Now the Lord had taught the multitudes these parables. When he had finished these parables, it says in our text, he had taught them from a boat. He had taught them, his disciples, he taught the multitudes from a boat. He taught his disciples in a house.

And now here he goes into the synagogue. And it was time for him to leave Capernaum And I don't know if the Lord will ever leave this place, but I know that he does come and he does go. I just know this, as in Capernaum, let's worship him while he's here. If the Lord has been pleased to grace this place with his presence, this church with his blessing, May he give us the grace to worship him while he's here and not take for granted the fact that he's here. He goes where he pleases. And he might just be finished one day here. But I trust that he's not finished yet. I hope I'm long dead before he ever does.

In verse 54, when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue insomuch that they were astonished and said, whence hath this man this wisdom and these mighty works? The word of God is astonishing. We don't always experience that. The Lord has taught us his gospel maybe for years now, and it's easy for this flesh to take for granted truths that others have never even heard or have despised.

But I know this, nobody was ever astonished by free will preaching. That's one thing it's not going to do. It's not going to astonish you. Nobody was ever shocked when somebody said, God loves you and wants the best for you and Christ died for you. There's no astonishment there. But I have seen people astonished by the truth.

And not in a good way. And in our text, in every case, it wasn't in a good way. I used to write an article and they put it in our local paper. And I got an email from a lady that said, I just can't believe, I can't believe that you teach that God doesn't love everybody. And I emailed her back and I just simply said, here's the thing, what I wrote was the plain word of God. So what you're saying is you just can't believe God. And we need to understand, and I say this often, whenever we are speaking for God and somebody takes issue with it, make sure that they're despising God and not you.

If we're clear and plain and lay out God's word just undeniably, and we're going to see in our text that the truth is just not, it's not deniable. You have to be utterly insane. They could say nothing against it because the truth is clear and simple and plain and undeniable. You have to literally be insane to reject the truth of God.

And so they're astonished by this. And I'll tell you who's the most astonished, though. There is astonished in a bad way. But those who are most astonished are those who are astonished in a good way. Is this who God is? That's the truth. If he gives you repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, in other words, you hear the gospel, you say, that's the truth. What a wonderful astonishment that is. But here's what's really astonishing.

People are astonished at the truth of God. Either in a good or bad way, because they never have seen it, they never have believed it, or they never have been told it as it is in the Word of God. They've been lied to by fancy, sentimental, ulterior motive preachers, so-called preachers. And when they hear the truth, they're astonished by it. But what's really astonishing, look at Mark chapter 6 with me. Verse 1. Mark 6, verse 1, and you'll see that this is very much a parallel passage to our text.

And when he went out from thence, the Lord, and came into his own country, and his disciples followed him. And when the Sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many hearing him were astonished. saying from whence hath this man these things and what wisdom is this which is given unto him that even such mighty works are raw by his hands is not this the carpenter the son of mary the brother of james and joseph and of judah and simon and are not his sisters here with us and they were offended at him but jesus said unto them a prophet is not without honor but in his own country and among his own kin and in his own house.

And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief." They marveled for a whole different reason. They marveled at the truth, and he marveled at their unbelief. Not that he didn't expect it, not that he didn't see it coming.

But to not believe God, that's the astonishing thing, really, to say that you know better than God. And there are a lot of different ways to say that. You know, preachers, whether gospel preachers or not, it's our tendency to say things that just are supported in the Scriptures. That's the tendency of our flesh. They're just not there. We go beyond what God said. Can't do it. Can't do it.

And what an astonishing thing that is. When you've got such a glorious gospel, when Christ is so wonderful and beautiful. To want to add or subtract. From him. He marveled because of their unbelief, and he went round about the villages teaching. But you see the different reactions.

The truth is astonishing to sinners, but unbelief is what ought to shock us. That's what ought to shock us. Now, once the Lord has revealed the truth to a sinner, it's not surprising that people are as blind as they are, because we were. But it is astonishing. It is incredible that the clear, plain Word of God, it is incredible that a beggar would turn down bread, freely given, bread from heaven. It is astonishing that somebody who is under the condemnation and wrath of God, and Christ came down here freely preaching salvation, being Himself, the very lifeline for sinners and for a sinner to say, no, I'm fine being a wretch.

That's astonishing, isn't it? It doesn't surprise us because we were there. Our flesh is still there. They were astonished by what Christ said. Did you notice that in the text? He taught them and they were astonished. Now they mentioned his works too, but he taught them and they were astonished. And in other places we see where it says, nobody ever spoke like this. Nobody ever spoke.

