Let's begin reading in verse
1. 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. And when John
had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his
disciples and said unto him, Art thou he that should come,
or do we look for another? Then Jesus answered and said
unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do here
and see. The blind receive their sight,
the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, The
dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached unto
them. And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me."
And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitude concerning
John, "'What went you out into the wilderness to see? A reed
shaken with the wind? But what went you out for to
see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that wear soft clothing
are in kings' houses. But what went ye out for to see?
A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more
than a prophet. For 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 woman, that there hath not risen a greater
than John the Baptist. notwithstanding he that is least
in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of
John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,
and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets in the law
prophesied until John, and if you will receive it, this is
Elias, which was for to come." Now, I want to look at this these
few verses with you this afternoon. John here had been put in prison,
and he sends some of his disciples to ask the Lord this question
that we find here in verse 3. Are you he that should come,
or do we look for another? And this has been the subject.
This question has been the subject of a lot of discussion by the
commentaries and by dear brethren, and I want to begin by looking
at this question itself. If you ever thought of this,
you probably will be familiar with some of the answers that
I want to look at. But I want to consider some different
meanings. So often when we have debates
among ourselves and discussions, I think we look at a passage
too narrowly, and sometimes it is better to look more broadly
and get some different meanings as to what these questions could
mean. So let's look firstly at this
question, Art thou he that should come or do we look for another? Some would say that John wanted
his disciples to be more acquainted with the Lord Jesus, to have
the assurance themselves that he was indeed the Christ. So
with that in mind, he sends them, with them in mind, to ask the
Lord this question. Are you the Messiah? Are you
the Christ? Are you the one that we've been
looking for? And then when the Lord answered
them, well, that would strengthen their faith. Well, that could
be so. But it seems to me here in verse
4 that it was for John's sake. Because he says, Go and show
John again. those things which you hear and
see. Maybe it helped them. No doubt
it helped them to see what they saw. But it seemed here it was
for John. Secondly, consider this. Why
did John seek the Lord Jesus to ask, Art thou the Christ? Was it for this reason? Was he
in trouble? Was he in trouble? He was a country
boy, we know that, in the hills of Judea. He was in prison. They shut him
up in prison. I like to think of it as a dungeon
myself. And he was troubled. He not only was troubled, but
he was in trouble. And the Lord Jesus had never
came to see him. We don't have it recorded anywhere
that he ever sent a message to John, letting him know, I'm thinking
about you. I know where you're at. I know
what you're going through. Could it be that John was so
troubled that he began to doubt something of the goodness of
the Lord to him? So he sends a message and says,
Are you he? Are you the one? And did you
ever get in so much trouble? I mean, after a while, so much
trouble that you began to doubt the goodness of the Lord. Why
is all this coming? Why am I going through this?
And why is it so long? And you get that doubt in your
mind concerning the goodness of the Lord. David said, Except
I believe to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the
living, I defaint it. And I'm not saying that's excusable. I'm not saying it's all right
to doubt the goodness of the Lord. But I tell you, when you've
been in trouble long enough, and when the trouble gets deep
enough, have you ever had the thought rise up in your heart?
