A songwriter wrote in that song,
the third verse, he said, he cleansed my heart from all its
sin. Folks, there is now no condemnation
to those who walk in the spirit and not in the flesh. That's
what it talks about in Romans chapter 8, verse 1. There is
no condemnation. How can there be no condemnation
to this flesh that stands before you? Because there is sin in
this flesh, just as there is sin in every bit of flesh that's
in this room and every flesh that's ever walked this earth.
How can there be no condemnation? Because He has cleansed my heart,
my soul, from all its sin. God doesn't
do anything halfway, folks. He hasn't done something part
way and waiting for you to do something to accept it. Our Lord
does everything perfectly. That's why He's Lord. He's Lord. He's God. We call
Him God because He is perfect in everything that He does, and
that includes salvation. Kathy and I took a little road
trip up to Tahoe this week. I had originally planned to go
over to Dayton with my sister and pass through Tahoe and stop
in and see our friends in Tahoe. And that fell through, so I thought,
you know what, I'll just take Kathy. And so we went up there
and I asked, Mike or Brent, I'm not sure which one I was talking
to on the texting. I said, is Tahoe Pizza still
the best pizza? No, no, no, no. There's another
one around the corner that we like to go to. So I went over there.
It was a good pizza. But what I remember most about
it is we sat there and eating. There was a trailer sitting out
in front. And some guys were working on another one of the
little stores there in Strip Mall. And on the trailer, there
was a stick man with a hammer and the words Psalms 127. And so Kathy looked it up real
quick. What's that going on there? And
it says this. And we looked at this not too
long ago. Verse 1 of Psalms 127, except
the Lord build the house. Except the Lord build the house.
They labor in vain. They build it. And that means
this. Those churches, those gatherings
of folks who say that we got to go out and we got to save
some people, they've missed the whole point. You and I don't
save anybody. We can't save anybody. We can't
speak to the hearts of men and women. Only God can do that. Only God can take out an old
stony heart and replace it with a heart that loves Him. I share that with you because
every message, every message needs to be about the Lord Jesus
Christ. Many churches today, right this
very moment, are standing before people telling them all the good
works that they do, or how you should be doing this to bring
more people into the church. Our Lord says in the book of
Acts, in Christ, God, Jesus, added to the church daily as
those that should be saved. Not the people, not you and I,
not God's people, but God Himself must teach man about Himself. And that is my prayer this morning,
is that we will look into Scripture and that the Lord would be pleased
to teach you and I some things of His Word. Would you open your
Bibles to Isaiah chapter 61? Allow me to make a few statements
before I begin reading in our text. In 1 Timothy 3.16 we read
these words. Paul is encouraging Timothy as
Timothy is to be a preacher. And he's encouraging him to stand
strong in the gospel that was taught to him. And he says, and
without controversy, in verse 16 of 1 Timothy 3, and without
controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. If somebody stands before you
and says, I can explain to you how God is three separate people
in one, run. If somebody stands before you
and says, I know, I can explain all this stuff here in Scripture,
run. It's a mystery. It's a mystery
because God's ways are not our ways, and as humans in this flesh,
we try to reason everything out according to our flesh. That's
just the way we try to do things. We try to figure things out.
How did the world flood? Have you ever heard those shows
on TV where they try to explain those kind of things? I got wrapped
up into that myself at one time. And I have to come back and realize,
now, wait a minute. I can't understand how that happened.
That's a miracle of God. God's ways are not our ways.
He does things differently than you and I would think would be
normal or logical. And without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, and believed on in the world, received up into glory. Now our Lord came to this earth
in the likeness of our flesh. It was in the likeness of sinful
flesh, according to what Paul wrote to the Romans in chapter
8, verse 3. In fact, he also wrote that he
came to the earth in Philippians 2.7 in the form of a servant.
Our God was born of a virgin in Bethlehem. He was born of
a virgin so as to have no part of Adam's sinful nature. He had a human nature, absolutely. He was hungry. He thirsted. He wearied. He slept. Yet he did it without sin. He
was tempted as we were, yet without sin, as it says in Hebrews 4.15.
Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 3, what we just read there, great is
the mystery of godliness. It is a mystery of godliness,
for God was manifest in human flesh. Jesus Christ actually
came to this earth and inhabited the body of a man. He was 100%
God, yet 100% man also. This is important to understand
much of Scripture. He was born of a woman, born
under the law. The Old Testament is a testimony
of types and figures of this very thing. It's types and figures
of the one who would come and heal the sick. This one who would
bring forgiveness for sins to his people. Those for whom he
is loved from eternity before the stars ever twinkled in the
sky. We read in Isaiah 9, verse 6, for unto us a child is born. Speaking of this one who is born
of a virgin. Unto us a son is given. given to his people as our substitute. And the government shall be on
his shoulders. That means not just like the
government of the United States or the government of Russia.
That means the government of everything. Sovereign ruler of everything,
including man's so-called free will. He rules over all things. The government shall be on his
shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
We're talking about Jesus Christ, the God-Man. The Old Testament
declares Him, and the New Testament reveals Him. Read with me if
you would, verses 1 and 2 of Isaiah chapter 61. Let me start again. 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 captive 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." Now, I want you to mark your spot there in
Isaiah chapter 61. We're going to come back to that
in just a moment. Like I said a moment ago, the
Old Testament proclaims and the New Testament reveals. Turn over
to Luke chapter 4. And look with me if you would
at verses 16 through 21, Luke chapter 4. And he, speaking of our Lord
Jesus, 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 there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it is 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 recover of the
sight to the blind, and to set at liberty them that are bruised. to preach the acceptable year
of the Lord. And he closed the book and he
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 The Lord Jesus Christ
in this person, in the person of Jesus, of Nazareth, this God-man,
God Almighty has fulfilled every promise, every prophecy, every
picture, and every pattern of the entire Old Testament. He's
fulfilled everything. When our Lord hung on that cross
before He gave up the ghost, He says, it is finished. All that the Old Testament prophets
spoke of. And He declared this when He
speaks of the two men on the road to Emmaus, to the two disciples.
All of the old prophets. Moses and all the prophets all
spoke of Him. He went through and expounded
unto them all the things pertaining to Himself. He has fulfilled everything that
has to do with salvation, everything that has to do with the redemption
and our relationship to God. He has promised, everything is
promised, everything is prophesied, everything is pictured. According
to Salvation in the Old Testament, this is fulfilled by our Lord
and our Lord says this day it is fulfilled in Christ Jesus.
Now let's go back to our text in Isaiah and consider what it is that
He has fulfilled. The Lord Jesus Christ is salvation. He is redemption. He is God Almighty
and He is eternal life. Everything is fulfilled in Him
and that is what He's saying. This day is this scripture and
all scripture fulfilled. Every promise, every prophecy,
every pattern, every picture, every type is fulfilled in Him. It's fulfilled from Genesis to
Malachi, and he says this day, this moment, it is fulfilled
here before you in your ears. Now look again with me at verses
1-2. Let's read that again. The Spirit of the Lord God is
upon me, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, upon the Son of
God, 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." Now, the God-man says, first thing there, he says,
the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. That might sound like a little
bit of a peculiar thing for God in the flesh to say, don't you
think? I mean, is not our Lord, what I said a moment ago, God,
a very God? And as God, does He need any
additional power from the Spirit? I mean, is not Jesus equal with
God the Father and equal with God the Spirit? This is our Lord portraying to
you and I His manhood. And I mean, I don't mean by manhood
as in what we would call manhood in our day, you know, being strong
and manly men. No. 100% man. God Almighty said that God the
Father put the Spirit upon Him. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
Me. The Spirit of God, My Spirit,
is upon Me. Our Lord doesn't need any additional
power, not as God in divine, but as in the flesh He did. He
gives glory or spirit. Folks, he has a spirit, and he
is a spirit, yet he is also a man in every sense of the word. He
had to be a man to be identified with you and I. The scripture
says this, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself likewise took part. Our Lord had to take part
in everything that you and I have had to take part in. He had to
be 100% man. God in the spirit cannot die.
God in the flesh did die. And he did it perfectly. Scripture, he humbled himself
and he was made flesh. So as a man in human flesh, he
must have the spirit of God. He prayed in John 17, he said,
Father, glorify me. Another strange thing to hear.
