Do We Look For Another? (Part II)

Take your Bibles then and turn once again to our text which is Luke chapter 7 and verses 18 through 35.

Now this is the same text we were looking at last week. We have some unfinished business there if you recall. So Luke chapter 7 starting with verse 18.

Then the disciples of John reported to him concerning all these things. John calling two of his disciples to him sent them to Jesus saying, Are you the coming one or do we look for another?

When the men had come to him they said, John the Baptist has sent us to you saying, Are you the coming one or do we look for another? In that very hour he cured many of infirmities, afflictions and evil spirits and to many blind he gave sight.

Jesus answered and said to them, Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard. Let the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear and the dead are raised. The poor have the gospel preached to them and blessed is he who is not offended because of me.

When the messengers of John had departed, he began to speak to the multitudes concerning John. What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?

But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed those who are gorgeously appareled and live in luxury are in king's courts.

But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, And more than a prophet, This is he of whom it is written, Behold I send my messenger before your face, Who will prepare your way before you.

For I say to you, Among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist, But the one, or he, who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

When all the people heard him, Even the tax collectors justified God, Having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, Not having been baptized by him.

The Lord said, To what shall, Then shall I liken the men of this generation, What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace, And calling to one another, Saying, We played the flute for you, And you did not dance.

We mourned to you, And you did not weep. For John the Baptist came neither eating bread, Or drinking wine, And you say, He has a demon. The Son of God has come eating and drinking, And you say, Look, A glutton and a winebibber, A friend of tax collectors and sinners.

But wisdom is justified by all her children. Now, you remember, I hope, If you were here last week, That I pointed you to an interesting question in the text.

And it's interesting, of course, Because this question is asked by someone from whom you would not expect such a question. Of course, we know who it was.

John the Baptist. John the Baptist is the one asking the question, And his question is, Essentially, Jesus, Are you the Messiah? Are you the coming one?

The expected one? Or, Do we keep looking? Do we look for another? Who may be the Messiah? Now, that's an interesting question. And it's interesting because it's coming from John the Baptist.

He is the forerunner of the Messiah. And he is the one who proclaimed publicly That he, Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, Is the one I've been telling you about.

He pointed to Jesus. He's the one. I've been telling you about. The one who's coming, And there he is. This is John the Baptist who said that. And he said, This is Jesus of Nazareth. And he is the Lamb of God.

He is the one who has come To take away the sin of the world. So it's an interesting question, isn't it? Coming from John the Baptist of all people. Also the one who actually witnessed The Holy Spirit in the form of a dove Coming down out of heaven And settling upon Jesus there In the baptismal waters.

Thereby anointing him In his, In kind of inaugurating his messianic ministry. John witnessed that. Now why would John, John the Baptist of all people, Ask such a question?

Clearly at one time he was sure. He was sure that Jesus of Nazareth, That particular Jesus, Is the Messiah. He was sure about that. What now has happened to make him doubt?

We talked about this last week. And remember, I mentioned to you That according to Matthew chapter 11 verse 2, John was in prison at the time When the question was asked.

Wicked Herod had put him there And John would never see the freedom In this life. Not in this life. He would never see freedom again. And because, of course, Herod's wife and her daughter Had kind of manipulated Herod Into having John the Baptist beheaded.

And so, here's John. He's in prison. And perhaps he is perplexed by that And certainly discouraged by that. And because things were not working out The way he thought they were supposed to.

But also, I also pointed out last week That John's knowledge of revelation, God's redemptive plan, His revealed plan, Was deficient.

It was incomplete. Complete. By no fault of his own Because God's word was not complete yet. Not in John's life. And remember, I said, That John only had, of course, The Old Testament scriptures.

And so, John did not see clearly Two separate comings of Messiah That would fulfill two separate purposes. The second coming was, For the most part, A mystery in the Old Testament.

And so, with the revelation that John had Concerning the Messiah, He looked for all of his ministry To be accomplished in his first coming.

And the most important part of that To him, to John, And to probably most Jews, The most important part was To judge the unbelieving nations. To pour out his wrath upon the Gentiles, The unbelieving Gentiles, And especially the hated Roman Empire.

