Thank you to everyone. Turn with me, if you would, to
Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4. Our text is going
to be Isaiah 61, where our brother just read a moment ago, but let's
begin by reading a few verses here in Luke 4. Beginning in verse 14, it says,
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit unto 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 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 don't you wish you had been
there and heard that, as his custom was. Don't you wish you
could have sat and listened to him stand up and read his own
word. Verse 17, it says, there was
delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when
he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
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. 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 is this scripture fulfilled
in your ears. Our Lord read Isaiah 61. And then he said this day, that
scripture is fulfilled. Isaiah 61 is concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ. We read these old chapters and
we turn to the book of Isaiah, and you know that Isaiah penned
Isaiah 61. But Isaiah 61 is concerning the
Lord Jesus Christ, and Isaiah 61 is the very words of the Lord
Jesus Christ. From that scripture, I want us
to answer three questions tonight. What is the gospel? What is the gospel? Who is it
for? And what does it say to them?
Three very simple questions. What is the gospel? Who is it
for? And what does it say? Go with
me now over to Isaiah 61. Realizing now who is saying this. The heading at the top of my
page says the office of Christ. That's who this is speaking of.
And realizing now who is saying this, what is the gospel? What is the gospel? Verse one,
he said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord
hath anointed me to preach good tidings." He said, this whole
thing is upon me. The whole thing is upon me, because
the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings." In Luke
chapter 4, he plainly said, the gospel. The Lord has anointed
me to preach the gospel. And what did he say he was to
preach? The acceptable year of the Lord. The Lord has anointed
me to preach The acceptable year of the Lord. He said, the gospel
is concerning me. I am the gospel. I am the good news. I am the
glad tidings. The gospel is a man. And when you need the gospel,
you will be so thankful for the fact that the gospel is a man. If the moment comes where you
need the gospel, I mean, you really need the gospel. You are
going to be so thankful for the fact that the gospel is a man,
a glorious man. The best news we've ever heard
in our life is a man. A spotless, holy, pure, righteous,
sinless, loving, comforting, strong, victorious man. This man. Oh, this man. His beautiful name is Jesus of
Nazareth. He came to Nazareth to read this,
as his custom was. He came back to his city of Nazareth,
and whenever he revealed himself, Philip ran to Nathanael and said,
we found him, and he's in Nazareth. And Nathanael said, can any good
thing come out of Nazareth? Philip said, the Nazarite has.
The perfect man has. that holy, spotless, glorious,
separate God-man from heaven has. The gospel is not a system of
theology. It's just not, you know, you
tell people certain things and they finally say, okay, yeah,
I got it. I got it. The gospel is not a system of
theology. The gospel is the truth, but
the gospel is not a series of truths. You got this truth, this
truth, this truth, this truth, and this truth. The gospel is
not a series of truths. The gospel is a man. To tell someone the gospel is
to tell someone about a man. That's all we're doing. If you
want to know what preaching really is, it's just telling people
about a man. That's all it is. One man put it this way. He said,
it's a bunch of nobodies telling everybody about somebody who's
able to save anybody. A real man, the only true man
that has ever existed. To preach the gospel is to preach
that this man came to do something for somebody. Who is it? Who did he come to
do something for? Who is the gospel to? Who is
the gospel to? Verse one, he said, the spirit
of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to
preach the gospel unto the meek. In Luke chapter four, he called
them the poor. He said, the Lord has anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor, the emptied. Those that have nothing, not
materially, but in here. I mean nothing. Those who look
within and see nothing. Nothing of value, nothing desirable. He went on to say in verse one,
it's to the broken hearted. It's to the broken hearted. That's
who the gospel's to. That is who the gospel's to.
It's to the poor in spirit, just utterly brokenhearted. Utterly
brokenhearted. Over what? Their sin. Their sin. As long as a man or a woman is
not utterly broken over their sin, they don't need the gospel.
