In the sermon 'Renewal & Protection of Christ's Church' by Peter Allison, the speaker explores the prophecy in Isaiah chapter four, focusing on the themes of renewal, protection, and the glorification of the church. The phrase 'in that day' is pivotal, indicating a time when judgment and blessing coincide, reflecting God's dual role as judge and savior. The sermon examines historical events like the Babylonian exile and the crucifixion to illustrate this duality. The 'branch of the Lord' is interpreted as a reference to the Messiah, supported by prophetic parallels in Jeremiah and Zechariah. Furthermore, the sermon discusses the church's role as a holy and protected entity, drawing on biblical imagery of God's presence and protection. The prophecy is seen as a foreshadowing of Christ's messianic reign and the ongoing blessings for the church, emphasizing the connection between spiritual and earthly renewal.

Please turn in your copy of God's word to Isaiah chapter four beginning at verse two. This this section closes this prophecy this this message that began in the beginning of chapter two. So We pick up with verse two. 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 of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a covering and there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from heat and for a place of refuge and for a shelter from storm and rain. May we love our loss such that it is our meditation all the day. Heavenly Father.

Seal to us this morning. Your word, the truth of your word. Transform us, renew us, give to us ears that hear and feet that obey and please sanctify also my sinful lips, that from a vessel of clay the riches of your grace might be open to us this morning. We ask this in the power and through the presence of Jesus Christ, amen. And the Lord here renews and protects and strengthens and beautifies and glorifies his church.

It all happens in that day. That's how this opens, in that day. We might ask, when is that day? When is all of this going to happen? What time is he talking about?

This is one of the more frequently asked questions on these kinds of texts and other passages like it. When will these things be? This is what the disciples asked Jesus after he had spoken to them of the temple and the prophecies concerning the coming destruction of the temple and he kept he referred to that days that day that day of the Lord and later that day when they were alone with him they asked him, when will these things be? When is that day? And so, rather than simply state an answer this morning, I'm going to ask you to put on your thinking hats a little bit and let's walk through an understanding of what day this is, what this means by saying in that day.

It's used this phrase in that day is used hundreds of times in the scriptures most of them are in the prophets vast majority of them are it But there are a few other places. It's used to refer to when God brings the plague of flies on Egypt, but not on Goshen, where Israel dwelt. It was in that day. It refers to any day during a future celebration of the Passover when a son asks, why, Father, are we doing these things? Those are both in Exodus, Exodus 8 and Exodus 13.

It also refers to a nonspecific day of judgment following Joshua's death that we read about this morning actually when Israel would turn away from following the Lord and the Lord would chase in them. That's in Deuteronomy 31. God tells them that. There will come this day. In that day, you're going to turn away, and I'll chase you.

It refers to the day that the twelve spies returned with conflicting opinions about the conquest of Canaan. That was in that day. It refers to the day that Doeg murdered all the preset knob, cutting off the line of Eli. That was also a prophecy that would happen in that day. So you see really in each case, the context is absolutely critical for determining what is being referred to.

Is it a specific day? Or is it a period of time? Sometimes when this phrase is put with the number it can refer to a very specific day on the calendar, but other times it refers to a non-specific period of time. We also want to ask has this day come? Has it been fulfilled or is it in progress?

Or is it still in the future? Well, the context in this passage is that this is the sixth time, sorry, the seventh time that this phrase has been used. The first six times that it's used in this book so far, it has referred to a coming day of judgment, which was still in the future for the people that were the original hearers. But to us now is an Old Testament history. And so in those times that we've gone through in these last couple chapters, it's referring to the judgment that God brought on Judah and Jerusalem through Babylon, through King Nebuchadnezzar.

But now we see this in this verse the same phrase in that day or that day refers to a time of blessing, a beauty and glory. But here's I think the amazing thing, the first thing that really is instructive is that these are not separate days. The beauty and the glory of this day is tied to the day of judgment that's described in the previous verse, verse one. Isaiah one verse four, verse one says in that day, seven women will take hold of one man saying we will eat our food and wear our own apparel only let us be called by your name to take away our approach and then verse 2 immediately begins with in that day the branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious and the fruit of the earth excellent and appealing now there is in the Hebrew there is a Samhic there that indicates a new paragraph a minor break obviously it's shifting from from a day of judgment to a day of blessing. But I think we also need to see them as connected.

