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So, as you probably know if you've been with us, this is a very, very high-level flyover of the entire Bible. And we began week one by talking about creation, because that's where everything in the story begins. That's where life begins. That's where God steps onto the scene into this void, blank slate, and he says, let there be light, right? And then he can then continues from that point and begins to piece together by just simply speaking into existence all that we see around us, all the creation. People and animals and all the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, all the oceans and the streams and the rivers and all the things that we get to see and enjoy as this creation as we're here on this earth. And so it's really amazing to watch as the story unfolds that God creates humanity with this ability to not only connect with each other, but connect with him, and there's nothing that's keeping that connection from being just 100% full-on love, intimacy, knownness, and yet humanity chooses to rebel against God, breaks the rule because they are tempted and lured away by this evil creature in the form of a serpent, but Satan himself, and lured away in the garden, choose to disobey, and as a result, from that point forward, we're experiencing the curse, the fall of man. And so when we look at the world around us today, it doesn't look anything like it did in that garden when it very first began. I mean, maybe there are pieces of it that are here because we've still got the beautiful creation, but now there's there's sin, there's there's uh suffering, there's sickness, and everybody right now is feeling that one right. Um there's a lot of sickness, there's a lot of this difficulty and pain, and because that's that is the result of man's rebellion to God's plan for humanity. So we kind of went from that story saying that God, um, though he could have just said, that's the end of it, I'm gonna wipe it clean. Um instead, he he continued to pursue humans in love, he gave them grace and he gave them mercy, he gave them another opportunity, gave them a fresh start. Uh, but it didn't take long before people messed it all up again. Um and then we we see this continuous pattern up and down all around as people uh continue to walk away from God. Every time God draws them near, they walk away. He draws them near, they walk away. He draws them near, they walk away. He shows them he loves them. He gives them instruction, he gives them care, he gives them discipline, he gives them what they need so that they will not keep hurting themselves and hurting others, and yet they continue to walk away from him. Okay? So last week, uh Harley spent some time talking about the story of the exile and the return. And this is a section after the kings, whenever we talked about uh God, uh, you know, people kept saying, God, we want a king, we want a king, we want a king. And as a result, God said, Okay, that's fine, I'll give you a king. And then he gave them some kings, and they had a series of kings over a period of a few hundred years, and some of those kings were good, some of those kings were bad. And uh, and and and as a result, uh, through that that season, if you will, for the people of Israel, uh, some of the people um they continued to worship God, but for the most part, most of them have turned away from God because they turned to worshiping other gods, and including uh some of those kings that they longed for led them astray to worship other gods. Okay? And so to the point where God steps in and he tries to give them some warnings, and we're gonna talk about that here in just a minute. Tries to give them some warnings, they don't listen, um, and ultimately they go into exile again, which is much like what they were in Egypt, right? Way back. Egypt, here they go, they're repeating their past, and they're back under essence under the strong hand of this oppressive leadership, and uh and they're dealing with uh all the implications of being underneath these authorities that are not godly, who don't believe in Yahweh as God, and they're having to work through all the hardships that come in that place. So, where we pick up the story today is that there's we've said before there's three types of books in the Old Testament. There's three types of books that were written in the Old Testament. Uh first, we said that there was the historical books. These are the ones over here on the far uh left for you, okay? And then the middle ones there, which are the poetical books. We talked about those. Uh the songs, and those are the books of wisdom, okay? They use poetry to try to convey a message. But then today we're gonna talk about the 17 books that are over there on the far right. Those are the prophetical books. So we're only gonna cover 17 books in the next 35 minutes, and uh, we're gonna walk through each one of them, right? Okay, just make sure you're with me still. Um we're not gonna be able to do all that, but we are gonna give you a high-level flyword because um I encourage you to read these books. And remember, the reason why we're doing this big picture series is because a lot of people read the Bible. Um people who've gone to church all their lives. They read the Bible and they'll spend time reading a verse or a chapter in the Bible or maybe even a book in the Bible, but they forget that all of those passages, all those verses, all those books, they all fit into a bigger narrative. There's a bigger context. And so if you read just that little sliver of it, you might get some important uh information, you