Thank you. I couldn't help but
notice, and I have noticed it before in that song we just finished
singing, A Hark the Herald Angels Sing. It says, reinstate us in
thy love. God didn't cut us off from His
love. We did fall into sin, but we
didn't fall out of His love. He loved us when we were sinners,
and therefore He sent His Son into the world. It's very difficult
sometimes to find songs that are absolutely correct. That's the reason I decided to
write some of them on. They're maybe not as good in
many ways as the professionals, but at least I know they're biblically
accurate. Let's go back to Isaiah 61. And actually, I'm going to begin
at the end of chapter, Isaiah chapter 60. And my subject is our Lord's
mission, Christ's mission. He is the promised Messiah, the
one who was sent by God, and he had a mission. He had a reason
for coming into this world. He knew what the mission was,
and he fully set his total being upon fulfilling that mission. Well, before we get into the
message, let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the privilege
of gathering together this morning to honor our God and King, to
lift up the praises of our Lord Jesus. O mystery of mysteries,
He who is the everlasting God, the infinite God became an infant. And we rejoice in His coming,
for by His birth, His life, and especially His death, He has
saved us from our sins. Oh, blessed God, receive our
thanksgiving today. Receive our worship, and may
Your dear Son, our Savior, be honored in all things. In His name I ask these things. Amen. It is well known, and you
certainly know, that chapter divisions are not inspired, very
helpful, very needy, so that we can locate various portions
of Scripture in the Word of God, but those divisions aren't inspired,
and most of them are good. But I think what we kind of tend
to forget is that when we see a chapter division, we think,
okay, something new is going to be said now, something that
is disconnected from what the writer has just said. Well, that
certainly isn't the case here in Isaiah chapters 60 and 61. Now, in Isaiah chapter 60, we
have blessed gospel promises. The Lord begins in chapter 60
by speaking of those who sit in darkness. And of those who
sit in darkness, that's spiritual darkness, light will come forth. That's the Lord Jesus. He's the
light of the world. And indeed, 2,000 years ago,
the light of the world was born into this world. He came to save
people who were in spiritual darkness. The writer here in
Isaiah chapter 60, he even makes mention of this light later in
the chapter, and so I'll just read verses 19 and 20 there in
Isaiah 60. It says, the sun shall be no
more thy light by day. Neither for brightness shall
the moon give light unto thee. Well, who's going to give us
light? The Lord Jesus. And notice, and He gives us this
assurance, He will be unto thee everlasting light. This is a
light that will never be extinguished. Those who believe that you can
be saved one day and lost the next day really need to get acquainted
with the Scriptures. Here's everlasting light. We were in darkness, but we're
not in darkness anymore. We didn't know who God was. We
didn't know our condition. We didn't know how the God of
the Bible saved sinners. We were in the dark. But light
has arisen. And the Scripture says, in thy
light we shall see light. In the light of the Word of God,
by the light of the Holy Spirit, we see Christ Jesus, who is our
light. And He is the everlasting light. And therefore, God is our glory. Notice in verse 20, thy sun shall
no more go down, neither shall the moon withdraw itself. Why
not? Why is this going to happen?
For the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning,
I want to work on that a little bit, the days of thy mourning
shall be ended. Indeed, we wept over our sin,
we mourned over our guilt, but light has come in. Now we've
heard the joyful sound. What is the joyful sound? I know
we sing the song, Jesus saves, But there's even a more joyful
sound than that. Jesus saved. He saved. He saved us by His bloody death
upon the cross of Calvary. We read in Matthew chapter 1,
when the angel came to Joseph and gave him instructions pertaining
to the naming of this one who was going to be born, he said,
Thou shalt call his name Jesus. All capital letters. And here's
the reason. He shall save his people from
their sins. And he did that. He has saved
us. We're saved by his bloody death
upon the cross of Calvary. And therefore, we get to verse
21, thy people shall be all righteous because of who our Savior is.
