I've already been informed, if
you'll be turning to John chapter 4, I've already been informed that
I do not have enough notes and I know it better than the person
that told me. But I did the best I could and
that's all I can do. Luke chapter 4. Did I say John too? Well, I'm
going to need John next, but this one is first. Luke chapter
4. I'm sorry. I wish y'all would give me some
of your brain. Mine is failing really quickly. If I wasn't so dumb, I'd be embarrassed. Luke chapter 4, beginning at
verse 14 and reading through verse 31. Now let me caution
us. Yes, us. Me and you. The Jesus of modern day religion is no God at all. He's pathetic. We owe him our pity. He wants
to do what you won't let him do. And I'm telling you that
ain't the God of the Bible. But somewhere 150 or 200 years
ago, the churches in America tossed aside the real gospel. And the problems that this nation
has to this day is directly traceable to the pulpits of this land.
Now, I know what I'm talking about. I know that's so. I was raised in a Baptist church
much like this one. So was my wife. And we were raised
on the new version of who God is and who we are. You know,
God's trying to do this, but you won't let Him. That's heresy. Ain't nothing short of heresy.
If God can't do what He wills, what difference does it make
whether we do or not? This is idiocy. And it's tragic. They don't know
that it's gone. But if you'll look, I don't recommend
you go there, but you might have to one day for some reason, a
wedding or a funeral or I don't know. But you'll have to see
all sorts of signs and symbols having to do with religion simply
because Christ is no longer there, if ever he was. You've got to
have something. You've got to be a big cross. You've got to have a color pattern
everywhere you look, and all the candles in every window and
everywhere. Why? Because Catholicism and
Baptists are merging faster than you can possibly imagine. But
here's what I want to tell you this morning. In Luke chapter
4 is a description of who God is and what we are. Here it is, plain and simple.
Now the Jesus that you hear from most pulpits, most Sunday school
classrooms that I know of at least, is not the Jesus of the
Bible. The Jesus of the present day
would not ever offend anyone. He'd go out of His way to keep
from offending you. Well, I'm going to read you some
words out of this chapter that are going to knock us off our
feet if that's what we think. And I used to think that, by
the way. And you did too, or you still do, one or the other. Verse 14, And Jesus returned
in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. He has just completed
in verse 13 the 40 days of temptation and trial at the hands of Satan. And in verse 14, And Jesus returned
in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. And there went out a
fame of him through all the region round about. And he taught in
their synagogues, being glorified of all." So verse 16, after having taught
in many other places and in Capernaum, it says, And he came to Nazareth. his first visit back after he
left at the age of 30. It's still early in his public
life, but news travels even without telephones and cell phones. And
these people had heard of the miracles that he had worked in
other places. Let's watch and see how this
unfolds. He came to Nazareth where he
had been brought up, spent virtually the first 30 years of his life
in Nazareth, working in a carpenter shop with his stepfather Joseph. As his custom was, he went into
the synagogue on the Sabbath day, which would be a Saturday,
then at least a Saturday. Sunday a Sabbath. Some people
might, but that's their prerogative, not mine. He went up, he went into the
synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. They brought
him a scroll, a leather scroll on which was written the book
of the prophet Isaiah. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
or the scroll, he found the place where it was written." Now, if
anybody ever should just close their eyes and put their finger
anywhere and think that God did that, this is God and He didn't
do that. He looked up Isaiah 61 in verse
1. He opened, he found the place
where it was written, verse 18 now, the Spirit of the Lord is
upon me and our Lord is speaking now of himself, reading the prophecy
from over 700 years before this as having application to himself,
because he, God the Father, has anointed me to preach the gospel
to the poor. Now this ain't the literally
poor. When it comes to God, even poor
people think they're rich when they're flat broke. This is spiritual
poverty. This whole verse is about spiritual
matters. Our religion is not based on
how much money we make or how much we have saved or anything
like that. We bless God for what He has
given us. But we don't live for that. He has anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. He sent me to heal the broken
hearted. Now this is not somebody whose
girlfriend has given him the cold shoulder. This is for a
broken heart over sin. Now where is that in modern day religion? He sent me to preach deliverance
to the captives. Now preacher, surely you ain't
telling me that we're in captivity. Well, unless you've met Christ
and He's delivered you from it, you are. I was, you were, we
all were, because we're born with Adam's nature, his fallen
nature, and we're born slaves of Satan. And furthermore, we're
born demon-possessed, and I can prove it to you from the Scriptures.
