Jesus and the Doctrine of Grace

We're all connected there. If anybody's already watching, let us know if you can hear. I had to cut 24 minutes off on the last one. While we're waiting there, go ahead and turn to Luke chapter four, if you would. Luke chapter four. Wanna look at a few verses here today. I wanna start reading in verse 16 to begin with, but I mainly want to look at verses 23 on down to 30.

It says, and he came to Nazareth, this is speaking of Jesus. Now remember, Jesus had just came out of the wilderness. He'd been tempted 40 days in the wilderness by Satan. He had just come up out of the wilderness. He had went down into Jordan. He was tempted there in the wilderness. He came up out of Jordan and he began to go and preach and teach up to Nazareth. And it says, and he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up.

And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it 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 the scripture fulfilled in your ears. and all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, is not this Joseph's son? And he said unto them, you will surely say unto me this proverb, physician, heal thyself, whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.

But I tell you the truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up 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 Elias. The prophet and none of them was cleansed. Now, Elias was Elijah and Eliasus was, or excuse me, Elias was Isaiah, Eliasus was Elijah. And in the time of Eliasus, the prophet and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.

And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill, whereupon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way and came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath days. And they were astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with power.

All right, I'm gonna stop right there. A few things that I'd like to bring your attention to in these passages and everything. First and foremost, and probably what the whole gist of what I'd like to talk about this morning is going to be, is the fact that Jesus taught election.

He taught the doctrines of grace. Jesus taught election. He taught predestination. Jesus taught particular redemption. He taught efficacious grace or effectual grace, irresistible grace. He taught perseverance or preservation. He taught all those things. He taught man's inability. So he has taught all the doctrines of grace and he taught them consistently and regularly throughout his whole entire ministry.

And brethren, that was the offense of the gospel. The offense of the gospel isn't that Jesus died for everybody, okay? To the Arminian, the gospel is Jesus died, loves everybody, he died for everybody, and he offers you salvation if you'll accept it, right? I don't think I'm misrepresenting that viewpoint because that was my viewpoint for years. that Jesus loves everybody. And because God loves everybody, Jesus came, he died for everybody. Therefore, everybody's sins are forgiven if they will receive him, believe on him, come to him, trust in him, repent, whatever, put their faith in him.

To some people, it was to be baptized. To some people, it's to be into the church or whatever. That's what was the essence of the gospel. However, we see that whenever Jesus preached the gospel, he always at the very center of the gospel, always made the doctrines of grace the center of the gospel. Number one, that it is the sovereignty of God that chooses who will be saved. It is the work of God alone that men are saved. and that man's will and actions have nothing to do with that salvation. That is the gospel that Jesus preached. That's the gospel that we hope to be preaching today here. That's the gospel I pray and hope to be preaching whenever I die, is that gospel. This is the gospel of Jesus. Yet so often we hear, I'm sure all of us that believe the doctrines of grace at one time or another, has heard somebody say, well, that's the devil's doctrine and that's just Calvinism.

You're following after a man. I could care less what Calvin says. I don't really even like reading Calvin. I've never even read, I've not read one of his books all the way through. I've not read his commentaries all the way through. I've not read his institutes all the way through. I've not really paid much attention to Calvin. I could really care much less about Calvin or Luther or any of those reformers, okay? They're not the ones who preach the gospel. Originally, Jesus did. Jesus was the one who give us the doctrine and he preached these things. If Jesus preaches this doctrine, we shouldn't be ashamed to preach it.

I remember whenever I first kind of came into the doctrines of grace, you know, there was a little bit of shyness to preach that, especially around the people that I knew didn't like that, you know, And then, of course, I met a lot of pastors as we were trying to find a church that believed like we did as we began to leave our church that we'd grown up in. Whenever we was out looking for churches, by that time, the Lord had kind of brought me to a place where I wasn't so shy about talking about it. And I came across looking for churches, several preachers, and we even visited one. church where the preacher said that, yeah, we, I believe sovereign grace strongly, strongly, and I preach it.

And I like that. So we went as a church in Tulsa and we went to visit that church and we got there that evening and I met some men that I'd only met on the internet and we shook hands and talked a little bit. And I asked him about the pastor and about the gospel that was preached there. Oh yeah. It's a strong sovereign grace message. And the pastor even came, greeted us, said, tonight, oh, even tonight, you can come on a good night. I'm gonna be preaching a strong Sovereign Grace message tonight. We showed up and sat there and listened, and I'm serious, I couldn't tell a Sovereign Grace point out of anything that guy said at all. There was no Sovereign Grace at all.