God the Son is our Savior and He's our righteousness. Go back
up, look at verse 16. It's talking about, of course,
these promises are made to national Israel. But beneath this, beneath
the layer of national Israel, there's spiritual Israel. These
are spiritual gospel promises to the people of God. Thou shalt
also suck the milk of the Gentiles. Thou shalt suck the breast of
kings. In other words, God will take care of you. You're His
people. He will make provision for you.
He will even use your enemies to provide for you. You have
worked public jobs. Most of the people you have worked
for had no interest in the gospel. Well, who put them in positions
of authority to provide work for you? God did. He put them
in those positions for your benefit. The people you work for may not
and most likely don't believe the Lord Jesus Christ. They have
no interest in the gospel of God's grace, but God has put
them there. God has put that entity, that
company, that business, that school, He has put that there
for you. Isn't that something? He makes
provision for His people. Now watch this, and they shall
know that I, the Lord, I'm your Savior. I'm your Redeemer. I'm the Mighty One of Jacob. Notice down in verse 21 again.
Our people also shall be righteous, all righteous in the righteousness
of our Lord Jesus. As Adam's transgression was imputed
to us, so our transgressions were imputed to the Savior, and
His righteousness is imputed to us. And the word imputed simply
means charged or put to the account of. And we're all righteous. All of God's people are righteous
and all of God's people are all righteous. There is no unrighteousness
in our standing before God. And therefore, look at this,
they shall inherit the land forever. We're going to paradise. That's
a certainty. We shall inherit this incorruptible
crown and incorruptible inheritance. And he says, the branch of my
planting. Who put us in the garden of grace? Who put us in the garden of God's
salvation? The Lord did. That's the reason.
Look at this next statement. The work of my hands. Whose work
is salvation? It's not your work, it's not
my work, it's not the work of the angels, it's not the work
of the preachers, it's God's work. The Scripture says, For
by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
For we are His workmanship. where His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. God's people walk in paths of
righteousness, and we seek to honor God in all that we do,
and we know this, that those works that we do which God pronounces
to be good are works that He has ordained. Well, what's the purpose for
all this? Look at the last few words of verse 21, that I may
be glorified. Don't you like that? That I may
be glorified, God says. See, here's the first reason
for everything that ever happens. God's glory. God's glory. Say, I don't know why God loved
me for His glory. I don't know why Christ would
save a sinner like me for His glory. I don't know why the Spirit
of God would work in my heart such a rebel against God for
His glory. I don't know why God would take
a poor sinner like me and bathe me in the bloody sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus and robe me in the garments of salvation for
His glory. I don't know why God would let
a poor old sinner like me into His holy heaven for His glory. For His glory. As we read in
Ephesians chapter 1, it's all for the praise of the glory of
His grace. And look at this in the 22nd
verse. A little one shall become a thousand. And not only a little one shall
become a thousand, but a small one. A very strong nation. What is this talking about? This
is talking about the sure increase of the kingdom of God. You know,
our Lord's early church there in Jerusalem, after His ascension,
120 people. That's all. 120 people. And if you go back to the very
first believer who died, that would be able. So from one man,
just go through the generations all the way to the end, and here's
what we'll find. This nation becomes a mighty
nation, and a little group becomes a great big group. In fact, John
says in Revelation chapter 7, it's a multitude which no man
can number. That's what he's talking about
here. And notice in the last statement of verse 22, very powerful
statement. I the Lord, who's going to do
all this? Who's going to make certain that
all of God's people wind up in glory? I the Lord, I Jehovah,
will hasten it. I'll do it speedily, he says.
And actually in that original word, the word hasten not only
means speedily, but speedily with joy, with gladness, with
great delight. I the Lord will hasten it in
his time, in his time. Now, having read these few verses,
we would, naturally think that when he says, I, the Lord, will
hasten it, that he would say, I, the Lord, will hasten it in
my time. Because that's the way he's been
speaking. I, the Lord, will hasten it. I will speedily bring this
about with great delight in my time. But it doesn't say my time. It says his time. Whose time is he talking about?
