Welcome And Core Gospel Claims

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You're listening to Heat the Word with our pastor and teacher Ken Davis. Pastor Ken is the senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Southwest Metro in Burleson, Texas. Please join us as we study the Gospel of Luke verse by verse.

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If you refuse to believe the fact that Jesus is the Son of God and that He came as the Lamb of God to be a sacrifice for our sins. And that by that sacrifice the sins of the world are washed away. If you refuse to believe that, then you have rejected any authority that Christ might have in your life. The word tells us that if we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord, then we shall be saved.

Salvation By Grace Not Works

John’s Baptism And Jesus Revealed

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The Gospel of Luke is the third account in the Gospels of the life and teachings of our Savior, Jesus Christ. As believers, there are few studies that will benefit us more spiritually than studying the life and teachings of the Master. How can we receive salvation? Is it by our good deeds? Is it by our church attendance? Or perhaps it's by tithing or volunteering our time? The answer is simply this: salvation is not earned. It's a gift from God. We're saved by God's life-changing grace through faith. Then we are to love the Lord with all our hearts, by walking according to his word. Don't forget to stay with us after today's message to hear more information about He the Word, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, please open your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 3, verse 16, as we join Pastor Ken.

The Forerunner’s Purpose In John 1

Believe John Or Reject Jesus’ Authority

Two Sons And True Obedience

The Vineyard Parable And Israel’s Leaders

Fall On The Stone Or Be Crushed

Acts 4: The Cornerstone And One Name

Living Stones And A Royal Priesthood

Comfort, Promises, And Closing Resources

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Now, as the people were in expectation and all reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ or not, John answered, saying to all, I indeed baptize you with water. But one mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather the weed into his barns, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. And with many other exhortations he preached to the people. But Herod, the Tetrarch, being rebuked by him concerning Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, also added this above all, that he shut up John in prison. This isn't aside that Luke writes, telling us what would happen eventually to John, but going on in verse 21, he continues to tell us about John's ministry. When all of the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized. And while he prayed, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven which said, You are my beloved son, in you I am well pleased. So, was it the moral teachings on repentance and life that John was preaching that Jesus is referring to when they are anticipating his words of if John's baptism was from heaven, why then didn't you believe him? I don't think so. Because while this is the teaching of John, it was not the message of John. These were the things that John said in response to the people who came to him and said, What shall we do now that we've repented? What shall we do? And he gave them their answers. And the baptizing that he was doing was the method of his ministry, but it in and of itself was not his ministry. What was John? He was the forerunner or the herald of Jesus Christ who would proclaim his coming. And he fulfills that ministry. Let's turn to John chapter one. John chapter one, starting in verse 19. Now this is the testimony of John. When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you? He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Are you Elijah? He said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And he answered, No. Then they said to him, Who are you then, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself? You see, they're examining John's credentials there as well. And John said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees, and they asked him, saying, Why then do you baptize if you were not the Christ, or Elijah, nor the prophet? John answered them, saying, I baptize with water, but there stands one among you whom you do not know. It is he who coming after me is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. These things were done in Bethabra beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. Now the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me. I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel. Therefore I came baptizing with water. And John bore witness, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and he remained upon him, and I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God. The purpose of John's ministry was to identify the Messiah. It was for him to go out and to baptize. He said, Hey, this is the reason that I came baptizing, because the one who sent me said to me that the one upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, he's the one. He's the Lamb of God. He's the one who's come to take away the sin of the world. And so John is out there every day. Can you imagine it? He's preaching repentance. He's preaching that if they didn't repent, judgment would come. He's telling them that once they've repented, this is how they're to live their lives. And he's baptizing them one after the other. And can you imagine his anticipation when with each person that he brought under that water and brought up again, he wondered, is this the one? Is this the one who's going to split heaven open and upon whom the Spirit of God will descend and remain upon him? Is this the one who was coming to take away the sin of the world? Is this the one who's coming to pay the price for me? All these things must have been going through John's heart each and every time he brought someone under the water. And imagine his exaltation, imagine his joy, imagine his exuberance when it happened. And then later on, as he sees Jesus, he says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John was fulfilling the ministry that God had given him. And it was that ministry that Jesus was using as a litmus test for the hearts of these Pharisees and scribes and leaders of Israel to see whether or not they could receive the answer that they were asking for. Because you see, here's the thing if you reject the ministry of John the Baptist and you don't acknowledge that it is of God, and if you don't believe what John the Baptist said about Jesus, then you will never be able to accept the