Feels like it's been a while
since I've seen all of you. It's good to see you again. Before
we begin, let's bow before our Lord together in prayer. Our Father, we come before you
this morning, come before your throne of grace, seeking a word
from thee. Father, how I pray that you would
send your spirit upon us and give us in this hour, the spirit
of true worship, that you would deliver us from just going through
the motions of religion, but Father, that you'd give us a
heart that would seek Christ and that you'd give us a message
that would declare him to us. Father, I beg of you in this
hour that you would speak to my heart and open my mouth and
enable me to rightly divide the word of truth and to do it with
compassion for your people, compassion for sinners, and a true heart's
desire for your glory. Father, bless us, we pray. Show
us your glory. And what we pray for ourselves,
Father, we pray for your people wherever they might meet together
today. Father, bless for your great
namesake in this dark, dark day, how we desire to see your saving,
life-giving power through the preaching of your word. And Father,
for your people that you brought into the valley of trouble and
trial, we pray for them. Those who are sick, those who
are brokenhearted, those in deep waters, difficult storms. Father,
we pray that you give them a special portion of your presence, that
you comfort their hearts with your presence, until such time
as you're pleased to deliver. To all these things we ask in
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, for his sake and his glory we
pray, amen. All right, I've titled the lesson
this morning, Faith Cometh Not by Sight. And our text begins
in Mark chapter eight, verse 10. In straightway he entered
into a ship with his disciples and came to the parts of Dalmanutha,
And the Pharisees came forth and began to question with him,
seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him. Now, it sounds
to me like the Pharisees were just waiting at the dock, you
know, for the Lord to arrive with this demand that they had
to see a sign. They wanted to see a miracle.
And what they were trying to do is to make people think that
the Lord is a fraud. You know, if they demand that
the Lord work this miracle, and he doesn't work a miracle on
demand, right when they want him to, that it's gonna expose
him as a fraud and people should see they should not believe him.
Now, the only reason that they thought they had even the right
to question the Lord of glory is they were thinking with a
fallen, dead mind. I mean, who do we think we are
to demand anything of the Lord? Who do we think we are? You only
think that with a dead mind, can't you? Now that being said,
let me tell you this, it is okay, it's a good thing to do to ask
the Lord questions. There's a lot that we don't know,
and there's a lot that we need to be taught. And it is perfectly
okay to ask the Lord questions, just like our little children
ask us questions. They ask questions so they can
learn about things that they don't know. The Lord said, ask
of me. It's okay to ask the Lord questions.
It's okay to ask the Lord to teach us. Every day I ask the
Lord to reveal more of himself to me. It is the thing to do. Not only is it okay, it's the
thing to do. To ask the Lord to give us an
understanding of the scriptures so that we can see Christ in
them. That's a good thing to do. It's
a good thing to ask questions like that. But that's not what
the Pharisees were doing. This word question that Marx
uses, it means to examine, to find a fault. They weren't just
trying to learn about the Lord. They were examining him to find
a fault. They wanted to expose a fault
in him. They're not trying to learn the truth. They're not
trying to find out who Christ is. They're just wanting to point
out his faults. What they're doing is they're
playing religious games. They're being just a religious
hypocrite. You know, going around and talking this religious talk,
but they're not trying to find about salvation and eternal life
and righteousness and the Savior. They're just being a religious
hypocrite. And to my way of thinking, there
are few things as disgusting as a religious hypocrite. That's
what they're doing. Verse 11 says, they came tempting
the Lord. They're not trying to know the
Lord. They're not trying to know more
about Him. They're tempting Him. They're trying to find a way
to discredit Him, not find out something that will enable them
to believe on Him. They're trying to discredit Him
so people won't follow Him and they'll keep following them.