This one who speaks now in chapter 61. This is our Lord Jesus. Our Lord Jesus speaks here. He
says, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. Well, how do
you know, preacher, this is the Lord Jesus? Well, hold your place
there and look at Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4. There's been a lot of debate
through the years as to who's the speaker in Isaiah 61. Well, this removes all doubt.
Luke, please, chapter 4. We're told very, very clearly
who this is that speaks in chapter 61. the one who's being spoken
of in chapter 60, and who does the speaking in Isaiah 61. Here, Luke chapter 4 and verse
16. In fact, I'll back up to verse
14. In Jesus, He returned in the power of the Spirit into
Galilee. And I think I've told you this
before. If I haven't, it'll bear telling again. If I haven't,
you need to hear it. In between the 13th verse and
the 14th verse, almost a year goes by. And that would be our
Lord's Judean ministry. which you can read of in John
2.13-4. So there's about a year that
goes by. He began his ministry in Jerusalem,
and now he goes into Galilee. And it says in verse 14, he returned
in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. There went out a fame
of him through all the region round about. And he taught in
their synagogues being glorified of all. And he came to Nazareth
where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went
into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up for to read.
There was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. Now this is a portion of Scripture
that had been pre-selected for someone to read by the local
rabbi. There was delivered unto him
the book of the prophet Esaias, or Isaiah. And when he had opened
the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me. because he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, and to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. Now verse 20, close the book. And he gave it again to the minister,
and he sat down. And the eyes of all them that
were in the synagogue were fastened on Him. And He began to say unto
them, This day, this day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears. So there isn't any debate about
who's speaking here in Isaiah chapter 61. It's our Lord Jesus
Himself And as he begins speaking, after the Father had said, I
the Lord will hasten it in His time, that is in His time being
from His first advent all the way to His second advent, that
is from His birth until His second coming. Because really, that's
what's covered in Isaiah chapter 61. Here in these 11 verses in
great concisement and in wonderful simplicity, the Lord of glory,
His Son, speaks to us And he speaks of his public ministry
that began when he was 30 years of age. And of course, he died
and went back to glory, having been raised from the dead. And
he's there now governing all things. And one of these days,
he's coming back. He's coming back and he will
wrap up this whole thing and time shall be no more. His times,
it says in verse 22 of chapter 60, His times, Messiah's times
being the times of our Lord Jesus being from His birth until His
second coming. Those are His times. This unique
man, and make no mistake about it, He was a real man. and so much so that the Spirit
of God came upon him, and the Scripture bears this out, and
though it's beyond our comprehension, all that he did, he did by the
power of the Spirit. We read that. The Spirit of God
instructed him. The Spirit of God gave him wisdom. the Spirit of God governed all
things and directed His steps, though He being God knew the
direction that He would take, but He is being the perfect man,
the perfect Spirit-filled man. He not only had the grace of
the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit, He had the fullness of
the Spirit of God. So we read, He had the Spirit,
not in measure, Not in measure. He had the fullness of the Spirit
of God. And he says, the Spirit of the
Lord God is upon me. Upon me. Why, his very conception
was a result of the work of the Spirit of Grace, the Spirit of
God. Mary was a virgin. If you have
one of those versions that says she was merely a young girl or
a young lady, that's wrong. She was a virgin. She never knew
a man. The birth of our Lord Jesus was
totally a miraculous birth. I know we say of every birth,
and certainly this is true to some degree, it's a miracle.
Every infant that comes into this world is a miracle. Well,
it's a miracle that God ordained as a result of a union of a man
and a woman. But behold, a greater miracle. A woman becomes pregnant with
a baby and she never knew a man. She was overshadowed by the Spirit
of grace who hovered over her and miraculously and powerfully
formed the Lord Jesus in her womb. A picture of our regeneration. The Spirit of God hovers over
us. He broods over us. And you know
what He does? He forms Christ Jesus in us. The Savior says, the Spirit of
the Lord God is upon me. He has anointed me. In the Old
Testament, there were three offices for which there needed to be
anointing. Prophet, and priest, and king. And no one man ever held all
three offices. Our Lord Jesus came to this world.
