Luke chapter 4. Before we begin, let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we come
to you in the name of your only begotten Son, the Son of your
love, Jesus Christ. And in his name we ask that you'd
be with us tonight. You'd guide us. You'd help us. You empower us. May we hear your
word. Lord, I pray that you would bless
me as I speak. Give me words to say. Give me
the thoughts to pass through. Father, we pray that you would
be a blessing to each one who's here tonight. We thank you for
the opportunity to worship together with your people. Thank you,
Lord, that you said where two or three are gathered, you'd
be there in the midst. And so by faith, we see you here. Lord, we pray that you would
meet the need of every individual in our church family. Be with
our pastors. He's away from us right now.
Give him rest. Father, we pray that as he reads
and studies on his vacation, that you'd give him those messages
that we need to hear. We pray, Father, that you would
be with those of our church family who are hurting. We pray for
Patsy, we pray for Bill, Jim, we pray for Bruce, Peggy, Cindy,
others that we've probably forgotten, and Larry. Father, we pray for
Pam. We pray, Father, you know all
these needs. And we know, Lord, that this
is all there for a reason. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, who are they called
according to your purpose. Father, we pray that we might
surrender our minds, our hearts, and our will to what you want. You're the Sovereign. You're
the Heavenly Father. You're the Holy One, and it's
you that we come to. Oh, Father, how I need you tonight. Bless us in this service and
all that we do. May we honor and glorify, magnify
the name of Jesus Christ. In His name we pray. Amen. Luke chapter 4 tonight I want to talk about
the beginning of our Savior's earthly ministry but I want to
look at it in a little bit different way I want to look at it as our example
our example Christ Our example. It's the beginning of His ministry
here on earth. He's eternal. He's always been
there. Always will be there. He has
purposed and decreed from eternity everything that's happening.
What happened today was His will. What happened in the last few
moments was His will. He's already purposed and determined,
decreed, it is done. And His will is done. We pray
that. He taught us to pray. His will
be done on earth as it is in heaven. So He's always been there. We
talk about the beginning of our Lord's ministry. There's been
a ministry going on for all eternity. He was the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. We were in the mind of God eternally. Eternally, we have been His sheep. The steps of a good man are ordered
of the Lord. And everything that has happened
up to this point in our lives, the Lord has ordered those for
His sheep. So when we talk about the beginning
of our Lord's ministry, I want to talk about His ministry when
He became the God-man, when He came to this earth. Peter said
it like this, For even whereunto ye were called,
because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example
that we should follow in his steps. Let's read here in Luke
chapter 4, and we're going to see some things from the Gospel
of Luke that I believe, it was a blessing to me, I hope it will
be a blessing for you. Luke 4 verse 1, And Jesus, being
full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, and was led by the
Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil.
And in those days he did eat nothing, and when they were ended,
he afterward hungered. And the devil said unto him,
If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.
And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written that man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. And the
devil, taking him up into a high mountain, showed unto him all
the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil
said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory
of them, for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I
will give it. Whomsoever I will, I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship
me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. And
he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of
the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast
thyself down from thence. For it is written, He shall give
his angels charge over thee to keep thee, and in their hands
they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot
against a stone. And Jesus answering said unto
him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And when the devil had ended
all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. And Jesus returned in the power
of the Spirit into Galilee. And there went out a fame of
him through all the region round about. And he taught in their
synagogues, being glorified of all. And he came to Nazareth,
where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went
into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it is written. The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he
gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of
all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he
began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled
in your ears. And all bearing witness and wondered
