And I will read from the first verse of the chapter, but if you look there at verse 4, that's technically where the sermon text will start. You shall no more be termed forsaken. And we'll read down through verse 7. So, attending to God's Word, let us read Isaiah 62, starting at verse 1. For Zion's sake, I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. you shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed desolate, but you shall be called, my delight is in her, and your land married. For the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you. And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen. All the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the Lord in remembrance take no rest. and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth." These encouraging verses describe a marriage with a fresh start. They describe God's continuing faithfulness to His people in spite of their unfaithfulness, a faithfulness to restore the forsaken and unhappy to the pleasantness of God's delight. We could talk about God's relationship with his people as a marriage because Israel was called the wife of God and God's love for her was so persevering that it can really only be summed up with the metaphor of marriage. God's prophets explained the meaning of the exile to Babylon and then the restoration from Babylon by marriage. It was God bringing back his adulterous and unfaithful wife into his love and his affection. This is how it appeared to Isaiah. The nation of Israel would soon be conquered by Babylon. Some would be captives away from the land for 70 years, and then God would release them and send them back. Thus, the Lord is pledging them a fresh start, not a new chance to do it perfectly from here on out, but a new experience of his abiding love. It's a frightening thing when married people are at war with one another. It brings such unhappiness into a family when neither husband nor wife delights in the other anymore. But these verses show us what marriage is all about. Marriage is a picture of God's love for His people. God's love is as faithful and enduring for the Bride of Christ, the Church, as it was for Israel, the Church in the Old Testament. And yet we know we're not as faithful as we should be. We stumble in many ways. We've done what God forbids, and we have failed to do what God has commanded. And we do these sins for unfaithful reasons. The idols of our hearts demand to have their way. And thus, we need to have our relationship with God set right. We need His delight again, for we have wandered. And if our sin has brought us forsakenness and desolation, it's just what we deserve. But take hope from this. unfaithful sinners may receive a fresh start from God. Wouldn't you like a fresh start? Let me show you this fresh start as God showed it to Isaiah. Let's see it in two ways, the delight of the Lord and a new commission to be the Lord's watchman. So first, a fresh start in the Lord's delight, a fresh start in the Lord's delight. Verse four, you shall no more be termed forsaken and your land no more be termed desolate." Now, there are two subjects that should arrest our attention here, the first being the people and then the land, because he says, you shall no more be termed, that's people, and your land shall no more be termed. This tells us that when Israel first came into the Promised Land, which would have been hundreds of years before this, the people and the land would receive either God's blessing or His curse. And so in Deuteronomy 11.26, He said, Behold, I am setting before you this day a blessing and a curse, the blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known. So blessing and curse but we can hear the righteous jealousy of a husband here. There is only one God for Israel and all others are interlopers and they're unwelcome and an adulterous people will be chastised and the land will cast out its inhabitants. When Isaiah was given this prophecy the land was indeed becoming forsaken and desolate Forsaken is feeling God's absence. Desolate is the way to describe a land that's devastated by enemies. Even today you can think about what it's like when a marriage is crumbling. One or both spouses feel as if the other has abandoned them. Their house is desolate. No more laughter or fellowship, just empty hallways and closed doors. Sullen faces and empty windows signify a marriage in trouble. Well at that time Israel, people and their land, the people and their land have fallen under the curse for their sin and thus are desolate and forsaken. Now we might ask why it is that God made curses or blessings to depend upon national obedience. We might say, well why is it if grace is God pledging His own faithfulness regardless of the sins of a person, and to save them from all their sins, past, present and future, why have curses for Israel at all?" And Paul answers the question and says that at this time in history, starting from the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai, the Law was added in order to impress upon the Church the severity of their sin before the holiness of God with whom they had to dwell. And so Paul says, the law was added to the covenant of grace because of transgressions until the offspring should come to whom the promise was made. he's speaking there of the Lord Jesus and that's Galatians 3 19. So it was like this, it was like God invited these people into his house but if they were to dwell with him they had to know how worthy of punishment their sin was and how great an obedience they owed to their God in every aspect of life and so the law was there to show them that there was no other way to escape his wrath and curse except through the free promise of His grace." And so Israel had this national standard that it had to meet. But that standard didn't nullify the grounds of justification for believers by faith alone. They didn't change the grounds on which forgiveness was to be obtained. They