Isaiah’s Passion – Part 2
Isaiah 61-62 (61:2)
November 3, 2024
It’s actually only been two weeks since we took a look at Isaiah,
But with D-Now thrown in last week it feels more like it’s been a month.
But this morning let’s dive back into this wonderful book.
Two Sunday Night’s ago we began a new sermon from Isaiah.
(We’re still in that evangelistic section of the end of his book)
• This new sermon of Isaiah comprises of chapters 61 and 62.
We called it “Isaiah’s Passion”
It is one of those wonderful texts in Scripture
That takes us deeper than just what the prophet is saying
And it shows us the heart of the man who is preaching.
It reminds me of Paul’s opening chapter to the Romans where we see so much of his heart.
Romans 1:9-14 “For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.”
You see there a man who is not only commissioned,
But who has a passion to fulfill his commission.
He hasn’t just been called to go and proclaim the gospel.
• He believes the gospel he has been called to proclaim
• And he loves the people he has been called to.
Those two very important realities must be present in any ministry.
If you don’t believe the gospel you preach
Or you don’t love the people you preach to,
You’re not going to be much of a preacher.
THE PROPHET’S PASSION MATTERS.
• Well that is what we are seeing here in Isaiah 61 & 62.
• It is a prophet sharing his heart for the gospel he is preaching
• And it is a prophet with a heart for the people he is preaching too.
Let’s jump back in like this:
TURN TO: ISAIAH 6
You remember the chapter, you remember the commissioning.
• We remember that Isaiah was in the temple.
• We remember that he entered as a hypocrite with unclean lips.
• And we remember that he encountered the Holy One.
• Isaiah was certain he would die, for he was not holy.
• But God in His great mercy atoned for Isaiah’s sin and redeemed him.
It was at that point that Isaiah heard God’s calling
For one to take the gospel to the people.
(READ 8-13)
• Isaiah was called to take the truth of the gospel and preach it to blind, deaf, and hard-hearted people.
• He was promised that if he would do that he would succeed only in proving how blind, deaf, and hard-hearted they were.
• He was told this ministry would never really see much fruit.
But he was promised that in the end a remnant would return.
There was a holy seed.
And what we have seen since that day is:
Isaiah faithfully doing what God commissioned him to do.
We have seen 60 chapters of Isaiah faithfully preaching the gospel
To the most blind, deaf, and stubborn people ever.
He has not relented.
He has not stopped.
• He was mocked in chapter 28 as a babbler.
• He was told in chapter 30 to shut up and stop prophesying.
But Isaiah continued.
You are familiar with Paul’s admonition to Timothy:
2 Timothy 4:2 “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”
Isaiah had an “out of season” ministry and yet he preached.
We want to know WHY.
We want to know HOW.
So we are looking at the passion of Isaiah.
• Chapter 61 shows us the Prophet’s Commissioning
• Chapter 62 shows us the Prophet’s Commitment
So to jump back in to our study that we began a couple of weeks ago:
#1 THE PROPHET’S COMMISSIONING
Isaiah 61:1-11
When we started this segment and we made just a couple simple observations about Isaiah’s calling.
These were just a couple of nuggets
That sort of sat right on top of the ground for easy picking.
ISAIAH’S COMMISSIONING WAS A PREACHING COMMISSIONING.
He was commissioned:
• “to bring good news to the afflicted”
• “to proclaim liberty to captives”
• (2) “to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD”
• (2) “and [to proclaim] the day of vengeance of our God.”
And I remind you again that this is the commissioning for all of us.
• There is nothing wrong with acts of kindness.
• There is nothing wrong with shining the light of good works.
• There is nothing wrong with feeding the poor.
• There is nothing wrong with clothing the naked.
In fact believers are commissioned to do those things as well,
But none of those things takes the place of the proclamation of truth.
God uses the preaching of the gospel
As the method for calling the elect to salvation.
If men don’t hear the gospel they cannot believe it.
If they do not believe it, they cannot call on Christ.
The calling is to preach.
ISAIAH’S ABILITY AND EAGERNESS CAME FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT.
(1) “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted.”
We said it several times last time that,
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS A MISSIONARY.
John 15:26 “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,”
We learn in John 16 even more of the work of the Holy Spirit.
John 16:8 “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;”
John 16:13-14 “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. “He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.”
The Holy Spirit is a missionary.
• So if you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit…
• If you are filled with the Holy Spirit…
• It only stands to reason that He will make a missionary out of you as well.
HE PROVIDES THE PASSION.
