Isaiah chapter 33 and verse 1. Woe to thee that spoilest, and
thou wast not spoiled, and dealest treacherously, and they dealt
not treacherously with thee. When thou shalt cease to spoil,
thou shalt be spoiled, and when thou shalt make an end to deal
treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee. O Lord,
be gracious unto us. We have waited for thee. Be thou
their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of
trouble. At the noise of the tumult, the
people fled. At the lifting up of thyself,
the nations were scattered. and your spoil shall be gathered
like the gathering of the caterpillar, as the running to and fro of
locusts shall he run upon them. The Lord is exalted, for he dwelleth
on high, he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness,
and wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times
and strength of salvation. The fear of the Lord is his treasure. Behold, their valiant ones shall
cry without. The ambassadors of peace shall
weep bitterly. The highways lie waste. The wayfaring
man seeth. He hath broken the covenant.
He hath despised the cities. He regardeth no man. The earth
mourneth and languisheth. Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down,
Sharon is like a wilderness, and Bashin and Carmel shake off
their fruits. Now will I rise, saith the Lord,
now will I be exalted, now will I lift up myself. Ye shall conceive
chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble, your breath as fire shall devour
you, and the people shall be as the burnings of lime, as thorns
cut up shall they be burned in the fire. Hear ye that are far
off what I have done, and ye that are near acknowledge my
might. The sinners in Zion are afraid. Fearfulness hath surprised the
hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with
the devouring fire, and who among us shall dwell with everlasting
burnings? He that walketh righteously and
speaketh uprightly, he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that
shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his
ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing
evil. He shall dwell on high, his place
of defence shall be the munitions of rocks, bread shall be given
him, his waters shall be sure. Thine eyes shall see the King
in his beauty. They shall behold the land that
is very far off. Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? Where is
the receiver? Where is he that counted the
towers? Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper
speech than thou canst perceive, of a stammering tongue that thou
canst not understand. Look upon Zion, the city of our
solemnities. Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem,
a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down.
Not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither
shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But there the glorious
Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams,
wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship
pass thereby. For the Lord is our Judge, the
Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King, He will save us. thy tacklings are loosed, they
could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the
sail. Then as the prey of a great spoil
divided, the lame take the prey. And the inhabitant shall not
say, I am sick. The people that dwell therein
shall be forgiven their iniquity. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. I don't imagine there could be
a finer subject for a Gospel sermon than the beauty of Christ,
or the loveliness of our Saviour. And this exquisite subject is
exactly what Isaiah is pointing us to today. The prophet tells
the Lord's people in verse 17, thine eyes shall see the king
in his beauty. They shall behold the land that
is very far off. Now, it is the eye of faith that
the prophet speaks of. And this explains to us why many
who have no true faith find little or nothing attractive in Jesus. And yet to us who are called,
says Paul, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. And I add the beauty of God. for in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. We mentioned yesterday how Zechariah
said of the Lord Jesus, how great is his goodness and how great
is his beauty. Those are not questions, those
are exclamations. The Shulamite, in Song of Solomon,
described her king's head and hair, and his eyes and his cheeks
and his lips and his mouth and his hands and his legs and even
his belly, before declaring he is altogether lovely. But the Saviour himself says,
of himself, a greater than Solomon is here. If Solomon in all his
parts was altogether lovely, a greater than Solomon is here. So I hope in the next few minutes
to consider the loveliness of the Saviour in all his parts
and the beauty of our King as Isaiah here points to him. And we are in good company to
do so, because the Apostle Paul encourages us along this pathway. He says, whatsoever things are
lovely, think on these things. And I'm sure that we will be
blessed in doing so today. Isaiah's prophecy served to condemn
sin, to correct error, to challenge carelessness in
the lives of his readers, especially in spiritual matters. But as
we have said many times, the principal purpose of his message
was to comfort God's elect people by pointing them to the certainty
of the gospel age and the things that would be successfully accomplished
by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Isaiah comforted the
remnant people by the wonder of God's grace. Not only for
the Jews, as we've already seen, but the Jews throughout the history
of the Old Testament Church. The prophets came to them with
a message which said, look and anticipate the Messiah. But in
parallel with that, spoke of an expansion of the kingdom and
a glory that would follow and an enlargement of the mercies
of God. And here also we are seeing this
described as part of the beauty of the king in his kingdom. There
would be for the Gentiles a worldwide gathering of the elect. A few
weeks ago when we were back in an earlier chapter in our studies
here in Isaiah, we read where Isaiah said, Our knowledge of
the Lord is never intended in Scripture. to be a mere head knowledge,
such as a student or an intelligent person might acquire from a period
of study or research, so that they might say, after they'd
spent a few years studying their subject, that they had mastered
their subject. or that they're experts in their
field. Our knowledge of the Lord will
never lead us to master our subject or be experts in our field. Our knowledge of the Lord is
heart knowledge. It's to do with a relationship
that deepens and deepens and deepens the longer we get to
know the person whom we love. and cherish and admire. Our knowledge
of the Lord is a spiritual knowledge and it doesn't produce pride. It doesn't produce experts. It generates admiration. It informs our worship and it
motivates our praise. Indeed, it engenders humility
on the part of those who truly appreciate something of the nature
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that when we speak about the
beauty of the King, we're not speaking about Christ as being
a handsome man, although I suspect that he was. In Psalm 45 verse
2 we're told that he is fairer than the children of men. So
there's no reason why we shouldn't apply that to the Saviour and
his outward visage. But we're speaking of his qualities. We're speaking of his attributes.