at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said,
Is not this Joseph's son? And he said unto them, Ye will
surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself. Whatsoever we have heard done
in Capernaum, do also hear in thy country. And he said, Verily
I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
But I tell you the truth, many widows were in Israel in the
days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and
six months, when great famine was throughout the land. But
unto none of them was Elijah sent, save unto Sarepta, a city
of Sidon, unto a widow, woman that was a widow. And many lepers
were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none
of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they
in the synagogue when they heard these things were filled with
wrath. and rose 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 cast him down headlong. But he, passing through the midst
of them, went his way, and came down to Capernaum, a city of
Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath days. And they were astonished
at his doctrine, for his word was with power." Let's stop right
there. We're talking about the beginning
of our Lord's ministry. We're talking about Christ, our
example. The Lord Jesus, it was John who
said, he that saith he walketh in him ought himself also to
walk as he walked. Paul said, I beseech you that
you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. He
also said, be ye followers of God as dear children. And he also said, for unto you
it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on
him, but also to suffer for him. James said it this way, take
my brethren the prophets who have spoken in the name of the
Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and patience. But
remember Paul said about these temptations, about these sufferings,
there hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to
man. But God is faithful. That's the
key to the whole verse. But God is faithful. Who will not suffer you to be
tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation
make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. The writer
of Hebrews said he was in all points tempted as we are and
yet without sin. The Lord Jesus said of himself
in two chapters from here in Luke chapter 6. He said of himself
and he was talking to the disciples. He said, the disciple is not
above his Lord. That's Luke 640 if you want to
look it up. The disciple is not above his
Lord, but everyone that is perfect shall be his master. Everyone
that's perfect. Who are the perfect ones? Well,
there's only one perfect we know. And in Him, we are perfected. We're perfect in Him. And so,
the disciple's not above the Lord. We take that position. These perfect ones, but everyone
that is perfect shall be His master. pictures, this pictures our beginnings
in the Lord. God became a man. He satisfied
the justice of God. He sacrificed himself for our
sins. He substituted himself for us. We would not have to suffer for
sin. We would not have to die. We
did not bear the wrath of God. He is already born. How is He
our example? Number one, His was a miraculous
birth. His was a miraculous birth. He
was virgin born. He is that holy thing. Look back just a few, couple
chapters there to chapter 1, verse 35. chapter 1 verse 35 we read this
so many times at the Christmas season chapter 1 verse 35 and
the angel answered talking to Mary and said unto her the Holy
Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall
overshadow thee therefore also that holy thing which shall be
born of thee shall be called the Son of God a virgin shall
conceive and bear a son we call that son Emmanuel God with us
the Holy Ghost came upon earth and that Holy for want of better
words Luke could only say that Holy thing that is born of thee
that holy one that is born of thee. God brought him into this
world, gave him a body, a body that has prepared for me, and
that body was for sacrifice. Paul said it this way, we're
going to enter into life with the Lord, we're going to have
to enter into it miraculously, just like the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is our example. It's a miraculous birth. Paul
said, until Christ be formed in you to the Galatians. The
Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again, born
from above, a new birth, a new nature, a new person. And how is this going to be done?
Well, John said, whoever believes in Christ is born of God. Whoever believes in Christ is
born of God. Peter said it this way, being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by
the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And who
are these folk? The Lord who has saved us and
called us with a holy calling, not according to our words, but
according to his own purpose and grace which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. If I could do anything
about my new birth, if I could do anything about this miraculous
birth, excuse my West Virginian, it ain't no miracle. If I could do anything about
it, it's not a miracle. It's something I did. Some people
think that they can go in conjunction with God and they and God can
work together and work out their own salvation. That's not how
it's done. It's a miraculous birth. It's
being born from above. It's not of him that willeth.
