Okay, this evening I'm gonna
bring a message from Isaiah 61 and from Luke chapter 4 and try
to marry the two together and come out with one message. I trust it'll be honoring to
God and glorifying to the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm entitling the
message, The Mission of the Messiah. It was a mission of mercy. He
was not an unsent. Savior. He was not an unauthorized
Savior. He's the Mediator, Son of God. Son of God. We read there in
Luke 4, 18, he said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. because
he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. The Lord
Jesus Christ was sent of God, blessed of God, with the Spirit
of God. He was sent of God to accomplish
God's purpose in accomplishing salvation, the eternal salvation
as a surety of God's covenant people, to establish righteousness
for them, and to put away their sin by the sacrifice of himself. And I am most thankful that we
read in God's word that he cannot fail in all that he undertook
on our behalf as a representative man, as a surety of the covenant.
He can't fail. He didn't fail. Because he's
God Almighty. Now when the Lord Jesus Christ
began his public ministry, one of the first messages he preached
was in his hometown. After he had ministered to the
multitudes there in Galilee, preaching there and healing many,
he came home. to his hometown of Nazareth on
the Sabbath day. And as those Jewish people would,
honoring that Sabbath law, the law of the Sabbath, he went to
the synagogue on that Sabbath day and stood up to read God's
word, God's truth. He read from this passage that
we read just a moment ago from Isaiah 61. And then he sat down
and then he said, he closed the book, verse 20, gave it to the
minister and sat down and the eyes of all them that were in
the synagogue were fastened on him. And he said unto them, this
day is this scripture fulfilled in your hearing, in your ears. Now, When he had preached this
message and illustrated for them his sovereign mercy, he will
have mercy on whom he will have mercy, giving these two illustrations
of God's sovereign grace, Elijah sent to one Gentile woman, and
Elisha sent to another Gentile Syrian army captain who was a
leper, and God healed him and sustained that widow woman, When
they heard him preach, now you think about this. He's in his
hometown. He's got this hometown crowd.
And when he preaches God's truth, God's gospel, they didn't get
happy. They didn't say, thank you, Lord,
for sending us to truth. They got angry. Look at verse
28. And all they in the synagogue
were, when they heard these things, they were filled with wrath,
with wrath. Now, you reckon that was a discouragement
to him? You know, if he had been, if
he had been sin of God, with a man's message and being, if
he wasn't sent of God, if he was just sent with a man's sending
and with a man's message and stood up to read in this synagogue
and got this vicious response, so much so that they sought to
end his life, not only end his ministry, but to put an end to
him. Surely he would have said, this
preach is not for me, man. I want nothing to do with these
folks. Get me out of here. But being
sent of God and being God's servant, he went right on preaching, preaching,
preaching God's truth, God's gospel. You see, those who are
sent of God are not discouraged when folks get upset. I expect
people who are unbelievers to get upset when the gospels preach.
