this morning is the enlightened
eyes of God's elect. We're going to get away from
our studies in Isaiah for this morning. I want to ask you to
turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Lord willing, we'll get back
to our studies in Isaiah when we return from our trip. What
I was thinking as an introduction to this morning's message, we
as parents teach our children when they're brought into this
world to talk and walk and just get so excited when they say
their first word or take their first step. Then after about
three years old, we spend the rest of their time at home telling
them to sit down and shut up. You know, that's just the way
it is. And all parents realize what I'm saying and just wish
our children would be more careful to obey those little encouragements. Just be quiet and listen. It's
difficult for children. But they have to be taught. And
in our unregenerate state we're as ignorant as a box of rocks. Our Lord tells us that. Well
He didn't use that analogy. He didn't say box of rocks. But
he did say that national Israel, and all of us are included in
this camp, he said, they being ignorant of God's righteousness,
and he used the word ignorant, they being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God,
for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, to everyone
that believes. And that applies to all of us.
You, me, my parents, my grandparents, your parents, your grandparents,
our children, your children. All of us come into this world
with Adam's fallen nature. Ignorant. of spiritual truths. The word ignorant means not know,
not understand. And you can be as kind and as
gentle as you possibly can with those who have not been enlightened
by God the Holy Spirit. And there's just no loving way
that you can tell the ungenerate people that there's no good in
them. No way that you can tell them that when it comes to spiritual
things, They're as ignorant as a box of rocks without offending
them. That's just the way it is. And we were there. We know.
We understand that. But listen to this. If you're
in 1 Corinthians 2, listen to verse 14. It says, But the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness unto him, Neither can He know them because they
are spiritually discerned. It takes the Spirit of God to
enlighten our minds before the Gospel will not be foolishness
unto us. In our unregenerate state, we're
in darkness, we're in spiritual darkness. just as blind spiritually
as Bartimaeus was physically when the Lord healed him. And
I'm sharing with a lady that I've been corresponding with
via email, I'm sharing with her that the quickening power of
God the Holy Spirit, the enlightening power that gives us an understanding
of gospel truths, is just a very vital part of the gospel. And
she just does not believe that. She does not believe that we
need to preach, that it's the Holy Spirit that quickens the
flesh prophets of nothing. And she quoted a passage of scripture
in 1 Corinthians 15 that were to believe that Christ died for
our sins according to the scriptures and that we're to believe that
Jesus Christ was raised again according to our scriptures and
that's what we're to preach. Well, you won't get any argument
out of God's preachers when it comes to those wonderful truths
concerning the preaching of the gospel. We must preach that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Whether she knows
it or not, and I'm not so sure that we are fully aware of this,
when that was written, Paul was referring to the Old Testament
Scriptures. The New Testament was being written,
but they had not been, by the power and providence of God,
included into the canon of Scriptures. That came later. Now we do know
and we believe that all scriptures given by inspiration of God is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness. We do believe that. That includes
the New Testament. But the Old Testament is full
of the Gospel. And when you go on to the 53rd
chapter of Isaiah, you will see that Jesus Christ died according
to those scriptures. that God laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. We, like sheep, all of us, have
gone astray. But in that 53rd chapter of Isaiah,
it clearly teaches that what Jesus Christ accomplished for
His people, He was satisfied with, that He cannot fail. And
we couple that with some of the New Testament scriptures where
He, the Lord Jesus Christ, reconciled His people by His death, He didn't
make us reconcilable, He reconciled us. Now we as God's ambassadors,
we do beseech those we have the honor of preaching to, be ye
reconciled to God. And when God is pleased to take
the gospel and point us to the Lord Jesus Christ in His substitutionary
death, making us acceptable in His sight by satisfying His holy
justice for us, that He by Himself purged our sins, that He did
not make us redeemable, that He obtained eternal redemption
for us, Then we're preaching what Isaiah was referring to
in the 53rd chapter, that Christ died for our sins according to
the Scriptures. He didn't try to save His people.
