Luke chapter 4. And this morning, we'll be looking
again at verses 18 down through verse 32. Here in this passage of Scripture,
We have the Lord Jesus Christ returning from His temptation,
from His triumph, from His victory, from His success over the devil. He returns again to His home
city, or what was supposed to be His home city of Nazareth. And here it was that he went
to the synagogue, as was his custom, to hear and read the
Word of God. And he took the book, the prophet
Isaiah, and he read this in verse 18, The Spirit of the Lord is
upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted. to preach deliverance to the
captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he
gave it again to the minister and sat down, and the eyes of
all them that were in the synagogues were fastened on him. And he
began to say unto them, This day Is this Scripture fulfilled
in your ears? And I want you to notice the
response of his reading. The response of his reading and
declaration of this truth. And all bear him witness and
wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. They wondered. His words were
so beautiful as they proceeded, as He read the Scriptures. There
must have been such a great power and presence of the Lord when
He read the Word. They were all fastened on Him,
and they thought, Wow! Wow! What a gracious Word! Wow! That was the best thing
I'd ever heard in all my life. They were astonished. They were
amazed. But something happened in an
instant. They heard it. They were amazed. They heard the gracious words. They said, oh, what gracious
words. Oh, what beautiful words. I've never heard this like that
before. But something immediately changed. And then they said,
wait a second, who is this? Who is this? Well, that's Joseph's
son. He's nobody. He's nobody. Who is this? Is this not Joseph's
son? And by the end of this, and we're
going to read these passages, he begins to tell them a prophecy.
He said, you're going to say this to me, physician, heal thyself. And you're going to say whatsoever
you've heard it done in Capernaum, do in this your country. And
he says, no prophet is accepted in his own country. And he tells
them of these two things. He preaches a message to them
by these two examples of the widow and Naaman. He preaches
a message of sovereignty. And then notice the change. I
want you to see the change. They heard the gracious words,
then they snapped. Well, this is just Joseph's son.
But this message, it did something. And all the synagogue, verse
28, and all the synagogue, when they heard these things, were
filled with wrath and rose up and thrust him out of the city. They didn't just throw him out
of the church. They threw him out of the city. They had to actually grab him
and shove him through the streets all the way to the edge of the
city. That's how angry they were. They were mad. They were raged. And the city was built on a hill. And you know what they desired
to do? They desired to push him off the hill. That's how mad
they were at him. Now what changed? What caused
the change from hearing, oh, what gracious words, to desiring
to throw him off the hill? What was it? That's the point
of the message this morning, a riot in the church. What caused
the riot in the church? Now, the Jews. The Jews, these
Jews, in this time, in this place, were permitted of God to hear
the greatest message ever preached by the greatest preacher that
ever preached. These Jews were given the privilege. Listen to me, you have a privilege
this morning of hearing God's man preach God's Word. Now, that's
a privilege. You may not think it is, But
it is. But I'll tell you how much greater
were these privileged to hear the voice of the Son of God preaching
to them. Greatest message that ever was
preached by the greatest preacher that ever lived. This is the one that they said
they were waiting for. This is the one they said was
promised to come. This is the one Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob longed to see. I won't turn there for time's
sake, but in Daniel, when he was given that prophecy of 70
weeks, that means 490 years. He understood that it was 490
years from the time that the temple should be rebuilt to the
time Christ should come. So he realized that he himself
would not be alive. when Christ came. And in the
very next chapter, that's Daniel chapter 9, and Daniel chapter
10, at the very beginning, you know what Daniel's doing? He's
weeping. He's crying. He said, I'm not
going to be here when He comes. I wanted to see His face. I wanted
to see Him in the flesh. I'm not going to be here. And
he wept. Jesus told His disciples, He
said, Many prophets and righteous men and kings have desired to
see what you have seen and not seen them, and hear what you
have heard and have not heard them. Blessed are your eyes that
see and your ears that hear. These men who sat and heard the
message of Jesus Christ were blessed to hear the greatest
sermon spoken by the greatest preacher. And what was the result?
