Isaiah chapter 8 and verse 1. Moreover the Lord said unto me
take thee a great roll and write in it with a man's pen concerning
Maharshal al-Hashbaz and I took unto me faithful witnesses to
record Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberesh and I went unto the prophetess,
and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said the Lord to me, call
his name Maharshal Hashbaz, for before the child shall have knowledge
to cry, my father and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the
spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria. The Lord spake also unto me again,
saying, Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah
that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remalia's son, now
therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the
river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all
his glory. And he shall come up over all
his channels, and go over all his banks, and he shall pass
through Judah, he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even
to the neck, and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the
breadth of thy land, O Emmanuel. Associate yourselves, O ye people,
and ye shall be broken in pieces, and give ear, all ye of far country,
Gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Gird yourselves,
and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it
shall come to naught. Speak the word, and it shall
not stand, for God is with us. For the Lord spake thus to me
with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in
the way of this people, saying, Say ye not a confederacy to all
them, to whom this people shall say a confederacy? Neither fear
ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself,
and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread, and he
shall be for a sanctuary. but for a stone of stumbling
and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for
a jinn and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And
many among them shall stumble and fall and be broken and be
snared and be taken. Bind up the testimony, seal the
law among my disciples, and I will wait upon the Lord that hideth
his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. Behold,
I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and
for wonders in Israel, from the Lord of hosts which dwelleth
in Mount Zion. And when they shall say unto
you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards
that peep, and that mutter, should not a people seek unto their
God for the living to the dead? to the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them. And they
shall pass through it, hardly be stead and hungry. And it shall
come to pass that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves
and curse their king and their God and shall look upward. And
they shall look unto the earth, and behold trouble and darkness,
dimness of anguish, and they shall be driven to darkness. Amen. May the Lord bless the
reading of this word. The title of our sermon today
is I and the Children. And I have been really taken
with that title and with that concept over the past week. So I hope that some of the thoughts
that we have today will be a blessing to you. One of the delights of
preparation for preaching is that one looks for a blessing
for one's own soul. And the feeling is, I'll just
be honest with you, that if I get a blessing from the Lord in preparation,
that I hope that he'll give a blessing in turn to those who listen. But I've been blessed just in
thinking about this little phrase, I and the children. So I trust
it will be so for us all today. I just want to remind you of
something that I've said before. The events concerning which Isaiah
speaks here in these chapters took place approximately 2,730 years ago. That sounds pretty
exact, but it's because we've got a good idea of when the reigns
of the different kings were that are quoted and a number of the
nations were keeping records at this time of the various military
activities and the invasions that were going on. So we have
a fairly good idea about the timescale, even although it was
730 years BC. It was a long, long time ago
and far, far away. And we might wonder to ourselves,
what possible relevance can these matters have for us today? And as I was thinking about this,
the one year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine was
being marked. And it struck me how Large, powerful
nations have always tried to dominate their smaller, less
powerful neighbours. So that years become centuries
and centuries become millennia. But when we look around ourselves
in the world today, little has changed. And little has changed
because The Bible tells us men haven't changed. Men have proud,
sinful, devious hearts. They're never satisfied. They're
always greedy for more. That was true in Isaiah's day
and God promised to judge it then. It is true today. and our own age too will be judged
as surely as was Israel and Judah back then. Isaiah was sent by God to condemn
wicked Ahaz and the evil, idolatrous practices of the Jews at this
time. These Jews had rejected the God
of David. and they pursued their own lusts. They looked for their own wisdom
to lead them into confederacies and alliances that would make
