Turn to Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12. Look in verse, starting with
verse 38. of the scribes and of the Pharisees
answered, saying, Master, and they really didn't mean that.
They were just trying to cozy up to him and get something out
of him. Master, we would see a sign from
thee. But he answered and said unto
them, because he knew them, an evil an adulterous generation
seeketh after a sign. There shall no sign be given
to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was three
days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son
of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation
and shall condemn it. because they repented at the
preaching of Jonas. And behold, a greater than Jonas
is here. The queen of the South shall
rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn
it. For she came from the uttermost
parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold,
a greater than Solomon is here. Scribes and some Pharisees come
to him. They want a sign. Everyone wants
a sign. Everyone wants a sign. They want
to see something. They want to see something. Faith
does not need signs. Faith needs the Word of God and
the Spirit of God. That's all faith needs. Our Lord was charged with being
in league with Satan, but he proved how ridiculous that would
be for a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. It'll fall. So they thought, well, let's get another sign from him. One more sign. I will believe. Forgetting they had just witnessed
a miracle in the healing of the man with the withered hand. Plus,
I'm sure many other miracles they were witness to. Probably what they were wanting
was a sign from heaven like Israel had at Mount Sinai. You know,
the smoke and the lightning and the thunder and the quaking,
you know, that would have been something to see. Pull that off. Pull that off and we'll believe
you. We'll believe you. Can you not hear the voice of
Satan here? Can you not hear his voice? If you're the Son of God, turn
these stones to bread. Same Spirit. That's why he called
him evil. Evil and adulterous. They were the same spirit as
Satan. If you're the son of God, give
us one more sign. Entertain us one more time. Our Lord never does anything
for our amusement. He didn't do any miracle for
their amusement. It was proof of his deity. He's
God. I ask you this question. How
many signs does it take to save a sinner? How many signs does
it take to save a sinner? None. None. It takes the preaching of the
gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit to save A sinner. Turn to 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians
1. Look over here in verse 21. Well, let me go to verse 20.
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? What he's
saying is, if they know really what's going on, why are they
not here? If they're so wise and they're instructed and taught,
where are they at? Where is the disputer of this
world? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For
after that, in the wisdom of God, the world, by wisdom, Do
not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching. What
the world calls foolishness, what I'm doing right now. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require
a sign, they're always looking for a sign. And the Greeks are
always seeking after wisdom, some philosophical tidbits. Give us some philosophical sayings
this morning, something that makes us feel warm and fuzzy. The Greeks seek after wisdom,
but we preach Christ crucified. And to the Jews, it's a stumbling
block. And to the Greeks, it's foolishness. But unto them which
are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and
the wisdom of God. Faith does not need signs. It
needs the preaching of the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit.
The scripture says signs are for unbelievers. It's not for
believers. Believers have the word of God
and that's enough. Genesis to Revelation is enough,
isn't it? It's enough, don't need anymore. The rich man in hell thought
if someone rose from the dead and went back and warned his
brothers about that place, He said, send someone back and warn
my brothers. I think he had five brothers.
Warn them about this place. And the answer came back to him.
They have Moses and the prophets. They have the word of God. That's
what he's saying. They have the word of God, Moses
and the prophets. If they do not believe them,
though one rose from the dead, They will not believe, though
one rose from the dead. If someone came from a cemetery,
walked into this building, and told you about that place, not
one person would believe or repent apart from the power and the
preaching of the gospel. That's how sinners are saved. They are not saved by seeing
signs and wonders and miracles. They're saved by the grace of
God, through the preaching of the gospel, under the power of
the Holy Spirit. That's how they're saved. Now, how foolish would
it be of me to change that and go off on a tangent doing something
else? The scripture says faith comes
by hearing and that hearing comes by the word of God. And the word of God comes through
preaching. God is pleased God to use preachers. That's how
they preach, except they be sin. Faith comes by the preaching
of the word under the operation of the Holy Spirit of God. Now
here's our Lord's answer to them, an evil. He's calling them evil. Nobody else in town would call
them evil. Everybody in town would call, they're the most
moral people in town. These are the law-abiding citizens.
These are the ones who all go to church every week. He said,
you're evil. And the evil, that's not very
nice, but it's very true. What do we want to be, nice or
true? I mean, nice or true? An evil and adulterous generation
seeks after a sign. That whole nation had become
like their leaders. You know, at some point, the
leader and the people become one. That's why he called them
an adulterous generation, all of them. They were sign seekers. But no sign shall be given except
the one that God ordained before the foundation of the world.
