Turn with me to the Gospel of
Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11. Let me say an introduction as you're
turning there that our Lord Jesus Christ did many, many wonderful
and amazing miracles during his earthly ministry. And I love
to hear about the miracles that Christ did, don't you? Amazing. No one ever came to the Lord
Jesus crying for mercy that He did not give them mercy. No one
ever came begging for grace and help in time of need that Christ
didn't grant it. He is God in the flesh and He's
a merciful God. But today it seems people are
obsessed with miracles. There are television shows about
miracles. Multitudes of people flock to
television evangelists and their crusades to see some so-called
man of God perform their so-called miracles. People were interested in that type of supernatural
stuff. I know a man now who says he
believes the gospel because he supposedly seen a lady's leg
grow one time. And once again I say that if
it wasn't the truth it would be almost hilarious. See, it's
the preaching of the gospel that saves the lost. It's the message
of Christ that brings sinners to repentance. Never seen a miracle
ever done anything for anybody other than those who saw Christ's
wonderful miracles. Christ did these miracles to
show who He was. That was the purpose of His miracles. They were done for a specific
purpose. They were done to show those who saw them and the one
who did them was God in the flesh, the Son of God, the God-man. Nicodemus came to Christ by night
and one night he said, we know that thou art a teacher from
God. For no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except
God be with him. No prophet had ever done the
spectacular things that this man did, the Lord Jesus Christ. And these miracles were done
to bring men and women to repentance. They were done to show them that
they were in the presence of God Almighty. In the flesh. The perfect God-man. And Matthew
chapter 11 shows us this very thing. Look at verse 1 with me.
And it came to pass when Jesus had made an end of commanding
His twelve disciples, He departed thence to teach and to preach
in their cities. Now when John," and this is speaking
of John the Baptist, had heard," notice these words, "...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? John the Baptist, who had not
long before, I should say, professed with boldness and with revelation
from God, Behold the Lamb of God, he said, which taketh away
the sin of the world. Now we find him asking, Art thou
he? Or should we look for another? Christ himself speaks highly
of John the Baptist in verse 11. Look at it with me. Verily
I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath
not risen a greater than John the Baptist. But the key words
here, dear friends, are born of woman. You see, John the Baptist was
a man. Used mightily of God, yes, but
a man nevertheless. John pointed men to Christ. Preachers, true preachers. Preachers who preach the truth
of Scripture, the truth about Christ, they point men to Him. They say, oh no, don't look here.
I'm just a man. I'm just like you. I'm in the
same condition, same state before God Almighty. I'm shut up to
the grace and mercy of God. But we point men to Him. There's
a man that can redeem. But there's only one, and that's
Christ. John the Baptist was born of
a woman, and he pointed men to Christ, but he knew he was just
a man. And I believe that was why in
John 3.30 he said, he must increase, I must decrease. God had used him mightily to
prepare the way for the Lord. He said, I'm just a voice crying
in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. Here we see John the Baptist
as a man. Now if you don't know this by
now, you should. Men are fickle. Men have doubts. Even men of faith who are still
infected with the old depraved nature, they have weak faith
and cry unto God to help them in their unbelief. There's not
a day of study when I look into God's Word that I don't think
to myself like the Apostle Paul, who's sufficient for these things? I can't even study God's Word
without thoughts of, oh, of sin constantly going in
my mind. Never thought one good thought,
never done one good deed. That is in comparison to the
work of my Lord. Never forget that men are men.
Never put men upon a pedestal. And here we see John the sinner,
John the man, say with some confusion and doubt, are thou he that should
come or do we look for another? And some say these words were
John's way of confirming to his disciples that Christ was the
one and to follow him, and I don't dispute that. In the overall
scheme and purpose of God, He can accomplish many things in
one act of mercy and grace. But I want you to think about
it for a minute as a man or woman that is flesh of flesh and bone
of bone. First of all, John was in prison.
