the fourth chapter of Luke's
Gospel. I want to begin this morning
with this, and this afternoon I want to go back to it again.
But I want to look this morning mainly in verse 18 at a mission
of mercy. When the Lord Jesus came down
from heaven, I think we'll see this morning that it was a mission
of mercy And then this afternoon I want us to continue this study,
but I want to be looking mainly in verse 27, discriminating mercy. So let's read this account beginning
here in verse 16. Look for 16. And he came to Nazareth
where he had 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, 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 broken
hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery
of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty them that are
bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." And he closed
the book and gave it again to the minister and sat down. And
the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened
upon him. And he began to say unto them,
This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him
witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of
his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's
son? And he said unto them, You will
surely say unto me this proverb. Physician, doctor, heal yourself. Whatsoever we have heard done
in Capernaum, do also here in your country. And he said, Verily
I say unto you, a prophet is accepted. A prophet, no prophet
is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth that
many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah when the heavens
were shut up three years and six months, when great famine
was throughout all the land, but unto none of them was Elijah
sent, except unto Sarepta the city of Sidon, unto a woman that
was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Elias the prophet, but none of them were cleansed,
save in Naaman the Syrian." And all they in the synagogue, when
they heard this, were filled with wrath. And they rose up
and thrust him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the
hill, whereupon their city was built, that they might cast him
down headlong. But he passing through the midst
of them went his way." Let us look mainly this morning at verse
18. This is why I call this a mission of mercy because it's very clear,
it's very evident, as you consider this verse, why the Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world. He says He came to preach the
good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
deliverance to those who were taken captive, recovery of sight
to the blind, and set at liberty those that are bruised." I call
this a mission of mercy on our Lord's part because He came to
give aid to the poor. He came to help the poor, those
that were in poverty. He came to be a doctor. He came
to heal the brokenhearted. And He came to deliver people
who had been taken captive. They were in prison. And He came
to heal blind folks, to give sight to the blind, and to relieve
those that were crushed. I think it's very telling that
He never came to assist rich people. He never came to heal the whole. He never came to walk with those
who were free. They had no use of Him, and He
never came for them. He came on a mission of mercy.
He came for the downtrodden. That's who the Son of God came
down from heaven to aid. And this was no mission for the
fainthearted that our Lord came on. I mean, it's a great task,
brothers and sisters, to find a man in poverty and make him
rich. That's a great task, isn't it?
To find the man that's brokenhearted His spirit is crushed and healed
that man. That's a great feat, ain't it?
To find a person that's been put in prison by a mighty enemy
and go free him. To give sight to a blind man?
Give sight to a man who's been born blind? And those whose fillings
are crushed to restore those fillings? That's not a job for
the faint of heart, is it? When you think of doing all of
this, what a task this would be for a number of people. But
when one man comes to do it, one man comes to do this, my,
he must be a mighty man indeed. He must be a wise man and a gracious
man to do all of this by himself. What a difficult task he was
speaking to here. If you think of this task in
a physical sense, it would be impossible, wouldn't it? Just
a physical, look at this from a physical aspect and you think,
man, who can do all of that? But when you look at it from
a spiritual aspect, here is the heart that's broken. Here is
someone in spiritual bondage. If you're someone in prison to
sin and to Satan, you're someone whose feelings is crushed. When the Lord comes, He deals
with the heart, doesn't He? It's the heart the Lord's interested
in. And that's what He tells us here. And brothers and sisters,
only Jesus can do a poor sinner good. Only Him. But I tell you,
He has so much confidence. He never stuttered, did He? He'd
never stammered at all. He had just left the wilderness
a few days before this where he had been tempted 40 days and
40 nights. Imagine how weak he was in his
body that he had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. That would
kill the average person, wouldn't it? They'd die of dehydration,
malnutrition. He must have still been weak
when He came here and sat down to preach this message. But He
never stumbles. He has no self-doubt about Him
at all. He just announces His mission
and says it was prophesied all the way back in the Old Testament
in Isaiah chapter 61, what I was coming to do. And He made this
wonderful statement. He said, It's as good as done.
It's as good as done. This day is this Scripture fulfilled
in your eyes. I am come to heal the brokenhearted,
to relieve the poor, and so on. And he said, it's as good as
done. He didn't say, I'm going to give my best effort. I'm going
to give a stab at it here. I hope to do my best. He said,
it's as good as done today. Oh, the confidence the Son of
God has in His own mission of mercy. But you'll notice something
else here in our text in verse 18. The Father has confidence
in Him. When you read this verse over
in Isaiah chapter 61 and verse 1, here's what it said. The Lord
God hath sent me. He's speaking there of His Father,
isn't He? My Father hath sent me. Why did the Father send Him? Because the Father has confidence
in Him. The Father sent me to bind up
the brokenhearted. Why would the Father do that?