Why me, Lord? Why is this that I'm going through
this? One of the reasons I give just
a little bit of credit to this view is because the Lord here
in verse 6 sent the message back, Blessed is he whosoever is not
offended in me. Why would he have said that if
John wasn't struggling in his heart? I heard a man say one
time, we should never doubt the Lord. We should never doubt His
goodness. I agree with that. I agree with
that. We sometimes look at these old
prophets and we think, boy, these were such great men. They were
great men, but they were just men. And they were men subject
to lack of passions as you and I. Could it have been he began
to doubt the goodness of the Lord? But thirdly, consider this
with me. Could it be that he began to
doubt if the Lord Jesus Christ was the true Messiah. Now, this
would be amazing. This would be amazing if he did
doubt this, because let me remind you what he had already bore
witness to. He bore witness to Jesus Christ
being the Son of God. He bore witness, I bear witness,
he said, that this is the Son of God. He bore witness this
is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. He
said, this is He that cometh down from heaven. This is the
One that is beloved of the Father, and the Father has given all
things unto His hands. He had already bore witness to
that. Could it be that a man like this would fall into any
kind of doubt? Well, I remind you again, brothers
and sisters, he was a great man, but he was a man. And we men,
we may have faith today. We may have great confidence
today, but let the trials come. Let the temptations come. And
I tell you, there is some doubt that can creep in. And even after God had opened
John's heart, John said, I didn't know who he was. It's strange
that John said, I'd never met him in the flesh. I didn't know
who he was. I'd never seen him. But He that
sent me to baptize with water said, upon the one that you see
the Holy Spirit descending and remaining, He's the Christ. And
John said, I saw Him, and I bore witness to Him. Why does He send
this message? Are you the one? Could it be
doubt? Could it be doubt? Have you ever been there? Misery
loves company. I like to think sometimes it
could be doubt. And I think it's because I've
been there myself. And misery loves company. But consider this. Consider this. This is just a
little bit of spiritual application, but consider this. I picture
John here to be in a damp prison, a little narrow dungeon, a dark
place. I doubt seriously if he had a
chair on one wall and a sink in the middle and a stool on
the other end and a nice little bunk bed. Do you? I bet it was
a narrow, dark, damp, little dungeon. That's where they put
him. A cramped place. A narrow place. Do you ever feel
like you're in prison? I mean, in your mind, do you
ever get so narrow in your thinking and in your knowledge that you
didn't feel like you knew anything? And your affections got so cold
and damp, like an old damp crimson. Your love for Christ, love for
the things of Christ, had begun to grow so cold. I'll tell you
the truth about this. I'm just going to be honest.
There are times when my poor soul, my heart seems so cold,
my love for Christ and His gospel seems so cold, it scares me.
And there's times when not only I don't even want to preach the
gospel, I don't want to hear it. Have you ever been there?
And your memory, you can't remember anything. You read, you study,
you hear, but it all just goes. And you're so cramped up in a
spiritual sense. And you're scared about it. And
you send this message, Lord, I need to hear from you. I think this is very telling
when his disciples, John's disciples, asked the Lord this question.
He said, you go tell John again. Go tell him again. That's somewhat
telling. You mean he's got to hear it
again? He's got to hear it again. Sometimes we just seem to lose
what we have. The precious truths, we've lost
them. Our love has grown cold, and
what do we need? We need to hear from him again. I don't want to hear anything
new, but I tell you, I need the assurance of the old gospel,
Brother David, what I've already heard. Go tell John again, again,
what you have seen and what you have heard. I feel like sometimes
you need to hear his voice. Lord, I feel like I'm in prison,
a little narrow, cramped up, cold, damp prison. I need to
hear from you. Let me hear from you again. It could have been that. It could
have been that. And consider this, fifthly, and
I think verse 2 sheds some light on this question. Look here again
in verse 2. John was here in prison, and
he heard in prison the works of Christ. He heard in prison
the works of Christ. And this is what prompted this
question when he heard the works of Christ. See if this isn't
so in your experience. You never needed Christ or you
heard of Him. Did you? You weren't interested in His
works at all until you heard of Him. You weren't born with
a need of Christ. But when you heard of Him, when
the Holy Spirit really brought Him to your heart, and you could
say with John, Behold the Lamb of God, didn't such an answer
set up in your heart that you want to hear more of Him? John
was in prison and nothing said about sending a message, Are
you the one? Until he heard of Christ and
His Word. And then he said, boy, I've got
to know more. I've got to have more assurance
here. I tell you, we get to know each other. And after a while,
it just becomes boring, don't it? I mean, David, it don't take
you very long to learn all about me you want to know. Sometimes
I babysit my little granddaughters. And one of them looked up at
me the other day. And I was trying to entertain her. And she said,
Bobby, I'm bored. I'm bored. That's the way it
is with us. It doesn't take long to get bored
with us. You find out everything you want
to know. But you know it's not that way
with the Son of God. Boy, the more you find out about
Him, the more you want to know. Here the Holy Spirit had sealed
this testimony of Christ to John's heart. And they put him in jail
in his very best self. And somebody comes and says,
boy, this is the Son of God. Here's what He's been doing.