Now God's people do rejoice in the word of God, but what a response. What a response. It was the truth
of God and the words of grace that these folks heard that the
Lord Jesus Christ declared. Now what a privilege they had
to sit under his ministry. Yet they were so unthankful,
so full of hate, so full of pride, so full of self-righteousness. It shouldn't surprise us when
the self-righteous and lost folks, the religious crowd of this day,
hate what we preach. You know why they hate what we
preach? Because they hate the one we
preach. They hate God who is God, God
Almighty. I expect, and I trust you probably
have experienced this as well, that the natural mind, the carnal
mind, is enmity against God. The natural man will not receive
the things of the Spirit of God, because there are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them, they must be spiritually
discerned. So hold your place there in Luke
4, and let's turn over here to Isaiah 61 for a moment. Let's
go back and carefully look at these words, the Lord's first
sermon in his home church of Nazareth. And then we'll come
back to Luke chapter four in just a minute and see what's
going on there. Now in Isaiah 61, Isaiah 61,
look at verse one again. The spirit of the Lord God is
upon me. because the Lord hath anointed
me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind
up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and
an opening of the prison to them that are bound, and to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord. Now, several things here. First
of all, we learn the Lord Jesus Christ was sin of God, blessed
of God, blessed by the Spirit of God, anointed of God. As a God-man mediator, he had
unusual power, unusual anointing, the anointing of the Holy Spirit
without measure. And he had this as the direct
decree and purpose of God. And he had this special anointing
upon him as God's servant, as God's messenger, as God's Messiah,
as the surety of the covenant to accomplish salvation for us. He said, I delight to do thy
will, O God. My meat is to do the will of
Him that sent me and to finish His work. The Spirit of the Lord
God is upon me because, because for this reason the Lord hath
anointed me to preach, to preach, to preach, to preach the gospel. Now, I want to look at seven
things here. He describes for us this work
of salvation that the Lord of glory came to accomplish. Now, he didn't come to attempt
a work or to try to save. The Lord Jesus Christ will save
his people from their sin, and he did, and he will. He did and
he will. First of all, let's look at this.
To preach good news, good news, The Lord God Almighty, he said,
has anointed me to preach good tidings, good news to somebody. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is good news to somebody. It's not good news to everybody.
These folks here in the synagogue there in Nazareth, it wasn't
good news to them, was it? For they got very angry, very
angry in their heart. But the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is good news to somebody. It's good news to those who are
meek. Meek. Those who are meek. You know what? Those who, and
the word here is actually feeble. The gospel is good news to those
who are feeble and weak. Those who are diseased with sin. Those who are needy. You see,
those who are well, don't need a physician. The Lord Jesus Christ
didn't come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
preach good news to this sinner right here. How he accomplished
salvation for me, for me. He hath anointed the Lord Jesus
Christ to preach good news to this vile sinner. This is a faithful
saying. This is worthy of all acceptation
that the Lord Jesus Christ came to save sinners. Can you come
in there? Can you fit in there? You say, well, I used to be a
sinner. No. I still am a sinner saved by
God's grace. I'm still a sinner. Paul said,
He came to save sinners, and he said, I'm the chief one, O
wretched man that I am. The Lord Jesus Christ and the
gospel of God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ is good news. Good news to those who were sick.
If you had a vile, wretched disease, and if you knew and were told
of a doctor that had the sure remedy The sure remedy for the
vile disease that you had, you were unable to do anything about
it. The only thing you could do was
make it worse by your home remedies. And someone told you a physician
over here in a neighboring community that had the track record that
he healed all those that came to him who had need of healing.
I reckon you would find out about that fellow, wouldn't you? If
you had a need, You'd find out about the one who could do something
about the problem. And then it says here, secondly,
he sent me, that is the Lord God Almighty, sent me to bind
up broken hearts, broken hearted, broken hearted, or to heal, heal
the broken hearted, to bind up the broken hearted. When something's
broken, it doesn't work. Now, if you got a broke down
car, I mean, it's worthless. I mean, it's not gonna get you
to work. It's not gonna take you anywhere. It's broke, it
doesn't work. Something's broken, doesn't work at all. It's of
no value. The Lord Jesus Christ came to fix that which was broken. Broken by sin. You see, we need
the Lord Jesus Christ to operate on our heart, to fix our heart. You see, because our heart is
broken, we don't love God. Because our heart is broken,
we don't believe God. Because our heart is broken,
we don't submit unto the righteousness of God in the gospel. Because
our heart doesn't work. It's full of ignorance and unbelief
and darkness. God must give us a new heart. A new heart, a new heart to love
Him, to bow to Him, to submit unto Him. If any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things have been made new. Lord, give me a new heart that
works. By nature, I'll have a busted
heart. It's broken. It doesn't do me
any good. It just drags me down deeper
and deeper. Here's the third thing he says.