made it so that obedience brought about tangible blessings and disobedience brought about real tangible curse to the people and their environment. And you hear again, people and land. And maybe as soon as I said environment, you probably thought about how the earth changed as soon as sin entered the world. What kinds of things were affected? when Adam and Eve sinned. Well, first their own persons, right? They became self-centered, proud, deceptive, blaming, aware of shame. What else? Their environment changed, didn't it? Thorns and thistles grew. The ground didn't produce vegetables and crops as easily as before. Eventually, the whole of Earth's atmosphere would change. Some animals would go extinct. People would die, and their lifespans would become shorter and shortened to a few decades. So it is in Israel. The curse brought trouble for people and trouble for the environment, just as it had under the fall. And now God is saying, yes, your sin has done all that, but it is all changing. And if you look with me in verses two and three, four and five, we're going to see that. But you shall be called, my delight is in her. and your land married. For the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you. And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you." Now, there are two women's names in these verses. They display the new status of the people. Hephzibah and Beulah are the names and they mean, my delight is in her and married respectively. The Lord is saying, the past is gone, it's blotted out. The sinful past that caused our separation, it's expunged. Now, God's delight is in her. Have you ever been to a wedding? Have you ever seen the happiness of a bride as she looks at her husband? Have you ever seen the happiness of the groom for his bride? They delight in one another. And so again, verse 4 says, Zion shall be called, My delight is in her, or Hephzibah, for the Lord delights in you. And verse 5 says, As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. Marriage is the best picture of the union God's people have with Him. By analogy, God's people are married to God. That's how close we are to God if we're believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a great jewel of a truth to adorn the Christian life and to always bear in mind that faith in Christ is faith union, for faith unites us to Christ. You cannot get any closer to God than to be united in faith to the God-Man, Christ the Mediator. And from this union, there is peace. And as Paul says in Ephesians 5, Christ loves and nourishes and cherishes His Bride, the Church, for He laid down His life for her and He purchased her with His own blood. I'd like you to think with me about how being united to Christ changes people. When people stop thinking about their own good first and start putting other people first, when we yield our self-serving desires and all the destruction that those desires cause and instead trust God and receive His grace through the Lord Jesus, forgiving others because God in Christ has forgiven us, then and only then will our forsakenness and our desolation be replaced by delight and peace. People who are used to fighting who are used to hatred, to suspicion, they have no peace or security or confidence, but a loved wife knows peace and she shines out many virtues and she finds joy in pleasing her husband. Simply put, God changes people. Likewise, the environment of the home changes. Its emptiness is filled with inhabitants, contentment and plenty abound. Instead of blaming, there's working together, instead of shouting, talking and laughter. That's Beulah. That's what God means by saying, I'll call her Beulah, or married. Some of you may have read John Bunyan's lengthy Allegory. Pilgrim's progress. And in that he has a Beulah land. And this is what he says about it. It's near the gates of the Celestial City, just before the River of Death. He says, now I saw in my dream that by this time the pilgrims were got over the enchanted ground and entering into the country of Beulah, whose air was very sweet and pleasant. The way lying directly through it, they solaced themselves there for a season. In this country the sun shineth night and day, wherefore this was beyond the valley of the shadow of death and also out of reach of the giant despair. Neither could they from this peace so much as see doubting castle. Here they were within sight of the city they were going to." Well, that's an allegorical picture of Beulah. Just remember, that kind of peace is obtainable only through the mediator, Jesus Christ. Before we move on, there's something more that has to be said from verse 5, where the Lord promises, according to His Word that cannot fail, that your sons shall marry you. Verse 4 says, the land shall be married. Who is the land? Sorry, who is the you? And what could it mean to marry a land? Who is the you and what could it mean to marry a land? Well, we remember that Zion as the city of God is personified, it's treated like a person here. So the sons of Zion shall marry her, foretells a kind of devoted loyalty. A married land means that believers have a willing and delighted adherence to the covenant of grace. And if the term covenant of grace isn't part of your Christian vocabulary, it should be because it summarizes everything the Bible says about grace. It speaks of a bonded relationship from God to His people. And here the loving response of the people is captured with the words, your sons shall marry you. Would you like to have a fresh start from God? Well, I think you would. We all need one and that's the basic message of the Bible. We need our relationship with God restored because we destroyed it with our sin. And you know we were born in sin and so we're children of wrath. God was our enemy and we were His enemy and so a fresh start, a new Beulah is what we need and that's what God gives. It's God's salvation for us that is like a marriage being put back together. God