Would you turn with me to Luke
chapter 4, the Gospel of Luke chapter 4. I thank the Lord for that message,
Brother Bruce, dear faithful man. Thank this church for all
the work you've done to make this conference possible. I'll go ahead and thank you ahead
of time for the food and everything. Thank you, Pastor. In Luke's
Gospel chapter 4, a very familiar passage of Scripture, one of
the old wonderful passages to talk about our Lord coming to
His hometown. Verse 16, He came to Nazareth
where He had been brought up, and as His custom was, He went
into the synagogue when a man reached Jewish manhood at thirty
years old. He went to his hometown, and
they had him stand up and read. And he stood up for a 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. This is chapter 61 of
Isaiah. And he read, The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me. because he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book. He certainly
didn't need any notes, did he? He didn't even need the book.
He wrote it. And he closed the book and 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 I hope
that's the case tonight. And he began to say unto them,
this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. This day, that
day, that time, when he had arrived, when he had finally arrived,
the one whom scriptures wrote of in the volume of the book,
when he finally had arrived that day, this scripture and every
other was fulfilled. in barriers and this day in ours. Isaiah did not speak of himself,
did he? No, no, no. Nor did any true
prophet say these things of himself. The Lord said in verse 18, the
Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me. And there's much said today in
religion about this anointing, isn't there? You hear it all
the time. Would you turn with me to the
Gospel of John? John's Gospel, chapter 1. Much
talk about the Holy Spirit today, and that's all it is, is talk.
There are so many who claim to have this anointing, don't they?
They love to use that, throw that term around, you know, have
Spirit-filled anointed preaching. Well, I'm here to tell you on
the authority of God's Word, they're all imposters. Any time
you hear that or read that, mark it down, they're imposters. No
man could say that of himself. No man ever did say that of himself.
Isaiah didn't say that of himself. There's only one man who could
say that of himself. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, Christ said. He hath anointed me. What does
the word Christ mean? The anointed one. It's only one. In John's Gospel chapter 1, now
this man had the Spirit from his mother's womb, didn't he?
The Lord said that. John was filled with the Spirit
from his mother's womb. Well, what did he say about himself?
Well, in verse 19, this is the record of John, preaching of
John. The Jews sent some fellas saying, who are you? And he confessed. Now here's the first confession.
Before he confessed who Christ was, he confessed what he was
not. Now here's the true preacher, isn't it? And he said in verse
20, he confessed and denied not. There's a lot of fellows who
say, you know, that they're preaching Christ, but you wonder who's
getting the glory, don't you? Well, you don't wonder. It's
clearly seen to us. But John confessed and denied
not, but confessed, I am not the Christ. I am not the anointed
one. I am not the one you look to.
Go over to verse 32. It says, when John, bear record,
saying in verse 32, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven
like a dove, and it abode upon him, the Lord Jesus Christ. But 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, that's him, which is the Holy Spirit, which baptizes with
the Holy Spirit. That's the Christ. That's the
anointed one. So Christ stood up this day,
and said, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. I am
the anointed one. The Spirit of God is anointed
in me. And here's the blessed message
that he was anointed. Look at verse 18 in our text.
Go back there. Luke 4. The Lord said, The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me. He hath anointed me to preach
the gospel." To preach. The Lord was a preacher. God
had one Son and He was a preacher. I have to remind myself of this
all the time because it's still an honorable profession, isn't
it? It still is, though there are
many phonies out there and fakes, and I'm ashamed to be linked
with these fellows. Yet, it's still an honorable
profession. God has not left Himself without
a true witness. They're a true preacher. And
God had one Son, and He made Him a preacher. Sent Him to preach. And this is the means which God
has used. God is pleased by the foolishness
of preaching. Not the preaching of foolishness.
But he called it that because the world thinks it's foolishness.
And it's going out of style today, isn't it? Well, the Son of God came here
and what did He do? He preached. The Spirit of the
Lord has anointed me, is upon me, has sent me to preach. And it's not just preaching anything.
A lot of fellows say they're preaching, don't they? There
ain't much preaching to it. What kind of preaching does the
Lord anoint? What kind of preaching does the
Lord use? He said, He's anointed me to preach the gospel. The gospel. There's only one. The gospel. There's others out
there, but they're not the gospel. It's another gospel. A version
of the gospel. Best described, or clearly described,
I think, over Romans 1, if you want to turn there, Romans chapter
1. Oh, I love this description of the gospel, don't you? Paul
said he was separated, called to be an apostle, separated,
verse 1, unto the gospel of God. This is where the gospel starts,
doesn't it? Where everything starts. You want to start with
this gospel message, you start with God. This is the good news,
isn't it? Say unto the heathen, Thy God
reigneth. The good news is God reigns.
