No Sign Will Be Given To It But The Sign Of Jonah

So I was telling Vanessa on the way here this morning that as I've been preaching through the Gospel of Luke, I've realized how different the Gospel actually of Luke, well really the Gospels, the life of Jesus is from what our conception of it is. When we think of Jesus, we think of mercy and tenderness and kindness and encouragement and healing. And all of those things are true. But when you actually slow down and you read the gospel and you read the things that Jesus said right on top of each other to people, you realize he actually spent the majority of his time rebuking people, warning people, correcting people. He spent a lot of time doing things that are difficult. And I was discouraged reading it because it's hard to stand up every week and say, here's a hard thing for you.

And yet, when I read our text this morning and it starts out, this generation is a wicked generation. And I'm going, okay, well that's going to be a fun sermon to preach and you're all going to think I'm special and swell for saying it. But this is what Jesus said to the people who heard him. And so this morning, as we come underneath the word of God to listen to it, I want you to think about yourself. Whenever we hear warnings, whenever we hear things that are meant to cut, to cut us, What we do is we defend ourselves from being caught and we think of other people and we go, they, it would be good if they heard this or this is true of them. And so this morning, I want you to guard against that. I don't want you thinking about your wife or your husband or your children or your brothers or sisters, your parents or your classmates. Not first. I want you to realize that this is God's word to you, not just to them. You've come here to hear it.

we should assume that having come here to hear it, that it's going to have something to do with us. And so this morning we must look to ourselves as we dig into God's word. Our text was, you know, when Jesus spoke, he spoke to real people. They were right in front of him. The crowds were there. And he spoke to them. And he didn't speak to them about other people. He spoke to them about them. He did not speak to them about others. He wasn't warning them for good measure about something they might fall into in the future. You know, I just wanted you to know that you might...

face this temptation in the future, I just want you to be prepared. No. He's speaking to them about them in real time. Now, will the text have application to other people? Is it sinful and entirely wrong for you to think of other people as you listen to the preaching of God's word? No. But I want you to start with yourself. I want you to think of yourself first. Another way of saying it is, I want you to guard against hypocrisy. Because that's what Jesus deals with in this text, again, is hypocrisy. A few weeks ago, he was dealing with it, and now again, he's dealing with it. And a hypocrite looks at themselves and says, I'm fine, that's not for me, but there is someone over here who it would be good for them to hear. That is hypocrisy. And the reality is, you and I, we're not all that different from the people that we think need to hear it. All you have to do is ask them, and they probably think you need to hear it. So if you have something to say to someone else, if they come to your mind, fine.

But don't use that as an excuse or a defense or a shield to guard yourself from hearing what you need to hear. What we want to be is honest Christians. We want to be honest Christians. And so what does an honest Christian say? They say, I'm a sinner. And here's the way I sin. Here's what I am. Here's my hypocrisy. There's not one person in this room who can say, I'm not a hypocrite. I said a few weeks ago, I said the only person who's not a hypocrite is an unbeliever because they say and do exactly what they want. And yet to be a Christian is to speak in such a way about the truth of God in a way that says you failed. And we should be honest about that. It's okay. It's good. It's appropriate that we would confess our sins, that we would acknowledge our sins, that we would not hide them or cover them up, but that we would present them as a sacrifice at the cross of Jesus Christ.

for healing, for forgiveness. And so be honest. And when Jesus speaks to real people, think of yourself. Think of it this way. If you had been alive in Jesus' time and he was going around and he was preaching and he was teaching and he was healing people, where would you have been? You would have been with him. You're here. I'm not him. If he was here, you would have been with him. And he would have been speaking to you. So hear this morning what he says to you. He's not talking about hypocrites out there. The danger when you actually see your sin, the thing that we avoid when we refuse to see our sin is we don't want to be discouraged and we don't want to be hopeless. And so we think, okay, if I see my sin and I acknowledge it and I go, this is who I am, I'm going to be undone. And actually that's what scripture says.

