Morning, everybody. It's good
to see you again. Why don't you turn to Luke chapter
7. Luke chapter 7. Let me give you a little back story
on what we're about to read. The story picks up with John
the Baptist and he's in prison. And we don't know how long John
had been in prison, but we do know this. We know why he's there.
He had openly rebuked Herod, the leader of the province, because
Herod was going to marry his brother's wife. And John said,
don't do that. You don't have the right to do that. And so
Herod ends up thrown in prison. And just a little while after
this, John's going to be executed in prison for that same offense
against Herod. So that's where John's at. He's
in prison. But one thing we do seem to be
able to know is that he was able to have visitors while he's there,
his disciples. the disciples of John were able
to come and minister to him. And so if you look down at verse
18, see what it says. It says, and the disciples of
John showed him of all these things. Now where did they show
him? If you read Matthew's account
of this in Matthew 11, it says that John heard the works of
Christ. So evidently his disciples came
to him, and this was their topic of conversation, everything the
Lord Jesus Christ had done since he had been in prison. And you
think about though, what did John hear? He heard of the works
of Christ. I don't think there's a better
explanation of gospel preaching anywhere in the world. What is
it to preach the gospel in a nutshell? What has Jesus Christ done? Past tense. That's what we're
gonna talk about here today. Like I said, we don't know how
long he's been there. So we don't know exactly what
he knew and what he'd seen and what he hadn't seen. So we don't
really know what his disciples would have talked to him about.
But let's say, for the sake of argument, this is safe, that they refined
what they told John to just what's found in this chapter prior to
their meeting with John. It's two stories. So what would
they have told him about? Well, first, they would have
told him the story of the Roman centurion. You remember this story. The
Roman senatorian, he ruled over that particular area. And he
had a servant who was sick. And so this man had such a high
view of the Lord Jesus Christ and such a low view of himself.
He didn't feel himself worthy to go to the Lord and ask him
to heal a servant. He sent the elders of the Jews. And the elders
of the Jews went for him. They went to the Lord and they
said, this man, we love this man. He's a decent man. His servant
is sick. Will you go heal him? And the
Lord says, yeah, I'll go heal him. So he's making his way to
the centurion's house to heal his servant. Look down here,
look in verse six, see what happens. Says, then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from
the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him,
Lord, trouble not thyself, for I am not worthy that thou shouldest
enter under my roof. Wherefore, neither thought I
myself worthy to come unto thee, but say in a word, and my servant
shall be healed. For I also am a man set under
authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, go, and he
goeth unto another, come, and he cometh, and to my servant,
do this, and he doeth it. You know what this man knew,
this Roman centurion? He knew exactly who he was addressing
here. He was addressing God himself, and he knew that. He said, Lord,
I'm not worthy to even come out there and speak to you, and I'm
certainly not worthy for you to darken my door, for you to
come inside my house, but you don't have to. You don't have
to be in the same room as my servant. You don't have to be
in the same city as my servant. You don't have to be in the same
universe as my servant. Just say the word. Just will
it. Right now, just will it, and
my servant shall be healed. I know that. I don't know if
you're willing, but I know this. If you will it right now, my servant
shall be healed. Now that's a comforting thought,
isn't it? Wouldn't this be something comforting to tell John? This
man, Jesus Christ, this God man, in whom we place our trust, what
is his level of ability? Anything, from anywhere, at any
time, he just has to will it, and his will is always done.
He has a will, he has a perfect and a holy will, and he has the
power to make his will come to pass every single time. That's
the level of ability of this man in which we trust. Now what's
the next story he would have told them about? He would have
told them about the Lord Jesus Christ raising a man from the
dead. It's a day after the Lord had healed the centurion's servant
and he's walking in this city called Nain and there's a funeral
procession going by. And there's a woman who's a widow, and she's
crying. And right behind her is her son,
and he's dead. He's in a coffin. This is her
only son, so she's completely destitute. No one to provide
for. And the Lord Jesus Christ walks up, and he puts his hand
on the coffin. He says, young man, I say unto thee, arise. And that young man sat up, and
immediately he began talking. Now that would have been a comforting
story to tell John. This man raised the dead. And
I think it's interesting. that right before this encounter
with John and his disciples, these two stories come up. One
story about the Lord Jesus Christ healing a man of his disease,
and the other story of him giving life to a dead man. What is salvation? What's involved? Number one,
my disease has to be cured. What's my disease? It's sin.
