with me to Luke chapter 4. And Daniel Parks made it through
Irma. That thing went right over them. Now he's got to face Jose, but
they got through it. And Greg Elmquist, they stand
at home and trust the Lord to keep them all safe. Boy, we can't
hardly stand a severe thunderstorm around here. Boy, you talking
about storm. Woo! I'd have been out of there.
Just mention of it, I'd have been gone. That's devastating. Devastating. Remember them dear
folks down there. Luke 4. Start reading at verse
14. And Jesus returned in the power
of the Spirit into 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 there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Esaias, or 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 set out. 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. And all bare him witness, and
wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth,
and they said, Is not this Joseph's son? Look with me back again in Luke
4, Luke chapter 4. It says there in verse 14, Jesus
returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. Our Lord had just been in the
wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights without any food or water.
And while he was there, he was tempted of the devil. He was
led by the Holy Ghost, full of the Holy Ghost into the wilderness.
And there he was tempted of the devil. He is tempted to sin in
all points as we are, yet he was without sin. Tempted in all
points in every way, yet he was without sin. There's not a sin. I heard a fellow say the other
day that surely, you know, he said he had an epiphany that
about the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, you
know, he was like us. He made a lot of mistakes and
probably stumped his toe. And I said, no, no, that can't
be. No, that would be a fault. And
he had no fault. He was without spot and blemish
as a man, perfect man, sinless man, holy man, gracious man. And he was tempted to yield to
the flesh. When he was hungry, the devil
told him, said, turn this stone into bread if you're the son
of God. He answered, man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God. And
then he took him up in a pinnacle and said, do you see this world?
It all belongs to me. And he's the God of this world.
He said, if you'll bow down and worship me, I'll give every bit
of it and all the glory of it to you. And he said, it's written,
thou shalt worship the Lord thy God in him only. And then he
finally says, you know, he says, if you're who you say you are,
jump off of this pinnacle up here. He said, the Lord will
catch you. You know, he won't even let you dash your foot against
a stone, it's written. And our Lord says, thou shalt
not tempt the Lord thy God. Satan left him. And now he returns
to Galilee and the power of the spirit. And it says, there went
out a fame, there went out a fame of him throughout 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. Now that's my title of my message
today. Christ in his own hometown. Our
Lord Jesus went to where he was born, where he was raised, not
born, but raised. He came to Nazareth where he
had been brought up. Went to where he's raised. Went
to where he's brought up. Where everybody in town knew
who he was. Everybody knew who he was. So he comes to Galilee
in the power of the Spirit. You see that in the power of
the Spirit. Went out being full of the Holy Ghost. And then it
says in verse 14, a fame went all over about him. He'd already
been well spoken of. Fame. I mean, people began to
talk about him. He wasn't famous in the sense
that people are famous today. But people were talking about
it. The words that he said, the deeds that he did. He had taught
in their synagogues. They had watched him raise. They
had watched him grow up. And he was different than anybody
they had ever seen or heard. He was different than any child
in the town. Different than any young man
in the town. Different than any person that
they had ever met. Different. So that fame went
about him. And he taught only that, that
fame went about him, but he taught things that they'd never heard
before. They'd never heard the scriptures
talked about like he talked about them. They'd never heard things
about God like he said about God. They'd never heard things
about man that he has said. And he did works, did works that
they had never seen before. They didn't think anybody was
possible. It was possible for people to
do the things that our Lord Jesus Christ did. And then look what
it says in verse 15. And He taught in their synagogues,
and look what it says, being glorified of all. Everywhere
He went, they glorified Him. When He taught in their synagogues,
they glorified Him. And this is the way everyone
should glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. He should get all the
glory in every way, in every day, in all that we do. And one
of these days, one of these days, everybody... is going to give
him the glory due him some will do it because God will put his
hand on their neck and others will do it because they'll see
as he is and we'll glorify they all glorified him but oh my what
a blessed blessed thing to glorify our Lord Jesus Christ But this
being glorified of all, it wouldn't last. It wouldn't last. Because
they, before this was over, before he left, right after coming out
of the synagogue, they tried to stone him and throw him off
of a cliff. I mean, it changed just like that, that quickly.
