The Preacher and His People

All right, brethren, Isaiah chapter 61. This is the Lord speaking, and he said, in Isaiah 61, he said, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. When we go through the scripture verse by verse, we hear the gospel repeated over and over. We see the same message over and over. That's because there's only one gospel, the message of our Lord Jesus Christ, and it's because we need to hear the gospel over and over. It's safe for us.

And around the first of the year, going through Luke, heard our Lord Jesus read this passage, and when he got to the end of it, he declared he's the fulfillment of it. He said, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. This is concerning him.

The word, the Greek word that's translated shepherd, poimen, is pastor. The Lord God anointed the Lord Jesus to be the pastor of his church, the head of his church, to preach good tidings to his people. And he declares here what he gives us through the gospel, what he works through the gospel. And this is why we need the gospel. This is why we need the gospel, because we need Christ. We need the bishop and shepherd of our souls. and he's the one who makes us hear and believe and continues these things we're gonna see.

He continues to do in his people through the preaching of the word. I titled this The Preacher and His People. We're gonna see the preacher, the message, and the outcome, what he works in his people. Now, the preacher is our Lord Jesus. Christ is God's anointed shepherd. He's the bishop of our souls.

He says here, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. Anointed means to be officially authorized, to be set apart and chosen for a specific office. We know when our Lord was baptized, the Holy Spirit came upon him so we could see in the form of a dove. And that was publicly declaring he's God's anointed. He's the one God anointed to preach the gospel. But the reason the spirit came upon him was there in the second part in verse one, he said, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings.

The Holy Spirit came upon him in time and anointed him because before time, the Father anointed him to be salvation, to be the mediator, to be the bishop and shepherd of our souls. Before time, the Lord anointed him, before creation, God the Father chose his son to be the savior, to be the prophet, priest, and king of his people. He was anointed in the decree of God before creation, Peter said he was ordained before the foundation of the world.

In Micah 5.2, he said, thou Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel, whose going forth have been from old of everlasting. He was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, wherever the earth was. God chose his son to be the gospel. He worked everything involved that we call the gospel. It's Christ and his work, and that's what he preached, Christ and his work.

And when a sinner's anointed, it's the same thing. When we're given the unction from the Father, It's not to make us sons of God, it's because we already were sons of God. That's what we saw in Galatians 4. He said, because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying, I have a father. That's so when the Lord sends a preacher. He told Jeremiah, before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. And before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nation.

It's a great comfort and a great blessing to know God purposed what he will. He chose his son, he chose his people and his son according to his sovereign will. And he purposed Christ would be the salvation of his people, He would work the works to save us. He purposed that he would be the preacher who brought the gospel to us and got the glory for revealing himself in us. And he declared how he would save us at his appointed time.

And here's the blessing. Whatever God purposed, God sovereignly brings it to pass in time. That just struck me as a blessing. I'd never, you know, I preached on this in January, I've preached on it several times, but you always see something you didn't see before. And it struck me when I read it. The spirit of the Lord God's upon me because he hath anointed me, because he already anointed me, that's why the spirit came upon him.

All right, now here's the second thing, the message. So Christ is the messenger, he's the preacher. Now here's the message. The message is good tidings to the meek. He said, the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. Now my first question is, what are the good tidings?

What is the gospel the Lord Jesus was sent to preach? The Lord Jesus is the only preacher who was sent forth to preach himself and his works. Every other preacher he sends is to preach him and his works. But Christ came forth preaching himself as the good news. and his works as the good tidings.

What he accomplished for us, that's the message. Our Lord doesn't send a self-help message. His gospel's not a self-help gospel. Our Lord sends the gospel to the meek, to the poor, to those who cannot help themselves. And he has to make us know that about ourselves. We don't know we're poor and meek, that we cannot save ourselves. He has to reveal that to us, to give us.

And the reason that's such a good thing, when he makes you to know you're the poor, the poor have the gospel preached to them. That's what he told John when he said, this is how you know Christ has come. The poor have the gospel preached to them. If you're the poor, the Lord sent the gospel to you. That's who he preaches his gospel to. And here's why it's good news.

The meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way. The Lord's not teaching proud sinners. Proud sinners that think they can contribute. Proud sinners that think they bring themselves to God, they just need a little help. He's not teaching them. He said, the meek will he guide in judgment. The meek will he teach his way. If a man thinks he's rich in his works, he's not poor. If a man thinks he's rich with some natural ability and some natural goodness in him, he's not poor.

The Lord has to make us poor. He has to make us meek. Now, if he's made us meek and poor so that we know that the unsearchable riches of Christ are how we're enriched, not of us. We're bankrupt in our self, we're poor. but we know it's only by his riches that we're enriched.

He said, I will leave in the midst of thee and afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. He will see to it. They will trust in the name of the Lord. The Lord taketh pleasure in his people. He will beautify the meek with salvation.

