Now let's turn back in our Bibles
to Isaiah chapter 62. As I've been studying through
this chapter, I am so thankful that the Lord has brought us
to this specific passage for the last two messages of the
old year to bring in the new year, tonight and Wednesday. This passage has two things that
every true believer, every body of believers, the church, churches
need. First of all, we need something
to rejoice in, something to meditate upon in peace and joy and comfort
and assurance, something to teach us to settle. on the Lord's grace
and goodness and His sovereignty, His sovereign power and wisdom
in all things. And that's what the first five
verses of this chapter do. They're like a meditation of
rejoicing in the Lord. If you have a King James Version,
you might see a paragraph marked there at verse 5. I believe that's
a wrong notation. You know these divisions were
not in the original. But I believe this section doesn't
end until after verse 5. And then the second part that
I'll deal with Wednesday, beginning at verse 6, is something to do. It's a commission. It's a charge
that the Lord gives His people concerning our ministry, our
message, what we're here for, how we're to cherish the gospel,
and our fellowship, how we're to be walking together, we're
yoked together in the cause and glory of God in Christ. And so
tonight, I want to just deal with these first few verses.
You know, when we think about life in general, and I say this
quite often, that I want us to understand how the Scripture
puts things in perspective, the proper perspective. We don't
do that. the Word of God does for us. Aren't you glad that
we have God's Word, these green pastures to lie down in and be
fed and to rest? Because if we were out there
on our own trying to figure this thing out, wouldn't we be in
a mess? I'm talking about me, you, all
of us. But you know, there's so much
sorrow and pain and so much discouragement in life We get it from each other. We get it from ourselves. We're
the source of our own problems many times. And for that reason,
many times we just don't see things the way we should see
them. For example, when we look within
ourselves, there's a lot of disappointment. There's nothing to delight in
when you think about that. Our growth is slow. The warfare
of the flesh and the spirit sometimes I know, listen, I know this about
the warfare of the flesh and the spirit. If you're engaged
in it, you're not going to lose that battle. And I'll tell you
why, because He which begun the good work in you will complete
it in the end. He'll finish it. And it's by
the grace of God. But so many times we feel like
we just lose that battle, lose that fight. And we know that's
not true because God tells us it's not true. And you can trust
Him. You'll tell yourself you're not
winning, but you can't trust yourself. You know that? We can't trust ourselves. We
trust Christ. But here's something to think about. Here's something
to meditate on. Through all these problems and
all the discouragements and all the disappointments that would
cause us to quit and stop and faint, Christ looks upon us His people,
His sheep, His children, His church, the body of His church,
not just one denomination or one specific group, and I believe
this is one of the chapters that I would go to to prove that,
that the Bride of Christ is not just one particular group, it's
the whole church. He looks upon us as His delight. Now, that's amazing, isn't it?
That is amazing grace. You mean the way I acted last
week, He still looks upon me as His delight? And that's exactly
what I'm saying. That's why I've entitled this
message, Christ's Delight in His Church. You could say it
this way, Christ's Delight in His Bride. Just like a bridegroom
delights in his bride, Christ delights in His Church. In fact,
maybe that doesn't say it all. I know it doesn't say it all,
but maybe that just doesn't hit you the way it should hit you.
