Isaiah chapter 33. And we wish to consider, as the Lord would enable us this evening, on this Thanksgiving evening, the words that we have in the verse marked 17. Isaiah chapter 33 and verse 17. Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty. They shall behold the land that is very far off. Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty. They shall behold the land that is very far off. the king in his beauty. Let me take you back to the context of these words and why I believe that these words are indeed appropriate to us here this evening as we come to give the Lord the thanks for what he has been to us. Now let us remind ourselves of the travel over these past days. We were reminded, even as our forefathers laid these days aside, and there is an appropriateness about them, they are all coming together as part of that examination that is necessary to come around the table of the Lord. You will remember that the Thursday, there's an emphasis upon sin, upon confession, upon that which is so easily besetting us. Remember, you had brought before you the waves and the water and the result of how that can take away our focus. Then you come to the Friday and you still are looking inward, but you're looking more positively inward. You're looking for those little flowers of brightness, of graces in the life. And you know there is something as you come to a Thursday and a Friday, you will perhaps be still cast down because you're not seeing maybe those flowers as vibrant as you would expect. So then you move on to Saturday, you begin to think of the Lord and the work of the Lord. You then come on the Sabbath morning to partake of the sacrament. We look at something of the sufferings of Christ. Then we come to this day. This day is a day to look back in thankfulness, but it is also to look forward in hopefulness. You know, the most difficult day of a communion season is the Tuesday and the Wednesday. on the Thursday, the Friday, when you go back into your neighborhoods, into the place of work, and you haven't got the intensity of that fellowship and of that sustaining presence under the word. My friends, this is exactly the problem that Isaiah found himself in. He was looking and he was writing under the inspiration of God at the backslidden state of God's people, Judah. And you will remember here how God has promised Judah something. He has promised them judgment in verse 14, the sinners in Zion are afraid. Fearfulness had surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? Not just the terrible condition of God's people, but what God himself would do. Not just with his own people, but with his enemies. And you see here this word comes in verse 17. In the midst of all of that, and it's bringing the people to look forward. Look forward to a situation where this condition would be reversed. Where there would be a change. Where Zion and the church in the days that would lie ahead would be encouraged. What have we here? Well, you see, the people were cast down. The throne of David had been defeated. The throne of David had been disgraced. Godliness was on the wane. Idolatry was rampant. There was a trusting in their own strength. Then you will remember There are words of comfort that come also to the people. Look at verse 20. As he's saying, oh yes, I know what's happening, Jerusalem. But now you look above. You look to the kingdom, you look to the church. Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities. Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation. a tabernacle that shall not be taken down, not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken." You see, the people were looking to the earthly Jerusalem. God was telling Isaiah, tell the people to look to the heavenly Jerusalem, to look to the Jerusalem that have been hewn out of the sight of the Lord. That is where the Lord's people are to look to. Friends, there is your encouragement and my encouragement this evening. We are to look to the Lord. And you see, The danger here was that the people would look to the physical king. And the Lord was saying, no, you no longer are to hearken after David's kingdom. You're not to have a hankering after David's kingdom, but you're to look to the Lord. Now, we have that in two verses, I would suggest. And this is why we believe that it is indeed based upon that spiritual reality. Verse 22, for the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our King. He will save us. The Lord. You'll notice there what that translation underneath Lord is. It's Jehovah. the covenant God, the one who was the God of his people. He is the one who is ultimately the king in his beauty. And in verse 17, we have this coming together. He's bringing it all together. He says, thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty. They shall behold the land that is very far off. You cast down this evening, friend. Are you depressed as you look out upon the situation in the world? Are you looking out and you're seeing the low condition of the cause of the Lord? You see, you're looking out. And friends, if we look out, if we look upon our own level, there is discouragement. Wasn't that the case with Peter? Wasn't that the case with Peter? He looked down, he looked across, he began to sing. When he was looking to the Lord, when he was beholding the King in his beauty, he was walking with the King in fellowship. Let us consider for a short while this evening, the king, his beauty, the kingdom. The king, his beauty, the kingdom. Now who is this king? As Isaiah was bringing this word unto the people, no doubt as he spoke about the king, Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty. There were many, and they would have thought, oh, he's speaking about Hezekiah. What a wonderful thing for us to see Hezekiah. Isn't it a wonderful thing, friends, that perhaps