Here's what He's been doing. He said, oh, I want you to send
a message. I want Him to speak to me again.
I want to know more about Him. If that's the way you feel. Oh,
I tell you, those who know Him best want to know Him better.
Those who know Him. Old Paul, bless his heart, he
was a pretty old man, I guess. He wrote Philippians. I know
he was in a Roman jail. He had probably already been
caught up into heaven and saw all these things in heaven and
received all this knowledge of Christ. He knew more about Christ
than any of the apostles, didn't he? He said he did. He received
abundance of revelation. And he was probably at least
an older man. And he was in prison there at
Rome. And he wrote to the Philippians. And here is the statement that
he made. This great apostle. Oh, that I may know Him. But Paul, don't you know Him?
Yes, I want to know Him better. I've got to know Him better.
I tell you, there's something about Him. He's so glorious, is He
not? So glorious in His person and
His work. He just learned more and more
of how effectual it is. And this love of His heart to
His people that passes knowledge And the more you hear of Him,
the more you want to hear of Him. I never needed Him, Wayne,
until I heard of Him. But I tell you, you're the same
way, aren't you? When the Holy Spirit reveals Him to your heart,
you've got to hear more. This message will be going up
out of your heart to Heaven. Lord, let me know more of You.
Show me Your glory. Show me, Lord, Your glory. The more assurance we have, the
more we want. I guess we'll be like David. We'll be satisfied
when we behold His face in righteousness and when we awake in His likeness. Thine eye shall see the King
in His beauty. That's when we'll be satisfied.
But between now and then, I want to know more. I want to know
more about my Lord and about His Grace. If we want men to
come to Christ, you know what we ought to do? Preach Christ. If we want men to know Christ
better, then preach Him better. I believe in preaching the law
to convict men of sin. I believe that's what the law
is used for. But you know something? We don't lose conviction when
we come to Christ. We may lose the guilt of sin
and praise God for it, but we don't lose the shame of it, do
we? I mean, that deepens as we come to Christ. I have never
known the sinfulness of sin like I know it after I have come to
Him. And the pollution of it. We know
it better now, don't we? We don't lose conviction when
we come to Christ. It deepens. And the more we see
His open wounds for our sin, I tell you, the more disgusted
our sin will become. Oh, John heard the words and
the works of Christ. And that's when he sent out a
message and needed an answer from the Lord Jesus. I pray that
somebody here this afternoon, for the first time in your life,
You'll hear Him, and you'll send out a message, and you'll get
an answer from the Lord Himself. And look here at what He says
now here in verse 7. Let's go on to verse 7. And as they departed,
the Lord did many miracles. He healed the blind, and gave
them sight, and the lepers, and cleansed them, and made the deaf
to hear, and so on. And then here in verse 7, and
as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning
John, as they departed. Luke says, when they were departed. In other words, they had gone
out of hearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. And when they had gone
out of His hearing, He had some wonderful things to say about
John. Wonderful things to say about
John. And he tells us there in verse 7 and verse 8 the question
that he asked them. What went you out in the wilderness
to see? A reed? A little weak reed that was ready
to break when a little breeze blew by? Did you go out to see
a man in soft raiment? Oh, he said, that wasn't John,
boys. That ain't my servant. No. He's a strong man. He's strong
in my grace. He's a valiant man. He's a bold
man. And wouldn't he? Wouldn't he?
Those Pharisees come to his baptism. He said, you bunch of snakes.
