Sovereign Grace Chapel, located
at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia, invites you to
listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. So if you would, turn with me
to Luke 23. Luke 23. Luke 23 verses 1 through 25 is the one
I want to read. Luke chapter 23. And the whole multitude of them
arose and led him unto Pilate. And they began to accuse him,
saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding
to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a king. And Pilate asked him, saying,
Art thou the king of the Jews? And he answered him and said,
Thou sayest it. Then said Pilate to the chief
priest and to the people, I find no fault in this man. And they
were the more fierce, saying, He stirred up the people, teaching
throughout all Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place. When
Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked whether the man were a Galilean.
And as soon as he knew that he belonged into Herod's jurisdiction,
he sent him to Herod, who himself also was at Jerusalem at that
time. And when Herod saw Jesus, he
was exceedingly glad, for he was desirous to see him of a
long season, because he had heard many things of him, and he hoped
to have seen some miracle done by him. Then he questioned with
him in many words, but he answered him nothing. And the chief priests
and scribes stood and vehemently accused him. And Herod with his
men of war set him at naught and mocked him, and arrayed him
in a gorgeous robe and sent him again to Pilate. And the same
day Pilate and Herod were made friends together, for before
they were at enmity between themselves. And Pilate, when he had called
together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, said
unto them, Ye have brought this man unto me as one that perverteth
the people. And behold, I have examined him
before you, have found no fault in this man, touching those things
whereof ye accuse him. No, nor yet heard, for I sent
you to him, and lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. I
will therefore chastise him and release him, for of necessity
he must release one unto them at feast.' And they cried out
all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us
Barabbas, who for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder
was cast into prison." Pilate, therefore willing to release
Jesus, spake again to them. But they cried, saying, Crucify
him, crucify him. And he said unto them the third
time, Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause of
death in him. I will therefore chastise him,
and let him go. And they were instant with loud
voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices
of them and of the chief priest prevailed. And Pilate gave sentence
that it should be as they required. And he released unto them him
that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they
had desired. But he delivered Jesus to their
will. We read in verse 25 of Luke 23
there that Pilate delivered Jesus Christ to their will. A murderer
was released to go free, while one who Pilate said was just
was delivered to the will of the people to have this innocent
one murdered. Pilate, who said he was innocent,
had Jesus Christ scourged. And I like what Robert Hawker
says about this. Quote, he declared Jesus guiltless
and yet proposed by way of a milder punishment to scourge him. He
pronounced sentence of death upon Christ in the same breath
that he declared him innocent. End quote. He had an innocent
man scourged and thought he was washing his hands clean of his
death. But he delivered him to be murdered.
We often say things like, I would have done the same thing had
I been there. And I've said it before. But I really don't know,
and it's really useless to say. Because God did not have me there.
There were some there who did not actively participate in this
directly. But we in our hearts, we for
what and who we are, have sent Jesus Christ to the cross. As
I've told you before, and I've said before, and I'm not saying
that everyone has said this, some men and women may have not
said this specifically in their mind or out loud. Some have,
though. I believe that all of God's people
at one time have had this kind of thought in their head, but
I said, if that is who God is, I don't want a God like that.