Christ delight. Delight in me. Delight in you,
His people. That's an amazing thing. A lot
of times we don't delight in ourselves, and a lot of times
we don't delight in each other, do we? But we're His delight. And that's the way we need to
think. That's what we need to meditate on. the closing of the year and all
of next year thinking about that. He calls the church this. And
now the church now is not a building. Now understand when I say the
church, don't make that an impersonal thing. Don't think, well, that's
just some kind of out there entity that's just, you know, some big
edifice with a steeple on top of it. The church is a body of
believers, sinners saved by the grace of God, chosen by God for
no reason other than it seemed good in His sight. Now wasn't
our Lord saying it's no other reason? How it seemed good in
His sight to choose me or to choose you, I don't know. But
it did. And then those who are justified
by His grace in Christ. He sent His Son, His precious
Son. That's how much He delights in
His church. He loved us so much that He sent
His Son into the world to die for our sins and to establish
righteousness for us. And then we're the redeemed of
the Lord. He redeemed us. He bought us from the slave block
of sin and bondage. And then He gave us life by His
Spirit, the regenerate. And then he gives us an inheritance
untold. And he calls us here in these
first few verses, a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord. Is that what you are? Is that
what I am? A crown of glory. You know, when
the king put on his crown, everybody could see it. Everybody knew
this is the king. I mean, he didn't just put on
an old hat. He put on a crown. And that's
what he calls his church, his pride, a crown of glory in the
hand of the Lord. Now that's hard to see, but my
friend, that's what God says. That's what God says. God's ultimate
purpose in all things is His own glory. And do you know where
His highest glory is found? What we might call, as the old
Jewish writers used to call, the Shekinah glory. It's shown
and it's seen in the salvation of sinners like us, His elect,
His church, by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's His highest glory.
Because in that glory we see every attribute of God working
together consistently to save a sinner. This is why all that
He does for His own glory is for Zion's sake. Look at the
first three words of verse 1, for Zion's sake. Zion is the
church here. It's not a mountain in Jerusalem.
It's the church. It's a symbol. And that's what
he's speaking of. It's the spiritual people of
God, those whom I just described as chosen, justified, redeemed,
regenerated, bound for glory in Christ. He mentions Jerusalem. He said, for Zion's sake will
I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest.
Jerusalem ultimately is the spiritual city of God, heavenly Jerusalem.
The physical nation of Jerusalem, the physical city rather, the
physical nation of Israel, are types of the spiritual. If this
were limited to a physical nation and a physical city, then the
Gentiles would not even be included. As they are included, back up
in verse 11, the nations of 61, chapter 61 speaks of the nations.
And then verse 2 of this chapter, 62, says, And the Gentiles shall
see thy righteousness. And that see there is more than
just looking or gazing at it. It means they will understand
and enter into it by the power of God. Salvation would come
to and happen before all nations. And it includes all people on
earth in whom God would be known. And this is the issue of God's
delight in His church. It is through His church that
God is known. How is He known? He is known
as the sovereign God who disposes of all things according to the
good pleasure of His will to glorify Himself in the salvation
of His people. That all things work together
for good to them that love God who are called according to His
purpose. He is known as the God who justifies the ungodly. If in your life God is manifested
as anyone other than He who justifies sinners freely by His grace,
you're a walking testimony to an idol. You see, if I let on to you like
I deserve salvation or I've earned salvation, God's not being known
through me. You know, whoever you earned
it from and whoever you deserved it from, that's not God. You
understand what I'm saying? That's an idol. That's no God
at all. I'm telling you, I am a recipient
of God's mercy and grace at all times. Through Jesus Christ. And so salvation. is to those
through whom God would make Himself known, Zion the church, the place
to which they would come. We tell people all the time,
come to church. Come to church. You need to come to church. You
need to be in church. You don't need to be away from
the church. I know you're going to miss some. I'm not talking
about that. I mean, you need to be where the gospel is preached,
where God is made known, where God is worshipped in the fellowship
of the people of God. And if you can get along without
it, there's something wrong. Now, I'm telling you, you're
either pretty sick spiritually or you don't have spiritual life.
I mean, that's the long and the short of it. And it's not because
you either love or like or hate to hear me. That's nothing about
it. I'm talking about what's being preached, not who's preaching.
Is Christ being lifted up? Will the sheep love to hear the
shepherd lifted up, bragged on, preached? And when we come to
church, as we say it, into the fellowship of God's people, we
don't really leave it, do we? I mean, when we go home tonight,
we're not leaving the church. I hope you don't think you are.
