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A SAVIOR FOR THE CAPTIVES
BIBLE
TEXT – READ (LUKE
From this portion of
scripture, in the Bible, the Word of God, we learn that there was a particular
day and time when the Lord Jesus Christ returned to
These two simple actions
by Christ are very significant AND FULL OF MEANING FOR EVERY PERSON BORN INTO
THIS WORLD. “HE OPENED THE BOOK”. “HE CLOSED THE BOOK”. Dear reader, have you ever considered
that there is a creator God and that He loves YOU? If not, these two simple actions by Christ
demonstrate this. By his act of opening
the book and reading the portion He read and closing the book and not reading
the remaining portion of verse 2 he has demonstrated God’s loving-kindness,
God’s longsuffering and God’s grace and mercy to rebel sinners. This will become evident as we consider this
portion of scripture. Five particular people problems or
afflictions are mentioned here in (Luke 4).
From this passage of scripture we learn there is someone who has the
answer. There is someone who has the
solution for your every need. Jesus
Christ is Himself, the answer, the solution, to your every affliction if only
you will come to Him. He alone is able
to completely resolve these five people problems because of who He is and
because of what He has done when, (1 Peter 3:18) “He
suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to
God”.
By way of outline and in
five separate messages we will consider the following from this portion of the
Word of God (Luke 4:16-22):
1.
The Substance of the Savior’s Message (verse’s
16-18)
·
A Savior for the POOR.(verse 18a)
·
A Savior for the BROKEN HEARTED.(verse 18b)
·
A Savior for the CAPTIVES.(verse 18c)
·
A Savior for the BLIND.(verse 18d)
·
A Savior for the BURDENED.(verse 18e)
2. The
Opportunity from the Savior’s Message (verse 19)
3. The
Warning from the Savior’s Message (verse 20)
4. The
Reaction to the Savior’s Message (verse’s 22, 28)
IN THIS MESSAGE WE WANT TO FOCUS ON “A SAVIOR FOR
THE CAPTIVES”, A SAVIOR FOR THOSE WHO ARE “SHACKLED BY SIN”, THOSE WHO ARE
BOUND WITH THE “ROPES OF RELIGION”, AND THOSE WHO ARE HELD WITH THE “MANACLES
OF MORALITY”. Notice first of all;
The Substance of the Savior’s Message
The Lord Jesus said in, (Luke 4:18) “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he
hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the
brokenhearted, TO PREACH DELIVERANCE TO THE CAPTIVES”. The dictionary defines a captive as
one who is caught and held prisoner or held in bondage. The captive is a person who is not able to
act independently. Would YOU consider
yourself as one who is a captive? Most
people would not. The captives of whom
the Lord Jesus was speaking are not
those who have visible chains clanking on their hands and feet. He was not speaking of captives who are
incarcerated behind bars. The Lord was
speaking about a captor which people have not seen and of a captivity which
people are not aware. The captor is
Satan, the devil, and the hosts of his captives, at this very time, are
multiplied millions on the face of the earth.
Many refuse to believe he exists, but God, in His Word, says he is
real. He does exist and he is the enemy
of God and man. He is called in (2 Corinthians 4:4) “The god of this world”. He is called in, (Ephesians 2:2) “The prince of the power of the air”. Peter, in his epistle, warned
regarding the devil, (1 Peter 5:8) “Be sober, be
vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about,
seeking whom he may devour”. Dear
reader, if you are not saved, Satan is your captor and he is holding you in
captivity. Speaking of him, the prophet
Isaiah said in, (Isaiah 14:16, 17) “Is this the man
(Satan) that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; That made the world as a wilderness, and
destroyed the cities thereof: AND OPENED NOT THE HOUSE OF HIS PRISONERS? (i.e.,
DID NOT LET HIS PRISONERS LOOSE HOMEWARD)”.
Yes, he has prisoners, multitudes of them and if you have never
been saved, “born again” by the Spirit of God, you are still Satan’s
prisoner. You might wonder why is it
that you are Satan’s prisoner if you remain unsaved. I would suggest three possible reasons, among
many. You are Satan’s prisoner because
of:
1.
