Greetings friends and welcome
to another broadcast of the Old School Primitive Baptist with
Elder Don Martin Sr. Stay tuned for another gospel
message of God's free and sovereign grace. And the Bible says that
he was led out into the wilderness And in verse 2 of chapter 4 it
says, being 40 days tempted of the devil, in those days he did
eat nothing and when they were ended he afterward hungered.
We know that whole account about how he went out there and was
tempted of Satan. And yet he always come back to
Satan, every time Satan would tempt him and he says, thus saith
the Lord. He always took the Word of God,
and that is the sword of the Spirit, the Bible says, is the
Word of God. This is what is our armament. This is not our armor, as it
says in the book of Ephesians about the armor of God, but the
armament or the weaponry of the Christian is the Word of God. And when Satan comes to even
tempt us and Satan comes and tries to cause us to doubt and
to wonder if we are the Lord's people, we need to take the Word
of God and throw it back at him and say, the Bible says that
whosoever believeth in Christ Jesus shall have everlasting
life. And I believe in Christ Jesus
by the grace of God, believe from me. Amen? The word of God
must be used as that weaponry of our Christianity and of our
hope that we have in Christ. And we read on down through the
fourth chapter of Luke's gospel. We find that Jesus has come to
his own hometown. He was in Nazareth. And he came
there and he went into the synagogue on this particular day, it's
the Sabbath day, verse 16. He came to Nazareth where he
had been brought up. Now everybody around there knew
Jesus. Here he was now about 30 years
old, 31 years old at this time. But they had known him from the
time he was born. And he was in the synagogue,
and the Bible says on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. Now keep in mind that Isaiah
had wrote his writings about 730 years before the birth of
Christ. If Christ was now 30, so that's
about 760 years before Jesus Christ had come into this world. at him his prophetical writings. Jesus took the book of the Old
Testament writings of Isaiah in the synagogue of his hometown,
that where people all around there knew him, and the Bible
says that He took the book, and when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it is written, and this is in Isaiah
chapter 61 for your information, but it says that the Spirit of
the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor, and he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of the
sight to the blind, and to set them at liberty that be bruised,
and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And the Bible
says that he closed the book, 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. Because he got up when
Jesus Christ got up in that synagogue assembly of those local folks
that knew him from the time he was a young, young boy. And he
read what he read from the book of Isaiah. He read it with such
authority, brother Buddy, that it overwhelmed them. They could
not get over it because their eyes were fasted upon him. They
were amazed at how this man whom they had known, they thought,
Jesus of Nazareth stood in the synagogue of his hometown and
read these scriptures with such authority that the power of God
no doubt was magnified in that assembly to where their eyes
were fastened on him and they saw, I believe, by revelation,
they saw Christ like they never saw him before. The Bible says that after he
gave the book back to the minister, And he began to say unto them,
this day is a scripture fulfilled in your ears. He says, what I
have just read to you, I'm going to paraphrase this, what I have
just read to you from the book of Isaiah, this day it has been
fulfilled before you. In other words, I am he that
hath come to preach the gospel to the poor, that is sent to
heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives,
and the recovering of the sight to the blind, and to set them
at liberty. liberty that are bruised, and
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." He said, I am the
one that has this day come that these scriptures would be fulfilled
before your eyes. They were sore amazed, and when
I say sore amazed, that they were disturbed about what he
had said. Because what he's saying is,
in essence, that he is deity that he is the fulfillment of
Isaiah's prophetical writings 760 years before this and that
the spirit of God is upon him and that he is in essence deity. Now let me read on here and I'm
going to show you what happens as he goes on to preach. I'm
going to show you the divine unconditional election of God
as it's set forth here in this book at the fourth chapter of
Luke and how they defended the Jews so bad they wanted to throw
him off a cliff and kill him. And when election is preached
today in some church assemblies that refuse to endorse it and
say that it's all about man's free will decision on who is
saved and who is not. And you preach unconditional
election, they'll want to take you outside the meeting house
and tar and peppy. I know, because I've been rejected,
I've been cast out, I've been refused and disfellowshipped
by those who love me, they said as brethren in times past, but
when I started preaching Unconditional Election, it was, oh well brother,
we can't really go along with that. I said, well then you better
take the Bible and start pulling pages out and throw them away
one by one. The Bible says, That Jesus Christ,
he said to them, ye surely shall say unto me, this proverb, physician,
heal thyself. He's talking about that there's
going to be a time when you people here, that are sitting in this
synagogue, that are under the sound of my voice are going to
say to me, oh if you're such a physician, heal yourself. And
didn't they say that when he was on the cross? He was prophetically
saying what was going to occur when he was on the cross of Calvary.
