We're going to be in Luke chapter 7. We're going to be looking at verses 31 through 35. I had completed this sermon. It was done last night. But I came across this. I just thought I'll check the Citizen Free Press. And I did. And up pops this article from Breitbart. And it talks about this survey. And here's what it says. This is the Breitbart writer. Younger Americans are reshaping the country with a philosophy of life that rejects faith in God and organized worship, at the same time defining success and morality in terms of personal happiness and economic social justice. This is according to a survey from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University. Now quoting from the survey. This is a February 2021 survey. That's a couple months ago. Of 2,000 adults said to be a cross-section. And it was intended to examine the perspectives of adults 18 and over in the United States. And here's what it found. Of people ages 76 to 94, 83% consider themselves to be Christian. Of those between 57 and 75, 79% consider themselves Christians. Of those between 56 and 38, only 70% consider themselves Christians. And of those between the ages of 18 and 37, only 57% even say they are Christians. Say they're Christians. 43% say, I don't know, I don't care, and I don't believe that God exists. Now a sociologist involved with this study said that these two generations here have solidified dramatic changes in the nation's central beliefs and lifestyles. The result, as we know, is a culture in which core institutions, including churches and basic ways of life, are continually being radically redefined. And this man with the research center said the shift in America's spiritual landscape started almost 60 years ago with progressive changes among baby boomers. But that millennials have aggressively cut ties with core biblical views and lifestyle values. This is the nation we're living in now. William Donohue, a Catholic spokesman, And if Christian churches, pastors, schools, and individuals believe that a biblical Christian faith is important, not just for themselves but also for our nation and the world beyond it, time's running out to aggressively and strategically act on that belief before those who so vehemently disagree succeed in destroying the freedom and opportunity to preserve the ways of God. Now I've been castigated by some for warning of this. But here it is. Evidence is pretty clear. We live in a world where many people, including those in positions of power and influence, hold the Word of God and Christ Himself in contempt. They deny that God has revealed Himself to mankind in His Word. and in His incarnate Son. They deny and refuse to believe that the God of Scripture spoke the world into existence several thousand years ago. They seek to convince people that man, not God, is sovereign over our very weather. They reject God as the lawgiver, as our sole authority in matters of marriage and sexuality. They ignore the reality that one day all of us are going to have to stand before Him and be judged for every sin committed against Him according to His, not our, standard of righteousness. These unbelievers give no credence to the truth that when Adam, the first man on the earth, the great, great grandfather of us all, when he sinned against God, death came into the world and so did sickness and disease and every malady. And so the unbelieving go about their daily lives utterly unconcerned that they have no true righteousness in themselves and that they have no way to atone for their sins against God. They have no way to obtain forgiveness of their sins if they even believe in Him. They say things like, I'm a good person. My good outweighs my bad. Okay, so I'm not perfect, but I'm not so bad God would send me to eternal punishment in hell for my sins. Loving God wouldn't send anyone to hell, they say. Loving God wouldn't create such a place as hell. And there are some who even join a church that promises forgiveness if you do X, Y, and Z. Just go along with their program and they will promise you eternal life. And of course, some say there is no God. So why don't they believe in Jesus? Why don't these people believe in Jesus and what He did to obtain forgiveness of sins for those who believe in Him? We know Jesus was born 2,000 years ago in the town of Bethlehem. The eternal Son of God coming into the world He created. Millions refuse to believe that as well. Think about it. Every false religion denies that. And on top of that, there are those in pulpits with crosses in the buildings who deny that. About 30 years after Jesus was born, this prophet, actually a cousin of Jesus, a man we know as John the Baptist. He came into the Judean wilderness, into the desert, and he was preaching. And he was drawing huge crowds. They came to hear him speak. This was a different kind of guy. He's wearing a garment of camel's hair. He had a leather belt. He's eating locusts and wild honey. Didn't drink wine. He was telling people the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, the kingdom of God has come. He called them to turn from their wicked ways and believe in the one who was coming. Jesus, the Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah, long promised by God. And John preached of the wrath to come because of sins. He preached of the judgment of God. He called people to repent of their sins. And he warned them this wrath was coming. He told them, bear fruit in your life. Bear fruit that's in keeping with repentance. And folks, John said, the axe is already at the root of the trees. Every tree that doesn't bear good fruit is going to be cut down and it's going to be thrown into the fire. And the people listening to John were in a state of expectation of Messiah. Listening to this man preaching what? Fire and brimstone. And when Jesus came into the wilderness, came to the Jordan to be baptized. John saw him walking and said to two apostles of Jesus, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And by the time we came to chapter 7 of the gospel according to Luke, John was now in prison. Why? Because he told the ruler there, Herod the Tetrarch, that he was sinning grievously against God by taking up with his brother's wife. He threw him in prison until he finally cut his head off. By that time, Jesus was well into his preaching and healing ministry in the towns throughout Galilee. He wasn't preaching the wrath of God. He was preaching love one another. Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Don't be judgmental or condemning of others. Be forgiving of others. Be a giving person. In last Lord's Day, we saw something very significant. Jesus confirmed that John was indeed the messenger of God who'd been promised by Malachi 500 years before. Promised by Isaiah 700 years before. Jesus authenticated and validated John as the messenger of God. He said of John, among those born of women, here in this fallen world, there's none greater than John. But the kingdom of God is such that even he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than John on this earth. So Jesus is preaching and He's healing. And when the people saw the works He was doing, healing the sick and the lame, restoring sight to blind people. Did you ever see anybody restore sight to a blind person? Did you ever see anybody tell a man who's been crippled from birth to get up and walk? He was raising the dead back to life. You ever see anybody walk into a funeral home, walk up to the casket and tell somebody to get up? No, no, Jesus was doing these things. They all testified to it and got executed because they wouldn't recant. He became known throughout all the land. But ultimately, those to whom Jesus came, His own people, the sons of Jacob, would not receive Him. They refused to receive Him. They had Him killed. They refused in their obstinance, in the hardness of their hearts to believe in Him. And Jesus shows us in this passage this morning that we're going to get to, that unbelief will always find a reason not to believe. I want to pick up in verses 29 and 30. In these two verses, we see that many of the common people and the tax collectors or publicans heard John and gave glory to God. And when they heard John and believed him, they went and got baptized. But the Pharisees and their lawyers, they rejected the word that John was preaching. They heard John and responded, unlike the believers, with rejection. Those who believed acknowledged God is just, God is righteous. They repented. And their baptism was a profession of their belief in what John was saying and in the promise of the One to come. And who had now, in fact, arrived? Now in contrast to those who heard John and believed and repented and were baptized, the Pharisees and the lawyers, all who opposed Jesus, experts in the Old Testament law of God, rejected. Why? Because they believed they were good enough. They were righteous enough in themselves. They didn't need this guy, Jesus. These guys saw no need for a Savior, just like the people in the survey. No need for a Savior. No need for one who could impart his own righteousness to them, who could put a robe of righteousness around them. So the Pharisees, by and large, and the lawyers rejected the call of God through John. They rejected God's way. They refused to repent in their self-righteousness. They smugly found nothing of which to repent. I don't have anything of which to repent. I'm doing all that the law that we created requires. So because of their closed minds, they could not hear John and they could not hear Jesus when He came. And Jesus spoke of the men of that generation in our passage here this morning. Luke 7, 31. To what then shall I compare the men of this generation? This generation, He talks about them a lot. Matthew 24, He tells us they're going to come to a crumbling day of destruction. To what shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? Well, Jesus says they are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another. And they say, We played the flute for you, and you did not dance. We sang a dirge, and you did not weep. John the Baptist came eating no bread, drinking no wine, and you said, He has a demon. Son of man has come eating and drinking, and you say, Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a wine-bibber. friend of tax collectors and sinners. So Jesus is here illustrating the stubborn unbelief of the people of His day by pointing to their rejection of both John and himself, who came with entirely opposite types of message. And they rejected the two of them for entirely opposite reasons. They found reasons to reject John and Jesus. John with his garment of camel's hair, leather belt, locusts, and wild honey. No bread, no wine, and as a rite from birth. And here was Jesus following the normal customs of the day. Son of man, He says, came eating and drinking. John's Spartan approach to living did not endear Him to them. And His teaching was pretty uncomfortable, wasn't it? Fire and brimstone tends to be. So they wrote him off. Many of them wrote him off. With a falsehood, he has a demon. Well we know John didn't have any demon. Now Jesus didn't follow that ascetic approach to life at all. He lived the way other people lived. Ate and drank as ordinary people did. The people who rejected John for his ways and his message really should have accepted Jesus then. He was completely the opposite. But no. No, he's won't eat and drink. He's a glutton and a wine-bibber, a drunkard. In other words, you couldn't win with these people. They complained about his dining companions. Anybody ever, boy, you're eating with them? That's what they did. So Jesus is showing us something here. It has everything to do with the survey we read. When people are lost in hardened unbelief, they will find a reason not to believe. Here, Jesus quoted things children would say when other children wouldn't join in their games. We played the pipe cheerfully. Playmates refused to dance. It was like a wedding picture. But then they go to the opposite extreme and they sing a funeral dirge. And they wail. And the other kids wouldn't play along with that either. There was no pleasing them. So Jesus said, look at his question, to what shall I compare the men of this generation? And he answered his own question. They're like complaining, petulant children. It didn't