So Much Fruit in the Stump

Sermon text this morning comes from Isaiah chapter 11.

Isaiah 11 · chapter mention

Pastor Josh started a new series last week.

We're looking at hope, finding gospel, hope in the dark.

This morning we're going to see that once again in the day of Isaiah.

Isaiah chapter 11, verses 1 through 10.

Isaiah 11:1–10

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his 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 fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth, and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with his 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, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together, and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together, and 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 adder's den.

They shall not hurt or 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 is a signal for the peoples, of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

This is the reading of God's holy word.

Would you please join me in prayer?

The psalmist tells us that when you set our hearts free, we delight in your commandments.

Holy Spirit, would you please set our hearts free this morning?

Would you open our minds fresh and anew this morning?

That we will understand, believe, and live out of these promises, we pray.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Jim, would you mind closing that choir door?

Thank you.

This morning we're going to consider the promises of hope in the dark.

Isn't that what we all need?

There's a lot of darkness in this world.

There was a lot of darkness in the world in the day in which Isaiah lived in the 8th century B.C.

Isaiah, a great prophet of God.

He's been called by some really the Billy Graham to Jerusalem, to the kings of Judah in his day.

You younger folk may know, not understand my reference.

You've heard of Billy Graham.

Had a great ministry in many ways over decades, but Billy Graham, there for decades, had the year of the presidents of the United States, at least to some extent.

He had access to the White House like few pastors ever have.

That was Isaiah.

Isaiah was a court chaplain.

And so as he had much opportunity to have the ear of the kings of Judah, God used that in some significant ways.

He began his ministry in 740 BC.

He spent most of his life in Jerusalem enjoying his greatest influence under King Hezekiah.

Some of you folks who know your Old Testament well, you know that he had great impact on Hezekiah.

I'm going to reference that again this morning.

Most likely the first 39 chapters of the book of Isaiah were written by him before 701 B.C., and that's significant.

That was the year that the Assyrian army was destroyed.

Isaiah himself lived until about 681 B.C.

He lived long enough to see the invasion of the Assyrian army to the north, to the ten tribes of Israel in the north.

He saw it coming when nobody else did.

He saw this up-and-coming big bully, Assyria, rising in power and just really massacring nations.

As we read about it, not only in the Bible, but in history.

And he he said, this new army, this evil empire is going to come and they're going to destroy Israel in the north.

And they're going to take captive the Israelites and they're going to deport them and they're going to mistreat them.

And Judah, just to the south, heard Isaiah and they saw it happen.

And they were shaking in their boots.

These were dark times in Israel, as Isaiah prophesied.

And so this morning we're going to look at the life and the times of Israel then.

We're going to look at now, like today, and we're going to look with eyes of faith forward to the promises we see in this text.

But let's start with Isaiah's day.

Going back then, 8th century Israel.

And this is going to be one of those mornings where if you have a Bible and it's open, that's probably going to be helpful beyond what your bulletin is going to be able to offer you.

In Isaiah chapter 10, I'm going back to verse 5.

Isaiah 10 · chapter mention

Oh ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger, the staff in their hands is my fury.

Against a godless nation I send them, and against the people of my wrath I command him to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the street.

But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think.

But it is in his heart to destroy and to cut off nations, not a few.

Okay, he's talking about Assyria.

For he says, Are not my commanders all kings?

Is not Kalno like Karchemish?

Is not Hamath like Arpod?

Is not Samaria like Damascus?

As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria?

Shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and to her images?

You're with us here?

Big Bad, king of Assyria, is boasting and his pride is on full display.

What he's saying to Judah is, you don't think I could destroy you?

You don't think I can smash you?

Just look around at the other nations.

Verse 12.

When the Lord has finished all of his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes.

God is in control.

By the strength of my hand, I've done this.

God is speaking through Isaiah as though it has already happened, although it hasn't.

But when God says something, it's done.

When God promises something, it's going to happen.

It may not have happened yet, but it's going to happen.

By the strength of my hand, I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding, I remove the boundaries of peoples and plunder their treasures.

Like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones.

My hand is found like a nest the wealth of the peoples, and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken, so I've gathered all the earth.

There was none that moved a wing or opened the mouth or chirped.

Shall the axe boast over him who hews it, or the saw magnify itself against the one who yields it, as if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood.

