If you want to turn to your text
it's Luke chapter 7. Luke chapter 7. I'll give you a little background
on what we're about to read. This particular passage of scripture
deals with John the Baptist and he's in prison. We don't know
how long he's been there, the scripture doesn't tell us, but
we know why he's there. He had publicly rebuked, he corrected
Herod, who was the Tetrarch, he was the underking of the province. And so Herod wanted to take his
brother's wife to be his own. And John openly said, no, you
can't do that. And for that, for that rebuke of Herod, John
is thrown into prison. Like I said we don't know how
long he's been there but we do know this that he's allowed to have visitors.
People are allowed to visit him while he's in the prison. Look
down at verse 18. It says, and the disciples of John showed
him of all these things. Now what did John's disciples
tell him about? If you read Matthew's account
of this in Matthew 11 it says that John heard the works of
Christ. I was thinking about that I don't
know that there's a better definition of gospel preaching out there
anywhere. Just talking about what Jesus Christ has done. That's
the preaching of the gospel. We were driving to church last
week and Tuck brought up the concept of denominations. And
he was asking about Catholics and Baptists and all these things
because he's heard out of this pulpit and others there's only two religions.
There's the world's religion. There's the gospel only too.
And he's like, well, why this? And why that? And all these things.
And I tried to muddle through an answer and I was doing a really
poor job. And eventually Jamie just stepped in. She's like,
there's two words you need to know. There's do and there's done. This is
the world's religion. It's do. There's something you
have to do to be saved. The gospel is always this. It's
done. Christ did it. It's over. That's the end of
it. He heard the works of Christ, the preaching, the gospel. Now,
like I said, we don't know how long he's been there in this
prison, so we don't know exactly what John has heard and what
he hasn't. But let's say for the sake of argument that John's
disciples confined what they told John to what's actually
captured in this chapter, the things that precede their meeting
with John. It would have been two stories, two things. First
one would have been the Roman centurion that had the sick servant. You guys remember the story.
man, this Roman centurion he had such a high view of Christ,
and such a low view of himself that he wouldn't go to the Lord
and ask Him to heal his servant. He sent the elders of the Jews.
He said, go ask Him for me. And so they go and they said,
we like this man, he's good to us. He gave us a synagogue. Will
you come heal his servant? The Lord said, yeah, I will.
And so he goes. And along the way he's going
to go to the centurion's house. The centurion sends friends out
to meet the Lord. Now pick up down here in verse
6 and see what happens. says, Then Jesus went with them.
And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent
friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself, for
I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof. Wherefore,
neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee, but say in
a word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man
set under authority, having under me soldiers. And I say unto one,
go, and he goeth. And to another, come, and he
cometh. And unto my servant, do this, and he doeth it." Now,
I appreciate this Roman centurion. I appreciate this man, because
this man knew exactly who he was talking to. He was talking
to God himself, and he knew that. And here's what he's saying.
He's saying, listen, Lord, I don't have the right to come out there
and speak to you. That's why I sent everybody else. I'm not
worthy to come out and speak to you. And I'm certainly not
worthy for you to come into my house and to darken my door.
But here's the thing. You don't have to. You don't have to. You don't
have to be in the same room as my servant. You don't have to
be in the same city. You don't have to be in the same town.
You don't have to be in the same universe. Wherever you're at,
just say it. And what he meant by that is,
just will it. Just will that my servant is healed, and he
will be healed. I don't know much, but here's what I know.