The God of all glory saying, Father, glorify Thou me. Yet
this God, and yet He is a man. This is God and He is a man.
Do you understand what we're trying to say here? God in the
flesh is our representative. Just as you and I call upon the
Lord to send His Spirit into our heart, to open our hearts
to hear His Word, to help us to walk, God in the flesh did
the same thing. He called upon his Father. The
Spirit is upon me. Lord, glorify me. He is our representative. And as our representative, he
had to be subject to all things as we were, yet without sin.
So he says, God has put his Spirit upon me. When the Lord of all
glory was baptized in the River Jordan by John the Baptist, the
Scripture says this. He says, the Spirit of God descended
upon him in the form of a dove. And John witnessed that, because
the Lord had come to John and given him a vision, saying, the
Spirit of God saying to him, the Lord said unto me, upon whom
you see the Spirit descend, this is the Son of God that is the
Messiah. God giveth the Spirit without
measure unto him. He gave him the Spirit without
measure. You and I, we have the Holy Spirit with us, but we have
it with a measure. It's a small measure, yes. But
Christ didn't need any measure. He was given all of the Spirit.
All of the magnificence of the Spirit. God giveth not the Spirit by
measure to him, but without measure to him. Here the Lord says, the
Spirit of God is upon me. Now notice what the next line
says, because He hath anointed me. In other words, God the Father
ordained and appointed His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus,
to be our surety. You say, well, what do you mean
by that, John? He's known as the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. That's what it says in
Revelation. I say that, I put that S on the
end of that and I apologize. I don't mean to do that. I've
done that all my life and it's hard, it's a hard habit to break. It really is. But he said, lamb
slain before the foundation of the world. He hath been anointed by God
before anything was ever created to be the Son of God, man, 100%
man, 100% flesh. God ordained and appointed His
only begotten Son to be our surety, the surety of the everlasting
covenant, the covenant that was made between God the Father who
said, I'll give this people. God the Son who said, I'll redeem
this people. And God the Spirit said, I'll
give this people life. He is the surety of that covenant.
He is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He is
our mediator. He is our advocate. He's been
appointed and ordained and anointed by God to serve in that capacity. He's the prophet, priest, and
king. He says, the Lord anointed me. He says, no man takes that
honor upon himself. Even the priests of the Old Testament
didn't do that. Aaron and the sons of Levi did not volunteer
for the job that was given to them. God appointed them as the
priests of Israel, just as the Son of God was appointed as our
high priest in the order of Melchizedek, one who has no beginning, one
who had no ending. He's our priest, our
high priest in our sin offering. When the high priest of old went
into the temple, into that holiest of holies with blood, they offered
up a sin offering for themselves first, and then for the people.
Christ Jesus did not have to offer up sin for Himself, for
He knew no sin. His offering was for you and
I, for the people of God, those that were given to the Son by
the Father before the world began. And it means because God had
appointed him that he is also the only high priest. He's the
one mediator. He's the only prophet, priest,
and king that God would accept and that God would be satisfied
with his sacrifice. His name is above every name
and that name is Jesus where every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall confess that he is Lord of Lords. The Spirit
of God, he says, is upon me because the Lord of God anointed me.
That's what he's telling us. A hymn writer once wrote this
of old. He says, bright and joyful is the morn. Unto us a child
is born from the highest realm of heaven. Unto us his son is
given. On his shoulders he shall bear
power and majesty he shall wear. On his vesture and on his thigh,
names most glorious, names most high. Wonderful counselor, he
the incarnate deity, rock of ages, never-to-cease king of
kings, prince of peace. Come and worship at his feet.
Yield to him the glory meet. From the manger to the throne,
glory due to God alone. He says, the spirit of God is
upon me because the Lord God anointed me. He appointed His
Son. He ordained His Son. He sent
His Son to do what? Look at the next part of that
line. The Spirit of God came upon me. The Lord hath anointed
me, He says, to preach good tidings to the meek. To sinners. To preach the good news that
Christ came to save sinners. He says, I am to preach to proclaim
the good news, to declare the good news to the meek. My friends,
true preaching is a proclamation. True preaching is a declaration.
