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And he would have read that and
he would have then sat down and given the midrash. A midrash
is actually just a commentary on the things that were said
during the reading. As it so happened, whether this
was a unique act of providence, which all things are, but whether
it was just a unique act of providence or that was where they were in
their reading for this particular day, Jesus was handed the scroll
of Isaiah. You'll recall Jesus then found
the portion of Isaiah which comports with our chapter 61 verses 1
and 2 and he read to them This, the spirit of the Lord
is upon me because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery
of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. He then closed the
book. He gave it back to the attendant
and sat down while everyone had their gaze fixed upon him in
preparation for his commentary. Luke tells us that, among other
things I'm sure, Luke tells us that he said, today, this scripture
has been fulfilled in your hearing. And how did everyone respond
when they heard that? They were thrilled, as you might
imagine. They were thrilled because they
understood Jesus to be saying one thing when he was actually
saying another. They understood Jesus to be announcing
that he was the Messiah, but not the Messiah that God had
intended, but the Messiah that they had come to expect. They
understood him to be saying, I'm the one who has come to liberate
you from your captors. I'm the one who, after centuries
of bondage and captivity, after being exiled hither and yon,
after being called from this place to other places, I'm the
one who's going to make all of that right. Now you can imagine
they were thrilled at hearing that. They were all speaking
well of him, Luke says. They were all wondering at the
gracious words which were falling from his lips. And they were
so astounded that they were murmuring among themselves, is this not
Joseph's son? In other words, they were astonished
that this Jesus, the son of a local carpenter, trained not in the
great rabbinical schools of his day, but in his father's humble
trade, could come to them and speak with such power and authority
and about himself. And it was just unheard of. Was it really possible? Was it
really possible that there centuries old dream of being liberated
from their oppressors was finally coming true. Could this Jesus,
the son of a carpenter and from Nazareth of all places be the
long awaited Messiah? It was not only possible, apparently
it was happening right before their eyes. But here's the rub. And I alluded to this just a
moment ago. The problem with this is, Jesus was indeed the
Messiah, but not the Messiah they were looking for. Now let's
read our text now and we'll see the point at which they came
to this unsettling realization that not all things were going
as swimmingly as they initially thought. Sensing the excitement
and confusion of those in the synagogue, Luke tells us what
happened next in verses 23 through 30. And he, Jesus, said to them,
no doubt you will quote this proverb to me. Physician, heal
yourself. Whatever we heard was done at
Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well. And he said, truly I
say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. But I say to
you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days
of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months,
when a great famine came over all the land, and yet Elijah
was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath in the land
of Sidon. to a woman who was a widow. And
there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet.
And none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian. And
all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they
heard these things. And they got up and drove him
out of the city and led him to the brow of the hill on which
their city had been built in order to throw him down the cliff.
But passing through their midst, he went his way. What Jesus says here initially
might be lost on the majority of us. We don't use this particular
phrase, position heal thyself, at least not in the same way
that the Jews understood it. So it is a somewhat cryptic phrase,
but that's generally the equivalent to our saying that charity begins
at home. In other words, before you go
out doing other things for other people, you should take care
of your own. There's a lot of people in this country who insist
that before we give aid to foreign countries, we should take care
of the homeless in our own country. We should be feeding those who
need to be fed in our own country. Nowadays, if you feel that way,
you're called an isolationist, and you're ridiculed and scorned,
but there is merit to that. You know, this is one of the
qualifications Actually for eldership in the church as you might recall
if a man won't take care of his own family Then he's worse than
an infidel, right? I mean the key is take care of
your own before you reach out to others. It's a very simple
principle a biblical concept. And Jesus is saying, some of
you are probably going to say to me, physician, heal yourself. He's heading off the accusation
that could have been made about his having ministered for the
better part of a year elsewhere before finally deciding to come
back home to Nazareth. He realized that many of those
gathered in the synagogue on that day were probably silently
wondering if he would do in Nazareth the same things that they had
heard he had done in Capernaum. But there was a reason he hadn't
committed himself to them in that way. You know, if you've
ever wondered, Jesus had a perfectly legitimate reason for not taking
care of his home first. He said, truly I say to you,
No prophet is welcome in his hometown. He then says, basically,
let me give you a couple of examples. And the first of those examples
concerns Elijah. In case you're not familiar with
the prophetic ministry of Elijah, Elijah operated predominantly,
not in the South, not in Judah, but in the North, in Israel. And where was Nazareth, North
or South? North. It was a part of Israel. Jesus is reminding those gathered
in the synagogue that Elijah had ministered as a prophet in
their own backyard during what is arguably one of the most turbulent,
one of the most unsettling times in Israel's entire history. He's
saying, look, Elijah was here and he was operating in these
parts, but, but, Who did he minister to? Now this
was a time when the skies were shut up for three years and six
months. That's just a way of saying that it hadn't rained
in three and a half years. And as you can imagine, if it
doesn't rain in three and a half years, the crops don't grow.
