Last week in the second half of Matthew 10, we looked at how we're not above Jesus, didn't we?
The servant is not above his master. How we're basically going to be due some persecution too.
And then also how we looked at how we're here to preach the gospel.
You know, we say we're not above the master in terms of thinking that we're going to get this special treatment
when we do do the things of God, but also how we're not above the master,
that we have some sort of funny new fangled way and better way of doing things
and what Jesus told us to do, which is go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
We looked at how we're to make known the truths of the word from the housetops, didn't we?
It's not something that we just whisper and secretly tell people that we're there to preach the truth of the word of God.
How God told us not to fear them, and that's those that will and do persecute us, but to fear him.
And then how he protects those that are confessing him, preaching the gospel.
And that's not just carte blanche, nothing will ever happen if you preach the gospel,
but of course there is some protection that comes with that.
The peace that was promised is between God and men, but there's division between families isn't there.
And he came and he brought division, and many of us have experienced that already.
And if you haven't, you probably will do if you go on to serve the Lord, but it's not something to shy away from.
And then we also saw how there's blessings promised for those that bless Jesus' disciples, didn't we?
And when you're going out and preach the gospel, just getting received by people,
whether even if they don't get saved, just giving a blessing,
whether it's a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple or whatever it is, people get rewarded for that as well.
And they're things that sometimes you don't always think of when we're out trying to preach the gospel and represent the Lord.
And we're going to continue now with Matthew chapter 11 and verse 1.
So he sent out his disciples and it says here in verse 1, it says,
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.
I'd like to just quickly pray as well before we continue.
Father, thank you for this great chapter of the Bible.
Please help me to preach it accurately now. Help me to preach it.
As you'd want it preached, help me to just edify those in the room here and those also watch you can't be here, Lord.
And I pray that you just fill me with your spirit now and just help everyone here to be full of the spirit as well and just to be attentive to your word.
In Jesus' name, for all of this. Amen.
OK, so he sent out his disciples. Does he then just focus on studying now?
He's like, right, I've sent out the disciples.
Now it's time for me to really study and maybe do a bit of admin and, you know,
because I'm sure there's a few things I had to sort out, you know, make sure that Judas isn't messing up with the old money collection and everything else.
Well, no, he leads by example, doesn't he?
And it's, you know, just that little bit of a verse where we just see after he sent them out,
when Jesus made an end of command his 12 disciples, he departed thence to preach in their cities.
And it's just just a great reminder that Jesus Christ led by example, didn't he?
And everyone who wants, you know, to lead in one way or another in life does need to lead by example, don't they?
And it's no good, you know, it'd be no good if I was standing here preaching on soul and you've got to get out soul winning, get out soul winning.
And then I never went soul winning. But, you know, there are people that do that now.
Sadly, a lot of the time then they stop preaching on soul winning, don't they?
Because it's very hypocritical to be preaching. You must go out, you must go out.
They're not doing it yourself. But we should lead by example, shouldn't we?
And it's not just myself in a position here preaching from the pulpit and leading a church in this nation.
You know, everyone has different positions. A father should be leading by example, shouldn't they?
Yeah, it's no good if I'm telling my kids don't do this, behave like this and then I'm doing the same at home.
Yeah, the greatest way anyone's going to learn is by watching and copying.
Yeah, it's one thing to say something. It's another thing to do it. We need to do it. We need to lead.
And for all of us, and whether that's mums at home with the kids, whether that's older kids wanting to lead by example for the younger kids,
you know, older kids here, if you sometimes get frustrated that maybe a younger kid is playing up and getting all the attention of your parents,
maybe you need to lead by example a bit better. Maybe if you lead by example,
you might end up getting a bit more of that attention, a bit more time that maybe is lacking because your younger ones are playing up.
You know, we can all lead by example in life, in many areas of our life, in the workplace, in the church as well.
Mature Christians should be leading by example in the church, shouldn't they?
And the more we lead by example, the more we do the things that God wants us to do,
the healthier this church will be, the healthier those areas of your life will be. Jesus Christ did that.
But here's an interesting thing here as well. Notice that second to last word there.
It said, it said he departed then to teach and to preach in their cities.
Whose cities is he talking about here? The 12 disciples. Now, he went to preach, to teach and preach in their cities.
He sent them out and he goes into their cities. And you might be thinking, well, of course, you know, they're all their cities.
Well, I believe it's the 12 disciples' home cities here because if you jump forward to verse 21,
where he basically, in verse 21, upbraids Bethsaida, OK?
So he's kind of going through these cities and he says, woe unto the Chorazin.
Then he says, woe unto the Bethsaida.
For if the mighty works of Shaddai knew had been done in Tyre and Sodom, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
Now, you don't have to turn there. John 1.44 says, now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
OK, that's the city of Philip, Andrew and Peter, that he's now upbraiding and he's basically, make it clear,
he's gone out and he's done things, he's done miracles there.
And then in verse 23, it says, and now Capernaum, which is where Matthew sat at the receipt of custom, if you remember, in Capernaum.
So I believe, just from looking at that, because I don't think that's in there by mistake, that he went to teach and preach.
He commands them, he sends them out and he goes to teach and preach in their cities.
I think it's probably because of the message that we get in four different gospels, by the way.
So it's an important message. Mark 6.4 is the clearest, which says,
But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country and among his own kin and in his own house.
Now, I believe that Jesus Christ has gone to those disciples' home towns because they're going out, they're doing the things of God.
And Jesus is going out and giving the best possible chance for their families, their friends, the people they know to get saved.
And you might think, are you reading too much into that? Well, why does it say to go and preach in their cities?
And it clearly then talks about some of their cities afterwards.
And the reason I say that as well is because, look, obviously, a prophet is not without honour, OK?
You will find it harder, sadly, to get your family, your friends, those people that saw you growing up,
those people that have seen you, you know, warts and all and everything else,
you'll find it hard to get them to listen to you and to preach the gospel to them.
But you know who they are more likely to listen to is other brothers and sisters in Christ, aren't they?
And that's something that I've heard many people talk about that I offer to anyone here.
I hope everyone else here who's confident preaching the gospel will say the same.
I would happily preach the gospel to any of your family members to find a way to make it happen.
And we should all want to do that for each other, right?
Jesus Christ, there was 100 things you could have done, 100 places you could have gone.
And he actually chose to go, I believe, into their cities, like it says there,
and go and preach the gospel to the people that probably wouldn't have heard it and received it from themselves.
And we should all be offering that to each other, right?
I remember hearing a story, I think, past Thompson talking once about how brother Stucky,
like when, you know, hours wherever he, I can't remember where it was,
when hours out of his way to go and try and preach the gospel to some of his,
one of his family members somewhere in a place where brother Stucky wasn't a long way from.