After it was all over, we got to talking, and I asked the preacher, I said, Well, let me ask you this, in all your Sunday school classes that you had, of course, at that time, I wasn't a fan of Sunday schools, but I was asking him, I said, you know, whenever you're teaching children, do you teach them the doctrines of grace? In your adult classes, are you teaching them the doctrines of grace? He said, well, not everyone here believes the doctrines of grace.

We're not pushing it on anybody or anything like that. But I do preach it quite often and everything like that. Like you heard tonight, I was thinking to myself, I didn't hear nothing suffering grace. But anyway, I found out that this guy was just a little bit too scared to lose his position if he preached the doctrines of grace.

Well, brethren, the Lord Jesus is the one who preached this and we shouldn't be ashamed of it. We shouldn't be ashamed of anything that's in this Bible that God has revealed. That's why I say predestination. I'm not ashamed to say God predestinated all these things. I'm not ashamed to say that God predestinated evil and sin because the Bible says so. And so we shouldn't be ashamed to say the things that have been revealed in the scriptures. Now, the second thing, not only did Jesus preach the doctrines of grace, but Jesus also preached to these Jews their destruction that was to come.

And I think this was something that was alluding to it. It wasn't like full-on blown message like he's done in other passages, but this itself showed that there was a judgment that was on coming on Jerusalem at the time because he gave them two examples of God's sovereignty, if you'll look in verse 23, he says, you will surely say unto me this proverb, physician, heal thyself whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. So Jesus here, knowing the hearts of these men, knew that they were saying, hey, we heard about all these things you were doing. Matter of fact, Jesus went back to Capernaum after this, if you notice. But Jesus had done all his major miracles in there.

Remember, he did the centurion's servant that had palsy. He raised a Jarius, his daughter, to life. She was in Capernaum. The woman with the issue of blood was in Capernaum. I think there was a blind man in Capernaum. Anyway, Jesus did some major healing. Peter's mom was in Capernaum. whenever he healed her. Jesus has done a lot of miracles in Capernaum. And so what they were saying, what he was saying here is in their hearts is, okay, you've done all this stuff in Capernaum, why don't you do that in your own home city?

Why don't you do that to your own home people? Why don't you do that to us? And Jesus echoed in 24 exactly what we've talked about the last two weeks in what happened with Jeremiah What happened with Isaiah? What happened with all the prophets of old? They were rejected whenever they came and preached. They were rejected by their own people. Jesus, the fulfillment of those types, was rejected by his own people. He came into his own country and was not accepted in his own country.

What was the things that they say? Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? You know, isn't this Joseph's son? You know, this is a carpenter's boy. How's he coming in here telling us these things, you know? Well, look what Jesus does. He gives them two examples.

He gives them the first example of whenever there was a drought and a famine for three years and six months, three and a half years. And in that three and a half years, he sent Isaiah to no one except one widow, and that widow was a Gentile. And then in verse 27, he said that there were all these lepers in the time of Israel, and Elijah was sent to none of them except for Naaman, who also was a Gentile.

So here we see Jesus telling these people that you are rejecting me for who I am and therefore I am going to go to the Gentiles. He's foreshadowing what is about to happen with their judgment and their destruction because in the Old Testament, the Bible tells us that one of the things that's gonna happen in the judgment of Jerusalem is that God is gonna take the kingdom from them and give it to someone else. That the gospel is gonna be opened up to the Gentiles and not just to the Jews. That was preached all throughout the Old Testament, yet the New Testament Jews here didn't want to believe that, and Jesus here was telling them what was about to take place to them. Now, that's just a secondary thing and everything, My main concern here is what happened next.

Whenever Jesus preached to them, the sovereignty of God in, and that's the other thing they see. And all they that are in the synagogue, when they heard these things, they were filled with wrath and they rose up and thrust him out of the city and led him under the brow of the hill, whereupon their city was built that they might cast him down headlong. They were ready to kill him. Now this isn't the first time that they tried to kill Jesus for what he was preaching. But pay close attention to what Jesus did. Jesus always talked to, the people always praised him for his miracles and for the gracious things that he did among them. And then he would preach to them the doctrine of God's sovereignty. Then they would get mad and try to kill him. They would reject his message and they would get angered with him. They'd want to persecute him, whether it be beat him or whether it be to kill him. They wanted to do away with him.