might get a good application, but you may miss the fact that it's it's pointing to something much bigger. Okay? And ultimately we believe that what it's pointing to is the redemptive work of God. The redemptive work of God in all the earth. So in those verses, or in those, in that, in that breakdown, prophecy is the um the third type of book in the Old Testament, the last 17 that we're gonna cover. And it does overlap what Harley spoke to last week because Ezekiel and Daniel were books that were written during this uh this section here. They are books that are prophetic in nature. Okay? Now, um, a couple things to notice as you read from the books of prophecy. I want you to hear these. Uh, first, that it would be uh we need to pay attention to the time of the writing. We need to pay attention to the time of the writing. So if you've got your guide there, you're going along with this, that's the first point, is that you're gonna pay attention to timing. Um, let me tell you why this is important. First off, uh, some of these books, 12 of them, in fact, were written before they ever went into exile. Okay? 12 of them were written before they went to exile. What that means is that God sent 12 prophets to warn his people and tell them, stop disobeying me, stop rebelling against me, stop running for me. Twelve prophets, 12 men who stood up and proclaimed the word of God, okay? And said, God is gonna discipline you, he's gonna bring judgment, and he is going to come and he's going to rain down on you destruction if you do not listen. They had 12 different men do that. Now, two of the prophets were written during the exile. That would be Daniel and Ezekiel, which I said earlier. And then there's three that were written after the exile. Okay? Now, why is this important? Well, because depending on where you are in the time frame, changes the way that you understand what the book is saying and who it's trying to say this to, which kind of leads to the next point, which is the target audience of it. The target audience of the writing. Some was written to the northern kingdom. Remember, we said the kingdom divided, and that ten of the tribes went north and two went south. We have got, so maybe some of the some of the writings were written to the northern, some of the writings were written to the southern kingdom, and some of the writings were written to people while they were in exile. And so that helps you if you're reading the Bible, if you're reading an Old Testament prophet, to understand who you're reading about and who the author is speaking to. Now, if you have a good study Bible, I don't know if you own a good study Bible, but if you have a good study Bible, it's really helpful to read that little front introduction before you start reading a book. Um this is not a good study Bible because it doesn't have any of that in it. If you get one of the ones from us, but if you want a recommendation, I'd love to give you a recommendation right now around Christmas time. There's some great study Bibles out there that are on sale. In fact, the HCSB study Bible right now is like half off at Lifeway. I just saw that this week, and it's got great introductions into each book, and it helps you get a good handle on what you're reading and what you're trying to, what it will basically help you that when you're when you're reading through the book, you know who he's talking to, the timing he's talking to, um, talking in, and will help you get a better handle on what this really means for you personally today. Okay? So time is important, target is important. But let me give you another reason why that the target or the audience uh that uh he is writing to is important. Because there are theological systems that are built out there that take these Old Testament prophecies and they make them personal for people today without remembering that God was speaking to a very specific group of people back then. Now let me tell you why this is important. Because there are churches that stand up and they say things about how God's gonna give you health and wealth. Alright? Listen, He's gonna give you health and wealth because of some promise that God made to the people of Israel way back when. We've got to be very careful that we don't take some promise God made to a group of people way back then and try to act like it's our promise today. Now, does that mean that you can't read the Bible and get something out of these Old Testament prophets and Old Testament passages and apply it today? Absolutely not. We can't. We can get great truths out of these Old Testament passages, but be very, very careful not to take a passage and try to make it your own. I'm gonna kick this over. Make it your own without considering who the audience was, right? So, one of my favorite verses in scripture is a verse, um, Jeremiah 29, 11. Now, when I quote it, some of y'all are gonna know what this verse is. This is Jeremiah, one of the major prophets. He says this. He says, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. He plans to prosper you, not to harm you, and plans to give you a hope in a future. Is that a great verse? I love that verse. It was on my wall in my house when I was growing up, and I've seen that verse a lot of places. Now, here's the thing: who is he talking to? Huh? He was talking to people that were Jewish, right? That were Israelites. Now, does that mean that God doesn't have a plan and a purpose for me? No, God has a plan and a purpose for me, and He's He's given, in fact, God's God's plan, his new covenant, we'll talk about in a minute, is even greater than the covenant they were