Well, good morning. If you would,
open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16
is where our lesson will be from this morning. Before we begin,
let's bow before our Lord in prayer. Our Father, we bow in Thy holy
presence this morning. daring only come into your thrice
holy presence in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, pleading
his obedience as our only righteousness, pleading his blood as the only
cleansing and payment that we have for our sin, pleading him
as our everything. And Father, how we thank you
for the Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you for his fullness
and his richness that enables Him to be all things to all of
His people. Father, we thank You. And I pray
this morning that the name of Christ our Savior be exalted
and magnified, that His person, His name be glorified, that Thy
people might behold Him in awe and wonder and believe Him and
cling to Him and worship Him and Him alone. Father, bless
Your Word as it's preached. Cling to your promise. You said
your word would not return unto you void. It will accomplish
the purpose whereunto you sent it. And Father, we pray that
your purpose today will be a purpose of mercy and grace, that you
bless your people through your word. Father, we pray that you'd
be with our children's classes, that you'd be with our teachers
and our children both in a special way. That today and in each Sunday,
week after week after week, that you'd use this teaching to plant
the seeds of faith in their hearts, to enable them to see and believe
our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, for those who are sick
and hurting and afflicted, we pray for them. We pray you'd
meet their need, that you'd heal, that you'd lead, and that you'd
guide. We're thankful for some good reports we've had, and Father,
we pray you continue to bless your people. All these things
we ask in that name which is above every name, the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. I've titled our lesson this morning
to those seeking evidence. Verse one of chapter 16 of Matthew
says the Pharisees also with the Sadducees came and tempting
desired him that he would show them a sign from heaven. Now
the Pharisees and the Sadducees, their doctrine is different as
the two poles, but yet they're joined together in this. They
came to our Lord asking to see a sign from heaven. so that He
would prove to them that He is the Messiah, the promised Messiah,
the Son of God. And fallen man has always wanted
that. Fallen man has always wanted a sign from God, physical evidence
that God is. If we would see that evidence,
something we could see and touch and feel and smell, then we would
believe that God is, we'd believe His Word. And I'll tell you why
fallen man wants that kind of evidence. It's because fallen
man, by nature, has no faith. Has no faith in Christ. Has no
belief in God. Faith is a spiritual thing. It
doesn't come naturally. It's a spiritual thing. It's
based on spiritual truths. It's based upon the Word of God.
Not based on anything that we can see or feel or touch. Otherwise,
faith wouldn't be faith. If you believe God because of
something you can touch and feel and see, you wouldn't need faith,
would you? No, faith is the way that we
believe God. Look with me at Luke chapter
16. You know the rich man, you know this story, the rich man
in hell wanted the Lord to send Lazarus back from the dead to
his family because he thought if his family would see a miracle,
if his family saw this one raised from the dead who would tell
them about the afterlife, that this rich man's family would
believe God and they would not come to this horrible place in
hell where this man is. But you know that wouldn't have
worked. Look here at Luke 16 verse 27. Then he said, I pray thee, therefore,
father, that thou would send him to my father's house, for
I have five brethren that he may testify unto them, lest they
also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him,
they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said,
nay, father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead,
oh, then they would repent. And he said unto him, If they
hear not Moses and the prophets, they do not hear and believe
the written word of God, neither will they be persuaded, though
one rose from the dead." See, seeing a miracle, it wouldn't
have worked, would it? Because faith is a spiritual gift. It's
a spiritual gift from God based upon the word of God, not something
that the natural mind can see and understand. Now, God did
give signs and evidences. In the Old Testament, He did
that, and also to the New Testament church, He gave these these abilities
to work miracles and these signs and evidences, not to amaze people,
not like it's a party trick, but so that when someone would
perform this miracle, people would know this man sent from
God. Nobody could do this unless God was with them. And so they
listened to him preach. But those evidences were given
to me and they're given to the church before the word of God,
the written word was completed. Now the written word of God is
completed. He doesn't give those kinds of
miracles and evidences anymore because we have the word of God.
