Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on earth and he was grieved in his heart, anthropomorphic. Sorry not in the sense I didn't see that coming, I regret it.
Sorry in the sense that, so you can understand, I don't like this either. But we're going to finish this. We're going to finish not only your lifetime, but billions of others are going to finish their lifetimes too, till I get to what I want for all eternity. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Isaiah.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Isaiah chapter 61 with today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio. Isaiah chapter 61. I've been waiting for 60 chapters to get to this one.
I was waiting for 50, never mind. This is Messiah speaking in this chapter, and no one could carry out the things that are given to us here except Him, and of course Jesus applies the first section directly to Himself there in Luke chapter 4. And the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Christ is totally in accordance with the prophecies.
Peter said that they were holy men stirred by the Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive. And the big news about this first few verses, especially verses 1 and 2, most of 1 and 2, is again Christ applying it to Himself. His selection of reading from Isaiah chapter 61 verses 1 and 2 in that Jewish synagogue in Nazareth was deliberate. And here's how deliberate it was. The Isaiah scroll, one of the largest ones, we have a copy of it from the Dead Sea Scrolls, and it is about 25 feet long.
So if you take that scroll and you rolled it from each end just to be conservative about it, because they're not exactly sure if they would have rolled it from the beginning or from the end. But we know it was given to him as one book. So for him to get to the 61st chapter in front of everybody with this giant scroll would have been deliberate, would have been just something very visible.
Everybody would have been focused on him as the scripture says it was. So this taking this section of Isaiah and handling it the way he did is quite profound. So let's look at the first verse and this first verse is part of what he read to them. The spirit of the Lord Yahweh is upon me because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison doors to those who are bound. This makes a beautiful song.
There is a song on this and I don't remember at the moment who the one that sings it is, but it's a very nice song. Anyway, the spirit of the Lord Yahweh upon me, the will of God, the way of God, the work of God, all bundled into this life of Christ, the Holy Spirit that we crave so much, that we love when he falls upon us, when we're filled with the spirit, when we worship in song, for example, and we get filled with the spirit. If you've never been filled with the spirit singing songs to Christ, you're missing out and it needs to be on your to-do list, your short to-do list. Well, again, up to the end of this chapter, Isaiah has been given the privilege of scribing the voice of who we know to be Jesus. If I were named Jesus, as soon as I could, I'd go down to the courthouse and change that name to Walter or Leon, anything, but I would not. There is nobody that should have that name, especially with the knowledge of Christ. Now, if your name is Jesus, I'm going to call you something else, so just get ready for it. But anyway, that name Jesus is very special.
We were just singing, your name is like honey on my lips. So it is just very remarkable. Well, he says about himself as identical to what he has been saying, and if you must go back and research it, Isaiah 42 verses 1 and 7, Isaiah 48 verse 16, Isaiah 49 verse 9, Isaiah 50 verse 4. And as you compare those verses with what he is saying, it's just, man, God is all over this.
Nobody could have sat down and had this flow with the rhythm that it has. When you get to the Gospel of Luke, while he's in his youth, blowing the minds of the rabbis in the temple, that matches Isaiah 11 to the Spirit of Yahweh shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh. What a privilege it is to read these verses out. Then his baptism in Luke chapter 3 verse 21, spoken of again by Isaiah in chapter 42 verse 1, behold, my servant whom I uphold, my elect one in whom my soul delights, I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles, that spirit upon him. You know, John the Baptist saw the spirit descend upon him like a dove. And then as far as his public ministry, so we're tracking it, his, you know, about 12 years old, then his water baptism. So you have before his public ministry, as he's coming into public ministry, he's coming into view with the water baptism. And then in his public ministry, when he enters that synagogue in Nazareth and turns to Isaiah 61, it says the spirit of the Lord is upon me. And then he goes on to say, today, this verse is fulfilled. And they wanted to kill him for it.
They tried to, didn't get to do it at that time. So these are, these are holy things that we're in the presence of. I wonder how many people, if you asked them, what is the definition of holiness? If you ask a Christian, what is, what does holiness mean? Well, it's just food for thought at the moment. I have the answer.
I know, I know some of you, if not all of you have the answer to. Holiness to the Lord was supposed to be this passion of the Jew into the kingdom age and supposed to be the passion of the Christian also. Peter, when he stood before the Lord said, depart from me for I'm a wicked man. It's because he had a contact with holiness for the first time in his life, unlike ever before.
It wouldn't be the last time. Because the Lord, because Yahweh has anointed me. Now anointing of course signals divine appointment with authority for the kings, for the prophets, for the priest. The anointing as with the water baptism, unmistakable actions that announce something spiritual is going on and it is distinct. When the Jews anointed a king, like when Samuel anointed David or when Moses anointed Aaron, it wasn't just a little dab of do you, it wasn't just a little bit of oil, it poured it on you. Psalm 133 verse 2, it is like the precious oil upon the head running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron running down on the edge of his garment. So how much did he pour?
