WEBVTT 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:08.460 Good evening everyone. I'd really like to just take this opportunity to thank everyone so much 00:00:08.460 --> 00:00:16.359 for the support that you have all given us. You've made us feel very loved and accepted and yeah we 00:00:16.359 --> 00:00:21.740 don't take that for granted. A couple of weeks ago we had a commissioning service here and the church 00:00:21.740 --> 00:00:29.240 laid hands on us to send us as missionaries to Africa, as missionaries with the gospel to take 00:00:29.239 --> 00:00:34.859 to the nations of Africa and it is a noble and high calling and we don't take that lightly so 00:00:34.859 --> 00:00:41.159 we covet your prayers, we need your prayers so that we can be found worthy of such a task. We 00:00:41.159 --> 00:00:46.879 aren't of ourselves clearly and it's something that God has got to do continually for us so 00:00:46.879 --> 00:00:52.219 we just really ask that you will pray for us, keep us in your prayers and thank you so much for 00:00:52.219 --> 00:00:58.480 making us feel loved and encouraged since we've been here. I return to South Africa on Thursday 00:00:58.479 --> 00:01:05.780 and Vanessa will return on Monday week. So God bless you all, let's pray. 00:01:10.060 --> 00:01:18.439 Father as we again open this grand vision in the book of Isaiah we just come before you and ask 00:01:18.439 --> 00:01:25.759 Lord that your spirit will be amongst us now. Father I ask that Christ will speak through me 00:01:25.760 --> 00:01:35.140 as a vessel just so Lord that we can go into the new week encouraged, revived and assured of who we 00:01:35.140 --> 00:01:45.820 are in Christ and our certainty of hope in the future. Amen. Now we continue in the series of Isaiah and 00:01:45.820 --> 00:01:53.820 this week we're looking at Isaiah chapter 61 and it's a grand vision in the book of Isaiah. It's a 00:01:53.819 --> 00:02:02.979 grand vision which spans a huge part of history and although Isaiah prefixes it by saying the vision 00:02:02.979 --> 00:02:11.219 concerning Judah and Jerusalem as Andy has just read out in Isaiah 60 for example but all the way 00:02:11.219 --> 00:02:18.000 through Isaiah we are getting insights into not just the country that the people of God are living in, 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:25.840 the nation, the kingdom that the people of God are living in and the city of Jerusalem but into the 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:33.840 eternal kingdom of God and the city of the new Jerusalem and the new Zion and what a wonderful 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:42.420 verse that Andy read out there about the glory of the Lord coming upon Zion and the glory of the Lord 00:02:42.419 --> 00:02:50.280 shining on Zion and the nations will stream in with their riches and that is where the Lord is taking 00:02:50.280 --> 00:02:58.439 his people but as we go through the vision of Isaiah we see really clearly that there are continually 00:02:58.439 --> 00:03:09.139 recurrent themes, the themes of God's people, the sin of God's people. We see the idolatry that these 00:03:09.139 --> 00:03:15.919 people, God's people, they had made political alliances with the nations surrounding them 00:03:15.919 --> 00:03:23.119 and in making those political alliances they started to take on the worship of the false gods that these 00:03:23.119 --> 00:03:31.519 nations worshipped and so when we come to the book of Isaiah we see it throughout the book Israel is 00:03:31.519 --> 00:03:38.179 taken into captivity by Assyria, by the king of Assyria and the northern kingdom Israel will never rise again 00:03:38.180 --> 00:03:47.659 and although Hezekiah has a victory over king Sennacherib of Assyria when he lays siege to Jerusalem 00:03:47.659 --> 00:03:56.319 and 185,000 soldiers are found dead the next morning, Assyrian soldiers, nonetheless within a hundred years 00:03:56.319 --> 00:04:03.680 of this vision Judah too would be taken off into captivity by king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon 00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:13.379 and these are the people of God, the people that God, His treasured possession, that God had brought 00:04:13.379 --> 00:04:21.180 out of captivity. He had brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, out of the 00:04:21.180 --> 00:04:27.800 land of slavery and He had said to them, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the 00:04:27.800 --> 00:04:36.040 house of bondage, out of that land of slavery, you shall have no other gods before me. He was the one 00:04:36.040 --> 00:04:44.160 who brought them out, how could they have other gods above Him when in His love He had rescued them 00:04:44.160 --> 00:04:50.680 from that slavery, from that captivity. He said you shall not make for yourself an image of anything in 00:04:50.680 --> 00:04:56.240 the heavens above on the earth or in the seas below and you shall not bow down to them for I the Lord your 00:04:56.240 --> 00:05:01.420 God am a jealous God, visiting the sins of the Father to the third and fourth generation of those 00:05:01.420 --> 00:05:07.280 who hate me but for those who love me and keep my commandments showing steadfast love for thousands 00:05:07.280 --> 00:05:16.639 of generations. Here was the people of God who had been freed from captivity, freed from slavery 00:05:16.639 --> 00:05:23.240 so much so that the Lord had parted the Red Sea for them to ensure their freedom. 00:05:23.240 --> 00:05:31.819 He had parted the Red Sea for them to walk down the middle to bring them out of captivity and now as 00:05:31.819 --> 00:05:39.319 a result of His judgment upon them in their idolatry and their sin they had been taken back into captivity. 00:05:40.759 --> 00:05:49.060 But it was not just external bondage that the problem was with the people of Israel and the people 00:05:49.060 --> 00:06:00.339 of Judah. You see as with us the people of God back then were born into Adam, they were born into sin. 00:06:01.699 --> 00:06:10.340 It says that when one man sinned, sin entered the world and death through sin and all died because all have 00:06:10.339 --> 00:06:17.219 sinned. And so we are born into sin. That's what it is to be a human being. 00:06:19.619 --> 00:06:24.659 And rather than the law being something beautiful to most of them, what it did was it successfully 00:06:24.659 --> 00:06:32.579 showed them that they were sinners. As they tried to obey the law, as they tried to do this and tried 00:06:32.579 --> 00:06:39.779 hard not to do that, what it did was it actually showed them that they failed every time and that 00:06:39.779 --> 00:06:47.139 the law, this standard was not able to be achieved. How many of us here tonight 00:06:48.259 --> 00:06:55.060 are burdened because we have come in and we try really hard to do good, try really hard not to do bad, 00:06:55.060 --> 00:06:59.459 but it just seems like we continually end up in that same place. 00:07:03.459 --> 00:07:10.980 You see through the law comes the knowledge of sin. And just like God's people, we have that same 00:07:10.980 --> 00:07:18.660 problem if we try and uphold and try and be righteous that law way. And now the people of God, they weren't 00:07:18.660 --> 00:07:25.460 just captive because of this, but they were, they were, it says that all his lifetime, man is subject 00:07:25.460 --> 00:07:32.980 to bondage through fear of death. They were enslaved because it works that as we know that we don't live 00:07:32.980 --> 00:07:39.060 up to the law's demands. And as we know that every time we break that law of God in our conscience, 00:07:40.260 --> 00:07:47.780 our conscience tells us our sin demands judgment. And we know that one day we are going to die. 00:07:47.779 --> 00:07:53.459 And when we die, everyone knows that they are going to be confronted with a holy God. 00:07:54.579 --> 00:08:01.299 People might say they're atheists. But in Romans chapter one, it says, what can be known about God 00:08:01.299 --> 00:08:08.419 is plain to them. For ever since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his divine nature 00:08:08.419 --> 00:08:15.619 can be clearly seen through the things that God has made. So men are without excuse. 