Okay, now let's turn back there
to Luke 14. Luke chapter 14. And I'm just going to go through
these first 14 verses that I read to you. Beginning in verse 1,
it says, And it came to pass, as he went into the house of
one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day,
that they watched him. This is Christ, and He's the
one by whose obedience many shall be made righteous." He's the
only one. And these men sat there, this
chief Pharisee that invited him, they sat there and they watched
him. Now, without a doubt, we are to look to Christ and to
Christ only. Scriptures tell us, look unto
me and be ye saved. all the ends of the earth, for
I am God and there is none else." That's who our Savior is. We
look unto Him, we believe on Him to be saved of Him, to trust
Him to save us wherever we are in the earth because He's God.
He's the only Savior of sinners and there is none else. Believers
are to lay aside the weight of sin that besets us and we're
to run the race that He has set before us looking unto Jesus. the author and the finisher of
our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him. You see,
He had a joy set before Him, and He's the joy set before us.
And we run looking to Him, the joy set before us, just as He
ran this race. He ran looking to the joy set
before Him, and He endured the cross, and despising the shame,
and He's now sitting there at the right hand of the Father.
But these men were swollen in pride. They were swollen in pride. And so they were considering
themselves wise. And they were considering themselves
wiser than others. They were looking to their obedience,
to their goodness, rather than to the good one, to the obedient
one. And so therefore they sat there
watching Him. Watching Him. They watched the
Lord for the reasons that swollen legalists watch others. They, to find fault, to accuse,
to condemn, to correct, to justify themselves for not listening
to them, to divide. But chiefly, here's the chief,
there's a lot of other vain reasons that that swollen, pride-filled,
self-exalting sinners look to others in religion. But chiefly,
this is the reason, chiefly the reason is that they may make
themselves appear more holy than somebody else. Chiefly, it's
to be viewed by men as high and lifted up, to be viewed as masters
and lords over men. This man was the chief of the
Pharisees. And he had Christ sitting there, and he's watching
them. Now, when a sinner's swollen with pride and with this legal
spirit, there's no room for faith, there's no room for love, there's
no room for mercy, there's no room for peace, there's no rest,
there's only judgment, wrath, and bitterness, and divisions.
And brethren, that's the way of the old man of flesh within
you and I. That's the old man that's with
us now and will be with us who believe till the day we put off
this body of death. That's the old man within us.
So how are we going to be cured and continue to be cured of this
swelling disease of pride and of legalism and of self-righteousness? How are we going to be cured
of this? I've titled this, Healing of Dropsy. Healing of Dropsy. Look at verse 2. And behold,
there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. There he sits at this table with
the Pharisees, and they're watching him. And there's a certain man
sitting at this table that had the dropsy. This man probably
had been invited by the Pharisees to the house. because they wanted
to see if Christ would heal this man on the Sabbath day so that
they could either accuse Christ of breaking the law of the Sabbath
or they could at least enter into this grand debate with him
over whether it was lawful or not to heal on the Sabbath day.
But remember, our Savior is God. Our Savior is sovereign God in
control of everything. And our sovereign Savior is ruling
everything in this whole situation right here. And we see it in
the disease that this man had. This man had tropsy. That was
a blood disorder incurable by man. Totally incurable by man. A disorder of the blood. And
among the symptoms, this is what it caused. It caused extreme
swelling and inflating of the body. It caused a man to swell
up. It caused his face to swell.
It caused his eyes to bug out. It caused his abdomen to swell
out. It was a swollen, inflated man sitting there at the table.
And so, you see, every word in the Scriptures is important.
This man sitting there with this disease of dropsy was all ruled
by God. Because by having this man be
sitting there at the table, the disease that this man had exemplified
the very condition of the Pharisees. And it's our condition until
Christ abases us and causes us to rest in Christ and in His
obedience and continues to teach us and do that for us. Just like
this man had a blood It was corruption of his blood. Our old man, our
first man, our old man is born corrupt with a blood disorder.
