Good morning. Let's stand together
and we'll sing Worship Him. We have come into this house
and gathered in His name to worship Him. We have come into this house
and gathered in His name to worship Him. We have come into this house
and gathered in his name to worship Christ the Lord. Worship him, Christ the Lord. So forget about yourself and
concentrate on Him and worship Him. So forget about yourself
and concentrate on Him and worship Him. So forget about yourself
and concentrate on Him and worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Christ the Lord. So let's lift up holy faith and
magnify His name and worship Him. So let's lift up holy faith
and magnify His name and worship Him. So let's lift up holy faith,
magnify His name, and worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Christ the Lord. He is all my righteousness, I
stand in Him complete and worship Him. He is all my righteousness,
I stand in Him complete and worship Him. He is all my righteousness, I
stand in Him complete, and worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Christ the Lord. Be seated. On page 28 in our
course books, we'll sing Amazing Grace. Page 28 in the course
book. Amazing Grace, That saved a wretch like me I
once was lost, but now am found Was blind, but now was grace that taught my heart
to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious that grace appear
beyond my first belief. Through many dangers, toils,
and snares, have already come. Tis grace hath brought me safe
thus far, and grace will lead me home. The Lord has promised good to
me His word my hope secures He will my shield and poor should
be, as long as life endures. Yea, with this flesh and heart
shall fail, And mortal life shall cease I shall possess within
the veil a life of joy and peace. The world shall soon dissolve
like snow, the sun refuse to shine. But God, who called me here below,
shall be forever When we've been there ten thousand
years Bright shining as the sun We've no less days to sing We've first begun. Mark chapter
8. You know, we've been there 10,000 years. And you know, a
day is 1,000 years to the Lord. But when you enter into eternity,
when a believer enters into eternity, that's all he's ever known. Once
he gets there, this world ceases to exist. There ain't no flesh,
nothing to deal with. Once you get into eternity, it's
like that's the only place you've ever been. That's a mystery,
ain't it? But you think about it. When you're there, Nothing else
in this world ceases to be. Every person you've ever known,
don't know them, everything's gone. That's just a wonderful
thing about it. It's just going into eternity
and you get there and this is the only place I've ever known. That's kind of, makes you want
to go, don't it? Well, I tell you, we got a dear
preacher that pastored the same church for 38 years, went home to be with the Lord.
The Lord took him in a very unusual way, but he took him. And he's
been there for a little less than a week by our time, preached
his last message last Sunday morning. And he'd just been there a week
to our time. But it's like he's never been
anyplace else. God's done. Well, I'm just gonna read three
verses of scripture and then I'm gonna go to Mark, Matthew
and read a few more. In verse 11, Mark chapter eight
and verse 11. And the Pharisees came forth
and began to question him with him, seeking of him a sign from
heaven, tempting him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit
and said, Why doeth this generation seek after a sign? Verily I say
unto you, there shall no sign be given unto this generation."
Now I'm going to turn to Matthew chapter 12 and read some things over here
about requiring a sign, requiring a sign. Verse 38, Then certain of the scribes and
of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from
thee. But he answered and said unto
them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign,
and 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 up 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 forth from the utter marsh parts of
the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater
than Solomon is here." our great blessed God of heaven
and earth, creator and sustainer of this
universe, created it with the word and upholds it with your
word. And Lord, your word is more precious
to you than anything other than your blessed son. And Father,
we thank you. Oh, your word. Your word teaches
us so much. Gives us such a blessed hope.
Gives us comfort. Gives us assurance. Does something
for us that nothing in this world could ever possibly do. And Lord,
we thank you that you give us this privilege. What a privilege.
We sung that hymn, that chorus, Lord. We've come into this house
to worship him. And Lord, we do want to worship
you. And God help us to forget ourselves, forget about ourselves
and our worries and our troubles and the things that trouble us
in this world. Leave us, forget those things
for just a little while here today. Cause the gospel to run
well here. Give us some power, give us some
liberty. Give the gospel the, oh Lord
your word. make it find fruit, make it find
root, sow a seed in a heart. Lord, you said the gospel was
the seed, an incorruptible seed. Lord, sow that incorruptible
seed in a heart. Oh Lord, because we know if you
sow the seed, by your blessed grace, one day it'll spring forth
and it'll bring forth fruit to your glory. Lord, we pray for
the dear families that lost a husband and a father and a preacher and
a pastor. God bless them, Lord, comfort
them, strengthen them, and encourage them. Thank you for your great
and abundant mercies that you've already given your people in
this life, and we look forward to the eternal mercies that you've
given us in Christ our Lord. Save your people in this place.
