Doctrines of Grace. I'd like to ask you to turn,
if you would, to Colossians, Chapter 1. Colossians, Chapter 1. We'll
get to our text in the book of Luke in a moment, but for now
I want to start here in Colossians, Chapter 1. In our last time together,
we considered in Luke, Chapter 6, our Lord's declaration of
his lordship of the law. You remember what he said? Speaking
to some Jews who were complaining about the Lord and his disciples
eating corn, eating the corn on the Sabbath day. He said unto
them that the Son of Man is Lord also of Sabbath. He was speaking
these things. He went into the house of God
and he did take and eat the shew of bread, speaking of David.
and gave also to them that were with them, which is not lawful
to eat, but they're for the priest alone. And then he said he did
these things that the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. So our Lord was telling them
that he's not just the Lord of all things, he's the Lord of
the Sabbath. This one ceremony that they thought they were so
good at dealing with, Friday night, Friday evening, The sun's
starting to go down. It's the beginning of the Sabbath.
Okay, we're not gonna do anything between now and sunset on Saturday
evening. It was probably the easiest of
all of the laws for them to fulfill that they thought. What are you
doing taking the bread of the priest or the corn of the priest
and eating it like it's no big deal, washing your hands? That's
not the law. that the religious people of
the day, just like we have religious people of today, who add what
they think the law interprets, what their interpretation of
the law, what their interpretation of scripture is. You know that
free willism is the interpretation of man, it's not of God. We know
that God's word says it's not of him that willeth, nor of him
that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy, right? So for
people to stand in front of others and say, God has done everything
He can, now if you'll get up and come down here and make a
decision for Jesus, you'll have the peace that we have. That's
something made up. Made up by man. Our Lord declared
His Lordship over the law in Luke chapter 6 verse 5. Folks,
the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord of all things. He's the
Lord of all that is. Everything. He gave us the law,
did he not? He gave the world the law. It's not just something the Lord
said because it would be good for you to do it, although it
is. The law was given to glorify
Him. The law was given to glorify
our Savior. Don't do this, don't do that.
Do this, do that. Everything in God's law was given
for one reason, and that was to glorify His Son, the Lord
Jesus. Look with me if you would at verses 12 through 19 of Colossians
chapter 1. Verse 12, giving thanks unto
the Father which hath made us meet, made us fit to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints of light, who have delivered
us, our Father, who has made us meet
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints of light, have
delivered us from the power of darkness and have translated
us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption
through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of
the invisible God and the firstborn of every creature. Now, what
does it say next? Are you reading with me? For
by Him, by the Lord Jesus Christ, by the Son of God, of the living
God, for by Him were all things created that are in heaven and
that are in the earth. Now, catch this. Visible. and invisible. Every molecule, every, every,
whatever it is we think we can be smart enough to figure out
the things you can't even see with the naked eye, but you can
look at it through a microscope and see this, what we call a
molecule, everything is created by the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything. Things invisible, Invisible,
whether they be thrones, whether it be the thrones of men, you
know, we like to say they're not, but that guy sitting in
the White House, he's sitting on his throne that God put him
on. He's sitting in that White House because God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, put him there. We can complain about that. We're
complaining about God, aren't we? Yeah, and I'm speaking to
myself here, because I'll tell you, It makes it real easy for
me to complain about it. But it also says, or dominions, or principalities. When an apple falls from a tree,
we think we're so smart. We figured out what gravity is,
right? That's a principle. When you
put water up here, you put a little trough, It'll run downhill, won't
it? That's a principle. Principles
were created for our Savior. Or powers. Powers, anything that
may have some kind of a power to it. That was all created by
our Lord and Savior for His glory. All things were created by Him
and for Him. And He is before all things.
And by Him, all things consist. That means that He holds everything
up. You know, if the Lord wanted to, all air, all air that you
and I breathe right now could just cease. The very fact that you and I
are breathing and we have something to breathe into this body is
because Jesus Christ is holding it up. The very fact that you and I
don't float off of this ball, this thing we call the planet
Earth, and float off and explode into space is because Jesus Christ. It's by Him. Everything consists
by Him. Verse 18, and he is the head
of all, he is the head of the body of the church, who is the
beginning of the firstborn from the dead, and that all things
he might have preeminence. For it pleased the Father. It
pleased God. It pleased God to put his Son
in charge of everything. It pleased God to have his Son
control and be Lord of all that is. It pleased the Father that in
him should all the fullness dwell. Our Lord is the Lord of all principalities. He's the Lord of all powers.
