In the sermon 'Beauty for Ashes' by Scott Brown, the speaker delves into Isaiah 61, highlighting the transformative power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The passage begins with the anointing of the preacher to bring good news to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, and proclaim liberty. The sermon discusses the dual themes of redemption and vengeance, emphasizing that true salvation involves acknowledging sin and receiving God's grace. The imagery of a wedding is used to illustrate the culmination of Jesus' ministry, depicting the church as both the bride and the bridegroom in their adorned glory. The sermon emphasizes the rebuilding and renewal brought about by the gospel, transforming desolate lives and communities into fruitful ones. It also highlights the inclusivity of the gospel, reaching out to all nations and peoples, and the importance of the church's role in spreading this message. Ultimately, the sermon calls for a genuine transformation that reflects the glory of God's kingdom in every aspect of life.

Chapter 61 verse 1. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God. To comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he may be glorified. And they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations.

Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the foreigners shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers, but you shall be named the priests of the Lord. They shall call you the servants of our God. You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory you shall boast. Instead of your shame, you shall have double honor. And instead of confusion, they shall rejoice in their portion.

Therefore, in their land, they shall possess double. Everlasting joy shall be theirs. For I, the Lord, love justice. I hate robbery for burnt offering. I will direct their work in truth and will make with them an everlasting covenant.

Their descendants shall be known among the Gentiles and their offspring among the people. All who see them shall acknowledge them that they are the posterity whom the Lord has blessed. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness.

As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels, for as the earth brings forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sewn in it to spring forth so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. Heavenly Father it is a good thing that you have revealed these things to us. It is an even better thing that these things came true for us and I pray that today as we reflect on them your word is open to us that our hearts would be filled with rejoicing that you would cause salvation to cause righteousness to spring up in our midst. In Jesus' name, amen. In order for Isaiah to explain the power and majesty of the gospel of Jesus Christ, He takes you over land and sea, He takes you from earth to heaven, He takes you from here to there to try to explain the vast beauties of salvation.

And here in this passage we find that very same thing. And here Isaiah, he transports us to a place. He takes you to a place of preaching at the very beginning. And then at the end he takes you to a wedding. And he does all these things to proclaim the various facets of this diamond that is the kingdom of heaven.

And he can't get enough of explaining it and he uses hundreds and hundreds of images to try to explain the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And here in Isaiah chapter 61, the whole story that he's telling begins with a person preaching. And who's listening? Poor, depressed, broken people. So he takes you to this place where someone is preaching in front of a bunch of broken people and and This this preaching has marvelous effects on them.

Everything changes for them. And then he takes you after explaining the various things that happen as a result of preaching, specifically the preaching of Jesus Christ. He tells you where it all ends, and he personalizes it. And he says it takes you to a wedding, and he sees himself in the wedding. And He's the bridegroom, and he's all decked out.

But he's also the bride, and she's all decked out as well. And he sees this whole picture. Remember Isaiah is painting pictures. Every chapter is a picture with various elements of truth about what it means to be saved, what it means to be trapped by sin, what it means to be in a state of unrepentance, and how God desires to set you free. So let's just survey this very quickly.

In verse 1, there's this preaching moment, and the brokenhearted and the captives, and those who are bound are there. And then, in verse 2, he takes you to, actually a year, In other words, almost like he takes you out of this preaching one and says, now this is about a year, it's about a time frame. And it's the acceptable year of the Lord. And during that time, there are these two things. There's vengeance, which is necessary, but there's also beauty for ashes and oil for the joy of mourning.

And he talks about a garment of praise, and he talks about trees. He's taking you to all these different kinds of images to help you understand it. And then after that, he takes you into the ruins. He takes you to a ruined city. And He gives this picture of people rebuilding the ruins.

It's the most amazing thing. And there they are, they're repairing things. All these strangers are there, and they're working, and They're bringing forth fruit in that city that was bombed out. It was bombed out by the degradation of sin. And then someone comes and puts something on their head.

He puts everlasting joy on their head. And then he brings them a covenant, a covenant, a deal. He brings them a promise that's documented. It's a way to go forward in the world. And then finally at the very end in verses 10 and 11, Isaiah just, he can't seem to contain himself.

So he breaks out in praise, giving thanks, and he speaks of this time ahead. And what does he think it will do to him? He sees himself there in the 8th century BC, but he's actually transported himself into the future, into the time of the preaching of Jesus Christ. And what does it do? What does the preaching do?

