Chapter 4. I'll start reading this morning at
verse 14. Look for, when we start reading
verse 14, we're going to read down verse 22. I really would like to look further
in this passage from 22 on down. A little bit further in the chapter,
but I think we'll look maybe at that if the Lord wills next. Next week, this week I'd like to look at
this first portion. Starting at verse 14 it says,
and Jesus returned, now before I get, I guess before we get
in here, remember where we're at here in Luke. Jesus had just come out of being
tempted by the devil. And he came up out of that temptation,
says verse 14, and Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into
Galilee. Now, I surely don't, I didn't
do this to make light of anything, but whenever I was reading through
this, I kind of chuckled a little bit. not because there's anything
wrong with God's word, but just because of the thought of it
to come through my mind. It says that Jesus returned in
the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and I got to thinking
to myself, when was there never a time that Jesus wasn't in the
Spirit? He was the anointed of God. We're
gonna kinda see that maybe as we go through here. He's the
anointed of God, and when is he not? without the Spirit or
in the Spirit. He is God. And God is Spirit. And Jesus surely has the Spirit
without measure. And so, whenever I was reading
that, I thought, you know, that the Holy Spirit is pointing this
out to us for a specific reason, because we know that Jesus always
is full of the Spirit. That He is in the power of the
Spirit at all times. But to know that as he's doing
this in this ministry, as he began his ministry here, he began
his ministry as the anointed of God and he came bearing record
or bearing to his people the ministry of God and what he was
sent to do as the anointed of God. And the spirit was on him
to preach these things, to teach these things, to show forth these
things to all of his people. So it's just to reiterate that
this isn't just a common man. It's not just another man who's
walking on the earth. A lot of the false religions
out there speak of Jesus as just being a good man, a prophet,
a preacher, a teacher, less than God. Or if they do believe he's
God, they believe he's subservient to the first person that they
call the first person of the Trinity, He's the second person
of the Trinity in submission or in lower stature than the
first person as if there's multiple people in the Godhead. There's
one God and Jesus Christ is the fullness of God in flesh. All that God is in spirit, He
is in flesh. And Jesus took on as man took
on submission to the purpose that He had declared from the
foundation of the world. So Jesus here is entering into
His ministry and it says, 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. Now, if you'll notice here, Jesus
went about preaching and men was receiving what He was preaching.
It was pleasing to their ears. It said, fame went out through
all the region. The things that Jesus was preaching,
the way that Jesus was bringing these things to their understanding
and to their knowledge, the way that he was opening up the scriptures
to them, this is something that they'd never heard. Matter of
fact, we hear their testimony in scripture. The Bible said
this man teaches as one who has authority. This man teaches different
than the Pharisees. This man teaches as though one
who has authority, one who teaches as though he has great knowledge
and wisdom of the subject that he's talking about. And he does
because he's the one that spoke the word. He's the one who is
the word of God. He's the one who has spoke these
things by his spirit, has spoke these things that he was reading
out of these scrolls. So surely the Lord knows the
subject. But it says here, and he taught
in their synagogues, being glorified of all, meaning that when the
people heard this, they glorified God from the things that they
were hearing. Verse 16 says, and he came to
Nazareth, where he had been brought up. Of course, Jesus was born
in Bethlehem, but he was raised in Nazareth. That's where Mary
and Joseph resided, and he was raised there in Nazareth. It
says, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on
the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. So we see here that
it was customary for Jesus to attend the synagogue and even
had come to the stature among them that he was allowed to stand
up and read from the book in front of everybody. And so it
says here in verse 17, and there was delivered unto him the book
of the prophet Isaiah, we know that to be Isaiah. And when he
had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. Now, I don't believe, brethren,
that when Jesus opened up the book, he just willy nilly. I
don't know about you. I want to confess something to
you here, and I hope you don't hold a fence to me about that.
But I'll ask the question for you as well. How many of you
has ever got your Bible out and you not really know what you
wanted to study or read and you just say, where do I want to
read today? And you just open it up and just kind of start
reading wherever the Lord providentially has you open it up. Am I the
only one that does that? Maybe I should have kept that
one to myself. But anyway, sometimes I just
willy nilly open something up and just say, hey, what's here?
Jesus didn't just grab the thing and just open it up and just
start reading from wherever the page landed. The Lord opened
it up to a specific verse because He had specific words to say
at a specific time because as we've just sung, all things were
ordered sure. All things were ordered Every
minute detail, not just of Jesus' life, not just of Jesus' life
in ministry, but every detail has been ordered out by God.
There is a time and a season for everything. There is a habitation
that God has set for all of us. There is details of our life
and every action, every reaction, everything that we encounter
in life has all been ordered of God. He is sovereignly over
all those things, not only in the bringing forth of those things,
but in the declaration that they would be so. And so Jesus is
here, coming back into Nazareth, coming back into the synagogue,
being delivered the book, an opening of the book to read at
a specific time, with a specific passage, for a specific reason. It says, as he begins to read
verse 18, he begins to read Isaiah, and this is, by the way, is Isaiah
66, one that he's quoting from or reading from. He says, the
spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, and to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and gave
it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of 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 bear him witness, and
wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.
And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? Now, as I just mentioned, Jesus
is reading from Isaiah 66 in verse 1. So this is a prophecy
that Isaiah spoke, that God had Isaiah write. thousands of years
or hundreds of years. I don't know how many years.