True preaching is a means of setting forth the gospel, the
good news of grace, of the grace of God. True preaching declares
that there is forgiveness for transgressors. It's not preaching
standing before people, telling them about all the good things
that your church has done, or telling them, come forth and
you'll be saved, or telling them to get into the baptistry and
you'll be saved. It's preaching about Christ and what He's done
for us. This is how we go about through the world that we walk
in today and share the gospel. What has God done for you? He
saved me from my sins. What about you? Is He waiting for you to do something? Not the God of Scriptures. The
God of Scriptures has done it. It is finished. True preaching
is not persuading men to do something for God. That's not true preaching
at all. True preaching is the proclamation
of what God has done for us. Christ says, I was hungry. I
wouldn't ask you. He said this. He said, the cattle
of a thousand hills are mine. Why would he ask us for anything? Why would Christ ask me? for
anything. Everything's already His. What
could this poor sinner give my Lord? Our Lord says that God the Father
sent Him to preach, to proclaim the good news, that there is
forgiveness, that there is mercy, that there is grace, that there
is life, that there is hope for sinners. Preaching is a proclamation
and a declaration of what God has done for us. Christ came
into the world to seek and to save the lost. He came to seek
the meek and the poor. He died for the ungodly is what
we read in scripture. He came to save sinners. He says
to you and I, He sent me to preach good news to the meek, to the
poor, to the humble, and to the lowly. Not to the proud who say,
ah, look what I've done. I've made a decision for Jesus. Ah, look what I've done. I have
followed the Lord. No, He comes to those who are
over on the side saying, Lord, have mercy on me. The meek. Those who need a God, a Savior. Not just once, but for the whole
time that we walk this earth. Folks, if you ever get up off
your knees and you belong to the Lord, He's
going to cut your feet out from underneath you and show you. He's going to show you how much
we need Him. And He does that because He loves
us. and He will not lose us. Christ came to save sinners.
His name is Jesus, for He shall save His people. Now look at
the next part of the line. It says, And the Lord sent me
to bind up the brokenhearted. What does it mean to bind up
a brokenhearted? You and I would take that word
and probably think Well, country singers do it best.
My truck is broken down, my wife left me, and my dog wants to
bite me. Broken hearted. We take things like that. That's
not what this is talking about. This is not talking about that
at all. You know why that beggar was over there inside of that
temple, crying out for the Lord to have mercy on him? because
he saw what he was before a thrice holy God. He didn't see himself in righteousness,
especially in the righteousness of what he was doing. He saw
himself as the sinner, the beggar that he was. And this is what
our Lord is talking about, a broken heart, a broken and contrite
heart. One who sees what we are before
God and desires the mercy of God. Desires the grace of our
Lord. Calling unto Him. Lord be merciful
unto this sinner. That's what it means When the
writer of the 34th Psalm wrote these words in verse 18, the
Lord is nigh unto them of a broken heart. It's not physically speaking
of some fleshly event or relationship or someone's son or daughter
or any bad thing, whether it be a thing at work, something
that broke our heart, husband or wife. It's speaking about
a broken heart over the sin. The sacrifices of God are a broken
heart and a contrite spirit. The Lord will not despise. What
our Lord is saying, He says in these words that we read in our
text is this, I came to preach good news to sinners, those who have been convicted
of their sin. We're the ones who need good
news. Those who walk around thinking
more of themselves than what they are, and don't feel like
you can't fall into that very, very same trap, because we do. But once again, I'm thankful
the Lord cuts our legs out from underneath us and reminds us.
That's why Paul can say he glories in his infirmities. Because he knows that it's the
Lord showing him, I need thee, O Lord, I need thee. Every hour,
I need thee. Do you? Sometime when you have a moment
of your own, read the 51st Psalm. You can write that down on your
bulletin to remind yourself later. Read the 51st Psalm. David's
heart was broken, not because of the things that
he did, Well, no, I didn't say that properly. Not because of
the loss of his son or any of that. Not because he was caught. Not because somebody came to
him and pointed out, see what you did? No, but because he knew
that he had sinned against God. Read it for yourself sometime.