them strong and defend them and provide for them. And again,
nothing has changed. And we see the very same principles
at work amongst the nations of the world today, trying to forge
alliances and friendships and get help from different places
in order to bolster up their own positions and justify their
own actions. Nothing's changed. And God will
judge the sins of our own age now as then. And all outside
of Christ should know, as all in Christ surely do, that
God is not mocked and the wages of sin is death. However, judgment aside, I think
there are more important lessons for us to glean from this prophecy
today. In the coming weeks, Isaiah is
going to be returning to this particular prophecy and the same
background to it, the background of Syria and the northern tribes,
the ten tribes of Israel, confederating against Judah and the call going
out to Assyria to come and assist Judah. That's the backdrop to
the prophecy that Isaiah gives and that's always there. But
what we will discover is that as Isaiah speaks against the
futile efforts to court Assyria as a protector and the consequential
despising of Jehovah, who is the true shield and protector
of his people, the true sanctuary, as we were thinking about in
our hymn a few moments ago. We see that the judgment that
Isaiah speaks of, this fact that Christ shall judge all who despise
the God of Abraham and Moses and David, We will have that as the structure,
as it were, in which these prophecies are being given. But our gift, I hope, is more
than that. Our desire is more than the mere
consideration of the history and the testimony and the things
that were revealed and the things that were said. amazing as they
were and glorious as they are as far as the people concerned
at the time. Our gift rather will be to hear
with spiritual ears and with spiritual understanding comforting
messages concerning the Lord Jesus. Messages that are scattered
freely throughout this prophecy for the Lord's elect. for the remnant of his people. I've remarked a few times in
recent weeks how that the Lord's love for us, his kindness, his
goodness, his mercy towards his people always brings him close
to us. And when the Saviour told His
disciples in John chapter 14 and verse 18, I will not leave
you comfortless, I will come to you, He wasn't showing any
favouritism to those disciples. What He said to Peter, James
and John and Andrew and Bartholomew and Philip, He says to us all,
He says, I will not leave you comfortless. I will come unto
you. And if he says it to the New
Testament church, you can be sure that he said it to the Old
Testament church as well, because the Lord treats his people as
one. He comforts all his people. He
ministers to all our needs. The Lord had his elect in Judah
2730 years ago and he nurtured them. He had his elect when Israel
was conquered. the Assyrians. He had his elect
present there when Sennacherib wasted Judah and when Jerusalem
was starved during the Assyrian siege. He had his elect there
when the Babylonians came and exiled Judah in the days of Daniel
and He had them during the intertestamental centuries when God was to all
intents and purposes silent from the end of Malachi to the beginning
of Matthew and no prophet spoke. And during all the years Until
the virgin conceived and bare a son and called his name Emmanuel,
which is what Isaiah has been talking about in these passages,
in these chapters with us in the past week or two. Until the
Lord Jesus Christ came as a child, he was still nevertheless comforting
his people. He always had his Simeons. He always had his Annas. He always had those that looked
for redemption in Jerusalem. And those Old Testament saints,
they're called the church in the wilderness, those Old Testament
saints, were given prophecies by the prophets, were given testimonies
by David and Solomon, by Job, by Moses, by the writers of scripture,
which spoke to them of Christ yet to come. And Christ comforted
them spiritually by their faith, through their faith in the things
that were yet to be. So by giving this prophecy, Isaiah
was speaking to the Lord's people about the Lord. And that by giving
the people this prophecy, and by reminding them through the
ages of Isaiah's words, God was confirming his promises to his
people. Now we, I do not deny it for
a moment, are far more blessed now in looking back at the work
which Christ has done having come. We see more clearly the
revelation has been more completely presented to us. But let us not
imagine that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ began only
after the Saviour returned to glory. or that divine comfort
is something new. And here, in our thoughts today,
I've got three blessings which Isaiah provided for God's elect
in the Old Testament during all the years of their starvation,
and all the years of their suffering, and all the years of their exile,
which I hope will be a blessing for us too. Three blessings then
that will be the subject of the rest of our thoughts here today.
The first one is this. Isaiah reminded the elect of
his age and of subsequent ages that Canaan was Emmanuel's land. That's what he says to the people
in verse 8. It's lovely just to read some
of these verses and make these delightful little connections.
