Well, good morning. For those
of you who normally like to watch the video, I apologize. The power
is out at the church, and we are coming to you today from
our basement. Chan and I are in our basement.
and while I record the messages for this morning. And Lord willing,
the electricity will be back on at the building soon. We'll
be able to resume. You can watch the videos, Lord
willing, next week. If you would, open your Bibles
with me to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11. The title
of the lesson this morning is Wisdom Justified of Her Children. Before we begin, let's bow together
in prayer. Our great God, our holy, sovereign,
just and merciful Heavenly Father, we bow before your throne of
grace this morning. Father, we bow, begging a blessing
from the storehouses of your grace that you have reserved
for your people. Father, we bow, begging your
help, begging your guidance and your leadership, begging that
you send your spirit upon us. Enable us, Father, this morning
to worship you from the heart. Enable Christ our Savior to be
exalted through the preaching of your word this morning. Get
glory to your name, Father. Bless the hearts of your people.
Call out your people and bless the hearts of your people, Father.
Give us a demonstration of Your power that while our world is
at almost a standstill, show us Your Word is not bound, that
Your power is not bound, that You're able to send Your Word
forth in power to reveal Christ the Savior, to show Your glory
and to save and edify Your people. Father, we thank You for this
opportunity to worship You in this way. We beg Your blessing
upon Him. We pray a blessing upon our world right now, Father,
that you would send relief from this virus, that you would restore
people to health, that you'd enable folks to go back to work
and to school. And Father, above all, that your
people could meet together in worship. We pray for the sick
and the hurting and the afflicted. Father, be with them in a special
way, we pray. All these things we ask and we
give thanks in that name which is above every name, the name
of Christ our Savior. Well, I took my title for this
morning's lesson from the end of verse 19 where the Savior
says, but wisdom is justified for children. I want us to see
three points this morning about wisdom being justified or demonstrated
to be real. First, I want us to see the natural
fleshly foolishness, what men call wisdom, but really it's
foolishness, is seen when men reject the gospel, refuse to
bow to and believe upon our Lord Jesus Christ. Number two, I want
us to see that God-given wisdom is justified, it's seen, when
God's elect believe the gospel and follow Christ. And third,
I want us to see that God's judgment will be justified or proven to
be just in that last day when he comes in judgment. But first
of all, the Savior begins talking about how fleshly foolishness
is seen when men do not believe the gospel when they hear it
preached. Matthew 11, verse 16. But where unto shall I liken
this generation? It is like unto children sitting
in the markets and calling unto their fellows. Now the Lord describes
religious people who have religion without Christ as children who
are playing church. They play church by having buildings
and pews and songbooks and so forth. They have women or men
and nowadays they have women who play being a preacher. They
say some religious words and they play church by dressing
up in the right religious costumes and using religious props. They're
using them just like actors do on a stage. but they're simply
playing church. They don't have Christ. They
don't have the message of Christ. And worse yet, when they hear
the message of Christ, they will not believe it. They will not
bow to Christ. I want you to listen to a statement
Matthew Henry made. He said, there is not a greater
absurdity than that which they are guilty of, who have good
preaching among them and are never better for it. They're
never better for that preaching because they've not believed
the good gospel preaching that they have heard. Now this morning, I know that
different people might be listening, but I'm preaching to Hurricane
Road Grace Church. And I have a warning for those
of you who have been here for many years. You heard good gospel
preaching. Many of you sat under the ministry
of Henry Mahan, John Chapman, and now Frank Tate. Now these
are men who have their faults. They're not perfect men, but
these are men who preach the gospel, the gospel. And here's
my question to you. Are you better off for it? And
by better off, I mean this. Have you believed the gospel
that you've heard preached? You've heard it preached, but have you
believed it? Have you bowed to Christ? I want
you to listen to the description of those who hear the gospel
and they're not wise. They're foolish. They demonstrate
their foolishness. They demonstrate having no wisdom
by not believing the gospel of Christ. First, it's seen that
they have the wrong reaction when they hear the gospel preached.
Verse 17, the Lord says, and saying, we've piped unto you
and you've not danced. We mourn unto you and you've
not lamented. Now, the Lord said, we piped
unto you. We piped pleasant, sweet music to you, and you have
it danced. We've preached the sweet melody
of the gospel to you, but it didn't make you happy. You know,
there's a time that we should be happy. Solomon said, there
is a time to laugh. There's a time to dance, he said.
