to the Lord Jesus Christ. We're just saying a mighty fortress
is our God, and I love the verse, that word above all earthly power,
no thanks to them abideth. I just love that. We're going to observe the Lord's
table together tonight. I've entitled this message, When Jesus Bypassed Nazareth. The place that he grew up. He bypassed Nazareth. Verse 43, now after two days
he departed thence, where he had been in Samaria preaching
the gospel, and went into Galilee. You've all heard of Jesus of
Galilee. Galilee was a region of Israel
where the Lord grew up. He was born in Bethlehem, but
he grew up in Nazareth, a town in Galilee, Jesus of Nazareth. And I think of what Nathaniel
said of that town. He said, can any good thing come
out of Nazareth? That sounds like something somebody
would say about a podunk town somewhere. Can anything good
come out of that town? Well, that's what he said about
Nazareth. The Lord lived in the town of
Nazareth for 30 years. And he lived a perfect life. He never sinned. He kept God's law perfectly for
those 30 years. And you know what? Nobody got
it. The only holy man to ever live. This lets me know how much
we really know about holiness. The only holy man to ever live
and nobody got it. Somebody says, I want people
to see Christ in me. I understand that, but they didn't
see Christ in Christ, did they? 30 years. Perfect righteousness living
in obscurity. Nobody knew he was a carpenter
living in a town that nothing good supposedly could come out
of. I don't know what kind of carpenter he was. I don't know
if he built furniture. I don't know if he framed houses.
I don't know what he did, but he was a carpenter and he lived
a perfect life. Then he began his public ministry. And what we read about in John
chapter four, he's still in the first year of his public ministry.
And he just spent two days in Samaria and many had believed
at this time. How exciting that is to think
of many believing those Samaritans, the Lord did a mighty work of
grace in that place. And many Samaritans believed
during that two days he was there and then he left. and went back
to Galilee. Now, as I said, Galilee was the
region that had Nazareth, Capernaum, Chorazin, Cana, and Magdala,
all towns mentioned. And verse 43, now after two days,
he departed Vince and went into Galilee for, now this almost
seems out of place, doesn't it? For Jesus himself testified that
a prophet has no honor. in his own country. Now, turn
with me for a moment to Luke chapter four. This speaks of his first public
sermon, and it was in Nazareth. And here was the response to
his message in verse 24. And he said, Verily, I say unto you, no prophet
is accepted in his own country. And do you know that these people
ended up after this message trying to murder Jesus Christ? They led him up to a place where
they could throw him off a cliff headlong and kill him. They were
so infuriated by what he said. And that's when he said, no prophet.
is without honor saving his own country. And this is talking
about Nazareth and evidently when the Lord left Samaria and
went back to Galilee, he bypassed Nazareth, his hometown. He bypassed
it. Did he never go there again?
I don't know. It doesn't say he did. Maybe
he did, but at this time he bypassed this place that had Nothing to
do with him as far as his gospel message. He did not return there. Now I'd been planning on going
into the nobleman's son in John chapter four, verses 46 through
54. And I'm going to get there in
a couple of weeks. I think that's one of the most glorious illustrations
of what faith is in that passage of scripture. But I just couldn't
get past this. I'd never really noticed it.
of when he was going back into Galilee. And then he, John makes
this comment, he's not going somewhere because a prophet has
no honor in his own country. And he's talking about what took
place in John chapter four. Now let's, I mean, Luke chapter
four. So let's consider Luke chapter
four. Now what was going on in the first of this chapter? is
the temptation of the Lord in the wilderness where Satan tempted
him. This is before he began his preaching
ministry. He went into the desert and was
tempted 40 days. You'll remember he went 40 days
without food and that's when the devil tempted him, if you're
the son of God, command that these stones be made bread. If
you're the Son of God, throw yourself off that temple and
prove it. The scripture says, he'll give his angels charge
over thee. Prove it. Let us see. If you're the Son
of God, worship me. I'll give you all the kingdoms
of the world. It's given my, I've got the right
to do this. The Lord's put the, all this
world in my hand and I'll give it to you if you'll just worship
me. Now you remember that passage of scripture and that's where
the Lord utterly defeated Satan. And with every defeat he gave
him, he said, it's written. Now I want you to think of the
authority that the Lord Jesus Christ gave the Holy Scriptures.
His answer to everything. And think of this. He's the Son
of God. He could have smashed Satan. He could have smashed him. It's not like Christ was fighting
Satan when he was hanging on the cross. He was doing business
with his father. This was between the father and
the son. Satan's head was being crushed.
