If you will, turn in your Bibles
with me to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11. And it came to pass when Jesus
had made an end of commanding his 12 disciples, He departed
thence to teach and to preach in their cities. Now 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? Jesus answered and said unto
them, go and show John again those things which you do hear
and see. The blind receive their sight,
and the lame walk. The lepers are cleansed, and
the deaf hear. The dead are raised up, and the
poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he whosoever
shall not be offended in me. And as they departed, Jesus began
to say unto the multitudes 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 you 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 women, there hath not risen a greater
than John the Baptist. Notwithstanding, he that is least
in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 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 and the
law prophesied until John. And if you will receive it, this
is Elias, which was far to come. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear." This passage of scripture that
I've just read, I believe is often misunderstood. It is misunderstood
by those who think that John the Baptist had now become doubtful
and questioned whether the Lord Jesus Christ was indeed the promised
Messiah. Now, it is true that John was
a man. He was a man just like all of
us. And every believer is subject
to doubts and to fears. None of the graces in a Christian,
and every Christian has all of these graces such as love, faith,
hope, patience, joy, temperance, kindness, all of these fruits
of the Spirit, but they're not perfect. They're not perfect
as to degrees. In other words, Whether it's
love or faith or hope, any of these graces, they may increase. You know, the scripture speaks
of little faith and small faith and great faith. So faith is
a gift of God. We know that. And no one is saved
without faith. No one is saved without repentance.
They go together. And both are gifts from the Lord. He's exalted, the scripture says,
in the book of Acts, both a prince and a savior, for to give repentance
unto Israel. You know, we've lived in a day
that, for the most part, what I call and what is called decisional
regeneration has been preached. In other words, the gospel is
supposedly proclaimed and then you make a decision. And based
upon your decision, now you are regenerated. You're given a new
life if you believe and if you repent. But that's not the case. That's not true from the word
of God. A lost man is dead spiritually. And he cannot believe, he cannot
repent, unless he is first given life. That's regeneration. That comes first. And everyone
that is regenerated by the Spirit of God has faith to believe in
Christ, to lay hold upon Christ, and to turn from sin. But faith is a grace that may
increase. And John the Baptist was like
everyone else. He was a man, he was born of
a woman and of a father, and he certainly could have had doubts.
But I do not believe that is what this is teaching us. I believe
from this passage of scripture itself, we can see that John
had no doubt as to Christ being the Messiah. Thinking about these
graces that may increase, I thought about these two verses. The psalmist
in Psalm 138 said, the Lord will perfect that which concerneth
me. He will perfect that which concerneth
me. And one day, all of these graces
will be perfect. And then the psalmist said in
another psalm, as for me, I will behold thy face and righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake
with thy likeness. In other words, in the morning
of the resurrection, when we awake with his likeness, when
we are made like him, then these graces will all be perfect. He
has perfect love. He has perfect faith and hope
and all of these graces. I believe, as I said, if you
look in verse seven here, the Lord shows that those who believe
that John now was questioning his Messiahship are mistaken. And the reason, I guess the reason
I wanted to bring this message, I'm reading a devotional book
this year for the first time, and it's a good book, but the
author certainly believe that John was doubting, and he brought
that out in one of the devotionals this past, or this, yes, this
past week. And I just thought I want to
bring a message on that because I don't believe that is true. I do not believe that John was
doubting. If you look in verse seven, Our
Lord said, and as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes
concerning John, what went you out in the wilderness to see?
Did you go out there to see a reed?
I think we all know what a reed is. A reed is a plant that grows
in a marsh area. And the wind blows this way,
it goes this way. The wind blows that way, it goes
that way. Whichever way the wind is blowing,
that's the way the reed goes. Did you go out there to see a
man like that? A man who preached on one hand,
it could be like this, or on the other hand, it might be like
this. Is that the man you went out there to see? Well, no, John
wasn't like that. John's message was not yea and
nay, but his message was, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sins of the world. He was the Lord's Messiah, the
forerunner, rather, of the Messiah. And he was sent before the Lord
to pronounce his coming. And John knew that. John knew
who he was. He was that voice. He had Isaiah
chapter 40. He knew who he was. His father
Zacharias even prophesied at his birth of what he would do.
I don't see John the Baptist having any doubt. He saw that
dove descend upon the Lord when he baptized him. He heard that
voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am
well pleased. Look with me, if you will, in
Matthew 14. We might say that John was in
prison because he wasn't a reed. That's the reason he was in prison.