I'm not well versed in years and time, Bible timelines, things
like that, without having to study it out and look off someone
else's cheat sheet. But the prophecy of Isaiah, which
was, we know hundreds of years because there was 400 years from
Malachi to the New Testament time, hundreds of years from
Isaiah to Jesus, but Isaiah was given the words to read and to
say to the people and to write down and to be archived as the
Lord had compiled all these things that he had the Spirit have these
men write so that they would formulate what we now call the
Bible. And those words were written
down and they were written down concerning the Lord Jesus Christ,
but as Jesus read there, he said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon
me because he hath anointed me. The word Christ, we call him
Jesus Christ. Christ isn't Jesus' last name.
I know we all kind of say that little funny sentence quite often,
but Christ isn't Jesus' last name, for those who may have
not really known that, but Christ is a word that means the anointed
one. Jesus is the anointed one of
God, meaning that God has set Christ apart as His servant and
has anointed Him or has over Him given power and authority
and set Him in office for a specific purpose. We see pictures and
types of this in the Old Testament whenever the priest was set aside
and they were anointed and the priest, pour the oil and the
king, King David as well, they would pour oil over them and
anoint them with oil and this would be a sign or would be a
symbol of the Spirit setting them aside for a purpose and
an office to carry out for God. Jesus is the anointed of God. He is the one who has been chosen
of God to accomplish all the works of God on behalf of his
people. He is the one to come to bring
all things to pass that God has written down, that God has declared
from the foundation of the world. Jesus is the one to come and
to fulfill all the things that the Old Testament prophets and
scribes and people had wrote about him for many, many years. Jesus is the one that God has
anointed to come and be the salvation of His people. That's what Christ
means. And Jesus, whenever He says that He had anointed me
to preach, whenever He read that line, and as we've seen in verse
21, applied that prophecy to Himself, and everyone there,
whenever they heard this, they understood that He was making
that connection that that prophecy he just read in Isaiah is speaking
of him. It says that they wondered and
they graciously, or excuse me, they wondered at the gracious
words which proceeded out of his mouth, and they said, is
not this Joseph's son? They began to say, well, yeah,
that is wonderful and great, but this is Joseph's son. He's
the anointed. He's the anointed one of God.
It did say that they got at this point got mad at him. They didn't
pick up stones to kill him here. Now, we're going to look and
see some things further here next week, Lord willing, but
here they were receiving this word and they were astonished.
They were wondering. He said here he'd been going
around preaching these things and it says that the people glorified
him. And we see what Isaiah wrote
and what we see here in verse 18. we see is a beautiful picture
of the ministry of why the Anointed One came. It says that He came
to preach the Gospel to the poor. We all know what the Gospel is,
don't we? The Gospel is the good news. He came to preach the good
news to the poor. Now the poor there, matter of
fact, the poor here doesn't mean people that's without money or
destitute of things. homeless or things like that.
That's not what this word means. This word means me. Matter of
fact, if you look, look with me back at Isaiah chapter 66,
where Jesus was reading, you'll actually see that that's the
word that Isaiah actually used. The words are interchangeable.
Isaiah 66 verse one, it says, thus said the Lord, the heaven
is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house
that ye build for me? Wait a minute. Sixty-one. Sixty-one. Sixty-one-one. The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach
good tidings, which that's what good news is, good tidings. We
use the word gospel. Unto the meek. So Christ is sent to preach the
Gospel unto the meek. If you remember, Jesus, whenever
He taught the Beatitudes, He said, Blessed are the meek, for
they shall inherit the earth. That word is poor. Blessed is
the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. That's
what He's meaning here. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. Now, let's look and see, is this
the fulfillment of Jesus? The fulfillment of the law by
Jesus? Look with me, if you still have your finger back there in
Isaiah. Look at Isaiah chapter 11. Let's look and see some of
the things that the Scriptures say say about the anointing and
what he was here to do. Isaiah chapter 11, starting in
verse 1, it said, And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem
of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. Now, brethren,
this is metaphoric language, okay? This is metaphoric language
used to bring forth a type and a foreshadow, but it's speaking
of Jesus, okay? There shall come forth a rod
out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his
root." Meaning that there would be an offspring. There would
be one that would come out of the lineage of David. And it
says, "...and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him." So
here's that anointing again. He's not anointed with oil. but
he's anointed with the Spirit, meaning that he is filled with
the Spirit, he is empowered by the Spirit, he is coming and
working in the work of the Spirit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall
rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the
Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of
the fear of the Lord. So now you know why whenever
Jesus went around preaching, as is mentioned there in the
first portion of our passage, that people were astounded at
what he was saying, that people were moved by what he was saying,
and they wondered because the Spirit of God in its fullness
was giving him wisdom, giving him understanding, giving him
counsel, giving him might, giving him knowledge, and in the fear
of the Lord, he delivered these things, or in reverence to the
Lord, that word fear means reverence, in reverence to the Lord, The
Lord Jesus preached these things, therefore he preached as one
who had authority. None of the religious leaders
that were there that had a different take on everything in the Old
Testament who were preaching and leading the children of Israel
astray by their law preaching that was pointing to Moses and
not to Christ, that all those Old Testament types and foreshadows
that were to be pointing to Christ, these religious leaders should
have been preaching and teaching to the people on how this is
pointing to our Savior, this is pointing to our Messiah, the
anointed one who is to come. But instead, they were preaching
their self-righteousnesses, and they were preaching honor and
glory to Moses, and to Abraham, and to Isaac, and to Jacob, their
forefathers, and to David. They were exalting the Lord's
children, they were exalting the men that the Lord had raised
up. And listen, we do that in times
like these. Listen, people exalt and put
on pedestals pastors, preachers. You look and see, you know, listen,
you talk about, and I'm not saying that Billy Graham was one of
the Lord's preachers because I don't believe he was. Billy
Graham preached a false gospel. Billy Graham preached antithetical
to the gospel. He preached that there would
be people that would be in heaven that had never heard the gospel, never
knew Jesus, who would be there in heaven just because God's
love. And that many people will be
coming from all different ways. Some people might come through
the Christian way, some people might come through the Muslim
way, and some the Hindu way, or whatever. This is Billy Graham
speaking. I can document all that for those
who don't believe me, what I'm saying. But not only that, he
preached a free will gospel that is a gospel that is Jesus loves
everybody, Jesus died for everybody, and Jesus died on the cross that
everybody would be saved and if you make a decision you can
come to him. That's a false gospel. That's
not what the Bible teaches. Therefore, Billy Graham was a
false preacher just as much as anybody else is. You name it. But men put these people on pedestals. Now let's just even talk about
within the sovereign grace. community. Men put other men
on pedestals, whether it's John Gill, or whether it's John Owen,
or whether it's, you know, the internet preachers of today that
everybody likes to, you know, tout and talk about and oh, this
is what this guy says, this is what this man says, how come
you're not, you know, you should be listening to him, you know,
all these lettered preachers, You should be listening to them. The anointing of God came with
all the fullness. He came with all the knowledge.
