So Lord may graciously help me,
I would turn your prayerful attention to the prophecy of Isaiah and
chapter 61 and reading for a text the first three verses. Isaiah
61 verses 1, 2 and 3. He has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening
of the prison to them that abound, to proclaim the acceptable year
of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that
mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them
beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment
of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be
glorified. Isaiah 61, verses one, two, and
three. Well, this morning we were speaking
of the jubilee trumpet being sounded, and here we have in
Isaiah the spiritual application of that, that the Lord Jesus
was going to be that one who was going to bring in that true
good news, not at the expense of the neighboring rich farmers,
but at the expense of his own heart's blood. And he was not
going to default on that great work. The spirit of the Lord
God is upon me. You see, the Lord was anointed. He was the Christ means the anointed
one and we read that he was anointed without measure. He had the spirit
without measure as he went in his baptism and he rose out of
the water that that dove the Holy Ghost is in the form of
a dove who came upon him as anointed of the spirit. So the Lord Jesus
you see is this one the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because
the Lord of the anointed me. to preach good tidings unto the
meek. So this was, Jesus spoke that
himself and said that it was being fulfilled in Luke chapter
four. And all wonder the gracious words that proceeded out of his
mouth. And yet as I noted this morning,
it was not universally accepted. There were those that hated his
message. But you see, to preach good tidings
unto the meek, the humble, the broken-hearted, the captives,
the poor have the gospel preached to them. And you see, the vital
necessity is to be spiritually poor, in the sense that realising
our need of the Lord Jesus, realising that we cannot make ends meet
ourselves, we've sung just in that hymn
of how wonderful and beautiful it is when we have a child of
God proclaiming the beauty of salvation and proclaiming that
they declare that they haven't it in of themselves but they
come and confess their sins and come and be able to speak of
the beauties of Christ. And really this liberation that
is spoken of here is a liberation which puts all other liberations
into perspective. You see, you might think, well,
if you have, you think of the slave trade and you think of
slaves that have been in all their lifetime in slavery and
maltreated, and then they're set at liberty, what a wonderful
time that would be for them. And of course, it would be a
wonderful time. but you see the the deliverance
of this jubilee that is spoken of here is beyond all of those
because you see this has eternal consequences if you're a slave
working for others you know it will come to an end it will come
to an end it won't it won't be everlasting will it don't live
here forever so if you're a slave for somebody and conditions are
terrible you're in some prison it will come to an end but you
see those if we're left in the captivity of of our sin and That sin is not put upon another.
We have a lively interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. We will
bear that sin, not for 50 years, not for 100 years, not for 150
years, not for 1,000 years, not for a million years, but forever
and forever and forever. It puts all captivities that
we can think of with the concentration camps, with Hitler, and all those
things into a different ballpark. This is a liberation that has
eternal consequences. The spirit of the Lord God is
upon me because he has anointed me to preach good tidings unto
the meek. He has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted. A beautiful, if you just go through
here, it's so full of grace and truth. It so speaks of love and
kindness and gentleness and restitution that the Lord Jesus came to do
for his people It is a wonderful privilege to, whilst this is
originally, of course, written of the Lord Jesus, but it is
also of his servants. It's a wonderful gospel to preach.
And it's a wonderful thing to be commissioned, as it were,
to preach such words. I was just thinking of in the
vestry, I believe it's 30 years ago, that these words were made
very precious to me under our late pastor's ministry, LSB Hyde.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he has anointed
me to preach good tidings to the meek. He has sent me to bind
up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives. I just
saw then there was just nothing that compared to the beauty of
preaching the gospel. Nothing compared to this liberation
song. You can think of all the good
news of things that could be put in the front of the newspaper,
but this is greater than them all. This is life eternal. This has eternal consequences
for our souls. This gives us hope. This gives
us joy in the face of the largest enemies. He has appointed me to preach
good tidings unto the meek. What a jubilee day this is. Preach good tidings unto the
meek. And we've had that in that hymn that we've just sung. With wonder we attend whilst
they, the sinner's friend, with tears of joy extol each heart
once hard as steel, now made to feel bears tokens of a ransom
soul. You see, to be broken down of
our own self-righteousness, our own accruing of of things here
below, just like those I mentioned this morning. They're allotting
great riches here below, and when that trumpet blew, you see,
they lost it all. They had to give it all back.
