Indeed, Father, we sing it and we proclaim it. Father, speak to us, O Lord, through your word today and apply it to our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit who lives and reigns in us and in your church, O Lord, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, I'm gonna ask you to open your Bibles this morning to the Gospel of Matthew. to the Gospel of Matthew. We're still in chapter 11. On Thursday evenings, we're studying the book of James. We had a newcomer show up. We've been in the book of James for, I don't know, four or five or six weeks or something. And I told him, I'll do a little review since you're here for the first time. And he said, well, I know how you teach. And if we're in the book of James for six weeks, we're still in chapter one. And I said, we're actually on verse one. And so we elaborated from there. But you know, we have an eternity. We're special people. We don't have to be in a rush. God is not urgent. As my friend Gwen Kimball used to say, God is not at his wit's end. And so I'm going to ask you to open to Matthew chapter 11 once again. I'm going to read to you as advertised. Verses 20 through 24 this morning. And so Matthew writes, then he, Jesus, began to rebuke the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done because they did not repent. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyree and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum. who are exalted to heaven will be brought down to Hades, for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable in the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. O Father, let it not be so. We pray in Jesus' name. And so we look into this chapter. We've seen the Lord speak to groups. Last week he spoke to a generation. Generations apparently have their own character. This week he's speaking to the cities of Israel of his time, the places where he's done mighty works. And so he began to rebuke the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done. Why? Because they did not repent. And so it seems, friends, the honeymoon is over. Now, what we're talking about here is what Matthew is obviously presenting to the reader as a remarkable popularity shift in the ministry of Christ. We know from certain texts that John the Baptist, of course, came before Christ and enjoyed a great measure of popularity. We read this in Matthew chapter 3. In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the region around the Jordan, or in the wilderness of Judea and Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized in him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. John the Baptist enjoyed a vast following. It says all of Judea came out, all of them in the regions around the Jordan. So he was popular when he came out. He was received by the people. He was even believed. by the people, and they were baptized by him. They submitted to this humiliating ritual. They would go out into the river and humble themselves before God and let this ascetic hermit of a prophet submerse them in the water and bring them up and proclaim them clean. Recall the question to Jesus by the chief priests of the temple. They said to him, by what authority do you do these things? What things? What authority do I need to heal the masses and raise the dead and cast out demons? So they came out and they're looking for Jesus' credentials. And they said, who gave you this authority? And Jesus, of course, as usual, unwilling to cater to their pretentious desires for credentials, used their own duplicity against them. And he asked this, the baptism of John, where was it from? From heaven or from men? And then we read this. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, if we say from heaven, he'll say to us, why then did you not believe him? So you see that instead of answering him with an honest appraisal of their view of John the Baptist, they formed this little focus group, and they went over here to see what would play. These are politicians, friends. These are not men of God. If we say, from heaven, they'll say, why didn't you follow them then? But if we say, from men, we fear the multitude. Friends, I don't care what time of history or what great country or empire you're in, the multitude still holds the power. You still have to appease the multitudes to some extent before they rise up. If we say it's from men, we fear the multitude because they saw John as a prophet. We dare not go against anyone. In other words, we're in our own little fearful world. And we don't want any truth to come in and disrupt that world. So Jesus said, then I'll not tell you by what authority I do these things. So rather than incriminate themselves, these false professors of God abstain. They just claim ignorance. Now last week we saw that Jesus rebuked them for their uncharitable appraisal of John. Recall that earlier in chapter 11, Jesus said to them, John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say he has a demon. So this man came out. He was a little strange. He abstained from almost everything. All we know that he ate was locusts and wild honey. And so they saw him as a little strange and decided, well, he must have a demon. So the Lord's declaring one of two things here, friends. Either John's early popularity has waned, or he's only popular among the masses and held in low esteem by the religious elite. One of the two is happening. Either John is really losing the people's affections, or it's just the elite who have turned. on John. I vie for the latter, friends, for the simple reason that the first example I gave you was in the temple, which marks it as near the end of Jesus' ministry, and John is still carrying much popularity. It's therefore a late date in the ministry of Jesus. And the people still seem to hold the prophet in high esteem. And the religious elite are still fearful of speaking against him. In fact, he's held so high that the religious leaders fear to impugn his memory. The man is dead. The same diminishing appreciation is