Watchman Radio Hour

Announcer: Welcome to the Watchman Radio Hour. Coming to you from Portland, Oregon, here in the beautiful Northwest. This is David Shaltee, announcer. The Watchman Radio Hour is a production of Watchman Radio Ministries International, an evangelistic ministry reaching out to the peoples of the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And now here's our speaker, Alex Dodson, to bring you this week's message from God's word.

Alex Dodson: For our scripture reading today, let us turn to the book of Isaiah, chapter 49, and we'll begin reading in verse 14. Let us hear the word of God.

But Zion said, "The Lord has forsaken me. The Lord has forgotten me." Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you. See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are ever before me. Your sons hasten back, and those who laid you waste depart from you.

Lift up your eyes and look around. All your sons gather and come to you. Surely as I live, declares the Lord, you will wear them all as ornaments. You will be, you will put them on like a bride. And though you were ruined and made desolate and your land laid waste, now you will be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away.

The children born during your bereavement will yet say in your hearing, "This place is too small for us. Give us more space to live in." Then you will say in your heart, "Who bore me these? I was bereaved and barren. I was exiled and rejected. Who brought these up? I was left all alone, but these, where have they come from?"

This is what the sovereign Lord says. See, I will beckon to the Gentiles. I will lift up my banner to the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders. Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground.

They will lick the dust at your feet, and then you will know that I am the Lord. Those who hope in me will not be disappointed. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the Bible that you have given to us. We thank you that it's your infallible word and that we can put our full confidence in everything that it says.

And now, O Father, as we come to study your word, we pray that you will send forth your Holy Spirit in great convicting power. In Christ's name I pray. Amen.

Our vision of the church needs to be improved. Some teach that the church will go down in defeat and have to be taken out of the way. That seems to be a common impression among many evangelicals today. We are awaiting our rescue. We can't win the world to Christ. The future is only gloom and doom.

It seems this is the message of many in the church today. Yet, is this the picture the Bible paints of the church in this age? Yes, we all believe in the future glory of the church in heaven, but what of this age? Did Jesus establish his church to go down in defeat in this age? It was Jesus who said to Peter in Matthew 16:18, "And I tell you, you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it."

However we may interpret that verse, it certainly doesn't teach the defeat of the church. On the contrary, it teaches the victory of the church over Satan and all his forces. Our view of the church is important. How did the Old Testament prophets view the church and its future? Some say that they didn't even see the church coming.

Yet, is that really true? Did not the Old Testament prophets indeed see the church of the future and prophesy of its glory? Is there no continuity between the New Testament people of God and the Old Testament people of God? There was indeed a continuity. The New Testament people of God were an outgrowth of the Old Testament people of God.

This is what Paul teaches us in Romans 11. There is only one olive tree. It began in the Old Testament and it continues in the New Testament as the Gentiles are grafted in. Our text for today is Isaiah 49:22 which says again, "This is what the sovereign Lord says, 'See, I will beckon to the Gentiles. I will lift up my banner to the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.'"

Zion is renewed and reborn in the New Testament church. The Old Testament Zion continues on in the New Testament Zion. The Old Testament Zion is reborn in the New Testament church. The Messiah has come, and he has set up his church and he reigns spiritually over her.

The Old Testament prophets looked ahead and saw the New Testament Zion, the renewed and fulfillment of the Old Testament Zion, and they prophesied of glorious days ahead for the church. We're not going down in defeat, but the church is yet to see her glory in this age. Now, let us see in the first place that the Old Testament church was called Zion.

Mount Zion was the place of God's presence. It was where God met with his people. He was present there with them. The temple was on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. The New Bible Dictionary says it is clear that in the Old Testament Zion could be equated with the temple and was the name used for the religious center of the Jews.

Had Zion been other than the Temple Hill, this figurative use of the name could scarcely have occurred. Zion was the place where the people met God. Zion was the place, was the place that the people turned to to pray toward. Zion was where God was with his people.

And then let us see that Zion came to be the name of God's people in a figurative sense. Zion was the Old Testament church or people of God. In Isaiah 49:14, it says, "But Zion said, 'The Lord has forsaken me. The Lord has forgotten me.'" This verse assures us that here in Isaiah 49:22, the Lord is talking to Zion, his church.

In Psalm 132:13 it says, "For the Lord has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his dwelling." Not only in a literal sense did God dwell in Zion in Jerusalem, but in a figurative sense he dwelt with Zion, his people, his church. In Psalm 147:12 it says, "Extol the Lord, O Jerusalem. Praise your God, O Zion."

Here God's people are called Jerusalem and also Zion. The Old Testament people of God were Zion or the Old Testament church. Now let us see in the second place that the New Testament church was a restoration of Zion. The Old Testament church was restored in the New Testament church.

When the New Testament church began, it was a continuation of the people of God in the Old Testament or Zion. The New Testament church began in Jerusalem by the Jewish people of God. Simeon held the child Jesus in his arms and declared, "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory of your people Israel."

