Matthew chapter 11. Our Lord asked some powerful questions in these verses that I have read. He really asked one question
three times. that shows the importance of
what he's asking. Now, in verse one, the Lord sends
out the disciples. He sent them out earlier. He
told them the reception that they would meet with would be
hostility. There wouldn't be people receiving
them with open arms, but it would be with hostility. You would
not think that good news would be met with hostility, would
you? You wouldn't think that the gospel of peace would be
met with hostility. But when the natural men are
left to themselves, that is the way it is received, with hostility. After teaching his disciples
and sending them out to these different cities to preach and
warning them, he then followed up their preaching. This is encouraging to me. I stand to preach. He followed
up their preaching by visiting those places. He sent them out
about two and they went out and they preached and then he he
came along. Now if the Lord's gonna visit
a place, he's gonna visit a people, he's gonna visit a community,
but he's gonna visit just a person. He's gonna send his preacher
to that person, to that place, that community, and that people,
as he did here. The Lord does not send his disciples
in one direction while he goes in another, extends them where
he's purposed to go. And where his servant is, there
the Lord will go. There's a bunch of scriptures
of this. He said, where my servant is,
the Lord will go. The heart is prepared by preaching. I like singing. We need to sing
praises unto God. But the heart is prepared by
preaching. preaching of the word is made
ready to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what happens,
that's how God works. Now he says, it is written in
verse two, when John heard in the prison, this is the hostility that true
preaching is meant to be. John, a preacher of righteousness,
John, a prophet of God, winds up in prison. And we know the
story, he winds up getting his head cut off. And the reason
he's in prison is because he spoke the truth to Herod the
king. He didn't draw back. He said,
it's not right for you to have your brother's wife. You're standing before the king,
John, A story I read to you the other
day on Hugh Latimer, standing before the king, made the king
mad. Hugh Latimer preached, they said, don't you preach that again.
You're gonna come back next week and you apologize. When he came
back the next week, he preached the same message with more vigor
because he realized that his responsibility is to God first,
and then to the king. And that was John, that was also
John the Baptist. He told Herod. Right to his face. You know, that's wrong. What
you're doing is wrong. It's sinful, it's immoral, it's
wrong. He got put in prison. John never took the edge off
the sword because of who he was preaching before. It was the
same message. John preached the same message
to the Pharisees, to the king, and to the poor people. It's
the same message. The message doesn't change with
the people because the people don't change. When you take away
all the garb that we wear and all the show that we put on,
when you take it all away, we all look the same, don't we?
You know, one thing about a cemetery is the great level. Go out there
in the cemetery, dig up all the graves. You cannot tell who was
poor, who was rich. You cannot tell who was intelligent
and who wasn't. Okay, it's just the great level. And that's the gospel. The gospel
is the great level. It puts us all on the same level. None good, no, not one. Same level. The gospel puts us
on the same level. No matter who we are preaching
to. Doesn't matter. Now John heard of the works of
the Lord Jesus Christ and he sent two of his disciples, which
is, you know, the scripture says, let every everything being established
by two or three witnesses. There's a reason why John sent
two of his disciples. They both could testify to the
witness of Christ, testimony of Christ. And he sent two of
his disciples to ask him if he was the Christ. Or should we
look for another? That's a good question. Now why
John sent them to really know why I don't. And I do think I
have some libel. But that's a good question. Is
this the gospel that you come here every week? Is this the gospel? Is this the
truth? Is the Christ that's being preached
here, is He the Christ of this book or should we look for another? Or should we go somewhere else? That's a good question. Am I
hearing the truth every week or should I look someplace else?
That's a good question. Now, it may seem like a puzzling
question. Through all the reading I have
done this past week, Most believe, and I believe this, he did this
probably for his disciples. His ministry was coming to an
end. He's the forerunner of Christ. Christ has come. Behold the Lamb
of God which taketh away the sin of the world. His mission
accomplished, or that we all could die. Same with confidence. Mission accomplished. As Paul
said, I have fought a good fight. I have kept the faith. I'm ready
to leave. My time's over. My work is done. And that's probably the reason
John sent these two disciples is my ministry's come to an end. My time, my purpose here has
come to an end. Now you follow him. You follow
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen, there will come a
time But my time here will end. It'll end. I'll step down as
Rupert needed to because of his illness. He needed to. And there'll
come a time that I'll need to. But Jesus Christ never steps
down. He never steps down. And we continue to follow Him.