That's just where John was. And so, John's disciples were giving him Periodic reports on Jesus' movements, His teachings, His activities, and so forth.

And what Jesus was teaching and doing Just did not line up with John's eschatology. His view of end times. And so he asked the question, Are you the one?

Or should we keep looking? Now, what is that to us? I asked this last week. I mean, what is this question to us?

I mean, should we take John's question seriously, In the sense that, A sense of seeing some kind of Specific application for us today.

Should we see that question in that light? And I would say yes. That's what we considered last Sunday. And I said that we should Be awakened by John's request.

That was the thing that we looked at last week. Here's the question. We should be awakened by it. It should awaken something in our own hearts. It should awaken honesty and humility.

Because you see, The Holy Spirit is exposing this question In our own hearts and lives. If we would just admit it And be honest about it. Because in a sense, We own this question as much as John.

And Jesus' answer to the question Is as much for us as it was for John. Perhaps even more so. And so, I asked honestly, Can you hear yourself Asking a similar question?

Asking the question that John asked. Something similar to it. Can you hear yourself asking that question? I mean, are you always sure about Jesus?

Hmm? Are you always, I mean always, Sure that you can place all of your hope On Him? Come what may, Or do things ever happen in your life That cause you to wonder?

To question? To doubt? Now, because we're very spiritual people, At least we think we are, Our initial response is to say, Never! I'm always sure about Jesus.

There isn't anything that could ever happen, Nothing has ever happened, No time in my life have I ever questioned Jesus, Or doubted Jesus, Or anything about Him. But honestly, Our actions in life, Our reactions sometimes to trouble in life, Our prayerless worries, And our anxieties, These things betray us, If we would be honest.

Because sometimes, Things happen in our life To cause us to wonder. To cause us to doubt. Now, John dealt with some doubts, Clearly. He has some questions, A question mark in his heart, And we're not any better than John the Baptist.

He was the greatest prophet who ever lived, That's what Jesus said about him. And so John had a question mark In his mind and in his heart about Jesus, And so what did he do about it? Well, he did what we should do.

No matter what our question might be, No matter where our doubts might be, What should we do with them? The same thing John did with them. He took them to Jesus. Took them to the right source. That's what John did, And Jesus did not rebuke him for it.

That's pretty important to note. Did not rebuke him. In fact, after John's disciples left, Remember, Jesus begins to sing John's praises. So that's what John did, And that's what we must do With our questions and our doubts.

Take our doubts to Jesus. Take our question marks to Jesus. So be awakened by John's request. Very simple. Be awakened by it. Something should awaken in us When we consider this question In honesty and humility.

All right, now we're ready to move forward in the text. A little bit of review. Some of you might not have been here. And so to go forward, We've considered John's question. Now let's consider Jesus' answer.

His answer to the question. He does answer John's question, And he answers it very profoundly. So first of all, Be awakened by John's request. And then second, Be assured by Jesus' reply.

Be assured by Jesus' reply. John was not absolutely sure about Jesus. That much is clear. Or he would not have asked the question.

But John, again, Took his doubts to the right person. Took it to Jesus. And how did Jesus answer? By rebuking John for his weak faith?

No. He didn't do that, did he? And by the way, I'm very encouraged by that. Aren't you? And so how then did Jesus answer? By telling John to just man up, Have a little face.

Is that what he said to him? John, you just got to believe. Just have faith. Have you ever heard anybody say that to you? Just have faith. As if somehow faith is something We can find within ourselves.

And kind of drum it up. And grab hold of it within ourselves. No, Jesus did not say that. To John. And aren't you glad that God never expects you To have just a blind faith?

You say he doesn't? No. Faith is substantive. Do you understand that? Faith is very substantive. In fact, that's what Hebrews 11.1 tells us.

It says faith is the what? Anybody know? Substance. In some versions it says evidence. But it's evidential. It's substantive.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things not seen. By faith we understand. We understand that the worlds were created by the word of God.

So, Hebrews goes on to say, and here's the tangible proof. So, that what is seen, the things seen, the physical realm, The creation, the things that are seen, the physical reality, We know are not made out of what is visible.

The spiritual realm. Spiritual reality. The two confirm. The one confirms the other. You see. So, faith is a very substantive thing. No time is God just expecting you to operate according to some, quote, blind faith.

