with me to Luke's gospel Luke chapter 11 this morning we're going to look at verses 29 through 36 Luke chapter 29 verses 36 and the dangers of unbelief is what I've entitled this message because that is what Jesus is going to show us here that those who do not believe are in great danger I do not trust Christ as Lord and Savior let's begin reading in verse 29 It says, When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, 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 be to this generation. 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. And 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. And behold, something greater than Jonah is here. 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. Your eye is the lamp of your body. 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. 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. Let's pray. Father, as we come to you this morning, as we look at this passage together, Lord, Lord, I pray that you would give me the ability by your spirit to preach your word with power. And may your word go forth and convict hearts. And Lord, if there is anyone here this morning that has unbelief in their heart, unbelief in that they are living apart from your promises and fleeing from your promises and pursuing sin, and thinking that somehow they will find greater satisfaction there. Lord, I pray that you would convict them of that unbelief. Father, I pray that if anybody here this morning is having unbelief in that they have never trusted in Christ, but instead they're trusting their own self-righteousness and their own abilities, Lord, I pray that You would convict them. And if anybody is, Lord, wrestling in their hearts as to whether or not You are the true and living God, or whether or not, Lord, these things are true that they have been taught from Your Word, Lord, I pray that You would increase their faith. I pray that You would open their eyes and, Lord, overcome that unbelief in their heart. Lord, help us to have great faith and help us to understand this passage, help us to see how important it is for us to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, not in our trust in ourselves or our own works righteousness, but in Christ alone. Lord, give us understanding now as we come and we approach your your word and may our hearts be bowed down and receive it with humility and meekness and pray that Lord you would transform us in Jesus's name that we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Well, we're continuing to make our way through the Gospel of Luke, and the last couple of Sundays in the Gospel of Luke, we have looked at the story of where Jesus cast out a demon. There was a man who could not speak, he was mute, and Jesus comes along and he cast out that demon that was mute. And the man was able to speak, And the people were amazed. They marveled at this. And then there were some in the crowd who accused Jesus of casting out that demon by the power of Satan. And then there were others who saw what he did. Instead of believing, they demanded a sign from heaven. And Jesus' response to all of this was, Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters." And then he told the story about an unclean spirit, how it goes out of a man and the heart is basically swept clean. put in order, and when that demon goes in these wasteless places, waterless places, it comes back with seven more demons after it has found that house swept and clean. In other words, the picture there is someone who has cleaned the outside of the cup, but the inside remains empty. Christ is not there. And then out of that, after he had told that story, there was a woman in the crowd who raised her voice and said, Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast at which nursed you. And we would say that she was right. Mary was blessed. Mary even said that those who rise up will call me blessed. But what this woman was doing was, in a roundabout way, praising Christ. But it does not say that she had believed. And Jesus said, Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it. What does God's word tell us to do? It tells us to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as we looked at those passages over the last couple of weeks, the thing that we found is that there were four types of people. There are people that are delivered from things. There are people that clean the outside of the cup. There are some people that start going to church and they clean their act up and so forth and they maybe escape drugs and alcohol. some type of sinful lifestyle. There are people who are just outright basically atheists who mock God and rail against him and all of the rest. And there are some people who they just want to test God and they want to see signs and wonders. And then there are people who will say right things like this woman did about Jesus, but who will not go all the way and believe. And we saw how all four of those is a danger. You can believe right things about Christ. You can have right doctrine and not have Christ in your heart. You can believe right things about Jesus and even be delivered from some things, but not have Jesus in your life. And then there are those people who are always demanding a sign, seeking after a sign, and they're definitely in danger. And Jesus said to these people, whoever is not with me is against me. You're either going the way of Christ or