Now, as I said, our text is Isaiah
61, but I'd like to introduce this message by looking at the
place in the New Testament where this passage of Scripture is
quoted. It's found in Luke chapter 4, if you will turn there. Now, I would like to begin By
reading verse 28 of Luke, chapter four, this is after the Lord
had quoted. This passage of scripture, we're
going to look at in Isaiah 61, and I think it's very exciting
to look at a passage of scripture that our Lord quoted and used
for his inauguration address. This is when our Lord opened
up His public ministry, and He selected this passage of Scripture
in Isaiah 61 to quote. But after He did this, I want
us to look at the response of the people, beginning in verse
28 of Luke chapter 4. And all they in the synagogue,
when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose
up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow
of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast
him down headlong. But he passing through the midst
of them went his way." Now, one thing that's obvious
to me in reading that passage of Scripture, these people were
not saying, well, we'll agree to disagree. There wasn't anything
like that. You know, I've heard that several
times. Somebody said, well, we'll agree to disagree. OK, but these
people did not have that attitude. These people were so filled with
wrath, such a rage over what the Lord said that they got a
lynch mob together. in order to put him out of business
and throw him off a cliff and kill him. That's drastic. What in the world did he say
that provoked such wrath and rage? Well, this was their response
to the Lord's inauguration address. You know, when the president
takes public office, he gives an inauguration address. And
this is the address that our Lord gives to begin his public
ministry. Now, he had lived for 30 years
in obscurity. Have you ever wondered why the
Bible doesn't say much about his first 30 years? You know,
we're only given one event in the first 30 years of his life,
and that's when he was 12 years old in the temple and when his
parents couldn't find him, but the Bible clouds his early years
in obscurity. We really don't know what he
was doing at this time, and no doubt that's best. We know he
was the carpenter's son, and we know that during this time
he never sinned. In the opening of Luke chapter
4, we read about his temptation. This is where the devil took
him out in the wilderness after he had fasted 40 days and he
tempted him. You remember the story. If you're
the son of God, command these stones that they turn into bread
after he'd gone 40 days without eating. If you're the Son of
God, prove it to us and jump off this temple and show everybody
because after all the scripture says the angels will hold you
up. If you're the Son of God, prove
it to us. If you're the Son of God, bow down and worship me
and I'll give you all these things. You remember that temptation
of our Lord and he defeated Satan. He said concerning the temptation
of Satan, he hath found nothing in me. What do you reckon Satan
could find in you? If he wanted to look, could he
find some material to work with? But do you know when he met the
Lord Jesus Christ, he found nothing that he could get hold of. He's
the only one to never sin. So we read about that temptation
in the wilderness. And then beginning in verse 14
in Luke chapter 4, and Jesus returned in the power of the
Spirit into Galilee. And there went out a fame of
Him throughout all the region round about. And He taught in
their synagogue, being glorified of Him. Now, He is gaining notoriety
at this time. Everybody's hearing about the
miraculous things He does. And then in verse 16, he returns
to his hometown, small town boy made big coming home to his hometown. And can you imagine the buzz
and the excitement that was in Nazareth? I mean, this is this
is Jesus. He grew up here. I get real excited
over Austin Kearns for the Reds. You know, he grew up here in
Lexington. He he he went to high school at the same High school
Aubrey went to. It's a hometown boy. And I'm
always real interested in hometown boys making it and think, well,
here this hometown boy, he comes back. He's somebody. He's famous.
And all of Nazareth is coming to hear what he has to say. They're
very excited about the Lord Jesus being here. Now, verse 16, 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. Now, it wasn't a book as we have
a book. It was a scroll. It was a roll that you roll out.
And when he had opened the book or the scroll, he found the place
where it was written. Now, before we look at verse
18, let's turn back to Isaiah chapter 61 and look at the exact
passage of scripture that our Lord quoted. I think it's very
exciting to think that we're reading this passage of scripture
that our Lord used to open his public ministry. That just gives
us some anticipation to see what he's going to say. Now, look
here in Isaiah chapter 61. This is what he quoted. Now,
You can imagine. What's he going to say? What's
he going to do? Everybody was excited about the Lord coming
here. They didn't have any idea that he claimed to be the Son
of God. They didn't have any idea that he claimed to be the
Messiah. They just knew it was a boy that grew up in Nazareth,
and he's become famous. They'd heard great things about
him, and they were all very excited about what he was going to have
to say. So he opens up the scroll of Isaiah, and he reads this
passage of Scripture, verse 1 of Isaiah 61, The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me. Now, do you reckon he read that
in such a way as they knew who the me was? Wouldn't you have
loved to have heard the Lord read the Scriptures? And he read
this Scripture in such a way as they knew what he was talking
about. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me. Now, wait a minute. You're the
carpenter's son. You grew up here. We knew your
mom and dad. What's going on here? The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me. Because the Lord hath anointed
me to preach good tidings Unto the meek now the word meek here
means the feeble and the depressed The weak And the depressed and
he has sent me with good news for these people Next it says
he has sent me to bind up The brokenhearted now. This is not
talking about a failed romance Now, probably everybody in here,
one time or the other, has had their heart broken. When I've
grown up, I've had my heart broken plenty of times, and you did
too. But this is not what this is talking about. What it's talking
about, He sent me to heal the brokenhearted. He's talking about
a heart broken over sin. Now, what is a broken heart?
