So we're going to Isaiah chapter
4 and verse 1. And this is the Word of God. And in that day seven women shall
take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread and
wear our own apparel. Only let us be called by thy
name to take away our reproach. 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. And it shall come to pass that
he that is left in Zion and he that remaineth in Jerusalem shall
be called holy, even every one that is written among the living
in Jerusalem. when the Lord shall have washed
away the filth of the daughters of Zion and shall have purged
the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of
judgment and by the spirit of burning. And the Lord will create
upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies
a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire
by night, for upon all the glory shall be a defence. And there
shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat,
and for a place of refuge and for a covert from storm and from
rain. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading also. One of the finest and most reassuring
lessons that we can learn as believers in Jesus Christ is
that God our Father looks on us, sees and considers us, not
as we are by nature, but as we are in Christ. Not as guilty
sinners, but as redeemed sons and daughters. not as implacable rebels, but
as justified saints. We are reconciled to God by the
death of His Son, and being thus reconciled, God views us and
regards us and deals with us with the same love and complacency
and delight and pleasure with which he views and regards his
own dear son. So that our standing in Christ
is real and unconditional and absolute, by which I mean God does not
look on us as sinners and pretend that we're saints. He doesn't
see our wickedness but accredit us to be righteous. There's no
pretense with God. There's no make-believe. He doesn't
merely regard us as if we are holy and as though we are righteous,
but He has really and truly and irreversibly made us as holy
and righteous as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. So that purged
means clean. Redeemed means bought. Reconciled means united and justified
with the very righteousness of God himself. The Apostle Paul
says, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things
are passed away. behold all things are become
new. Our standing in Christ, our union
with Christ is a new creation and it is real and it is true
and it is absolute. We are so inextricably linked
and joined and bound up with the Lord Jesus Christ that there is no telling us apart. He is our head and we are his
body. Such is the union that we have. We are all one in him. And the close union that is expressed
thus is taught in many ways in scripture. The Lord Jesus Christ
himself says, I am the vine, ye are the branches. Or again,
the church is described as the household of God built upon the
foundation of the apostles and the prophets with Jesus Christ
himself being the chief cornerstone. So that the household of God
contains the Lord Jesus Christ within it. or the family of God, in which
Jesus Christ is both the everlasting Father and the Son over His own
house, the firstborn of many brethren. And one of the sweetest
illustrations that Scripture has for us concerning this union
is that of husband and wife. where the Bible teaches that
two separate individuals become one flesh, inextricably bound
together. And Paul then takes that amazing
concept and applies the marriage union to Christ and the church,
saying in Ephesians 5 verse 32, this is a great mystery. but
I speak of Christ and the Church, that close bond, that union which
has taken place. And so the Church is often called
in Scripture the Bride of Christ and this marriage union is alluded
to from the beginning of Scripture
even to the end. We see it in that relationship
with Adam and Eve and we see it in the book of Revelation
when the Lord Jesus Christ the Bridegroom comes and takes his
bride and there is the marriage feast of the Lamb and throughout
the Word of God. It's such a beautiful picture.
Here in our passage today is another example of that union
and I think there's a lovely little lesson for us here in
Isaiah's words. Isaiah speaks of a time when
seven women shall take hold of one man in order to be joined
to him so as to take his name and rid themselves of the reproach
of being without a husband. Now, the seven there, remember
that we're speaking about the days that lie ahead. It says
in Isaiah's words there, in that day. So that is still looking
at that future day when the Messiah will come, the last day when
the gospel age will be in force. And Isaiah in looking at that
time and making reference to these seven women is speaking
using this definite number for an indefinite group and yet a
specifically numbered group because they are the elect of God. So
he's speaking about the elect of God as this group of seven
women coming together, all being gathered in from the worldwide
gathering in of the Gentiles. and he's speaking to the children
of Israel, the elect amongst the children of Israel and he
is speaking about the gathering in of the Gentiles and he says
that in that day seven women shall take hold of one man saying
we will eat our own bread, wear our own apparel only let us be
called by thy name to take away our reproach. There's a lovely
picture here I think. Under the Old Testament law,
which would be very familiar to these believing Jews that
Isaiah was speaking to, if a man took more than one wife, he must
provide for each one equally. And the Old Testament believers
understood themselves to be married to the Lord. They understood
that concept of that marriage union between the remnant in
Israel and God himself. In Jeremiah, for example, chapter
3, verse 14, there the Lord says, I am married unto you. It wasn't
a great insight or wisdom that needed to interpret that. The
Lord said to them, I am married unto you and I will take you
one of a city and two of a family and I will bring you to Zion.
