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[0:00] and to inspire us and encourage us with that music. What a joy it is to see some familiar faces I haven't seen for a while.

[0:12] Good to see you. Glad that you're here. Like I said, what a joy. Take out your Bibles with me, please, and turn to the Gospel of Luke chapter 11.

[0:25] Gospel of Luke chapter 11. We'll be looking at verses 29 through 36 this morning. Last week, Jesus was answering the people who accused him of casting out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, and Jesus refuted that.

[0:52] We looked at that last week. This week, we look at the other group of people that were charging him, were testing him, seeking a sign from him.

[1:08] Casting out demons wasn't a big enough sign for them. They wanted a bigger sign that he might prove that he's really the Messiah. So that's what these verses will be, Jesus' answer to that.

[1:21] So again, it's Luke chapter 11. I'm going to read from verse 29 through 36. And if you're able, please stand as I read these holy words of our Lord Jesus.

[1:37] When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, this generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign.

[1:48] But no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man to this generation.

[2:06] The queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

[2:22] And behold, something greater than Solomon is here. No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket.

[2:57] But on a stand so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body.

[3:08] When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light. But when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore, be careful, lest the light in you be darkness.

[3:25] If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.

[3:41] So reads the word. Let us pray. Father, guide us through these words today. These are strong words from our Lord Jesus. They are hard words for some.

[3:55] For all of us at some point. And so help us to have ears to hear. And particularly, Father, as Jesus points out, give us clear eyes to perceive the truth.

[4:09] We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Please be seated. We were singing.

[4:26] Hark the herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn King. Peace on earth and mercy mild. God and sinners reconciled.

[4:37] Joyful all ye nations rise. Join the triumph of the skies.

[4:49] I thought, joyful all ye nations rise. All ye nations? Do all the nations joyfully rise to sing of the birth of Jesus Christ?

[5:07] There are certainly people from all the nations that do. But do all the nations joyfully rise? No. Not by a long shot.

[5:19] Should they? Absolutely they should. He is the King. Though they accept Him not. So it brings up the question.

[5:30] It interested me as we sang that because I'm thinking through the verses that we're looking at today. What is it that keeps people from seeing Jesus?

[5:44] The true Jesus. What hinders them from recognizing that Jesus is the remedy for our ruin?

[5:59] How could those of the first century particularly who saw His miracles, how could they still deny Him with all the evidence in front of them?

[6:16] Why would they do that? The question I want to ask and I think we need to ask today is what does it take to turn people from blindness to light?

[6:35] What does it take? How do we do that? How do we do that? Our world is full of skeptics of Christianity. You meet them all the time.

[6:46] You see them all the time. We are mocked, slandered, dismissed.

[6:58] At the very least dismissed as irrelevant. So what do we do? We who believe in Jesus and believe all nations should joyfully rise and declare Him King.

[7:13] What shall we do? Who love others and want them to know our Jesus. What do we do? How do we communicate that?

[7:24] Do we just need a better presentation of the truth? That's what many believe. Well, let's look at what Jesus says.

[7:37] In Luke 11, Jesus answers His skeptics. And He does not give them what they want. He could have.

[7:50] He could have unquestionably proven who He was. But He did not.

[8:04] So, why is Jesus addressing this? In verse 29 through 36, He's addressing the seekers of signs. Back in, earlier in this passage, back in verse 15 and 16.

[8:20] So, back in Luke 11, 14, Jesus casts out demons. Right? So, in verse 15, there's one group that comes and says He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of demons.

[8:33] Demons. Beelzebul meaning the Lord of the flies or probably more accurately the Lord of, I don't say it. Get the tape from last week.

[8:48] Something much ruder. Much ruder. What are flies attracted to, in other words. It's how the Jews viewed Satan.

[8:58] So, they're accusing Jesus of casting out demons. And so, Jesus refutes that argument. We looked at that last week. Verse 16 of Luke 11, there's another group that is now not the slanders, but the skeptics.

[9:19] They come testing Him. Right? And they keep seeking from Him a sign from heaven. Not a sign on earth, but a sign from heaven, like manna coming from the sky.

[9:31] Something irrefutable. Something, you know, casting out demons. No, that doesn't do it for them. They're seeking for a sign.

