If you would look in your Bibles
at Luke chapter 7 Luke chapter 7 I want to begin reading
in verse 19 through 23 Luke 7 and verse 19 and John calling unto him two of his disciples,
sent them to Jesus saying, art thou he that should come or look
we for another? When the men were come unto him,
they said, John Baptist hath sent us unto thee saying, art
thou he that should come or look we for another? And in that same hour, he cured
many of their infirmities and plagues and of evil spirits. And unto many that were blind,
he gave sight. Then Jesus answering, said unto
them, go your way and tell John what things ye have seen and
heard. How that the blind see, the lame
walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised,
to the poor the gospel is preached. And, blessed is he, whosoever
shall not be offended in me. I've entitled this, Tell. What things ye have seen and
heard? From the beginning of this sermon,
I want to make this perfectly clear. It's actually a point
Walter pointed out last week in your sermon that I listened
to this morning, I'm away here. Only believers see and hear. And that's just the way it is.
You can have what you want, you can say what you will. Uh, the scriptures are clear. Our
Lord Jesus Christ was very clear. Let him who has ears to hear,
let him hear, but men are unclear. That's just our natural state
of affairs. And there are some who are on
purpose, deceptively unclear. Peter put it this way, 1st Peter
2 and 7, it says, unto you therefore, unto you therefore, which believe,
he is precious. And to those who are disobedient,
not so much. No, that's not what he said.
Those that are disobedient, they see the only begotten Son of
God, well-beloved son of God, full of grace and truth, they
see him as a rock of offense, as a stone of stumbling. The
one we know as Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, is
seen by the religious world, the one we know, as a stone of
offense, a rock of offense, a stone of stumbling. It will trip up
the religious He's supposed to. He's supposed to. You understand? There's one thing that'll trip
up a liar quicker than anything else, and that's the truth. There's
one thing that will make a liar mad quicker than anything else,
and that's the truth. I've got nothing new today. I've
got nothing to add to anyone's theology. Because all I've got
is the same gospel that was preached in Genesis 3.15, that was preached
last week here from Song of Solomon. There's only one gospel. But
it's here, all mine's here. John calling unto him, two of
his disciples sent them to Jesus saying, art thou he that should
come or look we for another? That's where it starts out. paragraph,
but where it actually begins is a couple of verses before
Christ raised the guy from the dead and gave him back to his
mother. Happy Mother's Day. See, I throw
that in. It's all I got for Mother's Day,
but other than good news. I like Mother's Day, I got nothing
against it, but it's just not the gospel. Mother's Day's not
the gospel, Father's Day's not the gospel. Christmas and Easter
are not the gospel either, for that matter, but we're not getting
into that. But John sent his disciples to Jesus. Now, there's an argument. See,
people had came and gave reports to John of what had been going
on. You'll see it, well, in verse 15, it says, and he that was
dead sat up and began to speak, and he, what, delivered him to
his mother. And verse 16, and there came
a fear on all and they glorified God saying that a great prophet
has risen up among us that God has visited his people. And this
rumor of him went forth throughout all Judea and throughout all
the region round about and the disciples of John showed him
all of these things. So it got back to John the Baptist.
John the Baptist is in prison at this time. He had been arrested
for saying true things about Herod. I was going to say bad
things about Eric. No, they were true. They were
bad, but they were true. And that's why he was arrested.
Because, anyway, I'm not going into that part. But anyhow, John
the Baptist is in prison. Now, there is an argument between
commentators. Now, most of the ones I look
at actually seem to have, I think, a pretty good grasp on it. But
there's an argument saying, oh, John was doubting that Jesus
was the Christ. So that's why he sent his disciples.
Are you the one? Walter preached this morning
on television. That's the same guy that said, behold the lamb. And that one said, there's one
who's come now, who's even in your midst. And nobody asked
where he was, but John seeing him says, behold the lamb of
God the next day. It's that same John that's in
there. Now, I've got no new regulation about this. I have my own thoughts.
