Luke chapter 10. Read with me
verses 17 through 24. Luke 10, 17 through 24, 70 disciples
that he'd chosen returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even
the devils are subject unto us through thy name. He said unto
them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give
unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the
power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you,
notwithstanding. In this, rejoice not that the
spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice because your
names are written in heaven." And in that hour, Jesus rejoiced
in spirit and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent,
and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight." And another version says, he turned to his
disciples and said, verse 22, all things are delivered to me
of my Father. And no man knoweth who the Son
is but the Father, and who the Father is, but the Son, and he
to whom the Son will reveal him. And he turned him unto his disciples,
and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things
that ye see. For I tell you that many prophets
and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and
have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear, and
have not heard them. I hope this will give us cause
for joy and rejoicing. Make us rejoice in the Lord.
The Lord just told His disciples and us. Rejoice. Rejoice, because your names are
written in heaven. Now, some people by nature are
just a little more cheerful than others. Upbeat. Some people just
aren't. They're born that way. By the
grace of God and goodness of God. There are some people that
are melancholy and morose and sad all the time. That's not
good. It's certainly not good for a
believer. However, I understand a little
bit about that feeling. I find myself often cast down
and troubled and upset and aggravated. And then I read so many times
in God's Word, He reminds me to be of good cheer, lift up
your heads, rejoice. Rejoice. Our Lord is constantly
telling us in His Word. to rejoice. He said, in the world
you shall have tribulation, troubles, trials, constant, never ending,
until the day you die. But, he said, be of good cheer. I'm in charge of this world.
It's all for our good. So he constantly tells us that. Paul was in prison when he said
three or four times, rejoice. And again I say, rejoice. He kept saying that. The Lord
Jesus Christ was indeed a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief. Scripture says so. But it was our griefs and sorrows
that He bore. He bore our griefs. He bore our
sins. He was sorry for us. He pitied us. When He cried or
wept at Lazarus' tomb, He wept over sin, the results of it,
the unbelief of all around Him who were crying uncontrollably.
He wept over the thought of bringing Lazarus back to this place. But
our Lord was not a melancholy or sad person. He's called the
blessed man. Blessed means happy. He delighted
to do the Father's will. He delighted. He gave him great
delight, the scripture says, when he came for the joy set
before him. For the joy set before him, he
pleased the Lord to make you his people. It gave him great
joy to spend his whole life, to lay down his life for his
children, just like us and ours, but more so. And he thought nothing
of the shame. He took the shame. He wasn't
ashamed to call us brethren, but he was a man of Happiness,
though a man of sorrows. Explain that. Well, I just tried. He's always telling his disciples,
be of good cheer. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's
house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. When I go, I'll come
again. I'll receive you. Be of good cheer. Doesn't it? Nothing and no one really upset
him. He knew the end from the beginning, didn't he? But he
lived by faith. One time after he arose, his
disciples were so sad, he'd been telling them for three and a
half years what was going to happen, what he was going to
do when he was going to rise from the grave. He'd been telling
some of us for 33 and a half years or 40 years. The end from
the beginning. We know the end. We've read the
last chapter. It's good. It's real good. And he was walking
on the road to Emmaus with those two disciples, and he hid himself. Remember that. He hid himself. That's the next mission. He was
just a preacher to them. Oh, how blessed we are if God sends
a preacher to cheer them up. And he said, why are you so sad? Well, he said, we trusted that
it had been he wouldn't deliver Israel. He did. Well, he sure
doesn't look like it. The things that are seen are...