THE
SHACKLES OF SIN
You
will not hear or read much about the word “sin” in today’s contemporary news
media. Society today avoids the use of
the word “sin” in favor of many other nicer sounding words that will not offend
the hearers. I recently heard a news
reporter describe a sexual infidelity committed by a high ranking public
official as “an unfortunate situation”.
The Bible has much to say about sin and the sinful condition of
mankind. It is YOUR SIN that keeps you
alienated from God because it says in, (Isaiah 59:2)
“Your iniquities have separated between you and your God”. The Biblical concept of sin is a wrong
relationship with God. Anything in
thought, word, or action, which disturbs man’s relationship with God, is
sin. The basic meaning of the term for
sin is to “fall short”, or to “miss the mark”.
Sin is also expressed as man turning aside or deviating from the correct
path. It says in, (Isaiah 53:6) “All
we like sheep have gone astray; we have
turned everyone to his own way”. Notice dear reader, God says “all”. There are no exceptions and no
exclusions. Sin is universal because
regardless of background, education, and guidance, we are reminded everyday how
true God’s Word is when it says, (Psalm 14:1) “There is
none that doeth good”. (1Kings 8:46)
“For there is no man that sinneth not”.
(Ecclesiastes 7:20) “There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth
good, and sinneth not”. (Romans 3:12)
“They are ALL gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there
is none that doeth good, no, not one”. God
has a “word portrait” of the natural man in, ((Romans
3:9-23) “Jews and Gentiles, they are all under sin”. “There is none righteous no not one”. “There is none that understandeth, there is
none that seeketh after God”. “For all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God”. Dear reader, have YOU taken your place
as a guilty sinner before a holy God?
Have YOU ever acknowledged before God that you are a helpless, hopeless,
hell-deserving sinner that needs God’s salvation? Have YOU repented of your sins? There is no way to obtain forgiveness for
sins other than by repentance.
Repentance is not salvation but it is a precursor to salvation. “Repentance” is a change of mind with regard
to sins. It is a change of mind about
sinful deeds that brings them to an immediate end. The Lord Jesus Christ stressed the absolute
necessity of repentance when He said in, (Luke 13:3)
“Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish”. God commands you to repent of your
sins. (Acts 17:30) “God, now commandeth all men
everywhere to repent”. God’s way
of salvation is stated in (Acts 20:21) when the sinner shows, “Repentance towards God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus
Christ”. No sinner can enter
heaven unless his sins have been forgiven.
If you have committed one sin, you are a sinner, and as a guilty sinner
you need to be saved. Regarding any who
remain unsaved the hymn writer wrote;
“Sunk in
ruin, sin and misery,
Bound by
Satan’s captive chain,
Guided
by his artful treachery,
Hurrying
on to endless pain”
2.
THE ROPES
OF RELIGION
Here
is another way that Satan binds his captives, with the “ropes of
religion”. Are YOU a “religious
person”? Are you depending on your
religion to get you to heaven? Are you
depending on your priest, your rabbi, or your pastor to get you to heaven? Are you depending on your church with its
religious ceremonies to get you to heaven?
Nowhere in the Bible do we read that all religious people will go to
heaven. It is not religion that you need
but redemption; the redemption provided when Christ died on the cross and shed
His precious blood. Peter wrote of this
when he said to believers in, (1 Peter 1:18, 19) we
are redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, as of
a lamb without blemish and without spot”.
The Lord Jesus Christ paid the necessary redemption price to free
the sinner by the shedding of His precious blood on Calvary’s cross. May be you have been baptized as a child and
you are depending on this to get you to heaven.
There is no such thing as “baptismal regeneration”. It is not found in scripture. Baptism has no saving merit. Baptism, as taught in God’s Word, is to be
observed by those who have been saved by exercising faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. “Religion” is often put on a pedestal and
worshipped instead of Christ. There are
many who are content with an outward show of religion and religious observances
who know nothing of heart faith in Christ.
Are the “ropes of religion” holding YOU captive?
3.
THE
MANACLES OF MORALITY
Dear
reader may be YOU fall into this category.
