The Sermon explores Matthew 11:1-6, arguing that John the Baptist's prison doubts and modern struggles with figures like Sam Altman stem from misinterpreting Christ's patience as weakness. Drawing parallels to Psalm 73 and 1 Corinthians 1:21-25, the speaker asserts that apparent delays sanctify believers rather than indicating divine failure. Ultimately, the message urges doubters to trust Scripture over circumstances while encouraging the certain to imitate Christ's endurance, framing offense against Jesus' humility as a spiritual crisis requiring reliance on God's unshakable promises. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
Time
Text
Jesus Grants Assurance to the Weak00:15:02
Leave us a five star review on your favorite podcast platform.
I get it.
It's annoying.
Everybody asks, but I'm going to tell you why.
When you give us a positive review, what that does is it triggers the algorithm so that our podcast shows up on more people's news feeds.
You and I both know that this ministry is willing to talk about things that most ministries aren't.
We need this content for the glory of God to reach more people's ears.
Amen.
Let's stand for the reading of God's word, our text for today.
Is the gospel according to Matthew chapter 11, verses 1 through 6?
Again, that's the gospel according to Matthew chapter 11, verses 1 through 6.
I'll read our text for us in its entirety.
When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say, This is the word of the Lord, at which point I would appreciate very much if you'd respond by saying, Thanks be to God.
One final time, our text for today is Matthew chapter 11, verses 1 through 6.
The Bible says this When Jesus had finished instructing his 12 disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.
Now, when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?
And Jesus answered them, Go and tell John what you hear and see.
The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk.
Lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.
And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.
This is the word of the Lord.
All right, please be seated.
We'll go ahead and dive right in.
By way of introduction, a 30,000 foot view for our text in its entirety, I've written the following Christ graciously confirms that he is, in fact, the Messiah, not through signs and wonders alone, but through the power of his word and works, granting assurance to the weak in faith.
Granting assurance to the weak in faith.
What we see in our text today is the mercy of Christ extended to John, in this case, namely John the Baptist, a cousin of Jesus, who was doubting in those final hours.
He was doubting.
He did not have unbelief or disbelief.
He was truly a Christian.
He ultimately trusted that Jesus was, in fact, the Messiah.
But due to a delay in providence, due to the plan unfolding, In a way that he did not expect, with certain detours, John was in that moment confused and perhaps even frustrated, and so he leans into Christ.
He's not accusing Christ, he's not condemning Christ, but he is leaning in, pressing in, and pleading with Christ to offer him a greater sense of assurance in his final hours.
One of the first texts.
In our broader text, says this Now, when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?
I've written in your notes the following John the Baptist's inquiry reveals not disbelief, but confusion due to providential delay.
This serves as a reminder that God permits his children to experience seasons of doubt.
There's a difference between unbelief and doubt.
Genuine, regenerate Christians, children of God, will experience to varying degrees and at varying times doubt.
And that does not mean that we don't ultimately belong to Christ.
John's situation is not accidental.
It serves to magnify Christ and display the patience of his saints.
Or we could say, magnifying the glory and supremacy of Christ through the patience of his saints.
As a headline for this first point in our text, I wrote the following The weakness of even the greatest saint.
It's worth noting that Jesus himself is.
In regards to John the Baptist, says that he is the greatest born of women.
So we're not talking about just one of the disciples in this broader ring of Jesus.
We know that he had three, namely John and James and Peter.
He had 12 that include others, and then he had 72.
And then you could argue for 120 that find themselves on the day of Pentecost in the upper room praying and anointed by the Holy Spirit with tongues of fire above their heads.
Speaking in other tongues of men, proclaiming that Jesus is in fact the Christ, and then broader even than that.
We know that Jesus, after his death and resurrection, but before his ascension, appeared and revealed himself to over 500 of his disciples.
So we know that Jesus had many disciples.
Lazarus was a disciple of Jesus, not one of the 12, but he was a disciple.
And on that note, both Mary Magdalene and also.
Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, were also disciples of Jesus.
They're not commissioned as apostles of Jesus to preach and teach and to write scripture, but they are disciples of Jesus in that broader ring of disciples.
So Jesus had many disciples.
