turn with me if you would this morning for a short time to the second portion of God's work that we have read together in Isaiah chapter 61. Isaiah chapter 61 and if we can read from the beginning of the chapter take verse two is our text but we'll read the first verses 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 the opening of the prison to them that are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the lord we'll stop in the middle of verse two become obvious as we go on. Why we stop there? To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Once again we're coming back to the prophecy of Isaiah. It's a wonderful prophecy, particularly with reference to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We surely have already seen how applicable this is to our own day. We see the suffering Saviour in Isaiah 53. We see how those of the Lord's day, when he comes, the Scribes and the Pharisees, how wrong they are in rejecting their Messiah. We see in the previous chapters the dawn of Zion's glory with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now, in chapter 61, we have the good tidings of salvation that then goes out into all the nations. So we are looking here at the time of the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. How do we know that? Well, the best interpreter of scripture is scripture itself. You have a question as to when this is particularly referring to, then you're better going to other scripture and particularly going to the interpretation that the Lord Jesus Christ himself lays upon this portion of scripture. If you remember how Jesus comes into Nazareth, the place where he himself had been raised, where he had been brought up. And on the Sabbath day, he goes into the synagogue. And as he stands in the synagogue, they give to him the book of the prophet Isaiah, the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Now, we don't know whether the Lord asked for that scroll. We're not told he did ask for it. We are told that there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. This is in Luke's Gospel, chapter 4, and verse 17. They give to him the prophecy of Isaiah. Now, I don't think it would have mattered what book of the Old Testament they had laid into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. He would have been able to have opened that out and shown how Christ must first suffer many things and entered into his glory. He would have been able to apply it regardless of what book was laid to his hand. Because if you remember when he met with the two on the road to Emmaus, he opened up to them how from Moses and from the prophets and from the Psalms, how Christ must suffer these things and enter into his glory. Even at the age of 12, he was in the synagogue or he was in the temple and he was there debating with the great minds of the day, bringing out the things of Messiah from the Old Testament. So I don't think it would have mattered what book they would lay into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. But in God's wonderful providence, they deliver into his hand the book of Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, Isaiah 61. Now very possibly he has asked for this book, but he opens it up in Isaiah 61, our text this morning. And the Lord Jesus Christ in the synagogue of Nazareth read the very words that we have read this morning. Isn't that wonderful? To think that 2,000 years ago, The Lord Jesus Christ, in the synagogue of Nazareth, read the very words that we have read in the Hebrew, but he read the very text that we are considering this morning. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. because he had 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 then that are bruised to preach the acceptable year of the lord now notice the lord here stops exactly where we stop halfway through verse two but of course when you go back to the original the original has after that uh and the day of vengeance of our god So there are two separate times here that are being referred to. There is the acceptable year of the Lord and there is the day of his vengeance. Now, what does that mean? Well, it means that Jesus says, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. That is the acceptable day of the Lord. the day of his mercy, the day of his favor, and that was being fulfilled in their presence. He says this day is this being fulfilled. He doesn't say that about the day of vengeance. That's a day that is yet to come. Christ will come again. And very possibly Isaiah 63, the beginning, it speaks about the day of vengeance. There is a day coming when the Lord will return again. And at that time, he will come as one being. You hardly believe that with the Lord Jesus, that he will have vengeance. You think to yourself of Jesus as the meek, mild king that comes to his own people. And today is the day of God's favor. But there's a day coming when the Lord Jesus Christ will return. And that will be his day of vengeance. And notice here, it says that it's the year, the acceptable year of the Lord. That's a prolonged period of time. In fact, if you go back to Isaiah chapter 61 to verse 2, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, comma, and the day of vengeance of our God, that comma there is representing already 2,000 years of God's favor. The acceptable year of the Lord, the time of God's favor is at hand. And that one comma there in scripture is meaning at least now 2,000 years, but then notice that's an acceptable