living under. It's so much better than what they were experiencing then. But here's the thing, we've got to be careful not to take a passage from the Old Testament and try to make it apply to me today. Now, there's a great section of scripture right after that where it says that if you seek me with all of your heart, you will find me. I think it's a great application that as we seek God, we can find him when we seek him with all of our heart. That's like a couple verses right after that passage where it says, for under the plans I have to declare as the Lord plans to prosper, you have to harm me plans to give you a hope in a future. The point is, again, not to beat it all up, but just to know that we've got to be careful not to take Old Testament passages and make those, uh, try to try to bring those to uh bear on our own life when it was spoken to someone else. Okay? Now, um, when you look at the text going forward, there there is, there, you will notice, or you maybe have heard, that there are major and minor prophets. Major and minor prophets. Major prophets um are the ones who made the major league baseball um level, and the other people are minor league baseball, right? Right, Matt? No. The deal is that it's just about size. It's about the size of the book. So twelve of the books are minor uh prophets because they're smaller in nature, and then five are big because they have a lot more text to them, okay? So that's the only differentiation there, but I thought it might be helpful for you because if you ever hear somebody say that there's major prophets and minor prophets, what what what makes them that? What decides whether they're gonna be a major or minor prophet? Okay? The other thing you gotta know too is that the prophets are very unusual. In fact, you might even say a little bit bizarre. Um, if you've ever read your Bible and you've started reading through it and you get to these prophets, you're like, really? Did this really happen? I mean, this is strange. I mean, there's there's some odd stories. Let me give you one. Hosea. Anybody read the book of Hosea? Here's a man of God who loves God, who is committed to being obedient to God, and yet God says to Hosea, I want you to go and marry a prostitute. Not just marry, you've got to go buy her so you can marry her. And so here's here's here's Gomer. She's, I mean, not got a great name either, but she basically she's a prostitute, and he goes and he goes and buys her and brings her, and it's an amazing story, but it's also very odd that God would call his servant to go and do this. And the thing is that she doesn't stay faithful to him. She was living in prostitution when he found her, and she went back to prostitution after he married her, and he went and got her again and brought her back. And it was a picture to the people of Israel that you are the same way. Just as she is prostituting herself to these men, nation of Israel, you are prostituting yourself to these other gods, these foreign gods. I am your faithful God. I am the one who loves you and who made you, and I have a plan and I have a purpose for you, and I will take care of you, and I will watch over you, and I will bless you. But no, you want to go find your other lovers, other things in this world, these other false gods. And so it's a vivid picture, isn't it? And it shows us, in fact, it comes up in the New Testament as they refer back to it, that this is a powerful image of what happens when people lose sight of the God that made them and loves them and has a plan for them. So there's some very interesting um stories that go on in the prophets. I I we could we consider all day and just tell uh crazy stories of things that God tells these prophets to do in order to make a point to his people because he wanted them to turn away from their sin. He wanted them to turn back to him. The other thing you'll notice too is that some of these prophets were very educated, and they were very like uh they were very prestigious, prominent figures, and some were not at all. Let me give you an example. Isaiah. He was very, very involved, and he was an upper echelon kind of guy. He had some money, he had uh resources, he had education. However, um, if you know about anything about the book of Amos, the minor prophet Amos, Amos was a goat herder. A little different extreme from Isaiah, right? And so here you've got Amos, who uh he's chasing goats around everywhere, and you've got Isaiah who's really um much more prominent a figure in his day. Okay? But no matter what, it's a great reminder to us all that God can use anyone who will be faithful to listen and to obey, right? So that's a little bit of the backdrop I want you guys to have today as we get into this. And I know this is a little bit um classroomish, but just to give you a little insight, because as we're going through this, it's a great opportunity for us to remember that this Bible has a context, and when we read these verses, it fits into these this bigger picture, okay? So um one of the things that happens as you read the Bible, uh, read these Old Testament prophecies, is you've got to understand first what is prophecy. We need to understand what is the what is prophecy. Prophecy, I'm gonna give you a quick definition this morning, is proclaiming the word of God both for the future and in the present. It's proclaiming the word of God both for the future and in the present. This means something. This means that these prophets, what helped them and really what initiated the process of being a prophet, was they had to hear from God. Right? They had to hear from God. So they couldn't