Now open your Bibles again to
Luke 4. Jesus of Nazareth, born in Bethlehem of Judea, fled
to Egypt to protect him from Herod, brought up in a little
town called Nazareth, of which someone said, Can anything good
come out of Nazareth? But he lived there in the home
of the one who was his mother, Mary, who gave birth to him,
and worked in the carpenter shop of Joseph, who was married to
Mary, and lived with brothers and sisters in that household,
grew up there, and when he was a year younger than my son Paul. He was thirty years of age. He
left Nazareth and began his public ministry. He was baptized of
John in the River Jordan. He was led of the Spirit of God
into the wilderness of temptation where he met the prince of this
world and conquered him. And he went about in various
places preaching, teaching, healing people, speaking wonderful words,
words of truth, words of grace, the word of God. And the report
had come back to Nazareth, the report of his miracles and wonders
and the words that he had spoken had drifted back to Nazareth,
and the people were anxious to see him. They were anxious to
hear In fact, on this day when he came back, verse 23 of Luke
4, our Lord said, You will surely say unto me this proverb, position,
heal thyself. Whatsoever we have heard, we've
heard about you and your sermons and your miracles and your healings,
and whatsoever we've heard done in Capernaum, do also here in
your own country. Let's see some of these miracles,
let's see some of these mighty wonders that you perform. So
he came back to Nazareth, where he was brought up. That's what
it says here, verse 16. He came to Nazareth, where he
had been brought up. And as his custom was, this is
interesting, as his custom was, he went to the synagogue on the
Sabbath day. Our Lord, who is our righteousness,
was born under the law, was made under the law, made of a woman,
made under the law. When he was eight days old, he
was circumcised and named Jesus. And then he was presented in
the temple when he was an infant. That's when Simeon saw him. And
then he was brought back to the temple when he was twelve or
so. All of these things that he did was the fulfillment of
the law. And even though the synagogues
were synagogues of superstition, And I started to say synagogues
of satanic influence, and I think you'd be about right if I said
that. Because the types and pictures and ceremonies and all of the
mosaic economy had degenerated into nothing. But he went to
the synagogue on the Sabbath day. That was his custom. He
was fulfilling the law of God. He was doing what he was supposed
to do. And so on this particular Sabbath day, he came to the synagogue,
and there was a great crowd there. You can just imagine how many
people were there. Everybody was there. Everybody
was there that Sabbath day, because Jesus was in town. They'd heard
about him. Word had drifted back from different
places about the miracles he'd done, the things he'd said, and
everybody was there. down their homes, everybody came. I imagine relatives came from
miles. Everybody was there. And it says
here that they handed him the book, the prophet Isaiah. And I want you to turn to Isaiah
61. Isaiah 61. Now, the Lord Jesus
Christ is here in the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He's returned
back to his hometown. He's been out preaching, healing,
He came back to Nazareth, and they handed him Isaiah, Old Testament
scriptures. And he deliberately turned to
Isaiah 61, which is a Messianic prophecy. This is a Messianic
prophecy. They handed him the book of Isaiah,
and he turned to these words right here, Isaiah 61. Now, these
words were written, these words were written about the Messiah
who was to come. the Christ who was to come. This
is the consolation of Israel. This is the one Simeon was looking
for. This is the one of whom Abraham
wrote. This is the one of whom Moses wrote. Abraham saw and
Moses wrote. This is the one of whom David
wrote and spake. This is a Messianic prophecy,
and he turned deliberately and read this. And he knew it, and
the leaders knew it was a Messianic prophecy, and most of the people
knew it. Now here is this Here's this man, thirty years of age,
who had worked among them, who had lived among them. They said,
well, we know his brothers and sisters. There's his mama, there's
his daddy. If Joseph was still living, I
don't know. But we know his brothers and sisters. And when they handed
him the book, he stood up, and this is what he read, The Spirit
of the Lord God is upon me. The Spirit of the Lord God is
upon me. because the Lord hath anointed
me." We're going to get into this in a minute. The Lord hath
anointed me to preach glad tidings, good tidings to the meek. He,
the Lord God, hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to
proclaim liberty to the captives, opening of the prison to them
that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn,
watch it now, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give
unto them beauty for ashes, oil of joy for mourning, 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." I wish I could handle this like it ought to be handled. Here's a man in human flesh.
