Luke chapter 4, the name of Christ
means anointed. That's the meaning in the Greek
which was equivalent also with regard to the name Messiah in
the Old Testament. Christ is the anointed One of
God. And He is the only Savior called
in Scripture, the Savior of the world. And He came into this
world to save. And His coming as a Savior is
good news and glad tidings to a particular group of people. He came into the world to save
sinners. But evidently, on this occasion
here in Luke 4, verses 14 through 30, there were no sinners present. There were no people to whom
what he had to say would be good news. So my question this morning
is, do you need a Savior? Do you need a Savior? And asking that question, it
necessarily also involves another. Are you a sinner? A sinner. You see, Christ is
not only the Savior of sinners, but also sinners are the only
ones He saves. And only those who have been
brought to see and to know and to confess themselves to be such,
brought to feel and to know need, need, n-e-e-d, need. And this is such the case that
an old preacher had this to say about a real sinner. He said, a sinner is a sacred
thing. The Lord has made him such. In other words, if you find someone
in any age that truly knows themselves to be, and does not in any way
of themselves justify the reality of it, that knows themselves
to be a sinner. God's been at work. But I'm afraid it was the same
then as it is now, And that is that men and women, by nature,
they do not think that they need such a Savior as Jesus Christ
is. I hear them justify being a sinner
by saying, well, everybody sins. Not everybody. There was a man
who knew no sin, and he is God's standard. But this is obvious
by the people's response here in our text, when the true gospel
is not only preached, but preached by Christ Himself. How was His Word received on
this occasion? And maybe more importantly, how
will His Words be received here this morning? How will it be
received by you? How will it be received by me? Look at what our Lord says in
verse 16, or what it records of Him. It says that He came
to Nazareth. He wasn't a stranger in this
town. As a matter of fact, it says
where He had been brought up, many would say of Him and of
His childhood growth place? Can any good thing come out of
Nazareth?" And it says, "...as His custom was." In other words,
growing up under the remnants of that Old Testament economy,
in that Jewish synagogue where the Word of God was read every
Sabbath day, It was his custom to be there to hear it. Is that
our custom? Well, he went into the synagogue
on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read, had a place for
him 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 was written." He will, on this occasion,
use it to announce his very personal mission as the Savior. And he turns, or it is either
turned for him, to this particular passage in Isaiah, and he begins
to speak from that text concerning himself. I thought about it. It wouldn't have mattered what
text they had given him from Genesis to Malachi. They all, according to him, spoke
of him. But it is from this text that
he begins to speak the things concerning himself. And it is as the Christ that
He then announces personally what God has anointed Him to
do. If you would look back with me,
just to note this, I believe it's in Exodus 30, where we find
that very description that was given to Moses concerning what
was called the anointing oil. Well, in Exodus 30, it says in
verse 34, And the Lord said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices,
stacked, and ancha, And Galbanum, these spices with pure frankincense,
of each shall there be a light weight, And thou shalt make it
a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered
together, pure and holy. And thou shalt beat some of it
very small, and put of it before the testimony of the tabernacle
of the congregation, where I will meet with thee, and it shall
be unto you most holy." It was not to be used to cure anybody. It was not to be used for a room
freshener. It was to be regarded as a special
oil of anointing and described here as most holy. And as for the perfume which
thou shalt make, ye shall not make to yourselves according
to the composition thereof. It shall be unto thee holy for
the Lord. You couldn't make this by this
recipe for your own self. He says, "...whosoever shall
make like unto that to smell thereto shall even be cut off
from his people." It was a special anointing oil And it was to be
poured on in this anointing those that God had set apart to be
anointed to a particular service. So he begins here in our text,
in verse 18, talking about being anointed. He says, the Spirit
of the Lord, not another spirit, as there are many spirits. But he says here, the Spirit
of Jehovah is upon me, that is given to Christ as a man, and
without measure, and by which it was shown and demonstrated
that he was appointed and qualified to this particular work and service. What was this anointing all used
for? Well, in the Old Testament, this
particular Holy oil was used to anoint three offices, or three
works. It was used at the command of
God to anoint the King. God has anointed His only begotten
Son, not just the King, And not just His King, which He has set
on His holy hill, but the King of kings. And He has also anointed
Him as His priest. The High Priest was anointed
with this all. And he has anointed him, his
priest, to offer the sacrifices by which he redeems his people,
that being the sacrifice of himself. And then he also anointed his
