Well, good morning. If you would
open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 23. Lord willing, we'll finish up
our study in Matthew chapter 23 this morning. Before we begin,
let's bow before our Lord in prayer. Our Father which art in heaven,
holy and reverent is your matchless name. And Father, we dare only
come before your throne of grace in the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ, pleading his obedience as all of our righteousness,
pleading only his blood that cleanses us from all of our sin. We dare only come before you,
begging to be accepted in the beloved, in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I beg of you this morning
that you would enable us by thy spirit to worship this morning,
to worship in spirit and in truth. I pray you deliver us from playing
church and just acting religious for a time, but Father, enable
us from the heart to worship you. Enable us to hear your gospel,
to hear of the Lord Jesus Christ, and be thrilled. Enable our hearts
to be encouraged and comforted at hearing one more time of Christ
and him crucified, how his sacrifice completely saves his people from
their sin. Well, we pray for ourselves,
we pray for our children's classes, and we pray for those all around
this country and all around the world who this morning gathered
together with the same heartfelt desire we have to worship you.
Father, cause your gospel to run well, we pray. Cause it to
bring glory to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I
pray you'd show us your glory in these dark, dark days. Show us your glory. Enable us
to By faith, see the Lord Jesus Christ and believe on him. Father,
we thank you for the many, many blessings of this life, how richly
you've blessed us. You've blessed this congregation
so richly. Father, we're thankful. Pray
your continued watch care over us, your continued provision.
Cause us, Father, to take care of one another, to show our love
one for another, to be brethren as we ought to be. Father, for
those who are sick and hurting in many different trials, we
pray for them. We pray that you would deliver,
that you'd heal, that you'd comfort. We thank you, Father, that we
can bring these cares to thy feet. We pray you'd give us the
grace to leave them there, knowing that thou doest all things well.
All these things we ask and we give thanks in that name which
is above every name, the name of Christ our Savior. I have a very sobering, I guess
is the correct word, lesson this morning. The title of it is this. Why are some saved and some damned? I'll tell you the answer to that
question and then I'll show you that answer in three illustrations
from what our Lord says in our text this morning. The answer
to why are some saved is purely because of God's grace. If we
are saved, it's entirely the work of God for us and in us. God never saves anybody because
they deserve it. It's always by his grace. And
if you and I awake in glory in Christ likeness, the sole reason
will be because of what Christ has done for us and what he's
done in us. Eternal life is a gift. It's
the gift of God. It's not something we earn. It's
a gift he gives by his grace. And the answer to the question,
Why are some damned? It's because of their unbelief.
People will be damned because God gave them their will and
their way. And the way of the flesh is always
trusting in the works of the flesh instead of trusting in
Christ. The one and only thing that keeps
people out of heaven is their unbelief. It's their stubborn,
obstinate refusal to trust in Christ. I'll give you an illustration
from the Old Testament. Why didn't Israel enter the promised
land? Moses led them to the brink of
the promised land. They sent in spies to see the
land. God brought them all the way to the promised land. Why
didn't they enter in? Hebrews 4 verse 5 says they entered
not in because of unbelief. They did not trust God to give
them the land. So they died in the wilderness.
And the only reason was their unbelief. It wasn't God wasn't
able to bring them in. It was their unbelief. Now someone
today who hears the gospel, but they still insist on trusting
in their own works of righteousness. Now what's gonna become of them? They'll be damned. I say that weeping. It's what
a horrible, horrible, there's no joy in that whatsoever. They'll
be damned, and I'll tell you why. Because everything we do
is sinful. They want to trust in their works,
but everything we do is sinful. And the wages of sin is death.