It made it to the floor. In Messiah's case, not only is he selected and have authority, but he's distinct. There are others who were anointed but not like him and the context of his life, his lifestyle, the things that surrounded in the Old Testament make it very clear. Because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. Isaiah is not talking about himself nor does he want you to think he's talking about himself.
Again, he cannot deliver what he is promising. Christ has. To preach good tidings to the poor. Now, an emphasis in the ministry of Christ, one of the greatest, if not the greatest emphasis in his ministry was his teaching. What good are the miracles if you don't know where they come from? What good are the miracles if you do not attach them to God?
So his teaching was very much pronounced. Luke 7 verse 22, Jesus answered and said to them, go and tell John the things you have seen and heard. The blind see, lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel preached him. That's the punchline. He saves the punchline for John because John is wondering, why am I in prison? I thought you were the Messiah. I thought you were going to deliver us. And Jesus says, you go tell him what I'm quoting from Isaiah.
He'll figure it out. Mark chapter 6, he went about the villages in a circuit teaching. I mean, he went around village to village.
It would make a double trip. Come back around again and teach again. Luke 3 verse 3, and he went into all the region around the Jordan preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. He wasn't preaching you can be a better you if you just put enough money in the offering box like they do in some parts of this world. Anyway, even from his cross, he's still teaching. Everything he said from the cross is a sermon for us, a lesson for us. Still, when he said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He's still quoting scripture.
His head is still in the game. He's teaching us. Even on your way to death, you can quote scripture to the glory of God.
Powerful lessons should not be wasted on us. In spite of our shortcomings, Christ says, I see your shortcomings, love you nonetheless, and we'll use you. If you let me, he has sent me to heal the broken hearted. Well, sin is a heartbreaker. Even God is heartbroken over the state of sin. And we pointed this out in Isaiah 15 where God lamented the downfall of Gentile cities and he does it again in Jeremiah 48. But we're going to take this one from Genesis 6. Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on earth and he was grieved in his heart, anthropomorphic. Sorry, not in the sense I didn't see that coming.
I regret it. Sorry in the sense that so you can understand I don't like this either, but we're going to finish this. We're going to finish not only your lifetime, but billions of others are going to finish their lifetimes too till I get to what I want for all eternity. And, uh, it is, we're part of this right now. Psalm 147 verse three, he heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds.
There's your good Samaritan. This is again, he has sent me to heal the broken hearted on higher levels levels that nobody else could understand. So we can face death not only for ourselves but others without a broken heart in their sense that there's more to this life than this life. It doesn't mean we grieve. We grieve all out. Grief, grief is to, it's the price of love. Uh, it's just, um, it's the way it is to proclaim liberty to the captives. Well, sin holds us captive. One reason why it breaks our heart and the heart and others that holds them captive to one reason why they break our heart. Only Jesus can deliver basic Christianity, Romans seven, but I see another law and my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.
Like it flows through my veins and I hate it. So, and then he goes on to thank God that he's not judged to hell for this. Ephesians four verse eight. Therefore he says when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men leading cap.
He set the prisoners free. Those in, there was nobody could get into heaven until Christ died. They went to a righteous place in the underworld, but they could not get into heaven. And when he died, he led them into heaven.
Today you will be with me in paradise. And this, the foundation for Isaiah is saying this and I suppose he knew that too. If he didn't, the Holy Spirit did is the year of Jubilee. The Jews there in Leviticus 25 verse seven. If I run out of time, it's because I'm quoting these verses to you.
So now I'm going to be maybe have to stop doing that. Anyway, the year of Jubilee was a time of liberation. Every 50 years the Jews were to set the prisoners free. Those Jews who had sold themselves into slavery, they were to be freed.
Land that was sold had to return to the original owner. It was a new beginning for everyone and they really didn't honor this and God noticed that. But this year of Jubilee is about emancipation, being freed from those things that enslave us. And it was instituted on the day of atonement, the blast of the trumpet, the day when the Jews were to meditate on their transgressions before the Lord. It was of all the feast days, it was the solemn one and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. Well that cost him one crucifixion and that's what we might want to tell our Catholic friends, Roman Catholic friends, it cost one crucifixion. Anyway, the divine blood emancipated us, that righteous blood makes us righteous. Matthew 27, this is what happened at the resurrection and the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised and coming out of the graves after his resurrection, they went into the city and appeared to many. Now if you were a witness of this, how could you tell, how could you preserve it? I mean he couldn't take out your pocket camera and say, well look, here's one of my relatives that passed away, I got it on film.
Or whatever it's on now, pixel, whatever. Anyway, we have no reason to doubt these things. Isaiah said he was going to set the captives free, so he showed off some of them.
He let them show up. And the opening of the prison to those who are bound, that's where we are. Well I don't want to leave out these words from God because I love them. You know, we love the word of God because we see its perfection. In spite of our imperfection, we can be part of this and that's one of the beautiful things about the word. The precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish, without spot.
