Matthew chapter 11, I'm going
to try to bring a message from the first six verses in Matthew
chapter 11, and I'm taking the title from what is said in verse
6. Matthew 11, verse 6. Blessed,
blessed, and that word means happy. Happy. Happy is that person. Happy is he. Whosoever it is,
whosoever that shall not be offended in Me. Offended? Not offended in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Blessed is that man who is not
offended by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The true gospel
of the grace of God is offensive to the natural man. Did you know
that? It's offensive to the natural man. You tell a man looking dead
in the eye saying to him, you're a guilty, vile, wretched sinner. I'm not quite that bad. You see,
that message is offensive to the natural man. The believer
says, you're right. That's me. The believer agrees
with God against himself. The believer agrees, I am. I
am a wretched sinner. You see, the carnal mind, the
natural man, the carnal mind is enmity against God. The natural
man receives not the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness
unto him. But the believer owns the Lord
Jesus Christ as everything, and everything that he says of us,
we agree with him. We agree with him. When he says
guilty, you're right, Lord. We're guilty. When he says ungodly,
you're right, Lord. We agree with him. Paul, in his
letters to the church in Galatia, wrote about the offense of the
cross. He said in Galatians chapter 5, if I yet preach circumcision,
and he means by that works, If I yet preach works, or the law,
deeds of the law, why would I suffer persecution? For then, with the
offense of the cross, it would cease. If I would preach works,
there's no offense in that. But if I preach salvation by
the grace of God, that's offensive to the natural man. Now, it's
not to the believer, but to the natural man. Those who are blessed
of God, To see their need of the Lord Jesus Christ, they're
not ashamed of Him, or they're not offended about the gospel
of Christ. They're not ashamed to publicly
own the gospel of God's sovereign grace as it's revealed in Christ. You remember, just look across
the page, if you have the Cambridge that I'm looking at, in chapter
10, Verse 32, whosoever therefore shall confess me before man,
him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
But whosoever shall deny me before man, him will I also deny before
my Father which is in heaven. Believers readily, openly, publicly
confess the Lord Jesus Christ as all of our salvation. When
Paul writes to the believers there in Rome, and I'm sure that
the believers there in Rome, Rome was a ungodly empire, Rome
was an ungodly city, and they persecuted, severely persecuted
believers of the gospel. Paul ended up, the apostle ended
up in prison in Rome. and was later executed for preaching
the gospel. But he said this, for as much
as in me is, I'm ready to preach the gospel. And then he said,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God and the salvation to everyone that believe it, whether he be
a Jew or a Gentile. For therein in that gospel, the
gospel of God, is the righteousness of God revealed from one degree
of faith to another. We see Christ as all our salvation. Now, look at verse 1, Matthew
11 verse 1, and we see these familiar words, but don't read
over them, and it came to pass. You see that? It just didn't
happen. God brought it to pass. And we
could read it that way. God brought it to pass. When
Jesus had made an end of commanding his 12 disciples, he departed
then to teach and to preach in their cities. And it came to
pass. I don't think I've ever done
this before, but I looked up that phrase, it came to pass.
It's used 452 times. 452 times. All things come to pass in time
by the determinate counsel of God. God's foreknowledge of all
things is based upon His foreknown, unchanging, immutable decrees. God knows all things because
His foreknowledge is based upon His decree of all things. His decrees of Him and through
Him and to Him are all things. He worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. Now, I like this scripture and
I wrote it down word for word, copied it, pasted it, Isaiah
46, 10 and 11. The Lord said, I declaring the
end from the beginning, from ancient times, the things that
are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand. I will do all my
pleasure, calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that
executes my counsel from a far country. I've spoken it. I bring
it to pass. I've purposed it. I will do it."
Now, that doesn't sound like a weak, pitiful God who's trying
to get folks to make a decision for him. That's not the God of
the Bible. The one who wants to and can't,
that's not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible does as
he will, with whom he will, as he will, to his own glory. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did he in heaven and earth. See, in all deep places. Now,
something else we see in verse 1. The value of true preaching. The value of true preaching.
