All right, let's turn to Mark
6. Mark 6 verses 1 through 6 is going to be our text. And what
we have here is Christ is returning from his ministry out in Capernaum
and around the Sea of Galilee and the towns around there where
he's performed many miracles. And now he's coming to his hometown
of Nazareth where he grew up. And these people They knew him
before he was revealed as the Christ. They saw him working
and learning from his earthly father, his business of carpentry. So they've seen that. But one
of the things that the disciples are about to see is they've witnessed
this rejection of Christ by the Jewish leaders. They've seen
Christ out among the Gentiles and be rejected by the Gentiles.
And now they're coming to his hometown and they're going to
see them reject Christ as well. And it's important for us to
remember to recognize this and to see it because this world
hates Christ. They hate the God and they hate
his Christ because Christ is revealed to us that he alone
is light and he alone is life and righteousness. And so natural
man hates this message when it's proclaimed and declared In the
simplicity of Christ, he hates this message because there's
nothing for the flesh to boast in. There's nothing for the flesh
to latch on to and find something for itself to glory in, to glory
in itself. So we who believe it, it's only
a matter of time before the world rejects you and me who believe
this gospel. In this message, what I want
us to see is that the child of God, first that the child of
God who is truly saved of God, they're going to follow Christ.
They're going to follow where Christ leads them. And we'll
see that. And as the Lord grows us in this
grace, he's separating us from this world. He's delivering us
from the darkness and from the bondage and corruption that is
pervading all the other inhabitants of the world. He delivers us
from that. He teaches us and instructs us and grows us in
the grace and the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
so that we're we're OK with that we we we want to be with Christ
and we want to side with Christ even when this world is rejecting
us because we see how the Lord's even worked in our hearts that
we take sides with God against ourselves and justifying God
that what he does is right and what he says and declares about
us is right even though in naturally speaking in the flesh it condemns
us it condemns our works and our thoughts and what we are
the flesh but we we've been taught of God so he's given us a spirit
to want to be with him inside with him and so he's doing this
because he's making us to see and to know Christ is all the
Lord Jesus Christ is all to us as Peter was brought to say lo
we have left all follow thee. And that's where the Lord brings
us. So our title is, Not Ashamed of Christ. And we'll have two
divisions. We'll look at, they followed him. They followed him.
And then we'll ask the question, what's in your heart? What's
in your heart? So they followed him. Verse one,
Mark six one says, and he went out from thence and came into
his own country and his disciples follow him. So Christ is coming
now to Nazareth where he grew up and his disciples follow him. And we do well to pause and observe
this, that the Christian, the true Christian, the one who has
been converted and brought to Christ, they follow the Lord
Jesus Christ. They follow him. It says in Acts
11.26, and the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. And today that term is used pretty
loosely. A lot of people will say, yeah,
I'm a Christian. Or they're one who identifies
themselves as a Christian if they're taking a survey. How
do you identify yourself? Well, I'm a Christian. A lot of people will do that.
They'll say that they're a Christian, but the true Christian, the one
who is a Christian, they follow Christ. It's not just, yeah,
say this or say that. They really follow Christ. And it's easy to say when you're
surrounded by people who are also saying that they're Christian,
but it's another thing to confess and side with Christ when you're
surrounded by the enemies of Christ. It's not so easy. And
this world is full of enemies, as it says in John 1, 10 and
11. He was in the world and the world
was made by him and the world knew him not. He came into his
own and his own received him not. So when we're brought to
identify with Christ, just as he suffered rejection, so we
too should expect that we will suffer rejection from this world. And we'll know what it is to
be reproached of men. But when you think about it,
isn't that what Christ did for us? Didn't he suffer rejection
and reproach for us? He didn't have to come here in
the way that he did. He's God. He could have revealed
himself in all his glory and power and shown them that he
is God. And all of us would have perished
in our sins because we still can't can't do anything to justify
ourselves and save ourselves from our iniquity so he came
humbly and low and and and weak and and he came you know when
you when you just consider he came in the flesh that's his
humiliation he humbled himself to be like you and me that's
a that's a humiliation for God for him who was a altogether
lovely and powerful and beautiful and wonderful, but he made himself
of no reputation. He made himself have no beauty
that we shouldn't even desire him, that we wouldn't look upon
him and see anything in him that we should desire. But he had
a very humble beginning, being born in a manger, being rejected
and thrust out, and that way He learned he knew what it was
to hunger. He knew what it was to thirst.
He knew what it was to feel pain He knew what it was to feel rejection.
