Isaiah chapter 61 and we will read through verses 7 through 9. This is the holy, inspired, and infallible Word of God. Isaiah writes, Instead of their shame, my people will receive a double portion. And instead of disgrace, they will rejoice in their inheritance. And so they will inherit a double portion in their land. And everlasting joy will be theirs. For I, the Lord, love justice. I hate robbery in the burnt offering. And in my faithfulness, I will establish their work. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants will be known among the nations. And their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people that the Lord has blessed. Thus ends the reading of God's word. One of the difficult things of coming to a passage like this is that we must situate ourselves as to the context, especially dealing with one of the prophetical books such as Isaiah. And then, therefore, since we have not been working ourselves through a series through this book, it is necessary to somewhat situate ourselves, orient ourselves with the structure of this book. And what is going on here? Isaiah, the son of Amos, the brother of Azariah, who was the king of Judah, he was a resident of Jerusalem in the 8th century B.C. And he had his career as a prophet during the reigns of kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah until he was, as tradition has it, sawn in half by King Manasseh. Now, he lived at the time when the Assyrian Empire was ascending. And during the reign of Ahaz, Tiglach-Pileser III asserted Assyrian control over Judah. And then after him, Shalemanzer and Sargon invaded the northern kingdom and asserted their control there and took captives in the exile. But you see, Isaiah proclaims the deliverance of God for his people, That through the rule of Hezekiah, they would experience a great success and liberation from Assyrian dominion. And that the captives would return to their land. But then the transition in the book is made from the Assyrian crisis to a yet quite future crisis dealing with the nation of Babylon. And this transition is made when Isaiah tells King Hezekiah that all of his possessions and all of the treasures would be carried off by the king of Babylon and that they would go into exile there. And at this time, the theocracy would be dissolved and the covenant would be broken while God's people would be punished for their sins and cut off. But yet they were not to be cut off forever. On the one hand, the Assyrian crisis, God's deliverance in that situation, gave the people of Israel, or at least was intended to give them confidence in the words of Isaiah, and confidence in God that he would perform what he said he would perform. And just as he enacted a liberation from Assyrian dominion, so in the future he would do the same with the Babylonian exile. that He would perform yet a new exodus, but not from Egypt this time, but from Babylon. And that through this event, He would usher in those great last days that were spoken of through Moses, that when God would spread His people abroad into all the nations, that He would regather them. And that at that time, He would write His law on their hearts and they would be His people and that He would be their God. As scholar E.J. Young has written, chapters 1 through 39 provide a staircase, as it were, which gradually leads one from the Assyrian to the Babylonian crisis, or from the one period, the Assyrian period, to the Chaldean period. And that these two belong together, since the former is the preparation for the latter, and the latter is the completement or the fulfillment of the other, of the former. Now, the remnant that returned from Babylon, they were to be a purified people. They were punished for their sins, but now they were to be pure and they were to serve God with their whole hearts. They were to be God's only Son who joyfully did His bidding and were a light to the nations, to the Gentiles. But far from this, Ezra, the scribe, asks God on behalf of the people, after the temple is rebuilt. He says, would you not be angry enough to destroy us? Leaving us no remnant or survivor? O Lord God of Israel, you alone are righteous, but we this day are left as a remnant. And yet here we are before you in our guilt. And because of it, no one of us can stand in your presence. But you see, the thing about the book of Isaiah is it predicts more than simply a return from Babylon, this future event. But his writing is supremely messianic. And the figure of the Lord's servant in this book takes center stage. The servant of the Lord emerges as a figure who is the faithful Israel, who emerges as a remnant of one in whom there is no sin, but yet undergoes divine judgment and is cut off before God and before God's people. But yet this servant experiences vindication, resurrection unto life. And upon this event, he inherits afresh the promises of God to Abraham. And he rallies the nations to himself, granting them the grace of God by his Spirit. And in this manner, all of Israel and more than Israel, but all of the nations are gathered together before God and become God's people. Now the blessings that Isaiah writes of, God first initiates during the return of captivity. They again become a people and the theocracy is reinstated. And