Luke chapter 4. Luke was a called disciple of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He was one of the 12 disciples.
And the reason I bring that up is because we found out last
Sunday that Mark was not one of the 12 disciples. He was a
follower after the Lord, but he was not one of the disciples.
He ended up following after Peter. He was a translator for Peter
and many other things, but Luke was a disciple. He was faithful
unto the Lord. He was faithful unto his gospel
until the very end. And that is my hope for each
one of us, that we would be faithful unto the very end. And he's the
one that'll make us do that. We know that it's all him that
makes us or keeps us. We can't keep ourself, can we?
He has to do it. He has to do it. Luke wrote the
book of Luke and the book of Acts. Acts is basically a continuation
of the book of Luke. If you read through the book
of Luke and then immediately flipped over to Acts, you would see that
it continues more or less. Luke was Paul's companion in
the gospel. He endured the same or many of the same afflictions
that Paul did. The shipwrecks that Paul had,
the trials that Paul would have went through, Luke was right
there with him. We see the Lord kept them, both
of those men. He was with Paul all the way
up until Paul's death. Do you remember in 2 Timothy
chapter four, Paul's writing to Timothy and he says, come
to me quickly. The time of my departure is at
hand. And he says, Demas has forsaken
me and I'm only here left with Luke. Luke was with Paul at the
very end. This is the last we heard of
Luke. Something truly remarkable to me, two things. Number one, Luke never mentions
his name. The only way that we knew Luke's name is obviously
it's called the gospel of Luke, but Colossians it's mentioned
by Paul there. And Paul mentions it again in
second Timothy when he's writing, that's the only two times Luke's
name's mentioned other than just it saying the gospel of Luke.
He never drew attention to himself. Isn't that what grace does? Doesn't
draw attention to us, does it? I don't. I was speaking to someone
recently and I was Greg, I was on the phone with Greg and we
were talking. He's much older than I am. He
said, I don't care if anybody remembers my name when I die.
And I was like, hey man, we're not doing this for a name or
a legacy. We're not doing this for a show or an outward following
or anything. No, we're hoping that we're doing
it under the Lord for his glory and we're hoping that He would
be pleased to call his sheep and to feed his sheep and to
keep us until the end. And that's what he did for Luke.
That's what grace does is it doesn't draw attention to us.
It gives him all the glory. The other thing that was remarkable
upon studying Luke is Luke was a Gentile. He wasn't a Jew. I didn't know that. I find that
interesting. And it gives me great hope the Lord used the
Gentile to write the book of Luke. Well, what are we? We're
Gentiles. There's no full-blooded Jews in our congregation that
I know of. You can correct me after service if I'm wrong, but
He was a Gentile. That just shows that He's God
and He saves whomsoever He will. It's not to bloodline. It's not
to our last name. It's not to, no, it's the faith
of Christ bestowed, isn't it? It's that simple. It's His faith
bestowed and it doesn't matter anything about us. We can't mess
it up. Isn't that good news? I can't
mess it up. I can't break it and I can't
fix it. I can't do anything to it. It's forever settled in heaven,
the Lord's salvation. Grace humbles the Lord's people
and draws the faith that he gives us, draws no attention to our
flesh. It just looks to Christ. Now, the last thing I want to
mention to us briefly about Luke is that his name means light
giving, light, L-I-G-H-T, giving. Was it his light that he was
giving? No. Did he produce any of the light
that he brought forth? No. Whose light was it? It was
the Lord Jesus Christ, the light of the world, the life of the
world, John 1 calls him. It's the Lord's light that Luke
declared, and the Lord gets all the glory. Luke was a physician,
and because of this, we have the compassion of our Savior
revealed in his gospel very clearly. We have his truth of how he saves
sinners, how he gives compassion unto the needy, how he pitieth
us, as a father pitieth their children. Somebody says, I don't
need your pity. I need his pity. Don't you? We need his pity. Lord, have
mercy upon us. As David said, blot out our transgressions,
my sins ever before me. Purge me with hyssop and I shall
be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Have mercy
on me, the sinner. That's our prayer, isn't it?
