I want to read some scripture
that I won't preach on this morning. Really at all, I'll refer to
it. But I want to preach on a different passage. But I want us to look
at this parable first. Before we see what our Lord said
about parables in general. In answer to a question from
the disciples. But let's look at a parable that
he told. We'll look at this parable particularly next week, Lord
willing. But let's read it before we look at our text this morning. In Matthew 13 verse 24, it says,
another parable put he forth unto them, saying, the kingdom
of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his
field. But while men slept, his enemy
came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the blade was sprung
up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the
servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst
not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath
it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath
done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt
thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, nay, lest
while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with
them. Let both grow together until the harvest. And in the
time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, gather ye together
first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them. But
gather the wheat into my barn. Now look at verse 36. This part pertains to this same
parable. Then Jesus sent the multitude
away and went into the house. And His disciples came unto Him,
saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. And
He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed
is the Son of Man. The field is the world. The good
seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the
children of the wicked one. And notice here now that there's
two kinds of people. There are the children of the
kingdom. From the very beginning now, from the very planting,
there's good seed, and then there's tares. There's not a whole world
of people, and we're gonna wait to find out who's who. We may
be waiting to find out who's who, but God's not. There's good
seed and there's weeds. From the very beginning of the
same lump, our God has made one vessel into honor and another
into dishonor. And so we read this clear truth
set forth. The enemy that sowed these weeds
is the devil. The harvest is the end of the
world and the reapers are the angels. Every aspect is clearly
explained. As therefore the tares are gathered
and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world.
The son of man shall send forth his angels and they shall gather
out of his kingdom all things that offend and them which do
iniquity. Well, wait a minute, that's all
of us. If you're in Christ. You've done
no iniquity because he's done no iniquity. He's your representative. He's your righteousness before
God. Those outside of Christ are in
their sin and are seen to have done all of the iniquity that
they've heaped iniquity upon iniquity since the day they were
born. And they stand before God in their sins and will be dealt
with accordingly. and shall cast them into a furnace
of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine
forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. Do you have
ears to hear? Then hear. And again, before we look particularly
at this parable, let's see what our Lord said about these parables
in general. in verses 10-17 of this same
chapter. Verses 10-17, look at it. And the disciples came and said
unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? And 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. For whosoever hath, to him shall
be given. and he shall have more abundance,
but whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that
he hath." What is it that these ones have and others have not? Well, the context is clear. To you it is given, what's given
to you? To know. So when he says to them
that have, he's talking about those that have knowledge. Knowledge
of God. scriptural knowledge of themselves,
knowledge of the kingdom of God, how God saves sinners by the
righteousness and blood of his son, by the sacrifice of the
soul of the son of God for his people, knowledge. And those
that have knowledge, do you have knowledge? He'll give you more.
If you don't, even what you think you know will prove to be vanity. and will be taken away from you.
It will be revealed to be nothing. Therefore, speak out to them
in parables, because they seeing see not, and hearing they hear
not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the
prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing you shall hear, and
shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive. For this people's heart is waxed
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. not better are
your eyes, blessed, because it's given to
you. It's given to you. And your ears are blessed, for
they hear. For verily I say unto you, that
many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things
which you see and have not seen them. and to hear those things
which you hear and have not heard them. There are four things I
want us to see particularly here today in this passage concerning
these parables in general and why our Lord spoke the way that
he did. Number one, the disciples asked
this question for a reason. They saw that most people were
confused and even angered by what our Lord said. He spoke
these parables, and people didn't understand him. They had no idea
what he was talking about. They didn't have any spiritual
understanding of these parables, and what they did know, what
was clear to them, made them mad. And the disciples wondered
why he taught them the way that he did. And I want you to notice
this first. He promptly answered their question.
It reminds me of what James said in 4.2. You have not because
you ask not. Do you want to know anything?
Is there anything you'd like to know? I wonder if the Lord
would show us more if we asked Him to. Do you reckon He would? Number two, the disciples asked
why the Lord taught them in parables. Now think about this with me.