And you know the story there, he'd been thrown in prison because
he'd made enemy with the king by reprimanding the king for
taking his brother's wife. Thrown into prison. Here he is
in the dark dungeon of despair. And in verse 2, look at it. Now, when John had heard in the
prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples. Now here's the same man who had
once said, Lord, I'm not worthy to tie your shoes. Now he says,
ask him if he's the one, or do we look for another? Though mightily used of God,
John the Baptist was a sinner like you and I. All men born
of women, great or small, rich or poor, past, present, and future,
are sinners. And they're in constant need
of affirmation from their Lord. And in verse 4, Jesus answered
and said unto them, to these two disciples that John had sent,
He said, Go and show John again Notice that little word again,
those things which you do hear and see. Now as I said, many
of the commentators that I read on this verse vary in their interpretation. Some say, as I said, that John
had asked his disciples to ask Christ this question for their
sake, so they could hear the words from Christ Himself, that
He was the Messiah. Others said that John, knowing
his death was near, wanted to wean his disciples from him and
point them to Christ. And I sure won't argue against
either one of those points. But one thing I've learned from
the study of God's Scripture is this, God never hides in the
words of Scripture the faults of His elect people. It's as though God is showing
us ourselves once again in someone that He's used mightily
in Scripture. We see the false and the unbelief,
we see the anger and rebellion, the small and the great sins
of the greatest men God has ever used in Scripture for His purpose. Why? To show us once again that
there's none that doeth good, no not one. I think about Abraham, he lied
to the king about his wife Sarah. He laid with Hagar after God
had promised him a son through his wife Sarah. Noah, you can
go right on down the line. David took Bathsheba. God doesn't hide men's faults
in Scripture. But I believe here the Spirit
of God is showing us once again that the greatest of believers
are but weak in faith at best. Well, that's not a very encouraging
message. Well, I'm not done yet. I'll tell you why I believe that
to be so. One word in particular makes me believe that it was
John who doubted. I mean, not considering the fact
that I can relate. I'm a sinner like him. He's a
sinner like me. I'm full of doubts and fears. My faith at best is weak. I prove that about every day
of my life. And many times I find myself
saying unto my God, Lord, I believe. but help thou my unbelief." But the reason I think this was
John is because Christ said, you go show John again. Show him again. Those things
which you hear and those things that you see. Well, what had John seen and
heard? Well, in Matthew chapter 3, he had seen the heavens open
and the Spirit descend like a dove and land on Christ at his baptism. And what he'd heard, what had
John heard? He'd heard a voice from heaven say, this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him. And I know that John believed
all that he had seen and heard. And if there was ever a low time
for this great prophet of God, I'm sure it was right here. But notice that Christ doesn't
reprimand John. He simply says with love and
affection and instruction from one of his sheep, you go tell
John again. You tell Him what you've seen
and what you've heard. Tell Him again. And aren't you
thankful that the Lord is patient and tolerant and long-suffering
with us? How many times have I seen His
hand move in a sovereign way in my life? And soon after, I'm
down in the valley going, well, it's me. And the Spirit of God
says, Christ says to the Spirit of God, go show David again. Go show him again what you've seen and what you've
heard. Verse 5, the blind receive their
sight. Tell him what? Tell him that
the blind receive their sight. And the lame walk, and the lepers
are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up. And
the poor have the gospel preached to them." Tell John again the
great things that I've done. Tell him the blind receive their
sight. Tell him that those who could
not walk now leap with joy. Tell him that the lepers are
made whole again. Oh, leprosy, one of the most
dreaded diseases of that time. And I can't, without just getting
plumb disgusting, tell you how horrific this disease was. People's
body parts falling off. He said, go tell him that the
lepers are made whole. Tell him that the dead are raised.