He speaks with authority. He doesn't speak like the scribes. He doesn't just say what people want to hear. He speaks almost like he's God. But look at verse 55 in our text. Is not this the carpenter's son? His words were astonishing, but they looked at him, their senses weren't impressed. And we're creatures of sense. That's why it says the natural man, the creature of sense, the creature of the flesh that only can see with these eyes. and think with this fleshly brain, our natural mind, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. We look at him and we see a carpenter's son.

Is not his mother called Mary and his brethren, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas, and his sisters, they live here, we know where they live, we know who they are. Whence hath this man all these things? And they were offended in him. And that offended in him, it goes a little bit beyond unbelief.

You remember where they said, when the Lord said, for which of the good works that I've done are you stoning me? What did I do to deserve to be stoned to death? And they said, we're not stoning you because you've done good works. We're stoning you because you being a man, say that you're God.

And that's what this offense is here. They said, this is just, this is just a son of a carpenter. And he's saying he's God, but Jesus said unto them, a prophet is not without honor saving his own country and in his own house. And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. Isaiah 8, 14, and he shall be for a sanctuary.

The Lord is our rock in the sense that he's our sanctuary. The Lord is my rock, whom shall I fear? Whom shall I fear? He's our strong and mighty tower. But Isaiah 8, 14 says he shall be for a sanctuary, but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense. He's our rock in a different sense. He's our rock in the sense that we want to be hid in the cleft of the rock and stand upon Christ and see the very glory of God from there. But he's also a rock to the houses of Israel in the sense of a stumbling stone for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

And many among them shall stumble and fall and be broken and be snared and be taken. And this, of course, is a warning to all of us. So I want to talk about a few things, maybe five or six things briefly this morning about this passage that we just read. This is the same danger. When the gospel is preached today and our Lord is clearly teaching us that here.

Our natural unbelief is strong. It is unpenetrable. It is not able to be broken except by a supernatural work of God on the heart. We don't compare ourselves in any way to the Lord, except maybe in this sense. We say what he said. We don't say it with the same power and authority as he does, but we do say it with his authority. we're preaching the same truths he did. And there's still a danger in our day of acknowledging to some degree the truthfulness of the words. Remember, they said, how does he have this kind of wisdom? They didn't say he's, you know, this is foolish talk, although man does believe that it's called the foolishness of preaching because of the way men think but at least up here they were able to say this is wisdom he knows everything he knows everything about the bible well he's the one that wrote it so yeah of course he does he is the living word but to see that and yet stumbling at what you see there is that danger but we see in the word of god we have this treasure in earthen vessels and often people stumble at that But we know why, too. That's going to happen. It's not that, well, you might stumble, you might not. No, you're going to stumble. You're going to look at the earthen vessel and not the treasure. You know, if the Lord Jesus walked into a free will church, they wouldn't know him today. They would reject him.

They'd say he's a part of a cult because of his teaching, because that's what they say about his people, his witnesses. They would call him an aposter, just like they did then, because he didn't say what they say. But to acknowledge to an extent, the wisdom of what he says. That's something that people, still now, people want to see, be impressed by what they see and not by what they hear. There may be no way around being somewhat impressed by what they hear, but what they see is always gonna trump that. It's always gonna override that. They're going to listen to a man who's a gifted speaker, probably highly educated in the doctrines of lies, and have all kinds of titles to their name.

In our Lord's day, the multitudes respected and followed the Pharisees, the ones with the pedigrees, the ones with the religious education. And no one would listen to a ragtag group of fishermen and a tax collector, old men, But the Lord made it so that some did listen. But today we have the greatest miracle that the Lord ever did yet. And I don't know if I'm saying that right, but let me try to. Of course, signs and wonders, outward signs and wonders were given to the disciples, to the apostles, because that caused crowds to gather. And to hear the word of God. Otherwise, nobody would have showed up to hear from these people. But not being impressed by the outward. Sinners that are left to themselves are not going to hear the word, they're not going to hear the word. And we wouldn't have either.

You see, here's the thing, though. The miracle of miracles, the one miracle that all of the other miracles picture and teach concerning, is the miracle of God's grace in saving a sinner, in turning a rebel into a son. And that miracle still takes place. But you've got to hear the word and not look at the outside. They saw Christ. They said, we know his father and mother. We know his siblings.

How can he be God? He says he's God. And notice this, that Christ did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. because of their unbelief. And he said, a prophet is not without honor, saving his own neighborhood, his own country, where he grew up.