Our faith is solely based upon the word of God. And if you want
to know if a man's preaching the truth, check him against
the word of God. Is what he's saying match the
whole word of God? If it is, that's your evidence
that this man sent from God. He's preaching the gospel. And
that's all believers need. A believer, all they need is
the word of God. Look at 1 Corinthians 14. All
they need is the Word of God. Believers believe because that's
their nature. It's the nature of faith that
God gave them. 1 Corinthians 14, verse 22. Paul here has been speaking about
these gifts that were given to the early church. Specifically,
he's talking about the gift of speaking in tongues. In verse
22, he says, Wherefore, tongues are for a sign. Not to them that
believe. Those that believe, they don't
need this sign. Tongues are for a sign to them that believe not.
But prophesying, preaching, serveth not for them that believe not,
but for them which believe. See, believers don't need any
signs or miracles in order to believe God. They just believe.
Because that's the nature that God gave them. And they believe
the written Word of God. They believe it when they hear
it preached. They just believe the Word of
God. Whatever it says, that's what they believe. I like what
Brother Don Bell says. He said, I believe Jonah swallowed
the whale. That's what the Word said. We would just believe it,
wouldn't we? Now, saving faith is based upon
the Word of God alone. One more scripture in here, John
chapter 2. Anything else that's not based
solely upon the Word of God, solely based upon the written
Word, Christ the living Word, anything else is not saving faith. John chapter 2, verse 23. Now
when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast day, many
believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did.
But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all
men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for he
knew what was in man. Our Lord did not commit himself
to these people, because he knew their faith, what they believed,
was based upon what they could see, what they could touch, the
physical evidences. It was based on seeing the miracles,
not believing Him, not believing the Word of God alone, so He
did not commit Himself unto them. Now, these Pharisees and Sadducees
back in our text, they came to the Lord seeking the same thing.
They wanted these miracles to see them in order that they might
believe. They said, if we see a miracle,
we'll believe you. They wanted to see signs and wonders. Let
me give you three lessons in this text that the Lord teaches
us here about to those who are seeking signs. Number one is
this, I want us to see the description of those seeking signs and wonders.
Number one is this, those seeking signs and wonders, they're religious
hypocrites. That's exactly what they are.
Verse one says, they came tempting. desiring Him that He would show
them a sign. They came tempting the Lord. They did not come to
Christ truly seeking to know Him. They did not come to Christ
seeking to believe Him. What they were doing is trying
to find a way to discredit the Lord. They're tempting Him. And
if they could discredit Him, then they could get so many people
were following the Lord, not them, they wanted to stop that
flow. You know, they wanted to reverse it back the other way.
More people would follow them instead of following Christ.
That was their goal in tempting the Lord. If they came to Christ
and their heart's desire was to know Him, they would have. He would have revealed Himself
to them. You can't find an example in Scripture where somebody came
to our Lord seeking to know Him that didn't. These men, they
left the presence of the Lord. The Lord actually left their
presence and they didn't know Him when He left because that
wasn't their heart's desire. They're religious hypocrites.
They were just pretending to seek the Lord. And what they're
really doing is seeking to justify their unbelief instead of seeking
forgiveness, instead of seeking righteousness in Christ. They
rationalized this in their mind, that if the Lord Jesus did not
perform a miracle for them, well, that would prove I don't have
to believe. But what if he had performed a miracle? What if
he had? They still wouldn't have believed him, because they're
tempting him. They're not there seeking to
know him. They would have found some false excuse to discredit
the miracle, just like they did in other places. They couldn't
deny the miracle. So they said, oh, well, this miracle was performed
by the power of the devil, not by the power of God. They never
would have believed it. They're seeking to justify themselves. And they're just religious hypocrites.