And the time to laugh, the time to be happy and rejoice is when
you hear the glad tidings of the gospel. We should laugh. We should rejoice. to hear the
sweet sound of the forgiveness of sin in our Lord Jesus Christ. We should laugh, we should rejoice
to hear that there's righteousness for sinners in Christ. Sinners
should rejoice in that good news. But children who are just playing
church, they heard that and they just went on playing. They're
like the Jews that the Lord was talking to at this time. They
heard their righteousness cannot come by their obedience to the
law. They heard that their attempts to keep the law is nothing but
sin. But righteousness comes when we quit trying to keep the
law. We quit trying to make God happy with us by how well we
keep the law and we trust Christ, who has kept the law for his
people, who made them righteous by his obedience to the law for
them. When those Jews heard that, they got so mad, they killed
the Lord for saying that. And then they killed everybody
they could get their hands on who preached that same gospel.
But my question this morning and who I'm preaching to is not
those old Jews, it's you this morning. My question is, how
do you feel? What is in your heart when you
hear this piping, when you hear the piping of the gospel, the
good news of the gospel? Does it make you glad or does
it make you mad? Now, the Lord says wisdom is
justified of her children. Wisdom is seen in her children
in her reaction to the gospel, and foolishness is justified
of her children, too, in how they react to the gospel. Now
we should laugh and rejoice to hear that the Lord Jesus Christ
has taken my sin away from me when he was made sin for me.
Now that's a time to laugh. That's a time to rejoice. The
Son of God took the sin of his people away from them. That's
time to laugh. That's time to rejoice. That's good news. The
so-called fleshly wisdom, which really is foolishness, they get
mad. They say, that can't be so, because
I can't understand how it can be so. Why? They say, you're
a heretic if you believe that, because I can't understand it.
Well, wisdom is justified of the children. Wisdom is seen
in her children's reaction to the gospel, and foolishness is
justified of her children, too. It's seen in how they react to
the gospel. They haven't laughed. They haven't rejoiced when the
gospel, the good news, the good, sweet melody of the gospel has
been piped to them. The end, the Lord says, we've
mourned unto you and you've not lamented. We've preached to you
the truth about man's sin, about your sin. We preach the truth
about our sin nature. We preach the truth, the Lord
says, about the separation that our sin has caused us from God.
We preach to you about that awful, awful price that the Lord Jesus
Christ paid to put away the sin of his people. We preach that
to you. Now, these are serious, serious subjects that ought to
make us mourn over our sin. But children who are just playing
church, they didn't mourn. They just went right on playing
church. And there is a time that we should lament. Just like Solomon
says there's a time to laugh, he also said there's a time to
weep, and there's a time to mourn. You know, when we think about
our sin, that's a good time to weep. It's a good time to mourn.
But when the Jews heard this, they got mad. And the religious
world does the same thing today. They don't want to hear about
man's sin. They don't want to hear that they are totally depraved.
Oh, they don't mind hearing how other people are sinners, but
they don't want to hear how they are totally depraved. They don't
want to hear the truth from God's word that everything we do is
sin. That nothing we do can please
God. We cannot please God by what we do or what we don't do
in the flesh. Because everything we do is sin.
Now my question to you this morning is, what's your reaction to that?
How do you feel? What was in your heart when you
hear that warning? Now wisdom is justified over
children. And if God has given us wisdom, we hear about our
sin, we'll come running to Christ for forgiveness. We'll come running
to Christ for cleansing. That's the evidence of wisdom.
We run to Christ for forgiveness and for cleansing. And if we're
foolish and we're ignorant of God's righteousness, we're ignorant
of man's sin, we're just going to get mad. We're going to get
mad and we're going to keep playing church. We're going to keep going
about to establish our own righteousness and we'll not submit ourselves
into the righteousness of Christ. See, foolishness is justified,
is seen in her children, the children of the flesh, when they
hear the gospel, and they do not believe it. When they hear
the good news of the gospel, and they do not laugh and rejoice,
and they hear the solemn truths of the gospel of man's sin and
sin nature, and they do not lament. That's how foolishness is justified
of her children. And the second way that they
demonstrate their foolishness is the foolish they hear the
gospel, and they're quick to be critical of the preacher.
