One of the things that's so particularly
lovely in the Scriptures is we get such wonderful insights into
the lives, the personal lives, the intimate lives, the lives
of the saints of God, in the presence of God. And John the
Baptist was obviously an extraordinary man, written about and promised
in the scriptures themselves and blessed with a miraculous
birth and blessed with that miraculous, wonderful testimony of his father
at at the time of his being presented. And what a life John the Baptist
lived, and like the lives of so many of the saints in the
scriptures, we have a life of 33 years and a bit more, and
we know so little of him. And here, at the end of John's
life, he's in prison, unable to do the things that he was
very evidently called to of God, and he's asking this question.
And he's asking a question in response to evident evidence. And it's a question that seems
to carry with it something that I think so many of you have experienced. And if you haven't experienced
it, you will experience it. And if you have experienced it,
you know that you've experienced it very often. Despite all the
evidence and all of the other circumstantial things around
you pointing to the fact that God is absolutely sovereign,
He's working His perfect will, you still ask questions, don't
you? And people have pondered the answer to John's question
and the reason for John asking the question for many years.
I think in so many of these situations we are left just believing what
God says about it. We just have to put away our
speculations and ask the Lord to be our teacher. I love I love the circumstances
of these things and I love the Lord's compassion. I don't think
we ever ought doubt as much as our flesh will always doubt the
faithfulness of God and our flesh will always doubt the love of
God towards us and our flesh will always doubt the absolute
sovereignty of God in all things and our flesh will always doubt
that God is working all things together for the good. Otherwise
we wouldn't have any anxiety. The sin that so easily entangles
all of us according to Hebrews is what? It's the sin of unbelief. The sin of unbelief. You trace
your anxieties in this world and you'll find that they have
one source and it's unbelief. But here I think we have a beautiful
picture of the Lord's compassion on his tried and tested servants. John is, by the testimony of
the Lord Jesus Christ, a burning and shining light. He is, as
the Lord Jesus said of him, he's more than a prophet. He's the messenger that comes
before the face of the Lord, and he's the one that prepares
the way for the Lord. In verse 28 of our text in Luke
7, the Lord Jesus' testimony of him is a remarkable testimony.
I say to you, among those that are born of women, there is not
a greater prophet than John the Baptist. John the Baptist is
the first and the only of the prophets who can say there he
is, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
All the other prophets said this is what he's like and this is
what he's going to do and this is how you know he's here and John
the Baptist can say there he is, here he is. And he delighted,
as we saw in John chapter 3. His joy is fulfilled in hearing
the bridegroom's voice. And here he is in prison. Here
he is in prison. All he can do is hear the bridegroom's
voice, second hand as it were. And the Lord Jesus Christ goes
a little bit further, doesn't he? He says, But he that is least
in the kingdom of God is greater than him. Well, who's greater
than John the Baptist? who's least in the kingdom of
God. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one who became the least
in the kingdom of God. I trust that we'll see that again. John the Baptist is in prison
for the truth's sake, he's in prison for the testimony of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And here, the one who knows our
frame, and he knows that we are but dust. brings this comfort
to His servant. Our Lord Jesus Christ is there
ready to be compassionate to His people. He was tempted, as
the Scriptures say, in all points as we are, but without sin. There was no sin in Him. There
was nothing for Satan to lay hold on Him. But He, in all the
fullness of His humanity, He was so much a man that people
could not believe that He was God. And he was so God-like that
people couldn't believe that he was a man. The Lord Jesus
Christ is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He's walked
this place. He's walked the spaces and the
places and the circumstances that you have walked. He knows
in every situation of your life, the Lord Jesus Christ knows better
than you do what it's like to be in those circumstances. What
a testimony to come to him. What a declaration to come to
him. It says he's touched with the
feelings of our infirmities and therefore he's able to succor
them that are tempted. That word succor means to run
to the cry of those who are tempted and try. We begin our Christian
lives, don't we, by calling on the name of the Lord. And if
we begin by calling on the name of the Lord, we'll spend the
rest of our days calling on the name of the Lord. We'll be like Peter
saying, Lord, save me. Lord, save me. Save me from myself. Save me from the circumstances
of this world. Save me. He's able. He's able. Don't you love that
phrase, don't you? He is able, he is able to do
all that he's promised. He's able to succor, he's able
to help. "'Lord, help me,' said the woman
who came to him with the demon-possessed order. "'Lord, help me,' Matthew
15. And that disciple said, "'Lord,
help thou mine unbelief.' So here we have John's question.
