1
00:00:03,740 --> 00:00:11,800
So these people have a problem with Jesus, and I don't think that's changed in the last 2,000 years.

2
00:00:12,180 --> 00:00:13,900
A lot of people have a problem with Jesus.

3
00:00:16,139 --> 00:00:21,740
And therefore, if they have a problem with Jesus, Jesus said they're going to have a problem with you and with me.

4
00:00:22,800 --> 00:00:25,500
And Jesus said they hated me, so they're going to hate you.

5
00:00:26,030 --> 00:00:29,240
And so he's been stirring it up.

6
00:00:29,460 --> 00:00:35,280
He's been healing people and casting out demons and raising the dead and doing all this stuff.

7
00:00:36,160 --> 00:00:40,800
And it's created quite a stir among the people.

8
00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:48,500
And we looked last time where they were talking about the...

9
00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:55,040
Jesus was talking about when somebody, when God comes in and it cleans up your life.

10
00:00:55,840 --> 00:00:56,020
Right?

11
00:00:56,580 --> 00:00:59,420
And he says it's when the house is stu.

12
00:00:59,460 --> 00:01:08,260
swept and it's cleaned up. Maybe you've had a turn in your life where you're turning away from

13
00:01:08,380 --> 00:01:17,760
some things. Maybe you're doing, you know, some self-help stuff and getting sober and all those

14
00:01:18,390 --> 00:01:24,780
things. Listen, if you don't fill your life with good things, speaking of the Holy Spirit,

15
00:01:25,720 --> 00:01:32,940
It's all for not, right? Now you're just a, you're just a clean person going to hell.

16
00:01:36,500 --> 00:01:48,740
Right? So it's all for not. And so because we have to have the Redeemer, we have to have the one who the Bible tells us we are reconciled by the blood of his cross.

17
00:01:49,620 --> 00:01:55,440
And we have a lot of neighbors in this area in eastern Idaho and, and, and, uh, and, uh, and, and, uh, and, and, uh, and, and, and, uh,

18
00:01:55,480 --> 00:02:00,660
Western Wyoming and stuff that believed that the atonement took place in the garden,

19
00:02:01,780 --> 00:02:03,400
that Jesus atoned for our sins.

20
00:02:04,300 --> 00:02:05,039
No, we didn't.

21
00:02:06,620 --> 00:02:06,780
Right?

22
00:02:07,220 --> 00:02:12,060
He was praying about the atonement that he was about ready to do when he went to the cross

23
00:02:12,640 --> 00:02:14,120
and spilled his blood.

24
00:02:15,060 --> 00:02:18,720
And so we're redeemed by the blood of his cross,

25
00:02:18,920 --> 00:02:22,600
not the drops of blood that was there in the garden,

26
00:02:22,740 --> 00:02:24,180
though that was part of it, right?

27
00:02:24,300 --> 00:02:25,440
That was part of his suffering.

28
00:02:26,299 --> 00:02:37,380
for us. And so he's doing all these things. And here, this woman sees what's going on here.

29
00:02:37,530 --> 00:02:46,260
And we read now in verse 27, and a lot of times I don't know how I'm going to do this when I get up here.

30
00:02:49,100 --> 00:02:53,780
You know, it can be the longhorn preaching thing.

31
00:02:54,940 --> 00:02:56,600
Yen's all heard of the Longhorn preaching.

32
00:02:58,040 --> 00:03:01,920
That's when you make a point over here and a point over here

33
00:03:03,120 --> 00:03:04,360
and a whole lot of bull in the middle.

34
00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:13,660
I've been guilty of that.

35
00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:19,040
Been guilty of some astronaut preaching too.

36
00:03:19,180 --> 00:03:22,940
That's read the text, depart from the text, never to return to the text.

37
00:03:22,940 --> 00:03:24,120
To the text.

38
00:03:27,140 --> 00:03:32,400
But we'll just do this first little tidbit, but we will come back to it before it's all said and done.

39
00:03:32,920 --> 00:03:44,560
In verse 27 through and 28, it says, now it happened as he spoke these things that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to him,

40
00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:47,520
she's seeing all these things happening, pretty impressed.

41
00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:54,100
And she says, blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast which nursed you.

42
00:03:54,680 --> 00:04:01,040
But he said, more than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

43
00:04:02,380 --> 00:04:02,500
Right?

44
00:04:03,280 --> 00:04:04,920
Blessed are those who hear the word of God.

45
00:04:05,240 --> 00:04:09,680
So this woman's talking about Mary, Santa Maria.

46
00:04:11,340 --> 00:04:13,640
Is it Madre de Dios?

47
00:04:15,780 --> 00:04:15,960
See?

48
00:04:26,820 --> 00:04:27,880
Marcello, is that you?

49
00:04:29,740 --> 00:04:30,140
My amiga.

50
00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:34,940
So he's talking about Mary.

51
00:04:35,360 --> 00:04:38,600
But Jesus said, listen, yeah, Mary was blessed.

52
00:04:39,760 --> 00:04:39,860
Right?

53
00:04:39,860 --> 00:04:40,440
She was blessed.

54
00:04:40,980 --> 00:04:43,720
She bore the savior of the world, my gosh.

55
00:04:44,100 --> 00:04:45,320
She is blessed among women.

56
00:04:46,600 --> 00:04:52,280
And, but like the little gal that I talked to up at the ski hill last week when I wasn't here,

57
00:04:54,100 --> 00:04:56,200
I got to minister into these folks.

58
00:04:56,340 --> 00:04:58,380
And he was a little, they were in their 80s.

59
00:04:58,940 --> 00:05:00,060
And she was from Vietnam.

60
00:05:00,380 --> 00:05:03,640
She had come here in 1975 right after the war.

61
00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:09,060
And she obviously has some Catholic roots.

62
00:05:10,380 --> 00:05:11,900
So you'll pray to Mary?

63
00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:13,960
I said, no, I don't pray to Mary.

64
00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:15,900
Oh, but Mary has power.

65
00:05:18,280 --> 00:05:20,460
I said, Mary has no more power than you and I have.

66
00:05:21,440 --> 00:05:21,580
Right?

67
00:05:22,600 --> 00:05:26,580
And I read this tour and read this scripture tour.

68
00:05:27,440 --> 00:05:30,680
And I said, more blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.

69
00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:33,820
And that's what Jesus said earlier in the book of Luke, right?

70
00:05:34,140 --> 00:05:36,340
Hey, your mother and your brother are outside.

71
00:05:36,680 --> 00:05:37,480
Your family's outside.

72
00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:40,920
And he goes, my mother, my brother, those who are close to me

73
00:05:40,920 --> 00:05:43,320
are those who hear the Word of God and do it.

74
00:05:44,220 --> 00:05:52,360
and so that's a powerful thing and that's something that you and i need but how many christians

75
00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:58,840
do i know that they don't they never pick the bible up they never they never read it and

76
00:05:59,460 --> 00:06:09,479
the older i get the more i see my need for it because it truly does speak life into me and um

77
00:06:12,840 --> 00:06:18,200
Santa Maria had no more faith than you and I.

78
00:06:18,640 --> 00:06:21,740
And so she was the same as us.

79
00:06:22,220 --> 00:06:24,460
Some believe that she was a perpetual virgin.

80
00:06:24,660 --> 00:06:26,460
We know that's not true, right?

81
00:06:26,800 --> 00:06:28,240
Not because we say so.