But when we say a long way, we're talking like a three hour drive or something, you know?
And we think, wow, that's really great.
We should all be willing to do the same, shouldn't we?
Yeah, we should all, and I've actually had someone from this church trying to preach the gospel to my brother
where she lives nearby and hopefully she hasn't given up because he never seems to answer the door.
But, you know, and it's something that I hope that we, you know, we would all do for each other.
And if you have a family or friend and you think someone is not that far from them, ask them.
Yeah, ask them.
Is there a chance you could do that?
Because I believe they're more likely to listen to someone else, aren't they?
They're more likely to listen to someone who's not, who's not someone that grew up with them,
who's not someone that they maybe have lost respect for, for one reason or another, you know, over life.
Because a lot of us probably have done things in life where people are less likely to listen to us
and preach the gospel to them.
Let's continue though.
Now when John, this is verse 2 now,
Now when John had heard in the prison, in the prison there, 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?
Now, turn to John chapter 1.
Why is he questioning? Notice he's just questioned if he's the Christ, yeah.
And you turn to John chapter 1.
I'll just read that again while you're turning there.
He said, he sent two of his disciples and said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?
John the Baptist knows who Jesus Christ is, okay.
John chapter 1 and verse 15 we're going to look from.
John 1.15 says, John bare witness of him and cried, saying, this is John the Baptist, bearing witness of Jesus Christ,
This was he of whom I spake.
He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me.
This is before Jesus Christ's baptism.
John knew who he was.
Jump forward to verse 29.
It says the next day, verse 29,
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.
This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me.
And I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel.
Therefore am I come baptizing with water.
And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.
And I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me,
Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him,
The same is he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost.
And I saw and bare record, don't miss it, that this is the Son of God.
Okay, John the Baptist knew exactly who Jesus Christ was.
So go back to Matthew 11-2.
Go back to where we were in Matthew chapter 11 verse 2.
It says, 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?
Why is he questioning? Well, because his faith is shaken, isn't it?
John the Baptist's faith is shaken. He's in prison.
And we see later on in chapter 14 that was for Preacher against King Herod.
And that can be a time when many people have moments of doubt, don't they?
And look, John the Baptist had moments of doubt.
Okay, everyone here in this room is going to have times in their life when they question their faith,
when they doubt their faith, when they have those times.
Okay, it's not, you're not, I must be unsaved because I've had a moment of doubt.
Or I must be a really bad Christian.
Look, John the Baptist had moments of doubt.
When do we often have moments of doubt is when we're under some sort of persecution,
going through some sort of tribulation, going through some sort of hard time.
And that's often when people start to doubt the Lord,
start to doubt his, you know, that maybe that they're slightly off on something,
they're wrong with something, maybe that he'll come through for them,
maybe even once they start to doubt their actual faith and their belief.
Okay, but there's a difference between doubting and not believing, isn't there?
Okay, and obviously, if you're saved, you're saved, yeah, nothing could change that.
But he does doubt here.
It said when he had heard in prison the works of Christ.
Now, it said he had heard the works of Christ.
Now, it could be that he's hearing of the miracles that Jesus relays in chapter five,
or, sorry, in verse five.
Or perhaps it's more to do with what Jesus speaks about later in the chapter.
Look at verse 18, just something I was thinking of here.
If you look at verse 18, it says,
So, if you go back to Matthew nine for a second,
go back to Matthew chapter nine,
because perhaps the works he's hearing of aren't what he was expecting.
Because in Matthew nine 14, we read this,
So, they're questioning him.
And you could imagine that maybe they're saying, this isn't really what we expected.
You know, I'm in the wilderness, I'm fasting, my disciples are fasting, you're not.
He goes on to say in verse 17, if you remember, Jesus Christ said this,
He says,
And we looked at how hard it is for those used to doing things one way to maybe accept the new way.
And obviously I'm not talking about salvation here with John,
because we looked at that with salvation as well,
but he's saved, but he's having moments of doubt, isn't he?
You know, it could be, why am I in prison?
And perhaps this isn't how I was expecting Jesus Christ to be.
I'm in prison and now I'm looking and I wasn't expecting him to come like this.
I wasn't expecting him to be maybe eating and drinking with publicans and sinners.
And this isn't what I was expecting.
This isn't the Jesus Christ that I was expecting.
I didn't expect to be getting persecuted in prison.
Maybe, maybe that's what it's about.
Because people can be like that about Christians too, can't they?
And I might be off there.
Maybe he's literally talking about the works that he's done.
But it's interesting for me that afterwards we see that,
that before that they're questioning about the Farsi and everything else.
And then it's talking about that while he's in prison,
he's basically saying, you know, what's going on here?
Maybe he's saying this isn't the Jesus Christ that I was expecting.
Christians can be like that.
People can be like that about Christians, can't they?
They go, well, this isn't what I was expecting.
Because many people here would have had an idea of what a Christian should be like, yeah?
Many people here would have been pushed on them,
an idea of what a Christian should be like.
And you have that old cliche like we talked about the other day,
that's not very Christ-like.
How many times will you hear that sort of nonsense?
That's not very Christ-like.
But what is Christ-like?
And people try and give this image
and try and give this idea of what a Christian should be like.
And then maybe they're a bit shocked.
Maybe they're a bit shocked when they come to a church like this.
And yeah, but they're different people for different walks of life,
but they're just normal regular people.
Regular people who love the Lord and want to serve the Lord.
But we're not all walking around, you know, with our, you know,
just very, you know, bent over and apologising
before we say anything to anyone.
And maybe that's the idea.
Or maybe, you know, their idea is that a Christian should just be so holy
and everything they say should be scripture, scripture, scripture,
everything they say.
Or maybe they expect that a Christian should just be constantly
just talking about the Lord, everything they say,
praise the Lord, praise the Lord.
You know, I got here in 45 minutes saying,
praise the Lord, you know, and everything.
Everyone has their idea, don't they?
And then when you maybe don't meet up to those expectations,
is this a Christian?
And Christians do that with the real Jesus Christ, don't they, as well?
So they hear Christ being preached, they hear the word of God,
they read the word of God, and then they think,
is that, you know, is that really, is that really Jesus Christ?
This isn't what I was expecting.
I wasn't expecting, you know, Jesus Christ to say,
you know, through his word that there are people in this world
that he hates, that he hates, God hated.
I wasn't expecting Jesus Christ to be so judgemental.
You know, and, you know, and the rest of the kind of cliche
nonsense that you hear, and then what do they do?
Then they become offended in him, don't they?
Basically, they get put off him.
