Well, it's good to see everybody
out this morning. Remember those who requested prayer. Add to
your prayer list Trish Tramper, who's having some difficulty
breathing for some reason, so remember her in your prayers.
Continue to remember Fred, who's recovering from a heart operation.
The incision, everything's looking good, and he still has some kind
of infection, or has had some kind of infection. But he's got
three trips to the doctor in the first three days of this
week, so bless his heart. That's enough to wear you out
and give you a heart attack again, just driving back and forth to
Asheville. Birthdays this week, Malcolm
James and some guy named Tim James. I don't know who he is. be thirty nine for the thirty
seventh time you do the math that uh... that uh... we will observe the
lord's table at this morning's worship service and uh... hope
you'll stay rehearse the lord's death till he comes again with
us let's begin our worship service with hymn number three hundred
and fourteen I am thine oh lord ? I am thine, O Lord, I have heard
thy voice ? And it told my love to me ? But I long to rise in
the arms of faith ? And be closer drawn to thee ? Draw me nearer,
nearer, blessed Lord to the cross where thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, dearer,
blessed Lord, to thy precious bleeding side. Consecrate me now to thy service,
Lord, by the power of grace divine. Let my soul look up with a steadfast
hope and my will be lost in thine. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed
Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer,
dearer, blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding side. O the beauty, like of a single
hour, that before thy throne I spin. When I kneel in prayer,
and with thee my God, I commune as friend with thee. Robe me
nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast
died. Robe me nearer, nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding side. There are dips of love that I
cannot know till I cross a narrow sea. There are heights of joy
that I may not reach till I rest in draw me nearer, nearer, blessed
Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer,
nearer, blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding side. After Scripture, Reconciliation,
and Prayer, we'll sing an hymn number one, I'll worship the King. If
you have your Bibles, turn to the Gospel according to John
chapter 18. The title of my message this morning
is Christ the Preacher. John chapter 18 and verse 19,
our Lord is standing before the high priest Caiaphas who hates
him and wants to kill him and manages to talk with Herod and
others and convince them that this is the way to go. Verse
19, the high priest then asked Jesus of his disciples and of
his doctrine. And Jesus answered him and said,
I speak openly to the world. I ever taught in the synagogue
and in the temple whether Jews always resort. And in secret
have I said nothing. Why askest thou me? ask them
which heard me what I have said unto them behold
they know what I say they know what I say let us pray our father
we thank you for your blessed word which is a lamp unto our
feet and a light unto our path we thank you that you did not
leave yourself without a witness that you have given us all and
everything we need to know concerning who you are concerning what we
are, concerning what our Lord Jesus Christ did and accomplished
on Calvary Street. We thank you, Father, that we
can learn these things plainly and clearly in your word. We
thank you for faith to believe. Help us, Lord, this hour to worship
you, for you're worthy to be worshiped. Help us, Lord, to
remember those who are sick, Miss Tramper is having difficulty
breathing, Brother Fred, Brother D. Parks, these others who are
suffering different maladies, we ask Lord your help for them.