They looked at me and said, Ha! You said that you were a physician.
You said that you were a deity. You said you were God. Then save
yourself! Oh, I'm glad that he didn't save
himself from that gruesome, awesome, being bruised and suffering concept
of the cross, because if he had of, then we would not have an
atonement for our sin, brother buddy, and we would still be
yet in our sins and lost and undone. Oh, but he endured the
cross. And it goes on to say that whosoever
that we have heard what was done in Capernaum did also here in
thy country. And he said, Verily I say unto
you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. What he was
saying is, you folks that know me from the time that I was born,
a little bitty baby and a boy here in Nazareth, you don't really
recognize me as God's son and as God's only begotten. You don't recognize me as the
God, man, Christ, Jesus, How many lovely brothers have
you known who were very spiritual minded, but yet in their own
families they were often rejected and they were treated unkindly. They're not recognized as one
of God's gifts to the church because they were unbelievers
and they just said, oh he's just off the deep end of religion
or whatever. So what is, was with Jesus Christ in his own
hometown. They didn't recognize it. The
Bible even says in another place in the Gospels that Jesus did
not do signs and wonders and mighty miracles in his hometown,
his own hometown. There was a purpose and reason
for that, because he wasn't recognized. Now could God overcome their
minds and hearts and cause them to recognize him? Yes, and he
did, because maybe there was those in Nazareth His own brother
did, brother Buddy. James, the brother of Jesus Christ,
through the lineage of Mary. Believed on him in time. But
listen to this now. In the verse 25 of chapter 4,
but I tell you the truth. Now listen, now pay particular
attention because Jesus is going to highly upset these people
in his own community in the synagogue on this given Sabbath day that
he is teaching and speaking in there. He is going to highly
upset them with what he says now. He says, But I tell you
of a truth, that many widows were in Israel in the days of
Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months,
when great famine was throughout all the land. Now he's just making
a statement. He says, during the times and
the writings of the scriptures in the Old Testament, in the
time of Elijah, there were many widows. There was no doubt thousands
of widows. In Israel, out of the twelve
tribes of Israel, there were thousands of widows. throughout the whole land. But
he says, but unto none of them was Elijah sent except, or saved,
unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. Jesus is saying that out of all
of the widows that were in Israel, from the 12 tribes of Israel,
there was one widow in particular that God had sent Elijah to,
and she wasn't even an Israelite, buddy. She was from the area
of Sarepta, a city of Sidon, which was, she was not an Israelite. But Elijah went to this widow's
house, and you know what happened? She provided something for the
prophet to eat there, and she was blessed for it. And Jesus
goes on to say, and many lepers were in Israel in the time when
Elisha, Elisha was the one who succeeded Elijah. You remember
Elijah? It was taken out of picture that
he died and then Elisha was taken and brought in and succeeded
Elijah. And it says that in the time
of Elisha, the prophet, there was many lepers in Israel. And none of them was cleansed,
saving, or except for Naaman, the Syrian. The Syrian was not
an Israelite. He was also outside the camp
of the twelve tribes of Israel. Jesus is saying that out of all
the people in Israel, God had sent his prophets to a widow
woman who was not an Israelite and to a man named Naaman who
was a leper who needed the healing of God who was from Syria. And now listen to what happened.
And they all in the synagogue, when they heard these things,
were filled with wrath. Jesus told all these Jews in
the synagogue in his hometown, he says, God had sent Elijah
and Elisha, one to the widow, one to the name of the leper,
and God had blessed them, and they wasn't Jews. So, in other
words, what Christ was saying is, you that are here today,
that are of the natural lineage of Israel, you think you're something
special, but God has chosen even those outside Israel to bless
them because He desired to. Because God can do anything He
wants to do. And God has not limited, and
is not limited to only blessing Israel. He is, well let me rephrase
that, the Israel of the twelve tribes of the blood lineage of
those from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is, in the promised
process of blessing Israel, the Israel of God, chosen in Christ
Jesus, made up of every tongue, kindred, and nation upon earth.