That was their goal. Now, if their heart's desire
was to know Christ, they would have known Him, but that was
not their goal. They were trying to expose a
fault in Him and their unbelief and their religious games grieved
the Lord. Look at verse 12. And he sighed
deeply in spirit and said, why did this generation seek after
a sign? He grieved, he sighed. He didn't
sigh because he was tired. He sighed because their unbelief
and their rebellion grieved his soul. You know, I know that I
am so sick and tired of people playing religious games, I could
just puke. I mean, I'm just so tired of
it. You try to imagine how grieved the Lord was with this. I mean,
I'm a sinful man. This is the Lord of glory. You
think how grieved he was with this. The unbelief and the hardness
of their heart was so disgusting to him. The best example I could
think of liking this, the way we can understand it, Have you
ever had a little child, I mean a little child, come up to you,
acting like they know it all and you know nothing? That's
what these men were doing to the Lord. And I can't even begin
to tell you how much I want you and me to be delivered from that
attitude. I wanna give three lessons for
us here that I pray will help us seek and find the Savior.
Number one is this, these men are seeking signs and miracles.
Seeing signs and miracles won't save anybody. Now you think about
what these men are asking. They came to the Lord asking
him to perform a miracle that only God could do. So that if
we see you do something only God can do, their claim was we'll
believe you. That's what they're saying. Now
when they said this, you think about what they had already seen.
They had already seen, at this point in the Lord's ministry,
they'd seen him turn the water into wine. They all heard a voice
from heaven speak when our Lord was baptized by John the Baptist.
They saw the people be amazed when the Lord cast out demons.
Several times he cast out demons. Once he cast so many out of a
man, he said their name was Legion, there were so many of them. And
the Lord cast them out with just his word. They saw the Lord heal
a paralyzed man. He was paralyzed from the neck
down. The Lord healed him, and he walked home. They saw this
large crowd bringing their friends and their family members who
were sick and suffering to the Lord, and the Lord healed everyone
that had need of healing. It took all day long. And there
was no case he could not heal. They saw the woman with the issue
of blood crawl up behind him and just touch the hem of his
garment. and she was healed just by touching the hem of his garment.
They saw that. They saw the Lord give sight
to the blind, give hearing to the deaf. They saw the Lord raise
the dead back to life again. I mean a dead person, he raised
back to life again. And after you see all that, now
you're saying you wanna sign? Come on, come on. Seeing miracles
will never cause anybody to believe on Christ. And you know why?
Because if we would see a true miracle, we would see somebody
speak in tongues or heal somebody or whatever it is, you know,
these miracles, you know, you and I would be focused on the
miracle, not the Savior. Seeing miracles won't save anybody.
If you need to see a miracle before you will believe on Christ,
this is what you'll find out. You'll always need to see more
miracles. You always need to see another
one because seeing miracles will not give you faith in Christ.
The only way the Lord is pleased to give saving faith in Christ
is by hearing, not by seeing, by hearing, by hearing the word
preached, by hearing Christ preached. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. Look at second Peter chapter
one. Peter has something real good to say about this. This
is a man who is writing this epistle after the Lord's death,
burial, resurrection, ascension back on high. Peter saw, I reckon,
every earthly miracle that the Lord worked during his earthly
ministry. And this is what he has to say
about it. 2 Peter 1 verse 16. For we've not followed cunningly
devised fables, but we've made known unto you the power and
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. For eyewitnesses of his majesty,
Peter said, we saw this with our own eyes. He received from
God the Father, honor and glory, when there came such a voice
to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved son, and whom
I am well pleased. And this voice which came from
heaven, we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount, Peter
said, we heard the voice. Peter said, we saw his glory.
The Lord peeled back his flesh and let them see a glimpse of
his glory, the glory of God, white and glistering. Peter,
we saw this, we heard this. And after all that, this is what
Peter has to say about it. Verse 19. We have also a more
sure word of prophecy. I can give you something more
sure than seeing those miracles, Peter says. One, unto you do
well that you take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark
place until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts,
knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private
interpretation, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will
of man. The holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost. The more sure word of prophecy
is this book. It's hearing this book preached.