He's talking about the fact that Assyria, the king of Assyria,
Sennacherib was going to come through and destroy Judah, the
land of Judah. And he describes them as indeed,
these mighty powers, these empire powers were often described as
mighty rivers that just, as it were, flooded over and burst
their banks and swept away everything in front of them. And that's
how Isaiah describes the king of Assyria. And he says, and
he shall pass through Judah, he shall overflow and go over,
he shall reach even to the neck, that is to the walls of Jerusalem,
he shall reach even to the neck, and the stretching out of his
wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Emmanuel. Now that's not insignificant.
Isaiah has told us in the previous chapter that this virgin shall
conceive, bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. And that name tells us that Isaiah
was conveying, I don't know whether you call it a code, whether it
would be a secret revelation that only those who had faith
properly understood, but he was telling the elect that this land,
the land of Canaan, the land of Judah, the land of Israel
and Galilee was Emmanuel's land. Now that's certainly true as
far as the geography is concerned. It's certainly true of the hills
and the mountains, certainly true of the valleys and the rivers.
It was the land that flowed with milk and honey. And we remember
in Psalm 24 that David says, the earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. It's all the Lord's in that sense.
The world and they that dwell therein. But more importantly, by designating
this land Emmanuel's land, Isaiah was reminding the faithful few
amongst the men and women in Judah that this land of Canaan
is where Emmanuel would be born. That's what made it his land.
he would be born to a virgin mother. And all the messianic
promises throughout the writings of Moses, all the pictures that
they had in the tabernacle, and in the sacrifices, and in the
wilderness experiences, and all the prophets' allusions to the
coming of that Messiah would find their focus in Emmanuel
whose land this was. Now at a time when there was
great concern in the land of Judah that everything was about
to be swamped and overwhelmed by this river, by this Assyrian
power that was going to wash everything away before it, this
was reassurance, this was comfort to the people of God. Let the
king of Assyria come. Let the Syrian-Israeli confederacy
come. This land is Emmanuel's land. The power of the Assyrians, the
power of the Babylonians, the Medes and the Persians, the Greeks
and the Romans, it all came and went. But God would not forget
his promises and God would not forget his people. This was Emmanuel's
land and it could not be Emmanuel's land if Emmanuel did not come. And Emmanuel could not come if
the remnant were destroyed. Emmanuel means God with us. Judah is the nation into which
Christ would be born. Israel, the land upon which he
would walk. Jerusalem, the city in which
he would die. And the Jews, the people from
whom the gospel of the kingdom would go forth into all the world.
And we can spiritualise this. We can say that the church, whether
it's the Old Testament church, Or the New Testament church,
the church in its entirety is Emmanuel's bride, is Emmanuel's
delight. And these days may seem dark
for the Lord's people. We may feel as if we are few
and far between. We may feel as if the gospel
of free sovereign grace is hanging on by a thread because of all
the Arminian churches, because of all the free will churches
and the works religion that seems to dominate our age. Was that
any, or is it any worse than the feelings that the elect,
the remnant had in the day of Isaiah? they saw those mighty
armies crowding on their borders ready to take them and all that
they had and their families and their futures. This is Emmanuel's
land and God is with his people and God will never leave us nor
forsake us. And here's the second blessing
that I think is to be had from what the prophet Isaiah says
to the people in this chapter. He tells them in verse 14 that
the Lord Jesus Christ is the sanctuary for his people. And what a blessed truth this
is. How it must have comforted the
few believers who stood with Isaiah in those dark days long
ago. Syria and Israel, confederate
against them. Assyria and Egypt, to the north
and to the south, waiting in the wings. And as the people
of Judah sought their security from foreign armies and made
their way out of the countryside into the walled cities and brought
gifts to their false gods and their false deities in order
to ask for help in their idolatrous state, Isaiah pointed the elect
to Christ. He pointed the elect to our saviour
as their place of refuge. The place of refuge for his people
in all times of distress. Our sanctuary. Our quiet place. Our secure place. Our saviour is our sanctuary. He is the place that we dwell
in. and we dwell in Him and He dwells
in us. In Christ we find rest and safety
and security. We find peace. We are being comforted
and protected. We are provided for, for always
and forever. We are set apart from the great
mass of humanity We are out of reach of our enemies, physical
