I am glad to be here. I enjoy
coming here and preaching the gospel to you. I enjoy meeting
other parts of the family, the extended family. You know, we
are family. One thing that I'm so Thankful for that no matter where
I go to preach the gospel To where the Lord's Church is I'm
preaching to the family I'm preaching to brothers and sisters that
I'm gonna spend eternity with We're gonna spend eternity together
and we are going to worship the Lord Jesus Christ together and
the older I get The more I think of that, I told Vicki when we
pulled in the parking lot, I said, there's a lot of youth here.
I said, I realize now why youth likes to gather with youth and
a younger preacher. I said, I realize us older preachers
talk about dying too much. I realize that the older I get,
the more that's the reality to me. The more I really think about
being with the Lord. I've never thought like that
when I was a young man. When I was a young man, it was
just a different mindset than it is now. Now it's set your
mind, your heart on things above. I've lived long enough to know
that these material things are trivial compared to my relationship
with Christ. You know, I've been down to North
Carolina at Bethel. I'm going on eight years now.
I've had 15 funerals. So I'm aware of it. I'm aware
of it. But I will say this. No matter what age the Lord takes
any of his children, it'll be the best day of their life. The
best day of my life is the day that I die and leave this world. That's the best day. That's a
good thought to me. It's a good thought. Turn to
Isaiah. 61 Isaiah 61 The title of the message
is good news for sinners good news It is really it is really
Good When you go somewhere to preach and you're bringing glad
tidings I'm bringing glad tidings Our Lord has come into this world
to save sinners and sinners are going to be saved. They are going
to be saved. Now in this, these first three
verses were fulfilled by our Lord over in Luke chapter 4. This is a prophecy and then we
see the fulfillment of it in Luke chapter 4. Now the gospel
is good news. to certain people. It's not good
news to everyone. It's good news to certain people.
And those people are described in these verses. His work, his
person, and the people whom he saves are described in these
three verses. Someone said years ago, and I
have not forgotten this, he said, you cannot lay a hold of a promise
unless you fit the description of the person described in the
promise. So if I fit the description here,
poor, broken hearted, bound, in prison, that's exactly my
spiritual state when the Lord came to me to save me. And that's
how he finds everyone whom he saves. This is how he finds them. So the gospel is good news to
a certain people. And in this chapter they are
described. They are the meek, that means
the poor, spiritually poor, broken-hearted, in prison, under bondage. And
this scripture here applies to the Lord Jesus Christ. This belongs
to our Lord and no one else. It belongs to Him. And we see
in verse 1 His qualifications. He says, the Spirit of the Lord
God, the Lord, there's capital L-O-R-D, because the Lord hath anointed
me, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord, that
is the self-existing one, Jehovah, the one true God. He says, the Spirit of the Lord's
upon me. You see, the good news starts with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is where good news starts.
It starts with Him. He is the good news of the gospel.
Is He not all our hope? Is He not all our righteousness?
Is He not all our plea? The gospel starts with the Lord
Jesus Christ. And He was appointed and anointed
to preach the gospel to sinners. By the Father, He sent Him to
preach to men and women like me and you. He was sent to preach
to us the gospel, to declare good news, to declare glad tidings. One day, I tell you this, I know
right now we cannot grasp this like we ought to, but one day
we will. In a little while, I mean in
a short little while, We will finally grasp this as we ought
to grasp it now, but one day we will. We're too frail, we're
too much flesh, and we're too much sin in us, but one day all
that'll be gone, and we'll finally, finally grasp. We'll grasp the
glory of Christ and the glory we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father appointed him, and
the Father anointed him, and the Father sent him into this
world. He didn't take this office on
himself. It was given to him. He was called to it. Just like
everyone who's called to preach, they are called to it. You don't
go to a seminary to learn how to preach, to learn to be a preacher.
God makes preachers. There's nothing wrong with education.
It's good to have an education, but God makes preachers. And
God called his son to the highest office. Preacher. Preacher. The greatest compliment that
my pastor Henry gave me a few years ago when I preached at
the Pauls, but the greatest compliment he ever gave me, and my pastor
for 40 years, he said, God made you a preacher. That's the greatest
compliment I've ever had. There's a man in North Carolina,
every time he sees me, he said, hey preacher. And I'm fine with
that. As long as he don't call me reverend. Now if he calls me reverend,
I'm gonna have to correct him. But he can call me preacher all
day. He can call me pastor. God called his son to be a preacher. a preacher. You know when Solomon
wrote Proverbs, you know how he identified himself first?