82
00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:29,700
I had a Catholic woman.

83
00:06:30,100 --> 00:06:31,480
She was kind of ready to throw down.

84
00:06:31,580 --> 00:06:32,980
I thought she was going to take a poke at me.

85
00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:37,600
And I said, no, Jesus had brothers.

86
00:06:37,740 --> 00:06:39,460
She was not a perpetual version.

87
00:06:39,480 --> 00:06:49,320
virgin. And it says it in Matthew chapter 13, verses 55 and 56, he said, is this not the carpenter

88
00:06:49,880 --> 00:06:56,860
son speaking of Jesus? Is not his mother called Mary and his brothers, James and Joseph and

89
00:06:57,070 --> 00:07:04,520
Simon and Judas and his sisters? Are they not all with us? Mary had a quiverful. Her and

90
00:07:04,780 --> 00:07:09,440
Joseph had a quiverful after Jesus was born. And so,

91
00:07:11,940 --> 00:07:13,220
So, but it is interesting.

92
00:07:14,160 --> 00:07:18,020
We're looking at some people in this passage today that are looking for a sign.

93
00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:21,740
Isaiah tells us that was a sign, the virgin birth.

94
00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:22,880
Right?

95
00:07:23,060 --> 00:07:29,200
It was a sign when Mary conceived and bore the Christ child.

96
00:07:30,580 --> 00:07:33,720
But faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, right?

97
00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:35,440
It tells us in Romans chapter 10.

98
00:07:39,300 --> 00:07:40,980
So, yeah, she was blessed.

99
00:07:41,960 --> 00:07:45,000
But no more blessed than what you and I can be.

100
00:07:46,960 --> 00:07:54,140
So now I'm going to read the rest of this passage, and it's 29 through 36.

101
00:07:54,560 --> 00:07:59,300
So if you got a Bible, read along with me, because I read a little slow.

102
00:07:59,580 --> 00:08:01,180
And I might say some words that aren't there.

103
00:08:01,340 --> 00:08:02,760
For some reason I do that sometimes.

104
00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:06,320
But if the Lord strikes me dead, you know,

105
00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:09,060
that I added to when I shouldn't have.

106
00:08:10,340 --> 00:08:17,660
And it says, and while the crowds were thickly gathered together, verse 29, he began to say,

107
00:08:18,360 --> 00:08:20,420
this is an evil generation.

108
00:08:21,220 --> 00:08:22,300
It seeks a sign.

109
00:08:23,100 --> 00:08:28,660
And no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah, the prophet.

110
00:08:29,100 --> 00:08:36,300
For as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation.

111
00:08:37,120 --> 00:08:42,599
The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them.

112
00:08:43,400 --> 00:08:50,380
For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.

113
00:08:51,220 --> 00:08:56,280
The men of Nineveau will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it.

114
00:08:56,880 --> 00:09:02,660
For they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.

115
00:09:03,220 --> 00:09:07,980
No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a secret place under a basket,

116
00:09:08,760 --> 00:09:13,060
but on a lampstand, that those who come in may see the light.

117
00:09:13,300 --> 00:09:16,180
The lamp of the body is the eye.

118
00:09:16,440 --> 00:09:22,900
Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light.

119
00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:27,400
But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness.

120
00:09:28,180 --> 00:09:33,100
Therefore, take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness.

121
00:09:34,220 --> 00:09:42,980
if then your whole body is full of light having no part dark the whole body will be full of light and

122
00:09:43,400 --> 00:09:52,820
when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light let's pray Lord we thank you that you are light

123
00:09:53,280 --> 00:09:59,440
you told us Jesus that you're the light of the world and so father we just would praise you for this time

124
00:09:59,820 --> 00:10:06,140
Lord, may we maybe do some self-examination today, or maybe you need to examine us as the psalmas prayed,

125
00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:11,480
Lord, search my heart, O God, and see if there be any wicked way in me that you would lead me in the way everlasting.

126
00:10:12,500 --> 00:10:20,940
I know I need your direction every day, Lord, lest I falter and lest I gravitate to that default flesh that always wants to take control.

127
00:10:21,620 --> 00:10:29,280
But may your spirit be empowered in us, Lord, as we find ourselves, Lord, desiring, desiring to walk with our God,

128
00:10:29,380 --> 00:10:35,460
desiring to be close to our Savior, who is willing to empower us to live this life that you've called us to.

129
00:10:36,060 --> 00:10:38,460
And we know without you we can't do anything.

130
00:10:38,800 --> 00:10:43,160
So we just praise you and invite you here now by your Holy Spirit in Jesus' name.

131
00:10:43,540 --> 00:10:43,660
Amen.

132
00:10:46,200 --> 00:10:52,180
And so right off the bat, he tells him, he says, listen, you're an evil generation.

133
00:10:52,600 --> 00:10:54,920
An evil generation seeks after a sign.

134
00:10:55,060 --> 00:10:58,640
And that's what he said back in verse 16, right?

135
00:11:00,760 --> 00:11:02,300
you're looking for a sign.

136
00:11:04,410 --> 00:11:07,320
And Jesus had been giving them signs, had he not?

137
00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:11,780
All those signs that he had healed the lepers,

138
00:11:12,900 --> 00:11:15,920
he had healed the blind and allowed them to see,

139
00:11:16,080 --> 00:11:18,880
and he healed the lame, he raised the dead,

140
00:11:18,880 --> 00:11:20,160
he cast out demons,

141
00:11:21,580 --> 00:11:25,380
which the Pharisees refused to acknowledge was the work of God, right?

142
00:11:25,520 --> 00:11:27,720
And that's what got us on that last passage,

143
00:11:28,100 --> 00:11:31,980
when they were attributing Jesus casting out the demons,

144
00:11:32,280 --> 00:11:33,940
said, you're doing it by the prince of the demons,

145
00:11:34,040 --> 00:11:34,700
Bielsabab.

146
00:11:35,780 --> 00:11:41,360
And it's like, yeah, Satan, a house divided won't stand.

147
00:11:41,440 --> 00:11:42,020
And we know that.

148
00:11:42,220 --> 00:11:42,880
Just look at America.

149
00:11:45,420 --> 00:11:45,580
Right?

150
00:11:45,660 --> 00:11:47,120
A house divided won't stand.

151
00:11:47,780 --> 00:11:53,380
And he says, listen, if I cast out demons by Satan,

152
00:11:53,820 --> 00:11:55,820
then that kingdom's going to fall.

153
00:11:55,980 --> 00:12:01,080
But if I do it by the finger of God, the kingdom of God has come upon you.

154
00:12:02,440 --> 00:12:03,360
You better pay attention.

155
00:12:04,560 --> 00:12:16,220
And they were ignoring the signs that God had given them plenty of signs to determine whether he was of God or not.

156
00:12:16,920 --> 00:12:25,940
And so no one by the Spirit of God can attribute the work.

157
00:12:26,040 --> 00:12:34,040
of God to Satan. And you'll see that that's, that's blasphemy of the Holy Spirit when you attribute

158
00:12:34,130 --> 00:12:43,380
the works of God to Satan. So Jesus gives us three illustrations here in these, in these verses.

159
00:12:44,260 --> 00:12:55,920
And here, the first one he gives is, is Jonah. And he says in verse 30, for as Jonah became assigned to the

160
00:12:55,980 --> 00:13:03,600
Ninevites, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation, this prophet Jonah.

