Let me remind you that it will
be less than a month from now when we'll have our conference. And I know we talked to a bunch
of people in Lexington that were coming. And I've talked to John
Chapman from Spring Lake. And they're bringing a bunch
of their folks down. So we're going to have a lot of believers
here from other churches. And I just look forward to the
fellowship that we're able to have with them. want to encourage
you to uh... uh... do as you always do be
just gracious host and get to know some of the some of the
brethren that you don't know uh... encourage the pastors let
them know if their messages are a blessing to you let them know
that's important and uh... we'll have some expenses for
the meeting that are uh... not normal so pray about that
and Lord enables you to help out with some of those. We don't
take an offering during our conference for that so that will be up to
us to take care of those expenses between now and then. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1 you
don't have to look it up most of you know these verses. Wherefore
seeing we also are compassed about with such a great cloud
of witnesses. all these Old Testament believers.
Let us lay aside every weight. Lay it aside right now. Right
now, I want to encourage you and me to lay aside those things
that would distract us from the purpose for which we're here.
We're here to worship God. And I know that every one of
us have things in our lives that would distract us. Just lay them
aside for an hour. Lay them aside. ask God to give
you the grace just to forget about them. And the sin which does so easily
beset us. What is the sin that does so
easily beset us? It's unbelief. It's unbelief. Let us run with patience the
race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author, the originator, and
the finisher of our faith. who for the joy that was set
before him, what was his joy? Pleasing the Father, going home
successful, that was his joy. For the joy that was set before
him, he endured the cross. We're gonna have to endure some
things in this life, but the joy that is set before us, like
it did for the Lord, will enable us to look unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith. May God give us grace to worship
Him this morning. Let's stand together. Tom's going
to come and lead us in number five in the spiral hymnal, number
five. We'll sing that second. Let's
sing the hymn that's on the back of the bulletin. I'm sorry, I
changed it. Great. Let's stand together. We'll sing the hymn
on the back of the bulletin, and then we'll sing hymn number
five after the scripture reading. Let every heart and voice unite
to sing our Maker's praise. Extol the glories of our God,
and loud His anthems raise. He works His perfect holy will
throughout His vast domain. For time and all eternity, God
sovereignly shall reign. All men and angels, demons too,
accomplish His design. All of creation works His will
and makes His glory shine. Bow humbly at the sovereign throne
of Him who is our King. Come, praise the Lord with heart
and voice and of His greatness sing. Please be seated. Would you turn to the book of
Exodus 34. for our call to worship, Exodus 34. And we're going to begin in verse
4, 4 to 10. And he hewed two tables of stone
like unto the first, And Moses rose up early in the morning
and went up unto Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him,
and took in his hand the two tables of stone. And the Lord
descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed
the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before
him and proclaimed, the Lord, Jehovah, the Lord God, merciful
and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth,
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's
children unto the third and to the fourth generation, And Moses
made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And he said, if now I have found
grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among
us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity
and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. And he said,
God says, behold, I make a covenant before all thy people, I will
do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in
any nation and all the people among which thou art shall see
the work of the Lord. For it is a terrible thing that
I will do with thee. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we are thankful
again that you purposed to draw us to thy presence this morning. And Lord, it is our desire and
our hope that you would do marvels once again in taking our dead
souls and giving us life, which is found in thy dear Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we know that nothing in
earth and nothing in all the world that you do marvels takes place
except in this place where you're pleased to meet us. Lord, would
you do that once again? And in this next hour that we
would see the Lord Jesus Christ, thy dear son, high and lifted
up and that you would be pleased to draw us to thyself. Oh Lord,
give us ears to hear. Make this gospel, Lord, assure
us that it is for me and for us, Lord, that you would be pleased
to do that. Bless our brother once again.