Is it just a heart that feels bad? Yeah, it feels bad. There's
no doubt about it. But a heart that's broken is
a heart that doesn't work. It's no good. It does not do
what it's supposed to do. That's what a broken heart is.
I mean, the heart ought to love God. The heart ought to obey
God. The heart ought to do what God
says to do. The heart ought to believe God.
The heart ought to repeat. There's all kinds of things we
could say the heart ought to do. But if the heart's broken, it
doesn't do what it's supposed to do. It's no good. That's what
a broken heart is. I don't know how many people
thought, well, I may do bad things, but I've got a good heart. No,
you don't. If you had a good heart, you
wouldn't do those bad things, would you? There's not a mother,
I don't suppose. I mean, her boy may be some kind
of axe murderer, but he's good-hearted. No, he's not. No, he's not. There's no such thing as a good-hearted
person. A broken-hearted person is someone whose heart that doesn't
work. Now, that's who he's addressing. He has sent me to heal the broken-hearted. He has sent me, go on, to proclaim
liberty. to proclaim freedom to the captives
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. He sent
me to proclaim liberty to those who are captive, captured, in prison. You can't get out. You know,
if you could get out, you're not bound, are you? If you could
just walk away from that situation, you're not in prison. But these
people that he sent me to preach liberty to, and freedom to, and
to proclaim liberty to, they're people who are bound. They feel themselves to be bound. They feel themselves to be in
prison. You know, the very idea of free will is ludicrous to
these people. You know, if you're locked up in prison, can you
say, well, if I've got a free will, I'm going to decide to
just get out of here? Doesn't work that way, does it? Not if
you're bound, not if you're locked up in prison. He sent me to proclaim
freedom to these people who are locked up into prison. He comes
and says, you're set free. Verse two, to proclaim. This is why the spirit of the
Lord is upon me to proclaim, to announce the acceptable year
of the Lord. Now, the acceptable year of the
Lord. What is that? That's a reference to the year of Jubilee. I love
thinking about the year of Jubilee. I mean, there's nothing like
this anywhere else. Every 50 years. in the land of Israel. Now, this was for the Jew. This
was not for the Gentile. This was for the Jew who, through
his irresponsibility, through his inability to pay his debts,
he got himself into trouble and he was sold into slavery. He
lost his land. He lost his goods that were confiscated. He was sold into slavery and
he was just a slave. Now, can you imagine what a horrible
condition that would be, owing all this money? Now, every 50
years, In the land of Israel, something very special took place.
It would be ushered in by the blowing of a silver trumpet. And if you were one of these
slaves, you know what that silver trumpet said? All your debts have been canceled. Now, is there anybody here that
owes any money? Can you imagine what that would feel like to
just all of a sudden hear this announcement? Every dime you
owe has been cancelled. Wiped out. You're debt free.
Everything you lost was restored. Not only was everything you lost
restored, you are now a free man. You weren't a slave anymore. And the land was given a year's
rest. A Sabbath of rest. And he comes
and says, I have come to proclaim the acceptable year, the year
of Jubilee. Now, let's go on reading. To
proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance
of our God. Now, this year of Jubilee is
also a day of vengeance. And you know, the day of vengeance
is what? What is that? It's the day of Calvary, isn't
it? Why is there a Jubilee? because
of the vengeance of Calvary. You see, the reason these people
are set free is because the debt's been paid. That's what the day
of vengeance is all about. The Lord took vengeance upon
the sins of His people. Christ was made sin, and God
said the soul that sins shall surely die. Why did Christ die?
