Go back to Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61, but let me read you
this picture that I thought of while I was sitting there. It
says in Luke 2, it says, And so it was, While they were there,
the days were accomplished that she should be delivered, that
is Mary. She brought forth her firstborn son, wrapped him in
swaddling clothes, laid him in a manger. That wasn't much of
a bed, was it? For the Son of God. Scripture says he made himself
of no reputation. Laid him in a manger. For there
was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country
shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock
by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord
came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about
them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them,
Fear not. Don't be afraid. I didn't come
with bad news. I did not come to you with bad
news. Fear not. For behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy, which shall be
to all people, not just to the Jews there in Palestine, but
to people like you and me, people like us. All people, run to you
as born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is
Christ the Lord." The gospel is good news, isn't
it? A lot of times, Vicki and I are
sitting down to eat, and we have the news on, and I have to turn
it off. Usually, I turn it off before it's over with. So much
bad news. I said, we don't have to sit
here and listen to this the whole time. But the Gospel, when we gather
here together, we have good news to talk about. Glad tidings,
the angel said. Don't be afraid. You know, oftentimes,
if you go back and read the Old Testament, oftentimes the prophets
of old came with gloom and doom messages. If you go read the
first probably six chapters of Isaiah, it's like, woe is me,
or woe, woe here, woe there. Then it's woe is me. And when
he finally gets to chapter six, I think it is. Most of the time,
that's the way it was. Jeremiah's called the weeping
prophet. But we have good news to tell.
Good news. And this good news is to a certain
people. to certain people. Have you ever noticed when you
read through the Gospels how it speaks of a certain man, a
certain woman? In the book of Acts there was
a certain woman down by the river. The Gospel is good news to certain
people. And there is a description of
a certain group of people, class of people, or character of people,
however you want to say it, given in this chapter. And they find it to be good news.
Have you found it to be good news? Not everyone finds the
gospel to be good news. Look back over in Luke chapter
4. Luke chapter 4. where I started out reading. Our Lord says that in verse 24,
he said, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.
Just like they said, is not this Joseph's son? We know who they
said one place. We know who you are. We know
your mother, father. We know your sisters and brothers.
We know you. But I tell you the truth, many
widows were in Israel in the days of Elias when the heaven
was shut up for three years and six months. I wonder if they
laid that on global warming. You know what they're laying
on global warming is sin. Maybe it's God's judgment. You
go back and look where God held off the rain. I saw a program
yesterday on TV. Al Gore was heading it up. And
it was shown where all the lakes, this one lake has been drying
up and it was shown over in Africa where they dance around the fires
and they still do such idolatrous worship. And I thought, I wonder
if anybody ever dawned on them that this could be judgment.
Go through the Scriptures and read how many times God withholds
the rain. since drought and famine. And
people try to lay on all kinds of natural things and they never
look to God. Well, that's a different subject.
But listen here. Let me go back and find my place
where I was. He shut up the heavens for three years and six months
when great famine was throughout all the land. But unto none of
them was Elias sent save unto Sarepta. a city of Sidon unto
a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Eliseus the prophet, and none of them were cleansed
save Naaman the Syrian, but he was cleansed. He was cleansed. And all day in the synagogue
when they heard these things, you know what they heard? They
heard sovereign grace. They heard sovereign mercy, that
God has mercy on whom He has mercy. But thank God He has mercy. Thank God He does show mercy
to sinners. And they were filled with wrath
over this. Not everyone likes to hear the gospel of sovereign
mercy and grace. Only a certain people. If they
rose up and thrust Him out of the city and led Him unto the
brow of the hill, whereon their sea was built, that they might
cast him down headlong." How do you reckon this happened?
He passed right through the midst of them and went his way. They
didn't even recognize him. Once they got him there, they
lost track of him. And nobody recognized him. He
just passed right through the midst of them and went home.