What separates me from my God? My sin. That's what separates
me. God is holy and he's just and he can't have anything to
do with a sinful man. When he sees sin on a man, all
he can do is punish him. That's the only thing he can
do. He demands absolute, perfect righteousness. That's the first
thing it has to be. Something has to be done about my disease,
about my sin. What else has to be done? I have
to be given life. I must be given a new man. I
must be born again. There are spiritual demands.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Repent, change your mind. Love
the Lord Jesus Christ, love his people, all these things. A dead
man can do none of those things. I must have life. Now, you would have thought that these
two stories, imagine John's two disciples sitting there telling
him these stories, wouldn't this have encouraged John? Even in
his prison cell, hearing these stories, wouldn't this have been
an encouragement to him? You would think, but look at
verse 19 of your text. And John calling unto him two
of his disciples, sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that
should come? or look-wee for another. Now
that seems incredibly out of character for John, doesn't it?
Remember who this man was. Luke 1 15 says, this is the man
that was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb.
I don't understand that and I can't explain it, but it's so. John
the Baptist was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's
womb. This is the man that the Lord Jesus Christ chose to baptize
him. He said, you're going to baptize
me. He said, Lord, I have need to be baptized of you. He said,
suffer to be so for now. And as he's bringing the Lord
Jesus Christ out of the water, he saw the spirit of God descend
upon him in the form of a dove. He witnessed that. And the heavens
opened. They opened wide. And he heard this voice say,
thou art my beloved son, in thee I am well pleased. John saw that,
and John heard that. Look at the commendations that
the Lord Jesus Christ gave this man. Look at verse 24 of your
text. And when the messengers of John
were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John.
This is what he had to say. What sent ye out into the wilderness
for to see? A reed shaken with the wind? Now, I've heard a lot of people
talk about this, talking about John. He wasn't a man shaken
with the wind, talking about he's some sort of masculine and
macho figure. And maybe he was, I don't know.
But that's not what this is talking about. Think of the illustration
here. You've got a reed, right? It's
a broken reed. It's out there. It's next to a pond, a swamp,
or something. When the wind blows, which way does the reed move?
The way the wind blows. So if the wind blows that way,
the reed moves that way. Wind blows that way, the reed flaps
that direction. Any way the wind blows, that's the way the reed
moved. Not John. John had a message, a singular
message. And the popular opinions of men didn't matter. The wind
blew that way. We don't like this. Doesn't matter. The message
stays the same. We love this. We believe this. Great. You should.
This is the truth. But the message stays the same
no matter what. It's not going to move. What
was John's message? Turn over to Mark. Mark chapter
1. Keep your finger there in Luke
7. Look at Mark 1, look at verse 4. It says, verse 4, John did baptize
in the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance for
or concerning the remission of sins. That's what John preached. What does that mean? The baptism
of repentance for the remission of sins. Change your mind about
why and how God forgives or remits sins. Now, the religion of this
world has always been the same. From the time of Cain, when Cain
wouldn't bring the lamb slain alone, he brought the fruit of
the ground, he brought the best he can do. It's always been salvation
by works. And in salvation by works, man's
religion, the forgiveness of sins comes at the end of salvation.
