When I first went to look out
West Virginia to pastor there, I was 21 years old. And for the nine years I was
there, there was only one preacher in the whole general vicinity
who would have anything to do with me, and really the only
one I wanted to have anything to do with. And he was old enough
to be my grandfather. I was watching Dufour. He pastored
down at Ainstead where Larry was. And I used to go down and
try to Gleaned some of his wisdom, always enjoyed being in his company.
He's a pleasant, friendly fellow. And one Saturday, I stopped by
to visit with him just a little bit. He's sitting out in his
yard. His wife had no interest in the
gospel, but so he'd sit out in his little shed and study and
sit in the yard and study. And I asked him, I said, Watson,
do you ever try to prepare your messages early in the week? And he said, I used to. But I
gave that up a long time ago. I said, well, why is that? He
said, I found out a long time ago, son, manna breeds worms.
And he put something in the back of my head that's plagued me
ever since. I can't tell you how many times
I prepared a message early and thought, well, I'll save that
for Sunday or I'll sit on that a while. And they're still sitting. I told you last Sunday I was
going to bring you a message on our Savior's only joy. And
so I thought since we had bad weather last week, I'll be a
step ahead of the game. But that one's thrown away and
had to start from scratch. But I'm going to bring you a
message on the same subject from the same text. Turn with me,
if you will, to Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10. Our Lord Jesus has sent out his
disciples to preach the gospel. And they come back now to give
report to him with astonishment. because of the great success
that they had found in Satan being subject to them, demons
of hell being subject to them, sinners being converted by the
grace of God. They just, they went out preaching,
they came back and seemed as if they were shocked that somebody
believed them. And the Lord Jesus speaks to
them. He said, this ought not to be
a surprise to you. He said, I saw Satan fall like lightning from
heaven. And he declares to them his great
great sovereignty over the powers of darkness and his great goodness
in saving sinners. And then in verse 21, in that
hour after the report came from these men, Jesus rejoiced in
spirit and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, that thou hast hid these things the wise and prudent,
and hath revealed them unto babes. Even so, father, for so it seem
good in thy sight. All things are delivered to me
of my father, and no man knoweth who the son is, but the father,
and who the father is, but the son. and he to whom the Son will
reveal him. Blessed are your eyes, the eyes
which see these things that you see. For I tell you that many
prophets and kings have desired to see those things which you
see and have not seen them, and to hear those things which you
and have not heard them. Now, I want to show you five
things, five very important, tremendous, instructive lessons
in these words. First, we have a lesson about
that which gives joy to God our Savior. The only thing written
in this book, now listen, the only thing ever spoken of in
this book as that which gives joy to the Son of God. The only thing ever spoken of
in Holy Scripture as that which elates, gladdens, and rejoices
the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ is the salvation of sinners. Three times in this book we read
that the Lord Jesus wept. In Hebrews 5 and verse 9, we
read it this morning. Our Lord Jesus was heard in that
he cried unto the Father with strong crying and tears. When
he came into Jerusalem, as he beheld that city going to hell
and knowing the judgment of God falling upon it, the scripture
says he wept. When he came to the tomb of Lazarus,
as the Lord Jesus beheld the pain and sorrow of Mary and Martha,
he wept at the tomb. Only once do we read that he
rejoiced. Here it is. And the occasion
of his joy was the report of these disciples concerning the
conversion of lost souls, the salvation of poor, needy sinners,
the reception of the gospel by those weak, lowly, poor, despised,
downtrodden, outcast peoples to whom they preached while others
despised and rejected it. Our blessed Lord, no doubt saw
much in this world like we do to grieve him. I don't suggest by any means
that we should ever live as people with our head in the sand and
just pretend that evil doesn't exist around us and pretend that
the violence and corruption is not around. Our Lord Jesus, like
us, saw the obstinate blindness and unbelief of the multitudes
and of his own family. On one occasion, his own brethren,
seeking to cover for themselves, said, well, he's lost his mind.