at this time forward, they experienced the blessing of God. But its fulfillment does not fully come in until Christ's resurrection, until this is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And so then if we may expand E.J. Young's analysis, the structure of Isaiah leads us, as it were, as a staircase from these temporary, these temporal crises of Assyria and Babylon. And the experience of liberation that Israel experiences at the hand of King Sirius to the liberation that we experience from our bondage of sin and death and the tyranny of the devil at the hand of King Jesus. And so when we ask ourselves, when we read this text from Isaiah and we ask, well, when did these things take place? Of what is the prophet speaking? We would do well to note John Calvin's answer that they began when the people returned to their own country and that they experienced the blessings of God. But then as yet only feeble sparks appeared at that time, the full brightness of the fulfillment comes, or rather shines forth in Jesus Christ, in whose reign these things are entirely accomplished. And then he adds, and these things were not accomplished once only, but are in their course of being fulfilled every day. The thrust of this chapter then is how God expands His church and how He constantly renews His people. In verses 7-9, we see first that the saints rejoice in a double blessing. And then secondly, we see in verse 8 how the Lord establishes in faithfulness the ways of those who serve Him sincerely. And then thirdly, in verse 9, we see the expansion of the church and how the blessings that God grants to the church is to be seen in all the world and even by those who remain outside. Well, first then, verse 7 we see addresses you, the people of God under the figure of priests. The remnant of Israel, it says, is to receive a double portion in their land. Now, let there be no mistake, this is the land of Canaan. But this is a figure. This is a figure for the blessings of God which are promised through Jesus Christ. Now we may ask ourselves, are all the redeemed to live eternally in the land of Palestine receiving each a precise double honor for their previous shame? And then so experience an eternal joy? Of course, to ask the question is to answer it. We see what is going on here by the figures used, by the figure especially of eternal joy. That is, this text refers to that which the land of Canaan symbolized, which is eternal life with God our Father in the new heavens and the new earth. Now, representing these eternal saving promises of God with the land of Canaan is common in Scripture, especially in Psalm 37, where David, while living in the land of promise, Writes these words, but those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land. You see, he is spiritualizing the land promise. And furthermore, he writes, the meek will inherit the land. And of course, we hear an echo in that phrase to our Lord's Sermon on the Mount, when he writes that the meek will inherit the earth. And indeed, this is what Jesus Christ was referring to. You see, it is a double portion in this text because the boundaries of God's kingdom far extend the boundaries of the promised land. They are no longer confined to the boundaries of Palestine, but now extend to the borders of the world far beyond what they were in the days of Solomon. Abraham, we know, was to be heir of the world. And we, through Jesus Christ, have been made children of Abraham, inheriting this promise. And then so when the prophet refers here to an eternal joy, he distinguishes it from a temporary joy. Now many indeed in this life experience a temporary joy, whether it's through wealth and money or ease of life or through good health. Now we sang about just as much in Psalm 73. But we also see that as it is temporary, that it in fact is temporary. And as such, it is inferior to an eternal joy. The Proverbs say of wealth, and this may be extended to any sort of temporary joy. The Proverbs say, wealth certainly makes for itself wings like an eagle that flies toward the heavens. And the ungodly, the unregenerate indeed find their pleasure in this life, but only in this life. But as Psalm 73 notes, it's easy for us as the children of God to become envious and short-sighted of them, not duly considering our eternal inheritance. You see, they may be rich. They may be well-fed and gratifying every desire of their heart. and without much trouble or pain in this world. But we must remember riches and any other thing which brings joy does not profit on the day of wrath. Again, to quote the Proverbs, their joy is only temporary and without the promise it will even be turned into mourning and gnashing of teeth. But more than temporary, it is also an illusion because without the goal of eternal life undergirding and supporting all of our activities in this world, all is eventually meaningless. It is without a goal, a destination. It is without a purpose. And therefore, it is useless. The preacher in Ecclesiastes illustrates this well as he is the supreme philosopher, the greatest philosopher who ever lived. He says, all that my eyes desired, I did not refuse them. And I did not withhold from my heart any pleasure. For my heart was pleased because of all my labor. And this was