Luke's Gospel, chapter 11, and verse 29. And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, that's the Lord Jesus, this is an evil generation. They seek a sign, and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them. For she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, a greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonas, and behold, a greater than Jonas is here. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this reading from his word. Hello, Diana. Hi, good to see you. Welcome, welcome. Sorry I'm a little bit late. Right, let us progress. It seems that the people here that were listening to the Lord and watching the Lord, we're told that they gathered thick together. That's an interesting little phrase. But I wonder if perhaps they are thick gathering, perhaps speaking about the depth of the crowd that were meeting there and the press that there was. This gathering was in order to see what miracle might be forthcoming as the Lord had been challenged by the Pharisees to supply a sign from heaven. So perhaps you'll remember, it's a couple of weeks now, but perhaps you'll remember that the scribes and the Pharisees had witnessed Jesus ridding the dumb man of a devil. But they alleged that this was not a true sign from heaven, but a sign from hell. And they accused Jesus of using Satan in order to, as it were, cast out this devil. And the Lord spoke to them and said, can a house that is divided stand? And he exposed the foolishness of their argument. Nevertheless, the question that they asked or that they posed, the challenge that they posed was that the Lord would show them another sign and it's perhaps that which gathered the people together here in such numbers that they might see what that sign might be. What they wanted what the Jews wanted, the Scribes and the Pharisees, they said was, indeed they insisted upon it, that the Lord would provide a sign from heaven. How blind they were. It was as though they said to the Lord, you've shown us what Satan can do, now show us what God can do. And the Lord would soon do just that. But the sign that he would give would be to their utter confusion and their eternal condemnation. and not at all what they desired in their self-righteous ignorance. These men were accusing the Lord Jesus, and it indeed was a blasphemous utterance, especially when we realised that they were addressing directly the Son of God. the Son of God himself in the flesh, the eternal God and the perfect man and they were accusing him of doing the work of Satan. The Lord perhaps turning to the ordinary people, the common people, while referring to the scribes and Pharisees, or else speaking to his disciples and his true followers against all those who were simply interested in being entertained by the drama of this confrontation, accused his antagonists of being an evil generation. These are the words that he uses, an evil generation. And one might wonder if it was a more evil generation than we have today. I suspect that each generation of believers considers their generation to be the most evil one ever. And likely, if I were to invite contributions, we each have examples that we can bring forward to support our case that never has there been a more evil generation than this one in which we presently live. But it has never been the case that evil has been absent in this world. And I'm not here to tell you one age is worse than another. How could we even begin to measure that? Yet let us note that this time in which the Lord lived was a particularly dark time in the world. There was no gospel, no gospel preaching beyond the borders of Galilee and Judea. That was a very, very small part of the world. So there was no gospel preaching beyond those borders at that time. The apostolic age had not begun. That meant that the whole world largely lay in sin. and darkness enveloped men's hearts. Their understanding was without any gospel witness. Satan ruled, we may say unchallenged, in the lives and actions of men and women. And Matthew adds to this description in a parallel passage. Matthew adds to this description of an evil generation by calling it an evil and adulterous generation. A time when men did what was right in their own eyes. And sure it is that the Jews and all the world at this time was spiritually and practically evil and adulterous. Whatever we may say about today, we have this great difference. The gospel is preached all over the world as a light to lighten the Gentiles. And while our generation is no doubt wicked, perhaps even as evil as the Lord's own generation, we have a light to bear, we have a gospel to share, and we have a way of salvation to declare. Satan may be vicious in defeat, but as the strong man disarmed, by him who is stronger. His goods and his house have already been pillaged, and his days are numbered. That evil generation of the Lord's day sought a sign from heaven, but the Lord tells them there will be none given simply to satisfy their curiosity. And that is not to say that there were no more miracles. There were many more miracles, but if they had no eyes to see what Christ had already done, they would have none to see any others. The one sign that they would be confronted with would not be one from heaven as they desired, but rather one out of the earth. The resurrection of Christ was that one miracle. It would not be for their blessing, it would be for their condemnation. And this generation would witness the death, the burial, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it would confirm them in their lost and hopeless state. The sign of Jonas, or Jonah, spoken of by the Lord is in respect of Jonah's three days and three nights in the whale's belly. And here the Lord Jesus gives an explicit prophecy of his own resurrection. He says, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And the Jews knew this. The Jews knew that the Lord had prophesied