And if the crops don't grow, nobody gets fed. And if nobody
gets fed, that's called a famine. And there was a horrific famine
going on in the land at the time. And this famine would have been
devastating for everyone concerned, but it was especially hard on
the many widows in the region. But what does Jesus say about
that? He says, but Elijah was sent to none of them. He wasn't
sent to any of the Jewish widows who could very much have used
his help. but only to a widow in Zarephath
in the land of Sidon. Now you can read the whole account
in 1 Kings 17 if you're interested in doing that, but the point
is this, there were many widows in Israel who could have benefited
from Elijah's help, but God instead sent Elijah to a pagan woman
in Zarephath, where he eventually raised her son from the dead.
You probably recall that story. It's a very popular story told
in Sunday school classes. And it's told to illustrate the
goodness of God and the providence of God. You'll remember that
the reason Elijah was sent there was because he himself was starving.
And he was sent to this particular woman who had just enough to
feed herself and her son. And he walks in and says, look,
if you'll just feed me, I have all the assurance from God that
your oil and your flour will not run out until it rains again.
And what did she do? She fed him. She fed him. And then after all was said and
done, he ended up raising her son from the dead. There was
a similar example that Jesus gave in the ministry of Elisha,
not Elijah, Elisha, another fellow Northerner. There were many lepers
in Israel during the time of Elisha's ministry, but instead
of sending him to cleanse the lepers among the tribes of Israel,
where was Elisha sent? To a pagan, to a heathen from
Syria named Naaman. Now it would have been one thing
for Jesus to have pointed out that these two prophets of renown
had been off tending to other Jews, that he was off helping other
people even though he didn't visit Nazareth. They might have
understood that, right? I mean, everybody's equally deserving
of the help of a mighty prophet of God. He doesn't have to come
to Nazareth first. He was in the north, and we would
be satisfied if he was helping our fellow Jews with their needs. I mean, Nazareth, as we've discussed
before, wasn't exactly on the front page of the tribal brochures.
Right? So Elijah really would have had
no reason to go there. He probably might've even avoided
the place because it was actually a horrible place to be from or
to visit. But to be reminded that Elijah
and Elisha, two of the greatest, most revered prophets among the
Israelites, to be reminded that during Israel's most difficult
periods in history, these two men had been sent to pagans, That would have been unthinkable.
What was Jesus thinking? You know, here's Jesus just announced
himself as the Messiah. And they're all amped. They're
all pumped about that. They're saying, oh man, this
is thrilling. We're all excited. The Messiah
has just revealed himself in our midst. And now he's telling
us about two of the most unfortunate circumstances the Israelites
have ever been in. There was help available, but
God sent it elsewhere. God sent them to the pagans instead. What was he suggesting, actually?
He was simply using their own history to remind them. And this would have been harsh,
but he was using their own history to remind them that they had
always been and were still an obstinate, stiff-necked, disobedient
people. He was using these accounts to
reinvigorate their thinking about the reality of the situation. The reason no prophet's welcome
in his hometown, it just so happens that this prophet's not welcome
in this hometown because you guys don't believe. What differentiated the widow
from Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian from the Jews of Nazareth?
Now understand this, what differentiated them from the Jews was that they
believed the prophets when they were told what God could do before
he actually did it. Right? Before the widow fed Elijah
a crumb, she had to have believed that what he said about God sustaining
them was true. Naaman's the same way. When Elisha
visits Naaman, Naaman says, dip me in the water and I shall be
healed. He understood, he believed from
the get-go. He didn't have to be shown anything. The Jews had it all backwards.
Remember what the Jews are often ridiculed for in the scriptures?
The Jews, before they would believe anything from God, they had to
be shown a sign. You'll recall what Paul said
in 1 Corinthians 1.22, for indeed, Jews ask for signs and Greeks
seek wisdom. In Matthew chapter 12, the scribes
and the Pharisees came to Jesus and said in verse 38, teacher,
we want to see a sign from you. And how did Jesus respond? He
said, an evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign,
and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the
prophet. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in
the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth. He says,
you want a sign? I'm going to show you a sign. But it's not going
to be the sign that you want. There's something very telling
about Nicodemus' visit with Jesus in the garden. Remember, he came
to him at night. And what was the first thing Nicodemus said
which reveals the fact that he was still in that same mindset?
