SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Please take your Bible or your device if you have one and make your way to the Gospel of Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: Gospel of Matthew and chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: In the last couple of weeks, I have been able to see yet again the providence of God in the working of his people in details, even in what is preached and what texts we look at together.
SPEAKER_01: I don't even now remember what it was two, three weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01: I said to Anton, you need to preach.
SPEAKER_01: And we worked on what passage he would preach from.
SPEAKER_01: And he chose one, and then a few days later, he changed it on me.
SPEAKER_01: And after he changed it on me, I began to think and to pray and to realize, you know, that's a really good passage because it fits in really well with the flow of thought in Matthew that we've been working through.
SPEAKER_01: And last Sunday when Anton was preaching, I thought even more, yes, this is providence, because these things weave together so, so well.
SPEAKER_01: I trust that you will be able to see that as well as we work together through Matthew chapter 11 this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to pick up where we didn't quite leave off.
SPEAKER_01: We went through most of this passage, but I'm going to go back and look again at some of the text that we looked at before, beginning in verse 7 of Matthew chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to work our way through verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: So some of this we've already seen, we're going to look at it in a little bit different perspective this morning.
SPEAKER_01: So if you have your Bible, I'm going to read Matthew chapter 11, beginning in verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, this is about Jesus speaking about John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_01: So it says, as they, that is, John the Baptist's disciples, as they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John.
SPEAKER_01: What did you go out to the wilderness to see?
SPEAKER_01: A reed shaken by the wind?
SPEAKER_01: What then did you go out to see?
SPEAKER_01: A man dressed in soft clothing?
SPEAKER_01: Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in king's houses.
SPEAKER_01: What then did you go out to see?
SPEAKER_01: A prophet?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
SPEAKER_01: This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.
SPEAKER_01: Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_01: Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
SPEAKER_01: From the days of John the Baptist, even until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.
SPEAKER_01: For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.
SPEAKER_01: He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
SPEAKER_01: But to what shall I compare this generation?
SPEAKER_01: It's like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates.
SPEAKER_01: We played the flute for you, and you did not dance.
SPEAKER_01: We sang a dirge.
SPEAKER_01: You did not mourn.
SPEAKER_01: For John came neither eating nor drinking, and yet they say he has a demon.
SPEAKER_01: And the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Look at him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.
SPEAKER_01: Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of us, either as a child or as a parent, has had the question asked of us, are you listening?
SPEAKER_01: Are you listening?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes sometimes we're just oblivious.
SPEAKER_01: And every husband should be shaking his head right now.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we're just oblivious.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we're we're not paying attention.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we're distracted by internal thoughts or or internal feelings.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe, maybe you've heard the teacher's version of the question.
SPEAKER_01: Are you paying attention?
SPEAKER_01: And most of you should be saying, Yes, I am paying attention now because you're reminded about your teacher asking, Are you paying attention?
SPEAKER_01: As you were daydreaming about life outside of the classroom.
SPEAKER_01: Are you listening?
SPEAKER_01: Are you paying attention?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has his own version.
SPEAKER_01: He asks or says, He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
SPEAKER_01: Notice what's happening here.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is talking to crowds of people about John the Baptist in verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: And after telling them about John, he asks the question, are you paying attention?
SPEAKER_01: Are you listening?
SPEAKER_01: And it's vitally important to see what happens next.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus answers the question.
SPEAKER_01: After asking, are you paying attention?
SPEAKER_01: He says, John and I played the flute for you.
SPEAKER_01: But you didn't dance.
SPEAKER_01: We sang a dirge for you, but you did not mourn.
SPEAKER_01: Were they paying attention?
SPEAKER_01: Were they listening?
SPEAKER_01: They had ears to hear, but they were not truly hearing.
SPEAKER_01: They heard a bit of truth, but they turned out, tuned out the whole truth.
SPEAKER_01: They received what God had said, but they did not seek more.
SPEAKER_01: They never caught on to the fullness of God's revelation.
SPEAKER_01: And so, in a devastating condemnation, Jesus continues on in verse 20 to talk about those who had received even more revelation.
SPEAKER_01: The places and the people were the most prolific opportunities to see God's power and glory on display.
SPEAKER_01: Cities of Khorazin and Bethsaida.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says they wouldn't listen.
SPEAKER_01: Over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_01: They saw God's glory, they saw God's power, and they didn't respond.
SPEAKER_01: And so those communities and those people would be judged.
