If you'll take your Bibles now
and turn with me to Matthew chapter 12. Then 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."
Now, Jonah was a prophet sent of God to a Gentile city. One of you that's read and are
familiar with the Old Testament Scriptures knows that there was
a separation between Jews and Gentiles. Jonah didn't want to
go to Nineveh. He didn't like Gentiles. He was
separate from Gentiles. And he believed that God was
going to save no Gentile. And yet, this is where God sent
him. And he went to that heathen people And God gave them repentance
and faith. Jonah was a type of Christ. He must be rejected and thrown
into the sea and resurrected from the deep to save the people
to whom he was sent. And Jonah was a prophet. He was
highly esteemed of the Jews because of God's unusual providence and
works that accompanied him, he was swallowed by a whale, taken
to the bottom of the ocean, and stayed there for three days.
That's not common. That's not ordinary. And so with
Moses, and so with Elijah, and so with these men highly esteemed
of these scribes and Pharisees, These were men whom God did miraculous
things. He split a sea and marched an
entire nation, some say over two million people, on dry land
across the Red Sea, and then caused that sea to envelop their
enemies. He rained down bread from heaven
in the middle of the desert. And he consumed their sacrifices
with fire. He caused the iron to float in
the river, to come to the top. He raised the dead, and so on. Now this whole chapter is about
God's true prophet, the prophet of God. This is what's been called
into question. Is this one who stands before
them, Jesus of Nazareth, is he the prophet of God? Not a prophet,
but the prophet. The prophet of whom Moses spoke,
after me shall the Lord your God raise up a prophet like unto
me. And He'll save His people. He'll
redeem His people. And this whole chapter is about
this prophet. It's about the good tree. You
remember our lesson last week. It's about the good tree. God's
tree. God's fruit. And this is what
he tells them. They drew a question mark on
his person, and on his glory, and on his mission, and on his
message. They draw a question mark. They
said, yes, he does works, but he does them by Beelzebub. He
does them by the prince of devils. And they drew a question mark
on him. They set him in an evil light. And then he turned to
the people, and he said, either make the tree good, and its fruit
good, or else make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt. In other
words, a determination is going to have to be made concerning
that man who stands before. Is this God's tree? Is this God's
tree? Is this God's fruit is what I'm
saying? Is it edible for you? Is it good
for your soul? Is it good to produce life? A
determination has to be made. And you have to make it. You're
going to have to make it. That's what He tells these people. It's about the good tree and
the corrupt tree. It's about true and false religion. And it's about those men who
feed the people. Now, here's the first thing that
the Lord will teach us on. Unbelief. Unbelief. And that's what He's talking
about here. Unbelief always requires a sign. Why? Why? Why do unbelieving men require
a sign? Because they cannot find in Christ
sufficient evidence to believe God. That's why. They cannot
find in this book sufficient evidence to believe God. They
need a sign. They need a sign. Now all these
supernatural acts of God in both the Old and New Testaments were
given to confirm those men who stood before the people to speak.
And we don't have that anymore. God's not going to cause me to
split a sea. God's not going to give me the
power to raise the dead. Because we have a full canon
of Scripture now. What I'm saying to you this morning
is not God-breathed. It's not inspired of God. It's
not going to make an addition to this book. I had this book. I had the testimony of God. And these acts and these miracles
were also pictures of Christ and how God saved sinners through
Him. Actually, our Lord did more miracles
than all the Old Testament prophets put together. There was hardly
a day went by. I don't suppose any day went
by when there wasn't an undeniable miracle done by Christ. It says
He went everywhere, healing the sick and raising the dead and
cleansing the lepers. When John's disciples sent out
an ambassador, they said, John sent us. Are you the Christ or
do we look for another? He said, you go tell John what
you saw. The dead are raised. The lepers are cleansed. But he was a miracle in himself,
wasn't he? Born of a virgin. Both God and
man in one person. He was a miracle of God standing
before them. The only man of his kind. Only
one of his kind. Both God and man in one person.
He was born of a virgin. He manifested as a 12-year-old
child wisdom that put the scribes and Pharisees to silence. He
manifested a godly life as a young child that even the elders of
their religion couldn't match. He said, which one of you, he
said, accuseth me of sin? Name my sin. Boy, I wouldn't
want to tell somebody that, would you? They'd probably write a
catalog on me, but they couldn't find one in him. Not one. Not one. Providence and prophecy
attended everything he did, his works. He healed all manner of
diseases, gave sight to the blind, hearing to the dumb, strength
to the paralyzed, life to the dead. He fed thousands with a
few loaves and a few fishes. He walked on water. He paid his
taxes with money taken from a fish's mouth, and he commanded the winds
and the waves to be still, and they obeyed his voice. He silenced
a religious mob. He turned water into wine, and
he cast out a legion of demons out of a man from the Gadarenes.
