I'd like you to turn to Isaiah 61 again for our last visit, at least for the time being, to that passage and to the last verse of this chapter, Isaiah 61 verse 11. For as the earth brings forth its bud, As the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. Now we've seen that this is a wonderful, great prophecy, this chapter, a Trinitarian prophecy, a messianic prophecy and statement and a description of the blessings of the Lord God, the sovereign Lord God upon his own people, which will be fully and finally realized in the glory that is yet to come when the Lord Jesus Christ comes again. But there are blessings described here which are to spur us on to desire God to come again and bless us here and now. And I hope we've seen something of that already as we have come through this passage. Seventy years of captivity were to precede these blessings. And of course, to the people, as we've said, to whom Isaiah was writing, that seemed to be almost an impossible thought. When Isaiah is writing these words, there is a measure of prosperity and progress amongst the people of God. There seems little possibility that they will be taken into captivity. And there were likely to be people of that day who may or even have dismissed Isaiah's words as being ridiculous. How can you talk about this time of judgment and then this time of blessing? Surely everything's going well. But of course, even in Isaiah's day, the rot was beginning to set in and they were not following God as they should. And if you go back and read some of the earlier parts of Isaiah's prophecy, you will understand that and how he has to challenge them. Right in the very first chapter, he challenges them to seek righteousness and holiness and purity. And of course, these verses have verses have, as we've seen in this chapter particularly, as in other chapters in Isaiah, they have a message to us about God's reviving power, God's blessing upon his people. And here in this chapter, there is much about building and feeding and serving and rejoicing and the longing that we will see God to bless us. And we've looked at some of that in these things over these weeks as we have considered these things together. These words, in fact, these words in this chapter are the words, particularly those words at the end here from verse 10 and following, are the words of a true believer. Verses 10 and 11 particularly, we saw that last time. We took the line that Professor E.J. Young took in his commentary as we consider these things. The word of God coming to his people, the true church rejoicing at such a great salvation to understand these things, the testimony of a true believer. God brings salvation. God doesn't receive salvation. Verses 10 and 11 are speaking about the receiving of salvation, the receiving of God's righteousness, the receiving of God's blessing. Well, clearly God does not receive his salvation. God does not need saving. This is the word, the testimony of a true believer. The language of the prophet in the terms of the church of Jesus Christ. The true church rejoicing at this great salvation. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, verse 10. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for he has clothed me and covered me and has given me these great blessings. And we looked at that in some detail last time as we considered the object and reason and manner of rejoicing and considered the metaphors of a wedding, the metaphors of worship, and the metaphors of wonder. Now verse 11 begins with the word for, a further reason is put forward. For, here is another reason, for as the earth brings forth its bud, and as the garden causes things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth. before all the nations. So we have a for in verse 11 saying that this is something that follows on, this is a continuing development, a further reason, but we then have what is often described as an as-so clause. As something happens, so something else will happen. As the garden causes things that are sown, so the Lord God will cause righteousness. There's a picture, there's a parallel. Here is the garden, here is the picture that is drawn from it. And here is the further effect of the coming of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, upon his people. The coming of salvation and what salvation does when it comes. And of course, it's not just a static thing. It's not just a single thing. It's not simply a day of triumph over the evil one. It is that. Thank God for that. That's where it begins, in a sense, when God rescues us from sin and death and destruction, when God delivers us from the wicked one. It is that, but it is far more than that. There is an ongoing work of salvation. You remember the old story of the little girl who came to the minister. I think it's often said she came to a bishop. Well, it may have been a bishop, but if we understand a New Testament bishop, well, anyone who's a preacher of the gospel. and said to him, sir, are you saved? And he turned to the little girl and he said, do you mean have I been saved or am I being saved or will I be