Take your Bibles and turn with
me this morning to Luke chapter four. Luke chapter four. Subject of our lesson this morning
is Christ, our Jubilee. This is in Luke chapter four,
verses 14 through 21. Let's read these verses. 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. Now if you can just imagine
the Son of God with perfect wisdom, perfect wisdom, expounding the
scriptures. No wonder the disciples said,
didn't our hearts burn within us as he opened to us the scriptures. And a fame of him, that's what
it's talking about. There was nobody else to compare
him to. He spoke with power, never a
man spake like this man. And the fame of him went out
through all the region, round about verse 15, and he taught
in their synagogues, being glorified of all. And he came to Nazareth,
where he'd 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 Isaiah. And when he'd opened the book,
he found the place where it was written, that is Isaiah 61.1, 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, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. 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. Now in Hebrews chapter two and
verse three, the Holy Ghost asked this question. How shall we escape
if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be
spoken by our Lord? And this is what he's telling
them. He said, I'm standing before you and I'm preaching the gospel
to you. And God confirmed unto us our
Lord with miracles and wonders and signs and gifts of the Holy
Ghost, which he gave to them according to his will. And upon this great and glorious
day, a day prophesied 700 years before Christ ever appeared on
this earth. Our Lord stands up and reads
the words of that old prophet Isaiah, and he tells them what
it meant. And then he tells them, this
day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. So what was it
that he said was fulfilled in their ears? What was it? He said that he read these scriptures
to them, and then he said this day. This day is a scripture
fulfilled in your ears. Well, he lists six things here.
Six things that was fulfilled that day he stood up to read
those scriptures and expounded to them on this subject. And
the first thing is this. He tells them that Isaiah 61,
one through three is about preaching the gospel to the poor. To the poor. Well, what's that
mean? Well, I know what it don't mean.
He's not talking about preaching the gospel to poverty-stricken
humanity. He's not talking about going
down to the homeless shelters and going down to the welfare
office and places like that and preaching the gospel. That's
not the poor that he's talking about. He's talking about bankrupt
sinners. That's what he's talking about.
Poor. Poor. Do you ever stop and think
of yourself as poor? When I was writing this out,
I thought, I started thinking about it. I've got nothing. Nothing. Think about it. We are together
become unprofitable. That's what it says in Romans
3. Unprofitable. There's nothing of any value
in us. Whatever value was in us in creation
was lost in the garden. It was lost in the fall. We're
not even a semblance of what Adam was before the fall. So
he's not talking here about poverty stricken men and women, such
as don't have the, or who have very little in this world. He's
talking about bankrupt sinners. Nothing to offer up to God for
their sins. Undeserving of anything. Boy, we complain all the time,
don't we? Complain it's too hot, it's too cold, I got too much
to eat, I don't have enough to eat, you know? My clothes are
wearing out or I got too many clothes. We just complain all
the time. We're not worthy of anything
we have. Everything we have is a gift
of God. I don't care if it's rags. We
don't even deserve rags. We're undeserving and we're hell
deserving. I get so tired of watching TV
and hearing them talk about prisoners' rights. Don't you? Prisoners
don't have any rights. They forfeited those rights. We're hell-deserving sinners
cast out of the garden of God, those who have no merit, no worth,
no reason in themselves to attract God's attention. Yet they'll
pray, won't they? Pray with idle words as though
God wasn't even listening. We can't eat till we pray. We can't do this till we pray. Oh, my soul. There's no merit in us. There's
no reason in ourselves to attract God's attention. No reason for
God to listen to us that is in ourselves. And all those Paul said he had
before proved that we're Under sin, he said, are together become
unprofitable. All of them together, they're
worthless. All of them. But preaching is
the means by which God saves sinners, and preaching is the
gift of God's grace. And that's what he's telling
them. I come to preach the gospel to the poor. This is a gift. This is a privilege. This is
a blessing from God in heaven. I'm here, the son of God, to
preach to the poor. Nobody deserves to hear the gospel. It's a gift of God's grace, and
all the merit belongs to him, not us. And our Lord tells them
that Isaiah's prophecy had to do with the gospel being preached
to bankrupt sinners by the free and sovereign grace of God. And there's none, we can open
this book. I've heard people say this. I'm
gonna read this book and then we're gonna talk again. There's
none that understandeth. I heard this book read my whole
life. I didn't understand anything. None that understandeth, none
that seeketh after God, but it pleased God through the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And here's the second
thing our Lord said Isaiah's prophecy was given for. It had to do with his being sent
to heal the brokenhearted. Again, it's not talking here
about those stricken in this world by tragedies. They lost
a wife, they lost a son, they lost their home, they lost their
job. That's not what he's talking here. Those whose eyes the Lord
has opened to see themselves under the curse of God, that's
the broken hearted. The broken hearted. I tell you,
if you ever see yourself as you truly are by the power of God's
spirit, you'll be broken hearted. There's no plea, there's nothing
you can say. There's nothing you can say.
