In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the power of Jesus to set people free from the bondage of sin. He highlights that sin often starts with a curious thought and can lead to destructive habits. However, Jesus came to break the chains of sin and open the prison doors for those who are bound. The preacher also mentions that the world is currently held captive by sin, but Jesus offers hope for a better future where righteousness and peace will prevail. The sermon is based on the scripture reading from Psalm 45, which speaks of the majesty and eternal reign of God.

Now let's turn to Psalm 45 for our scripture reading this morning. I'll read the first, the unnumbered verses. Pastor Brian will lead the congregation in the reading of the even verses, and shall we stand as we read the Word of God. My heart is indicting a good matter. I speak of things which I have made touching the King. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Thou art fairer than the children of men. Grace is accorded to thy lips. Therefore God hath blessed thee forever. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O Most Mighty, and with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty write prosperously, because of truth and meekness and righteousness. And thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the King's enemies, whereby the people fall under thee. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore, God, thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. All thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces whereby they have made thee glad. King's daughters were among thy honorable women, and upon thy right hand did stand the queen in the gold of Ophir. Harken, O daughter, and consider and incline thine ear. Forget also thine own people and thy father's house. And so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty, for he is thy Lord. Worship thou him. And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift. Even the rich among the people shall entreat thy favor. The king's daughter is all glorious within. Her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework. The virgins, her companions that follow her, shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought, and they shall enter into the king's palace. Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. I will make thy name to be remembered, I will, in all generations, and therefore shall the people praise thee forever and ever. Let's pray. Lord, what a joy it is to be here today to again consider Jesus Christ, His mission, and His ministry. We ask, Father, that the Holy Spirit will just reveal Jesus to us, and that our hearts will be blessed, and that we will receive, Lord, the work that You have done for us this day. We give thanks, Father, again in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Tonight, Pastor Skip will be taking us through the chapters 59 to 61 of the book of Isaiah. And so, we encourage you to read them over this afternoon. Go through the whole Bible. Know what God's Word has to say. Pastor Skip is an excellent teacher. We've been enjoying immensely his Sunday night studies, and we know that you will also gain great knowledge and insight into the Scriptures as Pastor Skip leads us through the Bible tonight, Isaiah 59 through 61. I don't remember if in the announcements this morning they mentioned that the Friday Joyful Life Women's Study starts this week. And so, ladies, this is it. And the fall session, always an exciting time for the ladies in their study through the Word. This morning, let's turn to Isaiah 61, verse 1 and part of verse 2. Isaiah is prophesying concerning Jesus. He said, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach the 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, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. This prophecy is obviously a prophecy of the ministry of Jesus Christ, the purpose of his coming. I can declare that with great certainty, because when Jesus began his public ministry, he came to the synagogue there in Nazareth. And they handed him the scroll of Isaiah to read. And he opened the scroll, and he found the place where it was written. He looked for this place in the scroll. And he read these words unto them there in the synagogue of Nazareth. 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 brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and the recovering of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. We read that he then sat down, and as they were all looking at him, he said to them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your sight. Acknowledging that this 61st chapter of Isaiah was a prophecy concerning his ministry. Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your sight. It tells of the purpose of his coming. It tells of his ministry. He came to preach good tidings to the meek. When John the Baptist was put into prison, he sent some of his disciples after a time to ask Jesus the question, are you the one we are looking for, or shall we look for someone else? John had a concept of the Messiah that was common in those days. He was expecting the Messiah to raise an army to overthrow the Roman powers, to develop a political base, and to establish God's kingdom upon the earth. He had been sitting now in Herod's prison for a while. He was tired, and his disciples came to ask Jesus the question, are you the one, or shall we start looking for someone else? In other words, John is seeking to urge Jesus to get the program going. Let's overthrow the Roman government. Let's get a political party together, and let's gain some power. We read that when these disciples of John came to Jesus with the question, that in that very same hour, Jesus cured many of their infirmities, and of their plagues, and of evil spirits. And unto many that were blind, he gave sight. Then Jesus said to John's disciples, go your way and tell John the things that you have seen and heard, how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised to life, and to the poor the gospel is preached. