Now, in that passage that Brother
Randy just read, we have a summation. And ironically, a little bit,
it's a summation that goes into a little bit more detail. Usually
you don't think of a summary as being more detailed, but be
more general. But there's a couple of parts
here that gets into more detail concerning what was stated in
the first 20 verses. of the book of Isaiah. This whole
chapter is a clear declaration of the salvation of God's chosen
people. And all facets of salvation are
covered here. And the mainstay of what is being
taught here is that salvation is of the Lord. It's not of man. Salvation belongs to God. Salvation
comes God's way, not man's way. And that's what we have to be
interested in. That's what we need to research. That's what
we need to seek. Whatever salvation is, whatever
I'm being told about salvation, and you know as well as I do,
people are being told a lot of things about salvation. People
talk about, oh, did you get saved? Did you do this? Did you give
your heart? All these things. Well, what we need to be interested
in is what is God's provided way of salvation. Well, this
chapter tells us. And then secondly, this sets
the theme of the whole book, the whole prophecy of Isaiah. You know, Isaiah prophesied in
Jerusalem about 700, 750 years before Jesus Christ came into
the world. But this whole prophecy, this
whole book, is a book of the gospel of God's way of salvation
by his free and sovereign grace in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ and based on his righteousness alone. Now that's what Isaiah
had in mind. I know that because of other
scriptural testimony where these verses, some of these verses,
and of course as you know a lot of the book of Isaiah is quoted
in the New Testament, probably more than any other prophet,
the book of Isaiah. Salvation is of the Lord. In
the first nine verses, you remember, he talked about the sinfulness
and depravity of man. A great description of it. Here
he's describing the state of the nation Israel, or the nation
Judah, the southern kingdom, Jerusalem itself. Remember what
he said, ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity. And he's
talking about a religious people. He's talking about people who
are going about religiously trying to establish their own righteousness
before God. In other words, that's their
way of seeing salvation. I've got to get right, I've got
to do right, I've got to be right in order for God to save me or
accept me. And that's a false gospel. He,
in verses 10 through 15, he talked about their religious efforts,
even their sincerity, their zeal. And it was all for nothing. To
what purpose, he said, are all of your sacrifices unto me? You
see, we're to be dedicated in service to the Lord, but if that's
our righteousness before God, what good does it do us? Nothing.
It's an abomination to God. Do you realize that among sinful
man, the best that they can do, the best we can do, falls short
of the righteousness that God requires? That's what he tells
us. And then from verses 16 through
20, he talks about the reasoning of the gospel. He says in verse
18, Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins
be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be
red like crimson, they shall be as wool." And that's gospel
reasoning. How does God accomplish that? Well, these last few verses
of Isaiah shows us that. And it's summarized in verse
27. Look at verse 27 of Isaiah 1.
Zion shall be redeemed with judgment and her converts with righteousness.
Now that's a summation of it. Zion shall be redeemed. That's
the title of this message. Looking at these verses, and
they're so full, and there's so much here. I told somebody,
I said, I try to get Kristen the titles to the messages as
early as possible. Usually, if I can get her the
titles on Monday, that's good. And I sent her this title, Zion
Shall Be Redeemed. I think I went in on Tuesday,
I said, Kristen, have you done the labels for the messages yet?
She said no, and I said, well, add part one. So this is going
to be part one. Unless you all want to stay here
until about one o'clock. If you do, just let me know.
I'll take off my... But anyway, this is part one. Zion shall be redeemed. It's the concluding statement.
It's the theme of the whole book. It has to do with the promise
of the coming Messiah, the gospel. So what I want to do this morning,
I want to read through these verses and make some comments.
about what he's talking about and how it applies not only to
Israel and Jerusalem in that day, but how it applies to our
day and what it means. Randy mentioned when he read
that Zion is the church. I could go into a lot of the
history of that term Zion. I'll go into some of it, but
not a lot. But I want you to look at this. Look at verse 21. He makes this statement. It's in the form of a question,
but it's constructed as a statement of fact. In other words, this
is not a question that he's asking the people. This is a question
he's posing, as we say, a rhetorical question. In other words, it's
a question that's given to make a point. And here's what he says. How is the faithful city become
an harlot? You know what that is. You know
what a harlot is. What's he talking about? A prostitute. How is the faithful city? Who
is the faithful city here? The faithful city is identified
in verse 27. It's Zion. Zion. And we'll come back to that.