the reward for all of my labor. And thus I considered all of my activities. And behold, all was vanity and striving after the wind. And there was no prophet under the sun. You see, without the promise, there is no goal or purpose in this life. There is no destination. And when we look at the world's history, it is true that history is cyclical in nature. A generation comes and a generation goes. You see that this is just sort of this eternally cyclical pattern of creation. The sun rises and it sets and it rises again. The winds continue to blow about their courses. The rivers flow into the sea and then the seas flow into the rivers. This world is like a mystery novel which has no last chapter. It's missing its last chapter. There is all that resembles the plot as we look around the world. We see all these different strands which resemble plot lines, but then they just sort of end in loose ends. There is no ending. There is no resolution. But what is more is that it all ends in death. And you see, death is the great equalizer. Death is that thing which swallows up any possible meaning we can have in life. Say we find meaning in friends and family and in love. Certainly there's nothing more noble than that. But what meaning is there in love that death does not swallow up? You see, those who are rich and poor and those who are enslaved and oppressed and those who are free, those who have suffered much and those who are suffered little and those who are immoral and those who are very moral all alike die. Death is the great equalizer. The king dies the death of a peasant and both are consumed by worms. The atheist philosopher Kurt Baer after arguing that life may be worthwhile, that life may have meaning if it is worthwhile, He then turns his attention to the real nagging question, what meaning could there be in life when it all ends in death? He then gives the unsettling answer that life may be meaningful, or rather it may be worthwhile, even if it's short. You see, but this evades the force of the question. Because once I'm dead, it doesn't matter whether my life, Whether the short time I lived, I experienced what I thought was meaningful or not. It doesn't matter if I had much pain or little pain. I'm dead and I'm not cognizant of it anymore. But you see, it is the final chapter. It is the point of it all. It is what God has instilled in our hearts. He has put eternity in all of our hearts. And the purpose for living lies outside of this temporary existence and it is realized in eternity where the eternal weight of glory, as Paul says, swallows up the momentary lightness of our afflictions. And you see, it's this. It's this eternal joy which infuses its meaning and purpose into all our worldly activities. All our mundane tasks as we go about being part of a family, a network of friends as we're doing our daily tasks of our job, our vocation, and whatever it is we do. It is this which infuses meaning into what we do. And then so let us not be envious of those who prosper greatly now. Because their prosperity is not only vaporous, disappearing with their death. But it is also an illusion. Because it is without any real purpose. As the Proverbs say again, Better is the poor who walks in his integrity than he who is crooked, though he be rich. But then look, we have a second blessing listed in verse 8 through the eternal covenants. The lesson that we receive in verse 8 is that God establishes the ways of those who serve him sincerely. Verse 8 you will notice says, For I, the Lord, love justice. Now, we usually think of the conjunction for as connecting that to which what came before it. But in a matter of fact, in this case, the for, which is better translated as because it gives the reason of or rather it's the connection between that and which comes after after it, which comes after it. And so if we tampered with the word order, it is more readily understood, I think, if we read it this way. I hate robbery because I, the Lord, love justice. Or because I, the Lord, love justice, I hate, you know, therefore, I hate robbery. And you will also notice the NIV translates it robbery and iniquity. And you will notice that when I read it, I read a variation of that translation. The NIV is following the Septuagint, that is the Greek Old Testament, by translating the adikia, unrighteousness, instead of following the Masoretic text, which has the Hebrew, Ola, or burnt offering. And other translations such as the NASB follows the Masoretic by saying, I hate robbery in the burnt offering. Now, the NIV translators presumably thought that this interpretation and many commentators likewise follow this, that it flowed better with the text, that it fit the context more and its sense is more readily understandable. I hate robbery and iniquity. We all readily understand what that means. But what does it mean to hate robbery and the burnt offering? Are they stealing the ox from the altar? What's going on here? But on the other hand, because God in this chapter is addressing His people under the figure of priests, and because I don't find anything strange or unusual or difficult to grasp about this phrase, I don't find any weighty reason to depart from the Masoretic text. And so I believe that robbery in the burnt offering is