Now in Matthew chapter 11 this morning, we'll look at a new passage in Matthew 11. Verse 7, And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist, notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater. than he now our lord describes john the baptist this is more than just the description of a man it's a revelation of what man expects what did you expect to see what went you have to see what did you expect and how that god and his ways are not what we expect

Notice the key words in verse 10. Behold, I will send my messenger. My messenger. The ones who wear soft clothing, they wear fancy silk and robes and things like that. He said, that's not how my messenger comes. And they're not pansies. They're not pushovers. change with the wind, they don't compromise. You come out to see a reed shaking with the wind, that's religion. They don't want to offend anybody, they're just as weak as they can possibly be.

You might expect, God being who he is, that his messengers would not be what has come to be expected of the so-called preachers of our generation. This is not just arbitrary language in verses 7 and 8, the way he describes the way religion comes. The Pharisees and the Sadducees, the religious leaders of that day, when John the Baptist walked the earth, when God raised up John the Baptist, They're just like religious leaders of this day. It's the same group of people, those that deny the Christ of the Bible. That's just probably the best way to describe them. You could say all kinds of things about them, but they hate the Christ of scripture. They hate a sovereign savior. They hate a successful redeemer. They want one that fails, but they get to choose. Most people won't choose him, but at least we have the power of choice. Let's utterly destroy the character of God, but protect our own character, our own precious so-called imaginary free will.

A reed shaken with the wind. Religious man hasn't changed. They're spineless, compromising, and if I may use my common vernacular, girly men, that's what they are, girly men. They wear dresses. Women wear silk, not men. Women wear silky looking skirts, not men. They blaspheme the character of God. They pervert the word of God. They compromise the gospel of God to avoid offending anyone.

A reed shaken with the wind. John, on the other hand, the reason he was in prison at that time was for his bold and uncompromising declaration of the gospel. And not long after that, they would kill him for it. The Lord Jesus said, they'll hate you for my sake, because we preach the Christ that doesn't wait on sinners to do something. We preach the Christ that it's up to, and not that it's up to sinners. And God's preachers today are just like John in that respect. He was the greatest man born of a woman and we're not, but in that respect, God's preachers are bold. It doesn't matter who we offend as long as it's the gospel that's offensive and not us. I know quite a few of God's preachers, and I could give you example after example of when they've been confronted by people and they didn't get what they expected. That's what our Lord is saying. My messengers are not what you expect. They're not what you're used to.

That's why I almost cringe to tell people just in social contact with people that I'm a preacher, because immediately they associate me with the preachers of this world. Not the same, not what you expect. Not a reed shaken with the wind. Not fancy, I don't even know what other words to use.

Did you expect a man clothed in soft raiment? Did you expect someone again, like the Pharisees, who lived off of the labor of others and pampered their flesh and did absolutely nothing for anybody? The icon of that is the Pope himself, who wears a dress and walks around doing this. This is what he does for people. That's his contribution to society, just riding around in some kind of carriage or something, convertible, waving at people. And people swoon and say, oh, you know, I'm blessed with God because I got to see the Pope wave at me, wearing silk and satin like a woman.

And it's not different With any preacher who is not what Christ called my messenger, not any different. They wear fancy clothes, you know, you'll recognize them because they love to wear, you know, they love to look like a preacher. And they do absolutely nothing for anybody. You listen to their sermons. I've listened to sermons at least as much as I could stand. by quite a few of the names that you would recognize on television. And a man doesn't even need to open this book to preach those messages. It's just banalities and rhetoric and sob stories. You don't even have to open any book, much less the Bible. They're the most useless and positively destructive fools that walk this earth. And I don't want to be associated with them in any way. And John didn't either.

He went out in the desert and preached. If somebody wanted to hear the gospel, they'd go out there and hear it. By the way, I saw a quote by Charles Spurgeon. Some of you won't know who that is, but he was a preacher back in the 1800s and a gospel preacher. Very bold gospel preacher. He faced great opposition from the Church of England in his day, but he said, if people won't come to hear the gospel, don't attract them with anything else. What does religion do? Let's build a family life center. Let's build a gymnasium and people will come to play basketball and we'll preach the gospel. No, no, no. That's the religion of this day.

If you wanted to hear John preach, you went out to the desert. If you wanted to hear the greatest man that ever lived preach, nah, he wasn't gonna come and make it convenient for you and preach two messages, one for those who like to get up early and those who like to sleep in. No, no, not John.

The Lord spoke of the false prophets in Ezekiel 32 too. They're shepherds who feed themselves and not the flock. The sheep would starve to death. Listening to the foolishness perpetrated by the Catholic Church, the Methodist Church, you just go down the line. It's a misnomer. A Catholic Church is a contradiction in terms.