you're going the way of the devil. You're not with Christ if you're not believing upon him and following him by faith and repenting of your sins. And he said, the one who is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. And then, as he told the woman in verse 28, blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Not Mary. She may be blessed in one sense that she was able to have the Son of God and was chosen for that task, but blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. So we have all these people out here who have certain ideas about Christ and what Jesus is pointing out and what he is stressing here is the importance of trusting in him and believing upon him for salvation. Believing that he is the Messiah who has come to take away the sins of the world. And so He continues this argument in verses 29 through 36. And here he speaks of that generation that lived in his day. He's speaking to them specifically, but by way of extension, this goes to every generation of people who do not believe the things that Jesus is going to say here. He's going to warn them or he's going to mention the judgment that is to come. He's going to describe how evil they are in not believing because even Gentiles like those at Nineveh and the Queen of Sheba, they believed, but he's going to show how important it is to believe because there is a judgment that is coming. So let's look at this together beginning in verse 29. and we'll see the dangers of rejecting Jesus. In verse 29, it says, when the crowds were increasing, he began to say, this generation is an evil generation. Now, in verse 29, it says the crowds were increasing. Now, these were very large crowds that would follow after Jesus. We know from a few chapters back in the feeding of the 5,000 that there were more than 5,000 there. That was just the number of men. If you count the women and the children, it would probably go as high as 15,000 to 20,000. is what many scholars believe. There were also other places where crowds gathered around him and they would press in on him and so forth. But they would come from all over to hear Jesus and to see what they had been hearing about, how he had worked wonders and miracles and cast out demons and all of these things. And that's what we have here, another large crowd, the crowd just increasing. People begin to pour in from all different places, and they were pouring in and noticed Jesus' response to the crowd. Jesus' response here wasn't to tickle the ears. It wasn't to build their self-esteem. It wasn't to tell them certain things to make them feel good about themselves. But Jesus gave them the truth. He gave them the truth. He didn't tell them, you know, things that would lift them up. He didn't tell them all of those types of things. He gave them what they needed. And what they needed most was the truth about the condition of their souls. In this passage here, Jesus says, This generation is an evil or wicked generation. In other words, he kept saying this. It was a continual thing. Right there, he was saying, this generation is an evil and wicked generation. Now you think about that. Here you have crowds of people coming in, and you're going to tell them they're wicked and evil, and that's the type of generation they are? You talk about scattering the crowd. You talk about a person who didn't care about numbers. it was Jesus. Jesus wanted the truth to go out. Now, notice what he says there. This generation is an evil or wicked generation. Now, why did he call them that? Why would he say this to these people? Well, That's exactly what they were. Jesus had been performing miracle after miracle. He had done all kinds of things that no man could do. He cast out demons. He was preaching and teaching with power and authority, not as the scribes and the Pharisees. He was doing all of these things. He had healed the sick. He had raised the dead. He healed a man with a withered hand. He had done all of these things, but yet the people did not believe. Yeah, they would follow Him to see Him do another, miracle, but yet they would not believe. And so for the vast majority of them, when they saw Jesus, it wasn't that they were coming to worship the Messiah, it wasn't that they were coming to believe in Jesus as Savior and Lord, but they were coming just for another sideshow. That's what it was for them. It would be like if a circus came to town or some tent was set up and they were performing all types of weird and unusual things, and people were just going out just to see the show. That's what these people were doing. Some of them were going to see what they could get out of the deal. They might have had a person in their family who was sick, or maybe they were sick, and they would go to Jesus, and they would want Him to heal them. and do all of these things, but it wasn't because they were wanting to believe. Not all of them that were going out, a very small number of them were believing. The vast majority were still remaining in their unbelief, and so that's why he calls them an evil and wicked generation. And we find that in other passages of scripture that he says that. In Matthew 12, 39, he called them an evil and adulterous generation. What did he mean by an adulterous generation? Well, it's kind of like over in James chapter 4. An adulterer is also not just somebody who goes and cheats on their spouse, but an adulterer is also someone who goes