Don't trust the things you see. God's kingdom is unseen. So the first thing he said here
to these disciples was, Rejoice not. See that? Verse 20. Rejoice
not that the spirits are subject unto you. Rejoice not. Spirits are subject. Miracles,
wonders and signs, our Lord said in chapter 11 of Luke, He said
an evil generation seeketh after a sign. Didn't it? Signs and
wonders. People get excited and thrilled
and rejoice over signs and wonders and miracles and phenomena and
what they see and all around them and all of that. This charismatic
Pentecostal religion has swept the land. Not just the United
States, but the world over. Did you know that? It has invaded
Mexico. It's full of it. It's the prevalent
religion next to Catholicism. Tongues, and miracles, and signs,
and musical extravaganzas, and great shows, and so forth. People
get all excited in that. But let a man stand up, like
our Lord did. Our Lord came to declare the
truth. You know the truth, and it was
going to make you free. The Lord came to declare who God is, declare
the horrible condition that we're in, and the only way, the only
truth, the only life, good news to those that know the state
of this world and themselves. He came to declare the Word of
God, to preach the Word of God, the truth, the whole truth, nothing
but the truth. And people aren't interested
in that. They turn away their ears from the truth, unto fables. That's what they said to false
prophets back then. Tell us smooth things. We don't
want the truth. Right? Give us lies. Our Lord
told the truth. He came preaching God's Word,
words of mercy, of grace, forgiveness of sins. He came preaching the
gospel of forgiveness of sin. People aren't interested. Why?
Not sinners. The Lord came. Not too many interested,
nor are they now. Show us a sign. Entertain us. Isn't that what they said to
him? Feed us. Make us rich. Entertain
us. Make us happy here. So we can
just stay here and be happy Christians. He kept telling his disciples,
this is not your home. You're not of this world. He
kept telling them, I'm coming back to destroy this world, take
you out of this world. So in God's goodness, He makes
His people hear the truth. And this is what
He said. Blessed are your eyes, they see. They're wide open. And your ears, they hear. So
the first thing He said was don't rejoice in things you see, things
you think. But things that, you know, miracles
and signs and wonders and all that. The Lord sends strong delusions
that people believe a lie and religions caught up in it. All
right, the next thing he said was, Rejoice, because your names
are written in heaven. Rejoice, your names are written
in heaven. If your names are written in
heaven, and they're written in another place. Where? The palms of his hand. He said,
I'm graving you on the palms of my hand. Rejoice. Your names are written in heaven.
They're written on his, that's what John said, on the breastplate,
shoulders, palms of his hand. No evil shall befall those who
belong to our Lord. He's our God. He's our Savior.
He's our Shepherd. We're His sheep, the sheep of
His pasture. He's our God and we're His people. Rejoice. It's all good. But, but, but,
no. No buts to His goodness. It's
all yay and what? Amen. Yay and amen. That's why someone requested,
who was it, requested Psalm 91. One of you requested Psalm 91.
It's coming up. But in that, he says, Psalm 91,
make us glad in the days wherein you have afflicted us. Make us
see it's your goodness to afflict us, so this is not our continuing
sin. And we don't get our joy and
our rejoicing in the perishing things of clay that are born
but for one brief day. Pass from my heart away, O the
Lord. May the Lord Jesus Christ be
my portion. Alright, look at verse 21. Now,
in that same hour, Jesus rejoiced in spirit. He rejoiced. In Matthew's Gospel, Matthew
11, John was in prison. John was in prison. He was about
to get his head cut off. The Lord knew that. Okay? His disciples were sad.
Do you remember that? They were terribly sad. We looked
at that in Luke 9. And then he got his head cut
off. And they were all sad. They all came to Him. And remember
that message? He took them aside into a private
place, a desert place, to comfort them by saying, Herod didn't
do this. I did it. John's time was over. His months with the Lord, his
days could not pass. That was the means. Though seemingly
terrible, God did this. I did this. Christ did. And now
He's happy. Would you bring him back? No. So he comforted them then. Then he pronounced woe in Matthew
11. Woe on Bethsaida and Chorazin and Capernaum and all those cities
that he'd done all these wonderful works. Woe, woe, woe, woe. If you read the Revelation, it
talks about three woes. In chapter 11, when they think
they've killed The prophets, or the word of God, they think
they've silenced it. And there'll be a brief resurrection
of the word of God. And then God will remove, then
he removes those prophets from the earth. Oh, that's a picture
of the dark days when there was no word. Then a revival of the
preaching of the word, starting in the days of Martin Luther,
who printed the word and so forth. And there's a short, a small
time, a brief time, the Lord will make a short work in the
earth. And then he removes the truth. And he removes it. Oh, how blessed. Do you see how
blessed we are? We've still got it. We've still
got the truth. And the day was very little of
it, and people turning their ears away from it. We don't want
to hear it. Show us a sign. Isn't that prevalent today? In
that hour, the Lord rejoiced himself. I believe he looked
up to heaven and smiled and maybe laughed. And he said, look at it, I thank
Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid
these things from the wise and prudent, hast revealed them unto
babes. Even so, Father, so it seemed
good in Thy sight. He rejoiced. He rejoiced. Over in Matthew 11, the Lord
said, you go show John again that the blind receive their
sight, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,
The dead are raised, and he saved the best for last. He said, the
poor have the gospel preached to them. Go show John again.
