Sermon # 209          Series: Isaiah

 

Title:  “ZION, CITY OF OUR GOD”

Text:  Isaiah 60:1-22

Subject:  The Church Militant and Triumphant

Date:  Sunday Evening – April 16, 1995

Tape # R-25

 

Introduction:

 

The Church of God is both local and universal.  We certainly believe that the local church is God’s institution in this world by which his gospel, his truth, his worship, and his ordinances are maintained.  The gathered assembly of God’s saint in any place, in any generation, whether large or small, is the house of God…the pillar and ground of the truth” (I Tim. 3:15).

 

But the church of God is also universal and is spoken of as such throughout the New Testament.  By universal I simply mean that the church of God, the body and bride of Christ consists of all God’s elect in every age, those on earth and those in heaven.  All who were chosen by God the Father in eternal election, all who were redeemed by God the Son at Calvary, and all who are born again by God the Spirit in time, are one body, one church and one kingdom.  Paul is speaking of this universal church when he says, “Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.”  (Eph. 5:25).  It is this universal church which is described as “Mount Sion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem…(and) the general assembly and church of the firstborn,” unto which all believers have come (Heb. 12:22-23).

 

In this universal aspect the Church of God is described by many different names in the Scriptures.  Each name, or title given to God’s church is significant.

 

  1. It is the Sheepfold into which the Good Sheperd gathers his sheep (John 10:16).
  2. It is the Kingdom of God into which we have entered by the new birth (John 3:5).
  3. It is the Family of God into which we have been born (Eph. 3:15).
  4. It is Jerusalem, which is above, the mother of all God’s saints (Gal. 4:26).
  5. It is the New Jerusalem which shall come down from God out of heaven “prepared as a bride adorned for her Husband,” when our God shall make all things new (Rev. 21:2).
  6. It is the Kingdom of Heaven, of which Christ is the King and all believers are the subjects (Matt. 5:10).
  7. And it is called “Zion, the city of the Lord” (Isa. 60:14).

 

That is the subject of our text tonight – “Zion, City of Our God.”  Isaiah 60 is a prophetic word, which describes some of the glorious things promised to the church, “The City of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.”

 

“Glorious things of thee are spoken,

Zion, city of Our God!

He whose word cannot be broken

Formed thee for His own abode!”

 

Proposition:  In the Old Testament the church of God, called by Stephen “The Church in the wilderness”  (Acts 7:38), was made up of the nation of Israel; but it was always God’s purpose to gather his elect from the Gentiles into his Church, and at last to present it to himself a “glorious church not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” – In our test Isaiah describes the latter day glory of God’s Church which began with The Lord Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, coming to Zion and will be consummated when our Redeemer comes again and brings his church into it’s consummate glory “as a bride adorned her husband.”

 

Obviously, I cannot give a detailed exposition of this chapter tonight; but I do want us to look at the chapter as a whole and so what God has promised concerning his church, which is the City of God.

 

In chapters 58 and 59 The Lord God displayed his utter disdain and contempt for the formality, hypocrisy, profaneness, and immorality of the religious world in which we live.  But the last two verses of chapter 59 gave us a promise of Christ our Redeemer coming to Zion to fulfill to us all the blessings of God promised in the covenant.  Read Isaiah 59:20-21.  This is one of the many prophecies of Christ’s coming that includes both his first and second advent.  They are spoken of as one event because the salvation of his church and people, which he purchased at his first advent, shall not be completed in them until his second advent.

 

In these verses the Lord God makes seven absolute, unconditional promises to the church of his elect.  These are the glorious things, which God has spoken to “Zion, City of Our God.”  When the Lord Jesus said, “I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,” this is what he was talking about.  This is how the Son of God builds his Church.

 

ENLIGHTENED

 

I.  First, God promises that He Would Enlighten His People (vv. 1-2).

 

The light of Zion is the reflected light of Christ who is “The Light of the World,” “The Sun of Righteousness” who has risen upon us with healing beneath his wings.  Though “the darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people.”  Christ has brought us light.

 

A.  He brought to light the types and shadows of the law.

B.  He is the revelation of the light of the knowledge of the glory of God (John 1:4, 5, 18).

C.  That light shines in our hearts by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel in the new birth (John 3:3; II Cor. 4:4-6).

D.  Now, we are called upon to dispose his light in this dark world as his witnesses.  (Matt. 5:14-16).

 

      “Arise, shine!”