And here, you know, especially when you're going through
a hard time being persecuted for his sake,
maybe there are people here that have had times
where they're going through some persecution,
they're going through some hard times,
they're then seeing the real Lord Jesus Christ being preached
and they're reading in the word of God
that you are going to go through persecution,
you are going to go through tribulation.
They go, well, this isn't what I was expecting.
Is any of this even real?
They start doubting and questioning and everything else.
Well, Jesus answered and said unto them,
go and show John again those things which ye 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 of the gospel preach to them,
and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.
So, verse 5 there is all prophecies found in the book of Isaiah.
Now, maybe he's saying, forget what you want to see,
do I line up with the word of God?
How about that?
Forget what you want to see,
forget the image that you've created of what the Christ will be like,
forget that, do I line up with the word of God?
And that's something that we can often,
that's a great way to strengthen your faith in times of doubt,
times of, does he line up with the word of God?
Yes, he does.
In fact, you could go even further
and not just say, does he line up with the word of God?
Does he fulfil tons and tons of prophecy?
Yes, he does.
And the more you read your Bible,
the more you read through from Genesis through to Revelation,
the more you just, it's impossible,
it's absolutely impossible for someone to have fulfilled that many prophecies,
it's impossible, without it being the Lord,
without it being the Lord Jesus Christ,
without it being all of God, it's impossible.
But it takes reading it to remind yourself of that, doesn't it?
And he says to him here, he says, he says,
go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see,
and then he basically is showing, I am fulfilling all the prophecies,
I am who the word of God said I was going to be.
Yeah, I'm not who maybe the Pharisees said I was going to be,
I'm not who the scribes said I was going to be,
but I am who the word of God said I was going to be.
And he said, blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.
Offended, you know, can mean different things,
I think he's just saying displeased here,
unhappy, you know, maybe even stumbles at me.
He's saying, go and tell John that he'll be blessed
if he's not disappointed that I'm not how he wants me to be.
OK, go and tell John that he'll be blessed,
and look, all of us here will be more blessed in life
if we just let the word of God define who Jesus Christ is and not ourself.
Not our own preconceived ideas, not our world's preconceived ideas,
not the way the world wants to tell us to believe in Jesus,
who Jesus is meant to be, but what does the word of God say?
What does the word of God say?
And the word of God makes it clear who Jesus Christ is,
and the more we learn about that, the less we'll be displeased
or offended when things don't go our way in life.
It's not for us to mould Jesus into what we want,
because then we will be disappointed.
Now, he reminds him of where we should be going to know Jesus,
doesn't he, here, the word, because that's what he said there.
He said, you know, show him those things,
he gives us a list of these prophecies being fulfilled,
and he's basically saying, you need to make sure
you're going to the word, John, make sure you're going to the word,
that's where you get to know the Lord Jesus Christ,
from the word of God, isn't it?
And the more you read the Bible, when you have those moments,
that's the most important time to open your Bible.
Look, we've had those times, had those kind of weak times before.
I know myself, I look back at my past and think of times
when I've had weak times, and I've opened up my Bible
and it's like, that's of God, that's the word of God.
You can't doubt when you read the word of God, can you?
There's nothing like it.
But that, like we talked about on Sunday,
that's the time so often when people stop reading their Bibles,
so often when they go through hard times,
they stop reading their Bible, then they start doubting,
they start doubting more and more and more,
that's the most important time to read your Bible.
Now, on the back of this, you could read this and think,
John the Baptist is a bit of a disappointment here, isn't he?
You go, come on, John, a bit of prison time
and you're already questioning if this is...
You saw the Spirit of God, you know, descending upon him, didn't you?
You know, you heard the voice from heaven, you knew who he was,
you said, behold, the Lamb of God which shaketh away the sins of the world,
you said it all, and now you're questioning what's wrong with you.
Well, look what he then says here after this, verse 7.
And as they departed, so these are the disciples here of John the Baptist,
Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John,
What went ye out into the wilderness to see?
A reed shaken with the wind?
But what went ye 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? Yeah, I say unto you, a 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 have not risen a greater than John the Baptist,
notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
He's just said that John the Baptist is the greatest man ever.
John, who was just having a major time of doubt, yeah?
He just said he's the greatest man ever,
because even the greatest men ever had moments of doubt, OK?
You're all in good company, OK?
All of us, we're all in good company,
because even the greatest man ever,
John the Baptist had a moment at least there,
one moment, probably more of doubt.
Now, look, it's not that we want to have those times in life, do we?
But when we haven't, it's a good reminder.
John the Baptist had them too.
Many other prophets, you see in the Bible,
had moments of questioning, moments of doubt,
moments of doubting what the Lord's saying to them,
moments of doubting, you know, life and things like that.
What was the answer here?
Well, like I said, Jesus reminded John that he was fulfilling prophecies.
Back to the word of God.
Now, verse 7 then says,
And as they departed,
Jesus began to say unto them all truths concerning John,
What went ye out into the wilderness to see a reed shaker with the wind?
But what went ye out for to see a man clothed in soft raiment?
Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses.
So he's saying, were you expecting some designer suit wearing,
smooth talker, flip-flopping on doctrine to please whoever is in front of him?
That's what he's saying there, really, isn't he?
Is that what you're expecting to see?
Turn to Ephesians chapter 4 on that,
because I believe that's what it's talking about,
that reed shaking in the wind.
A reed is like a large grass-type plant,
think of like the bamboo or something else like that,
and these sorts of plants will get moved easily by the wind, won't they?
Ephesians 4 and verse 11 talks of the abilities given to those in a church,
Ephesians 4 and 11, and it says,
And he gave some apostles and some prophets,
so Ephesians 4 and 11,
and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ,
till we all come in a unity of the faith
and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
and to a perfect man,
and to the measure of the stature and the fullness of Christ,
that's a complete man there,
that we henceforth be no more children,
tossed to and fro and carried about
with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men,
and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
But speak of the truth, and love may grow up into him in all things,
which is ahead even Christ.
So that verse 14 there, talking about being tossed to and fro,
carried about with every wind of doctrine.
The point is that we want to learn and grow
so that we're not like that, don't we?
And we don't want to be tossed about with every wind of doctrine.
And again, when you were probably newly saved,
a lot of us here probably got tossed about with every wind of doctrine.
I know I was getting tossed about to and fro
with every wind of doctrine at the beginning,
and I'm not saying we're all immune to that now,
but the newer saved you are, the easier that is, isn't it?
And by the way, kids here, that's why it's important
when you're newly saved, or not even newly saved,
to listen to your parents.
If your parents come into a church like this,
look, they've already, for me, become worthy to be listened to.
And that means listen to them, don't start getting too headstrong
in your teen years and you start to think you know best.
Listen to your parents, because it's very easy to get tossed
to and fro with every wind of doctrine.
