We often talk about the Book
of Romans being the great theological book of the New Testament, the
theological trees of justification, salvation, although all of God's
Word is breathed out by God and of utmost importance and is profitable
for us. But we often refer to Romans
because of the great nature and substance and the way in which
the Spirit had Paul write it. And I say the Spirit had Paul
write it that way. Paul didn't write these words.
The Spirit gave him the words to write. These writers didn't
write of their own accord. We often talk about the style
and the substance and the way that they write and everything.
The Holy Spirit is the one who gives them the words to write. We often talk about that in Romans. Well, I feel that Isaiah is the
Romans of the Old Testament. It is a great book to study,
to glean a lot of things spiritually out of this from the physical
things that we see there. And what a wonderful, wonderful
book with lots of gospel nuggets throughout it. So if you've never
done a study through Isaiah, I would recommend you do that. It's a wonderful book. We'll
be looking today in Isaiah chapter 61. And I want to read verse 10. We're
going to eventually read verses 1 through 9 here in just a minute,
but I want to make note of verse 10 this morning, something that
was on my mind. As a matter of fact, I saw this
verse on somebody's Facebook post this week and right off
the top of my head, I can't remember who it was, Anyway, I saw this
verse that somebody had shared on their Facebook page, got to
thinking about it, got to reading it yesterday a lot on my, got
my iPad out, kind of started looking at some of the words
on there on my Bible program, kind of looking at some of the
Hebrew words behind some of this, and just kind of looking at some
of the references that this verse has to other verses in the Scriptures. That was where the Lord was kind
of directing me and leading me to talk about this morning is
this passage and how amazing it is sometimes how the Lord
brings these things to our mind and how He does it. I'll just be honest, I don't
always sit down and just prepare outlines or anything like that.
Most generally, I never do outlines. I'll put down some verses. I
put down some verses and adjoining verses and things like that,
but the Lord often brings stuff to my mind and that's kind of
where I follow after that. I don't have kind of a set pattern
necessarily all the time. So anyway, this is kind of what
the Lord has kind of been speaking to my heart at least in the last
couple of days. Isaiah 61 and verse 10. The word of God says
this. Let's bow and have a word of
prayer. Father, we come now asking you
to please come and meet with us today. We come, Lord, asking that you
might help us, that you might be with us by your spirit, leading
us in the truth, Lord. We pray that you'd lead us in
our worship, that you might prepare our hearts, prepare our minds,
reveal these things to us. May we see Christ today in what
we speak about. Lord, we just thank you so much
for all that you've done for us. We thank you for these brethren
that's gathered here today. We ask, Lord, that you just might
speak to us through your word We thank you, Father, for the
opportunities that we have always together, together. Lord, we
just pray now that even now the singing beforehand, Lord, that
it has been an honor to you that we have lifted our voices from
a heart that has been prepared by Christ and his spirit has
aided us and enabled us to worship in spirit and in truth as we
sang, and now even as we worship around the word of God to hear
of Christ and what he has done for us. And so Father, Lord,
I pray that today that you might encourage and edify your people.
Lord, I pray that you might convert your elect that you have yet
to grant repentance and faith to. Lord, that today that you
might draw them to yourselves, call them by the gospel. Father, again, we just thank
you for the Word of God that we have before us, the record
of Christ Jesus. And Lord, we just pray that today
we might be faithful to the truth that's found in it. Lord, I pray
that you would help me to preach that I might not speak of my
own accord, by my own wisdom and by the traditions of men
or creeds and confessions, but Father, that I might preach the
very words of God and their truthfulness as they've been given to us and
preserved for us through all these years. And we just ask
for that you just might be glorified, that you might
be honored in all that we do and all that we say today. In
Jesus' name we pray, amen. Here we find in Isaiah chapter
61 and verse 10, A verse of scripture that actually, as I was looking
at this yesterday, kind of went off and was looking at several
different writers and what their take on this was, and not so
much to tell me what to say. I often disregard mostly what
men say and just pray that the Spirit would teach me. He's the
only one who can reveal truth to us. Men can't reveal truth
to us. We need the Holy Spirit to reveal
truth. And so, you know, we rely on
that as our teacher. But yet, I went to these other
men just to kind of look to see, because a lot of times I'm edified
by what men say. It seems to sometimes line up
with what the Spirit is, at least what little bit of light that
I've been given on certain things, what the Spirit has taught. And
it's edifying to see those things. I sometimes just out of curiosity,
just seeing what other writers were saying about some of these
things. And that was kind of the main
thing. I was kind of curious because I had my thoughts on
this verse whenever I first read this. As I mentioned, I've seen
this verse on somebody's Facebook page whenever I first read it. And I think even maybe the way
in which it was used on that post was pointed in one direction
here. the context of who this was talking
about. And whenever I've seen it, I
just kind of begin to think, you know, this kind of hits me
a little bit different. So I thought, well, let's see
kind of what some other people think about that and everything, see
if anybody kind of thinks the same way that I do. But in looking at all those different
writers on this particular verse, I found that the majority of
them, I mean, most of them, I really did hardly find anybody that
had a differing opinion, maybe except one or two. But a matter
of fact, the majority of them, not only did they have a differing
opinion, a lot of those who had the differing opinion even said
the opinion that I seem to have, the interpretation I seem to
have of it, said that it was not that interpretation. So there's a couple of writers
that would vehemently maybe disagree with me on this. But anyway,
we pray that what I speak this morning is the truth. But some
people, and the majority, as I said, of the people that I
read, they look at this verse, and maybe you did, too, whenever
I read this, your first thoughts went to, who do you think the
subject matter is of this verse? And most of us would probably
say, well, that's talking about the elect of God. That's the
elect of God, those who are clothed with the salvation of Jehovah.
