[0:00] Take your Bibles and go with me to the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12 is where we will be at this morning as we just continue to make our way through the Gospel of Matthew.
[0:11] Next week we'll probably put a pause on this, so we're at a good stopping point, if you will. We'll revisit this after Easter, but we're in Matthew chapter 12. We're starting in verse 38 and going down to the end of the chapter, which gets us down to verse 50.
[0:25] So Matthew chapter 12, starting in verse 38 and going down to verse 50. If you're physically able and desire to do so, I'm going to ask if you'll join with me as we stand together. We read the Word of God with one another, found in the 12th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.
[0:39] And we're picking it up there in the 38th verse. And if you remember, Christ is teaching and He's surrounded by the multitudes. And there's a number of people around Him. And this is kind of one of those validation places where He is really validating Himself as the King of kings and Lord of lords.
[0:54] But it's also a time of questioning, which we see resonate throughout His ministry there. And it says there, starting in verse 38. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.
[1:08] But He answered and said to them, An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
[1:25] The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the south will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.
[1:46] Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, I will return to my house from which I came, and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order.
[1:59] Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there, and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.
[2:11] While he was still speaking to the crowds, behold, his mother and brothers were standing outside seeking to speak to him. Someone said to him, Behold, your mother and your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to you.
[2:22] But Jesus answered the one who was telling him and said, Who is my mother and who are my brothers? And stretching out his hands towards his disciples, he said, Behold, my mother and my brothers.
[2:33] For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this glorious opportunity which you have given us together, together.
[2:47] Lord, we thank you for the privilege of fellowship. We thank you for the privilege of worship through song. We thank you for an opportunity of encouraging one another. But Lord, we stand and wonder that the opportunity we get to read the word of God as a corporate body.
[3:03] Lord, may our worship not end with the songs, but Lord, may it be extended into the reading and the ministry of the word. And Lord, may you speak to our hearts and minds. May your presence permeate this place and may you draw near each one of us.
[3:17] May the truth of the scripture captivate our hearts and set our minds towards you. And Lord, may you draw us closer to it and we ask it all to us through you. And we ask it all in Jesus name.
[3:29] Amen. You may be seated. I want you to see this morning as we come to this place where Jesus is beginning to be questioned and we come to this place where much work has already been done.
[3:41] I want you to take a moment just to consider a denouncement of the intellectual doubters. A denouncement of the intellectual doubters. That is, those who come seeking to validate Christ through what they can figure out or what they can see.
[3:54] It has been said that very rarely is the pursuit of intellectual knowledge a tool used of the Lord to draw people to himself. Not that it does not happen because historically we can come to a number of people who have done that.
[4:08] C.S. Lewis is one who was absolutely an agnostic or an atheist claiming that there was no God or that he did not worship God. And as a pursuit of intellectual academics, he ended up coming to the realization that surely there was a God.
[4:23] There are a number of others that we can go over and over and over again and see that it does happen. But it is not normally the case. Because more times than not, the intellectual ends up becoming a stumbling block for the individual to actually pursue what they can see by faith, but not necessarily describe by mind.
[4:45] And we see this even in the encounters that Christ has with individuals. We see it in particular where it says, And some of the scribes and the Pharisees came to him. Some of the scribes and the Pharisees approach him.
[4:57] And these are those who question him more than any other time or more than any other group throughout the Gospels. But we need to understand that the scribes are not just those people who copy Scripture.
[5:07] They're not just those people who we must at least give credit to for hand copying portions of the Old Testament so that we have it preserved for us even today. The scribes were the teachers of the law, right?
[5:20] They were the academics, if you would. They are the ones who would instruct others. And the Pharisees are the ones who are zealous for the keeping of a law. So what we have here is this grouping of individuals whose whole pursuit is to know and do all that God has commanded them to do throughout Old Testament writings or through the law is what we would call it.
[5:42] These are not people who don't really know what God has commanded. Rather, these are people who give themselves to the pursuit of knowing accurately what God has commanded.
[5:52] These are the intelligent. These are the committed. These are the faithful. And these are also the questioning. And these, more times than not, are the doubters.
[6:05] And we see this because it pushes what they can see and experience in the person of Christ has a conflict with what they think they know he should be or what they think that they have figured out about the work of God.