Well, it leads to a wedding. That's what it leads to. Very appropriate passage for today. And it leads to a wedding. The preaching of Jesus Christ finally culminates in this wedding.

And that's why in the Bible you have the beginning In Genesis, the Bible really begins with a wedding when God puts a man and a wife together. And at the end of the age, there's the wedding supper of the Lamb. Everything about the Kingdom of Heaven is about a wedding. It's about a groom who rescues a bride, and then he takes her, he rescues her from the bondage of this world. And this is what a marriage is all about.

You know we've just completed a marriage conference for young couples. It was so much fun, I'll just have to say. And you know we tried to say this in different ways that your marriage is a picture of something way bigger than you. It's really about God and the sending of his son to rescue a bride. It's about everlasting joy.

Your marriage should be a picture of everlasting joy every single day of it. And so as you contemplate the power of the gospel, recognize what it looks like in your marriage. Now if you don't have that, then you probably don't have the power of the gospel in your marriage. So there it is. That's sort of the flyover of this whole passage of scripture.

You know, when I was reading this this week particularly, I kept thinking I should ask a question on Sunday when I preached it. And the question goes like this, is this you? Has this happened to you? Have you heard this preaching? And has it done to you what it does to the people here in this passage.

And has it made you like Isaiah, who sees himself in wedding garments and is so delighted to consider the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ? And then ask, you know, have you received this kind of treatment from the Lord? Is this you? You who were in ashes, you who were mourning, is this you? Have you seen this?

Do you know this? Have you tasted it? Have you felt it deep within your heart? Now in the previous chapter the Lord was describing the future blessings that he was going to heap on his people and all of it is characterized by a word light, light. There's light in darkness.

Arise, shine, for your light has come. That's Isaiah 60 verse 1. So he speaks of this light and the illumination power of this light and it's very clear he's speaking of the days of Jesus Christ who is the light of the world. He's speaking of the era of the new covenant and then now in chapter 61 he introduces the one who will be bringing these blessings And he's going to explain how the blessings are brought forth, and they're brought forth through the preaching of Jesus Christ. And That's why the Lord Jesus Christ quoted this text in the temple in Luke chapter 4.

Now I'd like you to open up to Luke chapter 4 just to get a sense of the context here. The time frame of Jesus' ministry when he went into the temple and quoted Luke chapter 4 is right after his testing in the wilderness. So just before Jesus launches his public ministry He's tested in the wilderness by the devil. So that's the context of this quotation. He's tested in the wilderness He's victorious He says man shall not live by bread alone But by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God and Then he goes into the temple and what does he do?

He preaches. And so in verse 16 in Luke chapter 4 it says, so he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was he went into the synagogue, I'm sorry I said temple, it was the synagogue, on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah and when he had opened the book he found the place it was written, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me and he's of course quoting Isaiah chapter 61 because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And then for his own wise reasons he stopped reading there.

And It says in verse 20 that he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down and all eyes were upon him and Then he said to them the today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." And he was proclaiming at that time what his eschatology was. He believed that he was the fulfillment of what Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter 61. It's indisputable. There's really, I don't know how you find a different interpretation. Jesus Christ is saying, this is that.

As he has many, many times. We've encountered many occasions where a New Testament writer quotes Isaiah, Isaiah being the most quoted book in the New Testament. And here we find this very same thing happening. And then it says in verse 22, so all bore witness of him and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, is this not Joseph's son?

So he was there in the synagogue preaching this text. And that's the whole context. And I like the way E.J. Young, the commentator, speaks of this prophecy. When Jesus said, this prophecy is fulfilled in your ears, Young says this, he did not mean that the prophecy was exhausted on that particular day, but rather that the time had no come which Isaiah spoke, that the prophecy would be fulfilled throughout the course of the church upon the earth.

And that's the way I understand this passage as well. And this passage has so much for us and particularly to teach us about the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and what it's designed to accomplish. It's designed to accomplish a replacement job in your life, to replace sorrow with joy, and to replace the ruins of your life with a rebuilt life. And this is the result of the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as you can see, I have an outline in front of you.

I've broken it into four sections. The first section speaks of what the Lord Jesus does through His preaching. That's verses 1 through 3. And then in verses 4 through 9, what happens as a result of the preaching? Because the preaching unleashes change in the world.

And so in verses 4 through 9 there's a definitive description of what happens to people, what they start doing when they really hear, when they have ears to hear the preaching and they they go do something about it. And then in the third section in verse 10 Isaiah breaks out in rejoicing and he transports himself and he's ready for a wedding. And then in the final verse in verse 11, Isaiah rejoices in the fruit of righteousness and praise springing forth. He sees the kingdom of heaven from far. And so let's begin in this first section what the Lord Jesus Christ does through his preaching.