Therefore the Lord God of hosts will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors, and under his glory a burning will be kindled like the burning of a fire.

The light of Israel will become a fire, and his holy one a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briars in one day.

The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land, the Lord will destroy both soul and body.

And it will be as when a sick man wastes away.

God is attacking the pride of mankind.

What Isaiah is saying is when I look over my people, God says, when I look over my people, the tribes of Israel, I see nothing but pride.

And my people will pay a price for that pride, even though they have the prophets among them, even though they have the very words of scripture for them, because they refuse to bow before me.

I am going to send my agent, Assyria, to destroy my people in the north.

Assyria, God says, is my agent doing my purpose.

And so he describes, and you got this, he describes Assyria as a large axe going through the nations, cutting down, cutting down these trees all throughout.

And he's talking about the axe, but what he's saying through Isaiah, oh, kings of Assyria, you're not in control ultimately.

And the very axe that you are using to cut down the nations is going to be used on you.

Because ultimately, God says it's his axe.

It's his power.

Alright?

We're looking back to what was going on in Israel at that time.

Israel did brutally attack Israel in the north, and they took them into captivity in 721 BC.

So Isaiah saw it actually happen.

Jerusalem, Judah, the southern tribes, saw what Assyria did, and it left them shaking in their boots.

Now, if your Bibles are still open to chapter 10, we're going to see some words that probably don't make a lot of sense.

Verse 28, he has come to Aith.

He has come through Migron.

At Mi'kmash, he stores his baggage.

They've crossed over the pass.

At Giba, they lodge for the night.

Ramah trembles.

Gibeah of Saul has fled.

Why does he list these towns that really don't mean much to us?

Because Assyria has now decided to come after little brother Judah.

I mean, why not?

Ai was ten miles away from Jerusalem.

Miqmash was seven miles away from Jerusalem.

Rama was five miles away.

And Gibeah was three miles away.

You get the point, right?

This vast Assyrian army that probably had well over 200,000 troops is getting closer and closer.

Could if you were an Israelite in Jerusalem, could you hear the pounding of the horses?

Was the earth trembling?

I'm sure it was.

I don't know if you heard the horns and the trumpets.

You might have, I mean, when it got to three miles away, very likely.

You're an Israelite, you're living in Jerusalem.

What are you thinking?

What are you feeling about now?

A lot of fear.

A lot of despair.

Desperately trying to figure out how you're going to save yourself so that you don't get treated the same way your big brothers in the north did.

And so this is why the Israelites are in Jerusalem, in Judah, this is why they're condemned multiple times in the Old Testament.

What did they typically do when they were really in this predicament?

They didn't trust God.

They didn't go to God.

They looked around at the other nations and they said, Who can we make an alliance with?

Who can we buddy up with?

Who can we who will save us?

What will save us?

And of course that was wrong.

At one time, King Ahaz of Judah, he's trying to figure out this whole thing, and he decides, because this is before the Assyrians attacked Israel.

He's looking at Israel, who makes it an alliance, makes a pact with Syria.

See, they're a coalition now, Syria and Israel, and they want Judah to join them.

And King Ahaz looks around, he says, No, I'm not going to join you guys.

You guys are going to get whipped.

So he reaches out to the king of Assyria.

He says, Can I can we be on your team?

Because you seem to have all the power.

But we do stupid things too, don't we?

We make alliances when we get scared.

Ahaz chose to ask Assyria for help, which only lasted for a little while.

A decision that was condemned by Isaiah.

Assyria did assist Judah for a little while while they conquered the northern kingdom.

But this made Judah even more vulnerable because in 701 BC, now King Sennacherib of Assyria decides, you know what?

I want to continue to grow my empire.

Now I think I'm going to take Judah.

And so this thundering army is marching now, and they're just three miles away.

And now King Hezekiah in Judah at this point.

He's scared.

He wants to know what do I do?

So if your Bibles are open, you can turn to 2 Kings 19.

Or just listen.

Hezekiah is shaking in his boots.

Verse 14.

Hezekiah received the letter.

This was the letter from the hand of Sennacherib of the messengers and read it.

And Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and he spread this letter before the Lord.

And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, O Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth, you have made heaven and earth.

Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear.

Open your eyes, O Lord, and see, and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God.

Truly, O Lord, the king of Assyria have laid waste the nation and their lands.