Is that what it says there? I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God. For he hath clothed
me with the garment of salvation. Is that truly something talking
about the elect of God? You know, he hath covered me
with the robe of righteousness that I'm like a bride adorned
with jewels. So our first thought or our mind
would go, hey, you know, that's speaking of the elect of God. And brother, these things are
actually true. I mean, this is very true of
the elect of God. We are clothed with the robe
of Christ's righteousness. He has imputed His righteousness
unto us. We are clothed with the garments
of His salvation. We are clothed with His righteousness,
and His salvation is and only for the elect of God. So these
things are very true, and we are, as the people of God, like
a bride adorned for her husband, the Bible teaches us. So these
things that are being said in verse 10 is very true about the
elect of God, but is this who is in context of this passage? Is this who we're talking about?
See, we have no righteousness of our own, but here we see that
this person in verse 10 that is being spoken of is clothed
with the garments of salvation and is covered with the robe
of righteousness, is adorned or decked with ornaments and
adorned with jewels. This person has this to themselves
and is displaying these things, so to speak, thanking God for
the fact that these things are there. And so we often will think,
or many would think, as I read yesterday, many think that this
is speaking primarily of the elect of God. And brethren, again,
like I said, I have no doubt that these things are true of
us. But they're true of us because they are first true of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The context of verse 10 is not
the elect to themselves alone, but the elect as who they are
in Christ Jesus. This verse 10 is speaking of
Jesus It's speaking of God becoming flesh as the substitute for us,
as the mediator, as the surety for His people. Whenever God
took on flesh, He took on flesh for the purpose, He took on the
role of Son for the purpose of redeeming the people that God
had given Him before the foundation of the world, who through Adam
would be sinners, who through Adam in the flesh would be vile,
who would be wicked and unworthy and full of sin and could not
do anything righteous. The Bible says that we in and
of ourselves in this flesh are no good thing and that all of
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. There's nothing that we
can do that's ever good. The only one who's righteous is Christ.
So if we have a righteousness, if we are said to be righteous,
it's not because we do righteousness, it's not because we have righteous
deeds that we are doing, it's because of Christ, His righteousness
in our place. He performed all the righteousness
that was required for God. He is the one who was imputed
with all of our sin and took on our penalty that we should
have taken, but yet He took it in our place in the flesh. And
in that flesh, taking all of that, God was able to then take
and all the righteousness of Christ place it upon us. And
so we are dressed in fine garments of salvation. We are covered
with the robe of His righteousness. We are decked with jewels. We
are decked with garments. We are decked with jewels and
ornaments. These things are true of us,
but it's true because Christ assumed and came forth as one
of us, as our head. The second Adam came forth as
the head of His kind. He is the head of His seed. He is the progenitor of His seed. He is the one who is the first
seed, and all seeds in Him are like was a natural seed, a fleshly
seed, and all he could do was sin. He could do nothing else
but sin. And everybody who is in Adam
in the flesh, all they can do is sin. But for those who are
the elect of God, chosen before the foundation of the world,
predestinated unto adoption, predestinated unto salvation,
they are the spiritual people that is in Christ Jesus. And
that was before the world ever began. before anything was ever
created. Before you was ever even born,
if you were a child of grace, you were already elected of God
and put into union with Christ Jesus. He took on the mantle
of your mediator. He took on the mantle of your
priest. He took on the mantle of your
surety, your substitute. And in your place, He has stood
from all eternity. And whenever He came in time
and manifested this salvation by His life and by His death
and by His resurrection, whenever He came and did that, it was
to show forth all the promises that God had made in that covenant
with Christ as He assumed that role of mediator, as He assumed
the role of prophet, priest, king, all these roles that Christ
took on as He took on flesh. We see that all those things
we have because we are heirs of Christ, because we are united
with Christ Jesus. Because Christ did it, we've
done it. Christ fulfilled all the law,
therefore if you're a child of grace, you have fulfilled all
the law. Rest in that. If Christ has suffered
the penalty for sin, you have suffered the penalty for sin.
Rest in that. That there is therefore no more
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That He has
removed your sin as far as the east is from the west. That He
has forgiven you of everything. This is true of the child of
grace, but it's true because of our union with Christ Jesus.
