Let's turn in our Bibles today
to Luke chapter four. My prayer is that God will be
pleased to bless the message today, that all of us will receive
his message and receive the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ. beginning in verse 14. And Jesus
returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and there
went out a fame of him through all the region round about. And
he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. 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 Esaias. 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 brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and he
gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of
all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he
began to say unto them, this day is this scripture fulfilled
in your ears. And all bear 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, heal thyself. Whatsoever we have heard done
in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, verily
I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.
But I tell you of a truth, Many widows were in Israel in the
days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six
months, when great famine was throughout all the land. But
unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of
Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were
in Israel in the time of Elisaias the prophet. And none of them
was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue,
when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, rose
up and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow
of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast
him down headlong. But he, passing through the midst
of them, went his way. I began looking especially at
the words in verse 22, the gracious words which proceeded out of
his mouth. The gracious words that proceeded
out of his mouth. Now some of the commentators
tell us that this refers to the graceful manner in which he delivered
the message. Now I know that his manner of
speaking was graceful. And I know that for one reason,
because little children came to him. I know his manner of
speaking was graceful. I heard a story years ago of
a man speaking to another man, said, I don't understand why
it is that when you feed your chickens, they all seem to come
around you. When I feed my chickens, they
all seem to run for me. And the man said, well, I'll
tell you what the difference is. When I feed my chickens,
I just drop the food. I just drop the feed down for
them, and they come. When you feed your chickens,
you throw the feed at them, and they scatter. And I've remembered
that that story because I'm afraid that many preachers, including
myself, too many times we have thrown food at God's people. The Lord Jesus Christ, he spoke
in a very graceful manner so that all, as far as hearing him,
enjoyed listening to him preach the gospel. But knowing that his manner of
speaking was gracious, we can only imagine that today because
we're not told that much about his manner. But we are told about
his gracious words. His gracious words that are recorded
in this passage of scripture, and that's what we will look
at. First, his gracious words recorded
at this time came from two places. His gracious words recorded here
in this passage, which we read, came from two places. First,
they came from the written word of God. When he was handed the
scroll that day by the man who was head of the synagogue, he
found the place in the prophecy of Isaiah where it was written,
and so he read the gracious words. First of all, the gracious words
of our Lord, which are recorded here at this time, they came
from the written word of God. And I would just remind all of
us today that God's word is a gracious word to men and women. No matter if a person reads in
Genesis, or if he reads in Joshua, or if he reads in the Psalms,
or if he reads out of the prophets like Isaiah. The words are gracious
words because the words speak of Christ. He said to some detractors
in his day, search the scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life, but they are they which testify of me. Now all
the scripture they had when our Lord said that was what we call
the Old Testament. Search the scriptures, search
the Old Testament, because they are they which testify of me,
the Lord Jesus Christ said. So the gracious words which proceeded
out of his mouth this day, first of all, came from the written
word of God. The gospel of Jesus Christ is
the gospel of the grace of God. No matter where we read, there's
only one God, one gospel, And so, no matter where we turn in
the scriptures, we're going to read of Christ. If God gives
us eyes to see, we're going to see Christ upon the pages of
the written word. The living word upon the pages
of the written word. But the second source from which
these gracious words came, they came from his lips. They came
from his lips. You know, one of the prophecies,
this is found in Psalm 45 in verse 2, and this is a prophecy
of Christ. Thou art fairer than the children
of men. Speaking of Christ, that's the
first, thou art fairer than the children of men. No other man,
no other person, no other being in this world like him. fairer
than the children of men. Why? Because he's the sinless,
the sinless one, the holy one. And then that verse says, they
are fairer than the children of men. Grace, grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore God has blessed thee
forever. Grace was poured into his lips. So as he spoke this day in the
synagogue, I'm saying that these gracious words that caused the
people there to wander at, they came first of all from the written
word, and then secondly, they came from his lips, into which
God had poured grace, grace, grace. Second, The gracious written
words were these. We're going to look at the gracious
written words. The first gracious words, the
spirit of the Lord is upon me. Now we know from the word of
God that the human body and soul of the Lord Jesus Christ was
prepared him by God the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary. Notice that if you turn back
just a few pages in chapter one of Luke, chapter one and verse
35. Because Mary of course did not
understand, the angel spoke to her and answered and said unto
her, verse 35, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee. Now our
Lord said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me. We know that
his conception, body and soul, human body and soul, was the
product of God the Holy Spirit. The scripture says, sacrifice
an offering thou wouldest not, a body hast thou prepared me. The word was made flesh, and
that word flesh means more than just a physical body. Whatever
it takes to make a man body and soul, so he was made flesh. He had a human body and a human
soul that was joined to the person of the eternal
son. God manifests in the flesh. Not only that, but when the Lord
here says the Spirit of the Lord, and he's speaking of the Holy
Spirit, now remember there's one God. You know this, the Lord
our God is one. And yet he exists in a trinity
of persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each one is
co-equal. Not one is greater than the other. Each person is eternal because
there's only one God. You say, I can't understand that. We're talking about God here. We believe this and we know this
because this is revealed to us in the Word of God. They're distinguished
in this way. The Father beget, the Son is
begotten, and the Spirit of God is given. And our Lord now says,
the Spirit of the Lord, His Spirit, God the Holy Spirit, His Spirit
as the eternal Son of God, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Notice in chapter 3, Luke chapter
3, we see when this took place, it was at His baptism. Luke chapter
3 and verse 21. Now when all the people were
baptized it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized and
praying the heaven was opened And the Holy Ghost descended
in a bodily shape like a dove upon him. And a voice came from
heaven which said, thou art my beloved son. In thee I am well
pleased. And John's gospel, speaking of
this baptism and the Holy Spirit coming upon him, adds this wonderful
truth. the Spirit remained upon him. God the Holy Spirit has come
upon men and continues, no doubt, to come upon men, but the Son
of God, the Holy Spirit, came upon him and remained upon him. So that through his life he did
what he did. One place he calls it, if I by
the finger of God, and by the finger of God he's speaking of
God the Holy Spirit, If I by the finger of God cast out demons,
then how do your children cast out demons? What the Lord did here as a man,
he did in the power of God the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me. So those are the first gracious
words which proceeded out of his mouth that he read. And what
grace, think about it, what grace this is that there was a man
here, a God man, a man to whom and of whom God said, this is
my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And we know he was here,
not for his own sake, but he was here for his people's sake. What grace. What gracious words,
what gracious truth is revealed here in these words. Now the
second gracious words, because he hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. He is God's anointed one, the
Messiah. That's what the word anointed
means, Messiah. And God had promised this one
from Genesis, from the Garden of Eden. He had promised this
one who was to come. By the time the Lord Jesus Christ
came into this world, the nation of Israel had begun to teach
and believe that when the Messiah came, he would be like a ruler
who would overthrow the rule of Rome, the yoke of Rome, And
the nation of Israel would once again be something like it was
during the reign of King David. It would be a great nation and
other nations would be subservient to it. The Messiah that they
were looking for was altogether different from the Messiah that
the Lord Jesus Christ is, the Messiah that came. He came to
preach the gospel to the poor. Now, when we say poor, we recognize
he was not speaking of those necessarily who are physically
poor. Although the apostle James does
tell us this, hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in
faith? And it is true that many of God's elect that have been
saved over these years have been of the poor, poor people of the
world. Look with me in 1 Corinthians
1. That's not by accident. Look with me in 1 Corinthians
1. These are the words of the apostle
Paul to the believers, to the poor. who were saved in the church
at Corinth, 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and beginning with verse 23,
but we preach Christ crucified. Paul said, that's my message.
The Jews seek after a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom, but
I preach Christ and I preach Christ crucified. We preach Christ
crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness.
But, now here's the thing, unto them which are called. Who does the calling? God does. We're talking about His effectual
call. But to them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For you say your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God
has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise. And God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are mighty, and base things of the world,
and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things
which are nothing to bring to naught things that are, that
no flesh should glory in his presence. In one verse of scripture,
thinking about The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he hath
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. In one verse of
scripture in Mark, he tells us this, the common people heard
him gladly. The common people. When we hear
that he came to preach the gospel to the poor, we're not talking
about material poverty. But I've already said, no doubt,
many of those who are materially poor in this world have been
those that God chose, made them rich in faith. But this poverty,
this poorness that is referred to here in this verse of Scripture
is spiritual poverty. It's spiritual poverty. They're poor because they have
no righteousness. They have nothing to present
to God. Anything that they have, the
best deeds which they have, they recognize before God are filthy
rags. And how can I appear before God
Almighty with nothing but filthy rags? I'm poor. If salvation costs two pennies, I'm left out. I'm left out. Why? Because as our Lord said
in that parable, when they both had nothing to pay, he frankly
forgave them both spiritual poverty. have no righteousness of our
own that God will accept. We're emptied of all goodness,
all goodness in ourselves. And the good news is, he hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. The good news is, and that's
what the word gospel means, good news, glad tidings. The good
news is that God has provided everything that you need. He's provided in His Son and
in the work of His Son everything that you need to be accepted
with God. And you look anywhere else or
hope in anything else and you will be not only disappointed,
but you will be alienated from God Almighty throughout all eternity. He's provided all that he requires
of you. The third gracious words, he
has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. Now, what is the opposite of
a broken heart? It's a whole heart, a whole heart. A person sees no need, no need
of repentance, no need of a savior. The Lord Jesus Christ said, they
that are whole have no need of a physician. When do you go to
the doctor? When you're sick, right? As long
as you're well and healthy, the last place you want to go is
to see a doctor, isn't it? Why? Because you're not sick. But oh, you let pain and sickness
come upon you. And where's the first place you
want to go? Get me an appointment. I want
to see the doctor. When a person is spiritually
poor and needy, he needs a savior. He needs a savior. But the whole,
those who perceive themselves to be whole, I'm fine. I'll tell you what I'm going
to tell God. You ever heard anyone say that? I'll tell you what
I'm gonna tell God. They that are whole, I'm okay,
you're okay. They have no need of a physician.
