I ask you to turn your Bible to Isaiah chapter 61, and we’ll be looking at verse 10. We are continuing a series of messages under the title “While Following God’s Roadmap I discovered . . .” A few messages back we discussed how we are loved by God.
We talked about about how “God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
We talked about how “God commended His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
- God loves us, even when we don’t love Him;
- He loves us when we are right and He loves us when we are wrong;
- He loves us when we’re in and He loves us when we’re out;
- He loves us when we’re up and He loves us when we’re down.
Listen, “NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD.”
We talked about the two great Commandments Jesus left us, how we are to “LOVE GOD and LOVE EACH OTHER.
And I believe that if we can get those two right, we’d have a whole lot less problems in the church today.
If we are going to love God the way we are supposed to, and if we are going to love Jesus the way we are suppose to, we are going to have to learn to love each other first.
This morning, I’d like to share a message titled, “While Following God’s Roadmap, I discovered I AM FORGIVEN.” Reading Isaiah 61:10, the Breathe of God says:
“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.”
While I was Following God’s Roadmap, I discovered that I Am Forgiven
I think about the disciples when they went about preaching and teaching in the name of Jesus, and even the demons fell on the ground! They came back rejoicing to Jesus for what they’d done and Jesus said something along these lines, “Don’t rejoice in that, but rejoice in the fact that your name’s written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life!”
Let me show you three things this morning that we can rejoice about in this verse:
- THE INSPIRATION OF SALVATION
The prophet said, “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God:”
C.H. Spurgeon said about this text, “How happy the church is as she surveys the righteousness for which she is clothed. She is overjoyed and well she may be, for when the LORD covers our nakedness with His perfection, it is enough to make the stones change.”
Folks, I can’t speak for you, but when I think about what He’s done for me, and what He’s brought me through I get excited inside the depths of my soul.
I just can’t keep it inside. There’s a spring bubbling up inside of me, and sometimes it’s gotta be let out!
- It can’t be quenched;
- It can’t be put back in;
- It can’t be held back.
And sometimes, that happens in the most awkward places:
Sometimes, I’ve just gotta shout about it. So the next time you see me shouting: The next time you see me raise my hand in the air from my little seat here in the front, Or the next time you see me in my truck going down the road, or on my motorcycle, and I’m talking to myself with tears running down my face –
KNOW THAT I AM REJOICING OVER THE FACT THAT I AM FORGIVEN!
Let me show you two things here:
- The Power of His Joy
He said, “I will greatly rejoice.” He was saying, “From the depths of my soul I will rejoice.” “MY joy shall be in my God.”
He is saying here:
“Down in the depths of my soul, I’m gonna rejoice that I’m a Child of the King!”
“Down in the depths of my soul, I’m gonna rejoice that I have a place at the King’s table.”
“Down in the depths of my soul, I’m gonna rejoice that my names written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”
“Down in the depths of my soul, I’m gonna rejoice that I’ve been redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb!”
The Power of His Joy. But also notice:
- The Person of His Joy
He said, “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God.”
- He didn’t say he’d joyful in his circumstance;
- He didn’t say he’d joyful in the things in his life that are going right;
- He didn’t say that he was going to joyful in the things he had accomplished.
He based his joy and rejoicing solely on a personal relationship with the LORD. “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God.”
That is the Inspiration of Salvation!
- THE IMPLICATION OF SALVATION
The middle part of that verse has some wonderful things to say about our salvation. Isaiah says, “for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.” The first thing I see when I read this is:
- There’s a Foundational Implication
This implies that there is a foundational truth to our salvation. I see in this verse what happens to us when we first got saved.
The Bible says in II Corinthians 5:21, “For he hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”
To know that I came to Jesus with nothing to offer Him but;
- the dirty rags of my sin;
- clothed in nothing but my wickedness;
- and with the stinch of the world all over me
To know that when I came to Him, He didn’t turn me away, He didn’t discard me, He didn’t say, “I don’t want anything to do with you.”
I’m glad that when I came to Jesus with those old dirty rags of my sin, He took those dirty rags and said, “I will wear these for you on Calvary’s Cross!”
There are a lot of people trying to do good works, trying to work their way into Heaven, but my friend, you need to realize, “That all our righteousness is as filthy rags.
The only way to Heaven is to accept His garmet of salvation!