The same people, and notice if you would, the people that tried to push him off the hill there are the same ones in verse, 22, after Jesus had read from Isaiah and said, today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears, what does it say? And all bear him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, is not this Joseph's son? See, they were astonished that he was relating this passage in Isaiah that was to speak of the Messiah that was to come and what he was gonna do. Look at all those gracious things that he was gonna do.

Preach the gospel to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, deliverance to the captives, recovering the sight to the blind, set at liberty them that are bruised, preach the acceptable year of the Lord, preach the time that the Lord was come, their Messiah was coming. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord is to preach that his kingdom has come. That's what that means. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord is to preach that my kingdom is now, is to come, is here. And that's what he did. And so they were excited about this. Oh, great. Oh, wonderful. Could this actually be our Messiah? Could this actually be our king coming now? They were so excited about that. And what did Jesus lay on them? The doctrines of grace. Wait a minute, it's not about what you think it is. Your paradigm is all wrong. Let me teach you a different paradigm.

And so whenever he preached that, what happened? The people rejected it. They hated it. Why? Because they didn't like God's sovereignty. They didn't like God's sovereignty. Every time that sovereignty is preached in the biblical sense, in the biblical way, men reject it, men hate it, They don't like it. And unless you're born from above and given a heart to love that gospel, you will always reject it.

That's why our friends, that's why our family, whenever we preach these things, they kick against these things. They hate these things. They grit their teeth at it. They slam their fist. I would not ever serve a God like that, you know? That's why they do that, because the natural man rejects these things. Jesus has become a stumbling block to them. Now, this isn't the first time that Jesus has preached these doctrines of grace things. If you would, turn to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11. And look with me at verse 20.

It says, then he began to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done because they repented not. Now, brethren, again, I'm gonna make a sidetrack and I don't mean to get too far off on this. Remember, whenever it's talking about repentance here, we are not talking about Jesus went and began to upbraid these people because they haven't confessed their sins. because they haven't stopped sinning. Repentance in the Bible mostly is talking about the change of mind about where righteousness comes from. the change of mind that says it is not me doing something for God that gets my righteousness. It is Christ who has given me his righteousness. His righteousness alone is mine. That's what the repentance is. We turn from thinking righteousness is gained by doing to righteousness was gained by what was done. That's what repentance is.

When John the Baptist was preaching repentance, those men that came in was going to be baptized, but yet they still were hanging on to all their Judaism. What did John tell them? I'm not baptizing you until you show forth fruits of repentance. You need to put away all that Judaism and come and follow Jesus.

He's your righteousness. He's the lamb that takes away the sin of the world. He's the one who is the righteous one who is your righteousness. And so the repentance is to turn from thinking that we have any part in our salvation and that Christ is our salvation. That's what the repentance is.

And whenever Jesus here is talking about, he went back and unbraided these cities because they repented not, it's because they heard his preaching. They said they were following him. They said that they believed him, but they still continued to hang on to their Judaism. And so because of that, he goes back in and he says, woe unto thee, Chorazin.

Woe unto thee, Bethsaida. For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you. Remember, Tyre and Sidon was destroyed, right? And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell.

For if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, another place that had been destroyed, "'It would have remained until this day. "'But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable "'for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee.'" So the destruction that happened to Tyre and Sidon and Sodom, Jesus is saying the destruction that's about to come on you is greater than all of those. Now, brethren, what happened to Sodom? The Lord rained down fire from heaven and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities, destroyed them, fire and brimstone, came from heaven, destroyed everything in the whole entire city.

Tyre and Sidon, everything was destroyed in those cities. But yet Jesus said that it's gonna be better for them in the day of judgment, in their day of judgment, than it is for these men, for this city, for this religious system, there's gonna come a judgment unlike any judgment that has ever been. And he says, but I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee, verse 25.

At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." So here we see Jesus again preaching the doctrine of grace. Jesus here says that these things that he is preaching, that he is teaching, are hidden from some people and revealed to other people.

