In Revelation chapter 1, as John
is receiving this vision and revelation of Christ, he said,
I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation
and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, which was in
the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and for the
testimony of Jesus Christ, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. and heard behind me a great voice
as of a trumpet saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the
beginning and the end, the first and the last. That's our hope
this morning, that the Lord will enable us to worship him in the
spirit and that we'll hear his voice speak to our hearts. I
am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last. We've come
here to worship him. Let's stand together for the
psalm number 69 in the hardback hymnal. Safely through another week,
God has brought us on our way. Let us now a blessing seek, waiting
in his courts today. Day of all, the week the best,
emblem of eternal rest. Day of all, the week the best,
emblem of eternal rest. While we pray for pardoning grace,
through the dear Redeemer's name, show thy reconciled face, take
away our sin and shame. From our worldly care set free,
may we rest this day in thee. From our worldly care set free,
may we rest this day in thee. Here we come, thy name to praise. Let us feel thy presence near. May thy glory meet our eyes,
while we in thy house appear. Here afford us, Lord, a taste
of our everlasting feast. Here afford us, Lord, a taste
of our everlasting feast. May thy gospels' joyful sound
conquer sinners, comfort saints. May the fruits of grace abound,
bring relief for all complaints. Thus may all our Sabbaths prove
till we join the church above. Thus may all our Sabbaths prove
till we join the church above. Please be seated. We have a Sabbath, the rest We're going to be back in the
book of Mark this morning, Mark chapter 9, if you'd like to turn
with me there in your Bibles, Mark chapter 9. We'll ask the
Lord's blessings on our time together and we want to pray
specifically for Hugo. Hugo had some internal bleeding
Friday night as a result of a colonoscopy that he had had a few days prior.
And by the time they got him to the hospital, he was in shock
and had lost four pints of blood. And so the emergency room went
into panic mode because he was dying, and they gave him the
wrong kind of blood. So anyway, he's still having
some bleeding this morning, but they have everything under control. He's I talked to him just a few
minutes ago and he's he's feeling fine right now so. Just never know. Never know. Digno also called this morning.
I know y'all love Digno. Courage so much by her and. We
none of us know how much she prays for every one of us. And it just grieves her heart
when she's not able to be here, but she's not feeling well this
morning and wanted us to know that she would have to miss.
So let's think Dignas 91, two, 92, 92. Let's pray together. Our merciful heavenly father,
how very thankful we are for for thy mercy. Thankful that
we can address you as our heavenly father. Thankful, Lord, that
we have acceptance before thy throne of grace in the person
of thy dear son. Thankful for the hope of eternal
life and for the forgiveness of sin. Lord, how hopeful we
are that you'd be pleased to fulfill your promise among us
this morning. that you would inhabit the praise
of thy people, and Lord, that you would walk among the candlestick,
make thyself known to our hearts, and cause us, Lord, to find our
rest in our Sabbath. Lord, we thank you for Hugo,
and thank you for Digna, and how we do pray that you would
be merciful, and pray that your hand of healing would be upon
them, Pray that you would recover them and bring them back to fellowship
here with us. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. All right, you have your Bibles
open to Mark chapter nine. We'll begin reading at verse
30. And they departed fence and passed
through Galilee And he would not that any man
should know it. For he taught his disciples and
said unto them, the son of man is delivered into the hands of
men and they shall kill him. And after that it is killed,
he shall rise the third day. But they understood not that
saying and were afraid to ask him. There's a difference between
those who understand not and are afraid to ask, and those
who understand not and object. God's people, when they don't
understand, they come humbly before Him. And the unbeliever,
they just butt what God says. They reject it and argue against
it. And he came to Capernaum and
being in the house, he asked them and here we get some understanding
as to why they understood not what he said. They asked him,
I'm sorry, he came to Capernaum and being in the house, he asked
them, what was it that you disputed among yourselves by the way?
But they held their peace. They were ashamed of what they
were disputing. their conscience convicted them. For by the way,
they had disputed among themselves who should be the greatest. And
he sat down and called the 12 and said unto them, if any man
desire to be first, the same shall be last of all and servant
of all. And he took a child and set him
in the midst of them. And when he had taken him in
his arms, he said unto them, whosoever shall receive one of
such children in my name receiveth me. And whosoever shall receive
me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me. And John answered
him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name,
and he followed not us. And we forbade him, because he
followed not us. But Jesus said, Forbid him not,
for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name that
can speak lightly, or that can lightly speak evil of me. For
he that is not against us is on our part. I've titled this
message, All Taught of God. It's the Lord that does the teaching.
