The Glory and Offense of the Gospel

Q: What does the Bible say about true worship?

True worship requires the presence of Christ, who must reveal His glory in our hearts. The Bible teaches that for worship to be genuine and acceptable, the presence of Jesus Christ is essential. In Luke 4, Jesus illustrates that He must show up for worship to have spiritual significance; if He does not meet us in the preaching of the gospel, we engage only in outward exercise devoid of true spiritual engagement. Worship is an encounter with the living God through His word, where our understanding is enlightened to see more of His glory and love. This reflects the importance of having Christ in our worship experience, as He is central to our relationship with God.

Q: Why is the gospel important for Christians?

The gospel is essential as it reveals God's sovereign grace, saving sinners and offering freedom from sin. The gospel is vital for Christians as it encapsulates the entire work of salvation, revealing God's sovereign grace. Through the preaching of the gospel, God communicates His plan of redemption, wherein Christ is both the message and means of salvation. The gospel proclaims free grace, highlighting that salvation is not earned through human effort but provided freely by God. It brings liberation from sin, healing the broken-hearted, and opens the eyes of the spiritually blind. Thus, for Christians, the gospel is not merely a starting point but the foundation of their faith.

Q: How do we know election is true?

Election is affirmed in scripture, teaching that God chooses individuals for salvation before the foundation of the world. The doctrine of election, as presented in scripture, asserts that God, in His sovereignty, chooses individuals to save before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1:4-5 clearly states that believers were chosen in Christ. This teaching underscores that our salvation is initiated by God’s grace and not by our works or decisions. The biblical narrative, from Genesis through Revelation, emphasizes God’s active role in salvation, navigating through human history, and ensuring that His purpose prevails. Thus, the evidence of God's sovereign election can be seen throughout scripture as foundational to understanding salvation.

Q: What is the significance of preaching for salvation?

Preaching is the means God uses to communicate the gospel and bring the message of salvation to sinners. Preaching serves a critical function in the economy of salvation as it is the primary means by which God communicates His truth and draws sinners to Himself. Romans 10:14 states that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, illustrating the necessity of preaching for people to grasp the gospel message. The proclamation of the gospel not only serves as a call to repentance but also powerfully conveys the reality of Christ’s redemptive work. When the word is preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, it transforms lives and accomplishes God’s purpose of salvation.

Q: Why do some people reject the gospel?

Many reject the gospel due to unbelief, often viewing it as foolishness or being hindered by self-righteousness. Rejection of the gospel can stem from a variety of hearts that are unresponsive to God’s truth. In Luke 4, we observe that those who heard Jesus were initially amazed by His message but quickly turned to doubt because they saw Him merely as Joseph’s son. Their familiarity with Him clouded their understanding of His divine authority and message. Additionally, the carnal mind is at enmity with God and will not receive the things of the Spirit, as seen in 1 Corinthians 2:14. This inherent rebellion against God, coupled with self-righteousness, often leads individuals to dismiss the grace offered in the gospel.

