Would you turn with me to the
fourth chapter of the Book of John? I want to remind you that
next week we'll be having a church dinner after the morning worship
service, and that's always a wonderful time together. And then we will
observe the Lord's table after that. We won't have evening services. Tonight, I'm going to be preaching
out of First Corinthians, Chapter four, verse six, where Paul said,
who makes you to differ from another and what do you have
that you didn't receive? And our subject is going to be
pride condemned. And I would also like to thank
you who have contributed to the truck fund for Walter in Mexico. That's going to be a real blessing
to them to be able to purchase another truck. John, chapter four. I want to begin reading in verse
43 and read down through verse 45, just three verses. Beginning in verse 43. Now, after two days he departed
thence and went into Galilee, for Jesus himself testified that
a prophet hath no honor in his own country. Then, when he was
come into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all
the things that he did at Jerusalem, at the feast, for they also went
unto the feast. I'm going to attempt to preach
this morning on receiving Christ. What does it mean to receive
Christ? Now, I know this, if I don't
receive Him, I will not be saved. What does it mean to receive
the Lord Jesus Christ? Let's pray together. Our merciful and gracious Heavenly
Father, we ask in Christ's name that You would be pleased in
Your mercy to speak to our hearts. Lord, don't let us meet in vain,
but enable us truly to hear Your voice and to believe Your Gospel. Forgive us of our sins. There
are so many and they are so great. But Lord, how we thank You for
the greatness of the blood of Thy dear Son. We ask for grace
to receive him, whatever that means. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Receiving Christ. I can remember
when I was attending the University of Kentucky, I lived over on
Virginia Avenue one year. And I remember when it came time
to pay the rent, I was $100 short. And I didn't have any way of
coming up with the money. And I was stressed. I didn't
know what I was going to do. I mean, in two days, my rent
money was due. I didn't have it, and I didn't
have any way of coming up with it. And I was stressed out. The day before my rent money
was due, I received a letter in the mail. And it was from
my Aunt Knight. I'd never received a letter from
her before. And I can remember opening up
that letter, and lo and behold, there was $100 in it. You know what I did? I received it. I was glad to
receive it. I was happy to receive it. It
was unexpected. I didn't expect this money to
be coming my way. I was amazed. But I'll tell you
what I did do. I received it. Thankfully, I embraced it. I didn't say, well, I'm not going
to take charity. No, I didn't say that at all.
I took the charity. Now, our subject for this morning
is receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. Look in verse 45. Then when he
was coming to Galilee, the Galileans received him. Now, there's no salvation apart
from this. They received the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look up in verse 43. Now, after
two days, departed thence, and went into Galilee. This is after
he left Samaria, where he had preached to those Samaritans
and the Samaritan woman that had believed. After two days,
he departed thence and went into Galilee. That's the place where
he had been brought up, Jesus of Galilee. And verse 44 says,
For Jesus himself testified that a prophet hath no honor in his
own country. What is the context of that statement? The Lord said a prophet has no
one in his own country. Now, this is a reference to what
took place in Luke chapter four. Would you turn over to Luke chapter
four for a moment? Look in verse twenty four. Luke
chapter four, verse twenty four. And he said, Verily I say unto
you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. Now, the Lord
was in his own country at this time when he made that statement.
And he said, no prophet is accepted in his own country. Now, what
led the Lord to make this statement? Well, look back in verse 16 of
Luke chapter 4. This is the story. I think this
is one of the most powerful passages in the Word of God. And he came
to Nazareth where he had been brought up. This is where he
grew up as a little boy. And as his custom was, he went
into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read.
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he opened the book.