What was the result? What was the response of these
men who were given to hear the greatest message by the lips
of the greatest preacher that ever lived? The response was,
I hate you. That was their response. You
wouldn't expect that, would you? Jesus? Who is the Son of God
preaching a message? The whole congregation was filled
with wrath and desired to kill Him. At first, they seemed to be pleased
with His voice. Now, that's when, at first, they
heard the words that come out of His mouth and they were amazed
at His skill, at His oratory skill. What was it that he preached?
What was the difference between the first words that he preached
and the second? Because he was preaching the
same message. What was the difference? Well, Jesus here first, after
they had said this, they began their dissent by saying, who,
is this not the son, Joseph's son? Is this not Joseph's son?
And Jesus said to them, You are surely going to say unto me this
proverb, Physician, heal thyself. Physician, heal thyself. They
wanted to throw him off the cliff. Well, let me break this down
for you real fast. I want three points out of my
message this morning. First of all, I want you to see
who was preaching this message that caused the riot. Then I
want you to see what was the message that caused the riot,
and what was the result of Christ at the riot? What was the result? What did the preacher do? What
did Christ do? And so, the Apostle Paul, he
was a great preacher, wasn't he? The Apostle Paul was probably
one of the greatest preachers that ever lived. I'm sure of Adam's fallen race,
none was given more understanding and revelation and ability than
Paul. But what did Paul say about his
own preaching? Go to 1 Corinthians. Look at
what Paul said about his preaching. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Paul said this. He said, When
I came, and I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with
excellency of speech, or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony
of God, for I determined not to know anything among you, save
Jesus Christ Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness,
and in fear, and in much trembling, and my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit and power He said, I came to you in weakness
and fear and much trembling. In 2 Corinthians 10, He said,
this is what other people say about me. My bodily presence
is weak. He must have been a very small
little man, a weak man. And He said, my voice is contemptible. In 1 Corinthians 13, He says,
we preach in part. We prophesy in part. We see through a glass darkly.
So this is the greatest preacher of Adam's race, the Apostle Paul. He said, I'm weak, I'm contemptible,
my voice is contemptible. He said, I only know in part.
But the preacher in our text had no such infirmities. He was
not weak in wisdom, weak in revelation. There was no weakness or contempt
in his voice. For He was not a son of Adam.
He was the seed of the woman. He was the Son of God, the Savior
of Israel. And listen, all who heard Him
every time He preached could not accuse Him of weakness. There
was no weakness in His speech. You know what weakness in speech
is? A yes and no kind of speech. Maybe, perhaps, peradventure,
I guess, my opinion. That doesn't matter. Those are
weak speeches. If a man has an opinion, somebody
else has another opinion. That's a weak speech. That's
a weak preaching. But the Lord Jesus Christ never
preached that way. He always preached boldly and
distinctly with authority. That's how He preached. He preached
with authority and power. His enemies even confessed, never
a man spake like this man. For he taught the people as one
having authority and not as a scribe. Look at verse 32, when he goes
to Capernaum, what do they say about his preaching? They said
they were astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with power.
with power. His speech was plain, it was
simple, and yet His words were the unsearchable riches and treasures
of wisdom. And that is because He is God,
very God. The One who was preaching was
God. Now imagine that. The Son of
God was preaching. If anybody knew what He was talking
about, it had to be the Son of God. The Son of God. was made flesh. Jesus, the eternal
Son of God, One with the Father and Spirit, this One was manifest
in the flesh. And what was He to do? He said,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed
Me to preach the Gospel. What was Christ doing there?
He was preaching the Gospel. Preaching. He was declaring the gospel. You want to know what it is to
preach the gospel? It is to declare the truth. Not to debate it. Not to put it up for questions
or opinions. To preach the gospel is simply
to declare the truth. This is what Christ came to do.