But you see, there comes a point when the Lord's people, they
embrace, the God is my portion, and that becomes everything to
them. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, You see,
in Psalm 34, we have that word, verse 18, the Lord is nigh unto
them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite
spirit. A broken heart. David had a broken
heart, didn't he, over his sin. And it's, we need that. Does
sin cut you up? Are you sad over your sin, or
does it not bother you? Because if it doesn't bother
you, you can't really put yourself in this text. To preach good tidings unto the
meek. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted. Broken
hearted over sin. And you see we're sinners and
we come short of the glory of God and Paul speaks of that in
Romans 7 so much. When he would do good, evil is
present with him. This is the experience of a child
of God and it's painful. It's painful, you see. If you
look at what Jesus said in his Sermon on the Mount, we read,
blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. You see, and it goes on to talk
about those that mourn in Zion. Are we amongst those that mourn?
Are we happy with sin? Is sin and us at league? Well, you see, sin and us was
at league in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve had fell. There
was that promise before the first gospel promise that I will put
enmity between thee and the woman, between Satan and the woman.
There had been a league, there had been a unity between Eve
and Satan. There'd been an agreement. And
you see, it's God's great work to break that agreement, and
to show us that there should not be agreement, that we need,
you see, we need to be set against these things, we need to be set
against Satan. Is Satan our friend or is he
our enemy? He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to
proclaim liberty, to the captives, captives by sin. The more I strove
against sin's power, I sinned and stumbled, yet the more, till
late I heard my Saviour say, come hither soul, I am the way. To bind up the broken heart,
to proclaim liberty to the captives, captivated by the power of sin,
the sins of the past, and also the desires of sin, to be captivated
from that, This is what is being preached here. He has sent me
to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
the opening of the prison to them that abound. Opening of the prison. You think
of that prisoners in their cells. They cannot get out. They're
locked in. You see that and you see that
the The law, as loud as thunder cries, the soul that sins against
me dies. That's what the law says, that's
all the law can say. If you remember, I preached sometime
back on that leprosy, how when there was leprosy and somebody
was diagnosed with that leprosy, there was one law, out of the
camp. Go out of the camp, crying unclean,
unclean. There was no solution for it.
They could come back and show themselves to the priest if they'd
been cleansed. But other than that, they had to stay outside.
There was nothing to be done. But here you see, that's what
the law does. But the gospel, he has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening
of the prison to them that abound." The prison. To proclaim the acceptable year
of the Lord. Here we think of the idea of
this jubilee year, the acceptable year of the Lord. This is the
Lord Jesus at the dawn of his ministry. and he's proclaiming
that the acceptable year of the Lord had come. And of course
you see that this was met with such mixed feelings. There were
some that wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his
mouth. The poor and the needy, they drunk it in. But the rich,
as it were, the rich in this world, the rich in spirit, which
didn't, the Pharisees as it were, who were trusting in their own
righteousness, They didn't need this sort of liberation. They
wanted somebody to liberate them from the Roman rule. That's what
they wanted. But they didn't need somebody
to liberate them from the wickedness of their own hearts. Well, they
did, but they didn't realize it. To proclaim the acceptable year
of the Lord. You see, and how are we accepted
in the Lord, it is because of the gospel, it's because of the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the only way there can
be acceptance between a holy God and sinners, to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord, but also in the sense that it's
acceptable, this is a saying and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And Paul
was able to say, of whom I am chief. And he didn't say that
proudly. He said that, I'm sure, very
sadly. But he felt it. He wished it
was different, I'm sure. But he felt that he was the chief
of sinners. And the Lord's people are brought
to realise that they're sinners. And they're brought to hate that
sin. They're brought to mourn over that sin. But you see, This
is the Gospel, He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted,
He is healing for these wounds. There's blessing here. You see,
I said this morning that the year of Jubilee was a year of
rejoicing as well, there was joy. To proclaim the acceptable year
of the Lord. might think that the next statement
is jarring. It doesn't seem to flow perhaps. And the day of vengeance of our
God. Seems that that's caused a problem. Yes we're talking of all these
positive things and then we have and the day of vengeance of our
God. Well you see when the Lord Jesus
was going to come at Calvary It was going to be to be able
to bind up the brokenhearted, but it was also to reap, to war
vengeance upon his enemies and his people's enemies. Satan,
sin, the world. He was going to, we read of that,
Jesus says, if you want to have a, He came to destroy the works
of the devil. And you need to go in and fight
that man. The day of vengeance of our God. And you see, the level of the
enemies that God is dealing with here is the largest enemies that
we know. And what is the great enemy of
the human race? It's death, isn't it? All those have gone before us
have died. They pass from time into eternity.