Here's a man who lived among them. Here's a man bone of their
bone and flesh of their flesh. Here's a man who had worked with
his hands, had calluses and horns on his hands. Here's a man that was of great
reputation, but still a man. And he came back into their midst
and had heard great and wonderful things about him. They want to
hear what he has to say. And so that Sabbath morning,
everybody was in the synagogue. Everybody was there. And it comes
time to read the Word of God, and they hand him the Scriptures,
this book, and he gets up in front of them and deliberately
opens the Bible to a solemn, sacred, serious, awesome prophecy
concerning the consolation of Israel. the Savior of Israel,
this King of Peace, the King of Salem, the Prophet of whom
Moses spoke, the Messiah. And he read it, and he closed
the book. Now, he knew what he was reading,
they knew what he was reading, people knew what he was reading,
and he closed the book, handed it back to the minister, and
he went back and sat down. Now, they stood to read and sat
to teach, but he sat down. And when he sat down, it says
every eye was on him. Every eye on the synagogue. Fixed
on him. Fastened on him. And then he spoke. And he said,
this scripture is fulfilled this day in your
ears. Now you talk about stunned, you
talk about taken back. What was he saying? What did
he say? He said this scripture right here, this is the infallible
word of God. This is the word of God that
these people held in great, great reverence. This was the, this
is the Messiah of whom Abraham spoke. Abraham saw my day, of
whom Moses wrote. for whom David looked. This was
the Messiah of whom all the prophets spake. This scripture, this scripture. It had been hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds and hundreds of years. Rivers of blood had flowed. Thousands of sacrifices had been
offered. Many synagogues and temples had
been built and brought down and built and brought down. Prophets
had come, prophets had gone. They'd been under the heel of
the Roman government. All these years, all things continued
as they were. And for 400 years, God had been
totally silent. From Malachi to John the Baptist,
there wasn't a prophet. There wasn't a voice. God never
spoke to the people. That is, by way of a prophet.
And here this man, this ordinary man, this common man, this man
whom they knew, this man from their town, stands up and tells
them that this scripture Now you just think about it. This
scripture is fulfilled. In other words, it's done. It's
accomplished. No more waiting, no more speculation,
no more prophecies, no more pictures, no more types, no more patterns,
no more prophets. It's fulfilled. It's done. It's
done. It's fulfilled. And he gets a
little closer. This scripture, this awesome
Heaven delivered, God breathed, word, promise, prophecy is fulfilled
today. Today. In the fullness of time,
God said, this is it. In due time, Christ died. This
is it. The day of the Lord, someone
said. She's here. Genesis 3.15, God said, the seed
of woman will bruise the serpent's heel. He's here. Abraham trudging up the mountain
with Isaac said, the Lord will provide a lamb. He's here. Genesis 49, way back yonder,
2,000 years ago, old blind Jacob is blessing the sons of his sons,
and he says, Judah! Judah. Step forward, Judah. Judah stepped forward. He said,
Judah, The deceptor shall not depart from Judah till Shallow
comes. And you know what this man of
Nazareth is saying? I'm shallow. These people knew
these things. They read these things. This
is the astounding thing here. This is the remarkable thing
here. This is the awesome thing about This one statement in verse
21, and he said, this Scripture, this Scripture and all Scripture
is fulfilled. And we know God's Word will be
fulfilled. He said, My Word will not return void. It shall accomplish
that Word which I have said. But he said, today. That's what
makes it remarkable, today. Listen to this Scripture over
here. Just listen to it. Don't turn. Let me just read
it to you. Behold, the day is coming. says the Lord, that I'll
raise up unto David a righteous branch, capital B, and a king,
capital K, shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and
justice in the earth. In that day, Judah will be Savior,
and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is his name wherewith
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness." And what he's
saying is, this day. We've been waiting a long time.
This is the day. It's like we've read and talked
about the return of the Lord for 2,000 years. The voice of
the archangel, the trumpet of God shall sound, and the dead
in Christ shall be raised, and Christ will come back again.
And you can forget all these distracting things about and
tribulations and all this different things, and the rise of antichrists
and beasts and false prophets. I'm talking about He's coming.
He's coming. He's coming. What if I got up
here this morning? It's just been an ordinary day.
You spent your day yesterday working or fishing or golfing
or watching a ballgame or whatever you did, and had supper last
night with your wife, and this morning you got up and slowly
dressed and got ready and spent a lot of time spit-shining your
shoes, you know. Getting ready for church and
got the car out and said, I'm leaving if you don't come home.