taking place in Jesus' case as well. And we know from the first 10 chapters of Matthew that Jesus enjoyed a great following. really from the very beginning, from the early days, after Jesus chose his first four apostles. He went up on the mountain and preached to them the great sermon on the mount, so-called. And so we read from Matthew, and seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain. He opened his mouth and taught them. And then at the end of the sermon, we read this. He came down from the mountain, and great multitudes followed after him. Now either the numbers of followers began to diminish or the sincerity of the followers began to decline. When Jesus said, I rebuke the cities because they did not repent, the cities where Jesus went and did many mighty works, he sees that they did not repent. He doesn't say the multitudes fell off. So either the numbers of followers began to decline, which is no indication that that happened, or the sincerity of the followers began to decline. When a Roman centurion confesses Christ, he says, Jesus said, I've not found such great faith, not even in Israel. So he has multitudes following him, but he doesn't see any great faith. So here's the beginning of sorrows for the disciples of Christ, friends. It seems, as always, that there are believing disciples and unbelieving disciples. You know a believing disciples by his repentance. In other words, people claim Christ for varying reasons. You've seen this throughout your Christian life. Some claim Christ out of sincerity, of conviction. Others for some other reason. I suggest to you mere fashion. I think religion and religious leaders go in and out of style, like hair and clothes and cars and iPhones and movies and rock stars. I think it's fashion. Fashion is almost a curse, friends. So I suggest to you that it's fashion. I say this because it's always been my personal observation that the mass of men rarely find a fad that they don't like. We all seem to exhibit the same lemming DNA. You know what I mean by that? You know what lemmings are? Don't know what lemmings are? They're these little furry creatures that are said to run in herds and follow each other right off a cliff. That's lemmings. That's what they're known for. They're not known for anything else. So there's eternal human appeal in being part of a movement or part of a crowd. Perhaps you know this, I thought of this as I was re-reading the notes this morning. Does anyone remember a short story by Edgar Allan Poe called The Man in the Crowd? Do you remember that? The Man in the Crowd? It's a very interesting psychological take on humanity. And a man, the narrator of the story, is sitting in a London bistro. And he's watching an old man at another table drink his coffee and, you know. have a snack of some kind, and he gets interested in looking at the man, and he's wondering sort of what makes this man tick. So he follows him throughout the city as sort of a little social experiment. And the man goes from one place to the other, wherever there's a crowd, and he fits in with the crowd, and he feels a part of something. And he goes to all these different events, and he feels important because he's part of the crowd. Nobody knows him, but he's part of an important event that's going on. I tend to think that that's a very wise study from the writer of how people generally are. And so Jesus, who's enjoyed such popular acclaim, having proven his divinity many times over by many mighty works, is still just as susceptible to fashion trends as anyone else. Celebrity culture, friends, has an amazing resilience in the human race. But you know what doesn't have an amazing resilience? The celebrities themselves. They come and go. The culture of celebrity is always there. Our society is always willing to raise up some new important person for us to emulate and admire and follow. And they just as quickly rejoice when they tear them down. So the cult of celebrity has been around for thousands of years, it seems. And I'm going to guess it'll always be around. But the subjects of celebrity come and go with the wind, friends. They're propped up by some sort of popular demand, and then they go out the same way, waning interest or just being replaced by some other personality of the moment. I give you Andy Warhol. Does anyone know what I'm talking about when I say Andy Warhol, or am I just dating myself? All right, Andy Warhol was a pop artist of the 60s and 70s. Very strange sort of character. I went to an Andy Warhol exhibition, oh, 20 or 25 years ago down in Naples, Florida when we were down there. They had a new museum. We went in. And we went in to see Andy Warhol's paintings. It was very popular at the time. And he had these paintings. Oh, they were big things, maybe five feet, rectangles, maybe three or four feet by five or six feet, big things, in a room as big as this. And they were placed all over the walls, all around the place. And every one of them was a different take on a Campbell's soup can. I'm not jogging too many memories yet. He was the Campbell's soup can painter. And he was famous. And he was rich. And he was wise. And everyone wanted to know what Andy Warhol had to say. He didn't say much. He wasn't real talkative, dude. But he said something that has lasted. And this was pre-internet. And this great prophet, Andy Warhol, said, everyone in the world will eventually enjoy 15 minutes of fame. 15 minutes. Of course, the internet comes out as a fulfillment of prophecy and proves the guy true. And everybody's seeking it. I mean, I talk to people, I got 1,000 likes. I got all these followers. You know, people love fame. I don't know why I would not really want to be famous. A lot of trouble being famous, being recognized where you go. But it's true. People are seeking fame, and fame comes and goes like never before. And the most unlikely people in the world get their 15 minutes of fame. Now, I haven't measured if it's actually 15 minutes, but you get the idea. So Warhol's assessment would