That's our God. That's our God. The good news of the Gospel Now
listen, it starts with Jesus Christ. I thought about this
statement today before saying it, and I think it's so. It does not start with what He
did. The Good News doesn't start with
what He did. It starts with Him. It starts
with Him. Who He is, and we've heard this
all of our Well, not all of our lives, but all of our spiritual
lives. Who he is makes what he did effectual. The good news
of the gospel starts with the Lord Jesus Christ himself, a
person, the Son of God. And he gives us here his qualifications.
He said, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. I'm not going to try to explain
this. He's God. He's God Almighty. And yet, as a man, he had the
Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who he's talking about, without measure.
There's his qualifications. He had the Spirit without measure.
And he's truly the Prince of Preachers. He is truly the Prince
of Preachers. Every word he spoke, was God
speaking. It was God speaking. And He was
a preacher. What honor, what honor is put
upon this office when the Son of God, God Himself, came into
this world and became a preacher of the Gospel. He's a preacher. And He was anointed to preach
good tidings. Did you come to hear good tidings
from the Lord? Good tidings unto the meek. He was sent by the Father here
to preach good tidings to the meek and to bind up the brokenhearted. He binds up every heart He breaks. I would hate to have a heart
surgeon work on me. and then wake me up and my chest
be wide open and leave it that way. He does heart surgery. He doesn't put us to sleep. No,
he wakes you up and then does heart surgery on you. But then
when it's done, I don't know that we could ever say it's done
in this life, but he binds us up. He pours in the balm of Gilead. He binds up the brokenhearted. Those whose hearts have been
broken over sin. And because of sin, and because
of who and what they are, He binds up that heart. David said,
Lord, heal the bones. There in Psalm 51, that what?
You have broken. You have broken. There are a
lot of broken hearts. And there are truly broken hearts.
There are a lot of broken hearts. Because of sin. But not many
broken hearts over sin. Not many broken hearts over sinfulness.
Over the effects of sin, yes. But not many broken hearts over
the nature of it. That's what I am. But He binds up the broken heart.
Those hearts He breaks. True conviction over sin is of
God. And Christ is the only one who
can bind it up. He's the only one. He's the only
one who can quiet a guilty conscience. I mean, He's the only one who
can do that. He's the only one who can give
a new heart. He's the only one. Christ is
the only one who can speak good tidings to the meek. He's the
only one. The law can't do that. The law
cannot do any of these things mentioned in this chapter. The
law cannot do that. The law can only condemn you.
The law can only send you to jail because you're guilty. You're
guilty. By nature you are. Christ is
the only one who can proclaim liberty to the captives. He's the only one who can do
it. You know the only, especially back days gone by, Only a king
could proclaim liberty to the captive. Only a king could set
the captive free. But he proclaims liberty to the
captive one day. A man named Abraham Lincoln, he
stepped forward and proclaimed an emancipation proclamation
and freed all the slaves. The President of the United States
of America, no one higher than he in this country, stepped forward
and proclaimed, all slaves are free. Can you imagine what a
day that was for some people? And at that moment, I thought
about this today, at that moment he became Loved. He became loved
by all those slaves. And hated by all those slave
owners. But the slaves loved Him. Those who profited from those
slaves did not love Him. But the slaves loved Him. And
every slave to sin and Satan that the Lord sets free loves
Christ. You can't help it. You can't help it. Christ has set the captive free
from that curse of the law. That curse is real. People make
fun of it. It's real. I'll tell you this,
people die by the minute finding it out every day. But He has set them free from
the curse of the law, from the penalty of sin, and from the
power of sin. Sin has such power over people. There are people who are given
to such vices that they cannot give it up. You say, well, why
don't they quit that? Why don't you quit some things? It's funny how we pick out what
they ought to quit. Christ is the only one who can
set a drunk free from it. He can cancel that power of sin.
