The sermon 'The Beautiful Branch' by Scott Brown delves into Isaiah 4:2-6, focusing on the introduction of the 'branch' of the Lord as a significant biblical motif. This branch represents the Lord Jesus Christ, who is depicted as beautiful, glorious, excellent, and appealing. The sermon emphasizes the beauty of the Lord and the salvation He offers. It explores the significance of the branch as a type and symbol throughout Scripture, highlighting its role in redemptive history. The speaker discusses the qualities of the branch, illustrating its beauty through biblical imagery and its superiority over worldly desires. The sermon also outlines the works of the branch, including making His people holy, recording their names, washing away filth, purging sin, leading, dwelling with them, providing shade and refuge, and being a shelter from life's storms. This portrayal underscores the intimate connection between believers and the divine, with the vine and branch imagery illustrating the nourishment and support believers receive from Christ. The sermon concludes by reinforcing the themes of mercy and judgment in Isaiah, urging believers to recognize the Lord's beauty and supremacy.

Good morning. If you follow along, today's scripture is from Isaiah 4, verses 2 through 6. In that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing for those of Israel who have escaped. And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem. When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning.

Then the Lord will create above every dwelling place in Mount Zion and above her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of flaming fire by night for over all the glory there will be a covering. And there will be a tabernacle from shade and the daytime from the heat for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain." Let's pray. Father, we are so grateful for this scripture. We're grateful, Lord, that you have placed it here for us to learn from. Father, we do pray a blessing upon Scott.

Father, we're thankful that you have called him to be an elder, that you have set his home and his life, his work, all that he has in order, Lord, so that he may do what you have called him to do. Father, we thank you for the many hours that he has prepared in your word. We're thankful, Lord, that he is going to bring your mighty word to us today. Father, we pray a blessing upon his words. We do thank you, Lord, for this man.

We thank you, Lord, that you will speak through him today. We are so grateful and praise you in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Well as I say a picture is worth a thousand words and we have a picture before us today to help us understand the glory of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, to plant within our hearts a deeper sense of His great love, of what He has done for His people. A picture is worth a thousand words.

And the picture here is the picture of a branch. It's one of the most critical pictures in the Bible that appears here for the very first time. We're here, first time in the Bible, this final section of a three chapter sermon. Of course, it's Isaiah's second sermon. And in this sermon, he introduces a term at the very end of the sermon.

At the beginning of the sermon, in chapter 2, he speaks of this remarkable picture of people with their hearts so desiring the Lord. They say, come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord. Let's go into his house. Let's go into his presence. And the sermon begins there and then continues to identify particular areas of downfall in the nation and among the people.

And then the sermon ends here with this great occurrence of the word, the branch. And this is according to the law of first occurrences that we've spoken about many times, that when something is mentioned in the Bible for the very first time, it often means that it has opened up a discussion that will flow from then on, perhaps even to the very end of the Bible. And this term branch fits that purpose to help us understand more about redemptive history. And this term, as you'll see from the outline that is in front of you, is such a beautiful term that includes wonderful things. It really explains how great, how perfect, how beautiful is the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so my prayer for this morning is that somehow as a church we would behold the beauty of the Lord. We would see Him. We would see the greatness of the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll have to be just frank with you for a moment. I said this to my family this morning around the table.

It's been very difficult for me to even think of the context that this exists in. Because it's so wonderful. It just seemed to draw me in to its own identity in these very few verses. And so someone is going to stand up and say, you really missed the whole meaning and context of this, but I don't care. I just want to see the Lord Jesus Christ.

I want to see him as he's depicted here. And of course, there is a large and beautiful context. It's interesting that in terms of the context, in the first 12 chapters of Isaiah, they're very much like the sermon in the sense that it ends with a sense of the power of the Gospel. In chapter 12, which is the end of the very first section where God is speaking to the nation about judgment, because judgment begins in the house of the Lord. Just before Isaiah begins to speak about the nations from chapter 13 on, he speaks of the judgment against Judah and he ends it with the well of salvation.

And this sermon ends the same way. It begins with the picture of heaven and people so desiring, so longing for God and saying to one another, let us go to the house of the Lord. And then it ends with this picture of a branch. And I pray that we will understand it. You know, when I was a young father, My greatest desire as a daddy was that my children would see the beauty of the Lord.

It really was my most urgent and highest priority prayer for them. But somehow I could show it to them. I so desired them to see his superiority. I wanted them to have illustrated his sovereignty. I wanted them to know that His pleasures were greater than any of the masquerading pleasures of this world.

I wanted them to see Him, just like is depicted in this passage of Scripture. And as I was mulling it over and reading about it and studying it this week. It brought me back to days as a young father with little children in my house. I so desired for them to see this. I wanted them to know the sweetness of Jesus Christ, His perfect superiority in all things, that there was nothing that they could desire that could exceed Him, and that His ways were pleasant ways.

All His paths were peace. I so urgently wanted them to know that. And I look back and I just wish I had more time to do it. But these qualities that you'll see here in this outline, He's beautiful, He's glorious, He's appealing. He's excellent, He's appealing.