161
00:13:05,740 --> 00:13:11,740
I've had conversations with people about Jonah. They don't believe Jonah's really happened.

162
00:13:12,780 --> 00:13:19,420
It's just a story to convey a truth. Well, it appears here that Jesus believed it happened.

163
00:13:20,700 --> 00:13:24,260
Right? He believed in the story of Jonah.

164
00:13:25,860 --> 00:13:33,420
right and and and jonah was it all ends up pretty powerful for the uh i think the the the ninovites

165
00:13:33,780 --> 00:13:39,720
you know fared much better than jona did you know because he was the reluctant prophet the

166
00:13:41,990 --> 00:13:48,260
he ministered to people that he didn't love and i would i would find that hard to do to be a minister

167
00:13:48,940 --> 00:13:54,240
and not love people that uh it's almost like it disqualifies itself

168
00:13:55,540 --> 00:14:03,220
And so you remember the story. God tells John, hey, you go tell those Ninevites, 40 days,

169
00:14:03,360 --> 00:14:10,100
judgment's coming. And he goes the other way. I was looking at it on the map, right? He was,

170
00:14:10,760 --> 00:14:17,420
he went down to Joppa. That means he went south. When Nineveh's north, he went south to Joppa,

171
00:14:17,820 --> 00:14:24,220
hops on a boat. You guys know the story, right? Takes nap down in the bottom of the ship. And

172
00:14:24,240 --> 00:14:25,180
Here comes a storm.

173
00:14:26,220 --> 00:14:30,680
And the guy, he was, at least he was honest.

174
00:14:31,620 --> 00:14:34,260
Though he was hard-hearted towards the Nineveites, he was honest.

175
00:14:34,620 --> 00:14:35,960
They said, why is this happening to us?

176
00:14:36,020 --> 00:14:37,660
And Jonah goes, because of me.

177
00:14:39,500 --> 00:14:40,020
I did it.

178
00:14:41,960 --> 00:14:43,980
He said, yeah, throw me overboard and you guys will be fine.

179
00:14:47,820 --> 00:14:50,000
So what kind of guy thinks that way?

180
00:14:50,140 --> 00:14:52,820
I just don't, you know, I ain't really good at swimming.

181
00:14:53,060 --> 00:14:57,240
I don't think that's really a way I wanted to go out, but he tells him, he says,

182
00:14:57,520 --> 00:14:58,100
throw me overboard.

183
00:14:58,860 --> 00:15:00,640
And even more, the Lord sent a great fish.

184
00:15:00,720 --> 00:15:03,400
Now, we don't know if it was a whale or not, but it was a big fish.

185
00:15:03,400 --> 00:15:04,880
It was big enough to swallow a man.

186
00:15:06,780 --> 00:15:13,020
And so, Jonah, we know he's three days and three nights, the sign.

187
00:15:14,180 --> 00:15:15,840
Many believe it's a sign of the resurrection.

188
00:15:16,080 --> 00:15:18,840
We were bantering this morning here with the worship team.

189
00:15:19,120 --> 00:15:19,820
Did Jonah die?

190
00:15:20,620 --> 00:15:21,320
Some believe he did.

191
00:15:22,020 --> 00:15:22,800
Some believe he didn't.

192
00:15:23,120 --> 00:15:31,800
Did he? I don't know. I'm not that dogmatic on it, but I know that it was a sign of the resurrection, right? Three days, three nights, right? Kind of parallels the resurrection.

193
00:15:32,900 --> 00:15:36,280
He went down and he came back up. Bluh.

194
00:15:39,300 --> 00:15:42,740
However, he did pray while he was in the belly of the great fish, right? He prayed.

195
00:15:45,660 --> 00:15:52,200
And so he barbs him out. To nina, he goes, and he preaches.

196
00:15:53,900 --> 00:15:58,720
a lot of people there in Nineveh and he starts preaching goes judgment's coming in 40 days

197
00:15:59,860 --> 00:16:07,100
now there was no love in his message God loves you just come to him he's a merciful God

198
00:16:07,540 --> 00:16:13,660
he'll forgive you that was that was the that was the sand that was stuck in Jonah's craw

199
00:16:14,840 --> 00:16:22,260
right was that God was merciful and God would forgive him and that was just that just kind of

200
00:16:23,480 --> 00:16:28,380
So it says the people of Nineveh here that said that the kids didn't even know their left hand from the right.

201
00:16:28,500 --> 00:16:30,300
They were so wicked, right?

202
00:16:30,360 --> 00:16:33,820
They were like those people that Genesis talks about, right?

203
00:16:33,900 --> 00:16:36,140
That their only thought was evil continually.

204
00:16:37,300 --> 00:16:41,640
Oh, that's us too, by the way, without Jesus.

205
00:16:44,700 --> 00:16:51,140
And so it says, and so the people, verse, this is Jonah chapter three, verse six, excuse me, verse five,

206
00:16:52,900 --> 00:17:00,180
So the people of Nineve believe God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.

207
00:17:00,840 --> 00:17:07,579
Then word came to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe,

208
00:17:07,959 --> 00:17:10,760
covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes.

209
00:17:11,360 --> 00:17:20,040
And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh that the decree of the king and his noble saying,

210
00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:23,780
neither man nor beast, hurt nor flock, taste anything.

211
00:17:24,130 --> 00:17:26,339
Do not let them eat or drink.

212
00:17:26,740 --> 00:17:28,600
Man, this is pretty serious stuff.

213
00:17:29,800 --> 00:17:35,760
Or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily to God.

214
00:17:35,900 --> 00:17:42,280
Yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

215
00:17:42,620 --> 00:17:50,200
Who can tell if God will turn and relent and turn away from his fierce anger so that we may

216
00:17:50,240 --> 00:17:56,480
not perish. Then God saw their works and they turned from their evil way and God relented from

217
00:17:56,480 --> 00:18:07,200
the disaster that he had said he would bring up on them and he did not do it. Wow. This is like an

218
00:18:07,640 --> 00:18:15,600
ancient version of Jonathan Edwards, seniors in the hands of an angry God. Right? When he read that

219
00:18:15,620 --> 00:18:20,180
in a monotone voice, his notes, they said the people were, we're.

220
00:18:20,220 --> 00:18:32,840
weeping on their faces in the aisles and that the bars in that area shut down, they were so cut to their heart, cut to the quick that they had been sinning against God.

221
00:18:33,960 --> 00:18:50,180
And they turned. They repented. They agreed with God that they were wicked. Somebody defined repentance like that. I like that. Right? We always hear it's turning and going the opposite direction. It is. But it's agreeing with God that what you're

222
00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:50,920
doing's wicked.

223
00:18:54,240 --> 00:18:54,960
Some people,

224
00:18:56,700 --> 00:18:58,360
they kind of poo-pooed the Jonah story,

225
00:18:59,200 --> 00:19:02,280
but a fellow by the names

226
00:19:04,340 --> 00:19:05,780
of James Bartley

227
00:19:08,080 --> 00:19:10,260
in the 19th century.

228
00:19:10,260 --> 00:19:14,400
He was born in 1870, and he died in 1909.

229
00:19:15,580 --> 00:19:18,160
And the story is reported is that during

230
00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:19,700
a wailing expedition,

231
00:19:19,960 --> 00:19:25,800
off the Falcon Islands, Bartley's boat was attacked by a whale, and he was said to have

232
00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:32,760
ended up in the whale's mouth. The story claimed that he survived and was discovered in the whale's

233
00:19:33,040 --> 00:19:39,880
stomach by his crewmates when they, not knowing he was inside, caught and began skinning the whale,

234
00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:45,600
because the hot weather otherwise would have rotted the whale meat, and it was said that

235
00:19:46,060 --> 00:19:48,960
Bartley was inside the whale for 36 hours.