We need his compassion, and I'm thankful the scripture says his
compassions are new every morning. They never expire. They're renewed
every day. His mercy endureth forever. That's good news, isn't it? We
can't mess it up. Well, I've titled this message
according to what I just said about us having his truth, and
I've titled it The Truth. Now look with us, if you want
to follow along in Luke chapter four, Here in Luke, towards the middle
of the chapter, we have the temptation of Christ. And I say temptation,
I put it in quotations on purpose to tell us, the scripture doesn't
call it, he couldn't have sinned, understand what I'm saying. It
was impossible for our Lord to sin. It couldn't have been done.
And yet we see that our adversary, came to him and tried to thwart
him, tried to get in his way of his purpose in being here
by making him sin. It was impossible. It was a futile
attempt, wasn't it? He couldn't have sinned. That's
good news to us. He can't change or he can't sin
or he's not God. And the scripture says, after
Satan departed, he departed for a season. He's always going to
return with the same temptations, isn't he? Same exact temptations. And I'm giving us, this is a
long chapter, so I'm giving us kind of briefly the beginning
of it, and then we're going to read. After Satan departed, Christ
goes back to Galilee, to Nazareth, to minister in the synagogues
on the Sabbath. He opens up the book of Isaiah. He opens up the book of Isaiah
and he says, and he reads chapter 61. Chapter 61, one through two,
he quotes it verbatim. And it says, the spirit of the
Lord is upon me. Then he tells them why the spirit of the Lord
is upon him. Because the Lord hath called
him, the Lord had anointed him to preach the gospel. Well, who
did he preach the gospel to? He tells us, the poor. The poor. What else was his purpose? He
hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted. There is nobody on this earth
that's as brokenhearted as what the Lord was on the cross of
Calvary. We will never understand what
it took, really, to redeem us. When we see him be made like
him, we'll understand. But in this life, we can't comprehend
that. But is it not true that we are of a broken heart when
we see our sin ever before us? Is it not true that he breaks
his people's heart? That's who he says he's nigh
unto, they that are of a broken heart and a contrite spirit,
he'll in no wise cast out. The good news is the Lord said
he came to heal the brokenhearted. And he says to preach deliverance
to the captives, to set sight to the blind, to set liberty
to them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of
the Lord. You know what the acceptable year of the Lord is? It's the
year of Jubilee. Now understand under the Old
Testament law, the Lord made it to where at
the end of the years, as they had passed, when the year of
Jubilee came, if you bought something from someone, you had to restore
it back to them. Now they did not honor this law
in Israel, not one time, but the Lord did. The Lord did. When you look at the year of
Jubilee, man would have, if you'd have bought cattle, or if you'd
have bought land, or if you'd have taken ownership of possessions
from someone, you had to restore it back to them. Can you imagine
just being able to keep something for seven years and then having
to give it back? That wouldn't have, no man is
going to do that of their own. The Lord will have to make someone
do that. Is that not true? But that's what he did for us.
He restored unto us everything that Adam had lost and so much
more, and so much more. Well, after he finishes, he tells
them these words, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your
ears. And they all look at each other
and say, is this not Joseph's son? Is this not Joseph and Mary's
child that's speaking? Now he would have been 30 at
this time, around there. And the point is with that, knowing
who he was physically, Knowing that he was Joseph's son was
not enough for them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. They
had to have faith. They were with God 30 years, around 30
years, give or take, and yet they did not see God. Isn't that
miraculous? He was raised with them. He was
around them. Would he not have been different than them in so
many ways? And yet they couldn't see who
it was. Is this not Joseph's son? They were 30 years with him around
that and they couldn't see God. Well, I hope the Lord lets us
see him. If he does, he gets the glory
for it. He's gonna have to be the doer of it. He's the one
that's gonna have to say, receive thy sight. That's our hope tonight,
is he would do just that. Now let's read here in Luke chapter
four, verse 24. He said, verily, Christ speaking,
verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country,
but I tell you of a truth. And that's where the title came
from, the truth. 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 at the time of Elias, the prophet, and none
of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all day
in the synagogue, when they heard this truth, these things were
filled with wrath. And they rose up and thrust him
out of the city and led him into the brow of the hill, whereon
their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
But he passing through the midst of them went his way and came
down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the
Sabbath days. And they were astonished at his
doctrine, for his word was with power." What did Christ tell
them that made them so upset? The truth. That's all he told
them, the truth. They were filled with wrath.