Because the sins of His people became His. And He died the day
of vengeance. God got vengeance against sin. And now we have The year of Jubilee,
he came to the day of vengeance of our God to comfort, it says
next. Here's why the Spirit of the
Lord is upon me to comfort all that mourn. And he's talking
about mourning over sin. David put it this way. And I
wish I could say this with the same. Heart, David did. Seems like sometimes I can, sometimes
I can't. But I'm trying my best. David
said, my sin is ever before me. And I mourn over my sin. My lack of love. My unbelief. My sinfulness. Christ came to comfort all. that mourn over their sin. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith the Lord. Speak comfortably to Israel and
tell her that her iniquity is pardoned. Her transgression is
forgiven. And she hath received at the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. He came to comfort all
that mourn. Verse 3, to appoint unto them
that mourn in Zion. To appoint. You know, I like
hearing about appointed grace. Do you? Grace that God appointed. He came to appoint unto all them
that mourn in Zion. And what that's talking about
is God's appointment of salvation. Now here's a scripture, I quote
this a lot and I love it a lot. I'll try to explain why I love
this scripture so much. Romans chapter 9 verse 11 talks about
God's appointed salvation. Talks about Jacob and Esau for
the children, being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand. Not of works, but of Him that calleth. That's
talking about appointed grace. He appointed salvation for Jacob. He appointed to pass by Esau. That's appointed grace. Now,
the only reason somebody has a problem with that is if they're
hoping for salvation in their works. There is no other reason.
If you're hoping for salvation in your works, you're here with
salvation that has absolutely nothing to do with works. Well,
that takes away your hope. You don't like it. But if you
don't have any works to recommend you to God, this is good news.
He speaks of appointed grace. I love appointed grace. To appoint,
to decree unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty,
he says in verse 3, for ashes. What's more worthless than ashes?
You can't recycle them. I can't think of anything more
worthless than ashes. And yet he says he's going to
give beauty for our ashes, the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ
being put upon us. What what words of grace these
are. And then he says, and the garment
of praise. The oil of joy for mourning in
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. that they
might be called trees of righteousness. These people who are heavy, these
people who mourn, these people who are nothing more than ashes.
He says they're called trees of God's planting, trees, literally
oaks, a mighty oak, oaks of righteousness. And that's the heritage of every
believer. Well, how in the world can that be? How can this man
whose ashes, who mourns over sin, God calls me righteous?
God, the holy God, views me as righteous? Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man whom the Lord
will not impute sin. Blessed is that man whom the
Lord imputes righteousness without their works. They're going to be called trees
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. The Lord did this.
Who planted you? Who made you a tree of righteousness?
You know the Lord did it, don't you? You're sure of that. I don't
have to convince anybody who is righteous that the Lord did
this. This is his work. That he might be glorified. Now, that's the passage that
our Lord quoted when he walked into Nazareth. and opened up
the scroll and read that passage of scripture. Now turn back to
Luke chapter 4, if you would. 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 and he
gave it again to the minister and sat down. I don't have any
doubt that at that time you could have heard a pin drop in that
place. What in the world is he saying? And the eyes, verse 20, of all
them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them,
This day is this Scripture. that I just read, it's been fulfilled
in your very ears. And notice, he did not say it
will be fulfilled. He said it's been fulfilled. I myself am the fulfillment of
this Scripture. I myself am the realization of
this Scripture. Verse 22, and all bear him witness, and
wondered, they marveled at the gracious words, and that is literally
words of grace, which proceeded out of his mouth. They marveled,
they were stupefied by these words of grace. Now here's what
I want to ask you, and I'm asking myself this. I want to ask a
very personal question. Listen real carefully. When God
looks in your heart right now, does He see someone who sees
these words as words of grace? Do you see these words as words
of grace? Verse 18, the Spirit of the Lord
is upon me because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. You know who the poor are? They're people that don't have
anything. That's who the poor are. They
don't have one single shred of anything to recommend them to
God. They're dirt poor. They do not
have a thing. Now, I want you to remember Grace
is altogether unmerited favor. Now I'll tell you who will find
this to be a word of grace. Somebody who is poor. If you're poor, you find this
to be word of grace. He hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. Is your heart broke? Let me remind you, this is not
talking about a failed romance. This is talking about a heart
that is no good. That's why David cried out, create
in me a clean heart. Oh God, mine's filthy, mine's
no good. I can't come up with the goods.
Create in me a clean heart. Oh God, renew a right spirit
within me. He has sent me to preach deliverance
to the captives. You know anything about being
a captive? I mean, you can't pull yourself up by the bootstraps.
You can't just up and walk out of this cell. You're captive.