And of this man, unbelief would say, give us a sign. You see what I'm talking about?
We don't need a sign. The signs have already been given.
You can read about it in Acts of the Apostles. Peter stood
up on that day of Pentecost and said, This Jesus of Nazareth,
a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs
which God did by him in your midst, as ye yourselves also
know. They witnessed this man called
Lazarus. They watched him as a corpse,
a dead, cold, gray corpse. And they took him and they laid
him in a tomb. And then he laid in there for
three days. And they sealed him up with a
stone. Nobody went in or out. The morning people were gathered
around the tomb, morning, day, and night. Nobody went in. Nobody
came out. The Lord came and said, Lazarus,
come forth. And he came out of the tomb.
And the Jews went back. You know what they did? You know
how it affected them? They went back and they said,
Boy, if we don't put a stop to this guy, everybody's going to
believe him. Because they couldn't deny his miracle. That's what
Peter was telling them. God did this in your midst. In
your midst. My friend, faith is the gift
of God. And if God gives it, where God
gives it, to whom God gives it, they find sufficient evidence
in the Word of God to believe. It's here. It's here for that
man in whom God gives a desire. The evidence is here. The witnesses
are here. The prophecies are here, prophesied
thousands of years before He came. Faith finds an infinite
satisfaction in the gospel of Christ to believe and trust the
Lord. Faith finds an effectual sufficiency in the work of God
the Holy Spirit and requires no further signs nor evidence. God does a work in men. By grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God. It's the gift of God. And this
faith, when it's brought forth, you become then the workmanship
of God. Ordained unto good works. Created
unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should
walk in them. Your faith doesn't rest, as Paul
said, in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. And faith
is not blind. It's not without reason. Faith
is born of revelation. Faith sees Christ in the ceremonies,
Christ in the ark, Christ in Jonah's resurrection, Christ
in Nineveh's salvation. It sees Christ. It sees Christ
in the Lamb. That's what John saw. He saw
Christ coming down that path and he said, Behold the Lamb.
The Lamb. The Lamb of which all those other
lambs just stood in picture and time. Here's the Lamb. It sees
Christ. Faith finds no reason in God.
It sees the character of God in Christ. It sees the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It sees God's character. And
finds no reason in God to lie. Finds no reason in God for any
evil benefit toward Him. And every reason for Him to be
true. And faith learns of its own inability. The man who truly
believes is a man alive from the dead. He cannot get any worse
than he was when God found him. You're not going to get any worse
than that because he picked you up off the bottom. If God found
you, that's where He found you, on the bottom. He can't get any
worse than he was. He cannot be any more ungodly
than when God saved him. He was without God in this world. And faith discovers in the revelation
of Christ the great privilege of grace. The great privilege
of grace. Grace freely given. Given undeservedly. Given to the chief of sinners. Paul said, God save me that in
me He might set forth a pattern for all those that believe. God
save me, he said, the chief of sinners. If God will save me,
He'll save anybody. Oh, Mephibosheth, I always think
of him when I think about that. The son of Saul. Lame from his
birth. Ruined by the fall, wasn't he? And here in the promise of God's
King, he said, what is thy servant that thou shouldest look upon
such a dead dog as I am? The man who experiences the privilege
of grace. These royal blessings, these
precious blessings, these precious things, things of heaven, things
concerning the glory of God, things concerning eternal purposes
and glory, given to you, Russell, freely. Given to you. What's your reaction to that?
Huh? What's your reaction to that?
God's grace coming to you freely, undeservedly, in spite of what
you did, in spite of what you are. Coming to you to bless,
to lift you up, to raise you up, to open your eyes to see
His glory. How does that affect you? What
does that do? I'll tell you what it does, just
like my fibbership. You're standing there and you're
looking at the king's table. And David said, you seed him
right over here. He's going to eat with me. I'll
tell you what your reaction is. Who am I that thou shouldst even
look on such a dead dog as I am? What a condescension for God
to make promises to bless a man, let alone to pledge his son,
to sacrifice his son, and to send the Holy Ghost and His ambassadors
to convey His good will. The great sign of God to men
is the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. The hope of faith,
my friend, is Christ. That's what it is. It's Christ.
It's not in a system. It's not in an argument. It's
not in an invitation. It's in a person. And that person
is the Lord Jesus Christ. When He calls men, He calls them
to Christ. He calls them to Christ. That's
the hope of faith. And it needs nothing else. It
desires nothing else. It finds pleasure and rest in
nothing else. The eye that sees Christ finds
in him a divine satisfaction and finds himself complete in
Christ. And as Jonah's message and mission
was certified by his resurrection from the sea. Oh, Jonah, you
remember I study in the book of Jonah. That whale vomited
him out on the beach. And here's this man with seaweed
on his head and whale vomit all over him. And he runs into this
city and he's preaching from the bottom of his soul to repent. And I tell you, old men looked
at him and they found sufficient reason to believe. This is God's
ambassador. His message and mission was certified
by His resurrection from the sea. And so the message and mission
of Christ by His resurrection from the dead, no other sign
is going to be given. This is the end of signs. This
is the end of signs. God raised Him from the dead. And then He singles out here
in this text, in Mark chapter 1, He singles out another person.