Now, the next part of our text says, he sent me to proclaim
liberty to the captive. The gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace is freedom to those that are held captive by
sin. You and I at one time walked
in darkness under the captivation of our sin, completely unaware
that we were sinners at all. The gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace is freedom to those who are held captive. This
is talking about setting us free, those that are captive to the
law, the law of sin and death, and they are captives to the
justice and the judgment of God as well. We are captives to the
law. We have broken the law. Therefore,
the law has a claim on each and every one of us. The law has
captured us and the law will hold us until the debt has been
paid, until it has been discharged. The justice of God had a hold
of us and the justice of God says that we have broken the
law and the word says this, the soul that sinneth shall surely
die. So we are held captive by that
law of sin. the law of sin and death, and
we are held captive by the justice of God. Christ came to set us
free. He came to open up the prison
to them that are bound, those that were bound by sin at one
time. Now, I'm not talking about the
fact that we don't have sin in our body, in our flesh still.
We're no longer captive to that. We are set free because our Lord
has paid for our sins completely. We were talking in Friday night's
Bible study, and there's a lot of instruction there about how
we should be walking. This morning, in our Bible study
this morning, Peter also talked a lot about how we should be
walking as Christians. I encourage you, go out and sin
not. Paul said that. Go forth and
be holy, for our God is holy. But folks, we have an Advocate
in heaven. For whether we are capable of even
a little bit of holiness or incapable of it, our Lord covered it all
perfectly for us. What we couldn't do, He did. And He did it perfectly. He proclaims the liberty to the
captive, the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. He
came and He opened the prison to them that were bound. Our
Lord came to this world and He fulfilled the law as our representative,
as our substitute. Not only did He fulfill the law,
He took care of the justice for us. He shed His own blood for
you and I. He stood in our place. That which
you and I deserve by His grace, He took upon Himself. Christ
went to that cross, and the justice, the judgment, the wrath of God
was laid upon Him for our sins. He set us free from the sins
that we have within us. He sent me to proclaim freedom,
is what He's telling us, and liberty. Free from the law. Oh, what a happy condition. Jesus
has died, and there is remission to sinners. Where the law had laid a curse
upon us. Slain by the fall, Christ hath
redeemed us once and for all. He did set us free. He didn't
try to. It just bothers me that people
talk about a Jesus that is trying to do something. It just bothers
me. Our Lord didn't do anything halfway. He didn't leave anything for
you and I to do. He set the captive free by His
obedience and by His death. I tell you this, that my Lord
came down here with the Spirit of God on Him. He was sent by
the Father to be anointed to be my prophet, my priest, my
king, and He set me free. He was sent to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord. What is the acceptable year of
the Lord? Allow me to quote this from Henry Mahan. It's the year
of jubilee, celebration. The Old Testament Jews had a
year of jubilee, which was the 50th year. Now they numbered
seven Sabbath years, and every seventh year was a sabbatic year. Seven of the sabbatical years
made 50th. And on that year of the jubilee,
every man who was sold into slavery was free. All property that was
lost, stolen, or sold was restored. All debts were cancelled. And
this was the year of rest that God proclaimed. This is the year
of the Lord. Rest to His people. All of our sin debts are cancelled
this day. And we enter into His rest forevermore. Our Lord says to each and every
one of you who belong to Him, He says, the Spirit of God is
upon Him. All power in heaven and earth
belong to Him. Everything He has done for you,
everything He has done for me, everything He has done for every
one of His children throughout all of time, And when that last
child of His is called out of the darkness that they once walked
in, into His marvelous light, there'll be no need for time. Everything that is needed of
is given and provided by Him. Rest in Him. Quit trying to earn your salvation.
And I'm talking to myself as much as anybody. He says to you and I, the Spirit
of God is upon me. This day, this is all fulfilled. Preach the good news. Heal the
brokenhearted. Set at liberty the captive. Open
the prisons to them that are bound and proclaim the year of
the Jubilee. Folks, you are free in Christ
and our Lord Jesus Christ is the Messiah spoken of in the
Old Testament. Scripture is once again fulfilled. Amen.