It's hearing the subject of this book preached. And the only thing
a believer needs to hear in order for us to believe on Christ is
this word preached. That's all we need, that's all
we need. We were on the road here recently and I was flipping
through the channels. No different, I'm on the road,
I'm at home, I'm flipping through the channels. And I saw a show,
scientific proof of the stories of the Bible. And my first reaction
was, huh, that might be interesting. What are you thinking? Nobody needs to prove to me that
Noah built an ark and those animals got on it. Science don't need
to prove that to me. Science does not need to prove
to me that a whale swallowed Jonah, and then three days later,
spit him out on the ground. They don't need to prove that.
I don't need it to be proved to me that that there was a place,
there was a plane, and there were cities, the plane of Sodom
and Gomorrah, and the Lord destroyed all those cities with fire and
brimstone. Science didn't even prove that to me. I believe it
because it's a book. That's God-given faith, that's
where that faith comes from. Believers don't need miracles.
What'd you come here needing this morning? Huh? Believers
need Christ. Believers need Christ. Let me
show you that. 1 Corinthians chapter 14. If you need a miracle in order
to believe God, you're an unbeliever. That's a fact. That's what Paul says here. 1
Corinthians 14 verse 22. We're four tongues. You know,
the ability for somebody to speak in tongues, to speak a language
that they've never learned. That miracles. That's for a sign. Not to them that believe, but
to them that believe not. But prophesying, preaching, that
serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe. All the believer needs to hear
is Christ preach. Well, what about miracles? What
about all these miracles? You know, there are a lot of
miracles performed by our Lord and by the apostles in the early
church. What about these miracles? Well, no question, they took
place. No question about it, is there? The apostles and other
people in the early church, they were given power to perform miracles. They raised the dead, they healed
the sick, they performed many miracles. And the people who
saw the apostles perform those miracles, the reason the Lord
gave them those miracles is not so they could do a party trick
and get everybody impressed with them, It was so that it would
make people sit up and pay attention to what the apostles were preaching.
See, that's different than needing to see a miracle before you believe
on Christ. These people who saw the apostles
perform these miracles, if God gave them faith, he gave them
faith through the preaching of the word, through the preaching
of Christ. And they listened to the word preached by the apostles
because after they saw them perform those miracles, it was obvious
to them, God's what this means. I mean, he couldn't do this if
God went with him. He must have a message from God
for me. So they listened and if Lord
gave them faith, it wasn't because they saw the miracles. It was
because they heard the preaching of the word. Now today, we don't
need miracles. A man doesn't need to work miracles
to prove to you that he is God's preacher because we have the
completed word of God. See, while the apostles were
performing these miracles so that people would listen to and
preach, they were still writing the New Testament. We didn't
have the completed Word of God. But now we do. And if you want
to know if I'm preaching the truth of God or not, all you've
got to do is check me out by this book. And you see if what
I'm saying matches this book. If I am, then I'm preaching the
truth of God to you. You'd be wise to listen. But
miracles won't make you do that. Remember the story the Lord told
of the rich man in hell. Lazarus, the beggar sat outside
his gates all those years. Both of them died. Lazarus went to the bosom of
Abraham to glory. The rich man went to hell. And
the rich man, what he wanted the Lord to do was send Lazarus
back from the dead to his family. He said, oh, now if they see
Lazarus, raised from the dead. And he comes back to them and
he tells them about heaven and hell. They see that miracle.
My family will believe and they won't come to this place. And
you know what the Lord said? Won't work. Won't work. Let me show you that Luke chapter
16. Luke 16 verse 27. Then he said, I pray thee therefore,
father, that thou would ascend him to my father's house, for
I have five brethren that he may testify unto them, lest they
also come to this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, they
have Moses and the prophets, they have the word of God, they
have preachers, let them hear them. And he said, nay, father
Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they'll repent.