He came with all the understanding. He knew it all. And the people
were astonished by it. They wondered at it because they
had not been hearing that among their religious leaders. And
Jesus, when He came and He preached, He preached as the anointing
of God. I pray that whenever I preach
and speak, I speak the words of God and not my own words.
Not like those Pharisees who are just preaching and leading
others into the ditch. The blind leading the blind.
I pray that the things that I say are guided by Him, directed by
Him, the truth of His Word. And it only will happen if the
Lord gives me understanding and gives me utterance for it. Otherwise,
I'm just preaching from the hip, preaching from the things that
I think in man's wisdom. But here we see the Lord never
did that. The Lord never did that. It says here, the Spirit
of the Lord will rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might and of knowledge and of
the fear of the Lord, and shall make him of quick understanding
in the fear of the Lord. You remember Jesus, whenever
he was 12 years old, went into that same synagogue and began
to ask questions to those religious leaders and was stumping those
religious leaders and they were astounded. Man, how does this
little kid have all this understanding and have authority in what he
understands? How does he know that? How does
he understand these things already? He's only 12. It says here, "...and
shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord, and
he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove
after the hearing of His ears." He's not going to judge things
and He's not going to speak things at face value. He's going to
speak truth. The Bible says that He doesn't
look on outward appearances, but He looks upon the heart.
He knows the heart of every man. He knows what men are thinking.
He knows. Remember, Jesus was said to have
known those who believed on Him and those who hated Him. He knew
the ones who would betray Him. See, Jesus knows all things because
He's God. And whenever He makes judgment,
He makes righteous judgment. Whenever He speaks truth, He
speaks the fullest truth. Without any error mixed in with
it. Without any hint or shade of anything upon it, He speaks
it. Why? Because He has all judgment.
Because He's been given wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, So we see that He is the anointed
of God sent to do this. Look also, if you would, with
me over to Matthew 3. As soon as Jesus was baptized, it
says here, Matthew 3.16, And Jesus, when He was baptized,
went up straightway out of the water, and, lo, the heavens were
opened unto Him, And he saw the Spirit of God descending like
a dove and lighting upon him, and lo, a voice from heaven saying,
This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." So here,
again, we see that Jesus is this anointed one, the Spirit of God,
descending upon him and anointed him for the ministry that God
had sent him to do. Look, if you would, at John chapter
1. I know all these things are basically
saying the same thing, brethren, but it kind of gives us a few
different nuggets and angles to this. John chapter 1, look
with me, if you would, at verse 29. If you remember, there come a time
when John the Baptist, as strong as he was in the Spirit, God
had anointed him also for ministry. to be the preparer of the way. But if you remember, there was
a time whenever John the Baptist, after he'd been thrown into prison,
had begun to doubt and to have a wonder of whether this truly
was the Christ. And what did Jesus say? Look here, verse 29. The next
day, John saw Jesus coming unto him and said, Behold the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And this is
he of whom I am said, After me cometh a man who is preferred
before me, for he was before me. And I knew him not, but that
he should be made manifest unto Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing
with water. And John bear record, saying,
I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and in a boat
upon him. And I knew him not, but he that
sent me to baptize with water, The same said unto me, upon whom
thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same
is he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bear
record, and this is the Son of God." You see how confident John
the Baptist was there? He was pretty confident. But
later on, we find that John was asking, well, man, is this really
Jesus? And what did Jesus say? Go tell
John And he actually paraphrased Isaiah 61 again. He paraphrased the same thing.