That means that God's got a people from every tongue, kindred, and
nation upon the earth, according to the scriptures. And Israel,
that was the Israel of God in times past under the Old Testament,
under the Old Covenant, had fulfilled its purpose in God's divine,
decreed purposes. And now God's Israel is the Church
of Jesus Christ, those who are born of the Spirit, We are called
to be saints by the divine work of God's grace through Jesus
Christ our Lord who sought us and saved us by His grace alone. They all in the synagogue, when
they heard these sayings, they were filled with wrath. And look
what happened, verse 29, and rose up and thrust him out of
the city. They got up and took Jesus Christ
and actually literally thrust him out of the city and led him
to the brow of a hill, in other words, a cliff, and whereon their
city was built, and they might cast him down headlong. They
were fetching the throne of Jesus. that God is no longer limited
and subject to the Israel of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob of
which these were the forefathers of these people whom he was speaking
to in the synagogue. They were all Jews. and that widow woman that blessed
Elijah by preparing a meal for him. They got so irate about
that that they took Jesus out. They thrust him outside the church
and carried him out to the brow of the hill and was fixing to
kill him. And look what happened here.
It says, But he, Jesus, passing through the midst of them, went
his way. and came down to Capernaum, a city in Galilee, and taught
them on the Sabbath days. He just passed his way. In other words, they took him
and threw him overboard and all of a sudden Jesus just disappeared. He just removed himself from their
sight. Because he was God. He was God
incarnate. What do you think they thought
about that? When here they had him and they took him out of
the synagogue and they had him and they were going to thrust
him over this cliff and all of a sudden he just passes away
from them. He's gone. And he goes into Where
does he go to? He goes to Capernaum, the city
of Galilee, and he taught them on the Sabbath days. And they
were astonished that his doctrine for his word was with power.
Didn't I tell you a while ago, when he got up to speak in that
synagogue in Nashville, that he spoke with power? Let me tell
you, when Jesus Christ spoke and he preached, he was with
power. And I persuaded that God's called preachers and the messengers
of the gospel take and stand behind the pulpit. It is my prayer
and I believe that God takes and anoints them with the Spirit
of God that they might preach with authority and power. That
they might take and with the authority of the Word of God
preach the truth as it is in Jesus. Because the Bible says
that when the Holy Ghost shall come upon you, you shall receive
power. Power and the authority to preach
the Word of God. And to preach it with effective
boldness, and with the dynamics of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
that it might be able to be transplanted into the hearts and minds of
God's children, that they might be blessed by it, and edified
in it, and comforted through it, is what the whole purpose
of the ministry is about. Comfort ye Zion, saith the prophet
of God. Comfort Zion, preaching to her. Oh, may the walls of Zion be
encompassed with the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
that good news, that good news that can only bring divine help
and hope to needy sinners. Oh, we're all desolate. We're all depraved by nature.
We're all without hope and helpless in our natural state. But oh,
Christ says, I've come to seek and to save sinners. And the
Apostle Paul says that it is my desire to know nothing except
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul says, whoa, and to me, if
I preach not the gospel, And I say the same thing, buddy.
Whoa, and to me, if I preach not the gospel, and what is the
gospel? It's the good news that Jesus
Christ, ordained of God the Father, left heaven's glory He took upon
himself the mortal body of man through the Virgin Mary, and
he was born into this world, and likened unto his brethren. He has called us his brethren. He became a mortal man, tempted
in every way, yet without sin. Yes, in Jesus Christ, the Bible
says God made Him to be sin for us that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. He bore our sin and became sin
for us. He who knew no sin, however committed
a sin, became sin for us. God put upon His Son on the cross
every sin of every one of God's elect children through the ages
of time. Now I want you to pay particular
attention to what I just said to you. I said that God had taken
and put upon His Son every sin of God's elect children. He did not put upon Jesus the
sins of the entire world upon Jesus, for if he had, all of
the world would be automatically covered, justified, redeemed,
and atoned for, brother Buddy. But that atonement was particular
in its application. It was particular in that it
was provided for those of God's elect children. ordained of God,
chosen, called of God, elect of God, predestined of God, and
chosen of God in Christ Jesus from the foundation of the world
to be the Church of Jesus Christ in this time world, and they
were called to believe the gospel and to behold Christ as the Savior
of their souls. That's for whom Jesus died for
on the cross. The Bible says God so loved the
world, and that world is the word cosmos in the Greek, which
means the globe in its entirety. He loved the world and its creation. And He gave His only begotten
Son, and here's the key. That whosoever believeth. He didn't say that so all the
world could be saved. Did He? He said that for whosoever
believeth. Now how do you believe? By divine
sovereign grace. called of God and caused to believe
on Christ. We are caused to believe. That
needs to be insaturated into your minds and hearts. That needs
to be ingrained within you that we have been caused to believe
on Jesus. This is not something we have
done by the act of our own intuition or will or desire. God makes
his people willing in the day of his power. You know what the
Bible says? I can show you the scripture,
I can look it up. God's people shall be willing
in the day of his power. And also, I believe it's the
65th Psalm. Let me read it to you to make
sure that I'm correct. As I told you, I want to prove
all things. In the 65th, Sixty-fifth Psalm,
listen, verse 4, Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest
to approach unto thee. That's the Word of God, friends. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. He's chosen. We're chosen first
and then caused to believe. Like you said a while ago, brother
Buddy, we love Him because He first! Now listen to me, I believe
and am persuaded by the word of God and can prove it, I believe
by the scriptures in numerous places that God is the first
cause of everything that occurs. He's the first cause in all things,
in the creation of all things that we see around about us,
God was the first cause of it. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter
11 that He took things that were of no He framed the world from nothing,
buddy. He didn't take something and
just mix it up and add some ingredients to it and make it what it is.