But then look what it says here. And he came to Nazareth. And
as he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. Now watch
what it says. Our Lord Came as his custom was,
he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up
to read. Our Lord Jesus Christ gave great honor to public worship
and gave great honor and place to the word of God. As his custom
was, he went into the synagogue and stood to read the scriptures.
He gave great, great honor to public worship. They worshiped
on Saturday. That was what they did. Their
Sabbath day was a Saturday. And as his custom was, wherever
he was at, he went into the synagogue and he worshiped. He gave great
honor to that. I mean, he went to, when there
was a service going on and he was there, he went into that
service. Gave great honor, not only to that, but gave great
place to his word. He stood up to read what? The
word, the scriptures. And he went to the place of public
worship. This wasn't the temple. This
was a local assembly in the town of Nazareth. It would be like
if here, if he was in Crossville and this was the synagogue, this
is where he would have been. This is where he would have been.
He came to the local assembly and the scribes and the Pharisees,
they were the main teachers of the Jews. They, the ones who
taught the Jews, the doctors and the lawyers and the scribes
and the Pharisees, they were the one who taught the Jews.
There was no presence of the Spirit in any of their services.
If our Lord Jesus Christ, when he was the only one that had
the Holy Spirit, there is no presence of the Spirit in their
service. You know why? Because they taught the letter
of the law. They taught the jots and they taught the tittles.
And they taught what Moses said. And they taught the Ten Commandments
and they taught all the ceremonies. And they taught all the sacrifices.
And they taught all the letter of the law. And they taught what
they was doing was teaching the outer man and what the outer
man ought to do. They taught them how they ought
to pray. They taught them how they ought to tithe. They taught
them how they ought to dress. They taught them where they could
go and where they couldn't go. They taught them every little
jot and tittle that they could come up with to teach people
what to do and what to say and how to act and how to do it,
where to pray, how much to give, when to give, where to put it.
There was no heart teaching in those services, no heart teaching
whatsoever. And there was no, if there's
no heart teaching, there can be no heart learning. If it doesn't
come from the heart, it can't go to the heart. If it's only
by the mind and intellectualism and traditionalism, it can't
do anything for anybody. It's got to come from the heart
and God by the Holy Spirit has to deal with the heart. But these
folks had no heart teaching. They had no heart learning. They
talked tradition. Our Lord says you, You teach
your tradition and put them for the commandments of God. That's
what he told him. And this was the situation when
our Lord visited this local assembly, visited synagogue, the town he
had been brought up. There's no telling how many times
he'd been in there. But this is the day, a situation
that something had never happened before. This was a situation
when our Lord visited. He read and he preached. And this is the day, this day,
when he went into the synagogue in Nazareth, in the city where
he was brought up. It is the day his father was
recognized. It was the day the word was read,
and it was the day that our Lord Jesus Christ was honored, honored. And our Lord, listen, our Lord
gave great honor to the public worship. And our master, if our
master, if our Lord Jesus Christ didn't take lightly the local
assembly, the local assembly where he is brought up, neither
should we. If he placed great honor on it,
let's place great honor on it. Were things wrong in that synagogue?
Yes. Lots of things were wrong in
that synagogue. Are things wrong here? Yes. And wherever you get
a bunch of people together, there's going to be things wrong. We're
not perfect. Things are wrong, yes. Yes, things get wrong. Things
go wrong. Things are said wrong. Things
are done wrong. Can things be done better? Yes.
Yes, they can be done better. There can be more grace. There
can be more kindness. There can be more compassion.
There can be more understanding. There can be more presence of
the power of the Spirit. There could be a greater understanding
of the scriptures. There could be some conversions.
Yes, all things can be done better. Yes, yes. As not one of us here
that couldn't do things better. Is the Holy Spirit always blessing
us to hear, to be involved in the service? No, no, no. The Holy Spirit always ain't
here blessing us to hear. No, no, that don't happen every
service. No, it doesn't. Does he always
bless us in the hearing of the gospel to be involved in the
service, to be involved in the gospel, to be involved in Lantana
Grace Church? No. But here's the question,
here's the key. But is the truth told when you
come? Is the truth told? Are we, are we, are we, are we,
is Christ honored? Is our Lord Jesus Christ lifted
up? Is our Lord Jesus lifted up?
