There's some people who don't
like me, but I don't think they despise me. But they despise
Jesus of Nazareth. And look what kind of man was
He. He went about healing and doing good. He's the most gracious
man, most merciful man, except to those who held on to their
self-righteousness. Now He didn't have a word of
mercy for them. But a sinner, a genuine bona fide sinner, he
spoke to them words of forgiveness. Neither do I condemn thee, woman
caught in adultery. Go and sin no more. Won't you
do this again? But I don't accuse you. I don't
find any fault. I'm not going to condemn you.
Why not? Because he's going to be condemned for her sins. That's
the kind of man he was. He's the God man. That word despised, you know
what that means? Counted the scum, the scum of
society, the scum, the worst, the lowest, the lowest level
of society. I'm a worm and no man, he said. He said I'm despised of the people.
When he was born in Bethlehem, those Wise men came from the east. They said, where is he that's
born King of the Jews? And they went to Jerusalem. And
Herod, he heard what they heard. He heard that he's looking for
the King of the Jews, for the Christ. He calls in the chief
priest and he said, well, where is he supposed to be born? Because
this man, Herod, Scripture says he's troubled. And everybody
else in Jerusalem was troubled too. Everybody who was anybody
in Jewish religion was troubled. He called them in and said, well,
where is he supposed to be born? They said, Bethlehem. He told
the wise men, you go to Bethlehem and see him and then come back
and tell me exactly where he's at because I want to go worship
him too. Liar. You don't want to worship
him. You hate him. You hate him. You want to kill him. The wise
men went and they saw the Lord Jesus. And then they left, but
they were warned, don't go back. Don't go back by Jerusalem. Don't
go back to Herod. He's out to kill them. He despises
him. The Spirit of God came to Joseph
by night and said, you take Mary and you take the infant. You
go into Egypt. Because Herod's on the war path.
He wants to kill him. Why? Because he hates him. He
hates him. And here's the thing, he's hated
without a cause. Without a cause. There wasn't
any reason. Let me show you a couple of references.
Look at Luke chapter 4. Look at Luke chapter 4. Let me
take you to four main references. that I want to show you here
in just the next few minutes. Here in Luke chapter 4, look
at verse 28. All they in the synagogue, when
they heard these sayings, were filled with wrath. They rose
up, they thrust him out of the city, they led him into the brow
of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast
him down headlong. We're going to cast him down
and dash his brains out. But he, passing through the midst
of them, he went on his way." What in the world's happened
here? Here's the setting. A church service. That's the
setting. A time of worship. This is not
a bunch of drunkards who said this. who are ready to thrust
him out of the city. It's not a bunch of rebel rousers. Oh no, not at all. These are
fine, upstanding, church-going, Bible-toting people who said,
we're the children of God. And they put on their best because
it's the Sabbath day. And they've gone to worship.
They put on their Sunday go-to-meet-and-close, and they're meeting in the designated
place of worship. They got their Bibles, the Word
of God's going to be open. These are people who profess
the love of God. They said, we're the people of
God. And they sang Psalms. And they read the Scripture just
like we sang and we've read the Scriptures. It's what they did. And then they had a guest that
morning. It's good to have with us Jesus of Nazareth. You all
know him. He's entered into the ministry.
He is himself a rabbi. He's been over into Judea for
several months and now he's come back. We welcome, welcome, welcome. Would you read the scripture
for us and make a few comments? And he did. And the scripture
he read had been already picked out And it was about him from
the book of Isaiah. And then for the sake of time,
he goes on to say, look at verse 25, but I'll tell you a truth. Let's find out what was it that
set these people off. I mean, he ignited something
within them that just resulted in an explosion. I mean, these
people, they've gone from a bunch of people meeting together for
worship to a bloodthirsty mob. What did He say? He didn't do
anything. It's what He said. It's His words. His words. He would later say
in John chapter 6, My words are life. My words are life. But they didn't want His words.
