If you'd like to follow along
with me in your Bibles, I'm speaking this morning from Matthew's Gospel,
chapter 11. The Gospel of Matthew, chapter
11. You'll notice every time we come
on the air, you'll hear us say to you to turn to a certain passage
of Scripture. And you'll always hear us deal
verse by verse with God's Word, because that's what we do here
at Central Baptist Church. In fact, in the last 16 years,
we have gone through all of the books of the New Testament, every
single book, some more than once, verse by verse, studying God's
Word verse by verse, and have gone through eight books of the
Old Testament verse by verse. So if you're seeking to know
the truth, That is, God's Word. What God's Word says. Come thou
with us, and we'll do thee good. Come. And here, God's Word declared,
verse by verse, as it is written. In Matthew's Gospel, chapter
11, this morning, we're looking at our Lord's teaching and preaching. In verse 1, it says, It came
to pass When he had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples,
he departed to teach and to preach in their cities. That is, the
cities where the apostles were born and raised. He came to teach
and to preach. That was our Lord's principal
occupation as a man, a teacher, preacher of the Word of God,
the gospel of the kingdom. I couldn't help but note that
what the world thinks is the most useless vocation on earth,
that is, preaching. The Lord Himself elevated to
the highest vocation on earth, a preacher, a teacher. Verse
2, it says, When John, that is, John the Baptist, had heard in
prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples to
say unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for
another? John was in prison for preaching and declaring the truth,
and someone will only suffer for what they really believe
in. Yet John, being a man, needed the truth confirmed to him again. He needed reassuring, as do All
of God's people at times need reassuring. In verse 3, he sent
his disciples to ask the Lord, Are thou he that should come? Are you the Christ? Or should
we be looking for another? And we should ask this question. Is this the gospel that we believe
that I preach? Is this the truth or is there
another? I believe John himself was sure, but I believe he did
this for his disciples' sake, to reassure them more than himself. Verse 4, the Lord answered and
said unto them, Go and show John again those things which you
do hear and see. He says, Go show John what he
has already seen, what he has already heard, the things you
hear and see. these two disciples, you go and
show or tell John what you're about to hear and about to see.
Tell him again. Now, here is one sure clue that
the gospel you hear is the truth. Here's a sure clue. Our Lord
said, you tell him those things you do hear and see. Now, listen carefully. God's
Word. What Christ said is written,
and what He said was spoken very carefully. He said, Go show John
again the things you do hear and see. In that order, hear
and see. It is not like false religion
with all of its fleshly, invisible things. In fact, I saw a sign
one time that pretty much sums up modern religion. The sign
advertising its so-called church said, Come and see what is going
on here. Well, that pretty much sums up
modern religion, which our Lord said seeks after a sign. Show us something. Show us something. Let's see what's going on. And
it speaks of fleshly things, visible things. John said, they
are of the world, speaking of false prophets. They are of the
world, therefore speak they of the world. That is, the visible,
seen, fleshly, material world. But now, the truth. deals with
unseen things. The unseen things are eternal. Temporal things are seen. We
deal with and speak of spiritual things. And the kingdom of God
is unseen. It cometh, Christ said, not with
observation. But it is planted within you
with an unseen word, a seed. It is first heard. The kingdom
of God is first heard with the spiritual ear. Go tell John the
things you do hear and see. And then these unseen things
are seen, yet not material or visible things, but spiritual
things, seen with the spiritual eye. The Word of God is, or the
truth is first heard, faith cometh by hearing. and hearing by the
Word of God. And then the truth is seen or
understood with the spiritual eye. And what we hear, what a
person hears when the kingdom of God comes to them, is they
hear the gospel, they hear the truth, and they see or understand
the Spirit of God and what He does. And here is what He does. Verse 5, the Lord says, Go show
John again those things which you do hear and see. Verse 5,
the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are
cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor
have the gospel preached to them. Now, the Lord actually performed
those miracles. He actually gave sight to those
who were born blind. He actually raised up the dead. He actually did these things.
