We're going to Isaiah chapter
11, and we're going to read from verse 1. And there shall come forth a
rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of
his roots. And the Spirit of the Lord shall
rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the
spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of
the fear of the Lord, and shall make him of quick understanding
in the fear of the Lord, and he shall not judge after the
sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears.
But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove
with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall smite the
earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips
shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the
girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The
wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie
down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling
together, and a little child shall lead them. And the cow
and the bear shall feed, their young ones shall lie down together,
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. and the sucking
child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child
shall put his hand on the cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor
destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of
the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And
in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for
an ensign of the people. To it shall the Gentiles seek,
and his rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in
that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the second
time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left
from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush,
and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the
islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign
for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather
together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the
earth. The envy also of Ephraim shall
depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off, Ephraim
shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. But they
shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the
west. They shall spoil them of the
east together. They shall lay their hand upon
Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon shall obey them. And
the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea.
And with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river,
and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over
dry shod. And there shall be an highway
for the remnant of his people which shall be left from Assyria.
like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the
land of Egypt. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Now we have already seen how
beautifully the Lord Jesus Christ is presented and anticipated
in Isaiah's prophecy. We cannot go but a few verses
and a few chapters into this book without discovering some
delightful, some very precious and rare pictures and types and
names and titles of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the child
born of a virgin. He is the son given to order,
establish and rule the kingdom of God. And he is ordained with
names and with titles that portray his offices, his qualities and
his accomplishments. all of which Isaiah very strikingly
describes as wonderful. All things about this saviour,
all things about this Lord are wonderful. Christ is king over
his kingdom, governor to his people, father for his children,
the maker of peace between God and man. And we've also noted
how graciously and tenderly God has cared for his elect people
amongst the Jews by supplying these revelations concerning
Christ to a people who, in this day and age in which Isaiah lived,
were being squeezed between evil rulers, intent on unholy alliances
with the powers of this world, and God's own determination to
punish and judge sin. So that God sends his prophet
to condemn the guilty and the wicked, threatening them with
judgment which most surely shall come, And yet in doing so, he
also instructs that same servant to carry with him a message of
comfort and encouragement for those who must yet live through
the trials ahead. These were people who God loved,
people whom he desired to be kind and gracious and gentle
with. People whom he was calling to
endure through these times of trial, these times of persecution
and these times of exile, when it would appear that the whole
nation was going to be destroyed and all the promises of God would
be forfeited. God says, I've got something
to keep you going through these difficult times. And I'm sure
that there's a lesson for us here as well. In truth, if it
were not for this weak flesh, we who trust the Lord ought to
be as comforted with the promises of his deliverance as much as
with the evidence and the enjoyment of that deliverance. How often is it that the writers
of the Gospels by the Holy Spirit use the present tenses in speaking
about the Lord in anticipation of the things that are yet to
happen. We are told that we are seated
together in heavenly places with Christ. We are told that we are
glorified together with Christ. These things are as certain and
sure as if they had already happened. And we, the people of God, ought
to regard them with just as much delight and pleasure in anticipation
as if we were verily experiencing them now. You see, the reality