Your work's not over. It's just begun. My dad used
to be sad over the thought that his ministry was over. He couldn't
preach. He said, what good is a preacher
if he can't preach? And I kept telling him, you're still preaching.
Your message is going out as much or more than ever. You're
still preaching. He that be in bed yet speaketh the scripture
says. God's word does not die. The
word doesn't die. It still goes on. It doesn't.
Our time goes. He said to John, the poor have
the gospel preached unto them. And then after pronouncing woe
is when he rejoiced. After pronouncing woe on all
those cities that rejected him. Remember right before this he
was going into a village and they wouldn't receive him and
the disciples said, let's kill them all. He said, no, don't
do that. But after that, after pronouncing
woe, he rejoiced. And there is going to be great
woe on this country, on this nation, on this world. Great
woe. Weeping and wailing and gnashing
of teeth. It's already begun. Rejoice. Your names are written
in heaven. Rejoice. Blessed are you to see
the things that you see, to hear what you're hearing right now
this morning. Many people can't hear, can't
see, don't want to. Why? He said they're hid from
them. They're hid. Let me give you
a few things that are hidden by the Lord. A few things that
are hidden. Look at verse 22 here again. It says, I thank Thee, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and the prudent. and has revealed them undebated.
Now Paul went on to talk about this more in 1 Corinthians, didn't
he? He talked about the things of God, the things of Christ,
the wisdom of God, the power of God, the glory of God, the
mercy of God, the gospel of God, the truth of God, the word of
God, the Son of God, the person of God, the work of God, God's
all about salvation from sin and wrath and judgment, and he
said, Oh, he's pleased by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe that Christ, the preaching of the gospel,
is not foolishness to them. It's the power of God and the
wisdom of God. You see your calling, brethren? That's what Paul went
on. And in chapter 2, he went on
to say, but these things are foolishness. He said, where is
the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the wise? Scripture says, not many wise.
Not many mighty, not many noble, but some. Where are all the doctors? There aren't many, there's some.
Thank God. There's some. Luke was a physician,
but not many. Where are the educators? Where
are the school principals? Where are the deans of universities and colleges? Where
are they? Where are the scientists? Where are the lawyers? Where
are the philosophers? Where are the rulers? Where are
the leaders of our nation? Where are they? They're in those places looking
for signs and wonders and miracles. How could people like that be
caught up in something like that? Or in a place of dead formality
like this Lutheran trinity up there on the corner. That's where
doctors are. To see what? What are they seeing?
A fellow dressed up like a woman, blessing animals. I'm not kidding
you. That's what they do up there.
Don't they? So why are you here? What are
we doing? What are we doing? Preaching
God's Word. Just telling people what God
says. Who Christ is. What Christ came to do. Where
He is now. Who He came for. Who He did it
for. Good news. For sinners. Oh, He's hidden
these things, he said. A few things. He's hidden. Himself. David said, Thou art
a God who hidest thyself. Verily, thou art a God who hidest
thyself. Though the heavens declare His
glory, though the firmament showeth its handiwork, day unto day others
speak. The things that are made are
clearly seen. His eternal power and Godhead,
Romans 1 says. But, you can't see what is so
clear. God's creation. Doctors. Scientists. Can't see. Romans
1 says they're willingly ignorant. Suppress. They hold the truth.