And His works are described in verses 3-6. He calls His own holy. He records their names in His book. He washes them from their filthiness. He purges.

He leads. He dwells with his remnant. He provides shade. He's a refuge. He is a shelter.

Behold your God, as Isaiah says in chapter 40. Well, the people of Israel, the people of Judah, had lost a sense of the beauty of the Lord. And as a result, they were experiencing His judgment. And this is why Isaiah has come. And he's come to speak two things.

And he speaks these two things all throughout the whole book, His mercy and his judgment. These are the two great themes of Isaiah. And the root of the problems of the people of Judah could be traced to one single sin, and that is that they preferred something other than God to satisfy them. It was the sin of pride. It was acting as if they had a better way.

It was acting as if their thoughts were better than God's thoughts. And so they set aside God's thoughts. And in doing so, they'd really lost all sense of beauty. They'd lost all sense of propriety and holiness and happiness. It had just been deprived of them because their affections were on things that were unholy.

They could only see themselves. Isaiah tells us that they were filled with Eastern ways. They longed for the wisdom of the world. They wanted to, as Jason Dillman is preaching on this morning, they wanted to obey the ways of the Gentiles in 1 Peter chapter 3. And they labored for that which is not bread, as Isaiah says in chapter 55.

They did not see God as He was. They thought that He was like them. He was not satisfying to them. He was not beautiful to them. He was not excellent to them.

They did not want Him. And their downfall was upon this great flaw in their thinking. And their flaw was that there was any satisfaction in anything but God. And so they chose something other than God. They're like the people that Paul spoke about in Romans.

They did not honor Him nor were they thankful. They did not see Him as so wonderful as He is depicted here in this passage here. And so here we find in a very simply laid out chapter an announcement of the branch and then an explanation of it. So let's jump into the text, verse 2. Here the branch is revealed.

The first words in the text are in that day. And there are 106 passages that include this phrase, in that day. And while they all do refer to a particular day, many of them refer to a day that begins many days, seasons or eras. It can mean one single day and one day alone like the day of judgment, but it can also mean a day that begins many days that will succeed them. And there are many examples of this in 1st Samuel 8, 18 and Isaiah 2, 11 and Isaiah 2, 17, Isaiah 3, 7, Isaiah, the passage we're in here, Isaiah 11, 10 and 11.

It's all over the prophets. And here, here this is the day of the branch. And that we know that the day of the branch is a day that appears, but it has many succeeding days. There's so many ways we can explain this. It'd be very complex.

I don't want to take time to deal with this because God, the Father, from before the foundation of the earth, conceived of this branch. They together, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all together determined this day when the branch would be visible. Now this is a type. We talked about types a number of times in our church. There are many, many types in Scripture.

I just want to read you a little bit from David Murray's book, Jesus on Every Page, about how to understand the Old Testament. He says, a type is a real person, place, object, or event that God ordained to act as a predictive pattern or resemblance of Jesus' person and work, or of opposition of both. So this fits the description of a type, and There are many types in Scripture. You know, Adam is a representative of man. The tabernacle is a representative of God being near his people.

When you hear the word tabernacle, think of the nearness of God and God desiring to speak directly with his people. Noah's flood is a picture in prophecy of the destruction and of evil and of the end of the world. The office of the prophet and the priest and the king who were anointed with oil typified Jesus who was anointed with the Holy Spirit to be the greatest prophet and the greatest priest and the greatest king. The types are all over the Bible and they're there to help us to understand what God is doing in the world. And this type of the branch really begins a stream of thought throughout Isaiah and Jeremiah and all the way to Matthew chapter 2 where Jesus says that it might be fulfilled by the prophets.

And what is spoken of here by the prophet Isaiah is fulfilled in that day. This term branch is used in scripture in many places. In Job, Job uses a branch to himself in Job 29.19, My root is spread out to the waters, And the dew lies all night on my branch. He's giving a picture of nourishment and water upon his branch. Because what we do learn about the branch is that we are also branches, as Lord Jesus Christ reveals to us.

Lord Jesus Christ is the branch, but He also has many branches. In Genesis chapter 49, Joseph is spoken of in the same way. Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well. His branches run over the wall." This is prophecy. This is predictive prophecy about what the gospel will accomplish.

In Numbers 13 we read, Then they shall come to the valley of Eschol, and there cut down a branch, With one cluster of grapes. They carried it between them on a pole. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs. It could be argued that this mention of branch in Numbers chapter 13 has nothing to do with this, but it does have to do with the abundance of the promised land. And this branch of the Lord Jesus Christ is in the abundance of the promised land.

In Hosea chapter 14, we read verse 6, His branches shall spread, His beauty shall be like an olive tree." Because branches, they're used to signify fruitfulness and abundance in God's blessing on Joseph and his children and all the people of Israel, particularly restored Israel. In Jeremiah chapter 23 we read, Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will raise to David a branch of righteousness. A king shall reign and prosper and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth." So in this case, David is referred to as a branch of righteousness. The branch here speaks of He and His offspring and the kingship as well of the Lord Jesus Christ. The branch also refers to His body, His people.