Because you never break from the fellowship, that bond of
union, of grace and love that God has for His people. But when
we come to church, as we say it, we come with birthrights
because of our connection with Christ, the Son of God, and by
birth. the new birth in Him. Born again
by the Spirit. Look at this again. Look at verse
1. Here's the glorious coming of Christ. And here He says this,
I will not rest until her righteousness goes forth as brightness. Look
at it. For Zion's sake, will I not hold my peace? I won't
shut up. I won't stop speaking. That's what He means. For Zion's
sake. I'm not going to keep quiet.
I've got something to say here. And it's worth hearing. Men may
deem it worthless, but it's God's delight. It's the Word of God. And he says, and for Jerusalem's
sake I will not rest. I won't quit working. And I'm
not going to do it until the righteousness thereof go forth
as brightness and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.
Now, you know, I want you to think about this. Let me show
you in the historical situation. You know, Isaiah, He prophesied
in a time when Jerusalem, the city, was still a functioning
city, a very busy city, but it was spiritually corrupt. It was
fraught with religion without grace, religion without truth,
religion without Christ. It was idolatry. But now here,
in this prophecy, he looks forward to the time when Jerusalem is
laid desolate because she's been conquered by a foreign nation.
And we know, as the prophecy goes, that's the Babylonian Empire,
which took place around a hundred years after this. And she would
be left desolate. And then prophetically, he speaks
of comfort and assurance to those people in Jerusalem who are discouraged
and downcast citizens in captivity. And here's what he tells them.
He says, I will not rest until Jerusalem, I will not keep quiet
and I will not rest until Jerusalem is restored in shining righteousness. Now think about that. Well, we
know while Jerusalem, while the city was in captivity in Babylon,
God didn't keep quiet. He sent two of the greatest prophets,
Ezekiel and Daniel, right there with them prophesying. held them
together, kept them together, kept that nation intact. You
know, usually when an empire conquered other nations, that
nation was dispersed out and they were obliterated and you
never heard of them again. It's what happened to the northern
kingdom of Israel when they were conquered by the Assyrians. But
Judah and Jerusalem was kept intact. Now why is that? It's because all of this prophecy,
which the physical inhabitants of Jerusalem in captivity could
take comfort in, ultimately had its spiritual purpose fulfilled
in someone else. That prophet, not Ezekiel and
Daniel, but that prophet of whom they spoke, the Lord Jesus Christ. So this mainly speaks of the
arrival and the work of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the
literal city of Jerusalem, but ultimately of his work in the
spiritual Jerusalem, spiritual Israel for his elect people.
There is some question among commentators on who is speaking
here, the Lord or the prophet. Always remember, though, that
God's preachers speak his word, not their own. God's preachers,
God's prophets are ambassadors of Christ. So we speak for him
by his word. Our authority and our office
is not our own. We don't make it honorable. The
office and the word is honorable. Somebody said, well, I wish God
would call that fellow to preach. He'd sure help the office. No, he wouldn't. No, he wouldn't.
We don't make it honorable. But here's what he's saying.
We could compare this to our Lord's Prayer in John 17, when
He prayed to His Father, "...Glorify Thou me with the glory which
I had with Thee before the world was, that I may give eternal
life unto as many as Thou hast given Me." He said, I have finished
the work which You gave Me to do. He speaks of His finished
work. He will not hold His peace, our
Savior now. He did not hold His peace, and
He did not stop His work. until the gospel was published
throughout the world and all his people, his sheep, Jew and
Gentile, come to see the glory of his righteousness." So what
does that tell you? He is still speaking today. He is still working
today. Now, he came and did his work
of redemption in Jerusalem. He died for our sins. He paid
our debt. Daniel said it in Daniel 9.24.
He made an end to sin. He finished the transgression.
He brought in everlasting righteousness. All of that's the finished work
of Christ. And out of that, righteousness shines forth, just like He said
here, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness.
It's His righteousness. It's His obedience unto death
that shines forth through His church. He did all the work. He finished all the conditions. He fulfilled all the requirements.