And it's not like Satan put up a fight with Christ. No, Christ
could have obliterated him with just that act of his will. No
problem. But still he says, it is written. Don't ever take away from the
importance of that. It is written. What sayeth the scriptures? Well, he defeated, utterly defeated
Satan. He said, the Prince of this world
has come and found nothing in me. He didn't have anything to
work with, with the Lord. You see, the Lord couldn't see
him. I've heard people say, well,
where's there any virtue in his obedience if he couldn't see
it? You know, that's just dumb. I
don't know what else to say about it. Uh, it's just dumb. Uh, it's,
where's their virtue in it? If, if he couldn't sit, he's
the son of, can God see him? No. Can Jesus Christ sin? No. Is Jesus Christ God? Yes. The God-man. He could not sin. And he utterly defeated Satan. And then we read in verse 14
or verse 13. And when the devil had ended
all the temptations, he departed from him for a season. For a
season. And Jesus returned into the power,
in the power of the spirit into Galilee. And there went out a
fame of him throughout all the region roundabout. And he taught
in their synagogues being glorified of all. Now this is when he was
performing these miracles. He was healing people who were
sick. He was giving sight to the blind.
He was cleansing lepers. And a fame of him went out through
all of Galilee. A prophet had risen up. Verse
16, and he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. He was
a native son. He'd spent 30 years in this town
and everybody knew him. They knew him. This Jesus, this
is the carpenter's son. We know his mom and dad. We know
his brothers and sisters. Everybody knew him. And they're
excited. He's coming back and they're
very excited about what their native son is going to say. They
thought they had a familiarity with him. They didn't, but they
thought they did. 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 had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written. Now, they didn't have
chapters and verses. I'm thankful for chapters and
verses. It makes it a lot easier to find things. He just had a
big old scroll. He knew right where it was, he wrote it. And
he came to the place where it was written. Verse 18, 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. He gave
it again to the minister and sat down. Now, the way he read
that scripture, everyone knew exactly what he meant. And the eyes of all them that
were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them
this day, right now, this day, Is this scripture that I just read
fulfilled in your ears? What I just read finds its fulfillment
this day in me. They knew exactly what he was
saying. You know, I love that time the
Lord said in John 5 39, you search the scriptures in them. You think
you have eternal life? They are they which testify of
me. Every single one of them. Verse 22 and all bear him witness
and wondered at the gracious words Which proceeded out of
his mouth. Now understand that doesn't mean,
uh, they were just amazed by his gracious speech. They were just overcome with
the graciousness of his deportment and his speech. Now the word
gracious is not an adjective. It's literally grace words. grace words. The words that he just spoke
are what grace is. If you want to know what grace
is, hear these words. And the admiration spoken of
in that verse is not a wonder in the sense of, oh, how wonderful,
but They were incredulous. This man, this carpenter, this
uneducated zero making these claims about himself, they were
offended. They were offended. They didn't
like what they were hearing. Is not this the carpenter? And they said, is not this Joseph's
son? And he said unto them, and this is what John was speaking
of in John chapter four, you will surely say unto me, this
proverb, physician, heal thyself. Whatsoever we've heard done in
Capernaum, do also here in thy country. Now here's what they're
saying. Or at least they were thinking, I don't know if they
said this out loud, perhaps it was just the Lord reading their
thoughts. Here's what you're thinking. Physician, heal yourself. Prove
yourself. We heard you committed or performed
miracles in Jerusalem or in the other Canaan and Capernaum. We heard about it. Prove it.
Come here and do the same thing. Prove yourself. Was that what
the devil was doing when he was tempting Christ? Prove you're
the son of God. Command that these stones be
made bread, then we'll believe. Prove you're the son of God.
Jump off the temple. Does not the scripture say, look,
the devil used the Bible. Does not the scripture say, he'll
give his angels charge over thee, lest you dash your foot against
the stone. They'll catch you. If you really are the son of
God, prove it to us. Well, that's what these people are doing at
this time. Prove it. Prove it. Give us some evidence. Verse 24, and he said, verily,
I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. Now they had a supposed familiarity
with him that disabled them from perceiving that he was that prophet. And he says, no prophet. is accepted
in his own country. And that's what he quoted in
John chapter four. Now, in these two verses of scripture,
we're given a six fold declaration of who Jesus Christ came to save. Now, what I want to know is if
I'm in on this. Who did Jesus Christ come to
save? Now, somebody may be thinking,
didn't he come to save everybody? Let me answer that real simply.
