Matthew 13, 53. And it came to
pass that when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed then. So I thought about that. The Lord had taught the multitudes
from that boat. You remember there were so many
he had to push away from the land a ways and teach them from
a ship. And then he taught his disciples
in privacy, in a house. And then it was time for him
to leave Capernaum. And I thought about this. I don't
know if the Lord will ever leave this place. But I know that he's left places
before. And here's what I want to do.
Let's worship him while he's here. If he does leave here while we're
alive we'll have to go wherever he is won't we whoever's left
of us will have to go wherever he is i'm glad that he's here
now aren't you and i hope that if he ever does leave here that
i'm long dead before he does verse 54 when he was coming to
his own country that's galilee he was he was a Nazarene. He taught them in their
synagogue insomuch that they were astonished. And said, whence hath this man
this wisdom in these mighty works? The Word of God is astonishing. He just told them the truth.
He just preached the Scriptures as they are. That's what he came
here to do. preached himself as he did in
the worship that one time where it says he opened the book of
Isaiah and talked about the Son of God coming and preaching to
the poor, preaching repentance and deliverance to the prisoner. And he said to them, this scripture
is fulfilled this day in your ears. The one that was promised
is standing right here in front of you. That's the way he spoke. He just spoke the same words we do. We preach Christ, Paul said.
So did he. He preached himself. And they were astonished at his
teachings. The truth is still astonishing.
No one was ever astonished by the freewill teachings of religion. It's just not astonishing, isn't
it, to hear about a God that's waiting on you. I got a few responses
to our articles that we put in the local paper last year, and
one of them was an email from a lady that said, I just can't
believe that you teach that. She said, I can't believe it.
You teach that God has only purpose to save some people, and he only
loves some people and not everyone? And I emailed her back and said,
in effect, what you're saying then is you cannot believe the
Bible. And I showed her that. I printed several plain, irrefutable
scriptures and asked her to tell me what they said. If they don't
say what I'm teaching, what do they say then? Of course, I never
heard back from her. People are astonished by the
truth. But do you know what's truly astonishing? Turn to Mark
chapter 6. You want to know what the Son
of God was astonished by? Mark 6, 1 through 6, it says
that He, the Lord Jesus, went out from thence and came into
His own country. This is that same, it's a different
account of that same instance now. And His disciples follow
Him, that's what we said. If He leaves, we're going to
have to go with Him somewhere, aren't we? That's what they did. You're not going to stay here?
Well, we're not staying either. 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 wrought 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,
and this reads just about how our text reads. We'll read it
there in Matthew in a minute. Jesus said to 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. They were astonished and he was
too. He marveled because of their unbelief. And he went around about the
villages teaching. You know, I was a little bit
astonished at what that lady said in that email. I was. How
can you read the word of God? And believe that God loves everybody
and that Christ died in his best effort to save everybody. How
can you? Isn't that amazing to you? It is. Once the Lord reveals the truth
to you, I know why. I know why, don't you? Because
left to ourselves, we can't receive the things of the Spirit of God.
They're foolishness to us. Neither can we know them. Because
they're spiritually discerned. But once the Lord reveals the
truth to you, you realize how astonishing it is that we're
as blind as we are. Thank God for grace. to see Christ in his redemptive
glory, in his word. It's just astonishing that you
can read the word of God just as it is, and people say, well,
I don't believe that. Not even comment on it, just
read the word. These folks were astonished by
what Christ said, and they stumbled at what their eyes saw. They said, where did this man
get such wisdom and mighty works? Look at verse back in Matthew,
this same event is recorded there. They said in verse 55 in Matthew
13, is not this the carpenter's son? We recognize him. What they saw with their own
eyes, what they reasoned in their own hearts was the prophet. Is
not his mother called Mary? We know her. And his brethren,
James and Joseph and Simon and Judas and his sisters, are they
not all with us? Whence then hath this man all
these things? And they were offended in him.
