Luke 1254, and he said also to
the people, when you see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway
you say, there cometh a shower. And so it is. And when you see
the south wind blow, you say, there will be heat, and it cometh
to pass. You hypocrites. You can discern
the face of the sky and of the earth, But how is it that you
do not discern this time, yea, and why even of yourselves judge
ye not what is right? Our Lord puts a spotlight on and exposes the way that we
think as sinners. And needless to say, it ain't
pretty. We're able to discern natural
things. We can use deductive reasoning
and put two and two together. And there's nothing wrong with
our reasoning. Notice the words, so it is. In natural things,
we're doing pretty good. You know, man has, beyond just
being able to tell the weather, man has come up with some wonderful
observations and done some things. Of course,
all of it's according to God and His giving of the ability. Any wisdom is from Him, even
natural wisdom. But in natural things, He said,
so it is. You perceive that and you're
right about it. But when it comes to spiritual
things, we're absolute fools by nature. And notice that it's with regard
to two things. Who he is and what is right. Or in other words, who he is
and what he said. Because what is right? What he said. You don't know what's right.
Why? Because you haven't heard what he said. And you haven't
discerned this time. When he talks about discerning
this time, he's standing there, the Messiah, who was so meticulously
described and predicted in the Old Testament that you'd have
to be what he's calling them. Fools. You'd have to be a fool
not to say, this is Him. This is Him. He's so clearly identified in
the Old Testament and even plainly declares in Daniel chapter 9
when he would come. The wise men knew exactly when
he was coming. They came looking for him. And
where? The scriptures tell where he
would be born, when he would be born, what he would do when
he came, the miracles that are described. Much about the times
in which he would come, what would be going on in the world
at that time, where he would be born, where he would live. And this is what our Lord is
referring to when he says the time, this time. You can't discern
this time, he's talking about himself. You can't see that now
is the time. This is the time that all of
the scriptures foretell. He's saying you should know who
I am because of the time. And you should know the time
because of the word of God. See that now? How would they
know the time? How would they discern what this time? Well,
because God said And at this time, here's what's going to
happen. Here's who's coming. Here's who he is. Here's what
he's going to do. Here's where he's going to be.
I mean, you can't hardly describe anything more clearly. If I tell
you that much about something, what else do you need to know?
When, where, why, how, what? All of it's answered. So they should have discerned
the time because of the word of God. And they should know who he was,
who he is. And then he says, even of yourself,
you should know what's right, even without. So the time would
have been discerned by the word of God. And therefore the person
would have been known, who he is would have been known. But
he said, you don't even need the word of God to know what's right, even of
yourself. Now clearly we need to know,
we need the word of God. He's not saying that of course,
but you should know what's right without even looking at the Bible. That's revealed clearly in Romans
chapter one. We know what's right, don't we?
We may not have light on everything just from nature and conscience,
but we have enough light to acknowledge who God is and bow to him, his
eternal Godhead in power. So clearly what he's saying here,
you don't have any excuse from the word of God and just from
nature, just from of yourself you should know what's right. And then of course he came and
he gave us prophets. God who at sundry times and in
diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son.
He spoke in time past of old. God has always spoken to sinners.
Since there was a sinner, God's been speaking to them. So we
don't have to rely on just nature and conscience. But even if that's
all we had, he said, He's arguing from the lesser to the greater
as he often did. Even if you didn't have the word
of God. But we do have the word of God.
So there's really no excuse. This is why he doesn't just call
them fools here. He didn't say you fools. Which
would have been right. But he said you're hypocrites.
That's beyond being a fool, isn't it? A fool may not be able to
help it, being a fool. But a hypocrite is a hypocrite
on purpose. Now that's important to what
he's teaching. This is willful ignorance of
God's truth. And we think of King Agrippa.