Be merciful and gracious and uphold those that are not with
us today. Please bless our dear, dear brothers and sisters that's
not here because they're taking care of people that are sick,
people that are weak, people that are weary, and not long
for this world. And Lord, we look forward, God,
when we all will get to go to be with you. Lord, to be with
you, to be with you. You told us that's what life
is, to be with you. And we get to be with you just
for a few minutes in this world, but you get to be with us, and
I pray you'll be with us today, and do it for Christ's sake,
our Lord Jesus. Amen, amen. Let's all stand together as we
sing the hymn of the day in the bulletin. Jesus, our priest, forever lives
to plead for us above. Jesus, our King, forever gives
the blessings of His love. the blessings of His love. Thou hast redeemed our souls
with blood, hast set the prisoner free, hast made us kings and
priests to God, and we shall reign with Thee. and we shall
reign with thee. The whole creation joins in one
to bless the holy name of him who sits upon the throne and
to adore the Lamb. and to adore the Lamb. He breaks the power of reigning
sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest
clean. His blood avails for me. ? His blood unveils for me ?
Be seated. Back over here in Mark chapter
eight, the title of my message is Seeking a Sign seeking a sign. And it said in verse 11, And
the Pharisees came forth, and began to question him, seeking
of him a sign from heaven. And notice the two words there,
TEMPTING HIM, TEMPTING HIM. So many places you find where
they were tempting the Lord, trying to trip Him up, trying
to make Him prove Himself to be something, and they didn't
believe Him, and He sighed deeply in His Spirit. He sighed deeply
because these men, they hated Him, they despised Him, they
rejected Him, they were jealous of Him. He went against all of their traditions.
He talked about how they loved to pray, stand in the street
corners, and He exposed them. He exposed them. And He knew
that these fellows was never, ever going to come to Him or
believe Him. And why doest this generation
seek after a sign? Verily I say unto you, there
shall no sign be given unto this generation. You know, the Scriptures
tells us the Jews required a sign. They required a sign, an evidence,
a token, a proof. These are the enemies of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And there were three prominent
sects in our Lord's day. There were the Pharisees. They
would be what we'd call a fundamentalist today. Bible-believing, Bible-thumping,
fundamentalist, you know, that tells you, you know, you've got
to be a separate person, you can't go places, you can't do
things, and these Pharisees, that's the way they were. I mean,
I was reading this morning about they got morality police in some
of these Islam countries, and if they catch a woman dressed,
if her headscarf ain't on her just right, they end up beating
them and taking them to jail and make them sign a thing that
they won't tell on the police for what they did to them. So
we got people that are dead set in showing their difference from
the world by the way they dress, where they're allowed to go and
where they're not allowed to go, and everything that they do,
how they wear their hair, the way they wear their makeup, everything
about them, and that's what a Pharisee was. And then there's the Sadducees. I guess you'd call these fellows
Armenians. free willers. They didn t believe
anything. They didn t believe anything.
And when you talk about an Armenian, he doesn t believe anything.
He doesn t believe anything worth believing. If you believe that
you can be saved and lost again, you ain t believing nothing.
If you believe that your will is the deciding factor in your
salvation, you don t believe nothing. If you don t believe
THAT CHRIST ACTUALLY SAVES FROM SIN ONCE AND FOR ALL, THEN YOU
DON'T BELIEVE NOTHING. IF YOU BELIEVE THAT IT'S ALL
UP TO YOU AND YOUR CHOICE AND YOUR POWER AND YOUR WILL AND
WHAT YOU ACCOMPLISH IN THIS LIFE AND BY YOUR WORKS MIXED WITH
CHRIST, YOU DON'T BELIEVE NOTHING. YOU'RE A SADDUCEE, DON'T BELIEVE
NOTHING. AND THE SADDUCEES WAS THE ONE
THAT WAS IN THE PRIESTHOOD, WAS IN THE PRIESTHOOD. AND THEN THERE
WERE THE HERODIANS. HERODIANS WAS THE POLITICAL PEOPLE
OF THAT DAY. They were the political people.