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. Rather than just answering John directly, saying, yes, I'm the one you were looking for. He, in that same hour, ministered to the people, opening deaf ears, opening blind eyes, and preaching the gospel to the poor. He was doing the works that Isaiah said the Messiah would do. Now he just declares, go and tell John what you've seen. John knows the scriptures, he'll know that I am the one that you were looking for. The good tidings that Jesus was proclaiming to the meek was that God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever would believe in him would not perish, but have everlasting life. That God didn't send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And Jesus was preaching the good news of the possibility of salvation to the meek. The world in which we live today is on a fast track to hell. Sin is being exalted and lauded through the media. Terrorism has become one of the greatest threats to mankind today. Our minds cannot conceive how a person or persons could deliberately take over jet aircraft with innocent citizens on board, deliberately fly these aircraft into the Twin Towers of New York, destroying thousands of lives. In my wildest imagination, I cannot imagine the mindset of a person that could perpetrate such an atrocious act. I cannot with my wildest imagination understand how a person could kidnap innocent people and deliberately behead them, who can blow themselves up on buses with explosive belts filled with bolts and nuts and screws that are designed to inflict the greatest amount of injuries and deaths upon those that are in the bus. What kind of religion can turn people into such inhuman monsters? I can tell you for sure, I want nothing to do with that kind of religion. I prefer the words of Jesus who said, allow the little children to come unto me, don't forbid them, of such is the kingdom of heaven. And as he took them into his arms and blessed them, I cannot imagine how they could take over a school with little children excited on their first day of school to arrive there and to find that the school has been taken over by these terrorists. The children are commanded to lie on the floor and should they begin to whimper, they were shot through the head. I cannot imagine how a person could do that. What are the answers to these kind of problems that we face in our world today? To be sure, no one knows the answers. It was discovered that the two girls who boarded the Russian airliners and blew themselves up on those airliners had bribed their way through the security guards. Given the security guards, I think it was $37 to let them board those planes without going through security. And thus, those who received the bribes are culpable for the destruction of the people as well as the two girls. But what is the mindset of a person that could do those things? We are in the days that Jesus prophesied would precede his coming again to the world. He said nations would have distress and there would be no answers, no way out. And it seems like we are in that time of distress of nations with no answers. But the gospel, the good news that Jesus proclaimed was that there is a better day that is coming. There is coming a day when Jesus will reign and that the world will be filled with peace like a river. Righteousness will cover the earth as waters do cover the seas. It'll be a time in which every man will sit beneath his own vine and fig tree and will not be afraid, the day that we long for. The second purpose of the coming of the Messiah would be to bind up the broken hearts. There are so many people in the world today with broken hearts. I dare say that if we would take a survey of the congregation this morning, we would find that a great number of you are sitting here today with broken hearts. A marriage has gone sour. Your wife or your husband has forsaken you. A loved one has died. A friend has turned against you. You've been left stunned and confused and your heart is broken. One of the most common ailments that we have to deal with in counseling people are counseling those with broken hearts. Those whose worlds it seems are falling apart. We experience physical pain in life, but we've learned how to cope with physical pain. If we have a headache, we'll take an aspirin. Or if we have some kind of pain at night, we'll take an aspirin, go to sleep and figure, well, in the morning I should be feeling better. But there are no pills for heartaches. We can't just easily get over a heartache. Many people turn to drink. They try to drown their sorrows by an altered state of consciousness, but that doesn't cure the problem. In fact, it just creates secondary problems that are as bad as the initial problem that drove them to drink. But Jesus came to bind up the brokenhearted. He assures you that he will never leave you or forsake you. Shakespeare once wrote, Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds. Many times we meet people and there are certain characteristics about them which we admire. And we think, oh, they're such wonderful people. I would like to be their friend. I'd like to get close to them and know them. It seems like they would be great companionship. And we sort of fantasize over the good times that we could have together. But then as we get to know them better, we find out that they're not as kind as we had thought they were. They're really rather crude. And all of a sudden, we don't want to be around them. And we seek to avoid them because now we know the truth about them. And we say, oh, I can't stand them. Well, it wasn't true love to begin with. For love is not altered when it alteration finds. I find that they're not all that I thought they were. And so I no longer have that love that I once avowed that I did have for them. There are some people who are fearful because they have been rejected. They're fearful about letting people get too close to them. Because when they've opened the door to intimacy, they find that the people have left them. Now, Jesus came to bind up the broken hearts, the heart that's broken over a bad relationship or a broken relationship. But you don't have to worry about Jesus forsaking you. Because he loves you with a true love. And he knows how nasty and mean and rotten you really are. So when you display that part of your nature, he doesn't say, oh, I'm getting out of here. I didn't realize they were like, he knows you completely. And yet he said, I will never leave you or forsake you. You don't have to worry about the Lord forsaking you when he knows you as he does. God understands your sorrows. He sees your falling tear. He whispers, I am with you. Sorrow not nor fear. God understands your sorrows. Your deepest pain he bears. So let us cast our burdens upon him because he understands. He cares. Jesus will bind your broken heart today. Next, we read concerning the Messiah that he came to proclaim liberty to the captives and to open the prison doors to those that are bound. For the most part, the world around you today is being held captive by sin. Sin usually begins with a curious thought. I wonder what it's like to take a drink. I wonder what it's like to get drunk. I wonder what it's like to have illicit sex. I wonder what it's like to get high on drugs. And those thoughts are sort of incubated in our minds. We begin to fantasize as we hear other people talking about their various escapades. And our curiosity will often lead us then to the place where we say, maybe I'll try it once just to see. The Bible tells us that