That's the point.
But we're not focusing in our text today on one of the 500, right?
We're not focusing on one of Jesus' disciples who followed him from a distance.
Who maybe had one or two engagements with Jesus over the course of his three years, give or take, earthly public ministry.
No, we're talking about John the Baptist.
We're talking about a man who was commissioned by God to pave the way as a forerunner for Christ.
We're talking about a man who Christ himself said was the greatest man born of women.
And this man, still, despite all his greatness and the providence and mercy of God, He finds it necessary in his final hours as he's rotting in jail, probably painfully aware of what's about to happen to him.
He's probably aware that his time in jail is not going to end in his freedom and release, but rather in his death.
And in that state, even the greatest saint, other than Christ himself, finds it necessary to send his.
Disciples, not Jesus, but John's disciples, to go and beseech Jesus to confirm that Jesus really is the Messiah.
He's wanting to know at the end of his life that his life has not been in vain.
He's wanting assurance.
He's wanting confirmation.
He's pleading with the Lord for consolation.
Lord, you may not set me free.
And this is Jesus who, according to Isaiah, one of the things is not just cleansing lepers.
And raising the dead and healing the sick and preaching good news to the poor, but also Isaiah prophesies of Jesus that he is the one who will set captives free.
And John literally is a captive, and he could be hoping, hey, could that part of Isaiah be fulfilled in my case?
That'd be great.
That'd be nice.
You know, could you set me free?
And there might be some inkling of that thought process that's going on in his mind.
But even more than that, I'm sure he may have had some desire for his liberty.
But even more than that, his greatest desire is simply to be assured that Jesus is the Christ.
More than being set free, I think his greatest desire, John the Baptist, is if I am to die, I want to know that I'm not dying in vain.
I want to know that I gave my life.
For the one who really was the promised Messiah.
And so he's pleading with the Lord for confirmation, for assurance.
And if the greatest man born of women can have seasons in his life of doubt where he beseeches Christ for a greater measure of assurance, then certainly it is permissible for us as well to lean into Christ in inevitable seasons of doubt.
Asking for his consolation and his comfort and his assurance.
That's part of why we, in our liturgy, every Lord's Day, have a moment of an assurance of pardon.
So, why do you need to be assured of Christ's forgiveness?
You did it last week and the week before and the week before that and before and before and before and before.
Why again?
Because it is a common part of our lives.
In this life, When we see him, 1 John says, we will be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
But in this life, seeing Christ, trusting Christ, knowing Christ, is as though we see dimly in a mirror that's been clouded.
We know in part.
Now, that doesn't mean that we don't know at all.
What we know, we truly know.
But there is a partiality, or a partialness, I should say, of our confidence.
That there's only so much that we know of Christ.
And that's not to say that there's not much that can be known from the Scripture.
And as the Holy Spirit works to illuminate the Scripture and reveal Christ to us through the Scripture.
But the point is that in this life, this side of heaven, our knowledge is still partial.
And so there will be, in various times of trials and challenge and difficulties and persecution and suffering and all the rest, there will be inevitably moments of doubt.
And if John the Baptist Could beseech Christ for assurance, so can we.
So can we.
Psalm chapter 73.
This is one of my favorite chapters in the Psalms.
And I think that it serves as a descriptive text.
I'm not going to read, the whole chapter is fantastic and it's worth reading on your own time.
But I'm going to highlight some of the verses of Psalm 73.
But I think it serves as a powerful description.
Of what John the Baptist might have been experiencing, and what you and I may experience at times as well.
The psalmist writes this Truly, God is good to Israel.
So he starts not with what he feels, but he starts with what he knows.
Now it's very clear that he does not feel that God is being good to Israel when you look at the entirety of the rest of the chapter.
The rest of the chapter, he goes on to describe how he feels.
But he starts with what he knows.
And I think that that's a good template when it comes to prayer.
When we go to the Lord in prayer, even in seasons of doubt, even when our emotions and our feelings, what we feel, do not align with what He's said, start with what you know.
And then express to the Lord as humbly as you can how you feel.
But start with what you know.
He starts with what He knows.
He says, Truly, God is good to Israel, whether He feels it or not.
