Well, good morning. If you would
care to open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 11, where
our lesson will be from this morning, Matthew chapter 11.
Before we look into God's word, let's bow together in prayer. Our father, we bow before your
awesome throne of grace this morning. giving thanks for our
Lord Jesus Christ, that in Him we can come to your throne, the
throne of grace, anytime we have need, anytime we can come before
you and find grace to help in time of need, to be accepted
in our Lord Jesus Christ, to have our cry heard in Him, to
have our praise and our thanksgiving heard in Him, and to have our
petitions heard for Christ's sake. Father, we're thankful. How we thank you for salvation
that's full and free in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I pray
this morning that the name of Christ our Savior be extolled
and magnified. Enable us by thy spirit to hear
your gospel with the ear of faith and to worship. Enable us to
forget about the cares and goings on of this life Father, for this
hour, enable us to worship, to set our affection on things above. We thank you for the many blessings
of this life, how you've blessed us, Father, and we're thankful. We pray for those who are in
great difficulty, in times of suffering right now, Father,
we pray for them. We pray that you'd touch their
bodies, that you'd heal, that you'd comfort the hearts of your
dear people. There are many here right now
and your people in other places. Father, bless, we pray. And Father,
we seek your help in this matter of this virus that's going around,
that you would protect your people, that you'd give the doctors and
scientists some understanding of what to do to help people
and prevent the spread of this. Protect your people, Father,
we pray. And we are thankful to know, Father, keep this in
our mind and in our heart that you are in control. This thing
is not out of control, but it's in your direct control. Give us the grace and the faith
to rest in thee, knowing that whatever it is that happens to
us, you're doing all things well and wisely to accomplish your
eternal will and purpose. This is a surprise to us, but
not to thee. Father, we are thankful. Our
Father again, bless us. Bless us as we look into your
word, we pray. Enable us to see more of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Have our faith strengthened and
encouraged in him, in your word. All these things we ask, and
we give thanks in that name which is above every name. In the name
of Christ our Savior, amen. All right, now our text is the
first six verses of Matthew chapter 11. I want to read them first,
and we'll come back and make some comments. And it came to
pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his 12 disciples,
he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities. Now,
when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent
two of his disciples and said unto him, Art thou he that should
come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto
them, Go and show John again those things which you do hear
and see. The blind received their sight, and the lame walked. The
lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up
and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed
is he, whosoever should not be offended in me. Now, I will tell
you that I have always been of the opinion of this text that
John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask our Lord Jesus whether
he was the Christ or not, not for his sake, but for the sake
of his disciples. He wanted his disciples to hear
straight from Jesus. that He is the Christ, that they
would believe Him and follow Him. John didn't ask this question
because he was doubting, but for his disciples' sake. And
I will tell you that after studying this this week, that I don't
think that anymore. Even John the Baptist is cut
from the same cloth you and I are. John the Baptist, there's not
greater born woman than John the Baptist. He's got the same
flesh we do. He had the same nature that we
have today. And this text, just like all
scripture, is written for our comfort and for our learning. Maybe we'll find some help when
we're shamed of our weak faith. Now look at Luke chapter 1. John the Baptist knew, there
is no question, John the Baptist knew that Jesus is the Christ.
He knew this from his mother's womb. John 1 verse 39. And Mary arose in those days
and went into the hill country with haste into a city of Judah
and entered into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth.
And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation
of Mary, the babe, John the Baptist leaped in her womb and Elizabeth
was filled with the Holy ghost. And she spake out with a loud
voice and said, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the
fruit of thy womb." Now, Elizabeth knew that the Messiah was in
Mary's womb. Elizabeth knew that. John the
Baptist in the womb knew it too. Leap for joy. He knew that Jesus
is the Christ, didn't he? John the Baptist is the one who
baptized our Lord Jesus. He baptized him and when he baptized
the Lord, he saw the Spirit descend like a dove and sit upon the
Lord Jesus. John the Baptist heard the Father
audibly speak from heaven and said, this is my son. He heard
that. He knew that the Lord Jesus is
the Messiah. He knew that. There can't be
any doubt about that. John the Baptist is the last
of the Old Testament prophets. He was foretold of, prophesied
from way back there. Isaiah talked about him coming.