And it is His purpose, His will, His delight to bring all whom
God chose, all whom He redeemed, to see and know the glory of
His grace and shine forth as shining lights to the praise
of the glory of His grace. So what does He do? He exerts
Himself that Zion may enjoy the fruits of His work. And clearly
the accomplishment of salvation is not on a take it or leave
it basis. The acceptance of salvation is
the result of Christ's power and determination to do everything
he intended to do. That's why he told his disciples
that he must go through Samaria. You know why? Because one of
his sheep was down there. Somebody they would have never
thought of. Somebody, if they would ask him, say, well, now,
is this sheep that he's going down in Samaria to get, is she
going to make the kingdom honorable, more honorable than it is? Well,
absolutely not. She's a Samaritan adulteress.
She couldn't even make her town honorable. She had to show up
at the well at a time when everybody else was gone so they wouldn't
see and talk about her. You see, that's not how God works.
He doesn't choose the noble and the honorable. to populate his
kingdom. He chooses sinners, of whom Paul
said, I am chief, Jesus Christ. And so he said, I must needs
go through Samaria. Why? Because one of his people
were there. He said, all that the Father giveth me shall come
to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
And this is the will of him that sent me, that of all which he
hath given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the
last day. Christ will not stop till Zion's righteousness His
righteousness charged to them, imputed to them, burns brightly
visible to the nations and the kings, he says here, like a lamp
that burneth. And when the nations see the
righteousness of God's people, which is Christ's righteousness,
not our own, you see, not what we do for God, but what God has
done for us as they see it by the power of the Spirit in the
preaching of the gospel, The brightness of God's splendor
is visible there, His glory. They see the Shekinah glory of
God. Have you seen the Shekinah glory of God? Well, you haven't
seen it until you've seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. And that stresses the proclamation
of the Gospel and its effects. And here the results flow from
a transformation the world can observe. There's a change. It's not that we've gotten so
much better. But it's now we know our Savior. We know Him
whom to know is life eternal. And therefore Zion becomes a
crown that the Lord is pleased to wear. The people of God who
glorify Him. And also it's our mission as
Christ has commanded us as a church not to hold our peace. Not to
stop in the work of the ministry as long as we're here on earth.
Now there's a lot of things that would hinder us. Mainly ourselves. There's a lot of things that
make you just say, I'm just going to quit. I'm just going to stop. I'm not going to do it anymore.
But you see, that's not the way of God. You see, Paul made this
statement in 2 Corinthians 4. He said, Therefore, see, we have
this ministry, this ministry, this ministry of God's glory. of God's grace, the only way
of salvation for sinners. Seeing we have this ministry
as we have received mercy, we faint not. You see, somebody
can make me awful mad, somebody can make me awful discouraged,
I can do it to myself, but I have this ministry and I have received
mercy from God, therefore whatever they do or however I feel has
nothing to do with it. We faint not. We don't stop. We don't quit. Galatians 6, 9,
He said, Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season
we shall reap if we faint not. Ephesians 3 and verse 13, Wherefore,
I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which
is your glory. You may hear somebody else, some
preacher of the gospel or some dear true believer who's going
through some awful trials, and they may say, Well, why don't
we just give up? No, no, no, no. Faint not. Faint
not. Why? Because we've received mercy.
We're mercy beggars. We're recipients of mercy. Look
at verse 2. He says, "...and the Gentiles
shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory, and
thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the
Lord shall name." Here's the glorious calling of the Gentiles.
In other words, the Gentiles shall see this righteousness.
What does that mean? They'll see Christ. Isn't that
right? They'll see Christ. "...and him
crucified, dead, buried, and risen again." Believing Gentiles,
like the believing Jews, shall see Christ, and they'll have
a new name. Jerusalem, this Jerusalem, this
spiritual city, will be so transformed that she'll be called by a new
name. And since the Lord is the author of the transformation,
He's also the author of the new name. It says here, a new name
which the mouth of the Lord shall name. You're not going to name
yourself. I'm not going to name myself.
God names His people. You know why? Because we're His.