doesn't say, I'll wipe your slate clean only if you do it better from now on. He doesn't say, I'm going to wipe it clean, but you have to start over being perfect. He says, Beulah land is yours, full and free. And my delight is in you if you love my son and believe on him and follow him. So that is Beulah Land and that is a fresh start in the Lord's delight. But now as we move on to the second part of these verses we might ask, what might we do? What might we be occupied with as we are following Him? And the answer is that He gives us a fresh start as the Lord's watchman. A fresh start as the Lord's watchman. I direct you to verse 6. On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen all the day and all the night. They shall never be silent." God's saying He has already put people in place to help others find salvation. He calls them watchmen, and you might say, well, what's a watchman? And it's a little bit like a policeman or a soldier in ancient times. Some watchmen were stationed on the walls of the city because in those days cities were surrounded by walls to protect them from enemies. And so the watchmen looked out to make sure no enemies were approaching the city from without. In Isaiah 21, God said, go, said a watchman, let him announce what he sees. Therefore, they were an integral part of the security system of the city. Some other watchmen patrolled the streets at night And you can find that kind in the Song of Songs. They gave people directions. They also called out the time. Remember Isaiah in chapter 21 asking, watchman, what time of the night? Watchman, what time of the night? So a watchman watches. And now he says, on your walls, O Jerusalem, I have said, watchman. So the Lord's watchmen were in place. And I think what he's talking about is men like Isaiah, whose job it was to observe and to tell. And God was saying, from now on, also, for the rest of Earth's history, I will set watchmen in place. At first, I think we have to think of the elders of the church, whose job is the care of souls. Some of that care is preaching and teaching, announcing what the watchman sees. Some of it is telling the time, as in, this is a time of blessing, or this is a time of judgment. The watchman must always prepare the Lord's people for the imminent coming of Christ. Elders are to exercise oversight, 1 Peter 5, and that means encouraging the good and looking out for danger. Your leaders are keeping watch over your souls as those who must give an account, and so also this watchman must mean the deacons of the church whose ministry of mercy and in how they instruct us to be good stewards of our resources that God has given us, all that brings this promise to pass, they are watchmen. But what else do watchmen do? Isaiah goes on to say there in verse 6, you who put the LORD in remembrance take no rest and give Him no rest." This means, by speaking to your God, bring the cause of Jerusalem back to God again and again. God cannot forget anything, but He stoops to our level as if to say, keep helping me remember by praying to me. One version says, they should keep praying all day and all night. You who pray to the Lord, do not be silent. And so now you see how every one of us may be the Lord's watchman. Beloved, the church is the city of God. Its citizens need you to watch. The church needs you to pray. In Isaiah's day, the church needed people praying that God would accomplish salvation by sending the promised Savior. And people did pray, and the Lord heard them and sent His Son some 2,000 years ago. And that saving work of Christ has been done now. But that saving work has not yet been done in every single person's heart, has it? Many sinners don't know God and don't even know that they need Him. And that's what God needs you and me to do. In our prayers, we are to be the guards that protect His people. Pray without ceasing. Beloved, pray day and night. And when it is time to pray, do not be silent. Open your mouth. Men of the Church, This applies to you. Over time, you should be able to pray out loud. Even the most introverted among us cannot help but give glory to God when God's grace is at work in our hearts. Men should lead others in prayer, lifting holy hands. And if no one else, men should lead their wives and children in prayer. And we must pray as a church. Sometimes we wonder what we're supposed to be doing while the minister is praying out loud. Well, here are some ideas. First, marshal your mind, which means corral it, get it under your power, to speak words in your heart just like you would speak face to face with someone. And as the minister prays out loud, you picture the thing prayed for as really coming true, as really happening, knowing that God is able to do all things. Add your amen silently, saying, let it be true as you, O God, are true, if this is your will. And so if you're praying for someone to heal from an injury, picture him getting up and walking or being released from the hospital. You don't have to picture the whole thing, but think of it with such confidence as if it had already happened. You want to do that because that's faith, knowing God can fully answer prayers. If we pray for the gospel to prosper in India, well, think of churches everywhere, and faithful elders, and think of Hindus converted and confessing Christ. Think of children, families with children. I'm reminded of the illustration that I got when I came here to Quinter, when the church was gathering for a special time of prayer for rain, because they were in a time of drought. And do you remember, the members arrived at the church door without their umbrellas, and the minister sent them home. Go get your umbrella. Well, pray like that. If it's rain, pray with your umbrella. Expecting God to answer, pray urgently. And here you get that urgency because he says, give him no rest. Be earnest, don't give up. Continue praying. He says, until he establishes Jerusalem, there is an end in