[6:23] And it goes against their intellectual pursuits, if you will. And here we see that he denounces them in a very clear way. And the first thing we see is there is the sufficiency of Scripture's testimony.
[6:36] Because these intellectual individuals come to him and they come to him with a desire to know. But they're not really coming with a desire to know because they're coming with a desire to test. Because by the intellect we like to test.
[6:48] And with the mind we like to test. If he is God or if he is the king of kings, then prove it. Show it. Demonstrate it.
[7:00] Maybe it's not just the highly intellectual pursuits that does that, but every individual at some point does that, I think. That if Jesus is who he says he is, then I want him to prove it to me.
[7:11] I want to come to him based on what I can understand, not on what I need to put my faith in. And we see this. They come to him and say, if you are who you say you are. And they come and they ask for something.
[7:23] They came and they said to him, teacher, we want to see a sign from you. Now a sign is a testimonial display of miraculous power. Okay, that's exactly what it is.
[7:34] I know it's a lot of words wrapped up in one word. But what they're asking him is, teacher, prove to us that you are who you say you are. Now the irony in this is that by this time in Jesus' public ministry, a number of miracles had taken place.
[7:51] A number of unexplainable events have already transpired. And these individuals would have at least seen, some of them would have seen, and many of them they would have heard about.
[8:02] Because as Jesus testifies in the garden and later before the Sanhedrin, he did nothing in secret. He did nothing in a corner. Jesus' ministry was a public ministry. He says, I stood daily in the public square, right?
[8:15] I stood daily before people. And he did things out in the open. And yet, as a result of all these things, people weren't just flocking in and believing in him. People were coming to see the show, if you will.
[8:27] And now these individuals who have seen so much have at least the ambition to prove it, or at least the desire to test him further.
[8:37] And they say, prove to us that you are who you say you are. One thing we need to understand about intellectual pursuits is that it is never satisfied.
[8:49] Those who come to Christ through intellectual pursuit alone, or those who come to Christ through what they can see and understand, will always come up with another reason why it could have happened.
[9:00] Right? It seems to be never satisfied. There always needs to be another level, or a little bit more, or a little bit more, or further proof, because it is hard to convince the mind when it is really the heart that Christ is aiming at.
[9:16] And these individuals come to him, and they say, prove to us that you are who you say you are. Jesus declares to them that a wicked and perverse generation seeks after a sign. Now, that's kind of, you know, cutting to the quick, right?
[9:28] Jesus says that a wicked and perverse generation are those who seek for a sign, which means that we say, Lord Jesus, I will believe in you if you will do this. He says that is literally wickedness and adulterous, because Scripture allows us to place our faith and trust in him, even if he doesn't do that.
[9:49] But he doesn't leave it there. We've talked about this truth, that we don't rest in blind faith, because he says a wicked and perverse generation seeks after a sign, or labors after a sign, or pursues a sign, and is wanting God to desperately prove himself.
[10:04] But he says, but no sign will be given it but the sign of Jonah. Now, this should amaze us, because all of a sudden, Jesus is putting his stamp of approval on something that is historically questioned.
[10:17] Right? The question is always, can a man live three days and three nights in a well? And scientists will tell you, no, it can't happen, because we've never seen evidence of that. All the intellectual pursuits say that it's not possible.
[10:30] And we understand. I know we try to display it as a well in New American Standard and other translations called a sea monster. And really, the question is not, can a man live three days and three nights in the belly of a fish or a sea monster?
[10:42] The ultimate question is, can God create a sea monster that could keep man alive three days and three nights in its belly? And that answer is yes. And what we need to understand is why, even though a lot of scientists and a lot of historians and a lot of intellectual pursuits will tell you that the book of Jonah is kind of, ah, we don't know about it.
[10:59] We don't know if it's real. We need to know that our Savior says it is real. As a matter of fact, he proves the reality of his resurrection based upon the historical event of Jonah's experience.
[11:12] He says, just as Jonah was, so will the Son of Man be. So that tells me that if that did not happen to Jonah, then it would not happen with Christ.
[11:25] And he alludes to it as if it is a historical fact. So since he says it is, then it is very behooving of man to say it must be so.