And he is always successful in accomplishing the lessons that
he would have his children to learn. In John chapter 6 verse
45, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. So we know that we've been taught
of God when we are enabled by the Spirit of God to come to
Christ, to seek Him, to follow after Him, to look to Him, for
all the hope of our righteousness and all of our justification
before God. Every man that hears the voice
of God, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. They shall
be all taught of God. All of God's children are taught
to come to Christ. But they're taught something
else in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 9, but as touching brotherly
love, you need not that I write unto you for you yourselves are
taught of God to love one another. Two things the Lord teaches every
one of his children, come to Christ, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, rest all the hope of your salvation on him and love
your brethren. That's the two things. And indeed
this passage in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 where Paul tells the
church in Thessalonica that they shall all be taught of God to
love one another and indeed you do it towards all the brethren
which are in Macedonia but we beseech you brethren that you
increase more and more. So this lesson that the Lord
teaches the hearts of every one of his children To love the brethren
is an increasing love. That's growth in grace, that
God enables his children to love their brethren more and more
as they learn to lean on the Lord Jesus Christ more and more. These are the lessons that are
taught of God. John chapter 8, will you turn
with me there please? The question that I want to try
to answer now is why is it that these disciples could not understand
the things that the Lord was saying? He made it clear. They're going to kill me. And the scripture says they did
not understand but they were afraid to ask. Why did they not
understand? Well, the reason why they did
not understand is different from the reason why the unbelievers
don't understand. Look what the Lord says in John
chapter 8 at verse 43. Why do you not understand my
speech? Even because you cannot hear
my word. The Lord didn't say that to his
disciples. He said that to these Pharisees. You don't understand
my speech because you cannot hear my word. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing
comes by the Word of God. And the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit, for they are spiritually discerned,
neither can he know them. He can't know the things of God.
And that's what the Lord's saying. So all men, believers, unbelievers,
reprobate and elect, hear the voice of God. And at some point,
all of us have trouble understanding exactly what the Lord's saying.
But to the reprobate, he says, you can't understand it. Verse 44 in John chapter 8, you
are of your father the devil and the lust of your father you
will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in
the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh
a lie, he speaketh of his own for he is a liar and the father
of it. So they're heeding the voice
of the devil according to what the Lord says here. They're not
able to hear the voice of God because they're listening to
the enemy of God and the enemy of God's people. Verse 45, and
because I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Which of
you convinces me of sin? and if i say the truth why do
you not believe me remember what the disciples said they did not
understand what he was saying and they were afraid to ask they
were they were humbled before the lord wondering what does
he mean what we think he might mean he that is of god he that is
of god heareth god's word you therefore hear them not because
you're not of God. Now that's a sobering truth. Those who are not of God cannot
hear the Word of God. They are unable to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. They will but everything God
says. They will object to the truth of the gospel in the free
grace and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's people
When they hear, sometimes they don't understand. Now, in some respect, go back
with me to Mark chapter 9. In some respect, the reason why
the disciples could not understand the things that the Lord was
saying was similar to the reason why the unbeliever can't understand
the things the Lord say. Why were they not able to receive
this clear message that the Lord gave when he said, the son of
man, they knew he was talking about himself, I am the son of
man. The son of man is delivered into the hands of men and they
shall kill him and after he is killed he shall rise the third
day. Why were they not able to understand
that simple, clear speech? because at the time the Lord
said this they were arguing who was going to be greatest in the
kingdom of God and they could not reconcile
in their mind how this son of man who is also the son of God
could be the Messiah establish a kingdom of which they were
going to be choice servants in and be killed at the same time.
How could that happen? How could the Messiah die? How
could he be killed? In other words, they had a preconceived
idea about the kingdom of God and they were unable to reconcile
the truth with their own mistaken presuppositions. And in that
regard, the unbeliever and the believer is the same way. We're
not able to receive the things of God because we hear the things
of God with some ideas that are not right. And we're not able
to reconcile the things that God's saying with the things
that we presume are already true. I've used this illustration before.