Speaking of the remnant from amongst the Jews. So now Isaiah talks of a day
to come when the Gentiles, represented by these seven women, would be
gathered to the church also. And they would seek to be married
to God as well. That their reproach, that their
sin might be cleansed and taken away. And the Gentiles, as it
were, make an offer to the Lord. They say, take us in and we'll
supply our own food and we'll supply our own clothing. But this lesson was for the elect
of the Old Testament. It was to comfort and be an encouragement
to them. They were being told by Isaiah
that that could never be the case. The Gentiles would be called
but they would be called, they would be united to the Jewish
church on exactly the same basis as the Old Testament Jews. They would be supplied with the
same spiritual food, they would be clothed with the same spiritual
garments. The wall of division between
the Jews of the Old Testament and the Gentiles of the New Testament
would be completely removed and they would be brought into one
family, one household, one union between themselves and their
God. So that God is now married to
his bride. The Lord Jesus Christ is married
to his bride. And that's the great lesson of
the Gospel. That everything must be of this.
You cannot come to Christ and bring your own clothes. You cannot
come to Christ and eat your own food. We need the nourishment
of the gospel week by week. We need to hear the gospel preached. We need to have it rehearsed,
restated in our ears and reflected in our lives. And we need to
remember that our only righteousness before God is the garment of
the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ given to us. The Jews and Gentiles must be
married together upon the same basis and each supplied with
the same blessings. It is the only way to peace with
God and the only way to union with the Lord Jesus Christ. We
don't bring anything to the wedding. Hosea spoke about that in his
little prophecy. He has a lovely picture of the
marriage of a woman there. And again, it speaks of this
union that we have with God. Our salvation is not a partnership
or a negotiation. Christ must cover us with his
righteousness and feed us with his heavenly manna. And so this
picture in Isaiah chapter 6 to the Old Testament elect was a
confirmation that the Gentiles would be gathered upon the same
grounds of free sovereign grace as were the Old Testament believers. And I wonder if you notice in
this passage the frequent use of the term in that day. We see it in verse one, we see
it in verse two. I think I mentioned in yesterday's
little note that it occurs, I think, was it seven times or eight times
in these early chapters. Isaiah is constantly drawing
his hearer's attention to the coming day of the Lord, to the
gospel age. That is the age in which we now
live. And in verse two, he employs
the phrase to speak of the excellence of the Messiah who is to come
and the greatness of his works and the blessedness that will
flow to his people from his accomplishments. And these Old Testament people,
they must have... found these writings to be so
encouraging. Remember what we said that they
were facing the annihilation of their nation, the extermination
of their people, their cities were besieged, their powerful
enemies all around them were ready to consume the whole nation
of Israel and there they were wondering whether or not this
was the very end and what would happen to all these hopes that
they had of God's covenant blessings. And Isaiah brings these messianic
passages to their attention and he speaks of things so wonderful,
so glorious about what is yet to be accomplished that these
people, frail, feeble, a few as they were, must have relished
reading these truths, dwelling, meditating upon them, and working
out and working through by the guidance of the Holy Spirit what
Isaiah, the prophet of God, was telling them. And there is no
doubt that these Old Testament people must have found these
writings to be very wonderful. We have many advantages over
the Old Testament and being able to look back and interpret these
