The Basis For Christian Joy – Part 4
Luke 10:17-24 (21-22)
February 24, 2019
We are in Luke 10 where we are talking about the necessity of Jesus,
But in that we have narrowed our focus even more
To talk about THE BASIS FOR CHRISTIAN JOY.
We’ve seen the first 2 and we’ve begun looking at the 3rd.
It all began with the attitude of the 70 when they returned from their mission rejoicing.
#1 SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY
Luke 10:17-19
They rejoiced that the demons were subject and Jesus confirmed it.
• They were subject
• He saw Satan losing battle after battle
• And He promised that Satan would not be able to claim them back
Certainly we rejoice in Spiritual Authority
#2 SECURE SALVATION
Luke 10:20
Building off of the point that nothing will injure one of the elect
Jesus gives the 70 an even greater reason to rejoice.
“rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven”
And we discussed that.
• It is the list of those “enrolled in heaven” (Heb. 12:23)
• It is the “book of life” (Rev. 17:8; 20:15)
• It is the “Lamb’s book of life” (Rev. 21:27)
• It is the “book of life of the Lamb who was slain” (Rev. 13:8)
• And we learned that it was written “before the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8)
Jesus commanded the 70 to rejoice in the fact that God had chosen them for salvation and that God had made that salvation absolutely secure.
That’s definitely a reason for Christian rejoicing.
And then, as we noted last week, that reality led to a 3rd reason for Christian rejoicing, and one that even Jesus participated in.
#3 SOVEREIGN GRACE
Luke 10:21-22
While Jesus certainly rejoiced over various things in His life,
This is THE ONLY PLACE where His rejoicing is specifically mentioned.
“At that very time, He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.”
That’s the portion that we started looking at last time.
Namely because it is a seemingly peculiar statement and reality.
• It doesn’t initially shock us that Jesus “rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit”
• Nor does it initially shock us that Jesus is praising the Father.
• Nor does it shock us that Jesus praises the Father for revealing these things to
infants.
The shocking part is that Jesus actually praised the Father for
Hiding “these things from the wise and intelligent”
That sounds so backward to our typical thought process.
So we spent most of our time last week in 1 Corinthians 1-3 where we gained a little more insight into specifically what was going on.
And not to rehash the entire study, we learned some very important things.
Man in his “wisdom” had failed to honor God as God deserved.
It is alluded to in 1 Corinthians, it is expressly stated in Romans.
Romans 1:21 “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
Man was determined to produce salvation
Through his own means and according to his own plan.
If you keep reading Romans you learn:
Romans 1:22-23 “Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.”
Specifically man ran into idolatry.
They replaced the true God with one they made themselves.
They replaced God with one they thought could to a better job.
God therefore determined to make a mockery
Out of this so-called wisdom which rejected Him.
AND THAT IS WHAT GOD DID
By making the message of salvation something TOO FOOLISH
For these “intellectual” minds to accept.
• Jews want powerful signs
• Greeks want mysterious wisdom
• God gave neither what they wanted. Instead He gave the cross.
• The cross appeared too weak to the Jews
• They cross appeared too foolish to the Greeks
• And they would not believe it, and as a result they ended up condemned.
And in that God made their supposed wisdom foolishness
Because it landed them in judgment.
God hid the truth from them by making it unacceptable to them
And ultimately shamed them
By letting them have the result of their own wisdom.
Which is also what Romans teaches:
Romans 1:24-25 “Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”
They didn’t want the truth, so God didn’t let them see the truth.
Instead He gave them the lusts they craved for
And ultimately they ended up in judgment.
And let me point out again.
JESUS PRAISED GOD FOR THAT!
If it shocks you that Jesus would praise God for that,
Then you have failed to grasp the love that Jesus has for the Father.
He is passionate that God get the glory He deserves.
JESUS PRAISED GOD FOR DEFENDING HIS GLORY
But Jesus also praises the Father for “revealing [these things] to infants.”
That is the ignorant or the foolish or the uneducated.
Those who do not trust in their own intelligence as sufficient for salvation
• God chose to let them know the very deep things of God.
• God chose to reveal His very heart to them.
And as we saw in 1 Corinthians 2, God did that through the Holy Spirit.
Which is why Jesus “rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit”
1 Corinthians 2:12 “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,”
When we weren’t smart enough to get it on our own,
God chose to reveal it to us, for His own glory.