You know the Lord has designed that the foolishness of preaching would be his great tool in the world, and this passage gives us a certain insight into that. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound." Now the first thing that we encounter is the Spirit of the Lord And the Spirit of the Lord here is resting upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He is anointed. To be anointed means to be equipped for action, to be made ready to do a work.

And that's why Jesus preached this at the beginning of his public ministry because he was he was had been readied by his father in heaven to do this work and the chief equipping measure that the father performed to make him ready was to anoint him with the Holy Spirit. And this is why you find at his baptism that he is anointed by the Holy Spirit Himself. And he's now launching his public ministry, and the father has anointed Christ and made him fit for the preaching of his own word and This is this is the way that it works in the in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. God anoints his son. And then, when his son departs, he pours out his spirit upon the church.

And the church of Jesus Christ has the spirit of Jesus Christ. That's why Jesus said in John chapter 14, I will go away, I'm departing, but I will leave you another comforter, another Helper. And this he spoke of the Holy Spirit. He uses a word strategically placed in John 14 when he said, I will send you another Comforter. The word another means another of the same kind.

In the Greek language there are different words for another, another of a different kind and another of the same kind. And Jesus said that he was going to send another comforter like he was. The same kind of comfort that he is. And so the New Testament church is anointed with that same spirit that God the Father anointed his own Son with. That should encourage you in your life.

If you consider your life and the impact of it, just recognize that if you've turned to Jesus Christ and He's poured His Spirit out upon you, you have the Spirit of Jesus Christ Himself upon you. And this is why it's appropriate for us to be bold and fearless in all of our preaching of the gospel. And then this spirit causes him to evangelize or literally to preach. The Spirit of God has anointed me, why? To preach good tidings to the poor.

So now his office of preacher is revealed here and that office of course is given to the church as well. And he's preaching good tidings to the poor. And you know this whole idea of preaching to the poor is spoken of by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, particularly in Matthew chapter 5 in verse 3, where the Lord Jesus Christ says, blessed are the poor in spirit. And he preaches good news to those who are poor. And There are different ways that people have interpreted this word poor, all the way from just being downtrodden or beaten down or held back in progress, that kind of poverty.

But the Lord Jesus Christ, when he preached it in Matthew chapter 5 verse 4, he was speaking of those who were poor in spirit, who had lost their sense of self-exaltation of their righteousness, and they saw their poverty of Spirit. They saw how sinful they were. They admitted who they were and as a result they repented. And then it says that he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. So the other effect of his preaching is that it has a direct influence on people who are brokenhearted.

And God comes to those who have become brokenhearted for the various reasons that people become brokenhearted. The reason people become brokenhearted is because of sin. It's always tied to some sin. Some sin in the world, it may not be your own sin, but brokenheartedness is a direct result of the fall. But the Lord is so kind that in his preaching he draws near to heal the broken-hearted.

And that's why David said in Psalm 34, the Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and he saves those who have a contrite spirit. And you know he he doesn't break the bruised reed, he doesn't put out the smoking flax, he draws near to the broken hearted, He doesn't let them go out when they turn to him. And then also notice that he sets captives free. His preaching is designed to, as he said, proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. And here we have a picture of being set free.

You know you who've studied your Bibles are well aware of the word redeemed or the word redemption. And particularly the way the Apostle Paul uses it in the Book of Romans, he's talking about a slave being set free. He's talking about somebody who's in chains, who's in bondage, and someone shows up and pays for him, and he's let go. How wonderful it is when slaves are set free. And that's exactly what he is speaking of.

He's bringing imagery out of the slave market with captives and slaves and people who are in prison and they're bound. And he's saying that the preaching of Jesus Christ will unbind those who are bound by sin And they will no longer be captive by sin. That he will break the power of sin. He'll break those chains and he'll set them free. And then he speaks of good tidings in verse 2 that all of this preaching is to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

And he's really continuing the thought of the previous verse about being bound and being set free because he's borrowing language from the celebration of the Jubilee. You can read about it in Leviticus chapter 25. But he's talking about how people are released from their obligations And they don't have anything hanging over their head any longer. Nothing hanging over your head. Just like the year of the Jubilee, where the debts are relieved and where the properties go back and everyone is restored.