But the Lord said, if you went out and see a prophet of God, then you got what you came for. And then some, for this is the one spoken of Malachi in 3.1 of Malachi, behold, I send my messenger before thy face. This is what God does every time the true gospel is preached. He sends the messenger to prepare the way. The Lord himself is going to save, but he sends a messenger to preach the gospel, prepare hearts to open. God uses the gospel preached, but he's the one that does the saving. Same way. And his messenger is never what this world expects. I've preached in a few places at a few times where people didn't get what they expected. But that's where God's forerunner goes, and then the Lord himself comes. Wherever God intends to visit and bless a people in this world, he'll send his messenger. If God's gonna open hearts, if he's gonna save sinners, if he's gonna reveal Christ to a wretched sinner that can't know him any other way than by revelation of God, he'll send his messenger to do that, to accomplish that, but God is the one that does it.

Now in verses 12 through 19, let's look at that again. He describes his messenger in verses of 7 through 11, the way that he comes, bold, boldness, and with authority, not weak and effeminate. And in other places in the scriptures, he calls them effeminate.

John, Matthew, 11, 12, after describing John, he describes two kinds of hearers. He's describing everyone who hears the gospel preached by one of his messengers, and there are two kinds, two categories, two reactions. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John, and if you will receive it, this is Isaiah, which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Here's the other kind of hearer. But where unto shall I liken this generation? It is likened to children sitting in the markets and calling unto their fellows and saying, we have piped unto you and you've not danced. We've mourned unto you, and you've not lamented. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say he hath a devil. The son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, behold, a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified for children."

In other words, it doesn't matter what you do or how you come or who you are, if you preach the gospel, they're not going to want to hear it. They're not going to want to hear it, this generation in general. There are those who do, and they're described in an interesting way. They take the kingdom of heaven by force. Interesting. They see themselves as they are. They see Christ as he is. because Christ is preached and you can't see him without seeing the holiness of God, and that's what reveals what you are. You're not gonna find out what a wretch you are by me telling you what a wretch you are. You're gonna find out what a wretch you are if somebody preaches Christ. So they see themselves, they see Christ as He is, and here they come. And don't stand in their way. Don't get between them and Christ.

There are those that are dissatisfied and murmured about what they hear, murmuring. You know, that's an old word in the scriptures, isn't it? Sinners have been murmuring against God since the beginning of time, and we still do. Murmuring against God. In other words, you don't like the way God does things. You don't like what he said. God says, do this. He provides manna from heaven, and then you murmur. And if he provided steak dinners from heaven, you'd still murmur. You'd murmur. If you don't know him, you're going to murmur. Moses went up to receive the law of God, to meet God on Mount Sinai, and they began to murmur. And next thing you know, they're worshiping gold. They're worshiping mammon and not God. But there's always this division wherever the gospel is preached. Always. There's always two kinds of hearers now. And you may think you're neutral. You may think, you know, I know how many lights there are in here, but I don't have any idea what he said. Yeah, you do. You know what I'm saying? And you're one of these two, whether you like it or not. You can count the lights, but you know who God is in your mind.

When they knew God, though, unless God knows them, When you know God, you'll glorify him not as God. You will not worship him as God. And that's really all you need to know is that he's God. He does as he pleases. If he wants to save somebody, he saves them. If he died to redeem somebody, he redeemed them. It's not complicated. You just need to know who God is, that God is God.

If any man preach that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, he is of God." Well, that's not complicated enough. Don't you have to believe in the doctrine of election and all that? All of that's included in knowing who Christ is, who God is. Of course, God is sovereign. Of course, if He's God... You know, saying that God is God is a lot more descriptive than to say God is sovereign. To say God is sovereign, well, he's a king. A king of what? But when he's God, God is over all. God is God. He does as he pleases in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. There's nothing wrong with saying God is sovereign. But what you're really, you could say that better. You can say it this way. He's God. Christ is God, the Son of God. Of course, He's successful. Of course, He's sovereign. Of course, He chose first. He inhabiteth eternity, and you don't.

But there's always this division. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2, we are the saver of death unto death to some, and to others we're the saver of life unto life. So you see, when John preached, There were those who take the kingdom of heaven by force, and there were those that no matter what you pipe, they're not gonna dance. They're not dancing. No matter how you pipe, you can't satisfy them with the truth. And the gospel is always triumphant. We learn that also in 2 Corinthians 2. What if some did not believe Romans chapter 3? Is the promise of God then of none effect? God forbid. God's promises are yea and amen in Christ. Whether you believe it or not, whether you believe on him or not. You're not running it. It's not up to you. Thank God it's up to his son. Saver of death and the saver of life unto life to others, but we're unto God a sweet saver of Christ. In them that are saved and in them that are perish. So he always causes us to triumph when we preach the gospel.

