Would you turn back to Matthew
chapter 11? Do you ever doubt? I'm not saying it's a good thing,
it's not. But do you ever doubt? Do you ever think, why is it
that there's so few people that believe as we do? Are we being
too narrow? Is the Bible really God's word? Do I really know God? Is there really a God? Am I deceived? I'm not asking you to give an
audible answer, but deep down you know the answer to this question. Yes, you do doubt. I dare say if you've never doubted,
you've never believed. Charles Spurgeon tells of a man
who said to him, I never doubt. Spurgeon's reply was, I never
had a doubt about you. I always knew you were a confounded
hypocrite. Now we have in our text the Lord's
word to a doubting disciple. John the Baptist. Verse 2, Now when John had heard in prison,
The works of Christ. I suppose people told him about
what was going on. He'd been in prison at this time
for about a year. Now, this is this man who was
raised in the deserts. He was raised in the wilderness.
He slept in the open air. A free spirit, John the Baptist. Now he's in prison. set up in a dark, dirty dungeon. And I can imagine how depressing
this environment must have been. And he told his disciples to
go to Christ and say unto them, Art thou he that should come? Or do we look for another? Now before we consider John's
question, let me remind you. Hold your finger there, you're
in Matthew anyway. Turn to Matthew chapter 28. I've already quoted
this. Verse 17. And when they saw him, the resurrected
Christ, looking at him with their own eyes, When they saw him,
they worshiped, but some doubted. My interlinear Greek Testament
reads it this way. When they saw him, they worshiped,
but they doubted. Look at the Christ, look at him. They doubted. Why does God the
Holy Spirit have that recorded? That's probably something I wouldn't
have recorded, but God the Holy Spirit had this recorded. Looking
at the resurrected Christ they worshiped, but some doubted. When the father of the demon
possessed boy who was hurting himself all the time. Oh, how
grieved he was. And the disciples couldn't cast
the demon out. And he says to the Lord, if you
can do anything, help us. He said, if thou canst believe.
He put it back on this one. All things are possible to him
that believeth. And he cried with tears, Lord,
I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. I believe. I do. Help thou mine
unbelief. Can faith and unbelief exist
at the same time? Yep. Yep. He certainly did with
this man. And they do with this man. and
they do with these men and women. If you're a believer, you have
a new nature that always believes, and you have an old nature that
never believes. And this is your continual cry,
Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Verse 2 of our text,
Now when John had heard in prison the works of Christ, John was
in prison, the same John that was foretold in the Old Testament
scripture. Nobody else was as far as men
go, only him. He's spoken of in both Isaiah
and Malachi. The same John who leaped in his
mother's womb when he heard about the Christ, filled with the Holy
Ghost from the womb, the scripture says. The same John who witnessed
the Holy Spirit descend like a dove upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He saw this. This was his experience. He's the one who baptized Christ.
You remember when Christ came to be baptized, he said, I have
need to be baptized of thee, comest thou to me? The Lord said,
suffer it to be so now. Thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness. The same John who said, behold
the Lamb of God. which taketh away the sins of
the world. And now he's asking this question.
Look what the Lord said about this man in Matthew chapter 11,
verse seven. And as they departed, Jesus began
to say into the multitudes concerning John, what went ye out into the
wilderness to see? You know, they didn't go to the
synagogues, they went to the wilderness. John didn't identify
with man's religion. They went to the wilderness to
see him. They wanted to hear him. They said, what did you
go out to see? A reed shaking with the wind?
Somebody controlled by public opinion that can go one way or
the other? But what went you out to see?
A man clothed in soft raiment? A rich preacher? Behold, they that wear soft clothing
are in king's court. But what will ye have for to
see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet,
this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before
thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily I
say unto you, among them that are born of women. Here's the
Lord's assessment of John the Baptist. 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, who became least
in the kingdom of heaven? The Lord said from the cross,
I'm a worm and no man. I'm not even fit to be called
a man. That's what he said with regard
to, he became least in the kingdom of heaven when he was made sin.