and spiritual. There's no hunting of the Lord's
elect in Christ. There's no humiliating the Lord's
elect in Christ. There is no harming the Lord's
elect in their sanctuary. We are saved and we are safe
in Christ. Romans chapter 8 verse 1 says,
And he goes on in verse 33 of the same chapter to say, And
Isaiah was telling the people of his age that they had a sanctuary. Here, Isaiah gives a name to
every blessing enjoyed by the faithful in the Old Testament. What does this sacrificial lamb
mean? It means that we have a sanctuary
and that we are safe under Christ's shed blood. What does this altar
mean? It means that we have a sanctuary
and that we are safe through Christ's better offering. What does this temple mean? That
we have a sanctuary by which we can come to God to worship
him in spirit and in truth. nor have these things changed. It is always by faith that we
understand that security that we have in Christ. And the physical
things have disappeared because the reality that they symbolised
has come. But we still by faith lean upon
Him who is our shield and our defender, our sanctuary. When
Satan condemns, when the law rails against us, when conscience
rises up, when the flesh stumbles and falls, when the world tempts
our souls to follow its lead and taste its attractions, we
have a sanctuary. We have a hiding place in the
Lord Jesus Christ. When fear and loneliness wearies
us, when depression crushes us, when illness afflicts us, when
death threatens us, we have a sanctuary. And brothers and sisters in Christ,
we have a right and we have a privilege, we have a resource that no other
has on earth. That is to take all our troubles
to the Lord and ask for his peace, he who is our sanctuary. And I want you to notice what
Isaiah says in this verse when he refers and speaks about Christ
the Lord being our sanctuary. He gives a contrast because he
says, he who is a sanctuary to one is a rock of offence and
a stone of stumbling to another. A sanctuary? and a rock of offence. And this shows the great divide
that there is between men and women and the free gift of particular
efficacious grace to elect fallen sinners. Anyone who is offended
by imputed righteousness must make their own sanctuary in the
deeds of the law and look to their own efforts and their own
self-righteousness. And those who stumble at limited
atonement, they must make their own sanctuary by adding man's
will to Christ's work, as if such a thing were possible, and
deny the sufficiency of his sacrifice to save sinners. and all who balk at sovereign
election must make their own sanctuary by leaning on some
human power, some strength outside of Christ to prepare them for
God's presence and equip them for everlasting glory. King Ahaz of Judah sought sanctuary
in Assyria and his foolishness in doing so cost him everything. But with Christ alone as our
sanctuary, we have real peace. and real security and everlasting
hope, because it doesn't depend on our will. It doesn't depend
on our words. We contribute nothing to it.
It is all of Christ. And here's our third and final
point. The Lord's elect have a precious
testimony from Isaiah's own experience. of God's comforting grace to
him. Here's what I mean by that. So
here is Isaiah. Isaiah's given this vision. He's
given this word from the Lord and he's told to go and get a
roll, a large roll, and to write with the pen of man. all the things that the Lord
is going to say to him. And he's told, after he has written
these things down, to bind up the testimony. Bind it up, that
roll, that scroll, that parchment that you've produced,
bind it up. Maybe it was some sort of tile
or slate or clay work. bind it up, seal the law among
my disciples. He's not talking about the Ten
Commandments there. He's talking about the revelation
of the Lord. He's talking about this prophecy
that he's been given. That is the testimony, that is
the law. It is to be sealed and it is
to be committed to the elect of God, my disciples. Verse 16. And Isaiah, when he is told this
of the Lord, he rightly interprets this to mean that the Messiah
of whom he has been speaking, Emmanuel, the child of the Virgin,
his arrival in the land is not imminent. And neither it was,
it was 700 years hence. And a lot of water was to pass
under the bridge between now and then. So this parchment,
this prophecy was to be committed into the hands of the Lord's
Old Testament people. And they were to wait patiently
upon Christ's coming. And Isaiah's reaction to that,
his response is to say, OK, all right, if Emmanuel is going to
tarry, then look what he says in verse 17. I will wait upon
the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, but
I'm still going to look for him. I'll wait patiently and I'll
look for him. This was Isaiah's faith at work. And what Isaiah was doing there
in that verse was what he was basically advocating to every
one of the Lord's faithful people in the Old Testament. He was
saying, wait for the Lord's coming. but look for him. Look for him. From Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob,
to Moses, to Job, to David, to all the saints there ever were.