But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, save in
his own country and in his own house. There is an unholy familiarity
that's dangerous in there. People talk about me and Jesus
got a good thing going and things like that. And I've heard, I
actually had somebody stand in front of me one time and say,
I've got the Lord Jesus right here in my pocket. And when I
need something, I take him out. I don't know if I can't remember
if I said anything to him or not. It was a long time ago,
but what I was thinking is my, my God won't fit in your pocket
or mine. The heavens can't contain him.
And he doesn't do your bidding. He does His will in the armies
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and nobody can
stop Him or even question Him. Well, you remember there in John
10, 32 and 33, they said to the Lord, we're not stoning you because
you do good works. We're stoning you because you
say you're God and we can see plainly that you're just a man. this is the fulfillment of that
prophecy in Isaiah 8 14 he shall be for a sanctuary and he is
to his people but he'll be something else too a stone of stumbling
and for a rock of a fence to both the houses of Israel for
a djinn 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 us
and also cause for great thanksgiving he said 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 now you see
the the context and the and the the continuation of the teaching
here. Our Lord declared what the kingdom
of God is, what it's like. He illustrated it to them and
taught them concerning the kingdom of God. And then he said to those
that understand it, he said, you're like householders now.
You're responsible. You're responsible for some people.
You're responsible for their care and comfort. Comfort ye
my people, sayeth your God. That's True of me as a householder,
my house, I'm responsible to make sure that my children aren't
left out in the cold and that they have something to wear,
something to eat, and my wife, my family. I'm responsible for
their protection. If somebody is making like they're
gonna harm them, they're gonna have to come through me, because
I'm the householder. I'm responsible for feeding them.
The Lord said, feed my sheep. Do you love me? Feed my sheep.
And I'm responsible to teach them. I'm responsible to bring
up my children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. I'm responsible
for my family." And he said, that's, do you understand what
I've taught you? Then you're a householder now
and you have a treasure and you're going to bring it out. Don't
hide it, bring it out. But now he's talking to those
who hear the gospel and he says, you're responsible too. The ones
who tell it are responsible to be faithful, to be good stewards
of the grace of God, but those who hear it are responsible to
you. And that's what he's dealing with here. And this is a warning to us,
but also cause, as I said, for great thanksgiving, that he has
come and taught us. And if, if we believe, we ought to thank God for his
grace. All right, number one, there's
this same danger when the Gospels preach today. This is a warning
that's valid right here this morning. We don't compare ourselves
to the Lord in any sense but this. We're preaching the same
truth that he did, the same word, the same good news that he did. When this here was observed and
later written concerning him, that their unbelief was the cause
of him not blessing them. And there's still a danger of
acknowledging, to some degree, the truthfulness of the words.
They were astonished. They knew something was different.
No man ever spake like this man, they said in another place. And
yet, stumbling at what you see, there's a danger of that. Paul
said, don't be ashamed of me, the prisoner of the Lord. Don't
look at me in this jailhouse and say, well, there must not
be anything to what Paul's preaching. Oh no, don't make that mistake.
We have this treasure in earthen vessels and folks tend to be
more likely to listen to a man who's a gifted speaker or a great
personality, somebody that can work a room, you know, or perhaps
highly educated. In our Lord's day, the multitudes
respected and followed the Pharisees. And the Lord said concerning
them, the blind are leading the blind. And if when that happens,
they're all going in the ditch, everyone. Well, nobody would
have listened to the ragtag group of fishermen and old men and
tax collectors that the Lord had preaching for him. Had not
the Lord given them supernatural powers to work miracles, nobody
would have listened to what they say, and that's why he did it.