And what Paul said to him, turn there with me, I refer to this
Some, but I want us to see this and look at it word by word and
just see what happened here. This pertains so clearly and
instructively to our text. You see what the Lord is saying. You can perceive natural things,
but spiritual things that are just as simple, just as clear,
just as plain. I mean, it doesn't take, a rocket
scientist to know that if the wind starts blowing out of the
south, since that has warmed up, you know, it's a warming
trend. We've been seeing that happen
all of our lives. The wind's blowing out of the
north, it's going to be cold. The wind's blowing out of the south,
it's going to warm up. If there's a dark cloud, looks like it's
going to rain. Okay. But look at what he said, Acts
26, 26. Look at what Paul, he's saying
the same thing now. We teach what our Lord taught
and we teach the same way. We insist upon the truth. The
truth is undeniable. Just because you deny it doesn't
make it any less undeniable. It's undeniable. Look at what
he said, verse 26, Acts 26. For the king knoweth of these
things, before whom also I speak freely, for I am persuaded that
none of these things are hidden from him." He's talking about
the things that he's preaching, that he's been preaching, that
he's been called on the carpet for. He's being afflicted and
persecuted simply for preaching Christ. And he said, what I preach,
King Agrippa, you know what I'm saying is right. This is not
hidden from you. This thing was not done in a
corner. You know that he's the Messiah the same way I know that
he's the Messiah. God ain't hiding that. You know
it this morning, don't you? You know that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. He's God's Savior for sinners.
And that there's no salvation in any other. You know what?
Everybody else knows that too. It's just that most people don't
like it. This thing wasn't done in a corner.
Verse 27, King Agrippa, believe us thou of the prophets, I know
you do. I can't get over that. Isn't that
tragic? You know anybody like that? You know they know the
truth. You know they do. Yet blind. Blind. How many people do you know who
are otherwise brilliant people, intelligent people, able to discern
natural things? As our text shows, I have a brother.
I've told you about this before. He's smarter than me. There's
just no question about it, without any doubt. I'll never forget
a conversation that I had with him and his wife at the time. I had graduated from high school
and they took me out for dinner for my graduation. And they knew
that I was a student of scripture and so of course it came up at
the dinner table. We went out to a nice restaurant,
you know, white tablecloth, I'll never forget it. I remember where
we sat. Vicki knows the restaurant, a wonderful seafood restaurant
and there we are at dinner and they start talking about the
Bible. Wanting to let me know how much they know about the
Bible. And it was tragic. It was horrible. And I'm trying
to sit there in a restaurant without getting worked up like
I'm prone to do in such conversations. I'm trying to correct and say,
look, the scripture says this. And the more I did that, the
worse it got. The worse it got. And we're talking
about intelligent people. But the word of God says this.
But it just got worse and worse.
And listen to the rest of what Paul said when he was in a conversation
like that. Talking to somebody intelligent,
a king, well respected. Probably did something along
the way to deserve to be a king in the eyes of men. And was that
kind of person. But then Agrippa said unto Paul,
almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And Paul said
I would to God. that not only you but also all
that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as
I am. Accept these bonds. That's the
attitude with which we're not interested in arguing with people.
I don't want to win an argument, do you? I just want to see, as
our brother just prayed, Lord have mercy on those that we love. If you could save me, you could
save them. But that's the thing. He's going to have to save them.
That's the problem. They're smart in every other way. They can
perceive things and deduce things. And yet, when it comes to the
things of God, you hear what comes out of their mouth and
you... It's unbelievable, isn't it? If we didn't know what we
are and where we'd be, without God's grace, it'd be unbelievable. And listen to our Lord. Turn
with me to John 7. I want us to see this. The message of our
text is simply this. Sinners are blind. Smart sinners
are blind. The wisdom of this world is foolishness
when it comes to the things of God. You can't deduce the gospel. You just have to believe God.
You have to know who God is. You have to know it's God that
said it and bow to it. Believe it. Act on it. Trust
Him. And that takes a miracle of his
grace. And until he performs that miracle,
you're going to be a blithering idiot when it comes to the things
of God. And it's almost, it's incredible
to see it, isn't it? Because in natural things, boy,
you're like, well, that's a brilliant, that's a brilliant. You start
talking to them about God and they can't make two and two add
up to four. You know what the real miracle
is? That you can make two and two add up to four when it comes
to spiritual things. That's the miracle. It may be
astonishing to us that people can't do that. What's astonishing
is that God would put us in our right mind. Clothe us and put
us in our right mind and sit us down at his feet. And may He give us grace to tell
everybody we can what great things the Lord has done for us and
had compassion on us. Because that's what happened.
If this gospel makes any sense to you at all, that's what happened. It's a miracle of His grace.
