Oaks Of Righteousness (Isaiah 61:3)

Introduction

There is so much material in this lesson. If you are taking notes, copious notes required, start writing the passages down. I want you to see all of these passages in relation to each other. I’m getting, it’s getting more difficult for me as I get older and start seeing connections of verses to their context. I’d really like to talk to you about the whole book of Colossians right now. But I’m just going to give you the short of it. In the book of Colossians, the point is Jesus Christ’s supremacy. His supremacy in creation, his supremacy in the universe, his supremacy in the church, and his supremacy in our individual lives. We so desperately need to get that right. In our understanding and in our response to our great king.

And it occurs to me as I read Colossians chapter 2 and verse 4, that this is a familiar refrain in the epistles. The whole book of Galatians. Who has bewitched you? Oh foolish Galatians. That’s not just one church like Colossae was. That’s a region of churches that he’s writing to, and he says, You have been bewitched. He says, you were running well. In Galatians 5 and verse 7, that points us to a past time. You were running well. Who’s hindered you? This persuasion that they had come to believe, the mixing of the gospel with the law, and adding circumcision as a requirement, he says, this persuasion did not come from him who calls you. Whoever’s disturbing you, some deluding influence, whoever is disturbing you shall bear his judgment whoever he is.

I trust that you will adopt no other view. And in Ephesians, which we’ll come to toward the end of our study in chapter 5, he warns about the persuasion of empty words. He says that because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. And he said, Don’t be partakers with those who are speaking such empty words, who discourage righteousness and walking in the light. He says, You need to be careful how you walk, and be concerned about those who would influence you otherwise. Now back to Colossians. I noticed later as I finished the sermon, it was already done. Once it’s baked, it’s baked. Colossians 1:23, where he is admonishing them just prior to this by saying that they needed to continue in the faith.

He says to be firmly established. Steadfast. Not moved away from the hope of the gospel. First, I want you to notice that there is a great hope in the gospel, and that we must give diligence and exercise care and be concerned with our footsteps, that we are not moved away from the hope of the gospel, that we would be firmly established and steadfast. And so, in the context of this statement in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 4, he says, I am rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ. That’s what I want for you. A stable faith and good discipline. And so he says, Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, that came as a result of obedience and submission.

So walk in him. And then this.

I want you to see these terms. Good discipline, stability, firmly rooted and being built up in him and established in your faith. That’s five different ways of saying the same thing. Good discipline, stability, firmly rooted, built up, established in your faith, just as you were instructed. And look, that’s going to get a whole lot easier if you continue to express gratitude for all that God has done. Overflowing with gratitude. A new year is upon us. People start thinking about resolutions. For the Christian, I don’t know that there are any new resolutions. They are resolutions that need to be renewed on a quite frequent basis in terms of prayer, communication with God and our commitment to that. Be devoted to prayer. I don’t know how we roll around to the new year and say, oh, by the way, I want to start working on that.

We should be working on that all the time. Be devoted to prayer, continuing instant in prayer, like the King James rendering there. Also, Bible study, dedication to the word, meditation, assembling for worship, which helps to accomplish all of those aforementioned things. Reaching a place of greater depth in one’s maturity. May we experience as we pursue these things a solidity that perhaps we’ve not experienced heretofore. And I want to try to assist that this morning from a passage in the Old Testament that struck me very recently. But before we get there, what Paul is concerned about is the influences in our life. Remember, not moved away from the hope of the gospel. Be careful what you’re listening to and what is coming to bear as influences in your life, because there is so much in our world, whether it’s the media or our friends, who are not promoting a righteous message.

In John 10 and verse 27, Jesus affirmed, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them. Does the Lord know you? My sheep hear my voice, and I know them. And they follow me. And on the heels of that, he says in verse 28, and I give eternal life to them. And no one shall snatch them out of my hand. Be concerned about the voices who are influencing your thinking and behavior. Make sure you are listening to Jesus’ voice and being known by him. And now to that old testament verse. That is quite vivid imagery of all that Paul is saying in Colossians about not being moved away from the hope of the gospel. Those verses we looked at in Colossians 2, what he’s saying to the church at Ephesus, what he is warning the churches in Galatia about in regard to the influences that might delude them.