prophet. He anointed these prophets. Because the prophet is the one
who stands before men and reveals God to them, tells them about
God, tells these people what God wants them to know. And so here on this occasion,
here is God's anointed prophet, that we find a type of in that
man Moses, but of whom it is said by Moses that there would
be another prophet from among the people." And you know what
Moses said about him? He called him that prophet. And he says what he says you
better hear. We better hear this prophet. And so here he is anointed according
to the Scripture here, anointed by the Spirit of the Lord, saying,
the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me
to preach the gospel to the poor. I hear men writing about the
greatest of preachers, such as Mr. Spurgeon and others, and
I kind of cringe. Or they even speak of Paul as
being the greatest preacher that's ever lived. That just isn't true. Here is the greatest preacher
that ever lived, the preacher of preachers, so as to be called
that prophet. And he says, I'm anointed of
God. I'm anointed of the Spirit of
God. It is upon me to preach the gospel. In that 61st chapter of Isaiah
where he's reading from, the words are, glad tidings. The Messiah would preach and
proclaim glad tidings. In our day, wouldn't you like
to have some good news? We complain about the news, saying
they never have any good news, when really, it's just like one
man said, in this world, there is only one good news, and that's
the gospel. He says, to heal the brokenhearted. He says, he's come to preach
deliverance to the captives. That's all in this 18th verse.
"...and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
them that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of
the Lord." What did that mean? Well, it meant that if he said
the Spirit of the Lord was upon him to do these things, he was
saying, I'm the Messiah. I'm the anointed of God. And I'm that prophet. And this
is what I have come to proclaim, And then it says in verse 20,
"...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." You
just think about this. Here is God in human flesh. Here is the One who is the truth
Himself, speaking the truth. Here is the One that the gospel
is all about, and He's proclaiming the gospel. Here is perfect humanity. The Messiah come now as promised
and prophesied by God, and He in this meager, simple place,
Nazareth, stands and He begins to preach the gospel and says,
this scripture is fulfilled in your ears and in your eyes this
day. Now you think, even humanly speaking,
like people think if some celebrity or some president or some royal
person just happens to be from their hometown or among a circle
of their friends, that's their claim to fame, isn't it? Not
here. Not on this occasion. Surely
they would all rejoice and be glad at such a thing as this."
But look at what it says in verse 22, "...and all bear witness
and wondered at the gracious or marvelous words which proceeded
out of his mouth." And they said, is not this Joseph's son? Well, he's just one of us. We've
known this boy since he was knee-high to a grasshopper. We know that
he is nothing more really than just the carpenter's son. He's never done anything great.
He's never manifested anything that would make us think he was
anything other than what we already know him to be. And you see,
as they began to mumble these things, that was no surprise
to the Lord Jesus, because He knew what was in their hearts.
He didn't have any need that anybody should have to reveal
it to Him. He knew that they, like all people
naturally, they thought they deserved something greater. If he actually had done a miracle
somewhere else, what kind of miracles would he do here? You
see, that just reveals what we naturally feel, that we deserve
something better because we are something better. You know why
you get so disappointed? You know why our so-called feathers
fall so often? You know why dissatisfaction
seems to rule and reign in our lives? It is because we, in our
inner being, think that we deserve better than this. Verse 23, it
says, And he said unto them, You will surely say unto me this
proverb, He said, I know what you're looking for. He says,
you'll say to me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself whatsoever
we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. Do something special for us. which simply revealed their blindness
and their hardness and their want of understanding of these
very things, not only concerning what they were, but considering
what He came to do. He's the Anointed One. But what
does He say? He's not like a lot of preachers.
He's going to cater a special, tailored message to them. Or
as I showed in Mr. Philpott's bulletin article today,
how that preachers will kind of single out somebody they don't
like, what they're doing in the congregation, and make a special
error for them. And they're not like a man who
draws a bow at a butcher. He aims at them and shoots it. No. He reminds them. And He declares unto them the
sovereignty of God in grace and mercy. People like to say things
like this, God can do anything that He wants to. That's nothing. What they actually have a problem
with is what He says He's already done. You see, election has to
do with what God's already done. Predestination has to do with
what God's already done and determined. So all these things, they rise
up to show our pride at what God says and how that we think
that we deserve mercy. You can't deserve mercy. You see, mercy is for enemies.