John's question may be because of his circumstances being so
difficult. He is a testimony to the fact
that all of Adam's children are men at best. The best of men
are men at best. And sometimes, sometimes in our doubts and sometimes in
the darkness, we can forget the things that we've seen so clearly.
What an extraordinary experience John the Baptist had down by
the River Jordan at the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ. Heavens opened and God the Father
spoke and God the Holy Spirit descended. And yet, he's asking these questions. Sometimes in the darkness, let
me say it again, sometimes in the darkness we can forget the
things that have been seen so clearly in the light. Is that
your testimony? It's mine, isn't it? We forget.
Why are we continually called upon in the Scriptures to remember?
Remember, remember. Why do we have the Lord's Supper?
To remember. We need to remember because we forget so often. "'A
ye of little faith,' said the Lord Jesus Christ." Of us, didn't
he? "'A ye of little faith.' But
of your faith? is the faith of God's elect. If it's the faith that comes
from God, if it's faith that the Lord Jesus Christ has revealed
in the scriptures as the object of it, even if it's a mustard
seed. A mustard seed is a tiny little seed that you can hardly
take any notice of. It seems so insignificant. But
what's in the mustard seed? There's life in the mustard seed.
You plant the mustard seed and it grows up into a great tree,
doesn't it? A great bush. And the birds of
the air, that's us, the birds of the air come and nest in it.
The beauty of the mustard seed, the wonder of the mustard seed
is there's life in a mustard seed. The children of God find
a home. They find a place that's safe
and secure in the branches of the mustard tree. And also John
may have wondered, may have wondered about the timing of things. How
many of us spend time wondering about the timing of things? John
the Baptist had preached these remarkable sermons before the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and he says, He says to these
Pharisees, he says to them, you bring fruits, meat, bring fruits
that are right for repentance and think not to say within yourselves,
we have Abraham to our father, for I say unto you that God is
able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham and
now Also the axe is laid under the root of the trees, therefore
every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down
and cast into the fire. I indeed baptise you with water
unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than
I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptise you
with the Holy Ghost and with fire." And John would say, where's
the fire? John might have been caused to ask where the fire,
whose fan is in his hand, he will thoroughly purge his floor
and gather up his wheat into his garner and he will burn up
the chaff with unquenchable fire. John may well have been wondering,
where's the fire? Where's the fan? The fire and
the fan, brothers and sisters, is evident before God every time
the Gospel is preached. It was happening, and it is happening,
are all things happening exactly according to God's plan in this
world. are all of our doubts about the efficacy and the wonder
and the success of the Lord Jesus. Are they completely unwarranted
by anything? And yet John shows us possibly
here that we can ask this question. Some have said that John asked
the question so that his disciples would then go and follow the
Lord Jesus Christ and that may have been the case but there's
not a whole lot of evidence from that from the scriptures and
we find in Acts chapter I think it's a chapter 19 you have people
after the resurrection and after the preaching of the gospel into
the Gentiles still being followers of John but anyway let's just
look at the at the Lord's response the first thing I want us to
see is the Lord is effectively saying to John you're not forgotten
you might be languishing in prison but you're not forgotten And
I love what happens. They came, and the Lord Jesus
came, in verse 21, in that same hour. In that same hour, as these
men came, they came from John, having taken a testimony to John
of these things, and then the Lord just gives the testimony
all over again of who He is and what He does in the saving of
His people. same hour he cured many of their
infirmities and plagues and of evil spirits and many that were
blind he gave sight and then he says in verse 22 you go your
way and you tell John you tell John don't you love it after
the resurrection the Lord Jesus says in Mark chapter 16 you go
and tell the disciples you go and tell the disciples I've risen
from the dead but you make sure you tell Peter you go and tell
Peter Isn't it wonderful that none
of the Lord's children can ever fall out of his love or out of
his sovereign care for them? You go your way and you tell
John, the Lord sends this personal message to John the Baptist.