And help us Lord to remember each other, call each other's
names out to heaven. This is what we have here on
this earth. It becomes more and more precious every day to know
and appreciate the fact that we have brothers and sisters
in Christ. Help us Lord to remember that. and to call our brothers
and sisters' names out to heaven. Help us now to worship you in
spirit and in truth. Open your word to our hearts
and minds and cause us in our hearts to worship and believe
you. We pray in Christ's name, amen. Hymn number one, O Worship
the King. Worship the King, all glorious
above, and gratefully sing his power and his love. As shield and defender, the ancient
of days, pavilion with praise. O tell of his height, O sing
of his grace, whose robe is the light, whose canopy space. His chariots of wrath are deep,
thunderclouds form, Dark is His path on the wings of the storm. Thy bountiful care, what tongue
can recite in reason the air? It shines in the light. It streams from the hills. It descends to the plain. And sweetly distills in the dew
and the rain. Frail children of dust and feeble
as frail. He do we trust, nor find thee
to fail. Thy mercies how tender, how firm
to the end. Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer,
and Friend. I'm going to ask Stan and Stephen
to receive the office this morning, please. Let us pray. Our Father, again,
we approach in the name of Jesus Christ, our great sovereign savior,
who sits at thy right hand, ever living to make intercession for
his people. We thank you, Father, that you freely gave him to your
people, and with him you freely gave them all things. We have
nothing. We are nothing by and in and
of ourselves. Only as we are connected to the
vine is our life worthwhile. Help us, Lord, to appreciate
the fact that what we have this side of eternal perdition is
your mercy and your grace and your kindness toward us. Help
us, Lord, to worship you in the manner which you've ordained
here, the rendering of what we have unto thee, knowing full
well that it belongs to thee begin with. We ask this in Christ's
name, amen. you I invite your attention back
to John chapter 18. Caiaphas asked the disciples
what was Jesus' doctrine? When you say doctrine in the
religious world today, you are probably going to get in a fight
with somebody because the word doctrine in religion today has
become like a four-letter cuss word to most religionists. This
book is the doctrine of God. And if you don't like doctrine,
you can buy yourself a Spider-Man comic, but you can read that
instead because this is God's doctrine. The word doctrine in
the Greek is didaktos, which means to teach. That's all it
means. My wife was a didactician for 11 years and taught kindergarten
kids. What was she doing in those 11
years? She was indoctrinating the children in reading, writing,
and arithmetic. That's what she was doing. And
that's what it means when you stand up to preach the gospel.
It means you indoctrinate people. You preach doctrine. I remember
many years ago, a lady that was very dear to me says, why don't
you just preach Jesus and don't preach doctrine? And I said,
well, okay, I'll do that if you can tell me one thing about Jesus
Christ, but don't use doctrine to do it. Because the only thing
we know about Jesus Christ in reality is this book. It is not what men say on TV,
it is not what they preach, what they teach, not even what I say
unless I say it is this book that speaks. This is the doctrine
of our God and Caiaphas wanted to know what Jesus' doctrine
was. What his doctrine was. Our Lord
was a preacher. He was a preacher. He began his
ministry preaching He said he did. He came to preach the gospel.
He was the prince and the king of preachers. It is said of him
that never a man spake like this man. He spoke as one having authority,
not as the scribes and the Pharisees. It has been said that God had
only one son and he made him a preacher. What was the doctrine
of Christ? What did Christ preach? If you
listen to men today, they find him supposedly preaching all
kinds of stuff. I heard the other day that he
was a preacher of social justice. I'd like to find that anywhere
in scripture that he preached social justice. It's just not
there. I heard one very famous fellow
the other day on TV, he was talking, and this happens in times of
trouble, in times of woe, and we're going through a relatively
tough time in America today and throughout the world, actually,
with inflation and high costs of everything, low salaries,
all those sort of things going on. People are suffering. People
are struggling, and that's when the religion takes an opportunity,
it thinks, to get people in a bad state, in a sad state of affairs,
to get them to do something. And so they're talking about
it. One fellow came on and he said, Jesus, I want to tell you
about Jesus Christ. He's the way, the truth, and
the life. God sent His Son into this world, and He took our sins
to the cross. And He died and was rose again
the third day. And if you'll just believe on
Him, if you'll just say this prayer, this sinner's prayer
and then after you've said it call us and let us know that
you said it so we can put you down on the roll as one who said
it but he didn't say that last part. But he talked about those
things that were facts about the entrance of the Lord Jesus
Christ into this world but not what he did. I said well he did
take our sin, no he took the sins of his people to the cross
And he did die in the room instead, and the question should be, why
did he die? Why did he have to die? And if you can't answer
that question, you don't know the gospel to begin with. You
ain't got a clue. Why did he die? He died in the room instead of
his people. We know that. He died for our
sins. We know that. But why was death a requirement?