Whatever you will, that's what's gonna come to pass. Now, look
what happens here. Look at verse nine. heard these
things he marveled at them and he turned him about." I think
that's interesting the man said, don't come just will it from
right there. You know what the Lord did? He willed it and he
turned around and started walking the other way. And said unto the
people that followed him, I say unto you I have not found so
great faith, no not in Israel. And they that were sent returning
to the house found that the servant whole that had been sick. Now
this is the comfort for those of us who put our trust in this
God-man, Jesus Christ. What is His ability? What is
His level of ability? Anything, from anywhere, at any
time, all He has to do is will it. That's it. And His will is
always done. That's the first story they would
have told John. Now here's the second one. It's
about the Lord raising a man from the dead. And so it's a
day after he heals this centurion servant to another town called
Nain. The Lord's coming in and he sees
a funeral procession. And he sees a woman, she's crying,
she's a widow. And behind her there's a coffin. In that coffin
is her son, her only son. So not only has this woman lost
her son, she has lost all her resources. She is now absolutely
destitute. The Lord had pity on her. And
he walks up to the coffin. He puts his hand on the coffin.
He says, young man, I say unto thee, arise. And that young man
sat up, and he immediately started talking. Think about those two
things. Two stories that precede this
meeting with John. One, where the Lord heals a man
of his disease. Another, where he raises a man from the dead.
You know what you find between those two? The totality of salvation. And here's the first thing I
need. I need my disease healed. My disease is sin. He's a holy
and a sovereign God. Absolutely can have absolutely
nothing to do with sin. He demands absolutely perfect
righteousness. We want to see that. His perfect
sense of justice. Just go to the cross. When sin
was found on His Son He didn't spare Him. How much less would
He spare one of us? A perfect sense of justice. Something
has to be done about my sin. I must be righteous before God.
What's the other half? I have to be given life. He told
Nicodemus, you must be born again. There are spiritual demands to
believe. repent, to love God, to love His people. All these
things are necessary were born dead and must be given life.
Now you would think that with these two stories all they would
have told John, John would have felt encouraged, empowered, even
in prison there would have been some empowerment there. But look
at verse 19, see what happens. And John calling unto him two
of his disciples sent them to Jesus saying, Art thou he that
should come, or look we for another? That seems out of character for
John, doesn't it? This is the man that Luke records
was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. And I
can't begin to describe that. I don't understand how that works.
This man was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's
womb, in his mother's womb. This is the man who the Lord
Jesus Christ chose to baptize him. came to him he says, you
are going to baptize me. He said, Lord I have need to
be baptized of thee. He said, suffer it so for now.
And when he brought the Lord Jesus Christ out of the water
he saw the Spirit come down and descend upon the Lord Jesus Christ
in the form of a dove. And the heavens opened up and
God spoke. He says, this is my beloved Son,
in Him I am well pleased. And John would have seen all
that, and he would have heard all that. You look at the commendations
our Lord Jesus Christ gives John in this chapter. So, John John
sends his disciples out to speak with the Lord Jesus Christ, and
he sends them back after a while. After he sends John's disciples
back he speaks to the crowd about John, and he gives them all these
commendations. Look at verse 24, And when the messengers of John
were deported, he began to speak unto the people concerning John.
He said this, What went ye out in the wilderness for to see?
A reed shaken with the wind? Now I've heard a lot of people
say, well, this is talking about, you know, John was a real tough
guy. He was a real masculine figure. He wouldn't be swayed.
And maybe he was. I don't know. But that's not
what this is talking about. The illustration here is a reed
shaking with the wind. It's talking about a broken reed.
You know what a broken reed does in the wind? Whichever way the
wind blows, that's the way the reed shakes. So if the wind blows
that way, reed goes that way. Wind goes that way, reed goes
with it. He wouldn't change the message. John had a singular
message and he would not be moved by the popular opinions of men.
He wouldn't change his message. Now, the question is this, what
was John's message? Turn over to Mark chapter one. Look at verse four, Mark one. John did baptize in the wilderness
and preach, what did he say? The baptism of repentance for
or concerning the remission of sins. Now what does that mean? The baptism of repentance for
the remission of sins. Todd Kniper talks about this
a lot so I know you guys know this. Here's what this means, change
your mind. change your mind about how and why God remits or forgives
sins. We just talked about there's
only two religions, right? The world's religion, salvation
by works, and there's the gospel. Here's man's religion. There's
always something you need to do. Forgiveness of sins comes
at the end of salvation. If you do this, this, and this,
and stop doing this, whatever formula they give you, at the
end, God will reward your efforts with the forgiveness of sins.