You're not forgotten, John. Here's a word from me. And above all of the miracles,
At the end of verse 22 you tell John that to the poor the gospel
is preached. The gospel is preached. The gospel is given. The gospel
is declared. The Lord Jesus Christ is just
continuing as he promised, didn't he? In Isaiah chapter 61, we
read it often, don't we? But it was the message the Lord
brought to those people in Nazareth. the people that had known him
for nearly all of his 30 years of his life and had known him
for the miracles that he'd done. And he said to them in the words
of Isaiah 61, The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the
Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He
has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. to proclaim liberty to the captives,
the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our
God, and to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that
mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of
joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting
of the Lord, that he might be glorified. The Lord began his
public ministry, doesn't he, saying, Blessed are the poor.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
God. John finished his testimony in
John chapter 3 saying, He must increase and I must decrease.
That's what's going to happen in this world. He'd delivered
that gospel message hadn't he? He'd said behold the Lamb of
God who takes us up by the sin of the world. The Lamb of God
is now doing exactly that in picture and in type and in words. But I want us to look at these
last words of the Lord Jesus Christ to John the Baptist. He
speaks of a blessed man. Blessed is he, blessed is he,
whosoever shall not be offended in me. If you, like me, wonder about
these things, I wonder, what on earth does that mean? The
word offended is the word from which we get the word scandal.
Blessed is he who is not scandalised by who I am. Blessed is he who
is not made indignant by who I am. Blessed is he, the other
word for it is the stumbling stone, blessed is he who doesn't
stumble over this stumbling stone. Blessed is he who doesn't judge
unfavourably. Blessed is he who is not displeased. And of course the other side
of that, the other side of that of course is cursed. Cursed is
he, whosoever he is, who is offended in me, who does find me a stone
of stumbling and does find me a rock of offence. Lord Jesus is saying to John,
John you're there because of your testimony of me. You're a burning and shining
light. It's like Paul says, for the
hope of Israel I'm bound with this chain. We have many reasons
for much tribulation in this world. and only someone very
unwise would invite tribulation into their lives. But if tribulation, if loneliness,
if troubles, if heart anguish come upon you because of the
testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel of his free and
sovereign grace, blessed are you. Listen to what the Lord
said in the Sermon on the Mount and think about it in terms of
being scandalised by the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew 5.11 Blessed
are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall
say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad,
for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you. Blessed are you, blessed are
you, blessed are you when it's all about the gospel. John, your
suffering will end in glory. Your time away from my voice
and away from my presence is just a short time, John. We'll
be together forever. We think of how the Lord Jesus
dealt, and I'm looking forward to preaching on it in Matthew
chapter 11. He left Mary and Martha with their brother to
die, and he left them for days. And what anguish must have gone
through their hearts at that time. Why wasn't he here? He
could have saved him, he could have saved him. And the Lord
at the very beginning of that story says, why did these things
happen? It happens that the Son of Man
might be glorified thereby. The Son of Man is going to be
glorified by all the activities of this world, good or bad, from
our point of view. John, you're there. I hear you. Herod and Herodias were offended
by you speaking my truth to them. John, you stand to the end. I
love what Paul said at the end of his life. I have fought the
good fight. That's a fight, isn't it? Not
a fight like men fight. We don't fight with carnal weapons.
We have a spiritual war going on. But I love how Paul finishes
life. I have fought the good fight.
I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the righteous judge, Herod will judge you unworthy of life, Herodias
will judge you unworthy of life, but there's a crown of righteousness
which the righteous judge, not Herod, will give you. Shall give
me at that day, and not only to me, not only to me, the crown
of righteousness that Paul gets is the crown of righteousness
that every other child of God gets. But unto all them that
also love his appearing. There is peace for the child
of God in a word from God that comes to his people at a time
of need. What a great blessing, what great
mercy, what great grace, what great love. leads people not
to be offended at Christ, not to be offended at his person,
not to be offended at his doctrine, not to be offended at his will,
not to be offended at his providences. What great peace there is. See
great peace in the Psalm 119, great peace have they which love
thy law and nothing shall offend them, Psalm 119, 165. We'll one day say, my Jesus has
done all things well. He's always done all things well.
