All right, brethren, let's turn in our Bibles to Luke chapter four. Luke chapter four. Now, the Lord Jesus had come there, come into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and everybody was gathered there. This is one of the first recorded messages that we have that our Savior preached. And our fame had gone out about him. People were talking about him. And he stood up and he read from Isaiah and sat down and told them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And they wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth.

And we saw Thursday night, somebody raised a question. Is not this Joseph's son? And they began to talk about knowing his family. And this is the town where he grew up and they were familiar with him. And they began to become skeptical. Now they received the first part of his message. When he told them he came to heal the broken hearted and and all those gracious things that he said he would do in Isaiah. They received that. And then our Lord declared what they would do. He declared to them what you shall do. You're gonna call on me to heal you, because you feel like you deserve it. Because I grew up here, and I'm from this town, and you're gonna say, physician, do for your own people. Do for us like you've been doing for these people everywhere. He said, this is what you're gonna say. And he said, because a prophet's not without honor, save in his own country. His own countrymen won't give him honor. And he told them that's what they would do, because he's God, because he knows all things.

And then he preached this second part of his message. And in this second part, he said in verse 25, but I tell you of a truth. Do you want to know what the truth is? This is the truth speaking, the Lord Jesus. He said, I am the truth. And he's about to tell you the truth. There's a lot of people in the world said they want to know the truth. The Pharisees came to our Lord Jesus and they said, tell us plainly. Tell us who you are. Do you want to know the truth? Do you want to know the truth of how God saves? He's about to declare it. We're about to hear the Lord Jesus, the truth himself, declare the truth of how God saves.

Here's what he says. Let's read it together. He said, but I tell you of a truth. Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land. But unto none of them was Elias sent save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha, the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman, the Syrian.

The first message the Lord preached that we have recorded declares to us, he declared, that God saves by grace alone. That's what he declared. God saves by grace, by grace. We're gonna see the sovereignty of God's grace, We're gonna see the freeness of God's grace. We're gonna see the necessity of God's grace. And we're gonna see the God of all grace.

First of all, here's the sovereignty of God's grace. Our Lord said there in verse 25, he said, there were many widows, many, many widows in Israel. many widows in Israel in the days of Elias. Many, but unto none of them, but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And then again, he says in verse 27, and there were many lepers in Israel. Many in Israel. in the time of Elisha, the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. Do you see the sovereignty of God's grace right here? The sovereignty of God's grace? God is sovereign to choose who he will save and to pass by who he will. That's what sovereignty means. God is sovereign to save, by grace, who he will. And he's sovereign to pass by who will.

There were many widows and there were many lepers, but he didn't send his prophet to all of them. There were many widows and lepers in Israel. They thought they were the chosen people for sure. If you were just born in Israel, you were elect. There were many widows and lepers in Israel. And he didn't send his prophet to any of them. He passed by the many. He passed by the many, even the many in Israel.

See, that's God's right as the sovereign God. That's his right. He's God. He can do with his own what he will. He's God. That's what we have to learn. We have to learn God, the true God, is really God. He's really God who has the sovereign right to do what he will. He can save whom he will. He said that, can I not do with mine own what I will? Why does that make you angry? He said, because I'm good.

God's grace is sovereign. He told Moses, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. And I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. There's the will we should be talking about. False religions always talk about man's will. They're always defending man's will. You can't do anything by your will unless it's God's will. James said, we can't say tomorrow I will do so and so and so and so. We have to say, if the Lord will, I will do so and so. See, the will by which we are saved is not our will. It's God's will.

We're proud by nature. That was the problem that caused this anger right here. We're proud by nature. And this is the message that God's gonna use to humble his child, to humble his child. You consider when the Lord called Abraham. When the Lord called Abraham, there was families all over the world living in idolatry. And Abraham's family was just one among millions living in idolatry. And then you narrow it down and let's say, and then there's Abraham's family. God narrows it down to Ur in Chaldee, then he narrows it down to this family But he didn't save everybody in that family. He chose to be gracious to Abraham and Sarah. That's God's sovereign will. He set his love upon him.

Think of all the people in Noah's day. God looked down from heaven and he saw the hearts of men. Every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. Can you say that about yourself? Because that's true of you and me. Our nature that we got from Adam, every imagination of the thoughts of our heart is only evil continually. A preacher, I'm not that bad. Then you're too good to be saved. You got to be that bad. But here's the thing, Noah was just like everybody else. Noah was no different. What made the difference? Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord said, I'll be gracious to Noah. That's God's right. That's God's sovereign right.

