A Controversy over a Sign from Heaven

Driving home: It was the sigh pressured by the deepest, deepest grief in the face of the horrible, willful blindness of these Pharisees.

Compares Jesus' deep sigh to the pressure of an artesian well bursting forth, illustrating the profound inward pressure of His grief and emotion.

And that word with that prefix could well be translated, he sighed or groaned up from the depths of his spirit. He sighed from the depths of his spirit. Like the pressure of an artesian well that is tapped from the surface and the pressure of that water that has been underground perhaps for hundreds of years burst forth. That's the picture given of the sigh of Jesus.

23:44 - 24:22 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Jesus rhetorically questioned why this 'evil and adulterous generation' continually sought a sign, then solemnly asserted that no such sign would be given, except the 'sign of…

Illustrates the Hebrew oath form 'if it shall be given a sign' by comparing it to a parent saying, 'If you so much as touch that thing one more time,' leaving the child to infer the severe consequence.

Most of the commentators are quick to point out that you have a form of a Hebrew oath in which the latter part or the introductory part is assumed. Let me show you how we do something similar to this. Here a child has been particularly perverse and determined to do a certain thing he shouldn't. All right?

31:16 - 31:37 Read in full sermon

The point: Make disciples of all nations by preaching the gospel with spiritual weapons: prayer, preaching, testimony, witness, holy life, and a living community manifesting gospel power, not by solving national ills.

Recounts the story of the rich man in hell asking for a sign (someone raised from the dead) to persuade his brothers, demonstrating that more evidence is not what unbelievers need, but rather hearing Moses and the prophets.

Luke chapter 16. A man dies and goes to hell. And in hell he lifts up his eyes in torment. In hell he manifests some kind of benevolence and concern for his brothers.

42:31 - 42:51 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not compromise the gospel message or church practices (like music style) to fit the demands of young people or the world.

Uses the example of 'heavy metal so-called Christian rock groups' throwing out New Testaments while acting like animals to illustrate the church capitulating to young people's demands for the gospel to fit their style.

Because if the testimony of the Bible about what you are as God's creature and a sinner under the wrath of God and the testimony of the Bible about God's love to sinners in the person of Christ and the sending of the Spirit and the provision of forgiveness, and pardon, if that testimony is not brought home to your heart with power, 10,000 people can be raised from the dead and you'll still love your sins and perish in your unbelief, marveling all the while that 10,000 people were raised from the dead. And my soul is vexed unto weariness with this capitulation on the part of vast segments of th...

44:03 - 45:16 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not believe the gospel can be accepted while still being a materialist, holding onto possessions without Christ's claims over them.

Uses the health, wealth, and prosperity cult as an example of polite middle-class people dictating that the gospel must allow them to remain materialists, violating the principle of not letting the world set terms for Christ's claims.

We young people will demand what the gospel must be and do before we believe. And along come polite middle class people saying, prove to me that I can still be a materialist and hold on to my stocks and bonds and houses and things with no claims of Christ over it. Then I'll believe the gospel. So what do we have?

45:41 - 46:04 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But I tell you he was repulsed by polite religious unbelief. It was unbelief that caused him to turn heel. And to depart.

Highlights Jesus' compassion for lepers, whom He touched despite their uncleanness, to contrast with His repulsion by unbelief.

The words that have kept going through my mind are these words. The repulsive power of unbelief. This is the Jesus who is not repulsed when he looked at lepers in all of their ugliness and uncleanness when they cried he drew near and he touched them something no decent Israelite would do. He wasn't repulsed in the presence of leprosy in all of its ugliness in all of its repulsiveness he was not repulsed.

49:05 - 49:37 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But I tell you he was repulsed by polite religious unbelief. It was unbelief that caused him to turn heel. And to depart.

Recalls the story of the sinful woman washing Jesus' feet to show that He was not repulsed by sordid lifestyles when there was a reaching out for mercy, further contrasting with His reaction to the Pharisees.

And when the local hookers and the call girls society were bypassed by the religious crowd Jesus was not repulsed. He let one of them wash his feet with her tears and wipe his feet with her hair so much so that the Pharisees said that he knew what kind of woman this is. Yes he knew. He was not repulsed by hookers.

49:37 - 49:56 Read in full sermon