He's doing all things well now. Sometimes these things are best
written in poetry, aren't they? Amidst temptations sharp and
long, my soul to this dear refuge flies. Hope is my anchor firm
and strong, while tempests blow and billows rise. The gospel
bears my spirit up. A faithful and unchanging God
lays the foundation of my hope in oaths and promises and blood. Blessed is he Whosoever he is,
I love that word, whosoever. Blessed is he whosoever shall
not be offended in me. People talk of blessing all the
time, don't they? People think that people in this world are
blessed because of the things they have. No. People think that other people
are blessed in this world because of the esteem in which they are
held by other people. What's highly esteemed among
men is abomination to God. The only one who can declare
someone blessed and really know what that means is God himself.
He speaks of a blessed man here. I want to know what a blessed
man, I want to be a blessed man. I want my friends, my beloved,
my beloveds to be blessed people. So all the blessings are for
him to give and all the blessings are in him and he is the blessed
one. Whosoever, whosoever is not offended,
whosoever is not scandalized by the Lord Jesus Christ, same
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just call on the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is a command, isn't
it? It's a command from God. Believe. Believe in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. See, the world, in this religious
world, in the religious world of Jesus' day, were offended
by the character of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were offended
by his doctrine. They were offended by his person.
They were offended by the claims that he made about himself. are
offended by his actions. He's a friend, as we read in
our text. He's a friend of publicans and
sinners. And we Pharisees have kept ourselves pure. We've kept
ourselves separated from those wicked people because association
with those wicked people will detain us. We are so pure in
ourselves. Absolute rubbish. The Pharisee
you have within you is far worse than the Pharisee you see on
the outside. People were offended by his actions. They were offended by what he
did in the temple. He said, this is my temple. They
were offended by his person, weren't they? He's just a carpenter. Can anything good come out of
Nazareth? Those Jews sent that delegation
in John chapter 1. They sent them all the way up
from Jerusalem to inspect John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus
Christ. And they walked away, and they walked all the way back
to Jerusalem. There's nothing in them. There's nothing to look
at there. There's no majesty about them.
Look at that John. Look at the way he's dressed.
Look at the way he preaches. They were offended. They were
offended. They stood in judgment of them. He's just a carpenter. We know
he's mum. We know that he's just a son of Joseph. His brothers
and sisters are here. He's just an ordinary person.
He's no different from the rest of us. How dare he make these
claims about himself? They were offended by his claims
in John chapter 10, they wanted to put him to death as they did
in John chapter 8. He says, they said, we want to
stone you, we want to put you to death because thou, being
a man, makest thyself God. They got that completely wrong,
wasn't he? He was God who made himself a
man. religion gets things upside down all the time. He says before
Abraham was, I am, again and again and again in the scriptures
he says I am. He took upon himself the name
of God at the very beginning of his ministry all the time
in each of the gospels. He declares himself to be God
in the presence of these people who are going to put him to death
after three years. He says I'm God and you've got three years
to examine me and at the end of it you'll have Judas as well
and you won't be able to charge me with one sin. I am. God. And he says to those Pharisees
in John chapter 8, unless you believe that I am, unless you
believe that I am God, you will die in your sins. If you ever
get an opportunity to contemplate what it means to die in your
sins, you'll understand something of the wonder of salvation in
the Lord Jesus Christ, who bore our sins in his own body on the
tree. Who is this that forgives sins? We read it at the end of Luke
chapter 7. Who is this that forgives sins? They didn't have a clue
who was standing in front of them. Who is this that forgives
sins? Only God himself can forgive sins. And he can forgive sins
by speaking a word. The Lord Jesus Christ had nothing in him at all which
was offensive. nothing about his demeanour,
nothing about his actions, nothing in thought, word or deed. And yet people were offended
at him. He spoke to the Pharisees and
the scribes as John the Baptist did, and he repeated his words
to them, didn't he? He says, This people draw nigh
to me with their mouth, and they honour me with their lips, but
their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching
for doctrines the commandments of men. And then the disciples came to
him and said, Don't you know that the Pharisees were offended?