He's the forerunner of Christ. He knew Christ. He knew this
is the Christ. He's the one that said, this
is the name of God was taken away. The sin of the world. Now
you believe him, you follow him. There can be no question. John
the Baptist knew Jesus is the Christ. The savior said that
among them born of women, there hasn't been greater than John
the Baptist. Yeah. With all that being true,
John the Baptist still doubted. He still doubted. He had weak
faith and he needed to be encouraged. You think about John at this
time. Boy, life had changed for John. He's in prison. And he's in prison not because
he did anything wrong. He's in prison for telling Herod it's
wrong for you to have your brother's wife. And Herod threw him in
prison for that. That prison, I'm sure, nothing
like prisons today. I mean, I wouldn't want to be
in a prison today. Boy, they're clubbed mad compared to what
John was in. I mean, this place is miserable. And he'd been there
for a while. And he had plenty of time alone
to think. And it was evident that Herod was going to put him
to death. And John had to sit there and think, how my life
has changed. He had been a burning and a shining
light, hadn't he? Now he's in obscurity. Nobody's
hearing him at all anymore. He had been, he had had such
a, such a public, such a blessed ministry, and now he's alone
in prison thinking, what has happened? What has happened?
Why should I go preach again? So it's not surprising that John
would doubt when he was brought so low, is it? Maybe he was wondering,
why is all this happening to me? I mean, this is my cousin. If Jesus is the Christ, why wouldn't
he set me free from this wicked Herod? Why wouldn't he do that?
So he sent his disciples to ask the Lord, are you the Messiah?
Are you he that should come? Or are we supposed to be looking
for somebody else? And the Lord gave him an answer
that will strengthen his faith. I'm sure when his disciples came
back and told him what the Lord said, this strengthened his faith.
And the Lord will let you and me hear it. It'll strengthen
our faith when we find that our faith is weak, just like John's
was at this time. And there's something else. for
us to be aware of here going on at this time. At this time,
there was a division. There's some jealousy going on
between John's disciples and the Lord's disciples. You know,
John the Baptist came first, didn't he? He introduced, if
you will, he introduced the Lord Jesus to the public. And now
Jesus is more popular than John. There's a division. His disciples
didn't like that kind of bothered them. And there was some division.
There was some jealousy there. And the only reason for it is
weak faith. It's the only reason for it. I mean, you know, John
told his disciples, he told those people that said, oh, you know,
him who you baptize, all people go to him. He's greater than
you. John said, I must decrease and he must increase. But weak faith. I've got a problem
with that. I've got some jealousy with that.
So either way, there's some weak faith going on here. I've said
this many times now. There's never an excuse for us
to have weak faith. Never. Our faith, if it's saving
faith, is in the all-sufficient Savior. Our faith, if it's saving
faith, is in the Savior whose blood cleanses from all sin.
If our faith is saving faith, our faith is in the Son of God. There's no reason to ever have
any doubt, is there? But we do. Look at Matthew chapter
14. You know, even those who are
strong in faith have doubts and fears. Matthew chapter 14 verse 28. This is when the Lord
came walking to the disciples on that troubled sea. In verse
28, Matthew chapter 14, Peter answered him and said, Lord,
if it be thou bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said,
come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked
on the water to go to Jesus. Now you trying to walk on the
water this afternoon? You wouldn't even think of it, would you?
Peter was strong in faith to climb out of that boat and walk
on the water. He's strong in faith. But, verse 30, when he
saw the wind, boisterous, he was afraid. And beginning to
sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately, Jesus
stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto him,
who just moments ago was mighty in faith, to get out of that
ship and walk on the water. The Lord says, O thou little
faith, wherefore did you doubt? Boy, you can be strong in faith
one moment, I mean, in a split second later, be full of doubts,
can't you? Look at Matthew 28. Here's something that's striking. And if you're one of God's own,
you'll say, I recognize that. Here our Lord has been crucified. He rose from the dead and had
appeared to his disciples a number of times. And look here, Matthew
28, verse 16. Then the eleven disciples went
away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
And when they saw Him, He appeared, they saw Him and they worshipped
Him. But some doubted. While they're worshipping the
Lord, face to face, in person, while they're worshipping, they
doubted. You ever done that? Well, the Lord knew that. The
Lord knew they were doubting. And you know what the cure for
that is? What will strengthen that? It's
hearing of who Christ is. Look what the Lord said to them,
verse 18. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All
power is given unto me in heaven and earth. See, hearing again
of who Christ is, that'll strengthen your faith. Oh, he has all power. Now, like I said, there is no
excuse for weak faith. But the comfort for God's people
is this. Weak faith. It's shameful. We
hate it. But having weak faith does not
mean that you don't know the Lord. Having weak faith does
not mean that you don't trust Christ and that you're not saved.
