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Part 1

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God says someone’s going to come who’s anointed to preach good news to the poor,

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in verse 2 this person is going to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour,

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he’s going to sound the trumpet, he’s going to bring in the jubilee

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that has never once happened in all the history of Israel.

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Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I’m David

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Peck and Colin that raises the question God said that was going to happen,

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but it didn’t actually happen. Why was that?

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Well because it was so costly. I mean this to me is one of the marvellous stories of the Old

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Testament. God’s law that every seven years all debts were to be released,

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all slaves were to be set free and all inheritances that had been lost were to be restored.

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This is to happen, but people aren’t going to do that because it’s going to cost too much.

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And so all through the history of the Old Testament these

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wonderful, wonderful laws that reflect God’s compassion for the poor and for those in need,

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they’re never enacted until Jesus Christ comes into the world and says I’ll do it because I’m

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prepared to pay the price, which of course he did. And so this speaks to us today about how

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marvellous the grace of God is. It shines the light on just how much Jesus Christ has done

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and why he’s different from any other person who’s ever lived.

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Because of that we have a hope which you’re going to see in our message today, so I hope

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you’ll be able to open your Bible to Isaiah chapter 61 as we begin our message Restore Hope,

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here’s Colin. Today we’re going to look in isaiah chapter 61 and 63 at two visions of our Lord

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Jesus Christ that are recorded there. The first in chapter 61 tells us what has happened through

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coming into the world. The second in chapter 63 tells us what will happen when he comes again

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in power and in glory. Now I want us to see then the two visions of Jesus Christ that are

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given to Isaiah the prophet. The first is that we find hope in the Lord Jesus Christ because he is

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our marvelous, compassionate savior. That’s where your hope begins and that’s where mine begins too.

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Notice what Isaiah says chapter 61. The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me

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to preach good news to the poor he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted and to proclaim

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freedom from the captives’ release from darkness for prisoners, and to proclaim

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the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God. Now, you need to know

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one or two things from the Bible in order to understand what Isaiah is talking about.

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Back earlier in the old testament, God had given some marvelous laws for the protection of the poor.

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Now if you’re ever in a discussion with someone who is antagonistic towards Christianity,

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this is the sort of thing that you need to know and to bring out in that discussion.

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Did you know that in God’s law in the old testament, every seven years, all debts were

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to be cancelled? That’s Leviticus chapter 15 and verse 1, imagine if that happened in this country,

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how many people would be happy if visa and MasterCard every seven years cancelled

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all debts, just wrote them off, said we’re back to zero! It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it?

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. That’s what God’s law said was to happen in Israel. Second,

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every 7 years, all slaves were to be released. That’s Leviticus chapter 25 and also chapter 15.

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That was very important because of course when some people were in a position of being unable

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to pay off debt and they were still within the seven year period, what they would do in order

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to honorably fulfill their commitment was that they would work for someone to whom they owed

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money. They would sell their labor in other words as a way of paying off their debt.

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Now, God honored this as a reasonable way for a person to maintain their integrity and to fulfill

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their responsibilities. But God said, that kind of service, the paying off debt kind of service

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is never to last more than seven years. Now, it’s a fascinating thing that God created this cycle,

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the seven year cycle in order to protect the poor. See, however much you redistribute wealth

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in any society, there will always be some who make better use of it, and some who make worse use of

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it. So that if in America today we could give everyone exactly the same resource seven years

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from now some would have more and some would have less. Some would steward it well, some would

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steward it poorly. And therefore the problem of poverty is always with us. There will always be

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a need that is recognized in the Law of God to relieve the particular needs of the poor.

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That’s why Jesus said the poor you will have with you always. This will always be an issue

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in human society. And God’s law provides for the relief of, compassion towards,

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help for the poor in a radical way. All debts cancelled. All slaves released every

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seven years. By the way you know the kind of person who wants to blame Christians for everything.

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And if you ever heard someone say you know Christianity of course that just supports

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slavery. If you get that you just say to that person what do you think of God’s

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anti-slavery laws in the Old Testament? I guarantee you they’ll look blank. And

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then you can point them to the book of Leviticus and say actually the law of God

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is uniquely in any culture directed towards the relief of poverty

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and towards the help of those who’ve got themselves tied up and bound

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in situations they cannot get out of. There never was any other culture

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either then or since that has had any laws remotely like this.