SPEAKER_01: He even says they had more truth than ancient Sodom.
SPEAKER_01: You know, that city that was destroyed by fire and brimstone falling from heaven.
SPEAKER_01: He said, These two places had more truth, more revelation given to them, and they didn't respond, and yet they would be judged now more harshly because they had more truth upon which to act.
SPEAKER_01: We might say that this is the gospel's version of Romans chapter 1, verses 19 and 20, where the apostle Paul said that what can be made known about God is evident, it's plain, it's clear in creation, so that everyone is without excuse.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the point that Jesus is making here.
SPEAKER_01: He's telling these crowds, listen, you have truth about John, you have truth about me, and yet you're not responding.
SPEAKER_01: That's where we need to start this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Is that we must respond rightly to the truth.
SPEAKER_01: And that begins with listening.
SPEAKER_01: It begins with hearing the truth.
SPEAKER_01: So as we think about that in our own lives, we have to ask ourselves the question: how can we take greater care to ensure that we are listening?
SPEAKER_01: And I think the key is found in a potentially confusing statement at the end of verse 19, where Jesus says, wisdom is justified by her deeds.
SPEAKER_01: Wisdom is justified by her deeds.
SPEAKER_01: It's almost like an appendage, an unnecessary appendage at the end of a statement.
SPEAKER_01: Seems to be dangling out there, trying to figure out where how does this fit with everything else that Jesus has said?
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's try to understand this.
SPEAKER_01: Justified in this context means to be shown right.
SPEAKER_01: It's almost like a legal context of a courtroom where there's proof being presented that this is the right way.
SPEAKER_01: Wisdom will be proven right, Jesus says.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the travesty.
SPEAKER_01: The people that Jesus is speaking to are not hearing.
SPEAKER_01: How do we know that they are not hearing wisely?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the proof is found in the deeds.
SPEAKER_01: If wisdom is found in the deeds, then the proof is in what these people did or did not do.
SPEAKER_01: And what does Jesus say they did not do?
SPEAKER_01: He said, We played the flute for you and you didn't dance.
SPEAKER_01: We sang a dirge and you didn't mourn.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, in verses 18 and 19, they maligned God's messenger and then they mocked God's son.
SPEAKER_01: Rather than hearing to become wise, they became fools.
SPEAKER_01: Now Jesus has a two-part goal in this little speech that he gives here.
SPEAKER_01: He begins by leading the hearers to grasp the full truth about John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_01: And he ends by pointing to the full truth about himself.
SPEAKER_01: And his conclusion is both jarring and damning.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't respond to the truth of Christ properly, then prepare yourself to be judged.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's not me.
SPEAKER_01: That's Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Read the next five, six verses.
SPEAKER_01: In the next section, Khorazan and Bethsaita, two communities, have much truth given to them.
SPEAKER_01: Truth is being poured out on them.
SPEAKER_01: More truth than was given to that ancient city of Sodom.
SPEAKER_01: Understand that.
SPEAKER_01: That ancient city that God destroyed, that we still don't know where it even existed today, they had enough truth given to them to respond righteously and to be judged for it.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the more truth you have, the greater your responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: But these are people that Jesus is talking to for whom nothing was good enough.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing could convince them of the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Two particular cities had a wealth of information, a wealth of revelation about God's divine power and presence in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And it wasn't enough.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't good enough.
SPEAKER_01: The truth that Sodom had was enough, and the truth the crowds possessed here was not enough to motivate them to turn to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Even more, it's also not good enough from God's perspective to merely act on the truth you do have.
SPEAKER_01: It's not good enough to simply act on the truth that you have.
SPEAKER_01: Because that doesn't mean that you're going to act rightly.
SPEAKER_01: Think about it.
SPEAKER_01: Suppose you're out and about in the community and you witness a crime being committed.
SPEAKER_01: So you have a bit of truth about that crime, about that action that's taking place.
SPEAKER_01: Now suppose that you then act on that bit of truth with vigilante justice.
SPEAKER_01: You see, simply acting on the truth that you have does not mean your actions are just.
SPEAKER_01: Because justice only comes with right or righteous response to truth.
SPEAKER_01: What did God tell Cain?
SPEAKER_01: You remember Cain, right?
SPEAKER_01: First murderer in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: He and his brother were bringing sacrifices to God.
SPEAKER_01: One brother's sacrifice was accepted, and Cain's was not.