He wasn't a reed. He wasn't a person who could
speak out of both sides of his mouth. Here in chapter 14 of
Matthew, verse 3, we read, For Herod had laid hold on John,
and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his
brother Philip's wife. For John said unto him, Now if
he had been a reed, if he had been a reed, a person who could
be shaken one way or the other. He would not have said this to
Herod. He knew the power that Herod had. He knew the animosity
and hatred that Herod had for the truth. But John boldly told
him, it's not lawful. It is not lawful for thee to
have her. You've got your brother's wife,
your brother's still living. And you have a wife, you had
a wife at least. It's not lawful. I mean, there's
no maybe, ands, if, or buts about it, is there? He was not a reed. He never was a reed. No. That's one reason he was here
in prison, because he spoke the truth, and he spoke the truth
boldly. To rightly understand this passage,
I believe we need to do two things. First of all, if you turn back
to chapter 11, I want us to see that John sent two of his disciples. Notice that in verse two. Now
when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent
two of his disciples. Now let that sink in. These are
disciples of John. All right, now turn with me,
if you will, to John chapter three, the gospel of John chapter
three. Beginning with verse 22, John
chapter three, After these things came Jesus and his disciples
into the land of Judea. And there he tarried with them
and baptized. And John also was baptizing in
Anan, near to Salem, because there was much water there. And
they came and were baptized, for John was not yet cast into
prison. arose a question between some
of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying. Now, you know
the Jews, they had a lot of traditions. Some they thought they found
in the law of God. Remember at that marriage that
our Lord attended in Cana, that marriage feast, and there were
six water pots there. What were those water pots doing?
or they were being, water was being purified. They had a lot
of, a lot of traditions about how they purified things. You
know, one time they accused the Lord, they said, your disciples
eat with unwashing hands. Well, he's not talking about
hygiene at all, is he? But he's talking about the way
that they had come to believe that if you went into the market,
you might just perhaps come into contact with some Gentile, some
pagan, and you were unclean. And so you had to wash your hands
all the way up to, they had all kinds of rules and regulations
as to how to wash your hands. Well, now these Jews here, they
came to John's disciples and they questioned them about purification,
about purifying. Of course, it seems to me that
John's disciples, they couldn't answer. They couldn't answer
these Jews, and so they turned to John, as would be normal. They turned to John. They came
unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee
beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, The same baptizeth
and all men come to him. What do we see here? We see that
these disciples of John were jealous for John. They were jealous
for John. They had followed John and there
was a day when John first began preaching and great crowds went
out to hear him preach. But now, those days are over. And they tell him now, John,
the one that you pointed out, he's preaching over here and
the Lord didn't baptize, but his disciples are baptizing and
everybody's going to him. They're not coming to hear you
anymore. Well, some are, but the majority
of the people are no longer coming to hear you, John. They're jealous.
for John because they were his disciples. They had followed
him. They were his disciples and they
were jealous for him. But I want you to notice as we
read on here, the testimony that John gives. Let's read verse 26 again. And
they came unto John and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was
with thee beyond Jordan, To whom thou bearest witness, behold,
the same baptizeth, and all, all men, come to him. They were following a man. Let
me just put that out there to think about. They're following
a man. And now this man that they are
following is not as popular, and not as many people are going
to hear him preach anymore. And they're jealous for him.
They love John. All right? Notice the testimony
here that John gives now to his disciples. Testifies to them that this had
always been the whole purpose of his ministry. In other words,
John tells them, it's never been about me. Never been about me. The whole purpose of my ministry
was to point men to Christ. I'm the forerunner of the Messiah. Verse 27, and John answered and
said, a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven.
There he testifies to God's sovereign grace, doesn't he? A man can
receive nothing unless God opens his heart Just like he opened
the heart of Lydia, and she was there, she was religious, no
doubt. Met there beside the riverside
in Acts chapter 16, right? And fell up by praying, but she
didn't know God, but God opened her heart. Who opened her heart? God did. A man can receive nothing
except it be given him from above. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him, the Lord said. You yourselves, now John's speaking
to his disciple, you yourselves bear me witness that I said,
I'm not the Christ. I told you that the first time
you came to hear me preach. You heard me say that when they
sent a delegation out from Jerusalem, the Pharisees, to ask me, who
are you? Who are you, John? Who gave you
this authority? He confessed from the very beginning,
I'm not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. He knew
who he was. He was that voice crying in the
wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. That was always
his ministry and he knew that. He that hath the bride, who's
the bride here? His church. His elect people. His church is his bride. Who's
the bridegroom? John wasn't. He wasn't the bridegroom. He that hath the bride is the
bridegroom, that's Christ. He's the one who loved the church,
his bride, and gave himself for it. He's the one who purchased
his bride with the blood of God, as the scripture says in Acts
20. Who am I? I'm a friend. I'm a friend of the bridegroom.
This is true of every pastor. of every preacher who preaches
the gospel. I'm the friend of the bridegroom,
which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of
the bridegroom's voice. This my joy, therefore, is fulfilled. When a preacher hears that God
has saved someone under his ministry, there is no greater joy than
to know that God would use someone like me or someone like any other
preacher unworthy, unqualified in many
different ways. And God would use someone to
preach the gospel to and them hear the gospel and believe the
gospel. Nothing could give us any greater
joy. And, you know, if God saved you
and you've never confessed that and never told the preacher the
Lord saved you, you're robbing the preacher of joy that he should
have. You know, our Lord in that parable
in Luke chapter 15, I believe it was the woman who
found that piece of silver. But our Lord said, there's more
joy in heaven over one sinner that repented than over 99 just
men who need no repentance. In a service like this, now think
about this, the Lord may save someone here tonight. That's
his work. He may save someone. No one around
us, we don't see it. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
our values to sound thereof. You can't tell where it came
from or where it's going. And no one here is gonna get
up and shout. But listen, in the Heaven itself,
every time a sinner truly repents and believes in Christ, I tell
you, there's joy in heaven. Can you imagine the rejoicing
that the streets of heaven experience every time one of his sheep is
brought home? Yes. John said, I'm just the
bride, the friend of the bridegroom. And that's true of all pastors.