We learned also that He provides THE POWER.
The disciples were explicitly commanded by the Lord not to leave the city until they were “clothed with power from on high”
Acts 1:8 “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
God commissions His people to proclaim the gospel and God sends His Spirit to give them the passion and the power to do it.
That’s just a little low-hanging fruit here from Isaiah 61.
BUT FROM THERE we got into the actual message from Isaiah as we looked at his commissioning.
And we see that in regard to preaching,
Isaiah was basically commissioned to preach two topics.
There would be two basic truths that Isaiah would proclaim over and over and over again to his blind, deaf, and stubborn audience.
1) THE GOSPEL OF SALVATION (1)
“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners;”
We recognized that passage because
It is the one that Jesus quoted as a reference to Himself.
Luke 4:16-21 “And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.” And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
And again we make the point that this final segment of Isaiah is not only Isaiah preaching to his people, but it is actually Jesus preaching to Israel.
He preached this truth to the Jews of His day and He is preaching it still.
And as we have learned recently in Isaiah,
God will never stop preaching this truth to His people until that remnant returns.
Isaiah 59:21 “As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the LORD: “My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says the LORD, “from now and forever.”
Christ preached this in His day and His children continue to preach it to Israel even to this day and even to the end.
And one day this very message of the gospel WILL SUCCEED
In calling that remnant home to faith in Christ.
ISAIAH KNEW THAT,
He preached it faithfully year after year after year,
Even without seeing any results.
Isaiah believed the gospel God commissioned him to preach,
And being clothed with the power of the Holy Spirit,
Isaiah faithfully took that gospel to the sinners who needed to hear it.
• He brought “good news to the afflicted”
• He bound up “the brokenhearted”
• He proclaimed “liberty to captives”
• He proclaimed “freedom to prisoners”
AND THIS MUST BE THE PASSION OF THE CHURCH.
Our world is corrupt and growing more corrupt by the day.
Our world is vile and sinful and evil and it loves it.
But the world is not benefited one bit by a church that hates them.
Our world needs a church that loves them
And loves them enough to tell them how to
Be restored, healed, forgiven, and set free from their sin.
ISAIAH NEVER STOPPED PREACHING THAT,
Two Sunday nights ago we looked at
Some of that preaching from earlier in the book.
And now THIS MORNING we move forward.
For the gospel of salvation
Is not the only thing Isaiah was commissioned to proclaim.
There was a second thing.
2) THE GLORY OF SALVATION (2-11)
That is to say:
Isaiah didn’t just tell them that
• The gospel could save them
• And deliver them
• And forgive them
• And set them free,
Isaiah actually showed them what such a deliverance would look like.
For sure he spent a great deal of time confronting and engaging sinners.
BUT HE ALSO SPENT A GREAT DEAL OF TIME
EXPOUNDING THE GLORIES OF THE SALVATION THAT HE OFFERED.
Look at verses 2-3
(2-3) “To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”
If you are thinking still about Jesus preaching this text in Nazareth
• You know that Jesus quoted the first line of verse 2
• And then stopped without quoting “And the day of vengeance of our God;”
Jesus quoted only that which spoke of His first coming.
The rest of that passage spoke of His second coming.
• That part had not yet been fulfilled.
• That part has still not been fulfilled.
But this is the other passion of Isaiah’s preaching.
He is telling Israel not only of the salvation of the gospel
But also of the glory that follows their believing it.
And we have talked about this so many times,
But it never hurts to show it again.
Listen again to Peter in Acts 3.
Acts 3:17-21 “And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. “But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.”
Peter reminded the Jews of exactly what Isaiah preached.
That when Israel repents and returns
It will trigger the return of Christ to set up His glorious kingdom.
And let’s talk about this a little more this morning,
If perhaps to gain some more understanding.
You know of those who label themselves as “Amillennialists”
Or “Post-Millennialists” or even “Preterists”.
Those are different views of the end times,
But one thing they all have in common is that
When taken to their logical end, THE CHURCH HAS REPLACED ISRAEL.
And in those views there is a tendency to spiritualize or allegorize much of the Scriptures, especially those of the Old Testament.
I could show you commentaries on Isaiah from men who take everything we’ve been studying about the coming glory of Israel and show you how theologians have replaced Israel with the church and made all of those promises sort of allegory to speak of the church age.
And they would say that everything Isaiah spoke of already happened.
It didn’t happen to Israel, like Isaiah said,
• But rather it happened to the church.