I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to the book of Luke, chapter 4. We are continuing in our examination
of exactly what took place in our Lord's first recorded sermon. This is the first sermon that
He preached to His hometown folks. His first message. This is the
first message that his disciples had the pleasure of hearing him
preach to Jesus' hometown folks. What a remarkable experience. Last week we dealt with the significance
of worship as we took our instruction from this portion of scripture
and we wanted to understand as our Lord had laid it out for
us what constitutes true worship and true preaching and a number
of things that I laid out before you is the importance, the absolute
essentiality of the Lord Jesus showing up in the worship. I
don't mean him showing up in the worship in the normal sense
in which we think Jesus shows up in the worship, but Christ
must show up for the worship to be valid. the Lord Jesus must
show up himself in order for our worship to have any eternal
and spiritual significance. And we learned that he returned
from Galilee, verse 11 of chapter four, in the power of the spirit. And he came to his hometown and
we took from that the critically important truth that the death,
burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ was in order that He might
come back again in the hearts and in the minds and in the life
of men and women who were chosen by Him and called by His grace
and saved by His Spirit. If Christ is going to mean anything
to us, He must come into our hearts by His Spirit. and in the preaching of the gospel,
or else all we are doing is what Paul called bodily exercise. We have got up this morning,
we have put our clothes on. Some of us may have listened
to Christian music on the way, got ourselves in our religious
mode. Some of you may have read your
Bibles or listened to a tape. You might've even had the audacity
to listen to me on the way in. But you're here now, And I can
tell you the whole world, or at least large portions of the
world, since the beginning of time have been doing what they
call worship. Worship. Boy, we had worship
today. You didn't have worship the way
God has worship if Christ didn't show up and stand up and speak
out and sit down. You didn't worship if Christ
didn't meet you in the preaching of the gospel. to reveal His
glory to your soul one more time. You went through bodily exercises,
you flailed your hands, you screamed hallelujah, but you didn't worship
the true and the living God. Until the Spirit of God enters
into the sanctum of your heart and show you His glory, you have
not and you cannot worship. This is what we saw last week
And it was remarkable what our Lord did being the preacher par
excellence. As I said, he is the great preacher. And as we were dealing with our
texts, and you can follow me in your outline now, as we make
our way through the passage, the first thing I called your
attention to is the necessity of the minister, the minister
who in our day is the preacher, the earthly preacher, the necessity
of the minister, submitting himself to Jesus Christ in such a way
that Christ is the one speaking through him and by him, explaining
his own word to you. If you're going to ever profit
from God's word, the preacher is simply a vehicle by which
Jesus Christ speaks to the hearts of needy sinners. And it's very
important for you to know when you're hearing Christ, are you
hearing a man? It's so very critical for you
to know, child of God, when you have heard the gospel preached
in the power of the Spirit, speaking to your heart and to your soul,
or you are hearing the words of men. My master said in the
gospel of John chapter 7, you can know whether a man is of
God or not, because he will speak of himself or he will speak of
God, and you'll know the difference. If he's of God, he'll speak of
God. If he's of the flesh, if he's
carnal, if he's worldly, he'll speak about himself. He'll speak
about you. He'll speak about things. But
he can't speak about God. To speak about God, God must
have spoken to him. We're learning this in our theology
class, are we not? Theology is God talking about
himself and letting us in on the conversation. And if you're
going to talk about God, you've got to listen to God first. You
can't talk about somebody you don't know. And in order to know
somebody, you've got to listen to them. Isn't that what our
wives have been telling us, fellas? In order for you to talk about
the Lord Jesus, you've got to listen to Him. You've got to
hear His voice. You've got to hear Him speak.
And to hear Him, you've got to be quiet. The preacher, therefore,
is but a vehicle who takes the book, which is God's book, and
gives it to the one who is the author of the book, and the author
of the book must explain the book to you and me if we're gonna
know anything about this book. Am I making some sense? And so
the Bible tells us in verse 17, and there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And in verse 20, when Jesus closed
the book, he gave it again to the minister. And the net effect
of Christ preaching to you and me is that our eyes will be fixed
on him. The eyes of our faith will be
fixed on Jesus. When we're done worshiping, we
will have learned a little bit more about the glory of God in
the person of Christ. When we're done worshiping, God
will have taught us just a little bit more about his love for us
in Christ. Our mind's eye, our soul's eye,
the eyes of our understanding will have been enlightened just
a little bit more about the lovely Lord Jesus Christ. Am I making
some sense? That's what it means to worship
Him. That's what it means to have entered into communion with
Him, to hear the Lord speak to us Himself. And do you know this
is the way the apostles spoke constantly concerning the Lord
Jesus? I'm not fabricating, I'm not
stretching this or extrapolating. The apostles themselves said,
it is critical if sinners are going to enter into a vital union
with God Almighty for Christ himself to come to you. Go with
me in your Bibles to Acts chapter three. I want you to see this.
Acts chapter three. In Acts chapter three, the apostle
Peter is here speaking. And something wonderful has occurred.
The lame man who was at the gate beautiful was healed by the ministry
of Peter as he spoke in Jesus name and that fellow was healed
and the people marveled at Peter and marveled at James and Peter
warned them over in verse 12, don't marvel at us or why are
you looking so earnestly on us as though by our own power or
holiness we've made this man whole. You see how even the apostles
knew how to deface themselves from the scandalous humanistic
ideology of men to worship the vehicle rather than the source.
All the people were about to be enamored by Peter, like the
Catholic church has already done, as if somehow Peter's feet didn't
stand on the ground like the rest of us. Peter said, I didn't
do this. In fact, I don't even have any
holiness. Jesus did this. I want you to
hear what he said. Listen to me now over in verse
19. After explaining to these folks how this man was healed.
Peter said in verse 19, repent. That's a rare word today, isn't
it? You therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted
out when the time of refreshing shall come from the presence
of the Lord. He's using the metaphor, folks. of God coming down upon
parched souls like rain washing over the parched dry souls to
give it life and to give it moisture and to give it hope for a fruitful
field. If God should be pleased to rain
upon you, here's what happens. Look with me at verse 20. Notice
what he says, the latter part of verse 19, when the times of
refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord and he shall
send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you. Do you
see it? Repentance will result in Christ
who was preached before unto you coming to you. Peter said,
God will send Jesus Christ to you. Was he lying? No, it is
through this means of preaching that Christ is communicated to
the hearts of the sons of men. And ladies and gentlemen, that's
all the difference between being dead in trespasses and sin and
born again. Go with me in your Bible, Ephesians
chapter two. I want you to see it again. Even as the apostle
Paul laid down this same terminology, what am I talking about? I'm
talking about you and I making sure that when we come to church,
that we meet God. and that God meets us in the
truth, and that He meets us in the person of His Son, Jesus
Christ, so that we might avoid the damnable experience of a
mere existential bodily exercise of religion. The Bible says in
Ephesians chapter 2, this is what Jesus said, Paul said as
he was speaking concerning what had happened when God had saved
them out of darkness. You guys remember being in darkness,
don't you? Verse 17, this I say therefore, and I testify in the
Lord that You henceforth walk no more as other Gentiles walk
in the vanity of their minds. That's how we walked before we