They're hidden from the wise and the prudent, those who think they're wise and prudent, and they're revealed unto babes. Those who come knowing I can't do anything, knowing that I am nothing, that everything I have I need for you to give to me. My knowledge, my wisdom, my righteousness, everything needs to come from you. That's babes. Ain't that how babes are? Babes don't know anything. You have to teach them. They're trusting. They depend upon their parents for everything. Well, that's what Jesus is saying. They've been revealed unto babes.

But see all these people that thought they knew it all, those people that thought they had it all figured out, these people that thought they were completing God's law, keeping God's law and doing everything that God had instructed them to do, they don't have no need for a physician, quote unquote. They don't have any need for an instructor or a teacher. They don't have any need for anything. We are Abraham's children. We have need for nothing. We don't have to worry about anything. Just because our lineage goes to Abraham, we're safe. We're good. We're chosen. And Jesus said, your paradigm's wrong.

It never was about an ethnic people. It never was about a physical kingdom. It never was about a strip of land. It never was about any of that stuff. It was all to point to the greater and higher thing, the spiritual thing. That which is natural comes first, but that which is spiritual comes next. That's the way of all things here in creation. We have a physical aspect, then we have the greater and better spiritual aspect. And that greater and spiritual aspect was that there was a kingdom that was gonna be comprised of the king on his throne, which is the Lord Jesus, and the people of his kingdom, which is from every nation, tribe, and tongue that he has purchased with his blood.

And those are the ones who make up the true Israel. Those are the true city of Jerusalem. Those are the ones that are in the kingdom. Now they are in the, under the kingship of their king now, who is ruling and reigning them. And so Jesus here tells us that this is a sovereign work of God alone. And what did they do? They didn't like it. They rejected it. They didn't care for it at all. Matter of fact, look with me, if you would, Back at, we've been here many times, John chapter 17. John chapter 17, look at verse two.

As thou has given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou has given him. Is that not doctrines of grace? To as many as thou hast given him. Look at verse nine. I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. That's the doctrines of grace, brethren. Look over at John. Chapter six, John chapter six, look at verse 15.

Jesus had fed the 5,000 here. Great miracle, amazing miracle. I mean, of course we've all heard the commentary on these things that there was 5,000, but that was probably only just the men. There was probably women and children there. There's probably more than 5,000. I don't know. I don't know. I just know what the Bible says. The Bible says 5,000.

There was a great multitude that followed him. And what did he do? He took five loaves of bread and two fish and he divided it and fed all 5,000 people with that five loaves of bread, two fishes, and at the end of feeding all of them until they were so full they couldn't eat no more, they picked up, what was it, 12 baskets of leftovers. Great miracle, amazing miracle.

And then verse 14, it says, then those men that had seen the miracle that Jesus did said, this is of a truth, that prophet that should come into the world. They begin to say, hey, this is that prophet. This is that Messiah. This is that one that's to come.

When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him a king, He departed again into a mountain himself alone. So they were so wound up about this feeding of 5,000 that they said, this is our Messiah. And in their hearts and minds, we need to take him and go ahead and make him our king. They were so convinced, this is our king. But look what happens after that. Over in John chapter six, Jesus, in verse 34, he said, then said they unto him, Lord evermore, give us this bread. Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life.

He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you that ye also have seen me and believed not. Here it is, verse 37. All that the Father hath given me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

Brethren, that's election right there. Jesus just taught election to him. Look at verse 39. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that all which he hath given me I shall lose nothing. That right there, brethren, is particular redemption. All that the Father gives me, I will not lose. I will save, I will keep. Matter of fact, what was Jesus's name? Jesus. What did Jesus mean? Savior. What did the angel say whenever he told them to name him Jesus? He shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people. Those that were given to him.

So we see Jesus preached a particular redemption. but raise it up at the last day hey guess what that's preservation right look at verse 44 jesus said no man can come to me except the father which has sent me draw him and i will raise him up the last day there he's preaching total inability and effectual calling irresistible grace no man can come to me that's total inability effectual calling or irresistible grace, except the father which has sent me draw him."

And then look at verse 60. It says, many therefore of his disciples when they heard this said, this is a hard saying and who could hear it? Look down at verse 66. From that time, many of his disciples went back no more with him. See the same pattern? They praise him for his mercy, his grace, his miracles that he does physically.