The Lord God Almighty has sent the Lord Jesus Christ, not only
to tell me the good news, not only that, but to give me a new
heart, and then to give me liberty. Liberty to the captives. Liberty. Deliverance. Deliverance to the
captives, to redeem sinners taken captive by sin, those bruised
and crushed by sin. You see, redeem, we are redeemed
and delivered. How? by the power of Christ,
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood cleanses us
from all sin. The Lord Jesus Christ, by His
glorious, bloody sacrifice, power, grace, and prevailing with God
Almighty, He came to proclaim liberty, having set the captives
free, having done something with our sin, put it away. And He's given us liberty. We have a Redeemer that actually
redeemed from sin. We have a Redeemer that absolutely
liberates us from the bondage of sin. And then fourthly, He
says, the opening of the prison to them that are bound." This
is why the Lord Jesus, this is a pretty good fit description,
God's description, of this mission of mercy. To open up the prison
house to those bound by the chains of sin, to give sight to the
blind that we might see and know. Well, who set us free? Who's opened up the prison door?
Who did that? The commander-in-chief did. He
pardoned us and set us free. He's given us liberty, opened
up the prison house to those who were bound, bound by sin. Now look at verse two, Isaiah
61, to proclaim. I like that word proclaim. It's
the proclamation. You know, the preaching of the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is a proclamation. We proclaim
who he is. We proclaim what he has done.
Our Lord said that he came to proclaim the acceptable year
of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all that
mourn. He came to proclaim how we're
accepted Only in the Beloved. Only in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, notice, if you notice the marginal reference there, Leviticus
chapter 25, this is talking about the year of Jubilee. On that
50th year of Sabbaths. Every 7th year on that Sabbath
was a day, a year of rest, a land rested. When there were seven
of those years, seven of those seven years, 49 years, on that
50th year was known as the year of jubilee. When those who sold
themselves into debt, those who sold themselves into slavery,
those who had lost their inheritance, those who had lost their land,
everything went back to the original owner and the debt was forgiven. I'll tell you who was happy to
hear that trumpet blow. Those who were in debt and knew
it. Those who were in slavery and
knew it. Those who had lost their inheritance
and knew it. When they heard, they anticipated,
didn't they? Oh, I can't wait till the day
of jubilee to hear that trumpet sound. And you know that trumpet
sounded on the day of atonement. on the Day of Atonement. All
that is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who paid our sin
debt and set us free by His grace and by His blood. Christ is the fulfillment of
that acceptable year of the Lord. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
experienced the vengeance of our God upon our sin, He paid
our sin debt. And then sixthly, I want to consider
this, to comfort all that mourn, all that grieve, all that sorrow
because of sin. You know why sin to the believer
is so grievous? Remember what David said, against
thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Sin is grievous because it's
against God. Now, it may involve other things,
but essentially, it's against God. Sin is transgression against
God. Where do we find comfort from
our guilt? Where do we find comfort from
our sin? How can we have this comfort? By turning over a new leaf? By
doing the best you can? By trying to put away our sin?
Oh, no. The only comfort is found in
this. Christ, too, is our comfort.
Turn back to Isaiah 40. You remember? Isaiah 40, verse
1. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God, Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, cry unto her that
her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.
For she has received of the Lord's hand, here's our comfort, she
has received of the Lord's hand double for all her sin. That's comfort. You remember
what the Lord said to his apostles, those disciples, when he the
spirit of truth has come, when the comforter has come, He'll
take the things of Christ and show them unto you. What does
God the Holy Spirit, who is called the Comforter, what does God
the Holy Spirit comfort His people with? It's not some gooey feeling. God the Holy Spirit comforts
His people with the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's
our comfort. He put away all our sin. He'll take the things of Christ
and show them unto you. Now here's the seventh thing,
verse three of Isaiah 61. To appoint unto them that mourn
in Zion. You see the blessings we have
as believers are appointed blessings. They're appointed by God. We're
appointed to salvation. We're appointed to forgiveness.