were saved, in the vanity of our mind. Having the understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God. Do you see it?
While it's shit, I'm in chapter, I'm sorry, I'm in chapter four,
verse 17. Chapter two, verse 17 is good
too. We'll get back there. I'm in chapter 4 verse 17, You
know, you can't engage in the vain issues of this life and have
a strong relationship with Christ. Do you know that? Have you figured
out that if you allow too much garbage into your thinking, you
won't have room for the Word of God? Have you figured that
out? And have you figured out that if you gauge yourself too
much into the cares of this life, you won't have any capacity to
do the will of God. Am I making some sense? But prior
to salvation, all we did was drink iniquity like water, and
live a life of hell-bound sinners. That's called being in darkness.
And so Paul said, you were that way once, but now listen to what
he says over in verse 19. Who being past filling, having
given themselves over unto lasciviousness, a brother humbly came to me Friday
night and said, Pastor, what is lasciviousness? I bet most
of you don't know what lasciviousness is, do you? It's inordinate lust. It's the licentious attitude
that you can live like you want to and there are no consequences.
It's giving yourself over to the passions of the flesh. It's carnality in all of its
grotesque essence. That's what lasciviousness is.
It's a mindset that you can live an immoral lifestyle and there
are no consequences. We used to be that way, didn't
we? Now listen to what the apostle Paul said, but you have not so
learned Christ. See those who know the Lord Jesus
have been taught by him in that right, but you have not so learned
Christ When you learn the gospel of the glory of God in Christ
It didn't teach you to continue living like you were did it now
watch how Paul really hammers this home Not only did you learn
Jesus in a right way? Verse 21 says if so be that you
have heard him Have you heard it now watch this and have been
taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. We're dealing with
the personal tutoring and pedagogue of Christ himself to your soul.
The child of God that knows Christ is taught personally by him. Am I making some sense? Go back
to Ephesians chapter two. Now, where I had you the first
time, the apostle Paul, once again, speaking to the Gentiles,
told them you used to be way off. You used to be far off.
Verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were sometime far off
are made nigh. You've been brought nigh, how?
By the blood of Christ. I'll talk about that later. For
he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down
the middle wall of partition. That wall between Jew and Gentile,
Jesus broke down. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Old things have passed away.
Behold, all things have become new. There is no Jew or Greek
or bond or free or male or female in Christ. your new creature. He tore that down. You believe
that? I hope you do because that's the people he came for. Having
abolished in his flesh the enmity even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances to make in himself of the two one new
man. So making what? Peace. and that
he might reconcile both Jew and Gentile unto God in one body
by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. Now, will you
hear verse 17? And came and preached peace to
you, which were for all and to them that were not. Who preached
peace to you? Jesus did. Jesus preached peace
to you. That's what I'm talking about,
ladies and gentlemen. Go back with me in your Bibles to the
book of Acts now, and let's go on and advance this thought.
on the efficacy of gospel preaching and the necessity of Christ himself
speaking to your soul. You have eternity to face. I
have eternity to face. We have eternity to face. And
the only way we're going to face eternity prepared is for Christ
to bridge the gap. He must stand between us and
a holy God and be our substitute and surety and advocate. If ever
I'm going to stand before God's holiness, Christ must speak in
my behalf. If he speaks to the father in
my behalf, you can be sure he's going to speak to me in the father's
behalf. That's his job. So it's very
important for us to understand this model and structure here.
Our Lord took the book as must be done, opened it intentionally
in verse 17 to Isaiah, 61 verse 1 and here's where we want to
unpack just for a moment the significance of what he did now
I told you last week that the preacher gave the Lord Jesus
the book. He didn't take it from him. He
didn't force it out of his hand. He was wise enough to understand
that he can't understand a thing unless God reveals it to him.
He gave Christ the book. And when Christ took the book,
Christ intentionally opened it up to Isaiah chapter 61 because
he had a number of goals to achieve. The first is to explain to us
the essence of what the gospel is. Isaiah chapter 61 verse 1
as recorded in Luke chapter 18 verse chapter 4 verse 18 says
this the spirit of the Lord God is upon me do you see that because
he hath anointed me to preach the gospel isn't that amazing
I told you last week when Christ quoted that text it came out
of Isaiah chapter 61 verse 1 and if you look carefully at that
passage what we are dealing with is a Trinitarian formula Look
carefully at the passage. This is important theology. Why
do I say that? Because often in the matter of
salvation, you and I might fall prey to thinking that the only
person that's concerned about our salvation is the son. But
you would be woefully wrong. All three persons of the Godhead
are equally concerned and involved in the salvation of his people.
Will you hear what the text says? Jesus just proclaimed that the
Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Do you see that? The Spirit of
the Lord in this context is the third person of the Blessed Trinity. We call him the Spirit of God,
don't we? We call him the Spirit of the Lord. If you were to go
back to Isaiah chapter 61 verse 1, Isaiah in the Hebrew says,
the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. Do you see that? The
spirit of Jehovah Elohim is upon me. So Christ is admitting that
the presence of the third person is operating in his life. This
is significant. Now notice the next phrase. He
says, because he hath anointed me. Do you see it? He hath anointed
me. Who anointed Christ? The Father
did. He anointed Christ with what?
The Holy Ghost. You believe that? There is your
trinitarian formula. How do we know this? The Bible
tells us in Luke chapter three, at Jesus's baptism, the heavens
opened up and the father spoke from heaven and the Holy Ghost
descended as a dove upon Jesus. And he remains upon Jesus as
the anointed one. The word anointed in our text
corresponds to the word Messiah in the Old Testament the word
Messiah is the anointed one Christ is the anointing and if you and
I are going to be anointed we must have Christ and we must
be in Christ because the Spirit of God resides permanently upon
him I like the way the Bible puts it. Jesus himself said,
as he was arguing with the rulers about his status as the son of
God in John chapter 10, when they wanted to stone him for
blasphemy, Jesus says, how can you call me a blasphemous person
when God the father had sanctified me and sent me into the world?
That's John 10 verse 36. And then in the gospel of John
chapter 7, Jesus says, him whom the father hath sealed and sent
into the world. Do you know the father sealed
the son? You guys know what a seal is?
A seal is a statement of authentication. When a king or a wealthy person
has goods and possessions that they own, and they want to affirm
that those possessions that they own are theirs, they take a seal
and they place a seal on it. God the Father sealed God the
Son as the unique Son of God. How'd he seal him? By the Holy
Ghost. How did he seal him? By sanctifying him. How did he
seal him? By honoring him. How did he seal
him? By loving him. By bringing Jesus
into the world as he did in his earthly excursion and showing
in the life of Jesus that Jesus is the Messiah. Everything that
Jesus did, everything that Jesus preached, the Father was there,
right there, sealing and honoring and confirming his words. That
was the anointing that Jesus had from the Father. But I want
you to see another passage. This will confirm it. Go with
me in your Bible to Acts chapter 10. I like the way that Peter
describes the very events that you and I are dealing with. Now,
I'm asserting to you that God had determined before the world
began to take his son and make him the source of preaching,
the object of preaching, the message of preaching, and the
means by which sinners are saved through preaching. And so he
sets the example for us. We're in Acts chapter 10 in a
very strange account where Peter has been told by God to go to
the Gentiles and share the gospel with them. You remember Peter,