When the Lord had made the end of commanding Notice, not suggesting,
commanding his twelve disciples, now here he's talking about the
twelve apostles that he set aside and told them to go, he told
them where to go, and he told them what to do, what to preach,
go and preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, commanding
his twelve disciples, his followers, His apostles, He departed Himself. When He sent them out, He also
went out. He departed them to teach and
preach in their city. The Lord Jesus Christ puts a
high value on preaching the gospel. He puts a high premium and importance
about sending out the gospel message. His chosen men were
taught of God. These twelve apostles were specially
chosen of God, commanded Where to go, when to go, and what to
preach. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. When Paul was sitting in that
Roman prison, writing back to the young preacher Timothy, he
said, I command thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ to
preach the word. preach the word, be instant,
in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering
and doctrine. The point I'm making is the Lord
puts a high premium on the preaching, not just preaching now, preaching
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That has not changed
in our day either. While there are no apostles like
these men in our day, John, Peter, and others. Yet the Lord still
is pleased to send out His messengers with His Word and His truth.
The Lord Jesus Christ Himself was a teacher and preacher of
the will and Word of God and the way of salvation in Him.
Now let me just remind you of a few places. Turn back to Matthew
chapter 4. Matthew chapter 4, Leviticus
verse 23. Matthew chapter 4, verse 23.
when he called James and John, and Peter and Andrew, he called
them, said, follow me, and they left their nets and followed
him. And then in Matthew chapter four, verse 23, and Jesus went
about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogue, preaching the
gospel of the kingdom, healing all manner of sickness, all manner
of disease among the people. And his fame went out to all
Syria. And they brought unto him all
sick people that were taken with diverse diseases and torments,
possessed with devils, the lunatic, those who were paralyzed, and
he healed them. We've seen this not only once,
but twice. Turn back over here to, I believe
it's Matthew chapter 9. Yeah. Matthew chapter 9, verse
35. Matthew 9, 35. And Jesus went about all the
cities and villages, teaching in their synagogue, preaching
the gospel of the kingdom, healing every sickness and every disease
among the people. Preaching and healing. You know,
that's what exactly is going on today. God sends out gospel
preachers and through the preached word of truth, God heals sick
vile, sinner, and he makes him whole. He makes him whole. Now look at verse 2 and 3, and
when John had heard in prison, now what was John doing in prison?
Couldn't, one thing I noticed in reading this, John didn't
say, you go tell Jesus to get me out of here. He was content
to be in prison. He didn't ask the Lord to come
and get him out. You come and get me. You're the
Almighty God. Come and get me out. He didn't
say that. He was content knowing that he
was there by the purpose of God. When John had heard in prison,
now he was in prison for the gospel sake. He was in prison
for preaching repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. When John in prison heard of
the works of the Messiah, The Lord Jesus Christ, he sent two
of his disciples and said unto him, Art thou he that should
come, or is there another? Do we look for another? Another. While John was sitting there
in prison, he knows that his ministry is coming to an end.
He was the forerunner to identify the Lord Jesus Christ, and when
he identified him as the Lamb of God, God put him on a shelf,
put him in prison. He knows his ministry is coming
to an end. We know his life is coming to
an end. You remember he was beheaded by Herod. Herod had him beheaded. So he sent two of his disciples
to the Lord Jesus Christ to convince them that he was the true Messiah
that John prophesied about. He wasn't asking this question
for himself. There's too much evidence in
the Word of God that John knew exactly who the Lord Jesus Christ
was. But he didn't send one person,
he sent two. In the mouth of two or three
witnesses let every word be established. Even there, the Lord is obeying
the very law of God. Art thou he that should come?
Are you the Messiah? Or are we to look for someone
else? Now be sure we know this, there
is no other Savior. There is no other Redeemer. There
is no other sacrifice for sin. There's no other way of salvation.
