Our scripture reading this morning is rather lengthy.
I think it will go a little well for us if I just sort of scope
will be reading before we read it.
So, if you have your bulletin there, just kind of glance down,
don't stay. And yet, we're not reading It
begins in Isaiah chapter 10 verse 33.
And course as you might suspect it picks up right in the middle
of a very long discourse. Some of it Pros, most of it
poetry and the scene is in verses 33 and 34 is that the
Lord God is a Forester. He's going through the woods
through the forest and chopping down all the trees.
The trees in scriptures. We saw in the Book of Daniel
last year represent, quite often great nation.
Ins and the Lord has lopping off all of these nations.
He's sawing them. Chopping them down.
The the spare though is one particular treats chopped down
to be sure but out of that one tree the stump that's left there
comes forth a little Branch, a little shoot coming up out of
the stump that is left remaining.
This is a theme of the two parts.
We look at this morning. Is the theme of the shoot, the
little Branch that's left out of the Dead stump.
And the other is the remnant, that is the remains are the
residue of the people, massive amounts of people in humanity.
But there is a Remnant, there's a group of survivors.
There are a group of escapees and the scripture speaks of
them. And these are the two Old
Testament motifs that we want to look too.
Just like last time, we looked at the kind of the scope of the
first and second coming. Of Christ.
We're looking at things that sort of shape up in frame, our
understanding of the Advent, the season of the coming of Christ.
And we have it here, we have both Christ's first Advent.
And his second Advent that are sort of Blended together all the
way through to the Eternal state.
In fact there in chapter 11 and verse 1, we find out that Little
Chute, of course, who is Christ, he comes and then it describes
the things about him. The spirit of the Lord, shall
rest on him. Cetera and then get down a few
more verses. We get down to around verses 3
and 4 and he talks about him being the judge.
He comes not only as a savior and as a teacher and a guide and
all the things of counselor, all the things that are mentioned in
verse 2. But he but he is a judge and
he's also an executioner. He comes to execute
righteousness and so we read about what he will strike the
Earth with the rod. Out of his mouth in the breath
of his lips. He shall kill the wicked awful
sobering, and this is righteousness in faithless.
Then in verse 6, immediately begins to talk about the beauty
of the restored Earth, the restored creation.
Special references made to the animals, both the wild animals
and the domestic animals, the wolf, and the leopard in the
calf, and the lion, and all of this beautiful picture.
But the, but the heart of it is verse 9, they shall not hurt,
nor destroy in all. In all my Holy Mountain for the
Earth. Be full of the knowledge of the
Lord as the waters, cover the sea, then Verse 10 talks about
that day. That's coming that coming day
which we see begins with Christ in Bethlehem and we'll end with
Christ coming in the Clouds Of Glory to receive his own.
The root of Jesse still stand as a signal and all the nations
shall be looking to him. In that day, he will extend his
hand yet a second time. It was, there's another phase.
There's a second coming in the coming of Christ to recover.
The Remnant, the remains of the people, he will raise a signal
for the nation's. He will assemble and so forth
and so that takes us down through verse 12.
Now, let's stand and read it. You thought I was reading at
that time, didn't you? Here.
Now the word of the Lord behold. The Lord God of hosts will Lop
the bowels from terrifying power.
The great in height will be hewn down, the lofty will be brought
low. He will cut down the thickets of
the forest with an axe and Lebanon will fall by The
Majestic. One, there shall come forth, a
shoot from the stump of Jesse and a branch from The Roots.
Shall bear fruit, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of
counsel and might The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the
Lord in his Delight, shall be, in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes, see, or decide decide to
Spirits, by what his ears here. But with righteousness, he shall
judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the
earth. He shall strike the Earth with
the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips, he shall
kill the wicked righteousness. Shall be the belt of his waist
and faithfulness. The belt of his loins.
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb.
Lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat and the
calf and the lion in The fetid calf together.
And a little child, shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze.
Their young shall lie down together in the lion shall eat
straw. Like the ox, the nursing child
shall play over the whole of the Cobra and the weaned child shall
put his hand on the adders Den. They shall not hurt, nor destroy
in all my Holy Mountain, for the Earth, shall be full of the
knowledge of the Lord, as the waters, cover the sea.
In that day. The root of Jesse who shall
stand as a signal for the peoples of him, shall the
nation's inquiry in his resting place shall be glorious in that
day. The Lord will extend his hand
yet a second. Time to recover.
The Remnant that remains of the people from Assyria, from Egypt,
from path, Ross from Kush. From elim, from shinar from
Hamas, and the cokes Lanes of the sea, he will raise a signal
for the Nations will earn assemble, the banished of the
Israel, and gather, the dispersed of Judah, from the
four quarters of the Earth, the word of the Lord, you may be
seated. The coming of Christ is very
beautifully, symbolized here in this kind of interesting
picture. It's a picture out there in a
wood that has been completely hewn down.