Go tell John that the blind are seeing, the deaf are hearing,
the dead are coming to life again, the captives are being set free. He's telling John and reminding
John, remember what was said of me and here's my ministry,
here's what I am doing. Let's do it over to Acts, Acts chapter 10. And by the way,
brethren, we're not any better than John the Baptist. John the
Baptist was confident he had seen, matter of fact, John the
Baptist actually seen the Spirit as it came down and however that
looked, however that transpired. I don't know how that transpired
exactly, how much of that is symbolic. or how much of that
is literal speech, I don't know. Just take it at face value is
what it said. But John saw it and he heard
the voice from heaven saying it. And he proclaimed that this
is the Son of God without a doubt. But yet he began to be doubtful
of those things when times got hard, whenever he was put in
prison and trials and testing came. He began to doubt. Listen,
we're no different. That's why we preach the Gospel
every week. That's why I come here every
week. And I tell you, a lot of times the same things over and
over and over again. Because it comforts our soul
because our Adamic man likes to accuse us of the sin that
we surely are involved in, the way that we miss the mark every
day, how enabled we are of righteousness, how we are not righteous people,
how we sin against God, how we are worthy of damnation, and
all those accusations. What is one of the jobs of Satan?
He's the accuser of the brethren. And he often does that in that
little small voice in our head. How can you call yourself a Christian?
That really isn't Christ. You really think that he would
have done that for you? You really think that He would have done
that for you? That's why we preach the Gospel. Because it comforts
the children of God to hear those things again, and that inner
man hears the Gospel of the good news of His salvation, and the
Holy Spirit bears record with our spirit that we are His. So that's why we continue to
preach these things. It's not just the preacher running out
of things to say. It's not the preacher just running out of
material. And so he has to keep regurgitating
the same phrases, the same passages, the same doctrines, the same
theology over and over again. It's to continue to put before
us the good news that Jesus Christ is the answer to all of His people's
problems. The good news, as he's seen there
in Luke, the good news that He has come to do exactly what He
was sent to do to preach the Gospel to the poor, to heal the
brokenhearted. If you're a child of grace and
the Spirit of God lives in you, one of the things that the Spirit
does is it manifests to us that new inward man. It manifests
to us how the outward man is full of sin. It manifests to
us and testifies to us of our inability. It tells us of our
sinfulness and how wicked we are before a holy God. And that Spirit bears witness
with our spirit that we cannot do anything and are deserving
truly of that wrath of God. But yet the Spirit, whenever
we become broken in heart over our sins, the Spirit, like salve,
like an ointment, comes and it heals our broken heart whenever
the gospel or the good news of what Jesus has done on our behalf. I mean, think about it. For all
of us that have been broken hearted over our sin, whenever the Lord,
at whatever time it was, brought us to know our sin. Before the
Lord does that, before the Lord opens up our understanding, brings
light upon our sin and darkness, before the Lord does that, we
think we're okay. You know, now most of us will
probably say, well, yeah, I maybe do some bad things, but if my
good things outweighs my bad things, then the Lord's gonna
accept me. The Lord's not gonna accept you
based upon the good things or the bad things that you've done.
Matter of fact, in Romans chapter nine, he says, before the boys
had done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God, according
to election might stand, he chose Jacob and not Esau. See, the
choice of God in salvation has nothing to do with whether or
not you're good or bad. God doesn't look on your good
and bad and say, well, hey, this one's been more good than bad,
so I'm going to love him and accept him and let him come to
heaven. That's not how salvation works. Salvation works in Christ
doing all the work on our behalf, and he gives it as a gift to
us. And so whenever we are broken
in heart because the Spirit has revealed to us our sinfulness,
Jesus by the Spirit comes in and reveals unto us the good
news that guess what? Even though you are sinful, you
are wretched, you are full of unrighteousness, and you continue
to break my law, I have forgiven you and I love you. and that I have taken the wrath
of God upon myself whenever I was crucified on that tree. And I
have bore your sins in my body so that you won't have to. I
have bore your sins so that you will not have to stand before
a holy righteous God who will not turn a blind eye to your
sin. I've taken that sin for you and
I've died in your place. and I've given you My righteousness
in that stead." Instead of your sin, God now views you in My
righteousness. And God, instead of My righteousness
viewed me at the time when He took on our sin, viewed Him as
our sin. Jesus became sin that we might
become righteous. Brethren, that is spiritual salve,
spiritual medicine for the brokenhearted. If you're brokenhearted about
your sin and about how unworthy you are before God, listen, Christ
Jesus, the good news is Christ Jesus died for you. He died in
your place and has forgiven you of all those sins. And you don't
have to bear those sins anymore. You don't have to bear the guilt
of those sins anymore. Jesus took those sins upon Himself
and He said, I have forgiven them as far as the east is from
the west. He said, I have buried them in
the depths of the sea to remember them. Listen, to remember them
no more. He has healed the broken hearted.
And in Acts chapter 10, He says, First, let me get back to where I was at. And in verse 38, he
says, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost
and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that
were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. He not
only healed those who were oppressed by the devil, by those who were
possessed by the devil, He surely did that. We know that for a
fact. There were several times that
he cast out demons from people. But we also see those who were
oppressed by the devil, by sicknesses. People that had been lame, that
had been blind, that had been deaf, that were dumb, that couldn't
speak. People that were lepers. But
all those physical healings that Jesus did, the delivering them
from the devil and possession of demons, the healing of all
those sicknesses and ailments, and raising people to physical
life. Remember whenever Lazarus died? And when Lazarus was in the grave
for four days and Jesus called him out, he came back out alive.
Whenever Jesus healed the young girl and Centurion's kid. Listen, Jesus raised those people
back to life, physical life. But all those things point to
something that Jesus does spiritually. All these things that Jesus is
preaching, although physically He went around whenever He was
there and did these things, He preached to the poor in spirit,
the poor, the brokenhearted. He gives sight to the blind.