It says in Romans 15 3 for even Christ pleased not himself But
as it's written the reproaches of them that reproached thee
fell on me And all this was done that he might be a fit and a
suitable savior for you and me who are weak and lowly and miserable
and have no ability to save ourselves. Hebrews 4.15 saying, for we have
not in high priest, which cannot be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are
yet without sin. And you can see that when you
consider how the Lord, you know, you look at us and we're not
wise. We're not very wise in the ways
of this world or in the ways of of God. And we're not wise
in the ways of this world. And we're not rich in the ways
of God. And we're not even rich in the
ways of this world. And we're not mighty in the things
of God, nor are we mighty in the things of this world. But
turn over to first Corinthians one. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 18. And we see the the will and the way
of God traced out here in 1 Corinthians 1 18 where Paul says for the
preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness
but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. And you
think about how many powerful or successful people are willing
to sacrifice and to come and worship the Lord Jesus Christ
rather than partake in this world's goods and what this world has
to offer. No, they're successful, they're
powerful, and they want to go out and enjoy and experience
this world and all that they can do rather than come and worship
the Lord Jesus Christ consistently and to be with the people of
God. And Christ said he said it's
hard for a rich man to be saved. It's hard. It's impossible for
a rich man to be saved except the Lord do a work in their heart
and all of us even if we don't have a lot of riches we are rich
in our own minds in our own thoughts and what we think we can do.
So the Lord has to save us and deliver us because we're all
we're all corrupt and we all go astray and we all go and turn
to our own way. to the things that we love naturally,
but we see why this is. He says in verse 19, for it's
written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. Where's the wise? Where's the
scribe? Where's the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For
after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not
God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe." So the Lord does things very contrary to how we are.
And you know when you're conversing with someone and you're at, say,
a disagreement or you have a difference of opinions, a difference of
thoughts, When you're conversing usually what as words are coming
out of their mouth and they're touching on certain keywords
Certain buzzwords for you you begin thinking immediately how
you're gonna respond and you stop listening to what they're
saying And you're just thinking about what I'm gonna say now
in response to this thing So you shut you shut down you shut
off and no one's listening to anyone because they're just they
just want to be heard but they don't want to hear what the other
person is saying, but when we're here in the preaching There's
no back and forth. You're not saying anything. Your
mouths are shut. And that's a good picture of
how it is when we're before the Lord. The Lord shuts our mouths. I mean, I don't think any of
us are going to say anything when we're standing before the ancient
of days sitting on his throne there to judge the nations. What are you going to say? You're
going to see and know in that moment how everything you've
done in your life was worthless compared to the glory and the
beauty of the Lord. And just like he shows us in
the law, when we hear what the law is saying, our mouths are
shut. There's nothing to say because we're guilty. There's
nothing to say. So when we're here hearing the
preaching, the Lord designed it that way so that it's not
about what you're going to say in return. The Lord's declaring
his word, he's showing you Christ so that we who hear it would
know. All right, Lord, you're right.
You're just and I'm I'm a sinner and I've got nothing. Please
have mercy upon me. Show me Christ. Let me see him.
Let him deliver me from my sin. And we see how the who the Lord
calls into his kingdom, it says in verse 26, for you see your
calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise. And God
hath chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things
which are mighty, and base things of the world. And things which
are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not,
to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory
in his presence. And what worldly-minded individual
wants to be associated with that? weak and despised and cast off
they don't want to be be associated with with with with that they
want to there's somebody there's something and they want to be
recognized as such so we see how the Lord teaches us he humbles
us because that's us by nature too we don't like to be I know
growing up I didn't want to be in in the outcast crowd, although
I was, but I mean, I didn't like that. I wanted to be recognized
and I wanted to be something and be liked and be somebody. But the Lord shows us that really
we are nothing in ourselves. And he he brings us to see that
we have everything we need in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
makes us OK with that so that we see that it's he's not kind
and gentle and gracious to us because we're something. He's
kind and gracious and gentle toward us in spite of what we
are and who we are. And we hear his words and we're
comforted by his words when he says, come unto me, all ye that
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my
yoke upon you, for it's easy, it's light, and it'll be rest
for your soul. So, That's what he does. This gentle savior, he calls
us who are nothing in ourselves and by his divine power, by his
working, he teaches us to savor the things of God rather than
to savor the things of men. We desire, we begin to desire
the things of God. We want to see the Lord's kingdom
be established rather than our own kingdom be established. So
he's teaching us to savor those things that please him. Then
said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man will come after me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For
whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever
will lose his life for my sake shall find it. And it's not that
We walk perfectly before the Lord. We see how we're weak and
how we stumble and we don't do things that we know we ought
to do and certainly not with the diligence that we ought to
do them. But we follow Christ. We follow
after him. We continue to stay upon him
as he's leading us and directing us in his kind and gentle and
faithful way, he's bringing us along after him. As it says in
Revelation 14, four, these are they which follow the lamb whithersoever
he goeth. We follow after him. We may not
be perfect in all our ways and we may stumble and fall down
and the Lord will chasten us and teach us and deal with us
and communicate these truths to us and grow us in him. But he does it all. He's sweet. He knows exactly what he's doing.