you would say that your eyes fixed upon the monarch or you met the queen or the king, you would have it to say, you would be able to tell your children, your grandchildren, I met them. I could see them. I could behold them. And the king, He would look here. You can imagine Hezekiah would come and he would look upon the poor and he would fix his gaze upon them and that would encourage them. It would take them up out of their poverty almost. They would feel that he was condescending to them. He would stoop low to speak to the people. Remember how we are told in Proverbs chapter 29, that the king that faithfully judged the poor, his throne shall be established forever. Oh, that's what we need from the monarchs of the earth. Well, you can imagine here the people would have been encouraged. that their resolve, as they were in the midst of captivity, would be to think that we still have a King to comfort us, even as we are slipping away, and even as there is, yes, decay in the nation and an unraveling in the church, they would feel an honor. as his subjects. You know it would be a form of escapism, wouldn't it? I'm sure it is the case that every little girl has a thought of being a princess, and every boy a prince. That's how we are when we're children. Well, something of that was here. But friends, it wasn't Hezekiah. And why it wasn't said Hezekiah was this. Hezekiah was in a terrible state. For the people to behold Hezekiah in sackcloth and in ashes with filthy rags, it would show them that here was the king, he had fallibility. Here was a sense that they as a people were very, very, very weak and they had nothing to commend themselves because the one who was their leader was in a terrible state. You know, we can feel like that today. We can feel like that today. We can almost feel, has the Lord forgotten his cause? Well, friends, we're told in Zechariah that the days of small things are not to be despised. They are not to be despised. Because the days of small things are not the days of no things. I remember one of our elders in Skye used to say at the question meeting, I remember one day how it sent an arrow through the heart. He says, if our God is in it, how can it be small? How can it be small if our God is in it? And you see when Isaiah comes here and he says, thine eye shall see the king and his beauty. They were not the eyes that were to fix on Hezekiah or upon the earthly kingdom or upon the strong arm of man. They were the eyes that were to fix upon the Messiah. upon the Messiah himself. These people would not have been satisfied with Hezekiah. They would not have been satisfied with the temporal things of life. Because you see, they wouldn't last. What would bring the nation to victory? What would strengthen the church? It was to behold Jesus Christ himself. because he is indeed Jehovah God. For the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king. There is the king. There is the king, friends, this evening that you are to look to. You remember yesterday morning, we remembered the Lord. in his death. Well, I suppose when we come to remember the Lord in his death, isn't it appropriate on a Thanksgiving evening that we remember the Lord in his life? Because you see, it wasn't the case that death ended it all. He rose again from the dead. And he is now seated at the right hand of God the Father. He is now there in session. Jesus Christ rules the nations of this earth today. He's in control today. People will often say, people in the church will often say, oh, how could the Lord be in control when all of this is happening around about? He's in control. We look to Him. And that is the beauty that we see, the risen Savior. And tonight, the Lord is working in the church, in its lowliness, in its poverty. in what we might regard sometimes as a wilderness. When you go to Jerusalem, and it's a strange city in many ways, it doesn't have sprawling suburbs as we know them here. It just almost comes to an end. and then you're in the wilderness. That's how they refer to it. Outside the bounds of Jerusalem, you're into a wilderness. Now, a wilderness is not the same as a desert. It's not full of sand. But as you look out, you see that there's nothing growing. It's dried. It seems to have no life. But when the rain comes, within 24 hours, 48 hours, the growth comes and flowers that weren't there before appear. And you know, friends, that is how it is that the Lord is working in the church, being added to the church, But are people here and there? We didn't see them before, we perhaps didn't expect them to come. But they're coming, they're professing faith in the Lord. That is the work of the Messiah. And friends, the Lord is building his church. Jesus is the one who has given this promise. He's the one who is the Lord of hosts himself. He's the one who is not impotent. He's the one who is not paralyzed. He's the one that we are to look to because he is a king who's reigning, a king who is alive. So when we are told that thine eyes shall see the King, Isaiah here was speaking about a time when Jesus Christ would come, and he would come into this world. You know, when the people least expected it. You know, isn't it a thought this evening? that when you see the low state of the church and the captivity, when you will remember that the people were sent back, you will remember that they came back under Ezra, came back as a small number of those that had originally been taken into captivity, and you will remember what they were told to do. They were told to go back, and they were told to build the house of the Lord. And you would have thought after all of these years, as they were down in captivity, hankering back after the house of the Lord, that when they would get back to the house of the Lord that was now in dust and in rubble and in decay, that the first thing that they