preferred. And so what does this mean? Well, I think the meaning is this, that by a single part, he figuratively denotes all of hypocritical worship of God. In other words, under the figure of robbery, denotes all iniquity and impiety. And under the figure of burnt offering includes every kind of sacrifice. And not only every kind of sacrifice, but every type of worship of God. Isaiah speaks this way, which may be confirmatory to this interpretation. And in the first chapter, when he writes or when God says through him, I cannot endure iniquity with the solemn assembly. And so when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you. For your hands are covered with blood. Therefore, remove your evil deeds from my sight. In other words, God in this figure is condemning those who mingle with their impiety and godlessness with the correct worship of God. As Reformed Christians, we believe in the regulative principle. That means that we are to worship the correct God in the correct way. But not only in the correct way, but with the correct lives. You see, it's not good enough to make sure that we have all our T's crossed and our I's dotted. But we must also serve God with true repentance and faith. And this must characterize our worship. And it must not be in form only, but it must also be in our life. The Lord frequently condemns those who try to please Him and serve Him under many sacrifices or by worship of God. Children, you may remember when Saul came back from plundering the Amalekites, that he brought back all sorts of cattle and oxen and things to sacrifice to God. Because after all, doesn't God like it when we sacrifice things to Him? But you see, when he did this, he disobeyed the command of God. And then Samuel came along and he told him what God really thought about this. He says to him, Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and in sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed better than the fat of rams. as John Calvin writes for most men pretend to worship God and even the wicked are ashamed of not having an appearance of religion the impression of a divine ruler being so deeply engraven on their hearts engraven on the hearts of all that it cannot be erased yet the greater part of men sport with God and endeavor to satisfy Him with childish trifles. You see, God is not merely satisfied with our childish trifles, with our endeavors to please Him. He is not satisfied with merely going to church because the Word and the sacraments do not work on their own or simply by their doing them, but only when they're received in repentance and faith. You see, we must endeavor to lay aside hypocrisy and double-mindedness in our lives if we are to truly worship God. But of course, all of us in this life are yet sinners and as such, we are in some respects hypocritical and double-minded. As the Proverbs again say, who among men can say that I have purified my ways, I have made myself pure? Of course, none of us can say, I have totally surrendered to God. I have yielded my heart up to Him. Every corner of my being I give. We are sinful. And so none of us are able to stand before God in our own righteousness. And this is why we need the righteousness of Christ and not our own righteousness. His righteousness perfecting our feeble works. By His grace and accepting them as done in faith. Now if you look further in verse 8, the NIV speaks of a reward for work. But again, I rather think the text should be taken as establishing our work. That in His truth or faithfulness, He will establish our work. Now that is that God establishes all of our undertakings in life. You see, often when we examine our lives, we trust in our own counsels or depend on what may be called fortune or luck. You see, and we rashly bypass God's counsel. We neglect to seek first the things of the kingdom of God. We neglect to seek Him first in prayer. But yet, girded in our own strength, we seek to establish our own ways. But you see, what God has decreed and established for us, He has foreordained before any one of our days have come to pass. He foreknows everything. And He has established all of our days and all the works which we are to do. You see, beloved, what comfort we may derive from this truth. That God our Father will guide us by His faithfulness and establish all of our labors. And that all prosperity and provision flows from His hand because He is the great King and the great architect of our lives. And though we know that God causes the sun to shine on all and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike, these provisions which He gives to us, that He establishes our ways, this is not a common blessing. This is not something common given to all men, such as many of the blessings of God are. But it says that it is through the eternal covenants. Now this language recalls the promise of God to Abraham in Genesis, where he says, I will establish my covenants as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your children after you for generations to come to be your God and the God of your children after you. This everlasting covenant was continued through David's seed and at last finally ratified through the blood of David's son, Jesus Christ, who brought peace, forgiveness, liberty, and who equips