Hold it down. Suppress it. Why? Don't want to God. Don't want
to God. So God sends strong illusion. Blinds their eyes. To where things
are so utterly and preposterously ridiculous like evolution. That
they take it as fact. It's the most foolish notion
you could possibly come up with. That all of this came from soup. No, that's what's in their heads.
But why do you believe? Why do you clearly see the hand
of God in everything? Clear, it's clear. Clear as a
nose on your face. Why? Because you were kneeling
on the edge. Flesh and blood that are empty. The Lord is hidden. I'll start
to go to Isaiah 43. Isaiah 43. We're going to turn
to Isaiah, okay? Because Isaiah declares our God
and man and Christ as clear or more clearly than any book in
the Bible does. He's quoted more than any other
prophet for that reason. Why don't people today preach
from the Old Testament? Are you hearing any messages
from Isaiah today? No, you won't. Why? Because men don't like that
God. Because He's so clearly God. Sovereign. Doing whatever He
will, with whom He will, because He will. And giving no account
of His matter. They don't want that God. Don't
like that God. So we'll just ignore all that and we'll preach
Jesus. Isn't that right? Isn't that right? Our Lord preached Isaiah. Paul,
James, John, Peter, Thomas, they preached the Old Testament. There
was no New Testament. You see, He's the same God today
as He was then. He hasn't changed. Isaiah, oh
my, does Isaiah declare who God is? Chapter 43. Let's just go
there. Isaiah 43 verse 1, but now thus
saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob. Jacob have I loved. You love that? Jacob have I loved? You won't love any of Isaiah
if you don't love that. Because he says to Jacob, Jacob. Sorry, low down, no good. Jacob wasn't seeking God, but
God chose Jacob. And all that he said concerning
Jacob. Jacob, verse 1, I created thee, I formed thee, O Israel. Changed his name. Fear not. What's the first thing he says
to old Jacob and to us? Fear not. He'd been saying this from the
beginning. Don't fear their fear. Why? Fear me. You have nothing to fear. Right? But I'm a sinner. That's
who he's talking to. But I'm no good. That's who he's
talking to. But I can't save myself. I don't have no hope
in myself. That's who he's talking to. Fear
not. I've redeemed that. Notice how
he's talking about all that. He's done. I've got to get through
this. I get stuck right here, and what
a place to camp. I've called thee by name. Your
names are written in heaven. Verse 8, bring forth the blind
people that have eyes and the deaf that have ears. Who's that?
Me! You! Here's an old Methodist
sitting right over here. She said, that ain't in the Bible.
I'm going to go home and check the Bible out. Well, she did.
Her eyes were blind. Bring them. He said, verse 10,
you're my witnesses I've chosen, that you may know and believe
me. So the first thing that's hidden is God. Second thing that's
hidden is His truth. Isaiah 59, turn over there. His
truth is hidden. From the wise, from the prudent,
those clear, you know, it's right in front of us isn't it? The
word is not in thee, it's in thy mouth, you read it, it's
right there. Clear, right there it is. Look at verse 4 though,
it says in Isaiah 59, none call it for justice, nor any pleaded
for truth, they trust in vanity, they speak lies. Verse 14, judgments
turn way back for justice standeth far off, the truth is following
the street, equity cannot enter, yea, truth faileth. I want the
truth. Right there it is, who God is,
what we are, salvation, and I don't like that. Look at chapter 60
across the page, verse 1. Oh, rise, shine, thy light is
come, the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. Gross darkness,
darkness shall cover the earth, gross darkness the people, but
the Lord shall arise upon thee. Who's he talking to? Jacob. Darkness and dimness, chapter
8, chapter 9, anguish of spirit. Look to the earth, nothing but
Darkness, and they're driven to darkness nevertheless. Don't
you love that word? Nevertheless. The people that
walked in darkness seen a great light. God bless it for your
eyes. The entrance of thy word giveth
light. Light. So the truth is hidden. Another thing that's hidden is
God's people. God's people are hidden. God's kingdom is hidden. Now Isaiah starts, Isaiah, the
book of Isaiah, I'll give you just a brief summary of the whole
book of Isaiah. It starts in chapter 1 with a
sinful and rebellious people that from the sole of their feet
to the top of their head, there's nothing good about it. Not one. Not one. No soundness. Rotten
to the core. Wounded. Bruised. That's the
second message. And it goes on to talk about
pride, chapter 2. Lift up the pride, lofty looks
of man. Boy, that's now more than ever.