00:08:15.620 --> 00:08:22.819 People won't have an excuse and won't be able to say, oh, I didn't know. Because what Romans says 00:08:22.819 --> 00:08:29.780 is that everyone knows just through the creation that there is a God. And people might exchange that 00:08:29.780 --> 00:08:34.980 truth and say, oh no, I believe in science or, or yeah, but that works for you. But what works for me 00:08:34.980 --> 00:08:42.500 works for me. But all these things are just very clever lies to exchange the truth for, to stop us 00:08:42.500 --> 00:08:48.820 having to repent before a holy God. But it says that mankind through all their lifetime are held in 00:08:48.820 --> 00:08:54.580 a subject to bondage through fear of death. And that fear of death comes because in our conscience, 00:08:54.580 --> 00:09:00.019 we know when we die, we face the holy God and that that judgment is going to come. 00:09:00.019 --> 00:09:08.259 That's what it is to be a human being. That's what it is to be born into Adam, to be born into the realm 00:09:08.259 --> 00:09:17.299 of sin. But God in his mercy, these people weren't just slaves to that. They were also slaves to all 00:09:17.299 --> 00:09:23.620 sorts of sinful habits. They were caught up in their guilt. They were caught up in idolatry, 00:09:23.620 --> 00:09:30.740 the worship of false gods. And they were slaves to these things, slaves to darkness, principalities 00:09:30.740 --> 00:09:35.139 and powers ruling over them and governing them and holding them in that darkness. 00:09:40.259 --> 00:09:47.060 In 1 John, it says the whole world lies in the evil one. The whole world lies in the evil one. 00:09:47.059 --> 00:09:56.819 So that is the state of God's people back then. And God in his mercy, he had a day and he called 00:09:56.819 --> 00:10:04.899 this day, he called it the day of atonement. And on this day, people would fast and people would 00:10:04.899 --> 00:10:09.939 sometimes put on sackcloth, they'd sometimes sprinkle ashes on their head and they would come 00:10:09.939 --> 00:10:15.539 to the temple and they would beat their breast and they would confess their sins, a little bit like in 00:10:15.539 --> 00:10:21.219 the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee. And they would confess their sins and they would 00:10:21.219 --> 00:10:26.740 also confess the sins of their people. And after they had done that, while they were doing that, 00:10:26.740 --> 00:10:32.740 there would be sacrifices going on and they would be sacrificing rams and goats and bulls. 00:10:32.740 --> 00:10:38.259 And as they sacrificed these things, they would come away with a sense that their sins had been 00:10:38.259 --> 00:10:44.500 atoned for. But year after year after year, they had to keep coming back and going through that day 00:10:44.500 --> 00:10:52.419 of atonement. They could never have that certainty that they would definitely be going to heaven. 00:10:53.539 --> 00:10:59.299 What if I die before the day of atonement? What if I've sinned and I haven't made it to the day of 00:10:59.299 --> 00:11:06.980 atonement? All these doubts would be in their head and so they would come before God in the temple and 00:11:06.980 --> 00:11:13.779 they would be mourning and they would be wearing sackcloth, sprinkling ashes on their head. And so when we 00:11:13.779 --> 00:11:20.179 have this idea of the day of atonement, we can start to understand what is going on here in Isaiah 61 00:11:20.179 --> 00:11:30.980 a little bit more clearly. And every seven years, God had declared what was known as a Sabbath year. 00:11:31.379 --> 00:11:37.779 And in the Sabbath year, people, his people were not allowed to prune their vines and they were not 00:11:37.779 --> 00:11:44.419 allowed to sow their crops. And it was a year that the land would have rest and it was every seven 00:11:44.419 --> 00:11:53.139 years. And the Lord decreed that after seven of these Sabbath years, so 49 years, on the 50th year, 00:11:53.620 --> 00:11:59.379 on the day of atonement, there would be the beginning of a new year which would be called 00:11:59.379 --> 00:12:07.100 the year of Jubilee. And what a fantastic year this was, what a gracious God he was to put this in, 00:12:07.159 --> 00:12:14.419 to institute this wonderful thing. Because the year of Jubilee was a year where if you had had to sell 00:12:14.419 --> 00:12:21.379 your family home because you were in debt or you were impoverished, well, you would get it back. 00:12:21.379 --> 00:12:29.620 On the day that began the year of Jubilee, you would receive your property back. And people would 00:12:29.620 --> 00:12:38.200 go back to their family homes and to their clans. And if you owed money because you were poor and you 00:12:38.200 --> 00:12:44.740 had managed to get yourself in debt to people, your debts would be completely cancelled on this year of 00:12:44.740 --> 00:12:50.399 Jubilee. What a wonderful thing. It's a pity we don't have that here in Australia. I think it'd be 00:12:50.399 --> 00:12:55.860 a wonderful thing to have. But what it did was it brought an equality in the society. But the 00:12:55.860 --> 00:13:00.840 greatest thing about the year of Jubilee was that on that day of atonement, on the 10th day of the 00:13:00.840 --> 00:13:07.639 seventh month, they would sound the ram's horn and they would proclaim liberty, freedom. 