You think we're rough today. I know my congregation thinks
sometimes, Bruce, you just get too rough. Some of the language
you ought to send under John's ministry. He'd call you out by
name. You snake! What are you snakes
doing coming here to my ministry?" he said. Who warns you to flee
from the wrath of God? Oh, and they come there trusting
in their heritage. We're children of Abraham. We
don't need a Savior. It's who we are that saves us.
And he said, don't even begin to think that, you self-righteous
fellow. God's able to be stones to raise up children. Oh, he
was tough. Boy, he stood firm. Loving, loving,
but firm. Oh, Harry, King Harry that took
his brother's wife. And boy, John went right up to
him, looked him in the eye, and he said, That's not lawful. You're
not to have your brother's wife. You've sinned against God. You're
living in incest. You're living in adultery. Boy,
he stood firm, didn't he? That's what the Lord told him.
Oh, John, he ain't a reed. He ain't some feminine, weak
person. I saw Joel Osteen the other day
on TV, and Larry King was interviewing him. And Larry King asked him
the question about, what do you think about the deity of Christ?
Do you believe Christ is God? And you know what Osteen said?
I don't get involved in those issues. Oh, I thought if I could
get to it, if I could just get to it. Don't watch those things
if you're like me. You wind up having to repeat
it. But Larry said, and poor old Larry King, Larry King knew
that. Larry King said, is this not
an issue in the Christian realm? Oh, I just don't get involved
in those things, Larry. And I tell you, Benny Hinn, Benny
Hinn come on. Not long after that, Ben-Hinn
got up and said, Joel Osteen is a false prophet. Ben-Hinn
had to. When Ben-Hinn refused, you know
you're in trouble. But listen, what's the matter
with Joel Osteen? He's soft. He's effeminate. He's weak. His head is so light,
he couldn't go out in the wilderness and face the heat of the day
like God's servant did. He's tender of feet. He can't
walk on the terrain like John the Baptist did. He can't stand
for the sword of the Spirit to draw blood out of heresy. It
makes him afraid. I wonder what the Lord Jesus
Christ would say about Joel Osteen. Huh? That's it. That's it. He knew
John the Baptist, didn't he? You say, Bruce, if he knew John
the Baptist, why didn't he speak well of him where his servants
could go back and tell John about him? Why didn't he do that? I'll
tell you why he did that. I'll tell you why he didn't send
the message back bragging on John. He don't want his preachers
to get proud. It ain't the time, brothers and
sisters, now, for the Lord to say to His preachers, well done,
thou good and faithful servant. Now is the time for His preachers
to stay low. Now is the time for John to decrease
and Christ to increase. Now was the time for John to
say, I'm not worthy to get down and loose the sandals on His
feet. That's where the Lord wants His
preachers to stay, and that's where the Lord wants His people
to stay, at His feet. So what did He do? Well, He waited
until John's disciples were gone. I tell you, just because the
Lord don't come to your face and tell you to your face now,
well done. That's no sign that he don't
know it. And that's no sign that he's
not pleading for you and on your behalf there in heaven. He just
don't want you to know it now, you see. Because if he did, what
would we do? Oh, we'd get lifted up, wouldn't
we not? Pride would confess us about. I've preached some messages before.
And I tell you, I remember preaching a message one time. down in Kentucky,
and the aisles were pretty big on the side. And while they were
trying to dismiss, I was slipping out. It was the awfulest message
I'd ever preached in my life. I couldn't hardly think of my
name. And I thought, these poor people have to set you and listen
to this? And I got so embarrassed and
humiliated, I ran out as soon as I could. And you know what
I found out after that? God mightily used that message. And you know why I left feeling
like I did? Humiliated because He was going
to teach me, that's where I want you to stay. I want you to stay
down. You know what, brothers and sisters,
I would rather preach and just the Lord humble me in the pulpit
and use me to edify His children and help them and bring glory
to His blessed name than get up here and feel like I'm something
else. And not honor Him. Like I should.
