Hi, everybody. Such a blessing
to be with you. I covet your prayers for myself
as I attempt to preach the gospel. I have more anxiety than I've ever
had about misrepresenting the Lord. I don't want to do that.
And I No, Bruce feels the same way. Marvin, you feel the same
way. I've entitled this message, When
Jesus Bypassed Nazareth. Verse 43 of John chapter 4. Now remember, Nazareth was the town
he was brought up in. The Lord had been preaching in
Samaria, and many people believed, and he left two days later. This
is still in the first year of his public ministry. John chapter
four, verse 43, now after two days, he departed thence and
went into Galilee. Galilee was the region where
the Lord was born. It had five cities that we read
of throughout the New Testament. Cana, Capernaum, Nazareth, Magdala. He returns to Galilee. For Jesus himself testified that
a prophet hath no honor in his own country. Now, the Lord said this when
he first preached in Nazareth. Do you remember that, Luke chapter
four? After he was rejected by the people of his hometown, he
made this statement, a prophet hath no honor in his own country. And it is
evident, the Lord inspiring John to write this, that at this time,
when he went into Galilee, he bypassed his hometown. I don't know if he ever went
there again, perhaps he did. But at this time, he bypassed
his hometown. Now, Nazareth. The Lord had lived there for
30 years in obscurity, working with his father, presumably,
maybe his dad was dead, we don't know, but he was working as a
carpenter. 30 years. In that time, he never
sinned. He kept God's law perfectly. There was not a thought of sin
that went through his mind. 30 years and nobody got it. You know, that reminds me that
a natural man He doesn't know what holiness is when he's staring
in his face. The Son of God never sinned. Nobody got it. Well, he began his public ministry
after that 30-year period, and we can read about this in Luke
chapter 4 if you'll turn with me there. This is where John quotes this. Look in verse 24 of Luke chapter
4. And he said, the Lord said, after
this response to his preaching, verily I say unto you, no prophet
is accepted in his own country. Now, Luke 4 begins with what
is known as Satan tempting Christ. You're familiar with that when
he said, if you're the Son of God, command that these stones
be made bread. If you're the Son of God, prove
it to us. And I have no doubt that the reason Satan was saying
this is he was there when the Lord was being baptized. And
he heard that voice, this is my son, in whom I am well pleased. That voice that came audibly
from heaven. And Satan is saying, if you are,
prove it. You remember the temptations
that the Lord destroyed? You know, I've thought the Lord
could have destroyed him. He could have just, in whatever
way you would do that, he could have destroyed him. But instead
he answered each temptation with this, it is written. That demonstrates the for lack of a better word, and
I'm sure this word doesn't reach what it should, the respect he
had for holy scripture. It is written. That's how he answered the devil
every time. And I love to think about this.
Could he have given in to temptation? No. He's the son of God. He's God. He couldn't sin. I love it when he said, the prince
of this world has come and found nothing in me. There was nothing
for him to work with. So the Lord defeated Satan, and
then he begins his public ministry. And this is the first time he
has returned to Nazareth, this place that he'd grown up for
30 years. Everybody there knew him. They didn't know him, but
they knew him. And I'm sure they're excited
about him coming back. They've heard of the miracles
that he's been enabled to perform. And they want to see their native
son and they're excited about him being in Nazareth once again. Now let's read verse 14 of Luke
chapter four. And Jesus returned in the power
of the Spirit into Galilee. And there went out a fame of
him through all the region round about and he taught in their
synagogues being glorified of all. And he came to Nazareth. I love his name, Jesus of Nazareth. Where he had been brought up,
and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath
day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
it was a scroll. When he opened the scroll, he
found the place where it was written. Now I know that he didn't
have a hard time finding the place because he wrote it. He
knew every word. When he found the place where
it was written. And he quotes what we would call
Isaiah chapter 61, verses one and two. Now they didn't have
chapters and verses, they just had the whole scroll. But it's
what we would call Isaiah 61 verses one and two. He reads
this passage of scripture. Wouldn't you love to hear the
Lord read the Bible? That's something I hope to experience
one day, to hear the Lord read the holy scriptures. Verse 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, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Can you imagine how silent It
must have been after this reading. Everyone knew what he was saying. Verse 20, and he closed the book
and gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all them that
were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto
them, this day, right now, is this scripture
fulfilled in your ears? Verse 22, I'm sure they were stinging at this time. They'd
seen him grow up. They knew him. They knew his
mom and dad. They knew his brothers and sisters.
And he's saying to these people that he'd known all of his life,
this day, this scripture is fulfilled in me, is what he's saying. That's
what he says. and all bear him witness, and
wondered at the gracious words speeded out of his mouth. Now,
understand this. This is not saying they were
impressed with his gracious way of speaking. No doubt he had
a gracious way of speaking, but here the word gracious is not
an adjective. It's a noun. Grace words. And if you want to know what
grace is, grace is defined in these words. And when it says
they wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his
mouth, it didn't mean they were impressed. It means they were
incredulous. Who does he think he is to make
such a claim concerning himself? Does he think he's the Messiah?
