And you know what we read when
our Lord stood up, this is the verse of scriptures he read.
He just read two of them at that particular time, as far as we
know. And they knew him. They knew
who he was. He was a carpenter's and that's
all they knew about him until his fame began to go abroad and
the miracles that he did. And our Lord, when he read this,
he said, this day is the scripture fulfilled in your ears. Now,
if God would be pleased to help us to understand these verses
of scripture, we'll have some understanding of the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. And something to understand about
his ministry. And I do hope and pray that we
understand But look what it says, first of all, verse 1. The Spirit of the Lord God is
upon me. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ,
though He was man and God in one person, But even our Lord
Jesus' mission on this earth and ministry depended upon the
Holy Spirit of God. It depended upon Him. When He
was in the wilderness, the Scripture says the Holy Spirit led Him
into the wilderness. You know, our Lord says that
the Father gave Him the Spirit without measure. Everybody else
just gets a measure. We just get a measure of grace,
and Christ is the one who measures it out. But Christ is the only
one, and God said He gave Him the Spirit without measure. God
gave Him the Holy Spirit without measure. And I tell you, our
Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit come upon Him when He's
baptized. And our Lord was ordained and
anointed of God Himself. God was God-man, our Lord Jesus,
and He was ordained, anointed. Presented to the world and God
sent him and ordained him in his ministry and gave him the
Holy Spirit to be our surety One who would stand good for
us in the sight of God To be our substitute to be the one
in our place in the sight of God to be our lamb and then he
was anointed to be our sin offering And thank God God provided us
a sin offering. We don't have to bring one of
our own. And He anointed Him to be our Savior. And where He had not been our
surety and our substitute and our sin offering, He couldn't
have been our Savior. But He's all of those things
to us. All of those wonderful things to us. And our Lord God
gave Him the Holy Spirit. And He came, and on the Father's
behalf, of God's elect, on the behalf of God's elect, and His
elect, He came to accomplish His Father's will. And I mean,
God sent Him, I gave you a will to do. I've got a will, and I
want that will carried out. Everybody's got a will. Gary
left a will. I got a will. Shirley's got a
will. I hope you got a will. And we
hope when we die that people will see this carried out just
right. That's why we make them. Well, God gave his son a will. He said, now this is what I want
done. I want it carried out to the
utmost detail and Christ carried out the Father's will. And he
sent him to speak his words. Listen, our Lord said, the words
that I speak, they're not mine, but his has sent me. I'm talking,
when God speaks through, when I'm speaking, God's speaking
through me. He put the words in my mouth. And then, beloved,
not only that, but he come here to perform that work that the
Father gave him to him on behalf of his elect. To honor and magnify
the Lord, said it way up there. And then that justice of God
that demanded death, he come not only to honor the law, but
to satisfy justice. The Spirit of the Lord God is
upon me. Upon me, our Lord said. And then
look what else he said. He hath anointed me. The Lord
hath anointed me to preach. What are you gonna preach, Lord
Jesus? What are you gonna preach? Good tidings. Good tidings? Well, you know,
who do you want to preach good tidings to? You know, he qualifies
the people that has good tidings. He qualifies it here. The meek,
and over there he said the poor. Over there he said the poor.
The Lord hath the honor of being to preach good tidings to the
poor. Blessed are the poor, for they shall be made rich. And
our Lord, when he entered into his ministry, he began to preach
at the kingdom of God's at hand, And our Lord, when he was anointed
to preach, to preach good tidings to the poor, and he know, I tell
you, our Lord preached. He preached, first of all, by
his words. That's how most of the time he preached, by his
words. He preached by his miracles. Every miracle he performed was
a message. when He gave sight to the blind,
when He gave life to the dead, when He gave clearance to the
lepers, when He done all of these things, caused the dumb to speak,
the deaf to hear, all of these things when He was speaking to
us in those miracles. And we was all of those things.