Especially good news in this seemingly chaotic world, isn't
it? Tell my people, thy Lord reigneth. Satan is only called the God
of this world. Small g because that's who the
world worships. He's not running this world.
God never relinquished that authority, that control, did he? God reigns
in the armies of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth.
He's God. Our God is God. That's the good news. That's
where it starts. This is eternal life that they might know thee,
the only true God. Do you ever get tired of hearing
this proclamation? Behold thy God. This is the people's
comfort, the church's shout of glory. Behold the preacher's
message. Behold thy God. The gospel of
God. The good news that God brings.
And we're in His hands. And this gospel is God's gospel.
Verse 1 says, the gospel of God, meaning it's God's gospel. He's
the one who was the architect of it. He's the author of it. And the finisher, as Brother
Bruce written. This is a good message to go
along with that. He's the finisher. He's the author of it. The finisher
of it. God's gospel. It's something
that He's most zealous of. Like that day you talked about.
is something that God is zealous of, jealous about. In fact, He was so zealous of
this gospel, He was the first one to preach it. If you have
a story you want to tell, you want somebody else telling it.
You want to tell it yourself, don't you? But our Lord came
in the garden when that first sinner sinned, didn't He? And
He's the first one to tell about that woman's sinning, renounce
that. And every other time, every other eventful time, like with
Abraham, the Lord's the one who came down and spoke to him. The
Lord came to Noah in that beautiful description of his son, the ark. The Lord gave him those blueprints
and those details. This is God's gospel. Now what
do you think he thinks of people that perverted and people that
his glorious gospel, his finished work, he's the architect of?
What do you think he thinks of those that add to it, or take
away from it, or think they can do something in addition to it?
Nothing makes him more angry. That's right. It's God's gospel. And we have
this precious trust, don't we? He's entrusted us with this gospel.
And that's why Paul said, Woe is unto me if I preach not the
gospel. It's God's gospel. And this gospel
in verse 2, he says, which is what he promised the four by
his prophets in the Holy Scripture. Yes, the Old Testament saints
heard the gospel. That's all they heard was the
gospel. Promised by God, foretold by
God and his prophets. Moses wrote it, me, Christ said. Abraham rejoiced to see my day.
He saw it and was glad. No more beautiful picture of
the gospel or declaration of it than in Genesis 22, is there?
That ram caught in the thicket, Isaiah's ram, his substitute,
Christ, the sinner's substitute instead of those that were bound
and destined to die. God's gospel, which He promised
before by His prophets. Verse 3, and here is the sum
and substance of it. It is concerning His Son, Jesus
Christ our Lord. What is the gospel concerning?
God's Son. completely concerning Him. Of
Him, to Him, through Him, by Him, about Him, for Him. And our Lord stands up and He
says in our text, He said, This day is this Scripture fulfilled
in your ears. The Lord hath anointed me to
preach the gospel. Wouldn't you have loved to have
heard the Lord preach the gospel? Oh, there were a couple of fellows
walking on the road to Emmaus that heard Him. And they got
heartburn. They didn't want him to quit,
did they? Well, who does he preach this
gospel to? Who is this gospel for? Look
at it. He says, he's anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor. The poor. He's not talking about
the materially poor, but the spiritually poor. He said that,
didn't he? Blessed are the poor in spirit. Spiritual beggars. These poor materially you have
with you always, the Lord said, but there aren't many poor spiritually. They're hard to find, aren't
they? The Lord has them out there. And I'm glad, aren't you? He
has them out there, poor in spirit. And there's a few of them like
old Bartimaeus, huh? Old blind Bartimaeus. who sat
by the wayside and said, I have no clothes. All I have is these
rags. Would somebody clothe me? Who sat by the wayside and said,
I can't see. Would somebody help me? Who sat
by the wayside and said, I have no strength to get up and go
anywhere. I can't even see who I'm supposed
to go to. Would somebody help me? Jesus,
Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. Here's the good news.
Go tell that blind fellow to come to me. Bring him to me. Bring him to me. Yes, this day
is this Scripture fulfilled in your ear. He goes on to say,
The Spirit of the Lord hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted. To heal the brokenhearted. Now,
there are many people who are brokenhearted or many things,
losses. We had a funeral a couple of
days ago, a dear member in our church. And he had six children
whom he loved and they loved him, but all of them were unconverted. And they were brokenhearted.