They've cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone.

Therefore they were destroyed.

So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone.

You know what happened?

Man, this is this is a you can't make this stuff up.

King of Judah.

With the letter open, crying out to God Almighty.

At night, one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrian soldiers were destroyed by the word of God.

We don't know exactly how, what shape it took.

Some Bible scholars think Z, it just overtook them.

There's some references, inferences to that.

We don't know.

But they were killed that night.

Now, those of you in the military, you've studied war.

Think of the sheer magnitude of those numbers.

185,000 in one night.

That's the power of our God.

If he can stop an evil empire in their tracks like that in one night, you tell me what he can't do for you.

You tell me what he can't do for you when you hear the army marching towards you.

I don't know what the circumstances in your life are.

Many of you.

But I suspect that sometimes it feels like an evil empire that completely overmatches you.

What do you do?

Who are you trying to snuggle up to?

What are you snuggling up to for comfort?

For deliverance, to get you through.

There are still Assyria alliances today.

It's just not Assyria.

All of this.

And now we come to the text.

Look at the verse one.

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

Oh my.

Israel's pride was cut down.

Assyria's pride was now cut down.

In this field of burned out stumps, I you know, with all the fires in California, right?

You see this on the news?

Like even recently.

You get these images where you see whether it's a raging fire that is just Ravaged hundreds of thousands of acres, and every once in a while you see it, and it's like, wow.

I mean, just it's just horrifying.

Stumps are not very impressive, are they?

In this field of burned out, cut down stumps, Isaiah sees a stump.

A stump with a green shoot springing up from this stump.

And Isaiah is saying, not all is lost.

Whereas every other king has failed, Isaiah says, wait, there is a stump I see that is going to make everything different.

Stumps are not impressive.

We had a stump in my old house, not in the house.

My front yard.

It was not very impressive.

I got tired of looking at it.

I was too cheap to have it removed professionally.

Some of you are like, okay, this is not going to go good if Tom's trying to get rid of a stump.

And it didn't.

Well, it kind of did.

I took my uh 1992 Honda a cord that was falling apart, and I put a rope.

I tied a rope to the back of that Honda and tried to put it around the stump.

And I gunned it.

Sharon standing on the stoop.

And the kids for the entertainment value.

And I gunned it.

And my bumper fell off.

I haven't had a good experience with stumps.

But this stump was different.

This stump didn't need to go.

This stump needed to stay and grow.

And it did.

There's never been a stump like this.

There shall come forth the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his root 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, and his delight will be in the fear of the Lord.

This is nothing less than the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Son of God.

The full anointing of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus.

And Jesus' beginning was not very impressive, was it?

Born in a manger, in a little town, not many people were impressed.

But the Spirit of God will rest upon him.

This one will be full of the Spirit, the only one perfectly filled with the Holy Spirit.

A spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and might, a spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.

That is who this person is.

He is filled with the Spirit of the Lord.

Listen to one Old Testament scholar who talks about his gifting, his filling of righteousness and faithfulness at the very heart of who he is.

He says the English translations tend to obscure the image used in verse 5.

But the sense is that these characteristics are the Messiah's most intimate garments, his underclothing.

When you strip everything else away, what do you find in this person?

Perfect wisdom.

Perfect righteousness.

Perfect faithfulness and justice.

He would never make a mistake.

It goes on to say in the text, and he but with righteousness he shall judge the poor.

I remember as a kid, as a teenager.

I would read that.

What do you mean?

Is something wrong with his judgment?

No.

It's much better than that.

He will not judge simply by appearances.

He will not just look like we do oftentimes on the outside of things.

And sometimes we can be deceived, right?

Yeah.

Sometimes we look at something and we think we know what it is, and we actually don't.

Probably happens all the time.

Not with him.

He never just looks what's on the outside.

He always sees what is on the inside.

In me.

In you.

In this world.

He's never deceived.

This is a king that we can trust who has the blessing and the filling of the Spirit, merciful and mighty.

He will save and yet he will also judge.

And I know these words are never on Christmas cards.

I've never read a Christmas card with this message, but this is right out of the same context.

And he one day will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips.

One day he is going to destroy.

He's going to kill the wicked.

Does your understanding and does your view of God allow room for God's justice and fury and wrath to be poured out one day against all who stand in his way and defy him and whose pride dares him.