They said, why do you teach them in parables, and he said, because
it's given to you. Now, think about this with me. Our Lord, in effect, is saying
it's not about them. It's about you. To you, it is given. You see,
the disciples didn't understand these parables any more than
the Pharisees did. In verse 18, the Lord said, Hear
ye therefore the parable that I just told you. Let me explain
to you what each element of this parable represents, who each
element represents, and what. And he did so. Why? Because they
didn't know. Since it is given unto you to
know, hear the explanation of the parable and understand. A
parable can have two completely opposite effects. If you understand
the allegory of the parable, as our Lord explained, the sower
is the son of man, that's me, that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
The good seed, that's you, that's the children of the kingdom,
the ones to whom it is given to know the mysteries of God,
the gospel of Christ. The tares are the children of
the wicked one. and the one that sowed them is
the devil, and the field is the world. If you understand the
allegory, a parable is enlightening. Doesn't that help you understand
what this is all about? Does that parable help you understand
what's going on in this world around you? Religion has missed
it, I'm telling you. They're trying to turn goats
into sheep, and it doesn't happen. They're trying to turn evil seed
into good. And that never happens. It never
happens. And if you understand the allegory,
that's enlightening, isn't it? It's a blessing from God to have
His purpose revealed because we're in on it. You want to do
God's will in this world? Believers do. Then we need to
understand what His will is. What His purpose is. What's He
doing? If you want to be in on it, let's find out what He's
doing. What he's not doing is shooting his gospel like a shotgun
into a flock of birds that are all the same and hoping he hits
somebody. That's not it. It's not by chance. Well, everybody
deserves a chance to be saved. Salvation, not by chance. The
Lord's not doing that. Did you hear the parable? He
that hath ears to hear, let him hear. But if you don't understand
the allegory, it has exactly the opposite effect. It's confusing. They didn't know what in the
world he was talking about. When he spoke clearly to them,
and what they did understand, angered them. I'm not saying
they were ignorant of everything concerning our Lord's purpose.
You can't get mad at what you don't understand. They understood
some things in their head. But these parables, they didn't
know what he was talking about. And he didn't explain it to them.
Turn to Galatians 4. And let's look at an example
of this. I believe we can experience this
ourselves with a little thought that the two opposite effects
that a parable can have and did have when our Lord taught them
that way. Galatians 4.21, tell me ye that
desire to be under the law, you that desire, you just want God
to give you a fair shake. And, you know, if your good outweighs
your bad somehow or another to reward you with heaven, you know,
just give me a chance to be saved. Don't you hear God's law? Don't
you know that you've broken it in every aspect since you were
born, all your life? You've disobeyed God's law. I
mean, you're condemned under it. You're guilty and condemned
and deserve hell richly. Don't you hear that? For it is
written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid and
the other by a free woman. What in the world does that have
to do with the law? And you that desire that to be
under the law, hearing the law and understanding that you really
don't want to be under the law. You might think you do, but you
don't want to be under the law. Abraham had two sons, but he
who was of the bond woman was born after the flesh, but he
of the free woman was by promise. Which things are an allegory?
What in the world does Abraham's two sons have to do with law
and have to do with the gospel? Well, these two sons are an allegory. for these are the two covenants.
If you didn't have that explained to you, if this verse wasn't
in Galatians chapter four, would you have understood from those
verses in Genesis and seen this and said, oh, that's the law
and then the gospel, that's the law and grace. These two signs,
oh yeah, I see that. No way in the world. And unless
the Lord reveals it to you, you're not gonna understand it spiritually
today. And neither will I. These are
the two covenants, the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth
to bondage, which is Hagar. Why does Hagar and her son Ishmael
represent that law? Because it was man doing his
part in order to bring about the purpose of God in saving
sinners. God's already prophesied that
He's going to save sinners through Abraham's seed. And he said,
I promise you're going to have a son. Well, they started getting
too old to have a son. And it doesn't make any sense
anymore. It's just not going to happen. So, well, Abraham,
I guess you'll have to go into Hagar. Let's figure it out on
our own. Let's do what we know to do. Let's try to work out
God's purpose and make God's purpose in saving sinners come
to pass by getting people down an aisle and getting them to
make a decision. Don't you have to make a decision to be saved?
