Matthew chapter 11. These verses
here speak of Christ and his testimony. What he said about
John the Baptist. And you know John the Baptist,
one of the most interesting characters in the New Testament. You know
how we first come in contact with John as he's out in the
wilderness. Out in the wilderness preaching
the gospel of the kingdom. calling on sinners to repent,
and baptizing in the name of the Lord. Thus he's called John
the Baptist. And he was a different type person.
He didn't fit the mold of what people back then even saw as
a preacher, a religious or spiritual leader. He didn't wear fine clothing. He didn't eat fine food. He wore
animal skins. And he ate, what is it? Locust and honey and all. And he was just different. He
just didn't fit the mold. But the main thing about him
is that his message was different. His message was so opposed to
the works-oriented, self-righteous, false gospel of the Pharisees
and the Sadducees. But let's go see what leads up
to this. It says in verse one of Matthew
11, and it came to pass, and you know, that phrase, don't
let that just wash over your mind. When it talks about something
coming to pass, this is the providence of God. This is not just some
chance happening. This is God working all things
after the counsel of his own will. So here at this point,
this appointed time, it says, when Jesus had made an end of
commanding his 12 disciples, he departed thence to teach and
to preach in their cities. He sent them out to their cities.
But he didn't just sit back and let them do all of it. He followed
them to their cities, and he taught and he preached. And what
did he preach? Well, he preached the gospel.
He preached the coming and the establishment of the kingdom
of God according to the prophecies of the Old Testament and concerning
himself. You know, when he spoke to the
Pharisees about the Old Testament scriptures, he said, you think
you have eternal life in those scriptures. And then he said,
they are they which testify of me. So he pointed to himself.
But it was only right that he do so, because he is the way,
the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father
but by him. There's no salvation but in Christ. There's no forgiveness of sins,
but based upon his blood, there's no justification before God,
no acceptance with God, but in his righteousness that God has
imputed to us. And he was so consumed with doing
his Father's will, He, you remember when he was 12 years old, we
had that one little episode recorded where his mother and father,
his earthly, his stepfather and his earthly mother, human mother,
went looking for him in the temple, and he was going back and forth
with some of the scholars, and they kind of chided him, and
he looked at him, he said, I must be about my father's business.
And that's what's happening here. He departed to teach and to preach
in their cities and doing his father's will involved preaching
along with his disciples. And you can see that preaching
the gospel is God's appointed means by which he draws and calls
his elect to salvation. Remember he said, Christ said
in John 6, 44, no man can come to me except the father which
has sent me draw him. Well, how does God draw His people?
Well, by the power of the Spirit, He brings them to the truth.
And under that truth, He reveals it to them. He gives them life
from the dead, a new heart, a new mind, a new will, a new way of
thinking. And that's the power of God.
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believeth. So here's Christ doing the will
of the Father, fulfilling His mission. by preaching and teaching. Now verse two says, now when
John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent
two of his disciples and said unto him, art thou he that should
come or do we look for another? Now, that's an interesting passage. Here's John. John's in prison.
And why was he in prison? Because he openly preached against
the adulterous marriage of Herod to his brother's wife. And he
openly said that. That this man, Herod, who was
king, that he was in an adulterous marriage, and John the Baptist
preached that, and he was thrown into prison. But now, also, you
understand now that the main reason that they were opposed
to him is not just that he preached against an adulterous marriage,
he preached the gospel. And that's the message that men
and women by nature hate. But here's John in prison. Now
a lot of commentators try to cover over what I believe is
the truth of this passage. And look at what it says. John,
he was in prison. And here he is, the last of the
Old Testament prophets, who ushered in the actual arrival of the
Messiah on earth. and he was in prison in a dungeon
for doing the right thing. And I believe what we're seeing
here is John had doubts. Now he didn't have doubts in
the way of salvation, but I believe he's a sinner saved by grace
just like we are. and because of his circumstances,
not understanding how the kingdom of heaven was going to be established,
the kingdom of God, just like the disciples. You know the disciples
had a hard time with understanding the establishment of the kingdom
as it applied to earth. Back over in Acts chapter one,
they asked the Lord before he ascended into heaven, said, are
you at this time going to establish the kingdom in Jerusalem? And
then he told him, it's not for you to know, but things will
come to light later. They knew the gospel. They knew
how God saves sinners. They knew the grace of God, but
they didn't understand the providential workings of how everything would
work out. Well, John didn't either. And
I'm sure being in the dungeon, he wondered, why am I here, you
know? Just like us, you know, a lot of times we lose our joy,
and we sometimes doubt because of circumstances that we go through
that we don't understand, we're human. We have this treasure
in earthen vessels. Hebrews chapter one speaks of
it, calls it the sin that so easily besets us. I'm gonna be
talking about this in the main message at 11. The three greatest
enemies of God's people, the world, The flesh and the devil. And I'm mainly gonna be talking
about our enemy the devil today in the message. But when it says
the world, the flesh, and the devil, what do you think it means
when it says the flesh is our enemy? I'm my worst enemy. You're your worst enemy. Paul
wrote about it in Romans chapter seven, how he had such a struggle,
he wanted to do good. And Paul meant by that he wanted
to be like Christ. And I believe God has given every
one of his children that desire. I wanna love like Christ loved.