[11:38] Because even if we can't understand it, and if we can't wrap our minds around it, we must at least confess to the reality of it based on who said it.
[11:51] And if that's not enough, then we have to wonder why. Because Jesus points to this, says the only testimony that will be given, or the only sign that will be given, is the sign of Jonah.
[12:03] And he says, just as Jonah was in the belly of the sea monster or the whale three days and three nights, so too will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth or the belly of the earth three days and three nights. Again, people say, well, he wasn't.
[12:14] If he was crucified on a Friday, then he was not three days and three nights. Again, we have to go through all this thing. We're getting ready to go into Easter. According to the reckoning of days and nights by the Jewish individuals, that would have counted for three days and three nights.
[12:26] We don't have time to really go through that. But any part or portion of the day counted for a day on a night, right? And their days actually started when the sun went down. So this evening, when it is Sunday evening, when the sun goes down tonight at 730-something, 740-something, I hadn't really looked at sunset, that would be their Monday.
[12:44] It would start as soon as the sun went down. And really, it would get a little deep. But it counts, okay? The way that the Jewish reckoning would have counted, it would have counted. And he said, this is the sign. But the only thing I'm trying to get across to you here is Jesus says that the scriptural testimony is sufficient to testify to the reality of who he is.
[13:02] That he doesn't need to prove it further than what scripture proclaims. Which shows us another truth as it pertains to scripture. The reason Jonah was kept alive in the belly of a fish or belly of a sea monster three days and three nights was not so much so God could get his attention.
[13:22] The full truth of why that happened is so that Jesus could point to it as a testimony to what he was going to do. Because every part of scripture has a prophetic truth to it.
[13:35] It is the reality that these things took place to testify to the one to come. When you open up the pages of the Old Testament on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights, when we're going through scripture, we're going through the Old Testament.
[13:49] We started in Genesis when I first came here six years ago. We're now in the book of Deuteronomy. And there seems to be such monotony. There seems to be such repetitiveness. And there seems to be a lot of labor.
[14:00] And, you know, even if we've gone through the book of Numbers and even Leviticus. And now we're going through Deuteronomy. And we're going to get into Joshua pretty soon. And there seems just to be all this stuff. The truth of the matter is, the reason these things are recorded for us in the Old Testament is to point us to the one who is coming into the New Testament.
[14:20] Every part and portion has a prophetic purpose. We see him in the numbering of sacrifices. We see him in the offerings of God's commands.
[14:30] We see him in everything that God teaches. And we see him in the life of Jonah. Because these things have a purpose. And Jesus tells us that the testimony of Scripture is sufficient to the reality of who he is.
[14:45] He is the fulfillment of all these things. And we need no further proof than what Scripture has already offered. We need no further proof. We don't need to come to him and say, Lord, if you will do this.
[14:57] Because the truth is, he has already done this. And when you go from Genesis to Malachi and you read all of the prophecies that are clear prophecies. He's concerning the person of Christ.
[15:09] And when you realize he fulfilled each and every one of those prophecies. Then you have to say, he has done enough. To validate who he is.
[15:20] Probably one of the most astounding. Just for me. And I know I've shared it with you before. But it bears repeating at this point. Especially in light of the week in which we are in. The Passion Week.
[15:31] When you read the crucifixion stories of Christ. And you read them throughout the Gospels. And there's this one account in one of the Gospels where it says, And Jesus is on the cross. And he says, And knowing that all Scripture had been fulfilled, He said, I am thirsty.
[15:44] And it seems to be a very odd time for Jesus to cry out for thirst. It seems to be out of place. Until you open up the book of Psalms.
[15:55] And you read the Messianic Psalm that speaks of his suffering. And it says that in his suffering, he would cry out for thirst. And they would give him gall and bitterness to drink. And the reality is that in the moment of his crucifixion.
[16:10] In the moment when he was on the brink of suffocation. When he had already been beaten. When he had already been mocked. When he had already been ridiculed. When he had already been spit upon. When he was being mocked at his feet. When the crown of thorns had already been pressed into his head.
[16:21] When he had been stripped naked. And his clothes had already been bartered over. When he was hanging on the cross for the price of man's sins. At that moment, Every prophecy surrounding his first coming was going through his mind.