authority of Jesus in your life. If you refuse to believe the fact that Jesus is the Son of God and that he came as the Lamb of God to be a sacrifice for our sin, and that by that sacrifice the sins of the world are washed away. If you refuse to believe that, then you have rejected any authority that Christ might have in your life. The word tells us that if we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord, then we shall be saved. You see, so many people want to change that word Lord to Savior. They don't want to talk about the fact that Jesus has authority. They want to talk about his sacrifice, about how he's the Lamb of God and that he paid the price for their sin, but they don't want to acknowledge the fact that he's the Son of God and that he is the Lord of our lives and that he has the authority and the sovereignty to lead us and to guide us and to receive worship from us. The Bible didn't say if we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouth that Jesus Christ is Savior, we would be saved. He's the Savior whether we choose to believe it or not. The question is, is he our Lord? Because for someone to be your Lord indicates that you've recognized their authority, that you've submitted yourself to them. And it is those who recognize the authority of Jesus and those who submit themselves to his authority that shall be saved. Turn to Matthew 21. Now Luke in chapter 20 goes on immediately after this to share about how Jesus told them the story of the vine dressers. But Matthew inserts another story in between those two that I think is pertinent to our discussion today. Matthew 21, starting in verse 28. But what do you think? Jesus asks these men who've come to him. A man had two sons. And he came to the first and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not. But afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said, Likewise, and he answered and said, I go, sir. But he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father? They said to him, The first. Well, they got the answer to that question right. Jesus said to them, Assuredly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but tax collectors and harlots believed him. And when you saw it, you did not afterwards relent and believe him. What Jesus is saying to these guys is, look, it's not good enough for you to say that you love God. Because if you say you love God and you say, Oh yes, I'll go work in your vineyard, but then you never go, and your actions in your life never show the fact that you really do love him, well, then you don't love him at all. But by comparison, let's say you're a person who your whole life through you have been in rebellion against God. The word of God says, don't covet, man, you covet. The word of God says, don't steal. Dude, you steal. The word of God says, don't take the name of the Lord your God in vain. And every other word that comes out of your mouth is taking the name of the Lord your God in vain. So you're like that first son when the father came to you and he said, Hey, will you go work in my vineyard? And he said, No way, I'm not gonna go work in your vineyard. But then later, he repented of it. And he says, You know what? No, I am gonna go work in my father's vineyard. And so he went. And Jesus said, Which of these has obeyed the will of his father? It's not the one who said he would and then didn't, it's the one who said he wouldn't and then did. And guys, that's us. Because we spent our entire life denying Christ, running from God, saying, No, we want nothing to do with righteousness. But then when the word of God was preached, we believed. Just like the tax collectors and the harlots, we believed and we repented, and we came to the one who could forgive us for our sins. But these guys, those religious guys, those be in tabernacle every Sabbath guys, those pay tithes of mint and cumin guys, those guys who looked so good on the outside that no one could bring an accusation against them. These guys who said, Yes, I'll go work in your vineyard. They rejected the authority of the Son of God. And because of that, we're lost in their sin. What is the penalty for that? What is the end result of that kind of rebellion? Jesus would tell them in Luke chapter 20, let's go back there. Then he began to tell the people this parable. A certain man planted a vineyard and leased it to vine dressers and went into a far country for a long time. Now, when he's talking about the vineyard here, they know from Isaiah chapter 5, verses 1 through 7, that he's talking about Israel. Okay? If you want to go back there and read through that on your own time, that's a good place to read and just to see the imagery that God uses there. That's Isaiah 5, 1 through 7. But it's clear here that the vineyard that is being discussed is the nation of Israel. A certain man planted a vineyard, leased it to vine dressers, and went into a far country for a long time. Now advantage time, he sent a servant to the vine dressers that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the vine dressers beat him and sent him away empty handed. Again he sent another servant, and they beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty handed. And again he sent a third, and they wounded him also and cast him out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. Probably they will respect him when they see him. But when the vine dressers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours. So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those vine dressers and give the vineyard to others. And when they heard it, they said, Certainly not. Meaning, certainly we wouldn't do that. We wouldn't be like those wicked vine dressers. We wouldn't, you know, beat the servants of the master. We wouldn't throw them out. We wouldn't kill his sons. Certainly, we would never do those things. Hey, no me a culpa, not me. I wouldn't do that. And yet they had. They had, and their fathers had. Isaiah, who I mentioned just a moment ago, the prophet to the nation of Israel. You know what his end was? Tradition tells us that he was sawn in two. John the Baptist, even, had been taken by Herod, the political leader of the nation of Israel at that time, and he had been beheaded. They had killed the prophets of God, they had beat them, and they would kill the Son of God as well. When they heard it, they said, Certainly not. Verse 17. Then he looked at them and said, What then is this that is written? The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. Whoever falls on that stone will be broken, but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder. And the chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on him, but they feared the people, for they knew he had spoken this parable against them. The stone which the