172: Reject Truth at Your Own Peril (Walking with Jesus Series, #034: Matt. 11:20-30)

Jesus blasts the cities of northern Galilee for refusing to repent, though they had been given so much more truth than any other region of the nation. He said it would be more tolerable for Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom in the day of judgment than for them. Pastor Hollandsworth explains this unusual statement and shows the application for modern day believers.

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Turn with me in your Bibles, please, to Matthew chapter 11. We continue with our ongoing Sunday morning series entitled Walking with Jesus, Studies in the Ministry of Christ. This is message number 34 in the series. Our text will be Matthew 11, verses 20 through 30. Let's begin now in verse 20. Then he began to rebuke the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done because they did not repent. Woe to you, Corazine, woe to you, 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 to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades, for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank you, Father, the Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight. All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him. Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. What a precious passage. Pilate asked a question that has echoed down through the centuries. What is truth? Well, we know truth is priceless and can be found only in the Word of God. Those who possess truth and appreciate it know its incredible value. Some possess truth but do not appreciate it, and so they tend to spurn it to their own peril. That seems to be the problem with the Israelites of Christ's day who have an incredible heritage of truth. Jehovah is their God. They have the temple, the divine oracles. Yet, tragically, despite an abundance of truth available to the Jews of Christ's day, multitudes, and especially the religious leadership, rejected it. This was to their own peril. To the point that we're told even in the text we just read, God hid the truth from them. He also hides truth from those believers of the church age who spurn it. We reject truth at our own peril. That's the point, I believe, of this text. And Jesus warned of the serious consequences of rejecting truth. I read again verse 25. Jesus says, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. We'll explain that verse during the course of the message, of course. But I've titled the message Reject Truth at Your Own Peril. As we shall discover the these things found in verse 25, you have hidden these things from the worldly wise and prudent, is the idea. These things refers to truths about the kingdom of heaven, that is matters of kingdom inheritance. And we'll demonstrate that as we go along. The wise and prudent, as I've already pointed out, would be the worldly wise. They're not spiritually wise, they're not even biblically wise. At best, they might be religiously wise and prudent, accepting as truth whatever was taught in seminary, driving them to hold to a traditional party-line theological position, of which I was guilty for many years and didn't even realize it. Even though it doesn't line up with what Jesus taught or with the scriptures overall? Why did the religious leaders of Jesus' day reject his offer of kingdom inheritance? Because they were blind and deaf with respect to truth. That happened repeatedly throughout the ministry of Christ. But is it any different than our day? Do the religious leaders and doctors of ministry in our day understand and receive Christ's teaching about the kingdom of the heavens? In large measure, they do not. No wonder then that church members are largely ignorant about the kingdom of heaven, incorrectly assuming it is heaven, which it is not. Like people, like priest. And that's a term right out of the book of Hosea. I'd like to share those verses with you. They're very instructive. Hosea 4, 6 through 9. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for me. He's referring to the nation. The nation could no longer be the priest nation that God wanted it to be, Israel, that is. Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. The more they increase, the more they sinned against me. I will change their glory into shame. They eat up the sin of my people, they set their heart on their iniquity, and it shall be like people, like priest. So I will punish them for their ways and reward them for their deeds. We know that Hosea prophesied to the northern kingdom of Israel after the kingdom split, after Solomon's day, and he warned the ten tribes of the north that judgment would be forthcoming if the nation did not repent. Both the common people and their priests, that's the spiritual leadership, would be quote unquote rewarded for their deeds because they were both complicit in idolatry and immoral behavior. And the reward in this case is obviously negative. You know there's such a thing as positive reward, of course. That's glorious and wonderful, but there's also such a thing as negative reward. We call it recompense. And the Bible does too in Colossians 3. It's the same idea. You're either negatively rewarded or recompensed or you're positively rewarded. The point of Hosea's prophecy is that