But I don't have time now, but if you'll ask me afterwards,
I'll show you the verse. Preach deliverance to the captives
and the recovering of sight to the blind. And one more time,
these Diseases and illnesses and whatever else you might describe
verse 18 as containing, these are spiritual matters. And when
it comes to blindness, if you'll remember the fellow in John chapter
9 who was born blind, meaning he had no eye sockets at all,
and our Savior gave him physical sight. And the Pharisees were trying
to get something on the Lord Jesus, They rake this guy with
the coals, and they talk to his parents, and they bring him back
in. And with every interview, he
gets more and more bold. And finally, they just boot him
out of the Jewish religion. And our Lord finds him, and He
asks him this question. I think it's in verse 35 of John
chapter 9. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Now, this man's got 20-20 physical
vision. But in his heart, he's still
blind. He's looking at Christ, just speaking those words to
him. And he said, who is he, Lord,
that I might believe on him? And our Savior said, it is he
that speaks to you. And he said, Lord, I believe.
Lord, I believe. That's the disease of sin, is
spiritual blindness, among other things. And then verse 19, to
preach the acceptable year of the Lord, And our Lord closed
the book, gave it again to the deacon, to the person in charge
of the scriptures that are on various and different rolls in
the Old Testament, 39 books of them. And our Lord sat down,
and the eyes of all that were in the synagogue were fastened
on him. And he began to say unto them, This
day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. I am the person
that Isaiah is prophesying about. It's about Him, about the Lord
Jesus. And all bear Him witness and
wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth,
you would think they were this close to declaring him to be
their Messiah. And he's the only Messiah there
is. And if he ain't mine, then I don't have one. I mean, they're ready to crown
him. But look how fickle human nature
is. You cannot believe the contrast
in these verses. They said at the end of verse
22, is this not Joseph's son? They're just floored that Joseph's
son, he's actually Joseph's stepson, is the Son of God. And our Lord began, verse 23, let me see if I can read that
again. And He said unto them, our Lord
said to them, you will surely say unto me this proverb. Physician,
heal yourself. Whatsoever we have heard done
in Capernaum, You owe us. Do it here in your own country. Now here is where the Christ
of the Bible is infinitely, infinitely different, greater and better
than anything that modern religion has to offer. He knows who these people are.
They've known him for 30 years, and he's been gone a short while,
and he's now making his first visit to Nazareth. Believe it
or not, he came back a second time. And they can't believe this.
They're having trouble with it. But that ain't all. If the Lord
Jesus had stopped preaching right there, if the remainder of that
encounter at Nazareth were not printed in our Bibles, They would
have got on splendidly. They would have welcomed Him
as their Messiah. They would have done obeisance
to Him. But the Christ of the Bible is
a God of truth as well as a God of mercy. He is a God of justice
as well as a God of love. And so our Lord feels it incumbent
upon Him to expose some things about these people that they
don't know about themselves. And that's what the gospel is
for, ladies and gentlemen. To turn us inside out and let
us see how rotten and stinking we are. Every last one of us,
every day, every hour, every second we've ever lived. Verse
24, and he said, Verily, amen, 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. Three and a half years without
a drop of rain. Can you imagine what that would
do? Well, who sent this famine? God
sent it. If God didn't send it, then somebody
else is God. Verse 26, But unto none of them, not a single widow in Israel,
unto none of them was Elijah sent, except unto Sarepta, a
city of Sidon, a city of nothing but Gentiles, unto a woman that
was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Elisha the prophet, and unto none of them And none of them were cleansed
except Naaman the Syrian, the general of the Syrian army. You know how Naaman found out
about Elisha? He had a little captured Israelite
girl that waited on his wife in their big house back in Syria. And she told him about this prophet.
And she said, that prophet's God can cure you of leprosy. So he went and found Elisha. And after not liking the instructions
of bathing in the Jordan River seven times and coming up pure
without leprosy, he got in a big huff and got in his Cadillac
chariot and down the road he went. And his servants convinced
him that this was foolish. What he was expecting was some
great difficult thing for him to do in order to deserve this
blessing that he wanted so desperately. And so our Lord says to these
Jews, many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet,
and unto none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And
all they in the synagogue, I take that to mean men, women, and
children. All of the people in the synagogue.
Can you imagine when they got word that he was coming back?
