What a day that will be. And we see the Lord Jesus face
to face. We see Him by faith now. But very soon we shall see Him
face to face. If you would, open your Bibles
with me to the book of Matthew. And I invite you to go to chapter
11, the book of Matthew, chapter 11. Our Lord Jesus in Matthew
11 speaks to a bunch of people, a multitude, as is indicated
in verse number 7. He speaks to a multitude. And
he has some things to say about John the Baptist, and I won't
get into that part this morning. But then he begins to say in
chapter 11, verse 20, are you there? Chapter 11, verse 20. Then he began to upbraid the
cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they
repented not. Woe unto thee, Chorazin. Woe
unto thee, Bethsaida. These are towns in Galilee. For if the mighty works which
were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would
have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you,
now this is the Lord Jesus speaking. Don't lose sight of that. But
I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyree and Sidon
at the day of judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which
art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell. For
if the mighty works which had been done in thee had been done
in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto
you that it shall be more tolerable, more bearable, more endurable
for the land of Sodom the day of judgment than for thee." And
after our Lord had finished those words, he begins to speak to
the Father. And so we have a brief prayer
of the Lord Jesus in verses 25 and 26. At that time, right after
he had made those statements of judgment upon those who had
received or had listened to the Gospel and they saw so many evidences
the greatness of Jesus of Nazareth, but they had no use for him,
having said that. In his innermost being, he began
to speak to the Father. And we're privileged to listen. At that time, Jesus answered
and he said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, You
know, just that statement indicates the absolute authority and sovereignty
of God. Our Lord Jesus speaks to His
Father and He addresses Him, Lord of heaven and earth. He's
the Lord and He does as He pleases. Continue reading. Because thou
hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed
them unto babes. This is a very forceful, forceful
passage of the absolute authority and sovereignty of God. He indicates
to the Father His own thanksgiving. as this righteous one, the servant
of Jehovah. And he says, I thank Thee, I
thank Thee because You hide some things. Things are hidden from
some people. Whereas others have the same
things revealed to them. Here is the God who hides truth. And here is the God who reveals
truth. I'll tell you, this is one of
the most forceful, one of the most powerful portions of Scripture
concerning the absolute authority of God. He hides truth, He reveals truth. Those to whom the truth is hidden, what can they do? Those to whom the truth is revealed,
Oh, bless God for His mercy. And then he finishes this brief
prayer in verse 26. Even, even so, Father. Here's the reason for this. Why
is it that God hides the truth from some and He reveals the
truth to others? What's the reason for this? And
the reason is given by the Lord Jesus. He says, even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight. End of the prayer. And now he begins to speak once
again to the multitudes. And in this multitudes of people,
there are the self-righteous, there are those who are righteous
in his righteousness. There are unbelievers, there
are believers. There are those who love him,
there are those who despise him. And so he begins to speak again
to all of the people, this multitude, as we've already indicated, he
begins to speak to them and he says, all things are delivered
unto me of my father. And no man, he says, knoweth
the son, but the father. Neither knoweth any man the Father,
save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. And once again, he brings up
this subject of the revealing grace of God. And then he says to the multitudes,
And here are people of every walk of life and people in various
circumstances, spiritually as well as physically. And he says
to them, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Further he continues, take my
yoke upon you, and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly in the
heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. And here's the
reason, because or for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. I want to speak to you this morning
on the subject, the God of Sovereign Grace. And immediately, just right here
from the outset of the message, I want God to enable me to be
a teacher. Every preacher has this great
desire to honor God, to magnify the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll
back up just a little bit when I say every preacher of God,
every preacher of the truth of the gospel, has this great desire
that God be honored, God be magnified. And then he also wants to be
a benefit to people who listen to him. He wants to be a teacher.