Because the Father knows Him. The Father trusts Him. How many
times do you read in the Gospels where the Lord Jesus made statements
like this? I came not of myself, but He
sent me. My doctrine is not mine, but
Him that sent me. I came down from heaven not to
do my own will, but His will who sent me. Over and over again,
He says that. He sent me. And the Father sent
Him because the Father knows that He's capable and well able
to deliver such people as this. The Father said something like
this, My son, I'm sending you down to that godless world and
you're going to find men who are spiritually in poverty. You're
going to find them broken hearted. You're going to find them in
captivity to sin and Satan. You're going to find them crushed
underneath the cares and the burdens of life. I want you to
be careful that you pass not of one. You deliver all of them
that you come into. That's what the Father says of
Him. Oh, the Father had all the confidence
in the world and the Son. But notice here also in our text
the Holy Spirit. Notice what the Holy Spirit says.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He hath anointed me
to preach to the poor. The Spirit has anointed me. You
know the offices in the Old Testament? When you held an office in the
Old Testament, you had to be anointed to that office. Samuel
anointed David to be king. Remember that? You had to be
anointed. Moses anointed Aaron to be the
priest. Elijah anointed Elijah to be
a prophet. It shows that you've been set
aside, that you've been approved. You've been anointed to do the
work and hold the office. Who anointed Jesus to do this
great work? The Spirit. The third Person
of the Sacred Trinity put His approval upon the Son of God. In all the offices that Jesus
Christ held, it's going to take all three offices to deliver
these people. Who can deliver from Satan, that
strong man that keeps his palace? Who can deliver from sin? It's
going to take a king in it, and Jesus is a king. And when He
comes to save us, He exercises His power. Thy people shall be
willing in the day of thy power. What else is it going to take?
It's going to take a prophet. It's going to take a prophet
to teach us because we're blind. Somebody's got to be able to
open our eyes that we can see. See the light of the glory of
God. See our condition. See God as
He is and the gospel as it is. Who can do that but a great prophet
like Jesus Christ? And a priest. And a priest. What did the priest do? Well,
he represented poor sinners before God, didn't he? He took a sacrifice
into the presence of God and offered it as a payment for their
sins. We need Jesus Christ in all of
His offices as King, as Prophet, and as Priest. Why are you and
I so poor? He talks here about the poor,
doesn't He? Preach the Gospel, the Good News
to the poor. Why are we poor? I'll tell you
why we're poor. We owe a debt that we can't pay. We owe a debt of sin that we
cannot pay. We don't have one red cent to
atone for our iniquities. That's why we're so poor. I owe
the debt. I could not pay. He paid a debt. He did that as a faithful and
merciful high priest. That old song that Brother Wayne
sang sometime, If I could obey, to the last command, it would
be but my duty. It won't pay for sin. And that's why He cries out,
Jesus, come save me. Come save this poor man. I cannot
pay the price. You only can. And that's the way He makes us
rich, isn't it? He paid a price for us. He paid a price. Though He was rich, Yet for your
sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might be
made rich." He paid that debt for us. And He not only pays
the debt, but when He delivers us from the condemnation and
the power of sin, you know what He does? He makes us rich. He
takes us from poverty and exalts us to sit among princesses. Listen
to these passages of Scripture. You talk about the riches, how
rich the Lord Jesus is and how He makes us rich. Listen to these
passages of Scripture. In whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace. You know why you and I don't
deny anymore what we are? You know why we confess our sins
to Him? No matter how big they are, we
confess them so freely, don't we? And you know why? Because
He's rich in grace to forgive us of our sins. If He's in poverty
Himself, He can't help us, can He? But He's rich. He's rich
in grace. Listen to Ephesians chapter 2
verse 7. In the ages to come, He might
show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus. When the saints are in heaven
for all eternity, they'll be learning this theme of kindness. Kindness. He'll show them His
kindness and they'll say, my how rich He is in grace to have
such kindness. Listen to Ephesians 3.16, that
He would grant unto you according to the riches of His glory, to
be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man."