1 Corinthians 1:26-31 “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”
God saved the foolish that He might be glorified;
That He might be honored as God.
And Jesus praised the Father for this.
So, we basically pointed out last time exactly what God did.
• Hid the truth from some
• Revealed it to others through His Holy Spirit
• And Jesus rejoiced in this and praised God for it.
AND CORPORATELY WE CALLED IT SOVEREIGN GRACE
And that’s such an important term.
But as we said, there are many who hate this term.
• There are many who reject it altogether and simply say that God doesn’t do
this sort of thing.
• Others hate any notion of it.
Well, because this passage absolutely drips with sovereign grace,
We need to take the opportunity and talk about it a little more.
Not just what it is, but why it is also a basis for Christian rejoicing.
And I suppose the best way to do that is to simply take a look at the two words.
1) SOVEREIGN
You can’t have Sovereign Grace if God is not sovereign.
And if you’ll notice Jesus is very quick to make sure you realize that.
In verse 21 Jesus identifies the Father as “Lord of heaven and earth”
“Lord” translates KYRIOS
Let me give you a few ways that word is defined.
• He to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding;
• Master, lord
• The possessor and disposer of a thing the owner;
• One who has control of the person,
• The master in the state: the sovereign, prince, chief, the Roman emperor
That is the word Jesus uses to describe the Father.
And Jesus qualifies it by adding that He is “Lord of heaven and earth”
That means that according to Jesus
God has absolute sovereignty regarding any decision
For everything in heaven and on earth.
He gets free reign to make any decision He desires to make.
God is the MASTER, the POSSESSOR, and the One who is in ABSOLUTE CONTROL of all things in heaven and on earth.
• That must include things like salvation…
• That must include things like whose name gets written in the book…
• That must include things like who gets the revelation and who does not…
And we cannot argue God’s right to do these things
Because Jesus is clear that He is the Sovereign Lord.
Now many would argue at this point that God is indeed sovereign, but…
IN HIS SOVEREIGNTY HE HAS YIELDED FULL AUTONOMY TO MAN.
That is to say that God has the right,
But He has opted to give man the full choice.
And yet Jesus just revealed to us that
God, in His sovereign prerogative actually chose to hide these things from some and chose to reveal them to others.
That doesn’t sound like passive sovereignty.
That sounds like active sovereignty.
And then of course some would argue that God may allow men to reject,
But this was never the plan nor is it what God wanted.
HE ALLOWS IT, BUT HE DOESN’T LIKE IT.
But then you have to read what Jesus said,
Namely that “Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.”
ARE YOU WITH ME HERE?
Verse 21 drips of sovereignty.
God did choose because God can choose
And God did choose what He wanted to choose.
He did what is well within His sovereign prerogative to do.
One thing we did not discuss is the content of what God revealed.
Jesus referred to “these things”
“You have hidden THESE THINGS from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.”
What are “these things”?
In a broad sense we could say they are truths of salvation.
But I think Jesus actually answers the question in verse 22.
“All things have been handed over to Me by My Father”
That’s really the pinnacle truth right there.
Namely that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ,
The Sovereign Ruler of the world.
Remember Psalms 2?
Psalms 2:7-12 “I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession. ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.'” Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the LORD with reverence And rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!”
Remember Peter preaching at Pentecost?
Acts 2:32-36 “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. “For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: ‘THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET.”‘ “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ — this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Remember Paul’s letter to the Philippians?
Philippians 2:9-11 “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Jesus is head over “all things”
Want me to be more specific?
Well, listen to Jesus:
John 5:21-23 “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.”
Jesus said there that the “all things” would include things like
• “life” or salvation
• And things like “judgment”.
• He also includes that the Son is to receive the same honor as the Father.
So we are talking about the truth that Jesus is
God’s Anointed King, Savior, and Judge.
And that is essential information if you desire to be saved.
• In fact to be saved you must “confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord”
• You must “call on the name of the Lord”
So knowing that is pretty important.
Knowing who Jesus is, is pretty important.
FURTHERMORE WE KNOW THAT:
No one can know that unless God reveals it to them.
See verse 22 again:
“All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father,”
Paul reminded us that in order for a natural man to know that,
That God’s Spirit must read God’s mind and then reveal it to you.
In short:
If God does not reveal to you who Jesus is, then you cannot know it.
Didn’t Jesus tell this to Peter?
