We started last week looking
at this passage in Luke 4, where Jesus, after he had come
up out of his trial in the desert, came up and went into the synagogue
and took the scroll and opened it up to Isaiah 61, 1, and began
to read. And we'll just go ahead and read
through these passages again. But as I mentioned last week,
I would like for us to look at the other half of what happened
in this discourse. And because as I mentioned, as
we left off last week, everything was peaches and cream whenever
Jesus said all these nice things about himself. to these people.
Everyone loved it. They were glad for it. But all
of a sudden, some things took a turn for the worse, or took
a turn for what seemed worse as things went on. But let's
go ahead and start. I want to start reading again
in verse 14, and we'll read on down. It says, And Jesus returned
in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and there went out of
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, and 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 was written, the spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor, He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives, and recovering of the 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 of 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 there witnessed 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, you will
surely say unto me this proverb, physician, heal thyself. Whatever
so we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, verily, verily,
I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.
But I tell you a truth, many widows were in Israel in the
days of Elias, when the heavens were shut up for three years
and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land.
But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city
of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were
in Israel. in the time of Elisus 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 under the brow
of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast
him down headlong. And he, passing through the midst
of them, went his way. Now, we'll just stop right there.
Now, at first glance, whenever reading through this, you look
at this and you say, you know, Jesus came into the synagogue,
he grabbed the book that was brought to him, he opened it
up, he read a passage of scripture, and then whenever he read that
passage of scripture, he said, hey, today, this scripture that
was talked about way back then, It's being fulfilled in your
day, right here, in front of your eyes. And as we've seen
there, it said, and all that bear him witness and wondered
at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, they were glad
to hear this. They loved it. It excited them. They praised the Lord for it.
It was wonderful words to their ears. But Jesus went on a little
bit further. And after he spoke these other
things, he said, hey, listen, there was a widow in Sidon, and
this widow, Elijah was sent to. And whenever Elijah was sent
to her, even though there was this famine that was going throughout
the land, the Lord sent Elijah to this widow and provided her
and her son food for the whole entire time that that drought
took place. And he said, there was this man named Naaman, He,
too, was a Gentile. And the Lord sent a prophet to
him, Elisha. And Elisha told him, hey, go
down to the River Jordan. Naaman was a leper. Told him,
go down to the Jordan River, dip down in there seven times,
and you'll be healed. And Naaman was healed. And you
listen to those accounts, you would think, most of us would
probably think, hey, that's also an amazing story. That's amazing
truth that the Lord would have such grace upon this widow in
Sidon, which was a heathen city, which was a Gentile. She was
a Gentile. Naaman was a Gentile. And we
think, man, what wonderful grace was shown to even these outside
of Israel that the Lord would send the prophet give food and
sustenance to these two Gentiles, or to Naaman. I mean, Naaman
was the captain of the Syrian army. They weren't friends with
Israel. But yet he sent this man to be
cleansed, and he was cleansed. And we would all say, well, that
was just more continuation of what Jesus was talking about,
because he just talked about how the Spirit of the Lord was
upon him to preach gospel to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, recovering the sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. We said, well, yeah, he's just
giving us examples of his wonderful ministry that he is doing. This
ought to make us all happy, right? But look at what they did. He
preached these wonderful works that he did among these two people. And it said, when they heard
these things, they were filled with wrath. Not only were they just filled
with wrath, but to the point where they took him out to the
brow of the city. The city was built upon a hill. They were going to cast him off
and kill him. Now, what did Jesus say here? that made these people so angry?
What was it that Jesus doctrinally put forth to them that would
have caused them such outrage? I mean, why did they get so mad? I mean, surely, I mean, they
were happy at the sound of people being delivered, being healed,
being set free. They were happy to hear that
the one who was promised in the Old Testament had come unto them
to do these things. Does anybody know the difference
in Jesus's first portion of his message and the second portion? There was a particular nature
to the work in the ministry that was about to be done. See, in
the first part of Jesus' discourse, whenever He read that passage,
before He began to expound that passage, all He did was read
the verse. And what did they do? They immediately
began to apply that verse to their own situation, to their own presuppositions. to their own thoughts about what
this verse means. They interpret these words by
man's interpretation. And that's how often we do. The
Adamic man will always look at God's Word and will always look
at the wisdom of man in interpreting these words. That's why the scriptures
tell us that we must, whenever we're looking at God's Word,
we look at the spiritual aspect of this. And we can only do that
as the Spirit gives us light, as the Spirit gives us spiritual
understanding, because the natural man can't look at these things
and discern the spiritual things. But we who are of the Spirit
discern things of the Spirit, and we interpret the spiritual
with the Spirit. Right? So, whenever we look at
what Jesus was preaching here, on the outset These Jews that
he was preaching to heard this story and said, aha, this is
what was foretold in the Old Testament, that a Messiah would
come and save us and deliver us and heal us and release us
from captivity and all of our debts would be counseled, everything
would be taken away from us and we would rule and reign over
all the earth. And that was what they were expecting.
That was what they were looking for. They were looking for a
physical nation to be given a physical reign in a physical kingdom over
the physical enemies of the world. And they were all looking at
physical things. But the gospel, brethren, the
kingdom of God is not a physical kingdom. It is a spiritual kingdom.
