Our Lord had just stood up to
read in the synagogue. that passage from Isaiah 61 that
we looked at last week. And as we noted, that as no man spake like this
man, they said, after hearing him speak, someone said, nobody
speaks like Edith. And after hearing him read, they
were thinking the same thing. They marveled at the gracious
words that came out of his mouth. No one had ever read the scriptures
quite like he had. And rightly so, because he wrote
it. He wrote the scripture. And it
says in verse 20, he closed the book and gave it again to the
minister or the ruler of the synagogue, whoever was in charge,
and sat down. And it says, in the eyes of all
them that were in the synagogue, everyone was looking at him. They fastened, they riveted on
him. Everybody was looking at him. And he began to say, verse 21,
he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled
in your ears. This day, what you have heard,
has been fulfilled in your ears. Isaiah did not speak of himself. And Isaiah wrote that down. He
was not speaking of himself when he said, God has sent me to heal,
to deliver, to recover, to sit at liberty. Isaiah wasn't saying
that because no man, no mere mortal man can do any of those
things. Oh, no. Isaiah wrote of me. This is what Christ was saying.
This day, he said, but this day, The one who reads the scripture,
the one who reads this, is the one of whom it is written. The one who's reading the word
written is the one of whom the word was written. And it says, verse twenty-two,
they all bear him witness. and wondered at the gracious
words which proceeded out of his mouth. They were wondering
and marveling at the way he read the word, at his apparent understanding
of it, the power with which he spoke,
the authority, dignity. And they said, look at what they
said about him. They said, why, is not this Joseph's
son? Isn't that Joseph's boy? Isn't
that the carpenter's kid? This can't be Jesus who grew
up here, right here in Nazareth. Is that him? Well, yes and no. Yes, he is the one whom you saw
grow up among you, but the one standing among you, you don't
know." Like John said, there standeth one among you, you don't
know. And he said unto them, verse
23, he said unto them, you will surely say unto me this proverb. This is what you're going to
say. This proverb, you're going to
fulfill this word. You're going to say what God
says you would say. This is what you're going to
say. Now, verse 23, it says, And he
said unto them. Now remember, up to this point,
they were wondering and marveling. at gracious words which he spoke. Gracious. But he's about to say some hard
things. And they're going to go, and
it's going to fill them with wrath. And they're going to grow from
marveling at being maddened. These Sabbath-day keepers, We're
going to turn into a Sabbath-day lynch mob. And it hasn't changed a bit today. Same thing is happening today. Same thing. What our Lord said
here fills men and women with wrath today. We'll turn a Sunday-go-to-meeting
crowd of nice religious folks into stark, raving, mad lunatics. Well, he said, you will surely
say unto me, you're going to say this. I like that. One of the Proverbs
says this, Proverbs 16, 1 says, the answer of the tongue is of
the Lord. The answer of the tongue is of
the Lord. Man's not saying anything different. Man's not saying anything of
himself today. Man's saying exactly what God
said he would say from the very beginning. You know that? Look over at Matthew 27 with
me. Just back a few pages at Matthew 27. They said, our Lord
said, you will surely say what the Proverbs says, what the Psalms
says, what Isaiah says, what Jerry, you're going to say exactly.