John's saying that's all a lie. None of that's true. God could
never be pleased. He could never accept to count
something that comes from us. Here's the truth. Salvation begins
with God, for Christ's sake, freely and completely forgiving
a man of his sins. chose that man in Christ before
the foundations of the world were ever built. And because
Jesus Christ agreed to be that man's surety before the foundations
of the world were ever built. Salvation begins with God freely
forgiving a man of his sins. And everything that happens after
that is a byproduct of God freely forgiving a man of his sins.
Well, don't you have to believe? Yes, and you will. You will. If you've been selected, absolutely,
God makes sure of that. You're gonna believe, you're
gonna be given this gift of faith, but it's all just a byproduct
of God coming to a man where he's at in his sins and freely
forgiving that man for his sins because he purposed to. You guys
are familiar with Hebrews chapter six. In that chapter, it gives
six foundational principles of the gospel. You know what the
first one is? Repentance from dead works. It's the first foundational
principle. Here's the thing. Here's what
it is saying. Change your mind about your works. They're dead.
Number one, they lead to death. If you and I were to come to
God based on something we do, seeking acceptance because I
did this, this, and this, you know what that leads to? It leads
to death. You're going to die. Die in your sins. They can't
produce life. Change your mind about your works.
They're worthless. Get away from them. You know what the second
one is? Faith toward God. Repentance from dead works. Get
away from your works. Don't have anything to do them.
Don't bring them before the Lord. And you look solely to this man,
Jesus Christ, His person, and His works, and His merits alone
as your only hope of salvation. That's John's message. John baptized.
He preached baptism. What does baptism represent?
Union with Christ. You stand above the water and
say, when Jesus Christ lived, that is my righteousness. It's
my only hope. It's the only righteousness I
can speak of is the righteousness, His law keeping, His obedience
to His Father. When we go under the water, that's
when I died. God demands punishment. That's when I was punished in
the person of Jesus Christ. When we come above the water,
when He was risen, I was risen in Him, completely and utterly
justified. How can a man be saved? That way. That's the only way.
That's John's message. Now look down here. First 25 of your text, Luke 7,
25. The Lord continues his commendations
of John, he says this, he says, but what went ye out for to see?
A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously
appareled and live delicately are in king's courts. This is
interesting, John had absolutely no worldly appeal. If a man would
have looked at John, they wouldn't have said, well, this is a very,
I like this guy. This is great. This is everything
the world could ever want. This is a man who wore camel's hair.
He wore a big leather girdle. He ate wild locusts and wild
honey. There is nothing man would have found appealing about John.
If anything, they would have found him peculiar and off-putting,
but that didn't matter for John because John wasn't preaching
himself. He was preaching Christ. John was the forerunner, that
was his purpose. You know what a forerunner does? He would go
before the king, wherever the king was going to go, and he
would blow a horn, and he would tell everybody, everybody, listen
up, the king is coming, get down on your knees. That's what's
about to happen, the king's about to come in here, everybody get
down on your knees right now, the king's coming. That was John's
purpose. And this is what he says, in
Luke 3.16, he says, I indeed baptize you with water, one mightier
than I cometh, the latchet in whose shoes I am not worthy,
none loose. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with
fire." This is the man he is talking about, he was the forerunner
for another man for the Lord Jesus Christ. Look down at verse
26 it says, "'But what went ye out for to see, a prophet?' He
asked, saying unto you, And much 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 me." John the Baptist
was the only man in the Old Testament that was prophesied of other
than the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn over to Malachi chapter
3. If you want to know where Malachi is it is the last book
of the Old Testament. This is the prophecy concerning
John, it is Malachi chapter 3, look in verse 1. says, "'Behold, I will send my
messenger,' speaking of John, "'and he shall prepare the way
before me. "'And the Lord whom ye seek shall
suddenly "'come to his temple.'" And listen to this, "'Even the
messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in, "'behold he shall
come, saith the Lord, of hosts.'" Now when it says there, even
the messenger of the covenant, who is it talking about? people
are being talked about here, right? John the Baptist and the
Lord Jesus Christ are both spoken of in this verse. So who is the
messenger of the covenant? Both. Now John was a messenger
of the covenant. No doubt he preached the covenant
of grace. He would have said, before time began God had a people.