Even so, Romans 11 5 says, even so then at this present time also, there is a remnant God passed by the many, many widows, many lepers. Right now there's many in the world, but there's a remnant, a remnant. According to the election of grace. We're sinners, we're sinners. None good, none righteous, none understand. None seek God. That's so of everybody in this world. You see, nobody in this world deserves anything from God. We don't deserve anything good from God. And God chooses who he will be gracious to. That's sovereign grace.

All right, now let's look at the freeness of God's grace. the freeness of God's grace. The widow and the leper that God sent his prophet to, they did not do one thing for God to send them his prophet. Not anything. And here's what we need to learn. If they had done something, if you did something, if I did something to make God be gracious to us, That's not grace. It ceases to be grace if you did something to merit God showing favor to you.

Go with me to Romans chapter four. Romans chapter four. You know, I've tried to narrow my messages down and get them down to short as I can. But the Lord said, let every word be confirmed in the mouth of two or three witnesses. So when I make a point to you, I want to give you at least two witnesses in the scripture to show you this is so. And I just can't seem to do that and get it whittled down much more than I have.

Romans 4.4, now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. We can't earn grace or it ceases to be grace. Go to Romans 11 and verse 6. Romans 11 and verse 6. If by grace, then it is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. You see, If it's of works, it's not gonna be of grace. And if salvation is of grace, then salvation is not of works.

So this widow and this leper did nothing to earn God's grace. Grace is free. The grace of God is absolutely free. Go to Deuteronomy 9, and let me show you this. Deuteronomy 9, and look here at verse 4. When the Lord was delivering the children of Israel into the land of their enemy, listen to what the Lord said.

Deuteronomy 9 verse 4. Speak not thou in thine heart. We know this morning we talked about holiness. Holiness of heart. This is why the Lord has to give us a holy heart. so that we don't think this in our heart. And in that new holy heart, we don't, we don't, we don't think this. Our old nature feels like I deserve it. But look what he says here. Speak not thou in thine heart after that the Lord thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, don't think this, don't say, for my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land. but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord doth drive them out from before thee.

Not for thy righteousness or for the uprightness of thine heart dost thou go to possess their land, but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the Lord swear unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand, therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness, for thou art a stiff-necked people.

Great grace is not only sovereign, grace is absolutely free. God gives it to those he chose to save, those he elected to save, and it is free because everybody God chose to save is a stiff-necked people. We are all God-hating sinners. That's what we are by nature. God-hating sinner. That widow in Serepta was starving in a famine. That's how she was. A sinner starving in a famine. She had nothing to give. When the prophet went to her, she said, Me and my son are about to eat the last little bit of meal we have in this barrel, and then we're gonna die. She had nothing to offer. She wasn't looking for a prophet. She wasn't seeking God. She was just a starving widow. That's me and you. Widows and orphans in scripture are a picture of those God saves, the most helpless there are. And a true widow in scripture was somebody that didn't have a child that could provide for them, or cousins, or uncles, or anybody. A true widow was somebody that had no family to help them, so that they're a picture of a sinner who's absolutely, totally helpless, and so is an orphan.

We're the starving widow by nature. We are already dead and Adam legally, We broke the law when Adam broke it, and because we're born of Adam, our nature is corrupt, dead, and we can't know God. Now that's us by nature.

The Lord said that we have to be born again of the word, of the gospel, and of the spirit, like we saw this morning. And that's free grace. He freely sends the gospel. He freely sends the spirit. He freely gives faith. He freely calls you to him. and he freely robes you in his righteousness, and he makes you know he did it all freely and sovereignly by his grace. Every bit of it.

Go with me to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2, look right here. At the end of verse 3. We were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. We were just like everybody else in the world. But God, who's rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, he quickened us together with Christ, by grace are you saved.

It's pride, it's pride, nothing but pride, that will make anybody angry. when they hear that God's grace is sovereign to give to whom He will and His grace is free, not earned by us. Pride, only by pride cometh contention. And the reason these folks got angry is man by nature feels like I deserve for God to choose me and I can contribute something. Don't tell me I can't do anything. Scripture says, me and you can do nothing.

Look over at 2 Kings 5. 2 Kings 5. Naaman, he brought some money. He brought some stuff. Because he's going to pay. He's going to pay. 2 Kings 5. He was going to try to pay to be healed of his leprosy. And 2 Kings 5. He brought 10 talents of silver, 6,000 pieces of gold, 10 changes of raiment to pay to be healed, but his money was useless.

Look here now in verse nine, 2 Kings 5, 9. So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and he stood at the door of the house of Elisha, and Elisha sent a messenger unto him. Has Christ sent a messenger to you? Has Christ sent his messenger to you? Let's hear what the message was to Naaman, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.