And to be perfectly honest, some days, depending upon my state
of mind, I can go either way on this, whether John was doubting
or whether John wasn't doubting. But here's the point that I want
to make. I mean, because I can only imagine
what it's like to be a believer without the indwelling Spirit
of God. John didn't have that. The Holy
Spirit was with him, but it wasn't in him yet. And I know how much
I can doubt. without any help and with the
indwelling spirit. But here's the point, because
this one thing stands clear and I wanna point this out very clearly
because I think it's important. John sent his disciples to Jesus. That's the point. Whether he
was doubting or whether he knew full well that it was him and
he just wanted his disciples to meet him. That part doesn't
matter. He sent them to the right person. And they went to the right person. So if you got any doubts, point
people to Christ. That's all you can do anyway.
Because I'll tell you this, your arguments will not win anything
except for somebody either being vexed or incredibly mad or them
shaking their heads at you. You understand? Walter preached
it last week, and I love that verse, Walter, I did. He says,
draw me, and we will run unto thee. He draws, you will run. And until he draws, you're not
going anywhere. Oh, now I get into thinking about
that. Oh, he can make you willing to go. You bet he can. But anyhow, this is the point.
John sent his disciples to Jesus, and guess what? They went to
Jesus. Whether John doubted or John didn't doubt, he did the
right thing. And he sent his disciples to
Jesus with the right question. The right question. Because this is the most important
question that must be answered. Are you the one? Are you the
one? That's gotta be answered. I can't
answer it for you. You're going to have to answer
it for yourself, and you can't. But I know one who can answer
that question for you, and that's where John sent his disciples,
to Jesus. Because where do you go for answers?
Whether you doubt or whether you don't doubt, where do you
go for answers? You better go to Jesus. There's
nowhere else, no one else to go to. And then Luke 7.20 says,
when the men were come unto him, they said, John Baptist sent
us, saying unto thee, art thou he that should come, or look
we for another? Now I'm gonna tell you something,
honest disciples are a good thing to find. Because he sent them
with a question, they asked a question. The same question. Because this
is, like I said, this is the question that has to be asked.
Art thou he? Not art thou. where you should come. Not art
thou anything. Everything is wrapped into this
one person that we have to deal with and actually has to deal
with us. Art thou he that should come?
Because there's no doubt that one, one was to come. The Old Testament's quite clear
about this. Her seed shall bruise the serpent's head. The Lord
thy God, Moses wrote this, the Lord thy God will raise up unto
thee a prophet in the midst of thee, of thy brethren. What did John say? There's one
there in the midst of you. And what unto him ye shall hearken. You're going to hear him. Are you that one? That's the
one, that's what they're talking about. Are you that one? Are
you the Messiah? Are you the anointed one? Are
you the Christ of God? Or should we look for another? Let me say this, both of those
are really, really, really good questions. Because both these
questions show forth a couple of things. A, you need to look. You need
to seek. Now, I know, the scriptures say,
there's none that seeketh after God. But yet, there are some
that seek after God. What's the difference? Well,
this man right here, Jesus is the difference. Draw me, and
we'll run after thee. They'll seek you, but not until
he finds them first. We wanna put the cart before
the horse and you can't do that. And the scripture never does
that. You should desire to know the
truth. And this is the key part, okay?
You should desire to know the truth no matter what or who that
truth is. See, there's lots of people that
wanna know a truth. They don't wanna know the truth.
And the truth is a person. And the truth is who John the
Baptist sent them to see. Because that's the second thing.
We're to look for a person. You don't look for places. You
can make a pilgrimage to Mecca every year and I wish you luck.
I'm not going. Not unless somebody plucks me
up and puts me over there. I mean, there's gonna have to
be some really, really wild, extenuating circumstances, you
know? I have problems going over that
bridge in Jacksonville. I do not want to go to Mecca.
I have no, I mean, I'm sure it'd be a wonderful sight. I might
even be able to get some really good pictures there, Walter. You know,
I like to take pictures. But we don't look to a place.