They was the people that followed the political party of that day,
the Herods. The Herods ruled in Israel for
generations, three or four of them there was. But they all
had all these different beliefs. What I'm saying is this, they
all had all these different beliefs. But when it came to Christ, they
laid all their beliefs aside, laid all their differences aside,
and manifested all their hatred for Christ. And that's what people
do today. They'll let all their parts,
you know, all their beliefs aside, and they won't believe Christ,
go against Christ. Oh, my. And I'll tell you, they
hated Him. They were jealous of Him. They
had their tradition. Christ said it was against the
Word of God. and oh my, and when it says here
in verse 11, they came forth and began to question Him, seeking
of Him. What it tells us, I was reading
a commentary, it says they came to argue with Him. They were
arguing with Him. They were arguing with the Lord
Jesus. They came to argue with Him, to debate Him, and oh my,
and they were in darkness. Our Lord came to be the light,
dealt with that a little last week. Our Lord came into this
world to be the light, and He came to expose darkness. And
there's men who love darkness more than they love light. And
all these people were in darkness and they loved their darkness
and they thought they were really the light instead of Christ.
I will give you four reasons, four reasons why they asked for
a sign and how wrong it was to ask the Lord for a sign. First
of all, they had an evil intent, tempting Him. Their intent was
evil. They didn't want Him. and also
they didn t consider our Lord s mission in this world. They
re looking for a sign. They weren t looking for salvation.
They weren t looking for mercy. They weren t looking for grace.
They weren t looking for Christ to be pitiful towards them. They
weren t looking for anything from Christ at all. Oh, they
didn t have any idea what our Lord came to do. And thirdly,
if He had given them a sign, do you reckon they would have
believed Him? No, they wouldn t believe Him.
They wouldn t have believed Him. And the fourth thing is, is they
did not come to Him seeking wisdom, seeking the wisdom that comes
from above. And they asked for an evil intent.
Oh, look what it says, They are seeking of Him a sign from heaven,
tempting Him. They have an evil intent. They
wanted a sign from heaven. And what You know, and this is
sad. Let me take a minute to say this.
There are people today that still seek for signs. Lord, if you
don't want me to go here, give me a sign. If you don't want
me to have this, give me a sign. Lord, if you know if I can't
do this, give me a sign. Listen, when God gave us His
Word, we don't look for signs. The Scripture says the Jews require
signs. The Greeks, they seek after wisdom.
They're interested in philosophy. And I tell you, but them that
are called, Christ is the power and wisdom of God. So don't ask
for a sign. God ain't going to give you one.
He gave you His Word. He ain't going to give you no signs. I
tell you what, the only sign I pay attention to is stop, red,
green. And sometimes I pay attention
to my wife when she goes, you know. So there's lots of signs
that we have to pay attention to in this world. But oh, they
wanted to see some sign. They wanted to see some powerful,
some miraculous thing that our Lord would do to prove that He
had the authority to work in this world. They was interested
in authority. They was interested in control.
They was interested in power. And I tell you what, do you know
where the first sign was ever in the Bible? And I guess this
is why the Jews require one. You know what the first sign
in the Bible was? When Moses was on the mountain, and he met
God at the burning bush, and he had his staff in his hand,
and God told him, He said, Moses, throw your staff down. He did,
and it turned into a snake. He said, pick it up. He picked
it up, and went back to being a rock. He said, now, hold your
hand out, hand turned to leprosy. He said, stick your hand in your
bosom, pull it out, and it's white. It was clear, no more
leprosy. God was showing him. And then
Moses used all the plagues down in Egypt. And so the first sign
was Moses when he was at the burning bush with his staff,
turned into a serpent. Pick it up, went right back to
being a rock. And I'll tell you that's, but all he said, and
he had all those, done all those signs down there. And the reason
was, let my people go. What for? To worship me. let
my people go to worship me. And you know, spiritually, there's
all different kinds of signs. There's signs that come from
God. The weather, I love the weather. You know, you wait around
and it, you know, all those things that God does in creation to
show us different signs about things in this world. And signs
that me and you exercise by Satan himself. There are men that God
allows to be used of Satan, and they use signs, and they talk
about signs that use men by Satan. And the Egyptians, remember they
had signs, and they were like Moses, and they done so many
signs like Moses did, but after about two or three of them, they
couldn t do anything else. They said, This is the hand of
God. and also all kinds of signs in this world, and what they
re saying is, Give us proof! Give us proof you have the authority
to do what you do. Do you get your authority from
God? Show us a sign from Heaven! If you re from Heaven, show us
a sign from Heaven! Oh, They thought they were God
s true leaders in Israel. I want you to show something.