Christ Jesus is in view here as the one who has the garment
of salvation, the robe of righteousness, the decked adornments, the adorned
jewels. He is the one that has that,
and by extension, we have it. Now, why do I think that this
is speaking of Jesus Christ? Well, if you look back, starting
in verse 1, and let's read down to verse 10,
and let's see what is the preceding verses talking about. It says,
the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. Because the Lord hath anointed
me to preach good tidings unto the meek, he hath sent me to
bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, 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,
and that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting
of the Lord, that he might be glorified. And they shall build
the old waste, they shall raise up the former desolations, and
they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. And strangers shall stand and
feed your flocks, and all the sons of the alien shall be your
plowmen and your vinedressers. that ye shall be named the priest
of the Lord. Men shall call you the ministers
of our God. Ye shall eat the riches of the
Gentiles, and in their glory shall you boast yourselves. For
your shame ye shall have double, and for confusion they shall
rejoice in their portion. Therefore in the land they shall
possess the double everlasting joy shall be unto them. For I,
the Lord, love judgment. I hate robbery for burnt offering.
And I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an
everlasting covenant with them. And their seed shall be known
among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people. All
that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed
which the Lord hath blessed." Now, if you look at it, those
verses right before verse 10 seem to be talking about the
people of God, the seed of Christ, the seed of Jesus. and everything. But who is in
context? He's talking about what they
are receiving based upon who's at the beginning. The Spirit
of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to
preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind
up the brokenhearted, to proclaim the liberty to the captives and
the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance to our
God, to comfort all that mourn, and to appoint unto them that
morn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil for
joy and 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." So this is the activity
of one person on behalf of somebody else and somebody else being
the recipients of those very things. And so from verse 4 down
to verse 9, we see the recipients and what they will receive because
of the person in verses one through three. Now, how do we know verses
one through three is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ?
Because as preachers are, and I've heard this, I've actually
preached this before, we preachers are the ones who, by the preaching
of the gospel, are the ones who have been anointed to preach
good tidings under the means. We are the ones sent out to bind
up the brokenhearted with the preaching of our gospel, to proclaim
liberty to the captives and open the prisons to them that are
bound. We see that in the New Testament. The New Testament
talks about those things, but is that talking about this preacher? No, it's talking about the preacher.
It's talking about Jesus Christ. Turn with me, if you would, over
to Luke chapter 4. The New Testament gives commentary
on this Old Testament passage. Luke chapter 4, and we find out
exactly who this preacher is that preaches these things. We
do have preachers and they are important, brethren. God has
ordained that there be preachers within the church. But listen,
unless THE preacher, unless THE preacher preaches, there is no
success. Luke chapter 4, and if you would
look with me starting in verse 14. Luke chapter 4 and verse
14. And Jesus returned, this is after
the temptation in the wilderness. The temptation in the wilderness
with the devil. Verse 14, and Jesus returned
in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. And 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 stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaias, or Isaiah. way of saying Isaiah. So here's Christ. He went into
the synagogue and he begins to preach. And he's preaching from the book
of 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 has 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, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and gave
it again to the minister and sat down, and the eyes of all
of them that were in the synagogue were fastened upon him. And he
began to say to them, this day Is this scripture fulfilled in
your ears? So here we see that Christ Jesus
Himself has given commentary on Isaiah 61 on who this person
is. It's Himself. Jesus Christ is
the preacher who has been anointed of God to preach deliverance,
to preach liberty to those who are in Zion. He's the one who
has been given to preach these things and to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God and to
comfort all that mourn." He is the preacher. He is the one in
view here. So now, whenever we get down
to verse 10, and it says after the person in view talks about
all he has done and is doing for his people, He says, I will
greatly rejoice in my Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God,
for he hath clothed me, not we, not us, even though that's true,
he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. Now, let's look
at a few more verses, and I'm gonna talk about that here in
just a minute. But let's, there in Isaiah, go back to chapter
11 of Isaiah. Go back to chapter 11 of Isaiah, starting in verse 1. Isaiah 11,
verse 1. It says, And there shall come
forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow
out of his roots, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.
The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, and shall
make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. And
he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove
after the hearing of his ears." Now remember, brethren, Jesus Christ is God manifested
in the flesh. He is God who has taken on human
flesh. But the flesh that He has taken
on is not natural. It is not of the earth earthy. It is not sinful. It is perfect. It is holy. It is righteous. There is no blemish in that flesh
that He has. While He took on the form of
His people, He is not exactly like His people because He is
God manifested in the flesh. He is not of this world. He is of Heaven. The Bible says
that He has came down from Heaven. That He has assumed this flesh,
but listen, this flesh is not of the earth earthy. Otherwise,
He would be of Adam, and if He was of Adam, then He would have
been like us in the fact that we are sinners. And He did not
have a sin nature. He did not have the flesh that
could not keep the law of God. He was different. liken them
to us, but different, right? Now, we see here, it says here,
the spirit of the Lord rests upon him, the spirit of wisdom,
understanding, of counsel, of might, of knowledge, and of fear
of the Lord. You say, well, how come he had
the fear of the Lord if he was God? Well, remember the Bible
tells us that Jesus in Philippians, it says that even though he thought
equality with God was not robbery, to be equal with God is not robbery. He took on the form of a servant. He took on a form of a servant.