There's substance to it, you see. And so, Jesus does not offer blind faith as his answer to John's question. Rather, he offers three observable, verifiable, tangible proofs.

Proofs, by the way, that he indeed is the one and only Messiah. And so, you can be sure about him. You can be sure. And not doubt him.

And here they are. These three proofs. His miracles, his message, and his messenger. All three are found right here in Jesus' response to John's question.

His miracles, his message, and his messenger. And all three of these are visible. They're verifiable. Fulfillments of Old Testament prophecy concerning the Messiah.

Prophecies, by the way, that John would have known by heart. And so, these are proofs that answer John's question. And they're also proofs that answer all of our questions and all of our doubts.

Right? The first one is his miracles. His miracles. Or, to put it another way, the evidence from his works. His miracles.

The evidence from his works. Look again at verses 21 and 22. Very interesting. And at that very hour, what hour is this?

When the disciples of John came to Jesus and asked their question. At that very hour, what happened? He cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits.

And to many blind he gave sight. Jesus answered and said to them, Go and tell John the things you have what? Seen.

Now stop right there. The things you have seen. Go tell John the things you have seen. And what had they seen? His works. His miracles.

You see, John's disciples that come to Jesus with a very specific question. Are you the Messiah? Are you the coming one? Or shall we look for another? And Jesus does not reply right away.

Not in words anyway, he doesn't. Essentially, he's saying to John's disciples, You guys, I hear your question, But would you just stand right over here for just a moment?

And watch. Watch and learn. And so the Bible tells us that at that very hour, Jesus performed many miracles.

So you see, truth is what truth does. And Jesus says to his disciples, Go and tell John what you just saw. That's how he answers initially.

Answers with his works. In answer to John's doubting question, Jesus lets his works speak first. Jesus did that quite a lot in his ministry.

In fact, in John chapter 10, verse 23, Jesus, the Bible says, was walking in the temple, And it was in a specific place, Solomon's porch. And the Bible says, Then the Jews surrounded him.

They kind of gathered around him and said to him, How long do you keep us in doubt? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. That sounds very much like John's question. Only John's question was coming from a different perspective, A different problem.

Their question was clearly coming from disbelief, unbelief. They said, If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. And how did Jesus answer them?

He answered them, he said, I told you, and you did not believe. You do not believe. Now listen to this. The works that I do in my Father's name, They bear witness of me.

The works, he said. The evidence from his works. Now apply that to your own life. Look for his work. You know, we are not really very disciplined to do that.

And then we doubt. And then we question. But what we need to do is take stock in what is going on in the life, in your life. Look for his works. They are everywhere you look.

They really are. In fact, beginning with the greatest of work that God has done in your life, Your new birth in Christ. Look at that work.

And then look at all of his sovereign work, His loving hand, His sovereign loving hand at work in your life. Nearly every day you can see it. Every day if you have eyes to see it.

This is basically what Jesus is saying to John. More than that. But certainly for us, Look at his works. This is the answer to our doubts.

His miracles. The evidence from his works. Notice, he does not leave it there. Okay? It's not just simply, Look at the things I've done, And that should be enough.

He doesn't leave it there. Where he then connects his works with words. His word.

God's word. He connects the works with what? Biblical prophecy. And so, not only his miracles, The evidence from his works, But his message, The evidence from his words.

He does give a verbal answer, doesn't he? Jesus now begins to speak. And he's going to do it by quoting some scriptures That John would have known, And his disciples would have known.

He quotes some prophecy from the Old Testament. Verse 22, Jesus says, Go and tell John the things you have seen and, What? Heard. Not just what you saw, But also what you heard.

Go tell John what you have seen me do, And go tell John what you have heard me say. My works and my words.

Because John will know what that means. This is what he's saying. You go tell him what you've seen and heard, John will know what this means. Because the prophets said that Messiah would do The very things that I am doing right now.

And John knows what the prophets have said. He is a student of God's word. And so go tell him what I've done. And now what the prophet, And remind him what the prophets have said.

So Jesus quotes from a couple of places in Isaiah. And then he makes a reference to one in Hosea. And they are messianic prophecies.

