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Rejoicing in the Lord

Isaiah 61:10

A sermon by Pastor Jim Scott Orrick

March 18, 2001

Let's open our Bibles to Isaiah, chapter 61. Once Jesus was invited to go to the home of a Pharisee, Simon, to eat. There, he reclined at the table. While Jesus was reclining at the table, a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town came in and stood at Jesus' feet. As she stood there, she began to cry. Her tears fell down on Jesus' feet. Then she bent over and wiped Jesus' feet with her hair and kissed His feet. She had brought an alabaster bottle of perfume and anointed Jesus' feet with that perfume. I can imagine that things were getting downright uncomfortable in the Pharisee's house. Dinner parties in those days were more open than they are in our day. In our day I don't suppose you would dare go to a place where you had not been invited and stand at someone's feet, but in those days, that was not uncommon. People would give a big feast, and sometimes poor people would come in to watch what was going on. Some of you have been to foreign countries where houses are still open, and people come right into the house without being asked. That's how it was in Simon the Pharisee's house.

This woman who had come in uninvited really was making a spectacle of herself. I think it made Simon uncomfortable; I think it made some other people uncomfortable. I imagine Jesus just going on with the meal. But Simon, the Pharisee, was thinking in his heart, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who was touching him and what kind of woman she is." The Bible says, Jesus answered him -- it's interesting because it doesn't say that Simon said a word -- but Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you." "Tell me, teacher," he replied. "Two men owed money to a certain moneylender," Jesus said. "One owed him 500 denarii and the other owed him 50. Neither one of them could pay the debt and he forgave the debt of them both. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon answered, "I suppose the one that owed him the greater debt." Jesus answered, "You have answered correctly." And then He turned to the woman, and He said to Simon -- and now I imagine He is talking to Simon, but He is looking straight at the woman -- He said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house, you did not wash my feet, but this woman has washed my feet with her tears. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put any oil on my head, but this woman has put perfume on my feet; therefore, I tell you, her many sins are forgiven her because she loves much." And some people who were there said, "Who is this that even forgives sins?" Jesus said to the woman, "You may go in peace, your faith has saved you."

That is only part of the story. It's found in Luke, chapter 7 if you want to read it later on. The first part of the story the Lord leaves us only to imagine. The first part of the story is that this woman, who was such a sinful woman and knew her sin, one day heard Jesus preaching. My imagination can run wild when I think about something like that: what she looked like, how she must have acted as she heard this man. She was on the outskirts of the crowd. Probably some people looked at her and made no attempt to hide their disgust. They made a little way for her. She listened and she heard a message of forgiveness from this man's lips. And God, in His mysterious ways, bypassed many of the religious people of that day, left their hearts closed and even hardened their hearts, but He opened the heart of this sinful woman so that she understood. She believed what Jesus was saying. She was one of the few people during Jesus' day who actually believed in Jesus. And when she believed in Jesus, I think that there was some confusion in her heart. I think that there was a wave of forgiveness that rolled over her, but she probably thought that it was too good to be true. Yet, hoping against hope, she continued to believe and have faith in the message that Jesus had preached to her.

And so when she heard that He was eating at the home of Simon, she got what was precious to her, she got this alabaster jar of perfume. She went, and when she got close to Jesus, it was just all that she could take. She started crying and crying copiously. I can imagine the tears splashing down on Jesus' feet that were dirty and covered with dust from His having walked around in sandals all day long. As those tears splashed on His feet, they made little clean rivulets as they ran down. She probably felt embarrassed, and tried to wipe them with her hair. His feet were smeared even more. She probably felt the indignant stares of the Pharisees and the religious crowd as they gazed at this impudent woman, thinking, "What is she doing here? This settles it, this man could not possibly be a prophet because if he were he would know intuitively what kind of woman this is and what kind of life she has lived in this town." But He did know. He knew her story, and He could also see that this woman loved Him, she loved Him very much. She knew that she had had a tremendous debt forgiven her, like a debt of millions of dollars. On the other hand, Simon the Pharisee felt like maybe he owed a little bit of money to God, but it couldn't be more than 50 or 75 cents. It would be something that he could easily take care of himself, he thought. This woman had no such delusion. She knew that if she were going to have her great mountain of debt against God forgiven, then it must be entirely by grace. She had come to understand through the preaching of Jesus Christ that her debt was forgiven, and it filled her heart with rejoicing. She rejoiced greatly in the Lord; there was no one who had to tell this woman, "You should rejoice in the Lord," because she would have said, "Oh, I rejoice greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God, for He hath clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness like a bridegroom adorns his head, like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." This sordid woman had lived a sinful life in that town, perhaps had given up all hope of ever being married to anyone because she had so defiled her name, and anyone who would take her would get defilement to his own name. This woman who had given up hope of being married to anyone, heard from the best bridegroom of all, "Your sins are forgiven."