What is this going and washing in the Jordan seven times picture? He hated the Jordan. The Jordan was despised by Naaman. This was beneath him. The Jordan pictures the Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to be clean, the only way is to believe and trust the Lord Jesus to do all the saving. That's the only way to be saved.

And it says here, but Naaman was wroth. He got angry and he went away and he said, behold, I thought. That's where we got to be. We got to be made to see it does not matter what you think. It does not matter what you think. I'd hear this word, I'd pay attention to this word, and I'd hear what God says, because you're standing about a breath away from hell. I'd pay attention. I'd listen.

And Abraham was wroth, and he went away, and he said, Behold, I thought he would surely come out to me. and stand and call on the name of the Lord, his God, and strike his hand over the place and recover the leper. All that is pride. That's all that was, pride. He didn't need God. Are not Abner and Farpar rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? See, this was His pride didn't want to bow and subject himself to the word of God and come down to the Jordan. He had better places he could go to. May I not wash in them and be clean? That's the problem. Sinners think it's beneath them to have to trust Christ. It's beneath them to come down to Christ and trust him to do the saving.

So he turned and he went away in a rage. He was in a rage. Now listen, hold your place right there. Here's a good illustration of Romans 8. Romans 8 says the carnal mind is enmity against God. For it's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Naaman could not make himself, he couldn't submit himself to the word of God and go wash in that river. He was filled with enmity against God. He was in a rage at what he was told to do. That's the sinner's mind. That's our mind by nature. We hate God. The God that we can't control, the God that we can't make him to be a debtor to us, we hate that God. And that's the God that saves.

Look at verse 13, and his servants came near and spake to him and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? How much rather then when he said to thee, Wash and be clean. And that's the truth. A sinner will do anything, he'll do anything a preacher or some charlatan tells him to do. Send me your money. If you don't send me your money, you're gonna miss a blessing. Send me your money and blessings are coming your way. Man, they'll write that check and get it in the mail that day. But a sinner will do anything you give him to do except nothing. Trust Christ to do it.

But by the grace of God, God's grace will make a sinner trust Him. God's grace will bring us down. God's grace will make us see there's no other way than but Christ alone. Trust Him alone. And the grace makes the sinner submit. It makes him submit. It makes you plunge into Christ through faith and wash in Him alone.

Verse 14, then went he down. That's what we need to do. We gotta be brought down. Christ said, come to me. I'm meek and lowly in heart. You're gonna have to come down to get to Christ, not up. He went down and he dipped himself seven times in Jordan according to the saying of the man of God, and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and he stood before him and he said, behold, now I know. that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel. And he took some dirt back with him so he could build him an altar and worship God.

You see, our prayer, when we sit here and we're praying, our prayer is, is that the sovereign God, who saves by sovereign free grace, would make you hear that have never heard. That's our prayer, that he would make you hear and know that you are the dirty sinner, helpless to do anything to save yourself and make you to know His grace saves and it's sovereign to whom He will give it and it's free because it's all in the Lord Jesus Christ. How can grace be free to me? Because the way it's free to you and me is He chose His Son first. and his son came down and his son did all the works necessary for God to be just to save us by grace. That's the grace a payment had to be made for God to be just so that he could be gracious and save you by grace. And that payment was he sent his only son and his only son bore our sin and went to the cross for his people and died and satisfied justice. God's just. When God damns a man, it will be just because a man earned it. And when God saves, it'll be just because Christ earned it for his people. Christ did everything necessary to save us. God's people are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

If he gives you grace, you will then subject yourself to Christ. Then there's a new man that's not enmity. It's a new holy man. And then he gives you the willingness to subject yourself to the law of God. He says to you, this is his law to you, go and bow to my son and wash in the blood of Christ through faith. And that's what his child will do. You'll go and bow to Christ and trust that I'm righteous only by the Lord Jesus. He's my salvation.

Now let me show you lastly, or thirdly, let me show you the necessity of God's grace. Verse 28, Luke 4, 28. Here's the necessity, here's why it is a necessity. Verse 28, and all they in the synagogue when they heard these things were filled with wrath. and they rose up and they thrust him out of the city and they led him to the brow of the hill where on their city was built that they might cast him down headlong.

That's why salvation has to be by grace. That's why it has to be sovereign and free because that is the response of every sinner when they hear the gospel. If sinners don't get angry and want to shoot the messenger, they're indifferent. It's one of the two. A cow out here in the field, he don't have a clue about what we're talking about. And men and women are no different. They've got as much mind for anything godly as a dumb cow. And the other is men who are so proud of their work, that they hear this and it just infuriates them, that they're not getting a part in their salvation. Well, that's why we have to be saved by grace.