No one can do the things that you are doing unless God be with
him. In other words, you've proven
yourself to my satisfaction and the satisfaction of others that
you might just be who you claim to be. Oh, well, how generous
of you, Nicodemus, right? In John 4, 48, Jesus said to
the nobleman who had asked Jesus to heal his son. You can almost
see him just throwing his head back saying, unless you people
see signs and wonders, you will never believe. And it's true. Same was true of those in Nazareth.
There's actually a subtle hint of Jesus's meaning here in our
text that might just escape our notice if we're not careful.
I mentioned this to some of you on Wednesday night. Look again
very carefully at what Jesus says in verse 23, and don't blink
because you'll miss it. Before he even gives the examples
of Elijah and Elisha, he says, no doubt you will quote this
proverb to me, physician heal yourself, whatever we heard was
done in Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well. Did you
catch that? They didn't say, whatever you
did in Capernaum, that would indicate that they believed it
was true. They said, whatever, Jesus anticipated them saying,
whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown
as well. They still wanted to see tangible
proof that the things being said about him actually were done
by him. Again, Jesus's response would have been seen as very
harsh, even unacceptable by most of them. His response to them
would have been seen as a stubborn refusal to give them what they
were demanding. Just show us. Just prove to us that you're
who you claim to be. When his words should have been
sufficient, they wanted to see signs, they wanted to see proof,
and Jesus is refusing to give it to them. And he reminds them
of Elijah and Elisha to say, I'm gonna act in the same way. This is why they were so filled
with rage. And what do they do? And bear in mind, this is the
Sabbath. This is the Sabbath, they jumped up, they took Jesus
out of the city and led him to the brow of the hill on which
the city had been built so they could throw him down the cliff.
They were literally out of their minds with rage. You know, I often comment about
how comical certain scriptural accounts can be, and this one's
right at the top of my list. Why? Because we need to understand
that Jesus wasn't a hostage here. You can almost imagine Jesus
chuckling inside as they lead him to the edge of the cliff.
They're not leading him anywhere he doesn't want to go. They're
not taking him hostage, intent on doing harm to him. As a matter
of fact, he's going to show them a sign. He's going to give them the very
thing they wanted, and it'll go right over their heads. What was he going to show them
though? He was going to show them just how foolish they were
in their unbelief and that he was exactly who he said he was.
In other words, in a way that none of them could have expected. in a way that they wouldn't have
made sense of probably until later, he gave them exactly what
they were asking for. They took him to the top of the
hill, they backed him up to the edge of the cliff, had every intention
of throwing him over, and then what happened? Luke tells us
in verse 30, without any fanfare, without any allusion to how powerful
this might have been, he says, but passing through their midst,
he went his way. He didn't run. He didn't hide. He didn't call out legions of
angels to rescue him from what appeared to be certain doom.
He simply walked away through the angry mob unscathed. And what's more tragic than anything,
as far as we know, he never returned. Many of those in Jesus's hometown
probably expected that After gallivanting around the countryside
for the better part of a year, he'd save the best for them. They likely believed that he
would come, you know, with stories, fond memories of his childhood
there in Nazareth, telling them how wonderful it had been to
live there and to grow up there and how great it was to be back
home. They might have even given him the key to the city. And they believed that as a token
of his appreciation for their friendship and the influence
many of them had made on his life as a boy growing up there,
they believed that he would in turn treat them really well.
None of them anticipated that he would come bearing the harsh
words that he had come bearing. None of them anticipated that
he would come in the form of Elijah and Elisha doing the same
thing, saying, yeah, I'm here, but not for long. And what you
want from me, you're not going to get because you're disobedient,
stiff-necked and obstinate people. Nobody expected that. But here's
the point. Was Jesus's assessment of the
situation true? Yes. So could it be said that Jesus
was more interested not in mollycoddling them, not in winning friends
and influencing people, but in telling the truth come what may?
Absolutely. Should we take a cue from that? Should we extract from that that
the truth might just be more important than watering it down and making
it palatable just so that people will like us. Yeah, yeah. And would you say that the scriptures
contain some truths that are difficult to hear? Absolutely,
absolutely. Jesus knew regardless of their
murderous rage, regardless of how they responded, Jesus knew
that what they needed, their paramount need, was the truth. Why have we strayed so far from
that in our own day? Now for those who had been given
the ears to hear the truth, They would forever be grateful, wouldn't
they? That the Lord had come to convict them with the very
words that would lead them to repentance. Often it's the harsh
reality that leads us to repent. God uses the truth to bring us
from being dead in trespasses and sins unto newness of life. That's the catalyst that he uses.