away from God, whose heart is far from God. And so he called them an evil and adulterous generation. Luke chapter 9 in verse 41, we see that he calls them an unbelieving and perverted generation, and here he calls them an evil generation. Even though they were amazed, even though they were flocking to Jesus, to see him perform miracles and so forth, their hearts were far from him. They might have been drawing near to him with their lips, but their hearts was far from God. Now think of all of this that we have just learned in verse 29. First thing that we see here is numbers is not everything. Numbers is not everything. In our day and time, you have ministries, parachurch organizations, and churches, and pastors, and people in the church that think that if there is a large number of people that are gathered together to hear the Word preached or whatever, then we have success. It's true success. Now, I'm not knocking numbers, and I'm not saying that there's nothing wrong with large crowds. I want to see a large crowd come and hear the Word of God. I want to see a vast number of people, a large group of people coming to know the Lord. I want to see numbers like we saw in the Great Awakening of people who came to faith in Christ, who were walking away from sin, repenting of their sins, and coming to Christ. But just because we see numbers, it should not impress us. Charles Spurgeon said it this way. He said, when I see a large crowd, and he had large crowds, he said, when I see large crowds, I'm also reminded that the theater has large numbers as well. And so just because there's a large number of people doesn't mean that those people that are coming necessarily believe the word of God. It doesn't mean that they trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord. It doesn't mean that they're saved and that they're being sanctified. Sometimes people come just because They want to come. They're religious, but they don't really care anything about Jesus. Maybe they're coming for the wrong reasons. And so we must not always get excited when we see a large crowd. Jesus certainly wasn't, because even though there was a large crowd there, they had unbelieving hearts and they were not willing to believe upon the Lord Jesus. So numbers are not everything. It's not always a measuring rod by which you can measure the success of a ministry. There are some places today that will fill stadiums, but yet the preacher is a false teacher and does not preach the word of God. But we must not also knock them, because the Bible also tells us how many people got saved in the book of Acts. But the second thing we see here is Jesus, when the vast majority of these people, when the crowds are increasing and coming to Him, He doesn't tickle their ears. He doesn't give them sticks of cotton candy. He calls it like it is. And He doesn't do it for the sake of being mean or harsh. You know, there are those preachers out there that like to just be mean. They like to use the pulpit as a bully whip. They like to sound self-righteous, like they've got it all together, but everybody in the pews is wrong and sinful, and they like to harp on their little things that they can keep but other people might not keep. But Jesus didn't do that. He spoke the truth in love. And what does He say to these people? He says, to them that they are a wicked and perverse generation. Now, why does He do that? Well, He loves them. He cares for them. The Bible tells us that Jesus said that all day long He had held out His hands to this people, but they would not come to Him. He loves them, and it's demonstrated by the fact that God kept His promise to Israel. God promised Israel that He would send the suffering servant to redeem them. And He had come to do that very thing, to die on their behalf, to go to the cross, to be raised from the grave, and all of that. But yet, these people rejected Christ. And so when Jesus calls them a wicked and perverse generation, He's speaking the truth, and He's speaking the truth in love. What these people need to hear is the hard truth, because they're on a highway headed to hell. They're on a highway where they're going to, at the end of it, stand before the judgment seat of God. They're going to stand before God on judgment day if they do not repent. And so, things are not positive for them. They may think it's positive, but Jesus has to speak the negative things to their life because they are in danger of dying and going to hell. They are living in their sins, they are apart from Christ, they are not believing, so the truth has to be spoken. And sometimes in our day, people don't like to hear the truth, but it needs to be spoken. People need to be told that they're a sinner. People need to be told that they're living in sin. And if they do not repent, this is what awaits them. Now, we don't do that in a mean spirit. We don't do that out of a heart of hatred for them. We do it out of a heart of love. When you tell your kids and you instruct your kids in the right way to live, you don't do it because you want to rain on their parade or you want to make them miserable in life, you tell them the truth because you love them. And that's what Jesus is doing here. And that's what Paul told Timothy to do. Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4.1, he said, I charge you in the presence of God, And of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. So we must do this if we're going to warn people. If we're going to truly love people, we will tell them the truth about their sins and the judgment that awaits. First Corinthians 13, six through seven says about love, it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but it rejoices with the truth. You see, our day and age has love all mixed up. It's a Hollywood love. It's an emotional thing. It's all tied about into feelings and all of this, all this fluffy stuff. But the word of God tells us that love rejoices with the truth. And so when we speak the truth, And we do it from a heart of compassion and stuff. That is true love when we speak the truth, when we don't rejoice in wrongdoing and let someone just go and continue in their sinful way. But we come alongside of them when we say, look, you're an error. You're going the wrong way. You are going to perish. But here's what Christ has done for you. And what you must do is repent and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. So, if you're going to truly love people, you will speak the truth to them. Do it in a gentle way, as the Bible says, that perhaps God might grant them repentance, as 2 Peter talks about. but call them to repent call their sin out and give them a gentle rebuke a rebuke of love show them the right way like jesus did and that's what he did this generation is a wicked and evil generation now the third thing here in verse 29 notice here what an evil thing it is not to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to have faith in him. Jesus was calling this generation evil and wicked. Why? Because they did not believe. They had morals. This was a very, you got to think about the crowd here. This was Jewish people. And the Jews had the law of God. And most of them had morals. And they looked down on the pagans of the world who lived in all kinds of immorality and wickedness and so forth. But these people had morals. They also had religion. They went through all of their ceremonies and sacrifices. And they performed all of those things. They kept their feasts and their festivals. And they did all of these things. They claimed to know God. but they did not have faith in Christ. And so what does Jesus call them? He calls them wicked. What a wicked generation this is of people. Now think about that. They're moral, they're religious, and they even claim to know God, but Jesus defines them as wicked. Now why would he do that? Because these people do not have faith. And the Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God. They did not have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They did not believe upon Jesus that they might be declared righteous like their father Abraham was. when he believed. And so even though they were religious, even though they were moral, even though they believed in God, they were still dirty on the inside. They were filled with sin and wickedness. Their heart had not been transformed and changed by God. because they had not believed. And that's what God thinks of every single one of us if we are not in Christ. So long as we stay and remain in a state of unbelief whereby we have not trusted in Christ, it doesn't matter how much you go to church. It doesn't matter how much you have good morals or who you vote for or or what good things you do. If you do not have Christ, you are wicked at heart. You are sinful if you do not have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in speaking of this generation, having called them an evil generation, he goes on here and confronts them even more. He says of this generation, and remember, this generation has just called for a sign. He cast out the demon, there the mute demon, the man began to speak, and some were saying or demanding a sign from heaven. They wanted to see a sign from heaven, and here's what Jesus says to them in verse 31. He says of this evil generation, He says, It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it, except the sign of Jonah. for as Jonah became assigned to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation." Now notice here that even though Jesus had called this generation wicked for not for seeking a sign and not believing in him by faith, after all the miracles that he had done, Jesus says that no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. Now, when Jesus refers to Jonah, this is kind of a side note, but some people will laugh at that story and they will say, oh, it's just a story given to kids that a big fish swallowed a man and saved him and spit him out and he went to Nineveh and he preached there and so forth. That's just make-believe. That's folklore. That's fiction. But that's not the way Jesus viewed this story. He believed it as being historically accurate. as being true he said no sign will be given to this generation except the sign of Jonah now what did he mean by the sign of Jonah well let's think about this for just a moment Jonah had been sent to the wicked Ninevites that wicked generation of Ninevites who were living in sin and he was sent there to call them to repent lest they perish well Jesus had been sent to do the same thing he has come to call these people to repent to believe upon him Mark 1 15 Jesus said. He said to repent and to believe in the gospel. And he provided the way of salvation. So he's greater than Jonah, but there is a comparison. Jonah had been swallowed up by a fish for three