He can do that. He can do it. He can set that
person free. Whom the Son sets free, He's
free indeed. And this is only good news, good
tidings to slaves. It's only good news to slaves. I wrote down, are there any slaves
here tonight? I have good news. Christ can set you free. He can set you free. And it says here in verse 2,
and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, I want you
to do me a favor. Tonight, tomorrow, as soon as
you can. Read Leviticus 25 and you'll
understand more of what I'm saying. Read Leviticus 25, the year of
Jubilee. I read this and I hope in the
near future the Lord enables me to preach from that. What
a powerful chapter. The acceptable year of the Lord
has to do with the year of Jubilee. Every 50 years. You'll love it
when you read it. Every 50 years this was done. And it was done, you know when
it was done, this proclamation of liberty and freedom, you know
when it was done? On the Day of Atonement. Guess who paid for all that was
set free? It was done on the Day of Atonement. Let me give you just a few privileges
of that day. It meant full release. Absolutely,
full release. No one could hold on to anything. They couldn't hold on to any
part of you and say, no, I'll let you have, I'll let you, I'll
let 95% of you go, but I'm going to keep five. No, it's all. It's
all. It meant full release of all
persons who had sold themselves as servants because they could
not pay their debts. You know this. They could not
pay their debts, so you know what they did? They had to sell
themselves as servants and they had to sell their children into
slavery to help pay the debt. That's what they had to do. They
would give themselves and their children to their creditors as
servants instead of money because they didn't have the money to
pay. Oh, this is such a picture of us. By nature, we cannot pay
justice. What do we owe justice? Perfect
obedience. We don't have an ounce of it
to pay. We can't even afford to pay attention. How do you
think we're going to pay justice? We have sold ourselves under
sin. We are slaves by nature to sin. Go read Ephesians 2, verses 1,
2, and 3 there sometime. But there is good news. Don't you know those who were
in debt? Don't you know they were watching the clock on that
last day? When that trumpet would sound, they would sound the trumpet.
And that trumpet would blow. And when it happened, they were
free. They were released and their
children were released. They became a family again. They
got to go home again. There is good news. There is
a proclamation from the King of Glory to set you free. What did that angel say? Don't
be afraid. Don't be afraid. I have good
news. It's to a certain people, a certain class of people. The Prince has paid the price. The Lord of Glory. The Prince,
King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He's paid the price. He's paid
in full. Our near kinsman has come up
with the price. He has it. And he paid it by
his obedience and by his blood. He paid it. Not one cent left
to be paid. Isn't that good news? Isn't that
good news? Here's another blessing. The
second blessing was redemption of all lost possessions. Many had to sell. They not only
sold themselves, they had to sell their land. They had to
give up the land. They had to sell the family farm.
You know how hard that farm has been in the family for years.
And now they had to sell the family farm because you say,
boy, he must be stupid. He can't manage. He lost the
farm. Are you any better? Paul says you're not. Oh, they
had to sell it. But in this year of jubilee,
In this year of jubilee, they got it back. Lock, stock
and barrel. Every bit of it came back to
them. It all was given back. In the
year of jubilee, the trumpet sounded and they had a place
to live again. They had a place where the kids
could come home to. All that was sold was restored. And no one could dispute the
rightful ownership of it. No one. Because God established
this one. The gospel trumpet has sounded.
Here's the good news. Here's the glad tidings. All
is restored that we lost in Adam. We lost the way to God. We lost
the truth of God and we lost the life of God. All of it is
restored in Christ and much more. We haven't even begun to scratch
the surface of what we have in Christ. I could tell you what we had
in Adam. I can't even scratch the surface of what we have in
Christ. Adam had the Garden of Eden. You and I have the God
of Eden. Which would you rather have?
Which would you rather have? The husband or the husbandry?
Boy, it'll say a whole lot about you, won't it? You might want
to answer that one. No, if you believe the gospel,
you're going to answer it right. I was going to say, you might want
to answer that to yourself. I know myself, so. God visited Adam. He dwells in us. And we in Him. He doesn't visit us. He dwells
in us. Adam had fellowship with God.
You say, oh man, that's something, isn't it? We have been made partakers of
the divine nature. Beat that one. We are made partakers of the
divine nature. Not just fellowshippers. Made
partakers of it. Adam had a temporary innocence.
