We're beginning the 14th chapter
of Luke today. And if you recall in our last lesson,
it was a couple weeks ago when we met, the Lord had been approached
by some Pharisees and they said, Herod wants to kill you, so you
better get out of town. And so he dealt with them. So now we're into chapter 14. And it came to pass there in
Luke 14. And it came to pass as he went
into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread,
on the Sabbath day that they watched him. And behold, there
was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. And Jesus
answering, spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it
lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? And they held their peace,
and he took him and healed him and let him go, and answering
them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fall into
a pit, and will not straightaway pull him out on the seventh day?
And they could not answer him again to these things. So it's
interesting that he answers some unasked questions here. He knows
their thoughts are far off, and he gives a reply to what he knows
is in their minds and in their hearts. And as we begin this
lesson, I kind of started off kind of on a different train
of thought about looking at this from the man that had the dropsy,
which is nowadays we call that edema, where you're all your
capillaries leak fluid into your surrounding tissues and it's
caused by congestive heart failure and so you have all this swelling
around your extremities and hands and ankles and legs and feet
and it's a terrible disease. Kind of one of the main things
that can cause that's congestive heart failure. And there's other
organs that can cause it, but that seems to be like the main
one. But as I was going into this, I just couldn't get past,
and it came to pass. It's such a powerful statement
there. And as I was mentioning to Norm this morning, that phrase
is used 132 times in just the book of Luke. It's just like
132 times. And it came to pass, and it came
to pass, and it came to pass. So I wanted to look at that because
it's such a strong statement about God. And so we wanted to look at that. And it's always important that
we try to catch hold of why was this written for the church?
Why was this recorded? What's the value to the church
in this? And boy, it just tells us so
much about the redemption of the church here. There's these circumstances that
we looked at that seem to be incidental to this, but they're
really because of it came to pass. And it was a Sabbath day,
a day to pause and consider, a day free from our works. And Hebrews chapter 4 says, he
that enters into the Lord's rest, the Lord's Sabbath, has ceased
from his own works and is depending totally on the finished work
of Christ. That's that hymn kind of intimated that we sang a little
while ago. The works are finished before
the foundation of the world. It tells us in Hebrews chapter
4. It's a day to pause and thank
God for His work in our behalf, for His finished work. And of
course, secondly, the Lord went to the home of this Pharisees
and this chief Pharisee. And as we go on down through
the rest of this block here, not the part we're in today,
but the next section where he delves into parables, he talks
about those that were bidden to these feasts. And so we apply
that backwards to this, those that were bidden to this, this
dinner at this Pharisee's house and we find there was Pharisees,
there was lawyers, and there was this man that had this terrible
edema issue, this dropsy it's called. And so now we come to this opening
words, it came to pass, and you know we look at that word and
as it's translated in various applications, and sometimes it's
translated when it was, like in Matthew 14, 15 it says, and
when it was evening. It indicates something that became,
it became evening. Sometimes it describes, sometimes
it's translated be, and it describes an existing condition or something
that's being caused to exist. But the most times, it's just
translated, it came to pass. And it's something, it's almost
always related to the Lord, to God. And it describes something
resulting or caused by sovereign foreordination, purpose, decree,
appointment. And that's the most time that
that application is used. And it came to pass presupposes
an activity or a purpose of God which then had results according
to that purpose and activity. You know, in religion a lot of
times they like to say, well, God looked down into His crystal
ball and He saw who would believe, and then He predestinated them,
or then He did this, or then He did that. But when He looked
down into His crystal ball, you know what He saw? sinners that
needed to be saved by grace. He saw nobody that would seek
God. He saw nobody that would understand. He saw nobody that
would come to him. He said, how often would I have
gathered you, and you would not. And so we find that Their idea of things is exactly
the opposite of the way that things actually occur. I was looking through this, and
it reminded me of back in December of 2021, last year, Norm brought
this message from Zechariah 8, verse 20. The message there was,
it shall come to pass. And everything that God said
shall come to pass comes to pass. It either has come to pass already,
or it's in the process of coming to pass, or it will come to pass. It says, I can't emphasize how
strongly enough that word, when God Almighty says something shall
happen, that it's not up to anything but it shall, it shall happen. And everything that he said shall
come to pass will absolutely come to pass. And I mentioned
to Norma, I think that that phrase is used 126 times in the Old
Testament. And we just see so much of it
in the Gospels here. And it came to pass, and it came
to pass, and it came to pass. We're going to look at some examples
of that. We're going to look at the principle behind God's purpose
and God's will, and His causation and the results of that, because
it's so important that we have an understanding of that as we
go through the Scriptures, because it sheds so much light on what's
going on. He's going to this dinner, and
it's not just by random chance that He's going to have supper
with His Pharisee. It's not by random chance that
this man is there with a terrible disease of the heart. It's not
by random chance that he gives answer to these that didn't verbally
ask a question. It's not by random chance that
he healed that man on the spot. None of this is by random chance.