Some of you did. It's time to go. We're going to be late. And got
in the car and drove out of the driveway and came over here and
greeted us. And then the preacher gets up this morning and said,
this is it. This is the day. The Lord has come. Now that's
just how awesome this is. Listen to this scripture. Listen
to this. He's saying this scripture is
fulfilled this day. Listen to this. Behold, I'll
send my messenger. The Lord Jesus is saying he's
here. I'll send my messenger, and the
Lord whom you seek shall certainly come to his temple. Even the messenger of the covenant,
whom ye delight in, behold, he is coming, saith the Lord of
hosts. And who shall abide the day of
his coming? And who shall stand when he appears?"
And he said, This day, this is fulfilled. Now then, are you
ready for this? In your ears, in your ears."
Oh my, they must have sat stunned. I believe the Lord, our Lord
spake as no man. He spoke with authority. He spoke
with such solemnity and power and the Spirit without measure. And He carefully read this, the
Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to preach
the gospel, to heal the brokenhearted, to deliver the captive, to recover
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. This scripture, this day, is
fulfilled in your ears. Oh, I tell you, And he was silent
as he permitted his words to sink into their thoughts, into
their hearts. And what he is saying to them
is what I'm just repeating again this morning here in 1986. I'm
saying this. What am I saying? This is what
I'm saying. And you've come together this
morning in this place, and our only reason for being here is
to is to honor and worship God. We have no program but His program,
no purpose but His purpose, and no glory to seek but His glory.
And you've gathered together here and out there solemnly and
there pointedly and frankly declaring to you this right here, that
the whole purpose of Almighty God, the whole purpose of the
God of glory, in the redemption of a people out of every tribe,
kindred, nation, and tongue unto heaven is wrapped up in this
person, Jesus Christ. That's what I'm saying. I want
to be understood loud and clear. This is what I'm saying. It's
not the church. It's not the Baptist churches.
Now, whether you're Protestant, Catholic, or Jew, that's got
nothing to do with it. We were standing around up in,
up in Waynesville, North Carolina. Wednesday afternoon, Brother
Scott Richardson, Brother Wayne Robinson, and Brother Bill Carver
and I, we were looking at a lot that they have, an acre and a
half, and they have a building on it. They're going to remodel
the building and make it a place of worship in that community
and preach the gospel of God's grace. And Wayne said to all
of us, he said, what do we call this place? What do we call this
What do we call this center of preaching and worship here? Do
we have to use the name Baptist? And we thought a minute, and
all of us came to this conclusion. We need some means of identification. We need some means of identification. People, first of all, need to
know that it's a work of God. They need to know, secondly,
that it's a place of worship, that it is a church. And they
need to know something about its message. Now, how do you
identify the message? The word Baptist used to identify
the message. Baptists used to be what we called
dissenters, re-baptizers, people who believed something. But there
are 411 different kinds of Baptists today. And about all of them
have departed from the gospel. So I said to him, I said, I think
it'd really be detrimental to take the name Baptist. I think
people ride down the highway here and see this Fairlawn Baptist
Church, they say, that's just like that old Baptist church
down the road from us. They're preaching the same junk.
No, he's preaching something different. We're preaching a
message of grace, a message of sovereign grace. And so he came
to this conclusion. He said, I believe I'll just
call it the Sovereign Grace Church of Waynesville. I said, well,
that sounds pretty good. The Sovereign Grace Church of
Waynesville. And I'm saying it doesn't matter what your names
mean nothing. What I'm saying is His name means everything.
And the great redemptive work and purpose of Almighty God is
wrapped up not in a denomination and not in a movement and not
in a set or denomination, it's wrapped up in one person, the
Son of His love. And I'm saying that He is the
one that I'm preaching in your ears right now, this man Jesus
Christ. Now, if you want to, you can
go on arguing about what Baptists believe or what they used to
believe or trying to bring them back to what they never did believe
if you want to. But I'm going to look to Christ
and preach Christ and invite men to look to Christ. I say,
secondly, this, the whole Scriptures, this whole Bible, and it's not
just a book of proverbs and quaint sayings and historical emphasis,
this whole Bible, written by forty men of God over a period
of thirty-five hundred years, most of whom never met one another,
This whole prophecy, this whole scripture, this whole Bible,
God breathed, is totally fulfilled in because it's the story of
one person. This scripture, and I can hold
up this whole Bible, this scripture, the writings of Moses and the
Psalms and the Minor and Major Prophets and the Gospels and
the Epistles and the Revelation, is Jesus Christ. And I'm declaring
him in your ears. And then thirdly, any hope that
you have or any person has. Now, get me, hear me straight.