Matthew 16:15-17 “He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”
“Peter, you wouldn’t know that if God hadn’t shown it to you.”
Didn’t Jesus teach us that in John 6?
John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”
John 6:65 “And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”
If God doesn’t show you, you can’t know Him.
And we saw that the Father actually hides that truth from some people
And reveals it to others by His own sovereign pleasure.
WE SAW THAT DIDN’T WE?
I mean, where just reading what Jesus said.
Well that’s where people throw a fit and start screaming, “NOT FAIR!”
TURN TO: ROMANS 9:14
• After making that infamous statement, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated”
• After revealing that before those boys where ever even born, and before they ever did anything good or evil, that God sovereignly chose that the older would serve the younger.
• Those boys had no say in it.
And Paul knew that people would cry, “Not Fair!”
(READ: Romans 9:14-18)
• Is God unjust? NO NEVER!
And then Paul quotes Genesis 25:23 that “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
Very important statement.
Let me tell you what it DOESN’T say.
“I will judge whom I will judge, and I will have cruelty toward whom I will have cruelty”
You know why?
• Because apart from God’s intervention, man is already condemned.
• God doesn’t have to do anything for man to be condemned, he is already condemned by reason of his rebellion.
And if God simply does nothing, then every single human goes to hell.
But if anyone is going to miss hell, and inherit eternal life
Then God will have to act.
He will have to intervene, and He did for some.
He chose to have mercy on some.
He chose to have compassion on some.
John 3:17-18 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
It is NOT like God took a list of neutral humans
• And started throwing some to the left and saying “hell”
• And some to the right and saying “heaven”.
NO.
• All were headed to hell.
• None had pleased God.
• None were good, none were righteous, not even one.
But instead of consigning the entire human race to judgment,
God, in His great mercy, reached in and chose to save some.
That’s not injustice, that’s mercy!
If God hadn’t done that then no one would be saved.
(16) “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs but on God who has mercy”
But then Paul takes it ONE STEP FURTHER because that is clear, but we still haven’t addressed the hiding issue or the HARDENING issue.
So Paul says next:
(READ 17-18)
This time Paul reminds of what God did to Pharaoh.
That God raised Pharaoh up (that is brought him to power)
WHY? “to demonstrate My power in you”
God brought him to power so that
Through Pharaoh’s own rebellious heart
God would have opportunity to lay out the plagues
And put His power on display.
Had Pharaoh been a submissive man, you’d never have known about those powerful plagues or how much God loved Israel.
So there’s an instance there where God,
According to His own sovereign prerogative
Chose to save some, and to harden some.
(18) “So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.”
And to that again people cry foul!
So listen carefully now to Paul.
(READ 19-21)
And there’s the critical issue: HE’S GOD!
As God He has the right!
WE CALL IT SOVEREIGNTY.
• If He wants to save no one, He can save no one.
• If He wants to save everyone, He can save everyone.
• If He wants to save some, and harden others, He can do that too.
Now that’s the first aspect you need to grasp when we talk about SOVEREIGN GRACE. You need to get the “sovereign” part.
But let’s also talk about the second part:
2) GRACE
• Justice is you getting what you deserve
• Mercy is you not getting what you deserve
• Grace is you getting what you don’t deserve
And here we’re talking about GRACE.
Namely that God chose to reveal the truths about Christ to “infants”
Now, before you can fully understand the grace in what God did for you,
YOU FIRST have to understand that you didn’t deserve it.
A proper understanding of sovereign grace
Begins with a proper understanding of sinful man.
If you think man is basically good and deserving of salvation
Then you will always have a problem with election.
It will always appear to be unjust to you.
You will always view election as some twisted doctrine
Where God chose to keep good men out of heaven.
NOTHING could be further from the truth.
I must remind you:
Romans 3:10-18 “as it is written, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.” “THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,” “THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS”; “WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS”; “THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN.” “THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”
YOU MUST GRASP THAT.
When you talk about election, or sovereign grace
There is always the counter argument regarding MAN’S FREE WILL.
Free will means that a person is free to make any decision
According to the inclination of their heart or their will.
And in that case, IT IS TRUE, MAN HAS FREE WILL.
He is free to choose whatever he wants in regard to salvation.
But here is the reality – PAY CLOSE ATTENTION HERE
MAN IS FREE TO DO WHAT HE WILLS, BUT HIS WILL IS FALLEN.
What do I mean?