Here's the prescription. If you do this, this, and this,
and stop doing that in some form, God will reward your efforts
by forgiving your sins. In Salvation by Works, the forgiveness
of sins comes at the end, but John said that's a lie. That's
a lie. There's absolutely nothing God
can accept from you and me. We're sinners. Salvation begins. It begins with God, for Christ's
sake, freely, fully forgiving a man of his sins, because before
the foundation of the world, he chose that man unto salvation,
and before the foundation of the world was ever built, Jesus
Christ agreed to be that man's surety. And for those reasons,
he freely forgives that man of his sins, for Christ's sake,
and everything that happens after that. Everything is just a byproduct
of God freely forgiving that man of his sins. Well, don't
you have to believe? Absolutely. Every one of God's people whom
he chose, who Christ was the surety for in time, they believe.
God makes sure of it. But that's the byproduct of this.
God freely forgiving a man of his sins for Christ's sake. If
you read Hebrews chapter six, the first two verses, it speaks
of six foundational principles of the gospel. You know what
the first one is? Repentance from dead works. Change your
mind about your works. They're dead. They lead to death. If you approach unto God on the
basis of what you've done in any way, a decision you've made,
something you've done, something you've thought, in any way, it's
gonna lead to this. You're gonna go to hell. It leads
to death. They're dead works. They can't produce life. And
you know what the second foundational truth is? Faith toward God. Two sides of the same coin. Repentance
from dead works. Get away from your works. Discard
them. Get as far away from them as you possibly can. And you
look completely and utterly and solely to the person and the
merits of Jesus Christ alone as your hope of salvation. That's
John's message right there. John preached baptism. What's
the illustration of baptism? When we stand above the water,
we say, when Jesus Christ lived, when he came to this world and
he obeyed his father in all things, that's my obedience. That's my
righteousness. When we go under the water, when
Jesus Christ died, bearing my sins in his body, he bore me
in his body, that's when I was punished. That's when the law
had at me, right there, when the justice of God had at me,
when Jesus Christ hung on the cross and he died. And when he
was raised again because of justification, because he did what he was sent
to do, he fully put away all the sins of everyone he died
for, that's when I was raised completely and utterly justified
in him. Union with Christ is John's message. Now go back to your text, look
at verse 25. John had absolutely no worldly
appeal whatsoever. Luke 7, 25. This is still the
Lord speaking concerning John. He said, but what went ye out
for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which
are gorgeously appareled and lived out delicately are in king's
courts. What he's saying here is John
had absolutely no worldly appeal. John was not a man who was impressive
to look at. He didn't dress nice. He wasn't trying to impress men.
For this reason, he wasn't preaching himself. There was absolutely
nothing appealing about John. If anything, they would have
found him off-putting and peculiar. This man wore camel's hair and
an old leather girdle. This man ate locusts and wild
honey. The world saw nothing in him,
but that didn't matter because he wasn't preaching himself.
He was preaching Christ. He was the forerunner of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He knew that was his purpose.
What does the forerunner do? When the king is coming into
a place, the forerunner would go before him with a horn. He'd
blast the horn. He'd say, everybody stop. Everybody
stop dead in your tracks. The king is coming. Get on your
knees. That's John. That's his purpose.
This is what John said about his preaching, Luke 3, 16. He
says, I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than
I cometh, the lachet of whose shoe I am not worthy to unlatch,
he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. That's John. I'm not talking
about myself. I'm talking about this one who's coming. Somebody's
coming. That's the message of the Old Testament. He's here.