Is the Word of God given its proper place? Do we honor the
Word of God? Do we use the Word of God? Do
we preach the Word of God? Do we have you look at the Word
of God? Do we give it its proper place? And that's why Paul told
the, told the Hebrews, he said, forsake not the assembling of
yourselves together. And then the next thing he said,
as the manner of some is. There's some, the some has the
manner that they forsake the assembling of themselves together.
And you know why people forsake, I'm going to tell you how this
thing works. People don't quit the gospel all at once. People
don't leave a congregation all at once. They do it by degrees. They get involved in something,
and they'll miss a service, and then another thing comes up,
they'll get involved in that, they'll miss another service.
And they'll get involved in something else, and they'll miss another
service, and then after a while, they get to thinking, well, I've
been there since, I've been so long since I've been there, you
know, that I'm almost ashamed to go in. I'm embarrassed to
go. And I tell you what, people just
leave by degrees, and when they show up, it's almost like they're
a visitor. It's been so long since they've
been here, you know. You say, well, yes, that's the
way it is. And oh, listen, I tell you, if
our master didn't take life through the local assembly, let us not
do it. And what is it when we gather? We gather here this morning.
Our Lord Jesus gathered with the people of Nazareth where
he was brought up. And he, as his custom was, he went into
the synagogue and he stood up to read the scriptures. He gave
great honor to the scriptures. They gave great praise to the
scriptures. And then not only that, do we come to the local
assembly and things are wrong, yes. Things be done, yes. But
oh, is the Holy Spirit always blessing us? No, no, we're not.
And then it's gathering in his name. When we gather to worship
like this, we gather in his name, in his name. And that's where
the blessing is promised. Look in Matthew 18, 20. Look
in Matthew 18, 20. This is where the blessing is
promised. This is where the blessing is
promised. And all is together in His name. And I hope, I hope,
I know there's two or three here gathered in His name. More than
that, I believe a lot more than that. Heapsite more than that. But our Lord said here in Matthew
18, 20, for where two or three are gathered together in my name. And how many times have you just
sat down and talked to somebody? and being with a couple of people
sitting around talking and talking about the gospel and talking
about Christ and talking about your experience and talking about
the things of the gospel and talking about spiritual matters
and Christ comes down and blesses you and opens your understanding
and gives you utterance just sitting around visiting with
one another. That's what he means where two or three are gathered
together. And there am I, I, me, I'm in the midst of them.
And what is it to gather in his name? First and foremost is to
seek his glory, to seek his glory. Why else would we be here if
we're not want to lift up our Lord? He was glorified of all. And may all of us give glory
to his holy name. May all of us glorify his blessed
name. Glorified in our minds, glorified
in our hearts, glorified in our spirit, glorified in our words. And one of these days, we'll
be able to glorify him as he's worthy to be glorified. I want
you to look at a verse of scripture with me. 1 Peter 4.11, talking
about Hebrews, James, and then 1 Peter. 1 Peter 4.11. is to seek His glory. If anybody's
converted, that's a great blessing. But as long as Christ is glorified,
that's what we want more than anything. Whether anybody's converted
or not, we're going to glorify Christ. We're going to preach
the gospel. And we're not going to beg, but He said here in verse
11, 1 Peter 4, 11, If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles
of God, using the Word of God, using what God said. If any man
minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth
him. And when God gives you ability, it'll show that God, and here's
the key, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus
Christ to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. To God be the glory, great things
he hath done. And not only is it to seek His
glory, but it's to seek His mercy. It's to seek His mercy. Oh my,
anybody here need mercy today? Hebrews 4.14 says this, seeing
that we have a great high priest, Jesus, the Son of God, who has
passed into the heavens, passed into the heavens, and seeing
we have all these infirmities, let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace. to obtain mercy and find help
in the time of need. Huh? Oh my. Our Lord Jesus Christ
said, I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And I'll have mercy. I'll have
mercy. I don't want your sacrifices.