It's very simple. It's an illustration that we
can all relate to. You've buttoned up your shirt before and gotten
to the last button and realized you've got an extra hole on the
other side of your shirt. How are you going to fix that
problem? Just going to try to correct
it with the last button? No. You've got to start over,
don't you? You've got to unbutton the whole shirt and make sure
the first button gets in the first hole. And that's the only
way it's going to work. You see, people have got their,
they've got everything buttoned up. They've got their doctrine
all figured out. And they get to the end and rather
than going back to the beginning and changing their preconceived
ideas, they try to fix or try to reconcile and they can't understand
it. Another way to illustrate this is several years ago we
were driving to Pensacola. Trisha's family lives in Pensacola
and going north on 75 and we're talking in the car and having
a good time and get to the I-10 intersection and it's late in
the afternoon and so we exit off of 75 to get on 10 to go
west of Pensacola. Well, I was driving, not paying
attention to the signs took the wrong off ramp and headed east
on I-10, head toward Jacksonville. And we're just still going along
merrily down I-10 east until somebody realizes in the car
that the sun's setting behind us. How can that be? The sun always rises in the east
and it always sets in the west. Had we not noticed the position
of the sun, We'd have kept going east until we got to Jacksonville. The only way that we're going
to know the truth is to understand the position of the son. Understand who he is and what
he's accomplished. And if we've got the, you see
the disciples thought even up to the ascension of the Lord
Jesus Christ from Mount of Olives in Acts chapter
one. You remember when the disciples
asked the Lord, is it time now for you to establish your kingdom?
Okay, we got the death understood now, and the resurrection, which
we didn't understand when you first were telling us, but we
understand that now. Now is it time for you to establish
your kingdom. They're still thinking that the
kingdom of God's going to be an earthly kingdom. and that
they're going to have a position of authority in the kingdom,
and they're still arguing among themselves as to who's going
to be on the right hand and who's going to be on the left hand. When John and James were arguing
over that position, they sent their mother to the Lord to inquire
of the Lord if her sons could be on the right hand and the
left hand. They're still arguing about their position in the kingdom,
aren't they? And the Lord said to James and John's mother, it's
not for me, that's the father's position. He said, I have a baptism to
be baptized of which you knoweth not. He asked him, he said, are
you prepared to be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized
with? Oh, we are, Lord, we are. And the Lord said, and you shall.
The Lord was speaking of his baptism of fire, the baptism
of his death on Calvary's cross. And the truth is that when the
Lord Jesus Christ died on Calvary's cross, everyone that God chose
in the covenant of grace, everyone that God placed in the Lord Jesus
Christ before the foundation of the world, died with him. That's why Paul said, I am crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I. but it's Christ that liveth in me, the life that I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. Oh, that I might know the fellowship
of his suffering. The Lord Jesus. You see, people
come to the, they come and they hear the gospel just like these
disciples with a preconceived idea that Christ died for everybody. and they're not able to understand
the things of God because they're trying to reconcile the message
of the gospel with this preconceived idea that Christ died for everybody.
You cannot reconcile those two things. They are mutually exclusive. The Lord Jesus Christ laid down
His life for the sheep. He said in John chapter 17 when
He's praying for the church, He said, Father, I pray not for
the world. I pray for them which thou hast given me out of the
world. But the whole religious world
believes that Christ died for everybody. The whole religious,
we see they started out with the wrong button and the wrong,
they're not looking to the position of the sun. They're headed towards
the sea of destruction. And every mile they're traveling,
they're traveling two miles away from their destination. You have
to turn around and go back. That is what repentance is. Repentance
is a changed mind. It is a complete rejection of
everything that I thought was true, I realize now was not true.
And only God can do that. The natural man is not going
to change his mind. I have already settled it. Christ
died for everybody. Now I have to figure out what
you are saying in relationship to that. You won't. You won't. Well, we know that God loves
everybody, right? Try to reconcile the gospel with
this preconceived notion that God loves everybody and you will
be just like these disciples. They could not understand the
things the Lord was saying because they were still debating over
who was going to be chief in the kingdom of God. They misunderstood
the whole kingdom of God. My kingdom's not of this world.