days. Remember, he disobeyed God, and he was thrown overboard on that ship, and that big fish came along, swallowed him up, and he was in the heart of that fish for three days for his disobedience. Now, Jesus was not disobedient. He was obedient to the Father. He had come to do the Father's will. But what is going to happen to Jesus? For three days, He's going to be swallowed up by the grave. And then after that, He will be raised from the grave to live again. Just like Jonah's deliverance from the belly of that large fish. became a sign unto the Ninevites that God was speaking through Jonah. So Jesus' sign of the resurrection, being spit out of the grave, being brought up out of the grave, Him with that happening, that's going to be a sign for the people. Now think about that for a second. These people are demanding a sign. and Jesus has given them sign after sign after sign and he says he doesn't refuse the offer or the request because he says no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah in other words you're going to get your sign and then the sign is he's going to go to the grave and he's going to conquer sin and death and so even though their hearts are wicked and they're demanding a sign he's going to give them a sign and it's going to be from the resurrection from the dead god in his grace would give this sign now in verse thirty one he goes on and he refers to another group of people. He's referred to the Ninevites and how the sign that they would give would be the sign of Jonah, but now he refers to another person in the Old Testament that we see, the Queen of the South or the Queen of Sheba. In verse 31 it says, 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. And behold, something greater than Solomon is here. If you go back to the book of Kings, and I want to encourage you to do that, and you can follow along with me, 1 Kings chapter 10. 1 Kings chapter 10, we're going to read verses 1 through 9 there, just so you'll be familiar with this. But 1 Kings 10, 1-9 tells us the story that Jesus is referring to here. He says, 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. Solomon had become king. God had granted him this wisdom that was beyond any other man. And all of the fame of his wisdom had gone out. People in the Gentile world were hearing about Solomon and all of his wisdom. And we read there in 1 Kings 10 and verses 1-9, it says, Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great ratoon, with camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind, and Solomon answered all her questions. There was nothing hidden from the king that the king could not explain to her. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom, now listen to this, she'd seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food at his table, the seating of the officials, and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, the cupbearers, and the burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more breath in her. She was taken away by this. And she said to the king, the report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom. But I did not believe the report until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpasses the report that I heard. Happy are your men, happy are your servants who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom. and listen to this verse 9 blessed be the lord your god who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of israel because the lord loved israel forever he has made you king that you may execute justice and righteousness What was her response? She hears the wisdom of Solomon, and here she is in a far-off land, which would be like modern-day Yemen, and she hears about Solomon, all of this wisdom, he's not God, he's not the Messiah, but he is the king of Israel, and so she hears about this, And she travels far, through the deserts, to get to Solomon to see if what she has heard about him is true. And after hearing it, the wisdom that he displayed, and after seeing all of his prosperity and everything that she had heard about him, she believed. And what does she say? She says, Blessed be the Lord your God, who is delighted in you. She acknowledged that God's hand was upon Solomon. Now, these people, in Jesus' day, What did they do? They had all the prophecies that told about Jesus. What He would be like, where He would be born, certain things that would happen in His life and so forth. And so Jesus comes, and He comes into this world, and He does all these miraculous things. He was born exactly where He said He was going to be born. He fled to Egypt just like the Bible had said. All of these things as a child. And then He does all of these miracles And yet the people after seeing all of these things, people being raised from the dead, so much greater than what Solomon ever did. And what do they do? They demand a sign. They want another sign. They want him to give them a sign. And what they're doing is they're just testing him, because they don't really believe in their hearts. And so because of their unbelief, it's not going to go well for them on Judgment Day. Because here you have this woman who is a Gentile, a pagan, who did not grow up in the household of God, amongst God's people. She didn't hear about, you know, she was, as the Bible says, a stranger to the covenants of promise. She was a stranger. She was a pagan. She didn't have the law of God, all