Isaiah says, woe to me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live amongst the people of unclean lips. Woe is me. I'm a sinner. And yet he turns right around when God says, who will go? Isaiah says, send me. I'll go. And he's not without hope. And so acknowledging your sin, honestly, is no cause for you to lose hope, because God sent his son to save sinners, to save hypocrites, to change them. to cause them to be less and less hypocritical as time goes by, as they grow in sanctification. So don't be ashamed of when I say you're a hypocrite. You are hypocritical. You do not live the way you ought to according to the word of God. And when Jesus warns the crowds against this very thing, hear it for yourself. So what should a hypocrite do then? If they hear it and they go, I'm a hypocrite. If you sit here this morning, you go, I'm a hypocrite. What should you do?

You should repent. You should repent. And I want you to know the reason I'm saying this now, and this is one of the things that was difficult about the text, is Jesus doesn't come around at the end of after telling them that they're hypocrites and say, well, what you need to do is repent. He just leaves it. He just says, this is hypocritical. Be careful. Don't be like this. And that's the end of it. But I want to say to you at the beginning, if you are a hypocrite, repent. To the extent that you see you do not live, in accordance with what you know God to have said, the path forward is repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. It's not to run away. It's not to minimize your sin. It's not to bury it. And it's not to curse God. It's to repent. That's what hypocrites are supposed to do. They're supposed to repent of their hypocrisy. Jesus will receive you. Would you please stand now for the reading of God's word from Luke chapter 11, verses 29 through 36.

This is the word of the Lord and it is eternally true. As the crowds were increasing, he began to say, this generation is a wicked generation. It seeks for a sign and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them. Because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar, nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light.

The eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light. But when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness. If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. And I've already asked you once, and I said, where would you be if you lived in Jesus' time? And you said, I'd be with Jesus. I'd be with him. And I say, okay, so he's speaking to you. And the first thing we see in our text is that the crowds were increasing. It says, as the crowds were increasing, Jesus began to say something. And we have to ask, why were the crowds increasing? Why were the people coming out to see him?

And we learn, you think, well, because, you know, if I just ask you that question, we think, well, they were coming out to see Jesus because he's Jesus. And they wanted to believe the gospel and he was preaching and teaching. And if Jesus was around, wouldn't you all want to come see him? And I'd say, yeah, you want to come see him. And you would think that's a good thing. People are coming out in droves to see Jesus Christ. This is a good thing, right? But Jesus says this. The crowds were increasing. He began to say, this is a wicked generation. In response to the crowds coming out. Why are they a wicked generation? Because this generation demands a sign. That is what they were coming out to see. They were coming out to see the miracles, to see something profound. They were coming out essentially to be entertained by the Lord Jesus Christ. They wanted to see with their own eyes.

What he was doing. Were they coming out to be convicted of sin? Were they coming out to be warned? No. No, they were coming out to be entertained. You remember when the Pharisees came out to John the Baptist, what did he say to them? You brood of vipers, who warned you to repent? What were they coming out for? Were they coming out to repent? No, they were coming out to see what was going on. And that's what these crowds are full of. They're full of people who are coming out to say, what's this all about? I want to see. I heard this guy does some really amazing things. Things like we've never seen before. I want to see. So they come out and they demand a sign. Jesus tells them he won't give them a sign. No sign will be given to you except the sign of Jonah. Now what's the sign of Jonah? The sign of Jonah is the resurrection. That's to come. Jesus is saying if you want confirmation, when this was the purpose, the confirmation of the message was the purpose of the gifts.

The reason that Jesus did these miraculous gifts was to confirm his message so that people would come out and they'd hear what he said and they'd go, that's crazy. And then they'd see him do things that only could be done by the power of God and they'd go, that message must be from God because look at the power of God that he displays. And yet now the crowds are coming out and they're saying, we want to see the signs, we want to see this amazing stuff. They've disregarded the message. It's not about what he's saying. The signs aren't meant to confirm in their minds anymore. They're simply meant to be consumed. And so Jesus says to them, this is a wicked generation that demands a sign and no sign will be given to you except the sign of Jonah, the resurrection, which will come, which is the greatest sign, the greatest miracle that was ever done. No sign will be given to you except the sign of Jonah. Now what happened to Jonah? Did Jonah die and was he raised again?

