Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
you could join us, and I hope and pray that the Lord will bless
you as we go through the scriptures this morning in this message
from the book of Isaiah, back in the Old Testament, the prophet
Isaiah, chapter 61. And I'm gonna deal basically
with the first three verses of this chapter, Isaiah 61, and
I'll deal with other passages too that relate to this. But
the title of the message is, Our Liberation in Christ, or
Our Liberty in Christ, whichever one's easiest for you to remember.
But that's what we're gonna be talking about, how Christ sets
his people free. Our liberation in Christ. And
of course, Isaiah 61, like most of the prophecy of Isaiah, if
not all, is a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah prophesied
about 700 years before Christ actually came into the world
as He was the Word made flesh and dwelt among us. And what
Isaiah is speaking of here is that time when Christ would come
and set the captives free. Look at verse 1 of Isaiah 61.
He writes, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the
Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. Now
good tidings, that's good news. That's what the gospel is. And
that's what he's talking about. He's talking about the gospel
of God's grace of salvation by God's grace through the glorious
person and the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. and
that's what he's talking about. The Lord hath anointed me. Anointing
is given the power. It's an unction, as it's spoken
of in the New Testament, and this anointing is the work of
the Spirit. First, the first work of the
Spirit in our lives, in the lives of God's people, is to bring
them under the preaching of the gospel, and under that preaching,
they are born again by the Spirit, regenerated and converted. That's
what the new birth is. You must be born again. And in
this particular passage, he's talking about the spirit of preaching,
which the Holy Spirit empowers God's ministers, his disciples,
Christ's disciples, to preach the good tidings to the meek. Now the meek refers to those
who are submissive in obedience. And that's what he's talking
about. It's good news. You see, we preach
the gospel to anyone who will listen. But there are some who
are left in our natural stubbornness and rebellion. You know, that's
what we all are by nature. None of us are meek by nature. That's why Christ in the Sermon
on the Mount, he said, blessed are the meek. for they shall
inherit the kingdom of God. In other words, if you are meek,
if you're submissive to God's truth, especially the truth of
the gospel, how God saves sinners, that's the spirit of meekness.
That's a gift of the spirit. That's not what we have naturally. Naturally, we're stubborn. Naturally,
we're in the darkness of unbelief. and sin. Naturally, we're rebellious. In the Old Testament, it's called
stiff-necked. We won't bend. It's self-righteous. And so if left to ourselves,
the message that Isaiah is speaking of here, the Lord hath anointed
me to preach good tidings, if left to ourselves, this message
will not be good tidings at all. It'll be the worst news we've
ever heard because it'll condemn us. And the reason I say that
is just like the Apostle Paul said over in 2 Corinthians, when
we preach the gospel to some, it's the savor of life unto life. Now, who is it the savor of life
unto life to? It's the savor of life unto life
to the meek. to the submissive, to the ones
whom God the Holy Spirit has given life and who they want
to hear this. They've been convinced that they
are sinners who have no hope of salvation apart from the glory
of God in Christ. His blood to cleanse me from
all my sins. That's good news to a sinner.
His righteousness imputed to me for my entire justification
before God, His power to give me life, to give me faith, which
I don't have by nature. That's good news to me. But Paul
said to others, it's the savor of death unto death. And what
he's talking about there, those who don't believe it. In the
book of John chapter three in verse 19, it speaks of those
who hate the light, because the light exposes their false refuges,
exposes that their deeds are evil. But here he's talking about
preaching the good tidings unto the meek. And look back at Isaiah
61 one, he says, he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. Now the brokenhearted there are
not people generally who just have troubles in this world.
We all have troubles at some point in time in this world.
But the brokenhearted here refers those who have been convinced
by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God of their utter depravity
and sinfulness. That's what the Spirit does.