They are put here back to back. And so these phrases refer to the same period when both salvation and judgment come. In other words, the day of refining and puning and removal and reproach is also the day of beauty and glory in which the fruit of the earth is excellent and appealing. And this is the same pattern that we see in many other places. The day of the Lord is when God manifests himself as both judge and savior.

Isaiah 9 2 says it is the people that walked in darkness that have seen the great light or Noah and his family lived in a very wicked world. It is through the waters of the flood, the judging waters of the flood, that God removed the wicked from the earth. But he also delivered Noah and his family from the judgment that destroyed the earth. See, they came together. God was both the Savior and Judge.

Or the children of Israel were separated from the Egyptians and brought into the promised land through the Red Sea, the Yom Suph. So the same day that brought judgment to the Egyptian army brought deliverance to the Israelites. We see the same pattern then in this Babylonian exile. It was through the painful judgment of the Babylonian army destroying Jerusalem. And through the 70 years that they spent in exile in Babylon as aliens.

It was through that process that God removed the wicked of the land, but returned a purified people back to that land. I think nowhere is this more powerfully illustrated than that the cross. The crucifixion where to the where the unmitigated wrath of God is poured. Out in judgment on Christ. But through that God brought salvation to his people, delivering them from that same wrath.

God there was both judge and Savior. Now none of these examples of the day of the Lord happened in a single day. All these days involved a period of time. Noah was a And then there was a whole nother year going through the flood itself. It took several weeks for the children of Israel to leave, to get from Egypt and the land of Goshen after the Passover and to get to the Red Sea.

And then it took a couple months to get to Mount Sinai where they spent a year before they got to the point of entering the promised land the first time, the time they failed. The Babylonian captivity, you see, was also a process, wasn't it? Spread over many decades. The first destruction of Jerusalem when Daniel was carried away to Babylon was in 606, the last sacking of the city was 20 years later in 586. And the return also happened in over a number over several years in different waves.

Even the beginning of Christ's millennial reign occurred over some 73 years from the time that Mary was with child by the power of the Holy Spirit of the throne and in his millennial reign was was a period of many decades. And so I think we can understand. That day that's spoken of in these two passages in a very similar way. What the Lord does in this judgment in the exile and then in restoring a remnant to the land is just the beginning of the blessings that he will pour out on his church and his people. And so what happened when God returned the Israelites, the remnant to the land of Israel serves as a harbinger of a foreshadowing of the clumping glory of his church and his messianic reign.

It's a glory and a beauty that God continues to bring forward to continues to advance in greater and greater measure over history. And I gave a number of specific examples when we opened this section, beginning of chapter two, which I won't repeat. But see, Isaiah closes this message that started back in Chapter two with the same message of hope. A beautiful promise of renewal and beauty and blessing to the church. Isaiah closes this section with with the same message.

You see these chapter two, three and four form a single message that both open and closed with this promise of future blessing. And between these two messages of hope is sandwiched the bad news, the judgment. The opening passage, remember, in Chapter two describes the effect and the influence that the church will have on the world. It's the effect, the outworking. Of the of.

The church. It describes the the influence and the extent of the church at the consummation of history. So chapter four here, this text closes the passage with more of an internal description of the position of the church during the messianic reign of Christ. That's the period between Christ's resurrection and His second coming at the end of history. See, the opening in chapter two focused on the extra effects.

Nations will beat their swords into plowshares and won't learn war anymore, causing the cessation of international wars. But this focuses here on the inward beauty and glory of Christ's church and Christ's protection of His people, His bride. And so let's look then at this section of hope, this prophecy of hope. In that day, the branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious and the fruit of the earth excellent and appealing. And I must admit that branch of the Lord and fruit of the earth are commonly understood here to be a reference to the Messiah, the Christ.

And this view arises primarily from how the branch is used, this word branch is used by later prophets and in the New Testament as it makes references to these later prophets. And there is really a very solid support for that view. And I'd just like to outline that briefly. For example, Jeremiah 23 verse five says, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will raise up to David a branch of righteousness. A king shall reign and prosper and execute judgment and righteousness on the earth.

There it's obviously referring to a person who is a descendant of David. Jeremiah 33, in those days and at that time I will cause to grow up to David a branch of righteousness and he will execute judgment and righteousness on the earth. So very clearly this branch of righteousness is being is a reference to Christ the Messiah. He's a descendant of David. He's going to reign.

He's going to execute judgment on the earth. Or Zechariah 612. They 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. And so it's it's very you can see why reading these passages which obviously speak of the branch as a name of Christ. We we want to bring that back into this text.