And by the way, it said that we henceforth be no more children,
because foolishness is banned in the heart of a child.
And kids are easy to be tossed to and fro,
which is why it's so important as parents that we protect our kids
from getting tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.
Because people are lying in wait to deceive our kids.
They're lying in wait to pull them away,
to pull them out of a good church like this,
to pull them out of the things of God,
to pull them out of the King James Bible,
to pull them out of the key doctrines of the word of God.
We need to protect them from that.
But here, my point in turning here is just to show
that being carried about, the kind of tossed to and fro,
the wind, you know, et cetera,
for me is kind of highlighting that John wasn't someone
that was just flip-flopping on doctrine, was he?
John might have had a moment of doubt in his life,
but it didn't mean that he was some weak Christian.
He was the greatest man that lived,
that was out there preaching hard.
He was preaching the truth.
He spoke the truth in love, didn't he, like we just saw here,
but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him
in all things which is ahead, even Christ.
We need to speak the truth in love as well, OK?
And that's not always going to sound nice,
sometimes when you speak the truth in love,
because a lot of these sharp suit-wearing smooth talkers
will change their doctrine for the audience, won't they?
Don't they?
They'll change their doctrine depending on who's in the church,
depending on what sort of flavour they're feeling right now,
depending on where the money's coming from,
depending on many different things like that.
They'll just change, chop and change the suit, whoever it is.
But that's not how we want to be, do we?
We want to make sure that we're not getting blown around
with every wind of doctrine.
Our doctrine comes from the Word of God, doesn't it?
Not from the slight of men and cunning craftiness.
Go back to Matthew 11.
He said in verse 8,
And just a quick point on that,
because soft clothing was obviously a sign of wealth, wasn't it?
And if they're getting rich from preaching the Word of God,
then something's amiss, just to make that very clear.
Yeah, we've got to find the...
We don't want to go too far in each direction,
like I preached the other day,
about the labour being worthy of his reward,
but no-one should be getting rich preaching the Word of God, should they?
If I started coming in here in Armani suits and things like that,
then something's up, OK?
And you've got every right to go,
what on earth is going on, by the way?
And let's be honest, you should feel like an idiot, really, shouldn't you?
Here's a plus, think of this as I looked at this.
At least then, you've probably got some soft clothing for your money.
There was probably a point in actually those riches,
well, at least you'd probably be a bit more comfortable,
but nowadays people just spend, through the roof,
ridiculous amounts of money on things which probably aren't really any softer.
I mean, just get a good tumble dryer if you want it really soft.
It'd be a lot cheaper.
But instead, it's just extortionate amounts of money just to look good, isn't it?
It's not even that the clothes feel any more comfortable.
I mean, I don't know if anyone's sitting here thinking it's like sandpaper,
what I'm wearing.
If you do, then, OK, you can understand, yeah?
But most people aren't, because nowadays I don't think, you know,
it's not like, oh, the softest things, yeah?
Maybe there's some, I don't know, cashmere things like that.
Probably feel quite nice, yeah?
I mean, you always used to make me feel itchy, those sorts of things.
But maybe they're quite nice, right?
But really, look, does it make much difference?
And most of the time, people are spending through the nose
to have some sort of label, to have some sort of cup that people can tell,
you know, that's an expensive suit.
Or that's an expensive whatever.
And nowadays, obviously, it'd be probably more like a suit,
although some of these particularly wealthy guys,
it's more like the, I don't know, the suit jacket with the chinos
and whatever else they wear.
Very expensive T-shirts, which, how on earth are they that expensive?
But anyway, so you get all this sort of stuff, but it's ridiculous, isn't it?
And that's not what John the Baptist...
John the Baptist was with, you know, a leavened girdle, wasn't he?
And, you know, he was wearing edible skin, I mean,
but maybe that could be quite expensive,
but I think he probably butchered it himself, didn't he?
But what went you out for to see a prophet?
Yea, I say unto you, am 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.
Now, this is from Malachi chapter 3.
And you could turn to it if you like, quickly.
Malachi chapter 3, just before the book of Matthew,
last book of the Old Testament.
Malachi, sorry, chapter 3 and verse 1, which reads,
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me,
and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple,
even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in.
Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.
Notice how it said, Behold, I will send my messenger,
he shall prepare the way before me.
Yeah, notice that.
Yeah, that's the Lord, the Lord our God, right,
well, and he's speaking through Malachi there.
John the Baptist was that messenger, wasn't he?
And by the way, I just thought this reading this,
obviously, you know, it's not a new thought here,
but you could see why the false Jews will readily accept the Antichrist
along with the false prophet, can't you?
Because they're looking for that prophet to pave the way and everything else,
and that for me is why they accept the Antichrist with the false prophet.
Yeah, it's a sham, isn't it? It's a fake.
The fact that they're already a couple of thousand years too late
is obviously lost on them, but, you know,
they're still looking for that, aren't they,
which is one of the roles of the false prophet, isn't it?
Anyway, verse 11 says, Verily, back to where we are, sorry,
back to Matthew chapter 11, and verse 11 says,
Verily I send to you among them that are born of women.
So we've just seen, obviously,
there was this prophecy of John the Baptist coming to pave the way.
It says, Verily I send to you among them that are born of women
that have not risen are greater than John the Baptist,
notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
So why is the least or lowest in the kingdom of heaven
greater than John the Baptist?
Because there's no sin in the kingdom of heaven, OK?
Because you don't have your sinful flesh.
Once the flesh is gone, well, it's either soul
or eventually soul and glorified body,
which will be a sinless body in the image of Christ, there's no sin.
So even the least, even the person that's done, you know,
the very least and everything else and, you know,
obviously we're saved by grace through faith
and, you know, they've done nothing for God after that,
they're still going to be greater than John the Baptist
because they're not going to have the sinful flesh.
You'll never have those moments of doubt once you're in heaven,
and I know that should go without saying,
you'll never have those moments of doubt
when you're in the millennial reign with that sinless body
because you're not going to have any sin, are you?
And that's why he that is least in the kingdom of heaven
is greater than John the Baptist
and that's a great thought to think about, isn't it?
You look at this great man, John the Baptist,
and, yeah, we're looking at a low point in his life.
He is in prison, OK?
He is in prison and wondering what's going on right now,
but a great man like John the Baptist
and every single one of us here without that sinful flesh
will be greater than he.
I believe that's what it's talking about there.
And look at it, look what it says in verse 12.
And from the days of John the Baptist until now,
the kingdom of heaven suffers with violence
and the violent take it by force.
Now, firstly, let's just have a look at what does it mean
from the days of John the Baptist?
Wasn't he in the days of John the Baptist?
So what's he talking about here?