John 7, 16. I can't even remember if I told you where to turn or
not. John 7, 16. Look at this with me. This is
our Lord speaking to the Jews, and here again, He's having a
conversation with blind people. Have you ever had a conversation
with a blind person when you could see? And the tragic thing
is, is they think they can see. And they think they can see better
than you can. Jesus answered them and said,
my doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. He's not saying
that him and the father have two different doctrines. He's
just saying this is not the doctrine of a man. This is the doctrine
of God. This is the truth of God. This
ain't just me. And everybody, see that's important
right there. Because if I've figured out some
things and they've figured out some things, the things I've
figured out are not worth any more than the things they figured
out. But what God said, let God be true in all of us a bunch
of liars. If I'm saying what God said,
it's time to listen up and it's time to bow. And that's what
he's saying to them. This is the word of God. And
look at this now, verse 17, this is key. If any man will do his
will, he shall know of the doctrine,
whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh
of himself seeketh his own glory. Have you found that to be true?
Have you ever had a discussion with somebody? You know what
they're trying to do? They're not trying to find out something from you.
They're trying to tell you what they know. They're seeking their
own glory. They're seeking to justify themselves.
If we don't know God, we're all gonna do that. That's what we're
gonna do. God's got to cause us to hunger
and thirst after the truth. He shall know whether it be of
God, he that speaketh, but he seeketh, he that seeketh his
glory that sent his son. The same is true and no unrighteousness
is in him. Did not Moses give you the law
and yet none of you keepeth the law? There's somebody that they
did respect and acknowledge as coming from God and they didn't
obey him either. And he said, why are you going
about to kill me? And the people answered, thou
hast a devil. Who's going about to kill you? There they were,
going about to kill him. And he calls them on it, and
they said, what are you talking about? We're nobody trying to
kill you. Jesus answered and said unto
them, I have done one work, and you all marvel. Moses therefore
gave unto you circumcision, not because it is of Moses, but of
the fathers and you on the Sabbath day, circumcise a man. If a man
on the Sabbath day received circumcision, that the law of Moses should
not be broken. Are you angry at me because I've made a man
every wood hole on the Sabbath day. So he's reasoning with them
in different ways. First of all, this is what God
said, not just a man talking. That should be enough right there.
Shouldn't it? That should end any debate. If
God has spoken, what are you debating about? Just bow, just obey. But then he shows them how foolish
their reasoning is. And that the bottom line is not
that they had a problem with what happened, they had a problem
with who did it. If a man will do his will, He said to him, if you'd have
believed Moses, you'd believe me. You say you believe Moses,
you'd believe me if you did. So he's taking away all of their
cloaks and all of their diversions and showing them the problem
is you hate me. Alright, a little bit further. If a man on the Sabbath day,
let's see, 24. Judge not according to the appearance,
but judge righteous in judgment. You see how that pertains to
our text. Of your own selves, you ought
to know what's right. Don't judge things this way. Here's how I see it. Who cares
how you see it? God has spoken. If God hadn't
spoken, then how you see it might be worth something. But he has. Judge righteous judgment. How are you going to do that?
You're going to hear what God said. Which is what He's saying
in our text. They haven't done. You don't
understand this time? You don't know who's standing
here speaking to you today? In spite of the fact that God
for thousands of years has been telling you who I am? You don't know what's right even
though God I spoken? Judge righteous judgment. Now
notice very importantly from the beginning of that he said
if any man will do his will, if that's what you desire is
God's will, if you've resigned your will to his, If you, like
the Apostle Paul, have renounced yourself and everything you've
ever done and everything you ever thought, and now you're
bowing to God, now you're saying, Lord, what do you want me to
do? What do you say? Speak, thy servant heareth. You're going to know the truth.
You're going to know the doctrine, if you have a desire to. He said,
blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteous, I'll
fill you. I'll make sure you're fed. You're going to know the
truth, aren't you, from error, if that's where you're at. If
you will His will. Now think about that for a second.
You being able to know what's right, which is the second part
of our text, you ought to be able to discern what's right
now. There's no excuse for not knowing it. But notice in that
what he said there to those Jews, that you being able to discern
the things of God as opposed to the things of man, being able
to know what doctrine is right and what is sin and blasphemy
is not a function of how smart you are. It is an issue of the
will. If you will, It is a submission of your will
to God's will. That's what it is. When God saves
you, He doesn't make you smarter. There are a lot of people that
believe that. Well, we just know some things
that we don't know. That's just a consequence of
the fact that God's given you a new heart. He doesn't make you smarter.