Nothing hanging over your head. That's the whole picture that's here and it's in the imagery is derived from Leviticus 25 verse 10 and I'll just read this in Leviticus 25. It shall be a jubilee for you and each of you shall return to his possession and each of you shall return to his family. And then in verse 13, In this year of Jubilee each of you shall return His possession. You know Jeremiah 34 Speaks of this I'd encourage you this afternoon if you have time to read Jeremiah 34 because it gives more imagery of what it means to be set free in that sense in the Jubilee.

The Jubilee was simply a shadow, it was a figure of Jesus Christ. And how Jesus Christ takes all that sin, all that guilt, All that obligation that was hanging over your head, and he takes it away. You know in Isaiah 53 we saw this imagery of how Jesus Christ, he takes your burden, it's on your shoulders, and he literally lifts the burden and he puts it on his son. And that's very similar imagery that we find here in this verse. And then he speaks of vengeance.

He says, and the day of vengeance of our God. Now it might seem strange that he would introduce the idea of vengeance. I mean, all these sweet and happy things. People are being set free and there's comfort, but what's all this vengeance about? Why is he talking about vengeance?

I thought vengeance was such a bad thing And so it might seem out of place, but it's not out of place at all because vengeance the vengeance of God is part and parcel of the grace of God because there is no redemption without vengeance. You must deal with the vengeance of God against sin and against sinners. Sin must be paid for. God is holy and he is angry at sin and sinners. And so his vengeance, his wrath must be quieted.

This is why we encounter that word in the New Testament, propitiation. That Jesus Christ came to be the propitiation for sin. What that means is that he quieted the wrath of God and in quieting the wrath he dealt with the vengeance that we deserved from God. He paid the penalty for that sin. The Lord Jesus Christ himself did that.

Now it's interesting that in Luke, Jesus stops short of vengeance. He stops the quote just before the word vengeance. And there have been speculations about why that is. I like the proposition that Jesus Christ in his public ministry didn't primarily come to bring vengeance, but he brought salvation. And yet at the same time the vengeance of Almighty God would fall upon him at the end of his public ministry.

And we would be protected from the vengeance of God. And all of the wrath that we deserved was laid upon Jesus Christ, his son. This is the righteousness of Jesus Christ by which we are saved. And it's the only way that anyone has ever saved. Nobody ever got saved by cleaning up their life or fixing this or that or having a different attitude or changing their practices.

That's not how people are redeemed. They're redeemed when they acknowledge the absolute bankruptcy of their own righteousness, and they recognize the value of the righteousness of Jesus Christ and how the worst of us was laid on him and the best of him was laid upon us and Isaiah talks about that in terms of the robes of righteousness later on in this text And then also in verse 2 you find this comfort. The preaching has this effect in that it brings comfort to comfort all who mourn. And then verse 3, to console those who mourn in Zion. And I take this to be the sadnesses of sin and as a result the the appropriate mourning for sin it's appropriate to mourn for sin and the Lord Jesus Christ said, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

The world today wants to avoid mourning. Forget your problems. Drown your sorrows. Get happy. Get all the gusto you can get from this life.

But there are different kinds of mourning. You know, there's a worldly mourning. It's not this kind of mourning that he's talking about when you lose your house or your job. That's a carnal mourning. There's an evil kind of mourning where you're sorrowful because you couldn't get what you wanted to get.

And there's a spiritual mourning that he's speaking of here. It's a mourning over sin. That kind of mourning is a mark of true Christianity. Nobody gets into the kingdom of heaven without somehow mourning over their sin. And this is a right gospel kind of mourning.

Kind of mourning. You know, we need to understand that in the real world that we are made happy by mourning over our sins. We're comforted when we mourn. And Our churches need often more mourning if they would ever be happy. I think you know in the church today and probably in all of our hearts we might say that there's not enough loathing of our sin.

There's not enough desperation about breaking God's law. And often what churches try to do is they try to meet this problem with trying to create sort of a jovial atmosphere. Just create this hype, jovial kind of a world. Get everybody all excited. But Christianity isn't really about manufacturing some kind of a shallow happiness.

Because the happiness really comes from recognizing the truth about who you are. And he does comfort those who mourn. And he gives us all language. And he keeps explaining it. Look at this.

While some might have a defective view of sin, if you really mourn for your sin, what happens? Verse 3, to give them beauty for ashes. He replaces your ashes for beauty. You know, the ashes were smeared upon the face to represent the shame and the harm of sin. And what God says is when you have in your heart the capability of mourning for your sin, God replaces all of those ashes with beauty.

This is the remedy of the ugliness of sin. And you're changed. And then he doesn't stop there. He wants you to give you another image. So you've seen one side of it.

