In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter
12, the Lord Jesus Christ once again is dealing with some scribes
and Pharisees. In verse 38, it says, Then certain
of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, or spoke to him, saying,
Master, or Teacher, we would see a sign from thee. Now these scribes and Pharisees
were Bible scholars, religious moralists, doctors of divinity,
and they were all alike in wanting to see a sign from the Lord Jesus
Christ, not the plain word of God. They weren't interested
in what he had to say, not what God says as he said it or what
Christ said, but wanted to see a sign, something miraculous. Verse 39, He answered and said
unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. The Lord Jesus Christ answered
them and said. Now, His answer, what He has
to say is the only one that matters, not what anyone thinks or what
so-and-so says. but only what Christ said. Now,
what does he say about this thing of signs and miracles and wonder? Well, to all who seek a sign,
any sign, for whatever reason, he says, an evil and adulterous
generation seeketh after a sign. Evil. Evil means wicked, means
corrupt, means godless. Adulterous. Adulterous generation
means Well, an adulterer does so in secret, secretly unfaithful,
secretly corrupt. And he says this represents this
generation, which is evil, secretly evil, a sign, he says. They seek
after a sign. What is a sign? Well, it's anything
miraculous, a phenomena, a vision, something exciting, something
extraordinary. And that is the generation that
I live in, folks. You know it is so. All folks
want, mostly today, is to see something spectacular. Would
you turn with me to the book of Jeremiah, chapter 23? Jeremiah
23. Every generation has been this
way. The Lord said that His generation
and our generation, it's the same. Man, by nature, wants to
see something. He's not content with what God
has to say, but wants to see something spectacular, and the
Lord calls him evil, wicked. Now, look at Jeremiah 23. I've
read this many times over the radio, and I'm going to keep
reading it until somebody, by God's grace, by God's Spirit,
a revelation of the truth to someone until someone hears it. Jeremiah, the true prophet of
God, is often called the weeping prophet because he wept over
the sins of his generation and the wickedness of religion. In verse 9, he says, My heart
is broken because of the prophet. He said, I'm a man overcome because
of the Lord and because of the words of his holiness. In other
words, Jeremiah truly had the word, the true word of God. That's what he had and that's
what he preached. That's what he did. He preached
the word. He didn't do anything or show
anything. He preached the word to his sinful
generation. He said, my heart is broken because
of these false prophets out there. Verse 11, he says, Prophet and
priest are profane. Yea, in my house I have found
their wickedness, saith the Lord. That is, those who are supposed
to be prophets and priests, God says they are wicked. Verse 14,
he says, They walk in lies, they strengthen the hands of evildoers,
and none return from his wickedness. They're telling men and women
so often how much God loves them and needs them that people believe
it. And people need to hear the judgment
of God, the wrath of God, in order to turn from their sin. Verse 16, he says, they speak
a vision of their own heart, not out of the mouth of the Lord.
Verse 17, he says, they say unto them that despise me, the Lord
hath said you shall have peace. They say to everyone that walketh
after the imagination of his own heart, no evil shall come
upon you. Does all that sound familiar?
It's going on today. These false prophets say unto
those that hate God and that hate the truth, don't give God
a thought. God loves you. Jesus died for
you. God has a wonderful plan for
your life. No evil shall come upon you.
God wants good things for you. Is all that sound familiar? Jeremiah
says in verse 18, who stood in the counsel of the Lord and perceived
and heard his word? Who heard God say any of that? Verse 22, he goes on to say,
if they had caused my people to hear my words, then they would
have turned from their evil way and from the evil of their doing.