the good Jew? Sitting on the housetop having that vision which
came down with a sheet and all kinds of animals clean and unclean
We're in the sheet and and the angel of the voice of the Lord
said Peter rise slain II and Peter said Lord I hadn't touched
anything unclean, you know, I'm a I'm a good self-righteous Jew
and God says don't call that unclean which I've called clean
why because when Christ accomplished redemption on Calvary Street
Gentiles from every nation kindred tribe in time were already sanctified
in him We learned this in the book of Hebrews. I'm going to
talk about this a little bit today. Part of our problem today in our present
generation, when it comes to theology and particularly the
gospel, is we don't know what Christ accomplished on Calvary's
tree. Am I telling the truth? We don't know. We think that,
you know, you kind of learn a few basic concepts about Calvary
and you move on. Everything that has to do with
our eternal salvation was fixed and secured on Calvary's tree. I was chosen in Christ. I was
saved by Christ. I was justified by Christ. I
was sanctified by Christ. I was glorified by Christ when
he hung on Calvary's tree. I was raised from the dead with
him. I was seated in heavenly places in him. I'm reigning with
Christ right now because of what he accomplished on Calvary street.
Am I making some sense? It's critical then child of God
that you become educated in the cross work of your savior, Jesus
Christ. The battle that we are fighting
in this religious age is a denial of what happened on Calvary street. The battle that you and I are
fighting today is to veil or to distort or to deny the claims
of God Almighty in the life of chosen sinners by the cross work
of Jesus Christ. And when you don't understand
what God accomplished for you on Calvary Street, the thief
can come in and steal what you don't know you already have.
The Lord Jesus Christ is spoken of by Peter here in Acts chapter
10. These words, I love the way Peter recalls this because this
is in harmony with Luke's account. I'm starting in Acts chapter
10 at verse 36. Are you there? He says in Acts chapter 10, 36,
the word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching
peace by who? I love that because that's what
our Lord is saying in our context. Do you know when he came, he
preached peace to sinners. We're going to get into that
in a moment. Notice what he says, the word that God sent unto the children
of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all. Look at verse 37, that word I
say, you know, which was published throughout all what Judea and
began from where Galilee. That's where we are right now.
After the baptism, which John preached, Jesus was baptized,
sent into the wilderness by the Spirit, tested for 40 days, and
went home, didn't he? Look at the next verse. This
is interesting. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with what? The Holy Ghost. Do you see your
Trinitarian formula? How God anointed the Son with
the Holy Ghost. I'm driving this home too because
as I enjoy with us all the study of Scripture and the elucidation
of doctrine, I'm so very keenly aware of the errors that are
out there when it comes to the Godhead and the person of Christ
and the denial of the Trinity and all these things. You hear
these folks who question whether or not the Bible teaches the
Trinity. You know what their problem is? They don't know the
Bible. The concept of the Trinity runs from Genesis to Revelation.
If you're careful, you'll see the Trinitarian formula all through
the Bible. Looking forward to us getting
into that when we deal with the Trinity in about a month. The
fact of the matter is, if you and I deny the Trinity, it means
that God has not revealed himself to us. If you and I deny the
Trinity, it means that you have not seen Jesus in the truth.
Because it's the third person who reveals the second person
who makes known the first person. And you can't know the second
person without the third person. And the second person told us
you can't know the first person without the second person. And
listen, don't confound them. They're not modes. They're persons.
The father is a person. He spoke from heaven. The son
is a person. He spoke from earth. The Holy
ghost is a person. When you go through the book
of Acts, he spoke separate unto me, Paul and Barnabas for the
work to which I sent them. And you can't lie to a box or
a coat. or a book. You can't deceive
a car or a cell phone. You lie and manipulate and seek
to deceive a person. That's why Ananias and Sapphira
died. Are you hearing me? I shouldn't
even be dealing with the doctrine of the Trinity today, but I just
feel compelled. Somebody in here needs to hear this. And so the
apostle Peter is explaining to Cornelius the work of Christ
God anointed him with the Holy Ghost and with power verse 38
who went about doing good and Healing all that were what? Of
the devil now watched it for God was with him go back to our
text now What then is the gospel? the gospel is the preaching of
the person and work of Jesus Christ and as aided, purposed,
and fulfilled by the triune God. The gospel is the work of the
triune God in the salvation of sinners. God the Father purposed
our salvation, Christ purchased it, and the Spirit of God makes
it applicable in our life. Am I making some sense? That's
what the Bible plainly teaches. So we believe that the gospel
is the work of the triune God. But what really takes place when
the gospel is preached? Jesus tells us in our text, and
I want us to see this. What salvation really is, is
our third point. Look at it. And you ask yourself,
has this happened to you? The spirit of the Lord God is
upon me, and he's anointed me to preach the gospel. That's
Jesus. To whom does he preach the gospel? To the poor. Do you
see that? To whom does he preach the gospel?
He preaches the gospel to the poor. Now, if you read your Bible
and you went back to Isaiah chapter 61, do you know what Isaiah 61
says? And he had anointed me to preach the gospel to the meek,
to the meek. Is that a contradiction? The
answer is no. But it's a necessity for you
to understand meekness in the Old Testament in relationship
to poverty and the new. Because you see, folks, when
it says he sent me to preach the gospel to the poor, He wasn't
talking about people poor economically. He wasn't talking about being
poor in terms of your bank account. He wasn't talking about being
strapped financially. The concept of meekness means
that God has broken you down to such a state that you understand
that in your soul and in your spirit, you're bankrupt. The
concept of meekness means that you have given up, you have released,
you have let go the notion that somehow you can pull yourself
up by your own bootstraps. Meekness does not mean that you
are some wimp, some type of milquetoast, some type of pushover. Meekness
simply means that you can't out-wrestle God. It means that you understand
that God is sovereign. It means that you know that from
Him all blessings flow. It means that you have learned
to utterly and totally depend upon God who is your fullness. Let me talk about this a little
bit so I can develop this. The Bible says that Moses was
the meekest man in all the earth. You know what the Bible says?
Now when you look at his characteristic, is there anything about Moses
that's weak and whippish? not even in the slightest sense.
I like Moses. He can hang out with me as we
go through the hood too. Moses, give me Moses. Give me David.
Give me Joshua. Give me Peter. And I'm good to
go. Listen to me. And all these brothers were meek.
Why were they meek? Because they knew they were sinners
and they knew they were bankrupt. And they knew that in me dwelleth
no good thing. That's why Jesus said in Matthew
chapter five, verse three, blessed are the poor. Where? In spirit. This is what we're talking about.
This is what we're talking about. Poor in spirit. Now, when you
meet a person poor in spirit, he's not a manipulator. He's
not a con. You know those kind, right? Oh,
woe is me. Woe is me. You know, if somebody
would just come along and give me some money, woe is me. That's
a manipulator. That's a manipulator. He still
has something to sell. When you're broke, Your dealing
is completely with God. You don't even appeal to people.
You appeal to God alone. Are you hearing me? Blessed are
the poor in spirit. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Blessed is the person who's come to the end of his rope and realize
he's broke. Now, what kind of gospel do you preach to a poor
person? Are you ready? Free. Free. The message of free grace. The message of free pardon, the
message of free mercy, free justification, free salvation, free sanctification,
free life. When you preach to the real poor,
tell them it's free. It's free. Hold everyone that
thirsted. Come to the waters. And everyone
that's hungry, come buy wine and milk without money and without
price. It's free. Are you hearing me? Now watch