Peter and the other disciples, they were saved, weren't they?
John the Baptist knew the Lord and he had weak faith. So weak
faith doesn't mean that you're not saved. Weak faith simply
means you're still in the flesh. See, the flesh never believes. The flesh can never believe.
The flesh will always doubt and question. That's all the flesh
can do. Now, the spirit can only believe,
can only ever perfectly believe, but we're two natures in one
body. So weak faith simply means you're still in the flesh. And
the Lord doesn't leave us to ourselves in this situation to
have weak faith. The prescription that the Lord
gives to strengthen the faith of his people is hearing, hearing
the preaching of Christ. Now, I'll show you that back
in our text, Matthew 11. It came to pass when Jesus had made an
end of commanding his 12 disciples, he departed thence to teach and
to preach in their cities. See, here's the prescription.
Here's the cure. It's preaching. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior
of sinners, he came preaching. Everywhere he went, he preached.
Well, what did he preach? He preached himself. He preached
who he is, he preached his kingdom, he preached his righteousness,
he preached himself. A saving faith is faith in Christ. All a sinner needs to do to be
saved is to trust Christ. I mean, right now where you sit,
you trust Christ, you shall be saved. You believe on the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. You will
be, there's not a question about it, you will be. Saving faith
is trusting Christ alone to save me. without any of my works being
added to him. Saving faith is believing and
trusting Christ alone. Well now, look at Romans chapter
10. The only way that we can be saved,
the only way we can receive faith like that, the only way we can
believe Christ like that is by hearing Christ preach. We have
to hear who he is before we can believe on him, don't we? The
apostle tells us this in Romans chapter 10 verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now how then shall they
call on him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they
believe in him of whom they've not heard? It's not just any
Jesus now. It's not the Jesus of your imagination.
You've got to hear of the true living God. You've got to hear
of the Lord Jesus Christ. How shall they believe in him
of whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sinned? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. See, somebody's got to preach.
The only way that we can believe and have this faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, believe on Him and Him alone, is by hearing
Him preach. Faith cometh by hearing. Well,
that faith is given through preaching and that faith is fed. It's strengthened. It's confirmed by hearing Christ
preached again. over and over and over again.
No question. John the Baptist knew that Jesus
was the Christ. Can't be questioned. And when
he sent his disciples, what did the Lord say? Go tell John again. Tell him again. We've got to
hear over and over and over again. That is how our faith is fed
and strengthened and encouraged. He said, you tell John again
what you hear. and what you see. See, first
comes hearing. Hearing the gospel preached. Hearing of Christ.
Then comes seeing. First comes hearing. Then you
see. Then you understand. Then our
faith is strengthened. Now, what are we to preach? Faith
is given and it's strengthened by preaching, the preaching of
Christ. What are we to preach? Where
are we to find what it is that we're to tell folks about Christ?
It's from the Word of God. from the Word of God, to preach
the Word. And it's important for us to see this. What would you have said if,
suppose that you're the Lord, and somebody who's known you
from the womb comes to you and asks you, are you he that should
come or will it for another? Wouldn't we just be prone to
say, you know I am, yes, I am. The Lord could have said that,
couldn't he? He could have said, you know, I am. Yes. And that
would have been enough because the Lord said it. But when the
Lord answered John, when he answered this weak faith, you know what
he used to answer him? The word of God. He used the
Old Testament scriptures to strengthen weak faith by preaching Christ
from the scriptures. See, we're never, ever to preach
our own ideas. We're not to use our own logic.
were to always and only preach the scriptures. Because faith
cometh by hearing, and not hearing just anything. Hearing by the
word of God. And that's what the Lord did.