That's part of the reason why he did it. Today, we don't have
this miracle-working power. What do we have? We have the
astonishing Word of God. The Gospel's still astonishing,
isn't it? No one would listen to God's preachers today And
I doubt not that many of you have been asked, why in the world
are you going to listen to him? Well, there's one reason. And
though you might not otherwise see any reason to listen to any
one of God's men today, if you ever hear the word of God come
out of their mouth, you'll understand why some folks are listening
to him and know it for the word of God. Some sinners are listening
to him, and that's why. That's why, not because of their
credentials. Paul had credentials and had
to renounce them publicly. He said, I don't come to you
in the words of man's wisdom, but in the power of God. But
none of the original 12 had any reason why anybody would
listen to them in themselves. Number two, even though the words
were astonishing, they believed not. This is the nature of unbelief
now. You can be absolutely set on
your heels. You can be put back on your behind
by the word of God and still willfully rejected. Those who
were physically dropped on their backs by the very presence and
glory of God's got up and arrested him and took him to the cross
and killed him. And that's true spiritually too. It takes a miraculous, powerful
work of God's grace to change a sinner, to change a leopard
spots and to change the skin of an Ethiopian. It takes his
almighty grace This is the nature of unbelief. In the face of clear,
irrefutable, amazing truth, there is a stubbornness, a natural
hardening of the neck against the truth that offends this flesh. I remind you of what happened
in Acts chapter 4. I was going to turn there, but
I don't want to keep you long this morning. In Acts 4, the
gospel was preached in power. He said to them, you've killed
the prince of life. This Jesus whom you crucified,
God has made him both Lord and Christ. He preached the gospel
in power and they healed. It was after healing that lame
man. You remember they said, Peter
and John said, we don't have any gold or silver to give you,
but what we do have, we'll give you that. In the name of Jesus
of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And by that miracle, all those
people gathered around and listened to the gospel priest. And Peter
said, why are you looking at us as though we did something?
It's not us. It's Jesus of Nazareth that has
wrought this. The one you crucified wrought
this. And it says that when they saw the miracle and they heard
the power of the gospel, it says they couldn't say a word against
it. So what did they do? Well, they
started following it and believed it. They started conspiring how
they could shut Peter up. In the face, they knew, they
said that a notable miracle is done this day, we can't deny.
Who does miracles? Who can make a lame man walk?
It's never been seen on this wise that the eye of one blind
had been opened and yet people saw that happen. and still rejected
the gospel preached by those who were given that power. God
confirmed the gospel that they preached with his very powerful
presence to heal, illustrating not only his great power to do
as he pleases, but also to give life to whom he will. In a spiritual
sense, it was an illustration of what happens spiritually when
the gospel goes forth in power. The lame are able to walk, the
blind are able to see. The leper is cleansed. And yet
they saw this and could not refute it, could not deny that God showed
up that day and confirmed that gospel that was being preached.
And yet they still conspired against it. I've seen the rage
on the faces of those who couldn't say a word against the truth
presented to them from the very word of God himself. It didn't
make them happy though, it made them mad. They were entrenched
in their unbelief. Unbelief entrenches itself against
overwhelming and irrefutable truth. Number three, they used,
and here's the problem now, they used their reasoning powers to
convince themselves that Christ, the Son of God, was not worth
listening to. They didn't refer to the Word
of God. Had they done so, they would have seen that this man
clearly was God's Christ. That's what the apostles preached
in the Book of Acts. They went back to the Old Testament.
They said, look at there. Look what God said was going
to happen. This Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, clearly, plainly. But you know what they did? They
started reasoning. They started saying, well, wait a minute,
we know his mom and dad. They started talking about it
amongst themselves. And how many today are denying
the truth? The truth now. There's the truth. Paul said, woe is unto me if
I preach not the gospel. and they're denying the truth
because they can't get their puny minds around it. It doesn't make sense to me.
It doesn't measure up to my sense of fairness or logic and therefore
it must not be true. My friends, the warning of scripture
to you this morning is not try the spirits whether they make
sense to you or not. The admonition of God is try
the spirits whether they are of God. That's the question.
That's the question. Not whether it makes sense to
you. Not whether it conforms to your preconceived ideas of
who God is and what a sinner is and how God saves sinners.