He gives hearing to the deaf. He did all those things physically.
but all that was to point to what he did for his people spiritually. We were spiritually blind. We
didn't even know that we were enemies of God. We didn't even
know that we had sinned against God. Now, yeah, the natural man
knows that he does things right and wrong. He knows that he does
things that are bad. Okay, you come out here and say
somebody has never been in church, never heard of Jesus, never heard
of the Bible, never heard one sermon ever preached, and have
not been involved in any religion. He grew up in an atheist household. Never heard of any of that stuff.
He knows right from wrong. And I know that to be true because
the Bible says that God has put that kind of stuff in their hearts.
They know those kinds of things in their hearts. Their conscience
bears record of them. Before the Gentiles, who had
not the law, did those things which were of the law, it bore
record that those things were written on their hearts. So I
know that everybody has that on their heart, but they may
not understand that this is sin against the God, the God, the
only God. They may not understand that
there is nothing that they can do to pay for that sin. The only
thing that they can do, because the Bible says the wages of sin
is what? The only way that you can pay
for your sin is eternal damnation by God. That's the payment for
sin. And you will pay your wage unless
Christ pays it for you. If Christ has not paid your debt,
you still owe that debt and you will pay that wage at the end
of all things. There's no getting out of it.
But see, we learned that Jesus paid that debt for us if we are
His people. He paid that debt. And so we believe upon him, we
look to him, we don't look to our own selves. We don't think
that, again, I don't go back to how many good things does
Mike do. How many good things have I done? I was listening
to, we was watching last night, it was some guy that the kids
watch on the internet. He's a chef or something. that cooks for some program that
they watch. Anyway, he was interviewing Tom
Hanks. And Tom Hanks is a member of
the Greek Orthodox Church. And anyway, they got to talking
about religion a little bit. Well, one of the statements that
kind of stuck out at me whenever he was talking about it, of course,
it was all fluffy, fluffy religious talk is all it was. It wasn't
nothing actual of truth that they were talking about. But
one thing that stuck out is one thing Tom said is, You know,
the way I look at things is as long as I get 51% good, then
my bad, then I'm good with that. You know, he's good with that.
As long as there's 51%, meaning more good than bad, then I'm
okay with that. Well, yeah, all of us are okay
with that, right? Matter of fact, I'll go so far
as to say that in Mike, I think 30 or 20% is pretty good. I would clear my name for 20%
good. If it were up to me to justify
myself, hey, mine gets away on 10% maybe, even. As long as I
do 10% good, at least I'm not 100% bad. I can always justify
somebody else being better or worse than me, and I can always
justify myself being better than somebody else. But see, that's
not how God judges righteousness. God judges righteousness according
to Himself. He is righteous and His judgment
is according to Himself. And the Bible says there are
none righteous. No, not one. That means all of us, everyone
in this room and everyone outside of this house, across this plane
is not righteous. And everyone that has ever lived
from Adam is not righteous. And the Bible says that the wages
of sin or unrighteousness is death. So there has to be a deliverance
from death. There has to be a deliverance
from sin. There has to be a deliverance
from the bondage that we are under to God's law that continues
to condemn us And that deliverance is the anointed one, Jesus Christ,
who came and did what He did. And it says here that God anointed
Jesus with the Holy Ghost and with power who went about doing
good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil for God
was with Him. He went and He delivered people
from the bondage of sin, the bondage of Satan, delivered them
out of the hands of all that we are in ourselves. Look with
me if you would at Psalms 45. This may be more than a two-parter.
Psalms 45. Now the psalmist here is writing
about God This is exactly what I was saying,
brethren, except it kind of says it in a little shorter context,
right? Preachers always like to draw
it out. Psalms 45, verse 7. Speaking of God, he says, Thou,
God, Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness. Now, just stop right there. There's
a lot of people Believe it or not, that it's a surprise to
them that God hates something. To them, there is no hate in
their vocabulary when it comes to God. They think there is no
hate because God is love. Yes, brother, God is love, but
that doesn't mean that he's not also hate. The Bible says that
God hates all workers of iniquity. Have you ever heard that phrase?
I've said this phrase in times past whenever I was less mature
in the faith. I've said God hates the sin but
loves the sinner. That's not what the Bible says.
You can't find that anywhere in the Bible, brethren. That's
not a Bible verse. That is a verse that religious
men have made up to hide the God of the Bible and to pump
you up as being worthy of something. That's not what the Bible says.
The Bible says that God hates all workers of iniquity. Guess who workers of iniquity
are? Every one of us. You say, well, wait a minute,
I thought God loved his people. He does love his people. We are
not considered workers of iniquity because the Bible says about
his people, the elect of God, this is what God says. He hath
not beheld iniquity in Jacob, nor have he seen perverseness
in Israel." That's speaking of spiritual Jacob and spiritual
Israel, which is the children of God, the elect of God. He
has not beheld iniquity in them. Has there been iniquity in them?
Yes, but he's not beheld it. Why? Because Christ has stood
as their surety from everlasting. His righteousness has been imputed
to them from everlasting. He has only seen them before
Him in love. Why? Because Christ has been
their righteousness. And so whenever the Lord hates
wickedness, hates iniquity, and hates all those who do iniquity,
He's not speaking of the elect because the Bible says who can
lay any charge to that of the elect of God? No one can lay
any charge to the elect of God. God who is a righteous judge
is not going to lay anything to your charge because Jesus
Christ took all your sin. He bore all your sin. He has
been your surety. Therefore, God doesn't view your
sin. He views Christ's righteousness. That's why He loves righteousness.