That's all people understand is sacrifices. Sacrifices. Oh, I'd like to do more for the
Lord. I wish I could give more and do it. And they think about
giving and doing and, you know, and I, Lord Jesus Christ said,
I don't need your sacrifices. I am the sacrifice. I'm the only
sacrifice, the last sacrifice, the only one that God ever accepted. Don't bring me your sacrifices.
Don't bring me your offerings. I don't want them, I don't need
them. The cattle on a thousand hills is mine. If I was hungry,
I wouldn't ask you. He said, but I'll tell you what
I will have. I will have mercy. I'll give
you mercy. Forget your sacrifices. Come
to me for mercy, and that's what I'll give you. I'll give you
mercy. And oh, beloved, I'll tell you what, not justice, but
mercy. Not reward, but mercy. Not recognition, but mercy. That publican and that Pharisee
went up to the temple to pray. And the Pharisee came with all
of his sacrifices and all his good works and all that he had
done, all of his time. He said, I even tied men and
eyes in common. And that publican, he got way
back. smote on his breast and said,
God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And oh my! And not only is it
to seek His glory and to seek His mercy, it's to seek His righteousness. Why do we seek His righteousness?
Because we don't have one of our own. We don't have one of
our own. And He's called Jehovah's akin
you, the Lord our righteousness. And the apostle said, I want
to be found. I want to be found in the righteousness
of Christ. Not my righteousness, which is
after the law, which is no righteousness at all. But he said, I want to
be found in Christ having His righteousness. His righteousness
and His alone. And beloved, I tell you, the
hardest thing that anybody ever gave up in their life is their
own righteousness. Now ain't that right? We hate
to turn loose of our own righteousness. You know why people not converted?
They're not bad enough. They're too good. They're too
righteous. They got too high of an opinion
of themselves. When God brings a man to where
he understands that he ain't got nothing, can do nothing,
and has nothing whatsoever. And that's what people's problems
are. That's why Paul said, oh, if anybody could brag about what
he's done, I could really, really brag. But he said everything
I thought that was worth something, I counted what? Done. I counted
loss for Christ. And I tell you what, I want to
win him. I want to be found in him. And I want his righteousness
and his love. There's not another righteousness
that is to be had. And I tell you what, not only
is it to seek His glory, to seek His mercy, to seek His righteousness,
it's to seek His sheep. I heard Brother Henry preach
the message one time, I'm on the trail of God's sheep. He
said, what are you doing? He said, I'm on the trail of God's sheep.
He got a message. You get it, find it on sermon
audio. I'm on the trail of God's sheep. You know, wherever they're at,
they're sheep. They're sheep. And I tell you
what, he said, we're on the trail of God's sheep. They came to
the Lord Jesus Christ and they said, if you're the Christ, just
tell us plainly. He said, I've told you and you
don't believe. Why don't you believe? Because
you're not my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and they
follow me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they ain't never gonna perish. Never gonna perish. Oh, my. So, oh, this public worship,
public worship and giving honor to the Lord and giving honor
to His word. Our master did it. And then look
what he did. In verse 16 again, he went into
the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. Stood up to read. Stood up to
read. You know, I guess when they'd
be out in the congregation, and what I understand, there were
seven people that read the scriptures in every one of their services.
Seven people. First a priest did it, then a
Levite did it, And then they had five Israelites who would
do it. And he and our Lord had priests
in other synagogues. This is the only one that's recorded
where he actually read. And then look what it says. And
there was delivered unto him, verse 17, the book of the prophet
Isaiah. They gave him the book of Isaiah,
and he stood up to read. And when somebody stood up to
read, all attention was on him. All attention. Everybody, when
he's reading, whenever somebody, all the attention's on that person
reading. So he, all the attention's on him, and look what it says.
And he opened the book. He opened the book. over in Revelations, he says,
Oh, John began to weep and said, There's nobody found worthy to
open the book and loosen the seven seals. And there stood
one up who was the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lamb that
was slain. He stood up and he took the book
of him that sat on the head and he opened the seven seals and
he opened that book. And Christ is the only one that
can open the book. He's the only one that can open
somebody's understanding to the Old Testament Scriptures. And
that's what He's doing. He takes the Old Testament and
He's the only one that can open it up for us to understand that
it speaks about Him. How many people have no clue
that the Old Testament concerns Christ? First promise concerns
Christ. First message concerns Christ.