It's like taking the ashes off and making you beautiful. Then he talks about oil. No, it's like the oil of joy for mourning. So he pictures this beneficial substance, oil. And it's another image to help you understand what he does to those who mourn.

It's an oil of joy. He replaces your mourning. He turns your mourning into dancing. And then he gives you a garment of praise. He's not done, well if oil is not enough, if like if the oil is not enough for you, if the ashes in illustration is not enough for you, let me give you another one, a garment of praise.

I'm gonna put a garment of praise on you. The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. This is a replacing of the spirit of heaviness. And I think he uses the word garment because He's talking about something that affects your whole life, your whole outward presentation is affected by this. And you have a garment of praise instead of heaviness.

He lifts the heaviness from your soul. You can hold your head up because of it. You have been given a new nature. You've been given a complete renewal. Clothing is often spoken of in the Bible as the outer expression of an inward disposition of life.

That's the whole teaching by the way on modesty. That there is this inner modesty that comes out and it's actually expressed in the way that you dress yourself. So when you stand in the mirror and you ask yourself how beautiful can I get another thought enters your mind how might I glorify my Savior through my outer garments that's the whole teaching on clothing in the Bible but the outer garments reflect what's going on in the inside and then and then strength he gives you another image Now instead of all these other things, he takes you to trees to help you understand what his preaching is designed to do? It's designed to make you like a tree. That they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may glorify.

Now notice what he's doing here. He's saying that, again, it's another picture, right? Look, there are different people in the picture. There are people who are calling somebody a name. There are the people who are calling somebody a name.

They're the people who are calling somebody a name, and then there are those who are being called the name, and they're sort of all in the same picture. So there are people who are calling these people who've heard the preaching and responded to it. They're calling them trees of righteousness. They're not belittling them at all. They're saying, look at those trees of righteousness.

And they're saying, look at how the Lord has planted them. And look at how the Lord is glorified because of the preaching that they heard that changed their life. And the outsiders are looking on and they're saying, look at that. Look at that tree. And they're also saying, they're acknowledging that it glorifies the Lord.

The whole language here of the trees of Righteousness, these oaks of righteousness, speak of their strength, of their durability. And people see it. They see that you're strengthening as a result of your hearing the preaching. This is always the result of hearing the preaching of the word of God in a church, people get stronger, and they get happier. And they're not so heavy any longer.

And that's the kind of church Jesus Christ is building in this world. It really is a happy church. But you don't get to be a happy church until you mourn for your sin first. And that's the reality. You don't get happy by trying to make yourself happy.

You get happy by facing reality about who you are. And then after he speaks of this power of the preaching of Jesus Christ and how it lifts up the brokenhearted and heals, it has such a marvelous effect. Then he turns and the Lord explains what Christ's people will do as a result. He's been speaking about kind of what happens to them in their hearts and in their lives and how people think about it. But then in verse four, all the way through verse nine, he's explaining what Christ's people will do.

What will they do about it? Because preaching in which nothing is done about it Is not the preaching of Jesus Christ When the preaching of Jesus Christ is not heard Then nothing is done But when it is heard Stuff is done and here's here's what happens verse 4 and they shall rebuild the old ruins. They shall raise up the former desolations and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations. So Isaiah has been, you know, he started out with this scene of these broken hearted people, they're heavy. You know, they don't feel very good about life and they don't have that much strength but the preaching has energized them.

And now what are they doing? Now they're rebuilding ruins. And he's speaking of the rebuilding of the Kingdom of God. It's the power of Jesus Christ moving upon the person who has been desolated by their sin. And now they have a new strength and they're they know what they ought to do in the world that they're they're about rebuilding.

And there's so much to rebuild in your own life, in your family life. Rebuilding the church, rebuilding the society. You're bringing all the three realms of the governments of God into line. This is all what this rebuilding is about. And it's the Word of God and the preaching of the Word of God that causes all this rebuilding to happen.

That's why preaching is so important. That's why it's important that we preach the Word here. And it's also the reason why it's important that you, all of us together, preach the Word of God all over the earth, to every corner of the earth. And this is the power of the missionary movement that begins by the preaching of Jesus Christ in the church. We sang at the beginning of the service, the song, Joy to the World, which is almost a perfect description of this text.

I'll just read you a short citation. It's funny, a brother in our church sent me this citation a few days ago, and I intended to read it, but we sang it as well. No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found. Far as the curse is found.