Well, the days of John the Baptist,
I believe, being the Old Testament, yeah?
Verse 13 says,
For all the prophets and the Lord prophesied until John.
The days, like the generation, it's the Old Testament,
they were all preaching the coming Christ.
John was the last of the Old Testament prophets, wasn't he?
It says in verse 14,
And if you will receive it, this is Elias,
which was for to come.
Now, this is a bit of a familiar mystery.
Turn to Luke 1,
which I think helps explain this Elijah-John mystery here.
Jesus said of John the Baptist in Matthew 17, 12,
well, you're turning to Luke chapter 1,
But I say unto you that Elias is come already,
talking about Elijah here,
and they knew him not,
but have done unto him whatsoever they listed,
likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer of them.
So talking about John the Baptist here.
But then in John 1 21,
if you'll still turn to Luke 1,
or you probably already got there, but don't worry,
I'm going to read it anyway.
John 1 21,
when the priest of Levites asked if he's Elijah,
John said, No.
He said, And they asked him, What then?
Art thou Elias?
And he saith, I am not.
Art thou that prophet?
And he answered, No.
So what's going on here?
Well, Luke 1 and from verse 13,
we see the angel appears to John's father Zacharias
before John's born.
The angel said unto him,
Fear not Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard,
and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son,
and thou shalt call his name John.
And thou shalt have joy and gladness,
and many shall rejoice at his birth.
For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord,
and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink,
and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost,
even from his mother's womb.
And many of the children of Israel
shall he turn to the Lord their God,
and he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias,
to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,
and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
So basically it says in verse 17,
he came in the spirit and power of Elias, or Elijah.
Okay, the spirit and power of Elijah.
And I was thinking about this,
I was thinking about,
and this is kind of done quickly,
I'm sure there are more,
but here are some interesting comparisons for you
when you look at the life of Elijah.
Elijah was described in 2 Kings 1.8
as an hairy man and girt with a girdle of leather
about his loins.
Matthew 3.4 says of John the Baptist,
the same John had his raiment of camel's hair
and a leather girdle about his loins,
and his meat was locust and wild honey.
First time we see Elijah in 1 Kings 17.3,
he's told, get thee hence and turn thee eastward
and hide thyself by the brook Cherith,
that is before Jordan.
John's first real appearance was baptising in Jordan,
wasn't it?
Elijah is sustained by pretty wild food
from the mouth of the ravens, isn't he?
Early in his life,
John is eating locust and wild honey.
Elijah confronts and slays the prophets of Baal
in 1 Kings 18.
John confronts and prophesies the spiritual slaying
of the Pharisees and Sadducees in Matthew 3, doesn't he?
Elijah preaches against King Ahab.
John preaches against King Herod.
It's King Ahab's wife Jezebel that seeks to slay Elijah,
and it's King Herod's wife Herodias that seeks to slay John.
Elijah has a low faith moment in 1 Kings 19
whilst being hunted by Jezebel.
John has just had his low faith moment
while passing prison for Herodias' sake, right?
Elijah was given food and water to sustain him.
At that time, John was given the spiritual food and water
to the word of God to sustain him.
That's what Jesus basically said, didn't he?
So for me, the spirit and power of Elijah
was the ability to dwell in the wilderness,
the spirit to take on the false prophets,
the spirit to take on the evil king,
the power to do all that sort of stuff.
They were basically the same kind of prophet, weren't they?
That's what I believe it is.
That's how I see that.
That's our nation of Elijah.
I don't believe that at all.
I just believe it's in the spirit and power of.
He's basically a very similar prophet whose early life,
or at least, sorry, his life seems to have so many similarities
with the early life of Elijah.
What did verse 12 mean?
Where it said,
And from the days of John the Baptist until now
the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence
and of violence take it by force.
Cue a load of false doctrine about all sorts of battles
going on that were, you know,
and there's probably some hidden books, aren't there?
And there aren't, by the way, in case anyone
doesn't realise I'm joking.
For me, it just means that throughout the Old Testament,
because it's talking about from the days of John the Baptist,
like I said, I believe that's just talking about
the days of John the Baptist being the Old Testament prophets,
these wicked people have violently kept the kingdom of heaven
from people, haven't they?
That's what they've done.
They violently, by violence, they've kept the kingdom of heaven.
They've taken it by force from others.
Turn to Matthew 23, where Jesus makes this point even clearer,
in Matthew chapter 23, and he says from verse 29,
Matthew 23, 29, he says,
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
because ye build the tombs of the prophets
and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous,
and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers,
we would not have been partakers with them
in the blood of the prophets.
Okay, they would take it by violence.
Wherefore, ye be witness unto yourselves
that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers,
ye serpents, ye generation of vipers.
How can ye escape the damnation of hell?
Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets
and wise men and scribes,
and some of them ye shall kill and crucify,
and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues
and persecute them from city to city,
that upon you may come all the righteous blood,
shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel
unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barakas,
whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
Verily I say unto you,
All these things shall come upon this generation.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets,
and stonest them which are sent unto thee,
how often would I have gathered thy children together,
even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,
and ye would not.
Behold, your house is left unto you, desolate,
for I say unto you,
Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say,
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
They killed the prophets,
and stoned them that were sent unto them, right?
Okay, that's what I believe he's talking about there.
That's how the kingdom of heaven suffered violence,
and violent take it by force.
However, those prophets were still sent, weren't they?
They were still sent, they still called,
they still piped, they still mourned.
If you look at the following verses, verse 16,
back to where you were in Matthew 11,
Matthew 11, verse 16 says,
But whereunto shall I liken this generation?
It is like unto children sitting in the markets,
and calling unto their fellows,
and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced,
we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented.
Okay, this, for me, then continued with John the Baptist.
This has been from, I think, the beginning,
but that's the generation, isn't it?
But it's even continuing now, where it says,
For John came neither eating nor drinking,
and they say he hath a devil.
The Son of Man came eating and drinking,
and they say, Behold, a man gluttonous,
and a winebib are a friend of publicans and sinners,
but wisdom is justified of our children.
Now, the first application is,
you just can't win with God-rejectors, can you?
Okay, you just can't win, can you?
You come and you're fasting, and you're living, you know,
this kind of humble life out in the wilderness,
and eating, you know, locusts and honey,
and, you know, and wearing, you know, animal skin
and everything else, and they say you've got a devil,
and then, you know, you come and you sit down,
you eat and drink with them, and, you know,
and you're with the sinners, the publicans, you know,
trying to get them saved and everything else,
and then you're just called a glutton and a winebibber,
and you just can't win, and, you know,
like we talked about last week with this,
so often people are constantly, like,
they think they're going to find a missing ingredient
to get people saved.