us with every good thing we need for doing His will and who works in us what is pleasing to Him. but thirdly we see in verse 10 or verse 9 rather that God causes his church to become visible to all the nations of the world daily adding to those being saved you see the promise here is to the children of the returnees the children of those who came back from Babylon and it says that He would greatly multiply them and that He would bless them, that they would expand over the whole globe and that they would recognize them as being the blessed of God. And of course, in these words, we are reminded once again of the promise of God to Abraham. And through your offspring, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. But when do we see this happening? We don't see it happening when the exiles returned to their homeland. And we don't see it 400 years after. But when do we see it? Jesus Christ said of Himself that when He would be lifted up in resurrection, that He would draw all nations to Himself. And indeed, it is after the resurrection of Jesus Christ that we at last see these things fulfilled. And not only see them fulfilled, but we see them fulfilled through us. That after the resurrection of Jesus, we see in large swells and in-gatherings, the heathen nations of the world coming in and acknowledging Israel's God as their God and uniting with Israel in the same confession of faith as they. And so we see that this great ingathering was not through natural generation, but it was through the Gentiles like us, those who were naturally strangers and enemies to the covenants of promise, being brought in, God by His Spirit causing us to recognize the true God and to forsake all idols. And so we have become united with Israel and their confession of faith. And as Paul writes in Romans 9, verse 8, that we are regarded as descendants. Descendants of whom? Descendants of Israel. Fellow citizens in the commonwealth and partakers of the covenant. And again in Galatians 3, if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. But you see, look at the text again. There is something more than that the church will expand over the whole globe. But the church is to be recognized by the world as God's particular people. Even as the Jews were able to discern that Peter and John had been with Jesus by their character, by their wisdom, so the world is to recognize the church. in some respects as being blessed by God by her character. And as John writes in his epistle, and they will say, my, how they love one another. That's to be the character of the church. This is the blessing which is recognized by the world in the church. The lesson that this points up is one that every child of God must ever keep before him or herself? When men see us, do they recognize that God has blessed us? Do we show forth the fruits in keeping with being the children of God? Are we Christ-like in our ways? As Paul writes, we are living epistles known and read of all men. Now that this is a challenging task, is beyond doubt that it is a high calling is without question. But Scripture challenges us. It commands us to act worthy of our calling as the children of God. But yet we know this challenge is one that can never fully be met by us. But yet we must ever strive toward this goal, toward this mark, toward the upward call of Jesus Christ. But we also know that through Him, through Jesus, that we are qualified for this task through Him. Through His blood He has given us everything we need to live godly lives so that we may not be ineffective and improductive in our service of Him. As the author to the Hebrews exhorts his hearers, may the God of peace who through the blood of the eternal covenant who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with every good thing for doing His will, and may He work in us what is pleasing to Him through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Beloved, if the world recognizes that we in certain respects are blessed of God, how much more ought we to recognize it? We have a double inheritance with God which results in eternal joy. All our ways are established by God's faithfulness and He cares for us in His loving kindness due to the provision being made through the eternal covenant. And He Himself has taken us out of the kingdom of darkness and has transplanted us into the ever-extending kingdom of His beloved Son who is blessed forever. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank You for these great and manifold blessings which You have given to us that You indeed have blessed us with an eternal joy and that we may have no need to become envious of those who have temporary joy, Lord. And we ask that we would keep this ever before us. We thank You that You establish our ways we pray that we would further order our lives according to your will and seek out your counsel and your kingdom we also thank you for the church which is spread and is expanding every day as you extend your kingdom among the heathen nations that more and more people have a knowledge of you and we pray Lord that we would be recognized as those who are blessed by Your love because we love. And we thank You that we are, in fact, recognized as blessed because we are blessed by You. In Jesus' name we ask this. Amen.