And then our Lord Jesus Christ, by His silence, oftentimes He
spoke. And oftentimes by His looks,
He spoke. You remember when Simon Peter
had denied Him? And the third time he denied
Him, they was taking the Lord Jesus out of the hall, and he
turned around and looked at Peter. Turned around and looked at him. Can you imagine how Simon Peter
felt when the Lord turned around and looked at him? Oh my. And I tell you, he lived, he
was the Prince of Preachers. And he died so he could be the
theme of all preaching. Good, God-honoring preaching. I mean, if you know, that's the
theme of all preaching is the Lord Jesus Christ. Take Him out
of the Bible and you ain't got nothing. Take Him out of your
preaching, you ain't got nothing. Take Him out of your life, you
ain't got nothing. Take Him out of your heart, you
ain't got nothing. I mean, so I said, He died to
be the theme of all our preaching. And He arose and now He sits
in God's right hand and He's the Lord over all of God's preachers. And He preached good tidings.
He comes preaching grace. He comes preaching mercy. He
comes preaching forgiveness to the poor. Poor, not necessarily
the materially poor, but those that were poor in spirit. You
know, even out there are some rich people who are poor spiritually. But boy, when he's talking about
the poor in spirit, and how do you become poor in spirit? God's
the only one who can make you that. God's the only one who
can do that. And what he'll do is he'll make
you conscious of your sin, and he'll humble you. And these poor
people, when God humbles them, and they see just how poor they
are, they'll see how poor. David said, I'm poor and needy.
You know how poor we are? We can't buy no clothes. that'll
satisfy God that we can wear in His presence. We have to stand
there naked until He Himself clothes us. Huh? Oh, they're poor enough to say,
I ain't got no righteousness of my own. They're poor enough
to stand before God, condemned before God, naked before God,
and they know they had nothing except what God gives them. That's
how poor they are. We come, as I said it before,
with both hands out, Lord. If you don't fill them up, they'll
stay empty. Huh? Oh my. And they know that they can do
nothing acceptable to God. Don't know nothing. And they're
so poor, and they know they're poor. And they know that they're
in desperate need of everything that they, that God has for them,
and they need every spiritual thing. And they ascribe everything
that they get to the glory of God himself. God, to you be the
glory. Huh? Then look what he also said.
He had known me to preach good tidings unto the poor. Then he
sent me to, to proclaim liberty to the captives, liberty to the
captives. He has sent me to bind up the
broken hearted. Let me say something about that.
You know a broken heart, everybody at one time or another has had
their heart broken. And a broken heart is a painful
heart. It's painful to have a broken
heart. It hurts to have a broken heart. And there's no relief
for it in the flesh. No. Oh, it's painful. And not only is a broken heart
painful, but a broken heart's helpless. You can't do anything
for it. You can't fix it. Now, if we
break an arm or we break a leg, we know how to fix that. But
boy, when you got a broken heart, there's only one person can do
something about that. And you got a heart broken over
sin, heart broken over somebody else, you know. What our Lord
does, He don't fix that broken heart. He takes it out and He
puts a new one in. Gives you a new one. One that
can be touched. One that can move. One that can
be felt. And oh my. And our Lord gives
it to us. And then He says to proclaim
liberty to the captives. Do you all remember the Emancipation
Proclamation by President Lincoln, 1862 when he did it. He stood
up, and I think it just had 80 words to it, 66 words, 80 words,
not very much. But he made a proclamation called
the Emancipation Proclamation. And this house starts out four
score, and 80 years ago, Four score years ago. And it
was a proclamation. And it became effective January
1863. And it was a proclamation to set free all slaves. It wasn't
a request. It wasn't an invitation. It wasn't
a suggestion. But it was a proclamation. They
were free as far as the United States government was concerned.