00:13:09.860 --> 00:13:17.620 And so when we see this passage here today, Jesus is proclaiming the acceptable year of our Lord. 00:13:17.620 --> 00:13:23.560 This is a, let me actually read Luke chapter four because we didn't read that. So I'm assuming, 00:13:24.279 --> 00:13:30.779 I'm assuming we know it's Jesus at the other services. We read that. Luke chapter four, 00:13:30.840 --> 00:13:36.279 verses 16 to 21. He went to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And on the Sabbath day, 00:13:36.320 --> 00:13:42.220 he went into the synagogue as was his custom. And he stood up to read the scroll of the prophet Isaiah 00:13:42.220 --> 00:13:48.060 was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written, the spirit of the Lord is on 00:13:48.060 --> 00:13:54.620 me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for 00:13:54.620 --> 00:14:00.879 the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed and to proclaim the year 00:14:00.879 --> 00:14:07.019 of the Lord's favor. This year that he was proclaiming was not just one of the years of Jubilee. 00:14:07.019 --> 00:14:14.960 This was the year of Jubilee. And it was a period of time that would start when Christ appeared and 00:14:14.960 --> 00:14:21.399 would finish when Christ came back again. That is the acceptable time of the Lord's favor. And it is a 00:14:21.399 --> 00:14:29.059 time where Christ is saying, you are free. And he doesn't just proclaim freedom, but he forges, 00:14:29.059 --> 00:14:37.500 he secures that freedom for us through his blood, through his flesh. He takes us up into himself on that 00:14:37.500 --> 00:14:47.859 cross and he crucifies us with him so that all the demands of that law of God are fully met as he hangs 00:14:47.859 --> 00:14:55.039 upon that cross and he takes them down into the grave. And we die with him and are raised with him as we 00:14:55.039 --> 00:15:03.159 repent and we have faith that it is so. And so Christ in doing that, he proclaims to us freedom. 00:15:03.759 --> 00:15:13.459 You are free. And this was a proclamation that at the time of the captivity of the people from Judah, 00:15:14.019 --> 00:15:21.079 it would have been a wonderful vision to have this scroll of Isaiah there when they were finally let 00:15:21.080 --> 00:15:26.920 back out into there to go back home to rebuild Jerusalem. And so this has a little bit of a 00:15:26.920 --> 00:15:31.740 double-edged sword here. To us, we can look back through history and we can see that this is 00:15:31.740 --> 00:15:38.860 prophesying to the day of Jesus and that these words were Isaiah speaking the words of Christ in advance, 00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:47.600 the one who would not only proclaim the day, the year of Jubilee, but he would bring forward the day of 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:55.200 atonement. Not just another day of atonement where year after year the people would have to come back 00:15:55.200 --> 00:16:02.580 and again and again make the same sacrifices, but this was the day of atonement. The day which would say 00:16:02.580 --> 00:16:10.040 your sins are forgiven, you are washed clean, you are righteous before the living God because that is what 00:16:10.039 --> 00:16:23.679 I have done for you. And that's why Isaiah says here, that's why he says, and Jesus says, I will 00:16:23.679 --> 00:16:34.120 to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, to comfort all who mourn, to provide for 00:16:34.120 --> 00:16:39.659 those who grieve in Zion, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness 00:16:39.659 --> 00:16:46.560 instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. You see, the people of God on 00:16:46.560 --> 00:16:55.500 the day of atonement, they had no certainty. They had no guarantee that they were ever going to heaven. 