And we've read of that in Corinthians. He speaks of that. For he must
reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. He is going to
give vengeance to his enemies. He is going to be a fearful enemy
to our enemies. You see, if God was nothing but
love as it were and wasn't going to deal with sin, then how is
he going to deal with our enemies? He is going to be a formidable
enemy to Satan. that accuser of the brethren.
He's going to be a great enemy to that and death you see. We
read of that in Corinthians. For he must reign till he hath
put all enemies under his feet and the last enemy that shall
be destroyed is death. He's going to deal with these
enemies. Who else can deal with them? We have lots of companies set
up to deal with all sorts of problems and you go to them and
pay the money and they deal with the problem. But who's going
to deal with that enemy of death? Who's going to challenge that
one and gain the victory and command a release? to proclaim the acceptable year
of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God. He's going to deal
with all the enemies of God's people. Death, you see, it separates,
doesn't it? It separates. But he's going
to deal with that. He's going to deal with that
separation that death brings. And he is going to deal with
that so that there will be no more death. This is the level
of the liberty that is spoken of here. To proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord, the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort
all that mourn. Here's comfort, you see. Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. He's going to speak
comfortably to these people, these people that are upset and
sad and sorrowing over their sin, over their broken heart,
because of their sin and their lack of being able to glorify
God as they would. They're concerned about that,
and if you don't know anything of that, you do need to question,
am I a child of God? Am I one that really knows the
Lord? If sin is no problem to us, sin is a wonderful, a great
enemy to God's people. And if we can embrace it and
live alongside it quite nicely, we need to ask the question,
are we a Christian? But you see, if that, as we've
sung of that hymn, with tears of holy joy extoll, each heart
as once as hard as steel, now made for sin to feel. Does that describe you? Made
to feel that sin is against the holy God, against the one we
love, against his mercy, against his grace, against his love,
the pride that easily beset us, And the sins proclaim the acceptable
year, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that
mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion. There's an appointment
for these people, to give them beauty for ashes. You see, so
often in the Bible when there was mourning, there was people
put on sackcloth and ashes. That was the way they expressed
and showed their grief and their sorrow. That was so in the time
of Nineveh. from the king downwards, they
sat in sackcloth and ashes, showing their sadness and their remorse
and their repentance over their sins. But this glorious day of liberty,
this jubilee year, to give unto them beauty for
ashes, there's an exchange here you see. And really if we look
at verse 10 of this chapter, it really gives a description
of that beauty. You see, when you're sitting
in sackcloth and ashes, it's not particularly beautiful, is
it? It doesn't look beautiful. You don't feel beautiful. But
you see, Isaiah 61 verse 10 says, I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed
me with the garments of salvation. There is a way back to God from
the dark paths of sin. You don't have to continue in
this downward spiral of getting further and further from God
and getting deeper and deeper into sin. There's a way of liberation. There's a way that one is able
to stand and to say, come unto me all ye that labour and are
heavy laden. For he hath clothed me with the
garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe
of righteousness. This one who fills himself to
be filthy, to be covered with sin, who cannot stop sinning
as Paul describes himself in Romans 7. But what does Paul
say in Romans 8? There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. It doesn't say there's now no
accusation. Satan is still busy with his
accusations. The accuser of the brethren is
still busy there, but there's no condemnation. Because they're clothed with
salvation. because I will greatly rejoice
in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He
hath covered me with the robe of righteousness. What lovely
language. For our nakedness, our filthiness, our far-offness,
our sinfulness, to be clothed with the righteousness of another,
not of a local rich farmer, No, of the Lord Jesus Christ
himself, who was willing, not just willing, for the joy that
was set before him endured the cross. It was the joy. He didn't,
as it were, have to go to the cross and was made to go to the
cross. He went willingly out of love,
that beautiful, powerful motive of love. See, it's the highest
motive. Love is the highest motive to