There is a passage in Isaiah that I think speaks volumes in a very vivid image. When Isaiah speaks of oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

I know it’s not good to give the preacher time off. I hear that all the time. But I got to tell you what happens when the preacher gets time off and he gets to sit and listen to someone else. That particular morning, it was Don Truex. I was sitting in his Bible class on prayer. Not sure how I stumbled across Isaiah 61 3, as I recall. But I’m sitting there next to my nephew Sloan, who was here this summer. Sloan is such a fine heavy man. So we’re sitting there, just me and him of our family in the Bible class on prayer. And I’m jotting some notes down. It’s really early in the morning. They meet on Eastern time. That’s how I said they start Bible class at 9 a.m.

That’s really eight. I’m not even awake at 8 o’clock. But somehow I’m trying to invest in the Bible class, and I just ran across this verse, Isaiah 61 and verse 3, and I’m telling you the illustration of how I came up with the sermon so that you’ll just focus on this image for a minute. After the class was over, Sloane says, hey, Uncle Tony. What was that Isaiah 61 3 he wrote down? Oaks of righteousness. So, well, I think that’s going to be a sermon for the new year. He said, I knew it. He knew I was writing down a sermon. Oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. What a way to start 2018. Or to end 2017. Could we describe you? Your faith, your good discipline, your stability, your establishment in Christ.

Are you an oak of righteousness? The planting of the Lord. Remember, every plant not planted by my heavenly Father shall be rooted up. Jesus said in Matthew 15, 13 and verse 15. So you need to make so you need to make sure that you are the planting of the Lord. Or you’ll be rooted up. And notice this oak of righteousness that is the planting of the Lord is for the purpose of bringing glory to God. That is why we should be oaks of righteousness, those who are focused on and in the pursuit of and diligent about being right in the way that they think, in the way that they speak, and the way that they live.

1. The Realization of Our Glorious Calling

Number one, this passage about the oaks of righteousness says something very powerful about the realization we need to have in regard to our calling and how extremely glorious it is. Folks, this is glorious this morning. Who we are, what we are, what we are doing. This is glorious. It is not mundane, it is not humdrum, it is not just going through the ritual and the motions of what we’ve done every Sunday for the last 20 years. This is a glorious calling. I want to emphasize that today. And to do that, I need to look at all the surrounding context of this statement in Isaiah 61. Now, I’ve got 50 verses. I’m going to run by. You ready? 50 verses. I’m going to give you the short course.

Right fast, or just note the parameters that I’m about to give you of these 50 verses and go back later. I’m going to give you the short course in this. Now I want you to remember something before we do this.

When Jesus was in Nazareth, his hometown, they handed him a scroll. What scroll was it? It was Isaiah. And it says, Jesus took the scroll and he found the passage that he wanted. You know what it was, right? Isaiah 61 and 2. The favorable year of the Lord. He read Isaiah 61, 1 and 2, the verse before, oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. He read that and then he sat down. And he said, Today, this has been fulfilled in your hearing. So something in this context is relating to Jesus’ work, his ministry as the Messiah. Let me show you. Jesus wasn’t just picking out cherry picking two verses out of Isaiah and saying, Oh, by the way, these relate to me. It all relates to him.

Let me show you how it relates. Let’s go back in the preceding context. Before the statement of the oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. And let us notice some things very quickly. What’s going on? You would need to start reading in Isaiah 59 and verse 16 and go all the way through chapter 62. It’s 50 verses. I counted them this morning. If I’m wrong, I’m off the one or two. Not including Isaiah 61, 3. That’d be 51. Now, first thing that happens in Isaiah 59 and verse 16, God is looking for a man, and there’s no one. And thus the picture and portrait of the divine warrior. Now, Paul is going to take this imagery and apply it to us as his disciples when he talks about putting on the full armor of God.

Some of that imagery comes right here from Isaiah chapter 59. But he’s looking for someone who is going to turn the people from transgression. And then he says, His people will be a lie to the world.

And then I had to point this out in Isaiah 60, verse 5. It says, a multitude of camels will cover you. I don’t know why that’s so wonderful, but it is. I love that verse. Now, if I lived in the first century and understood all the camels did and how that worked, they would have thought this was great. So I’m going to buy in. Multitude of camels is a part of this. He says, Your gates will be open continually. Whoa. That sort of sounds like something in the New Testament, doesn’t it? What is that concept? Why would you close the gates? To protect the city from potential harm, late-night marauders and thieves. And so you would close it. Not necessary here. Not necessary. This is the Messiah’s reign.