236
00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:51,560
This is documented

237
00:19:52,640 --> 00:19:55,740
That his skin had been bleached by the gastric juices

238
00:19:57,020 --> 00:19:59,060
And that he was blind the rest of his life

239
00:20:00,540 --> 00:20:05,000
In some accounts, however, he was supposed to have had returned to work within three weeks

240
00:20:05,080 --> 00:20:06,660
He died 18 years later

241
00:20:07,280 --> 00:20:11,400
And his tombstone in Gloucester reads

242
00:20:11,920 --> 00:20:14,320
James Bartley, a modern-day Jonah

243
00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:24,480
Listen, if I've said it once, folks, I've said it a thousand times, you can't take,

244
00:20:24,980 --> 00:20:28,440
you can't go wrong taking God's word literally, right?

245
00:20:32,740 --> 00:20:35,980
So that's a pretty powerful story, the sign of Jonah.

246
00:20:36,880 --> 00:20:38,200
And I don't know what it was.

247
00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:41,940
Was it the preaching or just the fear that judgment was coming?

248
00:20:42,920 --> 00:20:51,400
Or had all of his hair been burned off by the stomach juices of the whale and he was bleached white?

249
00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:55,280
And they were just like, is that the sign?

250
00:20:55,420 --> 00:20:57,080
I don't know what the sign was for sure.

251
00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:03,760
Matthew tells us that just as Jonah was three days and three nights of the belly of the great fish,

252
00:21:04,400 --> 00:21:08,520
so so the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

253
00:21:08,660 --> 00:21:09,640
And that will be your sign.

254
00:21:12,500 --> 00:21:15,860
But then he says, right, hey, a greater than Jonah is here.

255
00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:20,000
Jesus is much greater than Jonah, right?

256
00:21:20,400 --> 00:21:25,600
Because yes, he has a message, and his message is repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

257
00:21:26,460 --> 00:21:29,160
But he's also full of love and grace and mercy.

258
00:21:33,320 --> 00:21:36,900
The second illustration he gives is Solomon.

259
00:21:39,220 --> 00:21:47,740
And it says there that he says the queen of the south,

260
00:21:48,140 --> 00:21:51,680
most believe this was the queen of Shiba or Ethiopia.

261
00:21:51,980 --> 00:21:56,840
Some think it was Yemen, but will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation

262
00:21:56,900 --> 00:21:57,860
and condemn them.

263
00:21:58,300 --> 00:22:02,340
For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon,

264
00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:05,160
and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.

265
00:22:06,160 --> 00:22:10,600
That's a fascinating event, by the way.

266
00:22:10,700 --> 00:22:16,380
And we've just been reading through the Bible and didn't read, I read about it just here not too long ago.

267
00:22:17,700 --> 00:22:20,720
And this queen had heard of the wisdom of Solomon.

268
00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:21,720
Right?

269
00:22:21,720 --> 00:22:23,060
You remember, that was Solomon's prayer.

270
00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:26,120
That's a prayer you and I ought to say, don't you know?

271
00:22:26,700 --> 00:22:28,620
You know, when the Lord goes, hey, ask anything.

272
00:22:29,820 --> 00:22:30,340
Ask anything.

273
00:22:31,860 --> 00:22:32,480
Wouldn't that be cool?

274
00:22:32,740 --> 00:22:36,000
The God of heaven says, hey, ask anything.

275
00:22:36,020 --> 00:22:40,960
thing you want? You remember what Solomon said? He didn't ask for the life of his enemies, right?

276
00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:48,900
He didn't ask for riches. He asked for wisdom. Oh, God, give me wisdom to rule this great

277
00:22:49,120 --> 00:22:58,220
people of yours that you've called me to do. And hence, he became, arguably, the wisest man that

278
00:22:58,320 --> 00:23:04,840
ever lived. I love reading his writings, the proverbs and ecclesiastes.

279
00:23:06,560 --> 00:23:07,660
and the song of Solomon.

280
00:23:11,960 --> 00:23:16,180
Actually, when me and my wife did our marriage counseling, we did the Song of Solomon, right?

281
00:23:17,820 --> 00:23:19,920
One part in there says, I'm going to climb that tree.

282
00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:27,980
I like climbing her tree.

283
00:23:30,900 --> 00:23:31,160
Sorry.

284
00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:32,820
T.MI.

285
00:23:35,120 --> 00:23:35,840
It's biblical.

286
00:23:36,980 --> 00:23:37,400
It's biblical.

287
00:23:40,620 --> 00:23:42,400
They had us do some of the corneous stuff.

288
00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:43,500
My wife looked at me and goes,

289
00:23:43,660 --> 00:23:45,020
I cannot believe we're doing this.

290
00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:46,660
Right?

291
00:23:47,780 --> 00:23:50,020
You, my love, are like a dove.

292
00:23:54,060 --> 00:23:56,640
They didn't go over so well when we were in a hot, heated argument.

293
00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:01,880
One time we were in a hot argument and I looked at it, I said,

294
00:24:01,940 --> 00:24:05,000
honey, just love me. Yeah, no, I'll kill you, boy.

295
00:24:11,120 --> 00:24:18,560
But absolutely so inspired to go listen to a word from this king,

296
00:24:18,940 --> 00:24:21,620
supposedly the wisest man in the world.

297
00:24:22,280 --> 00:24:26,520
Now, this was an incredible commitment on this woman's part.

298
00:24:26,660 --> 00:24:29,180
I mean, it's fascinating.

299
00:24:29,220 --> 00:24:37,280
I mean, she traveled between 12 and 1,500 miles on camels to hear this guy.

300
00:24:38,980 --> 00:24:41,200
That's what I call being committed, right?

301
00:24:41,300 --> 00:24:48,460
Not only that, but the entourage that came with her and she bore spices and gold and precious stones

302
00:24:49,060 --> 00:24:51,120
is gifts for Solomon.

303
00:24:54,660 --> 00:24:56,180
So you wonder what's going through her mind.

304
00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:59,140
You know, she looks back and looks at her big cash of gold.

305
00:24:59,180 --> 00:25:04,920
thinking, man, I'm wondering if this is going to be worth this. Right? No, Lord knows how long that

306
00:25:05,100 --> 00:25:14,320
track took weeks probably. And it says in First Kings chapter 10, it says, and then she, the queen,

307
00:25:14,800 --> 00:25:23,000
said to the king, it was true. A true report, which I heard in my own land about your words and your

308
00:25:23,220 --> 00:25:29,080
wisdom. This is First Kings 10, verses six and seven. However, I did not.

309
00:25:29,180 --> 00:25:36,500
believe the words until I came and saw with my own eyes. And indeed, the half was not told me.

310
00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:42,040
Your wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame of which I heard.

311
00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:57,660
Wow. So not only was she impressed, she was super impressed. That wisdom of Solomon was so impressed her.

312
00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:06,300
And then Jesus says, now wait a minute, if she did that, don't you know a greater than Solomon is here?

313
00:26:07,530 --> 00:26:09,260
A greater than Solomon is here.