But oh, he's infinitely greater than John the Baptist. The Lord
lets us know that. He's greatest among those born
of women, but he's not like me. There's nobody like the Lord
Jesus, is there? Now, I don't know how long John
had been in prison. Most people think it was at least
a year, but you know that this man was a free spirit. He slept
under the stars, lived in the wilderness even as a boy from
a youth. He was in the desert places, the scripture says. Maybe he'd never even been in
a home before. at least from his early youth
on up, living in the desert. What must it have been for this
man to be confined in a prison? And I don't know what kind of
horrible place it was, but it must have been horrible. And
he was used to preaching and people responding to his preaching,
and what a man greatly used of God. Now all of a sudden, he's
shut up. He is in a place as far as his
experience goes where he's just been put aside. Nothing exciting
going on that he could see. He was in prison and soon he
would be beheaded. This is what's going to happen
very soon. They're going to carry his head
on a plate to Herod's wife. This is what he gets for being
a faithful servant of God. He spends the last year of his
life in prison. Then how did he feel when they
came in with an axe and cut his head off and brought the head
to Herod's wife who hated him so much. In prison, this dark, depressing
place, he hears from his disciples about Christ. You know the one
you said is the Lamb of God? Here's what he's doing. And John felt some kind of doubt at this
time. How could he do that? Same way
you do. Same way you do. You see, John had the same sinful
nature that you and I have. Same way. And so he says to his
disciples, you go to the Christ and ask Are thou he that should
come or look we for another? And some have said, well, John
was doing this for the disciples sake because they were having
doubts and he was sending them to him so that would take care
of their doubts. I don't buy that for a second.
Uh, you'd have to read that into it and come up with that on your
own because you won't find that in the text. John was experiencing
these doubts. And He says to His disciples,
you go and say to Him, art thou He that should come? Isn't that the message of the
Old Testament? Somebody's coming. Now, everybody in Israel believed
a Messiah would come. looking for a political deliverer,
somebody to deliver them from Roman rule and make them the
top dogs again. They didn't really understand
this thing of this Messiah coming to save them from their sins.
They didn't have any real understanding of that. They were looking for
more of power, a political ruler coming in to change things. And
they were looking for someone coming. And indeed, this is the
message of the Old Testament, somebody's coming. The Lord is
going to send His Christ, His Deliverer, His Messiah. Somebody is coming. In Psalm 40, He said, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book, it's
written of me to do thy will, O God. Somebody's coming. Listen to this scripture from
Micah chapter five, verse two, But thou Bethlehem, Ephrathah, though thou be little
among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come
forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth
have been of old from everlasting eternally. Are you him? Are you he that should come? Or look we for another, John,
you've already been given irrefutable evidence. God has shown you these
things. Why are you asking this question?
You saw the dove descend upon him. You heard the father's voice
from heaven say, this is my beloved son, hear him. Why are you asking
this? Now, I got to say one good thing
about John's dad. He went to the right place. If you feel like you're struggling
with doubt on any level, do what John did. He went to the Lord.
He couldn't get there physically, but he sent these two disciples.
Art thou he that should come, or look we for another? Now look in verse four. Jesus
answered and said unto them, go and show John again. Isn't that what gospel preaching
is? Go and show John again. John needs to hear again the
gospel. Go and show John again. What a mercy. What a grace. Go and show John again those
things which you do hear and see. Now notice the order. You
hear first. You won't see until you hear.
Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God. And if you
don't hear, you're not gonna see. Those things you, the Lord gives
this order. Those things you hear and those
things you see. Now, this is very interesting.
The things that they see is going to be what was already recorded
in the Old Testament scriptures. Now, turn with me, hold your
finger there in Matthew 11 and turn with me to Isaiah chapter
35. I have no doubt that John the
Baptist had read this passage of scripture. I'm sure he read
Isaiah. He read all of the Old Testament.
And there's other scriptures like this, but let me just show
you this one. In Isaiah chapter 35 verse 5, then the eyes of
the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be
unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap
as an heart and the tongue of the dumb sing. For in the wilderness
shall waters break out and streams in the desert." This is an Old
Testament promise. Now, go back to Matthew chapter
11, verse 4. Go and show John again those
things which you do hear and see. The blind receive their
sight, and the lame walk, 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 shall not be
offended. Now these miracles took place. They watched these things happen.
During that time, I don't know how all this worked, but during
this time when these disciples of John the Baptist were looking
on, they saw blind men receive their sight. The Lord gave them
sight. experienced most out of men.
People born blind, all of a sudden they see. They saw the lame walk. People who were crippled, who
had never walked, all of a sudden they leap up and walk. They watch
this. Lepers, hideous looking, were
cleansed, made clean. Deaf people heard for the first
time they were experiencing this, what the Old Testament said would
take place. The dead are raised up. I reckon
he raised somebody from the dead at that time. I know that he
raised up that young man in the coffin when he touched the coffin.