And there's a stump, a stump Still Standing.
Perhaps you've seen this in the country and on walks where you
see an old tree stump out there dried and withered but yet
there's a fresh Branch, a little Oh shoot.
It's called a rod. It's like a little switch, a
little Branch. It comes up out of that old dead
stump and we'll talk a bit about the stuff for just a moment.
The stump is called the stump of Jesse who in the world is Jesse
will. Jesse was King, David's father.
Jesse was also the grandson of Boaz and Ruth in the Old
Testament. So in that stump what we have
and they were Tribe of Judah and lived in the land of Judea there
in the old days, in the land of Judah, in the actually, the
little town of Bethlehem and those fields that had the
shepherd's, where they were watching their flock By Night.
Those were the same fields in which Little David took care of
his fathers flocks. And so this is the historical
pardon the expression, the extorter, call routing of Christ
in humanity. Because in that stump, we have
got only Jesse, Tyler. We have Ruth and Boaz, but we go
back to Judah, not only go back to Judah, but we go back to, to
Jacob and to Isaac and then to Abraham and we go back to Noah.
And we go back finally, all the way back to Adam in that route.
We have in that stomp, it with this root system coming down
from the stump. We have all of the grounding and
the routing of humanity. That's why you will find in the
scripture gospels, both in, Luke it in Matthew before, the
stories of the birth of Christ you'll find genealogies because
it is important to you to know, as in the case of Matthew's
genealogy that he traces this little shoot, this little
Branch, this little Rod that comes up out of the stump this
little live Vine that begins to emerge from the stump, it's
rooted entirely in, in the book. Matthew in the Seed of Abraham,
he is the true descendants. All the others have been lopped
off. There's one true.
Little Chute. Jesus himself called it when he
was / teaching. He said I am the True Vine, it's
the true tree trunk. It's the coming up of the real
one from now on every person in humanity is going to be
identified by how they relate to that little shoot coming up out
of that. Ed stump of Jesse.
Jesus said, I am the vine. Ye are the branches and he
speaks of fruit bearing. Paul will use that same analogy
in the Book of Romans where he will.
Teach that. That there is a True Vine that
grows up out of Abraham and out of out of David and comes up and
it is the true Israel of God. And while the natural branches,
that is the physical ethnic descendants of Abraham had been
lopped off. Off due to their unbelief.
There's been wild branches while tree branches from all over the
woods, Gentiles of all ethnic groups.
All kinds of people named here in the scriptures using some of
the ancient lands have been grafted into that tree trunk.
Not only that, he holds hope that even some of the natural
branches that have been lopped off.
Are grafted back in. And so now we have a whole new
tree trunk and a whole new tree. In fact, just as I mentioned
earlier, that trees represent Nations.
This is the Israel of God. This is the true nation.
Jesus Christ. Is that true vine?
And he is that little Branch. It's interesting, it may be a
coincidence. I'm having ska Scholars have a
hard time. Sometimes connecting these dots
and trying to stand on good solid.
Ground when they do it. But I don't need a whole lot of
solid ground. When I see something in
Scripture that Thrills my soul. I just take it at face, value to
go with it. The root word for the name of
the town, Jesus grew up, and his Hebrew is not sir, and that's
what's here. The word Branch.
Y'all some fuser go something in the room.
Remember the the ordeal down around Waco with the group that
were called, the Branch Davidians well.
That's what they were. They gave their name it when
Adventist Really messed up and so much of their Theology and
came to a sad sad end, is you all remember but nevertheless
that was the thing. They were clean to.
They were going back to something that was fundamentally
clear in the word of God. And that is that there is a,
there is a Radix, a root and it is found in a new route that is
come up as the shook, all the other root system below.
Connects to humanity, And connects to Abraham, but it is
that true. Branch that True Vine.
That is the one to whom we all, shall place our faith, and then
the other particular Motif that's used in this Section of
scripture and was selected by Mark as part of our sermon
today, is this idea of the remnant, the root?
And now, the remnant, The Remnant is, who all shall be
saved. Who are The Remnant?
Well, they are the ones that have survived.
That have survived the tribulations that Came Upon
God's people all the way from the earliest days.
Through the Assyrian assault, through the Babylonian
captivity, through the days of Kiss epiphanies through the days
of the coming of Christ. And then through the days of the
destruction of the nation of Israel, in time under Titus, the
Roman officer in 70 AD, all of these ordeals, they have God's
people have come through and those that survive those that
are the believing Remnant. When we come to the Christmas
story, we see a handful of these believing remnants, the people
left in Israel, that was still Resting in the true God believed
in him was looking to his salvation and not to their own
works. We find these people think of a
couple of them. Well, one of them was Zacharias,
his wife, Elizabeth Of the Priestly family.