He makes you bow. He gives you a heart that submits
to his will and says, Lord, what would you have me do? Saul was king of the world until
the Lord Jesus Christ stopped him on the road to Damascus and
put him in the dust. And then now, if you will do
his will, is that where Saul was? Lord, what would you have
me do? What is your will? Forget about where I was headed. What's your will? You don't know
the truth now. God will teach it to you and
you'll know it. Paul spoke of the same things,
right thinking and the submission that it requires in Romans 10.1. Let me read it to you. I know
you're real familiar. Go turn if you want to, of course. Romans
10 chapter 1, same exact thing. Knowing the truth is a submission.
And you're not going to submit until God does it. Saul of Tarsus
wasn't looking for the Lord. The Lord came and found him. And now he would do the will
of the Lord. So listen to Romans 10, when
brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that
they might be saved. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. They don't know
what's right. And they don't know, they don't
know Christ and they don't know what's right because they don't
know Christ. It's not for they being ignorant of God's righteousness
and going about to establish their own righteousness. have
not submitted." There it is again. If you will do his will, then
your zeal of God will be according to knowledge. You'll know the
doctrine. You'll discern the doctrine.
It starts with bowing, doesn't it? have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God for Christ is the end of the
law. That's how you submit to the
righteousness of God. You see that Christ is the termination
of righteousness by me keeping the law. And you also see that
God's law is that Christ is the point of it. The law was a schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. Not a set of rules to show you
how to live. He did not give his law to show
you how to live. He gave it because you don't
know how to live. And you're not ever going to live right.
He gave it to drive you to Christ. If you're his. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. That's what faith
is. That's what believing is. It's
believing that I need to quit trying to please God. I'm not
ever going to. I need to submit to Christ. He's my righteousness before
God if I'm going to have any. Submission. If you will do His
will, you'll know the truth. You already do. And Paul knew something about
being self-righteous. The one that wrote Romans 10
there, he knew something about being self-righteous. Hebrew
of the Hebrews, circumcised the eighth day as touching the law
of Pharisee, according to the law blameless. And I counted
it all but done that I may win Christ. He knew something about
self-righteousness and about submitting to God's righteousness. He literally submitted to Him. who is the righteousness of God.
He got down on his face in the dust and said, Lord, let's talk
about your will now. I'm done with mine. I see where
mine got me. Let's talk about what you want.
You talk about a miracle. I'm telling you right now. Every
other miracle ever done, including the creation of this universe,
is just a picture of that miracle. The new creation is the reality. It's the point of everything.
God made the old creation. He has a world because he has
a people. The creating of this universe
is just a picture of the miracle of His grace performed in the heart of a sinner. Salvation... Salvation involves a change of
will. It has to do with the will. We've
clearly seen that this morning. But it's not by the will. Saul didn't will, his change
of will, did he? He was doing just fine. Killing
God's people, putting them in jail, arresting women and children,
everybody that had anything to do with that way, the way of
Christ, the truth, the gospel of Christ. It was a change of his will.
Salvation as we experience it is a change of will, but it's
not by our will. It's by God's will. Remember
what our Lord said in the very context of our passage this morning
in Luke 12 and Luke 10. It says, in that hour, Jesus
rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank thee, O Father. Lord
of heaven and earth that thou hast hid these things from the
wise and the prudent and has revealed them unto babes. That's how you know what's right.
That's how you know who he is. You discern the time. And know what's right. Because it seemed good in the
sight of God to reveal it to you. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. And notice in our text, you know,
I was just thinking about this morning how that preaching a
text is just simply saying what has to be said about it. And
we can never do that without God's grace. But this is something
that you can't preach that text. If you preach that text without
saying what I'm about to say, you haven't preached the text.
You just missed it. Notice how sad it is that the
things that we can discern, and that we actually apply our minds
to, we try to figure out everything, you know. Try to figure out,
you know, when's a good time to plant my crops based on this
and that, and when's a good time to go fishing, and when's a good
time to do this, to build this. I don't want to do it, you know. The things that we actually apply
ourselves to, are utterly unimportant. You can discern the things of
the sky and the earth. What difference does it really
make if it rains tomorrow or not? Is that important to you? It might be, but is it important? You know we kind of probably
ought to just leave that up to God anyway because you can't do anything
about it anyway, right? And he just happens to know better
than you whether it should rain tomorrow or not rain tomorrow.
And does it really matter that much? Does it matter if it's going
to be warm tomorrow or cold tomorrow? Does it really make any difference? No. Yeah, we always are concerned
with things like that. And that's a picture of just
all the unimportant junk that we're always concerned with.