We have everlasting righteousness. Oh, how much more we have in
Christ. Who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
Nobody. Nobody. Here's another privilege. Rest. Rest. No more plowing, especially for
somebody else. Solomon said this, you young
people might want to remember this, the borrower is servant
to the lender. No more plowing now for somebody
else. No more planting. No more sweating to make a living. No more of that. There will come
a day we won't sweat again. He said, Adam, by the sweat of
your brow, you're going to eat your bread. Now, by the grace of God, we
eat our bread to Christ. No more of that. Everyone involved,
including the land, rested. Oh, I tell you what. Creation
itself right now groans for the manifestation of the sons of
God. When all this will be over with, there will be no more groaning. Jesus Christ is truly our rest. In Christ we cease from our labors
to be accepted. You and I are not striving to
be accepted of God. He hath made us accepted in the
beloved. We are already accepted, and
we had nothing to do with it. He just enabled us to receive
it. Christ is our Jubilee. And at the same time, all of
this is being proclaimed. At the same time, He says there
Our God will take vengeance on our enemy. Judgment's coming. We're not setting that aside
and never talk about it. Judgment's coming. To those who
are enemies of God, enemies of His people, judgment's coming. But to those who mourn, He said,
to those who mourn, He'll comfort. He will comfort. Here's a promise.
He will comfort all that mourn over sin. The old wretched man
that I am, He'll comfort. And Christ is our comfort. Having
Him, and I believe that you see this as you get older and older,
having Him is enough. If I have Christ, regardless
if I have anything else, He's enough. And I thought about Mephibosheth. Was it Ziba? Ziba lied and told
King David all that stuff he told him and tried to get the
inheritance. And David said, well, you and
Mephibosheth, you guys divide it. He said, let Ziba have it
all. I've got the king. If you have Christ, you have
enough. And listen, in verse 3, to appoint.
He came to appoint. Not offer. This is appointing. This is appointing to God's people.
He appoints our joy. It's sure. It's sure. We're going to enjoy in the Lord.
We are. And He's going to give. Christ gave Himself, look there
in verse 3, to a point unto them that mourn in Zion, to give,
to give, Christ gave Himself first. And then He gives us all
the blessings that come with it. He was given and He's the
giver. And here's what He's going to
give us, beauty for ashes. Back in those days, the Jews,
when they mourned, they would put on sackcloth and they would
put ashes on their head and they would mourn. Go read Job. He's going to take those ashes.
He's going to dust you off. He's going to clean you up. He's
not going to dust you off. He's going to clean you up. Get rid of all those ashes that
are on you. All that sorrow. And He's going to make you beautiful.
He's going to make you beautiful. You're going to be a crown of
glory instead of sorrow. It says over here in chapter
60. He says in verse 60, I mean verse 1, Arise and shine. Did you ever have anybody say
that? Arise and shine. Time to get up. That's what they
do. Arise and shine for thy light,
thy Lord. is come, and the glory of the
Lord is risen, where? Upon thee. There's your glory. Oh, he said, Behold, the darkness
is going to cover the earth and gross darkness of people, but
you're not. Oh, but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His
glory shall be seen upon thee. You read that chapter. It speaks
about the glory of the church and what's going to happen to
her. He's going to give the oil of
joy for mourning. We are given true joy in Christ. We are made to rejoice by His
Spirit, the indwelling of His Spirit. And we joy in Him who
is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
Christ is truly the believer's joy. If you do not find Him to
be your joy, you've got problems. Now, you've got problems. Don't
fool yourself. If He's not your joy, you have
problems. Paul said, Rejoice in the Lord.
And again, he said, I say, Rejoice. He's going to give you garments
of praise for the Spirit of heaviness. And you'd like to be wrapped
about with praise to God. You'd like to be able to get
up in the morning Go about the day wrapped about with praise
from the heart. Praise God. Instead of murmuring. Instead of a garment of murmuring.