But He comes in His display of this, And he pictured something,
pictured all throughout the Old Testament. And not only the Old
Testament, but pictured throughout all of history. What is that? That Almighty God will have mercy
on whom He'll have mercy, and He'll be gracious to whom He
will be gracious. And that's the end of it. But
he calls back a couple of illustrations here. Look down in verse 24. And he said, "...verily I say
unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country." That's what
some people say that I am. A prophet in my own country. Preaching to a people where I
was raised up. They say, isn't that kind of
a problem having family members in your church? And I'll say,
well, first of all, it's not my church. But if the Lord is
pleased to save some of my family members and give them an interest
in this gospel, I'll shout for all eternity. I'm going to be
glad. I'm going to be thankful. And
if he's to use my feeble preaching, talking, to reveal to them the
Lord Jesus Christ, I'll be thankful. But note what he says here in
verse 25. But I tell you the truth. This is the truth. Election is
the truth. God chose a people according
to His own will, to show His grace and mercy to. He, as the
absolute Sovereign, predetermined and marked off beforehand all
things, and especially all things that pertain to their salvation.
He said, I'm going to tell you the truth. Many widows were in
Israel. He identifies a particular place,
which happens to be the very place therein. In the days of
Elias, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months,
when great famine was throughout all the land. It didn't rain
for three and a half years. You think we'd have any problems
in this area if it didn't rain for three and a half years? I'll
tell you what we'd have. We'd have famine. We'd have famine. That's what they had. But look
at what he says, "...but unto none of them was Elias sent,
except unto Zarephath, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was
a widow there." He wasn't even a Jew. She was a Gentile. It wasn't Israel. It was a heathen
land. I'm sure that didn't fly too
well. But look also, and many lepers were in Israel in the
time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, saving
Naaman the Syrian. Oh me, another Gentile, another
person that they would have referred to as a dog. But he said, God
sent His prophet to this widow woman who was a Gentile. He sent His prophet to this man
who was a captain in the Syrian host. And when he uses those
two illustrations, he shows two things about sinners that he
says. Because he pictured like in Naaman's
case, one who's terminally ill with a leprous disease. That's what we are as sinners.
And he pictures this widow who is without strength, who is hopeless
and helpless and bankrupt. When he gets there, she's down
to the last meal for herself and her son. And in those two
pictures, he pictured need. Need. You see, the best thing
that can happen for you and me is for God to deal with us in
what He knows is our need. rather than what we think is
our name. What's our greatest need this
morning? If I hadn't said any of this
or read any of this, just walked in and popped the question to
you, if you could have one thing you need this morning, what do
you need? Every answer would be based on what you think you
need or feel like you need. But if God deals with us on the
basis of what we think we need or feel we need, we'll die in
our sins. We'll be just like these who
we find in verse 28, whenever He says this, it says, "...and
all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, they
were filled with wrath." They were mad at these glad tithings.
And the response of natural men and women to the truth of the
gospel is that they get mad. Because in these two verses prior,
he shows these things, these doctrines of his free grace,
which naturally brings out a rebellion. Their anger rose up not because
of something He did, but because of what He said. When they heard
these things, they were filled with wrath. So why did they not
rejoice that He had come with these glad tidings, that He had
come preaching this good news? Because they didn't think they
needed such a Savior. They thought they needed an earthly
king who was going to dump all those Romans into a sea. They thought they needed more
food or better protection or whatever it was, but they didn't
think they needed a Savior like the Lord Jesus Christ. They were
already religious. While they were right there in
the synagogue, were they not? They didn't think that they were
in such a need and in such a desperate state. But the gospel that Christ
preached on that occasion is received by those whose characteristics
that we find in what He read. Now, there might not have been
any of these folks there on that occasion, but His gospel is going
to be preached in every place that He appoints it, by those
that He appoints, and in another sense, anoints, He is going to
have that message go forth, and there are going to be some folks
to whom it comes as glad tidings. Who is this gospel for? Well, if you look back in verse
18, He said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor." They're poor people. As a matter of fact, Isaiah,
in expressing the same thing, describes them as the meek. So by that, we know that it is
not simply those who are poor financially. Because, take my
word for it, some of the poorest people I've ever seen are the
proudest people I've ever seen. You know, Isaiah said they were
meek, meek. But what this literally means
is that they're beggars, that they're paupers in a spiritual
sense. They've been shown their spiritual
poverty by the Spirit of God through the Word of God. Can
I say one more time that you'll never know yourself a sinner
by self-examination. But you will only know yourself
as a sinner, and for the sinner you are, when God enables you
to believe what He says about you. I am what God says that
I am. I'm a sinner and I'm poor. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. There is none that are righteous,
none that doeth good, none that seeketh after God, not one. You see, in the light of God's
holiness, they've been shown what they are, and what they
thought were beautiful garments of self-righteousness, they find
are in God's sight, Filthy rags. We strut around, we say we go
to church, we're members of the church, we don't drink or cuss
or run around, we don't do any of these things, and we're not
like all these vile people that we're reading about on the news
and all that. So we must be better than they
are. Sorry. If God leaves you and
me to ourselves, will be worse than they are. Will be worse. And that's the truth. And here
are all these examples out here before us, we see about them,
and we see what a man or a woman left to themselves would do,
and we say, well, we wouldn't do that. What God is saying is,
that's what you are by nature. That's what you are left to yourself. You don't have anything God would
have. You don't have anything except
what He gave you. You can't do anything that would
please Him. This currency, this money that
you carry around of self-righteousness, it won't spend in God's kingdom.
