Christ the preacher. Someone
may think that's a strange title for a message, because Christ
is the Savior, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. But you know, the
master is a priest. Turn to Hebrews 4. We have a priest. I know that
all believers are kings and priests. God calls them a royal priesthood,
but we have a high priest. It says in Hebrews 4, verse 14,
seeing then that we have a great high priest that's passed into the heavens.
He ministers not in cathedrals and buildings made with hands
on this earth. He's passed into the heavens.
And it's Jesus, none other than Jesus, the Son of God. Let us
hold fast our profession, for we have not a high priest who
doesn't know us and cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities, but he was a man tempted in all points as we are,
yet without sin. Let us therefore, because we
have a priest, Christ is our priest, let us therefore come
boldly unto God's throne, which for us is not a throne of justice. Justice has been satisfied, but
a throne of grace, where we obtain, don't merit or earn or deserve,
but obtain freely given mercy, and where we find grace to help
in time of need. Christ is a priest. Then our
Lord Jesus Christ is a king. He's our king, he's our king
of kings and lord of lords. We have been translated into
the kingdom of his son. He reigns as our king. Paul said he must reign until
every enemy becomes his footstool. He's a sovereign monarch. He rules and reigns over his
kingdom. In his kingdom, everybody glorifies
his name. And then he's a preacher. We
go to the Old Testament for the first prophecy of that in the
book of Deuteronomy. Our Lord is a preacher, a prophet,
like Moses, like Isaiah. In Deuteronomy 18, the Lord said
to Moses, In verse 18 of Deuteronomy 18, I will raise them up a prophet,
a preacher, from among their brethren. That's what threw some of them.
They said, Is not this Joseph's son? Is not his mother and brothers
and sisters still with us? Like unto from among the brethren
like unto thee, and I'll put my words in his mouth, and he
shall speak unto them all that I shall command him." He said
that. He said, the words that I speak are not my words. As
a man only, the words of my Father which sent me. He'll speak my words. I'll put
my words. who at sundry times and in divers
manners spake to our fathers by the prophets, hath spoken
to us in these last days by the Son." That's what he's talking
about here. He shall speak unto them all that I shall command
him. Now listen. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever will not listen, and not only listen but hearken, hearken unto my words which he
shall speak in my name." I'm going to require it of him. So turn to Luke 4 and let's see
what he said in his first message when he came back to the place
where he was known as Joseph's son. Our Lord is a preacher. If you'll
skip over to Luke 4, verse 42, we'll have a confirmation of
my title, Luke 4, verse 42. And when it was day, the Lord
Jesus departed and went into a desert place. And the people
sought him, came unto him, and stayed him, begged him that he
would not depart from them. And he said, Under them I must
preach. I must preach the kingdom of
God to other cities also. For therefore am I sent." And
he preached in the synagogues of Galilee. All right, verse
16 of Luke 4. Now let's look over here and
just go word by word. And he came to Nazareth. He returned
to Nazareth. This is where he was brought
up. This is where Joseph and Mary took him. And this is where
he spent his early years. He shall grow up as a tender
plant, a root out of a dry ground. There's no beauty about him that
we should desire him. He's a man of sorrows acquainted
with grief. And we hear, as it were, our
faces from him. He is not this Joseph's son. He came back to that town. Can
any good thing, somebody said, the prophet is here, he's from
Nazareth. Nazareth? Can't be from Nazareth. Can any good thing come out of
Nazareth? Well, he came to Nazareth where
he was brought up. Now watch this line here, as
his custom walked, My friends, there's so much in that statement.
As his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath
day. There's so much there. You see, our Lord Jesus Christ
was made of a woman, conceived by the Holy Spirit
in the womb of a virgin, that he should not partake of Adam's
transgression, not born of a man, made of a woman, conceived by
the Spirit of God. But he was made under the law.
He came into this world as a Jew under the law, the Levitical
law of Moses, under the Mosaic law. When he was eight days old, he
was circumcised and named Jesus. When he was a few more weeks
older, his mother brought him to the temple, as the custom
was, as the law read, to offer her sacrifices because she'd
given birth to a child and with certain sacrifices had to be
offered. Every Sabbath day, when he was
a boy growing up, he was in the synagogue on the Sabbath day.