And Jesus quoted, Only quotes, by the way, Just a portion of each one. The larger prophetic blocks of scripture. Just a little blurb about each one.

Not really the whole prophecy. But that's all John needed. And so first John, or Jesus rather, Quoted from Isaiah 35 and verses 5 and 6. And not the entire portion of those two verses, But just part of it.

Kind of summarizes it. He says the blind see. The lame walk. The lepers are cleansed. And Jesus added that one. That's not in Isaiah 35. But Jesus is the word of God.

He can add, can't he? Yes. And he said the deaf hear. That is in Isaiah 35. And then Jesus adds another thing that is not in Isaiah 35.

A new supernatural phenomenon the prophets did not foresee. He says, And the dead are raised. The dead are raised. As I say, all Jesus had to do was quote this small portion of the larger prophecy.

And John the Baptist would know that he was referring to Isaiah 35 verses 4 through 10. Again, a great messianic prophecy. And that prophecy in Isaiah 35 is all about what the Messiah is going to do when he comes.

And so this is his answer to John. Second, Jesus next quoted from Isaiah 61 and verse 1. So he's got a kind of a smattering of prophecies here.

These two from Isaiah. In Isaiah 61.1 he quotes this portion of it. And again, he doesn't give the entire verse or the entire prophetic passage.

He just says this one thing. The poor have the gospel preached to them. Go tell John this. The poor, that's a reference not to the impoverished physically or financially.

That's a reference to the poor in spirit. The spiritually bankrupt. They have the good news preached to them. We're talking about those who are sinners. Rebels.

Those alienated from God. They have the good news preached to them. The prophet Isaiah, you see, foretold of the one who would one day come to forgive rebels. To save sinners.

To bring reconciliation between man and God. That was the good news that was being proclaimed. And it's great news because now that one has come. And so this is what Jesus was doing.

Go tell John that I am preaching the good news to the poor. The poor in spirit. And according to the prophecy, the larger text, the spirit of the Lord would be upon him.

And John had already witnessed that at Jesus' baptism. And he would be the, quote, anointed of God. That's what the word Messiah in the Greek Christ means. God's anointed one.

And he would come preaching glad tidings. Good tidings. Good news. That's what the word gospel, euangelion in the Greek, that's what it means.

Good news. All right. So, see, this and more Jesus was doing. Go tell John. All right. All right.

So these two prophecies confirm to John and to us, if we have any doubts, that when the Messiah comes, he's going to do all of the things Jesus just did in front of John's disciples.

Now, here's the lesson for us today. Here's what we need to get. No matter what our doubts, no matter what the source of the doubts are, questions, anytime we have a question mark about God, about his word, about his trustworthiness, about any aspect of our spiritual Christian lives, here's what we ought to do.

But Jesus is saying, listen to my message and look to my works. Listen to my words and look to my works.

You know what I have said in my word. And you know my works. You know what I have done in the past. And so, trust me for what I can do for you now.

And trust me for what I'm going to do in the future. That's what he's saying. That's what we ought to come away with here.

When Jesus is connecting his works with the word, the prophetic word about the Messiah, they go together and they prove one another. And we ought to trust him for these things.

You know, it's interesting that Jesus did not quote, as I said, he did not quote the last part of Isaiah 61.1. Now, we've not turned to it.

You don't have to. You can do it some other time. I'm going to read part of it. He gives the first part of it and then he stops short of the rest of that verse. And here's what the rest of the verse says.

It says, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. He didn't quote that part of it.

You find that interesting? Especially given the fact that John is in prison. He's in prison and he doesn't know why. Not really.

That's why he's discouraged. And John knew this portion of the prophecy. And he's probably initially wondering why Jesus stopped short of the rest of that.

Especially that part of it that might have been most meaningful to me, John is thinking. And Jesus stopped short of that. And so John might be thinking, why? If Jesus is the Messiah, why am I in prison?

Why am I still in prison? And the larger picture being, why is Israel, God's chosen people, still in prison to the Romans? Jesus left off that part.

And I'll tell you why he did. In fact, really two reasons why. Number one, because that portion of the scripture doesn't have anything to do with physical imprisonment.