Namely that if you give sinful man
The freedom to do whatever he wants,
He will never choose to love God, or trust God, or follow Christ.
Sinful man will choose sin every time.
• “there is none who does good, not even one”
• “there is none who seeks for God, not even one”
• “there is no fear of God before their eyes”
AND THAT’S THE PROBLEM.
If salvation is a matter of man’s free will,
THEN EVERY SINGLE HUMAN WILL DIE AND GO TO HELL.
No one will, of his own free will, choose Christ.
If you think otherwise, then go back and read Romans 3:10-18.
YOU SAY, “But preacher, I chose Christ, I chose to love God, I chose to fear God and obey God. I remember making that choice. I remember that invitation, I remember that convicting sermon, I remember the internal battle. I remember choosing to obey. I sang, ‘I Have Decided To Follow Jesus’”
I KNOW YOU DID.
But the reason you did is because God first did a work in you.
• It was God who first showed you how sinful you were.
• It was God who first showed you how perfect Christ was.
• It was God who first regenerated your heart to cause you to fear Him.
• It was God who first regenerated your heart to cause you to desire Him.
His grace was at work long before you ever made a choice.
For an analogy purpose.
• Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb, and Lazarus made a choice to obey.
• But before Lazarus even had a choice, he had to be made alive enough to
even hear when Jesus called.
THAT’S CALLED REGENERATION.
God chose to let the dead man hear.
And He could not have heard if God hadn’t chosen that.
That is what God first did for everyone who ever chose Him.
He “revealed these things to infants”
And it’s called GRACE
Ephesians 2:1-5 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),”
And so let’s just be clear about this now.
If you are one of those whose name is written in the book of life,
Then that is something that God did for you.
• He took a dead sinner, who only wanted sin, and who deserved judgment, and
instead decided to give them grace.
• Grace in the form that He made them alive, changed their desires, and gave
them an inheritance instead of judgment.
He didn’t do that for everyone.
But He did that for some according to His sovereign pleasure.
Those He did that for didn’t deserve it, but He did it anyway.
He revealed to them who the Son was so that they might be saved.
And if you are a recipient of that grace
Can you see why you should be rejoicing?
You could still be in judgment! You could still be headed to hell!
We can rejoice in that for the rest of eternity.
Now, at this point, I do want to say something else,
Just to avoid the confusion.
Just in case someone in here is starting to panic,
• “What if I’m not chosen?”
• “What if God didn’t pick me?”
Then let me say this.
Do you want to be chosen?
Then come and submit your life to Jesus Christ.
John 6:37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”
If you want to come you absolutely can.
Well preacher, doesn’t that contradict the sovereignty stuff you just preached?
No, not at all.
Because the fact is this:
• If somehow this morning you know that Jesus is the Christ
• And you have also been made aware that you’re headed for judgment
• And you now desire to submit to Christ and be saved
If that is happening in your life, it’s only because God did that.
• He showed you who Jesus is.
• He showed you how badly you need Him.
• He is drawing you to Him.
So if you want to come, by all means.
God has never (and will never)
Refuse a repentant sinner who wants to be saved.
Because sinners don’t repent if God doesn’t cause it.
It’s all a matter of grace.
Every sinner saved is saved by grace alone.
And look, there’s still more here to this statement of Jesus that needs to be understood, but we’ll have to jump into that next time.
This morning I want you to understand the basis for Christian Rejoicing!
• Not only were the 70 commended for rejoicing in their Spiritual Authority.
• Not only were they commanded to rejoice in their Secure Salvation
• But Jesus Himself rejoiced in God’s Sovereign Grace
And church we should be praising God for this.
We should rejoice in this daily.
Regardless of your ups and downs.
Regardless of you trials and tribulations.
The God of the universe chose to be gracious to you
Even in the midst of your rebellion against Him.
• He gave you His truth
• He revealed it through His Spirit
• He showed you His Son, who also atoned for your sin
• He chose to take you from being an enemy and make you a son
• He gave you an inheritance in heaven where your name is written down permanently
REJOICE IN THAT!
How it must grieve the Father,
That He has done such a wonderful thing for His children.
AND INSTEAD OF PRAISING HIM for it and rejoicing in it,
They instead reject His sovereignty and say
“Any God who would do this is a monster.”
On the contrary!
Any God who would do what He did, is the most gracious Savior ever!
Jesus praised Him for this!
You should as well.
1 Corinthians 1:30-31 “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”