He wants to guide you. That's what I want to do this
morning. I want to be of help to you. You're on your pilgrim
journey toward eternity. And I want to be of spiritual
help to you. I can't do anything for you spiritually,
but I can give you the message that the Spirit of God will use,
if He's pleased to use it for you, to do you good. So I want
to be an aid to you, to each of you in your journey toward
eternity. As we open the Word of God, and
I should say just whenever we open the Word of God to any given
passage of Scripture, three things are absolutely essential. Without
these three things, no spiritual benefit is going to come to you.
You must have this three-fold attitude. It doesn't matter how long ago
you made a profession of faith, or maybe you haven't made a profession
of faith at all. Maybe the Lord has not dealt
with you in saving grace yet. I don't know what your spiritual
condition is, but I do know this. We've all got to have this three-fold
attitude. And here they are, whenever you
open the Scripture, it doesn't matter what the subject is, it
doesn't matter what passage of Scripture it is, you've got to
have this threefold attitude. Number one, we must be willing
to go wherever it is the Scripture takes us. That's a pretty simple
statement. We must be willing to go wherever
the Scripture takes us. And we've got to cast aside any
preconceived ideas that we might have about this book. And we've
got to have an open mind, an open understanding, and an open
heart. And you notice that I said an
open mind, an open understanding, and an open heart. That is, the
Lord has got to open our minds, our hearts, and our understanding. Only then will we receive His
Word. David said in Psalm 119 verse
18, Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things
out of thy law, out of thy book, out of thy word. Open my mind,
open my heart, open the eyes of my understanding. Lord, take
the veil off my intellect. I must be enlightened by the
Spirit of God to follow the Word of God wherever it leads me. Whatever it has to say to me,
whatever it has to say to you, we must have an open mind, an
open heart, an open understanding that we might follow the Word
of God. The Apostle Paul prayed the same
thing for the Ephesians. In Ephesians chapter 1 and verse
17 and 18, he said that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and
revelation in the knowledge of Him. The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened that you may know You can't know anything
spiritually unless the eyes of your understanding are opened
by God. We're naturally blind to the
things that have to do with eternity. The things that have to do with
God. The things that have to do with
the salvation of our souls. We're blind. And the eyes of
our mind, the eyes of our understanding have got to be open. And so He
asks God to give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and
the knowledge of Him. The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of His
calling. and what the riches of the glory
of His inheritance in the saints. We must be willing to walk down
the path that is marked out by divine revelation. And that just means we've got
to bow to the authority of the Word of God, taking it in its
context, not just picking out a verse, you know, preachers
have proof texts, where there's a right way to have a proof text
and a wrong way to have a proof text. You see, every false religion
that still says that they believe the Bible, they've all got proof
texts, but they lift a text out of its context. and make it say
something that it doesn't say. That's how the Church of Christ,
who believed to be baptized to be saved, baptismal generation,
they built a whole church, a whole denomination upon a passage of
Scripture in Acts chapter 2, while closing their minds off
to multiply passages of Scripture that teach salvation by grace
alone. But they've got a proof text.