So the branch touches off many thoughts of different aspects of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not all the references to the branches are positive, because God does prune dead branches, and He takes the unfruitful branches and he throws them into a fire. In Romans 11, there are branches that are cut off of the olive tree. The people are pruned, purged, cleansed. God does prune His vine.

And this is the point here. There are so many things to say when we just say the word the branch. It brings back so many images to us. There are two Hebrew words for branch. A different word for branch than is used here is used in Jeremiah 25, 5, in Jeremiah 33, 11, in Zechariah 3, 8, and a number of other places.

And this word is Nassar. And it means a shoot or a dead stump. And it's the same word that Isaiah uses in Isaiah chapter 11 when he says, there shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest on him. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding.

The Spirit of counsel and might. The Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. Do you see how opposite that is from what we saw but what happened to the men? There was no counsel. They had nothing on their lips.

Manhood had been destroyed. And here, the Lord Jesus Christ, who comes out of this dead stump, he comes like a shoot out of this dead thing. It seemed dead, but it wasn't dead. And this is the point where when manhood dies, it can be revived only through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ revives all of the lackings and the downfalls that we see in the destruction of manhood in Isaiah chapter 3, and it's spoken of right here.

But the word in our text in chapter 4 verse 2 is the word sema, it's sprout, it's like a, it's the image of a seed parting the ground. You've seen this if you've had a garden. It's such a wonderful thing to see a seed just pop out with a little bit of green coming out of the earth. That's the word that's here, that he's coming out of this ground, out of this bombed out soil that has been ravaged as a result of the judgment of God. And the image here is that there is this new thing coming out of the ground.

And the branch means so many things, but it's an image of connection. It's an image of intimacy. It's an image of nourishment, of direct communion, of being fed by something outside of yourself. To be a branch, you know, out on the end and there's something feeding you. There's something coming from the wells, from the artesian waters, coming out and coming up through the branches, pulling the nourishment out of the soil, out of the ground, and then feeding you.

That's the image that's here. And it shows us that God is with us, that He is divine and we are the branches, that we would die without Him, that without His Word, without His Spirit, without His ways, we would be nothing, we would shrivel up and be destroyed. This is the truth of the Kingdom of God. I wanted my children to know that. I wanted them to know the fresh waters of life.

I wanted them to know how nourishing and sweet His words were, that they were sweeter than the honeycomb. Because this is what He is presenting Himself as here. Where would we go for life? Where could we find support for life If we were to be cut off, we would die without food. He is the bread.

He is the life. It also reveals that there are some branches that look like they're in the vine, but actually they're receiving no nutrients. They're actually dead. So this is this disclosure of the branch. Then everything after this first phrase, introducing the branch, is some kind of explanation of that branch.

It's a very simply laid out text, which I appreciate very much. And there's this disclosure of Christ. You'll see Jesus. You want to see Jesus. Did you come here to see Jesus today?

It's here. It's right here in this text. And it's so beautiful. You know, did you come here saying, one thing have I desired of the Lord, That will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord." Well, that's what we're about here. This is the beauty of the Lord.

God shows His beauty in many ways. He's just as exalted in his judgment as he is in his mercy. But here we see a disclosure of his mercy, one word after another piled up piled up high to show you the beauty of the Lord and his kindness toward you. So the first thing that we see are the qualities of the branch are explained in verse 2. In that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing for those of Israel who have escaped." Now I'm going to identify four qualities here of the branch.

First, beautiful. It's a very interesting word that Isaiah uses. It's a word that is meant to bring something to your mind that would just take your breath away. And it's a word that's sometimes used of a gazelle. You know, the remarkable physical qualities of a gazelle are a sight to behold.

They take your breath away. They're astonishing. They're so vigorous on the one hand, but yet so beautiful on the other. And there's speed, and there's grace, and the colors and the textures. This is the idea that he's speaking of here.

It is sometimes translated glory or glorious or beautiful or beauty or decoration, but as a gazelle or a roebuck as well. You know, have you ever seen a deer jump over a fence? It's the most... It takes your breath away. You say, I wish I could stop that and just see it in a moment, but you can't, and then it ends.

That's the idea. Beautiful. It is so beautiful. Beauty has so many facets. The strength of it, the speed of it, the colors of it, the thoughts of it.

This is your Lord Jesus Christ. He is beautiful. This is why in Psalm chapter 50 verse 1, David declares, The mighty one, God the Lord has spoken, and has called the earth from the rising of the sun to its going down. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God will shine forth. Our God shall come and not keep silent.

A fire shall devour before Him and it shall be very tempestuous all around Him." Here you have the perfection of beauty spoken of, but it's not just one kind of beauty. It's both the fire and it's the glory and the mercy of God altogether. Beauty. He is beautiful. Think on that.

Silah. He's beautiful. Second, glorious. Now this word that Isaiah uses is the same word that is used in chapter 3 verse 18. Go back and look at that, 3 verse 18.

Tifra is the word, and it's translated finery in 318. Remember, this is in the context of the daughters of Zion. The women that Isaiah was seeing in his day were representative of the whole nation. But the women were just so shallow. They had a beauty that was only skin deep.