They're going to find this new-fangled way,
a way to reach the teenagers,
a way to reach the, I remember a guy many years ago,
a family member in law, saying to me,
well, you know, you're not going to reach the kids with,
you know, with the King James with the these
and the those and the those.
Why? Well, oh, sorry,
we need to change the Bible to reach the kids, do we?
No, the Word of God has always been what's reached people,
and it's the same, really, it's the same, isn't it?
That same kind of, that same mentality as,
well, we need the flashing lights in here.
Guys, we need to get the drum kit out,
and we need the electric guitar because we're not reaching the kids.
We need, and what happens with all of those churches being much,
they don't end up preaching the Gospel anyway,
they go completely apostate, and yeah,
they might be having a load of kids come in,
but no one's getting saved anyway.
But look, you know, you can't win with them,
and there's no point trying to find the secret ingredient to win.
Preach the Gospel, preach the Gospel,
and that's what we have, we have the Word of God,
that's what gets people saved.
So there, you know, first application is
you can't win with God-rejectors,
they're just lying about both John and Jesus.
Did John have a devil?
Anyone think John had a devil? No.
Was Jesus a glutton?
No.
And neither was he a wine-bearer,
but how many people will go to this passage
and then go see Jesus was boozy?
What are you talking about?
Because they're lying about him, they're lying.
No, he wasn't a boozer.
It's all lies as an excuse to reject him,
because people like to lie about the Lord Jesus Christ
as an excuse to reject him, don't they?
And you hear that a lot on the door,
well, didn't, doesn't God, or didn't he do this,
or didn't he, you know, didn't Jesus Christ do this?
And it's just lies, isn't it, to reject him.
But while we're on this subject,
it's just something that's not preached that often,
what is a glutton? What is a glutton?
Well, according to Proverbs 23,
you might as well turn now,
I know we were there on Sunday as well,
it's a riotous eater of flesh,
or at least it could be a riotous eater of flesh,
at least it can be used synonymously,
or maybe a riotous eater of flesh is a glutton.
Proverbs 23 and from verse 20 says,
be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh,
for the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty,
and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.
So according to Proverbs 23, you know,
a winebibber can, you know,
I think can be used interchangeably with drunkard,
and the riotous eater of flesh can be interchanged
with the word glutton.
Now, in Deuteronomy 21-20,
being a glutton is connected with being stubborn and rebellious,
and they shall say unto the elders of the city this,
our son is stubborn and rebellious,
he will not obey our voice, he is a glutton and a drunkard.
The point being that overweight people
aren't necessarily gluttonous,
and underweight people can be gluttonous.
In fact, there are some gluttonous people
that have eating disorders and things like that
because they're such gluttons, yeah?
And just the reason I say that is because, you know,
I've heard people just try and, like,
that person can't say anything because they're a glutton
because they're maybe overweight or something,
but you don't know anything, you know.
We really don't know.
There's many reasons why people aren't the shape
that our society's told us is,
right, that's the right shape, and whatever else.
And really, you know, being a glutton,
I see here as someone who's a riotous eater of flesh.
That's a bit different to someone who maybe, you know,
hasn't got, you know, is maybe more susceptible
to carbs than someone else, or maybe someone else
who's maybe got a sweet tooth or someone else,
you know, whatever it is, you know,
it's something that I think is thrown out,
but I don't think it's as clear as we like to think,
or at least maybe people that aren't gluttons like to think.
A glutton here is someone who's a riotous eater of flesh.
That's what I see.
That's the only real definition.
It's only used a word a couple of times,
and also it's something that's kind of combined
with people that are stubborn and rebellious.
Well, OK, Jesus was none of these, was he?
Was Jesus a glutton? No.
Was Jesus a drunkard? No.
Was he a winebibber? No.
Jesus Christ, through his word, said not to even look
upon fermented alcohol, OK,
and we made that very clear on Sunday evening.
But wisdom is justified of her children.
We get our wisdom from the children of wisdom, don't we,
which has saved people, not the world, yeah?
The world will try and give you its wisdom on things,
and the world tries to tell us that Jesus must have been a boozer
because they just can't get their head around the fact
that wine could have applied to anything else
other than the more recent definition of alcoholic grape juice,
whereas no wine was used for both, like I said before,
both fermented and unfermented juice.
Jesus Christ was not a winebibber.
They accused him of being one.
OK, verse 20 then says,
Then began he to upbraid the cities, wherein most of his mighty works
were done because they repented not.
It says here,
Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done
in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago
in sackcloth and ashes.
But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable
for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you.
And now Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven,
shalt be brought down to hell.
For if the mighty works which had been done in thee
had been done in Sodom, it would have remained unto this day.
But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee.
So the point here is that the places where Jesus was performing miracles,
doing mighty works, are held to a higher standard, yeah?
And another thing that's quite an obvious point here,
he uses the most extreme example of Sodom to show how God views
such an open rejection of Christ.
So you've got Sodom, you've got this wicked place,
and he's basically saying it will be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment.
So those people that live these wicked, vile sodomites, yeah,
who, you know, as the Bible teaches us,
these types of people are basically rapists, gang rapists,
they're just complete abusers, the most wicked people.
It's going to be more tolerable for them in the day of judgment
than those which openly just have rejected
the most clear display of Jesus Christ.
Now, don't get me wrong, these people have rejected
what knowledge of God, you know, has been shown to them, et cetera,
and become reprobate, OK?
But I believe that the places he's talking about here as well,
these people become reprobate, OK?
The point being is that they haven't just rejected, you know,
for, you know, the knowledge that they've given to some degree.
They've actually had Jesus Christ in the flesh doing miracles
in their towns, in their cities, in their faces,
preaching the Word, et cetera, and they've still rejected it.
I mean, that's amazing, really, isn't it?
Isn't it amazing, really, when you think about it?
And we know that, bless the day, which have not seen and yet believe,
and, you know, I don't want to like us to all get on our high horses here,
but when you think there are people in a room like this,
and many over the world and have throughout history,
that have just heard the Word of God preached to them
and have got saved, and you think...
You can understand why he's preaching hard against these people.
He's saying, look, like, there are people that will...
There are people that come, like he said to Thomas, doubting Thomas,
that are just going to hear the Word.
They haven't even seen me and they're going to put their faith in me
and get saved, and then you're going to these towns and cities
and you're doing amazing miracles.
It's Jesus Christ, it's God in the flesh, doing all these great things.
I mean, he's raised people for the dead, he's giving sight to the blind,
he's, you know, healing lepers, he's doing these amazing things,
and yet, you know, multiplying food, you know, all this stuff,
and they reject him.
And like we said here, they will just find a reason.