Does he think he's the Christ? We know him. We know his mom
and dad. We know his brothers and sisters.
He's a carpenter. He's an uneducated carpenter.
What kind of claims are these that he's making for himself?
We know him. They said, is not this Joseph's
son? And he said unto them, and here
is what John quotes in John chapter four. You will surely say unto me this
proverb. You know, he could read their
minds. He knew what they would say.
This is what you're thinking right now. This is what you're
gonna say. Physician, heal thyself. Whatsoever we've heard done in
Capernaum, do also here in thy country. You've done these things
in Capernaum. You've done these things in Cana. We've heard of
the things you've done. Do some things here to prove
it. Prove yourself. Isn't that what Satan said? Prove yourself. His word is sufficient. He spake
as one having authority. not as the scribes, but their
objection. Prove yourself. Verse 24, and
he said, verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his
own country. And this is what John refers
to in John chapter four, when he appears to have bypassed Nazareth,
when he comes through Galilee again. No prophet is accepted
in his own country. They had a supposed familiarity
with him that disabled them from seeing that he was in fact that
prophet of whom Moses said he should come. Now in these two verses of scripture,
verses 18 and 19 of Luke chapter four, we are given a six-fold
description of who Jesus Christ came to save. Does that interest
you? You want to know if you're one
of the people He came to save? Now somebody may be thinking,
are you implying that Jesus Christ did not come to save every son
of Adam? No, I'm saying it. And the reason
I'm saying it is the Lord made an issue of this. He said, I'm not sent, but to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He said, I pray for them. With regard to his elect, I pray
not for the world, but for them which you have given me. He said,
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now, the scripture makes an issue
of this, and somebody says, well, it doesn't seem fair to me. Now,
watch out. Every one of us have thought
that before. Watch out. You know what that means? All
of a sudden, I'm able to judge God. and set in judgment on God
and say, I agree with that or I don't agree with that. Watch
out. You and me have no business sitting in judgment on the living
God. We know this, whatever he does
is right. And you know, because of knowing
his character, we know that whatever he does is right. Amen? That's so. And don't sit in judgment
on the Lord. Why didn't he come to save everybody?
Well, the point behind this really, it's not so much, here's the
point. If he came to save you, he didn't
fail. That's the point. If he died for you, you must
be saved. That's why we, that's why the
Bible makes an issue of this. Listen, my only hope of being
saved is that he died for me. If you tell me he can die for
me, and I can end up in hell, and he can die for everybody,
and some of those people he died for wind up in hell, you're taking
away the only hope I have. Because the only hope I have
is that Jesus Christ actually paid for my sins, made him to
not be, and gave me his righteousness, so I stand perfectly accepted
before God. Now in these two verses, like
I said, We're given a description of who he did come to save. He said in verse 18 and 19, the spirit of the Lord is upon
me. Don't you love that scripture
in John, I believe it's chapter three, where it said, The Lord
didn't give the Spirit by measure unto him. He didn't have a measure
of the Spirit. He had the fullness of God, the
Holy Spirit, living in complete dependence upon the Spirit of
God. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me because he hath anointed me. Oh, he was anointed, the anointed
of God. the Christ of God. He hath anointed
me to preach the gospel. The gospel. And now he gives who he preaches
to. He hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. To the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. To preach deliverance to the
captives. People in prison who can't get
out. Recovering of sight to the blind. To set at liberty them that are
bruised. To preach the acceptable year. What that's talking about is
the year of Jubilee. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Now, here we have this six-fold
description of who Jesus Christ came to save. And here's the
first description. If I'm poor, I do not have anything
to recommend me to God. Not a thing. Bankrupt. Destitute of merit. Destitute
of righteousness. Poor. Having nothing. the brokenhearted. Now what's
that mean? Everybody in here probably at
some time you've had your heart broken by some kind of romantic
relationship. I think of the difficulty of
that. And then somebody that's gone
through losing a loved one, they're heartbroken. Someone who's gone
through a divorce, they're heartbroken. There's so many different ways
you can have your heart, wayward children, that have just broken
your heart with the way they've conducted themselves. Your heart's
broken, but that's not the kind of broken heart the Lord's talking
about here. What's a broken heart? It's a heart that doesn't work.
It's a heart that's no good. What do you do with broken things? Throw them away. When they're
no good, they're worthless. The broken heart is the heart
that cannot do what it's supposed to do. Broken. No good. Hold your finger there and turn
with me to Jeremiah chapter 17 for a moment. Verse nine. The heart. Jeremiah 17, nine. It's talking about my heart.
