Well, good morning. Open your
Bibles with me, if you would, to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew
chapter 11. The title of our lesson this
morning is God's Prophet and Message from Matthew chapter
11. Before we begin, let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, we bow before your
awesome throne of grace this morning. So thankful. that in our Lord Jesus Christ,
we can come before a throne of grace, not coming before a throne
of justice, but a throne of grace and mercy for your people in
our Lord Jesus Christ because of who he is and what he has
accomplished for his people. And Father, we're thankful and
we are thankful to know that you are on the throne, that you
rule and reign in all things, that nothing that's going on
in our life, both the extraordinary and the unusual and the usual
day-to-day activities are all under your direct control. Father,
we're thankful that you're God who rules and reigns to know
that nothing is out of control, that it's all under your hand,
under your purpose, and we're thankful. Father, I pray at this
time that you would have mercy upon our country, upon our world,
that you would provide a way that this horrible virus could
be healed and put away. Father, thou art a great physician,
and we know that thou art able. If you will, you can make us
whole. I pray that you'd be with our leaders, those who make decisions
for the safety of our people, and be with the doctors and nurses
that treat those who are ill. Father, give strength and be
with them in a mighty way, we pray. Father, we pray for your
people, those who particularly in a time of trouble, they're
heartbroken, they're bereaved, they're recovering from many
various sicknesses. Father, be with your people.
Comfort their hearts. Give them a fulfillment of your
promise that you're not leaving to forsake your people. Father,
how we beg of thee at this time that we cannot meet together
in person, that you'd bless your word as it's preached. We are
constrained from meeting together, but you're not constrained. Father,
bless your word to the hearts of your people. Continue to cause
your word to go forth in power, to save your people, to call
out your sheep and feed and edify and comfort the hearts of your
people. How thankful we are to know thou art able. Bless your
word, Father, we pray. Bless us in this hour as we look
into your word. Teach us more of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the gospel concerning him. course, in his precious
name that we pray, give thanks. Amen. All right. Now our text this morning gives
us a description of God's prophet and the message that he preaches.
And it is very important for us to be taught this lesson so
that we're able to recognize God's preacher when we hear him
and that we'll listen to the message that God's given him
to preach. Because if God's given him the message, if he's God's
prophet, their salvation in his message. It's important that
we recognize and hear that message. It's also important for us to
learn this lesson so we'll be able to recognize a false prophet
when we see him. And we won't listen to his message
because his message cannot save and it can only hurt our souls.
And our Lord, in describing John the Baptist and his message,
gives us a description here of God's prophet and his message.
The number one point is this, God's preacher is consistent.
He's consistent with his message and his methods. Verse 7, Matthew
chapter 11. And as they departed, Jesus began
to say to the multitudes concerning John, what went ye out into the
wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind?
Now the Lord asked the people who were there, when you went
out to hear John the Baptist preach out there in the wilderness,
did you expect to see a reed that's shaken with the wind?
Did you expect to hear a man who would be inconsistent in
his message? Did you expect to hear a man who'd say one thing
today and something else tomorrow depending on who's out there
to hear him? That's not God's servants. God's servants are
not inconsistent men. God's preacher will not change
his message depending on who happens to be listening. God's
servant's not going to change his message by gauging who's
in the audience and telling them what he knows that they want
to hear. God's preacher is not going to change his message based
upon the whims of changing society. False preachers today say, you
know, we can't preach the same gospel that Calvin and Luther
and all those other reformers preach because society's changed
from then until today. I want to tell you, that's not
the reason that they won't preach this gospel. They won't preach
that gospel because it'll cost them hearers. That's not what
men by nature want to hear. And God's preacher is not going
to be inconsistent. He will not change his message
to fit what people want to hear at that particular time. Now
you already know, you've been taught this to know, you can
recognize a false prophet when his message does not match up
with the whole word of God. But you can also recognize a
false prophet in his inconsistency. His message is inconsistent with
the word of God but he'll also say one thing for a while and
then a few years later he'll say something else because he's
adapting his message to a changing crowd. He's trying to reach a
different crowd and he'll adapt his message to do it. And that's
reprehensible. Reprehensible. Don't ever listen
to a man like that. God's preacher has a backbone
of steel, and he will not change his message. His message will
be consistently the message of Christ. It has to be, because
the message of the gospel, the message of Christ, never changes. I don't care how much society
changes, the gospel of Christ never changes. God cannot change. God is immutable. Immutable is
a good-sounding religious word, which simply means God cannot
change. He can't change. God told us, I change not. Therefore,
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. God is holy and he cannot change
his holiness. God cannot save a sinner by ignoring
their sin. He can't change that. God is
just and God cannot change his justice. God cannot save a sinner. God cannot accept a sinner unless
their sin has been paid for in full. God is also merciful and
gracious, and God cannot change His mercy. He cannot change His
grace. That means two things. Number
one, it means this. If God has purposed to have mercy on a person,
God's going to be merciful to them. He cannot change His mercy. But number two, it means this.