What difference does it make? But to know who he is, the things
that we really don't care anything about, to know who he is and
to know what's right, to know what he said, to know what's
true and what's not, we don't much care, do we? Evidently we don't. And when
I'm talking about mankind in general, we care. By His grace,
we care. Did you run into any traffic
this morning getting here? People just dying to hear from
God this morning. I couldn't even hardly... Oh
boy, it took me two hours. No. You probably will on the
way to work tomorrow. But not today. You ever think
about things like that? Nobody cares what God said. You
see what our Lord is saying here in the text? You're interested,
you're worried about all this stuff that you can't do anything
about anyway, and if you could, if I could make it hot tomorrow
instead of cold, you think that'd be smart for me to take things
out of God's hands and take them into my hand? You think that'd
be the right thing to do? It may affect our plans or our
comfort, but what is that really? And that's the thing, that's
why we're able to discern those things though, you know it? Because
they affect us and our plans and our comfort. They affect us in ways that matter
to us. That's why we worry about it.
That's why we make such a big deal about that stuff that doesn't
make any difference at all. Why can't we discern who Christ
is and what he said? Because we don't care. That's
why. Everybody that cares is going to find out. We're more worried about whether
our ball game is going to be canceled tomorrow, get rained
out, than we are about the state of our immortal soul before God.
That's just the truth. That's the tragic truth. And when we are confronted with
the truth in spite of us, even though we don't care, the Lord
may just confront you with the truth anyway. Even though you
don't really want to hear from God, you know what's going to
happen then, unless he gives you a new heart, you're going
to hate it. It's going to make you mad. You're going to say
that's not fair. Agrippa knew exactly what Paul
was saying, and Paul called him on it, didn't he? You know what
Grippa's problem was? He didn't like what Paul had
to say. My brother and his wife, they
knew exactly what I was saying. I was quoting the Word of God.
They didn't like it. The first word, will, in our
text If any man, well not in our original
text, but in John 7, 17 there where we read, let's do a little
quick word study and I'll be through. In John 7, 17 it says,
if any man will do his will, you know that first word will
means? To desire, to wish, to love. If you love for God's will to
be supreme, You're going to know the truth.
You're going to be able to tell the truth from a lie. You know
it? You know what makes you not able to bow to the truth of the
gospel? And we're going to talk about
that. You know the truth of the gospel is that God saves who
he wants to save. And the way that he did it was
by sending his son to this earth to live for them and to die for
them. And he did and he saved them.
It's not complicated. Not popular either, but it's
not complicated. We worship and serve the almighty
sovereign God and praise his name for the precious blood of
his son. The successful, satisfactory,
substitutionary sacrifice for sinners like me. And you know why people won't
rejoice in that, won't bow to that? They don't like it that
way. They don't like Him. They don't like His way. They
don't like His will. They don't like Him. You think Adam and Eve were unclear
on the will of God in the garden? We never have been unclear on
it, have we? Still not. To desire, to wish, to love. If any man will do his, you know
why you don't do the will of God? You don't love him. You don't want to. You want your
way. You want your will to be supreme.
The second will there, if any man will do his will, is God's
will, God's purposes, God's commands, God's choice. That's what man
has a problem with more than anything. And they have such
a problem with it that they go around preaching that salvation
is up to you. It's your decision. You've got
to make a decision. It's your choice. Will you choose heaven
or hell? They hate the truth that salvation
is God's choice so much that they go around preaching exactly
the opposite. That salvation is your choice. Salvation is God's choice. If
you desire, if it makes you happy that His will is supreme, you're
not going to have a problem bowing to the truth and knowing the
truth. Our Lord said in John 5.39, you
search the scriptures, talking to the religious Jew, the Pharisees
and the scribes that were so knowledgeable and meticulous
in their study of the word of God, the letter. You search the
scriptures for in them you think you have life. You have eternal life and they
are they which testify of me. And you will not come to me that
you might have life. Think about how blind you have
to be to dedicate your entire life to studying a book that
has one message and miss that message. You've dedicated your
whole life and all of your study and all of your thinking to know a book, and that book
says one thing, Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ, and you won't
come to Christ. That's every one of us by nature,
ever learning and never able to come to a knowledge of God's
truth. And Christ said, I am the truth,
and he wasn't exaggerating. He wasn't exaggerating. You will not come to me that
you might have life. You know what that word will
is? Desire, to wish, to love, to take delight in, to take pleasure
in. You will not come to me. You've
got no desire. It's not a matter of knowing
what you know and what you don't know and all that. The Lord is
going to teach you some things you don't know. Don't get me
wrong. But salvation is a heart work.