I wanna forgive like Christ forgives. I wanna obey like he obeyed. But I have a powerful principle
I know some don't like that word, I don't know why, but I have
within me a powerful principle, Paul called it a law, a law in
his members, in his body, in his mind, that is opposed to
everything that is right, and it's called the flesh. And that's
why every believer, every sinner saved by grace is in a struggle,
a warfare it's called. A warfare within. Now we're confident
that the battle, even though we're left to fight it by the
power of the Spirit, because it's the warfare of the Spirit,
that's the Holy Spirit who indwells us against ourselves, against
the flesh. We're confident that we won't
be defeated. We're confident that the flesh
will not win out. That's why Paul, when he concluded
in Romans 7, he said, who shall deliver me from this body of
death? And he said, I thank God through
Jesus Christ, my Lord. Christ has conquered him. Christ
has conquered the world. He said, in the world, you'll
have trouble, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world.
He's defeated Satan. But for his own purposes, we're
gonna see this in Revelation chapter nine, and throughout
the book of Revelation, he has allowed Satan to do some work,
even within the church on earth, and even within some believers. You know, you remember when he
told Peter, he said, Peter, Satan has desired to sift you as wheat. But he said, but don't worry,
I've prayed for you. That means he was Peter's intercessor. John said it this way, when we
sin, we have an intercessor, an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous. But my point is this, the sin
that so easily besets us is doubt and unbelief. You go through
some trouble and some problems, weak, our faith grows weak, and
we know the Lord keeps us, And it's a trial from the Lord, and
we come out on the other side thinking more valuable. Christ is more valuable than
he ever was. That's that peaceable fruit of
righteousness. But John the Baptist was a sinner,
and he's in a dungeon. And he's wondering why, what's
going on here? Are you, and he sends his disciples and he says,
ask, are you the Messiah or should we look for another? I believe
he's thinking about the establishment of the kingdom on earth, which
were wrong thoughts as they were taught later on. But anyway,
now some commentators say that John was sending these disciples
just for their benefit. And I'm not gonna totally discount
that, it could be, but I don't believe it is. I believe that
he was really going through some struggles here, just like we
all do. Sinners saved by grace, that's
what we are. Well, look at verse four. He
says, Jesus answered and said unto them, go and show John again
those things which you do hear and see. Now, notice he didn't
say just the things you see, but the things you hear. And
he says in verse five, these are the things they see, the
blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel
preached to them. Well, that's all the work of
the Messiah. And even through his disciples, it's his power
and his goodness and his grace. So he told them, you report back
to John. This is the same John who preached
in the wilderness boldly. And he didn't hold back, you
remember. He didn't hold back at all. When the Pharisees and
the Sadducees came out to see him, he told them, you need to
repent. Your religion is evil. Think about that. That's the
life that men hate. So John was bold. But this message
of the gospel is so unique. And because it goes against the
grain of everything that the natural man thinks and believes. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. And
so John, who had preached so much, pointing to Christ, he
didn't point to himself. He said, I'm not the Messiah.
There's one coming after me. He said, I baptize with water,
I can do that, but I can't baptize you with fire, the power of the
Holy Spirit that brings a sinner to faith in Christ. I'm not the
Messiah, I'm not the Savior. And when Christ came upon the
scene, he said, behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the
sins of the world. God's elect all over this world.
He told him, he said, I'm not even worthy to stoop down and
tie his shoes And then he said, Christ, Jesus Christ must increase,
I must decrease. That was his message. And I love
that passage in John chapter three, where it talks about John
preaching. And the ones who listened to
John, it says, they heard John speak, and they followed Christ. And I think that's a summation
of every true preacher's desire. You're hearing me right now,
but you're following Christ. Because that's what I'm doing,
I'm pointing you to Christ. So think about that. Well, look
at verse six. It says, Christ said, and blessed is he whosoever
shall not be offended in me. Well, you know the gospel is
an offensive message. People are offended when it exposes
their hopes as being false, exposes their deeds as being evil. That's
the offense of the cross, the offense of the gospel, it just
comes with it. And everything the natural man
highly esteems, you remember what is said in the book of Luke,
that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination unto
God. Think about that. What the gospel
tells us is that anything less than the perfection of righteousness,
that can only be found in Christ, anything less than that is sin
in the sight of God. Is sin enough to sink a sinner
to eternal damnation? And people just don't wanna believe
that by nature. They wanna, as I say, make salvation
conditioned on ourselves, and they wanna measure righteousness
on that sliding scale, but God doesn't do that. And he's the
judge of all. And he's going to bring eternal
damnation down upon every sinner to whom he imputes sin. So what's
our hope? That our sins are taken away.