He says, I tell you the truth. Why was that so offensive? Why
was it so offensive that God chose to show mercy to three
Gentiles? That was the problem. They're
Jews. They're racist. They believe the promise only
came to the Jews. And that's why I wanted to bring
up the fact that Luke was a Gentile, but understand that these three
Gentiles, Naaman, the widow and her son, we know that she had
a son as well. They were the only ones that
the Lord chose to heal in leprosy at that time. They were the only
ones that the Lord chose to save during the famine. Everybody
else had to fend for themselves, but they didn't delight in the
fact that the Lord showed mercy to these. They were envious.
They were angry. They were angry. And rather than
rejoicing, they were enraged and said, kill him away with
this man. You're just, you're just Joseph's son. You're a nobody. You're the son of a carpenter.
You're not going to speak to us this way. Kill him. Get rid
of him. What did he speak? He just spoke the truth. That's
all. That's all he could speak. Isn't
it? Did you know, there's no, no other thing that he could
have said, but the truth every where we speak lies. Don't we
lie all the time about if our mouths moving, I mean, we're
just liars by nature, aren't we? That's just how it is. And
not him. Every time his mouth moved, it
was truth, truth, and it glorified his father. All Christ is saying
here is the same thing that Moses told unto Pharaoh. And it's what
Paul proclaims in Romans 9. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy and whom I will, I will heart kill him. We don't want
to hear that. We don't want to hear that it's
his choice. No, it's not his choice. It's my choice. That's
not true. I want to know the truth. Don't
you? We can tell each other lies. Men tickle each other's ears.
get a title for themselves and they have a following. They have
many of the things I mentioned earlier that we're not after
and yet they don't have the one thing that God is looking for
in the inward parts. What is it? We heard in Psalm
51 already. The truth. The truth. That's what the Lord
looks for in his people is the truth. Those that heard this
hated it. Why do all people hate the truth
by nature? Why do all people hate the truth
by nature? Well, first of all, the truth
is not a saying. The truth is a person. The truth
is a person. Christ Jesus said, I am the way,
I am the what? The truth. He didn't say a truth. He didn't say part of the truth.
He said he is the truth. He is the truth of God. That's
why people hate him because he is God. Christ is the life-giving truth
of God, and he has all the power. Sunday I asked us this question,
I'll reiterate it again. If God has all the power, and
that's what the scripture tells us clearly, God has all the power.
If he has all power, how much does that leave you and I? I
mean, it's not 99.9% power, it's all. A-L-L, period. He has all power, both in heaven,
both in earth, under the earth, all power everywhere, all the
time. Where does that leave you and me with? Zero power, none,
nada, none whatsoever. Our flesh hates that truth. That's
the truth though, isn't it? Well, our flesh gets angry at
that. Whenever we hear, you ain't got any power. You can't fix
it. You can't fix it. Well, the new
man says, truth, Lord, you're going to have to fix it. But
that old man says, there's something I can do. There's got to be something
I can do. And it's evident that there's a warfare that continues
between our new and old man for the simple fact, when we have
a trial, do we flee to Christ immediately? Most of the time,
it ends up being a last resort, doesn't it? I'm ashamed to say
that's true. We don't flee right to him immediately.
We're trying to fix it. We're trying to put our two cents
into it, lay our hands on it somehow, way, shape or form.
Why? Because this flesh thinks he
has power, that it has some kind of power. And yet, no, the scripture
is clear. He has all the power. Our nature,
our natural desire is to do, is to work, is to choose, is
to exalt itself. If there's no work to be done,
do you get any glory for anything that happens? No. The new man
loves that. The old man says, I got to have
some kind of glory. I mean, I got to have a little
bit of something here, shine a little bit of light on me.