prophecies retrospectively. But I am equally sure that God's
elect have always been led into the truth by the Holy Spirit
and that the Spirit of Christ testified of these things from
the time of Adam and Abel and Noah such that those who were
given eyes to see and ears to hear always heard and understood. Now what I've got to say for
the rest of my time today is summarised under three headings
that I want to cluster some of Isaiah's thoughts in these few
verses under and summarise together. I want to take these three headings
as being Isaiah's references to Christ's pre-eminence. I want to think of Isaiah's reference
to Christ's purging and I want to think about Christ's provision. So we've got the preeminence
of Christ, purging by Christ, and the provision from Christ. And we will draw some thoughts
under these headings from these verses from Isaiah. So the first
one is this. We're going to be thinking about
Christ's preeminence. And Isaiah and Jeremiah and Zechariah
all use the title that Isaiah quotes here. He's going to refer
to it numerous times throughout this large prophecy that he has
bequeathed to us, the branch. the branch as a name for the
Messiah, the branch as a name for Christ. And when we sometimes
do studies on the names of the Lord Jesus Christ in scripture,
the branch is always one that we should settle upon because
it was a common enough name for Christ in the Old Testament. He is called the branch of righteousness. And in Jeremiah chapter 33 verse
15 we find that same little construction being used, Jeremiah says, in
those days and at that time. So he's looking forward to the
gospel age. I will cause the branch of righteousness
to grow up unto David and he shall execute judgment and righteousness
in the land. Speaking about Christ's work
on the cross, and the righteousness that followed for his people. The execution of judgment and
righteousness is a view of the cross work of the Lord Jesus. And the branch speaks of the
Saviour's divine nature because he is Jehovah's own branch. and he is said to be beautiful
and glorious so that Jehovah causes this branch to sprout
up out of the seed of David and to be beautiful and to be glorious. And these are two fine words
to describe the Lord Jesus Christ. Two fine words deployed in connection
with our precious Saviour. Beautiful and glorious. And while it may well be the
case that Christ's beauty is not at once recognised by natural
man, yet to all who discover him as their only saviour, he
is the altogether lovely one. He is the chiefest of ten thousand
to our souls. the fairest Lord Jesus, upon
whom our love is fixed because He first loved us. And He's glorious
because He came from His Father's glory. He's glorious because
He left a throne of glory. He received glory from His Father. His father gave him honour and
glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. He is glorious because he shows
glorious truths to men and women. He is glorious because he did
glorious things. We're told that in Luke chapter
13 and verse 17. He brought in a glorious liberty,
Romans 8 and 21. He preached a glorious gospel,
2nd Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 4. He established a glorious
church, Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 27. He possesses a glorious
body, Philippians chapter 3 verse 21. He exercises a glorious power. Colossians chapter 1 verse 11. He was received up to glory when
he ascended into heaven. He sat down at the right hand
of God in glory. And he shall return in a glorious
appearing. Titus chapter 2 verse 13. Our
Saviour is glorious. Isaiah understood the pre-eminence
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Isaiah's vision saw Christ
in His beauty and His glory. And he could later say in chapter
6 verse 3, we'll come to it, God willing, the whole earth
is full of His glory. But it didn't end there. In describing
the Lord Jesus, the prophet Isaiah not only said he was the branch,
but he describes him as the fruit of the earth. Having alluded
to his divinity and his beauty and his glory, he now speaks
of Christ's humanity. He is the fruit of the earth.