No. No. That was never his intention.
Somebody says, well, how could that be fair? Wait a minute. Since when do you have the moral
authority to sit on what God does and say, I don't agree with
that, that's not fair. You've got no business going
there. Not you, not me, not any man, as far as that goes. We're
sinful men. For us to sit in judgment on God and say, that's
not fair. Whatever God does is fair. Whatever
God does is righteous. Whatever God does is altogether
glorious. Who did he come to save? He didn't
come to save everybody. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. Now here, the point, and I said this, I think it was
Wednesday night. The point isn't so much who did
he die for, but who died. Who died? It's Christ that died. And anything he does must be
successful. If he died for you, you must
be. saved. There will not be anybody
in hell that he died for. Amen. That's just the truth. So instead of questioning his
fairness, how is it fair for him not to save everybody? Well,
he doesn't save everybody. Whatever he does is fair. Whatever
he does is right. And anytime I even make an objection
in my heart like that, the first time I heard, the first time
it came home to me, this thing of election, my thought was,
that's not fair. If that's the case, there's nothing
I can do to save myself. I'm totally in his hands. He
can save me or he can damn me and there's nothing I can do
about it. And my thought was, I don't like that. And that's
when I found out I don't like God. That's what I found out. Don't like God. Now, who did
he come to save? Well, he tells us in verse 18,
the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me
to preach the gospel to the poor, to the poor. To be poor is to be without,
without anything to recommend you to God, to be destitute of
personal righteousness, to be utterly poor and bankrupt in
personal merit. Poor. He has sent me to heal the broken
hearted. Here's who it came for, the broken
hearted. Now understand this, and there's
such a thing as Broken hearted, it's not this kind of broken
heartedness. Anybody that's ever gone through a divorce I'm sure
knows what a broken heart is. What a terrible thing to go through. A breakup between a man and woman. What about a wayward child? You
reckon there's children that have broken the hearts of their
parents through their conduct and through their actions? Yeah,
there's such a thing as a broken heart in that sense. And I want
to be sympathetic toward that. But that ain't the broken heart
he's talking about. When he talks about broken hearted, he's talking
about a heart that doesn't work. A heart that's no good. Hold
your finger there and turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 17. Verse nine, the heart, Jeremiah 17, verse
nine, the heart. It's not talking about the instrument
that pumps blood. The heart is the whole man. It's
the understanding, it's the will, it's the affection, it's who
you are, the heart. The heart, my heart, your heart. This is describing me and you.
The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? And that word
desperately wicked five times, and this is the way this word
is translated most of the time in the Bible, incurable. Incurable. Can't be fixed. Who did he come to heal? The
incurable. People whose hearts are deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. He came to preach the
gospel to the poor He came to heal the broken hearted. What it says next, he came to
preach deliverance to the captives in prison and can't get out captive
to sin. Now the Lord said, he that commits
sin is the slave of sin. If you commit sin, you're captive
to sin. Captive. You're in prison and
you can't get out. You are captive to sin. You know, somebody that, um,
believes are captive to sin. They sure don't believe in free
will. You know, if you've got a free will, you can freely will
to get out. But if God ever teaches you who
you are and who he is, you know, there's no such thing as free
will. Your will's captive to sin. And who did he come to save?
The recovering, look in verse 18, the recovering of sight to
them to sight to the blind. Now, what's it mean when you're
blind? You can't see. You can't see. You can't see
why God would love you. You can't see why he would send
his son to die for you. You can't see how God could accept
you. You might even think you can
see where he could accept somebody else, but you don't think he
can, you can't see where he can accept you. You're blind. You can't see any reason in yourself
as to why God would have anything to do with you. You're like Peter. When he found out who the Lord
Jesus Christ was, he said, depart from me. I'm a sinful man, oh
Lord. You don't want to have anything
to do with somebody like me. Blind. Verse 19, to preach the
acceptable year of the Lord. Now that what that's talking
about is the year of Jubilee. The year of Jubilee. I love the
year of Jubilee, it's recorded in Leviticus chapter 25, where
if you lost everything you had, you couldn't pay your debts,
they came and took what you had and made you a slave. And there
you were a slave, lost everything, didn't have anything, enslaved. laboring for somebody else on
the year of Jubilee, every 50 years, it would happen in Israel.