We're speaking of his virtues and his accomplishments. We will
never master the subject of Christ. But if we have faith, we will
spend the rest of our lives getting to know the Lord Jesus Christ
better and better. And we will only scratch the
surface because in eternal ages, we will deepen our appreciation
of Christ's beauty in every aspect of his character. and will still
never fully plumb the depths of his infinite nature and wonderful
works to the children of men. So here are a few things that
I want to direct your attention to today with regard to the beauty
of our King and the loveliness of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. The first one is this. that Christ
is holy and holiness has a beauty all of its own. Indeed, the church
is called to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. and we can only ever worship
the Lord by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how true
worship comes. Those who have no faith can sing
and pray and read and sermonize all they want. They can bring
their sacrifices, they can bring their offerings, they can make
their gifts, but no part of it is ever worship unless it is
worship offered in the beauty of holiness because that is the
only worship acceptable to God and it is found in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ is holy, just, true on
account of all his divine perfections, all of his excellencies and his
glories. Our friend, our brother, our
Lord Jesus epitomises every divine attribute and quality of the
Godhead. He is eternal. He is immutable. That means he doesn't change. He is omnipotent. He is omniscient. He has all power. He has all
knowledge. He is independent of all things,
and yet He fills and holds dominion over all things. In these attributes, the Lord
Jesus Christ is transcendent. He is infinitely beyond our comprehension
and above our imagination. We visit the ocean and we stand
on the shore at the side of the ocean and we're looking out and
we see the horizon where it touches the sky and we become inspired
by its size and its scale and its power. Or maybe we take an
aeroplane and we wonder at the length and the breadth and the
height of the sky as we're flying. Or we stand on a hill and we
gaze into space on a clear night and we're overawed by the majestic
heavens that stretch out before us. Whether it's the sea, the ocean,
whether it's the sky and the clouds, whether it's the stars
in space, we find beauty and wonder in what we perceive as
being immense and grand and unfathomable. And yet scripture reminds us
that the Lord Jesus Christ created all of these things by the word
of his power in a moment in time and continues to uphold them
now until they have served his purpose through the simple laws of nature
and rules of science that he has established. I am convinced that the Lord
allows man to be so inquisitive and skillful technically as to
send spacecraft into space and the James Webb telescope into
space to photograph stars and planets and galaxies and look
back to the early universe and the beginning of creation. I
am convinced that the Lord allows us to do all those things in
order to exhibit, in order to exhibit to fallen creatures how much greater and more powerful
and more wonderful the Creator must be. Yet for all our ability,
real or imagined, Paul can say, now unto the King eternal, immortal,
invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever
and ever. God is always beyond our comprehension,
yet He reveals His glory in the things that He has done, in the
things that He has made, in the things that He has revealed.
This is our eternal King, whose glory, majesty and beauty is
constrained only by our ignorance. Here's the second thing that
I want to say in thinking about the beauty of the King. Our beautiful
King exemplifies every desirable and attractive quality found
in the realm of human endeavour and experience. Here's what I
mean. Love finds its highest glory
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faithfulness finds its highest
manifestation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Patience, which we aspire
to, kindness, tenderness, goodness, gentleness, mercy, wisdom, courage,
peace. We could go on and on and on.