If God saves a sinner, it's going to be purely by mercy and grace. God's not going to save a sinner
in the least bit by their good works or their decision or something
that they did. Salvation must be purely of God's
mercy and grace because God can't change his mercy and grace. When
God saves a sinner, it must be both just and merciful. That's the truth of who God is.
God, that truth can never be changed and it can never be compromised.
God's preacher will be consistent in preaching that God, declaring
that God to people. Any man who tells you that God
wants to and can't, or that God would change his character in
order to make allowances to save you, that man's a liar. God's
preacher will preach in such a way that God is glorified in
everything first, and he'll be consistent in that message. Then,
man can't change. No, God can't change, and man's
nature can't change. Man has a sin nature, and it
can't change. Man can only ever be completely
sinful. He's always unable to make himself. He's unable to make it to save
himself. He's unable to make himself righteous.
He's unable to even make himself more savable. Men by all their
religious activity can never please God because everything
we do is full of sin. That's man by nature, and that
truth will never change. I don't care how much society
changes. I don't care how many advances that we make in science
and medicine, how many advances we make in thinking we're stamping
out prejudice and so forth. The truth of man's nature can
never change. He's full of sin, can do nothing
but sin. He has no hope in himself. Now,
man's a false prophet if he gives anybody any hope in anything
that they do. A man is a false prophet if he
won't call men dead sinners, because that's what they are.
John the Baptist did. He was consistent in this, preaching
to men their sin nature. John's baptism was a confession
of sin. That's what John was preaching.
And God's preachers have been consistent, telling that truth
ever since. God's preacher will tell you
the truth about yourself. First thing that's got to happen
is he's got to kill the flesh. The flesh has got to be insulted.
The flesh has got to be killed. It's got to be put down. And
God's preacher can't be afraid to do it. He won't be afraid
to do it because the only way we'll be given life is the flesh
is killed first. Then and only then can we have
life in Christ. So God can't change, men can't
change, and the gospel can't change. Salvation is by the will
and purpose of God Almighty, and that salvation is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation began in the purpose
of God in divine election. It didn't begin when you made
a decision for Jesus. Salvation began in the purpose
of God in divine election. Then salvation was earned by
the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ to God's law. Salvation
is not in us obeying the law and being a good little boy and
a good little girl. Salvation is in the obedience of Christ,
his perfect obedience to God's law. The salvation was purchased
by the blood of Christ, the blood that he shed to pay the sin debt
of all of God's elect. Christ's sacrifice is not an
offer to me to see how many people might accept Jesus as their personal
savior. Christ's sacrifice is not offered
to me. Christ's sacrifice was offered to God. The blood was
before the Lord. The sacrifice was offered to
God for all the people that God gave Christ to save. And those
people are God's elect. Now those people shall be saved
because Christ's sacrifice put their sin away. The end of salvation
is applied by God to Holy Spirit, giving life and faith in the
new birth. A sinner does not receive life
by walking an aisle. giving their life to Jesus or
letting Jesus be the king of their life. Salvation is applied
to the hearts of God's people. When God the Holy Spirit gives
a new nature, a new heart that believes Christ, loves Christ,
trusts Christ. See, that is God saving us against
our will with our full consent. God saves his people against
the will of the flesh with the full consent of the new nature
that God gives. That's how God saves a sinner.