He elected, He chose a people because they were in Jesus Christ.
And He gave those people to His Son. He said, here's what you're
going to do, you're going to live for them. You're going to die for them.
I'm going to hold you 100% responsible for their safe return to Me.
Not going to look to them for anything. I'm going to look to
you solely. And He accepted that responsibility.
John would have been the messenger of that covenant. But make no
mistake, Jesus Christ is that covenant. Now, let me give you
a scripture to back that up. I thought this was beautiful.
The context of this is Father speaking to the Son. Shows all
His concern, His care for His Son. It's Isaiah 42.6 it says
this, I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, the Father
speaking to the Son, and will hold thine hand. You think about
that He says the whole time you're here I'm going to hold your hand
the whole way. And will keep thee and give thee
for a covenant of the people for a light of the Gentiles.
He says right there, He says, you are the covenant. But what
does that mean? What does it mean that Jesus
Christ is the covenant? I can think of two ways. You
guys are familiar with this scripture, this is Colossians 2, 9 and 10
it says, for in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
all dwell in this man, Jesus Christ. But listen to verse 10
it says this, and you, That's how verse 10 starts, in Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And verse 10 says, and
you, you're complete in Him. You see all the players in this
covenant, all the entities involved, they're all found in this one
man, Jesus Christ. The Father, the Son, the Holy
Spirit, God's people and you. It's talking about the elect
and you, you're found in this one man, Jesus Christ. And think
of the safety that there is in Christ. I was thinking about
this this afternoon, how many examples you could give about
this. You go all the way back to the ark. No one in his family
inside that ark. Around them, nothing but rain
and death and screams and things like that. And inside that ark,
bone dry and completely and utterly safe and couldn't be any other
way. That's what it is to be in Christ. Exodus 33. The Lord says, I'm going to pass
by, Moses. And you can't see my glory. You
can't see my face. You can't stand in the light
of my holiness. You can't stand in the light of my righteousness
and my perfect justice. You can't stand there. So here's what I'm
gonna do. There's a place by me. It's in a cleft of a rock.
And I'm gonna put you in that cleft of the rock. I'm gonna
cover you with my hand, and I'm gonna pass over, and you're gonna
be completely safe. Why was he safe? Because he was put in the
cleft of the rock. That's where it is to be in Christ, is to
be completely and utterly safe. He is the covenant. Everyone
who is involved in the covenant is in Him, dwells in Him. Here's
another way we can look at it. Let me read you Hebrews 8, verse
6. It says, how much also He is the mediator
of a better covenant which was established upon better promises. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
mediator, the peacemaking entity of the covenant. He's the doer.
And this talks about a better covenant. What's the worst covenant?
That's the old covenant. It's the one that was made with
Adam back in the garden. You know what happened with him?
Adam, one upright and innocent man with one command, don't eat
the fruit. Your blessedness with me is based on you holding up
your end of the bargain, not eating the fruit. One upright,
one innocent man, one command, and he broke it. Any covenant
that's based on a man holding up his end of the bargain is
always doomed to failure. He is the mediator of a better covenant. This is the new covenant. It's
actually older than the old. This is the everlasting covenant.