He singles out old Solomon. You remember who Solomon was?
David's son, blessed of God, given the gift of wisdom. And
this man was used as the king of Israel. And God raised that
nation up as a picture of true spiritual Israel. And He raised
them up in glory and power over all the other kingdoms of the
world. All those kingdoms fashioned before they was. All those kingdoms
with the walled cities and armies and giants and all these things.
God raised up Israel. And the Queen of Sheba heard
about God's King and His glory and the glory of His kingdom.
And she came to see the wisdom of Solomon. She came to see what
all the talk was about. She came to see what all the
fuss was about. And when she came, And when she
saw, she said to have never been told. Huh? That's a picture of
Christ. That's what happens when God
brings you to Christ. You're going to come see what
all the fuss is. That might be why you're here
this morning. You might just come see what all the fuss is.
Why does everybody say go over there? Why do you want to go
way over there? Their church is right here. Why we want to
go away? It might just be God called you
over here to see the glory of His King. Wouldn't that be something? Wouldn't that be something this
morning if God opened somebody's heart and eyes to see the glory
of God in Christ? Wouldn't that be something? Queen Sheba sought diligently
to see the wisdom and glory of Solomon. because of his reputation
as God's King. And so all believers are drawn
by the Father to Christ to see His wisdom and glory. And then
the third thing God will have His disciples to know concerning
this prophet is the present state and the end of every false prophet
and those who continually feed on their fruit. He gives it to
us in a parable form. And the stage, he says, begins
with a spiritual vacuum. His house is empty. The unclean
spirit goes out of a man. And he begins his search. He
begins his search. He discovers himself empty. Something he don't have. Something
they hear others talk about. Something they desire to find.
And so they look outside the house. Matthew 12, 43. When the unclean spirit is gone
out of the man, he walketh through dry places seeking rest and finding
none." That's what he's hunting for is rest. Rest. He's hunting for this rest people
talk about. He's hunting for this calm, this
peace. He's hunting for this satisfaction
that preachers talk about all the time. And he hears people
who go to church, he hears them talk about it. And so he goes
and he looks for it. Where does he look? He looks
everywhere. He looks in the temples, and he looks in the churches,
and he looks in the cathedrals, and the synagogues, and he looks
in the old libraries, and the ancient books of men, and he
looks to his family and his friends, and he looks to his traditional
religion, but he finds no rest. He don't find it. He don't find
it because it ain't there. You see what the Lord's doing
here? He's telling us the story of man. That's what he's doing.
Every man, he's going to reach this age, he's going to begin
to search, and he's going to go outside of himself, and he
begins to look and see what men are talking about. And all he
can find is dry, dry places. And finding nothing to give rest
to his soul outside, he turns inward. That's right. He looks back at the house. He
quits looking outside the house and he looks in the house. And
what he sees looks pretty good. House is empty. Nobody but him
in there. And it's swept. It's all swept. Somebody cleaned it up. No cobwebs,
no dirt, no mud on the floors. And it's garnished. It's decorated.
The curtains are on the windows and bright tablecloth and beautiful
rug on the floor. It's all garnished. And he likes
what he sees. And he sees in his house, with
a little work, what a great place it'd be to live. And he moves
back in. He moves back in. But he's not
alone. While he was out looking for
this rest, he acquired some company. He found some company. Seven
other spirits more wicked than himself. And when he moved back
in, they moved in with him. What are these spirits? I don't
know. I believe it could be a spirit of self-righteousness, self-sufficiency,
self-glory, self-satisfaction. Could be a spirit of free will,
a spirit of works, a spirit of pride. I don't know what it was. But seven others worse than him
went back in with him. And then in verse 45, He said,
Then goeth he, and taketh with him seven other spirits more
wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. And
the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so
shall it be also unto this wicked generation. Now remember who
the Lord is talking to here. You know, I was taught in religion
to believe that Pharisees and scribes were a few men among
the Jews who were corrupted. That's not so. The scribes and
Pharisees were the chief men. This was the best they had, the
scribes and Pharisees. The best. They said if only two
men were going to be saved, one of them would be a scribe and
one would be a Pharisee. This was the best they had to
offer. And the Lord's talking to them who made these accusations
toward Him. And He's labeling them the same
as they labeled Him. He's telling the people, you're
going to have to make a determination because He that's not with me
is against me, and He that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
If they're not gathering with me, if they're challenging me,
if they're crossing me, then they're on the other side. They're
on the other side. And so he begins to describe
the false prophets. And here's the state of not only
the false prophet, but of those who follow him. So shall it be
also under this wicked generation. Now this is the story of most
religious men and women in this world. It's a story as old as
man, as Cain and Abel and so on, all down through time. It's
the story of man trying to make himself acceptable to God. It's
the story of man trying to save himself. And it ends with a man
taking refuge in himself, in his own wisdom, in his own will,
in his own ability, in his own faithfulness. And the last state
of that man, It's a state of religion. It's a state of satisfaction. He becomes satisfied. He finds
what his soul is looking for in himself. And he moves back
in. And there's nothing ever recorded
again about him moving back out. It's a man taking refuge in himself,
in his own wisdom, in his own will, in his own ability, in
his own faithfulness. And the Lord said, the last state
of this man is worse than the first. Because religious sin
is worse than anything this flesh can produce. To describe these
religious men, God's prophets were inspired to use the most
gross wickedness of the flesh. Have you ever noticed that when
you read the Old Testament? Or do you just read right over
it? Murder. That's what He calls them, murder. Adultery. Fornication. Read the book of Hosea. Prostitution. Men of effeminate character.
