We often speak about the mercies
of God, and it is only right to do so. He's so good to all
of us. But I would like to ask you a
question. What do you think is the greatest
blessing or the greatest mercy God can give to a community? Now someone may say, well it'd
be wonderful if the Lord would send in a large business and
hire hundreds of people because we sure could use that in our
community because some large businesses now are in business
no longer. Wouldn't it be wonderful if he
sent something where jobs would be created? But really, the greatest blessing
God can give to a community, to a city, is to have the gospel of his
grace consistently set forth for people to hear the truth. I'm sure we've got There's quite
a few folks who are watching the live stream this morning. Many of them, they don't have
a gospel preaching church anywhere nearby, which consistently, week
in and week out, sets forth the glories of our Savior and of
His precious sin-atoning blood. that ransomed us from the judgment
of God. A lot of people don't have that.
It's the greatest blessing God can give to a community, a faithful
gospel ministry. What are the earmarks of a faithful
gospel ministry? Well, I would say to begin with
is one where God is declared in his true character. Because there is an inborn ignorance
of who God is. And people speak so lightly of
God and they don't exalt him because the God they hear about
is not worthy to be exalted. They hear of a God who wants
to do something but he can't. They hear of a God who has his
will, but his will is checkmated. There's a chess reference, brother. His will is checkmated by man. They hear of a God whose purpose
may or may not be fulfilled dependent upon how men and women respond
to that purpose. They're ignorant that God is
sovereign, God's holy, God's almighty, God's never frustrated,
God has a purpose, and His purpose is coming to pass. Whether you
like what He's doing or not, He doesn't owe you an account
of what He is doing. He doesn't owe you any explanation
for the reason He's doing the things that He's doing. The fact
of the matter is the Bible teaches us all things are of God. You
can fuss about it. You can get all upset about what
He's doing. That's not going to change anything.
May God enable us to, here's a good word, acquiesce in His
will, to rejoice with satisfaction knowing that the will of God
is being done. And that's not only throughout
the world, that's not only throughout our nation, that's in your life
and my life too. This is the God of the Bible,
and people don't know about Him. A lot of people hadn't heard
about Him. And of course, much of the fault
lies behind the pulpits. Preachers are not telling the
truth about God. And I say to those who are watching,
if you listen to a preacher, Attend a church where the preacher
doesn't tell you who God is. Stop going. And for goodness
sakes, don't support them. You have a responsibility to
pick up a Bible and read it. God has made Himself known in
this book. And your ignorance cannot be
solely blamed upon the man behind the pulpit. Your ignorance is
your fault because you don't take the Word of God and search
the Scriptures and find out who God is in His holiness, in His
justice, in His sovereignty. And then another earmark of a
faithful gospel ministry is one where man is set forth in his
true character. We're sinners. The Bible says
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. I'm not
going to stand up here and say, well, you know, you've made some
mistakes, but I know y'all mean well. Mistakes? They're sins. And God sends people
to hell whose sins aren't paid for and whose son is not believed. You see, sin is a rebellion against
God. It doesn't matter how little
you think it is, it's still rebellion. And the wages of sin, my Bible
says, and your Bible says, is death. That's the wages of sin. Well, it's just a little white
lie. It's a lie. It's a non-truth. We tend to categorize sins. These are more serious and this
is not as serious. Well, it is a fact that some
sins bring with it a greater consequence that is as far as
outward things are concerned. But sin is sin before God. And there are no little sins. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. We're spiritually dead. We're
cut off from God. We're alienated from God. You
say, well, all I've got to do is exercise my will. Christ told
the Jews of his day, and you will not come to me that you
might have life. He said, you cannot come to me
except the Father, which hath sent me, draw me, draw you, and
then you'll come. We have a natural inability when
it comes to spiritual things because we're spiritually dead.
We're helpless and can't do anything about it. And then a faithful
gospel ministry is one where the only hope of salvation has
to be in Christ Jesus and His work of redemption. We declare
who He is. A true gospel ministry brags
on Christ's identity. He is God Almighty, the Son of
God forever. He is the Creator of all things. And He is the man Christ Jesus
who robed His deity with our flesh, joined Himself to our
nature. and came down here in order to
suffer, bleed, and die for poor sinners like us. That's who He is. He's the God
to man. And He came down here to die
on the cross in order to satisfy the just claims of God and to
save sinners from their sins. If you can save yourself by doing
good, obeying the law, then what was the use in Christ coming?