Man's going to say what God says he's going to say. And they said
what he said they would say. And man's still saying the exact
same thing, exactly what God's word says he'll say. Look at
Matthew 27, verse 39. And this was when Christ was
hanging on the cross. And they that passed by reviled
him, wagging their heads and saying, Thou that destroyest
the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself, if thou be the Son of God, come
down from the cross." Likewise, also the chief priests mocking
him with the scribes and elders. Every one of them said, he saved
others, himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel,
let him come down. Prove it. Let him now come down
from the cross. We'll believe him. He trusted
in God. Let him deliver him now, if he
will have him. He said, I'm the Son of God,
and even the thieves cast the same thought. They all said what
he said they would say. And over in Romans 9, if you
want to turn there, Romans chapter 9, the Apostle Paul in Romans
chapter 9 After declaring God's absolute
sovereignty and salvation. Just like our Lord is about to
declare. After declaring God's absolute sovereignty in salvation. Look at Romans 9 verse 16. God
said it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. Verse 18. hath he mercy on whom
he will." God will have mercy on whoever he decides to have
mercy on. And, whom he will, he hardens
them. He can do with them whatever
he wants to do. Soften them, harden them. Have
mercy, damn them. Save them, reject them. He's
God. Now, look at verse And Paul predicted here, he said,
Thou wilt save them. This is what you're going to
save. Thou wilt surely save. Do you follow me? This is what
you're going to save when you hear it. This is what everybody's
going to save that hears it. Except those who by God's grace
receive it. But all others, he said, are
going to say this. This is exactly what man says in reply to the
sovereignty of our God. They'll say this, Thou wilt say
then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault who hath resisted
his will? Why does God find fault if God's
will be done and nobody can do anything about it? Then we're
puppets. Why is he finding fault with
us? He said, You're surely going
to say this. This is what you're going to say. And Christ said,
Yes, this is what you're going to say to me. And people are arguing and demanding
and saying the exact same things that our Lord said they'd say,
that Paul said they'd say. Arguing and demanding the same
thing. They demand the same thing. Back
in the text now, Luke 4. He said, You're surely going
to say unto me, Physician, heal thyself. He saved others, let
him save himself. They said it. If you be the Son
of God, come down. Heal yourself. That's what they're
saying. And whatever, look at it here,
verse 23. Whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, we've
heard you heal people. We've heard you raise the dead. We've heard you turn the water
into wine. We've heard you did this and
did that. Do it here. Do it. Do something.
Do a miracle. We want to see something. Prove yourself to us. And aren't men and women saying
the same thing today? If God's up there, let Him do
something. If God's up there, let Him do
something. And I'll believe it. You mean you hadn't seen what
He's done? You can't see it? Well, if God's up there, let
Him speak. Let Him say something. You mean
you hadn't heard? Well, Scripture says there's
no language nor voice where the sound's not heard. Day in the
day, other's speech. Night in the night, knowledge.
You haven't heard it? You must be deaf then. You haven't
seen it? You haven't seen what he's doing?
You must be blind then. Do a miracle. If God's real,
if Christ is real, do a miracle. You haven't had one done yet?
You haven't seen the miracle? You breathing? You breathing? Son come up this morning to do
a miracle? Now, then Christ began to declare
himself to these people. Declare God, declare himself,
as they are wont. Christ begins to declare a little
bit, not completely, because he didn't come to them. He's
going to reveal himself to his disciples. But he's going to
declare unto them who he is, who God is, how he does things.
All right, verse twenty-four, and he said, and he said, oh my, verse twenty-one says,
and he began to say, and he began to say, verse twenty-four, and
he said, who's talking here? You know, rather than and carp,
and argue, and backtalk against God's Word. Men ought to sit up and pay attention,
shouldn't they? Every word. It doesn't matter
what it says. Instead of trembling with rage
at the Word of God, men ought to tremble with fear, shouldn't
they? Men ought to tremble with fear. What did he say? What's Romans 9 say? Whom he
will, he hardeneth. Is that right? That's what God's
word says? That's what it says. Oh my! Instead of getting mad,
trembling, I don't like that. Shouldn't I? And he said, who's talking here? God's talking. Verily, look at verse 24, he
says, Verily, Of a truth I say unto you, no mere mortal man
can stand up and say, now of a truth what I'm saying is absolutely,
positively, undeniably, irrefutably the truth. You listen to what
I'm saying. Oh, no mortal man can say that,
can he? David said, all men are liars. Let God be true and every man
a liar. But when this man stood on the earth, he said, barely.
I am telling you, I say. All right, and he goes on. He
says, I say unto you, verse 24, no prophet is accepted in his
own country. No prophet is accepted in his
own country. Now, it was so with Isaiah, whom
he quoted, who quoted him. That's the way I would say it.