Only God can give you a new heart. Only God can make you willing for him to get all the glory and for you to get none. Only God can give a heart to make you know he doesn't save everybody. Just because he saved you don't mean he's going to save your child. And he might save your child, not save you. He can do with you what He will. This is why salvation's got to be by grace. Men hate it, that widow, that leper, terminal disease in one of them, absolute poverty in the other. That's the condition of every sinner. That's the deadness of every sinner.

Well, what about the fact so many sinners are religious? In every text of this scripture, there's religious sinners all through it. They didn't know God. They had a God of their imagination, a God that can't do anything unless they let him, a God that depended on them to let him save them. That's not the God of the Bible. You might as well be worshiping a stump. They're no different. You have to carve him out. If your God can't do nothing but what you're willing to let him do, you're your God. Your God's not real.

but it's a necessity. God has to give us a new heart. And now let's look at the God of all grace. Verse 30 says, but he passing through the midst of them went his way. See, God predestinated the hour when he would lay down his life and save his people. And he was in sovereign control of everything. There was nothing they could do. They could not take him to the top of that hill and throw him off. They wanted to, but they couldn't do it. Several times that was the reaction of men, and several times he just passed right through their midst. Until the time came, and he said of the devil, now it's your hour. And he went to that garden, and when that host, hundreds and hundreds of soldiers came to arrest him, he let them know he was in charge. They said, we come to look for Jesus. He said, I am. They hit their behind, right down on their back. He was ruling the whole thing. Nobody took his life. He laid down his life. And that same one now is risen with all power in heaven and earth. He's got a name above every name. The devil does what he commands. The devil can't do anything without his permission.

That devil couldn't, he couldn't do a thing to Job until the Lord gave him permission to do it. And he only does that, he only did that for Job's good. At the end, he gave Job twice as much as he had before, spiritually. And this same one can move, he can move a mountain if it's his will. He can turn a sea if it's his will. He can turn the king's heart if it's his will to get the gospel to you and me. to get the gospel.

I see things happen in this world, in countries, and with kings, and the way things go in the economy, and all these different things. When you see all of that, brethren, and maybe it looks really bad, something happens that looks really bad, rather than getting worried and thinking, oh, how are we going to make it through this? Understand this. If you're His, whatever is coming to pass in this world is working by the Lord, who is your salvation, and he's working it for your good. He's working it to provide for you. He's working it to save his people. And he can work everything, move everything that needs to be moved to get his child right under the preaching of the gospel, and then minister the Spirit and give life and save us. Just like he did the widow, just like he did Damon. He's going to send his messenger to his child and make you hear the good news that he laid down his life and redeemed all his people.

Contrary to popular belief, the Lord Jesus Christ didn't go to the cross and die for everybody. He went to the cross and laid down his life for the sheep, for those God chose. That's the message of this text. And they were of Israel. They thought, well, we're saved. Listen, you're not saved because you was born in Israel. You're not saved because you was born in New Jersey. You're not saved because your mama and daddy knew the gospel. You're not saved because you's a Baptist or Presbyterian or Catholic. You're not saved because of anything in you. If you're saved, it's because the God of all grace chose you. And Christ came and bore the sin of all His elect, the chosen of God, and He redeemed everyone. He wasn't trying. He justified all His people from our sin. He said it is finished, and it was finished for a particular people that He loved from everlasting. And He arose, and they arose in Him. And He sat down, and we sat down in Him.

And He's gonna send this gospel to each and every one He's not willing that any of those He chose and redeemed, He's not willing that any should perish, but that they all should come to repentance. He holds this world in store right now for one reason, because He hadn't called them all to faith yet. And He's calling them. And when He's called the last one and brought them to bow and trust Christ alone, and to praise Him and give Him all the glory, when He's called the last one, He's going to burn the whole mess up, and we're going to be with Him in glory. And that's the true God. And that's how He saves. He saves by grace. That's the God we're remembering here today.

And if He saved you, and He saved you by grace through His blood, He commands you to partake of this table. If this is not the God by which that you know that saved you, don't take the table, because Here's the qualification to take it. I have no worthiness in me. All my worthiness is the Lord Jesus. He alone is all my worthiness to come to this table. I have no worthiness in me whatsoever.

And you take this table discerning, discerning, spiritually discerning his broken body and his shed blood. And you can't do that unless you have spiritual discernment. and you remember him, that he broke his body for his people. He shed his blood for his people. You're remembering him, and you can't remember somebody you don't know. We come to this table, and it's a special thing he gave his people, a simple, simple little ordinance to remember him. That's the purpose of it, to remember him.

Brother Ravi, would you and Brother Adam pass out the elements?