We can't wait on God. Let's make something happen.
Let's get people saved. That's bondage. That's man doing
something, anything to please God, and man can't please God.
For this Agar is Mount Sinai, and answereth to Jerusalem, which
now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem,
which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all. The
free woman, the son of the free woman is the son of promise.
That's God's work alone. That's when man can do nothing
and God miraculously brings about life. That's how a sinner is
saved. Not by doing something for God,
but by God doing something for you. That's clear now, isn't
it? But it wouldn't be if we didn't
have the explanation of it. And it may still not be to you
this morning. If the Lord doesn't reveal it to you, which we're
going to talk about in a minute, you're still not going to get
it. The disciples were given not only an explanation of the
parable so that they understood it in their minds, but they were
given spiritual understanding and faith so that they would
embrace the truth in their hearts. Number three, our Lord's answer
shows that his ministry was consistent with his purpose. It was not
God's purpose nor the work of the Lord Jesus Christ then nor
now is it to save everybody. Religion may have that purpose.
Religion can't save a flea. I'm interested in what the one
is doing who can save sinners if it pleases him to do so. That's
who I want to find out what he's up to. It's not his purpose to
save everybody. He said in John 6, 38, I came
down from heaven, not to do my will, but as a man, as the servant
of the father, but the will of him that sent me. It was the
same will. He's not saying he was resisting
that or he had a different will, but it's the father's will. And
he came to do it. He was willing to do it. And
this is the father's will, which has sent me that of all which
he has given me, I should lose nothing. but should raise it
up again at the last day." That's what he came to do, to seek and
to save that, that which was lost, his lost sheep. In John 17, he said, I pray not
for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me. Why? Why didn't he pray for the world?
Because his ministry was consistent with his purpose. He interceded
for those as their high priests before God, for those whom he
came to save, for those for whom he came to shed his precious
blood, to redeem them. He interceded for the same ones
that he redeemed on Calvary, those to whom it is given to
know the good seed that was sowed by the Son of Man. He's about
to give this parable that we're going to, Lord willing, look
at next week of the wheat and the tares. And that parable further
explains his answer here concerning why he taught them in parables.
There was not a field full of tares and some of it turned into
wheat. Our Lord Didn't say, let's wait and find out who the wheat
is and who the tares are before we deal with it. He already knew
who they were. We don't. And that's important to understand
too. We don't, but he did. And so he could say to the disciples,
to you it is given. To them it is not. And not only
knew who to say that to, but taught the people having that
knowledge. I can't say that. It may look a certain way to
me, but I can't say to you it is given and to you it's not
given. I can't say that this morning. I have no idea about
that. I may think I may have some idea
in my mind, but I don't have that authority or knowledge. But our Lord did, and our Lord
didn't fertilize the weeds. He didn't plant them, and he
didn't fertilize them. He made them, but he didn't plant
them. in his garden. Satan did that. The Lord's the first cause of
everything. You understand that. There, I don't know how else
to talk except ignorantly, but there was a time which wasn't
a time when there was only God. Everything came forth from him,
including Satan and all of his demons. Everybody and everything. So
he's the first cause of everything. But God's garden, he didn't plant
tares in his garden. Did you hear the parable? He
didn't do that. Satan did that. And we've used this illustration
before for John 3, 16. For God so loved the world. Who
did he love? He loves his garden. The field is the world in the
parable, right? That's God's garden. He planted
some good seed in it. And he loves this garden. I love
my garden in a much lesser sense. But I don't love the weeds. The
tears are an aggravation to me. And what I want to do is rip
them up and kill them. That's what I want to do. Can
you worship a God like that? If not, you can't worship God.
Our God's not trying to do anything. Never has and never will. The
Lord Jesus Christ didn't come down here to try to save anybody.