Oh no. Christ said, blessed are the
poor in spirit, but theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed
are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are
they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they'll
be filled." They're poor. Are you poor? I don't run up
with many poor people in this sense. As a matter of fact, when
they find out I'm a preacher, they begin to tell me how rich
they are. They begin to tell me what they
do for the Lord. They begin to tell me what they
give up for the Lord, sacrifice for the Lord, how they love the
Lord. Have you ever had to beg? I doubt
it. I mean, have you ever been down
to where you didn't have one morsel of anything to eat? Have you ever been down to the
place where you did not have one penny to your name? and stayed that way? No. Oh, you might have had a time
when you didn't have much, or might not have had anything,
but it didn't last, did it? These people are poor before
God. He said that He would spew some
out of His mouth. Because you say, I'm rich and
increased with goods and have need of nothing, and you know
not that you're wretched and miserable and poor and blind
and naked. That's what we are. And only the Holy Spirit can
reveal this to us. Have you ever watched the Antiques
Roadshow? Well, you know, the Antiques
Roadshow, when those people come, They leave in two groups. They've
got this stuff that they've been told all their life. It's an
antique. It was the sword carried by General
Custer or something like that. And they've had it since 18-something
or other. And they come to that show and
the man, the expert says, well, there's a little problem with
that. What was that? What's the problem? That sword was made many, many
years later, and we know by this mark that it went in their treasure. Then they'll come somebody in
there and they'll have a little trinket, just a little trinket
of some kind. Well, oh, I'm so glad you brought
that in today. Why? Well, this is a rare instance. They only made one or two of
these. This was worth hundreds of thousands
of dollars. And he'd go away happy. Only
God can show us what we are in His sight in ourselves. Only He can bring us to that
point that we know that He is the God who alone can tell us
what we are. He says we're sinners. Poor sinners. Then in verse 18 again, they're
described as the brokenhearted. And not those brokenhearted over
lost love, and broken marriages, and broken homes, and brokenhearted
over the consequences of sin, but those who are brokenhearted
over their sin before God. This is a principle. God resists
the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. The Lord is nigh
unto them that are of a broken heart, and save as such as be
of a contrite spirit." The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and
a broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. Why? Because that heart that's
broken, over their rebellion against God, broken over their
sins, that heart that pours forth weeping within of the matter
that they have sinned against God. That's what breaks my heart. That I have not only sinned,
but my sins are against goodness. My sins are against God-given
light. My sins are against known truth. My sins are against the hand
of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. My sins are against
Him who looked upon me from old eternity and determined to bless
me. Religion offers counselors to
those who are brokenhearted over the things which are common to
all in this sin-cursed world. But God tells and sends his preachers
with this gospel for those who are brokenhearted over sin, to
tell them the very thing that will bring peace to their conscience,
which is the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ has already Himself
took their sins upon Himself, and before the court of heaven,
God is satisfied. None can satisfy but Jesus. And none can satisfy your heart,
and especially your conscience, except that which has already
satisfied God. That is a view of Christ in the
gospel as the one who has put away and made reconciliation
for sin and made an end of it by paying the debt God's justice
requires. The message that He's been made
sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him. In today's evangelism, and today's
decisions, and today's phony confessions, they show no mark
of any godly sorrow over sin. That godly sorrow that works
repentance, which is the gift of God. No conviction of sin. I just don't see it. I just don't
see any. And then in verse 18 he says,
this is another proclamation, and what it will be about, deliverance
to the captives. Isaiah said, liberty to the captains
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. They're
bound by ignorance. They're bound by tradition, bound
by superstition, bound by self-will. Somebody said years ago that
sin is a prison cell, but pride and self-righteousness are the
lock on the door. Our Lord would say in another
place, and ye shall know the truth. How is this deliverance
going to take place in our experience? And ye shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free. And they answered Him,
On that occasion, we be Abraham's seed and never were in bondage
to any man. How do you say that? You shall
be made free. And Jesus answered them, barely,
barely, I say unto you, whosoever committed sin is the servant
of sin." The servant of sin. Bound by Satan. Bound to a nature of sin. under
the curse of the law. Where is our deliverance? It's
in the Deliverer. It's in the Savior. Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. He's going to rescue every one
of them. He's already died the accomplishing death. He's already
rose victorious over death. He's going to come as their liberator.