It is a kingdom that is not of this world. It is a kingdom that
has come down out of heaven. We are the kingdom of God and
we are a spiritual people. While we may not have physicality,
we are physical people in physical bodies. But the physical Israel
of God, the physical tabernacle of God, is not this natural man,
but it is the spiritual people that resides within us. It is those who have been born
from heaven. Our birth came from heaven to
this earthen vessel. We hold in this body treasures
in earthen vessels. We hold in this body those seed
of Christ, those seeds of Christ that are eternal, that are incorruptible. And these bodies house that. That is the kingdom of God. That's
why Jesus said the kingdom of God is within you. The kingdom
of God and the servants that are part of that kingdom are
spiritual servants, not physical ones. That's why we say, you
know, Israel is not this nation over in the Middle East that
has, you know, this Jewish line according to the physical, the
national and physical nature of people. That is not the people
of God. Paul clearly says that. It's
not the people of God. We learned that it is not, let
me not misquote this, but let me go back to Romans. that's looking for, but I can
condense it down in Romans 9, 6. It says, not as though the
word of God has none effect, for they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel. Neither because they are the
seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall
thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children
of the promise are counted for the seed. So we see, brethren,
that the true Israel of God is not those that are the children
of the flesh, but those who are the children of the Spirit. And so Jesus, whenever he came
and began to preach this deliverance, this salvation that Messiah was
coming to accomplish for his people, again, the mindset of
the Jew was for national Israel, for ethnic Israel. for physical
Israel. But that was never the purpose
of God. National physical ethnic Israel
was always a type and a foreshadow for the true. It was just a copy
of what was the pattern in heaven. Just as the tabernacle that Moses
erected, that David erected, that Solomon
erected, that whole tabernacle system, the building itself,
the tent in the meeting, or the tent in the wilderness of meeting,
that was all a pattern after that which was in the heavenly.
And the kingdom of God that is in the heavenly, that pattern
is found here in type and foreshadow in the world through the nation
Israel in the Old Testament. And so we see that that was a
pattern. Now we can go into a lot more
detail and show where God has divorced himself from Israel
and has put them away and they have ceased to use them as anything
on this earth. And that all the promises of
God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. in Christ and you are
heirs and children of the promise. As we just read, the children
of the flesh aren't the children, but the children of the promise
are the ones who are gonna be the ones to receive all the promises
of God. The land itself was a type and
a foreshadow of spiritual things, not physical things, that the
whole sacrificial system was a type and a foreshadow of the
deliverance of God for his people, and it wasn't for a deliverance
from the Roman captors, but it was a deliverance of us from
sin. So we see that Jesus, as He began
to expound the spiritual truth of this Old Testament passage,
these people didn't like what the truth was. They didn't like
the truth. And brethren, the natural man
never does like the truth. The natural man is always at
enmity with God and God's truth. and will always be at enmity
with God's Messiah, God's Anointed One. And as we looked at last
week, we've seen that Jesus was the Anointed of God. He had anointed
me to do these things. We saw that He came in the power
of the Spirit. So we know that the interpretation
that Jesus has given on these passages is surely the truth. We know it's the truth, number
one, because Jesus is the truth, right? He is the Word of God
in flesh. The Word of God in flesh, so
anything He says is the Word of God. He isn't just quoting
the Word of God, He is the Word of God, and so everything He
speaks forth is the voice of God, the words of God, the sentiments
of God. the purpose and the will of God
being brought forth, manifested in breath. In fact, that's what
that word means, inspiration. It means breathed out of God.
Every word that proceeds out of the mouth of Christ, out of
the mouth of God, is the inspired word, and therefore it is truth,
because He is truth, and He can speak no lies. So Jesus coming
just as God Himself speaking the truth, but it says here,
He come in the power of the Spirit. The Spirit of God was on Him. So everything He spoke, He spoke
by the Spirit of God, by the power of God, by the Word of
God. So we know these things to be
true. And so therefore, as the children of grace, those who
have been given the Spirit of God, And as he gives us understanding
and a light shed on truth, we look at these things and we submit
to these. What does the Bible say? That's
why we always say around here, listen, we're not Calvinist.
We're not reformed. We're not denominational. We're not Southern Baptist. We're
not free will Baptist. We're not this Baptist, that
Baptist. These things don't matter. Those things are man-made theological
things that have no significance. It has absolutely no significance.
Now I don't have any problem calling myself a Baptist because
of what it identifies with as the doctrine and the ministry
and what they were called throughout all the ages. Those who were
of the way were called Baptists. So I don't have a problem with
that as far as the denomination is concerned. I don't care anything
about being called a Baptist as far as denomination is concerned.
It's not a denominational aspect to me. It's a ministerial aspect,
a doctrinal aspect. It's a continuation of that which
John the Baptist began as he prepared a people for the Lord,
and Christ continued in that, and all the apostles continued
in that. And all the early church continued
in that. And every New Testament church
that has ever existed since that time has continued in the doctrine
and the practice of the apostles who got that from Jesus. John
the Baptist got his message from God as well. So it's the doctrine
and the practice of God. That's what we mean when we say
Baptist. But that's a side note. Everything else doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter what camp you're in. Are you old school? Are you
new school? Are you, you know, regular Baptist? Are you this Baptist? Are you,
you know, high Calvinist? Are you low Calvinist? Are you
super lapsarian? Are you infralapsarian? All these
things are theological things that men throw in a pot and get
things mixed up and it's just a mishmash of junk. What is our
concern? Our concern is what does the
Word of God say? Whatever camp that throws us
into, that throws us into that camp. And if you want to throw
on that name tag, have at it, okay? I don't care anything about
that stuff. I care about is what we are preaching,
what we are teaching, what we are believing, what we are holding
for, what we are standing on and standing for, and what we
at the end of everything are giving exaltation to Is it the
truth of God? That's our main concern. I'm
not concerned about being popular or being in this camp or that
camp. Throw me into any camp you want to throw me into and
give me that name tag. Because at the end of the day, I'm walking
away not caring, to be honest. Jesus here, who is the truth,
could do nothing but preach the truth, came and interpreted what
that Old Testament Scripture said, and in that interpretation,
He said, this very thing is not for everyone. That's what it
boiled down to. This application of this passage
in Isaiah is by the sovereign, free grace of God alone. And to show that forth, it will
be given to the Gentile as much as it will be given to the Jew.