In heart, but verse 2 now, but as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.
I know that God is good to Israel and to those who are righteous, who are faithful to Him, pure in heart.
But for me personally, I had a season, I had a moment where that truth, verse 1, that God is good to Israel and He is good to His own people, that truth that I know is true.
As for me personally, I had a moment where I almost slipped, I almost stumbled.
I almost failed to hold on to that truth.
For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For they have no pangs until death.
He recognizes that the wicked eventually get what they are owed, they receive their due.
But in life, up until their death, it seemed to him, and it can seem to us at times, that some of the most vile and wicked people on the planet, up until death, It seems as though they suffer no difficulty at all.
No challenge, no suffering, no sadness.
That the lives of the righteous would be marked by persecution and suffering and difficulty, and yet the wicked get off scot free all the way up until the pangs of death.
Their bodies are fat and sleek.
It seems as though they have no want.
Verse 5 now.
They are not in trouble as others are.
They are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
But when I thought how to understand this, how do I reconcile this with the truth of God's Word?
I want to believe that God is just and that He only does that which is just.
And yet I see so many wicked prospering and so many righteous suffering.
And so I'm trying to resolve this in my heart and in my mind.
Far be it from me to accuse God.
But at the same time, I'm struggling not to believe my lying eyes.
So, when I sought how to understand this, to reconcile the wicked prospering, the righteous suffering with the fact that God is just, it seemed to me a wearisome task.
And I think we all have those moments.
I have those moments where I'm sitting there and theologically I'm trying to, you know, do the math, carry the one, make sure that it all adds up in the end.
But it feels like I'm taking a square peg and trying to force it into a circle hole.
Reconciling Wicked Prosperity and Righteous Suffering00:05:55
God is just and He's sovereign over all things.
He does all things well.
There is no injustice with God whatsoever.
And there's Sam Altman.
How do I explain that?
You know, what do I do with that?
Like, what do I do with the fact that there are all these people in the world today that are faring far better than many people who are righteous?
How do I resolve and reconcile these two things that are seemingly, at least in human terms, according to my finite perception, directly in contradiction with one another?
So when I sought to understand this, to reconcile this, it seemed to be a wearisome task.
Amen.
Until, skipping forward now, verse 17, until, what's the solution?
What resolves the tension for him?
Until I went into the sanctuary of.
Of God.
And then I discerned their end.
That is the end of the wicked.
He's looking at the wicked in terms of the present.
They're doing great.
They're doing great.
Right?
Everybody's locked in their home.
And Gavin Newsom is dining at the French Laundry.
Right?
And if that's the only perspective in that moment, then it's hard to reconcile that with the perfect justice of God.
But it's when he goes into the sanctuary.
So he's not just sitting there trying to understand everything with his finite mind, but he commits himself to worship.
Sometimes it feels like I need to solve all the world's problems.
Now, sometimes what you need to do is go to church.
You just need to go to church and you need to pause the world's problems.
The world will worry about itself.
God has it under control.
The problems will be right there.
You can pick them right back up where you left them.
I think of what Jesus says about.
Worry and anxiety.
Don't worry for tomorrow.
Tomorrow can worry about itself.
And there's something immensely merciful.
It's not just a duty.
Oh, God has another command, another thing that I need to obey, another thing I need to do.
No, it's something that you need to do, not just in obedience and honor towards God, but you need to do it for yourself because you're finite.
You can't just go seven days a week without rest, without pause.
You can't.
God initiated the Sabbath.
Remember what Jesus says.
God did not create man for the Sabbath, but He created the Sabbath for man.
The point of the Sabbath was it wasn't that God said, I have this holy day, and it's really important for me to be honored and worshiped on this holy day.
So I guess I need to create some creatures in my image who might be capable of keeping my special holy day.
No, it's the opposite.
God makes man on the sixth day.
And in light of making man, he says, man's kind of weak.
And this is before sin enters the world.
So before fallenness, you still have finitude.
Before fallenness, in a prelapsarian world, you still have finitude.
And so even in light of man in a state of integrity, without sin having even come into the world, even man, unfallen, is still finite.
And unfallen man, how much more now us?
Since sin has entered the world.