is that our faith is weak and fear stalks us like a lion. So that knowing our weaknesses,
the Lord enlarges His goodness and His mercy to us. He increases
the supplies of kindness to his people in the times of their
trials and their persecutions and their problems. And he doesn't
take away those problems. That exile had to happen because
the judgment must take place. There would be an accountability
in this land. There would be an accountability
amongst the Jews and in Israel. And yet the Lord nurtures his
people. They would go through the tough
times. but they would do so with the support and the comfort of
the Lord's word via his servant, ringing in their ears and applied
to their hearts. The Lord grants additional reassurances
to those who mourn in Zion and to those who weep for the evil
that surrounds them and indeed for the evil that indwells them. and he comforts his little ones
with confirmations and promises and visitations of his goodness
and his faithfulness. And that's what Isaiah is doing
here in the words of this prophecy that he has written down and
delivered to the Lord's elect of his day. And I dare say that
those who came after him, Isaiah lived a long life. They think
he probably prophesied and ministered for over 60 years. He lived a
long life and he ministered during that period of the Lord's goodness. And yet even when Isaiah died,
his book continued to echo down through the ages for those who
would be taken into captivity and who yet for hundreds of years
must anticipate the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I
think the Lord blesses us in such ways also. Is it not a blessing
that we're able to gather here today? Is it not a goodness of
God that he has granted us the blessings of fellowship? That
he has committed into our hands the Word of God? that he has
given us the opportunity of hearing the gospel preached, that he
has revealed to us in the midst of a religious world that is
largely blinded to the truth of God's sovereign grace and
goodness, these precious manifestations of the Lord Jesus Christ's work
amongst us. This is how the Lord assists
us in the trials that we must face, for it is through much
persecution that we enter into our rest. Now here Today, in
this chapter, Isaiah provides seven more, well he's probably
got more than seven, but I've selected seven. Seven more names
and roles and types and titles of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Messiah that was to come. in order to comfort, in order
to encourage, in order to build up the Lord's people of his day,
in order, as it were, to put meat in the bones of the promises
that had been given to the people of God for hundreds and hundreds
of years. And as the Lord Jesus Christ's
coming got closer, though it was still centuries away, more
and more information was provided in order to assist and bless
the people of God. And that's what we have here
in this chapter. And I am sure that Isaiah's intention
and the purpose of the Holy Spirit was that these Old Testament
saints would think on these names that Isaiah was giving to the
Lord. Think on the roles that he would
perform. Think on the pictures that these
titles conjured up in their minds as to who this one was who was
coming and who they anticipated so eagerly. God planned and manifested
and demonstrated his righteousness and his faithfulness to his people
despite all the trouble that lay before them. God's purpose
was to fix their hope on Christ and Christ lies at the heart
of the revelation brought from the Holy Spirit by his faithful
prophet Isaiah. So here are seven names of the
Lord Jesus Christ that we have set before us. The first one
is a rod, and that's in verse one. The first metaphor or likeness
that Isaiah provides for us is that the Messiah shall be a rod
from the stem of Jesse. Now Jesse, as I'm sure you'll
remember, was the father to King David. And yet it is notable
that Isaiah speaks of Jesse and not David. He did not refer to
Christ as being a rod from the stem of David that might have
been what we would have expected, but rather he is a rod from the
stem of Jesse. It's as if Isaiah's intention
is to distinguish the Messiah from David's glory and David's
majesty. When the people thought about
David, they thought about the glory of his kingdom. They thought
about the things that had been lost. They thought about how
good it would be to have that kingdom restored. but when they
were presented with a view of Christ, it was a rod from the
stem of Jesse that was brought to their mind and to their attention. Now certainly, Christ was son
of David, it's one of his titles, but seeing him as a rod or a
new shoot or from the stem or stump of Jesse, points us rather
to the meanness, to the poverty, to the relative obscurity of
the Lord's humble background. Joseph, his father as was thought,
was a carpenter. He was a worker in wood. They would not be rich people.
Mary was a lowly maiden. And while Christ was the King
of Glory, while Christ was equal with God, he humbled himself,
took the form of a servant and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. from cursed is everyone that
hangeth upon the tree. And so this rod speaks of Christ's
humble humanity. The people of Isaiah's day were
being given a view of the coming Messiah, which wasn't all glorious
and majestic, though it was in different ways, but yet also
carried with it a strain, also carried with it a thread of humility. and poverty and weakness. Speaking of Christ's humanity.