That's what enraged these people whenever they heard these things.
It wasn't the fact that there was grace given to somebody.
It wasn't the fact that God provided food during a famine. That didn't
bother them. It wasn't that God healed a man
of leprosy. That didn't bother them. What
bothered them is Jesus said, this salvation is chosen by God
and applied on whomever God chooses to apply it to. That is what
enraged them. They did not like the fact that
this salvation is a particular salvation that it is governed
by a sovereign God in a sovereign purpose, and that it is not given
indiscriminately to everybody, universally to everybody. Now,
the other thing that enraged them is the fact that it was
given to the Gentile, because both examples that Jesus give
of the interpretation of this verse is him bringing healing and deliverance
to Gentiles. The widow at Seraphim, however
you say that, Sarepta, the widow in Sidon and her son, they were
Gentiles. Listen, how many widows do you
think there were in Israel at the time? There was probably
quite a few. Jesus even said, I tell you the
truth, many widows were in Israel during Elijah's time. But God
didn't send Elijah to any of the widows in Israel, but he
sent Elijah, the prophet of God. He is the prophet of God. Sent
that prophet of God, not to anybody in Israel, but sent it to a widow
and her son of the Gentiles. I mean, here we have a widow.
That's one end of the spectrum. If you go to the story of the
widow, it tells whenever Elijah came upon this widow, this widow
was out gathering some sticks up and he said, hey, go make
me some bread. And she said, I don't hardly
have any. I only have enough stuff to make enough to make
a little cake for me and my son. And as soon as we eat that, we're
going to die, because that's all we have. We've been starving.
We don't have anything. And once that's gone, it's gone,
and we're going to die. And he said, I tell you what,
go in there. What you have is going to be
enough. You go and make that little cake. And of all of the
gall, it seemed like, what did he say to her? He said, but before
you and your son, who have been in this drought, who have been
in this famine, Before you eat anything, bring me one and let
me eat. And then you can eat. And then
once you eat, you're going to see that God is going to sustain
you for three and a half years. Now, he did that for a Gentile.
Naaman, poor widow woman, right? Other end of the spectrum. Naaman
is the captain of the Syrian army. High stature, lots of power. Lots of prestige. Probably had
some wealth. Definitely had clout. The other
end of the spectrum. God sent the prophet Elisha,
the prophet of God, not to anyone in Israel, but to the very captain
of the army that afflicted Israel. and gave this man of high esteem,
of high regard among the Syrians, just below the king of Syria,
give this man healing. But he didn't go to any of the
lepers in Israel. So you can see the people of
Israel, when they heard these things, immediately said, you
mean our Messiah is going to those of the Gentiles over us
of Israel? This is blasphemy and that's
why they wanted to kill him. So two things here. Number one,
you mean to tell me that you're saying that God's going to give
this salvation discriminately to whoever he chooses. And second
of all, you're going to tell us that he's going to include
the heathen and not just specifically us? That's ridiculous. Matter of fact, that's blasphemy
and we're gonna kill you for it. And that's what they tried
to do. Now, I say all that, brethren, because Jesus here was teaching
sovereign grace. A lot of people don't think Jesus
preached sovereign grace. They think sovereign grace is
something that John Calvin dreamed up in the 1500s, that some reformers boistered throughout the world
during the 1500s. And then the Protestants and
the Baptists come along and even ignited it even more into the
Americas and Europe. And it just began to spread like
wildfire. But this was all man-made doctrines.
Matter of fact, I've heard people, a lot of people say that these
are doctrines of the devil. Whenever we talk about the doctrines
of grace, them are doctrines of the devil. But, brethren,
listen, Jesus preached these doctrines. These doctrines were
taught in the Old Testament in type and foreshadow. In the type
and foreshadow, who did God go to and not to anybody else? He went to Israel. God chose
the nation of Israel over anybody else and gave blessing to the
nation Israel in a physical way. We're not talking about eternal
salvation or anything like that. We're talking about in a physical
way. God showed blessing upon Israel and nobody else. Does
God pick and choose? Well, absolutely He did. Did
God have a right to pick Israel out of all the other nations
and not give blessing to the other nations and only give blessing
to Israel? Well, absolutely He had the right to do that. He's
God. And I don't think anybody, even the rankest Arminian or
dispensationalist especially, would say, God had the right
to do that. He's sovereign. He can pick that
nation out of anybody else. Matter of fact, to such a degree
that the dispensationalist even says, that's still ongoing today. And how dare you put your hand
against the nation Israel? How dare you touch the land? How dare you touch the people
of Israel? You're going to be burned with
fire. You're going to be destroyed. You're going to be, you know,
Anybody who speaks ill, if you don't put up the little Israel
flag on your Facebook, how dare you not support the Zionists
of Israel? Now, God has every right to pick
and choose who He wants to pick and choose, and He did so in
the physical, in the pattern, or in the type. But brethren, the type is fulfilled
in the pattern. The pattern is a spiritual people.
And God has a right to choose who that spiritual people is.
And that angers the natural man. That's why when me and you preach
sovereign grace to those out there, that's why we are always
met with such vitriol. That's why we're met with hatred
and anger. That's why people don't like
to hear You mean to tell me that Jesus didn't die for everybody?