They didn't want His life. This is what he said in verse
25, I tell you a truth. Many widows were in Israel in
the days of Elias, Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three
years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the
land. But under none of them, none of the widows of Israel
was Elijah sent. But he was sent to Sarepta, a
city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow, and she's a Gentile. She's a Gentile. The Lord Jesus
is saying here, God exercised His sovereign will. And He didn't
send His fake prophet Elijah to any of the widows in Israel.
And there were a lot of widows in Israel because of the wars
that had been going on. Lots of wars going on. Lots of
dead bodies on the battlefields. And lots of widows back home
with children. And they had to raise them. Just
one parent raising the children. The widow raising the children. And they needed help because
it's a famine. But the Lord bypassed all of
them. He sent Elijah to one widow and
she's a Gentile. And that wasn't all he said. He wasn't finished. He says in
verse 27, and many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus,
that is, Elisha the prophet, and none of them were cleansed,
saving Naaman the Syrian. What is he teaching here? He's
teaching the sovereignty of God's mercy and grace. That's what
our Lord is setting forth before these people. The Lord bypasses
whoever He wants to and sends His mercy to one. Just to one. And these people, they got upset. My friends, you can speak about
grace in generalities, Nobody's going to get upset. Don't get too happy, too excited
when you hear a television preacher say, we're saved by the grace
of God. They all talk about grace. Our
Lord Jesus is speaking about something more specific than
grace. He's talking about designated
grace. Sovereign grace. Grace for one
widow. Grace for one leper. Grace that
singles out an individual. Specific grace. Not grace in
general. But grace that saves. Sovereign
grace. That's what upset them. And I'll tell you this, in setting
themselves against the doctrine of the sovereign grace of God,
they were setting themselves against God's glory. That's the
thing. Moses, of all the prayer requests
found in the Bible, this may be the most marvelous, Lord,
manifest to me, show me thy glory." My goodness, Moses, look at all
the things you've seen. He said, I want to see your glory. Oh, I've seen the river turn
to blood. I've seen the frogs come out.
I've heard them croaking. I've heard the cries of the firstborn
dying at night. I've seen the Red Sea split wide
open. But I want to see Your glory.
Oh, I've seen manna from heaven. I've seen water from a rock.
But there's got to be something more. I want to see Your glory.
God said, I'll cause my goodness to pass before you and I'll be
merciful to whom I'll be merciful. I'll be gracious to whom I'll
be gracious. And that's what the Lord Jesus
is teaching in this passage of scripture right here. And these
people got so mad, they're ready to kill him. They're ready to
kill him. Our Lord said, they hated me
without a cause. They hate me and they hate my
father. And I know people that you talk to, they'll say, I don't
hate Jesus. I don't hate God. Well, the reason
you don't hate Him is because you've never heard anybody tell
you who they really are. You don't know who Jesus is.
You don't know who God is. Somebody tells you who He is,
then you get biting you, grinding your teeth together, like these
folks did. The haters of God. I know everybody
sings, Oh, how I love Jesus. All different kind of denominations.
Oh, how I love Jesus. I tell you, that crowd who crucified
Him, they weren't singing, Oh, how I love Jesus. And those people
our Lord is speaking about in John chapter 15, they weren't
singing, oh, how I love Jesus. And these people right here in
Luke chapter 4, they weren't saying, oh, how I love Jesus.