They'll find a reason, they'll call him a drunken and a glutton,
they'll say to John, he has the devil,
and they will do the same to us, won't they?
But it's not a slight on you, it's just people that just reject the Lord.
But the thing is, is when it's there in front of you,
performing miracles, that's a big rejection.
And something this made me think about,
and something that, you know, and again, you know,
there's nothing wrong with that,
kids here are just as much of the congregation as anyone else,
kids here, yeah, kids, you're sitting here listening,
and any kids who may be from our church
that might be watching along with their parents, yeah,
if you're sitting in a church like this, and that goes for anyone,
if you sit in a church like this, preaching the clear word of God,
you're going out and listening to soul winning, the gospel being preached,
you're hearing the word of God being preached
and the gospel being preached,
and clearly being regularly alluded to behind this,
yeah, I'm not preaching the gospel every single service,
but the gospel comes up a lot, yeah,
and you still reject, like you're on a big, big nose dive to reprobation, okay?
You sit in this church and you listen to the word of God
and you're around soul winning, you're hearing the gospel being preached,
and if you're sitting there and you're still basically rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ,
not just kids here, anyone here, anyone watching online
or anyone who comes to this church, like that is a big deal,
that is a big problem, and look, it's going to be more tolerable
for the wicked vile sodomites than for you in the day of judgement,
you're going to be going to a lowest depths of hell
because you have had the truth given to you,
you've had it here, you've had the word of God preached,
and for whatever's in your wicked hearts, if you've rejected it,
I'm not saying all you kids are wicked, I'm sure you will save,
but if you are rejecting it, adults, kids, anyone sitting in a church like this,
wow, I see the same here, you're seeing miracles,
you're seeing people change their lives around,
if you've been in this church for the last near two years,
you've seen people come into this church,
you've seen a big difference throughout their lives, haven't you?
You've seen changes, everyone in here,
everyone in here, you've seen changes over months,
you've seen miracles being performed, you've seen people getting saved,
you've been out watching people on a doorstep rejecting Christ,
30 minutes later putting their faith in Christ.
If you're still rejecting the word of God, that is dangerous,
that is more than dangerous, it's going to be more tolerable,
I think that applies to you, that applies to people that are around it,
that are seeing it, that are seeing the miracles of the Lord,
and that is a stark warning.
If you're there and you've got some sort of pride issue,
some sort of issue where you won't put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
you need to get on your knees after this service,
you can get on your knees now and put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
and say, I'm sorry, because you don't want to be,
you don't want to be those people he's talking about here
that would be more tolerable for the land of Sodom
in the day of judgment than for you, okay?
And I have no doubt that the word of God,
every single word of it is true, and if the word of God says that,
for people that are clearly rejecting the open revelation of Jesus Christ,
that is a risk to anyone sitting here, anyone watching online,
anyone that sits here week in, week out,
anyone that goes out solely in the rest of it.
And look, that's everywhere, isn't it?
Rejectors around proper churches, they become reprobate, don't they?
They become reprobate.
Maybe there are people, you don't know,
maybe people that end up turning on churches like ours,
the ones that were just weren't safe,
maybe they didn't come in as infiltrators in the first place.
Maybe they came in, they were drawn to the light like many did, didn't they?
Many that didn't believe were drawn to the light of John,
and then they didn't end up getting saved, did they?
They ended up, and many, many didn't believe and just went away, didn't they?
But look, maybe many come to churches like ours and others,
and maybe they came and they just, you know, there was still some sort of hang up,
and then they just rejected whatever there was,
they rejected, they rejected, they rejected,
eventually they're given over to a reprobate mind,
and then they turn into some sort of wicked problem in a church like ours.
And look, you don't want to be that, okay?
You don't want to end up being the church infiltrator,
you don't want to end up being some sort of wicked,
but kids, you need to make sure if you're sitting here
and you're still not sure,
make sure you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ today, adults too.
At that time, verse 25, Jesus answered and said,
I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent
and has revealed them unto babes.
Okay, so the wise and prudent in the world's eyes,
who are they? The scholars, the doctors of theology,
you know, the philosophical experts,
there's a lot of philosophical experts out there, aren't there?
They don't understand a word of the Bible.
The intellectual giants of our day.
There have been intellectual giants of every day, haven't there, really?
And they're not really intellectual giants,
because 1 Corinthians 1.19 says, for it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise
and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
And we've just seen him say,
because he has hid these things from the wise and prudent.
And really, their understanding, their wisdom is nothing, isn't it?
And they basically have less knowledge and wisdom, I believe,
than the babe in Christ.
He said, and has revealed them unto babes,
which is what all of these people really were.
I mean, he's talking about the multitudes here.
These are mainly people that are newly saved.
It's not like there are people coming along going,
I've been saved for years, Jesus.
You know, like we said, like we were talking about,
about with the new bottles, or the new wine, sorry,
and the old bottles, and, you know, and with the garment
and putting on the new bit of cloth onto an old garment.
I think it's very hard for people to then get on board
with sort of that New Testament, sort of that New Teach,
and everything else, even probably for John and some of his disciples
or the ones that hadn't then gone over
and started following the Lord Jesus Christ.
And really, you know, these people mainly are babes in Christ,
and everyone here has been a babe or is a babe in Christ.
You have more wisdom,
because the fear of the Lord is a beginning of wisdom.
Okay, it's a beginning of wisdom.
You have more wisdom than the wisest so-called intellectual scholar,
philosopher, you know, theological expert in this nation.
And really, as you learn, as you grow, as you grow as a Christian,
don't you listen to these guys, and it's laughable, laughable.
I always just think of that more on Jordan Peterson,
because it is laughable.
I mean, I believe this guy's a false prophet, really,
because he claims to teach the Bible and have some belief in God,
but whatever he is, he's a complete moron.
He is an idiot, isn't he?
But he's so appealing to the people of this world
because he's got this vocabulary,
although he seems to make up words as he goes along as well.
He's got this vocabulary,
and he just kind of talks around about way and everything else.
But we can all be conned by those people, okay?
We can all be conned.
But I do believe the more you grow and the more you grow
and the less you kind of get conned by them as well,
because you just start to see through it more and more, don't you?
And you get less influenced by the word salad
that comes out of their mouth, because that's so often what it is.
That's what's meant to con you.
And I've had a thought about this.
If someone can't answer something succinctly, yeah,
can't just answer a simple question in a fairly quick,
non-roundabout way, it's either, number one,
it's either because they don't know the answer,
or, number two, it's because they love the sound of their voice.
And people like him are just an absolute...
They're just a sham, aren't they?
You see these interviews where they'll ask someone like him a question,
and it's, well, if you look into them,
it's just, just answer the question, man.
And it's so often it's to...