As a preacher. He identified himself as a preacher. So he's called to preach. The Spirit of the Lord was upon
him. And because the Lord hath anointed me, this identifies
him as the Messiah. He's identified here as the Messiah. He's anointed. He's consecrated.
to save to be the Messiah to save and he's going to save and
he said he's anointed me to preach listen make an official proclamation
when our Lord came into this world he made an official proclamation
of good tidings to the meek to the meek he came to preach good tidings
to the poor in spirit that's who the meek are they are the
poor in spirit The poor are those who are impoverished by sin and
Satan. I didn't know I was poor in spirit. I didn't know I was poor until
God saved me. You know, I didn't know I was lost until God saved
me. I didn't know I was dead until he gave me life. I didn't
know I was blind until he gave me eyes to see. I didn't know
that. You know, I was watching a documentary
on Appalachia. And they were talking about the
poverty in Appalachia. And this elderly lady, they were
interviewing her and she said, you know, we grew up, had a big
family. We grew up and we were happy. We had a roof over our head. We had clothes to wear, food
to eat. She said we were happy until
they came along with this documentary and told us we were poor. Geez,
I didn't know we were poor until they told us. I didn't know I
was poor until God sent the gospel to me. I didn't know I was a
poor, wretched, ungodly sinner until God sent along a preacher. He sent a preacher. And our Lord,
he came to preach the gospel to the poor in spirit. And then
it says here, and he came, he was sent to bind up the brokenhearted.
You see, because of sin, when the Lord makes sin known to us,
when he makes sin known to, not because we got caught doing something
we shouldn't have done, and our heart's broken now because we're
in trouble. You know, I have seen people get in trouble, go
to church, make a profession, when the trouble's over, they're
gone. That's not what he's talking about here. That's not what he's
talking about. You see, sin, when it's a conviction, a real
conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit, it breaks the heart. It breaks the heart. You know,
first of all, God's gotta give you a heart that'll break. Because we are
born with a stony heart. But it breaks the heart. It shatters
the heart. And he says here, he sent me
to bind up the brokenhearted. Not attempt to, but to bind it
up. To bind up the broken hearted.
You know, whenever you break things, if you drop a glass and
break it, if you drop something and you break it, it's usually
what, not worth anything? A broken heart, this broken heart
is the only thing that I know of that's priceless. It's priceless. Everything else you break is
worthless. You can't get 10 cents out of it. This heart, this broken
heart is priceless. It's of God. God's doing a work
on you. God has broken your heart. And
thank God if he has broken your heart. He has sent me to bind
up the broken hearted. He is the great physician of
souls. No therapist can bind up a broken
heart. You know, I heard a therapist
say one time, he said, you know, if I could get rid of guilt,
I could get rid of two-thirds of my practice. He said, I could
get rid of two-thirds of my practice if I could just get rid of guilt.
There's only one place where guilt can be put away. At the
cross. The blood of Christ is the only
thing that can quiet a guilty conscience. It's the only thing
that can silence. a guilty conscience, the blood
of Christ, because His blood, now listen, this is good, this
comforts me. His blood answers for the sins
I ask forgiveness for. God cannot just forgive me on
the basis of me just asking forgiveness. Now, you and I can do that because
we're both alike, we're both sinners, we sin, we're just alike. God's justice has to be satisfied. His justice has to be satisfied. So in order for God to forgive
me, this justice of His has got to be satisfied. And I have that
in the blood of Christ. So the sins I ask the Lord to
forgive me for, the blood of Christ answers for them. It answers
for those sins. There it is. There's the punishment.