And I wouldn't diminish from anybody sorrow in the least. It's real. But that's not the
broken heart the Lord is talking about. The mourning the Lord is talking
about here. After He said the poor in spirit, He talked about
those that mourn over their sin. And the first thing the Lord
does before He heals that heart is He breaks it. He breaks that
heart over sin. We have a fellow in our congregation,
I may have told you about him. A cowboy, I mean an honest, good
cowboy. A real rodeo cowboy. Rode the
rodeo circuit for 15 years. Hard life. And that turned him
into a hard man. And all those old songs, you
know, that George Strait and those fellas sing about the rodeos
and leaving their wives and all that. He can't listen to them.
Because that's just what he did. Broken marriages. Abandoned children,
hard-hearted fellow, broken bones, busted up. Bless God. He sent him one day. Marvelous.
I'd love to tell you the whole story. But sent him one day and
sat him down to hear this gospel and broke his heart. Broke that old hard heart and
put it in a heart of flesh. Tender to the gospel. And to
this day, he's been there three or four years, and I've yet to
see him listen to a gospel message without tears running down his
face. I mean it. Brokenhearted. And those tears
aren't sorrow, though, now. They're just tears of joy. But
the first thing he does is break your heart over sin. And the
Lord said, I've come to heal the brokenhearted. I've got good
news for the brokenhearted over sin. I put him away. Put him away. And you know that
old boy, when he first arrived, John, you saw him come. When he first arrived, he looked
old, didn't he? I thought he was ten years older than what
he is. Now he looks ten years younger. That's regeneration. I mean,
that's literal regeneration. The dew of youth is on his brow.
He's starting to look like Christ now. A hard man turned into an
old, soft man. Oh, a brokenhearted. Tell them
I have come to preach the gospel that sent me to heal the brokenhearted. Verse 18, to preach the deliverance
to the Catholic. Deliverance. Well, there is another
popular word in religion today. We sung that song, Oh, How Merciful,
and I was sitting there thinking about your pastor, his past,
and some of you that were with him. And what great mercy. that He
didn't leave you in that mess, brought you out of that mess
that they call spirit-filled deliverance religion, huh? That's the greatest mercy of
all. Spare you from that. Deliverance. I contend. You know,
you hear that a lot, don't you, Brother Joe? Deliverance chapel.
Deliverance victor. Deliverance this. Deliverance
that. I contend they need deliverance from these deliverance places. The Lord didn't save many Pharisees,
but He does save some. Religion is the worst bondage
of all. That's what old Peter said over there, didn't he? He
said they promise them liberty when they're captives. They're
captives. Bondage to sin, Satan himself,
the Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who can deliver. And
He does deliver. I mean, He really does deliver.
He's called the Deliverer and that's what it means, just like
the finished work. Call His name Jesus, that's what
it means. When we preach, we say what we
mean, don't we? He's the Deliverer. This day
is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears. The Lord delivers
from captivity. You know, I'm a child of the
sixties. Born in the 50s and grew up in
the 60s and 70s. Those were turbulent times, weren't
they? Awful times. I didn't think, our parents didn't
think it could get worse. But I grew up in that time, you
know, of freedom. Everybody prided themselves on
how free they were. Oh, my. Free. I'm a free man. When in fact, we were totally
captive. held captive, Scripture says, by Satan at his will. That's
what the Scripture says. And today it has gotten worse,
hasn't it? Young people held captive.
Your classmates and all that pride themselves in being free
spirits and all that, these that wear all the black and mutilated
their bodies and marked them up indelibly for life, that's
not freedom. That's captivity. That's bondage. There's only one that would deliver
from that. I know. He delivered me. He wouldn't have had anything
to do with me if he'd seen me years ago. I wouldn't have had anything
to do with him. Deliverance to the captives.
My boy, if the Lord sends the word to tame those wild asses,
Colts, they'll be tamed. And only then. And what the Lord
did to that old Colt is loose him and bring him to me. The Lord leads captivity captive,
you see. And none, old Brother Barnard
used to say, there's none so free as the Lord's captives. Go and learn what that means.
Better yet, I hope He'll let you experience it. The Lord said, this day is this
Scripture fulfilled in your ear. And this day, He said, I am sent
to give recovery of sight to the blind. Recovery of sight
to the blind. I was talking about those young
people. They are blind to themselves, aren't they? We used to think
we looked good, didn't we? Not only did we think we were
free, but blind to ourselves. young person blind to themselves,
blind to what they are. I was blind as a prodigal son,
in the hog pen, eating the husks, thinking I was happy, blind as
a man in the pit. Blind to God. Blind to Christ. Didn't see my lady Christ. Did
you, Cheryl? But God. Sent the gospel of Christ
to you. Blind. Give the recovery of the
sight to the blind. Recover sight. Open the eyes.