But even unfallen man, in his finitude, God sees fit that he would require a regular pattern of rest.
And that that rest would ultimately be found not just in the forsaking of obligations and duty, not just in naps, not just in recreation, but that true rest might be found in worship.
True rest is worship, it's worship of the triune God.
On the Lord's Day, as we gather together with the excellent ones in all the earth, that is the saints.
That is where true rejuvenation comes from.
There is a way of resting that actually makes you even more tired.
Have you ever rested like that?
I just, man, I've been clocking in hours at work.
I'm run too thin.
And I just need to rest.
And then the rest that you indulge in is a shallow and vain rest.
It's just packing your day off with watching television or something shallow, something trite.
And you don't actually feel rejuvenated when it's all said and done.
Now, true rest is not merely recreation, but it's worship.
And God created this Sabbath day of rest for man and not the other way around.
It's not that God created a special day on the sixth day and then made man on the seventh to keep a special day.
He made man on the sixth day and then created the day or the day.
Issued the day of rest, which is worship, so that man might have a regular pattern of rest in his finitude, even without being fallen, because he would need it.
It is something that God requires, but it is also something that we need a Sabbath day of rest.
And so the psalmist, being overwhelmed and tired, that word is intentional, wearisome.
Seeing Through God's Divine Perspective00:02:46
The task of trying to reconcile and resolve the tension.
Between the wicked seemingly prospering in this temporal plane, and yet God somehow being sovereign and just over all things, these two realities seemingly, it's an apparent paradox, is what we would refer to that as.
And so, seemingly, according to the human perspective, were directly at odds with one another.
And he could not resolve this tension on his own.
And it's not until he goes into the sanctuary.
Rest through worship with the saints, that all of a sudden he's able to resolve the tension.
And he resolves the tension by going into the sanctuary and then seeing from God's perspective.
And what is it to see from God's perspective in this regard?
Well, one aspect of seeing through God's perspective, seeing through heaven's eyes, is to see the eternal, to not merely look at what is presently taking place.
But to look to the wicked's end.
He's looking at the wicked's present situation.
But when he goes into the sanctuary, then all of a sudden he begins to take into account the long game.
Then I discerned their end.
Verse 18 now to finish.
Truly, you set them in slippery places, and you make them fall into ruin.
It's the exact inverse of where he starts.
In verse 2, he says, My feet had almost stumbled.
My steps had nearly slipped.
But by the end, when he has a divine perspective, because he's entered the house of the Lord and begun to see through God's eyes and not merely his own, he now sees that although he was about to stumble, that he was about to slip by accusing God of doing something unjust, now all of a sudden he sees that he doesn't need to stumble, he doesn't need to slip, he doesn't need to condemn God of injustice.
Because it's actually the wicked who have been set up by God for the greatest fall.
Their fall may not come today, but it will inevitably come.
And the fact that God, for a time, temporarily might exalt the wicked, seemingly, in temporal ways, only positions the wicked for their fall to be all the greater.
John in Prison While Kingdom Advances00:13:38
All the greater.
So, John the Baptist is rotting in prison.
And even the reason for being in prison, I can only imagine.
I mean, why am I in jail again?
Oh, that's right.
That's right.
Because a wicked Jezebel feminist propagandized and brainwashed her daughter, a teenage daughter, to dance like a whore at a party in front of a bunch of men so that a weak,
perverted king, in a moment of drunken stupor, might make a deal with the devil and then, in a spirit of vengeance, The mother might take it out on me to provide a hedge for me calling her out on her adultery.
That's right.
Okay, so like it's one thing to lose your head in a glorious battle fighting against men and Vikings and kings, it's probably really frustrating to lose your head because of a teenage girl dancing for her mom who's a feminist.
There's a lot of ways to go.
That probably wouldn't be my top pick.
I'd be like, really?
Really?
This is the way I go?
So he's having a tough time, right?
The long and short of it, he's having a tough time.
But it's really similar to the psalmist in Psalm 73.
And what do we need in those moments?
It's not that we're wrong, not in the immediate sense.
The psalmist isn't wrong.
It's not like God, he goes into the sanctuary and God corrects him and says, No, the wicked are suffering right now.