Well, at least figuratively, if not literally. He ran from God. He was a rebel. And he got tossed out of a boat because God sent a storm and a fish swallowed him up, whole. And he spent three days in the belly of the fish, dead, dying. And after three days, and after he repented in the belly of the fish, the fish vomited him out on dry land. And what did he do? He went and preached to the Ninevites, those unbelievers. Those wicked, oppressive people. He went and preached to them. And do you know what he said to them? Repent, for in 40 days you'll be destroyed. Do you know what else he said? I tried not repenting, and you know what happened to me? God sent a storm, and then he sent a fish. And then I repented, and then he relented. You must do the same, or God's going to destroy you. And what did they do? They repented.

These unbelievers who were outside the covenant of grace. They were not God's people. When they heard what Jonah had to say, they repented of their sin. The whole lot of them. They repented. And because they repented, Jesus says, the Ninevites are going to rise up with this generation at the judgment. And what are they going to do? They're going to condemn this generation. Why? Because they repented. at Jonah's preaching, but this generation will not repent at Jesus' preaching. And that's why they'll be condemned. Then he goes on and he talks about the queen of the south, the queen of Sheba. And in 1 Kings chapter 10, we read about the queen of Sheba coming to see Solomon. This is what we read. Now when the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with difficult questions.

So she came to Jerusalem with a very large retinue, that means lots of people and pomp and circumstance, with camels carrying spices and very much gold and precious stones. When she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was in her heart. Solomon answered all her questions. Nothing was hidden from the king, which he did not explain to her. When the queen of Sheba perceived all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his servants, the attendance of his waiters and their attire, his cupbearers and his stairway by which he went up to the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. Then she said to the king, it was a true report which I heard about you. I'm sorry, it was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. Nevertheless, I did not believe the reports until I came and my eyes had seen it and behold,

The half was not told me. You exceed in wisdom and prosperity the report which I heard. How blessed are your men! How blessed are these, your servants, who stand before you continually and hear your wisdom. Blessed be the Lord your God who delighted in you to set you on the throne of Israel because the Lord loved Israel forever. Therefore he made you king to do justice and righteousness. She too is going to rise up and she's going to condemn this generation. I remember talking about, it's understood that she came from Ethiopia, that area, that region. And I've talked with Joseph Bailey about this in the past. And it's understood in Ethiopia that she's the one who brought Christianity back to that land. She went to, she heard about Solomon and she goes, that can't be true. I'm going to go test him with difficult questions. And she came, she traveled, she sacrificed. With all of her apparatus, she came. She came to see God's people.

She came to see God's king. And she tested him. And he answered her. And she said, this is more than I ever heard. This is amazing. They didn't tell me the half of what's true. And she took the gospel back to her people. So she's going to rise up in the judgment, says Jesus. And she's going to condemn this generation. Because she believed, but they don't. She heard the message. She came to confirm it. She took it back to her people and she did not require signs just to have her questions answered. Now it's uncomfortable to hear because what is Jesus saying? He's saying the Ninevites and the Queen of Sheba, they're going to rise up and they're going to condemn you. Who are they? They're unbelievers. They are going to rise up and they are going to condemn the crowds, the Jews, the religious folk of the day, the people who were not God's people. But when they heard the gospel, and repented, they are going to put God's people to shame. Because when they heard it, they actually believed. But when God's people hear it, they don't believe. I mean, it's crazy if you think about it. It really is crazy. Jonah goes and preaches, and they repent. Solomon, the wisest man to live, explains everything that she ever wanted to know. And she repents, and she believes. But when Jesus preaches,

That's not what's going on here. So are Jonah and Solomon better preachers than Jesus? Even the kids say no. One of the things that hypocrites do is they learn the wrong things and they miss the right things. So what's the wrong thing? The wrong thing is to think that the gospel is not powerful. The wrong thing is to think that Jonah and Solomon were something special. The right thing, those are the wrong things to learn from this text. The right thing to learn is that the people who listened to Jesus rejected him. That's what we're to learn. They're who make up this generation that's described as wicked. That's what we should learn is that those who come out to hear Jesus Christ, they don't repent. Jesus knows all things and he doesn't say something complimentary to them. He says, you guys are wicked.