It's all by the determinate counsel and will of God that all these
things come to play. So we're going to look at some
things that bring that to our attention. You know, two examples
that invoke this phrase, it shall come to pass, that we'll look
at from the Old Testament. We could look at 126 of them
if we wanted to. We're just limited on time here,
so we're just going to look at a few here. Joel 2, verse 32. And boy, as Norm and I were talking
about this this morning in the office, and we were saying, it's
so important to look at the context of what's being discussed here
and what's written for our admonition, what's written for our edification,
because it makes you understand what God is doing and what has
transpired in Joel 2, verse 32. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever, and he's referring to Jews or Gentiles here, whosoever,
doesn't matter if they're a Jew or a Gentile, whosoever Jew or
Gentile shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
shall be deliverance. as the Lord has said, and in
the remnant whom the Lord shall call." And we find that applied
in Romans chapter 10, verse 13, where Paul, he looks, he applies
this and also in Romans 11, 5, we'll just read those here real
quick. Just a quick note from 1 Timothy,
because Norm had that in the bulletin here today, in 1 Timothy. He said there's a statement there
regarding God's eternal purpose and decrees regarding His relationship
with the church before the world began. He's called us with a
holy calling. and brought us into Christ, and
he says, before the world began, that occurred, that decree and
that result. So back to our text here from
Joel, where Paul quotes that in Romans 10, in verse 12, he
says, For there's no difference between the Jew and the Greek,
for the same Lord is rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." So he immediately
applies this to the Jew and Gentile as did Joel. And also, He goes past that in
Romans 11, verse 5, and he says, "...even so at this present time
also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." Both
those things are recorded in Joel. the remnant, the Jews, the Gentiles,
whomsoever the Lord shall call, all that found in Joel. And then
in Numbers chapter 21, verse 8, We have a deal that everybody's
familiar with. Numbers 21.8, the Lord said unto
Moses, make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole and it
shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten when he looketh
upon it shall live. Well, it came to pass, and everyone
that did look on that was saved alive. And then we have the application
of that. That was a picture. They were
all bitten by that fiery serpent that represented sin in the desert. And there was a picture of the
Christ being lifted up, and we find that in John chapter 3,
verse 14. And the Lord said, And as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have eternal life. And boy, that taken out
of context, that is the basis for universal salvation and self-will. Whosoever will, just come on
down. You know what it says right after
that, though, is that They rejected him. They wouldn't come. If you read
the rest of that block of Scripture in John chapter 3, you'll find
out that not many people would partake of that. So back to our text verse there, and it came
to pass. We have to understand that since
God is the source of all things, everything created that are in
heaven, that are in earth, everything is created by Him. The Scripture states unequivocally
that All things are under His sovereign purview and are moving
and working in accordance with His eternal will and purpose.
Nothing is random. Why I just get fascinated when
I look at things. Everything is in order. Everything
operates in an order. There's nothing random. And first
they thought, well, we have molecules. That's the smallest thing. And
then we found out that molecules are made up of atoms. And then
we found out that atoms are made out of neutrons and protons and
electrons. And then we find out that the
protons are made up of quarks and smaller and smaller and smaller
things. And each one of those things
has a relationship that performs in an orderly fashion. And if
we could get down and look at that smaller, we would find infinitely,
everything is operating in order according to God's will and purpose.
And you know, it tells us that in Colossians 1, verse 16, for
by him, that's the God, by him were all things created that
are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
We can't look at those neutrinos and those quarks. We can't see
with our, unless we have special equipment, we can't see those
things, but they're there. All things were created that
are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
all things were created by Him and for Him. And sometimes we
just overlook that last clause there where it says, for him. They were not just created. He
didn't just create the world and say, well, it'll be like
an ant farm. We'll just put it in the window
and see what happens. It was created by Him and for
Him. And He is before all things and by Him all things consist. He's the glue that holds the
fabric of the universe together. causes everything to operate
according to His will and purpose, and everything works according
to His will. And so we find that in Acts also,
in Acts chapter 17, another instance of this in Acts
chapter 17 verse 26 and 27, 28. And hath made of one blood all
nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth and
hath determined That's a powerful word that's always applied to
God. He determines things, and they go according to His determination. He hath determined the times
before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation. So wherever
men are, wherever they go, whatever they do, it's because He has
assigned that. He has appointed it. He has determined
it. He hath determined the times before appointed. That they should
seek the Lord if happily, you know, that word means perhaps
drawing a conclusion or an inference. It's not happily, it's happily.