He loves us because we have been made righteous. It's not in and
of ourselves. Mike Smith is not a righteous
man. But I am deemed, I am reckoned righteous. I am viewed as righteous. My account shows righteous even
though actually I am sinful. But God has imputed that righteousness
or has counted that righteousness to my account My standing before God is righteous. And that's because of Jesus Christ.
He says, Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore,
God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above
thy fellows. That is speaking of Jesus. That God has anointed Christ
with the oil of gladness above his fellows." God anointed Christ
above all his seed, above all his people, so that Christ would
be to them everything that they needed. Adam had all of his seed
in him, and all of his seed was blessed in Adam. The Bible says
that him and his wife that was in him, before Eve was ever brought
out of Adam's side, The Bible says He blessed them and called
their name Adam, meaning that Eve was considered under the
name Adam. Eve was actually identified under
the banner of Adam. Is that not the same with us?
As the spiritual children of God, we are in Christ Jesus. before we were ever brought out
and manifested as those spiritual children, we were in Him. And
Ephesians says we were blessed with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And what is this? The
Bible says that Jesus is the Lord our what? Righteousness. He is the Lord our righteousness.
But in that same verse, the Bible says, it talks about the bride
or the wife of Christ And he says that we are called the Lord
our righteousness. We also are called the Lord our
righteousness. So we come under the banner of
the Lord our righteousness just like Eve came under the banner
of Adam. Eve was called Adam even though
she was not Adam. And we are called righteous even
though we are not righteous. You see what beautiful love that
Christ has done for his people? I don't deserve that. You don't
deserve that. You might think you deserve that, but you don't
deserve that. I don't deserve that. But Christ did that for
us. He was anointed above His fellows
so that He might do that for us. Now what does the Bible say
about us? Look at Ephesians chapter 4 and
verse 7. It says, but unto every one of
us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
So we have the Spirit in measure, right? We have the Spirit, it
says here, but unto every one of us is given grace according
to the measure of the gift of Christ. That's referring to the
gifts of the Spirit that God has given to us. The grace of
the indwelling Spirit, the work of the indwelling Spirit, the
gifts that He performs in us. And it says that we are given
according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Meaning that
Christ is the one who measures out the amount that we have. So that means we don't have everything and manifested everything
all at once. Now we do see the works of the
Spirit in us on lots of occasions, don't we? I'm thankful for it.
You know, whenever I'm tempted to sin and the Spirit of God
somehow comes within me and causes me to withhold from that sin. Or whenever the Spirit gives
me to love or to do whatever He wants me to do, those blessings
are truly beautiful from God. But brethren, I'm not like that
all the time. But what about the Lord? Look
at John 3, if you would. What about the Lord Jesus? John
3, verse 34, the Bible says that Christ For he whom God hath sent,
that's his anointed, speaketh the words of God. For God giveth
not the Spirit by measure unto him. See, Christ isn't given
the Spirit in little bits and pieces. He isn't given power to do the
things of God here and there. but He has the Spirit without
measure, meaning that there is never a time that Christ ever
acted, ever spoke, or did anything outside the activity and the
work of God. That's why He could say that
I have done everything that the Father has told me to do. I have
obeyed and kept everything that the Father has told me to do.
I have fulfilled all the things that have been told to me. Why?
Because I do the will of my Father. Why does He do the will of His
Father? Because He's God. He does His will. He does as
He pleases. He does everything that has been
decreed. Why? Because it's the counsel
of His own will. He does the counsel of His own
will. Therefore, Jesus follows the
will of God because He is God. And because He is God, He will
do all of His pleasure. And here we see that Christ has
been given The anointed of God has been given the Spirit without
measure. It doesn't just come and go on Him. It doesn't just
influence Him here and there. There isn't ever a time that
Jesus is not without that very Spirit of God who is God. Now,
let's go back to Luke. I think we've established here
the importance and the work of the anointed of God and why He
was anointed. But let's go back to Luke chapter
4. Let's start looking at some of
the things that the anointed is here to do. He's here to preach
the gospel to the poor. As we mentioned earlier, he's
talking about the poor in spirit. He's talking about those who
are meek, those who have been the poor in spirit. Being poor
in spirit isn't something that we work up on our own. Being
meek is not the characteristic of Adam. There is a false meekness
that someone can portray, a false humility. Have you ever seen
people who put off a false humility? You could tell most of the time
that it's a fake humility. You can tell that between them
and those who are truly humble, meek. But it says here, he came
to preach the gospel to the poor and to the brokenhearted, to
heal the brokenhearted. These are things that are gifts
of God, brethren. As a matter of fact, in the Beatitudes,
Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit. You've been blessed. If you are poor in spirit, that's
not something that you should be worried and ashamed of. To
be poor in spirit is actually a blessing of God because the
natural man, the Adamic man, us without Christ, the natural
default is pride. We're prideful people. We would
never admit that we are sinners. We would never submit that we
need some help. We would never submit that we
can't do it on our own. We would never think that we
can achieve or fail to achieve the goal that we set out before
us. Now, the pride of man will always think that we can do something
to merit God's favor, but the poor at heart the poor in spirit,
the broken and contrite heart. Those are the things that God
loves. And He loves that because those are the things that He
gives to His people. He gives them that so that they might
know their inadequacy in righteousness. And He says Christ has come to
preach the Gospel to them. Do we preach the Gospel to everyone? We aren't God, so we don't know
who's poor in spirit. We don't know who is. Now, sometimes
you can tell that. You can tell one that the Lord
has put under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and they're
poor in spirit. I remember we used to have a
gentleman that was coming to this church whenever I first
came here. His name was Jim Vermillion.