What is Zion? Zion was a place outside, I think
it was like southeast of Jerusalem, a hill. where King David built
his palace. Back when he first conquered
Jerusalem, took it away from the Jebusites, and it became
the central point of Israel, as Zion. But Zion, as it progressed,
and I'll show you more of this later on in the next message,
as Zion, as it progressed through the scriptures, it became a spiritual
symbol, a type, if you will. A picture of something eternal. Zion, the actual hill, is just
like any other place on this earth. It's going to be destroyed.
It's going to be done away with. But Zion, the spiritual Zion,
you might say, is an eternal thing. It is a spiritual thing. It's the church of the living
God. it's the city of the living God
turn over to Hebrews chapter 12 with me Hebrews chapter 12 in the book of Hebrews chapter
12 he's talking about the difference between the old covenant at Mount
Sinai and the new covenant the old covenant was a legal covenant
of death and condemnation. It's kind of like this. If somebody
gave you a law and said, now, if you don't keep this law, you'll
die. And it's a law that you're incapable
of keeping. That's what the old covenant
basically was like. You say, well, it doesn't seem
fair for God to give that, to put that on a people, give them
a covenant they can't keep. You don't understand what God's
purpose was in giving that law. Why did God give them the old
covenant law, Mount Sinai, the Ten Commandments, the ceremonies,
the civil laws, all that? Why did God give it to them?
He gave them that covenant to show them the impossibility of
salvation coming by their works. That's why he gave it. It was
to show them their sinfulness, their inadequacy, their utter... they had no power to work righteousness. Here's the righteousness of the
law, he says. Now, if you're going to be saved
and accepted and blessed and benefited by God in any way for
salvation, then you have to measure up to that standard but none
of us can measure up to that standard, why? Because we've
all sinned and come short of the glory of God that's why he
gave it and so he pointed them by promise
to someone in the future who would come and establish the
righteousness of the law for his people all who believe in
him God's elect they're called Isaiah called him a remnant.
And that's what Mount Zion, Zion typifies and symbolizes. It refers
to the church redeemed by the grace of God through the obedience
and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not through man's obedience,
not through man's suffering and death, but through the obedience
and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the writer of Hebrews,
listen to what he says here in Hebrews 12. Look at verse 18,
he says, for you are not come unto the mount that might be
touched, that is a physical mount, and that burned with fire, nor
unto blackness and darkness and tempest. the sound of a trumpet,
the voice of words, which voice that they that heard entreated
that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. In other words,
it was a mountain of fear, Mount Sinai. You remember, most of
you have heard stories or read about Moses on that mountain
and all the fire of God, the finger of God, the thunderings,
the lightnings, the physical things that surrounded that.
It struck fear in their hearts. Verse 20 says, they could not
endure that which was commanded. They couldn't keep that which
was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched the mount,
it shall be stoned and thrust through with a dart. In other
words, even an animal was not to come and touch that mount.
It was so holy. And this world is so sinful.
There was no connection, you see, or death. Verse 21, and
so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear
and quake. Even Moses realized that he could
not keep that law that was given to Israel through him. You say, well, Moses, surely
he was the lawgiver. Surely he could keep the law.