Israel rejected truth at its own peril. The leadership and the people were both guilty. And the same principle is emphasized in Matthew chapter 11. Now, how do we bring peril upon ourselves? The answer is simple. By not believing truth or by not acting upon it. Have you ever been guilty of that? Oh boy, I have. There were times I was guilty of that and didn't even realize it until later in my life. I'm sure there were times that I knew truth and just didn't obey it. The particular truth in this context, made clear in the earlier chapters of Matthew's gospel, we could sum up in Matthew 3, 1 and 2. John the Baptist came preaching, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Chapter 4, verse 17 of Matthew, from that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus and John the Baptist have been teaching and preaching in the towns all over Israel about the kingdom of heaven, offering inheritance, as you know, in the heavenly realm of the kingdom. That's New Jerusalem during the millennial kingdom of Messiah, which is yet to come, and probably very soon from now. And that's also what Jesus is speaking about in Matthew 11, when he says, You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Now, how do we know that he's talking about kingdom inheritance or the kingdom of heaven? Well, Jesus thanks God the Father for hiding these things from the wise and prudent. And what are the these things? Well, Matthew 11, 11, right in the context, he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he, that's John the Baptist. And verse 12, from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. So truths about the kingdom of heaven are the these things that Jesus is referring to in verse 25. It's contextual. Not just in this chapter, but throughout the preceding chapters, all the way up to this point. Jesus, as I said, has been urging the nation to repent because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. But the spiritual leadership, have they repented? No. The Pharisees? They've not repented. So God, we're told here in Matthew 11, 25, has hidden the glorious truth of kingdom inheritance from their understanding. They have rejected truth at their own peril. If you reject truth long enough, God will hide it from you. And the Pharisees are told by John the Baptist at least, but Jesus mentioned it too, that judgment was forthcoming if they continued rejecting truth. This truth about the kingdom is so critically important that Jesus wants the entire nation of Israel to hear it. Thus, he even commissions the twelve disciples to go out and share the gospel of the kingdom with Israel. Now you have to understand they weren't going out and telling unbelievers how to get saved. I mean, that's an important message too, but that's not what this was about. Contextually, if you understand Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they were going out to tell Israel that they should repent and get right with God in the spirit of 2 Chronicles 7.14, so that God would shine his favor upon the nation again and restore them to fellowship with himself, and they could thereby stand to inherit a position in the heavenly realm of the kingdom. They already stood to inherit a place in the earthly realm that had been promised in the Old Testament prophets. But Jesus offered them something greater. Of course they rejected it, but Jesus wanted to make sure they heard it. So we're told in Matthew 10, starting in verse 1, when he had called his twelve disciples to him, he gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. So they were given powers over the unclean spirits, demonic possession. Verse 5, these twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying, Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. Why not? Well, it was the Jews that needed to hear the message of repentance, get right with God, because they were the ones with whom God had had his dealings all through the centuries. So, verse six, go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Verses 7, 8, 11, and 13, and as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Now, whatever city or town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and stay there till you go out. If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And then verses 14 and 15 Whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. Literally. A symbolic gesture, as we're going to see. Assuredly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. So Christ's commission to his disciples to preach the good news of kingdom inheritance was very serious indeed. He wanted the whole nation to hear it. These twelve were to go all over the nation. By the way, you know this, a similar commission was given to the 70 that Christ chose in Luke chapter 10. We're not going to read that text. But all of Christ's messengers were to graciously share the kingdom message with those who were worthy. Literally, those who were due reward because they received the message. That's the worthy ones, the ones who received it. But they were to shake off the dust from their feet of those households that rejected it. And as I said, this was a symbolic gesture, demonstrating that that household, or in some cases, an entire town, was not worthy of the reward being offered. Now I need to point