Isaiah 60 Let us hear the word of God. Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples. but the Lord will arise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you. A nation shall come to your light and Kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around and see they all gathered together. They come to you. Your son shall come from afar and your daughter shall be carried on the hip. Then you shall see and be radiant. Your heart shall thrill and exult. because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you. The wealth of the nation shall come to you. A multitude of camels shall cover you. The young camels of Midian and Ephra, all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense and shall bring good news. The praises of the Lord, all the flocks of Keter shall be gathered to you. The realms of Nebaioth shall minister to you. They shall come up with acceptance in my altar, and I will beautify my beautiful house. Here are these that fly like a cloud and like doves to their windows, but the coastlines shall hope for me. The ships of Tarshish first to bring your children from afar, their silver and gold with them for the name of the Lord, your God, and for the Holy one of Israel, because he has made you beautiful. Foreigners shall build up your walls and their king shall minister to you for in my wrath. I struck you, but in my favor, I have had mercy on you. Your gates shall be open continually day and night. They shall not be shot. The people may bring to you the wealth of the nations with their Kings led in procession for the nation and kingdom that will not serve. You shall perish. Those nations shall be utterly laid waste. The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the Cyprus, the plane and the pine to beautify the place of my sanctuary. And I will make the place of my feet glorious. The sounds of those who afflicted you shall come bending low to you and all who despised you shall buy down at your feet. They shall call you the city of the Lord. the Zion of the holy one of Israel, whereas you have been forsaken and hated with no one passing through. I will make you majestic forever. A joy from age to age. You shall suck the milk of nations. You shall nurse at the breath of Kings and you shall know that I, the Lord and your savior and your redeemer, the mighty one of Israel, Instead of bronze, I will bring gold. And instead of iron, I will bring silver. Instead of wood, bronze. Instead of stones, iron. I will make your overseas peace and your taskmasters righteousness. Violence shall no more be heard in your land. Devastation or destruction within your borders. You shall call your walls salvation. and your gates praise. The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light, but the Lord will be your everlasting light and your God will be your glory. Your son shall no more go down or your moon withdraw itself for the Lord will be your everlasting light and your days of mourning shall be ended. Your people shall all be righteous. They shall possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified. The least one shall become a clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation. I am the Lord in its time. I will hasten it. Amen, so reads God's holy word. Well, turn with me again to Isaiah chapter 60 as we think of our precious salvation, our precious salvation. Life is full of contrasts. What a stark contrast there is between night and day, between the winter and the summer, between the spring and the autumn, What a stark contrast there is between the land and the sea, between the earth and the sky. And what a stark contrast there is among the members of the human race, between the righteous and the unrighteous, the good and the evil, the saved and the lost. And there are contrasts in God's word as well. Isaiah chapter 60 is in sharp contrast to Isaiah chapter 59. Chapter 59 speaks about a sinful people caught up in wickedness. The prevailing mood of the chapter is one of doom and gloom. And that's only relieved by the revelation of God's purpose to save a people from the sinful morass into which they had fallen. A verse of note near the end of the chapter is verse 16 of chapter 59. Here we see the purpose of God to intervene, to save. He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no one to intercede. Then his own arm brought him salvation and his righteousness upheld him. Here we have a clear reference to the breaking into history of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus himself. Verse 20 of the chapter makes that clear. And a redeemer will come to Zion to those in Jacob who turned from transgression declares the Lord. And as we see in verse 21, the spirit of the Lord will be upon this redeemer and the date, This happened as our Lord embarked upon his public ministry. A prophetic reference is made to this anointing of the Spirit in chapter 61, verse 1. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. Fast forward 700 years and that found fulfilment when Jesus stood up in the synagogue in Nazareth and unscrolled unrolled the scroll of Isaiah at the point of Isaiah 61 and read the opening verses. He followed up the reading with words that astonished everyone in attendance. He said, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. God the Father speaks of the covenant mercies that would cascade down through the generations through Messiah's life and ministry. Isaiah 59 concludes with reference to these covenant mercies of the Lord. Verse 21, And as for me, this is my covenant with you, says the Lord, my spirit that is upon you, upon Messiah. And my words that I have put in your mind shall not depart out of your mind or out of the mouth of your offspring or out of the mouth of your children's offspring, says the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Then when we entered chapter 60, the focus is on the redeemed and the blessings that God has in store for them. The promises set forth here were to some extent fulfilled in the return of the exiles from Babylon. Verse 10, foreigners shall build up your walls, and their king shall minister to you, for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you. In the year 538 BC, Cyrus authorized the Jews exiles to return to Jerusalem. And through his influence, he helped them to obtain vital building materials to build up the temple and the walls, Ezra three and verse seven. So they gave money to the masons and the carpenters and fed, drank and oil to the Zidonians and the Turanians to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus, king of Persia. So the kings ministering to them, making provision for their needs. Now I know there is much in this chapter that points to that post-exilic era. There's also evidence that it points to another great period of fulfillment, the last days, these days through which you and I are living. Verse one of chapter 60, arise, shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Jesus Christ is that light. He is the light of the world. He has come and his coming has been a blessing to millions throughout the world. But then, as we examine the contents of the chapter, we discover that its great and ultimate fulfilment lies still in the future, in the new heaven and the new earth that Christ will usher in at his coming. The prophet is here looking forward to the kingdom of glory, and it is therefore not surprising that close parallels are to be found between what we read here and what we read in the last book of the Bible, in the book of Revelation. For example, in verse 19 of the sixth chapter, we read, the sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light, but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. And then we turn over to Revelation, to the penultimate chapter, 21 and verse 23. And the language is very similar. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the lamb. So when we come to verse 21 of Isaiah 60, which is our text, which is the focus of our attention this evening, We have this context to help us understand its meaning. And that verse reads, your people shall all be righteous. They shall possess the land forever. The branch of my planting, the work of my hands that I might be glorified. God is referring here to his redeemed people. Those who will spend eternity with him. those who will share fellowship with him in heaven. Next Sabbath morning, we look forward to intimate fellowship with Christ as we break bread at the table of the Lord. And the description given here is to challenge God's people as to whether we are truly his and we are truly following him and that we truly belong to him. Am I what I claim to be? In other words, they're looking then at this 21st verse. We see, first of all, the author of our salvation, the author of our salvation. What is God saying here about his people? He says that they are the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, the branch of my planting, It is abundantly clear from our reading of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel that Israel, both the northern and southern kingdoms, had apostatized. They had turned their back on God while still paying lip service to the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, while still paying lip service to the God of their forefathers. Their hearts had gone after other gods. As a nation, They had committed spiritual adultery. And so judgment, judgment was the recurring theme of the prophetic messages. That judgment was fast approaching. But what of the covenant promise? What is the promise God made to our first parents in Eden and then later established with Abraham? Genesis 17 and verse 7, and I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you. What about that? That covenant, that covenant of grace that God had entered into with his people where the covenant promises to fail because man had utterly failed. And the answer is an emphatic no. Out of the forest of Israel, God still had a branch, the remnant of his people, not many by human standards, but still belonging to him, his by covenant. Your people, verse 21, shall all be righteous. They shall possess the land forever, the branch of my planting. the work of my hands, that I might be glorified. Here God's covenant people are described in terms of a branch, a branch planted by the Lord, the branch of my planting. The prophet Ezekiel employs similar language. We find it in chapter 17 and verse 22. Thus says the Lord, I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out. I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. I myself will plant it. I'm sure many of you, at least the gardeners among you, will have planted a slip from a tree or shrub and put it into some compost or some soil and wonder to yourself, will anything ever come of that? It looks so vulnerable, it looks so insecure, it looks so fragile. And yet, revisit that spot months, perhaps years later, and your little slip, your little twig will have grown into a vigorous young tree. God the Sovereign Lord, who works out everything in conformity to the purpose of his will, has, by his grace, lifted an unlikely candidate out of the darkness of this world and planted her in the