And that is the foundational truth about Salvation! But notice also:
- There’s a Future Implication
Not only did He take those filthy rags, He then said, “Now you’re gonna need some new clothes to replace those old filthy rags – so put on these garmets of salvation!”
“He has clothes us in the Garmet of Salvation; He hath covered me with the Robe of Righteousness.”
When we go to God and say:
“LORD, I’ve sinned” He says, “I know.”
“LORD, will you forgive me for my sin” He says “I do.”
He then steps in and clothes us with His Robe of Righteousness.
You and I don’t have to be bound down by the guilt of our sin, and the sorrow of sin, and we don’t have to carry the weight of that sin anymore.
The Future Implication of that statement is that God’s Saving Grace is still available today!
The writer of Hebrews said in Hebrews 12:1, “. . . let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us . . .” everything in your life that is keeping you from getting from where you are to the place God wants you to be – lay it aside, let it go.
There is a story in the Bible about Onesimus. Onesimus was a slave of Philemon. Onesimus ran away from his master, and sometime later, while he was on his journey, Onesimus cross paths with the Apostle Paul. Onesimus got Saved. Later, Paul was sending him to Philemon, and he wrote and said something along these lines:
“Philemon, I am sending some people to you. But Philemon, when you receive them, I want you to receive them as if you were receiving me. If you’re my co-laborer, receive them like you would me. Give them the respect you’ve given me. Don’t be made at him, and if he owes you anything – put that on my account!”
Now, let’s bring that over into the spiritual realm. And I can see Jesus saying something like this:
“Father – DAD – I know he ain’t much. I know he’s done you wrong. But when he comes to You, I ask you to receive him as if you were receiving Me. Dad, I paid for his sins. If he owes you anything – put that on my account!
Thank GOD I AM FORGIVEN!
The Implication of Salvation is that we are “clothed in the garments of salvation and He hath covered me with the Robe of Righteousness.”
Now notice:
- THE ILLUSTRATION OF SALVATION
“as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.”
Now, Isaiah is giving us two different picture here: 1 is of the Bridgegroom and 1 is of the Bride.
I believe the Bridgegroom illustrates for us:
- Our Position in Christ
The ornaments he is referring to here are referring to the priestly garmets the priest would were when he went into the Temple.
As a Christian, this relates our position in Christ to that of the priest.
In the Tabernacle, there was the Holy of Holies and the only person that could go in there was the priest. He was the only one that had access to God.
Then Jesus came. He died on the Cross and the Bible says, “The temple veil was rent in twain from top to bottom.”
What does that mean? Well, that means that we now have the position of the priest and can go directly to the presence of God – we don’t have to go through someone else.
I have the privilege to go right into the Throne Room of God knowing that He will hear me and He will answer me!
- I get to go to God;
- I get to talk to God;
- I get the privilege of Prayer.
Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
THANK GOD I AM FORGIVEN OF MY SIN
We have access to God. The Bridegroom represents our Position in Christ. But the Bride represents:
- Our Partnership with Christ
As a child of God, we are now the Bride of Christ! He’s my partner now. My partner used to be this wicked world.
I rejoice this morning in the relationship I have with Him now, but one day, I’m gonna sit with Him at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
I’m excited about that. I’m excited about what God is doing in my life.
“As a bride adorneth herself.” In our culture, it is bad luck for the Bridegroom to see the Bride before the wedding ceremony. But, we don’t have to worry much about that – with the hair appointments, the make-up, the getting dressed up, it pretty much takes up the whole day. The Bride is busy getting ready!
CHURCH, we need to be getting ready too! One day, we’re going to see Him face-to-face!
One day, everything we’ve taught about, everything we’ve preached about will be a reality. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, We will step into His presence and look full in His Wonderful Face!
Conclusion: I heard a story once a long time ago about a Presbyterian Church. They were not allowed to shout, clap hands or say AMEN in the church. So, one day, the Pastor brought helium filled balloons to everyone in the service, and said to them that if they felt God speaking to them during the service, they were to let the balloons go. Through the service, Balloons starting flying up in the air. By the time the service had ended, only about 1/3 of the church still had balloons.
Some of you need to just let your balloons go! We’ve got something to rejoice about. You and I have the Garmet of Salvation and we are covered with the Robe of Righteousness.
Fighting for My Pea Patch 