To preach the gospel. That salvation of God, the salvation
of God's elect, and that God gave the elect to Christ to be
their federal head in surety. Scripture says that Jesus was
made a surety of a better covenant. The Son of God was sent to fulfill
the covenant of grace. This is why He came into the
world and this is why He was preaching the gospel. Because
of the covenant of grace, He took upon Him flesh. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse
4 declares it's not possible for the blood of bulls and goats
to take away sin. Wherefore, He cometh into the
world. When He cometh into the world,
He saith, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not. God had no
pleasure in burnt offerings. God had no pleasure in man's
sacrifices. People come in and they say,
well, I've come to church, I've made a sacrifice. God's not pleased
with your sacrifice. God's not pleased with your tip,
your offering. He's not pleased with that. There's
no pleasure in that. He had no pleasure in those things.
But a body thou hast prepared me. In burnt offering and sacrifice
for sin thou hast no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come. He came
in a body prepared of the Holy Spirit. Lo, I come, in the volume
of the book it is written of me, to do thy will. Isn't that
what he was saying? By the reading of this passage
of Scripture, he was telling them, the volume of the book
is written of me. The volume of the book is about
me. I came to do the will of God. And Paul says in Hebrews 10,
he said, by the witch will we are sanctified. We are made holy
through the offering of the body of Christ once for all. This was the one who was preaching.
It was the Messiah. whom these men claim to be waiting
for. It was God manifest in the flesh,
in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, in whom
God has set forth to be the only Savior. You know, there is no
other salvation but in Him. You can look anywhere you want
to, you won't find any. I was listening to a message
from Ecclesiastes, and it's an amazing book. The preacher is
writing about everything under the sun. And he said, everything
under the sun follows this pattern over and over and over again. And he said, life without God
is vanity. It's empty. You can seek all
the pleasures and joys of the world, but you will not find
any comfort in them. They will always fail you. It
is futile. That's what life is. It's futile,
isn't it? Without God, it's futile. There's no meaning without God. But I tell you that God has sent
a Savior, and only through Him is there satisfaction. Only through Him can we find
help. This is the one who was preaching.
He sent me to preach the gospel, he said. Jesus plainly told them
in the text. He said, this day is this scripture
fulfilled in your ears. In other words, I am the Christ.
I am the one sin of God to preach. And Jesus was sent to preach
the gospel to the poor, to the bankrupt, to the blind, to the
captive. and to preach the acceptable
year of the Lord. And when he closed that book,
they said, wow, what a message. Boy, that man could talk. He's
got a good voice. They were all amazed and they
wondered at the gracious words. In other words, they nodded their
heads in approval, but they did not bow their hearts. How many
people nod their heads in approval every time this gospel is preached?
They say, yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. But in their
hearts, they have no love for it. No love for it. These were such people. The hearing
of the gospel was not accompanied by power of the Spirit. They
were not given a new nature, a new heart. They're lost. and depraved nature soon comes
in and snatches the gracious words that they heard. Isn't
this what happens when the gospel is not accompanied with power?
It comes and some men receive it graciously. They receive it
gladly. But anon, when they're tried,
it just withers. It just withers. In other words,
they come to human reasoning. That's what happened to these
people. Look what happened here. They said they admired His gracious
words that proceeded out of His mouth, and all of a sudden, reason
hit them, and they said, oh wait, what are we doing? This is just
Joseph's son. They didn't know who was preaching.
They didn't know who was preaching. They didn't know Him. They said,
we know Him. They said, who are you to preach
to us? You're just the son of a peasant. We know your family. We're familiar with you. How in the world can you say,
I am the Christ? How can you say that? They rejected
His person. The one who was preaching was
the Son of God. And the first thing that caused
the riot was His person. He declared who He was. And they
rejected Him. They first rejected this person.
So what then was the message after this? After this, what
was the message? The message that he is going
to preach is a message of sovereign free grace. A message that declares
that salvation is completely according to the sovereign will
of God and not of man in any part. And he tells them in verse 23
through verse 24, look what he says to them after their rejection
of his person. He said this, and he said unto
them, You will surely say unto me, this proverb, Physician,
heal thyself. Whatsoever we have heard done
in Capernaum, do also in thy country. And he said, truly,
I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. Jesus first preached his person
and the gospel in general terms, to which no man will object. No one is ever against preaching
to the poor. Do you know that? Nobody's against
that. I came to preach to the poor.
Oh, that's so good. Those poor people, they sure
need it. Oh, I came to give recovery of
the sight to the blind. Oh, how gracious that word is.