Oh, no. That's why Christ said that Moses wrote of him. And
he says in verse 22, now you didn't, in other words, you didn't
come to Mount Sinai for salvation. That's what he's telling believers
here. Sinners saved by grace. You didn't come to Mount Sinai
for salvation. You didn't come to the law trying
to keep it for your salvation. Look at verse 22. But you are
come unto Mount Sion. Now there it's spelled with an
S, but it's the same as Zion. And unto the city of the living
God. Now remember he said back in
Isaiah, how has the faithful city become a harlot? You've
come to the city of the living God. What is the city? It's the
heavenly Jerusalem. Not physical Jerusalem over in
Palestine. But the heavenly Jerusalem. What
is that? That's the spiritual city. wherein
dwelleth the people of God, sinners saved by grace through the blood
and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. To an innumerable
company of angels, messengers of God, to the general assembly
and church, Zion is the church, you see, of the firstborn, the
firstborn, that's Christ, firstborn refers to his resurrection from
the dead. which are written in heaven, and to God the judge
of all, and to the spirits of just men, righteous men, made
complete, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, not the
old covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better
things than that of Abel. In other words, the blood of
sprinkling which cries out for salvation for the people of God,
not like Abel's blood which cried out for vengeance. You see? Now go back to Isaiah 1. This
faithful city is Zion. But now he asked, how is the
faithful city becoming harlot? You know, when you think about
Israel of old under the old covenant, and you read their history, there's
just not a whole lot of faithfulness to be found. I mean, you think
about it. Their history was a history of
a rebellious people who rejected the truth. Now, don't get puffed
up. That's our history, too. That's
the history of mankind by nature. So what could he be referring
to in Jerusalem, the actual city of Jerusalem that would be called
faithful? Well, I believe he's referring
back to the days of King David where Israel was in its heyday,
and it was a very short period of time. David lived about a
thousand years before Christ. And in those days, David, who
was God's appointed king, did lead the people in the ways of
the Lord. And then Solomon came along,
and after Solomon, what happened? The kingdom divided up. And it got worse and worse and
worse. The faithful city had become
a harlot. The faithful city is one that goes by the ways of
God. But it had fallen into sin and
depravity even more to where it got to the days of Isaiah,
and listen to how he describes them in verse two of chapter
one. Look at it. Hear, O heavens,
give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I've nourished and
brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. He
says, the ox knows his owner, the ass his master's crib, but
Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah, sinful
nation. Sinful people. Now what you have
there, this faithful city that fell into harlotry, idolatry,
is a description of all of us by nature. You, me, all of us. The best of us, the worst of
us. We're a sinful people. We fell in Adam. Adam, before
the fall, what was he? He was faithful. He was submissive
to God. He worshipped God. He had fellowship
with God. And then he fell. He sinned against
God. And the whole human family fell
in him. That's what the scripture teaches. Ruined by the fall. We talk about the three R's.
Ruined by the fall. Redeemed by the blood. Regenerated
by the spirit. We were ruined by the fall. When
we look at the faithful city becoming in Harlot. Who's he
talking about? He's talking about me. He's talking about you. He's
talking about all of us. By nature. He says it was full of judgment.
Righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers. He's talking about
soul murderers. Judgment and righteousness are
ways the scripture defines the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Judgment and righteousness. How do you know that? Look over
at Isaiah chapter 9. Whenever you see judgment and
righteousness together in the scripture, It's a way of referring
to the gospel of God's grace in the salvation of sinners based
on judgment and righteousness provided through a substitute,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 6. He says, For
unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. That's Christ
in his person. That's the God-man. That's God
with us, manifest with us. And the government shall be upon
his shoulder. That's the government of his grace, the government
of his church. The well-being of his people
is upon his shoulder. It's all conditioned on Christ. You see, salvation is not conditioned
on me or you. It's conditioned on Christ. And
he fulfilled the condition. The government was on his shoulder.
Now is he able to do what he was given to do? Well, his name
shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace. He's able to fulfill all the
conditions and requirements of the government of salvation of
his people, of his church, because of who he is. He's God-man. Now look at verse 7. of the increase of his government
and peace there shall be no end." Listen, what Christ accomplished
in his work on the cross signified by his death and resurrection
is the sure salvation of his government, his city, his church,
his people. He didn't die for those who enter
hell. Of the increase of his government
and peace there shall be no end." He says, upon the throne of David.
That's a prophecy there. He would come from the tribe
of Judah, which is David. And upon his kingdom to order
it and to establish it, look at it, with judgment and with
justice. That's judgment and righteousness.
From henceforth even forever the zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform it. Now there's several other passages that speak
of that. But go back to Isaiah 1, judgment
and righteousness is the gospel way of salvation through Jesus
Christ. He went under the judgment of
God for the sins of his people charged, accounted, reckoned
to him. And out of that judgment, he
satisfied the justice of God and he brought forth righteousness
for his people. We're saved not by righteousness
that we do or that we create or that we earn. We're saved
by the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me say
this. If I preach to you, and this
may sound harsh, but I want you to understand, I want you to
put it in perspective. If I stand before you preaching
salvation totally by the grace of God, based on the righteousness
of Christ, freely imputed, charged, accounted, and received by God-given
faith, you know what I'm preaching to you is life. That's the only way of life.
Now, it may not be life to you because you may... Go on in your rebellion, in your
self-will. If God ever makes you willing
in the day of His power, you'll receive it, you'll believe it.