That's something to talk about. And most importantly, tell him
that the poor have the gospel preached unto them. Now, I'm not going to be hard
on John because when I take my eyes off Christ, and I often
do, I doubt, I worry, I fret, and I
find myself in unbelief. But when I hear the gospel preached,
when I see blind eyes open to the truth of the gospel, when
I hear that the spiritually lame are given legs of faith, when
I see people's hearts changed, and I see God take out that stony
heart of stone and put in a heart that beats and pants after His
purpose and will, I'm once again affirmed to me. Go tell him again. Tell him again. Call his name Immanuel. God with
us. Tell John again the things that
you see and the things that you hear. For you see, these miracles
that Christ wrought were to show that He was the One who was to
come. And my friends, we like John
the Baptist and all other men and women born of women are poor.
And tell them again that the Gospels preach to the poor. We're
spiritually bankrupt. We have nothing, absolutely no
assets whatsoever to offer God. Well, Lord, I'm a pretty good
singer. I mean nothing. Lord, I've worked
hard to be a preacher. Filthy rags, works of righteousness,
self-righteousness. Spiritually bankrupt. Romans
7.14 says we're sold under sin. Sold under sin. Sin's covering
us. Sin's on top of us. Sin is crushing
us downward and we in ourselves cannot get it off. You see, our father Adam sold
us under sin. And when Adam sold us under sin,
sin is what we became. You and I are sin. You've heard me say from the
pulpit many times, but this week I asked a fellow, I said, are
we sinners because we sin? Are we sinners because we sin? Or do we sin because we're sinners?
Sin is what we are. And therefore, sin is what we
do. And I need a Savior to save me
from my sin. I need a Savior to take away
my sin. To remove it. We're not sinners because we
sin. We sin because we're wicked sinners. And our sin is a result of what
we are. We're born sold under sin. Has God shown you that? Has He
shown you that you're sold under sin? Has He shown you that you're
unprofitable? I've heard a message one time,
and I'm embarrassed to say I can't even remember who preached it,
but I never forgot what the man said. He said that we often describe
ourselves before a thrice holy God. We use words like totally
depraved. Depraved doesn't cover it, explain
it well enough. We have to add totally in front
of it to try to get it down there where it needs to be. We're totally
depraved. We put the word totally in front
of it to reiterate the fullness of our depravity. Totally depraved
from head to toe, sick, putrefying sores. But you know, this man said,
there's another word that describes you and I, and that word is ruined. Ruined. The man I heard preach
said this, he said, when you go to the refrigerator and you
pull out some leftovers that have sat there for a while, and
you see fuzzy blue stuff on it, floating on the top, He said,
you pull that dish out of the refrigerator and you set it on
the counter and you throw it away. You don't try to salvage
the dish by spooning off the fuzzy stuff. Now, I know we're
having lunch today and some of you are going to be mad at me,
but I'm trying to make a point, okay? He said, you don't take
it out and spoon that fuzzy blue-green mold on top. You set it out and
you say with disgust, this stuff is ruined. It's good for nothing. It smells, it'd make me sick
if I ate it. Totally ruined. That's a pretty
good word for me. In the eyes of a holy God, I'm
ruined. Can't be salvaged. Gotta start
completely over. Can't take this old wicked heart
that beats inside of me and clean it up and polish it up and make
it a little better. No, God's got to take it out
and put in a new one. Ruined. It's absolutely ruined and so
are we. Paul said in Romans 3, they're
all gone out of the way. They are all together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good.
No, not a one. Our heart is deceitful above
all things, and desperately wicked, Jeremiah said. And in another
place God says that every imagination of the thoughts of our hearts
is on evil continually. And we by His grace see that
He repented the Lord, that He made man on the earth, and that
He grieved him at his heart because of our wickedness in Genesis
6. Now let me just ask you honestly, do you see yourself that way?
Or are you like many others that say, well, I'm not all that bad. I'm no saint, but I'm as good
as the next guy. Has God shown you that outside
of Christ you're His enemy? and that your mind is enmity
against Him. And that word enmity is a determined
hatred. Determined hatred for God. I
hate Him on purpose. I don't want any part of Him
by nature. I don't want Him to rule over
me. I don't want Him to tell me what to do. I don't want to bow to his word.