These great qualities that are so desirable in human character
find their greatest example or exemplar in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has in
himself all the qualities and blessings that we could ever
wish for, for ourselves. And were we not in Adam so implacably
opposed to the Lord Jesus Christ, These beautiful qualities of
our Saviour might make Him desirable to all men and women and all
boys and girls. Scripture describes the Lord
as the desire of all nations. Haggai says that, the prophet
Haggai. But though Christ is the desire
of all nations, He is not desired individually by all men and women. Even if, by all that is right,
he should be. And actually, the beauty and
the attractiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That inherent beauty
and attractiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ in the qualities
of love and faithfulness and patience and kindness and goodness
and mercy and courage and peace. These great truths, these great
attributes that are part of his nature in their highest form. The very fact that the Lord Jesus
Christ possesses all these things and yet is hated by men and women
in their natural state proves the depravity of fallen man and
the necessity of the new birth. If it wasn't for our depravity,
the Lord Jesus Christ would be attractive to us. The very fact
that he is not in our nature. then proves our fallenness and
depravity. How else might we explain how
one so lovely in all his ways could be so hated? The Lord Jesus
Christ only ever did good when he was on earth and yet within
a few years of his ministry beginning he had been put on the cross
and crucified. David voices Christ when he says,
they hated me without a cause, being mine enemies wrongfully. It is a sin and a crime not to
be attracted to the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is evidence of
our corrupt nature not to find the Lord Jesus Christ beautiful. Once it was us who did not find
Christ attractive. Only now, having been made sensible
of our need by the Holy Spirit, having been appraised of his
suitability to supply all our need according to his riches
in glory, all our need by a hearing of the gospel, we can see Christ
the King to be more beautiful, more desirable, more attractive
than everything and everyone in the whole world. Having now
seen the King in His beauty, we'd not give Him up for anything. What is it the hymn says? I'd
rather have Jesus than silver and gold. That's the reality,
now that we have discovered who He is and seen Him in His beauty. Here's my third point, we're
moving on. Psalm 126 in verse three says,
the Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad. The Lord hath done great things
for us whereof we are glad. Our beautiful King has fulfilled
every covenant office, satisfied every righteous demand of the
Holy Lord God, and supplied every spiritual need of his elect people. all his ways are righteous, all
his works glorious. A few weeks ago, when we were
in chapter 4, we read verse 2 in Isaiah and it says this, In that
day, and that was Isaiah talking about that day, that coming day,
that gospel day, that day that he is pointing to constantly
to the comfort of his readers. In that day shall the branch
of the Lord be beautiful and glorious. And the fruit of the
earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped
of Israel, right? Them that are escaped of Israel
are the remnant The branch shall be beautiful and glorious. We remarked at the time how the
branch of the Lord was a reference to Christ's divine nature, beautiful
and glorious. And also that the fruit of the
earth wasn't people per se, but rather that man, that second
Adam, being a reference to the human nature of the Lord, it
too would be excellent and comely. Comely is another word for beautiful,
for attractive. So that it is speaking here,
in these early chapters of Isaiah also, of Christ's beauty in his
covenant role as the God-man in his mediator offices. Remember what we've said, holiness
is beauty. The beauty of holiness. And Christ
is holy and perfect in all his ways and works. Here's a question for you. This
will test your Bible knowledge. Do you know who was the most
handsome man in Israel? Not the wisest man, I know who
the wisest man was. Who was the most handsome man
in Israel? Well, the answer is found in
2 Samuel chapter 14 and verse 25. But in all Israel, there
was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty. From the sole of his foot even
to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him. And I say to you that Christ
was beautiful as David's even greater son. as the lamb without
blemish and without spot. Absalom's beauty was in his purity,
that there was no blemish in him from the sole of his feet
to the crown of his head. There was no blemish or spot
in the Lord Jesus Christ, hence his beauty. His names, his offices,
his relations to his people, a father, a brother, a friend,
a comforter, a captain. The blessings of His grace, the
works done by Him, His preaching, His truths, His miracles, His
ordinances, they all lead us to admire and to appreciate and
to love the Lord Jesus. The saviour for all he is and
all he has done for us. Paul says, he loved me and gave
himself for me. And John adds, we love him because
he first loved us. So in this chapter in Isaiah,
this chapter 33, Isaiah lists a whole range of covenant virtues,
of covenant roles fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ. He's gracious
and he's glorious. He's righteous and he's wise.
He's strong, he's stable, he's foundational. He is a judge,
he's a lawgiver, he's a healer. And of course, he's a king. and he's a beautiful king. We
see the king in his beauty, in his humiliation. We see the king
in his beauty on the cross. We see the king in his beauty
in his representative sufferings. We see the king in his beauty
in his sacrificial death. And we love him for it all. Here's just one final thought.
The beauty of Christ is the beauty he gives to his people. Think
on that. In making us holy, he makes us
beautiful. In making us righteous, in justifying
our souls, he gives us the beauty his father gave to him. Speaking of the church and all
the Lord's people of all ages, Ezekiel says in chapter 16, verse
14, he says this, and thy renown went forth among the heathen. So your fame went forth amongst
the nations. Thy renown went forth amongst
the heathen for thy beauty. Who's he speaking about? He's
speaking about the church. Thy renown went forth among the
heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect through my comeliness,
which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God. I'm just going
to read that again because it is so good. And thy renown went
forth among the heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect through
my comeliness which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God. Maybe you don't feel beautiful. Maybe you look inside and wonder
how anyone could think you beautiful if they knew what you were really
like. Well, you are beautiful. You're beautiful to the Lord
and holy in his sight when you are in Christ. He hath made us
kings and priests unto God and his Father. Back in the time
of the building of the tabernacle, Moses was told to make holy garments
for Aaron his brother. And these holy garments were
for glory and for beauty. I guess that they were intended
to typify our righteousness in Christ for its glory and for
its beauty. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.