And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets,
if they don't hear the word of God, neither will they be persuaded
that one rose from the dead. If Lazarus had come back from
the dead and gone and told these people, this man's family, about
heaven and hell, they wouldn't have repented, it wouldn't have
worked. Because faith, saving faith, it's a spiritual gift. And that is a gift that's based
upon the word of God. It's not gonna be given by signs
that prove to our natural mind that God exists. Man wants to
prove that God is by miracles. If God would just prove to me
that he is and he'll amaze my natural mind, then I'll believe
on him. But the problem with that logic is this. We can't
figure out God with the natural mind. God is spirit, and God
can't be believed with our natural understanding. I venture to say
that everybody here, you understand what you hear preached here every
week. You understand the words, you understand the concepts,
you understand the meaning of what we're saying. It's not that
you can't understand. We understand, but we still don't
believe. Because this thing of believing Christ, it's a supernatural
thing. It's got to be given from above
by God the Holy Spirit. And it's not gonna happen because
we just figure this thing out about who God is and how God
saves sinners. Remember what the Lord told Nicodemus.
He was a smart man, this man's smart. I mean, he's well, I'm
sure he had a good education, he's well taught in the scriptures.
And the Lord told Nicodemus, no one can see. No one can understand
the kingdom of God unless he's born again. And when the Lord
talked to Nicodemus about being born again, Nicodemus saying,
you want me to go back into my mother's womb and be born a second
time? He didn't understand. He didn't see because he's thinking
about things with a natural mind. No one can see, understand the
kingdom of God unless he's born again. So he's got a new heart. He's got new eyes. He's got a
new mind. He's got the mind of Christ.
He's got a new nature. And someone seeking miracles,
they're never going to find Christ through seeking miracles. These
very men in our text who came to the Lord and said, show us
a sign so that we'll believe you. When our Lord was suffering and
dying on the cross, you know what they were doing? Still seeking
a sign. They're still seeking a sign.
They said, come down from the cross and we'll believe you.
No, they wouldn't have. No, they wouldn't have. And aren't
you thankful that the Lord did not give them that sign? Aren't
you thankful the Lord didn't come down from the cross and
proved it? I'm going to prove to you once and for all I'm the
Son of God. Aren't you glad He didn't give them the sign that
they were asking for? If He did, you and I wouldn't have a sacrifice
for sin. Christ came to save sinners. Not to perform miracles, but
to save sinners. That's miracle enough for me.
How about you? Alright, here's the second thing. the Lord will
refuse those who are seeking miracles and wonders and signs.
Back in our text, Mark 8 verse 12. And he sighed deeply in his
spirit and saith, why did this generation seek after a sign?
Verily I say unto you, there shall no sign be given unto this
generation. And he left them and entered
into the ship again and departed to the other side. Now these
people were asking for a sign. Oh, this will make us believe.
You just give us a sign. Give us this sign that we demand.
And the Lord flatly refused to give him one. I mean, just flatly
refused it. There's no beating around the
bush. He just said, no, I'm not gonna do it. And he left. He left them. Now these men have
rejected the word of God. They rejected the obvious evidence
that Jesus is the Messiah. So the Lord rejected them. And
he left, he left them in their unbelief, he left them in their
religious traditions, and as far as I know, he never came
back. Never came back. Don Fortner wrote this in his
commentary on this verse. He said, the Lord left them in
the darkness of their own light and the ignorance of their own
brilliance. He left them to themselves. And I don't know, but maybe,
where the Lord said, I'm not gonna work a sign. Maybe they
thought this is proof Jesus of Nazareth is a fraud. If I told you, no, I can work
miracles, I've worked miracles before, and you ask me to perform
one right now, well, I wouldn't do it, because I can't. Frank's
just telling us, he's just making up the big old lie here about
how you can perform miracles. Maybe they thought that about
the Lord. Oh, see, this proves he's a fraud. He didn't work
a miracle. And the Lord left them to their own ignorance. That's one of the most frightening
things that I can imagine. It's my constant prayer that
the Lord not leave me to myself. Oh, don't leave me to myself.