It's talking about your heart. The heart is the whole man. The
heart is the understanding. The heart is the affections.
The heart is the will. It's the whole man. It's what
you and I are. The heart. The heart is deceitful above all things. and desperately wicked. Now that word means incurable. It cannot be improved. Incurable. Would that be your heart? Would
you answer to this description of poor, nothing to recommend
you to God, a heart that is Deceitful. You can't trust your heart. It
is desperately wicked. It is incurable is the word. Back to the text in Luke chapter
four. He has sent me to preach deliverance
to the captives. Captive. You know what that means? That means you're in prison,
you can't get out. You can't just up and walk out
the door. You know the very idea of free will is foolishness with
regard to you. You've got a wicked nature that you can't get rid
of. And you're captive to that nature. I'm captive to that nature, captive
to sin. You're unlike those people in
John chapter 8 who said, we were never in bondage to any man.
I love what the Lord said to him. Whoso commit a sin is the
slave of sin. That's the word. Captive. Slave. In bondage, you can't
get out. And you don't use that as an
excuse. You're no victim. It's all your fault that you're
like this, but you can't get out. You're captive to sin. You
know what that means? You know this is so. All you
do is sin. You cannot not sin. And it's all your fault. You can't blame Adam. You can't
blame your circumstances. You can't blame the devil. It's
all your fault. You can't look down your nose
in judgment on any human being for any reason. And you know
because of your sin, you have no claim on God. Captive. Captive. In prison. You can't get And the next thing he says, recovering of sight to the blind.
Blind. Blind. Can't see. You can't see why God would look
your way in mercy. You can't see it. You're like
Peter. When he had Christ revealed to
him, he said, Depart from me, Lord. You don't want to have
anything to do with me. I'm a sinful, full of sin, I'm
a sinful man. Blind, you can't see why God
would look in favor toward you. And the next thing he says is
to set at liberty them that are bruised. And that word bruised
is oppressed. Oppressed by your sin. oppressed. And then in verse 19 he says, to preach the acceptable year
of the Lord. And that's the year of jubilee.
And you can read about this in Leviticus chapter 25. If you
weren't able to pay your debts, what you had was taken away. You were put into prison and you couldn't get out. You
now became a slave. And every 50 years in Israel, there
was what was called the year of Jubilee. And I want you to
think of how you would have felt. Let's say you owed a million
dollars, you were a slave. You'd lost everything. And when
that silver trumpet sounded, you were set free. Everything
you lost was restored. All your debts were canceled
and the land was given a year's rest. You had a year's vacation.
Can you imagine how you would have felt when you heard that
sound? And he closed the book and sat down. Now I want to ask myself, does
this describe me? And I'm not talking about the
way I used to be. I'm talking about the way I am right now.
Poor. Broken hearted, my heart's no
good. A captive. Blind. Oppressed. In debt that I can't pay. Slave. Is that described? Me. Somebody says no. I can't say
that describes me well, it's not for you then. Not for you. But if it does describe
you, if this does describe me, this is the gospel for me. You may have been able to overcome
some vices, some addictions, and I'm happy you have. Sometimes people just get sick
and tired of being sick and tired, don't they? And I'm thankful
for anything like that. But here's one addiction you
and I cannot overcome. Addiction. Of sin. I wish I didn't have to say this,
but it's true. The addiction of. See. You understand what Paul meant
when he said, for we know the we representing all of God's
elect. We know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, sold under sin. Now he was saying this as a believer. You know, an unbeliever couldn't
possibly understand this. They'd think, what's wrong with you?
What's wrong with you? What are you doing? They don't
understand what sin is. But a believer does. We know
that the law is spiritual. I love God's law, don't you?
I love the Ten Commandments. I love the holy law of God, which
is a reflection of His holy character. We know the law is spiritual.
But I am carnal. Sold. under sin. Well, the Lord said he is the
fulfillment of all of these things for that person. He says the
Spirit of the Lord have anointed me to declare, to preach the
gospel to the poor. Now the only person who will
appreciate that is someone who doesn't have anything. Or, bankrupt. You don't have anything about
you that could recommend you to God. And you really believe
that, you know it. Listen to this. If you don't have any righteousness
at all, you have the very righteousness of Christ. You do. He has sent me to heal the incurable. My heart, not made any better, but here's
what he does. He gives a new heart. A new heart
also will I give you. And that's exactly what David
was talking about when he said, create in me a clean heart, oh
God. I remember one time my little sister
was listening to a preacher and the preacher was saying, give
Jesus your heart. And he said, what would he want
with it? He'll give you a new one. He has sent me to preach deliverance
to the captive who would be apathetic about dying by crucifixion. I
guarantee you he was scared, dreading it. He hears the prison
guards come in, he hears. He was delivered for our offenses. and raised again for our justification. You now see why he can embrace
you. And it doesn't have anything
to do with you. It has wholly to do with what
the Lord Jesus Christ did for you. Turn with me for a moment
to John chapter nine. These blind people. John chapter 9, verse 39. And Jesus said, judgment, I am
coming to this world. Here's why. If they would see
not, I'd see. You can't see why God
would save you. Find out why. And to they which see, well,
I can see why God would save me. I've done fill in the blank.