He found the place where it was written, and this is a quotation
from Isaiah, chapter 61, verses one and two, and he begins to
read and I I can just imagine how it sounded when he read this
passage of scripture. Wouldn't you like to have heard
the Lord read the Bible. The author now is reading the
scripture. And he says, the Spirit of the
Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel
to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering the sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and he
gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all them that
were in the synagogue were fastened on him. They knew exactly what
he meant when he said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. They
knew what he was saying. Verse 21, And he began to say
unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. and all bearing witness, and
they wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of
his mouth, and they said, Is not this Joseph's son? We saw
him grow up. And he said unto them, You will
surely say unto me this proverb, Position heal thyself whatsoever
we have heard done in Capernaum. Do also thou here in thy country.
And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in
his own country. Now this is what John has quoted.
Let's go on reading. He goes on to say to these people
who were rejecting him, is this, is not this Jesus? He says, I
tell you the truth. There were many widows in Israel
in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years
and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land.
But unto none of them was Elijah sent. Every one of them were
passed by. God didn't send his rescue, his
food to one of them. None of them was he sent to,
but I tell you the truth, verse 25, Elias, when the heaven was
shut up three years and six months, when great famines was throughout
all the land, but unto none of them was Elias sent but unto
Serepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Elisha, the prophet, and none of them were cleansed.
Saving name in Assyrian, God passed by every one of them.
Now look at their response. Verse 28. And all day in the
synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath. They were mad. And they rose
up And they thrust him out of the city, and they led him under
the brow of the hill where their city was built, that they might
cast him down headlong. They were going to throw him
off a cliff. They were so upset and angry over what was taking
place. They didn't receive him, did they? They rejected him altogether. They rose up and thrust him out
of the city and led him under the brow of the hill whereon
their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
But he, passing through the midst of them, went his way, and he
came down to Capernaum a city of Galilee and taught them on
the Sabbath days. And these are the people who
received him. And look what it says about them. It says they
were astonished at his doctrine. For his word was with power. Now, these Galileans, they were
unlike these people of Nazareth who rejected him. They wanted
to kill him for his words. But these people were astonished
at his doctrine at what he had to say at his teaching. It was
with power. Now, that doesn't simply mean
that he spoke in a baritone voice and just sounded very powerfully
and like a powerful speaker. They were amazed by his doctrine. It recommended itself as God's
doctrine. It was so awesome. It was so
powerful. It was so majestic. It recommended
itself. And, you know, I really believe
this. I believe when somebody hears the truth, they may not
like it. They may not receive it at first,
but they know it's the truth. They know it's the truth. This
is God's doctrine. They were impressed with what they had
to hear. Now, these are the people that
are being spoke of back up to our text in John chapter four. These are the ones who received
him. They were astonished at his doctrine. I look at verse
forty five again. Then when he was coming to Galilee,
the Galileans, these are the people that were astonished at
his doctrine, it says they received, they embraced him. Having seen
all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast, for they
also went unto the feast. Now the people that were described
as being astonished by his doctrine, they received him. Very much like I received that
check in the mail. It came to me as good news. I received it. I embraced it. It came as good news. What's
it mean to receive Christ? You know, a lot of people, when
they talk about receiving Christ, I remember one time I was talking
to a fella, and I was trying to explain to him the gospel
of God's grace. We were just talking, just the
two of us, and I talked about how the Father had elected a
people. Christ died to the elect and God the Holy Spirit calls
the elect and they all will be saved. They must be saved. They're
the only ones that will be saved. And he said, well, he said, you're
just you're just saying man doesn't have anything to do with this.
I said, exactly. That's what I'm saying. But don't we have
to receive him? Isn't there merit in receiving him? I mean, don't
we have to receive the Lord Jesus? Yeah, we receive him, but there's
no merit in receiving him. Now let me try to What I think
is a very good illustration is, I'm going to pick on Chuck right
now. I called him to ask him if I could use this as an example,
but Chuck had a kidney transplant, what, five years ago, six years
ago? Okay, putting him on the spot. He was needing a kidney, and
I understand this, he could not see taking somebody else's kidney
and putting them through that. He was very awkward about doing
that. And I try to put myself in his book. Probably I wouldn't
be as honorable as Chuck. I'd just say, give me your kidney, you
know. But I'll take it, you know. But Chuck was very hesitant about
taking somebody's kidney. And there was a man by the name
of Joe Turner. Most of you know him. He felt led of the Lord
to donate his kidney to Chuck. And Chuck said, I just had a
hard time taking a healthy person's kidney. I just didn't want to
do it. And he even expressed it and said, I feel led of the
Lord to do this. You're going to be robbing me of a blessing
if you don't take this kidney. But he was hesitant to take it.