saved? Well, of course, you know, he wasn't trying to trip her up and confuse her. But there is a sense in which that should be true of us. Have we been saved? I hope we have. I hope we've been saved by sin. But I hope we are being saved. That work is continuing. And I hope we will finally be saved out of this world. And if we are true believers, that is what is happening. It's not just a once-off act. It's an ongoing, continuing process. Now you understand that, friends. I'm sure you do. And this is what Isaiah is speaking of here in these verses. A progress, a continuing process. Not simply the putting on, of the fine clothing for the wedding day, as described at the end of verse 10, but the ongoing life. The wedding day is only the beginning of a marriage relationship. Then there is progress, there is development, clothed in the durable and lasting robe of righteousness, which will never wear out. And so Isaiah uses, or the Lord prompts Isaiah to use a further illustration here in verse 11. And it's the illustration of sowing, the sowing of seeds in a well-cultivated garden. Now, Charles Haddon Spurgeon preached a marvelous message on this verse entitled Spring. That was his title. And he speaks of a spiritual springtime when God was at work in salvation. Now I will refer to him once or twice during this and then towards the end I'm going to give you a quote, extended quote from that message, a great and profound picture here given to us. What is Isaiah telling us? He's telling us that when salvation comes, righteousness will spring up So if salvation in a sense is like the seed, don't misunderstand me, of course it's much more than that, like the seed, when it is planted in the life, there will be results. The result of that will be seen. Righteousness will grow up. And here is the picture of righteousness and praise springing up before the nations, the end of verse 11. And it's the picture of a garden, not a wild, uncultivated growth, but ordered. and controlled, and pruned, and beautiful, and praiseworthy. So let's look at this under one or two headings this morning. Firstly, preparation, preparation. This is a garden. As the garden causes the things that are sown in it, the garden, it is cultivated ground. It is cultivated by plowing and preparing and then sowing and planting, sowing precious seed. Our Lord used those kinds of illustrations, didn't he, a number of times in his parables as he spoke about seeds, sowing seed, the seed sown secretly. But then the parable of the soils, the four soils and the seed sown by the farmer and the different hearts, the different grounds into which that seed came. And the word used, the phrase used at the beginning of verse 11 there, as the earth brings forth its bud, and the Hebrew word that is used there means the germ, the tender shoot, the seed which has life within it, the first sign of a plant taking root, that which first appears from the seed. cultivated, sown with good seed. And the seed has germinated, and it is beginning to shoot, it is beginning to grow, something is happening. Much preparation is needed. Maybe there will be years of faithful sowing before we begin to see the signs of life. Well, take heart, keep going. Keep working. We may sow the seed in tears, but as we sow the seed, so we will reap with joy. Keep going, much preparation. Now friends, some people seem to think today that, well, nobody's interested in the gospel, and all we do, we go out and we tell people about the Lord Jesus Christ and they're not interested. My friends, preparation is needed. The Bible speaks about the law of God being applied, the plow of the law of God. Hosea speaks about, and Amos speaks about breaking up the fallow ground, preparing the ground, preparing the way. Isaiah is using a similar kind of very ordinary kind of illustration here of cultivating the earth, the garden, the preparation. But not only is there preparation, secondly, there is procreation. This is the work of the Lord God, as the God and so the Lord God, Jehovah, Yahweh, Adonai, the Lord God. Both of those words are used, both of those names for God are used in that expression there. The combined divine name. the living God, the Lord God of hosts, but the personal God, the God who comes to men and women individually and deals with them, the sovereign, all-powerful God, the omnipotent God, the triune God, but he is at work, individually in hearts and lives. The seasons follow according to God's divine plan, and so with salvation. When God comes and begins the work of salvation, and it is a genuine work of God, it will progress. It will continue. There will be growth. There will be development. God is at work. His purposes will be fulfilled according to his divine plan. Now God has ordained that by the foolishness of preaching, has he not, to save his elect? That is sure, that is certain. Nothing can thwart God's plan. Nothing can prevent him from doing what he has determined. And so, my friends, let's take courage. In these desperately difficult days in which we live, and they are desperately difficult, let us keep on, let us hold on Let