And that's what he's saying to these people in Nazareth. He's
saying, Shallow, Prince of Peace, King of Salem, Anointed of God,
Prophet like Moses, Seed of Woman, Seed of Abraham. King like David,
priest like Melchizedek. He's saying, people, all of this
is fulfilled this day right here in your ears. In your ears. And that's what I'm saying. Any
hope you have or any person has, man, woman, boy, girl, mama,
daddy, grandmother, grandfather, old preacher. Well, my old preacher
didn't preach what you preach, but he was a godly man. He was
an ungodly man if he didn't preach the gospel. How do you know he
was a godly man? You never saw his heart. The Pharisees were godly men. Outwardly. That's exactly right,
weren't they? Now you listen to that Pharisee.
I tithe, I fast, I give on. I'm not an adulterer, I'm not
an extortioner, I'm not like this publican. I read my prayers,
I stand on the street corner, I witness, I give my tithes,
I go to church every Sabbath day. I'm a godly man, outwardly. And I'm saying that any person
who has any hope of forgiveness of sins, a life eternal, a home
in glory, is dependent on this person, Jesus Christ. That's
what I'm saying. Here he is, this day, in your
ears. That's what I'm saying, in your
ears. And I'm saying this, eternal wrath and condemnation will be
the lot of all who do not believe, who do not hear this man, he
that heareth my words," Christ said, "...he that heareth my
words, and believes on him that sent me, shall not come into
condemnation, but is perished from death unto life. He that
believes, that heareth the word, and believes, hath everlasting
life." That's exactly what I'm saying. Like John of old, you
see John standing here, and Jesus of Nazareth comes by, and he
grabs his disciples and says, Behold, the Lamb of God, there
he is! There he is. The Lamb of God,
the Lion of Judah, the Messiah of God, the Christ of Israel,
the fulfillment of Scripture, the Priest of old, eternal, there
he is, here, quick, look, here, don't miss it. Here he is, that's
what I'm saying. Here he is. In your ears. For like the woman
sitting there quietly, the Lord sitting on the whale. Here comes
a woman and we never know when we're going to meet him. We never
know when he's going to be pleased to confront us with his character,
name and glory. You never know. That woman That
woman who had been married five times and was living with a fellow
that wasn't her husband, she had a messed up life, a confused
life, a troubled life, an unhappy life, a lonely life. She got
up that morning and she knew, she had religion, she brought
up in religion. She called Jacob her father,
our father Jacob. Are you greater than our father
Jacob? She knew about Jacob's will. She said, our fathers worshipped
in the mountains, you Jews worshipped in Jerusalem. She was well instructed
in these facts. and the doctrines of something,
and all this other sort of thing. And she got up that morning,
and she swept around the house, and she looked out at the sun,
checked the time. Now, the women are all gone to
the well. I'll wait till all of them are gone, because I don't
want them to see me. I don't want them to be embarrassed. I don't want them
getting to talk. They think they're better than I am, and all that.
You know, she hadn't went through her mind, you know. I'm not living
right, and they all think they are, and we don't have anything
in common. So I'll just wait. And she worked around the house. About noon, she got her water
pot and put it on her head, tied it to the well, just this nonchalant. When she got to the well, there
was a man sitting there, of all things a Jew. And I imagine her steps slowed
as she approached the well, you know, and he was watching her,
and she'd never seen eyes like those. And he watched her, you
know, and she came around the well, and he spoke to her. And he said, give me a drink. She was shocked. He was a Jew,
and the Jews didn't have anything to do with the Samaritans. They
usually went around Samaria to keep them going through Samaria.
Here this Jew, this unusual Jew, asked her for a drink. She said,
How come you're asking me for a drink? You're a Jew. Jews have
no dealings with the Samaritans. And he said, Woman, if you knew
the gift of God, you'd ask of me and I'd give you living water. She said, you greater than our
father Jacob, who gave us this well? He said, he that drinketh
of this water will thirst again. You drink of the water I'll give
you, you'll never thirst. She said, give me a drink. He said, well, get your husband.