He's here. Jesus Christ, that's God. Look
at verse 26. John was the only man who was
prophesied of in the Old Testament, save the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Lord says, but what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I
say unto you, and much more than a prophet, this is he of whom
it is written, behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
which shall prepare thy way before thee. This is the prophecy referring
to Malachi chapter 3 verse 1. This is a prophecy concerning
John. Other than the Lord Jesus Christ, John was the only man
that has ever been prophesied of in the Old Testament. But
I want to look at that real quick. So turn over to Malachi chapter
3. That's the last book of the Old Testament. So you find Matthew,
go one book back. Malachi chapter 3. Look at verse one, this is the
prophecy concerning John. Malachi 3.1, behold, I will send
my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord
whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple. Listen to this,
even the messenger of the covenant. Whom ye delight in, behold, he
shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. Now, didn't you find that
interesting? He said, even the messenger of
the covenant. But who's he talking about? Because
two people are being talked about here. We're talking about John,
and we're talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. They're both referenced
in the scripture. So who's the messenger of the covenant? Is
it John or is it Christ? It's both. Now, John was a messenger
of the covenant. He was a messenger of the covenant
of grace. This is the covenant of grace. Before the world ever
began, God the Father looked at Christ. He said, I have a
people. I have chosen a people. I've made a decision. I've chosen
the people unto salvation. It's the people that are found
in you. And here's what's going to happen. You're going to go
and you're going to be surety. You're going to live for them. You're
going to establish the righteousness. You're going to die for them. You're
going to take away their sin. And I'm going to hold you 100% responsible
for their return. Nothing's going to be put on
them. It all rests on your shoulders. And as soon as the Lord Jesus
Christ agreed to these terms, that contract was fulfilled.
And David calls this the everlasting covenant, an eternal covenant
that has always been, because he has always been willing. Because
this man, Jesus Christ, cannot lie, he can't promise to do something
and not do it, and he cannot fail. He is incapable of it.
As soon as he said, I will, the contract was fulfilled. He's
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The elect have
always been completely and utterly secure in Christ because of this
covenant. Now John preached that covenant.
John was a messenger of that covenant, but make no mistake,
Christ is, is that covenant. I wanna read you something. This is Isaiah 42.6. The premise
of this scripture is this. This is God the Father speaking
to the Son, and it speaks of the tender care that the Father
has for the Son. But listen to this, listen to
this wording. It says, I the Lord have called thee in righteousness,
the Father speaking to the Son. and will hold thine hand. The
entire time you're in this world, I'm gonna hold your hand. I'm
gonna lead you the entire way with tender care. But listen
to this, and give thee for a covenant of the people. He says right
there, he says, you are the covenant. Jesus Christ is God's covenant.
What does that mean? What in the world does that mean?
I can think of a couple things. You could probably talk about
that for a couple days. But I can think of two things right here.
Every entity involved in this covenant is found in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, y'all are familiar with Colossians 2.9,
right? For in him, speaking of Christ, dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
reside, they dwell in this man, Jesus Christ. When you get to
heaven, the only person of the Godhead you will ever meet, you
will ever see, is this man, Jesus Christ, because they all dwell
in him, but somebody else dwells there. For in him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him. Yes, the fullness of the Godhead
dwells in this man, Jesus Christ. You know who else dwells there?
You. All God's people, the elect of God, dwell in this man, Jesus
Christ. He's the covenant. All the players,
all the entities involved in this covenant, they are in Jesus
Christ. He is also the mediator of that
covenant. Hebrews 8.6 says this, he says,
but now he hath obtained a more excellent ministry by how much
also he is the mediator of a better covenant, the doer of that covenant,
which was established upon better promises. Talking about two covenants
here, it says the old and the new. What's the old covenant?
That was the covenant that was made with Adam in the garden.
This was the covenant God made with Adam. He said, you can eat
all this fruit. There's one fruit you can't eat
of, it's this one. Right here, in the day you eat
thereof, you shall surely die. One upright and innocent man,
he did not have the same sinful nature you and I have, one upright
and innocent man with one command, and it was complete failure.
Complete failure, why? Because it rested on the shoulders
of a man. It was dependent on a man holding
up his end of the bargain. Any covenant that rests on a
man holding up his end of the bargain is doomed to failure,
just like with Adam. but Christ is the mediator of
the new covenant. You know what a mediator is?
It is a peacemaking party, and that new covenant, it's older
than the old. It's the one we just talked about. It's always
been the everlasting covenant, and in this covenant, this peace
that we have with God the Father, it doesn't rest on us doing anything.