Isaiah, who quoted him. It was said of him, or it was
done to him, he was rejected. Jeremiah. He's going to go back
to Elijah and Elisha. And on every Old Testament prophet
was rejected and killed. And it still sucks. It's still
so today. My dad told me about a so-called
preacher on the television that he sees on every Sunday right
before or after, I forget which, right before our program happened
up. He said the man got up, now this
man's been a heretic for 25 years or more, 30, 35 years, been on
there a long time. And the man said, he started
talking about Whitefield, George Whitefield and John Knox and
John Calvin and John Bunyan and all these. And he said, oh, we
need some men like that today. Oh, he said, got real eloquent
and real, you know, oh, we need another John Newton today. We need another John Calvin in
our day. Well, he's following your program.
That man hates the gospel. Hates the man that follows him.
Wish he wasn't on the air. Would put him out of business
if he could. But oh, you see, he'd brag on the dead and kill
a living. That's what they did back when
Abraham was around. They said, well, we have Moses,
or vice versa. Said to Moses, we have Abraham. And when Christ came, we have
Moses. Christ said that. No prophets is accepted in his
own country, and that's the same today. But do you know chiefly
what Christ is saying right here? Do you know what he's saying?
He's saying, I am that prophet. Not a prophet. I'm that prophet. Moses wrote of me, what Moses
said. You remember what Moses wrote
concerning a prophet? He didn't call him a prophet,
did he? He said, that prophet. When that prophet is come, oh,
he'll tell you all the things. What Christ is saying here is
he's saying that I'm the last word. I'm the final word on every
subject. Do you believe that? Do you believe
now that Christ has come, there's no more prophets? There are no
more prophets. He's that prophet to fulfill
all prophecy. He's the testimony of prophecy.
I mean, the testimony, yeah, the fulfillment of prophecy.
The fulfiller of the prophets, of whom the prophets bore witness,
all right? If you believe that, if you believe
Christ If we believe that Christ is that prophet, or that is that
he's the last word on every subject, that it all points to him, he's
the fulfillment, the answer to every question. If you believe
that, then you won't have any more questions, except as it
pertains to him. And you won't believe any other
prophet. Somebody comes along with a new, something new. Just
a minute, a man comes up and says, I got something new here.
You're rejected. He ain't so. Just a minute, some
fellow said, I had a vision last night, God spoke to me, you're
rejected. Thumbs down. He ain't a prophet. Christ is
last. He's that prophet. And do you know what else I hear
him saying here? Do you hear it? Look at verse
24. He said, no prophet is accepted in his own country, and he's
saying more than he's just a prophet. He's saying I am that prophet,
and he's also saying more than I'm from Nazareth. I was born
here, and I was raised up here, and oh no, he's saying more than
that there. I hear him. I hear the voice
of the God who made this place. The scripture says in Psalm 24,
the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The world and they that dwell
therein. He came to his own, all right,
his own earth, the whole earth. But unlike a
dumb ox, the inhabitants of this earth didn't know their own And then he reminds them of the
story of Elijah and Elisha. Did you hear his voice there?
Did you hear the voice of God right there, saying who he was?
He owns everything. This is my country. This is my
planet. Well, then he goes on to remind them of the story of
Elijah and a Gentile widow in the days of worldwide famine.
Look at it, verse 25 and 26. No prophet is accepted in his
own country, but I tell you of a truth. Many widows were in
Israel in the days of Elias. This is Elijah. When the heaven
was shut up, and this is found in 1 Kings chapter 17, when the
rain stopped at the mouth of Elijah through the word of God,
three years and six months, great famine was throughout all the
land. There were many widows there in Israel, God's people, supposedly. Those who worshiped the living
God, supposedly. Those who had all the advantages,
the ordinances, and so forth, supposedly. Those who were good,
orthodox, God-believing Jews. And they were widows, good old
sweet mothers. A bunch of people's good old
sweet widowed mothers. Let's get this down to what he's
saying. In Jerusalem, in Israel, in verse 26, when there was a
famine, and he said, and under none of them was Elijah sent.
Save under Sarepta, a city of satan, a pagan, wicked, Gentile
city that everybody, under a woman that was a widow.