this out. This was specific to Israel's rejection of Messiah's offer of kingdom inheritance. It should never be practiced today during the church age when an unbeliever rejects the gospel of grace. And I say that because I've known people who've done this. I kid you not. I knew a whole college that taught it, a Bible college that taught it to their students. You need to go out and evangelize door to door, and the people who reject the gospel shake the dust off your feet when you leave their stoop, their porch, and go to the next house. That's a misinterpretation of the scripture or a wrong application. That was for Israel in the days of Christ, who were getting an entirely different message, the message of kingdom inheritance that they needed to get right with God so they could inherit a place in his kingdom. It wasn't the message of get saved by God's grace, so you don't go to hell, you know, as the traditionalists call it. So it wasn't a message for unbelievers at all. But I've known people who've done this. It's just wrong. Don't do that. The passage goes on with Jesus urging his disciples to persevere despite persecution. As they carry out their mission, God promises to deliver them. Matthew 10, 17, but beware of men, for they will deliver you up to counsels and scourge you in their synagogues. So go and preach the message of kingdom inheritance, but beware you'll be persecuted. That's true even today. I know. I face some of this. Verse 22, you will be hated by all for my name's sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved. And the word saved here means delivered. Doesn't mean saved in the sense of regenerated. It means delivered. And then verse 28, do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. The word is gehenna. Should have been transliterated, gehenna. Many did not understand the message or receive it, was the bigger problem. As mentioned above, they were worldly wise and prudent. Matthew 11, 25. And that was certainly true of the religious leaders, the Pharisees. So Jesus warned them, Luke 13, 3, and by the way, I saw this verse on a billboard outside of town here, totally misused. It's out of context. Here's the verse, Luke 13, 3, Jesus said to them, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. And on the sign you have flames, you know, the picture of hell. That's wrong. Perish does not mean to go to hell, it means to die or self-destruct. In the context of Luke 13, the Tower of Soloam had fallen in some type of construction accident, and 18 people had died. You remember that? That was the context. Well, Jesus uses that current event to say, unless you repent, you will all die. In other words, die prematurely in judgment. That's what John the Baptist had predicted. That's what Jesus had been talking about. In other words, judgment would be forthcoming on the nation if you do not repent, and you will be one of those who die in the judgment. And of course, we know that judgment did come in AD 70 because national Israel did not repent. Rome came in and demolished Jerusalem. Temple completely destroyed. Doesn't exist today. Been replaced with the Dome of the Rock. Repentance is not merely a change of mind, it is also a change of behavior. Otherwise, that's not genuine repentance. Now I could go on in a long discourse and talk about how I understand the word metanoia as a compound word and refers to a change of mind. But words are not merely defined by the compound word that's put together and what those individual roots mean. Words are defined by usage. And usage in the scriptures is that repentance is not merely having a change of mind, it's changing your behavior in line with that change of mind, or else you have not repented. Can you imagine if Jonah had gone to Nineveh and said, Repent, yet 40 days in God is going to destroy this nation? And what if the people said, Oh, Jonah's right? But they didn't change a thing. Would God have spared Nineveh? Well, of course not. Repentance requires that you change your actions in line with your thinking. Thus, repentance is not required for salvation or regeneration. We are saved by believing. That's why I don't like that sign going out of town that says, unless you repent, you'll all likewise perish, because that's not how you get saved. Repentance is a turn from sin and get right with God's word. It's not for salvation from hell, but for sanctification under reward. And by the way, we're saved, regenerated, by simply believing Jesus for eternal life. The Bible's crystal clear in that, says it multiple times. On the day of Pentecost, Peter preached this same message that John preached, Jesus preached, to the Jews who were gathered there. There were thousands gathered in Jerusalem for the festival at the temple. Acts 2.38, we read, Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. That's not how you're saved. That's not how you're regenerated. But that is how Jews of the first century would get right with God and demonstrate it through the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. In Acts 3.19, on a later occasion, Peter preached, repent and be converted, and that doesn't mean get saved. It means turn around. That's what the word means in the Bible. You can check it out. That your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. And