 

ENLARGED

 

II.  In verses 3-4, The Lord promises To Enlarge The Borders of Zion to Include All Gentile Nations As Well as Jews.

 

The inhabitants of Zion are to come from all parts of the world (Matt. 8:11).

 

God has his elect everywhere!  The fulness of the Gentiles must be brought in (Rom. 11:25-26).

 

This, “the City of God,” the Church of Jesus Christ is the only truly cosmopolitan, multicultural city in the world, where people of all races, all classes, and all places are truly one.  In Christ all God’s saints are truly one.  All are radiant with one life, one light, and one love (Col. 3:11).

 

ENRICHED

 

III.  Read verses 5-9 – As God enlarges his church so to His promises that the house of His Glory Shall be Enriched.

 

B.H. Carroll wrote, “The very best of everything in the material world is here mentioned as coming to Zion, illustrating both the temporal and the spiritual blessings of Zion, the temporal being used to transport Zion’s sons and daughters, i.e. for missionary purposes.  This is literally fulfilled in every material thing that is consecrated to the King of this splendid city.  The ships, the lower animals, the gold and the silver – the best of it all has been made to serve the purposed of Christianity from the days of Paul to the present day.”

 

What the prophet is telling us is this, when sinners come to Christ and consecrate themselves to him in faith, they also consecrate their gold, and cattle, and all earthly possessions to him, “to minister” to the needs of his kingdom.

 

NOTE:  God’s church never lacks for anything needed to do the work God puts in her hands because God’s people give of their means to support his cause.

 

We are here called “the house of his glory,” the house where he shows forth his glory.  He has “glorified thee.”  Therefore we “show forth the praises of the Lord by that which we give to him.

 

NOTE:  None are asked to give more than according to this measure.  And none should give less.  Don’t give Christ your best.  Give him all; and he shall have the best.

 

ESTABLISHED

 

IV.  Then the Lord God promises that His Church Shall Be Established Throughout All The Earth (vv. 10-12).

 

Here is a City, the City of Morey…

 

·         Where walls are Established by Strangers (I Cor. 1:26-29).

·         Served by Kings, according to God’s Providence – (v. 10).

·         Where Gates are Always Open for All Who Will To Enter In – (v. 11).

·         And any nation or kingdom that will not be of service to God’s Church and Kingdom shall perish (v. 12).

 

EXTOLLED

 

V.  Read on – verses 13-14.  Here God Promises that The City of The Lord Shall Be Extolled.

 

Since the prophecy has not yet come to the day of judgment.  I cannot imagine that these verses refer to that time.  Rather, it is a prophecy of the conversion of chosen sinners.  When God saves a sinner, he makes his house, the place of his feet, glorious in the eyes of a sinner.  Those who once despised and afflicted God’s Church, like Saul of Tarsus bow and assay to join themselves to it saying.  “This is The City of the Lord, The Zion of The Holy One of Israel.”

 

“I love Thy Kingdom, Lord,

The house of Thine abode,

The Church our blessed Redeemer saved

With His own precious blood.”

 

EXCELLENCY

 

VI.  In verses 15-17 The Lord Promises to “Make Thee An Eternal Excellency.

 

What on earth can that mean?  It simply means that we are excellent in his eyes.  Because The Lord himself is “Thy Savior and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob,” he will see to it that his church has all the benefits of all things in this world.  For us he will make brass gold, iron silver, and wood brass – (Rev. 12:16; Rom. 8:28).  “Thou shalt know…” v. 15.

 

·         Make his Church the “joy of many generations.”

·         Make the Officers of His Church Peace, or Peacemakers.

·         Make the Pastors, Bishops, Rulers of His People Righteousness –

In Doctrine! – In Behavior! – In Direction!

 

EXALTATION

 

VII.  Lastly, verses 18-21 give us God’s Promise to Exalt His Church in Everlasting Glory.

 

The crowning glories of Zion described in these verses and the description John gives of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21) are identical.

 

      v. 18 – Everlasting Praise!

      v. 19 – Everlasting Glory!

      v. 20 – Everlasting Happiness!

      v. 21 – Everlasting Righteousness!

 

Application:  Of all this, God says, “This is the work of my hands, that I may be glorified”  (v. 21: Eph. 2:7; 5:25-27).

 

v. 22 – God will bring it to pass!