But whenever he begins to preach to them spiritual things, the doctrine of sovereignty, the doctrine of election, the doctrine of particular redemption, the doctrine of irresistible grace, the doctrine of preservation, whenever he preaches that to them, that in essence, that gospel says you can't, And that beats at the heart of every natural man and makes them mad and they reject it. And what did they do? They rejected him. And he said, these are hard sayings and who can hear these things? And many of them went away and didn't believe on him ever anymore.

Look, if you would, over in John chapter eight and verse 31. Jesus says this, then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him. There were some Jews that believed on him. If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. Now that's not a condition for us to keep, brethren, by the way. That's a statement of fact. Jesus is making a statement of fact. Those who continue in my word are my disciples indeed. Why?

Because God continues to preserve us by his word. He continues to preserve us by Himself being in us in the form of the Holy Spirit. And that Holy Spirit keeps us. It convinces us of sin, but it also produces within us faith unto God. And it preserves us. And so we continue into the end because of Him. But notice if you would, Many believed, and he said, here's the statement of fact, here's the marker that we'll look at.

Those who continue in my word are my disciples indeed. There are many of you out there that say you're my disciples, but yet you're not following my words, my doctrine. You're not following what I'm saying. You're following my miracles, but you're not following what I'm saying.

Look if you go to verse, 47, Jesus says this, he that is of God, heareth God's words. Ye therefore hear them not because ye are not of God. Now notice that's not backwards, brethren. He didn't say, you're not of God, therefore you can't hear my words. He said, no, you cannot hear them because you are not of God. He didn't say, you're not hearing my words, therefore you're not my child. You're not of me. No, he said, what is the factor for hearing? The only ones that hear his words are those who are his.

That's a hard saying. Look, if you would, at verse 59, then they took up stones to cast at him, But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple going through the midst of them and so passed by. Same thing again, astonished at his miracles, astonished at his teaching. Then whenever he throws down the gauntlet and says, okay, all of this is by the sovereign hand of God.

You don't have any hand in this at all. Matter of fact, you can't even hear and understand my words unless I give it to you. What do they do? They want to pick up stones and they want to cast them at him. Look, if you would have John chapter 10. Jesus said something almost similar here, verse 25. I guess 24 to get some context. Then came the Jews around about him and said unto him, how long does thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you and ye believe not.

The works that I do in my father's name, they bear witness of me, but ye believe not because you're not my sheep. And as I said unto you, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."

Here again, we see Jesus teaches that election precedes your faith. Your believing doesn't make you elect. Your election makes you a believing one. because you have been elected by God, all the blessings, the eternal blessings of God, which are in Christ Jesus are bestowed upon each one of his children.

Just like all of everybody in the whole entire world knows the thing that whenever a parent dies, that all the benefits of that parent goes to those children and it becomes their inheritance. Brother Mike recently lost his mom. Got some stuff in the inheritance, right? He was blessed with something because of his parents. Our father, Christ, because we are his seed, are heirs to the inheritance. So whatever the inheritance entails, We are the recipients of it and only us. Those, whenever I pass away, my children will be able to split up and divvy up whatever I have, which ain't much.

But that kid that lives across the street over there, he ain't getting none of it. He's not my kid. Has no tie to me whatsoever. Doesn't have a right to it. Doesn't have any way to even lay hand upon it. And that's what Jesus is teaching here. He said, ye believe not because ye are not my sheep. Not the other way around again. You're not my sheep because you didn't believe. No, ye believe not because ye are not my sheep.

So Jesus preached that election precedes faith there. And in verse 27, whenever he said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them, he's preaching a particular Believer, ones that are his and only they are the ones given to hear. That's what Jesus said back over here.

You don't hear my words because you are not mine. You're not of God. We've already read when Jesus prayed to the father, father, I think these things because you have revealed them unto babes, my children. You've revealed them unto my children, but you've hid them from the wise and the prudent. That's God's electing, that's God's sovereignty, that's God's choice to give and to not give, to grant and to not grant, to save and to not save.

This is the doctrines of grace, and Jesus is the sole preacher of these things, and he gave those to those disciples. Paul, the great preacher of sovereign grace, He got those from Jesus. Peter, the preacher of sovereign grace, he got those from Jesus. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, all those men received that doctrine by Jesus.

Look at verse 31. It says, I, and then again, the Jews took up stones again to stone him. So here again, we see the pattern. Jesus is rejected whenever he preaches the truth of God's sovereignty. Back, if you will, back to Matthew chapter 13, verse 10.