[9:44] Something more than just healing or exorcism. They want something bigger. They demand higher evidence.

[9:55] You know, from heaven. Regular miracles aren't good enough. So, here, our term seek, they're seeking a sign. Here, the term seek might be translated demand.

[10:11] They demand a sign. They won't believe until they see a bigger sign. We know people like this. We've met people like this.

[10:25] God should prove Himself. I like to hear God's answer to that. Well, we already know God's answer to that. Done it.

[10:38] Done it. But here we have these people, okay? So, they're not really open. They're not sincere seekers. What Jesus has done is never enough.

[10:50] And people today, there's people today who claim to be seeking the truth, but they want something more to put them over the edge.

[11:03] But really, what they mean is it's not enough. It's never enough. And it's really just an excuse.

[11:15] So, how does Jesus answer this kind of attitude toward Him? So, He gives them what He calls the sign of Jonah.

[11:29] It says in verse 29, 29, Now, it's interesting. As the crowds are increasing, this isn't kind of a side note to just a few scoffers.

[11:42] This is as the crowds are increasing, Jesus is going to speak this openly. He's going to confront these people openly. And by the way, we're in the Gospel of Luke.

[11:54] And from Luke 10 through 19, Jesus is going to become much more, what's the word, offensive? His message is going to be very strong.

[12:14] It's almost as if He wants to be killed. So, He gives them, He says, As the world, as the crowds were increasing, He began to say, This generation is an evil generation.

[12:32] That's how to get the big crowds, isn't it? This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign. No sign shall be given it, but the sign of Jonah. So, I want to ask the question, What hinders people from recognizing the truth about Jesus?

[12:49] What keeps people from believing in Jesus? They will say, We don't see enough proof. They will say, Ah, there's many religions.

[13:01] That's just one of many. They will say lots of things. What does Jesus say? He says there, He reveals two causes, two reasons.

[13:11] One is, In verse 29, This generation is an evil generation. An evil heart will prevent one from believing Jesus is who He says He is.

[13:24] And the other issue, Verse 34, Jesus talks about light and darkness. He talks about a bad eye. A bad eye. An eye that's got problems, that's not healthy, will only let in darkness.

[13:41] So, blind eyes. Two causes, An evil heart or blind eyes. An evil heart. What's an evil heart? Well, an evil heart, To sum up this generation, Jesus is talking about that generation, the first century generation, that saw with their own eyes what He did and what He said.

[14:01] He calls them an evil generation, which means they were proud and unwilling to see the evidence of Jesus.

[14:15] A bold rebuke. This is an evil generation. So, what's the word evil mean? What's evil? Right? What is evil? Well, I traced it.

[14:28] Right? It's kind of like, okay, what is evil? Because if you look up in the lexicons, I got about five or six lexicons in the Greek for what, you know, they all say, well, it means bad or wrong or, you know, evil.

[14:42] They give, it's not real specific. But if you trace a word, we've done that before, if you trace a word, how it's used through the New Testament, you'll find things that it's associated with.

[14:53] So, this word evil is associated with pride, according to James chapter 4. It's associated with unbelief, according to Hebrews 3.

[15:06] It's associated with unrepentance, according to 1 Corinthians 5. It's also associated with hostility and ungratefulness, according to Colossians 1 and Luke 6.

[15:22] In other words, an evil generation is proud, unbelieving, unrepentant, hostile and ungrateful. And there will never be enough.

[15:34] That's why Jesus calls them evil. It will never be enough. It's like those who deny God as the creator, deny God at all.

[15:47] God laughs at such a foolish statement. He's proved himself beyond doubt. It's only those who are blind, who don't want to see, that would deny it.

[16:04] So, he gives them a sign. So, what's the sign? The sign is Jonah. Okay, Jonah. Remember Jonah? I mean, you heard that story when you're, if you came to sunny school or whatever, maybe if you didn't even come, maybe you came to Good News Club, you hear the story of Jonah, right?

[16:22] The story of Jonah is great. It's got a whale. It's got, you know, it's got fishing in it. It's got, you know, vomiting. I mean, you know, junior hires would like that. So, it's, so Jonah is told to go to Nineveh, right?

