And today though I want to talk
about our Lord Jesus Christ in his own hometown. Going to where
he is born or where he is raised, not born, he is born in Bethlehem
but he is raised in Nazareth. Now our Lord had just been 40
days and 40 nights without food and water. And being led of the
Spirit into the wilderness and after 40 days didn't Satan come
to him? The devil come to him and tempted
him. He is tempted of the devil. He
is tempted in all points like as we are, yet he was without
sin. Yet he was without sin. He was
tempted to yield to the flesh. He was hungry and he said, if
you're the son of God, turn that stone into a piece of bread. And then he was tempted to the
world. He said, you see all this glory and all this power. He
said, I'll give it to you if you fall down and worship me.
He was tempted to false worship to the world. Worship and I'll
give it to you. Then he was tempted to false worship. False worship. To bow down to the devil. Or
to jump off of a temple. And he said, we ain't going to
tempt God. We're not going to presume on God. And now he returns
to Galilee, starting there in verse 14. And he returned in
the power of the Spirit. Everywhere our Lord Jesus Christ
went, He was in the power of the Spirit. Now we're not always
in the power of the Spirit. We're more in the flesh than
we are ever in the Spirit, that's for sure. were more in the Spirit,
in the flesh. But he was always in the Spirit
and the power of the Holy Spirit was upon him. And there went
out a fame about him. Everybody started hearing about
him. He got to be well, well known. And people hadn't seen
him in that, but they heard about him. And fame of him went through
all the region round about. And look what it says, and everywhere
he went he taught in their synagogues. He'd get up and he'd teach. And
he taught in their synagogues. Synagogues is the same thing
we would... That's what the Jews called their places were synagogues.
We call our buildings church buildings. Chapels. But they
called them synagogues. And he taught in their synagogues
being glorified of all. Whenever they'd heard him, hear
him teach, they would glorify him. And then he came to Nazareth. And it says where he had been
brought up. He had been brought up. And when he taught, there
are no synagogues. He taught things they had never
heard before. Did works they had never seen before. And he's
glorified of all. And all men should glorify the
Lord Jesus Christ. Everybody ought to do that. But
this wouldn't last. The way they thought about him
wouldn't last. It wouldn't last. And you know you go on down through
there and you'll find out how that when he started telling
them about election. God's sovereign grace. A lot
of winners in Israel in the times of Elisha. But Elisha sent only
one, and she wasn't a Jew. And there's lots of lepers in
Syria in the time of Naaman. But Elijah is only sent to one,
and he wasn't a Jew either. And boy, when they found that
out, they got real, real upset with him. And so they tried to
throw him off of a mountain. So they went from glorifying
him to wanting to kill him. Wanting to kill him. But our
Lord Jesus Christ, and here he comes to the city of Nazareth,
and it says where he was brought up. That's where he was raised. He was brought up in the city
of Nazareth, this little old town of Nazareth. And he come
to his own hometown. And look what it says. 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. Now I want you to notice the
first thing he did here. Our Lord Jesus gave great honor,
great honor to public worship. Great honor to public worship,
meeting like we are here this morning. And gave great honor
to the Word, to the Word of God. He took the book of Isaiah, he
read from the Bible. He read things concerning himself.
So he gave great honor to public worship. Public worship. Gathered like we are here this
morning. He put great honor on that. Because it says he went
to the synagogues all the time. And one of the most blessed things
that God gives us to do is to be able to meet like this and
publicly worship. There's a lot of places in this
world where you can't do that. In China, they catch you with
a Bible, catch you meeting with a few people, you're going to
prison. You're going to jail. In Vietnam, if they catch you
that way, you're going to jail. If they catch you in a Muslim
country, they're not going to put you in jail. They're going
to kill you. They're going to kill you. So I tell you what
a blessing it is that we're allowed to meet here this morning. And
here's the great blessing that you want to be here. This is
where you want to be. This is where you want to be. And as is custom, he went into
the synagogue and stood up. The scripture said he stood.
stood up for to read, there in verse 16. He stood up to read. He went to this place of public
worship. This wasn't the temple. This
was a local assembly, just like us. Just like us, a local assembly. And the scribes and the Pharisees,
they were the main teachers of the Jews. They were the main
teachers of the Jews. You know, no presence of the
Spirit. They had no presence of the Spirit. Where our Lord
Jesus Christ went in the power of the Spirit, they had no Holy
Spirit. They, you know, no presence of the Spirit. They taught the
letter of the law. The Jews had, I heard a woman say one time,
and she is a Jew. She says, you know, when she
goes to the synagogue, they got 630. laws and customs and rituals
and ceremonies dietary that they have to keep. You can only eat
certain things. You can only go certain places.