They wrap themselves in religion. like they're the most devout
of everybody you know. They're the deepest thinkers.
They live on a higher spiritual plane because they just spend
more time on their religion than anybody else. But if they were
truly religious, you know, true religion is knowing God. It's
knowing Christ. If they're truly religious, if
they were true believers seeking to know God, and if they'd had
faith, they wouldn't need to see any miracles. They just believed
that dying thieves Never saw a miracle, did he? But he believed.
He didn't have to see a miracle in order to believe. The Holy
Spirit gave him faith. If they had true religion and
true faith in the heart, the only thing they would have needed
was to hear our Lord preach and teach. If they had just sat still
and listened to Him teach, they would have known Him. But they
didn't. I mean, you think about this. In our study here through
Matthew, all the miracles. Think of all the miracles that
we've read about. How many more miracles did they need to see?
They weren't seeking to know Christ. They were not looking
for a reason to believe Him. They were looking for a reason
not to believe Him and justify themselves and their rebellion
and their unbelief. Oh, but they looked religious,
didn't they? Religious hypocrites. And people today do the same
thing. People today seek miracles partly for this reason, so they
don't have to believe on the sovereign God. So they don't
have to bow to Christ, the sovereign savior. They're looking for a
reason. They're looking for evidence to trust in something other than
Christ alone. But now they're religious. Oh,
my goodness, they're religious. But they're religious hypocrites,
just like these Pharisees and Sadducees. Number two, this is a description
of those people who are seeking signs and miracles. You know
why they're seeking that? They're seeking to see miracles
and things they can touch and see with the natural flesh. because
they're spiritually blind. Look at verse 2. He answered
and said unto them, When it is evening, you say it'll be fair
weather, for the sky is red. And the morning it will be foul
weather today, for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites,
you can discern the face of the sky, but can you not discern
the signs of the times? Now the problem with people not
believing Christ is it's not that people are not intelligent.
Human beings, even fallen man, is highly intelligent, very intelligent. They don't not believe the gospel
because they're not intelligent. They don't not believe the gospel
because they can't figure things out. People are very intelligent
in natural things. The advancements in science and
medicine just in the past hundred years is staggering. I mean, it's just staggering
what men can do, what men have figured out. But God can't be
figured out, not with the natural mind. God can't be seen with
natural eyes or the natural understanding. It's true, men can predict the
weather by looking at the skies. But men can't know God by looking
at the skies, by looking at the things that are made. Man can
figure out complicated math. I mean, the math that people
do is just astounding. They could send a man to the
moon and back. But man cannot figure out They
can't calculate this. How can a payment be made? How
can a payment for sin be made that's enough to put it away?
They can't figure out how can God save sinners and take them
to glory? Man can't figure that out, as smart as he is. So every
religious theory that men come up with about salvation and sin,
about righteousness and peace, about grace and justice, mercy
and love, every theory that men come up with like that, it's
always wrong. always, because it's built on
a bad foundation. It's built on human intellect,
not the Word of God. If we're going to know Christ,
Christ must be revealed to the heart supernaturally, by God
the Holy Spirit. That's what our Lord told Nicodemus
when they were talking. He said, Nicodemus, nobody can
see, nobody can understand, nobody can enter the kingdom of God
unless he's born again. He can't see unless God gives
him new eyes of faith. He can't understand unless God
gives him a new mind, the mind of Christ in the new birth. That's
the only way we can see or understand or enter the kingdom of God.
Now, I have to deal with this for just a minute when the Lord
says, but can you not discern the signs of the times? When
the Lord talks about the signs of the times, He doesn't mean
like, well, there's different signs of the times, you know,
in every era. And at this point in human history,
he doesn't mean that men could somehow study the signs of the
time and figure out and know when it is that Christ will return.