year, but then it says, and the day of vengeance of our God. Jesus doesn't mention that when he refers to this in Luke's gospel, because that's a day that's yet to come. But Jesus is not only the meek and mild one who comes to his people, he is the one into whose hand all judgment has been placed. he will judge the quick and the dead. And there is a day coming when the Lord will return and he will lay vengeance upon all those who are the workers of iniquity. There is a day of judgment coming. But we today, according to what the Lord says here, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. That is, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Now you find when Jesus was in the synagogue in Nazareth that they cast him out and it said of him that they rejected him. They were furious at the Lord saying this. When they heard these things they were filled with wrath. Now why should those in the synagogue in Nazareth be so filled with wrath? They rose up and thrust him out of the city and led him to the brow of a hill. And they may have cast him down, but he passing through the midst of them went his way. Why was it that, what was it that Jesus said to you that brought such wrath? After all, he's saying this is the acceptable here. This is the day of salvation. Well, we know, do we not, that the kind of Messiah that Christ is was rejected by the Jews. They didn't want the kind of Messiah that is described here. Many today say, for example, in the streets of the cities being filled with people and black matters, the man in America that died and everything, and people will say to you that if Jesus was here, he would be among them. My friend, he would be among them. He would not be among them. When Jesus was alive, there was a great movement in Israel. They wanted a Messiah that would deliver Israel out of the bondage that they were in under the Roman Empire. Jesus specifically refused to take part in that. In fact, it was because of that that they rejected him. They wanted someone to rise up and say, Israel matters. Israel is at the center of it all. Israel is the one that really should, that the Messiah should now come and he should deliver them out of the grip of Satan. By the time Christ comes, Israel couldn't even put someone to death. They had to get the permission of Pilate. They had to get the permission of Caesar's representative. They were now a proud nation that were now in bondage to Rome. And yet Christ specifically did not go down the road as probably Barabbas did, but probably Barabbas that was released was guilty of sedition. Possibly he was one of these radicals that would raise up and stand against such injustice as they would see it. But you see Jesus didn't come from that. Jesus comes to deal with the greater problem and that is sin. You can deal outwardly with all these other things and people can think that because they imagine themselves to be seeking justice that that's all right. Everything's fine as long as you deal with these things but Jesus tells us that that's not the biggest problem. The biggest problem that there was among Israel in his day and those in Nazareth was the problem of sin. The problem of the heart, not the outward, but the problem of the heart. That brings us back again to ask why did the those in Nazareth cast Jesus out of the synagogue? Because when he goes on to speak, he says everybody matters. It's not black matters, white matters. Look at what he says when he's there. Surely you will say this proverb, physician, heal thyself. Whatsoever we have seen done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. In other words, in Nazareth, they felt that because he had done mighty works in Capernaum, that he was bound to do that in Nazareth. And that somehow those of Nazareth were special. that somehow they were above everybody else, and that because he himself was from Nazareth, or at least was brought up in Nazareth, that he had to do these mighty works. Do you know what Jesus says? I say, I know it, prophets except in his own country, and he gives them two examples. In the Old Testament, where God blessed those who weren't Jews. God blessed the woman of Sidon, the Serapta, but unto none of them was Elias sent, except unto Serapta, the city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow who wasn't even one of God's people. And many lepers in Israel were at the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was claimed except Naaman the Syrian. Jesus here is saying to them, it doesn't matter. Whether you're a Jew, whether you're a Gentile, you see, these people of Nazareth, they were mad. Because what they were saying was, Nazareth matters. And Jesus says, no, it doesn't. None of it matters. You see, today, so far as Jesus is concerned, black doesn't matter. White doesn't matter. Doesn't matter what race you're of. Doesn't matter whether you're Jew or Gentile, bond or free, the gospel is there. It's good news to sinners. You see, we can be deceived into thinking that if we just sort out a few things in this world, a few injustices, sort it all out and all will be well. My friend, that's not true. It's not true. Because there still remains the big problem. And that is the problem of the heart. the problem of sin. Well, Jesus tells us that that is what he comes for and you see here the Spirit of the Lord is upon me when Jesus comes. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and he quotes that in the synagogue in Nazareth. They were mad at that as well. He's speaking here with authority. He is speaking here as one who has absolute authority from God. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Now how could the Spirit of the Lord be upon the Lord Jesus Christ? Is he not? One with the Father, one with the Spirit. Has he not already got the Spirit of God? Because if he is divine, then he is one with the Father and he is one with the Holy Spirit. And I heard a debate recently on this very thing. One man was saying, well, he gave up his divinity. And God wasn't crucified at Calvary. And the other man was taken to the other extreme and said, well, he couldn't have given up his divinity and all the rest of it. My friend, it's very simple and yet very profound. Jesus Christ is one with the Father, one with the Spirit. There is one God. Whatever the Spirit does, the Father and the Son do, because there is but one God. And as his divine nature, he could not have the Spirit any more than he already has the Spirit. But now he takes our nature. In his human nature, he has the Spirit of God the Lord poured out upon him. In our nature, so that we can say, did God suffer at Calvary? Yes, he did. But in our nature, in human nature, the second person of the Trinity suffered. The second person of the Trinity received the Spirit without measure, but in our nature, not in the divine nature. We must never confuse the two. Jesus Christ has the Spirit of the Lord poured out upon him. And what a wonderful verse this is in the Old Testament, bringing before us the Trinity. It is the Spirit of the Lord, the Sovereign God, the Lord God, the Sovereign God, the Spirit of the Sovereign God is upon me, because Jehovah hath anointed me, there's the Father. So you have the Holy Spirit, you have God the Lord, and you have Jesus Christ, you have the Trinity here, a wonderful picture of the Tycoon God. When was the Spirit poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ? This would imply that it was when he was older. 30 years of age. And that is true. You see him receiving the Spirit at his baptism. When he ascends out, the Spirit descends upon him like a dove. But did the Lord not have the Spirit before that? My friend, he did. He was filled with the Spirit before that. He had the Spirit at 12 years of age when the Spirit was revealing to him and showing to him the glories of Messiah. He's always had the Spirit of God. It's the Spirit of God, the Spirit that has formed him within the womb of the Virgin Mary. It was the power of the Holy Spirit that by which he was conceived. He's always had the Holy Spirit. But now the Holy Spirit is poured out upon him and anointed him in a particular way. It's just like the church in the Old Testament. The church in the Old Testament has the Spirit of God, but it didn't have the Spirit of God to evangelize. It didn't have the Spirit of God to go out into all the world and to preach the gospel. The Spirit of the Lord was poured out upon the church at Pentecost. She always had the Spirit. Holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. But now the church receives the Holy Spirit poured out upon it, equipping it to go out and to preach the gospel to every creature, equipping it to go into the world, bringing the good news. And what is that good news? It's about Messiah. You notice here, the Lord, he's hath anointed me Jehovah. Jesus did not go without a commission. He did not go without being sent and it was the Lord that sent him. God sent his only begotten son and he anointed him. That tells you that Jesus is claiming, when he is in the synagogue in Nazareth, he is claiming to be the Messiah. The Lord hath anointed me. That's what the anointed one is. That's the Messiah, the one who is anointed. The Christ is the anointed of God. He is making the claim that he is the Messiah of the Old Testament, the one that the prophets looked to and looked for. Strange that all down through the Old Testament, the prophets were looking for the coming Messiah. And when the coming Messiah comes to his own, they reject him. They've been looking for him. And yet they reject him when he does come. Well, he is the one, he has been anointed. And why is he, what is he anointed to do? He's anointed to preach. You see, he came to Nazareth and those of Nazareth said to him, yeah, look at all the mighty works that you, that he's done in, in, in, uh, uh, all the mighty works that he's done in Capernaum. Surely he will come and do these mighty works here. You will surely see unto me this proverb, physician, heal thyself. Whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in this country. some kind of miracle for us but Jesus says he came to preach. My friend that's the glory of the gospel isn't it? Remember when Paul speaks in his opening to the church at Corinth when he talks about Christ being the power of God and the wisdom of God. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? How is the world? How would the world go out and bring good news? Not this way. The wisdom of the world? By wisdom the world does not know God. By wisdom, the world is ignorant of God. But he says, for after it, then the wisdom of God, the world, by wisdom, you know God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. My friend, preaching is foolishness to the world. And to us that are saved, it's the power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believe in it. Christ came to preach. And when the gospel, when you come to a church, What is it you look for? Is it look for entertainment? Is it look for dancing, music and everything else? My friend, the reformed church in our land turned back to the preaching of the word. That became central. It's why the pulpit ended up in the very heart of the head of the church, the pulpit, not the sacramental table, but the pulpit. Because the Lord hath anointed me, he says, to preach. Now what's it got to preach? What does the preacher got to preach? My friend, good tidings unto the meeting. Good tidings to preach good tidings. My friend, is there not a day like today when people need to hear good tidings? You are isolated because of a virus. You hear of people being stabbed in Glasgow and you hear of it happening down in England. You hear of all the troubles that there are in America. You hear of all that's going on, the disruptive play in all the nations and in the cities of the world. Is it not time that we heard some good news? My friend, the Lord's Day is the day when we hear good tidings of great joy. great tidings to the meek great tidings not a person of this color or that color or of that place or this place no good tidings to a person from Nazareth but to the weak to those who are sinners who are empty sinful and those who are in in need This is the best tidings of all. This is the best news that a sinner will hear. Good tidings to the humble, to the needy, to those who are in need. And what is that news? Well, it's that Christ, the Messiah comes to deal with sin. To deal with the sin of the heart. To deal with sin. to bind up the brokenhearted. Sin breaks the heart. That's what sin does. And you can deal with the outward. You can take up this cause or that cause, but you still don't deal with the heart. Christ came not to become some kind of radical leader of some campaign, But Christ came with a radical message. That man is a hell-deserving sinner. And sin breaks where Christ comes and binds up the brokenhearted. It's healing for the disease of sin. Do you see sin as that? Do you see the fallen human nature, the nature of man's heart? is that it's infected, not with a virus. Virus is a terrible thing. And nobody would downplay the seriousness of a virus that will take people's life. But my friend, there's a greater virus, there's a greater problem. We may think that we'll get some kind of thing to solve the virus, but you won't get anything to solve sin, except Jesus Christ, the gospel, because he came into this world. to bind up the brokenhearted. And to proclaim liberty to the captives and to open the prisoners to them that are bound. My friend, people think that they've got freedom. There's no freedom. People can march for this group. This group should have freedom. This group should have rights. My friend, man is bound in prison. He's a captive to his sin. You may take up the cause of this group of people saying that, well, look at them, they're dead. And some of it may be true. But my friend, there's a greater problem of captivity and the prison. And that is what sin and the fallen human nature, fallen human, man by fallen human nature is dead and trespasses and in sin. You need to deal with that before you deal with anything else. He comes and he opens the prison doors like Samson coming and taking the bars of the prison and carrying them away. And the very lintel that Samson came, he came in and they tried to bound him and he took the very lintel and the doorpost of the prison and he carried it away with him. And so Jesus comes and sets the prisoners free. He brings true freedom. The freedom to worship God. The freedom to come into the presence of God. The freedom to have spiritual worship with God. And my friend, what misery sin brings upon this world, isn't it? What misery it brings, because it brings to the sinner to be someone, when a sinner is dealt with by the Lord and he begins to recognize the sinfulness of sin, it brings him to be like someone that's mourning, to be dead, to see he's dead. They become, they're like those who are mourning in Zion. They're in mourning. And what happened to someone in Moab when they were mourning? They would put ashes over their head. They would cover themselves in ashes. It was a sign of mourning. But he says, I'll bring comfort to those who mourn. To a point unto them that mourn inside, to give unto them beauty for ashes. You see, instead of ashes being poured over them, they would be given a crown. I point unto them the oil of joy for mourning. When you mourn, when you're mourning, you don't joy, do you? But he gives you the oil, he anoints them with the oil of joy. He gives them beauty, he gives them the oil of joy, garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Why is the Christian sitting with a spirit of heaviness. Why is he sitting with ashes on his head? Why is he mourning? Christ has come to take away that, to give you beauty, the oil of joy, garments of praise, that you might be like trees. Think of a tree, blown in the wind, but rooted They will be called the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. My friend, what a wonderful news. And this is what Jesus came into this world to procure for his people. Good news, to preach, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. That's today. Jesus says that in this day is this fulfilled in you. But my friend, let us go back and remember that there's a comma. And the day of the vengeance of our Lord. The Lord will return. And as he returns, he will come as the judge. There will be a day come when he will return as the judge. But for those