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They are marvelous laws for the relief of the poor. Only the God of the Bible

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would legislate like this. Now there’s a third law the relief of all debt the

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release of all slaveries. There’s a third law that was the best of all.

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And here I’d like to invite you to turn back to Leviticus and chapter

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25 so that you can see it for yourself.

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This is the law that related to the Year of Jubilee.

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It’s Leviticus and chapter 25 and it begins in verse 8

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You notice that God says there count off seven sabbaths of years

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in other words seven times seven years so that the seven sabbaths of years

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amount to a period of 49 years. So there’s this cycle in which debt is

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released and slaves are released every seven years

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and God says this is now to happen seven times and that takes you to 49 years.

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Then, verse 9, have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh

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month, on the day of atonement sound the trumpet throughout the land.

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Consecrate the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its

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inhabitants it shall be a jubilee for you. Each one of you is to return to his

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own family property and you can read on the legislation about this remarkable

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jubilee year that God said was to happen among his people every lifetime,

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once every 50 years. Now the significance of this was that of course when God’s

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people came into the promised land. You remember God gave to each tribe and each

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family a portion of the land. There was land that was given to each family, tribe, clan

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apportioned by God as their inheritance. Over the years, it would in the course of life become

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necessary for some folks to sell their land but once in every lifetime, on the 50th year,

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God says the land must be returned to the original owners. It must go back to the family of origin.

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It must go back to the line to which it was given by God. Now what that meant of course

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that land in Israel could only be owned on a leasehold basis and if you want to follow

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it through you’ll see in verses 15, 16 and 17 how this worked. What it meant was that the value,

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or the price, of a piece of land was determined by where you were in the 50-year cycle. If you

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were in year 47, 48 or 49 then the price of lands being sold would be quite low, because it would

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only be one, two or three years until it went back to the seller, and therefore only a few years of

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crops before it returned. If land was being sold a couple of years after the Jubilee the price would

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be much higher, because there would be you know 48, 49, 50 years of crops that could be raised

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on that land before it would be returned. And so verse 15, God says you’re to buy from your

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countrymen on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. Verse 16, when the years are

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many you increase the price, when the years are few, you decrease the price, because what you’re

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really selling is the number of crops, the land always ultimately belong to God. So verse 17,

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don’t take advantage of each other, but fear your God, I am the Lord your God.

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Now put these together, every 7 years you blank out all debts,

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every 7 years you release all slaves and once in every lifetime, once every 50 years,

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land that has been bought or sold all returns to the original family of origin,

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the original owners. These are marvelously compassionate laws. They placed a check

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among God’s people on the growing power of those who had accumulated wealth,

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they made sure that the children of wealthy people did not kind of float through life on

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massive accumulated inheritance but rather had to find their own way and earned like everybody else

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and they gave a new start most of all to the poor and the oppressed and it happened once in every

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lifetime. Now, I want us to understand here that no other culture had laws remotely like this,

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no other country has ever had laws like these but God says to his people you’re my people

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and this is what I’m telling you to do. Now, let’s take a step back, how would you have

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liked to live under these laws? See, you got to think about that because a lot depends on

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whether you would happen to be a borrower or whether you would happen to be a lender.

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These laws were great for debtors, but these laws were incredibly costly for creditors.

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Now, God gave these laws to Moses remember for his Old Testament people when they were in the

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land of Israel and he’s telling them what they’re to do when they inherit the Promise

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Land coming in to Canaan. And he says when you come into the Promise Land here is what

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you are to do, every 50 years sound the trumpet and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.

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Now, how often do you think this happened? Answer? Never. Nada. Not once.

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Not once. A couple of great Hebrew historians who’ve done great research into this make

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this comment in a book, The Feasts of the Lord, that is no historical record, either

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in the Bible or beyond the Bible, of Israel ever once observing the Jubilee year. And

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it’s not difficult to work out why, is it? The folks with the power were also the folks

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with the money. It always seems to work out like that. And when the folks with the power

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who are also the folks with the money look at what the Jubilee’s actually going to

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cost them, they say, let’s not sound the trumpet. We’ll do it in seven years, and

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so the trumpet never sounded. God’s people never once obeyed this law.