They knew the Scriptures and they were using the Scriptures.
Look over here in Deuteronomy 13, Deuteronomy chapter 13, look
what it says over here. Oh, they thought they were the
true leaders of Israel. They were the ones with the light.
They were the ones with the power and the ability, you know, to
rule Israel. There s a one that was, and they
didn t want Christ, but look what it said here in Deuteronomy
chapter 13. If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of
dreams, and give thee a sign or a wonder, something that you
stand and say, Whoa, boy, God s in that! God did that! And the sign or the wonder come
to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go unto
other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them. Thou shalt not hearken unto the
words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord
your God proves you, tries you, to know whether you love the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. So that
s what they thought, and here the thing is, is that they thought
they was trying to demand of Christ something like that, but
our Lord gave them evidence after evidence after evidence that
He was the Messiah, the Christ, and they thought they had the
right, they thought they had the right in demanding the Lord
prove His authority to them. You remember when a few weeks
ago they talked about washing all the washings, and He said,
they asked Him, Why does your disciples eat without washing?
And our Lord said, You make the traditions of men to be more
than the commandments of God, and that s all they are, traditions.
You make the Word of God of none effect through your traditions.
And they hated that about him, their traditions. He said, Don
t follow them! Don t follow them! They were
just the commandments of men. And our Lord had already, already
done so many signs. When you take a man that s sick
and you heal him, You take a man that s paralyzed and you make
him pick up his bed and go to his house? When you tell a blind
man, you know, Go seeing, and oh my, raising the dead, oh my,
and giving sight to the blind, and they didn t believe that
he was sent from God, that He was their Messiah. They seen
all these things, and they said, Listen, the whole world s going
after Him. What are we going to do? In fact, the Pharisees
sent to have him apprehended one time. They said, I want you
all to go and get him and bring him so we can talk to him and
treat him the way he needs to be treated. And they got out
there waiting, you know, and they got out there and a big
crowd of them was around, and they was waiting on, they was
gonna take the Lord. And all of a sudden, they said,
yeah, our Lord was teaching, preaching. And they waited, you
know, till the Lord got done, and they went back. They went
all the way back and said, they asked him, said, why didn't you
bring him? Why didn't you bring him? He said, well, we got to
listening to him and we never heard a man speak like him before.
Never heard nobody speak like that. And he said, if you want
him, you go get him. I'm not going. And then they
told Moses, you know, they said, listen, we're following Moses.
As for this fellow, we don't know where in the world he's
from. And oh my, but they had their opinions. They had their
traditions. They had their ideas. They had
their law and they were not gonna let go of them for nothing in
this world if it meant doing something awful and evil to the
Lord Jesus himself. And that's the way people are.
They're gonna hold on to their opinions, hold on to their traditions,
hold on to their views, and hold on to things and they're gonna
perish. Because Christ himself, they
asked, oh, give us some signs. us a sign. Oh, He called them
over in Matthew an evil and adulterous generation. They thought evil
of Christ when He is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.
Oh, Christ is holy from the, he was holy in eternity, and
he come in the womb of a virgin, and he is holy in that virgin's
womb, and he was holy when he was born, and he was holy when
he's on the cross, and he's still holy in eternity. And they had
evil thoughts about him, evil intent toward him. And just like
that woman, remember when she was taken in adultery? And it
says over there, they were tempting him, tempting him. Oh my, they wanted a sign, they
wanted a sign. Let me show you, look over in
Matthew 16, but they brought that woman to tempt Him, and I, Lord Jesus
Christ, and they wanted this sign from Him, and look what
He tells them here. They wanted a sign from heaven.
You know when Elijah called down fire from heaven, killed 450
false prophets? That s what they wanted that.