this now. The gospel is a message of free. to poor sinners. I like that because see, in the
message of free, you're still not manipulating people. In church,
the last thing you hear is free. Everything costs you. The tapes
cost you, the CDs cost you, the message costs you, the chicken
dinners cost you, everything costs you. You gotta pay this,
pay that, pay, you can't even be saved if you're broke in most
churches. Am I telling the truth? But when
the gospel's preached, it's preached to sinners freely. God freely
justified us by his grace. He freely saved us by his mercy.
He freely loved us by his person. God saves freely. Am I making
some sense? Free, free, free. Now watch this now because I'm
getting ready to move to my next point. The gospel means nothing
to the rich. It means nothing to the rich.
If I wanted to develop it, and I said, I'm not going to develop
all these things, but if you were to read the book of Luke
carefully, you would find that Luke was highly preoccupied with
the work of the third person. He spoke about the Spirit continually.
From the opening of the book to the end, he spoke about the
Spirit of God. He talked about how the Spirit moves Simeon into
the temple. and how the Spirit moved Hannah into the temple,
and how the Spirit moved Mary and Joseph into the temple when
Jesus was baptized. You guys remember that? And in
Luke chapter 1, in the salutation of Mary, listen to what Mary
says about what God does to the hungry and what God does to the
rich. I'm in Luke chapter 1 verse 53. Remember now, the gospel
of God's free grace is preached only to the poor, and the poor
will hear it. I'm in chapter 1 verse 54. Are
you there? Luke chapter 1. Verse 53, I'm
sorry, here it is. He hath filled the hungry with
good things, and the rich he hath sent away empty. Got it? We're gonna see that
here in our text today. Go back to our chapter. What
then do you preach that constitutes gospel or good news to broke
people? Free, did you get that? Free. free. The gospel is free. You
don't pay for it now and you don't pay for it later. You know
how some folks have contracts where they tell you can get it
now, but somewhere down the line, you got to pay for it. This is
what goes on in religion all the time. They'll tell you to
accept Jesus freely, but then somehow you got to hold on and
hang out and keep yourself. You're paying at that point,
folks. And if you're broke, you're going to end up in hell. Do you
know you don't have enough money to redeem your soul? Do you know
that? Do you understand that? If the gospel is not given to
you freely from beginning to end, you and I are going to perish.
We're too poor. We're too poor. The Bible says
also, not only did he preach the gospel to the poor, but he
sent me to what? Heal the broken hearted, to heal
the broken hearted. I love this because what Jesus
is describing are the conditions of the souls and lives of men
that are prepared for the gospel. The conditions of the souls and
lives of men and women who actually are able to receive what God
accomplished for them in Christ are conditions of desperate straits. First, I'm poor. Now, I'm broken
hearted. Now, I'm broken hearted. You
know what it means to have a broken heart? It means to come to learn
and understand that your heart is deceitful and desperately
wicked above everything. Hold on now, I want you to get
this. To have a broken heart is when you, for the longest
time, trusted in yourself and you found that even your own
self deceived you. Isn't that bad when even your
own self deceives you? Hold on now, I want to make sure
you get this. I want to drive this home. Spirit of God, save
somebody today. See, until you come to suspect yourself as the
guilty culprit that's gonna send you to hell, you'll never have
a broken heart. And until God shows you that you will even
turn your own self in to benefit on yourself, you won't know what
a broken heart is. A broken heart is a heart that
has now been wounded because of a reality of the desperate
nature of sin in the life. See, When Jesus said in Matthew
5 again, blessed are they that mourn. They that mourn. They that mourn because they
shall be what? Comforted. It's the heart that
has shown itself at every hand to cheat on you, to lie on you,
to manipulate you, to bring you to hell. If you don't have someone
to deliver you from your own heart. Am I making some sense?
And now you're in a straight, you know why? Because you can't
trust yourself. You know, if you lean on yourself
one more time, you're going to let yourself down. You're going
to let yourself down. And that's what it means to have a broken
heart. To be broken heart is for God to have smashed you to
a point where you're almost hopeless. Got it? Hopeless, hopeless, hopeless. The Bible says as a man thinketh
in his heart, what? So is he. And if I can't trust
my heart, what can I trust? And you hear the worldly wise
men or women constantly say, just trust yourself. Man, you
better not trust yourself. He that trusteth in his own heart
is a fool. Am I making some sense? And when
the Spirit of God has come and broken your heart, do you know
he must break your heart? Do you know the Holy Ghost has
to break your heart? David said in Psalm 58, Lord,
heal the bones which you have broken. God has to break your
heart. You know what the Bible says
in the book of Exodus? God wounds and God heals. Did you know that? All these
people that we're describing who are gonna receive the gospel
from Jesus personally are people whom God put in that position.
As long as you are rich in self-righteousness, you'll never receive the gospel.
You don't need it. As long as you are confident in your own
heart, you'll never receive the gospel. You don't need it. But
if God smashes your heart, he'll also heal your heart. How does
God heal the brokenhearted? Are you ready? He binds it up
and he mollifies it with the blood of Christ. Do you hear
what I just said? The only thing that can heal
the sin sick soul, the broken heart is the blood of Jesus Christ. He was wounded for our trespasses. He was bruised for our iniquities.
And by his, what? Stripes are we healed. What are you saying preacher?
The thing that brings comfort to a sinner who has been broken
is the fact that Christ died for his sins. Christ hung on
Calvary street. He bled for the remission of
my sins. His blood sanctifies me. His blood purges me. His
blood cures me. His blood has reconciled me to
God. Not my blood, his blood. Am I making some sense? Give
you an example before I move on to the next one. The Lord
Jesus, once again, admonishing the Pharisees for their hypocritical
self-righteousness, gave the parable of the what? Good Samaritan.
That's Luke chapter 10. In Luke chapter 10, the Lord
Jesus talked about a man who came down from Jericho to Jerusalem. Jericho is a notoriously wicked
place, like San Francisco and like Oakland and like Richmond.
You were jacked up if you came from Jericho. But on his way
from Jericho to Jerusalem, he was taken in by thieves. The
Bible says thieves robbed him, beat him and left him what? Half dead. Isn't that what the
Bible said? Here he is laying on the wayside,
half dead. Jesus is giving us a spiritual
condition of all the whole human race. You and I are dead in trespasses
and sins You know that right outside of Christ. You're dead
outside of Christ. You're dead spiritually outside
of Christ You're dead from the life of God We just read that
and if you stand before God on the last day outside of Christ,
you're gonna die a second time You know, that's what the Bible
says And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. And
everyone whose names were not written in the Lamb's book of
life were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Men are dead spiritually, that's
the first death. That's where this man was on the road. And
a Levite came by and saw him wounded and said, I can't touch
him, I'll get unclean. So he left him there. What good
is religion for a person that's dead in trespasses and sin? And
then a priest came by and saw him too. And he walked on the
other side. He says, I'm under my ceremonial
washing. I can't touch him. And he left him there too. What
good is legalism? Are you hearing me? When you're
dead, it trespasses and sin. Then a Samaritan comes along.
Who is that Samaritan? Jesus. Don't you ever forget
it. First of all, that Samaritan is not you. You better hear that. You never have saved a soul in
your life. And the problem that this man has is deeper than you
can reach. The Bible says the good Samaritan
came alone and poured into his wounds oil. representing the Holy Ghost.
And why? Representing the shed blood of
Jesus Christ. Bound him up, put him on his
own horse, took him to the inn, and paid the innkeepers, which
is the church, to see to it that that man is strengthened until
he gets to glory. Isn't that good? Isn't that good? All to him I owe. All to him
I owe. Sin hath left a crimson stain.
He what? Washed it white as snow. What