But he said, as my kidney failed, and I became sicker and sicker
and sicker, continual nausea. I just felt miserable. And he
said, I looked at my three kids and I thought, I'm not going
to be able to take care of them. I'm not going to be able to provide
for them if I stayed this way. And I just looked at the situation
this was putting him in. All of a sudden, he said, I'll
take it. I'll take it. And he received
that kidney from that man. Now, do you reckon at that time
he thought, well, you know, I need to give at least some of the
credit. I did receive it. He said, that's ridiculous. I
know it is. I know it is. And it's ridiculous
to think there's any merit in receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you're flat out an idiot
if you don't. There's no question about that. I mean, you've got
to be. It's stupid to not receive him.
I mean, the only hope you have is him. Are you going to congratulate
yourself? You wouldn't think of that, would
you? As a matter of fact, you know, if you received him, you
know this in your own experience, if you're a believer, you know,
the only reason you received him is because he gave you the grace
to receive him. It's only by His grace that I receive. That's
how helpless we are. But you do receive Him. They received the Lord Jesus
Christ, unlike that crowd at Nazareth. Now, verse 45 gives
us a clue as to why they received Him. Verse 45. Then when He was come
into Galilee, the Galileans received Him. They embraced Him. They welcomed him. Oh, they were
glad to receive him. But look what it says next. Having
seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast. Why did they receive him? Because
they saw all the things that he did at Jerusalem. Now, if
you want to look and see what he did at Jerusalem, read John
chapter 2. You know one of the things he did at Jerusalem? He
made a whip. He made a whip and he drove those
money changers out of the temple. I'm sure a lot of folks got mad
at that. Who does he think he is? But you know what? I like that. I like what he did
today. I'm impressed. I'm impressed. Scripture also says he did many
miracles at that time. In John chapter two, he performed
many miracles. I mean, supernatural miracles. And they saw these
things. And you can bet they were impressed by what they saw.
They saw him drive those people out of the temple. They saw him
perform those miracles. They received him. They embraced
him. They were impressed with what they saw. Now, that's true,
but I tell you what, it goes a whole lot further than that. If you receive him, Here's the
reason. You will have seen the things
that he did. That word C doesn't really even
have anything to do with a physical sight. The word actually means
a mental perception, an understanding, a discernment. If you receive
him, it's because Here's why you receive him and you'll receive
him if you see. It's because you'll have some understanding,
some discernment, some grasp of what he did. Now, I want to spend a few moments
in this message now just talking about what he did. Could any subject be more important?
than what He did. I'm not going to talk to you
right now about what you need to do. I'm going to talk about what
He did according to the Scriptures. Now, I'm going to begin right
here. You know what He did? Way back before time began, when
there was no moon, when there was no stars, when there was
no earth, when me and you were not around, when there was nothing
but God, He stood as a surety for his people. And that's what
he did. He stood as a surety for his
people. Hebrews 9.22 says he's made a
surety of a better covenant. Now, what's that mean? Well,
God foresaw the fall of our first father, Adam, in the garden.
He foresaw it. Did he know it was going to happen?
Of course he did. Could he have prevented it? Of
course he could. Did he prevent it? No. It was all part of his purpose.
It was all part of his plan. Somebody says, are you charging
God with sin? No. But I know it wouldn't happen
if he didn't let it happen. I didn't know that for a fact. But you
know, he foresaw our fall, our ruin in our first parents. That's what the Scripture teaches. God the Father. gave him a people,
a vast multitude which no man can number. And he said, are
you willing to be surety for them, to keep the law for them,
to be punished and suffer my wrath for them in their room
and in their stead? Are you willing to be their surety?