He was born of Mary. He was born to a woman. And he speaks of his fruitfulness
in terms of his bringing many sons to glory in the sense that
the Gentiles would flow into Zion through the preaching of
the gospel and the sending forth of his word to the ends of the
earth. this branch would be fruitful
to produce other branches which in turn would bear much fruit
in the service of God. And here Isaiah returns to the
remnant people, the Old Testament Jews. And he speaks of them finding
Christ to be both excellent and comely. And this speaks also
to the Jews knowing that the Gentiles, amongst whom also there
would be a remnant, would find him excellent and comely. Comely means agreeable. Comely means suitable to our
need. And I think there's a lesson
here for us too. There is always a felt need in
a sinner coming to Christ. There is always perceived an
excellence and a comeliness in the person of the Saviour on
the part of the sinner. The sinner always sees Christ
as agreeable to his need and suitable to satisfy that need. And here is why that is important. Many people talk about the free
offer that is in the gospel. But what we always find in reading
Scripture is that the great invitation texts of the Word of God speak
of a felt need in the sinner and a full satisfaction in the
Saviour. There is always a felt need in
the sinner and a full satisfaction in the Saviour. It is the heavy
laden who find rest. It is the hungry who find food
for their souls. It is the thirsty who stoop to
drink of the waters of life freely. And where the Lord will supply
His great salvation, He first reveals our great need. so that the Lord Jesus Christ
is both excellent and comely to the needy souls of men and
women, to the needy souls of sinners. And yet we are told
by the Lord himself, no man can come except it were given unto
him of my Father. It's wonderful, to my mind at
least, that Isaiah both saw and describes these wonders of Christ
to these Old Testament people. That these Old Testament people
saw and understood the Gospel so completely, so beautifully,
in their own age, in their own day, for their own comfort. as the Old Testament people of
God. God sent them, that needy people
of that age, he sent them helpers in the person of Isaiah and Zechariah
and Hosea and the other prophets to comfort them and to bring
them consolation in troubled times. He honed their anticipation
He sharpened their expectation of those who waited for the consolation
of Israel. Where did you hear that phrase
before, the consolation of Israel? That was Simeon in the temple
who was one of those who waited for the consolation of Israel.
You see, why was Christ the consolation of Israel? Because he had been
preached by the prophets to be the one who comforted them in
their need all those hundreds of years before and now was being
fulfilled in that day, in those last days. And so Isaiah spoke
of the preeminence of the Lord Jesus Christ in this beautiful
manner. And he also prophesied of Christ's
purging work. The daughters of Zion are spoken
about in verse 4. and they are a picture of the
whole church of Jesus Christ, Old Testament and New Testament,
because we all come together under the same terms, by the
same blood, by the same righteousness, through the same gospel. We all
look, whether we look forward to Christ in Old Testament times,
or back upon the work of Christ in New Testament times, and in
these last days it is all our focus to see the Lord's work
upon the cross, the purging that he made, the cleansing that he
made by his blood. And here this speaks about the
Lord Jesus Christ washing away the filth of the daughters of
Zion, washing away the filth of his bride's sin. making her holy by his own precious
blood. Purging, cleansing is a picture
of Christ's atoning work that took place on the cross when
the Saviour died for his church and for his people. and it is
the remnant people, it is the daughters of Zion, it is the
church of Jesus Christ, it is the elect of God whose sins were
carried by the Saviour on the cross. Peter says, who his own
self bear our sins in his own body on the tree. Christ substituted
himself and bore our sins in his body on the tree. On the cross, a definite ransom
was paid. A particular redemption was achieved. A precise payment was given. Not made with corruptible things
such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. And on the cross, Christ effectually
secured the remission of all the sins of all the elect for
whom he died. And no more. No more and no less. It's such a nonsense to think
that there is this universal payment, this universal redemption,
this payment that was made for whosoever. While it is clear from Scripture
that the ransom and redemption and the payment was definite
and precise as the Lord Jesus Christ substituted Himself for
His people. And how is that redemption to
be applied? How is it to be experienced? How is it to be enjoyed by the
daughters of Zion? Well, as it was in the Old Testament,
so it shall be in these last days. spiritually and by faith. All the blessings of God come
by grace and are received by faith. And here we have the conversion
of the Gentiles being expressed by the terms, the giving of a
spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning. This is an allusion
to the effectual call by the Holy Spirit, the making alive,
the giving of eyes to see and ears to hear, the gospel when
it is preached. Paul speaks of quickening and
regeneration. And he says that Christ is made
unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So that this is a spiritual work
of effectual calling by which sinners are enabled to judge
the truth with discernment. To judge the truth as it is preached
in the gospel. and are enabled to zealously
and lovingly embrace the saviour of whom the gospel speaks. This is the spirit that we see
here spoken of, the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning. Conversion is not a simple act
of the will as those free will preachers would suggest. It is
the lively response of a regenerated soul to its felt need for forgiveness
and mercy. And it is seeing the comeliness
of Christ, His suitability and it is calling upon him for that
need. And finally, having spoken of
Christ's preeminence and of Christ's purging away of sin and of the
conversion of the Gentiles, Isaiah also prophesied of our third
and final point, which is Christ's provision. So we have in these
final two verses the beautiful promise of what the Church of
Christ at large will receive and each and every single believer
in particular can expect from the Saviour Jesus Christ. And
it speaks of the general and the particular and personal provision
of the Saviour for our souls. The blessings of Christ, we're
told, come to every dwelling place. That is, every believer
individually. Wherever we may be, whenever
we may be. It doesn't matter the time of
our life. It doesn't matter the age in
which we live. It doesn't matter the country in which we live.