And our Lord Jesus Christ does the same thing. What does he
say? To proclaim liberty. When he proclaims liberty, believe
me, you're going to be set free. Our Lord comes to set us free
from the law and its condemnation. Free from its curse. He come
to set us free from being captives of Satan. Set us free from the
very dominion of sin and from the penalty of sin. Oh, our Lord
Jesus Christ. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's Christ that died. And I
tell you what, He did all this by His grace. through his offerings,
and now we are free. Sanctified forever is what the
Lord Jesus says about it. And then look what else he says
here now, in verse one. And the opening of the prison
to them that are bound. You know, I remember what it
was to be bound. I remember what it was to be
bound by sin. I really did. I remember, and
I've told you this before, I was about 20. I went and bought me
a Bible. I got to be so miserable and
I got so, I just so miserable and hated myself so much and
just, and I went and bought myself a little Bible at a Bible bookstore
out on North Dixie Highway in Dayton, Ohio. And I began to
read that Bible. And the more I read it, the more
trouble I got in. The more condemned I got. And I wanted to be free, but
I couldn't. I couldn't get myself out of
the bondage that I was in. So what did I do? I got religion. Huh? I got in the bondage of
the flesh. Became a tongue-speaking Pentecostal. Then I went from that to legalism,
fundamentalism. Then I went to that to free will,
Armenian religion. And all of it was just for Armenian
as far as that goes. So I had to be set free from
those things, and I couldn't do it myself. A fellow told me
one time when I was, Darvin used to run the bookstore out there,
the, what was, is that, who? Yeah, but anyway, I bought a
book off of him one time, and I was telling him, you know,
that man was so bound by sin, he said, oh, no, no, no. He said,
man's got the key to unlock the prison door to let him out with
his free will. I said, well, why in the world,
if somebody's got the key, why don't they open the door and
get out? Now I couldn't do it, and I tell you I was bound in
fundamentalism, bound in spiritual darkness, bound in religious
darkness, just like Paul, Saul, and Tarsus. False religion, tradition,
legalism, all of them was a prison. And Christ come and set us free. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ has set you free. The Son sets you free and you're
free indeed. Ain't you grateful that He come
and set us free from all that sorry, sorry religion that I
had? I wouldn't say you had, but I
certainly had it. And then look what else he says
here now. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Now what does
this mean? Well, this acceptable year of
the Lord, it means the year of Jubilee. And you can find this
in Leviticus and under the law. Every seventh year, I've done
things by seven, sevens and forties, but every seventh year, the land
was supposed to rest. Don't do nothing with the land.
Let it rest. Charge yourself back up. Don't
be just using it all the time, raising stuff on the same spot
of grass. Just let it rest. But you've fallen seven sevens. And on the 49th year, coming
up on the 50, they had what they called the year of jubilee. And
that year of jubilee, every man that had a debt, debt was erased. Every man that was a slave was
set free. If he had any property, it was
restored to him. If he had any land, they had
to give it back to him. And oh my, and a year of rest,
God says, now everybody rest. Rest in me. Well, well, our Lord
Jesus Christ, our kinsman redeemer. He paid all our debt, got us
out of slavery, set us free, gave us back 10,000 times more
than we ever lost, than we lost in Adam. Oh my, and you know
where we rest at now? We rest forever in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh my, we've entered into His
rest forever. And then here's one, listen to
what it says. In the day of vengeance of our
God, to comfort all that mourn, to comfort all that mourn, You
know, now we could read this and say it's the awful day of
vengeance when God sent His Son and was pleased to lay our iniquity
upon Him and Him to bear our transgressions, the Lord to bruise
Him, smite Him. And all this is true, but that's
not what it's talking about. It's talking about the day of
vengeance of our God. He said, all men don't believe,
all men don't have faith. Some believed and some did not
believe. And just like those days, that