[16:34] And to fulfill the scripture, He said, I am thirsty. And then it says, And then, He says, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
[16:46] He was not going to leave until the prophecy was fulfilled. Why? Because the testimony of scripture is sufficient to the reality. We don't need him to prove anything to us academically.
[16:59] He has already validated every prophecy over and over again. Over and over again. And when we come to him and say, Lord Jesus, If you would only, Then I would.
[17:11] He will tell us, I have already. And you won't. Those who have come to Christ through intellectual pursuits Have come to Christ through that very truth.
[17:23] They have looked at the Old Testament scripture. And they have studied the Old Testament scripture. And they have come to the understanding That each and every one of those Old Testament passages Find their ultimate fulfillment in one person. And that one person is Jesus Christ.
[17:35] They don't come because academia tells you so. They do not come because history tells you so. They do not come because archaeology tells you so. They come because scripture says so. And there's no other answer But Jesus Christ.
[17:51] Scripture's sufficiency of testimony. That's what he pointed the scribes to. And that's what he points us to. If we want to know who he is, Then get into the word of God. Don't just get among the people of God.
[18:03] We see the supremacy of Christ's position. Because just as much as Jesus validates The historical reality of what took place In the life of Jonah, Now he begins to exalt himself As supreme over all things throughout history.
[18:16] He has already exalted himself As supreme over the Sabbath. In passages prior to this, In Matthew chapter 12, He claims to be Lord of the Sabbath. Right? He is the Lord of the Sabbath, Which was the highest day of the week For the Jewish people.
[18:30] And here he begins to make this transition as well. He says, The men of Nineveh will rise up with this generation. Just let that sink in for just a moment. Okay? The men that were in Nineveh When Jonah came to Nineveh Long been there by the time Christ stands Among that generation And makes this declaration.
[18:47] The men of Nineveh will rise With this generation In the day of judgment. And will condemn it Because someone or something greater than Jonah is here.
[19:01] And then he says, And the queen of the south. You remember the queen of the south. She's the one who came In pursuit of all the wisdom And the intellect of Solomon And saw all the splendor. She made this declaration That what she saw When she came into the court of Solomon The half of it had not been told her.
[19:16] And that God had richly blessed him With all these riches. And she testified to the grandeur of Solomon. And it says that the queen of the south Will rise up with this generation In the day of judgment And will condemn it Because someone or something Greater than Solomon Is here.
[19:33] We see a couple of truths here. First we see the reality of the resurrection. If you ever doubted the resurrection Jesus said the men of Nineveh will And the queen of the south Will rise with that generation.
[19:48] Which means it really doesn't matter When you die There's going to be a day When all stand together In a moment of judgment. Some will be raised to An everlasting life.
[20:01] Some will be raised to Everlasting destruction and punishment. But there is the reality Of the resurrection. Over and over again Jesus testifies to this reality As if it is something That is already settled.
[20:15] He says they will rise With this generation. And then we see this reality That he says he is greater than Jonah Who stayed alive in the belly of the well.
[20:27] He is greater than Solomon Who is considered one of the wisest men Who have ever lived On the face of the earth And one of the wealthiest And had a lot of issues sure But he is also the last king Of the unified nation of Israel So the Jewish people Kind of looked at David and Solomon As the ideal kings And he says he is greater than that And he begins to show His exalted position.
[20:46] He shows the supremacy That he has upon the face of the earth. He shows the reality That even if they don't want To believe in him Because of who he is They should put their faith in him.
[20:57] Because of who he is And where he stands Among all the quote unquote Great ones He is deserving of their devotion He is deserving of their faith He is deserving of their trust.
[21:11] Paul addresses this same issue In the book of Colossians When he writes to the church of Colossae The church of Colossae He reminds them That they have put their faith In Jesus Christ. And then he begins to confront The reality that some Were coming in After they had placed Their faith in Jesus Christ.
[21:26] And he speaks of this Empty philosophy And this philosophy is That you put your faith In Christ And people came in And said now you need To do this, this, this, and this. You need to be circumcised. You need to stay away From this food. You need to be sure You observe these festivals.