lust, when it is conceived, brings sin. And when we take that step and we try it once, we discover that we have made a tragic mistake because in trying it, we have lost a part of our defenses so that it is much easier to do it the second time than it was the first time. It is easier to do it the third time than it is the second. And you continue doing it until you come to the place where one day you do it not because of the kick or the thrill that you get out of doing it, but you do it because you can't stop doing it. You're under the bondage of sin. Jesus came to set free people who have become bound by sin. David prayed, keep your servant from presumptuous sins, let them not have dominion over me. And so many people, sin has dominion over their lives. But Jesus came to proclaim liberty to the captives. Talk about good news. The glorious message of the gospel is though you have been bound by sin, though you are chained by the habits of lust, Jesus came to break those chains. He came to open the prison doors. He came to set you free from the power of sin that holds the world tight in its grip. As we sang this morning, the words of Charles Wesley, brother of John Wesley, he breaks the power of canceled sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest clean. His blood availed for me. Jesus said, if the son set you free, you are free indeed. Finally, he came to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. As Paul was writing to the Corinthians, his second letter there in chapter six, he said, I have heard you in a time accepted and in the day of salvation, I helped you behold. Now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. He came to proclaim that now is the time for you to receive God's offer of forgiveness. Now is the time for you to receive God's power over that sin that is blighting your life. But God's spirit will not always strive with man. And thus the emphasis is now is the accepted time. Don't put it off because it is possible in putting it off. You could put it off once too often as many people have done. Someday you'll hear God's final call to you to accept his offer of salvation. True. And this could be it, my friend, if you but knew God's final call to you. Just two weeks ago in Isaiah chapter 55, which we were reading at that time, we read, seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man, his thoughts and let him turn to the Lord. He will have mercy upon him and to our God, and he will abundantly pardon. Now is the accepted time. Call upon him while he is near to believe in Jesus Christ as the son of God, to believe that he died for your sins and to commit your life to his Lordship is the most important decision that you will ever make in your entire life. It's a decision you don't want to put off until some later time. Paul tells us that, or Luke tells us in Acts concerning Paul, he was talking to the Roman governor Felix. He was talking to him about righteousness, about temperance, and about the judgment to come. Felix, who was a very intemperate man, as Paul was giving him the scriptures, he began to shake with conviction from the Holy Spirit. And as God was really dealing heavy with his heart, he said, go away now, Paul, I'll talk to you at a more convenient time. And he dismissed Paul. And there are many people that make that same tragic mistake as did Felix, the governor, in that they put off their decision. A more convenient time. Not now. Unfortunately for Felix, that more convenient time never came. Shortly thereafter, he was deposed from his position and was exiled from the land. Not too many days later, Paul was speaking to King Agrippa. And as Paul was sharing the truths of God to King Agrippa, talking to him about Jesus Christ, Agrippa said to him, you almost persuade me to become a Christian. Almost persuaded. Persuaded. Paul said, oh, I would to God that you were not just almost, but you were persuaded. That you were just like me, except I wouldn't want you to have these chains that I'm wearing. A more convenient time, almost persuaded. Tragic words uttered by people who now are separated forever from God because they didn't accept in God's accepted time for them. This could be it. God's accepted time for you. That you're not here by accident this morning. That you're here by God's predetermined counsel. That this is the opportunity, this is the day that God has set for you to receive or to reject once and for all the claims of Jesus Christ and the gospel that he preached. Almost persuaded now to believe. Almost persuaded Christ to receive. Seems now some soul to say, go spirit, go thy way. Some more convenient day on thee I'll call. But as Jesus taught, now is the day. Now is the accepted time. Let's pray. Father, how thankful we are for the ministry of Jesus. Proclaiming the good news of salvation, forgiveness of sins, eternity in your kingdom. How we thank you, Lord, for healing the broken hearts. How we thank you, Lord, for setting the captive free. Free. We ask, Father, that in this time, in this hour, those here bound by sin will find the freedom that they can know through Jesus Christ. You'll break the chains, Lord, that have bound them to those habits that are destroying them. We ask you, Lord, to set at liberty those that have been captive by their sin, held in the power of sin, can't get free from the things they're doing, though they know they are wrong and know they're destroying them, yet bound. Lord, set them free today. Let the message, Lord, the good news, strike a responsive cord in their heart, that they might respond this day and receive, Lord, the forgiveness of sins, the deliverance from the power of sin, and the glorious hope of eternal life with you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Shall we stand? The pastors are standing here at the front of the auditorium. They're here to pray for you today. Maybe you're here with a broken heart. The Lord wants to heal it. He wants to bind it up. Maybe you're here today and there is a sin in your life that is destroying you, destroying your family, destroying things that are worthwhile, but you can't seem to stop. They're here to pray with you that you might find that power of Jesus Christ that can set you free today, deliver you from those destructive habits that destroy you. So I would encourage you, as soon as we're dismissed, don't just leave, but first of all receive the work of God's love and spirit in your life. Find the power of Jesus Christ to set you free from sin, the healing balm of Jesus Christ to heal your broken heart today, that you can go from here rejoicing in the newfound power and in the new love that you now have in Christ Jesus. May the Lord be with you and watch over and keep you in his love and cause you to grow and to prosper in the things of the spirit in Jesus' name.