That's God's gospel. And it can never be changed.
God's preacher will consistently preach that message. And any
man who takes the edge off of those things or says things in
such a way that the message is unclear, like, well, you know,
it could mean this or it could mean this. I'll just take it
to mean what I want it to mean. I'm not exactly sure where he
stands on that. That man's a false prophet. He's not preaching the
gospel consistently. God's preacher will consistently
Preach Christ in every message, from every text, week after week
after week. And his message is not going
to change no matter how long he preaches. Now one would hope
that we'd get better at this thing of preaching as time goes
on. But the message won't change. If you can find a man who's consistently
preaching Christ like that, who's consistent in his message and
will not change it, his message is consistent with the Word of
God, you listen to him. That man's got a message from
God that'll save your soul. He's consistent. Number two,
God's preacher is not in the ministry for money, verse eight.
But what went she out for to see? The man clothed in soft
raiment? Behold, they that wear soft clothing
are in king's houses. Now John the Baptist, was not
a man who looked like the religious leaders of that day. He didn't
look like the scribes and the Pharisees who had all their fine
robes and their wide phylacteries. John the Baptist looked like
a wild man with his camel hair coat, his leather girdle, his
eating, his diet was eating locust and wild honey. I mean, the man,
he had to look like a wild man, didn't he? John the Baptist was not a pampered
man, was he? No, he was a hardworking man.
And you could tell by the way he lived his life, he was dedicated
to his calling. And that's God's servants. They
are hardworking men who are dedicated to their calling. God's preachers
are not in the ministry so that they can have a life of ease.
And most of God's preachers aren't like John the Baptist in the
sense that they look like wild men or they're eccentric or something
like that. But they are like John in this
way. They're hardworking. They're working class, hardworking
men. They work hard in the study.
They work hard in prayer. They give themselves to preparing
and preaching. And they do not have a life of
ease. They don't have to be pampered
and have the best of everything. That's not their primary interest.
God's preachers are not in the ministry to make themselves financially
comfortable. God's preachers are under shepherds
and their job is to care for the sheep. They don't live by
fleecing the sheep and hurting the sheep and taking from the
sheep. Their function is to care for the sheep, not take from
them. God's preacher is not trying to get something from you. He's
trying to give something to you. He's not trying to get your money
and your goods and all those things. He's trying to get you
to know Christ no matter what it costs him. If you find a man
like that, you listen to him. More than likely, he's got a
message from God for your soul. All right, number three, God's
preacher is a preacher. Preaching is his business. Verse
nine. But what went ye out for to see?
A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more
than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is
written, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall
prepare thy way. before thee." Now, John the Baptist
was a prophet. He was the last of the Old Testament
prophets. And John was faithful to his
calling. He preached until Herod finally
shut him up in prison and then eventually beheaded him. Now,
God's preachers are preachers. They're preachers. They're not
social reformers. They're preachers. Our dear friends
at Katie Baptist Church in Fairmont, West Virginia, They still to
this day call their old pastor, Scott Richardson, the preacher. They call him the preacher. That's
a pretty good compliment. Scott was a preacher. His business
was preaching the gospel. That's God's servant. God's preachers,
they work hard in this matter of preaching. They work hard
in the study, in prayer, seeking God's blessing, seeking God's
direction, seeking that God give them a message. They work hard
in study, studying the scriptures. They work hard in preparing a
message. And they work hard in faithfully and clearly preaching
the message, the gospel that God has given them. They spend
their time in the work of the ministry. Many of you have jobs
out there in the workforce, down at the refinery. You work hard,
you spend your time working hard there at the refinery. You might
work in a steel mill or a hospital or various things, whatever it
is, you spend your time there working hard at that. God's preacher
spends his time working in the ministry to preach the gospel.