We’re talking about. It will be the city of the Lord. It will be his everlasting pride and joy. And it’s composed of all kinds of precious metals and peace and righteousness around the room on the slide. Wow. That sort of sounds like something in the New Testament, doesn’t it? Walls of salvation and gates of praise. You know what I’m talking about, right? We won’t get the meaning of Revelation chapter 21 unless we know something about Isaiah. And that what Isaiah is envisioning is a city that the Lord is in the midst of, and that he’s protecting her. He’s made her all that she is, and there he is the protection of the city. It’s all about him and his relationship with his holy ones. He is the everlasting light in the city.

And so in Revelation 21, we shouldn’t be surprised that God is in the midst of that city. Isaiah had predicted this. So now we go on the other side of Isaiah 61 and verse 3. Yes, there is the proclamation of release of the captives that Jesus quoted in Isaiah chapter 61. But even in Isaiah 61 and verse 3, before he talks about oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, he says, there will be oil of gladness and a mantle of praise. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice. But going forward from the oaks of righteousness text, they shall be called priests of the Lord and ministers to our God. You’ve got to call preachers something. And so we’re sometimes called evangelists. And that term is used in somewhat of a special way in Ephesians 4 and verse 11.

But ministers, you know, what are you do for a living? You know, I just like to say preacher, but minister is a very common term. But it just means servant. And so, in a sense, all of us are ministers and priests to the Lord. We’re all ought to be heralds or evangelists, for that matter. Or be proclaimers, preachers of the gospel. I’m just a weird guy who does it all the time. In a public way. But this is, again, describing adherence to the Christ. They will have a double portion. What does that convey? All this about inheritance in the Old Testament, big inheritance here. Double portion. Joint heirs with Christ. Everlasting joy. They will wear robes of righteousness. We see some of that in the book of Revelation, right?

They shall wash their robes. Robes of righteousness called by a new name. Isaiah 62 and verse 2. And Beulah. Married Beulah, not forsaken. Jerusalem shall be a praise in all the earth. Again, that’s spiritual Israel. They shall be the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord. They shall be sought out, a city not forsaken. Okay, that’s your 50 verses. Go back and read those week. And so I’ve said all of that to say. Yes, all of this imagery. We see a lot of this in the New Testament in the epistles, especially in the book of Revelation. I’ve said all of this to say that we need to realize the nature of our glorious calling in Christ. And I’ve said this a million times. I’m going to say it one more time.

We’ve got to quit looking at this from a material visible perspective. And see what we are and what we do here from a spiritual point of view. And heaven’s attention that is given to occasions like this. This is what our God cares about. He doesn’t care about what’s happening at Mira Lago or wherever it is that Trump goes on vacation, his golf course to play golf or what’s happening in the White House. He is far more concerned about what’s happening in this house. And with this house, his people. And so often we look at ourselves as we’re small and powerless. There’s bigger churches that are practicing truth, a lot of them, but there’s bigger churches. We’re just a small thing out here in Decker Prairie. What do you think the first century church looked like?

I wonder how many groups there were that approached this size.

Some. Probably not many. They looked beleaguered and battered by persecution. They must have had the same kinds of thoughts. People who were striving to serve the risen Lord. But their connection to the Lord could not be overthrown by any power on this earth. Not by any magistrate, not by any Caesar, not by any threat of death that hung over them, not from the blood of those martyrs. There was not anything that could sever their connection to the Lord. And their exceeding hope was beyond anything in this world. And it could not be taken away. No matter what anybody did to them. Eternal life had been given to them. They had passed out of death and into life, John says in 1 John chapter 3, verses 11 and 12.

We know that we have passed out of death and into life because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. This is the message that you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another. He says.

2. The Development of Spiritual Maturity

Him, but I like the concept of it. I shall not be moved, glory, hallelujah. I shall not be moved. That’s the idea of an oak. The development of spiritual maturity. We need to make sure that we have deep spiritual roots, and those come from an abiding confidence in God and an abiding confidence in the trustworthiness and value and benefit of his word. And that hope that I just described that early believers have an abiding hope, compelling convictions about a better home, and abiding efforts in righteousness. That’s how we’re going to become an oak of righteousness. That’s what Paul was telling Timothy. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life. He talks about those who store up for themselves the treasures of a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.