Not the new man. The new man points to Christ.
That's it. The new man looks to Christ with eyes of faith,
doesn't he? God says you have no power at
all. You're lifeless. You're corrupt. You're empty. We're destitute. We're void of
life by nature. We're void of understanding.
The truth gets to the heart of the problem. And you know what
the heart of the problem is? The heart is the problem. That's
the problem. This flesh, the heart that's
in our chest, that's beating the hearts. We need a new heart.
We need life to be given. We need faith to look to Him.
The Lord reveals he holds all the power. He has all the authority. He's completely sovereign and
immutable. The truth exposes our self-righteousness
and the truth points to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is truth. Does
both at the same time, doesn't it? The truth condemns the flesh
altogether. The Lord says, I'll tell you
the truth. The flesh says, tell me something
else. I don't want that. Tell me something else. In a
court of law and men do not have righteous judgments, but our
Lord does. His judgments are true. His judgments are right.
And when men and women stand before him on judgment day, his
truth is going to come forth and it's going to condemn or
it's going to set free. Scripture is very clear. Ye shall
know the truth and the truth shall set you free. It shall
make you free. And if you're free, the scripture
says, if the truth sets you free, you're free indeed. Why? Because
he's the one that did it. It's his name, truth. It's his
name, one of his many. Tell us something else. We don't
want to hear the truth. That's how it's been since the beginning
of time, isn't it? Eve didn't believe the truth, did she? What's
the first recorded sin among men? We know Satan was the first.
first sin, but Lucifer's first sin, but in the Garden of Eden,
the first man and woman, what was the first sin? It was Eve's
choice, wasn't it? That's the problem. Who's offering
men a choice today? It's the same one that offered
in the Garden of Eden. God didn't make a choice out
of it, did he? He said, don't touch the tree. The day that
you eat of it, you'll surely die. That was the truth, wasn't
it? That was the day that you eat of the fruit, you shall surely
die. And what did Satan have to do in order to change that
truth into a lie? He just added one word. God knows
that in the day you eat thereof, you shall not surely die. He
contested God's truth. And that's what men by nature
do. That's what we all do by nature. We contest God's truth. No, I think I can eat that fruit.
I want to be like God. That's what she was saying. He
said, you'll be like God's. And it's the same word, the same
singular word used before is God knows in the day that you
eat of the tree. See men, men and women, we never wanted We
never want the truth. The truth hurts the flesh. You
believe the lie. We would too if it wasn't for
the grace of God. What is the lie? Well, you can
choose God. You can obligate him to do something for you by
your choice. You can be equal to him. That is the lie. That
is the lie. Our flesh loves the lie, the
thought of being like God, doesn't it? We know it's true. Our flesh
loves that. Our flesh does not love God being
God, but our new man does. Every time we hear that he's
seated on his throne, the new man rests. Just sits down. It's finished. Can breathe again. I need to hear it again. Tell
me again. The flesh crosses its arms and
tries to bow up, but the new man just bows over and over.
Truth Lord, you're, you're reigning sovereign. Man, I believe the lie gives
them power to make God do something or make God, prevent God from
doing something. Fill in the blank. It doesn't
matter whatever we want to fill in the blank with, but we can't
make or prevent him doing anything. He's God. He's God. All men and women, boys and girls. And that's all that there is,
is men and women, boys and girls. believe what they want to believe. They believe what they want to
believe, and that's the problem, isn't it? Every man, woman, boy,
and girl believes exactly what they want to believe, don't they? From birth, they believe what
they want to believe. If one man can talk you into
it, another man can talk you out of it, and yet we believe
what we want to believe. Do we understand we need a new
want to? You believe the gospel because you want to. You didn't
whenever you first heard it probably, and if you did, it was by his
grace revealing it immediately to you. We know that to be true,
but we need a new want to, don't we? That's the problem is our
want to. We don't want to worship God whenever we're in the flesh.