[21:39] And there's all the things Faith is good But you're trusting Jesus Now let's fill in the gaps With that, right? So let's start doing These other things To make sure you're perfect. Well to kind of refute This idea that they needed To complete what Jesus Had done Paul introduces The one they put Their faith in.
[21:58] Before he starts Talking about everything He's asked They're asked to do He introduces them To Christ. In Colossians chapter 1 Paul says God was pleased To reconcile us To us through his son And then he goes Into this great display Of what many call The greatest exaltation Of Christ You will ever find In scripture.
[22:23] And it is there Where Paul says That he created All things through him By him And for him That he is above All things And in all things And everything is Held together through him And that he is The controller of all things And he just exalts The person of Christ And the reason He's exalting The person of Christ Because he says And this is the one You trust in Because if this is The position he holds If this is who he is Then surely he's able To keep you in his hand Then surely he's able To be entrusted With your eternity And he exalts Christ Through his rightful position Not just as a humble servant But as the creator Sustainer The Lord of all And he lifts him up To the supreme being That he is And he reminds them You have not placed Your faith in the works Of man You've not placed Your faith in the teaching Of man You have placed Your faith in the one Who is supreme Over all things
[23:23] And since he is Over all And he has welcomed You into his presence Then there's nothing Else you can do See the reality is Is Jesus is reminding Him of the supreme Position which he holds He is greater Than these And if he is Greater than the things That they will trust in Then surely he is Deserving of their Faith and trust And obedience And their desire And their commitment To him But yet they come With this intellectual Stumbling and say But we want more proof Jesus says What further proof Do you need I am over all These things One of the great Declarations he makes Is before Abraham Was I am He doesn't say I was He says I am Which uses the Covenant name of God Another great Event I'm telling you This Passion Week Is just a powerful week Read the accounts Of Passion Week Only gospel Accounts give us That when Jesus is
[24:24] In the Garden of Gethsemane And Judas Iscariot Comes with a multitude And a mob To arrest him Remember that And they're coming And Judas betrays The Son of God With a kiss He kisses him With this kiss Of friendship And Jesus asks them Who have you come for And all these powerful people With all the torches And lanterns And they come with All these weapons And they come out To arrest this criminal Jesus said Whom do you seek And they said Jesus the Nazarene And Jesus makes This one statement Jesus says I am I know when you read The English It says I am He That word he Wasn't there Jesus says I am And this scripture says And they all fell down But what's amazing The very next thing Jesus tells them To get up And arrest him He says I am And everybody These strong soldiers And these guards And these people Who are going out To get this criminal Right This posse He says I am And boom They fall down And he says I told you I was he Get up and arrest me Because the reality Is because of who
[25:25] He was They had to bow Down before him And because of who He was They could not Take him Unless he had Commanded them to Because of who Will cause all men To bow Before him Every knee Will bow Every tongue Will confess Because of who He is May we never Forget In trying to Figure him out That we will Never be able To reconcile The supremacy Of his being With the finites Of our existence He is And that is enough We see this We also see In this very rare Account Kind of seems To be a random Account of the Man who cast The spirit out Right We see the Spiritual transformation That is necessary Because he is
[26:25] Denouncing intellectual Pursuits And what he is Saying is You don't come To faith Through what you Can understand In your mind You don't come To faith From what you Can see Or what you Can witness Or what you Can figure out You cannot Come to faith Because the Reality is It always Comes down To a spiritual Transformation It always Has to deal With the inner Man Not the Man The man Of the heart And the man Of the heart Throughout scripture Is the seat Of emotions It is who you Are This is the Very depth Of your being They would say That your intellect Dwelt in your heart Because they say You would feel The truth Right You would Understand it We get the picture Of like your bowels You get this Uneasiness in your stomach And there is this Truth that just Resonates that you Must have something To do with this And he says It is really A spiritual Transformation That is needed Not a change Of mind And he gives Us an example Of an individual Who changes His mind And we would say He cleans himself Up It is this individual Who says You know what Based on what I can understand About the character And truth of God
[27:26] And you can get That from the Old Testament Based on what I see About the holiness Of God And you can get That from the law And based on what I see About what the Requirement of God Is according To his holiness And according To what he Has commanded This and you See that throughout The law That I need To get my life Right I need to Clean myself up And I need to Change some things About my life The truth of it Is there is a Testimony inside Every one of us That if we're honest Tells us that Something needs to Change And so as Individuals and as People we think Well I will make Myself better And I will give My life to Christ After I change And after I do this And after I do that There's a problem There's a lot of eyes Running through there And as soon as I can do this Then the reality Is that I will do that And Jesus tells The story of this Individual who cast An unclean spirit Out of him And we don't know How he does it But we say as he does it And we must agree With the reality That it's there Right He gets rid of this Problem He gets rid of this Issue And he's going to Clean himself up And since he Cleans himself up The spirit is now gone A couple of things That we must give At least a little bit