We belong to Him. He's the only one who has the
right to name us. And the thought here is extended in verse 4. Look down. Let's read verse 3
first. He says, Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand
of the Lord. Now, I'm going to come back to
that in just a moment. And a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.
But look here about this new name. Look at verse 4. Thou shalt
no more be termed or named forsaken. That's what we are by nature.
Forsaken. Fallen. Sinful, depraved, idolaters,
forsaken. Neither shall thy land any more
be termed desolate. That's what we are by nature,
desolate, unfruitful. The only fruit we can bring forth
by nature is fruit unto death. But here's the new name. But
thou shalt be called Hesabah. Hesabah. You say, what in the
world does that mean? Well, you've got a concordance
there. Just jump right over to it and you can see it. Don't
take a genius to find this out now. Look at it. What does it
say? What does Hezabah mean? What
does it mean? Somebody tell me. My delight. That's your name
now. You're His delight. Not me. You mean old forsaken and old
desolate is now God's delight? Yes, sir. That's the transformation.
Well, what did I ever do to deserve to be called God's delight? Nothing. You were forsaken and desolate.
What did I ever do to earn that kind of a name for myself? Nothing. Huh? Oh, desolate? Oh, forsaken? Well, is God just making fun
of me? Is this some kind of a legal
fiction? Huh? No, sir. You are His delight. And you want to know why? Because
He saved you by His grace. Just like our Lord. You know,
He said He didn't shut up and He didn't stop until He did the
work. He said He loved His own until
the end. Until the end. The finishing
of the work. You know, the psalmist often
said this. He said, when my mother and my father forsake me, Christ
hasn't. When my family forsakes me, Christ
hasn't. When my friends forsake me, Christ
hasn't. You may not be their delight,
but you're God's delight. Now, does that excuse my bad
attitude and my lousy behavior? No. You're not his delight because
of any of that. You're his delight for one reason
and one reason alone, because you're an example, a recipient
of the glory of his grace in Christ. And that's it. Hephzibah. My delight is in her. Just like the bridegroom who
has his delight in the bride. And so, this is the exchange,
but it goes on, look on. He says, and thy land, Beulah.
Look at what that means in your concordance. That means married.
Now, when he says your land, Beulah, for the Lord delighteth
in thee, and thy land shall be married, what he's talking about
is a change of a state there. You know, marriage changes things,
doesn't it? Quite a bit. Brings you into
a new state of existence. A new state of life there. There's the bride, there's the
groom. The groom marries the bride. She takes his name, he
takes responsibility for her well-being, her welfare. Christ
is the bridegroom. We're the bride. And so, when
this happens, you see, our whole life changes. Whereas before,
we were forsaken and desolate. out there on our own with no
hope, now we're married to Christ. Look over at Romans chapter 7.
Brother Joe read this at the end of the service this morning. This is what the Apostle is talking
about here, and he uses this example. He says, verse 4 of Romans 7, Wherefore, my brethren, You also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. That is,
your debt to law and justice is paid by the body of Christ,
by the death of Christ. Christ paid our debt in full.
Now, not that you should be just hanging around out there, desolate
or forsaken, but that you should be named Buah. And he says that
you should be married to another. even him who is raised from the
dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God, the fruit of
love, the fruit of grace. And he says in verse 5, for when
we were in the flesh, when we were lost, unregenerate, the
motions of sin, that word motions means passions, the desires of
sin, which were by the law did work in our members to bring
forth fruit unto death. And fruit unto death would include
everything from the most religious person trying to establish a
righteousness of their own to the most immoral person who doesn't
even care about religion. Either way, without Christ, it's
what? Fruit unto death. It will not
profit you anything. It may look good to men, men
may brag on you about it, they may give you awards and rewards
and keys to the city, but it's fruit unto death. And so he says
in verse 6, but now, We are delivered from the law, that being dead
wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of the
Spirit." What does that mean? In love, in gratitude, in grace,
and not in oldness of the letter, not outwardly by the legal motivation. Look back at Isaiah 62. There's
a new name, you see. And since it's God calling the
new name, it shows us He owns us. He bought us with the price,
the price of the blood of His Son. That name that includes
righteous, He speaks of that quite often through these last
chapters of Isaiah. Christ is the Lord our righteousness.