would do when they would get back would be to rebuild the house of the Lord. Well, we would think it. But of course, unsurprisingly, they didn't. They built their own houses. They had their sealed houses, the wooden paneled houses. And you will remember that the Lord sent Haggai with the message to remind them to build the house of the Lord. And so they come over that period of time in 520, over the period of time of a few months during that prophecy, and they come and they begin to build the house of the Lord, and then Haggai just moves off the scene and Zechariah comes in. And you will remember what they were saying in those days. Ah, this house. This house, this latter house, it's not like Solomon's temple. Why was it not like Solomon's temple? Why was it a pale, a pale shadow of that first temple? It was, I believe, preparing the people for the coming Messiah. You imagine the grandeur of Solomon's temple? Ah, they would have worshipped the temple and not the coming Messiah. The Lord was taking away in order to prepare for his coming. You see the low state of the church today. What should we be thinking? We should be thinking, and it should be laid upon our hearts, to think of the coming Messiah. To think of the coming Messiah. Oh, that that would stir up the people. That that would stir up your heart and my heart. The New Testament church, they lived in the prospect that Jesus Christ was coming again. That's how they live today. That's how they'll live tomorrow. That's how they'll live the following day. That Jesus Christ was coming again. You remember how John says it in Revelation. Behold, he cometh. Behold, he cometh. It's present tense. Christ is coming. If that is so in John's day, it is so in our day. Friends, let us live that life that Jesus is coming, the King. Then we're told something about this king. This king is obviously not Hezekiah. This king is not in sackcloth, he's not in ashes, he's not as a king that has been taken off his throne. No, this king, thine eye shall see the king in his beauty. Now what is this beauty? What will it be like? Well friends, it is obvious that when it speaks about thine eye shall see the king and his beauty, this beauty refers to something that is fair and outward in form that is indeed pleasing to the eye. It is not so much, as I understand it from the commentators and the Hebrew here, it's not so much the spirit that is within. but it is rather that which is from the eye. You see, this is fitting, isn't it? This is fitting of Jesus Christ, that there is within Christ an eternal glory, an eternal glory that is yet a beautiful glory. Oh, I know that Bible reminds us that there is no beauty that they should desire Him. but that is not so to his people. Wasn't there a day in your life, friends, that in him you could see a beauty that you desired? Or before he was a root out of a dry ground, before he had no form or comeliness, but there was an awakening, there was an opening of your heart as it was with Lydia, and you could see That he was the fairest of 10,000. That he was the rose of Sharon. That he was the lily of the valleys. You remember it, don't you? Of course you do. You remember it. Because he is God in the flesh. And now Christ is in that glorified body. Blessed are the pure in heart. for they shall see God. You know, friends, that is a beauty to behold. That is something that we see here even with faith itself. I'm reminded of that beautiful word in the psalm that so strongly speaks of what the eye can see, and how important it is. Psalm 27, and in verse 13, I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Now, what's the expression we used? We use the expression, seeing is believing. But in faith, it's not like that. It is believing is seeing, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord. Faith and the eye of faith is stronger than the eye of sight. The eternal Messiah. the beauty. So it is this beauty in an outward form. We mentioned over these past few days about the Savior, the sufferings that He endured, the words, the vileness of the conversation that He would have heard and how that would have pierced to the very depths of His being. Our Savior had a beauty. He had a beauty. He had a fairness because his visage, yes, we are told it was a visage that had the very impressions, the very stamp of the weight of the burdens of his people upon him. That is true. But underneath, there was a fairness that sin had not plowed its furrow upon him. So what it will be like? It is a fairness in outward form. But what will we see in him? Well, we will also see, friends, we believe, holiness. We will see holiness in him. The outward appearance of Christ. is an outward appearance that is affected by the inward man. That was so in the transfiguration. That was so that his face shone. That was so in the face of those that had met with the Lord. You remember Moses, he goes up the mountain to receive the law, and when he comes down, the people fall on their faces, as it were, to cover their faces, that they would not see the eyes of the one who's in the presence of the Lord. You see the body of Christ. cannot contain his holiness and it radiates throughout every part of his being. Sinless perfection of our blessed Redeemer. Remember, Ezekiel falls down as one dead. John falls as one dead. They had but a glimpse of the holiness of Christ. Let us pause for a moment here and remember the person of Christ. We speak about him as God in our nature. Why is he God in our nature? That glory is shaded from us. That great majestic holiness our eyes cannot behold. You remember Isaiah? Well, earlier on in chapter 6, all he could see was the hindmost parts. The beauty of Christ. the beauty of holiness, the beauty of his obedience. We mentioned in passing yesterday how it would be a wonderful topic to deal with, the act of