See who God is. See what we are. See who Christ
is. See our need of Him. Gospels for the poor, brokenhearted,
captive, and the blind. Look at the next thing. It says,
The Spirit of the Lord hath anointed me, hath sent me to set at liberty
them that are bruised. We sing that song bruised and
mangled by the fall. Bruises. What about bruises? Bruises come from being beaten
and battered, don't they? And being slapped around. The
story of a lunatic in the Scripture. A fellow's a lunatic. A lune
struck. Went crazy around midnight or whatever. Happens all the
time, doesn't it? A lot of people like that. A lunatic. I was like that. The
devil tore him and cast him down, bruised him. The Lord came and
set him free. Delivered him. Delivered him
from being beaten and slapped around like an abused wife. A lot of you are in religion. Abused by these fellows. They are not the Lord's men.
The Lord came through His mercy and His grace in the gospel and
set you at liberty from being Slept around. I had a friend one time who was
married young and I liked his wife. I was friends with his
wife also. Big old fella. And I went to
his house one night and his wife had two black eyes. I had no idea what was going
on. And I flew into him and gave
him a little taste of his own medicine. That's the last physical
confrontation I've had. Last time I saw him, too. What I'm trying to say is the
Lord will not allow his bride to be beaten up for long. He comes to the rescue. I'm taking
you out of this place. And now you've got a gentle husband,
a sweet husband. Your maker is your husband. Doesn't
rule with a rod of iron, but with love and grace and mercy. Set at liberty, limit of brutal
freedom. Look at the next thing. To preach,
oh, I love this. This is really the heart and
soul. To preach the acceptable year
of the Lord. The Lord said, this day is the
scripture-fulfilling year, the acceptable year of the Lord,
the day, the year, the time when the Lord Jesus Christ is accepting
people. You know, the gospel is 180 degrees
different than what they say today is. Our church has a tombstone,
a collected tombstone that we put in the graveyard, the Central
Baptist Church home. We bought a bunch of lots to
go around it. and kind of being buried together. And on that
tombstone is our epitaph, Ephesians 1, 6, "...to the praise of the
glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
beloved." A bunch of people had heard that the Scripture was
fulfilled, accepted in the beloved. This is the day, this is the
time, the Lord says, when He is accepting all applications
for mercy. Gear of Jubilee. Anybody in debt? The Lord has taken application. Taken application. What if they
were taking application today to rid you of all your material
debt? That's not our greatest need.
Talked about those fellows that came to David down in that cave
at Adlam. Those who were in debt, in distress,
discontented. Boy, what a motley crew. That's
why they came to David. What could he get from them?
Nothing. That's why they came to David. And it says he became
the captain over them. Wiped the slate clean right then
and there. David declared right then and
there, nobody owes a dime. And they did. You got any debts?
I've absolved you of all of them. You can't do that, just did. Just did. The acceptable year
of the Lord. When the slate is wiped clean. Anybody got a past they'd like
to get rid of? This day is the scripture fulfilled in your ears. Wipe it clean. Blot out all the
head-nodded ordinances against you. Past, present, and future. Blotted out. You may have heard this before,
but this is one of the best stories I've ever heard on this. A true
story. It happened to my father when
he was a young man. He was about 20, 21 years old. Some kind of youth minister and
a psalm leader, and he had a carload of young people with him. He
was driving a, I think it was about a 48 Packard, big tank,
you know, weighed 6 or 7,000 pounds. And they were talking
as young people would do, you know, carrying on. And he was
driving that car down the road and ran right through a stop
sign and just plowed into another car, totally demolished the other
car. It's all his fault, completely
his fault. And thankfully nobody was seriously
hurt. There were some people hurt,
but nobody seriously. Well, naturally he had to appear
in court. He was guilty. He had to appear in court. And
his dad went with him that day. And needless to say, my dad was
scared to death. The law, that's what the law
did to him. Guilt. He was guilty. He knew, he just
knew the judge was going to come down hard on him. He was guilty.
Negligence. Reckless driving. Total destruction. Well, he went to court and he
sat there in the back row with his dad and they heard case after
case. Case after case came up. I remember
dad, back then there was some justice still being served. And
Dad said that he was throwing the book at some of these people. And he said they heard case after
case and that courtroom started clearing out. Case after case. Until finally, it was just him
and his father sitting there, nobody else. And the judge was up there on
the bed. And the judge had his head down and looking at his
books and looked up, and he said, and what can I do for you all? And dad stood up, that's back
when you didn't have a lawyer, didn't need one. He stood up
and said, your honor, I'm here to, my name's Henry Mahan, I'm here
because of certain charges against me. Judge said, Close your name again. Hit her
back. He said, there's nothing on this
record. Go home. Clear. There's nothing on the
record. The Lord said, this day is the
scripture fulfilled in your ears. Have you ever heard better news
than that? Sinners. This done. Okay. May the Lord
bring you to Himself.