We're appointed to pardon. To appoint unto them that mourn
in Zion, to give them. Now look at this list here. To
give them beauty for ashes. Beauty instead of ashes. Now, whose beauty here is he
talking about? He's talking about Christ. He's
clothed us with the garments of salvation. Look right across
the page there in Isaiah 61 10. It's his beauty. Would you rather
have the ash heap of your sin or the beauty of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the righteousness found in him? Now to the believer,
they're just, You think about this. His beauty, His beauty,
His righteousness, His grace. Would you rather have all the
riches of this world which are nothing but ashes, that's all
they are, ashes, He's going to burn this place up, or would
you rather have His everlasting and eternal beauty? You see,
in the gospel, He gives us His beauty instead of these ashes
we have by nature. Look across the page here at
verse 10, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be
joyful in my God. He has clothed me with the garments
of salvation. He's covered me with a robe of
righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments,
as a bride adorneth herself with jewels. His beauty. Instead of my ashes and then
secondly he says this in verse 3 He gives us beauty instead
of ashes. He gives us the oil of joy Instead
of mourning we greatly rejoice in him. He gives us the garment
of praise and instead of the spirit of heaviness. He gives
us the spirit of worship instead of the spirit of heaviness, that
to this end, they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting
of the Lord. Now here's the bottom line, the
planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified, that he might
be glorified. Everything God does, You remember
Ephesians chapter one, where it talks about that electing
grace, God the Father chose us. You remember what it says in
verse six, to the praise of the glory of his grace. And then
when it talks about the work of the redeeming blood of the
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and how it ends up, and it talks
about to the praise of the glory of His grace. And then when it
talks about the effectual work of God, the Holy Spirit, in whom
you trusted after you heard the word of truth, all to the praise
of the glory of His grace. You see, everything God does
in the way of salvation, He does to that ultimate end, and the
grand design of redemption, I agree with old, the old theologian
of old, the grand design of redemption, Jonathan Edwards, who wrote the
book, History of Redemption, the grand design of redemption
is the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look back at Luke
chapter four a minute. Luke chapter four. Verse 21, Luke chapter 4, now
verse 21. And he began to say to them,
this day is this scripture fulfilled in your hearing. This day, right
now. Not someday. Already, it's fulfilled
right now. He's plainly telling them, isn't
he? That I'm the Messiah. You remember what they said in
another place? If you be the Christ, tell us plainly and we'll
believe you. You remember what he said? I
told you. I told you you don't believe
me. I tell you why you don't believe me. You're not my sheep.
My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they do follow, they
do follow me. He's plainly telling them that
he is the Messiah, Son of God, that he's the Christ of God.
He's anointed in all of his office as prophet to tell us the truth,
to represent God unto us. He's anointed as a priest to
represent us unto God, and he is the anointed king to rule
and reign over us. You see, he's everything in salvation. Look at verse 22, now Luke 4.
And all bear witness and wondered at these words of grace. Mercy for the miserable, grace
for the guilty, which proceeded out of his mouth. And then they
said this. They didn't say, well, we thank God for the Messiah.