And it's incurable by a sinner. No sinner can cure this blood
disorder. And like as this man was swollen
with water, it was a blood disorder that caused a lot of water within.
It caused swelling. And just like this man was swollen,
sinners are swollen with pride. We're swollen with pride of self.
We're swollen with vain idea that we're good. We're swollen
with the pride of our wisdom. We become swollen by our works.
In all of it, it's vain water. Just vain. And so here you have
this man sitting there swollen like the Pharisees were swollen
with their pride. And I want you to see now here
in all of this, I want to see an example of how Christ alone
abases His child and how He makes us rest in Christ. How He abases
us and makes us rest in Christ. And as we look at this and see
how the Lord dealt with the Pharisees, I want you to try to think of
the Lord dealing with the Pharisee that's in you and that's in me. Look at this as the Lord dealing
with the Pharisee that's in you and that's in me. Now Christ
does this in conversion and He continues to do this work in
His children throughout the life of faith. We need Him to do this. Alright, here's the first thing
that Christ does. He uses the law to shut our mouths. To shut our mouths. We have to
be shut up first before we can learn anything. And He uses the
law to shut our mouths. Look at verse 3. And Jesus answering
spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal
on the Sabbath day? And they healed their peace.
You see, Christ knows our heart. It says, "...and Jesus answering."
They had asked the Lord nothing. They hadn't said a word, but
He answered their hearts. And Christ always gets to the
heart of the matter. Christ has got to shut the mouth
of those that He saves by making us to see we do not hear the
law. We don't understand the law. And, or, that we are unlawfully
using his word and not using his word of right. This he does
as well. He said, is it lawful to heal
on the Sabbath day? Is it lawful to show mercy to
a sinner on the Sabbath day? That was his question. Now, it
was their understanding and it was their vain tradition that
they taught that it was not lawful unless absolutely necessary.
In fact, back in Luke 13, I'll just read this to you. It says,
The ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because the
Lord Jesus healed on the Sabbath day. And he said unto the people,
There are six days in which men ought to work, and in them therefore
come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day. He was filled
with anger because Christ healed somebody. He healed somebody. But he was mad because he did
it on this Sabbath day. And yet the Sabbath day was all
about rest and all about mercy from God in Christ. That's what
the law of the Sabbath is about. The Sabbath was made by God,
given by God to man, for man. Not man for the Sabbath. The
Lord completely provided all provision, all provision on the
sixth day, so that on the seventh day a man and his servants, even
his beasts could all be totally free of all work and all labor,
and they could just rest assured that God had made full provision
for them, and that they could rejoice and worship the Lord
without having to work and worry and be bound with those worries
of everyday life. It was all freely given to them
in this seventh day. This all was a picture, brethren,
of salvation finished by Christ Jesus. The Sabbath day pictured
the day of grace when God comes and He makes His child to behold
that Christ is our Sabbath and that in Christ He's finished
all the works for His children so that now all that remains
to do is for us to worship Him and rejoice in Him and be assured
that full provision is made for us so that we'll never be forsaken
of God. Six days of creation. God made
the world in six days. And on the seventh day, He rested. He rested on the seventh day
for one reason. There was nothing else to be
done. God wasn't tired. He rested because
there was nothing else to be done. Brethren, Christ came to
where His elect are in mercy. And Christ went about and He
fulfilled the whole law of God and He redeemed His people so
that there remains nothing else to be done by His children. Nothing. And when God makes Christ our
Sabbath, We behold and we believe Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. We quit trying to work to bring
ourselves to God and now we see that the law and everything it
was teaching us was that God has made full provision in His
Son and that we're complete in His Son and we have this freedom
now to worship God without all that bondage of working and labor
and striving to come to God. We can spend our lives worshiping
God. God's provided all and Christ is all. That's what the Sabbath
day was all about. But the Pharisees used this day,
they used it like they used all the Word of God, not to declare
mercy, not to declare rest given by God. They turned this glorious
picture of rest in Christ into a work. into a law whereby they
could bind men and yoke men. Instead of freeing men, they
bound men with it. Instead of rest, they taught
works. Instead of humility, they exalted
themselves over others. Because even over Christ, that's
what they were saying here, we keep the Sabbath, this man's
breaking it. You see what they are? They're blind, self-righteous,
self-inflated, puffed up, vain religionists. And anybody that
tries to bring you under the law and bring you back under
that condemnation and tell you, you got to keep the law to come
to God, is doing the same exact thing. They had completely misused
the Word of God. Before conversion, before God
teaches this in our heart, sinners don't know a thing about what
this book teaches. We can read things that are written
in this book and by men, and we can get an intellectual understanding
of it in our head, but sinners will always continue to use the
law unlawfully. That's how sinners will use it.