That's what David called it because it's eternal. And in this covenant
it's perfect. It's perfect for us for this
reason because that covenant rests solely on the person and
the merits and the shoulders of Jesus Christ and none of it
rests on us. perfect peace in this covenant. That's the term
mediator it means a peacemaking party. There is perfect peace
between God the Father and all God's people because Christ made
our peace with God. It's an everlasting peace. And
because that covenant is based on His ability, His ability alone
that covenant can never fail. Always intact. Always fulfilled
from the foundations of the world. Look at verse 28, Thord's final
commendation of John, says, "'For I say unto you, among those that
are born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the
Baptist, but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater
than he.'" Now, this is a strange thing to say, but who is the
least in the kingdom of God? It's Christ. Now, He's the greatest
in the kingdom of God, but He was made the least. For our sakes,
God, the Almighty God, the holy, omnipotent, sovereign God, He
confined Himself to the body of a man. He was made the sins
of His people. And then He died. He went from
being the greatest down to the least, the least in the Kingdom
of Heaven to be made the greatest all over again. That we would
see His great glory. That we would see that He truly is the greatest,
the whole purpose of the whole thing. But listen to this commendation,
this is what the Lord says about John, He is second only to Me
and yet He can't hold a candle to Me. Now, all that being said
about John, makes his statement, his question all the more curious.
Read it again, it's in verse 19, And John calling unto him two
of his disciples, make note of that, sent them to Jesus, saying,
Art thou he that should come? Or look we for another? Now,
why did John ask this question? I've heard a lot of men preach
on this. One thing that a few people brought up is perhaps
he was doing this for the benefit of his disciples. Perhaps John
wasn't lacking in faith at this point, but he knew that he was
in prison. He wanted his disciples to go
learn directly from the Lord. Perhaps that was it. Maybe that
was it. I thought about this. Maybe John had some foresight.
He knew he was going to die soon. And I thought about if I knew
I was going to die very soon, and I might have the opportunity
for the Lord Jesus Christ to preach the gospel to me, I'd
want that. Maybe that was it. But what does
it look like? Just on the surface, when you
read that statement, what does it look like? It looks like John was
struggling with unbelief. That's because that's exactly
what was going on. You wanna know why? Because John was just
like you and me. He was a sinner. He was a sinner saved by grace,
but he was no different than any other sinner, just like you
and me. It's interesting because the scriptures constantly compare
John to Elijah. There's good comparisons out
there. You can read all kinds of stuff on it. But I think this
is interesting. This is what James says about Elijah. He says,
Elijah was a man subject to like passions, as we are. Elijah,
John, these are men who were greatly used. The Lord gave them
great gifts. They were at times recipients
of great faith. At the end of the day, they were sinners like
you and me, and they struggled with all the same stuff you and
I struggle with. Lusts, covetousness, envies, unbelief, everything
we struggle with, they struggle with them just the same. Now
the question is this, why? Why was John struggling with
unbelief? Why do any of us struggle with unbelief? you notice it
tells us exactly how many disciples John sent to the Lord, two, two. John is dealing with two men
here, physically and literally he is dealing with two men, and
internally he is dealing with two men. There is a war raging
between two men inside of him. He has the old man, that man
that never believes, that man that never submits to the will
of God, that man that does nothing but what is contrary to the Gospel,
that man still exists, he's still inside John. also a new man. There is a holy man who can't
do anything but believe, submits to everything God says. That
perfect man that's in there too and there's a war going on in
between those two men that's going on inside there. And in
this statement, in this question you see both men come out. You
say, well the old man he's easy to see. Very simply he says,
art thou he that should come or look we for another? Doubting
that's the old man right there. You say, well where is the new
man? Well it's here he knew where to take his unbelief he took
it to Christ. Now you think about this, he could have sat around
in his jail cell and thought, well, this is all for nothing,
we're going to strike a deal with Herod and see if I can save
my own skin, but none of that, he knew exactly what to do with
his unbelief, he took to the Lord. So, scripture that's a
blessing to me, it's 1 Peter 5, 6 and 7, it says, humble yourselves
therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you
in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth
for you. Now, I think, Claire, you spoke
of this earlier, speaking of temporal things, worldly sufferings,
that's a great verse of Scripture. If you're going through family
problems, you're sick. Seek the means that's in this world to
solve those problems, but take to the Lord. Cast all your cares
upon Him, He cares for you. But you can do everything, unbelief,
do exactly what John did, take it to the Lord. And you know,
that only makes logical sense. Who is the giver of faith? Who is
the one who has the faith and He gives to all men liberally
that ask? It's Him. Do you need faith? Go to Him
and ask for it. There is a great scripture James
1.5 says, "'If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that
giveth to all liberally and abratheth not, and it shall be given him.'"