And it was really an expression of the loss of true beauty. They had lost their true beauty. And here Isaiah uses the same word for the beauty of Jesus Christ as the branch, as he used over in this other place, and it's where he says, in that day the Lord will take away the finery. That's the word, finery. The finery.

And I think Isaiah is saying, there's a phony kind of finery, but now here is true beauty. What beauty was lost among the women of Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ himself is an embodiment of true beauty. You know, the world really does desire true beauty, but it never looks for it in the right places. And that's the problem with all of us. But He is glorious.

I just want to read you a number of passages of Scripture about the beauty of this branch. Could you just sort of slow down for a second? Open up to Isaiah 11. We're just going to read about the branch. Just different things that are said about the branch.

It is glorious. Isaiah 11 verse 1. There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of its roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest on him. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

His delight is in the fear of the Lord, And he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes, nor decide by the hearing of his ears. But with righteousness he shall judge the poor, to decide with equity for the meek of the earth. He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his loins, and faithfulness the belt of his waist. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them." And he goes on and on, giving these astonishing, glorious images of the power of Jesus, that a lion and a lamb would somehow be able to be together.

It's a picture of love, how those who were against one another are no longer, because of the love of Jesus Christ. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 23, verses 5 and 6. Verses 5 and 6. Behold the days are coming, says the LORD, that I will raise to David a branch of righteousness. The king shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.

In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely. Now this is his name, by which He will be called the Lord our righteousness." Meaning it's His righteousness, it's not ours. We have no righteousness apart from His. This is the beauty of the branch. He comes and He applies His righteousness to you.

He takes his account of obedience and he applies it to yours as if he came and filled your account with hundreds of billions of dollars to cover everything, to cover all of your liabilities, to cover all of your past sins, to cover all of your present sins, all of your future sins. And He's come and He's poured into your account more than is necessary, because He is your righteousness. This is the branch and what He and what he has done. Jeremiah 33, 15. In those days and at that time I will cause to grow up to David a branch of righteousness and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.

And in Zechariah chapter 3 verse 8, hear oh Joshua the high priest you and your companions who sit before you, for they are a wondrous sign, and behold, I am bringing forth my servant, the branch. For behold, the stone that I have laid before Joshua, upon the stone are seven-year eyes. Behold, I will engrave its inscription, says the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day." in one day. I don't know if that refers to in that day. It quite likely does.

Zechariah 6-12, Then speak to him, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, Behold the man whose name is the branch. From his place he shall branch out, and he shall build the temple of the Lord. Yes, He shall build the temple of the Lord. He shall bear the glory. He shall sit and rule on His throne.

So shall He be a priest on His throne, and the council of peace shall be between them both." So there are so many aspects of the branch in each of these passages that teach us to love the Lord Jesus Christ, to show us his beauty, to show us how much we need him, and to show us how much we ought to love him for what he's done for us. And then the third term is excellent in verse 2, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing for those of Israel who have escaped. Excellent meaning that he is of supremely superior qualities. He is superior. His way, he and his ways outperform everything.

You cannot get better than him. To be satisfied with him is to be satisfied with the very best. To invent something apart from Him is to have something that underperforms, that actually will harm you. It has to do with something that is majestic and is exalted. This word is sometimes used negatively.

Seven times it's translated pomp. Five times swelling. Twice, arrogance. So it's a word that just speaks of something that's lifted up. It can mean being lifted up in pride.

But with the Lord Jesus Christ, it's lifted up in excellence and majesty and beauty and glory. It's that kind of excellence. And it says here that he comes out of the earth. Do you see that? I believe he's speaking of the incarnation.

You know, that He is the offspring of the virgin's womb, that he comes up out of mankind. He is both God and man at the same time. This is the doctrine of the Trinity. This is the doctrine of the incarnation altogether here. And it comes out of the ground.

He was born of a woman. And he bears fruit. As he comes out, there's fruit that is born, more fruit than was born in time past, because he brings a better covenant. He brings better promises. And there's fruit that springs out of it.

It's a fulfillment of Psalm 1 where you yield fruit in season. You know, it's interesting, just sort of a rabbit trail for a second. I was in a conference in Texas a little while ago, and forgive me if I've already said this to you, but we were talking about fathers and how many of the Old Testament fathers had terrible experiences with their sons. Have I said this before? So why is that?

Why did they have such terrible experiences? And one of the men said, one of my speakers who was at this conference, he said, but you know, he says, I'm doing way better than David. I'm doing way better than Moses. You know, my children are following the Lord. And he said something that I've been thinking about ever since.

He says, because, and with the outpouring of the Spirit, there really is a difference. There is more power. There is more leverage. There is more fruit in the days of the Gospel. There is.

God gives fathers more strength and success in their fatherhood in the days of the New Covenant than the Old Covenant. It's a thought to consider. Let me know what you think. But what we find here is that there's fruit. There's fruit, more fruit, much fruit, as John says in John chapter 15, that there's the bearing of fruit as a result of this connection with the vine.