It's like the word where you would get perhaps from. and it
means drawing a conclusion or an influence perhaps. If happily
they might feel after him and find him though he be not far
from every one of us for in him we live and move and have our
being as certain also of your own poets said for we also are
his offspring and that's that's kind of what some of the greek
poets said that in that regard, and in the beginning of Romans
he said, you know, the creation tells us that there is a God
of order, tells us there's a God of creation. Everything bears
witness of his hand, and yet To many, it's invisible to them. It Came to Pass reveals much
of the results of God's effectual working for the redemption of
the church to those whom He gave Christ in the covenant of grace,
and in time caused them to be called by the gospel of His Son
and born again from above. All those things are what He
has determined and appointed and caused to come into play. Every one of the people that
He gave Christ in the covenant of grace, He's going to intersect
them with the gospel, because He said it's the power of God
unto salvation. And God chose by the foolishness
of preaching that gospel to save them that believe. And then we
find that we believe according to the working of His mighty
power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead
there in Ephesians 1.19. All these things are causative
and reflective of that cause. It came to pass exactly as God
ordained it in His sovereign purpose. There's a very great verse in
Isaiah chapter 14, verse 24, that describes this fact. The Lord of hosts has sworn,
saying, surely, as I have thought, so shall it come to pass. And
as I have purpose, so shall it stand. So his purpose and his
thoughts toward the church are inextricably linked together. His purpose, I was reading Robert
Haldane, and he said that God ordained something,
God decreed something, and then he could see that result. He could foresee that result,
but it was because he decreed it and because he appointed it.
And so those things are linked together. And oftentimes that
foreordination and foreknowledge are pretty much almost the same
exact word. They're just a little bit different
application in them, but they're the same root word basically.
And again, We saw that in 1 Timothy where his eternal purpose and
decree regarding his relationship with the church before the world
began. He saved us and called us with a holy calling. Let's
turn over and read that there because it's very, very powerful
verse there in 1 Timothy 1. I lost my place here. 2 Timothy. I pulled a norm. 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 9,
who has saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according
to our works, Nothing to do with merit, as the scriptures are
so clear on, before the children were even born, before they had
done anything good or bad. He said, He's called us with
a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. What a powerful statement about
the church, and we all just say, I'll thank God for that because
without that we'd just be doomed, you know, because we wouldn't
come to him on our own. We wouldn't want anything to
do with it. We're basically at enmity with
him and opposed to everything that he does or says or has to
do with. With that, I wanted to look at
several examples of the principle of God's sovereign purposes that
are effected eternally and in time and that are readily available
to read in the scriptures. And a couple of them that everybody's
really familiar with. Isaiah 7, verse 14 says, Therefore
the Lord himself shall give you a sign. He shall do this. Behold,
a virgin shall conceive. He's foreordained that. He has decreed this. He has appointed
it. A virgin shall conceive and bear
a son and shall call his name Immanuel. Even down to the name
and the details of it are all all described in the Old Testament.
And it came to pass, we find in Matthew 1, verse 21, Now all
this was done, that it might be fulfilled, which
was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin
shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall
call his name Emmanuel, which is being interpreted God with
us. So we we find that. that determinate counsel of God
in the appointed time when his son would come and be born of
a virgin and not participate in the Adamic line from the male
side there. Then we find out even the place
of his birth was appointed and determined. Micah 5-2, Thou,
Bethlehem, Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands
of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is,
to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from old,
from everlasting." Boy, what a mouthful there, the eternal
nature of God, the Lord, where He's going to be born, what circumstances. And it came to pass in Matthew
chapter 2, verse 1, it says, now when Jesus was born, He was,
He was born. And He was born in Bethlehem
of Judea in the days of Herod the king. Matthew 2, 1. It's a fact. Isaiah 42, verse
6 has a principle here of the Gentiles
being called, because we read that from Joel in Romans, where
not the Jews only, but the Jews and the Gentiles. And in Isaiah
42, 6, it says, I, the Lord, have called thee in righteousness
and will hold thy hand and will keep thee and give thee for a
covenant of the people for a light of the Gentiles. And then we
find again Paul referencing that in this wonderful passage in
Acts. where he and Barnabas were preaching
the gospel and the Jews rejected it and rebelled against it. In
Acts 13, 46, Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said, Well, it
was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken
unto you, but seeing you put it from you and judge yourselves
unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.