I can see why God would save me. He said, I've come to make
that person blind. And some of the Pharisees which
were with him heard these words and they said unto him, are we
blind also? Jesus said unto them, If you are blind, what's that
next statement? You should have no sin. Anybody that can't see why God
would have mercy on them, as far as looking to themselves,
guess what? The Lord says, in believing the
gospel, you have no sin. It's all been put away. You have
no sin. Holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in the very sight of God. You have no sin. You know, that's what justification
is. It's sinlessness. You've never done anything wrong.
You've only done that which is pleasing to God. But now you say we see. I see why God would save me.
I fill in the blank. Your sin. Remaineth. And what a horrible thing that
would be. Your sin. remaineth. He came to set at liberty them
that are oppressed. Now that word set at liberty,
it's the word that's generally translated forgive. He came to forgive. He's ready to forgive, and let
me say this about forgiveness. Don't you love that scripture,
he's ready to forgive? You know, we think we need to
do something in order to, no, he's ready to forgive. But it's
even better than this. Salvation begins with the forgiveness
of all your sins. It doesn't end there after you
do, bup, bup, bup, no. Well, if you do this, if you
stop doing that, if you start doing this, you'll be forgiven.
That's salvation by works. Salvation begins with the complete,
full forgiveness of sins. And let me say this about His
forgiveness. He forgives. He says, their sins and iniquities
I'll remember no more. And the reason He doesn't remember
them anymore is because there's nothing there to remember. They're
gone. They're blotted out. They're not. They're not. It says in verse 19, I've come to
preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And you know, I think
this is so interesting. The year of Jubilee. There is
not one instance in all of the Bible where it was ever observed.
Not once. It was supposed to be, but don't
you reckon anybody who had money owed to them would find a way
to get it stopped? If somebody owed me a million dollars and
all of a sudden there are trumpet jubilee sounds and all of a sudden,
they don't owe me that money more. I can see why people would
not want that to take place. Everybody that had something,
Didn't want it to take place. Everybody that had somebody owe
them something didn't want it to take place. But everybody
who's in debt and a slave, oh, how they rejoice to hear of the
year of jubilee. You've been set free. What you
lost is restored. All your debts are canceled. You're free. And he closed the book. I love
to think about that, don't you? He closed the book and he gave
it to the minister and sat down. The eyes of all of them that
were in the synagogue were fastened on him and he began to say unto
them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bear him witness and
wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.
And they said, is not this Joseph's son? And he said unto them, you
were surely saying to me this proverb, physician, heal thyself.
Whatsoever we've heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy
country. And he said, verily I say unto
you, no prophet is accepted in his own country, but I tell you
of a truth. Many widows were in Israel in
the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years
and six months, when the great famine was throughout all the
land. But unto none of them was Elijah sent, save unto Sarepta,
the city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. He passed by
every widow in Israel. and he made himself known to
a Gentile widow. Now what the Lord is saying is,
you don't believe me. You don't believe me. God has
passed you by. Somebody's gonna believe. You know, that's one of the joys
about preaching, You know somebody's gonna believe. Somebody will. If I thought it was up to me
to talk somebody into believing, I'd quit, you'd quit, nobody'd
be here in the first place. But we know somebody's gonna
believe. The Lord said in John 6, 36,
John 6, 36, he said, you've seen me and believe not. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. Verse 27, and many lepers were
in Israel in the time of Elisha, the prophet, and none of them
was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. You know the story. God passed them all by, and he
saved this Gentile leper. You know what the issue is here? Divine election. God saves whom
he will. Verse 28, and all they in the
synagogue, when they heard these things, they heard, didn't they? They knew exactly what he was
saying. They were filled with wrath. And they rose up and thrust
him out of the city, and led him under the brow of the hill
whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down
headlong. But he, passing through the midst
of them, went his way. How did that happen? I don't
know. But it happened, didn't it? came down to Capernaum, the city
of Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath days, and they were
astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with power. But the next time he comes through
Galilee, as we read in John chapter four, he didn't pass through
Nazareth, his hometown. You know what I'd do if I was
in Nazareth? I'd cry out, pass me not, O tender
Savior. Hear my humble cry, while on
others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Trusting only in
Thy merit would I seek Thy face, heal my wounded broken spirit,
save me by thy grace. Amen.