It just shows you the love of God. You know, God's revelation is progressive. God's sanctification of His people is progressive. And there is a progressive sanctification of the people of God throughout history. And there's more today.

There's more fruit that we have today as a result of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh than in the days of the old covenant. And so he comes out of the ground. He's like a shoot that pops out of the soil, and he bears fruit, and he bears much fruit. Matthew Henry proposes this, that he's speaking of after Sennacherib's invasion, after the Babylonian captivity, that God will bless his people as in Isaiah 37 Verse 31, and the remnant who have escaped the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward, for out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant. So this is this beautiful picture of something that is excellent.

He is excellent. He is so vastly superior to every other thing you've ever desired. Nothing you desire can compare with Him. Nothing. You know, as a church, as we're trying to learn what's pleasing to the Lord in our church, we can't underestimate how important this is that God alone, that our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the work of His Holy Spirit is absolutely the most important thing.

Everything we do in our church, in our services, in our gatherings, should be to remove everything that is not toward God and God alone. Everything that is not praiseworthy toward God. Everything that does not acknowledge, everything that is not consistent with God. And we should remove it from our services. Nothing that distracts from God and from God alone.

We try when we gather together, you know, not to distract you with videos and silly stories and dramas and things like that. We want you to see God and God alone through His Word, through the singing of His praises, through the reading, through the preaching, and that even that our whole day would be given to exalting God. I mean even when we gather together for our fellowship time, our conversation is focused on God and on God alone. That our conversation would be worthy of God and that our hearts would be worshipping God. This is the idea.

And why wouldn't you want to do something so far more excellent than everything? You know, He is far more excellent than your silly story. And yet, we have a whole culture based on silliness, and people just plunging their time in silliness. But God is so excellent. His excellency is what we need.

And that's what the branch is all about, to bring you His excellence. And then, number four, appealing. Appealing. Now, I don't know why Isaiah used this word appealing because it's the same word in 318 for but for for appealing and he uses the same word and it has to do with an ornament of glory for glory but he uses the same word twice but I thought I would include it the translator chose appealing in this sense And I think it's because translators render meanings of words according to the context. And that's important.

It's something we all need to recognize. And So, who would be the ones who will receive the fruit? It's stated right here. Those who have escaped. Those who have escaped.

These are the ones that receive the fruit. And there are two meanings of this. First, those who have escaped the ravages of the war and the death and the degradation that was getting ready to be unleashed by Sennacherib and his invasion. And I also believe Nebuchadnezzar later on in 586 when he finally completes his siege and carries off the treasures of the temple. So I do believe it has to do with that, the way that God protected his people in the siege, because God does protect his people in sieges.

He does care for them in a special way. Just like the children of Israel, when everything went dark and the plagues against Pharaoh were ravaging the land, there was a place of light and a place of the abundance of food in Goshen, because God protects His people even in the midst of the war. So I think it has to do with that, but I also want to suggest that it has to do with those who have escaped the wrath of God through the sacrificial, substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, that He has become our righteousness. And how does this happen? And how does this happen?

2 Kings 19 verse 30 says, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. You recognize that phrase out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ. But in 2 Kings 19, we learn why all this happened, that he would save a remnant in this text in 2 Kings 19. And he says the Lord of hosts will do this.

Yahweh, the One who ordains the zeal of the Lord to redeem mankind is here in this passage. That God pursues, that God is a pursuing God, and that he has a zeal to rescue his people. Jesus said that his Father was drawing men to himself. This is the zeal of the Lord. Maybe God is drawing you.

Maybe you can sense it. This is the zeal of the Lord. It's because of His love. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. You know, maybe you've grown up in a Christian home, but you sense Him drawing you.

This happens. And you just have to know what's happening to you. You're having a greater interest, your heart is seeming to be softened. What is happening to you? You're accepting things that you never accepted before, things that you hated and resisted and thought were goofy.

Now you think, no. What's happening is that God is drawing you. The zeal of the Lord is accomplishing something in your life and He's pulling you in slowly. That's what God did with me. It was very strange.

I don't know of a day, but it was as if the Lord was just pulling me one hand breath at a time, like on a rope, just very slowly. A little bit here, He would bring a preacher to me, a pastor, a friend, someone on my campus in high school, and he was just pulling me like that. One hand breath at a time. And then it was as if I just realized, Lord, I'm here. I'm yours.

I love you. I want to walk with you. That's what happened to me. It was the zeal of the Lord one increment at a time. God is pursuing his people.

The zeal of the Lord will accomplish this. And then there are these four qualities of the branch. Beautiful, glorious, excellent, and appealing. And now let's turn to the works of the branch. The works of the Lord Jesus Christ are described in verses 3 through 6.

And the first thing that we see here is that there are a number of these works, and I've itemized nine of them for you that are in the text. Again, The outline of a sermon should follow the contours of the text. And so that's why there's so many points. You're only supposed to have three points in a sermon. I know.

Sorry. That's the way it is. A couple things just to recognize here in this section in verses 3 through 6. First of all, in verse 4, it says, when the LORD has washed away the filth, he uses the word Yahweh, covenant LORD. But in verse 5, He uses a different word, and then the Lord Adonai, this is the sovereign Lord, will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion and above all her assemblies.