Well, I tell you what, there's nothing that'll quiet your conscience
like understanding that His blood answers for your guilt. It answers. That's such good news. It's good
news. A broken heart is the work of
God. The Scripture says in Psalm 147.3,
He healeth the broken in heart. And He binds up their wounds,
spiritual wounds. Psalm 51, 17, the sacrifices
of God are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise. But there is one heart he does
despise. A proud heart. God hates. You know, there's seven things
God hates. He says, six things I hate, yea, seven, and the first
one's a proud look. A proud look. And then he was sent to proclaim
liberty. Now listen, he did not come to
offer liberty. Listen, and you know this, I
know you know this, you've been taught well, but eternal life
is not an offer. God does not offer anybody eternal
life. What does the word of God say
eternal life is? A gift. You don't offer a gift,
you give it. Eternal life is a gift. God did
not ask me if he could save me. God saved me, and I asked him
to save me. That's what happened. He saved
me. Then I asked him, Lord, save my soul. No, he came to proclaim liberty
to the captives. You see, this is to a certain
people. If you're not a captive, he's not talking to you. He's
talking to captives. Those who've been made captives
by sin, by Satan, by the law. You know the law of God at one
time meant nothing to me. It meant nothing to me. And then when I heard the gospel,
I heard the gospel. I heard my pastor. almost 50
years ago now, getting close to 50 years, I heard him preach
the gospel. And listen, for the first time
in my life, for the first time in my life, I became afraid of
God. I was never afraid of God in
my life until I heard him preach. And the thing that God impressed
upon me was this, He might save you and He might not. That scared me to death. Because
I had been told, the Lord wants to save you. If you'll just let Him, He'll
save you. He wants to if you'll let Him. He's done all He can
do. But then I heard, He might, and
He might not. He doesn't have to. That scared
me to death. And I begged, and I begged the
Lord to save me. I couldn't get any peace for
a long time. And then finally the Lord gave me, He gave me
some peace. Over in John, I believe it's
John chapter six, all that the Father giveth to me will come
to me and here's what gave me real rest. And he that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out. That gave me so, and to
this day, almost 50 years later, I still hold on to that verse.
You know why? That's a promise. And I fit the
description described in that promise. Lord, I come. Lord,
I come to thee. I come to you. Save my soul. You said the best prayer you
could pray is taking God's own words to the throne of grace. Taking his own word, his own
promises to the throne of grace. Lord, you said You said, he that
comes to me, I will in no wise cast out. You said that. And
I trust you. I trust you. I trust you won't
cast me out. Not because of me, but because
of him. He's good for his word. He's
honored his word above his name. That's what he says. He set the
captive free. He set the slaves free. You know, we think we are, I
don't know what time I started, but we think we are our own person
when we're growing up, don't we? And then you realize, if
the Lord has saved you, you realize you've been nothing but a slave.
You've been nothing but a slave to the lust of your flesh. You've
been nothing but a slave to the spirit of darkness. You've been
nothing but a slave. And I am still a slave. But I'm
the Lord's slave. I'm His servant. I'm His bond-servant,
willing bond-servant. I'm His. I'm His. And the opening
of the prison to them that are bound. Can you imagine the day
they walked in and said, Barabbas? They opened that door and they
said, Barabbas, you're free. And Barabbas knows this. He did
nothing to go free. He knows he's as guilty as guilt
can be. He did exactly what he was accused
of. And they opened the door, and
they said, you're free. You're free because there's a
man named Jesus Christ who's gonna die instead of you. See, they had the power, the
Jews had the power one time a year. The Roman government would set
one free. And they chose Barabbas. And Christ went to the cross,
and I sure glad he did. I rejoice in the cross of Christ.
I do. I rejoice that He died. I rejoice
because sinners like me and you can go free. I mean free. The opening of the prison to
them that are bound. Satan has to let you go. You
know when our Lord, when you read through the Gospels, And he says to a demon that's
possessed someone, he says, come out, come out of him or come
out of her. Do you read anywhere that they
said no? Do you read anywhere that said
I don't think so? No, they came out. They came
out. When he said come out, they came
out. When he says to Satan, turn him loose, you're loose. When
He says, set the captives free, you're free. Whomsoever the Son
sets free, He's free indeed. In every way, you're free. You're
free. And them that are bound, you
see, I mean, what a mess we're in. What a mess. Broken hearted,
captives, bound by prejudices, bound by bad company, bound by
earthly mindedness, bound by lust, bound by delusion, and
the Lord says, set them free. The Lord said this, or Paul said
this in Romans, sin shall not have dominion over you. He's
talking about that sin nature that you and I were born with.
We have a nature of sin that rules as king. It rules over
us. It rules our heart. I tell you,
it's like a master whistling for a stone. You know, the drunk
says, I'm not going to do that no more. He said, when I sober
up in the morning, I'm going to quit. The morning comes, and
the master whistles, and he comes back to the drink with drugs
or whatever it is. It don't matter. It don't matter. But the Lord here said, those
who are bound, He cuts them loose. He cuts them loose, sets them
free. Sin does not rule over you no
more. Jesus Christ does. Christ is
enthroned in the heart, not sin. Yes, we sin. Yes, we sin. We still have a sinful nature.