Though ultimately, Jesus is going to come in all victory and glory. And there will be no more prison, physical prison for God's people either. But the point of that scripture is not a physical imprisonment.

It's spiritual, right? We know that, don't we? And so he didn't quote that part. First of all, because that's not what he's talking about. He's not talking about physical imprisonment.

But I'll tell you why he did not quote the rest of it. Primarily why. Because he hadn't done it yet. He hadn't completed that work yet.

He's going to have to die to do that part. He's going to have to go to the cross and suffer and die to set the captives free.

And so he's not quoting that part. But see, he's just revealed. He's just put on display these great miracles. The blind see and the lame walk and the lepers are cleansed and all these things.

Because he's done that. And so go tell John. These are the things that Messiah will do when he comes. And I'm doing these things. And then there's more. But I haven't done that yet.

Alright? You'll have to trust me for the rest of it. Is basically the point. And John's just going to have to take Jesus at his word.

And he's going to have to trust him based upon the works he has done. And he is doing. And because he can trust him for what he has done. Then he can trust him for what he will do.

You see the point? And so apply that to our own lives. Sometimes we doubt God. And have question marks about God. Because we do not understand what he's doing in our lives. We just don't understand it.

We're too close to it. Too in the middle of it. We don't understand what he's doing. We can't see any resolution to it. Any hope. Or any victory in these things.

And so we don't see what he's doing. But we know his word, don't we? Well, we should. And we also know his works.

The works he has done in the past. Don't we? Well, we should. And can we trust him now? Can we trust him for the future?

Third, Jesus concludes what he has to say to John's disciples. And he's not finished answering the question. The last thing he says to the disciples is another reference to a messianic scripture in Hosea chapter 14 and verse 9.

He does not quote this verbatim. But the gist of it is what he says. And he says, The blessed or blessed is he who is not offended because of me.

Or literally, he that does not stumble over me. We could paraphrase it this way, I think. What Jesus is saying.

Blessed are the ones who do not fall into the pitfall, the trap of believing that there is some other Messiah. There's another one other than Jesus.

Blessed are the ones who are sure about me. Be assured by Jesus' reply. His miracles.

The evidence of his works. His message. The evidence from his words. And then third, his messenger. His messenger or the evidence from his witness.

And that would be John the Baptist. Isn't it ironic? John's the one asking the question. He's the one with the doubts. And yet, John the Baptist himself is evidence of Jesus' Messiah.

He's the evidence himself. And that's why Jesus went on in verse 24 when the messengers of John had departed. Kind of wonder why he didn't let them hear this part.

But when they departed, he began to speak to the multitudes concerning John. What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?

That's an interesting question. I think, essentially, he's saying or asking, Did you go out to see some timid preacher?

Did you go out to see some preacher who's kind of like a flimsy little blade of grass that is easily bent over by the wind?

I was sitting on my porch this morning and I've got a patch of area right in front of our porch that I've seeded new seed. And, boy, it's about this tall now.

But you just breathe on it and it just falls right over. It's the weakest, flimsiest stuff I've ever seen. I don't know when it's ever going to thicken up. And so they're saying, Is that what you went out into the wilderness to see?

Some kind of flimsy little blade of grass that just a soft little breeze would blow over? Is that what you went out to see? No. By implication, he's saying you went out to see, to use another metaphor, an oak tree.

That's what you went out to see and that's what you saw. One who fearlessly proclaimed the gospel. One who fearlessly called a nation to repentance.

That's what you went out to see. You saw him too, didn't you? But did you listen to him? Verse 25, he asks another question, a similar question.

What did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Garments? No. No. Soft garments in the sense of wealthy garments, something you would see a king wearing, you know, in a palace.

Is that what you went out to see? No. You went out to see a man dressed in camel hair, you know, a coat made out of camel hair, and he's eating locusts and wild honey.

That's what you went out and saw. A man who was dressed in the garb and eating the diet of an Old Testament prophet. That's what you saw. And you saw him, didn't you?

This is the implication of what Jesus is saying. This is kind of triggering their thought processes. You saw him, didn't you? But did you listen to him?

Verse 26, but what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes. Yes, I say to you.