And she said, I don't have one. He said, you've well spoken you
don't have a husband. You've had five, and the one
you're living with now is not your husband. And that, I said,
is truly. She said, I perceive you're a
prophet, you're an unusual man, you're a prophet of God, you
speak things that nobody knows but me. She said, when Messiah comes,
he's going to tell us everything. Now you wait a minute, listen.
Here she stands, still holding her water jug. When Messiah comes,
he looked at her and paused and he said, I am he. She dropped her water pot and
ran to town, left her water pot. Ooh, I am he, my soul. Our Lord said, if you believe
not that I am he, this is, I'm preaching a person. I am he,
you'll die in your sins. What favor, what favor these
people had bestowed on them. What favor? But they didn't know
it. What favor? God smiled on us this morning.
God smiled on us. I don't know what your intentions
were when you left home. I don't know what your intentions
will be when you leave, but I'll tell you what they better be.
God has shown favor to reveal to you this scripture and who
this is and what he's saying. Now, what mercy? He didn't pass
us by. What mercy? And then I'd say
what responsibilities I was. You know, these people, how'd
they react? By the way, how'd these people in the temple react?
Look at verse 28. And all day in the synagogue,
when they heard these things, were filled with wrath. And they
rose up and thrust him out of the city, and led him to the
edge 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. And he went to Capernaum, a city
of Galilee, and he taught them on the Sabbath day. I hope, I
pray that we'll receive the words of Christ and the words about
Christ, and bow to Christ and love Christ and believe Christ,
that he won't leave us. and go somewhere else, he doesn't
have to bless here. He doesn't have to keep preaching
the gospel to you, to me, and anybody else. He may, like he
did here, just pass through the midst of them. Look at that verse
there, verse 30. He, passing through the midst
of them, went his way. They went their way, and he went
his way. That's sad. He went his way. Let me show you just briefly,
and I'll quit, show you what he was saying back here in verse
18. Now here, this scripture is fulfilled this day in your
ears. Look back at verse 18, and just touch on it. He said,
the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. The ministers, the preachers
here want to get an outline here, so just get this in your mind,
if not on paper. He said, the Spirit of the Lord
is upon me because this is why the Spirit of the Lord is upon
me. This is why the Spirit of God is upon me without measure.
Because he hath anointed me. Now anointing signifies three
things. Anointing. They knew what he
was saying here. He was anointed. David was anointed.
Avid was anointed. And he hath anointed me. Now
what anointed me means is this. Number one, that person has been
endowed. That's the endowment of a person
with the proper gifts, ability, and power to perform a task.
He has what it takes. Secondly, anointing signifies
God called him. God called him. God said, Samuel
anoint my prophet, my king. God called him. And God sent
him to perform that task. And thirdly, anointing means
God's spirit is upon him. God's presence is with him. That's
the anointing. That's the anointing. He has
the right gifts, ability, and authority. Number two, God sent
him. God approved him and sent him,
or he would have been anointed. Thirdly, God's with him. This
is my Son. Hear Him. I'm not going to talk
to you. He's going to talk to you. People say, God spoke to
me. You're full of baloney. God has
spoken to us by His Son, by whom He made the world. If God speaks
to you, it would be by His Son, the Word. That's right. All right. Spirit of God is upon me without
measure because he hath anointed me, number one, to preach the
gospel to the poor. We're not talking about folks
that don't have anything for lunch today. We're talking about
folks who have no spiritual life. Poor in spirit. Plunged into
poverty because of the fall. To be poor is to be without.
Isn't that a good definition of poverty? Without. Poverty
in the flesh is to be without, and poverty in the spirit is
to be without. Without what? Without help, without
hope, without Christ, without God. That's poor. That's poor. All right, number
two, he said, he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. There
are people sitting right here in this congregation whose hearts
are broken over children, over different things. But this breaking
of the heart is a spiritual breaking of the heart. I'm broken in heart
over my sins against God. That's what he's telling me.
It's a godless sorrow. David said, my sins are ever before
me. You have your broken in heart. God healeth such as be of a broken
heart and a contrite spirit. Paul prayed a while ago, Lord,
let us approach you humbly. We better or we don't approach
Him. Humbly, broken hearted, contrite spirit. And he's sent
to heal that broken heart, to speak peace. See, the preachers
today, I think they give the wrong impression. They give the
impression that if you come to know Christ, then your worries
are over. Your financial worries are over,
your physical worries are over, you're going to be healthy right
up to the time you go and die. You know, get to 85 years old,
that ain't the way it is. That's not the way it is. They
preach you're going to be happy, happy all the time. It's fun
being saved. Some clown on your lapel, you
know, just full of vitality all the time. On top of the mountain,
you know, just praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Whoopee. I'm just
so happy. But it's not that way. It's not
that way. We're going to have trouble.