So in short, if we go to hell, it's our fault. It's our stubborn
refusal to trust in Christ. And if we go to heaven, that's
all God's doing. It's his mercy and his grace
he freely gives. If I go to hell, that's gonna
be the result of my dead will. And if I go to heaven, that's
the result of God's eternal will and purpose for his people. Now
that's the answer. Let me show you that in three
things that the Savior points out in our text. And I believe
it's worth noting. These are the last public words
our Savior said on earth. The last public words. Everything
else he said was in private to his disciples. These are very
sobering words. First thing is this. God sends
his preacher to men and men hate them. Now men hate God's preachers,
and I'll tell you why. It's because they hate the message
of grace without their words. They hate the message, so they
hate the messenger. See if it isn't what the Lord says, beginning
in verse 34 of Matthew 23. Wherefore behold, I send unto
you prophets and wise men and scribes. And some of them you
shall kill and crucify. And some of them you shall scourge
in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city, that
upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth. from
the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of
Barakas, whom you slew between the temple and the altar. Verily
I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation.
Now, men hate God's preachers, and they always have, they always
have. God's preachers and his prophets
from the very beginning have had to endure hatred from the
fleshly people of this world. I said a second ago, they hate
the message. So they hate the messenger. They
take it out upon the messenger. Human beings absolutely hate
being told to submit to authority. They just hate being told to
submit. They hate being told to surrender. And that's the
message of the gospel. You surrender, you stack your
arms, you surrender, you submit yourself under the righteousness
of God. Men hate that. They hate being
told don't do what you want to do and submit to authority more
than anything in this world. Men hate that. And our message
is repent. Repent of your sins. Don't do
it your way. Do it God's way. Quit trusting in your religious
works. Quit trying to make God happy with you by what you do.
And trust Christ and Christ alone. Trust Him alone as all of your
righteousness. Trust Him alone as your salvation.
Trust him as your prophet, your priest, and your King. Surrender
and submit to him and beg him for mercy. Quit trying to earn
your way to heaven and beg God for mercy. You surrender yourself
to the crown rights of King Jesus. He can do with you as he pleases.
Now you surrender and beg him for mercy. That's our message.
And men despise that message. They despise it. This is contrary
to the flesh. And so they'll hate the messenger.
And that's just the deal, they always have. Now, I have to tell
you, in all honesty, quite thankfully, I don't have to worry much about
being killed today for preaching the gospel. But God's preachers
are still gonna be slandered, they're gonna be despised, they're
gonna be lied upon. In our civilized society today,
you'd be shocked at the treatment that God's preachers receive.
In his commentary on this passage, Brother Fortner made this statement.
People frequently will abuse the man's wife and children,
too. Nothing's off limits. Nothing's off limits. There's
just no end to their hatred. Now that tale, we ought not be
surprised when that happens to us. It's going to hurt. We don't
like it. But we ought not be surprised. That tale is as old
as time, as old as man's time on this earth. Cain killed his
brother Abel. Why? a dispute over salvation
by grace or works. And he killed, he hated him so
much he killed him for it. Is salvation law or grace? I mean,
which sacrifice will God will accept? I mean, which one? Which
is the way to approach God? Is it by our works? Is it by
what we can produce? Is it by, you know, we can grow
from the cursed ground? Is it by what we can produce
from this cursed heart? Or is it by grace? Is it through
the blood of Christ, which was pictured by the sacrifice that
Abel offered, which is it? Well, I'll tell you what, is
it the way that we want, is the way of salvation, is the way
of righteousness, is the way to come to God. Is it the way
that we think is the best way to come to God? Is it the way
that makes sense to us? Or is it the way God says he's
to be broached? Now the answer to that question
ought to be obvious, shouldn't it? And I tell you, if God is
God, we better submit to his will. We better come the way
he said to come. I believe God knows better than
anybody else how he is to be approached and how he is to be
worshiped, don't you think? And Cain wouldn't do it. Cain
hated that so bad. He hated hearing that so much,
he killed his brother, his brother. And he did it in hatred of God.
Story is told so many times. Israel either did kill or tried
to kill, wanted to kill almost all of the prophets, from Moses
to John the Baptist. Just think of the stories. Think
of what we have recorded in scripture. The Lord mentions this Zacharias,
the son of Barakas, and nobody knows at all who this man is.
But you can bet this, the Pharisees knew who it was. Most people
tend to agree it was someone that they had recently mugged
and killed. The Pharisees knew who it was.