It rests solely and completely on the shoulders, on the person
and the work of Jesus Christ alone, and because, once again,
he cannot lie and he cannot fail, that peace is eternal. It's never
going anywhere. We always have that peace with
God because that new covenant, it is completely and utterly
based on the person of Jesus Christ. Look at verse 28 of your text.
This is Christ's final commendation of John. It says, for I say unto
you, among those that are born of women, there is not a greater
prophet than John the Baptist, but he that is least in the kingdom
of God. is greater than he. Who's the
least in the kingdom of God? It seems strange to say this,
but it's Christ. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
make no mistake, he's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. But
for our sakes, he became the least. God Almighty, the all-sovereign,
omnipotent, omniscient God, he confined himself to the form
of a man. He was born into this world. Then he would made the
sins of his people. and then he died. The greatest
in the kingdom of heaven, he became least. But look at the
commendation the Lord gives this man. He says, he is second only
to me. This is the man I'm talking,
we're talking about here. This is John the Baptist. Now once again,
look at verse 19 and listen to this question. And John calling
unto him two of his disciples, keep that in mind, sent them
to Jesus saying, art thou he that should come? Or look we,
for another. Why would he ask this question?
I've heard a lot of men comment on this. Somebody said once that
perhaps he did this for the benefit of his disciples. That could
be. Maybe John said, listen, I know
I'm gonna die soon, but I'm gonna have my disciples, I'm gonna
send them with this question to the Lord Jesus Christ, that
they might see the Lord Jesus Christ teach them directly. Perhaps
that was it. Perhaps it was it, maybe John
knew he had some understanding that he was gonna die shortly
after this, and he wanted the Lord Jesus Christ just to preach
to him one more time. Just show me one more time before I die
that you are he who is to come, and that may be. But what does
that sound like? Just reading it, that question,
what does it sound like? It sounds like a man who's filled with
unbelief. And you know why it sounds that way? Because that's
the way it is. John was a sinner, just like you and me, no different.
There's several scriptures that compare John to Elijah, right? This is what Luke says, Luke
117, he says of John, and he shall go before him in the spirit
and the power of Elijah. You know what James said about
Elijah? He said this, he said, Elijah was a man subject to like
passions, such as we are. John, Elijah, humanly speaking,
these were great men. They were mightily used of God.
At times, they were recipients of great faith. But you know
what they were? They were men of like passions. Those things
you experience, jealousy, covetousness, lusts, unbelief, they experienced
all those things too. They were just men. That's it. Now, here's the question. Why
does the believer suffer? with unbelief. Why do that? Because
it seems paradoxical, right? What are we called? We're called
believers. Why do we suffer with this thing of unbelief? Did you
notice that the scripture tells us how many disciples John sent
to the Lord? Did you catch how many there
were? There were two. He sent two disciples. John is
dealing with two men right now, both literally and spiritually. Inside John right now, there
is a struggle, there is a war between two men. He's still got
the old man. Who's that old man? He's dead
in trespasses and sins. It's that old man that never
submits to the will of God. It is that old man that never
believes. He's still there. But John has
a new man. He has a new man inside of him,
a holy man. He has the very spirit of God dwelling inside of him.
And this man can't do anything but believe. He can't do anything
but submit to the will of God. He can't do anything but love
in God. And inside him, there is a war going on between these
two men. And you see both these men come out in this statement,
this question. Here's the question again. It
says, art thou he that should come, or look we for another? Now you see the old man real
clear there, right? Full of doubts. Full of unbelief.
After everything he had seen, he still doubted because he was
a sinner like you and me. But where's the new man in all
that? It's right here. He knew exactly where to take
his unbelief. He took it to Christ. Now, he could have sat in his
jail cell and said, well, this has all been for nothing. Let's try to
strike a deal with Herod, maybe save my own skin. No, there's
a new man there that always believes, and he knew exactly where to
take his unbelief. He took it to the Lord. This
is 1 Peter 5, 6 and 7, it says, Humble yourselves, therefore,
unto the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due
time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. And you can apply that to everything.