[16:36] What does he do? He goes the opposite direction, right? He gets on a boat and sails away. I'm out of here. I'm not doing that. Don't want to do it. He's disobedient.

[16:47] Pretty good prophet, isn't he? Runs away. Well, he swallowed, well, you know, the story goes, he's swallowed by a great fish. Well, the Bible just says a great fish.

[16:59] It doesn't say a whale. It just says a great fish. Now, we won't get into all that, but the story of Jonah is that he's in this, the belly of this great fish for three days and three nights, after which he's vomited, as the scripture says, it's a scriptural word, he's vomited on dry land, back on dry land, back where he started.

[17:24] And God says, I said, go to Nineveh. Got it. Going. Not happy. Going. He goes to Nineveh.

[17:35] He preaches. Yet in 40 days, Nineveh will be destroyed. That should convert people, shouldn't it? Positive message.

[17:46] God loves you. Now the message is, God is angry and you're going to be destroyed in 40 days. That's all the message was. There was nothing about what should we do.

[17:58] Just says, 40 days, Nineveh will be destroyed. You got 40 days. The timer's ticking. What happens? There is a remarkable, amazing, unprecedented repentance by a people who were notorious for their evil.

[18:27] This is the kind of people that were so wicked that the prophet did, he absolutely did not want to go there.

[18:43] These people do not deserve grace. Yeah, like, like Jonah did. Okay, so that's the story, right?

[18:55] So, what's the sign? So, so Jesus says, just as, so we see what Jesus says. Verse 34, as Jonah became assigned to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

[19:13] What does that mean? How was, how was Jonah assigned to his generation? Because however Jonah is assigned to his generation, that's how Jesus will be, not is at the time, but would become a sign to his generation.

[19:32] So, what is it? Well, we don't have to look far. There's, Matthew tells the same story. Matthew tells the same incident, and Matthew says, Matthew's translation says this.

[19:46] He answered them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah, of the prophet Jonah.

[19:57] For, just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

[20:13] what's the sign? The sign is about death and resurrection. Now, if you read Jonah carefully, especially chapter two, it is possible that he died and was spit up again alive.

[20:39] Can't prove that, but it's possible. And even if he didn't physically die, there is a sense of he's a goner and suddenly he's miraculously on dry land again.

[20:53] How'd he survive? I don't know. Right? The language that he uses is the language of death in Jonah 2.

[21:05] Clearly, what Jesus is saying is here's the sign. just as Jonah was brought back to life and then preached a message to his generation, so Jesus will be in the belly of the earth three days and three nights, by the way, not death on Friday, death on Thursday.

[21:30] According to Jesus' words here, three days and three nights, and then is raised from the grave. So that's the sign will be a future sign to that evil generation.

[21:50] When Jesus rose from the dead, that will be the sign. You want a sign? You want a sign?

[22:04] Healing doesn't do it for you? Exorcisms don't do it for you? You want a sign? How about death? Three days in the grave and then raised and appear for 40 days.

[22:26] How about that? Then Jesus refers to, interesting, the queen of the south and the men of Nineveh, verse 31, 32.

[22:40] The queen of the south, right? This generation is so evil that the queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

[22:58] Now behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonah.

[23:11] And behold, something greater than Jonah is here. What's he saying? The queen of the south, a Gentile woman, queen, came to, had heard about Solomon and came from a long, long distance to hear the wisdom, to hear and verify, and she tested him and she came away saying, it was more than I heard.

[23:41] It's amazing. And then the men of Nineveh, right? They repent at the preaching of Jonah.

[23:53] So those are amazing things. Those are absolutely extraordinary things. Again, Jesus gives, please note this, he's speaking to Jews. He gives two positive Gentile responses.

[24:08] Queen of Sheba and the men of Nineveh are better than the generation of Jesus' day.

[24:20] Ow. That's great. That's great for Solomon. That's great for Jonah. Something better. By the way, Solomon, Solomon was absolutely phenomenal in his wisdom, right?

[24:37] How'd he end? Oh, my goodness. You can't have a worse end than Solomon had. It seemed like he was apostate.

[24:51] Jonah, shining example, isn't he? What a great preacher. He doesn't want to preach. He is prejudice. And we find at the end of the book of Jonah that actually what he was afraid of was that God would save these people.