That our sins are not charged to us, but charged to one who
is worthy. and willing and able to put him
away by his death. And that's what Christ did. That's
what John preached. Well, look at what Christ says
here in speaking of John, verse seven. And as they departed,
Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, what went you
out into the wilderness to see? John was a curiosity. And his
name spread around the area. And people were going out in
droves to see John. Well, what did you go out to
see, Christ said? A reed shaking in the wind, just
one of these wishy-washy preachers that doesn't take a stand and
has no real conviction? That's really what the Pharisees
and what most preachers are today, if you think about it, false
preachers. Oh, they don't stand for anything real in doctrine.
They're like reeds shaken in the wind. Is that what you went
to see when you went to see John? Verse eight, he says, but what
went you out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment,
like the Pharisees and the Sadducees? Behold, they that wear soft clothing
are in king's houses. They're favored by those who
are in charge, those who are important to men. These preachers
who compromise, who bend with the wind, who preach that which
gives man room to glory. Verse nine, but what went you
out for to see? A prophet? Yea, John was a prophet. He says, I say in you, and more
than a prophet. John was more than a prophet.
In what sense? We'll look at verse 10. For this
is he of whom it is written, behold, I send my messenger before
thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. That's a
prophecy from the book of Malachi. This is the man that God appointed
and sent to usher in the arrival of the true Messiah on this earth. That's why he's more than a prophet.
He's the one who was sent to prepare the way. Now this is
not giving credit to John as if he was better than everybody
else or better than any of the prophets or deserve more than,
he was a sinner saved by grace, but John had a special commission
that the other prophets didn't have. The other prophets preached
the same message if they were true prophets of God, the gospel
concerning the Messiah. But John was more in the sense
that he was the one that God appointed to prepare the way
of the Lord. Special in that way. But it was
all by God's grace. God didn't look down through
the telescope of time. He said, well, I like that John. I'll choose him to do. No. No. John was no more worthy than
any other sinner. But he was given this special,
office to prepare the way. In verse 11, he says, Verily
I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath
not risen a greater than John the Baptist. Now why? Was John
better than the others? Was he more moral, more righteous? No. And even his preaching would
testify against such thoughts. He said, look, I'm not even worthy
to untie his shoes. He's got to increase, I've got
to decrease. Behold the Lamb of God which
taketh away the, that's John's testimony. So listen to what
he says here. Notwithstanding, he that is least
in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Now that kind of language
is a comparison to emphasize the absolute equality that exists
among God's people saved by his grace. There's no hierarchy in
heaven. There's no big I and little me
or little you. There's no degrees of reward
in heaven that earned by men. John the Baptist is not higher than the rest of us. We're
all saved by grace based upon a righteousness that none of
us had any part in producing. John was not more righteous by
nature than the rest of us. So the least in the kingdom is
greater than he. There are no degrees of greatness. But what he's simply saying here
is this. John was special. He had a special
commission. all by the grace and power of
God, but he's no better than the rest of us. A sinner saved
by grace, and look at verse 12. And from the days of John the
Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,
gotten by force, and he says in the violent, take it by force.
Now there's a couple ways commentators go with this verse, and it's
a little difficult. Some say he's talking about the violence
against the kingdom of God as exemplified in the scribes and
the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And that is true. They were violently
opposed to the kingdom. But what I think he's talking
about here is that when God the Holy Spirit brings a sinner to
see his or her sin, convicts us of sin and righteousness and
judgment. That sinner violently, not in
an evil way, but in a good way, forcefully is brought to lay
hold of the kingdom of God. I cannot do without it. It's
like Jacob wrestling with the angel, which was a pre-incarnate
appearance of Christ. He held on until he was blessed. We must have it. We can't do
without it. Can't ignore it, can't deny it,
can't leave it. And he puts that kind of a mindset
within us. It's not saying we go to war
with God and overcome him or anything like that. It's just
saying he brings us to desperation. How about that? That I cannot
do without, I must have Christ. I must have his righteousness.
I must be washed in his blood. I must have his truth. That's
a violent thing. It's a forceful thing. It's a
determined thing. And I believe that's what he's
talking about. Look at verse 13. For all the prophets and
the law prophesied until John. And if you will receive it, this
is Elias or Elijah, which was for to come. That's a prophecy
from the book of Malachi chapter four and verse five. John, you
know, a lot of people said that John was Elijah come back from
the dead, but he wasn't Elijah come back from the dead, but
he was in the tradition, the school of the prophets represented
by Elijah. He preached the same message
and he is the Elijah that came at the end, not personally, But
it says that that message of the Messiah, which would be ushered
in by the message of the prophets, represented by Elijah, would
be fulfilled and concluded by John, who was the last of the
Old Testament prophets. And so Christ concludes this
portion here by saying, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. You have ears to hear. What is
that? That's spiritual ears. Spiritual eyes. Christ said to
the disciples, blessed are your eyes for they see, blessed are
your ears for they hear. Okay.