You see yourself separated from God and no way to reattach. Cursed of God, you're broken
hearted. That's what he's talking about.
The Holy Spirit's ministry in this world is to convince men
of sin, the reality of it, the curse of it, the awfulness of
it, the permanence of it. You can't get rid of sin. You
can't do one thing about your sin except keep on sinning. That's
all you can do. There's nothing you can do. We're
shut up to God's sovereign mercy in Christ. He'll either show
mercy or he won't. One or the other. We're shut
up to that. And he said, I come to heal the
brokenhearted. I come to show you how sinners
can be saved. That's the balm, that's the salve,
that's the healing potion, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. But as far as sin, we cannot
of ourselves do anything about our sins. When a person is brought
by the Spirit to see their sin, the nature of it, the bondage
of it, and the consequences of it, not even a potential of overcoming
it, Sin entered, scripture said,
and death passed. How many died? In Adam, all died. Isn't that what it said? Sin
reigned under death. And once he's convinced you of
sin, only he can convince you of righteousness, and it's absolutely
necessary that he does, because you're not gonna see any possibility
of righteousness. And in the end of Isaiah's prophecy,
he speaks of them that were preached to. And the effects of it, going
home to the heart, he said, there are trees of righteousness planted
by the Lord. And he did so that he might be
glorified. He talks about brokenhearted
soul Preaches to him the gospel of God's imputed righteousness
and glorious atoning blood. And he begins to be healed. I
saw a thing on, I think it was Facebook the other day. I like
to go on there and nose around, see what's going on. But there
was a lady on there who had a little lamb. And the lamb had been bitten
by a rattlesnake right in the side of the face. And its little
face was all distorted. They're nothing more precious
than a baby lamb. They're so sweet. They're just
little. And you couldn't even tell what
it was. Its head was all swollen and
deformed. And she rushed it down to the
vet. And the vet took it in, examined
it, and come back out. And he said, the lamb's been
bitten by a rattlesnake. He said, if that had been a dog,
it'd be dead. But he said it's a lie because
it's a lamb. And she said, huh? He said a
lamb, when it receives the venom of the serpent, goes into the
lamb, the lamb's blood absorbs the venom and turns it into anti-venom. And man, I read that and I ran
to the internet real quick and looked it up. Sure enough, that's
where antivenom comes from, is sheep. You remember I told you, all
things were created for him. For him, they speak of him. And
there it is, there it is. He created the lamb to show you
about the blood, about the blood. Oh, my soul. He heals the brokenhearted. He heals them. Oh, I'll never
forget. Man, I'll tell you, I was in
bad shape. Not everybody experiences the
same thing when it comes to being convinced of sin. There's some
things we all have in common, some things that we don't. But
it affected me so, I just didn't see any possibility of myself
ever being saved. None whatsoever. I was gone.
