Our first reading will come from
Psalm 87, which sheds a good deal of light
on our passage for our second reading this morning and from
which our text comes out of the book of Isaiah. Psalm 87. I want you to notice the psalm
is for the sons of Korah. Korah was the man that decided
that he could not worship the way God had set up the worship
of himself in the Old Testament through the direction of Moses
and the oversight of Aaron, the high priest. So this man created
his own priesthood, appointed people that were fairly highly
thought of among the Israelites, people with influence and power.
They determined they would worship God however they saw fit. Cain had already tried this hundreds
and hundreds of years before this. They took those censors
into that tabernacle and it says they offered strange fire and
God killed Korah and all his appointed priests. How many more
I do not know. But obviously, there were some
of his descendants, and there are several psalms that are written
with these sons of Korah in mind. And that's a good name for us
to adopt for ourselves, because we are sons of fallen sinners,
beginning with Adam. So it says, a psalm or song for
the sons of Korah. These people have the highest
praise for the goodness and grace and forgiveness of God. His foundation is in the holy
mountains. The Lord, all capital letters,
the Lord God Jehovah, loves the gates of Zion more than all the
dwellings of Jacob. Can God Love some people and
not others? Well, He did and He does. Who are we to tell Him what He
can and cannot do? Glorious things are spoken of
you, O city of God. God's city is Christ and its
inhabitants are those that are in And there's a strange little
word that pops up in the Psalms as well as in some other scriptures
at various places, almost without rhyme or reason, until we figure
out that the word Selah has reference to our Savior, the Lord Jesus.
And it is found in some places you would not expect it and not
found in some other places where you might expect it. But it is
telling us to pause and consider that what we've just read has
to do with our Savior. I will make mention of Rahab,
the harlot, herself and her family, the only people to make it out
alive out of that huge city of Jericho, the first battle that
the children of Israel fought in the Promised Land. I'll make
mention of Rahab and Babylon. to them that know me. Behold,
Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia, this man was born there. And of Zion it shall be said."
Zion is the city of God. It is the city of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It is the place of His people's
dwelling, spiritual Zion. It shall be said, this and that
man were born in her. The highest himself shall establish
her. The Lord shall count. God actually
counts. The Bible supports that statement.
When he writes up the people, that this man was born there. Back in verse 4, talking about Gentile cities,
this man was born there. But in this case, it is talking
about Zion. This man was born. We're certainly not talking about
our literal, natural, physical birth. It means he's born again
here where the gospel can be heard. Born again. think of our
blessed Savior. As well the singers as He writes
up the people. I can't even read you all. The
Lord shall count when He writes up the people that this man will
be there. As well the singers as the players
on instrument shall be there. all my springs." Whose words
are these now? Korah's descendants. All my springs
are in thee, our blessed Lord Jesus. Isaiah chapter 4. The fourth chapter, the prophecy
of Isaiah. Now before we begin to read,
let us bow our heads and seek God's blessing upon His Word,
on the preaching of His Word, the hearing of His Word, the
success of His Word. Lord God of heaven and earth,
as we heard during the Bible class, You are indeed God. This universe is made by you,
governed by you, and will honor and glorify you, either in grace
or in judgment. We come to this chapter in your
book, and in it we find many things of great importance. But
Lord, if we are to read and understand our Bibles, you must, as you
have promised in your Word, send the blessed Holy Spirit of your
Son into our souls, our inner man. You tell us in this book that
no man can instruct any other person, not even himself, unless
God comes down and empowers that word and the Holy Spirit comes
and does an inner work of regenerating grace in the soul of the sinner
before we can so much as ever even. So here we are at your
gate of mercy begging Lord, if all we hear in this place is
my poor voice or anybody else's voice, we have met in vain. If you do not take up your own
cause and cause it to flourish and grow, no man, this is your
province. And in that day, seven women
shall take hold of one man, saying, we'll provide our own food, we'll
eat our own bread, we'll pay for our own clothes, we'll wear
our own apparel. Only let us be called by your
name to take away our reproach." son and daughter of Adam, has
a reproach that belongs to us from our birth. And we cannot
remove it, nor can any other son or daughter of Adam, except
the Lord Jesus. So if we look at this statement
as regarding Christ, oh, that God would send a period of time
upon this earth when people were desperate to find and know and
love the Lord Jesus Christ. That would be a time indeed.
I mean, they'd be lined up and offering to buy their own food
and pay for their own clothes. Just let me be called by your
name. What name is that? It's the name
that is above every name, the name of the blessed Lord Jesus. In that day, verse 2 now, In
that day shall the branch of the Lord, that branch is Christ. You find that word throughout
the Old Testament. It will be beautiful and glorious
and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely. For
who? Them that are escaped out of
literal physical Israel. Escaped from Moses, the condemnation
of the law. How are they going to do that? I'll give you two prominent examples
of people who were escaped of Israel. The most prominent one of those
examples is Saul of Tarsus. Now ladies and gentlemen, he
was the Jew of all Jews, literally. physically, naturally. His mother
was a Jew and so was his father. And I can think of one other
one offhand. That would have to be the Ethiopian. He drove
all the way from Africa to Jerusalem to worship God under the old
covenant of sacrifices and offerings. And he went, headed back to his
native land, driving a horse and chariot. just as empty when
he left as he was when he came. And God sent him a preacher by
the name of Philip, and he believed. He said, here's water, what hinders
me from being baptized? And Philip said, if you believe
with all your heart, you may. And went on his way rejoicing.