The Spirit of the Lord, God, is upon me, he said. And he said,
we preach the good tidings to the meek, to those who God has
made submissive to hear this truth and believe it. He's given
them ears to hear, eyes to see, and he says, to bind up the brokenhearted. That's those who have been convinced
of sin. In other words, we know, if you're
brokenhearted in this sense, Christ in the Sermon on the Mount,
he described this as the poor in spirit. See, the blessed are
the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, and
see, Here's the reality of it. All of us by nature, as we are
naturally born in sin and depravity, all of us are spiritually poor. But not all of us understand
and know and believe that. The sinner, for example, who
like Cain of old, comes to God seeking salvation based upon
his works, he is in reality spiritually poor, but he thinks he's spiritually
rich. He thinks he has something to
impress God. He thinks he has something in
his works, in his will, in his decision to recommend him unto
God. But in reality, he has nothing.
to recommend him unto God, to impress God, to earn God's favor. He's spiritually poor, but he's
not poor in spirit because he thinks otherwise. It's like a
person who thinks they have a huge bank account, when in reality,
they're in debt. If you go around talking about
how you've got a million dollars in the bank and you go to the
bank and you find out, hey, I don't have a million dollars, I'm in
debt a million dollars. And when you find out that debt,
then you become really poor in your heart, in your mind. Well,
those whom the Holy Spirit convicts of sin and shows them their depravity,
their total inability to be saved by their works, their efforts,
their will, their decision, and shows them that Christ is the
only way. God's grace through the blood
of Christ, through the righteousness of Christ is the only way of
salvation. That's the broken hearted. And
when they hear that gospel of God's grace, that sinners whom
God saves by his grace are blessed with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, their broken hearts are
bound up with the cords of God's grace, with the bandages of God's
grace. So he says the brokenhearted.
Then go on, he says, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the
opening of the prison to them that are bound. Liberty to the
captive. This is our liberation in Christ.
Well, what are we captive to? Well, we're captive to sin. The
Bible says that by one man, sin entered into the world and death
by sin. Death passed upon all men for
that all sinned. Romans 5.12. The Bible says in
Romans 3.23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. That's us by nature. So we're in captive to sin, we're
in bondage to sin. We're captive to Satan. Satan
is the great deceiver. He works alongside his allies,
which is the natural heart. of men and women who are naturally
deceived. And his goal is to hide the gospel
of Christ from them. We're captive to the law. The law binds us, you see. The
law must punish sinners to whom sin is imputed. And so the good
news is that Christ is coming to proclaim liberty, freedom,
freedom from sin, freedom from Satan, freedom from the law to
the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are
bound, bound by sin, bound by the law, bound by Satan. Now,
how's all this gonna take place? We'll look at verse two of Isaiah
61. to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day
of vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn. Now, what is
the acceptable year of the Lord? Well, he's talking about the
time appointed by God before the foundation of this world
that he would send Christ into the world to put away all the
sins of his people, to satisfy justice, and to conquer Satan
in the sense of his deceptive work, and to keep the law perfectly,
satisfy the law. Now, how do you know that he's
talking about Christ? Well, I want you to keep your
finger there at Isaiah 61. I want you to turn over to Luke
chapter four. And in Luke chapter four, gives
a record of a time when Jesus, when the Lord Jesus returned,
and it says in verse 14, this is Luke 4, 14, listen to this,
Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee and there
went out of fame of him through all the region about him, verse
15, and he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. In other
words, he taught. He went around teaching, speaking,
preaching the gospel. And in verse 16, it says, he
came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as his custom
was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, stood up
to read, and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet
Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written. Now he quotes from the
very passage that I'm preaching from, Isaiah 61, this is in Luke
4, 18. It says, 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
to set at liberty them that are bruised, them that are crushed,
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And then in verse
20, it says, he closed the book and he gave it again to the minister
and 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 is this scripture fulfilled in your ear. This is,
Christ is the fulfillment of this prophecy. And you read the
rest of that and what happened is they got so angry at him because
of this and other things that he mentioned, especially the
healing of a Gentile woman when there were many widows in Israel.