Here is an Old Testament believer holding the child Jesus and declaring that he was the glory of Israel. He was the long promised Messiah who would come, and it would be through him that the people of God would be restored and flourish. And so the New Testament church is an outflow of the Old Testament church.

Matthew Henry writes, "The Jews were cast off, among whom it was expected that the church should be built up. But God will sow it to himself in the earth and will thence reap a plentiful crop. Observe, number one, how the Gentiles shall be called in. God will lift up his hand to them, to invite or beckon them, having all the day stretched it out in vain to the Jews."

"Or, it denotes the exerting of an almighty power, that of his Spirit and grace to compel them to come in, to make them willing. And he will set up his standard to them, the preaching of the everlasting gospel, to which they shall gather and under which they shall enlist themselves." And then two, "How shall they come?"

"They shall assist the sons of Zion, which are found among them, in their return to their own country and shall forward them with as much tenderness as ever any parent carried a child that was weak and helpless. God can raise up friends for returning Israelites even among the Gentiles. Or, when they come themselves, they shall bring their children and make them thy children."

"Thus thou ask, 'Who has begotten and brought up these?' Know that they were begotten and brought up among the Gentiles, but they are now brought into thy family, and all that are concerned about young converts and young believers in religion learn hence to deal very tenderly and carefully with them, as Christ does with the lambs which he gathered with his arms and carries in his bosom."

And then John Calvin writes, "Thus says the Lord Jehovah." Isaiah confirms what he had said a little before, that the Lord would cause his church, though for a very long time she had been barren and bereaved, to have an exceedingly numerous offspring and to be constrained to wander at her own fruitfulness. And thus, so in order to remove all doubt which might have found its way into their hearts.

And then Calvin goes on to write, "I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles. He declares that he will give children to the church not only from among the Jews as formerly, but likewise from among the Gentiles. And yet he indirectly asserts that this generation shall be spiritual through the grace of adoption. For the metaphor of a banner was intended to lead believers to expect a new kind of generation and different from that which is seen in the ordinary course of nature."

"The Lord must therefore set up a sign and display his secret power through the gospel, that out of nations who differed so widely from each other both in customs and in language, he might bring children to the church, who should be united in the same faith as brethren meet in their mother's bosom."

John Gill writes, "I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, beckoning them to come unto him, directing and ordering them what to do, or rather exerting the power of his grace in the conversion of them. The Targum is, 'I will reveal my power among the Gentiles.' His efficacious grace attending the ministry of the word, whereby it becomes the power of God unto salvation."

"For when the hand is lifted or exerted, the word comes, not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Ghost, and is effectual to saving purposes." Gill goes on to write, "And they shall bring thy sons in their arms or bosom. Such as are regenerated by the Spirit and grace of God under the word are to be tenderly dealt with by the ministers of the gospel as they are by Christ, and to be encouraged to come and join themselves to the church and be directed and assisted by them in that service."

And so the prophet was looking ahead to the time of the New Testament church when the Gentiles will be brought into the church. He saw her also as Zion. It would be Zion's sons and daughters who would be brought into the church by the Gentiles. Again, verse 22 says, "This is what the sovereign Lord says, 'See, I will beckon to the Gentiles. I will lift up my banner to the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.'"

And then let us see that the same Old Testament names are given to the New Testament church. She is still called Zion or Jerusalem, but in a spiritual sense. In Hebrews 12:22-24, in referring to the church, it says, "But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel."

This Zion takes in both the Old and New Testament church, so that just as the Old Testament church was called Zion, so the New Testament church is also called Zion, because it is truly a continuation of the people of God of the Old Testament. In Galatians 4:25 and 26, Paul refers to the heavenly Jerusalem as the mother of the people of God in the New Testament.

He writes, "Now Hagar stands from Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free and she is our mother." Salvation is not in an earthly Jerusalem but in the Jerusalem above. It is this Jerusalem, in a spiritual sense, which is the true church of God.

All who truly believe in the Lord Jesus are members of that heavenly Jerusalem. And so we can say that the New Testament church is still Zion and Jerusalem in a spiritual sense. She carries on the true people of God as a continuation of the Zion or Jerusalem of the Old Testament, where those words referred to the true people of God back then.

And now let us see in the third place, the future glory of Zion. Again, our text says, "This is what the sovereign Lord said, 'See, I will beckon to the Gentiles, and I will lift up my banner to the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.'" Isaiah looked forward to the gospel age.

Isaiah saw the New Testament church and her glory as the gospel would go out to the Gentiles and bring in, bring them in to be God's people. The Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible says the numbers of God's people would be great, because after the restoration from exile, God would also call many Gentiles to himself.

This vision of the future restoration was inaugurated at the first coming of Christ. It's continued in the gospel ministry today and will find ultimate fulfillment at Christ's return. The Gentiles would bring in the sons and daughters of Zion in their arms and on their shoulders. This has taken place even now as the gospel goes out all over the world to the Gentiles.