Now those two guys were examples and pictures of escaping Israel
and its Alright, we've got to hurry up here. Verse 3, And it
shall come to pass that he that is left in Zion, and he that
remains in Jerusalem, now this is the opposite of what we just
read in the previous verse, shall be called holy, and every one
that is written among the living in Jerusalem, I want to come back to that verse
or I'll just forego comment at the moment. Verses 3 and 4 are
going to be our text here in just a second. Verse 4, when
the Lord, telling you when these things are realized in verse
3, when the Lord shall have washed away the filth. Ah, preacher,
surely we don't have to use that word. Hey, if you wouldn't think
it profanity, we ought to use one worse than that. And then
we don't approximate the actual condition. We're worse than we
ever dreamed of. Oh, people say I'm just a little
sinner. You're a lying little sinner. 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. How? 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 a smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire
by night. For upon all, all these people,
whoever they are, the glory, the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ shall be a defense. That's our only defense. If He
does not keep us, we will not be kept. 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. All right. Let's come
back now to verses 3 and 4 and work on these statements. You
want to know where I got my outline? I got it from Brother Hawker.
and you can look it up and find it as well. But I've titled this,
whatever you call this thing that I'm about to do and have
already started trying to do, with this question. Is my name written in the Lamb's
book? Is my name written in the Lamb's
book? See that last statement in verse
3? Everyone that is written among
the living is my name on that list? That's the question of
all questions. All right, in verse 3 we bring
this question, looking at it strictly in the text here in
the third verse in Isaiah chapter 4. Who are the people that are
described in this? Who are they? Let's see how they're
described. Number one, it says, he that
is left in Zion." Now, Zion is the city of God. But we're not
talking about Israel as being God's Zion. Zion is wherever
Christ is. And His people dwell in this
city. Secondly, it says, "...and he
that remains in Jerusalem." And here again, This is not literal
Jerusalem. You're not any better off in
Jerusalem than you are in Las Vegas. If anything, you're just
about in worse shape over there than you would be out west. Because
over there, people go to Jerusalem and they say, oh, we can go to
the Wailing Wall and weep like the Jews do and we can go to
where Christ was crucified and it just runs chills up and down
your spine. That is complete, absolute, nothing
else but pure, unadulterated idolatry. That's all it is. And these stupid preachers and
others that lead groups over there, they just do it to pad
their pocketbooks. And if you're that big a sucker,
just go right ahead. But I'm warning you, You'll be
further from God when you do than before you left. And a believer
will have difficulty keeping his mouth shut instead of standing
and speaking up in the face of such. You'd be better off staying
home and going to the average Baptist church and just tape
your mouth before you go in so you wouldn't say anything because
it's the same religion. What do you mean? I mean religion.
without the life of God because it's without Christ. Everyone that is written among
the living, these people are described as being living and
written. Now, I'm going to do what I don't
want to do, but I want you to turn to just 1, 2, 3, 4. Okay? Four times. When I go over
four, I want you to call me on the carpet, and I'll stop. All
right. Revelation chapter 13. Now that ought to be an easy
book to find. It's the last one in the Bible.
Some of you have a concordance after that, as I do. These people are said to be alive
to God. But they are also said to be
written somewhere. Where is it? All right, here
it is. Revelation 13 verse 8. Now you've got to read this with
some idea of what's preceding it, what the subject is and who
it's talking about. If you don't, you'll totally
miss it. Verse 8, and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship
Him. Worship who, Christ? No. You don't have to go back to
three or four verses and you'll find out he's talking about the
devil. They call him the beast. All that dwell upon the earth
shall worship the devil. Preacher, have you lost your
mind? Probably so, but not totally. It defines now this exception
whose names not are written. These people who worship the
devil are people whose names are not in the Lamb's Book of
Life. Oh, preacher, that's not fair.
Everybody's name has to be there. Everybody that wants it to be
there, it'll be there for them. But God has to give you the want
to, and your want to ain't got nothing to do with it being in
there. It's been in there forever. But there is a book. And it's
called the Lamb's Book of Life. People's names are in that book.
And according to this statement, if your name's in that book,
you can't ever worship the devil, not since God saved you by His
grace. We all started out worshiping devils, mainly ourselves, of
course, but it goes in big cities. Second question from verse 3
of Isaiah 26. Not only who are these people,
these people are in Christ. And in Him, they have all that
God demands. They have all the blessings of
God. They have the divine providence
of God over them. But the second question is, what
are these people? Not just who they are, but what
they are. All right, let's see if we can
find it. Verse 3. Let me start at the beginning
so I can get to where I want to be in verse 3. And it shall
come to pass that he that is left in Zion, he that remains
in Jerusalem, here's the statement, shall be called holy. Holy. Now anybody can call themselves
holy, but this is talking about being called holy because you
are holy. You are in Christ and Christ
is in you. And I know. I live in the same
flesh you do. We look inside and we don't see
anything we like. If we're honest, we just see
the chief of sinners. But in God's mercy and grace,
we're able to look at our Savior. Shall be called holy. Here's the rest of that now.