prove to be true of religious figures as well. It seems to me that American culture leads the way in short attention spans. But our text seems to indicate that the same was true in ancient cultures as well. And so we read from last week, the previous passage, it says, the son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. So Jesus is saying, and let me see if I have this right. The multitudes love John. You say he has a demon. because he won't eat and drink and he abstains from everything, right? And I come fellowshipping with the least of these, my brethren, on the streets. He went into the houses. He ate and drank and fellowshiped with them all. And they say, well, he's just a drunk and a glutton. So there's really no pleasing the masses, friends. Hence my opening statement. It seems the honeymoon is over. The honeymoon that may have started at the Mount in Galilee. The love fest has run its course. In the midst of many signs, Jesus detractors, what do they do? They ask for a sign. And the simple observation that God has sent among them two very diverse personalities, two distinctly dissimilar prophets, and both were slandered. Both were ridiculed. Both were summarily rejected. In fact, friends, both were killed. So Jesus expresses his disdain for the fickle fashions among his countrymen. And so we find the Messiah looking out upon a sea of humanity and upbraiding this insincerity of their faith. I did many mighty works in them, but still they did not repent. The masses came out, but there was no change. He judges their convictions, friends, by their actions. For not all acts of faith are created equal, are they? Not all acts of faith are created equal. You can come out. You can come out and hear his teaching in a remote area of the countryside. You can plead with him for favors of healing or health or provision. You can sit with him at table and attend him at a feast. You can even call him Lord, Lord, yet talk is cheap, friends. It was cheap then, and it's cheap today, and inflation seems to have no effect on the value of cheap talk. But you may not expect any commendation from Christ unless your actions align with your profession of faith. And he gave them a solemn hint, friends, no, rather, a declaration of fact. When he sat on the mount that day, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. He heard a lot of saying, but he didn't see a lot of doing. Nothing says faith, friends, like works. Nothing says faith like works, like new works, like leaving the old works behind and looking forward to a new life of faith, a new walk with Christ. James said it this way. He challenged the people of God, show me your faith without your works and I'll show you my faith by my works. Faith is like love in a sense, friends. It's like mercy or grace or justice. They're all what? They're invisible. You can't see them until they're acted upon. The lexicon says of agape, the great Greek word for love, right? One of the several words for love. Agape, the lexicon says that it is known by the actions that it prompts. It cannot otherwise be known. It's undetectable until it is practiced. It begins with a spoken word, I love you, but it is stamped with authenticity when expressed with concrete acts of love. Jesus is a keen observer of the actionless sentiments of man. That's why the Apostle John can lead with this lament at the beginning of his gospel. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. And that's essentially what Jesus is testifying in this passage. So we saw last week that the Lord appreciates whole generations, or rather, he appraises whole generations of people. He seems to lump us all together at times. He makes some sweeping generalizations. Recall this, but to what shall I liken this generation? And then he says, it is like children. It is like children. Friends, there's a word, fashionistas. Have you heard that word? I wish I knew who they were. Who gets to say what the next hairstyle is going to be? I'm going to jump on that. I want to be up on that. Fashionistas call the tune where clothing and hairstyles are concerned. Jesus says, that's what this generation is like. They're like children in the marketplace. We played the flute for you, and you did not dance. We sang to you, and you did not lament. Who gets to call the tunes? Who are these fashion experts that know what the next one's going to be? Who are those people that know intuitively, save that suit. It's out of fashion, but it will come back someday. Who are the people that get to do that? And so Jesus is a keen observer of these fashions, of these actionless sentiments of men. And that's why the apostle John said and wrote what he said. Now, we saw last week that the Lord appraises whole generations, and he tells us what they're like, and he tells us where they err. They change with the winds of the moment. Make no mistake, friends, even politics comes to us in waves of fads and fashions. RT France, One of the great commentaries on the book of Matthew. He wrote a commentary that thick on it. Very scholarly man. R.T. France wrote this of the Gospel of Matthew. He said, to read Matthew in blissful ignorance of first century Palestinian sociopolitics is to miss the point entirely. This is the story of Jesus of Nazareth. Friends, I want to point out something to you. In the end, it was politics that took our Savior to the cross. He was tried in the court of Pontius Pilate. He was tried in the court of Herod Antipas. And then he was tried and condemned in the court of public opinion. And the sentence was pronounced upon him. And it sounded like this, give us Barabbas, crucify him. Men may revile and persecute, friends. Some accuse and berate. Others bind and crucify. But faith and truth cannot be moved one millimeter from its secure foundation, for it is written, for no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Friends, Christian virtue remains the same from day to day, from year to year, from eternity to eternity, yesterday, today, and forever. Truth does not