It's not of him that runneth. But it's of God. We're born not
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man. We're born of God. God is the
one who produces the new birth. In Adam, I lost all. I'm ruined. But in Christ, I
am delivered. I am redeemed. I am forgiven. I've been brought to the place
that Adam lost, but even farther than that, now I have a standing. with God the Father and he's
seated at the right hand of the Father and that one who's seated
at the right hand of the Father is my substitute, my sacrifice,
the Lamb of God. He is everything I have ever
needed. He's the miracle. And then he
produces that miracle in his people. So it begins with a miraculous
birth. And right after the miraculous
birth, if you remember when you were delivered, when you were
born again, the first thing you wanted to do was get to know
this. You wanted to read and read and
read and study and get to know the Bible. The tragic thing is
that after a while we get lazy. And we don't read as much. And
we don't study as much. The Word of God evidently doesn't
mean as much as it did when we were miraculously born again. You see, the second thing is,
there's an insatiable desire for the Word of God. Look at
Luke chapter 2 and verse 46. Luke chapter 2 and verse 46. Mom and Dad, Mom and Joseph had
left Jerusalem. Jesus was 12 years old. He stayed
behind. They went 3 days journey without
recognizing He wasn't there. I'm not even going to say anything
about that. It just amazes me. They went
3 days journey. Maybe they were with a big crowd
of people. And they're all together, I don't
know. But three days journey. So they had to travel back three
days to get back to Jerusalem looking for Jesus. Verse 46. And it came to pass that after
three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst
of the doctors, both hearing and asking them questions. And
all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. Back up to verse 40. And the child grew, and waxed
strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God
was upon him. Verse 52. And Jesus increased in wisdom
and stature in favor with God and with man. Our Lord Jesus
had to grow up. I don't understand that. The
God-man was a baby. He was not espousing verses from
memory as a baby. But as he grew up The Word of God, we know that
He is the Word of God. But as He grew up, He had to
grow into these things. He had to grow in wisdom. He
had to grow in stature. He had to grow in learning. And
as He grew up, at 12 years old, He was sitting here with these
doctors, These doctors of the law, the Old Testament law, he
was sitting with these doctors and he was confounding them.
He astonished those teachers. He was asking them questions
and answering them. And he was only 12 years old. He was studying, studying, studying. The Word of God was who He is. Became Him as He grew up. I don't understand all that God
did in that. It's still a mystery to me. All
I know is that's what happened. He had an insatiable desire.
Well, He had no sin to hold Him back. There was nothing there
to keep his mind occupied on one thing. He could just do it.
He could just do it. Keep his mind on. Our minds wander. Sometimes when I open up my Bible
and I start reading, everything in the world comes to mind. Everything
in the world comes to mind. The Lord helped me to concentrate
An insatiable desire for the word. Peter said it this way,
as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may
grow thereby. He was our example. As newborn
babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow
thereby. Study, Paul said to Timothy,
study to show thyself approved unto God, rightly dividing the
word of truth. The psalmist said, wherewithal
shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according
to thy word. Thy word have I hid in my heart,
that I might not sin against thee. It begins with a miraculous birth. Then there's an insatiable desire
for the word of God. and then it's followed by righteous
baptism Luke chapter 3 verse 21 when all the people were baptized
it came to pass that Jesus was Also being baptized and praying,
the heaven was opened, the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape
like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven which said,
Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased. And Jesus
himself began to be about 30 years of age. At the beginning
of his ministry, he followed the Lord in baptism. What an
example! And it was righteous baptism.
That's what Matthew writes for us as John said, I need to be
baptized of you. And the Lord Jesus, no, you baptize
me and it behooves us that we fulfill all righteousness. It was a righteous baptism. It
was the right thing to do. The heavens opened, the Spirit
descended, the Father spoke. baptism was fulfilled by the
Lord Jesus Christ. He was about 30 years old, it
says. That's as he begins his earthly
ministry of preaching and serving the Lord. About 30 years old.
There's a reason for that. For instance in Numbers chapter
4 verse 23 you had to be 30 years old a priest had to be 30 years
old to enter into the service of the Lord. He had to be 30 years old to
perform that service. At least 30. He had to be at
least 30 to do the work of the Lord. He had to be at least 30
to do these work in the tabernacle of the congregation. And the
tabernacle of the congregation pictures our Lord Jesus Christ.