They blame their hatred of the gospel on the preacher by picking
at him. That's what our Lord says in
verse 18. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they
say, Well, he hath the devil. The son of man came eating and
drinking. And they say, behold, a man gluttonous and a wine-bipper,
a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified over
children." Now, the foolish, they're never satisfied with
the preacher. No matter what he does, they pick at him. The
foolish say, well, that preacher is too serious. He's like John
the Baptist. He's too serious. And John was a very, very serious
man. He didn't go eat and drink and go to parties and social
gatherings and so forth. All those things are too frivolous
for John. That's just frivolity to him. He didn't have time for
it. He knew he had a very short time to preach the message of
repentance. John knew the time was at hand.
The Savior, the Lamb of God was here and John had no time to
waste to preach this message of repentance, to prepare the
way of the Savior. He didn't have time to waste.
He's a very serious man. John came mourning over sin,
but the foolish wouldn't hear him. The foolish said, oh, this
John, he's too serious. He's all the time preaching about
sin and repentance and just bringing me down. He's such a downer.
I can't listen to somebody like him. He's so stern. He's always
telling me I gotta mourn over my sin. And the foolish, they
blamed their rebellion against God on the preacher. They blamed
their refusal to bow to Christ on the seriousness of the preacher,
on his character, characteristic, his personality. But they're
never satisfied. The Lord Jesus came as the opposite.
He came eating and drinking. He took the time to attend wedding
feasts, and he attended many other different feasts in Jerusalem. Now, obviously, our Lord was
very serious. He must be about his Father's
business. But the Savior was a very public man. He went to
all these public places and gatherings. He had time to talk to people.
He had time to stop and forgive the sin. the poor, vile sinners. He had time to heal the sick.
He had time to raise the dead. He had time to comfort the hearts
of the brokenhearted. He had time to spend with publicans
and sinners and pipe to them the good news. He came piping
the good news of the gospel. Publicans and sinners loved it,
but the foolish, they wouldn't have it. They would not be happy
and rejoice at the piping of the good news of the gospel.
The foolish said, I can never listen to a man who drinks wine.
That's so sinful. They hated John for not drinking
it. They hated the Lord for drinking it. See what they're doing? The
foolish blame their rebellion against God on the preacher.
Whether or not the fault was real or imagined, whether what
the accusation against him was real or imagined, they're blaming
their refusal to bow to Christ on the personality of the preacher. Foolishness is justified for
children. My friend, the issue is not the preacher, it's the
message. They refuse to believe the message. Foolishness is justified
over children. All right, here's the second
thing I want us to see. Wisdom is justified for children. That's
what the Lord said. God-given wisdom is seen when
God's children believe Christ when they hear him preached.
See, Christ is the wisdom of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is
our wisdom. He is the wisdom of his people.
He's made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
So when God's people hear the gospel, their heart reacts. When people who have God-given
wisdom hear the piping, hear the good news of the gospel,
their hearts rejoice. I'll show you an example of that
in Acts, the book of Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13, verse 44. And the next Sabbath day came
almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But
when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and
spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting
and blaspheming. Now there's foolishness justified
of her children, arguing against the gospel. But read on, verse
46. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed
bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should first
have been spoken to you, but seeing you have put it from you
and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn
to the Gentiles. You've heard the good news, the
piping of the gospel, and refuse to rejoice, so we're gonna turn
to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded
us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that
thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And
when the Gentiles heard this, when the sinners heard this,
when the heathen heard this, They were glad and glorified
the word of the Lord and as many as were ordained to eternal life
believed. The Gentiles who had been given
God-given wisdom, they rejoiced. They were glad when they heard
the piping of the gospel and wisdom was justified of her children.
They rejoiced and they believed Christ. We'll see the same pattern
repeated beginning in verse 49. Foolishness being justified of
her children and wisdom being justified of her children. And
the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. But
the Jews stirred up devout and honorable women and the chief
men of the city and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas and
expelled them out of their coasts. but they shook theirs, their
foolishness justified of her children. But they shook off
the dust of their feet against them and came into Iconium and
the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost.