God's preacher is not a politician who's trying to please as many
people as he possibly can. God's preacher is set, he's determined
to preach the gospel every time God opens a door for him to preach
it. God's preacher sees this is his responsibility is to feed
God's sheep, to take care of them, to watch over them, to
watch over them by preaching the gospel of the glorious riches
of God's grace in Christ Jesus. That's how God's preacher takes
care of the sheep, how he watches over them by watching over what
they hear. by watching over what they eat
spiritually, making sure it's the green grass of God's Word.
God's preacher, God's pastor, he watches over God's people
by preaching Christ to them consistently and faithfully. Now I want to
be a good friend to you. I want us to be able to enjoy
fellowship together like friends do. I would a whole lot rather
you like me as not like me. I mean, that's so. But I tell
you what I desire most is to be a good pastor to you. A good
pastor is one who faithfully preaches, preaches the gospel
to you. That's how you can identify God's
servant. And you find a man, that's his
business, is the preaching of the gospel. You listen to him.
He's got a message from God for you. Now, fourth, the message
of God's preacher is Christ. See, we read that in verse 10.
For this is he of whom it is written, behold, I send my messenger
before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
Now, God's servant doesn't just preach any old message. It's
not somebody just preaching for the sake of preaching. What's
he preaching? Who's he preaching? God's servant
preaches Christ. He preaches Christ. He preaches
all Christ. He preaches only Christ. Every
message that he preaches is Christ. Every message he preaches points
you to Christ. Now our message, the message
of God's servants is Christ and him crucified. And that doesn't
just mean we say that Jesus died on a cross. The preaching of
Christ and him crucified tells us what Christ accomplished by
his death on the cross. What did Christ accomplish by
his death on the cross? He accomplished the eternal salvation
of all of God's elect. He accomplished the eternal salvation. He put away all the sin of all
the people that God gave him to save because of who died,
because of whose blood it was. The message of Christ and him
crucified tells us who Christ is. He's the son of God. He's
both God and man. He is the promised Messiah. He
is the perfect Lamb whose sacrifice is able to take away the sin
of His people. That's our message every time
we preach. Every time God's servant preaches,
his message is Christ. Christ is our salvation. Christ is our righteousness.
Christ is our sanctification. Christ is our hope. Everything
God requires of a sinner is in Christ. So our message is only
Christ. It's all Christ, only Christ.
every time we preach. It's not trying to get people
to straighten up and fly right. It's not trying to get people
to do this, that, or the other. Our message is to preach Christ. The only way you'll know Christ
the Savior is if God sends some man who's consistent, who's got
a backbone of steel, who will consistently preach Christ and
only Christ to you. That's what John the Baptist
did. John the Baptist preached Christ. The Old Testament prophets
told us that the forerunner, they didn't tell us his name
would be John the Baptist, but they told us that the forerunner
is going to come and he's going to preach Christ. Isaiah 40 verse
2 said, John the Baptist is going to be the voice who cried, prepare
you the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a
highway for our God. Look back at Malachi, the last
book in the Old Testament, Malachi, Malachi chapter three. Malachi
prophesied of John the Baptist. God's messenger is going to come.
He's going to preach Christ. Malachi 3 verse 1. Behold, I will send my messenger
and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom you
seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of
the covenant whom you delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts. The Lord promised he would come
and he came, didn't he? And John the Baptist prepared
the way of the Messiah by doing three things. Number one, John
came preaching man's sin so that we would see our need of Christ.