It says, and the disciples came and said unto him, why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. but to them it is not given. Wait a minute, Jesus, I thought you wanted everybody to know the mysteries of the kingdom.

No, it's given to some and not to others. It's only given by God and in God's time. We know that. There was one time that I didn't realize these things. I was zealous for God just like Paul was. I was zealous going around thinking I was doing God's business. But now I think all those things that I was doing was done. Paul said, I count all that stuff as done that I might know him, the power of his resurrection, to know what he's done, the things that he has done for me and is doing in me.

Because it is given unto you know the mystery of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. So here we see that knowledge, Jesus is teaching that knowledge is something that is given and it isn't something that you earn. Knowledge isn't something that you work on. I know brethren that we have to read our Bibles, we have to study these things, but brethren, we can study these all day long and we are not gonna get the understanding of it without the Holy Spirit's doing it. giving it to us.

And he may choose to let you go most of your lifetime before he ever reveals that to you. I mean, I can't, I always wonder why did the Lord leave me in what I used to believe for so long and didn't allow me to be maybe born into a family that believed it.

You know, my friend JC Fulton, we've talked about this before, me and him, he was born into a family that believed like we do. And he grew up hearing it all his whole life, that it's just second nature to them. Now, to us, we always come to the Bible with, well, I used to believe this, but now I believe that. Well, to them, this is what they've always believed. And you think of that and you're like, man, how wonderful it would have been to have not had this turmoil, not only between friends and family, but within your own self of having to undo all the things that have been ingrained in us and everything.

But brethren, that's because God has a purpose in it. God has a purpose in leaving us into wrong thinking. And I know a lot of people are gonna reject that statement, Mike. Many people are gonna reject that statement that God leaves us in darkness for a certain amount of time until it's his time to bring us into understanding and knowledge of things. If that were not true, the verse in the Bible, grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ needs to be ripped out because God downloads it all whenever we get saved, you know?

No, the fact that we grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ means that there is a time that we don't know, we have not knowledge, we don't have grace, but yet there is a time whenever it's bestowed upon us. I'm thankful that even at my age, and the years that I've been studying the scriptures, and the amount of time that I've been preaching, that even still to this day, I'm finding I have things that I still need to learn. The Lord is still showing me things that I didn't know. Didn't know last week, didn't know the week before, didn't know last Tuesday, or whether it was last century, or last decade, not century, I'm not that old yet. God has to give us that knowledge. That's a doctrine of grace. That is sovereignty of God, and men reject that.

They think that they can go to seminaries. They think that they can go sit under a preacher who can teach them. They think that they can get all these study courses, all these, and I'm not down in some of these things. I mean, like, you know, I have Bible programs. everything and I utilize that to see what word Greek words behind that and look throughout the scriptures to see how God uses that word. I mean I use those tools, you know. I like to read other men's books and stuff and see what their thoughts on things are and everything like that.

But listen, the knowledge is given by God. Look at verse 15. He says, for this people's heart is wax gross and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them. but blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears are hear, for they hear. Now, what is that, what is Jesus saying there? Well, Jesus is saying, knowledge only comes because it's given.

These people, the reason they don't see and the reason they don't hear, I have left them that way. I haven't given it to them. The Bible says that the seeing eye and the hearing ear, the Lord is the one who gives both of them. So the reason that anybody doesn't believe, doesn't see, doesn't come is because God doesn't give it to them.

It's not because they're trying and he's pushing them away saying, no, no, no, no, no. No man has that ability. And God doesn't give them that ability because God hasn't chose them for that service. He hasn't chose them for that service. He's chose them for the service of condemnation and not glorification.

And as God, he has the sovereign right to do so, right? Romans tells us that. Half the potter, not the power over the clay to make out of one lump, one vessel for honor and one for dishonor. And the answer to that is yes, always yes. God has that right to do whatever he wants to do. So God leaves these blind. Well, brethren, what we learned from all this here is that Jesus preached the doctrines of grace.

And we've seen in every instance when Jesus preached the doctrines of grace, the people became mad, became irritable, became hateful. tried to kill him. There was, I think there was, if I remember right, they tried to push him off the cliff. I think they tried to stone him a couple of times, two times. They tried to stone him, and one time they tried to beat him, or one time they, I can't remember all of them, there's like four or five instances, but then the ultimate one was they crucified him, right? They put him on a cross, crucified him.