Zechariah 3, here oh Joshua the priest, you and your companions who sit before you for they are a wondrous sign for behold I am bringing forth my servant the branch and there can be no ambiguity there because the branch is the descendant of David he's a man he's designated my servant which even in Isaiah is a designation for the Messiah. Isaiah refers to the Messiah as my servant right and Isaiah 52, behold, my servant shall be dealt prudently. He shall be exalted and very high in Isaiah 53 that passed the powerful messianic passage by mine, By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. You see, Christ was that sprout. He was the branch that grew from the tragic ruins of David's failed line of kings, kings that disqualified themselves from being kings, and God barred from ever reigning again.

Christ was a branch that came up through from David's line. And so I think it's not at all Wrong to see the Messiah in this passage See, this is a reference to Messiah, but but let's look at the next line. What about the fruit of the earth? See, we know, if you were here with our study in Proverbs, you remember, we know that Hebrew poetry makes extensive use of parallelism. The second line repeats an idea that's given in the first line.

It expands on it in some way, it fills it out, it modifies it, it adds to it. And so if the branch of the Lord is referring to the Messiah, our understanding of how Hebrew poetry works would naturally lead us to look for a similar meaning for the fruit of the earth. And indeed those who see this as referring to the Messiah see in this fruit of the earth of reference to Messiah. But I think this is where it gets rather strange to see the fruit of the earth as referring to the Messiah. Now there are ways to do it and I recognize that.

Many note that these two parallel descriptors, the branch of the Lord and the fruit of the earth correspond to the two natures of Christ. He's the Son of God and he's the Son of man. Just as a sprout or branch of the Lord belongs to God and finds its origin in him. So the fruit of the land means it belongs to the land and finds its origin in the land. And so as the branch of the Lord, that points to his deity as the Son of God is the fruit of the land that points to his humanity as the Son of Man and and I think that that's insightful but it seems just a bit strange to me.

And I think there's a better alternative, one that also points, it turns out, to the Messianic rain, but just in a slightly different way. I think the more natural understanding of fruit of the earth is a reference to the harvest of food that the earth produces. And this is what the phrase actually means in all the other places where it is used, the fruit of the earth. One of those places is Numbers 13 and Deuteronomy 1. This is where the spies bring back the fruit of the land of Canaan that God had promised to give Israel.

They went throughout the land, they spied it out, and they took samples of the fruit, the big clusters of grapes that they carried on poles. God had promised them a land flowing with milk and honey, and the spies brought back a sampling of the fruitfulness and the abundance of the land that God was giving them. Nobody questioned its fruitfulness. There was evident proof right in front of them. They only doubted that the Lord would be able to give it to them, given that the land was inhabited by giants.

And, but the same it turns out is also true for the phrase branch of the Lord it can also refer to plants and in Isaiah it does the word branch is a word for a plant a sprout a bud something that springs forth from the earth. And Isaiah uses it in this botanical sense in Isaiah 61 11. For as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth. It's obviously a reference to the physical earth. So to say that the branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious and the fruit of the land, excellent and appealing, I think is a promise of unusual and abundant outpouring of produce.

Of harvest for those of Israel who have escaped the judgment and come back to the land. Remember the land had been made desolate, unable to provide food. In chapter three, you know, my house in my house is neither verse seven, in my house is neither food nor clothing. This land that had been made desolate under the judgment of God will now produce abundantly. And I think this also preserves the parallelism in these two lines, the branch of the Lord and the fruit of the earth.

And I think it does so in a more direct and obvious way. And there are two other reasons that I would offer in support of this. First, many of the blessings that God promises will flow from covenant obedience. These promises that are described in great detail in Deuteronomy 27 and 28. They pertain to the land giving or withholding God's blessing on the produce of the land.

Many of them pertain to the fruitfulness of the land, to to to abundance of food. So the heavens giving rain and the earth yielding its increase. And so I think it's very fitting then that from a restoration and renewal of the church of his people would also flow this blessing on the land, because that's what's promised in the covenant promises of Deuteronomy twenty seven and twenty eight. And secondly, I think this understanding also fits well with the sense of the last phrase that this renewal is for those for the benefit of those of Israel who have escaped. That they would be able to experience the fruit of the land, yielding an abundant harvest the blessing of God is gracious provision.