They don't see that the law is to shut our mouths in guilt and
shut us up. Sinners even use the promises
and precepts of the gospel. To do the same thing. To make
it a law and to bind men and yoke men and to exalt self and
try to make themselves acceptable to God. To try to gain a reward
over another by their works and what they've done. That's vanity,
brethren. But after conversion, even after
we're converted, believers can still fall into this same legal
spirit. We can still take the Word of
God and not use it lawfully, not use it like it is to be used.
This Word has a two-fold purpose. It's to declare all flesh is
grass. It's to declare you and I have
nothing good in us, nothing good we can do, nothing good we ever
have done, nothing good whereby we can bring ourselves to God.
We are spit. We're a jar of warm spit. That's
what we are. Useless for nothing. They're
not useless for anything. And it's to declare Christ is
all. All salvation is in Christ. Everything
is salvation by Christ alone. So, that's what this book is
for. And it's to do it, declare it
to sin sick sinners. And to wait on Christ to bring
His children to rest in Him by His Word. For instance, we can
take the Word and use it in a wrong way. Even the Gospel. For instance,
the doctrine of election. The doctrine of election teaches
us that Christ is the elect of God. God chose His Son. He said, Behold mine elect whom
I uphold and whom my soul delighteth. That's His Son. That's His Son. God chose His Son. Election,
the first one to be elected was Christ His Son. He chose Him
and He chose a people and gave them to His Son for His Son to
come and save them from themselves. He chose sinners that would never
choose God. And so the purpose of election,
brethren, is to show us that salvation is by God's grace toward
guilty sinners. To show us it's to humble us,
not to make us proud. It's to bring us down, not to
exalt us and make us walk around feeling like we got something
somebody else doesn't. If we truly are elected of God,
we won't have that spirit. But then the doctrine of particular
redemption, of limited atonement, is to teach the successful, finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, which He accomplished for those
that God gave Him before the world began. It's to declare
that God wasn't trying to reconcile his people to himself. God reconciled
his people to himself, even when we were enemies in our mind by
wicked works. God did this in Christ Jesus.
The message of particular redemption, of limited atonement, is to tell
us that God has provided himself a lamb. That God is Himself just
to show mercy to His people and that God Himself is the justifier
of His people. It's to declare that it's not
by works of righteousness which we've done, but it's by the work
which Christ has finished that His people are redeemed from
the curse of the law and made the righteousness of God in Him.
Now we ought never compromise on the truth of God, on anything
in this book that's, it's all truth and we ought not compromise
on any. We don't take the edge off the
gospel. We don't take the offense out of the cross. We don't try
to please men with this word. But when we get caught up between
one another in vain questions and striving
about the word of God, We make ourselves the focus rather than
Christ. You've experienced this, most
of you have. You know when God first called
you and you began to tell your family and your friends and your
co-workers about it and they began to but, but, but, but,
but everything you said. And you got a little heated and
you started trying to say these things and say them in just such
a way that they would have to understand what you're talking
about. And you just kept on and kept on and kept on with them.