It's not head work. It's heart work. You don't come
to me because you don't want to come to me. And you're not going to want
to. until the father which hath sent him draw you. John chapter
6 in that word draw means to take you from where you are and
bring you to his son. That's salvation. It's not up
to you. It's not your choice. It's his
choice. He's already decided whether to bring you to his son
and put you in his son and his son in you or not. Can you bow
to that? Can you bow to that God? And the truth won't be a problem
for you. But you're not going to until He brings you. But you know what? The way He
does that is by this right here. That's why we do it. Oh God forbid that we come here
for any other reason than to glorify Him in the saving of
sinners by His precious blood. You will not come to me. So your
understanding has to do with your will. And your will has
to do with love. If you love Him, you're going
to come to Him. And if you're going to love Him,
He's going to have to love you first, isn't He? We always come back
to the same place, don't we, in the Word of God. Salvation
is of the Lord. Notice this in Philippians 1.9
concerning what I just said concerning the will and love. Philippians
1.9 Paul said, This I pray that your love may abound yet more
and more in knowledge and in all judgment. You think about
that prayer for a second. That you may approve things that
are excellent. Listen to it again. This I pray,
that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and
all judgment, that you may approve, and that word means test, examine,
scrutinize, and deem worthy things that are excellent. That you
may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ. All of
that started with what? Your love. The Lord didn't ask Simon Peter,
did you learn your lesson? He said, do you love me? Salvation is God loving you.
That's eternal salvation. And you know what your experience
of salvation is? He's going to make you love Him
too. And when you love Him now, you're
going to know Him. you're going to know him, that your love may
abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment. You think
about that. And is it not telling, is it
not revealing concerning man and our problem that the one
thing that our Lord says is man's problem, his will, which includes
the affections, love, all the emotions, The one thing that
the Lord says is our problem is the one thing that man says
is the solution. You just need to will it. Even though the Lord clearly
states that that's not the answer, that's not the solution. He saith
to Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I
will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy." Now that's not hard to understand,
is it? Salvation is not by your will. Salvation happens when
God says, I want to save that sinner. And he does. That's salvation. Is that complicated? Any of you
children unclear on that? Does it make you happy that salvation's of the Lord? Or do you think maybe that's
not fair? Maybe it ought to be up to us. That's the last thing
you want. You don't want. You think you
want it to be. Maybe you do. Maybe you think you want it to
be up to you. You don't. You want salvation to be right
where it is. In the hand of the sovereign
gracious God of all mercy. And by his grace I do too. This is the blindness that our
Lord identifies in our text. And God says that man's will
is the problem and man says that man's will is the answer. The
truth is that sin is a decision that man made in the garden and
is still making. Every decision we make is wrong. Even when we decide right, it's
still wrong. It's still sinful, isn't it?
Because of the motive of that decision. And the place it came
from. You can't get clean water from
a dirty fountain. Salvation is a decision that
God makes. A man or woman who will do God's
will, in other words, their desires and their pleasure and their
purpose is in submission to His. That's who He said will know
the truth. Remember Romans 9.20, what did Paul say? Nay, but O
men, who are you to reply against God? What was their problem there
in Romans now when they said, oh, who has resisted his will?
It's not our fault, it's God's fault if I don't believe. All of this is God. You know
what their problem was? Paul said, who are you to reply
against God? They hadn't submitted to God's
will. Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? You know what
the thing formed needs to say? Truth, Lord. Truth, have mercy on me. Everything
you say about me is right. And thank you for revealing yourself.
Have mercy on my wretched soul through the blood of your Son."
That's what the Republican said with it. God be merciful to me,
the sinner. That's our problem by nature
now. We reply against God. We say, well that's one interpretation,
but here's what I think. Who are you? But if we are enabled by God's
grace to submit to His will and His way and His word, then we
will hear Him and we'll bow to Him and we'll do what He said. This is the way to hear from
God. You remember when Samuel, as a young man, God was calling
him. And Samuel thought it was Eli
in the next room. He hadn't heard God speak before. And he kept waking up Eli and
saying, what did you want? And Eli said, it wasn't me, I
didn't say anything. And finally Eli figured out,
I believe it's God talking to you. And listen to what he said.