We thank God for salvation that's of the Lord. And they said, hold
on a minute. We know who you are. We watched
you grow up in that carpenter shop. You're Joseph's kid. You can't be the Messiah. And he said unto them, verse
23, you will surely say unto me this proverb, physician, heal
thyself. Whatsoever we've heard done in
Capernaum do also here in this country. And he said, verily
I say unto you in verse 24, no profit, no profit is accepted
in his own country. And usually, that is so. But
here's what I want to focus on for just a moment. I'll let you
go. Verse 25, 26, and 27. He says, first of all, verse
25, he said, I'm going to tell you the truth. I'm going to tell
you the absolute truth of God. Now, right here, if the Lord
Jesus Christ would have said to this synagogue full of these
self-righteous Jews, I believe that he would have said at this
point right here, well, God is sovereign, and left. Those Jews probably
wouldn't have taken up such arms against him. But what he did
here that filled them with wrath, he not only declared his doctrinal
truth, but he explained it by illustration where they could
at least in their head grasp what he was saying. And he sets
forth an illustration of sovereign grace. These old Jews certainly bleed
to some extent. in the sovereignty of God. I
remember years ago, when the Lord taught me the gospel, when
I was about 28, 29 years old, about 30 years ago, and I thought
I knew some things, thought I knew some doctrinal things anyway,
and I went back to my hometown, back out to northern Utah, And
I thought I was going to straighten out all my Mormon family. I thought
I was going to straighten out my dad and all my brothers and
sisters and tell them everything, how smart I was. And I told my
dad, I said, you know, God is sovereign. I thought, well, he's
going to really argue about this. And you know what he said? He
said, yeah, I agree with that. This took the argument away.
But if I, in wisdom at that time, would have explained and illustrated
to him what sovereign grace is all about, now, he'd have been
filled with wrath. He'd have been filled with wrath
as well. You see, my friend, it's just
not in preaching, it's just not stating the doctrine, although
that is good, that is true. But what do these things actually
mean to us today? Where we live, how these things
unfold in our life as God choosing a people, Christ dying for people.
How are these things realized in reality among the Lord's people? Those are the things, the real
issues. I think we need to get down where
we live and not live up in these theological high things and get
down, and there's nothing wrong with that now. I'm not making
fun of that, but to make application. What does it mean to us if God
chose a people? What does it mean to us in reality
that the Lord Jesus Christ died only for his elect? How does
that play out? What does that really mean? What
are the issues involved? Well, that's what the Lord does
right here. He illustrates the fact of sovereign mercy, that
God will save whom He will, the poor, the broken-hearted, the
captive, the blind, those crushed by sin. He's saying, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I'll harden whom I will. Now, let's look at these two
examples here. The first example the Lord gives Let's read it. There were many widows were in
Israel in the days of Elijah when the heaven was shut up.
First Kings 17. You can read it later. Three
years and six months, no rain and no dew. I mean, it was dry. It was dry. There was a great
famine throughout all the land. But unto none of them was God's
prophet Elijah sent but to the city of Serepta, a city in Zion,
unto a woman that was a widow. Now, these Jews revered Elijah,
didn't they? I mean, Elijah was their champion. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ
is telling them that this champion was sent of God to one widow
woman who was a Gentile dog and passed by all the others. and had mercy on one vile, wretched
sinner. They understood what he was saying. And you know what they were saying
in their heart? Well, that's not fair. That's
not right. I thought everybody had a chance
at this. I thought everybody had a shot
at this. You see? Sovereign mercy. Sovereign mercy. He illustrates
this by the Lord saying that God passed by all these other
widows, all these other self-righteous religious Jewish widows and chose
sovereignly this vile woman and they couldn't stand it. They
couldn't take it. Now here's a second illustration.
This is found in 2nd Kings 5 and I would encourage you to go and
read both of these accounts tonight or tomorrow or this week anyway.
There were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha. Elisha
again was God's prophet and none of them, none of them was cleansed
except one man named Naaman who was an enemy, a vile, sworn enemy,
a Syrian captain named Naaman. Now, you remember the story.