[25:12] It's kind of like, I knew you'd do that. I knew you'd have compassion. I knew you'd, and I didn't want to be part of it because I hate those people. Something greater.

[25:24] Something greater than Solomon. Something greater than Jonah. Something greater. Now, notice the text does not say, or that Jesus did not say someone greater. He said something.

[25:34] Something. So what does that mean? What thing is greater? What thing is greater than Solomon and Jonah? Well, the thing, I think, is about a whole thing.

[25:49] It's about the person is greater. It's about the faithfulness of that person is greater than Solomon and Jonah. The authority of the person coming is greater.

[26:01] The mission is greater. The purpose is greater. The message is greater. The gospel is greater. The salvation is greater. The promises are greater. The more you think about it, what Jesus brought is far superior and excellent than anything God had brought before.

[26:24] I've got to wind up. I'm about going to run out of my voice, aren't I? That's all right. So how can we see it?

[26:34] So here they are, something greater has come, but people don't see it. How can something so much greater come and people don't see it? So how can they see it?

[26:47] How does God reveal his salvation? How does God want us to show others his salvation?

[26:58] That's the relevant question for us today. We have people we want to know Jesus. What is God's way? Jump in a fish and get out, you know?

[27:15] Here, Paul explains, 1 Corinthians 1, for since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, okay, wisdom's out, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

[27:32] For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.

[27:45] Well, Paul, if preaching just creates a stumbling block and is foolish to other people, change your method. method, that's what we're told today, change your method.

[28:02] What is Paul thinking? If it's foolishness, well, what does Paul say? It's like he's just stubborn, he's setting his ways, he can't change that pole.

[28:16] He says, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, greater, something greater than men.

[28:35] And the weakness of God is stronger than men. It pleases God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

[28:46] It's just his way. It is his way. And it is powerful. As you go on and read 1 Corinthians chapter 2, you find out that Paul does not want people to be converted because he was persuasive or because he used good words or he had a great argument or he had a great illustration.

[29:09] He wants them to be saved because the Holy Spirit invaded into somebody's life through the preached word. Because when the word is preached, as foolish as that sounds, God decides to work.

[29:29] He just decides to work. Why? So that it proves it's him and not the preacher or not the method or not the whatever.

[29:45] So what breaks through blindness? What breaks through the evil heart? What breaks through pride and hostility and unbelief and unrepentance? Only the power of God through the folly of preaching Christ crucified.

[29:59] As silly as that sounds. So what hinders us from seeing Christ? What hinders people from seeing Christ? First of all, an evil heart by which we mean what we all have and what we're all born with, that pride, that proud unwillingness that we have.

[30:17] I mean, you see it in a two-year-old, right? I mean, we all have that. I'm not picking on anybody. We all have that. Those of you who have been converted know you were stubborn first, weren't you?

[30:29] how'd God change that in you? How'd that happen? Did you see an inspiring movie?

[30:43] I'm not picking on movies. I'm not going to pick on movies. So what's the other cause? Jesus brings up light and darkness and he's getting at the root of blind eyes.

[30:57] Eyes that are unable to see the light of the gospel of Christ. So in verse 33, he talks about light. No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket but on a stand so that those who enter may see the light.

[31:12] Now, Jesus talks about light and about light setting on a stand in different contexts. The one we're used to is where we become witnesses, right?

[31:23] You are light. You are like that light put on a stand so that you shine for other people. That's not how he's using the illustration here. It's different, okay? He's just applying it in a different way.

[31:35] So he just talks about the picture of light and he emphasizes the purpose of light. You don't hide light. Why would you do that? You put light out so it can reveal, so it can show.

[31:47] That's its purpose. It's so that we can see, right? So what light is he referring to? What do you think Jesus is talking about when he says the light?

[31:57] What light is he talking about in this context? It's the light of his word. It's what he's saying. Who can hear what he's saying? Who can see and understand what he's saying?

[32:11] He's putting it out there. He's not hiding it. And yet people will deny it. So go on. So verse 34, here comes the problem.

[32:22] Your eye, now let's get more specific. Now he's going to apply it. Your eye is the lamp of your body. So, right? Those of you that wear glasses here?

