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The Counsel of God (CC Troy)

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ISAIAH 28:17-29

17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep

away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand;

when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.

19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by

day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than

that he can wrap himself in it.

21 For the Lord shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that

he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.

22 Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord

God of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.

23 Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.

24 Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground?

25 When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the

cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place?

26 For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him.

27 For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about

upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.

28 Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his

cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen.

29 This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in

working.

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Which Covenant? (CC Troy)

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ISAIAH 28:9-19

9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.

10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.

12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.

13 But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

14 Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.

15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:

16 Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.

17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.

19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

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The Keeper of the Vineyard Pt.2 (CC Troy)

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ISAIAH 27

In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.

2 In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.

3 I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.

4 Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.

5 Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.

6 He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.

7 Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?

8 In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.

9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.

10 Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.

11 When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.

12 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.

13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

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The Keeper of the Vineyard (CC Troy)

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ISAIAH 27

In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.

2 In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.

3 I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.

4 Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.

5 Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.

6 He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.

7 Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?

8 In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.

9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.

10 Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.

11 When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.

12 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.

13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

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What is a Mediator (Advent #4) (CC Downtown)

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INTRODUCTION

Last week we saw that the very fact of creation is indicative that the world is covenantal and that covenant is, by nature, a gracious one. God made the world with no external obligation, but He obligated Himself to it. Due to Adam’s sin, something dreadful took place. The marriage of heaven and earth was broken. How would God reconcile Himself to man, and man with the creation he had brought down into a ruinous curse? God wrote the code upon which this world was to run, sin introduced a corrupted file that if left to run on its own would disable the entire system. Christmas is the entrance of God Himself into the story, and His purpose was nothing other than to take the curse upon Himself, and restore the whole system.

THE TEXT

And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 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 of the fear of the LORD; And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ 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. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.    ~Isaiah 11:1-10

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Isaiah foresaw the restoration of all things, and speaks of the new creation in terms of the resurrection of David’s kingdom. A Righteous Branch would sprout from the stump of Jesse (v1). The Lord’s Spirit would rest upon this Branch, endowing Him with all that is needful for righteous rule over the earth (vv2-3). His rule shall raise up the poor and meek, while dashing the wicked to bits (v4). His regal robes will be righteousness, and faithfulness will be the sword at His side (v5).

His rule will not be confined, but will have application in all directions. Beasts will be tamed and do violence to one another no more; furthermore, man will no longer be in an adversarial relationship with the beasts (vv6-8). The curse shall be so entirely reversed that even serpents, once counted as wretched for their association with Satan, will be the play thing of infants. Destruction and death, sorrow and sighing, war and wasting will be ended; the dark years shall fade, and in its place the bright and warm light of the knowledge of Lord shall fill the entire earth, as waters cover the sea (v9). This Mediator, springing from the massacred stump of Jesse, would rule in such a way that not Israel only, but even the Gentiles would clamor to rest under the victory banner of His kingdom (v10).

FOUR THINGS NEEDFUL

As we reflect on who could fulfill such a task, it is important that we ascertain what is required of this mediator. The mediator of such a covenant between God and man must have four attributes. He must be a man (Gen. 3:15). However, he must also be a righteous man (Ps. 24:3-4). Further, he must be true God (Is. 9:6). Fourth, he must be both God and man (Is. 7:14).

In order to crush the serpents head, it was required that He be a true man. Since it was human nature “in which the disobedience had been committed” the Son assumed our nature “in order to bear in it the punishment of sin by his most bitter passion and death (BCF Art. 20).”  But in order for Him to please the covenant law of creation He must be holy, righteous, without flaw. He made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf.

But as the Belgic Confession so wonderfully puts it, His divinity never ceased to be in Him: “So then, what he committed to his Father when he died was a real human spirit which left his body. But meanwhile, his divine nature remained united with his human nature even when he was lying in the grave; and his deity never ceased to be in him, just as it was in him when he was a little child, though for a while it did not so reveal itself. These are the reasons why we confess him to be true God and truly human—true God in order to conquer death by his power, and truly human that he might die for us in the weakness of his flesh (BCF Art. 19).”

Furthermore, in order to accomplish our redemption, and to satisfy God’s righteous requirements, the Mediator must be have these four attributes. Additionally, in His role as the Mediator of this covenant of grace, He would fulfill that mediatorial role in a number of ways; here is how the WCF describes it: “It pleased God, in His eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, to be the Mediator between God and man, the Prophet, Priest, and King, the Head and Savior of His Church, the Heir of all things, and Judge of the world; unto whom He did from all eternity give a people, to be His seed, and to be by Him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified (WCF Ch. VIII, Sec. 1).” Notice that the doctrine of Christ as our Mediator, and all the glorious attributes of that role, leads to what theologians call the ordo salutis. The person of Christ is inextricably tied to the redemption of His people.

WHAT THE MEDIATOR BRINGS TOGETHER

Returning to our text we see that the “one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5),” brings about a restoration in all directions. Between God and man. Between heaven and earth. Between man and beast (Hos. 2:8-12). Between man and man. To quote one theologian, “No realm can be withheld from Christ’s reign. The covenant is a total treaty.”

He does so by becoming the curse for us, and being righteous for us, for judging sin, and receiving sin’s judgement, by dying for us, raising human nature out of the dust and breathing His everlasting Spirit into us. He truly holds all things together. And it is not sappy sentimentalism to say that the reason He did all this was because of His great love wherewith He loved us: “So God made known his justice toward his Son, who was charged with our sin, and he poured out his goodness and mercy on us, who are guilty and worthy of damnation, giving to us his Son to die, by a most perfect love, and raising him to life for our justification, in order that by him we might have immortality and eternal life (BGC Art 20).”

NEW CREATION

The nativity of Christ Jesus really is the beginning of the New Creation. In His mediatorial office He not only reconciles us to God, but He renews and remakes all things. So it is fitting to bring trees into our homes, ornamented with symbolic fruit, surrounded by gifts made of plastic and pearls, wool and wood. It is right to spread a great feast, inviting as many people as will fit around the rearranged living room furniture. Christ Jesus ushered in a new creation in Himself. He is the nexus of history. He is the new man. He is the true God and our eternal life. He is the ladder which bridges the glory of heaven with the bounty of earth. He is our Mediator which rules over this world with everlasting truth and grace. Indeed, joy to the world, for the Branch of Jesse has come.

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