It says faith included in wisdom? Yeah. The fear of God is the
beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is looking to
Christ alone. Absolutely. Go ask. He gives to all men that
ask liberally. He gives it. cold heartedness,
apathy, thoughts of rebellion, all these things terrible. You
know where you take them? You take them to the Lord. Casting all your
cares upon Him for He careth for you. And you know what? He
cared for John. He loved John, that was one of His people. So,
you know what? He's going to show John all over again that
He was the Lord, that He was Messiah. See what happens, look
at verse 20. When the men were come unto him,
they said, John Baptist has sent us unto thee, saying, art thou
he that should come? Or look we for another? And in
that same hour, he cured many of their infirmities and plagues
and of evil spirits. And unto many that were blind,
he gave sight. Wouldn't you have loved to have
been one of these disciples that witnessed all this? Now, I don't know how
productive you folks are. I can't get much done in an hour.
In a span of an hour, He cast out many demons. In a span of
an hour, He healed many diseases. In a span of an hour, He gave
much sight to many who were blind. He did all this in an hour, and
these men got to watch this. And this would have been an amazing
display of the Lord's power. You know what's interesting?
This thing of healing diseases, this thing of casting out demons,
the disciples could do that. actually delegated that responsibility
and gave power to the disciples to do that. Let me read this
to you, it's Matthew 10 and 1 it says, And when He had called
unto Him His twelve disciples, He gave them power against unclean
spirits to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness,
and all manner of disease. The disciples could do this too,
they could heal diseases, they could cast out demons. But this
thing of giving sight to a blind man, you know the Lord reserved
that for Himself. I didn't know that until I looked
at this. Only one man ever gave sight to a blind man, and that
was the Lord Jesus Christ. He reserved that for Himself.
Now, there is a story in John 9 and we don't have time to read
it because it is very involved but it is a beautiful story.
It is where the Lord comes to a man who was born blind, a blind beggar
on the streets and He gives that man sight. And when He does that
man is going around, the Pharisees hear about it, they hear that
Jesus of Nazareth had given this man sight. And they get mad,
right? They hate the Lord. And so they go and interrogate
the man who was given sight. And they are calling the Lord a sinner
and they want this man to agree and he won't. get the answer they
want out of him so they go to his parents, they interrogate
them for a while. Don't get the answer they want so they go interrogate
the man all over again. And he actually gets mad, right?
He starts to get a little lippy. You think about it this man has
done nothing but sit and listen his entire life. He's blind,
right? This is what he says, John 9.32 he's speaking to the
Pharisees. He says, "'Since the world began
was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was
born blind.'" He's saying you fellows are real smart, right?
You know all the Scriptures. I've been listening to you. I've
been sitting here all my life just listening to how smart you are.
You know the history. You know the Scriptures. You tell me,
give me an example of when a man came to another man who was born
blind and gave him sight. Don't worry, I'll wait. I've
got time. And they couldn't do it because
the Lord reserved that just for Himself, giving sight to a blind
man. Somebody says, what's your point
in all that? John 17.3 says this. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. Salvation is knowing Christ.
That's salvation. And the only way you and I, any
man, will ever know him is if he comes to us where we are,
blind beggars, and he sovereignly chooses to give us sight. And
if he passes us by, we will die in that blindness. sovereignty
of God. Now, if the Lord does give a
man sight here's what he sees, he sees the beauty and the majesty
of Jesus Christ. He sees that it really is God.