How many of us are tired tonight? Would rather have stayed home,
but yet there's a hunger inside that the Lord's given us. I got
to have another piece of bread. I'm dying. I need to be washed
clean again, Lord. Cause your spirit to rain down
upon us and wash us, make us clean. I need your truth. Because
all I'm hearing out in this world is lies. It's the lie. All I'm seeing around me is death
and, and everybody's content doing it. Lord, I need your life.
I need your, your light. I need another, I need another
drop of living water. I need another drink. Aren't you glad he's faithful
to give you just that when you beg for it? Aren't you glad that
he promised I'll never leave you nor forsake you? But Lord,
I couldn't see you. It doesn't change it. He's still the truth.
Just because we can't see it doesn't change it. Just because
we choose to believe it doesn't change the truth. Just because
we choose to not believe it. Whatever it is, according to
God, it's true, period. My belief or unbelief in it doesn't
change it at all, does it? Now we must believe it. I mean,
it's a life and death. situation under there's nothing
greater life and death than believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. And
yet he's the one that has to be the doer of it. He's the one
that has to give that life giving water. He's the one that has
to reveal that life giving truth that he's God. Otherwise, we're
going to hear him say, I tell you of a truth and we say away
with this man. No, I have a righteousness before
God. I've done something right. You're
telling me everything I do is wrong. Yes. Yes, that's the truth. Everything we do, every thought,
every breath we take, every heartbeat we've ever had is just utterly
simple. Lord, I need a substitute. Lord,
I need a savior. I need a surety. Even when instructed, mankind
will not believe this truth. Eve is a good example of that,
but there's another example that immediately followed in her own
offspring, Cain. Cain knew what to offer unto
the Lord. His father would have taught him. Don't sew fig leaves
together, son. The Lord's gonna have to cover
you in his righteousness. It's not gonna work. Those fig
leaves aren't gonna get the job done. We need a covering of skin.
We need the blood to be applied. That's what he would have taught
his son. That's what Christ taught him as soon as they had sinned,
after he had appeared to them. Yet Cain brought the works of
his hands. And God says, I have no respect
to you or your offering, neither one. Neither one. But God doesn't
kill him on the spot for that. God doesn't cast judgment upon
him at that moment. I've never thought of this before,
but he had falsely worshiped God. He had drawn attention to
himself. He had made it about himself,
and yet God doesn't do anything but rebuke him here and correct
him. He doesn't kill him. He doesn't kill him for it. He
just rebukes him, doesn't he? And he tells him, if you do well,
Do you not trust with you? If you do well, what's well?
Looking to Christ. That's well. It's his faith. That's our justification. It
wasn't that he would work something else up and do well. No, it was
that he would offer what God is pleased with, the blood. What
do we bring in our hand? Nothing. We're just pleading
for the blood of Christ to be applied. Pleading for his truth. He said, y'all do us well, shall
thou not be accepted? He instructed him. Cain did not believe. He made
the only choice that you and I can make in the flesh. He tried
to push Christ off the cliff, but because he was not able to
do that, and I'm speaking metaphorically, of course, he killed his brother.
You accepted him, but you won't accept me? I'm gonna kill him.
Well, that's a picture of Christ, isn't it? The father's pleased
with the Lord Jesus Christ, but not us. What do men say? Kill
him. He's just Joseph, son. He's not
God. I find it amazing that they get him to the cliff. He let
him go that far. I don't know why he didn't pass
through immediately. It's not for us to know. He's God. He
made the decision to do it and we just bow to it. But I think
to show us probably he was human and they really laid hands on
him. He was 100% human, 100% man, 100% God. But he gets to
the cliff and what does it say he did? He passed through him. Now, all of a sudden, they have
a hold of him, driving him to this cliff, and he is still in the
flesh. So he doesn't just poof, disappear
like a magic trick. That's not what happened at all.
He just turned the blinders on all of them. They couldn't see
him anymore. He passed right through him. His time had not
come yet. It's a picture of what men want
to do to Christ in false religion by watering him down or dethroning
him, devaluing him, even killing him. And yet he just passes right
through unscathed. Man can't do anything against
God, can they? He does all things according
to the counsel of his own will, by his determinate counsel. We
can't do anything to him. Now, Eve and Cain are only two
of the accounts of this hate for the truth in Scripture. How
many times did we read, we came through the Old Testament together,
and how many times did we read about a prophet that was under
duress or a prophet that was despised, rejected, hated even,
and murdered, and murdered? How many prophets were killed?