If you don't have these marked in your Bibles, I won't turn
to them because I don't have time. But there's two times in
the book of Jeremiah where the Lord is identified and distinguished
as Jehovah Shidkanu, the Lord our Righteousness. The first
time is Jeremiah 23, verses 5-6. You mark that and read it. If
you don't have it marked in your Bible, mark it. Jeremiah 23, 5-6. There's a prophecy
of the Messiah. And it says, His name shall be
called, He shall be called, Jehovah Shidkanu, the Lord Our Righteousness. That's His name. And then another
time in the book of Jeremiah, I believe it's chapter 33, verses
15 through 16. And there it says, it's a prophecy
of the Messiah, but it identifies His church, His bride. She, the
feminine, She shall be called Jehovah Shidkanu, the Lord Our
Righteousness. Now, does that mean that Christ
and his church are equal in nature? Absolutely not. Don't ever get
caught up in these people who are trying to define the oneness
of Christ with an equality of nature. That is blasphemy, I'm
going to tell you that. We're not little gods, we're
not even on the scale there. But what it's identifying there
is the marriage between Christ and His church, where the church,
the bride, marries the groom and takes his name. So that we
can honestly, without blasphemy, say we are righteous in Him. For He is the Lord our righteousness. And so now we're called by that
new name. It's a declared reality, whether
we feel like it or not. And it's God who bestows, so
it's a gift to His people. It's a bestowed righteousness.
It's not the production of His people, but it's a gift received
from the Lord, worked out for us by the Lord Jesus Christ in
His obedience unto death. And what we see here in the church
as the delight of Christ is both the gift of righteousness and
the gift of spiritual life. Look back at Isaiah 62. Let me
close with this. He says in verse 3, Thou shalt
also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal
diadem in the hand of thy God. You're familiar with the idea
that we will receive a crown. The scripture speaks of that.
Paul spoke of that. He spoke of a crown of righteousness,
a crown of glory, a crown of life, all the gifts of God's
grace given to us by virtue of our union with Christ. But here,
he's speaking of something different. He's speaking of the church,
His redeemed people, as a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord.
We're His crown. We're His inheritance. And so,
he says, thou shalt no more be termed or named forsaken and
desolate, but you're His delight. You're His wife. For the Lord
delighteth in thee. in Christ, and thy land shall
be married." You have a new state. You live on a new estate. You're
citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem. So verse 5, he says, For as a
young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee.
And as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy
God rejoice over thee. The church, the Lord's bride,
is what he rejoices over. Think about that. You know, the
Bible constantly tells us to rejoice in the Lord. And we do. And we see it more and more.
But did you ever think about God rejoicing over you? Or me? I'll tell you, that's amazing.
That ought to get hold of you tonight. Think about it. It's
not getting hold of you right now. Think about a little more.
Maybe later on it will. God rejoicing over. We don't
even rejoice over each other like we should. over a sinner
saved by grace. But God rejoices over His people. Now what does that mean? Does
that mean He has confidence in us? No. He doesn't even put confidence
in the stars. He doesn't put confidence in
His saints. But the joy of the Lord is His delight and His pleasure
and His satisfaction in that they are His people by virtue
of the sovereign, blessed, effectual, powerful work of His Son on our
behalf. In other words, I'm saying this,
just as we rejoice in Christ, we rejoice in God in Christ,
God rejoices in us in Christ. Our connection with God who delights
is Christ. If it weren't for Christ, there'd
be no delight from God. You know that. If it weren't
for His blood and righteousness, there'd be nothing but wrath.
That's it. That'd be nothing but condemnation.
But his people, his church is his delight. Now meditate upon
that. Think about that. All right.