just go start spouting off information, they couldn't go stand on the corner and start preaching, or they couldn't go just to these places where the people were gathered to worship and start telling them what God said. They had to actually sit down, they had to hear from God, or God would encounter them and he would give them a message. He'd give them a vision, he'd give them a dream, he would speak to them, and he would give them a message to speak to his people. You see, God is communicating with people using a human form in prophecy. Okay? And he's proclaiming, these men are proclaiming what God has told them, both for the future and for the present. Um, what's neat about this, but also confusing, is that when prophets would share what God told them, uh, God would give it to them in a big picture and give them to it, give them to them in a message, and what would happen is they would just spout that message back off, but the timeline on it was sometimes unclear. So what I mean by that is that um they would say there's things that they would proclaim or they would they would prophesy about that would be um happening or getting ready to happen, and there'd be things that would be maybe a couple hundred years removed, actually 400 years, 500 years removed, we think about Christ. But then there's things that haven't happened yet. So there's an illustration that helps you kind of get this, but when you're reading the Bible and you read a prophet, you're gonna think about it in terms of this. There were some things that, whenever those prophets prophesied, happened during the time of the exile. Pre-exile, during the exile, and post-exile. Okay? But then there were some things that specifically talked about Christ's coming. Okay? And so we're gonna read one of those here in just a second, but talk specifically about Christ and his coming. But then there's some things that you'll see in the prophets where you'll be like, this hasn't happened yet, right? Because it's stuff that's talking about Christ coming again. So if you read the prophets, sometimes it can be confusing because you're like, wait, wait, wait. Okay, he just said something happened and now, and now he's saying something about Jesus, and now he's saying something about something about when Jesus Christ returns eventually, ultimately. So let's look at Isaiah. If you've got your Bible, Isaiah chapter 9. If you're using one of our Bibles like this, I'll give you a little help. It's page 443. But Isaiah chapter 9, and we're gonna just read verse 6 and verse 7. I think this is a pretty familiar passage to you guys. Okay? Verse 6. Isaiah 9. Here's what it says. For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named wonderful, counselor, mighty God, eternal Father, Prince of peace. Don't you love that passage? It's a great one, isn't it? As we go into Christmas season to remember what Christ is going to do. Obviously, for us, what he has done. Then it goes in verse 7. The dominion will be vast, and his prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. Now, when you read that, do you hear and do you see what's going on? We see things that have already happened, and we see some things that have yet to happen, right? We see some things where Christ has come and he has been the Messiah, he has been the one that Isaiah is prophesying about, and then we have seen, we see that he has not fully established his kingdom yet, has he? He's not fully established, sitting on the throne that's gonna last forever. In fact, that's why people, Israelites, Jews, who were there when Christ shows up on the scene, they're confused because Christ didn't come in and start a political kingdom. He didn't come in and sit on a real throne, he didn't come in and kick out the Romans, he didn't come in and do any of that. He came in as the suffering savior to rescue the world. And in that moment, he fulfilled some of the prophecy, but he didn't fulfill all of it. In fact, the Bible, um, a roughly 300 prophecies from the Old Testament have already come to be fulfilled about the person of Christ. Okay? About roughly 300 or so. Have come to fulfillment in Christ thus far. But catch this. There's 400 more that have not come to fulfillment in Christ yet. Isn't that cool? Maybe good, but scary. I don't know. Some of those prophecies are a little bit scary, to be honest. Because some of those prophecies are speaking about what he's going to do when he comes back, not as a baby, but as a righteous judge. But he's also not fulfilled the prophecies that we know and we long for, which are the prophecies of he's going to restore all the brokenness. He's going to take away all the sickness and all the suffering and the shame and the issues that we're struggling with now. Those prophecies haven't been fulfilled yet, have they? Anybody been exempt from suffering? Sickness? Any of that stuff? No? We're all still struggling with it, aren't we? So it hasn't been fulfilled yet. And by the way, the test of a prophet, and I encourage you to scratch this down on your notes, but Deuteronomy chapter 18, but the test of a prophet is 100% accuracy. That's easy, right? Just if you're going to say something, it's got to come true 100% of the time, or you're a false prophet. And in Deuteronomy 18, it says this. It says that if we are, if we if they are going to be a false prophet, what are they supposed to do with them? Kill them. So if they're a false prophet, you just go ahead and wipe them out. So here's the point. These guys knew it was very, very serious business to speak on behalf of God. They knew in the Israelite culture that if you