He's going to find these poor broken-hearted sinners who are
truly such, because He's made them to be such, and He's going
to bring to them the message of deliverance that God has saved
them. He has saved us and called us
with a holy calling. And then verse 18, they're described
as the blind. They are blind spiritually, came
forth from the womb blind to truth, blind to God in His glory,
cannot see the King in His beauty, blind to good and to right, to
our own fallen natures and self-glory. And this blindness is both an
inability to see and an unwillingness to look. John the Baptist was
described as a witness to the light. Who needs a witness to
the light? A blind person. A blind person. Then he says in verse 18 again,
the bruised. The bruised oppressed. Bruised
from our fallen Adam. bruised by Satan, bruised because
we're captives, bruised by our self-destructive fallen natures. When I read that, I think of
the term, beat up. Beat up by religion without God. Beat up by the world. Beat up
by the devil. He said, I'll come to preach
deliverance. And this message, this gospel,
Preach shows Christ alone to be the Savior, and the Redeemer,
and the Deliverer, and the Savior to only such as those who are
found in this character and condition. He is the Good Samaritan. That
old fellow that fell among thieves going down to Jericho, he's beat
to a pulp. And all these that represent
false religion and Judaism and morality and all, they just passed
him by. But the Samaritan, he went where
he was. And he bound up his wounds and
he poured in oil and wine and set him on his horse and took
him to the end and left money for him to be cared for. In other
words, the Samaritan had to do everything. And sinners like
we are, God in Christ has done and has to do everything. Now there was one thing, and
I'll hush, but there's one part of that text in Isaiah 61 that
the Lord Jesus made no mention of. You want to turn back there
and look at it? Isaiah 61, Verse 2, "...to proclaim the
acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our
God." Christ ushered in what is called the acceptable year
of the Lord, which is simply the day of His grace. The age
in which between His first coming and His second coming, that He
would save His people. from their sins. If he had said
on that occasion there in Nazareth, when he read from that text,
if he talked about the day of vengeance, that would have surely
meant his second coming. But he announced the acceptable
year of the Lord, which is simply a definite period of time appointed
by God Himself. One day, the last one that God
has appointed will stand up and preach the gospel for the last
time. And that last stone in that house
of grace, the capstone, the one that showed the total finished
glorified body of Christ, that last stone, the prophet said,
will go in with shoutings of grace, grace. But one more time,
And one more time in this place. And hopefully one more time somewhere
in this world where someone will hear this message. He sets forth
the Savior and He calls upon sinners to forsake all and trust
Him. Bleed His bloodshed. Bleed God's
free grace to you. Christ came into the world to
save sinners. Paul said, of whom I am chief. And everyone that God has saved
from that day, they say the same thing. Same thing. Do you need
a Savior? But most especially, do you need
a Savior like the Lord Jesus Christ? You do. You need one. I mean, need one. He says, I'm He. You have won. Father, this day we give glory
and praise to your name. We know that we're nothing. You
had left us to ourselves. If you leave us to ourselves,
we will surely perish. Save us by your grace, through
your blood, in this Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We will surely
praise you. Save us in every sense in which
we need saving. And all praise and honor and
glory will be to your name. Amen.