The Lord Jesus Christ, his gracious word is, he has sent me to heal
the brokenhearted. And the fourth gracious words,
to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. It was
very common in those days for prisoners to be placed in a prison
where there was no light and eventually there was blindness.
So these two things are connected together here. But all men, when
we come into this world, we are captives to sin, to Satan, and
to the law of God. And not only that, but we are
spiritually blind. We can't see. We can't see. We're spiritually blind. He reads here from Isaiah 42,
to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison
and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. We were singing that hymn just
a few moments ago, The Light of the World is Jesus. And one
part we sang several times, the light of the world came sweetly
to me. It came to me. I was here in
darkness. I couldn't understand. That's
the reason the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus, except a man be born
again, Nicodemus, he can't see the kingdom of God. He can't
understand the things of God. They're foolishness unto him.
Why? Because they're spiritually discerned. And first of all, he's got to
open the eyes of the blind. He's got to release. He said,
if the sun shall make you free, Those to whom he was speaking,
they said, well, we've never been in bondage to any man. Well,
the whole nation was in bondage at that time. And yet they tell
the Lord, we've never, our father's Abraham. We've never been in
bondage to any man. The Lord Jesus Christ said, he
that commits sin is the servant of sin, the slave of sin. But thank God, he also said,
he that the son maketh free is free indeed. Free indeed. All right, the fifth
gracious word to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. The time that
God had purposed from all eternity to preach the acceptable year
of the Lord. It was pictured In the law that
God gave to the nation of Israel, by the Jubilee year, every 50
years, every 50 years, all debts were to be canceled. All of those
who were in bondage, who had sold themselves to be servants
to other men, they were to go out free. And I was just reading
this past week this fact. God said, now when you turn them
loose, when they go free, if they've been serving you, don't
send them out without anything. Don't just say, well, adios.
No, you just give to them. Give to them. And I couldn't
help but think, that's us, that's you and me. The Lord frees us
from our sin and he doesn't just say, now make it on your own.
No, no. He gives us abundantly, doesn't
he? And he continues to give and
to give and to give. God is a giving God. He gave his only begotten son. He gives eternal life to as many
as the Father hath given him. God is a giving God. No, the
acceptable year of the Lord had come, the time that God had purposed. God's purpose to save a people
is said to be according to the purpose of him who worketh all
things after the counsel of his own will, according to the eternal purpose
which he purposed in Christ Jesus, according to his own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. God saves his people on purpose. His purpose. I heard a man the other day,
and you know, you try not to find fault, but a man said, when
I got saved, I thought, wouldn't it be better to say when the
Lord saved me? Wouldn't that be better? When
I got saved? No, when the Lord saved me. And he did so according to his
purpose. That's what the scripture says.
The third, the gracious words spoken by the living word. We've looked at the gracious
words which proceeded out of his mouth that day, which he
read from the word of God. But now the gracious words that
came out of his lips. This day is this scripture fulfilled
in your ears. All that was promised of the
Messiah is now fulfilled by my coming. That's what he's saying.
All that he had read, those gracious words which we've just gone through,
all that he had read had to do with God's grace. and sending
his son, the Messiah, into this world to save sinners. That was not the Messiah that
they were looking for. So now I want you to notice these
two examples of grace that he gave in the remaining verses
that we read. He gives two examples of God's
sovereign grace. No doubt when Elijah lived, there
were many widows in Israel, many. And yet God did not send Elijah
to one of them. They all needed water. There
was no rain for three and a half years. They all needed water.