He left them. He left them. Well, here's the
third thing. If Lord's gonna save you and
me, it's gonna be by the preaching of Christ crucified. Now Mark
doesn't go into these details, but look back at Matthew. There's
more to this conversation that Mark did not record, but Matthew
did. If Lord's gonna save you and me, it's gonna be by the
preaching of Christ crucified. In Matthew 16, verse four, The Lord said, a wicked and adulterous
generation seek after a sign and there shall no sign be given
unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them
and departed. Now, what is the sign of the
prophet Jonah? We'll look over Mark chapter 12. I'm sorry, Matthew
chapter 12. Here's what the Lord was referring
to. The sign given to all men. that we should repent of our
sin, that we should repent and turn from our man-made religion
and turn to Christ and trust Him, is the preaching of Christ. Christ and Him crucified. The
only miracle, the only sign, the only evidence that God gives
us to trust Christ is this, the death, the burial, and the resurrection
of Christ. That's what every believer believes.
That's what the Lord is referring to in this story of Jonah, and
He tells us about that in Matthew 12 beginning in verse 38. And certain of the scribes and
Pharisees answered saying, master, we would see a sign from thee.
I mean, can't you just see their smugness and their smart Alec
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 unto it, but the sign of the
prophet Jonah. For as Jonah 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. Now here's
the picture, the preaching of the prophet Jonah, the message
of the story of Jonah and the whale. It's a picture. The Lord Jesus Christ died. He
died as a substitute for his people. He died to put away their
sin with his own blood and he died. They took a dead body down
from the cross wrapped that body in the linen and the spices and
laid that body in a tomb. And the Lord stayed there for
three days in that tomb. Just like Jonah stayed three
days and three nights in the whale's belly. And after three
days, the Lord Jesus Christ arose victorious over sin, death, and
hell, and He walked out of that tomb. The resurrection of Christ
is the proof that His death justified all of His people from all of
their sin. And everyone who trusts Christ,
they're justified from all of their sin. All their sin has
been taken away. It's been taken away by the doing
and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the very thing
Jonah declared. After three days, scripture says
the whale vomited him out on the lane. Pretty gross, isn't
it? And there's Jonah laying there
on the beach and the whale's vomiting. And this is what Jonah
declared. This is what he learned. Salvation
is of the Lord. The resurrection of Christ says
the same thing. Salvation is of the Lord. The resurrection of Christ gives
the power and the good news of the gospel. If Christ lived a
life of perfection, he died and he was buried and he never rose
again, we wouldn't have any good news to tell, would we? But because
Christ rose again, we have the good news to tell, His death
put away the sin of His people. I know He did because our sin,
the sin of His people, demanded His death. He rose again because
that sin was gone. If that sin was still there,
He'd have had to stay dead. But He didn't stay dead because
the sin of His people was gone by His sacrifice. That's the
message of the gospel. Now these men that the Lord was
talking to here, They refused to trust Christ, didn't they?
And our nature is so dead, it's so filled with self-righteousness,
we'll do the very same thing. We'll hear the gospel of Christ
and we'll refuse to believe on him unless the Lord intervenes
and gives us a new heart of faith. And thankfully, that's what he
does for his people. Nobody can stop the Lord from
saving his people because salvation is on the Lord. He's already
accomplished it for his people. The transaction's done. And all
that's left is to tell his people about it through the preaching
of Christ. And I want to leave you with
this encouragement. If you're seeking Christ, if
you came here this morning seeking Christ, if you're going through
your weekly activities in your life and you're seeking Christ,
I'm going to tell you what, he's going to find you. He will find
you. Remember when the Lord started
calling the 12 and one of them went and told his brother, we
found the Messiah. Did you find him or did he find
you? If you're seeking the Lord, he'll find you. If you're seeking
mercy from the Lord, you'll find him. If you're seeking forgiveness
of your sin from the Lord, you'll find it. You just keep seeking
him. But if you're seeking religious
gains, The Lord's gonna leave you alone. So let me encourage you one more
time. Seek Christ. Seek Christ, come to him. You'll
find in him everything that you need. All right, the Lord bless
you.