If you talk to Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons who deny the deity
of the Lord Jesus, they have their proof texts. But they lift
it out of its context. Here's what we want to do. When
we come to the Scriptures, let's see what a portion of Scripture
has to say. What does the Word say before
that text that you're looking at? What does the Word of God
say after that text that you're looking at? And that's how you
arrive at a proper interpretation of a passage of Scripture. And
so as we take the Word of God as it's given to us, not lifting
out a verse here and a verse over there and putting them together
and then making out some kind of unusual, strange, Doctrine. But as we take the word of God
in its context, we must be willing to bow to the authority of this
book. And whatever path, whatever road
the book of God takes us down, we've got to be made willing
to go. Even if it goes somewhere that
is against what our church may say, what the denomination may
say, what my family has already said. The Word of God says, let
God be true and every man a liar. Now that's an accurate statement
from the Word of God. Whatever anybody else says means
nothing All that matters is this book, taking it in its context. You see, others may bow to the
teachings of men, or to the teachings of their church, or to the traditions
of their families, but you must not be so unwise. Don't be foolish like that. That's
reckless. It's reckless and furthermore
it's spiritually deadly. This is the Word of God and by
God's grace we must be willing to go wherever the book takes
us. Little wonder then that John
the Baptist said, a man can receive nothing except it be given him
from heaven. In other words, the only way
I'm going to follow the Word of God, whatever path it may
take, whatever road it may lead me, the only way I'm going to
bow to the authority of the Word of God, if God the Spirit Himself
causes me to bow and take this Word as to be the only and final
authority from God. So that's the first thing that's
absolutely essential. We must be made willing to go
wherever this book leads us. Are you? Are you willing to go
wherever the book leads you? I think I am. I believe I am. Here's the second thing. We must
always As we study the Word of God, we must always do so in
the environment of faith. That is in the, we'll call it
climate of faith. Oh, may God give us faith to
hear the Word of God and to believe what our God has to say. This
book is different from any other book you've ever held in your
hands. You hold in your hands now, or
in your lap, or if you're looking on an electronic device reading,
that's the Word of God. It's God's final and full revelation
to you and to me. And we know this, real faith,
God-given faith, and faith has got to be given. God-given faith will hear and
will believe what the Lord has to say. It will bow to the Word
of God regardless of the influence of those who refuse to believe
what God has to say. And whenever there are portions
of the Word of God that are beyond the reach of our human comprehension,
Whenever there are passages that we read and they're beyond our
ability to comprehend and embrace, then faith will, and I made this
statement the other night, faith will swim in the deep waters
where human reasoning can only wade. You see, human comprehension
and human reasoning can only receive that which makes sense
to us. Things that we can logically
prove and receive and accept. But the Word of God presents
many things that are absolutely contrary to your natural way
of thinking and to mine as well. You cannot comprehend eternity. There's no way you can. Because
we're beings who had a beginning. To us, everything has had a beginning. The earth had a beginning. In
the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. But wait,
God had no beginning. That doesn't compute. That doesn't
make sense to us. And when you deal, when you read
the Word of God, you're all times dealing with things that don't,
they just don't register with us. Our natural minds cannot
comprehend them. Human reasoning cannot take grasp
of them. That's where faith comes in.
And we believe. that which God has said. You see, the scientists, the
biologists, these folks say, well, you know, it just, they
can't believe the record that God has given of creation, and
so they say, well, since we cannot understand that
creation by God, things must have come into existence another
way, because I can't comprehend, that's what they say, we can't
comprehend that. And so they've got the origin
of man going back millions or billions of years ago, whatever
it is they say, from a slimy mess or blob or one-celled whatever,
and then over time we've evolved to what we are now. Because that's
all the human mind, of course, even that doesn't make sense
to me, but it does to some people, rather than just receiving the
Word of God in the beginning God created. You see, we trust
the Word of God even when the words cannot be fathomed by our
intellect. And if you're like lots of people
who say, I will only believe what I can understand, then you
will perish in your sins, I promise you that. For you cannot comprehend, you
cannot understand the person of God. You can't comprehend
and understand the Trinity, three in one, one in three. without
beginning, without end. In fact, you can't even comprehend
the incarnation of Christ Jesus. These things are absolutely contrary
to human thinking. You can't understand how a virgin
can give birth to a firstborn son. That doesn't make sense. Well, then it must not be so.
And this is the rationale, this is the conclusion that lots of
people draw. If it doesn't make sense to me,
then it just isn't true. Don't be like that. Don't be
like that. Let us study this book in the
atmosphere, in the environment, in the very climate of faith. to just hear and read and then
receive what God has to say. This is indeed one of the characteristics
of the sheep of Christ Jesus. The Savior said, my sheep, hear
my voice. And they follow me. They hear the Word of God, they
hear the voice of the shepherd, they hear the voice of the gospel,
how God saves sinners by His grace, through substitution,
through satisfaction. Do not tell me and do not try
to convince yourself that you're one of the sheep of Christ Jesus
and yet you won't hear His voice. The shepherd sets forth the sovereignty
of God. The shepherd sets forth the election
of some people unto salvation. The shepherd sets forth the successfulness
of his work of redemption. The shepherd sets forth the truth
of the effectual, irresistible work of the Holy Spirit. The
shepherd sets forth the word that tells us he gives everlasting
life to his sheep. Don't tell me you hear the voice
of the shepherd, but you won't believe what his voice says.