314
00:26:09,780 --> 00:26:17,280
The one in whom, Colossians 2, 3 says is, the one in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

315
00:26:18,020 --> 00:26:18,280
Jesus.

316
00:26:21,040 --> 00:26:23,080
So when you know Jesus, you know it all.

317
00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:25,640
Right?

318
00:26:26,500 --> 00:26:31,440
in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

319
00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:44,880
And so, and then he talks about the comparison of the Ninevites who heard Jonah preach,

320
00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:48,860
and of the Queen of Sheba that heard the wisdom of Solomon.

321
00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:56,200
And in verses 31 and 32, should really cause us to stand up and pay attention.

322
00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:03,800
where it says there in verse 31, excuse me, 32,

323
00:27:04,300 --> 00:27:10,920
and the men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it,

324
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:13,640
for they repented at the preaching of Jonah.

325
00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:25,120
And then it also says the queen of Sheba will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them.

326
00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:29,000
because they responded.

327
00:27:30,260 --> 00:27:34,760
They responded to the message that God gave the Ninevites through Jonah.

328
00:27:36,060 --> 00:27:41,540
And apparently that God gave the message to the Queen of Sheba, they responded.

329
00:27:44,120 --> 00:27:46,760
They responded in a positive way.

330
00:27:48,010 --> 00:27:54,480
And so we should take notice that, notice, these people are years,

331
00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:55,840
millennial apart.

332
00:27:57,240 --> 00:28:05,720
And yet their works, when they're good, are going to contend, condemn the works of those who responded

333
00:28:06,730 --> 00:28:12,440
negatively to the message of the gospel, the message of the king of kings and the Lord

334
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:12,780
of Lord.

335
00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:16,940
So the accountability that Jesus will require from each generation.

336
00:28:20,060 --> 00:28:24,540
And you and I, we're accountable for what we hear and what we know to be.

337
00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:24,980
truth.

338
00:28:30,900 --> 00:28:39,500
And every generation since then, because that greater, that greater one gave a greater sign.

339
00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:47,960
Because that generation that Jesus is speaking to are going to see the greatest sign

340
00:28:48,460 --> 00:28:50,140
that humanity has ever seen.

341
00:28:51,100 --> 00:28:52,800
They're going to see it in real time.

342
00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:58,220
You and I have been hearing about it and reading about it for thousands of years now.

343
00:29:00,740 --> 00:29:04,140
And you don't think that we'll be accountable for what we do with that?

344
00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:14,520
So the queen listened to Solomon, the people of Nineveh, listened to Jonah.

345
00:29:16,220 --> 00:29:18,860
They heard the word of God and did it.

346
00:29:20,720 --> 00:29:22,300
That's what he said to the woman, remember?

347
00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:35,560
And so we, you and I have work to do.

348
00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:42,460
And really that work, I shared it at a funeral yesterday.

349
00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:48,660
I love sharing this John 629 with people at a funeral.

350
00:29:49,700 --> 00:29:58,320
Because so often we wonder in our lives, especially when you start getting, you know, a little long in the tooth.

351
00:29:59,180 --> 00:30:09,340
My teeth aren't getting long. They're falling out. But you start thinking, Lord, have I done enough?

352
00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:16,480
And we who are believers and have been walking with Jesus for some time, how dare us ask that question?

353
00:30:17,780 --> 00:30:18,560
We can't do enough.

354
00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:21,420
I can't do enough. I can't

355
00:30:22,780 --> 00:30:26,580
I can't do enough good works to outweigh my bad works.

356
00:30:27,140 --> 00:30:33,600
And when I'm speaking of bad works, I'm speaking of word, thought, and deed.

357
00:30:35,080 --> 00:30:38,360
Right? Because some of them things go really, really fast. And there's so many.

358
00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:42,380
There's no way I could ever even come close. That's why Jesus came.

359
00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:48,560
And that's why he told them when they came to him and said, Lord, what must we do to do the works of God?

360
00:30:48,580 --> 00:30:53,840
and Jesus says, this is the work of God, believe in the one that the Father has sent.

361
00:30:54,740 --> 00:30:55,660
That's the work of God.

362
00:30:56,740 --> 00:30:57,440
I can do that.

363
00:30:57,680 --> 00:30:58,440
You can do that.

364
00:30:58,820 --> 00:31:00,100
We can do the work of God.

365
00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:10,140
And it brings such a confidence to our lives that it's not my work I'm putting my faith in.

366
00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:12,380
It's his work that I'm putting my faith in.

367
00:31:14,620 --> 00:31:16,600
Now, there's a lot of my works that need to go away.

368
00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:18,900
Habits I need to break.

369
00:31:21,200 --> 00:31:23,040
You know, I'm trudging along.

370
00:31:23,180 --> 00:31:30,160
Jesus lets me come along and learn of him and take his yoke and be like him.

371
00:31:34,980 --> 00:31:39,260
And so then he gives a third illustration, right?

372
00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:46,160
Weirsby said the third illustration was from daily life, not from history,

373
00:31:46,320 --> 00:31:49,660
like the queen of Sheba and Jonah.

374
00:31:53,460 --> 00:31:56,200
And this one Jesus had used before, we see in Matthew 6,

375
00:31:56,200 --> 00:32:00,420
he talks about light and the eye.

376
00:32:00,980 --> 00:32:07,500
Verse 33, no one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a secret place or under a basket,

377
00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:12,420
but on a lampstand that those who come in may see the light.

378
00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:21,160
that's hearing the word of God and doing it.

379
00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:23,960
Jesus said, I'm the light of the world.

380
00:32:24,820 --> 00:32:29,200
You, he says, you are to be salt and light in this world.

381
00:32:30,120 --> 00:32:33,780
God's word is light that shines in a dark world.

382
00:32:33,780 --> 00:32:35,180
I know it shined in my heart.

383
00:32:35,980 --> 00:32:39,160
I remember getting saved and going to the bar.

384
00:32:40,500 --> 00:32:40,740
Right?

385
00:32:41,780 --> 00:32:43,520
I wasn't very sanctified yet.

386
00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:46,860
I was justified, but I wasn't sanctified.

387
00:32:47,080 --> 00:32:50,600
And I'm sitting in this bar, and I began to watch people.

388
00:32:51,260 --> 00:32:56,020
And I'm going, oh my gosh, these people are as lost as a goose.

389
00:32:56,920 --> 00:32:59,440
And I was right there rubbing shovelers with them two weeks earlier.

390
00:33:00,820 --> 00:33:02,880
And because I would go and drink seven up.

391
00:33:05,280 --> 00:33:06,260
That didn't last very long.

392
00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:06,880
Don't try that.

393
00:33:06,910 --> 00:33:07,860
I don't suggest that.

394
00:33:09,340 --> 00:33:11,440
You don't need to go to a bar unless

395
00:33:11,660 --> 00:33:12,520
This is what you do.

396
00:33:12,980 --> 00:33:13,700
You're willing to do.

397
00:33:14,320 --> 00:33:15,400
Stick your head in the door and go,

398
00:33:15,680 --> 00:33:18,300
repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and then run.

399
00:33:22,820 --> 00:33:26,280
That's the only reason you probably should go to a bar if you're a believer, right?

400
00:33:32,940 --> 00:33:34,920
No, I heard a story of a guy that did that, right?

401
00:33:35,060 --> 00:33:39,580
He would sneak in bars and usually with a live band.

402
00:33:40,180 --> 00:33:43,280
So when the live band would take a break, he would step up.