comfort can a Savior bring to those who've never felt their
woe. A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost hath made him
so. Do you believe that? Do you believe
God has to wound you before he heals you? This is what Jesus
is teaching in our text. Let's go on a little bit more.
So very important. The Bible says not only does
he heal the brokenhearted, it goes on to say that he also preaches
deliverance to the captives. That's what Jesus did all through
his ministry. He preached deliverance to the captives. The one thing
that was unique to the ministry of our Savior all his days is
he preached to sinners. The reason why Pharisees and
Sadducees hated him and despised him is because he went places
and did things with people they would never touch. And he preached
freedom. Jesus said in John chapter 8
verse 36, if the Son shall set you free, you'll be free indeed.
Am I making some sense? Romans chapter 8 verse 1 and
2, the Bible says, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after
the spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life hath made me free
from the law of sin and death. The one grand experience that
you have when God saves you is He liberates you. Pastor, what
does He liberate us from? I'm glad you asked. He liberates
us from the curse of the law. Christ being made a curse for
me, I never have to worry about God cursing me again. He took
my curse. He liberates me from the demands
of the law. Do you know by the works of the
law, no flesh shall be justified in God's sight. If you think
you can begin in the spirit and end in the flesh, you're going
to hell. Do you know that if you think that somehow you can
perform your way into God's presence, you're still a slave. You're
still a slave. Paul says, Paul says, be not
entangled with the yoke of bondage. continue to walk in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made you free. When God saves a man, he
delivers him from the curse of the law, from the damnation of
the law, from the demands of the law. See, Christ, ladies
and gentlemen, is the righteousness of the sinner for whom he died.
Do you know what that means? I never have to worry about God
asking me personally to perform his word. You know why? Because
Christ has already performed it for me. As my substitute from
the time he said yes in glory past to the time he ascended
to his throne, he did all that was required to fulfill God's
law for me. Now I am the righteousness of
God in him. Do you know what that means?
I'm not only justified and you've heard folks talk about justified
means just as I've never sinned before. Isn't that what it says?
Just as if I have never sinned before. That's not justification.
Justification is I have never sinned. and I have always kept
God's law. Did you hear that? Justification
is when God looks at the sinner, finds that he never once ever
sinned from eternity past to eternity future. And not only
that, that he has always obeyed God's law from eternity past
to eternity future. What is his standing? Justified
in the sight of God. See, righteousness is the basis
of justification. You can't be made just with God
unless God gives you his righteousness. Am I making some sense? Some
sinner needs the righteousness of which I'm speaking right now.
You need to know that when God looks at you, he never, ever,
ever, ever, ever, ever, ever sees your sin. Isn't that good? Never. That's liberating folks.
I see my sin. You see my sin. The devil sees
my sin, but God doesn't see my sin. That's liberating. That's
liberating. Whomsoever the son shall set
free shall be free indeed. You remember that woman who was
taken in adultery? That's what I'm talking about.
That's what I'm talking about. Am I making some sense now? That's
what I'm talking about. The legalist came with the woman.
She was caught. The law would have had her stoned
to death if first they would have found the man that was guilty
with her. But he happened to be one of the Pharisees there.
So when Jesus was writing it down, they all kind of just stepped
on back and tipped on out. So when he got up, he looked
around and he saw no accusers. That's what it means to be justified
by Christ. That's what it means for him
to be your advocate and your substitute and your surety and
your representative before the law of God. When Christ is done,
there's no sin. When Christ is done, there's
no guilt. When Christ is done, there's no, uh, no condemnation. When Christ is done, listen to
me, there are no accusers either. There are no accusers. Who is
it that shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's
God that justifies. It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
that is risen again at the right hand of God, making intercession
for us as he did for that woman. Isn't that good news? I guarantee
you that woman was happy and saved and saved. Self-righteous folk don't like
what I'm preaching. Did you know that? They just don't like it,
but that's what the Bible teaches. And so the Bible says not only
did he come to preach the gospel to the poor, Did he come to heal
the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captive, but
the recovering of sight to the blind and to set at liberty those
that are not. This is an interesting combination
of passages because it's not really that way in Isaiah chapter
61. It's a compound of Isaiah 58 and Isaiah 49. Here is what
Jesus is saying. And I want to tap into this to
go to our next very salient point. And that's this. When the gospel
comes in power, it liberates prisoners. prisoners. You and
I are prisoners. You and I are prisoners of sin
until God saves us. Am I making some sense? And you
know what? If you're honest with yourself, even in your unsafe
state, some of you are still lost. You know that you live
in a very confined place. You're going around in circles.
You don't have any real liberty. You find yourself going back
and forth into the same foolishness all the time. You are in a very
confined place right now. You don't know what liberty is.
You're a prisoner of sin. You are a prisoner of sin and
you are in darkness. When I was in St. Croix, the
Virgin Isles, a couple of weeks ago, one of the things that I
made sure I did was to go to some of the compounds where the
slaves were kept. Because if you understand the
Virgin Isles, they were occupied by the slaves as the Dutch and
the British sought to invade and to establish the colonies
in America. So the Virgin Isles have a lot
of areas and artifacts and different monuments and sightings where
the slaves lived. And one of the things they had
were forts where the soldiers and the sailors would keep slaves.
When slaves are out of line, they put them in these forts.
And I went to one of these forts And there were two things about
these forts that was remarkable to me. The first is, is that
they were all stone. It was made out of stone. There
was nothing soft about the forts, nothing soft. They didn't want
the slaves to have any comfort whatsoever. And when you're a
slave of sin, you have no comfort. The other thing is, is I noticed
in the cells where they had confined the slaves, and they would have
small cell blocks that would be anywhere from three feet to
four feet wide and about seven feet long. In a three feet to
four feet wide by seven foot long barrier, they would put
50 slaves. They would force those brothers
and sisters into this barrier, shut them up, confine them on
top of each other. Why? Because when you are a slave
you are a prisoner and you are bound and you are limited. The
other thing I noticed is that every entry into these confined
areas was so low we had to stoop in. We had to stoop in. Now I'm
only 5'8 and I hit my head several times like to broke my neck.
I like to broke my neck going into some of these chambers because
you know you stooping low, but not low enough. And when you don't
stoop low enough, concrete hits you on the top of your skull.
And I don't have that much brains anyway. So I was hurting by the
time I went halfway through the journey. But what I learned was
that the psychology of the slave masters was to keep the slaves
bowed down, bent over. And that's the way you and I
are as long as we are lost. As long as we're outside of Christ,
we're bowed down. This is what he meant by delivering
those who are bruised. Those who are bruised. They've
been broken. They're bruised. But the other
remarkable thing is, is that in these forts there is no light. When you're a prisoner, you're
a prisoner of darkness. They leave you in the dark because
they want you to understand that it's a privilege to see the light,
to see the day, to see the sun. It's a privilege for those who
earned it. And when you and I are lost and
outside of Christ, we're bowed down, we're bruised, we're prisoners,
we're confined, and we're in darkness. Am I making some sense?
Darkness. We're in darkness about ourselves. We don't know. You meet people
every day, think they know themselves. They don't know themselves. You