you can also check out that phrase, times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. It's a reference to the rest that is coming in the millennial kingdom, particularly the New Jerusalem realm of the Millennial Kingdom. So Peter was preaching to Jewish people about how to get right with God. Now, by way of review, we bring peril upon ourselves by not believing truth or by not acting upon it. In the case of Christ's offer of kingdom inheritance, peril results from refusing to repent, continuing in sinning. What then is the peril? Well, unless you repent, that is, turn from sin and get right with God, you will perish. You will die prematurely in judgment. And again, we know that happened to Israel. Secondly, you will be disinherited from the kingdom of heaven, the ruling realm of the kingdom, New Jerusalem, and thirdly, you will face greater judgment. Ah, that's interesting. Let me say that again. You will face greater judgment. If you are exposed to truth, but don't embrace the truth and make any changes necessary, and you spurn the truth, not only does Jesus hide it from you, but he says you will face greater judgment. That's what we see in our text today. We're going to explain it. Despite the consistent urging for Israel to repent, the leadership never does. Now, granted, many individuals did repent, and they were spared, I believe, from death during AD 70. In fact, I think the dispersion that came before that drove those people out of the area and they were not killed by the Romans. Ironically, some of the cities in the Galilee region, and by That I mean the northern part of the Sea of Galilee. Though they heard Jesus teach and preach and they saw his signs and wonders more than any other place, they were especially hardened and refused to repent. What am I talking about? Well, here's a map. The cities of Corizine, Bethsaeda, and Capernaum, as you can see on the map, located at the northern end of the Sea of Galilee, they regularly heard the gospel of the kingdom, yet they regularly or continually rejected the truth about the kingdom. And so Jesus warned that their judgment would be most severe. We read in verse 20 and 21 of our text, I'll read it again, then he began to rebuke the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done because they did not repent. Woe to you, Corazine, woe to you, 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 to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. Boy, this raises a lot of questions in my head, does it in yours? Yeah, we're going to tackle some of that in a moment. Bear with me. Verse 23, and you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. Woo! That's a tough message to have to hear from Jesus if you lived in one of these cities. Here's the point. Of all the Israelites, the Galileans received the most extraordinary measure of truth because Jesus lived and ministered among them more than anywhere else. Yes, he ministered elsewhere. He did go down to Jerusalem. He ministered there in the Judean area. But more than anywhere else, he ministered in the northern Galilee region, because that's where he lived. Started in Nazareth. You remember what happened there. When he started his ministry, he went in the synagogue. He read Isaiah 61. He applied it to himself. Well, they about blew a gasket. And they drove him out of the synagogue, and they were ready to push him over the big cliff that's in Nazareth. You can see it there even to this day, of course, and he escaped from their midst. So he relocated. Nazareth doesn't want me. I'll go to Capernaum on the sea. Which he did. But this whole region rejected him. Because of his extensive involvement in their lives, they would be held more accountable than the rest of the nation. Jesus rebukes them for not repenting, and then he says, and this is amazing to me, if Tyre and Sidon had been exposed to the miracles of Jesus, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes, which we know is the garb of mourning and repentance. And then he goes on to say, if Sodom had been exposed to the miracles of Jesus, that city would still be existing to this day. Now is Jesus just being hyperbolic? Is he fudging it a little bit? No, Christ didn't talk like that. He's talking truth. Seriously. So we have to reckon with this. It's as if to say, you folks in Northern Galilee have been given an unprecedented opportunity to hear the truth and repent, but you've chosen not to believe and act upon what you have heard. And I've often thought, if there's a person in our church, I'm not Jesus, of course, but I'm preaching his message, and if you, having had an unprecedented opportunity to hear these truths today, reject it, who's gonna be tougher on you in the judgment than it will be for others. That's not me talking, that's what Jesus said. It applies to us as well. Because this message, when it was rejected by the Jews, Jesus specifically said, I'm giving it now to the Gentiles. And I believe he was referring there to the Church of Jesus Christ. So once you become a believer, you have to reckon with this truth, whether or not you're gonna live uprightly and live for Jesus and thereby inherit a place in the coming heavenly kingdom, or not. If not, it'll be tougher on you in the time of judgment. I don't want to go there. I