John and Peter confessed it both in Acts chapter 4, before that
Sanhedrin council. Neither is there salvation in
any other. No other name under heaven given among men whereby
we must be saved. He is the Messiah. He is the
promised one, Son of God. Now there are many today in different
countries in different places who were still looking for the
coming of the Messiah. They're still looking for the
coming of the Messiah. The Jews in particular. He came
to his own people and they did not receive him. And they're
still looking for the coming of the Messiah, who has to be
the son of David, who has to be the tribe of Judah, that has
to fulfill all scripture, Would there be a man appear in Judea
in these days that would meet all of those qualifications to
be the Messiah? Remember in Matthew chapter 1,
the Word of God is so careful to give us the genealogy of the
humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, both of Mary and of Joseph, tracing
the Humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ right back to David, right
back to Abraham. Yes, He is the true Messiah. There is no other. Don't look
for another. He's already come. He's already
come. So many people have missed Him.
They missed the One who has come. There will be no other. There
is no other gospel. Paul, when he writes his Galatians,
says this, though we or an angel from heaven preach any other
gospel unto you than that which we have preached, let him be
damned. And then he says, oh, in case
you didn't hear it, though we or an angel preach any other
gospel than we have preached, let him be damned. He says it
twice, just in case we missed it the first time. Now, John
knew that the Lord Jesus Christ was the true, the true Messiah. And here, we've seen this in
Matthew. Turn back to Matthew chapter
3. So he's not asking this question for himself. He wants his disciples
to be convinced in their own heart. When John behold the Lamb
of God, he said, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin
of the world, and then the next day, If you read John chapter
1, the next day he said, Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world. He was a one-string preacher.
Christ! Christ! But look what it says
here in Matthew chapter 3, verse 13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee
to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. And John forbade him,
saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and you come to me?
And the Lord answering said, Suffer it to be so now for us,
for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered
him. And Jesus, verse 16, when he
was baptized, went up straightway out of the water. And lo, the
heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove upon him, lighting upon him. and lo a voice
from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased." John is looking right at the Lord Jesus Christ,
the man that he just baptized, and he sees the Spirit of God
descending upon him in the form of a dove, and he hears God the
Father speak from heaven and said, This is my Son. Hear Him. I am well pleased with Him. That
just convinces me beyond all doubt that John knows that Jesus
of Nazareth is the promised Messiah. And he's looking to Him for all
salvation. You remember in John chapter
3, he said, He must increase, I must decrease. And then he
says of the Lord Jesus Christ, John said, The Father loveth
the Son, hath given all things into His hands. He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. John said this. He that believeth
not in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides
on him. So, John is wanting his disciples
to hear that from the Lord Himself. And here's the answer, verse
4, 5, and 6. The Lord answered and said unto
them, Go back to John, and you show John And you tell John,
those things, again, those things which you hear and those things
which you see, they were eyewitnesses to his glory. The blind, they
really received their sight. The lame, they were made to walk. The lepers, they're cleansed. The deaf, they
hear. The dead are raised up. The poor have the gospel preached
unto them. Now, we've seen this before.
Turn over to Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4. And we'll get
back to that verse in just a moment. But the Lord Jesus Christ, when
He was in His hometown of Nazareth, and His hometown synagogue, in
Luke chapter 4, you remember? in Luke chapter 4, verse 16,
and he came to Nazareth, where he'd been brought up, and as
his custom was, he went in to the synagogue on the Sabbath
day to read. Now this is the Lord Jesus in
his hometown church, we'd say. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah, and when he'd opened the book,
he found a place where it's written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me. He's quoting Isaiah 61. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the
captive, recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
them that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of
the Lord. And he closed the book, gave it back to the minister,
and sat down. In the eyes of all them, that
were in the synagogue were fastened upon him, and he began to say,
this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ear. The Lord came to
do exactly, he said, the work the Father had given me to do,
I have finished it. I have completed it. Now, these
things that are mentioned here, we've seen each and every one
of these, where he talks about Lepers being cleansed, you remember
in Matthew chapter 8, the leper came to the Lord and said, Lord,
if you will, you can make me clean? And the Lord said, I will,
be thou clean. And then the lame man to walk,
you remember those four men carried their friend on a stretcher And
they climbed up on the roof because they couldn't get in by the normal
means through the door. And they let that man down through
the ceiling, taking off the roof and letting him down into the
presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord said to him, your
sins are forgiven. And he took up his bed and walked.
