Text: Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit. (Isaiah 11:1)
Intro: Cutting trees
I. The situation
Israel’s sin - Isaiah 10:1-4
God’s punishment - Isaiah 10:5
The forest - Isaiah 10:18
God’s mercy - Isaiah 10:20
II. The stumps
Assyria - Isaiah 10:33
Jesse - Isaiah 11:1
III. The sprout
Fragile
The Spirit of the LORD
Jesus in Nazareth - “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18)
Application 1: Being cut off
Conviction then reformation then…
“He [Luther] wished to base his life for time and for eternity upon a rock, but all supports that were recommended to him fell to pieces in his hands, and the ground trembled beneath his feet.” --von Harnack
While we are in this world, we shall groan, being burdened. I wish you to long and breathe after greater measures of sanctification; but we are sometimes betrayed into a legal spirit, which will make us labor in the very fire to little purpose. If we find deadness and dryness stealing upon us, our only relief is to look to Jesus,—to His blood for pardon,—to His grace for strength; we can work nothing out of ourselves. To pore over our own evils will not cure them; but He who was typified by the brazen serpent is ever present, lifted up to our view in the camp; and one believing sight of Him will do more to restore peace to the conscience, and life to our graces, than all our own lamentations and resolutions. --Newton
The sole secret of sanctification is that “Christ is our life,” and that henceforth it is not we who live but Christ who liveth in us. It is by the daily dwelling in Him and He in us, whereby His will becomes ours, and His strength ours, that the new man is put on “after the image of Him that created him,” and that the daily transfiguration takes place which alone makes human life sublime. --Shaw
Application 2: Lord’s Supper
Trees or stumps?