Because in that grand scheme of God, that only God could come
up with, Jesus Christ was made to be sin for us. Don't try to
explain that. You're wasting your time. I tried
for many years to try to illuminate and elucidate on that. I finally
figured it out. All I can do now is just bow
my head and worship. God made His Son to be sin for
us. He knew no sin. And He made Him
so that we might be made the righteousness of God. How in
the world can that happen? Only if divine justice is satisfied. Jesus' death was the payment
of a debt that we, His people, owed that we could not pay, that
we had not the wherewithal, the ability, or even the inclination
to pay. He paid the debt. That means
for whoever He paid the debt, and that debt was the death owed
to the law. whoever he paid that debt, do
not have to pay that debt themselves. Justice cannot twice demand,
payment at my bleeding surety's hand, and then again at mine. Did Christ preach like that?
Did Christ preach those things? It is said of Him that men were
astonished at His doctrine, And he said, My doctrine is not mine,
but his that sent me. In another place he said, If
you do God's will, you'll KNOW the doctrine. You'll KNOW the
doctrine. Indoctrination is the job of
every man who stands at this desk to preach the gospel. We're
not to try to tell people how to live and not live. If they
come to know Jesus Christ, they'll learn a lot along those lines. They'll do pretty much what they
want to do, but they'll do it with an eye on Jesus Christ all
the time. Our job is to indoctrinate, to
teach, to teach. I've known many preachers who
have, though declaring that they love the gospel of grace, have
not made the gospel the singular message, and they've left their
churches without foundation. and the enemies of the truth
that filled their pulpits, that they left barren of established
grace. Our Lord preached the gospel
of grace. Some theologians say that the teaching of sovereign
grace is Pauline doctrine, as if to imply that it was not
what our Lord preached. But that is willful ignorance
and a willful error based on the intentional ignorance of
the Word of God and an inordinate affection for the will of the
creature. What did our Lord preach? Well, let's just look at His
preaching and find out. Let's start with His first message
He preached in His hometown in Luke chapter 4. In Luke chapter 4, beginning
with verse 18, He said, The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me. Now he's quoting from Isaiah
chapter 61. That was the scroll that was handed to him by the
men in the assembly. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me because he has anointed me to what? Preach the gospel. That's
the first thing he said. That's what his anointing is
all about. To preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to
heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to them that are
captive and recovering our sight to the blind and set at liberty
them that are bruised. and to preach the acceptable
year of the Lord, which is the day of grace. And he closed that
book, and he gave it to the minister, and he sat down, and the eyes
of all the synagogue were fixed upon him, and he began to say
to them, This day, what I've just read to you in Isaiah chapter
61, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. This
has come to pass. He was talking about himself.
and all bear him witness, and wonder at the gracious words
which proceeded out of his mouth, and they said, Wait a minute,
isn't this Joseph's son? He's saying he's the anointed,
the one who's come to preach the gospel, the acceptable year
of the Lord, to heal the brokenhearted, to set at liberty the delivered
captive, to give sight to the blind. This is Joseph's son,
isn't it? And he said, You will surely
say, to me. Physician, heal thyself. Whatsoever
you've heard done in Capernaum, do also there in our country."
So we see where their interest was. They were saying, heal thyself. They were not saying he needed
healing. They were saying, why didn't you come to us first?