But let's look at these two reactions to the gospel a little bit. Closer, the Lord lockens the religious generation of his day to children who play games and whose reactions to the gospel are childish and improper. They're playing a game. They're playing the, you know, go to church game, the religious game. Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3, 4, there's a time to weep and a time to laugh. There's a time to mourn and a time to dance. And those two things are expressed in that description of this generation. We have mourned unto you. We've told you of the tragedy of human sin. We've spoken unto you of the absolute depravity and degradation of your very soul, but you didn't lament. because your good outweighs your bad and you're mine. You didn't lament, you weren't sorry because you've done the best you could in your mind. You're not sorry for killing God's son because you love Jesus and always have in your mind. You haven't lamented and we've piped under you We've told you of the glories of this gospel means good news, but you didn't dance when you heard it. You didn't dance.

And this is true in the gospel, there's much to mourn and much to rejoice over. But the sinner who knows not the Lord, who rejects the Savior, he doesn't do either. He doesn't mourn or dance.

Psalm 22, let's look at Psalm 22, one through eight.

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not, and in the night season, and am not silent. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee, they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee and were delivered. They trusted in thee and were not confounded. But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip, they shake the head. He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighteth in him.

There's mourning, the mourning of our sin to see the burden of our sin laid on the Savior. All you that pass by, it says in the book of Lamentations, all you that pass by, have you ever seen any sorrow like unto my sorrow? Has there ever been any mourning like unto mine? But those who hear of Christ and their sin truth of the substitutionary death of Christ, they pass by and don't care. They laugh.

When we should be mourning, we laugh. And when we should be laughing, we mourn. When the Lord Jesus is preached as the effectual propitiation and redeemer of sinners, in other words, he just did what he said he was gonna do. He said, I've come to redeem my people. And he redeemed his people, that's it, that's that simple. That ought to be cause for rejoicing, but this generation mourns over that. They have the opposite reaction of rejoicing.

When the piping of the gospel is heard, look at Acts chapter 13. Verse 48, Acts 13, 48. When the Gentiles heard this, when they heard the Gospel, they heard of Christ and salvation by Christ, they heard there's remission of sins, by the blood of Christ." They were glad. They were happy about it. They rejoiced in Christ and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.

But the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women and the chief men of the city and raised persecution against Paul and Barnas and expelled them out of their coasts. But they shook off the dust of their feet against them and came unto Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy.

The Jews, the chief men of the city, had the opposite reaction. You see what the Lord is saying in our text? We piped and you didn't dance, you mourned. And we mourned and you didn't lament. you rejoiced. The ones who were ordained, did you notice that in the script, those as many as were ordained to eternal life believed, they danced. But the religious Jews mourned.

The gospel is a beautiful sound to the sinner who has ears to hear. How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear. It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, and drives away his fear. It makes the wounded spirit whole and calms the troubled breast. Tis manna to the hungry soul and to the weary rest. We rejoice to hear of our savior. We rejoice to hear that he didn't wait on us. That he saved us anyway. That he saved us like he did Saul of Tarsus when we were running down the road to hell as fast as we could go. That the good Samaritan came where we were when we could do nothing but die. and bound us up and healed our wounds.

So there's those who have to have Christ. They take the kingdom of heaven by force, got to have him. Jacob said, I won't let you go. I'm not gonna let you go. Would you say that to God? Would you tell Jesus Christ who just said, let me go? I cannot let you go. I will not let you go. I'll tell you this, if you need him, you would. If you've got to have him, you would. I can't let you go, except you bless me. I can't let go.

To whom shall we go? The Lord said when he, and he spoke of his sovereign, the truth of his elect. He said, no, you can't come to me unless God brings you to me. No man cometh unto me except the father which has sent me draw him. And that word means take you from where you are and bring you to me. That doesn't mean woo you and tempt you, try to get you to walk an aisle. That means bring you to me. You're not coming unless the God almighty on his throne brings you to me.

And everybody left. Everybody walked away. That's not what they expected. They expected a girly man who would tell them everything they wanted to hear. It's all up to you. That's not what they got. And they left. And the Lord turned to his disciples, and he didn't beg them to stay. He asked them, are you going with them? To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.

There are those who must have the Savior, and the other kind of person will not have Christ. Absolute opposite reaction. That's the two kind of people. Which one are we? Which one are you? All right, let's be dismissed for a little while and we'll continue there in Matthew 11.