Revelation 7 14, when speaking of the modern tribulation saints, these are the ones who come out of the great tribulation and wash their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. So we're supposed to say these things to unbelievers and when they go, ugh, we're supposed to tell them, yeah, your sin is worse. The stench of your sin is worse than blood. Yeah, I went to the eye doctor for a check up and found out I have x-ray vision that it's just not working right. But anyway, you know, they got these eye charts of the eyeballs, this is gross. I don't know, maybe you all like that stuff. I don't want to see the ligaments in there.
I just want it to work. Well, anyway, the blood is, you know, it's, it is not, you know, it's the cost of sin. Revelation 12 11, speaking of the saints again, then they overcame him by the blood of the lamb because without that there would be no overcoming. And the word of their testimony, which is the scripture, their commitment to Christ, and they did not love their lives to the death.
It's unlike a lot of people, is it not? Verse two, now we're getting close to that good comma. To proclaim the acceptable year of Yahweh and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn. Three ages, three dispensations, three periods of time are all baked into that one verse. In verses one and two, up to 2a, the first comma, you have the first coming of Christ. After the first comma, you have another clause, which is the great tribulation period to the second coming of Christ.
And then depending on how you grammatically want to, if you want to use a comma or a semicolon, it's up to you. But part C of verse two is the kingdom age, all in that one verse. Well, verse one is part of, part of it too, is part of the first coming. So to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Now this is not a specific date, it's a period of time, a dispensation. It's the age that we live in. It corresponds to the day of salvation.
Well, we get that from Isaiah 49-8, where the same language is used, and so it gives us a heads up. When we come here, we look back at how he used it before, we know what he's talking about, it's the day of salvation. That is the acceptable year. What is the acceptable year? The day of salvation, when Christ came, died for sinners, for you and for me.
The acceptable year. In contrast, this is very important, in contrast to the day of revenge, vengeance. God getting them back, executing justice is going to happen. That's separated by that comma. To proclaim the acceptable year to the Lord, comma, rightfully placed, and the day of vengeance of our God, comma or semicolon, however you choose. His ministry is an ongoing, perfected ministry. In this section, we have seven things that the Lord has done. Of course he's done more, but of course the seven is the scriptural way of saying this is complete, it's finished, it's done. Preach good news to the afflicted, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, to free the prisoners, to proclaim the year of acceptance. That is this period of grace, of salvation, to announce the day of judgment, to comfort mourners. A lot of work in Christ. This is Christianity at work.
This is all a part of what we preach and what we are doing. If he had come to earth to execute the day of vengeance, we wouldn't be here. But he did not come the first time for that. He hasn't come for vengeance yet, but it's coming. It's on the calendar, his calendar and the day of vengeance of our God. Now that's the second clause of verse two, not yet happened. You know, if someone were to say, well, you know, we're in the great tribulation period, where's Antichrist then? He's a personal guy.
You're not just a group. There are people who are Antichrist, but there is a specific human being that will be demonically energized unlike ever before. Satan's rendering of the anointed demon. Well, so far there is a gap of about 2000 years between these two comma, the comma and the two clauses. That's the good comma, the age of salvation, the acceptable year for the Lord.
It is the good news time in the tribulation is going to be, there's still good news, but there's also very, very bad news. So he read from that synagogue in Nazareth to the middle of the sentence and stopped. When he goes to Nazareth, he doesn't read the, this part there in Luke chapter four in verse 18, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery to the sight of the blind, to set liberty to those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of Yahweh. Where's the day of vengeance?
He leaves it out. He says, today this scripture is fulfilled. If he read the vengeance part out and said today this thing is fulfilled, that would have been it for them.
But that's not what happened. He knew he was preaching from Isaiah and applying it to himself. He is the author of those words in Isaiah and he stopped at what we call, again, what we call a comma that separates the two thoughts that belong to the same sentence, placing his whole dispensation at the time we live upon a comma. Everything the church is doing is based on that comma. That's so good that it turned out that way.
The day of grace is the acceptable year of the Lord, the church age, where you don't have to be Jewish to preach the truth of God. You have to be born again. And, uh, uh, we've not moved beyond this point.
Not yet. That's where we have stopped. And so why did he close right there? Because the rest of the sentence would carry us into the great tribulation period. After the acceptable year of salvation comes the day of vengeance. And there's more to it than this because once the church is removed comes this tribulation period, this day of vengeance. And, um, that's when the Lord will fight and defeat the nations, how it ends after seven years at the battle of Armageddon. And that, uh, Zechariah 14, three is a good place to go to look at that. Isaiah 63 verse four for the day of vengeance is in my heart and the year of my redeemed has come. So it's, God wants to do this, but he's got other things.
He said, priorities, there are things he has to do first. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio today. Cross Reference Radio is a ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel mechanicsville in Virginia. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.
You'll find a number of teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of new additions of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Isaiah with Pastor Rick right here on Cross Reference Radio.