Tell me. Why did He have to come? We were
in such bad shape that the only way we could get out of our awful
dilemma was for God to come down here, for God to lay down His
life, for God to humble Himself, become a servant before God. and then die in our stead. That's
how bad off we are. And a faithful ministry sets
forth Christ as the only refuge for sinners. Here in this passage
of script, Christ said, come unto me. He didn't say, go to
the law. He said, come unto me. He didn't
say, go to the baptistry. He said, come unto me. He didn't
say, go talk to the preacher. He said, come unto me. I don't
know how words could be any clearer. Come unto me. Why should we go
to Christ? Because He has life. He has salvation. It's His to give. He's our only
hope. That's why we preach Him crucified,
buried, risen and exalted. I say to you, come to Christ.
Don't move a muscle. I'm not asking you to come down
here at the front. Preachers say you need to come
to the altar. Well, there is an element of truth in that if
you understand our altar is in heaven and his name is the Lord
Jesus Christ. Come to him. Come to him. He said, you come to me and I'll
give you rest. The law's not going to give you
rest. trying to pray through or read
so many chapters. Praying is wonderful and reading
many chapters of the Bible, that's wonderful too, but that's not
the way of life. The way of life, the way of salvation
is somebody and what somebody has already accomplished, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And then a faithful gospel ministry
is one which sets forth the necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit. You listen to some preachers
out there, and why? It's like there's no need for
the Holy Spirit. All you got to do, all you got
to do is answer yes to three or four questions, and all you
got to do is repeat after me. I've seen that on television.
All you've got to do is repeat after me. Now, will you repeat
after me? As I say it, you repeat after me. I'll tell you what,
when Simon Peter was sinking beneath the waves, the Savior
didn't say, now repeat after me. You say these words. I'll tell you what, if God the
Spirit gets you in bad shape and you see the guilt of your
sin, You find out, you hear from a gospel preacher that Christ
is the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody's gonna have to
put words in your mouth and say, repeat after me, Lord, save me. That's what Peter said. Nobody
told him to say it. How'd he know to say that? Because
he knew that the only one who could help him was the Son of
God. Lord, save me. And there's never
been a sinner who made that cry but what the Lord didn't save
him. Actually, he's already saved.
He's already doing the work of grace. I tell you, the greatest blessing,
the greatest mercy God can give to a community, and God gave
this church to this community nearly 70 years ago, not far
from it. And this church has consistently
set forth the gospel of God's grace down through the years.
I don't know how much longer it'll last. But it's lasting now, I know
that. It's lasting now. And you can
find out about God, you can find out about man, you can find out
about Christ Jesus, you can find out about the work of the Holy
Spirit. In this context that I read to
you, our Lord is speaking to people who they weren't satisfied
when they did hear the gospel. If I had read earlier verses,
our Savior talked about John the Baptist. He was a very stern
man, dressed funny, had an unusual diet, If you wanted to hear him
preach, you didn't go to the first church down in the city.
You went out in the wilderness to hear him. Oh, he was rough. But he told the truth. He didn't
go to weddings, and that aggravated him. Well, he's not a very friendly
preacher. We want a friendly preacher.
Well, John the Baptist is not the man for you then, because
he don't go to the weddings. He don't go to the feasts like
other people do. Where does he preach? What's
the name of his church? The name of his church is the
Church in the Wilderness. He's got no building. He don't
even have a building. Well, where can I go hear him?