Calvin says, quote, I do not hesitate to regard the branch of the Lord and the fruit of the earth as denoting an unusual and abundant supply of grace, which will relieve the hungry, unquote. But that doesn't mean this is only pertaining to temple blessings. I think this passage does have an application to the millennial reign of Christ. It is a foreshadowing of what Christ is doing in his church because Leviticus 23 is another passage that speaks of the ingathering of the fruit of the land. Although it's an ingathering at the feast of tabernacles or the feast of in-gathering.

And although it's a different Hebrew word for fruit, this feast, This feast of the Tabernacles, also called the Feast of the In-gathering, is very closely connected to the harvest or the fruit of the land. Listen to Leviticus 23, 39, also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, You shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days. On the first day there shall be a Sabbath rest. On the eighth day a Sabbath rest. And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit.

And that's the same word that's used in Isaiah for fruit. Take the fruit of beautiful trees, the branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and the willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. And Deuteronomy 16 also summarizes this same feast, And it speaks again extensively of its connection to the harvest, to the ingathering. You shall observe the feast of Tabernacles seven days when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress. And you shall rejoice in your feast.

You and your son and your daughter and this all the people that were to go up seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the Lord your God in the place where the Lord your God chooses because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands so that you surely rejoice. So this feast is celebrating and giving thanks to God and rejoicing before the Lord because of the blessing that he's poured out in the harvest. But this feast we know is Remember all these Old Testament feast always point forward to Christ in some way if They were they pointed forward to him. He's the fulfillment of all of them. And so this feast of tabernacles pointed to the gathering of the Gentiles following the resurrection and the scattering of the Jews until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

We don't have time this morning to show that, but that's what this feast signifies, the gathering of the Gentiles. Isaiah also speaks of this in this way, of the harvest of the earth. In Isaiah 45, rain down, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness, let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation. And let righteousness spring up together. I, the Lord, have created it.

And Psalm 85 makes an even fuller use of this image of God's blessing on his church and the gathering of his saints pictured as the fruitfulness of the land. Psalm 85 pictures the gathering of the church and the blessing of God on his people as the fruitfulness of the land. I'd like to read a few verses there And notice this connection and how this image of the fruitfulness of the land is used to describe God's blessing and gathering of his people. Psalm 85 6, Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your mercy, Lord, and grant us your salvation.

I will hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people and to his saints. And let them not turn back to folly. Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed.

Truth shall spring out of the earth and righteousness look down from heaven. Yes, the Lord will give what is good and our land will yield its increase. It's harvest. It's fruit. Righteousness will go before him and shall make his footsteps our pathway.

And so this passage, then, I think speaks of a rich outpouring of both spiritual and earthly blessings on the church in this millennial reign of Christ. The branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing. It's speaking of the gathering of God's people, the gathering of the Gentiles as the fruit of the land And it's excellent and appealing. But moving to verse three, the church is described here as a people that are separated to the Lord. They are holy.

You know, In chapter three, the people were identified by their rank and vocation. For God's people here are called holy. And this is a defining, distinguishing characteristic of the church. They are a separate and distinct people from the world called to be holy to the Lord. And it shall come to pass that he was left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy.

This is not new. Israel was always to be a holy people. At Mount Sinai, God told the people that you should obey my voice and keep my covenant and you will be a special treasure to me above all the people of the earth. Above all the people for the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And Peter repeats this very same theme in his letter in First Peter two, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people.

See, these are the people that in verse two escaped the judgment and are left in Zion and remain in Israel. They're separated to the Lord. They're His special people. He has His eye upon us in a special way. And that's even why we, that's even signified in the baptism of our children, they are holy and cleansed.

They're set apart from the world to be a special people to God. But there's. But there's one more glorious characteristic that's given to this people who have come through the judgment. They. Are recorded for life in Jerusalem.

The New King James has it as they are recorded among the living, but it's more literally recorded for life in Jerusalem. That's how the ESV And the New American Standard render it as does the great Hebrew scholar E.J. Young recorded for life in Jerusalem. It's not a temporary writing, a temporary scrap of paper. It's a recording for life.

The destiny of this holy people that is a peculiar people to the Lord is life in Jerusalem. I think this is what is called the book of life in the New Testament in Philippians 4 3 Paul refers to its fellow workers as those whose names are written in the book of life. And of course, the basis for being written in the book of life is not found in the people here. It's not found in us, but it's found in God. They are that branch of the Lord.

They belong to him. They are his work. And of course, this, I think you can recognize is the doctrine of election in a figurative form. Those who have been written down. In this for life in Jerusalem, are those who are predestined to everlasting life in Christ Jesus.