First man walked with God. And oh, listen, they stood up
and the Old Testament book was shut up until Christ opens them.
And it's shut up to us until Christ opens them. Worthy is
the Lamb who took the book and opened it. And then look what
it says now. He opened the book and look what
it says, and he found the place. He looked and he found the place.
There was a particular place that he wanted to read from.
There's a particular place that our Lord Jesus Christ wanted
to read from. And he found the place. What
do you mean the place? The place appointed to be read
that day. This is God's appointment. This
is God's decree. Christ was to be there and he
was to read this particular passage of scripture on this particular
day. This was the place appointed
on that day. That day was appointed. He was
at the place appointed with the book appointed with the words
to be read that was appointed. And these were written 700 years
before Christ came. 700 years. Now look at his message. Oh my,
everything's exactly the way it's supposed to be. And oh,
look at his message. And this is from Isaiah 61, one
and two. First thing he said, the Spirit
of the Lord is upon me. God put His Spirit on me. John
said it like this, he says, God gave him the Spirit without measure. We have the Spirit by measure.
Sometimes the Holy Spirit comes, but after He's done, He leaves.
After what He wants done, He leaves. and he don't stay he
doesn't fill us like he did our lord jesus christ our lord jesus
christ was filled with the spirit continually and constantly the
god gave him the spirit without measure everybody has a measure
christ didn't have no measure of the spirit and he says the
spirit is upon me right now was upon me when I was born, was
upon me all the days of my life, and will be with me, and bring
me from the dead. And oh, here the Spirit of the
Lord is upon me. And look what he says, Because
He hath anointed me. Who has anointed me? The Holy
Spirit has anointed me. Sent me. Commissioned me. Anointed
me. And that word anointed means
that the Spirit come upon. He anointed me to preach. Gave
Him an office to preach. And you know whenever someone
in the Old Testament, whenever they anointed a priest or a Levite,
and they entered the ministry, and they was going to be used,
there was an anointing. And first they'd pour oil over
their head, like the oil that went down on Aaron's beard. They'd
pour oil over their head. And then they'd take that oil,
and what they would do, they would anoint their They take
that oil and they anoint their ear. Anoint their ear. That's
where you're gonna hear from. You gotta have an anointed ear.
Hear the voice of God. Hear the scriptures. Anointed
ear. And then they anointed the thumb. That hand's gonna have
to open the scriptures. That hand's the one that raised
to God. That hand is the one that labors
for Christ. That hand is who you open up
and read the gospel with. And then they put it on his toe. Ear, thumb, and toe. You're gonna
wanna hear the gospel and hear the scriptures, labor for Christ,
and then walk according to the anointing, according to the scriptures
and what he teaches us. So that old man, huh? And then
look what he says. He hath anointed me to do what?
To preach. To preach. Called me to preach. When I, they sent, the Pharisees
sent some, a bunch of men, go to take the Lord Jesus Christ.
Arrest him and bring him to us. And there's a whole bunch of
them got out there and they went to get him, went to get him.
And our Lord was teaching about the time they got there. And
he was preaching. And while he was preaching, they
stood down and listened to what he had to say. They was there
to arrest him. And they started listening to
what he had to say. And they went back to the Pharisees
and they said, why haven't you brought him? They said, well,
we got to hearing him. We got to listening to him. And
they had one of them anointed ears that day. And they said,
never man speak like this man. And they ain't gonna leave him
alone. Oh, he called a preach. And oh
my, he had a message. Not only was he called a preach,
but he had something to say. He had a message. And look at
his message. Here's his message. He said,
he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. You know,
when you read the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, you know the first
person mentioned, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of God. And he says, preach to the poor,
preach to the poor, the poor of this world, people that have
nothing. They understand that what they
have, God gave it to them. And poor in spirit, Oh, to be
poor in spirit. What does that mean? That means
that you have no ability, no strength, no goodness, nothing
to offer, and your spirit is poor. Oh, we're not strong in
spirit. We don't, you know, if Christ
doesn't give us a spirit, we're poor in spirit. What can our
spirit do if God don't bless it, if God don't save it? poor
in spirit we got nothing to offer and what did he preach to him
the scripture says he preached the gospel to the poor and then
look what he said else here's his message he has sent me oh
sent gotta be sent god sent christ god's gotta send the preacher
and he has sent me what are you gonna do heal the broken heart
Heal the broken hearted. He's the great physician. How
many times in your life has your heart been broken? How many times
in your life has your heart been troubled? How many times in your
life has your heart been broken? Just broken hearted. And He's
the great physician. He not only can heal the broken
hearted, heal that heart that's broken, But he can cure the conscience. He can give peace to where there
was trouble. He can take that heart that's
broken, that heart that's troubled. He can speak peace to it and
bring comfort to it and bring assurance to it and bring a blessing
to it and take it and heal it and make it as if it didn't even
ever happen. And oh, look what else he did.