And you know what happened? Christ stopped being the focus
and you started being the focus. Have you experienced that? And
we learn by that that it doesn't do any good to strive with men.
No good at all. Now, especially within the church,
especially within the church, we're taught to avoid such strivings. They'll eat as doth a canker,
like a cancer. They'll just eat and they'll
overthrow the faith of some. That's what the scriptures tell
us. Avoid them. Now, I'm not talking about free
will works religionists. I'm not talking about folks that
are in dead religion. I'm not talking about that. I'm
talking about folks who've been called and saved by the sovereign
free grace of God. We're not to strive with one
another over things that one or the other understands. You
take the Old Testament picture, the tabernacle, the tabernacle,
from that floor that pictured the pure shekel of the sanctuary,
that was the redemption money, that's what that floor was made
from. So they had to pick up that floor and those sockets
and move them. Every time they moved that tabernacle, and it
weighed an awful lot with all that silver floor that was made. So they got to experience what
the, weight of redemption cost every time they moved that floor
from that floor to the badger skins on the outside of it that
tells us how that Christ made himself of no reputation and
came into this world to the to the to the high to all the furniture
in it. to the high priest and all his
garments he wore, to the offerings that he was to make, to how that
each one of them was to be offered and how that each one of them
was to be slain and to be burned and to be received up of God.
All of that was to show us little glimpses and little pictures
of the person of Christ and the finished work Christ accomplished
at Calvary. All of those were. But seeing
God used all those pictures, to show us this, that ought to
let us know that not one of us has even scratched the surface
of knowing the fullness of this glorious one who came and of
what he suffered and what he accomplished on the tree at Calvary. We can't say we got the market
cornered on knowing that. We just can't. Now, whenever
Christ went and laid down His life and redeemed His people
and rose again, He gave pastors and teachers, and He gave some
a little better understanding of one aspect, He gave others
a little better understanding of another aspect, but He tempers
His body together. so that He uses each member in
His body to teach this gospel through, so that it's Christ
that's teaching us and showing us this great, glorious work
that He's accomplished, and at the same time, He's uniting His
people together, showing us how we need each other. The hand
can't say, because it's not the foot, I don't need the foot,
and we can't do that. We need each other. We have to
have each other. You could have a mother and a
father who know the gospel, and they both want to teach their
children. And they're both right in what they're saying. But one's
wanting to say it one way, and one's wanting to say it another
way. And they get in an argument over it. And they start fighting
over it, right in front of the children. And you know what they've
done? It don't matter how right this one was and how right that
one was. All they've done is teach the children to fight.
That's all they've done. It hadn't benefited anybody.
And it's made them swell up with pride and take off in opposite
directions. So we need Christ to take His
Word and apply it to our hearts and shut our mouths, just like
He did in the first hour, to prick us and deflate us in all
our vain pride and to show us we don't know anything as we
ought to know. And that's the picture we see
here. He asked them this question with the law, and He silenced
them. They held their peace. They couldn't
say a word. Look at this second thing. When
Christ has wounded us, Christ alone heals us, and He sets us
free from this bondage. Look at verse 4. And He took
him. He took him. Now, I'm dealing
with the Pharisee, and I'm switching back and forth between the Pharisee
and this man with the dropsy, but I want you to just look at
this as how he's dealing with one of us, one of his children
who's inflated in pride. When we're inflated in pride,
we have the sinful dropsy. That's what our problem is. And
how gracious Christ is to take us to Himself, even when we're
lifting ourselves up and exalting ourselves over one another. His
grace never changes. He never stops loving those He's
everlastingly loved. He took us when He became surety
for us before the world was made. You know what that means? That
when Christ became surety for His people before a man was ever
made. You know what that tells us?