Far as the curse is found. This is the whole thing of rebuilding. You know Isaiah, he's using the language of the rebuilding of the walls after the Babylonian captivity. But he's using this imagery to speak of the time of Jesus Christ preaching the gospel. We know for sure he is speaking of Jesus Christ preaching the gospel in the world beginning from that time when he opened up the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue and he said this is fulfilled in your hearing.

This is that. And so these old ancient ruins are being built up and there's this beautiful recovery of what has been damaged by sin. You know, we were in Matthew chapter 5 yesterday and we were noticing the fact that the impact of the Lord Jesus Christ in a marriage is that wrinkles are worked out. You get married and you have a lot of wrinkles. But by the time you get to the end, you don't have so many wrinkles.

It's like a reverse, It's like the reverse of what it's like in the physical world, because in the spiritual world, when you get married, God uses your husband, who's washing you in the water of the Word, to work out your spots and your wrinkles. That's part of this rebuilding. When a man marries a woman, hopefully there's a rebuilding process that takes place in her life. And it happens by the power of the Word of God. And it's one of the marvelous beautiful things about a marriage, because it does this very same thing.

It's a rebuilding kind of a process. There are things that are ruined when two people get married. Nobody gets married with everything together by the way, you know that? And so there are things that have been ruined and they're in the process of being rebuilt. That's what marriage is all about.

Well that's what the whole Christian life is about. And everyone has the blessing of having that happen in their lives. Whoever is under the preaching of the Word of God, whoever is truly, genuine, Genuinely placing themselves under the preaching of the word of God. They are washed. They are cleansed.

They are purified They are rebuilt. They are strengthened And that's why we should always continue to preach Preach Jesus Christ and the things that have been destroyed will be restored And then in verse 5 it says he goes further and he says well strangers Shall stand and feed your flocks And the sons of the foreigner shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers." Well, who are the strangers and who are the foreigners? Well, these are the people from all over the world who heard the preaching of Jesus Christ after the day of Pentecost, because the gospel is spread throughout the world and as a result you had strangers, Gentiles, foreigners, people from all over the world. You know who are the strangers? Who are the foreigners in this passage?

Well you know what? It's the people from Wake Forest. It's the people from Medellin, Colombia. It's the people from Canada. It's the people from Australia.

The people that are here today. It's the people from Nigeria and everywhere. God saves people from all over the world. They're strangers. They were strangers to the goodness and the law of God.

But what happened to them? They heard preaching. And it changed everything Because preachers have gone out throughout the whole world, and we should still send preachers throughout the whole world to declare the glory of the preaching of Jesus Christ. So these are new converts in verse 5 who are serving the church. They're the most unlikely people and they're bringing their labors and their treasures into the church of Jesus Christ.

They're feeding, they're plowing, they're taking care of the vineyard. There's sort of a diversity of people here and gifts and functions that's implied here in verse 5. They're doing different kinds of things. They're those who are plowing and feeding and then and and there are those who are dressing the vine. This is a picture of the body of Jesus Christ and the various functions that he's established in his church.

And then he continues to explain the language that we read in the New Testament, and here's another coordinate that we can use to understand that he is speaking of the New Testament era. He's not speaking of millennium, he's speaking of the time of Jesus Christ. But you shall be named priests of the Lord. They shall call you the servants of our God. You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles and their glory you shall boast." Now I won't unpack each phrase here, but each phrase in verse 6 finds a direct quote in the New Testament, okay?

And I think perhaps the most prominent, the most well-known New Testament quote of verse 6 is in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9, where Peter says to the church, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light, who once were not a people, but now the people of God who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. The Apostle John speaks of this too in Revelation chapter 1 verse 6 where he says that God has made his church a kingdom of priests to his God the Father. So this is a picture of the priesthood of believers who are infused with the riches of Jesus Christ that Ephesians chapter 1 speaks of. These marvelous riches of the kingdom of heaven that come to the kingdom of priests. And then he expands this picture of blessing in verse 7, where he says that you'll receive honor.

Instead of your shame, you'll have double honor. And instead of confusion, they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double. Everlasting joy shall be theirs." It would be quite a temptation to spend the next one hour unpacking verse 7 because it's so dense in its meaning and its import and its significance. But here you have honor.

The word in the New King James, and I believe the King James, is double honor. Double doesn't actually exist in the text. It's implied. But you could read it, they shall have honor. And then later, He says, they shall possess double.

Here's what I believe he's alluding to. You get a lot more than you deserve. You know, I have a friend, I say, how you doing? He always says the same thing. A lot better than I deserve.