He's preaching outdoors. Why should I go hear him? Because
he's got God's message, that's why. He's a forerunner of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And people said, we're not gonna
listen to him. He's the most hardest preacher
I've ever heard. He seemed so cantankerous. I
don't know why he don't come around. He don't sit down and
talk with anybody. He preaches and it's like he
goes back in his cave or something. But he had the truth. See, that
was a gospel minister right there. And then our Lord Jesus comes
along, and He was very outgoing. He went to the weddings. He went
to the feasts. No matter who invited Him to
come home and eat with them, He said, yeah, I'll be at your
house. Just tell me what time. He's very outgoing. You know
what this said about Him? He's a wine-bibber. He's a gluttonous
man. Our Lord would say to them, you
can't be satisfied no matter what kind of ministry God sends
you. And then beginning at the 20th
verse, look at it. He began to upbraid the people
of these cities where most of his mighty works were done. They
proved that he was the Messiah. The works that he did proved
that he was the savior of sinners, that he's the one promised in
the Old Testament. Every sacrifice offered in the
Old Testament pointed to this one. And he upbraided, he rebuked
them, he condemned them because they repented not. They wouldn't
give up their works religion. They wouldn't give up this idea
of keeping the law. It wouldn't give that up. So
he said in verse 21, Woe unto thee, woe unto thee, judgment
unto thee, condemnation unto thee. Chorazin, woe unto thee
Bethsaida. These were towns in Galilee where
he performed so many miracles and yet they paid no attention.
He says, for if the mighty works, the almighty works, which were
done in your towns had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would
have repented long ago and sacked cloth and ashes. You know, let
me tell you something about Tyre and Sidon. These were Phoenician
cities on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. And this is where sailors
came in. These were a bunch of Gentiles
in cities that were ungodly. All these seafarers, these sailors
would come in, having been on ships for a long time, much longer,
Ken, than yous on your ship. I mean, they'd be out there a
year, never even come back home. And they come in, it was a city
full of adultery and fornication and drunkenness. And this was
the pit of the worship of Baal. And our Lord says to these Jews,
He said, Woe unto you, Chorazin! And Bethsaida, if the mighty
works which were done in you had been done entirely in Sidon,
those Gentile cities full of adultery, full of fornication,
full of prostitution, if that had been done there, they would
have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. In other words, here's
what he's saying, I sent the gospel to you and didn't send
it to them. There's God's sovereignty right
there. I sent my preachers and I went myself. He says to Chorazin
and Bethsaida. Our Lord lived in Galilee. He
said if the same message had been preached, if the same miracles
had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they'd have repented a
long time ago. He says in the 22nd verse, but
I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon
at the day of judgment, excuse me, than for you. What this teaches is there's
degrees of hell. That's what this teaches. Listen
to me. All of you and those of you who
are watching, you're responsible for the gospel that you hear.
and you're responsible if you don't come and you could have
heard it. You're responsible. You're gonna
answer to God for it now. Because there are people who
are watching and they could, and I hear from by letter, by
email, by text, and many of them will say, we don't have a gospel
preaching ministry anywhere within driving distance. But you do. We do. And I tell you what, we better
believe this. Oh, God help us to believe him, because he's
going to get justice. That's the truth. Woe unto you.
Woe unto you for not believing that which you hear, and for
not coming to hear, coming to listen to what you could have
heard, what you could learn. Be more tolerable for tiring
sight at the judgment. Boy, I bet you that cranked them
up. They already thought the Gentiles as dogs. They went around like that. Pharisee
and Luke said, you know, thank God I'm not like other men are. I'm not an adulterer. I'm not
like those Phoenician people. No, you're not. You're worse
than them. You're worse than them. What
are you talking about? I'm a very moral person. But
you're ungodly in your heart. That's the problem. The heart's
the problem. And then he says in verse 23, and thou Capernaum, you're exalted unto heaven. How
are they exalted unto heaven? Because Christ had visited there
so often and performed miracles and preached there. He said,
you're exalted unto heaven. Oh, how blessed you've been.
But you're gonna be brought down to hell. For if the mighty works
which had been done in thee had been done in Sodom. Sodom, woo,
that's the worst place on earth. Hundreds and hundreds of years
ago, full of Sodomites, full of homosexuality. So how is it
such an ungodly place? You know what's more ungodly?