us continue to sow the seed of God's work. God will fulfill his purposes. Surely as the earth brings forth and bud, as the garden causes things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. Now, it may take time. It may take many years, but it will take place. Spiritually, in our land and nation, it may be wintertime now, but spring will come. The very seasons that God has ordained are part of his providential grace. Now, if seeds only germinated once in a lifetime, we would wonder at it. If spring only came once every 10 years and then occasionally missed us out, we would hang on to every occasion with amazement. If harvests were spasmodic and occasional, we would wonder at them much more. And I wonder sometimes whether we in the West, I speak to myself, and I'm sure whether we in the West in a sense have lost something of the wonder of God's provision day by day and hour by hour. If we need our vegetables, we go to the shop and we buy them, the supermarket and we buy them. And it's very rare to find that, I know there are things that come around in seasons, but it's very rare to find that the supermarket shelves are empty. They're there all the time. We see all the time the tokens of God's loving care. Each spring, each harvest, each plant that grows is a token of the loving kindness of our God. Now when you go out to the third world, when you go out to India or the Philippines or other places, in overseas lands, you often find that our brothers and sisters in Christ have greater, forgive me, I'm not trying to draw a contrast in the wrong sense, but there is a sense in which they seem to have a greater faith in the power of God to provide, especially when the rain doesn't come and the harvests are delayed. I know how our friends in India a year ago were very, very concerned because the rains hadn't come. And the harvest, I was out there in February last year, was it, 12 months ago, and I have never seen the wells as empty as they are in February time. February is after the rainy season. The rainy season comes in December and early January, November, December, and early January in that part of India. And yet the rains hadn't come. And people were getting very worried about how they would live because the crops were not germinating. And they see right day by day and hour by hour the consequences of that. and how they rely upon God, and our Christian brothers and sisters there particularly rely upon God. I wonder sometimes, my friends, I'm not trying to be critical in the wrong sense, but I wonder if we've lost that sense of dependence upon God because we live in a Western materialistic society. And in a sense, all right, prices may go up and down, but we don't tend to live hand to mouth in the way that even I knew when I was a child, for example. God's wonderful provision, God's wonderful provision, as the seed takes root, as the plants grow, as the food is provided, as that happens, so the Lord will cause righteousness to spring up. We sang that hymn the other week, didn't we, of Isaac Watts? There's not a plant or flower below. but makes his glories known, and clouds and tempests arise and tempests blow by order from his throne. His hand is my perpetual guard, he guides me with his eye. Why should I then forget the Lord who is forever nigh? And if that's true of his created world, how much more in the spiritual? And I wonder, friends, I speak to myself far more than I speak to you, but I wonder sometimes whether I've lost that sense of wonder at God's continual provision of our bodily needs and also of the spiritual. We need to pray and long that God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth. If this is the as and the so, as the garden causes the things that are set in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth. let's lay hold of him and let's pray that he will do that and we shall see that by his grace in these days. Again, I can remember when I was a child, my father, we had a big garden, a large garden, and both my mother and father were both keen gardeners and we were pretty well self-sufficient in vegetables and in fruit. We had an orchard at the bottom of the garden 12 fruit trees, apples, and green gauges, and I don't see green gauges today, but anyway, we had green gauges and damsons and plums. We had gooseberry bushes, we had blackberry bushes, and others. We were pretty well self-sufficient in vegetables when they were alive. And my father would plant the, he would go out and he would prepare the ground, he would the seeds and they would grow up and you expected it to work. Sometimes my friends, maybe we sow the seed of the gospel and then we lose heart. And we don't expect. the Lord to answer our prayers. Well, I know we're living in difficult days. Please don't misunderstand me. We are living in winter times in many ways. We're living in desperate days. But that should drive us to our knees to pray and long that God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth up in our day. Preparation, procreation. Thirdly, preservation, preservation. The garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, our