That s what they wanted to see. They wanted to see fire fall
from heaven. They wanted to see some kind of a sign from heaven
itself. Now look what our Lord tells these fellows here. The
Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and listen again here,
said, Tempting desired Him that He would show them a sign. tempting Him. Can you imagine
men having such an evil thought of Christ that they thought they
could tempt Him, do something against His nature, do something
against His power, do something against His holiness, do something
against His righteousness, do something against the Word of
God itself, tempting Him? And oh my, He answered, said
unto them, When it s evening, you say it will be fair weather,
for the sky is red. And in the morning it will be
foul weather today, for the sky is red and lowing. Oh, you generations
of vipers, oh my, you can discern, oh, you hypocrites, you can discern
the face of the sky, but you can t discern the sign of the
times. You can tell the weather, you can tell the weather, Read in the evening, sailors
delight. Read sky, sailors delight. Read sky in the morning, sailors
warning. But look what he said there,
a wicked, a wicked, an adulterous, what does he mean by adulterous?
They was worshiping everything but God Himself, spiritual adultery,
spiritual adultery. And oh, listen, And there shall
no sign be given unto it, but the sign of prophet Jonas. And
he left them and departed." Oh, and they took that woman in adultery
and they brought her to tempt him. And oh, what arrogance to
question him, to tempt him. What arrogance, what pride. And that's what men do today.
When you tell them about God's sovereignty, Jacob have I loved
and Esau have I hated. They say, that's just not fair,
that's just not right. And oh my, the arrogance, the
arrogance and the pride of a person standing up and going to pass
judgment on God. Don't like the way God works
His will in this world. If I want to love Jacob, that's
my business. If I want to hate Esau, that's
my business. And people get up and God said,
and the first thing they say, that's unrighteousness with God.
God's unrighteous to do that. Who art thou? Oh man, this is
why Paul said, who are you? Who do you think you are? Set
in judgment on God himself. Who do you think you are? Huh? And that's what men do. Who do
men think they are that they actually, they actually think
that their opinion is going to have some effect on God? That,
you know, they think that because the fellow says, I don't believe,
I don't believe in God at all. I just see God just biting his
fingernails. I'm so sad, I feel so sorry that
he feels that way about me. Can you imagine that? But there's
people, our righteousness does not affect God. Our sin does
not affect God. Our best thing we ever do does
not affect God. Our disunbelief does not affect
God. God is God, He always has been
and He will be regardless of what we do in this world. Our
thoughts, our opinions, anything we do is not going to change
Him. I love that about Him, don't you? I love that about Him. Oh, my, I tell you, oh, they
dispute with Him. What arrogance, what pride. Judges
21, 25, you know what it says over there? When there was no
king in Israel, every man did that which was right in his own
eyes. Whenever men don't bow to Christ
and see Christ as the King, Christ ruling, Christ with all of His
power and His authority, when there's no, you know what? Every
man does what's right in his own eyes. Right in his own eyes,
huh? Well, let me hurry on. I'm taking
too long. They seek a sign. They seek a
sign. Now turn back with me over in
Matthew chapter 12. Just look at this again. You
know, they seek a sign. In verse 38 again it says, Master,
we see a sign for thee. They re seeking a sign. They
don t believe the Word. They wanted a warning, an evidence,
a token, and not going to believe without seeing something. They
saw Moses' sign, and still they were rebellious. And look what
our Master said, but He said unto them, An evil and adulterous
generation seeketh a sign. And that means the people was
in his day. And there shall no sign be given
at the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonah was three days and
three nights in the whale's belly. Everybody says a big fish, but
our Lord said right there, a whale. A whale. And 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 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 judgment with
this generation and shall condemn it. She came from the uttermost
parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Our Lord said,
There s only one sign I m going to give you all, and that s the
sign of the prophet Jonah. What WAS Jonah? Jonah was the
sign to the Ninevites. You all know the story very,
very well without me going over and looking at it, but Jonah,
God said, now you rise and you go to Nineveh and preach the
preaching that I bid you do. Well, Jonah said, I don't want
to do that. I don't want, they ain't going to pay no attention
to me. They're not going to pay attention to me. He was like
most preachers today. Well, there ain't no sense, you
know, they ain't going to believe anything I've got to say. So
he said, he got in the ship and he was going to go somewhere
else. Well, he fell asleep, and then all this great storm come
up, and Jonah got up, and they woke him up, and he said, what's
the trouble here? He said, oh my, I said, we got
this awful storm we've called on every God we know, and they
ain't done nothing for us. What about you? He said, well,
I was supposed to go to Nineveh, and I ain't done it. If you throw
me overboard, the storm will cease. And that's the way it
was with Christ. They throwed him into the deep.