How often do you ever hear anybody, any so-called preacher, Talk
about man as being evil. He is. Isaiah 1 says, from the
sole of his feet to the crown of his head. There's no soundness
in him. Any of us. Verse 25, he goes
on to say, I've heard the prophets, their lies, saying, I've dreamed,
I've dreamed. And on down, verse 28, he says,
A prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream. But he
that hath my word, let him speak my word. He goes on to say, the
word of God is like a hammer. It's the only thing that will
break a hard heart. Well, the evil that was then
is now. And our Lord said, then evil
and adulterous generation seeks after a sign. In other words,
God's word is not good enough for man. He wants more. He wants
signs, wonders, miracles, visions, dreams. What do you have today? You have all this so-called Pentecostalism
and all this charismatic stuff going on today, all these spirit-filled
people, all this tongue-talking and jive-talking going on, and
people just flock to see it. But He that hath My Word, God
said, let him speak My Word faithfully. The plain verse by verse preaching
of the Word of God, unadulterated Word of God, as it is written
without all this stuff. Well, Jeremiah said that of his
day, I say it of mine. And look at Psalm 119 with me,
Psalm 119. You know, David, the writer of Most of the song wrote this song
119 and if there are 176 verses in this song 176 and every verse
but one mentions the word of God, this whole song is about
the word of God. And in Psalm 119, David, who
loved God's word, He said in verse 14, I have rejoiced in
the way of thy testimonies as much as all riches. It was God's
word. It was David's delight. Verse
16, he said, I would delight myself in thy statute, thy word. Verse 18, he says, open thou
mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law or word. That person like they would like
David wants to see wondrous things from God's word, not signs and
wonders, miracles and visions, but wondrous things from God's
word. They will see see it for the
most wondrous thing of all. The greatest gift of all is a
revelation. Of God's word from God's word.
Now, what does the Lord say about these signs? He said back in
our tech Matthew Chapter twelve he says no sign shall be given
you hear that no sign shall be given no sign shall be given. To the contrary. No sign. To the contrary, God said in
2 Thessalonians 2, those who receive not the love of the truth,
for this cause God will send them strong delusion. They will
get some signs, they will see some wonders, they will see some
things, some miracles and so forth that they Thank you from
God, but it's strong delusion because. They're not they don't
love the truth. The truth is not good enough.
The word of God is not enough. They want to see something. So
God sends him a sign, but it's not to save them. It says in
verse 12 of that same chapter that they all might be damned
who believe not the truth. No sign, but one, our Lord said
he did say there's one sign back in our text. Only 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 story of Jonah,
our Lord said, is the only sign which God will give this generation. That's the only sign. Sign of
Jonah. Would you turn there with me?
If not, listen carefully. as I give you something from
the book of Jonah, back in the book of Jonah. The gospel is
what the sign of Jonah said. The gospel. It is Christ crucified,
the story of Jonah. The gospel of Jesus Christ, you
see, is the greatest story ever told of the greatest man who
ever lived, of his so great salvation. The world doesn't need it, but
God's people can't get enough of it. The gospel Christ crucified
to where the apostle Paul greatest theologian ever live the apostle
Paul. He said I'm determined to know
nothing among you nothing say Jesus Christ and him crucified. What's the story of Jonah all
about well Jonah was on board a ship with it when a great storm
arose a ship that was full of ungodly idolatrous man. Chapter
1, verses 4 and 5 says, The Lord sent a great wind. There's a
mighty tempest. The ship was like to be broken,
just about to be broken up. And the mariners, that is the
sailors, were afraid and cried, Every man to his God. See, God
sent this storm, this tempest, and these men began, who were
religious, by the way. They had a form of godliness.
They call on their gods, small g. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ,
whom Jonah represents here, came into this world of ungodly men. He came to his own, as Scripture
says, that is, those he made, the Creator, came to his own,
and his own received him not. He came into this world of ungodly
men, ungodly, but they have their gods, man-made gods. Well, judgment comes upon men
and women, and they greatly fear, but And they call upon their gods,
but nothing can calm the storm. Their gods can't save them. They
cry unto a God that cannot save. But God put Jonah in the midst
of these men and put Christ into this earth to reveal the true
and living God and to be the way, the substitute. In verses 11 and 12, Jonah, the
men said, What shall we do that the sea may be calm unto us?
Jonah said, take me up, cast me into the sea. And for my sake,
this tempest is upon you and said, you cast me into the sea.
And. The sea will be calm, the great
tempest will be calm. And so they did so. What does
that represent? Christ crucified, the substitute
was centered and first Corinthians says the second Corinthians 521
says God at made him to be sin for us that
is believer who knew no sin Christ that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Christ was. Made sin for his
people and they were made righteous by him and he was lifted up crucified
for their sake. Well that's the sign that's the
only sign that we give until next Sunday. Good. you