of these things like the Jews had been given. And yet she hears about Solomon, and she travels. They were already there in the presence of Jesus. She travels this long distance, and she believes in what she sees. She believes in God based upon Solomon's wisdom. And here they have the Messiah, and he's been with them for all this time. And they do not believe. And what does Jesus say about all of this? He says, the queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them. Now remember, a woman was looked down upon. A pagan was looked down upon in those days. And she was both of those things. and yet she will rise up in judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them the generation that was not believing in Christ for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold something greater than Solomon is here and that is certainly right because Jesus is the Messiah he's the true Lord's anointed and so she will rise up in the judgment. And there will be a judgment, and notice that Jesus mentions that. People don't like to talk about a judgment, but it's going to come, and it's going to happen. The Bible tells us in Revelation 20, 11 through 15, it talks about the great white throne judgment, and all the ungodly who have not faith, who have rejected Christ as Savior and Lord, they will be thrown into the lake of fire. The Bible tells us that God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that one man whom he raised from the dead. And we know who that is. It is Christ. And so Solomon, who is not as great as Jesus, had someone come because of what he was doing, and she believed. Here they have the Messiah, and they have not. They have rejected Christ. And so for that reason, judgment will fall upon them. And this woman, this pagan who believed, this pagan who was a gentile believed she will rise up and condemn this generation but it goes even further in verse 32 he says the men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold something greater than Jonah is here Jonah was assigned to the Ninevites He goes into that wicked pagan city, and He begins to call out for them to repent, and they repented of their sins. God spared that city when they repented and turned from their sins. And so Jesus is saying, none of us are going to rise up. They're greater than you, you Jews of this wicked generation. Because here's a Messiah who's so much greater than Jonah, and you don't believe, but yet they believed at the preaching of Jonah. He didn't perform miracles and signs and wonders like Jesus had done, and yet they've had all of this from Jesus, and they've had Jesus teach them, God himself, and yet they did not believe. So, the men of Nineveh, those Gentiles, those pagans, they will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jesus. we move on to more of what Jesus said, and wrapping all of this up in verse 33. He says in verse 33, now after lighting a lamp, or sorry, he says, 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. As we read verse 33, we have to remember that these people were demanding a sign. They were saying, well, basically, I mean, they weren't going to believe, but it's basically like, well, if you give us a sign, even though he performed all these signs, if you give us a sign, we'll believe. We'll believe. We'll believe that you're the one who's been sent from God, even though he's performed miracle after miracle. And so here Jesus uses a metaphor to illustrate that he has been placed on the scene of human history for all to see like a lamp or a light coming from a lamp for all to see. He is the light. They're acting like they're in the dark and like God has kept them in the dark and they don't know who Jesus is and all of this. God has done just the opposite. He has sent the light into the world. But what's the problem? Men love darkness rather than light. God didn't send the light into the world, Jesus Christ, and put some basket over him or conceal him from men so men could not see. Now do we find that there are people who are hardened? Do we find that there are people that have a veil that is put over their eyes so they cannot see and so forth? We read about that. when Jesus spoke in parables. He said He spoke in parables so these people would not see and understand. But it wasn't because God had set out to do that in the beginning. It was a form of judicial judgment. It was a judicial hardening. They had rejected, and so the hardening had come. Jesus was concealed from them, not because God had concealed Him, but their evil, wicked hearts had concealed Christ from them. They love their sin. They love to stay in the darkness. I had Avalon read John chapter 1 because it goes along with this. God did send a light into the world. A light into the world. The true light, verse 9 of John 1, 9, the true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. But what does the Bible say in John 3? Men love darkness rather than light. That's why they don't come to the light, lest their evil deeds be exposed. So that's what God the Father had done. He had sent Jesus into the world. He was the light. And so there was no reason for them not to believe, especially when He didn't just send Christ into the world, but Jesus is performing all of these miracles. He's doing all these things to confirm that He is the light, that He is the way of salvation. But as John 3, 19-20 says, and this is the judgment, the light has come into the world, but people love darkness rather than light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. Those who do wicked things will not come to the light. What did Jesus just call them? A wicked and perverse generation. And so, he goes on using the metaphor of light to drive home this point, and the reason why the people don't believe. It's not because God has blinded them, but because of their own sinful hearts. Now, God will blind a person as a form of judgment upon them. But he doesn't set out to do that. Look at verse 34 through 35. It says, Your eye is the lamp of your body. In other words, your eye is the lamp. It's the thing that either is viewing darkness or light, and all of that comes through your eye. 