THE
OPENING OF THE PRISON
by
F. F. Bosworth
(1877-1958)
Isaiah 61:1,2 "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; 2} To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn." (Moffatt's translation) "To tell prisoners they are free and to tell the captive that they are released."
"The
opening of the prison" is
God's own figurative illustration of our release from bondage or
imprisonment to sin, sickness and everything else that reached us through
the fall. It covers every phase of our redemption and salvation. It's
instruction is for all seekers for the blessings of redemption.
What
I have to say applies equally to every bondage known to man But to help
the sick and afflicted I am, at this time, thinking of the physical phase
of the Gospel. But, if you are physically well, and your problem is one of
the many others covered by redemption, then think of your problem as an open prison, and follow these same instructions. You can thus keep
God busy fulfilling His promise to you and live in the experience and
enjoyment of your freedom.
What
is meant by "The
opening of the prison?” It
means that the prisoners are free accordingly. Moffatt so translates it,
"To
tell prisoners they are free, to tell captives they are released."
Jesus
opened the prison for us by bearing our punishment.
"Jehovah
hath caused to meet on him the punishment of us all"
(Isaiah
53:6 Dr. Young's translation). In Deuteronomy
2 all sickness is listed among the
punishment of God for rebellion. However in Galatians
How
are the sick to get out of their prison?
First,
they must know that the prison door is open. Faith must have a divine act
to rest upon. They must know the "joyful news." Accordingly Jesus said, "The
Lord hath sent me to proclaim good tidings...to announce release to the
prisoners" (
Jesus
used this word "bound"
when he said, "Ought
not this woman whom Satan hath bound be loosed...?"
Sickness is a bondage from which we have been redeemed. Jesus also
said, "He
hath sent me to set free the oppressed"
(Moffatt).
All
sickness is called "oppression
of the devil" in Acts
10:38. "How
God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who
went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil;
for God was with him."
The sick must have the WORD in their mouth and in their heart. Romans 10:8, "But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach."
It
is important to say here that, connected with "the word of faith," in each of God's
promises, is the provision, "If
thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus AS LORD"
(Romans
10:8-10). When coming to God for
salvation in it's initial form, and then in every successive form
afterwards, our confession and acceptance of His Lordship over us is the
condition. Christ does not save
those whom He cannot govern. "For
to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that He might be LORD,
both of the dead and living" (Romans 14:9).
Until
we gladly acknowledge His Lordship over us our priorities are wrong. It is
always a principle in the Christian life that you "make God's Kingdom and righteousness your chief
aim" (Matthew
We
are not to seek our redemptive blessings selfishly that we may waste them
on our pleasures. Because of this selfish motive James says to some,
"Ye
ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss"
(James
4:3).
Right
Thinking and Right Believing
After
knowing that the prison is open, the first thing God requires of man is to
accept God's requirements of man and that he forsake his way and thoughts
and accept God's way and thoughts (Isaiah
55:7). One reason why so many fail
to obtain and enjoy the things which God has provided and given to them is
they try to discern them by one or more of the five physical senses
instead of by faith.
Faith
requires no evidence but the Word
It
is blind to all but the Word of God. Paul says, "We look not at the things that are seen."
When we rely upon physical evidence we repudiate the Word and faith has no
opportunity to exercise itself. "Let him forsake his thoughts."
Right
thinking and right believing must replace wrong thinking and wrong
believing before we can
intelligently act on the freedom which is already ours through redemption,
Man's thoughts have been that the prison is locked and that he is not
free. He must forsake such thoughts and think the truth, the truth that the
prison is open, and therefore he is free to walk out.
One
man thinks that his disease will kill him. While the enlightened man knows
that he can be healed. Both of these men have faith.
But one has faith that his
disease will kill him, while the other has faith in God's promise to heal
him. The sick man must "forsake"
his way of judging according to the walls of the prison, by his symptoms, and
he must accept God's way of reckoning according
to the open door. A man can be
in a prison without being locked in; in that case he is free. This is a "joyful message."
In the next place, this is a "joyful message"- "good news" - "Glad tidings of great joy to all people."
As
soon as it is believed it produces joy. Jesus says in this text, Luke
4:18, "The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the
gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set
at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the
Lord."
The
Gospel age was typified by the Old Testament year of Jubilee. The Hebrew
word, translated jubilee
means, "A time of shouting." It
was a happy year because God said on the day of atonement, in this 50th
year, "Ye
shall return every man to his possessions."
Just as the Gospel Age is a "Time
of rejoicing" over the
restoration of all our lost possessions through the fall; Health for soul
and body and every other blessing included in our redemption. God's
promises themselves, when truly believed, become the rejoicing of our
heart before they are fulfilled (Jeremiah
A pardon from the
governor read to a man sitting in an electric chair that to be
electrocuted would make him happier before he got out of the chair that he
would be in a month later.
David said, " I
rejoice in thy word as one that findeth great spoil."
Believing
and rejoicing that we are free precedes our first step out of our prison
or bondage to sickness. The absence of rejoicing would prove that you do
not really believe the proclamation that you are free. Faith is believing
that you are already free before walking out. The sick person must forsake
the thought that his freedom is a future act. It is not a future act, it is a past act. Your use of
your freedom may be a future act on our part, but it should not be - you
should walk in the light now. The door to your prison has been open a
long time. "By
His stripes ye were healed."
"Himself
took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses” (Matthew
The
"Emancipation Proclamation"
by Abraham Lincoln made the slaves
of the South free before they knew it; but they
did not use their freedom until they were informed of it. Then they
did not judge according to their surroundings, but by the proclamation.
Your
Part in Receiving Healing
The
sick person must believe he is free because of the open prison door and
then act accordingly. Unless faith has corresponding actions God's Word
says that it
is as dead as a body without a spirit
(James
Even
in the Old Testament times Jonah sacrificed with a voice of thanksgiving,
calling his prison walls "lying
vanities," not after, but before,
he got out. Naaman was required to dip in the
The
greatly out-numbered Israelites under Jehoshaphat, because of the Word of
God spoken through human lips, praised God with a loud voice, and then
sang praises on their way to battle (2
Chronicles 20).
Christ's
"joyful
message" to the prisoners that
"they
are free" is the "word
of faith" which is not only in
the Bible, but is to be, as the scriptures say, "in
thy mouth and in thy heart"
before its benefits are manifested (Romans 10: 8-10).
Now
suppose you were in prison, longing to get out, and the warden, pointing
to an open door should say to you, "Look,
that door is open for you!" Would you rejoice? Would you lay
on your bunk and wait for the warden to carry you out? Would you ask your friends to pray you out after they have already paid
the court for your pardon and release? Your friends could come in
and walk out with you, but not for you.
Fix
your eyes on the open door and keep on rejoicing and walking, and the
walls of your prison will soon be behind you,
the manifestation of your healing will become history. Not only is, "The
opening of the prison"
release from every bondage, it is freedom to all the blessings revealed by
the "exceeding
great and precious" promises of
God. "Christ is able to save to the uttermost."
Not only from the lowest depth of sin and misery, but into all the
positive enjoyments of divine favor. "To
the uttermost" extent of
personal need, external life.
His
salvation is eternal, including an "eternal
inheritance," an "eternal
crown," an "eternal
kingdom," and "pleasures
forevermore."
FF Bosworth
T his sermon concerns the sick and those in Prison and how they should view their situation.
Christ The Healer
by FF Bosworth
has inspired many Believe God for their every need.
Rev
Brian Kocourek
watch our Missions Video's
at
Go
Ye into all the worrld and Teach the Good News
for Message Sermons concerning the Doctrine.