You've come out here to see me perform for you like I'm a circus act, and I'm not going to do it. Jonah, Solomon, who were less than me, their hearers repented. Jesus says twice about both Jonah and Solomon. Something greater than Solomon is here. Something greater than Jonah is here. So is the gospel not powerful? Is that what we should conclude? The gospel is not powerful enough to save these people? No. We should conclude that they... persisted in their rebellion, that they refused to repent and believe. And that's why they're condemned by Jesus and by the Ninevites and by the Queen of Sheba. Because they were rebels. They demand a sign. They say, we won't believe without a sign. Sounds a lot like Thomas, doesn't it? Doubting Thomas? John 20, it says, after Jesus' resurrection, and the disciples had seen Jesus, but Thomas didn't.

The other disciples were saying to him, we've seen the Lord. But he, Thomas, he said to them, unless I see in his hands the imprint of the nails and put my finger in the place of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. After eight days, his disciples were again inside and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut and stood in their midst and he said, peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, reach here with your finger and see my hands and reach here with your hand and put it into my side and do not be unbelieving, but believe in.

Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God, Jesus said to him, because you have seen me, do you believe? Blessed are they who did not see and yet believed. Blessed are they who did not see. What did he have to see? He had to see the resurrection with his own eyes and with his own hands. And he lived in a time where God was merciful to him and showing him that. But the purpose is to teach us who have not seen with our eyes and touched with our hands. That Jesus is raised from the dead. That the sign that he promises to this generation, the sign of Jonah, has been done. So does faith, does repentance, require sight? Do you have to see to believe? No, you don't. In fact, you can't. Romans 10.17 says, So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. This is what the crowds had.

And this is what the crowds rejected. Something greater than both Jonah and Solomon was right in front of them. And they refused. They remained skeptical. They remained rebels. And so Jesus warns them. He starts talking about lamps and lights and eyes and bodies. And it seems like, what's he talking about? Like, okay, I don't understand this non sequitur. He's gone from one thing to another. Doesn't make sense. Kind of sounds like the Sermon on the Mount. when he's talking about them being the light of the world and the salt of the world, but he doesn't make that application here. He goes a completely different direction with it. He says, So what's the light? The light is Jesus Christ. He is the lamp. Who lit it? His father did. And where did he put Jesus? Front and center for everyone to hear, for everyone to see, for everyone to receive the light.

of his teaching and his preaching. God didn't hide his message in a corner. He set it on a lampstand to provide light to all of the nations. That is the great commission. Take the light of the gospel to all the nations. Don't hide it. Proclaim it. Share it. Shed the light all throughout the lands. And so Jesus says, no one after lighting a lamp. My father didn't send me here to hide in a corner. No, he put me front and center. He put me on a lampstand so that all those who enter, you may see the light. At the beginning of Jesus' ministry, when he goes into the synagogue and he's handed the scroll of Isaiah and he reads, this is what he says. He says, And he hands the scroll back to them and he says, today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Jesus and his message are the clearest, plainest communication from God that we have ever received. It is not hidden. It is not mysterious. It's put on display for everyone to see. And yet we live in an unbelieving world that always wants a sign, that always wants a proof.

That's what we want. We want proof. And Jesus warns those who demand a sign, who demand proof, who are forever skeptics. He warns them and he says, you're not what you think you are. Hebrews 1, 1 and 2 says, God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways, he's communicated in all kinds of ways with his people throughout time. In these last days, he has spoken to us in his son. whom he appointed to err over all things, through whom also he made the world. Do you remember the vineyard owner who'd send his slaves? And what did the workers do? Beat them, kill them. And then what's he say? Surely, surely if I send my son. And what do they do? They say, if we kill this guy, the vineyard's ours. And they kill him. They were rebels. In that parable, they were rebels. They hated their master.