And more than a prophet. More than a prophet. That is, you went out and you saw a man who fulfilled a 400-year-old prophecy of Malachi, God's last word before he was silent for 400 years.

That's what you went out to see. The fulfillment of that prophecy. This is he of whom it is written. Written by the prophet Malachi. Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.

Now, these are all capital yours and you's. He's speaking to the Messiah. He's going to be the one to come to prepare your way, Messiah. To prepare the way for you to come.

So, if John is the forerunner. Here's the idea. Here's the evidence. If John is the forerunner of the Messiah and Jesus has just confirmed that. Then what?

Jesus is the Messiah. John's the evidence of it. John, you've got a question. You're your own best evidence.

You're the forerunner. You were born to be so. And you know that, don't you? And so, if you're the forerunner, then I'm the Messiah. Put away your questions. And this is why Jesus said of John the Baptist in verse 28, For I say to you, among those born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist.

Not a greater one. Be awakened by John's request. Honesty and humility. Honesty and be assured by Jesus' reply.

You can be sure about Him because of His works. And you can be sure about Him because of His words. And you can be sure about Him because of His witness. And not just John, but many, many others.

In fact, you, like John, your life is one of the best evidences that Jesus is indeed the Messiah. You can trust Him.

You can be sure about it. Now, one more very quickly. Be alarmed by Jesus' rebuke. I hate it that we have to end on a bad note, down note, but this is the way Jesus ended this.

A rebuke. And we ought to be alarmed by it. Alarmed by Jesus' rebuke. All right, so we've considered the question. We've considered the answer.

And now the response. There's a response to Jesus' answer, right? In fact, the larger part of the text is where Jesus is dealing with the response. And there are two responses.

And that's always the case. There are always two responses to Jesus. Always two. There's not a third. Not an in-between. No gray area. There is a yes or a no.

Two responses. Or we could call it one from the repenter. I know that's not a real word, but you know what I'm talking about. The repenters.

And the others from the rejecters. All right? That's so you can remember these two. One from the repenters. One from the rejecters. And he gives just a short little blurb, really, about the repenters.

In verse 29, he says, And when all the people heard him, that is, heard what he said about John, all the people heard him, even the tax collectors, kind of like I guess they added in there, like you just won't believe it, but even the tax collectors believe this.

They justified God. That is, they declared God right, just, having been baptized. And it says this about them, those who declared God just. They were the ones that were baptized by John.

We're not talking about a ritual baptism, you know, having any kind of, you know, spiritual power or anything. We're talking about this thing of repentance.

They repented. And they were baptized. And so they're saying, we, in effect, we're saying, we're sure about Jesus. We're sure about him now. We're sure about you, Jesus.

You are the Messiah. They had been baptized with the baptism of John, which means, they understood the need to repent. And they did repent. And they understood then, that that repentance satisfied the justice of God.

Because he demanded that all repent and turn to him. And so, by faith, they submitted to John's baptism as an outward kind of symbol of a spiritual reality going on in their heart, that reality being true repentance.

And most importantly, John the Baptist had pointed them to the true Messiah, he being Jesus of Nazareth, and they believed him.

That's what he says about the repenters. But then he quickly turns to the rejecters, or at least the text does, turns to the rejecters. In verse 30, dear people, verse 30 is a serious indictment.

I mean, listen, can you imagine the word of God saying this about you? It's alarming. It's disturbing. It is the most severe indictment I can ever imagine.

What did God say in verse 30? But, now listen to this, but the Pharisees and lawyers, that's the scribes, rejected. Now look at this.

They rejected the will of God for themselves. And the idea being they utterly, persistently, rejected the will of God for themselves.

And it says they were not baptized. They, not having been baptized by him, that is, by John. What an indictment. We ought to be alarmed by this. And again, we're not, the point is not some ritual baptism that they did not submit to.

It is that they would not repent. They would not repent. They would not turn from their sin and turn to the one true God and his chosen Messiah.

They would, wanted no part of John the Baptist. They would not respond to his teaching, his preaching. They would not submit to his baptism, the baptism of repentance. And they wanted no part of Jesus.

They would not believe he was the Messiah. They would not. They were persistent in that. And so Jesus said in verse 31, I get this, to what then shall I liken the men of this generation?