Who are God's servants? His elect, right? His elect are
his servants. I would also say the non-elect
are his servants, too, in the fact that they have been created
also for a purpose, to bring forth and show forth the glory
of God in judgment, okay? They are created as wicked, they
are created as reprobates, they are created for destruction,
Romans 9 tells us. And so, but as the form of a
servant, he came in the form of a servant, but he was still
equal with God. because he was God manifested
in the flesh. Colossians tells us that all
the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily. That he is
the image of the invisible God, that Christ is that triune witness
of God manifested in flesh. Right? So he, taking on the form
of a servant, in his submission in that nature, in his submission
as coming in the flesh on our behalf, as our substitute, as
our surety, as our mediator. He come in our form, in our place,
and he feared the Lord. He submitted himself to God and
all the terms of the covenant of what he was coming to do on
our behalf, to substitute for us. He did all those things. And therefore, if we have wisdom,
if we have understanding, if we have counsel, if we have knowledge,
if we have fear, it is because of our union with Christ Jesus
and because the first seed had those characteristics, all of
His seed that's in Him will also have those characteristics. He
will give unto them the same characteristics that He had.
That goes all the way back to Genesis and the principle that's
laid down by God in the very beginning, that all seeds brought
forth after their own kind, right? Adam brought forth after his
own kind, people of the flesh who could not keep the law of
God. Christ, the second Adam, brought
forth his seed, a spiritual seed, not born of earth, but born from
above, and that seed cannot sin. It is perfect, created in true
holiness and righteousness. Ones that fear God, ones who
are given understanding by the Spirit of God whenever the Spirit
of God gives them such. It says, And he shall make of
him quick understanding in the fear of the Lord, and he shall
not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after
the hearing of the ears. But with righteousness shall
he judge the poor, and reproved with equity from the meek of
the earth. And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his
mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the
girdle of his loins." Okay, so he's going to be clothed in righteousness. It's a visual thing. He himself
is righteousness, right? We just sang the hymn, Jehovah
said to me, the Lord our righteousness. He's not righteous because He
does righteous things. He's righteous because He is
righteous. Therefore, everything He does
is righteous. We are sinners, not because we
sin, but because we have the nature to sin. The reason we
sin is because that is our nature. We sin. Sin comes forth from
the nature of sin. Righteousness comes forth from
the nature of righteousness. Christ is righteous in and of
Himself. That's His characteristic. That's
who He is. He is the embodiment of righteousness. Therefore, anything He does is
righteous. Righteous works are His works.
If we do righteous works, it's because God has done righteous
works in us. Not because we've figured it
out, not because we've studied hard enough, not because we've
chastened ourselves to the point of, you know, we've struggled
and we've brought ourselves into submission. Listen, Paul only
brought himself into submission, his body into submission, because
the Holy Spirit of God had enabled him to do so. It was not Paul's
flesh that brought himself into submission. I know people might
use that phrase and that term. But here we see, and righteousness
shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of
his reins. So we see here that he is clothed
in righteousness. We see that the Spirit is upon
him. Who is it talking about? It's talking about Christ. Isaiah
61, that must be Christ because the Spirit of the Lord was on
Christ. The Spirit of the Lord gave Him
to be adorned in these things and to be clothed with righteousness. Let's go to the New Testament
in Matthew chapter 3. Matthew chapter 3. Let's look
at verse 16. Matthew chapter 3 and verse 16. It said, And Jesus, when He was
baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and, lo, the
heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove and lighting upon Him. And, lo, a voice from