God knew the end from the beginning. He knew he was going to fall
in sin. He knew his people were going to need a savior. He knew
his people were going to need somebody to redeem them. That's
what suretyship is. Christ entered suretyship before
the world began for his people. Christ took us when He took all
the sin of His people upon Himself on Calvary's tree, and He went
and stood before God, guilty before God, and bore the judgment
of God in our room instead, as the guilty one before God. He
did that. He took us when He came to us
dead in our sins, in our corruption, in our pride. right wherever
unbeliever he is right now, under the power of the Prince of the
air, and He came to us right then, and He took us to Himself. And every time we keep falling
in this pit over and over again, He keeps coming to us and taking
us to Himself. And look at verse 4, and He healed
him. He healed him. He shut our mouths first. We
got to shut up if we're going to learn anything. He shuts our
mouth first and he takes us and he healed him. It's the blood
of Christ. It's the gospel of redemption
accomplished by Christ that heals sinners. It's the blood of Christ,
the good news of what Christ has done when it's applied to
the heart by God the Holy Spirit. This is what purges our conscience,
makes us come to our senses, makes us to be alive and to realize
everything I've been thinking that would commend me to God
is a vain, dead work. All that I've been talking about
is a smoke screen to try to bring myself to God. It's the blood
of Christ that does this. It's the gospel of the finished,
complete redemption of Christ that does this. If God speaks
into the heart, we'll get it. We'll get it. We won't know what's
happened. We see what He's done, and we
know Him, and we hear Him, and we believe Him. Well, it's the
same blood that cleanseth us of our sin and continues to cleanse
us of our sin. He makes us to see we don't have
anything in ourselves to glory in, anything in ourselves to
boast in. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was
bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and it's with His stripes that we're healed. He
makes us, He heals us by making us to see Him in whom we've been
healed. And then look what he did in
verse 4, and Christ let him go. What's going to bring us out
of the yoke of these religions, these false religions? What's
going to bring us out of that legalistic spirit whereby we
keep butting, butting, butting like an old billy goat? What's
going to make us to behold what Christ has done for us and bow
to Him? He's going to have to set us
free. When Christ went to the cross and laid down His life,
when He was made a curse for His people, He redeemed, He bought
His people, He freed His people from the curse of the law. And
just like He did that when He comes Over and over again throughout
our life when we're tangled up in this bondage, He alone comes
and sets us free from that yoke and from that bondage. And if
the Son shall make you free, you'll be free indeed. We can't
free ourselves otherwise. I can't free you and you can't
free me. We can't bring ourselves out of that legal bondage. He's
got to do it. He's the only one that can do
it. So first He shuts our mouth. And then after He's wounded us
good and wounded us with the law, then He heals us. He heals
us. He brings us to Himself and He
heals us and He sets us free. Now look at this third thing.
He makes this thing personal to us. And when He makes it personal
to us and makes us to see our personal need, this is what He
does. This is how He silences that
Pharisee that's in me and that's in you. He shuts his mouth. Look at this now, verse 5. And
he answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an
ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out
on the Sabbath day? And they could not answer him
again to these things. This is the second shutting of
the mouth. Do you see that? The first time he shuts our mouth,
he shuts us to teach us. to wound us. And then when He
heals us and sets us free from this bondage, calls us into His
light and begins to teach us, the first thing He's going to
do is He's going to make us to see that this thing of mercy,
this need of mercy is ours personally. You see, Christ used something
personal to these men. That's what He did. He says,
even if a beast of your own needed mercy, You wouldn't object to
going and pulling him out of a pit on a Sabbath day." And
he said, he said to him, you do with your own what you will.
When you need mercy, you don't have a problem objecting about
this. He said, if you see a beast of your own in a pit, you go
and pull him out. Then can Christ not do with his
own what he will? You see, the elect of God are
the ones that are beasts. We're just like brute beasts
falling into a pit when you and I begin to be swollen up in our
pride. But by God's electing grace,
we're His beasts. And He comes to where we are,
Christ comes to where we are in mercy, and He brings us out
of that pit. He brings us out of that pit
and He continues to bring us out of that pit. And when He's
made this thing personal, when the Lord has brought us to see
we're the one personally in need of the mercy. I thought it was
my husband. I thought it was my daughter.