Why did you go to Capernaum first instead of coming to your hometown
to heal people? And he said, verily I say unto
you, no prophet is accepted in his own country, but I'll tell
you a truth this is his doctrine I'll tell you a truth many widows
were in Israel in the days of Elias or Elijah when the heaven
was shut up three years and six months when great famine was
throughout the land now he's talking to those who gathered
in the synagogue who believe that they alone are God's people he says but unto none of them
was Elijah sent, save to Sarepta in the city of Sidon, unto a
woman that was a widow. God did not send His prophet
to one Jew. He sent him to a Gentile. And you know that stirred it,
because they hated Gentiles. But He said, and many lepers
were in Israel in the time of Elisha. the prophet, and none
of them was cleansed but Naaman the Syrian, another Gentile. And all they in the synagogue,
when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose
up and thrust him out of the city, and led him to the brow
of a hill whereupon the city built, that they might cast him
down headlong." What did He say that made Him so mad? What did
He say that made Him so mad? He preached to them that the
blessing of God, that the grace of God, the goodness of God,
belonged to God, and he dispensed it as he was so inclined, and
specifically in this case to two Gentiles rather than any
Jew. Our Lord preached the sovereignty of God, and the religious folk
sought to kill him. That was who he was preaching.
What was his doctrine? His doctrine was the sovereignty
of God. That's his first message in his hometown. We got it on
our sign out there. Sequoia's sovereign grace. What
does that mean? That means God shows grace to
whom he will. It's his grace and he gives it
to whom he will. HE SAVES HIS OWN PEOPLE FROM
THEIR SINS. HE IS THE GOD WHO DOES AS HE
PLEASES IN HEAVEN AND EARTH AND ALL THE DEEP PLACES AND NONE
CAN STAY HIS HAND AND NONE CAN QUESTION HIM. HE DOES NOT GIVE
ACCOUNT OF HIS MATTERS. HE IS GOD AND YOU ARE NOT. THAT
IS WHAT YOU NEED TO LEARN IN THIS WORLD. THAT IS WHAT YOU NEED TO LEARN.
AND THAT WAS OUR LORD'S DOCTRINE. CAIAPHAS SAYS, TELL ME WHAT HIS
DOCTRINE IS. OKAY, CAIAPHAS, THAT IS THE FIRST THING. GOD
IS SOVEREIGN. SECOND THING, JOHN CHAPTER 5. John chapter 5 and
verse 40, Our Lord said to those in verse 39 who searched the
scriptures for in them they thought they had eternal life, He says,
You will not come to Me that you might have life. Then in
John chapter 6 and verse 44, He says, No man CAN come to Me. except the Father which hath
sent me, draw him, and I will raise him up in the last day."
No man can come to me. He said to some, you will not
come to me. And then he said, no man come
to me. In addressing the religious, Bible-reading, Scripture-searching
unbelievers, our Lord preached to them the total depravity and
inability of man to hear, and who have their own power and
volition to come to God. The first instance he spoke of
the will of men, even the very religious, stating that men will
not come to him for life. They will come to the Scriptures,
they will come to church, they'll come to the pew, they'll come
to the Bible, they'll come to the giving, they'll come to the
witnessing, they'll come to everything but Jesus Christ. You do search the Scriptures,
he said, but you will not come to me, you will not. This does
not address an ability to come, because where there is no inclination
to come, ability does not even enter the picture. In the second
instance, in John 6, verse 44, he addresses the inability of
man to come, stating that they cannot come unless they are CAUSED
to come, or are DRAWN by God. Men cannot come, and are not
inclined to do so, to come to Christ, because they are controlled
in mind, heart, and will, indeed, by their depraved, God-hating
nature. What did Christ preach? The sovereignty of God. He preached
the total depravity and inability of man and how man is shut up
to the grace of God to do anything. That is the doctrine of Christ.
Sovereignty of God, total depravity of man. The third thing, John
chapter 6 and verse 37. Our Lord said this, All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. Then in John chapter 17, in the
high priestly prayer of our Lord, in verse 9 he says, I pray for
them, I pray not for the world. I pray for them that thou hast
given me, for they are thine. I pray not for the world. You
mean God don't love everybody? Well, according to scripture,
he doesn't. Hates the workers of iniquity. Jacob have I loved,
and he shall have I hated, that the purpose of election might
stand. That's why he said those things. Our Lord frequently spoke
to those who were given to him, or of those who were given to
him in the covenant of grace, in the covenant of love. He spoke
of them as his people, as his sheep, as his sheep. Some would say that the gospel
does not involve preaching the doctrine of election. Our Lord
was anointed to preach the gospel and He continually made distinction
between those who were His and those who were not by referring
to His chosen and elected. He says, You have not chosen
me. I have chosen you. And that's going to cause a response
in the world when you say that. I've had a lot of responses.