I'll show you that. Look here in verse 5 of Matthew
11. He said, You tell John again
those things which you do hear and see. The blind receive their
sight, and the lame walk. Lepers are cleansed, and the
deaf hear. The dead are raised up, and the
poor have the gospel preached unto them. Now the Lord here
lists some miracles, but he didn't just, uh, he didn't say, no,
you know, look at these miracles I do. And, you know, it's, um,
it's obvious on the, even Nicodemus knows I'm the Christ or I'm God's
with me at least cause I'm working miracles, you know? So John,
that ought to be enough for you to know I'm the Messiah, but
that's not really what the Lord did. The Lord chose miracles
that he had performed that fulfilled the scriptures. that fulfilled
prophecies of the Messiah. And that is the confirmation
that John the Baptist was looking for. His question was, are you
he that should come? Are you he that should come?
Are you he that should come like the scriptures say that you should
come? Christ should come because the scriptures tell us he's the
only one who can save sinners. Christ should come because the
scriptures tell us he's the only one who can keep the law. Christ
should come because the Father in the Scriptures promised to
send Him. Now He should come to fulfill God's promise. Christ
should come to fulfill every Scripture and every promise of
God. And it's just exactly what He
did. Now look back in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 35. The Lord strengthens the weak
faith of His children by showing them Christ again from the Scriptures. When the Lord talked about the
blind receiving their sight, the lame walking, the deaf hearing,
that's a fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah chapter 35, verse 3. Strengthen ye the weak hands
and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful
heart, be strong. Fear not. Behold, your God will
come with vengeance, even God with a recompense. He will come
and save you. In the end, the eyes of the blind
shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then shall the lame man leap as in heart and the tongue of
the dumb sing. For in the wilderness shall waters
break out and streams in the desert." So this is a promise
given to those who have weak faith. You be strong and you
trust Christ. Trust in Him. Because this is
a prophecy of the Messiah, what He will do when He comes. Here's
how you can recognize He's the Messiah. He's going to give sight
to the blind. These are people who were blind
from their birth. I mean, they never seen anything
but darkness, blackness. They never seen sunshine. They
never seen color. They never seen the faces of
their loved ones. They were blind from birth. Their
eyes never did work. And Christ gave them sight. I
mean, you think what a miracle that that is. Can you just imagine
how happy somebody would be to be in that situation? He made
the deaf Here, they never heard a tone. And He made them hear. He made the lame to walk and
to jump for joy. Can you imagine how happy they
are? What a miracle that this was. But more importantly, this
is a picture of salvation in Christ. And that's really what
the prophet's talking about here. See, we're born spiritually blind. So we can't see Christ. We can't
see the light of Christ. We can't see the glory of Christ.
We can't see the righteousness of Christ. And we're blind to
our need of Christ. We can't see how much we need
it. We can't see our own sin. We are so blind spiritually.
We can't see our own sinfulness. We think we're pretty good, don't
we? By nature. You know the reason
we think that? We're blind. Yeah, we think,
well, mama's happy with me. Mama says I'm a good boy, so
God must be happy with me too. The only reason we think that
is we're blind. We're blind to the spirituality of the law. We think that the law is all
outward. That if I don't verbally tell a lie, I'm not a liar. If I don't actually take a gun
and kill somebody, I'm not a murderer. We don't understand the spirituality
of the law. We don't understand the sins
in the heart. We just think it's all outward. You know, if we
can clean up the outward and act better, you know, we got
rid of sin. We're blind to the nature of sin. So we're blind
to our need of Christ. Not only can we not see his glory,
we can't see our need of him. But when God saves a sinner,
he gives them eyes. See, first they hear, and then
they see. Then they understand. Now, when
God saves a sinner, they see their sin. See, because only
the new man can see the sin of the old man. Because the new
man, he's not blind. He sees sin. Now they see, I've
got no hope in myself. And now they see Christ. God
gives them eyes of faith to see Christ. They see his glory. They
see how it is that God can save a sinner like me and still be
just. It's only in Christ. Now I understand. Now I understand
the gospel. Now I see the scriptures. Now
I understand because I see Christ. God's given me the key to unlock
it all. That's a miracle, isn't it? It's a miracle that brings
joy to the heart. And the Lord healed the lame.
He healed folks that could not walk. And you think at that time,
you know, there are no social programs. They were beggars.
They couldn't support themselves. They couldn't work. We've read
several times here in our study in Matthew about those who are
sick of the palsy. They're paralyzed. I mean, they're completely dependent
on other people. You know, just the kindness of
them. There's no support for them anywhere. And the Lord healed
them. I mean, He healed them so well,
they immediately got up, took up their bed and walked, jumped
for joy, leaped for joy. What a miracle. But that's a
picture of all of us spiritually. We're born spiritually lame so
that we don't have the ability to come to Christ. We're lame.