Now you think of this from God's perspective. God is the one who
we've sinned against. We've broken his law. We've rebelled
against him. We take our fist and we shake
it in the face of God almighty and said, I'll not have your
son to reign over me. I don't care what rules you make.
I'm not going to follow. I'm going to do it my way. All
of mankind has rebelled against God like every single son of
Adam has done it. And God is the one who's provided
a way of peace. God is the one who provided a
way of redemption. God is the one who provided a
way for sinners to come back to him. He's the one that sinned
against, yet he provided the remedy. He didn't cause the problem,
man caused the problem. And God in his mercy and grace
provided the remedy. Now, how gracious is that? How
wonderful is that? And God's provided the way and
he sends his messengers out to tell sinners the good news. There's
a way of redemption. There's a way of the forgiveness
of your sin. There's a way that you don't
have to be separated from God anymore. There's a way to come
back to God accepted and have fellowship with him. And men
reject that message. They reject that way of salvation
at every Turn. Now when God sends them to hell,
whose fault is it? It's not God's fault. I mean,
and those people God sends to hell, they are not going to be
able to say, oh, I believe in election now, but it's not God's,
it's God's fault. No, they're going to say that.
They're going to say it's not God's fault for not choosing
me. They'll have to say, I didn't want God to choose me and I wouldn't
choose God. So whose fault is it? They can't
say, well, you know, it's God's fault that I'm condemned because
God didn't give me faith. They didn't want faith. They
wanted their works. They didn't want faith in Christ.
Well, this ought to be our worst fear. God gives us what we want.
God gives us what we want by nature. God gave them what they
wanted. In the end of it's condemnation. Damnation is man's fault, not
God's fault. And if anyone believes this message
of grace and they believe this message of salvation in Christ
alone, that's all God's doing. It's not that we're smarter than
somebody else or, you know, it's all God's doing because no man
by nature, no man with this fleshly nature that we're born with can
believe the message of grace. No man in the flesh can believe
Christ. No man in the flesh can trust
Christ. We don't have the ability to
trust him or love him. It's this flesh is dead in sin. And if you believe this message
that Christ came into flesh and died for your sin, the only reason
you believe that message is God gave you a new heart to believe
it. He gave you a new nature to believe that and love it and
to lovingly submit to Christ. See, that will cannot come of
this dead flesh. It has to be from the will of
God that he gave us that new nature that trusts Christ and
believes him. So God's the one that gets all
the credit, if anybody's saved, aren't they? God gets the credit
for that. Man gets the fault for condemnation,
because they utterly refused the message that God sent to
them. All right, number two, God gives men plenty of space
for repentance, and they refuse to do it. Now you think just
of the nation Israel, how many, many prophets God sent to them.
How many wise men God sent to them that explained the word
to them? And they rejected them. From
2,000 years, from Moses to Christ, they rejected every prophet.
God said, you know, a few people didn't, but the nation as a whole
rejected every one of them. Now 2,000 years is a long time.
That's a long time. And the Jews still rejected the
gospel. They still rejected the prophets
and after Two thousand years of those prophets, you know what
they did? The Son of God himself came in the flesh and they rejected
him. He came into his own and his
owner saved him. Now, as I tell you so often,
I don't want to just talk about the old Jews. I want to apply
this to our lives today. The message that God has given
us today is salvation It's all in Christ. Salvation is by the
will of God, by the purpose of God, by the doing of God, never
by the will or doing of man. Our message is repent and be
saved. Look to Christ. Trust Christ. Quit, just quit trusting your
works and trust Christ. That message has been preached
in Ashland, Kentucky for over 70 years. A lifetime, somebody's
lifetime, three score and 10, 70 years. Over 50 of it by the best preacher
any of us will ever meet face to face in this earth. I got
a question for you. How many people believe it? How many? How many people have
heard that message and refused to believe it? How many? That makes me mad. Frustrated. Maybe mad is not the right word.
Frustrated. I just, oh, it makes me sad. It makes me sad. Yet
God is so patient. Oh, how patient God is. And you
know, many times he's waiting patiently because his time of
grace has not yet come. He waits patiently on a person.