sight. And in the meantime, pray. Friends, watchmen gather at the church's prayer meeting. It's where the Lord's watchmen put the Lord in remembrance, interceding for people. I'm afraid that some of you have contributed only your silence to prayer meeting. I'm afraid you voted with your feet against the effectiveness of prayer. Listen, the church is praying, do not be silent. The Lord is recruiting you. What about in worship on Sabbath evenings? Tonight the church will be praying. Will you contribute your prayers? Listen, no one said the Christian life would have no sacrifices, so prayer is a discipline. It is a self-imposed rigor. You even get that here when He says, take no rest. It will be rigorous. Things that start out as disciplines don't usually start out as fun at first, but spiritual disciplines come with such rewards that soon, if you are a watchman, you will find such rejoicing in your sweet fellowship with the Lord that you will not want to do without your prayers. So pray and give yourself no rest. Now what should we pray for? There are many things that accord with God's will, but especially the salvation of others. Have you ever heard of Watchman Nee? Have you heard about that Christian pastor imprisoned by the Chinese communists right after the revolution? His name was Watchman Nee. Here's how he describes interceding for his friends for their conversion. He says, immediately I started putting right the matters that were hindering my effectiveness and also made a list of 70 friends to pray for daily. Some days I would pray for them every hour, even in class. When the opportunity came, I would try to persuade them to believe in the Lord Jesus. With the Lord's grace, I continued to pray daily. And after several months, all but one of the 70 persons were saved. Some of us have grown children who don't know the Lord at all. Have you asked God to save them? What about friends in the community and what about our own brothers and sisters, parents and children who don't know the Lord? You pray for God, will you pray to God that He will send to them all the means to apply to them that redemption purchased by Christ. Pray first for the Holy Spirit to regenerate them, to give them living hearts with the Word of the Gospel. it being the power of God to salvation. Pray for God to give them the gift of faith and a willing heart to repent. So also you can pray, pray for the things that you know are acceptable to God. What can God not do? Did he not fill up the widow's flour jar and oil jug over and over again so that she could eat? Now that during a famine, what can he not provide for you? Friends, I'm afraid we don't pray because we don't think it will do any good. I'm sorry to say that's the result of no faith or little faith. It's the result of thinking God can't do it and probably won't. We don't ask because we don't really expect Him to bless us. And sadly, we very wrongly think that a life without blessing is just about the same as a life with blessing. We think prosperity and personal good is just a matter of working harder at whatever we're doing. When was the last time you said, my chores can wait five, 10, or 15 minutes while I pray? When was the last time you shut off the television just so you could pray? Well let me close encouraging you. Encouraging you to prayer with the necessity of prayer. In verse 7 the Lord says, and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth. Interesting isn't it that the prayers of the saints bring God's promises to completion. God has already said what He will do. He will exalt the church. It will be a praise in the earth. The name of the Lord Jesus will be exalted. Salvation will be completed. In between times, our prayers are part of how God makes it come to pass. And we can't see it. We can't see how talking to God and asking Him to fulfill all that He has spoken and declared to be will bring those things to be. We have to believe it because He told us. But one day we're going to see how our prayers have done it. We're going to see them as if they were real, tangible things as instrumental to the outcome as causes in this world are to their effects. If we have not, it's because we ask not. So then let us ask in Christ's name and receive answered prayers. This is our privilege from Him who delights in us. I remind you, He delights in us. and gives us a fresh start. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, all praise and glory be to you, a God who restores and a God of hopeless causes, a God who raises people who are in the depths of despair and who are captive by sin and Satan and the curse of death and you raise them up. Thank you for raising us up. Thank you for putting praises upon our lips and hearts that desire you and desire to sing your praise. We thank you for those watchmen that you stationed centuries and millennia ago, even those that we've met in our own lives, people who prayed for us, people who cared about us when we were astray and ignorant, perhaps belligerent. Thank you for those who taught us the gospel, for those who were faithful examples, And we pray to be such people ourselves. Help us each one to pray to you earnestly and to avail ourselves of the opportunities. God, we thank you that you are not the God who leaves us the moment we sin, but the God who comes to us and declares your own faithfulness and offers us grace yet again. Forgive us of our sins, we pray. Help us to walk with you, to become faithful in our ways all our days. We ask now that you would establish Jerusalem, make it a praise in the earth, and we pray that the name of the Lord Jesus will be proclaimed everywhere, that everyone will hear it, and that every knee will bow. We pray that those whom you have called and have chosen will come to faith. Give our unbelieving friends, brothers, members of our community, sisters, give them the gift of faith. We pray that you would save them. We ask it in Jesus' name and for His glory. Amen.