He came down here to save, to seek and to save, and that's
what He did. And having done it, He said, it's perfect. In
other words, let me say this, it did not disturb our Lord at
all that the Pharisees didn't understand what He said. Now
think with me. I'll be brief this morning. Think
with me, though, for a little while. It didn't disturb him
at all. The reason the disciples asked
this question at the beginning, why are you talking to them in
parables? They don't understand what you're saying. And it's
making them mad. It's making them mad. They don't
like it. That didn't bother the Lord Jesus Christ one bit. Turn
to Matthew 15, and I'll show you that. Matthew 15, 12. Now this is important. If you want to have anything
to do, with the Lord's will and His work while you're on this
earth, and if you don't, you're in big trouble, you're a goner.
Because everything else in this world is vanity, except God,
His will, and His work. But you need to understand what
the Lord's doing, what He has done, and what He's going to
do. Matthew 15, 12, Then came His disciples and said unto Him,
after the Lord had taught the people, that's the That's what
we're talking about. He taught. He taught everybody
that would stand there and listen to him. But his disciples said,
don't you know, Lord, that the Pharisees were offended by what
you said? They didn't like that. It made
them mad. But he answered and said, oh, no, let's go back and
see if we can reach out to them a little bit better. That's what
religion says, isn't it? Let's reach out to them. Well,
again, it's important that we don't know tares from wheat.
We're just preaching the gospel. But we need to know what our
Lord's doing. And I'll explain that a little bit further in
a minute. But what he did say is this. He answered, every plant
which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. If I didn't plant everything
in my garden that I didn't put in there, I'm going to pull it
out sooner or later. Not as thoroughly as he does.
I miss some. And they're too much for me,
but not for him. Remember now, let me explain
a little bit further. We don't know wheat from tares.
And so we don't go around talking that way about individuals, about
particular people. We don't know that. But also
remember this, our business is to preach the gospel without
compromise. without tolerance of any error,
with compassion, yes, but without compromise. Our Lord's ministry
was consistent with his purpose. Is our message consistent with
the purpose of God? We don't know what he knew, but
if our purpose is to get everybody saved, then we will without doubt
compromise the message. That's what happens every time.
We're just presenting the message and we want folks to hear it.
We do it with compassion. Paul said, we beseech you, be
you reconciled to God. But we aren't going to compromise
the message by God's grace for anybody or for any result, for
any reason, anywhere, anytime. May God make it so. We're tasked with the calling
out of God's sheep, and we know That it is only by the gospel
of God's free grace, by the substitutionary sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. We use these big words, but you
know what I mean. That he was our substitute for
his people. He died in our place on the cross.
Substitutionary sacrifice. Sin, if it's to be forgiven,
there must be blood sacrifice. There must be punishment. God
must punish sin. He's either going to punish you
in hell forever, or He punished your Savior on Calvary. And you
go free. His substitutionary sacrifice
for our sins. It's that message, the Gospel
message. Paul said, we preach Christ crucified. And we know that it's by that
Gospel That's the means that God will use to call out his
sheep in this world. We preach Christ crucified. Paul said to the Jews a stumbling
block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called,
whether they're Greeks or Jews, to the good seed, to those to
whom it is given to know Christ is the power of God and Christ
is the wisdom of God. As he's preached, That's who
he'll be to you. He'll be the power of God to
save you. You'll see how God can be just and justify a wretch
like you as he's preached. And you'll see the wisdom of
God, Christ. How can man be just with God?
Job said, I know it's so of a truth, but how can it be? You'll see
the wisdom of God in saving sinners in the righteous way. to be true
to his own honor and law and justice and have mercy on a sinner. Number four, our Lord reveals
here how sinners are saved. The gospel, Paul said, is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. And
so our commission from the master is go and preach that gospel
to every creature to every creature. We're not rooting up terrors
and separating terrors from wheat. God will do that in the end of
the world. That's what he said in the parable. That's not our
business. Let them grow up together. We're preaching to every creature.
Everybody. If you'll sit down and listen,
I'll preach it to you. And we do by his grace and power. That's
what we do here. And now, as then, some believe
and some do not. Why? Because some are smarter
than others? Because some are more spiritual?