You mean to tell me God doesn't love everybody? You mean to tell
me that salvation isn't an open offer to everybody? You mean
to tell me we don't have the free will to choose our own destiny?
Of course we would say yes to all that because the Bible tells
me so. The Bible tells us that. I'm
not trying to jump into some denomination or some theological
group. I'm just saying the Bible tells
me that. Jesus here is saying, I tell you, look verse 25, look
what he says here. But I tell you of a truth. You remember when Paul was preaching
all these things and they were beginning to hate on Paul? What
did Paul say? He says, am I now your enemy
because I tell you the truth? Wouldn't you think that people
would be happy for you to tell them the truth? They should be
thankful. They should be appreciative that
they've been told the truth. Who wants to be lied to? Nobody
wants to be lied to, do they? I mean, I wouldn't think so,
but we have people in churches all over this world who, when
they go to that church, they may not say it with the mouth,
but with the mind and the heart, they're saying, lie to me. Tell
me that I'm somebody. Tell me that I'm something. Build
me up. Tell me that I'm the one. Give me the option. Let me make
the choice. Put the destiny in my own hands. They won't lie to you. And so
they gather around themselves teachers that speak and teach
those things that their itching ears want to hear. They want
to hear the ultimate and first issue that ever came down the
pike with Adam. You can be as God. You can make the choice. You
can do what you think is right. You can follow your own desires. You can follow your own path.
You can make out your own destiny. You can make yourself into whoever
you want to make yourself into. You can do whatever you want
to do. have free will. That was the
lie that was told to Adam. That was the lie that was believed
by Eve. Hath God said? Well, maybe He
hadn't said that. Maybe I can't. Maybe this is
good. Maybe this is right. Maybe I
can be like God. Well, I ain't content with how
God made me. I'm not content in the station
that God has put me. I'm going to make my own change. I'm going to make the difference.
And brethren, that lie has painted itself in different ways, but
yet it's still the same lie. Man, like Satan, thinks that
he can assert the power of God and put himself above God and
make himself as God. The arbiter, the chooser, the
distributor, the controller, the king of his own domain. But, brethren, Jesus here puts
down all of those ideas. He says, God sent the prophet
not to anybody in Israel, but to a lowly widow. God didn't
send the prophet to anybody of the Pharisees None of the religious
leaders, none of the priests, not the king, nobody in Israel,
but he sent it to Naaman. And God has the right to do that. They were upset about it. And
they're going to be upset about it whenever you preach that,
whenever I teach that. And so I guess in most of this,
brethren, This is not only a message of what the truth actually says
and what the gist of this verse is about, but an encouragement
to all those who believe in the sovereign free grace of God that
don't be discouraged whenever those reject your preaching,
your teaching, your gospel that you're sharing with them. The
good news that God can choose anybody to be saved. That's good
news. Why? Because that means there
is nothing that can hinder or stop or detour God from saving
anybody. The worst sinner that's out there,
God can save. He can save them and deliver
them from their unbelief. He can save them from their sin
and bring them out of whatever it is that they're in. He can
do that. If Christ has shed his blood
for them, those sins are forgiven and God will bring them out and
bring them into belief upon Christ Jesus. And there's nothing they
can do about that. They can't overcome the power
of God in giving life and giving faith to the child of grace wherever
they are, whoever they are. So we have hope in sovereign
free grace that it can overcome our unbelief. That should be
something that they should have been cheering about. Praise God
that those Gentiles had their unbelief overcome by a sovereign
God. who gave them faith, who gave
them deliverance, who gave them healing. Our God, look at our
God, He went to them and did that for them. He's not just
our God, but a God to everybody. No, they didn't care about that.
As long as I'm getting it for me, that's all I care about.
As long as I'm getting it for me, and I know a lot of people
are probably saying the same thing about us, Well, ain't that
what you're preaching? We're the elect. We're the only
ones who are being saved. Listen, I don't know anybody
who is a child of grace, who believes in sovereign grace,
who boasts about being elect. We're thankful. We're grateful. We're humbled by that. Listen,
every time I read anything like this, any time I think on these
things about God's election and predestination, Christ's particular
redemption and things like that. Listen, brethren, it doesn't
bolster my pride. It makes me even more humbled
and want to eat dirt because of how sinful I am and how horrible
of a person I am, how unfaithful I am, how unbelieving that I
truly am, yet God in mercy give this to me. I don't deserve it. And I surely ain't gonna boast
about it because there's nothing to boast about. And I surely ain't gonna boast
about being the leg because I may show up before the judgment seat
of God one of these days and find out that I was deceived
and I'm in the number of those who said, Lord, Lord, did we
not do many things? Did I not preach in Joplin at
Sovereign Grace Baptist Church for all these years? Did I not,
you know, take it on the on the chin by a lot of people who called
me this and called me that and called me this. Was I not unfriended
on Facebook many times for your word? For him to say, depart from me,
worker of iniquity, I never knew you. I could easily be deceived,
brethren. So how am I going to boast of
anything about being God's elect? Until the day that I stand before
the Lord and find out that I am His elect, all I have is a hope
in Christ. All I have is the Spirit that
will bear witness with my spirit that I am His, and I have hope
that He does that. I hope that He's doing that.
And whenever I stand before Him that day, I'm surely not going
to boast in Michael Smith. I will be boasting in Christ
our Lord. But don't be surprised, brethren,
when people hate you. As a matter of fact, Jesus taught
sovereign grace in many places, and let me show you what he's
saying here in more detailed application. See, he gives two
examples here, and we see very plainly, I believe, if the Spirit,
I guess, gives us the understanding. I don't say I guess, I know.