A person may live in rebellion for a long, long time, They may
sit in these very pews in rebellion a long, long time. They may sit
here and hear every grace preacher come and go in this country.
And they sit there in their rebellion. And you think, why doesn't God
wipe them out? Why didn't God just say, I've got enough of
this? Like we would. Like we would.
Aren't you glad God's not like us? You know why God doesn't
wipe them out? It could be. Could be. He's waiting on his
appointed time of grace to come for that person. I'll give you
an example. This is the example given to
us in scripture. Remember Ezekiel's baby out there,
polluted in its own blood, lying out there in the field. Nobody
wanted it. They just cast it out in the
open field to the loathing of its person. And there that baby
lay just waiting to die. And God said, behold, I passed
by. And thy time was the time of
love. And God said, I said unto you,
live. And you lived. And I decked you
with ornaments and I made you beautiful so that your beauty
was renowned over all of the world. Why'd that happen? Because
God's appointed time came and behold, thy time was the time
of love. God passed by in mercy. God's
so patient. He gives people plenty of space
to repent. And if there he is, he'll come
to him. He'll come to him. But if not,
whose fault is it? If a person has been given all
this space to repent, all this time, they've heard the gospel,
they've seen all these evidences that God is, and they still do
not repent. They just refuse to. And God
damns them for it. Now whose fault is that? Well,
it's not God's fault. He had plenty of time to repent.
It's their fault. They stubbornly refused to humble
themselves and trust Christ and beg God for mercy. And if a person
does repent, if they turn away from trusting what they used
to, the idolatry, the works, everything they used to trust
in, and they turn to trust Christ, whose fault is that? Oh, that's
God's doing. God did that. Only God can give
the gift of repentance and faith. Only God can give it. So if a
person is saved and they wind up in glory, I tell you what,
God gets all the credit for that, doesn't he? That's all his doing.
All right, here's the third thing, and I hope this will help you,
because these verses are often twisted and misunderstood. Here's
the third reason. God gathers his people, but the
unbeliever will not. Look here at verse 37. O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them
which are sin unto thee. How often would I have gathered
thy children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under
her wings, and ye would not. Behold, your house is left unto
you desolate. For I say unto you, you shall
not see me henceforth, till you shall say, blessed is he that
cometh, in the name of the Lord. Now, don't mistake what the Lord's
saying here, because you don't, quote this verse or think of
this verse just right in your mind. You know, that's what the
Armenians do. They, they, they, they twist
this. They really changed the words of it to make it sound
like that. The Lord said, salvation is up
to me. And you know, I tried to gather you and you would not.
The Lord is not saying that this is what he said. How often, he's
not saying how often why I've gathered you. and you would not,
he's not saying that. The Lord's not saying, well,
you know, I wanted to save you. I tried to save you. I tried
to gather you. I tried to be like that mother
hen and gather you under me and protect you. I tried to show
mercy to you and you just refused it. So my purpose of salvation,
my purpose of mercy is frustrated by your rebellion. The Lord's
not saying that. He never says I wanted to save
you and you would let me. Never, ever, ever. His will is
always done. Always. Here's what the Lord
is saying. How often have I gathered my
children from among you and you would not, and you would not. How often have I sent the message
of grace to this nation and you would not, you would not allow
it to be preached. How often have I gathered my
children through the preaching of the gospel from your midst?
You saw it, you saw me gather my people together and you refused
it. Others were repenting, others
were being saved and you would not. Now, if somebody sees others
repenting, they see others believing the message of the gospel. They
see others finding salvation in Christ. and they still refuse. They would not. They will not.
They will not repent. They will not trust Christ. If
that happens, whose fault is it when they're damned? It's
their fault. They would not. It's not God's
fault. God's able to save. It's not
the fault of the message of the gospel. No, this gospel is the
power of God into salvation. Oh, this gospel is powerful.
It's life giving. It's not the fault of the gospels.
It's their fault because they refuse to believe it. They just
would not have it. And you know, still yet the way
that the Lord says this is a comfort and encouragement to God's people.