SPEAKER_01: And Cain went away pouting.
SPEAKER_01: What did God tell him?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Cain, if you do well, if you do the right thing, if you act righteously, won't you be accepted?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, he would.
SPEAKER_01: See, when God reveals truth, right response is required.
SPEAKER_01: And there's an important implication that comes from that.
SPEAKER_01: In the culture in which Jesus is saying these words and John is ministering and Jesus is ministering, wrong reactions were generally accepted.
SPEAKER_01: Remember Herod?
SPEAKER_01: Talked about this a few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01: John is in prison because he spoke out against Herod's actions.
SPEAKER_01: Herod is the Roman ruler over the region of Galilee at this point, and Herod divorced as his wife so that he could marry his stepbrother's wife.
SPEAKER_01: And that stepbrother's wife was also Herod's niece.
SPEAKER_01: Very convoluted, sick kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01: But nobody but John spoke up against it.
SPEAKER_01: It was accepted.
SPEAKER_01: It was sort of this pervasiveness of acceptance in the world that was going on.
SPEAKER_01: And the culture then poured that into John and to Jesus and saying, listen, we don't have to respond to you.
SPEAKER_01: Great, play your flute.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have to dance.
SPEAKER_01: What's the verb for dirge?
SPEAKER_01: Dirging?
SPEAKER_01: Sing a dirge as much as you want.
SPEAKER_01: We're not going to mourn.
SPEAKER_01: See the right response.
SPEAKER_01: In the culture's mindset was put John in jail and reject Jesus as the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: But if the culture's response is opposed to God's expectation, then that is never the right response.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: If what your culture, whatever, however you define your culture, if your culture, if your world, if your systems, if whatever is coming at you is opposed to what God expects, then that is never the right response.
SPEAKER_01: These crowds received a message of judgment from the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The incarnate word of God, you understand what that word incarnate means.
SPEAKER_01: It means to take on flesh.
SPEAKER_01: So God took on flesh.
SPEAKER_01: The incarnate word of God was in their midst and they did not dance.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine that.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, the creator of all that is, being in your presence, and you don't do a thing.
SPEAKER_01: Shouldn't be that surprising to us because we know that later on, when the last week of the Lord Jesus' life, when he's coming down the road, riding on the donkey into the city of Jerusalem, people are celebrating and crying out with joy.
SPEAKER_01: The leaders of the people say to Jesus, Tell them to be quiet.
SPEAKER_01: The Pharisees, the Sadducees would not sing and shout with joy when the Word of God was coming into their midst.
SPEAKER_01: See, they had a measure of understanding about the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: But they did not mourn over their sin.
SPEAKER_01: They were able to perceive a measure of truth, but not the fullness of truth.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, even having truth embodied in front of them was insufficient to bring them to full attention and the right kind of response.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus asked them some questions.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, it's the same question.
SPEAKER_01: Three times.
SPEAKER_01: What did you go out to see?
SPEAKER_01: When you went out to hear John, what did you go out to see?
SPEAKER_01: They knew that John wasn't like a reed blowing in the wind.
SPEAKER_01: You know, imagine that around here in North Dakota and Minnesota, the cattails growing up aroundside the lakes and the breeze moving them.
SPEAKER_01: In this context, it's a picture of the shifting of politicians moving to whatever the mood of the moment is.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is saying, you didn't go out to the desert to see Herod.
SPEAKER_01: You went out to see somebody who is firm and solid in the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Did you go out to see somebody in soft clothing?
SPEAKER_01: No, you went out to see a guy in camel's hair, eating locusts and wild honey.
SPEAKER_01: The people dressed in finery or in the king's palaces where Herod is.
SPEAKER_01: They knew that John wasn't a wealthy person who enjoyed comfort like Herod, even more.
SPEAKER_01: They knew that John was a prophet.
SPEAKER_01: That's the third question.
SPEAKER_01: What then did you go out to see?
SPEAKER_01: A prophet?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, you're right.
SPEAKER_01: John is a prophet.
SPEAKER_01: That much they knew and they they believed, but there was more than what they believed.
SPEAKER_01: See, they missed an essential part of the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus goes on, yes, I tell you, and more.
SPEAKER_01: What's more?
SPEAKER_01: He is more than a prophet.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what Jesus does.
SPEAKER_01: He affirms the truth that they have.
SPEAKER_01: It was true that John the Baptist was a prophet.