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You’re listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and our message today called,

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Restore Hope, is part of a wider series called RestoreMySoul. And if you’ve missed any

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of the series or you’d like to go back and listen again, I encourage you to do that

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by coming online to our website openthebible.org.uk. There you can hear any of the messages we’ve

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already gone out on air. You’ll also find us as a podcast on your favourite podcast

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site, either follow the link on our website or go to directly to your favourite podcast

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search for Open The Bible UK and subscribe to receive regular updates. Back to the message

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now, we’re in Isaiah 61 and here’s Colin.

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which is why the Old Testament prophets are so scathing on the way in which the rich were

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oppressing the poor.

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They simply systematically ignored the law of God when it was going to be costly to them.

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Now, none of this should surprise us, because you only need to think about the implementation

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of these laws and you quickly realize they could only work in a community of people who

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really loved God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and loved their neighbor

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as much as themselves.

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And Old Testament Israel wasn’t that society.

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And there never has been a culture where this has been put into operation.

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What God’s perfect law does, is it shows us our own inner selfishness.

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It shows us what we really are and it proves how much we need to be redeemed.

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So now back to Isaiah 61 and as the poor or oppressed and as the insensitivity towards

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their need continue, generation after generation, God says someone’s going to come who’s anointed

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to preach good news to the poor. In verse 2, this person is going to proclaim the year

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of the Lord’s favor. He’s going to send the trumpet. He’s going to bring in the jubilee

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that has never once happened in all the history of Israel. Well, of course, that raises the

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question, who is he talking about? Well, now would you turn forward in your Bible to Luke’s

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Gospel in Chapter 4. This’ll be familiar to many of us I think. Luke’s gospel in Chapter

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4. Because it’s very significant that the Lord Jesus Christ chose these words for my

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Isaiah to launch his own public ministry. Chapter 4 in verse 17. Try and picture the

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setting. The Lord Jesus Christ is in the synagogue. In verse 17 the scroll of the prophet Isaiah

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is handed to Jesus. Unrolling it, he’s finds, so he chose the reading. He finds the place

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where it is written the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me in the

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for me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor and to proclaim, verse

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19, the Year of God’s Favor. So Jesus applies this to himself. The spirit of the Lord is

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on me, he’s saying. To proclaim the year of God’s favor, to bring in the jubilee that

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has never once been known in all the history of God’s people. Then following what it says,

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Jesus rolled up the scroll and he gave it back to the attendant and sat down in the

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aisles of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him and he began first public utterance

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of Jesus. He began by saying, today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. It’s marvelous.

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Christ says they haven’t proclaimed the jubilee once. You know what, they never will but I

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will do it. I have come to proclaim the year of God’s favor. In other words, Jesus is saying,

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I have come to do for you what you would never do for each other. To cancel every debt that

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you owe to God. To set you free from the slavery that you know to the power of sin and Satan

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and to give back to you the inheritance that Adam lost, that is the inheritance of joy

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and life in his presence forever and forever. That is the promise of the gospel. It is the

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most marvelous good news. But remember, when you think about the year of God’s favor that

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is such a blessing to us that we celebrate in our worship every week, it comes at an

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incredible cost to Him. If you write off a debt you incur a loss in the amount of that

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debt yourself. And when Jesus comes to proclaim the Jubilee and to write off all our debts

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towards God, it means that God is incurring that debt in himself. And this is why Jesus

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went to the cross. He bore the loss to cancel our debts, to set us free, and to restore

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our inheritance. God cancelling debts. God freeing slaves. God restoring inheritances

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in Christ. That’s the gospel. Now I want you to notice, and this is marvellous

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when you see it, I want you to notice if you look between Luke chapter 4 and back to Isaiah

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chapter 61, I want you to notice where Jesus stopped in his reading on that Sabbath when

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he inaugurated his public ministry. Let’s look at chapter 61 and verse 2. The

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anointed one will proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of

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our God. Turn over to Luke chapter 4 and you see where Jesus stopped to proclaim verse

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19, the year of the Lord’s favour, period. In other words, when Jesus was reading from

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the scroll he stopped mid sentence. He stopped halfway through what Isaiah was saying. You

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see, why in all the world, when Jesus was choosing the reading, did he stop in the middle

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of a sentence and say, I’ve come to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour? Why didn’t

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he finish the sentence? Because he went on to say today this scripture is fulfilled in

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your hearing. And thank God that when Jesus came into the world, born as a baby, through

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his death and through his resurrection, he brought in the year of the Lord’s favour.