Descendants of Levi, descendants of Aaron.
They were faithful. They brought forth their son,
John who was the Forerunner, the voice in the wilderness, crying
prepare the way of the Lord. When Jesus was born, we found
some Shepherds. Who heard the Herald Angels Sing
and Came To Worship the newborn king.
There were the Magi. There were people in the temple,
an old band Simeon who had lived long, long time and was
wondering why he was hanging around so long and but the Lord
had given him a promise that he would not see death, until he
had seen the hope of Israel. You know, an older lady
wonderful old Widow that had served in ministered in the
environments of the temple, her whole life and she was in the
temple. When Jesus was brought there by
his mother and father to do those ceremonies that are
necessary in the early days of a child's life.
Remnant survivors Believers. Those who have come through the
great tribulations, those who have come through all of the
sifting, those who have passed through the judgments, not
because of their own. But because God sovereignly and
wonderfully had saved them and preserved them, and that's
really the doctrine of the remnant.
The Lord is coming back to receive his Remnant.
It's why You read the book of Revelation.
There's a lot of talk in the Book of Revelation about
perseverance and hanging in there and being, and being
faithful to the end being faithful.
Even to martyrdom, those whose land whose garments have been
washed in the blood. Were those who were beheaded for
the testimony of Jesus. I'm here to tell you, if I don't
get to preach too much more in my lifetime, this is what I'm
going to say. We are living on the precipice.
Of a time of Great Tribulation great persecution for
Christians. There's a beast out there,
there's false prophet out there, there's a great Harlot out
there. There's an antichrist out there
and the spirit of all these things Works diligently.
And it says here that the Tyranny is the is what takes
over. The world Satan is a tyrant.
In fact, when he talks about the remnant, let me give you.
Where the remnant theme is all through the Old Testament, but
just earlier there in chapter 10, I told you were picking up
in the middle of the story with our text, but here's some
background to that anniversary in that day.
The remnant of Israel in the survivors of the House of Jacob
will no more lean on him who struck them, but they will lean
on the Lord. If I was a preacher, I'd stop
and preach right here. Leaning on the Lord, you know,
we seen that old song leaning on the Everlasting Arms Bible says,
underneath are the Everlasting Arms.
Strip it bare, get it down to the Radix, get it down to the
root. Get it down to the fundamentals.
Boil it down to the real deal. The only thing that matters in
my life in your life, for our lifetime, as how we relate to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Do we know him?
Does he know us? Has he called us?
Have we answered. Are we trusting?
Are we believing? Are we leaning?
Why does love that word? They lean on the Lord.
That's the word for absolute dependence and Trust who lean on
the Lord. The Holy One of Israel in truth.
A Remnant will return the remnant of Jacob to the Mighty
God for though, your People Israel be as the sand of the
sea? Only a Remnant will return.
Destruction is decreed That's the bad news.
Destruction is decreed, this is God, speaking about his coming
for his people, but the rest of the phrase, says overflowing
with righteousness. If I preached on, stop right
here and preach about that. To destruction is decreed and
the destruction is overflowing with righteousness.
What does that mean? That means that the just God Of
Heaven and Earth, the god, that will make no mistakes with
respect to Justice and fairness. All Justice or any other kind of
Justice. He'll be the one that will sort
it out. He will judge according to
righteousness and faithfulness. Our Tech said, he will not just
look at the appearance of the eye, but he will judge the
thoughts and intents of the heart.
And when there's a need for punishment, he will meet it out.
Expertly, and fairly, and righteously and overflowing in.
All of that is righteousness. The judge of all the Earth does,
right? God, has committed all judgment
to the son. Jesus said, when they were, Poor
meaning Jesus and and persecuting him during his day
and all that he said don't you know I'm the judge you know how
smart is it to insult and to Mock and Tudor ride into curse
in to kill the judge. And Jesus Christ is that one for
the Lord God of hosts will make a full end Fu LL e ND a full end
it was he's going to wrap it up, he's going to sum it up.
That's the only thing that gives me any.
He kind of Peace in this world in which we live.
I read my YouTube every day and watch it all the news and
listen, there's so much Injustice, so much corruption so
much sin, so much violence so much crookedness so much lying
in this Society it's making me sick to my stomach.
Do you have any righteousness in your soul at all?
Your like toll ancient lot. It talked about where his soul
was vexed. My soul is vexed and vexed by
the some of the same things that vexed.