A lot of people take these signs of the times and are trying to
figure out when Christ will return. That's an exercise in futility. Scripture tells us plainly, nobody
knows when Christ is going to return. Nobody can figure it
out. So when the Lord talks about the signs of the times, he talks
about the signs of the times in which he was speaking. The
signs of the time that when he was on the earth performing these
miracles, fulfilling every prophecy of the Old Testament scriptures
concerning the Messiah, he was fulfilling them all. They were
asking to see a miracle, but he'd already performed hundreds
and hundreds of miracles. Fulfilling the Old Testament
prophecies of the Messiah. The Old Testament tells us somebody's
coming, and the Old Testament gives us a description of the
one who's coming, so that you'll know him when you see him. And
the Lord said, can't you see? I'm fulfilling all these things.
That's what he's saying. But they couldn't see, could
they? Why couldn't they see? You read about these things.
You see, you believe. Why? Because God's given you
faith. They couldn't see it because
they're blind. And I tell you what, one reason they're blind
is they refused to see. Nobody is so blind as the person
that refuses to see. They have the gospel preached
to them. They have the gospel of Christ. laid out before them,
and they will not believe. They refuse to. These hypocrites,
they couldn't see because they were born blind, just like all
of us. None of us could see. We couldn't see, we couldn't
understand, we couldn't believe Christ. We're born blind. But these were also blind because
they refused to see. They refused to bow to Christ.
They refused to believe on Him. They're blind. Alright, here's
the third thing. The description of those seeking
signs and miracles, they are wicked. They're wicked.
Oh, they're very religious, but they're wicked and they're adulterous.
Verse 4. Our Lord says, a wicked and adulterous
generation seeketh after a sign. Now all religion, I try to warn
you about this, all religion is not good. Just because somebody
is religious, they act moral, they use religious terms. I use terms from the scriptures.
Doesn't mean that their religion is good. Does not mean that they
know God. All religion is not good. It's wicked. Is that too hard? That's what our Lord called it.
Wicked. He called it wicked. They're
wicked in their religion because it's religion without Christ. without Christ alone. Oh, they
use the name Jesus. They use the name Christ, but
it's religion without Christ alone. It's religion without
faith in Christ. It always involves works. And
the Lord calls them wicked and he calls them adulterous. And
you physically speaking, you know what adultery is. A spouse
committing adultery is seeking pleasure. They're seeking comfort
outside of the marriage union. And they always have an excuse
for what they're doing. Well, the same thing is true
religiously. A religious adulterer is seeking pleasure and comfort
outside of the union with Christ alone. That's what they're doing.
They're seeking it in their morality or their works or something other
than union with Christ alone. And they always have an excuse
for what they're doing. It's an excuse. It's a doctrine
made up from their mind, not taken from the word of God. And
these men were adulterous. They thought if the Lord Jesus
did not perform a miracle for them, it justified them in their
unbelief. It justified them to continue
on in that Jewish religion that sought righteousness in their
works, following the ceremonies, following the calendar, doing
everything you're supposed to do each day. And by your works,
you make yourself righteous and God will accept you. That's adulterous. It's adulterous because it leaves
Christ the bridegroom out of the equation. Seeking pleasure,
seeking salvation, seeking comfort somewhere other than the bridegroom
alone. And nothing could be more wicked
than that. Nothing. I don't care how you wrap it.
I don't care what kind of pretty package you put it in. It's wicked
and it's adulterous and we ought to stay away from it. All right,
here's the second lesson. There is a sign. God gives every
believer. Look at verse four again. A wicked
and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. There shall no
sign be given unto it but the sign of the prophet Jonah. And
he left them and departed. Now a sign shall be given to
all men. A sign shall be given that all
men should repent of their sin. They should turn from their man-made
religion and they should turn to Christ. They should trust
Him. They should believe Him. They should trust Him. They should
cling to Him as their all. That's what you hear in the preaching
of the gospel, in the preaching of Christ. That preaching is
the one and only sign, it's the only miracle, it's the only evidence
that God gives. And that's what the Lord means
here when he talks about the sign of the prophet Jonah. He's
talking about the preaching of the gospel. What if we could perform a miracle? What if we could lay our hands
on somebody and heal them of some disease? I've got a bad
back. What if you could lay your hands
on me and heal my bad back? That would be miraculous. So
far nobody has figured out how to do it. That would be miraculous.