There'll be time, Brother Wayne, for him to look at his creatures
and his children and say, you did well. You did well. And I'm telling you, he'll tell
you right to your face. He'll tell you right to your
face, well done, my faithful servant. But now's not the time. Now's not the time. But that
don't mean he's not telling somebody else. I'd much rather him tell
David, David, what a message! Lay hold of that message! than
to tell me. Oh, after they were gone, after
they were gone, then, then he begins to speak well of John
the Baptist. In the last portion of verse
11, look at this. Verily I say unto you, among
them that are born of woman there hath not risen a greater than
John the Baptist, notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom
of heaven is greater than he." Boy, that's a statement there
that I have wrestled and struggled with and sought for some understanding
about. What does that mean? John is
a great prophet. Of all the prophets, he's the
greatest. But he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater
than he. Well, let me suggest this to
you. John, he's what they call the transitional prophet. He
was right between the Old and New Testament. He was going to
bring these two Testaments together, the Old Testament and the New
Testament. He was right there in that transition.
In the Old Testament, all those prophets were saying, Somebody's
coming. Somebody's coming. The seed of
the woman is coming. He's going to be born of a virgin.
He's coming. Behold, He's coming. Well, here's John, right on this
dividing line, and he says, Behold, He's coming. Abraham said, God
will provide Himself a lamb. And John said, I see Him. There
He is! And he pointed Him out. But He
was at the beginning of this kingdom. This rule of the Lord
Jesus was just beginning. John baptized our Lord, and then
He's ready to exit off the stage. And then, all these people are
ready to come into this new kingdom, the Lord Jesus Christ is setting
up. Now, look here with me in Matthew
chapter 11. Hold Matthew chapter 11 and look in Luke 16. Luke chapter 16 and look in verse
16. The law and the prophets were
until John. He was the last of them. Since
that time, the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth
unto it." Now, I wanted to read that because it sheds some light
on Matthew 11 and verse 12. I want you to turn back over
there and look at this. The kingdom of heaven was beginning
to be preached, and men had begun to press unto it. Now look back over in my text
in Matthew chapter 11, and look here in verse 12. From the days
of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence, and the violent take it by force. Now that's a strange
way to speak, isn't it? And it sounds bad, really. It
sounds like a bunch of criminals invading a castle and going to
take it over. You know, in a way, that's what
it is. Here's some violent people, and they have stormed the kingdom
of God with violence. And they're taking it. They're
taking it. I was reading the Amplified commentary, and here's
what they said. Here's what he said about this
verse. He quoted it like this, from the days of John the Baptist
to the present, the kingdom of heaven has endeared violent assaults,
and the violent man sees it by force as a precious gift. Boy, that's enlightening there,
isn't it? A share in the heavenly kingdom is sought for with most
ardent zeal and intense exertion. It's a holy violence. And they're taking, they're storming
the kingdom of God and taking it by force. Well, who's doing
this thing? Lord, who is it taking this kingdom
by force? Are you going to be surprised? No, you won't be surprised.
You know who's taken it by force? The publicans, and the sinners,
and the lame, and the blind, and the halt. You see, these
Pharisees were standing around, and they thought they had a right
to the kingdom? And they thought they merited
the kingdom? And they were going to enter it before everybody
else. And the Lord Jesus said, the publicans and the harlots
are going into the kingdom before you. And these publicans and
sinners come along and say, man, we've got no claims on this.
If we're going to get in this kingdom, we're going to have
to take it by force. How did they do that? Well, we've
got record of many of them taking it. We've got record of one.
First, he's standing in the temple. Remember, he's standing in the
temple, and he's staring at the doors of the kingdom as it was.
And he said, I've got to find a way to get in there. And what
does he do? Oh, God, have mercy on me a sinner. God, have mercy
on me a sinner. And the doors begin to shake.