I will not have this man reign over me. I will decide whether
I serve God or not. I will be my own king. I robbed
God of his glory. I murdered the Lord of glory
in my mind. In this flesh, I still do that,
even if it's only in thought from time to time, as some thoughts
go through my head. It is our will by nature to murder
the Lord of glory. We are the Barabbases. We are
guilty of murder. So let's talk a little bit about
man's will and the will of God. Man's will. We hear it all the
time today. And this by this world's religion
as well as those who are not really religious at all. But
this world touts man's free will. They say just as I thought at
one time, I will choose to serve God when I, when and if I want
to. I will come to God of my own
free will. Free will does not exist. Man
has a will, but it is not free. God is spirit, and if you worship
God, you must worship Him in spirit and in truth. The Scripture
is quite plain, but as Joe has said before, this world will
not let Scripture get in the way of their doctrine. The Scripture
is our guide. It is what God has given us to
know what the will of God is. Those whom God has made spiritual,
here's what it says. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. And let's turn and read that,
1 Corinthians 2, 1 Corinthians 2. I'm going to read quite a few
passages today, since we have a little extra time. 1 Corinthians
2, verses 7 through 16. 1 Corinthians 2, 7-16. But we speak
the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which
God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of
the princes of this world knew. For had they known it, they would
not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written,
I have not seen nor e'er heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that
love Him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the things of God knoweth
no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the
Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not
in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy
Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual
judge of all things, yet he himself is judge of no man. For who hath
known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have
the mind of Christ, and that is the knowledge of Christ. The scripture is clear. Until
God moves on an individual, they will in no way hear and understand
what God says to them in his word. If he never moves toward
them in grace, they will never know what his word says. Christ
tells us the following two things, John 5, 40, and ye will not come
to me that ye might have life. You have no will to come to Christ,
no matter how free you might think it is, no matter how many
times you say it, no matter how much you put it out in front
of people to see, no matter how many people say it. God does
not say it. He says, you will not come. If God says it, then it's true. But our Lord also says this in
John 6, 44, no man can come to me except the father
which has sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last
day. So not only do we not have a
will to come, we do not have the ability to come. Jesus Christ here says no man
can. If God says it, and Jesus Christ
is God, but if Christ says it, then it's true. But yet this
world continues to insist on man having a free will. If you
do have a free will, it is worthless. Because it is not free to come
to Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ says so. They manifest
it all the time though. They say things like, has been
mentioned before, God has done all he can do, and now it's up
to you. If that is true, then we will
all perish, because we will not come to him that we might have
life, and we cannot come to him that we might have life. There's
only one way that we can. If the Father which sent Jesus
Christ draws you, If He does the drawing, then you will come
and you can come. Because we also read in the scripture
that He works in us both the will and do of His good pleasure.
We have this wicked, evil, deceitful heart which will in no way step
one foot towards God because it hates God. We as we are born
are born with hate in our heart against God. We will be as those
there at the hall of Pilate. We will say it in our heart,
we'll say this. This is when they brought Christ
to Pilate and he asked them what he had done. After this, this
was their answer in John 18, 30. They answered and said unto
him, if he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him
up unto thee. They basically said, why are
you questioning us? We would not have brought him
to you if he were not a depraved evildoer. That's what we say
who Christ is in this old Adamic heart. We call Christ a depraved
evildoer. This is what we think of the
Lord of glory in our wicked hearts. This is what comes out of the
heart of man. This is the will of man as we
are born in Adam, given by the Lord of glory himself. None of
us are immune to this. None of us are clear of this.
All of us are guilty of this. Hear it. Mark 7, starting in
verse 20, and he said, that which cometh out of the man that defileth
the man. For from within, out of the heart
of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil
eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from
within and defile the man. So we are defiled, our will is
defiled because it is the heart that makes us willing. If this
is what comes out of our heart, then all we are willing to do
are these things. We must have a new heart, and
we cannot will to have a heart like this, because we are defiled
by our own heart. These evil things come from our
heart and the heart will deceive us into thinking he has done
all he can do and now it's up to us. Our heart thinks upon
doing something. When we are told by God himself
that we cannot do anything good, we are the Barabbases. We are
guilty before God and we are held captive. But there is another
will that the scripture speaks of, so next, the will of God. Turn with me to Matthew 21. Matthew
21. Matthew 21 and beginning in verse 33. Matthew 21, 33. Hear another parable. There was
a certain householder which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round
about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and
led it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country. And
when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to
the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And
the husbandman took his servants and beat one and killed another
and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants
more than the first and they did unto them likewise. But last
of all, he sent unto them his son saying, they will reverence
my son. But when the husbandman saw the
son, they said among themselves, this is the heir. Come, let us
kill him and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught
him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When
the Lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto
these husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably
destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto
other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their
seasons. Jesus saith unto them, did ye never read in the scriptures
the stone which the builders rejected? The same has become
the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and
it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore say I unto you, the
kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation,
bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this
stone shall be broken, but whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him
to powder. The sovereign God has sent his
son, and he expects his son to be reverenced. That is, that
all should have a fearful reverence of him. When his son was sent,
he was slew of wicked men, and we were just reading the account
of where that started to take place. It is the will of the
Father that we reverence the Son. If you are one who falls
on the Son and His feet in reverential fear, you will be broken. How
sweet the sound of that. Those who fall on the Son and
are broken will be healed because Jesus Christ heals the brokenhearted. But those who have this stone,
this cornerstone, this rock of offense, fallen man, will be
ground to powder. This is the will of God. You
bow to the sun, or you will be bowed to the sun, but then it
will be too late. But as we've already said, it
is God that draws those whom he loves to himself. God did not die for everybody.
God died for the Barabbases of this world. Too many people think
too highly of themselves and think very little of the Son.
