This morning we are looking at
the Gospel of Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11. Just a few verses here. The Lord
is commending his true preacher, John the Baptist. He commends
his true God sent preacher and representative. And then he gives
a brief but powerful declaration of how the kingdom of God is
established in verse 12. But in verse 7, it says, The
Lord asked the multitude, What went ye out in the wilderness
to see? Now he's speaking of John. What
did you go to see? He says, A reed is shaken with
the wind. A lot of folks went out to see
and hear the preacher, John, as they do every Sunday. They'll
go to hear a preacher or see a preacher. And the Lord asked
these people, what did you go to see? What did you expect to
find? A reed shaken with the wind? Now a reed, every one of you
has been around a farm pond or a creek bank and you'll see these
thin reeds that are spinely little twigs that any wind at all that
comes along will bend it and it will bow to that wind and
maybe even break. And I believe this is a very
good description of the average preacher today. Weak, effeminate,
easily intimidated, easily swayed, bowing and scraping to everyone,
trying to appease everyone, and eventually standing for nothing. Listen to me. The messenger,
the messenger is a reflection of the one who sent him, just
as the ambassador of a country is a reflection of the one who
appoints him. An ambassador is not an elected
official. He's appointed by either a president
or a king or head of state, prime minister. The ambassador is a
reflection of the one who appointed him, and he represents his country,
depending on how great his country is. Well, preachers today pretty
much are a representative of the God they represent. As I
said, weak, easily intimidated, bowing and scraping to men and
women because their God is just that way. But not John, not John
the Baptist, not God's true preacher. The Lord said in verse 8, What
went ye out to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that wear soft clothing
are in kings' houses. The Lord is referring to the
long, silky robes that kings and nobility would wear and sit
in posh places. Long, silky robes. Are you getting
the picture here? Long robes, clothing themselves. What did you go to see? A man
clothed in soft arraignment? One time, the Pharisees, several
went to hear John preach because he was a noted preacher, and
everyone was hearing him. And they went out to hear him
preach in Matthew 3. And he stood up before that crowd,
and his words to them were, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you
to flee from the wrath to come? Well, they went to hear him on
a Sunday morning or a Saturday morning, and he said, You bunch
of snakes. That wouldn't get you a hearing.
That wouldn't get you a large church. As a matter of fact,
to get your head cut off. But John told the truth. In our
text, the Lord says, what did you go out to see? A prophet?
Verse 9. A prophet? A preacher? Yea, I say unto you, more than
a prophet. What did you go to hear? A preacher? Verse 10, the Lord says, This
is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before
thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. God's Word,
prophecy of John, the messenger, the forerunner of Christ. God
says, I send my messenger before thy face, before Christ to prepare
his way for him to come. before the face of the people
who shall prepare the way." Well, this is a man sent. This is a
man sent by someone with a messenger. He says, I send my messenger. Now listen to me. Listen to me
very carefully. Who you hear and how you hear
him or her depends on who sent him and what his message is. Who you hear and how you hear
them, or whether or not you do hear them, depends on who sent
them and what that message is. If someone came from some local
chapter of some local cause to give a speech on something insignificant,
it's of no real consequence if you go hear that person. It's
of no real consequences if you go hear that speech that they're
giving. But if now, if God Almighty sends
a man with a message, if God Almighty sends a man with a message,
the consequences of not hearing that message, the consequences
of rejecting what he said are eternal. They are eternal. In chapter 10, the Lord is giving
his commands his instructions to
his apostle in Chapter 10, verse 14 and 15. He says, whosoever
shall not receive you nor hear your words when you depart out
of the city, the house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.
Don't beg them. Don't plead with them. Don't
try to get anybody to believe. Folks, God's preacher is not
a beggar. Because God's not a beggar. God's
preachers are sent to declare a message, not try to convince
people. They're not beggars. They don't
plead with men. They're sent to declare a message,
a message from the king himself. They don't come bowing and scraping. They come declaring boldly and
confidently the message of the king. And if the people don't
receive it, well, it's not up to the messenger. He just delivers
his message and leaves. Verse 15, the Lord says, Verily
I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom
and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. It's a serious
matter to hear the gospel, to hear the truth, to hear God's
Word and then reject it. Verse 40, the Lord says, He that
receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth
him. that sent me. So God has his
true preachers that he sends with a message and the consequences
of not hearing them are eternal. The consequences of rejecting
what is said are eternal. And the message, if God sends
a man, you better hear him. And the message from God is a
matter of life or death. Here in chapter 11, it goes on
to say, Our Lord says, Verily I say unto you, Among them that
are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John
the Baptist. The Lord commends and honors
His true servants, His true messengers, because He is a reflection of
Him. That true messenger is a reflection of the Lord. And the Lord says
there is none born greater than John the Baptist. And the same
could be said of all God's true preachers down through the years.
