Let's open our Bibles again to
Isaiah chapter 61. You'll recall as we've gone through
this study in Isaiah that Isaiah has prophesied that soon Israel
will be taken into captivity in Babylon. And we today can
have some idea how horrible that was for Israel to hear. They
were going to be taken captive by the very people who are ISIS
today. So we have some idea of what
an awful news that that was to hear. But Isaiah, he didn't end
there. He didn't stop there. He's also
prophesied that the Lord's going to set Israel free from that
captivity after 70 years. They'll be set free at the exact
time appointed by the Lord. This trial, if that's what you
want to call it, them being taken into captivity as a definite
beginning and a definite end. according to God's eternal purpose.
When the Lord has suffering people, He always promises them comfort
in Christ. That's what He's done here. He
told them the truth. You're going to go into captivity,
but the Lord's going to set you free. And when that deliverance
comes, we have some idea how glorious that must have been
for Israel to be able to set free. get rid of them, get away
from those people of ISIS, you know. How sweet it was to be
able to come back home and rebuild their homes, rebuild the temple,
rebuild the walls, restore the right worship of the Lord. And
in the history of Israel, that's what happened. They were in captivity
70 years, they were set free. But all that story was not just
for the good of the Jewish nation in Israel. God brought all of
that to pass. to show us something much more
glorious. God brought all of this to pass
as a picture of how He's going to deliver His people, how He'll
deliver spiritual Israel from a captivity that's far worse
than captivity to the Babylonians. God's going to set His people
free from their captivity to sin and death by sin. And that's
what I want us to look at this evening. And I want us, I hope,
I pray, by God's grace to leave here being encouraged by and
rejoicing in God's grace to his people. The title of the message
is Christ works in his church. So here's the first thing. Number
one, Christ, this is what he's going to do, how he's going to
work in his church, what he's going to do for them. He's going
to undo for his people everything that Adam did to us by his sin. Christ, first of all, is going
to rebuild everything that was ruined by Adam, verse 4. And
they shall build the old ways. They shall raise up the former
desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations
of many generations. When Israel was taken into captivity,
the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem. I mean, they just leveled it.
They leveled the wall, they leveled the city. But you know, at God's
appointed time, Nehemiah and Zerubbabel returned to Jerusalem
and they rebuilt the walls, they rebuilt the temple, just exactly
like God promised they would. God's promises never fail. We
can always rely upon God's promises and believe them. They never
fail. But now here's the picture. This is what God's teaching His
people. When Adam sinned in the garden, All mankind was ruined. We were completely and utterly
ruined, just leveled to the ground. When Adam fell, we were ruined. That means there's nothing left
good in us. There's nothing left, no goodness,
no material left in us to rebuild anything. We're ruined. Sin had
destroyed us. You know, if something's just
damaged, you can repair it. But when something's ruined,
you gotta throw it away and start over. That's what happened to
you and me when Adam sinned. We were just what Isaiah calls
here, wastes. That's what we were, just waste.
The word just means death, nothingness. We're wastes. We're waste cities. There's nothing there. There's
no life there. That's what Adam did. But Christ
came. In the fullness of time, just
exactly like God promised, Christ came and he built his people
knew. Christ built a building that
can never be destroyed. And that building is not a building.
I could go back over there to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple
or anything. This building is God's church.
It's his people that he's built in him. And he began with a good
foundation. Every good building has got to
have a good foundation. Christ began building his church
on a good foundation. On himself. He's the rock on
which the whole church is built. And he's joined his people to
himself so that they can never be separated from him. Look at
Ephesians chapter two. This is what the apostle Paul
tells us, how we're built upon Christ. He is our foundation.
If we're joined to him, we can never fall. That building can
never crumble. Ephesians two verse 19. Now, therefore, you're no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets. You're built upon the foundation
that the apostles and prophets preach. Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone in whom all the building fitly framed
together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom he
also are builted together for an habitation of God through
the spirit. Now we were ruined in Adam, but
Christ fitly framed us together. He fitly framed his people together
upon the foundation so that we can never fall. And here's another
reason we can never fall. If we're in Christ, we've been
made holy. He says here, Paul said, you're
made a holy temple. Sin's what causes decay. Christ
has taken our sin away. We're made holy. we can never
crumble and fall. May the Holy Ghost join to Him
so this building can never fall. And this is what I want us to
see as we go through these different ways that Christ, what He's going
to do for His people. Everything in Adam that we lost,
whatever Christ restores is better than what we lost in Adam. Adam
had a righteous standing before God, didn't he? But he could
lose it if he sees it. He can only keep that righteous
standing depending on how long he obeyed God. Well, that didn't
last too long, did it? Pretty quickly, he disobeyed
God. He lost his righteous standing. And so did we, in him. But if
Christ is our righteousness, we can never lose that righteous
standing before God. Because that righteousness depends
on Christ. It depends on His perfection.
