna be
punished, oh, how I wish I had been in that number. Oh, how
I wished I had taken heed to the gospel of God's free grace.
Oh, how I wish I'd had an interest. And the Lord says to Zion, thou
shall be called by a new name. What's the new name? Well, the
Lord calls us my people. We're the Lord's people. And then in verse three, he says,
and thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord,
and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Do you remember reading similar
words to that back in Isaiah 28? Hold your place in, go back
to Isaiah 28, just real quick. Chapter 28. In that day, verse
five, 28 five, in the gospel day, In the gospel day, 28 verse
5, in that day, the gospel day shall the Lord of hosts be for
a crown of glory and for a diadem of beauty upon the residue of
his people. That's when we will crown him,
we will glorify him and honor him in that eternal day. But over here in chapter 62,
the Lord says, Thou shalt also be a crown of
glory in the hand of the Lord and a royal diadem." Not just
the Lord. It's wonderful to reflect upon
the fact that we will crown Him and honor Him, we'll honor Him
throughout eternity, but there's more here. The Lord is going
to honor His people and crown His people as kings and priests
unto God, and that will be forever and ever. Because you see, as
our Lord Jesus sits upon His throne, so shall the people of
God be with Him on His throne, and we will be glorified by the
Lord Jesus. We will be We will be the crown
of glory upon His head. And He will wear us like a diadem. All to the praise of the glory
of His grace. I know what we are by nature. We're sinners. My brethren and
sisters who have been begotten of God and brought to faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, we are the children of the King. We've
been made to be kings and priests together with our God. And the
Lord says here in chapter 62, thou shalt also be for a crown
of glory in the hand of the Lord, and royal diadem in the hand
of thy God. In other words, the Lord will
put us as it were, not literally, but as it were, like a king puts
a crown on his head and everyone gasps in amazement. We'll wait
till he puts as a crown upon his head all of those that he
redeemed and saved by his grace. And in that day, we will be the
crown upon his head. We'll be the diadem upon his
head. He will have those in his hand
and put those on his own head, said, this is my crown, you are. Can you imagine that? You and me who drink iniquity
like water, who are vile from our youth, who are strangers
to the covenants and promises of God, who were born dead in
trespasses and sins, But the Lord Jesus has redeemed us. He has saved us. He has quickened
us. He's made us beautiful in His
own righteousness. And that day before all of the
universe, before all demons, before the devil, before all
unbelievers, the Lord will, as it were, put us on His head and
say, look, I honor my own people. Why are we gonna be honored?
You thought of that? What's the reason that we will
be honored in that day? Because of what He's done for
us. What He's made out of us. Oh, the glory of the grace of
God descenders through the Lord Jesus Christ. My discouraged brothers, My distressed
sisters, you who are the children of God, be encouraged. Be lifted
up in your heart. The Lord one day is going to
set us on display before all of the universe and is going
to say, these are my people. These are my redeemed. This is
my family. That's what the Lord is going
to do. You see, even as the Lord is
the glory of the church, the church is the glory of the
Lord. This is amazing grace indeed. And in verse four, the Lord gives
a couple of more names to his church, that is to Zion. Zion receives two more names,
Hephzibah and Beulah. Beulah means to be united to
or to be married. Christ is said to be the bridegroom. We're said to be the bride. Zion
is united to Christ. Beulah, that's another name for
the church. It's another name for Zion. We're one with him from eternity. We have always been in the Lord
Jesus Christ from before the foundation of the world as long
as God has been God. That's how long we've been united
to Christ. One with Him in the covenant
of grace. One with Him when He stood then is our surety. One
with Him when He was born in Bethlehem's manger and His human
nature came into being. One with Him through His life
of obedience. One with Him when He laid down
His life, the sacrifice, the substitute for sinners. One with
Him when He shed His own blood to wash away our sins. One with
Him when He went into the tomb. One with Him when He came out.
One with Him in His resurrection and His ascension. And one with
Him in glory. What God hath joined together,
let no man put asunder. If you would re-read that passage
in Ephesians chapter 5, which talks about husbands love your
wives as Christ also loved the church. The apostle will tell
us right toward the end. He said, this is a great mystery,
but I'm talking about Christ and his church. That's what he
said. I'm not just talking about husbands and wives as we are. He said, I'm talking about the
son of God and his bride. We're Beulah, we're Beulah. But there's another name that
Zion has been given. and it is the name Hephzibah,
Hephzibah, which means the Lord delighteth in thee. You see there
at the end of verse four, the Lord delighteth in thee. Now let me define the word delighteth. If you get your Strong's Concordance,
And I would advise you to do that and just look up words like
this. Delighteth. It means satisfied. To take pleasure in. That, the one which is to be
desired. Now we do, we do honor and exalt and we're satisfied
with, we take pleasure in our Lord. The psalmist said to delight
thyself in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine
heart. Be satisfied with Christ. I know
there There's the world, there's the materialism, there are a
lot of things that would like to lay claim to us and pull us
away, but really you should only be satisfied with Christ. Let
Him be your desire. He'll take care of the things
that you need in this life. But you be delighted with, you
be satisfied with the Lord Jesus Christ, who He is and what He
did for you and where He is now for you. Be satisfied with Him. Take pleasure in Christ. Be abundantly
satisfied with Him. You see, man by nature, he gets
satisfaction and pleasure and delight from himself and the
things that we can get around us. A lot of people, they get
something new, and they're happy for a while, and they're satisfied
for a while, and then the luster of the new goes away, and then
they want something else new. They'll get something else new.