Because some make a better decision than other people? Why did they
make a better decision than somebody else? Because they distinguish
themselves in some way from other sinners? No. Of the same love. The same love. Paul said in Ephesians
chapter 2, you were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. Those words, even as, it means
you're just like them. Just exactly like them. But to
God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us, he quickened us together with Christ. We're all exactly
the same. There's one difference. God loved
us. His great love is the distinguishing
power of salvation, the cause of salvation. So we, by God's grace, we go
and preach. And we know that there's no difference
in men, but You know, religion talks about making decisions
and improving upon the grace of God, but our Lord puts the
lie to all false religion that says God's done all he can do,
now it's up to you. With five clear, unmistakable
words, to you, it is given. Number four was what? Our Lord
reveals here how a sinner is saved. to you it is given. This is the record, John said. If you go to hell, he said before
that, it'll be because you believe not the record that God gave
concerning his son. And this is the record. This
is what this book is about. God has given unto us eternal
life. and this life is in His Son. The Apostle Paul said, Thanks
be unto God for His unspeakable gift. It is given unto you. Blessed are your ears for they
hear in your eyes for they see. This is the answer to the question
why some believe And some don't. And it's taught throughout the
scripture. Paul said in Romans 9, God said, I'll have mercy
on whom I'll have mercy. So then it is not of him that
willeth. The mercy of God doesn't come
that way. It's not of him that willeth.
You can call your church free will, whatever you want to call
it. It's not of him that willeth. And you don't have a free will.
So I'm glad it's not of him that willeth, aren't you? And it's
not of him that runneth. Him that runneth there in the
original language is he that exerts himself in the performance
of anything. That's not how you're going to
be saved. It's not going to be by your
own words. How is it then? It is of God that showeth mercy.
He just said, I'll have mercy on who I want to have mercy on.
And who I don't want to have mercy on, I'll harden. Is that
all right with you? Our Lord in Matthew 16, 13 asked
the disciples, who do men say that I, the son of man, am? There's
a lot of talk about the Lord. And our Lord knew what they were
saying. He knew every word. But He asked His disciples, who
do they say? What are they saying about me? And they said, well,
some say you're John the Baptist. Some say you're Elijah or one
of the other prophets. They can see that you're somebody
special. You know, you're a special man. Sin of God. That's what Nicodemus said. He
said, we know that you're sin of God. And our Lord revealed
that Nicodemus didn't know anything, even the simple truth of the
gospel. This is what they're saying. But then our Lord said
this, who do you say I am? Two different kinds of people.
Who do you say I am? And Peter answered, thou art the Christ, the son
of the living God. That's a pretty good answer.
And the Lord said, boy, you're smarter than most people. No,
he didn't say that. He said, you're blessed of God.
Because flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, but my father
did. My father did. To you, Peter, it is given. It's not complicated, is it?
It's not complicated. Salvation is the revelation of
the person of Christ. That's what we just talked about.
Who do you say I am? What was it that was revealed
to Peter who he is? That's salvation. Acts 28 23 says, and when they
had appointed Paul a day, there came many to him into his lodging,
to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God. persuading
them concerning Jesus. We preach Him, the person, both out of the law
of Moses and out of the prophets from morning till evening. And
some believe the things which were spoken, and some believe
not. What do you know about that?
I pray we know a little more about that this morning than
we did last night. because of this parable our Lord
spoke and his explanation of his ministry. Why some and not others? To you
it is given. Our Lord explained clearly. Salvation is also the revelation
of what he did. That death that he accomplished
for his people at Calvary. As their substitute and sin offering,
Paul said, we preach Christ, but he didn't stop there. We
preach Christ and him crucified. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
come down here to be our example, although he is our example. He
came down here to give his soul and offering for sin for his
people to redeem them from the curse of the law being made a
curse for them. That's what he came to do, and
that's what he was talking about when he said, it's finished.