The gospel has nothing to say to them. He said in verse one, it's to
the captives. That's who it's to. Those who
are absolutely captive to their own sin, captive to it, cannot
get out of it, cannot get away from it. Because they're held captive
to the fact that sin is not just what they've done, it's what
they are. Why am I what I am? They realize it's what they've
always been and it's what they're always going to be in their flesh. And in the end of verse two,
he said, they mourn over it. That's the last word in verse
two, they mourn. Oh, the empty, broken, captive
mourners over their sin. That's who the gospel's to. And
I'm just going to tell you, I don't, I don't wish trials on anybody,
but may God reveal to us our sin. May God make us sin beggars
in need of mercy. Verse 3 says, if you look down,
there's a word in the middle of the verse, it says they've
covered themselves in ashes. Before their God and their judge,
they've just covered themselves in dust and ashes. You hear in
the Old Testament that men and women used to do that when they
were just so, they'd rend their clothes and they would just cover
themselves in dust and ashes and they'd cry out to him for
mercy. In their spirit of heaviness,
verse three describes, That's all they can do is just cry out
for mercy. Just cry out for mercy. The gospel is a man. The gospel
is a man. We're gonna meet this man. The
gospel is to the utterly broken before God. I mean, utterly broken
before God. And what does the gospel say
to them? The gospel is a man. The gospel
is to the absolutely broken before God. And what does the gospel
say to him? Verse one, he said, 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. What does the gospel say to the
broken? What does he say? Am I making that clear? What does he say? What does the
gospel say to the brokenhearted? This is what it says. I'm gonna
bind you up. That's what he says. I'm gonna bind you up, I promise
you. When the gospel comes, That's
what he says. I promise you. I promise you. I'm gonna bind
you up. I'm gonna pour the oil of mercy
all over your wounds. I promise you that. I'm gonna wrap the bandages of
grace around you. And then after I've healed you
from all your brokenness, I'm going to set you free. I'm going to liberate your captive
soul to all of that sin. And I'm going to open all of
your prison doors. And you're going to know the
truth. And the truth is going to set
you free. It's going to set you free. And
if the Lord is willing, if the Lord tarries for another 12,
15 minutes, we're going to close this service with this song.
And here are the words of the song. It says, Oh, spread the
tidings round wherever man is found, wherever human hearts
and human woes abound. Let every Christian tongue proclaim
the joyful sound. the Comforter has come. The long,
long night is past, the morning breaks at last, and hushed the
dreadful wail and fury of the blast. As o'er the golden hills
the day advances fast, because the Comforter has come." And
who is it? Lo, the great King of Kings,
with healing in his wings, to every captive soul a full deliverance
brings, and through all the vacant cells the song of triumph rings,
the Comforter is come. O boundless love divine, how
shall this tongue of mine to wondering mortals tell the matchless
grace divine that I, a child of hell, should in His image
shine. How can that be? Here's how it
can be. The Comforter has come. The Comforter
has come. The Holy Ghost from heaven the
Father has freely given. Spread the tidings round wherever
man is found. The Comforter has come. That's
what the gospel is. And that's who the gospel's to.
And that's what the gospel says. All right now, how can the gospel
say that to us? How can Christ who is our gospel
say that to us when we are so vile and we know we are cause
we're broken. We're utterly broken before him
and so wretched and so miserable. and so separated from Him in
our flesh, so separated from God, and so separated from holiness,
so separated from all of His purity. How can Christ, our gospel,
say that to us? Turn to Lamentations 3. Just
a couple of books over. Jeremiah, Lamentations. Now this is Christ speaking.
This is the Lord Jesus Christ. Jeremiah wrote this, but this
is Christ speaking. And in verse one, he said, I
am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. This
is what we say. This is what we say. We say right
here inside. Oh, I've seen so much affliction.
Why I have seen so much affliction? No. No. Christ, our gospel, said, I am
the man that hath seen affliction. Your affliction. I've seen your
affliction. The rod of judgment was dealt
to me for everything that was owed to you. In those moments when we think,
oh, what God ought to do to me. Oh, man, what God ought to do
to me. This is what Christ our gospel cries. He cries, He did. Oh, what God ought to do to me.