[32:33] Do you need them? Yeah? Or contacts if you have contacts? Yeah, I mean, I'm, yeah, it's a blur. It's probably good for painting, right, John?

[32:44] If I take my glasses off, it's better for, don't see so much detail. I paint better, don't I, when I take my glasses off? So, I've been to eye doctors many, many times, right?

[32:58] And they see stuff, and I got a weird thing in my eye that I have to go back to a doctor of, whatever, not, yes, not just a glass guy, but a surgeon.

[33:17] I got some kind of inclusion or, I don't know, some weird thing with the nerve. So, he's keeping an eye on it, because he says that, you know, if that changes, you're gone.

[33:31] Not gone, but you're, so I got to see that all the time, I got to deal with that, and I take these tests, you know, wonderful tests, okay, blink the light, you know, do you see the light?

[33:42] I don't know. I'm seeing all kinds of lights, doc, but, you know, you're pressing it too much. All right. So, but he helps my eye.

[33:55] I got bad eyes, so he helps my eye, so he gives me corrective lenses, right, he updates that prescription, because without these, I have bad eyesight.

[34:07] So, your eye, if your eye is healthy, you can see it's clear, right, so I put the glasses on, it becomes clear.

[34:17] If I have a bad eye, and actually the word Jesus uses is evil, but see, that word evil doesn't apply to a thing.

[34:33] So evil, you translate it evil when it applies to people because it becomes a moral issue. When it's applied to a thing like your eye, your eye isn't moral or not, so we translate it bad, your eye's bad or unhealthy or diseased, right, so you can't see, right.

[34:54] So why the eye? Well, as we all realize, the eye is the center of perception. We get that. I can see or I don't see.

[35:05] I can see clearly or I don't see clearly. If I can't see clearly, it reveals I have an issue with my eye. Okay. So, what's the remedy?

[35:21] So Jesus tells the little parable about light and darkness and healthy and bad. What keeps me from seeing is a bad eye, a blind eye, unable to see.

[35:37] So then suddenly, here in verse 35, suddenly, there's this statement, therefore, be careful.

[35:49] Now, the ESV has be careful. That's a rather timid translation. King James has take heed.

[36:01] That gets a little more attention, doesn't it? NIV has see to it. that's pretty good for NIV. NAS has watch out.

[36:18] Those are all better than be careful. Take heed. This is serious. Take heed. And then what does he say? Take heed, lest the light in you be darkness.

[36:33] Huh? How can the light in me be darkness? Well, I think I got light, but really it's darkness. I think I'm okay.

[36:44] I think I see. I don't need any more evidence. I'm good. Take heed, lest the light, the perception you think you have is really darkness.

[36:58] Take heed, lest you think you really understand and you know what's real and you know what's right and you know what's true. Take heed, lest what you think you know is absolutely wrong.

[37:17] Because when we're talking about Jesus, when we're talking about Jesus and what he says about himself and what he says he brings from the Father, is a matter of life and death and not just life and death physically but eternally.

[37:46] It's about the soul. There's no bigger issue. Take heed. Do something about it.

[38:01] if you can't see. This isn't a matter of going to some spiritual eye ophthalmologist or, you know, give me better glasses.

[38:19] This isn't a matter of I need brand new eyes. I need brand new. I need something that doesn't have the occlusion in the nerve. that can decide to go wrong at one point.

[38:40] This is too big. So he says in verse 36, but if your eyes clear, so if then your whole body's full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.

[38:56] That's new eyes. New eyes. Everything will be clear. Everything will be clear. Who Jesus is will be clear.

[39:10] That doesn't mean everything that you wonder about the future, will that be clear? It means everything about what matters will be clear. Who Jesus is, how I receive forgiveness, how I stand in right standing with the Lord, Lord, how I can come before him.

[39:29] Hmm. Hmm. How he loves me. So what's the cure? If I don't have good eyes, if it's not absolutely clear, if I'm not sure, hey, if I'm, if I'm wondering if the light in me really is darkness, that I've somehow deceived myself, or been deceived, what's the cure?

[39:57] How do I get new eyes? Paul again, second letter of Corinthians chapter four. He's on this thing again about how he does his thing.

[40:08] We have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word. There he goes again. But by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.