You remember Elijah, he had just saw the fire of God fall down
on Mount Carmel. And Jezebel gets the word that
400 of the priests of hers had been slaughtered. And she says,
I'm going to kill you and comes after Elijah. And what did he do? He says, no, I believe in the
truth. I'll be just fine. He runs and hides like a scared
little boy. He was scared to death. Is that
not us? Just saw the fire of God fall. And now I'm running
and hiding. That's just us, isn't it? And what did the Lord do?
He delivered him time and time again. Even though Jeremiah was
full of unbelief and full of fear and doubt, he believed God
because God had given him the faith to do so. And God was pleased
with Jeremiah for that reason and that reason only. Lord's
only looking for one thing, the faith that believes the truth.
That's what he's looking for in his people. That's what we
must have. Amos comes and declares that
Jeroboam the king will die, and the high priest named Amaziah
hated the prophecy. He said, don't talk about that
anymore. Change your prophecy, he says. And it's funny, Amos says, I
was just a farmer. He says, I was a nobody. I was
nothing. And the word of the Lord came
to me. What am I supposed to say other than what he told me?
I didn't even want this job, is what he's saying. I didn't
even sign up for this. I'm just telling you the truth.
That's what I have to tell you. That's what I have to tell you.
And he said, don't talk about it anymore. We'll kill you. Well,
he was faithful unto the Lord and declared what he was meant
to, and all throughout the Old Testament into the new. John
the Baptist, John the Baptist was beheaded. The last prophet,
of course, Christ, but you understand what I'm saying. He was beheaded. And why was he beheaded? Because
he told the truth unto Herod. He said, it's not lawful for
you to have your brother's wife. And the Lord allowed Satan to
enter into the heart of that woman. First chance she got.
She said, I want his head on a platter. And that's exactly
what she got. The Lord allowed it. Every time
the truth is brought forward, every time a gospel preacher
declares the truth, those whom the Lord's called, truth goes
forth. It does one of two things. Now,
some people I understand are going to be indifferent or, or
not hear anything, but ultimately. If someone hears something, it's
gonna do one of two things. It's gonna expose their righteousness
and make them angry, or it's gonna expose their unrighteousness
and make them flee to Christ. That's what it does. That's what
the truth does. Either it shows us that our righteousness is
filthy rags and we need to substitute, or it shows us that we would
rather have our righteousness than that of Christ, because
all he is is Joseph's son after all. It's the only two things. All these men were just declaring
the truth, and men killed them for it. Christ said in Luke 13,
34, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets and stoneth
them that are sent unto thee. What was the prophet's purpose
in coming to Jerusalem, to Israel? Just to declare the truth. They
didn't come in and They didn't declare the truth so it would
be so, meaning they didn't prophesy to make something happen. Do
we see that? They didn't have the power to control God. All
that they did was bear the message. God said, this is going to happen.
Go tell him. It wasn't that they said, okay,
this is going to happen now. I've made God obligated. That's
not what happened. He just was declaring the truth.
They that were prophets were just declaring the truth and
they stoned him. Christ said, how often would
I gather that children together, as a hen doth gather her brood
under her wings, and you would not. And for this, behold, your
house is left desolate, left empty. You don't have my truth.
You will not have my truth. And whether or not, I've said
this while ago, but it's important to reiterate this, whether or
not we believe the truth or not, it doesn't change the truth.
It doesn't change it. God doesn't need me to believe
it. in order for it to be so. Truth is so, whether I believe
it or not. I have to believe it in order to be saved, but
he's the one that has to reveal it. It's hidden. It's hidden.
It's so evident throughout scripture. The truth is a person, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and the truth is God's gospel. Jesus Christ is
God's gospel. Everything that he purposed to
do in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's his gospel.