Everything that is, everything that was created by him was created
for him, and that includes the law that we read about. Don't
do this. Don't do that. The law was given
as a schoolmaster. It was given because mankind
need to be taught, don't we? As children of God, don't we
know that? Can you not look back at the time before the Lord called
you out of darkness? Can you not also look back and
see that you were blind and had no idea of the truth of who Christ
is, the truth of what he did, the truth of where he is right
now? Oh, we had some kind of an inkling We've heard of a guy
named Jesus. We've heard that he went to the
cross and was crucified by a bunch of Jews. We heard that supposedly
he rose from the dead because they went looking for him and
couldn't find him again. But we had not heard, had we,
with the heart, that what he did was for us, for his people,
not until he revealed that to us. Am I right about that? Am
I wrong? God gave you and I. I've said
this before, I'll say it again. Everything in this book that
you and I read here was written for our benefit, for the benefit
of his people. Folks, there's people who read
this book every day. There's thousands of people probably
on this one street, on this one boulevard out here between here
and wherever it ends. Thousands of people who are reading
this book right now who have no idea what it says. God wrote
this book. He inspired men to write this
book for his people and his people alone. This is how he reveals
himself to his people through the preaching of his word. The
law was created and manifested for you and I. Why? To bring
us to Christ. You don't think so? Turn over
to Galatians. You're in Colossians right now? Turn to the left over
to the other side of Ephesians and go to Galatians chapter three
with me if you would. Let's look at what the word of
God says about this. In Galatians chapter three, beginning
at verse 21, we read this. Is the law then against the promises
of God? God forbid. For if there had
been a law given which could have given life..." See, that's
what the world thinks. They think that, oh, if I just
quit doing this, I can have life. If I could just turn the corner,
if you'll just stop doing what you're doing and come down here
and give yourself to Christ, you can have life. That's not
what Scripture says. It says here that if a law had
been given which could have given life verily righteousness should
have been by the law, but it wasn't. Verse 22, but the scriptures
have concluded all under sin. That means whatever you do according
to the law is filled with sin. Everything you do in fulfilling
the law is filled with sin. You can never fulfill the law.
Well, we might as well just lay down and do nothing. Pretty close
to right. Pretty close to right. Folks,
there's only one righteous person that ever walked this earth,
and that's our Savior, Christ Jesus. He brought the law. He created the law so that you
and I would see, when it came time for the day of His love,
When it came time to that day, when you stood over here and
you said, I see what you mean, we talked about that in my Bible
study, how precious it is when going of God's people are called
out of darkness. When they're brought to that
point that they see nothing we can do, there's only one rest
and it's in our Savior who did it perfectly. All are under sin
that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to
them that believe. What does John 3.16 say? What
does the world love to say? For God so loved the world. For
God so loved his people throughout all time. Those that were chosen
in God the Son before the world was, for God so loved his chosen
people from every kindred, from every nation, from every tongue,
that whosoever Believers should have everlasting life. Verse
23, But before faith came, we were kept under the law. Before
the Lord Jesus Christ came to you in that day of the preaching
of His Word, and before He gave you the gift of faith, you were
held by the law. You were kept under the law,
shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. I can't do it. That's his revelation
to you, and we can't do it? We remember the day when we said,
there's nothing I've got to offer my God. I am worthless, unable
to do anything. I need his grace. I need his mercy. That's what
the law did. That's what it did as my schoolmaster. That's what it does for the people
of God. It doesn't do that for the world.
The world thinks, oh, I can do that. Oh, yeah, I can do that. God's people are taught, no,
we can't. That's why we're over on the
side, pounding our chests every day. Lord, have mercy on me.