They said, let's kill Jesus. And they finally did. But that
was in the purpose of God, wasn't it? Oh, the reason people say, well,
I don't hate God, that's because nobody has ever told you who
God is. That God's sovereign. You thought God was somebody
you could manipulate. You could move Him around. He's
dependent upon you. No, no, that's not the God of
the Bible. The God of the Bible says, I
save whom I will. The rest I'll damn. I'll show
mercy to this one and not show mercy to that one. And the natural
man says, that's not fair. I hate that kind of God. I know
you do. And the only hope you've got
is if He'll break your heart and cause you to bow to Him and
love Him. Look at John chapter 10. Let
me give you another reference. John chapter 10. Look at this in verse 31, John
10, 31. Then the Jews took up stones
again to stone him. Now, you've got to be really
mad at somebody before you'll start throwing rocks at them
in order to kill them. I mean, when we was kids, you
know, we'd throw rocks at one another. We wasn't trying to
kill one another, just kind of hurt one another a little. We'd
do that, you know. But not like this. And these
are religious leaders. The Jews! The Jews! And we've mentioned this several
times, whenever you read in the Gospel of John that expression,
the Jews, most of the time it's talking about the Jewish leaders
of religion. And they're ready to stone Him
to death. Well, what in the world has happened? Well, they came up to Him one day,
and He's in the temple, at the Feast of the Dedication. And
they said, show us a sign and we'll believe you. He said, I've
showed you sign after sign after sign. He said, the works that
I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. He said,
but you don't believe and I'm going to tell you right now why
it is you don't believe. Are you listening? I'm going
to tell you why you don't believe. Because you're not of my sheep. That's why. Because my sheep,
they hear my voice. They hear the gospel of redemption.
They hear the gospel of how God can be just and justify the ungodliness. They hear my voice, and I know
them. I don't know you. And I'm going
to tell you one of these days, depart from me. I never knew
you, but I know my sheep. and you're not my sheep, and
my sheep are not gonna perish. And I and my father, we're gonna
keep the sheep. I and my father won. Then they
picked up stones to stone him. They wanna kill him. They hated him because he said
he was God. You understand that? They hated
him because he said he was God, because he said he was divine,
because he said he was from heaven. Remember back in John 5, He had
healed that man who for 38 years had been lame? And they got upset
because He did that on the Sabbath day? And He said, My Father worketh
hitherto and I work. They ready to stone Him then. And the reason was because you
being a man, you say that God's your Father. They hated Him. They hated Him. They hated Him because He claimed
to be God. And I'll show you something else.
Look at John 6. Let me move along here. John 6. Look at verse 60. John 6 verse 60, many therefore
of his disciples. What does that word mean? Pupils,
students, followers. He had true disciples and he
had false disciples, right? He had disciples who believed
him and disciples who didn't believe him. So this is just
a general word for those who followed him. Many, therefore,
of His disciples, when they heard this, they said, this is a hard
saying. This is offensive. This is intolerable. This is a hard saying. The word
is doctrine. This is a hard doctrine. Who
can hear it? We're not going to hear it. Can't
listen to us anymore. It's too hard. Too hard. Then he says this, it says in
verse 61, when Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured,
they complained and grumbled at what he had said, he said
unto them, does this offend you? What has he said to offend them?
Verse 37, he talked about divine election, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, him that cometh to me, all in the
wise cast out. He talked about the certainty
of the success of the Father's will. This is the Father's will,
the will of Him that sent me, that of all that He's given me,
I'll lose nothing. I'll raise them up at the last
day. I'm going to gather them all together. All of those He
entrusted me in covenant mercy and grace. All of those joined
to me in that great council of peace. I'm going to redeem them
all, I'm going to save them all, and I'm going to bring them all
to the Father. I'm not going to lose a one of
them. You'll notice it, I'll raise
the whole group up. And then he talked about down
in verse 44 and 45, he talked about the inability of man to
come to Him. He says, no man can come to Me,
don't have the ability. Do you have the responsibility
to come to Him? Oh yes! But you don't have the
ability. Don't confuse those things. You're
still responsible to come to Christ. And He'll damn you if
you don't. But here's the problem. We lost
the ability in Adam's fall. Hey, we're a helpless people.