And he said, I will. That's what he did. And I can't
even express the comfort my soul receives from that. Do you know
that everything that God requires of me, at that time He looked
to His Son for? Everything. Everything. Is that
good news to you? That's what He did. He did create the universe. I
love thinking about this. We're going to talk about what
He did. He said, Light me! And light was. He created everything. He's the mighty God. That's what
He did. He created the universe. That
gives us some idea who He is. Only God could create. Jesus
Christ is God. I reckon that's my favorite thing
to say. Jesus is God. Don't you love the way it sounds?
Jesus is God. He created the universe. And
He did ordain everything that was going to take place. Known
unto God are all His works from the beginning. He does control
providence. By Him, all things consist. The
Scripture says in Hebrews 1, 2, He upholds all things by the
word of His power. He did ordain everything that
happens, and He did become flesh. The Word, the Scripture says,
the Word, the Eternal Son, God the Son, was made flesh. God became a man. Now, what a mystery. Great is
the mystery of Godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
He had flesh, just like you and I do. He had blood pumping through
His veins. He had the same limitations as a man that you and I have.
God became flesh. What did He do? The God-man kept
the law. He obeyed God perfectly. I mean, He knew no sin. He never sinned. He never had a thought of sin.
When He walked upon this earth, what did He do? He perfectly
kept the law. What else did He do? Well, that's
a whole lot, isn't it? But let me go on. He did die.
This One who is God, the God-Man, this One who did perfectly keep
the Law, He did die. They removed Him from that cross,
a lifeless corpse. Now that's, to me, that's so
mysterious. How could He die? He's the God-Man.
How did He die? I don't know, but He did. He
died, and there's only one reason for death. And that one reason
is sin. The sins of His people became
His. That's why He died. He did die. But what did He accomplish
by that death? Now, that's the issue. What did
He accomplish by that death? I love that passage of Scripture
in Luke chapter 9, verse 31, where it says, They spake of
the decease which He should accomplish. What did He accomplish by that
death? Well, I'll tell you, let me give you three or four things
He accomplished by His death. He satisfied the justice of God. All that the law requires against
the sinner, he paid for. He satisfied God's justice. That's why God raised him from
the dead. Justice was satisfied. He drank the dreads of God's
wrath completely dry to where there was nothing left. God's
wrath came down upon him. And here's the one time. that
it was the sacrifice that consumed the fire. You know, in the Old
Testament, when that fire would come down, that sacrifice would
be disappeared. It'd be consumed. It would be
gone. There'd be nothing. The fire would consume it. But
here is the one time where the sacrifice consumed the fire. The fire came down. There's nothing
left. The sacrifice is still there. That's the full satisfaction
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God doesn't have a reason to
be angry. His wrath is gone for everybody that Christ died for.
He completely put away the sins of his people. Hebrews 1, 3 says
he by himself purged our sins. He accomplished the salvation
of God's elect. This is what he did by his death
when he said it is finished. Aren't those precious words?
It is finished means that everybody he died for, their salvation
is finished. Finished, my salvation. If I'm
somebody He died for, it is finished. It's already accomplished. I
don't need to grasp for anything. I don't need to reach for anything.