Christ went under the deep, and they throwed him overboard, and
while he was overboard, this great old big whale come up and
swallowed him. That well s big enough for him
to stand up in, walk around in. And while he was down in that
well s belly, the scripture said that he cried, Oh, Lord, thou
art holy, and Lord, this I ve learned. I ve learned this now.
Oh, I ve learned this being down here in the belly of hell. He
said, I ve learned that salvation is of the Lord. He was down there
three days. And God told that, he prepared
the ship, he prepared the sea, he prepared the fish. And when
he left, he said, spit him out. Now, if you'd have been a Sadducee
or an Armenian, you know what would have happened? He got about
100 yards from shore and spit him out and said, now you make
it the best way you can. But he spit him out on dry land.
And he says, just like Jonah was, he said, that's what I'm
going to do. He spent three days in that well's belly. I'm going
to die. I'm going to be thrown overboard.
I'm going to be sent to a cross. I'm going to suffer. I'm going
to die. And they're going to bury me.
And I'm going to rise again on the third day. And that's what
he said. That's the sign of Jonah, the
prophet. And oh my. And then look what
He said, He said that men of Nineveh is going to rise and
condemn this generation. Jonah was just a weak prophet,
and what our Lord says, and down in verse 41 He said, And behold,
they repented at the preaching of Jonah's. They repented at
it. In fact, the Scriptures tell
us that Jonah, that thing took him three or four days to get
all the way across Nineveh preaching. And when the king heard of it,
he said, I'll tell you what, said, nobody's going to eat.
And we're going to put sackcloth on and we're even going to cover
our cattle. I said, we're going to make out.
And he repented, that whole city repented. And here's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And they give us a sign, give us a sign. He was a reaped prophet,
and behold, a greater than Jonah is here. He was that prophet,
the mighty prophet. He was the most blessed man that
is ever on this earth. The best preacher that ever lived
on this earth. And by cause, Spurgeon, the prince
of preacher. This is the king of preachers.
This is the preacher of preachers. It's the one that sends preachers.
And oh my, and they repented, and here, and there our Lord
Jesus Christ warned them, warned them, but they repented not.
Then look what else it says here. Oh, they didn't believe what
our Lord's mission. And then the Queen of the South.
Do you know who the Queen of the South was? The Queen of Sheba. She came and come to Solomon
and sat and listened to Solomon. and just sat at his feet and
listened to what he had to say, all of his wisdom and all the
glory that he had and all the wealth that he had and all the
things that he had. And oh my, the Queen of the South, she came
a long, long, long, long way to hear what Solomon had to say,
and I tell you what, And I tell you, she took care of Solomon. I mean, she sat and listened
to his wisdom. I'll preach on that one of these days again
and soon. You know, Solomon's wisdom was the wisdom of a man. His wisdom came from God. It
was derived, God gave it to him. He was an imperfect king. And
oh my! And men still don't follow what
he wrote, but our Lord said, A greater than Solomon, a greater
than Solomon is here. Oh, my! Solomon wrote some of the Word, Christ Himself
is the Word. Christ doesn t have wisdom like
Solomon did. Christ is the Wisdom of God,
and look what it says. It says, They BOTH shall rise
up in judgment. Nineveh s going to rise up in
judgment. The men of Nineveh at the judgment are going to
rise up and condemn them Pharisees, Sadducees, and to CONDEMN THEM. THAT QUEEN OF THE SOUTH, SHE?S
GOING TO RISE UP AND SHE?S GOING TO CONDEMN THEM PEOPLE THAT?S
LOOKING FOR A SIGN, GOING TO CONDEMN THEM. OH MY, SHE CAME
FROM FAR, THESE PEOPLE ARE NEAR. SHE WAS A GENTILE, DIDN?T KNOW
GOD, THEY PROFESSED TO BE THE PEOPLE OF GOD. SHE CAME TO HEAR
A MERE MAN, HERE THEY ARE HEARING GOD AND MAN IN THE LORD JESUS
CHRIST. They're going to condemn. They
believed Jonah was a prophet, and they believed His Word, and
they repented. And oh, they didn't believe our
Lord's Word, and oh my, they didn't believe it all. And I
tell you what, they're going to rise up. You know what? You
think about the judgment that this generation's got to face.