Well, that's pretty much the picture of those who've heard the preaching of Jesus Christ. They're doing a lot better than they deserve because of the mercy of Jesus and they receive honor and it's double. And then They possess genuine faith, verse 8, for I the Lord love justice. I hate robbery for burnt offering. I will direct their work in truth and will make them an everlasting covenant.

Now what is he speaking of here in verse 9? We should pause here because I believe he's making a distinction between the true and the false church. He says, I the Lord love justice. I hate robbery for burnt offering. Robbery involves taking something by force.

The Bible speaks of robbing God in tithes and offerings. And robbery is, I believe in this context, is salvation not by Jesus Christ but by your own works. Salvation by, you know, giving some but you're really robbing God because you have no heart in it. It's giving an offering, but it's not an offering that you would give to your king. It's a poor and a lame offering.

It really is not out of the overflow of your heart. It's perfunctory. It's just done for show. It's just done to make you feel good, like you're doing the religious right thing. I think he's talking about religion without any genuine heart of love for God.

I think another way that you could read this is, I hate fakeness. I hate fakeness. But he loves justice. But here it's a picture of people who, they're not fake. Their work is in truth.

And they have embraced an everlasting covenant, so it's real. But in getting to the real he makes a contrast with the robbery, the fake. And then in verse 9 he speaks of what this looks like out in the world because it does have a visible public manifestation. You know, private faith, there's really no such thing as a private faith. If it's real faith, it's public.

It changes your life. It changes your work life, it changes your family life, it changes everything. Because Jesus Christ, He wants to change every single thing in your life. He wants to reverse the curse in your life, to return to Him. And this is actually visibly seen in the world.

And it's very much like what the Lord Jesus Christ said as he was quoting Isaiah chapter 60, when he said, you are the light of the world, a city on a hill cannot be hidden. And then he said, therefore, let them see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Well, this is another manifestation of this in verse 9, so look at it with me. Their descendants shall be known among the Gentiles. Who are the descendants?

Well it's the descendants of those people who were downcast and brokenhearted and who heard the preaching and their lives were changed. Their descendants shall be known among the Gentiles and their offspring among the people. All who see them shall acknowledge them that they are the posterity whom the Lord has blessed. And what this means is that the people who hear the preaching will have a blessing upon their life like no one else in the world and the Gentiles will see it. The seed of their children will be born in the nations and they cannot be ignored.

You know in this recent conference that we just had with with people who'd been married seven years or under, one of the things that I notice is many of these young couples had had become married knowing far, far more about marriage than I did when I got married, even though I was a Christian. And this is a picture of this where sons and daughters have been instructed. They really did hear the preaching. They heard it with all their heart. They loved it.

They internalized it and it changed their lives and they and they went out and they they they lived a different kind of a life than their parents did and the world got to see an upgrade and It can it could not be ignored. They think differently. They work differently. They dress differently. They talk differently they have a different kind of marriage.

Everything is different because they heard the preaching. That's the power and the beauty of the preaching of the Word of God. It really is designed to create a public spectacle. The Kingdom of Heaven coming down. Thy Kingdom come.

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You know, They honor their father and mother. They love their wives like Christ loved the church. The wives respect their husbands. They obey their leaders.

They bless and they curse not. They use right weights and measures. They always tell the truth. The word of kindness is upon their lips. This is what happens.

And it's seen publicly and the Gentiles look at it and they bless them for it. You know, one of the great tragedies of the modern church is that it just wants to look so much like the world. It wants to blend in. It's so loathes being different. But the world needs to see something different when they come into the church.

You know, people come in here and they just see a manifestation of the last rock concert they saw. Or something else. Then we've cheated them of the kingdom of heaven. They should see a real family. They should see a people who are governed by God and it's visible and there are various manifestations of it.

If you want to fit into this world, you can't manifest the glory of the kingdom of God. And you won't. And if you are a Christian, then you'll find yourself and your life being burned up with all the wood and hay and stubble that was so appreciated by this world. But it didn't teach anything about this beautiful kingdom. It didn't show people the love of Jesus Christ.

It didn't show them how he healed, really heals the broken-hearted and changes everything about them. It didn't show them the love of God. It just showed them more of this fake world. So we should never be afraid of looking, acting, thinking, dressing, working different. This is because of the preaching of Jesus.

I hope you love the preaching. You know I have a sense that the people in this church they embrace the preaching and they love the preaching. It's not because of some giftedness of the preachers. They hear and they want to understand and then they change. That's what's been happening in this church.