So the beautiful character of God, his power, his various ways that are identified by his various names, he has so many beautiful names, And these two names are behind all of the activity of what he does here in this passage. So first of all, he calls his own holy. Verse 3, And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy. Now, this term holy looms large in this verse. And there are always two senses of the word holy that you should consider.

The word holy on the one hand can mean pure, to be made pure. As if the righteousness of Jesus Christ has become your righteousness. His obedience is applied to your disobedience. His goodness is applied to your ugliness. His purity is applied to you.

You have to know that. This is the power of the gospel that He makes you pure. And then there's also the sense of separateness. He's different. That you shall be holy, you shall be separate, You shall be distinct.

You won't live the way that the Gentiles live. You'll hear the words, do not learn the way of the Gentiles, and you'll say, oh Lord, rescue me from the ways of the Gentiles. You'll hear what Peter says, do not obey the Gentiles. You used to obey the Gentiles. And you'll say, oh Lord, help me not to obey the Gentiles.

Help me to obey you. This has to do with separateness, that kind of holiness. And God has desired His people to be different. If people think you're strange, count it all joy, as long as the strangeness is the strangeness of the holiness of the Lord. He calls His own holy.

Just rest on that for a minute. You know, I I know It's easy to when you fall before the Lord you're so aware of your own sins But could you also be aware of? The purity of Jesus that has been afforded to you. This is what He has done. It's a lot easier to say, Woe is me, for I'm a sinner, than it is to say, I'm pure.

But somehow we have to learn how to say that with all the confidence in our hearts and to rest in it, to know that He has cleansed what was impure. So he calls his own holy. Isn't that wonderful? And then he records their names in a book. He says, everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem.

Now, Isaiah doesn't use the word book. The Apostle John uses the word book in Revelation. But is it a real book? It might be. Probably is, because a book is open.

But those who are registered, named in the Book of Life are in God's mind. I mean, He doesn't need a physical book. But he seems to have a book of some kind. This is the doctrine of your names recorded in heaven. The term can indicate inscribing or engraving.

You know, you have this idea that your name is written in His hands, on His heart. You know, in the same way that the priest in the Old Covenant would write the names of the sons of Israel and put them on above their hearts. This is what God does with His people. He writes your name and He carries your name with you. You know, I have a letter that one of my daughters wrote to me recently, and I've been carrying it around with me ever since I got it.

And every once in a while I carry it out. And I'm carrying her name with me and what she is all about. This is what the Lord does. He carries your name with Him. He writes it in a book, He engraves it, He inscribes it, He records in the annals of Heaven your name.

And no one can erase your name. No one can take that name out. It cannot be deleted. It's there. It's there for all eternity.

This is the doctrine of election. He's chosen you from before the foundation of the world and written your name in the book of life. I don't know why people don't want to believe in election. That God would choose them from before the foundation of the world, like Paul says to the Ephesians. And that He would inscribe their name And no one would either be able to snatch them out of his hand.

And no one would be able to mess with his book. We live in an era where things can be erased and hidden so easily. Not in God's book. It's not electronic. It's fixed.

He records their names. You know, this is really the beginning of the doctrine of salvation. It begins in God, it begins in the mind of God. God chooses you from before the foundation of the world. This is election.

And then He calls you. This is His calling. God speaks to you and He draws you. He elects and then He calls. He speaks to your heart.

He convicts you. And then there's regeneration when He actually imparts spiritual life to you. And then we respond and we are converted And we repent and we trust the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are justified as a result. He declares us righteous.

He is the Lord our righteousness. And then He adopts us and He makes us part of His family. We become His sons and daughters and then He places us in His family of sons and daughters. And then He sanctifies us. He keeps working in us.

He saves us in such a despicable state. And He's so patient with us to change so many of our ridiculous ideas about everything. It's amazing. You think back. If you've been a Christian 10 or 20 years, Think back at so many of the stupid thoughts that you had that were so contrary to God, how immature you were.

You remember how immature your prayers were? You know, it happens that you hear people pray in a prayer meeting and you say, well, that's a very immature prayer. Praise God. I thank God for immature prayers of the new saint who doesn't even know. But he's on a journey now for all the rest of the days of his life, and God will sanctify him.

It's such a wonderful thing. I cherish the immature prayers in this church, because I know what they mean. It means that God is taking His people in a direction. It's such a beautiful thing. What a blessing it is to know that your names are written in His book.

You know, there's so many reasons to rejoice in that and in that alone. You know, When the disciples went out two by two and the devils were falling and they were doing miracles recorded in Luke chapter 10, Jesus said, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you." And then Jesus said this to them. He said, Nevertheless, do not rejoice that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice. And do you know what he said after that? Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

Rejoice for that. So number two, He records their names. Number three, He washes them from filthiness. Verse four, When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning. I want you to pay special attention to this verse.

Please look at it. I want you to look at it. There's a structure of it that I want to help us to try to see. First of all, see the word filth. Filth of the daughters of Zion.