This same word. They were scandalized after they
heard this saying. What was the Lord Jesus Christ's
response to them? Let them alone. You just come
and follow me. Just leave them alone. You don't
have any cause to go and debate and argue. Let's go. They're
blind leaders of the blind. You just come and follow me. I'd like us to just briefly look
at John chapter 6 if you don't mind. The word there is offence
again. These are things that people
are offended at. We have witnessed the offence
of men so many times. To offend people in religion
today all you have to do is quote the words of God. It was the
words of God that offended them before, wasn't it? It's the words
of God. In verse 59 of John chapter 6
the Lord Jesus taught these things in the synagogue in Capernaum.
And verse 60, many therefore of his disciples, when they heard
this, said, This is a hard saying. This is a hard saying. Who can
hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that
his disciples murmured at him, he said unto them, Doth this
offend you? It's the same word. Is this scandalous? Has my teaching been scandalous
to you? I remember doing a Bible study
with the students at Hebron in India years ago on John's Gospel
and one of the things I did was I got a commentary out of the
library. And I was absolutely stunned.
The commentary skipped this whole section of John chapter 6. So
I said to my students, and we had a great time, I said to my
students, do you want to spend a bit of time studying a passage
of scripture that this commentator was afraid to put in his commentary
because it would upset him so much? and upset all of his readers
and he wouldn't quite get as much money. So I printed it out
for them and gave them copies and we spent a few delightful
weeks studying John Chapter 6. They heard, they heard, they
said it was a hard saying and the question of the Lord Jesus
Christ, does this offend you? Does this offend you? Is this
offensive? We don't have time to read all
of his sermon. I trust that you'll go home and
read it. And I pray that you're not like that commentator who
happened to accidentally leave it out of his commentary. The
Lord Jesus Christ is a rock of offense. He's a stone of stumbling. We preach like John the Baptist
did. We preach the Lord Jesus Christ
and him crucified. Is this a scandal? Does this
offend you? Are his words something that
you stumble at? Listen to some of the things,
and I trust you'll go home and read it, and I pray the Lord
will give you light and insight into it. He speaks of man, doesn't
he, in verse 44 of this sermon. This is what was offensive to
these people. He said, No man can come to me except the Father
which has sent me draw him. No man can come. unless the Father
which has sent me draw him. He speaks of the total depravity
of man. He speaks faithfully and truthfully
about what man is and what is in man. And then he speaks of
the absolute sovereignty of God. He speaks of unconditional election,
doesn't he? All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. People ask the question, don't
they? Once saved, always saved. I love Henry Mahon's response
to that. Someone came to him and said,
once saved, always saved. And Henry said, well, it depends
on who did the saving. If you did the saving and you
were involved in the saving, then no. If God did the saving,
listen to what he says. This is what God says about his
salvation. Him that cometh to me. You can't
come. We know that you can't come unless
the Father draws you. If the Father draws you, you'll
come. And if you come, I will in no wise cast out. I won't
cast you out at all. He speaks. of the glory of his
visitation here. He came as a saviour. He came
as a sovereign saviour. He came as a substitute to save
his people from their sins. People are offended by the notion,
the truth. They have their own notion, haven't
they, that God loves everyone and Jesus died for everyone and
he wants everyone to be saved. And the scriptures don't speak
about that. See, there's nothing offensive in the modern gospel
to people. People love to hear that God
loves them. People love to hear that they're
still on the throne and that their destiny is in their hands. People love those things, there's
no offence in it. But listen to what the Lord Jesus
Christ speaks of his Father's will in verse 39. And this is
the Father's will which is sent me, that of all of which he hath
given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again
at the last day. And this is the will of Him that
sent me. If you want to know what the will of God is, here it is,
isn't it? This is the Father's will, that all that He has given
me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the
last day. And this is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone
which seeth the Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life,
and I'll raise Him up at the last day. Is that simple? That's simple, isn't it? I just
love the simplicity of the Lord's words. You see, it's not that
people don't understand because the words are simple, isn't it?