Temporal struggles and sufferings, sickness, financial problems,
family problems. Use the resources that are available
in this world, absolutely. You know what you do? You take
it to God. You take it to the Lord. Casting all your cares
upon him, for he careth for you. What do you do with your unbelief?
You do the same thing John did with it. You take it to the Lord.
And you know that only makes sense. Who is the giver of faith? Who has the boundless stores
of faith and he freely gives it? Who's got it? He does. So
if you lack faith, where do you go? You go to him. If any man
lack wisdom, come to him. He gives to every man liberally
that asks him. Need faith? Go to him. What about sin? If
you're a believer, you struggle with sin, take it to the Lord.
Confess it before him, bring it before him. What about all
those things we're plagued with? Cold-heartedness, apathy, all
these things. What do we do? You take it to
the Lord. Casting all your cares upon him, for he careth for you.
And you know what? He cared for John. He loved John. John was one of his people. And
because he cared for John, he loved John. He was gonna show
John again, again, that he truly was the Messiah. the one that
was foretold to come. Let's see how that goes. Look
at verse 20. When the men were come unto him,
they said, John Baptist has sent us unto thee, saying, art thou
he that should come? Or look we for another. And in
that same hour, in the span of one hour, he cured many of their
infirmities and plagues. and of evil spirits, and unto
many that were blind, he gave sight." Now I find that almost
comical. The Lord doesn't answer them
with anything. He doesn't say anything. He just starts doing.
That's what he does. He's a doer. And I think it's
interesting that it says it happened in an hour. I don't know how
productive you guys are, but I can't get much done in an hour.
Look at everything he did in an hour. He healed many that
were sick. He cast out many demons. He gave
sight to many that were blind. He just started doing in front
of these men. It would have been amazing to watch this. And it
would have been an amazing display of the Lord's power and His might
and also His graciousness to watch Him cast out a demon or
to heal a man of his disease. Imagine a leper come in and all
of a sudden He just heals him. That would have been amazing
to watch. But you know what? He gave His disciples that exact
same ability. Read this to you, this is Matthew
10, 1. It says, and when he had called unto him his 12 disciples,
he gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out and
to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. He
delegated this responsibility. He gave his disciples this ability
to do this exact same thing. But this thing of giving sight
to a blind man, he reserved that for himself. He was the only
one who ever gave sight to a blind man. Now, in John chapter 9,
It's a story of this blind young man. It's a beggar. And the Lord
comes to him where he's at, on the street corner, and he gives
him sight. And everybody in the town knows this man has been
blind from his birth. He was born that way. And so
when he's up and he can see, everybody's talking about it,
right? So the Pharisees hear about this. They hear that Jesus of
Nazareth had given this man sight, and they hate Christ. They hate
him, right? And they keep on calling him
a sinner. And so they go and they interrogate this man that was giving him
his sight. And they say, this man's a sinner, and they want
him to agree, and this man won't agree. So they go to his parents,
and they start interrogating them, and they don't get the
answer they wanted out of them. So they go back to the man, right? And they interrogate
him again. And finally, they wear him down.
He gets a little lippy with them. And he says this. This is John
9, 32. It says, since the world began, was it not heard that
any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind? What he's
saying is, you guys are real smart, right? You're the Pharisees,
you know the scriptures back and forth, you're always quoting
them, you know the history, you know the law, you tell me, give
me an example of where a man came to another man who was born
blind and gave him sight. Don't worry, I'll wait. And they
couldn't do it. You wanna know why? Because nobody
had ever done it, because only the Christ could give sight to
a blind man. Now, here's my point, telling
you all this. Salvation is knowing Christ,
actually knowing Him, seeing Him, knowing Him, loving Him,
believing upon Him. And for that to happen, you know
what has to happen? You have to be given sight. Just as the
Lord came to that man in John 9, He came to where he was at,
in poverty, blind, couldn't do anything for himself, couldn't
see in absolute darkness. He came to him and He gave him
sight. That's what He has to do to a man. He has to come to
him in all his poverty and his blindness and sovereignly give
that man sight that he might see him. And that's the only
way a man will ever see. And if he doesn't, that man will
die in his sins. But if he does give that man sight, he sees. He sees the beauty of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He sees him as he is, as God.