Let this be the standard by which every spirit is tried. Isaiah
820. To the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them. There's
a reason why they don't say what God said. It's because they're
in darkness. Seeing we have such hope, Paul
said, let's use great plainness of speech. Can I do that this
morning? I pray God will enable me to
do that. Be plain. Let me be plain right now. If
they say God loves everybody, And God said, Jacob have I loved
and Esau have I hated. There's a reason for that. It's
because there's no light in them. It's because they're in darkness.
If they go around saying that to everybody indiscriminately,
smile, God loves you. And the word of God says, God
hateth all workers of iniquity. And his love is found in one
place, in one person. in the Lord Jesus Christ. If
you're in the ark, God loves you. But you can't put a sticker
on the outside of the ark saying, smile, God loves you. It doesn't
work. It just doesn't add up, does
it? And that's what they're doing now. It's because there's no
light in them. If they say Christ died for everybody,
what the Lord Jesus Christ did on the cross was do the best
he could to save everybody. If they say that, and Christ
himself hath said, I lay down my life for the sheep, and my
sheep will never perish. They'll never perish. It's because
there's no light in them. If they say God has done all
he can do, and now it's up to you, and Christ himself says,
all that the father giveth me, shall come to me." If he says,
no man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me
draw him, it doesn't sound to me like it's up to you. It sounds
like it's up to God. You know, there's a reason why
they say what they do. And it's not according to this
book. It's because there's no light in them. If they say that
faith is an act of man's free will, and they do, they're saying
it right now. As I stand here and you sit there,
they're saying it right now. And the word of God says, it
is not of him that willeth, it is not of him that runneth, but
it's of God that showeth mercy. It's because there's no light
in them. They're in darkness. God hasn't revealed his truth
to them. That's why they speak the way they do. To the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, It is because there
is no light in them. But let me say this, and this
is the warning of our text this morning. If they do speak according
to this word. If somebody is speaking according
to this word, then you take heed. You take heed how you hear, no
matter how weak and foolish the vessel. Don't reason your way
out of eternal life. Believe God, not men. Not your
own thoughts. Believe God. Well, what did the
fathers say concerning this doctrine or that? Who cares what they
said? What did God say? That's all that matters. Number
four, if you're not blessed of God, you have no one to blame
but yourself. The Lord left there without doing
many mighty works. He healed a few people. But he left there because of
their unbelief. If you're blessed of God, if
God does a mighty work on you, it's because of his free, sovereign,
distinguishing, saving grace. It's because he loves you. It's
because he's always loved you from eternity, set his affection
upon you, and predestinated you to one day be just like his son. and has put in place all of the
means to bring that to pass, including the preaching of his
gospel, the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit coming where
you are and giving you life, giving you faith in his son.
That's why, if you're blessed of God, if he works a mighty
work on you and in you, that's why. If he doesn't, you know
why? You do now, don't you? If you
didn't before you walked in here. It's because of your unbelief. Do we understand that? Do we understand that? Can I
explain that? Here's what I understand. I understand
that it is the clear, irrefutable truth of God. That's what I understand
about that. It's because of your unbelief. Are you smarter than God I only ask that because I know
some people who have that problem. People like to sit around and
second-guess the plain truth of God so that they can make
it fit into their preconceived doctrinal creeds. They're like
the reprobated Romans 9 who objected that if they were not saved,
it's not because of any fault of their own. It's because of
the very sovereignty that Paul is preaching in that chapter.
It's because God made us the way we are. Who hath resisted
his will? Everything happens according
to his will, so the blame for my unbelief is God's. I don't
recommend that argument. It's because of your unbelief. God's truth is not ever going
to fit into your puny brain or mine. nothing about God. Name one thing
about God that you can fully understand and comprehend in
your mind. Paul said, I pray to God that
you might know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. He also said that the peace of
God that we enjoy in Christ passeth all understanding. It's bigger
than you. You can't even You can't even
grasp it. It's too big to put your arms
around. The riches of Christ, Paul said,
are unsearchable. And you won't understand this
either. But I want you to know who to blame and who to praise.