To priest deliverance to the captives. To priest deliverance
to the captives. Who's captive? Everybody Christ
hasn't set free. He preached deliverance to the
captive. That word deliverance is the same word as salvation.
He led captivity captive. Everything that held us captive.
What held us captive? Sin? Death? Self-righteousness? Self-confidence? Self-reliance?
All these things held us captive. And the gospel comes along and
proclaims liberty. You can be free from sin. You
can be free from self. You can be free from self-righteousness. And the gospel comes along and
preaches liberty, freedom, rejoices. Oh my, it's like Israel. They
know what liberty was. Israel was down in Egypt in bondage. They were slaves down there. 430 something years, they was
down there and they were slaves and great bondage and great distress. And who in the world come and
set them free? God did. How did he set them
free? With blood, And that's how God
sets us free, with blood, the blood of Christ, and the power
of the Holy Ghost, and the power of the gospel. And he sets sinners
free from the law. Free from the law, oh happy condition. Oh my, and he sets them free
from the power of sin. And one of these days, bless
his name, he's gonna set us free from the presence of sin. from
the presence of sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, the
truth will set you free, set you free. And look what else
he said that he preached to him. Not only deliverance to the captive,
but recovering of sight to the blind. This is what the gospel where there was darkness. It
gives sight where there was blindness. The gospel brings light to those
who sit in darkness. And there we were, how long were
we in darkness? And Christ, Christ came along
and he brought sight to our blind eyes, brought sight to us who
are sitting in darkness. I found a picture the other day
And I was baptizing some people down in Cumberland Mountain Retreat.
Oh my goodness, I don't know how many years ago. It had to
be at least 35, 36 years ago, maybe longer than that. And I'll
tell you what, do you know who I was baptizing first? Doogie. He was about that high. He was
probably eight years old. And you know who was standing
waiting next? Darren was. He was probably 11, maybe 12,
I don't know, 10. And then who was next standing
in line after that was Dirk, little old bitty fella. And I
don't know who else is standing in line. But I was dark, I was
as blind as a bat when I did that. As blind as a bat. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't
do that under no circumstances. Somebody comes to hear me preach
one or two times and they say, well, I want you to baptize me.
I say, wait a minute, let's just sit and listen to the gospel
for a while. Just make sure you understand what's going on. What
in the world does a six or eight year old know about sin? What
does a six or eight year old know about Christ? God have mercy
on me, huh? But you know how many people
trust those things that preachers did for them? But oh my, he brought,
where we was sitting in darkness, and God brought the light, and
he turned it on. It'd just be like us, we're sitting
in the dark here in the middle of the night, and all the lights
out, we can't see nothing, somebody comes in, boom, the lights come
on. Oh, now I see! Oh, I see things I ain't never
saw before. Oh my, oh boy. And the gospel brings light to
those who sit in darkness. We were blind to ourselves, blind
to sin, blind to Christ, blind to the truth. And he gives us
a sight that we lost in Adam. He says, you know, he said, I've
come that they which see not, See not, might see. And that
those which see, say, oh, I understand. I see, I see, I see. How many people, when you talk
to them, say, I see, I know, I understand. He said, I see,
and he says, that you might, you're gonna remain blind. And
the Pharisees asked him, are we blind also? And he said, if
you were blind, he said, you wouldn't even have any sin. But
because you say, I see, you're gonna stay blind. Christ only
gives sight to people who understand they were blind. And they understand
that if Christ don't give them light, they still won't see anything. They understand that. And oh
my. to set at liberty, not only cover
sight to the blind, to set at liberty. Oh, not only proclaims
liberty, set at liberty them that are bruised, set them free.