You can only do certain things on Saturday. You start on Friday
night and you quit on Saturday. Start at six and quit at six
on Saturday. And then after that you can forget
it for six more days. But that's what they do. They
taught the letter of the law. They taught, you know, how often
you're supposed to wash your hands. What you're supposed to
eat and what you can't eat. Where you can go, how many sticks
you can pick up on Saturday. All these rigmaroles. How much
food you can cook. You know, they'd cook on Friday
so they wouldn't have to cook on Saturday. So, I mean, that's
what they was being taught. They taught the outer man. They
taught the outer man. They taught the brain. They didn't
know anything about a heart, teaching a heart. They had no
heart learning so they couldn't teach from the heart. They taught
tradition. They taught what had been passed
down from one generation to another generation. What one rabbi taught
from another rabbi. And that was the situation when
our Lord visited Nazareth. That was the situation in the
time that our Lord Jesus Christ came. And our Lord Jesus, He
read, He preached, and this was the day that the Father was recognized
in this place. And the Word was read, and he
honored it. He honored the Gospel, he honored
the Word, he honored public worship. And if our Master, if our Lord
Jesus didn't take lightly the local assembly, gathering with
the people, wherever he was in Nazareth, he said, I'll do the
worship. And he didn't take lightly the
local assembly, and neither should we. Were there things wrong? Yes, there was. Yes, there was. If you're there and I'm there,
there's going to be something wrong. Were things wrong? Yes, there's
things wrong in this public assembly. Can things be done better? Yeah. Sure it can. Sure it can. Things can be done better. Is
the Holy Spirit always blessing us to hear? To be involved? No. No, not all the time. Not all
the time. But here's the question. Two
questions need to be asked. First of all, is Christ honored?
Is Christ preached? That's the first thing you need
to ask. Is Christ preached? Is the gospel preached? Secondly, is the word given proper
honor and the truth told from that word? You answer those two
questions, and if those two questions are yes, then that's the place
you need to be. Right? That's the place you need
to be. And that's why the scriptures
tells us, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. As the
manner of some is. Some people has that manner.
Not going to assemble. But forsake not the assembling
of yourselves together, as the manner of some is, and so much
more, when you see the evil day approach. When you see it approach. And I tell you what, when the
Scriptures tells us, you know our Lord says, where two or three
are gathered together in my name, He said, that's where I'll be.
Ain't that what He said? And how many times have I been
with just two or three people, and the Lord's greatly blessed.
I've been in nursing homes and God bless. I've been with preachers
and their husbands and their wives and been with people, you
know, just visiting with people. And God bless. God bless as you
talk and converse with people. Sit around a table and visit
with people. Talk on the phone and get blessed.
The Holy Spirit come down. Our Lord said, wherever you can
get two or three together in my name, and surely out of all
the people here today, there's at least three of us gathered
in the name of Christ. And what is it to gather in His
name? He said, if you gather in my name, what is it to gather
in His name? The first reason to gather in
His name is to seek His glory and to honor Him. To seek His
glory. You keep Luke 4, and look over
at 1 Peter chapter 4. You keep looking forward, look
over to 1 Peter chapter 4, won't you see something there? What
is it, to gather in His name? And that's the reason we are,
Shirley said, Wednesday night, we was getting ready to come
to service. She said, you know, we love to go hear the gospel
because it causes us to love Christ more while we're hearing
it. Causing us to love Christ more and just need Christ more.
And that's why we come, because we know we need Him, we want
to hear about Him. And we know that we wasn't here
until Wednesday night, and so, whoa, what's happened between
the... And so, oh man, I need to go hear the Gospel. I need
to go hear about Christ. And look what He said here in
1 Peter 4, in verse 11. If any man speak, men gonna get
unspeak like I am, Speak as the oracles of God, as God's blessed
word, God said. And if any man minister, let
him do it as of the ability that God gives him. Don't try to be
something you're not and use abilities you don't have. And
this is the reason that God in all things may be glorified through
Jesus Christ to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen. That's the whole purpose
of it. That's the whole purpose. First,
what's it together in His name? To seek His glory. What's it
together in His name? To seek His mercy. Oh, we're
standing at the door of mercy. Got both hands out. Mercy beggars. Mercy beggars. We've gathered
to come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and grace to help. When? In the time of need. We've come to saw Lord Jesus
Christ told a bunch one day they said all what can we do and he
said I'll have mercy Mercy is what I give I don't want your
sacrifices. I don't want the works of your
hands. I Don't know what you can do.