Pray that you'd give him power and freedom to proclaim the glory
and greatness of our dear Lord, for it's in his name that we
pray, amen. number five from the Spiral Hymnbook,
Come, Ye Sinners. Come ye sinners poor and wretched,
weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands to save you,
full of pity he joined with you. He is able. He is able. He is willing. Doubt no more. He is able. He is able. Come, ye needy, come and welcome,
God's free bounty glorify. True belief and true repentance,
every grace that brings us nigh. Without money, without money,
come to Jesus Christ and buy. Without money, without money,
come to Jesus Christ and buy. ? Let not conscience make you linger
? ? Nor of fitness fondly dream ? ? All the fitness he requireth
? ? Is to have a need of him ? ? This he gives you, this he
gives you ? Tis the Spirit's glimmering beam. This He gives you, this He gives
you. Tis the Spirit's glimmering beam. Come ye weary, heavy laden, bruised
and broken by the fall. If you tarry till you're better,
you will never come at all. Not the righteous, not the righteous,
sinners Jesus came to call. Not the righteous, not the righteous,
sinners Jesus came to call. Please be seated. All the fitness He requireth
is to have a need of Him. This He gives you. This He gives
you. It is the Spirit's glimmering
beam. We're going to be in the book
of Isaiah again this morning, chapter 61. And I can remember thinking that when the Lord said, blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God, that I
had to somehow make myself poor enough to be able to inherit
the kingdom of God. If I would be poor in spirit,
then the blessing would be the kingdom of God. I can remember
thinking that when the Lord said, blessed are the meek, for they
shall be, I'm sorry, blessed are they that mourn, for they
shall be comforted, that I thought, well, the blessing is being comforted,
so I've got to be able to mourn in order to earn that blessing. And I used to think that when
the Lord said, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit
the earth. Well, the blessing is to inherit
the earth. I've got to figure out how to be meek enough to
get that blessing. You ever think like that? The truth is that being poor
in spirit, being meek, mourning, hungry and thirsting after righteousness,
those are the blessings. Those are the blessings. You
see, it's not natural for us to have those things. You're
not going to be able to come up with that in order to obligate
God to bless you. Being poor in spirit, mourning,
being me, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, being merciful,
being pure in heart, being a peacemaker, those are the blessings. That's the work of grace in the
heart when God enables us to see how needy we are and causes
us to depend upon the Lord Jesus Christ for all our blessings. Now when our Lord began his public
ministry, after he came out of the wilderness and was baptized
by John the Baptist, Immediately he was driven into the wilderness
for 40 days and 40 nights and he fasted. And then he was tempted
of the devil. And as soon as he came out, the
angels ministered to him. As soon as he came out of the
wilderness, he went back to Nazareth, his hometown. And he went into
the synagogue as his custom was, the scripture says. And he took
the scroll and he found the 61st chapter of Isaiah and he read. the first three verses of that
chapter. And then he said to the people,
this day has this prophecy been fulfilled in your ears, in your
ears. Now they all knew that that was
a passage relating only to the Messiah. He was the one who was
going to come anointed of God to preach the gospel, to set
the captive free, and to save all of Israel. And so the scripture
says, they wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his
mouth. And they said, is not this the
son of Joseph? He's one of us. Can he be serious? Is he actually claiming to be
the fulfillment of that prophecy? Does he think himself to be the
Messiah? And perhaps in their minds there
was some thought that maybe he is. Maybe he is. And then he interpreted that
passage of scripture. And after his interpretation,
the scripture says that their wonderment over the gracious
words that proceeded out of his mouth turned to hatred and vehement
wrath to where they tried to murder him. Now, you think about
it. These folks had, and our Lord
was a carpenter. He had lived there for 30 years.