00:16:56.480 --> 00:17:01.919 They didn't know what would happen, whether they would commit all sorts of sins before the next day of 00:17:01.919 --> 00:17:11.399 atonement. But we have been given this state of righteousness, this state of salvation, this 00:17:11.399 --> 00:17:18.799 garment of salvation that Christ has given to us in his faithfulness, that the Father has given to us 00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:25.180 through the death and resurrection of his Son, so that we can have that joy because we have that certainty. 00:17:25.559 --> 00:17:31.119 We don't have to sprinkle ashes on our head. We don't have to sit in sackcloth. We have to have a 00:17:31.119 --> 00:17:37.939 contrite heart and a humble spirit, is a spirit that the Lord loves. But we don't have to have that 00:17:37.939 --> 00:17:46.779 uncertainty that the people of God had back then. You are free. Now the devil will try and convince you 00:17:46.779 --> 00:17:52.019 that you're not. He will do everything to try and convince your conscience that you still owe the law 00:17:52.019 --> 00:18:03.079 something. You see, the beauty is now, we don't need to sort of say, I ought to do this and I ought not to do 00:18:03.079 --> 00:18:08.720 that. I ought to do this and I ought not to do that. We don't need to do that anymore because we have been 00:18:08.720 --> 00:18:16.519 made completely right in regards to God's holy law. And so now when we look at the law, we can look at that 00:18:16.519 --> 00:18:23.859 law from a righteous standing and we can say, this law here, this is the law of liberty. This is the law 00:18:23.859 --> 00:18:31.359 of the Spirit of God. This is the law which shows us a wonderful, loving, holy way of life. 00:18:35.019 --> 00:18:40.139 It doesn't have to sit over us anymore. I ought to do this and I ought not to do that. I don't know how 00:18:40.140 --> 00:18:45.020 many times I get to the end of the day and I think, why did I do that? Why did I say that? 00:18:45.920 --> 00:18:50.800 You know, I mean, I ought not to do this, I ought not to do that. There are these funny signs you see 00:18:50.800 --> 00:18:55.140 on the street which they have a red circle around them and they have a number in the middle 00:18:55.140 --> 00:19:02.040 and it always seems that I always think for some reason I should just go a little bit faster. 00:19:02.980 --> 00:19:06.320 Just a little bit, just enough because I can get away with this much. 00:19:06.319 --> 00:19:16.139 That's how our sinful minds work when it comes to law. We are always trying to dodge around it, 00:19:16.159 --> 00:19:22.960 what can I get away with? But that's not it at all. What Christ has done is he has made us 00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:30.759 eternally right with the Father. He has secured for us that glorious inheritance in Zion, that double 00:19:30.759 --> 00:19:35.839 portion because he is the firstborn, the firstborn among many brethren. 00:19:36.319 --> 00:19:42.519 And we are in the firstborn, so we will receive our inheritance. It is guaranteed. 00:19:46.599 --> 00:19:51.839 Guaranteed. It says here at the beginning, it says, not the spirit of the Lord, but the spirit of the 00:19:51.839 --> 00:19:57.939 sovereign Lord. And when it talks about the sovereign Lord throughout the vision of Isaiah, 00:19:57.940 --> 00:20:06.299 it is talking about the Lord who has the authority, who has the sovereignty, who has the authority over 00:20:06.299 --> 00:20:13.920 all the peoples of the earth, who has the authority over all the creation and all the universe. And he 00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:20.660 has the authority over all our lives and over all the events that take place in history. 00:20:20.660 --> 00:20:27.860 So much so that when it says the sovereign Lord, it is saying the Lord who has the authority to make 00:20:27.860 --> 00:20:36.000 sure that it will take place. It always uses the term sovereign Lord when it's talking about something 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:37.000 that's going to happen. 