It doesn't depend on one thing, does it? It's totally dependent
on Him, on His faithfulness, on His person. That's going to
last eternally. Because He lasts eternally. Look
at Hebrews chapter 3. This house that Christ built
will never fall. He's faithful. He's faithful
to build His spiritual house. Hebrews chapter 3 verse 1. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of
our profession, Christ Jesus, who is faithful to him that appointed
him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man
was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who
hath built the house hath more honor than the house. For every
house is built by some man, but he that built all things is God.
And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant,
for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after.
But Christ, as a son over his own house, whose house are we,
if we hold fast to confidence and rejoicing of the hope, firm
unto the end. That house will never fall. We'll
hold that profession firm to the end, because Christ will
hold us firm to the end. Christ came and he He rebuilt,
he built what Adam destroyed. He built a house that can never
be destroyed. Now the second thing Adam lost
that Christ restored is life. In Adam, all die. But in Christ, all are made alive. Look here at verse 11, Isaiah
61. For as the earth bringeth forth
her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it
to spring forth, So the Lord God will cause righteousness
and praise to spring forth before all the nations. Now, here in
this waste city, this waste place, there's nothing but death. That's
us spiritually. But Isaiah says suddenly, there's
life. There's life there just springing
forth. But what happened? God gave life. He gave life in the new birth.
And he did it through the planting of the seed. Isaiah says here,
the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring
forth. That's how God brings forth the new birth. He does
it through the planting of the seed, the seed of the word of
God. And in fullness of time, he causes
that seed to grow to life. That's what the new birth is.
It's the giving of life. Now, again, everything Christ
restores is better than what we lost in Adam. Adam had a life,
didn't he? But he could lose it if he was
disobedient. And he lost it pretty quickly. And when he lost it,
so did we. Because when Adam sinned, we
sinned too. We were guilty in Adam. So we're
born dead in trespasses and sin. But Christ came. He came as the
representative of his people. He came as a substitute. He came
as the savior of his people. And he gave his people spiritual
life. It's life that can never be lost. Because this life doesn't depend
on our obedience. It's given to us because of the
obedience of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ became
a man. And as a man, he was perfectly
obedient to his father. That's the obedience he gives
to his people. That's why spiritual life is
called eternal life. because it can never be lost. It's perfect through the perfect
obedience of Christ. This life is eternal life. Now,
when we talk about eternal life, it doesn't begin with me and
going out through eternity. No, it doesn't have a beginning
or an end. It began in eternity and it's going to keep going
throughout eternity. God promised this life to his
people before time began. Christ came and purchased it.
He earned it for them in time. The Holy Spirit comes and He
applies that life. He gives them that life in time.
And that life is going to be enjoyed throughout all of eternity.
This is the life. It's better than what the life
Adam had, wasn't it? Better than the life he lost.
Now, I haven't contradicted myself. Remember back to the first point.
Remember this. I told you that we were ruined in Adam. So there
was nothing left in us to build with. Remember that? What did Christ use to build
his church? There's nothing in us to build with. What did he
use to build his church? I can tell you this. He didn't
fix up the old man. Here, there's nothing left to
fix up. It's ruined. What did he use to build his
church? He used new stones that never
existed before. I can show you that. Look at
1 Peter 2. He used stones, living stones, he made alive, that he
gave life to in the new birth. 1 Peter 2. Verse four. To whom coming? As unto a living
stone. Christ is the living stone. There's
life in him. He's disallowed indeed of men,
but chosen of God and precious. You also as lively stones, you're
living stones because you're joined to Christ the living stone.
You also as lively living stones are built up a spiritual house
and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained
in the scripture, behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
elect, precious. He that believeth on him shall
never be confounded. So unto you therefore which believe,
he is precious. He's precious because your life
is in him. He's precious because he's your
foundation. He's precious because he's the
one that's given you everything God requires. And if you're built
upon Christ Jesus, you can never be condemned. If you're built
on Christ, you can never be found guilty because his obedience
is your obedience. And it's perfect. If Christ is
in you and you're in Him, you can never die because He is life.