SPEAKER_01: It was true that John spoke the truth.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't a shifting kind of person like a politician.
SPEAKER_01: My apologies if there are any politicians present.
SPEAKER_01: It's true that they went out to the desert to hear John proclaim the truth, but once they did that, that was the end.
SPEAKER_01: They were satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: And in being satisfied, they missed the rest of the truth that God gave them.
SPEAKER_01: And what we find then in their reaction to that is that they missed an essential part of what they needed to act responsibly.
SPEAKER_01: See, the truth required to act wisely is often the truth that we fail to obtain.
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully that changes as we age.
SPEAKER_01: You know, Lord willing, we we age and we experience more things in life, and we make one stupid decision over here and one wrong decision over here, and we learn from that and we we grow and we increase in wisdom, we increase in understanding, and we make more and more right decisions as we age.
SPEAKER_01: But you know, no matter how old you are or how wise you are, if you don't have all of the truth, you might be missing a really important part.
SPEAKER_01: That's how we often get ourselves into trouble, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: We think we know the truth and we act on what we know.
SPEAKER_01: But because along the way we've stopped searching, we've stopped learning, we've stopped growing, maybe it's because what we've come to know gives us a sense of comfort and peace, and so we stop there.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe, maybe we're afraid of what we might come to know if we keep on searching, we keep on learning, we keep on knowing.
SPEAKER_01: And so we stop and we then fail to recognize that there's more truth that gives us a greater perspective.
SPEAKER_01: Had these crowds kept on searching, they might have gained more wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: Now, we know, we know that it's important where we look for truth, right?
SPEAKER_01: Anton led us well last Sunday in 1 John chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: We can't look to the world around us to give us clear, unbiased truth.
SPEAKER_01: We may be able to discover some truthful things by wading through tons of information and filtering out biases.
SPEAKER_01: But in the end, Scripture reveals to us that any information that comes from the world comes through a demonically defined filter.
SPEAKER_01: The only place for unfiltered truth, friends, is in your word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Had these Jewish crowds searched their Bibles, they may have gained greater insight than what their culture fed them.
SPEAKER_01: John wasn't just a prophet, he was a divinely prepared and inspired road builder.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, this is he of whom it is written.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine that.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine having that, a verse in the Bible about you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, You missed this.
SPEAKER_01: This isn't just a prophet.
SPEAKER_01: This is the greatest man that's ever been born.
SPEAKER_01: That's astounding.
SPEAKER_01: So what Jesus is telling us about wisdom, wisdom being proven right in the end, is that wisdom sees through appearances.
SPEAKER_01: John isn't just some stalwart kind of rough guy out in the desert speaking truth.
SPEAKER_01: He is that.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't pull punches.
SPEAKER_01: He says it like it is.
SPEAKER_01: He calls sin.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, all of that's true.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, he is a prophet, but he's more than a prophet.
SPEAKER_01: You need to look through appearances, Jesus says, and you didn't do that.
SPEAKER_01: Why are conspiracy theories popular?
SPEAKER_01: Why does Area 51 continue to exist?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, we know why it continues to exist.
SPEAKER_01: Something's going on there.
SPEAKER_01: No, they're hiding something, right?
SPEAKER_01: Conspiracy theories continue to exist because they give an exciting first look.
SPEAKER_01: Well, there may be tantalizing bits of truth there, but under the surface it's all twisted information and lies.
SPEAKER_01: Let me remind you folks, Satan does indeed masquerade as an angel of light.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: That means he puts himself out there and he puts out information that he wants you to believe and to buy into as God's ordained, revealed truth.
SPEAKER_01: Satan is the unqualified expert of selling falsehood as tantalizing truth.
SPEAKER_01: Last week in 1 John, we saw some elements of the truth-defining paradigm.
SPEAKER_01: So we learned that we need to ask the question: where does it come from?
SPEAKER_01: Does it come from God's word?
SPEAKER_01: Does it come from the world?
SPEAKER_01: Is it through the work of God's Spirit, or is it through the work of the Spirit of the world?
SPEAKER_01: And so we answer those questions, and then if it doesn't come from God's word, if it doesn't come from God's Spirit, then we begin to ask other questions.
SPEAKER_01: And you know all of this.
SPEAKER_01: We may not actively process through this with every instance we have, the opportunity to, but you know, we ask more questions.
SPEAKER_01: Is this the whole truth?