[40:31] Yeah, he's just going to preach the simple, he's just going to preach the simple, nothing fancy. He goes on, okay? I mean, the stakes are high, but I'm, he says, I'm renouncing the underhanded stuff.

[40:48] I refuse to tamper with the word to manipulate the result. I'm just going to give the open statement of the truth. And here's how the stakes are high.

[41:01] And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing what?

[41:20] To keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

[41:32] That's a big blinding. That's a big blinding. for we, now he goes back to what he does, for we proclaim, what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.

[41:53] For God who said, let light shine out of darkness. Remember when he said that? Well, you weren't there, but remember when that happened?

[42:07] All the way back at the beginning, right? This first thing God said, well, that was recorded. Let there be light, and there was light.

[42:21] Let there be land, and there was land. Let there be, you know, on and on. He spoke, and it was. So Paul's bringing that back in, okay?

[42:38] The power of his spoken word. Let light shine out of darkness. The God who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to do what?

[42:52] To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Whew. Now that's going to overcome big time the other part, the blinding part of the God of this world.

[43:09] God of this world has a lot of power. God of this world has a lot of ability, and he's blinding all kinds of people, but he's only the God of this world.

[43:23] He's not the God of all worlds. Because the real God, capital G versus the God of this world, lowercase g, the temporary God of this world, can say, let there be light into your dark heart, into your blind eyes, into your evil heart.

[43:49] He can say, let there be light. Let them see. And Paul says, he adds this bit.

[44:04] I love this last part that he adds, but we have this treasure in jars of clay. We have this treasure in jars of clay.

[44:14] Why? To show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. It's God's power, not us.

[44:28] What a wonderful thing that we have this treasure. What a wonderful thing that we get to be part of his process. We're just jars of clay.

[44:41] That's why we got to go to doctors and why, you know, things start falling apart. We're just the jar of clay. We're nothing, but he uses us. How does God give light?

[44:58] How does he undo the blinding of Satan? What will ever help? What is God's way? His way is just that simple, foolish method of preaching Christ.

[45:09] And as Paul says, an open statement of truth. You don't have to be a preacher to do this. You just got to believe in what you're saying. That's all I do.

[45:20] An open statement of the truth. It doesn't have to have whatever, too much air behind it.

[45:34] I don't know how to describe what I do. God's foolish method.

[45:45] Paul renounces the methods of men. He's not going to be cunning. He's not going to tamper with the word so that people might accept it easier. Paul disregards the wisdom of men, the ways of men.

[46:03] He accepts fully the way of God. If we want others to come to Christ, what do we trust? What do we trust?

[46:17] We trust God above and beyond. We trust the message of the gospel. We also trust the way that gospel is communicated. That God's way is simple.

[46:29] gospel. It is unadorned. It is unmanipulative. I often wonder how many times I walked the aisle because the organ was playing.

[46:49] Or we sang just as I am 18 times. I love my pastor. He meant well.

[47:02] I believe his methods were not right. He wanted so much people to come to Christ. But let us not.

[47:14] I mean, it's very tempting. It's very tempting to try to help the message because we want people. Isn't it? We want people to hear it.

[47:28] We hear a modern audience needs a modern method. Yeah? Read about ancient Corinth.

[47:42] They're not very different from our culture. Not very different. Only in technology, but not in values. Oh, no. And it's in that culture, Paul said, I'm not using the methods of men like everybody else in Corinth.

[48:03] Do we trust God's way? Do we believe in the power of his word? Do we really believe in the work of the Holy Spirit? Do we believe in the power of his Do we believe in the power of his word?

[48:17] Do we believe that God still says, let there be light today? Today. We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the power is from God and not from us.

[48:47] Let us pray. Father, we bow before your word. We bow before the words of your son. We bow before the words of your son. Who was not intimidated by the crowds, was not swayed by those who disapproved of him or dismissed him or slandered him.

[49:14] We bow before your son who spoke the word so boldly to those who defied him and denied him.

[49:27] And yet, Father, as we read the story further into Acts, we saw that so many people later came to see the light and repented en masse.

[49:42] So, Lord, we trust that your word, even when it's hard words, it leads us to your soft words.

[49:55]  And so do what you will with this. Father, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.