builders rejected. Who were the builders? They were the leaders of the nation Israel. Who was the stone? It was Jesus Christ, the rock of our salvation, the chief cornerstone. And they were rejecting him. In fact, they already had. And Jesus says to them, Whoever falls on that stone will be broken. Can I tell you that when we fall on Jesus Christ, when we come to God for mercy through Jesus, it breaks us. It breaks our image of self-righteousness that we have of ourselves. It breaks the self-assurance that we have in our own abilities. It breaks any idea that we ever had of being able to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law. It breaks the concept that we have of ourselves as good and moral people. It also breaks the chains of bondage that we're held in by sin and addiction. It breaks the prison bars within which we are held captive by Satan, the enemy. It breaks us when we fall on Jesus Christ. And can I tell you, it is a blessing to be broken in such a manner. But if we fail to fall on him, then Jesus tells us that he will fall upon us. Those who do not come humbly before God will be judged by God. And it says, on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder. There is no mercy outside of Jesus Christ. You know, Peter was there that day. Peter heard what Jesus had said, and these words stuck with Peter for the rest of his life. Let's see what kind of impact they had. Turn to Acts chapter 4. Now you remember in Acts chapter 3, all the incredible things that were happening, and in Acts chapter 2 and 1, how the Spirit had come upon the church on the day of Pentecost, and how they were speaking in tongues, and there were thousands of people that were coming to Christ. And then just a short time later, Peter and John are walking into the temple and they see the lame man begging alms there, and they reach down to him and they say, Hey man, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And how that guy just jumped up and he ran into the temple, leaping and jumping and praising God, and all of the people gathered round, and they were just amazed at what had happened. And Peter said, Hey man, don't be looking at us like by anything that we did, this happened. This is because of Jesus of Nazareth and how he began to preach that awesome sermon and how many, many more thousands even came to know the Lord. Five thousand people at that time had come to know Jesus. But here in chapter four, verse one, we find this. Now, as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. I mean, they're thinking, didn't we just get rid of this guy? And here we still have to deal with these people? And they laid hands on them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. However, many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to be about five thousand. And it came to pass on the next day that the rulers, elders, and scribes, as well as Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the family of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. And when they had set them in the midst, they asked them, By what power or by what name have you done this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, That's awesome to me, because you remember Jesus had said that you're going to be taken. Before councils, and he says, I don't want you to even give thought to what you're going to say. He says, Because when the time comes, I'm going to tell you what to say. By the Holy Spirit, you'll have an answer, and they won't be able to stand against you. And so here we see the fulfillment of that promise. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, Rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well. I love how he predicates that. He is basing their judgment on him upon their acknowledgement of the miracle that has occurred. He's saying that if this man was not healed, then you have no basis upon which to have us here in judgment. He is requiring them, by their very judging of him, to acknowledge the fact that a miracle was performed. There's no way out of that. He says, rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man stands here before you, whole. This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone, nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Amen. Peter lays it on the line, doesn't he? He's saying he was the stone that you builders rejected, and it's in him, in Jesus, that this man was healed, and it's by him, by the name of Jesus, and by no other name given among men, that we must be saved. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world echoes in my mind when I hear the words of Peter that day before these people. Again, turn to 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 1. Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Coming to him, that is, to Jesus, as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is also contained in the scripture behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame. Therefore, to you who believe, he is precious. But to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble, being disobedient to the word to which they also were appointed. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And so I ask you this morning: the baptism of John? Was it of heaven or was it of men? You answer.

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Truly, these are some of the most difficult times that many of us have ever seen. The economy is bad, work is sparse, and there's no shortage of strife throughout the world. But as believers in Jesus, we've been given many great and precious promises. For instance, listen to this verse, taken from our current study. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. You see, it doesn't matter how bad things get, God has promised to take care of us. Today's teaching was only part of a full-length message taught by Pastor Ken Davis on a Sunday morning at Calvary Chapel Southwest Metro, Burleson, Texas. To hear this message in its entirety, log on to heathheword.org. That's heedtheword.org. Once you're there, select the listen online page. Or if computers aren't your thing, that's okay, you can always call us. That number to call is 817-447-5675. That's 817-447-5675. Even if you're not ordering a copy of today's study, we'd love to hear from you. Knowing that God is using He, the Word for His glory, and to encourage His saints is one of our greatest joys. So call us today. This study through the Gospel of Luke has been a real eye-opener. Maybe you've been challenged in Samaritans in your walk with Jesus. Well, we want to exhort you not to just hear God's word, but to do it. Begin to walk in obedience to the things you're learning. From all of us here at Heather Word, we want to say thank you for tuning in, and may God richly bless you as you seek his face.