Talking about these Pharisees and these scribes. These who would not submit to John's teaching and would not repent and be baptized as a symbol of it. And they were persistent in their rejection.

What, what, what, what are these kind of people like? Jesus said. And then he gives this kind of little illustration. He says they're like children sitting in the marketplace.

Which would be a common thing to see in that day. Children would be kind of gathered in the marketplace while their parents are maybe out shopping and doing business and such. And kids are just kind of grouped together and they're playing, playing games and having fun with one another.

And he says this generation is kind of like children in the marketplace calling to one another saying, we played the flute for you and you did not dance.

What's that? Well, understand it this way. We refers to John and Jesus. We played the flute for you.

In a sense, come and join our game. Come and be a part of our activity. Come and dance with us and so forth. So we, John, Jesus, we played the flute for you but you did not dance.

You being a reference to the Pharisees and the scribes, the rejecters of Jesus as Messiah, those unwilling to repent, and turn to God. And there are many in our day to day.

And so here's Jesus and John saying, we invited you to come. Be a part of us and be a part of this and what we're doing. Come and you would not. You would not. And then he says, and we, that again is John and Jesus, mourned to you.

That's kind of an interesting statement. Or literally, we sang a funeral dirge. I think the idea is that some kids getting together, we're going to have a play funeral.

Kind of a crazy thing to do. Well, we sang a funeral dirge. We invited you to come play with us, be a part of it, and you would not weep. You didn't play your part.

I mean, there had to be those singing and then those weeping and the mourners and this, you know, kind of play acting. And so we, John, Jesus, we invited you to come and you would not.

You see, I tell you, the Pharisees were without life, without love, without compassion. They were without any kind of understanding. And they wanted no part of John, no part of Jesus.

And so Jesus gives another kind of illustration in verse 33. He says, for John the Baptist came neither eating bread or drinking of wine. And you say, he has a demon. He must be crazy.

And the Son of Man, that's Jesus, he's come eating and drinking. And you say, look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. You couldn't make these people happy.

You couldn't convince them. They didn't want any part of it. I don't care what the scenario was. I don't know what kind of thing you use. We're just not going to participate. We're not going to be a part of it.

Nothing was going to satisfy them. They were contrary and they were persistent in their unbelief. Sounds like a lot of people in the world today. We're just not going to do it. Now, I don't think at this time it was because the Pharisees and scribes could not believe.

It is that they would not. They would not. And here is the stinging rebuke. Verse 35.

Jesus closes this whole thing off this way. But wisdom is justified by all her children. You say, what?

Wisdom is justified by all her children. That is, the children of wisdom.

The children justify the wisdom. The children justify that it's true. Still confused?

The product of true wisdom is salvation. It's salvation. Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3.15.

He said, wisdom is that which leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. And so, the saved are a product of the offspring of true wisdom.

The offspring of the gospel. It is the children who prove the validity of the gospel. The good news. And so, he's saying this to the Pharisees. And so, what he's saying to them is, you don't have any wisdom.

You think you're so wise. Especially you scribes because you, you're the ones who are the, in the Pharisees, you're the ones who are the keepers of God's word.

You think you're so wise. You have no wisdom. You've rejected the will of God for you which is to repent and believe in his Messiah.

You would not. And therefore, you're not saved. You see, be alarmed by Jesus' rebuke. And the first thing I would ask is, is he talking about any of you who've rejected his Messiah?

In John 6 and verse 66, Jesus had been teaching some really hard, hard things. And the Bible says that from that time, many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more.

That is, they were not sure about Jesus. And ultimately, they came to the wrong conclusion about him. And Jesus then turned to his own apostles, the twelve, and he said to them, do you want to go away also?

That is, are you sure about me? And Simon Peter answered, and he had made the right conclusion.

Lord, to whom shall we go? You're the only one. You're the only one.

You and you alone have the words of eternal life. The words, literally, that give eternal life. You are the one, the only one.

You're the one, the only Savior of sinners. That was Peter's response. Is that what you believe? Is that what you believe?

You see, saving wisdom, that's the gospel. saving wisdom. The gospel is proven true by her children.

The offspring of wisdom, of the gospel. The saved. Is that you? Is it? If not, why not?

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