The message is for the brokenhearted. That's who the gospel's for, for the brokenhearted. Verse one, he said, he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted. Now, we're not broken hearted by nature. We're proud hearted, stony hearted. Christ is the breaker.

That's what he's called in Micah 2.13. The breaker is come upon, the breaker is come up before them.

Through the gospel, through preaching the gospel, Christ creates a new heart in us, a heart of flesh, a heart that can feel and is teachable, that's poor in spirit. And by making us know our sin, he breaks that heart. He gives you this new heart and he makes you brokenhearted by showing us our sin and our guilt before God and that our sins against God and against our Savior. That's how he makes us to know ourselves.

And if he didn't do this, we wouldn't know this. Because the heart we're born with, the old heart, the natural heart, the sinful heart, the dead heart, we come forth with. He said, is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? We cannot know ourselves. We can't know what we are unless the Lord teaches. And when he does teach us, he's gonna make us broken hearted.

Now, if there's anybody here broken in heart over your sin, and this is so, God's people never stop mourning our sin. We never stop being broken hearted over our sin. But the good news is Christ is the physician, and he specializes in broken hearts, that's his specialty. Our Lord Jesus Christ brings the good news of the gospel and he heals us.

He said, he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. He gives us this spiritual reasoning. This is spiritual reasoning right here. The natural man, this would not make sense at all. But when Christ has broken our heart, made us hear the law, and hear that we're the sinner and that we're guilty, and know something of the weight of our sin, so that our hearts are broken. Here's the reasoning he gives us.

Hosea 6.1, we say, come, let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn, and he will heal us. He hath smitten, he will bind us up. That's what our Lord does. Each of us here who believe the Lord, you know This cry right here, we cry this often. This is the cry of our heart continually. We hate our old nature of sin, we hate our sin, and we see it. Sometimes I think, I think that, you know, what Rebecca said, why am I thus? Why am I thus?

Well, you know, it's just like he told her, you got two people in you. You got an old man and a new man. You got an Esau and a Jacob. a new man and an old man. But here's what we cry. Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed. Save me, and I shall be saved. For Thou art my praise. That's our constant cry to Him. And Christ doesn't discard those He's given a broken heart. When He makes you know your sin, it makes you see you have no merit in you to come to Him. That's when he draws you to him. That's when we come to him. And that's the only way you can come to him.

And he keeps us happy because he healeth the broken in heart and he bindeth up their wounds. And he keep, when we need to be chastened, and he breaks our heart when he chastens us, but he heals us. All with the same gospel. The same gospel. He speaks pointedly and reveals the sin of our heart, breaks our heart, the same gospel heals our heart. Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth. Therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty, for he maketh sore and bindeth up. He woundeth and his hands make whole. He does both. We need him to do both.

And the healing is Christ himself. He said, behold, I will bring health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. That's the healing, the abundance of peace and truth. Christ our peace comes and makes us know he's made abundance of peace with God on our behalf. And he makes his child be reconciled to God. He makes you stop fighting God, whether it's the first hour or any point in our life as a believer. And he brings you to be reconciled to God, to submit to the Lord, an abundance of peace.

He makes you know he justified us. We're redeemed by his blood. We're justified by him. We're righteous in him. And it's abundance of truth. And that truth is Christ, Christ the truth. He's the truth. He came to us in truth and he made us know him in spirit and in truth.

That's what he said in Jeremiah 33.6. I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them and reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. That's the cure. Now, the message is this, liberty, freedom, redemption for captives.

He says here in Isaiah 61.1, he sent me to preach good tidings to the poor, to the meek, He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. By nature, we're prisoners of our own sin nature. Our sin nature is the prison as we come into this world.

Free will is the biggest lie that could be told. It's the biggest lie that could be told. And people get that simply because you got up this morning and you made you a cup of coffee and you went to work and you got dressed and went to work and you drove and you came home and you've done all these things. So the man says, look, I'm free, my will's free.

Our sin nature's like the walls of a prison. A prisoner can get up, he can make him some coffee, He can go sit back on his cot. He can get up and do pushups. He can do a lot of things within those walls, but he can't get out of those walls. And that's our sin nature. Here's what we can't do because of our sin nature. We cannot stop trusting ourselves and thinking we're all right. We can't cease working for salvation. We cannot believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and trust him alone to save. We can't do that by nature. A sinner cannot do that. His sin nature will not let him do that. We won't do it, but it's worse than that. He says we cannot do that.

And the other way we're prisoners is we were legally imprisoned by the law and found guilty. And so we were guilty under the curse of the law. As far as we knew it, or somebody asked me this the other day, when were we under the curse? And when did the curse come off of us? God's people never really were under the curse in the purpose of God because he chose us in Christ before we ever became guilty.