Listen, this tells us that men loves the benefits of God, but they don't love the sovereignty of God. They don't love sovereign grace. They love the gifts of grace, but they don't love sovereign grace. They love to see the gifts being given, but they don't love the fact that God has the sovereign right to hold or to give or to withhold those gifts.

Christ and all of his gospel was grounded in election. I think our gospel ought to be grounded in election. I've said this before, I used to hear all the time, men say, even sovereign grace men say that, you know, we need to preach the gospel, but election isn't the gospel. Well, how crazy is that? If there is no election, brethren, there is no justification. They say justification is the heart of the gospel. Well, I believe that's true, but brethren, listen, justification is the outflow because of election.

If there is no election, all the blessings of God that are yay and amen in Christ will not come to you. The fact that we have been elected means that we have been given to Christ. We are his children, the heirs of promise. And the Bible in Ephesians chapter one says, all those heavenly blessings are given to us. Election is part of the gospel.

If you don't preach sovereign election, you're not preaching the gospel. It has to be part. And some people will say, and I heard this early on too, Well, there's nothing wrong with preaching election, but that's for the more mature people. You need to wait until people are more mature to preach that. Listen, Jesus is preaching that to people that had never heard any of this.

The gospel had been hidden to them for all those thousands of years, leading up to him coming. And then he, boom, breaks on the scene and begins to preach to them. Every one of them, oldest to the youngest, he preached to them the sovereignty of God. He preached to them election. He preached to them predestination. He preached to them effectual calling. He preached to them particular redemption. He preached to them preservation. He preached to them reprobation. He didn't hold back and say, well, maybe I ought to wait till my third year here before I start breaking that in on them. No, early on, he starts preaching this.

So the offense, brethren, of the gospel is the sovereignty of God to do what he wants to do. That's what people hate. That's what people really hate. I think of the words of Paul. He said, do you hate me because I tell you the truth? Well, the answer is yes. There's a lot of people that will hate us because we preach this truth.

There's a lot of people that's going to hate you whenever you tell them that you can't do anything and God has to do it all for you. There's a lot of people gonna hate you whenever you say that there are some that God loves and some that God doesn't. That some that God will save and has planned to save and some that God has not. And even more hateful is whenever you tell them that there are some that God has chosen to glorify and there are also some that God has chosen to be instruments of combination. They don't believe in reprobation. They believe reprobation is something that you do yourself, and that God doesn't do that. But God has done all things. He does, and carries out all his pleasure, all of his will.

All right, does anybody have any comments or questions, things you'd like to add, bro, you got anything you'd like to add or say? All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day, and we thank you for your grace and mercy. Lord, we thank you for all that you have done for us and in us. We thank you for the word of God that is written out for us to see and to understand as you give us understanding. We thank you, Father, that these things are revealed by your grace.

And so we are beholden to you to reveal them to us. Lord, we know that there are many things that we see in a glass darkly. We know that there are many things that are still hidden to our view and understanding. Lord, and we pray that you would open those things up to us. We pray that you would guide us into the truth of all these things.

But Lord, we are especially thankful that you have given to us the gospel to believe that you have done all things for our salvation and that it truly is finished. And Father Lord, we just pray that you would just continue to keep us in that faith, that we might continue to preach and to minister these things from this area Lord, that you have gathered us together and that you continue to gather us together to fellowship in this gospel. Lord, we are so thankful for what Jesus has done for us. And we just exalt him and praise him.

We pray for all those that are listening. Lord, we pray that you just might give them grace and comfort through the preaching of the gospel, whether it's from our live stream or any other church's live stream that is preaching this truth. Lord, we pray that those brethren will be comforted. Lord, we pray for all those brethren of ours that are not with us here today.

We pray for them, that you'd be with them, that you'd minister to them. Lord, that you'd give them grace and mercy. Lord, that you'd be with them throughout this week and that we might be gathered again today. That you might give them healing and strengthen them in their ailments, and Lord, that you might grant to us to be together again next week.

Lord, I just thank you so much that you've given us this day, this beautiful day. Thank you for the sunshine amidst all the rain that we've had, Lord, and we just pray that you'll be with us all as we leave this place and give us safety as we go. Christ's name that we pray.

Jesus and the Doctrine of Grace

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Jesus and the Doctrine of Grace

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