That's right. But now, if I stand before you
and I preach salvation any other way by the works or the will
of man, you know what I'm preaching to you is death. It's death. Because it'll do you no good.
And so when he talks about how judgment and righteousness lodged
in it, that's the gospel, but now murderers. He's talking about
soul murder there. The way they were worshiping
God here was death. The priests who encouraged them,
the scripture calls soul murderers, they're followers of Satan. Because
he tells his lies which lead to death. Look at verse 22. Thy
silver is become dross. Silver in the Old Testament is
a picture, a symbol of redemption. How is a sinner redeemed? Well,
the Bible says by the blood of Jesus Christ. That's the only
way a sinner can truly be redeemed. Now, if you mix that and say,
well, it's by Christ's blood plus baptism, or it's by Christ's
blood plus your decision, or it's by Christ's blood plus your
church attendance, you know what you've done? Your silver has
become dross. Dross is impurity. You've corrupted
the gospel. That's what Isaiah is telling
these people. You've corrupted it. You've put impurities, you
see, The forgiveness of sins, righteousness itself, comes by
the pure, perfect, uncontaminated blood of Jesus Christ. That's
His death on the cross. If I mix my works or your works
in with it, then it's become dross. He says, thy wine mixed
with water. Wine is a symbol of the Word
of God here. If I preach to you salvation
totally by God's grace in Christ, that's the pure word of God.
If I mix it with the works of man, I've watered it down. Watered down wine. Nothing worse. Look at verse 23. Thy princes
are rebellious and companions of thieves. That's their leaders.
Everyone loveth gifts. In other words, they're in it
not for the glory of God, but what they can get out of it.
They followeth after rewards. That's what people are following
after today. They're trying to earn salvation. They're trying
to earn their rewards. My friend, you can't earn anything
from God. Do you realize that? You realize that if we receive
anything from God that is good, it is neither earned nor deserved. You say, well, I get blessings
when I do this and do that. That's not because you earned
them. That's because God says, that's
the way it is, I freely give them. Salvation is not a reward
of debt. Look at Romans chapter four. It's talking about Abraham here. How did Abraham receive righteousness? How did God view him as righteous?
Verse 2 of Romans 4, he says, for if Abraham were justified,
made righteous, not guilty by works, he hath whereof to glory,
to boast, but not before God. For what saith the scripture?
What does the pure word of God say? Abraham believed God, and
it was counted unto him for righteousness. What is the it there? That's
the righteousness of Christ promised to Abraham by God. God promised
Abraham that Messiah would come in the future and work out righteousness
for him. That's what God promised him.
That's what Abraham believed. And that righteousness that Christ
would work out in the future for Abraham was imputed, charged,
accounted to him. Now verse 4. Now to him that
worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt. If you
work for it, it's not grace. It's debt. It's what you're owed.
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." What was
Abraham's faith? It was that Christ would come
and work out righteousness for him. In other words, Abraham
didn't earn it, he didn't deserve it, it was a free gift. Go back
to Isaiah 1. Verse 23, they judge not the
fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto
them. That class of people that he describes here, the fatherless,
that's orphans, the widow, that's women, they are the most destitute
people in that culture of the day. They were left to be begged. If a woman's husband died and
she didn't get remarried or her husband didn't leave her a lot,
she was out in the streets. And orphans, that's what they
did, they begged. And what he's showing here, that in a spiritual
way, that's what we all are by nature. We're left destitute. We have nothing to recommend
us to God. Well, isn't there an application
here that tells them that, yes, you should take care of the widows
and orphans? Of course there is. But the issue at hand here
is the redemption of Zion, the redemption of the church. And
when it comes to redemption, we don't have anything to recommend
us unto God. Our best cannot recommend us
unto God, can't save us, can't forgive us, can't wash us clean,
cannot make us righteous. So look at verse 24. Therefore
saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts. Anytime you see the term Lord
of hosts, that's the Lord of an invincible army. In other
words, he can't be defeated. He cannot be defeated. The mighty
one of Israel. Oh, I will ease me of mine adversaries
and avenge me of mine enemies. I'm going to get rid of them.
That's what he's saying. I put up with all I can put up
with. God's going to judge the wicked. But look at verse 25. Now, the conclusion of these
next three verses is in verse 27. Zion shall be redeemed. Look
at verse 25. He says, I will turn my hand
upon thee and purely purge away thy dross and take away thy tin."
