God's sovereignty in the new birth (Quality: Average)

[0:00] To the Lord's help we will speak from the 13th chapter, the Gospel according to Luke, verses 11 and 12. Verses 11 and 12 in the 13th of Luke.

[0:16] Behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of inculity eighteen years, and was bowed to Bethlehem, and could in no wise lift up herself.

[0:27] But when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.

[0:40] This is a very strange morning to me. Very strange. The one thing is you know I wasn't due to be here today. The other thing is that this is not the text that I intended to speak from today at all.

[1:01] It may be tonight, I don't know. But at reading this morning, how at breakfast time, at the altar, I read these words, and they stuck with me.

[1:16] And what struck me most was this, that this woman never asked to be healed. You know there are many cases of people, men and women, in our Lord's time, who asked for help, cried as he passed by.

[1:39] Jesus, thou son of David, have learned. Amen. Do you remember the leper came out and pleaded, said, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make them clean.

[1:57] And the centurion, he sent to Jesus. And the woman from Saraconesia, she came.

[2:15] And here is, in a charming different case, someone who is in the crowd, the concourse, the follower of the Lord Jesus, and she never says a word, never even answers.

[2:35] Isn't it wonderful? Don't you think that? Divine grace, sovereign love, and mercy should come unasked.

[2:46] And yet, isn't that how it does come? If God has dealt with you in a way of grace, did you ever ask for him to?

[2:57] The sovereignty of God is a very sobering and a very blessed truth.

[3:10] But we have to get a right view of it because nature cannot see it. There are those who are in a state of nature, though quite unaware of it.

[3:24] You were one, so was I. And you never uttered half a word. And God should have mercy upon you.

[3:36] You never sought him. Suddenly, there came the edict from heaven, and time had come.

[3:49] How and when and by what means you will know then. He is not sure to have mercy upon you. And the parallel is in the human birth.

[4:03] You had nothing whatever to do with it. Nothing whatever to do with your natural birth. And you cannot deny it.

[4:16] You had nothing to do with your spiritual birth. Assuming you had one.

[4:26] And you cannot deny it. And you cannot deny it. Solemnly, on the other hand, there are those who think, and they have had it.

[4:40] Who are deceived upon the major issue of the beginning. Because if the beginning is right, the end must be.

[4:53] In the reverse, if the beginning is wrong, well, the end can't be right. But this strange company, the Lord refers to in this 25th verse, that when once the master of the house is risen up and shut the door, and ye begin to stand without and knock on the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

[5:22] And he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not, when ye are. How are we going to fit this in with the gospel plan? Where does it find its place?

[5:39] It has not yet done so. The day of judgment is not yet dawned. But that dreadful day will be the day of that decision.

[5:52] Which the minor prophet speaks of. Multitudes. Multitudes. He says, in the valley of decision. Many will tell us that it's a man's decision.

[6:08] Well, there's no need to ask a question. What that decision will be in the day of judgment? Everyone under that awful scene will, of course, choose eternal bliss.

[6:24] But the decision isn't yours. And the man is led into the docks in the court. The decision isn't his. He is not the judge.

[6:39] He is there to be judged. So with me and you. Multitudes in this valley of decision Realize that the decision is God's decision.

[6:57] Come. He blesses. Enter the kingdom prepared for you. Since when? Yesterday?

[7:11] Last year? Or the beginning of the century? No. From before the foundation of the world. That is where it fits in.

[7:27] So that while it is beautiful To hear the cry of those who Were already possessed Of a God-given faith To cry unto the Lord Jesus For his healing His blessing And shows a Remarkable Singularity of mind and thought That You can see they meant What they said You can see that the centurion Was truly Honest He said I have soldiers under me And I say unto One Go And he goes And I expect him to Woe be to him if he doesn't I am a centurion I am a Roman centurion

[8:28] I don't brook any disobedience And he conveys this thought Into his own tender position To the Lord Jesus And in his petition He Says But speak the word only And my servant shall be healed Where did this man then This Gentile Octave Such A remarkable Faith from Because we can see It was genuine And we can see He wasn't some Poor simpleton He was a man Of marked ability Now that you can't Lay it down To an inability Of nature Or even A superiority Of nature Because the poor Great woman She Doesn't stand Alongside