do things. Why do you do something? If you
do it for love, it's the highest motive. If you do it for money,
well, it's nice. In a commercial sense, you do things for money,
but to do something for love is a higher motive. And the kingdom
of God is a kingdom of love. And Christ has done this out
of love to his people, and then his people, out of love to him,
live their lives to the glory of God. You see, there's a reciprocation
of that love. And true love is two-way, isn't it? If you love
somebody and they never want to see you or to be with you,
that's not a true loving relationship, is it? It's one-sided. The Lord's
people are people who, they have love both ways. He loves them.
We love him because he first loved us. But there's a reciprocation
of that love. Cloak covered me with a robe
of righteousness. Then it says there's a bridegroom.
You think of that, naturally speaking, when you have a bride
and groom going to their wedding. It's people who are dressed up
really in their, they are the most attractive, if you like,
in the whole of their life probably. They're dressed up as the most
attractive that they're probably ever going to be. The bridegroom
and the bride. Here we have, you see, as a bridegroom
decketh himself with ornaments, and a bride adorneth herself
with her jewels. Very different than sackcloth
and ashes, isn't it? Very different. To appoint unto
them, it's appointment, you see. God has made an appointment that
those that mourn shall have something to, be clothed with the robe
of righteousness. They've got something to glory
in. to appoint unto them that morning's
iron, to give unto them beauty for ashes. Look in verse 11,
as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causes
the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord
God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before
all the nations. This is Isaiah writing here,
thinking very much coming from a Jewish background, as the Lord
being, as it were, the God of the Jews. He here opens it up,
it's not just the Jews. What a blessing it is, not just
for the Jews. I don't know whether any of us have Jewish backgrounds
in terms of our race, but it's the Gentiles who've come also
to enjoy these precious truths. To Jew and Gentile. Beauty for
ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for
the spirit of heaviness. You see, here's all the exchanges
of the sadness and the joy. And you see, the Lord is able
to do this. He's able to visit his people and turn darkness
into light, heaviness into joy. That they might be called trees
of righteousness. You see, a tree is something
that's a stable, a big tree. I understand it's more like an
oak here is thinking of some real tree that's been appointed
and stable and fruitful. And that's, you see, those that
are planted in the house of my God. It's a great blessing to
be fruitful in the house of God, that they may be called trees
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be
glorified. You see, that's the end. The
end of the church of God is to glorify him. It's not to glorify
us. And when these people as we had in hymn 371, come and
give their testimony. Their testimony isn't about,
as it were, to their glory, it's to glorify the God that's done
it for them. They all declare, I nothing am. My all is bound up in the Lamb. You see, they're pointing to
him. It's his righteousness, it's his glory, it's his beauty.
that they see, they realize their own nothingness and His glory, that they may be called trees
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be
glorified. And then you see it goes on in
the rest of this chapter to speak of the glories, the blessing,
the building up of the church. And they shall build the old
waste. They shall raise up the former desolations. They shall
repair the waste cities and generations of the desolations of many generations. It's going to be a building up
of the church. So often in Isaiah's time, there
had been a forsaking of God, there had been a turning away
from his commandments. As we looked at this morning,
this idea of every seven years a Sabbath, clearly they weren't
always keeping that. And God said, when you go into
captivity, then the land will enjoy her Sabbaths. They haven't
enjoyed their Sabbaths when you've been there, because you haven't
kept them. When they went into captivity for 70 years, then
the land had all their Sabbaths together. And you see there was
going to be that rest. But there was a punishment in
that. But here you see there's hope. And they shall build the
old waste. They shall raise up the former
desolations. They shall repair the waste cities.
the desolations of many generations, and strangers shall stand and
feed your flocks, and the sons of the aliens shall be your ploughmen
and vinedressers. I understand here it's speaking
of there will be others that will come and they will preach
the gospel. Those that were far off, those
that you're strangers, those that were not Israelites will
come and be able to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ.