You are Satan’s captive, bound with the “manacles of morality”. Please do not misunderstand, morality and
self respect, being a good neighbor, decency and respectability are qualities
we can all admire and praise. There are
many fine people, upright citizens whose lives outwardly are without
reproach. They do everything in
moderation. They make good friends; they
make nice company, and the best of neighbors.
You might wonder how these good things can be likened to manacles that
hold a prisoner captive. The danger
comes when these fine people present their moral goodness to God with the
expectation that somehow, He will balance this against their sins and at the
last, let them into heaven. There are
many who believe that their respectable lives and so called “good works” will
at last get them to heaven. Dear reader,
this is not found in the Bible, the Word of God. On the contrary, God says in His Word, (Psalm 14:1) “There is none that doeth good”. He says in, (Romans
8:8) “They that are in the flesh cannot please God”. God also says in His Word, (Isaiah 64:6) “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all
our righteous nesses are as filthy rags”.
The “righteousness of man” can never meet God’s standard of
required righteousness and can never earn God’s salvation. To repeat what we said previously, (Romans 3:10) “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NO, NOT ONE”. In order to be saved you must have
God’s righteousness imputed to you by putting your faith and trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ. It says in, (Romans 3:28) “A man is justified (declared/reckoned
righteous by God) by faith”.
Being religious or moral
will never get you to heaven. As far as
God is concerned you are, “dead in trespasses and
sins”. (Ephesians 2:1). Sin is
in mans nature and the evidence of a sinful nature is the manifestation of sins
in the life. God says in His Word that, “ALL the world (are) guilty before God” (i.e. subject
to the judgment of God). (Romans 3:19). Furthermore, sin has consequences
and pays wages because God says in His Word, (Romans
6:23) “The wages of sin is death”. He
also says in His Word, (James 1:15) “Sin when it is
finished, bringeth forth death”. Following
physical death is the judgment of God because we read in, (Hebrews 9:27) “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment”. Notice there is an “after life”. Sooner or later
YOU will stand before God as Judge.
Think of what it will mean to die in your sins and to stand, in all your
sins, before the Great White Throne (Revelation 20:11). Everything you have ever done or said in your
life is recorded in God’s books in heaven.
It is the place where every unbeliever will be judged according to their
works and then be confined for all eternity in the dreadful flames of hell in
that place called the “lake of fire”.
Dear reader, we urge you to “flee from the wrath to come”. God has no pleasure in the death of the
wicked. He says so in His Word. (Ezekiel 33:11) “As I
live saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked: but
that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil
ways; for why will ye die”. This
leads us to our second point we want to consider:
The
Opportunity from the Savior’s Message (verse 19)
We read that the Lord
Jesus said He came, (Luke 4:19) “To preach the
acceptable year of the Lord”. From these words the Savior would have us
understand that He was announcing, now
is the time when God will be gracious to sinners. Now
is the time when a welcome for sinners is offered. Now
is the time when every person can find acceptance with God. It has been two thousand years since the
cross of Calvary and this period is called the “dispensation of God’s
grace”. This is the time when God will
be gracious and receive sinners who come in God’s way for salvation. Will YOU take advantage of this opportunity
while you can and call upon the Lord for salvation? It says in, (Romans
10:13) “For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved”. YOU
have an opportunity to be saved because as it says in, (John
3:16) “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. God can offer salvation to you in
these days of grace because the Son of God left His eternal home in Heaven and
came into this “valley of the shadow of death” in order to provide salvation
for poor, helpless, hopeless sinners. We
read of the purpose of His coming in, (1 Timothy 1:15)
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”. The Word of God tells us, (Galatians 4:4) “When the fullness of the time was come, God
sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law”. Scripture tells us “unto us a child was born unto us a Son was given”. The Son of God was incarnated. Deity took on humanity. The Son of God became the Son of man. It says in, (1
Timothy 3:16) “Great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the
flesh”. We are told in, (Philippians 2:5-7) though He eternally existed “in the form of God, He thought it not robbery to be equal
with God: But, made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a
servant, and was made in the likeness of men”. The Lord Jesus could say,
(Luke 4:18) “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because
he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal
the brokenhearted”, TO PREACH DELIVERANCE TO THE CAPTIVES”. There is deliverance for every captive
who wants to be set free from Satan and from their sin. The question is, “do you want to be set
free”? Are YOU willing to be set free? There is far too many who want to “enjoy the
pleasures of sin for a season”. There
are many who want to continue on in their self satisfied morality thinking they
are too good to miss heaven. But, the
Bible says, YOU can only be saved by believing in and receiving the Lord Jesus
Christ as your own personal Savior. (Acts 4:12) “Neither is there salvation in any other: for
there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved”.