It didn’t’ happen literally like Isaiah said,
• But rather it happened sort of symbolically or spiritually or allegorically.
They would say that the church is now receiving all of the blessings which God promised to Israel in a spiritual sense.
And because there is an uptick on this discussion
I feel it very important to continue to clarify our position.
And look, we can read:
Ephesians 1:1-3 “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,”
And we see there that the church has indeed been blessed
“with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,”
We can read:
2 Corinthians 1:20 “For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.”
We can see that Christ is in fact the fulfillment of all the promises of God.
HOW DO WE HANDLE THOSE REALITIES?
Well, first of all, YES, the church has received every blessing.
• We are in Christ and He is the fulfillment, and in Him we get it all.
And YES, the blessings we have in Christ are spiritual blessings.
We don’t deny that we are receiving spiritual blessings.
For example:
Isaiah 53:4-5 “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.”
Charismatic circles would read that verse as proof that there is no reason for a believer to ever get sick.
• And look, Isaiah used the word for physical sickness and physical healing when
he spoke of the atonement.
So is that what we see now?
No, we don’t see that believers never get sick.
We didn’t even see that in the New Testament.
• Paul said he left Trophimus sick at Miletus (2 Timothy 4:2)
• Paul said it was “bodily illness” that gave him the opportunity to first preach to
the Galatians (Galatians 4:13)
So was Isaiah lying when he said there was healing in the atonement?
Was Isaiah just speaking allegorically or symbolically?
NO, THAT IS COMING.
Right now we enjoy the spiritual blessing and reality of that.
• We have our souls healed.
• We have spiritual healing.
When Christ comes we will enjoy the physical reality of that.
• In that day there will be no more physical sickness.
Isaiah 35:3-5 “Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble. Say to those with anxious heart, “Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The recompense of God will come, But He will save you.” Then the eyes of the blind will be opened And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.”
There is coming a day when the blessing upon God’s people
Will not just be spiritual blessings,
But will be physical blessings as well.
Even the prosperity that the false proponents of the prosperity gospel
Are always talking about will be reality in that day.
Isaiah 60:6 “A multitude of camels will cover you, The young camels of Midian and Ephah; All those from Sheba will come; They will bring gold and frankincense, And will bear good news of the praises of the LORD.”
And I just show you that again because I want you to understand
1. What we presently enjoy in Christ through the gospel
2. And what we will one day enjoy in Christ when He comes.
ISAIAH SPOKE OF BOTH.
THERE IS A GOSPEL that gives
• Relief to the afflicted
• Healing to the brokenhearted
• Liberty to captives
• Freedom to prisoners.
BUT THERE IS ALSO A GLORY that will give
• A real and present and physical restoration to this world
• And to the people of God.
We currently enjoy one, we still anticipate the other.
ISAIAH PREACHED BOTH.
• Isaiah preached the first coming of Christ in the gospel.
• Isaiah preached the second coming of Christ in the glory.
We have seen the fulfillment of one,
We wait for the fulfillment of the second.
That gives us a blueprint of how we preach to the world.
We preach both as well.
• We preach that Christ came and that in His coming there is forgiveness and salvation.
• We preach that Christ will come again and in His coming there is restoration and glory.
I HOPE THAT MAKES SENSE.
Well, let’s look at this preaching of Isaiah.
He came to preach THE GLORY OF SALVATION
(2) “To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD And the day of vengeance of our God;”
As we said, this verse marks the transition.
• Jesus quoted the first to speak of His day.
• He stopped before quoting the second half which speaks of His return.
Jesus first offered to sinners “the favorable year of the LORD”
John 3:16-18 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Christ did not come the first time in judgment.
He did not come to condemn sinners.
In fact, it was Christ who was condemned in His first coming.
• It was Christ who bore God’s wrath.
• It was Christ who became a curse.
• It was Christ who was scourged and rejected and crucified.
He came to offer grace and mercy and salvation to sinners.
He came to purchase salvation for sinners.
That was the gospel which Isaiah and Jesus both preached.
BUT ISAIAH DIDN’T STOP THERE.
He also preached THE GLORY OF THE COMING KINGDOM.
What he refers to as, “the day of vengeance of our God”
This is the day of His coming.
The day when Christ will return on a white horse
And destroy His enemies.
This glorious day of the kingdom
Begins as a day of reckoning for the enemies of God.
This day was preached often in the New Testament as well:
John the Baptist spoke of this day:
Matthew 3:12 “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Jesus spoke of this day:
Matthew 13:41-43 “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. “Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”
Matthew 13:49-50 “So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Matthew 16:27 “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.”