We are to look for a person. because places can't help. Don't
look for a thing. Thing can't help. I have to go
into idols and statues. I don't care whether they're
Zeus, Hermes or Mary. Not to look for a thing. We're
not to look to a thing. We're not to look to a place
because A, places can't help. B, things can't help. Only the
true and the living God can help. Art thou he that should come? Because that's the question.
What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? Who do you think the son of man
is? Jesus asked his disciples that.
That question has got to be answered. Now Jesus Christ is famous, in
my mind, for not answering direct questions. Not the way people
want them answered. We want a yes, we want a no.
Right here he told, it says here in Luke's account, and in that
same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues and of
evil spirits and unto many that were blind he gave sight. There's an hour there we got
no answer to John's question, John's disciples questions. Except
this, the actions of the Christ of God. In that same hour, what? He cured many. Of what? Everything. Whatever the infirmity
was. Why? because there is no infirmity
that he cannot cure. He had just raised the dead.
Come on now. I like to see Benny Hinn do that
or Ernest Hanley do that. There was a guy in Princeton
that claimed he did it, but I don't believe him. Well, that's pretty
much it. But Jesus Christ did it. full
view of a crowd of people They were carrying him in a funeral
procession The man was dead and Christ get up And he got up and
he delivered him to his mother The man was dead and now he's
alive that's Who this man is infirmities, health issues, plagues,
diseases, evil spirits, fallen angels. Many blind were given
sight because our Lord Jesus Christ is not a one-trick pony.
You understand? We're surrounded by people on
television that are one-trick ponies and it's a false trick.
Oh yeah. I don't care whether you lay
hands on somebody's head or you blow at them or swing your coat
at them. All you're doing is putting on a show. That's all
you're doing. I've seen him grab people's neck.
Guy had a collar on and his neck hurt. He took it off because
the preacher told him to. And then the preacher started
to grab his head, move, and this guy started going like this. And
you can see the terror in his eye because it still hurt, even though
he's trying to prove that he did something. He didn't do nothing. Our Lord Jesus Christ healed
everyone he intended to heal in this hour, right here. What'd
he tell that, what'd that leper say to him that one time? If
thou wilt, thou canst make me whole. Whole. Then, verse 22, Jesus answered. He answered this. Jesus answering
said unto them, go your way and tell John what things ye have
seen and heard. How that the blind see, the lame
walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised,
and to the poor the gospel is preached. Now Jesus didn't pull
this statement out of his hat. He didn't just pull this out
of thin air. He was listing his miracles, some of which they
had just seen, as proof of prophecies in the
Old Testament. Now, I'm not gonna go through
all of them, but I just got like three or four here out of Isaiah.
You don't have to turn to them. I'm just gonna read them. Isaiah
29, verse 18 and 19. And in that day shall the deaf
hear, the words of the book. And the eyes of the blind shall
see out of obscurity and out of darkness. Verse 19, the meek
also shall increase their joy in the Lord and the poor among
men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 35 and verse five says
this, then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears
of the deaf shall be unstopped. Chapter 35 verse six, then shall
the lame man leap as an heart and the tongue of the dumb sing
for in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the
desert. The lame walk, lame leap as a heart. I wish I could do
that again. And the spirit, oh this is Isaiah
61 and verse one, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because
the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek.
The Old Testament told us who was coming and they also told
us what he was going to do. And that's what Jesus Christ
was telling these disciples here. He goes, what does all this show?
What do all these miracles have in common? And he just listed
here. Well, here's the common denominator. He did them. Now that's, that's too simple.
No, no, it's not. That's just the truth. You understand? That's the only thing these things
have in common is the fact that A, they were prophesied, but
they were prophesied that He was going to do them, and He's
doing them right now. Because these, all these miracles,
are because of the will and the work of, behold, the Lamb of
God. How? I love how He stated this. How the blind received their
sight? He gave it to them. How the lame
walk? How are the lepers cleansed?