That's usually what I put on. It's not easy to take off. It's
hard to get rid of those grave clothes, isn't it? They don't
come off easy. Christ is the only One who can
give you these things because He's anointed to do so. And you
are appointed to have Therefore, you'll have it. And you'll be called trees of
righteousness. The planting of what? Of who? By who? The Lord. Look again up here in chapter
60. Look in verse 21. Thy people
also shall be all righteous. They'll be all righteous. Not
a speck of them will be. Sam, when this is over with,
they're all righteous. They're all righteous in Him
now anyway. They shall inherit the land forever, the branch
of my planting, the work of my hands. You are the work of His
hands. You believe God, you love God,
you love one another. That's the work of His hands. Well, I tell you what, I'm going
to just quit right here. We haven't been on it long enough. We may finish this out later
some other time, but let me read it anyway. And they shall build
the old waste places. Those who were slaves are going
to be the servants of the Lord. They shall raise up the former
desolations. And they shall repair the waste
cities, the desolations of many generations. You notice in this
chapter, in this verse, they shall build up, raise up, and
repair. Servants of God. We now serve Him. Men tear down and destroy. That's
not what we're doing. No. And listen, and strangers,
and I don't know all about this verse. I'm not going to claim
to know all these things. There's more that I can bring
out. And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks. And the
sons of the aliens shall be your plowmen and vinedressers. Paul said you were strangers
from the commonwealth of Israel and aliens from the covenants
of promise. Well, guess who's standing here?
A stranger and an alien at one time. I don't know what all that
means, but I do know it is going to apply. We were strangers and
aliens. Read Ephesians 2 there. What God is saying here is I'm going
to make them plowmen. We talked a little bit about
that Sunday. Plowy. You're plowmen. Those who were strangers, I'm
going to feed you. But you shall be You're going
to be named the priests of the Lord, ministers of our God. Scripture says, He hath made
us kings and priests unto God. By what? What honor is put upon us? Here's an honor, sons of God. Can you think of anything better
than being a minister of God? What a high and holy calling
believers have, ministers of God. God delivered Israel out
of Egypt. Why? To serve Him. He loved them
and He delivered them to serve Him. Scripture says no man lives
to himself and no man dies to himself. We live unto the Lord
and we die unto the Lord. And for your shame you shall
have double. Double honor. Sons of God. Double wealth. All the riches that are in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Double joy. You think we joy
now? Well, it's over. Oh, double joy. He says our God loves judgment.
He hates robbery for burnt offering. He hates hypocrites. But He's
going to direct the work in truth. He'll direct it. He's the director. He's the orchestrator. We stand
here and preach the truth, but sooner or later, you and I will
be gone. But God will direct it. We'll leave it with Him,
won't we? We'll just leave it with Him.
He'll direct it. And He'll make manifest, in verse
9, He'll make manifest His people in every generation. And the
church, there in verse 10, will greatly rejoice. I will greatly
rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful. in my
God, in my God. The God of heaven and earth is
my God. The God of salvation is my God. The God of providence
is my God. The God of election is my God. The God that plants his foot
upon the sea and rides upon the storm is my God. The God who
speaks with power and authority is my God. The God of all grace
is my God. And I will greatly rejoice. If
He were not God, we wouldn't have nothing to rejoice in. And it's my God who has clothed
me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me in the righteousness
of Christ. He did it. Just like that baby
found in the field. He said, all the time I passed
by Him, the time was love. And I said, Liv, I decked you
out and I made you beautiful. found me polluted in my blood,
wallowing in sin and filth, hopeless, helpless. He picked me up, cleaned
me off, and covered my nakedness. Who did that? My God. My God. And he says here in closing,
for as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causes
the thing that are sown it to spring forth, it bears fruit,
So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before
all nations. The Lord will cause righteousness
to spring forth from those whom He has made the righteousness
of God in Christ. You don't feel like it, do you?
You don't feel like you've ever done a righteous thing? He said,
I'm going to cause it to happen. I'm going to cause it to spring
forth. I'm not even going to give it to you. It's going to spring
forth from you. He hath wrought all our works
in us, and they are good ones. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ will
be fruitful. She will be fruitful.