If you could, you wouldn't be captive, could you? Can you stop
sinning? Can you go five seconds with
a holy mind with no sin? Can you go a millionth of a second?
No. Captive. Well, he has sent me
to preach deliverance. And you know that word deliverance
is the word that's generally translated forgiveness. Forgiveness. The reason for captivity, the
reason to be in the cell has been taken away. You've been
forgiven. And I like the way he comes to
proclaim forgiveness, not offer it to announce it. You've been
set free. What next? The recovering of
the sight to the blind? Who are the blind? Who are the blind? I know who
the blind are. The blind are those people who
honestly can't see why God would ever look their way in mercy.
That's who the blind are. Lord, said Peter, He didn't even suspect mercy.
He said, depart from me. You don't want to have anything
to do with me. I'm a sinful man. He couldn't find a reason why
God would ever look his way in favor. Now that's the person
he sent to give sight to. And he sent me to set at liberty,
to set free them that are crushed, bruised as crushed, shattered
by the law of God, crushed, and to preach the acceptable year
of the Lord, to preach jubilee. All debts have been canceled.
The prisoners set free. What you lost is restored. A
year's rest. Are these words of grace to you?
Are they? When you hear these words, do
you find these to be words of grace? Now, back to our text
in Luke 4, verse 22, And all bear him witness, and wondered
at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said,
here's their response to these words of grace, Is not this Joseph's
son? What in the world is he doing
saying things like this? This is the carpenter's son.
We know his mom and dad. We know his brothers and sisters.
He thinks he's some kind of big shot. This is Joseph. He shouldn't be making claims
like this. Verse 23, and he said unto them,
the Lord responds, and he says, and I have no doubt that he was
not surprised by their He knew the way they would respond. And
he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician,
heal thyself. Whatsoever we have heard done
in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. He tells them what
they would say. Physician, heal yourself. You say you're the
Christ, save yourself. You say you're the Son of God,
come down from that cross if you really are. Physician, heal
yourself. You'll surely say to me, this
proverb, we want to see you do the miracles that you did in
Capernaum. What we've heard you've done
in Capernaum, do here also in thy country. And he said, verily
I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.
No prophet is accepted as a prophet in his hometown. And these people
are a very clear example of that. But look what the Lord says next
in verse 25. Now, the Lord's going to let him in on something.
And He says, I tell you of the truth. I tell you of the truth. Now, the Lord could have said
at this time, He could have said, I tell you of a truth. God is
absolutely sovereign in salvation. Now, he could have said that.
Would that have been true? Sure, it would have been true. And
you know what I bet everybody would have said? Amen. Amen. But you know, the Lord
doesn't speak in theological platitudes. He gives an illustration
that everybody could understand. And what a powerful illustration
this is. Now, the Lord sees these people's
unbelief. It didn't take Him by surprise. He didn't become discouraged
over it. But look what He says. I tell you the truth. And He
gives an example. Many widows were in Israel in
the days of Elias or Elijah when the heaven was shut up. Three
years and six months when great famine was throughout the land. You remember Elijah's day? God
sent a famine. It lasted three years and six
months. Can you imagine going three years
and six months without rain? And he said, you know what? There
were a lot of widows in that day in the land of Israel. He
said, many widows. That's what the Lord said. And
remember, when our Lord says what he's saying, this is not
harsh. This is not cruel. This is not this is God speaking.
This is he who is too kind to be cruel, too wise. This is the
son of God speaking. So don't remember who's speaking.
These are not the words of some mere man. These are the words
of the son of God. And the example he gives is during Elijah's day,
there were a bunch of widows. And you know what the Lord did? He passed by every single one
of them, and didn't do anything for them. And he had mercy on
a Gendile widow. And he passed the rest by. And
what our Lord is saying is, is, you don't believe me. You don't believe But I want
you to know this. The reason you don't believe
me is God has passed you by as an act of His irreprehensible
justice. That's why you don't believe.
Now let me show you another scripture. Hold your finger there. John
chapter 10. Now these are the Lord's words. These are the Lord's words. If
somebody would have a problem with this, it's because they're
having a problem with the Lord. If I have a problem with this, it's because my problem
is with the Lord Himself. These are the Lord's words. Look here
in John chapter 10. Verse 24, Then came the Jews
round about him. John chapter 10, verse 24, Then
came the Jews round about him and said unto him, How long dost
thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you. And you didn't believe. The works
that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. but
you believe not because you are not of my sheep. He didn't say
you're not my sheep because you don't believe, did he? He said
the reason you don't believe is because you are not of my
sheep. Now those are the Lord's words.