Let me tell you a greater miracle. A man in the flesh. stands in
front of you, opens the word of God and preaches from it.
And you believe it. That's a greater miracle. Great. And I'd far rather have that
when you that's a greater miracle. Look at Matthew chapter 12. This
is what the Lord is talking about when he said about the sign of
the prophet Jonah. The story of Jonah and the whale
is not just a story to tickle our fancy. It's a picture of
Christ that tells us how it is God saves people from their sin.
Matthew 12, verse 38. And 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 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.
The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation
and shall condemn it, because they repented at the preaching
of Jonah. And behold, a greater than Jonah is here. Nineveh repented
at the preaching of Jonah. And this is what the Lord is
telling us, this wicked and adulterous generation seeking a sign. Nineveh
is going to rise up in judgment against you, because one greater
than Jonah is here. You won't repent. You won't believe. This is the picture that the
Lord lays out here for us. Three days and three nights.
The Lord Jesus Christ died as a substitute for his people.
And by the blood of his death, by the blood of his sacrifice,
he put away all of the sin of all of his people and he actually
died. They took a physically dead body
down from the cross and laid him in a rich man's tomb. and
he stayed there for three days. Just like Jonah stayed three
days in the deep, three days in that whale's belly, and after
three days, that fish vomited Jonah out on the ground. But
after three days, our Lord arose victorious over death, over the
tomb, over sin, over hell. He arose victorious, and His
resurrection is the proof His death, His blood justified God's
people from all of their sin. Death could not hold Him. You
know why? All that sin charged to him was gone. That's why he
arose from the dead. And that's the picture of Jonah.
When that fish vomited him out on the ground, he stayed there
three days as a picture of Christ. He would die, be in the tomb
three days, and arise victorious. And absolutely everybody who
trusts Christ is justified from all of their sin. If they're
justified by the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ, That's
what Jonah declared from the belly of the fish. This is the
message of the gospel. Salvation is of the Lord. That's
the only evidence we'll be given. The preaching of that message,
salvation is of the Lord. Now, here's your sign. It's the
preaching of Christ. And everybody that believes him
will be saved. Now these men, they refuse to believe on Christ.
They refuse to trust Him alone because their nature is so dead
and so wicked. And that's true, but that's not
the main point I want you and me to take from that. We have
the same nature. We have the same dead, hateful
nature. Our nature is so dead. It's so
filled with self-righteousness. tied to self-righteousness. Even
you and I here in this modern era where we're so civilized
and so religious, we'll sit here in these chairs and miss Christ
and refuse to bow to Him and not believe Him unless the Holy
Spirit intervenes and gives us life and faith to believe Christ. And thankfully, that's what God's
doing right now. He's not wrapped this thing up
yet. You know why? he's still got more people he's
going to call. There's more people for whom Christ died that he's
going to call to himself and he's going to do it. Nobody can
stop him from calling to him. Nobody can stop those people
from coming to Christ and believing on him. You know why? Because
salvation's of the Lord. This world has just gone off
its rocker and I'm convinced it's just going to go further
and further and further and further off its rocker. Hard to tell
where it's going to end. But I tell you what, I don't
worry about that one iota. I don't care what they're doing.
I don't care what this world's doing. God's going to call His people,
and they're going to be saved. They're going to come to Christ
because salvation is of the Lord. And you know how He tells them
about it? You know how He lets them in on the fact that Christ
has died for them, that Christ has justified them? You know
how He lets them in on it and gives them faith to believe Christ?