Riches of His glory. And listen to verse 19, "...to
know the love of Christ, which patheth knowledge, that you might
be filled with all the fullness of God." Isn't He rich? His love
is incomprehensible. You can't estimate His love. it passeth knowledge. For there
is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same
Lord over all is rich unto all who call upon Him. He's rich. That's the way He
eliminates our poverty. He makes us rich. Listen to this
one. But God who is rich in mercy,
For His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together. Rich in mercy. And
listen to James. Hearken, my beloved brethren.
Hath not God chosen the poor of this world? Rich in faith. Rich in faith. You was born without
any faith. And He gave you faith. And now
you are rich. Who can estimate a person who
has saved in faith. That's rich. Oh, that's rich. I believe. I believe Him. I believe
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Rich in faith and heirs of the
kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him. Heirs of the kingdom. So here
we are. We're in poverty. We're a pauper. We have nothing. Not one red
cent to our name, spiritually speaking. The Son of God comes
down from heaven. The first thing He does is pay
the price for our sins. He delivers us up and sets us
among princes and makes us rich. You can't beat that for a gospel,
can you? You can't beat that for a gospel. This word, poor,
Here in verse 18, He sent me to preach the gospel to the poor.
This word poor means a pauper. To be in poverty. One that depends
upon others for his maintenance. We know something about that
in the day of welfare state, don't we? Everybody's on welfare.
Everybody's dependent upon somebody else. That's what it means to
be poor. To be straightened. To be distressed. because of a sense of felt need
to bag. Somebody said, I ain't never
bagging. I'm not bagging. Boy, I'm a bagger. Aren't you?
I'm a bagger. I admit it. I go bagging all
the time. Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, forgive my sin. Lord, give me yourself. Lord,
deliver me. Aren't you a bagger? I'll never
bag. If he ever shows you what you
are, you'll go bagging. you'll go begging to Him when
He shows you the poverty that you're in. Even King David said
this, Lord, I am poor and needy. Have you ever felt that in your
heart? I am poor. I'm in poverty. And I tell you, when you're in
poverty and you can't help yourself, you feel the need, don't you?
I feel it. Oh, what did he say? Yet the
Lord thanketh upon Me. What a wonderful thought. I'm
in poverty. I don't have anything. And yet
the high Lord of heaven, He thinks upon me. So what's the result
of that? Thou art my help and my deliverer. Oh, make haste, O Lord. Make
no tarry. This is what David said in Psalm
72. He shall spare the poor and the needy. He shall save the
souls of the needy. He shall redeem their souls from
deceit and violence. And precious shall their blood
be in His sight. I tell you, there's never been
a poor man that the Lord Jesus couldn't pass by. He can't pass
by a poor man. He just can't do it. He hears
that cry. Somebody made the statement,
maybe it was Brother Mayhem, that how people tried to stop
the Lord Jesus. Everybody was trying to stop
Him. Everybody was trying to shut Him up and stop Him. But
they never could. There was only one man that ever
stopped Him in His tracks. Remember who that was? Jesus,
the son of David. Have mercy on me. I am a poor
man, Lord, have mercy upon me." And the Scripture says, He stood
still. Now you study the Gospel to see
how many times that happened. He can't pass by a poor man. The Father sent Him. The Father
sent Him to preach the Gospel to the poor. And He says, He
has sent Me to heal the broken heart. What is the heart? That's
the very core of what we are, isn't it? That's the essential
part of us. It's the uttermost part of us.
Where all of our thoughts originate and our affections and our will,
that's the heart. The broken heart? You may have a broken leg or
sprained ankle and hop around on crutches. Still get around. You may have a broken arm and
still work, have a broken tooth and still eat, or a broken jaw
and suck water through a straw. But I'm telling you, if your
heart is broken, you're at the end of yourself. A broken heart
will shut you down. It'll zap you of your strength.
You can't go on in your daily life doing what you always do
when God breaks your heart. Because the heart is the most
essential part of a man. Here's how David described it.
He said, Oh Lord, I am feeble and sore broken. He said this
morning in rain, I think read it to us, cause the bones which
thou hast broken to rejoice. It feels like broken bones when
you got a broken heart and you're just disabled. David said, I
go groaning. I go roaring. My heart paints. My strength fails. My foot's
ready to slide. My enemies exalt themselves against
me. I'm ready to halt. My sorrow
is continually before me. I tell you, flesh despises a
broken heart. And the world don't want to be
around a broken-hearted man. Did you know that? Do you know
why that old publican was up there in the temple, standing
there far off, beating on his chest? He had a broken heart. He never did beat on his chest
before. He stuck his chest out. Look how much money I'm making.
I'm rich. But now he's beating on his heart.