were a false prophet, none. Right? But these men heard from God and they could not keep this message. In fact, I love how Isaiah says it. Isaiah says it this way. He says it's like a fire shut up in my bones. I cannot keep it in. Because when God speaks to you, has God ever spoken to you through his word or through another believer, another proclaimer of truth, or maybe even just impress something on your heart and you could not contain it. You had to tell somebody about it. Can you imagine these prophets who had these direct encounters with God where God spoke to them? And then they had to go out and speak it to others, knowing that very well they could lose their lives. Prophecy has an interesting way of putting our past and our present and our future all together, and you get to see that happen. Now, there's two primary themes in the prophets today that we're going to discover again because we can't look at each one of them. There's two primary themes. The first one is this sin has consequences, and the call is to repent before the judgment comes. Twelve of the 17 books, as I said a while ago, came before the exile. So God was sending his messengers, trying to get them to listen so he didn't have to send them to exile. Sin, catch this, everyone. Sin, it damages and destroys people's lives. Right? It damages, that may be so basic for you, that might be so elementary for you, but we've got to continuously remember that sin is destructive. It destroys and it damages people's lives. It damages and destroys relationships. It damages and destroys God's intent for who we are and what he wants our lives to be and look like. So in our lives, we need to take sin serious. And these prophets call the people of God to consider how serious their sin is. Because here's the truth. One of my favorite passages in Scripture is in Romans, where he says this. He says, Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Isn't that awesome? But notice what he doesn't say. As much as I love that passage, he says, There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He doesn't say, There is now no consequences for those who are in Christ Jesus. I wish it said that, but that's not what it says. Meaning this whether you are a Christian or you're not a Christian, if you sin, there are consequences. That sin. If you choose to rebel against God, you choose to disobey God, you choose to do it your way, you choose to be selfish, you choose to put yourself at the center instead of God, there's going to be consequences to your actions, right? And so we need to understand the seriousness because there are consequences coming when we choose to disobey God. And we see that consistently throughout the Bible. And these prophets give us this crystal clear picture of what God is trying to do when He is putting other people in our path saying, don't do that. Or he's putting His word in our lives saying, don't do that. Or He's even putting circumstances saying, don't do that. But sometimes we just keep right on going until we have to deal with the consequences of our actions. But the second primary theme that we see in the text, in the prophecies, is a high-level theme, is that God's plan is actually to save his people and to establish his kingdom. God's plan is actually to save his people and to establish his kingdom. Now I want you to hear me say this, because you may believe this, but I know a lot of people in the world that think that God does not really care about people. And that he really is all about judgment andor all about indifference. He just doesn't care. People have this idea that God sometimes is just, you know, he's just up there in heaven and he's created all this stuff and he just sent it into motion and he walked away from it, right? That's what a lot of people feel. But the Bible tells us something very different. The Bible tells us that our God, he put this whole creation into being and into order, and he started it, but he has been with it ever since. Walking alongside of his creation, rescuing his creation when they screw up, serving his creation by giving them hope and life and providing for them and all these things. I mean, God is very involved in our lives. He wants to save us. In fact, the scripture says God's desire is that no one would perish, but that everyone would come to eternal life. You heard that passage before? It even says, as we come into Christmas season, it's a great reminder to think about John 3 and the story that's going on there, where God's, where Jesus has encountered Nicodemus, but he comes to the place where he says, God loves the world. God loves the world. And because he loves the world, he didn't just sit back and say, I love the world. He loves the world so much he gave his son for the world, right? And so in these passages of the Old Testament, we see the same character and nature of God that we see today. God didn't change between the Old Testament and the New Testament. He didn't change. He still loves people. He loved them then, he loves them now, and he wants to rescue and he wants to save, and he wants to establish his kingdom. But here's what we need to know: that when God ultimately establishes his kingdom, when he establishes kingdom and Christ comes back and he sits on his throne, that when that day happens, there will not be a chance for those who have not surrendered to that kingdom. It's what the scripture teaches us. That day will be over, the day of the mission of the church to make sure that every man, woman, and child in our city and our world have the opportunity to experience the gospel, like that mission's going to be over. And he will reign, and all of his children will reign with him. But until that day, we need to be busy about telling people about this beautiful gospel, this beautiful message that we have heard. How does God actually do this? Okay? How does God actually save his people and establish his kingdom? Let me give you three quick ways that we see in the text. Number one, first, he deals with sin. If you've got your Bible still out, Isaiah 53. First, he deals with sin. I could read the whole passage in Isaiah 53, but I'm going to read verse 10 to you. I want you to hear this. Yet the Lord was pleased, this is Isaiah 53, 10. Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely. When you make him a restitution offering, he will see his seed, he will prolong his days, and by his hand the Lord's pleasure will be accomplished. You notice what he's saying there? He's saying he's going to crush his own son. For what? For our sin. He's going to crush Jesus for our sake. He's going to make this right, this restitution offering. He's going to make up the difference between what we could never do to get to heaven, to get back to a right relationship with God, to get right back to a right standing with God. Christ is going to endure all that for us on our behalf. So he's going to deal with sin. Jesus takes on our sin. Secondly, he's going to establish a new covenant. Jeremiah 31. And in Jeremiah 31, verse 31, it says this. Look, the days are coming. This is the Lord's declaration when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. A covenant they broke that I had, even though I had married them, the Lord's declaration. In fact, he goes on to say that he's going to remove the heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. It's a new covenant. And who paid for that covenant? Christ did. Jesus paid for that new covenant. So he dealt with sin, but he also started a new covenant. Now, some of you know this because in the back of the room we do communion each week. And we celebrate communion because we want to remember what Christ has done for us, right? And as we do what, we as we remember what Christ has done for us, there's a portion of that story where Jesus stood and he had the cup and he had the bread and he said, This is the what? That represents the new covenant of my blood. Remember that part of the story? Why? Because it is a new covenant. Because no longer are we under the Mosaic law covenant. We're under the covenant of Christ's blood, that he was sufficient, that he was able to do what no one else could do, which was to live sinlessly, perfectly, and to be a perfect sacrifice for our sin. We're under a new covenant with God, that if we put our trust in Jesus Christ, not in our good works, not in our how much we go to church, not in our ability, how much we know the Bible, but if we put our trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ, we can have eternal life. Listen, that's why we celebrate Christmas. Not because Christ came as a baby in a manger. That was awesome. And we love the nativity scene. But listen, Jesus didn't stay a baby. I mean, he didn't stay the baby that Ricky Bobby prayed to with the Golden Fleece diaper, right? He grew up. He became a man. And that man, 33 years after he was born, roughly, gave everything for you and for me. He sacrificed it all. That's why we celebrate Christmas. So the third thing that he did, he dealt with our sin, then he established a new covenant, and then he created a new kingdom. He will create a new kingdom. This is Isaiah 65. Again, if you can't go to these, just write them down and come back to them later on, but Isaiah 65. And in verse 17, catch this. For I will create a new heaven and a new earth. The past events will not be remembered or come to mind. I will create a new heaven and a new earth. Our God is going to create something new out of all this broken mess. And it's going to be an awesome thing. It's going to be an amazing thing. And we're going to want to be a part of that. If you've never put your trust in Christ, if you've never put your hope in Jesus as your Savior, if you've never rested in his work on your behalf, I encourage you to do that because when he comes back and he restores all things and makes it new, we're going to be with him. And it's going to be an amazing day. That's not even sufficient. There are no words. He says, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind can even begin to imagine what God has for those who are called to be his children. And I think it's interesting just to point out that the second half of that verse, he says, the past events will not be remembered or come to mind. Just sit on that one for the rest of the week. Just think about that a little bit. I don't really know what all that means fully. But what a powerful truth that all the hurt and all the suffering and all the hardship will be gone. I want to close out this morning as we look at these prophets. And again, I know we're just kind of jumping around through them, but I want to ask you to get your Bible. One last time, and I want you to read two verses with me as we close out. Isaiah was one of the major prophets. His name literally means the Lord saves. He uses the word salvation 27 times in his book, which is twice as many as any other book in the Bible. Isaiah was a man who wrote these amazing passages that God would speak to him. And it's one of my favorite books in the Bible. But as Isaiah proclaimed the truth of God in this Isaiah chapter 61, it captivates my attention. Says this: it says, The Spirit of the Lord God is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of