If it doesn't, you don't really know the true God.

And there are more and more people in this culture today who don't believe that there's a place for God's justice.

And that's scary.

I'm just reminding you of that today.

And it doesn't make him evil.

Because his judgments are always just.

Can you submit to his justice?

Can you submit to the pouring out of his wrath just as much as you can submit to the mercy of his heart to save?

It's not one or the other, friends.

It's both.

Because that's the real God.

He speaks and new life grows.

He can speak this morning into your heart.

If you have no peace, if you're living in despair, by the breath of his word, he can speak peace and he can speak hope into your heart.

Like no one else.

But he can also speak judgment.

Like no one else.

Lastly, as we close, let's consider our day.

Excuse me.

I gotta hurry up.

We're to the second point.

Our day.

Our day today.

Is there an Assyria in your life closing in?

Something that fills you with fear?

And again, it's not the Assyrian army, I get that.

Is it some health crisis?

Is it some relational breakdown?

Is it some financial problem?

Or maybe you just can't put your finger on it.

But you just have a lot of fear, you have a lot of anxiety, and you don't know what to do with it.

There's only one deliverer today is then the God who created you, who knows you, who calls you back to himself again today.

Isaiah himself said in chapter 26, verse 3, God, you keep him or her in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

Isaiah 26, verse 3.

Isaiah 26:3

Some of you might want to write that down and pray that prayer this week.

Repent, Isaiah says, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come.

We see that in the Old Testament, we see that in the New Testament, from in the book of Acts, chapter 13.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

Repent and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you.

Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all things, about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.

I think he was referring to Isaiah, among others.

Do you know that your sins can be blotted out?

Because when God speaks peace into your heart, and when God shows you the Savior Jesus, who died for sinners like us, and you stop going to your Assyrias and you stop going to your alliances and you go to Him, He knows what to do with you.

His word is powerful.

When He says to you, you're forgiven, you are forgiven.

Return, repent, that times of refreshing may come to you.

I need that.

I need times of refreshing in my life.

The last point, one day, look at verses 6 to 10.

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, and the calf, and the lion, and the fattened calf together, and a little child shall lead them.

What does this mean?

Well, it means it's going to happen one day.

It means one day, not today, there is going to be peace in this world over this world.

Right now, God is offering you his peace.

One day, God's peace is going to reign over the whole world like the waters cover the sea.

The glory of the Lord will fill this earth.

That day hasn't happened yet, but I promise you that day will happen one day.

Because God promised it.

A little child will put his hand in a snake pit.

And no harm.

How much of this is symbolic?

I leave that to God.

But there's going to be universal peace.

Take that in when you despair today, when you look at the news.

In that day, the root of Jesse, verse 10, who shall stand as a signal for the nations.

You could also translate that word banner.

Signal, banner.

Let me close with an illustration I came across from a commentator.

When Francis Scott Key wrote the American National Anthem, he was a prisoner on board a British ship during the War of 1812.

The enemy's ship was firing on Fort McHenry all night long.

And you know what Francis Scott Key did.

He wrote that anthem.

In the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

Our flag is still there.

And it's not the American flag.

I'm not going to trust in the American flag.

But I'll trust in his flag.

And what's that banner?

That still waves?

What's that banner that still is flying, waving in the breeze?

Right here.

It's this table.

Jesus said before his death in John chapter 12, and when the Son of Man, when I am lifted up, I will draw all peoples to me.

John 12 · chapter mention

He didn't say all people, all peoples.

From every tribe, every tongue, every nation.

And that's why I have hope today.

And that's why I have peace today.

And that's what I try to do by the power of God and the Spirit of God when the little Assyrias come knocking on my door.

What are you doing?

Where are you turning?

Who are you trusting?

Please pray with me.

Oh Father, we need, we need you.

He whose mind is stayed on you.

You will keep in perfect peace because we trust in you.

Father, by your Spirit, give us faith to trust you today, whatever circumstances we're facing.

Give us grace today to look to Jesus, who knows exactly what we need.

We're coming to you, Father.

We're coming right now.

We may be sitting on pews, but we're coming.

And our hearts and our hands are stretched out to you because you know what to do with us.

If we had any doubt, the banner, the signal that still flies high, the table of the Lord, removes all doubt that you are for us.

Thank you, Father.

In Jesus' name, Amen.