He must increase, but I must decrease. That's always been
my ministry, John says, to point men to Christ. He must increase,
I must decrease. He that cometh from above is
above all. Who came from above? John didn't
come from above. The Son of God, the eternal Son
of God, he came from above. came down from heaven's glory,
came into this world as a man, and he's above all. He's King of kings and Lord of
lords. He that is of the earth is earthly,
and that's all of us, and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh
from heaven is above all. And what he hath seen and heard,
that he testifieth, No man receiveth his testimony. Lord Jesus Christ,
how many times does he confess the words that I speak? They're
not mine, but they're his who sent me. He that receiveth his
testimony has set to his seal that God is true. He came down from heaven by his
incarnation. John said he must increase. The
apostle Paul wrote that it's God's will that in all things
he have the preeminence. Preeminent over John? Yes, absolutely. Over all things. He speaketh the words of God.
Remember Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? He asked his disciples, didn't
he? Will you also go away? Lord, to whom shall we go? We believe and are sure that the
earth of Christ, the son of God, and has the words of everlasting
life. All right, turn back to Matthew
11. John's ministry from the very beginning to the end, and
this is the end here. John's ministry was always to
point men to Christ. Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sins of the world. He's now in prison. And he must
have known, he must have known that his time in this world would
soon come to an end. He knew something about Herod.
He was a wicked man. And Herod was just planning,
after John told him, It's not lawful for you to have your brother's
wife. He knew that Herod was just planning. When Herodias' daughter dances
before John, and he says before all those people, unto half of
my kingdom I'll give to you, don't you know that that was
all planned? That was Herod's purpose from
the very beginning. And he couldn't go back on his
word, he said. after he had said that before
all of those people. And what did she ask for? She
asked for John's head. John knew his time was here,
was soon drawing to an end. And so he sends two of his disciples,
two of John's disciples, with this question, art thou he that
should come? Are you the one that was foretold
by the prophets that should come the Messiah? John would now hear
the Lord Jesus Christ himself confess what John had testified
to from the very beginning. He's the Christ. He's the Christ. But now John would have these
two disciples of his to hear these words from the Savior himself. Now, the Lord answered them,
but maybe not in the way that we would have thought. He just
said, well, what did the prophets say about the Messiah? And one
prophecy that may have come to their minds is found in Isaiah
35, verses four through six. Behold, your God will come. He will come and save you. Then
the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf
shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap
like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall be loosed, or
shall sing. These disciples heard that all
of these miracles which had been foretold that the Messiah would
do, that they were being accomplished. In fact, if you look at the parallel
passage in Luke, the Lord healed some blind men even in the presence
of these disciples who asked the Lord this question. They were also aware that the
poor had the gospel preached to them. Our Lord began his ministry
like that in the synagogue in Nazareth. The spirit of the Lord
is upon me, for he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. Not the physically poor necessarily,
to the poor physically, materially also, but to the rich also, but
to those who are poor spiritually. Blessed are they that mourn,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You know what the scripture,
let me bring this to a close, but you know what the scripture
says in John 10 about John? It says, and many resorted unto
him. That is, many resorted unto the
Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what they said. John
did no miracle. You see, you could distinguish
between John and Christ because the Messiah, it had been prophesied
that the Messiah, not his forerunner, but the Messiah himself, would
open the eyes of the blind and stop the ears of the deaf, and
so forth. John did no miracle. This is
what the scripture says, John 10, 41. John did no miracle,
but now listen, all things that John spake of this man were true. He didn't work a miracle, but
everything he said about this man was true. And I would close
with a remark. A pastor that I knew many years
ago has since gone to be with the Lord. But he pastored a church
for a number of years. And when he retired, he made
a comment something like this. He said, I spent my ministry
telling men to look only to Christ. Now, he said, now we will see
if they heard me. Now we will see, he said, now
we will see if they heard me. Have they been following a man
or have they been looking to Christ? I pointed them to Christ. I preached Christ to them. John's
ministry was always pointing men to Christ. And now that he's
in prison, he sent these two disciples to Christ to hear from
his own mouth that he alone was the Savior, the Messiah. I pray
that the Lord would bless these thoughts to all of us here this
evening. I'm going to ask the man who
will help with the Lord's table tonight if you will come at this
time.