I thought it was my son. I thought it was my neighbor.
I've been pointing a finger and blaming everybody and cussing
everybody because of my situation that I'm in. And God for the
first time opened my eyes to see it's not them that needs
mercy, it's you that needs mercy. And when He makes it personal
to us, you know what happens then? That old Pharisee's finger
curls right back up and draws in. And that old condemning tongue
is silent. And we shut up again. This thing's
become personal then. It's become personal. And that's
how He silences us. I'll tell you about this. I've
been studying this for a while, and I've had this burden on me,
and I've been trying to find this message, and it began to
come together for me this week. And then yesterday, I was telling
Melinda about it, and I was just talking to her about it. I walked
around the house, and I told her that illustration about a
mother and a father. and about how they both could
be trying to teach something true, each coming at it from
a little different angle, and then they end up getting in an
argument, and they fight in front of the kids. They hadn't taught
the kids anything to fight. And I was feeling pretty proud
about this message. I was feeling pretty proud about
my illustration. Crazy thing, don't you think? I preached a
message on pride and on Christ having to teach us about humility,
and I get proud of my message. I get proud of what I'm seeing
in it. And you know what happened by the end of the day? Me and
her got in a huge argument. I mean a huge argument. Right
in front of the children. About teaching the children.
The very thing. You see, God has a way of taking
these things that he's teaching us and making them very personal
to us. And it's all judgment and cry
down fire from heaven on somebody when it's them. But when we're
the ones standing there in need of mercy, it's a whole different
story. You know who didn't object at
all to being healed on that day? That man with the dropsy. That
man that saw he was shut up to mercy and unless Christ helped
him, he had no other way. That's when we'll shut our mouths
and that pharisaical legalistic finger and try and exalt ourselves
then. Alright, here's the fourth thing. Christ teaches us humility. He teaches us humility. Look
at verse 7. You see, all this has got to
happen. A man just don't start being humble. We're going to
have to be shut up by the law. Christ is going to have to call
us to Himself and heal us and set us free from the darkness
and bondage of our old flesh. He's going to have to make this
thing personal to us to see that we're the ones that's falling
in the ditch. We're the ones in need of the mercy. And He's
the only one that can show us that mercy. And then He begins
to teach us what He's teaching us throughout the Gospel. It's
humility. Look here, verse 7. And He put
forth a parable to those which were bidden. when He marked how
they chose out the chief rooms, saying unto them, When thou art
bidden of any man to a wedding, you're called to a wedding, sit
not down in the highest room, lest a more honorable man than
thou be bidden of him. And he that bade thee, the one
that owns the house, and him that is the more honorable man,
they come and say to you, Give this more honorable man place,
and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. Brethren,
we've been bidden to God to come to God to this feast of the gospel
in his house. But Christ is the man of honor.
Christ is the man of honor. Christ must have all preeminence. All preeminence. So Christ teaches
us to make ourselves the least. The least. Look at verse 10.
But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room,
that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend,
go up higher. Then shalt thou have worship
in the presence of them that sit at meet with thee. For whosoever
exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself
shall be exalted. You see, to be the greatest in
the kingdom of God, to be the righteousness of God, to be the
love of God, to be the holiness and perfection of God, is to
be the absolute least before all. Christ made himself of no reputation. Christ came to where we are and
served His Father and His brethren. And He became obedient even to
the death of the cross. The requirement was that He be
forsaken of God and forsaken of His brethren, and all hell
be unleashed upon Him, and that He might die the second death
for His people, that living death there on the cross, separation
from God. And He did it. out of love to
the Father, and love to His brethren, in righteousness to the Father,
and to perfect His people in righteousness. From a heart that's
holy, that reviled not again, neither toward God, toward His
accusers, or toward His brethren for leaving Him. Toward nobody,
but in perfection and faithfulness, set there and bore the whole
thing, that He might put away the sin of His people, and satisfy
the justice of the law, and fulfill the true spirit of the law, which
is faith, which works by love. That's what he was doing. That's
exactly what he was doing. Until we get that, we hadn't
even begun to understand a thing about this book. thing about
this book. And because he, in the Scripture
says, wherefore God also hath highly exalted him. That tells
us when it says wherefore God also hath highly exalted Christ,
that means when Christ was doing that, making himself the absolute
least under his brethren, under God, under the law, under everybody,
he was highly exalting God. And God also has highly exalted
him. Christ didn't exalt himself.