It's basically because they don't know the answer,
and it's to make them just sound and seem very intelligent.
They're so intellectual.
But we've got to make sure we don't get conned by these people, okay?
Because many Christians will still go to the world
go to the worldly philosopher, go to the worldly scholar,
go to the doctor of theology and want the explanation from him
rather than from the word of God.
From the word of God or from just someone preaching the word of God.
And, yeah, we don't want to go too far.
People go too far, like, you know, if the guy's not, you know,
if I'm in England not, you know,
kind of can barely string a sentence together
and sound like I'm not completely from the gutters
and, you know, it's not really real Bible preaching
and then you've got the version in the US
where you've got, like, the country boy who's preaching
and everyone's like, yeah, that's God's man
because he's literally, you know, barely got any sort of vocabulary at all.
No, we don't need to go too far that way either
but we don't need to be impressed by all that worldly junk, do we?
Really, what we want to hear is we want to hear the word of God preached
by someone with the Holy Spirit
and we want to ultimately get our knowledge from the word of God ourselves
and read the word of God, don't we?
And we don't want to be impressed by so-called intellectuals
and the rest of it because they're not impressive
and the more you grow, the more you grow in faith,
the more you'll just see them for the charlatans that most of them really are.
If I want some wisdom in life,
I'm going to go to someone who's not a fool in God's eyes, aren't I?
You would think, wouldn't you?
If I want some wisdom on something in my life,
surely I'm going to go to the person that God doesn't look down on
and go, you're a fool.
Yet again, how many people will still go to these people for wisdom?
Now, look, if I want to know how to do something on my car,
if I wanted to try and fix my car,
yeah, I don't need a saved person for that, OK?
It would be quite handy if I did, but I don't need a saved person.
Sadly, a lot of times, saved people will probably rip you off
as much as anyone else, OK?
But if I want to know something that's some sort of wisdom in life
and something which ultimately can come from the word of God,
why am I going to go to someone that's a fool in God's eyes?
But people do, don't they?
Well, 1 Corinthians 3.19, that says,
Now, like I said, that's not to say that we shouldn't want to grow
in knowledge and wisdom and prudence,
but ultimately, where does that come from?
The word of God. The word of God.
And the more you read the word of God, the cleverer you're going to get.
The wiser you're going to get, the more prudent you're going to get,
the more knowledgeable you're going to get.
You'll grow so much to read the word of God quicker than anything else.
Anything else.
You'll get wise, you'll get knowledge,
but it comes from the word of God, doesn't it?
And there'll be people who maybe, you know, by the world standards,
aren't they intelligent people?
And they read their Bible and they read it day in, day out,
week in, week out, month in, month out, you know,
and over years of coming to a proper church and preaching and serving God,
you'll see people and you hear testimonies of people
regularly, pastors talk about this,
you'll see them literally grow in intelligence.
People are like a different person afterwards, aren't they?
But so often we think, oh no, it's all about the worldly academics,
I've got to go and study this, I've got to go to university,
I've got to go and do that.
Look, find if that's going to get you a job that you think
that's a good job for you, it's God honouring,
it's going to help you provide for your family.
But so often it's not about that, is it?
So often people are just trying to get letters after their names,
trying to get some sort of credibility with the world
rather than just getting a job and learning how to live for God.
Verse 26, let's finish up, it says,
Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.
All things are delivered unto me of my Father,
and no man knoweth the Son but the Father,
neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son,
and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
And what makes him reveal it?
Faith.
Oh, is it only certain people, is he only called certain people?
What does verse 28 say?
Come unto me all, all ye that labour in a heavy laden,
I'll give you rest.
OK, so no, it's not a select few,
it's not the chosen elect, you know,
there's only a few that God just randomly elect.
No, it is all the elect and the elect are those
that put their faith in Jesus Christ.
But whosoever, it's whosoever,
come unto me all ye that labour in a heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
And the revelation comes through the Lord Jesus Christ, doesn't it?
That's how we get to know the Father,
that's how we get to know the Son.
It comes through faith first and that's why, you know,
all these kind of worldly, you know, study Bibles
and all these people out there, all these commentaries,
all these online, they don't have a clue.
They don't have a clue.
They don't know a thing because most of them aren't saved.
If they're not saved, how can they know the Father?
And how can they know the Son?
And it comes through salvation.
And it comes through faith.
Come unto me all ye that labour in a heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me,
for I am meek and lowly in heart,
and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
There are a great few verses
about ease of salvation there, aren't they?
Remember, he's talking the multitudes now.
The disciples have already been sent out.
John the disciples have just left.
He's talking the multitudes and I believe here he's saying,
get saved.
Come unto me all ye that labour in a heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me,
for I am meek and lowly in heart,
and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
It's basically how that we can stop labouring
for eternal life, can't we?
Because we just cast all our sins onto him
and enter into his rest.
And people can labour all their life.
They're not going to get anywhere, are they?
The only way you're going to get into heaven
is by just entering into his rest.
And that comes from just putting your faith in him.
Putting your faith in what he did for you,
that it's done, it's paid.
And it's eternal rest for our souls
and there is then no ongoing burden, is there?
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light, OK?
You're not going to be, oh, now I'm saved,
I've got to persevere to the end.
Well, that doesn't sound like a light burden to me, does it?
That sounds like a heavy burden.
Oh, now I'm saved, you know,
as long as I don't do you fill in the blank.
As long as I keep going to church every week,
it sounds like a heavy burden to me.
What's a light burden?
A light burden is it's great to be saved.
A light burden is it's grace through faith
and not of yourselves.
It's a gift of God, not of works.
It's a nice end to that chapter, isn't it?
And yeah, what a great passage of the Bible,
great chapter of the Bible there
and some great truths in there.
And on that, we're going to go to the Lord
and a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, thank you.
Thank you for the ease of salvation.
Thank you for just that, you know, that free gift
and just how easy it is to just enter into your rest.
It's just like taking a bite of bread
or take your drink of water, you know,
ask and you shall receive.
And look, you know, all of us here, I hope,
have just asked you for salvation.
It's a free gift.
And Lord, I hope that everyone here has
and if they haven't, Lord,
then I pray that you just, you know,
help anyone here, help any of those,
you know, whether they're young, old,
you know, whatever it is to just want to want
to know how to get saved.
And if they know to just put their faith in you,
to just trust you for eternal life, Lord.
And we pray that you help us this week now
that you just for the rest of the week
to just keep you at the centre of it still,
to not just kind of drift back off into the world now,
but to just remember the things that we've heard
and learnt this week from Sunday through to now
and help us to get out soul winning as well
and to return here on a Sunday
to hear the word of God preached again
and to get our soul winning then as well.
In Jesus' name we pray all of this. Amen.