He can be locked up in a nuthouse. He saw the same thing we saw.
nor we see, he beheld the same sorrows we behold. But when he
saw a few poor men and women who heard and believed the good
news of salvation by God's free grace, his holy heart seemed
to have revived. I can almost picture his countenance. Have you ever
watched somebody who's serious, got a heavy heart and something
is said or something happens that just suddenly their countenance
changes, get a little sparkle in their eye, they seem to have
some light flush through their face. The Lord Jesus, when he
heard the report of these sinners converted by the grace of God,
his very soul seems to burst with joy. Not only did our Lord
Jesus rejoice on this occasion, not only is this the only thing
in the book of God that I find which gives him joy, this fact
that he rejoices in the salvation of sinners, is repeated and emphasized
through the scriptures. Let me show you three texts of
scripture. Turn back to the book of Micah. Micah chapter 7. Micah chapter 7. It is amazing to me how that
sometimes men and women, men more likely than women, young
more likely than old, get hold of portions of scripture or parts
of scripture And they put huge sandbags on one side of things
and make the Word of God to be lopsided terribly. And they have
a morbid sense of things. I fairly often used to get notes
or phone calls and somebody would pick up the phone and they'd
chat a little bit and introduce themselves. You preach hellfire
and damnation? Well, when I have to. I don't
particularly enjoy it. I tell men about the wrath of
God, judgment of God, but I'm not particularly elated by the
fact that men and women are going to hell. Our Lord God Almighty
rejoices in saving sinners. He finds pleasure in grace. He delights in mercy. Judgment
is his strange work. Look here, Micah chapter 7, verse
8. The passage is talking about judgment. It's talking about
deserved judgment. It's talking about God pouring
out a wrath upon people who deserve it. But then the prophet speaks
of mercy. And it says in verse 18, who
is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth
by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage. He retaineth
not his anger forever. Look at this. Because He delighteth
in mercy. Bobby Estes, I can't think of
a better thing on this earth to tell anybody than this fact. God Almighty delights in mercy. God delights in mercy. That which
puts a smile on the face of the infinite God is mercy. Mercy. Oh, what good news is. Look in Zechariah. Zephaniah
chapter 3. Let's begin in verse 14. Sing, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O Israel. Be glad and
rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken
away thy judgments. He hath cast out thine enemy,
the king of Israel. Even the Lord is in the midst
of thee. Thou shalt not see evil anymore. In that day it shall
be said to Jerusalem, fear thou not, and to Zion, let not thy
hands be slack. The Lord God, the Lord thy God
in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save. Now look at this.
He will rejoice over thee with joy. There is a day coming when God
Almighty has finished His work and all His elect, every sinner
loved of Him from eternity, every sinner redeemed by the blood
of His darling Son, every sinner called by His grace, though here
we endure great tribulation and trials and heartache and trouble,
those things just like all other men. But on the other side, all
those things are over. and the very remnant of the curse
of sin is gone forever, then God Almighty is going to rejoice
over us. Rejoice. Rejoice over us. Not just with us, but because
of us. Rejoice that we're with Him in
glory. Look in Hebrews chapter 12. The apostle has described for
us those great, great acts of faith by men called by God's
grace in chapter 11. And he's calling us to perseverance. And he says in verse 1, wherefore
seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses. Now try to get the picture. In
the ancient Olympic games, they didn't have huge arenas like
we do, and they didn't have widescreen televisions and remote cameras
like we do. and folks weren't stationed everywhere
around. But in the ancient Olympic games, if folks were in a race
at the very end, at the finish line, all the spectators would
be down yonder. And they would be at the finish
line ahead of the man running and urging on their favorite
competitor or their favorite runner. And this is how Paul
pictures us. Here we are in this race, in
this warfare, in this battle. And it says now, now there's
a great cloud of witnesses already going ahead. They're urging us
on. Let us lay aside then every weight
and the sin that doth so easily beset us. And let us run with
patience the race that is set before us. Look at it. Looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy,
what a word, for the joy that was set before him. endured the
cross, despising the shame. Now you tell me what joy there
was in his death. You tell me what joy there was
that he experienced on that cursed trip. You tell me what joy there
was with which he endured being made sin for us. and suffer the
wrath of God for us. There's no joy in that. There's
not one expression of joy in that whole experience as is recorded
in scripture. There was no joy there but only
bitterness, wormwood, gall and bitterness and death and judgment
for his soul. But what's this talking about?
Earl Hart, this is what he's talking about. Our Lord Jesus
came into this world to redeem our souls from sin and his promise
was, the promise of the Father to him, I'll give you your people."
