You know, the Scripture tells us plainly why those who reject and despise the Savior don't dance when the gospel is piped. And it's because those that are well need not a physician. It's because there's no need of crying. If what we're piping is that there's hope for sinners, You're not going to rejoice unless you're a sinner. The Pharisees said we'd be not sinners. You know, I'm sure they would have said we used to be, but not, you know, not anymore.

No, the Lord doesn't save good people. He saves sinners. He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Pardon is only going to sound good to a prisoner. And again, the Pharisees said, what do you mean we'll be free, that the Son will set us free? We're not in bondage to any man. Well, then you're not going to dance when pardon to prisoners is preached. It's that simple. If you're a wretch and you're hopeless, not only infinitely sinful, but incapable of doing anything about it, and the effectual substitute for sinners is preached, the true sinner says, that's music to my ears.

David danced before the ark of God, which was Christ. He rejoiced in the Savior. He knew that that arc was where God met with sinners and communed with them. That's Christ. And he danced before that arc. His wife mourned. And she called him an idiot for doing that. She called it a shameful display.

While the Pharisee was dancing to his own piping about religious accomplishments and morality, the publican was mourning, saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. He wouldn't lift up his eyes to heaven. He'd beat upon his breast. He was in mourning before God over his sinfulness and unworthiness. Pharisees over there dancing. rejoicing in his own goodness, imagined goodness.

If we ever find out by God's grace, the condition we were in before God, you're going to want out of that condition. You're going to want out of it. You're going to want to be free. You're going to want righteousness before God. And you will violently, desperately lay hold of Christ. He's the door.

Religious lost people are never satisfied no matter what They're gonna murmur and complain and be discontent no matter what unless and until God sheds the love of Christ abroad in their hearts You know you hear All kinds of things about what people want. It's not difficult to see. You see it on social media and other places. In person, people have asked me, what do you have for the young people? You don't have enough for the young people. I would never want to be in the position of saying that the gospel of Christ is not enough.

You don't have enough of an outreach program. God's people don't complain because they're hearing the gospel and that's what they came for. Religion was shocked. What went ye out for to see? And the Lord told them what they were expecting. A wishy-washy, compromising, effeminate, worthless religionist. I didn't like it because they didn't get what they came for. That's what rejoices me when I see the true church of God gathered in his name to hear the gospel, because it's what you came for.

If you're coming here to be entertained, you wouldn't be here, would you? If you come here to hear somebody with great personality, you know, You didn't get what you came for. You know, people go to church for that reason because their preacher's funny or has a great personality or is handsome or whatever. I miss all of those marks. So I reckon if you're here, you came to hear of Christ. They hunger and thirst after righteousness, which is in Christ alone. Not entertainment, not recognition, not let's give a rose to the oldest mother and the youngest mother and the one with the most children on Mother's Day and then Father's Day, you know, same thing. And on another different day, you know, for the most, you know, days of services attended in a row or whatever.

They take the kingdom by force because they don't have any choice. They don't have to be enticed by words of man's wisdom, but they must have Christ. If he's preached plainly, if he's preached simply, if he's preached by somebody without much education and not a whole lot of brain power, but if he's preached, That's what they came to hear.

Taking the kingdom of heaven by force means hearing of Christ. No matter what. No matter what. They sat at his feet, no matter what. Mary sat at his feet, though Martha was complaining. Her sister helped me help do this. We've got things to do. She sat at his feet. no matter what.

The rich young ruler walked away from the Lord Jesus Christ because he didn't have that violence, that violent need to lay hold of Christ where he would give up everything. He didn't have to have Christ no matter what. Everything I have, small price.

No man can come by nature. God in his sovereign grace gives faith, and faith is a violent grace. It's an insistent grace. It's a grace that would turn down all the treasures of Egypt, which were rightfully his, Moses. and prefer the reproach of Jesus Christ over all that, the respect, the praise of this world, high position, and all the wealth he could possibly imagine. To be hated with the Son of God is better than that. That's violent faith.

It's the difference in the heart that's made in the heart. Christ dwells in the heart by faith, and a sinner is never the same again. The religious pretenders will never be happy with Christ and his gospel, and the sheep of God will never be happy with anything else. That's the two kinds of people that our Lord spoke of in our text.