And by God's grace, the next man that stands here will stand
here preaching the Lord Jesus Christ. and then the next one. Who knows? Who knows how long
God will keep it here? I don't know. But anyway, here's the
point. Keep your eyes, keep your heart,
your affection centered on Jesus Christ. Men like me will come
and go. We'll come and go. We're men,
we're flesh. The joke said, I will go the
way of all the earth. Sooner or later, I will go the
way, you will go the way of all the earth. You'll go to the cemetery. But it also, and I think this,
and several of them tried to do, say this wasn't the reason,
but I still think there's something to this too. John, Though he
were a prophet and none greater than John, John was still John.
John was still a man of like passions. John is locked up in
prison. He's about to lose his, he's
about to get his head cut off. And I still think this, John
at best, as all men at best, Abraham at best, we've been looking
at Abraham in Genesis, Abraham at best, is still a sinner saved
by grace. The greatest preacher you know,
even in our day, is still a sinner saved by grace. Our Lord says, he says, those
born among women, I'm trying to think where that was at here.
In verse 11, look here in verse 11. 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. There's no reward, you know,
I'm not gonna get a bigger reward than you because I stand here
for it. John's not gonna get a bigger reward because he's
a prophet. God said to Abraham, I am thy
exceeding great reward. Now, there's none greater than
that. There's nothing greater that you and I can receive than
God himself. No. And that being so, it tells me
that John is nothing, he's a man. He's a sinner saved by grace.
That's what he is. That's what he is. And what John would have here,
though, also, what he would have here is for them to seek out
the Lord and follow him. That's my mission. My mission
when I stand here to preach is to honor, to give unto Him the
glory due unto His name. And that you would leave here
week after week and seek out and follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
That you would have in your heart a real desire to know Him. Or that I might know Him. Or
that that desire would grow in us. That it would grow in us. Christ would become our goal,
our aim, our everything. And if that happens, we will
treat everything else in our lives as we ought to. Nothing will balance out your
life and the way you live on this earth like a great desire
to know Christ. He balances out everything. And also this, I believe this,
John wasn't afraid to examine his message. He was not afraid
to examine his message. I should never be afraid to take
the message I preach, the gospel I preach, take it to the Word
of God every week. In that study, take it to the
Word of God every week. And look at it, and ponder upon
it, and meditate upon it. And when I preach, like this
morning, Lord, is this the message? Is this the message for the hour? You know, the scripture says
this, examine yourself whether you be in the faith. We should
never be afraid to examine our message. We should never be afraid
to examine our motives. It's too serious to be wrong,
isn't it? I don't want, I don't, I don't
want to stand in line with that group that says, Lord, Lord,
we preached, we did my income anyway, weren't we? He says,
I never knew. Now, Christ confirms his message
to these disciples of John. In verse 45, Jesus answered and
said to them, now you go and you show John those things which
you do hear and see. They're witnesses. They're going
to be witnesses of these things. He's not going to sit them down
and give them a theological study and take them through the Old
Testament and Genesis and then the next one and this type. He's
not going to sit them down and give them a theological study.
You know what he's going to do? He's going to let them observe
him. He's gonna let them see Him at
work. You go back and you tell John
again of those things which you do here and see, and this will
encourage John. You know, Paul said this in Philippians 3. He said, it's not a burden to
me, it's not grievous for me to preach the same things to
you again, but for you it's safe. He said, go back and you just
tell John one more time, once again, what you've seen. And
this will encourage him. And not only will it encourage
him, it'll confirm their faith that he's the Messiah. He is
the Christ. He is the Lamb of God. This is the one. This is
the one that the scripture says is coming. He's the one. He lets them see these things
and you go tell John again and this will encourage you. Our Lord did nothing, listen,
he did nothing outside the boundaries of the scriptures. Everything
he did was within the boundaries of the word of God. The word
of God is the foundation of our faith and it's the very foundation
of our message. We don't have a message apart
from the word of God. And listen, the word of God and
the message is relevant to every day, even if the world stands
another 10,000 years. The message will be the same.
Sinners will be saved the same way. I don't need outward proofs. I don't need outward miracles
now. I have the word of God. It's the foundation. I can't encourage you enough
to stay in the Word of God. Read it. He read the whole chapter
there in Luke. He said, this is a long chapter.