He is that prophet that Moses wrote about in Deuteronomy chapter
15. He is that prophet. He is God's spokesman to us.
That's why John says, in the beginning was the Word, that
One who is the full expression of the Person of God. When it comes to God, Christ
Jesus is A to Z about God. He's the whole alphabet. He is
that anointed prophet, and He is that anointed priest. What
did a priest do? A priest prayed for the people.
Our Lord made intercession for us. Still does. What did a priest
do? Offered sacrifices to God. For the people? That's what our
Lord Jesus did. But He just offered one. Well,
what was the sacrifice He offered? The sacrifice of Himself. Himself. And then, He's the King. In the Old Testament, the kings
were anointed. Our Lord Jesus has been anointed
as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He's been anointed
with the Spirit of Grace. Anointed to do what? Watch this. To preach good tidings to the
meek. It's interesting as you read Luke chapter 4, and for
my benefit, what I did, I wrote these out statement by statement. in Isaiah 61 and then in Luke
chapter 4. And what you'll do if you do
that or if you compare the two passages, you'll see that our
Lord Jesus, He stopped us short of fully setting forth all of
this passage. But He set forth all that was
necessary to be set forth. And in Luke it says to preach
the gospel to the meek. Or here it says, make to the
poor, it says in Luke, to the poor in spirit, to the bankrupt. To whom is the gospel of grace
good news? Bankrupt sinners who have nothing
to offer to God, who have no righteousness, who are laden
with iniquity, who are just full of sin. And then we hear Jesus
saved By His bloody sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary, Jesus
Christ satisfied the demands of God's holy law. He bore all
the penalty of sin for all of His people. He redeemed us. He paid our sin debt. Oh, what
a joyful sound. And that's what He came to preach
as God's prophet. He preached good news to the
poor. Is there someone here this morning poor in spirit? In the Beatitudes, there is a
blessing pronounced upon the poor in spirit. They shall see
God. And notice this, he says, he
had sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. Well, how did these who are brokenhearted,
how did they get a broken heart? God broke their heart. He breaks
the heart and then He binds it up. He breaks the heart with
the sword of the Spirit. He cuts the heart open. Then
He pours in the healing balm of the bloody sacrifice and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the balm. That's the healing
medicine He puts in. He binds up the broken heart.
And what does He do? He proclaims liberty to the captives. Oh, and we're captives. First
of all, God's justice holds us captive. You've sinned against
God. Your death has to be paid. You
must be cast into the prison of God's vengeance forever. But
one step forward and said, no, take me, let these go. We're at liberty in Christ Jesus. from the demands of God's law. You say, does that mean we're
lawless people? No, we have a greater law, the
law of love. Love Christ Jesus. Preacher, how should I walk in
this world? Our Lord, and I wrote this in
an article, in one of the articles today, our Lord certainly came
to be our Savior. But He is also our perfect example. So how should I live my life? How did our Lord Jesus live His
life? For God's glory. For God's glory. And He walked before men and
He spoke before men and He treated men and women and boys and girls
in such a manner as God would be glorified. Now you follow
that. There's your example. There's your example. He set the captive free. Free
from God's law. Free from condemnation. And He
set us free from our debt of sin. Because Jesus paid it all. All the debt I owed. Sin had
left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. He
sets the captive free. Satan held us captive. He wouldn't
let us go. Go ahead and exercise your so-called
free will. See how far it gets you with
Satan. 2 Timothy 2.24 says he holds men captive at his will. It's going to take a will greater
than your will to break that bondage in which Satan holds
you. It takes the sovereign, effectual,
irresistible power of God, the will of God. And it says He proclaims liberty
to the captives. And the opening of the prison
to them who are bound. Just like when Peter was in prison. And the angel of God said, I'm
getting you out of here. I'm getting you out of here."