They think He could not do it all and He has to have help from
them. They will be ground to powder
if they are not bowed down by God to His precious Son. Now
you must bow to the Son. You may not know that God chose
a people, but as Walter said before, you will bow to the God
that chose or you will perish. But the scripture is plain that
God by His own will chose a people. And this choosing was not a choosing
based on what they would do, but rather on what the Son would
do. And if you would turn with me
to Ephesians 1 and I want to read A few verses I wanna just
look at in those, in that passage. And first, in verse one. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the
faithful in Christ Jesus, as Joe has already pointed out this
morning, We are what we are by the will of God. Verse four and
five. According as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love. having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. So we are chosen in Christ based
on his will, not man's will. Verse nine, having made known
unto us the mystery of his will. according to His good pleasure
which He hath purposed in Himself. So it is His will that the mystery
is made known to us, has nothing to do with our will. Verse 11,
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after
the counsel of His own will. So we are predestinated to be
made like unto Christ by His will. Where in this passage do
we see anything about the will of man or the doing of man? Nowhere. Nothing. Because our
will is defiled and it can and will not do anything good because
we have a dead heart that is defilement to the core. But God
and Jesus Christ, before the world began, willed to come into
this world and die for His people's sin. He did not die for everyone's
sin, else everyone would be saved. Because He accomplished what
He came to do, Galatians 1, 3, and 4. Grace be to you and peace
from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave
Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present
evil world, not according to man's will, but what? According
to the will of God and our Father. So what happened with Pilate
was men manifesting what their will is. The will of man is not
free at all, but it is subservient to sin. Man is in bondage to
sin and he can do nothing to get out of that state. But because
of Jesus Christ and what God ordained and willed to do, he
brought to pass salvation for his people, so much so that they
now have life in Christ Jesus. But the will of God does not
stop there. In fact, the will of God does
not stop at all. All things are carried out based
on His will. If God does not want something
to happen, it will not happen. Someone might say, you mean all
bad things that happen are the will of God? Do you think that fallen sinful
men crucifying the Lord of glory is a bad thing? Murdering God,
the one and only one who anyone can truly say he is an innocent
man, is that not bad? It certainly is. Men intend evil,
God intends good for his people. So what more can we say for some
who were at one time, just like everyone else, with this evil
wicked heart, which is about satisfying this flesh, There
is something else which is the will of God that does happen
for some. I cannot tell you who these are. I have good reason
to believe that he has done it for those of us here who profess
the sovereign God and bow down to his will. But I cannot say
for sure. I have doubts about myself at
times. But there's one thing I do not
doubt. I know by the grace of God that Jesus Christ saved some
people. Those people are sinners and
he has also willed that they might have life and have it more
abundantly. Even those who are his cannot
trust in what they think of themselves and what they will do. We read
in Matthew 26, 33 through 35, and you all know this. Peter
answered and said unto him, though all men shall be offended because
of thee, yet will I never be offended. Jesus said unto him,
Verily I say unto thee, that this night before the cock crow
thou shalt deny me thrice. Again Peter said unto him, Though
I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also
said all the disciples. Peter had no strength of his
own to not deny our Lord. God willed that he deny our Lord
and he did. What Peter did was not a good
thing, but God intended it for good. It brought Peter closer
to his Lord and to our Lord. After Peter had done this thing,
he went out and wept bitterly, the scripture says. It is not
a light thing when one of his denies the Lord. It will cause
you to weep, if not outwardly, at least inwardly. It says he
wept bitterly or violently. It broke his heart that he had
done this thing. You will come to that place where
you know it is all of his will and his power. But those who
know God do not know him on their own. It takes the power of God
to believe him. It takes the same power that
raised Jesus Christ from the dead to raise you and I to life
in Christ Jesus. Luke 10, 22, we read, all things
are delivered to me of my father and no man knoweth who the son
is but the father and who the father is but the son and he
to whom the son will reveal him. You can walk as many aisles as
you want, but you will not know God by coming down an aisle.
But if God is willing to give you life and reveal himself to
you, no one can keep you from getting to Christ even if you're
coming down an aisle. But the one to whom he reveals
will come knowing who they are coming to. And by the will of
God will come to him as we've already read. John 1 verses 11,
12, and 13 we read, he came unto his own and his own received
him not. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power or the right to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on his name. So those that receive
him are those who believe on his name. They believe he accomplished
what he came to do. Those who do this already have
life because of what it says next in verse 13, which were
born. Not of blood, nor of the will
of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.