And people were able to say, we know him. He was that little boy running around after his dad, the carpenter. He's the carpenter's son. We know his mom. We know his sisters and brothers. And that's why he said that. But think about this. If your peers, if the people you grew up with, who know you in the flesh, know who you are, know things about you. If they discredited you because of their opinion of you, you might be saying some great things, you know, that, well, he knows a lot about the Bible, but they look at you and they say, we, you know, he grew up with us. We know who this is. You know, he's not anything. There's nothing to him. and you had the power to do miracles, would you do less or more of them? These people are saying, Cunningham, there's nothing to him.

If I had the power to do miracles, I would do more miracles. I would say, how do you like me now after I healed lepers and opened the eyes of the blind? But our Lord did just the opposite. I would want to prove them wrong about me. I would want them to have to eat crow. But the Lord had none of the vain pride that we do. If people began to trust the miracles rather than the word, then he stopped doing it. He used them exactly to the extent that the gospel was confirmed and promoted by them, and no more.

Remember the rich man in Luke chapter 16? Let me read you some of that. Verse 27. Then the rich man who woke up in hell, he said, I pray thee therefore, father Abraham, that thou would ascend Lazarus, the poor leper at his gate, to my father's house. The rich man died and Lazarus was still alive. Send him to my father's house for I have five brethren that he may testify unto them lest they also come into this place of torment.

Abraham saith unto him, they have Moses and the prophets. In other words, they have the scriptures. They have what Moses wrote, what the prophets wrote. They have the word of God. Let them hear them. Let them hear them. Not sinning, actually Lazarus was dead too. He said, sin Lazarus, if somebody comes back from the dead and preaches the gospel to them, they'll believe that.

Because look at the outward, we saw this man, we went to his funeral maybe, we know he's dead. And yet here he is, just the opposite of Christ in our text. The gospel was powerful, but he didn't do the outward miracles, in many cases because of their unbelief. But he's saying here, if the spectacle is there, then they'll believe the truth.

Abraham said, nope, they have the word of God. They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And it's very instructive what the rich man said to that. You know what he said? No. Nay, Father Abraham. But if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. He's right about the flesh, isn't he?

They'll say anything to see a miracle. but it won't be saving grace in the heart. That comes by the preaching of the word. That comes by Moses and the prophets. That comes by the gospels and the epistles, the word of God. Abraham said they have the gospel, they have the truth, and that meant nothing to that man.

That's why he's in hell. because he had no use for the gospel of Christ and Him crucified. No use for it. They have the gospel. No, that's not going to help. It didn't help me. They need a spectacle. They need somebody to tear a phone book in half with their bare hands. They need celebrities to show up and talk about Jesus. They need to see miracles. They need somebody to slap somebody on the forehead and then fall back with their, you know, blinking real fast. That's what they need.

And Abraham said, if they don't hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. That's not going to cut it. The rich man said the scriptures aren't going to cut it. But Abraham in perfect holiness and glorification in the presence of God said, a spectacle's not gonna cut it.

And that's what our Lord is showing in our text. Even though the words were astonishing to them, they believed not. And that's the nature of unbelief. That's what I want to impress on you this morning, as unclear maybe as I'm being. I want us to understand that nothing will penetrate the heart of a sinner, but the grace and power of God. And he does that by the preaching of the gospel.

In the face of clear, irrefutable, amazing truth, when the apostles preached the gospel in the book of Acts, it says they could say nothing against it. They can say nothing against it. It's irrefutable, it's amazing, it's astonishing, but there's the stubbornness, the natural hardening of the neck against the truth which offends the flesh. In Acts 4, Eight through 18. Let's turn over there just briefly. I don't want to go too long, but let's look at this. I don't want to misquote anything from it, X48.

This is when the lame man was raised up and he went about leaping and praising God, Peter filled with the Holy Ghost said to the ones standing by, you rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man by what means he is made whole, be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.

Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves saying, what shall we do to these men for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them as manifest to all that dwell in Jerusalem.

And we cannot deny it. but that it spread no further among the people, that it straightly threatened them that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus. So you see, the miracle was undeniable, but it was what they said that was objected to. Don't you preach and teach in his name anymore.

So there's what we're talking about. Undeniable, irrefutable, and yet despised until God operates on the heart. So what our loved ones that don't know the Lord, whether they be children, whether they be family members, whether they be just friends in this world, anybody that you care about, they don't need to be argued with, They don't need to be denounced unless under certain circumstances. If they're going to blaspheme God, you just might have to, out of jealousy for him, say something. But that's not going to do it. They need to hear from God. They need to hear from God now. They need to hear the gospel. And nothing else is going to do.