And he never looked to us. He only looked to Christ. Christ became our surety. And so he only looked to Christ. But as far as we were concerned, we were like a prisoner on death row. We deserve the second death. That's what we deserve. The death penalty was hanging over us.

But our Lord Jesus Christ came and he took the place of his people and he redeemed us from the death penalty. That's what he redeemed us from, by being made a curse for us. He took our death penalty and he bore that for his people and redeemed us from it. And then he came to us through this gospel and freed us from our sin nature. how powerful the gospel is because Christ is the power of it. He came forth and created a new nature and gave us faith and repentance so we could stop trusting ourselves. We saw our old man for the first time. People talk about an out-of-body experience. That's kind of what regeneration is. He gives you a new man and you see your old man for the first time.

And you realize, I'm nothing but a sinner. And he frees you by granting you repentance from trusting anything about yourself. And he grants you faith to believe on him. He's the only one that gave you that liberty. That's his glory to give. Look back at Isaiah 42, verse seven. That's his glory to do through this gospel. He's the one that worked it for us, and he's the one that's gonna apply it in our heart. God gave him that glory. Isaiah 42 Here the Lord God is speaking to his son Christ Jesus He said at the end of verse 6 I've given thee for a covenant of the people for a light of the Gentiles to open the blind eyes To bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house I'm the Lord that's my name and my glory will I not give to another his glory is to come and show us this and create this new man by the Spirit of God, and bring us out and make us free.

I always think of Barabbas when I think of this because it's such a good illustration. The first time I heard this, I heard Henry Mahan preach it, and Brother Henry preached it so clearly. But, you know, that ruler Barabbas' own death row, and that ruler cried out, and he said, who do you want me to set free? And the people screamed, Barabbas, Barabbas, Barabbas.

That's all Barabbas heard, Barabbas, Barabbas, Barabbas. And then the ruler said, and who do you want me to crucify? Or no, what do you want me to do with this man, Jesus? And they said, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him. So all Barabbas hears is Barabbas, Barabbas, crucify him, crucify him. That's what we heard when the Lord made us hear the law. You heard your name and you heard death. You deserve death.

And that jailer came and opened that prison door and told Barabbas, you are free to go because Christ took your place. And that's what God reveals to you. You're free to go. You're free because the Lord Jesus laid down his life in your place. He told those prisoners, Lawman that came to arrest him. He said you can take me but you got to let these go free and our Lord Jesus Willingly gave himself to the law to justice to bear our death and Now he says you're free and if he sets you free you shall be free indeed Free from your sin nature free from the curse of the law. That's freedom. That's freedom The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. That's what he did. He paid it all.

The message is that this right now is the season of grace. He says in verse two, he came to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God. Both of these are to comfort his people. The acceptable year refers to that Old Testament year of jubilee.

On the 50th year, they were to blow a jubilee trumpet and all debts were canceled. All possessions were returned to the one who had lost all his possession and all the slaves were freed on the year of jubilee. Scripture never shows us that that ever happened. For one, sinful men didn't want to give up their slaves, and they didn't want to give up the one that they took the possessions from. But two, the greater meaning is this. Under the old covenant, under the law, you can never be set free by your works. They'll never set you free. So that trumpet was never blown. We never find in scripture it was blown.

But when Christ said, this day is this scripture fulfilled in yours, he was blowing the jubilee trumpet. The trumpet points you to the cross and the Lord Jesus. And when he makes you hear that gospel in your heart, he makes you know he's cleared all your debts before God. He's returned more than you lost in the fall. He set you free from the slavery of sin, death, and hell. and he's your rest now from all that bondage.

He said, go with me to Isaiah 49.7. It's a lot like what we just read, but here it talks about the acceptable year of the Lord. Listen to this. This declares Christ is the fulfillment of it. Look at verse seven.

Isaiah 49.7. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and His Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhoreth. Drop down to verse eight. Thus saith the Lord, in an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee, and I will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant of the people to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages, that thou mayest say to the prisoners, go forth. To them that are in darkness, show yourselves, They shall feed in the ways and their pasture shall be in all places.

This is the day of grace. Really, it's the season of grace. The season of grace. Believe on Christ now. This is one word to believe on Christ. Believe on him now. This is the season of grace. Notice the season of grace is a year. God's long suffering. He's waited a long time since Christ laid down his life. It's been over 2,000 years. It's been a long season of grace, but the day of vengeance is a day and no man knows the day.

It's gonna come in an instant when Christ returned. Believe on Christ now. This is the accepted time. Today's the day of salvation. Believe on him now and trust him now. Flee to him before the year of grace is over. Now, here's the last thing, the outcome. Here's the outcome. When Christ speaks, this is the outcome. You know, the foolishness of preaching, we're saved through the foolishness of preaching. This is the outcome when he first calls you, this is the outcome when he keeps calling you, this is the outcome when he renews you, when he renews you, when he renews you, this is the outcome, all through the preaching of the gospel.