Why? He was bruised for our iniquities.
And set at liberty, not only does the gospel proclaim liberty,
but actually sets men free. Actually, actually sets them
free. Set them in labor. Set them free.
Let them go. Oh, we have a blessed Redeemer.
Oh my. I am come. I am come that they
might be free. Uh-huh. And oh, and look what
he says to priests the acceptable year of the Lord. What is that? Well, the acceptable year of
the Lord. They had a jubilee year. And the jubilee year was when,
after, I think it was seven sevens,
49 years. And at the end of 49 years, everyone who owed a debt,
everyone who was a servant, everyone who was a slave, all their debts
were to be forgiven, and they were all to be set free on the
year of Jubilee. God set this day aside. He says,
now on this day, if anybody owes a debt to anybody, a brother,
that debt's gone. And if he's a slave, You got
to let him go. You got to set him free. And
every day is the year of jubilee for us. Oh, listen, the debt's
been paid and we've been set free. Today's the day of jubilee. If you're bondage, freedom. If you're a slave to sin, freedom. If you're a slave to the law,
freedom. Let him go. That's what he said about that
donkey when he said go over there and there you'll find a donkey
that's tied up. He says, you go and get it. Because
he is fixing dinner into Jerusalem, riding on a colt, the foal of
an ass. And says, you go over there and get that and loose
it and bring it to me. He got over there and they was fixing
to loose it. And they said, what are you doing? He says, the master
told me to come and get this. And that's what he does. He sends
somebody to loose us and let us go. And he knows where we
are, and he knows when freedom's coming, and he's the only one
that can do it. And oh, look at the conclusion
of his message. Look how he concluded his message.
Look what it says here. And he closed the book. Closed
it up. Closed it up. And look how respectful
he is. And he handed it back to the
minister. Whoever was the head of the synagogue.
Handed it back to him. And then he sat down. He sat
down. He sat down. That's what he said. He sat down at the right hand
of God. Now why? Because the work's done. Look
what he says now. And he began to say unto them,
every eye in the synagogue was fastened on him. Fastened on
him. And he says unto them, this day,
today, today, This scripture is fulfilled in your ears. What you heard today was the
fulfillment of these scriptures that I just read to you. You
know what he's saying? They're history now. They was
a prophecy, now they're history. I'm the one who the spirit of
the Lord anointed. I'm the one who's gonna preach
the gospel. I'm the one who was sin of the
Lord. I was the one who's been anointed. And this is history
now. This is not what's coming. I
have come. I'm here right now. Everything
you heard today is fulfilled. Don't look for somebody else
to come and say it's fulfilled in them. And look what it said.
And oh my, the reaction. And all bear him witness and
wonder that the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.
Did he expound on these scriptures? I don't know. Did he explain
them to him? I don't know. And all bearing
witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of
his mouth. And you know what they said? They said, boy, this
must be the Messiah. This is the Christ. This is the
one God sent. This is our Savior. This is our
Redeemer. You know what they said? Is not
this Joseph's son? That's all they could think of.
Ain't this Joseph's son? How in the world could this be?
This is just Joseph's son. It's just Joseph's son. But he's
more than Joseph's son. He's the son of God. The son
of God. Our Savior, thank you for allowing
us today to speak of you another day, to hopefully honor you another
day, to bring glory to your name another day. to be able to preach
the gospel another day. And may you make it real, may
you make it alive, may you make it vital. For truly those scriptures
have been fulfilled. And some of us are here are evidence
of those scriptures fulfilled in us as we've heard the gospel. Fulfilled in us because Christ
set us free. Christ preached the gospel to
us. Christ opened the scriptures to our understanding. And we
thank you for it. And we bless you for it. And
bring glory to yourself continually. among us and through us, for
Christ's sake. Amen. Amen.