It's a blessing. And then at the very end, I think I'm going to call this the climax of Isaiah 61. Isaiah rejoices, and he rejoices on a number of different levels. And Isaiah is rejoicing, but what does he see in the context of his rejoicing? He sees a wedding.

And so he says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation he has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. How about that? So Isaiah has been reflecting upon the power of the preaching of Jesus in the world. And he can't contain himself and he brings it all home in this imagery.

He transports himself to a wedding. And as is true with many of Isaiah's illustrations, they are kind of, they're a little bit strange. I mean, this one is strange in this sense because Isaiah is both clothed like a bridegroom and then he's clothed like a bride. And I don't know what that would look like, but you could think about what it might look like in modern terms. You know, how Would it just be half bride, half bridegroom?

But that doesn't really matter. I think what Isaiah is saying is this is glorious. This is beautiful. Look at what God has done. Look at the clothing.

Look at the robes. Look at the jewels. Look at the value. Look at the riches that are part of Jesus Christ when you hear the preaching. And you love it and you take it in.

You see yourself completely different. You know, Isaiah has talked about people already. He likens the ungodly of this world like jackals and snakes and ostriches. And now, and now he speaks of A different kind of person. They're like a bride and a person is like a bride in a bridegroom.

Beauty happiness soulless subtleness. Well let's let's look at it more carefully. He first speaks of this deep, real joy in the Lord. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, down to the very soul, deep, real, genuine.

It's possible that this is reminiscent of the Lord Jesus Christ Who spoke of the joy he went to the cross for the joy that was set before him He endured the cross despising the shame And Then he says for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. So you have garments of salvation first, and then you have Being covered with the robe of righteousness those two things salvation and righteousness And And then he gives an illustration of that, and he goes to a wedding. Because marriage is a picture of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's why marriage. How come anybody's married here?

There's really one reason. For the demonstration of the power of the gospel. Husbands loving their wives as Christ loved the church, washing them in the water of the Word, wives submitting to their husbands in everything, and respecting them. It's a picture of the gospel. It's a picture of a groom rescuing a bride and the eternal significance of that.

Everything is a picture, everything is a type in the world. You can't look anywhere without seeing it. And Isaiah brings us down to this. The way that a couple dresses for their wedding is reflective of the Lord's salvation. It's careful, it's beautiful, it bears witness to so many things of salvation and righteousness.

A wedding is really designed to express the power of the gospel of Jesus. It is a good thing that people get married, but a wedding really isn't about them. It's always about Jesus Christ and his preaching, always. If you go to a wedding and they don't tie it to the gospel of Jesus Christ, then it's a tragedy because they've missed the whole point of the world. That God began his people with a wedding and at the very end he brings them to a wedding supper.

And then finally, in the last verse, Isaiah changes the imagery. He takes us out of the wedding and he takes us into a garden. Verse 11, where he's rejoicing in the fruit of righteousness and praise. He says, for as the earth springs forth its bud, as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, So the Lord will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth. Where?

Before all the nations. Why? Because of the preaching of Jesus Christ in the world. The result of preaching is is a budding, the ground, the earth bringing forth buds, There's soil, there's a garden, and there are flowers, and they're springing forth. And it's a description of the power of preaching and what happens to the soul.

And it happens in the nations, it happens all over the world. That the world becomes a garden, and there are souls in that garden who are growing. And they see the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. You know, every time you see a broken heart, it should remind you of Jesus Christ. Every time that you see despondency, it should remind you of the power of the gospel.

Every time you see someone who's in bondage or a captive, it should remind you of the gospel. Every time you think of a particular year, think of the acceptable year of the Lord. Every time that you see ashes, Every time that you see flocks, every time that you see foreigners, every time you see priests, every time you see joy, and Every time you see a flower, remember preaching, the preaching of Jesus Christ. Receive the preaching and let the world know that Jesus Christ is salvation and righteousness for all the nations. And that is why God has gathered us here as a church, is to be involved in all of these things.

And guess what? We are, and we can be involved more. Would you pray with me? Lord, I praise you for your changing our thinking about life, about everything in life that we see. You're changing the names of everything.

You're making it mean so much more than we ever thought it was. The skies, the trees, the plants, the weddings, everything has changed. Our whole perspective in the world has been shifted because of Jesus Christ's wonderful preaching. We thank you for his preaching. We pray, O Lord, that we would always have ears to hear what the Spirit has said to the churches, that all anointings of the Holy Spirit would be carefully and seriously taken and we would externalize them in the world so that there would be more praise in this world.

Amen.