Now I have a clear understanding of Jonah, don't you? Right here,
given to us in the gospel. God used this situation with
Jonah and brings us a gospel story out of it. And right here it is. He speaks here of, let me go
back here, of Jonah. There shall no sign, in verse
39, there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet
Jonas. For as Jonas was three days and
three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the son of man be three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And he said, the men of David
are gonna rise up in judgment against this generation. He's
gonna use Jonah here though, as an example. Jonah was a prophet. He was a prophet. Jonah was cast
into a watery grave. And after three days, three days,
being in the belly of that whale, he was vomited out on dry land
alive. picturing the resurrection of
Christ. And he says here, here's your condemnation, a greater
than Jonah is here. And a greater than Jonah is here
this morning. Do you believe that? Do you really believe that? Do
you believe a greater than Jonah is here? Our Lord said, where
two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst of them. I'm there, I'm with them. I'm
in their midst. greater than Jonah's here this
morning. Listen, Jonah was a sinful man. He was a prophet, but he
was still a man. They had to throw him overboard.
Because the Lord said, go to the den of them. He said, no,
I'm not. He got in a boat and went down to Joppa. But he was God's man. He was
God's man. But listen, Jesus Christ is the
God man. The difference, you know, I'm
standing here as God's man, but Jesus Christ is the God man.
He is God in the flesh. That's who he is. That's why
it's written over in Isaiah 42. My servant shall not fail. He
can't fail. He's God. Jonah was a prophet. Jesus Christ
is that prophet that Moses said should come. He said, here he
is. Jonah's ministry was very brief and it was one of doom. There was not one good syllable. And what Jonah had to say, listen,
listen, I think I marked it over here. Here it is. Listen here
over here in Jonah chapter three. after he goes to Nineveh. And
Jonah began to enter to the city a day's journey and he cried
and he said, he went through the city and said, yet 40 days
and Nineveh shall be overthrown. That was his message. That's
a short message. That wasn't a 45 minute message.
I mean, that was, that message takes probably all of five seconds
to say. But it was powerful, it was true. It was of God. He said 40 days. In 40 days. Nineveh shall be overthrown.
God's gonna destroy this place. He didn't say anything else.
There's nothing else written. Now listen, so the people of
Nineveh, in verse five, believed God. He didn't say they believed
Jonah. They heard the message. They
heard that they believed God. They believed God. And they proclaimed
to fast and put on sackcloth and from the greatest of them,
even to the least of them. For the word came unto the king
of Nineveh and he rose from his throne and he laid his robe from
him and he covered himself with sackcloth and he sat in ashes.
The king of Nineveh came down into the dust. And you know, the only thing,
the only thing that they had to hang their hat on was this,
in verse nine, who can tell? Who can tell if God will turn
and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish
not? All they had was a who can tell. That's all they had, who
can tell? He said, God's gonna destroy
you. And they came, that king came
off his throne and the people came down and they got in the
dust and they begged God for mercy. And here is a greater
than Jonah who's performing miracles and preaching grace, and they want to kill him. They
want to kill him. There was no signs by Jonah,
yet they believed the preaching and they repented. Christ came
preaching the good news of redemption, of forgiveness. His message was
a message of grace. It was mercy for the guilty and
they rejected it. They rejected it. And our Lord
said, here's the only sign that you're going to be given. I'm going to be crucified. I'm
going to be put to death in the flesh. I'm going to be buried.
And on the third day, I'm going to rise again. Now there's your
sign. There's your sign. They knew
the story of Jonah well. They knew what he was saying.
They knew. Jonah was thrown overboard, swallowed
by this whale. In three days, he was alive on
dry ground. And he said, that's the sign
you're gonna get. And you know what happened the third day when
that Lord arose? They said, somebody stole his
body. They said, let's make this story up here because, you know,
this is going to really bring a problem if we don't. Somebody
stole him. Completely forgetting this story, gentlemen. He said, none of it will rise
in judgment against this generation. Why is that? There's going to
be a witness against this generation and against this generation that
has the gospel so freely preached to them. because they repented at the
message of one man, one message, and no miracles. Christ preached for three years,
three years, performed many miracles in their presence, and they repented
not. How often, how often has the
gospel, in probably 40 years at least, been preached from
this pulpit? The last place you want to perish
from is right here. I cannot think of a worse place
to drown than beside a boat. Can you? Than beside of a boat. Scott Richardson used to say,
why will you die, oh sinner, why will you die when the water
is so close by? How great is the responsibility
of those who've been given much light? That's what he's saying.
How heavy is the responsibility? Too much is given, much is required.
And then he gives a second example, the Queen of Sheba. That's why
I had Doug to read this one. But something jumped out there
that I hadn't really, it just never jumped out to me before.
In that first verse, And when the queen of Sheba heard of the
fame of Solomon, listen, concerning the name of the Lord. I just, I don't know. Maybe I
have seen it before and just don't remember, but that jumped
out at me. She came because she had heard
of his God. of the Lord, that's capital L-O-R-D,
the self-existing one, Jehovah. She heard him, and the hard questions
that she put to Solomon was not pi equals square, it wasn't some
mathematical problem. It had to do with God. It had
to do with redemption. It had to do with Solomon's Lord. She came and she says, tell me
about your Lord, your God. And he did. And she was just
dumbfounded. And yet we hear the gospel every
week. And it shames me that I can go
out, and I know, I sat there and I stand here, but it shames
me that I can go out so undumbfounded. She left, listen, this woman,
this lady, let's not call her woman, this lady, this queen,
that's what she was, queen. She left her throne and she made
a long journey. Says she came from the uttermost
parts of the earth. She made a long, listen, she
didn't get in her Mercedes or her Learjet and fly over there.