this. That's why they put the guard at his tomb and told Pilate it's because he said he would rise again and we wouldn't want any of his disciples coming and taking his body away and making false claims. They put a guard at his tomb. because the Lord had explicitly told them that the Son of Man would rise again after three days. So indeed he did. The Son of Man is the Lord Jesus. He's speaking of himself here. And following his crucifixion, his death for his people, the Saviour was buried and remained buried in his tomb in the heart of the earth. He was there from Friday evening until Sunday morning, in our terms. Some have questioned how this can be termed three days and three nights. but it was the practice of the Jews to call each part of the day a whole day of 24 hours. Thus, although the Lord was only in the tomb from late on Friday, all day Saturday, and part of Sunday, each part, though only a part, is given the title a night and a day and thus the Lord, suitable to this type of Jonah, was in the tomb three days and three nights according to the way of Jewish speaking and would have been understood so by them. Jonah was a sign. Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites as well as being assigned to this generation to whom the Lord spoke. Jonah was assigned to the Ninevites insofar as his deliverance from the whale's belly was God's sign to Jonah of his recommission to go and preach God's message to that ancient city. And these Ninevites, these men and women repented and believed Jonah's message. which is what this evil generation of Christ's day would not do. Therefore, the sign of Christ's resurrection would be a greater condemnation upon them when compared to the response of the Ninevites to Jonah. And again, these witnesses mount up successively against every generation. The testimony of Christ and his apostles as to the resurrection of the Saviour will stand against every generation, here and hereafter. We do not worship a dead Christ, but a living Christ. We draw our comfort from the knowledge of our sins being pardoned because Christ paid the price and rose again. We face our own death and the consequences of our mortality with hope and confidence because Christ died and rose again. And we believe that we shall too. We shall live because Christ lives. Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you. So this is not a matter of conjecture. It's not a matter of speculation. We look at the history of this matter and say Christ rose from the dead. We've seen it in our studies in recent weeks, Christ's I Am sayings. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, I am the resurrection and the life. He says, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in Jesus Christ shall never die. Paul tells the Ephesians, we already have that new life in Christ and our enjoyment of eternal life is certain, assured and promised. God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace ye are saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. The men and women of Christ's generation who rejected this message shall stand condemned as will our own The men of Nineveh will accuse them in the judgment of their willful blindness and rebellion. And so too will the Queen of the South, the Queen of Sheba. She's mentioned because she travelled far to see and to hear the accomplishments and the wisdom of Solomon. and here now was a greater than Solomon. And yet Christ was being ignored and ridiculed and blasphemed against by his enemies. So that she together with Jonah shall rise up to condemn those who had much greater privileges and much greater accessibility to the Lord Jesus than those who by faith in the types and shadows of the Old Testament, understood and believed, while these evil generations, they despised and rejected the blessings that they were given. And that simply reminds us and reconfirms how opposed and contrary men and women are to the ministry of Jesus Christ and the overtures of grace. like those at Christ's arraignment. They cry out implicitly, if not explicitly, away with him, away with him, crucify him. We will not have this man to reign over us. And we're reminded by these examples that the Lord quotes, that there will be a judgment. This is another reality that the people of our age, the people of our generation just mock and poo-poo. There will be a judgment. A day shall come when all men and women of all ages and every generation, and what a vast, vast gathering that will be, shall be raised to stand before Christ the righteous Judge. What a day it will be! What a gathering! What blessings await the redeemed! And what an eternal calamity awaits those who reject the Gospel and imagine that they have no need of the Saviour. How they shall wish that they had given ear in that day when the cry goes forth, depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Let us all give thanks that our eternal security is founded upon the completed work of our successful Saviour and his resurrection from the dead. Let us give thanks for the blood that cleanses from all sin and the righteousness that fits us for the Father's presence. And let us pray with urgency for the lost. God, grant our families mercy. Give them a burden for their sin and a longing for salvation. Give them a glimpse of the Saviour as we have had a glimpse of his grace and his mercy and may they have faith to trust in him for themselves. The Lord, drawing on these examples of the Queen of Sheba and Jonah, Solomon and the inhabitants of Nineveh, reminds us that all of Scripture looked to Christ, the Messiah. And it's no different today. They looked forward to the coming of Christ. We look back to all that he has accomplished. And let us all endeavour to lift up the Lord Jesus and honour him in our lives. And may he graciously employ us in the great harvest of gathering in his church and his people, ere that Judgment Day arrives. Amen.