Does that make sense? David said in Psalm 85 and verse
eight, I will hear what God the Lord will speak. I will hear
him. In fact, look with me in 1 Timothy
chapter six. Look at 1 Timothy chapter six.
1 Timothy chapter six. In fact, I'll begin reading your
verse one. I'm really looking for verse
three and four, but I'll begin at verse six to take it in the
context. 1 Timothy chapter six, verse
one, let as many servants as are under the yoke, count their
own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his
doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing
masters, let them not despise them, because they're brethren,
but rather do them service, because they're faithful and beloved,
partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. Now watch verse three. If any
man teach otherwise and consent not, agree not to wholesome words. What does wholesome mean? Spiritually
healthy words. Words that are healthy to the
soul. Our Lord Jesus is the physician of sin sick souls. What is the
message that he uses? What is that balm in Gilead that
he puts upon our wounds, upon our diseases? It is the very
gospel of the Lord Jesus. That is the soothing ointment.
When the Spirit of God convicts us of our sinfulness, of our
disobedience, of our need of the Redeemer, the Spirit of God
then pours in the oil and the wine of the gospel. Wholesome
words, life-giving words, saving words, words that are beneficial
to the soul. But now watch, he says, if any
man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even,
watch this, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the
doctrine which is according to godliness. What is the doctrine
that is according to godliness? Earlier in 1 Timothy, he says,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Why was He manifest in the flesh? To save His people. To do the
Father's will of redemption. This is the doctrine which is
according to godliness. And if a man doesn't believe
this doctrine which is according to godliness of Christ and His
work of redemption, look at verse 4. He's proud. Knowing nothing. Knowing nothing. Oh, but he knows
a lot of things, preacher. He knows nothing that is beneficial
to his soul. He doesn't know God. He doesn't
know Christ Jesus. He doesn't know how the God of
the Bible can save sinners. He doesn't know and believe and
receive wholesome words. And the reason is He's proud. He's arrogant. Nobody's going
to tell me anything. I've been reading the Bible all
my life, ever since I learned how to read. My mama held me
in her lap and she taught me to sing, Jesus loves me, Jesus
loves all the little children of the world. Don't tell me he
doesn't love everybody. My mama said. I know. You bow to what mama said. And
you bow to what grandmother said. And you bow to what some false
preacher said. but you won't bow to the wholesome
words of Christ Jesus. And I know your problem. He puts
his finger right on the problem. You're proud, that's what he
said, you're proud. You're arrogant. You think you
know it all. And your attitude is, hey, I
can study the Bible as good as you can. I can quote a few verses
of scripture. You think you're an expert, don't
you? Paul says, here's a man, he's proud. He doesn't know anything. That's a sad state to be in,
isn't it? Knowing nothing. Knowing nothing. But I've memorized
all these verses of Scripture. You don't know anything. If you
don't know salvations of the Lord, you don't know anything.