The next thing that Isaiah says is that the Messiah shall also
be a branch. So he would be a rod from the
stem or the residue of the family of Jesse. as indeed he was, but
he would also be a branch and this is not the first time that
Isaiah has used this title to describe the Lord Jesus or the
coming Messiah and so by repetition it is now being reinforced to
us. Isaiah had previously told us
in chapter 4 verse 2 that in that day shall the branch of
the Lord be beautiful and glorious. I think it's amazing how that
in a couple of dozen words, in a single sentence, Isaiah has
spoken of Christ's humility and his beauty and his glory. Oh to be a preacher like Isaiah,
who is able to put so much wonder into so few words. Actually, When we study the scriptures
with reference to this branch, what we find is that Isaiah and
Jeremiah and Zechariah all speak of Christ as the branch. And Zechariah, when he speaks
of Christ as the branch, he capitalises all the letters of the words.
as in Zechariah chapter 3 verse 8, highlighting once again the
importance of this name concerning the coming Messiah. And again
it seems to be the intention of these writers to draw our
view to Christ's humanity. His being from the earth, growing
up from the earth, growing up even in relative obscurity, without
fame, without fortune, pretty much incognito. So that for the
whole of Christ's life, until he was 30 and commenced on his
ministry, with the exception of that moment when he was 12
years of age in the temple, we know nothing of him. 33 years
the Lord lived. And all that we know of him,
with few exceptions, are those three last years of his life. Where was the Lord before that?
He was labouring as a carpenter in the city of Nazareth. And
this obscurity, this meanness, this humiliation of the Lord
of glory, is a big part of what Isaiah and these other prophets
are revealing to the people of God. We have to hold in mind
that this one of whom Isaiah spoke and this one that the churches
looked forward to throughout the centuries and millennia is
one who grew amongst us, who came from amongst his brethren.
And there's a link too with the city of Nazareth, where Jesus
lived. Nazareth, the name of the city,
is from the word netzer. And Matthew says that Christ
was called a Nazarene. Well, that same word is the word
from which branch comes. So this tree and branch theme
is followed by the prophets, speaking not only of one who
would grow up out of the earth, but even in some way referred
to the city in which he would live his life. Ezekiel calls the Lord a plant
of renown. Yeriziah says he grew as a tender
plant and as a root out of dry ground. So there wasn't anything
grand about him. He was a root out of a dry ground. It wasn't lush, it wasn't fertile,
it wasn't fruitful in appearance. He had no form nor comeliness,
no beauty that we should desire him. Here we have Christ as the
rod, and here we have Christ as the branch. Yet, Isaiah goes
on, and thirdly he says, this rod and branch, this insignificant
and obscure man shall be anointed with the spirit of God. So he is telling the men and
women of his age aspects of the character and the nature of the
Lord Jesus Christ that they might anticipate. And he is saying
that he will be anointed with the Spirit of God. The Spirit
of the Lord will be upon him. The divine person shall rest
on him and equip him for the great work of redemption and
deliverance and salvation that will fall to him. And this is
an important consideration for us. It revealed to the Jews of
Isaiah's day that it was spiritual qualities that would most characterize
the Christ, the Messiah. And it's a nod, I'm sure, to
Christ's spiritual kingdom. It hints at a grander reign even
than David's. And Isaiah says, the Spirit of
the Lord shall rest upon him. And the Spirit of the Lord most
certainly did rest upon our Saviour. We see that graphically presented
when the Holy Spirit descended as a dove and rested on Christ
when he was baptised by John in the River Jordan. And we're
told that the Holy Spirit was given to the Lord to fit him
for his ministry. He was given without measure. So that not only did Isaiah call
Christ the mighty God and the everlasting Father, but the Spirit
of the Lord indwelt him continually. Isaiah is emphatically reinforcing
the divinity of Christ, whom he had previously called Emmanuel,
in chapter 7, verse 14, and chapter 8, verse 8, God with us. So here we see these two aspects
of Christ the rod from the stem, the stump of Jesse, Christ the
branch growing up in a dry from a dry ground. And yet here is
Christ with his divinity also in view and the spirit of the
Lord resting upon him. In truth, The Apostle Paul tells
the Colossians that the fullness of the divine nature in all of
the perfections of deity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are bestowed
on this man, Jesus. This Jesus of Nazareth. The rod and the branch possessed
all eternity. all immensity and omnipresence
and omnipotence and omniscience and immutability and self-existence
and every other divine attribute of God in union with his human
flesh and soul. For if any one perfection was
wanted, then Paul could not have said that the fullness of the
Godhead was in him. These are views that these Old
Testament saints had of this Messiah that was to come. And
thus we see the Lord Jesus has every gift of the Spirit and
all the fullness of grace and love and divine goodness is in
him. He is anointed with oil of gladness,
with the Holy Ghost above his fellows. He has an immeasurable
portion of the Holy Spirit's gifts. Seven are quoted here
in these verses. The seven spiritual endowments
that are listed are wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, fear
of the Lord, discernment of men's spirits. which is the ability
that Christ had to see into men's hearts, know where they stood,
and deal suitably with them, be they proud legalists or humble
sinners, as we see him doing throughout his ministry. He never broke a bruised reed.