don't think you do either. Could I put it this way? To whom much is given, much is required? And Jesus put it that way. I'm just quoting it. By refusing to repent, your judgment will be greater than that of Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom. That's what he said to his people. It applies to us in a sense. Now a little bit about Tyre and Sidon, you remember them? They're in Lebanon today, southern Lebanon, but they were in Israel at this time, time of Christ. They were wicked cities on the coast, Mediterranean coast, north of Israel, in Phoenicia. That's Lebanon today. You land in the airport in Lebanon, they want to sell you all these trinkets, the land of the Phoenicians. I remember that. Well, that was Baal territory back in Israel's day. And Jezebel was from this region, notorious Jezebel. Of course, Sodom and Gomorrah were Canaanite cities, not way up north there, but down a little bit south of Jerusalem. And they were destroyed, as you know, for their excessive wickedness during Abraham's day. So 2,000 years roughly before Christ ever came. Remarkably, Jesus says, You people of Northern Galilee will be held to a stricter judgment because you have me with you, and you've repeatedly heard my teaching and preaching. You've viewed all of my miracles that I did in this region, and there were a bunch he did up there, and yet you've stubbornly chosen not to repent. Now, what does this imply then for 21st century believers and churches that have the completed revelation of Scripture and have been given every opportunity to repent of sin and inherit reward in the kingdom? Well, they can be just like the Pharisees, and in fact that's what's happened in large measure. Churches today have become like the Pharisees and says, oh, we don't need that. We're guaranteed inheritors because we're children of God. Why didn't Israel's spiritual leadership repent and thereby set the pace for the nation? Well, because they pridefully thought that they would inherit the kingdom because we have Abraham as our father. You know, we've brought that up many times. It was a big deal. And they taught that to the people. Remember when Jesus said, Woe to you, Pharisees, scribes and Pharisees, because you're keeping people from entering the kingdom? Kingdom inheritance is the idea. How are they doing that? By teaching them you don't need to repent, you're a shoe in for the kingdom because Abraham's our forefather. We're guaranteed. Kingdom's already been promised to us. And besides, we're not wicked people. We worship in the temple, Jehovah's our God, we observe the Passover annually and the other feasts, and we're not idolaters in this era of our history. Well, they could not see that their hearts were far from God and that they were given more to tradition and legalism than to obedience. Now don't get me started. But that's exactly the problem today. And especially so in fundamentalist churches with their tradition and legalism, but it's filtered out into all evangelical Christianity. The attitude that we don't have to repent because we're shoeans for the kingdom. We're children of God. Yeah, you're a child of God and you're saved. Praise the Lord for that. But that's only the beginning. That's the segue into a life on the narrow path that leads to life in the coming age and inheritance in that coming age. And if you don't live uprightly, yeah, you'll remain saved and you'll be in the kingdom, but you won't be in the heavenly realm. New Jerusalem, you'll be on the earthly realm in the darkness outside, regretting that you're not up there, you're down here. It's way more serious than most Christians think. And it's the same problem the Pharisees had. In a parallel text, in Luke's gospel, Jesus also warned Luke 11, 32, the men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. I'd say amen to that. Jesus is in your midst. Ironically, the cities with which Jesus compares Israel, did you notice? Tyre, Sidon, Sodom, Nineveh, all Gentile cities. Ooh, that must have irked the Pharisees. Nineveh responded far more favorably to Jonah's preaching than the Galilean cities did to Christ. And as we saw earlier, Jesus claims that Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom would have responded favorably if given the opportunity. Now that raises a question in my mind. I'm sure you have some of the same questions. There's a sticky wicket here. According to traditional theology, that's what I was raised to believe, probably what you were raised to believe, what they teach in seminary, which is not correct. The people of Tyre Sidon and Sidon went to hell. End of story. Yet I want to know if they would have repented if they had seen the miraculous works of Jesus, then why weren't they given the opportunity? Good question, right? Will they experience hell simply because they weren't born at the right time in history? Got to think about these things. Serious question. And it's one that's on the minds of many thinking people, yet, questions of this nature are typically discounted or rejected by the establishment theologians because it challenges the traditional theology while they're burning in hell. Now let's give a reasoned biblical response to this thought-provoking question, because I think it's an important one. It's a serious question. And