SPEAKER_01: Or is it just a part of it?
SPEAKER_01: Is there something that I'm missing?
SPEAKER_01: Is something being left out?
SPEAKER_01: What are the views of those that are promoting this?
SPEAKER_01: Who will benefit from me buying into this information?
SPEAKER_01: Concerning John the Baptist, yeah, he was a prophet.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus says there's more that you didn't pursue.
SPEAKER_01: They believed they knew enough, but they bought into the cultural lie and they missed out on the fullness of truth.
SPEAKER_01: Now, understand this.
SPEAKER_01: The people were intrigued by Jesus and John.
SPEAKER_01: They were coming to them by the droves.
SPEAKER_01: People even taking the whole weekend off to go out to find this guy out in the desert next to the Jordan River to hear him out.
SPEAKER_01: They were curious about John's uniqueness.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then some of them found him a bit odd, probably, but that drove them on.
SPEAKER_01: They were drawn to John, they were drawn to Jesus by what they perceived to be a work of God.
SPEAKER_01: They sensed a bit of truth in these men, but they failed to connect that with the rest of Scripture, and as a result, they missed the point.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't have the right perspective, and so they missed the point.
SPEAKER_01: And that then led them to misunderstand the pain of the present.
SPEAKER_01: And they misapplied prophecy.
SPEAKER_01: See, Jesus said, here's what you're missing about John.
SPEAKER_01: He's the greatest man to have ever been born.
SPEAKER_01: But having the right perspective matters to understand that statement.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if John is the greatest who's ever been born, then why wouldn't we start questioning things if he's been thrown into prison?
SPEAKER_01: Why is the greatest man who's ever been born sitting in a Roman dungeon about to lose his head?
SPEAKER_01: But the reality is that the one who's about to lose his head is the greatest who's ever been born because he was there to prepare the way for the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: Proper perspective doesn't end there, though.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus goes on and says, listen, the most insignificant person who trusts in the Messiah and follows him in faith is ultimately greater than John.
SPEAKER_01: Well, how can those two things fit together?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's about perspective.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, on the one hand, is talking about history in the past.
SPEAKER_01: Up until that point in time, John is the greatest who's ever been born.
SPEAKER_01: The second perspective goes forward into eternity future, where perspective looks at those who are going to come to faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus is building this foundation of wisdom, and he says perspective plays a part in whether one is wise or not.
SPEAKER_01: And these people missed the point of perspective on John.
SPEAKER_01: Because they missed the point of perspective, they misunderstood the pain.
SPEAKER_01: See, John was forcibly arrested and thrown into prison.
SPEAKER_01: He would soon be beheaded because of the desires of a petty woman.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus would soon be arrested and beaten and crucified.
SPEAKER_01: Satan sought to derail the kingdom of the Messiah through pain and violence.
SPEAKER_01: Even John the Baptist didn't understand that, right?
SPEAKER_01: He struggled to grasp it.
SPEAKER_01: That's why at the beginning of chapter 11, he sent his disciples to Jesus and said, Hey, are you the one that was coming, or should we look for somebody else?
SPEAKER_01: Have we misunderstood something?
SPEAKER_01: Have we missed something?
SPEAKER_01: Friends, we will misinterpret the present if we don't look at life from the proper perspective.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter what your present is.
SPEAKER_01: Whether you look at our present in terms of our world, in terms of our country, in terms of our community, in terms of your family, in terms of you.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter if you look at it in terms of your job or in terms of your family or in terms of your health or whatever the situation might be, whatever your present is.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't put it in the context of proper perspective of what God is doing and has done, you won't properly understand what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: The crowds didn't understand, and so they missed Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You've misapplied prophecy.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: See, the Jewish people have long looked for the return of Elijah, that Old Testament prophet who never died, he was caught up into heaven, scripture says.
SPEAKER_01: 400 years before this point in time in Matthew chapter 11, what Matthew's describing for us, 400 years before this, the last prophet to declare God's word, before 400 years of silence, said, Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
SPEAKER_01: See, Elijah's arrival on the scene of history was this giant sign in the sky proclaiming, Messiah is near, Messiah's coming.
SPEAKER_01: Why was that a giant sign?
SPEAKER_01: Because he comes to prepare the way, right?
SPEAKER_01: I'm building the road for Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: He's coming behind me.
SPEAKER_01: Wake up, recognize the signs, see what's going on, and pay attention.