I don't know if Jim's even alive anymore. I think he's passed
away, or he might have passed away. But Jim came. for a while here, and he was
probably really one of the most humble men I've ever met in my
whole entire life. And I'm talking about true humility.
And Jim, to the point almost for me of frustration, Jim never
could see himself. He was the poorest and most meekest
person I'd ever seen. He was poor in spirit and broken
heart over his sin and sinfulness. to the point where he just could
not see that he was a child of God. He just never had felt any
kind of inward testimony that he was a child of God. Now, outwardly,
I tell you what, I don't think I've seen a Christian man like
this man, to be honest with you. I mean, bar none, this man, I
tell you what, not only did he know the scriptures in and out,
I mean, the man just loved everybody, was very kind, very thoughtful,
very wise. And yet, for all of us, to us,
it looked like, hey, there's no doubt this man is a child
of God. But he was eat up inside. That
song that we often sing sometimes, "'Tis a point I long to know,
it oft gives anxious thought, Am I his or am I not? I can't
remember how exactly I feel. That right there was Jim's life.
I mean, that was him. And brother, that is a gift that
God gives to his people so that we won't be puffed up with pride
thinking we deserve something. Or that we can achieve something.
So that our eyes are always... See, Jim was always looking and
hoping to Christ. He had been given a hope. Unfortunately,
Jim didn't ever understand that that looking to Jesus that he
continually was doing is the hope that God had given him.
God had given him that hope. I don't think I knew anybody
that hoped in Christ more than Jim did. And that hope is something
that God gives him. And the Bible says that, and
I'm not going to misquote this, let me read it straight from
Hebrews. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith is the evidence. It's the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith is the evidence
of that which God had worked on the inside of Jim. And Jim
had great faith. Listen, he looked to Christ.
He looked to Christ and hoped in Christ. And listen, that wasn't
outward evidence that we saw, but Jim didn't feel. For some
reason, he didn't feel. Why? Because Jim was poor in
spirit and was broken hearted. And the Bible says, and I think
I can probably say this, although I don't know the book of life,
I can't see it, don't know who the elect of God are, but I would
probably be corrected saying that brother Jim inherited the
kingdom of heaven. His was the kingdom of heaven.
And I think I'll see him there one of these days. It says, to
preach deliverance to the captives. Brethren, the Bible tells us
that we are captive to sin, that we are captive to Satan to do
His will. The child of grace in this fleshly
body is captive to its curse of sin. It can't get out of it.
We talked about it last week. Paul, O wretched man that I am,
there is nothing good in me. We are captive to this. But Jesus came and preached deliverance
to the captives. He set captivity free. And He took captivity captive.
And brethren, listen. Whenever Jesus comes and preaches
to you deliverance, there ain't nobody that can preach you out
of that. And now we're not talking, and
just a side note, whenever I say he preached deliverance, I'm
not talking about the deliverance that the kooky TV preachers are
preaching. This ministry of exorcism and
devil, you know, everything's got a demon in them. Oh, they
got the demon of this. Oh, they got the spirit of this.
They got the spirit of this. And you see them acting like
idiots on TV, you know, doing crazy stuff and all this. It's ridiculous. It truly is. Most of that stuff is demonic.
I'm not saying it's not demonic. I think it's demonic and I think
most of them people are possessed with demons. But we're not talking
about a deliverance. Jesus hasn't given us a deliverance
ministry of demons. He's given us a ministry of reconciliation. He's given us a ministry of preaching
the good news of Jesus Christ. If one is possessed of the devil,
one is possessed of the demon, I'm not going to cast that thing
out, but Jesus can. Jesus can deliver people from
that, but that's not the deliverance that we're talking about here.
We're talking about the deliverance of the captives who are being
delivered from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. We're talking about those of
us that have been delivered from wrong thinking about the gospel
and about how people are saved and about how people live eternally
to the right teaching about that. We're talking about a change
of doctrine of man to the doctrine of Christ. We're being delivered
from looking unto ourselves and our righteousness and looking
unto Jesus who is our righteousness. We're talking about being delivered
from the penalty of our sin, being delivered from the guilt
of our sin, being delivered from the bondage of Satan and being
made slaves of Christ Jesus. That's what we're talking about
here. And Christ has come to preach that they have been delivered.