These holy people are recorded for life among in Jerusalem. But verse four then goes on to elaborate that these holy people are made holy through the purging fires of judgment. When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her from her midst by the spirit of judgment and this and the spirit of burning Then the Lord will do this Is the entrance into this holy city? Requires a cleansing and a cleansing that only God can accomplish The blessings of sanctification and growth and grace come through the refining fire that purges out the dross, even even the captain of our salvation, who was perfect and sinless, was made perfect through suffering. This is why James can exhort us to count it a joy when we fall into various trials knowing that the testing of our faith will result in our purification, in our sanctification, in our growth and grace, in perseverance.

The people in Isaiah's time, like the people in our day, are described by Proverbs 30. This is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filthiness. The daughters of Zion saw themselves as pure and beautiful in all their external paint and refinery. But God saw them as filthy. He calls them the filthy daughters of Zion.

They were filthy because they were corrupt, lusting to be lusted after. They needed to be cleansing. The men were men of violence, shedding innocent blood. They needed cleansing to enter the holy city. Revelation parallels this in Revelation 21, but there shall by no means enter it anything, this is the New Jerusalem, anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

So entrance into this city is through the purging, refining fire of judgment and the spirit of burning. You know, we're the same way though, I think, as these people. Whenever we find our glory or our identity in anything outside of Christ, if it's our wealth, our status, our titles, our good deeds, our chivalry, our knowledge of sound doctrine, any of these things by which we want to identify ourselves apart from Christ, that's the filth that needs the gracious work of God to wash away. In that day, there will be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. And that fountain, of course, is Jesus Christ.

This cleansing was the basis for it was accomplished when Jesus Christ shed his blood upon the cross. And that's when the guilt of our sin and the power of sin is washed away and we're cleansed And that is applied to us then at our new birth through the work of the Spirit. But then in verse five, God will create something new. You will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion and above her assemblies a cloud and a smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. What is that?

This cloud of smoke by day and a shining of flaming fire by night. Well, that's the glory of God, isn't it? Exodus 40 says that the glory of God filled his tabernacle in the same way. And 1 Kings 8, 10 says that the glory of God filled the temple in the same way as a cloud and smoke by day and a shining fire by night. Isaiah is thinking here of the manifest presence of God over his church, his glory resting upon his church, his Glorious presence covers the whole church and even the local gatherings like we are here this morning.

We're under this glory cloud. We've come to the heavenly Jerusalem. We will feel, we will be, we'll be sheltered in his presence forever. For over all the glory There will be a covering and there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat for a place of refuge and for a shelter from storm and rain. So God not only covers the church with His glory, blesses her with his presence, his glorious presence, but he's also a protection over us.

This is a figurative but tender terms that God describes the protection that he provides for us. A tabernacle for shade from the heat of the day of the sun. A refuge. A secret place that provides protection from enemies and from the elements. David could speak then about God hiding him in his secret place.

A place that we can go in his presence under his protection and know his glory. This is how God protects his church. This is how God glorifies his church, beautifies his church. I think Johnson Edwards. Describes it very, very beautifully.

They're the glorious, glorious God is manifested and shines forth in full glory in beams of love. And there this glorious fountain forever flows forth in streams, yes, in rivers of love and delight. And these rivers swell, as it were, to an ocean of love in which the souls of the ransom may bathe with the sweetest enjoyments and their hearts, as it were, be deluged with love. Brothers and sisters, this is what it is to be in the church of Jesus Christ, to have our name recorded for life in this book and to know God's protection, his blessing and his love. Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank you for this wonderful and encouraging and hopeful picture that is so different from what we see around us.

We pray that you might open our eyes as you open the eyes of Elisha's servant, that he might see your hosts encamped around us, that those who are with us are greater than those who are without. We ask that through these pictures you have given us this morning, you might encourage our hearts, You would build us up in the most holy faith. You would keep us in your love and that we might be praying in the spirit. And that we might have the full confidence that you are still and ever will be the reigning king of kings, the one who has put a protection over your church, a shade by day, a secret place of refuge from the storms and the deluging rain and from all of the enemies. We pray, Lord, that we might know what David knew that though a host should encamp against us in this, we will be confident.

The war should rise up against us, yet, Lord, you are with us, and you are able to prepare a table for us even in the presence of our enemies and to feed us and to nourish us, to walk with us through the fire and through the waters so that they do not overflow us and the flame does not scorch us. We thank you for these great and precious promises. Please build us up and encourage us with them. Through Jesus Christ. Amen.