It had been a small town. He knew everybody. He knew everybody
there, and they knew him. And they were so enraged by his
claims to be the Messiah that they were ready to kill him. The passage that our Lord read
from is found in Isaiah 61. And I started to title this message,
What is the Gospel? But then I thought, You know,
the gospel can be defined with doctrinal statements. Defining
the gospel is not preaching the gospel. And so I thought, well,
what is it to preach the gospel? And to preach the gospel is to
preach Christ. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ did on that day in Nazareth. He preached himself. He preached himself. as the sovereign
savior. What was it that the Lord told
those people after he read that passage that so enraged them? Well, he just simply reminded
them of some events that took place in the Old Testament. He
said, in the days of Elijah, the prophet, there were many
widows in Israel, many needy Jewish women who had lost their
husbands lost their sons, were destitute and dependent upon
help from God and the prophet helped none of them. But rather
he went to Sarepta and ministered to a Gentile woman of Sarepta and their eyes opened. They knew
what he was saying. You're telling me that God's
more concerned for the Gentiles than He is the Jews? It cannot
be. And then He said, in the days of Elijah, who came after
Elijah, there were many lepers in Israel. Lots of Jewish people
had leprosy. And the prophet ministered healing
to none of them except for the Syrian by the name of Naaman. And at that, they wanted to kill
him. Our Lord was declaring himself
to be the sovereign savior who will have mercy upon whom he
will have mercy and whom he will, he'll harden. He's declaring himself to be
the one who holds the souls of all men in his hand and does
with them whatsoever he wills." Now that statement will cause
people to have one of three responses. They will respond like the Lord's
friends did in Nazareth, enraged in hatred to say that's not fair
and do what they can to kill the prophet and kill the spokesman
and get that message away from me. others will respond to that
truth by just saying well you know what will be will be and
I'll just wait and see what God's going to save me. They'll become
fatalist and then others will become mercy
beggars. Oh Lord, would you have mercy
on me? Would you be pleased to save
me? I believe that you are the Messiah, the Anointed One, and
I am completely dependent upon you. You see, preaching the gospel
is preaching Christ. We can define the gospel. We
can talk about total depravity and talk about how men are dead
in their trespasses and sins and unable to believe, and that
would be true, but that wouldn't in and of itself be preaching
the gospel. We could talk about unconditional election and we
could declare the truth, the precious truth, the glorious
truth that God in his sovereign mercy and grace according to
his own will and purpose chose a people and placed them in that
covenant and in Christ before the world ever began and that'd
be true. We could talk about the atoning
work of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. and declare
the fact that He actually put away the sins of His people,
atoned for them and purchased them as their Redeemer. We could talk about irresistible
grace and defined the doctrine of irresistible grace and say
that when God's ready to make you willing, you're gonna come,
you're gonna come. We could talk about perseverance
of the saints and the importance of knowing that the Lord has
to keep us from falling and present us faultless before his throne
with much joy and that we're just as dependent upon him the
last day of our lives on this earth as we are ever. More, more. That's what growing in grace
is. When a believer grows in grace and in the knowledge of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the older I get, the less confident I am.
Young men are are cocksure, aren't they? They're confident, they're
cocky. Well, young men, mark it down. When you get to be an
old man, you're gonna be less of that way. You're gonna see more and more
of your need for Christ, of your weaknesses and your dependence.
And you'll become hopefully a little more humble. But that's where we are, isn't
it? Hebrews chapter 6, the Lord speaks of those precious doctrines
that I just defined as milk. And He speaks to the church of
the Hebrews as babes just drinking milk. And He tells them that
they need to move on from drinking milk to eating meat. What was
He talking about? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ said,
My body is your meat indeed. And unless you eat of My flesh
and drink of My blood, there's no life in you. You see, we can
define the gospel and preach the doctrines without preaching
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the meat of the
gospel. He is the meat of the gospel.
Don't let me miss Christ. Don't let me get so bound up
in a theological, you know, we can debate the gospel and defend
it against all the false gospels. The message that says men are
not completely dead, they've still got a seed of life in them
enabling them to make a decision and that Christ made an offer
of salvation to everybody and that if you'll just do your part,
God will save you and that you can fall away from grace and
all those errors and lies, lies, what they are, they're just lies,
aren't they? But if we're just dealing with
those things, we may not be preaching Christ. What is it to preach? The Lord Jesus Christ came preaching
himself. And if we're gonna follow in
his footsteps, When Paul began, the most comprehensive declaration
and defense of the gospel is found in the book of Romans.
No more comprehensive. How did Paul begin the book of
Romans? He said, I'm going to tell you
about the gospel of God concerning his son, Jesus Christ. So we learn two things. It's
God's gospel. It's not a denominational gospel.