That was his custom. That was the law. He kept the
Passover, every Passover he kept. Our Lord Jesus Christ was subject
to the Levitical laws, to the Mosaic laws, to the ceremony
laws, to the civil law, to the moral law, for my sake and for
your sake. He did all this to fulfill all
righteousness. Turn with me to Matthew 3. This
word right here sums up all of these as his custom was, as his
custom was. In Matthew 3, verse 13, he came, you know, John the Baptist
was sent of God as the forerunner of the Messiah. And John the
Baptist came preaching the baptism of repentance. confessing we're
sinners who deserve to die. And by God's grace, raised from
the tomb, from the grave. And John the Baptist went out
baptized, and all who believed his message, all who received
his message, the baptism of repentance. The Pharisees wouldn't be baptized
of John. The Word says the common people
heard him, and they were followed. They were baptized as John commanded
them. But the Pharisees would not be
baptized because they would not receive the judgment of God against
them. They wouldn't admit they were
sinners who needed a Messiah. Sinners who deserved death, who
needed life from above. Sinners who needed to be buried
and raised to new life. They wouldn't admit that. They
wouldn't submit to John's baptism. But Jesus Christ, even our Lord,
fulfilling all that God required of us, came to that baptism with
the common people, saying, I'm a sinner. Now, he wasn't, but
who the people he represented was. He was me. If I'd lived in the days when
John came preaching, If I belonged to God, I'd be baptized. That's
right. The Pharisees didn't belong to
God. They didn't know God. They wouldn't submit to the baptism
of John. But Christ came, the Son of God, made under the law,
under every law, every ceremony, every requirement. He couldn't
bypass anything. And John, verse 13, Then comeeth
Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. And John... I know how John feels here. I'd
respond the same way. You would. I have need to be
baptized of thee. John knew who this is. John saw
the Spirit of God descend on him from heaven. John heard the
voice say, This is my beloved son. John said, You baptize me, not me you. And Jesus answering said to him,
suffer it to be so now. And you can take that from the
cradle to the cross. And every requirement of God,
law of God, rule of God, statute of God to which he submitted
as a man, he suffered it to be so. now. Bar, thus it becometh
us to fulfill all righteousness. And let me tell you and me this,
if we don't fulfill all righteousness, we better have somebody who did
representing us. If we don't, every jot and tittle
of God Almighty's perfect law, statutes, commandments, rules,
regulations, ceremonies, holy days, if we don't fulfill every
iota of God's righteousness, we better have somebody standing
in our room instead who did fulfill it. And that's why he did it. You say, what is the Lord Jesus
Christ doing going to the synagogue on the Sabbath day with that
bunch of rebels? Fulfilling my righteousness.
That's right. That's the reason. Why is He,
our Passover, eating the Passover? Why is He the life being baptized
for the dead? There it is right there. Suffer
it to be sold now. It becometh us. It became Him
who is who thought it not robbery to be equal with God, it became
him to be numbered with the transgressors, identified him, it became him. Okay, let's go on. And as his
custom was, that's what he was doing there. That was his custom. He went to the synagogue on the
Sabbath day and stood up to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. This was no accident. But they
brought the book to him, the people in charge of the synagogue
worship service, they brought the book, Isaiah. Isaiah is the
messianic book in the gospel of the Old Testament, quoted
more in the New Testament than any other prophet, I guess, in
the Psalms. But they hand it in the book of Isaiah, and when
he deliberately, on purpose, opened the book, he found the
place where it was written. He turned to Isaiah 61. You know
that, when I read that every time, I just want to get over
here to Isaiah 61, don't you? See what he read. What did he
read? What did he read? Well, I'll
tell you what he read. Let's look over here at Isaiah
61 a minute. What he read, let's read it here,
Isaiah 61. This is a Messianic prophecy.
This is the office of the Christ. This is the Messianic kingdom.