He saved us. We just didn't know anything
about it. So when we preach that Christ was raised again according
to the Scriptures, we're preaching that Jesus Christ is on His sovereign
throne of glory, giving eternal life to as many as God the Father
gave Him. And it takes the power of the
Holy Spirit to quicken us to this understanding, which is
what our subject is this morning, the enlightened mind of God's
elect. We must have the Spirit of God
or we will never understand the Gospel. To the contrary, we will
hate Christ and His Gospel. Look at verses 12 and 13 of this
same chapter of 1 Corinthians 2. The Word of God says in verse
12, Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but
the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that
are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak, not
in the words which man's wisdom teaches, But which the Holy Ghost
teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual." In other
words, comparing Scripture with Scripture. But my point in drawing
your attention to this passage of Scripture is just this. We
must receive the Spirit of Christ. We must be born again. That is not an option. And I
challenge anyone to go into the third chapter of John and read
the account of our Lord's conversation between Him and Nicodemus and
show me one thing that our Lord told Nicodemus to do in order
to be born again. It's not there. Because there's
nothing that you can do to be born again. We have no more to
do with our spiritual birth than we did with our physical birth.
And the Word of God says, our Lord Himself speaking, except
a man be born again, he cannot see. And the word see means to
understand, to perceive. We cannot understand spiritual
things. So this miracle, and this is
what our loved ones were saying about this earlier, this miracle
of coming out of darkness into God's marvelous light, It's a
miracle of His grace performed by God Himself under the preaching
of His gospel to enlighten our minds to the truth. Go over,
if you will, to John chapter 6. Or I should say back to John
chapter 6. And let's look at this. We must
be taught of God. This is very vital. The work
of the Holy Spirit is part of the Gospel. If we don't bring
out the sovereign, irresistible, drawing power of God, the Holy
Spirit, that He quickened us when we were dead in trespasses
and sins, we'll never fully understand the grace of God in this matter
of our being united by faith to the true and living God, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And faith, contrary to popular
opinion, faith is not the sinner's gift to God. Faith is God's gift
to the sinner. Jesus Christ is the author and
the finisher of our faith. Our Lord Jesus taught that when
he was teaching Nicodemus, that a man must be born again. Now, let me illustrate this.
I've used this before, but it bears repeating because of our
subject this morning. When we come into this world
physically, in order for us to be born physically, our daddy
had to plant a seed in our mother's womb. But even in that, God is
the only one who can open the womb. God is the only one who
can give life. And we were formed in our mother's
belly by the life-giving power of God Almighty. I know it's
through the process of procreation, but it's still a miracle of God. And we read this in the Scriptures.
He opens the womb of some, He closes the womb of others. So
it's God, in His prerogative, to give life to whomsoever He
pleases. And when we come into this world,
usually, it used to be anyway, I don't know if they still do
it, the doctor would swap their little baby on the butt, and
that baby would cry. That cry did not give that baby
life. The cry gave evidence of a life
that had already been there for nine months. So when we cry out
for mercy, when we come forth from the womb of unbelief, crying
out for mercy, we're giving evidence of life that's already there.
God has already sent the Spirit of His Son into our heart, crying,
Ah, the Father. No man can call Jesus Lord, but
by the power of the Holy Spirit. And we won't call Him Lord until
the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our heart. This is the regenerating
work of God, the Holy Spirit. It's just as much a part of the
Gospel as what Christ did for us at Calvary 2,000 years ago.
And in that article I read in your hearing last Sunday, the
last paragraph, of that article clearly states that this work
of salvation is the work of God the Father who chose us, God
the Son who redeemed us, God the Holy Spirit who regenerates
us and gives us life. And that's what this lady found
fault with. She does not believe that we
need to preach that it's the Holy Spirit who regenerates us
and gives us life. But folks, if we don't stress
that... And I believe this is what Paul was referring to when
he said he was before the people with much fear and trembling.
He was afraid that he could talk somebody into being a Christian
or professing to be a Christian without it being by the power
of God Almighty. And he says so in that same chapter
where it talks about him being before them with fear and trembling
when he said that your faith and your hope might be in God. And so if we don't bring out
the quickening power of God, the Holy Spirit, we stand in
danger of giving folks some kind of a reason to think that they
have come into this living union with God by something they have
done, and that's Arminian free will doctrine. So if you're with
me, here in John chapter 6, I want you to look at verses 44 John chapter 6 verses 44 and
45 says, No man, our Lord Jesus Himself speaking, no man can
come to Me except the Father which hath sent Me draw him,
and I will raise him up at the last day. So those who are being
drawn by God the Father, and He's not drawing everybody, If he was drawing everybody,
our Lord Jesus would raise up everybody at the last day. He's
raising up those who were taught by God the Father in the person
of the Holy Spirit. The very next verse says, it
is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard, hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. He didn't say,
I hope they'll come. He said, those who are taught
by God the Father shall come to me. That's an imperative.