So it's not about saying I'm a Christian. It's about following
the Lord and he gives that to us. He brings us along. My sheep
hear my voice, he said, and I know them and they follow me. All right. So in our next point,
what's in your heart? In Mark 6 2, it says, and when
the Sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue.
And many hearing him were astonished, saying, from whence hath this
man these things? And what wisdom is this which
is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought
by his hands? Now this here, again, should
get our attention, who claim to be Christians, who claim to
follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Because we see that Christ always,
it was always his custom to go to the synagogue when the people
of God were there to meet. When they were there, when they
were gathered together on the days that they were to gather
on, Christ was there. He didn't miss that. He went
up there to the synagogue. You know, we rightly question
religion, right? We've been through the religious
rigmarole, and we've gone through it, and we've seen the folly
of it. So I understand why there's this pushback, this resistance
to do anything that religion says is something that we should
do. But this isn't religion. This is Christ. And we see Christ
going up to the synagogue so that it wasn't a light thing
for him. Right that you know the religion
tells you this is what you do for life and godliness and we
know we've been taught the gospel So we know it's according to
his power his divine power that has given to us all things that
pertain unto life and godliness And but he brings us to follow
him and we see his example where he was faithful and if Christ
who is God is said I'm gonna go to the synagogue and I'm gonna
you know there teach the people he didn't go up to a mountaintop
you know I've heard people say well I can go up to a mountain
you know or out to the woods or out to a stream and worship
God there and I understand what they're trying to say but we
see that in practice Christ was faithful to be there where the
people of God were. So, you know, and I know things
happen. I'm not saying, you know, obviously
there's things that happen. People get sick or just circumstances
happen and you just can't get there. I'm talking about just
a willingness to be haphazard about it, a carelessness to not
try and work our lives around the preaching of the gospel and
to be there as often as we can be and to set it up so that we
can be there that that's what I mean where there's just a doesn't
know if I miss one it doesn't really matter. No there's a desire
that he works in us that we want to be there we want to hear what
the Lord has laid on the pastor's heart for us to hear that day. There's something sweet and special
about it when you're there and you hear it at that first time
initially. It's not that I've never been
blessed listening to another man preach a message over a CD
or on my phone or something, but there's something sweet there.
So we want to be there and I see that. The people want to be here
and there's an effort among his people to be there. So I would
say though that if the gospel is being preached, you want to
be there where the gospel is being preached. And if you don't
have a local assembly where you can go to be there with the people,
then move. Find one first. See if there's
one locally. And if there isn't one locally, get out. You might
have to move. if it's important for the Lord
to have been there then it should be important for us to be there
we shouldn't think of ourselves more highly than the Lord himself
and you know I was talking to brother Scott I think it was
Wednesday and and I And we were recalling, you know, how how
we came up at certain points in our lives. And I would say,
you know, pajama church is not church. It's not the same. I've
been in pajama church. I've personally done pajama church
where I'm sitting there in my pajamas and listening to a message
or even if you're in your jeans and you get dressed up or even
if you come together you know with people and you don't have
the pastor there you better know and I know it from personal experience
it's not the same it's it's the Lord blesses it in a peculiar
way when you're there with the people and there's a man there
given to you to preach the gospel each week it's just it's different
it's different but Um, you know, pray, pray about it. If that's
your situation, you know, if you don't have a place to, to
go, if there's no church there, then pray about it. Cause it
takes prayer and it takes faith. And you're probably going to
feel uncomfortable going through the process of seeing the Lord
establish a church or having to pick up and move to where
a church is. And I know many of you have all
experienced that. You know what I'm saying. I just
know that we have listeners over the line a lot as well. don't
be surprised it's going to take prayer and faith and an uncomfortable
situation you think about our Lord he went there knowing that
they were going to reject him knowing that they were going
to refuse to hear what he had to say and and we'll look at
that in a minute so He was willing to put himself into very uncomfortable
situations for his people. And so he does call us to be
in those situations ourselves. Now, in verse 2, it says, he
began to teach in the synagogue, and many hearing him were astonished,
saying, from whence hath this man these things? And what wisdom
is this which is given unto him that even such mighty works are
wrought by his hands? Now we know he preached the gospel
if you put a place mark where you are and then turn over to
Luke 4 Luke 4 verse 16 now Luke does record it earlier than Then
the time frame that that mark and Matthew Seemed to put this
event on and I'm not moved by that but some have suggested
that maybe this was the second time Christ was returning but
when I look at it I The events in the words are so similar that
to me I just think Luke happened to put it in a little bit earlier
than when it then when Mark and Matthew say it actually occurred
and that doesn't move me at all. They're they're being led by
the Spirit of God to communicate to show this is Christ. This is the Christ and that's
what they're trying to show. And so Luke says in chapter 4,
verse 16, and he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up.