And that Pharisee could not endear to hear him pray like he was
praying. And I bet you his countenance
was faulted. He was full of sorrow. He said, I can't go down to my
house. I can't go back to my job. What's the matter with you?
I'm a broken man. Is there anybody that can do
me good? Well, here the Son of God says,
I've come to heal your heart. I've come to forgive your sins.
I've come to justify you and worship you and let you know
that you're mine, that you've been reconciled. He that breaks
the heart is the only one that can heal the heart. The Bible says God's Word is
a hammer, doesn't it? And boy, when the Holy Spirit
takes in hand that hammer, He can break our hearts with it.
He can break the heart. He can cause us to grieve over
our sins against a God of love. He can cause us to weep over
our sins and what it cost our dear Savior up on the tree. He can break the heart. That's
what we love to see in our day. That's what we need to see. You
know, we're not finding any broken-hearted people, are we? We're not, brothers
and sisters. That's our whole problem. And
this is what concerns us about this time in which we live. You
can't find any broken-hearted people. People can go on and
sin as they want to and lay down and rest at ease. They can believe
what they want to, say what they want to, do what they want to.
It doesn't matter. And the reason is their heart
is not broken. That's what I pray for for myself.
That's what I pray for for you, my family, my neighbors, our
country. Oh God, work. Break hearts. Because you know something, brothers
and sisters, until a heart's broken, it won't need a Savior.
It just has no interest in a Savior until the heart's broken. It's
a broken soul and not a whole that truly needs the Savior. Broken heart. He healeth the
broken in heart and He bindeth up their wounds. Listen to Isaiah
57 and 15. I love this passage. There's
so much. If you want to read some time,
When you're reading through the Old Testament, especially Isaiah
and the Book of Psalms, notice the places where Scripture is
like this. What the Scripture says about the poor and needy
and the broken hearted, the contract. Listen to Isaiah 57, verse 15.
Thus saith the High and Lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity,
whose name is holy. I love the way the Lord identifies
Himself, don't you? The High and Lofty One. and He inhabits eternity and
He is holy. I dwell in the high and holy
place, but listen, with Him also that is of a contract and humble
spirit. He is a broken hearted man. Why
does He dwell there with him? To revive the spirit of the humble
and to revive the heart of the broken one. I tell you, Satan tries his best
to take advantage of a broken heart. A broken heart feels its
unworthiness. It feels its demerit. It feels
that it's more deserving of God's judgment than His favor. And
Satan comes in and tries to drive the poor broken heart to despair.
And I'm telling you, if the Lord doesn't get underneath the spirit
that's broken and hold it up and revive it, It will sink and
sink and sink until it dies. But here's the blessed promise.
I dwell with Him. To this man will I look as if
there was nobody else but this one broken-hearted man. I look
to Him to hold him up and to revive him and to reveal mercies
to him and my love and goodness to him. He's got to do it. Nobody else can. Jesus. Jesus
the Savior. And he says thirdly here, to
preach deliverance to the captives. To preach deliverance to the
captives. I remember what it was like.
I've never forgotten what it was like to be bound by sin and
Satan. I still remember to this day,
all through my teenage years, I kept trying to escape my sin.
and escape Satan. And I couldn't. You know how
the Bible sometimes describes sin? As gates of brass and bars
of iron. Psalms 107. Why does it describe
it like that? Because brass is strong. Iron
is strong. And there's but one who can break
those gates of brass and cut the iron asunder, and that's
Jesus the Savior. And Satan is described as a strong
man who keeps his palace, the heart of a lost man. Satan is
there and all his goods are there. His lust is there. Unbelief is
there. Hatred of God is there. And he
loves those things. And he dwells there and he keeps
those things in peace, you see, until a greater than he comes
on him and overcomes him and drags him out of the heart and
excommunicates him. and takes the throne himself. Listen to Colossians 1.13. God
hath delivered us from the power of darkness. The power of darkness. This is why we don't believe
in salvation by free will. There is no such thing. Who's
the strongest in this battle when it comes to us or Satan?
You think he don't have power over us? And we talk about a
man's fickle, changing will as being the deciding factor in
salvation? Man is bound by Satan, the god
of this world, the prince of the power of the hour. And until
somebody else comes and delivers him from his power, he'll hold
him in captivity. I heard a man say one time, and
you probably don't believe some of these things, but I'm telling
you, I'm not getting up here and lying to you when I tell
you these things. I heard a preacher say one time
that man is sovereign. I heard that with my own eyes.
I think that's the last thing I ever heard him say. But I heard
him say that. He said, God is not sovereign.