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 a light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no dark part, it will be wholly bright as when a lamp, when it's raised, gives you light. Now, the illustration Jesus uses is very straightforward here. If the eye of our heart is healthy, then our whole body will be full of the light of Christ. We'll see Christ, we'll believe upon Him, and receive Him. We'll look at Christ and believe. We will allow that light in and embrace it by faith. We'll embrace Him by faith. Yet if we choose to remain stubborn and with unbelief, and we hang on our sins, and we cling to those sins of darkness, We cling to the sin instead of embracing Christ the light, what's going to happen? It's going to show up in our life. The condition of our heart, the inside of our heart, it's going to either be dark or light, and it all depends upon what we do with the Lord Jesus Christ. And the warning in verse 35 is directed now to not just the whole, but to the individual. He says, Be careful lest the light in you be darkness. Be careful, lest the light in you be darkness. Jesus knows that many of these Jews do not think they are walking Jews do. I'm sorry. He believes they do think that they are walking in the light. They think that they're fine and dandy. And he's going to go on and talk about the Pharisees at the end of this chapter, how they think they clean the outside of the cup. They think they're right with God because they have knowledge of the Old Testament, because they have religion and all of these things. But inwardly, they're wicked. And they are evil because they do not have Christ. They've tried to establish their own righteousness by what they do. And so Jesus says, Be careful lest the light in you be darkness. They thought that they had light. In reality, they had darkness. If you are trusting in Christ, you're like the ones he speaks of in verse 36. 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. What Jesus is saying here is that if your body is full of light, if you've looked unto the Lord Jesus Christ by faith to save you, then it's going to manifest itself. In you will be light. In you, you will be not filled with darkness, but light. There will be a holiness. There will be a holy glow about you. If you ever met a saint like that who's just walked with the Lord, loves the Lord, and walks with Him, there's just a glow about them. I'm not talking about a literal glow, but you notice something different in them. And so, We must not refuse Christ, but look unto Christ for salvation. Look to the light that you have, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, lest there be darkness in you. As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3, 16 and 18, he says, but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled faces, are beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. In other words, when you've looked upon Christ, and you've beheld His glory by faith, and you've trusted in Him as Savior, you're just going to continue to shine and glow and glow and glow. Now, in all of this, there's just a few things, a few points, I want to make and we will close. But first of all, in this passage, notice of the danger of unbelief, the danger of unbelief. There's the danger because there is a judgment that is coming. Every single one of us will will will be judged. Every single one of us, whether we if we're in Christ, we will be with God for all eternity. Our sins will be pardoned. There will be no condemnation. But for those who do not know Christ, there is a judgment that is coming. Those who do not look by faith unto Christ. Those who cling to their sins and do not look to the Savior who can save them from their sins and the penalty of sin. Those people will undergo the wrath of God. That's what Jesus speaks about. In Matthew 25, 31 through 46, He talks about a day coming when He will separate the sheep from the goats, those who do not believe upon Christ for salvation. Again, I said in Acts chapter 17, God said He's appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness. Revelation chapter 20, 12 and 15 tells us that there's coming a day of judgment called the Great White Throne Judgment. And on that day, it says, the dead will be judged by what is written in the books according to what they have done. And anyone whose name is not written in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire. There is a judgment coming. God does love. God does send Christ into the world. His love is made manifest by sending Christ into the world. But those who do not turn to Christ will undergo the wrath of God. God is holy, and He is just, and