Isaiah 61:5

We actually want to start our sermon today in Isaiah 61:4-6. It says, “And 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. And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.” This passage of scripture is talking about the results of being saved by Jesus: the good things that will happen to the believers. There are many good results to being saved. Of course, the most important result is to have a home in heaven where we will live forever and ever. But there are also many, many other good results. It’s a great thing to be a Christian, to be a child of the King, and to be a follower of Jesus. We saw in Isaiah 61:3 that through the Lord Jesus Christ we can become trees of righteousness. In other words we can become everything that we ought to be as servants of God. This is a great blessing, because one of the most noble goals of life is to fulfill your potential: to become everything that you were born in this world to be.

There are many things that God has planned for His children. The children of God and the followers of Jesus shall accomplish great works. They will do things that no one else can do in this world. As a matter of fact, they will fix the things that the other people of the world have destroyed. It says in Isaiah 61:4, “And 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.” Is something broken down in your family? Is something broken down in your country? Is something destroyed that used to be wonderful, such as an educational system? Has something become ineffective that used to be an example to the world? Whatever is broken down it can be built back up. It can be repaired. It can be raised just as sure as Jesus was raised from the dead. God can do anything, and if you walk in fellowship with the Lord, there is no limit to what the Lord may use you to fix or build, or He may use you to help someone else fix or build.

Isaiah 61:5 is a promise of victory over enemies and a promise of prosperity. It says, “And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.” I do not know how prosperous the Lord wants you to be, but I do know that as you grow in the Lord you will gain a greater wisdom on how to handle the material responsibilities that come your way. Much of the lack of material prosperity has to do with unwise and risky decisions that have been made. For example, it says in Proverbs 6:6-8, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.” The principle here is that you save when you can. That is what the ants do. They are industrious, they are busy, and they are hard-working. And when there is an abundance around (during the summer), they save up the abundance because they know that a time is coming when they will need what they save. That is exactly the way life works: it has its ups and downs in many different ways. Financially speaking, life has its ups and downs. There are good times, followed by bad times, followed by good times again. That is what most people experience over the course of their lives.

It is interesting that we see this practical principle at work when we look at Joseph and the interpretation of dreams that he made for Pharaoh. This is what Joseph said to Pharaoh in Genesis 41:28-30, “This is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh: what God is about to do he sheweth unto Pharaoh. Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt: And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land.” And then Joseph said in Genesis 41:34-36, “Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years. And let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities. And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish not through the famine.”

Other than the detail of seven years, followed by another seven years; Joseph’s advice is the basic advice to give to everyone who wants to know how to handle the material possessions that come their way. Of course, there are other principles, such as the will of God for you, the principle of hard work, and the necessity of practical wisdom. Some people seem to have a gift for making money. The principle is this: there is a cycle to life of good times followed by bad times. Use the prosperity wisely while you can, because things will change. That is the way life works. Whatever prosperity the Lord has given you at this time may not last, and probably will not last. Times of prosperity are almost always followed by times of difficulty for individuals as well as for nations.

You may be a person that the Lord never gives any prosperity to in this life. The Lord has a different will for each person. If you think you need more money so that you can do more things for the Lord, then put that in the Lord’s hands. He owns everything. What I have seen is that the Lord gives and withholds money according to His will, just as He controls all things: to glorify His name. If He does give you more than you need, make sure that your purpose is to use it to glorify His name.

We have seen God’s principle for taking in money and material things. Let’s also look at God’s New Testament principle for giving money. In the Old Testament God established tithing: the giving of ten percent of your income to God’s work. The basic principle is this: there are material and financial requirements to do any work. Everything costs something. God’s will is that God’s people support the work that God has raised up. Ten percent is what the Old Testament says should be given. Of course, there was other giving that was also encouraged in the Old Testament. It was not really tithes by itself: it was tithes and offerings. For example, it says in Deuteronomy 12:6, “And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks.” As time went by for the legalistic Jewish people such as the Pharisees the ten percent became a very important number that was strictly adhered to. It was a law, declared in no uncertain terms: you must give ten percent. Let’s look at the principle of giving as we find it in the epistles that were written to the New Testament churches. It says in Second Corinthians 9:7, “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.”

Returning to our text in Isaiah chapter 61, we find another very interesting result for those who accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. It says in the first part of Isaiah 61:6, “But ye shall be named the priests of the Lord: men shall call you he ministers of our God…” This is talking about everyone who becomes saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The prophet Isaiah looked into the future and he saw a time when all believers would be called “priests” and “ministers.” That time is now. It is sad to see that the use of these two terms has been grossly mis-applied by both the Catholic church and most Protestant churches. God does not want there to be a clergy that is some kind of powerful and more-holy class. The Bible says that all believers should be priests and ministers. Interesting to notice what is said in Exodus 19:6. The Lord God said in Exodus 19:5-6, “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.”

In other words God expected the nation of Israel to grow spiritually speaking and to get to the point that every believer was a priest. What did a priest symbolize? One of the important things that a priest symbolized was closeness to God. Only the high priest could go into the inner-most part of the temple and approach unto God. In our faith in Jesus Christ we do not want to ever give the impression that only some believers can be close to God, or that preachers or pastors are somehow closer to God than other believers. Remember the teaching about the gifts of the Spirit as recorded in First Corinthians chapter 12. Each Christian has one or more spiritual gifts. Being a preacher or a pastor is just one gift among many. Of course, being a pastor is a position of leadership and has its own set of responsibilities with it. Spiritually speaking you can be a priest and a minister just as must as a pastor can be. By the way, the word “minister” means servant. Every Christian should consider themselves a servant to Jesus Christ, and every Christian will be given one or more services to render for the glory of the Lord.

Isaiah chapter 61 has us looking forward into the 1,000 year reign of Jesus Christ on the throne of David. That is when the fullest fulfillment of these prophesies about prosperity for believers and victory over enemies will take place. But Isaiah chapter 61 also has us looking even beyond the 1,000 year reign of Christ. Notice that it says in Isaiah 61:7, “…everlasting joy shall be unto them.” And the Lord said in Isaiah 61:8, “…and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.” This is all about eternal security. God’s plans for His children extend from this time forward into all of eternity. That’s because the everlasting covenant is based upon the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is part of the good news. You can accept the gospel, and be saved from the enslavement to sin. You can go from darkness to light and have your blind eyes opened to the truth. Once this happens to you through repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ, your eternal future is settled. The righteousness of Christ has been credited to your account, as it says in Isaiah 61:10, “..he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness…” Through faith in Christ, God has made an “everlasting covenant” with you. There are no conditions to this covenant because Jesus fulfilled all the conditions. The covenant will never end because it’s an everlasting covenant. Where will you spend eternity? If you turn to Jesus and receive Him as your Savior, you will live with Him forever in heaven.

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