It's already been done. That's what He did. When He was
raised from the dead, God said, I've accepted Him and I've accepted
everybody He did it for. Right now, I have no reason to
fear. That's what He did. Now, seeing all the things that
he did, they received him. They embraced him, they welcomed
him, they received the love of the truth. You know, when you receive the
love of the truth, that means more than just an intellectual
pleasure from seeing truth. No, when you receive the love
of the truth, you receive the truth of a person. They received
him. Now, if a gift is never received,
then it never really was given, was it? If it's not received, it never
was given in the first place. But when a gift is received,
it's because it was given. Now, what does it mean to receive
the Lord Jesus Christ? It says they received him after
seeing what he did. What does it mean to actually
receive the Lord Jesus Christ? There's two things involved in
receiving the person of Christ. First. You receive his words. It's just talk, if you talk about
receiving him and you don't receive what he has to say. You receive
his words, you receive the word, that's what you do first when
you receive him, you receive what what he says, and secondly,
You receive His benefits. You receive them. You embrace
them. You welcome them as good news to you. You receive His
words and you receive His benefits. I received Christ himself when
I received his words, what he says. Now, remember, these people
who received him were said to be astonished at his doctrine.
They were blown away by his doctrine. It recommended itself as being
the doctrine of God, and they received it. They received his
word because it was with power, it was with authority. It was
God's word. Now, that's the way we received
the Lord Jesus Christ. We received what he had to say.
This is in the Scripture, John chapter 17, verse 8. He says,
For I have given them the words which thou gavest me, and they
have received them. Now, what came to my mind when
I thought about this thing of receiving these words, I thought
about that passage in John chapter 6, where these people said, Harsh
saying. These are hard words. They didn't
receive them. Scripture says they want no more with Him. They
didn't like what He had to say. But there was another group,
just 12. Our Lord watched this big crowd
leave. They said, these are harsh words.
We don't like what He has to say. Our Lord watched this big
crowd leave. Then He looked at His disciples.
He said, you fellows want to leave too? Will you also go away? There's the door. The Lord doesn't have any unwilling
disciples. Not one. You fellas want to leave,
here's your opportunity. Do you know what Peter said?
And he said this as the spokesman of all of God's people. He said,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God, If you receive Him, you receive
what He has to say. And there's no reception of Him
apart from a receiving of His words. You receive the person
when you receive what that person says. Anything else is just talk. And not only do we receive and
embrace His words, we receive, as good news, like I received
that check, like you received that kidney, We receive and embrace,
as good news, his benefits. The benefits of receiving him.
Now, the way I arrived at what I want to say about this, I just
looked up in the scriptures in a concordance. Everything that
a believer is said to receive. Let me give you several Scriptures.
In Acts 10, verse 43, we read, Whosoever believeth in him shall
receive, there's the word, receive the remission, the putting away
of sin. You receive. You receive the
remission of your sins. Now, something that I personally
cannot identify with. I've heard people say, well,
I can't forgive myself. I can't identify with it. I don't
have a problem forgiving myself. I don't know what else to say
about that. I just don't understand. I'm all for being forgiven. That's
very important to me. But if I believe on Him, listen
to me, I receive. I embrace. My sins are remitted. I believe that. They're put away. I receive that. I believe that
His blood actually put away my sin. There is nothing now. He put it away, and I receive
that. That's where the joy and peace
of believing is. We receive what He's done. Romans
1-5 says we receive grace. Now, grace isn't just something
you can argue for and I can give the correct doctrinal reason
for what it means and so on. I can. I'm here to favor. But
not only do I know how to define grace, I receive. I embrace. I welcome the grace
of God. It's how I'm saved. Second Corinthians chapter 4
verse 1 says we receive mercy. You ask for mercy. I bet everybody
in here has asked for mercy at one time or the other. Now, if
you really have asked, you have it. He's given it to you. The
very fact that you asked for it is because he gave you the
grace to do it. I realize that. But we ask for mercy. We ask
for mercy. Now, what about this? You ask for mercy, you receive
it. You receive it. Mercy for the
miserable. You receive it. It's just what
I need. We receive His mercy. Hebrews
9, verse 15 says, We receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
Now, my eternal inheritance is promised to me by God. I really