That's who he is. And at 30 years old, he began
his ministry. Does it amaze you? that for 30
years basically, well from 12 years old to 30 years old, is
silent. He's not preaching. He's not
healing. He's not going about doing good. God's perfect timing. Well, a lot of people may have
died during that time. Some of our free will churches would say
that, well, he should have been, if he was a God of love, I would
ask him, if he was a God of love, why didn't he do anything during
that stretch of, what is that, 18 years? Why didn't he do anything
in that stretch of 18 years? What was he doing during that
time? He was waiting on God's perfect timing. He knew when
it was. I don't. I'd like to know what
God's perfect timing and things are, wouldn't you? But I don't. But he did. He knew exactly when
to begin his ministry. And he began it. with a miraculous
birth. He began with an insatiable desire
for the Word of God. He began with following in righteous
baptism. You know, his people were baptized
in answer of a good conscience to the Lord. That's what Peter
said. Peter said, baptism doth now
save us, not the putting away of the flesh, but the answer
of a good conscience toward God. I remember when the Lord delivered
me, and I wanted to join the church,
so I did. And I remember what the pastor
said, he thinks his baptism is okay. Something to that effect. And I thought about that and
I thought, well wait a minute. Miraculous birth, then baptism. I hadn't had that miraculous
birth until then. Then follows baptism. I struggled
with that for a while. There may be others who struggle
with that for a while. When I struggled I did not have
a good conscience before God. You can't. It's the answer of a good conscience. And so One day, as I was reading
and studying, I was reading in Romans chapter 6, and there it
talks about baptism, and everybody talks about spiritual baptism.
It's a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
It's the picture of the believer's death, burial, and resurrection
in Christ. But as I was reading that, I
said to myself, Gary, if you're going to do what's right, A righteous
baptism. If you're going to do what's
right, you need to tell the pastor, baptize me. So he did. He did. And you know what? I've
never struggled with it since. Not one time. Not one time. You see, the Lord identified
himself with his people. The Ethiopian eunuch said, here's
water. What does hinder me to be baptized?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I believe that he's
the Christ, the Son of God. The Ethiopian eunuch jumped out
of that chariot and went right to the water. He was baptized. The Lord Jesus identified himself
with his people. He's not ashamed to call them
brother, and he's not ashamed to be their brother. His people identify themselves
with Him. It's the right thing to do. Our
example, a miraculous birth, an insatiable desire for the
Word of God, a following of righteous baptism,
and then here in Luke chapter 4 and verse 1, the leading of the Spirit. The
leading of the Spirit and Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost
returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Be not drunk with wine wherein
is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, Paul said. And if
you have not the Spirit of God, you are none of his. I have that
on authority. Romans chapter 8 verse 9. If
you have not the Spirit of God, you're none of His. Led by the
Spirit. We should be like the Abraham's
servant that went after the bride for Isaac. He got down there
and he prayed and asked the Lord to do certain things, and those
certain things happened. And he turned around and praised
the Lord and said, I being in the way, the Lord led me. One preacher said, get in, get
out, get in the way, get out of the way, do something. I being
in the way, Walking with the Lord, walking as we ought to,
walking as He walked, the Spirit of God will lead us. Who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit
and you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh, Paul said. He was
led by the Spirit. He leads us all our newborn lives. He led us to that point. As a
matter of fact, He leads us all our lives, doesn't He? But especially
the Spirit of God is leading the newborn lives. And where
does He lead us? He leads us to the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's all he'll talk about. That's all he'll testify
about. That's what he's all about. To
show us Jesus Christ and the things that he said. Led by the
Spirit. Then in verse 14 of chapter 4
it says, and Jesus returned in the power The spirit in the power
of the spirit God has not given us the spirit of fear But a power
and of love and a sound mind verse 18 The spirit of the Lord
is upon me and he quoted Isaiah 61 we'll look at that here in
just a little bit, but what I'm talking about here is total obedience
to the father His example to us, be obedient. Obedience does not earn us one
single thing. A servant can do everything he's
told to do and still be, and our Lord said this, and still
be an unprofitable servant. Obedience is not a key to being
a holy person, especially a holier than thou person. Obedience comes
from the heart, comes from love. I remember doing something one
time and my mom heard about it and she brought me before her And she cried. That broke my heart. I swore to myself, I'll not do
that again. Well, lo and behold. But I wanted,
because I loved her, I wanted to obey her. Because I love him,
I want to obey him. Now it does profit in the flesh,
doesn't it? We feel better when we obey. The Spirit of God is upon me.
Total obedience. What Adam did in his rebellion
and disobedience, only the Lord could take care of. Fix. Only the Lord could fix that.