heaven sang, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
Now, the only reason that God can say that He is pleased with
anybody is because they are righteous, right? Whenever God, if God be pleased
with us, He's pleased with us, not because of our flesh and
the works that we do in them, but He's pleased because of Christ's
work on our behalf. His righteousness is who He sees,
who He takes into account as our righteousness. Notice there
again, we see the Bible once again talks about the Spirit
of God being upon Christ Jesus. Look, if you would, at John chapter
1. The Gospel of John chapter 1.
Look with me if you would down to verse 29. It says, The next
day John see of Jesus coming unto him and said, Behold, the
Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. This is
He of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before
me, for he was before me. Now I'm just going to make a
side note here. This isn't part of what I'm talking about, but
I just want you to notice what John says here. John the Baptist
is saying that Jesus is preferred or takes preference or takes
position above me. He is preferred of God above
me. Okay? He is preferred before
me. He said, for he was before me. Now, if anybody is a student
of the scriptures and has been taught of God knows, that John
the Baptist is Jesus' cousin by flesh, by birth there. He is John's cousin and he was
born six months before Jesus was born. So how can John say
that Jesus was before him when Jesus was, or Jesus was born
six months after John? Well, he's talking about the
fact that Jesus is the eternal God. Jesus was before him. And I would even go so far to
say, and this raises some hairs in some circles, I guess, but
I would even say Jesus in his manhood was before John. Jesus took on manhood as the
mediator between God and man before he came by the Virgin. The Bible says that there is
only one mediator between God and man and that's the man, Jesus
Christ. When did Jesus Christ assume
his mediatorial office? He assumed it in the covenant
of grace. That was before the world began. The Bible says in
John chapter 6 that he came down, he was the bread that came down
out of heaven. And he said, this bread is my
body. So I would put forth that Jesus'
manhood has been there from the very
beginning of creation. The Bible says that he is the
firstborn of all creation. But that's just a side note there.
Let's continue on. He says, verse 31, and I knew
him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel Therefore
I am come baptizing with water. And John bear record saying,
I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and then a
boat upon him. And I knew him not, but he that
sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom
thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same
as he which baptized with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bear
record that this is the Son of God. So here we see very clearly
the Bible in three places. The Bible says, in the mouth
of two or three witnesses, the thing is established. We see
that Christ had the Spirit of God upon Him. Therefore, I say
that in Isaiah 61, back to our passage, that this is speaking
of Christ Jesus. He is in context there. Now,
let's go back to Isaiah 61, and let's look at a few things. Isaiah 61, back to verse 10.
It says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be
joyful in my God, for He hath clothed me with garments of salvation,
He hath covered me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom
decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself
with her jewels. Now, we find that this petition
in the Psalms, If you want to start turning there, Psalms chapter
20. We find a petition there that's being prayed, being asked
about. Psalms chapter 20. Starting in verse 1, it says, The Lord
hear thee in the day of trouble. The name of the God of Jacob
defend thee. Send thee help from the sanctuary
and strengthen thee out of Zion. Remember all thy offerings and
accept thy burnt sacrifice, Selah. Grant thee according to thine
own heart and fulfill all thy counsel. Grant thee according
to thine own heart and fulfill all thy counsel. We will rejoice
in thy salvation and in the name of our God, we will set up our
banners The Lord fulfill all thy petitions. Now know I that
the Lord saveth his anointed. He will hear him from his holy
heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. Some trust
in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name
of the Lord our God. They are brought down and fallen,
but we are risen and stand upright. Save, Lord, Let the King hear
us when we call." So here is the cry or a plea, a petition
from the people of God to Jehovah that the King might save them,
that the King might be victorious in His work. And then we go to
the next Psalm, Psalm 21, and we see the answer to this petition. It says, The King shall joy in
thy strength, O Lord, and in thy salvation, how greatly shall
he rejoice. Now we just read in Isaiah 61,
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. And here we see in the psalmist
speaking of Christ Jesus. The King shall joy in thy strength,
O Lord, and in thy salvation, how greatly shall he rejoice.
Thou hast given him his heart's desire." Didn't the people just
pray that grant thee according to thy own heart and fulfill
all thy counsel, God's desire? What is that desire? Do we know
what that is? We're going to look at that here
in just a minute, but let's read on. He says, Thou hast given him
his heart's desire and hast not withholding the request of his
lips. For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness.
That word preventus there in the Hebrew and also Old English,
by the way, the time of King James writing, that word preventus
there is not stop. Okay. When we use the word prevent,
it means, It means to keep from, to stop from happening. But this word prevent us here
means to allow, to bring forth, to show forth. For thou preventest
him with the blessings of goodness, thou settest a crown of pure
gold on his head. So here we see the blessings
of goodness and a crown of gold set upon his head. He asks life
of thee. and thou gavest him even length
of days forever and ever. His glory is great in thy salvation. Honor and majesty hast thou laid
upon him, for thou hast made him most blessed forever. Thou
hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance. For the
king trusteth in the Lord, and through the mercy of the Most
High he shall not be moved." So here we see that the king
is trusting in God. Looking to God, trusting on Him. We see all these things that
is indicative of Christ and His submission. It says, For the
king trusteth in the Lord, and through the mercy of the Most
High he shall not be moved. Thine hand shall find out all
thine enemies. Thy right hand shall find out
those that hate thee. What does that mean? That means
God's enemies are not going to hide, are not going to get away
with anything. They're not going to slip by. They're not going
to slip through the cracks, so to speak. They're not going to
be able to escape His judgment. Now, didn't we just read that
Christ had been given power of judgment? He says, the Lord shall swallow
them up in His wrath and the fire shall devour them. Their
fruit shall thou destroy from the earth and their seed from
among the children of men. Remember, we're of the seed of
Christ. The reprobate is of the seed
of the devil. They're the children of the devil. The devil has planted
them in the world. Christ has planted His seed throughout
the world. Now, ultimately, God has predestined
where every person's habitation is. But the Bible says that the
seed of the wicked one, that the wicked one is the one who
planted them. That Satan is the one who has planted them in the
world, which is the soil, which is the ground. Right? It says the fruit shalt thou
destroy from the earth and their seed from among the children
of men. God's gonna destroy the wicked from among his people. For they intended evil against
thee, they imagined a mischief device, which they are not able
to perform. Therefore shalt thou make them
turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon
thy strings against the face of them. Be thou exalted, Lord,
in thine own strength, so we will sing and praise thy power. So we see here that this rejoicing
was the rejoicing of the success that was prayed about in Psalm
20. And so we find that God had given
Christ the desire of His heart. Now what was that that He wanted?