Ol lot back there in Sodom. The vexing of the soul, but the
Lord will make a full end as to decreed in all the midst of the
Earth. Now says the Lord O, my people
who dwell in Zion and by the way, when you read your Old
Testament, you read about Zion, it's Zions Hill, there's a whole
history to it. It was the place where David set
up a tabernacle to worship God, which wasn't that, like the
temple that was in Jerusalem, which he was yet to build her
Solomon, his son would build. But there was a different kind
of worship that was very ordered and structured and very
liturgical in the temple. But over in the Tabernacle,
there wasn't anything, but the ark, and David there was nobody
in the worship center, but Jesus and David And that's the way it
ought to be in a true worship said, I don't care how many
stained glass windows have, what kind of organ and what kind of
choir and what kind of Elder board or anything else you have,
when you get right down to it, there's got to be the Ark of the
Covenant, which is the presence of God, in the Throne of God and
his humble people. And that's worship right there.
And that's what the Lord is coming to install.
Is that kind of worship center? It's Zion, it's a mountain.
It's the Holy Mountain of the Lord.
My people who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians.
And then he goes, an immediate prophecy about how the Assyrians
will not will, not overthrow you, but instead, the Lord will
overcome them. Now this this particular theme
of The Remnant is carried forward in the New Testament and
that's where we can do just a little spot of gospel preaching.
Before we're done. It's that passage in your text.
That I did not read. I'm going to read the larger
context for you. Romans chapter 15 beginning in
verse 8, for I tell you that Christ became a servant to the
circumcised, that's to the Jews to the to the people of the
stump. To show God's truthfulness in
order to confirm the promises made to the Patriarchs and it
was God, didn't start over with a brand-new tree.
He worked out of that. Same old, stump that contained,
the Patriarchs, the father's In the root system.
But coming out of that he took care of all Of the prune to
fruit eliminating and bringing about a new trunk.
And that's what that's what God has done.
And in order that the Gentiles, that's the nation's that's the
ethnic groups. That's the non-jews, that's the
uncircumcised. In order that the Gentiles might
glorify God for his mercy. And that's what we do on Zions
Hill. When We Gather and Worship the
Lord and He quotes Paul quotes. Several of them I'll call he
quote, Psalm 18, therefore I Praise You among the Gentiles
and we'll sing to your name, Rejoice, O Gentiles with his
people. Jews and Gentiles together in
one tree. Being brought together infusions
to Paul explains how that middle wall of partition has been
broken down. And now there's one people of
God, Jews. True Jews, truly circumcised
circumcised in the heart, not the flesh Rejoice O Gentiles
with his people 117th, Psalm and again praise the Lord.
All you Gentiles let all the peoples extol him.
The Christian faith is an Our national faith, it is for all
ethnic groups, All Peoples everywhere.
Every time the Christian faith gets too bogged down in culture,
it begins to distort itself. It's time for us to think in
terms of God's kingdom God's culture and thinking worry, and
and give our our time and attention to the building up of
God's Cultus God's culture. Not just ethnic cultures because
all the ethnic groups subside and reside and fall apart and
are really rendered very little. There's all tongues and all
tribes, and all kindred's are in the household of God.
And then finally, in verse 12, he says, and again, Isaiah says,
the root of Jesse will come. Here's that Old Testament Motif
brought forward by Paul in his gospel preaching.
The root of Jesse will come even who Rises to rule the Gentiles.
I thought he was the king of the Jews.
Yes, he is. But he's the king of the
Gentiles because the Gentiles have been brought nigh.
They've been brought together in with the, in, with the Jews into
the same tree trunk and into the same route and into the same
tree for even he who arises will rule the Gentiles in him with
the Gentiles. Hope when that word, hope comes
up. Now we have gospel preaching and
that's what Paul does over and over.
In the Book of Romans here in verse 13, May the god of Hope
fill you with all joy and peace. Nice.
What else do we symbol? What would we celebrate here at
Christmas time? Then Joy Joy to the World.
Peace on Earth Goodwill. May the god of hope there is
hope for the Sun and there's hope for the Lost Gentile.
There's Hope for those who've been cut off by the Judgment of
God to be restored with Mercy that God gives us in Christ in
believing. That's faith.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
You the just shall live by faith that's leaning on the Lord as in
as it was described in the Old Testament in believing, so that
by the power of the Holy Spirit, It, you may abound in hope this
is that trinitarian. We've got the god of Hope.
We've got the rod of Jesse who's the son, and we have the Holy
Spirit, all of the Triune God at work for our salvation.
In sending his son, Jesus Christ.
To be our savior whosoever believeth in him.
Shall not perish. Not perish in all those
judgments we talked about but have everlasting life.