We preach God's lamb. Behold the lamb. What happened to lambs in the
Old Testament? They were slain. We preach God's
lamb slain for sinners. The precious blood of God's lamb
We were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb,
without blemish and without spot. Acts 17, 2. Let me read this
to you. And then I'll turn, have you
turn, go ahead and turn to Acts 13, but let me read Acts 17,
2. Paul, it says, as his manner
was, what are we saying? Salvation is a revelation of
Christ the person, who He is. You're the Son of God. God with
us, come down here to redeem us. You're the Christ. What was
that word Christ? His anointed. Everybody, every
Jew, everyone who had any understanding of the Old Testament knew who
the Christ was. This is the one that's to come down and redeem
His people from their sins. God's Christ. All right, Acts
17 to Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them in three Sabbath
days, reasoned with them out of the scriptures. That's all
we have to talk about. I didn't come here to give you
my opinions this morning. It's the scripture, it's what
God said. Opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered. Christ didn't come down here
to show you how to live. He came down here to die for
sinners, for his people. Christ must needs have suffered
and risen again from the dead and that this Jesus whom I preach
unto you is Christ. Thou art the Christ. You, this
one, this Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter's son, he's the
Christ. And some of them believed. and
consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks, a great
multitude, and of the chief women, not a few, but the Jews, which
believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows
of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city
on an upper. They opposed the gospel. They
believed not. Now look at Acts chapter 13. Let's read some verses here.
Acts chapter 13, verse 23. Of this man's seed, he's talking
about David there in verse 22, of this man's seed hath God according
to his promise. This is what he said he was going
to do. Raised unto Israel a Savior, Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth is that
Savior that God promised to David, promised to Abraham. When John
had first preached before his coming, the baptism of repentance
to all the people of Israel. Now look at verse 28, the same
message he's preaching now. And though they found no cause
of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be
slain. And when they had fulfilled all
that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and
laid him in a sepulcher, a grave, a tomb. Now think about that.
Pilate said, I find no fault in him, no cause of death. And
yet they said, crucify him. What were they doing when they
had fulfilled all that was written of Christ? That's what God said
would happen, that he would die for sinners, that he'd shed his
precious blood. That's what Isaiah was writing
about. In 53, surely he hath borne our griefs and carried
our sorrows. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter. He was wounded for our, he was
bruised for our iniquities, wounded for our transgressions. The chastisement
of our peace was upon him. By his stripes, we're healed.
He didn't make healing possible. When he hung there on that cross,
he healed us spiritually. All right? But God raised him
up from the dead, verse 30. showing that His sacrifice was
accepted, was perfect, had redeeming power to save all of His people.
Now look at verse 38. Be it known unto you, therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe. Believe what? Christ crucified. When they said, crucify Him,
crucify Him, and did all that they did to Him on the way to
the cross, and as He hung on that cross, and as He died there,
they were fulfilling God's purpose of grace towards sinners. And
He said, we preach this unto you, and if you believe, you're
justified. That's how God saves sinners.
By grace through faith in this Gospel, in His Son. from all
things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses,
you're not gonna measure up to God's law. You're not gonna be
saved by the deeds of the law or by doing anything. You're
gonna be saved by what he did for you or you're not gonna be
saved. Now look at verse 45. But when the Jews saw the multitudes,
they were filled with envy. and spake against those things
which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and
Barnabas waxed bold and said, it was necessary that the word
of God should first have been spoken to you. But seeing you
put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life,
lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded
us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that
thou shouldest be for salvation. unto the ends of the earth. So
the Jews were mad. They hated what the gospel that
Paul preached and they opposed it and blasphemed against it. Look at verse 48. When the Gentiles
heard this, they were glad. And they glorified the word of
the Lord. How come? How come some believe
not and some believe? As many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. As many as God had purposed from
the foundation of the world and had given to them to know the
mysteries of his kingdom, they believed on Christ. Isn't that
beautiful? That's what God's doing in this
world this morning. It's good to know that. And isn't
it good to be in on it? Thank God for His electing, free,
distinguishing, sovereign grace. There is nothing that distinguishes
one sinner from another except His grace and love. Our Lord
Jesus Christ rejoiced in spirit in Luke 10, 21. It says He rejoiced
in His spirit and said, I thank Thee Oh Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, sovereign, that thou hast hid these things from the
wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight. Does that seem good to
you? Thank God for his grace. Let's
bow in prayer.