Is to hear the gospel and not bow to it. That's a serious offense
to God. No question about homosexuality,
that's perversion, that's sin. But those folks, those folks
there in Sodom, unless they came across a man
by the name of Lot, who was a righteous man, whose soul was vexed by
the things that he saw, unless they heard him, Ain't know anything
about God. But our Lord, the speaker is
our savior now. Don't forget that. Don't lose
sight of that. So I thought Jesus was kind and
sweet and gracious. Well, he is. He is to those who
see by the grace of God, they're sinners and need a savior. To
them, he says, come unto me. But to those who are defiant,
defiant in their rebellion and unbelief against Him, who has
clearly manifested the fact that He is God, He did all of these
works. Even Nicodemus said there in
John chapter 3, No man can do the miracles that thou doest,
except God be with him. And these people in Capernaum,
they wouldn't even believe. Our Savior said, If those people
in Sodom had seen the things that you've seen, that city would
still be in existence. Now what do you think about that? And it goes on to say in verse
24, but I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the
land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee. Hear these self-righteous people
that think they're doing good and God's smiling on them. He's
happy with them. He's pleased with them. And then
hear these sodomites over here. Oh, they're so terrible. And
God says, well, both of you are terrible, but you folks are the
worst. Because I sent my gospel to you. My son preached to you the truth. John the Baptist said, Behold
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Behold
the Lamb of God, but would you behold me? No. No, you wouldn't. So in the judgment, all Sodom,
people of Sodom, they're gonna get, there's a judgment coming
their way. In fact, they're in hell now, but so are these people. I know there are no degrees of
heaven, but there are degrees of hell. And then, having said that, at
that time, Jesus answered and said, now he's talking to the
Father now. And he says to the Father, I
thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou
hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and hath
revealed them unto babes, even so, father, but so it seemed
good in my sight." Get the scene. These defiant people, boy, they're
just, I'm not gonna believe it. I don't care how many miracles
he does. He does them by the power of
Beelzebub anyway, that's what they said. I'm not gonna believe
you. And Christ begins to pray, and
you know what he prays? In essence, he's saying this.
Father, I thank thee that though these rebels won't believe, there's
a group of people who will believe. And sovereign grace has set them
aside. And you've hidden these things
from these people who think they're wise and smart. We're educated people. Well,
we ain't fools. Yeah, you are. You are fools. He don't believe this gospel.
You know what the Lord did? Watch
it now. He hid the truth from these people. I tell you what, if he hides
the truth from somebody, nobody's gonna find it. You say, well,
I just stumbled across the truth. You never stumbled across the
truth. God set forth the truth of His
salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, the bloody death of the Savior,
righteousness in Him, forgiveness in Him, life in Him. That didn't
come to you by accident. You didn't stumble across it.
God sent it to you, and if you believe that truth, He sent it
in power, because that's what's gotta happen. Revelation revealed it unto babes. I know we live in the day of
make your decision for Jesus. That's not what the Lord Jesus
said. I believe it's quite all right
to say things like he said them, don't you? He never said, make
your decision for me. He said, I've heard this from
some and I'm revealing it to others. Salvation, my friend, is not
by your decision. I don't care what preacher down
some church says. These mega churches, that's what
they say. They're not being truthful with
people. Salvation is by revelation. Don't
you think it's time we start talking about not what the sinner's
got to do for God. Make your decision for God. Let's
stop talking about what man's gotta do for God. Start talking
about it and praying to the Lord to do something for us. We're
the helpless ones. We're the dead ones. Well, why does God hide it from
some, reveal it to others? Verse 26. Even so, Father, for
so it seemed good in thy sight. That's God's good pleasure. He
can do what he wants to with his own, and he owns everybody. And then, now watch this. Right
after he says this, the necessity of revealing grace, he says,
all things are delivered or have been delivered unto me and my
father. He says, No man knoweth the Son, but the Father, neither
knoweth any man the Father, except the Son, and he to whom the Son
will reveal Him. And right on the heels of that,
He then says, To those to whom the truth has been revealed,
come unto Me. Who's going to come to Him? Those
that the truth has been revealed to. Don't take it out of context. A lot of preachers preach on
these last three verses, These last three verses, it's the word
of God. There's no question about that.
But don't take it out of context and be careful now. He said, these to whom the spirit
of God opens their eyes and their ears to see and believe the gospel. He reveals the truth and then
he says, come unto me. Who's going to come? I can honestly say to you, anybody
who wants to can come. Do you believe that? I believe
that. Anybody who wants to. Well, who wants to? I do. Don't you? I do. Who wants to come? Those to whom
the truth has been revealed. And I guarantee you, when you
come, he'll receive you. All right, let's get songbook.
And let's turn to 214. Verily, verily, I say unto thee.
Verily, verily. Hymn number 214. 214. Just the first verse.