I want to know that, don't you? The gospel is not in any way
complicated or ambiguous. You are a great sinner before
the Holy God. You're vile and wretched from
the top of your head to the sole of your feet. We're ruined. We're
utterly ruined by the fall. The fall didn't harm us or damage
us or make us sick. It ruined us. It killed us. We're
dead in trespasses and sins. And God must damn you for it. He must. The judge of all the
earth shall do right. And the right thing to do is
put you in hell where you can do no more harm. But, and let
me add this, there's nothing you can do about it. You're not
going to do anything about it. You can't work your way out of
it because every work you do, it's not of him that runneth.
It is not of him that exerted himself in the performance of
a thing. Because all that you perform is sin. Your righteousnesses
are filthy rags in the sight of God. Your will is depraved
as your affections. But God, who is rich in mercy,
with his great love wherewith he loved us, he sent his only
begotten Son into this world to redeem sinners. Who did he
redeem? Now think with me for a little
while. I won't be long. Think with me. Who did he redeem?
Everybody he came to redeem. They're described in several
ways. We just read one of them a while ago. All that the Father
hath given me. In the eternal covenant of grace,
the Father gave to the son of people. He said, I'll give you
the heathen for an inheritance. And that's what he did. All right,
all that the Father giveth me. All for whom he died. He said,
I lay down my life for the sheep. Well, what's gonna happen to
them? Well, if they exercise their free will, no. He said,
those sheep that I laid down my life for, they will never
perish. Never. Whoever he died for, never
ever shall perish. Not one hair of their head will
fall to the ground without my heavenly father. They're in my hand, he said,
and nobody will ever snatch them out of my hand. You believe that?
You believe his hand is that strong? Paul did. He's able. I'm persuaded that
he can keep me. All right, that's who they are. All of his sheep, and I could
quote you chapter and verse for every one of those answers. That's
what his precious blood did. He obtained eternal redemption
for all those for whom he shed that precious blood. There's
no question about that. It redeemed his people. And there's
another way that these ones are described. There's another way
they're described. And I didn't say but, I said
and. This doesn't contradict anything that I've said so far.
You know how else they're described? Whosoever believeth. They're
the same ones. The same ones that the father
loved in eternity and predestinated to be conformed to the image
of his son and in his good time calls out. out of this world,
out of every kindred, tribe, nation, and tongue under heaven,
and draws them as the Lord Jesus said. My father draws them. That's
how you come to me. You can't come to me unless he
draws you. But he does draw you. If he loved you and predestinated
you, he'll call you. And whom he called, he justified.
And whom he called, are already in eternity seated in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus glorified E.D. Thank God for His grace. The power of His grace. You know
who they are? Whosoever believes, that's who
they are. Him that cometh to me. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me But, no he didn't say but, he said and. Him that
cometh to me, I'll never cast him out. I will in no wise, no
way will I cast him out. You come to him and find out
what happens. And you're without excuse. You
have no excuse for not coming to him, absolutely none. Are
you thirsty? come and take the water of life
freely. Let him that's thirsty come. The Lord Jesus Christ said to
the Pharisees, you will not come to me that you might have life. And that's our problem. You know
what our problem is? The one thing that religion says
is your solution. your free will. Your will is
not the solution. Your will is the problem. You
will not come. You look up that word will. You've
heard me say this several times I'm sure. It doesn't just mean
shall. It doesn't just mean you're not
going to come. It means you don't want to because you have no desire
for me. You have no taste. no desire. In your estimation, there's no
reason to come. They have looked at the pearl
of great price and said it's not worth it. That's all of us now by nature.
You know how you can look at the pearl and say, I gotta go
sell everything. He opened your eyes that you
might see. It's his almighty grace. I pray this morning. That if you are yet in your unbelief,
and that's what we're born with and grow up with. Will continue
in until God works a miracle of grace. For us and in us. Unbelief, that's where we are.
And I pray that if you are yet in your unbelief this morning.
That the Lord Jesus Christ would break the damning power of your
will and save you. He's able to do so. Let's bow
in prayer.