You're going to give sight to the blind? Those poor blind people,
they sure need you. You're going to set at liberty
those who are in prison? Oh, those poor prisoners, they
need you so much. What a gracious word that is
to those people. But now Christ testifies to them
the application of this message. He said, you will say to me,
When he declares this truth, and he's going to, he's going
to declare the truth of this text. He said, when I tell you
what this means, you're going to tell me, physician, heal yourself. Physician, heal yourself. In
other words, you're going to say, we're not sick. Suppose one day you were well
and everything was going fine with you and a doctor knocked
on your door and said, I came to give you free care. I came
to give you free care. And you would say, well, that's
just silly. I'm not sick. I don't need a
doctor. And if he kept persisting, what
would you say? You'd say he was mad. That's
what you'd tell him. He was crazy. And so that's what men by nature
say, well, Jesus, you preaching to the poor, that's good. They
need it. The oppressed, they need it. The blind, they need
it. And Jesus is saying, no, you are the poor. You are the oppressed. You are
the blind. You are the sick. And what do
they say to Him? You're crazy. Go to John chapter
8. See what they did. This is what they did all through
his ministry. He would declare them the truth and they would
call him crazy. John chapter 8, look at verse
43. Jesus said, why don't you understand
my speech? Are my words plain? Even because
you cannot hear my word, that's why. You are of your father the
devil, and the lust of your father you will do. He was a murderer
from the beginning, and bode not the truth, because there
is no truth in him. When he speaketh the lie, he
speaketh of his own, for he is a liar, and the father of it.
And because I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Which of
you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do
you not believe me? He that is of God heareth God's
words. You therefore hear them not, because you are not of God.
And what did they say? Verse 48. Say we not well that
thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil? What do you mean we
don't hear the Word of God? What do you mean we're of our
father the devil? Look at verse 51. Verily I say unto you, if a man
keep my saying, he shall never taste death. And the Jews said
to him, now we know you're a devil. Now we know you're a devil. Abraham
is dead, the prophets And thou sayest to a man, Keep my sayings,
he shall never taste death. Look at verse 58. Jesus said
unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was,
I am. Oh, this got to them, and they took up stones to kill him.
Why? He said, I am God. He declared
himself to be God. And men will not tolerate this. Yes, they love to hear of physical
healing and benefits. They desire these things. They
say, well, physician, heal thyself. But when you hear of what I'm
going to do to other people, you're going to say, you need
to come back and do it to us. When you hear of me healing,
you're going to say, come back and do it in thy own country. You see, they most openly rejected
His person. They most surely do not want
spiritual healing, but they did want to be part of His physical
healings. But Jesus here, by His Word,
He's going to crush them. And I want you to see this. He
said, Whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here
in thy country. This is not a request, this is
a demand. He said, You're going to demand
of me. You think that you have a right to me, because you think
I'm part of this country. Because I'm kin to you, you're
going to think you have a right to me. And Jesus is going to
crush these so-called rights of men. Isn't that how men think? Isn't that how men think? Well, God made me. I have a right
to God. Listen. No, you don't. You and I who are made of God,
we by nature have no claim on God. No claim on God. To demand of God anything. And
this is going to be seen by this message. He shows by these two
examples of Scripture, by the widow of Sidon and Naaman the
leper, He's going to show by these two examples that salvation
is not by blood, nor by the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but salvation is of the will of God. Salvation is of the will of God.
And this is the message that he was preaching. How many people
are there like these Jews who believe that because these Jews
believed because they were the son of Abraham that they had
a right to heaven? They had a right to be accepted
of God because of their blood kinship. We don't, I know a lot
of people, we don't see that so much in our thought process
as openly as the Jews. But I tell you, it's still here.