matter what the first group suggested. Happy game, sad game. The second group was unwilling to join them. John came warning of judgment. Jesus came offering God's love and mercy and forgiveness. And they responded to neither. The parable pictures that generation which had John the Baptist and Jesus Christ both right in their very midst. The two greatest preachers who ever lived right in their midst. They rejected both. They rejected their only hope of forgiveness of sins. He's their only hope. He's our only hope. And what we see here, left to their own stubborn will and apart from the illuminating grace of God, people will find a reason not to believe. Fear of judgment didn't move them to believe. Call of love and mercy didn't move them to believe. Then, as now, people found a reason to reject the message of hope. Why do people refuse to believe? Well, at root, people reject the message of forgiveness because they love their sin. Proverbs 2, 14, which we read this morning. They delight in doing evil and rejoice in the perversity of evil. This describes fallen man. People reject the message of forgiveness because they don't see their need for forgiveness. They don't see their need for Jesus and His forgiveness. Now let's go back to those 18 to 37 year olds. It's interesting that we see the word generations in here. According to the survey, millennials are far more likely than other generations to define success in life as happiness, personal freedom, or productivity without oppression. That's why they don't believe in Jesus. They don't define life by sin or the need for salvation or forgiveness. They're far more likely to consider an abortion performed to reduce personal economic or emotional discomfort to be morally acceptable. Far more likely to consider premarital sex with someone expected to be their future spouse to be morally acceptable. Far more likely to deem reincarnation a real possibility. See, they won't believe in the truth. But boy, give them some splashy little idea. You're coming back as whatever. Oh, they'll grab onto that. And they're far more likely to champion liberal theology. That would be a kind of theology that says it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you believe something. As long as you're a spiritual person. This garbage is all over our world today. people who refuse to acknowledge their sin, who refuse to acknowledge and see their sinful and hopeless condition before God, will reject Christ. You've got to get to that first point first. People reject Christ because they don't want to be bound to the law of God. They reject God as the lawgiver. And what do they do? They devise their own standard of holiness, their own standard of righteousness and morality. One that's more to their own liking. Standard which they imagine will permit them to sin against God or deny His very existence without consequence. Look at the morality that has been now agreed upon by the rulers in this country. All these reject Christ. All of them reject Christ. Some say, I believe in Christ, but I don't believe what this, this, and this. I don't think, fill in the blank. No, no. To believe in Him is to trust in His Word. To believe His Word, to believe what He has preached. To know it is the truth and to live by it. That's what it is to believe in Him. This isn't some intellectual exercise. It's not some club we're joining. People who are captivated and ruled by their desires for worldly things and earthly pleasures will reject Christ. People who look to their own reason. Oh, the list could go on and on. I could have spent all day with reasons why people don't believe. People who look to their own reason though. Well, I don't know that one man could have spoken all of that into existence. I don't believe he was raised from the dead. and look to their own reason and not to the Word of God, they will reject Christ. And those who limit their thinking to what can be seen and observed in the natural world in a box and reject things of the heavenly realm, they won't believe in Christ. And those who won't humble themselves Jesus preached only those who will humble themselves and acknowledge their sin and their sinful condition and their desperate need for forgiveness. Only they can be saved. Some reject Christ because they don't like the way He's doing things. Some are angry at God because He has not granted them their earthly desires. I prayed to God and He didn't answer. Look, He's not a waiter who's taking our order when we go to Him in prayer. He's the sovereign Lord of the universe who works all things together for the good of those who really do love Him. But some are angry because He hasn't granted them their earthly desires. Some have actually come to believe that God owes them something and He hasn't delivered. So they reject Christ. That's such a dangerous place to be. Where in the world did that idea come from that God owes you something? Didn't come from scripture. Maybe it came from some false teachers in a false religion. Maybe it came from one of those guys on TV that Satan sends out there to tell you all that God wants you to be happy and wealthy right here in this world. People invent their own God. They invent their own Christ. Here's what I want in my God. I want Him to do this, this, this, this, and this. And when He doesn't, they reject Him. Let me say this, folks, as clearly as I possibly can. Christ did not come to suffer and die on a cross so you could feel better about yourself, so you could have comfort in this life. That's not why He came. He came and He suffered and died to rescue sinners from hell. That's what this is all about. Those who are looking for something else are seeking to create their own God, not the God that we meet in Scripture. There's one word that dominates the entire Bible, and that word is sin. And what God did by His grace and mercy and love to rescue us from it. And all those who create a god of their own making, every false religion will reject Christ. They'll all find a reason to reject Him. He doesn't fast. He's a wine drinker. He eats with tax collectors. He eats with harlots and sinners. But at the root of people's rejection of