Christ, Himself, was
“bound as a prisoner” when they came and took Him from the Garden of Gethsemane
and when they delivered Him over to Pilate where a mock trial was held. It says in, (Isaiah
53:8) “HE WAS TAKEN FROM PRISON”. He
was then taken out to the place called Calvary and there they crucified
Him. For three daylight hours they
mocked and ridiculed the Savior and called upon Him to come down from the cross
to prove He was the Son of God and to prove He was the King of Israel. Then, suddenly, midday was turned to midnight
when a supernatural darkness came over all the land. In those three dark hours He went under the
wrath and judgment of a Holy God as He was bearing our sins in His own body on
the tree. It was then He “bore our griefs and
carried our sorrows”. It was
then, (Isaiah 53:10) “It pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief”. This would speak of His personal
grief, the sorrow and suffering inflicted upon Him when God laid His stroke of
judgment upon Him for our sin. We need
to remember that Christ was not obligated to go through all this except that,
in marvelous grace, He obligated Himself to be our Savior. We read in, (Philippians
2:8) “And being found in fashion as a man, he
humbled himself, and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross”.
For us death is an unavoidable necessity. For the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, death
was an act of obedience. The Savior’s death on the cross was therefore a voluntary act because He said, (John 10:17, 18) “I lay down my life, that I might take it
again. No man taketh it from me, but I
lay it down of myself. I have power to
lay it down, and I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my Father”. The Lord Jesus was under no compulsion
to die. He laid down His life as a
voluntary sacrifice. We read in, (Hebrews 9:26) “Once in the end of the ages he appeared to
put away sin by the sacrifice of himself”.
The Savior’s death on the cross was not only voluntary it was vicarious.
That is, He died for you and me.
We read that He came to “give His life a ransom for many”. When He died
on the cross He stood in man’s place.
“Ransom” speaks of the life of Christ given up in death. The giving up of His life and the shedding of
His precious blood was the ransom price paid for the deliverance of all who
will accept it by faith. He died for
sins but not His own for He was holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from
sinners.
The Lord Jesus not only
laid down His life, He took it back again.
This is the Gospel message, God’s good news. (1 Corinthians 15:3,
4) “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; He was buried, and He rose again the third day according to
the scriptures”. The
resurrection of Jesus Christ is proof that all the righteous demands of a holy
God have been perfectly met and satisfied through the sacrificial death of
Christ on the cross. Dear reader let me
ask you, do YOU believe in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ? God says if you do you can be saved. We read in, (Romans
10:9, 10) “that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus (Jesus as
Lord) and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved’. “For with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”. There are many who refuse to believe
in Him or His resurrection from the tomb.
For those who reject God’s offer of mercy and free gift of salvation
there is a warning. This leads us to;
The Warning from the Savior’s Message (verse 20)
It says in, (Luke 4:20) “HE CLOSED
THE BOOK”. Thank God He
closed the book and did not read the words, “and the day
of vengeance of our God”. How
gracious, merciful and longsuffering God is.
God’s day of vengeance and wrath is postponed until He opens the book in
heaven which is recorded in Revelation, chapters 5 and 6. Now is not
the day of God’s vengeance but as we read in, (1
Corinthians 6:2) “Now is the accepted
time; behold now is the day of salvation”.
