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.