00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:45.640 You see, we have a wonderful gospel, 00:20:46.279 --> 00:20:49.720 incredible gospel. We have the meaning of life. 00:20:50.619 --> 00:20:54.359 We have that meaning. The whole world is looking for that meaning. 00:20:54.759 --> 00:20:58.660 The whole world who lies in the evil one is looking for that meaning. 00:20:58.660 --> 00:21:06.240 And I don't know about you guys, but I had 12 years of drug addiction. And I tell you, 00:21:06.300 --> 00:21:12.880 I know what it is like to be a slave to sinful habits, to be a slave to the darkness, 00:21:13.320 --> 00:21:17.779 to be a slave to the devil, to be tangled in your sins and your guilt. 00:21:19.779 --> 00:21:25.960 And to be fearing that day of judgment every day of your life, because your conscience is so 00:21:25.960 --> 00:21:31.920 disturbed. And because you know, when you face that Holy God, you are going to be judged. 00:21:32.920 --> 00:21:40.519 My friends, the good news is in Christ, that judgment has been completely meted out upon Christ 00:21:40.519 --> 00:21:47.740 on the cross. Completely. So there is now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. 00:21:48.759 --> 00:21:51.500 And that day will reveal to us who we are. 00:21:51.500 --> 00:21:59.359 That day will show us and we won't be able to sidestep it. We won't be able to come up with 00:21:59.359 --> 00:22:06.180 excuses or lies or that's not fair or that's not right, because it'll all be there in front of us. 00:22:07.240 --> 00:22:12.079 That day, the light of that day will show us exactly who each of us is. 00:22:12.079 --> 00:22:20.240 But there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. We are saved. Jesus said, 00:22:20.359 --> 00:22:26.119 he who believes in me has already entered from death into life. He who believes in me will never 00:22:26.119 --> 00:22:32.480 taste death. Others will see you die, but you will never see your death. You'll never experience 00:22:32.480 --> 00:22:38.779 death. You will just keep living. He who believes in me has eternal life. It's not something we will 00:22:38.779 --> 00:22:44.799 get afterwards. It's something we have already received as we have come to know Christ. As we 00:22:44.799 --> 00:22:50.440 are in Christ, we have eternal life. We have been raised with him and seated with Christ in the 00:22:50.440 --> 00:22:57.899 heavenly realms. That's where we are. Now we see in part, then we shall see in full. 00:22:57.900 --> 00:23:08.600 We see now dimly as in a mirror, but then we shall see in full as we are fully known. 00:23:11.800 --> 00:23:20.519 And all this wonderful thing that the Lord has done for us is to be to his glory. We are to be his 00:23:20.519 --> 00:23:27.259 planting. We are to be oaks of righteousness. And I just love that term, oaks of righteousness. 00:23:27.259 --> 00:23:32.480 We have the meaning of life. And in this world where people are up and down and they're going 00:23:32.480 --> 00:23:38.500 this way and they believe in this and they believe in that and they're so fickle and they're up and 00:23:38.500 --> 00:23:45.859 down, we can be oaks amongst them in integrity, in knowing why we are here, where we are going, 00:23:46.119 --> 00:23:53.500 who we believe in, what the truth is. We can stand solid in that truth and people will see us 00:23:53.500 --> 00:23:57.059 and they will know we are people who are blessed by the Lord. 00:23:59.400 --> 00:24:03.579 I know that while I was a drug addict, my brother and sister were Christians. 00:24:04.700 --> 00:24:10.839 And, you know, a lot of us think that it's, well, it's, you know, it's how morally good we are as to 00:24:10.839 --> 00:24:14.140 whether people are going to know whether we're Christians or not. And I think that's, there's a 00:24:14.140 --> 00:24:20.599 truth to that because we're reflecting our father in heaven in being pure. He is a holy God. 00:24:20.599 --> 00:24:27.319 But what I saw with my brother and my sister, it wasn't that they were just such good people. 