day that our Lord done that preaching that day and they took him out
and was going to throw him off of a cliff because of what he
taught. But I tell you, those who are
believers, those who God gave life to, when you preach Christ,
it's a fragrance of life to those who have life. But to those who
don't, it's an odor of death, an awful stench in their nostrils. And it brings judgment upon those
who will not believe. And that's the whole key, they
will not believe. And I tell you, he'll visit his
wrath upon those who don't believe. Oh my, he that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. This is the day of vengeance of our God. And what a day it's
gonna be for some. It's gonna be awful. And then
look what he said also. In verse two, to comfort all
that mourn. You know, Christ was called the consolation
of Israel. The consolation of Israel. He
is the only, you know, blessed are they that mourn, for they
shall rejoice. He's the only comfort for all
true mourners. You know what I'll tell you,
we often mourn over our sin. Oh, we mourn over our sin. Our
own sins, and sometimes we mourn over the sins of others. We hate
to admit this and don't like to admit this, but other people
are very discouraging. The things they do is very discouraging. You know, it's sinful not to,
if you're able to get to a service and you don't come, that's a
good thing that you didn't do. If you deliberately miss the
gospel and come and attend the gospel, that's an awful thing
to do when you can attend it. And I'm worn over the sins of
my children and can't do anything about it. And then we mourn,
sometimes we mourn under great trial and great affliction. Oh
my, how many times have people wept over a loved one, wept over
somebody they've lost, wept over the affliction that they're going
through. Mourn over. And we mourn when we can't repent,
when we'd like to repent. Can't repent as we should. We
mourn because we can't believe as much as we should. We learn
because we forget to pray sometimes. But the only place you can find
comfort in all this stuff that goes on in us is Christ, His
blood, His righteousness, His intercession, and His precious
promises. Because I tell you what, when
you're mourning over how sorry you are, how sorry you are, the
only place you can go to get any comfort It's Him. And He can give you comfort.
And He's the only one that can. And we got to come just the way
we are. Don't dress it up, just come
the way we are. And then listen to this. This
is so beautiful right here. To a poet, unto them that mourn. Now you've been mourning, this
is what He says now. He gave you comfort. Then He's gonna
give you beauty for ashes. You know, whenever you think
about ashes, you know what ashes means? The fire's gone out. The fire's gone out. All you
got left is ashes. Well, we lost all of our fire,
our life, our joy, and our hope. And all that's left was ashes
that we had in Adam. That's all we had left was ashes
in Adam. Not good for nothing. And our
Lord Jesus Christ come and said, I'm going to take them old ashes.
and I'm gonna give you beauty for them. I'm gonna take them
ashes. You know, here's another thing, too. On Ash Wednesday,
all Catholics, you'll see them everywhere, you know, with the
ashes on their forehead. That's supposed to be for mourning.
Our Lord says, listen, I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna give you
beauty, and I'm gonna take those ashes and throw them away. I'm
gonna wipe them ashes away, what you had in Adam. Oh my. He gives that beauty of life
and warmth and comfort and spiritual fire in our hearts and in our
soul. Tell you something else ash means. It means death. From
dust to dust, from ashes to ashes. Oh my. Well our Lord Jesus Christ,
He gave us eternal life and we're never going to die. And ashes
also represent sorrow. Back when they mourned and groaned,
they would get in sackclothes and put ashes on them. You know,
Job did that, put ashes all over themselves, showing how sorrowful
they were. And I tell you, but our Lord
Jesus Christ, He took our sorrow. He's a man acquainted with grief
and sorrow. And He took our death and our
mourning and our sorrows, and He turned around and gave us
beauty. Let me show you something, Ezekiel 16. You just got to see
this. You just got to see this, Ezekiel
16. You're going to love this. Yeah, look over here. Do you
know what He gave us? He took our death and our mourning and
our sorrows and gave us beauty. We're dressed well with beauty.