One widow, this prophet, sent by God. Everybody recognize,
he is a prophet, yeah. There's a family, yeah. and God
rejected or turned down, passed by all of Israel and sent this
great prophet of God. God sent this one prophet to
one woman, one woman and a Gentile dog at that. Boy, the eyebrows
start popping. You say God loves every one of
you, huh? I'm telling you, he's saying
right here, I'm saying to you. God loves whom he will. He went
to one that he loved, rejected those he hated. Jacob have I
loved, Esau have I hated. I'm telling you that. Oh, the
eyebrows start popping. You think I died for every one
of you, don't you? Oh, no. I am the Good Shepherd. Yes, I am. I am the Redeemer. I am the blood which maketh atonement
for the soul, but I am not laying my life down for everybody. I
have died for the sheep, and here I go." They heard what he
was saying. God stopped the rain, the great
famine. The whole world was suffering.
And he ordered this one prophet to go down to one woman. One moment, what's he saying
here? He's talking about none other
than God's sovereign, electing, discriminating will. God's sovereign,
electing, discriminating grace. Yes, discriminating grace. Boy, if that isn't the most despised
and hated and politically incorrect word in our vocabulary today,
and discriminating grace. But God is the chief discriminator. That's what it means when it
says he's no respecter of persons. I will have mercy on who I decide
to. I had a fellow argue that with
me one time in favor of universal redemption. He said, you're saying
that God elects this man and rejects this man. He said, that
makes God a respecter of persons. Boy, I scratched my head every
which way I could. Run that by me again. I'm not saying that at all. God
doesn't respect either one of their persons. He rejects both
of them, thumbs down, but he just up and freely decides, I'm
going to save this one. It's not a respect of his person,
it's respect of his son. It's not a choosing of his person
over the other, that he's a better person than the other. It's sovereign
grace is what it is. God's no respecter of persons,
and he has to discriminate. Doesn't it? He has to discriminate,
and nobody'd be satisfied. Well, you know, today is the
very thing going on in our day. We're living in a famine, aren't
we? That's what the Scripture, the
prophet spoke about. Was it Amos talked about a famine
of the hearing of the Word? In the last days, there'll be
a famine, not of bread, but of the hearing of the word. Didn't
he say that? And aren't we living in that? People, you can say
this. You can stand up and say exactly
what our Lord said. Say it in words that they'll
understand. And they'll reject it, thumbs down. They will surely
say, he can't do that. That's not fair. That's not right. But the fact is, God still chooses
whom he will. God will still have mercy on
whom he will. And whom he will, he hath. And thou wilt, they
will surely say. But that's all right. By his
sovereign grace, he made me to surely say, Amen. Amen. Some of you surely said that,
didn't you? Well, that's not fair. But by his sovereign discriminating,
electing, choosing grace, he made you say, that is so. Well, amen. He's God. He can do what he will. And God elects to save whom he
will, though there are many widows in Christianity today. Though there are many widows
in Christianity today. I mean, sweet, old, dear, Dad's
been gone all these years, and Mom's suffered and brought us
up all these years. And she's lived, I mean, she's
gone to church all these years. She's taught Sunday school, and
she's never missed a service. And Mom never married another
man. She's been faithful, my dad. Many widows whom God passes
by and rejects them, thumbs down, to go to some old Gentile dog widow. Some Rahab. Some Tamar. Some Mary Magdalene. Some woman had seven husbands,
and she killed them all. Adulterous. You mean he passed by this good,
sweet, dear, faithful woman and went to this old street woman
who never did? That's right. Do you hear what he's saying?
That's exactly what he's saying. And look at the next verse. Look at the next verse, 27. And
many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha, the prophet. He gives this story found in
2 Kings 5. Many lepers were in Israel in
the time of Elisha, the prophet. And none of them was cleansed,
save in Nahum and Syria. Lepers. Lepers. God passed them all by. Many lepers, even devout Orthodox
Jewish lepers. God passed them all and healed
an old Syrian. The Syrians were the enemies.
of the Jews. They hate them. They hate them. He says, God passed all Jews
by and went down and saved Assyria. You know, it's still so with
God. It's still so. There are many lepers. Matter
of fact, they all are in the so-called church today in Israel. Good old orthodox Christians,
you know. Sunday go to meet them Christians.
They have many lepers. Every last one of them are lepers.
