Let us turn together to the prophecy of Isaiah in chapter 61. We take for our text this evening verses 1 through to 5. The chapter begins, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Words to cause us in our hearts to be praising the Lord. Now we have already seen in our studies thus far that preaching is a challenging activity. One of the reasons for this is the diversity of the hearers. There are, for example, both adults and children. Matthew tells us that at the feeding of the great multitude there were about 5,000 men beside women and Children. Talk about the feeding of the 5,000, but we have to remember that there were many more than that. 5,000 men beside women and children. And I suppose we could have done a study on our Lord's ministry to children. and that could easily have occupied us for several weeks. For we have so much information in the Bible concerning the preaching of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And these things remind us that the preacher must reach all ages. The preacher must seek to reach all the different nationalities and cultures that he can address in their particular languages. Often, during the Savior's preaching, the listeners included friends and foes, and the preacher must address the hostility of the flesh. to this salvation by grace. There is nothing more unwelcome to us as sinners, as unsaved sinners, than this message of the gospel that reminds us of our utter and absolute dependence upon Jesus Christ. There's no other way out of our situation as sinners. There's no other way out of our guilt. There's no other way out of our corruption. We are helpless to find a remedy for ourselves. And these things great upon the natural man who has such high estimation of himself. Look at our scientific achievements. Look at the progress that we have made over the last two centuries. For example, we see how great we are. Well, we see how great we think we are. But as soon as we come to this matter of addressing eternity, as soon as we come to this matter of addressing our relationship to God, as soon as we come to this matter of addressing the problem of sin, we see ourselves in this object helplessness. and salvation must be by grace the undeserved and merited favor of God, or surely there will be no salvation at all. Friends, the subject matter of the preacher is so spiritual and so sublime that we may say with the Apostle Paul, Who is sufficient for these things? And we have a simple answer to that, and it is not one, but Jesus Christ, our Lord, the eternal Son incarnate. In the Bible, the subject of preaching falls naturally into four main headings. the preaching of the prophets, the preaching of Christ, the preaching of the apostles, and the preaching of gospel ministers. We have five addresses for the simple reason that as we saw this morning, John the Baptist stands as a preacher, the link between. the Old Testament and the New, the link between the prophets and the preaching of Christ. But our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ made perfectly plain that his preaching was founded upon the preaching of the apostles. that this inspired record of the Old Testament was not set aside by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he could appeal again and again to the Old Testament scriptures as the validation of his ministry and of his preaching. But we acknowledge that the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ takes precedence because Christ is the preacher of our fears. Christ is the center of what we believe, and Christ is the sufficiency with respect to the progress of his church. In looking at the preaching of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in connection with Isaiah 61 and these first five verses, we want to look first of all at the authority of Christ's preaching. The natural man among us this evening will have his various sources of authority. It might be ancient or modern philosophers. It might be scientists. It might be his own understanding. There's a whole myriad of things to which the natural man can look for authority. But the reality is this. All true authority begins with Jesus Christ, the one and only mediator between God and men. And this authority of Christ as preacher arises from his unique anointing. Here in this passage, the Messiah speaks through his prophet. And he says, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me. because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. Now anointing with oil was an ancient practice to set apart to some office. And you see how God incorporated this in connection with the matter of authority in the kingdom of heaven. So Aaron, the great high priest, had to be anointed with oil. David, that great king of Israel, was anointed with oil. And in 1 Kings 19.16 we read that Elisha, the prophet, was anointed with oil. So the Jews were used to anointing by the institution of God in connection with their leadership, spiritual and political. So the high priest, the king, and prophets were anointed and set apart to the service of God. Now though we are concentrating at this time upon the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ as the great prophet and preacher of the faith, we do need to remember that his anointing was also as high priest. As high priest to sacrifice himself as the Lamb of God in the place of sinners such as we. If it were not so, there would be no message of joy and gladness and release and salvation to preach. For there is no other way that we sinners can approach to God