I was gone. I couldn't do anything except
just beg for mercy. That's all I could do. Just beg
for mercy. And that's what he's talking
about here. I came. And I'm preaching to you. And
the reason I'm preaching to you is to heal the brokenhearted
and my soul, how he did with me when I heard the gospel. Man,
this is it. This is it. And then thirdly,
he tells us that Isaiah's prophecy is about preaching deliverance
to the captives. I lived a long time in this world. without knowing that I was a
slave, that I was a man bound in the
shackles of a fallen nature. I didn't know that. I lived out
my life, thought I was making my own decisions, thought I was
doing this, doing that. I'm in charge. I'm in charge. And all the while I was chained
in a cell with chains of darkness and shut up to a law that condemns
my best deeds. All my righteousnesses were as
filthy rags. Together, he said, all of us
together are as an unclean thing. And man at his best state when
he's cleaned himself up when he sets a routine and he follows
it and he prays three times a day and all those things like the
Pharisees did. Tithes of everything he has,
he attended church, he read the word, he did all of these things. Man at his best state pays his
bills, he's honest among the community. At his best state,
he's altogether vanity before God. And then God sends his gospel
to you. He sends his gospel to you. A
gospel of a person, a representative person who alone can save your
soul. A message like that given to
Barabbas. Come down and got that prisoner,
he knew he was guilty, he knew he was in a jail cell, he knew
he wasn't leaving, and that day they're gonna nail him to a cross. And those soldiers come down
there and got him and said, Brabus, you're free to go. Don't you
imagine, he thought, they gonna spear me in the back when I start
walking away. Why would they turn me loose?
I've been judged, I'm guilty, been held in a cell. Why would
they turn me loose? And they said, another has been
chosen to die in your stead. That's why. That's why. You're free to go. You're free
to go. Deliverance to the captives. And then fourthly, Isaiah's prophecy
concerning the coming Redeemer has to do with the recovering
of sight to the blind. Now my whole life, from the time
I was able to remember things till I was in my mid-20s, I didn't
know I was doing this, but I was. I was gathering up fragments
of things concerning salvation and God. My dad began, he laid
out a church for years. I don't know all the details
of it, and I don't have to. But about the time I was ready
to start school, he started back to church, and he would take
me over there, and this was something altogether new to me. I was just
a young boy, hadn't started the first grade yet. And I began
to gather up fragments of things concerning salvation and God
and judgments and just bits and pieces of verses that men quoted
and sayings from loved ones and friends. Things I heard important
people say. Teachers. City officials. President of
the United States. I heard important people say
things. and express ideas and theories
and feelings of people I knew, that I grew up with, friends.
And all of these things together formed what I thought was light
in my soul, what I knew about God and about salvation. And my whole concept of God was
based upon a denominational interpretation of the word of God. That's what
it boils down to. And it's the same for everyone.
Our Lord said to those that he spoke to, if the light that be
in you be darkness. If everything you think you know
about God is nothing but darkness, how great is that darkness? Our Lord said this about the
Pharisees. They were respected even by the
disciples, the Pharisees. And our Lord said, leave them
alone. If the blind lead the blind. Well, man, they could quote the
Old Testament. You mean to tell me they're blind?
That's what the Lord said. They were blind. And if the blind
lead the blind, they'll both fall in the ditch. The only cure for spiritual blindness
is the gospel of Jesus Christ. He's that eternal light, that
light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. And
as he comes, he brings with him the recovering of sight to the
blind. This is what he's telling them.
And then fifthly, our Lord tells us that Isaiah's prophecy of
him was to set at liberty them that were bruised. free them from all their disabilities. Take away the shackles of the
law to open the prison door of your nature to deliver us from
the darkness into his marvelous light. Take away our earthly
citizenship and cause us to be fellow citizens with the saints.
And oh, how bruised and broken we are. Listen to what our Lord
said in Isaiah chapter one. He said, why should you be stricken
anymore? You will revolt more and more. You'll just keep on revolting.