403
00:33:43,380 --> 00:33:45,060
Well, the owner of the bar thought he was with the band,

404
00:33:45,160 --> 00:33:47,280
and the band thought he was with the bar.

405
00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:50,520
And he would get up and he'd start, hey, everybody having a good time.

406
00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:51,840
Yeah, partied on, you know.

407
00:33:52,580 --> 00:33:56,360
And they'd hoot and holler, and he'd say, hey, you want to go to a party that lasts forever?

408
00:33:57,960 --> 00:33:59,980
And he says, and I'm talking about heaven.

409
00:34:00,220 --> 00:34:04,280
And then he drops the Jesus bomb on him and says, I'll be right outside if anyone wants to talk.

410
00:34:05,900 --> 00:34:07,980
So that was the guy with the bar ministry.

411
00:34:08,200 --> 00:34:09,679
I haven't seen too many of them over the years.

412
00:34:09,780 --> 00:34:10,899
I don't think he lived very long.

413
00:34:15,980 --> 00:34:19,740
But it's, it's, when the word of God comes in, it convicts your heart, right?

414
00:34:19,879 --> 00:34:21,179
Psalm 113.

415
00:34:21,659 --> 00:34:25,860
The entrance of your words, the psalmist writes, gives light.

416
00:34:26,260 --> 00:34:28,520
It gives understanding to the simple.

417
00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:36,879
And, and he's saying here, when you, when that light's lit, you don't cover it up.

418
00:34:38,639 --> 00:34:38,740
Right?

419
00:34:38,820 --> 00:34:42,320
You don't try to darken the light of the gospel.

420
00:34:42,830 --> 00:34:43,679
You let it shine.

421
00:34:44,330 --> 00:34:46,120
You let it fly.

422
00:34:46,659 --> 00:34:49,300
It's a song I sing with my grandson, right?

423
00:34:51,460 --> 00:34:56,040
This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.

424
00:34:56,679 --> 00:34:56,879
You're right?

425
00:34:57,440 --> 00:35:00,140
And so you don't hide it under a bushels, no.

426
00:35:02,380 --> 00:35:07,819
And so, but notice it's connected

427
00:35:08,420 --> 00:35:09,480
to the eye.

428
00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:11,580
And this is scary

429
00:35:11,900 --> 00:35:12,480
because it says

430
00:35:12,900 --> 00:35:14,380
the lamp of the body,

431
00:35:14,660 --> 00:35:15,240
verse 34,

432
00:35:16,020 --> 00:35:16,680
is the eye.

433
00:35:17,640 --> 00:35:18,000
Right here.

434
00:35:19,220 --> 00:35:19,860
What do you let in

435
00:35:19,940 --> 00:35:20,620
through your eye gate?

436
00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:23,000
What do you let into your soul?

437
00:35:24,580 --> 00:35:25,840
Because there's never been a time

438
00:35:25,960 --> 00:35:26,980
in the history

439
00:35:27,640 --> 00:35:28,240
of humankind

440
00:35:29,100 --> 00:35:30,440
when we have the ability

441
00:35:30,980 --> 00:35:32,820
to allow sewage

442
00:35:32,980 --> 00:35:33,960
through our eye gate.

443
00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:36,260
Right?

444
00:35:36,320 --> 00:35:37,800
With that little device in your pocket,

445
00:35:39,400 --> 00:35:48,640
pocket and that computer screen at home. And Lord knows a television screen. What do we let in there?

446
00:35:50,460 --> 00:35:57,040
Because he says just some fascinating things to me here. He said, the lamp of the body is the

447
00:35:57,180 --> 00:36:03,720
eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, those of you have the King James Bible, it says,

448
00:36:04,140 --> 00:36:06,220
when your eye is single.

449
00:36:07,120 --> 00:36:07,820
I like that.

450
00:36:08,380 --> 00:36:09,900
When your eye is single,

451
00:36:10,040 --> 00:36:13,680
it's singularly focused on the Lord Jesus.

452
00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:17,380
When it's single.

453
00:36:21,480 --> 00:36:23,740
It gives a whole new meaning to that song, doesn't it?

454
00:36:24,640 --> 00:36:26,000
Turn your eyes upon Jesus.

455
00:36:27,360 --> 00:36:29,260
Look full in his wonderful face.

456
00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:33,720
And the things on earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his

457
00:36:33,740 --> 00:36:34,860
his glory and grace.

458
00:36:41,700 --> 00:36:45,940
It says a lot, man, about the darkness and the light.

459
00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:53,360
Looking unto Jesus, Hebrews 122, the author and finisher of our faith,

460
00:36:53,780 --> 00:36:58,500
for who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,

461
00:36:58,620 --> 00:37:02,140
despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

462
00:37:02,720 --> 00:37:13,120
Just want to know you, the thread of the sign that God is going to hold everybody accountable for is in all these scriptures.

463
00:37:15,660 --> 00:37:20,760
The contrast between light and darkness in Ephesus chapter 5, verse 8 it says,

464
00:37:20,880 --> 00:37:23,120
for you were once darkness, you and I.

465
00:37:24,740 --> 00:37:25,260
You remember that?

466
00:37:27,180 --> 00:37:28,060
You remember being darkness?

467
00:37:29,980 --> 00:37:32,340
It still tries to come sometimes in my life.

468
00:37:32,420 --> 00:37:33,200
I don't know about you.

469
00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:39,580
But you were once darkness, but you, but now you are light in the Lord.

470
00:37:39,880 --> 00:37:41,000
Walk as children of light.

471
00:37:41,160 --> 00:37:43,840
For the fruit of the spirit is goodness, righteousness, and truth.

472
00:37:44,340 --> 00:37:48,640
Finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.

473
00:37:53,060 --> 00:37:57,120
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.

474
00:37:57,940 --> 00:37:58,700
Don't do them.

475
00:37:59,440 --> 00:38:02,320
For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done.

476
00:38:02,340 --> 00:38:08,040
done by them in secret, but all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light.

477
00:38:08,420 --> 00:38:14,600
For whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore, he says, awake you who sleep, rise from the dead,

478
00:38:14,940 --> 00:38:16,440
and Christ will give you light.

479
00:38:19,700 --> 00:38:27,840
Looking at him. Looking away from evil. I was talking to a friend about that here this last week,

480
00:38:27,840 --> 00:38:31,860
and I said, yeah, I remember one time I was young, married.

481
00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:37,060
me and my wife and we were driving down the road and there was this there was this huge billboard with a jack

482
00:38:37,630 --> 00:38:42,480
no it wasn't jack daniels it was black velvet a black velvet commercial and this gal was all

483
00:38:43,100 --> 00:38:51,060
scandaly dressed with a you know half a gallon of velvet and i look away and i almost run off the road

484
00:38:52,280 --> 00:38:56,700
and my wife starts laughing at me and i kind of pulled her up short i said hey listen

485
00:38:57,640 --> 00:39:01,840
if i look in lust that's adultery jesus said that's adultery

486
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:05,820
since we got married, I made a covenant with my eyes, right?

487
00:39:06,760 --> 00:39:07,840
I don't want to look in lust.

488
00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:11,340
It doesn't mean that I haven't stumbled in that, but I don't want to do that.

489
00:39:11,460 --> 00:39:14,980
I want to make a covenant with my eyes, right?

490
00:39:15,020 --> 00:39:15,940
I want to turn away.