But ye shall be named the priests of the Lord. Men shall call you
the ministers of God. And ye shall eat the riches of
the Gentiles. And in their glory shall ye boast. So here we have that what flows
out of these precious words that there will be, there is a gospel
to be preached. There is liberty for captives. But the great point is, Do you
know that you're captivity? Do you know, do you find this
world to be your rest? Or do you not? Are you at home
in the world? Or are you at home with the people
of God? Which is it? You have to honestly look into
your heart. This people have I formed for
myself. They shall show forth my praise.
The people of God, they have a desire to glorify God. desire
to show forth his praise. Yes, and there are people that
mourn over their sins and they may yet not have come into that
liberty of the gospel. They may be still in bound and
like Lazarus bound hand and foot in grave clothes. But you see,
there was that voice of the Lord, Lazarus, come forth. He comes forth bound hand and
foot with grave clothes. Loose him and let him go. Loose him. If the Son shall make
you free, you shall be free indeed. Free not to please yourself,
free to serve. Liberated to serve. Paul says
that, you see, he was brought into the liberty of the gospel,
but he then describes himself as a servant of the Lord. free
to serve. You see, he serves out of his
delight, not out of having to. You see, it's motivated by love. The love of Christ constrains
us, and the love of Christ constrains his people to follow him, to
take up their cross and follow him, to be the world would despise. And yet you say, well, the world
can despise, but this man, this gospel is precious to me. You
see that the things of this world are growing strangely dim and
they cannot, they cannot deal with the greatest problems. What
can the world do to overcome death? They cannot do anything.
They can prescribe different medications and things like that
which will help you for a certain number of years perhaps, but
ultimately they cannot deal with the reality that we are not going
to live here always. But you see, we have in this
text one that is able to deal and able to challenge the greatest
enemies that we have. And in that, what we read, we
read about the vengeance upon the enemies and the ability to
bring out of the prison cell. You think of that, if we think
of that, what we read in 1 Corinthians 15, Verse 51 says, Behold, I
show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we
all shall be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump. We spoke this morning of that
jubilee trumpet that was sounded, that sounded release. Here we
have a trumpet sounding again. And those we read, and the dead
shall be raised incorruptible and shall be changed. You think
of that. Our loved ones have been here. I'm 51 years old now. I know a number of people, godly
people have been here over those 50 years or so. How many of them
have, a lot of them have now gone to glory. but their bodies
are still in the graveyard, a lot of them at Redstone Cemetery. And we lay them to rest. But
you see that that trumpet that sounded at the day of Jubilee, on the great
day of atonement, this trumpet's going to sound again, and the
power of that trumpet is going to take all those of God's people
that are now in the grave, awaiting a glorious resurrection. And
when that trump sounds, they're going to be raised. You think
of it, all the people we've known here over those years, all the
God's people, our late pastor, LSB Hyde, others. There's going
to be a wonderful reunion, you see, This was the point of the
great jubilee. And every man shall return unto
his possession, and ye shall return, every man, unto his family. You see, what's the biggest thing
that breaks up families? It's death, isn't it? It breaks
up the family. You know loved ones that you've
loved for years, and yet death comes and it breaks. It puts
a separation. And what can we do? Well, this last trump can deal
with it. And at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and
the dead should be raised incorruptible and we should be changed for
this corruptible. Our bodies are corruptible. That
means they are able to corrupt. They will corrupt as they go
into the grave. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and
this mortal shall put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality,
then shall be brought to path the saying that is written, death
is swallowed up in victory. Oh, we think of death as that
great thing that how can we ever deal with it? It's the last enemy
we read. But that trumpet, that glorious
liberty, is going to free every one of God's people from the
grave and going to cause them to rise. And what sort of a family
reunion is that going to be? You think about it, the whole
family of God from every kindred, nation, tribe, all those you've
known that have now gone to glory to be with them and to see them. That will be a reunion, won't
it? And it won't just be to a bit of land in the promised land.