Man is sovereign. I just take it that man don't
know his state. God has never taught that man. He has never
taught him that he is in bondage. Men, sins. Don't you have trouble
with sins right now? You are saved. The Lord has delivered
you. But don't you still sometimes
feel like they are bringing you back into bondage? And you have
to struggle against them and pray against them? And to tell a lost man he is
a sovereign. Dis-exercise the power of your
free will. I used to go to jail with some
of the Gideons. And we had one man in particular. He always
talked this way. The fellas back there behind
those iron bars, and they hated God. They'd get so mad because
we'd come up there because they had to turn the TV off to preach.
They'd just cuss us and spit at us. Call us all kinds of names
and stuff. They didn't want us to be up
there. They didn't want to hear the gospel. And this poor man
was up there and this is what he said to them. Dis-exercise
the power of your free will. And he just got me so upset I
started preaching to him instead of them. I thought you need the
gospel more than they do. And I told them one day, I said,
you know, you've been told. It's the last time I've got to
go with the Gideons to jail if I remember right. I said, you
guys have been told just to exercise the power of your free will.
And you'll be saved from sin and Satan and the kingdom of
darkness. I said, probably you ought to try this first. Try
this first. Try exercising the power of your
free will and get out behind those bars. Try that first. And when that
works, Maybe you can exercise the power of your free will and
save yourself and deliver yourself from the captivity you're in.
Brothers and sisters, we've got ourselves in a mess. And here's
the mess we're in. We're bound by sin. It's irons
of brass and gates of iron. And we can't break through them.
And Satan's there blinding our minds and deceiving us. And he
says, I ain't going to let you go. I ain't going to let you
go. until Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, invades his kingdom and says, that man's mine. Let my
captives go free. And he can't resist Jesus at
Mass. Oh, I've come to set the captive
free. I've come to set the captive
free. Here's what the Father said of the Son. I have raised
him up in righteousness. I will direct all His ways. He
shall build My city and He shall let go My captives. They are Mine. And they have
been taken captive by sin and Satan. And I am sending My Son
to let them go free. Bless His holy name. Recovering
of sight. Fourthly, recovering of sight
to the blind. Boy, it seems like the farther
you go, the worse shape we are in, doesn't it? It's not only
that we're in poverty and we're poor and broken and in prison,
now we're blind. It'd be bad enough just to be
in prison, but maybe you could see how to get out or see what
was going on outside, but here you're not only in prison, but
you're blind. And here's what the Lord Jesus
said. The Father said of Him, I, the
Lord, have called in righteousness. I'll hold your hand and I'll
keep you. I'll give you for a covenant of the people, for a light of
the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes and to bring out the prisoners
from their prison. And them that sit in darkness
out of the prison house, for I am the Lord, that's my name,
and my glory will I not give to another. The chief glory of
Jesus Christ is doing these things for poor sinners. One of the best ways to describe
salvation is this, I once was blind, but now I see. That's one of the best ways,
isn't it? I once was blind. Weren't you blind? Blind in a
bat, weren't we spiritually? Now I see. Somebody has opened
my eyes, and I see. I see God for who He is. I see
myself for what I am. I see Christ for who He is, a
great Savior. I see the gospel of His free
and sovereign grace. I see. I see. He's done that. Jesus has done
that. And lastly and quickly, to set
at liberty them that are bruised. We're always suffering bruises,
aren't we? Sometimes people bruises. Sometimes Satan bruises us. Sometimes
we bruise ourselves. But we're always being bruised. Our feelings, our hearts, our
minds. I have feelings. Sometimes feelings
of lust. Sometimes feelings of passion
and pride and self-will and anger and ambition. And boy, I find
after a while that these things just crush me. They pound on
me and bruise me. Wanting things I cannot have
and don't need. Fearing things I'll never face.
Facing things I can't avoid. Facing problems I can't overcome. Hoping for things I'll never
obtain. Enjoying things I can't keep. You have problems with
this stuff. We're just always being bruised,
aren't we? Bruised, bruised, bruised. There's but one place that I
found contentment, brothers and sisters, in freedom. One place
that I found contentment in freedom. And that's in Jesus Christ, my
Lord. Everything else I'm going to
lose. Nothing else can help me. If
I have Him, He's all I need. If you have Him, He's all you
need. And all of these temporal things
and all these worldly things and all these troubles, they
just bruise us. Bruise us and bruise us. Stand
fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free. Don't
be entangled Don't be entangled. These things will just bruise
you. Lord bless this word.