And the Son of God said, for that I'll go. And here's the
joy set before him. He shall see of the true veil
of his soul and shall be satisfied. And so, with joy in his heart,
as he anticipates the saving of our souls by the merit of
his blood, the Lord Jesus Christ took the cup of damnation and
drank it dry like a thirsty man drinks water. How come? He rejoices in grace. He rejoices
in saving sinners. He rejoices in mercy. He rejoices
in forgiveness. He delights to save sinners. This fact or how it ought to
encourage sinners under the wrath of God. deserving his wrath,
deserving to perish forever under his wrath, to come to him now
and seek his mercy. If it delights the Son of God
to save the most hell-deserving of creatures, he ought to get
a lot of joy in there. I believe I'll come, give him
some joy. He delights in mercy. Our Savior's example ought to
inspire in us such a heart of compassion and mercy toward duty
souls. O Spirit of God, stamp my master's
image on my heart. Give me grace to follow his example. Did the Son of God weep over
the lost? He did. Shall I care nothing? Did he have compassion? Now listen
to me. Did he have compassion on a rich,
young ruler, a proud, self-righteous, religious Pharisee? I can't think
of anybody on this earth that would have compassion on him,
but our master did. We walked away from him and walked
into hell. He had compassion. Shall not
we? Did he rejoice in the salvation
of sinners? Surely we ought to. I fear, it's
not a fear, it's a fact. We find far too much joy in those
things that ought to grieve us. And we experience far too much
grief over those things that ought to give us great joy and
over things that are really in themselves of no consequence.
Multitudes around us are walking in the broad way that leads to
hell. I've forgotten his name. There
was a preacher I read about years ago. who was preaching at Christ
Church in Dundee, Scotland. He was filling in for Robert
McShane when McShane was away on a mission. And as he stood
on the street corners in Glasgow one day, somebody saw him and
he was just standing there quiet, tears running down his cheeks.
And a friend came by and wanted to consult him and said to him,
what's wrong? I hear the sound of the thud
of Christless souls walking to hell. We ought to care. We ought to
care that many women are perishing. Let me show you a text. James chapter 5. The wise man Solomon said, he
that winneth souls is wise. And I recognize the Arminian,
the freewheeler, the workmongers, these buttonhole evangelists.
They twist and pervert scripture horribly. And so we have a tendency
to kind of shy away from them. We have a responsibility, Bob,
to win some. We have a responsibility to persuade
sinners to come to Christ. So a preacher, we can't do that.
I know. I know that. But if God speaks by us, we can.
God works through us, we can. If God's pleased to take these
empty vessels and use us for the good of men, we can. Now
look at what James says, verse 19 of chapter 5. Brethren, if
any of you do err from the truth, err from the gospel, and one
convert him, let him know that he which converteth a sinner
from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall
hide a multitude of sinners. I believe that's worth giving
yourself to. I believe that's worth devoting yourself to. But
I fear we too little realize what hell is. We far too little realize what
seeing is. We seem to have forgotten that the conversion of a sinner is the greatest miracle standing
in the universe. When God converts a son, he turns
a rebel into a willing When God converts a sinner, he takes a
prisoner in section three. When God converts a sinner, he
raises the dead. When God converts a sinner, he
subdues the power of hell in a man's soul. When God converts
a sinner, God Almighty steps from his lofty throne. opens
the heart and mind and my ears of a dead, blind, deaf man and
causes him to see the glory of God, hear his voice and worship
him. Perhaps little joy in the salvation center
simply because We begin too easily, too quickly, to look upon the grace of God
and the blood of Christ as a common, ordinary thing. Larry, Chris, it's no ordinary
thing that God chose you. No common thing that he sent
his son to redeem you. mundane thing to be despised
that he called you by his grace or kept you in his hand there's a lesson here too about
divine sovereignty look at verse 21 again first lesson is this the only
thing that rejoices the heart of the son of god his saving
service. Second lesson is this. The Lord
our God, he who is God indeed, God Almighty, is absolutely sovereign
in the exercise of his grace. Be sure you understand that.
A God who cannot do what he wants to do because you won't let him.
A God whose will can be perverted, thwarted, changed, or hindered. A God who tries to do what men
and women or Satan or the world won't let him do is no God at
all. You might as well worship your
toenail clippings as worship such a God. That's so base. I can't make the God of this
age base enough. He is as worthless as hell itself. Worthless! The God of this book
is absolutely sovereign in the saving of sinners. Look at verse
21. In that hour, Jesus rejoiced
in spirit and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent,
and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. Now understand this. Be sure
you understand this. It is not the concept of divine
sovereignty that our Lord rejoiced and gave thanks for. The heathen throughout history
have had perverted notions of sovereignty and sovereign deities
who were mean, cruel, and barbaric, and they sought to appease them.
It is not the idea that God is sovereign that we rejoice in.