But what a blessing he does. You think, oh, Am I supposed
to be over on the side of the room, just in misery all my life? No. No, there's good news. Christ did it for us. Perfectly. But after that faith has come,
we are no longer under the schoolmaster. We believe. We believe God's
word. The Bible study this morning
was all about joy and peace of God's believers. What is our
joy and peace? It's that we believe his word.
We believe his promises. We believe what he says when
he says, I shall never leave you nor forsake you, even though
it feels like he has. I know he's still there. And
so do you. So do you. For ye are, verse 26, for ye
are all children of God by what? By faith. Not by something you've
done. Oh, the world would love to say,
okay, you believe in grace. Now that God has saved you by
his grace, you have to do this. You have to get in the waters
of baptism. You have to come to the table.
You have to worship on Saturday. God's people know better. He
teaches us our rest is in his son who fulfilled it all perfectly
for us. We have faith in the one who's
faithful. And the only reason we have it
is because he has loved us and given us that faith. Is that
not gracious? Is that not, bless your heart
with grace? To know that our God has loved
us so much that when we shook our fist in his face, he still
loved us. Christ died for whom? For the
ungodly. Christ came to save sinners of
whom I am chief. I'll bet you could say the same
thing about yourself if you belong to the Lord, huh? I'm chief.
No, I'm chief. No, I'm chief. This is what the law teaches
God's elect. Ephesians 2, verse 8. For by
grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves is
a gift of God, not of works, lest man should boast. That's
what the law teaches you and I. Folks, when God reveals his
grace to an undeserving sinner, we cannot unsee it. You just
can't unsee it. I don't care how down you get. I don't care how heavy the weights
come upon you. And I've witnessed this with
some of you. Those of you who shared with
me the depth of those waves upon us, and then turned right around
and said, but God has it all under his providence. Even in
the depth of your weakness, as a child of God, you cry out,
he is Lord. He is Lord. I'm not saying we come to him
kicking and screaming. No, we come to our Lord with
new willing hearts. We come to him, we see the truth
that we would not have come to him lest he came to us first. It's called irresistible grace. Part of the five points of the
doctrines of grace, irresistible grace. This is what the Master
is teaching us in our text in Luke. Would you turn to Luke?
Our Master, who just declared himself the Lord of the Sabbath, is gonna teach you and I. Maybe
he'll teach one of his children who have never heard this day
the truth of who he is. In Matthew chapter six, We begin
in verse six, and it came to pass also on another Sabbath. Did you ever notice the Lord
teaches on the Sabbath day? On this Sabbath day, he was here,
healing this one. On this Sabbath day, he was here,
healing. On another Sabbath day, he was
here, teaching and healing here. And it came to pass also on another
Sabbath that he entered into the synagogue and taught. And there was a man whose right
hand was withered, and the scribes and the Pharisees watched him,
whether he would heal on the Sabbath day, and that they might
find accusation against him. Ooh, this one who declares he's
the Lord of our, what we do, what we call the Sabbath day.
This one who in the flesh declares himself to be God. Oh, we need
to find something to stop him. He's declaring that we're not
righteous in what we do. Isn't that what the Lord's Word
says? Religious people don't like that.
Some of you are religious and know the religious Word says.
If somebody had come to you, smack dab in the middle of your
worship, whatever it was you were before God called you out
of that darkness, and said to you, you're going to hell by
what you're doing. You know, you'd get a little
upset about it, wouldn't you? Those of you who are religious, you
know what I'm talking about. You look back on it. I'd have
gotten pretty doggone angry with you. That's what the Lord was telling
these religious men. Your religion stinks in my nostrils. Your self-righteousness stinks
in the nostrils of God. They didn't like that. They wanted
to find something that they could accuse him with, verse eight,
but he knew their thoughts. Folks, there is only one who
knows the thoughts of men. I know there's a lot of people
who say, I can read your thoughts. No, they can't. That's all a
bunch of hogwash too. You figure out, if you can figure
out how to guess what somebody's thinking, you know, go for it.
But God knows what's in our heart. He knows what we're thinking.