There's no getting around that. That's the way he dealt with
this. Look back in our text. Hold your finger there, John.
We're going to go back there in a minute. Verse 27. Many lepers were in Israel in
the time of Elisha, the prophet. There was a lot of lepers. The
Lord said many. There must have been a bunch.
And none of them was cleansed. The Lord didn't cleanse one of
them. Saving Naaman Now, what our Lord
is saying is, just in case you didn't get that first illustration,
let me give you another one. In Elisha's day, there were a
whole lot of lepers. And you know how many of them
God cleansed? Not even one of them. And he sent his prophet
to a Gentile leper by the name of Naaman and cleansed him. He's saying to these people,
you don't receive me. You don't receive me as the Messiah.
You think I'm nothing more than Joseph's son. You don't see I'm
my father's son. You see me as Joseph's son. You
don't see me as the son of God. But understand this, this is
no discouragement to me, what our Lord is saying. And He's
not saying this harshly. But He's saying the reason you
don't see who I am is because God has passed you by, just like
He did these others. Now, here's another example.
Look in John 6. I told you to leave your finger in John. Look
in John chapter 6. Verse 35. And Jesus said unto them, I am
the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. And he that believeth on me shall
never thirst. But I said unto you that you
also have seen me, and you believe not. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. You may not believe, but you
can be sure of this, there are some who will believe. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to
me, I will in no wise cast out." Our Lord is saying you reject
the message of grace. That's a remarkably wicked thing
to do. But know this, God is passing you by in judgment. Now
go back to Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4. Now I want you to try to put
yourself in these people's place. What the Lord has just said to
them. Now, if the Lord says to me, God's passed you by. You know what I'm going to do? If He says God's passed you by,
I'm going to be like one of these people. That's what they did. Look what they did. Verse 28. And all they in the synagogue,
when they heard these things, as I said at the beginning of
this message, they didn't say, well, we'll agree to disagree.
Nothing like that was there. Scripture says they were filled
with wrath. And they rose up. They were so
infuriated. And I try to put myself in these
people's place. I'm not justifying what they did. But the Lord says,
you don't believe me? The Lord's passed you by. Of
course, they're going to get mad. They're going to get mad. And they were
so angry, they were going to kill the Lord over this. And
what they're proving is their hatred of the Lord. They were
going to take Him up to the top of the city, up on a cliff, and
throw Him down and kill Him. That's how angry they were over
this. And what this tells us is the natural man is angry with
God's absolute sovereignty and salvation. They'd kill Him if
they could. They would, if they could, if it was in their power,
if it was in my power by nature. That's what I would have been
right there with this bunch. They were so furious over the
fact that God would have mercy on a Gentile and pass them by. Now, why was this such an issue
in the New Testament? This was a big issue. Oh, when
they heard about mercy for Gentiles, they'd get so upset. Oh, they
were happy for salvation to come with Jews. But here's the reason.
If my hope of salvation is because of something in me, and if you
tell me that that doesn't count, get upset if that's what my hope
is. Why it doesn't even count that you're a Jew. That won't
save anybody. Well, that made them mad because they were hoping
for something in them. Won't work. Doesn't work. But if you truly don't have any
hope in yourself, now you listen to me. If you do not have any
hope of salvation in yourself, to hear of a sovereign salvation
where God can save whom He will, and He's pleased to do it. You
know what that will be to you? Good news. Why not me? Why not me? While on others thou
art calling, do not pass me by. Why, Lord, have mercy on me. There are a lot of people who
are angry with our Lord's words at this time. But you know, there
are some people who will not be angry. And I know who those
people are. I'm looking at some of them right
now. People who are poor. They don't
have anything to recommend them to God. People who are broken
hearted. Their heart is no good. I really believe that. People
who are captive, unable to deliver themselves from their chains.
People who are blind. They can't see why God would
look in favor to them. People who are crushed by God's
law. People who are debtors and slaves. Now to that person, the same
thing that angered this mob, delights his soul. Now let's
read in closing, verse 18 once again, and I want to ask once
again, are these words, words of grace to you? 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, forgiveness to captives, and the recovering
of sight to them that are blind, to set at liberty them that are
crushed and to preach the year of Jubilee. Now, you know who
was happy when that silver trumpet sounded on the year of Jubilee.
You know exactly who was happy. The fellow who was a slave. Now,
if you were a slave owner, you might not have been too happy.
You might have been upset. You think you're the loser by
it. But if you're a slave, you're the gainer by it. And these words,
indeed, are words of grace. Let's pray.