Matthew 24:30-31 “And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory. “And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.”
The apostles spoke of this day:
1 Thessalonians 5:2-3 “For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.”
Hebrews 12:25-26 “See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “YET ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVEN.”
2 Peter 3:10 “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”
TURN TO: REVELATION 19:11-21
Those are all speaking about the same day.
It is “the day of vengeance of our God.”
It is the day when the Lord returns
To take vengeance on His enemies
AND on those who have persecuted His people.
We are unequivocally told in Romans:
Romans 12:19 “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord.”
THIS IS THAT DAY.
And let me just show you where Isaiah preached this.
In his very first sermon Isaiah said:
Isaiah 1:27-28 “Zion will be redeemed with justice And her repentant ones with righteousness. But transgressors and sinners will be crushed together, And those who forsake the LORD will come to an end.”
In his second sermon:
Isaiah 2:12-17 “For the LORD of hosts will have a day of reckoning Against everyone who is proud and lofty And against everyone who is lifted up, That he may be abased. And it will be against all the cedars of Lebanon that are lofty and lifted up, Against all the oaks of Bashan, Against all the lofty mountains, Against all the hills that are lifted up, Against every high tower, Against every fortified wall, Against all the ships of Tarshish And against all the beautiful craft. The pride of man will be humbled And the loftiness of men will be abased; And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day,”
These represent the false believers
• They infiltrated Israel from within and sought to lead her astray through influence.
• They are the tares among the wheat
• And the Lord will come and destroy them.
But not just them,
There are also those enemies who afflicted Israel from the outside.
• Enemies like Assyria and Babylon and God will destroy them too.
• You remember all of those oracles Isaiah referened.
Isaiah 10:12 “So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the pomp of his haughtiness.”
Isaiah 14:22-23 “I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and survivors, offspring and posterity,” declares the LORD. “I will also make it a possession for the hedgehog and swamps of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD of hosts.”
Isaiah 24:21-23 “So it will happen in that day, That the LORD will punish the host of heaven on high, And the kings of the earth on earth. They will be gathered together Like prisoners in the dungeon, And will be confined in prison; And after many days they will be punished. Then the moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed, For the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, And His glory will be before His elders.”
Now I know that is a lot of verses
To chew and swallow there in a really short time.
I simply want to show you that
The preaching of the glory of the return of Christ
Was just as important to Isaiah and Christ and the apostles
As preaching the gospel of salvation.
THEY DID BOTH.
This is the commission.
Isaiah was called to go out and preach to sinners
• The very message of salvation
• And that this message was not optional.
He was to show them
• The glory of the coming of the Lord.
• The danger in rejecting Christ.
• The danger in offending the Lord.
He was to show them that
• There is a coming day of reckoning for all those who refuse and reject God’s offer of salvation.
• And a day of reckoning for all those who afflict God’s people.
There is a coming “day of vengeance of our God”
And look, if you are one who has rejected Christ and you are walking in rebellion of His commands THIS TRUTH SHOULD TERRIFY YOU.
The return of Christ should be the most terrorizing truth in the world.
He will come and crush His enemies.
AND CERTAINLY THAT WAS PART OF ISAIAH’S MESSAGE.
However, that WASN’T the main thrust of his message.
For here in verse 2 we see precisely WHY Isaiah preached “the day of vengeance of our God;”
Do you see why?
(2b-3) “To comfort tall who mourn, To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the LORD that He may be glorified.”
The chief reason Isaiah preached about God’s “day of vengeance”
WAS NOT to terrify the wicked, thought it should have.
The chief reason Isaiah preached bout God’s “day of vengeance”
WAS to comfort God’s people.
There is a comfort that can only be found for God’s people
In the truths of the return of Christ.
Look at what Paul told the Thessalonians:
2 Thessalonians 1:6-10 “For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed—for our testimony to you was believed.”
And we will talk about this more tonight,
Tonight we will enjoy that Christ has promised to return and comfort
Those of us who grieve over our sin
And who grieve over the sin of our culture.
BUT THIS MORNING I simply want to encourage you church that we are messengers of both truths.
We are commissioned to go into the world and tell sinners
• How forgiveness can be had through the atoning death of Christ.
• That rejecting Christ will come with a day of reckoning.
We are commissioned to tell the afflicted of God’s people
• Not to fear, for their God is coming with vengeance to deliver them.
This is what Isaiah was sent to preach.
And because of the indwelling Holy Spirit, it was his passion to do so.