He took nothing and merely just created it by speaking it into
existence. by the Word of God. And we know
that the Word of God, the Bible says in John chapter 1, was made
flesh. And dwelt among men, and we beheld
His glory, full of grace and truth. Who was it? Jesus Christ. The Word of God became flesh,
and His name was Jesus. the blessed Jesus, the Savior
of sinners. Oh, there's no other name given
among men whereby we must be saved than Jesus. Listen, the
Bible says that God highly exalted Him by giving Him a name that
is above every name. There is no other name on earth
that is greater than the name of Jesus. That's what the Bible
says. Paul says that God has highly
exalted him by giving him a name above all names, that at the
name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord in that day of judgment. When all
men are raised from the graves in the general resurrection,
they're going to come before God Almighty and the Lamb of
God, which is the Son of Jesus Christ, seated at His right hand.
They shall bow the knee and confess that Jesus is Lord, even though
they denied Him in this world and they hated Him. And they
believed not on him in this time world. When it comes before the
throne of God, they shall all confess that he's Lord. That
confession will be to the condemnation of hell for many. That confession
is saying that Jesus is Lord. That is going to be when God
will turn to those on his left hand and say, depart from me,
ye workers of iniquity, I never knew you. You didn't believe
on my son. You were given over to reprobate
mine. I didn't choose you for mine.
Am I a double predestinarian? Yes, I am. I believe God chose
some to eternal life and some to eternal death. You say, wow!
How else can it be? How else can it be? The Bible says that Jesus Christ,
He went about preaching. And in the 16th verse of the,
let's see, Well, I'll read this because I'm here. I'm at the
65th Psalm where I quoted to you verse number 4 about blessed
is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee.
In the 66th Psalm, which I'm going to conclude, I'm going
to stop here at this verse. On the 66th Psalm, verse 16,
David writes this. He says, come and hear. all ye that fear God, and I will
declare what he hath done for my soul." That's what the preaching
of the gospel is about. It's about standing before God's
people who have a hunger and a desire to hear the word of
God and to work What's He done for our souls?
He's done this to those who are caused to believe. He's paid
the ultimate price for our sin. In full. Paid in full. When somebody stamps a receipt
for you paid in full, you walk out of there, you owe nothing.
It's 100% paid for. That's what Jesus did on the
cross to everyone at His election. When He said it's finished, it's
the same thing as Him saying, paid in full. You say, well what about sins
I commit after I've caused to believe? Paid in full. Does that give me a license to
sin? No, it gives you a love not wanting
to sin. It gives you a love for Christ
that restrains you from what you could be. It gives you a
love from the Lord that you never had before. And because of that
love, he chastens those who do go and err in their ways. And
he takes and chastens them like he would as the good shepherd.
And takes a little lamb who's caught in a thicket because he
wandered away from the flock. He got over there and he gets
him out of there. He says, get out of there dog
gone and you're getting all tore up and you're bleeding. And he
picks him up and puts him in his boots and he says, I thought
you were going to be okay. Because he's a good shepherd.