Look with me in Isaiah, chapter 61 verse 10. I think this is what that woman went out singing that day from the home of Simon the Pharisee. "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of my salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." You will recall, I hope, those of you who have been here for the last couple of weeks, that I am on the ramp leading up to a series of sermons about the attributes of God. Who is God? The great purpose of preaching about the attributes of God is so that we may be people that keep the greatest commandment. And the greatest commandment is that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and all our soul, all our mind and all our strength. I have said in order for us to love the Lord we must know about the Lord. It's impossible for us to simply grit our teeth and make up our mind: "I am going to start delighting greatly in the Lord. I am going to start loving Him 50 percent more right now." In order for us to love the Lord more, we must know Him better. But that's not the whole story, you see. From Luke chapter 7, we learn that if we are going to love the Lord, we also must have a consciousness of the great debt that we have been forgiven. We must know ourselves as well as know the Lord. And as we see ourselves as tremendous debtors having no hope whatsoever but the grace of God, then when that wave of forgiveness washes over us, we too will be filled with a great love. But as long as we think that we owe the Lord only a little bit, our love will be so small. There's not a doubt in my mind that the reason so many of us have a love so small is because the Law has never done it's deep work in our lives, showing us that we are unrighteousness before God. But when we know we have been forgiven of a great debt, then nobody has to force us to rejoice greatly in the Lord.

Here in Isaiah 61:10, I want to guide our thoughts today with two main ideas. First of all, you see that there is great rejoicing, and secondly, you see that there are great reasons for rejoicing.

First of all, notice in those first two phrases of chapter 61:10, the great rejoicing. "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God." Notice several things about this rejoicing. In the first place, it is present rejoicing. If you have a New International Version, then you will see that this does not say, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord," but “I delight greatly in the Lord." It removes all idea of any futurity being here. He is saying, "I am presently now in a state of delighting greatly in the Lord." I think that is the sense: the "will" here is not a will of future but a will of determination. I'll say something about a determined rejoicing next. But right now I want you to see that this is a present rejoicing. Sometimes Christians are accused of only believing in "pie in the sky bye and bye." They appear to think that here on earth, we are supposed to go around with a big long face like a mule, not being happy about anything. Some people have even made the mistake of thinking that if you are sad all the time, it's a sign of holiness. But that's not true. I think there's been a reaction against that idea, a reaction against the idea that sadness is a sign of holiness, and as with most reactions, the reaction has gone too far. And the reaction says that if you are a real Christian, you can't ever be sad. The reaction says that if you are going to be a real Christian, then you've always got to have a grin on your face whether or not it is real.

There is true joy that the Lord gives us; it is not always equally expressed. There are times when the Lord really makes us sad, but I believe that the Scriptures teach that the great character of the Christian life, the great tenor of the Christian life, is one of rejoicing. Not of sadness, but of rejoicing. It's not always just waiting for what is going to come in the future. Not always waiting for the right circumstances. Some people say, "Well, you know I would be happy if my circumstances were different." But this rejoicing in my text is a present rejoicing.

Then notice, closely aligned to that, secondly, is that it is a determined rejoicing. "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God." It is a plain fact that rejoicing in the Lord is something that is commanded. I don't think that we can always just turn on rejoicing and turn off rejoicing. But there are thoughts that will help us rejoice, so that we will be determined to be as joyful as the Lord will let us be. Turn in your Bibles to Habakkuk 3:17. Verse 17 describes a terrible economic depression, not much to rejoice in outwardly, but in verse 18, he says that he will rejoice, nonetheless. He has a determination to rejoice. Verse 17: "Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor the fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." How could he do that? Everything has gone wrong, he's going to go hungry, and he’s poor. He had wealth but now the wealth is gone, yet how can he still rejoice? He's rejoicing in the Lord. And he will joy in the God of his salvation. I'll say more about that in just a moment.