Therefore, for 1 Samuel 3, now, therefore Eli said unto Samuel,
go and lay down. And it shall be, if he call you. Think about the spiritual teaching
here. If he call you, God doesn't have
to speak to anybody, does he? If he ever speaks to you from
his word, here's what you say. Thou shalt say, speak, Lord,
for thy servant heareth. That's valid. I'm your servant.
Just say what you want to say. And so Samuel went and laid down
in his place. You think that language is accidental
there? You know what your place is? Servant. Speak, Lord. Your servant heareth. And he
went and laid down in his place. That's where I want to lay down,
don't you? by His grace. If we're ever to have any discernment
or wisdom or knowledge of right things, God's got to speak to
us first, doesn't He? How would they have discerned
the time? Unless God spoke. How would they know anything
that's right unless God did something? And if we're ever going to hear
and take to heart what God says concerning His Son, You don't
have to take the place of a servant. You don't have to bow. You don't
have to fall into the dust like Saul of Tarsus did. Spiritually
speaking, it's not a physical posture. It's casting your soul
down before God and saying, Lord, I'm a sinner, and I'm in your
hands. And I need your mercy, and I'm asking for it. And I know that you're able.
I know if you want to, if you want to, you can save me. Do you see how God can be just
and justify you? Oh, I sure would like to find
out if he'll do that or not. I know that he can. And what
a blessed thing it is to hear from God. Thy servant heareth. Our Lord said to his disciples,
blessed are your ears for they hear. Not very many ears do. But yours do. And the reason
they do is not because you're smart. You're smart. You can
discern things. But if you hear the word of God,
it's because your ears are blessed of God. God has plainly declared in his
word, the clear gospel, that he has loved and chosen a people
from the foundation of the world, a specific number of sinners.
It's taught over and over. Peculiar people and having loved
them he chose them in Christ and having chosen them He's called
them or he will Some of them he hadn't called yet. I reckon
we're still here So I reckon he's still calling you don't
still call somebody But those whom he called them
he also justified in whom he justified and you know how he
justified them by the blood of Christ by the death, the sacrificial,
substitutionary, successful death of his son. And those he justified them he
also glorified. You know what it means to be
glorified? To be made like his son. Every bit of that, chosen
in Christ, loved in Christ, called by Christ, to Christ. Let's don't
ever forget in that scripture, no man can come unto me except
the father which has sent me draw him. We think about the
drawing and rightly so. But where are we being drawn
to? No man cometh to me except the father. And if the father
does draw you, where are you going? Not to the doctrines of
great, not to higher learning or something. You're coming to
his son. That's where you're coming. That's where God will
bring you. And being glorified, being justified
is to be in Christ. How else are you going to be
without guilt? And to be glorified is to be
like Him. But man says that's not fair. For God, for all of
it to be of God. And I've got some more. I'm going
to have to cut it close. But God has plainly declared
also in His Word that the blood of Christ, the sacrifice that
Christ made on Calvary for the sins of His people, It has accomplished
salvation. It's finished. It's perfect.
He obtained eternal redemption for his sheep. He perfected forever
everyone he sanctified with his blood. And man says that's not
fair. Are you going to know what's
right? Are you going to hear what's right? Or what man says? Knowing that when it's going
to rain or not, when you see a dark cloud, that doesn't take
much understanding, does it? And knowing that salvation is
of the Lord, you ain't got to be smart to know that. But it does take a miracle of
God. And spiritual things will never
make two and two add up to four without the powerful, transforming,
life-giving grace of God. What did it mean for those who
heard our Lord that day, let me just sum it up in just a couple
of minutes here, to discern that time and to know what is right? What would that have meant? He
said, you haven't discerned the time and you don't know what's
right. What would it have meant for them to discern that time
and to know what is right? To know who he was and to submit to what he said.
You know what it means this morning? Do you discern this time? You don't unless you know Him.
It means the same thing, doesn't it? Do you discern this time? It means to know who He is. And
do you know what's right this morning? You know how God can
be just, perfect, holy, and righteous, and yet save a sinner like you?
It means the same thing it did then. You've got to hear the
gospel by the grace of God. You've got to hear the gospel
and by His grace, believe it. And I pray and desire that for
all of us. May God reveal His truth to us
and in us. Let's pray.