SPEAKER_01: But if you go, so so as they as they looked at John, as they looked at everything surrounding John the Baptist, he didn't seem to be like Elijah.
SPEAKER_01: But if you go back to Malachi chapter 3, in Malachi chapter 4, you find words that sound an awful lot like pain and violence.
SPEAKER_01: If you read it carefully, you find words like purifying, burning like an oven, tearing up roots, treading things down, destruction.
SPEAKER_01: See, it's easy, maybe one of the easiest things to do when it comes to reading your Bible, it's easy to misapply prophecy.
SPEAKER_01: What the people didn't realize was that the pain and the violence surrounding the life of John and ultimately the life of Jesus fit perfectly with the coming of Elijah before the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: Prophecy was being fulfilled before their eyes and they missed it.
SPEAKER_01: God sent them someone in the spirit of Elijah while they looked for Elijah himself.
SPEAKER_01: But they didn't have ears to hear.
SPEAKER_01: Question is, do we?
SPEAKER_01: Or do we arrogantly stand behind lies or partial versions of the truth?
SPEAKER_01: Do we refuse to consider other perspectives that might lead us to the truth and maybe even to repentance?
SPEAKER_01: Sad to say that it seems rare in us.
SPEAKER_01: It's always someone else who has the wrong perspective, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: It's always someone else who's missed the point.
SPEAKER_01: It's always someone else who's misapplied scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus says to these people, how do I describe you people?
SPEAKER_01: He says, What image can I use to illustrate how you handle truth and how you handle scripture?
SPEAKER_01: So what he says in verse 16, to what shall I compare this generation?
SPEAKER_01: Whatever measure of truth they possessed was not enough to lead them to the truth.
SPEAKER_01: No, they had a measure of truth.
SPEAKER_01: They understood that John was a prophet, but it only led them to miss out on God's true work.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, imagine this, friends.
SPEAKER_01: They could have they could have danced and celebrated at the arrival of the king.
SPEAKER_01: But they didn't do anything.
SPEAKER_01: That's not surprising for me because I have no sense of rhythm.
SPEAKER_01: But here's here's the creator of the universe.
SPEAKER_01: And they don't respond.
SPEAKER_01: They could have been among the poor in spirit who mourned over their sin, but but instead thinking they had the whole truth, they inevitably closed their ears to the written word of God, and so also to the incarnate word of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's a part of wisdom that we have to recognize, especially as God's people.
SPEAKER_01: Rejecting the written word of God inevitably leads directly to the rejecting of the incarnate word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Guys up there in the booth, I can't advance the slides anymore.
SPEAKER_01: It's not working for me.
SPEAKER_01: See, these people acted on perception and in incomplete truth.
SPEAKER_01: As a result, they acted wrongly.
SPEAKER_01: How do we know?
SPEAKER_01: John was beheaded, and Jesus was crucified.
SPEAKER_01: Wisdom will be justified by her deeds.
SPEAKER_01: You know, acting on perception and incomplete truth is a great way to get yourself into trouble and bring pain to others.
SPEAKER_01: We've all been there.
SPEAKER_01: Been there, done that too many times.
SPEAKER_01: But wisdom will be justified.
SPEAKER_01: One day it will be shown that wisdom is always correct.
SPEAKER_01: One day the truth will be known by everyone.
SPEAKER_01: One day the people of Khorazin and Basseda will realize the depth of their treachery in rejecting God's truth when they will receive a greater punishment than Sodom.
SPEAKER_01: One day the crowds standing before Jesus in this moment will bow before the glory of the risen Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Because one day truth will reign forever.
SPEAKER_01: So how do we ensure that we have ears to hear?
SPEAKER_01: That's the key takeaway question, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: I think the primary application is just as clear.
SPEAKER_01: The primary application is to act rightly on the truth you've heard today.
SPEAKER_01: Now it's one thing, friends, to miss the point on John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_01: But it's terrifying judgment to miss the point on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: God determined to love the world by sending his own son to die for our sins.
SPEAKER_01: He prepared the way in advance of it by speaking through his prophets.
SPEAKER_01: He carried that out through the work of John the Baptist, building the road for his son to come behind him.
SPEAKER_01: He fulfilled it all.
SPEAKER_01: He fulfilled it all when John stood and looked at Jesus Christ and he said, There is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_01: So the right response is to turn to Christ in sorrow over your sin and repent by turning to Christ alone for your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: My friends, you are now in this moment in possession of enough truth to receive eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: The flute is played.