That place was probably packed. And just a little while ago,
they were going to crown him as their Messiah. All they in the synagogue, when
they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up
and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of
the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him
down headlong." Just toss him off the mountain headfirst. But
he, passing through the middle of them, went his way. And where did he go? back to
Capernaum to teach on the Sabbath day. Now, if that isn't a reversal,
I don't know what is. That has a great deal to say
about ourselves and a great deal to say about our Savior, the
Lord Jesus. I'm telling you, And one more reminder, he came
back to Nazareth at the synagogue another time. Can you imagine
that? You talk about condescension.
You talk about humility. Alright, I've got three questions
I'd like to try to answer, but before I do, I promised you John,
so let me tack this on to what we've just read, just a few verses
out of John chapter 1. Now, when we run into passages
like the one we just read in Luke 4, and another one here
in John chapter 1, and three or four places in the book of
Romans, Eight or ten in the book of Galatians, and no telling
how many throughout the rest of the Scripture. When we find
these places that get under our skin, and we say to ourselves,
we wouldn't say it to anybody else, I don't like what I just
read. So when we come to that passage,
we just jump over that. We just play like it wasn't there.
And that's what's happened to Bible reading in America. in
the present time. Did you find John 1? Let's begin
at verse 11. John, having set forth for us
in the preceding verses the glory and Godhead of our Lord Jesus
Christ, it says in verse 11, He came unto His own and His
own received Him not, but as many as received Him. He came
to His own nation, His own people, the Jews. And they received him
not, but as many as received him. There were some then that
did receive him. To them gave he power or authority
to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Receiving Christ and believing
Christ is one and the same. Now, aren't these special people
that received Christ while others did not? Well, we're not to the end of
the story. If we just base it on what we've
read, we're not qualified to answer that question. We've got
to read at least one more verse. And I confess to you that for
most of my life, verse 13 was not there. I don't remember ever
seeing it or reading it. And I understand why. I didn't
like what it said. You don't go soul winning and
bring that verse along with you, I can tell you that. Verse 13, the people that receive
Christ do so on this basis, which were born, not a physical birth,
a spiritual birth, which were born not of blood. It's not who we're kin to, it's
not who our grandparents were, or anything like that. It's not
who our parents are, or anything like that. Religion does not
travel the same route as diseases. They can be conveyed pretty well
from one family member to another, from one generation to another,
but grace is not like that. Not at all like that. Born not
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh. It's not somebody else wanting
this salvation for me that makes the difference. You remember when we used to
have prayer chains and they'd last for like 24 hours? I call
that ganging up on God. And I despise it. It's like if
we've got ten people praying, it's a lot better than having
one or two. Not really. Depends on who the two are and
who the ten are. Nor of the will of the flesh
Nor of the will of man, a person's own will, which he proudly thinks
is free will, and there ain't no such critter as free will, but of God." Let me read the
first three words and the last three words, which were born,
but of God. This is a spiritual birth. It
is called regeneration. It is called being born again. And that's what enables us to
believe and trust Christ. Plus nothing. 1 John 5.1, Whosoever
believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. You can't believe
that the Lord Jesus is the Messiah. Unless you're born again. It's
just absolutely essential. All right, here are my three
questions. And I actually got a title. It took me some doing,
but I finally got one. I just call this the Christ of
Holy Scripture. Here's the first question. Who
are these that rejected Christ? And who are the rejecters of
Christ in our own generation? They are close friends with the
Lord Jesus in this case. He lived among these people for
a long time. He's related to many of them.