God, have mercy on me a sinner. You know something, brothers
and sisters? That's the way you get into this kingdom. The doors
of this kingdom of heaven cannot stand. They cannot resist a sinner's
prayer for mercy. There was this woman that had
a daughter that was grievously vexed with the devil. You remember
the Canaanite woman? And the Lord Jesus went by where
she was, there in the Gentile section, and she began to cry
out to him, Jesus, thou Son of David, my daughter is grievously
vexed. Have mercy on her. Have mercy
upon her. And you know what he said? Nothing.
Nothing. Boy, sometimes the door's bolted
in. Nothing. Answered her not one single word. What did she do? Well, she thought
within herself, if I'm going to get this blessing, I can't
give up. So she cries, Lord, Thou Son
of David, have mercy upon me. And then she found some more
opposition. The disciple said, Lord, send
her away. She's grieving us to death. If
she got into this kingdom, she was going to have to come through
them to get into it. She didn't stop, did she? Lord,
thou son of David, have mercy upon me. And the Lord said, Woman,
I'm not sent to dogs. I'm not sent to dogs. She said,
True, Lord, I'm a dog. But don't the dogs eat of the
crumbs that fall from the master's table? The door flew open. Did
it not? The door flew open, and that
poor gentile woman, she entered the kingdom. She took it by force. We sometimes talk about irresistible
grace, and thank God for it. I tell you, there is something
else that is irresistible, too. Heaven cannot resist the sinner's
call and plead for mercy. Old Blind Martim S. was They
are begging by the roadside, and the Lord Jesus comes along,
and what does He do? He said, I'm going to enter the
kingdom, put my name down. He said, I'm going in. And what
does He begin to do? Have mercy. Have mercy. And I tell you, it's been said
before, that cry for mercy did something to the Son of God that
nothing else ever did. It stopped Him in His tracks.
stopped him in his tracks. He stood still and he said, you
called that man. What will you that I should do
for you? And those fellows said, oh, shut up. Shut up. Don't bother
him. Just shut up. Well, they weren't
blind with it. It always gets me when these
people talk about a sinner shouldn't even seek the Lord. Well, a sinner
should seek the Lord. And if you don't think he can,
you're probably not a sinner yourself. It's easy to say, shut
up if you're not blind. But I tell you, when you're blind
and the Master's coming through and He's passing by, you've got
to get to Him. You take Him by force, don't
you? Take Him by force. All these people, the woman with
an issue of blood, the Lord Jesus was surrounded by all these people.
The Scripture says they compressed Him. They pressed in on every
side. And she was dying. She was bleeding
to death. And she said, if I can touch
the hem of His garment, I'll be made whole. But I tell you,
it wasn't easy, was it? She had to press her way. And
finally, the only way she could get to Him was by ambushing Him. She had to come up from behind
Him. And she grabbed hold of His garment. And she was made
whole. She entered the kingdom. The
violent take it by force. Oh, brothers and sisters, may
God today give us hearts. May God give us hearts to bombard, bombard the doors
of His kingdom, not only for ourselves, but for others. And
don't give up so easy. Get violent. Get violent, a holy
violence. Lord, you said, I'm taking at
your word. Get a hold of him and don't let
him go. I'll tell you one of the things that you and I need
in this day more than anything else. We need to get along with
the Lord. We need to turn our cell phones
off. We need to turn all our electronics off. We need to go
somewhere where we're not accessible to anybody or anything and get
along like Jacob did with the Lord. And if He's present, if He's
present, and He's willing to wrestle with us, get a hold of
Him and don't let Him go until He blesses us. Isn't that what
we need, Mike, more than anything? I know some of you have been
praying for a revival. If we want a revival, we want
to unlock these blessings that's in the Son of God, then get along
with Him. And don't let Him go. Refuse
to let Him go until He blesses. The violent take it by force. God bless these words. Thank
you, dear pastor.