SPEAKER_01: Will you dance?
SPEAKER_01: Will you mourn over your sin?
SPEAKER_01: Will you reject the world's biased version of Christ and see him who died for you?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you might say, Yeah, I'm there.
SPEAKER_01: I've been there a long time.
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go a little bit further then.
SPEAKER_01: Let's think about wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: The ultimate in wisdom is trusting in the Lord of wisdom, is it not?
SPEAKER_01: We cannot be wise if we do not trust in the Lord of wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: And if we really do trust in the Lord of wisdom, that then transforms the way that we look at life.
SPEAKER_01: It transforms the way we look at our world, it transforms the way we look at people, it transforms the way we look at all information that we take in.
SPEAKER_01: It's called a worldview shift.
SPEAKER_01: Before Christ, we look at life through our own perspectives, through our own desires, through our own sinfulness.
SPEAKER_01: But now in Christ, we look at things from God's perspective.
SPEAKER_01: How do I best glorify Him and bring honor and glory to our Savior?
SPEAKER_01: If we are wise, we will work to see through appearances.
SPEAKER_01: You know, at some level we know that things are not always as they appear, right?
SPEAKER_01: We know that somewhere inside of us.
SPEAKER_01: I've read a bunch of books that have terrible covers, but are really great books.
SPEAKER_01: I've driven some brand new cars that are functional trash.
SPEAKER_01: We know that Jesus took on flesh as form of a human being.
SPEAKER_01: We know that Jesus came in the form of a slave.
SPEAKER_01: We know that he came to serve.
SPEAKER_01: But he is the servant king.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see beyond the appearance of the servant, and we see and we believe and we follow the glory of a great and risen king, do we not?
SPEAKER_01: Then why do we as God's people so often act only upon appearances?
SPEAKER_01: Is that how people of the truth live?
SPEAKER_01: No, Jesus says, the wise seek the truth that often lies hidden behind appearances.
SPEAKER_01: Wisdom understands the times.
SPEAKER_01: John and his disciples were struggling here with the times.
SPEAKER_01: John was in prison, in a dungeon.
SPEAKER_01: He would never get out.
SPEAKER_01: So they're struggling.
SPEAKER_01: What's going on?
SPEAKER_01: How do we understand this?
SPEAKER_01: Are you the one we're looking for?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, help us, right?
SPEAKER_01: We ask those questions in times of pain and suffering and uncertainty and sorrow and all of those things.
SPEAKER_01: But we must understand our times, our lives, our present in light of scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you an example.
SPEAKER_01: This is a prime example, maybe not the only one, but this is a prime example.
SPEAKER_01: If Satan is the prince of the power of the air, is he?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, Scripture says that.
SPEAKER_01: If he is the prince of the power of the air, if Satan is at work among the sons of disobedience, is that true?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, Scripture says that.
SPEAKER_01: If Satan is the accuser of the brethren, if he is a liar from the beginning, if he is a murderer, if he is seeking to devour, are all of those true?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, those all come from the pages of your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: If those things are true, if we understand our present, our world, our system of society in light of that truth, then ought we not to have our hearts and minds and spirits alert to identify the things in our world that say, ah, that's devilish.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the work of God.
SPEAKER_01: Have your mind tuned with scriptural wisdom to the information, to the actions that go on around you that are designed specifically to accuse, to disparage, to cause us to question God and to separate people through untruth.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, since God's ways are not our ways, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's what he says.
SPEAKER_01: Since God's ways are not our ways, our natural humanistic trend is to not immediately perceive truth.
SPEAKER_01: When we do not perceive God's truth quickly, then we are less likely to respond wisely and godly to whatever stimuli there might be, whether it's information, news, events, people, etc.
SPEAKER_01: Stealing from my beloved brother Anton, so often we treat scripture like our daily breadstick.
SPEAKER_01: We take a verse here, we take a verse there, we pull it out of its context, and then we believe that we know and understand it and have suddenly become wise.
SPEAKER_01: Let's not forget that we're not talking about some undefined group of people out there.
SPEAKER_01: Let's not forget that we can even be involved in this.
SPEAKER_01: Even God's people, God's own sons and daughters, can be involved in hurtful, sinful actions.
SPEAKER_01: We often propagate this kind of stuff without knowing it.