He has to punish sinners. And notice how patient he was with his generation. He didn't have to give them one sign at all, but he gave them sign after sign, and he gave them the most amazing sign, which was the resurrection. Yet many of them continued in their unbelief. What we must do is, if you do not know Christ, you must turn to Jesus by faith and believe upon Him for salvation, which leads us to our second point of application. Faith in Jesus is necessary for salvation. Religion won't do it. All of your good works will not do it. Moralism will not do it. Growing up in a Christian home will not do it. Being a good person will not do it, because truthfully, there's none of us who are good. We're all sinners. But Jesus is condemning this generation in His day, calling them wicked, and says they will be condemned by the Ninevites, and even the Queen of Sheba rise up and condemn them, because they did not believe. And why would that condemnation fall upon them? Because they had not looked to Christ for salvation. They did not repent of their sins. Notice that Jonah went and preached, and the Ninevites, what did they do? They repented. They turned from their sins. And that shows you and goes to show us that accompanying salvation is repentance. Now, repentance is not what's saving you, it's faith in Christ. But what is repentance? Turning from sin, turning to Christ. And that must be there when we come to Christ. We must repent of our sins. Repentance is a change of mind and will and emotion about sin. It recognizes, it's saying that we hate sin, the sin that we once loved, we don't love it now, we hate it. And we're looking to Jesus to save us. And those who are true Christians, those who have truly come to Christ, their life is going to look different. Now, our assurance is in Christ alone, by faith alone. That's what saves us. But there will be repentance for those who turn to Jesus Christ. In our day, there is a group of people that will say, well, you don't have to repent. You don't have to repent to be saved. Jesus said, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Luke 13 3 said, but unless you repent, you will likewise perish. So there must be repentance. There must be faith and there must be faith in Christ alone. And the good news is no matter how bad you are, even this generation that Jesus was speaking to here, if they would repent and look unto Jesus Christ alone for salvation, they would be saved. No matter how far you've gone, no matter how wicked you are in Christ, there is abundant redemption. There is salvation to be found. There is forgiveness of sin. And it's an evil and wicked person who rejects Jesus Christ. Now think about why it's wicked. He is your creator. He has come into this world to die on a cross for you. He's done all of these things, and yet to reject God's gracious offer in Christ, to go on sinning because you love your sin? How wicked is that? That's why a person who does not believe is wicked, because they love their sin, and they're remaining in their sin. But yet, we have Christ, who is Savior and Lord, able and mighty to save the most vile of sinners. in all of this, the last point, what do we do with doubts? Is it wrong to cry out to God to reveal Himself to us, to reveal Himself to us more, or help our unbelief? No, there's nothing wrong with that. But that's not what these people were doing. They didn't have true doubts. They had everything before them. The light was shining before them. But there are certain people who will go, and they'll have their spiritual vision clouded. When it comes to the light, they will have it clouded by sin. And they're seeing dimly and darkly, in a dark way, because they've been in sin, and maybe they don't have Christ. But if you're there this morning, and you are having trouble seeing Christ, and you know who He is, but you're having difficulty believing. Cry out to God to help you. Look upon Christ. Gaze upon Christ. Look at the light. Not the darkness, not the doubts, not the world, but gaze upon Christ and His finished work upon the cross. And when you do that, the light of God, you will see it. You will see it clearly in Christ. Christ is the way. He is the light of the world and the only way of salvation. If you don't know Christ here this morning, I encourage you to trust in Jesus. Stop relying upon other things, but rely upon Jesus alone to save you. And if you're a Christian, and you believe, then go on believing. Continue to gaze at Christ, and ask God to just increase your faith, and increase your belief, and trust Him, and walk with Him, and just follow after Him hard, and keep yourself, as Jude says, in the love of Christ. Let's pray. Father, As we come to you this morning, as we've looked at your Word, we see that it is a wicked and evil thing to have a heart of unbelief. Father, help us this morning to have great faith in Christ. Help us, Lord, to look to Christ constantly and see Him as the only way of salvation. May we not trust in our good works or anything that we do, but in Christ alone for salvation. And Lord, if there's anyone here today who has struggled with doubts and assurance or they've struggled with Believing, is this the truth? Lord, help them to see the truth. Help them to look to Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life. And may they come to Him and rest in Him. In Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.