I've been I've actually been cussed out for preaching a lecture. Some Christian guy going, cuss
me out because I preach a lecture. But listen to what the natural
reaction of humanity is to that teaching. Our Lord said there
would be a reaction. In John chapter 15 in verse,
let me see, John 19, John 15, 19. If you were of the world, the world would love his own.
If you were of the world, the world would love you. It's just
that simple. But because you're not of the
world, why are you not of the world? But I have chosen you
out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Now here's the
issue. First time I read that, I said,
well that makes sense to me, but how's anybody gonna know that
I was chosen? The only way they can know is
if I tell them. And that's where the hatred comes
in. He said, marvel not that the world hates you. Our Lord
preached of His chosen ones. He preached unconditional election.
What is our Lord's doctrine? Sovereignty of God, total depravity
of man, and unconditional election of His people. Look at John chapter
10. Verse 11 and verse 15. Our Lord
said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. For the sheep. Then in verse
15 he says, As the Father knoweth me, even so I know the Father,
and I lay down my life for the sheep. For the sheep. Our Lord said in John 17 that
God had given Him authority over all flesh, that He might give
eternal life to as many as God had given Him, as many as God
had given Him. And this is eternal life, that
they might know Thee the only true God, and even Jesus Christ
to whom He sent. Contrary to popular belief, our
Lord did NOT EVER say ANYWHERE in THIS BOOK that He came into
the world to make salvation POSSIBLE for all men. He never said that. So if somebody says that from
the pulpit, that somebody's lying. He's lying. He never said in
this book that he died for all men. He said he laid down his
life for his sheep. He laid down his life for his
sheep. In no uncertain terms, He came
to save them that were given Him by the Father. In John chapter
10, we just read in 11 and 15, I give my life, I lay down my
life for the sheep. Our Lord was given His earthly
name by a heavenly edict, and that earthly name was a declaration
of what He would accomplish for whom his work would be accomplished. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins." And I believe
that is a TRANSLATION, if you will, a carry-over, maybe another way of saying where it
said in Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 12, He shall bear the iniquity
of many, and he shall save them because he shall bear their iniquities.
He shall bear their iniquities. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. You mothers know about travail.
Travail is birth pains. That's what travail is. And the
most unsatisfactory thing for a woman would be to carry a child
for nine months and that child be stillborn. It's heartbreaking. I know folks who've gone through
that, who've lost a child at birth, and it's a heartbreaking
thing. Couldn't be ever said to be a
satisfying experience, could it? But Jesus Christ on the cross
bore those pains from men and from God, those birth pains,
to give birth to his people, and his travail has never known
a miscarriage. Everyone for whom he died, is
made alive. Of that work for which he was
named, the salvation of his people from their sin, our Lord declared
that he had accomplished it in John chapter 17 verse 4. He said,
I have saved them, I have delivered them. What did our Lord preach? He was anointed to preach the
gospel and he preached the gospel of limited atonement for particular
redemption. Sovereignty of God, total depravity
of man, unconditional election, particular redemption. He died
for His sheep. He died for His sheep. In John
chapter 3, our Lord speaking to Nicodemus, in verse 7 and 8, He says, Marvel
not that I said unto you, You must be born again. That means
born from above. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof. But canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit of God." What a thing! What a thing to say! What a mysterious
language! And what is he talking about
being born again? Who is he talking about? Well, he is talking about
his sheep. We know that. He is talking about those that have been given
to him. We have already addressed that. That is his doctrine. In
John chapter 10 and verse 26 and 27, And remember here, Jesus is talking
to UNBELIEVERS who have said they don't believe Him. They
just openly said, Tell us if you're the Christ. He said, I've
already told you and you don't believe Me. Verse 25, Jesus then said,
I told you and you believe Me not. The works that I do in My
Father's Name, they bear witness to Me. These things that I do
as a human being who is man and God, that I'm able to do, should
tell you that I'm not anything other than one who is sent by
God. My worst, declare that. He says, But you don't believe.