And then the dead are raised up. You remember that little
girl of the synagogue, the ruler in the synagogue, that little
girl, 12-year-old. died. And that ruler said, you
come to my house, my daughter is sick. And while they were
on the way to the house, one of the servants came and said,
your daughter's dead. And the Lord Jesus Christ walked
right in that room and said, maid, arise. And she woke up alive. On another occasion, the Lord
was in a certain city, and there was a widow in that city whose
son had died. And they were carrying his body
out of the city in a coffin. This man had been dead a day,
two days, I don't know. But the Lord just simply reached
out and touched the coffin, and that young man sat up. He actually
raised people from the dead. And then we know about Lazarus,
don't we? Lazarus had been buried, that dear brother of Martha and
Mary, whom they loved. You remember they said to the
Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick. The Lord loved him and
they loved him, but he got sick and died. And of course, they
put his body in the tomb. that rolled a stone on it, and
he'd been in there four days. The Lord delayed his coming on
purpose. You know what happens when the body dies? Corruption
sets in immediately. And that body had been in that
grave four days, and the Lord walked in front of that tomb
of Lazarus and said, remove, remove the, roll the stone away.
And they said, really, you want to do that? That body is stinking. It's rotten flesh. They rolled
the stone away, and the Lord said, Lazarus, come forth. And
he that was dead walked out of the tomb. Now the Lord did, it
wasn't a play-like thing, the Lord actually raised up dead
sinners. And then we've seen, He made
the blind to see, remember in Matthew chapter 9, He made the
blind to see, When he was come to the house, the blind men came
to him and Jesus said to them, do you believe that I'm able
to do this? And they said to him, yes, Lord.
And he touched their eyes. He said, according to your faith,
be it unto you. And their eyes were opened. He
actually gave sight to the blind. And then he said, the deaf were
made to hear. And we've seen that on several
occasions in Matthew chapter 9 and other places. And then
he said, the poor have the gospel preached unto them. Poor, poor,
mercy beggars. And the Lord preached the gospel
of the grace of God unto them. Now, what does all that have
to do with us? Everything that we just read
there is what we are by nature. what we are by nature. We're
dead, we're lame, we're blind, we're poor, we're deaf. Everything
that these people were naturally is what we are spiritually. We're born lepers. I mean through
and through. Leprosy is a type of sin. We're born in sin, shaping, and
iniquity. How can this leper be cleansed? Not by good works, not by deeds.
The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all our
sin. We were lame, unable, unwilling
to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet he said, thy people shall
be willing in the day of his power. He said, no man can come
to me except my father which sent me. Draw him, and I'll raise
him up at the last day. He makes us willing to embrace
the Lord Jesus Christ and to love him. By nature, we're unable,
unwilling. But by his grace, he makes the
lame to walk. We walk by faith, not by sight.
And then we were blind, too. We're blind. This is talking
about what we are when we're born. We're born blind. And we
may have a natural sight, but what I'm talking about is spiritually.
We have no spiritual eyes to see the glory and beauty of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We have no eyes to see the loveliness
of Christ. He must give us life that we
might see Him as all in salvation. He is the one who commands the
light to shine in our heart. In Genesis 1-1, God said, let
there be light. There was light. When the gospel
is preached, the Lord takes that word, and by His command, He
gives us life and light in Christ Jesus. And it's by His command.