This has to do with the Church, the gathered people of God, the filth of the people of God, and then purged the blood of Jerusalem. This has to do with the city. This is the blood in the city. So there's both a... There are two different things that are happening here in verse 4.

Filth of the daughters of Zion, which is the church, and the purging of the blood of Jerusalem in the city. Because when the church is filthy, bad things happen in the street, and there's blood in the street. There's blood on the hands of the city as a result of the filth of the daughters of Zion. I think that's the idea here. Our sin has its outworking in the city.

Many of you go to abortion clinics every week because there's blood in the city. And a lot of that blood is because of the filth in the church. And so God is saying that He's dealing with this. He's dealing with this problem of humanity, that the sins of the church find their outworking in the city if you can trace every political problem every issue right back to one single thing that is not preferring God as superior and beautiful and good and holy and excellent. Every single thing goes back to the worship of God.

That's why David said, one thing I have desired. One thing. There's one thing. To behold the beauty of the Lord. It's the beauty of the Lord.

It's the beauty of the Lord that makes everything work either for good or for ill. And if you have filth in the daughters of Zion rather than the beauty of the Lord, what you get is blood in the city. And that blood has to be cleansed somehow. So I want you to see that first. But he says that when the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, washed has to do with soap cleaning and the filth has to do with with excrement and it's the excrement of pride and independence it's It's the excrement that comes from thinking that there's any good in this world apart from God.

It's the excrement of thinking that anything will satisfy you that's different than God. And here in Isaiah it's the pride of independence. God is judging pride. He is destroying pride. What is pride?

Pride says my will be done. Pride says my will is better than your will. And what had happened among the children of Israel is that the men were so filled with Eastern ways that they had no room for God. Women who were empty and vacuous, Men who had nothing to say or nothing to do. They had no counsel on their lips.

This is the pride of independence. To be so filled up with Eastern ways and to recognize that it's filled. Do we not understand that when we fill ourselves up with Eastern ways? What has happened to us? We're filling ourselves with expiriment, with filth.

There's something more beautiful, something better, something more glorious, something more appealing. He's speaking of the sin-filled life here. When he's speaking of filth and cleansing and Agur in Proverbs 30 verse 12 uses the same word that Isaiah uses for filthiness. He says, there is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filthiness. He's talking about the younger generation.

He's talking about young people who despise authority. It's the whole idea that David raises in Psalm 51, when he said, Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." Hyssop has detergent qualities to it, just naturally. But hyssop was used, of course, in the Passover. It was dipped in blood.

The hyssop branch, which has medicinal cleansing qualities, was dipped in the blood of the lamb that was slain, and then the blood was wiped on the doorposts of the house as a protection and a cleansing for the house. In Leviticus 14, hyssop is used for the cleansing of a leper. And what we see here is that he makes filthiness, he takes filthiness and he cleans it. And how does he do it? You can see it right there in the text.

How does he do it? By the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning. That's how he does it. That's how he cleanses. By the spirit of judgment, number one, and by the spirit of burning.

That's how he does it. That's how he cleanses. By the spirit of judgment, number one, and by the spirit of burning. Judgment, we are cleansed through the judgment of God, by God showing us the difference between good and evil. You know, the law kills, the law shows you your sin.

It exposes you for who you really are. And so He cleanses first of all by judgment and then by burning, by destroying it. And that's why Isaiah has already said, come now let us reason together, though your sins be a scarlet, they They shall be as wool. So he cleanses. I love that hymn.

Wash me and I will be whiter than snow, whiter than snow, whiter than snow. Wash me, wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." This is what God does with His people. This is the ministry of the branch. And then he purges, verse 4. There's more than just simple cleansing.

There's actually purging. Now, there's some debate in my mind about this word purging, because the purging can also mean cleansing. It's used in context of cleaning, just like the previous word that Isaiah uses. But the term also is used in context of casting something out, of getting rid of something, Purging something, getting it out of you. You know how there are many ways that this could be described.

Where something just, it was part of you and it's now out of you. You've been purged of it. And he has purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, to cast it out. He purges. That means that He not only washes you from the filthiness of it, He also gets rid of it.

And then 5, he leads. Verse 5. Then the Lord will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion and above her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night." So he has such a good shepherd he leads. And notice there are two designations here. There are the dwelling places and there are the assemblies.

Do you see that in verse 5? Dwelling places and assemblies. Let's just say it again. God doesn't throw any words away. Words mean something.

Dwelling places refer to houses, homes. Literally, foundations in which you live. So he's talking about your house, your family, your dwelling places. The place where you dwell, He leads. The Lord will create above every dwelling place.

In other words, every family He will lead. He will lead His flock. He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he'll gather the lambs in his arms and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with him." That's Isaiah 40. He leads families. Families should cry out to God.

Every family needs to be led. Every family can go astray and from time to time needs to re-correct the trajectory of their path. But He leads here. He leads. And then there are assemblies.

These are gatherings. These are the gatherings of the people of God. When the people of God assemble, God has always assembled His people together. And these are assemblies. So He's leading the dwelling places, the homes, and He's leading the assemblies.