[28:26] Of truth to That Jesus testifies To the reality That not all of man's Problems are physical Some of them Are spiritual Right There is at least Some spiritual influence On what issues That face mankind And he says That he cast This unclean spirit Out of him And he sets his life Right And he seems to be Doing good for a while But the spirit Goes across the Waterless places Which is a very Rampant theme Throughout the Scripture That the spirit Is always going Across waterless places And dry ground And desolate lands These are usually Spiritual grounds Right And he's going around And he finds no Place to rest So he goes back To where he was Cast out of And it's an amazing Thing because when The spirit comes back He finds the house Set in order I mean the man's Life is clean The man's life Is straightened up Everything is decent And it's in order And it's clean But here's the problem That while he has Cleaned himself up He is not filled With anything He's still empty Because man may say Well I got to get Myself together But the problem Is that self Never fills us It always leaves
[29:26] Us empty And when he gets The bad things Out of his life The truth of the Reality is Is that he's still Not full of anything Because the bad things Were the only things Filling him up And when he got Rid of the bad He just left himself Void and empty And the spirit Comes back and Finds that place Void and empty So the spirit says Hey there's a lot More room here Than when I left it Before Much like if we Were to go home To our houses And we were to Do a deep cleaning All of a sudden Our house looks A lot bigger Than we once Thought it was And the spirit Says you know What I got a lot More room So he goes out And finds seven More spirits Now the word Seven throughout Scripture is always A number for Completion And these seven Complete spirits Are more desperate And wicked Than he was And he says Come on guys I have found A house That is decent In order And I've lived There before It's a pretty Comfortable place And it says And in the end The last state Of the man Is worse than The first Now what does This mean Jesus has shown us That man by his Own efforts May be able to Set his life Right for a time But if all he does Is clean himself up And does not Fill himself with Anything
[30:26] He is just Leaving himself Open to the reality That his end Is going to be Worse than the beginning That while man May be able to Clean his act up For a little while He is just leaving Himself void and empty A multitude of people In our generation A multitude of people Around the world Today think that If they could just Do this with Themselves then They will be Better And the sad Truth is Is that after They do that After they do That Either attain That position Or make that Confession Or change their Lifestyle Or whatever That is They think If I can just Do this I will be Okay And the sad Testimony is Is that more Times than not If not 100% Of the times That after doing That things Get worse Because it's So good for a Moment they think They've reached The end of it But yet It gets worse There are a lot Of numbers that
[31:27] We can look at A lot of statistics That we can consider The reality that When man has his Way and man Gets his life Together Things do not Always get better Even in our own Society when we Begin to call The right Wrong and the Wrong right And we begin To tell people That they can Be whatever They want to be As long as It makes them Feel good The truth of The reality is Is that as soon As man feels Good about himself He's leaving Himself empty And after he Feels good about Himself long enough And he thinks He's okay It ends up in A worse state of Existence than He ever was before Man is not set Free by cleaning His life up Christ has come To set us free Man is not set Free by setting Himself in order Because we can Never do that We will only set Ourselves up for Destruction We can never Build ourselves up Read the book of Judges Man is on a Downward spiral The book of Judges is such A telling book In the book of Judges there Arises another Generation who Did not know Joshua or Moses There arises another Generation who
[32:27] Did not know About the king And the book of Judges ends On sad note I mean there's All the atrocities Of the book of Judges that are Going on There's pillage And plunder And rape And all these Things going on Among their own Countrymen There's people Cutting up human Beings and sending Them out as Messages to Their own nation And they almost Wipe out one Nation There's this one Phrase that's Repeated five Times in those Last chapters Of the book of Judges In those days There was no King in Israel And every man Did what was Right in his Own eyes Because when There's no King and every Man does what Is right in His own eyes Things get Worse They don't Get better Because a man Will never pull Himself up by His own boot Straps and a man Will never clean Himself up You may be able To look okay For a moment But I promise You that if You empty Yourself You have Nothing to Fill yourself With Because Paul Makes this Declaration For I have
[33:27] Found this Testament that There is Nothing good Which exists In me Nothing So what will I Fill myself up with The last Say that the Man will become Worse than the First Because all I Did was clean Up more room For me And when I Have more room For me It's a bad Place Rather there is A need of Spiritual Transformation I must have Something change To the very Depth of my Being And to the Very core Of my Life I don't Need more Of me I don't Need more Of what I
[34:28] Can provide I need Something outside Of me To transform Me from the Inside out I need Something to Come in And to Bind the Strong man As Jesus Said and Cast him Out and To fill Me You know Why Paul Says be Filled with The Holy Spirit To be Filled With The Holy Spirit To be Filled With The Holy!