can't know yourself until you know God. We're in darkness concerning
God. We're in darkness concerning
the truth of God. We're in darkness when it comes
to truth and error. Most people, even in religion,
are still in darkness. Am I telling the truth? And this
is what Jesus delivers us from. That sort of darkness. You've been delivered from poverty
in Christ. You've been delivered from a broken heart in Christ.
You've been delivered from slavery in Christ. You've been delivered
from darkness in Christ. Let's go on. I want you to see
what the text says now. This is remarkable. Our next
point. Isn't the Lord good to you? Our
next point. It tells us over in verse 20,
these words, having closed the book, he gave it again to the
minister, sat down and the eyes of them all that were in the
synagogue were fastened on him. We talked about that. That's
where we should be in the worship. Isn't that right? Verse 22, verse
21. And he began to say unto them,
this day is the scripture fulfilled in your ear. Not only the fact
that he was preaching Isaiah chapter 61, the Lord has anointed
me to preach, but that he was actually doing all that Isaiah
61 described and concerning healing souls and liberating souls and
opening the eyes of the blind. That's what Jesus was doing.
And he was telling those people, I'm the one of whom Isaiah chapter
61 is speaking. Now he knew why he did it. See,
it'd be one thing for him to have preached it, explained it,
and not pointed to himself. But he pointed to himself because
it was time to expose them for their hypocrisy. Look at the
next verse. I want you to see it. Verse 22.
Verse 22. Yes. And all bear him witness
and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of
his mouth. Do you see that? They were marveling,
ladies and gentlemen, at the grace that he proclaimed. What I've just shared with you
for the last 30 minutes or so is the grace of God. They were
marveling at the grace that he proclaimed in the salvation of
sinners because they weren't used to it. They weren't used
to God doing all the work in their salvation. They weren't
used to God saying, He is the one that will save you. He is
the one that will deliver you. He is the one that will heal
you. He is the one that will bring you out. He is the one
that will bring you in. They weren't used to that. They
were used to legalistic do's and don'ts and works religion
and conditions. They were used to the writings
and the commentaries of their theologians of that day. They
weren't used to a God whose word is a word of grace. They marveled
at the gracious word. Did you guys hear that? Paul
said in Acts chapter 20, when he had left the Ephesus church,
these words, now I commend you to God and the word of his grace,
which is able to keep you. and to sanctify you and to give
you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified. Paul
says, I'm commending you to the word of grace. Listen to me,
sinner. You need the word of grace. Are you hearing me? You
need the word of grace. I need the word of grace. What
we need is the grace of God. They had heard that. It amazed
them. It amazed them that one of their own could preach so
eloquently The word of grace. Do you know the gospel is a strange
thing to religious folks? Am I making some sense? I offend
people all the time when they come up in here. And the implication
is you have no righteousness to offer God. God has to do all
the work. First, you marvel at such a wonderful
gospel and all encompassing gospel where God does it all. You can't
even hardly believe it. Tell the truth. Now, I can't
quite believe I know I got to do something. This is how they felt. And then
something came over them. You know what it was? Unbelief. Is this not Joseph's son? Wait a minute. We've been mesmerized.
We've been stupefied. We've been amazed at his words.
We've never heard a man preach like this before. With authority
and with power and with clarity, our hearts have been tugged on.
This is amazing, but wait, wait, wait, wait now. The implications
of his message is that he is the Messiah. Isn't this Joseph
boy? We know him. You know what the
Bible says? That the carnal mind is enmity
against God. It says that the natural man
will never receive the things of God, their foolishness to
him. What we are looking at right now is a group of people in the
church to whom jesus was preaching Who couldn't do but one thing
reject the gracious word of the gospel Are you guys with me?
I just want you to see a couple of points. This is profound And
this is why jesus said After they said is this not joseph's
son? In verse 23 and he said unto them you are surely gonna
say this proverb to me physician heal yourself Do you see that? Jesus said to them, there's a
day coming when you, right along with the rest of the group, are
going to take me and hang me on a tree, condemn me as a malefactor,
guilty and under the curse of God. And you're going to rail
on me saying he saved others himself. He cannot say if he
be the son of God, let him come down off that tree. That's what
he means. Jesus is predicting his own crucifixion
in the first sermon he preached at home. This is profound. This is profound. Give me a little
bit more of your time. I want you to get this. This is Hebrews
chapter six, verses four through eight. These folk had heard the
gospel preached by God himself, not me, God. They had seen God
in their midst. God had opened the eyes of the
blind. God had healed the sick. God had raised the dead. God
had performed miracle upon miracle upon miracle. They were partakers
of the influence of the Holy Ghost. Their eyes were open to
divine truth. They tasted of the gracious Word
of God. These are the folks that Hebrews
6 is talking about. Judas Iscariot was there. He
was amazed too. See, you can be brought under
the influence of the gospel truth and yet not have a heart that's
renewed in Christ. And at the last, you will harden
and not soften. Go with me to Hebrews 6. I want
you to see this just a little bit as I close this out. This
is critically important because this is a lesson that our Lord
is not only saying because he is personally invested in the
way these people responded to his preaching, He came unto His
own, and His own received Him not. He was in the world, and
the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. We esteemed
Him smitten, smitten and afflicted of God. We hid as it were our
faces from Him. There was no beauty in Him that
we should desire Him. They rejected Jesus. The writer
to the Hebrews is warning concerning this in Hebrews chapter 6 verses
4 through 8. Just listen to it. For it's impossible
for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly
gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted
of the good word of God and of the powers of the world to come
if they shall fall away to renew them again under repentance seeing
that they did what crucified to themselves the Son of God
afresh and put him to what do you know by the time Jesus got
through preaching to these people they wanted to take him to the
top of a hill and throw him overhead low isn't that what the text
said How do you go from being mesmerized and overwhelmed by
a compelling message that brings you to the brink of your seat,
where your eyes and your mind is fixed on the preacher, and
then a few minutes later, your heart is filled with wrath and
you're ready to kill that man. That's what the Hebrew writer
is talking about. That's what the Hebrew writer is talking
about. This group of people were the people of whom the Hebrew
writer says they heard the word But because the word was not
mixed with faith in them that heard it, it didn't profit them. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
That's what's going on in our text. Our Lord Jesus Christ is
enamored. He is. He is amazing. Text tells us in Mark six. Go
back to our text. No, I'm sorry. There's a portion
in Hebrews six. I want you to see. because this
explains something that's going on here. This is quite interesting.
The Lord in His graciousness preaches the gospel to you and
to me, eternity bound sinners, and He does it again and again
and again. And the writer to the Hebrew says this is analogous
to what we read in verse 7, which drinks in the rain that comes
off upon it and brings forth herbs, meat for them by which
it is dressed, receives blessing from God. Do you see the analogy?
The rain comes down, that's God's word, that's God's blessing,
that's God's truth upon the soil. If the soil receives the word,
there's fruit born, God blesses it. The next verse is this. Listen to it now. But that which
beareth thorns and briars is rejected. and is nigh unto cursing,
whose end is to what? Be burned. What the Bible is
saying is, God reigns upon the just and the unjust. In the local
congregation, the gospel comes upon sinners of all types and
all conditions. Some hear it and receive it,
others hear it and reject it. That's what we're dealing with
our text. Now let's go back and close. I want you to see this now. I'm