And when they had the opportunity to demonstrate their hatred, they did. Before, when the slaves come, well, I don't know if we believe that the master sent you. And you might be lying in his name. We're going to beat you. We're going to kill you. And the master says, if I send them my son, surely they'll believe the messages from me. But they don't. They kill them. They refuse. There's not enough proof. Because who would defy their master? Who would risk their life? Because they didn't believe. They weren't sure. Only the one who hates his master. Only the one who doesn't want to do his master's will. That's the one who's a skeptic. That's the one who comes and sits and watches and tries to figure out, well, is it real and is it true? And I don't know and I've got questions. I've got a friend who's gone to church his whole life. And he's old enough to be my dad. And he's had some very difficult things happen in his life. People die of cancer, young, hard things. He's gone to church his whole life.

And whenever we talk about spiritual things, he just says, well, I'm not as sure as you are. That's why I go to church. I go there to hear, to see if it's true. I just, I'm not sure yet. And what I say to him is, you've had 60 some years to be sure. You are sure. There's no question in your mind. You just aren't being honest. You do not love God. You do not serve him with your whole heart, and you're not going to go to heaven. And you can go to church until you die, and you can be buried in the church, but you do not trust God. Well, I'm just not sure I want to trust God. I don't deny that he exists, and I say, you're no better than the demons. They acknowledge God. They shudder at the knowledge of his presence, and yet they don't serve him. You've had long enough to figure out what you believe. You've had long enough to come to Jesus Christ.

And you're choosing not to. A skeptic is choosing not to. They are not remaining neutral. I remember years ago talking to Taylor about a friend of his. And he was saying, well, I think they just said they weren't sure. And I said, no, they're sure. And you know how I know they're sure? Because you came there to take them away from the wickedness and they walked back into the house. They were sure in that moment. even though they said they weren't. So skepticism is hypocrisy. Forever questioning, forever being unsure, forever wanting more proof. That is hypocrisy. That is rebellion. It's that simple. And the reason we don't want it to be that simple is because we get caught in that filter. We don't make it through that without going, well, that's not me.

It's very common. People want to talk about their doubts. They want to talk about their worries. They want to talk about their concerns. I have reservations. Well, I'm not sure. And this is how we talk about the faith in Jesus Christ. We're not sure. These people were not sure. They came out to see, but they weren't really coming out to see. They were coming out to be entertained. They were coming out to, oh, look at that. Did you see what he did? So Jesus says to them, no one after lighting a lamp puts it away, but he puts it on a lampstand so that everyone who enters may see the light. And then he switches and he says, the eye is the lamp of your body. And so he's using the word lamp in two very different ways. First, the lamp represents the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the light in the room. And now your eye, he's using as a lamp, is a window, a door into your body. He changes the way he's using this word lamp.

The eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is clear, your whole body is also full of light. What light? The light of the gospel. When your eye is clear, when the door is open, when you receive the light, it illumines your whole body. You ever get around light and you go, oh man, I can't, I don't want to look, I can't see. Well, what happens, if you did that with the blinds in your house, you realize the lights are bright outside and you pull the blinds, what are you doing? You're restricting the light coming in, right? And so the effect of that is it's dark in the room, even though it's light outside. And the window is designed not to keep the light out. That's what walls are for. Windows are designed to let the light in. All of it. And yet we put things on windows to keep the light out. And that's the analogy that Jesus is using here. He's saying your eye, the thing by which you judge and you discern and you measure and you decide.

You decide based on what you see. You want to see a sign. You won't see a sign. And so what will you do? Close your eye. You'll guard your eye. You'll protect it. You'll cover it. And the result is the light of the gospel doesn't get in. You have a door, you have a window where the light kind of beams through the sides. You can see there's light out there, but the room is dark. And that is hypocrisy. In our hearts, that's hypocrisy. There's the light. He says, if the eye is clear, your whole body will also be full of light. But when it is bad, when your eye is bad, when it's closed, when it doesn't receive the light, your body also is full of darkness. Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness. Think of it this way. Is it light enough in here? That's the question. Do you believe enough of the gospel?