It's not our King. It's not our ruler. The Lord
Jesus Christ is. He's our King. And then, listen,
in verse 2, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
The acceptable year of the Lord has to do with the year of Jubilee
over in Leviticus 25. Once every 50 years, There was
a year of jubilee and I think this was proclaimed on the day,
someone said it was the day of Pentecost or the day that it
was closing at the end of the atonement. I mean, it was at
the end of the atonement. And what a day to proclaim it.
At the end of the atonement, the jubilee is proclaimed. But
they would proclaim the jubilee year. And what it meant is this,
it meant full release full release of all persons who sold themselves
as servants because they were unable to pay the debt. They
were unable to pay the debt. They would give themselves and
their children to the creditors to try to work off their debt.
But in this year of Jubilee, everything went back to them.
Everything went back to them. They were not only proclaimed,
listen, free, But they were given everything back. I mean, what
good does it do to be free? You're too broke to buy a loaf
of bread. You can't even afford to buy groceries. But not only
were they proclaimed free, set free, but they were also given
the land back. Everything they had given up
was given back. Everything we lost in Adam is
given back and much more. Much more. Listen, Adam lived
in a garden. We live in Christ. What did the
Lord say to that thief on the cross? Today shalt thou be with
me in paradise. In paradise. Adam was on this
earth. God made a garden, created a
garden of Eden, put Adam in it. We are going to be in heaven
in the very presence of God's glory, in the holy of holies,
in paradise. Listen, God visited Adam. God
dwells in you. God doesn't visit me and you.
He dwells in us. He said, I'll walk in them. You
are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise who is God. He lives
in us. Christ, what we sing? Christ
liveth in me. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Adam had fellowship with God.
Peter said we are made partakers of the divine nature. What a
change, what a change. Adam had a temporary innocence. He had a temporary righteousness
that he could lose and did lose. We have an everlasting righteousness
that we cannot lose. How much more better do we have
it? My, what we have in Christ. And
then here, we have this. We have rest. You know, in the
year of Jubilee, that not only were they set free, they were
given everything back, but you know, everybody rested, even
the land rested. We have complete rest in Christ. Now in this life, you and I have
to struggle to rest. The scripture tells us over in
Hebrews, to labor to rest. That sounds like a paradox, doesn't
it? But we have to labor to rest. It's almost like we're afraid
to have any real peace. You know, the scripture said,
blessed are those that mourn. Does it stop there? Does it stop
there? If it stops there, you've not
yet known Christ. It said, blessed are those that
mourn, they shall be comforted. There's the rest. Right there's
the rest. There's salvation right there. There are preachers, there are
people who think that you've got to have this constant mourning,
woe is me, beating yourself to death, like Martin Luther used
to do, he just whipped himself. But there's no rest. There's
no rest. You know, the Holy Spirit, when
the Holy Spirit comes and convicts of sin, it's to bring you to
rest in Christ. If we never make it to rest,
have we ever really found Christ? He's our rest. And we have to
labor to rest in Him because of this sinful flesh. We've got
to labor to rest. And the day of vengeance, he
says here, the day of vengeance of our God. Someone said this had more to
do with his second coming, but I tell you what, as I read this,
and it's attached with the day of atonement, there's two things
that happens here. He sets the captive free. You
know why? Because he takes the place of
the captive. He was bound because he set us free. He opened the
prison door, but he let us out. He walked in. The day of vengeance
was taken out on the Lord Jesus Christ for a multitude of sinners
no man can number. Now there's a day of vengeance
coming. It's coming. This unbelieving world is going
to deal with it. But the day of vengeance that belonged to
me fell on him." Now, when you start getting up
in years, you start appreciating that a whole lot more. I appreciate
that way more than I did when I was a young man. Way more than
I did when I was young. I realize when I look at the
cross, I look at the cross and I say, what does that say about
me? What kind of person, sinful person
must I be for such a person as Christ to have to come into this
world and die such a death? What does that say about me?
Oh, wretched man that I am. That's what it says about me.