I'll ask it again. If they would have repented if they had been exposed to the miraculous works of Jesus, then why weren't they given the opportunity? Number one, Jesus could only come at one point in history. Otherwise, he would have to come repeatedly in every generation. Okay, simple reasoning here. But that of course could not have been because Galatians 4.4 says he came when the fullness of time was come. Thus, Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom missed out on his life, his death, his resurrection because of the historical timing of Christ's coming. They all lived before Christ. But the same could be said for countless millions or even billions of people who lived before the time of Christ. Perhaps they would have repented also if they had seen his miracles and heard his message. As already noted, the wicked people of Nineveh repented when Jonah finally went and preached to them after he had been miraculously brought back to life after being in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights. Number two, Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Hebrews 9.26, Revelation 13.10. Both say that. And he is the Savior of all men. 1 Timothy 4.10. He didn't merely die for all men, though he did die for all men. This verse says he's the savior of all men. He saved them. So he died and paid the price for your sins and mine and for the sins of every person who's ever lived on the face of the earth, even before we were ever born. Even for those who live before his time. It's retroactive, the Bible says so. In God's eyes, he also died to atone for the sins of the people of Tyre and Sidon and Sodom. What a profound truth. Number three, every generation has sufficient revelation to believe God and live uprightly. Romans 1. Creation, conscience. Could preach a whole message on that one. Nobody in the Old Testament had to believe in Jesus or even in a coming Messiah to be accepted by God. You say, Pastor, be careful now. Well, there's no way they could have known of a coming Messiah who would have died. And I know many of you are thinking of Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. I thought of that too, prophecies of Messiah's crucifixion. But those scripture passages weren't even written until around 1000 BC and 800 BC respectively, not to mention even the disciples of Jesus who knew these prophecies didn't connect them to the Messiah. And what about all the people who lived before they were written? While Genesis 3.15 was written by Moses probably around the year 1400 BC and may have been shared by word of mouth much earlier, all the way back almost to the beginning. Old Testament believers in Jehovah were unable to conclude from Genesis 3.15 that a Messiah would have to die as the Lamb of God to atone for the sin of mankind. They didn't know all the details. We sometimes forget these things because we have the completed revelation of Scripture. We have the whole story, and you ought to be thankful for that. But the ancients did not. Put yourselves in the shoes of Noah or even Job or Abraham, who were all Gentiles, technically. We can emphatically say that every generation has sufficient revelation to believe God and live uprightly so as to be accepted by him. And knowing that, the Apostle Paul told the men on Mars Hill in Acts 17, 30 and 31, God now commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. I used this with a man one time who is the most ornery person I think I've ever met when it comes to Bible truth. You ever run across one of those? He was introduced to me by a friend who's a believer and had been witnessing to the guy. Happened to run into them at Lowe's. I remember it. I started witnessing to him, and he says, Oh, I don't believe that. I don't believe the Bible. And I asked the Lord for help. How do I witness to a guy that doesn't believe that? I said, Well, one thing you need to know, this is all I can say to you. And I quoted this verse God commands all men everywhere to repent. And he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness. I said, you may not believe any of the Bible, but I have a hunch you believe there's a God. He seemed to believe there was a God. And I said, He says that one day he's gonna judge everybody according to his righteousness. And he wants you to repent now in advance of that. Well, we kind of wrapped up our discussion, and I was continuing to shop in that aisle, and I heard him talking with the believer friend in the next aisle. You know, you can hear everything over the aisle. I wasn't eavesdropping, I just was there. He goes, eh. He goes, I never heard anything like that before. He goes, that guy's got me to thinking. And it wasn't me, it was the word of God. But I'll tell you what, this is a serious thought for people who don't know about Jesus, what he did, his revelation. There's a basic command that God gives to all men everywhere. And Paul told it to those pagans on Mars Hill who had every God in the world they were worshiping that they could think of. He said, Well, you may not believe in Jesus, this is the implication, but because he had talked to them about Jesus before, you may not believe in Jesus, but you better get ready. God wants you to repent because you're going to give an account to him about how you've