He's our comfort. He's our comfort. He said, I came to comfort all that mourn. Christ is our consolation. He's our comfort. Lord willing, we're gonna look at this Sunday. So I'm not gonna spend a lot of time here, but here's how Christ personally comforts his people. He gives his preacher the charge, Isaiah 41. He says, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord your God.

Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, cry unto her, to her heart, here's the comfort. Her warfare is accomplished. Her iniquity is pardoned. She's received of the Lord's hand double for all her sin. That's what we're to preach, because that's what Christ comforts us with. Through the preaching of the gospel, he keeps giving us something better, something better.

He says, verse three, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes. Ashes symbolize death. When somebody died, they put ashes on their head and it symbolized death, dust and ashes. Christ gives us beauty, and that is life. In the place of death, he gives you life. And one of these days, think about our bodies. Our bodies are gonna return to dust. Some people, they're ashes. Doesn't matter.

Christ is gonna raise a glorified body, and we're gonna live with him forever. He's gonna give you beauty for ashes and dust. And then he gives you the oil of joy for mourning. These are spiritual blessings. We're not talking about just carnal blessing. These are spiritual through the oil of the spirit. We mourn, Christ gives us joy knowing we have everything in him.

We mourn and he gives you the spirit of the Lord and you have joy. and he does it through the feast of this gospel. We need to constantly come to his table in the feast he's made. And here's what he says, listen, where are you getting this from, Clay? Psalm 23, five, thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies, thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. He does all of this through the preaching of the gospel at his table.

Monday, I was scheduled to go have lunch with Brother Cyril and Sister Lenore. And I don't know what I got Sunday, but by Sunday evening, I was so nauseous, I was just sick. And I couldn't go. And so I was that way until about mid-morning on Tuesday. I started feeling a little better. So I was disappointed to have to tell Brother Cheryl I couldn't come. But I got to thinking about this, and I thought it would be a pretty good illustration.

When you preach, you prepare to preach, it's like preparing a table. And it's like when folks aren't there, that you know you have a word for them. You know you have something that will feed them and be good for their soul. It's like having invited somebody to your table and they can't make it, they don't show up.

It's the same kind of feeling for the preacher. So I'm just giving that as an illustration because it wouldn't be that way if I didn't care about you and love you. It wouldn't be that way at all. But when you're preparing a message, I don't know everything the Lord's gonna do with it and he's gonna apply it in ways I don't know. But there's certain things you see in it, and you think, oh, this'll be good, this'll be good, that's what they need. And you're excited about it. And then if they're not there, it's disappointing. But this is why we need to come to his table.

This is where he gives you the oil of the spirit. You have the spirit, and he can do this with you, reading the word in other ways, but he said this is how he'll bless, through the preaching of his word. And this is where he works this mostly is through here in the gospel. And he gives you this oil and makes your cup run over. Here's what he does, verse three, gives you something better, the garment of praise for the spirit of happiness. Look down at 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's covered me with the robe of righteousness. That's how he takes away our mourning, keeps making us see He's our righteousness in him alone. And he does all this to make us stable and fruitful, stable and fruitful. Verse three, he said that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

He's the husbandman. He plants and he waters. He uses his minister to do it, but the power is all him. He plants, he waters, he grows. He said in the last verse of chapter 60, he said, thy people shall be all righteous, it's his righteousness. He said, they'll inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. He makes us evergreen, everlasting life by Christ Jesus. And when the drought comes, and there will be the trial, the troubles, the drought will come, but he's gonna keep you stable, planted, with your roots running firmly into him, the water of life, and he's gonna keep you looking to him.

He said this in Jeremiah 17, seven, blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is, he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaves shall be green, not ever green, That's Christ the life in you. He's the life that's sustaining our new man. You go through trouble, you go through a hard trial, and people will say, I don't know how you did that. And you know, and you say, I didn't. The Lord did that. But that's what he's saying there.

When the heat cometh, your roots are gonna be running to the river, and her leaves shall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. Stable, rooted in Christ, planted by Him, having His righteousness, having His Spirit in you, the life in you. And what is the fruit that's going to be sure to produce? You're going to believe Him.

Just what Brother Ravi read, what John said, this is the record. God's given us life in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life. And this He keeps declaring to you that belief that you might believe. That's how He keeps you believing. and the fruit, you're gonna believe him, and you're gonna give him all the glory. You're gonna give him all the glory. Verse 23. He did all this, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. This is what he said in Psalm 22, 26.

The meek shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that seek him. Your heart shall live forever. Everybody that seeks him finds him by his grace, and everybody that he makes behold him gives him all the glory for every aspect of it. The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. We give him the glory. That's why he's done everything he's done, that he might get the glory. That's the fruit Christ produces. Amen. All right, we're gonna sing a closing hymn.

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