It's not a man's gospel. It's God's gospel. So if we're
going to, we've got to be faithful to what God says it is. What
is it? It's concerning my son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now all
those precious doctrines are true, but you can have doctrine
and not have Christ. Our young people, We've got young
people here this morning that can defend the doctrinal truths
of the gospel and all how we pray that the Lord would make
himself known to them. We've got young people that know
more about doctrine than some of the most renowned theologians. And what I'm saying to you and
what I'm saying to myself and to our young people is don't
substitute Christ with doctrine. You can have doctrine and not
have the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't have Christ without
having accurate doctrine. And the heart is deceitful. It
is, isn't it? You know, every believer that
does know Christ and fellowships with Christ is fearing right
now, is my faith just in my doctrine? You're thinking that, aren't
you? I think that all the time. Somebody asked me, do you ever
doubt your salvation? Every day. Every day. I know how wicked I am, how deceitful
I am, how liable I am to deceive myself, Lord. But you see, it's
that that causes me to flee back in faith with Christ. Paul said, I determined to know
nothing among you. save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We preach Christ crucified unto
the Jews, a stumbling block. You see, the crucifixion of the
Savior is a stumbling block to the self-righteous because it
strips them naked before God and leaves them without hope.
It exposes their self-righteousness for what it is. And to the Greeks, it's just
foolishness. Why are you all talking about
that? It's just, you know, we've got life to enjoy. We've got
the world to conquer. Why are you talking about something
that relates to your soul? You're not dying, are you? Yes, I am. And you are too. But to them which are called,
both the Jews and the Greeks, Christ, the power of God and
the wisdom of God. That's why Paul said, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ for it is the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Now the Lord
Jesus Christ, you have your Bibles open Isaiah 61. The spirit of the Lord God is
upon me. And the Lord said, what? This
day, this prophecy has been fulfilled in your sight. The Lord Jesus
Christ came preaching himself. No other man can do that. We're not here to preach ourselves.
We're here to preach Christ. Preaching the gospel is preaching
the Lord Jesus Christ. The spirit of the Lord God is
upon me because the Lord hath anointed me. Now that word anointed
is also the same word Messiah. It's also the same word Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ came, sent
of God in the full power of the Spirit of God, anointed with
the oil of gladness above his fellows to accomplish the purpose
for which God sent him. What was that? Save his people. You're right, Michael, save his
people. Did he do it? Could he fail at what he did? Preach good tidings unto the
meek and he that sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim
liberty to the captive, the opening of the prison to them that are
bound. to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day
of the vengeance of our God, and to comfort all that mourn,
to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty
for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise
for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, the planting of
the Lord, that he might be glorified. that He might be glorified. The
whole purpose of the gospel, the whole purpose of the world,
the whole purpose for your life is the glory of God. That's it. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto Thy name. Unto Thy name be glory for Thy
mercy and for Thy truth's sake. It's all about Him. The first thing we learn about
preaching the gospel is that it must be according to the scriptures. Peter said it like this in 1
Peter chapter 1, we are not born of corruptible seed but of incorruptible. By the word of God which liveth
and abideth forever and this is the word which by the gospel
is preached unto you. Turn with me in your Bibles to
1 Corinthians Chapter 15, 1 Corinthians 15. Verse 1, moreover brethren I
declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you. which also
you have received, and wherein you stand, by which also you
are saved, if you keep in memory that which I preached unto you,
unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you, first
of all, that which I also received, how," not that Christ died, but
how that Christ died, for our sins, according to the scriptures. You cannot preach the gospel
without preaching the scriptures. Now let the theologians of this
world talk about their apologetics. Let the free willers of this
world present their personal experiences as the proof. Let
the worldly wise engage in their scientific pursuit of, to prove
the veracity of this, the gospel, but we don't do any of that,
do we? God blesses His word. Of His own will begat He us with
the word of truth. Paul said, I preach the gospel
according to the scriptures. Verse 4, that he was buried and
that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures. Our authority And that which
God has promised to bless is his word. And so we just, we
preach Christ by saying, thus sayeth the Lord. You know how
you can know if you're a believer? You want to know what God says.