If the Spirit gives us understanding, we see that this here is Jesus
saying that God is going to the Gentiles. He is rejecting Israel. And He is doing it in a particular
and precise, sovereign way. But turn with me, if you would,
back to Matthew, and then chapter 11. Let's see some of the things
that Jesus taught. And is this consistent? Because
some might say, Mike, I think you're just throwing your theological
and doctrinal persuasion onto the passage and you are isogeting
the passage instead of exegeting the passage, you are placing
your meaning on the passage and not letting the passage say what
it says. Well, let's look and see does
the Bible confirm what we think is going on in Luke chapter 4. In Matthew chapter 11, if you'll
look with me down at verse 25, It says, and at that time, Jesus
answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth. Now, Jesus is praying here, right? He is praying to God in front
of all these people. And what does he say? I thank
thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because, why is Jesus
going into this worship and exaltation of God? before the people an
open and public display of glory to God. Why? Because. Because what? What is it, Jesus,
that you are glorifying God about? Because thou hast hid these things
from the wise and the prudent and hast revealed them unto babes,
even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." Jesus here is praying and thanking
God, glorifying God in His sovereign control over who and who does
not receive truth, of who and who does not receive understanding. And He says these things are
hid from some and they are revealed to others and so it seemed right
unto you, it seemed right unto God that He hid these things
from some people. That tells me that God has the
choice. That means He's sovereign. It
means that God chose some and not others. That tells me that
election and particular revelation If you'll allow me that phrase,
particular revelation is biblically taught by the Lord Himself, who,
as I mentioned a while ago, is the Word of God, who is the truth
of God, who is the anointed of God, who has the Spirit without
measure and has the Spirit of God upon Him to preach these
things. What did Jesus preach here? He
preached God's discriminant revelation of truth, and thereby from that
truth, the child of grace is given faith to believe those
truths, and in believing those truths, their hope is upon Christ
and Him alone, and not in some religious system of works, but
on Christ alone. So the whole work of salvation,
whether it's in the legal aspect or in the experiential aspect,
the whole work of salvation in all of its entirety is by the
hand of a sovereign God. And so we can't say it's offered
to all, it's free to all, it's your choice to make the decision.
That would be unbiblical. That would not be truth. That
would not be giving the words that Jesus gave. That would not
be us continuing in the apostles' doctrine. It would not be us
continuing in the faith once delivered to the saints. So brethren, that is why we are
hated. We are hated. And anybody who
preaches the truth is hated because they identify with the preaching
of Jesus. And they hated Jesus. They wanted to kill Jesus. And
they did crucify him. That's what he's talking about. Look with me if you would to
John chapter 17. Very familiar verses to us. Besides John chapters 6 and 10,
you go to John chapter 17 and you'll probably see more Sovereign
Grace preached in Jesus' prayer than just about anywhere. Look
at John chapter 17 with me. Start in verse 2. It says, and
this is Jesus again. This is before Jesus' death on
the cross. He's praying. to the Father. I'll just back up to verse 1. It says, These words spake Jesus,
and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is
come. Glorify thy Son, that thy Son
also may glorify thee, as thou hast given him power over all
flesh. So there we see, Jesus has power
over everyone. So He can. do anything He wants
with anyone, because He has power over all flesh. That means all
mankind. There is none among mankind that
can usurp, usurp, however you say it, the power of God. They are not above God's power.
There is nothing that God has placed in flesh that allows them
to do anything that would be contrary to God's will. There
is nothing in the flesh of men that can do anything to stop,
to hinder, to squelch, to thwart the purpose of God. Why? Because Christ has been given
power over all flesh. He is the arm of God. He is the
power of God. He is God manifested in the flesh,
so all the fullness of God, which would also include His omnipotence,
His omnipresence, His omniscience, everything that is the fullness
of God has been embodied in Christ Jesus. Therefore, Jesus is the
fullness of all the Godhead. Jesus is the embodiment of all
God, and all power has been given to Jesus. Why? Because God has
put himself in the constraints of a man, Jesus Christ. And that
man is God. He is the I Am. He is the Eternal
One. Now how that can happen, great
is the mystery of Godliness. God was manifested in the flesh.
How that can be, I don't know. But all I know is that is the
truth. Christ is fully God, and as God,
there is none above Him, the Bible says. As Jehovah, there
is none above Him, there is none beside Him, that none can stay
His hand. Whatever He does, He is going
to do. I will do all my pleasure, He
says. Therefore, if He has power over
all flesh, than he can do with flesh, whatever he wants to do.
And here Jesus says, you have given him power over all flesh
to give eternal life. But is eternal life given to
everybody? No, we know that's not true. Why? Because we know
from the scriptural testimony that there are people in hell.