Look what He said here in Ezekiel 16, 14. I'll let you get over there so
you can read it yourself. Oh, look at this now. And thy
renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty. How was you so
beautiful, for it was perfect through my comeliness, which
I had put up all day, saith the Lord God. That's his name. He said, you're
beautiful. How come? Because you've got
my company. Oh, my. Beautiful actions, the oil of
joy for mourning. I tell you what, He's going to
take away the mourning and He's going to put the Holy Spirit
on you and pour that oil of joy on you. Oh my, He'll make you,
He'll lift up that heart. And then look what else He says,
He gives you the garment of praise. When you're feeling heavy and
you have the spirit of heaviness on you, and every one of us,
every one of us has had that happen time and again. We have
that heaviness upon us, inexplicable. But Isaiah is saying the Lord
Jesus Christ gives the mourners, His mourners, the beauty garments,
beautiful garments of His salvation, His robe of righteousness. He
gives us grace, He gives us mercy, He gives us His Spirit, He gives
us His presence, and comes with His Word. And when we have His
Word, they yield peace, they yield joy, they re-comfort, they
do all the things for us that we need while we're on this pilgrim
journey, and we're on a pilgrim journey. And all, listen, listen,
listen, I'll be done. And then listen to this now,
that they might be called trees of righteousness. The planting of the Lord, that
he might be glorified. You know, have you ever seen
a tree plant itself? You know, Trees are planted by
somebody else. He says, these are planted by
the Lord. These trees of righteousness,
huh? Our Lord said it like this. He told the Pharisees one day.
His disciples said, you've offended them Pharisees. He said, well,
I'm gonna tell you something. Every tree which my father hath
not planted shall be rooted up. But he said, here they're called
the trees planted of the Lord. And trees, that live in roots,
you gotta have lots of water for them to live in. Well, we
do. Oh, listen, we're planted deep. We're
planted deep in Christ. He is our life. And He's the
living water that waters these trees. And the third thing about
the tree is, is that the life of the tree is in the sap. In
the sap. Goes up, goes down. In the Spirit
of God. dwells in believers. Oh my. He dwells in us. Our life comes
from Him. And I tell you, every tree that
God plants, listen to me now, trees which God plants, every
single one of them bears fruit. And you know the fruit they bear? You want to see what it is? Look
in Galatians 5.22. I could read it to you, quote
it to you, but I'm not going to. Do you know they say fruit
Fruits. Here God calls it fruit. Galatians
5.22. Oh, every tree that God plants
bears fruit. Every single one of them. Here, see, look what he
says. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance, and oh
my. Anybody think anything wrong
with that? The law can't make you do that,
but grace can. And when God plants a tree, that's
the fruit. That's the fruit. Everybody's
looking for all kinds of fruit of good works in that. But boy,
I tell you, God says, I'm looking for love and joy and peace and
gentleness and goodness and faith and meekness and longsuffering.
That's what I'm looking for. That's what I'm looking for.
And then the last thing I'll say is this. Trees which God
plants never, never wither. He plants them by the rivers
of water, and their leaves shall never wither, and neither shall
they dry up. Ain't that what they said in
Psalm 1? And you know why God does this?
That he gets all the glory. for everything he does for us,
from Alpha to Omega. And we're going to give him all
the glory. We're going to honor him. We're going to honor him. Lord, thank you for allowing
us to meet here tonight. Thank you for the blessed privilege.
Oh, what a privilege. It's not a hardship. It's not
a burden. It's not a duty. It's a privilege,
it's an honor, together with the people of God, to look into
your words, see what has to say to us. And Lord has said so many
wonderful things, so many comforting things, so many things that gives
us assurance, gives us hope. And Lord, we come to you, as
we always do, over and over and over and over and over again. We just keep coming to you. We
just keep looking to you. And Lord, we keep needing you.
And Lord, above all things, we want you. And God bless these
dear saints. They're going out and they're
coming in. And they're getting up and they're going down. And do it for Christ's sake.
Amen. Amen. I'm learning to lean, learning
to lean. I'm learning to lean on Jesus. Finding more power than I'd ever
dreamed. I'm learning to lean on Jesus. I'll see you Sunday?