SPEAKER_01: We have good intentions, we have righteous intentions, but without knowing it, we're pushing along things that we ought not to.
SPEAKER_01: And so wisdom then understands that there is a spiritual battle in which we are not in control.
SPEAKER_01: We go about life as though we are the generals in charge of the war.
SPEAKER_01: When in reality we might be pawns.
SPEAKER_01: More powerful than we will understand.
SPEAKER_01: And he loves nothing more than to stand before God the Father like He did with Job and say, look at what that preacher did.
SPEAKER_01: You call that person your son, you call her your daughter?
SPEAKER_01: He loves to divide us, he loves to confuse us, he loves to infuse us with falsehood.
SPEAKER_01: And he will even use us to do it.
SPEAKER_01: So then wisdom understands what is true.
SPEAKER_01: Satan does not want us to think wisely.
SPEAKER_01: He does not want us to know the truth.
SPEAKER_01: He wants us to buy into distorted information that is taken out of its context.
SPEAKER_01: He wants us to miss what God has said.
SPEAKER_01: He wants us to believe what makes us feel good and at the same moment despise what brings hurt or fear or uncertainty.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you an example.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine that Jesus himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, was standing in front of you like he is, these crowds in this text, and he's come to give you truth.
SPEAKER_01: How would you receive him and the truth he brings?
SPEAKER_01: How would you receive him?
SPEAKER_01: You think, wow.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is here.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to listen to him.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to take what he has to say.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: What if a beloved, trustworthy brother or sister in Christ came to you with the same truth?
SPEAKER_01: Different persons, same truth.
SPEAKER_01: How would you receive them?
SPEAKER_01: And how would you receive the truth?
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: All right, I can do that.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what if someone came to you that has hurt you recently?
SPEAKER_01: What if someone that you distrust or that you are uncertain of, that you don't know very well, came to you with the same truth?
SPEAKER_01: Would you still receive that same truth?
SPEAKER_01: I'll be honest.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I might not.
SPEAKER_01: I might see the person, I might see the circumstances of my present and interpret the truth in light of that.
SPEAKER_01: See, friends, the subtle reality is that we often miss what is wise because in the moment it doesn't appear to be wise.
SPEAKER_01: I'm messing this up.
SPEAKER_01: There are times when the wise thing feels foolish.
SPEAKER_01: When we look at life and it seems, oh that that doesn't that doesn't seem right.
SPEAKER_01: John, he's not eating with us, he's not drinking with us, he must have a demon.
SPEAKER_01: Believing John is the one sent to pave the road doesn't seem wise.
SPEAKER_01: Look at that, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He's a glutton.
SPEAKER_01: He eats with tax collectors.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't seem wise.
SPEAKER_01: One day we might be sorely disappointed or even brought into judgment with the cities of Khoras and Bethseida when wisdom is ultimately proven right.
SPEAKER_01: Will we have ears to hear while we still have time to become wise in Christ?
SPEAKER_01: We know that truth will win in eternity.
SPEAKER_01: Time will ultimately reveal those who have stood wisely in the truth.
SPEAKER_01: But you know, so often Satan confounds the world in such a way that it's those who stand against the tide, who stand against the trends of the times, who are eventually proven right.
SPEAKER_01: If you want illustration, read stories about the martyrs for Christ who are burned at the stake by the church.
SPEAKER_01: Those who stood against the tide of the times because truth stood against the tide of the times.
SPEAKER_01: That applies to all kinds of areas of life, friends.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit will work within your heart to apply it in your life.
SPEAKER_01: But it starts with the one truth that matters.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: And he has called you to repent and to follow Him.
SPEAKER_01: He's given you enough truth to act responsibly to that call.
SPEAKER_01: And so now it's left with you.
SPEAKER_01: Will you mourn and dance and begin a life of wisdom in Christ alone?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we need your help.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, we need your help to clear out the cobwebs of our hearts and minds.
SPEAKER_01: Those things that keep us from thinking clearly.
SPEAKER_01: We need your light, your spirit to give life and light to our hearts and our souls and our spirits so that we might have discernment to see through the false light that is presented to us by our enemy.
SPEAKER_01: We need your enlightenment to know when we ought to mourn and to know when we ought to dance.
SPEAKER_01: We want to know your truth.
SPEAKER_01: We want to see things your way.
SPEAKER_01: Give us that clarity so that in eternity we might say, I saw wisdom and I danced to the praise of your eternal glory and grace in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.