The prophets are none greater. They were men. They were men's
men. Great men. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Moses,
Joshua. These great men of God. And then the apostles themselves. Strong men. Men of courage and
faith. God sent men. God equipped men. And they had the message from
God. And so it is. Even today, God
has not left himself without a witness. I know many men, men
who are men, who don't come straight from a little seminary that have hidden themselves or secluded
themselves in some little monastery or seminary and don't know what
it's like to be a real human being out there in the world,
who know nothing of sin. The men who have lived in this
world, just as the apostles were sent out into the world, so that
they could speak to the people of the world, men that I know
are God-sent men, God's men, because they represent a kingdom,
a kingdom. Now, here in verse 12, the Lord
declares the kingdom of God, what it takes to establish His
kingdom. Listen to this verse. In verse
12, it says, From the days of John the Baptist until now, the
kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. Let me read that to you again.
Perhaps you've never heard this strong verse before. Listen to
it. The Lord Jesus Christ said, From
the days of John the Baptist until now, The kingdom of heaven
suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. You see, a
kingdom is established by strength. That's the reason I said God's
preachers are strong men, because they represent a kingdom, a kingdom
of God. And a kingdom, a true kingdom,
dominion of a king, is established by strength. And it's established
by conquering other kingdoms by force and, yes, by violence. Now, listen to me. This is so
contrary to modern conception of gospel and how a person is
won into this kingdom. Verse 12, the Lord says, it suffereth
violence and the violence take it by force. Kingdom of heaven. Now, Scripture speaks of two
kingdoms, kingdom of this world kingdom of heaven. Christ himself
said, my kingdom is not this world. If it were, my servants
would fight. We're not trying to fight to
save planet earth. It's not our mother. It's not
our kingdom. We're not pushing social issues
and political causes. The kingdom of God is a completely
different realm. It's a spiritual kingdom. The
Lord says this kingdom, the kingdom of the world, is the kingdom
of darkness, and then there's the kingdom of light. Now, this
is not myth or folklore, but reality. This is Scripture. The
kingdom of darkness, this world, and the kingdom of light, the
kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. And both of these kingdoms
are spiritual. Yes, both of them are really
unseen. Listen to the Apostle Paul in
Ephesians 6. He says, We wrestle not. Speaking
of God's people and preachers, God, we wrestle not with flesh
and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. An unseen enemy, whom the scripture
says, seeketh whom he may devour, who the scripture says leads
captive at his will, more powerful than any mortal, who is no match
No mortal is any match for this man. The greatest man born, Adam
and his wife, were no match for this one, this prince of the
power of the air. So what is salvation? Let me
ask you the question. What is salvation? How is one
brought into the kingdom of God from the kingdom of this world,
into the kingdom of light from the kingdom of darkness? Well,
the scripture says it's to be delivered from the power of darkness
and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son. It's to be
delivered. You don't do this yourself. You don't deliver yourself. It
takes someone stronger than yourself. A stronger than he, the Lord,
speaking of Satan, says when a strong man arm keeps his palace,
his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he overcomes
him, takes from him, that's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
must redeem his people from the prince of the power of the air,
who must deliver them and is taken by violence. Kingdom of
heaven suffered violence and the violent take it by force. The Lord over in chapter 10 said,
Think not, I am come to send peace on the earth. I came not
to send peace, but a sword. A sword. Christ is this violent
One who came. Yes, when He came, the first
entrance into Jerusalem, He plaited a whip and went in and cleaned
His house that was full of perversion and mockery of God. and money
changing. It was man's religion, and the
Lord plaited a whip and cleaned his house. You see, this thing
of salvation is breaking a stony heart. This thing of salvation
is the opening of deaf ears and blind eyes, raising the dead,
subduing an enemy much more powerful than us, delivering us from captivity
which we don't even know we're in. And it takes violence. Lord Jesus Christ suffered violence
on Calvary's tree, violence at the hands of the enemy, violence
at the hands of God's wrath and justice. They took it by force. Listen, in the war in Iraq, the
people of Iraq were in bondage and captivity and didn't even
know it. It's only one way they came to find that out. Only one
way they were delivered is when their king was killed. Violence. It took violence. And so the
Lord Himself must deliver us. He must deliver His people. And
it's done by violence. And this thing of violence, God's
people, once they had The truth revealed to them, Christ revealed
to them, they must have it. They take it by force also. They knock, they seek, they ask.
They must have it. Give us Christ or we die. It's
a life or death matter to them. Well, the kingdom of heaven is
up with violence and the violent take it by force. May the Lord
make you to understand His truth. Amen. I think that's it. Thank you.