I think it's an allusion to the church and the family and the way God is working through both of these wondrous institutions to do His will. He established His families for a reason. He established His assemblies for a reason as well. And there's this canopy of protection above every dwelling place and above the assemblies. He is leading from above.

He's looking down. He's seeing in. This imagery of God leading through the cloud and the smoke by day and the shining flaming fire by night is something that Isaiah is picking up from the story of the Exodus. When the children of Israel left Egypt in Exodus chapter 13, he led them this way. He led them with this pillar of fire and by the cloud.

He led them ahead. And then when Pharaoh changed his mind and started to pursue the children of Israel, he started chasing after them with his chariots, and everyone was terrified as a result. God took his pillar of fire that was in front of them and he put it in back of them and blocked them. That's what he did, because He was leading them to the Red Sea, where they would be blocked. He led them and He protected them from the back and from the front.

This is why David said, You've hemmed me in behind and before. You've laid your hand upon me." God is so kind. He leads His people. He covers your rear guard and He walks before you. He's already been where you're going.

He leads his people. This imagery is so important to understand. And then when the tabernacle was in the wilderness, God spoke directly to Moses in Exodus chapter 33, and the cloud would come down. It would indicate that God was speaking to Moses. It's a picture of God leading and speaking to His people, to coming near to his people, not just leading them.

He leads them by his word, and that's how he was leading his people. And then out of the cloud and pillar of fire, God would show his presence in the tabernacle in Exodus 40, verse 34. And the cloud rested above the tabernacle, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And God used the cloud and the pillar of fire to lead his people throughout the journey. Exodus 40 verse 36 tells the story.

Interestingly enough, this type of the pillar of fire and cloud would be spoken of at the very end of the Bible in Revelation 15. After these things I looked, and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened. And out of the temple came seven angels having seven plagues, clothed in pure bright linen, having their chests girded with golden bands. Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever." And verse 8, The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one was able to enter the temple till the seven plagues and the seven angels were completed. All of this speaking of the presence of God.

The presence of God. And This is a covering. It's a covering of the glory of God. There will be a covering. This idea of covering is worthy of a long discussion.

But just recognize that the Lord Jesus Christ is your covering. And then number six, he dwells with them in a tabernacle. A tabernacle is a visual representation of something greater. It's theology in graphic form. It's like baptism.

Baptism is a physical practice that bears witness to a spiritual reality. It's like the Lord's Supper, a physical practice where you eat and drink and examine yourself and you rejoice in order to bear witness to the examining eyes of God and the nourishment of Jesus Christ and the celebration of His grace. And so in the tabernacle there was, it was erected one year after the Passover. It was a place of worship. And all the imagery of the tabernacle means something.

The gate of The tabernacle is the door for sinners to enter. The brazen altar tells of God's saving sinners. The sacrifices tells of God's providing a substitute. The laver, or the basin, says that God cleanses. The menorah, the lampstand, that God gives light to sinners.

The table of showbread says that God feeds and eats with sinners. The golden altar of incense speaks that God hears. The holy of holies is that God is holy. The veil that God is separate from sinners and the Ark of the Covenant that God reigns. The tabernacle is a type of the nearness of God and communication with God and His people.

Every single thing in it depicts the glory of the gospel. We know that Christ tabernacled with us, says the Apostle John. In Revelation 21 we read, Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God, and God will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain for the former things that passed away." This is the tabernacle.

This is God dwelling with man through the tabernacle. Number seven, he provides shade, protection to comfort your soul, to keep your soul, so that you could say with all your heart, like David did in Psalm 121 verse 6, The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil. He shall preserve your soul. He shall keep your soul.

Or in Isaiah 25, he's a refuge, he's a strength for the needy and distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat for the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall." So he is shade. He is shade. Don't you love shade? You need shade when you live in this part of the country from time to time. Number eight, he's a refuge, verse six, a place of safety.

Proverbs 18, 10 says, the name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and are safe. God is a shield to those who trust Him. Read Psalm 46. Number nine, He's a shelter. Verse six, a shelter from the storm.

He is a shelter. He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I will trust. Surely he shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler." That's Psalm 91. Moses wrote that Psalm.

Well, behold your Savior, your branch. Behold your Savior, your branch. He's beautiful, glorious, excellent, appealing. He makes you holy. He records your name in his book.

He washes you from your filthiness. He purges you of the blood on your hands. He leads you. He dwells with you. He is your shade.

He is your refuge. He is your shelter. This is why John said, I am the vine. I am the true vine, and my father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

He is the vine, and we are the branches. Isn't it interesting that the revelation of God about the vine begins with Jesus as the branch, and it ends with you are the branch. You are in him and he is in you. And you dwell with him and he dwells with you. You are his.

What a blessing it is. Oh Lord, let's pray. Lord, we thank you. I thank you for this marvelous testimony of your grace, your beauty. Lord, it's hard for me to see anything but these beautiful words in this context.

I thank you that you have given us this today for some reason that only you know. Why are we here, Lord? Why are we here? Amen.