We are washed by the regeneration of the word. What word? That
word, which according to Hebrews chapter four is living and active,
sharper than any two-edged sword, able to pierce to the division
of soul and spirit, able to dig right down to the very marrow
of our bones and discern our hearts. and tell us the truth
about ourselves, as difficult as that might be. And so the application from this
passage is fairly easy to glean. We still live in a world in which
the majority of those still in their sins want to know what
Jesus can do for them. Jesus is seen as a panacea, isn't
he? Jesus is seen as a cure-all for
every ill. If you're having financial problems,
turn to Jesus. If you're having health problems,
you turn to Jesus. If you're having emotional problems,
you turn to Jesus. If you're afraid of things that
go bump in the night, turn to Jesus. If you're afraid of going
to hell when you die, all you do is decide based on your fear
to turn to Jesus. Jesus is seen as the cure-all
for all kinds of ills. He'll give you the answers to
life's most puzzling questions. He'll fill your bank account.
He'll make you healthy. and he'll even take you to heaven.
But guess what's missing in a lot of what passes for truth these
days? What's missing? Truth. Think about it. And I was hesitant to do this.
Folks, don't run me off to the edge of the cliff, because I
don't have the ability to escape you unscathed. But I want you
to think about a few things. Most professing Christians today
have no problem telling their unsaved friends and loved ones
that they're all God's children, that Jesus loves them and wants
so badly for them to cooperate with him because his greatest
desire is to save them. They deny that fallen man is
actually dead and trespasses and sins. They insist that he's
really only sick. That sin is really the cause
of spiritual misalignment. It doesn't result in death. You
know, Jesus is really just kind of a holy chiropractor. You know,
if you're just not quite right, he'll snap you back into true
form and you'll be okay. That's the modern gospel. And again, I know I'm placing
myself in the high-risk category among those likely to lose friends.
But you need to understand that as well-intentioned as most people
are, and as sweet as those things might sound to fallen ears, they're
not based in biblical truth. All people are not God's children. They are the imago Dei, the image
bearers of God, because all mankind was created in the image of God. That just means that some of
his communicable attributes have been related to us so that we
can understand what he's like, who he is. Even the unsaved man
is without excuse, Paul says in Romans 1, because the things
around him in God's creation testify to his existence. And
they, in fact, make him more responsible in his unbelief. But all people are not God's
children. Scripture is abundantly clear
that the majority of people who pass through this world are of
their father, the devil. Right? And as such, they need to be
spared from God's what? Wrath. 1 John 3, turn there. And I love the way this passage
starts because you can tell that John is laboring over this very
point. John is realizing that not all
people want to hear the truth. that there are those people out
there who are going to be falling prey to false teachers and false
doctrines and things intended just to satisfy them and make
them feel good. But what does John say in 1 John
3, verse 8? Little children, make sure no
one deceives you. The one who practices righteousness
is righteous. That's that practical righteousness
versus positional righteousness that we were talking about this
morning. The one who practices righteousness practically, that's
where the word practice comes from, is positionally righteous,
just as he is righteous. The one who practices sin, now
don't mistake that, that doesn't mean that we don't sin anymore
just because we're saved, but this means those who practice
sin as a defining characteristic in their lives, The one who practices
sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning.
The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works
of the devil. No one who is born of God practices
sin, that is, habitually, without repentance, because his seed
abides in him. And he cannot go on sinning because
he is born of God. Now listen to this. By this,
the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice
righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love
his brother. It doesn't get much clearer than
that. People are in one of two categories. You are either a
child of God or you're a child of the devil. And I know it's
unpopular to go and tell people, especially loved ones and friends,
you know what your problem is? You're a child of the devil.