You have been delivered, child of grace. You've been delivered
from all that separates you from God. What seems to separate you
from God? Because you've been in Christ
Jesus for all eternity. And so there's this preaching
of these things. And then it says here, to set at liberty them that are
bruised and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. I think Jesus
is making reference here to the Old Testament pattern of the
year of Jubilee. I believe, if I'm not mistaken,
every 70 years was the year of Jubilee. And at that time, anybody
that had been sold into slavery was let free. Anybody whose possessions
had been sold, they received their inheritance back. If you lost your land, you got
your land back. Inheritance, you got your inheritance
back. If you were a slave to somebody, you were set free from
that. So in other words, Jesus is saying everything that binds
you, that holds you, that captivate, or that holds you captive, everything
that keeps you from freedom in Christ, that keeps you from liberty,
that keeps you from relation with me, everything that keeps
you separated from me, there is now freedom from that. There
is now deliverance from that. There is now a wiping away of
all the debt. If you owed something, you racked
up a bunch of debt and you owed something. In the year of Jubilee,
all those debts were written off. I wish it was like that
here. I wish it was like that here
in our country. Every 70, of course, it's every
70 years. Brother, it'd be great for you,
wouldn't it? I still got a couple, about 20
more years for me. But would that be awesome if
just after every so long, all your debts were wiped away and
you got to claim the slate again? Nothing to owe. Nothing binding
me, nothing hindering me. And guess what? Everything that
I lost, I get back. How much money have I lost over
the years from stuff? A lot. How much time have I lost? Well, you can't hardly get time
back, but... Have I lost possessions? Yeah. Have I lost, you know,
jobs? Yes, I've lost jobs. Now, not
that I would want my job back that I lost because of coming
here to Joplin, but, you know, in the year of Jubilee, everything
is given back. There is no separation. between
you and the blessing. Brethren, Jesus said He's come
to preach deliverance to all those who are poor in spirit,
broken hearted, those who are captive, those who are blind,
those who are bruised. He's there to preach that acceptable
year of jubilee. You have been freed from all
your debt. Can you imagine? You owe no debt
to God anymore. Now, there are those out there,
listen, young sheep, listen, children. There are those that
are out there that are preaching that, oh, I come to Jesus, but
there's still a debt that I have to keep paying. There's still
a debt that I owe. There's still work that I must
do. Now I don't pay out of obligation, but I have to pay out of love
and they make it a duty. Listen, if you love me, you will
keep my commandments. Jesus isn't saying that in an
imperative where he's saying you have this option. You have
the ability to go out and do these things. No, it's a statement
of fact and a statement of station, a statement of standing. If you
are one who has been given love for God by God, you will keep
My commandments." How? Because He's the one, as we talked
about last week, who has ordained the works in you. He has ordained
His works that He is working in you. It's His works to accomplish. He will accomplish all that He
has ordained to do in you. You will do all His commands. It says here, and He closed the
book, and gave it again to the minister and sat down, and the
eyes of all of them who were in the synagogue were fastened
on him." They were fastened. They couldn't take their eyes
away from him. They were listening to these beautiful things that
he was saying. Of course, he was saying it about
himself. And they were thinking to themselves,
listen, he's already been going about Galilee and he's been preaching
and doing all these things already. And now He's coming here, and
now He says, this day, this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears. Meaning,
I am the fulfillment of everything that's being said here. And they're
thinking to themselves, what wonderful things. The anointed
Messiah is here. And He's here to do it for us.
He's here to do it for us. And it says, and all bear witness
and wonder at these gracious... Oh, they thought these were beautiful
words. They thought that was a wonderful... Oh, preacher,
that was a great message you preached today. Oh, and then
when you applied it, you applied that to us and to yourself. And we are grateful for that.
And we are excited to see the vision that you have for us.
How many preachers have got to preach the vision for this year?
Every year, January, preachers get a, this is the vision for,
you know, blah, blah, blah, community church, you know. Preaching our
vision. They go on their websites. Here's
our vision. Listen, I didn't think it was
supposed to be about our vision. It's about his vision. He's already
set that vision down. He's already accomplished that
vision. And as far as the church is concerned,
the Bible says that's not up to you either, that he's the
one that's building it. He's the one that's doming it up,
as the Greek word implies. He's the one that is bringing
the house together. It's not us. He's the one that's
doing that. But yet, what are they saying
here? Hey, we like what we heard. We love this sermon. And we love
how you're applying it. You're coming amongst us to do
all this for us, and we know what you're talking about, Jesus.
Them old Romans. Them old men that are governing
over us. All these Gentile dogs that are
compassed about us. We see what you're talking about
there. We hear what you're saying. We're liking it. We're loving
it. But oh, how the other side of
the coin looks different. And Lord willing, we'll look
at that next week. We'll see what Jesus has to say in response
to what we just saw next week. Anybody got any questions, comments? Anything you'd like to add? Correct
or rebuke? That's about how it works. Lord, we thank you today for
all that you are and all that you've given us in this life.
We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ who has delivered us from
all of our sin, who has delivered us from the penalty of sin, who
has delivered us from the guilt of sin. We look forward to the
day when we're delivered from the presence of sin. Father,
we just thank you for the Word of God that's given to us to
tell us all the great, wonderful things that Christ has done.
And for the Holy Spirit that has been given to us as Christ
has come as our comforter in the Spirit to teach us these
things, to lead us into truth, but also to give us confidence,
not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, of all that Christ has
done on our behalf. To bear witness with our spirit
that we are His. Father, we just thank you that
the testimony of Christ is true, that the work that he has done
cannot be stopped. We thank you, Father, that it
was given to us by grace. We know not one of us in this
house deserves your love and your gracious salvation. But
Father, we just say thank you for sovereignly giving it to
those that you've given it to. Father, Lord, I pray for all
those that are here. I pray, Lord, that if they are Your children,
that You would give them understanding, that by Your Spirit that You
might give them a brokenness of heart over their sin, that
You would give them a poorness in spirit, Lord, that You would
give them a conviction of that, that You would draw them to Yourself,
and Lord, that You would give them faith to believe upon Christ
Jesus as their Lord and as their Savior, and as their deliverance,
as their righteousness, that they might look unto him the
rest of their days until you come and take us to be with you. Father, Lord, I pray that you
just might be with those who are here, that you might keep
watch over them, give them safety. And we thank you again for another
day that we have together, together in fellowship and worship. And
Lord, again, we give all honor and praise and glory to Christ
Jesus, our King, for it's in his name that we pray.