lived your life. It's a fact that all of the judgments in Scripture are according to works, how we live our lives, including the great white throne judgment for unbelievers in Revelation 20. Just to be clear, though, since the time of Christ, the gift of eternal life is received only by faith, not of works. But eternal life is not about heaven versus hell, as traditional theology has taught. As we learned in Sermon number 29 in this series, a primer on eternal life, eternal life is age-during life. It's focused on the next age, the millennium. The purpose for age-during life is to enable us as believers to live uprightly and full of faith through the power of the Holy Spirit so we can qualify to be sons to glory in the next age, who will be rewarded at the judgment seat of Christ to reign with Jesus in the coming kingdom. So, salvation, as we understand it, receiving eternal life isn't about heaven versus hell. It's about a provision that we receive now to equip us to co-rule with Christ in the next age. That's a privilege for us living in the church age. Nobody else in history had the privilege of receiving eternal life as a gift. Not even mentioned in the Old Testament, except as a reward in Daniel 12. You can check me up on this. So that brings me to point number four. All will be reconciled to God in the end. Guess what? That includes Tyre and Sidon and Sodom. Philippians 2, 10 and 11. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Of those in heaven, the angelic realm, maybe? Of those on earth, humans, and those under the earth, the demonic realm, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Colossians 1, 19 and 20, for it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell, in Jesus, and by him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross. All things. Things in heaven, things in earth, things under the earth. That brings me to the final point. Punishment is not endless, but age-during. For the purpose of bringing all to repentance. There is a lake of fire, you can be sure of that. Wouldn't want to go there. But even that is not forever and ever. It's for a period of time. It's remedial. Till every knee bows and every tongue confesses. Matthew 11, 22, Jesus says, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. Verse 24. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. So let's put this all together. Corazine, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, the cities of northern Galilee, along with the Pharisees, will receive greater judgment than Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom. And Jesus says in Matthew 23, 14, Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you will receive greater condemnation, greater judgment, that is. That's what the word means. Matthew 11, 23, and you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades. That word literally means the grave. The Old Testament counterpart is Sheol. For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. So here's what Jesus means. The Pharisees and the people of Northern Galilee, the region where he performed all those miracles, will die without the prospect for being rewarded. How then could it be more tolerable for Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom than for Khorasine, Bethsaeda, and Capernaum in the day of judgment? Now, a long statement here. We don't know all the details. But I suspect that the Pharisees and the people of Northern Galilee, which had much greater revelation than other places, will be deemed rebellious at the Jewish judgment seat. You know there's a judgment seat for the church, 1 Corinthians 3, 2 Corinthians 5.10, other places, but there's also a judgment seat for the Jews, and it's found in Ezekiel 20, 33 through 38. There will be some at that judgment seat who will be deemed rebellious, and so they will suffer throughout the millennium by being disinherited from New Jerusalem in the heavenlies, and they will also be excluded from ruling with the rest of Israel in the promised land on earth. Ezekiel 20, 38. I will purge the rebels from among you and those who transgress against me. I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, but they shall not enter the land of Israel, then you will know that I am the Lord. And if you look at this passage in its context, it's eschatological. It's yet future, it hasn't happened yet. So there's a Jewish judgment seat. I didn't read the whole text for sake of time, you can read it all. But there's a Jewish judgment seat, and those who were especially rebellious, that is, those who rejected truth, they won't be allowed to live in the promised land during the millennium. Ooh, that's a serious judgment. What a terrible consequence. Sodom, on the other hand, which had lesser revelation, will return as a millennial nation with repentant hearts having returned to the Lord. Do I realize what I'm saying here? Yes, I do. I can demonstrate it with Scripture. Ezekiel 16, 53 and 55, God says, When I bring back their captives, the captives of Sodom and her daughters, then I will also bring back the captives of your captivity among them. When your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, return to their former state, then you and your daughters will return to your former state. Has Sodom been returned to its