And it's not just an understanding of His attributes and a theological
understanding, it's the love of those attributes. His sovereignty,
His omnipotence, His long suffering, His forbearance, all these things
are beautiful to us. We see the beauty in all of them.
You want to know why? Because it takes a Savior like that to
save somebody like me. was any other way it wouldn't
work for me. This would be no good. But He's
perfect for me, for the sinner. We love Him as He is, as we see
Him. We see the sufficiency of His
work. Christ and Him crucified alone that is our only hope.
You want to know why? Because that's what satisfies the Father.
Listen, what do I want? I want whatever satisfies the
Father. Whatever makes Him happy. Whatever satisfies Him on my
behalf that's what I want. He says, I demand Jesus Christ
and Him crucified alone and nothing else. That's what I want. That's
it, give me Christ, crucified, and that alone, that's everything.
Don't add anything to that, don't take anything away, that's everything
to me. He sees the greatness of grace. God freely giving a
man, Christ freely giving a man everything he needs to live before
God. Before, he had no concept of grace because he had no need
of grace. But now that he sees his need
of it, he actually is a sinner in the hands of a sovereign God,
grace is the best thing he ever heard. You're telling me this
man provides everything freely that a sinner needs to live before
God. Sign me up. Best thing I've ever heard. That
sight comes with a sense of blindness as well. We have that sight,
we're given that sight, but you also become blind. Here's the
blindness. You can't find any reason in you that the Lord would
save you. When you look inside yourself
and try to find some reason, something you can bring to God
and say, listen, at least I've done this, you find absolutely
nothing. There's sight and there's blindness all wrapped up in one.
Everything I've just said, I want you to think about that in the
light of what the Lord says in verse 23. Look down there. and blessed is he whosoever shall
not be offended in me." Now, everything I just said, the only
way we will ever know God, salvation is knowing Christ, the only way
we will ever know Him. If He sovereignly comes to us and He
gives us eyes to see Him, what is your reaction to that? There's
only two possible reactions. One is rebellion. Offense. What do you mean that I'm in
His hand? What do you mean He has to give me sight? What do
you mean I'm blind and I can't see? That's offense. The other
one is this. Lord, give me eyes to see. Whoever
you are, just show me who you are. I'll believe on you. Whoever
you are, just reveal yourself to me. Cause me to see. And you
know what? If that's where you're at, you
actually have sight. may be dim eyes, they just see through a
glass very, very darkly, but you have eyes to see. To get
that far God has to give you eyes. Now, I was telling you
about that man in John 9 and he was saying that at the end
of the transaction with the Pharisees they end up kicking him out,
they get tired of him. Turn over there, turn to John 9, Look at verse 35, so the Pharisees are done with
Him, they kick this man out. Jesus heard that they had cast
him out. When He had found him, He said unto him, Does thou believe
on the Son of God? Isn't that the question? Does
thou believe on the Son of God? What a question, a question for
the ages. And look how this man answers verse 36, He answered
and said, Who is He that Lord, that I might believe on Him."
You hear what that man's saying? He's saying, listen, I don't
know who the Son of God is. I don't know who God is. I've
got just the littlest bit of sight right now, but in my little
bit of sight, you know what I can see? I can see that you're the
Lord. see that you're in charge, and you're making the rules here.
And whoever He is, this Son of God you're speaking on, you just
tell me who He is, I'll believe on Him. I'll do that. I've got
just that much sight. I don't know who the Son of God
is, I don't know who God is, but I've got enough sight. You show
me who He is, I'll believe on Him, whoever He is. Look at verse
37, and Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen Him, and
it is He that talketh with thee. He was given just a little sight
to begin with, and the Lord circled back, He opened the whole picture
to him. Now, go back to your text and look
at verse 22. This is the Lord's commandments to John's
disciples. He's done showing them all these things. Then Jesus
answering said unto them, go your way and And tell John what
things you have seen and heard. And he's going to list six things.
He says, how the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. Six things are mentioned, the
number of man, the number of failure. You know what that describes?