obedience of Christ. Your righteousness. Your righteousness is a righteousness that is imputed to you because of that act of obedience of Christ. He fulfilled all of the law. He obeyed all of the law, friends. The one who was the lawgiver had placed himself under the law. Do you remember he was circumcised? What did that represent? It represented the cutting away of the old flesh, the old nature. Christ was perfect. That was for you, and that was for me. He was the one, you will remember, that did not enter the temple. He walked in Solomon's porch like the Gentiles and like the others of the kingdom. Why did he not go into the temple that spoke about him? As he was going through the outer precincts, as he was walking through Solomon's porch, he could hear the animals as they would roar, as they were brought to the slaughter. He knew that that spoke of him, and yet he could not go in. because he was of the tribe of Judah. He was of the kingly tribe. He could not enter in. And so he kept that perfect obedience that we might have that righteousness. The beauty of his holiness. Where is he this evening? He's in session. He's at that right hand. He is there exalted on high. The beauty of that exaltation. There is no more suffering, no more sacrifice. He is bringing now that petition before the throne of his father for his people. and he is sending forth the benediction onto his beloved, surrounded by that great multitude. And you know, friends, there will be a day that will come when we cross the swellings of that Jordan and we are told something wonderful is going to meet us. There are going to be those cloud of witnesses that are going to be there. But you know the greatest and the most blessed thing of all is this, that he shall then see the end of our sanctification, which is glorification itself. He shall then see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. There is the beauty associated with his glorious person. You know, Adam, as he was brought forth from the breath of God, was brought forth sinless. He had something. of a glory about him. There had to be something about Adam that didn't have what we now have come to have and to experience in our own life. Because you see, sin had not brought its ravages upon his body. But even Adam in that state was only a shadow of our blessed Redeemer. The beauty of His glorious person, there's the beauty of His redeeming grace. He has got a remnant. He's continuing to build His cause. But I want us to conclude with this. His kingdom. They shall behold the land that is very far off. They shall behold the land that is very far off. The kingdom of the mediator. It's eternal. It is eternal. You see here, Isaiah is focusing the minds of the people not on a reconstituted Israel. He's taken their minds of the earthly Jerusalem. He's taken their minds of that because he knows that that will always be in a sense a veil of tears. He's taking them to a land of far distances. I think that's how the marginal reference puts it. It's a land of far distances. Now, just for a moment this evening, imagine what that is. A land of far distances. Your eye looks out. There are no mountains. All you can see is very far off. You see the horizon. And when you get to the horizon, you see, as it were, another horizon and another horizon. It's almost a land without borders. That's what heaven is. A land without borders. You see friends, this is the king. And this is the kingdom that shall never pass. Monarchs come and monarchs go. We have realized that as a nation just a couple of years ago. That happens. But friends, when we think of the kingdom of our blessed Redeemer, it remains for all eternity. And that is where your citizenship is. That is where my citizenship is. We are sojourners here, we are pilgrims here, we're aliens here. You remember how the patriarchs lived? The patriarchs lived in tents because here they had no continuing city. Now I say this to myself before I ever say it to anyone else. You know this world we put down, not just the tent pegs, but that foundation that we were speaking about last night. We dig deep down to the foundations and we build the blocks and we hang on to the bricks and the mortar to this world. And what is it? It's passing. It's crumbling. There is a kingdom that has its borders that are immeasurable. And that is where our citizenship is. This is temporary. 35 an hour and a little over an hour ago, we came into this room to stand at this pulpit. That passage of time reminds us of the passing nature and the fleeting nature of this kingdom. The meek shall inherit the earth. We're looking for new heavens and a new earth. Now, whatever your interpretation of that might be, I like the interpretation that is given by Kennedy of Dingwall. When we have that new earth, What is the earth? Well the earth is where people live. It's where people live. We're living here this evening, we're living on the earth. A new earth, well that's a new dwelling place. That new dwelling place is a dwelling place with Christ. And when we go to that new heavens, that new earth, that new heaven will be indeed a new heaven to us. It'll be a new place. The new earth is the new dwelling place. We shall be with Christ for all eternity. Never to be separated from him again. That is his abode. That is the abode of his people. Our friends, what is the promise to you this evening? What is the promise to me this evening? Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty. They shall behold, you shall behold the land that is very far off. Don't be concerned about this crumbling world. Have your mind in heaven. Have your mind on glory. Be as the Puritans used to say, be heavenly minded. And when we are heavenly minded, we are indeed a people who are heaven bound. And we will find it much easier to trod the path here below. May the Lord bless us.