He never quenched smoking flags. He always treated most tenderly
those that needed his help. And yet he declaimed against
those who came to him proudly and with a hard heart. He discerned
what the need and the nature was of the rich young ruler and
of those who came to him, like that woman with the issue of
blood. The Lord knew. Why? Because the Holy Spirit
rested upon him. Isaiah says, fourthly, that the
Lord Jesus Christ was the righteous judge and he tells us that in
verses 4 and 5. Isaiah is telling his audience
how the Messiah, despite their fears to the contrary, concerning
the destruction of the nation Israel and Judah. Despite their
fears to the contrary, Messiah will most certainly come and
will do so with one purpose. To do his people good. Who are the poor? but the blessed
poor in spirit. Who are the meek of which Isaiah
speaks in these verses but those of whom Christ blessedly speaks
of in Matthew chapter 5. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. These
are the very people that Isaiah is speaking about that the Lord
Jesus Christ identifies as blessed. and in righteousness and in justice,
Christ will go to war with the enemies of his people in order
to bless the poor and in order to vindicate the meek. You, you,
you out there today, the overwhelmed and the beaten down, the crowded
out and the set aside, you, he will represent and he will defend,
he will feed your hungry soul. And if the Lord calls a man or
a woman or a boy or a girl blessed, then the world can call us what
they like, whatever they like. If Christ accepts a sinner, it's
because he has made the sinner righteous. He measures with a
straight ruler. He weighs in a true balance. He inspects under perfect light. And he declares his people justified
from all things. For by him, all that believe
are justified from all things from which they could not be
justified by the law of Moses. Christ, we're told by Isaiah,
wears righteousness and faithfulness like a girdle. Like men wear
a chain of office or a sash of honour. These are characteristics
of our Saviour. Righteousness and faithfulness
to His people. And He dispenses these graces
to His people. as the most dramatic and extraordinary
life-changing effects. Isaiah goes on to talk about
these animals living at peace and the children with the snakes
and this peace reigning in the land. This isn't something that's
going to be a way far future. This is now. This is the fellowship
of the Lord's Church. This is the people of God living
together. Enemies are reconciled. Opposites
are united. Peace breaks out in the lives
of Christ's people in that kingdom. And Saul of Tarsus was a great
example of this. The very man who sought to waste
the church of Jesus Christ became its most ardent servant and loving
pastor. And the wolf shall dwell with
the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid. How these
Old Testament believers must have rejoiced to read Isaiah's
prophecies, especially in the environment in which they lived,
and trust what God would do. And yet there's more. Here's
the fifth thing that Isaiah has to say. Christ will be like an
ensign. He speaks about this in verse
10. The Messiah shall be an ensign of the people and an ensign for
the nations. And what an amazing concept this
is. An ensign is a flag or a banner
and Christ would be the banner of truth under which the apostles
would go forth into all the world to preach the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ told the
Samaritan woman, salvation is of the Jews. And so it was, for
repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name
among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. For our Lord Jesus
Christ is the flag, the ensign, which draws all nations to himself. Sometimes an ensign would be
used in battle. Sometimes it would be used for
communication, for information. Sometimes it would be used as
a mark of joy and victory and accomplishments when it would
be waved in order to celebrate. In all of these things, Christ
finds a fulfilment. He's an ensign in battle. He
rallies and he leads forth his people from captivity. He is
the captain of our salvation. He's an ensign in victory, gathering
his subjects together in order to celebrate, in order to feast
and to reveal to the citizens of his kingdom all that he has
accomplished as they rejoice in their salvation and their
blessedness. He delivers, he redeems, he brings
liberty. Christ is an ensign to the nations,
calling his elect from afar and gathering them through the preaching
of the gospel of sovereign grace. Christ the ensign. And Isaiah goes on to say, number
six, that Christ is an assembler. Let us just pause and admire
the beauty of the language of this prophet. This prophetic
revelation from the lips of Isaiah and the pen of a ready writer.
