Isaiah 60, these are the words of God. Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of Yahweh has risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people. But Yahweh will rise over you, and his glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all round and see. They all gather together. They come to you, your sons. shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy, because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you. The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you. The multitude of camels shall cover your land. The dromedaries of Midian and Ephah, all those from Sheba, shall come. They shall bring gold and incense. They shall proclaim the praises of Yahweh. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together to you. The Rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you. They shall ascend with acceptance on my altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory. Who are these who fly like a cloud, and like doves to their roosts? Surely the coastlands shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish will come first, to bring your sons from afar, their silver and their gold with them, to the name of YHWH your God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because He has glorified you. The sons of foreigners shall build up your walls, and Their kings shall minister to you, for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you. Therefore your gates shall be opened continually, they shall not be shut day or night, that men may bring to you the wealth of the Gentiles and their kings in procession. For the nation and kingdom which will not serve you shall perish. and those nations shall be utterly ruined. The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the pine, the box-tree, together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious. Also the sons of those who afflicted you shall come, bowing to you, and all those who despised you shall fall prostrate at the soles of your feet. and they shall call you the city of Yahweh, Zion, the Holy One of Israel. Whereas you have been forsaken and hated so that no one went through you, I will make you an eternal excellence, a joy of many generations. You shall drink the milk of the Gentiles and milk the breast of kings. You shall know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior and your Redeemer. the mighty one of Jacob. Instead of bronze, I will bring gold. Instead of iron, I will bring silver. Instead of wood, bronze. Instead of stones, iron. I will also make your officers peace and your magistrates righteousness. Violence shall no longer be heard in your land, neither wasting nor destruction within your borders. But you shall call your walls salvation and your gates praise. The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you, but YHWH will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory. Your sun shall no longer go down, nor shall your moon withdraw itself, for YHWH will be your everlasting light. and the days of your mourning shall be ended. Also your people shall be righteous. They shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation. Ay Yahweh. will hasten it in its time. Amen. This ends this reading of God's inspired and inerrant word. The events of Isaiah 60 seem far away from us today. That time at the last when all those who persist in being enemies of Christ and enemies of God have been banished, destroyed, cast into destruction. The time when those who are the children of God's people, the spiritual descendants of God's people have been gathered from all the nations, gathered to bringing all these things that are necessary for the sacrifice, the flocks and the rams and the gold and the silver and the incense and all the different types of wood for building the temple and the sanctuary and beautifying it and so forth. I know, of course, that no such material things are brought. For Christ himself has obsoleted the temple in himself. And certainly we are not going to go back to sacrificing flocks and rams after the once for all sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. And that doesn't make what the nations bring in their hands in this prophecy worse or less. It makes it better. Each one is coming to the Lord to the Lord in Christ, bringing in his hand also Christ, whom God has given for us, whom we heard at the end of chapter 59 is the Lord's covenant with us, that we would have Christ himself, that his spirit would be our spirit, that the words that are put in his mouth or come from his mouth would never depart from our mouths. And so all these nations streaming in are carrying in their hands, not the riches of this world, but the riches of heaven, the riches of God himself, who has come to this world to be ours, to be what we have and how we come to the Lord. Now this is the great light. The chapter begins saying, arise, shine, for your light has come, and the Lord is the light. And then as it goes on to describe what the assembly is like, that's part of the climax, the end. Verse 19 and 20, that there's not sun or moon. This is other creation. When he says instead of bronze gold instead of iron silver instead of wood bronze instead of wood stones iron it might just sound like upgrade or improved but then he starts saying things like instead of the Sun Yahweh instead of the moon God you just think oh This is a new creation This is not simply upgraded materials in the