That's who he is. He sees him in all his wonderful
attributes, in all his sovereignty, in all his almighty power, in
all his long-suffering, in all his forbearance, in all his greatness
in loving to give mercy. in all his meekness. You think
about that. This is the God of glory and
he describes himself of being meek and loving in spirit. All
these wonderful attributes, you see him and you love him. You
love him that way. You wouldn't change him if you could. You see the
greatness or the sufficiency of his work. He sees Christ and
he sees that Christ crucified, him and him crucified alone,
is everything in his salvation. And He's satisfied with that.
He doesn't want anything else. And He's satisfied with that
because He knows that's what satisfied the Father. Is the
Father good? Is He satisfied? Then I'm satisfied.
Christ and Him crucified alone. That's all I want. I don't want
anything else. Don't add anything to it. Don't take anything away
from it. I see that. That's what I want. He sees the
greatness of God's grace. He didn't care before, because
he didn't need it. But now, the thought of God coming to a man
where he's at and freely giving him everything he needs to live
before the Father, without expecting anything from the man, that's
news to his ears. It's the greatest thing he's
ever heard. All his salvation rests on that. He relies on that.
But understand this, that sight, it also comes with a form of
blindness. It's both sight and blindness in the same way. And
the blindness is this, when you look inside yourself, you see
absolutely nothing that recommends you to God. When you look inside
yourself, you see absolutely nothing, no reason that God would
show you mercy. You have sight and you're made
blind. Now, here's a question for you.
How does that sit with you? Look at verse 23. This is our
Lord's parting words to the disciples. says, and blessed is he whosoever
shall not be offended in me. Now, salvation is knowing Christ.
The only way you'll ever know him is if he opens your eyes
and he gives you sight. There's only one or two reactions
you can have to that. You can be offended. And a natural man
is offended by that. The other reaction is this. Lord,
give me sight. Whoever you are, whatever your
person is, Show yourself to me. Open my eyes that I might see
you. And you know what, if that's
your reaction, you have sight. They may be dim eyes, they may be
eyes that are just partially open, but you know what? You
have sight. It takes God-given sight to be even in that place.
Now I've talked a lot about this man from John chapter nine, this
man who was given his sight. When the Pharisees are done with
him, they kick him out of the synagogue, right? He's now an outcast. And
after that, the Lord Jesus Christ circles back to him and he finds
him. And he says this to him, he says, dost thou believe on
the Son of God? And this is this man's reply.
He said, who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? Now,
the Lord had given him sight before. He had already visited
him, right? But now he's gonna show him exactly who he is, a
better sight, right here. Who is he, Lord, whoever he is?
Show me who he is. I'll believe him. I will. This
is the Lord's response. Thou hast both seen him and it
is he that talketh with thee. It's me. I gave you a little
sight before. Here's the full sight now. Now let's finish up. Look at
verse 22. This is the Lord Jesus Christ's commandment to John's
disciples. Then Jesus answering said unto
them, go your way. and tell John what things you
have seen and heard, listen to these six things, how the blind
see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear,
the dead are raised, and to the poor the gospel is preached. Now, six things are mentioned
in there, and here's some thoughts on that. Number one, this list
of six things, number one, this is the perfect description of
the natural man. Blind, can't see God, can't see
how he saves sinners. Lame, can't make a movement toward
God, cannot believe, lacking the ability. Deaf, can't hear
the gospel, can't hear it as good news, doesn't mean anything
to him. Dead, dead in trespasses and sins. Poor, poor in righteousness,
he doesn't have any. But there's one that stood out.
He said, you go tell John that I cleansed lepers. Now, leprosy,
the Old Testament, you all know this. This is the great type
of sin. If a man was a leper, he had to dwell without the camp.