What was the desire of Christ? What is His desire? Well, I got
to looking at places in the Scripture that speaks of the desire of
Christ and one is found in the Song of Solomon. Turn, if you
would, to the book of Song of Solomon. A lot of people don't
really read the Song of Solomon very much, and I'll be honest,
I don't read it real often myself. A lot of people think this is
talking about a husband and a wife's relationship and how we ought
to read that to know how we are to treat our husbands and our
wives. This is a little romance novel
that God has placed in the Bible for our reading. Good romance
novels. This is the romance novels that
you can read, Christian ladies. Stuff like that. This is just
like every other book of the Bible. This is a book about Jesus
Christ. This is a book about Christ and
His redemptive work. It's about Christ, His redemptive
work, and his redemptive work of his people, his love for his
people. But brethren, don't forget, everything in this book is about
Christ. But look with me, if you would,
at Psalm 7, look at verse 10. It says, I am my beloved's, and
this is the bride, this is the wife talking. It says, I am my
beloved's, and his desire is toward me. Ain't that amazing to think that
Christ's desire is towards His people? His love, His devotion. The Bible says that He ever lives
to intercede for us. That's His whole purpose of taking
on flesh, that He ever lives to intercede for us. That's why
He assumed the flesh. That's why He has remained in
flesh. That's why He will continue to
be in flesh throughout all time. because He ever lives to not
only be God manifested in the flesh so that man who cannot
see an invisible God might see a visible God, but that we might also be reminded
of His ever intercession on our behalf. When we see Christ in
flesh, we will always be reminded of His broken body and His shed
blood. We will always be reminded about
how He took on Himself our infirmities. We will be reminded when we see
Him in body form. We will be reminded, now brethren,
know that His body is glorified. Our bodies will be eventually
glorified whenever He comes for us. But brethren, the very fact
that Christ still has assumed flesh and whatever kind of flesh
that is after his resurrection, I'll be honest, I don't know.
It's not the same as it was before, but it's still flesh. It's flesh
and bone. And listen, the Bible says that
that flesh and that bone, him being man, He is ever living
to intercede for us. I can't imagine that, but that's
because He has been given a desire, or He has a desire. He can't
be given anything. He has a desire for His people. Now, we see another thing in
Psalm. Go back to Psalm 21. In the Psalms there, we read,
and I kind of made note of it, and said we'd come back to it,
But if you notice there in the psalm, chapter 21 and verse 3, it says,
Thou sendest a crown of pure gold upon his head. That word crown there, and back
in our passage in Isaiah 61, the word crown there, in Isaiah
61.10, It says, as a bride adorneth
herself with her jewels, that word jewels there, that word
there means diadem. A crown is a diadem. You know, we sing the song, crown
him with many crowns, bring forth the royal diadem, okay? We don't make him king. We don't
crown him as king. That song is a little bit off
theologically, biblically. We don't crown Him. God has crowned
Himself. God is who He is. Nobody makes
Him king. Now, it could be talking forth
as the procession of where the king who owns the crown, who
is rightfully His, has always been His, has the procession
where the people bring forth and show forth their submission
to Him by placing the crown upon His head, but it doesn't make
Him the king. Now, I can probably get around
that just a little bit, maybe. But brethren know that he has
the crown, he has the diadem, he has the jewels to show forth
his majestic person. That he is the king of kings.
That he is over all. That he is the sovereign of the
universe. He is the sovereign of all things.
And so we see here that Christ is the one that has the crown,
right? He is the king. The Bible says he is the king
of kings, by the way. All these kings that we see in
this world are nothing. He is the king. He is the only
king. All the other kings are frauds.
They say that I'm a sovereign of my territory where I live,
All like that, and underneath kings they have what's called
lords. This is in the old feudal system
back in the old days. They may still have it now over
in those European countries, but they had kings, and under
the kings they had lords. The lords were not quite the
kings, but they were an establishment, and therefore they had underneath
them all their servants. So they were given portions of
land that they were to rule over under the king. Well, the Bible says that he
is the king of kings and the Lord of lords. All the kings
and all the lords that are spoken of in this world are nothing. He is the king and he is the
Lord. All others are just frauds. They will not have any say so.
They will not have any power. They will not have any sovereignty. Matter of fact, they don't even
have any sovereignty now. So we see Christ, he's got the
diadem, he's got the crown, he's got the robe of righteousness,
he's got the decking himself with ornaments. Now what does
that mean? What does that mean? What is the decking of the ornaments?