I mean, it's not like, well, let me hear about it so I can
evaluate it and decide. Just tell me what God says. Don't apologize for it. Don't
take the offense out of it. You see, that's what the Lord
Jesus Christ did in Nazareth. He just declared without any
apology or without any fear of men what God said. And they hated
it, didn't they? They hated it. Unbelievers always
do. Unbelievers will hear what God
says and they'll say, well, yeah, but. Goats are always butting,
aren't they? Believers just, they come to
the field that the Lord has prepared a table before them and they
just feast on what God has said. Preaching the gospel, we preach
the Lord Jesus Christ as an absolute sovereign. As he made it clear in that first
gospel message that he preached, that's the first message that
we have of our Lord preaching. It's there in Luke chapter four
when he preached in Nazareth. And I want to preach what he
preaches, don't you? I want to hear what he has to
say. What did he say? He declared himself as the absolute
sovereign and the truth is that the only person that you and
I will worship is one who is absolutely sovereign. What that
means is that what's taking place in man-made religion is nothing
more than feigned fake worship. Oh, they come together and they
act so spiritual and they act so religious, but they don't
believe that the God they're worshiping is sovereign. They
believe that He's dependent upon them to let Him be Lord of their
life or to invite Him into their hearts. They don't believe He's
sovereign. They believe that salvation was made as an offer
to man and that God is dependent upon man to let Him have His
way. Do you believe that the Lord
Jesus Christ holds your life and your soul in his hands to
do with it whatsoever he wills? Do you believe that? If you do,
you're going to ask for mercy, aren't you? Oh, Lord, be merciful
to me. A God who needs anything is not
sovereign, but a God who's sovereign He's got the power to forgive
sins. You remember we looked at that passage where they brought
the man with the palsy and they couldn't get him because of the
press of the crowd and they removed the tiles from the roof and his
friends lowered him down and the Lord looked at him and he
knew the thoughts of those people. And what did the Lord say to
him? He didn't say, take up your bed and walk. That's not what
he said first. What did he say? Your sins are
forgiving you. And what do people say? How can He forgive sin? God alone
has the power to forgive sin. And knowing their thoughts, He
said to them, what's easier to say? Your sins are forgiven you
or take up your bed and walk? Well, you can say your sins are
forgiven you, but what evidence is there of that? There's no
outward evidence. but that you might know that
the Son of Man hath power to forgive sins. I say unto thee,
take up thy bed." And that man with a palsy took up his bed
and went home, didn't he? What was the Lord saying? I'm
the only one that can forgive your sins. I've got the power to lay my
life down. I've got the power to take it
up again. Are you a sinner? Are you in need of forgiveness?
You see, that is our greatest need, isn't it? Before God, before
God, we take our last breath, nothing else will be important
but have my sins been forgiven. Do I have acceptance with God
and the Lord Jesus Christ himself is the only one that can do that. He is sovereign. He's sovereign over creation,
isn't he? Let the scientists talk about
the God particle all they want. It's the Lord Jesus Christ that
holds this universe together. And they're not going to find
him under a microscope. And let the world talk about
mother nature. Nature doesn't have a mother, it's got a God.
And the Lord Jesus Christ is the God of nature. And He's the
God of providence. And He's the God of salvation.
That's who he is. And God's people rejoice in knowing
that. What did they say? Is this not
Joseph's son? That's all men can see of the
Lord Jesus Christ. All they can see of him is his
humanity. Oh, I know they honor him with
their lips. The Lord said that. You honor me with your lips.
You say that I'm Lord. but your hearts are far from
you don't believe on board all you can see is my humanity that's
all they could see back there in nazareth is this not the son
of joseph he can't be gone you see and that's what men have
done today they the lord said you made me to be altogether
as myself you know there's no There's no
lower place to put God than to make him like man. He made himself of no reputation and became in the likeness of
sinful flesh. Make God into that fan and you
will have a higher God than making him like a man. There's nothing more blasphemous,
there's nothing more shameful than to make God out to be like
you. But that's what the world does.
The only charge they had against our Lord in the end was blasphemy. How can you being a man make
yourself out to be God? What did our Lord say about himself?
He said, I'm the Messiah. I'm the anointed one. Turn to
me to Psalm 89, Psalm 89. Look at verse, now you know that
David, King David is a type of Christ. and all the glorious
things that are said about David and all the expectations that
they had of the son of David, those were spoken prophetically
about the Lord Jesus Christ. And here in Psalm 89 beginning
at verse 19, then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one and
saidest, I have laid help upon one that is mighty. I have exalted
one chosen out of the people. I have found David my servant
with my holy oil. I have anointed him with whom my hand shall be established. My arm also shall strengthen
him." You know, even that woman at the well who was only half
Jewish, when our Lord was conversing with her, you remember what she
said? We know that when Messiah comes, he's gonna fix all this.