491
00:39:17,080 --> 00:39:19,440
Listen, if you don't practice it, you'll never do it.

492
00:39:26,480 --> 00:39:31,780
Now, if you get, if you start practicing, you may not do it best all the time, but you'll get better as time.

493
00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:41,120
goes on about it, right? Looking away. When you see that stuff on the phone or whatever, get away

494
00:39:41,280 --> 00:39:48,260
from it. I don't know, you might have to stomp on that thing. Right? Jesus is pretty serious about that.

495
00:39:48,340 --> 00:39:55,760
If your eye causes you sin, fin, pluck that baby out. If your hand causes you to sin, chop it off.

496
00:39:57,960 --> 00:40:01,800
Now, I'm not going to go into a commentary on that because I've heard all kinds of, look, this

497
00:40:01,820 --> 00:40:05,200
and that. What Jesus is saying, whatever it takes, you know what, you better deal with your

498
00:40:05,540 --> 00:40:05,660
sin.

499
00:40:11,420 --> 00:40:12,960
Job said it.

500
00:40:17,120 --> 00:40:19,620
In chapter 31, I love this.

501
00:40:20,360 --> 00:40:23,520
Job was that guy who shunned evil, right?

502
00:40:24,020 --> 00:40:29,200
His life was perfect before the Lord, and I don't believe he was a sinless man, but he had made

503
00:40:29,300 --> 00:40:31,780
some really good decisions and how he was.

504
00:40:31,800 --> 00:40:38,100
living his life. And in chapter 31, the first verse, it says, Job saying, I have made a covenant with

505
00:40:38,180 --> 00:40:49,980
my eyes. Why then should I look upon young women? And some say lust in that. The NLT says lust, I think.

506
00:40:50,840 --> 00:40:58,080
Verse two, for what is the allotment of God from above and the inheritance of the almighty from on high?

507
00:40:58,460 --> 00:41:01,140
is it not destruction for the wicked?

508
00:41:02,800 --> 00:41:04,340
He equated that to being wicked.

509
00:41:04,540 --> 00:41:06,320
I don't want to be wicked, Job's saying.

510
00:41:12,500 --> 00:41:14,860
And disaster for the workers of iniquity,

511
00:41:15,040 --> 00:41:18,760
does he not see my ways and count all my steps?

512
00:41:20,340 --> 00:41:21,660
We think we get away with stuff,

513
00:41:23,020 --> 00:41:23,820
because we're all alone.

514
00:41:25,660 --> 00:41:26,960
We don't think we have to be accountable.

515
00:41:27,540 --> 00:41:29,620
Listen, you're never alone.

516
00:41:31,500 --> 00:41:32,360
You're never alone.

517
00:41:33,980 --> 00:41:35,760
The Lord is right there watching it all.

518
00:41:37,140 --> 00:41:38,400
Not only that, but recording it.

519
00:41:38,620 --> 00:41:40,400
Oh, yes.

520
00:41:41,180 --> 00:41:42,480
That old tree, murder.

521
00:41:44,700 --> 00:41:44,980
Gossip.

522
00:41:45,720 --> 00:41:46,760
Been talking about your neighbor.

523
00:41:50,800 --> 00:41:52,120
Because the books are opened, right?

524
00:41:53,020 --> 00:41:55,700
The day of judgment, the books are opened.

525
00:41:56,660 --> 00:42:04,540
David had the same thought in the 101st song in verse 3,

526
00:42:04,620 --> 00:42:08,880
where he says, I will set nothing wicked before my eyes.

527
00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:20,500
And I've learned that if you'll just start practicing it, go, no, no, no.

528
00:42:21,060 --> 00:42:23,540
You know, Paul said, flee youthful lust.

529
00:42:24,240 --> 00:42:26,380
Grab up your hind parts and get out of there.

530
00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:33,740
right if you got to run i remember being you know driving with friends of mine i'm thinking sorry i'm

531
00:42:33,820 --> 00:42:39,900
walking home because i know what you guys is about to do and what i used to do i don't want to do no more

532
00:42:43,580 --> 00:42:49,839
that's light it's having it's it's not mixed with darkness because that's kind of a bizarre

533
00:42:51,200 --> 00:42:52,340
bizarre verse there,

534
00:42:54,760 --> 00:42:55,880
that the light

535
00:42:56,840 --> 00:42:57,860
which is in you is

536
00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:01,020
not darkness. Make sure it's not darkness.

537
00:43:01,580 --> 00:43:03,960
Don't call out the name of Jesus and then go pollute

538
00:43:04,080 --> 00:43:05,100
yourself with the world.

539
00:43:06,360 --> 00:43:09,160
With the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

540
00:43:09,480 --> 00:43:10,400
No, put it behind you.

541
00:43:13,640 --> 00:43:17,460
And the great one, the one that's greater than Solomon and greater than Jonah,

542
00:43:18,720 --> 00:43:19,460
will help you.

543
00:43:22,180 --> 00:43:25,380
some have said the the eye is the window to the soul

544
00:43:27,140 --> 00:43:28,780
so let our eyes be good

545
00:43:33,819 --> 00:43:37,740
I've noticed a contrast you guys I've tried reading

546
00:43:37,900 --> 00:43:41,800
electronically right on my computer because I can just pull it up so fast

547
00:43:43,040 --> 00:43:46,500
there's a difference there's a difference than reading it on a screen

548
00:43:46,940 --> 00:43:49,500
than just turning pages for me there is a

549
00:43:49,540 --> 00:43:56,720
difference. I can tell the difference. You got to put it in. If it's ever going to come out,

550
00:43:57,360 --> 00:44:04,340
you got to put it in. Then Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows

551
00:44:04,460 --> 00:44:13,400
me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. Following Jesus. Staying close.

552
00:44:18,560 --> 00:44:23,120
The bottom line is, we all have our sign.

553
00:44:24,420 --> 00:44:24,640
I know.

554
00:44:24,740 --> 00:44:25,120
Who's that?

555
00:44:26,260 --> 00:44:27,020
Bill, what's his name?

556
00:44:28,060 --> 00:44:28,580
Here's your sign?

557
00:44:30,760 --> 00:44:31,700
We all have our sign.

558
00:44:33,020 --> 00:44:34,860
Jesus said this generation,

559
00:44:36,500 --> 00:44:42,300
this generation is in big trouble for rejecting the sign that he gave them.

560
00:44:42,380 --> 00:44:44,780
That is, he died on a cross.

561
00:44:45,360 --> 00:44:48,220
He went into the ground for three days, and he rose again.

562
00:44:48,720 --> 00:44:54,160
that was the sign. That's the only sign that humanity needs because it's the greatest event

563
00:44:54,500 --> 00:45:03,360
that has ever happened in this world. You have the sign. I have the sign. What we do with that is up to us.

564
00:45:05,600 --> 00:45:15,800
But if he condemns us because we ignored it, it's on nobody but ourselves. It's on nobody else but ourselves.

565
00:45:17,220 --> 00:45:19,000
Now, there was a time when he overlooked that.

566
00:45:20,200 --> 00:45:23,400
Pastor Joe and I were talking about this on the way down to the ballgame the other night.

567
00:45:23,760 --> 00:45:32,140
When Paul was there at Athens in Acts Chapter 17, then they had that monument called the unknown God, right?

568
00:45:32,840 --> 00:45:33,700
The unknown God.

569
00:45:34,480 --> 00:45:37,640
And Paul goes, hey, I want to tell you about him.