God exalted him. God was pleased with him. As
God the Son, he exalted himself, but God exalted him. God exalted
him. So if by grace he brings us down
to his feet, to come lowly to him, that means empty handed. No goodness in me. Not coming
bragging about something I've done. Not coming looking to some
work I've done or something in religion or out. Not anything. Just to come empty, ignorant,
looking for Him to fill me and to teach me and to give me the
knowledge and the understanding that only He can give. That's
what it is to come low, to come low to God. And in due time, you know what
He'll do? In due time, Christ shall say
unto thee, friend, go up higher. Then shalt thou have worship
in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. This is
what He does in conversion when He brings us low. He exalts us
to see Him. This is what He does when we
come to Him in our ignorance. He exalts us by making Himself
wisdom to us and teaching us. This is what He does in every
trial when we fall into the pit. We cast all our care on Him,
and in due time, He brings us up out of the pit. And this is
what He'll do in glory one day. He'll bring us up to sit with
Him in His house with His people, and we'll see Him as the man
of honor in that house. And then look at this next thing.
Christ teaches us to truly love. To truly love. To love one another
and to truly love mercy rather than judgment. Verse 12, then said He also to
him that bade him. You see, we have a two-fold position
in this world. We're bidding of God, called
of God, and we're used of God as His servants to be calling
out His sheep. That's what we're being used
for. So now He talked to us about when we're bidding to come to
Him, He told us how to come, humble, lowly. Now He's telling
us how to call, how to bid others. Look what He said. Then said
He also to him that bade him, when thou make us a dinner or
a supper, I'm just going to skip through some of this, but He's
saying here, call not thy rich neighbors. lest they also bid
thee again and a recompense be made." You see, Christ is not
calling the righteous. He's not calling those who have
ability to recompense again to Him. That's not who He's calling.
We don't want to be found, I don't want to be found ever coming
to this place preaching to your head, or preaching to an intellectual
man, preaching to those that are rich in their own wisdom
and rich in their own works, not in you who believe or in
just some man that comes in off the street. I don't want that. I don't want to be looking for
somebody that can recompense again to me, that can pay me
so I can set my nest up on high. Look at the next few verses.
This is who Christ is calling. Verse 13, But when thou makest
a feast, call the poor, and the maimed, and the lame, and the
blind. This is what James is talking
about when he said, have no respect of persons. When he's saying,
don't deal in that kind of legal judgment, but deal in mercy.
This is who Christ is calling. He's calling the poor. He's calling
the maimed. He's calling the lame. He's calling
the blind. God loves helpless, poor, ruined
sinners. That's who He chose. The poor,
the maimed, the lame, the blind. Look at verse 14. And thou shalt
be blessed, thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee.
Now that's the opposite of religion. Religion thinks now if you want
to be blessed, you need to call the man that's got the biggest
money, driving the nicest car, wearing the fanciest jewelry.
Because He's going to recompense you and you'll really be blessed.