Trouble. Trouble. In this world you have
trouble. Trouble in the flesh. Trouble in the spirit. Trouble
in the mind. Trouble in the home. Trouble
in the nation. Trouble in the town. Trouble,
trouble, trouble. But be of good cheer, I'll overcome
the world. He's my peace. He's my peace. You see that? Christ speaks peace
to the heart. The broken heart. The broken. A person that has a broken heart,
it looks to him. And then fourthly, he said, thirdly,
I come to preach deliverance to the captives. And those Jews
said, we'd be not in bondage to anybody. What do you mean?
We're not in bondage? Oh, yes, we are. We're captives
of the law of God. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.
We're captives. We've broken the law. We're captives. The law holds us captive. Not
only that, but God's justice holds us captive. The soul that
sinneth, it'll die. There's a sentence on your head.
As soon as death finds you, you're going to be taken to have their
sentence executed. But when Christ Jesus, he keeps
saying, the Son will set you free. If the Son sets you free,
you'll be free. The truth will make you free. You shall know the truth, it
will make you free. And that's what he said, I came
to do. Free us from the law. Free us from the bondage. Free
us from God's justice. And then recovery of sight to
the blind. Now, you're sitting there this morning, some of you,
and you're entering into what I'm saying. Charlie Payne's watering
in it. He loves these Old Testament
prophecies and illustrations. His eyes, just some of you, I
can watch you. You see what I'm saying, don't you? Do you know
that the natural man doesn't see that? The people all over this town,
if you go and repeat this message to them, and the Bible says,
if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whose
mind the God of this world hath blinded their eyes, that they
cannot see. The natural man has eyes, but
he doesn't see these things. He doesn't see them and therefore
he can't understand them and he can't rejoice in them. He
has ears but doesn't hear them. But blessed are your eyes, they
see. And your ears, they hear. And
you see, the preaching of the gospel is to them that are perishing
foolishness. It's nonsense. It's a waste of
time. You mean, you go down there and
you sit and listen to a fellow say the same thing he said last
Sunday? And just in a different way? Yeah. And rejoice in it? Yeah. I preached over an hour
the other night, and I said, I've got to quit, and somebody
said, Go on! I thought he said, Go home! He
said, Go on! Now, a lot of them were saying,
Go home, I know. You heard it, didn't you? Go
on, it's down there. Maybe it's a DJ somewhere, I suppose. Go
on! Why would people be that interested? They see. The natural,
and Christ said, I came that they may see. They didn't see
when he came. And when he came, I saw who Moses
talked about, I saw who Abraham talked about, I saw who David
talked about, I saw who Isaiah talked about. He's wounded by
transgression. I say, I say, I say. And then he said to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. You know what that is? You read
it in Leviticus 25, it's the year of jubilee. The 50th year in Israel, 50th
year, called the Year of Jubilee, all persons were released who
were sold into slavery. All persons were set free who
were sold into servitude. All property was returned to
its owner. All debts, no matter how much,
wiped off the slave. Now you just think about that,
the Year of Jubilee. I bet you folks live for that
year, you know. Boy, they're back breaking labor
and next year's the year of jubilee. And it dawns and he straightens
up and puts on his robe and goes back to his family. And then
they come in and bring him the deed to his farm back again.
He sold it ten years ago, fifteen years ago. He lost it. And here's
the deed. The land's all yours. And then
the fellow, he owed a thousand silver dollars. and that one
500 is in debt so much he was grubbing the pot of meat just
a little bit every month. And they came and told him, you're
debt free. You talk about Jubilee. Jubilee. That's the year of Jubilee. And
that's what our Lord is saying here. He has sent me to proclaim
for all who believe the year of Jubilee. Adam lost the farm, and Christ
bought it back. Adam put me in servitude to sin,
and Christ set me free. I'm not a slave, I'm a son of
God. Adam put me in debt up to my eyebrows, a debt I couldn't
pay. I couldn't even pay the interest.
And my Lord says, you don't owe anything, because I paid it all,
all the debt you owe. This scripture is fulfilled,
marvel of marvel, in you ears. You think about it in your ears.