A trumpet would sound. You were set free. You were set free. You didn't
know anything anymore. Whatever you lost was given back
to you. He said, I am the fulfillment
of that. Now verse 20. He closed the book. That's powerful,
isn't it? I love to think of him reading
the scripture and closing the book. Everybody's dumbfounded. He thinks he's the Messiah. He thinks he's the Christ. He
closed the book. 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. He began to say unto them this
day, is this scripture fulfilled in your ears? Do you know anything about being
poor? Let's forget everybody else.
Do you know anything about being poor? Having nothing. Do you know anything about being bruised? The set at liberty,
them that are bruised, crushed, oppressed is the word. Oppressed. Do you know anything about being
broken hearted? Your heart's no good. It won't
do you any good. Do you fit the description of
the people that Jesus Christ came to save? Somebody says,
no, I'm not like that. Well, this message isn't for
you then. But if you fit this description,
hear the words of grace. Poor, brokenhearted, captive,
blind, oppressed, a slave who can't pay his debts. Hear the
word of grace. Now you may have overcome many
problems in your life. You may have overcome addictions
and I'm glad you did. I'm glad you did. You know, sometimes
people just get sick and tired of being sick and tired and they
are able to overcome certain problems. But here's an addiction
you can't defeat. The addiction of sin. You can't, you can't pull yourself
up by the bootstraps. You understand. What Paul meant
when he said in Romans 7, 14, for we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am, I am not. I was not, I was, I can't stand
to hear an ex-sinner. I used to be this way, but I'm
not talking about what you used to be. I'm talking about what
you are right now. We know that the law is spiritual, but I am
carnal. sold under sin. Well, the Lord said, he hath
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. The Lord was a preacher. And who did he preach to? Who
did he preach the gospel to? The poor. Who is a perfect righteousness given
to you, good news to somebody who doesn't have any righteousness.
Poor. Poor. He came to preach the gospel
to the poor. All God requires you have in
me, the poor. He sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
my heart, as Jeremiah said is desperately wicked, deceitful
above all things, incurable. I don't need medicine. I need
a heart transplant. I need a new heart. A heart that
isn't in my natural man. He said a new heart will I give
you. That's how he heals the brokenhearted. He gives a new one. I've heard preachers say, invite Jesus into
your heart. No, I wouldn't advise that. I'd
say, ask him to give you a new heart, a heart that he created. Create in me a clean heart. Oh God. He'll give you a new
heart. He sent me to declare deliverance
to the captives. Captured. And what I couldn't
help thinking about when I thought about this is I thought about
Barabbas. Barabbas is scheduled to be crucified that very day. How do you reckon he slept that
night? He's filled with dread. Now, I have no doubt that he
was a wicked man, but anybody that thought about being crucified,
you couldn't be indifferent about that. He was gonna be nailed
to a cross that very day. He hears the guards come in.
They open up the jail door. He's filled with a sense of dread.
And the guards say, you've been set free. A man named Jesus of Nazareth
took your place. You are free to go. Captives set free. You can't see why he'd save you
if you're blind. You can't see how a holy God
could accept you when he came to give you sight. Turn with
me to John 9. Hold your finger there and look
forward and turn to John 9. Verse 39. John 9, verse 39. And Jesus said,
for judgment, I am come into this world that they which see not might
see. And that they would see might
be made blind. Somebody that can't see why God
would save them. I'm going to show you why I will
for Christ's sake, because of the gospel. How God's made a
way to be just and justify somebody as simply as you or me through
what Christ did on the cross. You see, somebody says, well,
I can see why God would save me after all. I fill in the blank. I've done this. I've done that.