He successfully redeemed every single Alexander the father gave
him. That's the simple truth of it, isn't it? He didn't try.
He didn't attempt. He didn't hope, and he's still
not trying, attempting, or hoping. He successfully redeemed. He
saved his people from their sin. There's the truth. But what about
me? Where does that leave me in the
equation? Hopefully, we're the benefactors of that truth, of
that salvation. Otherwise, there's nothing we
can do to obtain it. There's nothing we can do to
prevent it. It's his truth. God's design of sovereign grace
are all for His glory, not ours. It is in His power and it is
by His power, according to His will, that He redeemed. He has
all the power. Paul said this, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God and to salvation
to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek. Not ashamed of the gospel. That's the power of God. That's
what he's chose to use to bring men and women to the knowledge
of his truth, that Christ is God. How do we believe this? If he says it's the power of
God and salvation to everyone that believeth, how do we believe
it? Well, he's the doer of it, isn't he? It's all by his will.
The Lord said this in John 1, but to as many would receive
him, As many would receive him, to them gave he power to become
the sons of God. So all you have to do is receive,
right? Well, what's the next verse say? Which were born, not
of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor the will of man, but
of God. It was God's will. It wasn't
according to the will of the flesh or blood. It was of God's
choice, wasn't it? Boy, men hear this. You say,
you mean I have no power to choose? The answer is yes. You have no
power. I have zero power. Zero power. Brethren, you know
it's true. We don't even keep ourselves.
After we're saved, there's men talking, you have to live a Christian
life. You have to, you know what the
Christian life looks like? You've heard me say this, but
it's a bunch of dead dog sinners begging for another crumb from
the master's table. That's what the Christian life looks like.
Men say, you need to clean up your life. You need to do this.
You need to do that. The Lord says, look to Christ.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the simple truth of it.
We believe on him, he's going to keep us. And he's going to
continually turn us. And he will do the work. If the
Lord's gonna solve anything in this life, it's going to be by
his gospel. That's how he corrects his people
is by his gospel, isn't it? He allows us to go in a valley
and he brings us back with his gospel. allows us to drift off
and he brings us back with his gospel. He keeps us. 1 Peter
1 tells us that his elect are kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
Understand by nature, everyone is dead. Everyone is dead and
must be made alive. This is how he does it by his
truth. The same power that called us We start over. The same power
that saved us is the same power it calls us, is the same power
that keeps us. It's all his truth. It's all
his truth. None can tell the difference.
I thought about this. These men were talking to the
light of the world. Now I can't enter into that,
talking to the Lord Jesus Christ face to face, but we could briefly
try to. They were looking at the light
of the world and they couldn't differentiate between light and
darkness. They couldn't tell their right
hand from their left hand. They didn't know which way it
was up, which way it was down. Why? Because they were dead.
They were dead. Lord, make us alive by your truth. This is all by his purpose and
his will. It's all his work. He had saved
his people from their sin. This is the only truth whereby
we must be saved. There's no other name given,
but the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other truth given
that declares that we must be saved because of his finished
work. Do you, do we see that we must be saved? That's the
why, because of his finished work, his people must be called
in time. They have to be, or he would
have failed. He's going to call him. Tonight in closing, I want to
ask us this question. Do we want the truth? Do you
want the truth? Some people say you can't handle
the truth. You ever heard that before? That's absolutely right.
This flesh can't handle the truth, but boy, that new man can. It's
what he lives off of. It's what he feeds off of. That's
the desire completely is under the Lord. Lord, give me your
truth lest I die. If you want the truth, Christ
said, you, speaking to his sheep, you, my sheep, shall know the
truth. You're going to know him. Well,
I'm going to know if I'm his, I'm going to know him. I'm going
to know his words. I'm going to believe him. You shall know
the truth. He didn't say you might. He didn't say, I'm going
to let you, or he says, I may, if you do this, he said, you're
going, you shall know the truth. And that truth, that's, what's
going to set you free. It's going to condemn others.
It's going to anger others, but you're going to rejoice in it.
Why? Because it's the life-giving sustenance you have to have.