[34:43] Spirit Because My friend If we Are not Filled With It We Will Be Filled With Something Else You Do Not Exist In A Vacuum And If our Life Is Emptied But Is Not Filled Up It Will Be Filled With Something Else And When It Is Filled With Self It Be It Be It Be It Be It It Be It It It It It It It It Seems To Be Disconnected But I Believe It Is Connected All The More Because It Says That Jesus While He Was Teaching This Crowd Someone Showed Up His Mother And His Brothers Were Outside It It It It It Were Always On The Outside Looking In Never On The Inside Looking Out It It Is Amazing That Those Who Were Blood Relatives So To Say Of Jesus Because He Was Not The Seat Of Man He Was The Seat Of Woman And He Had Half Brothers He Didn't Have Any Full Brothers That Those Who Had The Closest Familial Connections To Him Those Who Lived With Him For The First 33 Plus Years Of His Life Those Whom He Was Closer
[35:43] To Than Anyone Else That When He Came Out And He Began His Public Ministry They Were Never Directly Connected To Him It Was Only After The Resurrection Do We Find The Brothers Of Jesus Given The Commitment To Him And We See It With James James James Is The Half Brother!
[35:57] He Be And Ends Up Dying A Martyr's Death We See Other Half Brothers Of Jesus Coming To Faith As A Result Of This And We Know That Mary Pondered All These Things In Her Heart And His Brothers Would Mock Him And All These Things So It Is Not The The Ties That Bind Right It Is Not The Family That Hold You Together Because They're Always On The Looking In And They He Is Honoring His Parents He Is Not Dishonoring Them Right He Is Not Putting Them Down But He States This Reality Who Is My Mother And Who Is My Brother So Are Those People Sitting Outside Waiting On You And He Looks Around At His Disciples And He Says Here These Are My Mother And This My Brother For Whoever Is
[37:00] The Will Of God That You Believe In His Son Jesus Christ Whom He Has Sent What Is The Will Of The Father To Believe In Jesus Christ Whom He Has Sent Right Very Clearly Spoken There This Is The Will And Jesus Says And Whoever Does The Will Of The Father That Is My Brother That Is My Sister That Is My Mother See The Significance Of The Invitation Lord Of Lords We Are United With Him In Familial Relationships And There Is This Bond That Exists That Does Not Exist Among Anybody Else On This Earth We Are Brought Into Literally Into The Family Of God Again Quoting Paul Romans Chapter 8 Through Whom We Call Out Abba Father Through The Spirit Right We Have This Introduction Because This Invitation Is So Significant That It Is Come And See It Is To Come And Be Not Just To See What Jesus Is Doing Intellectually But To Be A Part Of The Family It
[38:02] Is This Invitation That Is Extended To Take Your Place In The Family Of God We Are About To Have An Invitation I Am Not Always Very Specific In This But There Are A Few Things That I Think Are Very!
[38:23] That Maybe You Say In Your Heart Well I Believe In Jesus Christ Whoever Confesses Me Before Others I Will Confess Before My Father Is In Heaven There's No First Thing As A Secret Saint I'm Not Going To Ask You To Come Up Here And Share Your Life Testimony If You Want To I'll Give You All The Opportunity You Want But I Know One!