And that was very near this time. What about the little girl he
raised from the dead? And we all know about Lazarus who was
dead and stinking four days. He raised him from the dead. The poor, people that don't have
anything. They don't have anything. They're
the ones who the gospels preach to. And blessed is he whosoever
shall not be offended in me. First, here we have a description
of every man in this room and outside of this room. It's a
description of you by nature, me by nature. Blind, lame, a
leper, deaf, dead, and poor. That's me. That is you as a result of Adam's
fall. You were born into this world,
I was born into this world dead in sins. And this is what dead
in sins looks like. You're blind. You've never really
seen who God is. You've never seen His character.
You have all your thoughts and all your thoughts are wrong.
He's nothing like you think He is. He is as He says He is in
His Word, but you've never seen Him by nature. You're blind.
And because of this blindness to his character, you're blind
to yourself. You don't see your personal sinfulness.
You hear about it, but you don't really see it. You don't really
believe that you're the worst person to ever live. I mean,
there's all kinds of people. You're better than that. You've
never really seen your own personal sinfulness. Never seen that you're an unclean
leper. Leprosy is the great type of
sin in the scripture. And you've never seen that with
regard to yourself. You've never really heard the gospel. Oh,
you might've heard it audibly, but you never heard with hearing
ears. You're dead, deaf. You can't hear. You don't hear
it as good news. Probably it irritates you. You don't agree
with it. You don't like it. You don't like what you're hearing.
That's because you're deaf. Dead. Dead in trespasses and
sins. Dead, no life before God. Dead. Poor. You don't have anything
to bring to God but your sin. You don't have one thing to recommend
you. Poor. And here's what demonstrates
my deadness and your deadness and sinfulness We're offended
by Christ. He who is altogether glorious
and lovely, we find to be offensive. What kind of person would be
offended by the Lord Jesus Christ. An evil person, a person dead
in sins. That is the description of you
and I by nature. Blind, lame, a leper, death,
dead, poor, and offended by the Christ. Now, I just gave an accurate
description of you and to me. Everybody in this room and everybody
outside of this room, that's us. Go tell John again. You need to hear this again. Now, how can somebody this bad
be saved? That's a good question, isn't
it? How can somebody this bad, this helpless, this desperate,
how can they be saved? Saved. Let me quote a scripture to you.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. If that's not your favorite scripture,
it ought to be. Amen? Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. I'm talking about sinners who
couldn't save themselves. You know what dead in sins means?
It means, let me give you two words that I think explain it. That means you and I are totally
depraved and totally unable to do anything about it. By total
depravity, it doesn't mean everybody's out as an axe murderer going
and robbing banks and murdering people. It means every faculty
you have is under the dominion of sin. Free will is a lie. That's all it is. Every faculty
under the dominion of sin. And you're unable to do anything
about it. The Lord said, no man can come to me except the Father
which has sent me. and I'll raise him up at the
last day." Now, that's how somebody like me, you can be saved, because
Christ came to save people like that. He came to save sinners. Matthew 121, thou shalt call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now, he came. He came into this
world and he did what no other man has ever done. He never sinned. He kept God's law perfectly. That's what he did. He honored
God in every breath of his life. Yet, he's nailed to a cross. This one who never sinned is
nailed to a cross. Why? Him being delivered by the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. You have taken with wicked
hands and have crucified and slain. Although he was delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, that didn't
get us off the hook. we with wicked hands took him
and slew him." Acts chapter 4 verse 27, for the truth against thy
holy child Jesus whom thou has anointed both Herod and Pontius
Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel. That's
everybody. We're gathered together to do whatsoever thy hand and
thy counsel determine before to be done. This is God's purpose
taking place. He's called the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. Here he comes in time to save
his people from their sins. On the cross, listen to this.