And this is one of his little lambs. You know, I went to a
Sunday school as a young boy about eight years old in a little
Methodist church up in Indiana. You've probably heard me tell
you this. And you know how they give Sunday school literature
out in Sunday schools? They got pictures on there. You
know, there's pictures of this so-called Jesus. I'm not into
pictures of Christ so-called. You know, to me that's kind of
idolatry. Nobody has a picture of Christ
other than by face-eye. Okay? Face-eye. But I recalled
this Sunday school little literature pamphlet and had a picture of
this so-called man that was supposed to be Jesus, you know, in the
garment and he had this shepherd's staff in his hand and he had
this little lamp in his arm. And when I was 27 years old and
God got my attention and broke my heart and brought me to salvation's
experience, I had a flashback about that little lamp. in the
shepherd's arms as it was me, brother, that was being picked
up and loved by the good shepherd who I had not known before. What
a blessed experience that was. That was a spiritual experience
that I've never forgotten about. You say, well, yes, but the thing
about it is that It demonstrates the love of God, that He would
take a little lamb that's caught in the thicket, being tore up
with the thorns and so forth of the thicket, and take him
and pull him out gently, and bring him to His bosom, and love
him, and tenderly care for him, and take him, take him and wash
off his little wounds with water, and put him back down along with
the other flock. And I'll guarantee you what,
That little lamb right there, I bet he hung around the feet
of the good shepherd for a long time. I bet he did. Because the good shepherd loved
him so much, he delivered him from that thicket. From them
thorns pricking and hurting him. And after the shepherd picked
him up and tended to him and cared for him and put him down,
I bet you he was right there all the time. for a long time. And if he ever strayed away again,
and got caught up in that thicket again, I'll tell you what, the
good shepherd will go after him again, brother buddy. And we
have to go through God's boot camp sometimes over and over
and over. And boot camp ain't fun. But
I'll tell you what, every time you come out, you learn something
new. And every time one of God's new lambs or sheep get caught
up in the thicket of sin in this life, God teaches us something
new, and he makes our love more stronger. That hopefully we won't
fall back in that same trap again. Oh, we're bound to do something
else. We're going to get into some
other kind of mischievous sin, but it would be unlikely to be
the same one. Come and hear all ye that fear
God, and I'll declare unto you what he had done for my soul.
Do you fear God today? The Apostle Paul writes in the
third chapter of Romans, he says one of the characteristics of
those who are depraved, who are dead in trespasses and sins,
who are unsaved, is the fact that they do not have any fear
of God before them. Do you fear God today? I don't
mean fear Him in a frightful manner as somebody who's just
standing over you to constantly discipline you in a manner to
where you're scared of Him. But do you fear God in a reverential
way, knowing that He is almighty? But He's the maker of all things
and creator of all things in this world in which we live.
And He's the only one that can seek and save a sinner. Do you
fear Him to the point of where fear causes you to love? You know that godly fear will
cause you to love Him? Because that godly fear is united
with reverence. And the Bible says that may the
assembly of God's people worship Him with reverence and godly
fear. That's what I have against churches
that go into this jubilant, jumping and jiving, singing, dancing,
clapping, carrying on as a big party time. That's not godly
fear and reverence. That's not reverence for God.
That's jubilant carryings on of the flesh like the children
of Israel did when Moses went up to the mount. They carried
on in party time and they even took and melted their gold down
and made a golden calf and denied the God that Moses had went up
to visit with and bring down the commandments of. Oh, I'm
telling you, God demands reverence. And that's why the old baptists
do not take a title, as ministers, as a reverent. You hear people,
you see people say, oh there's reverent so and so. Let me tell
you, the Bible says that God only is holy and reverent is
His name. Holy and reverent is His name. Not any man has the right to
take the title as a reverend besides the almighty God of glory. And so that's why we never take
such a title, never take such vanity of self-pride. May God be glorified is my heart's
desire from what little I might have shared this morning. May
it be a blessing to you. Just keep in mind this, that
the Israel of God, today, under this New Testament, New Covenant,
is the Church of Jesus Christ, from every tongue, kindred, and
nation, called out by God, which are them who have been determined
and predestined before to be His people for the glory and
praise of His name. Amen. Pray with me. Dear God, my Father, it is with
humility and with gratitude, O God, that I beseech Thee. I pray that, Lord, what was shared
this morning, it may be, Lord, just a few little crumbs from
the Master's table. that possibly the word of God
would thine place in hearts and minds of thy people here today.
May we be comforted in the truth as we have tried to set it forth. Lord, may it be that which is
needful for the minds and hearts of thy people today. That's my
humble prayer. That's why I come this way. That's
why that I continue to just love to take thy word and open it
and try to share something from it that God's people might profit
from it, dear God. Oh, may it be so today. And so,
Lord, have mercy upon the sick and afflicted. Be with those,
Lord, who will travel distances going back to their places of
abode. And God calls our fellowship that would follow this meeting
together as we sup around the lunch table or maybe a time of
enjoyment expressing love one to another all because you have
first loved us. So God thank you for this privilege
once again to be able to meet together. For God you only know
if we're going to be able to do it one more time. For you
have ordered our steps and directed our paths. And Lord, you will
continue to till you call us home to glory. And so, Lord,
thank you for your kindness and mercies. In Jesus' precious name,
amen.