That person is made blind, judged by God. Verse 40. And some of the Pharisees
which were with him heard these words and said unto him, are
we blind also? Jesus said unto them, if you
were blind, you should have no sin. You hear that? If you were blind,
you'd have no sin. Christ bore it all and put it
away. But now you say we say, therefore,
Oh, what words by the Lord. Therefore your sin remaineth. How can look at verse eight,
10, back to our text. He came to preach the gospel
to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives, recovering the sight of blind,
and to set at liberty them that are bruised. Now that word bruised
means, and this is the way it's usually translated in all the
other translations, and I like this, oppressed. Oppressed. The oppression of sin. He came to set at Liberty, then
that are oppressed. Now that word set at Liberty
is the word that's generally translated forgiveness. Are you oppressed with sin? Listen
to me, you're forgiven. salvation begins with the forgiveness
of sins. It doesn't end with the forgiveness
of sins. It doesn't, well, you need to do this and you need
to stop doing that and you need to start doing this and then
your sins will be forgiven. No, that's salvation by works. Here's where salvation begins
with the free complete forgiveness of sins You're not forgiven after
you do anything. You're forgiven for Christ's
sake. You're forgiven because he said it is finished. I think
of that. They brought that fella up on the bed that couldn't walk
and they couldn't get in. They knock up the roof. They put that crippled man down
before the Lord. And the Lord said, son, thy sins
be forgiven thee. That's how forgiveness works. And he came to preach, verse
19, the acceptable year of the Lord. Now, what I think is interesting
about the year of Jubilee, there's not one instance where it was
ever kept. You can't find one place in the
Bible where the year of Jubilee was actually observed. And I
understand that. It's not right, but let's say
somebody owed you a million dollars, and all of a sudden they don't
owe it to you anymore. Wouldn't you do everything you can to
prevent there being a year of jubilee? I'll tell you who tried
to prevent it, the people who thought they had something coming
to them. I'll tell you the people that loved it, the people who
were set free by it. But the people in power, the
people with the money, I'm sure they made sure this never happens. But I tell you when it did happen,
the Lord said, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. Those in debt, their debt's canceled. Those that are enslaved, they're
set free. Those that have lost, what they
lost is given back to them. to preach the acceptable year
of the Lord. And he closed the book. 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. And all bearing witness and wondered
at the gracious words, the grace words, which proceeded out of
his mouth. And they said, is not this Joseph's
son? Something's wrong with this. And he said unto them, you will
surely say unto me this proverb, physician, heal thyself whatsoever
we've heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
And he said, verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in
his own country. But verse 25, I tell you of a
truth. Many widows were in Israel in
the days of Elijah. When heaven was shut up three
years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the
land, think of the hardship of those widows. But unto none of them was Elijah
sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, a Gentile, unto a woman
that was a widow. The Lord passed by. all those
widows and came to one particular Gentile widow. Verse 27, And many lepers were
in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet. And none of them was cleansed,
saving Naaman the Syrian. Now, the Lord uses an illustration,
a scriptural illustration. He says, y'all don't believe
me. You don't believe me. Well, you reject me. you're being passed
by. He didn't simply say God is sovereign
in salvation, he used some very powerful examples. A lot of widows
in Israel, God passed them all by and saved one that we wouldn't
have thought he would have ever saved. Surprising grace. A lot of lepers in Israel, God
passed them by and saved a Gentile by the name of Naaman. Now what
is the issue here? The issue is election. That is the issue. Election. God saves whom he will. You all don't believe? Okay. The Lord has passed you by. And that's what he's saying.
These are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're not harsh. These men
hated Jesus Christ. They wanted to put him out of
business. They disagreed with everything he said. Okay. The
Lord's passed you by. It's kind of like there in John
chapter six, verse 36. He said, you've seen me and believe not.
All that the father giveth me shall come to me. and him that
cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Do you hear that? If
you come to him, he won't turn you down. He'll in no wise cast
out. Verse 28, and all they in the
synagogue, when they had heard these things were filled with
wrath and rose up and thrust him out of the city, and led
him up to the brow of the hill, where there a city was built,
that they might cast him down headlong." Now these temple goers
turned into a lynch mob, and they were going to kill Jesus
Christ. Verse 30, but he, passing through
the midst of them, went his way. Now I don't know how that happened.
They had him up and they were going to throw him down the cliff
and all of a sudden he just starts walking out. Were they blinded?
I don't know what happened. But he, passing through, went
away. And the reason being his hour
has not yet come. He's not going to die before
God's determined time for him to die. And he came down to Capernaum,
the city of Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath days and
they were astonished at his doctrine for his word was with power. But evidently when the Lord went
into Samaria and comes back to Galilee he chooses to pass by
this place. Now know this, if he is going to Pass by this
place. You know what I'm gonna say?
Lord, don't pass me by. Don't pass me by. Jesus, thou
Son of David, have mercy on me. Pass me not. Oh, tender Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Let's pray. Lord, don't pass us by for Christ's
sake. Please, by your grace, by your
mercy, for Christ's sake, do not pass us by. Lord, we confess our poverty, our blindness, our
captiveness, the rottenness of our heart, Don't pass us by for Christ's
sake. Save us by thy grace. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.