That's not gonna win you an invitation to the next family gathering. But it's true. It's true. We talked about this at length
in our studies of John's letters. John's not saying that the believer's
perfect. John's only saying that the believer will be differentiated
from the child of the devil by striving for righteousness in
accordance with his new nature in Christ. And how is that new
nature gained? How are we transformed from children
of the devil to children of God? Well, that happens only when
God is pleased to, and here's another very important doctrine
that you need to be aware of, when God is pleased to adopt
us into His family. Romans 8, 12 through 16. Turn
there, Romans 8, 12 through 16. And you'll notice that in Romans
8, what is Paul talking about in Romans 8? He's talking about
the two kinds of people that exist in the world. He's talking
about those who are in the flesh and those who are indwelled by
the Spirit of God. In verses nine through 11, Paul
makes it abundantly clear, if there's a man who does not have
the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. Even Jesus
said, my sheep hear my voice. He told the Pharisees, you're
not my sheep. If such a man does, Paul says,
have the spirit of Christ. He can be assured that he'll
be raised in the same manner as Christ. Then he says this
beginning in verse 12. So then brethren, we, we who? Those who've been saved, those
who've... experience like salvation with that of Paul. We are under
obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
For if you live according to the flesh, you must die. But
if by the spirit you're putting to death the deeds of the body,
you will live. For all who are being led by the spirit of God,
these are the sons of God. For you have not received the
spirit of slavery, leading to fear again, but you have received
Remember, that makes you the passive recipient of something
done for you. It's not something you went shopping
for and procured on your own. You have received a spirit of
adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father. I don't
need to insult your intelligence by reminding you what adoption
is. The child in the orphanage does not decide one day, I think
today I'll be adopted. Right? No. The child waits until
someone with the power and authority deems that they are going to
be adopted. Same thing happens when we're
adopted as sons by God. By which we cry out, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself testifies
with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, heirs
also. Heirs of God and fellow heirs
with Christ. If indeed we suffer with him so that we might be
glorified with him. So what does that mean? What does that mean with regard
to this idea that Jesus loves everyone just the same? What's the only thing that can
possibly mean? It means that Jesus does not love everyone
with the same salvific love that he has for the children of God
for whom he died. He's not seeking man's cooperation
in order to save him any more than he was seeking Saul's cooperation
on the road to Damascus. Revisit that in your mind. Saul's
on his way to Damascus. He's gonna arrest Christians,
bring them back to Jerusalem, where many of them will stand
trial for heresy and blasphemy, and most of them will suffer
the same fate as Stephen, the first martyr in the church. If
they stand on their convictions and their God-given faith, they'll
be put to death. Paul's on this mission. He's
got his nose to the grindstone. He's got singularity of focus.
He's going to Damascus to do this thing. And Jesus appears
to him on the road and says, Saul, I've got a proposition
for you. I want you to consider something. What you're going to do is a
very bad thing. And if you're willing, if you want, I can turn
your life around." Is that how it happened? No, Paul's going
to Damascus to bring people back to their own deaths who told
him that over and over. But when Jesus appears, He's
not looking for cooperation. Jesus appears to capture and
to lay hold of that which was His. And at that moment, Saul
knew, I'm his. Look at his response. What was
the only thing Saul could say after being knocked to the ground,
blinded by the Shekinah glory of God himself? What could Paul
say but, yes, Lord? Also know this, People picture
Jesus as wanting you to cooperate. Won't you please just believe
in me? I've done my part, now you do
your part. Please believe in me because I want you to. Mark
this, Jesus has no unmet desires. What Jesus wants, he gets. And
he gets it not by wishing sufficiently for it. What Jesus wants, he
gets because he has decreed it to be so. Jesus's desires are complete and satisfied to the nth degree
in his sovereign decree concerning all things. And man in his natural
state, based on his identification with Adam, his federal head,
according to Romans 5, he's dead in sin, Ephesians 2. I've said this before, I'll say
it again. Our message to those who are yet dead in unbelief
is not God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
And I know this sounds so wrong and feels so wrong, but it's
the truth nonetheless. What the lost need to hear is
not that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives
while they're yet in their sins. What they need to hear is the
truth. And what truth is that? The truth
that unless God is pleased to intervene and save them as only
he can, they are bound for hell. For how long? Forever. I think one of the saddest things
about modern Christianity today is that we've been so conditioned
by the false gospel that we're inclined to recoil when we hear
things like that. I mean, even seasoned believers,
when we dare even suggest that our lost loved ones, our friends,
are at enmity with God, that God just If they should die in their sins,
we'll deal with them accordingly in His wrath and fury. That doesn't
set well with us because we love them. We care for them. We don't
want that fate for them. But guess what? We're not God.
And we've kind of found a happy medium, haven't we? A lot of
people, you've probably heard this said, well, pastor, you know,
I hear what you're saying, but God hates the sin. He doesn't
hate the sinner. Really? What does that enmity
with God mean? I mean, in Psalm 11.5, the psalmist
writing under inspiration says it as bluntly as it can be said,
the Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked
and the one who loves violence. Again, we've been conditioned
to believe that, no, no, no, no, that's not true. He actually
loves the sinner, but he hates what they do. That's not true
according to that passage. Everyone who's still in his or
her sins is at enmity with God. What does that mean? What's enmity?