Who are these people? Even everyone that is written
among the living in Jerusalem. In the book, I'm not asking you
to turn. I don't want to break my promise now. In Leviticus
chapter 11 and verse 44, you have these words. You shall be
holy For I am holy." That's God speaking
to the nation of Israel, of whom, for the most part, it has no
application. But He's talking to His children,
to those people that God gave to Christ in the covenant of
grace. How on earth can we be holy? God must give us what He
demands of us. And if you catch that word shall
in that statement, you will see it's already there by way of
promise. You shall be holy for I am holy. Take another verse
in the Sermon on the Mount of our Savior in Matthew 5, 48.
There the language is slightly different, but it is exactly
the same. He said to his hearers, be you perfect for I am perfect. And that be is just like God
creating light and darkness. He said, light be and light was. And that's how it is in regard
to a sinner being made holy. God simply speaks, done one time
and done forever. All right, now we come to verse
4. Here's the third question. Not only who are these people
and what are these people, but what these people are destined
to be, what they shall be. Verse 4 now, the very first part
of verse 4. When the Lord, notice the punctuation
that ends verse 3, it requires this statement to be attached.
See it? I know we don't usually write
using a colon much anymore, but that's how the Bible was written.
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." This is work that only God can do. And though
His saints in the Old Testament lived in the certainty that it
would be done, and therefore looked forward in faith and believed
and trusted the Lord Jesus, the actual event took place on Calvary's
tree. Therefore, these people are described
as being washed and purged. Now if you'll turn, this is one
of our four Scriptures, if you'll turn to Zechariah, that's Only
one more book in the Old Testament after Zechariah, that's Malachi,
so it's two books from the end. Zechariah chapter 13, I believe
it is. Well, what do you know? It's
right there, chapter 13. Zechariah, Z-E-C-H, 13, verse
1. what these people shall be. In that day, in that gospel day,
in that day of Christ, there shall be a fountain opened to
the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for
sin and for uncleanness. If Christ washes away our sin,
He washes all of them away. Doesn't leave any. All right,
back to our text. Here's the fourth question. Still
the second. Now we come to the second half
of verse 4. Let me pick up at, and shall
have purged, all right? And shall have purged the blood
of Jerusalem, from the midst or middle thereof by the spirit
of judgment and by the spirit of burning." A spirit of judgment
and a spirit of burning. So who's going to do all of this?
How is this going to be done? The Lord Jesus Christ is the
doer of such things. And He doesn't need my help or
yours. Matter of fact, it's already
done. It's been done forever in the mind and purpose of God.
He saved people for thousands of years simply on the promise
of His Son, the covenant oath of the Lord Jesus, that He'd
make atonement for His people and pay the price of divine justice
and earn for them a perfect righteousness. His blood and His right is all
we need. One more question. Well, actually
two, but only one more text. How will the Lord Jesus do all
of this? This is my fourth scripture.
Now John, and I know we just turned to this verse not long
ago, maybe last week or week before. John chapter 16, John's
Gospel chapter 16. Our text tells us that the Lord
Jesus accomplishes this in verse 4 of Isaiah 4. by the spirit
of judgment and the spirit of burning. Now the spirit of our
Lord Jesus Christ is the Holy Spirit of God whom Christ promised
His disciples He would send to them. So in John chapter 16 we
begin at verse 8. Our Lord is talking to these
disciples now about the comforter that He describes in the previous
verse as coming. And when He, the Holy Spirit,
is come, here's what He'll do. He'll reprove the world of sin. Now listen, not all the citizens
of this world, but all over this world, God the Holy Spirit will
convince men of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Here it is in
verse 8, right here in front of us. Reprove, that is convict
or convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
People say, I'm not afraid of the judgment of God. I'm not
going to let God judge me. Doug, he's dumber than Nebuchadnezzar. I'm not going to let God. Now,
if you let him, God will come into your heart. No, if it is,
it will be a false god. Not this one. Of sin, verse 9
in John 16, because they believe not on me, of righteousness because
I go to my Father and you see me no more. The only truly righteous
man ever to walk this earth was the Son of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he's telling his disciples,
when I'm gone, there won't be another absolutely perfect man
on this earth. The only perfect people be the
people that I make holy in my holiness. And finally in verse
10 and 11, we just commented on 10, let me read it again,
of righteousness because I go to my father and you see me no
more. of judgment because the prince of this world is judged. The devil's final straw was snapped
on the cross. He can't do anything without
Christ's permission. I've got one more question and
it's just a quick one. What does my soul say concerning
these two precious verses about me? Where am I in all of this? Where do you want to be? You
mean you really want to? I mean it be honestly true. You
can't come by that if He doesn't do that for you in your heart.
So the work of grace is already started. My habit is to reach for the
songbook, but this morning I want you to reach for the bulletin And notice the ver-