Where are we in that lineup? And listen, let me close with this. Christ is what it's down to. Christ is what it comes down to. Someone who does not believe, let me be clear as I can about this. I love what we call the doctrines of grace, or if you'd rather call it the doctrine of grace. I love those truths because they exalt the Savior.

But if somebody doesn't believe in the sovereignty of God, They don't need to be taught the sovereignty of God. They need to hear of Christ and who He is and what He did. His sovereignty is inherent in Him. It's not a set of facts that are to be understood and believed in the mind, and there's a big difference. They need to hear of Christ.

Don't preach me a message on the sovereignty of Christ. Preach Christ, and it'll be evident that he does as he pleases in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of this earth. If they meet the Lord Jesus Christ himself in spiritual understanding, you'll see him on the throne high and lifted up.

But if the sovereignty of God is just a point of argument for you, if it's just a point of debate, those who do not believe in the effectual atonement of Christ, we don't use the word effectual a lot in common language, so let's just say how simple it is. It means they get the job done, effectual, got the job done. When Christ died for the atonement of his people, he atoned his people. When he died to redeem his sheep, he redeemed them. That's simply what effectual means. If somebody doesn't believe in that doctrine, they don't need to hear the doctrine. They need to meet the person. And I confess to you this, that most of the humanity of this world reject the doctrine. And believing the doctrine would be a good start to just acknowledge that he's God, that he does as he pleases. He doesn't try. He doesn't make available, he gives.

But there are also many who embrace the doctrine without knowing the person. How in the world do you know that, Chris? Exactly the way the Lord told us that we would know, by their fruits, by what they preach, by what matters to them. Knowledge puffeth up. Knowledge wants to argue. Knowledge says, I know more than you. Love buildeth up, the love of Christ. is what's necessary.

What did the Lord say about the pastors he would give to his people? They'll be pastors according to mine own heart. I don't know that I could give you a 12-point sermon on the heart of God, but I know one thing about the heart of Christ. He loves his sheep. He loves his sheep, he loves. It's why our Lord did not say, by this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you believe in the doctrine of election. He could have said that. Is that how you distinguish somebody that knows the Lord from somebody that doesn't? I could tell you a lot of people that use exactly that as the test.

No, what is it? Love, that you love, that you love one another. The Lord Jesus didn't ask, Simon, do you believe in sovereign grace? He said, do you love me? Do you love me? Feed my sheep. If that was much of orthodox religion, and I say orthodox, using that in the sense of believing the truth of scripture at least, they would have said, before you're qualified to feed the sheep, you've got to know this, this, this, this, and this. Or you can't preach to Christ's sheep. Christ had one qualification, do you love me? Not do you love Jesus, do you love me? Do you love the Christ of the Bible? Do you love God in human flesh? He didn't say, if you believe predestination, feed my sheep. No, if you love me. He didn't say, if you believe in irresistible grace, keep my commandments. He said, if you love me, the only way you're ever going to do anything that is not out-and-out open rebellion and sin against God is if you love the Savior.

Your doctrine's not going to keep you from out-and-out open rebellion and sin against God. If you love the Savior, it might. You're still just as wretched in your heart. It might just keep you from dishonoring Him in this world openly, outwardly. I tell you what, if you don't love him, nothing else is going to do that. If you love me, do what I tell you to do.

I'll tell you what our Lord did say. He said to the Pharisees, he said, you know, the scriptures better than anybody. They knew the scriptures. You search the Scriptures, you study the Scriptures, you can repeat, you've memorized the Scriptures. But the Scriptures are all about me, and you won't come to me. That's those who trust doctrine, who believe doctrine, who trust in their knowledge of doctrine, and haven't come to Christ. There's a whole bunch of those. Most don't even believe the doctrine. Most don't even search the Scriptures.

Ah, but if you do, don't look for issues to take a stand on. Look for God's son there. Look to fall in love with him more, more, more. That's why I preach. I want you to fall in love with God's son. And if you love him, I want you to love him more than you do. And that's what I want for myself. That's what our Lord taught. He did say this, here's something he did say. All of the law and the prophets are fulfilled in this. Not that you believe the doctrine of election. I do, and I rejoice in it. If God didn't elect a people in Christ, we're all going to hell, every one of us. But what fulfills all of the law and the prophets is this, that you love God. and you love your neighbor. Not tulip. That's wonderful and true as the doctrine of grace is, and I do rejoice in that.

