Divine Knowledge
A Sermon on Luke 4:18-19
Originally preached Feb. 5, 1956
Scripture
18The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, …
Sermon Description
The glorious truth of the message of Christ is that people can know God and come into a relationship with Him. God has not created humanity and left them to themselves, but has revealed Himself. This revelation does not come through human reason, for Paul tells that the message of the gospel came to those that were not considered wise by the world. God has revealed Himself through Christ in grace. In this sermon on Luke 4:18–19 titled “Divine Knowledge,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones preaches on this truth that God can be known not because of human wisdom, but because God is gracious. It is because God so loved this sinful and evil world that He has sent His Son so that all who repent of their sins and believe in Jesus might be saved. This is not merely theoretical knowledge, but it is a knowledge of God and what He has done. How is one to respond to this revelation? The answer of this sermon from Scripture is that they must believe God. They must believe that Jesus Christ is God’s son who has come to die and take away the sin of the world.
Sermon Breakdown
- The passage from Luke 4:18-19 is a perfect summary of the Christian gospel.
- Jesus read these verses in the synagogue at Nazareth, claiming they were fulfilled in him.
- These verses show why Jesus came to earth and the purpose of his ministry.
- The verses depict sin through a series of pictures: poverty, brokenheartedness, captivity, and blindness.
- Sin makes us spiritually poor, leaving us bankrupt before God.
- Sin breaks our hearts, causing misery, trouble, and despair.
- Sin leads to captivity, making us slaves to fears, habits, and sinful desires.
- Sin results in spiritual blindness, ignorance of essential spiritual truths.
- Spiritual blindness is a major biblical theme, depicted throughout the Old and New Testaments.
- Spiritual blindness is humanity's greatest tragedy, the root cause of our troubles.
- The world thinks religion is for the ignorant, but Jesus said he came to give sight to the blind.
- There are two types of knowledge: human knowledge and divine knowledge from God.
- Human knowledge is intellectual, acquired through effort, and depends on human ability.
- Divine knowledge is revealed by God, open to all, and not dependent on human ability.
- Human knowledge pertains to material things, but is ignorant of spiritual essentials like purpose, meaning, and eternity.
- Jesus came to give us knowledge of these spiritual essentials, enlightening our souls.
- Jesus' life, teaching, death and resurrection reveal knowledge of God, sin, life, and eternity.
- For us to receive this knowledge, Jesus must open our blind eyes through the Holy Spirit.
- We must confess our blindness, stop trusting in human knowledge, and ask Jesus for spiritual sight.
Sermons on Knowledge
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.