verse says. Tender plants. Such are gospel virtues as well, aren't they? They are tender plants. Righteousness and praise are not wild plants. They're not self-setters. They don't grow up automatically, as it were. They need planting and tending and nurturing. Here is the loving care of the heavenly gardener as he comes to the hearts and lives of men and women, and as he plants his righteousness within them. I am the vine, you are the branches. The vinedresser comes to prune, to train, to control, to direct the vine. And why does he do that? All because he's preparing for a grand harvest. And as righteousness and praise springs up, we need to pray that the Lord will protect the plants of righteousness, that they will not be smitten by the blasts and mildew of sin, or destroyed by the frosts of doubt, or flooded by the sour waters of evil and wickedness, but be preserved by the loving and tender care of God. As the garden, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before the nations. Thank God He's not sent us out to work for Him alone. We have His mighty power at our disposal, and He will keep us as we look to Him for grace, and as His servants. So we go forward to call upon Him to cause righteousness and praise to spring up in these days, all to the glory of His name. Preparation, procreation. Preservation. Fourthly, proclamation. There we are, I don't always get alliteration, but we've got it this time. To spring forth before the nations. Righteousness and praise, the end of verse 11, to spring forth before all the nations. And I think this is a, well, I'm saying, I'm not, don't think, I'm saying that this is a picture of the triumph of the gospel. Now that doesn't underestimate the work that we are to do as God's people. What a task there is before us. What a godless world there is around us. How difficult it is to proclaim the word of the gospel. But how does the seed grow? If the seed is true seed, it has life within it, doesn't it? Within itself. Only because it has within it the ability to germinate. And that's designed there by the creator. It has the germ of life within it. But you know, my friends, it's no good keeping the seeds in an envelope, is it? They're never going to grow like that. They're never going to grow if they're left in the seed packet or whatever, or in the polythene bag. They need to be planted. They need to be nurtured. They need to be watered. They need the rain, the sun to develop and to grow. The process needs to take place. It's no good keeping the seed, as it were, on the shelf. It has to be planted. It has to be nurtured. It has to be sown. It has to develop. It has to grow. That germination is not going to take place if the seed is not planted. And how much more for the seed of the word of God? It needs to be planted. in the hearts and lives of men and women. Now I know, friends, that many, many, many people's hearts are hard. We're in the situation of our Lord's parable of the sowing of the seed, where the seed seems to be on the wayside. It seems to be blown away. The birds of the air take it. It hardly ever seems to ever get into the ground. But we are to continue to scatter the seed of the word of God. needs to be planted, it needs to be sown beside all waters, as our Lord said, and yet it's not enough for the seed to be sown, is it? It needs the power of God himself to come upon the sowing. For the power of God to breathe into the dead heart, to bring life to the dead soul, we are to go on, we are to pray, we are to preach, we are to live, we are to witness, we are to cry to God to hear us. We were speaking the other Tuesday, were we not, in those words in Psalm 139 about the wonder of creation, the wonder of God's provision as he works in the hearts, in our individual hearts, as he forms us and saves us and nurtures us. You formed my inward parts. You covered me in my mother's womb. We said the word there speaks of knitting together in our mother's womb. Here is the Lord watching over us, even as we are conceived in our mother's womb. Watching over us and caring for us and making us what we are. Praising him because we are fearfully and wonderfully made. God is controlling and overruling. Now you know about the mechanics of life and birth and generation and all the rest of it. But God is at work. This is God's work. That happens in the individual. How much more in the spiritual? God involved in knitting together, causing righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the earth. This is God's doing, God's great work of grace. We're to go on, we're to pray, we're to preach, we're to live, we're to witness, we're to cry to God to hear us, till the blessed God in his kindness and providence sees that we're in earnest and comes down to bless us. As the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so, the as, so, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the earth. Spurgeon has this wonderful section in that sermon, it's in volume 19, if you have Spurgeon's sermons, and it's a sermon I say entitled Spring, He Says This. Remember too, who is the husbandman of this