And let me tell you, I strongly believe that most of those fellows
in that synagogue that day knew what it was, Bob. They knew this
was a Messianic prophecy. They weren't ignorant. I think they knew what he was
reading. And he said in Isaiah 61, look, the Spirit of the Lord
God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good
tidings to the meek. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. to proclaim liberty to the captives,
the opening of prison, to them that are bound, to proclaim the
year of jubilee, the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day
of vengeance of our God, and to comfort all that mourn, to
appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give them beauty
for their ashes, the oil of joy for their grief, the garment
of praise for the Spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be
glorified." That's what he read. That's what he read. And close
the book. Well, let's look at it here in
our text, in Luke 4, 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me. The Spirit of God was upon Christ
without measure. We can't do anything glorifying
to God without the Spirit of God. If any man have not the Spirit
of God, he's none of His. But our Lord Jesus Christ had
the Spirit of God and the glory of God as no human being has
ever had the Spirit of God without measure. The Spirit of God rested
upon Christ as the very Shekinah glory of God rested between the
cherubims on the mercy seat. The Spirit of God is upon me. Because, I'll tell you why the
Spirit of God is upon me and why the glory of God is upon
me, as it was upon the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies. because
he is the mercy seeker, because he hath anointed me. What does this mean, he hath
anointed me? Well, three things are always
present when God anoints a man, when God anoints a man. Three
things are always true. God endows that person with the
gifts, the ability, and the power to perform that task. The Spirit
of God, the glory of God is upon me because He anointed me. He gave me the gifts, and the
ability, and the power to perform the task. That's what He said,
a body hast thou prepared me. Lo, it's written in the book,
I come to do thy will, O God, and a body thou hast prepared
me. Without the body I can't do the task." So God has to give
him. He doesn't have it by nature. I hear people say, well, he'd
make a good preacher. He can talk and all this God
never uses anybody's natural gifts for his glory. He uses
God-given gifts. Never. Secondly, an anointing
means this. God's purpose is committed to
that person. I come to do your will. That person doesn't have a will
of his own. He comes to do God's will. He doesn't have a message of
his own. He doesn't have self as the end of his work. I come to do your will. God commits to that person his
purpose. And thirdly, God's presence will
be with him to accomplish that purpose. He will not fail. It may be under condemnation,
it may be under salvation, but as Paul said, thanks be unto
God who always causes us to triumph in Christ. We will not fail. He anointed me, that's what Christ
said. By one offering, he perfected forever them that are sanctified.
So the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me. He gave me a body. to do his
will, and I cannot fail. I always become alarmed when
I hear preachers say, now God's trying to show you this. The Lord never tries to show
anybody anything. God wants you to do this. If
he did, you'll do it. And you'll do it willingly. And
you'll do it successfully. He always accomplishes his will
among the armies of the heaven and the inhabitants of this earth.
And he anointed me to do what? To preach the gospel to the poor.
Who are the poor? Well, you know, my friend Todd
Nyberg, God-led, Brother Todd and some more folks to start
a testimony and a work in Lexington. God has blessed it mightily.
Back in the early days, Brother Nybert and Brother Paul Wamsley
and some of the college students from this church went down on
North Limestone, that's about the scroungiest street in the
city of Lexington, and rented a building. And they fixed it
up. And Brother Todd told me and
some of the others that we got some real sinners down here.
And we'll be able to minister to them. They're real sinners.
They're poor and dirty and hungry and drunk and prostitutes. But you know what shocked him?
They were more religious than the folks uptown. He didn't find a single sinner
on North Limestone. He said, I didn't find one. The poor here, blessed are the
poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of God. He anointed me
to preach the gospel to the poor, to the real poor, to the poor
and needy. David was on a throne in Israel
with kingdoms and powers, and this was one of his most habitual
statements. The statement he used often,
I'm poor and needy. I'm poor and needy. Christ came
to preach the gospel to people who spiritually have nothing,
know nothing, and can do nothing. They're poor. They're really
poor. You know, the condemnation upon
those people in the book of Revelation. You say you're rich and increased
with goods and have need of nothing, you don't know that you're naked. blind, miserable, and poor. I tell you, the greatest thing
that can happen to a sinner is to find out he is one. Isn't
that right? Takes a long time, doesn't it,
Gerald? We walked through religion so many years, didn't know we
was lost, didn't know we was sinners. Oh, happy days. Not when Jesus washed my sins
away, when I found out I had some sins to be washed away and
needed a Savior. Find somebody hungry and he'll
eat. Find somebody thirsty and he'll
drink. Find somebody naked and he can't wait to get a coat.