It will be to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and
faded not away. So these, therefore, comfort
one another with these thoughts. We're to think about these things
because these things are realities. And this is the power of the
resurrection, the power of what Christ has dealt with. And you
put this on the scale and you realize that all the offers and All the things that this world
tries to sell you pale into insignificance compared to this. Somebody that
can deal with the greatest enemy. O death, where is thy sting?
What language? Who can dare say this? O death,
where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? You haven't won death because
Christ has blown that trumpet, the glorious gospel trumpet has
blown and Death will no longer be able
to hold. Wonderful thought, isn't it?
The sting of death is sin. The strength of sin is the law.
The strength of sin. But the great day of atonement.
Sin has been dealt with. Atonement has been made. And
then the glorious trumpet sounds. Liberty to the captives. Liberty from those that abound,
hand and foot in grave clothes. they can be free. But thanks
be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Unto you therefore that believe
he's precious. Isn't he precious? Is he precious to you? In every
office he sustains, in every victory he gains, in every council
of his will, he's precious to his people still. So what does
Paul end up in that chapter saying? Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord. Oh, you see, there's such hope, isn't there? So often in
this world we have such a... I understand there's a tremendous
trouble with mental health in the day in which we live. It's
far greater than it used to be. But you see, here there's purpose.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord. Because there's hope. There's a future. There's a future,
because this great enemy is not ultimately the gain in the victory. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be ye steadfast, Unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord. What encouragement! But there's all this discouragement,
we face a difficulty, we face this impossible, this last enemy.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be you steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you
know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. You see,
that's what makes us want to give up, isn't it? You say, there's
no point. It doesn't benefit anything. No point carrying on.
Paul says there is a point. There is a victory, the one that
you serve. The one that you're grieved about the fact that you
serve so poorly. The one that you mourn over your
sins because you aren't more conformed to the image of his
dear son. Your labour in his work is not in vain. There's
a glorious future, a glorious future. And though we noted this
morning that we don't know how much this worked in this trumpet
jubilee, how many jubilees they really kept, whether these rich
farmers really did give what they should have given to give
back all that land to those that were impoverished and slaves.
But you see, it was looking to a God that was faithful, a God
that has risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of
them that slept. The firstfruits. You know how
others had raised from the dead before Christ did? They weren't
the firstfruits because they died again. Christ was the one
that was going to raise from the dead never to die again.
He'd gone through death, he'd conquered death, and he delivered
from the power of death. The power of death. This is This
is powerful. May you see a beauty in these
things. The spirit of the Lord God is
upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings
to the meek. Good tidings. He has sent me
to bind up the broken hearted. Do you come in the description
here? The meek, the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives.
He sees me often overcome and pities my distress and bids a
fiction drive me home to anchor on his grace. The opening of
the prison to them that abound. What a prison a grave is, isn't
it? You look at it naturally, you think, you know, to be in
a coffin is very, very, very difficult. You think, how could
that be? The opening of the prison. to
them that abound. There's liberty, you see, he's
come to deal with these things which are totally outside our,
anybody else to deal with. What a jubilee to proclaim the
acceptable year of the Lord. The day of vengeance of our God,
the vengeance on our enemies, on those that would, that accuser
of the brethren. Vengeance on our enemy to comfort
all that mourn. to appoint, this is an appointment
that won't be missed, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion,
to give unto them beauty. Beauty. But I'm all filthy, I'm
all vile. Beauty for ashes. The oil of
joy for mourning. Joy. You see, the joy of the
Lord is your strength of joy, but you say, I've got these mountains
in front of me. to give unto them beauty for
ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the
spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. Well, may that be in our lives,
the glory of God being what we're living for, the glory of God. Amen.