That's what it says. Christ had to be put to death. There was a man, listen, there
was a real man who is the God-man. He was executed in my place. It's appointed unto me and wants
to die. It was an appointment. Christ took my death. He took
my execution. That really happened 2,000 years
ago. That's so much more real to me
now than ever before. He was put to death in the flesh.
The Son of God, God in human flesh, put to death on Calvary. You know, it says over in Acts
20, 28 that God purchased a church with His own blood. It says God
did. God purchased a church with His
own blood. Oh, the day of vengeance fell
on Him, and I don't have to deal with that. None of God's children
have to deal with that. And then he is, listen here,
and then he came to comfort all that mourn. All that mourn. Believers are a paradox. There's
no greater paradox on this earth than you who believe. You're
happy, you're joyful, and you mourn. You rejoice, and you mourn. You mourn over your sins, and
you rejoice in Jesus Christ. What a paradox of believer is.
But it's so, it's so. There are many things that make
us mourn. But our Lord has promised this, they shall be comforted. And Christ is that comfort. Christ is that comfort. Now let
me close here. The extent of the comfort and
restoration is given to us here. He says, instead of ashes, ashes
of mourning, you know, when they, back in that day, they would
throw ashes on their head like Job did, sitting there in those
ashes, and they would put ashes on their head. He said, he replaced
that with beauty. Beauty. You know that baby that
was cast out into the field? It was so grotesque. It was cast
out in the field in its own blood. And he came along and he put
his skirt over it. And he said, the time is love.
And he said to live. And man, he decked her out. She was beautiful. Christ is
our beauty. He's my beauty. He's my worth. He's my worth. I can honestly
say, and I know this, I can honestly say, apart from the Lord Jesus
Christ, I'm worthless. I am totally worthless. He's
my worth. He's my worth. Instead of mourning,
the oil of joy. Joy. Have you ever been sitting
here, and I know you have, but you've been sitting here And
you heard your pastor preaching, because this happened to me so
many times when I would listen to my pastor preach. I mean,
it's like when Mary walked into the room, and Elizabeth was pregnant
with John the Baptist, and she walked into the room. You know
what happened, it says? It says the baby leaped in her
womb. John the Baptist leaped in. Have you ever felt that when
you're standing there, when you've been sitting there listening
to the gospel, you just feeling something like just leaps in
you. His spirit witnessed with our spirit, we're the sons of
God. When the gospel really gives
you great joy, I mean unspeakable joy, that's His spirit witnessing
with our spirit that we are the children of God. Instead of mourning, we have
the oil of joy. And instead of the spirit of
heaviness, we have the garment of praise. Did we come in here
dressed with a garment of praise? You know, I wore this suit to
adorn my body. But you know what adorns the
gospel? It's a meek, quiet spirit. It's a joyful spirit. It's a
thankful spirit. You show me someone unthankful,
and I'll show you someone's lost. They're lost. Everyone whom God
saves are thankful. They are, thank you, Lord, for
saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. There was 10 lepers one time who came to the Lord, and
they wanted to be healed. He told them to go show themselves
to the priest. As they went, they were healed, one. Turn back. And you know what you turn back
for? Thank you. Thank you for saving my soul.
Thank you for redeeming me. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for
coming into this world. Thank you for taking upon you
my sins. Thank you for hanging on that
cross. Thank you for taking my hell. Thank you for going to
the grave. Thank you for rising and ascending
and seated at God's right hand. Thank you for interceding for
me. Even right now, as I stand here and preach, He's interceding
for me. Thank you. Lord, thank you. Oh, for the spirit of heaviness,
he said he's going to give him the garment of praise. What we have in Christ is more
than I can put into words. I just stumbled through this
tonight. I didn't even begin to touch what's here. I would
to God he would give me a greater interest in it and a greater
view of Christ, a greater sight of him. I've told the people
back at home, I've said the one thing that I want for them and
me and us together is to grow in grace and in knowledge of
Christ. I really don't care about anything
else. If we can just grow in grace and in knowledge of Christ. That's all I want. We have in
him more than we can put into words. You know, one of the beautiful
parts of this passage is this. It doesn't tell us what he's
going to try to do. It tells us what he did. Our God has never tried anything.
Our God's never wanted anything. He said, I will do all my pleasure.
And whatever He wills, that will He do. And I'm so thankful. I'm glad that God didn't offer
me salvation. I'm glad He just saved me. I'm
glad He just saved me without asking me a thing. All right. Lord bless you.