Chapter 3, the show of their countenances. Witnesses against
them. They declare their sin like Sodom.
There is no God. We've been walking in pride.
It says the women are haughty, tripping
nicely as they go. Look at me. He said, I'm going
to tear off all their clothing, strip them naked, and show them
what they are. And he goes on and on and on
and on. Woe unto thee, Moab. Woe unto thee. Woe unto thee. Woe unto thee. Then, he gets
over to chapter 40 and well before that, chapter 42. Oh my sir,
somebody's coming. And chapter 53. Wounded and bruised
for our transgressions. Transgression of my peoples was
he smitten and stricken. By his knowledge he'll justify
many. Christ who was to come. He said
he will not fail or be discouraged. He's going to redeem his people
from their sin. He's going to come and redeem
some of these sinners, yea, many, by himself. And then Isaiah ends,
Isaiah ends, it begins with a people just as bad as it can be, and
it ends with great joy and gladness. He said, Rejoice in that which
I have created. It ends with this, Rejoice in that which I
have created. New heavens and a new earth.
Wherein dwelleth righteousness. That's the whole book of Isaiah.
And the volume of the book. It's written of us. It's written
of him. And the end is declared before the beginning. So God's
people are hidden. They're hidden from the world.
They're even hidden from themselves. But now we're the sons of God. Right now. I'm looking at sons
and daughters of God right now. Right now. But you say, I don't
feel like one. It's not about feeling. It's
faith. But I don't look like one. I
look in the mirror of God's Word and I just see a man who's no
good. In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. Oh, do you now? Look closer. You'll see another
face. You'll see another thing. Have
you ever seen those? I know you have. These pictures
that I have. There was one in the dentist's
office years ago. Over top of my chair. And it was dolphins. Thousands of dolphins. And right
in the middle was supposed to be a picture of something. You
see that? Alright. And they told me about
it. I never did see it. I never did see it. It drove
me crazy. Take that down. I can't even see it. Somebody,
what's right there? It's clear, but I can't see it. We're going to go our whole lives
looking at ourselves in this book and not seeing any progress. No hope in ourselves. That's
good. And we look in this, but here's
the illustration. Look closer. Look closer. We see through a glass darkly
and dimly, but beholding his face, if we can just see Christ
in there, and he's there. He's there. If we can just see
his face, because the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God of salvation is seen in the face, the person and the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we do, don't we? The things
that are hidden from the world, clearly revealed to us, sometimes.
Like Noah's Ark. It's one of the most glorious
pictures of Christ in the Bible. Noah's Ark. Do you ever get tired
of that? That was an old message, wasn't it? We've heard that so
many times. Do you ever go tired of hearing
that? Don't you always see something new? Why? The world can't see it at all. They can't see Christ in that.
Why you? Rejoice. Blessed are your eyes,
they say. Blessed are your ears, they hear.
Like Rahab hearing that trumpet. She wanted them to sound as loud
as they could. Sound it louder. Jericho people
would say, they're just playing one note. Every day the same note. And Rahab said, yeah, and they're
wonderful. That's my redemption. See, if
this gospel remains sweet to you all your days, though you've
heard it a thousand times, and it's still just as sweet, your
name's written in heaven. Rejoice. You're hidden. And doesn't
He say in Colossians 3, here's a good place to end it, you're
dead. You're good as dead. You are
dead. Crucified with Christ. is hid with Christ in God. I don't see it. Just believe.
Just trust Him. Fear not. Rejoice. It's almost
over. It's all over with the shouting.
Don't you hear the trumpet? Don't you see the cloud? Every face that knows this truth
ought to be smiling right now. Big time. Okay. Rejoice. This is for our community. We
can't do this without you. Thank you, John.