It's that people are offended at the absolute sovereignty of
God. They're offended at God being God because in the garden
we've got that poison of Satan coursing through our veins, hasn't
we? You shall be as God's. You shall be as God's. You will
make the determination. You will make the decision. I love what verse 45 of this
text says. It is written in the prophets
that they shall all be taught of God. God is going to have
to come and bring revelation. It's irresistible grace, isn't
it? God will have all of his bride that he has given to the
Lord Jesus. He'll have them in his hands.
The Lord Jesus Christ can't lose any of them. He is God! That's
what offends people. The deity of the Lord Jesus Christ
offended the Jews. That's why they picked up stones
to stone him. But listen to what he says. It is written in the
Prophets, verse 45 of John 6, It is written in the Prophets,
that they shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard, the seeing ear and the hearing eye, both of these
are from the Lord. Everyone that hears the Gospel
and has learned of the Father, the Father comes and teaches,
doesn't he? Learned of the Father, what do they do? They come to
me. They come to me. And they will be preserved. They
will be preserved through all the trials of this life, whether
those trials lead you into deep darkness and sadness, lead you
to a place where you think the Lord is absent from you. Verily, verily, verse 47, I say
unto you, who that believeth on me hath everlasting life. And then he goes on to explain.
He explains his death and his resurrection. He explains who
he is. And it's an offensive sermon,
isn't it? Are you offended? Are you offended
at this? Are you offended at God being
God? That was the problem with the Jews, wasn't it? They were
offended when he said, this temple is my temple. They were offended
when he quoted the Old Testament Scriptures to him. They were
offended. Most, when he spoke about his deity, the more we
proclaim that Jesus Christ is God, the more the religious world
is offended. They love this nuanced gospel,
don't they? They love this, a little bit
of this and a little bit of that. It's a little bit of God's sovereignty
and it's a little bit of your will. It's a little bit of the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ and it's a little bit of your
adding something to it. They were offended. Does this
offend you? Does this offend you? The answer of course is, in the
children of God, it's not only not offensive and it's not scandalous,
it's the very delight of their lives, isn't it? I love the fact
that God calls me a sinner and I have no ability of myself,
because I know I don't have any. I love the fact that God absolutely
sovereignly draws His people to Himself, because I would never
have come to Him. I love the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ
is a successful Saviour. When He died on Calvary, it's
true, He bore the sins of all these people and He bore them
away. And He must, He must, be successful in keeping them and
preserving them. He must bring them to heaven
because that's where they started. They began this journey, didn't
they? Not in this world, they began
this journey in the very purposes and the eternal covenant of God
before the foundation of the world. And you know the question, don't
you? What are you going to do? And
so that was the disciples question, isn't it? Many of the 66 from
that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more
with him. They found him offensive. These are people that had followed
him and seen the miracles and eaten the bread and eaten the
fish. And they went back and they walked
no more with him. They were scandalized by what
he said. And then he said to the disciples, please remember
he didn't go chasing after them. He doesn't go and say another
word. No doubt some in the providence of the Lord came back again.
Saul of Tarsus is a particular example of the fact that someone
can rail and rage against the glory of God and yet at the time
of love be drawn into bowing at the footstool of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, will you go away as well? You twelve,
are you going away as well? Simon Peter's answer is the answer
of every child of God. Lord, to whom shall we go? Not to a what? To whom shall
we go? I've got nowhere else to go.
I've got no one else to go to is the biggest part of that question,
isn't it? To whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life. We believe and are sure that
thou art that Christ, the Son of the Living God. Are you a
blessed person? Blessed are you, John, Blessed are you because you're
not offended in me. Blessed are those for whom Christ
and his gospel are not an offence. His gospel does offend people. It is a controversial gospel,
isn't it? As we saw from John chapter 6, It attacks the fact of our own,
it attacks everything that we earned in the garden, doesn't
it? It attacks our judgement of the character of God and it
attacks the gospel, undoes our personal righteousness. And God
says that all of your righteousness is nothing but filthy rags. As
Peter said to the Lord when he was revealed to him, Go away
from me Lord, I am a sinful man. You can't save yourself. You
can't do anything to help yourself. You are desperately in need of
something from way beyond you. All of our best works are filthy
rags. We're all together as an unclean
thing. It offends, the gospel offends. The wisdom of man, the Pharisees
and the others thought that by their learning and by their education
and by their knowledge of the Scriptures that they had drawn
themselves closer to God. God is known by revelation, brothers
and sisters. God is only known by revelation. He says in John 6, verse 63,
it's the spirit that quickeneth, the spirit that gives life. The
flesh profits nothing. The educated flesh, the moral
flesh, profits nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. It offends man's wisdom. We don't have any wisdom. Christ
is our wisdom. It's all we have. And it's only
revealed, and it's revealed to babes, and it's hidden from the
wise and the prudent. People think that we have rights.