No, the implication is that, if anything, God agrees with the psalmist.
You're right.
The wicked are doing great.
They're doing great.
For now.
For now.
But their ease, their comfort, their affluence, their temporal power will be a vapor.
It will be short lived.
And in the end, I have positioned them and set them up to fall.
And for the righteous, the psalmist being included, I have kept your feet from slipping.
I've positioned them to fall and preserved you from falling.
That's the case for the psalmist.
That's the case for John the Baptist.
And that is the case for you and I. In those moments when we're tempted to doubt, and in those moments when we even give in to that temptation and we do doubt, is God just?
Will Christ ultimately win?
Will his church be victorious?
Will the mustard seed, in fact, grow into an all encompassing tree?
Will the little bit of leaven actually have the potency to work through the whole batch of dough?
The thing that.
That helps us in those moments is entering the sanctuary, leaning in to Christ.
In the case of John the Baptist, it's sending his disciples to go and speak with Christ so that they might bring back to John what?
A word from Christ.
John the Baptist needs to hear Christ's word.
I need to hear directly from him.
I need Christ to speak to me.
And I'm willing even to die for him.
But leading up to my death, to my martyrdom, I need to hear the word of my Savior.
The psalmist, likewise, I need a word from God.
Where do I go?
In his case, the sanctuary.
In John the Baptist's case, during the earthly incarnation and ministry of Christ physically on earth, it's going and beseeching Christ in person through his disciples to bring back a word.
In our case, it's the Sabbath, it's gathering with the saints, it's the Lord's day.
We can't afford to miss church.
We can't afford to miss church.
To not rest in God through worship, receiving a word from Christ at least one day in seven.
Because apart from that, maintaining and sustaining our belief and our faith that God truly is just and that He really is sovereign, when we see so much wickedness in this world, to do that apart from the Lord's day, Apart from receiving a word from Christ, apart from leaning in, is indeed a wearisome task.
The second point from our text today the works serve to validate the word.
We've seen this principle time and time again throughout the Gospel of Matthew.
And here we see it once more.
Jesus says to John's disciples, Go and tell John what you hear and see.
Not just what you see, it's both.
John's disciples are sent by Christ to go back to John and not merely say, Tell John what you've seen.
What is John even doing questioning?
How dare he question me?
Has he not seen the works that I've done?
Or at least if he hasn't, then you go back and tell him the works that I've done.
I've raised the dead, I've multiplied food and fed 5,000, just the men.
I've walked on water.
I've turned water into wine.
I've healed the sick.
I've cleansed lepers.
I've caused the lame to walk and the blind to see, the deaf to hear.
How could he question?
How could he doubt?
Go back and tell John what you see.
Well, Jesus says that, but it's not all that he says.
In the mind of Christ, which is very relevant, we should care about how he thinks.
Christ seems to find it necessary to not only validate the fact that he is the Messiah by what he does and what can be seen, but also what he says and what can be heard.
Go and tell John what you hear and see.
In your notes, I've written this When Christ's divinity is questioned, he does not appeal to novelty, but rather, even Christ, who is God incarnate, he appeals to.
To the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecies.
He appeals to what is written, the Word of God.
His miracles are not mere wonders, but visible tokens of his promised redemption.
Our faith, therefore, as it is with John the Baptist, so it is with us, our faith lies upon Scripture's testimony and not upon our own personal experiences or emotions.
Jesus doesn't just say, I did this or I did that.
He says, I've done this and that in direct fulfillment to the word.
And one of the things that he does to fulfill God's word, spoken through the prophet Isaiah, is not just wonders that can be seen, but sermons preached, good news preached to the poor.
It's not only opening the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf, raising the dead and cleansing lepers, but it's also Jesus the preacher.
It's not merely the works of Christ, but the words of Christ, and all this done in fulfillment to the Word of God.
Namely, the Word of God spoken through Isaiah chapter 35, verse 5 and 6, which says Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
So, Three main points as I see it in our text today.
One, even the greatest saint has moments of weakness.
And in those moments, we may doubt, but we may not disbelieve.
And we should lean in to Christ and go into the sanctuary where we gain perspective.
