Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1369
Delivered on Lord’s Day Morning, August 12, 1877
“To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn.” Isaiah 61:2.
We know that this Scripture speaks concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. We don’t say this as if we relied upon our own opinion. We know it, for sure, from the Lord’s own lips, for, reading this passage in the synagogue at Nazareth, He said, “This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.” It is Jesus of Nazareth whom the Lord has anointed to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind! And our text tells us that He was, also, sent to make a proclamation which should usher in the year of acceptance and the day of vengeance. Notice well the expression, “to proclaim,” because a proclamation is the message of a king—and where the word of a king is, there is power.
The Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to announce the will of the King of kings. He says, “I am come in My Father’s name,” and again, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me.” Every word of the Gospel is backed by the authority of “the King eternal, immortal, invisible,” and He who rejects it is guilty of treason against Jehovah, God of All. The Gospel is not of the nature of a commonplace invitation or human exhortation which may be accepted or refused at will without involving guilt—it is a Divine proclamation, issued from the Throne of the Eternal—which none can reject without becoming, thereby, rebels against the Infinite Majesty.
Now if this is so, let us give the Divine edict our most earnest attention and take heed what we hear! When a proclamation is issued by the head of a state, all good citizens gather around to read what has been said to them and to know what the supreme law may be. And so, when God proclaims His will, all right-hearted men desire to know what it is and what bearing it has upon them—what the Lord demands or what the Lord promises and what is their share therein. Beloved Hearers, listening to the Gospel should always be very solemn work since it is listening to the Word of God! Though the voice is that of man, yet the Truth he preaches is of God. I pray you do not trifle with it.
Nor let it be forgotten that a proclamation must be treated with profound respect, not merely by receiving attention to its contents, but by giving obedience to its demands! God does not speak to us by His Son that we may be gratified by hearing the sound of His voice, but that we may yield to His will. We are not to be hearers only, but doers of the Word. We should be quick in obedience to the command of the proclamation, swift in acceptance of its promise and cheerful in submission to its demands! Who shall resist the proclamations of Jehovah? Is He not our Creator and King? Who is stubborn enough to refuse obedience? Or who has a bronze face enough to dispute His sway?
Shall not He who made Heaven and earth, and shakes them when He pleases—and will destroy them at His pleasure—be regarded with reverential awe by the creatures of His hands? O Son of God, since it is a Divine proclamation which You do publish, send forth Your Holy Spirit that we may receive it with deepest reverence and lowly obedience, lest, through our neglect, we do despite to You as well as to Your Father! When a proclamation is not made by an ordinary herald, but when the Prince, Himself, comes forth to declare His Father’s will, then should all hearts be moved to sevenfold attention! It is the Son of God, anointed by the Spirit of God, who acts as herald to us and so by each Person of the Divine Trinity we are called upon to bow a listening ear and an obedient heart to what the Lord proclaims. Attention, then! The Messenger of the Covenant makes proclamation! Attention for the King of kings!
With this as a preface, let me notice that there are three points in the proclamation worthy of our attention. The first is the acceptable year. The next, the vengeance day. And the third, the comfort derived from both—“to comfort all that mourn.”
I. Jesus, in the first place, proclaims the acceptable year of the Lord. Take the expression to pieces and it comes to this—the year of the Lord and the year of acceptance. Now, what was the year of the Lord? There can be, I think, very
little question that this relates to the Jubilee Year. Every 7th year was the Lord’s year and it was to be a Sabbath of rest to the land. But the seventh 7th year, the 50th year, which the Lord reserved unto Himself, was in a very marked and special sense the Year of the Lord.
Now, our Lord Jesus has come to proclaim a period of Jubilee to the true seed of Israel. The seed of Abraham, now, are not the seed according to the Law, but those who are born after the promise. There are privileges reserved for Israel after the flesh which they will yet receive in the day when they shall acknowledge Christ to be the Messiah. But every great blessing which was promised to Abraham’s seed after the flesh is now virtually promised to Israel after the Spirit— to those who, by faith, are the children of believing Abraham.