He did in me. In those moments when we think,
I don't want my sin and my shame and my humiliation to just be
swept under the rug. I don't want that. In those moments,
Christ our gospel says, it wasn't. It wasn't. It was all brought
out into the open and I stood there and bore it. Does it give you any comfort
to think that He made your utter humiliation His own? Does that give you any comfort
at all? That He made your absolute, utter humiliation His very own? He touched Himself with not only
our sin, He touched Himself with our sin, but not only our sin,
He touched Himself with the feeling of our sin. Acts chapter 8 says, He willingly
stood before the judgment throne of God in utter humiliation. Just absolute, absolute humiliation. Is anybody humiliated? If so, He took it from you. He
took it from you. He bore it for you. It says there,
He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. And like a lamb, like a precious,
innocent lamb for you, like a lamb done before His shearer, so opened
He not His mouth in His humiliation. His judgment, His place, His
reputation, His honor was taken away. He bore our griefs, He carried our sorrows, and the
chastisement of our peace was upon Him. But thank God, with
His stripes, we're healed. We truly are. Because of His
stripes, we're healed. If we wanna see the glorious
liberty of the gospel, I mean the absolute liberty of the gospel,
the freeing comfort of the gospel, all we have to do is look at
the Christ of the cross. You wanna see liberty, liberation? Just look at the Christ of the
cross. If we want to see who he came
for, he came to be the substitute for somebody. He came to trade
places with somebody. And don't look at the king on
a throne. He already was that. Look at
the cross. Look at the Christ of the cross. If we want to see what He did
for us, look at the Christ of the cross. Lamentations 3 right here, He
said, I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of
His wrath. He hath led me and brought me
into darkness, but not into light. Surely against me is He turned. He turned His hand against me
all the day. My flesh and my skin hath he
made old, he hath broken my bones. He hath builded against me and
compassed me with gall and travail. He hath set me in dark places
as they that be dead of old. He hath hedged me about that
I cannot get out, he hath made my chain heavy. He said he put
me in captivity. How did God set his people free? He put Christ in their captivity. How did he deliver them from
the pit? He put Christ in the pit. Verse
eight, and when I cry, he said, and shout, he shutteth out my
prayer. He said, my father will hear
you. You ask anything in my name, he'll hear you. But he said,
in that moment, when I cried unto him, he shut out my prayer.
Verse nine, he hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone and made
my paths crooked. He was unto me as a bear lying
in wait and as a lion in secret places. He hath turned aside
my ways and pulled me in pieces. He hath made me desolate. He hath bent his bow and set
me as a mark for the arrow. He hath caused the arrows of
his quiver to enter into my reins. I was a derision to all my people
and their song all the day. He hath filled me with bitterness.
He hath made me drunken with wormwood. He hath also broken
my teeth with gravel stones. He hath covered me with ashes. and thou hast removed my soul
far off from peace." I forgot prosperity. Prosperity left me. And I said, my strength and my
hope is perished from the Lord. But he said, remembering my affliction
and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. Thank God, he said,
I will never forget my misery. I'll never forget the wormwood
and I'll never forget the gall. Every time I see one of my own
wallowing in the sin that I came and saved them from, the moment I see it, he said,
I remember my misery and I remember the wormwood and I remember the
gall. I remember everything that I
suffered for that. I remember the sufficiency of
the payment that I made for that. And in verse 20, he said, my
soul hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me. I'm not angry. I'm not angry. Remembering mine affliction and
remembering all the sufficiency of my payment, I'm not angry. Now to every soul that hears
Christ, their gospel, speak this word of comfort and peace to
them, to every one of them. This is their response. If Christ
has been made to be literally all that we need, this is our
response. Verse 21, this I recall to my
mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great
is thy faithfulness. Every morning when His sinful
people wake up, His mercy, His compassion, and His faithfulness
to them start over brand new. every single morning. Great is His faithfulness. Great is His faithfulness. He
said, I will never leave you. You may leave me, but you're
not going very far because you're in my hand. I'm in my Father's
hand and nobody's taking you out. I'll never leave you. I will never forsake you. I'll never forsake you. And he
won't. He won't. Here is the promise
of the gospel to every sinner that he came to save, every sinner
that he sends this sweet word from his spirit to. Here it is. Let's read the verses in our
text one more time. Go back to Isaiah 61. Verse 1, he said, 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, to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord. and the day of vengeance of our
God to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn
in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes. He said, this is what
has been appointed unto me to do. I am to come to all of my
people who are just covering themselves in dust and ashes,
crying, God, be merciful to me. I am to take all of those ashes
and I'm to pour beauty all over them. I am to cover them in absolute
holy beauty. Verse three, to appoint unto
them that morn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the
oil of joy for mourning. He said, I am to take all of
their mourning and I'm to pour the oil of joy into them. He goes on to say, the garment
of praise for the spirit of heaviness. They are walking around just
carrying this robe, this spirit of heaviness. And I am to take
that off of them and I am to cover them in the garment of
praise. Thank you. He said that they might be called
the trees of righteousness, perfection. The planting of the Lord. The
Lord did it. And why is this? Why has He been
appointed to do all this? That He might be glorified. And in that He is, isn't He?
That's what all His people say. To God be the glory. Great things
He's done. Absolute glory to His name. Thank
God. May he comfort us with that.
All right, Brother Eddie, you come and lead us.