Number two, the works of Christ serve to validate the word.
And our faith ultimately rests on God's written testimony, the scripture itself.
And not our own personal experiences or emotions.
And now, the third and final point.
We may be confused and doubting, but we may not be offended.
Jesus doesn't say to John's disciples, go back and tell him this and that, and also, blessed is the one who never asks questions, or blessed is the one who never doubts, or Blessed is the one who is never confused.
All those things, although certainly not ideal, and we'd like, by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, to aspire beyond confusion and doubt and questions.
But all those things, although not the ideal, implicitly from Jesus' response seem to at least be permissible in the mind of Christ.
But the one command he gives.
As something that is explicitly forbidden, that is not permissible, is taking offense at him.
You can have questions for Jesus, and you can at times even have doubts about Jesus.
But what you're not permitted to do is to take offense at Jesus.
The very end of our text says this.
And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.
In your notes, I've written the following Many take offense.
At what part, what characteristic of Jesus?
Well, there are many.
But within the context of our passage today, perhaps the specific attribute of Christ that John may have been tempted to take offense at, he did not.
It causes him confusion, it causes him doubt, but he ultimately is not offended.
But the one characteristic or attribute of Christ in the context of our passage that John could have been offended at would have been the humility of Christ.
Many stumble because Christ is far more patient than we are.
True faith clings to Christ even when his kingdom appears to be hidden and contrary to expectation.
In the context of our passage, it's not that Christ is not victorious, and none of this goes against the gradual, progressive increase of his kingdom through the church.
Here on earth, in this temporal plane, throughout the gospel age, in visible, tangible ways.
There's nothing in our text, or any other text for that matter, that says that, well, that's an impossibility, or that wouldn't be biblical.
So the idea that Christ, who is head of the church, and that the church is Christ's body here on earth, and that the church on earth is militant, the church militant, and that the church, because of Christ, Will ultimately, gradually, progressively succeed throughout this gospel age and permeate the whole earth so that the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.
All that I believe is true.
To say it simply, the point that I'm making here at the end of the sermon is not a point against post millennial eschatology, but it is a point to say that even if post millennial eschatology is true, as I believe it is, Even if it's true, there's still the reality that it may happen slower than we would like.
Loving Christ When Religion Flourishes00:04:03
There are seasons where it feels as though the kingdom of Christ is advancing by leaps and bounds.
And then there are other seasons where it feels as though the kingdom is not advancing at all.
And in those moments, it is possible, it can be tempting.
For disciples of Christ to take offense at him.
Jesus, why are you seemingly in this place, at this time, being so slow?
Or if we throw all caution to the wind and we're not exercising the fruit of the Spirit, that is self control, we might even give in to the carnal temptation of accusing Christ not merely of slowness.
But of weakness.
Why are you being so weak?
Win, Jesus.
Win.
Show your enemies your power.
Your enemies are mocking you, they laugh at you, they laugh at your people.
Why would you allow this?
Show them your strength.
Display your glory, your supremacy, your might.
Why would you let the tech lords presume to be demigods?
Why would you allow all the rest of the world that worships false gods to invade and infiltrate and conquer what were prior Christian nations?
And why, for that matter, would you allow those Christian nations themselves to, for long now, apostatize and turn their back on you?
There have been glorious days.
In the past, where Christianity was strong and all the earth seemed to marvel.
And now we're being laughed at.
We're being mocked.
I think of John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim's Progress, where he talks about a character in the story who was a fair weathered fan.
Mr. I believe it was Bayens, Mr. Bayens, who basically wanted to follow Christ and be a pilgrim on his way to the celestial city, when, according to his own words, the character in the book, he says, I love to walk with religion.
And he's using religion in a positive way.
This is before all the, you know, it's a relationship, not a religion.
Like, religion is okay, it's good.
Religion is a good thing.
And so he's using religion positively, and he says, I love this character, Mr. Bayens, the fair weathered follower of Jesus.
I love to walk with religion when she is adorned with splendor and walking through the city streets in her glass slippers.
In other words, he's saying, I love to go when the wind is at my tail.
When the wind is at my back, I love the Christian religion.