[9:29] The centurion Does she As regards Appellate Now you've got To leave all that Inability Or ability Right out of it And here Is this poor Sufferer And she's bent Double Obviously A Conspicuous Character And one That would Attract Anybody's heart If they'd Got a grain Of sympathy But She made No request And can you Look to the time When you were Absolutely A cripple In the things Of God And you were Completely Ignorant Of anything You may have Known A certain Outline Of the Bible A certain

[10:32] Element Of truth You may have Been taught It from Childhood Now When it came To Your condition By nature And How you were Absolutely Met double Or bowed Down Or In a crippled Condition Helpless Let us put it Like that You can look Back now And see The hymn writer Says Helpless Come for The evil Grace But that's After Grace Has begun Her farewell That here Is an Outstanding Case And a Very Consoling And comfortable Case And one That Issues Is this She glorified God And of course

[11:33] That is the Purpose Of it This is Where we Can glorify God It's a Delightful Subject It puts A Bedrock Under one's Feet You can Glorify God Of sovereign Grace When he Deals So Graciously Unasked And this Goes right Through The Hole Of the Book Unasked For Grace Unasked For Blessing That Lead And this Is the Test To the Glory Of God And to The Individual Glorifying God And this Must be Our Test Without It We Have But an

[12:33] Empty Sound We have Only the Outer Shelf And not The Kernel And it Is a Personal Matter As to What Returns We make To God For his Mercy In grace To us So that This Presents To our View A Person Who Was The Object Of Divine Favor But In some Cases There are One or Two If not More In our Lord's Life Where we Have A Time An Age Or A Period Here Is One She Had Been Eighteen Years Like This In The Ninth Of John

[13:34] You Remember The Young Man Who Was Born Blind Was Somewhere About We Presumed Twenty Twenty One His Parents Said He Is Of Age That Takes The Responsibility Off Of Us Ask Him That Gave To Some Idea There Was The Man By The Call Of Bethesda Jesus Jesus Jesus Knew That He Had Been There All That Time And It Was A Lifetime In Some Respect Now Now There Was If We Turn Over To The Acts Of The Apostles There Was The Man At The Straight Gate Or The Gate Beautiful Rather He He Lied There For Years Can't Forget How Many Doesn't Really Matter Read It For Yourself He

[14:38] Must Have Lied There Whilst Jesus Went Into The Temple Jesus Never Healed Him Why Because The Time Had Come He Lied At That Gate Beautiful For Years But When Peter And John Went Up To Pray They Saw Him He Looked At Them As You Know Ask An Hour And They Said Silver And Gold Have I None Such As I Have Give I Unto The Arise And Walk There Is An Appointed Time An Appointed Time Why Shouldn't There Be Why Should Things Be Chaotic

[15:38] In Grace If They Are Not In Creation Why Should There Be A Spring Time Why Shouldn't It All Be Mudded Up Together Why Shouldn't We Have Spring And Winter Together Why Should Not The Leaves First Open And Then Fall In Decay Why Ancient Prophecy Stand And Word Of God They Shall Not Fail See Time And Harvest Summer And Winter Day And Night Cold And Eve Will Not Fire No God Is A God Of Order Timing One Of Our Hymns Peaches The Appointed Time Rolls On Apace Not

[16:38] To Propose But Call By Grace To Change The Heart Renew Do The Will And Turn The Feet To Zion Heaven And That Appointed Time As in The Third Of Ecclesiastes Is Known In Time There Is A Time To Be Born And A Time To Die And A Time To Plant Happy Time Isn't It And The Husband Doesn't Like The Time When He Has To Pluck Up That Which Has Been Planted There Is An Appointing Time And There Was Here Now Think Of The Overruling Of Her Divine Providence In The Guiding Of This Woman