She got on a camel. And she got her servants and
brought a bunch of stuff, you know, a bunch of herbs. a bunch
of her spices and all these things, you know, she came with gifts,
but she came a long ways and she came a long way to hear of his wisdom, but she came to hear
of his Lord, who is the wisdom of God, the wisdom and power
of God, it's Christ. She wanted to see and hear from
Solomon about his Lord and to see if
all that she had heard of him was true. And she got a lot more
than she bargained for. She got a lot more she bargained
for. But she came to an earthly man, a Gentile woman coming to
an earthly man. to hear from Him. Christ came
from glory to them and to us. See, she got off her throne and
went to Him. Jesus Christ left the throne
and came to us. And the Scripture says, He came
to His own and His own received Him not. They didn't have anything
to do with Him. She came to hear the wisdom of
Solomon. Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God. When he speaks, he's speaking
of himself. It's nothing but wisdom. It's
nothing but truth. You want to talk about greatness,
a greater, he says here, a greater, let me get back here. Queen of the South shall rise
up and judge it with his generation and shall condemn it, for she
came from the undermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom
of Solomon. Behold, a greater than Solomon."
There's actually no comparison. If you and I could really see
the glory of Jesus Christ, we would see that the glory of Christ
and the riches of Christ are, Solomon's really no comparison,
really. Trinkets Trinkets Compared to
the true riches Solomon had great riches Christ is the richest
He is the richest if you have Christ you are rich You are rich
all things scripture says all things are yours in Christ All
things are yours Solomon had great power. He had great power. But Jesus
Christ is the power of God. He is the power of God. Solomon
had a kingdom and it was a sizable kingdom. Jesus Christ has an everlasting
kingdom. Solomon had such a kingdom and
such a palace and such a place that he could house several thousand
people. I mean, he had 700 wives. I mean, he didn't have a lot
of rooms. And he could house thousands
of people. Christ said, in my Father's house
are many mansions, many dwelling places. Many, many, many, many. So many that can't be numbered. The scripture speaks of a people
that cannot be numbered. And every one of them has a place
in glory. Every person in glory has a place. Even Lazarus, who laid at the
rich man's gate, who had no place, has a place in glory. He has a place. Solomon built
a beautiful temple out of stone. Remember the disciples said one
time, they said, master, Lord, look at this temple. Look
at these stones. Wow, man, look at the stone work.
Look at the masonry work. And the Lord said to him, he
said, well, there's not gonna be one stone left on another
here in a little while. That was probably hard for them
to conceive that that beautiful, strong looking temple would be
crushed. Christ, listen, Christ is building
a temple. And the stones in it are living,
living stones. And it's gonna be a place, a
habitation for God to dwell. For God to dwell. And that's
us. What a mystery. What a mystery.
Solomon is gone. Solomon is gone. I think that's one of the, when
you go read the book of Ecclesiastes, it's like one day he woke up
and he goes, Man, I'm going to leave all this. And who knows,
that guy might be a fool. That's what he's saying, this
guy, the next guy coming after me and I leave all this stuff
and all this labor and all this achievement, I might leave it
to a fool. Well, sooner or later, you will.
Sooner or later, you're going to leave it to a fool. You know,
if you look at history, you look at great businesses, usually
that's a third generation, fourth generation, one of them just
destroys it. Solomon looked at all that and
it just depressed him. It depressed him. And he's gone. You're right, Solomon,
you're gone. But now listen, Jesus Christ
is here. Get a hold of that. Let's not preach, and I don't
want to be guilty of preaching that Jesus Christ was. He is. He is, Jesus Christ is
right now. He's alive, he's well and alive
and seated at God's right hand. Oh, he said, behold a greater
than Solomon here, Solomon's Lord is here. Solomon's Lord is here. And he says, this queen is gonna
rise up in judgment against this generation and this generation. This generation has the gospel
preached to them every week over the radio, over television. And
I know there's a lot of garb that goes on out there, but the
gospel's preached. The gospel's preached. God have mercy on us and give
up, enable us to believe. I don't want any of them to rise
up in judgment as a witness against me or you. You sat here and heard the gospel
all these years. Don't be like your generation.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. In closing, I say this. Don't look for signs. Don't look
for a sign. God's not gonna give a sign. The death, burial, and resurrection
of Jesus Christ is all the sign we're gonna have. Believe the
word of God and follow after the Lord Jesus Christ. Bow to
him. While the greater than Solomon
is here, and you can be sure as long as the gospel's preached
here, The Gospel. He's here. He's here. And while He's here, believe
Him.