On the cross, he became blind. When God covered the earth with
darkness, he couldn't see. When his feet were nailed to
that cross, he became lame. He was fastened to that cross. Bearing the sins of his people,
he became the unclean leper. Being deaf. He got no word from
God. Silence. My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? Silence. No communication from
God. He died. The God-man actually
died. Somebody says, how can the God-man
die? I don't know, but he did. He died as the sin-bearing substitute. The wages of sin is death. He
bore our sins in his own body on the tree. He died and how
poor he became. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ. that though he was rich, yet
for your sakes, he became poor. Poor, oh, the poverty of Christ. He who once enjoyed being God
and having everything that that entails now has nothing. Now through what he did, Him
becoming blind and deaf and lame and dead. Through what He did,
the blind received their sight. I see how God can accept me. I see that He made the way for
God to be just and justify me. I see that. In the cross, in
Him being blind and lame and dead, I see all the character
of God revealed. Every attribute of God is manifest
in His death on Calvary's tree. His justice, His holiness, His
love, His grace. God is revealed. I see. And I tell you what, I see who
I am. I didn't see before. I see who
I am now. I am now the sinner. And I'm not saying that by way
of compliment or in any other way than seeing I believe myself
to be the most sinful man to ever live. And I didn't see that
until I saw who he is and what he did. I see myself now. And I see God's salvation. The lame walk, not only through
the blind sea, but the lame walk. There was a time when I could
not come to Christ. I do now. Out of my sorrow, bondage, and
night, Jesus, I come to thee. Just as I am without one plea,
but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come
to thee, O Lamb of God, I come. Lepers are cleansed. You know,
I think this is so interesting. In the law, and you can read
about this in Leviticus chapter 13, the priest, one of the priest's
job was to declare whether a leper had been cleansed or not. And
if you came, read this yourself in Leviticus 13 this afternoon
if you want, if you came to the priest and if you had any healthy
flesh, back to the leper colony. You're
not clean. You're rejected. Back. But if
you came to the priest Completely covered with leprosy. Completely
covered with sin. Defiled like a devil. Completely
covered. You know what the priest declared
you to be? Clean. Clean. You won't be clean until you're
completely sinful. And when you're completely sinful,
you'll be declared by the Christ clean, just like that leper was. Remember, he was full of leprosy. The scripture says in Luke's
account, full of, totally covered with leprosy. And he came and
said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. The Lord said,
I will. Be thou clean. Lepers are cleansed. The deaf hear. Now before this,
before I was given ears to hear, I heard, but I didn't like what
I was hearing. When I was given ears to hear, I love what I'm
hearing. Christ is all. I'm given ears to hear and delight
in that message. The dead are raised. Dead sinners. are raised to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. God gives them life. The poor. Poor people are people who don't
have anything. Nothing. You don't have one thing to recommend
you to God, not one. If you're poor, you hear the
gospel. Gospel is preached to you. And look at this last statement
in verse 6. And blessed is he whosoever shall
not be offended in me. Not by me, but in Do you know
that three times in the scripture Christ is called a stone of stumbling
and a rock of offense? People stumble at Him. People
find Him offensive. Men were offended by Christ.
They were offended by His birth. He's a nobody. What's His pedigree? They were offended by His education.
He didn't have any. This man doesn't even know letters.
What's He doing teaching us? They were offended by his disciples,
a bunch of fishermen. He didn't have any armies. He
didn't have any wealth. He didn't have any of these things.
Everybody turned thumbs down on him. We don't see anything
in this man. There's no beauty in him that
we should desire him. How men were offended by his
claims. Thou being a man, makest thyself
God? I don't believe that. Who is this that forgives sins?
Remember when they said that? When he said to that son, my
sins be forgiven thee, be of good cheer. They said, who is
he that forgives sins? Why, by that he's saying as to
whether or not I'm gonna be forgiven, it's up to him. I'm offended
by that. I don't want to hear that I'm
utterly in his hands. He can forgive me or he can choose
not to forgive me and let me go to hell. I don't like that.
I'm offended by that. He said, I am the way. that excludes
all other ways. I am the truth. Anything else
is a lie. I am the life. My life is the
only life that God will accept. Well, we're offended at that.
But blessed is he. Blessed by God. You know, he's
the only one who can really tell you who's blessed. I don't know
how many times. I guess people mean well. I don't
know. I'm blessed. I'm blessed. Are you now? I don't
know if you are or not. I'll tell you what, you're blessed
if you're not offended in Him. Now, note the phrase, in Him. What's in Him? All the fullness of the Godhead
in a body. That's in Him. All of God's love. Nothing should
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. the forgiveness of sins, in whom we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. Acceptance, he hath
made us accepted in the beloved. All of God's salvation is in
Jesus Christ. There is no salvation apart from
him. All of God's favor is in Christ. Are you offended by that? No believer is. The only hope,
they're not offended by that. They find that to be their only
salvation. They say, with Paul, oh, that I may win Christ and
be found in him. That's the only place I want
to be in him. I find that offensive. You're crazy if you find that
offensive. You're plum mad if you find that offensive. That's
the only hope anybody has. Oh, the salvation. It's in Him. And blessed is he whosoever shall
not be offended in me. Now you go tell John again. Go
tell him again. He needs to hear this again.
The blind receive their sight. The lame walk. Lepers are cleansed. The deaf hear. The dead are raised
up. And the poor have the gospel
preached to them. And blessed is he whosoever shall
not be offended in me. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
gospel. And Lord, we ask that by your
spirit we might be told again the great things of your gospel, the accomplishments of your son,
the glory of his person, salvation in him. Lord, enable us to hear
and see the great things you've done. Bless this word for your
glory and for our good. We thank you for thy son. In
his name we pray.