Now, Naaman came down to Elisha's house, and Elisha didn't even
go to the door. He sent a serpent. He said, told this proud army
He came with gold and silver and all these different things
and thought some, boy surely I thought, he said, I thought
Elisha would come out and strike his hand and boy everything would
be great, we'd celebrate. But here he sends his humble
servant and tells him, you go down there to that muddy Jordan
and dip there seven times and you'll be clean. He said, now
wait a minute, I've got some far, far, all these fine rivers
back here in my home country, why do I have to go? Dip in Jordan,
well, that's what God says do. Well, you know, Onam got angry,
he's about ready to go home, and his servant said, you know,
if that prophet would have told you to do some great thing, wouldn't
you have done it? Yeah? Why don't you just do what
God, by his prophet, told you to do? Well, he went down to
Jordan and dipped seven times, and you know the story, the rest
of the story. He was cleansed. He was cleansed. Now, they understood that story. They understood how God in sovereign
mercy picked out this one leper out of the enemy's camp and had
mercy on him and passed by all those good religious folk. They
understood what he was saying. And you know what? Look at verse
28. And all they in the synagogue,
now not some of them, from the minister all the way to the back
door, all of them in that synagogue, when they heard these things,
what'd they hear? What'd they hear? He said, I
tell you the truth. What'd they hear? They heard
the truth. They heard the truth from the
one who cannot lie. It's impossible for God to lie.
They heard the truth. They heard the truth. They heard
the word of God. This day, this scripture is fulfilled
in your ear. They heard the truth, nothing
but the truth, the whole truth. They heard the word of God. And
when they heard these things, all of them were filled with
anger, wrath against God. They tried to kill him. They
took him out of the synagogue, thrust him out of the city, led
him to the brow of the hill. The city was built on to cast
him off. The high place, headlong. They
gonna pitch him down the hill, not feet first, headlong to kill
him. Verse 30, passing through the
midst of them, he went his way. Passed them by, passed them by. You see, why do these folks get
so angry? They needed no savior. These
folks were not poor in spirit. These folks needed no healing. These folks needed no Deliverer. They needed no Redeemer. These
folks needed no sight. These folks needed no freedom.
You remember what they said in another place? We're Abraham's
seed. When the Lord said, You shall
know the truth and the truth will set you free. Oh, wait a
minute now. We're Abraham's children. We've never been in bondage to
any man. What about those 400 years down
there in Egypt? What about those 70 years over
in Babylon? They didn't tell the truth, did they? These people needed in their eyes no salvation,
no righteousness, no deliverance, no healing, for they were not
brokenhearted. and he passed them by, he went
his way and justly left them to perish in their self-righteous
rags." Our Lord said in John 8, if you believe not that I
am He, you'll die in your sins. My friend, has the Lord taught
you that you need His cleansing? Has the Lord taught you that
you are the one that's broken hearted? Has the Lord taught
you that you are poor? Has the Lord a bankrupt sinner? Has the Lord taught you that
you are blind? Has the Lord taught you that
you are bruised by sin? Have you ever been convicted
in your heart that you're guilty before God? You see, salvation,
forget it, guilty folks. If he has, I tell you, the preaching
of God's truth, you'll see the Lord Jesus Christ in all of his
glory and power as your only hope, as your only hope of salvation,
and you won't get mad, you'll get glad. Joy, joy instead of
mourning. Has the Lord taught you this?
Has he taught me this? I believe he has. Has the Lord
taught you this? If he justly condemned you and
sent you to eternal condemnation, that is exactly what you deserve. I don't deserve nothing but eternal
condemnation. Has the Lord taught you to be
a mercy beggar? Turn over here one more scripture
over here in Luke 18. Has the Lord ever taught you
this lesson here, as this publican standing afar off, Luke 18 verse
13, lift up so much his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his
breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, thee, sinner. I'm thee, sinner, death and article. I'm thee. Be my propitiation. Be my sacrifice. Be my righteousness. I think when the gospel of God's
grace is preached, when it's blessed in the power of God the
Holy Spirit to a mixed multitude in a crowd of mixed people, believers
and unbelievers, two things occur. Some get mad. Some are made to
rejoice. You read through the book of
Acts. When those apostles went preaching the gospel, especially
Apostle Paul, two things usually happened when he hit town. Riot,
there was a riot, and revival. Those who were appointed to salvation
believed. Those who were self-righteous,
saw no need, they'd rebel in wrath.