I've stricken you in the past, and stricken you, and stricken
you, and it's not doing one bit of good. And now the whole head
is faint. The whole head is sick and the
whole heart faint, and from the sole of the foot even to the
head, there's no soundness in it. There's nothing but wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores. Old Philip Bliss wrote this hymn,
and the one verse goes like this. He said, free from the law, oh,
happy condition. Jesus is bled, And there is remission. Now watch this. Cursed by the
law and bruised by the fall. Christ hath redeemed us once
for all. He come to set at liberty them
that are bruised. And then lastly, he said Isaiah's
prophecy concerning me has to do with preaching the acceptable
year of the Lord. Now in Leviticus 25, verses eight
through 17, the Holy Ghost inspires Moses to write into the law the
year of Jubilee. Every seven years was a Sabbath
of years. They had a lot of Sabbaths. It's
not just the Sabbath day. They had all kinds of Sabbaths.
Sabbath always. Come on the 7th, on the 7th,
on the 7th. So every seven years was a Sabbath
year. And seven Sabbath years adds
up to what? 49. When those years were done,
on the 50th year, he declared a year of jubilee. Anybody who
for circumstances that he couldn't help, had to sell himself into
slavery. He'd become a servant to somebody
to pay off a debt. He had to sell all of his holdings,
everything that the Lord had given him, they had to sell it
to pay a debt. And now they're in poverty. They're
trying to work their way out of poverty. On that 50th year, the Lord said,
your debts are forgiven. You're gonna return everything
that that man sold you, you're gonna give it back to him. It's
his. It's his. Everything he lost
goes back to him. All these servants that sold
themselves into servitude, slaves, they're free. They're free on
this year of jubilee. Why? Because this is the acceptable
year of the Lord. That's why. And that's exactly
what he's talking about here. These things pictured his coming
into this world. All of our acceptance, we're
accepted, Paul said in the blood. We're accepted because what he
did when he came into this world. He lived a life for us that we
couldn't possibly live. And he died a death for us that
we couldn't possibly die. He made satisfaction for us that
we had nothing to pay. He settled all debts. The prisoners
are set free. There's nothing to their charge. They can go back and start over.
Everything's clean. Slates, 50th year of the Lord. He said, I come to preach to
you the acceptable year of the Lord. It was a year of rest, if you
believe. You just rested. You didn't plant
anything, you didn't harvest anything. The Lord made provision
for you, and the years coming up to that, and when the 50th
year come, you rested. You didn't pick the grapes, it
just naturally grew. You just rested that whole year. Liberty shall be proclaimed,
he said, throughout the land. All the servants cleared of all
debts and set free and returned to their families, and this glorious
Sabbath of Sabbaths was to be proclaimed by a trumpet. By a trumpet. Now, if you don't
know this, I'm gonna just tell you straight out. That trumpet
is a picture of the gospel. That's what it is. You know how he's gonna declare
the end of the world? The gospel. Gospel trumpet. The
trumpet shall sound. He'll wind it up. It'll be preached
one last time. And that's it. That's it. You know, when you ring a bell,
it's the same every time. You got the same bell, you got
the same thing. It's useful, but it just makes one sound,
that's all it does. But the trumpet, you can sound
a certain sound with a trumpet, and men know to charge. Or you
can sound another sound on the trumpet, and it tells them it's
a warning, enemies are coming, enemies are approaching. And
even so, this gospel trumpet has a distinct sound, and it
points men to Christ. It points men to Christ. And
this jubilee is a picture of the coming Redeemer, and the
trumpet is the gospel of Christ. A day of rest, a day of restoration,
a day of reconciliation, and a day of redemption. And then the Lord began to say,
this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. Preaching to the
brokenhearted, preaching to the poor, Forgiveness of all debts,
oh my soul, what a day this is. And this whole end of the world
is the gospel day. We must work while it's day,
right? Night cometh when no man can
work. This whole, from now till he winds things up, is the gospel
day. It's the day of jubilee. It's
the acceptable time of the Lord. Thank you.