Like David before him, Isaiah's heart indicted a good matter
as touching Christ the King. He says in chapter 11 verse 12,
He shall set up an ensign for the nations and shall assemble
the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah
from the four corners of the earth. What a concept that is!
700 years before the coming of Christ. We're talking here about
the Bronze Age. We're talking about the Iron
Age. We're talking about so long ago
and Isaiah is sitting down and he is writing these words and
he is speaking of Christ as an ensign and he is speaking of
Christ as assembling the outcasts of Israel and bringing together
the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. It's
amazing language. Solomon tells us that there is
a time to cast away stones and there is a time to gather stones
together. Well, says Isaiah, now is the
time to gather stones together and the Lord shall gather his
precious stones. He shall make up his jewels.
He shall assemble them together in his kingdom as the crown of
his glory. And perhaps Israel and Judah
were the gospel's first fruits. But we all who are saved by grace
through faith are the outcasts of Israel who are gathered, and
we are the dispersed of Judah brought nigh. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the great assembler, and he shall not lose one of
those little ones for whom he died, nor will he bring in any
who are not precious to him. in that covenant of purpose. Those who are redeemed by his
blood, the elect, shall be gathered from the four corners of the
earth. Now the earth isn't flat. It's
round and it's globular and yet the Bible speaks of the four
corners of the earth from which the elect will be gathered. And
these are the points on the map, north, south, east and west,
to which the gospel shall go and from which sinners like us
will be called to new life, to everlasting life in Christ. And this leads us on to our seventh
and our final likeness that Isaiah gives to us today. He says in
verse 16 that Christ is a highway. Christ is a highway. Isaiah tells
the believers of his day, there shall be a highway for the remnant
of his people. What a wonderful gospel message
this is. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
way of life. The way of life spiritual, the
way of life eternal. He is the highway of holiness. He is the path made straight
in the desert. He is a highway for our God by
which all who seek forgiveness from sin and peace with God are
brought to know his salvation. Brothers and sisters, the way
of life is narrow. The gate is straight. But it
is a highway. It is a highway. It is a new
and living way. It is the only way. It is God's
way. Do you remember, we read it in
Mark a few months ago, do you remember where, where, The Lord
Jesus encountered Bartimaeus. He was leaving the city of Jericho,
heading towards Jerusalem just a few days before he went to
the cross. The blind man, we are told, sat
by the highway side begging. And this is a great picture of
grace. We are all blind in sin and crippled
by nature but we can beg for grace at the highway which is
Christ. Jesus met Bartimaeus at the highway
and he gave him sight and the very next place that we hear
of Bartimaeus is not at the wayside but on the highway itself. Mark writes, immediately he received
his sight and followed Jesus in the way. Isaiah picks up this
theme a little later in his prophecy. In chapter 35 and verse 8 he
writes, an highway shall be there and a way, and it shall be called
a way of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over
it, but it shall be for those the wayfaring men, though fools,
shall not err therein. If Christ is the way, he is most
certainly the highway. May the Lord Jesus Christ show
us by what way we should go. May he lead us in a way of understanding
and may he bring us on our way, rejoicing. Amen.