And then they're satisfied with again. But you see, with the
Lord Jesus Christ, He gives us everlasting satisfaction. That's a satisfaction, a desire
satisfied, which will never end. And I would ask you right now,
are you delighted with Jehovah? Are you delighted with Christ? Are you delighted with the persons
of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit? Are you
delighted with the perfections of God, His power, His goodness,
His faithfulness, His wisdom, His love, His grace, His mercy? Are you satisfied with God and
that which He reveals to you? Do you take pleasure in the Lord? Are you delighted with the worship
of God? Are you delighted to just come
here like you've come this morning? Does this bring satisfaction
to you? I hope it does. Does it fulfill the desire in
your heart? I want to go worship God. I want
to worship God with the people of God. And I know there are
people who live far away and they can't come to the place
of worship and meet with us literally, and we're thankful that we can
send the Word of God out. But for the people of God who
live close by, you should come together and desire to be here
with the rest of us. This should bring satisfaction
to your heart and to my heart to just be here under the sound
of the gospel and greet one another with words of love and encouragement. Hephzibah means the Lord. Delighteth
in thee, the Lord is satisfied with you. There's an old hymn,
and I'm not sure it's in our hymn book, we're never gonna
sing it anyway, but there's several in our hymn book that we won't
ever sing, but it talks about I am satisfied, I am satisfied
with Jesus, but the question comes to me as I think of Calvary. Is Jesus satisfied with me? Well, I can tell you this, for
His people, the people whose sins He put away, He is satisfied. God is satisfied. Because when
the Lord of glory looks at His people, He is satisfied, He is
delighted because He sees us washed He sees us robed. He sees us as His children. You
say, but I'm such a mess in myself. I'm such a sinner. Jim, you just
don't know. I got some idea of what you're
like because I'm just like you. In ourselves, we're sinners,
but in Christ, listen, in Christ, you're a child of God. You're
an heir of the kingdom of God. You're an heir of heaven. You
have a heavenly inheritance awaiting you. And more than that, you're
a child of Jehovah for he adopted you into his family. And the
Lord says, you're my delight. You're my delight. There are several things the
Lord delights in as you go through the scripture. The Lord delights
in his own character. When Joshua and Caleb, you remember
the story, how that the 12 spies went over, looked in the land
of Canaan to check things out. 10 spies came back, said there
are giants in that land. It'd be suicide to go over into
the land of Canaan. And Joshua and Caleb said, there's
a bunch of them, all right. But the Lord, the Lord will give
us that land. And Joshua and Caleb said this
to the people. If the Lord delights in us, we can go into this land that
flows with milk and honey. And I'll tell all of you, all
of you who are here and all of you who are watching, if the
Lord delights in you, if he's satisfied, What satisfies God? What satisfy God? Perfection
satisfies God. Righteousness satisfies God.
Sin atonement by the blood, that satisfy God. Atonement of sin
by the blood, that satisfy God. And if the Lord is satisfied
with you, you're washed in the blood of the lamb and robed in
his righteousness. then the Lord delights in you.
And if the Lord delights in you, he's gonna take you into the
land of promise. Don't be discouraged. You have a home in glory. He delights in us. You know what? That means he's well pleased
with us. Can you comprehend that? The
Lord is well pleased with you? Listen, He charges His angels
with folly. The heavens aren't even pure
in His sight, and yet He looks upon every one of His children
and He says, I'm satisfied with you. And you say, how can that
be? Because He sees you in Christ. That's how. He sees you in his
son. In Jeremiah chapter nine, the
Lord takes pleasure in exercising loving kindness. He takes pleasure, he's satisfied
with, he's delighted with judgment or justice satisfied. All of these things the Lord
is satisfied with. But in the context of this, he's
satisfied with his people. I know we're sinners and we weep,
but don't beat yourself up too much. After one writer said, I read
it just this week, he said, for every look you For every look
that you look within, every time you look within, he said, look
a hundred times to Jesus Christ your Savior. You look within,
you're going to be dissatisfied. You're not going to be happy.
You can't be delighted. Your conscience is going to bother
you because the conscience demands one thing, perfection. That's
what conscience, conscience will never trouble you if you're perfect.
But we look at our faults and we should acknowledge our sinfulness. I'm not saying don't do that.
But after acknowledging our sinfulness, then look to the fountain that
flowed from Calvary's Mount. We're washed in that blood. We're
robed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And God Himself,
as He looks at His children, He can find no fault in us. He said, I'm satisfied with you.
I delight in you. I delight in you. He's delighted with his people. And here's the thing, his people
are delighted with him. This is a salvation full of delight. This is a salvation full of satisfaction. We look to our great God and
say, I'm satisfied with who He is. Sovereign, holy, saving,
powerful, just, loving, gracious and kind. I'm satisfied with
who God is. I'm satisfied with His holy demands. And the Lord as He looks on me
in Christ, the Lord says, and I'm satisfied with you. I'm well
pleased with you. He's well pleased with us. He's
delighted with us because we are in Christ. And by the way,
this word delighteth, if you do look it up in the Strong's
Concordance, you'll find that over there in Isaiah chapter
53, where it said, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. The pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. It's exactly the same
original word as here translated as delighted. It delighted the
Lord to bruise Christ in your stead. What does that mean? It means it satisfied Him. That
satisfied God. And the purpose of God was well
served in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord says,
I'm your delight, and you're my delight. I'll tell you, that
ought to float the boat of every child of God. That ought to put
some wind in your sails. God's not mad at you. He's not
upset with you. He sees you in His Son, and as
it were, He gives the smile of an approving father. because we're viewed and we're
one with our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's get a hymn book and we'll
sing a closing song here. Number two. Hymn number two. Love divine. Hymn number two. I'll go home