If you look in your concordance it might say this, I will turn
my hand upon thee and according to pureness purge away thy dross. God's going to purge away. What
does purge mean? That means to wash away. That
means to make clean. He's going to purge away that
impurity. He's going to take away thy tin.
What is tin there? Well, it's a symbol of self-righteousness.
What it is, it's like a metal that's a mixture. It appears
shiny and clean, but it's mixed. It's kind of like when Christ
looked at the Pharisees and he said, you do indeed appear righteous
unto men, but you're not really righteous. Appearances, you see. And that's what he's talking
about. That mixture That makes you impure? That's self-righteous? He said, I'm going to take it
away. Now how's God going to do all
this? Look at verse 26. I will restore thy judges as
at the first. What are judges here? They're
gospel preachers. They're prophets of God, like
Isaiah, telling the truth. We talked about it this morning
in Revelation 11, like John measuring the temple, preaching the gospel. Preaching the truth, and thy
counselors, your advisors, as at the beginning. That's what
I'm doing right now. I'm preaching the judgment of
God. I'm advising you according to the word of God. Afterward,
thou shalt be called the city of righteousness, the faithful
city. Two things here. Number one, God's gonna justify
his people. This is how he's gonna do it.
He's gonna redeem Zion. He says in verse 27, with judgment
and her converts with righteousness. How's he going to do it? First
of all, he's going to send his son into the world to do for
them what they cannot do for themselves. He's going to wash
away their sins. How? By shedding his precious
blood to satisfy justice. And in that he's going to bring
forth everlasting righteousness. which is imputed to every one
of the citizens of this Zion. And that righteousness is the
righteousness of Christ imputed to them by which they'll stand
before Holy God and be accepted. Accepted in the Beloved. That's
how He's going to do it. And then out of that He's going
to give them spiritual life. He's going to raise them from
the dead and make them willing To bow to Him, faithful city,
coming to Christ for salvation. What is a faithful person? In
God's Word, it's a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's one
who knows that he has nothing to recommend himself unto God,
but that he has one hope, and that's in Jesus Christ, the Lord,
our righteousness. And therefore, Zion shall be
redeemed with judgment. Her converts The ones who God
turns back to Him with righteousness. They'll plead Christ. For Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Now
these last verses show that God's gonna destroy the wicked. Look
at verse 28. The destruction of the transgressors and sinners.
Transgressors means this, they break the law. Sinners means
they fall short. In breaking the law, they fall
short. They don't measure up. They shall be together and they
that forsake the Lord shall be consumed. Your only hope of salvation
is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and rest in him for all
salvation. Verse 29, they shall be ashamed
of the oaks which you have desired and you shall be confounded for
the gardens that you've chosen. As Randy said, that was man's
devised ways of salvation and worship through idolatry. If
you ever heard somebody say this, it doesn't matter where you go
to church, just so you go somewhere. That's the kind of people he's
talking about right here. It does matter. I wrote an article
in the Bulletin, what are you looking for? People looking for
a church. What are you looking for? Well, I'm looking for a
place where my kids will be active and be busy. Well, my friend, if they're active
and busy under the preaching of a lie, what good's that gonna
do? I'm looking someplace where I can fit in with my peers. Well,
do you wanna follow your peers into eternal damnation? Is it
that serious? It doesn't really matter, does
it? Oh, yes, it does. Better be looking for somewhere
where the truth is preached, where the gospel of God's grace
is preached, where the word of God is preached. Oh, it don't
matter, you worship. Remember the woman at the well?
Oh, we Samaritans, we worship up here in this temple. You Jews,
you worship down there in Jerusalem. It don't really matter. Yes,
it does. Truth is everything. Christ is
everything. Verse 30, for you shall be as
an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water,
you see. Death, that's what that's talking
about. And the strong shall be as toe, that's like the chaff
that burns up. The maker of it as the spark.
Those who preach that false gospel, they're like throwing a spark
in a can of gasoline. That's what they're doing. And
they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them. That's
the eternal damnation of those who die without Christ. How am
I going to stand before God? That's what Isaiah is saying.
You're going to come to God and say, Lord, well, we prayed, we
worshiped, we had meetings, we did this, we did that. Or are
you going to stand there pleading nothing but Christ's righteousness
alone? Because that's the only way of
salvation.