If there are people in hell, they are there because God determined
that they would be there and that Christ, who has power over
all flesh, would not give eternal life to them. If Christ has power
to give eternal life, He does not put man in the driver's seat
to choose. That would be above His power. That would let their choice,
their decision, their will be dictating what God's purpose
will be. That is not the testimony of
Scripture. That is a lie. That is a false
gospel. And that is loved, though, by
most churches. around this world. But what we
are preaching, the truth of what Jesus is saying is hated by most
people. If you want a good barometer
on whether a church is a New Testament or a church or not,
get in. Look up their preacher. Look
down at all his stuff that he's preached. Look at the things
that he writes. If that man denies sovereign
election, sovereign predestination, particular redemption, run away
from that church. They don't have the truth. They
are preaching lies. He says He has been given power
over all flesh that He should give eternal life to everyone? That's not what it says. What does it say there? As many
as thou hast given Him. And whenever He gives eternal
life, it's to do what? He gives eternal life so that
they might make a decision for God? He gives eternal life so
that they might get the law out and start working to please God? To keep their righteousness before
God? Thou hast given them power over
all flesh that He might give eternal life to as many as Thou
hast given Him so that they can pull up their own bootstraps
and they can get out there in religion and make a showing that
they might convert the whole world. Get their missionary societies
out there and pumping for God. They might get their youth ministries
out there and saving young people. But they might get out there
and get all this stuff. Listen people, Christ has saved
His people. Not one is going to be lost. All the efforts of
missionary societies and youth ministries and all the entertainment
of the world of worship groups getting up trying to pump people
into worship. Listen, all that is fleshly things. God is bringing His people into
the Kingdom. It's His Kingdom. It's His servants. It's His people. It's His church. It's His place to build His church. Therefore, He's responsible for
bringing them in. He's responsible for bringing them to the understanding
and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. He's the one responsible for
giving them faith. The one for giving them understanding
of the Scriptures, belief upon the truth, the one who gives
them humility and repentance to turn from that self-righteousness
and to look to Christ's righteousness. He's the one that's doing all
these things. It's not you or I that's out
there bolstering and building the kingdom of God. I hear phrases
like that, that we're advancing the kingdom of God, that we're
out there, you know, we're the church triumphant and we're out
there, you know, battling Satan and all his foes and all the
heathens and we're taking everybody captive through the gospel and
the gospel is making its way through the world and we're like
the crusaders of the dark ages, you know. I hear one phrase often on Facebook
by some folks, the remnant rising. It's a slogan on some guy's deal
that I know. The remnant rising. Man, we're
a growing sound. We're a growing force. The remnant
is rising. Listen, the remnant can't do
nothing. Matter of fact, the word itself is remnant. It's
something small. It's not something huge. It's
something small. Now, there's going to be many
of us. Matter of fact, I'm kind of starting to get a few thoughts
about the remnant, but anyway. It's definitely not the majority
of people that are out there. Now, He has given eternal life
to as many as thou hast given Him, and this is life eternal,
that they not get out and work for their righteousness and to
prove their righteousness, but they might know Thee, the only
true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. What is eternal life given for
us to do? To know. Not to do. Eternal life isn't given to us
to do, but to know the one true God, Jesus Christ. Look with me if you would, verse
9. Jesus here, continuing in this prayer, He says, I pray
for them, I pray not for the world. Is that not a discriminant
prayer? That means He prayed for some
and not others. Does God have the right to pray
for some and not others? Well, of course He does. He's
God. He's sovereign. Is there a purpose
on why He prayed for some and not others? Of course there is.
God doesn't do anything without purpose. We don't believe in
fatalism. We don't believe in chaos. Whatever
will be, will be. in the perspective that chance
is out there leading everything. Now we surely believe whatever
will be will be as it comes to the purpose of God because nothing
can stop God's purpose. Whatever God has determined is
going to happen exactly the way He wants it to happen. Now we
do believe whatever will be will be in that context. But here
we see there must be a purpose why Christ is praying for These
and not these. And that purpose is consistent,
listen to me, is consistent with His holiness and His righteousness. No matter what the detractors
out there say, it's unfair for God to do that for one and not
the other. It's unrighteous for God to not give somebody an opportunity
to come to Him. That's unrighteous. No, brethren,
you just don't understand righteousness. You don't understand sovereignty.
You don't understand the Scriptures. You've not been given to understand
the Word of God because the Bible, if given understanding, if interpreted
in the Spirit by the Spirit, you look at these things, you
see that God, who cannot change, who is who He is, and takes no... takes no counsel from anybody
else on what he should do and how he should do it, says, I
pray for them, but I do not pray for them, we don't have any right
to say, why hast thou done that? Look again over at Romans chapter
nine. Again, verse 6, we read it a
while ago. It's not as though the Word of
God had taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which
are of Israel. Did God go against His promise
to Israel to bless Israel? And now all of a sudden, there
are those who are coming in unbelief and not believing on Messiah?
Not receiving the promises? Has God's Word failed? Did He
lie to Israel? That's what I hear all these
Zionists, all these dispensationalists, all these premillennial people
saying to us is you're preaching a replacement theology. You're
preaching that God has lied to Israel. You think that God lied
to Israel that they're not going to get what he sent? Listen,
national Israel, ethnic Israel, they got everything that God
promised to them, every bit of it. They got everything God promised
to them Nothing was missed. Go read your Old Testament. Joshua
declared it. Everything that God has promised
you, you've received it. Not anything has been left out.
You've got it. But God also promised that Israel
foretold it in the Old Testament. That Israel was going to be destroyed.