Sometimes Christians are unnecessarily sad and unnecessarily bereft of joy because they will not take control of their thought lives. They will not take captive every thought and make it subject to the Lord Jesus Christ. They will not resolve with Habakkuk, "Even though everything around me is going wrong, I'm going to rejoice in the Lord." Some of you children have read the book, Peter Pan. You remember that when Peter Pan first came to visit the Darling children, he was going to take them back to Never-land, but in order to get there they had to fly, and the Darling children said, "We can't fly, how are we supposed to fly?" And Peter Pan said, "You've got to think happy thoughts." So they started thinking happy thoughts, but they still weren't doing too well with the flying until they got sprinkled with Pixie dust, and then they were able to fly. I think that in the Christian life, we don't rejoice sometimes because we don't think about the Lord. We are thinking so much about this earth that it is no wonder when everything goes wrong that we have no joy. But if our treasure is fast in the Lord then we can rejoice. So this joy is not only a present rejoicing but also it's also a determined rejoicing.

And then notice in the next place that it is an abundant rejoicing. This could be translated, "rejoicing, I will rejoice." As I said, the New International Version says, "I delight greatly." Here, the New King James Version says, "I will greatly rejoice." And so this is not just a mild gladness that Isaiah says that we can have, but this is a great joy. I mentioned earlier that sometimes in reaction to the idea that says that Christians have to be always sad, some people have put on a sappy and fake joy. But that's not the kind of joy that is described here. Not only is it a present rejoicing, and an abundant rejoicing, but also it is a sincere rejoicing. Verse 10 says, "My soul shall be joyful in God." It's not something that's just on the surface. It's something that I experience in the innermost parts of my being. My soul shall be joyful in my God.

And then, finally, under this first heading, notice what is the foundation of this rejoicing. It is a well-founded rejoicing: "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my soul shall be joyful in my God." It's not primarily the Lord's gifts that give us this deep, present, determined, sincere joy, but it's the Lord Himself.

Now let's move on secondly, to see the great reasons for this rejoicing. "For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation." We have great cause for rejoicing because He has clothed us, and not only clothed us, but notice next, "He has covered me with the robe of righteousness," and He has done this very lavishly. Or He has adorned us. So there are three reasons, three great reasons for rejoicing: we have been clothed, we have been covered, and we have been adorned. Now, let's look at these three things.

First of all the Bible says we have great cause for rejoicing for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation. It is difficult for us in these modern times to appreciate the significance of clothing to ancient peoples. Not only to ancient peoples, but if you go back in the history of this country only one-hundred years, or not even that far -- if you go back only thirty or forty years, you will find people valuing clothing far more than we value clothing now because we have so much clothing. When warm weather comes, you will see yard sale after yard sale, and there will be racks and boxes and tables covered with clothing that you can purchase for a few cents.

I remember when I was a boy, if I got holes in the knees of my pants, my mother would patch them. It is very unusual to see anyone wearing patched clothing now; if something gets a hole in it, just throw it away, get something else, it's so easy. But that attitude has not always been the common attitude about clothing. Here at North Pointe, we are meeting in a "gymnasium," which is related to the Greek word "gumnos," and gumnos means "naked." So why is this called a gymnasium? Many years ago if you were a Greek little boy going to go play with your friends and you were going to wrestle with them; before you left, your mother would say, "Don't forget to take your clothes off before you wrestle." Why? Those clothes were expensive. They had to be woven from wool, and there was much work that went into clothes. Sometimes poor people would be naked or only have some rags that rich people had cast off. Clothing was so much more valued. So the place that people would go and exercise was called, "the naked room." The gymnasium, then, was the place where the Greeks would go and play naked. We don't do that anymore, thankfully. But clothes were valuable then.

You might pick this up this next observation by reading Shakespeare or even by watching a Shakespearean play. Someone's entire identity can be changed just by their simply changing their clothes -- they become a different person. For example, if you have seen King Lear, then you may remember in the early part of the play there is a trusted servant of King Lear's whose name is Kent, the Earl of Kent. And Kent tries to get King Lear to behave sensibly, but King Lear does a very foolish thing. He gives all of his wealth away to daughters that are not devoted to him, and he banishes a third daughter who is true to him. Kent expostulates with the king and says, "Sir, you ought not to do this, you have banished the one daughter who is most devoted to you." And King Lear says to him, "Kent, if you keep on talking, I am going to banish you from this kingdom." Kent continues to talk and Leer says, "You're banished, if I ever see your face again in this kingdom, I'll kill you." And so Kent leaves, but Kent is really devoted to King Lear, and so he goes and changes his clothes. He comes back in the disguise of a servant. He doesn't wear a mask, but he simply changes his clothes and goes from being part of the royal family, the Earl of Kent, into being Caius, a servant. King Leer doesn't recognize him, and that was no problem for anyone who watched the play of King Lear in the 1600's because they can recognize tremendous changes of status simply by one changing clothes. In those days if someone became endowed with a fortune, one of the first things they would do is go get a change of clothes. And everyone would know that their station in life had changed because their clothing had changed.