Do you obey enough of the gospel? Full light of day out there. Some of it in here. And it's enough. Jesus says to you, watch out that the light in you is not darkness. Don't deceive yourself into thinking that little bit of light that slipped in through the cracks is the gospel, is full light. It's not. He says, if therefore your whole body is full of light, if you have received, if you have believed, The whole counsel of God, not just the easy parts, but the hard parts. We talked about this last week. If you've received the whole counsel of God, then your whole body will be illumined. There won't be any shadows. There won't be any darkness. There won't be any parts of your life that are tucked away in the corner, in the dark, where the light doesn't reach.

Jesus is telling us that the light that I am and the message that I bring affects all of your life. Your whole body is supposed to be illumined. There's not supposed to be dark corners where the gospel doesn't get to. It's to be a room. If you could believe, think of a moment, just think of this room and think, how much light would have to be put in this room to do away with every shadow? Every shadow. There are the chairs. How are you going to get rid of the shadows underneath them? You need light. How are you going to get rid of the shadows in the curtains? How are you going to get rid of the shadow that you cast? How are you going to get rid of all the shadows? More light, lights, more lights, lots of lights. Could you imagine how bright this room would have to be to have no shadow in any direction? That is what sanctification means. That's what believing the gospel means. It means light coming into your life. The word of God coming into your life in such a way that there is no shadow anywhere. To have that is to not be a hypocrite.

Anything short of that is hypocrite. Anything short of that is light that has darkness in it. And our place is to have the darkness cast out by the light of Jesus Christ. To have our sin expunged and done away with and removed from us through the gospel. So if that's not what happens in our lives, is the light deficient? The light's not deficient. The power of God's not deficient. We are unwilling. We hold on to our hypocrisy. We hold on to our sin and we say, this far I'll come, but no further, I'm not sure. I need proof that it's going to go well if I do that. You demand a sign. Your doubt, this is as simply as I can put it, the doubt that you experience is wrong. The fact that you're not sure about the gospel is a failure of yours.

It's not okay. It's not good for your soul. It's not pleasing to God and it doesn't honor him. You should be fully convinced in your mind that Jesus Christ is the Lord of heaven and earth. That he was set, as Hebrews says, appointed the heir of all things through whom also he made the world. He is above everything. It's all his. Every bit of your life is his. Every bit of your life he has dominion over. To deny that is to believe a lie. There's no part of your life that isn't transformed by the gospel. One of the ways you see this question is couples dating and you talk to them about purity. You say, are you being pure? Well, what do you mean by pure? I mean pure. Are you being pure? Well, what's that mean? Well, why are you asking the question? That's what I say. Why are you asking me that? Do you not know what purity is?

Well, is this okay? You tell me. Is it okay? Is it pure? You tell me. I'm not here to give you a list of, well, you can do this, but you can't do that. And you can do this as long as it's at this time and it's not too late. Are you being pure? And when we have reservations and we say, well, yeah, I'm being pure. I mean, we're not having sex. I'm being pure. And I say, well, good. I'm glad you're not fornicating in that way. But are you being pure? Well, yeah, because we're not having sex. And I say, no, you can be impure way, way, way before.

But we ask these kinds of questions. Well, what is it that is required of me? Just exactly how much can I do? How much do I have to believe? How much do I have to open the blinds? How much light do I have to let in to satisfy you? And I say, every last bit of it. Every last bit of it. To the person who has questions about purity, what I say to them is, if you were in the slightest way aroused, then you're doing something you shouldn't have done. Because you're not married. You can't mean you. And I say, well, yeah. Some of you, that means holding hands is going to be tough. Sometimes. Sitting next to each other, you know. Is it too much? Is that too much to say? Is that too high of a standard? The question is not, is that too much? The question is, is that what the gospel requires of you? Does it require you to be pure? And if it requires you to be pure, then whatever it takes to be pure is what's required of you.