Why don't they believe? Because they are obstinate? Well,
yeah. Because they are sinful? Yeah. Why don't they believe? He says, You believe not, because
ye are not my sheep. As I said I did. This is the
same chapter that he just said, I lay down my life for the sheep.
The Good Shepherd gave His life for the sheep. He said, The reason
you don't believe is because you're not My sheep. So evidently
He didn't lay His life down for them. He didn't come to die for
them. Because as you already said, that's who He died for.
You believe not because you're not My sheep. As I said unto
you, My sheep hear My voice and they follow Me. And I give unto
them eternal life. I give unto them eternal life.
Our Lord, the Prince of Preachers, made it plain that those whom
He came to save would be called by the invincible power of the
Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel. That's what He
said in John chapter 16 and verses 8 through 19. He told Nicodemus
that he had no ability in himself to understand the things of God.
Nicodemus said, We know you're a man from God. Nobody could
do these things unless a man from God did them. You've got
to be from God. He says, You cannot perceive. You cannot begin
to know to understand to grasp. anything unless God gives you
birth from above. That's where it all begins. He
declared for the unbelieving Jews surrounding him on Solomon's
Forge that they did not believe because they were not his sheep,
setting them aside in the purpose of grace, just like he said to
those who came to him and saw him speaking to sinners and said
to his disciples, Don't you know your master's eating with sinners? Don't you know what kind of people
he's dealing with, the publicans and the sinners he's sitting
down eating with them? And our Lord heard their words and lifted
his voice and said, You know, fellas, I didn't come for y'all.
I came not to call the righteous. but to bring sinners to repentance.
That's who I came for. I came for My sheep. My sheep
hear My voice and they shall follow Me. He made it clear that
their unbelief had no effect on the salvation of His people,
proclaiming to them who were not His sheep that His sheep
whom He knew, He said He knew, would hear His voice and follow
Him. In another place He said they would come, they would follow
Him because they were taught The word, again, didactic, indoctrinated. By who? By God the Father. Back
in John chapter 6 and verse 45, it says, As it is written, and
it was written in Isaiah chapter 54 and verse 13, As it is written,
and they shall all be taught of God. Does it mean everybody?
No, it means all who the Father has given Him, all who are raised
up in the last day, all of whom He has not lost a one that He
has spoken of previously in this chapter, and they shall be all
taught of God. Well, what's that going to end
up being? If God teaches, then what's going to happen? Every
man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father
comes to me. Every last one of them whom God
teaches comes to them because they are indoctrinated by God
Himself. How are they taught? They are
taught through the preaching of the Word. The preacher does
not have anything to do with it. He is just a mouth. He is
just a tongue. He just repeats what God has
said. What did our Lord preach? The sovereignty of God, the total
depravity of man, unconditional election, and an irresistible
call of grace. John chapter 10, verse 28 and
29 says this, then said Jesus and the cow, excuse me, that's
John 18. John chapter 10, he said, and
I give to them, those sheep whom I called and who follow me, I
give to them eternal life, and they shall never perish. neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave
them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand." That's a two-fisted assurance. We're
in the hands of Christ who's in the hand of the Father. We can't be touched. And he said,
I and my Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones
to kill him. That's what happens. He said, well, for which work
do you stone me? He said, we don't stone you for
a work you did. We stone you because thou being a man makest
thyself to be God. And he did, because he was. In him were the fulness of the
Godhead bodily. John chapter 6 and verse 39.