It means you're God's enemy. How do we know that? Look at
Psalm 7. I'm gonna read this to you, Psalm
7, verses 11 through 16, and I want you to tell me if this
is the way a father treats the objects of his love, right? Psalm 7, verse 11. God is a righteous judge and
a God who feels indignation every day. If a man does not repent,
God will wet his sword. He has bent and readied his bow. He has prepared for him his deadly
weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts. Behold, the wicked man
conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth
to lies. He makes a pit, digging it out and falls into the hole
that he has made. His mischief returns upon his own head and
on his own skull, his violence descends. Does that sound like
the object of God's love? Are we really to believe that
this is the fate of the children of God? I mean, if God loves every man,
woman, and child in the same way, as many suppose, then why
does He send some of the objects of His love to hell? I'll tell
you why. Because He doesn't. He doesn't. God will not send
a single object of his saving grace and love to hell. So how did the church slip so
far from its moorings? How have so many come to insist
that God loves everyone and hates no one? Well, again, this comes
from cherry picking the scriptures. I've talked about that a couple
of times even today. It comes from isolating certain
scriptures from their context in order to arrive at a conclusion
that sounds best, that helps us feel good. Most people today
will appeal to John 3.16, right? And they'll say, look, it says
right there that God so loved the world. What they don't realize is in
larger context, that's not at all what that passage says. When
it says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son, it just means that God loved all kinds of people in the world
because the message in John chapter three is the realization that
God has not come just to redeem Jews, but Jews and Gentiles alike. Now, how do we know that's true?
Because they'll go on and they'll say, well, it also says that
whosoever will only believe will be saved. But you know that's
not the case. You know that's a present participle.
I hope you do, right? It's not saying that whosoever
will only believe will be saved. It's saying the believing ones
will be saved. Those who have been passively
acted upon by the grace of God will be saved. You don't believe
me? Go look it up. You've got the
Google machine at home. Look it up and see if what I'm
telling you is true. It's absolutely true. The present
participle there says, all who are believing will be saved.
So really it's a passage about the believer's assurance. Not
about the possibility that if someone will only exercise their
free will, they'll be saved, no. The believing ones, those
who have been made believers, brought from death into life
by God's power will be saved. That's what the passage teaches.
Of course, if you confuse people enough on that, they'll probably
go to another passage like 2 Peter 3, 9. Very commonly used passage. God is not slack concerning his
promises, but God is willing that all men should believe and
come to faith, that none should perish. But wait a minute, there
again, that's cherry picking. Take the context. What's the
context of that passage? Read the whole verse and it makes
more sense. And read it in light of the context.
What's the context? If you go back to verse one of
chapter three, second Peter, he uses a very peculiar word
to identify who he's talking to. Who's he talking to? He's
talking to the beloved. The beloved. And if you go back
to chapter one and verse one, Please do that because you'll
see something there that you might not have seen before. This whole
letter is written to a very specific group of people. To whom is it
written? Quote, to those who have received a faith of the
same kind as ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Now if you go back to chapter
3 and verse 9, read it this way. He says, the Lord is not slow
about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward
you. You who? The beloved. Those who are of like
precious faith. He's patient toward you, not
wishing for any of you to perish, but for all of you to come to
repentance. It's not a passage about the
universality of God's love for all men. It's a passage intended
to assure believers that you won't be forsaken by God. And folks, these aren't gymnastics.