We cannot come to Christ. And what's more, because our
nature is lame, we won't come to Christ. We cannot and we will
not because we're lame, spiritually lame. And when God saves a sinner,
He gives them feet to walk. They walk. When God saves a sinner,
He takes care of this problem of lameness. He makes them both
willing and able to come to Christ. He draws them and they come. He heals the lame. So they come
to Christ and they keep coming to Christ. That's what the Apostle
Peter talked about, to whom coming. Oh, just like hearing again and
again and again, we're coming to Christ again and again and
again continually. And then we're born spiritually
deaf. By nature, we can't hear the gospel. I mean, we can hear
it audibly. But we can't hear it. We can't
understand it. We can't. You can understand
the ABCs of the gospel. It's so simple a child can understand
it, but we can't love it. We cannot love it. We cannot
hear so we love Christ. So we love the gospel. So I hear
that's what I need. He is who I need. And God saves
a sinner. We hear, I mean, we hear in the
heart. We hear not just a preacher talking
anymore, not just the teacher talking anymore. We hear God
speak to the heart. And we believe we hear God speak
through his word. That's a miracle. Then the Lord
told John's disciples, he said, you go back and you tell John
how the lepers are cleansed. Now, that's a miracle in leprosy
at that time was a death sentence. I thought it might still be.
I looked up yesterday. Actually, there is, they say, a cure for
leprosy now, but there certainly was not at that time. It was
a death sentence. Leprosy was considered not just a disease.
It was considered to be an uncleanness, a spiritual uncleanness. So lepers
were not sent to the doctor because the doctor couldn't cure them.
Lepers were sent to the priest and the priest couldn't cure
them. All the priest could do is say, you're clean or you're
unclean. That's all he could do. And the law, we were not
going to take the time to read it, it's rather lengthy, but
the law gave a ceremony concerning the cleansing of a leper. And
you can read about that if you want this afternoon, Leviticus
chapter 14. And all that ceremony, there's two birds, there's wood,
there's blood, there's hyssop, it's clean water, all that put
together is a picture of salvation in Christ. But you know where
this had to start. Before leper could be pronounced
clean, the priest had to see he's full of leprosy. The priest
had to see. There's not one healthy spot.
You can't touch your finger on one healthy spot anywhere on
this person's body full of leprosy. You could not be clean, cleansed,
pronounced clean of leprosy unless you were full of leprosy first. Now, leprosy in scripture is
a picture of sin. And before a sinner can be saved,
we must be full of sin. We can't have one healthy spot
on us. We've got to be totally depraved. We've got to be totally
dead. We've got to see we are nothing
but sin. And we've got to see that. So
it removes all hope in the flesh. There can't be, I mean, even
a speck of hope left in ourselves. There can't be a speck of goodness
left in ourselves. Salvation is all Christ or none
at all. We've got to be full of sin. If God ever shows us that we're
full of sin, Now we can be cleansed. Now we can be cleansed in the
blood of Christ. Now we can be washed in the blood
of Christ. And that's what that ceremony,
Leviticus 14, is all about. It's a ceremony that shows us
that cleansing, life, healing, has all got to be in Christ. And if it's not all in Christ,
the sinner's condemned forever. And the Lord said, you go tell
John how the lepers are cleansed. Then the Lord says, you tell
John how the dead are raised up. Now, only God can give life. Only God can give physical life. Only God could raise the dead
back to life. That is such a miracle. I mean,
we read about it happening in scripture. I mean, can you imagine
what that would like to see a dead person raised back to life? I
mean, I just can't even imagine that. Can you imagine going out
there to that tomb at Lazarus and the Lord saying, roll away
the stone? And Martha said, Lord, you don't want to do that. He's
thinking, Lord, you know, you roll stone away. And they rolled away
that stone away and oh, the stench. Oh my goodness, the stench. That man's dead. And the Lord
told him to come forth and he did. I mean, can you imagine?
Can you imagine being in a funeral procession? and just walking
behind that funeral procession, being a mother who's lost your
only child, a widow who's lost your only child. And in that funeral procession,
the Lord comes up and touches the casket and raises him back
to life. Can you imagine? But you know, we've seen that.