and find acceptance and pray our Father, which art in heaven, accepted be by the shed blood of the Lamb. Our story, as it were, begins at Calvary. And it must be so, because without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. That was a principle of the Old Testament law, to teach the necessity of the atonement of Christ. Had the Jews taken that more to heart, then there would have been less of the rejection of the Saviour as the Lord of glory. It was a great stumbling block to them that they should need a crucified Saviour. What a thought, dear friends. One dying under the curse of the broken law. As it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. This is this what is necessary in order that we might come to God. You see, the natural pride of man staggers back at such a thing. But at the center, the center of the preaching and teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, with the authority of Almighty God bestowed upon him, And as we saw this morning, the spirit of God put upon him at that time of his baptism by John the Baptist. These things draw our attention to the fact that without that atoning sacrifice at Calvary, there is absolutely no way to God. We notice that the Lord Jesus Christ was anointed by the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. The capitalization in our English authorized version here shows us that it is Jehovah God that is referred to. Now this is the name of Israel's covenant God. It declares God's unchanging self-existence and self-sufficiency. He is not dependent upon his creatures in any way. He is not dependent upon you or me. It is our dependence upon him that comes into focus in the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we learn that he, who is infinitely and eternally supreme, has anointed his son, incarnate Jesus of Nazareth, as the supreme and authoritative revealer of the will of God. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, says the Messiah, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. Those of us here this evening who are ministers of the gospel surely believe that unless our teaching is consistent with the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is worthless. Christ is the supreme and authoritative revealer of the will of God. This despised Jesus of Nazareth is, in fact, the preacher of excellence and the one whose words are truly saving words. With an office of greater honor than that of Moses and to be perfectly discharged without spot or blemish. Christ himself could say unto the children of Israel, I am has sent me unto you, one greater than Abraham, one greater than Moses, to make known the will of God. with respect to sinners such as we as to how we might be saved. And this anointing of the Lord Jesus Christ by God, the Holy Spirit, was to indicate that we are to look to him and to him alone to save us from our sins. So this authority of Christ as preacher was ensured by this anointing with the Holy Spirit. Now, anointing with oil was an ancient practice to indicate the setting apart to some important office. And it was connected with the bestowal of the Holy Spirit in order to ensure effective performance of that office. We pray that our ministers in their preaching will be endowed with God the Holy Spirit. For if that were not so, our preaching would be in vain. How could it possibly penetrate to the heart of the man or woman or boy or girl? if it depended upon human energy alone. And so we come back to this scripture, given by inspiration of God, and we seek the work of God, the Holy Spirit, in enabling us, in expounding it to the spiritual benefit of our hearers. to ensure, as it were, the effective performance of the office of preacher. And nobody, nobody has that measure of the Spirit of God like the Redeemer himself, who can say, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. How few words, dear friends, and yet we see in them the Holy Trinity engaged for the salvation of sinners such as we. God the Father pours out his Holy Spirit without measure upon his beloved son. that he might come with the very best of news to unworthy sinners. The very best of news concerning himself. We were looking at John the Baptist this morning. And we saw in that connection that there was a visible testimony to these things at the baptism of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In Mark 10, we have the record, and straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him. There must be no doubt with us that the eternal son of God incarnate, Jesus Christ the righteous, is the preacher par excellence. If the preacher's message conflicts with the teaching of Christ, it is the preacher who is wrong. And no amount of historical reference, no amount of academic learning, or whatsoever else we might bring into the arena can possibly displace the authoritative teaching of Jesus Christ as the preacher of the church. If my preaching does not correspond with his, then it is my preaching that would be useless for the purpose of the salvation of sinners. Now, I make a point of this because we've had two centuries of this theological liberalism undermining the authority of the scripture, and consequently undermining the authority of Christ and the authority of the apostles. Let us have it, dear friends, settled in our hearts that this Bible which is before us in the Old Testament and the New is given by inspiration of God. And as to the manuscripts of the Old Testament and the New, and we refer to those that have been in common use in the church, then