I fear that multitudes make far too much of just the concept
of divine sovereignty. That's not it at all. But rather,
listen now, that of which our Savior speaks is is the exercise
of sovereignty in mercy. Look at the text again. It is
God exercising sovereign grace. It is God exercising grace to
sinners as he will, that our Savior speaks of in this passage. Be sure you understand the meaning
of his words. They do not express joy in the
fact that multitudes perish, but rather in the fact that some,
out of the great multitudes that deserve to perish, are made to
live by his grace. When the Master said, I thank
thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thou hast hid these
things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes,
this is what he's saying. Father, I thank you. that you have in your infinite
goodness revealed these things to these chosen babes, though
you have in just judgment hidden them from those who being wise
and prudent in their own eyes will not repent. Having said
that, be sure you understand this. God Almighty is absolutely
sovereign. This fact is plainly revealed
in Holy Scripture. Now, when we say that he's sovereign,
this is all I mean, and this is all the book means. He's God. He who is God is in absolute
control of everything in the universe, always at all times
disposing of all things exactly as he will. He's God Almighty. That's no deep complicated, profound
mystery. It's so plainly written in this
book that you can't miss it except by willful, deliberate rebellion
against his throne. The problem is not that men,
oh, I just, I can't understand. How can you say God's always
in absolute control? Who has any problem understanding
that? Huh? Don't you see this? I got it
in my control. Anybody got a problem? Believe I'll lay that there.
Nice colors look pretty on the coffee table. Nope. I throw it
in the trash can. Any problem? Any problem? That's simple enough, isn't it?
It's in my control. In my control. I have right to
do with it what I will. It's mine. Mine. And it can't
do anything to change what I determine. Nothing. Nothing. The problem
is not that men don't understand that God's sovereign. The problem
is they want to be God. The problem is they hate Him
being God. It's not that men hate sovereignty and hate election
and hate predestination. Oh no, they hate God. Man's heart
by nature is enmity against God. This wondrous truth of scripture
cannot and must not be perverted as an excuse to justify your
responsibility. The fact is, when the questions
are raised, why does God choose some and pass by others? Why
does God send the gospel to some and not to others? Why is it
that some nations are blessed with the light of the gospel
and others are left in utter darkness and pagan superstition
generation after generation after generation? Why? Why is it that
some sections of a society are blessed with an abundance of
gospel preachers and others? You can travel across this country
and you can't find anybody preaching the gospel going from one state
to another. How come? How come God sent his
son to redeem some, didn't send him to redeem others? Why does
God send his spirit to raise some from the dead, not others?
Why is it that one person sitting here hears and believes and another
sits here and the word goes over them like water over a rock?
Doesn't have any effect at all. How come? How come? No answer
can be given and no answer should be given except this. Even so,
Father, for so it's in good in thy sight. We'll bow to you. We're not going to argue with
God, but understand this too, wherever the gospel is hidden,
wherever eyes are blinded, wherever God passes by men and women,
Wherever God exercises judgment, whether it is the judgment of
leaving men alone here or the judgment of leaving men alone
forever in hell, wherever God exercises judgment, there's a
reason for it. There's a reason for it. You
may or may not understand the reason, but there's a reason
for it. Wherever God pours out his grace, wherever
God gives light, wherever God gives repentance, wherever God
gives faith, wherever God gives salvation, there's absolutely
no reason for it except God's goodness. What are you saying, Pastor?
I'm saying, David Peterson, if you and I go to hell, it's all
our fault. And if we go to glory, it's all
God's If we perish, it's altogether our doing. If we're saved, it's
altogether God's doing. If we are left in unbelief, it's
altogether because of our rebellion. If we're given life and faith
in Christ, it's altogether because of God's grace. The wages of
sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. And wherever the gospel is preached, God all without faith in Christ.
And if he can, Satan will persuade you to hide behind election and
predestination and say, well, if I'm chosen, God's going to
take me no matter what. If God's predestinated me to
heaven, I'm going to heaven no matter what. So I just wait on
God to knock me in the head and take me to glory. And you'll go to
hell. But God doesn't speak that way.
God Almighty addresses us as responsible men and women. He
commands us to repent. He commands us to believe, giving
promise that as we believe, you'll have mercy. But preacher, you
know a man can't believe. I know that. I know that. But
if you will, you can. If you will, if you'll come to
him, you can come. And if you come, it's because he made you
willing to give his power. Listen to this. Turn you at my
reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit
unto you. I'll make known my words to you.