Well, the decking of the ornaments, that word decking there, it means
to officiate as a priest. It means to mediate. Who is the priest? Who is the
mediator? Is it not Christ Jesus? In verse
10 it says, that 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, or as the bridegroom officiates
as priest with ornaments. Another word ornaments there.
also means jewels. We see also he talks about being
adorned with jewels. I kind of got to putting some things
together and I pray that this is the Spirit that put them together
and put them in my mind and everything. But the Bible talks about Christ
putting on the breastplate of righteousness. That the armor
of the Lord, in the New Testament, the Bible says, put on the full
armor of the Lord. In most churches, everybody thinks
that that is us getting in our Bibles, and we're putting on
all this, and we start naming each one of these armors. It
says, you know, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of
righteousness, and have your loins girded about with the gospel
and all this stuff. And it talks about that, and
we think, well, that's what we have to do. We have to arm ourselves
with this armor so that we can defend ourselves against the
devil. But brethren, that's not what the New Testament teaching
is about the armor of God. When it tells us to put on the
whole armor of God, what that's telling us is put on Christ.
Christ is the armor. Everything about every piece
of armor, you go to the New Testament, you read every piece of that
armor and every piece of that armor speaks of Christ. The shield of faith. We are justified
by the faith of Christ, the sword of the spirit. He's the one who
has the spirit without measure. The helmet of salvation. We just
read he is the garment of salvation. He is salvation. Salvation belongs
to the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. He
is salvation. The breastplate of righteousness,
He is our righteousness or our covering. He is our righteousness. The gospel is the gospel of Jesus
Christ. The gospel is about Him. So every
piece of that armor speaks of Christ Jesus. And so what it
says when it says put on the armor of God, it means to Reckon
yourself in Christ Jesus and rest in His work alone. That's how you put out the fiery
darts of the devil. The fiery darts of the devil
are darts that are telling you to try to make righteousness
of your own works, of your own flesh, to lean upon your own
understanding, to do your own thing, to not follow after the
half God said. That's the fiery darts of the
devil. Fiery darts of the devil isn't
being poor, being sick, having an old clunker car that the people
on TV tell you are, you've got to resist the devil and you'll
be rich. I don't know about you guys, but
my whole Christian life, I've been poor. I'm not as poor as
some people, but I'm definitely not rich. Monetarily, get by
paycheck to paycheck. Is it because we don't have enough
faith? Because we're in the wrong denomination? Do you think we're
in the denomination? No. What is all this talking
about? The fiery darts of the devil is the very fact that Satan
tries to attack our mind and to try to tell us that our dependency
needs to be in and of ourselves and not of Christ. But Christ
is everything that shields us from anything. It's His salvation. And here
we see the breastplate of righteousness is Christ Jesus. Do you remember the priests in
the Old Testament? They would put on a breastplate in that ephod that they would
wear? They would put on a breastplate,
and on that breastplate they would have what? What did they
have on there? They had 12 jewels. Each one
of those jewels engraved with the names of each one of the
tribes of Israel. Now, what does that mean spiritually?
What do we take away from that in the spiritual understanding
of those things? Well, those 12 tribes of Israel signify the
complete and totality of the people of God. It is all the
elect of God. The 12 tribes of Israel are all
the tribes of God. that represents all the people
of God. When the priest put on that breastplate,
he not only had those jewels there, but on his shoulders,
he had those jewels. He bore the weight of the people
that he was representing. He had on his heart the people
of his desire that he was going to do the work for. And whenever
he made the sacrifice, it was for them and them only. Those
jewels, That's who He was going to sacrifice for. The priest
was doing priestly work as the mediator on their behalf. Not everybody else, but only
those that's on the breastplate of righteousness. On the breastplate
that He had engraved their names. It was them and them only. Brethren,
that signifies that the breastplate is that breastplate of Christ
where His desire is for His people. And every one of them, He knows
each and every one of them's name. Not one of them will be
lost. Everyone for whom the Lord sacrificed,
not only as the priest, but as the sacrifice, He mediated on
their behalf, and He was the one who took the judgment on
their behalf. Everyone for whom Christ died, that breastplate,
everyone for whom Christ died, the blood will be sprinkled on
their behalf. Whenever the priests finished
that sacrifice and the sprinkling of that blood, it was announced
to everybody for whom those jewels represented that your atonement
has been made, your sins have been forgiven. Whenever Jesus
died in our place, every child of grace from Adam to whoever's
the last one on the face of this earth, before the Lord comes
back again and ends everything. Which, by the way, didn't happen
a few days ago as all the date setters were saying. Pet peeve of mine. Quit setting
dates and times that Jesus is coming back. That just gives
Christianity a black eye every time it doesn't happen. The Lord
said nobody's gonna know the day or the hour, right? And you
think you're gonna figure it out when Jesus said nobody's
gonna know that except the Father? Okay, so let's quit doing that. People making fun of Christianity
because of people that do that. All right, that's my so-called
school thing. The breastplate represented everybody
for whom Christ would die. That's what that represented
when the priest put that on. And He would sprinkle that blood.