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He did not, at that time, bring in the day of God’s vengeance. I say thank God for that,

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because if Jesus had brought in the day of God’s vengeance in his first coming into the

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world, none of us would be here today. The world as we know it would have ended 2,000

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years ago in a blitz of God’s judgement. So Jesus stops halfway through what Isaiah says

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– mid-sentence. I’m the compassionate saviour, that’s coming to bring this freedom from

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debt and release from slavery to sin and to restore inheritance. You say, well what about

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the day of God’s vengeance? Well Jesus spoke about that too. John chapter 5 and verse 28,

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he said a time is coming when those who are in their graves will hear the voice of God

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and those who’ve done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to

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be condemned. Jesus said that time is coming. It has not come yet. So Isaiah sees this coming

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anointed one, bringing both the year of God’s favor and the day of God’s vengeance, almost

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like looking at a mountain, and you think it’s one mountain, actually it’s two mountains,

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one behind the other, and we’re living right in between times, in the day of God’s favor,

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not yet having reached the day of God’s vengeance. What a great reminder there that our hope

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as Christians is in Jesus Christ, He is our compassionate Savior. And that’s the first

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part of our message, Restore Hope, it’s a part of our series, Restore My Soul, and if

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you’ve missed any of the series, do feel you can come back and listen again on our website

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openthebible.org.uk or search out our podcast that’s available on any of the podcasting

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sites. Just search for Open the Bible UK. Also on our website is Open the Bible Daily

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and that’s a series of short, two to three minute reflections based on Pastor Collins’

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teaching and read in the UK by Sue McLeish, and I hope you’ll be able to join us next

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time for the second part of Restore Hope.

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Open the Bible is supported entirely by our listeners and if that’s something you’ve been

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considering doing then this month we have a great offer for you. If you’re able to set

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up a new donation to the work of Open the Bible in the amount of £5 per month or more

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we’d love to say thank you by sending you a copy of C. H. Spurgeon’s book Encouragement

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for the Depressed. Colin who’s this book for?

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Well this book is really for anyone who is discouraged or going through a dark time and

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I can’t imagine that there’s any Christian who doesn’t experience that at some point

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in life. What’s so striking to me about this book is that it’s written by a man who was

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known for his extraordinary faith. The spirit of God rested on the life and ministry of

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C. H. Spurgeon and yet he knew what it was to go through times of extraordinary darkness

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and even a sense of despair at some points. You know he suffered from smallpox, gout,

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rheumatism, inflammation of the kidneys and his wife was bedridden for decades. I mean

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this man really knew what it was to suffer and yet he found in all of this that he was

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forced closer to the Lord Jesus Christ. I love what he says. He says, I’ve learned to

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kiss the waves that throw me up against the rock of ages. I love that. Kiss the waves

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that throw me up against the rock of ages. Here’s biblical wisdom from a man of faith

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who knew what it was to really struggle in dark times and I have found his writing to

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be wonderfully encouraging, refreshing, and uplifting, and that’s why I’m really grateful

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that we have the opportunity of getting this book out this month. C H Spurgeon’s book,

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Encouragement for the Depressed, is our gift to you if you are able to set up a new donation

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to the work of Open the Bible this month in the amount of five pounds per month or more.

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Full details and to give online, go to our website, openthebible.org.uk. For Open the

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Bible and Pastor Colin Smith, I’m David Pink and I hope you’ll join us again, next time.

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One of the laws God gave Israel was never kept, and nor could it be kept today. Find

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out why and what God did about it. That’s next time on Open the Bible.