believe that on Judgment Day I'm going to be accepted. I'm
going to spend eternity with Christ. I receive that. I embrace
that. I really believe it. I welcome
it as good news. In Romans chapter 5, verse 17,
we're said to receive the gift of righteousness. Have you ever
seen righteousness, not as something you do, but as a gift He gives
you? Not something you do, but something
He gives you. And you receive this gift and
embrace this gift as the best news you've ever heard. Just
what you need. You know you can't come up with
righteousness. You know the only way you can have it is if He
gives it to you. And you receive it. We read in Galatians chapter
4 verse 5 of receiving the adoption of sons. Boy, it seems like a Is it presumptuous
for me to consider myself a child of God? To actually be a son
and draw near? No, it's not. It's faith. I believe
what Christ did makes me a son of God, and I receive that. We read in Romans 511 of receiving
the atonement or the reconciliation. That word Roman, we received
it by whom we now receive the atonement. The word is actually
the reconciliation. The reason for God's anger is
removed. God's not mad. God's not mad
at me. How many times have you thought
God's angry with you? He's going to get you. Well,
when I received Christ, I received the reckoning. God doesn't have
a reason to be mad. And I received that. I received
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We read in Acts 1, verse
8, of receiving power, the strength to do. The kingdom of God is
not in word, but in power. We read in 1 Corinthians 2, verse
12, where we receive the knowledge of the things freely given to
us by God. We receive what's freely given to us by God. And this, Peter sums it up like
this in 2 Peter 1, 9, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation
of your souls. We receive him. We receive him
intelligently, and by that I mean we receive him knowing who he
is in the word of God, how he reveals himself. We receive him
as he is. I remember one time a job I had,
I was working with a fellow and I liked him a lot. It was in
the summers when I was working in a steel mill in Ashland. And
I got to be pretty good friends with this guy. We worked every
day together. And I remember he got married, and I was so
excited for it. It was toward the end of the summer. He got
married, and he was just looking forward to it. And I remember
he went on his honeymoon. And a week later, he came back.
And we were sitting in the lunchroom. And I said, well, how's Mary's
life? He said, I married a monster. He said, I didn't know her. Well,
he thought he received her, but he didn't receive her as she
really was, was he? Now, we don't do that, do we? We receive him
as he is, as he's revealed in his Word. We receive him intelligently. We receive him completely in
all of his offices, as prophet, priest, and king. We receive
him exclusively. We reject all other ways but
him. And we receive him lovingly, we receive the love of the truth. Now, I'm closing with this question.
Have I received him? Turn to John 1. If you want to know exactly,
if you want to just narrow this thing down to what it means to
receive him. And you can leave this place known if you've received
him. Look in John chapter 1, verse 12. But as many as received him, to them
gave he power, the right, the privilege to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name." Now, here is who
has received the Lord Jesus Christ. It is that individual who has
believed on his name. Now, would you turn with me for
a moment to Psalm 106? I love this passage of Scripture.
Now, listen to the confession of the psalmist, verse six of
Psalm 106. We have sinned with our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly. I don't see any soft-selling
of this confession to you. This is a genuine confession.
It says in verse 7, Our fathers understood not thy wonders in
Egypt. They were a stupid people, a
spiritually stupid people, and we are too. Our fathers understood
not thy wonders in Egypt. They remembered not the multitude
of thy mercies. They were an ungrateful people,
unthankful. What a wicked bunch. But they
provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea. They were provoking
people by their continual sin, sinning the same sin over and
over again. What a provoking people. Verse
8, Nevertheless, even though they were such a
stupid, ungrateful, sinful people, nevertheless, He saved them for
His name's sake. For Christ's Be kind, tender-hearted, forgiving
one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven
you. Now, here's someone who's received
Christ. It's someone who really believes
in their heart of hearts that His name only is all that's needed
to cause them to be perfectly accepted by God. Do you believe that? Do you believe His name is all
that is needed to make you perfect before God? If you believe that, my dear
friends, you have received Him. That's what it is to receive
Him. It's to believe that His name, His person, His blood,
His merit is all that is needed to make you perfect before God.
If you believe that, you have in fact received Him. May God give us all grace to
do just that. Let's pray together.