Our Lord said, this is the Father's will which is sent me, that of
all which he hath given me should I lose nothing but raise it up
again in the last day. And in John 17 he says, I will
that they be with me, whom thou hast given me, and that the world
may know that thou hast loved them like thou hast loved me,
and thou hast loved me from the foundation of the world, just
like thou hast loved them. Still speaking of the same unbelieving
Jews on Solomon's porch concerning his sheep, our Lord proclaimed
that their eternal destiny, their final glorious estate of bliss,
was absolutely sure. I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall NEVER perish. No man can pluck them out of
My hand. No man can pluck them out of God's hand. Now, if God
saves you, you're saved forever. If you had something to do with
it, I would doubt your salvation. But if God did it, you're in
good hands. Speaking to those who were given
to him in the election of grace, our Lord said, and this is my
Father's will, that of all He's given me, I should lose nothing.
Speaking of the work that He had finished, our Lord's Savior
said that it was His will that those who believed the gospel
and were given to Him by the Father would be with Him and
be perfectly with Him forever. That's what He said. What did
our Lord preach? He preached the sovereignty of
God, the total depravity of man, Unconditional Election, Particular
Redemption, Irresistible Grace, and Preservation of the Saints. We'll live forever. Finally,
our Lord taught that only the elect can know the truth, and
that by divine revelation. The knowledge of Christ and what
He has done is for the chosen of God. That's what our Lord
said in Matthew Chapter 11. Our Lord had been preaching in
the area of Bethsaida and Capernaum. Also John the Baptist had been
preaching in that area. And those people didn't like
either one of those preachers. Didn't like John the Baptist, didn't
like the Lord Jesus Christ. John was an austere fellow. wore camel
hair, ate wild locusts, and came out of the caves of the desert
and preached for a little bit, scared the Lord out of about
everybody, and then ran back in the desert. They just didn't
like him. They said, he's just sad and always down on everybody. He said, we're not going to mourn
to his song. He's not going to affect us.
Then Jesus Christ came along and he preached a message of
mercy and grace, kindness and tenderness. And they said, oh, he's so sweet.
He's just sweet, so sweet that the diabetics had to put stoppers
in their ears so they won't go into shock. He's just so sweet. But we ain't gonna dance to his
tune. We're not gonna mourn with a hard message of John the Baptist.
We're not going to dance to the joyous message of Jesus Christ.
now religion would have Christ over the banisters of heaven
said oh my soul what can I do now can't get either one of these
people to like me and I want so much rep I just like because
I'm the sweet little Jesus that everybody ought to like did you
do that? the Lord lift his eyes to heaven
right after they had said what they had said he said I thank
thee oh father Lord of heaven and earth that thou hast hid
these things from the wise and the prudent and has revealed
them unto babes. You hid them. Proverbs 25 said,
It is the glory of the Lord to conceal a thing. Those people CANNOT and WOULD
NEVER hear the gospel because it is by REVELATION God must
open your heart and mind and ears to hear this gospel and
to receive it or you'll stay just like you are. Barnard used
to say, you'll go to hell if you can. And the only thing will stop
you if God interrupts your sorry career. It's the only thing. The only
thing. I thank the old father. Lord
of heaven and earth, Thou didst hid these things from the wise
and prudent, and for Thou didst reveal them in the base. For
no man knoweth the Father but the Son, and no man knoweth the
Son but the Father, and he to whosoever the Son will reveal
him." This is what it takes. The knowledge
of Christ and what He has done is for the chosen of God. It's
a predestinated revelation. The Prince of Preachers. What
did he preach? What was his doctrine? He only
begotten of the Father, the one anointed to preach the gospel.