gospel church. The sceptics may have said, he or she won't last long in that setting, She doesn't really belong to the people of God. He doesn't really belong to that place. And they may even attempt to uproot that person, but they will never succeed. Vandals. Vandals cannot undo the work that God carries out by his sovereign grace and power. A Christian is, a believer is, the branch of my planting. The tender plants in God's nursery are sovereignly and powerfully protected and preserved by him. As Jesus put it, John 10 verse 28, no one will snatch them out of my hand. Of course, there are counterfeit plants. Those who give the impression that they have been planted by the Lord in the gospel church. Judas, One of the 12 fell into that category. As did Elemas, one of the first converts in Paul's missionary journey. As was Demas, someone who disappointed him greatly having forsaken them and because he loved this present world. Outwardly with these people at the time, everything appeared fine, but inwardly, They did not have a heart that was right with God. They were not reconciled to God by faith. And what will happen? What will happen to all counterfeits? Well, Jesus answered that in Matthew 15, verse 13, he said, every plant that my heavenly father has not planted, every plant that my heavenly father has not planted will be rooted out. Now the question we must ask is this, have I, have I truly been planted by the Lord? Christ and Christ alone is the source of our salvation. And as we see in the text, God not only put believers where they are, the branching of the branch of my planting, but he has made them what they are. As Paul said to the Ephesian church in Ephesians 2.10, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Or second Corinthians five verse five. He has prepared us for this very thing is God who has given us the spirit as a guarantee. God's people are his workmanship. brought to birth by the Holy Spirit for a purpose. We are shaped and disciplined by God's word and the various providences that enter our lives. So have you truly been planted? And are you conscious of God's ongoing work in your life as you serve him and as you minister for him, the author of our salvation, the branch of my planting, But then secondly, the purpose of our salvation. The purpose of our salvation. What is the purpose of being saved? Some might glibly answer, well, it's to get to heaven. But while that is true, it is not the fundamental and primary reason for our salvation. The primary purpose is found in the closing words of our text, that I might be glorified. We are branches of the Lord's planting that he might be glorified. The Westminster divines put it simply when they defined man's chief purpose, man's chief end in the first question answer of the Shorter Catechism. Man's chief end, man's chief purpose is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. How is God glorified? in his people or by his people. God is glorified quite simply when the beauty of Christ shines from their lives, from your life and my life. How in practice do we display the glory of the Lord or the beauty of the Lord? The answer is simple. The answer is straightforward, but it's not easy. It's not easy by any standard. We display the beauty of the Lord by being obedient to his truth. We display the beauty of the Lord by being obedient to his word. We must not be hearers only, but we must be doers also. We must not be content to live in the shallows of Christian knowledge and Christian experience. We must seek to increase our knowledge of truth. so that we may experience more and more of the heights of God's love and increasingly the expanse of God's mercy and grace. A communion season is a time for examination. Truth is being preached each week from this pulpit. Ask yourself, how am I responding to this truth that I'm hearing week in and week out? is the temptation for worshippers merely to evaluate the sermon as good or bad or mediocre, and in doing so they dodge the challenge that the sermon presents. The preaching of God's word calls for change – change in our thinking, change in our speaking, change in our behaviour, so that we might conform increasingly to the likeness of Christ. And as that happens, as we are increasingly sanctified through word and spirit, we bring glory to the Lord. We bring glory to our Father in heaven, which is our chief purpose here on earth. The author of our salvation, the purpose of our salvation, And now thirdly, the outcome of our salvation. The outcome of our salvation. The Shorter Catechism answer to question 37 summarizes what is in store for God's people when life's journey comes to an end. It is the outcome of their salvation. The souls of believers are at their death, be it perfect in holiness, and to immediately pass into glory their bodies, being still united to Christ, to rest in the grave to the resurrection. So they're made perfect in holiness. This is taught in the opening words of our text. Your people shall all be righteous. They shall possess the land forever, heaven forever. As I here is referring to heaven, a glorious land, our eternal home, our abiding possession. Heaven is a perfect place for a perfect people, perfect people who have perfect fellowship with the perfect holy triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There will be nothing in heaven and there will be no one in heaven to spoil our experience of glory. Nothing or no one in heaven that will spoil or disrupt our intimate communion with God. We are assured of that in Revelation 21 verse 27, but nothing unclean will ever enter