If you really just want to boil it down, the first thing it describes
is that's the natural man. this way, blind, can't see who God
is. Lame, no spiritual motion, can't
make the first step in belief. Deaf, the Gospel means nothing
to him, falls on deaf ears. Dead, dead in trespasses and
sins. Poor, poor in righteousness.
You know what the worst part is? He doesn't know it. He has
absolutely no concept that he is this way. One of those stood
out though. He said, you go tell John I cleansed
lepers. Now you remember the law of the
leper from the Old Testament. Leprosy is that type of sin.
When was the leper declared clean? If the leper came to the priest
and he was covered from the top of his head to the sole of his
foot and everywhere in between in leprosy, just everything covered
in putrefying sores, not one centimeter of clean flesh on
him. If he came to the priest like that, just completely and
utterly covered, you know what the priest said? He said, you're
clean. You're 100% clean. You don't
have to dwell outside the camp anymore, you're welcome back
in. You no longer have to shout, I'm defiled, I'm polluted, everywhere
you go. You're clean. You're accepted back in. Come
back in. Now here's my point. I hope that our topic tonight
was what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. He has accomplished
the salvation of His people. I want to be very clear about
that. But it may leave you with this lingering question, am I
one of those people? Am I one of these people that
was engaged in this covenant before the world ever began? Because
if I'm in Him, if I'm in that covenant, everything's fine.
It's very simple. Are you a leper this way? Top
of your head, sole of your foot, nothing but sin, everywhere in
between. Because if you are, I tell you, you're clean. You're 100% clean. Lord Jesus
Christ has washed you. You're clean. You're clean before
God. But to get that way, the Lord Jesus Christ had to be made
all these things. had to be made blind. On the
cross it is recorded that for three hours darkness completely
encompassed the world. And that speaks of the darkness
the Lord Jesus Christ experienced in His soul as the wrath of God
fell down upon Him. bearing the sins of His people,
ten thousands times ten thousands, and thousands and thousands.
That's how much sin was put upon Him. And that's how much wrath
was put down upon Him. The Father's wrath, the darkness
that He experienced. He had to be made lame. On the
cross, He was nailed hand and feet to that cross, but it wasn't
the nails that kept Him pinned to that cross, it was the perfect
justice of God that kept Him pinned to that cross. He said,
you've agreed to be the surety. You've agreed to live with them,
to die for them, to bring them back. And you're going to stay
there until I'm done punishing you. Until I am satisfied you
will stay on that cross and I'm going to pour my wrath upon you."
He was lame, he could not move. The justice of God kept him on
that cross. He had to be made the leper.
The only holy man who had ever lived. He was made the sins of
his people. Now I think this is interesting.
This is the believer's experience. He's a sinful man that is made
holy. The Lord Jesus Christ was a holy man that was made sin.
All the difference in the world. Todd says this a lot, sin doesn't
bother us all that much, and it doesn't. We're so used to
it. This man had never, he knew no sin, he did no sin, he was
the spotless lamb, and yet he was made the sins of his people.
He had to be made deaf. All communication from heaven
was cut off. The entire time he walked on this earth, he had
perfect communion with his father, he had his father's smile. I
loved it in Isaiah 42, six, he says, the whole time you're there,
I'm gonna hold your hand. It's the father speaking to him,
I'll hold your hand the whole time. He let go when he went
to the cross. didn't hold His hand anymore.
Now that hand was the hand of wrath, it was the hand that was
beating Him. He had to be made poor on the cross the Lord Jesus
Christ was stripped of His righteousness for this purpose that it might
be given to us. And He had to die. And right before He died
He preached what is the shortest and best message anyone has ever
preached, it is finished. The hallmark of the Gospel. I'm
going to end with this In Matthew's account, this is what the Lord
said to John's disciples. He said, go and show John again
these things which you do here and see. Show John again. What's
the cure for unbelief? Being told again what Jesus Christ
has done. I hope that's what happened here
tonight.