I love following Jesus in those moments of time and place where Jesus is glorified.
Patient Victory for Ultimate Glory00:15:16
I would love to be a Christian in the 1500s or the 1600s or the 1700s in England or maybe in Spain.
I would love to be a Christian where.
When Christianity is at its high water mark.
But in other times, when there's no longer tailwinds but rather headwinds, when there's great hindrance and opposition, and when there's a cost to following Christ, well, in those times, I like to just kind of take a break and just sit on the sidelines and wait for fairer weather, for fairer moments.
And then I'll get up and follow Jesus once more.
And I think that there are many ways to be offended by Jesus.
You can be offended by his strength.
And there are many today, many who even profess to be followers of Jesus, who are offended by his strength, offended by his holiness, offended by the fact that Jesus is not a relativist, that Jesus is not a tree hugging hippie, that Jesus actually has universal, immutable, transcendent laws and morals and standards.
There are many who are offended by that Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible.
But I think that our text is timely and relevant for us in our context because, as far as I'm aware, there aren't many in our church who are offended by the strength of Jesus.
Many of us, we long for Christ to truly be king.
He is king, but we long for him to be worshiped and respected as king.
We want to have a Christian nation, we want Christian laws.
So we're not offended.
By Christ in his strength.
But we could, like John the Baptist, be tempted to be offended by Christ in his humility, by Christ in his patience.
And notice there is a dynamic difference between the weakness of Christ, as it were, versus the patience of Christ.
Look at 1 Corinthians 1, verse 21 through 25.
The Apostle Paul says this For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly, the apparent, seemingly folly, foolishness of what we preach to save those who believe.
For Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom.
Endless debates of philosophy.
But we preach Christ crucified.
A stumbling block to Jews, they want signs of strength.
And falliness to Gentiles, to the Greek, because this is like a philosophy that they've never even encountered before.
How would God save the world through the death and humiliation of his son?
Verse 24 now, but to those who are being humiliated, Who are called, both Jews and Greeks alike, to those who are his people being saved, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, both strength and wisdom.
For the foolishness, as it were, that seems as foolishness, there is no true foolishness with God.
But from our human perspective, what we might be tempted to think of as foolishness of God, even that is wiser than men.
And what we might be tempted to perceive as the weakness, as it were, of God is stronger than the strength of men.
This same concept, I think, is also espoused.
If we cross reference over to 1 Peter 3, verse 9, it says this The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise.
I think that's what John the Baptist is struggling with as he awaits his death in prison.
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise.
Promise as some count slowness, but he is weak.
No, patient.
The patience of Christ can look like weakness to men, and if we're not careful, we may not merely doubt, but we actually might transgress and fully step over the line and actually take offense at him.
Christ is not weak, but he is patient.
So, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as we might see slowness, but rather he is being not weak but patient toward you.
Notice that, too.
It's not just that he's being patient towards all the unbelievers out there who need to get saved.
That's in the verse.
That's the very next part.
But there's also a patience toward you, even those who are already his disciples, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
It's no secret.
All of you know my eschatology.
I believe that Christ will not win despite a losing church.
I don't believe that we win with a buzzer beat.
I don't believe that we're just going to be saved by the bell, losing and losing and then losing even more, all the way up until the very bottom of the ninth.
And then Christ comes in and things turn around.
Now, I actually believe that Christ doesn't win despite a weak, losing church, but that Christ wins through a militant and victorious church.
Gradually throughout the gospel age.
But even with that eschatology, there are moments we can see merely by history and observation.
There are moments, and some of these moments are far longer than we would prefer, where the church takes two or three steps forward, but then takes one or two steps backward.
And in those moments, it can be tempting, especially for those.
Who have a view of Christ and his gradual victory in this temporal gospel age through his church, it can be tempting for us to take offense at Christ and to perceive him as weak when in reality he's slow.
And there is, again, a dynamic difference between Christ being weak versus Christ being slow.
His seemingly slowness has everything to do with his patience.
And nothing to do with a lack of his power.
It's not a lack of power, but a presence of patience.
And his patience is not just toward the unbeliever who he intends to save, but he's being patient toward you.
There's something he's doing in you through suffering, there is something he's accomplishing and forging in you through difficulty.