I came to preach to the poor. I'll tell you a verse that'll
tell you who that's talking about. Ephesians 2. This is who we're talking about
right here. Ephesians 2, verse 12. At that
time, at that time, that at that time you were without Christ.
Now that's poor. Aliens from the people of God. That's poor. Strangers from the
covenant of promise. No promise! I'd rather have no bread than
no promise. I'd rather have no clothes than no promise. Having
no hope! Without God in this world, that's
poor. Boy, that's poor. And that's
the shape that we're in by nature, and by choice, and by practice,
till he comes. And he said, you sent me to preach
to them, those empty people, naked, miserable, blind, bankrupt,
poverty-stricken. Good news. There's a robe of
righteousness. There's a table spread coming
down. There's a fountain flowing. There's a marriage supper. There's
forgiveness for sin. There's grace for the guilty.
Oh, boy. You sent me to preach the gospel
to the poor, listen, and to heal the brokenhearted. What is it
that breaks the heart? Well, so many things. So many
things. I guess you get your heart broken
just about every week, don't you? Sometimes every day. But that's not what he's talking
about here. This is a heartbroken, a particular
type of breaking which most people have never experienced. In fact,
nobody ever experiences this but those who are healed of the
broken heart. Find a broken heart, you'll find
the physician who heals them. Find a sinner, you'll find a
savior. Find a lost sheep, you'll find a shepherd. This is brokenhearted overseeing. Psalm 51 sums it up. Here's a
brokenhearted whom Christ came to heal, right here in Psalm
51. Here it is. Have mercy upon me, O God. According to your lovingkindness,
according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out
my transgressions. Wash me throughly. for mine iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. I acknowledge
my transgression. My sin is ever before me. Against
thee and thee only have I sinned, done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified when you speak, and cleared when
you judge. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
in sin. My mother conceived me. Verse
16, Thou desirest not sacrifice, I give it. You delight not in
burnt offerings, I bring them. If I could do anything, I would.
But the true sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken
and a contrite heart, O God, that I would not despise. I came to heal. He sent me to heal that person
brokenhearted over sin. Lord, save me, I'll perish. He'll
save him. Be merciful to me, a sinner.
He'll be merciful. Lord, you're coming into a kingdom.
Remember me. He'll remember. When he finds
a sinner, he'll save him. When he finds a heart crushed
and broken over his sin, not everybody else's. Most folks
upset with everybody else. But when he finds somebody whose
heart is broken, over his against thee have I sinned." He'll heal
them. That's what he came to do. He'll
do what he came to do. He's the only one who can do
it, though. Don't go to a psychologist or psychiatrist or somebody else.
Go to him. He's the healer of the broken
heart. He sent me to preach deliverance to the captives. Who are these? Well, the old
Jews hated this captive stuff. They resented any thought of
being captives of anyone or anything. I want you to listen to them
in John 8. Oh, they hated this idea of being
a captive. There's only one free man, that's
God's free man. There's only one free man, that's
the one whom the Son had made free. In John 8 verse 32, listen, you
know the truth, truth will make you free. And
they answered, boy, we be Abraham's seed, we're Jews, don't you know
that? We're God's chosen people, we were never in bondage to any
man. What are you talking about? You
shall be made free. What's he talking about here?
He said, I came to set the captive free. You're not talking about
us. Out of the pit that covers me,
black as darkness from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may
be for my unconquerable soul. Remember that? Remember that
we read in school? My teacher thought that was great. I thank whatever gods may be
for my unconquerable soul. What's the last line? A master
of my faith and captain of my soul. That's what these fellows said.