former state yet? Has Israel been returned to its former state yet? No. This is eschatological as well. How fascinating that the book of Ezekiel says that Sodom will return to its former state. God gloriously predicts that Sodom and her daughters, that would be Gomorrah, Adma, and Zeboim, Deuteronomy 29, 23, will one day return when Israel returns. Now, presumably, this is referring to the millennium, for neither Sodom nor the combined house of Israel have been restored yet historically. God's purging work in Sodom by suddenly destroying the city and its suburbs will apparently result in her repentance and restoration as a nation. Wow, reckon with that for a while. What's the application for modern-day believers of the church age? Don't miss this. We reject truth at our own peril. Seeing we have the completed revelation of Scripture, we will have greater accountability, I believe, than either Sodom or Capernaum with respect to these matters. To whom much is given, much is required. We quoted it earlier, Luke 12, 48. If you do not repent and live uprightly as a believer in Christ, God's truth will be hidden from you and you will not know him. Dreadful. Again, Jesus says, Matthew 11, 25, you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, but then he adds, verse 27, no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him. So what a dreadful thing to have truth hidden from one's life. It's a horrible form of punishment indeed. And additionally, not knowing God in an intimate way is as awful as it gets. If you've rejected truth, not only will you be disinherited from ruling with Christ in New Jerusalem, you won't have an intimate relationship with God either now or then in the future. We're all going to give an account at the judgment seat, and if you refuse to believe God's truth about the kingdom and do not repent of your sins, you could be disinherited from that future ruling realm. And truth could be hidden from you, and you could have no relationship with God the Father in a fellowship sense. What a dreadful thing. Don't go down that path and reject truth at your own peril. So how do we avoid the perils? Here's how Jesus closes. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in hard, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. You know what the problem is so often in the Christian life? We tend to go at the ploughing, so to speak, of the Christian life on our own. Oh, this Christian life is such a drudgery. Day by day. Gotta live uprightly. Can't seem to do it. We're plowing along. But Jesus invites us to humbly go to him as a babe and team up, that is, partner with him. Oxen, often back in the day of Christ, could be teamed up using a dual hitch. What do they call it? A yoke. So hitch yourself to Christ. And there you will find rest of soul. It's a lot easier than going at it on your own. In fact, going at it on your own, you're going to give up. You're going to become faint of heart and you won't succeed. You won't persevere until the end and you won't hear well done. Ah, but when you team up with Jesus, when you get yoked with him, it all changes. So I wonder, have you been plodding along in your Christian life, going at it on your own? Have you grown weary and loaded down with care? Jesus promises to change all of that. If you'll come and just be yoked with him, he says, My yoke is easy, my burden is light. Because you're not plowing by yourself, you're plowing with him, and he really knows how to plow. He's strong. What an offer. So many Christians spurn this offer, too. And they don't even realize it. You know how they do it? And I'll close with this. Christians get up in the morning and think, man, I've got to live this Christian life today. And I'm going to try really hard to be honest today. Yesterday I told a lie. And I'm going to try not to lust today. Yesterday I lusted. And I'm going to try not to covet today, because yesterday I coveted, and on and on it goes. You know, I'm going to try really hard, dust off the seat of my britches from yesterday. I confess my sins this morning. We're going to go at it today. We're going to succeed. And you don't get very far in the day and you fall flat on your face. You fail. Why? Because you're plowing by yourself. The attitude needs to be when you wake up in the morning, Lord, I can't. I know I failed yesterday. And I failed the day before, and I failed the day before that, and on and on it goes. You say, Lord, I need your help. I can't plow alone. I've got to plow with you today. You promised my yoke is easy, my burden is light. Lord, would you enable me through your Holy Spirit to live the Christ life of victory? When you have that attitude, that's coming as a babe. Not an arrogant, we have Abraham as our father kind of attitude. It's Lord, I can't do this. Coming as a babe, humbly as a child. And he says, okay, I'll team up with you. Not going to team up with the Pharisees. Not going to team up with those traditionalists that think they have all the answers. Certainly not going to team up with those who dust off their seat and go at it on their own, gritting their teeth and trying a little harder today. I'm only going to team up with those who come as a child humbly and say, I can't do it, Lord help me. I'll help them. Are you taking him up on his offer?