That's how they're described by the apostles. What's that
mean? That's men who dress like and
act like women. That's what that is. Effeminate
men. And abusers of themselves with
mankind. That's sodomites is what that
is. That's how he describes their person and their message and
their ministry. His last state is worse than
the first because He chose darkness rather than light. Our Lord,
isn't that what our Lord said over in John chapter 3? This
is condemnation that light has come into the world and men love
darkness rather than light. He made for himself a false refuge. He made his bed with devils and
found peace where there is no peace. And he'll soon be their
spokesman. He'll soon be the one who speaks
on their behalf. Without an intervention of grace,
this is the sure end of every fallen son of Adam. Outside the kingdom of God, Satan
rules over men. It said in Ephesians chapter
2, they walk according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. And they are, by nature, the
children of wrath, even as others. But in Christ, in Christ, I want
to end this thing on a positive note. In Christ, we're all one.
We're all one. In verses 46 through 50 of Matthew
12, The Lord denies any partiality even to His mother and brethren. They came to Him and they said,
your mother and your brethren. He was preaching and teaching
and talking to the people. And they came to Him and they
interrupted Him. Just be like somebody come here
this morning and run up here and the Lord was standing here
before you talking to you. And somebody run up here and
said, hey, your mother and your brothers and all, they're outside
and they want to talk to you. So you need to just stop everything
you're doing and go out there and see Him. He said, who is
my mother? Huh? There's no partiality in the
kingdom of God. In Christ we're all one. In Him
we're all heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. We're all
of the household of faith and of the household of God. Now
we've got natural brothers and sisters. We've got mothers and
fathers and aunts and uncles. But my friend, if you're a believer,
your natural family should not take precedence over the family
of God. It better not. It better not. He said, he that prefereth these
things, if this is where your preferral is, if this is what
you want, if this is the principles you live by, you prefer them
over the children of God, he said, you're not worthy of me.
That's what the Lord said. You're not worthy of me. Christ never forgot His mother.
And He fulfilled the commandment of God to honor her and provide
for her and care for her. One of the last things Christ
did while He hung on the cross was to call His servant John
up to His side. And Mary, His mother, was standing
there with her sister. And He said, Woman, behold thy
son. And He said to John, behold thy
mother. And he committed the care of his mother to that man. I remember back years ago, we
used to, on Sunday morning, there's quartets and gospel singers on
all Sunday morning. And then several preachers, I
can't remember all their names, Rex Humbard, and I don't know
who all was on there. And we'd get up, but I didn't
want to hear no preaching when I was a kid, but I liked to hear
the singing. And I remember this song they used to sing. I was
learning how to play a guitar back then, and I could kind of
play along with them a little bit. And they used to sing this
song, Will the Circle Be Unbroken. Brethren, there's no circle there
concerning this natural family we have here. There's no circle
there. They always want to talk about
reuniting, the reuniting of our families and glory. I might have
family there. I hope I do. But they won't be
known that way. I'm not going to be any marrying
and giving in marriage and all these corporal relationships
that we have here. We're going to be members in
a special way. He said you'll be like the angels. We'll know right now what these
relationships are all about. God gives us these relationships
so that we can better understand our spiritual relationship to
Him. That's what being a son is all about. That's what having
a father over his children is all about, so we can understand
the work of the Father, have a picture of it. We sing this song when we all
get to heaven. I'll never forget the first time
I heard Brother Mahan say, we all ain't going to heaven. We're
not all going there. Believers are going there. Children
of God are going there. Heirs of His Kingdom, God's elect
are going there. Guaranteed by the life, death
and resurrection and present reign of Christ. Thank you.