So His church, His people will stand forever built upon this
rock, Christ Jesus. He's made them living stones. Do you see how much better that
is than life in Adam? See how much better the spiritual
life is than physical life. This life, if we live long enough,
this physical life is always going to end in shame. Every
single day. I don't know why we're surprised
when it happens to us. We are. This life, the life of
this body is going to end in the decay of this body. It's
going to end in the loss of strength. It's going to end in the loss
of the powers of the mind where you can't remember anything anymore.
It's going to end in dullness. It's going to end in pain. And
ultimately what's going to happen, the way this physical life is
going to end, is in death. And the body's going to go back
to the dust from whence it was made. Just dust. That's going
to be the end of this physical life. Dust. But spiritually, life in Christ
never decays. It never gets weaker. It never
has any pain. It never has any loss. It never
has any tears. It never has any decay. Life
in Christ. I'll tell you how it's going
to end. It's not going to end. It's going to enjoy glory for
eternity. That's the life of Christ. Far
better than the life Adam lost. Aren't you glad that you don't
have to live in fear you're going to do something to lose it? You
can't lose this life. Christ is your life. Here's the
third thing Adam lost that Christ restores. Look back in our text,
Isaiah chapter 61, verse 7. The third thing that Adam lost
that Christ restores is honor. He says here in verse 7, for
your shame, you shall have double. And for confusion, they shall
rejoice in their portion. Therefore, in their land, they
shall possess the double. Everlasting joy shall be unto
them. Now you think about Adam. I like
to think about him sometimes. What a specimen that man must
have been. He was created upright. He was
created in the image of God. What an honor that man was created
with. But you know, when Adam sinned,
he lost all that honor. Adam was brilliant. His mental capacity is just beyond
our imagination. I mean, this is the man that
named all the animals. What a mind. And when the moment
he sinned, all that was gone, just gone. Now, the moment Adam
sinned, he knew he was a disgrace. He knew it. You know how I know
he knew it? When God came walking in the
garden that evening, where was that? Adam was over in the bushes,
hiding from God. He's hiding from God who sees
everything in the bushes. And while he was in the bushes,
you know what he was wearing? He was wearing an apron of fig leaves
that he made. And you know those fig leaves
are a picture of his own works. Now, if Adam's own works were
good enough, he wouldn't have felt shame. If his own works
were good enough, he wouldn't have had to hide in the bushes.
All these generations later, the same thing's true. Our works
are not good enough. Our works leave us in disgrace,
in shame, Hiding from God in fear and shame. That's been true
ever since that day. Oh my goodness. That's what gives
us our fear. That's what makes our sin. The
fact that our works are not good enough is what makes us live
in constant fear. Fear of death. Fear of meeting
God in judgment. It comes from knowing our works
are not good enough. That we're going to have to stand
before God in shame, naked before Him. He's not going to accept us. He came for His people. And He took away the shame of
His people. And He gave them His glory. He gave them the glory
of His righteousness. The glory of His perfect obedience. You know how He did that? He
did that by going to Calvary. as a sacrifice for his people.
He took the sin of his people. He took it away from them and
he put it in himself. And he gave his people his righteousness. Now the only reason, the perfect
man, the Lord Jesus, the only reason that man could die is
that he was guilty of sin. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. But the soul that hasn't sinned
can never die. Is that right? that how could
the Lord Jesus die? Only because the Father made
Him sin. Only because He took the sin. He took the horrible, horrible
guilt of sin. He took the horrible shame of
blackness. He hung between heaven and earth
naked. Naked to you and me watching.
But worse than that, He hung before His Father naked, without
a covering. And he suffered. How he suffered. He suffered to full wrath of
God for that sin. He died in shame, bearing the
shame of his people, taking away the shame of his people so they
could appear with him in glory. What a Savior. Oh, what a Savior.
Now, what does that mean to you? Tell you what that means. Christ
died for you. You who believe Christ died for
you. You've got nothing to be ashamed of. Christ took your
sin away. You've got nothing to be ashamed
of. It's our sin that causes shame.
But if Christ took our sin away, there's no shame. So what are
we left with? Everlasting joy in Christ. We
had joy and honor that can never be lost because of the sacrifice
of Christ our Savior. Whoo! That's a whole lot better
what we lost in Adam. A whole lot better. When you
really see what the gospel says, what we lost in Adam by representation,
now that's a horrible, awful day that sin entered in the world.