I am one who gives out mercy don't bring me nothing and come
with empty hands and I'll give you mercy I don't want justice, I want
mercy. Don't want a reward, I want mercy. Don't want any recognition, I
want mercy. That publican beat on his heart,
couldn't even look up to heaven, and he said, Oh God! Oh God! Be merciful to me, the sinner. Oh my! And I tell you it's to
seek His righteousness, not only His mercy, but to seek His righteousness. Paul said, I had a righteousness
one time, but it was according to the law. And he said, you
know what I thought about that? I said, I counted it but done.
And now I want to be found only in His righteousness. I want
to be found in Him. And you know what our Lord called
Himself? Jehovah's akin you, the Lord
our righteousness. We're here seeking His righteousness.
I want to be found in Him and His righteousness. And the third
or fourth reason why we're here seeking his sheep. Our Lord comes
seeking sheep and that's what the gospel does. It calls out
sheep. He said, my sheep will hear my
voice. Huh? Oh my. So okay, now let's go back over
here in our text and let's look at this a few minutes. He stood to read. It said up
there in verse 16 in the last part of the verse, he stood up
to read. And when he stood up to read, they came up and gave
him the book of Isaiah. And the books in those days were
scrolls. Scrolls. They weren't books like
we have. They were scrolls. And they gave
him this scroll of Isaiah. And he's standing up. And he
took that and he began to look through it. And he began to unroll
it. And he found the place where
it was written. And you know when he stood up
to read, there were seven people that read in every Sabbath day
here. No, there's Saturday and there's
Sunday. Seven people read in every service. Seven of them. The first to read
was supposed to be a priest. The second was a Levite. And
then there was five Israelites. So Christ stood up to read. And
they brought, and this is the only place where you're ever
recorded where he read the scriptures. He quoted the scriptures, but
this is the first place you read where he read them. And they
gave him this book. And he stood up, and he had it
opened up, and he read it, opened it up here, and he began to found
the place where he was going to read. And everybody in that
place had their eyes fixed on him. Ain't that what it says?
He had their eyes fixed on him. And he found the place where
it was written. And he opened it. Now let me
tell you something. The Old Testament is closed up
until Christ opens it. And you see Christ in it. It's
just a bunch of stories until you see Christ. And as the Old
Testament has to be opened up by Him and is concerning Him,
you can't understand the Old Testament or the New Testament
unless He gives you the understanding. Huh? You can't do it. And I tell you, he takes that
book and all the books are shut up. All the books are shut up.
Not just Isaiah, Genesis to Revelation shut up until Christ opens it.
He's the key that opens the scriptures. And I tell you, no wonder he
said, who is worthy to take the book and open it? And the Lamb
of God went and took that book and he took that book and he
opened it. He's the only one that can open
it because it's all about him. And look what it says now, he
found the place. There in verse 17, he found the
place. Was there any doubt he wasn't
going to find the place? He found the place. He had the
place that was appointed to be read that day. He was the appointed
person, at the appointed place, with the book that was appointed,
with the words that were appointed, He was exactly where He was to
be and doing what He was to do. And He's always where He's supposed
to be, doing what He's always supposed to be doing, and He's
never ever not where He's supposed to be. I love that about him, don't
you? I love that about him. Oh, I tell you, he's where he's
supposed to be. Where's he supposed to be? Sitting
on his throne. And what does he do? He comes
down and does things for his people that nobody else can do.
So he found that place. And then he opened the book.
He opened it up and look what he said now. Look at his message. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me. And you know, this message, he said, this is
from Isaiah 61, 1 and 2. All every word in here is in
the first person. He's talking about the first
person. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. God gave him the
Spirit without measure. John the Baptist, you know, he
was told by God, he says, now when you see the Spirit come
down as a dove, then you'll know that's Him. Now when that dove
come down when he was baptized in Christ, did everybody see
that dove? I don't think so. I think John
was the only one who saw that dove. I know they got pictures
of this white dove coming down, but nobody else looked back and
said, boy, there's a dove flying around here. No, no, John the
Baptist was the only one who saw it. That was the Spirit coming
upon Christ. And He hath anointed me. Anointed
me. Anointing. That's what Christ
means. That's what Messiah means. He sent me. He commissioned me. He anointed. You know, when a
man entered the ministry back in the Old Testament and he was
called to be a priest or whatever, they anointed him. They anointed
his head. So his head, that head was to
honor God, to glorify God. And then they anointed the ear. God gave them that ear so they
could hear what God had to say. Anointed his thumb so his hand
could be used for the glory of God. Anointed his toe so he could
walk for the glory of God. And then look what he says. The
Lord has anointed me to preach. Preach. Well how did he preach? He preached with power and authority. Look in Matthew 7. Look in Matthew
7. This is not in my notes but I
want you to see this. Matthew 7. Look over here in Matthew
7. If I can find it. Or down in verse 28, look down
in Matthew 7, 28. And it came to pass, when Jesus
had entered into these things, the people were astonished at
his doctrine. For he taught them as one having
authority, and not as the scribes. He preached with power and authority. They sent men to take him one
time and they got to listen to him preach and they went back
and said, why didn't you bring him? I never heard nobody speak
like that. We had to stand there and listen
to what he had to say. I ain't going to touch a man. Somebody talk like that, I won't
leave him alone. Huh? And also our Lord Jesus
Christ, He came to preach the gospel. Now what it was, He had
this message. First thing He says is to preach
the gospel to the poor. Not just anything, the gospel.