How do the deaf hear? How the dead are raised? How
is the gospel preached to the poor? See, all of these things
are the work of the Son of God alone. Alone. We have a list. And every physical miracle here
listed, I'm gonna tell you, has a direct correlation to the spiritual
work of Jesus Christ in every single lamb he brings in. Every
single one of these. He gives spiritual sight to those
that are born spiritually blind. Because you must be born again. You must be born from above in
order to see. The kingdom of God. If thou be the son of God, show
us plainly. Has thou been with me so long and you don't know
what you're looking at? Yeah, actually we do. We do. Man naturally cannot see this
Jesus Christ. He was on the earth. He was walking.
He was saying all the things that we read in here. and they
killed him. Why? Because man doesn't see. Had they known, they would not
have crucified the Lord of glory. But that's the point. They don't
know and they can't see. But he gives spiritual sight.
How does the lame walk? He gives a walk. To those who
could not walk after the Spirit, He gives the walk. See, there
are a lot of people who seem to want to take great pride in
their walking. Well, you better stop it. Because you didn't save yourself,
you didn't give yourself sight, you didn't give yourself ears,
and you ain't giving yourself a walk. We were lame. We were
lame! Go to Mephibosheth, lame on both
feet. But now, we who are no longer
lame, we walk in newness of life. What's it say? Work out your
own salvation with fear and trembling. Paul wrote that. Well, how in
the world are we supposed to work out our own salvation in
fear and trembling? We can't do that. We preach that
all the time. Don't work, Paul's gonna answer
it. He does answer it, but see, there's a lot of people, they
wanna, well, you gotta work it out, brother, you have to work
it out. Well, no, just, yeah, that's not the point. You gotta
read the rest of the statement. He works in you both to will
and to do of his good pleasure. That's how you work out your
own salvation, with fear and trembling. Fear and trembling
because guess what? Even now, we still really don't
know what we're doing. Ah. then says he cleanses the lepers. I like saying it this way though
better. He cleanses the unclean, not just heals them. Although
he helped, he did heal. He cleanses them and that's the
way he said it. He cleanses the unclean. He cleanses the leper. Not only
are they healed, they are, if thou will, made whole. They are
cleansed. How does he cleanse? Psalm says
that he purges me with hyssop. Hyssop. And I shall be clean. What? He washes. And I shall be whiter. than snow. Because that's what this cleansing
is. We've got to be whiter than snow in God's sight. Or it's
gonna be of no value. The unclean shall not come before
God. And he cleanses the unclean.
And in him, we are clean. In God's sight. And that's the
way we gotta be. What's the next thing? He gives
ears to hear. And he gives ears to hear those that are spiritually
deaf. And, tell John, go thy way and
tell the deaf hear. The deaf hear. Physical hearing
of spiritual things is of no value. Even if it works and you've got
a coherent teacher, knowledge never saves. Christ saves. He saves. We can't handle earthly things.
Christ said that. What are you gonna do if I tell
you heavenly things? We can't handle earthly things. Not of
our own. Those that are uncircumcised
in heart and ears do always resist the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost. Why? Because we are incapable
of understanding spiritual things naturally. That's just the way it is. You can't know them because they're
spiritually discerned. He gives ears to hear. Then the next thing he says,
he gives spiritual life to those that are dead in trespasses and
in sins. Now here it's illustrated as
giving life to an actual dead guy, physically dead. and he
brought him back to life, but he gives to his people spiritual
life where there had only been spiritual death. Just because you are elect doesn't
mean you're not dead to start with. We are no different than
anyone else until he makes us different. Yes, you are elect,
but yes, you are still dead. Yes, you are still uncircumcised
in heart and ears. Saul of Tarsus was there listening
to that message and he didn't get it at the time. He got it
later. He got it later. He understood
every word of it later and preached it. Man, as he is born, is born dead. And we stay dead in trespasses
and in sins. And here's the crux of the problem
brought to this little fruition here. What? Why are we deaf? Why are we blind? Why can't we
walk? Why are we unclean? Because we're
born dead. We're born dead. We're born dead. Adam fell. And we fell in Adam. And in Adam, we were made what? Sinners. That's where we are. That's where we all start. We must be what? Born from above. Born of God. How? How is this done? The sun. quickens makes alive whom he
will See why I say you got to come to Jesus John the Baptist in his sin his
disciples to the right man We must be born from above and
the son quickens whom he will he is the resurrection and he
is the life of Mm-hmm. That's true of the end
of this mortal life that resurrection in life But that's also true
of this life right here that we're living What did say in John 5 those
that hear the voice of the Son of God shall live Shall live
there's no doubt. No question And this last thing he lists
He preaches the gospel to the poor. It says, and to the poor
the gospel is preached. Now you understand, most people
will look at this and they see this, go tell John those things
you've seen and heard, how that the blind see, the lame walk,
the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised.