It's still among us. How many people, children of
believers, think that they have a right and access to God because
their parents are believers? Many children of believers in
Christ assume, like the Jews, that they will be saved because
their parents are saved. My children, look at me. Look
at me. You have no right to God because
I have a right to God. You have no claim on God because
your dad is a believer. You have no claim on Him. Jesus said there were many widows
in Israel. There were many widows. You remember
that there were three and a half years where the heavens were
shut up and people were starving to death in Israel. There were
many widows in Israel who were starving to death. Many widows
in Israel died. But Jesus said, God sent His
prophet to none of them. but instead sent His prophet
to this Gentile widow, this woman of Serapta, a city of Sidon. So what did their kinship with
Abraham do for them? Nothing. Nothing. Neither does our relationship
with God's saints guarantee that God will show us grace or save
us. As the woman was chosen of God
not according to merits, she was a pagan, she was a Gentile,
yet God sent His prophet and God saved her by free grace. I'll tell you, that woman was
not looking to be saved. You know that? She was out there,
if you read the account in Kings, she was out there picking up
a couple of sticks. She had just enough meal to make
a piece of bread for her son and herself. Cake. Little cake. She was picking
up stones to cook it. Picking up sticks so she could
cook it. And she... Elijah came to her and said,
what are you doing? She said, I'm picking up two
sticks to burn to cook my cake so me and my son can eat it and
then die. She wasn't expecting to be saved.
But God sent His man to her. And He said, feed me first and
you won't starve. And I'll tell you, what gave
her such faith? What gave her such faith to believe
the Word of the Man of God? God gave her that faith to believe. And not only did He use that,
He used that in that woman's life to bring her to conviction
of sin. Remember, her son died. And she
said, all my sins have come back to me. And Elijah, God used him
to raise that child from the dead. Isn't that a picture of salvation?
Isn't that it? We're convicted of our sins. God gives us regeneration. And you know what she said? She
said, I know that God is the Lord. She was saved. Out of all the widows in Israel,
only this one was saved. Only this one. Even so, God saves
sinners not by blood, but by the free grace of God that calls
us to conviction. I tell you, there are many sinners
in this room. There are many sinners hearing
my voice. But I tell you, not all of them
will be saved. Who will? The ones God saves. That's it. The ones that God
calls. The ones that God gives faith
and repentance. This gospel, this gospel of salvation
must come in power to whomsoever God will reveal it. To whomsoever he will save, he
first convicts, he kills by the law, and then he regenerates
by the Holy Spirit. And how gracious the gospel is
in general to all. But I tell you, when it's preached
with clarity and simplicity, salvation is of the Lord. It
is hated by the natural man. The natural man says, what do
you mean God saves whom He will? The natural man kicks against
that. You know who doesn't? The one who's saved by it. The one who's saved by it. This
widow didn't kick against it, did she? She didn't kick against
the fact that God was sovereign. Matter of fact, she loved it.
She loved it. And so is everyone that is saved.
And so God says, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion,
and whom He will, He hardeneth. If this message, if this message
don't make you feel helpless, it will sure make you angry. It's going to do something. This
message of God's sovereignty to choose whom He will and damn
whom He will, I'll tell you this, it will either make you angry or to make you helpless. You know who it makes helpless?
The ones that God will save. the ones that God will save.
Now, second of all, he used this other illustration, this leper. He said, there were many lepers
in Israel in the time of Elisha, the prophet, but none of them
was cleansed, saving Naaman, the Syrian. You remember Naaman,
he was the captain of the army of the enemy of God's people.
He was a valiant man, but he was a leper. And leprosy in the
Scripture, we know this, it is not used like a physical disease. It is a curse. In Scripture,
leprosy is seen always as a curse from God. And so this man was a leper. And God cleansed only this man. There were many lepers that were
children of Abraham, but to none of them were cleansed except
this Gentile." And you remember how that came about? Syria had
captured Israel and they had brought those slaves in to Syria. And you can imagine the heartache
and the devastation of that. There was one slave girl that
was captured. And I imagine it was devastating
for her parents to have to lose that child up and to be a slave
in Syria. But you know what? God sent that
little girl and put her in a position so that when she heard that Naaman
was a leper, she said, what to God my master would go to Israel? There's a God, there's a prophet
in Israel. And God used the word of that
little maiden girl. And Naaman, he said, I'm going
to Israel. There's a prophet there I heard.