And he did. He satisfied the Father with
his obedience. Sinless, no fault in him, blameless. And I was in Christ when he obeyed
the Father. His obedience, therefore, is
my obedience. I had the opportunity to talk
to someone at the shop the other day. don't normally have my Bible
out on my desk I don't like to make a show of things but I had
something I was looking up and I had my Bible on the desk there
and he said well now I'll shop with anybody who has a Bible
on his desk I said a Bible on a desk don't mean a thing and
we got to talking about the Lord and we got to talking about not
the area of obedience but we got to talking about hey My sins
are forgiven. I am a sinner. He agreed. My sins are forgiven. I'm in
Christ. There's no condemnation. The
Lord Jesus bore all the sin upon Himself. Now if He requires that
of me, that's double jeopardy. God won't do such a thing. It's not so much all that we
do, it's our love for the Father. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us. I'm accepted in the below. Now after these things, after
renewal that begins the flesh and devil problem, Then comes the trial of faith,
miraculous birth, insatiable desire for the word of God, led
of and by baptism, and then led of and by the Spirit. Then comes the trial of faith. We never had a problem with the
flesh before we were delivered. Oh, our conscience hurt us sometimes. But God doesn't work necessarily
with your conscience. He works with your heart. The trial of faith. Look, our
Lord Jesus in chapter 4 Spent 40 days, verse 2, tempted
of the devil. All 40 days he was tempted of
the devil. Then comes these three final
temptations. And they are listed, these are
the same three things that Eve went through. She saw that the
tree was good for food, pleasant to the eyes. a fruit that would make one wise. John writes about it in 1st John
chapter 2. Hold your place there, look with
me in 1st John chapter 2. 1st John chapter 2 verse 15. Verse John 2, beginning in verse
15. Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world
the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride
of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the
world passeth away in the lust thereof, but he that doeth the
will of God abideth Forever. The lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, the pride of life. Saw that it was good for food,
it was pleasant to the eyes, desired to make one wise. Lust of the flesh, lust of the
eyes, pride of life. There's two basic flaws with
love in the world. Number one, it's not a thought. Number two, the world's passing
away. And all the lusts thereof. So here in Luke chapter four,
the devil says to him, if thou be the son of God, verse three,
if thou be the son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.
He was hungry. Well, just command that stone.
You can do it, Lord Jesus. You have all power. Later on, he turned water into
wine. He did all this healing and cleansing
and bringing from the dead. Why, he could have just spoke
the word and that stone would be made bread. But here's his answer. And Jesus
answered him, saying, It is written that man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word of God. Here's the lust of the flesh,
and our Lord Jesus was tempted in all points as we are. He's
without sin. Without sin. The next one, the devil takes
him up into a high mountain, shows him all the kingdoms of
the world in a moment. Verse 6, And the devil said unto
him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them,
for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will, I give
it. If thou wilt worship me, all
shall be thine. He is the prince of the power
of the air. He is the God of this age. But our Lord Jesus would have
to stoop beneath himself to take all these kingdoms. You
know why? In just a short time coming,
all those kingdoms are going to be His. As a matter of fact, they are
right now. He has all power. The Lord is going to make all
of them his footstool. He'd have to stoop beneath himself. Well, look at his answer. Thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Not man, not self, not power,
not the devil. The pride of life, verse 9. And
he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of
the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast
thyself down from hence. For it is written, He shall give
his angels charge over thee to keep thee, and in their hands
they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot
against the stone, the pride of life." Presumptuous sin. You see, if God loves me, he'll
get me out of this. That's the attitude of a lot
of folk. God don't necessarily want you
out of this. It may be His will that you go
through this. But the Lord Jesus answers, verse
12, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Don't presume upon
Him. Thou shalt not tempt Him. As
a matter of fact, James says you can't be tempted. Not with
sin and not with the things of ourselves. And the devil departed
from Him for a season. We're going to have to go through
trials, tribulations, sufferings. If we haven't already gone through
some, we'll probably go through some more. It's bound to happen to us. We have the suffering of the
war that goes on within us, the flesh and the spirit. The old man, the new man. And
that war is constant. We have that suffering, but I
like what Paul said, that our Lord Jesus always causes
us to triumph in Christ Jesus. Now the triumph not be that he
get out of it, but that he walks with us through
it. There's no temptation taking
you, but such as is common to man. God is faithful. He will not suffer you to be
tempted above that you're able, but will with the temptation
also make a way of escape. The escape is not necessarily
away from the temptation. The escape is into the very arms
of our Savior. Then comes the trial of faith. And then very quickly, let me
just say, then our Lord Jesus began his gospel ministry of
preaching. And we do it too. We do it by
gathering together in worship services, listening to our preacher
or preachers who come. We do it by giving. We do it
by by service in whatever way we can to the Lord. We do it
by witnessing and sharing the truth with friends and neighbors
and family. But I want you to notice three
things in the latter part of chapter 4. Let's start with verse
22. And all bear him witness and
wondered at the gracious words He gave them gracious words.