Well, what's that compared to this? It was good. It's good. Henry
said one time, he said, you cannot improve on the Word of God. No
commentary has ever improved on the Word of God. I'm telling
you now, I read a lot of commentary. No commentary has ever improved
on the word of God. Have you ever, I thought about
this the other day when I was reading the commentary. The apostles,
Paul, Peter, James, or any of the prophets, not one of them,
not one of them wrote a commentary on the Bible. They wrote the
Bible. God used them to write the Bible
and they didn't turn around and write a commentary on it. This
is it, I'm telling you. When all is said and done, and
there are good commentaries, and I read them, I read them,
I read my study, in my study. But I'm telling you, right here
is this. If God doesn't reveal this, no
commentary on earth is gonna help me. But if God reveals this
to me, if he makes it plain to me, it's like he said there in
Luke, he opened the scriptures to them. After he did what? After he blessed, after he gave
thanks. After he gave thanks, the scripture was open to them,
they understood. The greatest men in the world
can stand and say, this is what this verse means, but until God
enables me to know what it means, I'll never get it. Not really,
I may get it intellectually. But I don't want the gospel just
intellectually, I want the gospel in my heart. I want, listen to
me, I want the spirit of the gospel in me and not just intellectually. Intellectually, it just makes
me a cold heart preacher. But if God gives me a heart to
preach with, to preach the truth and love, now that's it. That's
it. He says in verse six, after he
tells them this, and he tells them to go back and show this
to John, the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, and the
lepers are cleansed, Deaf here, and the dead are raised up, and
the poor have the gospel preached to them. Seated. When it comes to the preaching
of the gospel, when God's sending the gospel, there's no prejudice. He doesn't say, go to the palace
and preach, or go to, no. Even the poor have it. The ones
who can't afford them, nothing. Nothing. And I think he's meaning
more than just the poor in spirit here. The poor have the gospel.
Our Lord went to places that that were poor. They were poor. And he went and he set out and
he ate Republicans and sinners. He says, blessed is he, whosoever
shall not be offended in me. Not offended in my person, not offended over my sovereign
rights. You know the Lord said one time
that there were many lepers in Israel and Elijah wasn't sent
to none of them but to one of them, Naaman, Assyrian, made
a man. You know what made a man? God's
sovereignty. God's sovereignty. That's what made a man. Blessed is he that's not offended
in me. Blessed is that man who believes
in me and is not offended when trouble comes because of me.
I thought I was a Christian. If I'm a son of God, why this?
I can tell you why this. Because you're a son of God.
Isn't that what we looked at in Hebrews? We look at that where he owes
whom he loves, he chastens. Every son whom he receives, he
disciplines. He corrects, he trains up. The Jews were, they were ashamed
of him. They were ashamed of his education.
They said, how know if this man letters have he never learned? In other words, how does this
man know this? He didn't go to our school. That's
what you say. He didn't go to our school. We
didn't see him in class. They were offended at his dress. He didn't go around in these
broad collectives. He just had a robe on. They were offended
at his family. They said, we know you. You're
the carpenter's son. Carpenter's son. We know your
family. You know your brothers and your
sisters? We know you, you're nobody. That's the headquarters,
you're nobody. We know you, we know your family.
They're nobody and they came from nowhere. And they hated his doctrine. Oh,
they hated his doctrine. They hated his message of grace. The Apostle Paul at one time
was ashamed of Jesus Christ. At one point he persecuted the
church and wanted to stamp out the name of Christ. You couldn't
have got him to speak well of Christ. He would have died and
went to hell first. And after God saved him, he writes
that epistle to Romans, to the Romans, the book of Romans. And he said, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel. And he said, Timothy, don't you
be ashamed of the gospel, nor of me, his priest. Don't you
be ashamed of the Lord. Don't you be ashamed of him, nor of
me, his priest. Paul knew what he was talking
about when he was talking about, when he said, I'm not ashamed
because he knew what it was at one time to be ashamed. To confess
him, to own up to him, to follow him. You're the odd man out. If you really believe the gospel
of God's sovereign grace. You're not ashamed. You who believe,
you're not ashamed. To you, he's precious. He's precious. And now the Lord speaks. He speaks to the multitude about
Job. This is really the part of the message I wanted to get
to, but I thought I spent too much time on the other part. He turns to the multitude and
he says, what went you out to see? And really, I can say it
this way, this morning, what did you come here for this morning?
That's a powerful, powerful question. What went you out to see, a read? Did you go out to see a read?
Did you go out to hear and see a vacillating preacher? One who
puts his finger up to see which way is the wind blowing so he
can determine what message to preach? Is that what you went
out to see? You know what a reed is. It grows up in the water, the
wind blows it back and forth like this. It's weak. Which describes most of the preaching
today. It's not a calling, it's a job.
It's a vocation. It's the way they earn a living. But to God's man, to God's man,
he's a preacher. It's his calling. It's of God. Then he asked it again in verse
eight. But what went you out for to see? Answer the question.
Did you go out to see a reed or a man? Man, did you go out
to see a man clothed in soft raiment? A philosopher, someone who's, if he's dressed,
if he's in soft raiment, he's somebody that's got a lot of,
he's got some money, he's got a little wealth. Did you go out
to see a man, a man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, listen,
they that wear soft clothing, they're in king's houses, they're
not in, they're not in God's bullpen. You have to just see the man. I hope you didn't just come out
this morning just to hear me. But if you did, you're hearing
me. You got what you came for. You can hear me. But what were you out to see?