just gonna run through this very quickly. What we've just considered
is an overwhelming and compelling witness To the unsaved You're
gonna certainly say jesus says Physician heal yourself. Then
he goes on to say and there is no prophet that's honored in
his own country verse 24 And then he begins to say something
that is remarkable, but I tell you of a truth. Do you guys see
that? That's what we call in the greek
and amen I tell you in the truth, amen and amen. Many widows were
in Israel in the days of Elias when the heavens were shut up
for three and a half years. When great famine was throughout
the land, but unto none of them was Elias sent except unto Sarepta
and of Sidon unto a woman that was a widow. Do you know what
he just said? God passed over all the nation of Israel in the
midst of that famine. to save a Gentile woman. Why
is Jesus using that text to deal with those folks at that moment?
Why is Jesus speaking to them at that moment about what God
did 700 years earlier? Because there's a correspondence
between the three and a half year ministry of Elijah when
there was no rain and the three and a half year ministry of Jesus.
Are you hearing me? We're in the last half of that
week. I'll get back there. And he's saying to those folks
that are listening, I want you to understand something now.
For you to come to church and hear me is not a privilege for
God. It's a privilege for you. For
you to come and sit under the word is not as if somehow you
have earned some merit with God. I'm upset that you aren't receiving
what I'm saying, but I'm not surprised. I've just preached
to you the word of grace But I'm getting ready to share something
with you that all the religious world despises. It's called the
word of sovereign grace. Are you hearing me? See, men
will, they'll listen to grace. They'll even listen to free grace. But sovereign grace, you don't
hear it preached. You don't hear it taught. Sovereign
grace, God showing mercy to whom he will show mercy God saving
whom he will say God reaching down and touching a sinner whom
he wants to touch and leaving Go letting go or leaving off
with whole nations of people Whole nations of people and what
this group of religious folk didn't like about what Jesus
said was God has done this before and he's doing it now with you
and It's apparent to me, Jesus saying, that the Spirit of God
is not doing anything in your heart. So I'm getting ready to
go down to Capernaum, which is the Gentile territory, right
up the street. And guess what? They're going
to hear me. Are you hearing what I'm saying? They're going to
say, who has ever spoken like this before? I'm going to be
able to do miracles. I'm going to be able to heal. And many
of them going to believe the gospel. We read that earlier. You're gonna say to me, Jesus
said, the miracles that you did in Capernaum, do them here. And then Jesus used one more
account. Listen to what it says. And many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Elias, the prophet, and none of them was cleansed
except Nahum and the Syrian. Do you see that? Listen, there
are a couple of things that are set forth here. Not only have
they heard an overwhelming and compelling witness of the free
grace of God in Christ, but because of their unregenerate state,
they rejected it. But we know in our fifth point, and I'll
leave it for later on, the boldness of the preacher. See, Jesus could
have left this alone. But one of the evidences of the
spirit of God operating in the preaching among sinners is boldness. Are you hearing me? One thing
that our Savior was, was bold. There is a sense in which boldness
is necessary for two things, to maintain the honor of God,
and when you care about people, you speak boldly to them. In
the preaching of our Savior, he was concerned about his sheep,
And he made sure that he was bold enough to divide between
the goats and the sheep in the preaching because the sheep will
always hear his voice. As opposed to equivocating and
vacillating and finding a way to say it by not saying it. Are
you hearing me? And the one thing that Christ
was and the apostles were were bold. Lord, we know that you are bold
and you don't fear any man. Is this the Christ that they're
talking about? Because he speaks boldly and no man puts a hand
on him. Certainly this must be the Christ.
There is an advantage to boldness when you know that you know that
you know and you're confident about the truth. Boldness sets
sinners free. Oh, yeah, it makes religious
folk mad. Listen, you're not going to avoid that. Our savior
did. I'm telling you, there were a
group of folks who were liberated by our Lord speaking here, because
they had come to understand that salvation's of the Lord. When
these people heard the sovereignty of God and the electing love
of sinners and the salvation of God's people, they showed
themselves for what they were, mere religious hypocrites. And they were willing to take
the son of God and throw him over. That's not you, is it? That's not you. But it's a whole
lot of religious folk. Will you hear me? They hate the
message of sovereign grace. They hate the message of God's
sovereign electing love. But I want to share with you
five questions you must ask anytime the gospel is preached. Here
they are. Who does the saving? Did you
get that? That's a germane question, isn't
it? Do you save yourself or did God save you? The Bible says
God saved us, not by works of righteousness, which we have
done, but by his mercy, hath he saved us by the washing of
regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he poured
upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Lord. How did we
get saved? God saved us. Who did the saving? God saved
us. Now, why are sinners saved? Because God chooses them in Christ.
before the foundation of the world that they might be holy
and without blame before him in love. You're not saved because
you're smarter than the next fella. You're not saved because
you did something they didn't do. You're saved because God
looked on you in Christ before the world began and decided to
love you into eternal life. That's the reason you're saved.
Am I making some sense? God who saved us and called us,
not according to our works, but according to his own mercy and
grace, which we had in Christ Jesus before the world began.
God purposed us in Christ. The reason sinners are saved
is because they're chosen. Am I making some sense? I know
you're not. Look, this is the most politically incorrect message
in the world today. Because of the level of humanism
that runs rampant into our churches, that somehow God's not fair if
he looks over there and touches one and lets the rest do what
they want to. Am I making some sense? The who of salvation is
God. The why of salvation is election.
The how we are saved is by the death of Jesus Christ on Calvary
Street. When Christ died on Calvary Street,
he secured the salvation of everyone for whom he came. That means
you didn't save yourself. That means you and I were saved
when Christ died on Calvary Street. Before you had a being, you were
saved. Isn't that good news? Justified freely by his grace. When were we saved? When were
we saved? When did we experience this salvation? When the gospel was preached
to you in power. That's when. But God, when he
was pleased, revealed Christ in me through the preaching of
the gospel. It pleased God that through the preaching of foolishness
or the foolishness of preaching, he might save those that believe.
You and I were only saved experientially when you heard the message of
the gospel. I'm not talking false religion. I'm talking the truth
as it is in Christ. Ephesians 1.14 says, when you
trusted in Christ, after you heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation, then the Holy Ghost sealed you unto
the day of redemption. You can't be saved through lies.
Am I making some sense? And then here's the reason for
which God saved you, for his glory, for his glory, that we
might be, Ephesians 1.12, to the praise of the glory of his
grace. From eternity past, he purposed
you. For eternity future, you and
I are to be objects of his grace and mercy. Even at this moment,
while you are the objects of his grace and mercy, give God
all the glory. Amen.

The Glory and Offense of the Gospel

What does the Bible say about true worship?

Why is the gospel important for Christians?

How do we know election is true?

What is the significance of preaching for salvation?

Why do some people reject the gospel?

Sermon Transcript

About Jesse Gistand

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The Glory and Offense of the Gospel

What does the Bible say about true worship?

Why is the gospel important for Christians?

How do we know election is true?

What is the significance of preaching for salvation?

Why do some people reject the gospel?

Sermon Transcript

About Jesse Gistand

Comments

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