And that made them angry too. And they took him outside. They
were gonna throw him over a cliff. They were gonna kill him. But
he walked right on through. It wasn't his time. That was
not the way he was meant to die. And it wasn't his time to die.
But back here in Isaiah 61 in verse two, this acceptable year
of the Lord has to do with that time appointed by God to send
Christ into the world. You see Christ coming into the
world. The Word made flesh. Who is Jesus
Christ? I say this all the time. He's
the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God. He is God. God, the second person, equal
with the Father and the Spirit in the triunity of the Godhead.
It's a mind-boggling truth, but one God. We don't believe in
three gods now. We believe in one God and three persons. And
so how do we explain that? We don't. God is higher than
what we can explain. We can't analyze that or even
theologize it. We just know it's so because
the Bible teaches it. And so Christ, the Son of God,
who has no beginning and no end, came to this earth. He was conceived
his humanity. He's God and man in one person.
His humanity was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary by
the Holy Spirit, and he united himself in his deity to that
humanity. Occupied her womb for nine months
and was born just like we are, except without sin. And then
he grew in wisdom and stature. That's attributed to his humanity.
And he walked this earth in perfect obedience to the law. And eventually,
you know what happened. He suffered, bled, and died on
the cross. He went to the cross as the surety,
the substitute, the redeemer of his people, died on that cross,
was buried, and rose again the third day. And he now is ascended
into the Father ever living to make intercession. Well, that's
the acceptable year of the Lord, the acceptable time. You see,
and all of that was determined by God before the world was ever
created, before sin ever came into this world, before the law
was ever given. And this is the everlasting covenant
of grace. God chose a people and gave them
to his son. That's why Christ says in John
6, 37, all that the father giveth me shall come to me. And him
that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. If you come
to him as he's identified and distinguished in the Bible here,
in the word of God, you're one that was given to him before
the foundation of the world. And God put all of the conditions
of the salvation of those people who were given to Christ upon
the shoulders of Christ. And listen to what he says here.
This is Isaiah 61 and verse three. He said, to a point unto them
that mourn in Zion. Now Zion has a lot of different
connotations. Basically, geographically referred
to a hill right outside right around Jerusalem where David
built a palace. But Zion is a picture, it's a
word that pictures and typifies and symbolizes God's true church. The true people of God, not different
denominations now, not everybody who calls themselves Christian
and not Christendom, but it's the church. And the church is
made up of the elect of God. It's made up of the redeemed
of the Lord, those who are justified. What is it to be justified? It's
to be forgiven of all our sins by the blood of Christ. It's
to be accepted with God based upon Christ's righteousness,
imputed, charged, accounted to me. You see, it's not to be accepted
with God based on what I do. It's to be accepted with God
based upon what Christ has done. It's to be preserved of God.