If my kingdom were of this world, my disciples would fight. It's
a spiritual kingdom. You can't see it with the natural
eyes. It can only be seen through the eyes of faith. And that God
has to give you. And if he gives you faith, this
idea that Christ died for everybody, he's going to change your mind
on that. This idea that God loves everybody? He's going to change
your mind on that. Here's the question. If Christ
died for everybody, then we must conclude that the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ has absolutely nothing to do with anyone's salvation. If the people who go to hell
Christ died for, as well as the people who go to heaven Christ
died for, then what does the death of Christ have anything
to do with anyone's salvation? If God loves everybody, if He
loves those who go to hell in the same way that He loves those
who go to heaven, then what does the love of God have to do with
anyone's salvation? It doesn't. You cannot believe
the gospel if you miss the first button. The first button is that I've loved you with an everlasting
There's never been a time when God hasn't loved his people. And the Lord said, I love them
to the end. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. You see, that preconceived
notion, just like these disciples, why couldn't they not understand
his speech? Because they could not reconcile
a Messiah a Christ, a Savior, who was going to die with this
idea of a kingdom that they had and their position in it. That's why we have to come before
the Lord. Lord, you're going to have to teach me. You see,
what the natural man believes to be true doesn't have to be
tweaked. It has to be changed. Everything that the natural man
believes to be true about God is completely opposite of what
the truth is. He's headed east, chatting, having
a good old time, and nobody's looking to where the sun's setting. The only way to fix that problem
is to turn around, go back to the start, the natural man. Everybody believes
this one. Everybody. I don't care if you're
Muslim. I don't care if you're Hindu.
I don't care if you're Catholic or Baptist or what you are or
completely irreligious. Everybody believes that man's
got a free will. And they're trying to reconcile
what they hear when we preach the gospel to that Untrue foundation Well, but God got I've got a
free will I make choices every day Making choices every day
is not that doesn't have anything to do with coming to Christ Coming to Christ is not a choice
It's not choice Don't like him don't like him coming to Christ
to decide him what shirt you're gonna wear this morning Yeah,
that's a choice. You got a free will when it comes
to that. You can choose this one or that one, whatever you
want. If the natural man is given the choice between Christ and
anything else, he will always choose something else. He has
a will, but his will is in bondage to his nature, and until he's
given a new nature, he will never come to Christ. Regeneration, that's the new
birth, necessarily precedes faith. Not in a chronological order,
not in a chronological order. They both happen at the same
time chronologically. But in a logical order, we've got to
be born again before we can see the kingdom of God. That's what
the Lord said to Nicodemus. You've got to be born of the
spirit. And the Lord gave the disciples
a choice, didn't he, when the 5,000 left, after he said, the
only reason you're following me, and this is so true of religion
today, the only reason you're following me is so that you can
have your bellies full. If you want to be my disciples,
you've got to take up your cross. That's identify yourself with
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Deny yourself. Deny your own
righteousness. Deny your own free will. And
follow after me. and description 5,000 people
he lost a 5,000 member church just like that and the disciples
again are thinking you know lord I was kinda harsh know what what
in there some way we can negotiate with them and the Lord looked at them and
he said aren't you gonna go with go ahead there's the invitation
The invitation is not to strum the heart strings of men and
get them to walk an aisle and pray a prayer. The invitation
is leave if you can. And the truth is that if you
can, eventually you will. God's people can't leave, why?
Because they've been made to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
What did Peter say? Lord, where are we gonna go?
We didn't come because we had a choice. You alone have the
words of eternal life. We know and are sure that thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You've shut us up
to yourself. We didn't have free will about
this. You made us to believe. And people hear the gospel and
they're trying to figure out what's being said. These disciples,
they didn't have any trouble with the words the Lord was saying.
the son of man's gonna be killed in three days is gonna rise again
that's simple language but they could not reconcile
that with their own wrong opinions about the kingdom of God and
their position in it Lord whatever opinions I have
You can look up the word opinion in the Bible or the word heresy
in the Bible that's used a couple times and the definition of heresy
is opinion. That's the definition of heresy.
Whatever your opinion is that's contrary to what God says is
a heresy. It's a heresy. Lord, whatever opinions I have,
Here's another presupposition that men have. God wants everybody
to be saved. Well, just think about that. If God wants everybody to be
saved, everybody's going to be saved. Otherwise, God's not God. He's not omnipotent. He's not
sovereign. His will can't be accomplished.
It makes man's will to be stronger than God's will, doesn't it?