These aren't, I'm not twisting, maligning the word. This is what
the word says. Hard truth though, right? When
you suddenly come to that realization, wait a minute, God's not at all
who I thought he was all these years. I think the most common misunderstanding
of all this stems from the confusion that abounds concerning God's
omnibenevolence. What's that? You've probably
heard it, common grace, right? Now, don't play the erudite scholar
with me and come up to me and say, well, there's nothing common
about grace. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about
his omnibenevolence. God is good to people even when
they don't deserve it. And He's good to everybody, is
He not? God is good to everybody. Matthew 5.45, what does Jesus
say? He says that God causes His Son
to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous
and the unrighteous. Many times theologians use this, and I think
it's sad that it's come to this, that we don't understand the
overall context in which they speak, but many times theologians
have referred to this as a type of God's love. His omnibenevolence,
His common grace is an expression of who He is. He is love. And the outpouring of that love
on the objects of His grace, people who are not the objects
of His grace benefit from that. You realize the only reason this
world is not consumed already is for the cause of the elect,
right? So that is an acceptable expression
of that particular perfection, but it's never to be confused
with what we know to be God's salvific love. We cannot confuse the benevolence of God, the goodness
of God, the expression of His being love with salvific or saving
love, right? God does only truly love those
predestined to be the objects of His saving grace. But when
we say that, now here's, if you haven't heard anything to this
point, please hear this. The important takeaway from all
of this talk about God's sovereignty and God's omniscience and God's
omnipotence in salvation, the takeaway is this. First of all,
we do not know who God loves and who God doesn't. Right? If you read Romans 8, you see
the ordos salutis, the order of salvation, and it begins with
God's foreknowing, progenosko. It's been better translated or
better understood as God's foreloving. If you're a child of God this
morning, it's only because God loved you before the foundation
of the world. And those whom he foreknew, he predestined. Those whom he predestined, he
called. Those whom he called, he justified. Those whom he justified,
he glorified. It's all there in one convenient
little package in Romans chapter 8, right? We don't know, and this is what
prevents us from looking at our unsaved friends and family and
consigning them to hell ourselves. We don't know that they are not
those who were foreloved by God from before the foundation of
the world. So get that right, we don't know who they are. Some of you in this room right
now might at this moment be at enmity with God, and still be
among those that God has foreloved from before the foundation of
the world. I don't know who you are. You don't know who they
are. We just don't know. Secondly, given that we don't know, and
this is important, given that we don't know, it's simply not
our place to go around telling people that God hates them. Because
you might be telling a lie. You see the fine balance there?
All I've pointed out is what Scripture points out. Not all
people are God's children. God doesn't love everybody with
the same type of love that He loves those that He has raised
from the dead and brought to newness of life. That's simply
Scriptural fact. But the point is, you don't know
who they are. And given that love believes all things and
hopes all things and endures all things, We simply carry the
seed, spread the seed indiscriminately, in hopes that God might reveal
to us who those people are who have been forloved by him from
the beginning. You see the balance that scripture
places on this whole thing? You have no right to go around
saying, God hates you. My pastor said, you're lost,
so I need to tell you God hates you. That's not the gospel. As a matter of fact, that doesn't
even enter into our gospel presentation. What is the gospel? Look, you
and I are both sinners. You and I desperately need a
Savior. That Savior is Jesus Christ.
And He's made Himself known to me. I'm praying that He makes
Himself known to you as well. Because in Him, in Him alone,
can salvation be found. That's the gospel. That's the
good news. That's why they call it good news. When we enter into those types
of discussions, we do so only as a general warning. When we
tell people that God hates those with whom He is at enmity, we're
talking about God's final enemies, and only on the day of judgment
will that be revealed. It's critically important that
we say what the scriptures tell us and nothing more. Don't stray. You know when you're coloring
as a child, what's the first thing you learn? Don't go outside
the lines. You know, you can't tell a three-year-old
that because they're just like, right? But when interpreting,
rightly dividing the word, don't stray outside the lines. Stay
within the parameters. And the parameters are what God's
word says. And we must be accountable to
that. Well, as I close this morning, I want
to make an appeal to those of you who might still be at enmity
with God. And I want to ask you a very
simple question. I can understand the theology
behind all this. I can understand the doctrine
of why God has, well I can't understand it completely, but
I know that God has placed his eternal love only on those of
his choosing. I'm okay with that. God is God
and God's going to do with his own whatever he wants to do.
But the question that really bothers me the most is, why does
man hate God? And if you're a God-hater here
this morning, if you're a theophobe, right? The question is why? Why do you hate God? The Jews
of Nazareth sought to kill Jesus. Why? Because he had simply told
them the truth concerning their ongoing condition of obstinance
and unbelief. One might expect that they would
have been grateful for that news. Thank you. How did Apollos respond
when Priscilla and Aquila gave him the truth? He became a mighty
minister. He became a mighty man of God
because he took it for what it was meant to do. He took it as
needful instruction on how he could better honor and glorify
God. But the Jews in Nazareth, being dead in their sins, they
hated him and they'd rather see him dead and gone than listen
and believe. And the truth's been having the same effect on
fallen man ever since. If you're here this morning without
Christ, If you've not yet repented of
your sins, if you love your sins more than you love the thought
of God saving you from your sins, you're still an enemy of the
cross. And the question is why? Why do you continue to reject
the one who has done so much for you? Let me close by reading
you something from Spurgeon. I came across this sermon in
which he makes a very compelling argument against those who are
haters of God. And I want to read it. And just
so you're aware, Spurgeon does use the word love to describe
God's goodness toward the unsaved. But again, it was a common expression
back then, and it's to be understood theologically as we read it. And I think you'll be able to
differentiate it from God's saving love. Spurgeon's answering the
question here, what is God to us? And he says this. What is
God to us? He's the creator of the heavens
and the earth. He bears up the pillars of the universe. His
breath perfumes the flowers. His pencil paints them. He's
the author of this fair creation. We are the sheep of his pasture.