That's what it says right there. But He knew their thoughts. And
He said to the man which had the withered hand. Now again,
our Lord's speaking to you and I. He's telling you and I that
He's sovereign God of all things. He can read the thoughts of every
man. He can read your thoughts. He can read your thoughts. He
can read the thoughts of mine right now. So He said to the
man which had the withered hand, rise up and stand forth in the
midst, and he arose and stood forth. Then said Jesus unto them,
I will ask you one thing. Is it lawful on the Sabbath days
to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it? And
looking round about upon it." Now remember, he can read their
thoughts. He knows what's going through
all their minds. They don't want to answer this question. They
don't want to condemn themselves. They know that whatever answer
they have would condemn themselves and what they're doing. And they're
not going to answer at all. He said unto the man, stretch forth
thine hand. This is a man whose hand is all
withered up. You know why it's withered? Because
there's no muscle in it. Whatever muscle is there, it's
deformed. It can't work. His hand is withered
up because he can't stretch out. And here our Lord says this,
stretch forth your hand. This is the power of God. Look
what it says next. And he did so and his hand was
restored whole as the other. Our Lord's miraculous works were
performed in broad daylight. He performed his miracles on
people Everyone present knew was empty. Everybody there could
see that this man's hand was all withered up. Those who knew
him knew that he wasn't just in church playing. He's always
been that way. Or he's been that way for how
long now? Everybody could see it. Our Lord performed his miracles
in the most public manner possible that everybody could see. Imagine
5,000 people sitting on a hill and the Lord feeding them. I've
shared this one before. Can you imagine being the guy
down at the bottom of the hill? There's only seven baskets. That's
never going to make it down here to me. Imagine the surprise when
it comes down to you and there's still food in the basket. Wow. What a miracle that guy performed.
Never seen anybody else ever do that. Our Lord was not secretive
in his word and what he did. The healing of this man is very
instructive. It's a picture of the almighty
effectual call and the irresistible grace of Christ. People think
that it was just God healing a man's hand. No, this is a picture
of what Christ did to you and I. This is a picture of what
God does to all of his people with the preaching of his word.
He calls them. This man couldn't reach out.
Christ gave him the power to do so, and he did. What did the
apostles do when the Lord passed by them and said, come, follow
me? Didn't they get up right away and follow him? When the
Lord spoke to her heart five years after he called me, she
got up. She got up and said, I see what
you've been telling me for five years. Today, the Lord spoke
to her heart. Look at this again for just a
moment. He said to the man with the withered hand, here is a
particular personal call. That's what it is. He didn't
say to all of those who were sick in that day. He didn't say
to all of those that were present in that time. He said to this
one man. He said to the one with the withered
hand, This is the particular personal calling of our Lord
Jesus Christ. It is written that he calleth
his own sheep by name. It's a discriminating, distinguishing
call. We have no idea how many others
were present or what needs they might have had when they came,
but Luke tells us plainly that on this occasion, the master
called none other but the one with the withered hand. Can we
not thank God for his special calling to us? You, who sits over here next
to your brother and sister-in-law, you, you, who have been dead
for 40 years, I give you life and I'm calling you now. That's
what happened to me. Can you not relate to that in
your own calling? Did God not call you with the
power of his word? Listen to these words of grace.
Psalm 65, verse 24, blessed is the man whom thou choosest and
causest. That's what God gives to his
people. He chooses and causes you. It's his purpose to save
you. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee. Matthew 22, 14, for
many are called, but few are chosen. First Corinthians 4.7,
for whom maketh thee to differ? Who makes you any different from
the rest? Christ our Savior. Not you. Who maketh you to differ
one from another? And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hast not received it? A man by the name of Josiah Condor,
he said this, he wrote a poem, "'Tis not that I did choose thee,
for the Lord that could not be, this heart would still refuse
thee, hast thou not chosen me." Every child of God will be brought
to know that exact same thing. We know. We love election. We
love election. Why? Because we know. In God's
word, he has shown us, he has revealed to us the truth that
we would have never come to him till he came to us. As we see
ourselves, the Lord Jesus called this man to do what he had absolutely
no ability to do. The master issued an impossible
command. He said to that man with a dried
up, withered hand, Stretch forth thy hand, and the man did not
ask. He did not ask the man at all.