And yet now, our Lord in his Sermon on the Mount spoke of
spiritual blessings. Spiritual healing is what we
will see and experience when the Kingdom of God is come. When we hear and see the Kingdom
of God, it will be spiritual things. We will see the blind. The blind will receive their
sight. We will see blind people actually see. Those who are blind
to who God is, blind to who Christ is, blind to the truth, blind
to themselves, blind to danger, blind to the world, all deception
and evil in the world, will see. The Word of God opens blind eyes. Well, the lame will walk. Those
lame on both legs, unable, unwilling to come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
They come. How? by the power of God. It's a miracle. The Spirit of
God performs. He brings those who are lame
to himself. Those whose feet were once swift
to run to mischief now run to the house of God. Those who walked
according to the course of this world, the prince of the power
of the air, children of disobedience, now walk by faith. Walk with
God. Walk with the people of God. once deformed by sin, now bearing
the image of Christ. Death, the deaf here, once unable,
those who were once deaf to all that was said from God's Word,
all the truth, deaf, wouldn't listen, couldn't listen, now
hanging on every word of God. Those who were dead and trespassed
in sin, down, depraved, dead, as they said of Lazarus, stinking.
Dead so long they stank, yet raised up, quickened by the power
of God, raised from the dunghill and sat among princes. The poor
gospel. Hear the gospel. The poor in
spirit, that is. Those who are beggars before
God receive the greatest gift of all, the gospel. In verse
6, our Lord said, Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended
in me. You know, all that Christ was
and said and did is an offense to most. It still is. The sovereign
Christ. They killed the Christ. They
killed the true Christ. back then because they hated
him and what he said. They said, we will not have this
man reign over us. We do not like all this talk
of you reigning and ruling and doing what you will with whom
you will. His sovereign claims were offensive to them, and they
are offensive to most now. But, oh, how blessed, blessed
are they. who are not offended in the truth,
but rather believe the truth. So many get offended at the truth
and hate to hear the truth of God's Word, the things that are
clearly revealed in Scripture, such as God's sovereign electing
grace, God's predestinating grace. Most hate the sound of those
words. It's amazing to me that those who call themselves believers
hate the sound of those words. And yet, God's people marvel
at it and delight in the truth. And so our Lord confirms to John
and his disciples who he is and what the truth is. And then he
confirms John to the people. He confirms his messenger, his
true preacher, to the people who went to hear him. We need
to know because there are so many. So many false prophets
are gone out into the world. So many false preachers. Every
man and his brother and mother calls themselves a preacher these
days. We, too, need confirmation of
the true. God has not left Himself without
a witness. He has a true preacher in every
generation. Preachers, or preacher, or preachers. He always has, always will, until
the end. Harvest is past. He has his laborers
in the field. How do we know? How do you know
him? Well, read on. He says in verse 7, he said,
as they departed out, he began to say, when you went out into
the wilderness, what did you go to see? Concerning John, he
said, what did you go to see? A reed shaken with the wind?
John was out in the wilderness preaching. That is, he stood
alone. He was a solitary voice of truth
in his day and in his place. Solitary voice. He didn't stand
with the multitudes of so-called prophets of his day. No, he was
with them outside the camp. They didn't like him and he wouldn't
join with them. He was a solitary man. Solitary
voice in the wilderness. Our Lord said, what did you go
to see? A reed shaken with the wind? Some men change with the
seasons, with the time, with every wind of doctrine Paul said
in Ephesians 4. And Jude 14 speaks of those false
prophets who are shaken by the wind, every wind of change. Whatever is new and popular and
fashionable is certainly what is successful or what brings
in the crowd or the money is what men will resort to. Not
God's true preachers. No, they won't change. They won't
change. He said, what do you go out to
see? A man clothed in soft raiment? A soft man with soft skin and
soft voice and soft robe, silky robe? No, John was a man's man. Though tender, kind, caring,
yet tough when necessary. A man whom rough, gruff fishermen
could look up to and follow." Our Lord said, what did you go
out to see? A prophet? More than a prophet. This is
my messenger. A prophet? What is a prophet?
One who tells the end, foretelling the end. Those things unknown. And I'm here to tell you today
that most of the prophets, all of the prophets, of old foretold
of God's wrath and judgment against sin and certain doom of this
earth in their generation. And men and women hated them
and killed them for that message. Has God changed? No, He hasn't.
Has the message changed? No, He hasn't. And we preach
like Noah, a prophet in his day, a preacher of righteousness.
We preach judgment's coming and there's salvation but one way
in the ark, and that ark is Christ. Oh, he that hath ears to hear,
our Lord finished by saying, let him hear. Let him hear. May the Lord give you ears to
hear is my prayer. Amen.