If you don't know that Christ Jesus is the effectual Savior
who redeemed His people, justified His people, made His people righteous
by His death upon the cross of Calvary, you don't know anything. If you don't know that God is
sovereign in His saving grace, that God gives and God withholds
according to His own pleasure, That it's up to God whether He
hides the truth from you or reveals the truth from you. If you don't
know this God who is the God of the Bible, bless your heart,
you know nothing. That's what He said, you know
nothing. Do the words of the Lord Jesus
Christ mean anything? You know what He said, my words
are life. and then you won't receive his
words, that means you're in death. That's
what it means. You're in death. Anybody who would set themselves
up as being a critic of the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, I know it says that, preacher,
but it doesn't mean that. What do you mean it doesn't mean
that? I know what the brother read
from Romans chapter 9. I know what the words say, but
it doesn't mean that. Well, if it doesn't mean what
it says in the context, pray tell me what does it mean? And here's the sad thing about
so much of religion today. And I'm not saying people aren't
well-meaning. I'm not saying people aren't
sincere, at least some of them. Even some preachers. But here's
the real issue. They know nothing. They know
nothing. And therefore our Lord Jesus
said concerning those who stand behind the pulpit and speak to
the people, He said of them, of those self-righteous people,
those proud people who would not receive the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ, He said, you're blind, leaders of the blind. All of you are going to fall
in the ditch someday. I don't want to fall in the ditch.
I don't want to be blind. Lord, open my eyes that I might
behold wondrous things out of thy law. Open my heart, open
my understanding. Give me the gift of faith to
embrace what you say, even if it goes contrary to everything
I've always heard. Give me faith. I tell you, there's a warning By
the way, I can tell right now, I'm just going to get through
my introduction this morning. And that's okay. I believe the Lord has been leading
me to say these things, but I got another passage I want you to
look at. Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. In this portion of Scripture,
we have a warning given to those who refuse to hear what the Lord
has to say. He talks about the things to
which we as a people of God come to. He says in verse 22, well, in
verse 18, he says, for you're not come to the law. No, verse 22, you've come to
Mount Zion. You've come to the things of
God. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 22, but you're come to Mount
Zion and under the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem
and to an innumerable company of angels. to the general assembly
and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven,
and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men,
justified men, that is, righteous men, made perfect, having been
made perfect by the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus.
And verse 24, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant,
and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than
that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that
speaketh. See that ye refuse not him that
speaketh. For if they escape not, who refuse
him that spake on earth in the context, who's he talking about?
Moses. If they escape not who refuse
him that spake on earth, much more shall we not escape if we
turn away from him that speaketh from heaven, whose voice then
shook the earth. But now he's promised, saying,
yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also the heaven.
Let me hear him who speaks from heaven. That's what he's saying,
and those who hear him give evidence of the fact that they're the
people of God. Will men refuse to hear the word
of God? Will men refuse to hear Him who
is the Word of God, who is God's final Word? Hebrews 1, God hath
in these last days spoken unto us through or by His Son. Will we not hear His Son? If we refuse to hear His Son,
we're refusing to hear God. So when we come to the Word of
God, we must be willing to go wherever the Word of God leads
us. It may lead us to differ with those whom we love. The
Word of God may lead us down a road which others in our family
say, listen, if you're going down that road, you're going
by yourself, I'm not going. And I know what that's like.
When I learned the gospel of God's saving grace, I couldn't
wait to tell some of my family members. And I thought they would
be as excited as I was. I have seen something new in
the Word of God. Sovereign grace, God's election,
full redemption, irresistible grace of the Spirit. And I was
just bursting at the seam. I couldn't wait to tell my family. And I told them, they said, you
don't believe that, do you? Yes. I went down that road by myself. And later, the Lord revealed
the truth to my dad, just before he died. And later, he revealed
the truth to my mother, and I baptized her. Are you willing to go where the
word of God takes you? Even if it goes against the grain,
even if there are others in your family who say, hey, you going
down that road? As far as religion is concerned,
this is where we part ways. Well, if it has to be that way.
We'll get together, I love you as family and so forth and so
on, but we part from that. And then, we must always approach the word
of God in the environment of faith. And here's the third thing. Not getting too far this morning,
but that's okay. Here's the third thing. We must
come to the word of God as little children who must be taught, not as people who think they
know everything already. And I'll give you an illustration.