So we have to be taught by God the Father. No man, and no man
means no man, no man can come to the Lord Jesus Christ unless
we're drawn by the sovereign, irresistible, drawing power of
God Himself. And He does this under the preaching
of His Gospel. Under the preaching of the truths
concerning electing grace, redeeming grace, sanctifying grace. preserving
grace, persevering grace, Paul said, I shall not to declare
unto you the whole counsel of God. So with that in mind, knowing
that God himself must be our teacher, and if he is our teacher,
he will bring us to Christ. There's no doubt about that in
the minds of God's enlightened children. If God has enlightened
our mind, if we have come to Christ, it's because God Himself
has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated
us into the kingdom of His dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So
with that in mind, go back to verse 37 of this same chapter,
and let me spend a few minutes preaching the Gospel to you all.
And that's a biblical term, that's not a southern term, you all.
That's a good old bible term. We're going back in that part
of the country where they use that a lot. And I kind of like
it. But when we say, you all, in
reference to salvation, we're talking about God's sheep. His
elect. Those that he purchased with
his own blood. Brethren, this is This is not
something to just take or leave. This is very, very vital. We
must understand this. That what God purposed before
this world was created, He's going to do. He's going to accomplish
what He has purposed. Satan's not going to stop Him.
All the evil forces of darkness put together is not going to
stop Him. and countless numbers of works religionists cannot
do anything to hinder the work of God. The scripture tells us
that He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works but according to His own purpose which was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. is now made manifest
by the appearing of His Son and made known to us under the preaching
of the Gospel. So verse 37 of John chapter 6,
Our Lord said, All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me, and
him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. Did you
hear that? I hope you heard that. He said,
All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me. He makes a
clear distinction between those who are His sheep and those who
are not His sheep. Hold your place. I'm coming right
back. Go over to John chapter 10. I
could quote this, but I want to show you this distinguishing
grace of God that our Lord plainly put in His Holy Word. He was
speaking to some unbelieving Jews. They didn't believe Him. They wanted to see some kind
of a sign. If you'll be the Christ, tell
us, play me. He said, I have told you, and you didn't believe.
But look at verse 26. He says to these unbelieving
Jews, Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I
said unto you. He didn't say, you're not my
sheep because you don't believe. He says, you don't believe because
you're not my sheep. In John chapter 8, he says that,
He that is of God, heareth God's words. You therefore hear them
not because you're not of God. There's a clear distinction made
between the goats and the sheep. Listen, we never were goats.
God's not in the business of changing goats into sheep. He's
in the business of seeking out His lost sheep. And in the very
next verse of John 10, verse 27, we see this distinction made
between the sheep and the goats when our Lord Jesus said, My
sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and
I give unto them eternal life. He said to those unbelieving
Jews, You don't bleed because you're not My sheep." But He
says this about His sheep. He said, My sheep hear My voice.
He didn't say, I hope they will. This is the work of the Holy
Spirit, taking the things of Christ and revealing them to
us. And when we by faith embrace the truths concerning the Gospel,
the Lord Jesus Christ has spoken to our heart. I've never heard
the audible voice of Jesus Christ, but I've heard with the ears
of the heart the same power that opened Lydia's heart that she
would attend under the things which were spoken of by Paul,
is the same power that opens our heart, that pricks our heart,
to give us an understanding of the Gospel, to give us faith
to believe the Gospel. So go back to John chapter 6. Our Lord tells us why we shall
come. Why those who were given to Him
by God the Father shall come? Why He will in no wise cast them
out? In verse 38 He says, For, because
of this, because My sheep will come to Me, those who were given
to Me by God the Father, this is the reason why they shall
come to Me. For I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will,
but the will of Him that sent Me. So here we have the will
of Jesus Christ when He came to this earth spoken of by our
Savior in these words. He came down from heaven to do
His Father's will. Everything that He did. was according
to the will of God the Father. Every thought He had, every word
He spoke, every step He took, every deed He committed, this
was the work of God the Father sending His Son to perform. This
was God's will. Now hang on to your pew. We're going to jump a creek.