Sinners through and through. Stinking. You know what a leper
is? A stinking, dying, corrupt individual. Flesh. Corrupt fleshed
leper. From the sole of his feet to
the top of his head is no soundness. Any wound bruises, putrefying
sores, and every one of us, my nature. I don't care if they are good
orthodonticists. I don't care if they do go to
church. He said, God passed them by and went to an old And all,
verse twenty-eight, all of them, every last one of them in the
synagogue, all they in the city, every last one of these Sabbath
days, can't you see it? You see this picture? This happened,
now. They all came in on Saturday. Good Saturday. And they all had
their uniforms on. Their good Sunday. Had to go
to meet and closing, you know. And they all got all dressed
up. Men that didn't normally wear what they were wearing,
but they got it on, you know. And they came in there, you know,
and those strangers, oh, you know, and all that. And they
read the Word, and oh, they bowed their heads in the prayer and
was going along. And after a little while, they said, And they heard
him, oh, he speaks so graciously. That's good. He's a good singer. And then finally when Christ
started talking, the brain started talking out of their necks. And they went from smiling and
fan-folded to their knuckles stretching and their knuckles
turned white and their teeth gritting and their strings popping
out of their necks. We heard these things that said
they were filled with love. How does this like look? Is that everything that he said? I don't see anything popping. At least I can't see. The teeth are gritting. That's
good old man. Let me tell you this, if I just
switch pulpits, if I can just go right down the road here,
just a quarter of a mile, and stand up in a pulpit, so-called,
down at one of the red brick buildings like this, much like
this one, stand in that pulpit and just say what I said to you,
what he said to us, you know, the whole congregation You say that that's what God's
Word says. I know. I know. And they had the same
Bible. Oh boy, so they said they were
filled with wrath and they rose up, verse twenty-nine, 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 throw him over the cliff. But he passing through the midst
of them went his way." Just like in salvation. He passes
by some people, right through the midst of people that pass
by him. The gospel was declared this
morning at eight o'clock. I'm sure there are many flipping
their dials and came across it. Passed on, it ended. Some believe and some don't. Whom God chooses, that's what
it is. Who saves? Who God decides to save, that's
what it is. Whose will is it? It's not of Him that will it,
for Him to run it, it's of God who chose to make it. Who decides
what? Who makes the decision? It's
God's to decide. Who does the saving? Jesus Christ
by His blood and His righteousness, or man by his will and his effort
and his Is this thing revealed or is
it figured out? Is it revealed by God's Holy
Spirit and the Spirit bloweth where it listeth? Everyone that's
born of the Spirit, born on whoever he decides to reveal it to? Or is a man, if he can just read
his Bible real well and decide that he'll be saved? Oh, by God's mercy and grace,
I like this. Don't you like this? Don't you
love this? This is the truth, and those
that love the truth. Some, he said, Paul said, in
Thessalonians, received not the love of the truth, so they rejected
it, and heeded themselves teachers that would tell them, God loves
you, God loves everybody. And teachers will tell them,
Christ died for everybody. He doesn't know will anybody
be saved. Oh no, it's not. God doesn't know the will of
anybody. It's up to your will. Now they teach to themselves. Teachers
will tell them that. And they find them. There's one
on every corner. And blessed are your ears for
hearing what you hear. He could have passed us by, couldn't
he? And it says in verse 31 and 32, And he came down to Capernaum,
a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath day. Again,
on the sabbath day, he stood up and taught them, and they
were astonished at his doctrine. Here's another group. Gracious words out of his mouth. But you want to know who he saved
in that town? But one old demon-possessed fellow
sitting up in the graveyard, he went into that town to find
one devil-possessed fellow and save him. And he left town. He ran out of town on the road.
But there's one old boy, one sheep, that he came to save. Because he'll save whom he will. Isn't that wonderful? That's
Christ. All right, Brother Joe, you got
a hymn 169. Number 199. Stand with me. Let's sing the first and the last sentence. First and the last. Dear Jesus, will we see That
the Word of grace to all Through the heavenly grace may be Our
will be, our will be Christ, receive a simple gift. Make the basic care of me. Christ, receive a simple gift. Christ is here, He was here for
me, He will be without me. Heard from every spot His face,
and with Him I enter in. Thank you and God bless you.