God is the one that sits on the throne. We think that we are
lords of our own lives and our own destiny, and yet, in the
very presence of God, we have no control over anything. God
has you in his hands, and whatever he does is right. Always right. The Gospel offends our love of
self. What's the command of Scripture?
You deny yourselves and take up your cross and you follow
me delightedly. Offended, and I want us to note,
One special little word that the Lord gave John to contemplate.
Offended in me. Offended in me. The blessed man is equivalent to wisdom's child that we read
about in Luke 7.35. The blessed man The cursed men are those, in
verse 30, that reject the counsel of God against themselves. And
the publicans and the sinners, they justify God, they declare
God to be righteous in the salvation of the earth. Wisdom is justified
of all of her children. Blessed is the man that's not
offended in me. Not offended by his person, not
offended by his doctrine, not offended by what's in him. What is in him? What's in the
Lord Jesus Christ? We know he's the light of the
world. We know he's the word that came from God. I love what
Colossians 2.9 says, In him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead in
a body. He's the fullness of God. He
says to Philip, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. I
am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father
but by me, but by my work, by my activities. All that God is. is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
All that God has for a sinner is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
All that God does for a sinner is in the Lord Jesus Christ and
through the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Lord Jesus Christ.
All that God has for his glory is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
All of his grace is in the Lord Jesus Christ. All of his mercy
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. All of his love is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. All of his light as to who he
is and how he saves sinners like us is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
All of his salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ. The blessed
man has no offence, is not offended. We may not, it doesn't say that
we understand everything that God says. There's so much that
we don't understand. But we're not offended by who
he is. And we're not offended by who
and what he does. In Christ, God can require no
more. And in Christ, God can accept
no more. It's a blessed man. Blessed man. You tell John, you go away, you
tell John what things you've seen and heard. That's what we're
doing, aren't we, again and again in church. We're saying, this
is what we've seen and heard. This is what's happening, this is
what he's done, this is who he is. How that the blind see, and
that's a messianic promise. Only the Lord Jesus Christ ever
cured the blind. The lame walk, the lepers are
cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised. And to the poor
the gospel is preached. The Lord Jesus Christ bore the
sins of all of his people on Calvary's tree, and he bore them
away forever. He was the one that was made
sin. He's the leper. I saw lepers
in India. It's a shocking thing to see
them. They used to be beggars on the way. Every morning we
went to school we walked past lepers who would sit on the side
of the road. Ramesh was one of them I used
to stop and talk to all the time and they'd have their little
blanket out and they'd be missing fingers and some of them would
be missing parts of their nose and things. Leprosy in the scriptures
is a picture of sin, the sin that we are. How is our leprosy cleansed? The Lord Jesus Christ bore our
sins in his own body on the tree. There are pictures of what he
did on the cross of Calvary for his people. you go and tell John
the Gospel. What do you need in times of
darkness? I need to hear about him. I need
to know who he is again, and I need to know what he's done
again. I need to remember him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we pray that you would cause us not to be offended, that you
would, by your Spirit, teach us, Heavenly Father, and point
again our hearts and our souls to the glory of your dear and
precious Son, that we might remember him, that we might not only be
not offended, Heavenly Father, that we might find ourselves
delighting in who our Lord Jesus Christ is and delighting in what
he teaches and delighting in what he says about us, delighting
in the wonder of those promises that were sealed with his precious
blood. Bless your word to our hearts again, our Father, for
we pray in Jesus' name for his glory. Amen.