It's the bread of life. It's the fountain of living water.
It's the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ for his people.
It is salvation. His truth is salvation being
revealed. His truth revealed is his salvation. The truth can only do one of
those two things, either condemn or make us free. And it's all
by his doing. We know that it's true that we must be made to
believe. We must be made to come, or we never would. Lord, I'll
reject your truth. Lord, I don't want to reject
your truth. Give us your truth. Those whom he loves are set free
by his truth from the bonds of the law, from the bonds of self,
from the bonds of sin. You say, well, I still see self
and sin. I know, but he doesn't. He doesn't. How God sees it,
how it really is, he's already glorified his people. We're just
waiting for the last tick of the clock to expire, that He's
purpose for us to awaken His likeness. He set us free from
the bonds of self, from the bonds of sin, from the bonds of Satan,
death, hell, and the grave. Who shall separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus? Every single person that
Christ died for, He will call in time. Why? He saved them. He saved them. This is His truth.
All because His finished work, by His blood, He did it all.
He makes us believe that. If we're offended at this truth,
at this gospel, then the truth hasn't been revealed yet. If
that's all it can do is just offend us, Lord, we need to cry
out, Lord, have mercy. I'm offended at this truth. The
flesh is going to be, but the new man rejoices. And if we love
this gospel, it's all his doing. I love the thought that we have
the truth. We really have it. We really
believe that this is the truth. It's different than any other
gospel being declared. It gives God all the glory. There's no
other gospel among men that gives God all the glory. There's always
something little somewhere else along the way where a man has
to do something. This gospel, we know it's true because it
gives God every bit of the glory and it gives us none. It shames
the flesh completely. We have his truth. What mercy
there is in him revealing that, just bestowing that upon us,
allowing us to have it. He could have left us in utter
darkness like all of these other men that wanted to kill him.
All these other women that set away with him. We have his truth. His gospel makes it clear that
he's looking for that truth. David said it and we read it
already. Thou desire truth in the inward parts. How am I gonna
get truth in the inward parts? Lord, you're gonna have to do
it. My heart's deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
It's an interesting contrast because the word deceitful is
the opposite of truth, isn't it? Lord, my heart's deceitful. I need your true heart. That's
the beg. That's how we come, what we beg
for. How is that which is unclean
going to wash itself in the blood? You can't do it. Lord, you're
going to have to do it. I was looking at a couple other songs tonight
and I realized there are several songs that are really close to
the truth, but They're not the truth. And, uh, one of them was
talking about coming to the fountain and washing yourself in the,
how are we going to wash ourself in the blood of Christ? That's
impossible. What they mean by that is make your decision and
then you'll be washed. And that's literally what they're
saying. I'm going to wash myself in the blood of Christ. That's
so, Oh, that's so contrary to scripture. Lord, you're going
to have to wash me. David didn't say, Lord, I'm going to let you
wash me. He said, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.
Watch me. And I shall be made wider than snow. I have no other
hope, but you're going to be the doer of it, Lord. That's the
truth, isn't it? That's the truth of his gospel.
Lord, you have to be the doer of it. How is the truth gonna
manifest, be manifest into you and me? Be manifest in us. It's the same as it is for all
believers. Comes one way, faith being bestowed.
He creates truth in the inward parts by bestowing his faith.
And he sees that, the faith of his son. And he says, this is
my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. This here ye him, this
is who the Lord satisfied with as his darling son. There's nothing
more glorious to the believer than God's truth in his gospel.
Thank God for his truth. Thank God for him choosing to
reveal his truth to a bunch of sinners like us. Thank God for
his Christ, our successful redeemer. The Lord is going to reveal his
truth. And if he chooses not to, we'll never believe it. The
Lord's gonna have to do it if we're gonna believe it. Lord,
reveal your truth right now to me and to you. May he be pleased
to do so. That's our prayer every time
we come here, isn't it? Lord, I've come again to hear your truth.
I've come again to see your face. I've come again to worship you.
Lord, please do it. Please don't leave me to myself.
Let me see your truth one more time. Amen.