[38:41] Thing If We Stand Out And Declare Him As Our Lord And Savior He Never Stands Before The Father And Declares As His Brother And Sister So The First Invitation Is Where Are You At You Well I Believe That Jesus Right Have You Confessed It Have You Declared It Because If You Haven't Then You Haven't Responded To The Invitation You Say Well Sure Jesus Is My Lord Savior I Confessed It Well Then You Need To Follow Him In Believer's Baptism I Not Very Specific Quite Often In This Invitation But I Want To Be Specific This Morning As Invitation This Invitation Is To Place Your Faith In Jesus Christ As Your Lord And Savior And To Confess That To Follow Him In Believer's Baptism Maybe You Have Confessed But Have You Followed Him In Believer's Baptism Am Am I Saying That Baptism Is Essential Not To Secure Your Salvation But To Follow In Obedience Because We Are To Follow Him In Obedience That's Why I Refer To It As Believer's Baptism I Don't Ask You To Be Baptized To Be Saved
[39:41] The scripture Reading There Is Baptized Because You Are Saved As A Result Of Your Salvation If He Can Save Me For All Of Eternity I Will Get Wet In Time And Space Temporarily So If You've Confessed Him Then Have You Obeyed Him Because If Not Then You Are Completely Missing Out On The Blessings And The Rewards And The Benefits And I'm Not Naming It And Claim It Theology I'm Just Telling You Biblical Theology Here Part Of Being A Family Is To Obey Him And There's A Third Truth That I Really Believe In And I Don't Believe In It Because I'm A Pastor I Believe In It Because I've Been Redeemed I Believe In It Because I've Been Saved I Believe In It Because I'm A Part Of A Family I Believe In The Local Church I Really Do Because Every Promise That I see Throughout The New Testament Is First Given To The Local!
[40:35] It Is A Promise That Find Its Genesis And Its Root Through The Ekklesia The Gathering To God's People The Church To Connect Yourself To The Local Church Are There Perfect Churches No Absolutely Not As Long As I'm A Part Of It It Don't Ever Be Perfect Never I Have Major Problem But I Have A Greater Savior But The Church Is Important Because Without It There Is No One Another Without It There Is No You Remember That Whole Passage In Colossians I Told You To Go Read Colossians Chapter 1 Do You Know How Paul Wraps That Up In Him Who Is The Creator Of All Things And Through All Things And He Has Set Him As The Head Of Church Now That's Church Universal He Is The Head Of The Church With The Capital See But
[41:36] Paul Is Writing To A Church Local In Colossians In Colossae And Is Pressing On As A Body So Are You Connected To A Local Church There's The Invitation Have You Responded To That Invitation That Is So Supreme That It Makes You Not Just A Disciple But A Part Of The Family Have You Placed Your Complete Faith And Trust In Jesus Christ Not Because He Can Prove It To You Intellectually But Because Of Who He Says He Is Throughout Scripture Have You Followed Him In Obedience And Believers Baptism And Are You Serving And United And Encouraging And Not Just I Heard Tony Evans!
[42:16] Say That Too Often What We Refer To As A Worship Service Is Not Necessarily A Worship Service It's A Worship Taking That We Can We Can From It We All Have A Part In That I Don't Know What It Is The Lord Is Laying On Your Heart But He Does So Let's Pray Well We Thank You So Much We Thank You For This Day We Thank You For The Blessing Of Gathering Together We Thank You For The Truth Of Your Word We Pray That By The Power And Presence Of Your Spirit That You Speak To Every Heart And Every Mind Lord That You Would Reveal To Us Where We Stand With You Lord You Would Help Us To See Ourselves In The Light Of Who You Are Not In
[43:16] The Light Of Who We! We Are Lord That The Truth Of Scripture Would Resonate In Our Hearts Lord That We Would Come To The Realization That You Are Who You Say You Are And We Want To Give You The Glory For It We Ask It All In Jesus Name Amen!
[44:18] Thank you.
[44:48] Thank you.
[45:18] Thank you.
[45:48] Thank you.
[46:18] Thank you.
[46:48] Thank you.