But if you really see what the gospel says, you can say, I'm
glad Adam fell. I'm glad. Christ restored to
me. It's far more glorious. It's
far better. Isaiah says, I wish we quit thinking
about salvation and God's mercies in these small tongues, like
it's just barely by the skin of our teeth, you know. We make
it sound like we're running a race with the devil and we're just
barely going to get there across the finish line before the devil
grabs a hold of us and pulls us into hell. No! Isaiah says,
for your shame, the Lord's going to give you double, double, more
than enough. And what does that mean? It means
that Christ gives his people the double cure. In Adam, we
became guilty, didn't we? In Adam's sin, we became guilty
of sin. Sin was imputed to us because
of Adam's sin, and we became guilty. But also in Adam's sin,
we received the nature of sin, didn't we? Adam's sin was imparted
to us, put in us. We were given a sinful nature.
So really, the curse of sin is a double curse. We're made guilty
and we're given a sinful nature. But Christ came for His people.
He came as the Savior of His people. And He took all that
double curse away by giving His people the double cure. Remember
when Christ was crucified, He'd given up the ghost and died.
And that soldier came He broke the legs of the other two. They
were still alive. He broke their legs and they
died. But he came to Christ in that middle cross and he was
already dead. He'd given up the ghost. No man
took his life from him. He gave it up. When the transaction
was done, when the payment was made, he gave up the ghost. But
in spite, remember how he did? He shoved that spear to the side
of the Savior. And John said, I saw it. Out
flowed blood and water. Out flowed the double cure. Outflowed
blood to justify. Outflowed blood to make his people
not guilty because the blood of Christ has removed our sin,
taken it away. Not guilty in him. But also outflowed
water. Water to sanctify. Water to cleanse
his people and give them a new nature and a new birth. A nature
that can never sin. That's the double cure. They
see that again. What the Lord Jesus gives his
people is far better than what we lost in Adam. Adam had a righteousness
he could lose depending upon his obedience. And Adam had an
innocence, but he could lose it depending on what he did or
didn't do. But Christ came and he gave his people a righteousness
they could never lose because it all depends upon his obedience.
I tell you how perfect his obedience was. After he obeyed all the
law, after he obeyed it and honored it and magnified it, obeyed it
in every jot and tittle, He went to the cross and He was still
obedient to His Father even unto death. He died in obedience to
His Father to take away the sin of His people. So they'd have
a righteousness that they can never lose. And He gives His
people a new holy nature. A nature that they can never
lose because this nature is born from a different seed. It's not
born from Adam's seed. It's born from the incorruptible
sinless seed That's what Christ has done.
That's what he's come and done for his people. He's restored
to us everything we lost in Adam. Now, how's he going to do all
this? Well, he's going to do it by working in and through
his church. Look at verse 4 again. And they
shall build the old waste, and 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 the sons of the aliens shall be your plowmen
and your vine dressers. Sounds to me like the church
is doing a lot of work there, isn't it? They shall build, strangers
shall stand and feed. Makes it sound like the church
is doing a lot of work. Well, yes and no. Christ is the one who's going
to build his church. Now that's the work of Christ, but I'll
tell you how he does it. He does it by working in and
through his people. Christ builds his church. He's
the architect, he's the builder. And the tool that he uses to
build his church is the preaching of the gospel. That's the business
of this church. That's the business of Christ's
one church. Our business is to preach the
gospel. That's the tool. That's the means
that God uses to build his church up. Paul told the church of Corinth,
he is a wise master builder. And as a wise master builder,
he built upon the foundation of Christ. And he did it by preaching
grace. That's how he was a wise master
builder. The means that God uses to build
his people, to build them up and pull them together, is the
preaching of the gospel. God strengthens his people through
the preaching of the gospel. He comforts his people through
the preaching of the gospel. He feeds his people through the
preaching of the gospel. All by one message. One of the
men, I don't remember whether it was Cody or Clay at the conference,
was telling me after they preached one day, a lot of different people
came up and told them that message was just for me. You said this,
that, oh, that was just for me. And everybody else said that
message was just for them for a completely different reason,
completely different statement, different point in the message.
That just proves what we keep saying. The one message of Christ
is going to meet everybody's needs. God does that through
the preaching of the gospel. Did God help us to not do anything
but preach Christ? Let's not get caught off on any
sidetrack of anything else that's going on. Just preach Christ. That goes not just for me. That
goes to all of us. Because all of us are in the
ministry. That's right. Every one of God's
people It's in the ministry. Isaiah says, look here what he
says here in verse six. You shall be named the priest
of the Lord. Men shall call you the ministers
of our God. You're in the ministry. He says
that to every believer. You're the priest, you're the
ministers. Now I know that we may not all
preach. I think if I asked some of y'all
to preach, you'd run away from it. I asked Eric tonight, you
know, you preach for me on vacation. Well, God's called him to that.