field? He has not bidden his church, of course he's speaking of God, he is the husbandman, he is the master gardener. He has not bidden his church till the world, till the world without divine help, till the world, till the, prepare the ground as it were, without divine help. My father is the husband, he quotes from John's gospel. God himself is watching over the broad field of the world to promote the growth of what the Savior sowed. And shall he fail? Shall it be said at the close of the great husband's work that there is no result from it? The idols are still firm on their pedestals. Antichrist sits upon her seven hills in pompous state, and the simple gospel is still in the minority? Don't you feel like that sometimes, my friends? Spurgeon goes on, he says this, Will the Almighty fail? How think you, sirs? Can omnipotence be defeated? No, it cannot be. As Jehovah lives, it cannot be. The living God must conquer. The right hand of the Lord shall be exalted, for it does valiantly. He may for a while permit the conflict to tremble in the balances, but divine power must overcome. We cannot dream otherwise. Do you have that confidence, my friends? You know, I look out sometimes upon this land, and I see the godlessness all around, and I wonder, I think to myself, and I almost despair at times. Do I believe in the omnipotent power of God? Do I believe that the earth will be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea, as the Bible tells us? You know, there are people today who don't believe that. I've quoted that sometimes to people, to ministers, to evangelical ministers, and you know what they say to me? They say, that's Old Testament, that's Old Testament. Well, of course it's Old Testament, but does that mean it's not gonna happen? Have we so little confidence? Forgive me friends, I'm not ticking you off. I'm just astounded that men who claim to be the preachers of the gospel can turn around and say that that's Old Testament, that it's not gonna happen. Now maybe that begins to show where I stand on my views of the second coming. And of course there are various views of that. But you know, some people, they seem to think that things are going to get worse and worse. Well, yes, in one sense, things are going to get worse and worse until the Lord comes again. But on another sense, things are going to get better and better. Of course, the devil is going to get more angry. Of course, wickedness is going to increase. But God is going to increase as well, is he not? If we believe in God, the living God, then why not? Why not is the earth going to be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea? Who has told me that that verse is no longer applicable? It's part of God's holy word. Isaiah chapter 11, you can read it. Well, Spurgeon goes on. That's the confidence that he had. Spurgeon goes on, he says this. Moreover, there is the spirit of God himself, as well as the father and the son. You see, he's fully Trinitarian. and he has designed to dwell in the midst of the church. The Spirit of God is here and is especially at work. He moved upon the chaos and turned it into order. He it also is that quickens the dead, and shall he be defeated and disappointed in the conversion of this world? Let the thought be accursed, for it is near akin to blasphemy if it not be blasphemy itself. The triune God must make the knowledge of himself to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. God's honor is engaged in the matter. On this battlefield of the world, he has flung down the gauntlet to the powers of hell, and Satan has taken up the gauge of battle, and the fight has raged long, but it must end in victory for God. It cannot be otherwise. My thought soul, says Spurgeon, loathes the theory of some that this world will get worse and worse and worse and never will be one to the obedience of the Lord God. Scripture, he says, is against that theory, a theory so desponding, so fitted to make God's soldiers fling away the sword. Surely there shall come a time when the nations shall know the Lord, and the multitude of the people shall worship before the Most High God. The winter shall be succeeded by spring. Therefore be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Well, I find that so encouraging, so encouraging, so wonderful. As the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. And E.J. Young speaks about the sureness of the coming salvation. Because in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed and the believing heart rejoices. Has this salvation come to your heart, my friend? Are you rejoicing in the righteousness of God's redemption? Are you praising him because you're his child? How wonderful if that is true for you, my friends, this day. Our closing hymn speaks of the living harvest as God gathers his people together, as God fulfills his great purposes and promises in us. 462, Lord of the living harvest that whitens all the plain, where angels soon shall gather their sheaves of golden grain. Accept these hands to labor, these hearts to trust and love, and deign with them to hasten thy kingdom. from about 462.