the love and mercy of Jesus is sin. And the love of sin. I'm a woman and I want a wife. Out goes God. I'm not going to listen to him. This is what I want. Every one of us was conceived in sin. Every one of us was born in iniquity and helpless to do anything about it apart from Jesus Christ. You ever wonder why millions come into Christian churches and never truly repent? Why do so many eventually leave? Churches are emptying all over the country. They've already emptied all over Europe. Why? Because people never do what King David did. Because they're still not convinced they're not good enough. They think they're okay. Because they refuse to humble themselves, as we all must, as King David did. People have been fooled into thinking they don't need Christ. They don't need His church. They don't need to be taught His Word. They don't need His forgiveness. You're good enough. Get down on a piece of rug and pray to the east five times a day. You'll be all right. Take seven sacraments. Show up every Easter. You're all right. No, you're not. People love their sin and they will not let go. And especially they won't let go of their sinful pride. They're good enough and they will not humble themselves. And their destiny is eternal fire. Look at John 3, 17. And here Jesus shows God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. It judged already. You want to know what humility before God looks like? Look at Psalm 51, David. committed adultery, stolen the wife of one of his soldiers who was loyal to him, then sent the soldier out to the front lines where he was certain to be executed. And David humbled himself. realized his sin and repented. Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness, according to the greatness of Your compassion. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from what? My sin. I know my transgressions. My sin is ever before me. Against You, You only have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight. He knew he needed forgiveness. He knew he was a sinner. Just like every one of us is. So that you are justified, David says, when you speak, and you are blameless when you judge. He didn't reject the lawgiver and the judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part you will make me know wisdom. Wash me, cleanse me, and you will make me know wisdom. Now here in Luke, verse 35, Jesus said, Yet wisdom is vindicated, justified by all her children. The children of wisdom are all those who see the wisdom of God in the words of both John and Jesus, both of whom spoke divine wisdom. Pharisees and their scribes slandered this wisdom. They said John was possessed by a demon called Jesus, a glutton, a drunkard. The wisdom of John the Baptist called men to repent. And the wisdom of Jesus, who held out and still holds out the hope of salvation to all who will believe in Him, was shown to be fully vindicated by what it has accomplished. And what's that? What it's accomplished in the hearts and lives of all those who believe in Him and what they said and are guided by that wisdom. Wisdom's children are all those who have received in their hearts the message of John and Jesus. That's who wisdom's children are. All the true children of God, those adopted into His family by His grace, through the gift of faith, are the vindication of the truth of the gospel, the wisdom of God. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 18. How I love this chapter. The wisdom of God contained in the gospel, the word of the cross, is foolishness to those who are perishing. All that 43 percent. All of those unbelieving. It's foolishness. But to us who are being saved, it is what? It's the power of God. It's the wisdom of God. In His wisdom, God was pleased through what Paul sardonically really calls foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. And look at verse 24, Christ is to us the power of God and the wisdom of God. There was the wisdom of God standing in their midst. And they said, no, we don't need you. And this wisdom of God, 1st Corinthians 2.7, was hidden wisdom. Paul said, we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory. And then look at this, the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood. For if they'd understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Now brethren, This is also true of the world's rulers today. And that doesn't change our mission to go into the world, to tell people about Christ, and to, more importantly, manifest Him in the way we live. in the gospel. The gospel, the good news of forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus Christ, is the wisdom and the power of God. Don't ever forget that. That's why I love those first two chapters of 1 Corinthians. Recognize you can't be saved from the penalty of your sin by your own works. Everybody is being lied to about this outside of the church of Jesus Christ. You cannot be saved from the penalty of your sin by your own works. They're not good enough to save you. But God has made a way for sinners to be saved from their sins. And from the penalty of their sin. Recognize you're a sinner, as David did. Confess your sin to God, as David did. Repent of your sinful ways, as David did. and turn to God and believe in the one whom He sent, the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, who became a man and died for the sins of all who would truly believe in Him. You say, no, I'm not that bad. I don't need all that. I'm a good person. All you who may hear this and think you're a good person, please read Scripture. Please read what Paul says here in Romans chapter 3 beginning in verse 10. And he goes back and cites numerous Old Testament passages, many from the Psalms. There is none righteous, not even one. There's none who understands. There's none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is none who does good. Do you hear that? There's none who does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. With their tongues they keep deceiving. The poison of asps is under their lips. Think you're good? Think you're good by God's standard? ...whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. And Paul caps it off, verse 20, by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight. Why not? Why not? God gave His law. Why can't we be justified by the works of the law? Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Because nobody's kept His law perfectly. And that's what's required. Being justified, Paul goes on, as a gift. A gift. by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus who was standing there preaching in Galilee that day and being rejected. Whom God displayed publicly on the cross as a propitiation in His blood through faith. That's why you got a little cup of juice representing that blood. We maintain, Paul says, a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law and any moral good works as well. Romans 4, 2, he looks at Abraham, one of the greatest men of all times. One of the greatest men of God ever. If Abraham was justified by his works, he has something to boast about. Not before God. What does Scripture say? Genesis 15, 6, Abraham believed God. That's what it says. And it was credited to him as righteousness. One who works, his wage is credited not as a favor, but that's what's due. You get what you deserve. If we get what we deserve, we're getting eternal misery because we're sinners. The one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. Hallelujah. Just as David, again, also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness. And hear these three words, apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered. You think the Bible's not about sin? Paul and David were both talking about sin all the time. Often their own sin. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account. I hope there's nobody in this room who fits this description. We're all free to reject the Word of God Himself. But why would you do that? Who is it you're going to believe? Are you going to believe some self-promoter on TV who has no authority from God? Are you simply going to rely on your own reason? Or your own idea of what's moral and what's not? Are you going to simply rely on your own standard of right and wrong? Your own standard of good and evil? Are you going to be the one to make it up? Are you going to rely on your own standard of justice? Do you hold the world in your hands? He holds the world in His hands. And you think He's going to assign to you to develop whatever standard of justice and morality you want? There's a reason he thundered in a volcano from Mount Sinai and told us what righteousness is. There's a reason that he spoke through Paul. There's nobody who does good, not even one. Do you have the power to determine and then carry out your eternal destiny? Is that what you think? No. If you actually believe any of those things, If you actually believe any of that, where did you get those ideas? Where did they come from? It wasn't from the Creator of all things. Sure didn't get them from Him. You are not God. You know who's God? God is God. He's the one with the authority and the right and the power to do all these things. People make a God out of their families, out of their house, their bank account. None of which has the power to judge you or carry out that judgment. And none of which, by the way, can help you even a little when you're standing before God. And he's saying, I know you're a sinner, but do you have that robe from Christ? If you don't believe, in the end it's because you have such a low view of God. You got God right down here like He's one of us. You don't see His almighty power. You don't see His holiness, His purity. You don't see your own wickedness and the filth that stains every one of our souls until He cleanses it through faith. And you don't see His redeeming love. You don't see His mercy and His grace. Are you going to spend the rest of your life living as those Pharisees and lawyers did? Confident, trusting in their own righteousness. Having no contrition for their many offenses against God. Living according to standards of some God you've made up in your own mind. 2 Thessalonians 2.12, All will be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. And because God is God. And because God is all that we know Him to be through His Word, there is hope. There's hope. But there's only one hope for your desperate condition. If you're not trusting in Christ, your situation is desperate. Your only hope is Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God in human flesh. And that's who's speaking to us all this morning. Everything we've spoken about, apart from this survey, has come from Scripture. He gave us His Word. And He's preserved it for 2,000 years so we can pick it up and read it and believe it and believe in Him and have a certain hope, a blessed assurance of rescue from the miserable eternal destiny to which every one of us would be headed if we were not believing in Him. And to which everyone who is not believing in Him today is headed. You know what John the Baptist said and what Jesus said? He said, the kingdom of God is at hand. You know what? It's still at hand. It's still at hand. It's here. And the message from John the Baptist and from the Lord himself is still the same. Repent. Repent. Stop living according to the ways of the world and believe in the son he sent to die for the sins of all who would believe in him. and believe that God raised Him from death back to life. Why'd He do that? So that we all may know that all these things are true. Let us pray. Lord, thank You for this glorious Word. Thank You for the atonement that You made for us. Thank You for the love that You poured out on us. Thank You for the Spirit that You've given us. Thank you for the resurrection of our Lord. Thank you for filling our hearts and our minds with the knowledge of these truths. Thank you, Lord, for the new life you've given us, the new creations you've made us. Lord, I pray people will hear this message today and respond. No, they didn't respond to John. They didn't respond to you when you were on the earth. But Lord, we're in a desperate, desperate state in this country, in this world. And Lord, I pray you would bring your word into this fallen world in power and revive your church and revive this nation in Christ's name.