The nation Israel was going to be put away. that he was going
to divorce Israel. He said, if you do not keep these
things, then you will lose the land upon which you are on. You
will be cast out. You will be put away. And that's
exactly what did. God did keep his promise, and
he's still keeping his promise, brethren. That's exactly why
the nation of Israel is not God's chosen people anymore. He is
ethnically, physically, nationally done with Israel. Now, that does
not mean that of those nations, that nation, that there are not
elect people within that nation that belong to the spiritual
Israel who is the true Israel, the only Israel that has ever
mattered before the foundation of the world. And here Paul is saying, no,
it's not as though God's word has no effect or you've been
lied to. because God's purpose was never
to redeem or to be the God of all Israel ethnically. Because the Israel that God gave
the blessing to was the Israel that was the spiritual Israel
and not physical Israel. That's why he said, verse 6,
verse 7, verse 8, and then he reiterates it in verse 9. For
this is the word of promise, not the word to fleshly Israel,
but to spiritual Israel. For this is the word of promise,
at this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. And not
only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by
her father Isaac, for the children, being not yet born, neither have he done any good
or evil. God's choice had nothing to do
with who they were born to or whether or not they were good
or evil. That's what I was saying last week or maybe it was the week
before. God doesn't have this balance scale up there and if
you have 51% good deeds versus your 49 bad deeds, you're going
to go to heaven because you did more good than bad. I hear people
say that all the time. As long as my good deeds outweigh my
bad deeds, we're good. No, God doesn't do salvation
based upon your good or evil. It says that the purpose of God
according to the election might stand, not of works, but of him
that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger as it is written, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. Jesus preached sovereign grace. Paul preached sovereign grace. God's grace is not based upon
what you are naturally, It's not based upon what you have
done. It's based upon His purpose. If you are His spiritual seed,
then you are the children of the promise. Now, we're just about done. I've got
a couple more things I want to draw out of this, if you will
allow me. Acts chapter 22. Acts chapter
22. We're going to see Paul here
is going to also preach to the Jews the same message that Jesus preached to the Jews. Acts chapter 22, and I'm going
to start reading in verse 1. It says, men, brethren and fathers,
Hear ye my defense, which I make now." Now, real quickly, in chapter
21, we find that Paul was being beaten. The people, after he'd
been preaching, the people began to beat him. And the guards came
down, took him in, arrested him, brought him in. And even though
he had just been beaten by all these people, Paul asked, hey,
can I speak to the people? Let me say something to them.
And so he does. They give him opportunity, and
this is what he preaches to them. He says, men, brethren, and fathers,
hear ye my defense, which I make now unto you. And when they heard
that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence,
and he saith, I am barely a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus,
a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of
Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the
law of the fathers and was zealous towards God as ye all are this
day. And I persecuted this way." Meaning,
just like you guys, how you just now beat me to death. Hey, I
was zealous the same way you was and I was beating people
to death who was saying the same message. I was trying to kill
them. And he goes on, he says, and
I persecuted this way unto the death. binding and delivering
into prisons both men and women, as also the high priest doth
bear me witness in all the estate of the elders, from whom also
I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring
them which were there bound unto Jerusalem for to be punished."
He said, hey, listen, I'm just like you. I was just like you.
What you just did to me, that's what I was doing to the same
people. I was doing it. He says, and it came to pass
that as I made my journey and was come nigh unto Damascus about
noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about
me. And I fell unto the ground and
heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? And I answered, who art thou,
Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus
of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. Now, Paul was persecuting those
who were believing on Christ Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth. Paul was going out and rounding
up all these who had faith in Christ Jesus, this Jesus of Nazareth,
and was bringing them back to Jerusalem, either to put them
into prison, to persecute them, to put them to death. And these
people, whenever they heard Paul preaching about Jesus of Nazareth,
Nazareth began to beat him. And he said, Hey, wait a minute.
I know exactly what boat you're in. I was in the same boat. I
was doing the same thing that you're doing. But listen, that
Jesus of Nazareth that we killed on a tree that supposedly from
what all we heard rose again on the third day, who ascended
back into heaven. It's true. He did ascend back
into heaven. He did rise on the third day.
And guess what? As I was on my way to persecute
all those who believed on Him, He came out of heaven and the
glory was so bright it knocked me down, blinded me, couldn't
see nothing. And He began to speak to me. He said, I am Jesus of Nazareth
whom thou persecuted. And they that were with me saw
indeed the light, and were afraid, but they heard not the voice
of him that spake to me. So that means those other Jews
who were with Paul. Now, I don't know if you've drawn
the conclusion here, brethren, before. I just recently have
noticed this. These men who were going with
Paul were Jews also. But who did Jesus come to? He
came to Paul. The other Jews that were with
him, they saw the bright light, but guess what? They didn't see
Jesus and they didn't hear His voice. They were with me, saw indeed
the light, and were afraid, but they heard not the voice of Him
that spake to me. And I said, What shall I do,
Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus,
and there it shall be told thee of all the things which are appointed
for thee to do. So not only was Paul chosen out
of these other two Jews, or three Jews, or however many was with
him, not only was he chosen out of all them, but God, before
he even came to Paul, and Paul even had any inkling of anything
towards Jesus Christ other than hatred, while he was in the hatred
towards Jesus Christ, God had already, what? Appointed things
for Paul to do. Paul was already a child of grace. Paul was already given a specific
ministry that God was going to bring him to and equip him in. It was before Paul ever made
any decision for Jesus Christ. As if Paul made any decision
for Jesus Christ. He said, and when I could not
see for the glory of that light being led by the hand of them
that were with me, I came into Damascus. And one Ananias, a
devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the
Jews which dwelt there, came unto me and stood and said unto
me, Brother Saul, receive thy side in the same hour I looked
upon him. And he said, the God of our fathers
hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that just
one, and see that just one, and shouldest hear the voice of his
mouth. So here again, Ananias, a devout
Jew, okay, the Bible said that he was a Jew in nationality,
but he was a devout man of God and all the ones that was there
attested to this. He says, listen, God has chosen
thee that thou should know of his will. The other Jews that
was with him, it wasn't given for them to know the will of
God and to see that just one and