2 Corinthians 4-6, He commands the light to shine in our dead
hearts. And then, we were not only lepers, we were not only
lame, we were not only blind, we were born deaf. I know we
hear things naturally, but spiritually speaking, we were deaf to the
Word of God. Could not hear the Word of God
of the Gospel until He gave us ears to hear. Look what it says
in verse 15 there in Matthew 11 verse 15. He that hath ears
to hear, let him hear. Let him hear. You see, God must
open our ears that we might hear Him speak as He speaks through
the Word. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of the Lord. And then we were born dead. He
said the dead are raised up. We were born dead in sin, dead
in trespasses and in sin. As David said, in sin my mother
conceived me, born spiritually dead. In Adam all died. The Lord comes and gives us life.
You hath he quickened who were dead. We were dead in trespasses
and in sin. Dead in sin, as one old preacher
friend of mine used to say, graveyard dead. Total, totally depraved. Graveyard dead. And yet the Lord
says to us, live. Live. live. And he gives us life in Christ.
And then we were, he says there in the text, the poor have the
gospel preached to them. We, by nature, born spiritually
bankrupt. Bankrupt, absolutely. Can you
get poorer than dirt poor? Have nothing, know nothing, we
are nothing, just poor, poor beggars, spiritually bankrupt. And yet, the Lord Jesus Christ
has made us heirs of God and joint heirs with the Lord Jesus
Christ. You're looking at the world's
richest man. Did you know that? You didn't know that. You know
that now, don't you? I'm looking at some folks over
here that are the world's richest people. For you know the grace
of God, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor,
that you through his poverty might be made rich." We've been
made heirs of God and joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm
poor and needy, David said, yet the Lord thinks upon me. Now,
if you look at the conclusion of that, you have to arrive at
this. Salvation is his doing. Dead
men don't give themselves life. Blind men don't give themselves
sight. We were totally shut out without
God, without hope, and without Christ, and He came and gave
us life by His will, by His purpose, by His grace. Salvation is of
the Lord. All that the Father hath given
to me will come to me, and those that come to me I'll never cast
out. The Father hath given me power over all flesh, that I
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given to me."
Now, right here in this same chapter, Matthew 11, look at
verse 25. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
you hid these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed
them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seems
good, even though it seems, even so, Father, it seems good, it
seemed good in your sight. Now look at verse 27 carefully.
Matthew 11, 27. All things are delivered unto
me and my Father, and no man, knoweth the son but the father,
neither knoweth any man the father save the son, and to he to whomsoever
the son will reveal him. Salvation come by the sovereign
revelation of God Almighty. It's not of him that willeth,
or of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Now,
verse six, blessed is he Blessed is he whosoever shall not be
offended in me. Blessed is that sinner that's not ashamed to own the
Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed is that man. David writes
about the blessed happy man. Blessed and happy is that man
whom the Lord will not impute sin, will not charge his sin. Blessed is that man whom the
Lord chooses and causes to approach unto him. Blessed is that man
who has the God of Jacob for his salvation. His people are
blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. As Paul writes, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel. For I am not ashamed, for I know
whom I have believed, and persuaded he is able to keep that which
I have committed unto him against that day. Blessed is he that
readeth, and they that hear the word of this prophecy. That's
how we started the book of Revelation. Blessed is that man that readeth
and heareth the word of this prophecy. Now, I'm going to quit
with this. I want you to find 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. The Jews stumbled over Christ
and Him crucified, but those saved in Christ, the gospels
of power and wisdom of God. Look at verse 22. This is 1 Corinthians chapter
1 verse 22. The Jews require a sign. They're
still looking for that sign. The Greeks, they seek after wisdom. They're still looking for intellectualism. and other isms, but we preach
Christ crucified. Unto the Jews, it's a stumbling
block. Unto the Greek, it's foolishness. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greek, Christ the power of God, Christ the wisdom
of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, the
weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling,
brethren, how not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty,
not many noble are called, God hath chosen, verse 27, the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,
and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised
hath God chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to naught
the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
But of Him, verse 30, I hope you got this verse underlined,
circled, emboldened. But of him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption, according as it is written, he that is glorious,
let him glory in the Lord, in the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
That's the blessed man. Blessed is that man who's not
offended in the Lord Jesus Christ.