Notice it was their reasoning powers. They said, this man is a carpenter. What he's saying is astonishing, he knows everything, his wisdom is undeniable. But he's just a carpenter, son, they reasoned it out. That's man's downfall right there. It's human reasoning. Human reasoning, that's what Satan encouraged, wasn't it?

Let's think about this for a minute. Oh, yeah, God said don't eat of it, but if you do, All that's going to happen is going to be good for you. Let's talk about it. Let's reason this out. Let's argue for a minute about this. And that was the problem.

And how many today are denying the truth because we can't get our puny minds around it? And what people are trying to do is get their minds around how God can be who He says He is, And me still, my good work still count. My decisions still count. My will still be supreme.

You're never going to figure that out because it's not. And they're not. The truth of who God is. Is to be believed. And my will. and my way and my works abandoned, done away with, like Paul said, I cast them behind me and I won't have them anymore. I won't have them because I know Christ now.

May this be the standard by which every spirit is tried. Try the spirits, whether they are of God. The admonition, by the way, is not try the spirits to see whether they make sense to you or not. It's try the spirits to see whether they are of God. Are they saying what God said? That's the only standard. Whether it makes sense to you or not. And it will when God turns the light on. But here's the standard to the law and to the testimony of God.

If they speak not according to this word, it's because there's no light in them. And seeing we have such hope, as Paul said, let us use great plainness of speech from the scripture. When they say what they say, we answer, thus saith the Lord, every time. And if not, then we're a false preacher. If they say that faith is the act of man's will, we say, is not of him that willeth, thus saith the Lord.

It's of God that shows mercy. And then our text clearly shows, and we'll close with this. If you're not blessed of God, If God doesn't do a miracle for you, the miracle of all miracles, you have no one to blame but yourself. He did no mighty work because of their unbelief. And that's just the truth of God. If you are blessed and God does a mighty work in you, it's because of his grace. free, sovereign, electing, distinguishing grace. And if you reject him and are not blessed, not saved, no mighty work is done in you, it's because of your unbelief.

And the text is very clear about that. Well, Chris, explain that. Do you understand that? I understand that it's what God said. That's all I need to know. By God's grace, that's all I need to know. People like to sit around and second guess the plain truth of God so that they can fit it into their preconceived notions about God and doctrinal creeds.

Let God be true in all of your creeds and theological statements, a big fat lie. If it's not, thus saith the Lord. Let God be true in your will, a depraved cesspool of fleshly, proud, self-righteous desires. By nature, we're like the reprobate in Romans 9 who objected that if they're not saved, it's God's fault because God made me the way I am. All things are according to his will, so the blame for my unbelief is God's. God's truth is not going to ever make sense to us. We're going to argue it. We argued and rejected the plain truth of God in the garden, and we're always going to.

But Paul said, I pray to God, I bow my knees to the Father that you might be able to understand, that you might know the love of God, which passeth knowledge. What needs to happen is for God to make you to know that which cannot be, it passes knowledge. the peace of God that his people enjoy, peace because no enmity, peace because no sin, peace because no separation, peace because therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. If we enjoy that peace, that peace passes all understanding. And Paul also spoke of the unsearchable riches of Christ. God's truth is both plain, clear as a bell, and absolutely unable to be known by sinful man apart from God's grace. That's what our text plainly teaches. It's not complicated. It's not unclear.

We're great sinners before God, and God must damn us for it. He must put us in hell because of our sin, and there's not anything we can do about that. Everything we do to try to remedy that is just more sin. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, he sent his only begotten son into this world to redeem. sinners. And who does the scripture say he redeemed?

All that the Father gave him, all that he shed his precious blood for, every one of his sheep. And I could quote you chapter and verse on all three of those. All that the Father gave him, read John 17. All that he shed his precious blood for, read John 10. And all of his sheep, every one of my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. There's no uncertainty about that. Also John 10 and every other chapter in the whole Bible. That's what Christ's precious blood did. It redeemed his people. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me, our Lord promised, I will in no wise cast out.

And you're without excuse if you come not to him. Are you thirsty? Come and take the water of life freely, freely. Christ said to the Pharisees, you will not come to me that you might have life. And he also said to them, you're going to die in your sins because you believe not on me. But he says in his gospel, come and I'll give you rest. I'll give you rest.