We've seen it. I've seen it standing right here,
preaching. I see a light go on. I'm like,
believe there's something there. Believe there's something there.
And somebody will call me and say, I want to come talk to you.
And I tell Jane, I know what they want to come to. I already
know. I already know what they want to come talk about. I've seen it. God
saves a sinner. He gives the dead life. That's
a fulfillment of scripture. Remember the story of Ezekiel.
In Ezekiel chapter 37, the Lord sent him out there with those
dry bones. They're dead. Flesh is gone, eaten up, everything's
gone. No hope left. They were dry,
dead bones. When were those dry, dead bones
given life? God told Isaiah, you preach.
You preach. And the wind, the Holy Spirit
came and breathed life into them. That's how God saves a sinner.
First thing God does when He saves sinners, He kills them.
He kills the flesh so they see that they're dead, and then the
spirit breathes life into them. And he does it through the preaching
of the gospel, through the preaching of Christ. Now look at Isaiah
chapter 61. Isaiah 61. The Lord says, next, that the
poor have the gospel preached unto them. That's a fulfillment
of Isaiah chapter 61. The spirit of the Lord God is
upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings
into the meek. He has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening
of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord, the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort
all that mourn, to point unto them that mourn in Zion, to give
them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment
of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. Christ came to preach
the gospel, preach to the poor. Now that's a picture of who Christ
saves, the poor. Those who don't have anything
to offer to God. They're spiritually bankrupt.
They don't have one single good thing in them. They're full of
leprosy, full of sin. And God saves the poor. and makes
them rich in Christ, gives them the riches of God's grace. And
in that salvation, it's not by our goodness, is it? It's not
by the strength of our faith. It's by Christ. It's in Christ
by the riches of God's grace. All right, now back in our text,
Matthew chapter 11. The Lord used those fulfillment
of scriptures to show he is the Christ. How do I know, in my
weak faith, how do I know God saved me? How can I know that? The Lord tells us, verse six,
and blessed is he, oh, blessed of God, saved, made righteous,
blessed of God, forgiven, blessed, blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Oh, blessed is he, whosoever
shall not be offended in me. Here's how you can tell, even
in your weak faith, if God has given you faith or not. Are you
offended when you hear Christ preached? Are you? The preaching of Christ ought
always to offend the flesh. Always. But are you offended? Are you put off? I don't want
to hear that anymore. That's a hard saying. You can
hear it. When you hear of your inability, your deadness, that
you are full of leprosy, that you are full of sin, When you
hear, you cannot come to Christ. You will not and you cannot come
to Christ. Does that offend you? Does that
make you say, wait a minute, now I can choose to come if I
want to. I can come if I want. Or, when
you hear that about your inability, do you say, that's right. Amen.
That's right. I need Christ to come to me. I need Him to come get me. I
need Him to draw me. The salvation depends all on
Christ and nothing on me, because there's no hope out of me. Is
that you? Well, then God's given you faith.
There's hearing that God saves whom He will, when He will. That
God saves those whom He chose to save. He didn't choose anybody
good. No, He chose the dead. He chose
the offensive. He chose the sinner. That's who
God chose to save. Does that offend you? Does that
make you say, wait a minute now, I know my rights. No, no, no,
no, no. I can choose to come to God if
I want to. God owes me at least a chance
to be saved and that's only fair. I'm not going to hear that gospel
anymore. Or you hear about God's sovereignty
and salvation. God's electing love. Does that
make you say, amen, that's right. I need God to choose me because
I'd never choose him. I'm thankful for God's election
of a people. That's the only hope I ever have.
Is that you? Then God's given you faith in
Christ. It may be weak faith, and usually
is, isn't it? But it's saving faith, if it's
faith in Christ. And the more we hear of Christ,
the more we hear him preached, the more we'll trust him, the
stronger our faith will be. And John's doubting, I'm sure,
came from him looking at his circumstances, how his circumstances
have changed. And if we start looking at our
circumstances, we're either going to have false faith or weak faith.
Let's quit looking at our circumstances. Let's quit looking at what I
can and cannot do, what I do well, what I think I don't do
well, and just look to Christ alone. If we do that, our faith
will be strengthened and it's saving faith. I hope the Lord
blesses that too.