I want to do my own thing. I want to do it my way. And you can say amen or oh me,
but that describes us according to scripture and it bears witness
to your heart if you're honest with yourself. Have you come to see your wills
not to have God rule over you? My friends, we are poor. We're
spiritually bankrupt, yet we have hope. For the gospel is
preached unto you again." Go tell John again. Go tell him
one more time what you've heard, what you've seen. I often wonder, am I saved or am
I not? But Christ says to his Messengers,
go show him again. Show him one more time. Go show Glenn Hansen one more
time the mighty works that I do. Go show Desta Richards again. That I make blind eyes see and
deaf ears hear and hearts of stone to believe. I am He. Go tell Him again what
you've seen and what you've heard. So let me reiterate the miracles
that Christ did were a witness that He was the Lamb of God. Now, if we look down to verses
20, we see that Christ began to upbraid the cities wherein
most of His mighty works were done, and it says, because they
repented not. Now, my friends, you see, it
is not miracles that make men repent. It's seeing who it is that does
the miracles that makes men repent. Miracles may make some curious. Miracles may make some interested. But the miracles, the mighty
works that Christ did, were done to show them that this was the
One spoken of in the Old Testament, who was coming to save His people
from their sin. Signs and wonders will follow
Him. This is my beloved son, in whom
I am well pleased." Nicodemus said, no man does the things
you do. In verse 20, He began to upbraid
the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done, because
they repented not. Verse 21, Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethesda! 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, verse 22,
It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of
judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which are
exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell. For if
the mighty works which had been done in thee had been done in
Sodom, it still would have remained until this day." God had never
destroyed it. But I say unto you that it shall
be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment
than for thee. Now in Capernaum, I just did
a little little history research in Capernaum Christ cured the
centurion's servant he recovered Peter's wife's mother, his mother-in-law
from from a death with a threatening fever that was about to cause
her death he healed the man sick of a palsy he raised Jairus's
daughter from the dead he made whole the woman that had the
issue of blood He opened the eyes of two blind men, and He
cast out a devil from a dumb man who was possessed, and He
did all these things and more in this one city. And Scripture says of them, and
they repented not." Christ is saying, you know that
I am He, yet you refuse to repent? you refuse to believe, then you'll
die in your sin. And that's no different from
our message today. From true gospel preachers, those
who tell the truth about God. Oh, the truth of the matter is,
friends, I was blind, but now I see. I was deaf, but now I
hear. My heart was made of stone, but
now it believes. Not like it should, but it believes. Only God can do these things.
And only God can save a sinner, because it is no different from
what He did in these miracles Blind men came to him, couldn't
see. Bartimaeus stood one day and they said, now hush up, you're
causing a ruckus. And it says he cried all the
more. He just got louder, Lord, thou Son of David, have mercy
on me. Christ said, what can I do for you, Bartimaeus, that
I might receive my sight? And I'm telling you, spiritually
speaking, until we cry out unto God and say, Lord, I'm blind. I can't see your mercy and your
grace. I can't see the one you have
high and lifted up on the pole. Give me eyes to see. What is
your desire, sinner, that I might have my sight, that I might see
Him? Unplug these ears that I may
once again hear the wondrous story of my Lord and Savior. Look back at verse 13 for a moment. It says, "...for all the prophets
in the law prophesied until John..." What did all the prophets until
John preach or prophesy? Well, Acts 10.43 says, "...to
him give all the prophets witness that through his name," whose
name? The Lord Jesus Christ. "...whosoever believeth in him
shall receive remission of sins." Forgiveness of sins. He's saying Christ is the one
of whom it is written in all the prophets. In Luke 24, Christ
said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all
that the prophets have spoken, ought not Christ to have suffered
these things, and to enter into His glory? And it says, In the