There's not hardly any place in the world that you can't go,
and especially in America where people don't have a Bible. Most
of us got two or three of them. And I tell you what, how many
people even read it? I said one time that if everybody
picked up their Bibles at one time, there'd be a dust storm.
And that's what I think that's right. And oh my, and then the
preachers, how many preachers are they that God's blessed in
this world? How many go hear them? How many's interested in
what they got to say? Oh, the men of Nineveh gonna
rise up And our Lord over in Marcus said he sighed deeply,
deeply in his spirit, deeply, deeply in his spirit. Oh my,
how you know that these men wasn't going to believe him, wasn't
going to trust him, wasn't going to trust. And you know, they
just, they just didn't have anything for Christ at all. And I tell
you, he sighed. They, they, they said he cast
out devils by the prince of the devils. He said, it's no wonder
he said it's a wicked generation. Such hardness, such hardness
of heart. Oh my, just hardness of heart.
Judgment is going to reveal a lot of things about a lot of people.
Do you know it? Judgment's going to reveal a
lot of things about a lot of people. In fact, let me tell
you this. Judgment's already revealed a
lot of things about a lot of people. What do I mean by that? I say Christ has been judged
in our room instead. For those who believe Christ
and trust Christ, judgment's already come. And what did the
judgment of God on Christ, what did it reveal to you? What
did it expose to you, didn't it? Expose to sin? Expose to
enmity? Expose to evil imagination? It
exposed you as you really, really are, not like you thought you
was, not like you hoped you was, but like you really are. And
you know what you said? Yes, Lord, you're exactly right.
We're not asking for no signs. All we want is His Word, His
Word. Oh, the judgment's come, filled
with, oh, greater than Jonah's here. You know, the worst, worst
sin WORSE SIN, I THINK, IS UNBELIEF AND SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND THESE
MEN HAD BOTH OF THEM. AND THEY WERE ASKING A SIGN,
AND OUR LORD KNEW THAT THEY WOULD NOT BELIEVE, AND HE KNEW THAT
THEY DID COME TO HIM SEEKING WISDOM. WE ARE NOT ASKING YOU
TO TEACH US ANYTHING, WE ALREADY KNOW. WE ARE NOT ASKING YOU TO
prove anything, you know, to prove yourself, but we already
know who we are. And I'll tell you what, it'll
be awful in the day of judgment, the day of judgment. And I've
said this, I've taken too long, but I'll tell you this, that
judgment, you know how long it'll take? Like that. Just like that. You know, our
Lord told them Pharisees and them, He said, Next time you
see me, you're going to see me coming in POWER and GREAT GLORY! And that's what I WANT! They
don't want it, I want to see them coming in POWER and GREAT
GLORY! Listen, if you've ever asked
God to give you a sign, STOP IT! STOP IT! Don't do it! You got His Word, what else you
need? If He gave you a sign, it wouldn t help you. You know, He gave all these people
signs, and what did they do to Him? Crucified Him. Crucified Him. You think Solomon
was something? Greater than Solomon s here.
You think Jonah was a prophet? I m sent from God with God s
Word. Our Father, our great, glorious,
blessed God and Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for your
word. Thank you for your gospel. And
Lord, it's in your hands to do with it as seemeth good. You
told us your word would not return unto you void, but accomplish
what you sent it to do. So Lord, we know that your word
is going to accomplish what you intend for it to accomplish.
What a blessing to know that! What confidence to be able to
preach knowing that Your Word will do what You sent it to do.
If it's for judgment, judgment will come. If it's for salvation,
salvation will come. If it's for a warning, the warning
will come. Whatever You sent it to do. If
it's to open eyes, it will open an eye. If it's to give a new
heart, a new heart will be given. Lord, whatever You sent Your
Word to do, I believe with all my heart that it'll do just exactly
what you intend for it to do, and it'll never come back empty,
never come back void. God bless these dear saints,
bless our dear brothers, and oh, Lord, the folks that just
lost their husband, son, father. God bless those dear saints,
and bless the folks watching and listening today. We ask it
for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. He is all I need, all I need. Jesus Christ is all I need, all
I need, all I need. He alone is all my plea. He is all I need. Wisdom, righteousness, and power. Holiness forevermore. My redemption full and sure. He is all I need. See you tonight, God willing.