You may wonder why I don't preach messages on total depravity. I preach Christ because if you ever come to know him, And only if you come to know Him will you see how wretched and depraved you are, and no other way." You can agree with all the truth about how that, you know, we're sinful from the top of our head to the soles of our feet, that there's no soundness in us, there's none that doeth good, no, not one. I could quote all of that. But we can't trust doctrine. We've got to trust God's Son. We've got to fall in love with Him. And that's synonymous with faith. If you know Him, you love Him. If you believe Him, you love Him. We've got to believe on the Son of God.

You won't come to me. You know the Scripture better than anybody. But in the Scripture, you find all of your points. You probably have a doctrinal statement that you could never find any fault with. But in all of that, you've never seen that the Holy Word of God from start to finish points to a person. And you won't come to me because you see all this stuff in the Scripture, but you don't see me. You've missed me.

When we see in God's Word the Gospel, the good news of Christ, see what He said, the grace that poured from His lips, the admonishments and the rebukes of Christ. We see the long-suffering and kindness with which He dealt with sinners. We see Him give sight to blind men, heal the mortal disease of the woman, that touch the hem of his garment. Take little children up into his arms. We're getting to know a person. We're finding out who he is and what he did for us. We're falling in love with someone more and more and more.

Knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up. and listen to that verse of Scripture. Turn there with me, we'll be through 1 Corinthians 8.1. I want you to see that passage of Scripture in the context of the verse we just quoted. Now, as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. You understand that the Corinthians were very smart. They were very gifted in understanding the Bible. They were gifted in doctrine. We all have that knowledge, but knowledge puffeth up, but love edifies. And listen, You say, well, that's just talking about idols, you know, how to deal with things offered to idols and things like that. That's not the gospel. Listen, verse two.

And if any man think that he knoweth anything, You think you know total depravity? You know something about that? You think you know something about unconditional election, limited atonement? If you don't know what TULIP was, I said TULIP a while ago. Total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saint, all truth, all truth. It's not gonna mean anything, though, unless you know Christ. Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth. And if any man think that he knoweth anything, you don't know anything like you ought to know. If we knew that, we probably wouldn't argue with people and say, I know more than you. Say, oh boy, you didn't preach that right. You know, what about that? You don't know anything like you ought to know it. But, if any man loved God, could anything be clearer in the scriptures? If any man loved God, we're not talking about a lovey-dovey gospel here. We love everybody. You know, all you need is love. No, we're talking about loving God. We're talking about loving the one that this world spit on, ripped his back open, beat him in the face, pulled his beard out, crushed his brow with thorns, drove nails into his hands and feet, and mocked him while he bled out. We're talking about loving Him. That's what we're talking about.

If any man love God, you don't know anything. If you're trusting in your knowledge, you're a goner because you don't know anything like you ought to know. Your knowledge is not going to cut the mustard. But if you love God, here's your security. He knows you. That's evidence that He knows you because if you love Him, He first loved you. There's your security, not your knowledge, a person and what he did for you and who he knows, not what you know. Is that clear?

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I've become as a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of all prophecy, which if you read chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians, he says, you know, tongues is all fine and well. The Lord uses tongues right now. And, you know, that's a blessing of God to be able to speak in tongues, but prophesying, that's what's important in the church. Nobody's going to hear the gospel unless you preach it, not babble. And he said, preach it in words easy to understand. You can read 1 Corinthians 14, but this prophesying thing is nothing to bat an eye at.

But he said, though you have all the gifts of prophecy and understand all mysteries, all of them, and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains and have not love. I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not love, why would somebody do that? Why would somebody give all that they have to the poor if they don't love the poor? You know why? To get to heaven when they die. That's why. It profiteth me nothing. All your works, all of your knowledge, all of your faith, all of your everything is nothing unless God in love for you gave you a love for him.

Lord, give us grace to fall in love with you. In the person of your son, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. Whether he believes in the doctrine of election and predestination or not, let him be accursed. If you don't love Christ, you ought to go to hell. And may he give us the grace to love him more and more as time goes by.

Amen, let's pray.