COVERED WITH THE BEAUTY OF OUR GOD AND THAT OF HIS CHRIST

IN THE DAYS OF HIS POWER SERIES.

TOPIC: COVERED WITH THE BEAUTY OF OUR GOD AND THAT OF HIS CHRIST

SERMON BY-:
Rev. Innocent Chukwudi Peace-Udochukwu President Living Fountain Ministries Int’l LIFOM

BEAUTY FOR ASHES!
*“And provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.”*
Isaiah 61:3

Isaiah 61:3 is a beautiful picture of what Christ can do for the mourning people of Israel and the ones hurting today. When we examine the verse, we learn that Christ is the joy-giver. He gives a joy that extends beyond the surface. Christ releases us from the bondage that sorrow brings.
Our sorrows can leave us feeling defeated. When we fully give ourselves over to God, our view of the trouble and sorrow of life changes. The circumstances may remain the same, but we change the glass we look through.

It is possible to live while the storm rages, but God remains the calm in the storm. He gives us sources of joy to get us through.

Everything we go through in this life contributes to the end when we spend eternity in heaven.
The phrases in Isaiah 61:3 make the meaning of this verse even more powerful. When Isaiah writes the words “beauty for ashes,” he uses Hebrew language that cannot be translated into English.

The Hebrew word for beauty used here refers to a headdress, turban, or tiara. God is stating that he is going to wipe out the ashes upon your head and replace it with a beautiful headdress.

Isaiah also tells us we will be anointed with oil. This was a common practice in his time and was usually done in times of festivity. God is also going to clothe his people with a garment of praise.
The language here is speaking of a garment that would be dyed in bright colors. Lastly, Isaiah speaks of oaks of righteous. Trees represent people, and the mighty oak of righteousness shows us that in Christ we are strong.

The light of this book is when Isaiah reminds the Jews that even though God will judge the people, he will also pour out His love and favor for them. This theme of judgement, repentance, and forgiveness has been happening since the Israelites entered the wilderness.
When we look at our verse in question, we need to take a moment and discuss what verses one and two mean. In verse one, Isaiah says “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me.” This is a reference to the Christ that was to come. Jesus uses these verses to refer to himself while on earth.
Further on in verses one and two, we learn that the one who has the spirit upon him will also mend the brokenhearted, preach good news, comfort, and proclaim freedom to the captives. This is exactly what Jesus was sent to this earth to do. God knew we needed a redeemer before He ever sent His son to die for us.

Our God is a God of comfort. He sent his son to die for us so that we may have life more abundantly. Jesus tells us in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly.”
God sent his son to be a shepherd to the people. He desires that no one experience an earthly life of sorrow, and an eternal life in hell. It is clear that if God would send his only son to die on a cross for the purpose of saving us, then God would comfort those who are mourning. Our mourning cannot become the thief that destroys us.
Ecclesiastes 3:4 says there is a time for mourning and a time for dancing. Our Lord does not intend for us to stay in the mourning phase. We are supposed to be dancing.
Jesus said in his sermon on the mount in Matthew 5 that blessed were those that mourned, for they would be comforted. This was His promise, and we know that our God never breaks a promise.
Countless times in Scripture we are reminded that God will be our comforter.

*“Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us!”*
Psalm 90:17

When Charles Kingsley was dying, he seemed to have a glimpse of the heavenly splendor into which he was going, and of God in His brightness and loveliness, and he exclaimed, “How beautiful God is!”
Every revelation of God that is made to us—is a revelation of beauty.

Everywhere in nature, in the flower that blooms, in the bird that sings, in the dewdrop that sparkles, in the star that shines, in the sunset that burns with splendor—we see reflections of God’s beauty. “He has made everything beautiful in its time!” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). In the holy Scriptures, every revelation of the divine character presents God to us in surpassing loveliness. Christ was “God manifest in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16), the beauty of the invisible God made visible to human eyes, and such enrapturing beauty has never been seen, except in that one blessed life.
The beauty of God is frequently referred to in the Scriptures. In one of
his Psalms David declared that the supreme desire of his heart, was to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life, to behold the beauty of the Lord.

Then, in the prayer of Moses, we have the petition, “Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.” This was a prayer that the charm of God’s excellence, might be given to His people, that the divine beauty might shine in them, in their lives, in their faces, in their souls. We think of the face of Moses himself, when he came down from the mountain after his forty days communing with God. He had been so long wrapped in the divine glory—that his very body was as it were, saturated with its brightness. Or we think of Stephen​, before his martyrdom, when a window of heaven was opened and a ray of the glory from the holy place fell on him, so irradiating his features that even to his enemies, they appeared like the features of an angel.

There is a beauty of soul which makes the plainest face radiant, and the homeliest features lovely; which shines like a star in this world of sin. It is for this beauty that we are taught to pray, “Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.” It is not the beauty which fades—when sickness smites the body; or which is lost in the withering touch of years; or which blanches when death’s pallor overspreads the features. But this is a beauty which grows lovelier in pain or suffering, which shines out in sorrow like a star in the night, which transfigures the wrinkled and faded features of old age—and which bursts out in death into the full likeness of Christ!

Every Christian life is beautiful—so far as it fairly and truly represents Christ. Anything in religion that is not beautiful, is not a just or adequate expression of the divine thought. Holiness of character is simply the reproduction in human life—of the likeness of Christ, and any feature that is not lovely and winning, is not truly Christlike, and hence misrepresents Christ. It is not the Christian religion itself that is unlovely in any case—but the human interpretation of it in disposition and conduct.

One other feature of the beauty of the Lord, as worn by His children on the earth—is moral purity. Christ’s benediction is for the pure in heart. Bodily health is beautiful, mental ability is beautiful—but heart purity is the charm of all. All spiritual loveliness begins within. That the beauty of the Lord our God may be on us, that the winning charm of God’s loveliness may shine in the features of our lives which men can see—we must first have the divine beauty within us. A holy heart will in time transfigure all the life. And the only way to have a holy heart—is to have Christ within!

*SHALOM!*

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