He asked this question three times. He's pressing this on.
When the Lord asks a question like this three times, He's pressing
this matter to the heart. What is your purpose of coming
out? He said, but what will you have
to see? A prophet? See, they consider John to be
a prophet. Now listen, if he is a prophet,
he is God's man, then you better listen to him. And if you don't
believe the message, then you're in trouble because God sent him.
You see the implication? If he's a prophet, he's God's
man. He's God's man. Now listen. He says, yeah, I
say unto you, more than a prophet, he more than a prophet, for this
is, this is he of whom it's written. He more than a prophet, he's
the fulfilling of the word of God. The word of God was just
fulfilled. The scripture that says, I'll
send my forerunner. Well, the forerunner is here.
Which means this, what does this mean? If the forerunner is here
now, what does it mean? It means the Messiah is here. That's what it means. The Christ,
the appointed, the anointed, the promised one of God is here
if the forerunner is here. That's what it means. Behold, I send my messenger before
thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily I
say unto you, now John's a prophet, and you better listen to his
message. And he's more than a prophet, he's the fulfiller of the scripture,
he's the forerunner, which means the Messiah. But, verily I say
unto you, among them that are born of women, there's not risen
a greater than John the Baptist, because he's the one, he's the
end of the prophets. He's the fulfilling of scripture. Notwithstanding, don't put him
up on such a high pedestal like you did Moses. You know, whenever
the Lord was on the Mount of Transfiguration, and after he was left alone,
they said, Lord, do you want us to make three
tabernacles? Three tabernacles, one for you,
one for Moses, One for Elijah. They put Moses and Elijah on
the same level as Christ. John is a prophet. He's a great
prophet. But he's no, listen, as a son
of God, he's no greater than you. He's no greater than you. You know, God may give a man
some extraordinary gifts in the ministry. But as far as that
man's concerned before God, he's no greater than the least person
in this crowd with the fewest gifts. And from the days of John the
Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and
the violent take it by force. Well, that just puts an end to
easy believism, doesn't it? This easy believism we live in
today, you know, you see these Billy Graham crusades when they
used to happen, they come down these aisles, They just get him
coming out, and they're just laughing, just smiling, laughing,
carrying on. I tell you what, if you ever
really, if you and I really have a real conviction of sin that's
of God, you're gonna understand something about this scripture.
You remember when Jacob wrestled with the Lord back in Genesis?
And he said, and the angel said, and the Lord said, which he was
wrestling with the Lord. He said, let me go. He said,
I will not let you go till you bless me. Because he knew, he knew that
without Christ, without the Lord's blessing, his life was over. As I've had Mike sing that song
so many times, give me Christ. or else I die. When there's really,
there's real, true Holy Spirit conviction, there's violence
in the home. There's a war going on in here.
And there is a violent crying out after Christ for salvation. Lord, save me before I perish. It's not this thing of just making
a decision, we're all fixed up, and we're all good to go. That's
not what he says. He says here, from the days of
John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffered violence
over my barge, and it says, or is gotten by force, and they
that thrust men. When you read the gospels and
the Lord is going through You read, watch him going through
the Gospels, and he's saving sinners. They're crying out,
Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. He said, why do you walk? And I received my son. That woman
with the issue of blood, she had to go through that crowd. If you ever understand what real
conviction sin is, you're gonna understand for the first time
your real need of a Savior. And Jesus Christ is that Savior.
You're gonna know it. It's not gonna just, you just
accept some facts and believe some things and that's it. It's
not it. And he said, for all the prophets
in the law prophesied to John. Because John's the end of the
prophets. He's the end of the prophets. And if you'll receive it, if
you'll have it, this is Elijah that the scripture says should
come. He preached in the spirit of Elijah. that's what he did he that hath ears to hear now
he's speaking here that he that hath spiritual ears give attention to this give attention
to this he's saying it's these disciples their job give attention
to this these people that's there give attention to this now I'm gonna go ahead and close I'll deal with this, Lord willing,
next week. Because it starts another question. It starts another question. But
where unto shall I liken this generation? It's like children
sitting in the markets, calling to their fellows. Anyway, it goes on with the indifference
that they have toward the preaching of the gospel. The indifference, you know. We
piped and we sang. Nobody danced. Nobody danced.
We mourned like at a funeral. Nobody mourned. You're just indifferent. We can't be indifferent to the
gospel. It's dangerous. I'm telling you
the truth. I'm telling you the truth. It's
dangerous. Just to sit and say, uh, what
are we going for? been different. For God to send a man to send a message
and to be indifferent to it, I can't think of anything that's
more dangerous than that.