Kiel and Delitzsch write, "The setting up of a standard is a favorite figure with Isaiah, as well as swaying the hand. Jehovah gives a sign to the heathen nations with his hand and calls out to them the mark that they are to keep in view with a signal pole which is set up. They understand it and carry out his instructions and bring Zion's sons and daughters thither, and that as a foster father carries an infant in the bosom of his dress or upon his arm, so that it reclines upon his shoulder."

And John Calvin says, "When he promises that the sons of the church shall be brought in her arms and on her shoulders, the language is metaphorical and means that God will find no difficulty when he shall wish to gather the church out of her dispersion. For all the Gentiles will assist him. Although this refers in the first instance to the Jews who had been banished and scattered, yet it undoubtedly ought to be extended to all the elect of God who have become partakers of the same grace."

The ingathering, this ingathering of the Gentiles has been going on since Jesus came into this world 2,000 years ago, and it continues unto this day all over the world. But then let us see next that this prophecy points to the future glory of Zion, especially in the latter days of this age.

Earlier evangelicals referred to this latter time as the latter day glory of the church. They saw the church as coming to its most glorious days in the future. Jonathan Edwards writes in his book, "The History of Redemption," about the latter days of the church in this age. He writes, "The glorious times which are approaching are, as it were, the church's Jubilee, which shall be introduced by the sounding of the silver trumpet of the gospel as is foretold in Isaiah 27:13."

"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 outcast of the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the Holy Mount at Jerusalem. There shall be a glorious pouring out of the Spirit with this clear and powerful preaching of the gospel, and many shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord and shall come as they were in flocks, one flock and multitude after another continually flowing in."

Isaiah 60:1-3 speaks of those days where it says, "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you, and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn."

And then in Isaiah 62:1-3, it says, "For Zion's sake, I will not keep silent. For Jerusalem's sake, I will not remain quiet till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch. The nations will see your righteousness and all kings your glory, and you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow, and you will be a crown of splendor in the Lord's hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God."

And then in Isaiah 54:1-3, it says, "Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child, burst into song, shout for joy. You who were never in labor, because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband," says the Lord. "Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch out your tent curtains wide, do not hold back. Lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes, for you will spread out to the right and to the left and your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in desolate cities."

This future Zion will be a shining light or blazing torch to enlighten the whole world. God will shine upon her and she will shine upon the nations. She will spread out to the right and to the left and possess nations and peoples all over the world. In Isaiah 11:9, it says, "They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain. For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."

Matthew Henry comments on this passage when he says, "Some are willing to hope it shall yet have a further accomplishment in the latter days, when swords shall be beaten into plowshares. They shall thus live in love, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, which shall extinguish men's heats and animosities. The better acquainted we are with the God of love, the more shall we be changed into the same image and the better affected shall we be to all those that bear his image."

"The earth shall be as full of this knowledge as the channels of the sea are of water. So broad and extensive shall this knowledge be, and so far shall it spread. So deep and substantial shall this knowledge be, and so long shall it last." In Isaiah 11:9, it describes the whole earth as becoming God's holy mountain.

And so we see here the influence and light of Zion spreads to the whole world. E. J. Young writes, "Men will know the Lord in that they will know that he truly exists, and they will act upon that knowledge in that they will give to him all their love, obedience, and devotion. He will be their God."

"This knowledge will be so extensive that it will fill the land as the waters cover the sea. Isaiah does not mean that the earth will be divided into two parts, the earth and the sea, but would merely say that just as the sea to the fullness of its capacity is filled with waters, so the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. When once the land will be thus filled, then men will cause to harm, then men will cease to harm one another."

"Before there can be peace, there must first be knowledge." Isaiah saw Zion spreading out and enlightening the whole world. Today this view of the Old Testament prophet about the future glory of Zion seems to be lost. Many evangelicals today have lost that vision altogether and see only defeat awaiting the church in this age.

Instead of praying for the future glory of Zion to come, many pray for the Lord to come back and take the church out of this evil world. Yet, is there not much work to be done? There are nations that need to be won to Christ and nations that need to be rewon to Christ. Dare we give up now?

Should we not pray like the watchmen in Isaiah 62:6 and 7, where it says, "I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem. They will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth."

Now remember we're talking about Jerusalem in a spiritual sense as meaning the church. And we should pray for the church to be established and to be made a praise in all the earth. And so I call upon you to pray now for the church that it may see better days in the future. Pray for revival to come soon that the church may spread out and be a shining light in this world.

Remember that it was the great revivals in the 18th and 19th centuries that brought about the modern missionary movement and the spread of the church far and wide. Today we need a new revival that will cleanse and purify and spur the church onward. Pray! Do not be silent day or night till the church be established and become a praise in all the earth.

Our Father in heaven, we come before you today to pray for your church. We pray for the glory of Zion to come. Oh, Lord, we know the promises of your word. We read what these Old Testament prophets said that one day the glory of Zion would be in all of the earth.

But, oh Lord, when we look out today we see weakness in the church. We need revival, and so we need revival. And we pray, O Lord, that you will send forth your spirit in great quickening power, that you will quicken your church, that you will wake up your church, that it may spread far and wide and spread its light to all the world.

And we ask that this will come about. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

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