It's through this sign, the preaching of Christ. God still must not
be done with the tri-state area. because the gospel is still being
preached. He's still calling out his people. And that encourages
me, doesn't you? I hope it does. All right, here's
the third lesson. The third lesson is a solemn
warning. A solemn warning about seeking
signs and wonders. A solemn warning about wanting
or seeking anything spiritually other than Christ alone. The
Lord left these men in their false religion because they refused
to bow. They refused to believe on Him.
And I've said this so many times, it's very frightening to me to
see how often the Lord gives people exactly what they want.
They don't want to believe on Him. So He left. Alright, fine.
He left them alone. Now look at verse 5. When His
disciples were come to the other side, now they had seen all this
happen, and they had come to the other side, they had forgotten
to take bread. Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed, and beware
of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." Two wildly
different doctrines, two wildly different preaching. He said,
you beware both of them. Because the nuts and bolts of
them both are the same. It's works. It's self-righteousness. You beware the leaven of the
Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves,
saying, it's because we've taken no bread. Which, when Jesus perceived,
he said unto them, Oh, ye of little faith, why reason ye among
yourselves? Because ye have brought no bread.
Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the
5,000, and how many baskets ye took up? Neither the seven loaves
of the 4,000, and how many baskets ye took up? How is it that ye
do not understand, that I spake it not to you concerning bread,
that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees? Why don't you understand that? Then understood they. how that
he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine
of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. Now, our Lord warned his disciples,
he's warning people, warning all of his people, you beware
of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. And the disciples
thought the Lord was talking about physical things, physical
bread for them to eat, leaven that you would use to make that
unleavened bread rise. And we think, how could they
think that? We ought to know exactly how they think that.
When we're in this flesh that is so tied to this world, so
tied to the physical material things around us, we're so tied
to it that often we can't think beyond physical things, physical
material blessings. But even though they were thinking
wrong, our Lord still talked to him. And he asked him, what
are you worried about physical bread for? Don't you remember
the miracle of the 5,000, feeding the 5,000, feeding the 4,000? Haven't I yet showed you? I'll
provide. I'll provide for you. It occurred to me how often we
have to learn the same lesson over and over and over and over
again. And next time this very same situation comes up, we get
so worried and we just fret so much. Haven't we yet understood? The Lord will provide. Haven't
we yet understood that? And then they understood that
the Lord was warning them about false doctrine. about spiritual
bread, not physical bread. The Lord warns them, you beware
of this leaven, just a little bit of leaven. Just a little
bit of false doctrine put in your preaching will eventually
poison the whole lump and will be left with no truth at all. And I say this to Hurricane Road
Grace Church, don't you think that can't happen to us? Don't
you for a minute think that can't happen here? Because it can.
Our Lord here was speaking to and warning 11 future apostles. If they need to be warned, I
guarantee you we do. We just can't get like this world
so liberal and so nice that we tolerate men's works and man's
ideas on religion for a single second. Our faith, our conduct,
our preaching must be based solely upon the Word of God. The disciples
at first, once our Lord warned them about this, they arrived
at the wrong conclusion because they reasoned among themselves.
They reasoned, you know, what could he be talking about in
their own human intellect? And we can't allow that to happen.
We can't allow human reasoning to direct our gospel, to direct
what we believe. We can't allow human reasoning
to make us add anything to God's gospel or take anything away
from God's gospel. If we do, we fill the whole lump
with leaven. And you know in Scripture, leaven
is a picture of sin. If we back off an inch, if we
back off a centimeter, the whole lump's ruined. One work that
we rely on, just one, ruins the whole gospel, makes us debtors
to do the whole law of God. Saving faith can only be found
in the pure Word of God. Pure Christ. Purely believing
Him and nothing else. So this warning to us is to keep
preaching only Christ. To keep believing only Christ. And here's a real good segue
into the message in a few moments. Keep believing Him. Hang on to
it. Hang on to it. This is the dearest
treasure God's given us. Hang on to it.