have fashions. There's nothing new under the sun. The preacher told us. So friends, if you hear a new gospel, you're bound before God to reject it. The word of God is not new and improved like toothpaste and breakfast cereal. It is tested and it is tried. It is fired and pounded like steel. It is reduced and purified like gold. It is minted in the forges of heaven. It is hammered into its own indelible shape, and no man may put his mark upon it. We could say of Christ what one poet said to his critics about his later life. He said, you will not find me changed from him you knew, only more sure of all I thought was true. Robert Frost, by the way, if you're interested. So friends, if it is true, if something is true, it'll be true tomorrow. If it's not true tomorrow, it wasn't true yesterday. What was true yesterday will be true next year, friends. What's true for the father is true for the son. You hear today, my truth. Oh, this is my truth. And if by some chance the truth of yesterday proves to be false by the acid test of time and toil and expectation and disappointment, then guess what, friends? It was never really true in the first place. Truth can't change. It's stamped in heaven. When all codes of Hammurabi, when all the Magna Cartas of history and the constitutions are decayed and their words forgotten and their pages decomposed, the Word of God will still be the gold standard in the halls of heaven. And when all the good ideas of men are tested and tried and come to ruin, the standard of Almighty God will still be fresh and new. Do not think, Jesus said, that I came to destroy the law of the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Woe to you, Chorazin. Woe to you, Bethsaida, for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes." What is he saying? He's comparing the classically good cities with the classical evil cities and finding that the evil cities are less hypocritical than you and deserving of less punishment in eternity. Because if you had the benefit of the gospel, if you had the benefit of God's truth and the law of God in your society, then why did you not receive Christ? Why did you not repent at the demands of the Baptist? So he came to the prominent cities of Israel at his time. He performed mighty works of health and healing and demonstration of the Spirit of God. We've been looking into that from the first 10 chapters up until this point in the Gospel of Matthew. He was attended by many, but he was followed by few. There were many who were engaged, but there were few who were committed. And so the number of followers meant nothing to the Lord, only the content of their conviction. He entered the city in triumph. We call it the triumphal entry. He was driven out in despair. But the same Lord of glory who rode in with acclaim was ridden out in torment. He inaugurated his appearance with a sermon which stressed the blessings of God. What did he say? Blessed are the meek, blessed are the poor, blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, for great is your reward in heaven. He begins with blessings, but he ends with woes. And the woes of the Savior are pronounced upon the very cities in which he poured out his greatest blessings. Verse 22, but I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. Look through your Old Testament, friends. You'll find that Tyre and Sidon are the most prominent twin cities of Phoenicia. That's Lebanon to the immediate north of Israel. Still that way. They are both objects of woe and condemnation by the prophets. They are the classical enemies of Israel for much of their existence. Their infamy is renowned among the Jews. And though they aided Solomon for a time, supplying materials for the temple, they also plundered them from time to time. Now I could have chosen quotations from several of the prophets, but let's go to Joel. He offered this warning to them. Now what have you against me, Tyre and Sidon? This is the Lord talking. and all you regions of Philistia, which is, by the way, modern-day Palestine, are you repaying me for something I have done? If you're paying me back, I will swiftly and speedily return on your own heads what you have done. For you took my silver and my gold and carried off my finest treasure to your temples. You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks that you might send them far from their homeland. Indeed, friends, in the Jewish consciousness, Tyre and Sidon were evil cities. The Savior takes it personally when a city or a region has been insurmountably blessed with prophecy and triumph and miracles and the presence of the wisdom of Christ and does not express commensurate pleasure. It's as if he's saying to Bethsaida in Chorazin, I have blessed you greatly, so where is your joy? Where is your praise? The Lord God has come among you. Why do you not worship him? Why do you not recognize him and look to him, who alone is able to redeem you? And then he says this, and you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven by the presence of Christ, and the work's done there, and you, Capernaum, will be brought low down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. Go back to Genesis if you don't know what Sodom is and what happened there. God sent Lot, the nephew of Abraham, to Sodom, one righteous man among the most depraved creatures on earth. He sent angels to warn them, and they did not repent. But what Jesus alludes to here is that he did so much more for Capernaum and these other cities. Capernaum became his ministry headquarters in the city where Peter and Andrew lived. He healed, he preached, he exercised demons, he walked their streets and entered their homes. His presence was known in that city more than in any other city since, and yet they do not receive him with commensurate acclaim, and make no mistake, the Lord God takes it personally. So personally that he speaks of their offense as being worse than the cities of the plains that God destroyed with fire and brimstone from heaven for their egregious lifestyle sins of sexual deviance and promiscuity. Sodom and Gomorrah. were a homosexual industrial complex of old friends. And yet for Capernaum, the home base of the incarnate Lord, he pronounced an even greater destruction than theirs. If I had only sought to visit them with the same blessing with which I gave you, they would have repented, he said. He said the same of Tyre and Sidon. He said the same of Nineveh, friends. In other words, these Jewish cities were more of an offense to God than the profane cities of old that the Lord saw fit to destroy by his own hand. And elsewhere he said this, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Once again, he speaks to the great holy city, the place that would finally execute him. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather you as children, as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. See, your house is left to you desolate, for I say to you, you shall see me no more till you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Sounds like a second coming to me. Suffice it to say that the Lord speaks to us as to moral and spiritual communities and less as individuals. Last week we saw that Jesus spoke to generations, this week to cities. All through the scripture he speaks to men as to the nations that men inhabit. Isaiah wrote that Israel should be as a light to the other nations. Jeremiah instructed the people to pray for Babylon, the nation that captivated them, took them into captivity. And he said, and seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it, for in its peace you will have peace. Friends, God demands a certain measure of nationalism. So we may presume that generations and cities and nations have certain aggregate beliefs and morals that the Lord takes notice of. And let's not forget that his final revelation of John, that he also addresses churches, church communities, great and small, as to the steadfastness of their professions of faith. And most especially, he takes notice of their treatment of the Lord and his sacrifice. So the question arises, what about us? What about us? What about our generation? What about our time, friends? What about our church? Have we been blessed by the presence of God? Have we been the recipients of his greatest promises? And what have we done with it? If we're blessed, then let us praise God, who's the author of every blessing. Our nation, our cities, ought to give thanks to the God who blesses. And this is not politics, friends. It's the fabric of our founding. I hardly believe that we respect the teaching of Christ with regard to cities and nations without respecting the founders of the moral and legal structures of those nations. A great preacher, a great statesman, John Witherspoon, born in Scotland. in the revolutionary period of our day, became the president of Princeton, was a great and learned man and a great preacher. And he preached to his congregation at Princeton in 1776. And he said this, you shall not, my brethren, hear from me in the pulpit what you have never heard from me in conversation. In other words, what you hear from me in the pulpit ought not to be off limits in the lunchroom. And what I say in the lunchroom ought to be able to be preached, if it's true, from this pulpit. He went on to say, if your cause is just, you may look with confidence to the Lord and entreat him to plead it as his own. You are all my witnesses, he says, that this is the first time of my introducing any political subject into the pulpit. At this season, however, it is not only lawful, but necessary. He's sensitive to the idea of preaching a political view. He's sensitive to the divisions that that can cause among good people who agree to disagree on certain ancillary subjects. But he won't be silenced. In a moment of trial and turmoil, he feels he has to step out and stress what he believes is right in God's eyes. Sometimes nations have to do that, friends. Surely the preacher statesman understood this passage of Matthew's gospel when he preached, whoever is an avowed enemy to God, he said, I scruple not to call him an enemy to his country. I do not wish to oppose anybody's religion, but everybody's wickedness. It is therefore your duty to promote the knowledge of God, the reverence of his name and worship and obedience to his laws. And let's not have it said of us what Jesus said to those cities. I'll close with verse 24, where Jesus says, but I say to you, it shall be more tolerable in the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. It seems inevitable. and even obvious that the nations that once happily heralded Christian principles have allowed the moral and immoral trends of humanity to draw us away from our first love. Indeed, as individuals, we have only so much power and influence. That's true. So let the churches be as the safe and faithful islands in the stream of truth and untruth, of goodness and evil, of faith and infidelity, so that the churches would not be a reflection of the culture, but a refuge from it. You can come here. You can hear the truth. And God will stand in judgment of it. So let it be said of us what the risen Lord said to the little church of Philadelphia, and no, I don't mean Pennsylvania. He said, I know your works. I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it. For you have a little strength, have kept my word, and have not denied my name. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and I will write on him my new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Amen. Our Father, we pray that you would make us a righteous church. Righteous individually, yes, O Lord, but a righteous community that has been greatly blessed by your presence and your word and the teaching of your spirit, guiding us into all truth. And Father, yet we have this other concern. We pray for our nation, O Lord. We pray for our generation to recognize the blessings of Christ and at the very least, show our great thanks for his mercy. and His great blessing. We pray in His name. Amen.