And they went through, and every jail cell door just kept on opening
until he was finally free. And then he says in the second
verse, the Spirit of God, the Lord God is upon me, to, in verse
2, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of
Jubilee. The year of Jubilee. You know, with Israel, every
50th year was called the Jubilee year. You can read about it in
Leviticus chapter 25. And in that Jubilee year, nobody
worked. I'm sure the Gentiles made fun
of them. Look at them lazy people. They're
not even working. Well, what are they doing? They're
resting. See, Jubilee means joy. In fact, to begin the year of
Jubilee, they had the Jubilee trumpet sound. And it proclaimed
freedom and liberty and rest for all the people of Israel.
God said, I don't even want you to sow any seed that year. Don't plant anything. I'll take
care of you. Don't worry about it. I'm sure
the Gentiles said, but these people are not even working.
Well, the reason they're not working is because they're resting. Christ is our Jubilee. We rest
in Him. We cease from our labor. That
Jubilee began with a Jubilee trumpet sound. The Jews had four
different trumpet calls, and one of them was the Jubilee trumpet.
had a very distinct sound. And it began that year of Jubilee,
every 50th year. And it was a joyful sound. You
know what the Jubilee trumpet is today? The preaching of the
Gospel. I'm up here, I'm playing the
Jubilee trumpet! The Jubilee trumpet! What is
it? Rest in Christ Jesus. That's
where you're going to find rest for your soul. Listen to what
the Savior said to those who labored or are heavy laden. He
said, come unto Me and I'll give you... What did He say? Rest.
Rest. Take My yoke upon you. Learn
from Me. I'm meek and lowly in the heart.
You'll find rest for your soul. The jubilee trumpet sounded. And get this, this acceptable
year of the Lord, the year of Jubilee, here's when it began,
on the day of atonement. Read about that in Leviticus
chapter 16. You see, there is no joyful sound
unless we preach the atonement. Unless we preach reconciliation
by the sacrifice of the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself
for us. And it proclaimed liberty. Liberty. The captives were released. And
if you owed a debt to anybody, guess what? Totally forgiven. You're debt free. That's what
our Lord Jesus did when He died for us. He took all our debts
to God. And Jesus paid it all. That's what we do. We proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord. And he says, and the day of vengeance
of our God. That can be two things, the day
of vengeance. It's the day God poured out His
vengeance on His only begotten Son. It's also that last day,
the day of vengeance, when our Lord Jesus comes back. All who
are not found in Him shall perish in their sins. And though they
call on the rocks and the mountains to fall on them and hide them
from the face of the Lamb, they cannot be hid. I like what one
writer said, the only place to hide from the Lord is to hide
in the Lord. There you find safety. And He
says in the end of verse 2, to comfort all that mourn. Anybody
in here mourning? Mourning over your sinfulness?
Perhaps mourning over the passing of a dear loved one? Are you saddened over your own
iniquities? Are you saddened over the difficulties
of life? He comforts us. Find comfort
in Christ Jesus. And that's what He says in verse
3, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them
beauty for ashes. Ashes! That's when somebody was
grief-stricken, they put ashes on their head. He said, I'm going
to give you beauty for ashes. What is this beauty? Well, look
in verse number 2. Verse 10. 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, as a bridegroom decketh himself
with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
He gives us beauty. Beauty. And the oil of joy for
mourning. the garment of praise for the
Spirit of heaviness. And He does all of this, look
at the end of verse 3, that they might be called trees of righteousness. Who are these trees of righteousness?
Well, they're the planting of the Lord. that He might be glorified. These are sinners saved by grace. And we're put in the forest of
His people. He planted us as trees, trees
of righteousness. We're planted by the river of
water. And the sap, the sap within us is the very life of God in
the soul. And all for this reason. that
He might be glorified. That Christ might be glorified.
What a mighty Redeemer. What a glorious Savior. I compel
you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. May God the Spirit work
in your heart. This morning, I've tried to preach
to you on Christ's mission. This evening, my subject is going
to be Christ's message. And we'll go to the New Testament,
we'll see what His message was when He was on this earth. And
that message has not changed and remains the same. Let's sing
a closing song, hymn number 102.