Boy, we need to get across it. We have no righteousness of our
own. In our unregenerate state, just
like those unbelieving Jews, we're going about trying to establish
our own righteousness and would not submit ourselves to the righteousness
of God, the righteousness of Christ. But why would we want
to try to establish our own righteousness? Jesus Christ did that for us.
And it's a perfect righteousness. What He did while He was on this
earth, in fulfilling all of that which our Father sent Him to
do, was pleasing in God's sight. He said that. I do always that
which pleases my Father. And a voice came from heaven
saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. So
if we're in Christ, and I use that word if, stressing it very
emphatically, if we're in Christ, what He did, what He thought,
what He said, where He went, pleasing God the Father perfectly, that's mine. That's mine. And that belongs to every believer. He came to do his father's will,
and our father accepted what our Lord Jesus Christ did. He
was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And by
his obedience, many were made righteous. So why would we seek
a righteousness of our own? We have the perfect righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ that enables God to not only be just
and justifier of all who believe, but enables Him to look upon
those who are in Christ justified. God sees no sin in Christ and
He sees no sin and those who are in Christ. So verse 38 is
telling us why those who are given to Christ shall come. He
has established a perfect righteousness for us by doing the Father's
will, even paying the sin debt in full by laying down His life
for us. Folks, listen, we were reconciled
to God by the death of His Son. We just didn't know about it
until the Holy Spirit revealed these wonderful truths to us,
until the Holy Spirit enlightened our minds. Look at verse 39.
This is the Father's will, which hath sent me, that of all which
He hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. This is the Father's will, that
none will be lost. Our Lord Jesus has come out of
the grave. He's not there anymore. He was
delivered for our offenses, but He was raised again for our justification. And He has ascended to glory,
not without blood, there to appear in the presence of God for us.
He's not only The One who is making intercession for all of
His chosen blood-bought people, interceding for us, pleading
for us, without saying a word, I might add. He's not only there
as our Great High Priest, pleading for us, He's there as our Blessed
Surety. And as our blessed surety, He
is able to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by Him,
seeing He ever lives to make intercession for us. And you
know what a surety is? A surety is one who takes care
of the debts of another, or the affairs of another, or the concerns
of another. Whatever term you want to use
that in respect to the understanding of it. He's our surety. He's
the one who's going to make sure that all those who were given
to Him by God the Father, all those who were purchased by His
precious blood, He's going to make sure that all of us will
be with Him. And His prayer in John 17 was,
Father, I will that those who now has
given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory. And as our blessed surety he's
going to make sure of that. He's going to make sure that
by his power working in us by the blessed Holy Spirit will
not only bring us into this living union with the Lord Jesus Christ,
but will also, by that same power, keep us looking to Him until
we're delivered from this body of death, until we are ushered
into His presence where we'll see Him in all of His glory. Look at the next verse. Verse
40. And this is the will of Him that
sent me. that every one which seeth the
Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life, and I
will raise him up at the last day." We must see Him. And in our unregenerate state,
we're as blind as a bat when it comes to spiritual things.