He God's gifted. He can do that. He was a little
bit scared. See me on a piece of paper. I
know, but still God's gifted. You're going to you're going
to be here that Wednesday night. You're going to preach the gospel.
I know you are. Well, that's not for everybody. God doesn't
call everybody to preach, but we're all in the ministry. That's
right. We don't all preach, but tell
you what, we can all support the preacher. We can all support
the minister. With our giving, yes. But we can support with
an encouraging word. Every believer prays. You pray? That's the work of
the minister. It is impossible to preach without
the Holy Spirit blessing. Just like it's impossible to
hear without the Holy Spirit blessing. Well, we can ask the
Holy Spirit to bless. When I cross your mind through
the week, I tell you this all the time, I beg of you, when
I cross your mind, I beg of you, pray for me. More than likely,
I'm in the study and I'm struggling. Pray for me. Pray the Lord to
give me the message. Pray that the Lord give me understanding.
Pray that the Lord give me the words, the spirit of preaching. And pray the Lord bless you in
hearing. Pray the Lord bless these you love in hearing. Oh,
you can be in the ministry by being encouraging. I'm telling
you, it's a whole lot easier to preach when people are listening.
It's just, you know, you're looking around and just, you know, you
can tell when somebody's nine miles away. It's a whole lot
easier to preach when somebody's listening. You know, we can be
here to hear. That Wednesday night, whatever
that date is, I hope y'all come here and support him. That's
being in the ministry. Again, what Christ gives his
people is a whole lot better than what we had in Adam. Adam
could come into God's presence at any time, couldn't he? But after Adam sinned, he couldn't
do that anymore. He had to thrust Adam out of
his presence. But in Christ, every believer
is made a priest. Peter said believers are royal
priesthood. We're made priests unto God.
You know what that means? The priest is the one who comes
into God's presence. He comes into God's presence
through the blood of the sacrifice, doesn't he? Now that high priest,
you who are a priest, you got a whole lot better than Aaron
did. That's hard to think about it, but you have a priesthood
that has blessings far greater than Aaron did. Aaron could just
come into the Holy of Holies one time a year. You who are
a priest of God can come anytime you want. And you know why you
can come anytime you want? The blood of Christ has already
been shed. It's already been shed so you can come boldly into
the presence of God at all times. Aaron, I don't know if he crawled
under the veil or he came around it, he came in fear. He came
in fear God was going to strike him down If He didn't do everything
just right, you don't have to do that. You come boldly, boldly
in the person, the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. Anytime
you want to worship, you come to Him. Anytime you want to praise,
anytime you want to give thanks, anytime you have need, you come
boldly to find grace to help. Come boldly in Christ as a priest
of God. That's a whole lot better than
what we had in Adam. Now, here's the third thing. Those are some
mighty big promises. Those are some mighty precious
promises. How do we know God will do what
he promised to do? How do we know that? Well, we
know that because God has an everlasting covenant. And this
covenant is made by God, whose character means he cannot lie. Verse 8. 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."
God has an eternal covenant of grace. That covenant was made
between the Father and the Son. The Father chose the people.
They're fallen, ruined in Adam, but God chose He chose to save
them. He chose to give them life because
He loved them. The Son agreed to come and die
as their substitute. He agreed to put their sin away
through the sacrifice of themselves. He agreed to make them righteous
through His obedience by becoming a man. That's God's covenant.
That is God's promise to His people. What God has promised,
He's also able to perform. He's able to do it. There's some things I'm able
to do. I just don't do. Probably a character flaw in
me. God will do what he promised me. He'll do it. And the Lord
will work through his church. He said, I'll direct their work
to build the church, to call out my people, to bless my people,
to feed my people. God has commanded us to go into
all the world and preach the gospel. Preach it to every creature. Well, this is our confidence
to continue to preach the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace
because God has promised to use that gospel to call his people.
He's promised to use that gospel to give repentance and faith.
He's promised to use that gospel to give joy and peace and comfort
to his people through a life journey that will be very difficult. God has promised to give life
and freedom to his people through the preaching of his son. Then
let's preach him boldly, because God has promised he'll bless
that message. He'll bless his people through
the preaching of that gospel. And his people, they're going
to be known. God says, my people are gonna
be known as my people, the people of the Lord. It's gonna be obvious
to them. They're the people of his love.
They're the objects of His mercy. God's been merciful to them.