And Jesus answered, listen, verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever
committed sin is the slave of sin, captive of sin. We talk about free will. We're
the captives of our so-called free will. Our will is what got
us in bondage. That's right. We're captives
of Satan. We're captives of the law. We're
captives of our blooming free wills. That's right. Our wills are free to do what
our nature dictates, and that's what they do. And they're bound
to us. He said, Whosoever committeth
sins, the servant of sin, and the servant abideth not in the
house, the Son abideth in the house. If the Son shall make
you free, you'll be free indeed. And that's what he came to do,
to take the bondage, curse of the law off of us. the bondage
of sin, justice, the chains of Satan, and to deliver us from
our wills to do his will. We're servants of God, sons of
God. I came to preach deliverance. That's what the word salvation
is, deliverance. deliverance. He had delivered
us from the bondage of the law, the curse of the law. Look at
the next line. Recovery of sight to the blind.
Like the broken heart, we're talking here of spiritual blindness. First Corinthians 2 said if they
had known who He was, they'd never have crucified Him. They
didn't know who He was. Paul said, if our gospel be hid,
it's hid for them that are lost, in whom the God of this world
hath blinded their minds. He was in the world, and the
world knew Him not. The world was made by Him. He
came unto His own, His own received Him not. There's no beauty about
Him that we should desire Him. There's plenty of beauty about
Him, but why is there no beauty about Him to us? We don't see
Him in His beauty. and glory. What think ye of Christ
depends on your sight. How do you see Him? Sight is
understanding. The Son of God hath come and
given us an understanding that we may know Him. That is true. And I've come to give sight to
the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. Now watch
this. Verse 19, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. In verse 21, he said, This day
is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. This is the acceptable
time. Now is the accepted time. When
we are accepted in the Beloved. When his righteousness is pleasing
to the Father. when his sacrifice is a sweet
smell, when his kingdom is established, when his enemies are conquered,
when his people are seated with him, this is the acceptable year,
the year of Jubilee. Let me show you that and I'll
close. Leviticus 25. Leviticus 25. This is the year
of Jubilee. In Israel, there was the Sabbath
day, Leviticus 25, the day of rest. And then there
was the Sabbath year, the seventh day, seventh year.
And then there was the Jubilee. And Leviticus 25, says this in
verse 8, "...and thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven
years. The space of seven sabbaths of
years shall be unto you forty-nine years." And then the fiftieth
year is dawning. We've come to the end of 1996. If this happened to be the 50th
year, Pentecost, the 50th year, Jubilee, next Wednesday, January the 1st,
if I were a Jew living back then and January the 1st was the year
of Jubilee, I'd be about the happiest fellow in town. You
know why? I read on. Thou shalt then, shalt
thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth
day of the seventh month in the year of atonement, the day of
atonement, shall you sound, make the trumpet sound throughout
the land, and you shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim
liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof.
It will be a year of jubilee to you, and you shall return
every man to his possession, and every man to his family.
You know what this meant? Everybody that's ever gone bankrupt
and had to sell out, he got his land back. Everybody that was
ever in debtor's prison because he couldn't pay his bills, his
debts were too heavy, they were all canceled. Every man who was
sold into slavery was set free. Every property was all returned
to the families, all debts paid, every man in slavery free, every
offense forgiven, and everybody rests for one solid year. And that's a picture of what
Christ is saying over there. The Spirit of God is on me. He's anointed me. He sent me
to push good news to the slaves and to the poor, to the bankrupt,
to the brokenhearted, to the captives, to the slaves. This is the acceptable year.
This is the year of jubilee. Everything you lost in Adam was
stolen. Your sins are all counseled.
Your debts are all paid. The slaves are all free. That's
it. In Christ, that's what he came
to do. Well, how'd they respond to that?
Well, you read it. You read it. Thank God some do. Some say,
well, praise the Lord. I'll walk that way. I love that
gospel. That's for me. I'm poor and brokenhearted
and a captive. I'll take his way. All right,
let's sing number 117. He was wounded by our transgression. Number 117.