They all needed food. But God sent his prophet to a
Gentile woman. And you know the story, how that
God sustained her, her son, and Elijah over that period of time.
No doubt there were many lepers in Israel when Elisha was a prophet. And yet God passed over those
lepers, cleansing none of them and sent his prophet, his cleansing
power, to a Gentile, Naaman. Now, those are examples of God's
gracious grace, God's sovereign grace. Do you think there was
anything in that widow woman or that leper that distinguished
them in any way from other widows and other lepers? Who made the
difference? God did. God's sovereign grace. If there was some difference
between that widow and Naaman, if there was some difference,
then that means what they received was not of grace, it was of debt
that God owed it to them. is by grace through faith, and
that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Some will say
this, and you've heard this if you've spoken to other people
about the truth concerning God's grace. Some will tell you, well,
if God is gracious to one, he must be gracious to everyone. If he shows mercy on one, then
he must show mercy on everyone. If he fed one widow, and he did,
then by right he must feed all the widows. And if he cleansed
one leper, and he did, then by right he must cleanse all the
lepers. That's how some people think.
That's how some people reason. But let me ask this question.
What does God say to this charge? People say, that's not fair.
That's not fair that he would feed one widow and not feed all
the widows. That's not fair. Fairness has
to do with justice. We're saved by grace. Justice
was satisfied, yes, but satisfied by the substitute, by the Lord
Jesus Christ dying in the stead and in the place of his people.
People say, well, that's just not fair. And some people say,
well, that's not the God. That's not my God. Not my God. My God wouldn't do
that. No, no. The problem is your God, if you're
telling the truth, your God is not the God of the Bible. And
your God is not the true and living God. If your God would
not do this, because obviously he did it. He fed the widow of
Sarepta, he cleansed Naaman. And people say, well, if he did
it for one, he has to do it for everyone. I remember in school
years ago, a teacher said, you didn't give me a Christmas present
last year. You did give some people Christmas
presents, didn't you? Yeah. You didn't give me one.
If you give a present to someone, then you've got to give a present
to everyone. It doesn't work that way, does it?
Not for you, and yet people would try to demand of God Almighty
what they would not even allow. I'm going to give a Christmas
present to those I love, and to those I choose to give a Christmas
present to. And I'm not going out here and
try to give a Christmas present to every inhabitant of Houston.
Well, that's not fair. We're talking about grace, my
friend, salvation by grace. And let me say this in closing.
You remember the Lord gave that parable and he said, the kingdom
of heaven is like unto. And here's a man who goes out
early in the morning and he hires some men. to go work, and he
agreed on a pay, which was a penny a day. That was common pay at
that time, a penny a day. And then he goes out a couple
of hours later, and he hires some more. Then a few hours later,
he goes out, hires some more. And then a few hours later, it's
just almost dark, almost closing time, quitting time, and he hires
some more. And then he pays him. And he
starts with which one? The one he hired last. And what
does he give that one? He gives that one a penny. And
then the ones he hired next to last, a penny. And those he hired
earlier, a penny. And finally comes to those that
he hired early in the morning. And what did they get? They got
a penny. And they complained. They complained. Oh, we thought. How did the master answer that
accusation? Because they were accusing him
of being unjust. How did he answer that? He said
this, is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Isn't that my right? It's my
money, my vineyard. You agreed. Isn't it right for
me to do what I will with mine own? What is mine? And then he
said, this is that I evil because I am good. God is good. If he only saved
one person, he would be good. Now we know he saved a great
multitude, but all because he's good, not because any deserved
it. It's all of grace. The gracious words which proceeded
out of his mouth. Our God is a God of grace. He's
a God of all grace. And thank God he's gracious. to men and women like you and
I, who certainly, I can only speak for myself, do not deserve
God's grace. And I comfort myself when I am
accused, when my conscience accuses me, I comfort myself by reminding
myself, if you deserved it, it wouldn't be grace. And you are saved by grace, not
by merit. Well, I pray that the Lord will
bless these words of mine. Did you notice in that passage,
two times the Lord said he was sent to preach, to preach the
gospel, to preach. He was a preacher. God has chosen
preaching. to save those that believe. That's
the reason it's so important to hear the preaching of the
gospel. And God would grant unto you
repentance unto life. Let's sing this hymn. I know
that my Redeemer liveth. Number 134. Let's stand as we
sing.