who trust in him, there is a full salvation, not partial. When you look at all that's said here about the disease, the healing, the freedom, the comfort that there is in this news, this preaching of the good tidings to the weak, my friend, it's a full salvation that is preached in this year of acceptance. In this acceptable year of the Lord, it's the day of God's favor. And my friend, we are living in the day of God's favor because he sends forth the good tidings. And what do we need? As ministers of the gospel, as hearers of the gospel, we need the Holy Spirit to be anointed with the Holy Spirit. Lord has anointed me, so he anoints his people, so he anoints those who are his own, they are anointed with the Holy Spirit. We need to recognise the subject matter, it's the heart. We need to be brought to be meek and humble that we would receive such truth in the Lord's acceptable May it be that the Lord would bless to each one of us these few words and these few thoughts on the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us join together in prayer. Let us pray. Gracious and ever-blessed Lord, we thank thee for the goodness of thy grace and thy mercy to us this day. We praise thy name that the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to seek and to save that which was lost. We thank thee that when he went to Nazareth and into the synagogue, he opened up the words of Isaiah, this day is this scripture fulfilled in thy presence. It was the acceptable year of the Lord. The great truth, the great message of salvation would go forth. And all those of the Jews established and thought that he would be a king that would release them. And those of Nazareth thought that because he was from there that he would favour them. So he says, that even the woman of Sarepta, of Sidon, and Naaman the Syrian, for with God there is no respecter of persons. It doesn't matter who they are, God will bless them and draw them to himself. Bless each one of us now as we wait upon thee. Go before us in the rest of this day. Pardon us all our sin, for Jesus' sake. Amen. We'll sing in Psalm 102. We'll often sing from the second version, but it's a must. Psalm 102, verses 13 to 22. Psalm 102. The second version from verse 13 to 22, the Tunis juxtrate. Thou shalt arise on mercy yet. Thou to Mount Zion shalt extend her time for favor, which was said, behold, is now come to an end. Thy saints take pleasure in her stones, her very dust to them is dear. All heathen lands and kingly thrones on earth thy glorious name. shall fear god and his glory shall appear when zion he builds and repairs he shall regard and lend his ear unto the needy's humble prayers psalm that speaks of the very same things psalm 102 the second verse from from 13 to 22 the tunis juke stream thou shalt arise and mercy yet thou to mount zion shalt extend ♪ How to one's triumphs shall descend ♪ ♪ Her time for failure which was spent ♪ ♪ The old is now come to an end ♪ ♪ My sins take pleasure in thy stones ♪ ♪ Carpe diem, to them is here ♪ ♪ All ye earth lands and heavenly homes ♪ shall appear. Brought in this glory shall appear, where Zion, Edith, and Remus ♪ Shall regard the land they see ♪ ♪ Come to the meeting place ♪ Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, ♪ Are doomed to die ♪ ♪ But Zion and Jerusalem too ♪ ♪ His name and praise they will bring o'er ♪ ♪ When people cry out ♪ The following are the intimations under God Willing. The service this evening is at 6.30. It will be on Zoom and on Sermon Audio. prayer meeting is on Thursday at 8pm and the services on 7.30 on zoom and the next services next floor stay at the usual hours of 11 and 6.30. There's just one a couple of other intimations the Monday night prayer meeting is at 7pm we remind you of that but we also have had notice round from the public questions committee about going back into our building again and resuming services in Arthur Street. I think effectively we could begin starting services fairly soon and keeping to distancing and all the rest of it rules. But the one issue that was brought out in the Publications Committee is that congregations should seek to facilitate and make sure that provision is made for those who can't get to Arthur Street. Now we have people listening in to our services from Edinburgh but we've also got now got people from elsewhere from down in the borders for example with the Minhoic and Berwick and such places and we can assure I think our congregation that we will not go back to Arthur Street until we have provision in Arthur Street to continue broadcasting our services on zoom and on sermon audio so that those who can't get to Arthur Street whether they be in Edinburgh and are isolating or whether they be further afield and simply wanting to join with us as they have done over the last while we can assure you that we will not be going back to the building in Arthur Street until we can make sure that the services can be relayed. We had hoped to have wi-fi in the building this past week it's now going to be possibly another fortnight before that can happen because of the the situation of the building but we hope to within a fortnight at least get wi-fi in and begin at least to set up for live streaming and using zoom from the building in Arthur street. These are all the intimations we are they are all god willing will conclude with the benediction. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, three persons, one God, rest on and abide with you now and forevermore. Amen.