it. There anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. but nothing unclean will ever enter it. As you look into your heart this evening, what do you see? Well, you will see many imperfections. You will see, if you're honest, many shortcomings. You will see that there's still sin. Sin is still a reality in your life. Does that mean? Does that mean that when you die, you will not be able to enter heaven? For after all, the scripture clearly states that nothing unclean will ever enter it. Yes, that is what the Bible says. But remember, remember the moment you are converted, the moment you were born again by the grace of God, you were closed with the perming perfect garments of Christ's righteousness. And so that means that as God looks at you this evening, he sees you as holy. He sees you as righteous. He sees you as perfect because you're clothed with the perfect garments of Christ's righteousness. And what a comfort and what a blessing that is. Look at what the text says, your people shall be righteous. And that's what we are, righteous in Christ, righteous through our union with our savior. This links in with what we have already been told in Isaiah 53 verse 11. By his knowledge shall the righteous one my servant make many to be accounted righteous. and he shall bear their iniquities. What a wonderful truth this is. What a blessed truth it is to know that as we look to Jesus Christ in faith, we are accounted righteous. That, friends, is the basis of our justification. Left to ourselves and our own defers, we would never be right with God. However, that said, we have a responsibility to work out this righteousness in the journey of faith. To work out this righteousness in our daily lives so that we, as servants of Christ, shine brighter for Christ as the journey of faith continues. Recall, as Paul said to the Philippians in chapter two, verse 12, to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. That means that we are to work out in our thoughts, we are to work out in our words, We are to work out in our actions what Christ has worked in by his grace. Increasingly, the attitude of Jesus Christ should be our attitude. The thoughts of Christ should increasingly predominate our thinking. The words of Christ ought to challenge and help us formulate our speech. The actions of Christ ought to be the pattern that guides and directs us in all that we do. And thank God we have the Holy Spirit who works through the word to help us do these things. We're not left to struggle on our own. And we have the people of God around us who spur us on to love and to good works. A pre-communion service is a time when God asks you to pause, when God asks you to reflect, when God asks you to consider the direction of your Christian life. Are you increasingly refusing to conform to this world and its standards? And are you increasingly being transformed through word and spirit into the likeness of Christ? Thankfully, we have the Holy Spirit to help us in this struggle to be holy as God is holy. and to develop the family likeness to become more like Christ in our thoughts, words and works. Philippians 2 goes on to say in verse 12, For it is God who works in you to will and to work for his good pleasure. And as God works in your life, don't resent his dealings with you in providence. Some of the The providences may be difficult, may be hard, may not be to your pleasing, but it is God who works all things for your good, as we read in Romans 8, verse 28, for we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good to help us to be more Christ-like. Your people will all be righteous. And finally, remember the precious words of 1 John 3 verses 2 and 3. Beloved, we are God's children now. And what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Amen. Our Father, we do thank you for your word to us this evening, that we are the planting of the Lord. We know that we would never have come to you, left our own devices, but you've drawn us to yourself and you've planted us in the gospel church among those who fear your name, We thank you for the heritage which you have given to us, people who have worshipped in this church, in this congregation for decades, for centuries even, before we arrived at this building. And to our Father, we thank you for that heritage and we do pray that you will enable us to hold aloft the torch of faith and to pass it on untarnished to those who are succeeding us to those who are following after the generation yet to come. Our Father, we do thank you for the righteousness of Christ that belongs to us, with which we are clothed so that we are regarded as holy in your sight, and so that should we depart this scene of time, even tonight, we will be welcomed into the heavenly home. Grant us, Father, help, grace, to work out that righteousness in our daily life, that we might shine for Christ, that we might bring glory to your name, which is our chief purpose here on earth. And we do thank you, Father, for the Holy Spirit who works in us so that we might indeed apply the word in our occupations, in our homes, wherever we find ourselves. So, our Father, we thank you for helping us to direct our thoughts to the breaking of bread next Lord's Day. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. Grant our Father that we may so reflect on our lives this week, and if some particular besetting sin is shown up, grant the grace to repent of it and turn afresh to Christ, and know his pardon and his forgiveness and his sustaining grace. now receive the blessing of the Lord. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.