This “day of salvation” is fast coming to and end therefore there
is an urgency about getting saved and getting right with God. The day of God’s vengeance is fast
approaching and will soon break out upon this world. God says in His Word, (Romans 12:19) “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” We read in, (Acts
17:30, 31) “God ...now commandeth all
men every where to repent: Because He hath appointed a day, in the which He
will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained;
whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from
the dead”. The day of God’s wrath
and vengeance has already been appointed and it will occur when Christ
returns. We read in, (2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8) “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed
from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ”. Have YOU obeyed the gospel? Do YOU believe the gospel message? There is urgency about getting saved because
you are only a breath away from eternity.
If that “enemy”, death, comes it will be too late. Life is brief at best and life is
uncertain. We read in, (James 4:14) “Ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor (a puff of smoke) that
appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away”.
The Reaction to the Savior’s Message (verse’s 22,
28)
There were two reactions to the Saviors message
that day. It says in, (Luke 4:22) “And all bare Him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which
proceeded out of His mouth”. The
other reaction is recorded in, (verse 28) “All they in
the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath”.
What is YOUR reaction to reading or hearing the gospel
message? Are YOU filled with “wonder” or
are YOU filled with “wrath”? YOUR
reaction to the gospel message will determine YOUR eternal destiny. Will YOU believe God’s Word? It says in, (John
3:36) “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that
believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him”.
Dear reader, are YOU
among the many in this world who are being held captive by “Satan’s captive
chain”? It may be after reading this
message you are now aware that you are being held by “the shackles of sin” or
the “ropes of religion” or the “manacles of morality”. Listen again to what the Lord Jesus Christ
said, (Luke 4:18) “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he hath anointed me to PREACH DELIVERANCE TO THE CAPTIVES”. He alone is able to save you, to
deliver you. HE IS THE GREAT
DELIVERER. It says of Him in, (Psalm 146:7, 8) “THE LORD LOOSETH THE PRISONERS”. He can set you free no matter how dark
and dreadful your sin. Stop trusting in
your religion and yourself proclaimed morality.
What you need for heaven is Christ.
He alone can set you free. It
says in, (John 8:36) “If the Son therefore shall make
you free, ye shall be free indeed”. Will YOU believe in Him? Will YOU receive Him into your heart and life
just now? He wants to save you. He says in, (Revelation
3:20) “Behold I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hears my voice, and
opens the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with
me”. He is knocking at the “door
of your heart”. You have to open that
door and in simple believing faith let Him in.
You may not understand this but we urge you to take God at His Word and
trust God to save you and set you free from Satan’s captivity. If you do you
will be able to say like the hymn writer:
‘My chains are snapt; the bonds of
sin are broken,
And I am free;
Oh, let the triumphs of His grace
be spoken
Who died for me!
In closing let me remind you that you are
traveling the “HIGHWAY OF LIFE”, passing through time on the way to
eternity. There are only two
destinations before you. You will spend
eternity in one of these two destinations.
It will be either heaven or hell.
Now that you have read this message you have come to a “crossroads” in
your earthly journey. A decision has to
be made. Which way will you go? Will you continue to willfully neglect and
reject God’s free gift of salvation or will you believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and receive Him as your Lord and Savior?
The SOURCE of salvation and freedom is found in a Person: Jesus, the Son
of God. To receive Him is to receive
deliverance from sin’s penalty and sin’s power.
The Bible says in, (1 John 5:12) “He that hath
the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life”. If YOU do not get saved it will not be
because God does not love you or God’s Son did not die for you but it will be because
you have refused God’s offer of salvation.
It is not God’s desire that you perish in your sins. God says in, (Ezekiel
18:23) “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? Saith the Lord God; and not that he should
return from his ways and live?” It
says in the Word of God, (1 Timothy 2:3, 4) “God our
savior, who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of
the truth”. It says also in, (2 Peter 3:9) “The Lord is not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance”. God is not willing that you perish in
your sins. The question is, are YOU
willing to be saved?
Please give this matter your most serious
attention. Your eternal destiny depends
on your decision. Remember that “no
decision” is really a decision and it is the wrong decision. Hell is filled with procrastinators and God
warns in His Word, (2 Corinthians 6:2) “Behold, NOW is
the accepted time; behold. NOW IS THE DAY OF SALVATION”.
Christian Messenger