And there's something lovely about us all here together being
drawn from many parts of the world and bound together in this
beautiful fellowship. Because that's what Isaiah is
here speaking about. People being drawn from all the
world over, every dwelling place, and that the Lord's provision
would be made for them. Upon our assemblies, upon our
gatherings, upon our companies, upon our congregations. So may the Lord let us own these
blessings for ourselves. And may the Lord show us that
these blessings are ours, that this little fellowship has a
right to these blessings upon us. The Lord has established
us, the Lord has brought us together and the Lord will provide for
our needs. Here today and for our brothers
and sisters in Zion wherever they may be and whenever they
may be. Isaiah says that the Lord will
create. That's what he says in this verse. Verse 5. And the Lord will create
All good and perfect gifts come from the hand of God from heaven
above and are the gracious provision and the handiwork of God our
creator. The Lord Jesus Christ in his
ascension gave gifts to the church. Do you seek in your life guidance
and direction and teaching in the way to go? so that we may
ever follow the Lord, so that we may discover His ways, so
that we may know His will? Brothers and sisters, Christ
will provide. Do you seek to be defended? Do
you feel your vulnerability? Do you feel your vulnerability
to temptation and your exposure to Satan and the trials of this
world? Christ will be our defence. Remember the beauty and glory
of the branch. Remember the beauty and glory
of the Lord that we spoke of. Remember that we said our union
together with Him meant that all His communicable gifts are
ours freely. Remember we spoke of the Bride's
holiness. of righteousness and acceptance
that we have with God in Christ. He is our defence. He is our
assurance. He is our confidence in this
world. The Apostle Paul asked a series
of questions in Romans chapter 8. He said, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? He said, who is he that condemneth? He said, who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? And his answer on each occasion
was that Christ himself is all we need. All Paul was doing was
reiterating what Isaiah had spoken to his age in his day 700 years
before. Christ is our shield and sun. Christ is our wisdom and our
holiness. Christ is our rock and our exceeding
great reward. When we have Christ, we have
everything. The Old Testament people had
physical evidences of Christ. with them in the wilderness,
the cloud, the pillar of cloud by day, the fiery cloud by night,
the tabernacle in the midst of the nation, the rock that was
struck that gave forth water, the manna that fell from. There
were physical manifestations and evidences that the spiritual
people amongst them discerned in their day the brass serpent
upon the stick. They had physical evidences of
Christ with them in the wilderness. And it's these that Isaiah employs
to explain the presence of Christ within his church in every age. No outward manifestation such
as that which the Old Testament saints had and accompanied them
through the desert and the wilderness. No outward manifestation can
match the promise that we have today of Christ living in us. or they looked with their eyes
and they saw these tangible symbols that they interpreted spiritually. But Christ lives in us. When Christ says to his disciples,
Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world, he means
to provide for all our needs. The Old Testament people looked
forward to the coming of Emmanuel, God in our flesh, God in our
nature. But we rejoice to have known
Christ come in the flesh, living with us and in us and our hope
of eternal glory with Him. Brothers and sisters, what can
hurt us when Christ is for us? Isaiah saw Christ as a tent of
covering from the heat and from the wind and a cover from the
storm and the rain. We have his personal presence
to providentially supply our every need, to guard and defend
his precious bride. to effectually gather and deliver
His particular people, to bring His church and people home to
glory, to accomplish the whole purpose of His salvation in every
detail according to God's eternal decrees, and for the everlasting
honour and glory of His name. Isaiah saw the preeminence of
Christ. He saw the purging work of Christ
upon the cross and he saw the provision of Christ for his people
in every age. May the Lord bless to us these
thoughts of Christ in the Gospel of Isaiah. Amen.