You weren't accepted by modern society. You had to dwell outside.
If anyone came near you, you had to cover your mouth and you
had to shout unclean, unclean. If you touched a cup, they had
to destroy it. If you used a plate, it got broken because you defiled
everything you touched. That's us by nature. Leprosy. We're lepers. We have this wicked,
sinful, evil nature. So if it comes from us, if we
touch it, it's defiled because we're defiled. That's it. Remember the law of the leper?
When was a leper declared clean? He would come to the priest and
the priest would look him over and if he was completely covered
in leprosy, from the top of his head to the soles of his feet
and everywhere in between, the priest would look at that man
and he would say, you're clean. You're no longer defiled. You're
no longer cast out. You're accepted back in the camp.
You don't have to cover your mouth anymore. You're clean.
You're clean. If he had one square centimeter
of raw flesh, clean flesh, he was defiled. You go back. But
if he was completely covered from head to toe, he was clean. Now, I hope it is my prayer this
morning that we have discussed, that we've preached what the
Lord Jesus Christ has done for his people. He has accomplished
salvation. But it may leave you with a lingering
question, am I one of those? Well, it's very simple. If you
are sitting sick, if you are completely covered from the top
of your head to the sole of your foot and everywhere in between,
there is not a scrap of clean flesh in you, just a center,
nothing more. I tell you this morning, you're
clean. When the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, he bore you
and your sins in his body. It is his righteousness you are
clothed in right now. You stand perfect before the
Father, lacking absolutely nothing. And you know how you see yourself?
Just a leper, just covered in putrefying sores from head to
toe. To get that way, for you to be
cleansed, he had to experience all these things. He had to be
made blind. The scripture is recorded on
the cross for three solid hours. Darkness engulfed the world.
Nobody could see. And that speaks of the darkness
that was in the soul of the Lord Jesus Christ at that point. Want
to know why? Because the Father's wrath was
coming down upon him. He was made in the sins of his
people and being made that sin, the Father's wrath for the sins
of 10,000s times 10,000s and thousands and thousands. That
wrath, that holy wrath came down upon him and he was in complete
and utter darkness. Couldn't see. He had to be made lame.
On the cross he was nailed hand and feet to that cross, but it
was not the nails that kept him there, it was the perfect justice
of God that kept him there. He could not come down until
he had done what he said he would do, which is suffer perfectly.
To suffer in a manner that would satisfy God perfectly on behalf
of everyone he was dying for. He was pinned to that cross,
he was lame, he could not move, he could not come down until
he had finished the work he said he would do. He had to be made
the leper. For us, sin doesn't mean much,
and it's because it's all we know. But this was the spotless
Lamb of God. This is the man who did no sin,
and he knew no sin. And all of a sudden, he has made
the sins of his people. A holy man being made those sins,
and he bore them in his body. He had to be made deaf. He had
no communication from heaven. Didn't you enjoy it in Isaiah
42.6 when he says, the father talks about holding his hand?
He says, I'm gonna hold your hand the entire time you're in
this world. Not on the cross, he let go.
On the cross, that hand that held him the entire time and
led him and got him, it turned against him. This is now the
hand that is beating him. He had to be made poor. On the cross,
the Lord Jesus Christ was stripped completely of his righteousness
for this purpose that it would be given to you and me. It really
would be ours. And finally, he had to die. Before
he did that, he preached what I think is the most brief and
beautiful message that anyone ever preached. It is finished. It's done. That's the point. There's absolutely nothing left
to do. There's no works left for us to perform. God is satisfied
on behalf of everyone Christ suffered for. How could the leper
be cleansed? How could us, the lepers, be
cleansed? He had to experience all these things. In Matthew's
account of this, one of the porting statements the Lord gave to the
disciples was this. He said, you go and show John again those
things which you both hear and see. You show him again. What
is the cure for unbelief? Being told again what Jesus Christ
has done, the works of Christ. I pray that's what we've done
here this morning. I'm going to leave it there.