He's gonna straighten it all out. I told you all about that
Jewish lady I was talking to a year or so ago, and she was
complaining about how her Jewish friends were pretending to be
keeping the law. And she knew they weren't, and
they were all a bunch of hypocrites. And she was telling me, she said,
nobody can keep the law. And I said, well, yeah, actually
one can. And she knew exactly what, she
said, you're right, you're right. And the difference between you
and me is that you think he's already come and I'm still waiting
on him. You see, no Jew ever thought
of the Messiah of being anything less than able to save, as Romans
chapter 11 says, all of Israel. Every Israelite is going to be
saved by the Messiah. They believe that. They didn't
know the Lord was talking about a spiritual Israel. They didn't
know there was going to be a new Israel. And it was going to be
made up mostly of Gentiles. But here's the work of Messiah.
The Messiah cannot fail. He'll make the law honorable. He'll be successful in putting
away the sins of His people. He'll satisfy the demands of
God's justice. He'll redeem His people. from
hell and from sin, he'll say, well, look what he goes on to
say. It's the reason why the Lord had to be conceived of the
Holy Ghost. See, He came to be a successful Savior. And all
the shameful things that are said about the little Jesus,
You know, I remember hearing Henry Mahan calling that Jesus
a peanut Jesus. And now I thought, as I thought
about that, I thought, you know, peanuts have more value than
that Jesus has. At least peanuts, you can eat
them. The Jesus of this world has no,
well, he doesn't exist. He's the figment of men's imagination. He's just an idol. Oh, but the one who came, the
one who declared himself to be the Messiah, he came to save
all of Israel. And that's exactly what he did.
Go back with me to Isaiah 61 quickly. The Lord hath anointed
me to preach good tidings unto the meek, the humble, this word
meek just means you don't have anything you don't know anything
can't do anything i'm completely depend upon him for everything
and that is the blessing that is the blessing when the lord
said blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth
the lord wasn't saying you get yourself meek and you'll be blessed
by inheriting the earth no the blessing is being meek being
made humble And that's what every sinner is. Every sinner knows
he's got nothing but sin to bring to God. And what did the Lord
do? He said, I came to bring good
tidings to the meek. He has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted. What did David say in Psalm 51?
Thou desirest not sacrifice, else I would bring it. David
was capable of bringing as much sacrifice as anybody could have
ever brought if that was what God required. The sacrifices
of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O Lord, Thou
wilt not despise. Why won't God despise a broken
spirit and a contrite heart? Because He made it that way.
A broken spirit and a contrite heart is a work of grace. That's
what faith does. To proclaim liberty to the captive. Now, what's the difference between
having liberty to the captive and the opening of the prison
to them that are bound. Well, the captive spoken of here is
a prisoner of war and the prisoner is a criminal. You and I engaged war in war
against God in our father Adam. When the Lord spoke of Moses paying tithes through Abraham
to Melchizedek, he said that Moses was in the loins of Abraham. He was right there in his seed. And in the same way, you and
I were in the loins of our father Adam. He was more than just a
federal head, He was our seminal head. You say, what's that word
seminal mean? It's the same word we get our word seed from. You
were physically, literally in Adam, back there in the garden. And when he rebelled against
God, he raised his fist in disobedience to God. That's what we did. We
engaged ourselves in war against God. And God killed us. right there on the spot, slew
us and we died. And what did the Lord Jesus Christ
come to do? He threw us in prison. We were
prisoners of war and the Lord Jesus Christ came to give liberty
to the captive, the opening of the prison to them that are bound.
That's the criminal. That's the one who's broken the
law, who God has sentenced to death. And the Lord Jesus Christ
came in order to set captivity captive. He opened the prison
gates just like he did for Paul at the time, or Peter also. Paul
in Philippi and Peter in Jerusalem when they were arrested for preaching
the gospel and the Lord came and opened the prison doors.