They are going to be more blessed in Christ than they were cursed
in Adam. You can write it down. He's gonna
do it through the preaching of the gospel. Christ is gonna get
all the glory for it. Now, here's my last point. Christ
works in His church. We've seen what He's gonna do
for His people. He's gonna restore everything to them that they
lost in Adam. He's gonna make them priests, ministers, God
will do what he promised, because he's got this covenant of grace.
How are you going to react to that? Oh, we're going to react
to it with rejoicing. Look 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
hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom
decketh himself with ornaments, as the bride adorneth herself
with her jewels. Now, every writer I read on this
said this, that they all say they're sure that not only is
this the church rejoicing, but this is Christ rejoicing with
the church. This is Christ rejoicing with
the people that he loves. Both the Savior and the saved
rejoice in God's covenant of mercy. Both the Savior and the
saved rejoice together in God's electing love that began salvation
in eternity. Both the Savior and the saved
find joy in what God has done for His people. They both find
joy in the preaching of the gospel. Both the Savior and the saved
rejoice in the effects of God's gospel on His people. They were
stripped naked in Adam. Stripped of their righteousness,
stripped of their innocence. There they were in all that shame,
the shame filled with their sins. God loves them. He's not going
to leave them naked and ashamed. No, He sent His Son to clothe
them with His righteousness. And we talk about here the robe
of righteousness. I got a shirt on. I had to come
home early. Do you know what I did? I ironed
the front of my shirt. I didn't iron the back. And I
didn't iron the sleeves. And you know why? It's going to cover everything,
but right here. I thought, well, I only have
to iron that part because my tie is going to cover it. But the
rest of it I didn't iron because I've got a jacket that's going
to cover the wrinkles. Don't ever think of the robe
of Christ's righteousness as covering the wrinkle. We talk
about the robe of Christ's righteousness, it means he's made us white,
starched perfectly white through and through. He's not covering
any wrinkles. He took the wrinkles away. The robe of Christ's righteousness
is not covering our filth and our sin. No, He took it away. His robe covers us through and
through. My suit just covers the shirt.
Christ's robe of righteousness covers us through and through
so that we do not stand naked before the Father. It's just
like that prodigal son. That prodigal son came home and
the father didn't say, son, would you like the best robe? He said,
no boy's going to get that robe. Put it on him. He didn't say,
son would you like me to put that robe on you? He said, put
it on me. And that's what the father says about his people. Make them righteous through and
through. Because my son died for me. And both the Savior and
the saved rejoice in me. that perfect righteousness. Both
the Savior and the saved rejoice in how Christ has made his people
beautiful, always made them beautiful. And we needed it, didn't we?
We're so ugly and Adam, defiled by sin, we're made dead, stinking,
rotten corpses in God's sight. All because of one man's sin,
because of Adam's sin. But God's not going to leave
His people in that dead, disgusting state. No, He's going to give
them life. He's going to make them beautiful
through Christ's beauty, through the beauty of His obedience,
through the beauty of His righteousness. Just like Ezekiel's baby, he
found that cast out there in the field. Cast out there to
the loathing of its person. Nobody wanted it because it's
ugly. Oh, but God passed by. The Savior passed by. And He
said, Behold, He took that baby up and washed
it. He made it beautiful. He said,
through my beauty, which I put on you, both the Savior and the
saved can rejoice in me. Made beautiful in His Son. That's
the blessings we have in Christ. And believe me, I could go on
and on and on. There's too many to list. But we can rejoice in
Him. The church rejoices in Him. Our Father, how we thank You
for such a wonderful Savior. A Savior that could only be sent
of Your divine wisdom and grace and love and mercy to Your people. Savior who satisfied justice
on our behalf. A Savior who took away the sin
of His people and made them righteous through His perfect obedience. Made them beautiful in His beauty. Father, how we thank You. And
I pray that You would that you would bless your word as it's
been praised, that you'd apply it to our hearts, that you would
bless your word. Use this gospel message to build
up your church, to comfort your sick and sorrowing people, to
comfort those whose hearts are broken over their sin and difficulty
of this life's journey. Father, use this message to build
up your church, to feed and strengthen your people. to cause us to rely
more fully upon our Lord Jesus Christ. Use this word to build
your church, to call one out, those that you've set your affection
on eternally, to call them to repentance and faith, that you
promise you grant your people through the preaching of your
word. Bless us, Father, we pray for your glory. According to
your goodness and riches of your mercy and grace to your people.
It's in Christ's name we pray. We do give.