There's healing there in Israel. And so I'm going to go. And the
king says, well, here, let me give you this letter. And you
go to the king. And you remember what the king of Israel, when
he received that letter, he said, am I God? You know, the king,
he didn't really send him to the king. The king didn't have
any power. It was the man of God. And he
rent his clothes and then Elisha heard that and he said, hey,
you send him to me. And here comes Naaman with all
of his stuff. Man, he's loaded down, he's dressed
beautifully. I'm sure he covered up that leper's
part, you know, with all of his armor and clothes. And he comes
in and he has an idea of how this thing's going to go down.
He said, I just know how this thing's going to work. That's
how it's going to happen. I'm going to go down there, and
that prophet's going to come out and see me, and he's going
to be so thankful that I came. He's going to be so thankful
when he sees me, and all my gifts and treasures, and he's going
to come, and he's going to smack me on the head, and I'm going
to fall down, and all my leprosy is going to be cleansed. I got
this all worked out. That's exactly how it's going
to happen. You know how it happened. The prophet didn't even come
out the door. Didn't even come out to see him. He just sent
his slave out and said, you go tell him to wash seven times
in the Jordan and he'll be clean. Simple message, isn't it? Dip
seven times and you'll be clean. Not three, not four, not five,
not six, but seven. Seven times. And he was mad. He tore out of there and said,
I can't believe. I thought, is what he said the
Scripture says, I thought that this is how it should be. How
many of you think how salvation should be? What does man think
about salvation? He says, I think that salvation
should be like this. I should come down and make my
decision for Jesus. I think that's how it should
be. I think that you just need to
be baptized. If you can be baptized, then God will come and strike
the leprosy of my sin and wash it away. Nope. Nope. Here it is. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Isn't that just as simple
a word as dip seven times in the Jordan? Behold, Jesus Christ
is the only Savior. And He went away mad. But that
servant came to him and said, Master, if he'd asked you to
do something hard, wouldn't you have done it? And so Naaman turns
around, and he goes back and he dips seven times. And you
know what happened? Exactly what the prophet said
would happen. He came out clean. But I'll tell you something more
important than cleansing of his skin. Something more important happened
there. Because Naaman came back and he said this, I know that
there is only a God in Israel. He said the same thing the widow
said. He said, I know that God is here. I know there's only one true
God. And you know what he asked for,
Naaman? You know what he asked for? He asked for pardon. He
said, you know, when I go back, I know my Master is going to
make me go into that false God's house, and I'm going to have
to carry that old man in. Will the Lord pardon me? Because
I'm not bowing to this God. I know that's not God. But He's
going to make me do it because that's part of my job. He said,
Will the Lord pardon me? He said, Go in peace. Lord, pardon me. See? This is what God did. God saved
this leper. And I tell you, there are many
lepers. All men by nature need healing. All men by nature are
sinners and need the cleansing of God. And I tell you this, the only ones that are going
to be cleansed are the ones God cleanses. I tell you that salvation is
not by the will of man. You may try to demand of God
to save you, you will fail. But all your decisions could
not obtain salvation. All your works and obedience
cannot merit God's favor and pardon. Jesus said, no man can
come unto Me. except the Father which hath
sent me draw him." You remember what Jesus said
to those Jews in that same place in John 6? He said, there's some
of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not and who should betray Him. And
He said, therefore I said unto you, no man can come unto Me
except the Father. They were given Him of My Father. I'll tell you, men may enjoy
the general gospel, but I'll tell you, when the gospel
is preached, if it's not accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit,
they will hate the gospel of particular redemption. Surely, they desire to cast out
all who preach the sovereign grace of God, even the Lord Jesus
who preached it was cast out. I preach this gospel to all men. To all of you here, listen. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. I do preach
that with all my heart because that's the truth. I preach, come, you poor and
leprous sinner, come helpless and hopeless with no claim of
God's grace. Come and bow down to Jesus Christ. Well, who will come? Who will come with such a broken
heart? Only those drawn by the Father. Are you drawn? Are you drawn? If you're drawn, you'll come.