That's what he came to do. and to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord. Now, you know what the acceptable
year of the Lord is? That's the year of Jubilee. Every 50th year,
the children of Israel were required by the law to do three things. Any property that had exchanged
possession during those 50 years went back to its original owner. at the year of Jubilee, when
the priest blew the trumpet, it's the year of Jubilee, all
the property's got to go back to its original owner. Anyone
who had indentured themselves to slavery was set free. And every debt that anyone owed
was canceled on the year of Jubilee. Now, there's no evidence that
the Jews ever practiced that. Why? Because the people in control,
the people in charge were the ones that were holding the debt.
They were the ones that possessed the property. They weren't going
to give it back. And so they never did it. But what did the
Lord do? He said, I came in order to proclaim the acceptable year
of the Lord. All that you lost in your father
Adam is restored and so much more. All the debt that you owe
God is canceled. Prisoner? Free. Slave? Free. Free. Verse 2, and I'll close. And
the day of vengeance of our God. Now, we don't have time this
morning to look at all the references to that in the scriptures, but
let me just tell you what that refers to according to the word
of God. It is spoken of two times. What is the day of vengeance? 2,000 years ago on Calvary's
cross, when the Lord Jesus Christ bore in his body all the sins
of all of God's people and suffered the full wrath of God's holy
justice is spoken of as a day of vengeance. God was justifying
himself by taking vengeance against his holy one to satisfy his justice
and put away our sin. Never has there been vengeance
like that before. Never has there been a mass murder.
Never has there been anything in this world like the vengeance
that was poured out from heaven. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. That was the sword of God's justice
that he sheathed into the heart of his only son. Now the scripture says that God
will not allow the guilty to go unpunished. and that all have sinned and
fallen short of the glory of God. All those for whom Christ
died, what is the penalty for sin? Death. Death. The wages
of sin is death. What did Paul say? I was crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And then he said, oh, that I
might know him in the fellowship of his suffering. Faith is believing
that I was in Christ just like I was in Adam. Seminally, I was
in Christ spiritually and when the Lord Jesus Christ died, I
died. Now, one thing you cannot do,
you cannot punish someone for a crime who's already been put
to death for it. You can't do it. You put somebody
to death, that's the ultimate punishment, isn't it? You're
going to raise them from the grave and scatter their ashes
and what are you going to do? Every one of God's people died
in Christ and God's justice is satisfied. I will not allow the
guilty to go unpunished because my vengeance was poured out on
them and their sin in the substitutionary atonement of my son. What's the
second reference to the day of vengeance? All those who are
not looking to Christ for the hope of their justification before
God are going to suffer a day of vengeance. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes
to this world, He's not coming the second time as a suffering
servant. He's coming as a sovereign king, riding upon a horse with
eyes like fire, wielding a sword, and none will escape His vengeance. None will escape His vengeance. You see, every sin is going to
be punished. He won't allow anybody to go
unpunished. so you can be punished in Christ vicariously and not
just vicariously but actually because we were there in him
spiritually in Christ where there's a vengeance coming like this
world has never seen I don't want to have any part
of that just like you are right now in
your heart, ask the Lord to save you. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the anointed one. He came
to set the captive free, to give liberty to the prisoner. He came
to give hope, salvation to the meek, and He did that. He did that. Brother Tom. Number 168. Let's stand together.
Number 168. We'll sing this hymn a cappella.
And the word blessing is singular in the refrain. It is a cry of
a sinner for God's salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the singular blessing. Lord, I hear of showers of blessing,
thou art scattering full and free. Showers the thirsty land
refreshing, let some drops now fall on me. Even me, even me,
let thy blessing fall on me. Pass me not, O tender Savior,
let me love and cling to thee. ? I am longing for thy favor
? ? Whilst thou art calling, O call me ? ? Even me, even me
? ? Let thy blessing fall on me ? Pass me not, O mighty Spirit,
thou canst make the blind to see. Witnesser of Jesus' merit,
speak the word of power to me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Love of God so pure and changeless,
blood of Christ so rich and free, grace of God so strong and boundless,
magnify them all in me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not thy lost one bringing,
bind my heart, O Lord, to thee. While the streams of life are
springing, Blessing others, O bless me. Even me, even me, Let thy
blessing fall on me. Thank you.