Our Lord commands, come unto me, all of you that are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Our Lord commanded this man to
stretch forth his withered hand, and he did so. How can this be? We can find
the answer out. How spiritually dead sinners
arise from the dead and flee to Christ? The answer is over
in Luke. Turn over to Luke chapter 18.
How? How could this man have stretched forth his hand? Look
at Luke 18, just a few pages to the right. I'll only be another
moment. In Luke chapter 18, we begin
reading in verse 18, and a certain ruler asked him, asked the Lord,
saying, good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
And Jesus said unto him, why callest thou me good? None is
good save one, that is God. Thou knowest the commandments.
Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear
false witness. Honor thy mother and thy father.
And he said, all these have I kept, says this man, from my youth
up. Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, yet
lackest thou one thing. Sell all that thou hast and distribute
it unto the poor. Thou shalt have treasure. in
heaven and come and follow me. And when he had heard this, he
was very sorrowful, for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw
that he was very sorrowful, he said, how hardly shall they that
have riches enter the kingdom of God, for it is easier for
the camel to go through the needle's eye than for a rich man who entered
the kingdom of God. And they that heard it said these
words, who then can be saved? And he said, the things which
are impossible with men are possible with God. Look at another one,
if you would. Turn over again to the right,
John chapter three. John chapter three. There was
a man of the Pharisees named Nebuchadnezzar, ruler of the
Jews. The same came to Jesus by night
and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher
come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest,
except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto
him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. Do you see the relation
to these two stories? This one, who was rich, understood
what it meant to go through the eye of the needle, or put a camel
through the eye of a needle. That's impossible. He's speaking
to this man here. This man understands the same
thing. Nicodemus says in verse four, he said unto him, How can
a man be born when he is old? How can he enter a second time
into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered, saying,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born
of the Spirit is the Spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee,
ye must be born again. And then he says basically the
same exact thing that he said a moment ago. All things are
possible through God. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it cometh
and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. What a picture of his grace.
There's no power in the preachers who preach it. When all a person
hears of the voice of the preacher, they remain dead. There is no
power in our voice, but when God speaks by the preaching of
his gospel, there is power, life-giving resurrection power in the irresistible
call that God issues. Now listen to these words, if
you would, of our great Savior. John chapter 5, 25. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God. How could this man's hand,
who is so withered, be brought forth and stretched out and be
made whole. This is how the hour is coming
when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and
they that hear shall live. He's describing you and I. We heard the word of the Lord
preached for the first time. Irresistible grace. One last
thing, if you would, look over at verse 11, back in our text
of Luke chapter six. And they were filled with madness. After they had seen the miracle
of our Lord and Savior, after they had saw the hands stretch
forth, something the man could not have done, but by the power
of God's spoken, he did so, they were filled with madness and
communed one another what they might do to Jesus. Folks, our
Lord is the dividing Savior. It says in 611, They commune with one another
of what they might do to Him. The gospel of Jesus Christ and
Him crucified divides mankind. People don't want to believe
that Jesus Christ is God of everything. They would rather to be gods
themselves. They would rather to be just like the devil and
make themselves as the high God. That's what man's free will is.
That's what man's self-righteousness is. It's making yourself God. Arminianism is making yourself
the decider of salvation. When God's word clearly says
salvation is of the Lord. The gospel of Christ divides
men. The gospel of Jesus Christ and
what he's done divides men. How can that be? There must be
something of myself that I can add to it. The gospel of Christ,
where he is this moment, divides mankind. He died on the cross. Don't tell me he arose again.
That's impossible. Nobody's ever done that. The
gospel of Christ and the wonders of his grace always divide people. And our Lord said, I came not
to send peace, but a sword. Whenever the gospel is preached,
whenever God does a work of grace in one of his people's hearts,
the gospel separates men from families. I know many of my own
family, just like I did, refused to believe the truth. On this
very occasion, the man with the withered hand was made whole
and the Lord's disciples were edified. You and I were instructed. You and I were encouraged. and
the religious world is enraged. How did this affect you? How
did God's Word affect you? I declare unto you that this
day, the irresistible grace of our Savior will bring peace to
his elect. Maybe not this moment, but he
says it will. I believe the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you?