For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to
be a light of the Gentiles, that thou should be for salvation
unto the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this,
they were glad. I'm glad. So glad. They were glad and they
glorified the Word of the Lord. And here is an interesting conclusion. He says, and as many as were
ordained to eternal life believed. The ones that God ordained from
before the foundation of the world, those that He called with
a holy calling and saved in Christ before the foundation of the
world. As many as were ordained, and that just means appointed.
They were appointed. to eternal life and the Holy
Spirit worked in them and they believed. To the others, as Norman
said here in a previous message, some just heard a thunder. Some
just said, well, this is a lot of gibberish. This is a hard
saying. Who can do this? Not me. So I'm leaving. As many as were
ordained to eternal life believed. And a lot of in religion, they
like to kind of turn that around to as many as believed were then
ordained to eternal life. But that's not what it says.
It's very clear. In Hosea 1, verse 10, It says, Yet the number of the
children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea. You know,
when you get to spiritual Israel and the picture that's described
to us in Revelation, it was a multitude that no man could number of every
tongue and kindred, nation, tribe from every corner of the world.
They shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured
nor numbered. And it shall come to pass that
in the place where it was said unto them, you're not my people,
there it shall be said unto them, you are the sons of the living
God. Boy, what a word that says, you know, the Israel, national
Israel put him away and rejected him. And yet he opened it for
the Gentiles there. And then we find that there were
a lot of Gentiles previous to this that were called in. in Hosea chapter 2 verse 23 says,
And I will sow her unto me in the earth, and I will have mercy
upon her that had not obtained mercy. And I will say to them
which were not my people, thou art my people, And they shall
say, Thou art my God." Boy, what a powerful statement. No wonder
those Gentiles were... I'm glad that somebody brought
this to our attention and preached the gospel to us, and the Holy
Spirit caused us to believe. You know, we find that again
applied in Romans in chapter 9. And as I read this, I thought, boy,
what a great application we have here in the text that we're in,
Luke, Romans 9.22, What if God, willing to show His wrath and
to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels
of wrath fitted to destruction? Isn't that just what's happening
there when the Lord is having supper with these Pharisees?
He's putting up with a lot of stuff from them. They have threatened
to kill Him. They wanted to stone Him. They
rejected Him. They accused Him of all kind
of heinous stuff. But according to his purpose,
he put out, he endured it. He endured with much long suffering
the vessels of wrath that were fitted to destruction. That tells
you his determinate counsel regarding certain ones. And that he might
make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy,
which he had aforeprepared unto glory. There's this man with
this terrible disease there, a vessel of mercy. Even us whom he hath called,
not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles, as he said in
Hosea, I will call them my people, which were not my people, and
her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass that
in the place where it was said unto them, you're not my people,
there shall they be called the children of the living God."
So we have that application of it shall come to pass and it
came to pass. So as we look at these principles
applied in a dear friend of mine called the Golden Chain of Redemption
in Romans chapter 8. I don't know if he invented that
or if he read it somewhere, but since there's not very much new,
I would say somebody originated that sometime. But in Romans,
the 8th chapter, verse 28, we apply all these principles that
we've learned about God's determinate counsel. And we learned about
His, what we learned about His will and His purpose. And we
know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are called according to His purpose. And that verse
gets maligned quite a bit because You know, people apply it when
things are going well, but we oftentimes forget about it when
things are not good. And I was thinking of this section from the Old Testament
where it's like the bitter waters of Marah. Nobody could drink
of it until the tree of Christ was thrown into the water, and
then it became sweet. But it was a trial to them. It was, oh, we're going to die.
We can't drink this. And there's so many things like
that in life that until we see the tree of Christ be thrown
into it and turn it into something sweet, Usually in retrospect,
we don't see it at the time. And, you know, you thought evil
against me, is what Joseph said. You thought evil against me,
but God meant it for good to save much people alive. So the
ultimate example of God overriding evil for good to accomplish his
eternal purpose, we can find an example of that in Acts chapter
2, verse 23. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. the determinate counsel, His
determinate will, His determinate purpose that Christ in the covenant
of grace would lay down His life a ransom for those that the Father
gave Him in the covenant of grace. You can go there to John 17 and
read a little more about that. It just shows us that God determines,
and then we have the results. We have the effectual application
of it. And then we go on here in Romans
8-29, for whom, and this is not, whom is a person word. Whom describes
people. Whom describes individual, specific
persons. And it's not a what. So often
religion changes that into the application of into what? For
what he did foreknow. He knew who would believe. He
knew who would believe and not believe him. But it's for whom
he did foreknow, whom he had a relationship with from eternity.