That's what the church is. The word church means called
out. They were called out by the gospel. And so what he says
here, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, they mourn because
of sin, and he says to give unto them beauty for ashes. Now, what is the beauty given
for ashes? What are the ashes? Well, that's
the works of men. They're called dead works. You
see, works aimed, even works that appear good to men and women,
even those works that appear good when aimed at the ground
of attaining or maintaining salvation, trying to work your way into
God's favor, you know what those are called in the Bible? They're
called dead works. because they are works that do
not glorify and honor God in Christ. In fact, they are a denial
of the glory of God and the honor of God in Christ. Because God
sent Christ into the world to do the work that he required
for his people. Now if I insist on doing my own
works, I reject him. I'm gonna deal with that a little
bit next week in the next message in Galatians. But Christ is the
only, only way of righteousness to God. And so the ashes here
refers to man's efforts to save himself. For by grace are you
saved, through faith. That's not of yourselves, not
of works. lest any man should boast. And
those works will be burned up. The book of Revelation tells
us that. Those works that appear, they're sinful, they're iniquity,
they don't measure up to righteousness. And so he says, to appoint unto
them beauty for ashes. Well, what is the beauty? Well,
look at it. He says the oil of joy for mourning,
the oil of joy and gladness, my friend, has to do with the
Holy Spirit who gives us joy and peace in believing. In believing
what? Believing that Christ is all
my righteousness. That's my beauty. I have no beauty
of my own before God. You know, man's works and efforts
may appear beautiful to the natural man, but it's ugly in God's sight
when they're aimed at salvation, aimed at trying to earn God's
favor. But instead of those ashes, I'm gonna have beauty because
that's Christ. That's the grace of God in Christ
and joy and peace in looking to him. If I look to myself,
whatever joy and peace I have from looking to myself is a sham. And listen to what he says in
verse three. He's going to give the garment of praise for the
spirit of heaviness. You know, Most people talk, many
people in religion, they talk about going around downcast all
the time. And then you have those who are
just happy, happy, happy all the time. Listen, the joy, the
peace, and the praise that God brings about through his people
is genuine because, now listen to me, it's based on the truth
and not a lie. I'm gonna tell you something
and you need to understand it. You may go into a religious service
and they may be jumping up and down and playing music and hollering
and hooping and whatever people do in some of these services
today. And you say, well, man, the Spirit's real there. Well,
listen, the thing you need to understand is do they preach
the truth? concerning God, who God is. Do
they preach the truth concerning who man is? Do they preach the
truth concerning who Christ is and how God saves sinners? Because
if they don't preach the truth, I don't care how high they jump
or how loud they sing or holler or how long they pray, it's all
ashes. It's all dead works. You need
to understand that. You see, when we talk about our
liberation in Christ, remember that Christ made the statement
in John 8, the truth shall set you free. That's what's being
spoken of here. But listen to what he says, Isaiah
61, 3. He gives them beauty for ashes,
oil of joy for mourning, garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
that they might be called, identified, Trees of righteousness, the planting
of the Lord, that he might be glorified. Now there's your key.
The trees of righteousness. That's a beautiful thing. And
what that means, that's talking about sinners saved by the grace
of God, based upon the righteousness of Christ. They are planted and
cannot be uprooted. because they're the planting
of the Lord. Their salvation is of the Lord. Their forgiveness is of the Lord. Their righteousness is of the
Lord. It's Christ's righteousness,
the merits of His obedience unto death, imputed, charged, reckoned,
accounted to us. And that's why it's a righteousness
that cannot be corrupted. It cannot be removed. It'll never
change. It is an assurance that I'm justified
in God's sight and will be glorified. Because in that salvation, God
is glorified. And if you'll look across the
page, I'll go one more verse, verse 10, listen to this. He
says in Isaiah 61.10, you could read the whole prophecy, but
we don't have time to read it today. But he 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. 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. That's the grace of God. Believers
stand before God liberated. Sin, now I'm liberated from sin. That doesn't mean I'm not any
longer a sinner. I'm still a sinner, but my sin
cannot be charged to me. It cannot condemn me. Satan still
attacks. but his attacks cannot reach
their target because I wear the robe of Christ's righteousness.
The breastplate of righteousness is what it's called in Ephesians
six. The helmet of salvation. And then the law cannot condemn
me because the law can only condemn sinners to whom sin is imputed. And the Bible tells me that if
I'm in Christ, If He's my surety, if He's my substitute, if He's
my Redeemer, then who shall lay anything to the charge of God's
elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn me? It's Christ that died, who is
risen again, who is even at the right hand of the Father, ever
living to make intercession for us, His people. And that's the
liberation. free from sin, free from Satan,
free from the law. One day I'll be totally free
from even the presence and the influence and the power of sin
in myself when I'm glorified with Him. But right now, I'm
liberated, set free in Christ. He's preaching the good tidings
and liberty to the captives. Hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you. you