Words full of grace. The psalmist said grace is poured
into his lips. John said he's full of grace
and truth. These were gracious words. What
were they? The Spirit of God has led him,
is upon him, to preach the gospel and to preach the gospel to the
poor. That's me, poor in spirit. To preach the gospel to heal
the broken hearted. deliverance to the captives,
the recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them
that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Now's the accepted time. Today's
the day of salvation. As the gospel is preached, these
are gracious words. They wondered at the gracious
words that proceeded out of his mouth. Let your speech always
be with grace seasoned with salt. That's his words. Then look in
verse 25. But I tell you the truth, many
widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah. But only one
was helped. Verse 27. Many lepers were in
Israel in the time of Elijah. Only one was cleansed. That made them all mad. These
are elective words. For three and a half years, there
was not a widow taken care of, fed, by the Lord. There was not a
leper cleansed. And both of those were outside
of Israel. Jinnah. God chose them. And that's why they were angry.
That's why these people got upset. These were elective words. The
sovereign free grace of God. God calls whom He will. He calls
they come. He says my sheep hear my voice.
He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. I like how David
put it. In God is my salvation. All are sinners. All of us. And all of us deserve to die.
Ruined by the fall. Without hope. Without God in
this present world. God has chosen from those deserving
only death. From those sinners, God has chosen
his people. He chose sinners. He came to
seek and to save that which was lost, didn't he? He died for
them and paid for their sin. He redeemed them. We're made
nigh by the blood of Christ. David said, blessed are those
whom thou choosest and callest to approach unto me. He regenerates
them. He makes His grace, His gracious
and elective words so irresistible that we have to want it. We have
to want it. But He makes us so appalling.
Isaiah said, woe is me for I'm undone. Job said, I bore myself. Peter said, I'm a sinful man. But he makes himself so appealing,
so irresistible with mercy. grace and love and redemption
and forgiveness our sacrifice our substitute everything we
ever needed we find in Jesus Christ and then he keeps us by
his power there's one more I want you to look at with me down in
verse 32 chapter 4 and verse 32 he's moved down to Capernaum
And they were astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with
power. His word was with power. The word of God is quick and
powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. It does not return void. He speaks, and it is done. And you know what he spoke to
us? To his people I give unto them
eternal life and they shall never perish. Never, never, never, never, never
perish. Five times in the Greek. They
shall never perish. Our lives begin with a miraculous
birth in the Lord. We begin to desire the Word of
God. We follow the Lord in baptism
because it's just the right thing to do, because He did. We're
led by the Spirit in our lives daily. We go through these trials
of faith and He's there with us. God is faithful. And we minister
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. to others. Christ, our example. There is a song in your hymn
book, I don't know if we've ever sung it before, number 103. 103.
I just want to sing the first stanza if we can. I've not looked through it to
make sure that all the words are correct, but I do know the
first stanza by heart. We might sing a couple more there. 103, let's stand and be dismissed. as black as could be. Jesus came forth to be born of
a virgin. Well, among men my example is
He. Living, He loved me. my sin far away. Rising He justifies freely forever. One day He's coming, O glorious
day. Good night. Lord bless you. Thank you.