00:24:27.619 --> 00:24:34.019 That isn't, that isn't how I saw the reality of their faith. What I saw is that their lives had 00:24:34.019 --> 00:24:40.240 a hedge around them. They weren't rich. They weren't famous. They didn't live in big homes, 00:24:40.240 --> 00:24:46.279 but they had everything they needed. And God had provided good friends, good people around them. 00:24:46.279 --> 00:24:52.920 He had provided all their needs. They had jobs. Just every provision they could want, 00:24:53.559 --> 00:24:59.940 I could see not how good they were, but I could see God's side of the relationship 00:24:59.940 --> 00:25:05.139 in their life. And I could not deny that these were a people blessed by God. 00:25:05.140 --> 00:25:12.900 We come to the end of the passage and it says, 00:25:13.780 --> 00:25:20.040 for as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the sovereign Lord 00:25:20.040 --> 00:25:27.120 will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations. You see, we don't have to wear those 00:25:27.119 --> 00:25:35.719 garments of sackcloth and despair and mourning because we are righteous before God. And that 00:25:35.719 --> 00:25:42.639 should just excite us into action. That should make us want to tell others and proclaim to others, 00:25:43.039 --> 00:25:51.119 freedom, you are free. Christ has freed you. Repent of your sins and turn to him because he is Lord 00:25:51.119 --> 00:26:01.819 over the whole creation. So when we are aware of our righteousness before God, it will spring 00:26:01.819 --> 00:26:10.139 forth in praise and in a life which should scream out all the time, living for the glory of God and 00:26:10.139 --> 00:26:17.819 should scream out, thank you, Father, for what you have done for me, for taking away the penalty of sin, 00:26:17.819 --> 00:26:23.399 for freeing me from my guilt and from freeing me from the world and what is coming on the world, 00:26:23.480 --> 00:26:25.379 the judgment that is coming on the world. 00:26:29.079 --> 00:26:33.039 Righteousness will spring forth in praise because when we know we are righteous, 00:26:33.339 --> 00:26:37.299 we will not be able to do anything but praise God. I'm telling you, in heaven, 00:26:37.759 --> 00:26:43.259 when you see those visions in revelation of the saints standing around the throne and they are singing 00:26:43.259 --> 00:26:49.339 to God night and day, they are singing to God and praising his name, it is not something they have 00:26:49.339 --> 00:26:55.839 to do which is a boring thing they have to do. It is something they cannot help doing. It is just 00:26:55.839 --> 00:27:03.819 pouring out of them. They can't but praise him for what he has done. And I'm telling you, when we get to 00:27:03.819 --> 00:27:10.180 heaven, when we get to that new Zion, that glorious new Jerusalem where there is no more crying and no more 00:27:10.180 --> 00:27:17.480 pain, where God will wipe away every tear from every eye, all we will be able to do is praise the 00:27:17.480 --> 00:27:26.920 God who called us and made us righteous so we could be there. Holiness is a beautiful thing and we are 00:27:26.920 --> 00:27:33.380 going to see one day what true, pure holiness is like when we come to the new heavens and the new earth. 00:27:33.380 --> 00:27:40.460 We can't even imagine that because in our minds is always sinful thoughts, sinful inclinations. 00:27:42.720 --> 00:27:50.540 But that day we won't be able to sin even if we wanted to. It'll be outside of our mind altogether. 00:27:50.539 --> 00:28:01.180 We have a wonderful gospel to tell the world. Let's go and proclaim the year of the Lord's 00:28:01.180 --> 00:28:07.700 favour while it is still the year of the Lord's favour and before the day of vengeance comes. Let's pray. 00:28:07.700 --> 00:28:20.480 Father, we just want to praise you that you are just such a wonderful and faithful God. We have not 00:28:20.480 --> 00:28:28.100 deserved your grace. We have not deserved the sacrifice that your son poured out upon that cross, 00:28:28.920 --> 00:28:35.900 taking the things we have done wrong upon himself, taking us into himself, taking the judgment for our 00:28:35.900 --> 00:28:41.840 sin into himself. Lord, we have not deserved any of that, Lord, but you gave that to us to show us 00:28:41.840 --> 00:28:48.960 just how much you love us. Father, as we go into this new week, let us be reminded of that great 00:28:48.960 --> 00:28:55.160 love you have for us, Father, so that then from that we can love our neighbour as we would love ourselves. 00:28:55.920 --> 00:29:03.140 Father, let us be conduits of that love to everyone we come across. We pray this in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.