We cannot see. We cannot perceive, we cannot
understand until our God and the person of the Holy Spirit
enlightens our minds. Now let me show you something
in 2 Corinthians and I'll try to wrap this up. Turn over to
2 Corinthians chapter 4 if you will please. We come into this
world blinded by the God of this world. Satan, who hates Christ
and hates His Gospel, we're held by His power, we're held by the
power of darkness, we're held by the power of sin. The Holy
Spirit must set us free and our Lord Jesus said of the Son, shall
make you free, you shall be free indeed. And He comes to us under
the preaching of His glorious Gospel. And He enlightens the
mind, giving us spiritual eyes to see Him, spiritual ears to
hear Him, a new heart to receive Him, new legs to walk pleasing
in His sight. We're as helpless as a man who
has lost both arms and both legs as far as taking a step that's
pleasing to God or doing anything with our hands that's pleasing
to God while we're in that unregenerate state. And every physical healing
that we read about that our Lord Jesus performed while He walked
on this earth, whether it's raising Lazarus from the dead, healing
sight to the blind, ears to the deaf, legs to the lame, hands
that were withered, Every, every, every one of those physical healings
points to the spiritual healings that Christ is giving to His
elect when He regenerates us by God the Holy Spirit bringing
us out of darkness into this living union with Himself. This
is God's doings. We not only could not be set
free because we were held by those powers that I mentioned,
we didn't want to be free. We loved that darkness we were
in. We hated the light. But listen to what it says in
2 Corinthians chapter 4, starting at verse 5. For we preach not
ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants
for Jesus' sake. Now a lot of these modern Fly-by-night,
screaming Ishmaels who claim to be preachers need to read
that. We're servants. We don't preach
ourselves. We preach Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. We preach the whole counsel of
God as our Lord enables us. And when it pleases God under
our preaching to enlighten the mind of one of his elect, or
as it was in Peter's day on that first sermon, that famous sermon
on the day of Pentecost, where our Lord added 3,000 to his church
by his sovereign power under the preaching of the gospel.
And by the way, when Peter preached that, he said to them, the promise
is to you, and to your children, and to as many as are far off,
to those who are far off, which speaks of the Gentiles. But He
limited the number when He said this, even to as many as the
Lord our God shall call. So He must call us, like I said
earlier, we must hear His voice. But look at this next verse,
verse 6 of 2 Corinthians 4. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness, that God is Jesus Christ. He has created
everything that we see. He is our creator. He's spoken
into existence by the word of His mouth. That same God who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness, and that light
did not say, no, I don't think I want to show up just yet. I'll
wait till I exercise my free will. That light appeared. When our
Lord said, let there be light, that light appeared. And when
we preach the gospel, and the mind of one of God's elect is
enlightened under the preaching of the Gospel, it's God Himself,
the same God who said, let there be light, who commands the light
to shine in our hearts. The light must be turned on.
We must see the light, and that light is Jesus Christ. And when
God is pleased to bring us out of darkness, He will command
the light to shine in the hearts of His elect So that we'll see
His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Everyone that seeth the
Son, our Lord Jesus said in that sixth chapter of John. He will
raise up at the last day. We must see Him. But we don't
look to this Jesus that's being preached from modern pulpits
today. He doesn't deserve anything but contempt. We see the Christ
of God who rules over this whole universe and everything in it. We see God's glory in the face
of our darling Son. And verse 7 says that we have
this treasure and earthen vessels that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. This is God's power. That's just
as much a part of the gospel as the electing grace of God
and the redeeming grace of God. This is the sanctifying work
of God the Holy Spirit. Paul writing to Titus said that.
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Spirit. And he said this, in his second
epistle to the Thessalonians. He said, we are bound to give
thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. The word sanctification, just
a big word, means set apart. The Holy Spirit comes, and this
is what He agreed to do in the eternal covenant of grace. He
comes to us when we're dead in trespasses and sins. And under
the preaching of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, He sanctifies
us through the power of His regenerating work, creating faith in us, which
we were singing about earlier. Christ must be formed in us.
We must be a brand new creation. If any man be in Christ, he's
a brand new creature, a brand new creation. This is God's Word.
And I'll guarantee you, on the authority of God's Word and from
personal experience and from those that I've talked to who
have also experienced this, when we experience the miracle of
the new birth, When we're raised from the state of spiritual deadness
and are united by faith to the true and living God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, we won't settle for any other
gospel than that which gives our great triune God all the
glory. Matter of fact, we'll abhor any
doctrine, any teaching, that robs our great God of all of
His glory. To God be the glory, great things
He hath done. And I just scratch my head and
wonder why anybody would find fault with preaching not only
the electing grace of God, not only the redeeming grace of God
through our perfect Redeemer Christ Jesus our Lord, but also
through the sanctifying work of God the Holy Spirit who has
enlightened our minds to these blessed truths so that we can
give Him all the glory for the great things He has done. God
bless you while we're away and bring us safely back to you.
And I hope this message will help us to realize the importance
of looking to our God, giving him the praise for all of our
salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. Jonah
said that. He learned his theology in a
fish's belly. But it's the same teacher, God himself, who teaches
us these blessed truths that we rejoice and delight in. and
love to hear every time we settle together to worship him. Amen.