He also did predestinate. to be conformed to the image
of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. And we note the eternal foreknowledge
accompanied with His sovereign decree. They're folded together
and linked and can't be taken apart. One is causative and the
other is the action and the result. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of a son that he
might be the firstborn among many brethren. And I think in
lessons before, it's been brought out that those are in the pluperfect
tense, something that exists. And in verse 30, moreover, as
if that wasn't good news enough, he says, moreover, more than
that, Whom He did predestinate, them, that's the whom that we
talked about in verse 29, them He also called. And whom He called them, He also
justified. And whom He justified them, He
also glorified." Boy, what a wonderful statement about redemption and
how God purposes it all and determines it and at the point in time calls
His people, intersects them with the gospel of His dear Son and
His sacrificial laying down of His life for the sheep. And we
find this principle exhibited in Ephesians again. We have the
election and we have the decree here in Ephesians 1 verse 4,
according as he has chosen, that's the election part that often
gets maligned in scripture and religion. According as he has
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. Then we have the
decree that We should be holy and without blame before Him
in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will."
All these determinate purposes and the will of God applied to
the church effectually. And he says, of all the Father
giveth me, I'll not lose any. Everyone that the Father giveth
me shall come to me. And they come to him because,
he says, no man can come unto me unless the Father draw him.
See how all these purposes and will and the effectual nature
of it is all woven together in that fabric of grace that brings
us to Him when we just wouldn't come. You know in Acts 15-18
it says, known unto God are all His works from the beginning
of the world. Not just some works, not, well I know this and that. Every single work that he's involved
in, which is everything, those we read from Colossians, he knows all his works from the
beginning of the world. In a quote here from Robert Haldane,
he determined with himself from eternity everything he executes
in time. What a wonderful statement about
God and His sovereignty. He saved us and called us with
a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. How powerful is that? How wonderful is that for the
church and how that gives us grace and builds us up in Him. And we know that it's because
of His effectual work in us that all this has taken place. And
so in our text today in Luke chapter 14, and we'll kind of
try to scoot through the rest of this real quick here. And
it came to pass, all the things that we're going to read Everything that occurred are
not by random act or chance. It came to pass as he went to
the house of a Pharisee, the chief Pharisee, to eat bread
on the Sabbath day that they watched him." You know, this
word watched, it's not just like, well, I'm going to watch TV.
It means it has... a meaning of to note insidiously,
which is defined as proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but
with harmful effects. Sneaky, surreptitious, cunning,
crafty, treacherous. They thought it evil against
him, but he meant it for good. He was there by divine appointment.
And all the things that happened, he healed on the Sabbath day,
and that was going to put them over the edge a little bit. And
he kept doing it, and the things that he said and the truths that
he taught eventually would cause them to arrest him. And we know how that turned.
The actions of the Pharisees were predetermined by God. You know what the scripture says?
Whom he will, he hardeneth. They saw a miracle right there
in front of their eyes. He healed this guy with this
edema. He had to have healed his heart
and he had to deal with, you know, your hands are all swelled
up, your ankles are all swelled up. My mom suffered from that
horribly because she had that congestive heart failure. There was just a little wrinkle
where her ankles used to be. It was awful and her feet were
all swelled up and she couldn't wear shoes. So this guy had an
obvious problem. I don't think it was by accident
that he was there. They probably said, we need to
get somebody here that looks like they need some attention so that
we can trap Jesus into doing something on the Sabbath day
and then we can accuse him. Because he answering them said,
is it legal for me to heal on the Sabbath day? And they did
not say a word. It's not recorded that they asked
him anything, but he answering their thoughts said, I know what's
on your mind. But happily, that's what's been
revealed about it came to pass. against thy holy child Jesus,
whom thou has anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, the
Gentiles, and the people of Israel were gathered together for to
do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to
be done." How much clearer could that be? That's just like, you'd
think that that would just be enough to convince people about
God's sovereignty and everything, but Unless the Spirit reveals it
to them, they just don't see it. So this man, He took him unto Him,
it says. He took that man unto Him and
healed him and let him go. So we'll stop there. God's eternal purpose and decree
regarding his relationship with the church from before the world
began. So as we get together the next
time, we'll look at some of these customs and things that deal
with these type of gatherings that the Lord is at, and the
words that He used to describe what's going on. So until the
next time, We'll close from John 8, 36. This man with edema was freed
from his affliction. If the sun, therefore, shall
make you free, you shall be free indeed. So my closing words are
always, be free. Thank you for your attention,
and see you next time.