The way he says this shows his compassion, doesn't it? It shows
his tenderness and his pity for sinners. Let's never forget this. The Lord delights to show mercy. He delights in it. He doesn't
delight in damning people. He delights in showing mercy.
Now the Lord does delight in justice. He delights in justice
because that's his holy character. He delights in justice. He'll
never compromise his justice. He'll never compromise his character. Yet damning people does not make
him happy. And God's people, when they hear
that, they find their delight and comfort in that. How comforting
is it to hear? Our Savior is compassionate and
He's tender toward weak sinners. I'm thankful, aren't you? It's
His compassion, it's His love, it's His pity towards people
like us that moved Him to be made flesh so He could be made
a sacrifice for His people. His compassion did that. His
love for his people would not allow him to come down off the
cross. It would not allow him to try
to skip the cross because he loved his people. So he sacrificed
himself for them so they could have life. It's the compassion
and love and pity that Christ has for his people that moves
him to come to comfort his people. Now, our Lord is the one who
sends trials and troubles and heartaches to his people. He
does that. He does it for our learning, for our good, to wean
us from this world. But that's never done in a mean-spirited
way. He also, at the very same time,
comes to comfort his people. And I know sometimes he doesn't
come as quickly as we would like, because he's waiting. Do we learn
what it is that he asked for us to learn? He's waiting to
his appointed time But you just hang on to this. He's coming
to comfort you. He's coming to comfort you. It's
his compassion and his pity. He remembers that we're dust.
You know, I'm afraid often we don't remember that we're dust.
But he does. And he has compassion on it for
us. Often we don't remember our brothers and sisters are just
dust. We forget that. We're hard. We're judgmental.
Not the Savior. He has compassion and pity for
his people. He remembers that we're dust.
He loves his people. He has compassion for them. It's
what moves him to be with his people. He said, we're two or
three gathered together in my name. All the rest of the city,
the rest of the surrounding area might despise that little group.
They're so little, they're not worth nothing, it's dang. Not
the Savior. He didn't despise them because
they're few, because they're weak. He said, well, two or three
are gathered together in my name. There I am in the midst of them.
There I am. It's his tenderness and compassion
and pity for his people. If he doesn't meet with us, we
can't worship. If he doesn't meet with us, we'll have no blessing.
And it's his compassion for his people that moves him to be with
them. So they're blessed. So they're
comforted. So they're saved. It's his compassion for his people
that doesn't allow them to live here forever, but moves him to
come and gather them and take them to glory. It's his compassion,
his pity for his people. And I'm telling you, that thrills
God's people. What a thrill to know that God
is both able to save, no question about his powers, he's God Almighty,
he has all might. He has the ability to save, the
power to save, And oh, he's willing to save. He's willing to save
because he delights in mercy. I don't know who I first heard
say this, but this is a true statement. God is more ready
to save than we are to be saved. By nature, that's true. God is
more ready to save than we are willing to be saved on his terms. Brother Fortner said, again,
I'll quote him in his commentary in this text. God is as willing
to say as he is mighty to say, as willing as he is mighty to
say. That's a true statement. So if
somebody goes to hell, it's not their fault, is it? It wasn't
the lack of God's willingness. It wasn't a lack of God's might.
It was their fault and their stubborn refusal to trust Christ. Now, let me give you this in
closing. That's a sobering, Serious thought, isn't it? Well, what
should our reaction to all this be? God help us that our reaction
is not, oh, you're gonna get it. No, that ought not be our reaction.
If you know the Lord and you trust Christ as your all, do
you trust him? I tell you, that ought to humble us. That ought
to humble us. That didn't come from us. That's
a gift of God. We ought to be thankful. We ought
to be thankful. We ought to not be proud. We
ought to be thankful. And we certainly shouldn't be
judgmental. I mean, is this just a religious sounding statement?
Or do we really believe it? There go I, but for the grace
of God. It ought to just humble us. That's what grace should always
produce in the heart. It ought to produce humility.
and a thankful spirit should. I hope God will do that for us
this morning. All right, hope that was a blessing to you.