What could be more gracious? God says, turn, I'll pour out
my spirit on you. Fact is, you won't turn unless
he's already poured out his spirit. But you'll never know he's poured
out his spirit till you turn. He that being often reproved
and hardens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed and that without
remedy. Our master beheld Jerusalem,
that city of religious lost Pharisees and
devils. As he was coming into the city,
where he would be delivered by the people of that city, into
the hands of wicked men and crucified. And the scripture tells us, behold
in the city he wept. And he said, O Jerusalem, thou
that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sinning
to thee, how oft would I have gathered thy children together
even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wing. The problem's not with me. Will
you hear me? Problem's not with him. And you
would not. That's the problem. How come you're still in your
sin? How come you're still without mercy? How come you're still
without grace? Because you will not come to Christ. He said,
you will not come to me that you might have life. Here's another
lesson. The objects of God's grace are always, always the most unlikely
of people. Our Lord said, thou hast hid
these things from the wise and prudent. Those who are wise and
prudent in their own eyes. Those who are so smart, they
don't need God to teach them anything. Those who are so wise
they can figure things out on their own. Those who are so prudent
that they can work out salvation for themselves. Those who are
so confident in themselves that they are upright and moral and
good. I know I'm not perfect, but I'm
good enough to stay in God's inspection. You're going to hell. You can
mark it down. You can mark it down. You can
mark it down. God's grace commonly comes to
the most unlikely, most unexpected, most despised. You see your calling
brethren, not many wise, not many noble, not many mighty are
called. But God's chosen the base things,
foolish things, things that are not. How come that no flesh should
glory in his presence? You see, the problem with all
of us by nature is that we refuse to acknowledge what we are. No
man will. No woman will. Won't happen.
We will not acknowledge what we are. Won't happen. Oh, if you work just right with
a fellow's mind, you can persuade a man or a woman to Acknowledge
that they've done some pretty bad things. You can persuade
them to acknowledge they've told some lies. You can persuade them
to acknowledge they've had some lust, obscene lust. You can persuade
them to acknowledge they stole some stuff. You can persuade
them to acknowledge they've done lots of things. But you're never
going to get them to acknowledge that what they've done is what
they are. Just sin. Just. No. No, preacher, I beg your
pardon now. I ain't like that. I ain't like
that. I'm not that bad. I know, I know
I've done some bad things, but I ain't that bad. That's just
not so. Go ahead and keep that good opinion
of yourself if you want to, but you go to hell with it. Blessed is that man. Blessed
is that woman by whom are for whom God has done a work of grace
so that they are made to understand that they're poor and wretched
and blind and hungry and needy and dead without Christ. God, I don't have anything. All
I offer you is sin. I can't do anything but sin. Have mercy on me. You got it. You got it. Exactly right. Lord here would have us to understand
this lesson as well. Because he is our savior. Because he is our mediator. Because he has accomplished redemption. Because he is the revelation
of the Father. God Almighty has given him freedom
over everything. The Father has put everything
in my hands. That's talking about being a
man. As the God-man mediator, the Father didn't put everything
in his hands as the Son of God. But as our covenant surety, the
Father put everything in his hands. Boy, how far can you carry
that? Just as far as you can carry
all things. And he is the great revealer
of the Father. He's the only one who takes the
things of God and shows them to us. He's the only one. who reveals the Father's will.
He's the only one by whom sinners can know God. The only way any
man can know God is in that God-man who is Christ, our Redeemer,
who came down here to make known the Father and to make known
His grace. And one last thing. Our Lord teaches us something
about true blessedness. Oh, true blessedness. true blessings. Here it is. Look at verse 23. He turned to his disciples and said privately, blessed are
the eyes which see the things you see. All prophets and kings wanted
to see these things. But we live in this age when
God has made known the manifold riches of his grace in Christ.
But there's more than just living in this age. Let me see if I can be personal and
plain at the same time. Wes, I have absolutely no advantage
with ability and aptitude. Nothing. I make no claim to being smart,
much less brilliant. None. But I'll tell you what I see.
I see clearly. I see clearly. I mean more clearly,
Bob, than I can see you with these physical eyes. I see clearly
how that God Almighty can be just and justify a sinner by
the sacrifice of this man who is God in the flesh. I see clearly the wonder of God's
grace. I see clearly, oh I do, the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ, His Son. Because God's been pleased
to reveal His Son in me. And I'll tell you what, you can
have everything else. You can just have everything
else. This is blessed, all blessed. How blessed of God we are. He
chose us, He redeemed us, He called us by His grace. He revealed
His Son in us. Now God make us faithful, compassionate,
zealous and gracious. seeking the everlasting good
of the souls of men for the glory of Christ.