You see, the Bible always shuts us up to the sovereign grace
of God found in Christ Jesus. It's the only hope we got. So
he says, no man can come to me except the Father which has sent
me. Draw him and I'll raise him up. The last day it's written
in the prophets. in Isaiah 54, and they shall
all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. And then he told them, he said,
there was the need of his death. He talked about his flesh. He
said, my flesh is like bread. My blood, you've got to eat my
flesh and drink my blood. Just like the Passover, they
had to eat the bread and drink the wine. When we take the Lord's
Supper, we take the bread into ourselves, it becomes part of
us. And we drink that little bit of wine, it becomes a part
of us. We receive it. We receive it willingly. That's
what we do in faith. Every time we take the Lord's
Supper, we're illustrating not only what our Lord Jesus has
done for us, but we're illustrating faith. We receive Him into ourselves. He talked about this. He talked about His blood. The
necessity of it. And then after all of this, They got offended. But he says this, look again
at verse 61. At the very end, he says, does
this offend you? You having a hard time with what
I've said? You having difficulty with my words? Let me tell you
something, he says. What? And if you shall see the
Son of Man ascend up where He was before. In other words, he
said, you ain't seen nothing yet. One of these days, I'm going
to be in my everlasting glory and you're going to see me in
my glory. You're going to see me in my preeminence. You're
going to see me in my exaltation. If my words offend you, how are
you going to feel? What are you going to think when
you see me exalted over the whole universe? And we know what men
who hate Him are going to do then. They're going to cry for
the rocks and the mountains, fall on us, and hide us from
the face of the Lamb. and from his wrath. Oh, I know. People singing about
how much they love the Lord. Oh, I love the Lord. You hear
them talk about that. They love their idea of the Lord.
They love what grandma and grandpa and maybe mother and dad told
them about the Lord. but they don't love what the
Lord said about Himself. The only one who gives an accurate
description of the Lord of glory is the Lord of glory in His Word. Isn't that right, Ron? In His
Word. And they said we hate Him. We
hate them. The Savior said, they hate me
and they hate my Father. His preaching was so offensive. And multitude, they just left.
It's like the church building was full. Of course, they weren't
in a church building, but we can imagine like a church building
is absolutely full, and he preached this message, and then they just
got up, and then there wasn't but twelve left. He's talking
about some kind of bad split. That's a bad split. And he didn't
run after them saying, please don't leave. Go ahead. And go to hell if you
want to. Because I'll tell you, that's
where you're going if you leave the Savior. And he looked at his disciples,
these 12 men left and said, well, you going too? No. To whom shall we go? Peter said, thou hast the words
of eternal life. The words that they found offensive,
that's our life. Your words are our life. Your
gospel's our life. What you say is the very truth
of God. We believe you and we believe
your word. Peter said, we believe we're
sure thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. We used to hate him. That was a big pill for me to
swallow when I came to realize that. My first thought was, I
don't hate the Lord Jesus. And then I was convicted in my
heart. I said, Lord, I have hated you. I've been worshiping another
Savior. Another God. I had the wrong God. I had the wrong Savior. And He couldn't save me. But
the One who did save me and actually saved me before the world began
is the Lord Jesus Christ. Bow down, proud sinner, and worship. Brother Richardson used to say,
stack your shotguns in the corner. and make the dust your headquarters.
He's the Lord. Whether He saves you or not,
that's His business. But I can tell you this, He's
the Lord. Worship Him. Worship Him. Well, let's sing a final song. 205 once for all. I'm so thankful
this matter Salvation and redemption was finished once for all in
the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ. 2.05.
Let's stand together. Don't forget to set your clocks
ahead Saturday night, an hour. Free from the law, happy condition,
Jesus has bled and there is no vision. Cursed by the law and
bruised by the fall, grace hath redeemed us once for all, once
for all. center receiving. Once for all, O brother, believe
in. Cling to the cross, the burden
will fall. Christ hath redeemed us once
for all. Now are we free, there's no condemnation. Jesus provides a perfect salvation. Come unto me, oh, hear His sweet
call. Come and He saves us once for
all. Once for all. Oh, sinner, receive
it once for all. Oh, brother, believe it. Cling to the cross, the burden
will fall. Christ hath redeemed us once
for all. Children of God, O glorious calling,
surely His grace will keep us from falling. Passing from death to life at
His call, blessed salvation once for all. Once for all. O sinner, receive it once for
all. O brother, believe it. Cling to the cross, the burden
will fall. Christ hath redeemed us once
for all.