To the poor the gospel is preached. I'm sorry. To a natural man,
that doesn't really sound like a miracle. And to the natural
man, it's not a miracle. Come on, understand, it's not
a miracle. The gospel is of no value to
the natural man. That's why I started out this
sermon saying that. Only believers see and hear. Only, only believers see and
hear. To the poor, the gospel is preached.
Well, whoop-dee-doo, it's on television all the time. No,
it ain't. There's a bunch of lies on the
television all the time, but the gospel is not there all the
time. It's just because this, to the
poor the gospel is preached, the gospel is preached to the
poor, this is also a miracle of grace. Because the preaching
of the gospel is not natural. It's not. Witness what we see
on television and what we hear on the radio, that's not the
gospel. It's not another because there
is no other, but it's not the gospel. It's not preaching this
man here. What did Jesus Christ preface
this with? This statement here. He said,
go your way and tell. What? Go your way and preach
the gospel. Tell what you have seen and what
you have heard. That's the gospel. If you've
seen and heard him, Now these fellas that are on
television, they're all over the radio, they're telling what they've
seen and heard, but it ain't him. That's the difference. The gospel is not natural to
man to hear it or to preach it. Yes, it is logical. Yes, it gives
all the glory to God and none to man. And yes, we try to preach
it. But if you preach the true gospel,
men will hate you because they hate the light. And they love
darkness. And he, if you are preaching
the gospel, you are preaching him, and he is the light. Paul told the believers, our
message came to you, not in word only. Understand now the message
did come in word But coming in word ain't enough it didn't come
in word only What knowing brethren your election of God by for our
gospel came not to you in word only But in power in the Holy
Ghost and in much assurance That's preaching the gospel, right? Earl used to say, if my words
are the only words you hear, you're out of luck. If there
ain't power here, if there's not power, if the Holy Ghost
isn't doing anything, there ain't gonna be no assurance. But with
the Holy Ghost, there's all assurance. Because here's my point, we need
all of these things. We need all the works of the
Son of God. I can't do with just two or three.
You understand this ain't like the seven sacraments of the Catholic
Church, where you can get by with six or seven. Because there's
two of them you can't do. You can do one, but you can't
do the other. Because one is the sacrament of holy orders,
that's becoming a priest. The other one is the sacrament of
matrimony, which means getting married. And priests can't marry,
so there's no way you can do the seven sacraments of the Catholic
Church. Well, it doesn't matter whether
you did or not, even if you could. but we need all of the works
of the Son of God. I need to see, I need to hear,
I need to walk. I have to walk. I have to walk. Because if you don't walk, you
ain't alive. Oh, and in order to walk, I got to feed. In order
to feed, I gotta hear the gospel. But for all or any of that to
happen, I gotta be raised from the dead to start with. We have to have the preaching
of the gospel, yes. Because Christ said so. That's
the only reason. It's his way. There is no other
way. And this is the way he said to
do it. And that's why he put that right here, because that
is a miracle of grace, that the gospel is preached at all. And the final thing. And blessed is. The word he is
in italics, it's not there. And blessed is whosoever shall
not be offended in me. Blessed. Blessed. Blessed is whosoever. Now, man, woman, child, Jew or
Gentile, slave or free man, civilized or barbarian, ignorant or educated
Those aren't in the description. This is whosoever But let me be clear what he is
saying here what Jesus is saying here this is blessed by God you
are It's not blessed by God because
Okay That's the way the world wants to look at it. And that's
the way they're gonna preach it. They want you, blessed are
you because you're not offended in me and you shall not be offended.