Now what is He talking about the poor? Well, poor of this
world, but really the poor in spirit. Blessed are the poor
in spirit, for they shall be made rich. Made rich in Christ,
made rich in the gospel. So he preaches to the poor. And
then, beloved, he comes to heal the broken hearted. Broken hearted. Do you know how many people get
broken hearted? There's people here that's had
their heart broken. Mary and Martha, when Lazarus
died, their heart was broken. They were weeping, crying. And
I, Lord Jesus Christ, come. And you know what he done? He
healed their broken heart. That man whose daughter died
when she was 12 years old, his heart was broken! Our Lord came and said, oh listen,
I'll give her back to you. I'll give her back to you. Oh
my, but you know what he said? He's the great physician. He can heal that broken heart.
He can comfort that heart. Oh my! He can come and cure conscience. He can give peace where there
was trouble. And when your heart's broken, who do you go to? You
always go to Christ. I always go to Christ. And then,
beloved, it says He gives deliverance to the captives. And I tell you
what, we were captive to sin, and the gospel proclaims liberty.
Israel was brought out of Egypt's bondage. Sinners are brought
out from under the law. Brought out from under the power
of sin. Brought out from under guilt. Know you the truth and
the truth will set you free. That's what he said. Then look
what else he said here. Recovering of sight to the blind.
Now wait a minute. I ain't never been blind. I was
born blind. You know, these men put all these
wonderful lights in here. Change the lighting in here dramatically.
But if a fella comes in here and he's blind, he's blind. He can't see these lights. He
don't even know the lights are on. He's sitting in darkness. He can't see you, he can't see
colors, he can't see nothing. You try to explain it to him,
he can't get it. We preach the gospel and people can't get it.
They can't see until Christ gives them sight. And when He gives you sight,
you see things and you say, well, why didn't I see that before? How could I have missed that?
Because you're blind. It takes a miracle of sight And
when Christ said He'd come to give the sight to the blind. And oh, there's nothing like
when Christ takes that. One of the most blessed things
that happened to the Apostle Paul was when he was on the Damascus
road and the Lord made him blind. He was blind for three days. Somebody had to lead him around. until God sent him with a message.
God sent a man named Ananias with a message. And when those
scales come off of his eyes, you know what he started preaching?
Before he was preaching the law and Phariseeism. But when the
scales come off his eyes, he straightway preached Christ. That's what happened. Oh my! And I tell you the gospel
brings light to those who are sitting in darkness. And I tell
you what, blind people can't see. They can't see themselves.
They can't see sin. They can't see Christ. They can't
see the truth. And He gives all the sight back
that we lost in Adam. And then look what else He says
here. To set at liberty them that are bruised. You know, and
bruised means beaten. And He was bruised for our iniquities. And not only does the Gospel
proclaim liberty, but it actually sets us free. Sets us free. Free. Whom the Son sets free,
He is free indeed. Oh, what a blessed Redeemer we
have. Oh my. Everything He talks about here,
we were. And He had to do it for us. And then look what He says, to
preach the acceptable year of the Lord. You know, that acceptable
year of the Lord is the year of Jubilee. And what the Jubilee
means is this. 50 years, I believe it was every
50 years, 7 times 49, on the 50th year, anybody that was in
debt, anybody that was a slave, anybody that had to go borrow
money to keep their home and things going, on the 50th year,
the year of Jubilee, everybody's debt in Israel was to be forgiven
that day. If somebody owed you a thousand
dollars, You're supposed to, at that year of Jubilee, you're
supposed to wipe that debt clean. Everybody's, on that year, everybody's
debts were forgiven. Everybody's debts were wiped
out. Since Christ came and all for
whom He died, all their sins are wiped out. All their debts
gone. Wouldn't it be something if you
went to the bank and you owed a whole lot of money and somebody
went in there and paid it all off and you went in there to
make a payment on it and they said, listen, you don't owe anything. Somebody come in here and pay
your debt off. And here's the receipt. You don't
know anything else. Well, that's the way it is if
we go to God. We come into the presence of
God right now. You know what it is? Lord, I
owe you. I owe you a debt I cannot possibly
pay. I've got a multitude of sins.