That’s what he’s encouraging Timothy to do. You need to take hold of that which is life indeed and develop strong and abiding roots in that. And so I just could not help but think of this. Oaks of righteousness says to me something that can withstand any amount of negative, harsh, hurtful, discouraging circumstances that may present themselves to us. Because I’ve got to tell you, the longer I live, the more I see. In regard to the kinds of circumstances that we face in our homes.

Things that befall our comrades. All kinds of challenging, difficult circumstances that could potentially move us away from the hope of the gospel. We need a root system that is so deep and so strong that it can withstand anything. That’s sort of what the psalmist is talking about. Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seed of the scornful. His delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law he meditates day and night. Wait a minute. What did three say? He shall be like a tree. That is planted by rivers of waters. And that yields its fruit in its season. And whatever he does, he shall prosper.

3. Unrelenting Pursuit and Maintenance of a Spiritual Center

He shall be like a tree. Be careful how you’re walking, what you’re listening to, what’s influencing you. Stay rooted in the things of God. And that’s what we’re doing here. That’s why we need to do it so frequently and with commitment and with zeal. Because we’re being rooted in the things of God that we can truly be his oaks. I shall not be moved. Now back to Ephesians, like I told you. Not toss to and fro by every wind of doctrine, but grow up in all aspects unto him who is the head, even Christ, oaks of righteousness. And finally, point number three realization of what we have, the development of spiritual maturity, and finally, the unrelenting pursuit and maintenance of a spiritual center and the daily practice of worship.

I don’t know why we think. We can dismiss the spiritual from our mind for a period of five or six days and think that we can somehow come into this place and turn it on for the Lord and feel something. It’s not going to happen. If we all but dismiss the Lord from our minds as we live our lives, and that’s part of the problem, we see them as our lives, and rather the Lord’s, rather than being his planting. How are we seeing things? How are we seeing ourselves? That’s really what this lesson is all about. How do we see ourselves? That’s what Isaiah 59 through 62 is helping us with. What does the life under the Messiah, his era, what is it going to mean?

How do you see yourself? Do you see yourself as an oak of righteousness? Then there is going to be the unrelenting pursuit, and then the maintenance that must go with that of possessing a spiritual center. And being about worship on a very frequent basis. So which is it for you? An oak, mighty and majestic. Or the sickly sap. Or the tiny tender twig. Too often I think we’re content with the latter. Instead of being a mighty and majestic oak for the Lord. Here we are. A new year is rapidly approaching. Is it time? Is it long past time?

Conclusion

And I’m not sure about what I’ve said there. I don’t know that you dig deeper roots. You develop deeper roots. You dig deeper inside to get those roots. The roots of a tree extend for the nourishment that it needs to survive. And the deeper those roots go, the more grandeur there is to the tree. The more solidity and strength and power, the oaks of righteousness that we’re called to be the planting of the Lord. Of all the new year sermons I’ve ever preached, I think this one may be the most important. How do you see yourself? As you start a new year, I’m going to be an oak of righteousness to the Lord. Firmly rooted in the things that matter most. Being an oak for the Lord begins by being baptized into Christ.

For as many as have been baptized into Christ have clothed themselves with Christ. That’s how we become an oak in the first place. We don’t walk any longer in the futility of our minds, being darkened in our understanding with callous hearts. He said, You do not learn Christ in this way, but you are renewed in the likeness and holiness of truth. I got to give direct TV props. Whoever does their commercials is really quite smart. And they probably got a guy for a lot of money because I’m helping pay his salary. In their latest commercial, they tout customer satisfaction, highest ratings for 17 years in a row. That’s pretty good. I noticed they weren’t touting 17 years in a row of lower costs for their consumers.

But customer satisfaction. But then there’s the rest of the commercial.

Just like some people like, and then five images. Pre-shaken sodas. Having their seat kicked on an airplane.

Walking into a glass door, sitting in gum, and these five images appear rather quickly. Very well done. And so the point is made. Yeah, you could stick with cable, but sticking with cable is like those five things. Being rammed with a shopping cart, well, that doesn’t sound too good. But some people are pleased and content with that. And I think sometimes, in regard to the offer of the gospel, we’re content with being slammed by a shopping cart. And sitting and gum. Rather than choosing what is infinitely better. And that’s to be an oak of righteousness. The planting of the Lord. That he may be glorified. Choose an oak while we stand and sing.