Man has set himself up on the throne of God. When he thinks
free will, when he thinks God loves everybody, he thinks Christ
died for everybody, he thinks God wants everybody to be saved,
these are all the opinions of men. And I've got to try to reconcile
this thing of grace with this idea that I have that everybody's
going to be judged by what they do, aren't they? Don't everybody have to stand
before God and answer for their life and those who've done good
are going to receive eternal life and those who've done bad
are going to be sent to hell? Isn't that the way it is? That's
everybody's idea, salvation by works. You try to figure out the gospel
of God's free grace in the Lord Jesus Christ with that, you've
got the wrong button in the wrong hole. It's never going to work
out. You're going to get to the end
and find you got everything's out of sorts. You see, people come to church
and they listen to the things about God because they want peace
with men. They've got a broken relationship. They've got a bad marriage. relationship
with their children, whatever, as difficult as those things
are, I need God to help me. People come because they have
a financial problem. I want peace with men, I want
prosperity, I want popularity, I want... They try to figure out the gospel
in light of these things. The gospel is all about having
peace with God. The gospel is all about, faith
is all about believing God. It's all about the forgiveness
of sin. It's all about the hope of eternal
life. That's what the gospel is about.
And the Lord tells us, if you believe me, you're going to have
more problems in this world as far as your relationship with
other men. Your enemies will be of your own household. They'll
hate you. They hated the master. Do you
not think they're going to hate the servant too? But men love the praise of men
more than the praise of God, don't they? You see, these are the presuppositions
that God changes when he enables you to look in the rear view
mirror and see that the sun's behind you. You set your affections on him.
All is well. All is well. But God has to turn
us around, doesn't he? These disciples were arguing
over who was going to be greatest. And what did the Lord say? You
want to be first? You've got to be last. Did not
the Lord say? That's what Paul reminded the
elders in Acts chapter 20. He said, did not the Lord say
it's more blessed to give than to receive? You know, people by nature are
either givers or takers. And I've discovered that the
people that are the most unhappy in this world are the takers.
They never have enough. They're never satisfied. Always
wanting more. That's what we are by nature. The Lord's got to humble us. And in religion, those who would
take from the Lord Jesus Christ his glory and salvation, those
who would rob of him his righteousness by believing that there's something
righteous about themselves, those who would deny him his successful
death on Calvary's cross by believing in a general atonement or in
free will, those are the real takers, aren't they? The Lord teaches you the gospel.
He just makes you to be like a little child, doesn't he? Suffer
the little children to come unto me, for such is the kingdom of
God. Unless she becomes a little child, you should not enter the
kingdom of heaven. We have some babies in this church,
don't we? That's what he's talking about.
He's not talking about a little toddler or an eight-year-old. He's talking
about an infant. What can infants do? What can infants do? Two things. They can cry and they can mess
themselves up. Less you become as a little child.
You see, that's all we can do before God. We just mess ourselves
up. And then we cry, oh Lord, clean
me. Clean me. Feed me. Clothe me. I'll close with a passage in
Luke. Turn with me to Luke chapter 6, please. Verse 38, given it shall be given
unto you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken
together, running over, shall men give unto your bosom. For
with the same measure that you meet without, it shall be measured
again. Now, speaking of the gospel,
to whatever ground you come to God on, you come to God on your
free will, come to God on your works, come to God on the law,
You'll be judged by those things. Come to God looking to the Lord
Jesus Christ and hoping in him for all your righteousness and
justification before God. Look at verse 45. We'll just
skip down to verse 45. A good man out of the good treasure
in his heart bringeth forth that which is good. And an evil man
out of the evil treasure in his heart bringeth forth that which
is evil. For of the abundance of the heart
the mouth speaketh." In another place the Lord said, by your
words you will be justified or by your words you'll be condemned. What do we say? about the Lord
Jesus Christ. What do we say about salvation?
What do we say about ourselves? Lord, I'm a sinner. I have no righteousness outside
of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ actually
accomplished the salvation of his people when he bowed his
mighty head on Calvary's cross and cried, it is finished. Everything
necessary for everyone of God's people was accomplished in the
successful work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God, the only way
you're going to save me is if you change my mind. Give me repentance
and faith and cause me to rest all the hope of my salvation
on him, to look to him Is that your testimony? All right, let's take a break.