You'll come. You remember what those disciples
said after those many, after Jesus said that, many of his
disciples didn't walk with him anymore. You know what his disciples
said? They said, Lord, to whom shall we go? They were brought helpless. to
Christ. This is what the message of sovereign
grace does. It brings sinners helpless to
God. To whom shall we go? You have
the words of eternal life. They came to Him. They didn't
have any place else to go. You know why I come to Christ?
Because I ain't got no place else to go. If you got a place to go, you'll
go. If you got some other place you want to be, you'll go there.
It's only when God takes away all your running places. It's
only when you're exhausted, when you're helpless, that's when
God calls you and draws you in to Christ. We hear this gospel and say,
great physician, heal me. Not heal thyself, heal me. You see, they that are whole
need not a physician, but they that are sick. Jesus came not
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Sinner, can you
hear? Can you hear? If you can hear, come. If you
can, come. And Jesus said, to whomsoever
cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out. No way will I cast
out anyone who comes to Me. Why? Because those that come
are drawn of the Father. The Scripture says, by the witch
will, by the will of God, Christ came. By the will of God, we
are made holy. By the will of God, we believe. and have eternal life through
the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. You know this. You know faith is a gift of God. You know who know that? Those
who've received the gift of God. I know this. Faith is not simple,
is it? We say simple faith only because simple means one object. That's what we mean by simple.
It only has one object of hope, Jesus Christ. My faith has one
view, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. My faith rests in nothing else
but the faith of the Son of God and that's it. So that's simple
faith. But faith is not simple. Faith,
my friends, is impossible except God give it to you. For by grace
you are saved through faith, and that faith is not of yourself. Faith is a gift of God, not of
works. You remember in John 6, they
said, What must we do to work the works of God? And Jesus said,
This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has
sent. So faith is not simple that anyone
can do. It's something that God must
give. You see, this is the message Jesus was preaching. Salvation
is of the Lord. He gives it to whomsoever He
will, and whomsoever He will He gives it to. What do they
do? They believe. You know what I can't help but
do? I can't help but believe. And I tell you, what is the most
horrific thing in my eyes is unbelief. That is the most horrific
thing that I can do as a sinner. That is the worst thing to my...
It makes me physically ill to know my unbelief. Why? Because I believe on Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. and have no confidence in the
flesh. Now, what did Jesus do? Now, that message will cause
a riot. There's just no doubt about it.
We're not trying to. Jesus wasn't trying to cause riot. He didn't
intend for this to just to stick them or to be angry with them.
Matter of fact, He loved them as He loved Himself. He had to. To obey the law, He had to love
His neighbor as Himself. So as He was preaching this,
surely it was preached in love. But no matter what you do, when
this gospel is plainly declared, it will be despised. I first started preaching, I
thought it would be different. I thought when I came to preach
that all men would have loved to hear this. Boy, was I wrong. Men don't love to hear this.
They didn't love to hear it from the greatest preacher that preached
the greatest message. How should I expect that they
should hear it from such a lowly preacher as myself? The only
way they heard it from the lips of the Son of God is the same
way they hear it from the lips of this poor preacher. By the
sovereign free grace of God, if you ever hear it and believe
it, it will be God that does it. Now, if you don't believe,
that's your fault. If you do believe, that's God's
fault. That's because God gave it to
you. Now what did the greatest preacher
do? As a result of the riot, what
did he do? Was he upset? Was he discouraged? No. Scripture says, He shall not
be discouraged. He wasn't. Look what He did.
Verse 30, But He, passing through the midst of them, went His way.
And you know what He did? He came to Capernaum, the city
of Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath day. And they were
astonished at His doctrine, for His Word was with power. What
did He do? He left them alone. When we preach
the Gospel, what do we do with it? Leave it alone. Leave it alone. If this message does nothing
to you, it's because God did not accompany it with power.
If it does something at all for you, it is because God did it.
No power in me. No power in you. Power is in
God. And so what do we do? We leave
it alone. We leave it alone. And you know
what else we do? We continue to preach it. We
continue to preach it. I'll preach the same message
again. Jesus Christ, Him crucified. I'll preach it and preach it
and preach it. Though no man believe it, I should
preach it. Though no man believe it, you
should preach it. You should declare it. Plainly and simply. And leave it alone. May God give us such grace to
do that.