hear his voice. For thou shalt be his witness
unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. As a matter of
fact, he was doing that right there, being a witness of what
he had seen and heard. And now, why tarriest thou? Arise and be baptized, and wash
away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. And it came
to pass that when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while
I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance. and saw him saying
unto me, saying, I saw Christ again. I saw Jesus of Nazareth. And he said, make haste and get
thee quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy
testimony concerning me. And I said, Lord, they know that
I am prisoned and beat in every synagogue, them that believed
on thee. And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed,
I also was standing by and consenting unto his death, and kept the
raiment of them that slew him." And here it is. They've been
listening all along. They've been hearing this testimony
of Saul and his encounter with the Jesus of Nazareth that they
had crucified, that they had rejected as Messiah, that they
had hated because of the truth that he had preached, And now
they're listening, OK, Paul, we just beat the tarnations out
of you, but we're going to listen to you because you were one of
us. You were one who was also doing
and killing and persecuting those that we hate, that were preaching
that doctrine that we hate, of that false messiah that we hate. Let's listen to you. And here's
how Paul got down to the brass tacks. And he said unto me, Depart,
for I will send thee far hence. unto the Gentiles. Wait a minute, Paul. Our darling
Son not only has turned from us, but is now going to the Gentiles? And they gave him audience unto
this word, and then lifted up their voices and said, Away with
such a fellow from the earth. for it is not fit that he should
live. And as they cried out and cast
off their clothes and threw dust into the air, the chief captain
commanded him to be brought into the castle and bade that he should
not be examined by scourging, that he might know wherefore
they cried so against him. And as they bound him with thongs,
Paul said to the centurion that stood by him, is it lawful for
you to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned? Stop
right there. But you see, they were good with
everything up until the point whenever Paul said, God has chosen
me to go deliver this message and preach deliverance, preach
healing, preach the captives being set free, the perfect year
of the Lord. The Lord has preached me to go
send that message to the Gentiles. They didn't like it. Why? They
don't like God being sovereign over who he sends these messages
to. They didn't like it that Paul was chosen out of the lot
of them that was with him. They didn't like it that Paul
was chosen over Gamaliel and Caiaphas and all these other
guys that was their leaders at the time. They didn't like it
that God was sending Paul to preach their blessing, to preach
their deliverance, to preach their Messiah to the Gentiles. They was hated. So, brethren, don't be astounded
whenever you are hated. I'll leave you with this, Jesus'
words to us. In John 15, verse 18, He says,
If the world hates you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated
you. If you were of the world, the
world would love his own. But because ye are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, Therefore,
the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said
unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they
have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have
kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things
will they do unto you for my namesake, because they know not
Him that sent me." Brethren, the reason people come against
you in sovereign grace It's not because they're necessarily coming
against you. They're coming against God because
they know not the God of the Bible. They know a God that they
have made up from reading with man's wisdom this Bible, but
they don't know the God that is revealed in the Bible by the
Spirit of God. They do not know the Christ that
was sent. They do not know the Messiah
that was sent. They do not know the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. They, by man's wisdom, are trying
with all that is in their natural nature to portray what they think
is the God of the Bible, but all they have done is become
a religious, zealous group of people who is religiously and
zealously preaching and portraying a false Christ and a false gospel
in their false churches. And I'm not saying that we're
any better than anybody else. Again, if we are here, we're
here by the grace of God. If we have a church, it's by
the grace of God. If we have salvation, it's by
the grace of God. But brethren, that does not change
the fact that the truth is the truth. And the truth is that
God is the one who makes discrimination on who hears and who understands
and who is the recipient of His Gospel. And by that, we will be hated.
But know that we are in good company with the Lord if we do
so. And I would encourage everybody, don't let that hatred, and again,
even this is by the grace of God that we are able to stand
There are many times that I've not stood. That I have, like
the little girl, whenever Peter asked, or whenever she asked
Peter, you know, aren't you one of his? I was just like Peter. I don't know what you're talking
about. I don't know that guy. There's been many times that
I've done that. It's only by the grace of God
that we can stand on the truth and deliver the truth and face
of persecution In the face of rejection, all of us like to
be liked and loved and accepted. And so it's hard, especially
hard among family and friends to be so bold to speak these
things because we love them as human love loves. But yet, if
we stand on the truth, a lot of times we're going to be rejected.
We're going to be hated. We're going to be cast out. from a group, from the family,
from whatever. And so don't be surprised about that. But give
glory to God. I always think about the disciples
that they were, whenever they were jailed and they were said,
you know, hey, you should be preaching in his name. And they
were, matter of fact, I think in that account, they were flogged
and then let go. And after they were flogged and
let go, They went out and the Bible says that they rejoiced
that they suffered persecution for Christ's sake. Most of us,
we don't want persecution, but anyway. All right, does anybody
have anything you'd like to add? Any questions, comments, or anything? Any of you brothers want to share
anything? Father, once again, we come to
You in the name of Jesus Christ, and because of Jesus Christ,
giving glory and honor to Jesus Christ. We thank You, Father,
for this message of salvation that is free to all that You
have chosen to give it to, and that there is nothing that can
stop Your salvation that You can freely give it to whoever
You choose to give it to. And because we don't know those
who are Yours, Father, we have hope that even the vilest of
sinners can be saved by God. And so, Lord, we just look to
you in all things to accomplish your purpose as you've promised.
And Lord, may you give us grace to live and rest upon what you
have done and what you are bringing forth and manifesting from your
purpose. And Lord, we thank you again
for the opportunity that we have each week to meet again in your
name and to open up the word of God and to preach forth the
truths that are found in the scriptures. Lord, we just thank
you once again for all that you have done for us, for your salvation
and grace in Christ Jesus. May you be with each one of us
as we leave this place today, that you might give us safety,
that you might be with us. Keep us, Lord. Give us strength
and courage. Give us ability to speak whenever
we're confronted, whenever we're speaking the truth to those that
we are around, as you give us opportunity. Lord, I just thank
you again and praise and honor goes all Christ Jesus and said
in his name that we pray.