That prepares our hearts to find out who Christ, to believe Christ,
to seek him out. John came preaching man's sin
so that we'd see our need of Christ. So we rejoice when he
came. Number two, John told of Christ who would come and would
save his people from their sin by his obedience for them. And
number three, John identified the Savior so people would believe
him and people who would follow him. John said, behold, the Lamb
of God was taken away the sin of the world. There he is. Now
you believe your sinner. If you need him, you believe
him. He's able to take away the sin of the world. And all of
God's preachers still yet do those same three things. We preach
man's sin so that we'll see our need of Christ. We tell of Christ
who has come, how He has saved His people from their sin, and
we identify the Savior. It's not just any Jesus. It's
not another Jesus like the Apostle Paul told us of. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ. Here's how you can identify Him
from His Word. That you believe Him and you
follow Him. That's the identifying mark of
God's servant. They preach Christ. And you can
tell The man is God's preacher. When he cares a whole lot more
about you knowing the name of Christ than you knowing his name. You can tell a man is God's preacher
when he cares a whole lot more about you following Christ than
you following him. He's not trying to gain a following
for himself. He's trying to gain a following for Christ. He's
trying to get you to follow Christ. God's servant wants you to revere
Christ, not revere him, revere Christ. And here's something
else about God's preacher. They're not in it for fame. They're
not in it for personal glory, to gain a personal following
for themselves and feel like, you know, they've got, they're
so adored because they've got a bigger crowd following them
than somebody else. John the Baptist set the tone here, didn't
he? John the Baptist was the forerunner
of Christ. John came first. He was preaching
first, preparing the way of the Lord. And the Lord came. He identified
the Lord. This is the Savior. Here He is.
But John came first. John was a bright and a shining
light for a time. He had a big following for a
time. But it should be of no surprise to us, when John the
Baptist identified Christ, more people started following Christ
than him. That was John's goal all along,
wasn't it? But people didn't understand that, and they came
to John the Baptist, and they told him, remember that one you
introduced into society? He's more popular than you are,
John. He's got more followers than you have, John. What was
John's response to that? John 3, verse 30. He must increase,
but I must decrease. Now that is the mark of God's
servant. Christ must increase in us. all things. That is the
driving desire of every one of God's preachers. All right. Fifthly, God's preacher is not
greater than any other believer. Verse 11. Verily I say unto you,
among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater
than John the Baptist. Notwithstanding, he that is least
in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Now, God's preachers
are to be respected. They're to be loved by God's
people for the work's sake. You're to pray for God's preacher.
It's like you're to pray for one another, but when you pray
for the preacher, you're praying that God bless him with a message
for your heart. And I hope you do love those
who give of themselves for your benefit. I hope you do love those
who give of themselves so that you'll know Christ, so that you'll
be fed and strengthened and encouraged and comforted by the preaching
of Christ. I hope you do love those who
make it their business to teach you the scriptures. And I'm thankful
that that is the attitude of this congregation. It makes the
job of being your pastor a whole lot easier, and I'm thankful
for it. God's preachers are to be respected, and they are to
be loved. But don't ever think that God's
preacher is better, that he is more righteous, that he's more
loved of God, His prayers are more likely to be heard than
your prayers are because somehow God loves him more than He does
the rest of His children. None of that is true in the least.
Our Lord who knows all things, this is what He said of John
the Baptist. There's not a greater, not been a greater born of woman
than John the Baptist. John the Baptist was a great
preacher. He was a great servant of God.
That's true. But this is also true. John the
Baptist is least in the kingdom of heaven. The greatest among women is equal
or the greatest among men born of women, the greatest is equal
to every believer who's been saved by Christ. That's what
the Lord saying here. Every believer, every one of
them, they're all made just like Christ. They're all made holy
in Christ. They're all loved in Christ.
They're all accepted of the father. in Christ. Now it has to be that
way, doesn't it? Has to be. If we're saved by
grace and our works don't add anything to our salvation, then
it has to be that way. That one's not greater than the
other. God's preacher preaches the message of salvation by grace
in Christ Jesus. You know why he preaches that
message? That's the way God saved him. That's the message that
he depends upon. Now that's the very man I want
preaching the gospel to me. I want to hear one beggar telling
me another beggar where he found bread, so I can go. Now you find
a man that preaches like that, who preaches Christ because he
depends upon Christ. You find a man preaching God's
grace because he depends upon God's grace. If you can find
a man like that, you listen to him. He'll have a message.