our God's vengeance, to comfort all who mourn. There was some debate about, okay, who is this speaking here in first person? Is this Isaiah or what? Under the power of the Holy Spirit, we believe Isaiah was speaking something that was referring specifically to Jesus. Specifically to Jesus. He says the Spirit of God was on me, but he has anointed me. Anointed me, the anointed one, specifically, the words translated, it's where we get the word Messiah, it's where we get the word Christ. Anointed one. Those are all synonymous. But notice what he says he's coming to do: to bring good news to the poor, to heal the broken heart, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners. That's what Christ came to do. He's not just talking about physical poverty. He's saying for those who are spiritually impoverished, Christ is coming to bring good news. He's coming to bring good news that even though in this life you may not have everything you think you need or want, Christ is sufficient. He is more than enough. And we can be with him and we can be full of wealth. Not wealth in terms of money and clothes and houses and all that other stuff, but wealth because we have the one who owns everything living inside of us. He's our Father. Jesus is our rescuer. And so he says that the Spirit of the Lord is to bring good news, is on him, to bring good news to the poor. But he also says to heal the brokenhearted. If I had to guess, every single one of you in here over the past year of your life have experienced heartbreak in some form or fashion in a significant way. I won't make anybody raise your hands, but let's be honest. Every single one of us have dealt with hardship because this life, it brings discouragement and distraction and depression. I'm not down on life. I love life. But it's hard, isn't it? And he says that he will heal the brokenhearted. We have a God who will heal the brokenhearted. Whatever hurt you're going through, whatever hardship you're dealing with, God wants to heal it. And he can heal it in the person of Jesus. And the last thing he says is he proclaims freedom to the prisoners and liberty to the captives. Some of you may feel enslaved in some different ways in your life. Enslaved to sin. Enslaved to just hardship, enslaved to difficulties in your life. He says he will come, he will bring liberty, freedom. And the truth is, is without Christ, we are all slaves to sin, aren't we? Without Christ, we are all hopeless. We are all helpless. We are all headed down a path to destruction. But Christ rescues us. The reason I know that this passage from Isaiah 61 is Jesus is because in Luke chapter 4, Jesus is there in Nazareth, which is his hometown, and he goes into the synagogue. And when he's there in the synagogue, he says, Hey, give me the scrolls, the Isaiah scrolls. And so they give him the Isaiah scrolls, and he scrolls down, and you know where he scrolls to? Isaiah chapter 61. And he looks at Isaiah chapter 61 and he reads that. And he says, The Spirit of the Lord is on me and has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to preach freedom to those who are enslaved, liberty for those who are captive. To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And he rolls it back up. He sets it and he goes and he sits down and he says, Today what you've heard me say is being fulfilled. Can you imagine that moment? Can you imagine that moment that Jesus Christ reads from the Scripture in the Old Testament 600 years before he was ever on the scene? And he says, I'm fulfilling that today. Man, I want to be there. That would have been awesome. Sad part is that a few chapters, a few verses later, they want to throw him off a cliff. Because they didn't want to hear what he had to say. What's interesting is this. Not everybody who hears what Jesus does for them wants to receive it. But I want you to also know that in the midst of that, Jesus, our God, he is still merciful and gracious. In fact, when Jesus quoted the passage, he read the passage out of Isaiah 61, he stopped right in the middle of the passage and he didn't finish it. Because the next line, the next line, after he says to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, it says this. It says, To declare the day of the Lord's vengeance. Why did he stop right in the middle of that? Why didn't he finish the thought? Why didn't he finish the verse? This is what I believe he was trying to say. It's because his first coming, he did come to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. The year of the Lord's favor, a season of favor, of grace, and of mercy where people could come to him. But the second to proclaim the day of his vengeance, to declare the day of his vengeance, and notice year, day. The difference, right? The day of his vengeance, that's his second coming. And when he comes again, he's not coming as a baby in a manger. He's coming as a warrior king with a sword coming out of his mouth on a white horse. And it's going to be a dreadful day for those who have not turned their lives to Christ. Have not submitted themselves before a holy God. It's a sad day to think about for those who continue to live thinking they don't need God. It's a day that many times I just try to block out in my own life. But it's a day that's coming, God. So as we celebrate this Christmas, we celebrate Christ's first advent. But the truth is, is there's another advent coming. And that advent's gonna be very different. And we need to pray for those in our families, those in our friends that are our friends, coworkers, people that don't know that don't know Christ.