[17:39] At This Particular Time In This Particular Condition You Would Think That She Could Only Be At Home Wouldn't You How Could This Poor Soul With This Spirit Of Infirmity And Bow Together In No Wise Lift Herself Up How Could She Possibly Be Found In A Company Of People What Shall We Say Well Don't Ask Questions Don't Look At The Things Which Are Seen How Many Poor Souls Today Are Like This Bound Up With Rheumatroid Arthritis Can't Step Over The Front Doorstep Here She

[18:39] Is And She Been Like It Eighteen Years Eighteen Years What What a Sufferer She Was And Yet She Didn't Ask You're Looking At Yourself I Hope You Are What Do You Say In Yourself How Happy You Were In The World Quite Content With Your Pleasurable Sinful Life The Strength Of God Without God Without Hope Without God

[19:39] In The World You Knew Nothing Of Anything Different How That In This Poor Double Duck Creature You Can See Yourself Can't You And See That In Spire Of This Awful Unsigned And Lost Condition You Were Mingling With The Crowd You Knew Not Your Danger As McJane Says In His Beautiful Lines Concerning This I Once Was A Stranger He Says To God And To Grace I Knew Not My Danger Or Saw Not My Case When Men Spoke With Rapture Of Christ On The Tree Jehovah Sikhen You Was

[20:40] Nothing To Me Can You Look Back To That Then You Will See The Beauty Of God's Sovereign Appearance In Your Life As Why He Should Single This Person Out Many Widows He Said In His First Sermon Where In Israel In The Time Of Elijah The Prophet But Unto None Of Them Was Elijah Sent But Unto Sarapta Many Lepers In Israel The Time Of The Time Of The Sermon But None Of None Of Them Were Cleansed Like Naaman And The People In That First

[21:40] Sermon That The Lord Jesus The They They Were Preach As Far As We Know That Is They Rose Up In Anger Their Blood Boiled You Imagine Us And You Being So Furious With Me That In A Body You Rose Up And Thrust Me Out Of The Door Then We're Not Going Out There And I'm Going To Listen To This What Was It That The Lord Jesus Was Declaring If It Was Divine Choice Why Should The Widow That Surround Be Chosed Why Should Naaman The Enemy Of Israel Be Chosed Why Should His Neprosy Be Be Cleansed And Not A Thousand Other Lepers In Israel We Know Of Four Of Them Who

[22:40] Sat At The Gate Earlier On They Weren't Cleansed They Were The Means Of Israel's Deliverance But They Never Had Their Leprosy Cleansed Now The Appointed Time Now What a Pleasure Thing This Is How We Rejoice At The Return Of Spring All Of Us Mankind In General Becees The Smallest But Unfold The First Herald Animates The Natural Heart Of Any Absurd Individual They Begin To Realize That Something Secret Hidden That Is Going On The Sat Is Rising There

[23:41] There's A Certain Pleasure In It The World Will Say This Yes Well We've Got The Summer To Look Forward To Yes What Of Christ What Of The Overflowing Tremendous Truth That God Has Get Those To Sigh Called And Quick And Blessed Yes And Dead Now The Dark Their Mind Are Absolutely Alienated Can't See A Blood On Them But What A Blessed Thing That The Gospel Is To Be Preached In Its Certain Sound If The Trump Had Given Uncertain Sound Says The Apostle Paul Who Should Prepare Himself For The Battle And Ask A Soldier

[24:41] Who Has Done This And Been On The Battlefield And Heard The Signal And The Crumpet And The Command Ask Him No But The Apostle's Argument Is Unassailable But The Gospel Bring With It That Gracious Prospect That There Shall Be One Without Any Hunger Any Sir Quite Outside The Promise And Truth That Our Lord Speaks In The Attitude Blessed Are They That Hunger And Thirst After Righteousness For They Shall Be Filled Quite Outside Of That At The Moment Absolutely

[25:42] Dead In Sill And Can It Be That Such Are Going To Be Suddenly Called Woman Woman Of Course It Is It Is Going To Be Just Like That The Jailer You See In The Philippian Jail Never Prayed A Word He Thrashed The Apostle And If He Didn't Thrash It Himself He Ordered Him To Be Fracked He Never Asked Him Anything About Salvation Of Course He Didn't Know Anything About It And He Was Quite Content To