Wait for him, but look for him. This was the work of faith in
this man. Now we don't like to wait, do
we? Free will teaches that all we have to do is agree to God's
offers and all his blessings will come showering down upon
us. Well, sometimes we have to wait
on the Lord. If Isaiah had to do that, and
if the Old Testament saints had to do that, then why not me as
well? But look what happens next. The
Lord gives Isaiah a blessing which is almost amazing to think
about. The Lord blesses this faithful,
patient prophet who has just said, I will wait for the Lord,
I will look for the Lord. The Lord Jesus gives his servant
a glimpse of the victorious saviour and his redeemed church. He says
to Isaiah in verse 18, Behold, behold, we talked about that
word, didn't we? Behold, I and the children whom
the Lord hath given me. Now I'll simply say this because
I'm not going to spend any more time on this apart from this
comment. I will simply say this is not
Isaiah and his two boys that we're talking about here. Shir
Jashub and Maharshal El-Hashbaz. These were the two sons that
were given two special names that had significance in meaning.
We're not talking about Isaiah and his two boys. Hebrews, the
book of Hebrews, attributes this to the Lord Jesus Christ. and
therefore we have no right to crowd the field with an alternative
suggestion. If Hebrews says this is Christ,
it's Christ. Isaiah and his boys are not in
the picture. So what Isaiah saw here was the
Lord Jesus Christ, behold I and the children whom the Lord hath
given me. What Isaiah saw was the Lord Jesus Christ ruling
in his church and dwelling amongst his people. His people who are
identified as the children given to him by his father in the everlasting
covenant of grace. And again, there's something
wonderful in the behold. It draws attention and it draws
admiration to Christ. It emphasises the union that
we have with him and in him. Behold, I and the children. Behold, I and the children whom
the Lord has given me. Now Christ could have shown himself
to Isaiah. Abraham saw Christ. Jacob saw
Christ. Moses saw Christ. And there were
others in the Old Testament scriptures who saw Christ. But here Isaiah
sees Christ and his children. He sees the redeemed church,
united with Christ, bound together as one, joined together. As if to say, Isaiah, my coming
was successful. My people are redeemed. The blood-bought family are united
with their King and we shall reign in glory eternally together. And if the Lord was saying that
to Isaiah, and Isaiah was writing it down and committing it to
the Lord's disciples, then it was all the elect of the Old
Testament age that had that glimpse directly from Christ. They saw
Christ and they saw the children that the Lord had given him.
Now I don't know if that meant that Isaiah peered into heaven
and he saw Christ and his kingdom there. Or whether he saw Christ
coming in the clouds with his saints and the dead and Christ
rising first and the living being caught up together with them.
Or if it was simply a glimpse of the gospel going out in the
gospel age to the Isles and the Gentiles and the gathering of
all the elect from the four corners of the earth in every age in
the sovereign effectual call of the Holy Spirit. But whatever
Christ showed Isaiah, Isaiah saw Christ and you and
me and every believer. And he saw that as a comfort,
not only for himself, but for all the Old Testament people.
Our Saviour always was, and always will be, the Son over His own
house. Whose house are we? So may what these Blessed Old
Testament's got to gaze upon. Still be a blessing for us today
as we reflect on the kindness and goodness of our Saviour in
bestowing such blessings upon them as these. And let us remember
that Isaiah saw us as well as seeing the Lord. He saw Christ
and his people bound together in that covenant union. and it
blessed and comforted him in his days of waiting and anticipation. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.