That's true in Biblical times as well. And so the writer says, "I rejoice greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He's changed my clothes." A man in our church has a little yellow cloth that has the Star of David on it. It's significant because this was an armband that was worn by a Jew during the days of the Second World War. And as you hold that armband, you can't help but wonder what happened to the man or woman that wore it, because that armband was not a distinction of privilege, but it was a distinction of destruction. The people who wore that kind of armband, many of them, were killed. Maybe you have seen pictures of the holocaust prisons in the history books. These Jews would be dressed in a certain kind of garment that marked them out for destruction. Those are the kinds of garments that we wore before the Lord clothed us with garments of salvation. Now we have been clothed with garments that don't mark us out for destruction, but we've been clothed with garments that mark us out for salvation.

As I was thinking about this yesterday, my line of thinking went like this: Salvation from what? He's clothed me with garments of salvation from what? And you might think it's unspiritual of me, but the first thing that I thought of was salvation from Hell. I don't care if you think it's unspiritual or not, I don't want to go there. I think of how Hell is described as in the Scripture. The most graphic language that can be possibly mustered up by the Biblical writers is used. Jesus, Himself, spoke about Hell more than anyone else in the Bible. He talked about Hell as being a place of outer darkness. Some of you are afraid of the dark; Hell is described as a place of outer darkness. I don't want to be in the dark all the time. Hell is not only darkness, it's outer darkness, but I'm not going to go there. I’ve been clothed with garments of salvation from hell. That makes me happy!

Hell is described as the place where the worm never dies. You and I have probably never had worms on our body that we didn't want to be there. But back in Jesus' day when people got really sick and couldn't take care of themselves and they had severe wounds, sometimes those wounds would become infested with worms, maggots. Can you imagine? Jesus describes Hell as a place where the worm never dies. Around Jerusalem there was a place where the garbage would be burned. This is what I have read, I have never been there, but I have read that there was a valley where there was garbage burning all the time. That was the valley of Gehenna, sometimes used to illustrate the place where people go that die out of God's grace, to Gehenna, a place where there's constant burning. The book of Revelation describes a lake of fire. I remember as a little boy knowing that I was lost, thinking that I was going to go to Hell and thinking of it as a lake of fire. And when we would have those discussions about the two worst ways to die, the two ways would always be, "I don't want to drown, and I don't want be burned up." You see that the Biblical language describes Hell as being a combination of both of those things. Someone might say, "Do you believe that the fire in Hell is literal, and that there are really literal worms in Hell? Do you really believe that you can hear people weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth? Do you really believe that it is totally dark in there, that it is the place of outer darkness?" I tell you what I do believe; I believe that it is worse than that! I think that all of that is telling us that Hell is unimaginably bad!

My lost friend, if you were to die right now, that's where you would go. The same word that is used to describe Heaven as being eternal describes Hell as being eternal. And to me, that may be the very worst part of all. Because, I thought that if I could get out of Hell after five years, I could bear anything for five years. Or if it were a thousand years, I could bear it, knowing that after a thousand years there would be a reprieve. But Hell is never-ending. There is no hope. But I have been clothed in garments of salvation and I am not going to go there, and it's because of what Jesus Christ did. That is a good reason for me to rejoice. I've been saved from Hell, and if you are a child of God, then you've been saved from Hell. Sometime when you think that things are bad around you, and you're tempted to get down and depressed, just think of this, "I am not in Hell! No matter how bad everything gets, I am not in Hell and that is cause for rejoicing."

He's clothed us with garments of salvation -- from what? Well, salvation from Hell. From what else? From all the wrath of God. That's what makes Hell so bad. Some people mistakenly think that it is the Devil that is going to be tormenting you in Hell. But the real torment of Hell is that the wrath of God is there. I don't like for anyone to be mad at me. If my wife gets upset at me, it messes me up something terrible. I'll try to pray; all I can see is that little woman's face. I'll try to read the Scriptures, but I am distracted terribly if she's mad at me. I don't like for the children to be upset at me. But above all, I really don't want God upset at me. Jesus Christ has clothed me with garments of salvation that deliver me from the wrath of God.