He's worked side by side with them as he was growing up. And
certainly he had some relatives left in this place. It would
be highly unusual if he did not. Therefore, he's got cousins and
nieces and you know, whatever. Secondly, These people, as far
as knowledge of who Christ is, have the most information in
their own mind than anywhere else, because he spent so many
years there before he began his public life. And a third class of people who
are the rejecters of Christ are people who supposed that the
Lord Jesus owed them salvation. That He was obligated to save
us. Lord, if I let you, you have
to save me. Oh no! Instead of that being
a good idea, that's just utter blasphemy. Can't get any worse
than that. We think we're good and the Bible
says we're bad. And the rejecters of Christ,
given the population of today as opposed to then, there are
far more of these persons, ourselves once among them, than ever before. Every sinner that God saves was
first of all a sinner. And again, I remind you The Lord
Jesus didn't die for good people. He died for sinners. And if we're
not sinners, we're not saved. I don't care how moral you are,
or how anything else we are, it just won't fit. Will not fit. You can't be found until you're
lost. Second question has to do with
why we reject Christ as the Messiah. What is there about Him and what
is there about us that causes us to turn thumbs down on Him? Why? Well, the first problem, I'm
back in Luke 4 now, but the first problem has to do with that 18th
verse where it talked about the poor, the broken hearted, the
captives and the blind. That's our first problem and
that's universally the problem of mankind when it comes to receiving
salvation at the hands of God the Son. So the Lord Jesus, according
to these people from Nazareth, sets himself up too high and
puts them down too low. Well, how low is too low? You
can't get low enough. The Christian life ought to be
a life of thinking lesser and lesser of ourselves, and seeing
more and more of our sinfulness and our need for the grace of
God. which they needed and which we
need, they simply would not have. And they got plenty of relatives
in modern day. And a bunch of them, I don't
know how many remain in this place, but there once was a bunch. The miracles which Christ did. The miracles which He did. I got something wrong here in my
notes. Curtis, did you mess with these? Oh, I got it now. The miracles
which Christ did not give them, they wanted Him to do that. Do
here what you did in Capernaum. They would not have... I can't get this thing figured
out. The gospel which we need, we will not have. The miracles
which He did not give, they demanded Him to give them, to prove Himself
to them. But here's the big answer to
that question. why anybody, me or you or anyone
else, rejects the gospel. If you want to turn there, you're
welcome. I'm almost there. But there's
a statement in Romans 9. In fact, there's plenty of places
in Romans that would correspond to what we're looking at. But
our Lord, when He brought up the illustration of Elijah and
Elisha, of the widow woman And of the leper, I mean, things
went south in a big hurry. In a big hurry. Let me read you
out of Romans 9, beginning at verse 13. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, Esau have I hated." Now, if the
word hate should not be there and some softer word, then the
word but should not be there because it ought to read, Jacob have I loved and Esau have
I loved less. But that ain't what it says.
It's like God can't, you know, He can make this world He can
create heaven. He can create the gospel that
gives grace to undeserving and hell-deserving sinners. But he's
too dumb to keep his book from being polluted by words that
he did not want in here. That's plain crazy. Why don't
you just say you don't believe it? Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. Now, the two boys were brothers,
by the way. And Jacob stole Esau's birthright. So Esau was trying to kill him
for a good few years after that. A lot of years, in fact. And
Jacob was a scoundrel. I mean, he was a thief. He was
about everything you didn't want. But God chose Jacob and not Esau. Verse 14. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid! For he said to Moses,
I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy, and I'll have compassion
on whom I'll have compassion. So then, it is not of him that
wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy."
Sounds to me like all the movement is going on on God's side, not
ours. For the Scripture said to Pharaoh,
Even for this same purpose have I raised you up, that I might
show my power in you, and that my name might be declared throughout
all the earth. Therefore has God mercy on whom
He will have mercy, and whom He will, He hardens." God hardens men's hearts. against His gospel and grace
in our Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to perish, just keep
right on. God will draw the line and let
you go over it, and you'll never come back across, and neither
would I. I'm telling you the God of this Bible is really and
truly God. So what was the end result of
our Lord's visit to Nazareth? The first thing they did after
he spoke these words to them, they threw him out of the synagogue.
They were about to award him, but they threw him out of the
synagogue and they dragged him to the top of that mountain and
they were going to throw him down on the other side head first.
Going to get rid of him for good. But they could not. And we cannot
injure or hinder or cause anything to happen to
the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. He's not subject to us. We're subject to Him. I'm telling
you, if He wants me gone, just don't give me the next breath
and I'm out of here. You know, we live that close
to eternity every day that we live. And some days we live,
it ain't much living, is it? Pretty tough. Pretty tough. Hey, I've got time to read you
a statement out of Proverbs. Curtis is always getting these
Scriptures out of these strange places in our Bibles, so I've
got to try to keep up with him. If you want to turn to it, it's
the very first chapter and it begins with verse 24, Proverbs
1.24. Proverbs 1.24, Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched
out my hand, and no man regarded. But you have said it not, all
my counsel, and would have none of my reproof. I also will laugh
at your calamity. I'll mock when your fear comes,
when your fear comes as desolation, and your destruction comes as
a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then shall
they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall seek me
early, but they shall not find me, for that they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would have," I'm
adding the word have, they would have, none of my counsel. They
despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the
fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices. stopping at verse 31. Let's take our hymnals