There can't be a corner where there's a shadow, where it's dark, where it's okay over there. There's enough light. So the question to us at the end, to you and to me, is are you one of the people in the crowd? Will you continue to be one of the people in the crowd? We all said we'd be with them. We'd be right there with them to see Jesus. Let's not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to. Let's hear Jesus' warning so that we flee the wrath to come. Will we continue in hypocrisy? Will we continue to cover our sin and to make light of it and to make excuse for it? Will we continue to be a part of the wicked, perverse generation that demands a sign, that demands proof before holiness? I have to know that it will go well with me and it's going to go the way I want before I pursue it. If that's what we are and if that's our disposition towards the gospel of Jesus Christ,

His warning, Jesus' warning and his condemnation is appropriate for us. And we ought to be warned by it. And what should we do with the warning? Despair? You remember at the beginning I asked, what does a hypocrite do? When a hypocrite goes, I'm a hypocrite, what's he to do? Go hang himself like Judas? No, he's to repent. And he's to come to Jesus Christ. And he's to believe by faith that the thing you just realized about yourself and lots of things you still don't realize about yourself, God knows. And he's provided for in his son. And so you come to his son. If you were in this room and you saw a shadow, I'd tell you, go out to the trailer that's full of an infinite amount of light. Bring it in here, plug it in, and get rid of that shadow. You say, okay, I'll do it. And then when you see another shadow, I say, go back to the trailer, get another light.

set it up, and get rid of that shadow. That is what it means to believe the gospel. It means to continually open the window further, shine more light in, remove more darkness, become less of a hypocrite. That's what it means to be a Christian. You will be perfect someday if you're a Christian. You will be fully illumined. And what a comfort and a joy and an encouragement that is to know. But you're to pursue that now. If I turned off all the lights in here, if we started talking about holiness and needing more light in here, and I started walking around and turning lights off, the righteous one would say, stop turning the lights off. We need more light, not less light. We need less hypocrisy, not more hypocrisy. So turn the lights on. When you find areas of sin in your life where you go, I don't do what I should do, repent. Jesus had many warnings and many difficult things to say to the crowds. Why would he say that to them? Because he wanted them to repent. He wanted them to turn. If you want someone to die and you see that they're on the road to dying, you don't have to do anything for them to die. No warnings, no, hey, no, stop. None of that. You just go ahead, crash. Nope, that's the way that ends. So you need to see.

That the rebukes and the corrections and the admonishments of Jesus Christ are driven by his love. Because God actually receives more glory. That's why we're here, to glorify God. He receives more glory through mercy than he does through judgment. And those who refuse to be objects of his mercy will be objects of his wrath. And who wants that? Sadly, a lot of us do. If you were to look at our lives, a lot of us do. And so the call to us is to repent. You don't have to go digging and you don't have to go finding and you don't have to go struggling to what the past are talking about. Find a sin. Like the one you're looking forward to later today or tomorrow. Find it and say, no more. No more. Not on my watch. More light. We need more light. That's our place. That's our work. That's how you get rid of hypocrisy.

You identify sin, you examine it, and you go, that is not in accordance with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, that has to go away. Whether I love it or hate it or whatever my disposition is towards it, it must leave. It can be no more. When Joshua went into the promised land, he said something to the people of Israel. He says, choose this day whom you will serve. Choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And that decision is before you every single day. Choose this day whom you will serve. It doesn't say lifetime, it says day. Choose this day whom you will serve. Will you serve Jesus Christ today? Will you let the light of his gospel in today? You say, yes. I say, good. I say, will you tomorrow? And will you later? Choose this day whom you will serve. Will you demand a sign or will you repent? Let's pray. Father, we thank you.

for sending your son Jesus into this world to say things that convict us of our sin. I pray, Father, that you would give each of us grace to repent of our sins, to continue and persevere in that work, to turn to your son Jesus Christ, to submit more and more of our lives each day to his rule and to his reign. I pray, Father, that we would not be condemned by the Ninevites and the Queen of Sheba in the final day. I pray that we would be found among the righteous, those who believed in your Son, been cleansed by his blood, and been renewed by your grace. Give us your Holy Spirit, Father, to go before us and prepare our way that we might walk in it. Keep us from the wide path, the easy path that leads to destruction, and help us to walk on the narrow path that leads to life. We love you, Father. We thank you for warning us, for sending your Son to warn us that we might repent before it's too late. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.