beginning, in Moses, and all the prophets, He expounded unto
them, and all the Scriptures, the things concerning Himself. That ark that Noah and his family
went into and escaped the wrath of God in the flood, that ark
was Christ. That lamb that was stuck in the
bush when Abraham took Isaac for sacrificing, he said, God
is able to provide Himself a sacrifice, and He did. That lamb represented
Christ. God provided Himself. not only
a sacrifice, but he provided himself as the sacrifice. And
that's the gospel. That rock that Moses struck,
that poured out waters of life to the people of Israel, that
rock was Christ. That manna, that bread that fell
from heaven to feed thousands upon thousands every day, that
bread was Christ. That Passover lamb that was slain
the night that God sent the angel of death, and the blood was sprinkled
over the door. That lamb was Christ, and that
blood was His. And even now, when God sees His
blood applied to me, He sees no sin. He passes over. He has
mercy and grace. That brazen serpent that Moses
lifted up high in the desert wilderness and all that looked
to it were saved, that brazen serpent was Christ. And if we
lift Him high enough for men to see in the truth and in the
glory of His gospel, all that look to Him will live. I guarantee
it. That's what He says. Look unto
Me and live. Why did some see and others didn't? Answers in the next three verses. Look at verse 25. And at that
time, Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, because Thou may be good to circle that,
because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and
hast revealed them unto babes." God does the hiding, and God
does the revealing. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto
me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son but the Father, and neither
knoweth any man the Father except the Son, and he to whomsoever
the Son will reveal him." And it's still true today. Those
of you who hear my voice, salvation is of the Lord. God hides these things from the
wise and the prudent, and He reveals them to totally dependent
babes. To know God is to know Christ,
and to know Christ is a gift from God, who is the only one
who can reveal this merciful truth. And to whomsoever the
Son reveals, we'll see. Verse 28, and I finish with this
very familiar passage of Scripture. Christ says, Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will, I will give you rest. It doesn't say, now
you tell me if your Bible says it, it doesn't say, won't you
decide to come? Does it? Does your Bible say
that? Won't you decide to come? Go on and make a decision today.
Don't tarry any longer. Make a decision to come to Christ.
It doesn't say that, does it? It doesn't say, please come.
It doesn't say, now I've made a way for you to come. It simply
says, come, and you know what? We can't. Well, how am I going to come
if I can't? Well, you don't have the ability to come, so somebody
is going to have to give you the ability to come. You see where I'm going? Oh, that one word entails so
much. You see, according to John 5.40,
Christ tells us that we will not come, that we might have
life. And to complicate matters more, according to Christ's own
words in John 6.44, no man can come. Doesn't have the ability. Except. Except. There's an exception. except
the Father which hath sent me." Draw him. Draw him. Oh, I tell you, we need to do
less bragging on ourselves and more bragging on God, don't we?
Well, I came to the Lord on July 17, 1983. I doubt it. I doubt
it. I've come and I'm still coming. come every day. No mortal man or woman has the
ability to come. Now we're getting somewhere.
We will not come, we cannot come, except, except, except, but,
but, but, unless the Father which sent me draws. The Father must draw us, my friends. Just as you draw water from a
well, God draws His children. A fellow at the well, he draws
as he's steady and he's constant. He doesn't want to spill that
water. And God is steady and long-suffering,
not willing that any of us should perish, any of His people, that
we should all come to repentance. And He's just steadily drawing,
still drawing. Draw me nearer, precious Lord,
to the cross where Thou hast died, to Thy precious bleeding
side. Draw me, Lord. Draw me nearer,
day by day. So come. Well, where do we come?
He said, You come unto Me. We must come to Christ. He doesn't
say come to the front of the church. Nowhere in this Bible
does it say, come to the front of the church. It doesn't say,
come to religion. It doesn't say, come to the preacher. It doesn't say, come to a decision. He says, come unto me. Me. Salvation is in a person. That me is Christ. Come unto
me.