What is it that sends men and women to Hell? It's God that sends men and women to Hell. But why does He send men and women to Hell? Because of sin. And there is no one who escapes from Hell who does not also want to escape from sin. You can mark it down, if you still love sin, you are on your way to Hell. Because the Bible says that if we say that we have fellowship with God and we still walk in darkness, we lie and the truth is not in us. So if you have ever had any of that false teaching that says that you can receive Jesus as your Savior and still keep living a life of love with sin and be on your way to Heaven, it is not true. No one is perfect once they are born again, but everyone that is born again has a deadly enmity and hatred against sin. And so when the Lord clothes us with the garments of salvation, He not only saves us from Hell and from the wrath of God, He saves us from sin! A man who is almost dying of thirst in the desert, does not think that the desert is beautiful. A person who is freezing to death on the mountains covered with snow does not think that snow-capped mountains are beautiful right then. And a person who is perishing because of sin does not think that sin is attractive. The Lord clothes us with garments of salvation, then, that save us from Hell, save us from God's wrath, save us from sin. That's great reason for rejoicing!

Not only has He clothed us with the garments of salvation, but notice next, "He has covered me with the robe of righteousness." So not only have we been clothed, but also we have been covered with the robe of righteousness. Now this morning when we were saying the catechism together, we answered the question, "What is justification?" And we answered, "Justification is an act of God's free grace." Next week, Lord willing, we will say that sanctification is the work of God's free grace. The catechism makes a distinction between an act and a work. An act is something that happens one time, never again repeated. A work is an ongoing process. Justification is an act; it is a one-time thing, never to be repeated. It's an act of God's free grace, wherein He pardons all our sins. That's one side of justification: He pardons all our sins. Here's the other side, "and accepts us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us and received by faith alone." There are two sides to justification: there's the pardoning of all of our sins. He saves us from Hell, from His wrath, and from sin. But here's the other side of justification: He credits us with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, He imputes it to us, when we receive it by faith alone. We receive all of justification by faith alone.

But now let's think about that second part of justification, the imputation of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Children, imputation just means that God treats you like you lived out the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's what happens. We are credited with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. When Jesus lived on earth He never sinned one time. On the contrary, He always did what pleased God. He always said what God wanted Him to say. He never sinned once, and that's the kind of righteousness that God expects us to have if we are going to be accepted by Him. That should make us throw our hands up in despair and say, "I can't possibly live that kind of life, it's too late for me." That's the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, then God credits you with the righteousness of Christ. He puts His robe of righteousness around you so that you are covered with the robe of righteousness. If you'll permit me to put it this way, the woman who is filthy and covered with sin when she is approached by Jesus Christ, says, "Lord, how can I go to be with You? What about my filthy rags?" And the Lord says to her, "You put on my righteousness, I'll take your rags." That's what happened on the cross. He suffered the punishment that was due to sinners by suffering in their place. All who will put their faith in Him, those who believe in Him, are covered with a robe of righteousness. When the Lord sees us now, does He see us with our old filthy garments of sin? No, He sees us covered with the robe of Christ's righteousness. So He hath clothed us, He hath covered us with the robe of righteousness.

Notice, finally, that He adorns us. He does not just barely give us enough grace to let us squeak into Heaven, but He adorns us lavishly as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. The Lord beautifully clothes us in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and He is pleased with us because of Jesus. He uses the language here of marriage, like a bridegroom adorns himself as a priest. In those days, sometimes the bridegroom would wear a headgear, a hat, a turban that was like the same thing that a priest would wear. We would think of it as a turban; it sort of wrapped around and came up to a peak. They thought it was really nice, and that's the way that we are adorned. Wearing your Sunday best, wearing a tuxedo, we would say, if we were writing this today: "A tuxedo of someone who is getting married or as a bride would adorn herself with all of her jewels." The Lord intends for us to be married to Him, to be intimate with Him. To have a closeness in our relationship with Him that is different than any relationship that we have with anybody else. When I married Carol, my dad, who performed the ceremony, asked me if I was willing to forsake all others, cling only to her, so long as we both shall live. I said, "I do, I do promise to do that."

When the Lord says to you, "Will you forsake all others and cling only to Me so long as we both shall live?" What will you say?

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Scripture from The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by
Thomas Nelson, Inc.