“The Lord Will Cause Righteousness and Praise to Sprout Up,” Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

¹The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;  ²to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;

        ³to grant to those who mourn in Zion — to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.  ⁴They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. . .

        ⁸For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.   ⁹Their offspring shall be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed. 

        ¹⁰I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult 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 like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.  ¹¹For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.  (ESV)

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Using the happenings of the cycle of growth and increase of vegetation and produce from the land, the Lord God reveals that so His righteousness and praise will go forth—before all the nations.  Two things draw our attention here. First, the definiteness of the Lord’s doing. Second, all nations would take notice.

Concerning the certainty of the Lord’s Word coming to pass, that righteousness and praise would sprout up, reflecting on God’s promises and His Word throughout Holy Scripture—God is faithful to all that He says. From beginning to end, the Bible clearly reveals the working of God’s Word. What He says—happens. What He says—Is. “God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light” (Gen. 1:3 NKJ). To Abraham, God said, “Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son” (Gen. 18:14 NKJ).

“And the LORD visited Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him– whom Sarah bore to him– Isaac” (Gen. 21:1-3 NKJ).

Again, to Abraham had God said, “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions” (Gen. 15:13-14 NKJ). For 400 years, the sons of Israel were slaves in Egypt, but “by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm” (i.e. Deuteronomy 4:34), God delivered His people. “And the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians” (Exod. 12:36 NKJ).

God promised a Deliverer, a Savior, through the virgin, saying, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14 NKJ). — “When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4-5 NKJ). Jesus had said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn. 2:19 NKJ). On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead, “according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:4).

What our Lord God says, what His Son Jesus says—happens. Of this truth the Scriptures testify. Today’s Old Testament reading is no different. Righteousness and praise God will bring about before all nations. Righteousness and praise God has sprung up and sprouts up for all nations to see. The promises of Old God has kept, keeps, has fulfilled, and fulfills in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Truly, Jesus is the Righteous One, through Whom, by faith, you are righteous before the Father.  Because of Him, your praises also ascend to God and spring out before the world in the confession of His Holy Name and in holy living.

The Righteous One is your righteousness. His praise is also your own, as God has given you a new mind and new heart. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17 NKJ). Whereas we were once dead in our trespasses and sins, God has now made us alive by His life-giving Word (Ephesians 2:2; John 6:63; 15:3)—the same Word that creates out of nothing (Genesis 1:1) — “calls those things which do not exist as though they did” (Rom. 4:17 NKJ)—does not return to the Lord void but accomplishes what He pleases and prospers in the thing for which He sends it (Isaiah 55:10-11)—raises  the dead to life—and gives life eternal to those who believe in His Name according to His Word, “Whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (Jn. 11:26 NKJ).

What God has done in Christ is for all the world to see. Because of sin and death, the world is not as it ought to be. Such truth we see all around us, as well as within ourselves. Our own hearts are not as they should be. We do not do as we ought to do. We are not as God would have us be. But for the helpless, God gives help. For those who can’t, God does. For those condemned, God saves.

When Christ died on the cross, for the world He died. Jesus even said, “If I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself,” and “This He said, signifying by what death He would die” (Jn. 12:32-33 NKJ). If you want to be righteous in God’s eyes, that is, holy and acceptable to Him, and if you want His favor, then look to Jesus, the One whom God sent, not yourself, not any other. In your own goodness before God you will have none, you will not be able to stand, nor will you find welcome. These are found only and through Christ, Who St. Paul says, “became for us wisdom from God– and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.’” (1 Cor. 1:30-31 NKJ).

Having Christ as your righteousness before God, such righteousness before God is certain, for it is not coming from you but from Him Who is Right, Holy, and True—completely—because He is God; God for you, and now, in Him, you have a new heart, a new heart that sings true and godly praises to God, not of self. In Him, your mouth has been cleansed. You now confess His Name and your salvation in Him. In Him, you have a new heart, a cleansed mouth, and the desire for God’s Word to be in your ears and on your lips. Such is what God’s Word brings about, creating in you, as it does, a new heart and a right spirit within (Psalm 51:10).

The truth that not all the world acknowledges God, His Word, and His work is not a testament to God’s lack or inability. It is testimony of the world’s corruption, that it doesn’t even acknowledge its Creator and Savior. Jesus’ death on the cross was met with disdain by many in His day. It still is. But this doesn’t change what is, what God has done, what God continues to do, or what God will do before all the world. These things are not dependent on the world and its ways. God’s grace continues to be extended; His mercy—bestowed; His forgiveness—given; Life—granted. All this, despite those who continue to refuse what God so freely gives.

Who God is, revealed in Christ, shows this with clarity, and not according to people and our own ideas about how God works or should work. Apart from God’s revelation in Christ, these are wrong. In today’s Old Testament reading from Isaiah, who does the Anointed One of God bring good news to? Who does He bind up? Who does He proclaim liberty to and the opening of the prison to? To whom does He give comfort?

The Anointed One of God, the One Messiah-ed, says, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn” (v1, 2).

In the immediate context, for Isaiah’s hearers, these words certainly applied to those suffering under God’s righteousness judgement because of their sin, who saw and felt their need. Their problems were real. Their sufferings were tangible. But to them, God would bring about help. An overview of the text clearly shows God’s goodness and mercy—and to those who cannot but receive God’s goodness and mercy. Historically, the children of Israel were unable to help themselves and when they tried, they failed. There was nothing that they could do to help their situation. Before God, this is always the case. We deceive ourselves into thinking that somehow God’s pleasure or displeasure toward us is dependent on we ourselves. It’s not. God’s pleasure toward you is revealed in His Word. His mercy is made known to you in His Son—His love, revealed in Him Whom the Father sent to the cross.  By the Word, God gives the true diagnosis of our condition before Him. By that same Word, God gives the true remedy for that condition—His Son. Thus, does our Lord help us now and so is He continually our help—always—according to His Word—and for all time. Amen.

The one thing necessary

One thing, and only one thing, is necessary for Christian life, righteousness, and freedom. That one thing is the most holy Word of God, the gospel of Christ, as Christ says, John 11[:25], “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live”; and John 8[:36], “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed”; and Matt. 4[:4], “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Let us then consider it certain and firmly established that the soul can do without anything except the Word of God and that where the Word of God is missing there is no help at all for the soul. If it has the Word of God it is rich and lacks nothing since it is the Word of life, truth, light, peace, righteousness, salvation, joy, liberty, wisdom, power, grace, glory, and of every incalculable blessing.  On the other hand, there is no more terrible disaster with which the wrath of God can afflict men than a famine of the hearing of his Word, as he says in Amos [8:11]. Likewise there is no greater mercy than when he sends forth his Word, as we read in Psalm 107[:20]: “He sent forth his word, and healed them, and delivered them from destruction.” Nor was Christ sent into the world for any other ministry except that of the Word. Moreover, the entire spiritual estate—all the apostles, bishops, and priests—has been called and instituted only for the ministry of the Word. (LW 31, The Freedom of a Christian, 1520)

It is clear, then, that a Christian has all that he needs in faith and needs no works to justify him; and if he has no need of works, he has no need of the law; and if he has no need of the law, surely he is free from the law. It is true that “the law is not laid down for the just” [I Tim. 1:9]. This is that Christian liberty, our faith, which does not induce us to live in idleness or wickedness but makes the law and works unnecessary for any man’s righteousness and salvation. (LW 31, The Freedom of a Christian, 1520)

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