570
00:45:38,640 --> 00:45:39,660
You don't know him, obviously.

571
00:45:39,860 --> 00:45:46,860
But in verse 30 of chapter 17, he says, truly, these times of ignorance, God always,

572
00:45:46,880 --> 00:45:55,960
overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent because he has appointed a day on which he

573
00:45:55,960 --> 00:46:03,580
will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. He has given assurance to

574
00:46:03,700 --> 00:46:09,680
this. Listen, here's the sign. He has given assurance to this to all by raising him from the dead.

575
00:46:16,740 --> 00:46:18,560
And if you don't believe that,

576
00:46:20,120 --> 00:46:21,240
you're not going to believe anything.

577
00:46:25,460 --> 00:46:31,120
It is the pearl of the gospel, Jesus, right?

578
00:46:32,240 --> 00:46:34,840
I got to share that at a funeral yesterday, too, there in Romans, right?

579
00:46:34,880 --> 00:46:39,180
If you confess with your mouth of Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you're saved.

580
00:46:44,920 --> 00:46:46,760
It's the only sign we need.

581
00:46:49,460 --> 00:46:50,680
Come to Jesus and see.

582
00:46:51,500 --> 00:46:52,720
Come to Jesus and live.

583
00:46:54,420 --> 00:46:56,280
One more scripture here before we close.

584
00:46:56,680 --> 00:46:58,940
It's found in 1 John 1 5.

585
00:47:04,300 --> 00:47:04,980
And it says,

586
00:47:07,840 --> 00:47:09,220
this is the message

587
00:47:09,300 --> 00:47:18,020
which we have heard from him and declare to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

588
00:47:19,600 --> 00:47:22,560
So don't say, oh, God understands my darkness.

589
00:47:23,180 --> 00:47:25,320
Yeah, he does, but he will judge it.

590
00:47:27,219 --> 00:47:31,980
So step out of the darkness into the light, stay in the light, pursue the light.

591
00:47:32,480 --> 00:47:33,200
It's not easy.

592
00:47:34,380 --> 00:47:35,580
It's consistent.

593
00:47:35,820 --> 00:47:36,460
It's daily.

594
00:47:37,240 --> 00:47:38,480
It's moment by moment.

595
00:47:38,760 --> 00:47:41,840
We need Jesus working in our lives.

596
00:47:41,900 --> 00:47:43,600
Because listen, he is coming.

597
00:47:44,580 --> 00:47:46,700
He is coming to judge the quick and the dead.

598
00:47:48,140 --> 00:47:48,820
Jesus is coming.

599
00:47:51,020 --> 00:47:51,860
Are you ready for that?

600
00:47:54,420 --> 00:47:57,760
And I don't about you, but I want to hear those words.

601
00:47:57,920 --> 00:47:58,340
Well done.

602
00:47:58,660 --> 00:47:59,520
Good and faithful servant.

603
00:48:01,320 --> 00:48:02,600
Enter into the joy of your Lord.

604
00:48:05,040 --> 00:48:06,840
So our ploy is not to seek a sign,

605
00:48:07,940 --> 00:48:12,220
But our ploy is to walk in the light as he is in the light, as he is in the light.

606
00:48:12,760 --> 00:48:12,880
Amen.

607
00:48:13,840 --> 00:48:14,500
Let's pray, shall we?

608
00:48:16,260 --> 00:48:17,020
Father, thank you.

609
00:48:17,420 --> 00:48:18,420
Thank you for your word.

610
00:48:19,540 --> 00:48:20,300
Lord, it's alive.

611
00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:26,680
It's truly that sharp sword that cuts, it cuts right into our souls and our minds

612
00:48:27,380 --> 00:48:28,800
and causes us to consider.

613
00:48:29,720 --> 00:48:34,780
Lord, to consider our lives, to consider our decisions, to consider the words that we speak,

614
00:48:34,860 --> 00:48:35,920
the thoughts that we have.

615
00:48:36,740 --> 00:48:41,820
Lord, you've given us the power to overcome all those things as you have instructed us by your word

616
00:48:42,320 --> 00:48:48,000
to be quick to hear and slow to speak and slow to wrath, to take our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ Jesus,

617
00:48:48,540 --> 00:48:50,340
to turn our eyes away from evil.

618
00:48:50,740 --> 00:48:52,440
You've given us all this equipment, Lord.

619
00:48:52,940 --> 00:48:54,060
Help us to draw on up.

620
00:48:54,700 --> 00:49:00,340
And I just pray for anyone here today, Lord, that just needs to, maybe just feels like they just need cleansed.

621
00:49:00,540 --> 00:49:04,100
Lord, that the world's dirtied them up, their own flesh is dirtied them up.

622
00:49:04,520 --> 00:49:06,480
Lord, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh.

623
00:49:06,540 --> 00:49:08,300
the enemy, all those things.

624
00:49:09,200 --> 00:49:11,800
Lord, just that they would know that, Lord, you're gracious

625
00:49:12,980 --> 00:49:14,600
and that you're willing to forgive.

626
00:49:15,700 --> 00:49:18,360
And all you require is a moment of humility

627
00:49:19,300 --> 00:49:21,840
that we would come to you and say, oh, Lord, forgive me.

628
00:49:22,980 --> 00:49:24,660
Lord, I've sinned against you.

629
00:49:25,480 --> 00:49:26,560
I've sinned against others.

630
00:49:27,780 --> 00:49:28,820
And Lord, you're so faithful.

631
00:49:29,500 --> 00:49:32,800
You love that prayer of humility that will just confess.

632
00:49:33,480 --> 00:49:36,160
And that cleansing comes, Lord, as we confess our sin,

633
00:49:36,500 --> 00:49:38,960
your faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

634
00:49:40,020 --> 00:49:43,020
So if anyone here today just need, you just need that cleansing.

635
00:49:43,920 --> 00:49:45,040
Just pray this prayer with me.

636
00:49:45,080 --> 00:49:48,640
It's just a simple prayer, just seeking Jesus and asking him.

637
00:49:49,160 --> 00:49:54,840
Just pray, oh Lord, Jesus, I believe that you're willing to forgive me.

638
00:49:55,260 --> 00:49:58,380
Lord, that your blood was the payment for my sin.

639
00:49:59,080 --> 00:50:00,600
Lord, that you rose again from the dead.

640
00:50:01,420 --> 00:50:03,440
Lord, would you rule and reign supreme in my life?

641
00:50:03,500 --> 00:50:04,000
I need you.

642
00:50:04,780 --> 00:50:05,800
I need you every hour.

643
00:50:06,580 --> 00:50:10,780
And so Lord Jesus, come in and make your abode in my heart.

644
00:50:11,440 --> 00:50:14,460
Help me to respond to the conviction that comes from your Holy Spirit

645
00:50:15,400 --> 00:50:17,080
that I might be full of light.

646
00:50:17,740 --> 00:50:19,460
Lord, and I pray that for myself as well.

647
00:50:20,140 --> 00:50:21,360
So be with us this week, Lord.

648
00:50:21,460 --> 00:50:23,520
We're going to have opportunity to shine that light.

649
00:50:23,920 --> 00:50:27,560
Help us to do it with all of our hearts in your mighty and holy name.

650
00:50:28,260 --> 00:50:28,480
Amen.

651
00:50:30,420 --> 00:50:31,200
Let's stand and worship.

652
00:50:32,320 --> 00:50:34,380
One, two, three.