There's wisdom justified of her children. Those disciples who
heard the gospel, they had God-given wisdom and they were filled with
joy. They heard the piping of the
gospel and they're filled with joy, joy in the Holy Ghost. That's
wisdom being justified of her children. Now if you will look
back in Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. When people who
have God-given wisdom, when they hear mourning, they hear the
mourning of the gospel, they mourn and lament. In Acts chapter
2, Peter's preaching here on the day of Pentecost, and he
says in verse 36 of Acts 2, Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God has made that same Jesus
whom you have crucified both Lord and Christ." Now, Peter,
you know the message he preached here. And here's wisdom being
justified of her children. Seeing in her children, the children
of wisdom, their reaction to the gospel when they heard a
priest. They heard about sin. They heard about the terrible
cost of sin that the Lord Jesus Christ paid for his people and
they mourned. Verse 37, Now when they heard this, they were pricked
in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the
apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said
unto them, Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name
of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and
to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many
as the Lord our God shall call." And with many other words did
he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward
generation. Then they gladly, first they
mourned and lamented, didn't they? Then they gladly received
his word and were baptized. And that same day there were
added unto them about 3,000 souls. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread
and in prayers. See these people that heard Peter
preach, they're not just playing church. They mourned over their
sin. They mourned over the cost of
their sin, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they lamented. They're full of fear. Man, brother,
what should we do? And then they rejoiced to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. See how wisdom is justified for
children by believing Christ. And then wisdom is justified
for children when faith continues, when someone continues to need
to hear the gospel preached. Wisdom is justified for children
when we continue to rejoice at the piping of the gospel. And
we continue lamenting at the mourning of the gospel. The gospel
gives us both, doesn't it? Mourning and joy. People with
God-given wisdom, here's the next thing about the children
of wisdom, their reaction to the gospel. People who have God-given
wisdom, they love God's preachers. And they love them for the work's
sake. They love them for the gospel's sake. Now God's preachers
are far from perfect men. Nobody is pretending anything
but that. God's preachers are far from
perfect men. We are sinners just like every other son of Adam.
God's preachers are sinners saved by grace just like every other
believer. There's no difference. We have our faults and our idiosyncrasies. But God's sheep, God's given
His sheep a heart that loves us and will listen to us anyway.
I know some of God's preachers who are very, very serious men,
and I love to hear them preach Christ. I know others of God's
preachers, they're quick to smile, they're quick to laugh, and they're
still very serious about the gospel, but they're quick to
smile, they're quick to laugh. And I love to hear them preach
Christ, too. You see, goats will never be happy with anything
but briars. They just want something to chew
on, something that they chew and chew and chew on, something
they can argue with. That's a goat's reaction. Goats will never enjoy
the plain, simple preaching of Christ. Goats will never be happy
under the leadership of an under-shepherd. They're too proud to be under
the leadership of an under-shepherd. but not the sheep. Sheep will
never be happy with anything but grass. They'll never be happy
with anything but the green lush grass of God's Word. Sheep only
want to hear plain, simple preaching of Christ. Sheep are happy to
be under the leadership of an under shepherd because he constantly
leads them to Christ. See, to the sheep, Christ is
the issue, not the preacher. If a man leads them to Christ,
the sheep are going to love him. If a man points them to Christ,
the sheep will love him. And when we see his idiosyncrasies,
and we'll see them, we'll say, he ain't heavy. He's my brother,
because I love him for the work's sake. I love him for Christ's
sake. Now that's how wisdom is justified for children. Do you
see that? But my question is, which are you? Which are you? Are you someone who's wise, that
believes Christ, and bows to him when you hear the gospel
preached? Or do you reject it? Which are you? Well, here's the
third thing. God's judgment will be justified. God will be justified and proven
to be just and right in that last day. When God saves his
people, it's right. And God brings them to glory,
it'll be right. And when God damns the rebel, he'll be right
then too. Look what our Lord says back
in our text, Matthew 11, verse 20. Then began he to upbraid the
cities where most of his mighty works were done, because they
repented not. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe
unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which
were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would
have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you,
it should be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of
judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art
exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell. For the
mighty works which have been done in thee have been done in
Sodom. It would have remained until this day. But I say unto
you, that it should be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the
day of judgment than for thee. Now foolishness is justified
over children. Foolishness is seen in the actions
of her children when they refuse to believe the gospel when they
hear it preached. And the greatest display of foolishness comes
from ignoring good, solid preaching that God has sent our way. These
cities that the Lord upbraided, these were places where Christ
came and he performed most of his miracles. The Lord Jesus
himself came to these cities and he performed many miracles
in these cities, more than any other city. And the foolish,
they saw those miracles. They saw the power of those miracles. They saw the power of the man
performing these miracles. They saw these miracles with
their own two eyes and they still did not believe on Christ. The
Lord called several apostles out of these cities. People knew
these men. The Lord called them out of these
cities and they knew them. They knew them. They heard them
preach and they would not believe them. And Lord said, in his condemnation
of these cities, he said, if I had sent these same signs and
these same wonders, if I had sent this same preaching to Sodom
and Gomorrah, those cities would be remaining to this day. If
I had sent this preaching to Sodom, the Sodomites would have
heard it and repented and I never would have destroyed them. They'd
have been a thriving city to this day. Now you've seen and
you've heard truths that would have made Sodom repent. yet you
will not repent. So your punishment will be worse
than Sodom's." That's what the Lord is saying there. Now I want
to quickly give you two lessons from these verses. Number one
is this. God is sovereign. God sends his
gospel where he will and he withholds it where he will. God saves whom
he will and he passes by whom he will. God grants repentance
to whom he will. God gives wisdom to believe Christ
to whom he will. God can do that because he's
sovereign. It's his to give. Salvation, grace, and mercy,
life are all his to give, and they're his to withhold. Now
everyone, without exception, deserves to go to hell for their
sin. Everyone does. But the good news of the gospel
being piped to us is God's gonna save someone. He's gonna save
somebody. Now, wisdom is justified for
children when they cry, Lord, save me. Lord, you're gonna save
somebody. You're gonna show mercy on someone.
Lord, save me. Lord, have mercy on me. Begging
for mercy is God-given wisdom on display. Here's how wisdom
is justified for children. We hear God soften, saving whom
he will. Wisdom is seen when we beg God
for mercy. All right, number two. First
lesson from this is God is sovereign, and number two is this. There
will be degrees of hell, but there will be no degrees of glory.
Hell, I don't even, I don't like to talk about the place, I don't
like to think about it, but it's a real place. Hell will be worse
for those who have heard the gospel and refuse to believe
it. It'll be worse for them than those who never did hear the
gospel. Hell will be worse for those people because they've
sinned against greater light. See, one who never heard the
gospel, now they still deserve for God to damn them. They sinned
against the light of nature that tells them that God is. But the
other sinned against the greater light of the gospel, which reveals
God's son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It reveals salvation in him.
And they sinned against that greater light by refusing to
believe it, by refusing to bow to Christ, by refusing to beg
God for mercy. So God will be justified when
he judges. And when he does, everyone will
see that God has done right. Everyone will see God has given
everyone exactly what they deserve. No more and no less. See, there will be degrees of
punishment, but there will be no degrees of glory because everyone
in glory, everyone in heaven, is gonna be there by God's grace.
They're all there by pure grace. They're there by all grace. None of their works, but all
grace. They're all there by the same
grace, the same degree of grace, the same richness of grace. They're
all there by God's grace. Everyone in glory will have the
same righteousness. One will not be more righteous
than another. One will not be more glorious
in righteousness than another. They'll all have the same righteousness.
They'll all have the righteousness of Christ. Everyone in glory
will have the exact same holiness. Christ will be their holiness.
Everyone in glory will be made exactly alike. One not better
or different than another. They'll all be made exactly alike.
They'll all be made just like Christ. It can't get any better
than that. There are no degrees of glory. and wisdom is justified
for children. When we hear that and we cry,
that's all I want. I don't want anything else. I
don't want something that I can earn, because anything that I
can earn will earn me death. The wages of sin is death. I
don't want anything that I can earn. I don't want anything more
than Christ. being made like Christ, having
Christ, being in His presence and worshiping Him face to face,
that will be perfection for me. See, wisdom is justified for
children when we cry, Christ is all I want. How I pray that
that is the wisdom and that is the heart that God has given
you and me. Till next time, may the Lord
bless you and keep you.