And the announcement of atonement was made. And those people were
all covered. Brethren, it pleased the Lord
to be bruised for His people. It pleased the Lord to go and
set His face like a plant to the cross. Why? Because it was
His desire. His desire was for His people.
His love was for His people. And as the priest, to be a uh, uh, a words leave in my mind
to be a priest who is doing his job correctly to be a good priest. Each day they got up and made
those sacrifices over and over and over and over and over. But the Bible says that Christ
one time made the sacrifice And at that sacrifice He made
for all of His people, then the Bible says, He sat down at the
right hand of God and ever lives to intercede for us. See, that
priest wore that breastplate because it was the people for
whom He did what? Mediated. Interceded for. It was the one He represented.
He was representing on their behalf. Now, brethren, they received,
all those people that was in that breastplate received the
blessing from what that priest did on their behalf. For that
everyone for whom Christ died receives the benefits of salvation,
the blessings of salvation, or as the Bible speaks of it, receives
the, as heirs according to the promise, receives the inheritance
because of what He did for us. So brethren, I can only see in
this passage in verse 10, I can only see that this is primarily
speaking of Christ Jesus, but it does extend to the family
of God because we are in union with Him. And because we are
in union with Him, Him being our substitute, everything that
He received, we received. Everything that He did, we did.
Everything that is pronounced for Him is pronounced for us. Salvation is of the Lord. It isn't from us. Glory is His
and not ours. He is the one who is most glorious. He is the one who is going to
be displayed throughout all time, King of kings, Lord of lords.
When the Bible says, holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts. The
whole earth is filled with His glory. That means everything
that He has created, everything that He has done in its purpose,
in its place, for the reason that He created it, shows forth
His glory. Whether it be for damnation,
whether it be for salvation, whether it be for profit, whether
it be for ruin, whether it be for keeping, whether it be for
destroying, Whether it be for good times, whether it be for
bad times, whether it be for rich or for poor, whether it
be for sad, for happy, whether it be for here or over there,
everything God has made for Himself. The Bible says, for of Him and
through Him and to Him are all things be glory forever. Amen.
Brethren, this man, Jesus Christ, He is the one who is clothed
with the garments of salvation. And therefore, we are in Him
and clothed with the garments of salvation. He is the one who
is covered with the robe of righteousness. Therefore, because we are in
Him, we are covered with the robe of righteousness. He is
decked with the ornaments and the jewels. And therefore, as
being in Him, we too will be glorified as He is glorified. We will be decked in a perfect
body that knows no sin, as He now resides in a body that knows
no sin. We will be like Him, the Bible
says. Conform to the image of Christ. Brother, I don't know how that's
gonna happen. God can do anything. I don't
know what it's gonna be like when it does happen. I just look
forward for when it does happen. that sin and this body is ready
to see Christ. Well, I say sin is. I'm ready
to get rid of sin and see this body changed. But brethren, more
than anything, we are thankful on behalf of Christ Jesus for
all that he has done on our behalf. All right, does anybody have
any comments or any questions or anything that you'd like to,
corrections? Father, we once again come to
you thanking you so much for the Lord Jesus Christ and the
work that he has done on our behalf. Lord, we're so grateful
for salvation that it's of the Lord and not of our own works,
Father, lest we never attain to the righteousness to be accepted
by you. Father, we're grateful that righteousness
is something that is given, not something that is earned. We
thank you for Christ Jesus and the righteousness that he has
established on our behalf. We thank you, Father, for the
forgiveness of sins. Lord Jesus, we thank you for
all that you do for us in that covenant of grace, the sending
of your spirit to teach us, the sending of your spirit to grow
us, and the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ to give
us understanding, to give us repentance, to give us faith,
Father, to direct us in the paths of righteousness, that we might
walk in the way that you would have us to walk as you enabled
us through the gifts of the Spirit. Father, we just thank you for
these things, and we know that our flesh cannot produce these,
and we know that there is nothing that we do in this flesh that
will profit, but only as what is done in the Spirit of God
that's in us. And so, Father, Lord, we are
thankful for that mighty Word that you have sent of your Son
in his spirit to us. Lord, we thank you for all these
that are here. Again, as always, I pray for those that might be
yours here today, Lord, that you have yet to call to repentance
and faith, or that you might call them today even to repent
of their own desire to gain righteousness through their fleshly work, that
they might see Christ alone as their righteousness. Father,
Lord, that you might grant them faith to believe upon you. And Lord, we just pray that in and
through that, Lord, that you might also give them the desire
to be baptized, as you have called us to do. And Lord, that they
might be added to the church upon that baptism, that they
might be also partakers of the fellowship Thank you so much for your salvation
and again for Christ Jesus who bore our sin on the cross that
we might be saved. It's in his name that we pray.