God says, thou shalt be blessed for they can't recompense to
thee. They can't pay you anything. For thou shalt be recompensed
at the resurrection of the just. Now you see, if our religion
is for filthy lucre, if we're getting all puffed up and trying
to make ourselves wiser than another and using God's Word
unlawfully to exalt ourselves, to get a following, to build
a church, to do this great and glorious work in the earth so
everybody will be looking at us, it's vanity. It's absolute
thorough vanity. Christ shall be recompensed. at the resurrection of the just
when He shall be glorified in Him alone for justifying all
of His people. And each believer that he's called
and that he's brought low to trust Him and to set forth the
truth of Christ, we shall be recompensed when we behold Christ
receiving all the glory in Him alone and all those sheep that
He saved by His grace brought home to Him. That'll be our recompense. Do you have that heart? Is that
your heart? Is your heart the reward you want in glory when
you get to glory? Is it that you want to see Christ
get all the glory? See Him holding up His children
as trophies of His grace and saying, Behold, Father, I and
the children whom Thou hast given Me, not one is lost. I've brought
them all to You. And He get all the glory for
all eternity? Or are you wanting to have a
mansion that's bigger on this side of town than that side of
town and streets of gold and all those things? You know why
the streets are gold in heaven? They're not worth anything. Gold's
not worth anything. The things that we deem valuable
in this life is not worth dirt. What's valuable is the things
that are not seen. What's valuable is Christ and
the glorious, unsearchable riches that He gives in spirit and in
truth to His people. This is what it will be. This
will be our recompense. His recompense will be His people
and our recompense will be Him. So, when we're swollen in pride,
Christ shuts our mouth with His Word so He can teach us. Then
Christ takes us and He heals us and He sets us free from our
bondage. And then Christ shuts the mouth
of that accuser within us by making this need of mercy personal
to us, by showing us we're the one in need of mercy, not the
one we've been blaming or looking to. And then Christ teaches us
true humility. To be great in the kingdom of
God is to be least. And then He teaches us to truly
love, to love mercy, to love those that are poor and needy
and helpless, to love as Christ loved you and me. That's us. The poor and the lame and the
maimed and the ruined. He says, love as I've loved you,
freely, without a cause in you, without looking for a reason
to love, without looking for a recompense again. Turn over
now to 1 Corinthians 13. I just want to read this chapter
to you. Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, and have not charity, that's love, love,
I am become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though
I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and
all knowledge and though I have all faith so I could remove mountains
and have not love, I'm 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, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long and is
kind. Charity envieth not, charity
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, swollen in pride, doth not
behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, doesn't seek to
be exalted, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not
in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things,
That includes when our brother is lifted up and swollen with
this pride, thinking he's something when he's nothing. He's bearing
that burden. Bearing all things, believeth
all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity
never faileth. But where there's prophecies,
they shall fail. Where there's preaching, it's
going to fail. We're going to stop preaching
one day. Where there be tongues, they're going to stop. Where
there be knowledge, it's going to vanish away. For we know in
part, and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect
is come, then that which is in part shall be done away with.
You know, wisdom really, knowledge really is, it's incremental. Knowledge is incremental. To
have knowledge is to have a little bit, and add to it, and add to
it, and add to it. In that day, we're going to know
Him. There won't be such thing as knowledge, there'll be such
thing as wisdom. Not learning anymore, knowing
Him. When I was a child, verse 11,
I spoke as a child. and understood as a child, and
I was taught as a child. And that's what we are right
here, we're children. And we get to fighting over these little
specks of this, pieces of this diamond that makes up the whole
diamond. We get to fighting with them, and slinging them at one
another, when we ought to be putting them all together so
we can see this diamond held up and lifted up, this jewel
of His grace in Christ. But one of these days when we've
become a man, when we're redeemed, when we go to glory with Him,
We're going to put away all these childish things. Look at verse
12. For now we see through a glass
darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then
shall I know even as also I am known. And now about a faith,
hope, and charity. These three. But the greatest
of these is charity. Because in that day, we won't
have any hope. It'll be a reality. We won't
have any faith. We'll see Him as He is. But you
know what we'll still have? Love. Love. You see, love rejoices
in mercy rather than judgment. Love doesn't make a man an offender
for a word. Love rejoices to give a man the
benefit of the doubt and the trust that God will raise him
up, teach him. That's what love does. Amen.