And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath
day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it's written. This comes from Isaiah
61, verses 1 and 2. What he does is he declares that
he alone is salvation, that we need to hear the voice of the
Messiah teaching us the scriptures and showing us that he himself
is salvation. And it says, verse 18, the spirit
of the Lord is upon me, Christ said. because he hath anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor. And in saying this, he's
describing now who this gospel is for, who it comes to, who
the Lord has come to save and deliver. It says that He had
sent me to heal the poor, and he had sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. So he
declares who his salvation is for, and then he declares that
it's all of the grace of God. When he said to preach the acceptable
year of the Lord, He's declaring it's not because we have made
ourselves worthy, but in spite of our wickedness, in spite of
our rebellion, in spite of turning our own way and doing what we
think is right, we see how the Lord in grace and in mercy and
in compassion has provided salvation through the Son, through the
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is the salvation of His people
sent to do this very work, what we could not do for ourselves. And then it says in verse 20
that Christ closed the book and He gave it again to the minister
and sat down and the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue
were fastened on Him and He began to say unto them, this day is
this scripture fulfilled in your years. So that he's declaring
to them that he is all that the scriptures declare Everything
that we are to see and to look for and to behold He is salvation
Christ is our salvation He's the one that God has promised
from the foundation of the earth that that he should save his
people and put away their sins and put away that enmity that
we created with God when we rebelled against him in the garden when
we disobeyed him so The truth is that men they love their darkness. They don't want to come to the
light of Christ And that's what what we see they may delight
in him for a time All right And it says that there in verse 22
all bear and witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded
out of his mouth but eventually it always comes down to this
and they said is not this Joseph's son and And that's what man does. Wait a minute. I'll have to hear
what this guy says. He's just like me. I got to hear what he
says. He may have said some things
that moved me for a time and caught my attention. But all
right, that made me uncomfortable. And why am I listening to this
guy anyway? He's just like me. He's no different from me. Isn't
this Joseph's son? So drop down to verse 24, verse
24. And we see what their their problem
is. He said unto them, Or he said,
Verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.
But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the
days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six
months, when great famine was throughout all the land, but
unto none of them was Elijah sent, save unto Sarepta, a city
of Sidon, which is unto a woman that was a widow. And so they
understood what he's saying is that Elijah, the prophet of God,
was sent past all the other widows in Israel and in Judah. And he went to a Gentile woman,
a filthy Gentile sinner. God showed mercy and compassion
and grace to a filthy Gentile sinner, not a not a righteous
law abiding Jewish person. Why did he do that? And then
he gives another example. And many lepers, verse 27, were
in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them
was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. So you're saying now
a filthy Gentile was moved of God to come to the prophet, and
the prophet Elisha told him what he could do to be saved, and
he was cleansed of his leprosy, passing all the other good, self-righteous
Jewish lepers that were there in the land? Yeah, that's exactly
right. And so It says then verse 28
all day in the synagogue when they heard these things were
filled with wrath Because he insulted them he preached election. He preached that it's by god's
Sovereign will and grace that a sinner is saved and men don't
want to hear that They want to know that there's something I
can do to earn my salvation I don't want to be left waiting and hoping
on the lord to have mercy on me. I don't want to look to Him
and waiting for the day star to rise in my heart, I want to
know that I can do something to make it happen when it pleases
me to make it happen. Because I ain't going to do it
today. I got some things I got to do in the world. But, you know, when
I'm good and ready, then I'll do it. And they want to know
that they have the power and man doesn't have the power. And
God makes that very clear that it's by grace. It's by grace. Back in our text, in Mark 6,
verse 3, we see how they found fault with him, saying, Is not
this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and
Joseph and of Judah and Simon? And are not his sisters here
with us? And they were offended at him. So we see right here that Just
in their reaction we see how it must be by grace because that
is man's natural reaction. He wants to find an excuse why
he doesn't have to listen to what's being said. He wants to
find a justification for his unbelief. So we see that it's
got to be by grace, that it's got to be according to His divine
power, breaking through our hardness, breaking through that darkness
and delivering us from the bondage and the dungeon that we're in. They were offended at Him. We see that that's how every
self-righteous person is because the scriptures declare and show
us that every sinner is born with a will that's in bondage.