context of the old one. I So when Romans tells us to awake out of sleep, because this day, the Isaiah 60 day, has dawned upon us in the Lord Jesus, and indeed as, he who is the living God who dwells in unapproachable light, in whom is light and there is no darkness at all, he himself has come. He is our obedience, He is our righteousness, He is our sacrifice, He is our atonement. And He sits on the throne of glory and gives to us by His Spirit to have His light, His life, to have faith in us, that we may be united to, to have faith in Him, that we may be united to Him. He puts faith in us, that we may be united to Him. He is our, not just the righteousness that is counted for us, the only righteous standing that we have before God, but he is also the source of all righteousness within us. And this righteousness that is within us is small so far. We grieve over how inconsistent and how incomplete it is, but that also is part of this new world. In verse 17, in the midst of this, instead of bronze, gold, instead of iron, silver, et cetera, it says, I'll also make your officers peace and your magistrates righteousness. We're actually not gonna need officers or magistrates. Because we will have peace and righteousness. Remember a few days ago in the proverb that because of sin the princes of the land are multiplied? Well, because of righteousness, the princes of the land are going to be eliminated. We're going to have peace and righteousness. Again, verse 21, also your people shall be righteous. They shall inherit the land forever. There are not covenant blessings and covenant curses in the final administration, the completion of the covenant of grace when Christ returns. There are covenant blessings and covenant blessings. Why? Because covenant curses are for unfaithfulness and unrighteousness, and there's not gonna be any of that. And so all your people shall be righteous, they shall inherit the land forever. And he picks this image, this metaphor, with which he had begun Isaiah. The vine that was planted, and he did everything for it, but when he came to get grapes from it, behold, sour grapes, wild grapes, all seeds, no juice, completely bitter, uncultivated. But now, because of the branch who is the Lord Jesus, the righteous branch that Zechariah also prophesies about, the shoot that has come from the stomp of Jesse, the root of David, this church that is grafted into Israel, all these nations grafted into Israel because Christ himself has shot out and they are grafted into him. They're called the branch of my planting, the work of my hands. He's pleased with the fruit that he sees and he shines upon them with his light and his pleasure. The branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. and describing the multiplication, or the flourishing, or the fruitfulness. Not just his pleasure in the quality of it, but promising even quantity. A little one shall become a thousand. and a small one a strong nation. And for us who have a hard time waiting even for a meal when we got a little gnawing pain in our stomach, it is a hard time waiting. But the Lord concludes with, I, Yahweh, will hasten it in its time. And so the Lord is not being slow in bringing it about. He is urgent. He is glad for it. He is pursuing it with all of his wisdom, all of his power. But of course, since it's in all of his wisdom, it has a particular appointed best time. And so we can trust to him the timing of it. And we can trust that he is not passive or slow. He is active and he is hastening it. He is bringing it about. So the Lord has risen upon us in the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is the joy that is set before us. And if we are living for the joy that is set before us, just as the Lord Jesus, for the joy set before him endured even the cross, what is there that we would not endure with this joy set before us? But also to make the application of Romans 13. Why? Would we live in the manner that belongs to the world that we so eagerly want to leave behind? Let us instead live in the manner that belongs to this world of light and of worship and of the nations all gathered in. with Christ in their hands, Christ as our way of worshiping him. Let Christ also then be our way of living before God in righteousness and holiness. And may God grant to us to see the light that has dawned upon us increase until the Lord Jesus arrives and we see the full sun. May the Spirit ravish our hearts, grip our hearts with a desire to see the full light of the returned Christ and to live as those who belong to him and who belong to that day. Let's pray. Our gracious God and our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this prophecy that you gave to your people, even some 2,600 years ago, that still sets before us everlasting joy and safety and pleasure in you, grant by your Spirit that we would count the sufferings of this time not worthy to be compared with that glory. Grant that we would live as those who know already your pleasure in us in Christ, and who look forward to being freed from all our remaining sin, so that we may take full pleasure in you. Oh, help us, Lord. This seems so far even from where our lives are today. There is so much remaining sin, and we take disproportionate pleasure in that which is not worthy of it, and disproportionately small pleasure in you who are worthy of all of it. So please help us by your spirit, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.