Preach the gospel of sovereign grace, the sovereignty of God,
total depravity, unconditional election, unlimited atonement,
irresistible grace, and the preservation of saints and salvation by revelation. And those who know the gospel
and are called to preach the gospel do likewise. Father, bless
us to understand and pray in Christ's name. to be helpful for children. Dry some of it up so people's
hands don't get wet. I'd like you to give me my clumsy
hands and spill some wine and mop it up for me, so your fingers
won't be sticky. Is that in the measure? Yeah. Okay, be sure
to grab some of the measure. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the doctor
who will preach him, sets forth in this book exactly what he
came to do when he came to this world and died. And that's why
he came. He came to die. He didn't come
to set an example, or to start a new religion, or establish
Israel. He came for one reason. he came to his Lord to die and
that's the only way that God could save sinners was that a
perfect death was offered in the place of the sinner so the
sinner would not be counted guilty any longer of sinning now he
accomplished that after he had suffered at the hands of men
the only time God allowed men to touch him possible way of
torture and use them against them. Then in those three hours
of darkness when the Lord was made to be seen, our Lord poured
out his wrath against our sin, heaven on Jesus Christ. And it's
such a bad and horrible thing that God cut off the lights and
let nobody see it. And after he had done that, then
the final thing necessary was that the price for sin be paid
and that it said that the Lord He didn't die because he was
overcome or succumbed. He died because that's the only
way to save himself. He, for his life, his life, gave
up his life for his people. He died. And in that death that
he offered not to men, but to God Almighty to satisfy God's
justice and God's law, God Almighty, received that offering, and was
satisfied with it, and all for whom Christ died would never
face death again. No eternal death for them. There
will be natural death, and they'll live long enough. But no eternal
death. Why? Because on their record,
it reads that they have died. Because Israel's death was accounted
as their death. And when we gathered at this
table, to take the Lord's table, our Lord, observing the last
Passover, took the elements of the Passover, the unleavened
bread, and the wine. And he broke the bread and gave
it to his disciples. And he said, take, this is my
body broken for you. And that wasn't his body. He
was using his body to hand over the bread. But what he was saying,
this represents my body. Broken brain. My body's going
to be broken for you. Then he took the wine and said,
this wine is the new covenant, the new testament in my blood.
As long as you drink this wine and eat this bread, you can show
poor heart. My dear, this is what Christianity is about. He
said, I'm dead. I'm dead to that satisfied God. And when we take these tables,
that's what we're doing. We're saying, what unites us
is brothers and sisters in Christ. And one thing holds us together
is this death that happened 2,000 years ago in Calvary Street.
This death that he accomplished. That's what Elijah and Moses
said when they came back on the Mount of Transfiguration. he should accomplish at Jerusalem. We don't count death as an accomplishment,
do we? Not in my case. We've never heard
somebody stand by a catchment and say, he finally got it right. No one says that to us. Because
death is the final admission that our will is nothing. His
will. Because he didn't have to die. He voluntarily died in the womb
instead of his people to save his people. You take this table
today, this is what you did, and you show what you did for
the coming day. And on that night, I want to bless the elements.
I can't bless them, but I can ask the Lord to bless them abundantly.
Father, we take this table, and let's do so with joy in our hearts,
with full knowledge that 2,000 years ago on Calvary Street,
you actually salvaged by God our sins, and put away our sins. All we can say is thank you and
commemorate this wonderful thing. you On the night I was betrayed,
he took the bread and he break it and gave it to his disciples
and said, hey, eat it. This is my body for you to do
this and I'll never do it again. On the same night, he took the
cup and he said, this cup is a new testament, a new covenant
in my blood. As long as ye eat this bread and drink this cup,
ye shall for my death, until I come again. Do this, O Lord. That night they stood and sang
a hymn, and the Lord went out to be betrayed. With the kiss
of a friend, they stand again. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is that flow. That makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Now, we are Sequoia Huggers.
If you want to be able to do a fist bump or elbow bump or
whatever you want to do, let each other know that you're a
brother and sister in Christ and we cherish and love you. God bless you.