He hath made us and not we ourselves. He stands to us in relationship
of a maker and creator. And from that fact, he claims
to be our king. He's our legislator, our lawmaker,
and then, to make our crime still worse and worse, that is the
crime of hating Him, He's the ruler of providence, for it is
He who keeps up from day to day. He supplies our wants. He keeps
the breath within our nostrils. He bids the blood still pursue
its course through our veins. He holds us up in life and prevents
us from death. He stands before us, our creator,
our king, our sustainer, our benefactor, and I ask, is it
not a sin of enormous magnitude? Is it not high treason against
the emperor of heaven? Is it not an awful sin, the depth
of which we cannot fathom with the line of all of our judgment,
that we, his creatures, dependent on him, should be at enmity with
God? Spurgeon's saying it doesn't
make any sense. God does so much for you and for me. Why would
anybody hate him for that? But the crime may seem to be
worse when we think of what God is. Let me appeal personally
to you in an interrogatory style, for this has weight with it.
Sinner, why art thou at enmity with God? God is the God of love. He is kind to his creatures.
He regards you with his love of benevolence. For this very
day his son hath shown upon you. This day you've had food and
clothing. You've come up here in health
and strength. Do you hate God because he loves
you? Is that the reason? Consider
how many mercies you have received at his hands all your life. You're
born with a body not deformed. You've had a tolerable share
of health, and you have been recovered many times from sickness.
When lying at the gates of death, His arm has held back your soul
from the last step to destruction. Do you hate God for all this?
Do you hate Him because He spared your life by His tender mercy?
Behold His goodness, that He had spread before you. He might
have sent you to hell, but you were here. Now do you hate God
for sparing you? O wherefore art thou at enmity
with Him? My fellow creature, dost thou
not know that God sent His Son from His bosom, hung Him on a
tree, and there suffered Him to die for sinners, the just
for the unjust? And dost thou hate God for that?
O sinner, is this the cause of thine enmity? Art thou so estranged
that thou givest enmity for love? And when he surroundeth thee
with favors, girdeth thee with mercies, encircleth thee with
loving kindness, dost thou hate him for this? He might say, as
Jesus did to the Jews, for which of these works do you stone me?
For which of these works do you hate God? Did an earthly benefactor
feed you? Would you hate him? Did he clothe
you? Would you abuse him to his face?
Did He give you talents? Would you turn those powers against
Him? Oh, speak! Would you forge the iron and
strike the dagger into the heart of your best friend? Do you hate
your mother, who nursed you on her knee? Do you curse your father,
who so wisely watched over you? Nay, ye say, we have some little
gratitude toward earthly relatives. Where are your hearts then? Where
are your hearts that you can still despise God and be at enmity
with Him? Oh, diabolical crime! Oh, satanic enormity! Oh, iniquity for which words
fail in description! to hate the all lovely, to despise
the essentially good, to abhor the constantly merciful, to spurn
the ever beneficent, to scorn the kind, the gracious one, above
all, to hate God who sent his son to die for man. Ah, in that thought, the carnal
mind is enmity with God. There is something which may
make us shake. for it is a terrible sin to be
at enmity with God. I wish I could speak more powerfully,
but my master alone can impress upon you the enormous evil of
this horrid state of heart." I know that's a lengthy read,
but it expresses the point perfectly. To the Jews of Nazareth, Jesus
was an unwelcome prophet. Although he came bearing the
truth, they rejected him. They sought to kill him. How about
you who are yet dead in your sins? Will you reject him too? Will you reject him because you
can't stand to hear the truth? One of my favorite lines from
A Few Good Men. We need to be more adept at telling
people, you want the truth? You can't handle the truth. But you can with the grace of
God. These words that are so abhorrent to you, these words
that are so frightening, these words that are so unfamiliar
to ears that have heard nothing but milquetoast sermons and watered
down gospel. The very words of your death
can be the words of life. I hope if you're lost this morning
that you at least have the decency to thank God that you heard the
truth. the unadulterated scriptural
truth about your condition, because it might be that that God uses to save your soul. I pray that it is so. Let's close.
An Unwelcome Prophet
Series Studies in Luke 4
The unbelieving come to God expecting Him to fulfill their desires, but He comes not only in benevolence but also in wrath. The unbelieving need salvation more than they know.
| Sermon ID | 513181426333 |
| Duration | 1:00:24 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Luke 4:23-30; Romans 8:29-30 |
| Language | English |
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