The Ethiopian eunuch. Yeah, this is a wealthy man. This is a man of education. This
is a man who had probably his doctor's degree in economics. He's the treasurer of Candace,
Queen of Ethiopia. You know, you look up his name,
you'd find it in Wikipedia or whatever, you know. He was somebody, he was a high-ranking
man, a man of intelligence, a man of greatness, a man who was well-known
throughout Ethiopia. He held a high position. But
when it came to the Word of God, he confessed his ignorance. And so he's reading Isaiah 53. And the Spirit of God takes Philip
away. Philip was an evangelist. And
he's over in Samaria. Lots of people are being converted
by the grace of God. I mean, it was a great awakening,
as it were, in Samaria. And the Spirit of God says, another
ministry for you. Okay, I'm going to leave where
these many, many people are being converted and I guess I'm going
out to a bigger location. No, just one. Just one. But he needs to hear
the truth. And so the Spirit of God catches
him away. I don't know how he got out there
in the desert. Miracle. That doesn't make sense to me.
Hey, be willing to go where the Scriptures take you now. Always
in the environment of faith. So the Spirit of God takes him
out in the desert and there's the Ethiopian eunuch reading
the Bible. And he's reading Isaiah chapter
53. And Philip, he runs up along the
chariot and the guy stops the chariot and Philip says, what
you reading? Reading the Bible. What passage you reading? reading
out of the prophecy of Isaiah? And Philip said, do you understand
what you're reading? And you know, the Ethiopian eunuch,
he didn't come back with some kind of smart aleck reply. Well,
you think I'm a dummy or something? Of course I understand what I'm
reading. I want you to know, I went to the University of Ethiopia. I graduated summa cum laude,
whatever, ever. I got degrees galore. No. No, he didn't set forth his own
intelligence, his own understanding. He said, how can I understand? Except somebody got me. You know
how he He was responding like a little child. Are you a teacher? Can you help me? What the prophet
was writing there, was he talking about himself or was he talking
about some other man? Do you know? Boy, and Philip
would lick in his chops like any preacher of the gospel. You
got somebody who wants to know the truth? Man, let me tell you. Let me tell you about somebody. And he began to preach Jesus
to him. And the man was brought to faith. Receive it as a little child.
Teachable. Psalm 119, six times. David prayed this, Lord, teach
me Thy statutes. Teach me Thy Word. And I'll tell
you, Job made a tremendous statement in Job 6 and 24. Teach me, he
says, teach me and I will hold my tongue. and you cause me to understand
wherein I have erred." I tell you, it takes grace to hold your
tongue. But I think, no, just hold your
tongue now. God is in the heaven, you're
on the earth. God has spoken. You better let
your word be few. Bow to His word. And David said, Psalm 25, 5,
Lead me in thy truth and teach me, for thou art the God of my
salvation. On thee do I wait all the day. Follow the road the Scripture
leads you in the environment of faith and approach the things of God
Not as an arrogant know-it-all, but as somebody who needs to
be taught, like a little child, anxious to learn. The Lord came to Samuel, just
a little boy in the temple, and Eli, He was staying with Eli. And the Lord spoke to Samuel
during the night. A voice came, Samuel! Samuel! And he thought it was
Eli. He got up to help the old man
to see what he needed. And Eli, the high priest, said,
wasn't me. Go back to bed. It did it again.
Then a third time, and Eli perceived it's the voice of the Lord. And he said, now Samuel, the
next time you hear that voice, just say, speak Lord. Thy servant
heareth. I'll hear what God the Lord will
say to me. And I'll tell you, the Lord said
his name one more time and Samuel said, speak Lord. Speak, I'm
ready to hear. Are we ready to hear? Oh, I hope
so. But I'll tell you this, a man
can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. Because the seeing eye and the
hearing ear, the Lord gives them both. And if I hear, if I see,
if I operate as it were within the
environment of faith, it's only because of the grace of God.
I believe what he says. Well, I hope that'll help you.
Hope that'll help you. I'll get to the rest of that
passage this evening, the Lord willing.