That's not what he's saying. No, no, no, no, no, no. You are not blessed because you're
the one who shall not be offended. You shall not be offended in
him because you are blessed by God. I know what men say, I know
what preachers say, I've been talking about it. But that doesn't
matter because the source of all blessing is God himself. There's no blessing anywhere
else. It is never in the scriptures
will you ever find it written as, and it should never be spoken
of as a reward. Blessing's not a reward, it's
a gift. You're rewarded because of the
gift. You shall never be offended in Him, why? Because you're blessed.
You shall never have sin imputed unto you if you're blessed by
God. The source comes first, then
the results come. It's not the source giving you
a blessing because you're so good. Because you know you're
not. And if you don't know you're
not, you don't know anything. Man always has that backwards.
Because man is naturally offended by the Son of God. We will not
have this man to reign over us. Now that was a parable. But I'm
gonna tell you something, that parable reveals the truth of
the state of man. They will not have this man to
reign over them. Why? I said earlier, they hate
the light. They hate it. I mean, seriously,
they'd gnash on him with their teeth and they tried a couple
times while he was walking here. Thought I sounded like I was
from New York there for a minute. I'm walking here. No, when Christ
walked on this earth, they tried to kill him. And that's the God's
honest, that's the Bible. If you shall not be, and I do
love that future tense part thing. See, it's not only that you're
not offended in him now, You're gonna have to not be offending
them ever. Now, not to say you won't be offended by yourself.
In yourself, you might be offensive. You might think you're offensive
even if you're not. That's not what we're talking
about. You're not offended in him. My state of affairs is my state
of affairs. My circumstances are my circumstances
and they may make me think all kinds of stupid things. about
where I am in relation to him. But I'll tell you this, I am
not offended in him. And by his grace, I shall not
be offended in him. I saw a sign this week. Live so that when people get to know
you, they get to know Christ. And I think to myself when I'm
driving by that, what Bible are you people reading? And more importantly, who are
you hearing? Because I'm going to tell you
something, you're thinking like that, the gospel ain't preached
there. Now we are to be an example for each other. We are to live
our lives out honestly as we can. Yes, we are. But trust me,
when Jesus was here, they didn't see him. They didn't see him. They persecuted him. They killed
him. He rose from the dead anyway.
And that was the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of
God. But what they did it with wicked hands because it's what
they wanted to do. They wanted that man, this man
right here, dead. And why? Because they only saw with their
natural eyes, they only heard with their natural ears, and
they only understood with their natural heart. And those that
are uncircumcised in heart and ears do always resist the Holy
Ghost. And they will resist the Holy
Ghost unto their own destruction, unless, like Saul of Tarsus,
the Apostle Paul, who he became, He was there, he heard that.
He was resisting the Holy Ghost. This man wanted to destroy the
name of Jesus from off the earth. It didn't work out that way.
God had other plans for Saul and a revelation on his road
to Damascus. The future is in the hands of
the Son of God, just like the present. We as men and women
can only deal with the present. We look forward to the prophecies
and promises yet to be fulfilled, but we have absolutely no power
to accomplish anything. Not in and of ourselves. Of our
own future or anybody else's. Much less change or control it.
I control my destiny. He don't control nothing. Our Lord Jesus Christ is in full
control of time and everything in and around it. And blessed
is he whosoever is not offended in him, in me. What'd he say? Go and tell. Go your way. These men went back to John Baptist.
but go your way and tell the things which you have seen and
you have heard. Preach the gospel. Be instant
in season and out of season. It's not natural. It's a miracle
of grace. And it's absolutely necessary
to believers. The gospel doesn't make believers.
but the gospel will be believed by believers. And that is another
miracle. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for this time and this place. Most of all, always, Lord, your
Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who has done everything for us, done
marvelous things to us and in us, and shall continue them unto
the end and present us to you blameless, clean, whiter than
snow. Thank you, Lord, for all that
you've done. In Christ's name we pray, amen.