[26:42] Cover A Routine Inspection That Night As The Jailer But At The Time Came To Say God Had Already Dealt With This Remarkable Character Just Like The Dying Thief Of Whom You Just Son And That Man In The Sudden Alarm His First Thoughts Were Suicide For The Sake Of His Own Honor Oh That Defeats Any Of These Evil Erroneous Teachings Which Tell Us That Christ Offers Himself To Man And If We Don't Accept We Shall Be Lost I Say That Defeats Him That Nails Another Nail In That Coffee No He

[27:42] Knew Nothing Until He Springs In Among Them And Paul Says To Him Do Thyself No Harm It's Obvious To Paul That That Jailer Was Going To Fall On His Soul Paul Knew Enough About Those Sort Of Things To Take It At A Glance He Had Lived Among Soldery And All Those Things All His Life And Suffered So Much At Their Hands Without Knowing What That Man Intended Do Thyself Know How We're All Here Your Reputation Is Sigh But There Was Something Else Behind It Says What Must I Do To Be Sigh Where Did That Come From That Was From Above Who

[28:44] Didn't Come To Him And Preach The Gospel To Him It It Wasn't Even Like Lydia Who Attended To The Word Spoken No How The Free Will You'll See And Preacher Righteousness Is Defeated At Every Turn Bless It Be God And Here We Have The Same Thing After The Natural Manner And I'm Persuaded After The Spiritual For This Woman We Are Told Was A Daughter Of Abraham And That Doesn't Merely Mean That She Was A Jew I Know That She Are Abraham's See Said Jesus For The Pharisees If He Were Abraham's Children Jesus Made A Distinction Between Seed And Children There

[29:44] Is A Distinction There Is A Jew He Is Not A Jew Who Is One Help With But He Is A Jew Or Of The Seed Of Abraham Or The Children Of Abraham Rather That Is One In With Whose Circumcision Is Not Of The Flesh But Of The Heart She Was Therefore Cool After Eight Years There No Need Therefore You see For The Preacher To Lay His Hands Down At His Side And Give Up No Need For The Gospel Trumpeter To Put His Trumpet Away The Need Whatever To Lay The Sword Of Divine Truth In

[30:44] The Cabin And So No Good Using It Who Can Tell And Today This Wide Sinful Evil World If There Is One Thing That Is Certain It's This That God Is Accomplishing His Own Purpose In Salvation Irrespective Of Men And Also In Spite Of Men And That Salvation Will Be Accomplished And The Appointed Time Will Come The Day Of Her Deliverance Was At Hand She Could In No Wise Live To Suffer What A Condition This Is We Can't Understand It Naturally Can We Get A Few Aches And Pines Perhaps It's

[31:45] A Job To Put Yourself In This Position Isn't It As You Do Make People Better Now When You Come To The Things Of God And Realize What It Means To Lift Yourself Or Be Lifted Out And That Is To Perform Spiritual Acts Acts Of Faith Which Is The Outcome Of The New Birth Faith Without Works Is Dead Being Alone Yes You Must Have The Two You Can't Have Faith That Is A Dominal Pain It Cold Pain But Unless It Is Accompanied With Acts It Is Dead It Is Like A Tree You See In

[32:45] The Forest You Can See All Its Half And All Its Branches And There It Is Absolutely Dead Not A Leaf On It It Is A Tree You Can Tell What Sort Of A Tree It Was Dead So Faith Must Be Accompanied And Of Course Is Accompanied With Works An Example Of It In This Chapter About The Barren Fin Tree The Servant Pleaded For It Just One More Year Cut It Down Says The Master Why Cumber Is It The Ground Give It Another Year Says The Servant Till I Dig About It And Dung It And If It Beers Fruit Well Then After That Thou Shall Cut It Down Now