I've got mountains of sins and mountains of sins. Can't pay
it. The Lord Jesus Christ said, Father, Lay not this sin to their charge,
forgive them. They know not what they do. And all their debts were gone.
And that's what happened. You know the first time we heard
the gospel, that's our Jubilee. Every year is a year of Jubilee
for us. Every day is a day of Jubilee for us, ain't it? That's
why they call it Jubilee. That's Jubilee. You're full of
joy. full of joy, and oh my, and our
Lord Jesus Christ, He had this wonderful message. Oh, this wonderful,
the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of Jubilee. And oh my,
wouldn't you, those of you here that ain't never had your sins
forgiven, ain't never had your sins put away, don't know what
it is to have a conscience Clean the guilt gone from your conscience.
Your sins gone. Never to be held against you
again. To understand that Christ took upon himself your sin. If you're here and you feel sinful
and you know something about sin. And you've never understood
clearly what it is. Know what it is to have your
sins gone. To have your conscience purged.
To have your conscience clean. To be able to stand before God
and stand there holy and righteous and acceptable. If you don't know what that is,
Listen, I'm telling you the acceptable year of the Lord is here today.
It just could be the day of jubilee for you. Huh? This could be the
day of jubilee for you. The day of rejoicing for you.
Well, look what the conclusion of his message was. To preach the acceptable year
of the Lord. And look what happens now. He closed the book. That's
what I'm going to do here in just a minute or two. I'm going
to close the book. I'm going to close the book.
One of these days the book is going to be closed forever. And
he closed the book. Gave it back to the minister.
Here, take it back. Gave it right back to him. And
then he sat down. You know why he sat down? He
finished what he had to do. That's why he sits down now.
He finished what he had to do. In the tabernacle, they didn't
have a seat. Because the priest had to minister
over and over and over and over. But when Christ finished his
work, he sat down at the right hand
of God. And he sat down this day because
his work was done. He did what he was sent there
to do and he accomplished what he was sent to do and he sat
down. And he sat down. Huh? And then look what he says. And
all the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened
on him. God's fastened our eyes on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Please fasten our eyes on Him.
Huh? And he began to say unto them, this day, today, this day, right
here in your presence, this scripture, listen to what he says now. This
scripture is fulfilled in your ears. What it meant, and who
it was about, and what it said. It was about me. And today you
heard me. You heard what God did and called
me to do. And I tell you what, I'm the
one whom the Spirit of the Lord anointed. I'm the one who's called
to preach the gospel. Bind up the broken hearted. Preach the acceptable year of
the Lord. Preach to the poor. And this is history now. This
is history now. It's already been done. This is not what's coming, it's
what's already been done. And look at their reaction. In verse 22, look at their reaction. And all bear him witness. Oh, they witnessed it. And they
bear witness to him. They bear witness to what he
had to say. They all listened to what he said. It'd be like
you said, you bore witness to what was said here today. You
bore witness to what went on in this service today. And they
bear witness and wondered, wondered at the gracious words. That's
all can come out of his mouth for his elect. Gracious words
for his people. Gracious words. Which proceeded
out of his mouth. And then the next thing they
said is this. I don't understand it. I don't get it. I don't get
it. Why don't you get it? Well, they
said, this is Joseph's son, ain't it? This is Joseph's son. This is
Joseph's son. No, he's God's son. God's son. God's anointed. God's one to
come and set us free. Set us at liberty. Our Father, in the precious name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, Thank you for your word. Thank you
for your gospel. Thank you for the truth as it
is in Christ. God bless your word to hearts,
our understandings. Lord Jesus said, I can just use
words, but you can use power. I just use words that you say, but oh
Lord, you have to be the one to give power to it. You have
to be the one to bring forth fruit from them. You have to
be the one to give sight to the blind. You have to be the one
to set at liberty the captive. You have to be the one to do
it. To give sight to the blind. We can't do that. We can tell
the one who does, but we can't do it. So Lord, we leave this
gospel, this word, this service in your hands today, you do with
it what seemeth good in your sight, is what you ordained,
what you ordained to be done. But in doing it, I know you'll
bring glory to yourself. In your name we pray and thank
you. Amen. upon Jesus look full in his wonderful
face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the
light of his glory Glory and grace