His slowness, as we see it, is his patience.
A patience in a universal sense that none of his own, that is the elect, should perish, but that all might be saved.
But also his patience towards you.
It's a patience that he might wait so that he would be able to justify all the unbelievers he intends to save.
But it's also a patience so that he might sanctify you and all those he already has saved.
There's a further sanctification he intends to accomplish in his people before the culmination of his ultimate and final victory.
And he is using a momentary setback, what seems like us losing, in order as a scalpel to make the incision so that he can go in and perform surgery on our hearts to forge us more and more into his image.
And then he sews us up, and all of a sudden it's a shout on, pray on.
We're gaining ground once more.
And the church experiences three steps forward, or you and your Christian household experience three steps forward.
And then, in his patience, presence of patience, not lack of power, he seems to be in our perception slow again.
We're not getting quite the results that we'd like to get, or at least certainly not in the timing that we would like to see.
But once more, it's his patience.
It's his kindness.
Patience for the unbelievers who are elect, who he intends to justify, and patience towards those believers who, through setbacks and suffering, he intends to sanctify.
And this is the normative Christian life.
And all of this, none of it, goes against or contradicts victory.
And not just ethereal victory in the 17th dimension.
But gradual, temporal, tangible victory here and now.
But victory on his timeline, not ours.
And the victory he's trying to accomplish, we should keep in mind, like the psalmist in Psalm 73, when he enters the sanctuary, he gains perspective.
He's able to see from a higher point of view that we're seated with him in heavenly places and we can see perhaps a bigger picture.
When we ascend the hill of the Lord on the Lord's day to go and to worship Him in spirit and in truth, that we can see from the Delectable Mountains, the use of Pilgrim's Progress again, we can catch a glimpse of the celestial city and maybe get at least a notion of why God might be taking His time more than we would if we were in charge.
And if anything, the reason is this I can't tell you all the particulars with all the particular situations going on in your life.
But in the big picture, I can say this.
The reason that Christ is slower in bringing about his victory here on earth than we would be if we were in charge is because he wants his victory to be greater than the victory that you and I would settle for.
If we were in charge, we'd want a faster victory, but we would settle for a lesser victory.
We would.
And the victory that he's committed to achieving is a victory that is total and a victory that is thorough.
It's not just that all the nations would be Christianized, but it's that his church, you and I, would be sanctified thoroughly, deeply.
And that comes through his providence in suffering.
And there is a way, when we step into the sanctuary and see through heaven's eyes, there is a way that this seemingly wearisome task of reconciling.
A victorious Christ and a sovereign and just God with a temporal world where the wicked seem to prosper.
This can be reconciled.
But it's reconciled when we rest in worship and enter the sanctuary, in the case of the psalmist, or to put it differently, but the same concept, in the case of John the Baptist.
It's reconciled when we get word from Christ.
John needed to hear Christ's word and assurance.
The psalmist needed a word from God as he entered the sanctuary.
And we too need a continual word from the Lord.
We receive that all week long as we disciple one another, as we study the scripture that is the word of God, but we especially receive a word from Christ on the Lord's day where he promises to be not only present, Christ is always present for his people, but he promises to be especially present when two or three are gathered in his name.
And he promises to give to us a word.
And man is not sustained by bread alone, but by every word.
That proceeds from the mouth of God.
And that word gives us, grants us perspective to see the end game, to see the big picture.
Christ really is sovereign, he really is just, and for his reasons, the wicked momentarily may prosper and the righteous momentarily may suffer.
And that's it.
Here are a few applications to the weak.
To those of you who have been struggling with doubt, take heart.
Christ knows your frailty and he gently strengthens you.
He does not condemn your doubt, but he will condemn you taking offense.
He does not scold the weak in faith, but confirms their hope through his word.
He did it for John the Baptist, he'll do it for you.
To the strong who are not presently struggling with doubt, do not despise the weak.
But imitate Christ's patience.
And to all of us, a final application let your assurance rest not in circumstance, but in the unshakable promise of God revealed and fulfilled in Christ.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you for your word.
Bless it to our souls that you might bring for yourself great glory in this life and the next.