[33:46] There Is No Such Thing As A God Given Faith Without Fruit The Fruit Of The Spirit There Is No Such Thing All Other Faith Unaccompanied By These Fruits Is Nominal And Was Possessed By These People Here Who Knocked The Door In Bay And So In This Inability To Lift One Self Up There Is Proof Once Grace Begins Her Work That These Fruits Are Not Of Of The Flesh We May Name A Few Of Them In The Epistle To The Ephesians The Apostle Enumerates Quite Of This Fruit Of The Spirit He Says Is Love Joy Peace Long Suffering Gentleness Goodness

[34:46] Faith Meekness Temperance All Friends Of The Spirit All Incumbent Upon The Believer And All Produced In A Believer At Different Times And Different Occasions Which One Shall We Pick Out Well They Are All The Same Aren't They Why Shall We Look At Gentleness Is It Possible To Be A Sad Sinner One Who Has Been Forgiven Or Who Seeks Forgiveness Even And Be Like The Man Who Was Forgiven The Five Hundred Pent And Wouldn't Forgive His Own Servant Fifty Gentleness

[35:46] This Is A Fruit A Fruit Of The Spirit Can You Produce It Have You Got A Hard Rugged Nature Are You A Rough Diamond And You Know Something About The Inability Then Won't You To Produce Gentleness Tenderness God Enabled And Does And It's A Part Of His Gracious Teaching Takes A Long Time You See For The Fruit To Come Doesn't It Isn't Instant An Is It The Buds Haven't Even Unfolded Yet Have They But When They Do Then That Fruit Won't Be Ready And In Some Cases You See It's Got To Be Picked And In Some Cases Put In The Dark

[36:47] To Ripen On Oh Yeah So The Lord's Dear People They Often Put In The Dark End Of Their Days To Ripe Them To Mature In This Way Therefore They Learned They Can In No Way Lit Them Shows Up They Can See Now Where They Were Before God Welt With Them They Can See Their Religion And Profession Was But A Blimsy Garment Absolutely Transparent Now They Want Fruit Love Shall We Start At The Beginning Love Well That's A Very Delicate Subject Isn't It Love Take It Naturally True Love Is A

[37:47] Very Delicate Subject Isn't It Between A Man And A Woman Very Delicate You Can't Define It You Can Feel It Did You Love God Before He Loved You Did You So Then If You Did You Are Quite Contrary To The Scripture We Love Him Because He First Loved Us That's The Plain Unvarnished Truth And It Is The Gospel's Joyful Self Joy Oh How This Is Exalted Today That We Should Have Joy In The Lord Always Rejoice I Say Rejoice Yes

[38:47] Indeed Let us Have This Joy This Joy But What Is This Joy My Mind Goes To The Twelfth Of Isaiah Therefore With Joy Shall Ye Draw Water From The Wells Of Salvation This Is Joy Not Shouting And Loud Allelui And Obvious Merriment Outside You Are Thirsty You Go To The Cat You Take A Glass Of Cold Water And You Drink It Up That's Joy That's Joy It's Gone Into Your Very Body You See It Saved Your Life This Is The Joy Of The Gospel The Joy Of This Sacred Truth Of Divine Sovereign The Joy Of It

[39:48] Is God That First Yes Tis Tis He That Saves Tis His Own Covenant Purpose And Will That Sinner Should Be Saved So That We Find Her Here At The Right Time And The Right Place She Could No Wise Lift To Sower And This She Was He Was Jesus Called Her And Said Unto Her Woman Thou Are Loose From Thine Infirmity We Don't Even Know Her Name Does It Matter What Are We Concerned With It Is The Vital Experience That She Passed Through And Also The Great Lesson That We Learned That

[40:48] In The Midst Of All That Come Let Let Let Let Go Back To Where I Started The Lord Healed Her Without Asking And Thus She Went On Her Way And Glorified God God Surely It Was This Man That She Should Have Glorified She Glorified God There Was God In Christ Reconciling The World Unto Himself Yes And There's An Example Of It But I Must Leave It Here Whether I Shall Go On Whether Or Not I Don't Know At The Lord Bless It To Your Soul Amen