You're in bondage so that there's enmity there between us and God
and nothing's going to change that except for God. We can't
change it. We don't have the power or the
will or the desire because that bondage is keeping us in sin
and in death and in darkness to the things of God as Paul
wrote in Romans 5 12 Wherefore as by one man sin entered into
the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men
for that all have sinned So it's not that we are righteous, it's
that we're sinners. We're fallen sinners in need
of His grace and mercy. For all have sinned and come
short. of the glory of God. That's the testimony of scripture
for us. We've all sinned. We've all come
short of God's glory and the righteousness that he requires.
It's right. It's just. And no, he does not
have to lower the standards so that we can get in because it's
his way or no way. It's his righteousness. He's
holy and just and he cannot abide in the presence of sin. So we
have to be perfect and righteous and spotless in and of ourselves.
There's not a work that we can do there had been a law that
could have been given to make us righteous and clean It would
have been given, but there's no law It's by Christ in Christ
alone so that our salvation is in this one the one that he's
provided Jesus Christ now many though to avoid feeling offended. Because some people will hear
me and say, well, I don't feel offended. I don't know what he's talking about.
I don't feel offended. Well, yeah, because you're shutting it out. You're
trying not to hear. The Jews, they heard what he
was saying, and they were offended. But it's easy. We can say, well,
I don't even know if I believe in God. And so you just push
it out of your mind or say, I don't have to listen to him. Or I'm
going to try not to listen as best as I can so that I'm not
offended. But that just proves that. That
just proves that we are Naturally offended by Christ because we
don't want to hear it. We don't want to hear what what
the Lord reveals to us is the way of salvation because faith
cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God and Isaiah
asked he said Lord who hath believed our report and to whom is the
arm of the Lord and Revealed we see how it's it's it's grace.
He's got a he's got a breakthrough and reveal this To us because
if he doesn't show us the grace of mercy, we're never gonna get
it. We're never gonna hear We're never gonna want to hear As Christ
said to the Jews when he was speaking to them, and ye will
not come unto me that ye might have life. You will to not come
to me. It's not in your will to come
to me or to desire me. And he says, but I know you.
You have not the love of God in your hearts. That's why he
never committed himself to men, because he knew what was in their
heart, that they have not the love of God in their heart. until
the Lord works that love, until he gives love in the heart for
him, and until he works that love in air, we will not come
unto him that we might have life. The problem isn't God. The problem
is with us. You see Christ there in the synagogue.
He went there faithfully, knowing they're going to reject him,
but he stood there and he declared the truth of God to them, and
they rejected him. And we stand here today declaring
the truth of God, and men still reject it so that they are without
excuse. They hear it, they just don't
want to hear it. They see that Christ is all,
but they don't want to believe it. They will not come to Christ.
that they might have life in him. And the reason is that to
you, he's just a carpenter. He's just a carpenter, the son
of Mary. But Christ makes his disciples
so that they're not ashamed of him and they follow him where
he goes. So I pray that the Lord would
Work in us would would give us each a heart to desire him and
to see That that he be glorified in in our hearts and in our lives
that we will follow him that we will Come after him and that's
all the work of his grace and mercy in the heart And then real
quick, the last three verses in Mark 6 verses 4 through 6,
But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, but in
his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.
And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands
upon a few sick folk and healed them. And, you know, what we
take from that is he's saying, why? Why am I going to heap condemnation
on these people? I'm just not even going to do
it. It's not that he couldn't have done it. He could have done
it, but there was no desire for him there, no love for him there.
So he just he healed a few people. And that was it. And he marveled
because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages
teaching. So I pray the Lord this morning
would give us hearts to hear him and hearts to desire him
and not be offended in him and be willing to side with Christ,
even when men reject us for looking to the Christ that's revealed
in the scriptures. Amen. Our gracious Lord, we thank
you. For your mercy. and for your
kindness and compassion upon us, Lord, for we see what we
are by nature, that we will not come unto Christ, that we might
have eternal life. But Lord, you've worked this
faith in us. You've caused us to hear the
report and to believe that Christ is all and that he is our salvation. And Lord, we thank you for that.
We have nothing to boast in but in Christ. And we thank you,
Lord, that you came to us bypassing multitudes, but have effectually
worked this grace in our hearts. We thank you for this and pray
that you continue to call out your people, even from this neighborhood,
Lord, and cause them to desire Christ and to hear his voice
and to be led here with your people. We pray this in Jesus
name, our Lord and Savior. Amen.