we accept the verbal inspiration of these records. And consequently, the witness to the Lord Jesus Christ which is in them is accurate, and it is normative for us, and we are to measure our preaching, if we are preachers, and our lives, each one of us, if we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, by this record. Consequently, we have Christ's withering woes upon the Pharisees for their false teaching, their teaching of what we call works righteousness. How often this comes out in the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, that works righteousness is not good tidings. We mean by works righteousness where sinners rely upon their own deeds to commend them to God. How often have you talked to a neighbor, a relative, a work colleague who is not saved, and on the subject of our responsibility to God and what is necessary to be received by God and to enter into heaven, they fall back upon this fact, I am not so bad after all. I'm not like these murderers that feature on the front pages of our newspapers. I'm not involved with uncleanness and adultery and these kinds of things. You see, my life has a sufficiency for acceptance with God. And this is nothing but works righteousness in modern dress. that somehow we can save ourselves by the life that we live. If we take that particular view, dear friends, we are on a hiding to nothing. Because there's no possibility of salvation by trusting in ourselves. Works righteousness is not good news for sinners. for works righteousness results in condemnation in the judgment. And we're back to where we were with Jonah in connection with the message that he had to preach to the Ninevites. The judgment would come upon them because of the multitude of their sins. We have nothing, nothing to bring into the situation. And that is why the message of Christ concerning himself is so important to us, because he has everything to bring into the situation in the matter of acceptance with God and salvation and forgiveness of sins. Good tidings. Good tidings to the meek. It's not good news to the proud and arrogant that there is only one name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. That is the name of Jesus Christ. But it is the reality. And so Christ was able to present himself, himself as the only possible solution. with respect to our alienation from God. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father but by me. If we are going to take seriously the Bible, if we are going to take seriously the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, then it commits us to the acceptance of the fact that it is Christ and Christ alone by whom we can be saved. And if you're a believer here this evening, you say in your hearts, amen. That's the way it is. I would not like to be left trying to find my own way to God, my own acceptance with God. I accept the claims. of Jesus Christ to be the resurrection and the life. And all my hopes are in him, you see. And it is a blessed condition to enjoy. Now what is the purpose of Christ's preaching? We see that also in this passage in Isaiah. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. There is so much here, dear friends, that we have to do what the Americans call unpack what is here. When you have everything pressed down in your case for traveling, all that you see is the pair of trousers that is on the top or the dress that is on the top. You've got to unpack it to see all of the things that are there. Now, this revelation through Isaiah, dwells upon the aim of Christ's preaching and how wonderful it is. We're addressing the matter of preaching in relationship to true spiritual renewal. And what a passage we have here, dear friends, of that which results from the acceptance of the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ in connection with what he himself has done for the salvation of sinners. Look at this. The purpose of Christ is to comfort the brokenhearted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. How often in life, dear friends, we find ourselves called to comfort others. It may be a child's fall. And they have hurt themselves rather badly. And it is necessary to comfort a son or daughter or other child. Later in life, it might be an examination failure. And things like that are hard to handle. when one has put in a lot of work in their studies, in the prospect of achievement, and achievement doesn't come. And it can be quite devastating and produce a great deal of tears. There are other greater challenges in life, are there not? The challenge of bereavement, for example, the loss of a loved one, And how devastating that is in a family when a father dies or a mother dies. My mother died when I was just a boy. And what a hole that leaves in one's life. You see, there are these situations where comfort is needed. And when it is this greatest need of reconciliation with God, we have nothing to put into the situation of ourselves, nothing to offer of ourselves, except what we learn from the lips of Jesus. And Jesus, the preacher, cries into our life situation about comforting the brokenhearted. The Lord has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, he says. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Amen. It's true, you reply, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. You've experienced it right from the beginning of your conversion time. When after all of that labor with the burden of sin, it is lifted. And you know the peace that passes understanding. But as we go through the Christian life, with all of the changing circumstances in the tapestry of the life that we live, You may come with your sorrows and with your burdens to Christ, and you find real comfort. You find real comfort because it is the purpose of Christ, to comfort the brokenhearted. It may be this evening that you know absolutely nothing of these things. What is the preacher talking about, this matter of comfort? in the situations where we are brokenhearted. Well, you see, you cannot know anything about these things if you're standing at a distance from Christ. The Christ who says, come unto me. The Christ who is saying this evening to sinners in their lostness, come unto me. You can cease your laboring. You no longer need to be heavy laden. As John Bunyan graphically presented it in Pilgrim's Progress, when Pilgrim there at the cross, his burden falls from his back and rolls away, and he sees it no more. A purpose of Christ to comfort the brokenhearted. But also this purpose of Christ through his ministry, through his preaching, is to liberate those in bondage, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Preacher might say, put your hand up if you have been in prison. or some preachers may come along and they may be able to tell you, yes, I was in prison. I was a convict before I was saved, they might say. So they know the reality of what it is like to have their freedom taken away. At this present time, we are visiting a friend who is detained in hospital on account of his medical condition. And consequently, his freedom, his liberty is taken away. We've seen how crushing that is to him. Nearly every time we visit him, he mentions it. I just want to go home. But because of his condition, he cannot just go home. But I just want to go home and have liberty to do the kinds of things that I was doing before all of this came about. And you see, so precious is liberty. But the most precious liberty of all, the most precious freedom of all is this spiritual liberation when the blood of Jesus Christ is applied to believers who repent of sin and look to Christ and know, know that they have access to God. Though God is so almighty, though God is so holy, though God so hates sin, yet the sinner comes. And with that prayer, Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner. He finds forgiveness and acceptance. and consequently liberation, spiritual freedom. The amnesty, as you know, is a day of liberation. It is when a general pardon is granted to political offenders. Offenses are forgotten. The record is struck through. and the reputation is clean once again. The prisoners are set free. You can imagine how in the ancient world imprisonment was so dreadfully confining, terrible condition. It is like that for some believers in certain countries today, as you know, so cruelly treated in this dreadful bondage, in prison, in chains even, to be set free, to be liberated, to find oneself in a situation where these constraints are no more. It's like being able to breathe again, surely. Now, if this is so, in connection with these merely human things in this world, how much more, dear friends, is it so with this undeserved and free favor of God, this grace of God that Christ proclaims? that our sins and iniquities are remembered no more. The sins of today are sufficient to send each and every one of us to hell. But the sins of today do not need to be troubling the believer. You bring them to the throne of grace. and you leave the throne of grace as if they had never been. God has wiped the record clean by the blood of Jesus. An amnesty of liberation secured by God's eternal son incarnate. Now the purpose of Christ is also to save the complacent by moving them to urgency. You see, sinners can sit in the congregation of the righteous, listening to the preaching of Christ, that is, preaching him as the subject. Just as many sinners in the day of our Lord listen to the actual preaching of Christ concerning himself, and all that he brings to those who put their trust in him. But they did nothing about it. You see, we need to be saved from our own complacency by being moved to urgency to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, says the Messiah. and the day of vengeance of our God. Now there is a wonderful transition at John the Baptist because that preponderance concerning judgment and condemnation that we rightly find in the Old Testament Scriptures, not without these beautiful promises concerning God's salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, but it is as though the proportions are reversed. And when we come to John the Baptist and his declaration with respect to the one who is coming, And when we come particularly to the preaching of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the prominence, as it were, passes from the bondage, from the condemnation, from the judgment to come. I'm not saying these things are not present. But the preponderance passes from these things. into this wonderful matter of God's salvation. But it is no good being lax. with respect to this message of Christ. Oh, it doesn't matter, because there's so much in this message with respect to freedom, with respect to joy, with respect to forgiveness. Now, all of these things are a reality. And Christ has come, as we see here in verse 2, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Wonderful. But you see, and the day of vengeance of our God. This matter of righteousness, this matter of judgment, this matter of condemnation, this matter of a hell as well as a heaven cannot be completely pushed out of the picture because it is a reality. And those who are complacent about these things need to be moved to urgency. And Christ has this purpose in connection with his preaching, to stir up the complacent, to be moved to an urgency concerning the needs of their soul. So when Christ had read this passage in the synagogue at Nazareth, he closed the book, and then his preaching on the text began. And he says, this day is the scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bear him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. With our gracious God, there is an acceptable year. That is a day of grace. So in 2 Corinthians 6 and 2, the Apostle Paul says, For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation I have succored thee. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Well, by invitation, I'm preaching here tomorrow morning and tomorrow evening, but don't leave it till then if you are not in Christ. For now, now, is the accepted time. And you must put away your sins. With grief and hatred you must repent, and you must look to Christ, and you must rest in Christ now. For we do not know what a day may bring. And if sinners ignore the overtures of mercy and a day of grace, they remain exposed to the day of vengeance of our God. You know all our computers are based on on-off. The particular parts of the computer are either on or off. And we're able to do amazing things on the basis of this on-off principle. And this on-off principle applies spiritually. You're either on for Christ, or you're off against Christ. And now, is the accepted time. And the purpose of Christ is to bestow inestimable blessings. I can only briefly comment on this. To appoint unto them that morning's iron, to give unto them beautiful ashes, the oil of joyful mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. You see, sinners brought to conviction of sin and sorrowing for it. But neither they nor you can lift the burden. Only Christ, preaching through his servants, can give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. As the fasting Israelite put away his sackcloth and ashes and puts on his clean garments, so the sinner justified by faith alone in Christ alone walks in newness of life or transformation, dear friends. from desolation to fruitfulness as trees of righteousness. Psalm 1 verse 3, he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Look down, look down to your roots and where are they? Are your roots in Christ? And consequently, you know what the preacher is talking about. Let me briefly conclude with the activity resulting from Christ's preaching. For some of us have prayed many years in a desire to see our congregations increase and every seat be filled, our nation be brought out of this dreadful condition in which we find it. We have prayed and prayed for these things, have we not? And we need to be reminded of the activity resulting from Christ's preaching. We might sum it up in our theme, renewal. And they shall build the old ways, They shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the way cities, the desolations of many generations. The purpose of preaching is not entertainment or information, not to make men merely wiser. We have no doubts that the Apostle Paul could have preached in a way that would have been acceptable to the intelligentsia of his day. We have no doubt that the Lord Jesus Christ had the capacity so to preach. His temptation there in the wilderness to take some other direction whereby he would be applauded by men and have the riches of the world was a real temptation. But Christ would not deviate one iota from the message which the Father had given to him to proclaim. The purpose of his preaching was transformation and action. You see that in the disciples, these fishermen, tax collector, others. They became men of spiritual action. What a description, dear friends of believers we have here in Isaiah 61. They shall build the old wastes. They shall raise up the former desolations. And they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. See the Jews there coming back from the Babylonian captivity and their land is a desolation and everything has got to start again from ground level. Christ exhorts them through the prophet Haggai. Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory, and how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord, and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedek, the high priest, and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, and work, for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts. This, believer, is your mission. If you are called by Christ, if you have heard that call, responded to that call, follow Christ, this is your mission. You are a builder. You are a rebuilder. When you see the desolations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, your heart is to be stirred up to do something about it. and our mind's eye captures the scene. We see our local community, but we see minds and hearts rather than bricks and mortar. This is where the rebuilding must be done. There is work to be done. And friends, if we are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are the workmen. Many disappointments, discouragements lie behind us. We've tried this, we've tried that, we've prayed, we have sought to do what the Lord would have us to do. We find ourselves still in the midst of desolation. But let us work. Let us work while it is day. And may Christ, the Lord of our preaching and our testimony, grant us the blessing that only He can give. Amen.